Lee Kuan Yew - An Eulogy

It was a friendship beyond compare. Some might say that it was an odd type of friendship.  But it is the one I relished most in my years of stay at Singapore starting from 1999. The moment I received a gift from a friend at our MTL office in Singapore the seed was sown. I am an avid reader of novels and not much interested in a biography and that too authored by the president of the nation and seen by the world as an autocrat.

Since Jackie, the Chinese Singaporean, who presented the book  had highly recommended it,  out of sheer curiosity I was driven to read it. It was a moment of revelation. “THE SINGAPORE STORY” written by it’s prime minister Lee Kuan Yew entwined me like a  ghost creeper and  wouldn’t  let go of it’s grip!

“THE SINGAPORE STORY”  starts with the partition of Singapore from Malaysia. Singapore was a state (like TamilNadu, a state in India) of Malaysia. It was just 2 years since this merger had taken place. But the incompatibility became so  unbearable due to the Malaysian prime minister’s biased agenda stick that he  didn’t want Singapore to be part of it anymore. The nation was just cut off and thrown away. Malaysia was the hinterland of Singapore with all the natural resources embedded in there and Singapore acted as it’s commercial and business hub. The leader of this unfortunate island state of Singapore Lee Kwan Yew was at a loss! What was he  going to do with this piece of land (with nil natural resources) as a separate entity? On August 9th 1965  Singapore became  independent. At the first live press conference convened for the occasion Lee Kuan yew  couldn’t control his emotions and excused himself for 20 minutes in the presence of a curious gathering of reporters lapping up  every word uttered and craving to know more. This first chapter of the book which covered this event touched my heart and the others just  followed suit!

After finishing the book I didn’t know what to do. I wanted to salute the man who had  done a miracle to this tiny place, thank him for his audacity in the face of so much animosity. I wondered at his leadership quality in uniting 65% Chinese 18% Indians and 17% Malaysians and other nationalities into one harmonious group and creating a bonhomie needed for an ideal nation!  But for his vision, grit and political sagacity, this third world nation would not have become one among the shining stars of  the first world nations!

I thought I have to do something for him for these and many other reasons. Whenever we fly from India (my hubby’s assignment was such that we spent 10 days of the month in India and 20 days in Singapore) and from the moment we took a taxi from the airport to our house at Orange Grove Road we literally felt like royals travelling in a chariot having a ‘Guard of Honour’ all through the  route ! The  varied flowering trees with their mild fragrance and the nodding bushes saluted us. I would like to raise my hand as a return salute but my smiling face said it all.

All this credit of making me queen belonged to my dear Lee! That impossible man envisioned a clean and green Singapore which will carry a competitive advantage!

 In one of his conversation he said “After independence I was searching for a dramatic way to distinguish ourselves from other third world nations. Greening is the most cost effective project I have launched.”

His passionate involvement in  greening of the nation earned him the pet title “The First Gardener of the Nation”! 

How do I tell him that he had done a wonderful job in not just greening the place but  making his nation one among the richest and powerful one  in the world? 

The urge to make a bonding with this friend was irresistible. With my known contacts I could have met him in one of the gatherings he attended. But it will be too formal with no depth, like meeting one of our famous actor to say that she had acted well in a particular movie. But I took a strange route. I started translating the Singapore Story into Tamil and I couldn’t stop it. As I went on with the job I felt that our friendship is in proper place and being strengthened every day. When his next book “ FROM THIRD WORLD TO FIRST” came out  I was one among the first to buy it and again went on with my translating frenzy.  I didn’t know why I did it. Do I want to publish it? I had no idea! I never even thought about it. But my inner satisfaction was beyond compare. Do you write “Ramajayam” countless times over years for any reward except for the satisfaction of supreme connection? Do you write “ Praise the Lord” for any other reason?

 On March 23 2015, my friend Lee Kwan Yew left this world at the ripe age of 91. There will be floral tributes and many words of praise from world leaders. The social media will overflow with tributes and eulogies but from this humble friend the befitting translation into Tamil, is offered as a tribute.

The Biblical Rite and the people of Edenganni

The revolution started on the holy week of 2013. That dude from Buenos Aires  Pope Francis who occupied the highest chair of Vatican on 13th March 2013, stepped out of his sanctum sanctorum on 28th of March, his first Maundy Thursday as pope and proceeded straight towards a youth detention centre where he washed and kissed the feet of young prisoners both men and women!

Why hath he come down from the throne? He had the privilege  of washing the feet of men in robes of varied ages and nationalities; equally qualified men would assist him in pouring the water from ornate pitcher and wipe the feet with the  best of linen!

But he is a man of the people who wants to show to the world that God is with the lesser privileged people and men and women are equal and  are integral part of his God’s kingdom!

Years ago when a lowly priest did it in his parish where he washed and kissed the feet of 6 men and 6 women on a Maundy Thursday hell broke loose in the town of Tiruchirapalli. Both the clergy and the lay people joined hands in abusing him. Wall posters were full of condemnation and sarcasm in an utterly male chauvinistic fashion. He was warned by the higher ups for his preposterous deeds. And his anticipated promotion in the hierarchy was held back for eternity.

This person is my uncle, a man of letters and still a man of the people. As a young lad in his village, my uncle had witnessed the washing of the feet by various families on allotted Thursdays of the Lenten season. How is it that this rite, a prerogative of the priestly class came to be conducted by the family people? That I think is what we call tradition. It should have been happening for some generation and had now become a custom to be followed!

 All the while my uncle should have been wondering “Why boys were invariably chosen as the 12 apostles  and never a girl? If each one of us was God’s children  why girls and people from other communities were never even considered?” When this man became a priest he decided “what my village could not do I will do it in my parish. In my place there would be no caste differentiation and my apostles would be both men and women.”

The little village continued in the same old ways but as days went by the ritual saw its own demise what with people moving to the city and the remaining  few, unenthusiastic to celebrate this ritual.

 For us children the festival of washing the feet at Edenganni  was in itself an oasis in the stark and severe Lenten season where fasting on all 7 Fridays, vegetarian meals for 40 days  and small Way of the Cross everyday and larger variety lasting for 2 hours on Fridays to contemplate on the passions of Christ on an empty stomach was the much adhered routine. When you are young your stomach rules over the mind. The fourth Thursday usually was our family’s turn. We were living in a small town  for our studies and with the arrival of bullock cart  early on the Wednesday inaugurated our own two day festivity till our return Home. In those days the school usually closed for summer vacation before the Holy Week.

The proceedings for Thursday celebration was indeed an elaborate one.

A minimum variety of 12 vegetables has to prepared signifying 12 apostles of Jesus. Apart from  the regular sambar, puli kuzambu, rasam and buttermilk, appalam and payasam and tomato jam would be prepared for 300 people. The cutting of the vegetables was a much anticipated affair among the relatives. After the night prayers in the chapel and the dinner in their respective homes, the  ladies would gather  in our house with their cutting implements. It was indeed a happy occasion accompanied with plenty of laughter and exchange of pleasantries. We children had the single devoted job of peeling the  beans soaked  earlier in the morning. It was a fun job where  we compete in getting  the peeled beans jump  high up and fall right into the vessel by pressing the beans with the thumb and  index finger.  This peeled beans with drumstick made into a kootu was my mum’s speciality!

Uncles would join us later to cut the big vegetables like pumpkins, an eagerly anticipated event for the children. As soon as the first  pumpkin was cut one among us would be quick enough to collect its innards intertwined with seeds and we would start the process of separating the seeds from the gluey stuff and ate the  slippery seeds by a perpendicular thrust in between two molars!

Mum and dad would fast on that day while we children were excused.

In the morning an elongated pit at the back garden would be dug up to serve as a huge stove where rows of big vessels would be kept under the log fire to cook rice, dhal etc.  Inside in small stoves (they too were log stoves) ladies would be preparing various dishes. At the stroke of 12, the 12 apostles would be ready  for the ceremony after taking bath in the tank behind the chapel called "Pappa Kulam". Dad would also be ready after his bath. In the mean time we would have plucked a variety of  flowers from the garden at Pillaiyar (Lord Ganesha) temple (which we called nandhavanam) and kept the stool, water and flowers ready for dad to start the process . With a small prayer the process of washing the feet would start. Even the naughtiest among the boys  would approach the stool with great reverence with folded hands. The whole congregation would join in singing a song specially sung for the occasion ( explaining the Biblical story of Jesus washing the feet but which is lost to the posterity except for the first few lines) The water thus collected was taken around the chapel with which we crossed ourselves and then along with the flowers it was reverently thrown back into the pappa kulam. Usually in the big city churches, as the priest washed the feet, the person who takes the role of the Apostle would receive a gift but not in Edenganni. For the 12 apostles a royal welcome with the royal feast awaited at home!

The apostles now followed dad  who led them to the main hall of the house where the best of the banana leaves will be placed on both sides allowing  a middle path way.

At the house  a person would be waiting with a white wet towel which dad reverently received. After the apostles were seated  rice dhal and ghee would be served but the apostles should resist the temptation of gorging on the food! They indeed had an important duty to perform. As they start mixing the dhal rice my dad would  kneel down  in front of the first apostle and  beg for food in his wet towel  and  would move on in the kneeling posture till he was done with the last  of the 12.  At times some of the apostles would start crying as they placed the food on dad’s towel seeing an elder kneeling for food! What a beautiful lesson in humility and  what a lesson to the children that the master should always be a servant  to his people! Once  the apostles are served the delicious food and the leaves would be laid for all the other guests.  A little quantity of the dhal rice would be placed in the leaves  as  a sacred dish to all the guests  and only after this was done they would start serving the food. Once the apostles finished their feast those leaves would be collected separately and  taken straight to the manure pit  where a  hole was dug in the middle to throw the leaves in and always with a prayer in the heart that the next year’s harvest should be as bountiful!

For the night  a special feast would be awaiting  just for the relatives. A blend of all the leftovers would be heated up  and this fragrant concoction would  be mixed with rice and served in the lotus leaves as big balls! My mouth salivates on the thought of this ambrosia!

Today for our part we are trying to revive this beautiful ritual and as  a tribute to our dear uncle  our 12 apostles are beyond caste and creed and belong to both sex. As regards ritual song we have composed appropriate words  and though we feel nostalgic and sad about losing the old one  we hope we to compensate!

Confluence of Buddhism and Marxism

Can you hear the tenets of Marxism and the chanting of Buddham Saranam Sangam Katchami in one place?

Is it a  contradiction worth analysing? I very much think so!!!!  

It is  a Communist country. But Buddhist monasteries abound, saturated with Buddhist monks young and old, men and women!!!

Is it  then a Communist Buddhist country? But  the name of a monastery in our vicinity is called a very Indian Vajramangalam, very much like our own  Needamangalam and Soolamangalam ! And the only theatre in Luang Prbhang stages  Ramayan  as an important production. April 14th is a very important festival for them too as in India and the festival is called Songkran, which coincides with the Tamil New Year in Tamilnadu and New Year celebration in 13 other states and countries in South East Asia. Once a French colony the remnants of it’s culture exhibits itself in the form of culinary flavours!

That country is called  Laos (pronounced as Lau), a neighbour of Thailand and and is indeed a conglomeration of Communist Buddhist and Indian ways, a happy place, a coexistence of varied cultures at its best!

Our visit was to it’s  old capital city of  Luong Prabang which is adopted by UNESCO as one of the world heritage centre was the delectable experience!

The Mekong, which has its source in the Himalayas like Ganga and Brahmaputra , is a very wide, deep and fast flowing river in Laos and most of the transportations is done through this river and the proof of this state of affairs was  the innumerable floating  mobile petrol stations filling up fuel for the needy vessels in the river.

A well laid bathing ghat with proper steps and  shady trees reminds us of our own Kaveri bathing ghats!! The only difference is the presence of the frolicking young monks with shaven heads and saffron robes fluttering in the cool breeze. As a side show we also witnessed  some young monks smoking sitting comfortably on the river steps!

Are they really monks? If so can the monks smoke?  Yes, they are monks indeed! In Laos even small children can become novice monks and it is considered a boon for the family if the children enter  the monastery.  While novices have  to follow 10 precepts, for a monk the number of precepts are an arduous  250!! But I am sure that smoking is definitely forbidden by one of these 10  precepts and the youngsters were indeed playing truant!  Young monks also have the option of walking out  if this ascetic life doesn’t suit them!

We stayed in a guest house by name Xieng Mouane opposite to a monastery which was named as Vajramangalam.  At the monastery the first multiple gongs  go at 4 a.m when the chanting begins. At 6.00 a.m, at the sound of a single gong, the Buddhist monks,  like an army of disciplined ants, pour out on to the streets with their begging bowls. I got up and peeped through my window. It was drizzling and there were no people around. I was worried. What if people don’t come around with food? After 15 minutes of wait I saw a lady hurrying across with food. She knelt down on the wet road and with great reverence offered the food. And the monks proceeded further into the next street.  It seems that the people of Luong Prabang are responsible for feeding the monks of the various monasteries and they consider this as their pleasant and revered duty. The monks of Laos belong to the Thervada Buddhism and is a non-vegetarian sect of Buddhism. Offering cooked pork to the monks is a common custom here. The food they collect is the only meal for the day and it is consumed around 11 in the morning.

 With so many comforts in life we grumble over imagined non-existent issues but these monks …. most  of them should be scholars in Buddhism…..  they come out for their food and they might not even know what would be on their plate for the day! What if they disliked the food of the day?  Their mind should have been highly conditioned and disciplined to reach this stage of maturity and detachment!

One evening,  we went to the theatre to witness the episode of Sita‘s request for the golden deer. The music though melodious may sound  monotonous to an Indian ears  used to the jugal bandhis of various artists  where reaching crescendo is the highlight of any performance. That verve and tempo are missing somewhere in this part of the world. It is like the mighty Mekong for if you look at the river you can sense  serinity and there is hardly any turbulence.

 Similarly their  dancing is very graceful with great costumes. But it is too very gentle to us Indians who are brought up appreciating the strenuous adavus and fast moving thillanas of Bhrathanatyam and the foot work of Kathak. But that day  in the theatre  I found a similarity with Tamil Nadu’s Theru koothu ( Street Theatre) in the style that in the middle of the drama the characters begin to sing for  long durations.

Except for the few red flags here and there I did not witness anything else about ruling communist regime.  It might be because I was just  a tourist. But the overwhelming effect of Buddhist philosophy had impressed me way beyond!

14th of April is a great day in various parts of India. So too in Laos. On that day the statues of Buddha in the temples are cleansed with water. After this the festival of Songkran starts. It is more like our Holi festival. Whereas Holi celebration involves plenty of colours, Songkran is more of a health conscious affair. Instead of colours, water is sprayed on all passerby without making any exception. We too were caught in this melee and though shocked  by the assault, enjoyed this street bath to the hilt!

Laos was once a French colony and the proof of it still exists in the culinary customs.  The French baguettes sell everywhere and the streets abound in variety of cakes like carrot cake banana cake apple cake etc. The Laos coffee is similar to the French one. Coffee is served in glass tumblers with a bottom layer of thick sweetened milk and a very thick decoction over atone has to stir it very gently and savour the ambrosia! (I don’t know if they serve this coffee in France today!) An evening walk along the main road with a cake to munch is a pleasant experience with the cool breeze of Mekong fanning you all the way.

Like India Laos also has many  tamarind trees  but the big difference is that Laos tamarind are very sweet  and can be eaten as fruit. Most of our boat rides were accompanied by this  delicious Victoria plum like tamarind snack! Usually when people go abroad they bring back chocolates but I brought  tamarind for distribution. Some people refused it saying that tamarind heats up the body and shrinks the blood.  But I didn’t bother. Their loss is my gain!! 

The Benevolent Maharaja of mother nature

It was a call on my phone that triggered the following  sequence of thoughts.

“ Chithi (mother's younger sister in Tamil), do you know that tulasi and arasa maram ( basil and pipul tree) give out oxygen all the 24 hours of the day! Wanted to share this info with you which I saw in the paper.” My niece Rani, a green enthusiast like me  was jubilant with this bit of news.

I had a similar experience, years back, at  Singapore where we lived  and we were new to the place. And I was as surprised as Rani  by a news I read.  The news was that there was a big fine of S$ 10,000 on a building contractor who had cut some trees and not just that  he was asked to plant double the number of trees he had cut in some other allotted place!

A fine for cutting the trees!!

It bewildered me  coming from a country where every Tom Dick and Harry  can cut off  trees without an inkling of remorse.  Trees are so precious for that small nation that felling of trees which has a girth of a metre and above should be notified to government even that tree sits in your own garden!!

Trees……… a giver beyond compare!! Like the great giver of Mahabharatham Karnan!!!

Do we know that we consume  three cylinders of oxygen per day?

Suppose the cost of a  cylinder of oxygen is Rs.700 the amount spent by each of us per day is Rs.2,100 and for a month it comes to Rs. 63,000

 And if we calculate for a year Rs.756,000 and if the average longevity is taken as 70 years we consume oxygen worth Rs. 52,920,000!!

And please remember that this is a free gift from nature

And hence  I become  a very happy person whenever I meet tree lovers!

Recently  we had an opportunity to  visit an extraordinary place in Yercaud  (a hill station in Tamilnadu) where our friends are living. It is a gated community called Wild Orchids. I would love e to call the person who promoted the place as a young visionary. When he allotted the land to various would be owners he made sure through an agreement that of the 10,000 sq feet they build their house only in 1/4th of the space leaving 3/4th to greenery!! I also congratulate the buyers to agree to such a wonderful plan and one among these wonderful owners are our dear friends Ram and Prabha.

And at the peak of summer when you can feel the heat in the lake area of Yercaud, this beautiful bowl of nature maintains the summer climate of the UK! The well laid out gardens including the vertical garden reminded me of the Biblical hanging gardens of Nebuchadnezzar !!

 People are still there who care for trees.  I would like to share with you the heart warming news  of the Chief Justice of Chennai high court whose compound wall had fallen down due to the recent heavy rains in November 2014. The PWD (Public Works Department) took up the job immediately (for security reasons) to erect a new wall. They informed the Chief Justice that they had to cut off six trees to construct the new wall. But the person vehemently refused and told them to construct the wall around the trees. The wall might look crooked but the honourable man  didn’t mind the aesthetics or the lack of it. As I read the news I said to myself  “ Thank you sir, if only higher ups like you  take up a stand for trees Chennai will ever be a green city”!

 Years back we were in Norwich U.K. The place was the Blue Bell Road and it was an avenue of horse chest nut trees and one early cold morning all the residents of the place came out to hug the trees. The problem goes like this : During the season when the tree is full of fruits they fall down in great numbers and the students tend to pick them up and playfully throw it across aiming at the fellow students walking on the other side of the road. The fruits often hit the vehicles passing by spoiling the vehicle's window panes.  A complaint was made by the road users and after some deliberations the city council decided to hack off the trees and one day  had gone there with the heavy machinery  but the residents standing around the trees would not allow them to  touch the trees! They said that the problem should be taken up at the school level rather than the tree level! And they won. The avenue of trees are still beautifying the place!

Whenever I go to our school CREA at Trichirapalli, Tamilnadu and whenever I have an opportunity to address the children I insist on the importance of trees for our survival. I make sure that they get the statistics about the trees into their hearts.

There is a saying in Tamil "You utter a lie; and you go on repeating it and someday it will become truth!"

For my part I don’t mind uttering a truth, go on repeating it till the whole humanity converts itself  to become the “FAN of TREES”!!