An Effete Dreamtime

Covid has been a bigger gamechanger than was anticipated. The last year and some has left me with off-shoulder hair, enough to merit a headband and 'Captain' thoughtfully sent across one in Bjorn Borg style. Otherwise, I have sunk into an effete dreamtime; Travel impossible and reading nonexistent - and with cyber-addiction draining a lot of energy - one keeps thinking and day-dreaming but the musings fail to converge onto something meaningful.

I did try hard to resist the Fade - started up a youtube channel in last August and put up several short talks in Malayalam on topics I believed to of real interest. But Viewers weren't too impressed and I pretty much have wound it up. Of what else happened during the Lockdown, I dunno what would be mentionable when one looks back at it all from the far future - I hope to live to do that. Sadly, among the Millions the present Evil Tide has claimed are a few I used to know well.
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The Kerala Elections which got over last month were, to me, a horrible charade (I shall spare you an explanation) and I stayed away from voting. Of course, the ruling Left front swept to power on a wave of Youth Approval as well as skilful manipulation of sectarian sentiments - the most visible manifestation the latter being the Left gaining an unprecedented level of approval from Muslims.

From the post-polls celebrations, one impression has stayed with me. A certain young lady singer brought out a punchy song which went thus:

"Behold, Little Bird, look up at the glittering Crescent Moon and declare from your heart: "The cucumber vine we tended has brought forth a bright red Star!"

In traditional Communist imagery, the crescent symbolizes the sickle, so integral to the Communist emblem and the red star is of course the red star. The crescent and star however acquire another meaning in the present Keralan political scenario - the Marxist Party, led by Chief Minister Pinarayi, is THE (self-declared) bullwark protecting Muslims and Secularism from the Hindu Nationalist BJP, so the crescent and star can also be viewed as the universal symbol of Islam - with the redness of the star giving it a communist hue.

However, that a cucumber wine could beget a star defeated me - until I discovered that 'sunbeams could be extracted from from cucumbers', as was done in a state of art lab in Lagado (Gulliver's Travels). It isn't far from sunbeams to stars.
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Among our Prime Minister's claims to superhero-dom is a 'fifty six inch chest', whatever that means. To counter it, Kerala commies have coined a phrase for local bigwig Pinarayi - "Irattachankan", literally 'double hearted', perhaps to indicate his generosity or courage or whatever. One day, I saw the Hemngway story 'The Big Two-Hearted River' and generally googled with "two hearted" and saw many online dictionaries all of which said 'double hearted' in English means 'hypocritical', 'deceitful' etc. I put up a Whatsapp status with the following screenshot, adding a caption: "in our Malayalam this means 'Irattachankan'"

and I received quite a few protests from my young contacts: "Did you really have to rake this up NOW?!", "You, a closet Fascist? Shocking!" and so forth.

If my non-Malayali readers are surprised by those expressions of outrage at the gentlest of jabs at a political figure, there is a simple reason to it: Kerala politics is now very severely polarized. It is almost de rigeur for Left supporters to trash anyone who trolls Pinarayi as Faschist or 'Sanghi' or 'Cowdung'. Of course, it is quite as common at the national level for critics of Modi to be branded anti-National or traitor or even 'Paki'.
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Quite recently, this meme went viral in the social media.

I find it interesting that Desi visual art - from the Karla couples to the Kerala murals - which always make it a point to show women as generously endowed, was never really honest about the midriff. Well, this observation applies only to the female midriff - I do recall seeing some very spectacular representations of male flab in Vamana/Yaksha sculptural figures from even ancient times.
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Vimal introduced me to a short Swati Tirunal kriti that begins: "Neelappurikuzhalaale!" and demanded a translation of its lyrics. I took up the task although the language is a 'manipravala' kind of Malayalam - heavily laced with Sanskrit. The first few couplets went okay and then, I was stumped by this:

swApadasayilennakilum samamanEna ramippathinu
swApam varA thellum smarathApamEri rAthrou

A Hindu article (https://www.thehindu.com/entertainment/music/swati-tirunal-kritis-have-interesting-imageries/article26874614.ece) came to my aid:
"I was hoping to sport with him at least in my dreams but this yearning, it's keeping me awake - and dreamless - thru this lonely night!"

I have seen a fair amount of Amorous classical poetry but the very concept here is totally new to me!
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Here are two visuals - a lone JCB tries to free a huge ship that ran aground and blocked the Suez Canal for a few days and a puny bird pleads with a rogue elephant (the latter, an illustration from an Amar Chitra Katha of 1970s vintage):

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We already have had a fair bit of politics in this post. Let me add a bit more; am only copying another Whatsapp status post of mine.

That our Judiciary is above all petty and base considerations is something we all would want to believe. Let me mention 4 recent court verdicts and reactions to it from the two ends of the political spectrum. Well, the ends are largely what remain of that spectrum now - a state as grisly as that of the body of 'belt bomber' Dhanu (only her head and feet were retrieved from the blast site).

1. The Ayodhya Verdict (allowing for a temple to be constructed where the Babri Masjid stood) - The Sangh sings and dances in the streets; the Left condemns as the grossest miscarriage of Justice in a generation.

2. The Sabarimala Verdict (allowing women to have 'darshan' at the temple) - The Sangh protests in the streets with song, dance and some less uplifting art forms; the Left celebrates as an enlightened affirmation of Human Rights.

3. The Padmanabha Temple Verdict (affirming some rights the erstwhile royal family of Travancore had in the running of the temple) - The Sangh celebrates as an affirmation of our glorious 'culture'; the Left attacks as a throwback to upper caste fascism.

4. The 'Love Jihad' Verdict (saying the said social phenomenon does not exist) - The Sangh, outraged, goes for an Appeal; the Left accepts as an incontrovertible proof that there is no 'love jihad'.
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Saw a shocker of an ad today:
"---- will be offering free coaching for Civil Services exams for students from 8th standard upwards. We shall admit Hindu students - please note, other communities have gone far ahead!"
What offends me more than even the community-mindedness is the "8th standard". Hell, it's not done, you don't catch 12 year olds and start training them for a competitive exam that's a goddam decade into the future!
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It is being said that in overwhelmingly Muslim Lakshadweep, the Central Govt representative has begun to paint the trunks of coconut palms saffron. The very idea is comparable to Victorians, in their prudery, keeping well-covered, the legs of tables.
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And finally, let me quote, in total concurrence (I shall spare you an explanation), a line from a social media post by writer Paul Zachariah:
"I am not a Congressman. But as a citizen, I am firmly convinced that Kerala needs the Congress. And so does India!"