Articles published in DoubleSpeak

From mid-2021 to mid-2022 a series of four essays of mine were published in the online magazine DoubleSpeak, a labour of love of a dear friend of mine Arpan Krishna Deb.

Below are the links to three of those:

On Fatherhood

Stardust

Of Poets and Emperors

I must confess that I am rather proud of the one titled 'Of Poets and Emperors'. 

The earliest one named 'The Garden of Eden' can be found on page 36 of the pdf of the June 2021 issue.

O unknown reader who has stumbled upon this page, hope you find them enjoyable.

charbaksutra

Just to think that someone propounded such a profound and rational school of thought, almost two and a half millenia ago, sends shivers up your spine. The original charbakasutra is lost, so the only way to reconstruct it is to collect fragments of it surviving in other sources, commentaries and books like Madhavacharya's sarvadarsanasamgraha. A great job has been done in recent times by Dr Ramkrishna Bhattacharya from Ananda Mohan College, Kolkata. I'll advice you to go through his paper (Journal of Indian Philosophy 30: 597-640, 2002). I'll be quoting all the aphorisms attributed to Charvaka from the above text, and leave it to the reader to read the commentaries etc for him/herself. Lokayata, as his school of thought came to be subsequently known, is outside the six schools of indian religious philosophy (which includes samkya, the other atheistic(?) school), and is a nastik school along with buddhism and jainism. But as you can see from the aphorisms below, it's truly materialistic and in keeping with our present scientific understanding of the world. If nothing else, it offers a sense of continuity for indian atheists like us, there were others like us before, who lived in these lands, who had the courage as well as humbleness to see the world for what it was, cutting through the fog created by religion.

The aphorisms:

1. bhutavada (materialism)

1.1 athatastattvam vyakhyasyamah

(we shall now explain the principles)

1.2 prthivyapastejovayuriti tattvani

(earth, water, fire and air are the principles, nothing else)

1.3 tatsamudaye sarirendriyavisayasamjnah

(their combination is called the "body", "sense" and "object")

1.4 tebhyaschaitanyam

(consciousness arises/is manifested out of these)

1.5 kinvadibhyo madasaktivat

(as the power of intoxication arises/is manifested from the constituent parts of wine)

1.6 chaitanyavisitha kayah purusah

(the "self" is nothing but the body endowed with consciousness)

1.7 sarirad eva

(from the body itself)

1.8 sarire bhavat

(because of it's [consciousness] existence where there is a body)

1.9 jalabudbudavajjivah

(souls are like water bubbles)

2. svabhavavada

(the doctrine of inherent nature)

2.1 janmavaichitryabhedajjagadapi

(the world is varied due to the variation of origin)

2.2 mayurachandrakavat

(as the eye in the peacock's tail)

3. pratyaksapradhanyavada

(the doctrine of the primacy of perception)

3.1 pratyaksham (ekam) eva pramanam

(perception indeed is the only means of right knowledge)

3.2 pramanasyagaunatvad anumanad arthanischayo durlabhah

(since the means of right knowledge is to be non-secondary, it is difficult to ascertain an object by means of inference)

4. punarjanmaparalokavilopavada

(the doctrine of the denial of rebirth and the other world)

4.1 paralokasiddhau pramanabhavaat

(there is no means of knowledge for determining the existence of the other-world)

4.2 paralokino'bhavat paralokabhavah

(there is no other-world because of the absence of any other-worldly being [ie. the transmigrating self])

4.3 paralokichaitanyam niravayavatvaat

(due to the insubstantiality of consciousness residing in the other world)

5. vedapramanyanisedhavada

(the doctrine of the uselessness of performing religious acts)

5.1 dharmo na karyah

(religious act is not to be performed)

5.2 tad upadesesu na pratyetavyam

(religion's instructions are not to be relied upon)

I can't help myself from quoting a wonderful verse attributed to Charvaka: na svargo napavargo va naivama paralaukikah / naiva varnasramadinam kriyascha phaladayikah // (there is no heaven, no final liberation, nor any soul in another world nor do the actions of the four castes, orders, etc., produce any real effect)

Things you see in Aussie supermarkets

Here are some interesting products that I have found while roaming the aisles within Aussie supermarkets. To my eyes, many of them betray a longing for time when Britannia ruled the waves, and The Commonwealth was THE club to be in:

You should be easily able to spot the politically incorrect one - if you are even a bit familiar with Indian history you will know why. Here are a couple more which I think reveal something else, the fact sexism is alive and thriving here, in the substratum of social consciousness:

But some things remaining unchanged just make sense, like SPAM! Spam, spam, spam! Spam spam, spammety spaaam!

In the British Museum

In late 2011, I had three hours to explore the British Museum before leaving London for Hatfield (of all places)! I had to choose what I wanted to see while trying to ignore the mind boggling amount of treasures which were entering my field of view as I was walking around the place. But in the end it was a truly unforgettable experience, and here are some of the most exciting exhibits I saw with my own two eyes (still find it hard to believe) that autumn day. Each topic links to the relevant page in the British Museum website should one want to explore more.

1. Seals from the Indus Valley Civilization

Not any more pictures in the pages of History books, these are the real ones. Especially relevant are the ones on the left side: the bull seals, and still un-deciphered symbols in a row.

2. The Rosetta stone

Arguably the most visited exhibit in the museum. What chance that such a thing exists to help future generations decipher a long-lost script? If only such a thing existed for the Indus Valley script!

 

3.  Cyrus cylinder

A sublime declaration from one of the greatest men ever to have lived.

4. Zodiac series of mohurs by Jahangir

For all Bengali children who grew up on Feluda stories ... "Jahangirer swarna-mudra"

5. Gold coin from 8th century Bengal

This was the toughest to trace back in the British Museum website. My guess is that this was issued by Ananda Dev of Banga and Samatat (reference).

Great Cricketers from Bengal

Ranadeb Bose, Manoj Tiwari and Wriddhiman Saha might console themselves with the thought there have been many cricketers from Bengal before them who were denied the chance by fate / prejudice to represent India, or do so for an extended period. The stereotype was finally broken by a man who refused to give up, and here's hoping other cricketers from Bengal imbibe his tenacity. His is the last name in the list of greats from Bengal cricket given below, ordered chronologically. A link is provided with each name to the 'cricinfo' profile for that player, for readers to view and explore.

Shute Banerjee

Probir Sen

Pankaj Roy

Gopal Bose

Saurav Ganguly

How I became a periglycophile

Shown above are some wrappers of sugar cubes I collected from the cafeteria at the Universite de Lyon. They represent the top nine coffee bean producing countries in the world, circa 2010, very cleverly arranged in alphabetical order so that the piece de resistance indeed lies at the centre!

Snippets from foreign lands - I

• In Tehran, the easiest and most convenient way to travel is by hitching rides on cars. But these are not free, one should typically pay between 250 to 500 tomans for traveling between important points in the city. Most people with cars earn some extra bucks this way, and theirs being a much more equal society (in socio-economic terms) than ours no one looks down upon this practice, and in fact is a great addition to the transport system of the city. The intent of your hitching a ride is conveyed by raising your right hand and moving your index finger to-and-fro (mentioned here for the benefit for anyone who has never called a taxi in any major city in any part of the world). Keep in mind that though 'yes' is indicated by a nod of the head in the forward direction, 'no' is indicated by jerking the head upwards, in a somewhat haughty manner if you ask me. And be polite even if you are refused, for in Persia there is no greater crime than impoliteness.
  

• There is nothing more fulfilling after a hike in the Caucasus mountains in southern Russia, than a glass of warm wine! It looks like tea, and even the shanty where we had it resembles our tea shops, with the wine boiling in a pot kept on burning embers.
  
  
  
• Lyon metro has driver-less rakes (orange ones), and it's some experience to ride in them. Typically they are two-cabin cars, so get into the front one and peer ahead. The next stop is visible as a faint spot of light in the dark tunnel, which grows on you as the train approaches it. The lines themselves are not flat, and go up and down, giving you the feeling of a surreal underground roller-coaster ride.

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