HOW POOR WE ARE

One day a father of a very wealthy family took his son on a trip to the country with the firm purpose of showing his son how poor people can be. They spent a couple of days and nights on the farm of what would be considered a very poor family.

On their return from their trip, the father asked his son, “How was the trip?” “It was great, Dad.”

“Did you see how poor people can be?” the father asked.

“Oh Yeah” said the son.

“So what did you learn from the trip?” asked the father.

The son answered, “I saw that we have one dog and they had four. We have a pool that reaches to the middle of our garden and they have a creek that has no end. We have imported lanterns in our garden and they have the stars at night. Our patio reaches to the front yard and they have the whole horizon.

We have a small piece of land to live on and they have fields that go beyond our sight. We have servants who serve us, but they serve others. We buy our food, but they grow theirs. We have walls around our property to protect us, they have friends to protect them.”

With this the boy’s father was speechless. Then his son added, “Thanks dad for showing me how poor we are.”

Too many times we forget what we have and concentrate on what we don’t have. What is one person’s worthless object is another’s prize possession. It is all based on one’s perspective. Makes you wonder what would happen if we all gave thanks for all the bounty we have, instead of worrying about wanting more. Take joy in all you have, especially your friends. Pass this message on

WILL

Excerpt from Friedrich Nietzsche 's Beyond Good and Evil:

In all willing there is firstly a plurality of sensations,namely,the sensation of condition "away from which we go",the sensation of condition "towards which we go",the sensation of this 'from 'and 'towards' itself,and then besides,an accompanying muscular sensation,which,even without our putting in motion 'arms and legs', commences its action by force of habit,directly we 'WILL' anything.Therefore just as sensations are to be recognized as ingredients of the will,so,in the second place,thinking is also to be recognized;in every act of will there is a ruling thought; - and let us not imagine it possible to sever this thought from the 'willing',as if the will would then remain over! In the third place,the will is not only a complex of sensation and thinking,but,it is above all an 'emotion',and in fact the emotion of command.That which is termed 'freedom of will' is essentially the emotion of supremacy in respect to him who must obey: I am free,he must obey - this consciousness is inherent in every will; and equally so the straining of the attention,the straight look which fixes itself exclusively on one thing, the unconditional judgement that "this and nothing else is necessary now,"the inward certainty that obedience will be rendered - and whatever else pertains to the position of the commander. A man who wills commands something within himself renders obedience,or which he believes renders obedience. But now let us notice what is the strangest thing about will, - this affair so extremely complex,for which the people have only one name. In as much as in the given circumstances we are at the same time the commanding and the obeying parties, and as the obeying party we know the sensations of constraint,impulsion,pressure,resistance and motion which usually commence immediately after the act of will; in as much as, on the other hand, we are accustomed to disregard this duality,and to deceive ourselves about it by means of the synthetic term 'I': a whole series of erroneous conclusions,  and consequently of false judgments about the will itself,has become attached to the act of willing - to such a degree that he who wills believes firmly that willing suffices for action. Since  in the majority of cases there has only been exercise of will when the effect of the command - consequently obedience, and therefore action - was to be expected, the appearance has translated itself into the sentiment, as if there were a necessity of effect ; in a word , he who wills believes with a fair amount of certainty that will and action are somehow one; he ascribes the success, the carrying out of the willing,to the will itself,and thereby enjoys an increase of sensation of power which accompines all success.Freedom of will that is the expression of complex state of delight of the person exercising volition,who commands at the same time identifies himself with the executor of the order - who,as such, enjoys also the triumph over obstacles but thinks within himself that it was really his own will that overcame them. in this way the person exercising volition,adds the feelings of delight of his successful executive instruments,the useful 'underwills'or 'undersouls'- indeed our body is but a social structure composed of many souls- to his feelings of delight as a commander. What happens here is what happens in every well constructed and happy commonwealth,namely, that the governing class identifies itself with the success of commonwealth. In all willing it is absolutely a question of commanding and obeying,on the basis,as already said ,of a social structure composed of many souls,on which account a philosopher should claim the right to include willingness as such within the sphere of morals - regarded as the doctrine of relations of supremacy under which the phenomenon of life manifests itself. 

CHERIYAL PAINTINGS OF TELENGANA

Cheriyal paintings in a way are the pictorial documentations of caste genealogies.

As we travel to the interior villages of Telangana, our gaze is spellbound by the vibrantly coloured paintings on the walls of shrines dedicated to ‘Gramadevatas’ and ‘Dargas’. More than the colour, the thematic flow of these paintings draws the viewer’s attention into the sphere of imaginative narration of that particular deity. This unique style of depicting mythological stories in picture is in fact the artistic representation of a painting tradition prevailing in Telangana from hundreds of years. Nakaashi Painting is well known even today because of the traditional artists, known as Nakaashis (people who make ‘Naksh’).They are experts in making scroll paintings that are as wide as 3 feet in width and 6 feet in length.

Scroll painting is one of the ancient expressions in Telangana and dates back to Kakatiya dynasty. The genre of this painting displays the traces of the Kakatiya style of painting, seen in the 12th century wall paintings of Pillalamarri temple and hill temple of Tripurantakam. Eekamranatha, in his literary text Pratapa charitram indicates that 1500 painters’ families were living in and around Warangal at that point. Today, Nakashi painters are engaged in twomajor styles, Cheriyal painting and Nirmal painting each with a purpose of its own.

How Cheriyal painting has evolved is fascinating indeed. Originally, the painted scrolls of Cheriyal were shown to audience/viewers while reciting or performing about the genealogies of 7 local communities/castes (i.e: The Jaamba puraanam is performed for Maadigas by Dakkali sub caste; the Bhaavanaa Rishi and Markandeeya puraanam is performed for Padmasaalis by Kuunapuli sub caste; the madeel puraanam is shown for chakalivaallu by patamvaaru sub caste; the Gauda puraanam is performed for Gauds by Gaudajetti caste; Paandavula Katha is performed for Mudiraajs by Kaakipadagala sub caste; Addam puranam is for Mangalivaallu by addam varu; Kaatama Raju Katha is performed for Gollavallu by Mandechchuloollu. Instead of scrolls, performers in this Kaatamaraju performance use 53 dolls made by Nakashi artists). Usually performed over three nights in a row, the story telling or performing narration could take 20 days of ‘show and tell’ to narrate a 60-feet scroll. The presence of such story telling performers has been indicated from the 10th century Telugu literature.

The process of painting was initiated by the artists when the story narrators/picture showmen provided them with an orientation of a particular story about their particular caste and the iconic character of their caste legend. As per this narration, the painters depict the characters and narrative sequence on the canvas. Though this was how the Cheriyal scroll painting tradition came about, today, the large scrolls of yore is not much in demand. The artists are now making smaller paintings according to market demand as well as other articles using the painting style.

Cheriyal paintings are completely organic right from the canvas used to the paints and brushes even. For the canvas, a fine hand woven cloth mat is coated with three layers of a paste prepared from boiled rice starch, white clay, gum and boiled tamarind seed paste.

The brushes use squirrel hair and brushes required to make different strokes on canvas are made according to their purpose. Colours used in Cheriyal painting are water based and are primarily earth based which yield vibrant colour textures and picturesque frames.

The powder of a stone called ‘inglikum’ elevates the background in bright red colour, pevudi yellow shades, unique ‘zink white’ is used to depict pearl like ornamentations and the thick Indigo blue colours are used across the paintings making these picturesque frames theatrical representations of life. Each frame in the story sequence is marked by the floral borders which is another unique feature of these paintings.

In retrospect, it is certainly not the big canvases that make these paintings worthy of appreciation but the dynamic thought process Cheryal style induces to the creators of the art. It is that these vibrant colourful works of Cheriyal project the whole social universe in miniature form including Gondwana landscapes, forests, animals, birds, people, rituals, the cultural complexities of each and every service caste and their caste genealogies as an expression of self-respect.

In a nutshell, the vibrant colours, the technical skills on canvas, the artists’ growing confidence in using various mediums reflect the dynamic nature of this painting tradition. Moreover they reflect the greater intensity in organic metaphors, rural wisdom in perceptions and the local visions in thematic frames showing the cultural values and ethos that shape the unique aesthetic ideas of Telangana region. It is this rare imaginative quality in conception and areas of vibrant colour which gave inspiration to Kapu Rajayya, a well known Telangana painter for his lifetime aesthetic explorations. Right now only Vaikuntam Nakash and his family (Rakesh, Vinay Kumar, Vanaja and Sarika) are continuing this hereditary practice of painting Cheriyal Scrolls. Vaikuntam Nakash, with his rare sensibilities and great love for art, is struggling to bring out new genre and expressions to this age old Telangana miniature painting style. His only wish is to see Cheriyal scroll painting style being taught at the university level for future generations.

SOURCE: THE HINDU