"World Elder Abuse Awareness Day - June 15"

It is the "new normal" to neglect elderly parents & consign them to old age homes. It may also be due to the fact that millennials are not well read enough to realise that there are better role models in literature.

In Ramayana, a teenager named Shravan Kumar appears, whose filial piety is exemplary. Dasharatha, Rama's father, kills him accidentally & is cursed by his grieving parents to die when separated from his son, Rama.

In Padma Purana, the story of Pundalik appears. Unlike Shravan Kumar, he was married, uxorious & neglected his parents at first. However, a Sage named Kukkuta, advised him to mend his ways. He did, to such an extent that when Krishna visited him, he asked him to wait till he finished serving his parents!

Even in Western literature, two novels stand out. In George Eliot's "Silas Marner", Eppie, abandoned by her rich father, is brought up by Silas. When her biological father later offers her wealth & status, she refuses & stays with Silas as a loving pillar of strength even after marrying a poor but good farmer.

In L. M. Montgomery's "Anne of Green Gables" Anne Shirley, an orphan, adopted by elderly siblings Matthew & Marilla, sacrifices her higher education to live with Marilla in her old age after Matthew's death. It should be noted that both Eppie & Anne are not even related by blood to the elderly people they choose to live with!

Raga of Two Legends

When Satyajit Ray passed away in 1992, his friend & early collaborator in providing music for his films, Pandit Ravi Shankar created a Raga named "Satyajit" to pay respect to his memory. He recorded it in 2012, when he himself was 92!

As Panditji himself has stated, this Raga is derived using the "murchana" system from the popular morning Raga, Ahir Bhairav, by shifting the tonic to the fourth. So the notes of the new Raga are, 

1.Shadja.                      C

2.Shuddha Rishabha       D

3.Komal Gandhara.        Eb

4.Shuddh Madhyama.    F

5.Teevra Madhyama.     F#

6 Shuddha Dhaivata.     A

7.⁠ ⁠Komal Nishada.         Bb

Panchama (G) is omitted. The use of both Madhyamas (F & F#) side by side, gives the Raga shades of another morning raga, Lalit.

Connosieurs of Western Classical Music will notice that "Murchana" is conspicuous there also by the name of "Modulation." The Master of Modulation was Mozart.

"Generation Gap" natural or man-made?

The root of this idea of separating the generations into artificial compartments could have been started in the Bible, Genesis (2:24) saying "Therefore shall a man leave his mother & father & cleave unto his wife." Even if "cleaving unto wife" is accepted, why should a man leave his mother & father, who brought him into this world & nurtured him into adulthood?

In a contrasting & more inclusive view, Taittiriya Upanishad says "Mathru Devo Bhava, Pitru Devo Bhava" (Mother is God, Father is God.), the reason being they have brought one into this world & nurtured into adulthood. Gratitude plays a major role in this, if nothing else.

The break-up of the family system in the western world, probably inspired by the Bible quote, is painfully visible. Shared family values, irrespective of the age of the members, have disappeared. Another reason may be, excessive & exclusive association with peer age groups to the detriment of a more inclusive interaction with diverse age groups, from infants to more mature people.

Unfortunately, confusing modernity with westernisation, Hindu populace have also forgotten their Upanishadic roots & climbed on the wagon of arbitrarily classifying people into different generations, as if they are aliens to each other.