Faith and the State ... 2021

 

First, let me emphatically say that I am ecstatic about Joe Biden and Kamala Harris at the helm of the nation. Normalcy, decency, truth, transparency, trust, respect and many other characteristics of human integrity have returned to the White House and the Administration.

What has, however, irked me is the over-emphasis on President Biden's devout Catholicism. (Don't get me wrong - I would rather see a President regularly go to church, than call someone a p@$$#.) In this Democracy that stands for secularism - the separation of church and state, a Constitution from two centuries ago whose foresight we are awestruck with, I am seeing too much of godliness in the past few weeks.

Faith ought to be a deeply personal phenomenon. One may believe or not believe; believers may believe in whatever they want to believe. If one needs to seek strength from faith to overcome trauma from personal tragedies - that is a Constitutionally granted freedom in this nation.

But, let deep faith not be a metric of personal integrity! And, as a corollary, let the faithless not have additional burden to prove their integrity.

I say all this in this "one nation, under God" and while gleefully enjoying the green-back that says "In God We Trust".

Amen!

Never Again .. 20 Jan 2021

 

Never again a bully

Never again a misogynist

Never again the sycophants

Never again an insurrection

Never again any nepotism

Never again gun violence

Never again police brutality

Never again children in cages

Never again a global disgrace

Never again alternative facts

Never again "it is what it is"

Never again living in denial

A new day, a new song

A new beginning, a new reality

The light at the end of the tunnel

Is, at last, not an oncoming train

Black and White and Shades in Between ... 2021

 

We are all reeling from the miserably failed January 6, 2021 coup d'etat attempt on the U.S. Capitol that the entire world watched in disbelief in real-time as it unfolded. As more details are coming to be known from the evidence, tipsters and arrested suspects from the insurrection, we cannot but be shocked to see the extent of white supremacy that was on garish display - a confederate flag, anti-Semitic inscriptions on t-shirts, and slogans of racial and religious bigotry. The world is laughing us - the self-appointed custodians of democracy and world order. Is there any silver lining to this dark cloud?

The answer, undoubtedly, is YES. It is in the sentiment of abundance and sharing that still exists in the hearts of many - 

• You see it when white Americans (including the President-elect Joe Biden) decry white supremacy and make a case for fairness and representation for people of all types, by gender, race, color, any other difference
• You see it when men march for the status of women
• You see it when Jews protest against the "Muslim Ban"
• You see it when everybody marches for Black Lives Matter

This happens only in America! Despite all the vileness around us, there is much to be proud of.

It's All Angles ... 2021

 

Trumpty Dumpty sat on a wall ... 2021

 

Trumpty Dumpty sat on a (Mexican) wall

Trumpty Dumpty had a great fall

They tried hard to do a steal

Reading only The (f)art of the Deal

Wile E Coyote disguised as Mitch

He, for sure, delivered only the ditch

The democracy wouldn't take him as an obstacle

He went down in history as the biggest spectacle

A new sunrise ... 2021

 

(Sunrise across the San Francisco Bay, as seen from the SFO Marriott)

A new sun rises on my day

And burns the darkest night

A new leaf turns in my book

With the quill eager to write

 

A new tune comes across the breeze

From a lute that shed its dust

A new canvas ever so eager

For a bold stroke of the brush

 

The glass has held its wine

Awaiting the soothing sip

The mirage eluded for long

The parched, but deserving lip

 

I stand at this turn in the road

With my arms stretched to thee

Come, my friend, be my light

To start a life of glee

Peeling the Onion ... 2020

 

With My Eyes Wide Shut ... 2020

 

With my eyes wide shut

With my eyes wide shut

I see through my cataract

With my eyes wide open

It’s a dark grey blur

With my eyes wide shut

I can see your tear-drops

With my eyes wide open

It’s the beauty of your mascara

With my eyes wide shut

I can see you from afar

With my eyes wide open

A big faceless crowd

With my eyes wide shut

I see the depth of your sadness

With my eyes wide open

Only the giggles and the laughter

With my eyes wide shut

It’s the stark, dark reality

With my eyes wide open

It’s the bright elusive illusion

With my eyes wide shut

I see a clear method

With my eyes wide open

It's an infinite madness

Context: 

This poem took root during a week of a one-eye-shut life due to a painful stye.

One close friend, Satish Nawathe, was kind enough to look at an earlier draft and provide an interpretation that I loved; one comment made it into a verse in the poem. I am sharing his other comments below:

The shut eye renders an opportunity to visualize without seeing, while the open eye continues with the apparent view of things. The visualization is envisioning ... and can reach the emotional state of the subject person ... and can even connect with him/her in a sublime manner. The open eye merely responds to the physical action of light on the retina. The shut eye is not blind ... it is a chance to internalize and contrast with the superficial inputs .. perhaps find the real meaning behind what appears to be!

It dispels the concept of WYSIWYG (what you see is what you get)!

I must also acknowledge another close friend and good poet, Satyen Hombali, whose influence of style and depth I cannot deny. An example is a different slant with a "satire with a strong message" in his Marathi poem, माणूस maaNoos (human).

There will be a doctor in the house .. finally

 

Yes, there will be a doctor in the (White) House, and that makes many of us proud. And, it is despicable that the Wall Street Journal - a publication of repute when I had last checked - allowed an Op-ed by a (sore ?) essayist, Joseph Epstein, "Is There a Doctor in the White House? Not, if You Need an M.D."

Really, Mr. Epstein? All you could find to disparage an incoming President is to go after his wife's credentials? Let me tell you a thing or two about Doctorates. People get these after doing eminent, ground-breaking work in their respective fields. People with doctorates do know a thing or two - but they also know that there is much that they don't - and, that is important. Let me put before you another towering personality with a doctorate, Martin Luther King, Jr. If you don't know what he did, what he is known for and you would like to disparage him in the same way as you did Dr. Jill Biden, I forgive you for your ignorance.

And, do you want the likes of an M.D. like Scott Atlas in the (White) House? Let alone the White House, I would not like to have him in my house, peddling counter-medical opinions. Fortunately, M.D.s like Scott Atlas are in an extreme minority. Physicians who I have crossed paths with - from the pediatricians who treated my children, to specialists that have provided their expert opinions - are those who I hold in high regard.

Even if you had an M.D. in your house, and (s)he is not a radiologist providing you bad virology advice, they know their area of expertise as well as their limitations, and they would know or try to find out other experts who may know a thing or two about the medical situation.

So, chill, Mr. Epstein! It is really not important whether there is an M.D. in the White House. It is extremely important, however, that adults with high integrity and good judgment are in the White House - and this country is celebrating that.

Space 'n Time ... 2020

 

(Sketch inspired by the "Love Is" girl and "Amul Butter" commercials)

Space 'n Time

An old skit said,

“The bus is here, the bus is here”

“It’s not our bus, it’s not our bus”

Will a bus stop for me?

Will the bus take me there?

Am I awaiting a train at a bus stop?

Has the bus left?

Or, is it yet to come?

Will I ever know?

Will (s)he join me on my bus ride?

Has (s)he left on another bus?

Is (s)he waiting at another stop?

It’s not just the space, it’s not just the time!

It’s the simultaneity of space ‘n time

Is for the two of us, the rendezvous

Context: Upon re-reading the poem, I realize that are many subtleties in the poem that may warrant contextualization; though I believe that having to explain a poem speaks to its deficiency, as beautifully brought out by the Urdu verse:

Izhar-e-tamanna hee tauheen-e-tamanna hai
tum khud hee samajh jao, main naam naheen loonga

इज़हार-ए-तमन्ना ही तौहीन-ए-तमन्ना है,

तुम खुद ही समझ जाओ मैं नाम नहीं लूँगा।

The enunciation of my desire is itself an insult of my desire

(Beloved) - you figure it out yourself, I shall not elaborate it

In 1960s-70s Bombay, way before mobile phones, or even well functioning land lines were common, courtship in the middle-class society involved the lovebirds to meet out-of-sight of family and acquaintances, at locations like bus stops and involved long waits for the other person to arrive.

The sketch brings together the lovelorn girl from Love Is comic-strip awaiting ..a bus or her boyfriend or ... at a bus stop that sports the Amul Butter ad - another iconic hoarding in Bombay popularized by the Amul girl.

The poem then extrapolates to the concept of the "waiting for her/him" to an elusive life opportunity. The setting is the same - the bus stop - but the situation is that you see a bus coming in, get elated that it may be your route, and then get disappointed that it is not - a common phenomenon from those days!

Finally, the poem resorts to the physics concept to time and space, the simultaneity of both being necessary for a rendezvous to occur.

The Dreamer Dilemma ... 2020

 

Undoubtedly inspired by Rodin, and also by a quote:

"It's impossible," said pride. 

"It's risky," said experience. 

"It's pointless," said reason. 

"Give it a try," whispered the heart.

Quadrants of Thought (credits to Navin Ramachandran)

 

Finding Nemo ... oops, I meant Navin ... has been a fascinating experience. Not that he was lost (any more than the rest of us are), but I didn't know the life thinker side of him and his eagerness to let others benefit from his evolution.

Thus, some interesting thoughts posted by Navin and the ensuing discussion resulted in an insightful chat with him a couple of Fridays ago, and this blogpost is an elaboration of one of the frameworks Navin suggested - almost literally, as a "napkin sketch." In his humility, he calls this universal wisdom that has no ownership - just that I must have gone to the bathroom while the universe enjoyed such wisdom ;-)

In a framework that can turn a management scientist on, the premise is that you live in memory or in thoughts built on memories - and this influences your behaviors, actions, and attitude towards life. On the (horizontal) time scale, you may divide your thoughts into the Past and the Future; on the (vertical) effect scale, you may divide your them into those that are uplift you and those that drag you down. You can find yourself constantly in one of the four quadrants and that has its respective effect on your energetic state of being.

If your dominant narrative is Reminiscing or Daydreaming, it can be an uplifting experience; if it is Regret or Anxiety, it can drain you down. Being seldom in awareness of the present, you can find yourself out of synchrony with life - that you are auto-engaged in the Regrets or Anxieties - a consequence of the natural conditioning of self-preservation.

Trying to force yourself into Reminiscing and Daydreaming can bring with it narratives of regret and anxiety.

The strategy, therefore, is to let go of the narratives that drag you down - in totality, in acceptance, and without shame. Then, you find yourself in balance in the center - with a state of awareness. The narratives don't disappear - it is just that we learn to be centered and awake/aware in an effortless way.

More Fridays with Navin can result in a sequel to a 2000 bestseller, and it could well be called Fridays with Navin!

COVID-19 Vaccination - Equitable Distribution ... 2020

 

The demand for the vaccine far exceeds the supply. To quantify the gap, the initial batch booked by the U.S. Government can cover no more than 15% even if all patient access issues are addressed, much smaller if you take the patient access factors into consideration. The U.S. represents about 5% of the world population. As a pandemic that needs to cover every person on the face of this earth (as polio vaccination has mostly addressed), the demand-supply disparity is even more dire. I limit the remainder of this post to the U.S. context.

Rationing is inevitable when a scarce resource has to be equitably distributed to a large population. Who gets how much? We have heard of criteria (a) health care workers and first responders, (b) other essential workers, (c) high risk individuals. At first glance, these criteria seem reasonable. The rubber meets the road in the execution.

Having lost all faith in the checks and balances in the U.S. judicial and executive branches, I pose the following (possibly, rhetorical) questions, so we as conscientious citizens navigate the challenge.

Using affluence and influence to beat the system is not uncommon - whether it is for dodging the draft, or getting a not-so-accomplished child into a top-notch school, or declaring the Vice President as an "essential worker" so he can campaign for the election.

Even if the corruption factor doesn't exist (or, we ignore for a moment), how does one say one person needs to be ahead of another when they are in the same categories as above? Who makes those determinations? Does it open up a laborious legal procedure, as we have seen with frivolous lawsuits to question the recent election results?

Perhaps, the imminent change of leadership will help, as the leaders will lead by example. However, they cannot carry the entire burden of fixing the fabric of the nation faster than COVID-19 will ravage the country. 

We have civil ways of addressing someone who cuts the check-out line at the grocery store or the check-in line at an airport gate - following generally accepted principles. The need of the hour is such collective, social conscience. There is too much at stake to let bullies of any sort take charge .. again.

Rudolph, the Red-Nosed Reindeer ... 2020

 

Rudolf, the Red Nosed Reindeer

Had a streak running down his cheek

And if you ever saw it

You would break into a shriek 

All the other Republicans

Laughed and looked the other way

They never let such clowns

Join in their devious games

Then one hot summer eve

Tutar interviewed him in a hotel room

His mic got stuck in his pants

Borat had to threaten him with a broom

The Pinocchio of the New World

Tries hard to defend the Chief Liar

He's only a joker, just a court jester

Far from the semblance of a lawyer

Ideology Changes and Damped Systems ... 2020

 

Trying to understand the dynamics and outcome of the just-completed US Presidential election, memories of systems behavior from the engineering days came to my rescue.

The behavior of a system such as a spring-loaded door with a damper behaves typically in ways described by the above graph. If the door is ideally supposed to be adjusted to be "critically damped" - in this setting, the door gradually but without much delay settles into its equilibrium state. If overdamped (as can happen in cold weather), the door takes an unusually long time to reach that state. In an underdamped (as can happen in hot weather), the door comes in faster than ideal, and may oscillate back and forth before settling into its equilibrium.

Applying this analogy to today's society, consider the area under the dotted line as Conservative or Right-wing; the area above the dotted line as Liberal or Left-wing. In the last four years, we find our society stretched too far to the Conservative side (threats about reversing Roe vs Wade, conservative judges in the Supreme Court, ...) and the hype is high due to the rhetoric from the departing President. This has resulted in today's society to be near the origin of the above graph. Examples of the rhetoric are - condoning white supremacist and other racist behaviors, instigation of armed militia through incendiary statements during rallies and debates. 

Now that this compressed spring is released, it is natural to see society to swing too far left before it overcompensates for a few cycles. The advantage of this is that normalcy is achieved sooner, albeit through swings of smaller amplitude.

I would rather have this, than an overdamped system where "wanting to do the right thing" takes an inordinate amount of time to figure it out. The impatience to come into a normal zone is high, and I am ready for some swings!

Cynicism 2020

 

There is a reason why I write this a day before the Presidential election in the USA. That is because I don't want it to be perceived as written in jubilation if the side I am rooting for wins, or in despair if it loses. I write this as a full-fledged member of a democracy - a form of government of the people, by the people, for the people - taking accountability for whatever is along with the hundreds of millions of other participants

No matter who wins the election, my cynicism runs high today about

• heels dug deep in the muck that preclude any other point of view. "My way or highway" is contrary to the fundamentals of democracy, and has resulted in "you belong in the majority, or you don't matter"
• checks and balances that live in name only, and we have witnessed a blatant abuse of power
• the motives of the politicians in running a country - a boost to their ego, I can accept; widespread nepotism and corruption, I cannot
• the years it will take to recover from the damage to the fabric of the nation - whether it is a form of government, or respect for science, or acceptance of a different-looking/thinking/worshipping person
• .....

The father of democracy, Cleisthenes, and the founding fathers of the United States are spinning in their graves. Cynicism is a negative emotion. I have it today. But then, knowing the problems to be solved and accepting them is necessary to work towards resolving them.

Elephant In The Room ... 2020

 

Dark At The End Of The Tunnel ...2020

Not quite a haiku ... 2020

Not quite a haiku (5 syllables)

By its strict definition (7)

Is it a trio? (5)

Pitch darkness around (5)
I have my clean glasses on (7)
Can see so well now (5)

Today, a good day (5)
Tomorrow, another day (7)
Its own surprises (5)

No boring life, this (5)
Enjoying its every deal (7)
Twists, turns aplenty (5)

Vasanti Chandavarkar (1933-2020) .. the little engine that could

 

With the passing of my mother, Vasanti, we celebrate a life dedicated to service and rehabilitation.

Fortunate to be one of the first women in her family to earn a college degree, she pitched in to the family cash flow by working at a Burshane (cooking gas cylinders) distribution store and the Handloom House back office until she got caught up full time with the rehabilitation of her younger child who got paralyzed at the age of one. Whether it was carrying him to therapy with his crutches and other paraphernalia through uncooperative crowds on Bombay's buses and trains in rain or shine, or running after snake-oil and spiritual remedies around the country suggested by anecdotal stories brought to her by well-wishers - she left no stone unturned. Looking ahead to the time when they will not be able to care for him, my parents joined forces with other families with similar situations to establish of a permanent residential facility for the physically and emotionally challenged.

Drained by the intensity of her life, she passed the last couple of decades in constant proximity of my father, who ensured that all her needs were met, as we saw her memory fade away in recent years.

She will be remembered not only by the extended family and friends but also those whose paths she crossed in the rehabilitation and elder care worlds.