LONDON VISIT:5th AND FINAL PART

BUCKINGHAM PALACE

Dear friends

What remains to be said? Ah! the Buckingham Palace indeed! We boarded another Big Bus which dropped us at the Buckingham Palace road. The English weather was playing true to form and now baring her fangs; a slow drizzle and an icy wind gripped us in a vice. Undaunted we made it to the Palace and we were amply rewarded by the splendid view we enjoyed. Somehow the statues in front of the Palace resemble those we are accustomed to see in front of the Victoria Memorial in Calcutta. It was beyond me to understand or try to understand the significance of the various statues we beheld and a computetr search done later wasn't of much help either.

LONDON VISIT:4th PART

THAMES!THAMES!

From Westminister, we boarded the Big Bus and headed across the river Thames. There are many bridges spanning the river, the most famous being the drawbridge known as Tower Bridge. We passed through what was the shady underbelly of London of yesteryears, including the East End, notorious for the Whitechapel murders popularised as Jack the Ripper's ghoulish acts. We stopped at the Tower of London where we disembarked and headed for the river cruise. Cruising on the River Thames was exhilarating and the English guide recounted the stories of the mansions on both banks of the Thames. The London Eye, which happens to be a FERRIS wheel, the tallest in all Europe at 135 metres and takes 30 minutes for a complete revolution is now the supreme attraction of all London.

LONDON VISIT: 2nd PART

TRAFALGAR SQUARE



The word Trafalgar has an important and everlasting place in the British psyche. It was England's finest hour and the hero was Lord Horatio Nelson, labelled 'the one-handled adulterer' by James Joyce. it is a massive square area on the northen side of which is the imposing National Gallery, the adnmission is free. Equestrian statues of English heroes are standing in glory and in the middle is a fountain. There is a tall column on the top of which is a statue of Nelson standing. There are other theatre halls nearby. Feeding the pigeons are no longer permitted and there are very few pigeons remaining.

LONDON VISIT:3rd PART

BIG BEN & PARLIAMENT HOUSE

Our next port of call was the Big Ben and the houses of Parliament. In the Park opposite the Parliament are statues of eminent British parliamentarians, of whom Sir Winston is arguably the most well known.

The underground leading to the Westminister station at the bank of the Thames has a statue of the ancient British Queen Boadicea astride a quadriga leading her warriors against the Romans on British soil.

LONDON VISIT

We had been to London yesterday the 1st of November. We reached the Victoria station around 9am and went to the loo. We were to pay 30p each to pass through the turnstiles and we did not have any small change. There was a vending machine nearby issuing small change on demand but it was out of order. we rang the bell when a woman janitor came and opened the locked gate and invited all of us in, free of charge. Ladies to the left and gents to the right. In the gents toilet there was another vending machine selling user friendly condoms 'Durex'. How appropriate and how interesting. Is Ambumani Ramadoss listening?

Afterwards we immediately bought 2 tickets for the Big Bus city tour at £24 apiece. we got down at Hyde park, an immense swathe of greenery where we descried some riders in Jodhpurs. Surely an interesting sight. The nude statue of Achilles with a drawn sword and a shield built by Westmacott and is known as the Wellington monument to commemorate the English Victory over Napoleon.We hopped into another Big Bus and got down at Picadilly Circus and I clicked away to my heart's content.

Picadilly Circus

At the centre of the circle or the crossroads is the Shaftesbury Fountain in memory of the great English Philanthrope Earl of Shaftesbury, which is exquisitely carved in bronze still pouring water today for the thirsty passerby and the horse. On top of the Fountain is the naked statue of the boy Eros who has already discharged his shaft which was controversial when the fountain was inaugurated. Mercifully Englishmen are no longer prudish! However it is also called 'the Angel of Christian Charity'.Nearby are the glamourous neon lights of TDK and Sanyo.

SHADOWS NUMBERLESS

I had been to Bartholomew Square today. It is near the Brighton Dome and houses the Town Hall, which happens to be the City Council's office. Nearby are plenty of pubs and eateries serving quintessential English food but the rates are prohibitive for us. There was a shop selling erotica and had the uncanny advertisement 'a sexy shop for sexy people'. Reckon Samirda will find it useful!

SUSSEX UNIVERSITY

We had been to Sussex University today. First of all we took a number 7 bus to the Dome and then a number 25 bus to the University. We visited the School of Medicine and the Library. We also made liberal use of the toilet at Bramber House. What surprised me was that we had a free entrance into the library which had a versatile collection of books. The ambience was certainly perfect. Students of all nationalities were brousing through the books with avid interest. it was rather tragic to see that some students, mostly women, egressing from the portals and smoking!

The medical school was nothing extraordinary as far as I could understand. I had sought entrance to the Anatomy Department to see the Museum and the Dissection hall. I was told that there is no Museum! I saw that they were working on Genomes and Mast Cells. The doors were obviously shut.

The lawns wore a look of verdant green and it being autumn now, the trees, mostly maple, were covered in gold. two men in uniforms were using an air blower to accumulate the scattered leaves in one place.

On our way back we took a 25C bus to Royal Sussex County Hospital and a further bus number 7 to George Street. My lady feeling hungry helped herself to a Ham Pizza, price £1.80.

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WHITE HAWTHORNE AND PASTORAL EGLANTINE

Here are some more pictures of my neighbourhood in Brighton

The Hove Library on the top is an imposing mansion that sets the mind ablaze. I became a member just by showing a proof of my residence. I borrowed two books for free. I have the right to borrow books from any of the other Libraries in Brighton. More about the Libraries later.

The shop 'IGNITION'on Blachington Road is an adult shop as can be read on the glass in front and offers adult novelties. What exactly does it mean? I have hestated to venture inside so far . Maybe the entrance fee is expensive[i have not enquired] or I may lose my family jewels!

GEORGE STREET HOVE

George Street of Hove resembles an idyllic English landscape. We have a shoppers paradise and in the sunny afternoons it is full of people with women in

beautiful dresses and dogs on leash. A beggar plying his trade singing to his guitar was a memorable sight.u

BRIGHTON MARINA

We had been to the Brighton Marina on Tuesday. The number 7 bus as usual took us from the George Street bus-station through the city along Churchill square, the Royal Sussex County Hospital. We spent a bright and sunny afternoon at the waterfront seeing the quay and the myriad exotic restaurants that dot the seafront serving even more exotic cuisine. The old and young were there enjoying the fish and chips with a glass of sparkling Dom Perignon.
No, we did not visit the restaurants or the shops as there was a deep winter in my pocket, but window shopping, sure enough we did amply.

Saturday the 18th October

It was Saturday the 18th of October that my wife and I boarded the Air India flight 151 from Dum Dum departing at 1.15 pm. We reached Heathrow at 8pm local time and the formalities took the better part of an hour. My son in law was there to receive us and we took the bus for Brighton. It was a delightful journey and we made the 70 miles in less than two hours. To Clarendon Villas was a short taxi ride. My younger daughter was there to welcome us though it was well past midnight. Heavily pregnant, she served us, what seemed to be with a minimum of effort, an Indian dinner of rotis and paneer curry. Very soon the jet lag took effect and we had a sound sleep.

THE MULE

Of all the animals found in nature, the mule, though not a prodigy, is incapable of reproduction. Ever wondered why? The parents of the mule are certainly not mules: it happens to be the offspring of a male ass and a female horse, a mare, and never the other way around. Surely a male horse, a stallion, has self-respect and would certainly not cover a female ass; whereas a mare in heat would not hesitate to accept an erect phallus of an ass in the business end of her birth canal. Herein lies the mystery of the mule.

In a figurative sense, a mule is the child born of a woman of a higher station after union with her inferior. Mother Nature does not differentiate between and within species. To her an ass is no way inferior to the horse. But we, miserable humans, consider the horse a lot above the ass. It was Herodotus, the Greek historian, who elucidated this point in his History of Persia.

Human beings have long considered it vile and improper for a woman to have coition with a man who is considered her inferior. If memory does not fail me there are umpteen examples of our Aryan heroes in the Mahabharata, Bhima and Arjuna, begetting children of Non Aryan women and also of Rakshasas. But there is not a single instance of a Brahmin or Kshatriya woman in conjugal bliss with a Sudra or a Rakshasa.

If we glance at the story of the Mughals we come across a remarkable fact that though the Princes of the Blood Royal invariably married, the Princesses however had to remain a spinster in the harem all her life. I have read it somewhere that it was the decree of the Grand Moghul, Akbar, who stipulated that a woman born of the loins of the Royal Family would remain untouched by male hands! This was one of the reasons of the shenanigans and lecheries in the Moghul harems.

Even half a century ago, there were indeed very few white women married to a black man in the USA. Black men faced the ire of the whites, if he was foolhardy enough to venture to woo and marry a Caucasian lady.

In South Africa it was a penal offense for a black man to marry a white girl during the apartheid. The retribution was quick and thorough: not only the might of the state but also the white vigilantes ganged up against the man. Matters were carried to a ludicrous extent as seen by the censorship of the immortal Shakespearean drama ‘Othello’ where the Moor, Othello, marries the white woman Desdemona.

Let us see what the history of Arabia has to tell us. The most colourful man in all Islam was the Caliph of Baghdad, Haroon Rashid. He was the stuff legends are made of. Not only was he the Commander of the Faithful but was also the redoubtable hero of the Arabian Nights. He was of immense potential: unparalleled in wisdom, graceful in victory and benevolent to the supplicant. He was twice blessed, for he had among his closest friends one Zafar, of the house of Barmici, who was second to none in intelligence and fidelity. The Caliph had raised Zafar to the post of the chief Vizier or Prime Minister.

Haroon Rashid had a younger sister who was the apple of his eye. When she came of age, Haroon decided to give her in marriage to Zafar. It was indeed a marriage made in Heaven. On the night of the wedding, Haroon drew Zafar aside and told him in no uncertain terms that though he was now married to his sister, he must never forget that she was of the Caliph’s blood. Under no circumstances should he do unto her as a man does to a woman. A crestfallen Zafar foreswore to comply.

Time passed and the marriage remained unconsummated. Then Zafar approached Haroon with a polite request that he desired to stay in a far off land with his beloved wife to which the Caliph agreed. It was a sixmonth’s journey that the couple undertook to be quite away from the prying eyes of Baghdad. There they were happy in their isolation. But Mother Nature being Mother Nature the unpreventable could not be prevented. She conceived and in due course of time gave birth to a son. It was a hush-hush affair.

Not for nothing was Haroon Rashid the Caliph of Baghdad. The news reached him of his sister’s confinement. He made arrangements to travel to his brother-in-law with all his royal entourage. Zafar was delighted to meet his good friend, lord and master. The Caliph was sumptuously entertained for three days and three nights as was the custom.

On the forth day Haroon invited Zafar for a walk in the outskirts of the city and asked him if the news that his sister had delivered a child was true. Zafar had no scope to hide the fact and he replied in the affirmative. When asked if he was the father of the child he again replied in the affirmative.

Zafar, well renowned for his benevolence and justice, called for his executioner and had Zafar dismembered into four pieces which were hung in the four corners of the city.

My Latest Letter

My letter to the Statesman, Calcutta was published today.

First the original article and then my letter.

Contortions in matrilineal Meghalaya
Patricia Mukhim

OFFICIAL statistics are unreliable as far as violence, rape and crime against women are concerned. Most crimes go unreported but the social grapevine is a reliable source of information about what happens to many young women in tribal families and why parents are diffident about reporting crimes against their young daughters. Among the eight North-eastern states, Meghalaya is known to be more gender just and equitable because of its matrilineal structure. Here is a state where lineage flows from the mother’s clan line and the youngest daughter inherits parental property, including ancestral. Recently there has been a spate of crimes against women in this tribal state. The brutality of the crimes and the manner in which they were committed left us all aghast. Last week two women who had gone on an outing with three male friends were found dead with their throats slit by a machete. The killers have been arrested and have also confessed to their crimes. What they said in their confessional is shocking. They killed the two women because they refused to yield to the men’s sexual overtures. Some months ago another young woman who had migrated from her village to Shillong was found murdered and her body was dumped in a drain on the outskirts of the city. The body lay unclaimed at the Shillong Civil Hospital for several days and was later buried by a women’s organisation. It was only after about a month that the relatives came to claim the body. For a close-knit community, this incident was a real jolt. It is not often that tribal families disclaim their own, no matter how wayward their personal lives may have been. This single incident actually led to a knee-jerk reaction from the state police. There was a clamp-down on night clubs and lounge bars which were told to close shop at 9 pm. There was a mild reaction from those who frequent these week-end chill-out places. But being part of a society that is at once in denial about the rapid onslaught of globalisation and its aftermath - the complex spin-offs such as drugs and HIV-Aids, and one that is also struggling to cling on to middle-class, tribal morality, the young who love their song and dance went into a different kind of entertainment mode. Meghalaya is also the only place where most vehicles have black tinted panes. These SUVs and other vehicles became make-shift bars where the young with disposable incomes freaked out on weekends. Now the district administration has ordered that no vehicles should have tinted glasses. The manner in which laws are implemented in Meghalaya show a complete vacuum of clear thinking. The reason for the crack down on bars and discotheques is simply because the murdered victim was ostensibly last seen emerging out of a nondescript hotel in downtown Shillong.In a city that has been the capital of the British overlords since 1897, and whose denizens have mimicked the Western way of life some five centuries ago, it is rather strange that some laws which can at best be archaic be imposed suddenly on an unsuspecting people. The Khasis have never been known to watch Hindi movies. They are ardent admirers of Western movies and music and, to a certain extent, western lifestyle. This is further accentuated by Christianity whose rituals of worship especially in certain denominations is very much western. Even the songs and sermons are highly Americanised, to the point that one often feels one is attending a church service in a Southern Baptist Church somewhere in Texas. Neither Christianity nor any other religion have however had their sobering effect on the people. Crimes of passion, rapes and domestic violence are on the increase. In 2007, the National Family Health Survey stated that Meghalaya has the highest incidence of domestic violence. The findings were hotly debated and people went into a huddle to rubbish it. “How could a matrilineal society known for according such a respectful space to its women be accused of a rising graph when it comes to domestic violence?”, the cynics countered. What many fail to realise is that matriliny only has a cosmetic effect. The other underpinnings of patriarchy are as strong in Meghalaya as they are in the rest of the world. Crimes like rapes have always been there but cleverly concealed by a societal mandate. Today the media is vigilant and so are human rights groups and women’s organisations which are trying to ferret out information about the real and not the perceived status of women in Meghalaya. Women’s bodies like the North East Network have been carrying out a sustained campaign to create awareness about crimes against women. While there has been considerable awareness by both sexes about the nature of crimes against women, this awareness is very city-centric. In the villages where rapes takes place almost everyday and girls as young as three years are sexually molested, in most cases the village canon takes precedence over the Indian Penal Code. The victim or her parents are asked to compromise instead of moving court. In some instances the parents and/or the victim are offered money as a compromise package. Since the police do not generally take suo-moto action nobody is any the wiser. Meghalaya is also known for its traditional institutions but these have remained largely male-centric local bodies allowing women no space for participation. Naturally their thinking on a range of issues is skewed. There is a strong denial about a host of things. Recently a church-based NGO conducted a sample study on 1,000 vulnerable groups of people such as drug addicts and sex workers. Eighty of them tested HIV-positive. Instead of looking the problem in the face there was a studied silence from society and an inherent denial that the problem exists. Matriliny is indeed under severe stress. It is no longer a safe haven for women, least of all the susceptible groups who migrate from the villages to the city in the hope of a better life. Civil laws are inadequate to deal with the current social challenges. The practitioners of the matrilineal culture need to readjust their lenses to see what needs changing and how to cope with the future instead of resting on a romantic past that is largely defined by men. Women have to redefine matriliny to make it more violence-free and gender-just. Today both the values are under threat. (The author is a Shillong-based columnist and activist, and can be contacted at patricia17@rediffmail.com

Meghalaya needs a strong women’s movement

Sir, ~ I was moved by Patricia Mukhim’s write-up, “Contortions in matrilineal Meghalaya” (22 September). Such brutal crimes against women in the picturesque state of Meghalaya, which boasts of a matrilineal succession to property, is shocking to say the least. Meghalaya is considered more gender-just and equitable. Then what must be happening in the other Northeastern states? It seems Christianity, with its message of love and compassion, is practised more in the breach than otherwise in this state. A robust and proactive women’s movement with women police officers and women-only police stations may be an answer to this terrible state of affairs. ~ Yours, etc.,

The Statesman Kolkata 15th June 2008

My letter published in the Statesman Kolkata today

First the oribinal article and then my rejoinder

Spotlight: State Power, Religion And Social OppressionThe book is a must for all sections of the reading public... A review by Suranjan DasClass and Religion in Ancient India By Jayantanuja Bandyopadhyaya Anthem South Asian Studies, Anthem Press We have known Professor Jayantanuja Bandopadhyaya as an expert in international relations and contemporary affairs. But this book has proved his scholarship and expertise in ancient Indian history as well. Based on such Sanskrit classics as the Vedas, Upanishads, Manusmriti, Ramayana, Mahabharata, Arthasastra, Kamasutra, Gita and Puranas, he has ably demonstrated 'the dynamic relationship' between religion and ancient Indian society. Using the methodology already developed by Debprasad Chattopadhyay, R.S. Sharma, Romila Thapar and Irfan Habib, Bandopadhyay shows how the ancient Indian state played a crucial role in upholding, propagating and enforcing a particular form of religion in the interests of the ruling class. In doing this he questions the notion of 'unparalleled religiosity and spirituality' of ancient Indians, developed by orthodox Hindu scholars, as well as the thesis of the spiritual foundations of Hindu nationalism, promoted by the classical protagonists of the Indian renaissance. The basic argument that runs through the book is the role of religion in sustaining an oppressive and highly stratified social structure in ancient India. Bandopadhyay contends that unlike in other ancient societies, as in Greece or Rome, in India it was primarily religion, rather than primitive accumulation and brute force, which played a crucial role in class formation. The first chapter of the book outlines the process of class formation in the Vedic age.Contradicting the popular notion of the Vedas being divine revelations, the author argues that the Vedas were composed by the priestly class of the Aryas and reflected the material and worldly aspirations of the contemporary ruling class. By the time the 10th Mandala of the Rig Veda was composed a four-tier class structure in an embryonic form came into existence. ThePurusha Sukta of the 10th Mandala of the Rig Veda essentially sought to sanctify this emerging class structure by imparting it a divine origin. The second chapter argues that the Advaita philosophy was an ideological instrument to preserve the exploitative class structure in the name of the eternal creator. The subordinate members of the society were taught to accept the divine social order and not to covet the wealth and power of the powerful. The third chapter views the composition of the Bhagavad Gita by 'successive writers' in the context of the challenge posed to the Vedic religion and social order by the foreign invaders, the rationalist philosophies of Lokayata, Sankhya, Nyaya and Vaishseshkia, and the rise of Buddhism and Jainism. Brahminical hegemony was now given a new form to preserve the Vedic social order. In the fourth chapter the author demonstrates how such Hindu mythological theories like yugas or time cycle, envisaging the return of the avatar to counteract any threat to Vedic religion, constituted 'a religious instrument of political control in the hands of the ruling class in ancient India'.The author entitles the fifth and final chapter of the book `State and Counter-Revolution' where he unfolds the decisive role of the ancient Indian state to organise the Brahminical counter-offensive against the entire range of anti-Vedic forces. To support this counter-revolution the state encouraged the composition of the dharmasastras and the Puranas, the Brahminisation of atheist philosophies and texts like the Ramayana and Mahabharata, and the large-scale revival of Vedic sacrifices. Individuals or social groups opposing the Vedic religion were also subjected to state persecution. The state thus systematically used its power to 'preserve and perpetuate the predatory class-caste structure of ancient Indian society'. Consequently, the society in ancient India became 'more oppressive and exploitative' than any of its contemporaries. The author shows how by the time the Upanishads was compiled the ancient Indian society had experienced class polarisation. But this exploitative Vedic religion and social order also evoked opposition, as Bandyopadhyay indicates, in the form of the intransigence of indigenous Anarya tribes, emergence of Buddhism, Jainism and various atheist philosophies and the rise of Shudra kingdoms. The capture of state power by the Sungas and then the Guptas represented a Brahminical counter-revolutionary process which saw a close class collaboration between the Brahmanas, Kshatriyas and the state and coincided with the compilation of the Manusmriti and Dharmasastras, the expansion of the Mahabharata and Ramayana, and composition of many Puranas. Besides, Bandyopadhyay demonstrates how the ruling classes utilised such texts as the Gita and Puranas to present the image of a common Brahminical religion in the face of the prevalence of plurality of gods and goddesses in India's cultural tradition. The author draws a parallel with emperor Constantine's attempt to replace Greek and Sumerian gods and goddesses by Christianity to assert political control over an ethnically heterogeneous population. The ruling classes in ancient India were engaged in their pursuit of artha and kama with the support of the Brahminical texts. Religion, as the author contends, was used for "purely demonstrative and exploitative purposes".Jayantanuja Bandyopadhyaya's reflections on ancient Indian society have great contemporary relevance. His findings throw light on the historical roots of a fundamental contradiction in our country's political economy: a functional democracy, a pluralistic society and economic attainments coexisting with the traditional rigid class-caste structure of Vedic origin and a dominance of 'metaphysical and mythological' Hindu belief system. The author correctly notes that emancipation of the millions of the dalits and subordinated groups in our society, who comprise the overwhelming section of the Indian population, depends on the destruction of this repressive social structure.In fact, the survival of the Brahminised hierarchical and exploitative social structure has provided the fundamentalist political forces in contemporary India an adequate space for working The relationship between state, religion and social structure in India that is underlined in the book, has also an international relevance. Violent fundamentalist assertions in West Asia, the rising force of rightist politics in the USA, and the use of religious justification for interventionism in international politics - all these are indications of this relationship in the global sphere. We hope that the author will enrich our understanding of this international process in a separate volume.The author admits that dissection of the ancient linkage between religion and class-caste convergence in India had been his academic zeal. The present book is a testimony to the fulfilment of the author's passion. Based on a sound analytical framework and an interpretative reading of ancient Indian texts, the book makes a fundamental contribution to a better understanding of the evolution of Indian society in terms of continuity and change. The Select Bibliography is extremely rich and lends an additional value to the book for scholars interested in pursuing further the line of thinking delineated by Bandyopadhyaya. The book is a must for all sections of the reading public. (The reviewer is the Vice-Chancellor, University of Calcutta)

To
The Editor
The Statesman
Kolkata


Sir

The leitmotif of Prof. Jayantanuja Bandyopadhyaya’s book, as is evident from the review by Suranjan Das, ‘STATE POWER, RELIGION AND SOCIAL OPPRESSION’ in the 8TH DAY in yesterday’s Statesman is the same as the theme of Babasaheb Ambedkar’s pioneering work ‘Who were the Sudras?’. The great Tamil thinker and iconoclast Periyar held similar views. He was a true revolutionary can be understood by the fact that he questioned the patriarchal concept of a ‘woman’s virginity’ labeling it to be a mischievous attempt of the upper castes to enslave women.

Emperor Constantine, after embracing Christianity, persecuted the non-believers on the advice of the Church and the whole Empire became monotheistic. According to the historian, Edward Gibbon, Christianity was the chief cause of the decline and fall of the Roman Empire.

Thanking you

Sincerely

My Mistress’s Sparrow is dead

An ode to the Immortal Catullus


He was the most vitriolic and the most virulent of the Latin poets of antiquity. But his poems are still read with profound pleasure. There was nothing of the softness or effeminacy in his writings. He has used the ‘f’ word quite frequently with near lethal effect. Come to think of it, the ‘f’ word and its sister germane ‘buggery’ is integral to his poems. The hallowed institutes of Classics learning, Oxford and Cambridge, still teach his poems; the entire lot in Latin. An English translation of his work somehow robs the reader of its sense of humour and subtle irony that every page is pregnant with.

Very little is known about Catullus’s life. He died young, pretty young, aged only thirty years. He was born in 84 BCE and died in 54 BCE during the heyday of the Roman Republic. A contemporary of Julius Caesar, many of his poems heaped scorn and ridicule on the most famous Roman of the day. He had a passionate love affair with a married woman, Clodia, whom he calls Lesbia and his poems on Lesbia are a study on the fickleness of emotion. Lesbia one may recall is derivative of the word Lesbos, an island of Greece, which during the Golden Age of Hellas was famed for a poetess Sappho. Very little of Sapphic poetry survives but she was reputed for her Epithalamia or wedding poems. Catullus had also written a couple of Epithalamia containing a modicum of ribaldry. He also loved a young boy Juventius and was not shy to speak about it.

It was his contention that a writer’s life ought to be chaste but his pen need not be. To understand his poems one must realize that in pre-Christian Rome, eroticism was in full vigour. Adultery, pederasty, phallus display and other orgies were routine, specially during the Festival of Saturnalia.

Let us start with the Lesbia poems. In ‘Tears for Lesbia’s Sparrow’, he writes about the pet sparrow which is Lesbia’s delight and she holds it fast to her breasts. When the sparrow is hungry he bites her fingers. He wishes to toy with the sparrow when he is lovelorn. In the next poem the sparrow is dead and Lesbia’s eyes are swollen with tears. Her pet will no longer play with her, nor dance on her laps, nor chirp to her ears. In another love poem he asks Lesbia for a thousand kisses and a hundred more and to confuse them so that no enemy can cast an evil eye. Shortly after, he mentions of the rupture of his relationship with Lesbia and exhorts himself to be firm and unwilling to chase what is fleeing from him. He wonders who will now pay homage to her beauty, who will love her and whose lips she will bite. Meanwhile Lesbia is in love with a pretty boy named Lesbius and the poet wishes to know if three men could be found to vouch for Lesbius’s parentage. In another poem Lesbia vilifies the poet to her husband who is pleased to hear it. The poet calls the husband a stupid mule as he fails to notice that Lesbia has a lingering emotion for the poet: anger. If she had remained silent that would have been the end of the story. In one of his last poems, Catullus makes a painful entreaty desiring Lesbia to come back to him and satiate his love for her.


His caustic poems, poems bursting with invectives, are a delight to read. He lampoons Asinius Marrucinus for stealing the poet’s table napkins. Not that the napkins are worth a lot but his friends had earlier gifted them to the poet and he had cherished their possessions. Later in another poem he warns his friend Aurelius, to whom he gives a boy, possibly Juventius, for keeping safe during his absence, not to indulge in immodest passion. Catullus has nothing to fear from the people on the street on their daily chores but from Aurelius’s penis, which is dangerous to both good and bad boys. He advises Aurelius to shake his penis with as much force as he wishes and if he debauches the young boy then an evil fate will be his. In the next poem he rebukes Aurelius and one Furius and tells them that he will fuck them and bugger them for their misdeeds.

Catullus poem ‘Siesta: to Ipsithilla’, has all the ingredients of a secret rendezvous of lovers. He asks Ipsithilla to stay alone in her house at siesta and keep the doors open and be ready for nine fucks in succession by Catullus as he had had a plentiful meal and his erect penis was making a hole in his tunic. In his ‘Suggestion to Vibenius’ he asks the father and son duo to migrate to a vile place as the father’s right hand is dirty with filthy deeds and the son’s arse is all consuming. His poem ‘the Writing Tablets’ is surely a masterpiece of satire. In this poem a loathsome adulteress has taken the poet’s manuscript and refuses to give them back. He exhorts his friends to accompany him and accost the strumpet on the street with foul words and call for the papers in question. If she still refuses to part with them then to shout from the rooftops that she is a whore and implore her to return the same. If to no avail, then they ought to change tactics to make her blush by calling her the most virtuous woman in Rome “honest and chaste one, give back my letters”.

To the poet Calvus he vents his spleen when Calvus had sent a complimentary copy of his poems to Catullus. Catullus’s sarcastic comment was ‘Great gods, an amazing, immortal book. That you sent to your Catullus, so he might immediately die, on the optimum day, in the Saturnalia’. Thallus was another individual who had invited the poet’s wrath by not returning the poet’s cloak. Catullus loudly calls him a sodomite, softer than a rabbit’s fur or goose grease or the tip of the ear or an old man’s flaccid penis mouldy with spider webs. In his confessional poem ‘Threesome: to Cato’, he tells of the amusing instance of catching a young pupil in flagrante delicto with the poet’s lover and immediately plunges his erect penis into the youth’s arse.

Catullus is in his elements in his Mammura poems. Mammura, also known as Mentula in some of the poems, was, according to the prevalent gossip, a wealthy man who was the lover of Julius Caesar. Catullus calls him a Cock, an allusion to penis, and sometimes calls him a sodomite and sometimes a catamite. That Julius Caesar was a pederast was well known and Catullus castigates him for wasting his spoils of war and the booties from Spain by lavishing expensive gifts on Mammura. According to Catullus they were beautifully matched, these perverse buggers. Caesar was initially incensed by these scurrilous writings and a discreet word was sent to Catullus to apologise to Caesar, which the poet eventually did. Caesar, being Caesar, forgave the poet and invited him to dinner at his palace and the two antagonists shared a wonderful evening.

Catullus lives in his poems, which have withstood the test of time. Nothing insipid and nothing dull came flowing from his stylus. He had enjoyed life to the full or whatever that can be enjoyed in three decades of existence. He had grieved the death of his brother in Troy and had visited his tomb to pay his respects to his soul. His poems on Lesbia characterize the periodic swing of his mood; the ecstasy of love initially, followed by the pangs of separation and later on his pining for his beloved. His invectives form a genre on their own and stand head and shoulders above anything else available. They are a landmark in poetry.

MATRICIDE

This is a taboo subject. It is hardly ever spoken, in India anyway. After ransacking every nook and corner of my memory regarding this matter in the Hindu religious books I can remember only one instance of this heinous crime. Yes you have guessed it. It is the story of Parasuram. Parasuram had killed his mother on the command of his father with an axe, ‘Parasu’ in Sanskrit, and hence his name. But there was no stigma attached to it, as redemption was quick to follow. Being pleased with his son’s obedience, his father offered him a boon of his choice to which Parasuram quickly prayed for his mother’s resurrection, which was promptly granted.

Matricide is a heinous crime abhorrent to all. The Hindus have glorified motherhood beyond all recognition. They have stretched imagination very thin and long and even worship the humble cow as a mother. To willfully do away with a mother is obnoxious to the psyche, but a slow and pathetic torture is not unheard of as the media frequently reminds us. There are umpteen cases in the courts of Kolkata where the judge has to castigate the wayward sons to look after their aging mothers or face the wrath of law.

So speaking of matricide I have to take you to the age of Golden Greece and tell a tale of the heroes after their homecoming following the sack of Troy. It is a well-known story; the first poem of western Civilisation and Homer is indeed a household name in Europe. However this is not from the Iliad but from Eskilos’ [Aeschylus in Latin] trilogy of ‘the Atreids’.

So let’s start from the beginning. The Greek warriors, under the commander-in-chief Agamemnon, had assembled at Aulis to sail for Troy in their thousand ships. But a strong wind kept them harbourbound for a long time and the soldiers were loosing heart. Calchas, the soothsayer, opined that Agamemnon had to sacrifice his daughter Iphigenia and placate the Gods if he desired a favorable wind. The general of the Greeks had no choice but to call his Queen Clytemenstra and his daughter Iphigenia to Aulis on the pretext of getting his daughter married to the great hero Achilles and then putting his unsuspecting daughter to the sword. Such was the beginning, the ominous beginning, of the voyage of the Greeks to Troy.

Clytemenstra was a woman of no small parts. She did not take kindly to this affront of her husband. She was previously married to another man whom Agamemnon had killed. She bore Agamemnon three children: the two daughters, Iphigenia and Electra, and one son Orestes who was one year old when the Greeks sailed for Troy.

The Trojan War took all of ten years. The Greeks were no strangers to looting or what is called the collection of war booties. There were frequent marauding parties who raided the outlying cities and villages for food and gold. And women. The bounties were distributed among the various chieftains. Agamemnon received a woman called Breisis and Achilles had one called Chreisis. Breisis’ father was a priest of Apollo and when he came to the Greek camp as a supplicant begging for the return of his daughter all the assembled dignitaries recommended her return. The spiteful Agamemnon, the supremo of the Greeks, was peeved and he vowed to take Chreisis from Achilles. Achilles reluctantly agreed and refused to take any further part in the war. It was this refusal of Achilles, angered by Agamemnon’s outrageous act, which made the war to linger for ten years and many were the Greeks slain on the beaches of Troy.


Later on, after the sack of Troy, King Priam’s daughter Cassandra was given to Agamemnon as his prize. The virgin Cassandra was a prophetess and she sailed with Agamemnon as his consort and concubine to Mycenae where his palace stood. Eskilos’ drama ‘Agamemnon’ begins on his return to the palace. Clytemenestra welcomes her husband with all ceremony and pomp. The temple bells of the city are made to ring. The women of the royal household ululate. The route from the ship to the palace is draped in a crimson carpet.

To cap it all Clytemenstra gives a longish speech welcoming her husband and entreating him to walk on the carpet. She affirms that during the period of his absence from Mycenae she has constantly prayed for his safety and longed for his presence. Her body and soul, her flesh and spirit have remained true to him. Now she requests him to disembark and enter the antechamber of his palace where she will help him with his bath. Such devotion to her husband is indeed laudable and ought to be praised in the best possible terms.

I thought I understood what is meant by the term ‘brazen perfidy’; but reading this drama of Eskilos and studying this character of a woman I got a different dimension to the term. Make no mistake; although she makes a public display of her chastity, all these ten years of her lord Agamemnon’s absence she was having a clandestine and torrid sex affair with her husband’s cousin, Agesthus. Now she was all set to murder her husband after first gaining his trust by guile. She led him to the bath and after disrobing him made him wash himself in the tub. When he got up and asked for a towel she threw a fine wire net over him and then cut of his head with an axe, aided by Agesthus. She did not spare Cassandra either, who had a premonition of the tragedy about to enfold. The ten years old child, Orestes, was whisked away by a faithful nurse and was entrusted to a distant royal household. Following this nefarious act she again delivers a verbose speech to the assembled citizens of Mycenae vindicating her bloody deed. She sites the killing of her beloved daughter Iphigenia to placate the Gods and the rampant whoring of Agamemnon with women such as Breisis, Chreises and Cassandra on the plains of Troy.

Thus Clytemenstra has gone down in mythology as an adulteress and a murderess, one of the most vicious of all women known to humankind. It was now time for Agesthus to occupy the throne of Mycenae, ably supported by Clytemenestra who married him and is reported to have bore him three children. Agamemnon’s body was not given a decent burial and was shabbily buried in a nondescript sarcophagus. By royal decree no one was allowed to mourn over the grave. Agamemnon’s daughter Electra however refused to obey and she frequently paid her respect to her departed father by laying flowers on his tomb. If Agesthus had his way Electra would have been killed, but Clytemenstra was against any further bloodshed.

Orestes meanwhile grew up to manhood in the royal house of Crisa and his close friend and playmate was Pylades, the Prince. He was keen to avenge the death of his father but was afraid to commit the heinous crime of matricide. He approached the temple at Delphi and asked the proper course of action and Apollo replied that he had to kill the royal couple of Mycenae as filial duty but he also had to face the wrath of the Erinnyes afterwards. The Errinyes were the dark bat-like creatures of the underworld that would constantly hound and torment any one guilty of murder and the crime of matricide would call for special retribution.


Orestes was undeterred by the thought of persecution by the Erinnyes. Disguised as a humble shepherd from a distant land he returned to Mycenae and made for his father’s grave. There he offered a clipping of his hair as a mark of respect to the departed soul. Electra meanwhile was nearby and seeing the hair, which resembled her’s remarkably, quickly guessed the truth. A short while later brother and sister were united and the both vowed vengeance on the Royal couple. Their plan was very simple: that Oretses should seek ingress to the palace as a forlorn traveller and seek to destroy Agesthus first and then kill Clytemenstra and Electra would assist him
At noon of the very same day Orestes approached the palace gate claiming to come from Crisa with news of Orestes death in a chariot mishap. The Queen of Crisa had kept the ashes of Orestes in an urn and wished to send the urn to the palace at Mycenae. Clytemenstra was in the palace and hearing the news of Orestes’ death approached the stranger and ushered him in. Meanwhile Pylades, also in disguise, came bearing an urn and proclaimed that it contained the ashes of Orestes which the Queen of Crisa had asked him to carry to Mycenae. Agesthus, who was in a nearby temple, heard of this pleasing news and rushed to the palace. Eager to interview the stranger, he called for him and Orestes seizing his chance stabbed him with a kitchen knife. That was the end of Agesthus. Clytemenstra hearing the commotion ran to the scene and at last recognized her son Orestes who had now come to seek revenge. He dashed toward Clytemenstra who pleaded for mercy by exposing her breast but Orestes dispatched her with a fatal blow. She fell on the body of her lover Agesthus in a fatal embrace.

What happened to Orestes afterwards is altogether a different story. Thus ended the life of Clytemenstra, who was hoisted with her own petard. She is the very epitome of evil: obnoxious, unchaste and a scheming, cold hearted murderess. Such perversity suited her well; not for her any moral dilemma of right or wrong plaguing her conscience. There is no hesitation in carrying out her design and her son Orestes scarcely remembers his mother’s breasts, those that he had suckled as a child. One crime begat another and slowly but relentlessly the golden age of Mycenae, the greatest civilization on the Mediterranean in her day, passed into oblivion. Only the saga, the unhappy fate of the famed house of Agamemnon, remains.

Saturday the 5th of April 2008

Like all Saturdays I woke up at 3 ‘o’ clock in the wee hours and readied myself for the morning ritual. I prepared and drank my coffee and went out for a walk. An hour later I was back and opened my E-mail. There wasn’t much and then I read the Times London and the Daily Mail on the net. It was a glorious morning when I finished with the computer, and now I was all set to go and earn my daily bread. After having a quick breakfast I walked up to the Rabindra Sarobar Metro station and boarded the 8.12 train to Dumdum. I always read the Statesman Kolkata in the Metro. As I have the pernicious habit of writing letters to the Editor of the Statesman on any issue that draws my fancy, but mostly in response to something that is already published in the newspaper, I was pleasantly surprised on seeing my letter beaming gracefully under the heading ‘Blasphemy’. Mighty elated did I feel. Sure it did call for a celebration, sort of.

I got down at Belagachia and walked all the way to my hospital. It was 9 ‘o’ clock, bright and fresh, and my colleagues came marching in.
A quick ward round and then I went to the OPD where I commenced teaching the 6th Semester students. They were freshies and I explained them the intricacies of Plaster of Paris. A patient of Colles’ fracture was at hand and I demonstrated the deformities. As is my wont, I did ask them a few questions on general knowledge. I am a firm believer that a student must have all square knowledge and not only the rudiments of the subject that is being presently taught. My question on GK was, which animal is incapable of reproduction to which no answer ensued. The answer was the mule. By quarter passed 11, the ‘clinics’ was over and I entertained the students by telling them a couple of dog stories.

I left at 12.30pm and was home for lunch. My better half had prepared a fish curry and there was mutton kheema from yesterday’s leftover to which the two of us did full justice. Post lunch siesta followed and I had my vesper tea and biscuits nearing 5pm. My wife went out to do a bit of shopping and returned by 7.30 pm.

We went for dinner to Zeeshan at 17 Syed Amir Ali Avenue, Kolkata 700-017. The family room is exclusive and air-conditioned. We started with Mutton Seek Kebab @ Rs.65/- and Chicken Tandoori @Rs.65/-. The kebab was simply brilliant and the succulent tandoori was ambrosia. We relished it to our very bones. Next we had Mutton Rogan Josh @Rs.65/- and Mutton Kadai @Rs.65/- along with one Kabuli Naan @Rs.23/-. I am afraid the Rogan Josh was not quite up to the mark. The meat was underdone. On the other hand Mutton Kadai was delicious and the Naan was superb. I had the lion’s share as usual, as my wife is not a voracious eater. She had a sweet dish, the ‘Firni’ afterwards.

By 9.30 we were back in our home and soon I was in dreamland.

The Statesman Kolkata

This is the letter I wrote to the editor of The Statesman Kolkata in response to an article published in the Statesman on 3rd April 2008

But first the original article and then my letter which was published today


Bundle of contradictions by Shabbir Ahmed

For some people Taslima Nasreen is a fearless feminist; for others she is a writer who deliberately courts controversy and sensationalises sex to sell average books. Adherents of Islam believe she has become a big name merely by denigrating their religion and the Prophet. The controversial Bangladeshi writer is a riddle wrapped in a mystery inside an enigma. The real Taslima lies buried under a heap of adulations and accolades, invectives and expletives — a bundle of contradictions. In an interview published in an English language daily on 22 August 2007, she said, “I was born Muslim but become an atheist at 13.” A self-confessed atheist, she did not have the slightest compunction about advocating a revision of the Koran and shariat law. She further said in the same interview that she belonged to “a family of free-thinking humans”. But her free-thinking uncle, who belonged to the same family of “rational humanists”, did not hesitate to molest and rape her. She has written against the burkha (veil) but she herself wore one when she left Kolkata for Jaipur on 22 November last year.Religion is the last refuge of mediocre writers and Taslima is following in the footsteps of Salman Rushdie, who reached the pinnacle of popularity — or the nadir of notoriety — by blaspheming Islam. The first edition of her autobiography, which came out in 2004, did not carry objectionable remarks. But the second edition, introduced by the author of The Satanic Verses, did so. Muslims are not averse or insensitive to criticism of their religion. As a matter of a fact, Islam is a much-maligned religion and Muslims cannot remain mute spectators if their Prophet is branded as a philanderer. Taslima’s supporters need to be reminded that freedom of expression or speech is not absolute but subject to reasonable restraint and restrictions. Muslims can defend their religion against the slings and arrows of critics and are even open to an intellectual debate, but they cannot tolerate insult to their faith. For a Muslim, religion is more important than anything else.Apart from Islam, which Taslima assails every now and then with gay abandon, sex is a recurring theme in her works. Her books sell because of sex appeal and not because of any literary value. The third sequel to her autobiography, Dwikhandito, was published in 2004. The book gives details of her sexual relationship with Syed Hashmat Jalal, a Kolkata poet. She describes how she enjoyed the encounters of the closest kind with the poet. No writer worth his or her salt would describe an illicit relationship with such flourish unless, of course, he or she is a pornographer. But Taslima does it because she is a “fearless” feminist and “a writer of rare courage”. Jalal filed a defamation suit against her in Calcutta High Court and sought Rs 11 crore as compensation. The so-called fearless feminist entered into an out-of-court settlement with the poet. The book was banned by the West Bengal government. In 2006, Calcutta High Court lifted the ban.Dwikhandito, which literally means split into two, has smashed to smithereens her image as a feminist. It truly reflects Taslima’s views on sex and sexuality. She is a firm believer in free and uninhibited sex and has preached in her works that a woman has full control over her body and is free to use it in whatever way she pleases. Example is better than precept. Taslima’s amorous and amoral relationship with a Kolkata poet as described in Dwikhandito proves beyond doubt that she practices what she preaches. This is the mark of a true feminist.Amar Meyebela (My girlhood), published and banned in Bangladesh in 1999, is a chronicle of her childhood years. In it she ridicules Muslim clerics and challenges the notion that a woman should always obey her husband as lord or master. The upholders of women’s rights give a clarion call to women to defy their husbands and assert their authority. This goes against the traditions of Islam and other religions. Amar Meyebela is a perfect recipe for disaster, conjugal conflicts and family feuds.Taslima Nasreen left Bangladesh in August 1994 with a fatwa on her head. She has lived in France, Sweden and other European countries. All the countries she visited or stayed in turned down her plea for citizenship as they did not want to antagonise the Bangladesh government and the Muslim community. She holds a Swedish passport. During her long exile in Europe, she had visited India intermittently with a request for asylum or citizenship. Her week-long visit to Kolkata on a tourist visa in 1999 may be described as historic as it paved the way for her stay in India. The entire City of Joy burst into raptures over her presence. Though it was a personal visit, she was treated like a visiting dignitary.The literati thought the presence of an internationally renowned Bengali writer in Kolkata would restore a sense of Bengali pride and identity. Her short visit revived the post-1971 euphoria: E paar Bangla o paar Bangla joy Bangla. Taslima declared in poetic style that the entire stretch from Digha to Coxbazar was her homeland. The Indian government, which had refused her asylum in 1994, agreed to grant her a resident visa, which was to be renewed every six months.Living in Kolkata since 2004, the people of this city showered her with love and affection on her but she abused the hospitality by hurting the sentiments of the Muslim community. Bundled out of Kolkata and tossed from one place to another, the beleaguered Bangladeshi writer succumbed to the mounting pressure and announced she was withdrawing certain sections of her autobiography, Dwikhandito, which had derogatory references to Islam and Prophet Mohammad. But this was only a ploy to buy peace. The damage had already been done by this impulsive and impudent writer. In August when she was attacked in Hyderabad during a release of the Telegu translation of one of her novels, she had this to say, “Some groups want to harm me under the delusion that they can muzzle me and bury my voice. I will continue to write what I believe in.” Taslima is in the process of writing the sixth volume of her autobiography. In a statement issued from the NSG guesthouse in Delhi, she had the temerity to say, “I was hounded out for being critical, but my latest writing is still critical.” There is no sign of remorse or regret over what has happened to her in the past month. Taslima became a pawn in the game of politics that was being played by the CPI(M), Congress and BJP. On 21 November, when Kolkata was rocked by a violent agitation demanding her expulsion, CPI(M) state secretary Biman Bose said, “The CM offered her refuge at the request of two Central ministers. Now that some people do not want her to stay here, she should leave the state on her own.” State home secretary Prasad Ranjan Roy claimed she left Kolkata of her own volition. But the facts are quite different. For the past three-four months the state government had been looking for an opportunity to shunt her out of Kolkata. Messages and even veiled threats were delivered to her via high-ranking police officers to shift her base to Kerala or any other state, but she refused to budge. The long-awaited opportunity came on 21 November when a peaceful road blockade took such a violent turn that the Army had to be called in. How this happened remains a mystery. The demonstrations were held in areas that are considered CPI(M) strongholds. Many people think the violence was stage-managed or rather state-managed to divert attention from the killing fields of Nandigram and Rizwanur Rahman’s unnatural death. What added fuel to the flames was an unsigned article in a Left-sponsored Bengali magazine, Pathasanket. The autumn issue included articles by Left Front chairman Biman Bose and former education minister Kanti Biswas. The controversial article, “Taslima prasange Bangladesher Bharatiya rashtradut, Pradhan Mantri O moulabadider prasange” defended Taslima against fundamentalist fury and made a vitriolic attack on the Prophet over his marital life. How an anti-Prophet article was published in a Marxist magazine is yet another mystery. But nothing seemed to go right for the ruling party and even Biman Bose had to retract his statement on Taslima.The BJP has blown hot and cold over the author of Lajja. A Muslim author writing about the Muslim backlash on the Hindu minority in Bangladesh in the aftermath of the Babari Masjid demolition was an ideal person who could bolster the anti-minority plank of the party. The party hailed her as a courageous writer. Lajja was translated into Hindi and the Sangh Parivar distributed it for free across the country to ensure the widest possible readership. But the bonhomie did not last long. The party was shocked when Taslima said the BJP was no better than the Jamat-e-Islami and denounced both as fundamentalist outfits. When the same courageous writer defended Deepa Mehta’s right to show the pathetic plight of Hindu widows in her film Water, the saffron brigade accused her of insulting the country and demanded her arrest. The same BJP, now out of power at the Centre, which was baying for her blood, demanded that Taslima be treated as a political refugee. This to corner both the UPA government and the Left. BJP-ruled Rajasthan rejected her but Narendra Modi extended her a cordial invitation.The plight of the Congress-led UPA government is more pathetic. Having become a political hot potato, the Centre did not know how to handle her. The Congress claimed the Bengal government had raised “legitimate objections” to renewing her visa — so big an embarrassment did she become.Having since left Indian shores, Taslima has written 30 books, six of these banned in Bangladesh. The ideas she preaches are dangerous and even Lajja, which is a serious book, is spiced with sex, leaving many believing she is a harbinger of hedonism, a perverter of human relationships.(The author is a freelance contributor.)








Sir

Ever since the black Wednesday of November 2007, the Tasleema debate continues to hog the limelight and Shabbir Ahmed’s write up in today’s Statesman ‘ Bundle of contradictions’ is the latest in the fray. Blasphemy was what the ancient Athenians accused Socrates of and forced him to suicide. A couple of centuries later, Jesus was crucified on charges of blasphemy. Tasleema, it seems is in august company. Whatever may be the fault of pornography, it certainly does not teach us to spread hatred and animosity; and it does have a committed readership. ‘Fanny Hill’ is read by more people than the ‘Collected works of Shakespeare’.

One fails to understand why she should have regrets and suffer from remorse for the untoward incident of November 2007, which was, as per the writer’s view, engineered by some mysterious powers. That Tasleema is a genuine secularist can be gauged by the fact that she has been able to antagonize and infuriate the Muslim fundamentalists and the Hindu fanatics in equal measure! I believe no Indian can boast of a similar feat.

Thanking you