Tribute to Steely Dan

Looks like today morning is a spontaneous tribute to Steely Dan. Found a booklet in a box set which I had bought maybe 5 years ago. I hadn’t listened to it much after I bought it since I had lent it to a friend. Recently I got the box set back from him as I felt the desire to get into their groove. The opening page of the booklet is a letter from Donald Fagan and Walter Becker to Andy McKaie, the vice president of MCA Records at that time. Am reproducing the whole letter since it hit some nice chords, hopefully neither the band nor MCA will mind (especially since am not getting paid for this).

The letter opens with a quote from Andy Mckaie made earlier about the band – “ Oy, Vey!! These boys are really off-the-wall, so enjoy ‘em before all the dough they’re making straightens ‘em out. It happens to the best of the sickies, y’know.”

And the letter is as follows:

Dear Andy:

Greetings and salutations from the heart of the hinterlands! The Steely Dan tour ’93 is in its last two weeks and the long promised historical material for the fabulous Steely Dan box set is likewise in the final editorial phase. Last minute tweaks and adjustments are being dialled in even as we speak. At this time it is our great personal pleasure to present you with the finished biographical notes for the long-awaited Steely Dan box set. Allow us to make, for your edification and for that of the loyal fandom, the following small but-not-i-hope-insignificant points:

1.       We were of course only having a little joke last week when we pretended not to recognize you at the splendid MCA Platinum record presentation in the men’s room at the Greek Theatre in LA when Walter said to you. “Ha! So we meet at last!”, he was simply commenting on the fact that you were the last of the MCA bigwigs present that day to be introduced to us at that particular function. Could we ever forget our previous meeting in the Auxiliary Echo Chamber at Village Recorder, or the splendid plaque you gave us that day, or the fine photo of that historic meeting, later published in Billboard magazine for all the world to see? I don’t think so.

2.       We are truly sorry about the delay in collecting and editing this material. We know you’ve been desperate to front-load the retail racks in time for the Christmas crush. Unfortunately, we are dependent on certain obsessive fans and demi-cultish publications for the old photos, reviews, ads, etc that will make this a fun package. After many hours of tiresome telephone conversations with these collectors, the big envelopes finally arrived, most often in rough condition, and/or stained with suspicious substances. We then began the tedious selection process, punctuated by frequent breaks to recuperate from the violent humiliation of seeing how we looked in 1971, ’72, ’75, ’78, ’81. Andy, just imagine how you might feel if photos of yourself from the ‘70s (big stoner grin, greasy hair down to your scrotum, wearing a psychedelic flower shirt, a cowhide vest, extra wide Britannia corduroy bell bottoms over shapeless Acme engineer boots) were plastered all over public square.

3.       One realizes that the addition of outtakes, demos, remixes and so on can enhance a collection of frequently repackaged product. In our case, though, the shelf is pretty much empty. One decent find was a somewhat lame experimental version of “Everyone’s gone to the movies” that somehow survived storage in a damp, verminous locker for over twenty years. This might be added, not only for historical reasons, but also to give Flo and Eddie (who harmonized on the chorus) the proof they’ve worked with us in the “old days”. Furthermore the inclusion of this track (an unused B side from the original band’s first studio sessions, which predated “Can’t buy a thrill” by almost a year) might serve to curb the brisk trade in bootleg editions of this and various other demos, live recordings,etc, that now glut the “import “ racks of the very same stores that sell our legitimate albums.

4.       By the way, please note that the above review fragment is excerpted from a piece you yourself wrote on one of our early albums. As you are now in a position to realize, you needn’t have worried back them that we would be ruined by all the money we were making because, at the time, we weren’t paid squat for our records and performances. Now, of course, quite well fixed, we most certainly have been ruined – but by time, not by money.

On the other hand we were heartily impressed by your understanding of the tradition of urban humor that nurtured our own sensibilities, as evidenced by the (Lenny) Bruce inflected lingo, the yiddishisms, etc in your piece. Reading this musty old quote allowed us to forget for a brief moment that we are even now, as another Bruce (Jay Friedman) once put it, “ Far from the city of class”. Trudging across the flyovers is the price the piper demands from fellows like us. Stranded and perplexed in our mid-forties, wildly eccentric if not actually crazy as dancing mice, we have thrown away reclusivity in a desperate late bid to insure our financial well – being. Casting our dignity aside, we plod from one sad town to the next, pitch our little tent and offer our crisp yet generous program to the locals, who inundate us with cheers and applause and generally set us awash in a sea of glory. The next day we are pelted with dungballs by the entertainment reviewers of the local rags, who are generally predisposed against our sauve, and dynamic renderings by years of hard drinking and coarse thinking, who are in many cases openly anti-Semitic, and who tend to view our humble efforts through the crusty lens of their own failed ambitions and dismal prospects for redemption. In spite of everything we carry on. We’re hoping the end of this tour will find us each perched on a modest mountan of moolah, down whose generous slopes we might coast smoothly past the millennium and on into the 21^st century.

Finally, to you, our good friend and beloved colleague, a word of caution: like us, you’ve passed life’s halfway marker, you drift towards oblivion, wearing the bottoms of your trousers rolled up. Andy, don’t let the company rob you of your dreams. It happens to the best of sickies, y’know.

 Yours always,

Donald and Walter.

Other quotes in the booklet on the band:

“America’s finest maybe rock non-band” – Robert Palmer, New York Times, 1977

“Steely Dan isn’t a group, its a concept” – Creem

“Steely Dan is the best band in America” – Richard Cromelin, Creem

“The lyrics baffle me. Maybe they know what they’re talking about but I can’t get a clue” – Stereo Review

“Steely Dan may not be the greatest American rock band (by a long shot) but it remains unquestionably the weirdest “ – Dave Marsh

“Its nice to hear the word ‘Muscatel’ in a song” – review quoted in Metal Leg

“ If there is one band around at the moment who deserve to make it without gimmicks, Steely Dan are they” – Melody Maker review of Countdown to Ecstasy

“They obviously sleep all day.. they don’t even own a scrabble game, as it turned out” – Rolling Stone

“ I was lucky enough to see them at Milwaukee’s Humpin’ Hannah’s  that year (1972), a now somewhat unique experience, since they no longer tour, for fairly obvious reasons.” – Gary Peterson, Capital Times, Madison, WI

“ I like to think that Walter Becker and Donald Fagan have more class than that” – Mark Kmetzo, Scene

“Downer surrealism”  - Frank Zappa

“ Dangerously close to the valium-jazz that has enervated so much of today’s pop music... enjoy it as it goes down, but be ready for the after effects” – Richard Cromelin, LA Times

“Rarely have such glossy petals concealed such sharp thorns” – Robert Palmer, NY Times

“They’re bound to either take off completely or become cult heroes. The latter seems more likely” – Downbeat

“They describe they’re song writing as junk sculpture and I won’t argue with that” – let it rock

“When we saw them live, they were awkward and uncomfortable” - Wayne Robbins and Georgia Christgau, Creem

“Finally they gave up” – Joseph Rose, Hit Parader. Guess he spoke too soonJ))))

“It would, I feel, be unfair to judge them on this display” – Melody Maker

“The Dan’s forte is more cha cha than churning chomp” – Jim Isaacs, Rolling Stone

“As is of natural consequence, the words have returned to the hermetic, collegiate inscrutability of’Can’t buy a thrill’” – Rolling Stone

“Some may find his arcane references bewildering, but to others it is food for thought” – anonymous

“Over the course of five albums, Steely dan have turned from being shrewd shapers of fetching hits to becoming insular craftsman of arcane concepts, a motion widely regarded as a sophisticated progression, but just as often interpreted as illusory aberration” – olling Stone

“They’re too damned perfect” – Peter Rodman, Colorado Springs Sun

“...sounds like it was recorded ina hospital ward” – Robert Palmer

“In fact, most of the tracks on the album, just don’t make the grade. Later with repeated listening, they approach average” – Disc

“Are Becker and Fagen trying to be , of all things, sincere? And are they capable of it?..Steely Dan’s initial premises have outlived their usefulness” – Ken Emerson, Boston Phoenix

“This album worries me. It worries me because so much of the music here is so blatantly lacklustre compared with the exhilarating standards already set by Steely Dan. The lyrics are often perplexing and inconsequential, the musicmanship just as often tardily professional in the appreciably arch-sessionman style.” “...things may deteriorate further” – Nick kent

Trajectory Change?

In the recent cabinet reshuffle, the one move that caught my eye was that of Jairam Ramesh from the environment ministry to rural development. I have been following news around Mr Ramesh in the past months. He has been putting curbs on the entry of the energy, mining and other industrial sectors into ecologically sensitive areas across the country. I have felt that here is a man who has brought the environment in our country into the prominence that it requires as probably the most important area for our existence, even more important than economic progress. There were a couple of times when I chewed on the idea of writing to him and offering my services in any way that could help the cause.

In the recent months, the PM has been under visible pressure from energy, mining and other industries to move Ramesh out. There has been growing noise about how Ramesh is hindering economic progress for India Inc and depriving it of vast amounts of foreign investment that will enable every Indian to possess a car and a mobile. Given the economist that the PM is, he also shares the view that the way to poverty eradication is to flood the entire population of India with cash so that it percolates all the way down (hopefully).

In what could be a pivotal move for the country’s future, it appears to me that he has taken the step of clearing the way for further economic progress as against a more ecologically aligned one that probably is a much more crucial but unstated(??) need for life in India. With this, five coal based thermal projects that were stalled when Mr Ramesh was around will proceed. The new environment minister has sent out the message that things will now happen rapidly and my understanding is that this message is directed at the industrial sector.

An opportunity to set a sturdy framework for possible sustainable development has been lost. India’s biggest problem by far (and also the world’s) is the mammoth size of its population. The stress placed by this on food, water and the environment is staggering. We are rapidly running out of agricultural land, fresh water sources and possibly most importantly the natural ecosystems that almost subtly sustain ALL life on the subcontinent. The focus for all of us and most definitely our leadership, should be to ensure that these essentials are not jeopardized because without this our billions may have all the gadgets and fuel but no food and water. But then the ideal picture for any economist is the market with its buying power and not the ground realities of nature.   

If we stood firm on protecting the environment, this would have forced the energy, mining and other industries to accept their greater responsibility to our future rather than looking at the year end balance sheet. This would have forced them to start thinking to innovate( at least now) if required to come up with sustainable options or step aside rather than take the easy but short sighted approach that they have been taking for too long. There is an urgent need to phase out coal based power and bring on more and more cleaner options like nuclear, solar and wind energy. The recent discovery of uranium reserves as well as the large land areas should provide the impetus for the shift to these cleaner options. But then the impetus required is huge and time consuming . Even though this is critical it is always approaching elections and public opinion that constantly takes precedence.There is a huge misconception among many people about the harmful effects of nuclear energy and the recent Fukushima incident has further fuelled this (along with the vested interests who have a huge stake in the existing industries). My understanding is that since the advent of nuclear energy, the number of persons who have died in total due to exposure to nuclear radiation mishaps including Chernobyl is under 500 as against the millions who have died due to direct and indirect exposure to coal and other thermal energy sources. The waste from a life time operation of a nuclear plant can be housed in a tank the size of your overhead water tank (and buried safely underground) as against the tonnes and tonnes of fly ash from a thermal plant.

Mining in ecologically sensitive areas for commercial metals is fuelled by various local and international industries and the products of these are mostly useless displays of economic status often in other countries. If Indian industry is as great as it thinks it is, it should be looking to provide leadership in ecologically sustainable alternative materials for these products rather than destroying our sources of food and water. If commercial mining is to be done this should be restricted to clearly identified safe spots (if there is such a thing). Mining in forest areas should only be permitted for extremely rare minerals of utmost national importance and that too after a clear understanding of the adverse impacts.  There is a huge risk of rebellion by the millions and millions who are increasingly being deprived of their land and finding essentials going out of their reach. In such a scenario the urban image of economic driven well being could be torn down and we could quickly slip into tribal mode. The upheavals in recent tribal and agricultural areas are ominous signs. Unbelievably, industries seem in no way ready to accept their environmental responsibility and since they fund our political parties, arm twisting is easy. But then as long as the buying continues, the killing will.  This has happened for too long and the exit of Mr Ramesh could signal the advent of increased natural exploitation and nature’s fearsome response in addition to huge upheavals among the teeming millions whom our leaders are supposedly trying to provide the good life for. These are critical times as always.

Still Photographs From the Mind

It’s been one year of freedom but looks like corporate practices of periodic status reporting are deeply embedded in the system. Here’s a thought status report for anybody (or nobody’s, i don’t care) perusal:

·         Surrender yourself to the forces of nature and life will take its course. As naturally as a small seed becomes a gigantic tree

·         I’m working on a energy efficiency programme on the best machine I could lay my hands and mind on – myself

·         In a world full of rebels, one more rebel just adds to the crowd?

·         We love to hoist people up on a pedestal and then do our best to tear them down. It’s a very universal human trait. Ask any godman or politician. Is that what makes them so insecure and greedy?

·         If you want to know how I am, I am a content man. If you want to know the sources of my contentment, go find your own

·         It’s always our dearest ones whose show of affection we are blind to. A small gesture from a stranger is something we often appreciate more. To be loved by all seems to be man’s constant endeavour. This blindness to those close to us seems to be the case in our outward actions and show of love as well

·         Toughen your body and mind through the right use of your energy so that you can become a container for the purest flame there is and then a dazzling lamp to the world say the babas.

·         In spite of trying to disconnect from the money making system, I still check my share values frequently. The insecurity and dependency that comes out of a life spent intimately with money is incredible

Plant of Consciousness

Receive, transform, give. The plant absorbs cosmic energy and photosynthesizes it into a form that is compatible to feed all of life. It also on a subtle level transforms this energy to transmit beauty and tranquillity that nourishes all who receive it on a mental plane. Its every action is life supporting and nourishing.

Humans today don’t perform this kind of a role in the scheme of nature until possibly the day they die when their bodies are consumed back by the earth. Then from a life perspective what is the benefit for nature of having a species like humans around? If you look at the damage done in the last 10,000 years you would think that there is absolutely no benefit that nature has derived from this species other than destruction of everything that it has taken billions of years to create. With the exponential evolution ( degeneration?) of our intelligence in such a short time frame, we have reached a stage where we now realise that our misdirected intelligence can destroy life on a devastating scale. There is no proof yet that with this intelligence we can sustain life, let alone even dream of controlling it though many of us may have these delusions.

I have come across texts that say that the purpose of humans is to transmit consciousness. Like plants provide physical nourishment, humans have the potential to provide spiritual nourishment for all of life through the right use of the senses, intelligence and consciousness. Are we flattering ourselves here or can we reach such a noble state given that at the moment most of us are far from providing spiritual nourishment to even ourselves let alone others? Ancient texts talk about wise human beings who lived with nature as her children, keepers and guardians living in harmony with all of life in a perfect balance of give and take.

We are all receivers, transformers and givers. We are receiving various forms of energy every day, absorbing some of what we receive, transforming and transmitting it. The quality of what we are receiving, how we are absorbing what we receive and what this is doing to our minds and bodies is a reflection of our current state of consciousness. This level of consciousness is being projected out into the external world through our actions whether we like it or not and this is having direct and subtle impacts on all life around us.   The question to ask oneself is what am I receiving, absorbing and transmitting? What is the level of consciousness I am projecting and who or what is being influenced and benefiting (positively or adversely) from it? Am i a plant of consciousness living up to my full potential and transmitting at full power? Am I fit for nature, a positive benefit for nature or a liability that nature will tire of and discard when she runs out of patience?

Total awareness of everything we receive and receiving without resistance is the way to learn. Everything we receive from the external world – food, air, sounds, experiences, impressions, all have an effect on our bodies and minds, on our consciousness. Observing the effect that each input has and starting to control this for the benefit of life (not just ourselves as individuals, not even just humans as a species, but all of life) is when we start to transform. What is appropriate for our nature and constitution transforms us into better and better humans. The quality of what we transmit then through our thoughts and actions becomes more focussed and clear and starts to impact all life around us in positive ways that are both obvious and subtle. In this way we could become plants of consciousness and sources of spiritual energy for the less conscious like the plants are sources of physical energy for dependent life forms.

In a world which we humans have almost singlehandedly brought to the brink of the destruction of life through our selfish greed, as we head towards mindboggling adversities on both the physical and mental planes, as nature prepares for a reboot, the quality of life for all of life’s children will depend on what we have learnt and what we can transmit to our descendents. It may be too late to change the current course of things but we may still be able to create a future better class of human survivors, a small number that will be the wise men and women of the future to meet the needs of nature, humans that can then love her as a mother and live as her children, as plants of consciousness rather than as parasites or viruses. Possible??

Passing Thoughts

Like a faithful medium, I write down thoughts that enter my mind, coursing through my muscles and transforming into ink on paper. Is there any meaning or objective in the act of putting to words one’s thoughts other than a selfish desire to find recognition, power and material benefits? An exploration of truth? Is this really required?  How many times has this been done since man started measuring time and how many more times will this be done? Cannot wisdom course through all humans without words like it does through all plants, animals, stones, etc? Are words the debris and junk that mark the end of the journey of man’s lost mind from the garden of eden?

Can we ever go back to the garden of eden? After that what?

Truth can be found in the bridges/spaces between:

·         Male and female

·         Dark and light

·         East and west

·         Life and Death

·         Knowledge and ignorance

·         Time

·         Inhaled and exhaled breath

·         Good and evil

·         Duality

Dietary decisions

This body is a living being. For it to survive it needs energy. Energy is obtained from all forms of living matter. You may choose to eat one form or the other, this is purely your choice. Your constitution may determine what is palatable for you or not. Often our decisions are made on the basis of emotions or sentiments. You would not want to consume things that you perceive are in your so called circle of morals. You would rather consume things that you do not have any attachment to. A fundamental assumption made here is that the living thing that you are consuming does not experience feelings like your favourite cow, brother or tree. I make a decision that I will consume x rather than y because x is a lower form of life or does not have feelings and emotions and so is more apt for my consumption. Is there anything like a lower form of life? Who decides what is a lower or higher form of life and what should be consumed and what shouldn’t? Life feeds on life

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Some questions for deaf ears like so many times before.

·         Can we live in a world where the amassment of wealth is not the single driving force of mankind?

·         Can we live in a world where leaders are driven by moral responsibility to all living creatures in their areas of influence? Can our great thinkers devise a system that selects and produces these leaders?

·         Can our instinct for war be quelled?

·          Can the hunger for power be fettered?

·          Can nature be saved? Can we be saved? Nature will probably survive us like a bad case of food poisoning

·         What made us into these vain creatures that we have become? The creations of our minds – the gods, the wise men and their philosophies or each one of us who has taken this path as a result of free will?

·         Can we locate the gene for greed and silence it across the world?

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Every moment, instant to instant,

Live instinctively according to your true nature

That’s all it takes to take you through this life effortlessly

Driven by your karma to your final destination, your heaven or hell,

Like an arrow on a straight line path to its target

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The last thought

The thought of death

The death of thought

And then what?

Bliss???

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Stock up your grass for the cold and rainy day

Just like the farmer stocks up his food and wood

Because just like your body needs nourishment in times of scarcity

So does your mind

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Any action or thought done with complete focus and dedication for long enough will energise all your chakras

If you reach a level of awareness early in the process, then the process will be a pleasure that much longer

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The most viable form of human relationships is love, the path of least resistance

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Shiva has never existed in flesh and blood and neither has Vishnu or Brahma. All three are thought patterns that reflect the current state of man’s collective consciousness at any point in time. Just like every cell knows when to create, sustain and destroy so too does collective human consciousness. Brahma was prominent during the early phases of man’s mental evolution and has faded away since, Vishnu has been prominent during the last 6000 years of man’s stable existential phase. When the time is right for us to decline as a species, Shiva will become prominent and dominate man’s consciousness. He will guide our consciousness blissfully to our doom using the wrathful energy of Shakti

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Vision of Shiva for the lovers of flesh

I had this vision of Shiva as the linga. Ganga gushing from the top of his head like the penis in ejaculation – symbolism for supreme bliss... Supreme bliss obtained by raising your Kundalini to your head and connecting with the universal energy.

Tantra is the path of the yogi who does not fixate on sex, intoxication and other such means which are partial glimpses of the truth. He simulates his god head with yoga, nature and right thoughts and attains bliss eternally by conjugating and bathing in the juices of the universal energy

Maya has gained tremendous power. Her veils of multiple hues enchant men and women alike. Can we blend her hues together so that the divine unity is revealed instead of trapping ourselves in the short term pleasures that each hue gives us?

Conquest of Maya can happen only in one place and that is your mind.

Grass is a jet engine for the mind on its journey into the exploration of awareness and super consciousness. Maybe if your mind is far removed from reality or rigid, you may not be able to initially handle the intensity of what you experience. This journey is however brief and only a glimpse which is why it is called a reality revealer. Once the journey is over your mind is tired since you have burned energy at a high rate. Yoga is the journey into the super conscious that can be more permanent and which leaves you energized and blissful longer.

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Felling of a Tree

The incident:

I woke up on Thursday morning with the sound of a loud crash. Metal seemed involved so I assumed some guys had decided to meet in the growingly popular way that they meet in real life in Bangalore these days. Then the kids in the neighbour’s house started running about getting very excited. Got out of bed and onto the terrace and looked down towards the intersection. There weren’t any vehicles there but a huge branch from a tree had fallen across the road just beyond the intersection with its branches grazing a couple of unlucky vehicles parked on the other site of the road.

A little about the scene of the crime

The road i live on is a busy road with a lot of traffic flowing through it throughout the day. In fact there is so much traffic that the road is a one way now. When we moved in about 27 years ago, there used to be a lake in front of the house and a cattle shed and a large village well close by where kids would jump in during the summer for a splash. Since then, the city developed so much in this direction that there are people from townships way beyond who head into and across the city through this street.

The central character

My lack of botanical knowledge prevents me from giving you the type of tree it was whose branch had fallen but it had large beautiful leaves that grew in clumps and were of shades varying from a deep green to brownish red which looked fabulous in the twilight. I did not realise that the tree was so large till the branch which had fallen exposed the rest of the main tree. The foliage in the trees was quite dense and I had seen parrots flying to and from the tree a few times.

The action

The fallen branch immediately caused a huge pile up on the road even though it was not peak traffic time. The resulting chaos had the traffic police officials from the nearby station appearing on the scene to try and resolve the problem. A few persons were rounded up and the task of clearing the path for traffic commenced. It took more than a couple of hours to cut down the fallen branch into smaller more manageable pieces. There also appeared that cutting wood was a skill that a lot of people got a better appreciation of in the process. Traffic flows from all sides were managed and the scene was cleared. Traffic resumed on the road and returned to its noisy levels.

The crime

A little after this, the sound of chopping wood made my dad, niece and myself look up from our morning frolic on the terrace. The sound was coming from the direction of the tree. There were a couple of men at work on the main tree. These guys looked like they knew their business well and were efficiently chopping off its limbs. All three of us stared at this for some time trying to register the scene. The first thought that came to mind for me was that it looks like somebody wants to teach the tree a good lesson for what the branch had done, a lesson the tree would not forget. My dad muttered something in disgust and said that it’s going to be hot this summer. My niece’s face had one of those expressions that convey the confusion in a child’s mind and only said..’Cutting the tree’

I went about the rest of the day’s work. In the evening I climbed right on top of my house to see the sunset since I am trying to fill my evening with as many sunsets as I can in the time left ahead. Looking in the direction of the intersection brought my attention to the tree again. In the fading twilight it looked arresting and I could not take my eyes off it. All the branches except for the main trunk and its two biggest branches had been cut off. A few twigs of leaves remained from one of these branches. As I looked at it, the arms seem to resemble outstretched arms. The part where a large branch had been chopped off at the root resembled the downturned face of a man in deep tired sleep. The place where the branch that had fallen in the morning had been connected to the tree resembled a wound in the side where a large spear had been thrust into the side of a man. I stood for a long time looking at the thoughts that this connection brought to my mind.

Conspiracy theories

My stupidly analytical and chattering mind comes up with all kinds of conspiracy theories at a time when I least expect it. There used to be traffic cops that stand at the turn at the start of the road to fine unsuspecting traffic offenders. Had someone who had got into a confrontation with the officials decided to create some mischief by cutting down the branch. Had the branch just fallen down because of the heavy winds and the rest of the tree paid the price for its weakness? It has been very very windy around Bangalore in the last few days and was this an early warning from nature about the fierceness of this year’s monsoons? There are a couple of people who stand in the shade of the tree ironing people’s clothes. Was this an attack on them by some rivals in a turf war?

Conclusion

I stood today morning and looked at the tree. My parents had gone to church. A parrot appeared from somewhere and seemed to have lost its bearings since it didn’t find the leaves it was looking for. It rested on the naked branch for a couple of seconds and then flew away as the strangeness didn’t appeal to it. I stared at the tree for a few moments and felt like I was in my own personal church. My mother says that the twigs are enough for the tree to grow back but I believe it will be a good few years before the foliage gets back to its pre-assault density if it ever does get back.

Midday Report

Got up this morning just like any other day in the recent past with the sun having climbed high enough on the horizon to start more intensely demanding my acknowledgement. As usual after the initial orientation in terms of who I am and where I am and the checking of the various movable parts of the body that happens every morning to ensure that the vehicle is running ok and the mandatory thoughts of special ones, I asked myself the usual questions. What do I really need to do today? The answer from my personal assistant was an evening drink with Naveen. Very nice, nothing to scramble around for and at the end of the day.. a drink with old friends.

Got out of bed, did the daily tasks and workouts , finalized the venue for the evening drink ( good old Akshaya), had my breakfast at lunch time and took up the day’s newspaper. Smoked a joint and decided to sit under the shade of the tree that covers my terrace and read the day’s paper. Nature blooming in April in Bangalore and looking even more fresh after the good rains last evening, ha what bliss!

Hmm.. what’s the world been up to? First article in the papers that caught my eye was about Mohandas Pai having quit Infosys since he presumably wasn’t offered the top job by NRN. Didn’t realize that there was more to this in the inner pages where there were stories about others as well who had quit from top management. Hmm.. India’s corporate flagship drifting?? Also found in the inner pages about how ICICI is rethinking its overseas strategy as the UK and Canada are demanding a share once again of Indian loot for their local businessmen. (Wonder what the terms are for their businesses here?) An Indian is in line for Nestle’s top job. Looks like Indian industry is in flux from within and without and corporations may after all be national entities and not the global entities we thought them to be.

Next thing was a Supreme Court statement (i think) that the state of Karnataka had been robbed naked of its mineral ores ( and of course its forest cover) in the past few years. Interesting observation but a little late, maybe the Anna Hazare effect?? There were further articles in the paper about Binayak Sen being freed on bail and the SC giving the Chattisgarh government a lesson on the definition of sedition. The Chatisgarh government hits back by saying that Sen cannot enter Chattisgarh which the SC overrules. Veerappa Moily says the law on sedition needs to be changed and that he will initiate this. Wow three way fist fight between state government (non incumbent?) and judiciary and center? Is this a response to the threat of an alternate legal entity called the Lokpal (Jan?) committee or a flexing of muscles to show who has power? Also in the middle of all this are photographs of members of the Lokpal committee with both government and non government members lined up against each other in true IPL fashion. Looks almost like a lagaan match up. Mouthwatering fare for a media and nation obsessed with cricket. Isn’t SC versus governments itself good enough I wonder?

Now for the inner pages.. Hindi answer scripts burnt in Mysore district forces re-examination for thousands of students. Any connection with strikes by staff for extra pay or some kids wanting to prolong the good old school years?? Has stuff like this ever happened I try to recall and put myself in the shoes of the kids who need to rewrite the exam. Not nice.. I hope this whole thing was an accident and suddenly answer scripts are not a powerful weapon for war games.

I wade through the nonsense on the science page.. Something about where language originated, how to prevent creasing on your cleavage at night with a wonder bra, the usual messages about what is good or not good for you in total contrast to what was said yesterday.

The next page caught me for a long time. The Allies are at it again. Hooray... war games for the blood thirsty. The dogs of war are busy fighting over the remaining meat. Russia protests, Gaddafi forces use Russian made weapons to attack rebels, NATO makes noises about innocent deaths while planning offensives, Gaddafi’s daughter screams defiance from her bomb shelled balcony like a modern day revolutionary, Al Qaida tells surrounding Arabs to devour the infidels who survive the current blood bath. All this alongside an article about how US organizations sponsored the protests and allegedly fomented rebellion against the regime. Close by is news about Obama raising record campaign funds and asking for his supporters to show their strength. Something going on here?? Is it white vs black America or warmongers vs peaceniks all over again? Is it Hillary vs Obama? Around all this are the thumb sized articles of political fires all around Africa. Somebody suggests using the stem cells of the workers in Japan battling radiation to regenerate parts of their bodies in case they are irreparably damaged. This is after more than 40 days of extreme radiation exposure. Real human bodies and reality for a nation obsessed with virtuality but a little too late? Looks like we are being presented with sufficient lab material to test out all our advances in medical science what with war torn bodies, radiation burned bodies, cancer ridden bodies and what not.

Beneath all this is a photograph of 13 year old girls crying at Justin Beiber’s show in Israel and a girl dressed as a bride wanting to marry him. Are these kids (possibly disguised Palestinians?) trying to escape Israel or is it the music industry’s very successful strategy of plying younger and younger audiences I wonder.

Finally the IPL maze. I try to go through the articles and decide I am not up to it. The battles going on and all the egos involved is too much for me. I could get easily lost in this world (as if the other worlds aren’t bad enough). I’ll probably catch up with the match..if i remember.

This is a summary of what the print media has updated me on in terms of what’s happening in the world. TV channels will be carrying identical images.

I put the paper aside and go sit down near the old lady. She looks more weary than usual. Says she threw up in the morning and hasn’t eaten much. She’s been battling with her day like all these years and working tirelessly to keep her near and dear ones nourished but mother earth is growing really weary. Looks like a longer day than usual for her today. I wonder what I can do to make things easy for her. Maybe wash a few dishes that she may have forgotten in the sink. I conclude that my absence may be the best medicine and vamoose like the coward I am to sit and write this and feel like I’m doing something she would be proud of.

Well, am done with this now.. my mid day report. Still half the day ahead,  guess I’ll go and stuff myself some more with my mama’s nourishment and then there’s still time for a nap, a joint and some ayurvedic tuning of the mind before the evening beers with the boys

Has the world changed or has it always been like this I wonder? Life and death on all levels in a constant dance, sometimes blissful, sometimes terrifying. The chaos of the external world and the disturbed calmness of the inner as a result of it. Glad with the rate of flow of time immediately around me. Enough time to calm the mind I guess and withdraw into the bliss that the babas spoke about.

Sustainable Retreat

All of us are aware to at least some extent about the massive damage and destruction happening to nature in recent times due to man’s overbearing presence. This awareness comes from actual experience or from information that reaches us through various channels. The spotlight has been on industries, governments, scientists through various naturalists and environmental activists across the world. The formation of bodies like the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, the climate control talks at Kyoto, Copenhagen, etc have shown that human pressures on the environment are key issues for our leaders and mankind today. The results from these initiatives have been insignificant so far.

Many of us are clear in terms of what needs to be done. Man needs to somehow start consuming less and less of the earth’s resources, create less unsustainable products and learn to maintain a sustainable life. Currently all the impetus and focus is on more and more. We only look at positive economic growth. It would be anathema for us to even contemplate negative economic growth as a way of life. James Lovelock I think it was who coined the phrase ‘sustainable retreat’ as a way for the human race to bring back balance to nature. I am of the strong belief that massive change in the form of man shrinking his footprint on nature is what needs to happen and this should be on the scale of a global revolution for nature to have any sort of chance to reach a reasonable amount of stability for sustainable life (especially ours).  This revolution in terms of a completely new way of thinking and living needs to come from the individual rather than an organization for it to be anywhere close to as effective as it should be. It is true that if governments, scientists and industries really willed it, there could be positive change. But what we seem to be so unbelievably blind to recognize is the fact that these organizations exist because of us and hence will inevitably reflect only our way of thinking and living. If most individuals are concerned with making as much money as possible and consuming as much of the earth as possible in their brief lifetimes, what else would you expect from the organizations that these individuals aggregate to form?

We have all heard enough of fabulous quotes like – Change begins with me, Be the change that you want to see in the world, etc. Given that we are all familiar with this way of thought, the only conclusion that I can draw is that there are only a few people who think that there needs to be a change and who actually act upon it, most of us are happy with the current situation and trajectory of mankind and life. We raise our voices and apply pressure on industries and governments since they are suitable scapegoats and there is also no one who can be singly held accountable. More often than not, these organizations have a licence to kill since what they are looking to do ultimately is to enable wealth creation for their shareholders and vote banks. The recent go ahead by the Indian government for POSCO to mine in Orissa being an example. So when everybody – individual and the organization are working towards a common goal how can the change towards sustainable retreat happen unless the individual takes the initiative?

Over the past few years, I have often worried over what it is that I can do myself to bring about this change. I have tried to scrutinize my thoughts and actions closely to see what I can do. Having spent many years on the road to more and more economic assets, it takes great effort for a person of my mental strength to try and change my philosophy to one of sustainable retreat. I realized that I will never be the sort of man like a Buddha or a Jesus to drop everything and walk away from civilization. The attachments, habits and pleasures I have gathered over these years are many. I came to the conclusion that I will gradually try to reduce the amount of consumption that I do as an individual from the earth and try to become lighter and lighter on mother earth till I reach the lightest stage of all – death. I’m aligned with a philosophy where I believe the right way to go about life’s journey is to spend the first half learning how to live and the next half learning how to die in a graceful way so that in the end you dissolve into harmony just like how you first emerged from harmony. The human body after the age of thirty is already in a process of starting to slow down and it is important to align our thinking and actions to this accordingly.

The first thing that became obvious in this way of thought was that almost the entire human race, bar a few exceptions, will leave behind much more than what they came in with. This is all the accumulated possessions and creations that we gather in our journey of life. All life forms barring man leave no trace of themselves in this physical world when they are gone. Their remains will dissolve in a short span providing the basis for new life to emerge. Man’s remains currently look like they are meant to ensure that no new life ever emerges. The possessions we accumulate and then finally leave behind may take millions of years for the earth to reabsorb and digest if at all. Are we a sort of duster to wipe the slate clean for something else to emerge or are we here to just witness the end given that we are the most intelligent and blessed species?

I have already over the years accumulated clothes, CDs, books and what not – the result of a yuppie lifestyle. I decided that I will try and minimize my role as a consumer as much as possible and not buy any more clothes, shoes, etc. The only luxury that I will afford myself is the purchase of an occasional book or CD but not until I have read all the books and listened enough times over to all the CDs I have with me currently. I have been able to implement this to a significant extent in the last three years, of course getting clothes as gifts from family and friends and the occasional pilferage from them does cushion things.

The next major component of my consumerism is the amount of fuel I burn in my diesel guzzling SUV. Its been with me for 5 years now and in the initial two years I burned enough fuel to deserve to be hanged. Over the next 3 years, I started leaving the car more and more at home. I cycled to work for a couple of years. I have now quit work so I have ample time to get to where I am going either by walk, bus or train. The pleasure I crave for out of driving is quenched through the less frequent long distance trips with a group of people that justifies taking the car out to a small extent (pathetic excuses).

The reason why I decided to quit work was because I was feeling guilty working for a corporation where profit maximization is the key objective. This of course is the key objective of most corporations, governments and religious bodies. I have decided that I will bide my time and live off the savings I have till such time as I find a job that seems right. The only work I do these days are things which cannot be quantified as many women who support their families from home have found out. The savings I have will last me a few years but am trying to stretch it as much as possible before I look to an income based occupation if at all. I feel it is important for each of us to be fully aware of what is enough to take us through life. Some of the wealth amassed by individuals will not finish even if many many generations of their children live in excess.

I have also given up using soap, detergents, stuff like shaving cream, after shave, deodorants, etc. I use a coir like material called ‘inja’  (which was used extensively in Kerala before and still is by rural folk) to scrub myself when I have a bath. I occasionally use a regular bar of soap to give my skin the harsh treatment that cosmetic companies promise. I have been doing this for nearly a year now and so far no one has complained about the stink. I am doing this because I feel that man in his/her obsession to look more attractive to the opposite (and sometimes the same) sex has gone way beyond the bounds of rationality. The damage caused by the products and processes of the cosmetic industry to the world is mind boggling. The pollution to fresh water sources starts right in our bathrooms and kitchens and percolates into our environment on a deadly speed and scale.

I take bath in water at room temperature and don’t use a geyser to heat water. For a place like Bangalore this temperature is pleasant throughout the year. I avoid fans and air conditioning as much as possible. This has resulted in serious arguments with some friends occasionally but it’s worth it.

I have avoided all forms of pharmaceutical products for nearly 17 years now and rely on exercise, yoga and diet control to keep myself healthy. So far so good and I would rate myself as reasonably healthy enough to get by. The only medication i like is reasonable quantities of alcohol (preferably toddy), tobacco (preferably beedis) and natural psychotropic substances like marijuana, hash and mushrooms (if lucky)

I am trying to switch to a more self reliant life style in terms of food where i start to gradually grow as much of the things I need as possible and only buy food when absolutely necessary. This currently is a challenge that I hope to overcome in the next three four years but you have to experience it to know the ignorance of the city bred individual..believe me

I have started getting more and more pleasure in time spent on low cost activities like trekking, reading and spending time with family and friends. This is an effort to cut down the splurging at pubs, bars and restaurants that used to happen before. Of course I still just can’t resist a good movie in a cinema theatre.   

When I am not traveling and in Bangalore I mostly stay at my parents’ house and in the same room that I have spent my childhood and early adult years in. I am fully satisfied by the facilities that this offers and don’t believe in the idea that there should be one house per human being on the planet.

I don’t have children, this is of course incidental to the path that I have chosen, but knowing fully well how inhuman I sound, more and more humans is just not helping. All the top economists and scientists agree that 8 billion people are the ceiling in terms of resource availability on earth to support human life. We are already past 6.5 billion and will reach 8 billion in the matter of the next few years even if we cut down population growth by half given the momentum of these large numbers. Each new child we bring into the world will probably have to be that much stronger to be able to live with lesser and lesser resources and increased competition for it. Would be parents who are conscious of this fact and who align their children to this thought process are the need of the hour.

Are these things that I am doing enough for one individual? If everybody adopted similar measures would there be a significant positive impact on nature and the prospects of life? I feel that this is just a start and that I need to constantly be keeping my eyes open and weeding out excesses to make my life worthwhile for myself and all life, now and in the future. Walking this path has made me realize how weak and soft I have become over all these years as a human being. By trying to live with less I am becoming stronger and stronger physically and mentally. Nietzsche stressed on the aspect of great health when he spoke about the need for the Superman ( human beings who will be the leaders  to take the human race in the right direction)

I am not sharing this because I want any kind of appreciation or applause from you. I am doing this because I feel this is the right thing for me to do, this is my dharma. I am obsessed with this and nothing else will do for me but this way of living and thinking. You can go to hell any which way you choose, that choice is forever yours..

Man and Nature

What has been the impact of man’s main religions, philosophies and streams of thought on life on earth? How has this affected our relationship with nature, reality, quality of life, society and our world?

A religion essentially represents a philosophy or psychology that provides the archetype patterns for thought and action for its followers.

In ancient times in the east, nature and god were one. Nature (generally viewed as a female principle) was understood as the manifestation of the infinite through the aid of a guiding force or energy (generally viewed as a male principle). Gods were symbolic representation of nature and the intent of man was to select the natural archetype that matched his physical and mental constitution and to use this to energize, direct and guide him through life. The guru and the deities aided the individual in the correct selection of his or her deity. Through this process, the individual became a protector of the manifestation in nature of the deity that he selected. In this manner there was harmony between man and nature in a child/ mother or husband/wife relationship. Animals and plants would be identified as sacred and this ensured their protection from exploitation. Temples largely had female deities across the world and there was respect and awe for nature as the female principle. The presence of male and female mediators to propitiate the animal and forest spirits and a profound unity between the human body, mind and nature were a significant aspect of this period which may well have stretched from more than about 30,000 years ago till about 3,000 years ago.

Through a number of significant events such as the Persian and Greek ascension, attempt at  world dominance by Alexander, the world domination by Islam, Christianity, Buddhism  there was a gradual replacement and an almost complete elimination of natural deities and female symbolism. The suppression of women has also been a parallel phenomenon during this male ascension. One of the significant changes in human philosophy during this period has been a desire to separate from the natural and physical world and to look for salvation in a world beyond. This world we live in was viewed as sinful and filled with desires and temptations that were evil and man had to constantly be on his guard to ensure that his future place in paradise was not compromised. Buddha took refuge in the forest, Jesus in the desert. Their philosophies found immediate mass appeal among a wide variety of audience – individuals who were genuinely disgruntled with the social, religious and economic set up at those times, rulers and businessmen who saw these ideologies as a way to conquer races and acquire their resources with minimum bloodshed, etc. Some of the significant effects of these times were the decline in female deities, a suppression of femininity. Gods of nature were viewed as pagan and worship of nature was equated to devil worship. Mediators between deities and humans, who were earlier viewed as medicine men, healers and wise people were now treated as sorcerers and witches. Man found a way to leverage the new call to shun nature and natural desires as a means to plunder the earth’s resources and destroy indigenous races who were the protectors of nature. Nature had gradually undergone a metamorphosis in human psychology from a mother and a lover to a prostitute and a slave to be suppressed and exploited at will. Military force, financial enticement and religious psychology were used as key weapons. The result was destruction of nature as well as destruction of the psychology/ideology that believed in the protection and love for mother earth as the main and only source for the sustenance of man. Native races across the world including India, North and South America, the Arctic, Siberia, Australia, etc  were decimated or taught that they needed to be frugal and to give all their resources to the religious, business and political organizations that now dominated their world.

Once the ideologies of the key male figures had served their purpose, man then decided that God does not exist or God is dead based on what he called profound scientific discoveries. With the elation of this conclusion, he was sure that there was nothing else that needed to be discovered and that there were no real mysteries left about life. Man now proceeded to spread the message that there is no god, that science is the only truth to the same peoples that he had earlier massacred to make them follow his version of god.

First we disconnected our bodies from mother earth and then our minds from God. Science was the new tool or technique to be used to efficiently strip the earth of its resources for the benefit of a few. It was also an effective tool to numb the human mind and control vast numbers. The new philosophies or religions were Communism, Capitalism, Fascism.  Man’s psyche has progressed from the worship of nature as his mother/lover, to the worship of male gods who suppressed nature through abstinence and penance to usage of science as a tool under man’s control. Each step killed the ideologies and philosophies of the previous step and has led man to a psychosis and a distancing from physical reality (possibly the only reality that our senses can collectively vouch for)

Man went on a world domination spree and lived in a period he called Modern Enlightenment based on scientific foundations and rationalism (18h century onward as compared to eastern enlightenment which is 2500 years ago for Buddhists and 10000 years ago for Hindus and probably infinity for nature worshipers). His unshakeable belief in science has in the recent past been rattled with contradictory discoveries such as quantum physics, dark matter, illnesses like cancer, phenomena like genetic expression, etc.

We are now at a stage where all life on earth not just man is endangered. The last three decades has seen the mass extinction of large varieties of reptiles, amphibians and birds. The climate has changed so much that we live in a period named after man’s impact on the climate – the Anthropocene. Famines, hurricanes, earthquakes and super volcanoes threaten our way of life.  Civilized man suffers from serious psychoses due to the disconnect with nature, death of god, mindlessness of science and the unquenchable thirst for money.

Where do we go from here? Can we now make mother nature our god again? Can we now train the entire human psyche to focus on anything other than money? Can we use science as a tool to live in harmony with our minds and nature and all of existence itself?

Some things we could do are:

·         Give back the control of natural resources to the people who understand its value and who will protect it as their god.

·         Get out of areas in nature where our presence is not necessary

·         Educate every single human being that nature is the most important reality not man

·         Recreate gods in our minds that direct our thoughts towards sustenance of life and protection of nature

·         Use science as a tool rather than as a philosophy

·         Stop the exploitation of life by the few for material gain

·         Focus more on this planet than on other planets that could support life

Can we do this? If not one thing is certain, our children and their children will be dead before their natural time, not just yours and mine but of countless living beings who exist solely in the joy and beauty of life.

What can the individual do? The individual is the source and the destination for all resources that we are extracting out of nature. The individual is the vital cog of the collective psyche and the engine that drives man’s philosophy and thoughts. The individual has determined the progress of mankind’s collective psyche and where it is today.  The individual needs to raise his consciousness and awareness and choose with wisdom.  We need to sift through the mountains of perceptions assailing us and find the truth that is most relevant to us. Can we do an intense scrutiny of what we really need and modify the way we live and teach our children as well?

Food Insecurity

One of man’s deep rooted fears is the fear of starvation. This fear derives from the fact that we were hunter gatherers once and had to search for and hunt down our food. Food was not a guarantee for us and we were like other animals.

Over time we learned to cultivate and stock food and then trade the surplus till we finally have dedicated food related industries today. In spite of this, in today’s world, the fear of starvation has reached irrational heights. The 1990’s, according to the WHO, was the decade when more human beings died of diseases such as diabetes and heart diseases related to overeating as against the number that died due to under nourishment.

Most of us cannot imagine a day without 3 full meals and some without 4 or 5. Our organs toil day and night to digest and process this overload of food that we shove down our throats. The sedentary lifestyle that most of us adopt means that the energy produced by the processing of these foods does not get utilized efficiently and ends up as toxins and unprocessed food that the body ejects. We spend billions every year stuffing ourselves with these fatty and rich foods and billions trying to work off the excess that we accumulate in gymnasiums, spas and health clubs. Then there are the billions that we spend on cosmetics to try and hide our obesity and the billions we spend on medication and treating our ailing organs. The waste that we produce goes into drinking water supplies and kills millions of other life forms besides ourselves.

At the same time there are said to be 36 million deaths or more every year from hunger and starvation mostly among children and in the developing countries. Instead  of alternatively fattening ourselves and then trying to slim ourselves on an ongoing basis, shouldn't we be looking at how we can look to make life sustainable for these vast numbers of people? The easiest way is to become sustainable ourselves and not send money to the first NGO you see or government welfare fund. Our actions are not only not focusing on this, we are also contaminating the soil and water that many of the poor rely on for their sustenance. Our support for big industries enable them to take away their land and their produce. The big industries support large scale farming and the use of harmful pesticides, fertilizers and herbicides that promise a quick return in the short term and a prolonged and painful death in the long term. 

The human body can quite easily survive for a few days with only water in an adverse situation. Also research has shown that you can prolong life span by reducing the amount of food intake.Why can’t we just consciously cut down the amount of food we eat and give our bodies and life itself a better chance?

Sluggish and sedentary lifestyles without efficiently burning up the food we eat results in our brains becoming sluggish. I guess that explains the billions we spend on technology trying to see if we can do things with a little less effort. Are we not putting our bodies and minds gradually to sleep – a permanent sleep?