On Diminishers and Illuminators

An interesting talk by David Brooks: 

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LINKS

* Thornton Wilder and The Angel That Troubled the Waters: A Plea for Physician Healing - "...Without your wound where would your power be? It is your very remorse that makes your low voice tremble into the hearts of men..."

* Michael Gerson on Depression - https://unitedbrainassociation.org/2019/03/28/the-importance-of-coming-out-bringing-mental-illness-into-the-light/

Ramah, Ramou, Ramah!

Last week marked the political re-inauguration and 'consecration' of the Sri Rama temple at Ayodhya. 

While I am still trying to understand the complex ways in which this event was built ground-up from the community-level across most of north India - the house-to-house campaign with the "akshath", the all-day langar (community kitchen) that was set up across housing societies with live broadcast of the events taking place in Ayodhya that day, bright orange flags fluttering everywhere...it did bring back memories.

At school Sanskrit had been a compulsory subject for a few years. I hated it - especially because it brought down my (already pathetic) grades. We had to learn by rote a table with the various usages of the name, "Rama":

It was drilled into our heads so well that we could recite it anywhere, anytime! The only thing I never understood was why we were learning this. 

A few months ago, while trying to understand my mother's fascination for Sanskrit shlokas, as well as the ease with which she memorised poetry in complicated meters (eg., Shyamala Dandakam of Kalidasa), I stumbled on this YT series from the Chinmaya Foundation - Sanskrit for Shastra Study by Ved Chaitanya. 

This turned out to be fascinating. For the first time I began to understand why I had learnt Rama-Ramou-Ramah decades ago! 

I have not even reached half-way through this 53-session series but each session is nicely paced out. While in 7th grade perhaps my Sanskrit teacher did tell us that the Rama-series represents 'nominative cases for masculine nouns'. Even if she did I would not have understood. Thanks to this series and to CIF, a new, exciting world is opening up now!

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LINKS & REFERENCES

* Tricky Words (The Telegraph, 2024) - https://www.telegraphindia.com/opinion/tricky-words-changing-idioms-changing-meanings/cid/1997041

* Chinmaya International Foundation - CIF - https://www.chinfo.org/ 

The first session (1/53):