Diminishing Voices !

I chose to describe myself as someone suffering from “Language-o-phobia”. It’s a term that I coined and hence is very different from “Xenoglossophobia” that some of you might have come across. While “Xenoglossophobia” is generally used to describe someone who fears foreign languages, the dictionary hasn’t yet recognized an individual who fears ANY language; that is the segment I fall into. I would like to believe that I am not particularly alone in this segment.

Well, this stems from the fact that circumstances have shaped me up in a way that I cannot be confident of/in any of the languages that I had the opportunity to be in contact with. A very dear friend of mine once described me as one whose “Tamil has an English accent; English has a Tamil accent and whose Hindi is accent less”. Yeah, I was born to Tamil parents who ensured that I wouldn’t learn the a,b,c,d of Tamil. However ruthless it may sound, they feared that the proximity with ‘Tamil’ is inversely proportional to‘English proficiency’.

While I was struggling with the language of mortals, there sprouted another species in the name of programming language which I do not even wish to describe. I have not counted, but my guess is that there would be at-least 200 of those breed either existing or defunct today. Gosh!

Now coming back, for a very, very long time, 25 years to be precise, I had taken it for granted that learning Tamil was never really that important. I’d believed that Language is only a tool of communication. It must have started off with gestures before moving on to vocals, I have heard my mind voice assert. Hence I was completely convinced that one common language in the world, probably English would end up solving the fundamental problem of communication, if that is what it was meant to address.

Wonderstruck that 6900 languages exist, I would convince myself that gradually with time this would condense. Before the era of continental invasions, prior to 17th century, humans must have lived in complete isolation and hence developed their own form of linguistic sounds. With the rise of the British Empire primarily & the American imperialism to some extent, the seeds for a single global language was sown, according to me. I sat believing; seeing my brethren only strengthened my supposition. I hoped secretly that eventually, when English takes over, children would grow up to be confident individuals proficient in at-least one language, unlike me, confused & all jumbled up.

To talk about how multiple languages can end up making the child muddled is a different story all together. For now, let us take it as a given J , though the sample set under consideration is only one !

To sum up my story till now, I am a mixed-up individual when it comes to languages & had concluded that the eventuality will lead to a single language dominion in the long run.



Ponniyin Selvan - A still !

Then an event occurred in my life; an event that would lead me to believe that it is important to treasure other languages too perhaps, important enough to learn& spread them. I was reading the English translation of the famous Tamil historical novel by Kalki, “Ponniyin Selvan” (Son of Ponni – Ponni being a river). Written in five volumes it is a fictitious narration of the story of Arulmozhivarman (the famous RajaRaja Chola I). With every passing page (thanks to the beautiful translation, in simple English, with usage of Tamil words, the translator ensured that the authenticity & feel of the composition was retained to an extent that the reader could get effortlessly transported back in time to the golden era of the Chola dynasty & the simple living of the Tamils then, and more importantly Vandiyathevan.) The book made me yearn to learn the language that I had shunned so far, my mother tongue. I suddenly felt handicapped by not being to enjoy other such treasures that would eventually connect me to my roots.

I realized that a language is an essential part of who one is; his traditions& culture; more importantly a language connects one to his history. It is through a language that we develop our thoughts, shape our experience, explore our customs, structure our community, construct our laws, articulate our values and give expression to our hopes and ideas. How would I be able to find reason to my living, reason to my actions & inactions if I were to become party to destroying the usage of my tongue? End of the day, I relish jeera milaga rasam more than mulligatawny soup anyway! Languages have been developing in isolation over the past & a lot or literary work has already been developed in them. They have intertwined so deeply with our history & culture and have become an integral part of ourselves that it is probably too late to forget all of them at one go. A Thirukkural cannot be retold in English nor can The Gita be & both these books are instrumental & essential in developing the thought process or orientation of an individual as much as a Thoreau or a Shakespeare.

Diversity would lead man to question and rationalize his arguments. It would lead to his emancipation in the long run. Languages will probably change and evolve with time, the gap between various languages would probably narrow down in future but we are probably very far away from the time where there shall be just one functional language in the world unless technology decides that in favor of its programming language.

More importantly, there would be people like me, more of them in near future who would probably learn the importance of their language at a very later part of their life & ensure that their kids are drowned in it for a lifetime thus preventing the languages from dying!

Celebrating Mediocracy

Beginning of the year 2012.Various magazines and points of sale began flashing the bestsellers of 2011. The category of books had a runaway success story. The one loosely based on the topic du jour - the rampant corruption system in the Indian educational scenario but more strongly based on the besieged life of a lower than lower middle class Indian, his IIT ambitions and the love tangle that he gets involved in. It was not a revolution – definitely not in the spaces of language, plot and character development and in just about any face that would vaguely transform a book into a good one.  Written in a ‘functional language’ with a capability of nothing more than driving the point across, the book managed to wakeup throngs of teenagers from their slumber. To them, the author is a brand that that they swear by, a brand that inspires them through a clever story and a young language abundant with ‘fuck’, ‘suck’, ‘fine’ and ‘whatever’. The author, though guilty is not the primary culprit.

The genre of music too has one undisputed emperor. With more than ten million youtube hits and many ‘best song’ awards in the kitty, this murderous attempt at composition had definitely managed to get the youngsters hooked to it. But, differentiating a good piece of music from a bad one is far easier. One’s sensibilities never fail. But then, ‘Herd Mentality’ too, is not an unproven psychological theory. Driven by insecurity & the constant desire to be a part of the mob (read cool crowd), populace seldom acknowledges its real opinions, lest it be called an old fashioned fool. So India loved it, and shared it, believing strongly that the rest of India worshipped it too. Few knew that this by itself was a skilfully played marketing tactic, the story of which can form an interesting case study on viral marketing dissected expertly by a handful Indians within the four walls of a classroom. Whatever said and done, ultimately India loved (or) believed that it adored a composition with a nonsensical ‘spur of the moment’ lyrics, an average, below than ordinary tune, a rusty, definitely not mellifluous voice and a package that is unquestionably incapable of stimulating & provoking the souls within. The composer, singer & even the viral marketing pundits, though guilty are not the primary culprits.

Where ever one goes, be it the prestigious universities tutoring Engineering, the lavish cinema halls screening blockbusters or the hospital down one’s street , quality and standards of both the physical and more importantly the intellectual infrastructure are much below the accepted norms. Go back a few years in time and try replaying the teaching methodologies adopted in your school. I would be surprised if any of us actually touched and felt an apple & a ball whilst learning the customary ‘A for Apple, B for Ball’ mantra from the books. Forget experimenting with & bringing to life the more complicated chemical compounds & mathematical formulae;  and the simple fact that you are accessing internet & reading this blog would put you & your school in the top 10 percentile of the country. Better not to imagine the plight of the rest of India. Few protest, quite some regret, but many are satisfied with all that they get.

Below is a set of illustrations from the World Bank reports : 

% of GDP Expenditure on Primary Education 

% of GDP Expenditure on R&D

% of Urban Population with access to improved Sanitation

It can be clearly seen that the percentage of GDP expenditure in some of the basic aspects like education & sanitation are highly incomparable. Though the policy makers at the helm are guilty, they are not the primary culprits.
There is no point in blaming the ministers of education & sanitation, the authors, the film makers or the musicians, for our lack of competency on a global stage & our general incapability to garner awards such as a Nobel Prize in physics, a Booker prize, an 

Oscar or a Grammy.

The problem lies with the individual & his intentions. The DNA of most Indians have replicated in such a manner that they tend to be happy & satisfied with any input & output. In fact, the highest degree of achievement is seen with the availability of an answer rather than the depth of the same. Inquisitives seems to be diminishing, wanting to explore & seeking to learn ‘continuously’ are never on priority. The lack of realization that one cannot master anything & that learning is a process requiring constant effort having no threshold is what is allowing Mediocracy to rule the roost.

Constant restlessness in subject of choice, be it science, art or dance can aid. Constant learning, practicing could help. The solution does not lie elsewhere; evoking the soul within, pursuing or rather raising the bar of excellence & chasing perfectness can bring about a dramatic change.

And when this happens, the quality of top-sellers would be of a different league altogether. 

Why India is not a free & democratic country!

If there is one person who would definitely remain etched in the memories of most Indians, even in those born post liberalization into the era of multitasking & internet, it has to be Mahatma Gandhi; and it can be safely assumed that he has a strong foothold, too prominent & significant to be dethroned anytime in near future. The simple bespectacled ageing man, typically clad in a knee length dhoti, often working on the spinning wheel caught the attention of many for his ideologies on non-violence, truth, democracy, vegetarianism, celibacy and much more. If we as a country admire him so much, so as to call him the father of our nation, it is safe to conclude that we admire, adore, respect and wish to implement if not all, but most of his ideologies.

Let us now dig deep into one of his principles, the one that we are most proud of – democracy. What does this democracy mean at a very basic level?  It stands for empowering people, much more than being given the right to queue up in booths to vote & elect one of the multitude political parties. Dictionaries define the term as ‘power to the people’; and the basic form of power that can be given to anyone is the ‘freedom of speech & expression’ which in well in-built only theoretically in our constitution.

Now, going back to the humble man, who left behind immortal quotes such as “If you are slapped, kindly show them the other cheek!” On a fateful day, on his way to a prayer meeting, three gun shots were fired at him by the man named Vinayak Godse who was called “Nathuaram”. Godse was no terrorist; he was as much a patriot involved in the freedom struggle as Gandhi was. He was not an extremist too; he was a Hindu fanatic, though there was nothing wrong in being one, definitely not at that point in time when the country wasn’t even secular. Tensions were high on account of partition. It is important here to shed some light on why Gandhi drew enmity, to the levels of being assassinated. After the eventful midnight in the month of August 1947, when Pakistan was torn out of India, it was agreed mutually that India would pay Rs. 75 crores to Pakistan under the terms of division of assets & liabilities. The second installment of the same Rs. 55 crores was due when invasion of Kashmir by self styled liberators with covert support of Pakistani army took place leading the Government of India to withhold the due. Gandhi fasted unto death and this among many other reasons such as his bias towards the muslims, the support for khilafat movement, denunciation of the Arya Samaj, his placation of Jinnah & the Muslim league, opposition to singing Vande Mataram amongst many others aggravated Nathuram’s and many others hatred towards him. His life & peace was then mercilessly stolen.  

Nathuram is no martyr; he had to be punished and was so rightfully too, except for the fact that he managed to move into tears the audience that witnessed his trial. He affected one and all deeply as he spoke for several hours the facts of the case, the motive & reasons that prompted him to do the dreadful. He visibly and audibly moved the court so much that the justice Koshla commented “I have however, no doubt that the audience of that day been constituted into a jury and entrusted with the task of deciding Godse’s appeal; they would have brought in a verdict of ‘not guilty’ by an over-whelming majority.” Godse was sentenced to death and was executed amidst questions looming in the mind of Gandhi’s sons; for they felt that executing their father’s killer would dishonor the Mahatma’s legacy which included a staunch opposition to death penalty. With that ended two lives that fought for the freedom struggle.

School texts, books, songs, plays, movies and every other form of art & communication have screamed the odes to the Gandhi; his principles & ideologies. Nathuram gets mentioned only once & only in the last paragraph of these same odes, as the Hindu fanatic who assassinated the Mahatma. He was an ordinary man who had his own philosophies, but that those were a minority & was not shared by the influential leaders of the then congress is another story.  He shouldn’t be glorified, definitely not, because he venomously killed another man, when completely aware, forget the fact that he killed the Gandhi. But he should definitely be given a voice; at least Gandhi who fought for equality would have wanted that.  The Indian government that claims to be a secular one giving the freedom of speech & expressions to all fails to justify when it bans all books & plays & movies written from the point of view of Nathuram. Nathuram was heard in the court before he was prosecuted. In the similar manner, it is for the people of India to read about him & form perspectives about him before banishing him as only an assassin. There are always two sides to coin & it is fair only if both are heard, even if it is with respect to the assassin of Father who constructed the nation.

If we don't believe in freedom of expression for people we despise, we don't believe in it at all ! 

This only makes me ponder, if the country is hypocritical, allowing the majority to be heard & giving them all freedom that they deserve while curtailing the voice of minority, burying the shrill thrown by the few & covering it up neatly. The country wants to present what it thinks is best for the society. I agree, it has a huge responsibility because it cannot encourage riots & rebellion. It need not publish or include in text books a chapter on Nathuram presented from his perspective but at least it need not come in the way of an author who does so after eons of research. In doing so, I begin to believe that the country does not trust its citizens to be mature enough to cautiously absorb content on such an important matter. Double Entendre has become a way of life in Independent India & this is not a pleasant beginning.

Amidst the Solemn Arab Land...

Amidst the solemn Arab land, she lay,

Surrounded by oceans of sand & clay;

Radiantly she stood as the sun shone down on her,

Majestically welcoming the traveler & explorer;

Smilingly, she entertained all with paintings of yore,

 Her tortuous & twisted paths confusing them to core;

Amidst the solemn Arab land, she lay,

Surrounded by oceans of sand & clay;

Within the ramparts of her temperature controlled chamber,

She’s been housing tenderly the remnants of many an emperor;

Whoever be it - that technologically superior designer,

Has built for mankind an all-enduring artistic treasure;

Amidst the solemn Arab land, she lay,

Surrounded by oceans of sand & clay;

The great pyramid shaped masonry structure,

Known since ancient times as a world wonder! 

The Great Pyramid of Giza! 

How many years behind the average US are we… 20??? 50??? 100??

“Oh, it’s my apple iPhone that helped me reach here, you know! Its direction sense is much better than mine! Btw, which levels of angry birds have you cleared; somehow I just can’t get my hands off it.” “I am not into it right now, have registered for a marathon, got a new pair of Nike shoes too! Come; let’s grab a bite form McDonald. A burger and coke would be enough to give me a high. And dude, did you see that swanky stall where a bunch of young chicks are giving guys a shave and distributing free samples from Gillette.” “Ha, ha, I don’t have time for all that now; need to rush and google up to complete my assignment on some random rivalry between IBM & Microsoft termed -The soft rivalry!”

That could have passed off as a conversation between any two bubbly teenagers in the corridors of a plush suburban mall in San Francisco, or in its sister city 8700 miles across the globe, Bangalore, which had a minor unnoticeable shudder when it was re-identified as Bengaluru.

The reality does sink in, post protectionism, the economic liberalization & global economy has borne its first fruits. The top 10 brands of the USA figure not only in India’s ‘Most admired brands’ list but have become an integral part of life & conversations for a vast population. So does that mean that we are not way too far behind the average USA; that we might actually catch up with them in a decade or so?

With these thoughts filled in my mind, I was sipping a cup of tea when my 38 year old maid dropped a utensil with a cling in the kitchen. “didi, sorry” she shrieked from inside. That reminded me that I had to attend her daughter’s baby showers. I had visited their humble dwelling once.  They had a color television, a refrigerator & a couple of motor-bikes and not one but 6 mobile phones - the basic featured non-smart mobile phones that delivered on the basic promise of ‘communication’ perfectly. Their rented house was spacious enough for me to stage a dance performance. Her daughter had just then returned from a Hindi movie that she had gone to with her friends from graduate college. Her son was getting ready to visit the internet centre in the next street for the monthly browsing session. In those twenty minutes that I spent there, he blurted out his ambition to work for a call centre and earn as much money as possible possibly twenty times. My maid was cribbing to me about how her life-long savings was eaten up in a treatment of her brother. “I spent all my monthly salary in eating & educating my children. What was left was set aside as savings to be given away as dowry for my daughter. Do you even expect me to spend thousands of money monthly in insuring the 6 members of the family in anticipation??”

Looks like it is not an easy task -we still have a good distance to cover up, maybe a couple of more decades than what I expected initially, but I guess soon , we will catch up with the US & be at par with them in lifestyle.

I decided to get this out of my mind & take a leisurely walk along the Wadala Bridge that would take me to the shopping streets of Dadar. As I ambled along pointlessly, my vision rested upon the tattered road-side make-shift yet permanent structures which formed the homes for at least 100 million Indians. These are not peculiar to Mumbai though they are famed in the maximum city. A peep into their lifestyle and one would immediately laud their skilful space management. Surprised I was to see a Dish antenna decorating the household and a high-quality color television, the only article that adorned the otherwise barren living room which I realized would double up as a bedroom in the nights. I zoomed out and took the focus to a little towards the left, a man stood there soaked bathing. A little more disruption, further left, and on a cot popularly known as charpai, was laid an aged woman relaxing, breathing in the not-so-fresh air. Ladders for staircase, double floored structures decked with balconies made of corrugated tin sheets, dubious sanitary conditions, and huddles of uncouth muddled people smeared the ‘ground-line’.

Perhaps we aren’t even close to scaling the Everest. As long as we don’t get caught mid-way in the ‘death zone’, we should be fine.

India - A true Diversity

Estimates by various committees, from World Bank to Indian Planning commission put the number of Indians below poverty line (living below $1.25 PPP) at anywhere between 28% to sometimes even more than 37% . Assuming India’s ever growing population is at a standstill at 1.2 billion, at least 400 million Indians are deprived of basic necessities, spending only around Rs 500 per month on all bare essentials food, fuel, light, clothing and footwear. Well, putting it all in context, the size of deprived Indians by itself is a 1.3*USA (population of 312 million).

Let us make perspectives clearer by comparing apples with apples and not with oranges, papaya, banana or anything else.

A lot has been said about the evolution of the Indian middle class and the potential of the Indian consumer market in the long term. Let us take a look at how they fare today in comparison with the current economy status of the USA. When I say current, I actually mean at any point in time +/- 5 years from today.

Source : mckinsey report

There are a few important things that we need to interpret from the above ‘Quality of Living’ charts: Some obvious but important ones:

1. The total population of India is at 1.2 billion is 4 times the total population of USA which is currently at 312 million
2. There are more number of super rich Indians than Americans. So, here I am talking about the Business honchos Ambanis , Tatas, Birlas , the Bollywood artists, the controversial politicians and others who have amassed wealth to the tune of  $ 500,000. They form 1% of the entire country’s population in both the cases.
3. Though there are 5 categories in both the countries, the definition of their household income is slightly different in both cases. In PPP terms (Purchasing Power Parity), The Indian working class will earn close to $ 6000 less than their counterparts in the USA; similarly, the Indian lower middle class would earn approximately $ 11,000 less than their counterparts in the other part of the world. So essentially, the Indian population gets to eat, buy less than what their equals/ with whom they are compared to in the USA get to do.
4. While 50% of Americans earn over $ 30,000 a year, 78% of Indians earn less than $ 24,000 a year.  
5. But still there are 250 million Indians earning over $ 60,000 a year compared to 150 million Americans earning over $ 75,000 a year

This concludes to a singular point according to me; on an average India is far behind and its quality of living has to be improved dramatically but this definitely doesn’t offset the sheer strength of number of High Net Worth individuals. India does not have a particular quality of living but several; India is thriving in several centuries at the same time and that too in perfect harmony.

A stroll across any city of this country would prove this point; one would bump into at least 4 categories of barbers thriving simultaneously and making fine profitable business within their boundaries. The Nomadic barbers, who move around with their kit. Their shops are generally set under a shady tree or crossroads of a market/ station. A Dilapidated cloth supported by bamboo shoots serves as a shop. There is usually a big mirror and an ancient rickety chair on which his client is seated. Then there are these ‘Barber Shops’ which are shops with no doors which means that the talent and skill of the artists (barbers) are at a display for the general public’s attention & admiration.  There are two barbers working away to glory simultaneously. Typically the shops have a huge mirror and two cushioned rotating chairs for their customers. A radio can be seen blasting away regional songs in the background. The third type is what is called the ‘Hair Cutting Salons’. The names of these salons would have been borrowed from the famous Bollywood actors like Shah Rukh or Amitabh or regional actors like Rajinikanth, with their names royally misspelled in various ways to avoid copyright infringement. The name boards would also have stylized images of these actors too. A ‘welcome board’ hung on the glass door are characteristic of these salons. A head barber who employs a couple of other barbers and trainee-apprentices owns these shops. Rotating wheel chairs dons these salons too. The whirling of fans interferes with the music being played in these enclosures.  Then, on top of the ladder are the unisex salons or the male-only salons which have cool hair stylists imported from around the country hanging around. They are definitely air-conditioned and have mild English music floating around. Services from pedicure and manicure to hair re-bonding are provided Entertainment is on top priority with in house snooker pools and bunches of magazines. All of these salons thrive concurrently and attract adequate customers to keep the owners amused throughout the day. That is distinctive of India, a country that lives in numerous centuries at the same time.

Why does a Madrasi require bowls & bowls of Rice for dinner??

Whenever the highly cosmopolitan group that I belong to decides to ‘hang out’ which can be safely translated to ‘eat and drink’, invariably I turn out to be the odd one out. Not because I am poorly dressed, not even because my hair perennially remains ‘centre-shocked’ but because of my unique preferences when it comes to food.  Well, my highly Tamil influenced taste buds long for its share of rice, best accompanied by a scoop of sambar, rasam or even better ‘curd’ whatever be the position the clock hands take.

The puzzled or rather revolting look that I get when I mention rice for dinner surprises me.  However hard I try and explain the enjoyment & bliss I derive out of eating rice with the whole lot of accompaniments laid out on a plantain leaf specifically with hand, it falls flat and that too without a resonating ring.

Now if you ask my individual sense as to why I have an appetite only for rice, I would say, well it’s our staple food; I was grown up that way, the way you were grown up with rotis, butter & aloo. If in case the socio culturally conscious portion in me chooses to answer, the reply might be “Given that Tamil Nadu has a hot climate, the kind of food consumed here can be attributed to this. For example, sambar & rasam are made out of tamarind, which is a cooling agent thus counteracting the heat here. Also the temperature being always hovering over 25 degrees, there is the natural fermentation process that occurs which is used effortlessly for most of the dishes that are slightly sour to heavily sour starting from idlis to curd.” Wow, I should pat myself for that as it actually answers why sambar, rasam, curd and all the other accompaniments that is a part of the meal extravaganza; the mystery of rice, though still remains unsolved.

That's how rice grains look like ! Based on the variety they
belong to , they are either smaller, stouter, longer or uglier

The geographically challenged I, looking for support might comes up with a lame “Maybe the production of rice is the maximum in south India” but would ultimately end up correcting that because of the lack of statistical support. In fact the states that produce maximum rice are UP & Punjab which together produce about 4 times the total quantity produced in AP, which happens to be the next highest producer. That apart the other south Indian states have no significant contribution. The only other statistical measure that might help is tonnes of rice produced per person in the area, which again lacks convincing numbers to back up.

In fact what is interesting to note here is that the earliest remains of rice in India have been found in the indo-gangetic plain and dates to around 6000 BC though the widely accepted date for the earliest cultivation of rice is placed around 3000 BC around the Indus valley civilization. Rice appeared in southern india only at around 1400 BC after it was tamed in the northern plains, & from there it has had no looking back.

Out of curiosity, I did impose this question to my mother; Her response was “I am not too sure..”, but it did not stop there, she continued, “ but I know one thing, there has been a great reverence for rice from ancestral times; why else would rice grains, turned yellow in color by mixing it with turmeric and saffron be  used to bless people by showering it on them in weddings or otherwise; If you remember it forms an integral part of the wedding ceremonies too. In fact one of our biggest festivals after diwali, Pongal is to celebrate the harvest of rice! It has been a part of all our traditions.”

Well, that was an interesting perspective on the religious inclusion of rice but it doesn’t pacify me or crack the question I posed. Well, I guess south Indians love variety in food & rice gives them the flexibility as it takes the taste of anything that is added on to it, because it is literally taste less and is a mass of starch. Maybe this is the only reason, we in south India love rice! Well, actually maybe there is no reason at all !!

In case anyone is able to come up with a better explanation, feel free to share with proof!

Is it meaningful to blow out the candles on a birthday cake??

It wouldn’t be an exaggeration when I say that I long to get older by a year just because I love the birthday celebrations with the cakes (which have steadily graduated from a girly micky mouse shaped pista one to dark chocolate based fantasies). More importantly I love blowing out the candles, especially the determined ones that refuse to get blown out. I still remember the struggle I had to go through in my first association with these contagious re-lighting candles, a couple of years ago in the bubbly corridors of my post-graduate hostel.

Now that makes me wonder as to why and how this tradition got passed on! I will tell you where my skepticism stems from. According to the Hindu tradition, light is a metaphor for knowledge, then doesn’t blowing out the candles suggest a shift towards darkness & hence ignorance?

 So I tried to dig deeper into the actual take off of the practice ! 

Most of the articles that I bumped into revolved around it having originated from an early tradition that believed that smoke from candle would take one’s wish or petition up to god! Now that made me laugh – While here we are criticizing our hindu traditions as we consider them to be hollow, in front of us lies our most lovable tradition borrowed from the western lands which at the onset appears to be exceedingly shallow.

There were a couple of other explanations which revolved around Germans being skilful manufacturers of candles having inducted them into the picture. Now that was definitely a brilliantly crafted marketing gimmick that Germans did which has survived centuries just the way our Akshaya Trithiya / Valentine’s Day has.

The most renowned of all explanations is about how the Greek made a certain form of cake as an offering for their moon goddess and planted a candle in the centre of it to make it glow like a moon. Well, that demotes the entire tradition into a decorative piece.

There was no other meaningful explanation that I could lend my ears to when a verse from the bible caught my attention. It was not essentially about candles but on incense which can be considered as a sister of candles. “Let my prayer be set forth before thee as incense; and the lifting up of my hands as the evening sacrifice.” Mining deeper helped me understand this better. The incense (candle) lay dead, without fragrance, with no capacity whatsoever of soaring till it was kindled. Similarly unless there is a flame or passion in one’s heart, the prayer shall not reach God and the benefits can’t be seen on mortal earth. Once the incense or candle is lit, the fragrance and smoke from it soars ahead spreading its boundaries.  Similarly if one doesn’t light the fire in the heart and kindle the passion, the prayers and aspirations will not go any far. Thus to achieve anything at all which could well connote to prayers reaching the ears of God, one needs to kindle the passion or light the flame in his heart.

Now that is convincing and satisfactory to an extent. Oops! Well, it seems like we have gotten our hearts in the wrong places. It is not about blowing out the birthday candles but actually about lighting them! What a gross misinterpretation & mis-orientation!