Tuesday, February 15, 2011

ABC Adjectives for my niece – Ahana

A for “Attractive”, that's what you are,
B for “Beautiful”, creation of art.
C for “Cute”, that's what you are,
D for “Darling”, who rule our heart.

E for “Energetic”, that's what you are,
F for “Friendly”, natural power to make everything alive
G for “Great”, that's what you are,
H for “Happiness”, that you bought in all's life.

I for “Intelligent”, take the decision right.
J for “Joyous”, make others smile
K for “Kind”, make others delight,
L for “Lavishing”, have a amazing style.

M for “Mischievous”, looks on your face,
N for “Naughty”, playing some prank
O for “Obedient”, with eyes that you face,
P for “Passionate”, for Himalaya trek

Q for “Queen”, of everyone's heart
R for “Ravishing”, that's what you are
S for “Stunning”, you are so smart,
T for “Tolerant”, that's what you are.

U for “Understanding”, that's what you are
V for “Valuable”, gift that you are
W for “Wonderful”, person that you are
X for “X-mas”, gifts that you adore

Y for “Yes”, this means yuppy
Z for “Zest”, this means hurray.
A-Z you have learned it all
You are so quick, to learn it all so fast!

- Sharvani / Amala Mavshi
15 February 2011

Monday, February 14, 2011

To my Angel, to my niece – Ahana

My little angel, how much you have grown
Nine months of awaiting, and now nine months old.
From tender little bud, to a blooming flower
You have made us all so proud, so mature

When you were born, several people too were born,
A Mother, A Father
A Grandmother and Grandfather
Cousins & Aunts
All the creators were re-created by the new creation.

Softly and tenderly you conquered the hearts
Took all the attention, and are center for all.
People cuddle you and you cuddle them back
They kiss you and you kiss them back.

You are the lucky champ, to receive blessings from all
You are god's miracle, whom he has blessed with all.
Talking and crawling, you have learned a lot
We all are here, to guide you and to show the right path.

My little angel, My niece 'Ahana'
Today you are my Valentine, to shower my love on.
I bless you with unconditional love and affection…
Smile on your lips,
Knowledge on your face,
Politeness in your gesture,
Softness in your words.

All I wish is 'All the BEST in the world'.

- Sharvani / Amala Mavshi
14 February 2011.

Japanese Language – 'A height of politeness'...

'East' has always excited me for their own uniqueness. Before learning 'Japanese Language' I started searching about Japan & its culture on Google. I always try to find out some kind of similarities between Indian culture and Asian culture. In some or the other way we are always related. Many of our words too have their Sanskrit base. Like for eg. In Malay, Queen is called as 'Raja', Grandmother is called 'Nene'. Sri-Lanka have roots of Sanskrit and Tamil languages. In Indonesia you will see a Chemist name as, 'Nakul Chemist' or Bank name as 'Dirghayu Bank' which have base in Sanskrit. Indonesia indicate women by 'Devi' and have names like 'Arti devi', 'Chandrika devi' etc. They even believe in Indian saga like 'Mahabharat and Ramayan'. And many believe that Lord Ram was born in Indonesia and then went in India. Medan , which is a big city in Indonesia, actually came from Indian Hindu language word "Maidan" meaning "ground" or "land". Similarly, we find some common roots in every Asian countries.

Japan in particular are influenced by Indian and China. King Ashoka's daughter married Japanese king and with her took lots of Indian tradition. Festivals like, 'Pongal(Tamil Nadu)', 'Chaitragaur (Maharashtra)', 'Pitrupandravda (Remembering own Ancestor) ', 'Shastrapuja (weapons – puja) etc are few of the festivals that are celebrated in Japan too. Whereas 'Tea' was introduced to Japan by China traders. Japan accepted it and included it in their own polite way leading to formation of 'Tea ceremony'. The written script too was taken from China.

If you are listening to Japanese language, its sounds like the mixture of all impolite / bad words. To give an eg. 'Tsuitachi', 'Futsuka', 'Mikka', 'Yokka', 'Itsuka', 'Muika', 'Nanoka', 'Youka', 'Kokonoka' and 'Touka' are the names of 1 to 10 dates. Now seriously tell me, don't they sound like some of the bad words? I still remember one incidence related to this. I was traveling back home from my Japanese class. We took 'ladies special' train at CST. Ladies special train can by compared to the place wherein all radio stations are played at a time. College girls laughter, office ladies celebrating festivals and chitchatting, sales person making his way out and ladies standing at the door even thought they wanted to get down at the last stop. All this was making me restless. To add to my restlessness, one lady had a bad fight with the lady standing at the door. Using all bad words starting from 'Ba' and 'Bha' they started with a fight. It was getting on my nerve. I then started saying all those Japanese dates in similar tone like those bad words. All the ladies started looking at me, and unable to understand the meaning of any word, thought I was someone with a PhD for bad words. I got so much respect that day in the train, that one lady offered me a seat... Flattered!!!

But Japanese language is 'The politest' language in the world no matter how harsh it sounds. One can get an idea by counting the number of times a Japanese person bows to great you. They can just go on bowing. Even bowing has different types. Just bowing your head implies an informal way of greeting, Ok for your friend but No-Gu (not good) to show respect. While walking, one can just bend a little. Actual, respectful bowing is one wherein you need to bend 90 degree from your waist. That's the reason you won't find any Japanese with a big tummy. I think, looking at Indian police growing tummy, they should be also made to bow like Japanese. (It's different that the reason for such big fat stomach of Indian police is due to money they collect from under the table. Huge the amount, bigger is the tummy size). Anyways, back to Japanese bowing. If you are sitting on a 'Tatami' (mat) one still need to bow a little. In short, one need to keep bowing no matter how and where you are. Our Marathi say, “'मोडेन पण वाकणार नाही' ” meaning: “Will break but not bend” cannot be even translated in Japanese. They wont understand the meaning of it being brave.

Now moving on to the language: Politeness also has many ways and differs from person to person and from designation to designation.
Let me elaborate it with an eg;. ジョンさんがさとさんを待つ。[John waits for Sato (his friend)]

But if Teacher is waiting for any student, then – 先生がお待ちになる。Here teacher is of high authority and thus she has done a favor on us by waiting.

Student is waiting for a teacher, then – 先生をお待ちする。Even thought we are waiting for teacher, teacher being of higher authority, it's shows our pleasure to wait for teacher.

The height of politeness does not end here. Just imagine one situation wherein you need to go home early one day from office and need to ask permission from your boss. In English, “Would it be fine for me to leave early today” or “Can I leave early today, please” is considered as polite. But in Japanese one need to say, 「ちょっと早く行かせていただけませんか」。which literally mean: “May I get you to let me go early”. Make sure that while talking to you boss, one need to bend down, so that you are way below your boss height and keeping your eyes as low as possible and without making any eye contact with high authority one should communicate. They might have adopted the American standard of leaving. But it's just limited to dressing, marriage, marriage constitute, leave-in-relationship etc. They have not adopted American rudeness or over friendliness into Japanese culture. The hierarchy system is followed in Japan even today.

「お元気ですか」。(O-Genki Desuka): They not only show respect to person, but to words too. If they want to emphasis any particular word then the use 'O' or 'Go' before that word to show respect. Here 'Genki' means 'health' but to show respect or to emphases it they include 'O'. Answer to this also differ according to one's post / designation. (Here its not only related to office designation or post... but also personal life post is taken into consideration). If the person you are asking is of height authority he/she can just reply by saying 「はい、元気です」。(Yes! I am fine). But if you are answering to higher authority then one should say, 「おかげさまで元気です」。(Because of your favor, I am fine).

San: San means Mr. Miss. Mrs. everything. But one should not use it for oneself. It's for others to indicate with respect. But if a Japanese person is traveling outside his country, he/she indicated himself by 'San' showing respect of being a Japanese.

Yesterday, my friend 'Kranti' was on a customer call as interpreter. She greeted the Japanese on the other side with, 「お世話になっております」。meaning “I am here to help you”. So much unlike our any Indian language. Just imagine the same situation taking place in Mumbai or Delhi. The Indian person might have said, “Oh Fish! (Indian version of F***) I don't believe you don't understand simple English. OK yaar, tell me what you want to convey. I will help you no”.

Wednesday, February 9, 2011

School days! those were the days!!!

We hear people saying, 'School days were the best days', or 'Those were the days'. But such facility was not privileged to me by my horoscope structure. For me it was a terror to go to school everyday. All those subjects like History, Algebra and teachers were my enemies. Many reasons can be given...

1.My elder sis name is Amita, and believe me, in my whole secondary school term, all my teachers used to call me Amita. I used to hate having an identity crises as if I never exist for them.
2.My sis, studious and quite never actually was one of the teachers favorite but when she scored 90% in SSC board (in those days scoring 90% was tough, teachers never used to distribute marks like they do today) suddenly my teachers started comparing me with her saying, 'Amita, look at your elder sister, she made us all so proud and look at you'. Once irritated, I stood up and told my teacher, 'Amita does not have any elder sister, I have elder sister named Amita'. As usual, was made to kneel down outside the class making me 'outstanding student' for others to notice.
3.'Only study/work, no play makes John a good human being', was the equation of my school teachers those days. They never used to treat children with extra curricular activities with respect. Not only that, an Oscar winner choreographer, doing poor in exams, was never asked to do the choreography of dance and instead give that job to one of the TOP 3 ranker. Bull Shit!
4.History: I used to love history till we had lessons on Shivaji Maharaj and Maratha's. It was in primary school till 4th standard. After that Gandhi entered and then entered world war I-II. I still don't remember the exact date when Gandhi did Salt Satyagraha or dandi march. I still am unaware of the day and date when Nazi was defeated. And I still wonder why I/we were forced to put events according to chronological order. Just saying it all happened in PAST was not enough? On one hand teachers teach us to look forward and not dig the past. Then why the hell we are making Gandhi do that Satyagraha year after year. Moreover once when teacher asked me, who gave us the freedom? I said, 'Hitler gave us the freedom'. If world war II would have never happened, British would have never surrendered against the Gandhi's non-violence are my views even today. Do I need to tell you what happened next and how much I scored in it?
5.Maths: Maths and me never walk hand-in-hand. We always prefer to walk parallel and never meet. 'A water is dripping from a water drum with some xyz speed and that drum is filled with some ABC liter of water. How much time will it take for a drum to be empty?' Don't you think we are spoiling the mentality of children. In my one of the semester exam, I wrote my assumption: I will first fix the hole and stop it from dropping any more water and wasting it. My teacher was not happy with my mechanical ability and gave me mathematical 0 (zero). Geometry was something I used to like. But Algebra was just not my cup of tea. I am still searching the correct value of 'Mr.X'.
6.Biology: I just used to love this subject. Not because of the detection we made of our body parts and different animals, but because of drawing part of it. In one exam, it so happened that, I was so much engrossed in getting my frog look real that I completely forgot that I even have to write the theoretical part of it, explaining my drawing. I got V.good for my frog drawing and some 2 in theory. My question here again is, cant teacher just see that, I have named all the body parts of that frog in my pictures correctly. Do I still need to write thesis on it. Aren't pictures talkative?
7.I remember after doing majors in Economics, I met one of teacher from school. After retirement too, she had maintained that typical khadus teachers look on her face. With utter rudeness, she asked me, 'So, did you finished your college?' I was so flattered to listen those words of insult after such a long time. I told her I did my majors in Economics. I still remember the surprised look on her face.
8.For one of my psychology project, I needed to interview few of the school students as my subject. After many years I once again entered that bldg to look out for some help. Principle of that school choose one class for me and told me that Mrs. Rai (named changed) is the class teacher and she being your class teacher for 3 years you will feel comfortable. I entered the class and explained my project to Mrs. Rai. She asked me to continue with my process. I started selecting random subjects from the class of 50+. I wanted to interview everyone from different IQ level, different background etc. After my selection was done, Mrs. Rai asked one kid, a back bencher, if he is comfortable solving the papers and if not pass that question sheet to some Xyz student (the brilliant one ofcourse). Poor boy must have felt so insulted. I remember myself standing in same position some few years back with same helplessness, same insult. Then Mrs. Rai turned to me and said, 'let me select subject for you' and she started 'Ok! Who stood 1st in class, 2nd , 3rd etc.' Nothing was changed in so many years. Without wasting time, I stopped teacher by insulting any more subjects I selected. Turning to that boy, I told him that even I was in same place as he is today, when I was in this school. I too have digested many such insults. And once out from this school, you will turn to be a wonderful person.
This list is unending. All I wanted to convey was that, my school was not that best to be proud off (scholar student will object to it though) but still I loved those days of punishment. Those were the days!