Sampath-Musings

    FROM SAMPATH’S DESK:   GEORGE BERNARD SHAW (26 July 1856 – 2 November 1950)   WORDS WIZARD WITH WEALTH OF WIT AND WISDOM!   George Bernard Shaw, born on 26 July 1856 in Portobello, Dublin, Ireland, was an Irish playwright, critic, polemicist, and political commentator/activist, all rolled into one.  Of all his attributes and characteristics, he was more praised and well-received as a polemicist (a person known to make criticisms to the core), who aggressively yet jovially advanced controversial arguments, discussions, and debates against some generally-recognized and popularly-prevalent opinions, doctrines, etc.   Shaw moved to London in 1876, at the age of 20, to join his sister and mother who had shifted a little earlier in 1873. He set about becoming a writer, relying on a very small allowance from his father. Shaw wrote five novels in quick succession between 1879 and 1883, all of which were rejected by publishers, a...

  FROM SAMPATH’S DESK:       INDIA’S SHARED CULTURE, CIVILIZATION & CUSTOMS -   COMMONALITIES CONVERGE!   India,  home to the world's second-largest population,  is a sub-continental nation with its uniqueness being ‘unity and diversity’. Many aspects bind the nation together. For centuries, India had a conglomeration of many kingdoms with its people speaking different vernacular dialects. It’s difficult to fix what all factored in, for bringing about a combination of things and reasons that achieved convergence notwithstanding mild aberrations and negligible divergences. India can be likened to a garland that is a collection of pretty-looking flowers of different shapes, designs, colours, and fragrances elegantly weaved, and a confluence of rivers (of different regions, religions, creeds, etc.) in an ocean.   India’s distinctiveness lies more in the convergence of its diverse cultures representing and encompassi...

  FROM SAMPATH’S DESK:   KUMKUM  ( VERMILLION – குங்குமம் - कुमकुम ) (Tilak, Bindhi, Teeka)     Kumkum (Vermillion) is a slaked-lime mixed powder of dried turmeric/saffron, carrying earthly and salubrious properties, applied in the middle of one’s forehead, mostly by Indian/Hindu women as their unique age-old tradition and custom, both as a religious mark as well as a facelift. It’s also called ‘Bindhi’, ‘Tilak’, ‘Sindoor’, ‘Sindura’, and ‘Teeka’, generally believed to represent power (Shakti). Red Kumkum is the norm although it comes in different other colours as well.   After taking bath, I daily apply red kumkum (from the collection of the Holy Kumkum Prasad we have at home) on my forehead and experience my body and mind bubbling and brimming with positive energy. Our elders used to decry and belittle a bare forehead as a ‘desert’ bereft of propitiousness. Such a mark on the forehead is considered good omen, auspicious, and fortune-gett...

  FROM SAMPATH’S DESK:         MY TRYST WITH SHORTHAND   A great salute/tribute to Sir Issac Pitman (4 January 1813 – 22 January 1897)   The necessity of writing words, phrases, sentences, and texts in shorthand was a long-felt one so that notes of speeches could be taken easily and presented quickly verbatim.   The history of shorthand or tachygraphy dates back to the ancient Greeks and perhaps even much earlier. The archaeological records show that stenographic symbols from Greece were discovered on the 'Acropolis Stone' (350 BCE). A marble slab found in Greece depicts a modified writing system that used not only vowels but also included certain modifications to denote consonants.  Taking clues and cues from this ancient work, some authors tried and founded their own versions of shorthand writing. Besides being known as stenography (close, little, or narrow writing in normal parlance), shorthand is sometimes called tachy...