When I woke up in the morning and everything is shrouded in dark many ideas start cropping up around me like poisonous weeds. Perhaps some of these weeds are not only harmless but sweet in taste. Let me describe one morning’s crop.
When I woke up an idea suddenly engulfed my half awakened brain. Why, for god’s sake, what after all is a god. It seems to me that it is not a biblical god. The god painted by Michelangelo on the roof of Saint Sistine chapel. It would be rather unthinkable, if not ridiculous, to imagine it in the form of a human being. An ancient times primitive people imagined gods in the form of animals, insects, fishes, trees, mountains, and rivers. Now if we think that He is the supreme creator of the universe, including all its multifarious content, it surely would have to be something extra universal. Of course there are concepts in ancient religions including in the Vedantas of Indo-Arians that the universal Creator is a some sort of Pantheistic entity; and all the things present in the universe contain some part of it or they would merge into that large Pantheistic ocean. However this theory again leads to idea that god is part of the universe. I kept thinking over it with my half awakened brain, my drowsy eyes refusing to open fully and my limbs a bit stiff. I lay down in my bed trying to think out of this muddy morass; how to extricate myself from this intricate problem. Suddenly something clicked. A part of my brain called out: there are fishes in my tank and fishes in my tank! And I realized that, if not regularly, once a while I had to pick out one fish out of the tank prior to leaving my bed.
Thursday, December 31, 2009
Wednesday, December 23, 2009
12-23-09: Anti-Fossil Fuel and Anti-Synthetic Chemicals
Man, since its brain started developing and it became a bipedal animal, needed energy to do various kinds of work for the benefit of itself and for the benefit of the community. To go for hunting, man needed sufficient energy in the form of food to pursue and kill animals for food. The food he took was burnt inside him to produce energy for his movement, work and even all kinds of leisure. When man started using the field to cultivate various kinds of food plants it needed some energy source to plow and till the land. For that purpose Ox, Buffalo and Horses were utilized. These animals were reared and in an adequate manner provided sufficient food so that they can be utilized to pull the plowshare. Gradually man started developing various forms of its interests to increase the basic economic structure. Development most likely started about 10,000 years ago. When various kinds of energy giving material, whether living or non-living were utilized, such development was slow. Largely man was in accord with the natural developments and those animals used for producing animals were killed only after they became useless for the purpose. However the relationship between man and nature was in an even keel: man was not in a position to disturb the ecosystem, climate, environment in which they lived and reproduced. This benign relationship was maintained for thousands of years in spite of the fact that man gradually started utilizing ores of various kinds for developmental purposes. To melt the iron ore e.g. first wood and then newly discovered coal was utilized. However such kind of activity was of a limited kind. Large tracts of forest lands were not disturbed in a big manner.
This condition remained for thousands of years. Man who has spread from East Africa and migrated to various continents was happily engaged with their environment. In ancient Mesopotamia there were a number of wells which burnt day and night. These wells contained crude oil, petrified forest remains, which released hydrocarbons and related organic material. Nobody bothered to use crude oil from these burning wells for human purposes. As a matter of fact these wells were regarded as some kind of divine manifestation. However developmental work went on throughout the world for energy purposes. Wood obtained from forestry was utilized for energy purposes. In 18th century James Watt discovered the potential of steam as a source of energy. This was the initiation of the great industrial revolution which within a half century or so spread throughout the world. Machines run by energy produced from steam were utilized for cloth manufacturing and for other utilizable items. Steam engine was invented. These steam engines were fed with coal to produce steam for the movement of the engine. Similarly steam ships were invented. Though sailors all over the world were using ships and boats to navigate waters, steam engine revolutionized the navigational activity.
Only in late 19th century oil wells were discovered, first in the United States, and soon it became the main source of energy in the sense that oil wells started producing petroleum which gave rise to cars etc. Before the discovery of petroleum as a source of energy coal was being utilized throughout the world for all energy purposes. These too together, petroleum and coal are fossil fuels. These are called fossil fuels because that is buried animal and plant materials which were converted into coal and petroleum, fossil are the source of these fuels.
Sooner than later, fossil fuel inundated the known world. Coal, of course was in use much before petroleum. Coal was used not only for domestic purposes but also in factories to produce energy. Still all over the world coal is being utilized to energize turbines to produce electricity. Electricity has become the main source of energy for running and using all kinds of instruments, warming and cooling houses and illuminating roadside lamps. Petroleum has primarily turned into the energy source for running the automobiles, railway carriages etc. Fossil fuel when used-being mainly the hydrocarbon-release carbon di-oxide in the atmosphere. Million and million tons of carbon di-oxide is being pumped into the atmosphere daily by humans by burning fossil fuel. For example in the US many millions of cars are running on the roads all the time. Estimates are that it is simply impossible for the planet Earth to convert it to a harmless entity. Such indiscriminate use of fossil fuel has resulted in a vast increase in global warming. Temperature of the earth is gradually rising and producing harmful effects. Glaciers, snow caps of the mountains, polar icebergs are all melting in a rapid pace.
There would be many catastrophic effects. The sea level has started not only getting warmer but rising as well. This would, after few decades, simply inundate all the off shore lands of the earth. Large part of the Bangladesh, south pacific islands, Greenland, Florida and innumerable sea ports would go under the sea. Glacier on the Himalayas would start melting, first flooding the whole of Indo Gangetic plain; and, secondly the Ganges would simply dry up. These catastrophes will result in huge human suffering. All over the earth perhaps billion or more people would simply either starve to death or get decimated. There would be global wars between people (the so called climate refugees) just to take care of themselves and deprive others of the privilege.
The social, ethical, religious and political consequences cannot be easily comprehended. This needs a drastic effort by all the countries and all the people in a collective manner. They have to take strong and stringent action to reduce the emission coming out of appliances used by humans for energy purpose using fossil fuels. It seems that, as we have only ten years to save the earth, we have to decrease the global temperature by at least 2o C. That’s why we are saying that we all should become anti fossil fuel not in the sense of totally discarding the fossil fuel but using it in highly moderate and justifiable manner. There is no reason to believe that through UN, all the world states would come to an agreement to take proper action in reducing the emission.
It was late 19th century, first in Germany largely led by Liebeg and his co workers; and, secondly, in England , largely led by Perkins and his co workers that organic chemistry took a big leap. These scientists started isolating organic compounds from living systems, plants, animals and micro organisms. These compounds were characterized and their constitution and structures were determined. A little later synthetic organic chemistry started florishing. Here, from simple organic compounds and even atoms, large complex organic compounds were constructed with precise shape and size. The era of synthetic chemicals has started in a big way.
Thousand million compounds were either isolated or constructed. And some had unique properties; some smelled nice, some had medicinal properties and some can be used for decorative purposes. In early 20th century very simple organic compounds were discovered to be polymerized into items like plastic sheets, rods, utensils etc. This was clearly a big step in producing artificial materials for common use.
Now almost anything you want to make you can make out of synthetic material. The most obnoxious example is that of plastic bags. Perhaps daily some billion bags are being made all over the world. They lie scattered around everywhere. They clog the outlets because they are not destructible; they are simply here to stay. These can be shredded into very small pieces, but that would create huge hygienic and health problems. The shredded bags can go and sit in the trachea of lungs. The shoreline of East African coast is littered with these bags.
Hence it is time to put an indiscriminate manufacture of synthetic chemicals. These are a calamitous offspring of synthetic organic chemistry. It has been quite difficult to produce such organic polymers can be degraded and destroyed by microbes. Attempts have been made in that direction but no worthwhile result is coming out. We have to stand up and raise slogans against such activities.
What we have said above is that we have to restrain ourselves in using and utilizing fossil fuels and synthetic chemicals. We are not saying that we should put a stop to their use. From day to day human activity it seems that both fossil fuels and synthetic chemicals would be required. However indiscriminate use has become a dangerous peril. If we don’t want to suffocate ourselves with such obnoxious items we have to be careful.
This condition remained for thousands of years. Man who has spread from East Africa and migrated to various continents was happily engaged with their environment. In ancient Mesopotamia there were a number of wells which burnt day and night. These wells contained crude oil, petrified forest remains, which released hydrocarbons and related organic material. Nobody bothered to use crude oil from these burning wells for human purposes. As a matter of fact these wells were regarded as some kind of divine manifestation. However developmental work went on throughout the world for energy purposes. Wood obtained from forestry was utilized for energy purposes. In 18th century James Watt discovered the potential of steam as a source of energy. This was the initiation of the great industrial revolution which within a half century or so spread throughout the world. Machines run by energy produced from steam were utilized for cloth manufacturing and for other utilizable items. Steam engine was invented. These steam engines were fed with coal to produce steam for the movement of the engine. Similarly steam ships were invented. Though sailors all over the world were using ships and boats to navigate waters, steam engine revolutionized the navigational activity.
Only in late 19th century oil wells were discovered, first in the United States, and soon it became the main source of energy in the sense that oil wells started producing petroleum which gave rise to cars etc. Before the discovery of petroleum as a source of energy coal was being utilized throughout the world for all energy purposes. These too together, petroleum and coal are fossil fuels. These are called fossil fuels because that is buried animal and plant materials which were converted into coal and petroleum, fossil are the source of these fuels.
Sooner than later, fossil fuel inundated the known world. Coal, of course was in use much before petroleum. Coal was used not only for domestic purposes but also in factories to produce energy. Still all over the world coal is being utilized to energize turbines to produce electricity. Electricity has become the main source of energy for running and using all kinds of instruments, warming and cooling houses and illuminating roadside lamps. Petroleum has primarily turned into the energy source for running the automobiles, railway carriages etc. Fossil fuel when used-being mainly the hydrocarbon-release carbon di-oxide in the atmosphere. Million and million tons of carbon di-oxide is being pumped into the atmosphere daily by humans by burning fossil fuel. For example in the US many millions of cars are running on the roads all the time. Estimates are that it is simply impossible for the planet Earth to convert it to a harmless entity. Such indiscriminate use of fossil fuel has resulted in a vast increase in global warming. Temperature of the earth is gradually rising and producing harmful effects. Glaciers, snow caps of the mountains, polar icebergs are all melting in a rapid pace.
There would be many catastrophic effects. The sea level has started not only getting warmer but rising as well. This would, after few decades, simply inundate all the off shore lands of the earth. Large part of the Bangladesh, south pacific islands, Greenland, Florida and innumerable sea ports would go under the sea. Glacier on the Himalayas would start melting, first flooding the whole of Indo Gangetic plain; and, secondly the Ganges would simply dry up. These catastrophes will result in huge human suffering. All over the earth perhaps billion or more people would simply either starve to death or get decimated. There would be global wars between people (the so called climate refugees) just to take care of themselves and deprive others of the privilege.
The social, ethical, religious and political consequences cannot be easily comprehended. This needs a drastic effort by all the countries and all the people in a collective manner. They have to take strong and stringent action to reduce the emission coming out of appliances used by humans for energy purpose using fossil fuels. It seems that, as we have only ten years to save the earth, we have to decrease the global temperature by at least 2o C. That’s why we are saying that we all should become anti fossil fuel not in the sense of totally discarding the fossil fuel but using it in highly moderate and justifiable manner. There is no reason to believe that through UN, all the world states would come to an agreement to take proper action in reducing the emission.
It was late 19th century, first in Germany largely led by Liebeg and his co workers; and, secondly, in England , largely led by Perkins and his co workers that organic chemistry took a big leap. These scientists started isolating organic compounds from living systems, plants, animals and micro organisms. These compounds were characterized and their constitution and structures were determined. A little later synthetic organic chemistry started florishing. Here, from simple organic compounds and even atoms, large complex organic compounds were constructed with precise shape and size. The era of synthetic chemicals has started in a big way.
Thousand million compounds were either isolated or constructed. And some had unique properties; some smelled nice, some had medicinal properties and some can be used for decorative purposes. In early 20th century very simple organic compounds were discovered to be polymerized into items like plastic sheets, rods, utensils etc. This was clearly a big step in producing artificial materials for common use.
Now almost anything you want to make you can make out of synthetic material. The most obnoxious example is that of plastic bags. Perhaps daily some billion bags are being made all over the world. They lie scattered around everywhere. They clog the outlets because they are not destructible; they are simply here to stay. These can be shredded into very small pieces, but that would create huge hygienic and health problems. The shredded bags can go and sit in the trachea of lungs. The shoreline of East African coast is littered with these bags.
Hence it is time to put an indiscriminate manufacture of synthetic chemicals. These are a calamitous offspring of synthetic organic chemistry. It has been quite difficult to produce such organic polymers can be degraded and destroyed by microbes. Attempts have been made in that direction but no worthwhile result is coming out. We have to stand up and raise slogans against such activities.
What we have said above is that we have to restrain ourselves in using and utilizing fossil fuels and synthetic chemicals. We are not saying that we should put a stop to their use. From day to day human activity it seems that both fossil fuels and synthetic chemicals would be required. However indiscriminate use has become a dangerous peril. If we don’t want to suffocate ourselves with such obnoxious items we have to be careful.
Tuesday, December 22, 2009
12-22-09: The UN sponsored climate change conference
Recently in Copenhagen, Denmark a big conference took place to devise ways and means to put some control over global warming and carbon emission which is largely, though not exclusively, human made. This conference lasted for two weeks in that beautiful Scandinavian city. Thousands of delegates came to attend with their ulterior motives. Some of them were quite honest and believed in what environmental scientists have been saying for the last 10 odd years. They believe that if we don’t take care of global warming it would become an irreversible process and the Earth could not be saved from such calamity; it would be a doomsday. But it seems that large number of people came from different countries only to safeguard their national interests. They failed to have understood that the meeting was not for that purpose but was for the safety of the planet Earth. Global warming is a global challenge. This challenge has to be faced by all the people. If suppose Bangladesh is inundated with the rise in sea water it would affect the whole of South Asia one way or another. If glaciers which feed Gangotri start rapidly melting the whole Gangetic plain would, first face the havoc of unprecedented flood; Second, Ganges would slowly dry up. The result would be unimaginable. 100s of millions of Indians would starve to death. If glaciers around North Pole start melting rapidly a large portion of offshore cities and town’s other dwellings would be submerged in the oceanic water. This would happen to all the small islands, especially those in South Pacific. The scenario is to say the least devastating.
What happened in Copenhagen has been described by a Danish minister as a total disaster. The British environmental minister has blamed China for not agreeing to any minimum control over carbon emission. With USA, China is the two most important pollutants on this Earth. If they don’t agree then the whole thing would turn into a fiasco. China has strongly reacted against this accusation. However the Indian environmental minister has told his Parliament that India along with China and some other nations were determined not to let a limit to carbon emission is agreed upon in the conference. Earlier and official of Saudi Arabia proclaimed that fossil fuel is not the reason for global warming and for carbon footprint which could be seen everywhere. Fossil fuel not only contain petroleum and other hydrocarbon products but also coal. USA, China and India use coal to produce energy for their developmental programs. The reason is given that developing countries, especially China and India had to develop for the benefit of their population. They tend to miss the vital point that development would be meaningless if there are people who are suffering utterly due to global warming and carbon emission. This is not a paradox; this is a brutally irresistible fact. A truth which cannot be denied. It is true that in 19th and early 20th centuries, Western nations utilized fossil fuels in a highly discriminatory manner for their own development. However the fact remains that they did not know what fossil fuel is going to do to their own country and the world at large. Large tracts of forests were cut down which resulted in more carbon dioxide not being utilized by forests to make them un-harmful. Forests are also vital for rain, monsoon or otherwise. And as we know the fossil fuels produce Carbon Dioxide as their main end product. The global warming could only be decreased, if not prevented by devising means to decrease the carbon dioxide level in atmosphere. If this simple scientific fact is not going the gullets of politicians of the world then they should give up their pretence of running their own countries in a meaningful and democratically stable manner.
What happened in Copenhagen has been described by a Danish minister as a total disaster. The British environmental minister has blamed China for not agreeing to any minimum control over carbon emission. With USA, China is the two most important pollutants on this Earth. If they don’t agree then the whole thing would turn into a fiasco. China has strongly reacted against this accusation. However the Indian environmental minister has told his Parliament that India along with China and some other nations were determined not to let a limit to carbon emission is agreed upon in the conference. Earlier and official of Saudi Arabia proclaimed that fossil fuel is not the reason for global warming and for carbon footprint which could be seen everywhere. Fossil fuel not only contain petroleum and other hydrocarbon products but also coal. USA, China and India use coal to produce energy for their developmental programs. The reason is given that developing countries, especially China and India had to develop for the benefit of their population. They tend to miss the vital point that development would be meaningless if there are people who are suffering utterly due to global warming and carbon emission. This is not a paradox; this is a brutally irresistible fact. A truth which cannot be denied. It is true that in 19th and early 20th centuries, Western nations utilized fossil fuels in a highly discriminatory manner for their own development. However the fact remains that they did not know what fossil fuel is going to do to their own country and the world at large. Large tracts of forests were cut down which resulted in more carbon dioxide not being utilized by forests to make them un-harmful. Forests are also vital for rain, monsoon or otherwise. And as we know the fossil fuels produce Carbon Dioxide as their main end product. The global warming could only be decreased, if not prevented by devising means to decrease the carbon dioxide level in atmosphere. If this simple scientific fact is not going the gullets of politicians of the world then they should give up their pretence of running their own countries in a meaningful and democratically stable manner.
12-22-09: Ideas
I don’t know at what age I became interested in Ideas and the history of ideas. By Idea I mean a complex of philosophy, science, history, sociology, religion and philology. I still remember that at the age of six or seven I started reading about this complex ensemble in Urdu. Only when I reached, I think the age of fourteen or so, when I was in a position to read about these topics in English. I still remember reading about Omar Khaiyam in Urdu where the writer says that Omar Khaiyam was deeply influenced by Socrates and his concept that what he did know was that he did not know anything. That is to say that the very truth of knowledge remains hidden from us and what we try to ascertain is mainly the concepts around that fundamental truth. This concept, I think, is nothing to do with the idea that either we cannot reach the depth of truth or that we remain blissfully ignorant of truth. The humans are so constituted that they always try to know what is around them, external to them, and also inside them. The sense of exploration and the attempts, techniques and methods to devise exploring ways is fundamental to all the inventions and discoveries which the human species has made since last 20-30000 years of their existence on earth. The human brain has been developing much before the homo sapiens became modern man. Most likely around 2,00,000 years ago when modern man was still a hominid, a pre-human. We don’t know exactly when tools made out of stones were invented. But this much we know that the tool-making faculty is present in some mammals. There is it seems a strong relationship between tool-making and the complex concepts which I associate with ideas. As the human hand and human brain developed together to tackle the outside world, the dexterity started creeping in both the hands and to brain.
What I am trying to elaborate is precisely not a very starling discovery or such thing. If we study, e.g. ancient Mesopotamian relics which include pictograms and the Mesopotamian writings we can see that about 5000 years before the human brain had started speculating about things which they encounter and experience in their day to day living. Prior to such discoveries when early man used to live in caves to protect themselves against the inclement weather, they drew beautiful drawings on cave walls. These drawings depicted animals, tools, humans and demigods. Some of these drawings still show the color which they used to make these drawings. Miraculously enough these colors has survived some 25-30000 years. These drawings further show that human brain was taking leaps on evolutionary steps. We are now getting to know that ancient humans sort of anticipated what is going to happen next. This is perhaps a momentous discovery, a discovery which made proto-man a modern man. They understood that if a beast was around there was a possibility that it would attack them. If the clouds gathered on the sky, then there was a chance that rain would come. They anticipated that when a female is going to give birth; and how she is going to wean the child. This needed protection of that pregnant female. As a matter of fact, such protection is seen also in other animals. But not in such an elaborate manner which humans have shown and still show.
Idea, or a complex of ideas, are not easy to grasp in a absolutely rational manner. Man has to use what could be called the inner voice to explore ideas. If we study ancient poets and philosophers, we can see how they have groped their way through the mesh of ideas. Sometimes they draw foolish conclusions and sometimes they were so modern that we wonder. It was Freud who first gave us the concept of unconscious, which is innermost layer of our brain. The unconscious is meant to store all sorts of information, good or bad, harmless or harmful, and often when you use our conscious brain to know a thing, it can sort of deceive us. He developed these concepts in a elaborate manner and studied history, religion, sociology etc. through this. His disciple, Jung accepted this unconscious part of brain, but he differed largely from his master’s basic ideas, which were largely sexual in orientation. After his getting away from Freudian concept he developed a vibrant theory that the unconscious stores archetypes and mythical concepts. Further the unconscious expresses itself in the form of archetypes and myths.
Mythology is a fascinating aspect in the history of ideas. Mythology is, if they are explored in a more, should we say rational manner, it provides us many answers to what happened much before historical concepts developed. There is little doubt that the historical concepts were deeply entwined with their religious and sociological concepts.
The history of ideas is an ongoing process and it keeps revealing to us many strange beautiful and even dangerous aspects of our evolutionary history. Truly speaking we are not very much aware in a concrete sense, what proto-humans or hominids were about 200,000 years ago. However it seems that if we keep looking at mythologies and related phenomenon, we would be perhaps in a position to know what and how we started developing, albeit, very slowly towards turning into modern man.
What I am trying to elaborate is precisely not a very starling discovery or such thing. If we study, e.g. ancient Mesopotamian relics which include pictograms and the Mesopotamian writings we can see that about 5000 years before the human brain had started speculating about things which they encounter and experience in their day to day living. Prior to such discoveries when early man used to live in caves to protect themselves against the inclement weather, they drew beautiful drawings on cave walls. These drawings depicted animals, tools, humans and demigods. Some of these drawings still show the color which they used to make these drawings. Miraculously enough these colors has survived some 25-30000 years. These drawings further show that human brain was taking leaps on evolutionary steps. We are now getting to know that ancient humans sort of anticipated what is going to happen next. This is perhaps a momentous discovery, a discovery which made proto-man a modern man. They understood that if a beast was around there was a possibility that it would attack them. If the clouds gathered on the sky, then there was a chance that rain would come. They anticipated that when a female is going to give birth; and how she is going to wean the child. This needed protection of that pregnant female. As a matter of fact, such protection is seen also in other animals. But not in such an elaborate manner which humans have shown and still show.
Idea, or a complex of ideas, are not easy to grasp in a absolutely rational manner. Man has to use what could be called the inner voice to explore ideas. If we study ancient poets and philosophers, we can see how they have groped their way through the mesh of ideas. Sometimes they draw foolish conclusions and sometimes they were so modern that we wonder. It was Freud who first gave us the concept of unconscious, which is innermost layer of our brain. The unconscious is meant to store all sorts of information, good or bad, harmless or harmful, and often when you use our conscious brain to know a thing, it can sort of deceive us. He developed these concepts in a elaborate manner and studied history, religion, sociology etc. through this. His disciple, Jung accepted this unconscious part of brain, but he differed largely from his master’s basic ideas, which were largely sexual in orientation. After his getting away from Freudian concept he developed a vibrant theory that the unconscious stores archetypes and mythical concepts. Further the unconscious expresses itself in the form of archetypes and myths.
Mythology is a fascinating aspect in the history of ideas. Mythology is, if they are explored in a more, should we say rational manner, it provides us many answers to what happened much before historical concepts developed. There is little doubt that the historical concepts were deeply entwined with their religious and sociological concepts.
The history of ideas is an ongoing process and it keeps revealing to us many strange beautiful and even dangerous aspects of our evolutionary history. Truly speaking we are not very much aware in a concrete sense, what proto-humans or hominids were about 200,000 years ago. However it seems that if we keep looking at mythologies and related phenomenon, we would be perhaps in a position to know what and how we started developing, albeit, very slowly towards turning into modern man.
Friday, December 11, 2009
A tale told by an argumentative idiot
Introductory – The prime reason:
Humans are strange animals. Amongst themselves they can distinguish one from the other, name them and distinguish each other’s characteristics. It would be difficult for, e.g., a crow or a jackal not to think all men as identical. Humans have also the tendency to show off their distinguishing marks; and also to hide their undistinguishing marks. If a person tries to tell his or her tale, it would be difficult to tell everything that has happened to him or her. One would like to show that if he hit a person on his nose and it started bleeding the teller would gladly and proudly tell his tale. But if suppose he is passing through a street wrapped in a large towel which keeps slipping from his body and if he sees that there on the balconies around people are sitting and looking down in the street and then suddenly his robe falls in the ground, would it be possible for him to describe that accident to any other person! Hence one of the characteristics of humans is not to tell its tale in full.
***
I must start with a confession: I am an ordinary non-descriptive person, who has not any distinguishing mark which can be discerned, like having a horn on my forehead, like a Unicorn. However I am distinguished by a rather unique characteristic which is: I am an idiot. People who have known me think that, in spite of my being an idiot, I am an argumentative idiot. As far as I remember since my childhood I have been arguing over everything under the sun: why there is a hair in my milk; why I was scolded by my father; why my sister got two pieces of cake while I got just one; why should I wear knickers while my papa wore a pant; why I should start learning arithmetic; why should I take vitamin pills with my breakfast; etc. etc. I am not aware from whom this gene of argument has entered my being. If it is god given, then why chose me to become an argumentative person.
However I am missing a point here. Why I have characterized myself as an idiot. Probably I cannot answer this question. However let me try. I think when I was five or six years old in our sitting room in the corner there was a big glass plate on which flowers etc. were carved. One day it so happened that I picked it up from the table and it just slipped out of my hand and broke down into pieces. My father was sitting slightly far away reading a book. The crash woke him up. He rode with full throat ‘you idiot!’. Since then I have not only assumed but I have come to believe that I am an idiot; and an argumentative idiot. Hence if I tell my tale it should be remembered that it is largely an idiotic talk with almost no meaning or no distinctive properties.
I belong to a respectable family, as the people say. My father, employed as a civil servant in an old British Indian province. He came from an old Zamindar family who were largely Maulvis (teachers) and clerics. In old days our forefather used to write grammar for Persian and Arabic texts. During the reign of Aurangzeb, the last great Mughal Emperor, who is much abhorred by certain people for unknown reasons. Our family was given a large Jaagir (endowment), to pray for the safety and welfare of the Mughal Empire and do the teaching work. They were pious people with a tendency to live a life of Sufis with little interest in worldly affairs. However they had enough land to sustain themselves and their large family. They used to like writing rather undistinguished Persian poetry. One of them, about 200 years back became famous as a lexicographer and grammarian in Persian and Urdu languages. Our original Jaagir was in a Mufassil, the village as called by British rulers which was not in town. This village largely owned by our family there were low caste Muslim and Hindu populous whose main job was to serve the owner of the land. I am not very much aware what usually they were supposed to do apart from serving as in any manner which we wanted them to serve. As I was told by my mother these people who were strictly not servants were given various kinds of foodstuff to survive on. They usually used to plow land, take care of large fruit bearing gardens, of pond, keep our house clean, take care of cattle and in the evening take care of male owners. As I understand in the village life was useful, pleasant and undistinguished. I have come to know that these land owners used to spend their days and night either playing cards or lolling in their beds or arguing with each other. Probably I have inherited this last property in a distinct manner.
My father was an intelligent young man. His first choice was to become a scholar in Islamic subjects, an Alim. But around the age of 13 or so he suddenly decided that he would learn English and study in a modern way. I don’t know how such idea crept in his mind. However in any case it was a brilliant idea. He decided and told my grandfather that he wants to go to Calcutta, away from Bihar, to study in a good school there. In Calcutta my father’s son-in-law’s brother used to live doing business there. My grandfather agreed to his son’s plea for this son was his youngest son. My uncle was not a bright person he was more interested in having his tummy filled up, and lie down reading some Masnawi, the poetic love story. My grandfather has seen that his youngest son used to read serious books including Persian poetry like that of Sadi and Hafiz. Rather he let his darling son go.
My father has largely lived in the village, leading a careful life, studying Persian and Arabic in a relaxed manner. A Pandit used to come to teach some arithmetic. It was a life which I think was worth living but he decided to indulge in some adventure. Was it idiocy (I can’t answer it but I think that perhaps my idiocy stems from that idiotic behavior).
When my father came to Calcutta it was big cosmopolitan British city which was the capital of British India. The time was around the latter half of 1890s. He was dumbfounded – it was a neat and clean town with lots of Englishmen with their beautiful Memsahib. Each street was lit up with gas light. Sweepers used to clean the streets diligently in the morning. Huge horse driven carriages used to ply around. My father used to say that when Mirza Ghalib visited Calcutta something like this must have simply dazzled him. For the rest of his life Ghalib was always full of praise for Calcutta.
***
Father it seems had a preplanned schedule prior to reaching the great city.A metropolitan like Calcutta can easily disorient and disrupt a young lad coming from a far off village.At that time Calcutta was the capital city of British India. The city was full of Britishers,administrators,businessmen, military men and sight seers. There was a large community of what was called The Anglo Indians.These people were descendants of British fathers and Indian mothers.They had their own characteristic cultural values, largely a bad imitation of lower class British folks. They were largely employed in the Indian railway system, as locomotive drivers,guards and station masters. Largely these people were a happy-go-lucky folks.Their women tended to be a bit wayward, but off course not all of them.Some of the Anglo Indians were intellectually bright involved in teaching and as correspondents for newspapers.At present one of the most renowned Anglo Indian is Ruskin Bond, the great fiction writer.Father observed all of them and drew his own conclusions.He was coming from a deeply religious family,but had a uniquely probing mind.He never questioned the basic truth of Islam but till late in his life he had some doubt over some of the basic propositions as enunciated by Shariah laws.He came from a family which was deeply influenced in 19th century by what is known as Wahhabism - but this rather strict form of Islamic ideological framework was impregnated with ideas from an ancient Islamic school,the Motazalites.Father observed the Bengali bhadralok ,the high cast learned Bengalis. He liked their keen interest in learning and in literature; and he used to say that these people were a bit tricky and clannish and selfish.H observed Bengali babus going to Writers Building,the administrative block of British Raj.He saw these clerks as ordered by their superiors to wear socks with their shoes.He saw that the socks were quite shredded in sole.They carried rather rickety umbrellas to save themselves from scorching sun and pouring rain.
Father had sufficient money to live a student's life in the city. Soon he came to know that some of the English sahibs were in search if teachers who can help them in studying Persian language. He managed to offer his services. For a number of years he, being a student of English and Science , became a teacher of Persian. This job made him more familiar with English as it is spoken.He learned from these Britishers some of the nasty English words which he used to say when he was in a rage.
Father studied hard, indeed very very hard as he used to say later in his life, throughout his student days. He passed his matric examination with flying colors. He got himself amongst the top students, which gave him the opportunity to get admitted in the Presidency college, Calcutta's best teaching institute. He got admitted in F.A. class; and after completing the courses, he was given a first division in the final exam.
Father had no idea that he would end up as a student in the Calcutta medical college. At that time the British India had very few medical colleges.The competition was back breaking. Usually at Calcutta only those coming from top Bengali casts and from Anglo Indian community got admitted due to their meritorious record. Father obtained no less good result in his F.A. Exam. His family though was not inclined towards medicine but they indulged in non professionally practicing the Unani (Muslim) medicine. They used to prepare all sorts of drugs , largely for common diseases. It is interesting to note that Father, after he qualified as a physician, got interested in preparing Allopathic medicines. His other interest revolved round infectious diseases like malaria,cholera and kalaazar.
On the basis of his F.A. result, Father was able to get admitted in medical college without any difficulty.He used to say that some of the initial courses were very tough ; he has to learn by heart many technical terms especially in Anatomy. During his childhood he had gone through such rigorous test by learning Persian ans Arabic grammar and lexicography. The whole period which he spent as a medical student was for him exhilarating. He learnt many things. He observed many patients with severe ailments. He had to dissect the human dead bodies. He always remembered when the first opened the stomach of a dead man and found the inner parts most fascinating and awe- aspiring. The medical studies took about five years to complete. During this period he got familiarised with the medical terms and its characteristics culture. Father was a bit scared of such culture which kind of put a pressure on him. As a matter of course during his childhood he was raised in Islamic theology and Persian poetry. His new profession was for him an extra burden which tended to displace his earlier interests. It is remarkable that,in spite of such professional pressure he maintained a deep and lasting interest in the earlier likings. His favourite poet was Saadi,the greatest Persian poet, whom he kept quoting throughout his life. In theology he was rather strict in his ideological stance.During his stay in Calcutta he developed the habit chewing pan (betel leaf ) often with tobacco. This habit affected his dental set. At the age 35 or so he got all his teeth removed and started wearing dentures. He developed the habit of smoking cigarettes when he was finishing his medical studies. He gave up chewing pan a little later.
Father completed his medical studies, without much difficulty with flying color. Before coming to Calcutta he never expected himself to become a physician. His becoming a doctor surprised him a bit, but during his training and the environment around him he knew that he was going to be a physician. After completing his studies he went back to his village where he was treated like a knight returning from a successful mission. He had an old maid servant who has taken care of him during his childhood. She, and old woman who knew the world blessed him with saying:"May God make u a darogha !! " Darogha means sub-inspector of police who rules over village security. Father was offered two positions as a sub-assistant surgeon by the Bihar and UP provincial medical service. Relatives advised him not to go to UP; and he therefore joined the Bihar provincial service. During his early service he often used to go to some villages where cholera epidemic flared up. The whole village was emptied of all inhabitants and he was one of the doctors who took care of patients. At that time cholera used to spread rapidly and take a heavy toll. Gradually, and very gradually the epidemic was contained. It took many years before this calamity was eradicated. Father remembered two episodes from his earlier term of service. Dr. Ross, who discovered the malaria parasite and got Nobel prize for his investigations, came to the sub division headquarters where Father was posted. Ross was looking for mosquito strains which contained the malarial parasite. Father offered his services to him. Both of them used to go to ditches and other places where still water was present. They used to catch mosquitoes with nets. Ross used to crush a single mosquito and with a spatula pick up some blood and put it up on a slide; and after fixing it used to observe under microscope. Father always remembered Dr. Ross who was deeply involved in his scientific work was a kind hearted man and quite gracious. The other episode which Father remembered was of an Afghan who visited his town and was suffering from tuberculosis. He requested the doctor to provide him with one liver of goat which he used to boil and eat. Within a few months the Afghan cured himself of the infectious disease. Only later liver extract was made as a tonic. Father used to say had he been more careful he would have prepared the extract and through a pharmaceutical company would have made sufficient amount of money. Later in his life, when he became a well known physician he was able to make large sums of money.
Father had three siblings. The eldest was his eldest sister, who was about twenty years older than him. The second was a brother who was about eighteen years old. In between him and his brother, there was a girl who survived for only few months. The youngest sibling was the young sister, about five years younger to him. The eldest sister had four sons. The eldest was keenly interested in Persian literature. Father, while he was studying in Calcutta, brought this boy there. He proved to be a brilliant student and later a brilliant scholar. After doing his M.A. , he became a professor of Arabic, Persian and Urdu in Presidency college. He edited the illustrated volume of Rubaiyat of Umar Khaiyam; and also the poetical collection of Mirza Kamran, the younger brother of Mughal emperor Humayun. He wrote extensively on various Persian volumes of Ramayana. Which were largely written during the reigns of Shahjahan and Aurangzeb. He wrote both in English and in Urdu, and was regarded as one of the most scholarly critic of the Persian literature written in India. At the age of 38 he developed cancer and could not survive the disease. On his death father was inconsolable. He used to say that the son of literature in the family has set in. The second son of his sister was raised by father who ultimately got his medical degree from Patna Medical College. The youngest sister was married to an advocate of good family in Ara. After the partition of 1947 her family left for Pakistan.
Father completed his medical studies, without much difficulty with flying color. Before coming to Calcutta he never expected himself to become a physician. His becoming a doctor surprised him a bit, but during his training and the environment around him he knew that he was going to be a physician. After completing his studies he went back to his village where he was treated like a knight returning from a successful mission. He had an old maid servant who has taken care of him during his childhood. She, and old woman who knew the world blessed him with saying:"May God make u a darogha !! " Darogha means sub-inspector of police who rules over village security. Father was offered two positions as a sub-assistant surgeon by the Bihar and UP provincial medical service. Relatives advised him not to go to UP; and he therefore joined the Bihar provincial service. During his early service he often used to go to some villages where cholera epidemic flared up. The whole village was emptied of all inhabitants and he was one of the doctors who took care of patients. At that time cholera used to spread rapidly and take a heavy toll. Gradually, and very gradually the epidemic was contained. It took many years before this calamity was eradicated. Father remembered two episodes from his earlier term of service. Dr. Ross, who discovered the malaria parasite and got Nobel prize for his investigations, came to the sub division headquarters where Father was posted. Ross was looking for mosquito strains which contained the malarial parasite. Father offered his services to him. Both of them used to go to ditches and other places where still water was present. They used to catch mosquitoes with nets. Ross used to crush a single mosquito and with a spatula pick up some blood and put it up on a slide; and after fixing it used to observe under microscope. Father always remembered Dr. Ross who was deeply involved in his scientific work was a kind hearted man and quite gracious. The other episode which Father remembered was of an Afghan who visited his town and was suffering from tuberculosis. He requested the doctor to provide him with one liver of goat which he used to boil and eat. Within a few months the Afghan cured himself of the infectious disease. Only later liver extract was made as a tonic. Father used to say had he been more careful he would have prepared the extract and through a pharmaceutical company would have made sufficient amount of money. Later in his life, when he became a well known physician he was able to make large sums of money.
Father had three siblings. The eldest was his eldest sister, who was about twenty years older than him. The second was a brother who was about eighteen years old. In between him and his brother, there was a girl who survived for only few months. The youngest sibling was the young sister, about five years younger to him. The eldest sister had four sons. The eldest was keenly interested in Persian literature. Father, while he was studying in Calcutta, brought this boy there. He proved to be a brilliant student and later a brilliant scholar. After doing his M.A. , he became a professor of Arabic, Persian and Urdu in Presidency college. He edited the illustrated volume of Rubaiyat of Umar Khaiyam; and also the poetical collection of Mirza Kamran, the younger brother of Mughal emperor Humayun. He wrote extensively on various Persian volumes of Ramayana. Which were largely written during the reigns of Shahjahan and Aurangzeb. He wrote both in English and in Urdu, and was regarded as one of the most scholarly critic of the Persian literature written in India. At the age of 38 he developed cancer and could not survive the disease. On his death father was inconsolable. He used to say that the son of literature in the family has set in. The second son of his sister was raised by father who ultimately got his medical degree from Patna Medical College. The youngest sister was married to an advocate of good family in Ara. After the partition of 1947 her family left for Pakistan.
When father joined the Bihar provincial medical service, he started learning about X-Ray techniques as used in medicine. He went back to Calcutta for 6 months’ training and the Bihar civil list always enlisted him as a doctor qualified in X-Ray work. Once when the governor of Bihar and his lady visited a hospital where x-ray facilities were available, father requested the lady to put her bag on the table. He thereafter x-rayed the purse and told her what was inside. Both the governor and his wife were much pleased and they told the English civil surgeon to take care of the Muslim physician. As we said earlier, father was deeply interested in preparing the allopathic mixtures. He used to experiment in this direction and, sometimes later, he taught for two years in Darbhanga medical college Metrica Medica. His other interest in this direction was about patients’ pulses. He used to study Unani and Vedic descriptions of how in ancient times physicians used to study a patients malady.
Father became interested into hobbies. His first was cars. When he joined the service he bought a Ford-T model car which has recently come to the market. There is a photograph of the young doctor standing by the side of his new car wearing typical Georgian English dress with a felt hat and a thin stick in his hand. He had rather large hair on his head and his upper lip was studded with a thick black, well trimmed moustache. In the photograph he looks quite happy, is a little fatter around his mid rib and quite well satisfied with the world. He liked his T model and drove it in his spare times. At that time he was not married and it looks he enjoyed his life with pan and cigarette. He bought a number of cars during his service days. At the end of his carriers he had two large American cars, one a Buick and the other a Chevrolet. During his last years of service, his eyes started giving him some trouble and his eyes started giving him trouble. In any case there always was a salaried driver with him. One remembers when he was a civil surgeon, and when he used to go on a tour to various subdivisions and villages when there was a medical outdoor hospital he used to sit, in the back of his car, the driver driving and orderly sitting besides the driver in the front row. As he was a big Raj officer he was not supposed to drive his car when going on a tour. These officers were very well respected and were expected to show a kind of stiff upper lip.
Father’s second hobby was to collect guns. He had always a number of guns, rifles and a revolver. On tour he always kept a revolver in his bag. It seems he had a mania of collecting fire arms. This is perhaps due to the fact that his sister’s second son, who was made incharge of village land was a keen and well known hunter. He was often with father to take him to numerous Shikar (hunting) parties. They used to kill deer, often a bear and tigers. Father developed a keen interest in Shikar. He used to go with the officers for hunting during the winter season. He used to come back laden with all sorts of animal carcasses. The meat was distributed throughout the official circle. We must say a word about his third hobby which was enjoying a good meal. He liked meat of every animal which was permissible. He never ate pork. He loved partridges, ducks and other birds which used to come from Siberia during winter days. Wherever he lived he had a large collection of chickens, ducks and turkeys. He also liked pet birds. The house bubbled with the noises of these birds in cages. Before his retirement, he gave up all these interests. He stopped going to Shikar; sold most of his guns and stopped keeping pet birds. We don’t know what prompted him to make such amends. It seems that he was becoming more religious minded than otherwise. It is almost certain that when he went to Calcutta and during most of his service time he was not interested in praying. Sometimes he used to go to mosque, but that was all. After retirement the whole scenario changed.
Father married quite late in his life. He was 34 when he got married to a large Zamidar family. Mother was a pious kind lady who used to give alms and other provisions to needy people. During war time, i.e. the second world war, she used to send soaps, hair oil, clothes to needy members of the family of her and husband’s. These things were in short supply during the war time. Mother came from a family which was deeply religious. She found her husband a little religiously wayward. That initially shocked her bit because of the fact that father was also from a deeply religious family. Soon she adjusted herself to his whims. Father used to go to watch pictures and she accompanied him all the paraphernalia of a respected pious lady. She liked his entertaining his friends with dinners. The house always hummed with preparing food for sumptuous evening meals. Probable this was the way she kept herself on an even keel. We must say that in her own manner, she loved her husband deeply. Once when her husband took a ride on a bike returning from a hospital he fell down and broke his left arm she cried and wept and kept praying for his getting better. Father pooh-poohed this indulgence, for him it was a mere disaster when a child came in front of his bike.
Father had a large number of children, five daughters and three sons. He loved his eldest daughter very much. She was married in a Nawab family with a great pomp and show. No less than five hundred guests came, including from bridegrooms side. People used to say that this was one of the most glorious they have seen. It seems that during his service he was too involved in his job and took not much interest in his children. However this is not the case he in a manner arranged for everything about his children. A Maulvi always lived in the house and a teacher came to teach English and mathematics to boys and girls. His eldest son passed his high school when he had already retired. He was much pleased and expected him to take his place as a physician. The headstrong son refused. In any case all of his children got good education.
After his retirement from the service father became deeply religious in his total world view. Perhaps his wife’s lifelong prayer bore fruit. He went along with his wife for Haj to Mecca and Medina and came back a totally different man. Of course after retirement he practiced medicine for a while, though stopped doing surgery. He always loved books and read extensively in different fields of knowledge. However after his retirement he started collecting a huge collection of Islamic books and studied them extensively. Father lived a long life and when he passed away perhaps he has fulfilled all his desires which he dreamt when he first went to Calcutta to learn the English language and to know the modern world.
***
About Mother
Those who knew our mother in her old age simply cannot fathom how she was when in her prime. Mother was a simple lady coming from a large Zamidar (Landholder) family. The family came from old Sufi devotees who were given a large Jaagir by the Mughal kingdom. Such Jaagirs were given to religious people who were not under any obligation to their kingdom except these Jaagirdars were to pray for the welfare and stability of the Mughal kingdom. Such Jaagirs were inherited by the eldest of the family after the death of the previous owner. When East India Company, and later the British government took over the, Jaagir reduced in some size, was made into a Zamidari under the permanent system of Lord Cornwallis. Mother came from a large family with five brothers and two more sisters. These Zamidars were obedient servants of the British Raj and were invested with titles from the Raj. Though when the freedom movement started all over the countries some of their sons became rebellious. From mother’s family many joined Congress and demanded liberation from the British rule. However mother’s eldest brother, who ruled supreme over the family, was a Barrister at Law. He was quite friendly and on amicable terms with the government. Mother was married to father when she was about twenty; the difference between their ages was quite substantial. Before marriage she lived in a house full of people: it was a joint family. When she went to her husband’s house she was the queen of the house. Such transformation - cultural or otherwise - made her responsible maiden. Gradually she realized that she had to turn into a Memsahib of a well known doctor. She had to run the house in a responsible manner. Father used to make substantial money out of private practice. All the money which he earned in a day he would deposit with his wife. She started keeping a big box in which all the notes and coins were deposited each day.
Mother was a typical Muslim girl from a well to do family who were instructed in elementary education, largely dealing with religious matters. Before her marriage she used to read Urdu magazines largely meant for Muslim ladies. In her youth she was a charming girl with fair complexion and of middle height and straight nose and large pair of eyes. She was of course not a beauty in the superlative tense but was beautiful to look at. She was a bit shy and liked to stay away from people with her books etc. After marriage she saw her husband with an innocent eye. He was a bit plump with heavy moustaches on his upper lips and slightly long hair on his head. He was quite healthy and active. She discovered in him a rather independent minded person. Who tended to criticize everybody who deferred from him. Slightly bookish in his attitude he differed from cleric type of persons who had very strict view about religion and day to day behavior. This attitude was slightly unfamiliar to her. She had come from a family whose sons and daughters followed the rule of law promulgated by the elders. Her husband, she found, did not pray much. Soon it so happened that she tended to forget her prayers which slightly upset her. After marriage she always wore sari in a typically unique manner. Her blouses were full and she covered her body with great care. Father wanted her to use clips to arrange her sari but she refused. She parted her hair in the middle. Father wanted her to part her on the side. She again refused. Sooner than later father knew one thing. His wife was a headstrong girl who was unyielding in her behavior. Slowly but inevitably she understood one thing (which father also did), that both were devoted to each other and has to spend their life together in a reasonably amicable manner. Father was a kind hearted man, but once a while he used to get flared up. Whosoever came before him did not go unpunished. Mother understood this behaviour and used to tell her children not to go to him when he was not in a good mood. This used to happen only when father over worked and had some problem to solve. He was a busy man, he had to take care of a large hospital and its wards where patients were always in a bitter mood. Orderlies and nurses have to be reprimanded and told to do their work in an efficient manner. Father did not like any dog roaming in the hospital area. He used to take his gun with him and kill off any dog which came inside the hospital compound. Mother knew these things and therefore was aware that her husband, not a bad person, was a busy person.
Mother had many children. She had to take care of all of them, in spite of the fact that there were a large retinue of servants, both females and males. She had to keep the house in order get them spruced up and, as father disliked un-cleanliness the house has to be in a shipshape. There were two cooks, one mail, and one female. Each morning she has to give them instructions for what to cook and how to cook. Occasionally guests came in droves and preparations have to be made in a grand manner. Memsahib was often cross with her tutelage. She scolded them in a mild manner. Sweepers who came from hospitals were instructed to clean up the house and toilet in a reasonably good manner. Often a maid servant came from hospital to put oil on her legs and body. This was the usual practice in a hospital, whose in charge was the assistant surgeon. Father used to get all kinds of magazines both English and Urdu. She gradually started reading some of the English magazines. In Urdu magazines for Muslim ladies she started writing small pieces dealing with the day to day life of a Muslim householder. She was a charming woman who talked with strangers and the wives of officials in a polite manner; asking for their children etc. She took care of all her servants. She gave them money to send to their families in villages; gave them clothes and apparels.
Father was in government service where transfers used to take place quite frequently, after about three years. To each headquarters she went she had to renew her acquaintances with the people there. That to a great extent broadened her mind. She knew about the caste system of Hindu families. She did not give meat to eat, and entertained them largely with sweet meats. She was an active woman who went everywhere with her husband if he wanted her to accompany him. On retirement, along with her husband mother underwent a drastic change. She started devoting herself to religious duties in a most prominent manner. She read Quran regularly and other religious books along with religious magazines. Father always respected the Hindu view of life. And he rarely criticized Hindu religion. Mother understood this basic fact. We are not aware if she ever said a bad thing about Hindu’s. When in 1946 religious riots started in mainly in Patna and Gaya districts she used to declare that those who are indulging in such kind of communal disturbances are neither Hindus nor Muslims. Her children gradually understood her policy. This is really what we call the composite culture behaviour. This culture has been in reign at least since the time of the great Gautham Buddha. India has rarely seen a large conflict between different communities on the sub continent. What happened in 1946 and 1947 was quite unique and un-Indian. In this sense we should remember that mother was a jewel in the crown of composite culture. She accompanied her husband for the Haj and when they came back people saw her lady with a deep religious behavior. She started wearing kurta and paijama after her return. However, soon, we don’t know why, she reverted back to her old sari. She had always liked soft colors and in her old age people usually saw her as a lady in white garment. Covering her head and talking in a soft manner.
Those who knew our mother in her old age simply cannot fathom how she was when in her prime. Mother was a simple lady coming from a large Zamidar (Landholder) family. The family came from old Sufi devotees who were given a large Jaagir by the Mughal kingdom. Such Jaagirs were given to religious people who were not under any obligation to their kingdom except these Jaagirdars were to pray for the welfare and stability of the Mughal kingdom. Such Jaagirs were inherited by the eldest of the family after the death of the previous owner. When East India Company, and later the British government took over the, Jaagir reduced in some size, was made into a Zamidari under the permanent system of Lord Cornwallis. Mother came from a large family with five brothers and two more sisters. These Zamidars were obedient servants of the British Raj and were invested with titles from the Raj. Though when the freedom movement started all over the countries some of their sons became rebellious. From mother’s family many joined Congress and demanded liberation from the British rule. However mother’s eldest brother, who ruled supreme over the family, was a Barrister at Law. He was quite friendly and on amicable terms with the government. Mother was married to father when she was about twenty; the difference between their ages was quite substantial. Before marriage she lived in a house full of people: it was a joint family. When she went to her husband’s house she was the queen of the house. Such transformation - cultural or otherwise - made her responsible maiden. Gradually she realized that she had to turn into a Memsahib of a well known doctor. She had to run the house in a responsible manner. Father used to make substantial money out of private practice. All the money which he earned in a day he would deposit with his wife. She started keeping a big box in which all the notes and coins were deposited each day.
Mother was a typical Muslim girl from a well to do family who were instructed in elementary education, largely dealing with religious matters. Before her marriage she used to read Urdu magazines largely meant for Muslim ladies. In her youth she was a charming girl with fair complexion and of middle height and straight nose and large pair of eyes. She was of course not a beauty in the superlative tense but was beautiful to look at. She was a bit shy and liked to stay away from people with her books etc. After marriage she saw her husband with an innocent eye. He was a bit plump with heavy moustaches on his upper lips and slightly long hair on his head. He was quite healthy and active. She discovered in him a rather independent minded person. Who tended to criticize everybody who deferred from him. Slightly bookish in his attitude he differed from cleric type of persons who had very strict view about religion and day to day behavior. This attitude was slightly unfamiliar to her. She had come from a family whose sons and daughters followed the rule of law promulgated by the elders. Her husband, she found, did not pray much. Soon it so happened that she tended to forget her prayers which slightly upset her. After marriage she always wore sari in a typically unique manner. Her blouses were full and she covered her body with great care. Father wanted her to use clips to arrange her sari but she refused. She parted her hair in the middle. Father wanted her to part her on the side. She again refused. Sooner than later father knew one thing. His wife was a headstrong girl who was unyielding in her behavior. Slowly but inevitably she understood one thing (which father also did), that both were devoted to each other and has to spend their life together in a reasonably amicable manner. Father was a kind hearted man, but once a while he used to get flared up. Whosoever came before him did not go unpunished. Mother understood this behaviour and used to tell her children not to go to him when he was not in a good mood. This used to happen only when father over worked and had some problem to solve. He was a busy man, he had to take care of a large hospital and its wards where patients were always in a bitter mood. Orderlies and nurses have to be reprimanded and told to do their work in an efficient manner. Father did not like any dog roaming in the hospital area. He used to take his gun with him and kill off any dog which came inside the hospital compound. Mother knew these things and therefore was aware that her husband, not a bad person, was a busy person.
Mother had many children. She had to take care of all of them, in spite of the fact that there were a large retinue of servants, both females and males. She had to keep the house in order get them spruced up and, as father disliked un-cleanliness the house has to be in a shipshape. There were two cooks, one mail, and one female. Each morning she has to give them instructions for what to cook and how to cook. Occasionally guests came in droves and preparations have to be made in a grand manner. Memsahib was often cross with her tutelage. She scolded them in a mild manner. Sweepers who came from hospitals were instructed to clean up the house and toilet in a reasonably good manner. Often a maid servant came from hospital to put oil on her legs and body. This was the usual practice in a hospital, whose in charge was the assistant surgeon. Father used to get all kinds of magazines both English and Urdu. She gradually started reading some of the English magazines. In Urdu magazines for Muslim ladies she started writing small pieces dealing with the day to day life of a Muslim householder. She was a charming woman who talked with strangers and the wives of officials in a polite manner; asking for their children etc. She took care of all her servants. She gave them money to send to their families in villages; gave them clothes and apparels.
Father was in government service where transfers used to take place quite frequently, after about three years. To each headquarters she went she had to renew her acquaintances with the people there. That to a great extent broadened her mind. She knew about the caste system of Hindu families. She did not give meat to eat, and entertained them largely with sweet meats. She was an active woman who went everywhere with her husband if he wanted her to accompany him. On retirement, along with her husband mother underwent a drastic change. She started devoting herself to religious duties in a most prominent manner. She read Quran regularly and other religious books along with religious magazines. Father always respected the Hindu view of life. And he rarely criticized Hindu religion. Mother understood this basic fact. We are not aware if she ever said a bad thing about Hindu’s. When in 1946 religious riots started in mainly in Patna and Gaya districts she used to declare that those who are indulging in such kind of communal disturbances are neither Hindus nor Muslims. Her children gradually understood her policy. This is really what we call the composite culture behaviour. This culture has been in reign at least since the time of the great Gautham Buddha. India has rarely seen a large conflict between different communities on the sub continent. What happened in 1946 and 1947 was quite unique and un-Indian. In this sense we should remember that mother was a jewel in the crown of composite culture. She accompanied her husband for the Haj and when they came back people saw her lady with a deep religious behavior. She started wearing kurta and paijama after her return. However, soon, we don’t know why, she reverted back to her old sari. She had always liked soft colors and in her old age people usually saw her as a lady in white garment. Covering her head and talking in a soft manner.
Tuesday, December 8, 2009
Quran and Origin of Species
Let us start with two irreducible truths. One, Quran, the holy book of Islam, proclaims the Oneness (Wahada) of Allah/God. God is neither he nor she; in human terms God cannot be categorized sufficiently clearly. God is the creator of all things present. Two, the Origin of Species is a treatise written by Charles Darwin which shows the relationship and the evolution of various kinds of living organisms present on Earth. His theory is also called Theory of Natural Selection. In Origin Darwin discusses the origin and diversity of living systems in a purely scientific manner. He is not interested if the living forms were created in the beginning by God – neither he is interested in showing that God did not create them. He is an agnostic in a disinterest scientific way.
Quran is largely, though not exclusively, about the relationship of man to God; how should a momin (believer) should pray to God and devote himself entirely for Allah’s rewards which comes only when a momin is a totally devoted supplicant. Apart from God’s praise and possible rewards emanating, Quran also gives some injunctions and instructions. However these ‘orders’ are given under certain conditions and largely what happened during prophet Muhammed’s life and also in the lives of other Semitic prophets. One should remember a simple fact that is an Abrahamic religion, as are Judaism and Christianity. Quran recognizes Prophet Abraham as the forefather of the religious system. Abraham preached certain values concerning God and man. He was a prophet and in Abrahamic tradition he was in contact with the All-Powerful God which gave proper instructions through an angel. That’s why he is a messenger of God (Paighamber/Nabi). When Prophet Moses preached the religion, especially when he took the Jews out of Egypt and went up the Sinai Mountain and brought down the Ten Commandments which he proclaimed was given to him by God/Yahweh. The religion later became Judaism. Later on when Jesus Christ, the messiah, preached the religion as a Nabi it was collected in four gospels by his disciples and is called Christianity. These two religions also collected the stories of other Prophets which produced a vast Abrahamic tradition. In one of these stories Adam (the forefather of human kind) being the original Nabi as ordained by God is thrown out of paradise on to earth with his wife Eve. There are many such stories which, as the biblical Higher Criticism, has shown is at least partially correct. Some of these stories and traditions are narrated in Quran; and it would be foolish on our part to analyze it in a modern rational way. History is filled up with narratives which a rational person can easily doubt but as well cannot doubt, for history is a continuing process in which narratives are linked to each other without big gaps. We should state here that as Prophet Muhammad and Muslims believe Quran is the message sent by God through his angel Gabriel to the Prophet Muhammad through a wahi (inner divine message). The Prophet recited those portions of Quran when the wahi was completed and instructed his companions to put them at appropriate places in various Suras of Quran. The messages are, as we said earlier, are of different kinds, largely dealing with the relation of individuals with Allah. Some of the other messages are instructions as what to do under particular social and political circumstances. Muslim scholars during their exegesis and commentaries have clearly indicated when, at what occasion, such particular instructions were given. Some of these instructions it seems is, if we may say so, eternal; e.g. not to eat pork. However others were meant for particular occasions. One of the prime examples is Jihad, is so called religious war. If we look closely at this concept Jihad is purely a defensive war and is largely to be fought to protect the Muslim community, which had collected around the Prophet when he was alive and running the community on a largely secular basis in which other religious communities were not discriminated and their religious and social traditions were not interfered with. Though, we must say, that the Prophet invited them to come into Muslim fold but without any coercion.
The Muslim community or the clerics and scholars developed Sharia (the codified Muslim – Islamic legal system) largely only after about 100 years after the Prophet’s demise. At that time the Muslims have gone out of Arabia and into the vast Middle Eastern region and were highly ambitious, forceful and insistent. In this legal system Faqih (the jury-consultants) turned much more rigid and heavy handed in observing the Sharia. A simple example is that of Zanah (the fornication between human males and females). In Sharia it is said that such fornicators should be stoned to death; and we should remember that this punishment has largely being in existence throughout the Abrahamic religious fervor. The Prophet in a Hadith (Tradition) was very kind to towards women which has committed this crime. He was eventually forced by the culprit to get her stoned to die. Under the present circumstances the Faqih should not give such punishment without taking into consideration the specific circumstances under which the crime has been committed. Islam is a religion of peace and is not much interested in killing humans. Similarly the institution of Riba (monitory interest) is largely forbidden in Quran. However if we look at this institution we can discern that in the time of the Prophet such practice was largely undertaken by Jewish money lenders, and of course they were highly avarice filled and cruel in their dealings. Perhaps Riba has to be much more clearly defined under the present circumstances when people deposit their earnings in banks and get some interest due to profit made by the banks through the money deposited by a depositor.
What we are trying to describe here is that Quran, and hence Islam, is not largely interested in giving punishments to momins. Of course Quran wants that Muslims should live in a community where there is justice, fair play, equal opportunity and least trace of discrimination. Quran and Prophet Muhammad established a state in Medina which was largely secular. This state expanded during first to Caliphs, especially during the caliphate of the second Caliph Umar. His unfortunate assassination and later assassination of the third Caliph Uthman brought a great disturbance and change in the socio-political values of the state. One can say the Muslim world did not remain Islamic in true sense of the word. The upper class Muslims at that time largely under Qabail (clan) system who wanted to rule over the Muslim state. Under circumstances which took place at that time the instructions which are given in Quran seems largely irrelevant for the Islam as we know through Quran and prophet’s traditions was not enforced. Hence it seems clear that in modern times when the world has become a vast global village we have to be very careful in following the instructions of Quran in a multi-ethnic, multi-religious, multi-social milieu.
As was indicated earlier, truly speaking, the Origin does not deal with the God problem: if God is the creator of all living things or not. Later, Darwin produced a new treatise called The Descent of Man, in which he discusses how human species came into existence. As the Theory of Natural Selection proposes all the living entities are somehow related to each other, for they originated from a primitive living cell. The diversification and amplification of the living system produced a number of branches and twigs from a tree. Darwin shows that the branch which ultimately gave rise to primitive apes (as we understand it now this branch separated from the tree about 500 million years ago) is responsible for further branching and gave rise to the apes which we see now and also the proto-humans or hominids which on further evolutionary ascent gave rise to the modern man which is called Homo Sapiens. Apart from the fact that since Darwin’s time so much evidence has accumulated which broadly agrees with what Darwin proposed; this Darwinian theory gave rise to a popular belief, especially among religiously oriented people that Charles Darwin thinks that apes ultimately are our forefathers. This to say the least is patently untrue. Of course Darwin nowhere asserts the proposition that, in biblical term, God created humans. Simply because his science is not interested in that proposition and furthermore all the evidences led to his conclusion. It is now almost scientifically valid that the branch which ultimately produced by further branching to modern apes also gave rise to modern humans. We have a number of evidences including, fossil remains which confirm Darwin’s basic idea. The genome of all the living things contain DNA as genetic material and genomes of all the living systems it seems are intimately related to each other; in other words genetic-wise they are linked to each other.
Sunday, December 6, 2009
Evolution - A Note II : Organic
In 1857 Charles Darwin published a momentous tome ‘The Origin Of Species’ which gave the Theory of Natural Selection. He also thought that a Struggle for Existence is present in the living world, which we believe should be taken only allegorically. Since the ancient times thinkers have been thinking over the problem of diversity of life on the earth; and also the problem concerning the relationship between the living organisms. Many contributed towards this problem, including Charles’ grandfather Erasmus. Theory of Natural Selection is quite simple if we take it at its face value. Millions of years before a living cell came into existence which started replicating and producing cells of diverse kinds and properties. This eventually led to the creation of diverse forms of life like Bacteria, Fungi, Plants and Animals which kept diversifying into different kinds.
At present we know that the Earth came into existence about 4.5 billion years ago; and living systems started emerging about 2.5 billion years ago – a gap of 2 billion years. During this process the Earth’s surface changed, often dramatically. Comets and other stellar bodies kept bombarding the surface. Inner convulsions further brought about transformations. However during such cataclysmic happenings the living systems survived, diversified and kept evolving.
In 1953 the double helical structure of DNA was discovered. The DNA is present in all the living cells; in prokaryotes (lowly organisms) the DNA is present at a site inside the cell, while in eukaryotes (higher organisms) DNA is stored in chromosomes. Along with DNA living cells also contain RNA, of different varieties. It has been known that chromosomes are involved in the formation of newer cells inside a eukaryote; and there is some difference in the chromosomal sets of human males and females. Further it seems that all the animals have chromosomes which are related to one another both structurally and functionally. The involvement of RNA in the life process is also as important as DNA. The protein synthesizing machinery inside the cell, the Ribosome, made up of RNA and protein. Further the genetic information which flows from genome (the collection of chromosomes) is passed through a particular kind of RNA. The Amino Acids which are used to make protein is also carried by RNA to the Ribosome. Only last year it was discovered that a soup which contained all the necessary atoms and molecules which make RNA, under specific conditions, did produce a small RNA molecule. It is interesting to know this small ‘primitive’ RNA molecule is present in the RNA of all living cells. Which suggests that this RNA initiated the process of cell formation. Further it is estimated that this RNA molecule was produced on Earth some 3 billion years ago, just after the bombardment of the Earth’s surface by the comets etc. for about 200 million years.
Saturday, December 5, 2009
Evolution - A Note I : The Universe
Just after the big bang the Universe, which as it is said was the size of pea (which seems an exaggeration), which was uniform in density, started expanding. This expansion is the beginning of evolution which culminated, on Earth, in Darwinian organic evolution which is so elegantly described by Charles Darwin in 1859. Since then millions of evidence, direct and indirect, has accumulated which shows that: i) the expansion of our Universe though erratic and uneven, follows the path of evolution as consistently as ii) the organic evolution which has produced living entities.
If our universe belongs to a multiverse in which many universes are present (some has estimated that 10500 universes are there in the multiverse), then there is a possibility that a universe can, through a wormhole enter the space where previously a universe existed, then it is a bit difficult to understand how our universe started expanding from a pea-size entity. Should we say that the universe which slipped through a wormhole has assumed a size of a pea, which is also a difficult idea to imagine. Nevertheless, as it has been said that if a universe slips through a wormhole it needs an amount of energy equivalent to a universe; and therefore it could be said that the slipped-through universe ifs the size of a pea-hole or is much smaller. In any case the expansion of the universe would need perhaps a tremendous amount of energy before, during expansion, it turns cold. This problem needs a satisfactory solution. Perhaps the universe during expansion uses the so called dark matter to use it for expansion and evolutionary ramifications.
The other problem which confronts us is that why the universe, density wise is so uneven; why there is so much empty space; and why the universe simultaneously expands and contracts at the same time. If, as it is believed that, the universe started expanding 13.7 billion years ago (13.7 x 109), and if as is also assumed that after some 16-20 billion years from now the universe will simply “vanish” from the empty space, then would it crawl into a wormhole or its energy would be utilized for the passage of another universe through this whole.
These apparently almost insurmountable problems (no problem is insurmountable!) eventually would be solved. Perhaps a Newton or an Einstein, with intricate mathematical ingenuity and passionate imagination would be needed.
It seems however that to think of initial ‘matter’ present prior to the Big Bang of the size of a pea is a bit farfetched. Could it be said that that ‘material’ is a mere collection of numbers, a sort of string particles trillion times smaller than an elementary particle, is activated to initiate the Big Bang.
It could perhaps be imagined that the compact universe which passed through the wormhole is an untold ‘amount’ of string particles which gives rise to elementary particles and afterwards the expanding universe. Was there any kind of ‘force’ or ‘push’ which activated this collection of whatever it was.
The rest of the story becomes a bit simple. In that a stupendous amount of interaction, fusion and fission brought about the universe which at the present moment is out there. And hence the evolution of the universe which is uneven and haphazard looking.
The one almost unsolvable problem remains; which is that what happens to the multiverse in its totality when such transformation ensues. Does it create a large disturbance throughout the multiverse or it is merely a small ripple in the ocean. It would be better for us to imagine the second scenario. For it seems that multiverse is an almost infinite in its scope and dimension.
The question which can only be answered by looking at the collection of string particles to decipher and decide how the initiation process started. Aristotle was of the view that the Cause of all causes – which we could call anthropomorphically as the God – initiated the creative process. He also theorizes that God turned unconcerned with the emerging universe. However this proposition leads us to ask a rather childish question: what caused the Cause of all causes?
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