Hemantha Kalam - 91 'COVID Blues'

It was from the 23^rd March, 2020,  as I remember, that the periodical Lock-down in Chennai, India started to prevent the infection of the dreaded pandemic COVID-19 (Corona Virus Disease-2019). It’s now 9 months since I am locked down at home. Since I belong to the endangered category of a senior citizen (it appears that, for once, the country is showing some serious concern for the senior citizens) I am regularly advised not to step out of the house. Children are abroad but they monitor our well being on a daily basis. My mother who is a very senior citizen and my other siblings who are not so senior citizens are just three kilometres away from me but it has been many days since I could meet them at my parents’ place as against my almost daily visits to her or at least as frequently as was possible.

I am summing below as to how I could and had to spend my time at home.

 

It’s now been 270 days

That the wily COVID

Put paid to our jolly ways

Driving me sad and mad

 

To ensure that money

Made its way regular as income

I continued on my

Working, from the home

 

Forgot the shoes

Nor any formals

It’s mostly shorts

And just old T shirts

 

Woke up a bit

But slept a lot

Read and wrote

Without a stop

 

No salon going

No hair cutting

No beard trimming

Whatever, only by self doing

 

There may or may not be

In accounts, enough cash

But, there always are plenty

In the sink, of dishes to wash

 

Masks and gloves

Identity obscured

Sanitisers and disinfectants

Bottles emptied

 

Peeled, cut, diced vegetables, kneaded dough

Whether an expert or not though

Cursing this once forced furlough

Looking all the while for a different shore

 

Newspapers were read

Two days hence

For fear of COVID

Stale though the news

 

Connecting the disconnected and dear ones

On Google Meet or MS Teams

Periodically once

Adjusting to everyone’s times

 

Kindle, Netflix, WhatsApp, YouTube

Technologies much appreciated

Filling the hourglass with story and blurb

Old friends and Chandamama be much obliged

 

Bhutan, Brunei, Eastern Europe et al

Travelled all places in virtual

On Heavy Trucks the Outback of Australia

Satiated my travel appetite as a victual

 

Hundreds of thrillers and Forensic files

Watched the crime to bide the time

Became bored after a while

Watching again and again the same

 

Weary of the rapid advance

Caused by the Goliath COVID

Waiting for a quick deliverance

By a vaccine, hoped to be a David

 

It is time for delivery by nine months

But with the threat of a new strain

There appears no deliverance

Effective vaccine or no vaccine

 

Disease, death, hunger and poverty

All appear to be same for susceptibility

Hope the New Year will bring in sanity

But if only there prevails responsibility

 

May the year 2021 be better for the mankind!

 

So Long!

Krutagjnatalu (Telugu), Nanri (Tamil), Dhanyavaadagalu (Kannada), Nanni (Malayalam), Dhanyavaad (Hindi), Dhanyosmi (Sanskrit), Thanks (English), Dhonyavaad (Bangla), Dhanyabad (Oriya and Nepalese), Gracias (Spanish), Grazie (Italian), Danke Schon (Deutsche), Merci (French), Obrigado (Portuguese), Shukraan (Arabic and Sudanese), Shukriya (Urdu), Sthoothiy (Sinhalese) Aw-koon (Khmer), Kawp Jai Lhai Lhai (Laotian), Kob Kun Krab (Thai), Asante (Kiswahili), Maraming Salamat sa Lahat (Pinoy-Tagalog-Filipino), Tack (Swedish), Fa'afetai (Samoan), Terima Kasih (Bahasa Indonesian) and Tenkyu (Tok Pisin of Papua New Guinea), Malo (Tongan), Vinaka Vaka Levu (Fijian)

 

Hemantha Kumar Pamarthy

Chennai, India

 

 

Hemantha Kalam - 90 'Perception and Reception'

A couple of days ago, a feature in the culture column of a newspaper mentioned that a particular film star ‘knew what he wanted’ to eat. So ‘knowing what one wants’, even to eat, has now become a virtue to be emulated from a not very well educated but who became a celebrity for whatever reason.

This triggered my thoughts. About four decades ago I was working with an internationally reputed conglomerate and my boss Late Mr. Rao always used to emphasise on reception and tell us “Arrey baba, you people should learn the art of lijening (his way of pronouncing listening)”. Those days we were young green horns and many of us never took this averment seriously. That precisely is the fodder for this blog.

My theory is that in learning, the process comprises of the seven steps of DRASAARD;   

- Dissemination, 

- Reception, 

- Assimilation (information received tempered with perception), 

- Storage (in memory - natural/artificial or in books by way of notes), 

- Application, 

- Augmentation and 

- Re-Dissemination,                                                                                                           either as a theory or practice. 

Of course the basic parameter is access to learning. 

The knowledge giver may disseminate whatever knowledge s/he has and it is the job of the receiver to receive it fully and without any distortion, with help if needed. The received information should be validated using perception, to the extent possible, for understanding the logic and purpose. Such understanding should be stored for use as and when needed. 

But today, in the era of almost irresponsible data dissemination thanks to unbridled social media, where the authenticity and veracity of information is mostly suspect and cannot be easily verified, the perceptions, if there are any valid ones, are constantly under attack beyond experience and logic. 

If the reception itself is faulty, one wonders as to what is likely to happen to the assimilation and application. And the not-properly initiated (a majority) fall victims to wrong applications of such dissemination of information. It is like having the carbon copy effect (again, I wonder how many new generation kids even understand the word ‘carbon copy’)  where the first impression is almost a replica, the second image is a little lesser and by the time it comes to a fourth copy, it is totally distorted and incoherent.

That is exactly what is happening now; where many go blindly around without really knowing what they want and what they need. If the parents and teachers can’t disseminate values and knowledge respectively, the wards cannot imbibe them properly and start behaving like the fourth carbon copy.

And people now are not tuned to be just average or fail. They just can’t handle failure. They are not strong enough to confront adverse situations. You don’t believe? Just read around how many children and the youth are getting into passive and serious crime that surpasses malpractices to use of prohibited drugs to serious crime at a tender age. How many are indulging in homicidal and suicidal tendencies for frivolous reasons; because they couldn’t get what they thought they wanted, which anyway they are not clear about!

There is a dire need for the parents to become more responsible, truly caring and urgently join hands with the teachers to correct the course. If not, sooner or later, the country will be filled with directionless, insensitive, illogical and even uncouth people! They may not even know what they are doing as they don’t know what they want or need. They are confused and hardly have clarity on life needs and skills. If they say that they know what they want to eat and it becomes a point of celebration, are learning values not plummeting?

Well these are my perceptions and please do let me know how you have received the same and later on please add your perceptions on the subject!

Till then,

Krutagjnatalu (Telugu), Nanri (Tamil), Dhanyavaadagalu (Kannada), Nanni (Malayalam), Dhanyavaad (Hindi), Dhanyosmi (Sanskrit), Thanks (English), Dhonyavaad (Bangla), Dhanyabad (Oriya and Nepalese), Gracias (Spanish), Grazie (Italian), Danke Schon (Deutsche), Merci (French), Obrigado (Portuguese), Shukraan (Arabic and Sudanese), Shukriya (Urdu), Sthoothiy (Sinhalese) Aw-koon (Khmer), Kawp Jai Lhai Lhai (Laotian), Kob Kun Krab (Thai), Asante (Kiswahili), Maraming Salamat sa Lahat (Pinoy-Tagalog-Filipino), Tack (Swedish), Fa'afetai (Samoan), Terima Kasih (Bahasa Indonesian) and Tenkyu (Tok Pisin of Papua New Guinea), Malo (Tongan), Vinaka Vaka Levu (Fijian).

 

Hemantha Kumar Pamarthy

Chennai, India