The ephemeral world... (15th Sept.'10)

मान्धाता च महीपति क्रितयुगालन्कार भूतो भवः |
सेतुर्येन महोदधौ विरचितः क्वासौ दशस्यान्तक: ||
अन्ये चापि युधिष्ठिर प्रभ्रितयो याता दिवं भूपते |
नैकेनापी समं गता वसुमति नूनं त्वया यास्यति ||

{Maandhaata cha maheepati kritayugalankar bhooto bhavah,
Seturyen mahodadhau virachitah kwasau dashasyantakah?
Anye chapi Yudhishthir prabhritayo yata divam bhupatey,
Naikenaapi samam gatha Vasumati noonam twaya yasyati!}

Context
Verse written by Prince Bhoj (later, King Bhoj or ‘Bhojraj’, the legendary king in India, immeasurably wealthy, immortalized in the saying ‘Kahan Raja Bhoj aur kahan Gangu teli’, comparing his wealth with that of an oilmaker at the opposite end of the spectrum), with his blood on a leaf, on being spared by the assassin sent by his uncle Munj, the regent who wanted to usurp his throne. Munj repented on reading the verse (realizing the essentially ephemeral nature of worldly wealth), and called Bhoj back.

Interpretation
King Mandhata used to be the jewel of Kritayuga (i.e. 'Satyayuga', the age of the pious, but departed from this earth),
(Lord Rama) who built a bridge over the sea and slayed the ten-headed (Ravana, the king of Lanka), where is he now?
Many other kings like Yudhishthir (the Pandava king in Mahabharata) came to this world (and departed),
This earth (the worldly wealth) did not go with any of them, but (from your behavior it seems) it will go with you!

Wise like Sahadev? (14th Aug.'09)

Sahdev, being the youngest (or one among the youngest, being one part of the twins) of the Pandava brothers in Mahabharata, is probably one of the least celebrated mythical characters. If anything, he's sometimes denigrated for being 'the silent one'. I still remember one of my former bosses eons back berating me for remaining 'silent like Sahdev'! This should not, though, detract from Sahdev's valour - wasn't he the one who killed the evil Shakuni in battle (I hope I'm right - too lazy to Google for this).

So it was quite a surprise to find the name of Sahadev mentioned in a positive light, that too in a business rag. In a piece on training strategies in the 'Corporate Dossier' section of Economic Times 14-Aug-09, the 'Chief Belief Officer' of Future Group (which runs the Big Bazaar chain of hypermarkets, among other businesses) says "We encourage them (that is, the training participants) to be like Sahadev (who knows all answers but speaks only when asked)...". This is said in the context of the need for the knowledge-seeker to go to the trainer, not the other way round, like king Vikramaditya having to go to the ghost (Vetaal) which is the theme of that piece.

Set me thinking. This quality of keeping mum even when you know all (or most of) the answers is perhaps something to be treasured. I go back to my first training program with an INGO, where the facilitator explained that feedback is appreciated by the recipient only when it's given upon being asked for. That is, unsolicited feedback (or for that matter, any piece of wisdom), many a times in the thin disguise of homilies ('upadesh'), is hardly likely to be appreciated by the recipient, regardless of its intrinsic merits. 

At another point, during a session on 'organisational politics', the facilitator dwelt upon the 'four quadrants of wisdom', depicted as four animals - donkey, fox, vulture & owl. Among them, the highest place was reserved for 'the wise owl' who is aware of all the goings on but choses his own time to intervene (or even help others). The Sahadev syndrome again?

There seems to be definite merit in the concept. Learning is lifelong, and we should all aspire to accumulate knowledge all our life as a continous process. But it serves no purpose to fritter away such knowledge on unresponsive minds. The only purpose such unsolicited 'donation' of knowledge may achieve is boosting one's ego, nothing else. Like the 'experts' and 'commentators' I listen to on radio, espcially on the economic/financial programs, who excel in proffering their take on all and sundry issues given half a chance (pity nobody seems to keep track of their 'predictions' and hold them to account for the same).

The ET piece is based on an interesting concept of using the so called 'children's tales', part of India's heritage, as training tools par excellence, and rightfully so. This is in sync with the other pieces in the same issue which describe the increasing use of classical literature for management learning, including at IIMs in India. Pretty interesting. Maybe the 'Panchatantra' tales we avidly read when young would also some day find takers in the business training space?

Indian gods in Indonesia - Jakarta (16th Dec.'05)

I'm aware that I've not written this blog regularly, mainly due to laziness. Now I'm in Jakarta, Indonesia. It's rainy season here, and today it's half sunny as usual. The city is OK, a lot less chaotic than Bangkok, with wide roads which get congested only during busy hours. And there are a few good malls & markets. The small one near our hotel is Sarinah (& Lotus opposite), while the bigger ones like Ambassador have a supermarket. The prices of some things here are quite cheap (though not as cheap as in House of Fashion/ Cotton Collection/Odel in Colombo, Sri Lanka), for instance clothing, toys (mostly chinese), electronic applicances (including cameras) and DVDs. But my colleague tells me that many branded goods (though they may be made in this region) are found cheaper in the States.

For my field visit last week, I went to Kupang, which is just the western part of the island where East Timor is situated (where I went in August this year). The town is like any other small town in Asia, and the countryside is also nothing to write home about. Our hotel, though, had good rooms even as the food options (especially vegetarian) were rather limited.

The Bhasa Indonesia language (which is spoken or at least understood in most parts) and the old languages (Balinese/Javanese) have a lot of Indian sounding words, a sample of which is as below:

manushya (human)                                          Siva (name of a god)
raja (king)                                                        Vishnu (name of a god)
kursi (chair)                                                     Brahma (name of a god)
kamara (room)                                                 Rabi (prophet)
jawab (answer)                                                Salam (hello: greeting)
maaf (sorry)                                                    selamat (good)
guru (teacher)                                                 mesjid (mosque)
hukum (order/law)                                          bandar (port)
naga (serpent)                                                 nama (name)
kunji (key)                                                       sabun (soap)
Bhupati (regent)                                             girja (church)
istana (place: 'sthana')                                     umar (age)
surat (identity/face)                                        wah (wow)
swami (husband)                                             isteri (wife: 'stree')
putra (son)                                                      putri (daughter)
roti (bread)                                                     topi (hat)
kapala (head)                                                  kapas (cotton)
dua (prayer)                                                    rahib (monk)
prathama (first)
eka, dwi, tri...(1,2,3,... Sanskrit) (OLD BALINESE)

And some words refer to the Indian meaning, though they don't have identical meaning:

mahal (expensive)               'palace' in Hindi
daerah (regional)                 'region' in Hindi
dada (chest)                        could mean a 'ruffian' (with big chest!) in Hindi
leher (neck)                         means 'wave' in Hindi (referring to a wavy neck!)
pura (temple)                      'gopura' in Hindi means a part of a temple

The epic Ramanaya is enacted on stage in many part of Bali, while Mahabharata is a revered scripture just like in India.

Sunday I went to the National Museum - just opposite the National Monument. The visit confirmed that Indonesia has had very close cultural relations with India historically. The museum is littered with old 7th/8th/9th Century and later stone sculptures and other representations of all sorts of Indian gods and mythical creatures - Brahma, Vishnu (and his incarnations like Makara & Narasimha) and his mount Garuda, different forms of Siva (e.g. Ardhanarishwara) and his mount Nandi the bull, Lakshmi (also called Devi Sri here), Ganesha, the Mahabharata charaters (Bhima, Arjuna, Nakula, Krsna, Kunti, Duryodhana, Shakuni), Ramayana characters (e.g. Hanumana, Angada), Mahishasurmardini, Durga/Uma/Kali, et al. And side by side there is also Budha in many poses - Bhairava Budha (with skulls at his feet), Bodhisattva... In addition to this, the museum has many other artefacts (e.g. ceramics from different eras), models of Java/Bali houses, woodwork, urns, etc. Though small, it's well worth a visit.