Random Thoughts - Pattabhi Sitaraman

The first part with the same title published a few days ago, elicited some strong views against the ladies learning Veda and chanting them. It also elicited some comments that were bordering on telling that there is no use in upsetting the apple cart.  There was a comment which was lamenting the blog itself on the degradation of moral values due to 'Kali Yuga'. Most of the people who commented on the first part of the blog failed to notice that the Veda was taught to all irrespective of gender and the varna till the start of the Kaliyuga or possibly till the advent of Chengis Khan and Islamic plunder from the times of Mammud of Gazni and Mahmud of Ghori.  Let us not trivialise the issue by saying that it is trying to create social unrest by seeking to educate women in Veda and permit them to chant the same.  While a few comments with supportive evidence of growing tendencies of ladies learning Veda and chanting them were like a proverbial shower on a summer afternoo...

The president of the United States of America (POTUS) came on a two day tour of India on official and semi official visit.  He landed at Ahmedabad in Airforce-1 and traveled to Agra to visit the Taj Mahal in a Boeing 777 and later flew to Delhi to participate in the official welcome by the president of the country and the banquet in his honor and the first lady. A few memorable agreements were signed between the visiting team and their counterpart in the host country.   That apart, the visit,  in the background of the bloody protest that is going on in the country especially in the capital against the citizenship amendment act (CAA) itself is remarkable.  Had there been any such protests anticipated in the host country during the visit of the head of the country to the host country, the visit itself would have been cancelled.  But despite the trouble makers' attempts to foment a vicious protest which claimed more persons (or murders) in the hands of t...

The attempt to erase the heritage of Hindu and his valor in many battles had started much before independence. The British used their famed divide and rule policy which they had perfected to a T to inform the people of this great country that it is only the Europeans especially the British who brought them everything from education to industry.  There can be nothing far from truth.  However, such practices continued post independence without any let or hindrance. One of the culprits was the first education minister of free India Maulana Abul Kalam Azad, who had written a great, world wide appreciated commentary on Quran.  But, being so vain, he felt it below his position to sit in his office and do the work of the minister.  He did little to the ministry of education. He left the working of the ministry to his confidante trio of Humayun Kabir, K G Saidayin and Ashfaque Hussain.  This set the tone for Indian history as we know and studied in the last seventy ye...

India is a vast country with many official and unofficial languages, regions, religions, social disparities, cultures etc.  The country despite its 70+ years of independence is not yet able to have a common language from its own except using English as the link language, though slowly Hindi is getting some foot up thanks to official patronage.  Still in many of the semi-urban or rural pockets in many non Hindi speaking states, the acceptance or understanding of Hindi is very limited or non existent.  The state of Tamilnadu had become a beacon to many of the non Hindi speaking states, in that in mid 1960s and early 1970s to till about early 1980s it had successfully warded off Hindi as a language taught in schools and colleges and in official communications.  Its law makers were able to extract a promise from the then prime minister in the floor of the parliament that English will continue as long as non Hindi speaking people wish.  The effects of these on thre...

In many social media discussions among people especially Tamil Brahmins is the subject of whether women can learn Veda and chant the same.  There is a school of thought that has proscribed the women from learning the Veda or chanting the same. There is another argument that the sound 'Om' is to be intoned from the bottom of one's stomach and the women will not able to do that and therefore, they can learn the veda but chant it without adding the word 'Om'.  There is another school of thought and proponents of women equality say that in the Vedic times, there were women vedic scholars like Gargi, Maitreyi etc. who were considered Brahmavadinis and they were able to hold their fort against well learned male scholars; therefore, there is nothing barring the women from learning vedas and chant the same. With all these conflicting information, the issue becomes much more muddled and confusing than getting a clarity of thought as to whether the women can learn and p...

The students of science would have studied what is latent heat and how it affects the person if one comes in contact with it.  There is a concept of latent water and that is more destructible in terms of water availability to the nation.  Most of the advanced nations have understood this concept and have started shifting the work which has potential for use of lot of water to the developing countries.  Let us look at what is latent water and how it affects the nation.   Rice, Sugar cane, banana are traditionally cultivated in most of the Asian nations and in some of the tropical countries in the Caribbean islands and South American nations.  These nations produce more than what they require for their local consumption.  The surplus, most of the times, the best of the produce, is exported to the developed countries. The agricultural operations for these require a lot more water and most of the river basins in these nations are the rice, sugar cane...