Cleanliness

Prafulla Kumar Mohanty

Culture is a behemoth defying definitions.  But we understand culture both as the life of the body and life of the mind. The pattern of life constituting a society as well as the ideas and imagination expressed in a manner or style comprise culture. But, however, we read culture the most important thing in culture is undisputedly cleanliness. If the life and living of a society is dirty, shabby, or the activities of the mind are prejudicial to accepted values we call that culture unclean. In short, cleanliness of body and mind defines a culture and highlights the refinements of a society. In the context of the Indian society before the foreign aggressors occupied our country and the present day attempts by the government to reintroduce the inherited culture, I may ask how is it this great culture did not emphasize cleanliness? Yes, they wrote the greatest works in philosophy, literature; the Vedas, Upanishads and also the great epics Ramayan and Mahabharat. The Indian mind is universally acknowledged as the most profound of its time. Indian culture had completed its cycle of maturity before the European culture was awakened to a life of the mind. Why then cleanliness was not focused as the primordial foundation of culture?

They built temples, massive architectural masterpieces. They spoke of man’s transformation, plurality, multifocal reality, created myth-magic- mystery of creation but don’t seem to have emphasized the physical cleanliness of man. Can spiritual cleanliness be a realizable essence in an unclean environment? After seventy years of freedom and democratic self rule we still argue-‘ Ganga is dirty but pure’. Can purity which involves the spirit exist in an unclean body and shabby environs? I’m not sure.

 Go to any temple in Beneras, Puri , Mathura, Ujjain or Gaya you will see filth, flies and fluttering litter. Go to any river you may not feel like washing your hand in it, leave alone taking a bath. Go to any village you will see at early dawn and dusk illiterate, half- literate and even educated women go in small groups for stealthy defecation after suppressing the urge for hours. Men, however, prefer to go for open defecation without a slight sense of shame. Families which can afford to build latrines or toilets would argue that going out for morning ablutions serves the purpose of a morning walk and also breathing free morning air. The village roads are usually meant for the defecation of cattle and other quadrupeds whose epicortex is almost nonexistent. Fakir Mohan Senapati’s  Asuradighi  the only tank for the villagers (in Chha Mana Atha Guntha) is meant for all unclean practices of the body and mind. How is it such a great culture and primordial civilization did not have a sense of hygiene - one really wonders. And when you think of ecology or environment consciousness illustration are too few to write home about in our culture.

My Dream

For god’s sake leave me to dream

never scan nor shock them

with your dark realities.

My dreams are cloud flakes

float and travel to far away skies

where stars come to hold hands

and dance fancifully to create and bless.

My dreams illuminate my world

small, dark and crowded

lift me to silent meditation

where beauty and order reigns.

My unsung hymns tune up

the omkar of my heart

my dreams play the symphony

on notes and pitches of soul.

My dreams never fade or dissolve

my desires stuff my undying  dreams

to carve out and accomplish

a creamy morn of new hope.

I never desire Eden

where the first sin threw man

down to suffer and die

I dream of a bright day

in the thoughts of my loved ones.

Sabita Sahu

April Again

What made Eliot write, ‘April
is the cruellest month’, I don’t know.
April is the burnt out end of spring,
rivers go dry, wells turn hell holes.
pipelines get hot, naked wires
say touch me not like
a coy woman in period.

Buckets , pots , vessels queue up
middle aged women jostle to be first
before street taps oozing drops
municipal tankers move in lame hope
on the tar of parched roads
well dressed men create scenes
before the flash bulbs of media crowd.

At night sweaty faces in candlelit room
whisper prayers for the God of light
newly weds start quarelling
on the colour of the bed sheet.
.

April returns every year
the harbinger of younger brothers
May and June come to char
the last remains of patience.

I now know what Eliot meant
bathed by the sun in halfway street.

News

Prafulla Kumar Mohanty

From the horse back messenger to the present day 24x7 news channel man has travelled a long distance in time. There was a phase in man’s evolution when communication was perhaps not even conceived of as a human necessity. But gradually when existence was stabilized and clusters of civilization were formed, social relationship and curiosity to know things grew. Small kingdoms and chieftain territories necessitated information about enemy movements, epidemics, famines, floods and spying activities. All these required collection and transmission of information. The ruling class depended on these kinds of information to protect their kingdoms and also to cover the people. Sending royal missives was an officially recognized practice. The messenger like the modern ambassador enjoyed political immunity. At the personal level people depended on hearsay, rumours and royal proclamations. But these activities never came under the category we call news today.

News, as per the Oxford English Dictionary is to give information about recent events. But technology and the news craze of modern people have made it instantaneous information about an event or situation or statement. Even before the newsworthiness of an event or happening is realized transmission of it is made. Before the electronic media took the centre stage the news paper and later the radio supplied all the news of the world. People waited for the morning news papers and also for the news timings of the radio. Today the reach of the radio is so sweeping that the Prime Minister of India chose the radio for his Man Ki Baat a la the Obama mode. Need for national, global news rises every day. In the rural sector the local news is as important as the national news. As the life shaping, behavior setting informations come from all directions. Advertisements also have great information value. The electronic media, however, takes the cake for size as the television brings the world in all its colours and dimensions to the drawing room. The TV even makes news. The breaking news is like a film trailor creating anticipation. And above all the smart phone in the hands of people vibrates the news noisy world.

But the 24x7 news channels explode all kinds of information in such a loud manner that it is difficult to decide which information is conducive for a healthy orientation of the reality around. Channels have their own social, religious and political bias. The fourth estate is now more than a watch dog of the other three pillars of our democratic polity. In India the freedom of the press is guaranteed by the constitutional government. One may say the Indian news industry is too free to air truth as a self-perceived imaginary without checks and balances. The camera phone in the hands of the common people with uncommon  interest in intrigue often send newsy videos which ultimately shame the media houses to withdraw calmly before they catch the attention of the public.  Often the political parties send fake videos to captive channels and they go viral raising a storm in gossip tea cups. In the name of investigative journalism at times truth is unearthed and presented before the viewers with some legitimate pride. But the veracity of the truth thus unearthed many a time go unverified. The film stars and cricketers are media obsessions. They play a juicy item for almost twenty four hours and more for their TRP. The death of Sridevi, a notable actress, was played by all English and most Hindi news channels as a murder mystery. It was later shown as a natural death. But the Sherlock Holmes’ of media channels came out with evidence-forensic, circumstantial and even supposedly ocular- to present Sridevi’s death as premeditated murder. The Arushi murder case was so messed up by the news channels and the police that the CBI in the end couldn’t find any evidence to prove anyone guilty beyond reasonable doubts.

But the news too has great entertainment value. When TV journalists pursue a case – be it political or otherwise – they create suspense, suspicion and denoument which might earn a grim smile even from Agatha Christie. But the viewer feels he/ she is taken for a ride when the media plays judge, jury and executioner. Media trials often appear like judicial pantomime which reduces the news value to fanciful mockery. Every evening the same faces, the so called spokespersons of political parties and journalists are called for debates on national issues. The noisy illogic and prejudicial statements are an attack on our stoical patience.

But the news channels often find out the truth and the missing links which are glossed over or missed by the investigating agencies. They also reveal facts suppressed by governments and always stay ahead of newsmakers. If some sobriety tempers the noise our news channels can be lauded as true advocates of the mute public.

I Surf The Waves

I surf the waves of time
not for fun or to frolic in slush,
I float around the world to brighten
the visible dark universe
and bring smiles on faces:
I celebrate life to fulfill the purpose
of my being’s commission to make good.

The unseen hand that moulded me
untouched essence that guided me
I pay gratitude with loving energy
try to create  universal synergy
for my maker with pride behold.

Adversity turns me to do the undone
I stuff myself with the binaries and all
to quench my thirst and fill the empty
zones of world’s arid corners.
I have jumped my self doubts,
broken empty chambers with confidence
I know the waves are turbulent and high
I am that beginner not to pause or sigh
with faith in those hands I will ride the rough
stop shall I never my resolve is tough
I will now swim to the shores of life
plant my flag of faith to end all strife.

Savita Sahu

Nudity Is Beautiful

Prafulla Kumar Mohanty

Humans, infact all creatures come naked to this nude world. All mountains, trees, flowers, rivers and the whole creation is uncovered. Sun, moon and all luminosities in the sky are naked. Animals, birds, insects come coverless and go coverless under the sun. Only after the invention of language we have started using ‘green mantled earth’, ‘snow clad mountains’ and use other metaphors of civilization as poetic cover on the earth. Truth itself is naked but whoever speaks ’truth’ puts on it the garb of his own imagination. Civilization makes nature artificial. Shame enters society to isolate individuals from each other. But in the long and arduous history of man, the idea of covering the body must have come as a sort of protection from the seasonal vagaries of nature. And the cultures must have changed into demarcated territories of civilizations where protective gear must have changed into fashion wear. Nudity in the context of civilization has become a non-value or anti- value, particularly, in social life.

But the human body is beautiful. The female body is the most curvaceous and graceful. Woman is nature in her magnificent symmetry. Naturally she attracts, arouses the sexual instinct to possess and admire. Creative artists adore a naked form of a woman and often they deify her. There is divinity in nudity. The soft rise and swell of golden breasts, the valley, mountain, arbours and silken hair, soft-playing on the cheek and the nose of a woman in winnowing breeze make a woman nature-personified. Painters and sculptors use nude models to create masterpieces. Aphrodite, Madona or the dancers of the konark temple are tributes to the beauty of nudity by creative minds. The world loves them. People buy the paintings even imitations and copies spending fortunes to hang them in special rooms and show them off to visitors with pride. The art galleries attract great many visitors if there is a nude painting of Michael Angelo or Botticelli adorning the gallery. A male nude too is attractive for the male is the Active Principle motivating Prakruti to function creatively. 

But when civilizations are cluttered with different cultures past fixation problems arise, conflicts ensue and lead to bloody clashes.  ‘The Unity in Diversity’ slogan of modern civilization does not create a new culture or a new civilizational order. India is a case in point. A group of educated elite appreciate objectively all forms of nudity as they do not see things through the prism of religion. But the fringe revolts which often leads to vandalism. When M.F.Hussein painted Saraswati as an underwater nude he was hounded out of the country. Many muslim religious teachers disapprove of even fashionable women who flaunt their skin. Sania Mirza’s Badminton gear was criticised as if showing legs and arms is an exhibition of nudity. Such things happen in a culture which does not grow and never tries to enter the demarcated territory of civilization. Those who think nudity is evil or culturally unaesthetic they are hypocritical brutes. They think that the skin of a woman or the naked form of a woman is only sexiting, they have no eye for beauty, symmetry, balance and proportion. Prurience is in their minds and eyes which cannot register the beautiful balance of symmetry and attitude. And this disapproval of nudity enforced by religion leads to hate.

But nudity has also its place and time. Nudity should not be a cult. Nudism as an expression of freedom or as protest destroys the natural charm of the human figure. If the body is projected as a defiant energy to express disagreement with certain accepted values of civilization it becomes anti nature and ugly. Conversely if nudity is enforced on a helpless woman to celebrate ephemeral victory, it causes moral imbalance which decimates all values which civilization holds sacred. In the history of human civilization the attempt to denude Draupadi, in the mahabharat, after she was lost to Duryodhan in a dice game stands out as the worst illustration of depravity. Nudity is not a display item for public mockery. This episode in the mahabharat unhinges the civilization and all citadels fall like corpses in Krukshetra. Nudity of a woman is a stance of beauty, not for lewd ridicule or frenzied sex. Nudity makes man humble at the altar of divine elegance. It is artistic in its appeal and humbling in attitude. In Hermann Hessay’s Siddharth the hero bows down at the pure naked beauty of Kamala. A beautiful nude makes a sensitive soul sober to contemplate the mystery of creation. It symbolizes the harmony of colour, rhythm and proportion of the universe.

The beauty of a woman without the trappings of civilization is a marker of ecological health. It has no place for lasciviousness or libidinous levity. If the viewer, because of his own imbalance, is aroused sexually he puts into stress his psychic ecology and demeans the aesthetic energy of formal grace.

I ,Me, Whatever

Away from all bonds but never free
my  freedom is chained in caves.

I walk along the long beaches
yet untouched by greedy waves,
I twinkle like distant star
but my world is dark.

I cry my heart out and wail
no shoulder to lean on , I prevail.

I fear none yet I slave
I shiver alone yet I ‘m brave,
fire dosen’t scare me nor flame
I burn in the fire of love and wane.

I am not a weakling I know
Yet I can’t fathom my strength I vow

Yet binaries come to me like gossip
I don’t care now let them speak,
I am what I’m a fair loving soul
find me if you can or vanish all.

Sabita Sahu