Category: Mamata Pandya

Colours of Childhood: Crayons

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A recent weekend spent with a toddler revived the memories and joys of crayons. While playthings and pastimes have changed considerably, especially in this digital age, there are some that continue to retain their charm. Crayons are among these.

Opening a fresh box of these colourful sticks neatly lined up with their wrappers, has been a special feeling, over generations. The distinctive smell from the paraffin used in their making, equally triggers memories, long after childhood. According to a Yale University study the scent of Crayola crayons is among the 20 most recognizable scents to American adults; coffee and peanut butter are numbers 1 and 2!

The attractive colours and the smell almost triggers an urge to bite into one. And, certainly, most toddlers are often more interested in tasting the colours, rather than drawing with them!

What makes crayon? A crayon (or wax pastel) is a stick of pigmented wax used for writing or drawing. Wax crayons differ from pastels, in which the pigment is mixed with a dry binder such as gum arabic, and from oil pastels, where the binder is a mixture of wax and oil.

While these wax sticks as we know them date back a few hundred years, the technique of using wax with colours was a method known to Ancient Egyptians who combined hot beeswax with coloured pigment to fix colour into stone. Ancient Greeks and Romans used wax, tar and pigment to decorate ship bows and for drawing. The first crayons, used for marking, appeared in Europe, and were made with charcoal and oil, and hence were in a single colour—black.

Crayons in their more recognizable form were invented in the United States in 1903. They were developed by a company called Binney and Smith who were originally manufacturers of red iron oxide for painting barns and lamp black which had a number of applications including making rubber tyres black.

In the early 1900s the company moved on to making marking crayons for commercial use. These were used as waterproof markers in factories but they contained toxic substances and were not suitable to be used by children. The company then entered into the school market with slate school pencils and dustless chalk. Here they saw that there was potential for the use of colouring tools for educational use in the classroom. Based on feedback from schoolteachers Edwin Binney and his wife Alice developed wax crayons. They mixed waxes, talcs and pigments to form non-toxic sticks which were wrapped in paper, making these safe and mess-free. They put these on the market in 1903 under the brand name Crayola. The name was created by Alice as a blend of craie, the French word for chalk and ola from oleaginous (oily paraffin wax). Ola was also a popular ending for products at that time. The first boxes had 8 coloured crayons (red, orange, yellow, green, blue, violet, black, and brown), and sold for 5 cents, in yellow-and-green boxes which were labelled ‘school crayons’. For the next 45 years, the colour mix and the colour names remained unchanged.
While later many companies began manufacturing crayons, the word Crayola became synonymous with crayons and continues to be so to this day.

For the first forty years, each Crayola crayon was hand-rolled in paper wrappers with distinctive labels and names. Automated wrapping started only in the 1940s. Over the next hundred years Crayola introduced packs of 16, 24, 32, 48, 64, and 96 crayons. There have been over 400 Crayola colours created since the crayons were launched. The company now manufactures 120 standard crayon colours. In addition, there are specialty crayons like metallic, gel and glitter crayons.

The history of naming the colours is a reflection of the changing times and perceptions. While the set of 8 colours remained unchanged for the first 45 years, by 1949, with 48 colours in the box, the palette included colours with more imaginative name such as thistle, periwinkle, carnation pink, bittersweet, cornflower, melon, salmon, and spring green. With the addition of new crayons taking the number up to 64 the colours included Copper, Plum, Lavender, Mulberry, Burnt Orange, and Aquamarine. The psychedelic spirit of the 1970s was reflected with the addition, in 1972, of fluorescent colours: Chartreuse, Ultra Blue, Ultra Orange, Ultra Red, Hot Magenta, Ultra Green, Ultra Pink, and Ultra Yellow.

The 1990s saw the retirement of eight old shades and their replacement with new ones–Cerulean, Vivid Tangerine, Jungle Green, Fuchsia, Dandelion, Teal Blue, Royal Purple, and Wild Strawberry. The decade also reflected the response to cultural sensitivities. In 1999, the name Indian Red was changed to Chestnut because educators believed that children would think the name represented the skin colour of American Indians rather than the reddish-brown pigment found near India.

In 1993, to mark its 90th birthday Crayola invited the public to name 16 new Crayola crayon colours. Some of the winning suggestions included Asparagus, Macaroni and Cheese, Timber Wolf, Cerise, Mauvellous, Tropical rainforest, Denim. Pacific Blue. Granny Smith Apple, Shamrock, Purple Mountains Majesty, Tickle Me Pink, Wisteria and Razzmatazz. The last name was the suggestion of 5 year-old Laura Bartolomei, who was declared the younger Crayola colour winner.

In 2000 Crayola’s first online consumer poll to name the favourite Crayola colour was held. Blue emerged as the all-time favourite, and six shades of blue made up the list of top ten colours!

Crayola marked its 100th anniversary by once again inviting crayon users to contribute names. With increasing diversity in schools and growing awareness of being ‘politically correct’, in 2020 Crayola introduced a new line of 24 colours named Colors of the World to reflect the multicultural skin tones of people around the world.

Thus Crayola remained on top of the game by always being dynamic, responsive, and participatory to reflect the signs of the times, as it were. Crayola continues to be synonymous with crayons, not only in the USA, but now across the world. I remember when we were children, and our local palette limited to the standard box of 12 colours from Camel or Camlin, our great dream was to be gifted with multi-layered jumbo box of Crayola crayons by a relative coming from the USA!

Today perhaps the choices of art materials and techniques have increased, but the fascination with crayons certainly has not decreased! There are Crayola crayon collectors who are always searching for samples of rare or discontinued colour pieces. And America celebrates National Crayon Day on 31 March every year, to celebrate the colourful history of these simple sticks that have provided generations of children with hours of creative fun.

–Mamata

International day of Happiness: Caring & Sharing

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In recent times there have been a number of articles about experiments/initiatives to create ‘safe’ places for GenZ achievers where they can simply meet others of their ilk, and as one piece put it “form communities of shared interests and ideas, far away from the superficial posing of the digital world”.   

It is thought provoking, and indeed saddening to read about these. Caught in the frenetic pace of a work culture where people feel they do not have the ‘luxury of time’ that they perceive friendship demands. As one person put it “Colleagues can never be your friends in a competitive space; besides you don’t want to see them in your private time and space”.  The frequent moves from job to job, even place to place, the “stress” of meeting targets, and the long hours spent in cyberspace where the screen is king, leave little time and energy for meaningful human interactions. There is a sense of isolation, leading to a precipitous plunge towards the ultimate act of giving up everything, including one’s own life. What a very sorry state of affairs. Such futility, such a waste of the best years of one’s life. “Burning out” at an age when they should be blossoming into vibrant human beings. 

I feel so blessed that I grew up, and came of age, in an age of friendship. A time when ‘Time’ was a gift freely given and shared between human beings, and not the ubiquitous screen. When families caught up on the day’s doings and happenings over the evening meal, talking face-to-face. When the school days ended with playing with neighbourhood friends at whose homes we were fed and pandered to, as they were in ours. Graduating to college where new friendships blossomed in canteens and bonded through bunked classes. College was indeed the cradle for what was later to be described as the ‘all-round development’ for which today there are Life Coaches. Not to forget a course offered at Yale University called Psychology and the Good Life which is basically about teaching college students how to be happy! A course that “teaches” that feelings of happiness are fostered through socialization, exercise, meditation and plenty of sleep!

A bigger reminder of how far away we have come from those days is the designation of an international day by the United Nations which is called the International Day of Happiness.

The idea for the International Day of Happiness was proposed by UN advisor Jayme Illien in 2011. The UN General Assembly adopted a resolution which recognised happiness as a “fundamental human goal” and called for “a more inclusive, equitable and balanced approach to economic growth that promotes the happiness and well-being of all peoples”.

In 2012 the first ever UN Conference on Happiness took place, and the UN General Assembly adopted a resolution which decreed that the International Day of Happiness would be observed every year on 20 March. The resolution was initiated by Bhutan, a country which recognized the value of national happiness over national income since the early 1970s and famously adopted the goal of Gross National Happiness over Gross National Product. All 193 United Nations member states have adopted the resolution calling for happiness to be given greater priority.

The day was celebrated for the first time in 2013. This day aims to highlight the importance of happiness and well-being as universal goals and aspirations in the lives of people around the world. 

Every year, on this day, the United Nations publishes the World Happiness Report which explores the latest research on the importance of benevolence, empathy and trust as vital drivers of both individual and national happiness. It also announces the theme for the year.

The theme for the International day of Happiness 2025 is Caring and Sharing. This is a reminder that lasting happiness comes from caring for each other, feeling connected and being part of something bigger. The theme brought for me a flashback to my years of work in a workplace where this was the very theme that ran through every day of every year. I remember how this was also the name of the precious meeting space and time that the ‘girls’ called their own—one where, in addition to “theme sari days” there was an open and non-judgemental sharing of angst, anxiety, dilemmas and doubts, highs and lows, laughter and tears. This engendered a seamless blending of many generations, and the mutual caring and sharing that made our lives so rich. This was the ‘safe space’ where bonds were built; bonds that endure even when time and distance have separated us physically.  

A more inclusive gender-neutral space and time was the twice a day tea-table time. Tea table became the venue for easing in the newcomers; teasing and ribbing the old-timers; there were no hierarchies and no bosses. The agenda was whatever the mood of the table—sharing, admonishing, admiring, agonising and venting, and yes, laughing a lot.

It was an important support system in so many ways. After just 15 minutes, one returned to one’s desk feeling much better. You weren’t the only one who struggled to keep going as you juggled work and home; your child’s behaviour was not as worrisome as you imagined it was; and yes, in-laws happened to the best of us! It was not only about chit-chat and food; it was where serious discussions took place—about work and work culture; about the state of the world and the nation; about books read and films seen, people met and to be met. It was where so many “aha” moments happened. Above all it was a sense of sharing and caring that permeated.

It is sad that people today are craving such time and space, and above all the comfort of sharing and caring. It is sad that we need a reminder that the world is a better place when we connect and care about the people around us.

Many years before such a reminder became necessary, Eleanor Roosevelt, wife of Franklin D. Roosevelt who was the President of the United States during the Great Depression and World War II shared these words of wisdom:

Someone once asked me what I regarded as the three most important requirements for happiness. My answer was: A feeling that you have been honest with yourself and those around you; a feeling that you have done the best you could have in your personal life and in your work; the ability to love others. Happiness is not a goal, it is a by-product. Paradoxically, the one sure way not to be happy is deliberately to map out a way of life in which one would please oneself completely and exclusively. After a short time, a very short time, there would be little that one really enjoyed. For what keeps our interest in life and makes us look forward to tomorrow is giving pleasure to other people.

–Mamata

A Woman of Many Parts: Sarojini Naidu

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In a week when women are being celebrated, and their achievements extoled, it is fitting to remember that in every era of history, in every part of the world, there have been women who have broken boundaries and glass ceilings, and have excelled in numerous fields. This is a good week to celebrate a woman who combined seemingly contrary abilities, and played a significant role in several fields of endeavor. This is Sarojini Naidu.

Textbooks traditionally describe Sarojini Naidu as the Nightingale of India. But she was far more just a singer of songs. A poetess, patriot, fierce nationalist and freedom fighter, politician, eloquent orator, inspirer of masses, perfect hostess, and a feminist and firebrand leader in every sphere.

Sarojini was born on 13 February 1879 in a Bengali Brahmin family, the eldest of eight siblings. Somewhat of a prodigy, she entered the University of Madras at the age of 12; she composed 1000-line poems at 13. After graduating in 1895 with the highest rank, she was awarded a scholarship by the Nizam of Hyderabad, and she spent three years in England, studying at King’s College London, and later at Girton College in Cambridge. During this period she also became involved with the suffragist movement in England. She returned to India in 1898 and married Dr M Govindarajulu Naidu whom she had met in England, (the inter-caste marriage attracted opposition) when she was 19. By the age of 25, Sarojini was mother to four children. Her first major collection of poems was published when she was 26. She had literary fame, and a comfortable lifestyle in Hyderabad where she played the perfect hostess.But this was hardly a deterrent to what was to be an extremely active political life.

Sarojini and Gandhiji shared a special relationship. She had first met him in 1914 in London just as the First World War had broken out. That was the start of a long and close bonding between the two. Sarojini was one of the few who could joke about, and with, Gandhi (she nicknamed him Mickey Mouse!). The two exchanged witty repartees, and reproaches, which were totally free from malice. She could stand up to Gandhi and never hesitated to speak her mind. Yet she remained one of his staunchest supporters all her life, and revered him as a guru.

Sarojini Naidu was drawn to Gandhi’s non-cooperation movement and in 1924 travelled across the world to spread the word about the movement. She was a sought after public speaker. In 1925 she became the first Indian President of the Indian National Congress. She was a front-line participant in the Independence movement. Her participation in the Salt Satyagraha and the Quit India Movement was deemed as ‘anti-British activity’ and she was imprisoned several times for this.

Sarojini Naidu believed that the nationalist cause could not be separated from the movement for women’s rights. She helped establish the Women’s Indian Association along with Annie Besant and a few others, in 1917, which championed women’s right to vote. The same year, along with Annie Besant she went to London to represent the case for women’s franchise before the Joint Select Committee.

She was elected to the Constituent Assembly that drafted the Constitution of India. After India achieved independence on 15 August 1947, Sarojini Naidu was appointed governor of the United Provinces, making her the first woman governor in the country. She remained in the post until she passed away on 2 March 1949.

Sarojini Naidu’s contribution to the freedom movement and to the early years of our new republic was marked by her total dedication combined with her boundless energy and multi-faceted brilliance. This was summed up thus by her fellow freedom fighter Jawaharlal Nehru: She began life as a poet, in later years when the compulsion of events drew her into the national struggle, she plunged into it with all the zest and fire she possessed…. whose whole life became a poem and a song and who infused artistry and grace in the national struggle, just as Mahatma Gandhi had infused moral grandeur to it.

Despite her active political life Sarojini’s literary output was also prolific. She published several volumes of poetry, and held ‘salons’ which attracted an array of intellectuals. She led a hectic and productive life despite suffering from a variety of ailments throughout her life. Her zest for life was undiminished till the end, when she passed away at the relatively young age of 70.   As she wrote to her youngest child a few years earlier: One is not so concerned with a long life as with a ‘merry one’—merry as the sum of worthwhile, rich, full, interesting, and who can say that mine has not been and is not in that sense ‘merry’ as well as long?

On a more serious note, several years earlier when she was in Yervada jail, Sarojini wrote to her daughter Padmaja Naidu: In the course of a long and most variegated life I have learned one superlative truth…that the true measure of life and oneself lies not in the circumstances and events that fill its map but in one’s approach and attitude and acceptance of those things.

An inspiration, and a role model indeed!

–Mamata

Missing People: The Village of Dolls

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It sounds like something out of an imaginary futuristic scenario. Entire countries with no young people, no babies being born, and the old dying out until finally there are entire countries without a human population. Incredibly, this is happening here and now. Many countries in Eastern Europe, Southern Europe and East Asia are facing drastic declines in new births, even as the elderly population declines due to deaths. News reports say that the number of babies born in Japan in 2024 was the lowest since records began in 1899. The prospect of population extinction is becoming a reality in South Korea, which has been moving towards a childless society. Of the already dwindling population, young people are abandoning their rural homes and migrating to cities in search of work, leaving no workforce for agriculture and fishing. What will these abandoned villages look like?

There is a village in Japan which is an ironically graphic example of such a scenario. This is Nagoro, an isolated valley town on the Japanese island of Shikoku, the smallest and least visited of Japan’s four main islands. Originally populated by around 300 people, a few years ago only about two dozen old people remained. One of these old people was a father whose daughter moved back to the village to be with him. Tsukimi Ayano who had spent most of her life in Osaka moved back to the island in 2002. 

One of the things that Ayano did when she came back was to make a scarecrow (called kakashi in Japanese) that resembled her father to scare away the birds that were raiding the seeds that she planted on the family plot. In addition to keeping the birds away, Ayano liked that the scarecrow added a dash of something different in the deserted landscape. Having the time, and the skills, Ayano continued making these life-sized and life-like scarecrows for other people’s fields also. From scarecrows, Ayano moved on to making other figures. It became her hobby, and her pleasurable pastime. Initially she made the scarecrows for the fields; then she started making figures that resembled old neighbours who had passed away, or people who had moved away. Ayano felt that these gave her a sense of having some company. It was also a way of commemorating the erstwhile residents of the village, while infusing some spirit in their rapidly vanishing village.

These figures (she calls them ‘dolls’) soon began to populate different parts of the village. They were placed in people’s gardens, at bus stops, in village meeting places—depicted as being engaged in everyday tasks. Walking around the village one could see figures of construction workers installing a road sign, a fisherman on his porch with his daughter, a couple sitting on a river bank, all looking real and ‘ready for action’. After the village school closed down as there were no students, Ayano recreated a classroom with students and teachers, with two of the dolls wearing the same clothes as the last two students who had attended the school.

As she said “I just wanted people to enjoy looking at the dolls and I want to enjoy making them.” Ayano makes all the dolls herself using wooden slabs for the base, cotton clumps for the head and rolled newspapers for the ‘skeleton’ as well as straw and fabric. The dolls come to life with the unique facial expressions she gives each one, shaping the nose and the mouth, choosing the buttons for the eyes, and meticulously crafting the ears. Ayano wants to make sure that her kakashi can hear well!  She dresses them in clothes that, in many cases, belonged to the real characters, or are donated. It takes Ayano about three days to make a doll. Each doll has a life of two to three years as the natural materials weather quickly. Ayano tries to recycle as much of the material as she can, as she makes new dolls to replace the old ones.  

Ayano’s village of dolls Nagoro remained undiscovered and unknown until 2014 when a German filmmaker made a short documentary titled Valley of Dolls. This attracted global attention, and led to an influx of curious tourists to this remote island. Ayano personally felt that the film was dark and sad, whereas for her the process of creating the dolls is a joyous one, and the village itself is a now a curiously vibrant and animated place. Ayano’s acknowledgement of the filmmaker is his replica doll as a figure at a bus stop!

For Ayano these dolls are a celebration of life, not weird reminders of the past. In her mid-seventies now, Ayano continues to live in the village with its population that she has created and continues to nurture.

–Mamata

Advocate for Invertebrates: EO Wilson

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Call them spineless, or call them creepy crawlies! As Meena wrote this week, they make up a majority of the living things on earth, and yet they are largely unnoticed (unless of course one is stung by one, or has one creeping up your leg!) Invertebrates however have had their own champions. One of whom is EO Wilson that Meena has quoted as saying that “invertebrates don’t need us, we need them!”

This was indeed the case with EO Wilson one of the most distinguished and recognized American scientists in modern history. While he began his scientific career by specializing in the study of ants, Dr Wilson became an advocate for all species, particularly invertebrates, as essential to the health of the planet and people.

While his key discovery was the chemical by which ants communicate, EO Wilson spent the rest of his life also looking at the bigger picture of life on Earth. And so, to his lifelong fascination with ants, E. O. Wilson added a second passion: guiding humanity toward a more sustainable existence. He devoted his life to studying the natural world, and inspiring others to care for it as he did.

Edward Osborne Wilson was not just the world’s foremost authority on the study of ants (a myrmecologist!) but one of the founding fathers of, and leading expert in, biodiversity. His autobiography titled Naturalist traces his evolution as a scientist. Young Wilson knew early that he wanted to be scientist. A childhood accident left him with weak eyesight and hearing, so instead of studying animals and birds in the field, he concentrated on the miniature creatures such as ants and bugs that he could study right under his nose through a microscope. This was the perfect tool to spark a lifelong passion for insects.  I turned to the teeming small creatures that can be held between the thumb and forefinger: the little things that compose the foundation of our ecosystems, the little things, as I like to say, who run the world.

As a schoolboy Wilson was not a great reader. But he claimed that one of the few books that he read from cover to cover was The Boy Scout Handbook. (I wrote about this in my recent piece Be Prepared!) It was the Boy Scouts which nurtured his early love for nature. As he once said: The Boy Scouts of America gave me my education.

His autobiography Naturalist also reveals how these first steps led to a lifelong journey of exploration and discovery which involved a mix of endeavour, random encounter, enthusiasm and opportunism. Underpinning all these was his sheer delight of the pursuit of knowledge. As he wrote about an expedition to Fiji in 1954:

Never before or afterward in my life have I felt such a surge of high expectation—of pure exhilaration—as in those few minutes. I know now that it was an era in biology closing out, when a young scientist could travel to a distant part of the world and explore entirely on his own. No team of specialists accompanied me and none waited at my destination, whatever I decided that was to be. Which was exactly as I wished it. I carried no high technology instruments, only a hand lens, forceps, specimen vials, notebooks, quinine, sulfanilamide, youth, desire and unbounded hope.      

Edward Osborne Wilson is widely considered one of the greatest natural scientists of our time. He is also credited for being the founding father of the branch of biology known as socio-biology and biodiversity. He was a pioneer in the efforts to preserve and protect the biodiversity of our planet and was instrumental in launching the Encyclopaedia of Life, a free online database documenting all 1.9 million species on Earth recognised by science.

In a tribute to his lifelong dedication to science, two species of organisms have been named after him. Myrmoderus ewolsoni, an antbird indigenous to Peru, and Miniopteru wilsoni, a long-fingered bat discovered in Mozambique’s Gorongosa National Park. Wilson once told Scouting Magazine that being recognized in this way was an honour akin to being awarded a Nobel Prize because it’s such a rarity to have a true new species discovered.

EO Wilson was driven by the passion of guiding humanity toward a more sustainable existence. To do that, he knew he had to reach beyond the towers of academia and write for the public. He believed that one book would not suffice because learning requires repeated exposure. Thus he wrote several bestselling books that eloquently pleaded his case, while also providing facts and figures backed by solid research. His books On Human Nature and The Ants received the Pulitzer Prize.

While he remained a Harvard professor for 46 years, he was conferred with many accolades and honours by universities and organizations across the world. EO Wilson passed away on 26 December 2021 at the age of 92, leaving behind a legacy of conservation action that continues to inspire the global movement to end the threat of extinction.

In 2023, the United Nations Convention on Biological Diversity (COP15) agreed to a Global Biodiversity Framework (GBF) with a goal to maintain, enhance, and restore Earth’s natural ecosystems by 2030, halt human-induced extinction of known species, and by 2050, reduce the extinction rate tenfold and increase the abundance of native wild species to healthy and resilient levels. A key component to the GBF is a target to conserve at least 30 percent of land, seas, and freshwater by 2030 (known as “30×30”).

EO Wilson once wrote:

Looking at the totality of life, the Poet asks, who are Gaia’s children?

The Ecologist responds, they are the species. We must know the role each one plays in the whole order to manage Earth wisely.

The Systematist adds, then let’s get started. How many species exist? Where are they in the world? Who are their genetic kin?

EO Wilson was a rare combination of all three.

–Mamata

Be Prepared! World Thinking Day

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A recent mention of World Thinking Day to be marked on 22 February set me thinking! This was the first time I had heard about such a day, and I was curious about what lay behind it. There I discovered an unusual link to a collective that was very much a part of my life in my primary school days. This was the Scouts and Guides.

The history of this global movement goes back more than a hundred years. Robert Baden-Powell a military officer who had been in the Boer War organized an experimental camp in 1907 on Brownsea Island off the southern coast of England. The idea was to immerse young boys in activities aimed at developing in them various outdoor skills, chivalrous behavior and good citizenship. This was inspired by the military “scouts” in the army who were sent out to gather information, learn survival skills, and be prepared to help others.

Baden-Powell’s idea was that boys should organize themselves into small natural sub-groups of six or seven under a boy leader. They would be trained in all skills that would be required in camping–tracking and reconnaissance, mapping, signalling, knotting, and first aid.

The camp was a success. Following this, and based on his ideas for training boys, Baden-Powell published a book Scouting for Boys. The book became one of the bestsellers of the twentieth century. Thousands of boys began to join the Boy Scouts movement. To become a scout, a boy would promise to be loyal to his country, help other people, and in general obey the scout law, which was a simple code of chivalrous behaviour.

In 1909 Baden-Powell organized a Boy Scout rally in London. It was here that a small group of girls ‘gate crashed’! The girls had been secretly following the activities that their brothers did, and they demanded that there be something similar for girls. This was radical in a period when girls were expected to be docilely engaged in domestic tasks and ‘ladylike’ activities such as needlework and art. Baden-Powell was encouraging. He asked his sister, Agnes Baden-Powell, to help him with a girls’ organization and she became the first President of the Girl Guides. Working together, the two outlined programme ideas for girls, and later produced The Handbook for Girl Guides. Visitors to Britain were impressed by this and took the idea back to their own countries. By 1910 Guiding had started in Canada, Denmark, Finland and South Africa. Within the next two years it spread to Ireland, Holland, Sweden and the United States. The movement continued to spread across the world. The girls who joined acquired many skills. During World War I they made important contributions to war efforts including growing food, working in hospitals, factories and soup kitchens.

The First World Conference held in England, in 1920 was a historic occasion that gave representatives of the Girl Guiding and Girl Scouting world the opportunity to meet and exchange ideas and experiences and shape the future and direction of the Guiding and Scouting World. As the Movement grew and expanded, country representatives began to feel that it was time to create something more solid and binding and the idea of forming a world association was proposed after the 4th World Conference in 1926. The delegates from across the world also decided to create a special day for guides and girl scouts. They selected the joint birthday of Lord Baden-Powell, the founder of the scout and guide movement, and his wife Olave as appropriate to mark such a day. This was 22 February, and the day was to be called Thinking Day.

The World Association of Girl Guides and Girl Scouts (WAGGGS), was formed when Delegates from 26 countries met at the Fifth International Conference in Hungary in 1928. Its Secretariat was to be located in London.

The World Association of Girl Guides and Girl Scouts grew to become the largest voluntary Movement dedicated to girls and young women in the world, representing millions of girls and young women from 152 countries. Through innovative non-formal education programmes, leadership development, advocacy work and community action, the movement has empowered girls and young women to develop the skills and confidence needed to make positive changes in their lives, in their communities and countries.

India was not far behind in this movement. The Girl Guiding Movement was started by Dr Cullen in 1911. The Boy Scouts had been established in 1910. But at the time India was under colonial rule, and no Indian boys and girls were included in the movement till 1916. A number of different Guiding and scouting Associations were formed in the following years. In 1928 the All India Girl Guide Association was admitted as a founding member of the World Association of Girl Guides and Girl Scouts (WAGGGS). 1951 On 15 August 1951, the All India Girl Guide Association merged with the Bharat Scouts and Guides. Following the merger, the Girl Guide Association ceased to be a member of WAGGGS.

In the 1960s and 1970s Girl Guides and Boy Scouts were part of the extra-curricular school activities. I clearly remember that as a Bulbul (as the younger guides were called in India) I struggled with learning how to tie different kinds of knots. My dark-blue Bulbul uniform with epaulets, scarf, and a brown leather belt stayed with me for many years. I am not sure if Bulbuls still have a place in the myriad of extra-curricular activities that schools offer. Today the educational system advertises that it trains children in ‘life-skills’ and ‘global citizenship’. To my mind, Girl Guiding introduced these a century ago, along with the attributes of being a good human being. The essence of these are encapsulated in its Motto: Be Prepared. And elaborated in the nine points of Guide Law: A Guide is trustworthy; A Guide is loyal; A Guide is a friend to all and a sister to every other guide; A Guide is courteous; A Guide is a friend to animals and loves nature; A Guide is disciplined and protects public property; A Guide is courageous; A Guide is thrifty; A Guide is pure in thought, word and deed.

As we approach the centenary of World Thinking Day, 22 February is a good day to reflect on these simple but powerful tenets. It is also a day to celebrate friendship, sisterhood, and empowerment, as also to take action to speak out for the millions of girls who, even today, do not have an equal voice, nor the opportunity to Be Prepared. 

–Mamata

A Kumbh Experience

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It has dominated the news for the last month or more. It has broken records. The numbers are counted not in thousands, but in crores. It is the headline-making event of a century and a half…It is the Mahakumbh Mela.

The many records being broken may also include the media coverage which breathlessly recounts every VIP visit and holy dip that has become a “must do must show” part of every itinerary.

Over a hundred years ago, another newsmaker also visited the Kumbh. And as was his wont, wrote about the experience in his own words. This was Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi.

Gandhi had returned to India in January 1915 after spending almost a quarter century in South Africa. After spending a few days in Mumbai, he proceeded to Pune to meet Gopal Krishna Gokhale who he considered as his mentor. Gokhale advised that if Gandhi were to plan to remain in India and work for the people of this country, he first needed to acquaint himself better, first hand, with the country and its people. It was decided that this orientation would be through a journey across India by train, travelling by third class, as the common people did. Gandhi did indeed embark upon such a journey after a short visit to Calcutta, Shantiniketan and Burma.

In his own words: I, having been out of India for so long, have no business to form any definite conclusions on matters essentially Indian, and that I should pass some time here as an observer and a student. This I have promised to do, and I hope to carry out my promise.

Early in these travels Gandhi visited the Kumbh Mela at Haridwar. He recounts his experiences and impressions in his autobiography. Some excerpts:

This year – 1915 – was the year of the Kumbha fair, which is held at Hardvar once every 12 years. I was by no means eager to attend the fair, but I was anxious to meet Mahatma Munshiramji who was in his Gurukul. Gokhale’s Society had sent a big volunteer corps for service at the Kumbha. Pandit Hridayanath Kunzru was at the head, and the late Dr. Dev was the medical officer. I was invited to send the Phoenix party to assist them, and so Maganlal Gandhi had already preceded me. On my return from Rangoon, I joined the band.

Our stay in Shantiniketan had taught us that the scavenger’s work would be our special function in India. Now for the volunteers in Hardvar tents had been pitched in a dharmashala, and Dr. Dev had dug some pits to be used as latrines. He had to depend on paid scavengers for looking after these. Here was work for the Phoenix party. We offered to cover up the excreta with earth and to see to their disposal, and Dr. Dev gladly accepted our offer. The offer was naturally made by me, but it was Maganlal Gandhi who had to execute it. My business was mostly to keep sitting in the tent giving darshan and holding religious and other discussions with numerous pilgrims who called on me. This left me not a minute which I could call my own. I was followed even to the bathing ghat by these darshan-seekers, nor did they leave me alone whilst I was having my meals. Thus it was in Hardvar that I realized what a deep impression my humble services in South Africa had made throughout the whole of India.

But this was no enviable position to be in. I felt as though I was between the devil and the deep sea. Where no one recognized me, I had to put up with the hardships that fall to the lot of the millions in this land, e.g., in railway travelling. Where I was surrounded by people who had heard of me I was the victim of their craze for darshan. Which of the two conditions was more pitiable, I have often been at a loss to determine. This at least I know that the darshanvalas’ blind love has often made me angry, and more often sore at heart. Whereas travelling, though often trying, has been uplifting and has hardly ever roused me to anger.

I was in those days strong enough to roam about a lot, and was fortunately not so known as not to be able to go in the streets without creating much fuss. During these roamings I came to observe more of the pilgrims’ absent mindedness, hypocrisy and slovenliness, than of their piety. The swarm of sadhus, who had descended there, seemed to have been born to enjoy the good things of life.

The day of the fair was now upon us. It proved a red letter day for me. I had not gone to Hardvar with the sentiments of a pilgrim. I have never thought of frequenting places of pilgrimage in search of piety. But the seventeen lakhs of men that were reported to be there could not all be hypocrites or mere sight-seers. I had no doubt that countless people amongst them had gone there to earn merit and for self-purification. It is difficult, if not impossible, to say to what extent this kind of faith uplifts the soul.

I therefore passed the whole night immersed in deep thought. There were those pious souls in the midst of the hypocrisy that surrounded them. They would be free of guilt before their Maker. If the visit to Hardvar was in itself a sin, I must publicly protest against it, and leave Hardvar on the day of Kumbha. If the pilgrimage to Hardvar and to the Kumbha fair was not sinful, I must impose some act of self-denial on myself in atonement for the iniquity prevailing there and purify myself. This was quite natural for me. My life is based on disciplinary resolutions.

So I pledged myself never whilst in India to take more than five articles in twenty-four hours, and never to eat after dark. I gave the fullest thought to the difficulties I might have to face. But I wanted to leave no loophole. I rehearsed to myself what would happen during an illness, if I counted medicine among the five articles, and made no exception in favour of special articles of diet. I finally decided that there should be no exception on any account whatsoever.

But the Hardvar experiences proved for me to be of inestimable value. They helped me in no small way to decide where I was to live and what I was to do.

Just over a century later, how much has changed, and yet, how much remains the same? Food for thought!

–Mamata

Pulses Rule!

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They are at the heart of every meal; they come in many colours, shapes and sizes; they can be used in a large range of permutations and combinations. They are the pulses that are an integral part of all cuisines in India. In a country with such immense diversity in culinary traditions, food habits, and meals, pulses are the one common as well as essential element. Our daily meal is incomplete with a dish made from a pulse, and many of our favourite snacks would not be what they are without pulses. Yet there is much that we have never stopped to really think about.

Technically pulses are the edible seeds obtained from the cultivation of leguminous plants for both food and feed. India has an immense diversity of pulses at the genetic and species level, as well as their uses at the culinary level. What makes pulses the original ‘wonder food’?

These seeds are a rich source of nutrients, mainly proteins, that are crucial for a healthy and balanced diet. It is estimated that 100 grams of dry lentils contain about 25 grams of protein. Thus pulses can become a backbone of a vegan diet.

They are naturally low in fat and contain no cholesterol, reducing the risk of cardiovascular diseases. They are also low in sodium chloride or salt which is a contributor to hypertension. They are high in potassium which plays an important role for digestive and muscular functions.

Pulses are a good source of iron and a great answer to address iron deficiency. The iron in pulses is best absorbed in the body by combining them with foods containing vitamin C. They are an excellent source of folate, a B-vitamin essential for nervous system function. They have a low glycaemic index, which makes them suitable for people with diabetes. They are naturally gluten-free, making them an ideal option for those who are gluten intolerant.

They can be stored for a long time and can be used even when fresh seasonal fruits and vegetables are not available. Their long shelf-life prevents food loss and wastage.

Pulses are incredibly versatile and can be used in an endless variety of cuisines and dishes in numerous forms. 

That is so far as human health goes, and most people are, at some level, aware of these attributes of pulses (a lot of which is passed down through generations by family recipes and ‘granny’s words of wisdom’). But there is not as much awareness about the fact that pulses are as important for environmental health as they are for human health.

Pulses play a vital role in soil health by providing essential nutrients, maintaining soil biodiversity, and enhancing soil structure. They improve soil health by hosting helpful bacteria, called rhizobia, in their roots. These bacteria convert nitrogen from the air into fertilizers in the soil. Additionally, other bacteria and fungi help release phosphorus in the soil, providing essential nutrients for plants and promoting soil diversity. The fertilizers produced by pulses benefit not only the pulses, but also other crops grown alongside them, reducing the need for chemical fertilizers. This makes pulses ideal for sustainable farming practices like intercropping or crop rotation. Additionally, pulses and their by-products are utilized as animal feed.

The benefits are not limited to soil alone. Pulses also perform other ecosystem services. Many pulse species are drought tolerant and resilient to adverse climate, such as drought and heat. Their cultivation optimizes fertilizer use, thus reducing greenhouse gas emissions.

Pulse crops have a lower carbon footprint than most foods because they require a small amount of fertilizer to grow. They also have a low water footprint as they are adapted to semi-arid conditions and can tolerate drought stress.

Despite their immense value for human and environmental health, pulses are not generally ‘stars’; they are often undervalued and under-recognized. In an effort to highlight the importance, as well as potential, of pulses as a global food the United Nations declared 2016 to be the International Year of Pulses. As the then UN Secretary General Mr Ban-ki-Moon said: “The International Year can help overcome this lack of knowledge. Much work needs to be done to end hunger and provide food security and nutrition for all. One concrete, promising opportunity lies with pulses. Let us join forces to raise awareness of the benefits of pulses”.

As the world was embarking on efforts to achieve the newly-adopted Sustainable Development Goals it was hoped that this International Year would help raise awareness of the benefits of pulses globally. The year-long celebration was implemented by the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO), a specialized agency of the United Nations. The year was a success, and recognizing the potential of pulses in further achieving the Sustainable Development Goals, since 2019 the United Nations General Assembly has designated 10 February as World Pulses Day to be celebrated every year.  

This celebration is a recognition of the decisive role that pulses can play in achieving the comprehensive, far-reaching and people-centred set of universal and transformative goals and targets of the United Nations’ 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development.

The World Pulses Day celebrations are an opportunity to raise public awareness about pulses and the fundamental role they play in the transformation to more efficient, inclusive, resilient and sustainable agrifood systems for better production, better nutrition, a better environment, and a better life, leaving no one behind.

This is a good day to look more closely at our own meal! What is the original colour of the pulse on your plate? Green, yellow, red, brown, orange, black, white…

In what form are you eating your pulses? As a Dal (sweet Gujarati or Punjabi tadka?) Rajma-chaval or chana puri? As a part of your idli-sambar? As the partner to rice in khichadi? As the coating on your pakodas? As the sweet moong dal halva or payasam? Each platter will have a different version of pulses!

Whatever the form and whatever the taste, pulses rule our plates and palates!

–Mamata

Continuing Celebrations: Chinese Spring Festival

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As most are surfacing after celebrations that ushered in a new calendar year 2025, it is continuing celebrations for a large population to welcome another new year. This is the Chinese New Year which begins on 29 January this year. This follows the lunar calendar which is based on the 28-day cycle of the moon. The New Year is calculated according to the second new moon after the winter solstice, and this year it fell on 29 January. The New Year day is, in fact, the start of a fifteen-day  celebration which is known as the Spring Festival in China. The festival traditionally begins on the first day of the first lunar month in the Chinese calendar and ends on the 15th day. Each day has a special significance and is marked with its set of traditional rituals, lore, and celebration which involve the whole families.

New Year shopping in a traditional Chinese market

For some families, the preparations for the longer festival begin even earlier, on the eighth day of the 12th month of the lunar calendar, with a festival called Laba. The name is derived from the Chinese words for the 12th month (La) and 8 (Ba). Traditionally the festival also marked the start of the agricultural calendar. On this day prayers are offered to ancestors and gods for fortune and a good harvest. Laba congee, a porridge containing different types of rice, beans, dried nuts, bean curd and meat is eaten.

This marks the beginning of the preparations for the lunar New Year which include cleaning the house by “sweeping away the dust”, shopping for food, new clothes, buying fireworks, preparing gifts and decorations, and prayers to the stove god.

The decorations include red lanterns, paper cuttings, and red spring couplets. The couplets are complementary poetic lines which adhere to certain rules. The spring couplets are written in black ink on red paper, one half affixed vertically on each side of a door, and usually express best wishes for the coming year. Putting up those decorations is thought to keep evil away, and a prayer for blessing, longevity, health, and peace.

Finally it is New Year’s Eve. This is considered as, if not more important than, New Year’s day. The highlight is the family reunion dinner which includes several generations, many who travel long distances to be together for this family gathering. Before they eat, the family makes offerings including food, wine, joss sticks and joss paper to their ancestors.

The dinner menu includes dishes which have symbolic meaning including whole fish, dumplings, sticky rice cake, and spring rolls. After dinner, parents usually give their children money in red envelopes. This is believed to bring good luck, and carry wishes for health, growth, and good studies in the coming year. The family stays up until midnight to usher in the New Year, a tradition called shousui (to keep watch over the year). The start of the New Year is announced with firecrackers and fireworks. It is believed that the louder the firecrackers, the better and luckier it will be for business and farming in the coming year.

Then it is officially the New Year, which marks the start of the 15-day Spring Festival. Each day has its own significance and associated traditions; some customs may vary between regions and groups.

Day 1: People put on new clothes and wish each other with the greeting ”gongxi” meaning “respectful joy.” It is a day of visits. The oldest and most senior members are visited, as well as other relatives and friends. Guests are welcomed with tea and sweet treats, such as sugared fruits which are supposed to sweeten one’s upcoming year. Sweets and fruits are served on a round or octagonal tray – the form resembling togetherness.  Most likely the amount of sweets will be arranged in eight units, as the number eight symbolises luck. The visitor also carries a small gift for the hosts–usually oranges, tangerines, or mandarins, as the fruit symbolises gold, hence wealth and good fortune.

In some traditions it is believed that abstaining from meat on this day will enhance longevity. A traditional Buddhist vegetarian dish is prepared using eighteen different ingredients, each of which has a symbolic meaning. Eighteen is believed to be a lucky number signifying wealth and prosperity.  There are also temple fairs and activities in parks such as Lion dances and Dragon dances, which are enjoyed by families.

Day 2: This is the day when married women visit their parents, accompanied by their husbands, with gifts and red envelopes for the family.

On this day, people offer sacrifices to the God of Wealth, wishing for a luckier and more prosperous year. People say that after being offered sacrifices, the God of Wealth, leaves for heaven on this day.

Day 3: This is not considered as an auspicious day as it is believed that evil spirits roam around. People avoid visiting friends and relatives and stay at home. Traditionally the house is not swept on the first two days of the New Year so as not to sweep away the good luck accrued by the litter of firecrackers, red paper, wrappers, and other evidence of celebration on the floor. This is the day when the house is swept after New Year’s Eve. There is also a legend that this is the day when rats get married, so people leave some rice in the kitchen as gifts, and sleep early so as not to disturb rats. In return the rats would not disturb the family for the whole year.

Day 4, 5 and 6: People resume visits to friends, relatives and temples. Different regions of China have some variations in the traditions associated with these days. The fourth day is one to honour the God of the Kitchen with the prayer to continue watching over the kitchen. Day five honours the God of Wealth for good fortune. People usually stay at home in case they are visited by the God on this day. It is also the day to light firecrackers to drive away the five bad lucks: of intelligence, learning ability, literacy, life, and relationships.

Day 7: According to a legend, Nuwa the goddess created the world. It is believed that she spent the first six days creating animals. Each day of the festival is also believed to be the birthday of the different animals that she is believed to have created in sequence. On the seventh day she created humans. Thus this is the birthday of humans. The day is celebrated with certain foods. The ingredients of the dishes are healthy and have a symbolic meaning.

Day 8: People normally return to work on the eighth day. As eight is the luckiest number in China, most businesses like to reopen on day 8 of the New Year.

Day 9:  This is the birthday of Jade Emperor, said to be the God of all Heavens. People go to ponds and rivers to pray to the gods with offerings of fragrant flower candles.

Day 10: God of Stone’s birthday and also the birthday of Earth Mother celebrated with sweet pastries.

Day 11: A day for fathers to treat their sons-in-law

Day 12, 13 14: These are quieter days, marking a respite from feasting on rich food, but preparing for the first full moon of the year which marks the Lantern festival.

15th day: Lantern festival or the “first night of the full moon” sees lanterns being put and lit everywhere. People often post riddles on the lanterns. Dumplings, with sweet fillings, resembling the shape of the full moon are traditionally eaten on this day. There is usually another family dinner that marks the close of the two-week celebrations, and the official start of the New Year.

According to the Chinese calendar this is the Year of the Snake and much is being written about it. May the spirit of celebrations that mark this day, continue to brighten every day of the year ahead.

–Mamata

Hymn to the Republic

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This week the Indian nation will stand proudly as we salute our national flag and celebrate the 76th Republic Day, and the air reverberates with the chorus of Jana Gana Mana. This is the refrain of the national anthem that unites every citizen of the country.

English translation of the stanzas in Tagore’s own handwriting. Source:https://commons.wikimedia.org/

From the time children are in school, the anthem, played and sung on important national days, becomes deeply engrained, often learned by sheer repetition, without really going into what the words mean, and how they came to be conferred the status of a national anthem.

While Jana Gana Mana was declared as the National Anthem of free India on 24 January 1950, its history goes way back. The hymn was originally composed in Bengali, by Rabindranath Tagore, India’s first Nobel laureate, on 11 December 1911. Titled Bharoto Bhagyo Bidhata, it consisted of five stanzas. It was first published in a journal called Tatwabodhini Patrika in 1912 under the title Bharat Bidhata. However, it was first sung on Day 2 of the annual session of the Indian National Congress on 27 December 1911, by Saraladevi Chowdhrani along with a group of school students.

The fact that the date of the composition of the hymn coincided with the eve of the coronation of King George V led to rumours that the song was written to honour the British king. This was mainly due to misreporting in the press that confused this song with another song in Hindi Badshah Hamara, which was sung on the same occasion and, in fact, was in praise of the monarch. 

Years later, Tagore himself clarified in a letter dated 10 November 1937, that this was never the case; the song was a tribute to the greatness of India. In his own words (originally in Bengali): A certain high official in His Majesty’s service, who was also my friend, had requested that I write a song of felicitation towards the Emperor. The request simply amazed me. It caused a great stir in my heart.

In response to that great mental turmoil, I pronounced the victory in Jana Gana Mana of that Bhagyo Bidhata [ed. God of Destiny] of India who has from age after age held steadfast the reins of India’s chariot through rise and fall, through the straight path and the curved. That Lord of Destiny, that Reader of the Collective Mind of India, that Perennial Guide, could never be George V, George VI, or any other George.

For the next few years the song continued to be sung on different occasions, but with many regional variations. It still did not have a uniform tune. In February 1919, while on a tour of South India, Tagore took a break to rest at the Theosophical College in Madanapalle, in Andhra Pradesh. Started by Dr Annie Besant, the college was headed by educationist and poet James Cousins. James and his wife, Margaret Cousins who was Vice Principal, used to have informal singing sessions with the college community, every Wednesday night. Tagore also joined the session and asked if he could sing one of his poems in Bengali. This was the first time Tagore himself sang his poem. Margaret Cousins was enthralled, especially with the refrain, Jaya hai, Jaya hai, Jaya hai, Jaya Jaya Jaya Jaya hai. She requested Tagore for an English translation, which Tagore did, on the same day, 2 February 1919, while still at the college. He titled it The Morning Song of India. The translated version of the first stanza read: “Thou art the ruler of the minds of all people, dispenser of India’s destiny. Thy name rouses the hearts of the Punjab, Sindh, Gujarat and Maratha, of the Dravida, Orissa and Bengal. It echoes in the hills of the Vindhyas and Himalayas, mingles in the music of the Yamuna and Ganges and is chanted by the waves of the Indian Ocean. They pray for thy blessings and sing thy praise. The saving of all people waits in thy hand, thou dispenser of India’s destiny. Victory, Victory, Victory to thee.’

Margaret Cousins was very taken by the words. Herself a trained musician, she set down the musical notations, and rendered the song with musical instruments, sung by the students. Tagore appreciated the melody, and the efforts in composing it. The college adopted the English version as their prayer song which is sung even today. And from then on, the musical form of the Bengali song also became the tune that we are familiar with today.

While India was still in the struggle for Independence from British rule, Netaji Subhashchandra Bose, who was in Germany, at the founding meeting of the German-Indian Society selected Jana Gana Mana to be played as the national anthem of independent India. It was performed (not sung) by the Hamburg Radio Symphony Orchestra on 11 September 1942.

On the midnight of August 14, 1947, India the Indian Constituent Assembly assembled for the first time as a sovereign body. The session ended with a performance of Jana Gana Mana. The members of the Indian Delegation to the General Assembly of the United Nations held at New York in 1947 gave a recording of Jana Gana Mana as the country’s national anthem. The song was played by the house orchestra in front of a gathering consisting of representatives from all over the world.

The first stanza of Jana Gana Mana was officially adopted as India’s National Anthem by the Constituent Assembly of India on January 24, 1950. The formal rendition of the anthem takes approximately 52 seconds to complete.

There is a protocol to be followed in the performance of the anthem as laid down by the Government of India which includes instructions on the correct versions of the anthem; the occasions on which it can be sung or played; the need for paying respect to the anthem by observing proper decorum on such occasion. It is mandated by the Supreme Court of India that all must stand up with properrespect when the National Anthem is being rendered. 

This Republic Day, as we stand and honour the anthem, let us also bow in respect to the rich history that has enabled us to stand as proud citizens of a proud nation today.

–Mamata