Category: Miscellany (Page 1 of 2)

“There is no penumbra of approbation round the theory of equilibrium. Equilibrium is just equilibrium.” Discuss.

Yes, this was a question we had in our Economics paper the year I joined the BA (Hons) Economics course. The answer is clear and simple: it is like saying 2+2=4 whether you like it or not : there is nothing you can do about it.

The quote is from Lionel Robbins’ book based on his lecture “ The Nature and Significance of Economics”. For Robbins, this may have been an esoteric way of bringing home a point to the Cambridge school, that economics is concerned with cause and effect , with actions and outcomes , with scarce resources that have to be deployed to achieve chosen ends ; that it is not the business of economists to give prescriptions. Yet that statement , out of context, sounds mystifying and non-communicative.

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(Satyajit Ray and I have had very little in common, personally and certainly not professionally. Most mornings I drove past Ray’s house on Bishop Lefroy  Road and parked my car close by. I had, however never thought of meeting Ray, let alone, discussing his films. Yet I did meet him once…)

I had seen most of Satyajit Ray’s films, many without subtitles, in Calcutta’s theatres and had just started going to the Sunday morning shows of a film society. The film society movement owed its existence to Ray; it was pretty active in the 1970’s and 80’s and had   produced renowned directors like Basu Chatterjee, Kantilal Rathod and Shyam Benegal. I had heard something about Ray’s shooting style and schedules from my colleague in Metal Box, Dhritiman Chatterjee, who had an offer for the principal role in Ray’s film Pratidhwandhi and had just finished shooting. Dhritiman was a management trainee and it took a great deal of pleading and the intervention of a Director, for the British company to bend its rules and let him take two months off for shooting.

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Family Reunion-May 11, 2014

The Kizhakke Covilagam family reunion I attended in 2010 was my first experience of attending the annual family meet, started ten years ago. I attended it a second time the following year and then again this year. For the first time a Zamorin was present. Continue reading

FOND MEMORIES – Of Dr Kuttiettan Raja

(Of a Life that made a difference to many lives.)

At the age of twelve, I was told by my mother and uncle that I would shift permanently and pursue my school and college studies in Delhi. My uncle took charge of my life from then onwards and I spent over 19 years, the most impressionable years of my life with him. Till his death in 1963, he tried to give me the best he could.

Today, at a distance of 48 years, I can perhaps see and feel his presence with a deep sense of love and gratitude. I am recording for my own satisfaction observations on what I have seen and heard of him during those years.

As a member of what was once one of the most orthodox families in Kerala, he had many firsts. He was the first member of our family (all three branches) to become a medical doctor, the first to go abroad for higher studies (going abroad was then frowned upon by the conservative, senior members of the family) the first Indian to hold the highest post in health administration in India.

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As I drove from Kozhikode to Kottakkal last summer, my eyes suddenly spotted the word Kozhichena on a small signpost. Did it ring a bell? It did. Of my first and only visit more than 60 years ago, under strange circumstances. Of the Japanese threat and of our school’s long march to Kozhichena in my second year in high school.

Kozhichena’s claim to recognition lay in its being the training hub of the Malabar Special Police (MSP). The MSP was a para military force , set up by the British Raj soon after the Moplah Rebellion in 1921,to handle all forms of disorder in the Malabar region which then was part of the Madras Presidency. The MSP was  specially trained in the brutal tactics of torture. Even we , the children, had heard of their skills of savagery. In the pre- independence period,MSP used their tactics indiscriminately on whoever fell into their hands, be they communists, communalists or congressmen.

Kozhichena was known for little else. ..Till, one day in 1942, an incident suddenly gave it a brief moment of heightened attention. Continue reading

This is a slice of an educational experience I had during early schooling at Kottakkal. An experience that is almost a forgotten dream from a mythical past. Days at school filled with fun, frolic and yes, fear.

I studied up to the III Form (8th Std) at Kottakkal before my mother and uncle decided to shift me to Delhi. In the best Mrumakkkathayam tradition, my uncle decided to take care of me , his only sister’s only son. This meant our shifting to New Delhi when I was only twelve.
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