The Clown

High heels and a gown
Red nose and a frown
Her golden locks
His Polka dotted socks

Darkness crept
He quietly wept
Pain and fear
But not a single tear

His fist clenched tighter
Her solitaire shone brighter
Her eyes told a riddle
There was a gun in the middle

Hand still stretched out
Mind full of doubt
Not a word would be said
She would drop down dead

But before he could fire
And bury the liar
Pink feathers fall
Astonishing all

Mask had been dropped
All movement stopped
With eyes still red
He heard what she said

Loyalty and trust
Forgive her, he must
Lies left behind
Happiness they would find

She lowered his arm
Promised no harm
I love you, her voice cracked
And he smiled right back

Back to the circus they went
Audience waiting in the tent
The gun, he wouldn't leave
Because her eyes still deceive 

She flickers.
She sways.
They stomp forward and she flows along.
They dim, she brightens.
They burn out, she lights them up again.
She's behind the bookshelves.
In small corners, in wide corridors.
The night's silence strengthens her.
And then, dawn breaks.
They awaken. They laugh.
They've found themselves. And she, she is lost. 

Mother of All Languages (Part 2)

Dean Brown was a Sanskrit scholar, computer scientist, translated Upanishads and Yoga Sutra. He was a physicist of the highest order - making contributions to the development of the hydrogen bomb and designing the fuel element for the Nautilus, the world's first nuclear submarines.

A friend of Albert Einstein, Prof. Dean Brown points out that most European language can be traced back to a root language that is also related to Sanskrit - the sacred language of the ancient Vedic Hindu religions of India.

It has always been believed that Sanskrit was created and then refined over many generations, typically over more than a thousand years, until it was considered complete and perfect in all respects.

As per the Indian tradition Sanskrit Language has no beginning and no ending.  It is eternal. Self-born God has created it.  It is divine.  It is everlasting.  It was first used in Vedas and thereafter it has been the means of expression in other fields.

Sanskrit can be divided into two periods- the Vedic Sanskrit period (assumed to have been spoken from approximately 1500-200 B.C.) and the Classical Sanskrit period (approximately 500 B.C. - 1000 A.D.).

The Vedic period is typified by an archaic style and religious subject matter. The Classical period is more secular in orientation and closer to the written style as it continued in the current era. While the Vedic period’s most important works are the four Vedas, the Classical period witnessed the Ramayana and Mahabharata.

A strong relationship is evident between the various forms of Sanskrit, the Middle Indo-Aryan "Prakrits" and the modern Indo-Aryan languages. The Prakrits are estimated to have been descended from Vedic Sanskrit and its other forms and there is evidence of a large degree of mutual interchange of terms, words and phrases between later forms of Sanskrit and that various Prakrits that evolved.

In 1786 Sir William Jones, the English Chief Justice in India, noticed similarities between Greek and Sanskrit. This observation led Jones to hypothesize that Greek and Sanskrit, as well as Latin, descended from a common linguistic ancestor, now lost, and further that this language was also the source of the Germanic and Celtic languages. Jones, who was already familiar with Greek and Latin, when came in contact with Sanskrit, remarked that Sanskrit is more perfect than Greek, more copious than Latin and more refined than either.

As the Latin language evolved into the Romance languages in Europe, Sanskrit gave rise to a variety of dialects that in time became separate languages. In modern India there are a number of languages that descend from Sanskrit, such as Sindhi, Marathi, Bengali, Punjabi, Hindi and Urdu. Romany, the dialect of the Gypsies in western Asia and Europe, is also descended from Sanskrit.

Sanskrit has also exhibited reciprocal influences with the Dravidian languages, with the influences of Sanskrit imprinted in Dravidian language Tamil, Telugu, Kannada and Malayalam.

Today, Sanskrit is mostly used as a ceremonial language, in hymns and mantras. But the evidence of Sanskrit still exists underneath the national consciousness of modern India. Bengali and Marathi still retain a largely Sanskrit vocabulary base. The national anthem, "Jana Gana Mana" is composed in an extremely Sanskritized form of Bengali. The national song, "Vande Mataram" originally a poem taken from the book "Anandmath" written by Bankim Chandra Chattopadhyay is in pure Sanskrit like a tribute to the mother of all the Indian languages today.

The beauty of this language, and the innumerable works written in it cannot easily be summed up in one go. But perhaps it can be rightly said that Sanskrit was the origin of it all, and it continues to live and flourish even today.

The Mother Of All Languages (Part 1)

All social animals communicate with each other, from bees and ants to whales and apes, but only humans have developed a language which is more than a set of prearranged signals.
Language, as per the Oxford dictionary, is defined as the method of human communication, either spoken or written, consisting of the use of words in a structured and conventional way. Language helps in expressing our thoughts, ideas and feelings. What lies in our mind and heart can be conveyed by this powerful tool.

Languages change as they are handed down from generation to generation. 

In a large population, languages are likely to be relatively stable - simply because there are more people to remember what previous generations did. Some have argued that language evolved independently in different parts of the world, while others say it evolved just once, and that all languages are descended from a single ancestral mother tongue. Over the years, the style of speech and expression has changed. There have been new additions in dictionaries. Some words have evolved while others have completely acquired a new meaning.

The question is where did it all start?

Statistics show that the 1.8 billion speakers in the world communicate in English thus making it the largest spoken language in the world. Let’s go back in history. The form of English spoken from mid 5th to mid 11th century was Old English which is derived from Latin.

In 1786 Sir William Jones, the English Chief Justice in India, noticed similarities between Greek and the ancient language of India, Sanskrit. This observation led Jones to hypothesize that Greek and Sanskrit, as well as Latin, descended from a common linguistic ancestor. Going deeper, we see that Latin was actually a form of a group of languages that are known as the Proto Indo European languages.

What sparks the debate is whether Sanskrit is the mother of all languages.

The word "samskrata", in the strictest sense, means "purified, consecrated, sanctified". Sanskrit, usually referred to as "Samskrata Vāk", would mean a "refined language". Sanskrit has, by definition, always been considered to have been a language chiefly employed for religious and scientific discourse and is assumed to have contrasted with the languages spoken by the people.

Sanskrit was introduced on the earth planet, by the eternal Sages of Sanatan Dharm along with the Divine scriptures such as the Vedas, the Upanishads and the Puranas. Since the start of human civilization on the earth, people and the Sages both spoke pure Sanskrit language. The historical records indicate that three public programs of the recitation of the Bhagwatam and the discourses on Krishna leelas had happened in Sanskrit language in 3072 BC, 2872 BC and 2842 BC in which Saints and the devotees participated.

In the Classical period Sanskrit was used much like Latin in Medieval Europe, as a literary language of educated elite.

Sanskrit has a similar position in India to that of Latin and Greek in Medieval Europe, and is a central part of Hindu/Vedic traditions. In its pre-classical form, called Vedic Sanskrit, Sanskrit is one of the earliest attested members of the Indo-European language family. The oldest example of Sanskrit literature available is the Rig-Veda.

After the 11th century, the development of Sanskrit literature considerably declined due to the rise of derivative languages like Hindi, Bengali and other languages. However, the influence of Sanskrit in the literary cultures in these languages is very evident, with earlier works in Sanskrit constantly undergoing reinvention and reinterpretation over subsequent ages.

As the Latin language evolved into the Romance languages in Europe, Sanskrit gave rise to a variety of dialects that in time became separate languages.

Perhaps Sanskrit is the beginning of it all? 

Tornado

The air was crisp, the sky blue,

The town seemed welcoming, with faces new.
Roses and sunflowers, grass lush green,
Peaceful, composed, calm and serene.

The sky changed colour, clouds became grey,
Lightening, thunder, a storm on its way.
The wind blew faster, became quite strong,
Not usual rains; something was wrong.

It headed straight towards them, a disaster in disguise,
Growing bolder and louder, as it continued to rise.
It picked up everything, each stick and stone,
Breaking and tearing what came its way, making everything its own.

Chaos, confusion, pandemonium at its best,
Twisting, twirling, no signs of rest.
Turmoil continued, all were in pain,
When the storm halted, would life remain?

Then they fell to the ground,a broken neck or toe
Searching for stability, running to and fro.
The down was destroyed, so were they,
Nature's harsh call, on a bright sunny day.

How will they bring it together? They had no clue,
No energy either, and no willingness too.
They only knew they were shattered, as they wept and cried.
Maybe it could be restored, but only if they tried.

Silver linings

The walls that protected me,
And the hands that used to guide,
The pillars of support I could fall on,
Are no longer by my side.

I wiped my tears as I hugged them,
and then I cried some more,
A last glimpse over my shoulder,
And I walked out the door.

I did not know what lay in front of me,
What would come my way.
It was dark and scary,
Today, the clouds were grey.

And then the realization struck me,
To preach what I had been taught.
That losers never won,
and winners always fought.

I knocked on several doors,
To find the right key.
Tests and trials given,
To see what is suitable for me.

Step by step I reached here,
A longer way to go,
Neither mike nor stage knew me,
The faces, I didn't know.

Some glistening eyes, some friendly smiles,
Some welcoming voices too,
People who would walk with me
When everything was new.

This is a time of transformations
A time of new beginnings,
It might not be so bad after all,
Grey clouds, too, have silver linings.

Women as agents of change

The status of women in India has been subject to many great changes over the past few years, actually, over the past few millennia. From equal status with men in ancient times through the low points of the medieval period, to the promotion of equal rights by many reformers, the history of women in India has been eventful.

In the Rigvedic period, the women took equal part in sacrificial rites. Women frequently associated themselves with Vidhatha.

Yes it’s true that Medieval India was not women's age. It is supposed to be the 'dark age' for them. Medieval India saw many foreign conquests, which resulted in the decline in women's status. Cheap and forced labour of the enslaved population or of the Sudras became available to the Aryans and women ceased to be productive members of society.

The status of women in modern India is a sort of a paradox. If on one hand she is at the peak of ladder of success, on the other hand she is mutely suffering the family violence.

As compared with past, women in modern times have achieved a lot. Women have left the secured domain of their home and are now in the battlefield of life, fully armored with their talent. They are proving themselves.

The plight of women in medieval India and at the starting of modern India can be summed up in the words of great poet Rabindranath Tagore:
"O Lord! Why have you not given woman the right to conquer her destiny?
Why does she have to wait head bowed,
By the roadside, Waiting with tired patience,
Hoping for a miracle in the morrow? O Lord!”

We must not forget that Indian women are not lagging behind men but have reached and even proved themselves better suited in each and every height and pinnacle that men have.

When we hear “Indian women who have brought a change in our country”, the names that may pop into most of our heads are Jhansi ki Rani, Indira Gandhi, Mother Teresa, Kiran Bedi, Kalpana Chawla, Saina Nehwal, Medha Patkar, Aishwariya Rai Bachchan, Lata Mangehkar, Arundhati Roy or Prathiba Patil.

We shouldn’t ignore Bachendri Pal- the first Indian women to climb the Mt.Everest, or Justice M.Fatima Beevi- the first woman judge of the supreme court of India or perhaps Harita Kaur Deol- first Indian woman pilot in the Indian Air Force on a solo fight. Or perhaps even Savitribai Phule- the first female teacher of the first women’s school in India. Names like Kamaljit Sandhu- first Indian woman to win a gold in the Asian Games or Punita Arora- the first woman in the Indian Army to don the highest rank of Lieutenant General, do not really strike us at all.

Whether it is in the field of sports or in the political front, in literature or in the sphere of art and entertainment, Indian women have mastered anything and everything which a woman can dream of. They participate in all activities such as education, media, art and culture, service sectors, science and technology, etc.

It is not merely about names by which I shall support my argument. Statistics of 2009-2010 have shown that a total of 276,806 women were enrolled in engineering and technology courses at the start of the academic session. In urban India, girls are nearly at par with the boys in terms of education. This shows that women have broken yet another glass ceiling- one of the most resilient ones in Indian academics.

Today’s modern women fill many positions starting from nurses to CEO’s, scientists to members of NGOs. And as women keep climbing the ladder to success, they encourage the youth like us. Girls from all around the world aspire to become a Lata Mangeshkar, or a P. T. Usha. Anita Desai, Shobha De and Prathiba Patil are idols for many girls.

Along with being career oriented, women have shouldered their household responsibilities very well. The pressure of being expected to fill roles like sister, mother, daughter, friend, wife etc. can result in anxiety, depression and loss of self worth. However they have not let anything pull them back.

The desire of Indian women can be best summed up in the following lines of 'Song of an African Women':

I have only one request.
I do not ask for money
Although I have need of it,
I do not ask for meat . . .
I have only one request,

And all I ask is
That you remove
The road block
From my path.
I would like to end by quoting US president Barack Obama “The best judge of whether or not a country is going to develop is how it treats its women. If it's educating its girls, if women have equal rights, that country is going to move forward. But if women are oppressed and abused and illiterate, then they're going to fall behind.” Unquote.
Thus looking at the progress of women, it can be rightly said, hats off to the ladies…