Boy "Alice" goes into the Wonderland of "Pilgrim's Progress"

Norton Juster's "The Phantom Tollbooth" merges the surprise journey of Alice through the rabbit hole into strange places with the characters & places named after themselves like in Bunyan's immortal allegory.

A bored boy Milo gets a surprise package which is a miniature Tollbooth. He gets into his toy car & drives through it like Alice plunging into the rabbit hole. He enters a strange world of "Doldrums", a region without cheer & thought. He meets a "Watch" dog called "Tock", which carries a watch in its body. 

Like in the "Wizard of Oz", there is a good witch called "Which." There is a place called "Conclusions" to which one doesn't travel, but jump into it!

The land of Letters has a capital called "Dictionopolis" & the land of numbers' capital is "Digitopolis." The competing claims of the two cannot be reconciled until two princesses, "Rhyme"& "Reason" are rescued from "The Castle in the Air."

Milo, Tock & the appropriately named "Humbug" travel in the car on their noble mission.

After successfully completing it, Milo returns home. But after a night's sleep, he finds the Phantom Tollbooth has vanished, leaving a note that it has accomplished its task, i.e., ridding Milo of his boredom & finding his everyday life interesting & worthwhile.

The book, illustrated by the author's neighbour, Jules Feiffer, gets more interesting, as the age of the reader progresses! Also better the command over English of the reader, more his/her enjoyment. Otherwise the numerous puns & jokes will go right over their head!

Great Literature inspired by Pandemics

The first great work is probably Boccaccio's "Decameron". He created 100 stories narrated by a group of 10 young men & women, over a period of 10 days, who withdraw to the countryside when the Great Plague was ravaging Europe.

Two famous authors wrote about the Plague in London. Samuel Pepys, the great diarist, was an eye-witness & gave an account in his diary. But a more gripping, absorbing account was written by a man, who was a child & was probably removed out of London for safety when the Plague was raging. He was Daniel Defoe & the book "The Journal of the Plague year." With meticulous research among the documents extant, he created a day to day account, that is unique among the books of this genre, & gives London the city a stellar role in the narrative.

A later outbreak in France provided the material for Albert Camus's "The Plague." It is also an existential classic, which symbolically depicts the epidemic-like war clouds hovering over Europe at that time. An outsider, inadvertently trapped in a plague infested town, trying to get away is the protagonist.

Gabriel Garcia Marquez's "Love in the time of Cholera" also deals with the events during an epidemic.

Though strictly speaking, tuberculosis cannot be classed as an epidemic, it is contagious & Thomas Mann in his "The Magic Mountain", creates an insular world in a Swiss town. Hans Castorp, visiting a sick cousin there, contracts the consumption himself & stays there for seven years, meeting an unforgettable gallery of characters. Mann, like Camus, uses illness as a metaphor for the anti-Semitic carnage which followed.

Inaccessibility as an index of "Importance"

Even though the United Nations think that democracy is a universal requirement & most countries follow it in letter, if not in spirit, the mindset of ages of colonial or feudal rule cannot be erased rapidly.

One such regrettable attitude is that the time, which is nothing but a function of life itself, of people occupying positions of importance, is somehow more valuable than those of the unfortunates, who have to meet them. Hence the ubiquitous queues before the offices of any petty official. Instead of feeling ashamed that because their offices are run so badly that people have to meet them to redress their grievances, our petty tyrants feel a sense of misplaced pride that they are so important that "lesser" mortals have to waste their time in queuing up before them.

This arbitrary allocation of "subaltern" status to the ruled as opposed to the "rulers" (which itself is an anachronism in a presumed democracy), apart from violating human dignity enshrined in the Constitution, is causing loss of millions of manhours of productive labour of people waiting in queues for goods & services which are after all, their birthright.

Even after waiting till eternity, there is no guarantee that the applicants work will be done. Two examples, one from films & one from real life may drive home the point. In the Kannada film "Tabbaliyu neenade magane", the village schoolmaster wants to meet the tahsildar, but is refused by the ubiquitous flunkey on the stool outside the door. But when he meets his friend the rich landlord, he takes him inside pronto!

The other example is the real life experience of the famous "serial" entrepreneur Capt. Gopinath. When he went to Delhi for some clearance, the official looked at his watch after a few minutes & said he had a meeting. This repeated many times, until the good Captain brought pressure from another lobby to expedite the matter!

Rather than a high GDP, the eradication of such mindsets, will tend to make our country a developed one.

Collateral damage of long working hours

Working Long Hours (Image Courtesy: HuffPost)

It has become trendy to work long hours, even considering it as a badge of honour, especially in the private sector. How myopic  this mindset is, will become evident when we see its inevitable fallout. Not for nothing was the working day standardised as eight hours after long struggle. This can be violated only by paying a disastrous price.

The problem is exacerbated by both husband & wife going out to work. While it might have worked in the erstwhile, now defunct joint family, it is calamitous in a nuclear family. As nowadays, couples from different backgrounds marry, additional empathy is required to make the marriage work, which requires time. Long hours of both partners rule this out. Divorce may become more common, with its resultant mental, social & financial trauma. 

If the marriage survives, arrival of children poses new problems. The mandatory few months maternity leave may take care of physiological needs of the babies, but not the emotional bonding, which requires years. Because of better economical resources of two salaries, a nanny may seem an attractive option. But cooler thoughts bring sense that the children may grow up with the nannies' set of values, not the parents'. All nannies, unfortunately, are not "Practically Perfect" like Mary Poppins! This may create an unbridgeable chasm between parents & children, which may be lifelong.

So if there is a choice, it may be wiser to choose a job with sensible working hours even if the compensation may not be what is expected. It may prove more beneficial in the long run to cut down expenses rather than try to increase income by unconscionable working hours.

Two types of parents

To parody the immortal Jane Austen's iconic novel's ironic first line, "It is a truth universally acknowledged that parents generally want their children to do better than themselves." But there are also a few who do not want their children to surpass them, probably due to a misplaced sense of parental egoism.

Chandrayya Gowda, of Kuvempu's famous novel, "Kanooru Heggadithi" was one such. At the beginning of the novel, his son & nephew come home for the holidays, during their college vacation. He forbids them from continuing their education, saying he wants them in the village, looking after his property. He even resents them being better dressed than himself. He himself was just literate enough to keep his accounts & sign his name.

In the present time, we have Sri.X, who in spite of having many degrees, has no interest in anything except property & money.  The degrees were also acquired only because they would help him in earning money rather than in any interest in the subject. He has no interest in literature, music, sport or cinema. As a matter of fact, he cannot understand sport even if watched on TV. He doesn't watch films or serials on TV either for the same reason. Earlier also there were such people, but they realised their shortcomings & ensured that their children developed other interests also. The unfortunate uniqueness of Sri.X is that he has also brought up his children to have no interests, & even takes pride in the fact that they take after him in being "frogs in the well" with no interests in the outside world!

Buying Books and Records by Indians

It is no secret that Indians buy less books (& read them of course!) & CDs & LPs compared to people in developed countries. A whole village dedicated to bookshops like Hay-on-Wye (in U K.) is inconceivable here. 

The reasons are manifold. It is a traditional lack of culture perpetuated even in modern times. Filmstars & now Cricketers, who flaunt their wealth, buy only clothes, cars & jewellery. One legendary actor does have a personal library, but is foolish enough to have it in his basement in a city prone to flooding. None are known to have & use audiophile equipment.

It is paradoxical that people happily accept as reasonable, money spent on travel, drinks & gambling, but consider investing in books or music as a waste of money. If this is the mentality of worldly people, the spiritually inclined are also inadvertently misled by spiritual leaders. Sri Ramakrishna, repeatedly decried the acquiring of even scriptural knowledge through books, claiming only personal experience is valid. Sri Satya Sai Baba, though he founded an University, was commonly making jibes against "bookish knowledge." So everyone conspires to discourage books & music. People who waste money on frivolous pursuits without a second thought, want their music free & grudge buying a ticket to a concert.

The advent of Internet has completely killed the music industry, hitting the livelihood of professional musicians really hard. But as previously noted, in developed countries, people do listen to music on-line, but this is important, if they like it, go out & buy the LP & play it on state-of-art equipment. Here it is considered madness to pay for something available free on-line.

Sometime ago, it was noticed that Nairobi, though a modern big city, had no bookstore. The day is not far off when Indian cities, populated by wealthy Philistines, also may claim this dubious honour.

Splendiferous Stories of "Dr." Seuss

With sensational sales of 600 million copies, his books are without doubt immensely popular with children. With "nonsense" stories like Edward Lear & Lewis Carroll, he captured the hearts of children. In the middle of the 20th Century, "Life" magazine published a survey that American school children were largely illiterate because their textbooks were boring. So someone came up with the idea of providing books with a limited vocabulary & interesting themes. "Dr." Seuss took up the challenge & rose to the occasion & produced best sellers into the bargain & never looked back.

 The crowning glory was, the books of "Dr." Seuss, an American, were even used by the Bank of England, to train its employees (who obviously had not mastered Queen's English sufficiently) to write simple, comprehensible reports.

In this connection, it can be recalled that Sukumar Ray, father of the celebrated film director Satyajit Ray, was an accomplished writer of "nonsense" verse in Bengali, which has even been translated into English & published.

The Essential "Schizophrenia" of Modern times

In modern times, many, young or old have to live alone. The young migrate abroad in search of greener pastures & have to live alone for a shorter or longer time. During this period, they, in addition to their education or job, have to look after themselves, primarily in cooking their food. Even though the consumer part of them may like variegated tasty food, the cook part of them may not be able to provide it due to lack of time or energy, leading to a inner dichotomy.

Mainly due to the young migrating abroad as mentioned above & also the break-up of the joint family system, where, hopefully tasks were divided, the old are also left to their own devices to fend for themselves, leading to a dichotomy no different than the one experienced by the young. The "nuclear" family, replacing the "joint" family, may itself break up further due to divorce, creating a social catastrophe, no less dangerous in its own way as nuclear fission.

So the net result is, increasing number of people living alone, young or old, are driven to engage in activities, which are clamorously demanded by the "consumer" part of their selves & as vigorously opposed by the other, "serving" part. This "Schizophrenia" does nothing to improve the well-being of the people in question.

"Pahoms" of Goldman Sachs

This famous investment banking firm was in the news for its "hardworking" employees (up to 100 hours/week).

In this context, it is instructive to recall Leo Tolstoy's story "How much land does a man need". This story, written & published in 1886, was regarded by James Joyce ("Ulysses") as "the greatest story that the literature of the world knows."

In brief, the story tells about Pahom, a small landholder, whose greed for more land is insatiable. In pursuit of this goal, he begins to acquire more & more land & becomes wealthy. But he is not satisfied & hears about a tribe called "Bashkirs" who sell land for a pittance. On meeting them, he is offered land at one thousand rubles per day. Pahom does not understand & is told that all land he encircles on foot from sunrise to sunset is his for one thousand rubles.

So he marks out his starting point at sunrise in the presence of the Bashkirs & starts briskly. As the day progresses, his greed also keeps pace & he goes beyond the point from which he can return comfortably before sunset. He starts running & in a desperate attempt, reaches the starting point & collapses stone dead. His servant digs a grave & buries Pahom, who after all, needed only six feet of land.

Of course, "hard working" people can hardly have time to read such stories, much less the wisdom to draw life (or death!) lessons from them.

Where are you, my mother?

Where are you, my mother

as a little girl fingers flying 

over musical keyboards,

singing with a soft, sweet voice,

smashing balls across the tennis table,

lobbing shuttles across the net 

in badminton, Saina like,

clearing carroms in one play

reading books by the bushel,

writing endless drafts to perfect

stories, novel & essays galore

learning languages many

passionate about Sitar

in spite of cleaning rice, ruining eyes

with hands worn by vegetables peeled,

parched by work in the house,

wrinkled by age & experience, 

where are you now? 

- R. Ramachandra (2021)

Poppins Trilogy: A Spiritual View

When Walt Disney made "Mary Poppins", combining real actors with animated ones, he created an iconic film, despite the opposition of the author of the book, P.L.Travers. It also catapulted Julie Andrews playing the titular character to super stardom, not to mention the "Best Actress Oscar" in her first film, taking the sting out of not being selected for the film version of "My Fair Lady", despite playing it successfully on stage. The magical nanny, combining strict discipline with a narcissistic vanity, won over not only the children, but a universal audience. She showed how even children considered difficult could be managed.

The 20 years struggle by Disney to make Travers agree was the subject of the second film, "Saving Mr. Banks" The devoted father, calling his favourite daughter"Ginty" lovingly, but an improvident provider, succumbs to drink as a way out of his financial ineptness. His sister-in-law, who arrives at the end of his life (but too late to put right matters) was the inspiration for Mary Poppins, as she says "spit spot" on arrival. The evocation of the idyllic days of "Ginty" P.L.Travers with her adoring father, are the magical moments of this film.

The third film, "Mary Poppins Returns" deals with the personal & financial crisis of Michael Banks, who was a child in the first film. In the first film also, even though his mother was there, she was busy in the suffragette movement. So Mary Poppins was a surrogate mother/deity with magical powers arriving to put things right & leaving after the crisis. In the third film, Michael having lost his wife, is about to lose his job & house, when Mary Poppins returns to help him & his loyal loving sister Jane put back their lives on an even keel. In this film also, Mary Poppins allows Michael, Jane & the children to make most of the decisions concerning their lives, only stepping in when it is critical, like the deity. So Mary Poppins can be considered a God-like figure, who steps in only occasionally in our lives. This is also emphasised by her saying of herself "Practically Perfect." Mention can be made of Emily Blunt being a fitting successor to Julie Andrews.