Herta Muller- In translation

Herta Muller was awarded Nobel Prize in literature in 2009.  Vani Publications decided that her novels would be appropriate for translation into Hindi and approached my colleague in the German Studies center. Yesterday was the book release of the Hindi translation of her book Atemschaukel (English translation: The Hunger angel; Hindi translation: Bhookh ke Vyakaran). Her another book with a long title Der Mensch ist ein großer Fasan auf der Welt (English translation: The Passport) has also been translated into Hindi as entitled "Kaanch ke Aansoo" by the same translators.
After the book was released, the translators read out small excerpts from the book  The first book deals with a protagonist who is sent to the labor camp in Soviet Russia. The book was inspired by what happened to Herta Muller's mother (she too spent 5 years in a gulag) and by the experiences recounted by poet Oskar Pastior.  The description of the gulag was just too vivid. They read out a section where a woman is killed in the labor camp and the violence that she describes was just horrific.
The second book, frankly, I could not understand.  The excerpt was about an apple tree which starts eating its own apples. I could not make it out whether it was a parable or was it an allegory. 
Later, my another German Center colleague told me that both the books are difficult to read and if the first book made sense then the credit should go to the translator.
 Listening to Herta Muller's books made me realize that Maxim Gorky and Fyodor Dostoevsky were positively cheerful, jolly old fellows in comparison to her.
Will I read Herta Muller? I do not think so. Or maybe one day I will. After all I did manage to read Mother by Maxim Gorky and Crime and Punishment by Dosteovsky. On the other hand I could not read University Days by Gorky or The Brothers Karamazov by Dosteovsky. Though I think in all fairness it was the names in The Brothers Karamazov that did me in.
So I will wait and see whether I ever gather up enough courage to read Herta Muller.

Cider with Rosie- Book Review

Laurie Lee was born in 1914, just at the beginning of World War I. Cider with Rosie is his famous book and my brother recommended that I should read it. I had the book but somehow never got around to reading it, primarily because I am always wary of books recommended by my brother (except of course Wodehouse). I do not like gloomy books and my brother has a tendency to like art house movies. There is no connection here but since I associate art house movies with gloominess and did a little bit of extrapolation- there you have it.
Anyway, I started reading it these Diwali holidays and I was hooked. It is simply a wonderful book and I can understand why it is a recommended text book.  His uncles reminded me of my own numerous uncles each one with an endearing character.  The village school was somewhat like and yet nothing like the school described by Miss Read.  Miss Read comes across as a sympathetic character but of course it is written by the teacher whereas if the students were made to describe their teacher they would probably turn out to be somewhat like Miss Crabbe and Miss Wardley. It is a matter of perspective after all.
But most of all I simply envied the fact that he grew up amidst the greenery. Life was changing- in few years motor cars would become a common sight. But during the period he describes, life was still slow, tar roads were still uncommon, and there was all that greenery.  I know I am lucky to live within the University campus and that my bedroom opens into the jungle and that I can feast on the greenery any time of the day but I also know that all this temporary. The rate at which new buildings are coming up on the campus all I will see one day is red brick buildings.
There are two more books in the trilogy.  Flipkart has the second book in this trilogy so that is now on my 'to purchase' list.

Deepavali- The festival of lights

Today is Deepavali in the North India. We celebrated it yesterday as the South Indians celebrate it for the killing of Narakasura by Krishna.
The fire crackers are being burst enthusiastically by the children. My neighbours were murmuring that the firecrackers should be banned. Child labour, they are saying.
For me the issue of child labour was brought home by my aunt, the writer long time ago when I was maybe 7 or 8 years old. She visited us one year either after visiting Sivakasi or after writing her novel "Koottukkunjugal".  I remember she told us the horrors of child labour in Sivakasi and how children were maimed after accidents in the fireworks factory. It was the first year when, if memory serves right, my brother refused to buy firecrackers. My mother was upset because she felt we were breaking away from the tradition. She purchased few sparklers and persuaded me to light them but it was no fun without my brother participating.  In the subsequent years we completely gave up purchasing firecrackers as it was always associated with child labour for us.
I am forever grateful to my aunt for making me aware of these issues.
Happy Deepavali!

Hibiscus

Last year I got a double hibiscus from Rajdhani Nursery and potted it in a pot in my balcony. The plant did not like it and started showing both stunted growth and yellow leaves. In despair, I planted it on the ground and gave it up on it survival.  But the plant thrived and this year it is full of blossoms.  Enjoy!

Chargaff's rule

Teaching the nature of genetic material to the first semester M.Sc students is a challenge since they have been learning about DNA right from school.  Thus, when I talk about Hershey and Chase experiment or Meselson-Stahl experiment they already know about it and are bored.  So I have to find ways to make it interesting for them.
One such thing is Chargaff's rule.
Erwin Chargaff's experiment were a key point in understanding the structure of DNA. He showed that DNA from any organism/cell had a 1:1 ratio of purines to pyrimidines. This was the first rule.  Further, the amount of adenine was equal to that of thymine while the amount of guanine was equal to that of cytosine. This was the second rule.
Chargaff did not conclude that the DNA was a double-helix from his experiments because the nature of DNA was not known at that point of time. His rules were used, however, by Watson and Crick to solve the structure of DNA.  In fact Linus Pauling lost the race because he failed to take Chargaff's rule into account. He proposed a triple helix structure of DNA which did not follow Chargaff's rule.
But the question really is whether Chargaff's rule applies uniformly.  Further, from the data can we always conclude whether the given genome is double-stranded or single-stranded?
The question I posed before the class was what if the amount of adenine, thymine, guanine, and cytosine each is 25%.  Can you then figure out whether the genome is double-stranded or single-stranded?
It turns out that Chargaff's rule has exceptions. The rule does not apply to single-stranded DNA genomes as well as to mitochondrial genome (one strand is C rich and the other strand is G rich- so the first law does not apply).
The answer to the question I posed is that you cannot predict whether the DNA is single-stranded or double-stranded.  That is the fun and challenge of Chargaff's rule.

Mera Sahara- Site visit to Nithari Village

Nithari shot into fame when the bones of children were discovered buried in the backyard of a house. The owner of the house and his servant were arrested. While the owner walked out free, the servant was held guilty and death sentence was imposed. That sentence has been stayed by the court. In the aftermath of the Nithari incident, the Joint Women's Program initiated set of measures in the Nithari village. The village is mainly populated by Gujjars and migrant workers, most of them illiterate. Their children do not go to school as education is not considered a priority. The girls are especially at risk as they can be kidnapped for selling into prostitution. It is with this at risk population JWP started their Mera Sahara program.  The program offers formal education up to class V and along with girls, it was heartening to note, many boys too had enrolled. The program does try to mainstream the children by admitting them into government schools. I was told today that the education that they imparted to their children was so successful that they were admitted into higher classes in the government. Thus, a class III child was admitted into class V.
The driving force behind the JWP is Dr. Jyotsna Chatterjee, who must be in her late sixties or may be in her early seventies. But she is enthusiastic, dynamic personality with whom it is a pleasure to interact with. Today she told me that she is still recovering from a hip replacement operation but now she has kicked off the walking stick and is able to walk by herself.
Today I also noted many positive points about the project. One, they have moved into a big house that can easily accommodate 100 odd children, a skill training center, and a sewing center. The house has enough toilets (though the village itself has only open drains and when it rains, the waters enters into the houses) and they can lock the main gate keeping the children (especially the girls) safe within their premises. This was especially a problem in their old premise which had no main gate.  The other thing is that the children really are learning. A class IV/V child was reading English sentences written on the blackboard. After she had finished reading, I asked her to explain it in Hindi. She was able to do it, which is really encouraging.  The teachers, I was told, had been given training and since I visit it every year, I was able to note that this time the teaching quality has improved. I was very happy to note that. 
It is difficult for many NGOs to find good teachers or to retain them since we cannot afford very high salaries. So when I see a good teacher at an NGO I am very happy.

Pavazha Malli (Night Jasmine)

It is the state flower of Bengali. My Bengali colleague tells me that Durga Puja is never complete without Pavazha Malli/Harsingar/Parijat as it always flowers during the puja time. I planted a small sapling last year and watched it grow into a fine tree. This year we trimmed it and lo, it flowered right around puja. Today I had enough to use it for decorating. Here it is:

Theyyam- folk art from Kerala

I have been getting emails from the Lila foundation about their lecture series. They had some very interesting people but due to my teaching commitments, I  never found time to attend them. The mid-semester exams came as a boon especially since Pepita Seth's lecture was scheduled for Saturday instead of a weekday. And as Rajinder has a car that I can use any time the whole thing really worked out beautifully. I am glad it did for the talk was fantastic and I learnt a lot about Theyyam.
Pepita Seth is based in Guruvayoor, Kerala. She is a photographer and a writer, who has researched extensively on the temple arts and has written a book on the Guruvayoor temple.  She is currently working on the folk art of Malabar region, specifically the Theyyam tradition. She told us about the Annapurnaeshwari temple of Cherakunnu.  The legend is very interesting. Annapurnaeshwari came to Malabar from Kashi on a boat manned by Muslims. She told the boatmen to wait for her in case she wants to go back to Kashi. The boatmen waited for her and there is a masjid in Cherakunnu where the Muslim boatmen are believed to be buried.
She talked about the traditions especially Theyyam (which is a corruption of Devam) enacted by male dancers. The tradition is now dying ironically because of education. The tradition requires children to be trained into the art and during the season they have to devote most of the day to the art form. No school will give that kind of permission.
The only grouse I had was about the moderator who gushed immoderately about Pepita Seth. Other than that it was a wonderful evening.

Swacch Bharat

With great fanfare Mr. Modi and his ministers inaugurated Swacch Bharat movement yesterday. Today it is Dusshera. The good conquers the evil (I have great many problems with the Ramayana but I will go with the general tone). Crackers have to be burst to celebrate it. Cleaning? Ah!
This is the state in which our park was left after crackers were duly cracked by some of the residents (four boys on motorbike swooped in, burst the crackers, and swooped out despite my telling them that they have to clean it up) of the university. They assured me that it would get cleaned up automatically.

Symbolisms are fine (and I loved the way Mr. Modi has in one stroke rendered both Congress and AAP completely rudderless) but to make our country clean each one of us has to participate and understand. We have to teach our children that littering is simply not okay and that to pick up the litter is not derogatory. Meantime, I am wondering how the litter will get cleaned up automatically.

Dear Committee Members-Book review

Trawling through blogs devoted to books I came across this one- Dear Committee Members by Julia Schumacher.
It is a series of hilarious (and somewhat sad) set of recommendation letters written by Jason Fitger, Professor of Creative Writing and English. We learn his story (once considered a promising writer but now divorced and a forgotten writer who survives on his teaching) through the recommendation letters he writes for his students and colleagues. All those of us who have to write recommendation letters on daily basis will sympathize with him as he is bull-dozed into writing a letter for a student whom he has known only for 11 minutes (10 of which were spent in her convincing him to write a  letter on his behalf). As the University tightens its budget and slashes hiring (ah! don't we know about it? It was such a panacea to know that there are others who too struggle when the university tells them that there is no money), he struggles to get fellowships for his students. Through that emerges the story of his student Darren Bowles, a student with whom he empathizes possibly because he sees in him his own younger self.
The first half of the book was truly hilarious (my best part was when  the plaster of the department roof caves in on a student. I experienced the same in my old residence and which, I suspect, the University still has not repaired. I prudently moved to the newer flat which was offered to me at that time) - the second half turns serious with a twist that I, at least, did not foresee.
I purchased the book on Flipkart who sell it as a e-book. E-books are fine but I missed the pleasure of turning a page and curling up with it.