Happy Birthday Shabz! Who’s Kitty?

One of my nephews looked at my social networking page, www.ryze.com/go/shankR and asked me who is Kitty. I was addressing my ‘blogs’ to Kitty, following Anne Frank. Well, Kitty is the cat that Anne Frank kept as a pet and a friend; she addressed her ‘blogs’ to Kitty. The Diary of a Young Girl is a book of the writings from the Dutch language diary kept by Anne Frank while she was in hiding for two years with her family during the Nazi occupation of the Netherlands. The family was apprehended in 1944 and Anne Frank ultimately died of typhus in the Bergen-Belsen concentration camp. After the war, the diary was retrieved by Anne's father, Otto Frank, the only survivor of the family. The diary has now been published in more than 60 different languages.

Anne Frank's diary is among the most enduring documents of the 20th century. She documented her life in hiding from 12 June 1942 to 1 August 1944. Initially, she wrote it strictly for herself. Then, one day in 1944, Gerrit Bolkestein, a member of the Dutch government in exile, announced in a radio broadcast from London that after the war he hoped to collect eyewitness accounts of the suffering of the Dutch people under the German occupation, which could be made available to the public. As an example, he specifically mentioned letters and diaries. Anne Frank decided that when the war was over she would publish a book based on her diary. Because she did not survive the war, it fell instead to her father to see her diary published.

Happy Birthday Shabz

Shabz was born 27 Sept. I should not mention the year. Shabz is a Tamil girl, follower of Islam, engineer by training, expert in English and a writer by profession, lives in Bangalore, though not in the flat she owns in Kanakapura, rides a scooter (she says I am driving my bike, though – that is the only Indianism I have found her using). She is my rakhi sister (see an earlier blog called rakhi sisters and cousin brothers – or some such), although she never tied the rakhi on my hand. She practices yoga and prays 5 times and fasts during the ramzan. [A piece of gratuitous information: In Muslim communities, people are reminded of the daily prayer times through the calling of the azhan. For those in Muslim-minority communities, computerized azhan programs are available. Thank God our Muslim brothers and sisters don’t take recourse to computerized azhan programs.] In her I find the uniqueness of India – a religious faith that does not interfere with one’s geopolitical and cultural context. May her tribe grow.

Interestingly, Shirdi Sai Baba was also born on 27th Septemer (See for a Greater Common God, in these blogs). We don’t know the year.

I was surprised to learn that in Pakistan the classical music tradition is Hindustani. Wah Ustad!

I am now on facebook

I have resisted the facebook mania for a long time and today Manish sent me an invite to view his pictures on it. I said what the heck, and went on to put some pictures of myself out there; I have no clue as to how to go to other people’s pages and view their photos – if you have any ideas, mail me. If you are already on facebook, you can see a few of my pictures. The pictures are brought to you courtesy Ukko Hanninen, a good friend in Helsinki. About him, another day, another blog.
I once saw a cartoon in which a dog is in front of the computer and is saying: On the internet, nobody knows that you are a pet. Alas, that situation no longer obtains.

Ten Days On the Wagon And Counting…

It is early days yet, but I am happy to report that I have been on the wagon for 10 days now. The expression ‘on the wagon’ has an interesting origin: Water wagons were a commonplace sight in US cities at the time. They didn't carry drinking water but were used to damp down dusty streets during dry weather. Those who had vowed to give up drink and were tempted to lapse said that they would drink from the water-cart rather than take strong drink. Getting off the wagon means to lapse into drinking after an attempt to stop drinking. I hope I would never get off the wagon.
Wish me good luck and do what you can to keep me in good spirits, lest I lapse.