I Travel by Cattle Class

I Travel by Cattle Class

It could be by bus, by train or by plane, I travel by what a particular politician, perhaps about a decade ago, called “Cattle Class”. In his case, it was the Economy Class in an airplane. Perhaps he had a point. Perhaps not. Dive in to find out.

The photo above shows the area in which passengers wait till Security Check has been announced. If that is how cattle wait before being driven to the abattoir in a truck, and put on a conveyor belt, well, I do not remember ever being in such a situation. Ain’t I alive?

As an aside, let me ask why the airport waiting halls have such high roofs? Is that for mere differentiation between plane and train passengers? Perhaps so. You cannot smell the sweat of others, till you are on the plane! On a railway station, the stench is all pervasive, even in the IR canteens and beyond the precincts of the station. I am coming to railway stations in just a bit.

By the way, people who enjoy the luxury of Business Class travel wait in the lounge reserved for Business Class travellers. Have you ever wondered why the Business and Economy classes are separated by a thick cloth curtain? 

It is to prevent the warmer (and possibly saltier) air from the latter sort of “leak” into the place of privilege. This is how travelling economy class becomes, if not equivalent to, at least parallel to the infamous Cattle Class. Cattle breathe and sweat their own bodily emanations,not to mention that of the others, on their way to Heaven.

The people with their backpacks or trolleys in the picture above are not anywhere crowded like they are on railway platforms of Indian Railways. The picture below (copied from a newspaper report and for no idea to profit from it). 

Were some cattle to see both the photos they would have realized how spaced out (not in the sense of being under the influence) they would have been in flying (at least as they wait), and been immensely comfortable in waiting to travel by air in “Cattle Class”, even to be on the conveyor belt in the luggage retrieval belt leading to their being cut up!

The politician who used the phrase “Cattle Class” to point out the commotion at the flight gate is right in one sense, I admit. At check-in, the passenger is given the seat number, accommodating her request−window/aisle/middle (who would choose the middle seat? I am merely accommodating all possibilities, no matter near zero probability; on the wings (for the curious, to watch the wing flaps go up and down, during take-off and landing; your humble writer many years earlier!), next to the emergency exits (concerned about her survival)−as much as possible. Then, why the rush to the boarding gates when the announcement to board is made?

Don’t you know, she is tugging along two large size strolleys, when she knows very well that though the allowance is utmost only one (of limiting dimensions), she would be allowed to take both into the cabin (the airline would offend the likely repeat offender). It is to be able to store them in the luggage space above before others, just like her, occupy the space, again with two strolleys, that she rushes to the boarding gate! Isn’t this encroachment, in the air?

The rush to the boarding gate is reminiscent of the bulls rushing in a Tom Cruise movie of about a couple of decades ago, Knight and Day!

Again, the metaphor, “Cattle Class” is justified! Politicians travelling in Business Class (at the expense of the taxpaying public) do not see any such bull runs! The bemoaning politician just saw how unjustly his privileges were being withdrawn. Tut, tut... 

I am coming towards the end of the post and weighing the right or wrong of the “Cattle Class” comment by the politician, I say that the case has not been made for either position definitively. The ayes neither have it nor not have it! This is precisely every politician’s position on any issue!

The person generically anchored this post is a true politician, after all! What did he mean by “Cattle Class”? He himself may not now!

Raghuram Ekambaram

Religion and Superstition Act against Develoment of Mental faculties

                                      Religion and Superstition Act against Development of Mental Faculties

Let the readers be warned. This is going to be a long post. It has been in the making in my mind for long and only a recent event in the skies made me venture into start writing this.When I would finish and post it? Ram jaane!

Over the last week (Sept. 1st to 7th, 2025) I scoured the newspaper daily to locate a particular news item that I did not find. This made me happy. Wasn’t that strange, looking for something, not finding it and feeling happy? I am not good at keeping secrets; then it is time for me to let the cat out of the bag!

Whenever a solar eclipse is in the offing, the local planetarium puts forth advisories about how, when and in what direction one should look at the solar disk in its phases, each phase offers a distinctly different yet truly wondrous sight. Of course, the planetarium also issues the most critical warning−which the President of the US, Mr. Donald J. Trump in his first term blithely ignored and seems to have escaped without even the proverbial slap on the wrist−is not to look at the sun without appropriate filters. Such a warning was what I was searching for.

Silly me. Did I not know that during the lunar eclipse that occurred during the intervening Sunday night-Monday morning, we are looking at the lunar disk that does not self-illuminate? No Diamond Ring effect, of course. Perhaps an innocuous red tinged lunar surface. It is only reflected light. Maybe that is why animals don’t go crazy and birds don’t do strange things (Though I heard that even cave dwelling bats are not immune to solar eclipses).

Before I get into the thesis of this post, let me offer a primer on astrological (South Indian, particularly Tamil Brahmins, shortened to TamBrahms) astronomy.

The natal charts of a South Indian and a North Indian are easily distinguishable. The one on the left is a North Indian’s and, on the right we have that of a South Indian’s.

I will concern myself here with the South Indian chart with the understanding that stupidity knows nothing of the differences between north and south!

Zooming in on the South Indian, I make a particular note of Tamil Brahmins, the very constricting subset I unfortunately belong to. TamBrahm has 12 small squares around an empty large square. Each small square is a “house”. I did know the small boxes are numbered clockwise, starting with the top left non-diagonal box aligned horizontally. While the abbreviations such as “Merc”, “Ve”, “Mar”, “Jup” and “Sat” are easy enough to be associated with the planets, and Sun and Moon are written down in full, what are “Ra” and “Ke”?

These are the dreaded “Rahu” and “Ketu”, points at which the celestial equator (Earth’s equator projected onto the celestial sphere) intersects the projection of the Earth’s orbit around the Sun onto the celestial sphere. “Rahu” and “Ketu” have no material existence.

People have asked me, in the tone the victor speaks to the bleeding and dying vanquished in a duel, if the Moon can cause tides on the earth, why can’t the planets influence the neurons in the brain. Well, I have answered it in some other post and would not repeat it here. But, I will tell you that “Rahu” and “Ketu” are not even specks in the universe; there are mere points, two in an ocean of infinite points in space! Answer the implied question in that! For the denizens of the northern sphere, the figure shows the occurrence of the Autumnal (Fall) and Spring equinoxes. You choose which one is “Rahu” and which one is “Ketu” and see if I care.

In school I was told that it was only because the axis of the Earth is tilted to the plane in which it goes around the Sun, we have seasons. I am not sure I understood it then, but now I do. And, so did those who created horoscopes!

There are 27 named stars and a TamBrahm’s fate is fixed at the time of birth (I know the names of all the twenty seven stars in the twelve Zodiac signs, but were I to try to recite them, I invariably skip one!).

Given the above, how likely is it that where a planet is marked off in the natal chart would influence a human being? If the natal star of the infant is Aldebaran, the male baby’s maternal uncle beware! Lord Krishna, you see, born under the natal star Aldebaran, killed His maternal uncle (Kansa). 

On September 7th and 8th, 2025, lunar eclipse occurred under two stars (one during the setting phase, and the other under the leaving phase) in the middle of the night, and someone close to me had one of them as her natal star. I wonder how she was affected. I would ask.

I cannot read the paragraphs above bar the first without a smug smile crossing my lips. The approximately 5% population of Tamil Nadu showed off their ignorance for everyone to see (whether anyone saw or not, I haven’t the foggiest). They prayed and prayed to all their ancestors as they do every New Moon Day that they be spared of all the ill effects, if any. That is, they were scared without even knowing why they were scared!

Also, all TamBrahms become impure in the event of an eclipse and they have to take a bath after the event. Chennai is the capital city of the state of Tamil Nadu, and it is severely water-deficient. Yet, they took an additional bath. That is how much they care about their fellowcitizens!

Now, I would split the TamBrahms into two divisions: Vaishnavites and Smartha. Vaisnavites are the uppitier lot of the two (of course, myself being a Smartha, I would think that, wouldn’t I?).

To hear someone, who I suppose is well versed in most of the Vaishnavite scriptures and also perhaps Saivite ones, say that the reason Vaishnavite (in Tamil Nadu) temples do not have a sannidhi (where the stone idols are placed on a pedestal) for the nine astral (limited to solar system) planets (actually only five planets: Mercury, Venus, Mars, Jupiter and Saturn)whereas Saivite ones do (in Tamil Nadu) is that the planets are all accommodated in the feet of Lord Vishnu!

Now marry astrology and astronomy with a sprinkle of star dust and religion too. “Rahu” must be in the left feet of Lord Vishnu and “Ketu”, on the right; symmetric about the axis of symmetry (vertical)!  

Let us take a more detailed look. What are the nine items (yes, items they are, to me)? Sun, Moon, the five planets listed above and, get this, the two points of intersection of the apparent path of the Sun in the sky and the celestial equator. These are the two points without which no horoscope can be charted. Absolutely.

If you have any doubts, ask your family astrologer. These are the all powerful “Rahu” and “Ketu” that we have visited many times so far! Only when the Sun, the earth, the moon and the two points Rahu and Ketu align in the sky we get eclipses. In your horoscope, indeed anyone’s horoscope, “Rahu” and “Ketu” have to be precisely at 180o to each other. This is inviolable.

Even given that these points in space have an effect on any individual, science tells that they would be pulling in opposite directions at the same time! No net effect! So, why all these scare tactics?

Oh, now I understand. Religion, which parallels astrology in one crucial aspect, too is a highly developed, esoteric knowledge the sole purpose of which is to scare people to the benefit of the priestly class. What does a TamBrahm do, besides propitiating one’s ancestors under the guidance of the family priest on the day after the eclipse? Propitiate the priest. And, that being not enough, go to temple and offer more to the temple priests. 

Propitiation all round!  Leave your mental acuities at the gate.

Raghuram Ekambaram

Chastisement, Upgradation, Retrofitment...

                                                                     Chastisement, Upgradation, Retrofitment...

A peculiar propensity of writers in newspaper or magazines is to avoid using gerunds.Detesting gerunds−check that, detestation of gerunds−appears to be their birthright. Why is it so? I haven’t the foggiest.

“The retrofitment of the 787s is expected to conclude by 2027,” is a part of the sentence in a newspaper article I read recently. It is an article about AIR INDIA’s woes, pertaining particularly to its large fleet of Boeing aircrafts. The other words in the heading are also words I found in English language newspaper or magazine articles, and I am not lying.

My MS Word fits a red squiggly line underneath the word “retrofitment”, and that is as well.

I did not expect such an aversion to gerunds, present participles taking on the role of a noun.OK, language mavens might nitpick on my understanding of gerunds. In my defence, this is how I was taught.

Here, to be honest, I must admit I did read, “[C]reating guidelines”, “[D]efining global benchmarks”, “...ensuring diverse traditions ... can coexist” in another article about WHO,along with India, drafting global benchmarks on Yoga. My shout-out goes to Bindu Shajan Perappadan who appears in the by-line of this article. Yes, there are some clear thinking people too among newspaper writers!

Perappadan, had she wished, could have written, “[Creation] of guidelines”, “[D]efinition of global benchmarks”, and last but not least, “...ensurance/ensurement... can coexist.” The last item is merely to show the absurdity of this trend of/obsession with avoiding gerunds, or more appropriately but absurdly, gerund avoidance! But she did not. Good for the readers.

Just for fun. Had the assignment been, “Designing the Tower for Diving Competition in Dr. Shyama Prasad Mukherjee Swimming Pool Complex”, and someone pathologically opposed to the use of –ing altered it to, “Designment of the Tower for Divement Competition in Dr. Shyama Prasad Mukherjee Swimmtion Pool Complex”! Chew the cud on that!

When I was working in an engineering consultancy company, I had written/compiled a number of proposals for “Upgradation” (typically widening) of a two-lane road to a four-lane road (this was the time of Mr. Atal Bihari Vajpayee in 7, Race Course Road who promotedthe East-West and the North-South Corridors; I thank him from the bottom of my heart as he helped me feed my family!). But, it was also the time of “Retrofitting” as the projects involved retrofitting and upgrading as much as possible the then existing national highways, and not, “Retrofitment”. By the way, for those who are not sure what retrofitting is, I offer the following: You take what exists and make it fit to suit the demands not merely of today but setting the horizon a few decades further into the future. Retrofitting, if properly done is a process of building-in effectiveness that makes the past blend seamlessly into the future. Economy is achieved through thinking into the future.

The above paragraph is an excusable diversion from the topic of this rant. Coming back, a gerund untangles a knotted sentence. Gerund lets one travel towards common sense. Avoiding it is a descending stairway to linguistic hell, no halfway landing.

Raghuram Ekambaram

 

Where Does Any Depiction of Ramayana Belong?

Where Does Any Depiction of Ramayana Belong?

It definitely belongs in a Ram Mandir, as the one in Bani Park, Jaipur. Well, I cannot take you to Jaipur, but at a low level substitution, kindly take a look at the following photos, sourced from there:

                          

The roof of the pillared hall, open on three sides (the deity is in His own room on the fourth side), is slightly elevated above the column heads and in this space the twelve scenes are painted, four per side. Each frame depicts a critical scene in the epic, from the birth of Lord Ram to his coronation after vanquishing Ravana. Well, I would not be able to do justice to how relevant those paintings are (even if they are not at the level art cognoscenti appreciate!) in that temple.

I handed the digital pictures (these pictures were taken on photo films) to someone with an excellent and appropriate dose (not too hot, not too cold, just right – the Goldilocks Principe)of art sensibilities, and he converted the bland pictures into four strips of frieze (paintings and not sculpture), and made them look like what an old time ambassador in a royal court may unwind to read from. I cannot appreciate enough his contribution in making this framed picture. Thank you, Mr. Sudhir Sharma. This was about thirty years ago.

Now the picture hangs in the wall directly opposite to the door to my residence, just so none could miss it. But, miss it each visitor to my house does. The powers of observation have gone out the window. Yet, I make it a point that they see it, whether they appreciate or not.

On August 27, 2025 and precisely 50 years ago (on August 27, 1975), a short piece is published in The Hindu in the space grandiosely titled, “FROM THE ARCHIVES”. This is given below:

It is not impossible that the artist who created the paintings at the Bani Park Ram Mandir took inspiration from the scenes of Ramayana from the temple at Chengam. And the artist went one better.

How so? At the 17th century temple in the erstwhile North Arcot District in Tamil Nadu the presiding deity is Lord Krishna, called Arjuna Sarathi (the charioteer of Arjuna) and also Gopalakrishnaswami (cowherd Gopal). The sculptor placed scenes from Ramayana in a temple dedicated to Lord Krishna! Tut, tut ...

But at Bani Park Ram Mandir, it is scenes from Ramayana in a Ram temple. It took three centuries (plus a few years maybe) to set sculpture (converted into paintings) in its proper place.

By the way, an earlier frame of the same picture was my gift (kept secret from her till the grand unveiling!) to my very religious minded wife about two decades ago. That one got spots on it and I fortunately could locate the digital file and made the frame shown in this post.

Raghuram Ekambaram

Add the Schwa to Thamizh Dictionary

 Add the Schwa to Thamizh Dictionary

(Schwa is the fourth quadrant rotated image of 'e' in the second quadrant

What is the name given to the captain of the Chennai IPL team by the teams’/captain’s erstwhile rabid fans (they may no more be rabid as the team in the latest edition was buried below the wine cellar)? The answer: Thala, the “Head”.

This is corruption of the Thamizh word Thalai. The ‘ai’ has lost its tail, the ‘i’ while retaining the head, ‘a’.

The above is the start of my lesson on Thamizh pronunciation.

Ask any certified non-Thamizh to pronounce the Thamizh word, “Dosai” and listen keenly to how she pronounces it. It comes out as Dosa, and in all probability, the ending vowel voiced as elongated. Even a native Thamizh speaker does not want to be identified that she is a Thamizh native; there is apparently some shame attached to it. She would pass-off as a non-Thamizh and the pronunciation of “Dosai” as “Dosa” helps. I know this from my experience in the university canteen where the name of the breakfast fare is only “Dosa”, and not “Dosai”, among both Thamizh and non-Thamizh. 

“Dosa” is the common sound voiced among Thamizhs who have lived outside the state of Thamizh Nadu for a considerable stretch of their life, or they want to pass for a non-Thamizh when the shame factor kicks in. 

The response would be the same from a certified Thamizh. You would be excused if you thought the responder was a non-Thamizh (non-native speaker, or someone who has lived outside the state of Tamil Nadu (Please note that state’s official name is Tamil and I have no right to change it) for a considerable stretch of her life, or someone who wants to pass for a non-Thamizh as they feel shame to call the language his mother tongue (the last one, I call a pseudo-non-Thamizh!).

Thamizhs, speaking among Thamizhs and excluding pseudo-non-Thamizhs do not pronounce the word either as “Dosai” or “Dosa”. So how do they pronounce “Dosai”?

As “Dos”. Aha, the schwa (the shaded letter) enters the picture! Huh...what is a schwa? Schwa is given as a “the neutral mid-central (I do not know what this means; don’t mid- as well central mean nearly the same? I suppose mid- may not mean the precise centre. All confusing, as English takes pride in) vowel sound of the most unstressed syllables in English.” The fun is that the same dictionary gives example as “a” in the word “ago”. “a” is NOT the mid-central, as the word is of three letters and has two syllables, none of which could be called mid-central! But, I have digressed; my apologies. 

The critical point is that the “a” in “ago” is unstressed, and there the schwa appears. Yes, this “unstressed” is the critical point. I have argued that how a dictionary gives the meaning, indeed more the pronunciation is only a guide to it meaning in the context it is mentioned. Even an unstressed “i” as in “unity” is indicated by the schwa (I checked this, and it is so in the dictionary I refer). One purportedly need not even open their mouth to create the sound of. 

Ignore the last line above. A dosai is not a dosai when a certified Thamizh who is not ashamed of her mother tongue pronounces it. It is Dos. Yes it is, and this is not a singleton. Many years ago, a Thamizh song “Kolaveri dee” was a fad in Delhi and perhaps other North Indian cities and town too. Its written form in transliteration is neither “Kolaiveri dee, (meaning a strong impulse to murder, kolai) nor “Kolaveri dee” but “Kolveri dee”.

The same goes for cat, not “poonai” but “poon”; for elephant, not “yaanai” but “yaan”; for palm tree, not “Panai maram” but “Pan maram; for Coconut tree, not “thennai maram” but “thenn maram”; for younger sister, not “thangai” but “thang” (in some regional dialects, “thangacchi;); for “open the door”, not “kadhavaitthira” but “kadvtthre”, and the list is longer than the mythical tail of the monkey god Lord Hanuman.

M. S. Dhoni’s nickname? Not Thala but Thal.

Raghuram Ekambaram          

Floods of Greed

 Floods of Greed

Floods in Himachal Pradesh have come in at an opportune time for me. Yes, I am greedy, but the title in no way refers to my greed.

There were some floods in Texas, USA a few weeks ago (do not quote me on the timeline). I will not vouch for the idea that those floods were manifestations of global warming; it could be so is about as far as I am willing to go.

Yet, I am willing to go all-in, not on global heating but on greed. Landslides happen almost as regularly as the sun rises in the east every morning in the state of Himachal Pradesh that comes close to marking off the western end of the eponymous mountain range. The whole stretch of the Himalayas, I learnt in the geology class during my UG studies, is very young (just about 65 million years old), and has not yet stopped growing. That was only about 50 years ago, and I am sure the growth of the mountain range had not come to a shuddering halt by then.

Following landslides, debris (they are debris only in man’s perspective; actually, it could be taken somewhat parallel to piece-wise molting by snakes!) from mountain slopes. These are not stable for the accumulated soil above a layer. Then, the mountain side molts and no object that comes in its way stands a chance.

Here greed makes its appearance on the stage. “If you wish to enjoy the scenery of Himalayas, we offer you the best view!”, that is the brochure of a hotel built on top of a crag. Check that. It is not one hotel but many, each on its own crag! Then, the debris come down(including the hotel itself), block the natural drains the mountains have accommodated and floods ensue when all the tourists synchronize their sneezing!

But what happens elsewhere, as in coastal areas that are quite flat, when the clouds sneeze? We get urban floods. Everyone and his cousin want a 1,500 sq.ft (carpet area) residence, and the prospective plot buyers do not know or even care that it lies right along the natural storm water drain. Encroachments, not by shanties but by villaesque residences.

Recently I learned that there were three natural drainage for storm waters: i. The CoouumRiver; ii. The Adyar River; iii. And the third with a forgettable name and duly forgotten.When I grew up in Chennai, mid-1950s to mid-1960s and early to mid 1970s, which was called Madras then, I was aware of the Cooum River (met the Bay of Bengal near the Madras University Senate building) and Adyar River (not too far from IIT Madras where I did my UG work), and not the third drainage.

But now, Chennai sports hundreds of storm water drainage. How so? Every street is a stormwater drainage! The situation is precisely what is obtained in Mumbai as regards the MithiRiver. Where does greed come into this?

When a developer shows you the plot, she talks it up, draining down the negatives. One of the things drained is the natural rainwater drain that the street or colony has plugged. The plugging is done by raising your plinth and accordingly the immediate surroundings (the driveway, the garage, the lawns ...) are also raised. The rainwater flows down from your terrace onto the streets, nay, storm water drains!

The greed is in the owner of the plot not paying for the rainwater from her property carried off by the streets! Put a cost to this and see how small a villa you would be happy to have as your abode.

It is the same thing when it comes to parking your vehicle on the street. You do not pay for it and would balk if asked. You wish to sponge off the public as long as you have the liberty to complain when your property tax increases. You complain that you are paying for nothing; yet, you are not paying for things that you are stealing from the local government. Perhaps, these things even out. You don’t complain about deficient service and you are not penalized for violating rules and regulations that do not exist outside of rule books.

Floods in valleys of high mountains has its parallel in coastal urban areas (and even in non-coastal areas) – not letting nature use what is truly its. Nature takes its revenge – landslides, floods of hundred year period every other year, flooded urban and suburban streets and others, like epidemics and other health effects.

Let all of us live with these. Of course, you have insurances of many kinds like health, home, automobile. Let others eat cake.

Raghuram Ekambaram

"[a] never-ending roblem"

  "[a] never-ending problem"

The heading is taken from a newspaper report about the ongoing dispute regarding what type of Vaishnavite religious mark shall be used at specific places in the Devarajaswamy Temple (locally known as Vardaraja Perumal temple) in Kancheepuram (the report says, “Kancheepuram District”; why mention the location smeared over the district when the temple is located in a specific place in the town proper, with its own postal code?).

The Madras High Court dismissed two writ petitions filed in 2016. I do not know how convoluted our judicial process is but I get a hang of it now: in 2025 (nine years later), the court asked the petitioners to “approach the civil court”, giving some reasons. Obviously, with a judicial response coming in after 10 years or so, it is “a never ending problem”!

But, this is not man-made. It is made by, possibly, God Himself (do I have to use uppercase for the first letter of a reflexive pronoun? Yet, to avoid insulting God, I have taken the safer route!)

When did God make such pronouns? He did not seem to have at all. In Nasadiya Sukta it is said, “He, the first origin of this creation, whether he formed it all or did not form it, whose eye controls this world in highest heaven, he verily knows it, or perhaps he knows not.” If He wanted to create reflexive pronouns, He would have said, “perhaps he himself knows not”!

It is the “knows not” that anchors this post. There are four yugas (extremely long durations, like in hundreds of thousands of years or more), viz. Satya, Treta, Dwapara and Kali that go cyclical; that is, Satya yuga of a new cycle coming in after Kali yuga of the previous cycle. So, God (the “He” refers to, I suppose, Brahman, the overarching spirit of the universe, and assigning it to Lord Vishnu may or may not offend the sensibilities of Lord Shiva and Saivites) is created again and again, starting with Satya and ending at Kali, only to start again.

This is what the learned justice of the Madras High Court must have been referring to when he said, “a never ending problem”, across an infinite number of set of yugas. This somehow strikes chord with me when I think of Hilbert Hotel, with infinite rooms and an infinite set of tourists (in India, pilgrims) arriving in infinite number of buses. The judge is a mathematician of a high order!

Anyway, the hotel manager devised a simple methodology that solved the above problem, and even the ones that followed, each one of increasingly stunning complexity. Yet, in the problems, time was not taken to be a constraint.

Just ask yourself: if a problem is stated as “never ending”, does that not imply the solution, indeed even finding the methodology of a solution, may go on forever, towards infinity?

The mathematician hiding inside the legal eagle (on the Bench) just admitted that it is so, but only through implication! A foxy one that he is.

Meanwhile, Lord Devarajaswamy merely waits out time itself! He is foxier than the judge.

Raghuram Ekambaram