Hitchens and Whiskey

Christopher Hitchens was not just known for his writing, but also a fine connoisseur of fine whiskey.

Interviewee:

We have a number of questions, curiously enough about your favorite things. One wants to know things you can't live without when traveling, And one person, one well informed audience member, of course wants to know your favorite whiskey is. 

Hitchens 

Well, I don't know see what the difference between the two questions (is). (Laughter) The favorite blended, the best blended scotch in the history of the worlds which is also the favorite drink of the Iraqi Baath party, as it is still of the Palestinian authority, and the Libyan dictatorship and large branches of the Saudi Arabian Royal family. Johnny Walker Blend, breakfast of champions, accept no substitutes.

Mahabharata

 Mahabharata

The story narrated by the seer mage,
Scribed by the god with two tusk,
Was appropos to any and all age,
Had to be written by both being unstuck. (Prelude to the Adi Parva)

The stories of the ancestors great,
And the stories of the dynasty,
And the story of the princes and the state,
Laid the ground work for the rivalry. (Adi Parva)

The magic of the court and the great hall,
Was marred by the game of dice,
Which would lead to a great fall,
Ignoring the advice of the wise. (Sabha Parva)

The adventures of the princes in the forest,
And the piety of the woman born of fire,
Were put mightily to the test,
And whose resolve would be strengthened by desire. (Vana Parva)

The disguise of the virtuous six,
For a whole year was done with mettle,
Then came a danger with a great fix,
And would find its end in battle.       (Virata Parva)

The lord of the three worlds and wisdom,
Went on a mission to find peace reluctantly,
He asked for a piece of a kingdom,
And walked away with a call for war gladly. (Udyoga Parva)

The story of the great grandsire,
Whose deeds were stuff of legend,
His intents was as pure as fire,
In devotion and bravery he was never second. (Bheeshma Parva)

The teacher who was not born of a woman,
Loved his student more than his son,
His pride and prejudice belied his human,
And seeking truth his soul went to heaven. (Drona Parva)

The bravery of the charioteer’s son,
Was exceed only by his charity,
He did not heed the words of the sun,
And paid the price for his integrity. (Karna Parva)

The bravery of the Uncle maternal,
Who was bound by his word and knew no fear,
His intent was always calm and fraternal,
And met his end calmly from a spear. (Shalya Parva)

The cowardice of the warriors three,
Their rage and hatred ran very deep,
In their attempt to set it free,
And killed many combatants in their sleep. (Sauptika Parva)

The rage of the woman who was blind,
Was focused on the man who was dark hued,
She tried in vain to find peace in her mind,
And alas she cursed in haste and rued. (Stri Parva)

The wit and wisdom of the great grandfather,
After the just and wise king was anointed,
Was preached to take the new ruler further,
And the people listening were not disappointed. (Shanti Parva)

The last day of the son of the great river,
Was spent teaching to his favorite ward,
He who had not known any fear and had a full quiver,
Passed on when the sun aligned for his reward. (Anushasana Parva)

The kingdom was made great by the march of the horse,
And the lesson thought at the beginning of the great battle,
To the great warrior in war who showed no remorse,
By his maternal cousin who was a world teacher in mettle. (Ashwamedha Parva and the re-teaching of the Geeta by Krishna to Arjuna)

The wise man and the royal citizens of old age,
Recognized the need for wisdom and to enquire,
Went to the forest to live in a hermitage,
Who were consumed by a great fire. (Ashramavasika Parva)

The anger of the blind woman and  sages,
Enabled by the members of the royal race,
Led to a curse and a great outrage,
And mets it end by a might mace. (Mausala Parva or the chapter of the mace)

The travels by the dog, brothers five and lass,
And beyond the ascent of the great mountain,
Only the embodiment of justice could pass,
Whose virtue was an endless fountain. (Mahaprasthanika Parva or the great journey)

The great king of eternal wisdom and right,
Was shown a piece of hell and tested,
To see if his grit and virtue could fight,
And showed he could not be bested. (Svargorahana Parva)

The epic that contains many stories,
Has chapters that are eighteen,
The listening of it leads to glories,
And makes the soul and life clean. (Benediction of the poem)

Feeature

 Feeature

A tongue-in-cheek reference to a product capability that needs to be paid for separately in addition to the core product. A play on the word feature.

Ramanujanology

"Ramanujanology" is a  term coined by Freeman Dyson for the study of the Indian mathematician Ramanujan. Here is a video of Freeman Dyson talking about it in his oral history. His first piece of original research was on Ramanujan theorems.

Dyson, Freeman J. 1996. Review: [RT: Ramanujan: Letters and commentary; RA: Berndt, Bruce C., and Robert A. Rankin]. Isis 87, (2) (Jun.): 387. A glowing review. Dyson adds an interesting comment: “In recent years, Ramanujanology has become a lively branch of mathematics, with many younger mathematicians exploring the territory that Ramanujan discovered. The advent of computers has brought new talents to he field. A bright graduate student with a Sun workstation can now do almost as good a job as Ramanujan with a pencil.”

Is Hinduism in Danger?

Is Hinduism in Danger?

This was a question posed by a pseudo-secularist commentator on Facebook. The answer is an emphatic yes.

1.) There is a concerted effort in the West and in the Indian pseudo-intellectual circles to marginalize Hinduism. Post Modernist nonsense crept into Indian History, Social sciences and even economics went totally left of center. Every narrative then hence blames Hinduism for the root cause when it is actually social structure and economics. Indira Gandhi sold the Indian narrative to the left. Wendy Doniger would not dare to write the same kind of nonsense she wrote about Hinduism to other religions and especially Judaism which is her faith. In any case, the narrative was biased and has to be taken back to a more moderate view and it may even swing to the other side to compensate for the nonsense peddling of the last 50 years. Ever wonder why nobody wants to send their kids to JNU and the quality of scholarship coming out of it sucks.
2.) The NGO’s (both Western and Islamic) started to attack Hinduism directly and leveraged the plight of the downtrodden when the root cause was not religion but the existing political apparatus which had a vested interest in preserving the status quo. Ever wonder why the NGO’s never show up when there is a crisis and the RSS do come as volunteers.
3.) Historically, especially in Bengal and Congress rule, in the case of a riot, the Hindus would get punished and the minorities would get scot-free. All vote bank political strategies
4.) The attacks on India by Pakistan (26/11 and others) shook the country by its brutality. And reminded that right at the border there is a group with a genocidal agenda clearly published of its intent and supported by a state that said Hinduism needs to be destroyed and foreign agencies from the Vatican to the Methodist church suggesting that they will do it non-violently.
5.) The constant demands of special privileges by groups who owed allegiance to Rome and Mecca did not sit well either. The Sabarimala hypocrisy and sham just confirmed all the above.
6.) It seems that the rules are always different and the constant shaming of Hinduism about caste/Dalits when the same argument could be made of other religions (Islam was the last to let go of slavery, Apartheid and Segregation were justified using the bible).
7.) The media in India NDTV/Hindu are all leftist in their outlook and are adept at shaming India because that is the narrative that sells to their base. Barkha Dutt, Nidhi Razdan and N.Ram personify this self serving narrative. There is no money to be made in calling out a good India.
8.) India is a country surrounded by genocidal neighbors. China to the North, Pakistan to the West and Bangladesh/Burma to the east and to some extent Sri Lanka for their slaughter of Muslims. All these countries have devious intent against India in some form or the other.
9.) Pramila Jaypal and Ro Khanna (US Democratic Congress members)who are anti-Hindu and anti-India have been sponsoring legislation which aims to cripple India economically. It is a shame that the Indian community has been steadfastly democratic party affiliated and this may be shifting.
10.) And lastly the useful idiots of Hinduism, who post anti-Hindu memes as if the secular aura would make them cool. This group will destroy Hinduism whereas the others have tried it for a millennia. This one irks me more than any other.

Letter to a daughter

 Dear Sanjana

My first memories of you is when you were born and I held you in my arms. And it was the best thing in my life. And the first time when you walked to me when I came home from SFO when you were 10 months old. Mom had spent the entire week teaching you to walk and when I came home you walked to me and we hugged and laughed and it was the happiest time in Irving. Another favorite memory of you was I would take you to Tom Thumb in Irving and I would let your ride a mechanical horse and you loved it. Once I took you there and you asked me innocently, “Do you have money??” to ride the horse and I was blown away. You were 2 and a half years old. My other memories of you were playing the Monkey and the Cap story over and over again and you never tired of playing that when you were 4 and when Meghana was born.

I still remember you and me holding Meghana together and welcoming the little devil into this world. This was in India. I also remember the first time when you came back to Houston from India when you were four and we went to get the car. You were so fascinated by me and I felt so good.

The most I was proud of you, of course, was when you stood up for your sister at a friend’s house. That was the happiest day of my life when I knew you going to be the best-est big sister ever.

The times at Anderson Elementary where I was WatchDog and you being so proud of me for being a WatchDog Coordinator is something I cherish. I do remember having Friday lunch with you and organizing play dates with your friends and it was a lot of fun. So was playing softball with the Bombpops. Those games were a lot of fun. The times at Barnes and Nobles, Braum’s ice cream were a lot of fun too.

Middle school was fun as well with Band and accompanying you as the “Band Dad”. Middle school went pretty fast and here we are. You are going to be leaving middle school and now going to high school.

I know it has been rough as you become a teenager and I have become older for the last couple of years. The little devil (Meghana) has not made it easy either. 

 I always remember Muttavva(ML Padmvathi, my maternal grandmother) and she always expected a lot from us and never gave up on us and she did it in all kinds of ways. I am who I am because of her. I know you want to be a doctor and the journey is going to be long and arduous but Amma and I will always be there for you. If I am to you was Muttavva to me, I have done my job and you will appreciate what we did when you have children and grand-children.

We are lucky to live in the safest time in the history of mankind. We owe it to us and to people before us to do justice to this opportunity and we will be there cheering you on every step of the way.

Love,

Dad and Mom

Memories of Chitthappa

My Chitthappa

                My first memories of Chittappa were his Java Motorcycle. I was 4 years old or so. I thought it was the coolest thing. He was tall and slim and just a cool guy. My Chittappa name was Venkateswarlu, Kondababu or just Lu.

I remember going to visit him in Nellore where he worked and I had a good time with my brother and two cousin sisters. I also remember coming to Madras on the Jammu Tawi express. It was a short trip but the memory is there.

He actually bought a tape recorder and was a big fan of Carnatic Music and Balamurali Krishna. He bought his cassettes the Utsava Sampradaya Kritis and Bardrachala Ramadas Krithis. Those songs continue to resonate with me to this day. Melukovayya in Ragam Bowli of the Utsava was my favorite. He also used to play a “game” where we would listen to Carnatic music on the TV and he would basically close his eyes and then he would listen to the song and tell what Ragam it was. It was so cool.

                My earliest memories of him were him being proud of me reeling of statistics of the Australian team that visited India in 1979/80. Even more pleasant were taking time off from school to watch cricket along with my dad and my Chittappa. Another thing was that he had purchased a Dyanora TV which was a big deal in those days. Watching Allan Border bat bravely was so cool.

                One of the fun memories of hanging out with Chittappa was to go to Swagath hotel and have Pongal Vada. He would actually tell us lot of fun stories when we would eat there. Or go to Shanti Vihar and have Bhel Puri or go to woodlands and have breakfast and coffee there.

                Another favorite memory was playing cricket. He was a very good cricketer and played for his company team. I remember him scoring centuries on us and he was a very good medium pace bowler. He always had knee pain and he would ask us to sit on the knee (he would call it idli).

                The 80’s were a lot of fun with him working for ICI and doing shifts which messed up his sleep cycle a lot. But he remained stoic and kept going and working hard and playing hard. He also got involved in the Union and was part of a strike. He was a labor leader and a team player for the company cricket team. He did it all.

                One thing about Chittappa was family was family. For my Chittis’ sister wedding, he led on all fronts and he was basically running around in messed up clothes shoring up and getting the food ready. I remember being totally impressed by that. He loved his wife and her side of the family no less.

                He was very proud of me for being a Kesari High School alum just like him and my dad. He visited me in CIT once in my first year and it was a total surprise. Visits to Chennai during College were a lot of fun and hanging out, talking cricket and just chilling.

                I distinctly remember him taking me on his bike taking cash to the bank to get the statement for US Visa F1 interview. That was a huge deal for me. It was a full scale family effort. When I visited India for the first time, I got champagne and we toasted the new year with it.

                Further trips to India were always memorable with trips to the beach, hotel and visiting them in Adambakkam. Also fun were his visits to US and visiting him. Visits were always sprinkled with Carnatic music and lots of coffee.

                The last trip was also fun with him having dinner with the grandkids and us and just enjoying the good time. He loved his kids, grandkids and nephews. He was a totally chill guy and was very patient.

                Chittappa, you were an inspiration and you made me and my life better. Love you, Chittappa. All of us will cherish your fond memories and affection.