I had scheduled a final sitting with my sister on her thesis the next morning. We were up by 5 AM and sat down at their dining table. She had asked to discuss the concept Devi cosmology in Indian culture. The writer Anita Desai in one of her novels takes a female foreign visitor to India who takes advantage of the simplicity of the people and captures followers as a mystic before she returns back to her country. Aparimita wanted a discussion on the accepting nature of faith in India.
We started discussing how our mother would worship Devi in her young age. Unlike the male gods who operate on heavy praise, the motherly goddess listens to human stories. I had seen in the temple my mother seemingly talking to the stone deity. It is possibly a personal dialog resulting in a sense of consolation and hope. Females are respected in the world as good listeners. The Devi is assumed to manifest this quality.
Devi concept is old In India. If there was a creator, it had to be a female. There is a feminine part in each personality. All creativity has feminine power, all energy has a feminine origin. Our nourishment is due to the Mother nature and our intelligence is developed through the care of the mother. Mother has been recognized in the Indian literature as the first among the divinities. There have been religious and moral injunctions on the protection of women and mothers.
Women of foreign origin are more easily accepted in Indian cultural fabric than men of foreign origin. A woman is questioned less and is assumed to have noble intentions. In modern times many women of western origin have created a place for themselves in Indian spiritual and political life. Indian culture accepts people and may not even ask question if the person disappears for whatever reason. Retirement with aloofness is considered a yogic detachment!
The noted film Director Sri Ghanashyam Mahapatra showed up. He was kind to present to me two DVD's made by him, both from the '70s. One was the award-winning Oriya movie "Kanakalata" and the second was on "Odisi Dance". He complimented me on the efforts to move with the docu-drama on the Poet Sarala Das and offered his help to the project. At eighty years age, he was active, articulate and concerned. I appreciated his untiring efforts in the cause of the language and culture.
We had light breakfast. Accompanied by Sri Mahapatra, I left for the airport. Airport rituals in Bhubaneswar are simple. There was not much traffic. The luggage had to be pre-scanned. My luggage had accumulated books and the luggage charges did climb. The flight to Delhi is the same one I had taken from Chennai two weeks earlier. It showed up in time. We boarded and it left in an hour. A few Government officials were traveling. Nobody appeared busy.
Bhubaneswar to Delhi flight is about a thousand miles, a two hour flight. I used to stop by at Varanasi in my previous trips. Unlike Puri, Varanasi has been continuously inhabited more than two thousand years. The city is littered with book stalls, eateries and temples. One feels the richness of India's culture in Varanasi. There is also Islamic presence in the city. The concept of "light" in a community came in Varanasi, and the town was called Kashi, "the city that shines". This light was a thousand years before Paris was built and inhabited. The river Ganga is majestic at Varanasi.
Lunch was served in the flight. Indian system had not discovered the ways to adapt to the modern technology. Lunch is a cultural ritual in Indian homes and the airlines try to simulate such cultural tradition. Air India was known for its hospitality in its infancy, but it could not compete in price. The domestic airlines do not have enough business to help serve fresh food. The entire technology transfer process to countries like India needs full examination. Copied transfer results in more mess than help. The air inside had food smell rest of the flight.
I took a taxi to my uncle's house. My uncle Brajamohan is the next brother to my father. Between them they had three sisters. Uncle was eighty eight and did maintain good health. He is an engineer by training and is a happy family man. He retired as the Chairman of the autonomous Hindustan Paper Corporation. He is known for his utter humility and joviality. His two daughters lived in the city and visited him regularly. The son lived in Australia and visited every quarter. My aunt came from an established family in Puri town. I was the flower boy in their wedding in 1952.
In the afternoon, the discussion turned to health and care in the old age. Like any machine the human body functions better with proper maintenance. The old India stressed wholesome living harmonious with nature. There was a conviction that the ailment in the body was due to improper hygiene. The concepts of bacteria and virus were all lumped into hygiene. Ayurveda was developed as a healing therapy. Part philosophical; part empirical, the Ayurvedic method spread to whole South Asia and the Arab world through people migration. The British tried to kill it through their own arrogance. It is lately gaining revival.
There was a tacit philosophical thinking in old India that the remedy for human pain was to be found in nature. Experiments were empirical, but detailed remedies for many types of human conditions were articulated and treatment were declared. A scholar called Sushruta around 900 BC is credited to have compiled such information that included the methods of organ removal and surgery. A later scholar called Charaka in 4th century AD is credited to have formally applied the methods as we know through historical evidence.
An Ayurveda physician showed up in my uncle's house to help him in physical therapy. As we grow old the arteries lose elasticity and hence the blood flow gets inefficient. Lack of blood flow brings pain and can incapacitate a limb causing its loss. This is the symptom of aging. While walking and exercise help, a guided physical therapy helps monitor and heal the stress. The physician had helped my aunt earlier to recover from pain in the spinal cord. He had come to help my uncle with the blood flow in his legs.
Both my uncle and aunt were effusive on the efficacy of the Ayurvedic procedure and suggested that I should try some of the medication for my health. I responded my struggle with weight loss. Aunt recommended the medicine that she had used. The physician said that the medicine would not be shipped because of export regulations. They had to be carried personally. I agreed to the transaction. The physician said that he would procure two months' supply of the medicine and would get delivered at my uncle's apartment next day.
We took supper and I slept early. I had to think of a Doordarsan interview and a seminar next day.
