Cufflinks are a Man’s Best Friend

November 28, 2023 ~ millennialmatriarchs ~ Leave a comment

It seems a little unfair to insist that only women crave for diamonds and gold and jewelry. Down the ages, men have worn a lot of jewelry—one only has to look at paintings and pictures not only of Indian Kings and nobles, but of rich people from around the world. If the Koh-i-noor is on the crown of the Queen of England, the Cullinan (the largest gem quality diamond ever found on earth) is on the scepter of the King of England, and Cullinan II, the second largest diamond, is on his imperial state crown.

Today, male jewelry is back with a bang. One only has to look at rappers and their gold chains. Closer home, apart from being a means of self-expression, it is both a way to show off wealth, as well as to appease the gods. The popularity of the navaratna ring, which is supposed to cure all ailments, bring wealth and good fortune, is more often seen on men than women. As also rudraksha bracelets and chains.

Of course it’s not all about flashy chunky stuff which sometimes runs into kilos (think Bappi Lahiri). There is also well-designed, subtle stuff.

From crowns to chains to jeweled collars, to bracelets, pendants, brooches, ear rings, to ankle adornments, there have been male versions of almost every piece of jewelry.

However, cufflinks are fairly unique in that they are quintessentially male jewelry rarely worn by women. There has always been a need for some device to fasten shirt cuffs. In the 13^th century, men used ribbons to do this. It was in the early 17^th century that cufflinks as we know them today started to emerge. King Charles II popularized them, but they still remained very expensive items which were handmade, and therefore confined to people who could afford them.

It was only in 1876 that George Krementz, a German immigrant, adapted the manufacturing process used to make bullets to make cufflinks, and started mass production. And from that point on, they gained wide usage and popularity.

A cufflink has three parts:

The front face – the top of the cufflink, which is the decorative part, with a design, gemstone, or any other attractive design.

The post – the part that goes through the cuff holes and is attached to the toggle.

The toggle – the bottom part of the cufflink, which locks the link in place and prevents the cufflink from slipping out of the cuff holes

While a cufflink may be a cufflink to many of us, apparently there are several types:

Whale Back cufflinks have a straight post, a flat head, and a tail shaped like a “whale” flips completely flat against the post.

Fixed back or fixed stud cufflinks do not have any moveable hardware. This means putting them in requires that they are manually secured by pushing the backing through the buttonhole.

Bullet back cufflinks have a metal bar that attaches to the bridge of the cufflinks. This metal bar, which has a bullet aesthetic, rotates 90 degrees.

Chain link cufflinks are made of two usually identical faces attached by a chain.

Stud or button cufflinks look and work like studs.

Ball return cufflinks are those whose rear features a largish ball, attached to the decorative face by either a chain or curved post.

Locking Dual-Action cufflinks are secured shut with a mechanism similar to that of a wristwatch.

Silk Knot cufflinks are made entirely from silk, with two identical knots attached to a cord.

As I look around me, fewer and fewer men seem to be wearning cufflinks, something I felt sad about, because this is definitely an elegant addition to men’s attire. But a report on the cufflinks market says that the market is at $1.52 billion, and predicted to grow at 5.9% over the next few years. So maybe their demise is not so imminent after all!

Predictably, China is the biggest exporter, but surprisingly, India is one of the importers!

I shall surely look out more carefully to spot cufflinks around me!

–Meena

Trendhim.com; Nextmsc.com

Be a Sport!

November 23, 2023 ~ millennialmatriarchs ~ Leave a comment

This month games have been in the news. From cricket dominating the headlines, to Meena’s pieces on the importance of play for the all-round development of children. Toys are perhaps the first objects that children interact with as they learn how to ‘play’. Beginning with supporting the development of psycho-motor skills, toys also encourage imagination and creativity. As the child explores and discovers, in its own way, the toy becomes way more than what it was formally designed for. Toys can become the central characters in a gamut of games and make-belief adventures. The child’s interactions with toys also begin to lay the foundation of the sense of ownership (“my doll, my truck”), which also lends itself to possessiveness when the same toy is ‘snatched’ ‘begged’ or ‘coveted’ by another child.

It is at this early stage then, that the field of games introduces other instincts such as ownership and competiveness, often leading to conflict. This is where the concepts of ‘sportsmanship’ are also planted (or not planted), well before the child graduates from toys and imaginary play to more formal games, and then on to sports.

A game is described as a physical or mental recreational activity involving one or more players, defined by a goal that the players try to reach, and some set of rules to play it.

A sport is a physical activity carried out under an agreed set of rules, with a recreational purpose: for competition or self-enjoyment, or a combination of these.

The two terms have also spawned two related terms—sportsmanship and gamesmanship.

Gamesmanship refers to the strategic manipulation of the rules and the spirit of the game to gain an advantage over opponents. While not necessarily breaking the rules, players who engage in gamesmanship employ tactics that push the boundaries of fairness. This may include exploiting loopholes, distracting opponents, engaging in unsportsmanlike conduct, or using psychological tactics to gain an edge. While gamesmanship may be within the confines of the rules, it can undermine the principles of fair play and the spirit of the game.

Sportsmanship refers to the values and behaviours exhibited by the players that uphold the spirit of fairness, self-control, respect for rules, opponents and authority, and integrity. Sportsmanship fosters positive relationships among players, promotes teamwork and healthy competition, encourages accepting victories and defeats with grace, and thereby enhances the sports experience.

Poor sportsmanship, while not exactly using manipulative tactics, includes unethical behaviour such as intentionally injuring opponents, taunting or insulting players, or disrespecting officials and fans.

We teach children the importance of sports, but sadly do not pay enough attention to also inculcating the values of sportsmanship from an early age. We send them to coaching classes to hone their skills in a sport—from tennis to football to hockey. Large academies are set up that identify budding players and rigorously mould them to become “champions.” These instil in the young minds the yen to be winners always, to be the best, the fastest, and the strongest at all times. They also laden them with highest of expectations. The aspiring champions carry on their young shoulders the burden to always meet these expectations, at any cost, including personal burn-out and breakdowns.

This expectation balloons manifold in the eyes of spectators of team games. It manifests itself in the fanatic fandom of a favourite team. This is what buoys the playing teams and fuels the culture, and indeed, the enormous business of spectator sports. Support and encouragement of one’s favoured team is necessary, even desirable in sports. But when this balloon bursts, leading to a mass wave of intense negative feeling, it is certainly not sportsmanship. What we have forgotten in our love for ‘our team’ is that it is more than one team that makes a sport a sport, that that it calls for dignity and grace to acknowledge that we cannot always be the winner.

Participation in sports develops important skills, but this needs to be combined with developing the values and behaviour of sportsmanship. Even as we coach our young minds and bodies to excel in sports, it is important to remember that they also need coaching in sportsmanship. This involves engaging also with their hearts and emotions. It means emphasising respect for the opposing team in every circumstance—win, lose or draw, on or off the field. It means extending goodwill not only to one’s own team mates and coaches, as well as the others who support the players in many ways, including the spectators.

While healthy competition is an important ingredient of a competitive sport, unsportsmanlike conduct cannot justify the end—winning at any cost. Competing with honour and fairness need not be a dampener to the skills and excellence of players. Rather a game well played to the best abilities of both teams enhances not only the quality of the game, but the ambience within which it is played.

As the curtains fall on the mega spectacle of World Cup cricket, let us remind our children (and indeed ourselves) that the true spirit of sportsmanship means that it doesn’t matter what the outcome of the game is, it is not just about winning or losing; it is also about empathy, about the person or people you are competing against; they deserve to be shown the same respect you would show them outside of sport. Sportsmanship centres on three vital life-skill components of Respect, Losing with Dignity, and Winning with Humility. Let this principle be the guiding factor in the long game of life, as in the many games that we play in many fields.

Be a sport! May the best one win!

–Mamata

Getting Serious about Play!

November 21, 2023 ~ millennialmatriarchs ~ Leave a comment

Last week, we talked about the International Dolls’ Museum in Delhi. And we lamented about its not keeping up with the times and re-inventing itself.

A model from which it could draw inspiration is The Strong National Museum of Play, Rochester, New York, USA. It was established in 1969 based on the collection of one individual, Margaret Woodbury Strong, who by that point in time has collected over 27,000 dolls. Like Shankar who set up the Dolls’ Museum, she started by exhibiting parts of her collection and later added two wings to her palatial house to exhibit to select visitors. Over time, she started thinking about setting up a museum for the public. Margaret Strong died in 1969, leaving her collection and her wealth for a museum, which was finally opened to the public in 1982.

The Museum’s display of the collection of dolls is only a small part of what it does. It is ‘a highly interactive, collections-based museum, devoted to the history and exploration of play’ and sees itself as ‘the ultimate play destination of all ages’. To meet this mission, it has interactive exhibits in a space of 1,50,000 sft, online exhibits, the World Video Game Hall of Fame, a Play Lab which is a maker-space, and a Skyline Climb. The Strong Museum takes the effort to ensure that the experiences are accessible for people of all abilities. Many of the exhibits on the online museum are viewable to all of us on Google Arts and Crafts.

A very interesting initiative of the Museum is the National Toy Hall of Fame. Every year, the Hall of Fame recognizes and inducts toys that have ‘inspired creative play and enjoyed popularity over a sustained period’. The public (I think only those who live in America) are invited to nominate their favorite toys based on the following criteria:

‘Icon-status: the toy is widely recognized, respected, and remembered.
Longevity: the toy is more than a passing fad and has enjoyed popularity over multiple generations.
Discovery: the toy fosters learning, creativity, or discovery through play.
Innovation: the toy profoundly changed play or toy design. A toy may be inducted on the basis of this criterion without necessarily having met all of the first three.’

What a wonderful way to engage with the community at large! The toys in the Hall of Fame include everyday objects, like sand which is one of the most popular materials for children to play with; blankets which children can make into anything from tents to disguises; to cardboard boxes which as we know are more interesting to kids than the most expensive toy packed inside. The list of course includes items created to be played with—from balls, playing cards, rubber ducks, girl-dolls, hoola-hoops, jump-ropes and jigsaw puzzles to Rubik’s Cube and Nintendo.

The Museum has the core philosophy that ‘Play sharpens minds and boosts creativity. When children play, they learn to solve problems, make decisions, express ideas and recognize boundaries’, the Museum focuses attention on educators, with special grade-related exhibits and lesson-plans for teachers.

The Museum plays a very serious role in research too. The Strong’s Brian Sutton-Smith Library and Archives of Play is devoted to the intellectual, social, and cultural history of play and is a 230,000-volume research library and archives of primary and secondary sources, including scholarly works, professional journals, periodicals, trade catalogues, children’s books, comic books, manuscripts, personal papers, business records, and more.

Another important collection is The International Centre for the History of Electronic Games which has 60,000 artefacts and thousands of archival material on the history of video games.

A third collection is The National Archives of Game Show History which ‘preserves the history of game shows—from the earliest panel shows and quiz scandals, to the games and puzzles of the 1970s, to the big money network series and the classic games now in primetime’.

So efforts on every front to be relevant to a wide audience, and to keep up with the times.

A lesson or two or three, our museums can learn?

–Meena

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A Cry for Children

November 16, 2023 ~ millennialmatriarchs ~ Leave a comment

This week Meena wrote about Children’s Day in India which is celebrated on 14 November each year, marking the birth anniversary of Jawaharlal Nehru. It is in this same week that another children’s day is celebrated. This is Universal Children’s Day which is celebrated on 20 November every year to mark the date when the United Nations General Assembly adopted, in 1989, the Convention on the Rights of the Child.

There had been previous discussions about children in the international community. Declarations on the rights of the child had been adopted by both the League of Nations (1924) and the United Nations (1959). Also, specific provisions concerning children had been incorporated in a number of human rights and humanitarian law treaties. However amidst global reports of children bearing the brunt of grave injustice in many forms–from health and nutrition, to abuse and exploitation, it was felt that there was a need for a comprehensive statement on children’s rights which would be binding under international law.

In response to this the UN initiated a process of consultation which led to the drafting of a comprehensive document keeping the child as the focus in all realms—civil, political, economic, social and cultural. The Convention on the Rights of the Child was adopted by the UN General Assembly on 20 November 1989 and entered into force in September 1990.The Convention is the most rapidly ratified human rights treaty in history; more countries have ratified the Convention than any other human rights treaty in history. Three countries, the United States, South Sudan, and Somalia, have not ratified the Convention.

The Convention outlines in 41 articles the human rights to be respected and protected for every child under the age of eighteen years.

The articles can be grouped under four broad themes:

Survival rights: include the child’s right to life and the needs that are most basic to existence, such as nutrition, shelter, an adequate living standard, and access to medical services.

Development rights: include the right to education, play, leisure, cultural activities, access to information, and freedom of thought, conscience and religion. The term ‘development’ includes not only physical health, but also mental, emotional, cognitive, social and cultural development.

Protection rights: ensure children are safeguarded against all forms of abuse, neglect and exploitation, including special care for refugee children; safeguards for children in the criminal justice system; protection for children in employment; protection and rehabilitation for children who have suffered exploitation or abuse of any kind.

Participation rights: encompass children’s freedom to express opinions, to have a say in matters affecting their own lives, to join associations and to assemble peacefully. Children have the right to be heard and to have their views taken seriously, including in any judicial or administrative proceedings affecting them. As their capacities develop, children should have increasing opportunity to participate in the activities of society, in preparation for adulthood.

The Convention establishes in international law that States Parties must ensure that all children – without discrimination in any form – benefit from special protection measures and assistance; have access to services such as education and health care; can develop their personalities, abilities and talents to the fullest potential; grow up in an environment of happiness, love and understanding; and are informed about and participate in, achieving their rights in an accessible and active manner.

Even as the world will be reminded of the Convention on the Rights of the Child this week, this year is tragically one where these very rights are being destroyed minute by minute. More than one hundred children are killed every day in the ongoing war in Gaza and the West Bank. Thousands more are believed to be buried under the rubble of entire townships razed to the ground. Hundreds are dying in hospitals which are being ruthlessly attacked from the air and ground, including premature babies who have not even yet had a chance to take a breath on their own.

Never before in history have so many children faced the horrors of relentless violence, hunger, thirst, displacement, and so many as yet untold terrors. What will be the future of those who do survive this new holocaust?

Which of the Rights listed above will we have the courage to place before them? How can the world appease them, and our own consciences, with a flourish of the Convention on the Rights of the Child?

In the words of Ghassan Kanafani, eminent Palestinian activist, essayist, novelist, who was killed by a car bomb in 1972 at the age of 36 years.

I wish children didn’t die.

I wish they would be temporarily elevated to the skies until the war ends.

Then they would return home safe, and when their parents would ask them: “where were you?”

They would say: “we were playing in the clouds.

How much longer? How much further?

–Mamata

A Prime Minister, A Cartoonist, and A Dolls’ Museum : Marking Children’s Day

November 14, 2023November 14, 2023 ~ millennialmatriarchs ~ Leave a comment

We celebrate November 14^th, the birth anniversary of our first Prime Minister Pandit Jawaharlal Nehru, as Children’s Day. This is because not only did he love children, but children loved him right back! They called him ‘Chacha’—a name that stuck even with adults.

Nehru understood children and the need for loving and carefully nurturing them, as also their importance to the future of the nation. ‘Children are like buds in a garden and should be carefully and lovingly nurtured as they are the future of the nation and citizens of tomorrow. The children of today will make the citizens of tomorrow. The way we bring them up will determine the future of the country’ he said. He also had a clear vision on the purpose and role of education: ‘The object of education is to produce a desire to serve the community as a whole and to apply the knowledge gained not only for personal but for public welfare.’

A contemporary who also loved and valued children was Shankaran Pillai, India’s first political cartoonist. Shankar, as he was called, and Nehru, enjoyed a great friendship, though the cartoonist featured the PM in over 4000 cartoons, many of which were merciless. Nehru was a tall leader—not only could he laugh at himself but he also appreciated the need to do this: ‘It is good to have the veil of our conceit torn occasionally’. He urged the cartoonist on, saying ‘Don’t spare me Shankar.’ Nehru even used to enclose Shankar’s cartoons in his letters to his daughter Indira Gandhi when he was in prison.

Those were different times, those were different people!

Shankar founded the Children’s Book Trust (CBT) in 1957 to ‘to promote the production of well written, well illustrated and well designed books for children.’ CBT has been bringing out high-quality books in English and Indian languages and these are highly subsidized, to make them widely accessible. In 1968, CBT started a magazine called Children’s World. An International Children’s Competition for Painting and Writing has been on-going since 1951. These were pioneering initiatives.

But maybe the most innovative idea was The Shankar’s International Dolls Museum, which has now grown into one of the largest collections of costume dolls anywhere in the world, housing over 7500 dolls from 85+ countries. And it all started with a single doll—sometime in the ‘fifties, the Hungarian Ambassador gave Shankar a typical doll from his country, to give away as one of the prizes in the International Children’s Competition. So fascinated did Shankar become with this doll that he started collecting costume-dolls whenever he travelled.

He did not just do this for his own enjoyment. He often held exhibitions so that children of all strata could see and enjoy them. Pandit Nehru and Indira Gandhi visited one such event, and Indira Gandhi suggested then that Shankar should set up a permanent museum of these dolls. The idea slowly crystallized, and the Museum was inaugurated in 1965. The building where it was housed was appropriately named Nehru House. Nehru gifted a large number of dolls to the Museum and these were the core around which the collection was built. Subsequent PMs as well as Ambassadors and visiting dignitaries from various countries also added special and unique dolls from their nations. And thereby, a landmark institution was created.

While these were pioneering ideas in their times, the question that needs to be asked is how can the Museum be made relevant for today? How can modern understanding of museums and collections be brought in to revitalize the display and hold the attention of today’s children? The collection is unique ,and the rich collection of artefacts would be a dream for many a researcher to delve into –how can that be facilitated?

We are sitting on a treasure-trove. If we respect the legacy left by Pandit Nehru and Shankar, we have a duty to use this better.

Happy Children’s Day!

–Meena

Pic from https://www.childrensbooktrust.com/dollsmuseum.html

Story in a Teacup: Wagh Bakri Chai

November 9, 2023 ~ millennialmatriarchs ~ Leave a comment

In Gujarat tea is literally ‘the cup that cheers’ at any time of the day or night. From the age-old kitlis the small roadside tea stalls where the sweet milky chai is constantly boiling on the hissing kerosene stove, to the upmarket ‘tea lounges’ where the menu offers a range of fancy artisanal teas, people of all ages and walks of life hang out. Tea is the essential companion to the range of farsans (savoury snacks) that are the identifying hallmarks of Gujarati food.

While Gujarat is geographically almost across the country from the tea producing states in the east and south, it is probably the biggest consumer of tea leaves. The large-scale sale of tea leaves in the region began with the crossing of continents by a Gujarati entrepreneur Narandas Desai. The company he founded was to grow into one of the largest tea companies in India—Wagh Bakri chai.

The story begins in 1892 when Narandas Desai crossed the ocean to South Africa with the dream to start a business. He took on lease 500 acres of tea estates near Durban, and threw himself with focus and passion into learning the intricacies of cultivating and producing tea, as well as the business of selling it. While he was there he came in touch with Gandhiji who was beginning his own journey of learning to live and work on foreign soil. The two mutually respected each other’s work, values, and personal and professional ethics. They also equally faced the challenges of racial discrimination, which eventually led them both to return to their home country.

Narandas Desai returned to Gujarat in 1915, leaving behind a successful tea business. He came home with very little material wealth, but carrying a prized letter from Gandhi which stated: “I knew Mr Narandas Desai in South Africa, where he was for a number of years a successful tea planter”. He also carried in him the strong Gandhian ethic of hard work and honesty, as well as a sound knowledge of teas and the tea business.

After working briefly at a tea estate in Maharashtra, Narandas moved to Gujarat. He took a loan to establish, in 1919, the Gujarat Tea Depot, the first store in Ahmedabad to sell wholesale loose tea. The original clientele were workers in Ahmedabad’s many textile mills. The tea was procured from estates in different parts of the country; Narandas, from his South Africa experience had learnt how difficult it was to own and run a tea estate. As business grew, Narandas began sourcing and blending better varieties of tea leaves, and expanding his clientele.

In 1934, for the first time, the Gujarat Tea Depot, started selling tea under its own brand. The name selected for the brand was Wagh (tiger) Bakri (goat). The twinning of two disparate characters was intended to represent social equality—tiger representing the upper class and goat representing the lower classes. This was visually represented by a picture of a tiger and a goat drinking tea from the same cup. Here too Gandhi’s influence was visible. The company was not only a swadeshi one, its logo also indicated the support of the movement against caste-based discrimination. The unusual logo became an icon for the company’s ethos, and continues to be so even today.

Narandas Desai’s three sons Ramdas, Ochavlal amd Kantilal joined their father in managing the growing business. The company also started an office in Kolkata to oversee and check the purchase of tea at auction centres there. Till 1980 Gujarat Tea Depot continued to sell tea in wholesale, as well as retail through 7 retail outlets. But by that time they also foresaw the burgeoning market for packaged teas. In response, the group launched Gujarat Tea Processors and Packers Ltd. in 1980, introducing packaged tea. Initially people were sceptical and hesitant to buy packaged tea as they were used to feeling and smelling loose tea leaves before buying.

In the early 1990s, the company decided to introduce the concept of tea bags. This again, was uncharted territory. In a culture where boiling tea thoroughly was the norm, the idea of instant ‘dip dip’ tea was alien. Wagh Bakri took the risk and imported state-of -the-art tea bag machines from Argentina. The introduction of tea bags marked a paradigm shift in the tea scene.

The company continued to experiment and innovate, introducing new dimensions and products to the tea drinkers. All the generations of the Desais engaged totally in carrying Narandas’s vision to new heights and breadths, introducing new varieties into the packaged tea market. Through the journey they continued to adhere to their founder’s strong commitment to quality and affordability, targeting “decent profits, but not profit maximisation at any cost to company image and standing”. Even in the face of stiff market competition and many financial pressures, their product range has always carried an economically-friendly price tag.

But before the product reaches the shop shelves, it is preceded by a great deal of research and evaluation. The research includes understanding the specific tastes of the region where the product is to be introduced. It even includes a study of the local water and milk commonly used for brewing the tea. Every region, if not every home, has its own preferences and tea-brewing processes. The Wagh Bakri team invests a great deal in understanding the preferences of its consumers and putting together suitable blends.

The ultimate test is the tea tasting in which the company’s directors are personally involved. The company’s headquarters in Ahmedabad has a large Tea Tasting Department. Tea samples procured from auctions of different estates, saucers of milky teas blended according to the quality of local water and milk, and weighing scales are systematically arranged. The company’s directors personally taste each sample and rate it according to colour, strength, taste and briskness. On some days 400-500 samples of tea are tasted. There is no compromise on taste and quality. Little wonder then that 50 per cent of the tea consumed in Gujarat is from Wagh Bakri.

While continuing to cater to the traditional tastes, the company is also aware that with international exposure, the younger generation is open to more flavours and trends. In response the company has launched a wide range of offerings from Oolong tea to Matcha tea. It was also the first to offer suitable settings to savour these gourmet teas by setting up Tea Lounges in Ahmedabad in 2006, and later in a few other cities.

The corporate office of Wagh Bakri was inaugurated in 2006. A fitting tribute to the founder whose vision, dedication and trust guided the company for over a century. While largely confined to Gujarat for nearly a century, the company started selling its tea in other states as well between 2003 and 2009. Wagh Bakri is not pan-Indian in its sales, but even with the limited states that it sells in, it is the third largest tea brand in India. It also has an international presence. As its directors believe, it is more than a tea company, it is a creator of connections and a nurturer of relationships.

Wagh Bakri’s executive director, and one of its key tea tasters, Parag Desai recently passed away at the age of 49, after a brain haemorrhage caused by a freak accident. A sad loss for the Wagh Bakri family of tea drinkers across the world.

–Mamata

Fun and Games

November 7, 2023 ~ millennialmatriarchs ~ Leave a comment

Play is something the young of many species indulge in. Play is of course a part of the life of young humans, but we also see puppies, kittens, the young of many mammals and even some birds play.

The study of play is however, a serious matter, as can be seen from this definition: ’ play is repeated, seemingly non-functional behavior differing from more adaptive versions structurally, contextually, or developmentally, and initiated when the animal is in a relaxed, un-stimulating, or low stress setting’ (Burghardt, 2014).

If that sounds a bit complex, here is a breakdown of the behaviours associated with play, i.e. play should

‘*be incompletely functional in the context in which it appears;

*be spontaneous, pleasurable, rewarding, or voluntary;

*be different from other more serious behaviors in form (for example, be exaggerated) or timing (for example, occur early in life, before the more serious version is needed);

* be repeated, but not in abnormal and unvarying stereotypic form (for example, rocking or pacing); and

* be initiated in the absence of severe stress.’

Till a few decades ago, it used to be believed that only the young of warm-blooded animals and birds played. But research is showing that many other creatures play too, including the young of some fish, frogs, lizards, turtles and even Komodo dragons. Coming from a human perspective, we may not recognize this as play. But going by the definition and framework above, many of the activities of the young of these species fall in the category.

Play is of critical importance in the development of all species who indulge in it. In the case of human children, it helps in the development of cognitive, physical, social, and emotional well-being. It helps children learn about themselves and the world, and through play they learn many life-skills like confidence, resilience, cooperation, team spirit, coping with challenging situations etc.

Play itself can be of different types: Physical Play, which helps in physical development and skills like coordination; Social Play which helps children develop the skills of how to interact with others, taking turns, cooperation, etc.; Constructive Play, wherein children create things—arts and crafts including drawing, painting, building things, etc.; Fantasy Play, that is using the imagination to create situations and enacting parts; and Games with Rules, which helps the child develop cognitively and learn how to follow instructions and rules.

If the topic of the conversation is play, can toys be far behind? Toys too date back to ancient times– archaeologists excavating the ancient city of Kültepe Kaniş-Karum in Turkey discovered a 4,000 year old ceramic rattle, which is believed to be the oldest children’s toy yet uncovered.

Today toys and games are a highly sophisticated market with several categories including puzzles, dolls, soft toys, fidget toys, modelling clay and related products, movable vehicles, construction toys, constructed toys, board games etc.

It is also a huge market–in 2022, this market generated total revenue of US$122.90 billion. India is a tiny part of this—with the Indian toys market size reaching $ 1.5 billion last year, with barely $ 1.14 per capita spend on toys. Which means most of our children don’t have access to toys, or have too few toys—which is definitely disadvantages their development. Not that I am saying that store-bought toys are the only way to go. We know that children show enormous ingenuity in making anything into a toy–kitchen vessels, sticks and stones, boxes and cartons. And creative parents and teachers can make toys at no or low-cost. (For ideas, you can visit https://arvindguptatoys.com/, the website of Padma Shri awardee Shri Arvind Gupta, who has spent his life developing and advocating for the use of no- and low-cost toys with educational value). But having said that, I do believe that every child has the right to a new, shiny toy once in a while. So not only must we manufacture more toys, but low-cost, innovative ones which don’t compormise on safety.

Equally important are innovative ideas like toy libraries so each child does not have to buy every toy and less-advantaged children can get access too; toy hospitals so toys can be mended and their life extended; and NGOs which collect, refurbish and re-distribute toys. Another complex challenge is how to keep toys from reaching solid waste dumps—how to recycle them safely and cost-effectively?

So toys may be fun and games, but it’s definitely not all child’s ply!

–Meena

PS: The image is from a storybook Harini and I created using toys as charecters. ‘My Sunday with Daadu and Deedu’ available on Amazon. The Telugu version by Manchi Pustakam is available on their site.

Pothole Patcher: Ememem

November 2, 2023 ~ millennialmatriarchs ~ Leave a comment

This morning’s newspaper tells me that the city Municipal Corporation is on the move to fill up potholes in the city’s roads as a Diwali gift to citizens. While this is indeed a noble announcement, it is a bit ironic as the sorry state of the roads needs much more than a superficial patching up of random ruts and depressions on the road, with more of the substandard material and workmanship that causes the potholes in the first place. In fact on many roads across the city, there are more ragged and rough patches than there are even surfaces. These make headlines a couple of times a year, especially during the monsoon when there are accidents, sometimes serious, caused by two-wheelers and pedestrians slipping and falling into waterlogged potholes. Potholes are not only dangerous, they are also a major source of frustration and inconvenience for commuters. This receives a few days of media coverage where questions of quality and responsibility are raised, and a few contractors are taken to task and fined, before returning to ‘business as usual.’

While I had not given it any thought, for the first time I wondered why these depressions are called ‘potholes’? The origin of the word is not clear. From the purely linguistic angle it could be the literal meaning of the word ‘pot’ that meant a ‘deep hole’, or referred to deep cooking vessels; and the word ‘hole’ being self-explanatory. There is a more interesting version. In 15th and 16th century England wagons and coaches with heavy wooden wheels were the main form of transportation. As they traversed the roads, the wheels gouged deep ruts in the soil. Pottery makers would take advantage of these ruts to dig deeper to reach the clay deposits beneath to make their clay pots. Those driving wagons and coaches over those roads knew who and what caused these holes, and referred to them as ‘potholes’.

Whatever the origins of the word, potholes are a feature of roads in almost all parts of the world. Potholes are caused by a variety of factors, including poor quality of construction materials and labour, lack of proper maintenance and repair, heavy rainfall, and high traffic volume. In cold climates the expansion by freezing of water that has seeped into the crevasses and depressions in the road surface also causes cracks which expand to become ruts and potholes.

Civic authorities in cities around the world do their bit to repair potholes, and are usually far behind in their reach. However, there is one man in Europe who has taken it upon himself to turn potholes into works of art!

While the artist’s work is in the public domain, the artist himself remains anonymous and enigmatic. His true name or identity are not known. He simply goes by the name Ememem. He gave himself this name as he felt that it sounded like his moped does when he sets off for his pothole repair mission. He does not give interviews, nor allow himself to be photographed; he prefers his work, rather than himself, to be seen, as he feels that he is not good at social interactions.

What he does interact with, are the roads that he walks along, absorbing the noises of city life as he looks, and absorbs. What grabs his attention are potholes on the roads. As he claims ‘some of these vibrate and some don’t.’ When he comes across a pothole that “speaks to him” he takes stock of its size and shape. This inspires him to put together pieces of colourful tiles, majolica (glazed earthenware with bright metallic oxides), and ceramics (mainly from waste material) to create artworks that fill or repair the pothole. For obvious reasons, (including that what he does is not strictly legal), he works at night when the roads are relatively less busy, and so that he can work without interruption, or identification. The on-site exercise is preceded by a study of his ‘canvas’, as he describes potholes, cutting the tiles to perfectly fit the space while creating an artwork, and using quick-drying glue to paste them in place. His pothole ‘makeover’ could take from one hour to six hours depending on the condition of the hole, the weather, and the time it takes for the creation to dry.

Source: https://www.lagazettedescommunes.com

Ememem has coined the word ‘flacking’ to describe his technique. It is derived from the French word flaque which means puddle. The term is also used used figuratively to refer to an area that looks entirely different from its surrounding. And Ememem’s vibrant colourful designs certainly stand out in stretches of dull grey pavements.

Street art, a form of artwork that is displayed in public on surrounding buildings, streets, trains and other publicly viewed surfaces, is today regarded as one of the largest art movements. Much of this art (which includes graffiti) often reflects social and political issues. It is often also regarded as a form of vandalism.

Ememem does not see himself as an artist with a particular message, or a mission to change the world. Rather he says that his art focuses on the ‘art of healing the street’. He feels that he could just as well be called ‘bitumen mender’ or ‘poet of the asphalt’. In his hometown Lyon, Ememem is described as a “pavement surgeon” who heals fractures in the streets and gives them a new look. Fortunately the civic authorities in most of the places where his ‘operations’ take place let the art remain, to be appreciated by both the residents as well as visitors.

Today his healing works can be seen not only in France, but in many European cities including Paris, Barcelona, Madrid, Milan, and Oslo and Aberdeen. He continues to keep his identity a secret, but displays his work on Instagram where he has a huge following.

As we prepare for Diwali with the beautiful floor art of rangoli, would it not be magical to wake up to see Ememem’s colourful mosaics brightening up our roads? One can only dream!

–Mamata

Of Ghosts and More: A Random Walk on Halloween

October 31, 2023 ~ millennialmatriarchs ~ Leave a comment

It is Halloween today—a holiday that in the past decade or so has gained great popularity in India too. The name ‘Halloween’ is linked to the Christian festival of ‘All Hallows’ or ‘All saints’ which falls on November 1. It was originally a day on which the church commemorated the lives of saints and martyrs. As time went along, it added on other connotations, such as praying for souls that were believed to be not yet in heaven or making offerings to the dead.

But what is the origin of Halloween as we celebrate it today? Well, it stems from an old belief that the spirits of the dead would roam the earth until All Saints Day, and that on Halloween they would take their last chance to have revenge on people they had a grouse against. That’s the reason why people dress up—in order to disguise themselves so the spirits would not recognise them!

Of course, now in this as in many other festivals, it is commercial interests which drive the occasion, with costumes, masks, spooky decorations etc. becoming the theme for retail stores and festival sales.

Down history, the belief in ghosts and spirits has pervaded every culture—probably in an attempt to explain death, as well as phenomena which were not easily explainable by science. Witches, ghouls and other scary creatures exist in every country but they take different locale-specific manifestations.

In an interesting attempt to map the geography of these creatures, TheToyZone has developed what it calls a Boogeyman map. They see bogeymen as ’ frightening figures found all over the world, where they’re available to enforce discipline at a moment’s notice’—in other words, mainly a means of scaring small children into behaving themselves. The whimsically illustrated map shows over a hundred such fearsome creatures, with bat wings, reptilian bodies, ghostly tattered robes, fire-breathing creatures and googly red eyes dominating.

As it is an attempt to cover the whole world, one can forgive the map for showing only one such creature from India—the bhoot. But the richness of the Indian ‘horror’ imagination can be estimated from ‘Assamese Demonology’ a 1905 book by scholar and researcher Benudhar. This classifies ghosts, demons and spirits of Assam into several categories., and the list includes ‘aquatic spirits like baank, dote, jakh, datial, jankakharia, jal-sai, jal-narayan and jal-konwar; sylvan spirits like chamon, burha-dangoriya, alakhani, pixach, daini, peret, bhoot, khetor, markuchia, prasuta, kandh, bira, parooa, khabish and thalgiri; celestial spirits like jam, bih-karam, kalika, deo, lakhimi, apeswari and bijuli; and subterranean spirits like gooloi’. And this is just one state!

Ghosts and spirits obviously don’t exist. Then why do so many people believe they have seen them? Science offers several explanations including sleep paralysis, hallucinations, pareidolia or inattentional blindness.

Sleep paralysis is “like dreaming with your eyes open. Baland Jalal, nueroscientist explains it thus: ‘Our most vivid, lifelike dreams happen during a certain stage of sleep. It’s called rapid eye movement, or REM, sleep. In this stage, your eyes dart around under their closed lids. Though your eyes move, the rest of your body can’t. It’s paralyzed. Your brain usually turns this paralysis off before you wake up. But in sleep paralysis, you wake up while it’s still happening.’

Hallucinations: A hallucination is a false perception of objects or events involving the senses: sight, sound, smell, touch and taste. Hallucinations seem real, but they’re not.

Pareidolia: This is a brain phenomenon in which a person sees or hears something significant in a random image or pattern. Pareidolia is what causes peoples to see faces in inanimate objects, i.e., faces in clouds, or the form of Gods on a tree bark etc.

Inattentional blindness: This is the failure to notice unexpected objects or events when attention is focused elsewhere.

But it is always a battle between the rational and the irrational, and belief in spirits and the like is not likely to go away in a hurry.

So we might as well let our children enjoy scaring themselves and over-dosing on sugar!

Happy Halloween.

–Meena

The Camel in the Tent: Invasive Animal Species

October 26, 2023 ~ millennialmatriarchs ~ Leave a comment

The story of the Arab who kindly let his camel put his nose in the tent to keep it warm, and ended up with the entire camel inside, while the Arab was ousted into the cold is an old one. It is quoted as an example of “give an inch and they will take a mile”. While this is a fable, in reality there are several examples in Nature, of animal species, who, once invited or introduced, proceed to take over spaces, pushing out the original inhabitants. A case of invasive species.

Recently I wrote about some invasive plant species in India. This is about invasive animal species which have not only invaded spaces but which have posed serious threats to native species in several parts of the world. Ironically some of the most damaging invasive animal species were originally introduced either for sport, as pets, or as livestock and pack animals. Here are a few examples.

European rabbits. In 1859, Thomas Austin, a wealthy English settler in Australia, received 24 wild and domesticated European rabbits as a Christmas present from his brother in England. These were for hunting on his estate in Melbourne. The rabbits multiplied rapidly, producing more than four litters each year. They had no predators to keep their numbers in control. They also adapted easily to their new environment, and by burrowing beneath the soil, they spread far beyond the boundaries of the estate. In 50 years these rabbits spread across the entire continent. Their numbers became so large that they destroyed crops and land, leading to soil erosion. They also negatively affected agriculture and plants by overgrazing. Not only did the rabbits wreak havoc on Australian croplands, they contributed to the decline of native plant and animal species. Today Australia has over 200 million rabbits, the fastest colonization rate for an introduced mammal ever recorded. The control of this invasion continues to remain a huge challenge which has engaged Government researchers, biologists, farmers, and others. The colonization of Australia by the European rabbit is said to be one of the most iconic and devastating biological invasions in recorded history.

Cane toad: Another story from Australia. This one about a species that was introduced not for sport, but for biological pest control, and ended up being a major pest itself.

The Australian sugar industry began around 1862 when Captain Louis Hope succeeded in raising a viable sugarcane crop, and then established a sugar mill in Queensland. Establishing the sugar industry was difficult in the face of drought conditions. A bigger problem was that the roots of the plants were eaten by the larvae of native beetles which were collectively called cane beetles. In 1933, Australian sugarcane growers attending a conference in the Caribbean heard about a toad that was effective in destroying these beetles. Australia had no native toad species. The growers lobbied for the import of the cane toads to Australia in the hope that these would combat the crop-destroying cane beetles.

In early 1935, a box containing 102 toads arrived from Hawaii. The toads were kept in captivity where they rapidly multiplied. In July 1935 the toads were released into the fields. But not all was known about the toads by then. As it turned out, the toads could not jump high enough to eat the larvae of the beetles that lived largely on the upper stalks of the sugarcane plants. The voracious toads thus began to feed on whatever they could get at the lower level—insects, bird’ eggs and even native frogs. Would-be predators were killed by the poison that these toads secreted. Thus the original plan misfired disastrously, as the invited invaders laid ravage to the crops and native species. The cane toad continues to seriously impact the ecosystems of northern Australia even as they spread to other parts. Due to Australia’s geographic isolation and subsequently unique and fragile biodiversity, this is a grave issue. The Australian Government has stated that ‘There is unlikely to ever be a broad-scale method available to control cane toads across Australia’.

Indian Bullfrog. Closer to home both in terms of geography and history, is the relatively recent example of the spreading menace of the Indian bullfrog on the Andaman Islands. While the first report of its sighting was in October 2011, it is believed that the bullfrogs may have been introduced to the islands in early 2000s.The reason for the introduction is not clear. Some believe that the tadpoles may have come with fish food from mainland India. Or it may have been brought by farmers from West Bengal and released into rice fields for local consumption. But having arrived, these prolific breeders are beginning to make inroads. Of greatest concern is that their tadpoles are carnivorous, and eat tadpoles of other frog species, thus threatening the native species. The large-sized adult frogs also compete with native species for the same food.

As the frogs are spreading to more islands, the story of Australia’s invasion by alien species is beginning to play out again—introduction, naturalization, and expansion. The Andaman archipelago which consists of 300 islands has rare endemic species which are vulnerable to such invasions, and which eventually could lead to disturbing delicate ecological balances.

Common Myna. Once again, a twisted tale of transition from mainland to islands. This ubiquitous bird that we are so used to seeing around us, is not such a friendly neighbourhood bird in the Andaman islands. Of the 12 bird species that were introduced into the Andamans around the end of the 19^th century, 6 have disappeared, but 5 are still found there. Of these, the common myna has been not only the most successful spreader and stayer, but also the biggest threat to native avian species. These birds are known to prey on the eggs and chicks of other bird species. They also compete with the local hole-nesting birds for nesting sites, slowly inching out the native inhabitants from their own habitats.

From the Andamans, all the way to Australia, the range of the common myna is increasing at a rapid pace, leading the IUCN Species Survival Commission to declare it as one of the world’s 100 worst invasive species that pose a threat to biodiversity, agriculture and human interests.

Like the camel that sidled its way into the well-meaning Arab’s tent, the process of incursion, expansion, dislodging of original inhabitants, and taking over, is the story of invasive plant and animal species. This process, together with habitat destruction, has had serious ecological costs, and has been a major cause of extinction of native species throughout the world in the past few hundred years.

–Mamata