BRAHMINS AND BRAHMINISM.....

A week ago, I read a curious news item appeared in a few Kannada dailies and saw news flashes and discussions of the same in a few Kannada TV channels. This was an unique and pious havan, Soma-Yaga, conducted  in Mattur  Village of Karnataka State. 

The ‘Soma-yaga’ conducted in Mattur was one of the most sacred vedic events, in the contemporary times. This yaga or yajna was conducted for the well-being of entire humanity. We all should have been very proud of such a sacred activity carried out by this only Sanskrit-speaking village in the country! Instead, false news of ‘animal sacrifice’ and ‘brahmins consuming meat and alcoholic soma-rasa’, were spread like wild-fire by some Kannada dailies, media channels and several so-called intellectuals. In my opinion, it is an onslaught of worst kind that brahmin community faced and brahminism condemned like hell, in the recent times......

Neither the State nor Central Government uttered a word in this regard.........!

Since childhood days, many of us have seen and experienced deprivation of government support and humiliation of all kinds, simply because we are brahmins. What mistakes the Brahmins have done being borne in that cast? The Brahmins don’t get any government support or subsidies in health, food, education and employment sector that other casts and religions get.  Brahmins are the worst sufferers in our country....

I have traveled world over... It’s only in our country that brahmins are looked down; nowhere else. What a shame..!

D. Jayarama Bhat

‘WORLD CULTURAL FESTIVAL’, held during 11-13 March 2016, on the floodplain banks of river Yamuna, New Delhi, by ART OF LIVING FOUNDATION......

I and my wife watched fully, the inaugural (1^st day: 11^th March) and concluding (3^rd day: 13^th March 2016) sessions of ‘World Cultural Festival’ organized by the ‘Art of Living Foundation’ of spiritual Guru Sri Sri Ravi Shankarji..., held on the floodplain banks of river Yamuna in New Delhi and broadcasted live by DD Bharati (1^st day) and Samskar (3^rd Day) TV channels. The sessions, a grand and impressive display of varied Indian and world cultural programmes, were a memorable treat to the eyes and minds of those who participated in person or saw them fully. Thousands of artists performed varied cultural events on a single sprawling platform. Honestly, two eyes were not enough to watch the event......! As the programmes unfurled continuously for more than 3 hours each day in the evenings, I sent SMS to a number of my friends and relatives and asked them to watch because it was a rare treat to witness, perhaps once in a life time....!. Thousands of people, from 171 nations across the globe, from all walks of life which included traditional artists, intellectuals, politicians and ardent followers of AOL participated in the event.....!

As curtains were drawn for the programme yesterday late evening, I was baffled to note that all prime TV Channels and leading news papers of our country didn’t care to broadcast or report on this unique and grand world cultural fete, with a positive mind-frame! How come this became a non-event or controversial to these broadcasters...?  Our Honorable Prime Minister Sri Narendra Modiji inaugurated the programme, in the august presence of Deputy Speaker of Rajya Sabha and a host of cabinet ministers and numerous world leaders.  The concluding session was presided over by the Honourable Chief Minister of Delhi Sri Arvind Kejriwalji, again in the august presence of Speaker of Lok Sabha and a host of cabinet ministers and numerous world leaders.... Each and every cultural event, fond messages read by numerous world leaders and the divine address of Sri Sri Guruji are recurring in my mind today with positive energy.....   

Whole last week and prior to commencement of World Cultural Festival, almost all prime TV channels (except Zee TV) cried foul so loudly that the event will destroy the ecology and biodiversity of river Yamuna and its floodplain surroundings. The National Green Panel and a number of activists made a hue and cry on this issue. Everyone spoke so authoritatively on the possible destruction of ecology and biodiversity in the floodplains of river Yamuna. I was confused because it is my knowledge that such an event will not destroy the ecology so easily and NGP’s objections were to some extent unfounded. Any naturalist, with basic but holistic knowledge of ecology will realize that a few trees and shrubs growing sporadically in a given ecosystem do not constitute the overall biodiversity. In fact, it is the trillions and trillions of microorganisms, i.e. bacteria, fungi, actinomycetes and a vast array of microscopic to small-sized worms that make the bulk of biota of the region’s biodiversity. It is not possible to destroy the ecology so easily by a 3-day festival event. The National Green Panel didn't peruse the issue in its totality and they looked only from an angle of plant community. Instead of objecting, the NGP should have taken the request of AOL as an advantage to restore the floodplains with greenery, after the WCF event. In any case, Sri Sri has assured that AOL will assist in the restoration of the greenery along the river Yamuna...

What is the net effect of WCF? Let us look at this passionately...... The vast knowledge of our culture and heritage is widespread across the globe through those attended the programme. People will go back with fond memories of the event. I appeal the prime TV channels and main news papers to broadcast our heritage showcased through cultural extravaganza such as the world cultural festival fully, at least in the future.... We have many good things to tell to the rest of the world...... 

D. Jayarama Bhat  

Our house is re-painted recently; now looks nice.....!

We got our house re-painted, interior and exterior, and floor re-polished, recently after 13 years of our occupancy. I remember that the initial painting at the time of construction of the house with cream interior and lavender exterior with terracotta bordering, was very methodical, well-done job and endured so long. Over the years, there were quite a bit of additions and deletions on the walls and roof which, together with wear and tear of the weather, deteriorated the wall-paints and demanded a comprehensive repainting. Therefore, we went for a thorough re-painting.....

As this exercise unfolded, we understood that re-painting of a house is no small job.....! It is indeed a big, exhaustive exercise. Firstly, we dismantled everything in the house. The house-hold materials were removed, packed in plastic bags and shifted to another room or compacted at different places in the same rooms. It was quite hectic for me and my wife and we took almost 2 days to pack the materials. The wall-hangings, showpieces, mementos, numerous toys that got accumulated by our children and now being used by our grand-child, sizable quantity of my fungal reference books, utensils, tables, chairs, kitchen utensils and everything....! For a while, the house was in a disarray. I and my wife perched in one room in the house for several days until we got the whole house re-painted and re-organized.

The process of wall repainting is quite elaborate and at times daunting. Retired from service and sitting at home, I observed the whole process of repainting. The old faded and deteriorated wall paint was first scarped using a wire brush or scrapper.  The wall-cracks were opened and re-filled with a crack-filling cement material. The surface imperfections such as dents, holes, depressions, cracks were filled or applied with a coating of wall-putty which is a wall-adhering material. This was followed by an elaborate wall-scrubbing process which resulted with eruption of a mild dust storm of powdered, dusty wall-putty inside the house.  I and my wife used facial masks to avoid inhalation of dust and possible dust-allergy. We cleaned the floor every day, soon after the workers left in the evening but the wall-putty powder rained all through the nights until the primer was applied. Though the dust induced repeated sneezing, fortunately we didn't face any allergic problem from this dust.

The smoothed wall was coated with a primer as a base on which the wall paint was applied subsequently. The raining of wall-putty powder stopped following application of primer. Next, 2-3 coats of wall paint was applied. I guess, it was a water-based emulsion.

There are numerous shades of colours. I believe there has been lot research on providing needful colour combinations onto the walls. Colour charts spell out numerous such colour combinations, depending on one’s taste. We left this to our children to choose appropriate colours, both exterior and interior, and they indeed did well. Eventually we now have ‘wheat sprige’ for interior and ‘burnished sun’ bordered with ‘geranium’ as exterior paint.

There are several reputed paint-manufacturing companies in the Indian market. We went for the brand Asianpaints. I am aware of other paint manufacturers are equally good and very competing with their quotes. All wall-paint manufacturing companies, including Asianpaints claim that their paints are good, competitive in price and resistance to vagaries of weather and especially against algal and fungal growth. This latter aspect, I am not very sure. I am a specialist on fungi and fully aware that controlling fungal growth on a wet wall surface is not that easy. Though microscopic, fungi are grow and subsist on organic matter by elaborating a variety of enzymes.  During rain or when there is lot of humidity and reasonably warm temperature, fungi grow everywhere on the wall paint which is a water-based emulsion. That is how we see patches of fungal growth on wall surfaces. It is not at all easy to control fungal growth. Fungi secrete a variety of enzymes from their filamentous body which digest the paint resulting with the wall paint loosing texture and dexterity.

Meanwhile, we also got the house-floors, partly marble and partly mosaic, mirror-polished. This is also an equally elaborate process. At the end of the day, the whole exercise resulted with even, smooth, shining walls and floors. Indeed, our house now looks grand....!

D. Jayarama Bhat

 Our house before re-painting

Our house after painting (under morning Sun)

 

Our house after painting (as seen in the evening)

Is Agaricostilbum  palmicola,  an endophytic fungus?

I have two fully grown, yellow-dwarf variety coconut trees, in my residential compound, which yield quite well round the year. These were planted in 2003, the seedlings of which I brought from ICAR research station in Old Goa. Though dwarf variety, the trees have now grown to a height of about 12 M. The yield has been continuously good and we use the tender-coconuts as a refreshing soft-drink.  When mature, we harvest the ripened coconuts and use partly in the making of vegetable curries and the rest as sun-dried copra for oil extraction. We get about 15-20 litres of coconut oil annually and, from any standard, these are undoubtedly very high-yielding coconut trees. Thanks to the ICAR station, Old Goa, the source of my coconut trees!  I often take evening strolls in my terrace and watch these mighty ‘kalpavriksh’... They brighten my mind and thinking...!

   

In the yester years, plant- parts of my coconut trees have yielded several microfungi, an area of my research interest.  Recently, I saw some white powdery masses on intact and dried inflorescences on my coconut tree top. I pulled one of those and examined under a hand-lens. Interesting enough, the white powdery expansive patches were microscopic, fruiting bodies of a synnema-like fungus called Agaricostilbum, belonging to Basidiomycota.  

Agaricostilbum palmicola was described by J. Wright in 1970 (Mycologia 62: 680) and again in 1981 (Mycologia 73: 880) as a saprobic, synnema-like basidiomycete on fallen coconut leaves. I have examined the fungus under a light microscope and presence of clamp connections at the base of the synnema confirms its basidiomycete affinity.  What puzzles presently is its habitat affinity.  Originally described as a saprobe on fallen coconut spathe, the fungus is now seen on tree top on intact senescent inflorescence... I am guessing that  Agaricostilbum palmicola is actually an enduring endophyte in coconut trees, world over..... We need further investigations to prove this... 

D. Jayarama Bhat

WALKING EVERYDAY IS A GOOD EXERCISE.....

Benefits of walking everyday, from health point of view, are highlighted everywhere. There are numerous sites enlisting the advantages of walking and the major benefits are said to be the following-

1. While walking, the functional parts of our body such as head, eyes, ears, nostrils, lungs, heart, kidney and limbs are physically set in motion. More we walk, more these parts get activated. On a regular walk, our body parts get rhythmically vibrated.

2. We sweat on walking; that is a sign of biological burning of stored excess calories in the body, fat or carbohydrate.

3. On walking, not only one becomes physically fit and active but also mentally pleased. Such pleasant minds form the base for good work and better attitudes.

I started regular walking (everyday) since my school days.... After completing 5^th Class in 1959 in an elementary school located in the neighbourhood of our ancestral house Darbhe in Irde village, Karnataka State, I walked everyday about 6 km from our house for higher elementary and high schools. A young boy, commuting a distance of 12-14 km everyday was not an issue those days. I had no other options either. In the fifties and sixties, there were no higher-level schools nearby. Neither there were motorable roads nor descent walkable tracks in our villages.  The walking trails to high schools traversed through numerous ups and downs, narrow valleys, undulating hilly terrains, bunds of paddy fields, areca and cashew plantations and seasonal and perennial running streams some of them with shaky hanging bridges. From 6^th to standard 10, I walked the distance everyday barefoot. Those were the days; time spent and exertions due to walking were not issues pondered at all...

For Higher education, I moved out of our village and shifted to Mangalore and Chennai cities. Later, on employment and scientific researches, I even went abroad several times. Yet, I didn't stop walking. Rain or sun, within or outside India, I walked everyday morning, about 4-5 km, which I continued all along in Goa.... Essentially, I walked all through......   

Ever-changing life-styles and habits have continuously impinged on our daily routines. In such demanding times, regular walking not only will keep us physically fit but also mentally positive. Positive minds will lead to good work done always...

D. Jayarama Bhat