Dear Readers,
Thank you for actively appreciating 🔗 FC 70 on Passivity and for providing valuable comments.
My dear friend Shashi Maudgal shrugged off his ‘too-lazy-to-comment’ attitude and sent me this Hindi couplet that encapsulates eternal passivity. He calls it ‘the procrastinator’s anthem’: Here it goes:
Na kal karunga na parson,
Jaane doh aaj ki baat,
Aadhaa karoonga aglay baras,
Aur aadhaa pralay ke baad!
Translation:
Won’t do it tomorrow or the day after,
Forget about doing it today,
Will do half next year,
And the other half after the apocalypse!
Nisha says: “It's good to be jerked out of a passive state into thinking about the opposite word, activity, maybe even Activism.”
Nisha, activism is the antithesis of passivism. But I feel the difference lies in the fact that activism is a kind of movement to bring about a political or social change. As a lawyer, I can correlate your comment with ‘judicial activism’ which, in simple words, means that the courts should go beyond the legal principles surrounding an issue to consider the broader societal implications of its rulings.
Another reader ‘Customer Crusader’ is not too happy with the manner in which fun has been taken out of Diwali by banning crackers. Sarcastically he says that it is ok to burst crackers to celebrate a win in a cricket match. He says: “I treasure the memories, as Diwali has turned into something distant from our childhood memories.”
V K Santhanam echoes the Crusader's sentiments when he says “Unfortunately, Diwali, for unknown reasons, has got tied to crackers and is a scapegoat for the politicians to take a stand.”
Vasanth Cavale says ruefully: “When we see someone doing something wrong we just turn away. We think as long as it does not affect us, why get involved? ‘Humay koi lafde me nahin padna’ This kind of passivity is a regular feature.”
A P Thomas makes an excellent point: "On a different note, the word passive has other implications. The amount of damage caused mainly to infants, children and women who are subjected to passive smoking due to the irresponsible behaviour of certain persons."
I used to travel on an average four times a month. But COVID grounded me, and after 20 months I took wings and flew with my other half to Mumbai on 31st October to celebrate Deepavali with my granddaughter. I am completely distracted by all the activities around me, not to mention shopping in the different malls of Mumbai.
One such mall is the Jio Mall in BKC which has a drive-in theatre. I make a special mention of the mall because I was cajoled into having my hair cut in a fancy saloon and I surrendered to the whims of the coiffeur and came out looking like a plucked chicken.
My usual ‘corporate’ look was replaced with what is called the ‘side part fade' look. Essentially, the hair at the back and the sides are shorn close to the scalp with the hair on top cut short but long enough to keep in place with gel. I came out quite self-conscious and though my granddaughter wowed and approved, I am still quite self-conscious. All in all quite a hair razing story.
Since I am returning to Bangalore on the 10th, I had to write this FC and post it from Mumbai. Writing amidst familial distractions is not very easy and my mind strays and loses focus on what this post should be dealing with. So, I decided to not stray but write on a few stray thoughts and many stray facets.
Stray Thoughts
To start with, this will be a stray occasion when I won’t have a proper topic but shall lead myself astray and share my ‘stray’ thoughts.
To make sure I am on the right side of PETA (People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals) let me root for stray dogs. The Prevention Of Cruelty To Animals Act of 1960 is very broad-based and does apply to all animals. It is customary for film producers who feature animals in their movies to assert that “no animals were harmed during the shoot and wherever appropriate digitally enhanced images of animals have been used”.
I am not a dog or cat lover or for that matter any pet lover. Not that I don’t care for them but I am conditioned by my 60s upbringing when it was not considered a done thing to have a pet dog or cat at home.
Later in life, I saw how adorable those pets can be and how a dog can give you unconditional love.
But stray dogs are a different matter. I have seen dog lovers fiercely protecting the rights of those dogs to remain on the street and often feeding them. Attempts by the municipal council to put them away have been stoutly resisted. There are many like me who are wary about stray dogs for fear of being bitten by a rabid one. I have managed to stay away from the path of strays.
Stray cows are a common sight on our roads, at least in the area where I live. They decide to chew cud and doze off in the middle of the street. Since they are considered holy, people tend to drive around them. In our house in Mysore, we had a proper cow shed and we had quite a few cows. Mysore being a princely state, cows that strayed onto the street were put away by municipal workers into a place called ‘pinjra pole’. Later in life, I understood the meaning: pinjra meaning cage and pole being a yard. An enclosed yard for keeping sick and stray animals.
Unlike stray dogs on the street, stray cats prefer living indoors and are often considered rat catchers. We have heard of the cat and mouse game. There are men who are very good at playing this kind of game. They are elusive and lead you to believe that they are sincere but do exactly the opposite, just as a cat would play with the mouse but eventually kill it.
STRAY is an upcoming adventure game featuring a stray cat and is scheduled for release in early July 2022. I urge you to see the demo:
To stray means to wander off. This has happened many times when little kids wander off and get lost in a large gathering or a marketplace. But there are homeless kids who wander in search of food and shelter. These abandoned and homeless kids are often termed ‘waifs’ which sounds very harsh. Some innocent children are led astray and are exploited.
Straying away has diverse connotations. Your mind is constantly straying from the current reality you are in if you let your imagination run wild.
You may have come across some people who are in the room and yet are not there. When you are talking to them you can see them nodding, but a distant look in their eyes tells you that they are not listening. Their mind is on something else. This sort of straying is also called ‘zoning out’. Some simply switch off rather than listen to someone talking endlessly about something that does not interest them.
A person may unwittingly nod in agreement even as his mind wanders. This can put that 'zoner' in an awkward position. If he nods ‘yes’ to something he may have committed to do something which he had no intention of doing in the first place.
My wife says I am a ‘Zoner’. According to her, I don't listen (apparently all husbands are poor listeners). She would have suggested that we go shopping in the evening and I would have said yes even as I was thinking of calling someone for a game of golf. My thoughts have strayed so far away that I am not even comprehending what she is telling me and don't realise the consequences of saying yes!
I am an Aries and I am supposed to be full of myself. I am not sure I am that. Someone has posted on the web the traits of people of different zodiac signs. Don’t take them seriously and let your mind stray. Have a good laugh instead.
Aries: Talking Very Loud
Taurus: Not Listening to Anyone Else if They Think They're Right
Gemini: Not Giving the Other Person a Chance to Speak
Cancer: Overreacting
Leo: Always Wanting to Win
Virgo: Over-Analyzing Everything
Libra: Taking Forever to Make a Decision
Scorpio: Not Trusting Someone Until They've Proven Their Worth
Sagittarius: Telling It as It Is
Capricorn: Being Dangerously Sarcastic
Aquarius: Zoning Out in the Middle of Conversations
Pisces: Falling Asleep Everywhere
COVID has led us astray. We have strayed from the normal to a new normal. Let us stay on course and not stray further.
I hope this FC has not been disappointing. Please do write and tell me if I strayed too far away from my usual style.
See you next week!
That photo from thirty years ago looks good, Pras. Where is the ‘side part fade’ picture?
On my “Procrastinators’ Anthem”: Your translation into English captures the spirit very well. But I must mention the context of the anthem. The original lines - which might be centuries old - exhort people to NOT procrastinate and are:
“Kaal karay so aaj kar
Aaj karay so ab
Phir pralay aa jayegi
Aur karega kab?”
This would be frequently mentioned by school teachers in North India, to students who said they would finish their assignment “tomorrow”.
Pras,
I love the way you pick topics each week and go on to elaborate around it, pretty much like the exposition of a raga by a classical musician through his Raga Alapana, introducing and developing and the raga through his improvisations. You set the mood around the word as the musician does with his Raga. Good work.
By the way, your new hairstyle sits well on you.
The word ‘straying’ is normally thought of negatively, suggesting that one has lost his/her way straying from the narrow righteous path. A mind that’s lost focus, a trek that’s lost its way, a missile that’s missed its target, a marriage lost to infidelity, and so on.
But straying has also a very positive connotation. This happens when you consciously stray from the often trodden path seeking out new ideas, whether in the arts, sciences or even in business. Terms such as ‘lateral thinking’ and ‘out- of- the- box’ ideas come from such an effort, leading often to some of the greatest creations and innovations. There are examples aplenty. People who indulge themselves by daring to stray are often the liveliest people to be around.
There are those famous few lines, part of the poem ‘The road not taken” by Robert Frost.
Two roads diverged in a wood, and I
I took the one less traveled by,
And that has made all the difference.
What a lovely thought.