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VOL. XXIV NO. 20, February 1-15, 2015
Our Readers write

Of toilets & waste

Reader K.V.S. Krishna’s letter (MM, January 16th) triggered some memories and reflections.

I recall a discussion during a school Geography lesson about a region somewhere in Asia where the peasants would mix the ‘night soil’ and the soil in the fields with their fingers, knowing its value as manure. It drew mixed reactions and, of course, a lot of sniggers from the well-to-do category of students. The invention of toilets and septic tanks was evidently superfluous for those farmers.

In History lessons we also learnt of Moheniodaro and other early settlements which were considered ‘advanced’ because the excavations revealed fairly elaborate drainage systems. Such an impression may be worth reviewing! Our perceptions of dirt and hygiene are perhaps quite artificial or socially conditioned, rather than based on science or logic.

Many of us may be familiar with dwellings where the walls and floors were paved using cow-dung paste, with a fresh coat being applied every year. I have lived in one such, and it wasn’t a mud hut! Today’s educated lot may consider it unhygienic – may be just because there are commercial interests aggressively promoting our glamorous, sanitised and wasteful lifestyles. There could be alternative views about whether animal or human excretions are ‘dirty’.

The first nail in the environment’s coffin might very well have been the development of drainage and sewage systems in the urbanisation drive of river valley civilisations. It has actually encouraged us to ‘throw away’ things and create waste without suffering any immediate consequences, hence with no concern for where it all goes, except for a few do-gooders today whose voice may never be heard. Organisations like Greenpeace get hounded by governments and corporations for speaking out against toxic wastes.

I am not qualified to offer any practical solutions to the mess in which our so-called civilisation finds itself. Reader KVSK’s proposals may work only if there is adequate motivation, incentive and certainty for those who could implement such schemes. In any case they apply only to a fast-dwindling rural environment, and would require both a top-down and bottom-up approach to gain acceptability before even starting.

The situation in towns and cities is a growing nightmare. It hardly makes sense to enforce use of toilets where water and sewage connections are absent or inadequate.

Thomas Tharu
xteesquare@yahoo.co.uk

A Doordarshan laugh

I took these pictures on the evening of January 25th. I really didn’t think DD could make such huge mistakes. Seeing them the following thoughts struck me:

  • Pres. has new panacea for country’s woes; physiotherapy.
  • Pres. provides the healing touch!
  • Modi: Rejuvenate India; Mukherjee: Rejuvenate Indians!

Of course, if this goes viral, there will be many more interesting captions. But are we, as Indians, able to laugh at ourselves?

Bryan Oliver Peppin
peppin.bryan@gmail.com

R.K. Laxman as I knew him

The legendary cartoonist R.K. Laxman is no more. My mind races back to August 1978 when I had the privilege of spending three memorable days with him in Madras.

I was the Secretary of the Tamil Nadu Chapter of the Public Relations Society of India (PRSI) and helped organise a lecture-cum-demonstration by Laxman at the Connemara Hotel. In his typical tongue-in-cheek style, Laxman gave a talk and demonstrated on a drawing board how he visualised politicians.

In his mind, every politician was symbolised by an object which Laxman drew first and then converted it into a cartoon, adding a few strokes from his creative pen. To draw the cartoon of Morarji Desai, he first drew a flower pot and within a few seconds transformed it into a cartoon of Morarjibhai. A water jug became Indira Gandhi. It was amazing, yet looked so simple.

During this visit he also participated in other meetings and media interviews, all of which I had co-ordinated. He also came home one evening for dinner. During the informal get-together I found him very conscious of his celebrity status. He was also as sarcastic and humorous in person as he was in his cartoons. He also talked about the difference between being funny and humorous. He asserted that his cartoons were not funny but tried to be humorous.

At the airport, where I had gone to see him off, he asked me to look at him and framed my figure within his four fingers. I was puzzled and wondered why he did that. A week later, I had the answer in the form of a birthday gift I received by registered post – just two days before my 36th birthday. It was a caricature of me with amazing resemblance to his ever popular common man. Though I was not as plumpy then, R.K. Laxman visualised what I would be like in the future. The cartoon showed me dressed in my favourite striped safari suit. It also captured the small line on my forehead, a reminder of an accident I had when I was six years old. Truly a genius with a fantastic memory and powers of observation.

It was a priceless gift from an all-time great cartoonist The cartoon not only occupies pride of place in my drawing room but also adorns the cover of my autobiography, Courage My Companion, described as an “uncommon autobiography of a common man”.

Laxman’s common man?

R.V. Rajan
rvrajan42@gmail.com

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In this issue

How do we cash in on tourism?
Madras Landmarks - 50 years ago
Awards for urban mobility – but what's the reality?
The gang of five
The War – and 'Quit India'
Tea with Anna at Presidency... and other memories
Seminars at Ekamra Nivas
A festival with a life of its own
Cholamandal's latest addition

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