Farewell Jon Stewart

A bit out of date, still wanted to re-post what I wrote in FB a few months ago.

http://www.nytimes.com/…/jon-stewart-a-sarcastic-critic-of-…
I am sure this article does a much better job, but I wanted to do my own eulogy of Jon Stewart's departure from Comedy Central's Daily Show.
I am depressed; not that I have been able to watch a lot of him these days from India and especially when I am jaded about American politics. When I started watching him (more than 10 years ago?) he blew my mind away. Behind the humor (mostly good but at times crass) and silliness, there was a very intelligent political satire. He brought some refreshingly new templates to the game of political satire. Exposing politicians' and the media's hypocrisy by juxtaposing what they are saying now with what they said a couple of years ago. 

His targets were not just politicians, but also mainstream media (CNN), the political right and of course his arch enemy Fox News. He has had multiple famous exchanges with Bill O'Reilly from Fox News, with each appearing on the others' shows. There is general consensus that Jon won most if not all of those debates. But you also got the sense that they had some grudging respect for each other. Another great format is his reporters giving fake news reports from a "remote place" (while they are clearly standing on another corner of the studio). There are also actual reports produced with tongue in cheek interviews which Jim Colbert was great at before he left the show. 

During the last Indian elections, there was a 5-part report which was absolutely hilarious; it balanced multiple things - backhanded compliments and respect to the massive Indian election machinery including the 100 % electronic voting (which incidentally the US still doesn't have) and of course lots of fun at the expense of some hapless bureaucrats. Like any great entertainer, Jon has groomed a lot of talent that has left his show and started their own very successful shows - Jim Colbert's Colbert Report (pronounced of course as Colbeir Repor) and more recently John Oliver's Last Week Tonight.

I am sure most people on the right side of the political spectrum hate him, often with good reason. But I am sure they wish they had someone intelligent like him on their side (to complement the perennially angry loudmouths they have). His political bias did not stop prominent figures from the right from eagerly lining up to come to his show; his show had huge ratings and any kind of visibility can't hurt; he would invite the more reasonable people and I thought he generally treated them with due respect - I remember a very civilized interview with Mike Huckabee on abortion.
Oh well, this is definitely an end of an era. Will miss you Jon.

Fender benders and street justice

I wrote this a while ago, but didn't feel like posting. Now I am in a blogging mood, so publishing it finally.

One of the maddening things about India is of course how the roads are and how we all drive on them. It is my 8th year since my return and this is one of the things that still irks me. I used to find Hyderabadis' road manners especially bad, perhaps because Hyderabad roads still seemed to have some space (compared to say Bangalore and Chennai) for people to misbehave. That is changing in the last 7 years, as Hyderabad roads have become more and more congested. I am not as bothered by my fellow drivers on the roads these days, and I am wondering if this is because my driving has deteriorated to that level.  I have had my share of accidents; with god's grace no injuries to body, but my cars have taken a lot of punishment; and I have inflicted some as well. Recently I seem to be going through a stretch of bad luck with three fender benders in the last four months or so.

In the US, after an accident, there is a fairly organized process of blame assignment and financial recovery through insurance.What happens after a fender bender in India can be quite chaotic.   At least so it would appear for the lay observer. I routinely see altercations which at times escalate to fisticuffs. Once my driver got into one of these with an auto driver; it was a blur, but I remember forcibly removing him from the melee. In the more civilized encounters (as I can attest to based on personal experience ) there is a certain kind of spontaneous street justice.  Things are happening fast with all the people involved clearly worked up and witnesses gather to weigh in on the matter. If you're a participant, you have to make some split second decisions factoring in all of this.

The first two accidents were on my commute returning home. In the first one, a cyclist with a pillion rider came very fast on an intersection and hit me on the side. In intersections, everyone assumes they have full right of way and come full speed and this happens millions of times every day miraculously without incident. On this occasion it didn't. I believe I was right to assume I was on the "major" road and the other was a smaller street. The bicyclist had fallen down just ahead of me and I motioned to him that I am going to cross the intersection but will stop after that. I pulled up and got down. The driver of an SUV behind me came up, rolled down his window and helpfully pointed out that it was clearly not my fault and I didn't need to stop. I stopped anyway. The cyclist and his rider were not injured but his front wheel was a bit bent out of shape. The cyclist who seemed not older than 18 made some vague complaining noises but I thought his heart was not in it. Another pedestrian started scolding the bicyclist (in Telugu if I remember right) that I couldn't entirely follow. I decided I was clearly not at fault, said something to the cyclist to that effect and bailed.

In the second one, I received a call on my way home which caused me to change my plans and make a U-turn. I swung a bit left to turn right so that I could make the U-turn within the narrow street. As I was turning I noticed a bike on my side mirror; I thought he would be able to swerve away and continued through my turn. He clearly was coming too fast. He barely avoided contact with my car but fell down. Again I stopped and walked over. He seemed shaken up with his helmet at an odd angle, but thankfully unhurt. He seemed unsure whether to be aggressive with me. Again things were a blur, but I remember him pointing to his brake wire which had come off. A bystander joined him and made sympathetic noises. I decided I was at least partially at fault in making a sudden U-turn. My slight left turn before the right turn might have confused him even though I had the right indicator on. I told him he was coming fast, but I will pay for his brake wire damage and gave him Rs. 1000. The guy actually thanked me! I turned around and left.

A few days later on the day of Holi, we heard a crash outside our house, bud didn't think much of it until someone knocked on our door. Someone had backed in and crashed into my trusty old Honda Civic. My neighbors told me they saw who did it (another neighbor); he was drunk and will pay for it. He later stopped by and apologized profusely and agreed to pay up and he did after I showed him the receipts from the Honda body shop.

A few things that stood out for me in all this  - the collective fairness of the street justice; for the most part the impressions of the bystanders actually helped me decide (or confirm my instinct) as to my course of action. The innocence and integrity of the victim of the last one with the brake wire damage. And most of all this is clearly an example of order in chaos that people mention when they talk about India.

Balaji

On learning languages and scripts - part I

After moving back to India, living in Hyderabad, I used Hindi for practical purposes for the first time. I learnt Hindi as a school going kid with a private teacher in my home town Kovilpatti and passed many of the Dakshin Bharat Hindi Prachar Sabha exams. All the way till Praveen Purvardh (had to leave Utharardh for post retirement). I think 12th standard intervened. The syllabus gets quite up there once you get to Vishaarad including studying a bunch of Hindi literature. I remember studying Tulsi ke dohe, Panchavati (portion or Ramayana from a poet whose name I don't remember) among others. The one I fondly remember is the short stories and novellas by Munshi Premchand. His stories were of the simple and soul stirring variety.

Ironically, I didn't use my "knowledge" until I returned to Hyderabad 22 years later. Whether you know Telugu or not, you can survive with Hindi in Hyderabad. For the most part. It was pointed out that what is spoken by the Muslims in Hyderabad is Dakkhani Urdu, not Hindi, but close enough. The dialect in Hyderabad did not sound right for many words ('kara' instead of 'kiya', 'kariye' instead of 'keejiye', 'mere ko' instead of 'mujhe'). But who am I to complain - someone who hasn't spoken Hindi to anyone except the Maukik examiner during my Hindi exams?

To this day, I haven't picked up speaking or understanding Telugu, because I have managed with Hindi. My wife on the other hand who did not know Hindi, has picked up an amazing amount of Telugu and converses freely with maids and our driver in what sounds like flawless Telugu (Telugu folks disagree). But I did something interesting; I learnt to read Telugu. During the first few years in Hyderabad, what started as a casual thing became an obsessive habit - as I drive I would read every name on the boards along the road written in both English and Telugu and started learning the Telugu characters. That over a period of 2-3 years reinforced with textbook consultation once in a while (most of the learning happened as I was driving), now I can read and write Telugu. I am a very slow reader, signs often go by on the road before I finish reading, but the thing is I eventually can, taking a few seconds per word. 

So knowing Tamil and Hindi and now learning just the Telugu script, it invites all sorts of comparison about the three scripts, how they work, the strengths and weaknesses of each of them. And that would be the subject of a subsequent post.

Balaji

Seven year itch (or the lack thereof)

We just got back from a 3 week trip to the US - two weeks of vacation in Hawaii (Big Island) and the Bay Area and one work week in Seattle. I travel twice a year on average to Seattle on business. But this was the first real vacation in the US for me and family in the last 3 years. A constant theme with my friends in the US is about whether we are staying in India for good or if we are coming back. I believe I am immune to this temptation by now, although I was wondering what my family would feel after a 3 week immersion in everything wonderful the US has to offer, seven years after our return.

The highlights of the Hawaii trip were a wonderful snorkeling experience (first real one for me) as a family and the trip to the Hawaii Volcanoes National Park. The Big Island is not known for its white sand beaches or snorkeling, but for beginning snorkelers it is more than good enough. As a non-swimmer, I managed to keep my fear of water in check long enough to enjoy snorkeling at the nice and secluded Kealakekua Bay. I was clinging to an inner tube for dear life for about 30 minutes gazing at corals and multi-colored tropical fish. Among other things, I learnt for the first time that the rock-like corals are actually sea animals in the same family as jelly fish that are fused together living symbiotically with algae. While most snorkellers' objective is to try and spot as many fish species as possible, it was hilarious to watch my daughters (who are actual swimmers and not that worried about the deep water) trying to avoid as many fish as possible.

The real attraction of Big Island of course is that as the youngest Hawaiian island,  it is home to still active volcanoes. When we went though, the Kilauea was not that active. There was some activity going on a mile from the nearest road or trail; from the Jaggar Museum viewpoint all you could see was the smoke during the daylight and the red-orange glow of the lava in the night. What we did see was lots of lava rocks from previous flows just about everywhere as we wound down the Chain of Craters Road from the center of the park down to the coast. The Volcano House restaurant is easily the best food outlet in a National Park I have been to.

On the day when the results of the Indian election were announced we were in Hawaii. I turned on the TV for the news (call me old-fashioned); there was a lot of coverage of Don Sterling's racist rant on Magic Johnson and the kidnappings in Nigeria, but absolutely no mention of the Indian election. I then went online like every other person to get the news. A few days later, I watched a typically incisive 4-part report on the Indian elections in the Jon Stewart show. The segment was actually positive overall where Jason Jones, the Daily Show correspondent seemed impressed by the 66% voter turnout and the 100% electronic voting, the former not matched by elections in the US. As part of all this, I realized that opinion-free 30 minute news reports are very hard to find (non-existent?) in US TV. Whatever happened to Headline News?

The one week in Bay Area was mostly about idling, shopping and visiting friends and relatives. I go to the Bay Area with a been-there-done-that attitude, but I was pleasantly surprised by the visit to Pier 39 in San Francisco. I have been here before, but I had forgotten how charming a place this was - the setting with overlooks of both the Golden Gate Bridge and the Bay Bridge complete with interesting shops and restaurants. The weather in Hawaii was slightly on the hot side (mid 80s)  for my preference, while the weather in the Bay Area (70s mostly) was just perfect. The best part was the weather (100s) we were avoiding in Hyderabad.

In the Bay Area, we attended the California Tamil Academy's annual day function (many of my friends' kids learn Tamil there). Through all my trips, I am impressed with what this community does to keep in touch with their roots.

In Seattle, I was working, but we managed to squeeze in a trip to the Seattle waterfront on Memorial Day Monday. We have seen a few huge aquaria, but the Seattle Aquarium is probably the perfect size to do full justice without overwhelming yourself. The new "Seattle Eye" next to the Aquarium is a nice addition to the waterfront. It was good to see the effort underway in Seattle to make the waterfront more accessible. Among others, they are doing away with the waterfront hugging Hwy 99 overpass and replacing it with an underground tunnel, although I heard some funny things about what happened to Big Bertha, the drill-bit that is drilling the tunnel. Various freeways in the Seattle area have been widened since the time we left, but travel times during peak hours have not reduced. The South Lake Union area has really developed nicely in the last few years with a bunch of trendy restaurants and food trucks.

Anyways, we're back and my wife said she has got the US out of her system (phew!). Just when I thought I got away with this one, yesterday my daughter came and asked me, "So, why did we move back again?".

- Balaji

Readings in History Part 6 - Back to Indus (-Sarasvati) valley

The Indus valley civilization has been a source of great intrigue for me. I had written about it in two previous posts. In my first post, which was summarizing John Keay's book on Indian History, I had mentioned the common (Western?) view of the Indus valley civilization  that it was distinct from the Vedic Aryan civilization. This was backed partially by the fact that there seemed to be no link between the undeciphered Indus script and the Vedic Sanskrit.

Recently, I have been made aware of a completely different thread of thought wherein the Vedic civilization is nothing but a continuation of the Indus valley people & heritage. This thinking also happens to be contrary to the Aryan Invasion theory according to which the Vedic Aryans "invaded"  India from somewhere in Central Europe or Asia.

An engrossing and scholarly work by Michel Danino titled Lost River: On the Trail of the Sarasvati lays a strong foundation for this line of thinking. The book starts as a hunt for the river Sarasvati that is the most mentioned and praised river in the Rig Veda. One of the Rig Vedic hymns lists a set of rivers  in order : Ganga, Yamuna, Sarasvati, Shutudri (Sutlej)...., Sindhu (Indus),.... This order happens to correspond to the modern rivers in the region from east to west (with Sarasvati missing today of course). The rishis of the Rig Veda praise Sarasvati as a gushing river 'breaking through the ridges of the mountains with her strong waves'.

Danino makes a convincing case for Sarasvati to be the antecedent of the current Ghagra-Hakkar river system in Haryana and Punjab which is now a seasonal river that dries up much before it reaches the sea in the Thar desert. This location is in between the Yamuna on the east and the Sutlej on the west and aligns with the east-to-west order mentioned in the Rig Veda. If this was indeed a gushing river with huge flows in Vedic times, how did it get reduced to this seasonal stream? Danino cites various studies that point to a seismic event in the foothills of the Himalayas (close to where the Sutlej and Yamuna rivers originate) that might have happened sometime in the 3rd Millennium BCE. The realignment of the terrain caused by this earthquake caused these two rivers that were then tributaries of Sarasvati to change course radically. The Sutlej got diverted to the west and got captured by the Indus system. The Yamuna, which was then a westward flowing river into the Sarasvati was diverted eastward where it joined the Ganges. The diversion of two of its primary water sources was the primary cause of the Sarasvati drying up.

Now, how is all of this connected to the Harappan civilization? (the reason I start referring to the Indus valley civilization as the Harappan civilization will become clear soon). It turns out that a full cataloging of all the Indus valley sites reveal a close association of the Harappan civilization with the Sarasvati river and its tributaries. Even though the most well known sites of the Indus valley civilization (Harappa and Mohenjadaro) are located along the Indus river, there are hundreds of sites that have since been discovered along the course of what would have been the Sarasvati river and its tributaries at that time.

Further, a classification of Harappan sites as early, mature and late happens to align well with the history of when the river was flowing and when it started shifting course as established by the geological evidence. Mature sites are found along the original course and as it starts drying up, late sites show up further east closer to the Yamuna. Given the association of the Harappan sites with the Sarasvati river's course, Danino (and many other archeologists) argue that if the civilization should be named after any river(s), it should be called the Indus-Sarasvati civilization. Or more neutrally, the Harappan civilization after the first discovered site.

So, we have the Vedic Aryans living close to the Sarasvati witnessing its robust flows and Harappan sites have been found in exactly those locations. If the Vedic Aryans arrived in India 500 years after the decline of the Harappan civilization in the 2nd millennium BCE as per the prior belief, then they could not have seen the Sarasvati in full flow since the geological evidence suggests that it had dried up by then. This is actually the starting point for Danino's elaborate argument that the Vedic society and latter day Indian civilization is nothing but a continuation of the Harappan civilization. The Harappans did not vanish. They just moved eastward as the rivers shifted courses and settled eventually in the Gangetic plain. This makes the Indian civilization the longest running continuous civilization in history as per Danino and others who share this thinking (this may just explain the 1.2 billion).

If the Harappans are closely associated with the Vedic Aryans, that seemingly contradicts the theory put forth by I. Mahadevan and Asko Parpola  that the Harappan script might be a written form of a proto-Dravidian language. Or does it? Only if you equate languages with civilizations. May be there were proto-Dravidian speakers living among the Harappans (Vedic Aryans). There is a lot of other evidence that suggests the Harappans themselves were a very diverse loosely federated society with no central control.

The book continues with an elaborate discussion of the Harappan civilization, and how, many of their traditions show up in modern day cities along the Gangetic plain. More on that later.

- Balaji

Mamallapuram - part I

It was the last week of my 2-month sabbatical and I made a 3 day trip to Chennai. One of those days was spent in Mamallapuram (or Mahabalipuram), 50km from Chennai on the East Coast Road. Mamallapuram is the site of the world famous sculpural complex constructed by the Pallava Dynasty in the 7th/8th centuries CE.
This was no ordinary trip. I was accompanied by my friend RG who has learnt about Mamallapuram from the likes of noted cultural enthusiast Prof. S. Swaminathan and Prof. Balusamy of Madras Christian College, who have researched Mamallapuram extensively and written about it. My friend had been on the ultimate guided tour of Mamallapuram with Profs. Swaminathan, Balusamy and others; he was kind enough to pass the knowledge on to me. The knowledge RG has will easily surpass the government certified tour guides you will find in Mamallapuram. I was in good hands.

Who built Mamallapuram?
There is some debate about which of the great Pallava rulers had them sculpted. The more prevalent theory is that Narasimha I (son of Mahendravarma Pallava) constructed most of the complex except the shore temple which is attributed to his grandson Rajasimha or (Narasimha II). There is another theory that says the whole thing was constructed by Rajasimha.
It is hard to believe that sculptures of this variety, sophistication and scale could have been done in one ruler's reign. In fact it is quite possible that Mahendravarma Pallava (Narasimha Pallava's father) may have conceived and started the whole venture and it was finished by his descendants.

Why is Mamallapuram a big deal? 
It is the only place in the world where you can find four different sculptural ideas executed -

Giant monolithic shrines carved out of entire hillocks (e.g. the Pandava rathas)

Cave temples dug into a rock face with a mandapa, pillars, one or more shineswith no upper vimana or gopuram (e.g. the Varaha Manadapam)

Open-air bas-relief scultptures Elaborate sculptural panels on a rock face depicting a certain theme or an event from the Hindu epics or puranas. e.g. Arjuna's Penance

Structural Temples Non-monolithic temples (i.e.) constructed the "regular" way; e.g. the Shore Temple

When you see the variety of techniques being attempted and not necessarily completed - many of the mandapas and rathas are unfinished - you wonder if Mamallapuram was a sculptural laboratory of sorts.

Of course, India has a rich sculptural heritage and there are plenty of places where you might see grander temples (at Tanjore, Konark for instance) and arguably more intricate sculptures (at Belur, Halebid for instance). However keep in mind that Mamallapuram pre-dates almost all of them, often by many hundreds of years. In fact, there is a belief that Mamallapuram inspired a lot of South Indian temple architecture.

Objectively, I am amazed by the sheer ambition, scale, sophistication and the engineering. Examples of the engineering are the perfect curvilinear surfaces that roof the Draupadi Ratha  and the 3-dimensional perspective vision in the Mahishasura mardhini and minor Elephant panel. See Mahisha below who looks bigger because he is closest to the observer while Durga is further back and looks smaller;

Subjectively, many believe that the sculptures have a grace that is not seen too often in latter day sculptural art in India. Gods and other figures are depicted in unique poses with subtle angles (look at Mahisha's indecisive pose) that hold a lot of intrigue. There is also the innovation, quirkiness (Mahisha seems to be the emphasis rather than Goddess Durga?) and audacity (e.g. of giant monoliths that get completed over decades across what must have been multiple sculptor's lifetimes).

RG could go into each panel or structure for about 20 minutes, describing the scene, the figures depicted and the various subtleties. Clearly, I cannot do justice in blog posts like these, but I will try and go into some detail on some of the masterpieces in subsequent posts.

- Balaji

Hampi Trip

Our first long distance drive after returning to India was to Hampi, Karnataka, the capital of the Vijayanagara Kingdom (1337- 1550s). On the way, we took the shorter route that is mostly on state highways after an initial 75km stretch on the nice NH7 (now a 4-lane divided freeway).
This route stumbles through myriad towns and villages on mediocre roads until the last 50km where it resembled the lunar landscape. On the way back, we decided to take the longer (440km) route which took us through a longer (300km) stretch on NH7. I would recommend the longer but faster NH7 route anyday.

Of course, the purpose of this entry is not to analyze road conditions in modern day Karnataka, but to talk about a World Unesco Heritage site that represents the "last great Hindu" kingdom in the south. Legend has it that Harihara and Bukka were inspired by their guru Vidyaranya to establish the kingdom on a spot where during a hunting trip, they found a hare turning back and confronting the hounds that were giving it chase.  There were also more pragmatic reasons such as the water from the nearby Tungabadra and the surrounding rocky hillocks which formed a natural fortress from the north. In the North was the Bahmani Sultanate (1347-1518) which after 1518 broke into five sultanates of Ahmednagar, Berar, Bidar, Bijapur and Golconda (Hyderabad).

As per Sastri (author of History of South India), the kingdom had a tumultous relationship with the Bahmanis with whom they waged wars at times and at other times  forged alliances with one or two of them - the Sultanates of course were fighting among each other all the time. Finally in 1564-65, the Bahamanis decided to set aside their differences and united against their common enemy and waged the decisive battle of Talikota against Rama Raya (the last noteworthy Vijayanagara ruler) on the banks of the Krishna. The battle was going in favor of Rama Raya, until supposedly two of his Muslim commanders deserted him and joined the enemies with thousands of soldiers. Rama Raya himself was killed and the Bahmani army pillaged and burnt Hampi for months leaving it in its current ruined state.

So what you see in Hampi today is mostly in ruins but enough evidence of its one-time greatness is there to be seen. The only intact temple is the Vrupaksha (Lord Siva) temple. In most of the other temples, the super-structure is all gone and you only see the mandapam level (ground floor).  The vimanas  (tower above the main shrine) and gopurams are all gone. The Vittala (Lord Vishnu) temple must have been a glorious temple, which consists of the famous stone chariot and mandapas with "musical pillars" - three pronged pillars where mildly tapping on one of them reverberates musically through the rest of the pillar. You see long colonnaded bazars in front of each temple which were once bustling marketplaces for everything from precious gems to Arabian horses.

There are three stunning monolithic statues - two of Ganesha including the Kadalekalu (peanut-bellied) Ganesha and  Narasimha (reconstructed partially by the Architectural Survey of India). You now only see the arm of Lakshmi who was sitting on Narasimha's left lap. The yoga band around his knees has been reworked by ASI.






The Zenana or the Royal enclosure houses the king and queen's palaces, (what is left of them) a gigantic "parking garage" for the royal elephants (which interestingly is mostly intact) and a beautiful bathing pool. We saw some lighting work in progress for a project called "Hampi by Night" which if done right could offer another way to experience Hampi.

The coracle (தெப்பம்) ride on the Tungabadra is a must-do and is a good way to get to the Vittala temple from downtown Hampi or from the quaint Mango Tree outdoor restaurant  which is further upstream. Hampi is best visited during the winter months as the heat in central Deccan seems to be only amplified by the rock faces that are in abundance in the area.  We decided to stay in an upmarket hotel outside Hampi which was fine if boring; if you're feeling a bit more adventurous you could go for the charming little guest houses (Indian equivalent "B&B"s) right in Hampi.

For more pictures, see the public album in Picasa. 

- Balaji