upasamhaaram anabaDu katha venuka katha:
more than a decade and half ago, I entered the AP Residential
School at Kodigenahalli. One of the features of that serene
campus that immediately caught my attention were small wooden
tablets posted in between trees all over the campus. On each
tablet was an aphorism. After so many years, I still
remember a couple of them very vividly. The first one is: "jananee
janma bhoomiSca swargaadapi gareeyasi." (The reason I remember this
well is because I always thought it was cruel to display this
on a campus where the students (10 to 15 year olds) get to
visit home only twice a year.) The second one, which
ties in with the story above, is the following: "gata kaalamu
mElu, vaccu kaalamu kanTen." This, I remember because while
at K'halli, I used to stare at it for hours trying to understand what
it meant. To be honest, I am still not sure I understand it
correctly.
As I see it, it has two interpretations: 1) the past
is better than the future because you have already lived through
the past and if you are still alive, it couldn't have
been too bad. The same can not be said of the future,
however. In this sense, the past is better than the future.
The logic here is the same as in "a known devil is better
than an unknown angel."
The second interpretation is simpler : things are
constantly deteriorating.
I have no idea which of the two interpretations is
correct but I tend to sympathize more with people making
the first interpretation.
My reasoning is as follows: the bases of the first
interpretation are general pessimism and a strong belief in
the uncertainties of life -- which are not totally unjustified
given the quality of life in general. On the other hand,
the second interpretation seems to be based on
1) ignorance (of the past) : Often, this is the reason when
people keep saying "maa rOjullO ayitEnaa.." or
"dESam paaDayi pOtundanDee.." More often than not, they
don't really know the deficiencies of their time or days.
2) laziness: people may be too lazy to invest the
time and effort to find the good things in today's
life. in my opinion, this is what prompts many a
comment such as: "paata sinimaa paaTalenta baagunTaayO!"
or "raanraanu sinimaalu maree daridraMgaa tayaaravu-
tunnay!" etc. These people would wait for
"the best 10 stories of the decade" rather than keep
in touch with the present day literature and identify
what they like. There is a variation to this: say, I read
chilakamarti's "gaNapati" when I was a kid. Of late,
there have been several very good works of humor in
telugu but I am too lazy (or too busy -- sorry for
clubbing these two together) to read the new stuff.
So, I keep maintaining that "gaNapati" is the best
example of humor in telugu literature.
3) biased sampling: this is almost always the case when
people claim "old songs are so much better the new ones."
The flaw is in the definition of "old" and "new". Typically,
"new" means the current year's stuff and "old" means every
thing before the current year. Already, the comparison is
unfair. On top of that, consider this: if you remember
something from 50 years ago, chances are you really like
it. In other words, you are comparing the best of the
last several decades with the current year's stuff.
That this comparison is skewed seems to be right out of
Common Sense 101 but apparently not many people have
taken this course. You want an example? Read "kotta
paaTalu paaDukommandiraa, enki!" from Ba. raa. gO.'s
"saradaa kathalu."
4) nostalgia: needs no explanation.
I think the second interpretation is avoidable with a
little bit of rational thinking and hence less justifiable.
what do you say? you may be saying, " we never heard of this
'gata kaalamu mElu..' thing and why are you boring us
with such a long post?" Well, these things happen from time to
time :-)
regards,
- rao