Words Maketh Books

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This week Meena wrote about World Book Day on 23 April. Not exactly coincidentally, this day is also marked as English Language Day. English Language Day is the result of a 2010 initiative by the UN’s Department of Global Communications, establishing language days for each of the Organization’s six official languages (English, French, Spanish, Chinese, Arabic, and Russian).The purpose of the UN’s language days is to celebrate multilingualism and cultural diversity, and to promote equal use of all six official languages throughout the Organization. English Language Day celebrates the English language and promotes its history, culture and achievements.

Books certainly come in all the languages of the world, but the very fact that we are, at this moment, reading and writing in English, is a testimony to the fact that English is indeed one of the languages that unites word lovers across the world. English is one of the languages of international communication; it enables people from different countries and cultures to communicate with each other in a common language, even if it is not their first language.

April 23, as English Language Day, celebrates the life and works of William Shakespeare, who not only died on this day, but is also believed to have been born on the same date in 1564. The day is a tribute to the enormous contribution that Shakespeare made to the English language.   

Shakespeare’s prodigious output of sonnets and plays was remarkable as a body of creative work. These literary works were expressed in thousands of words, many of which (1700 it is believed), he created himself! When he embarked on his literary marathon, there were no dictionaries that Shakespeare could dip into. The first such reference to meanings of words in English was A Table Alphabeticall that was published in 1604. Texts on grammar appeared only in the 1700s. Thus Shakespeare did not have ready resources which could be used to populate his vocabulary.

Scholars believe that Shakespeare’s vocabulary owed to a combination of sources. It is likely that he lent an alert ear to the commonly spoken language of the time, and drew words from there which were written into his plays and verses. Thus he can certainly be credited with the ‘first recorded uses’ of numerous words. But he was equally a master of wordplay. He coined new words himself, often by combining words (eye and ball to make eyeball) changing nouns into verbs (from ‘elbow’ to ‘elbow someone out’), adding prefixes and suffixes into preexisting words. He anglicised foreign words, such as creating ‘bandit’ from the Italian ‘banditto’, and the word ‘zanni’ which referred to characters in sixteenth-century Italian comedies who mimicked the antics of clowns and other performers, and used it as a noun–zany.

These introduced words were soon adopted into the English language, enriching it considerably.

I must admit that in my younger days, I did not take as easily to Shakespeare in the original as may have been done by the more “literary types” of my generation. Whatever Shakespeare we were exposed to was in the form of the ‘abridged and simplified’ versions that made their way into English language textbooks year after year. Yes, we knew that “a rose by any other name”, and  “all the world’s a stage” and “all’s well that ends well” was quintessentially Shakespeare, but I for one did not know that so many words that we use today, imagining them to be ‘contemporary’ language were coined and couched in William’s prose and poetry!

Here are some very ‘modern’ terms that first appeared in Shakespeare’s writing.

Addiction, assassination, auspicious, baseless, barefaced, bedroom, champion, cold-blooded, critic, elbow, fashionable, generous, gloomy, hint, hostile, lackluster, lonely, majestic, manager, obscene, overblown, puking, pious, radiance, reliance, skim milk, submerge, swagger, watchdog!

Here are some that have not travelled intact through the centuries. Today some of these are “Greek to us” (incidentally it is Shakespeare who first coined this phrase!).

Mobbled: With face muffled up, veiled.

Foison: Abundance, plenty, profusion

Ganesome: Sportive, merry, playful

Noddle: The back of the head

Fleshment: The excitement associated with a successful beginning

Gratulate: Greet, welcome, salute

Kicky-wicky: Girlfriend, wife

Bawcock: Fine fellow, good chap

Buzzer: Rumour-monger, gossiper

Gallimaufry: Complete mixture, medley, hotchpotch

Garboil: Trouble, disturbance, commotion

Miching: Sulking, lurking, sneaking

For Shakespeare “all the world was a stage” and he also coined a number of colloquial phrases that added drama to the dialogues of his many characters, from Romeo and Juliet to Othello, from the Merchant of Venice to Hamlet and Macbeth. These “as good luck would have it” continue to enrich our speech even today.

All that glisters is not gold

A sorry sight

Bated breath

Break the ice

Cold comfort

Come what may

Dead as a doornail

Devil incarnate

Eaten me out of house and home

Fair play

Green-eyed monster

Laughing stock

Naked truth

In a pickle

Seen better days

Set your teeth on edge

The world is my oyster

Too much of a good thing

Vanish into thin air

Wild-goose chase

What’s done is done

And, it is not Sherlock Holmes but Shakespeare who first said “the game is afoot!”

Shakespeare may be “as dead as a doornail” but he remains the most quoted writer in English of all time. How zany is that!

Well, words maketh a book, and Shakespeare maketh words!

–Mamata

Wishing you a Green and Happy World Book Day

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Today is World Book Day. Oh Happy Day, Oh Happy Day!

It is a day that UNESCO, in 2001, declared for ‘a celebration to promote the enjoyment of books and reading. Each year, on 23 April, celebrations take place all over the world to recognize the scope of books – a link between the past and the future, a bridge between generations and across cultures.’

Why specifically April 23rd? Well, it seems that it is the date on which prominent authors William Shakespeare, Miguel de Cervantes and Inca Garcilaso de la Vega (Peruvian chronicler and writer) all died. A bit macabre, but well, there has to be some peg!

UNESCO and international organizations representing the three major sectors of the book industry – publishers, booksellers and libraries, select a World Book Capital each year. (New Delhi was the Book Capital in 2003, just two years after the concept came into being—looks like India had a stature and soft power even two decades ago!). The city of Strasbourg is UNESCO’s World Book Capital for 2024.

Book Days are usually marked with reading circles, events where people dress up as their favorite book characters, literary quizzes, book sales, author discussions, and various other innovative events to celebrate this most important of days.

The thought of book day prompted me to dig a little into a question that has been bothering me for a while. Are physical books more eco-friendly or e-books? Some research and calculations have been done, which say that:

‘.. one physical book has a climate impact of about 2.7kg CO2e*.’ 

‘And a Kindle e-reader has a climate impact of about 37.4kg CO2e per year.’ (Incidentally, text files are tiny, and the impact of downloading books is pretty close to negligible. The bulk of the e-book’s footprint is in the production and charging of the e-reader itself.)

‘So if you read 14 different books or more in one year, e-books have a lower footprint than physical books.

But if you only read a handful of books each year, physical books are the better option for you.’

(*CO2e: “Carbon dioxide equivalent” or “CO2e” is a term for describing different greenhouse gases in a common unit.)

As an educator, I want to children to read and read and read.  And I would much prefer that they read physical books. Since 14 is a ridiculously low number of books to read per year, we need to find ways to make physical reading greener. Here are some tips for ‘greener’ reading—for kids and adults:

Use libraries: Not for very young children, but beyond the age of 8 or so, children can get their reading dose from libraries. Thanks to the Delhi Public Mobile Library and my school library (Carmel Convent, New Delhi), supplemented by neighbourhood lending libraries during summer vacations, we got more than enough books. (In fact, we were allowed to purchase only one book a month, so that was the bonus and used as leverage in book exchanges.) Even today, I don’t buy too many books. I receive a lot of books as gifts, and am a faithful subscriber to Just Books!

Used books: Pre-loved books are a great way to go. Shops like Blossoms in Bangalore have some of the greatest selections.  And don’t hesitate to pass on books you have read to others who may find them of interest. Reach out to schools, colleges and educational institutions—they may welcome books you no longer have space for. You could also organize book-swaps.

Support green publishers: Buy books printedon 100% recycled paper, and create awareness about this aspect amonth other readers..

Happy Book Day! Happy Sustainable Reading!

–Meena

PS: The picture was taken ata library in Englands in the 1890s. The image is available at Getty’s Open Access Library.

A Mark of Citizenship

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When we were children, and very much into Enid Blyton’s mystery and adventure stories, a fascinating element in some of these was the notes/letters that appeared to be blank, but which revealed secret messages when warmed. The excitement was heightened when we ourselves tried to make ‘invisible ink’. This usually involved some lemon juice with which we wrote on paper. Once the juice dried, the paper appeared to be blank, until a hot iron was run over the paper, or it was placed close to the flame of a candle, upon which the words would slowly show up. Many a summer afternoon was spent in this ‘mystery’ activity, with much excitement and anticipation on the part of message writer and receiver!

These memories came back recently when another kind of ink is soon to be in the news, except that this ink is far from invisible, it is indelible! The purple mark on the forefinger is inextricable linked with election season. As soon as the voting process begins, this mark becomes the symbol of a citizen who has exercised their right, as well as duty, to participate in the process to vote-in a democratically-elected government. In a country like India in which millions across the country take part in the electoral process, this mark is a great common indicator of participation, as well identification. An inked finger identifies a voter not just when they emerge from the polling booth, but until the ink on the finger ‘wears’ off, a period that may last from a few days to a couple of weeks. The key word is ‘wears’ off rather than washes off. And that is where the search for, and use of, indelible ink in elections began.

In the early 1950s, in newly independent India, there was concern that fraudulent voting could upset a free and fair electoral process. There needed to be a common, easily applicable and low-cost way to ensure that the ‘one voter one vote’ principle was adhered to in letter and spirit.

Research on this started in the National Physical Laboratory of the Council for Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR-NPL). The research and experiments led to the formulation of the chemical formula for indelible ink which could be used on the finger of a voter who has just cast their vote. This ink was unlike other inks that were commonly used to fill the fountain pens that were the main writing instruments of the day.  A key component in this special-formulated ink was silver nitrate which is photosensitive, it reacts when exposed to light (sunlight or even indoor light). The water-base ink also contained a solvent like alcohol which allowed for faster drying, as well as some other dyes. The composition was optimized such that it diffused into the skin spontaneously to make a mark which could not be chemically or mechanically manipulated. The precise proportions, formula and protocol for making this ink were a closely guarded secret, and was patented by the National Research Development Corporation (NRDC), New Delhi. But for the ink to be produced in vast quantities, it needed a professional ink-making company.

The NRDC approached Mysore Paints and Varnish Ltd. (MPVL) to manufacture and supply the ink. An agreement to this effect was signed by the Election Commission of India in collaboration with the National Physical Laboratory and NDRC with MVPL. The factory was established during 1937 by Maharaja Krishnaraja Wodeyar IV, then the Maharaja of Mysore province. It was originally called Mysore Lac and Paint Works Ltd.It was renamed as Mysore Paints and Varnish Ltd. (MPVL) in1989.

The original rationale behind the establishment of the factory was to provide employment opportunities for the local people, and for effective utilization of the natural resources of the forest, specifically lac, which was used for the manufacture of sealing waxes. Apart from lac, the factory manufactured paints which were supplied to Government departments, especially to the Defence Department, particularly for war tanks, during the early days.

The factory was converted into Public Limited Company during 1947 as one of the Public Sector Undertakings (PSU). The company continues to be among the prominent undertakings of the Government of Karnataka, meeting the requirements of PSUs, Central Government, State Government, PSUs, private industries and the paint dealers. Although the Company also manufactures and supplies industrial coating paints, decorative paints, wood polishes, varnish and thinners, the largest chunk of its output is the manufacture and supply of indelible ink for elections.

The indelible ink was used for the first time in Indian elections in 1962 and has MPVL has remained the sole supplier since then. MPVL initially supplied ink only for parliamentary and assembly elections, but over the years it has also been supplying ink for elections to municipal bodies and cooperative societies. The concentration of silver nitrate in the ink varies depending on its usage. For example, in 2017, MPVL was commissioned to manufacture special marker pens to mark children during the polio drops drive in South India. The silver nitrate ink used in these pens was less concentrated, keeping in mind that children are prone to put their finger in the mouth.

According to MPVL, the high-quality indelible ink dries out completely in less than 40 seconds, but it leaves its impression even after a one-second contact with skin. The ink darkens with exposure to light and can remain on the voter’s fingernail and skin for at least two days, and up to 3-4 weeks, depending on a person’s body temperature and the environment. It cannot be simply washed away mechanically, or removed by any known chemical or solvent.

As the ink is photo-sensitive, it needs to be protected from exposure to direct sun rays. Earlier it used to be stored in brown-coloured glass bottles; now amber-coloured plastic bottles are used. The bottles used are designed in such a manner so as to prevent any kind of reaction with sunlight until they are opened. The ink is distributed in 5 ml, 7.5 ml, 20 ml, 50 ml and 80 ml vials. A single 5 ml vial is sufficient for an approximated 300 voters. The Election Commission of India places orders for the ink based on the number of registered voters involved in the election. The ink is then supplied to the Chief Electoral Officers who subsequently distribute it to individual voting centres.

The MPVL is the sole supplier of voter’s ink in India since 1962. The PSU also exports the ink to at least 25 other countries including Canada, Ghana, Nigeria, Mongolia, Malaysia, Nepal, South Africa and the Maldives. This ink is made as per the respective country’s specific use of the ink.  For example, in Cambodia and the Maldives, voters need to dip their finger into the ink, while in Burkina Faso the ink is applied with a brush, and nozzles are used in Turkey.

So this election season, as we walk into a polling booth and walk out with the small purple line on our finger, we know what has gone into making this distinguishing mark!

–Mamata

Happy Hampi

~ millennialmatriarchs ~ 3 Comments

Hampi. On the list of history-buffs. On the list of backpackers. On the list of pilgrims. On the list of UNESCO World Heritage Sites.  It is indeed a ‘listed site’!

This is what UNESCO has to say about it:

‘The austere and grandiose site of Hampi comprise mainly the remnants of the Capital City of Vijayanagara Empire (14th-16th Cent CE), the last great Hindu Kingdom. The property encompasses an area of 4187.24 hectares, located in the Tungabhadra basin in Central Karnataka, Bellary District.

Hampi’s spectacular setting is dominated by river Tungabhadra, craggy hill ranges and open plains, with widespread physical remains. The sophistication of the varied urban, royal and sacred systems is evident from the more than 1600 surviving remains that include forts, riverside features, royal and sacred complexes, temples, shrines, pillared halls, Mandapas, memorial structures, gateways, defence check posts, stables, water structures, etc.’

Hampi
Lakshmi Narasimha Statue, Hampi

On a recent visit to Hampi (I know, I know. Who goes there in April???) we were of course awed by the architecture and the sculptures there. At a landscape level (over 4000 hectares as UNESCO says) like Angkor Wat, one can believe that this was the capital-complex of one of the most powerful and rich kingdoms India has ever seen.

So much has been written about this by experts, I don’t think there is much I can add. Of course, we were there only for two brief days, and in fact sight-seeing was not even top of the agenda. But personal impressions are unique, and I shall share them.

  1. There is no charge to visit any of the sites except a nominal charge to go into the Vithala temple. Pre-Covid, the number of visitors to Hampi was about 7 lakh annually, and is likely to be much higher today. Many of these people go for worship to the temples. But for those purely on the tourist trail, surely it makes sense to charge something? Maybe Rs.100/monument or Rs. 500 for a day pass or something? Surely the case cannot be that our archaeological sites don’t need money for conservation and upkeep? Or that tourists who travel all the way to Hampi and spend on hotels will grudge the small amount for actually seeing what they have come to see? But it felt that the locals see this as a sign of hospitality, with two guides telling us ‘No charge to see anything here. Happy Hampi!’ That is rather nice!
  2. Another thing was that the guides were not overwhelming or too persistent. Just appropriately persistent! In fact, we did not encounter too many of them, maybe because it was off-season.  As well-informed and articulate as any to be met anywhere in India—which means they all told more or less the same stories and the same jokes, but pleasantly.
  3. There were not enough toilets, and those there were, were not inviting! They were not dirty per se, but definitely yellowing, stained and wet, exhibiting a lack of an active effort to keep them up. This also probably circles back to the point on charging for entrance. If there were more money to spend on toilets, would there be more of them and would they be better kept? (Of course, in the convoluted system of incomes and allocations to such sites, there is little correlation between the two!). The strangest thing was that while the sites open 8.30 a.m., we found the toilets locked on arrival, and informed that they would open at 9.30 a.m. only!
  4. And Hampi and other sites do have some structures in the name of toilets, we simply do not provide for drinking water. While most of us carry water these days, what about the unfortunates who forget? In a place like Hampi, it is quite possible for someone to come down with a heatstroke, and having access to clean, potable water is an essential that must be provided, not a luxury.

Hampi

5.A very welcome move by the State Tourism is the introduction of e-vehicles to take the tourists to the various sites. Cars have to be parked at a certain point, and only these electrical vehicles run by the government are allowed beyond that. They charge a nominal amount. And it gets better! All these vehicles are driven by women. Our feisty driver went through a training of 15 days after selection, and confidently drove us around!

Hampi is divided into three core zones–the Sacred Centre, the Royal Centre and the Islamic Quarters. We got to see some parts of the Sacred Centre, so a lot is waiting.

Hampi is happy indeed, but with a little care, could be so much more so.

Here is to Happier Hampi!

–Meena

The Sleeping Prince

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The story of Sleeping Beauty, in one form or the other, has been around since the 1300s. The story of Rip Van Winkle was written in 1819.

But there is one famous sleeper who goes much further back—to the Ramayana in fact. That is Kumbhakarna, the brother of Ravana. Kumbhakarna’s sleep was different from that of the first two—it was intermittent sleep. He slept for six months, then woke up and ate and drank for six months to satiate his enormous appetite, and then fell back asleep.

Kumbhakarna was a good and decent man, a mighty warrior, who was, as is often the case, cursed thanks to the fears/insecurities of some gods. There are two popular stories regarding his curse, though they may be many others.

Both begin with Kumbhakarna carrying out intense austerities, praying for months to Lord Brahma.  The first variation goes that Indra knew that what Kumbhakarna would ask for was his throne, and so begged Brahma to curse him. The other goes that all the devas were worried that the asura-prince would gain too much power if Brahma decided to shower his benevolence on him. So they went to Goddess Saraswathi to beg her intervention.

After a length of time, Brahma appeared to Kumbhakarna, quite pleased with him, and said ‘Ask what boon you will.’ At that moment, Saraswathi, the Goddess of words and music and learning, put a hex on Kumbhakarna’s tongue so that he mis-spoke as he articulated his requests.

Kumbhakarna meant to ask for “Indrasaana” (the home of Lord Indra), but it came out as “Nidrasaana” (bed for sleeping) and when he asked for “Nirdevatvam” (destruction of Devas), it came out as “Nidravatvam” or sleep.

Brahma was quite a hasty God and obviously did not reflect too much on the boons he was granting and probably just said ‘Thatastu’—so be it. And in fact, the original grant was of unending sleep. Ravana had to intervene on behalf of his brother and go through loops before getting the boon modified to six months of sleep, followed by six months of waking. And so it was.

When Kumbhkarna slept, nothing could wake him—not horses and elephants walking over him, not a war or battle, nor all the musical instruments playing next to his head. And when he woke up, he would be so hungry, he would eat anything in sight.

Hampi
Horses walking over Kumbhakarna could not wake him! Sculpture atVithala Temple, Hampi.

As the war between Rama and Ravana began going against the asura king, his one hope was Kumbhakarna. Some accounts say that he ordered a 1000 elephants to walk over his brother to wake him up. When he did wake up, he counselled his brother against the war. He told him that he was not in the right, and they should give up Sita in all honour, and plead for peace. But Ravana obviously refused. Kumbhakarna, knowing they were fighting an unjust war, still threw himself into it in loyalty to his brother and kingdom. He is said to have killed 8000 monkey-warriors before Rama himself finally subdued and killed him.

Some scientists, analysing texts about Kumbhakarna suggest that he suffered from hypothalamic obesity whose symptoms include obesity, somnolence and rage (all three of which Kumbhakarna exhibited).

Well, whatever it was, his story had a sad ending. When Sleeping Beauty woke up, it was to love, a prince and a kingdom. For Kumbhakarna, it was death, defeat and loss of a kingdom.

–Meena

Feisty Fighter: Jayaben Desai

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In the last few months there has been a lot of news about Junior and Senior doctors in the UK going on strike to draw attention to their demands. There are often pictures of the picketing medicos. These include a large number of Asian and other ‘non-white’ faces. Today the non-English population makes up a large portion of the work force in the UK. While there is a continuing stream of migrants making their way to the UK for higher education, and often continuing to work after their studies, there is an equal number of second generation immigrants who have made UK their home over the last century. These are the descendants of the first immigrants who laid the path for the future of this generation.

There are numerous stories of these early immigrants who arrived in a totally alien, and often hostile, environment but who by dint of hard work, struggle, and ambition fought all the odds. One such feisty lady is still remembered for breaking many barriers.

Jayaben Desai began her life in Gujarat in India, where she was born on 2 April 1933. She moved to Tanganyika after her marriage to Suryakant Desai a tyre-factory manager. There she led a comfortable life as part of the large community of British subjects of Indian origin who had long settled in East Africa. In the 1960s the situation changed with many of the newly-independent countries in East Africa moving towards “Africanisation’ policies which led to declining economic opportunities and security for the East African Asians. Many of these chose to move. As British passport holders they headed for Britain. Jayaben and her husband joined this exodus.

Life in Britain was very different. The new migrants did not enjoy the economic and social status that they had done in East Africa. Despite being British citizens they had to struggle at every step to establish new lives and livelihoods in an unwelcoming environment. Most of them were educated and professionally qualified, but in England they were compelled to take whatever work they could get; most of which was unskilled labour with poor wages. They faced a great deal of discrimination, racism and prejudice in every aspect of life.

As one of these women recalled: “There was no question of whether you wanted to or not – you had to work, so you did. And wherever you found work, you had to take it. It wasn’t that you were educated, so you only wanted certain kind of jobs – we had to work in factories and that’s how we brought up our children. …We used to have people working for us, and now we had to work for others. That’s life. …Of course I felt sad.”

Jayaben started part-time work as a sewing machinist in a sweatshop, while bringing up her two young children. She then moved to work at the Grunwick film processing factory in North-West London. Grunwick employed a large number of Asian women who were perceived as being hard working and submissive. The factory paid low wages, and was run in an atmosphere of fear and control, with workers being humiliated in many ways.

The simmering unrest began to surface when the managers sacked a young Indian worker, and three colleagues walked out in solidarity with him.  Soon after, on Friday 20 August 1976, Jayaben Desai was confronted with a short-notice demand for overtime.  She refused. The manager derogatively called her and her fellow workers “chattering monkeys”. She responded by telling the manager: “What you are running here is not a factory, it is a zoo.  There are many types of animals in a zoo.  Some are monkeys who dance to your tune, others are lions who can bite your head off.  We are those lions, Mr Manager.” 

Source: http://www.bbc.com/news/uk-england

Jayaben and almost 100 other workers spontaneously walked out in protest. Thus far, previous strikes by black and Asian workers had not received the support of  trade unions. But the Grunwick strikers were supported by the Brent Trades Council; they were encouraged to form a union and received strike pay. Thus the strike was significant because it got trade union recognition, and also demonstrated the greatest solidarity So between the white and coloured working class.  As Jayaben stressed during the strike, ‘We will not back down now.  We want to bring this factory to a standstill.  Our fight is for all our rights, and for our dignity.  We hope all trade unionists will stand by us.’  

Jayaben, and the striking workers travelled across England and addressed workers in other factories and workplaces about their fight, and this managed to persuade trade unionists from far and wide to come to their aid. By June 1977, as support for the strikers grew, the size of the mass pickets increased from a few hundred to several thousands. The strike began in 1976 and continued for two long years until 1978. This was possible, as the strikers received strike pay from the trade unions, which was comparable to the low pay they received at Grunwick. It was highly unusual for that time for unions to support ethnic minority groups and migrant workers. But the response rattled the Labour government who put pressure on the Trade Unions leadership to withdraw support. This did not deter the strikers led by Jayaben who started a hunger strike in November 1977.  But even this action could not change the unions’ mind, and so they had to call off the strike. The strike came to an end without the workers getting their jobs back. However, one of its outcomes was the introduction of some concessions relating to existing and future workers’ pay and pensions.

As she later recalled: “Because of us, the people who stayed in Grunwick got a much better deal. When the factory moved, the van used to come to their home and pick them up because it was difficult for them to get to the new place. Can you imagine that? And they get a pension today! And we get nothing. That was because of us, because of our struggle.”

Despite its eventual failure, the Grunwick strike became a symbol for its demonstration of determination and solidarity. As Jayaben said: “The strike is not so much about pay, it is a strike about human dignity.” It is remembered for the way in which thousands of workers, black and white, men and women, united to defend the rights of migrant women workers. The feisty Jayaben who had catalysed the movement also changed the stereotype of South Asian women as being passive and submissive.

In recognition of her contribution to the struggle for workers’ rights, Jayaben Desai was awarded with a gold medal by the GMB trade union in 2007. She retained her indomitable spirit until she passed away at the age of 77, in December 2010.

–Mamata

Double Dutch

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Dutch tears—that is an intriguing term I came across recently. At first I thought it was an idiom, like Dutch courage or Dutch comfort. But turns out Dutch tears are a real physical thing–toughened glass beads created by dripping molten glass into cold water! When glass is dripped into water, it solidifies into tadpole-shaped drops with thin, long tails. These were first produced in the Netherlands in the early 17th century. These tadpoles exhibit unusual characteristics—the bulbous part of the drop can withstand being hit by a hammer without breaking, but even a small pressure of the fingers to the tail-end will dramatically shatter the whole drop.

Dutch tear

These very contrary properties led to a great amount of scientific curiosity and they were the subject of much research in the 1700s and 1800s. But it was not till recently that the mystery was solved. One breakthrough came in 1994, when Prof. S. Chandrasekar of Purdue University and Prof. M. M. Chaudhri of University of Cambridge used high-speed framing photography to observe the drop-shattering process and concluded that the surface of each drop experiences highly compressive stresses, while the interior experiences high tension forces. So the drop is in a state of unstable equilibrium, which can be easily disturbed by breaking the tail. But the complete explanation came in 2017 when these scientists collaborated with Prof. Hillar Aben, of Tallinn University of Technology in Estonia and found that heads of the drops have a much higher surface compressive stress than previously thought—nearly 7,000 times atmospheric pressure. This gives the droplet-heads a very high fracture strength. (For a proper understanding of the science, please go to https://phys.org/news/2017-05-scientists-year-old-mystery-prince-rupert.html, rather than depending on my précis from there! Photocredit also to this page.)

But to get back to my original thought process: When I had tried to think of possible meanings of Dutch tears , so many idioms featuring the Dutch came to mind. We are very familiar with some:

When someone speaks very fast or unintelligibly, we say they are speaking Double Dutch–in other words, nonsense.

When one takes a shot of alcohol to boost up one’s courage before doing something one is afraid to do, it is called Dutch courage.

And of course, the Dutch treat, where each one finds they have to pay for whatever they consume.

And if you talk to someone like a Dutch uncle, you are giving them stern and serious talking-to.

And here is a small sample out of a range of many lesser-used ones:

Dutch agreement, where the parties making the agreement are drunk. And the related Dutch bargain—a bargain settled when the parties are intoxicated.

A Dutch headache is a hangover. And a Dutch concert is a very noisy situation, as would be made by a lot of drunken Dutchmen.

Dutch comfort is comfort which comes from the feeling that things could have been much worse.

Dutch reckoning is a very high bill that’s neither itemised nor detailed, and hence a bit of a con.

Dutch gold is a yellow-coloured alloy of copper and zinc from which imitation gold leaf is made.

HR persons should not go looking for Dutch talent, which is more brawn than brain. And they should be wary of employees who take Dutch leave, i.e., leave without permission.

Readers would have noticed that most of these idioms show the Dutch in a bad light. And apparently, there is good reason for this. Most of these came into being about 1665 and later, when the Netherlands and England were vying with each other both on land (England won a Dutch colony what is currently New York), and on sea for the control of trade routes. During the 17th century, the Netherlands and Britain waged three wars against each other over 20 years. The deep-seated animosity must have spilt over to language, and given the number of such idioms, the English must have vied with each other to come with nasty expressions about the enemy. (While this explanation seems logical, there don’t seem to be such expressions which feature the Spanish. And England and Spain were enemies and rivals for a good long time too. Maybe there is a Ph.D. thesis for someone here!).

Fortunately, many of these mean-idioms are falling out of use. And we have the rise of the Dutch oven—the most sought after cooking device; and of Dutch auctions–a type of open auction where the price starts high and decreases until the first bidder accepts it—which are seen as fast and efficient, as they end as soon as the first bid is made. 

Here’s to many more Dutch-positives!

–Meena

The Healing Touch

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Almost all of us have been, at one time or another, a patient or the caregiver to a patient. And perhaps one of the enduring memories (good or bad) of that experience may be that of the doctor who treated. From the days of Hippocrates, known as the Father of Medicine, the ‘doctor’ is one of the key actors in the story of life and death.

Society of Bedside Medicine Logo

There was a time, not all that long ago, when the “family doctor” was the first and last word in attending to every member of the family, from babies to the elders. Most of these are still remembered, not so much for their specialized skills, as for their comforting presence and availability, and their personal engagement with the patient. In most cases, the patient was known to the doctor from childhood onwards. Thus the diagnosis and treatment was closely linked not just to the physical, but also to the psychological aspects. Often it was ‘much less about specific diagnosis than it was about knowing the person in front of you and the illness they have, and sometimes the outcome depended much less on the nature of the illness than on the nature of the patient.’

Over time, with advances in the science of medicine, and the new developments in technology that enables more accuracy and depth of diagnostic tests, the medical profession started becoming more and more dependent on these tools. So much so, that in recent times, the first visit to the doctor results in returning with a list of “tests”, based on the results of which, the doctor would begin, at the next visit, to even “look at” the patient, let alone proceed further in diagnosis and treatment. No doubt these advances have led to a deeper understanding of disease and medical conditions, and have hugely benefitted their treatment.  But such advances have made modern medicine so high-tech, research-oriented, data-driven and time-crunched, that somewhere along the way, this has led to the ebbing of the “human touch”, as it were, in the relationship between doctor and patient.

There is however, a section of the medical profession which is promoting the revival of the practice of this ‘human touch’. They believe that physical examination is a key to developing trust between patient and physician. Dr Abraham Verghese is a passionate and leading advocate of this school of thought.

Dr Abraham Verghese is perhaps better known as an author. He became known for his book Cutting for Stone, and his recent book The Covenant of Water has been acclaimed. What is perhaps less widely known is that Dr Verghese is a practicing physician and teacher of medicine, who strongly endorses as well as practices what he calls ‘the ritual of the physical exam’ as the most important aspect of developing trust between patient and physician. He believes that the physical exam is a humanistic ritual that builds trust and creates the crucial bond between physician and patient—a bond that is at the core of quality health care

Abraham Verghese started his medical education in Ethiopia and completed it in India at the Madras Medical College, both places which followed the British system of medical education that put great emphasis on learning to read the body as a text. In an interview he recalled that he had the most wonderful teachers who were incredibly skilled at reading the body as a text. He feel that this is a dying art today. We are getting so enamoured with the data and the images, the CAT scan and the MRI. But sometimes we can lose sight of the human being. …When what patients really need is something simpler and they need to be listened to, they need to be cared for. 

Even as he follows this practice as a sacred ritual, Dr Verghese has been working to institutionalize this in the United States where he has worked for several decades. He founded the Center for Medical Humanities and Ethics at the University of Texas, San Antonio where the motto was ‘Imagining the Patient’s Experience’. He is now a  professor for the Theory and Practice of Medicine at Stanford, where his old-fashioned weekly rounds have inspired a new initiative, the Stanford 25, teaching 25 fundamental physical exam skills and their diagnostic benefits to interns. Verghese feels that doctors spend an astonishing among of time in front of the monitor charting in the electronic medical record, moving patients through the system, examining tests results. In short, bedside skills have plummeted in inverse proportion to the available technology.

The objective of this initiative is to emphasize and improve bedside examination skills in students and residents in internal medicine, and advocating for a similar national effort at all medical schools. Verghese himself teaches students at patients’ bedsides instead of around a table. As he says: I still find the best way to understand a hospitalized patient is not by staring at the computer screen but by going to see the patient; it’s only at the bedside that I can figure out what is important. A part of you has to be objective and yet you have to sort of try to imagine what the patient is going through.

This approach has sparked a movement of Bedside Medicine which believes that the bedside encounter between a patient and physician is central to the practice of medicine. There is also The Society of Bedside Medicine, a mission-based global community of clinician educators dedicated to bedside teaching and improving physical examination and diagnostic skills. Its purpose is to foster a culture of Bedside Medicine through deliberate practice and teaching to encourage innovation in education and research on the role of the clinical encounter in 21st-century medicine.

For many of us who wish for the return to the ‘family doctor’ in an age when this is almost an extinct species, the Bedside Medicine movement spells a ray of hope. This week is celebrated in America as National Physicians Week. In India also we mark Doctor’s Day on 1 July. While this day is marked by thanking doctors, it may also be a good time for physicians to remind themselves of the sacred bonds between the patient and the healer. In the words of Dr. Verghese At its very nature, the experience of medicine, the experience of being a patient, is very much a human experience—patients require the best of our science, but they don’t stop requiring the Samaritan function.

–Mamata

The Colours of Life

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We just marked the day of colours. Yes, Holi of course.  

But another one too–the International Colour Day which just went by on March 21. This Day celebrates all aspects of colour and the impact they have on our lives, and how they make the world a better place.

Now who would declare a day for colours? Well, an organization called the International Colour Association (ICA). This is an old and respected institution, which counts the National Colour Associations of over 30 countries among its members. It aims to ‘encourage research in all aspects of colour, to disseminate the knowledge gained from this research, and to promote its application to the solution of problems in the fields of science, art, design and industry on an international basis.’

The idea of an international colour day was proposed in 2008, and adopted in 2009. The particular date—21 March—was chosen because it is the summer equinox—the day when the sun shines directly on the equator, and the day and night are of equal length.

International Colour Day
International Colour Day Logo

If there is a day, can a logo be far behind? Well, not too far! The International Colour Day logo was adopted in 2012. The creator was Hosanna Yau of Hong Kong, who explained the logo thus: ‘two circles form an eye, with an equal half of rainbow color and black representing light a nd darkness, day and night, everyone feast one’s eye on the international color day.

The study of colour is known as chromatics, and is basically about light and its interactions with matter. Colorimetry, which sounds so much more likely a candidate for this, is actually about a related field—‘ the measurement of the wavelength and the intensity of electromagnetic radiation in the visible region of the spectrum. It is used extensively for identification and determination of concentrations of substances that absorb light.’

Colours because of their ubiquity and the emotional and psychological impacts they have, often become a shorthand for other things.

Coming to one of the colour-related matters which has recently been much in the news in India is the Pink Tax. A viral video put out by Sanjay Arora, an advertising veteran, and commented on by several well-known people including Dr. Kiran Mazumdar-Shaw has kept this in the headlines. I have to admit, I had never heard of this, so thanks Mr. Arora!

What is Pink Tax? As the World Economic Forum explains it: ‘Men and women often buy similar day-to-day products. But research shows that consumer products targeted and advertised to women are sometimes more expensive than comparable products marketed to men. This disparity is referred to as a so-called pink tax.’  The video gives several everyday examples, from deos to haircuts, where the  women’s version is more expensive. A research study in the US looked at 800 gender-specific products from nearly 100 brands and found enormous price disparities across product categories.   For instance, personal care products targeted to women were 13% more expensive than similar men’s products. Dry cleaning costs for women’s dress shirts was  almost double that for dry cleaning of men’s shirts!

You will find plenty of examples close to home. Next time you are browsing or shopping, just do a quick comparison Such differential pricing imposes an extra burden on women, who anyway earn less and have less economic power.

My Colour Day resolution is to boycott products which have stark disparities. I will be happy to buy a men’s deo—I don’t there is any difference anyway.

–Meena

Belated Happy Holi!

Namer of Clouds: Luke Howard

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Cloud water colour by Luke Howard https://blog.sciencemuseum.org.uk/

23 March is World Meteorology Day. A day when there will be many scientific discourses on the science of the atmosphere and the weather. While not many adults may look up at the sky and marvel at the beauty of clouds as they drift up high, children will look up and imagine, in the continuously changing cloud shapes, everything from elephants to cotton candy! Perhaps few will make any links between the poems and paintings of this beauty with any form of scientific study.

While clouds are almost as old as the earth when it was formed, the science of clouds is much younger. Before the 19th century, the general understanding was that each cloud was unique, unclassifiable and in a state of temporary existence. Instead of strict descriptions clouds, were recorded by colour or individual interpretation. The scientific study of clouds may have said to have begun at the dawn of the nineteenth century, when a young man did more than admire the shapes of clouds, and set out to observe, study and devise a classification system for clouds. This was Luke Howard a London pharmacist and amateur, but ardent, sky gazer.

Luke Howard was born in London on 28 November 1772, the first child of a successful businessman. When he completed school Luke was apprenticed to a retail chemist, and went on to develop his own business, setting up a firm that manufactured pharmaceutical chemicals. While he ran his business, Luke also indulged his childhood fascination for nature, and especially the numerous facets of weather. He built a laboratory at home to observe, collect weather-related data and analyse this; he also maintained meticulous records of his observations.

In 1802 the modest young Luke made a presentation to a small gathering of young science-minded intellectuals in London who called themselves The Askesian Society. The lecture was titled On the Modification of Clouds (Modification referring to classification). In the talk, Howard proposed a common system for naming the recognisable forms of clouds.  In order to enable the meteorologist to apply the key of analysis to the experience of others, as well as to record his own with brevity and precision, it may perhaps be allowable to introduce a methodical nomenclature, applicable to the various forms of suspended water, or, in other words, to the modification of cloud.

Howard proposed a common vocabulary to describe different forms of clouds. The proposed system used Latin names like those that were being used for plants and animals in the Linnaean system. Combining detailed observations with imagination Howard introduced three basic cloud types:

Cirrus (Latin for ‘a curl of hair’) which he described as “parallel, flexuous or diverging fabrics, extensible in any or all directions”.

Cumulus (meaning ‘heap’), which he described as “convex conical heaps, increasing upward from a horizontal base”.

Stratus (meaning ‘something spread’), which he described as “a widely extended, continuous, horizontal sheet, increasing from below”.

He combined these names to form four more cloud types:
Cirro-cumulus, which he described as “small, well-defined roundish masses, in close horizontal arrangement”; Cirro-stratus, which he described as “horizontal or slightly inclined masses, attenuated towards a part or the whole of their circumference, bent downward, or undulated, separate, or in groups consisting of small clouds having these characters”; Cumulostratus, which he described as “the cirrostratus blended with the cumulus, and either appearing intermixed with the heaps of the latter, or super-adding a widespread structure to its base” and Cumulo-cirro-stratus or Nimbus, which he called the rain cloud, “a cloud or system of clouds from which rain is falling”. He described it as “a horizontal sheet, above which the cirrus spreads, while the cumulus enters it laterally and from beneath”. 

This was a historic lecture for many reasons. His classification brought a sense of order and understanding to a subject that had lacked coordinated thought. There were at the time no documented theories as to how pressure, temperature, rainfall and clouds might be related. Howard’s observations and classification marked the beginning of meteorology, a previously unrecognized area of natural science. The three families he proposed—Stratus, Cumulus and Cirrus , are today included as examples of the ten main cloud types – known as the cloud genera, which are defined in terms of their shapes, their altitudes and whether they are precipitation bearing. Howard’s simple, science-based system of classification was accepted by the international scientific community, and the terms that he coined are still used by the meteorological community across the world.

Howard was not just an observer and recorder, he was also skilled at painting skyscapes with clouds. He was however not adept at painting landscapes and people and a painter friend used to fill in these to complete the picture. He used these paintings to illustrate his talks and publications about cloud classification. Howard’s 32 page cloud book The Modifications of Clouds, published in 1803, is illustrated with his water colours.

Even as Luke Howard was studying clouds, for three decades he also kept daily recordings of temperature, rainfall, and atmospheric pressure in and around London. His comparison of the data allowed him to detect, describe, and analyse the fact that average temperatures are higher in cities than in the countryside. As he described it, the temperature of the city is not to be considered as that of the climate; it partakes too much of an artificial warmth, induced by its structure, by a crowded population, and the consumption of great quantities of fuel in fires. Through his observations Howard was the first to recognise the effect that urban areas have on local climate, many decades before the phenomenon of Urban Heat Islands became the hot topic that it is today.

He published his findings for his “fellow citizens” as volumes titled The Climate of London deduced from Meteorological Observations at different places in the Neighbourhood of the Metropolis in 1818 and 1820, followed by an extensive second edition in 1833. Howard thus became one of the pioneers of urban climate studies.

Luke Howard was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society on 8 March 1821 and joined the British (now Royal) Meteorological Society on 7 May 1850, only a month after the society was founded. He died in London on 21 March 1864.

As we look up at the clouds in the sky, let us remember the one who gave them names.

–Mamata