Books I read

Recently I have made it a habit to read at least thirty pages a day.  When I discharge the custom regularly I was amazed to observe I was able to go well beyond thirty pages. These days I mutter a silent prayer for this habit to continue for the rest of my life.

Contrary to my earlier practice, I read novels exclusively these days. A few months back spiritual scriptures and Advita philosophy occupied my time. Since my passion is creative/fiction writing, I tend to read a few contemporary Tamil novels. I attempted to read some novels online but could not continue the exercise. Besides being straining for the eyes, lack of will to continue reading online prevented me from making that into a habit.  

Hence my prevalent choice is the printed version. I am trapped among three novels at the moment, with the fourth waiting in the wings. The Pillars of the Earth by Ken Follett, Clive Avenue by T.S.Trimurthy and a Tamil novel named oru kadalora kiraamaththin kathai written by Thoppil Mohamed Meeran. The fourth, which I open to read in a few days time, is Qurr-Atul-In- Hyder’s River of Fire, An Urdu novel Trans created by the author herself.

In the past weeks I have completed reading Arvind Adiga’s white Tiger, an award winning novel, The Concept of Novel (Tamil) by Jeyamohan, Nakulan’s Ninaivuppaathai (Tamil) and again Jayamohan’s Modern Tamil Literature – an introduction (Tamil).

Jayamohan’s two books speak exclusively on the importance of having a clear understanding literature form and the execution of it. I went through the books at a faster pace which prevent me from discussing them in detail. I intend to share my thoughts primarily about the novels I have read.

I have to be honest and say that I didn’t like Adiga’s White Tiger in spite of its speedy plot and the riveting scenes. The hype it created by winning Man Booker prize, did not stop me from me deciding it as an average book. The story is narrated by a car driver in the first person. He works for a business man and comes to kill his boss. In an effort to explain why he was pushed into a situation of becoming a murderer, he portrays the contemporary social process. India happens to be a land of opportunities and a potential place for infinitive exploitability. People who have the guts and the wits can not only survive but also thrive in this environment. I can say this novel presents Adiga’s satirical point of view of the Indian corporate arena with fascinating episodes but fails to establish itself as a literary creation. Any popular fiction writer could have written this novel with ease. What it lacks is the spontaneity and the vision.

God Bless. . . God!

Sachin Tendulkar scored his hundredth international century against Bangladesh on 16 – 03 – 2012.

To quote Sanjay Manjrekar, ' Far too many extraordinary factors have to come together for this feat to be replicated.’
Sachin would still be Sachin even had he not scored his 100^th  ton.
His muted celebration showed how much he has been hurt by the comments by his critics that he often scores the runs for himself. After reaching hundred he pointed his bat to the crest of his helmet to show that he has been doing all this for the country and the team. As it turns out the people of India are happier now  and more at ease than Sachin Tendulkar himself. He said he felt like being relieved of at least fifty kilos off his shoulders. This 100^th ton issue was only created by the media and he admitted that he apparently felt the pressure of it.  He appeared hurt even in his post innings interview when he expressed no one talked about his 99th, in fact I would say his critics fail to understand he scored his 100th after scoring 99 centuries many of which helped India win matches.
There is only one Sachin and there will never be one again.
I am really grateful to be born in a country where a man called Sachin walked and talked, mostly through his deeds. He is called God, not merely for his cricketing abilities. His qualities as a person are that of a monk. To me he is a self realized master, one of my gurus.

Thank You Jammy!

Rahul Dravid, popularly known as ‘The Wall’ has announced his retirement on 09 – 03 – 2012. The announcement came in the same dignified fashion as he has been conducting himself on the cricketing field for the past sixteen years. Knowing the man he is, it was a decision taken in the best interest of the future of Indian cricket. He wanted to have the youngsters a good stint on the Indian soil before they confront the swinging, pacy and bouncy overseas pitches.

I still vividly remember the very first match I saw Rahul batted. It was a one day game and he was bowled after scoring four runs. I liked the man the moment I saw him on the field. I have been an ardent fan of Sachin Tendulkar ever since he made his debut against Pakistan and pulverized Abdul Qadir. Sachin has always been a God to me, as any Indian cricket fan would say. But for Dravid the path to glory was a hard way filled with hurdles and thorns. He is a self made cricketer. He transformed himself from a good batsman into an all time  batting legend by sheer  determination, guts and hard training. Even after becoming the greatest No 3 that india has ever produced, Dravid was perfectly willing to do anything for the betterment of the team. He batted in virtually all the positions, did the glove work for Indian one day team, and opened the test batting when the team missed an opener. During the short period he captained India, he took the onus on himself for the team’s debacle, despite winning a few test series abroad.

When asked about his best innings, the experts pondered over his 180 against the aussies at the Eden Gardens; his century in Headingly where India had to bat first on seaming wicket; his 140+ knock against Australia in Australia to win a test match. To me the first match that came to my mind when this question was asked was the innings he played against Pakistan in the Independence cup. It was a loosing cause alright, but on a personal that was when I became a real fan of Dravid I believe.

Even now when I think about Dravid’s contribution to Indian Cricket, the picture that conjures up in my mind is the sight of him walking quietly to the batting crease at the fall of an early wicket. It was quite regular for the Indian team to loose an early wicket and it was also quite a routine for Dravid to consolidate after that. Dravid, with his cricketing skills has won numerous matches and has won millions of hearts through his humility and selflessness.

Thanks Jammy for the wonderful memories you have provided us. We will always cherish them.

Good bye and Have a great off-field career.

Short Essay on Philosophy: Buddhist Discourses.

In his argument which is in favor of ‘no permanent self’ Buddha systematically builds his case through discussion with his disciples. Though I tend to agree with most of the points of his argument, I disagree with his conclusion that there is no such thing as the permanent self.

            Firstly the conversation centers upon external and internal anxieties experienced by a person. Buddha says that the anxiety about something non-existent externally can be overcome by the realization that the possession of things is impermanent (Early Discourses, 110). What mine was before is not certainly mine now. If a person understands this truth, he will have no external anxiety. Also a person who thinks he will become a permanent thing and remain so for eternity after death becomes anxious if he is exposed to the dhamma as taught by the tathagata or his disciple. The teaching eliminates all standpoints of speculative views which involve obstinacy, favoritism, and possessiveness, produces an effect of calming of all dispositions to actions, forsakes all attachments, and destroys craving (Early Discourses, 110). The teaching is for nibbana, the complete freedom from suffering. This internal anxiety could be overcome if the person does not think he will be permanent and then expose himself to the teaching.

            At the end of this part of the conversation, the disciples do not seem to continue their quest for solution to the anxiety. Buddha simply starts asking questions about permanency of things. It was not clear how the internal anxiety could be overcome, meaning the process of removal of the anxiety. It was hard to accept that the knowledge that everything is impermanent removes internal anxiety.

            It will be unfair to conclude that the bhikkus are just stray men who agree with questions in the next part of the conversation, yet it seems so certainly. Buddha establishes that body, feelings, perception, dispositions to action, and consciousness are impermanent and therefore painful (Early Discourses, 112). Hence he says it is not proper to view these things as ‘mine or my self’. For each of his questions the monks just politely agree with him without making an effort to further explore the possibility of whether there is such a thing as a permanent self. Or one could argue that Buddha did not allow them space to raise such questions.

            Finally it is difficult to find a logical answer to Buddha’s contention that there is no such thing as the permanent self. It is agreed that the body, feelings, perception etc. are impermanent. But what about the one who undertakes the quest? Is he also impermanent? How can the person who establishes that everything is impermanent be impermanent? The conception that the one who observes that everything changes must be an unchanging entity has not been considered in Buddha’s teaching and hence the teaching can not be deliberated complete.

Works Cited

Early Buddhist Discourses. PP 110 -113. Ed. John. J. Holder. Indianapolis:                                                       

Hackett Publishing Company, 2006. Print.

Women Philosophy

At the beginning of the part four of the discourse, Descartes explained his position concerning the omissions he had made when trying to explain the three kinds of primordial notions, namely; body, soul and the union existing between the body and the soul. He said that we cannot recognize the above three notions by way of comparing with one another (Women Philosophers, P18). Hence he felt that he must have stated the difference that subsists among the soul along with its functions, body, the union of the two and the means with which all these three notions become immediately obvious. He affirmed that although the soul is conceived as a material, it is distinctly separate from it (Women Philosophers, P18).

            The major difference among the three kinds of notions lies in the fact that the soul can be recognized by pure understanding alone whilst the body can be recognized by understanding assisted by imagination. But the matters that are relevant to the union of the body and the soul can be recognized only ambiguously by understanding or imagination (Women Philosophers, P 19). They are known to the senses evidently. Hence those who solely rely on their senses consider the body and the soul as one single thing and believe that the body acts upon the soul. Descartes feels that the metaphysical thoughts that employ pure understanding make the notion of the soul clear to us (Women Philosophers, P19). Whereas one can conjure up the notion of the union of soul and body by availing oneself to life and simple conversations and refraining from meditating and studying matters which implement imagination (Women Philosophers , P19). 

            There are some logical errors made by Descartes here. He himself admits that human mind is not capable of conceiving soul and body. At the same time he explains it is possible to understand the union through senses. In my opinion senses borrow their existence from mind. Without the aid of mind the senses cannot function. Hence even senses cannot conceive the union.     

Also I disagree with Descartes’ discovery that everything we conceive very clearly and very distinctively is true. Even in our dreams we conceive things very clearly and distinctively only to find when we wake up that they are nothing but the creations of our own mind. In the same way the waking reality can also be negated in our dream. For instance, if a beggar dreams to be a king, he would not agree if someone comes in his dream and says that he is actually a beggar.

Another obscurity is that the word ‘soul’ is not defined clearly. Does soul include mind and the very person who tries to understand the notion of the union? Descartes agrees that the union is evident. But he must have tried to establish the fact whether it can be communicable.

Works of Yoko Ono Vs Feminist art

Feminist art is a specific art form that has been dedicated to explore and examine the explicit forms of physical violence, pain and anguish experienced by women in a world dominated by the patriarchal system. Awakened to the consciousness of misogyny, women renounced their passive acceptance to social pressures and intended to show their intolerance toward the cultural frame work in which their fruit of labor denied; their expressions through art never considered important; their bodies excessively romanticized, methodically objected, and/or subject to extreme policing (feminist art 3, n.d, pptx) . Through feminist art, women were encouraged to envision a more comprehensive identity for themselves. As a specific aesthetic practice, feminist art has been one of the influential factors on sexism and racism. In this paper the works of one of the renowned feminist artists Yoko Ono have been chosen for the discussion. The article explores Ono’s works with relevance to basic conceptions of feminist art.

Yoko Ono, an American musician and artist, was an explorer of conceptual art and performance art. Through her performances she wanted to stress on the point that the people have “the conviction that gender has been, and continues to be, the fundamental category of the organization of culture” (Peggy Phelan, Art & Feminism Phaidon, 2001 as cited in Feminist art 1, n.d,  pptx) the pattern of which usually favors men above women. She used her performances to show disapproval against the ways in which political systems collapsed women’s lives, aspirations and dreams (Feminist art 1, n.d, pptx). As a feminist artist, she made art work that was more inclusive of women.

In one of her performances, titled as ‘cut piece’, she sat passively on the stage and invited audience members to approach her and to cut off her clothing until she was almost naked (cage-Ono 1, n.d, pptx). This performance enabled the audience to investigate the possibilities of victimization and to instigate a medium of expression for their endurance. Since “creation was the highest form of human activity, and art was its essence” (Marcus, 2003), she proved through her performances such as the ‘cut piece’, that a woman can establish her own existence through her conscious creation (Marcus, 2003).

Ono took opportunity to utilize art as an arena for an inquiry into personal revision. She made a lot of experimental films in which she tried replicating the structures of victimization and sexual harassment that haunt the woman in the patriarchal system (Feminist art 1, n.d,  pptx). In one of the experimental films named ‘Fly Piece’ show a naked woman fast asleep. A fly moves all over her body making unbearable noise all the way. Two inferences can be drawn from this work of art. The first one, the fly represents the male dominated society which perceives woman’s body only as an instrument of physical pleasure and ignores the possibility a soul residing inside the body. The second one is the incessant noise that the fly makes through which we can understand the constant troubles and ordeals the woman has to undergo in order for her to simply exist.

Ono’s conceptual work on feminism can be found in her book entitled ‘grape fruit’ which include surreal instructions. Many of the instructions from the book were enacted as performances forming the basis of her art exhibitions (Cage – Ono 1, n.d, pptx). As argued by Grail Marcus in his book Lipstick Traces: a secret history of the twentieth century, “any aesthetic form could illustrate the necessity” (2003), Ono’s performances, experimental films and artworks illustrate the necessity that women should be liberated not only from the cages of the patriarchal system, but also from the women themselves who benefitted by obeying explicitly or implicitly to the structure of sexist society.  They led to the conversation among audience to illuminate the more extensive patterns of discrimination (Feminist art 1, n.d,  pptx).

Ono’s work encompasses social, political, racial and sexist issues. The figurative elements found in her works speak an intuitive language of emotions. The positivity, interactivity and the underlying humor can be experienced in her works such as ‘the ladder’ leading up to a black canvas with a magnifying glass attached, allowing the viewers to read ‘YES’ written on the canvas and ‘Painting to Hammer a Nail’ inviting gallery visitors to hammer a nail into the surface( Cage – Ono 1, n.d,  pptx). Being the wife of the popular singer John Lennon, she used their fame to promote their social ideals. Ono and Lennon open their honeymoon suit to the press to discuss and promote world peace (Cage – Ono 1, n.d,  pptx). Ono’s works criticized at the visual stereotypes they portrayed women as a mother, a prostitute, or an instrument of bodily pleasure (Feminist art 2, n.d, pptx). She cultivated the art forms that had previously been considered as craft into fluent and accessible languages of seriously pointed art making.

Works of Yoko Ono Vs Feminist art - Abstract

Abstract

Art created exclusively by women inevitably takes up the doctrine of women’s liberation. The artists find the women’s liberation as an underlying principle and an inspiration for a new system of aesthetic practice, which is called feminist art. This art practice has become an arena for an inquiry into political, social and personal reconsideration. Feminist art works also disproves of the assumption that in a patriarchal system, humiliation and victimization only produce passivity and silence. This project is a combination of writing and artwork in photographs. In the writing part I have chosen the works of Yoko Ono and discussed in detail the relationship between her works and the concept of feminism. In the artwork part I have made my own works in the style of the artist I have chosen and enclosed the digital renderings of them.