Accept you are not accepted. Life becomes easier, but does it?

Raju Korti
If my memory serves me right, I read Ayn Rand's much celebrated "The Fountainhead" and "Atlas Shrugged" sometime in 1979 when I had little understanding of Objectivism, Egotism, Self Respect and Self Esteem as philosophical concepts. I could understand precious little from the bulky intellect that both the books had to offer beyond the lofty and pompous speech of Howard Roark, the brilliant young architect painted in "The Fountainhead." I suspect, it was more out of the literary flourish than the philosophy that it sought to illustrate with painstaking emphasis.

One particular extract of Roark's magnificent courtroom speech caught my imagination: "Nothing is given to man on earth. Everything he needs has to be produced. And here man faces his basic alternative: he can survive in only one of two ways -- by the independent work of his own or as a parasite fed by the minds of others."   

Rand's theories became clearer from her profile, the pivotal point of which was she was witness to the tumultuous Bolshevik revolution of the 1917 when its leader Vladimir Lenin launched a near bloodless coup d'etat against the ineffectual Dumas government. The author emigrated to the United States hating the Soviet system despite having had a grinding in Marxism-Leninism.

Rand's ideas and the way she buttresses her philosophies make her a cult figure with many non-academics but the academics do not seem very impressed. Occasionally, she did elaborate on her views in response to the readers but she hardly took the time to defend them against possible objections or to reconcile them with the views that she so fiercely expressed in her novels.

In due course, her profound discernment notwithstanding,I found her philosophical essays wanting in the self-critical, detailed style of analytic philosophy, or any serious attempt to consider possible objections to her views. My view was strengthened by her polemical style, contemptuous tone, dogmatism and cult-like behaviour of her fans. Her concept of Objectivism holds that there is no greater moral goal than achieving one's happiness, something that she postulates in "The Virtue of Selfishness" through moral integrity and the respect for the right of others.

I have little to say about her advocacy of laissez-fare Capitalism but her view point that subtly distinguishes Egoism and Egotism often diverted me to ideas about Self-worth and Self-esteem. Self-worth is how one perceives through other people's eyes while Self-esteem is how confident and worthy one feels about himself/herself. It also has a tangential reference to Acceptance that is big deal with majority people in their mundane existence.

One's self-esteem is crushed when one is around people that do not recognize one's worth. Long years of low self-worth makes one feel like a loser who doesn't deserve good things in life and working hard at developing worth and esteem is often defeated by Ego. One has to build up the right matrix to build and nurture all three. Acceptance is the third unknown in this differential equation.

As a Facebook friend Sharika Kaul puts it succinctly: You will never be good enough for some people even if you are more loving, more talented, more knowledgeable, more courageous, more this or that. You will never get that open acceptance or acknowledgement of your worth. And when that realization dawns on you, you must begin to delink emotionally from that relationship -- personal or professional. The lack of acceptance must not be allowed to define your self-worth because somewhere you will find that you will be accepted for exactly who you are and you will be celebrated too. Till then, you must continue to push through and continue your path of self-discovery. And even if you find there is no one who toots your horn or claps for you, you must do that for yourself brazenly and without fear." 

For too long, I have believed that it is finally your life, your self-worth, your self-respect and your ego. If that is so why should acceptance gain so much importance for an individual? The answer is acceptance is as brittle a human characteristic as the others I have tried to understand in my limited understanding.

You celebrate them, lament them and hanker after them. Its human frailty. The buck stops there. If Howard Roark were to come out of the book from his larger-than-life character, he would have been me and you.  

चक्रीवादळांच्या निमित्ताने हवामान भौतिकशास्त्र

राजू कोरती

मागील वर्षी आलेली एका पाठोपाठ दोन उष्णकटिबंधीय चक्रीवादळे अम्फान व निसर्ग आणि इतक्यातच येऊन गेलेल्या ताउक्ते व येऊ घातलेल्या यासच्या निमित्ताने काही आठवणी उजागर झाल्या. शाळेत भौतिकशास्त्र हा माझा लाडका विषय होता पण त्याचा संबंध हवामानाशी असू शकतो असे खिजगणतीत सुद्धा नव्हते.

पुढे वर्तमानपत्रात काम करताना हवामान विषयिक बऱ्याच बातम्या व लेख लिहिण्याचे प्रसंग आले. त्याचे विश्लेषण करताना जाणवले की हे विज्ञान भौतिकशास्त्राचाच अविभाज्य अंग आहे. त्या कुतूहलात भर पाड़ली ते माझ्या हाती अकस्मात् पडलेल्या Climate Physics ह्या पुस्तकाने.

जवळ जवळ ६०० पानी असलेल्या ह्या पुस्तकाने बऱ्याच मूलभूत व  एकमेकांशी संलग्न असलेल्या गोष्टींचा उलगडा झाला. हे विज्ञान हवेचे तापमान, वातावरणातील दाब, वाऱ्याची गती व दिशा यांच्या परस्परसंबंधातून निर्माण होणारी वादळे, ढग,पाऊस , विजांचा कडकडाट आदी घटनांची कालमानानुसार बदलणाऱ्या वागणुकीचा अभ्यासच नव्हे तर त्याही पलीकडचे आहे. माझ्या मते त्यावरील संशोधनास केवळ meteorology म्हणण्यापेक्षा हवामान भौतिकशास्त्र म्हणून संबोधणे जास्त संयुक्तिक ठरेल.

माझ्या मताला एक शास्त्रीय आणि तार्किक मीमांसा आहे. हवामानशास्त्र हा "उल्का" चा अभ्यास नाही. त्याचा अभ्यास आहे metéōros, "हवेतील गोष्टींसाठी" ग्रीक या "गोष्टी" मध्ये वातावरणास बंधनकारक घटनांचा समावेश आहे: तापमान, हवेचा दाब, पाण्याची वाफ, तसेच ते सर्व कसे संवाद साधतात आणि कालांतराने बदलतात - ज्याला आपण एकत्रितपणे "हवामान" म्हणतो. हवामानशास्त्र केवळ वातावरण कसे वागते याकडेच पाहत नाही तर ते वातावरणातील रसायनशास्त्र (त्यातील वायू आणि कण), वातावरणाचे भौतिकशास्त्र (त्याची द्रव गती आणि त्यावर कार्य करणारी शक्ती) आणि हवामानाचा अंदाज देखील पाहात असते. 

चक्रीवादळे निसर्ग धर्माला अनुसरून असली तरीही गेल्या ५० वर्षात त्यांच्या संख्येत झपाट्याने वाढ झाली आहे. देशातील काही किनारी भाग जसे गुजरात, आंध्र प्रदेश, ओडिशा व तमिल नाडु यांना त्याचा सतत फटका बसत आलाय. त्याला कारणीभूत मुख्यतः मनुष्याने केलेली निसर्गाची केलेली परवड. त्या आधी निसर्ग हा बऱ्यापैकी शिस्तशीर होता. सगळी मोसम वेळेत जात व येत. हल्ली निसर्गाला कसला ही घरबंध नाही. असो. चक्रीवादळे ही निसर्गाने मनुष्याला केलेली व्याजासकटची परतफेड आहे. चक्रीवादळे नेमकी कशी तयार होतात, त्यांना नावे कशी मिळतात, भारताच्या पूर्व किनाऱ्यावरच सर्वाधिक चक्रीवादळे का निर्माण होतात, याचा वेध… 

समुद्रात एका कमी दाबाच्या प्रदेशाभोवती चोहोबाजूंनी येणाऱ्या वाऱ्यांमुळे वादळ तयार होते. वातावरणातील उष्ण व आर्द्र हवेचा सततचा पुरवठा हे चक्रीवादळाच्या निर्मितीचे प्रमुख कारण आहे. समुद्राचे तापमान हा चक्रीवादळाच्या निर्मितीचा मोठा घटक ठरतो. समुद्रात २६ डिग्री अंश सेल्सि अंश तापमान ६० मीटर खोलीपर्यंत असणे, हे त्यासाठी पोषक ठरते. चक्रीवादळात वाऱ्यांचा वेग त्याने केलेल्या विध्वंसाचे मुख्य कारण ठरते. या वाऱ्यांमध्ये असलेल्या बाष्पाच्या प्रमाणामुळे चक्रीवादळ जेथून प्रवास करते तेथे मुसळधार ते अतिमुसळधार पाऊस पडतो. त्यामुळे पूरही येऊ शकतो.

भारताच्या दोन्ही बाजूंनी समुद्र असूनही सर्वाधिक वादळे बंगालच्या उपसागरातूनच जन्माला येतात. याचे कारण लपले आहे दोन्ही समुद्रांच्या तापमानात. बंगालच्या उपसागराचे तापमान मान्सून आधी आणि मान्सूननंतर अरबी समुद्राच्या तुलनेत उबदार असते. त्यामुळे पावसाआधी किंवा नंतर खास करून ऑक्टोबर महिन्यात बंगालच्या उपसागरात चक्रीवादळे तयार होण्यासाठी पोषक वातावरण तयार होते. त्यातही वैशष्ट्यिपूर्ण बाब म्हणजे भौगोलकि रचना. बंगालच्या उपसागरातून येणाऱ्या वाऱ्याला पूर्व भारताजवळ तिन्ही बाजूंनी जमीन असल्याने वाऱ्यांना कमी जागा मिळते. त्यामुळेच ते अधिक विध्वंसक बनवतात. याच्या उलट अरबी समुद्रात येणाऱ्या चक्रीवादळाला आजूबाजूला केवळ समुद्र असल्याने ते लवकर विरते. बंगालच्या उपसागरात तयार होणारे चक्रीवादळ आणि अरबी समुद्रात तयार होणारे चक्रीवादळ यांतील गुणोत्तर ४ : १ आहे. 

हवामान संबंधातील बातम्या व लेख लिहिताना हे प्रकर्षाने जाणवले असे की त्या अनुषंगाने येणारे शास्त्रीय शब्द व त्यांच्या व्याकरणात्मक घटक तयार करणारे एक किंवा अधिक शब्दांची अभिव्यक्तीचे आकलन अतिशय आवश्यक आहे. जास्त खोलात न शिरता ही त्यातील भौतिकशास्त्राचा गाभा स्पष्ट होत होता.

हे सगळे सांगण्या मागचा खटाटोप एवढ्या साठीच की ह्या शास्त्राला आता Meteorology च्या ऐवजी Climate Physics म्हणणे योग्य ठरेल. शिवाय त्या शास्त्राला एक वजन प्राप्त होईल। लिहिण्यासारखे खरे तर अजुन बरेच काही आहे पण हा विषय सर्वव्यापी व परिपूर्ण असल्याने त्या संबंधी विस्तारित आणि प्रासंगिक चर्चा पुन्हा कधीतरी.

Baba Ramdev and his "withdrawal" symptoms

Raju Korti
I find people who go back on their words interesting examples in case studies. In my four thankless decades career in Media, I have seen people spout gibberish out of complacency, misplaced audacity and in the hope they will get away in their considered superiority or power. For some of them, retraction makes bigger news than what was said with full understanding.

That's where the problem is!

It is not my case here to discuss the semantics of "retracting a statement, withdrawing a statement or refuting/rebutting a statement". What does it mean, anyway, to "retract" what you've said? How can anyone state categorically that a thought once spoken with perceived conviction is no longer valid? Somewhere ages back, I remember Milan Kundera saying in the "The Unbearable Lightness of Being" that a thought can be refuted but not retracted. And here, it is not even a thought. It has crossed the mind barrier to be told to all and sundry.

I am alluding to Yoga Guru Ramdev who recently on television poked fun at Allopathy, terming it as "a stupid aur diwaliya science" claiming "lakhs of people have died taking allopathic medicines." He also rubbed the Drug Controller General the wrong way by declaring Remdesivir and Faviflu as complete failures. I am not sure whether this bluster was the result of his (flopped) medicine that claimed to cure Covid, but the man hiding behind his smirk and cagey eyes has been brought to his senses -- if it really has -- by the red flag shown at him by Health Minister Dr Harsh Vardhan. Harsh Vardhan, himself an allopathic doctor, lost no time in asking him to take back his unintelligent statement that offended doctors who are treating Covid patients 24x7. 

A chastened Ramdev now realizes in his infinite spiritual wisdom that "he respects all forms of sciences." How does one suddenly respect something that one so contemptuously and crudely dismissed barely a day ago? But then there are legion who will take his contrived apology in stride and move on. You can rest assured that Ramdev's conviction which drops from his beard to his marbles, is none the wiser. A brain mapping test (!) will show that he carries the same thought that he so pompously claims to have "withdrawn." 

He is, of course, one of the leading lights of this "retract and withdraw" brigade. Remember our very polite, genteel Ajit Pawar who stopped short of unzipping himself while making that coarse "dharnaat paani naahi tar mutayche kay?" The list is long. Politicians are known to gauge public reaction and mood with such beaten-to-pulp tricks. But Ramdev, who is now more of an entrepreneur and less of a Yoga exponent, has a considerable following and from what I hear, his products are not doing too badly.

Since he claims, among other things, to cure homosexuality "a bad addiction" through Yoga, he could also find a medicine for his own indiscretion in the spirit of physician heal thyself. 

A day spent with Sunderlal Bahuguna

Raju Korti
The ultimate test of man's conscience may be his willingness to sacrifice something today for future generations whose words of thanks will not be heard. Very few people I have been occasioned to meet have stood true to this dictum as Sunderlal Bahuguna has. He was to trees what oxygen is to the humans. I consider it a milepost to have spent one full day in his company way back in 1981 when his hands were full; passionately defending the natives of Himalayas, working for temperance and the country's rivers that were beginning to become a bone of contention between the riparian states.

Then, enlightened that Green was a word that described a committed environmentalist, my knowledge about environmental sciences didn't travel much beyond the elementary fundamentals learnt in school. One chance meeting with Bahuguna changed all that. As one inspired by Gandhi, he trekked through the rugged terrains of Himalayan forests and hills covering almost 5000 kms and had a first-hand account of the damage caused by mega development projects on the fragile ecosystem of the intimidating and awe-inspiring mountain range and the subsequent degradation of social life in its rural hinterland.

Dressed in white pyjamas, white kurta with a bandana that looked partly soiled and his hair unkempt, I looked bemused at the tall, lanky man -- two front buttons open -- who I had seen moving partly bare even during the chilliest of climes of Garhwal. All of that actually didn't matter because what floored me was the benign smile on his jovial face. Before I could say anything, he gestured me to sit and proceeded to rustle up quite simply the best rustic salad I have ever been treated to. I watched as he poured soaked moong dal, finely chopped cucumber, tomatoes and squeezed a lemon with a pinch of salt and pepper. Giving it a quick, practiced mix, he offered the bowl to me. The taste still tickles my palate after 40 years.

Having pioneered the sui generis Chipko Movement that appealed to people to hug trees to save them from devastation, Bahuguna was at that time in the thick of mobilizing public opinion on Tehri dam protests that he championed for decades. As I wondered how he could undertake long fasts given his lean frame, Bahuguna explained to me the time-tested Gandhian means of holding satyagrahas and hunger strikes on the ecological impacts on the dam. Never once did he mention how first Prime Minister Narasimha Rao and then Deve Gowda dilly dallied on the issue and the protracted legal battle in the Supreme Court where the case was heard. Bahuguna took that loss in his stride with the same smile that had me drawn to him.

The Chipko Movement had started in early 1974  when trees were being indiscriminately cut by unscrupulous forest contractors in Uttar Pradesh but beyond this obvious environmental conservationist activism what stood out was his accompanying slogan 'Ecology is permanent economy.' It caught the attention of then Prime Minister Indira Gandhi who was so impressed with his advocacy that she imposed a ban on cutting green trees for 15 years. I could see this was just a Pyrrhic victory for his battered soul as the ban remained mostly in breach than practice. But then he was never the one to keep grudges. His protests were as simple and unassuming as his own self.

Speaking in measured words and tone, he demystified almost every environmental issue under the Sun - dams and their seismic hazards, depleting ozone layers. Greenhouse gases, climate change et al, all the stats at his tongue tip. "There is a simple way to know if the ecological conditions around you are good. If you can hear the croak of a frog in the monsoon and sparrows chirping around you, it means the ecology is hale and hearty. Birds are the indicators of Environment. If they are in trouble, we will be in trouble sooner." His spiel was laced with examples and figures and it was astounding that an individual could be a repository of such wealth of knowledge. It belied his peasant-like appearance     

In his free-flowing style, he explained how intricately human lives were intertwined with forests, rivers and the wilderness. "As a peaceful activist, my sights weren't riveted on ecological issues alone. I could see the menace of alcoholism in the hills and how imperative it was to empower the Dalits, especially women, who were denied entry in Tehri district's temples." 

His convictions were reasoned with a mix of impeccable English, Garhwali phrases and grassroots wisdom. I believe he was perhaps the only activist who was gentle, quietly persuasive and yet strongly rooted in his beliefs. The occasional anger was quickly left behind and replaced by his infectious smile. The country's homegrown environmentalist stood in stark contrast to the post-industrial activists of the genre that abound in the West. To be able to trigger concern for environment across urban India with such tireless application is unheard of in my experience. 

It is an irony of sorts that this Man of Earth is lost to us for the very reason he was so vocal about. As he told me that day with that child-like smile: "The Earth does not belong to us. We belong to the Earth."

पुस्तके लिहिण्याचा हव्यास

राजू कोरती

साधारण पाचवी सहावीत असेंन। ओठांवर अजून मिसरूड पण फुटले नव्हते. शाळेत जायचे, खेळायचे व अभ्यास करण्यापलिकडचे जग ठाऊक नव्हते. आज जवळजवळ पन्नास पेक्षा जास्त वर्षानंतर त्या प्रसंगाची आठवण आली की त्यामागे काही दैवी संकेत असावा असे वाटते. 

आमच्या शाळेचे मुख्याध्यापक भारद्धाज सर अतिशय शिस्तप्रिय आणि कड़क.कधी ही कोणावर हात उगारला नाही की कोणावर आगपाखड़ केली नाही पण त्यांच्या नजरेत प्रचंड धाक आणि जरब होती. अर्थात तो काळच वेगळा होता. आज कालचे विद्यार्थी शिक्षकांना जसे लाडिकपणे "हाय सर" वगैरे करतात तसले काही नव्हते। शिक्षकांच्या डोळ्याला डोळे भिड़वणे तर सोडाच, मान वर करून बघायची सुद्धा बिशाद नव्हती.
 
इंग्रजी, हिंदी व मराठी भाषा तितक्याच अस्खलितपणे बोलणाऱ्या पण मातृभाषा तमिळ असलेल्या भारद्धाज सरांची एक विशिष्ट सवय होती. दिवसातून एकदा तरी ते कोणत्याही वर्गात जात व  कोणाला ही  एखादा प्रश्न विचारित. हे प्रश्न अभ्यासक्रमातील नसून सामान्य विषया वरील असत. आता मागे वळून बघताना जाणवते की ह्या मागे त्यांचे बहुधा दोन हेतू असावेत. मस्ती करणाऱ्या विद्यार्थ्यावर वचक आणि त्यांच्या मानसिक तयारीची तपासणी.

त्या दिवशी ते आमच्या वर्गात अचानक आले आणि वर्गात नेहमी प्रमाणेच चिडीचूप  झाली. त्यांनी मागील बाकावर बसलेल्या विद्यार्थ्याला खुणेनेच उभे केले आणि विचारले "What is your staple diet?" अजिबात न डगमगता त्याने सांगितले "Sir my staple diet is roti, sabzi, dal and rice." मान हलवित त्यांनी उत्तराची पोच दिली आणि त्यांची भिरभिरणारी नजर माझ्यावर स्थिरावली. माझा भेदरलेला चेहरा बघून त्यांनी           

 स्वभावानुसार पुढचा प्रश्न मलाच विचारला. " भविष्यात काय करायचा विचार आहे?" त्या प्रश्नाने मी पुरता बावचळलो. पण का की माझ्या तोंडातून उत्तर आपसुकच बाहेर पडले. "मला खुप पुस्तके लिहायची आहेत." त्यांच्या विस्फारलेल्या डोळ्यात मला कुतूहल दिसले. बहुधा त्यांची अपेक्षा मी इंजीनियर डॉक्टर होइन अशा काहीशा उत्तराची होती. ते बोलले काहीच नाहीत व तसेच मान हलवीत बाहेर पडले. आपण काही तरी  आगाउपणा केला आहे ह्या विचाराने मी मात्र धास्तावलो होतो. पुढे पाच वर्षानंतर शाळा सोडताना मी जेंव्हा त्यांना वाकून नमस्कार केला तेव्हाचे ते वाक्य आजही कानात घोंगावते: "I hope you will be true to your words. Let me see how many books you write."

आज मी तीन पुस्तके लिहिली आहेत आणि चौथे आणि पाचवे प्रकाशित होण्याच्या मार्गावर आहेत पण लॉकडाउन मध्ये रखडली आहेत. शाळेतून बाहेर पडून Engineering , Science , Law, Journalism, MBA आणि Management Sciences सारखे भिन्न अभ्यासक्रम करीत असतानाही भारद्धाज सरांचे ते वाक्य बरेचदा कानात घूमत असायचे. पुढे नियती ने मला पत्रकारितेकड़े खेचले व माझा नवशिक्या लेखकाचे रूपांतर व्यावसायिक लेखकात झाले.

मला आठवते घरात लहानपणा पासून सगळ्यांना संगीताची आवड होती. विशेषतः जुन्या चित्रपटातील रफी साहेबांची गाणी विलक्षण आवडायची. त्यांच्या दैवी आणि स्वर्गीय आवाजाच्या जादुवर फ़िदा असलेली आम्ही मित्रमंडळी तासनतास त्यांनींगायलेल्या गीतांवर काथ्याकूट करत असायचो. आमचे आक्खे विश्व रफीमय झाले होते. त्यांच्या आवाजाचा बाज, त्यांच्या आवाजातील त्या अदभूत हरकती, तार सप्तकात लीलया पोचण्याची मजल अशा एक ना अनेक गोष्टींवर बोलताना आम्ही थकत नसू.

माझे रफी प्रेम आणि लेखनाची आवड बघता मला बरेचदा माझे मित्र व सहकारी मला त्यांचे आत्मचरित्र लिहायला गळ घालीत पण मी ते प्रत्येक वेळेस चेष्टेवारी नेत असे. रफ़ी साहेबांच्या अमर्याद आणि आभाळा एवढ्या कर्तृत्वाला गवसणी घालण्याचे धाडस करण्याचा प्रश्नच नव्हता. पण २०१४ च्या सुमारास माझी धीरेंद्र जैन ह्या film journalist ची ओळख झाली आणि त्याने मला मदतीचे आश्वासन देऊन माझ्या मनाची तयारी केली. हृदयविकाराने ग्रस्त अवस्थेत मी ते ४०० पानी पुस्तक दोन महिन्यात लिहून काढले. माझे डॉक्टर मित्र सुहास देशपांडे यांची मोलाची मदत झाली व पुढे त्या पुस्तकाचे विमोचन सुप्रसिद्ध संगीतकार खय्याम ह्यांच्या हस्ते झाले.

 

८०० रुपये किम्मत असलेल्या ह्या पुस्तकांच्या सर्व प्रति हातोहात खपल्या आणि bestseller च्या मालिकेत जाऊन बसले. देशात आणि London Book Fair मध्ये पुस्तकाला पंचतारांकित rating मिळून त्याला Best Biography category madhye साहित्य अकादमी पुरस्कारासाठी सुद्धा नामांकन मिळाले. अर्थात ह्याचे श्रेय मला नसुन माझे मित्र, परिवारातील सदस्य, सगळ्या हितचिंतकाना आणि रफ़ी साहेबांना जाते. मी केवळ निमित्तमात्र.

हे सगळे सांगण्या मागचे प्रयोजन हे की मागील वर्षी हे पुस्तक Amazon वर ८५०० रुपयांना विकले  गेले आणि आज पाहिले की त्याची नविन आवृत्ति २९९० रुपयांना विकली  जात आहे. Mohammed Rafi, God's Own Voice चे हिन्दी अनुवादित मोहम्मद रफ़ी, स्वयं ईश्वर की आवाज़ ला पण उत्तम प्रतिसाद मिळतोय.

 
हा ब्लॉग लिहिण्या मागचा उद्देश स्वतःची पाठ थोपटून घेणे नसुन इतर दोन कारणे आहेत. हे पुस्तक माझ्याकडून खरे तर रफ़ी साहेबांनी लिहून घेतले. त्याचे श्रेय त्यांनीच  दिलेल्या प्रेरणेला जाते.  दूसरे असे की भारद्धाज सरांना दिलेल्या --  वेळ निभाउन नेणारे का असेना -- उत्तराची पूर्णता करू शकलो.

दुर्दैवाने आज रफ़ी साहेब आणि भारद्धाज सर दोघेही हयात नाहीत.