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There have been attempts to deny nationalism or paint nationalism, patriotism as jingoism for some years now. To be precise this gained momentum and vigour in the run up to the 2014 General Elections. In order to support their stand many started resorting to quote Aurobindo’s later works, select works of Subramania Bharati, to suggest they gave up nationalism for a greater universe where the humanity stood elevated beyond the national boundaries. While one cannot deny the broader, universal vision of the great personalities, writers like Aurobindo and Bharati, at core they were nationalists. Their yogic vision demolished the “narrow domestic walls”, but neither did Aurobindo retract his “The Renaissance in India”, nor Bharati reject “Swadesa Geetanthangal” (National Songs). It is going to be almost 100 years since Mahakavi Subramania Bharati passed away, he continues to ignite the minds of his readers now, with his vision, his fire as much as it did when they were first published, igni...

 Hayagriba Madhab Temple, Hajo    Jnananandamayam devam nirmalasphatikakrtim Adharam sarvavidyanam hayagrivam upasmahe   “We medidate upon that Supreme One, who has the neck and face of a horse and who is the embodiment of Jnana, Ananda. He has a Thirumeni like a radiant, blemishless spatikam and is the abode of all Vidhyas.”   This was a verse we learnt as children to recite, especially on the day of Saraswati Puja, and also regularly. Hayagriva as a deity of jnana, wisdom is invoked and his blessings are sought before vidyaramba. Hayagriva, a Vishnu avatara is worshipped by many sampradayas and specifically by the Sri Vaishnavas of south India. Thiruvendipuram near Cuddalore where one of 108-Divyadesas are situated, of the Devanatha Perumal, there exists a Hayagriva temple. It is situated on a small hillock called Aushadagiri overlooking the temple of Devanatha close to the river Gadilam. At a small village called Chettipunyam not very far from Chennai t...

  I am not a follower of any fashion trends. Not that it matters. I have always followed my heart, with an eye on my purse.   Over the weekend I could see a war had erupted on social media and at the receiving end was a super popular Indian designer Sabyasachi Mukherjee. I first thought it was about the models or the photos he had used. Or the multiple magazine covers that featured his new range. Never mind, that would hardly ever get any storm of opinions against. The opposition is not towards the designs or models but about a commercial deal, I learnt later. Furore was over his tie up with global brand H&M and daring to bring it down to aam janta through online platforms like Myntra and price it “affordable”. I follow him, Anita Dongre among the few designers just as a curious news person than a fashion follower. I have never stepped into any of their stores. Honestly, I can’t afford. I hated Sabyasachi when he took the Kanjivaram sarees, fully woven, complete pieces,...

Retreat of a reluctant politician  Super star who made a reluctant entry into politics after many adjournments has finally bid adieu. Well, given his age and health scare that led him to retract his plans for the 2021 Assembly Elections, the farewell may be real and not a doubtful one like his entry was. Rajinikanth, the superstar was beyond criticism. His fandom was really large, and he had carefully built his image and persona over the years. He continued making films and chose his sunset years to step into politics – even then his films took a concrete shape whereas political announcements were half hearted. To someone who was an admirer of Rajini, the star of ‘70s and ‘80s has been utterly disappointed with Rajini the dabbling politician. Indecisive, keeping the fans guessing, lack of direction and clarity through the years of preparing and promising a launch. It was not possible to critique him in open. It is not that I would have had a platform to get my critique published,...

  Some years ago I had enrolled for a course on Patanjali’s Yoga Sutra at the K.R. Cama Institute along with a friend. It was as my father accused me of, an excuse for having been a lazy non-practitioner trying to compensate by reading theory. I went through the weekly lectures diligently even as he went through hospitalization, cure, and ultimately passed away before I completed the course. He was a yoga practitioner and I have observed him with so much curiosity as a kid. Though he used to ask me sometime during my working years to learn yoga, he never made an attempt to teach me while I was much younger. Actually, being a Sri Vaishnava he didn’t teach me any of the traditional texts or slokas as well. It was not that he wasn’t interested, he just let us imbibe, read for ourselves, just assist us and kindle our curiosity even as we got busy with our own mundane existence of education, career, earning etc., I look at that as somewhat a reflection of what happens to a tradition, wh...

That is a question that arose in my mind when I saw a tweet some days ago. The tweet was a screen shot of a translation of a popular Tallapaka Annamacharya Kirtana “Manujudai Putti” posted by a fellow tweeple. Since it is a song that I had heard from my childhood, from the album of M.S.Subbulakshmi I thought, am I missing the line “ andamaina Sri Venkatadrisu sevinci ”. I had the book with me for long, but had done only a cursory browsing as I have been using the translations only as a reference. Whenever I heard a song, had a doubt over the lines that I can’t understand I refer to translations. I do that with two books I have, one a Tamil translation of Tyagaraja’s and another for Swati Tirunal compositions. I hardly ever referred to the Annamayya translation volume ‘God on the Hill: Temple Poems from Tirupati’ by Velcheru Narayan Rao and David Shulman. One reason perhaps is that the book had only a handful of the popular songs.   To get back to those lines in Manujudai Putti:- ...