Category: Meena Raghunathan

Counting cows…

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We the people of India have been waiting to be counted for over four years now. The decadal census of people, which is supposed to be the basis of policy-making has been delayed since 2021, breaking a tradition after seven fairly on-time exercises.

Well, our four-legged co-inhabitants are luckier. The 21st Livestock Census started last week, and will take places over almost five months, from October 2024 to February 2025. It will cost about Rs. 200 crore, and around 1 lakh field officials–mostly veterinarians or para-veterinarians–will be involved in the enumeration process. Though 95.8% of livestock population is in rural areas, the census will cover both rural and urban areas.

Livestock is defined as ‘domesticated animals raised in an agricultural environment to produce labour and commodities such as meat, eggs, milk, fur, leather and wool’. This particular census will collect data on15 species of livestock– Cattle, Buffalo, Mithun, Yak, Sheep, Goat, Pig, Camel, Horse, Ponies, Mule, Donkey, Dog, Rabbit and Elephant, capturing data on 219 indigenous breeds of 16 species. Apart from livestock,the headcount of poultry birds — Fowl, Duck, Turkey, Geese, Quail, Gini Fowl, Ostrich and Emu — will also be taken. The age, sex and use of each individual animal will be documented.

The census will involve officials going from door-to-door to collect detailed data on domesticated animals and birds across the nation—including not just households (about 30 crore), but also household enterprises, non-households (private sector, cooperative sector, etc.) and institutions. Information about the animals will be collected, as also information on instruments and machinery used for animal husbandry. This census will leverage mobile technology for data collection and transmission and hopefully, this will enhance the accuracy and efficiency of data collection.

The Livestock Census has a hoary history in India, with the first one being conducted in 1919-1920. It is conducted every five years with the 20th Livestock Census taking place between October 1, 2018 and September 20, 2019. It put the total Livestock population at 536.76 million, showing an increase of 4.8% over Livestock Census-2012.  Total Bovine population (Cattle, Buffalo, Mithun, and Yak) was 302.79 million in 2019 which shows an increase of 1.0 per cent over the previous census.

The livestock sector is critical in our country given that it provides livelihoods to over 2.1 crore people. It contributes about 6 per cent to the total GDP, and 25 per cent to the Agricultural GDP. The share of livestock in agricultural sector GDP growth has been increasing faster than the crop sector. This is fuelled by rising incomes, a rising population and increased urbanization, which are all propelling demand for livestock products, and hence the rising importance of this sector. As per the 20th Livestock census, the total livestock population shows an increase of 4.6 per cent over the Livestock census 2012. India has the largest population of cattle of any country in the world, with about 33 per cent of the total number.

Worldwide, livestock make up almost 10 per cent of vertebrate biomass—more than human beings, wild birds and wild animals put together! While today cattle make up the largest livestock group worldwide, it was sheep which were among the first animals to be domesticated—probably as early as 10,000 bce.

While there is enormous potential for livestock to contribute to livelihoods of the poor especially women, there are many challenges in India—from disease, to lack of access to veterinary care, vaccination, insurance, fodder and clean water, to diminishing grazing lands,  to challenges in increasing productivity, to lack of organized markets which leads to the exploitation of the sellers, to tackling the contribution of this sector to climate change.

The Livestock census aims to provide data to frame policies and programmes which will hopefully improve the situation.

But as they count cows, maybe they need to count humans too. We too could do with better policies and programmes in many, many areas of life!

–Meena

The Moving Finger…

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Last week was devoted to calligraphy, which we are assured by practitioners, is not handwriting at all. Rather, they aver, it is an art form.

Calligraphers are few and far between. But each and every one of us is a hand-writer. Children start doodling and scribbling by the age of two, and most write the alphabet before they are four. It might be one of the most universal of skills! And an essential one too, because research suggests that writing by hand enhances learning and memory. Brain patterns established during handwriting are important for memory formation and learning new information. And of course it improves fine motor skills. So hand writing practice is pretty important even for children who are digital natives and may not use the skill very much as grown-ups.

There are 12 characteristics on which quality of handwriting is evaluated: line quality, spacing, size consistency, pen lifts, connecting strokes, complete letters, cursive vs. print, pen pressure, slant, baselines, embellishments, and placements.

But it is a fact that the quality of penmanship has gone down with time. As we use the skill less, we get worse at it. In fact, there are times when I can’t decipher my own scribbled notes. Reports and records based on these notes are my only forays into fiction!

Which is why it is probably important to highlight and celebrate this skill.

In the US, they observe National Handwriting Day on January 23rd. Why this date? Well, it is the birthday of John Hancock, the first signatory of the Declaration of Independence. Among the 56 signatures on the document, his large, flamboyant signature stood out. In fact, so prominent was it that “John Hancock” is an informal synonym for signature in the US!

The Day started to be observed in 1977, when educators were already beginning to feel that the art of handwriting was getting lost. The Writing Instrument Manufacturers Association came forward to do something about this (and of course at the same time, increase sales of pens, pencils, paper and writing instruments). They initiated National Handwriting Day.

(Incidentally, though we use handwriting and penmanship interchangeably, they are not quite the same. Handwriting is the act of writing out full words or sentences by hand on paper. Words may be written either legibly or illegibly. Penmanship is the art or skill of having excellent writing, and good penmanship makes the process of reading written work much easier.)

Lately, something called the World Handwriting Contest has been initiated. Each year, the World Handwriting Contest opens for entries between January 1 and June 30. There are eight age categories, starting from Children below age 7, right through –Teens, Teens, Adults and Seniors (age 65 up). And it is open to anyone, anywhere.

There are two styles for which prizes are given:

Functional Handwriting which strives for legibility, speed, and fluency without aiming at artistic effect. For this category, the judges will further separate entries as cursive, which joins 50% or more of its letters or manuscript printing, which joins fewer than half of its letters; and
Artistic handwriting which uses a monoline or calligraphy marker, pen, or brush along with decorative strokes, flourishes, and/or combinations of shading, hairlines and/or thick and thin strokes to create an artistic effect.

NRI domination over the Spelling Bee contests is well accepted. People of Asian origin now seem to dominate among winners of the Handwriting competition too, with Indians and Indian-origin names finding frequent mention (with stiff competition from Bangladesh!). Among Indians, Salil Jha of Bhopal has won a prize (above 65 category). Roslin Richard of Bangalore is first place winner in the Adult Category; Feba Sara Saji of Kerala is a winner in the Teens category. Keep it up people! May the moving finger keep writing beautifully!

–Meena

Frozen Poetry: The Art of Calligraphy

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Though the term ‘calligraphy’ is Greek for ‘beautiful writing’, as the art form evolved, the word has taken on a larger meaning. 

Today, people think of calligraphy as:

‘… the art of forming beautiful symbols by hand and arranging them well.’
or
‘…a set of skills and techniques for positioning and inscribing words so they show integrity, harmony, some sort of ancestry, rhythm and creative fire.’

Calligraphers don’t like you to equate the form to ornamental decorated letters or to the use of letters as ornaments, insisting it is about symbols themselves being beautifully formed and arranged.

They say at some level, it is not handwriting at all, because the primary goals of handwriting are to be quickly and easily written and accurately read. In fact, beauty, personality and artistic impact are nowhere near as important in handwriting as clarity and speed (I wish someone had told my primary school teachers that!).

Calligraphy, they say, is ‘writing as an art form’ and not ‘artistic-looking handwriting’. So while handwriting aims to be read, calligraphy aims to produce an ‘art’ reaction.

Calligraphy is ‘a skill which involves touch, pressure, hand movement, unity, and that elusive quality we term “beauty.’ (V. Studley).

The art originated in ancient China, where characters were initially carved onto materials like animal bones and tortoise shells. Over time, this practice evolved into using ink brushes and writing on paper. From China, it moved to neighbouring countries, and slowly Westwards. The ancient Romans used reed or quill pens dipped in ink to write on long rolls of paper, while Christian churches later adopted western calligraphy to reproduce Biblical texts. Arabic calligraphy based on Arabic letters is also very well-developed, and an important part of art and architecture.

The tools used in calligraphy are all-important. While initially, the Chinese artists used ink brushes, the Romans started using reed or quill pens. Calligraphy was revolutionized with the invention of the steel nib. Different types of steel nibs—e.g., those with pointed tips and those with flat, broad edges being used for different calligraphy styles.

Calligrapher PP Raju’s work–both spiritual and meditative

The symbol of Indian Rupee adopted in 2010 is a great example of calligraphy. The symbol is an amalgam of Devanagari “Ra” and the Roman Capital “R”. It was conceptualised and designed by Udaya Kumar, an alumnus of the IDC School of Design of IIT Bombay.

The reason for this meander down calligraphy-lane is because only last week, Kochi hosted the second edition of the International Calligraphy Festival of Kerala (ICFK). The festival was organized by the Kerala Lalitha Kala Academy and the Thiruvananthapuram-based Kachatathapa Foundation, which is led by renowned calligraphy artist Narayana Bhattathiri. It brought together calligraphers from South Korea, France and Vietnam with Indian calligraphy experts like Achyut Palav, often referred to as the patriarch of Indian calligraphy, and D. Udaya Kumar, the creator of the Indian Rupee symbol. It was a priceless learning opportunity for students, teachers, advertising artists, art lovers and art enthusiasts from fine arts colleges, design institutes and design colleges in Kerala.

Apart from lectures, demonstrations and discussions on the subject, there were a range of activities including workshops, live demonstrations, an international calligraphy exhibition, and calligraphy quizzes.

What a beautiful event that must have been, for as someone said ‘Calligraphy is a kind of music not for the ears, but for the eyes.’

–Meena

I am a Little Teapot..

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I suppose in today’s world, children don’t often see teapots. Fortunately, the poem ‘I am a teapot’, one of the cutest action-songs, is still a part of the pre-school repertoire. As the poem tells us, typically teapots have an opening with a lid on top, through which the dry tea and hot water are added; a handle for holding the vessel: and a spout through which the tea is served. And there may be a small air hole in the lid, though the poem does not mention it.

A teapot is basically a vessel used for steeping tea leaves  in boiling or very hot water, and then serving the resulting brew.  

Assassin Teapot: Essential Kitsch from China!

The teapot has a hoary history. It originated in China—of course! The first recorded one goes back to the end of the Sung dynasty (1271-1368). These were Yixing teapots which were red or purple-colored earthen vessels. These containers made in the city of Yixing are still produced today and still very popular and are considered the epitome of teapots.

The idea of the teapot spread to Europe after the East India Company introduced tea and teapots in the late 17th century. In the early 18th century, the Company used to commission Chinese artisans to make teapots as the quality of porcelain in China was better there than in Europe. But slowly Germany and then France got into the game, and started perfecting the art and science. In the mid-1800s, an English pharmacist William Cookworthy, after several experiments, finally hit upon a way to make porcelain similar to that made in China and set up a factory in Plymouth.  And from then on, English and tea and teapots became synonymous!

Many and fantastical are the shapes, sizes and colours in which teapots have been crafted down the centuries. It is a thing of beauty and elegance.

And it is this that the annual Sydney Teapot Show has been showcasing for over 30 years. This is an exhibition and competition where participants take up the challenge of making a unique teapot. Each year, there are specific themes, and this year’s categories are Australian Poets, Toy Story and The Natural World. There are also prizes for Best Pourer and Supreme Teapot – Best in Show. The Show celebrates craftsmanship at its best. As the organizers point out: ‘The skill of the clayworkers is employed in making a teapot – one of the more difficult tasks in ceramics – and their imagination and creativity is also evident in their response to the categories suggested’. The show started on 3 October, and is on for a month. Anyone lucky enough to be down under on these dates can catch the show.

Australia seems to particularly treasure teapots. The Bygone Beauties Museum there has over 5500 pieces! But it is not just in Australia that teapots are celebrated.  The Victoria and Albert Museum has a good collection. The National Museum of Asian Art at the Smithsonian has some special beauties.

There are also several private collectors and collections. Sonny and Gloria Kamm of Los Angeles have been collecting teapots for over 35 years, and have about 17,000 pieces. Sue and Keith Blazye have 8,450 teapots in their home in Kent, plus around another thousand duplicates in the loft,.

Of special interest is the Chitra Collection. It is private museum of historic teawares.  As the site explains, ‘In 2011 Nirmal Sethia, the Chairman of the luxury tea company, Newby Teas, set himself the task of acquiring the world’s greatest collection of teawares to record and preserve tea cultures of the past. Today, the collection, named in honour of his late wife, Chitra, totals almost 2000 objects and is already the world’s finest and most comprehensive of its kind.’  So if you are not able to make it to Sydney, check out https://chitracollection.com/collection/ for a teapot-treat!

As the weather turns balmy, it’s the perfect time to bring out your teapot and sip a refreshing cup, while reflecting on these teapot-related pieces of wisdom!

‘Disciples and devotees…what are most of them doing? Worshipping the teapot instead of drinking the tea!’ Wei Wu Wei (Theatre producer and philosopher)

‘A great idea should always be left to steep like loose tea leaves in a teapot for a while to make sure that the tea will be strong enough and that the idea truly is a great one.’ Phoebe Stone (Author and artist).

–Meena

Tragedy in a Paradise: Kuru Disease

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Viewers of hospital serials like House become familiar with the names, symptoms and treatments for a variety of obscure diseases, from Wilson’s disease to Fulminating osteomyelitis to Ornithine Transcarbamylase Deficiency to Epstein Barr to Amyloidosis and Sarcoidosis.

But even to a hardened medical-series watcher like me, the most horrifying disease that I came across was in a news report. And the disease is Kuru.

Kuru is a prion disease. A prion is a type of protein that can trigger normal proteins in the brain to fold abnormally. Normal prion protein is found on the surface of many cells. Prion diseases occur when this protein becomes abnormal and clumps in the brain. It then causes brain damage. (https://www.hopkinsmedicine.org/)

This abnormal protein build-up in the brain can lead to memory problems, personality changes and trouble with movement. Symptoms include rapidly developing dementia, difficulty walking and changes in gait, jerking movements of the muscles, hallucinations, confusion etc. Death usually results within a year or two.

Experts still don’t know a lot about prion diseases. There are several of them, with the most common form of prion disease that affects humans being Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease (CJD). Others include Variably protease-sensitive prionopathy, Gerstmann-Sträussler-Scheinker disease etc.

These are sometimes spread to humans by infected meat products. In rare cases, the infection can spread through contaminated corneas or medical equipment.

But fortunately prion diseases are rare, with about 200 being reported in the US, because unfortunately these disorders are often fatal—there is just no cure.

Even among prion diseases, Kuru is particularly bizarre. It is caused by eating human brain tissue contaminated with infectious prions. But why would anyone eat human brain tissue? Well, it was a widely practiced funeral ritual among the Fore people of Papua New Guinea.

Papua New Guinea
Idyllic Papua New Guinea

The Fore people live in the Okapa District of the Eastern Highlands Province of PNG. Research in the 1950s indicated that the Fore tribe had a population of about 11,000 people. Of this small number, almost 200 people a year were dying of an unknown illness. As they started investigating this, they ruled out contaminants from the environment, common infections and the possibility of genetic inheritance. They narrowed it down to something in their practices. And then a study of their funerary rituals gave a clue. The Fore people would cannibalize their dead. The anthropologist  Hertz uncovered the reason for this—it sprang from love and respect for the deceased. ‘By this rite the living incorporate into their own being the vitality and the special qualities residing in the flesh of the deceased; if this flesh were allowed to dissolve, the community would lose strength to which it is entitled…. at the same time, endocannibalism spares the deceased the horror of a slow vile decomposition’, he wrote.

Children and women were usually more affected by Kuru  than men, probably because they consumed the brain as compared to the men who preferred muscles.

‘Kuru’ in Fore means shivering. It is also called the laughing disease because the affected would exhibit sporadic uncontrolled laughter.

The practice was banned in the 1960s by the PNG government. But sadly, the deaths continued for quite a while after that, since Kuru has a long incubation period—30 to even 50 years. So someone infected in the late sixties might have shown symptoms only in the late nineties. The last diagnosed case was in 2005.

Thank God, it is behind us!

Sorry if this has been a morbid and depressing piece. Blame it on the news item which triggered it!

–Meena

Check and Mate and Gold!

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A few months ago, we had the opportunity to meet two greats of the chess world: Vishwanathan Anand and Gukesh. And today to see Gukesh and the rest of India’s young chess players as world champs is such an occasion of joy and pride.

Anand and Gukesh both spoke at an informal soiree.  Anand, older, a world citizen, soft, sophisticated, with wide interests and knowledge, and comfortable in his achievements. Someone you could picture in a corporate boardroom. Gukesh, young (he was short of his 18th birthday by a week at that time), still not quite able to believe where he had reached in such a short time. But several things bound them. Their humility, decency, utter dedication to their game. And the fact that they were Chennai lads!

Chess

Tamil Nadu, not without reason, is called India’s Grandmaster Factory. Manuel Aaron of Chennai became the country’s first International Master in 1961 and was a major force in domestic and international chess from the ‘60s to the ‘80s. He played a key role in popularization of chess in India and in bringing in international protocols and practices.

And then of course came Vishwanathan Anand, first grandmaster from India in the year 1988, five-time winner of the World Championship, and eight-time winner of the World Rapid championship. He has been Deputy President of the International Chess Federation which oversees all the chess federations in the world. India had seen cricketing heroes till then, and a few tennis and badminton champions. But Vishy was the first chessmaster who captured the imagination of the general public and the youth. Since then, chess has acquired a glamour.

Also from Chennai are Subbaraman Vijayalakshmi the first Indian woman to become International Master (IM) and Woman Grandmaster (WGM), and Koneru Humpy who became the youngest woman ever to achieve the title of Grandmaster (GM) at the age of 15 years, 1 month, 27 days—a record that stayed unbeaten for five years.

And the list goes on! About 35% of Indian Grandmasters among men are from Tamil Nadu, and 39% of women Grandmasters.

There have been quite a few game-watchers who have analysed why the state produces such a disproportionate number of champs. As always, it is not a simple answer, and there is really no hard proof. But some factors mentioned are:

  • Early start: The Tamil Nadu State Chess Asssociation, earlier known as Madras Chess Club was formed as early 26 April 1947 at Chennapuri Andhra Maha Sabha, Chennai with the intention to identify the upcoming chess players and make them into world-class professionals.
  • Early Role Models: With Manuel Aaron in the sixties making it to the world stage, followed by Vishy in the eighties, chess was already in the limelight in Tamil Nadu, much before it captured the imagination in other parts of the country.
  • Bringing world chess to the State: The State Govt hosted the World Chess Championship in 2013, which saw a thrilling match between Anand and Carlsen—boosting public visibility of the game.
  • Making it a part of the education system: Like Orissa is doing for hockey today, Tamil Nadu has been supporting chess in many ways for many decades. The government and the educational system have understood the role that the game can play in child-development and have always made space for it in the school system. In 2011, it was made an extra-curricula activity in schools. In 2013, a ‘Seven to Seventeen program’ was put in place under which each school coaches students from 7 to 17 age group to play chess.
  • Making coaching accessible: The Tamil Nadu government offers online and offline chess coaching by best coaches and grandmasters for students everywhere in the state, especially those in government schools.
  • Schools which go the extra mile: There are also schools in the state, like Velammal Vidyalaya,  where there are over a thousand students who take up chess coaching. Apart from high-level coaching, the school adjusts curricular schedules and reduces academic burden for students who show promise, and also provides financial help to those who need it.

Of course, more than anything, sportspeople at any level need the support of their families. In the case of Vishy, it was his mother who initiated him into the sport and supported his endeavours. In later years, his wife became his manager, travelled with him on punishing schedules, and was his pillar.

Gukesh’s doctor-father and microbiologist-mother gave up their careers to nurture his. It was not easy—both of them giving up their jobs put enormous financial pressure on the family. Gukesh was really young when he hit the international scene (he is barely past 18 now!), which meant one of them always had to travel with him. While contestants from richer countries with financial support and sponsorships would stay in fancy hotels near competition venues, Gukesh and his parents would stay in less-expensive accommodation far away. And hire cycles to make it there.

The story of most of the other players is not too different either. And it is against such odds that these young people fight and come out winners. Gukesh dropped out of formal schooling at Std. 4 and is essentially home-schooled, so that he can devote all his time to chess. When we asked him if he did not miss hanging out with friends and doing things that teenagers do, he gently replied that there is nothing he wants to do at this stage other than chess; that he does yoga to de-stress; and yes, he does party with the other players after the tournaments!

Thank you, Rameshbabu Praggnanandhaa, Arjun Erigaisi, Harika Dronavalli, Vaishali Rameshbabu, Divya Deshmukh, Vantika Agrawal, and Tania Sachdev, for your dedication and for doing us all proud!

–Meena

Thank you: https://www.chess.com/blog/JARVIS_SL/tamil-nadus-chess-legacy-the-grandmaster-factory-of-india

Fever Tree

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Clay tablets from Mesopotamia mention this deadly disease. Indian writings of the Vedic period (1500 to 800 BC) call it the ‘king of diseases.’ Traces of the disease have been found in remains of bodies from Egypt dating from 3200 and 1304 BC. The 270 BC Chinese medical canon has documented the disease’s headaches, chills, fevers and periodicity. The Greek poet Homer (circa 750 BC) mentions it in The Iliad, as do Aristotle (384-322 BC), Plato (428-347 BC), and Sophocles (496-406 BC) in their works.

The disease? None other than malaria, a disease that has taken its toll on not only humans down the ages, but our Neanderthal ancestors too. In the 20th century alone, malaria claimed between 150 million and 300 million lives, accounting for 2 to 5 per cent of all deaths!

Many have been the scientists who spent their lives trying to understand malaria. Charles Louis Alphonse Laveran (1845-1922) a French army doctor during the Franco-Prussian played a key role. He as the first to postulate that malaria was not spread by bad air, but rather that ‘Swamp fevers are due to a germ’. He was also the earliest scientist to detect crescent-shaped bodies in the blood of affected individuals, and then the four stages of the development of the parasite in the blood. These findings were confirmed by Camillo Golgi. Dr. Charles Ross and India played a huge part in the unravelling of the whole cycle and Ross received the Nobel Prize for discovering the mosquito-stages of malaria.

The story of uncovering the cure for malaria has been dramatic too. For centuries, when no one had a clue what caused malaria, treatments included blood-letting, inducing vomiting, and drastic things like limb amputations, and boring holes in the skull. Herbal medicines like belladonna were used to provide symptomatic relief. 

Cinchona-nitida-quinine
Cinchona Tree whose Bark yields Quinine

But the cure strangely came from South America—a region not originally plagued with the diease. It was probably brought from the outside around the 16th century. The native Indians were the first to discover the cure. The story goes that an Indian with a high fever was lost in the Andean jungles. Desperate with thirst as he wandered the jungles, he drank from a pool of stagnant water. The taste was bitter and he thought he had been poisoned. But miraculously, he found his fever going down. On observation, he found that the pool he had drunk from had been contaminated by the surrounding quina-quina trees. He put two and two together, and figured that the tree was the cure. He shared his serendipitous discovery with fellow villagers, who thereafter used extracts from the quina-quina bark to treat fever. The word spread widely among the locals.

It was from them that Spanish Jesuit missionaries in Peru learnt about the healing power of the bark between 1620 and 1630, when one of them was cured of malaria by the use of the bark. The story goes that the Jesuits used the bark to treat the Countess of Chinchon, the wife of the Viceroy who suffered an almost fatal attack. She was saved and made it her mission to popularize the bark as a treatment for malaria, taking vast quanitities back to Europe and distributing it to sufferers. And from then, the use of the powder spread far and wide. It is said that it was even used to treat King Louis XIV of France.

The tree from which the bark came was Cinchona, a genus of flowering plants in the family Rubiaceae which has at least 23 species of trees and shrubs. These are native to the tropical Andean forests. The genus was named so after the Countess of Chinchon, from the previous para. The bark of several species in the genus yield quinine and other alkaloids, and were the only known treatments against malaria for centuries, hence making them economically and politically important. It was only after 1944, when quinine started to be manufactured synthetically, that the pressure on the tree came down.

Not unusually, the tribe who actually discovered it is forgotten. The medicine came to be called “Jesuit Powder’ or ‘Chincona powder’ or “Peruvian powder’. Trees in the genus also came to be known as fever trees because they cured fever.

May the many indigenous community, their knowledge and their practices which are at the base of so many medicines today get their due recognition, credit and due.

–Meena  

Private Gardens for Public Pleasure

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Last week, we delved into the making of the Butchart Garden in Victoria, Canada—a private garden which is completely open to the public. This is not common. For the most part, public gardens are public, and private gardens are private—open only to the enjoyment of the owners, their families and friends.

A public garden is defined by the American Public Gardens Association as: “An institution that maintains collections of plants for the purposes of public education and enjoyment, in addition to research, conservation, and higher learning. It must be open to the public and the garden’s resources and accommodations must be made to all visitors. Public gardens are staffed by professionals trained in their given areas of expertise and maintain active plant records systems.”

On the other hand, a private garden is ‘a type of Urban Green Spaces Areas in immediate vicinity of private (privately owned or rented) houses, cultivated mainly for ornamental purposes and/or non-commercial food production’ and is not usually open to the public.

While Jennie Butchart, creator of the Butchart Gardens was clear right from the start that she wanted as many people as possible to see and enjoy her gardens, not all owners have been so open. Or even if they wanted to, didn’t know how to go about it. But that would be such a loss, because some of these private gardens are spectacular.

And hence, the various initiatives in many parts of the world which try to make private gardens accessible to the public.

For instance, in the US, the Garden Conservancy organizes Open Day programmes. This institution is a nationwide community of gardeners and garden enthusiasts who teach and learn about gardens. Believing that there is no better way to improve as a gardener than by seeing and experiencing firsthand a wide range of gardens, they organize these Open Days, which since 1995, have seen ‘more than 1.4 million visitors into thousands of inspired private landscapes—from urban rooftops to organic farms, historic estates, to innovative suburban lots—in 41 states’. These events are curated and ticketed and open up some of America’s best private gardens to the public for a few days. The organization even brings out an annual publication—‘The Garden Conservancy’s Open Days Directory’ This is a yearly guide to hundreds of private gardens across the United States. The directory includes information on the gardens’ types, such as organic, scenic, or historic, and how and when they can be visited.

In the UK,  London Parks & Gardens organizes the Open Gardens London event every year, helping visitors enjoy hallowed private London gardens including roof gardens, city farms, allotments, spaces steeped in history, and much more. A ticket to the event gives visitors access to every garden on display across the whole weekend, with children under 12 allowed in for free!

Under the Open Gardens South Australia programme, garden owners generously open their gardens for a weekend. The NGO helps owners plan and promote their opening. Some of the ticket money is usually donated to a charity of the owner’s choice

In Ireland, the Gardens Open initiative of Garden.ie lists around 300 gardens open for visiting, some year-round, others by appointment.

Mughal Gadens

The Rashtrapati Bhavan gardens, previously known as the Mughal Gardens are not private. However, they are not open to the public all the time. Constructed by Sir Edwin Lutyens in 1917 in the traditional Persian Charbagh style the Gardens were renamed Amrit Udyan in 2023. The 12-acre beautifully cultivated gardens are open to visitors in Feb-March and Aug-Sept every year and a popular tourist spot in New Delhi.

India has some large public gardens, but no well-known large private gardens—certainly none open to the public. Maybe it is time for some people with the means and the green thumbs to create such green oasis in our crowded, polluted, frantic cities. That would be social responsibility indeed!

–Meena

A Library Crying for a Librarian

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So many of India’s treasures are hidden, waiting to be discovered. No, it’s not just old monuments or beautiful sights.

It includes—wait for it—libraries too!

The Bhadariya Library is a prime example. Bhadariya is a tiny village, near Pokhran, with a population of less than 2000. Situated about 76 kilometres from Jaisalmer, off the Jaisalmer-Jodhpur highway—it remains a hidden gem, with only a fleeting mention on travel sites.

Once off the highway, there is quiet road flanked on both sides by vast cow shelters, leading to the serene Shri Bhadariya Mata Ji temple. Originally erected in 1831 by Maharawal Gaj Singh of Jaisalmer, it commemorates his victory in a bloody battle against Bikaner.

And underneath the temple lies a humungous 50,000 square feet underground library—probably Asia’s largest. It houses the personal collection of one man–Harbansh Singh Maharaj, a social reformer from Punjab who moved to Rajasthan in the 1960s. Built in 1998. It houses around 200,000 different titles and a total of 900,000 volumes, with seating for 4,000 individuals.

As one climbs down a flight of steps to the library, there is an unusually long corridor, probably some 150 metres in length. Closed glass shelves line either side. As one continues onwards, each corridor leads to the next and then to the next identical corridor. The illusion of immensity is compounded by the mirrored walls at each end of every corridor. There are eight such corridors with 562 spotlessly clean glass shelves.

These shelves are filled with a rich and varied but largely random collection. It is obviously the work of a person passionate about books and education, but untrained as a librarian. The books range from British-era gazetteers and law books, to a vast collection of mythological works, books in English, Urdu, Sanskrit, Tamil, and various other languages. It contains some rare manuscripts which may be over a thousand years old.

Harbansh Singh Maharaj or Sri Bhadariyaji Maharaj as he was called, built the library to encourage reading and education in a place where there was little interest in either. He wanted readers to have a cool, sheltered place to sit and study, and so choose to have an underground facility. The local communities contributed shramdaan to do the excavations. His ambition was to start a University, but alas, this could not happen.

Today, the library has neither a librarian nor any staff to manage it. The sole caretaker of the library is an attendant from the Jagdamba Seva Committee Trust’s office. The immaculate condition of the interiors and the shelves speak volumes about the love the staff of the Trust have for the library.  It is no mean feat to maintain such a large facility of this nature, in such a location absolutely dust-free.

But they can do only what they can do. Professionals and resources are needed–the books are not even catalogued and carry no library classification numbers, hindering their integration into any library network.

And even more sadly, there are no readers either. Apart from locals, no one really knows about the facility or the treasures it offers. The attendant told us that the library was hardly ever used by anyone. It is in a remote location, and there is no really convenient accommodation for scholars who may come from far away. Moreover the library lacks a system to assist visiting scholars.

But yes, the potential for scholars to come from far and wide exists. As a visitor to the library has mentioned ‘Bhadariyaji Maharaj has left a vision. If someone could resurrect it, it would uplift the field of education,’

This was Bhadaria Maharaj’s life’s work, which he carried out with the vision to spread education. It is now our responsibility to build on this invaluable legacy.

–Meena

Celebrating Librarians

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National Librarian’s Day is observed on August 12 every year to commemorate the birthday of Padma Shri Dr S. R. Ranganathan (1892-1972), who is considered not only as the father of library science in India, but who has made immense contributions with worldwide impacts to the development of the discipline.

Dr Ranganathan’s academic journey did not indicate that he would end up as the country’s most significant librarian. He did his B.A. and M.A. in mathematics at the Madras Christian College. He was a brilliant student, and aspired to teach mathematics. He therefore went on to take a degree from the Teachers’ College Saidapet. He started his career at Government College Mangalore in 1917. From there on, he went on to teach at Government College Coimbatore and Presidency College, Madras.

In 1924, he was appointed the first librarian of the University of Madras. He was a reluctant librarian who at first hated to be cooped up in a room with just books and a few staff members. He missed the interactions with students and his colleagues and pleaded to come back to teaching. But other people saw something in him and knew he would do a great job. He was selected to go to the UK to be trained in library science. His principal Mr Duncan assured him that if he still wanted to give up librarianship after his UK visit, he could go back to teaching.

The experiences in the UK transformed Dr Ranganathan’s view of this profession. When he saw the difference that libraries could make in the lives of people, and how they could serve different sections of the community, he discovered a social mission for libraries, and for himself.

Dr Ranganathan served as Librarian and Professor of Library Science for over three decades, at some the largest and most prestigious universities of India.  In 1962, he founded the Documentation Research and Training Centre in Bangalore, and was associated with it through his life.

His major technical contribution to the world of librarianship was the Colon Classification system, which is even now one of the major classifications used in libraries across the world.

But as a lay-person and user of libraries, what deeply fascinates me is the ‘Five Laws of Library Science’, which he first proposed in 1924, and after several iterations, finally published in 1931. These sum up the foundational philosophy on which libraries must be run.

These laws are:

1. Books Are For Use: We have all experienced how some librarians are more concerned that their books not be ‘spoilt’, dog-eared or lost, rather than that they be read. The first law addresses this concern—the primary purpose of a library is not to store and preserve books, but rather to ensure that they are used. With this Law, Dr. Ranganathan refocused the attention on access-related issues, such as the library’s location, loan policies, hours and days of operation; and as importantly, the quality of staffing. Practical matters like library furniture, temperature control, and lighting too fall in this purview.

2. Every Reader His/Her Book: The Second Law recognizes that readers have different interests, and stresses that every reader has the right to read what he or she wants. They have equal rights to be able to access material of their interest. It fixes the responsibilities of the state, the library authority, the library staff, and the readers, and clarifies that a library must serve all users, irrespective of age, social background, or economic status.

3. Every Book Its Reader: Related to the previous Law, the practical implication of the third Law is that there should be a variety of books and that the library needs to figure out ways to ensure that each item finds its appropriate reader. This points to making the collection accessible, including open shelving. Importantly, it means that even if there are few readers for a book, each book has its place in the library.

4. Save The Time Of The Reader: This law is a recognition that library services must meet the needs of library users efficiently. One requirement for this is that the library staff must have strong reference skills, as well as strong technical skills in cataloguing, cross-referencing, ordering, accessioning, and the circulation of materials.

5. The Library Is A Growing Organism: A library is a social institution and will keep growing in terms of documents, readers, and staff. Even when a library seems to have reached its capacity, the growth would be in terms of replacing old books by new books and new users will continuously replace old users. So a library needs to be a continually changing institution, never static in its outlook.

At a time when the reading habit seems to be on the decline, and many libraries are floundering to re-define themselves, it would be a good idea to revisit Dr Ranganathan’s vision of libraries and his Five Laws. They will help us find a new direction in this rapidly changing landscape.

–Meena