‘If you lived a hundred years’, said the little fish, ‘you’d still be nothing more than an ignorant and helpless frog’.

Li Bla Fi – 4

or

The Little Black Fish

By famed fabulist Samad Behrangi

Li Bla Fi - 4 continues...

The tadpoles became very angry. But since they knew the little fish spoke truthfully, they changed their tone and said, ‘really, you’re wasting words! We swim around the world every day from morning till evening, but except for ourselves and our father and mother, we see no one. Of course, there are tiny worms, but they don’t count’.

‘You can’t even leave the pond’, said the fish. ‘How can you talk about traveling around the world?’

‘What! Do you think there’s a world other than the pond?’ exclaimed the tadpoles.

‘At least’, responded the fish, ‘you must wonder where this water comes from and what things are outside of it’.

‘Outside the water!’ exclaimed the tadpoles, ‘Where is that? We’re never seen outside of the water! Haha ...haha ...You’re crazy!’

Little Black Fish also started to laugh. The fish thought it would be better to leave the tadpoles to themselves and go away, but then changed its mind and decided to speak to their mother.

‘Where is your mother?’ asked the fish. Suddenly, the deep voice of a frog made the fish jump. The frog was sitting on a rock at the edge of the pond. She jumped into the water, came up to the fish and said:

‘I’m right here. What do you want?’

‘Hello, Great Lady’, said the fish.

The frog responded, ‘Worthless creature, now is not the time to show off. You’ve found some children to listen to you and are talking pretentiously. I’ve lived long enough to know that the world is this pond. Mind your own business and don’t lead my children astray’.

‘If you lived a hundred years’, said the little fish, ‘you’d still be nothing more than an ignorant and helpless frog’.

The frog got angry and jumped at Little Black Fish. The fish flipped quickly and fled like lightening, stirring up sediment and worms at the bottom of the pond.

The valley twisted and curved. The stream became deeper and wider. But if you looked down at the valley from the top of the mountains, the stream would seem like a white thread. In one place, a piece of large rock had broken off from the mountain, fallen to the bottom of the valley, and split the water into two branches. 

A large lizard the size of a hand, lay on her stomach on the rock. She was enjoying the sun’s warmth and watching a large, round crab resting on the sand at the bottom or the water in a shallow place and eating a frog he had snared.

The little fish suddenly saw the crab, became frightened, and greeted him from afar. The crab glanced sideways at the fish and said,

‘What a polite fish! Come closer, little one. Come on!’

‘I’m off to see the world,’ said the little fish, ‘and I never want to be caught by you, sir!’

‘Little fish, why are you so pessimistic and scared?’ asked the crab.

‘I’m neither pessimistic nor afraid,’ answered the fish. ‘I speak about everything I see and understand’.

‘Well, then,’ said the crab, ‘please tell me what you’ve seen and understood that makes you think I want to capture you?’

‘Don’t try to trick me!’ responded the fish.

‘Are you referring to the frog?’ queried the crab. ‘How childish you are! I have a grudge against frogs; that’s the reason I hunt them. Do you know, they think they’re the only creatures in the world and that they’re very lucky. I want to make them understand who is really master in the world! So you don’t have to be afraid, my dear. Come here. Come on’.

As the crab talked, he was walking backwards towards the little fish. His gait was so funny that the fish couldn’t help laughing and said,

‘Poor thing! You don’t even know how to walk. How did you ever learn who runs the world?’

The black fish drew back from the crab. A shadow fell upon the water and suddenly a heavy blow pushed the crab into the sand. The lizard laughed so hard at the crab’s expression that she slipped and almost fell into the water. The crab couldn’t get up.

‘How can we forget you’, they answered. ‘You woke us up from a long sleep'!

Li Bla Fi - 3 or

The Little Black Fish

By famed fabulist Samad Behrangi

So here we go again, on the third part of the Li Bla Fi series… 

Li Bla Fi thus far [Part II]…

The neighbor looked at the little black fish’s mother and cried, “What kind of talk is this?”

The mother fish moaned, “I never would have thought that my only child would have turned out this way. What terrible person has poisoned my darling child’s mind?”

“No one has poisoned my mind, Mother,” said the little fish, “but I have eyes to see with and a brain to understand with”.

Suddenly, the neighbor said, “Sister, do you remember the twisted old snail?”

“Yes, I do indeed,” replied the mother. “He was always tagging after my dear little child, the devil take him!”

“Please mother, don’t say that,” the little fish cried. “He was my dear friend”.

“Well, I never in my life heard that fish could be friends with snails,” the neighbor said. “They just aren’t our kind of people”.

“And I never in my life heard that the snails must be the enemies of fish. But you people, in your cruelty chased him out of our village”, cried the little black fish.

To make a long story short, the sound of their argument brought all the fish to the door. The little fish’s words angered everyone, for no one had ever wanted to leave before.

Li Bla Fi continues…

One old fish asked her, ‘Do you think we’ll be indulgent with you?’

Another said, ‘She only needs her ears twisted’.

But the little black fish’s mother cried, ‘Get away from my child. Don’t touch her’.

Somebody shouted, ‘Lady, when you don’t bring up your children as you should, you’ve got to take the consequences!’

The neighbor said solemnly, ‘I am ashamed to live next door to you’.

Someone else suggested, ‘Before this thing gets out of hand, let’s take her to the judge’.

And so the older fish tried to catch her but her friends surrounded and led her out of the crowd. As they were leaving, the mother of the little black fish was flapping her fins and crying woefully, ‘Good Lord, what can I do? I am losing my little girl’.

The little fish called to her, ‘Mother don’t cry for me, cry for these tired, old fish’.

‘Don’t you insult us, you little punk’, somebody shouted.

‘You will see,’ said another, before long you will be dangling on the line of the fisherman and what a sorry dinner you will make!’

[For the fishes of the village, like those in all villages in their stream, were always afraid of the fisherman. Whenever someone suggested that something should be done differently, it was said that it was better not to do it because it might get the attention of the fisherman.]

The old fish continued hassling her. One said, ‘If you go and regret it later, we won’t allow you to come back’.

Another chimed in, ‘These are the follies of youth, don’t go!’.

‘What’s wrong with right here?’ and old fish grumbled.

‘There’s no other world,’ shouted another. ‘The world is here. Come back’.

'Well, I never in my life heard that fish could be friends with snails', the neighbor said. 'They just aren’t our kind of people'

Li Bla Fi or

The Little Black Fish

By famed fabulist Samad Behrangi

The fable of Li Bla Fi thus far…

On a chilly night at the bottom of the sea, the old fish gathered twelve thousand of his children and grand-children and began to tell them this story:

Once upon a time, there was a little black fish who lived with her mother in a small stream. This stream was flowing out of the stoney walls of a great mountain and pouring into the valley below.

Every day, all day long, the Little Black Fish and her mother strolled back and forth across the stream.

One day the little fish was deeply in thought and spoke very little. Without joy or interest, she swam lazily behind her mother. The mother thought that her daughter was sick and that she’d soon be better. It never crossed her mind that the ‘sickness’ of the little fish had very special causes.

Early the next morning, before the sun came up, the little fish woke her mother and said, ‘Mother, I can’t go strolling any more. I’m leaving!’.

Her mother, still heavy with sleep said, ‘But where do you want to go at this hour of the morning!?’

The little black fish replied, ‘I want to go to see where this stream ends. You know mother, for months I have been thinking about it and after all this time, I still haven’t been able to figure it out. From last night to now, I haven’t been able to close my eyes. I’ve done nothing but think. Finally I have decided that, I must find the end of this stream myself. And, of course, in that way, I will find out what goes on in other places as well’.

But the little black fish’s mother looked at her and laughed. But little black fish was quite determined. Says she –

‘Of course, I’ve learned a lot from here and there. For example, I have learned that most fish, in their old age complain that they have wasted their lives on nothing. They always are nagging and cursing about everything. I’d like to know if life really means swimming in a little place, going back and forth until you are old, or if there is some other way you can live in the world!’ 

Even her neighbor chides and admonishes the little black fish for her bold and daring resolve. Says she, ‘Well now, little one, when was it that you became a sage and a philosopher and forgot to let us know about it?’

'I don’t want to grow up and then open my eyes someday to see that I don’t know anything more than when I started out’.

Born to Fly – Part VI

Li Bla Fi or

The fable of The Little Black Fish

By famed fabulist Samad Behrangi

A fable that’s sure gonna change your perspective to life and living, a full 360 degrees, you bet! 

Well, that’s the story of the Little Black Fish in a nutshell for us all!

And this fable is gonna be that amazing game-changer of sorts for us all, in any many ways!

That said, shall we, dear reader, move gently into the world, oops… the sea ;-) of the Little Black Fish! - Li Bla Fi ;-)

Seagulls have been around, doing the rounds for a long period of time in literatures from across the world!

Be it for Pushkin, for Tolstoy, for Chekhov, for Bach, or for the bevy of great litterateurs from across the world’s eight corners, the seagull forebodes, foreshadows or foregrounds some real elegant symbolism!

To some, the seagull is symbolic of a carefree life void of burdensomed nitty gritties, freedom unlimited, and as such an independence worth the relish and the cherish!

To some others however, the seagull is a portent symbol too!

To Samad - Samad Behrangi, eminent Iranian teacher, writer and folklorist, the seagull proves such-much!

One writer who like his Chinese counterpart Mo Yan, (More on Mo, here!) had the guts to rebel against bigoted dogmas and prejudiced practices of a repressive system, Samad wrote down such amazing children’s stories too!

Those of us who’ve specialized in Children’s Literature, musta sure come across Samad some time or the other!

In fact, Samad is a famed fabulist who subtly weaves through his fables such intense moral stories that are Jo-Swift-like in their appeal! Their impact lies in the fact that, they appeal not only to children, but also prove a subtle satire on the political order too!

That’s hence Samad once famously remarked that,

Children’s literature must build a bridge between the colorful dream world full of fantasy and illusion, and a tougher real world full of twists and turns. The child armed with the torch of knowledge, awareness and guidance must cross this bridge and set foot to the intense harshness of the bigger world.

Well-said, Samad!

Samad’s The Little Black Fish then, is a highly insightful, memorable, and impactful fable, much akin to Bach’s Jo Li Sea!

The story line has a lot of similarities too!

In fact, convergences galore between Jo Li Sea and Li Bla Fi.

At the same time, divergences too galore after a particular point-line! And howww!

The storyline to Li Bla Fi doesn’t don the long page-lines of a Bach’s!

That’s because Samad has a treasure-trove of other stories too, lined up in this antho!

The introduction to the book is so beautiful! So intense! So pertinent! Please do read it first before venturing into the fabulous fable of the fish!

Samad the folklorist and fabulist who was also a pioneering educationist, is of the strongest opinion that, education is in fact, the most important and most fundamental need of a society, to ward off ignorance, injustice, discrimination, prejudices and lack of freedom!

The fable of The Little Black Fish is a lovely case in point!

This little black fish, is, like Jo Li Sea, quite a non-conformist, who is so weary and so woebegone because of his drudge-like existence in a very small brook! He feels like a frog-in-the-well, so dissatisfied and restless with his way of life, a life without any aim, goal or purpose in any way, whatsoever!

The most awkward, 'unkindest' question that you should never ask a person!!!

When are you going to get married?

Continuing on the ‘unsaid’ from Ibsen’s A Doll’s House!

Nora: You mustn’t be angry with me. Tell me, is it really true that you did not love your husband? Why did you marry him?

Mrs Linde: My mother was alive then, and was bedridden and helpless, and I had to provide for my two younger brothers; so I did not think I was justified in refusing his offer.

Well, this above little conversation between Nora and her long-lost friend Mrs Linde highlights the prejudiced social norms and expectations that stifle agency, and restrict one’s ability to act independently, especially with regard to the woman!

This restraining and the constraining of one’s identity because of social norms and expectations leads not only to a mental crisis but also to a despair of life in general!

As such, any little deviation from the socially expected norms is then considered to  be an aberration in such a constrained-value system!

Rachel Blau DuPlessis, an eminent feminist scholar rightly points out that, Most 19th-century female protagonists have two options presented before them when coming of age: marriage, the socially acceptable option for young women; or death, the end result for those young women who deviate from socially expected norms. 

These social normatives  and cultural codes, which are synonymous with patriarchal normatives and their ‘dictatorial’ dictates on society, have always been biased against the silenced and stigmatized, especially as concerns the woman! As a consequence, these prejudiced norms end up biasing everyone against the oppressed and the suppressed womenfolk in the general scheme of things.

Well, these ‘marriages of convenience’, were a common occurrence in Western societies of the 19^th century and hence her observations!

It’s no wonder then that almost all our films - be it in the south, the north, the east or the west - have always centred around the predominant theme of love, followed by opposition to love, vanquishing of the villain, and finally, and finallyyyy, boy and girl marryyyyy! ;-) Life’s lakshya achieved! Life’s purpose solved! ;-)

Marriage then is expected to become the end result of a young adult’s life!

Or

Marriage then is scheduled, by default, to become the ultimate destination of a young adult’s life journey!

And these are the stupidest cultural stereotypes and dictates given by a heavily financed ooops ;-) heavily biased and predominantly patriarchal set up that has gripped society!

As we litterateurs would have been familiar with, in our tryst with literatures from across the world, all tragedies are -  by default - ‘fated’ to end up with the death of the hero or the lead character, while all comedies are ‘fated’ to end up with the marriage or the nuptial union ;-) of the boy and the girl!

As if marriage were the ultimate aim and the sole destination of a person’s life!

How stupid a value system that has been forced on unsuspecting young adults!

How prejudiced a value system that has been shoved down the minds and hearts of the young and the old alike!

When a young girl or boy is at last done with their studies, the next thing these ‘caring’ elders ask them is,

‘So when is your marriage?’

‘Aren’t you still married? Why ba? why?’ ;-)

‘Not married as yet?’

‘Paavam, Poor kid, hasn’t got herself/himself a good spouse as yet!!!’

‘How long are you going to remain a spinster/bachelor?’

These are words of hurt, or could we call it, poisonous fangs of hurt, that do more harm than good to the vibrant, lovely, cherubic body, mind and soul of a young boy or a young girl!

'A little learning is a dangerous thing...'

Before I give my opinion on you –

Classroom Musings and Blended Learning

This morning, in our II MA class, we were discussing the ‘Men of Learning’ of the fifteenth century, and their contributions to the ‘Renaissance and the Rejuvenation of the arts’ in England!

In this regard, Legouis and Cazamian observe that, ‘Thought was liberated and broadened…’ chiefly due to these ‘Men of Learning’ and their contributions to their times.

I then exhorted the students to have a critical bent of mind (not negative though!) while observing and reading through some of the phrases and prefixes, the stigmas and stereotypes, the gender and the genre, the contexts and the conditions that make someone/something /somebody to be the dominant voice/s of a particular epoch/era/period!

Repeating that wonderful phrase by Legouis and Cazamian yet again, ‘Thought was liberated and broadened…’

And this was possible because of the men of learning, he says!

In this context, it would be meet to know something about these men of learning per se, alley!

Getting back to L & C yet again –

During some thirty years, from 1490 to 1520, there was in England an efflorescence of humanism which was accomplished by a few vibrant spirits. Some young Englishmen were attracted to Italy by the desire to learn Greek, since knowledge of Greek had been carried to Italy by refugees after the fall of Constantinople to the Turks in 1453. They were eager to see the masterpieces that these fugitive Greeks had saved and brought with them, and in search of these, they journeyed to Florence, Bologna, Padua, Venice and Rome.

The result of their passionate ‘desire for new learning’ had such a profound impact on the English spirit, contributing to the Renaissance in England!

One reason why the Renaissance in England is called the Italian Renaissance. As Legouis and Cazamian opine, English literature which came to be the expression of the national genius had its Birth in Italianism. The meeting between the English and the Italian spirit which had already enriched Chaucer’s poetry brought a wealth of splendor to sixteenth-century England.

Starting with Thomas Linacre and William Grocyn, - ‘Men of Learning’ who went to Italy, in their passion to learn the classics, returned to Oxford about 1490 and established the teaching of Greek, there was literally and exodus of these scholars who moved to greener and better pastures with the avowed aim of learning from them!

Again, in this context, I told the class, If you are Wo/men of learning, you will have a great desire, a great passion, and a great thirst to learn more and more!

And why should you learn more and more from other cultures / alien shores?

Simple! To incorporate, to imbue and to imbibe the best that has been said and expressed through ‘other eyes and other voices’, in other parts of the whole wide world!

To this end, it becomes imperative on the part of a vibrant learner to make sure that  s/he crosses over to other places/other cultures/other continents to learn more!

As noted critic Scupin Richard rightly points out, 

More learning leads to a more inclusive celebration of life!

A guy born in Chennai, brought up in Chennai, studied in Chennai, gets for himself a job in Chennai, marries in Chennai, and lives all his life in Chennai is, then, not the right type of education, say educationists!

‘The same applies to language! The same to culture! The same to religion!’, I told the very same class today!

Say for example, if you are well-versed in just one language – your vernacular – just for an example, and then, tom-tom across the world that your language is the bestest language ever ;-) – then that would be much akin to practicing a parochial perspective to life and living!

The same applies to culture! The same applies to religion! Before commenting on a language/culture/religion make sure you learn that language/that culture/that religion, its values, its essence, its nature, its features, its origin, its practices, its observances, its rituals, et al!

A good critic is someone who has drunk deep of all literatures before s/he passes their remarks/values/opinions on a particular work of art!

Yes! This applies in essence to a good movie critic, a good sports critic, a good food critic et al!

That means to say that, 

A Better Thing Required His Time!!!

Born to Fly – Part IV

Dr. Abdul Kalam on Dr. C. V. Raman

Well, while Dr. A. P. J. Abdul Kalam, the President of India, then, was here with us at Madras Christian College in February 2007, he fervently exhorted the student community to have the courage and the guts to dream big!

And with just around a week to go for yet another graduation ceremony at MCC, me thought of putting down a lovely anecdote that Dr. Kalam shared with us all at the graduation ceremony here at MCC in February 2007, on the legendary scientist of our times, Sir. C. V. Raman!

 Quoting verbatim, Dr. Abdul Kalam on Sir. C. V. Raman –

Since I am in the midst students, I thought of sharing with you an incident about Sir CV Raman – a Nobel Laureate in Physics for discovering Raman Effect. Raman gives the view that the color of sky is blue due to molecular diffraction which determines the observed luminosity and in great measures also its color. This led to the birth of the Raman Effect.

Raman was in the first batch of Bharat Ratna Award winners. The award ceremony was to take place in the last week of January, soon after the Republic Day celebrations of 1954. The then President Dr. Rajendra Prasad wrote to Raman inviting him to be the personal guest in the Rashtrapati Bhavan, when Raman came to Delhi for the award ceremony. Sir CV Raman wrote a polite letter, regretting his inability to go.

Raman had a noble reason for his inability to attend the investiture ceremony. He explained to the President that he was guiding a Ph.D. student and that thesis was positively due by the last day of January. The student was valiantly trying to wrap it all up and Raman felt, he had to be by the side of the research student, see that the thesis was finished, sign the thesis as the guide and then have it submitted.

An Amazing 'Canvas of Plenty!'

Down Memory Lane with Cornucopia!

Congratulations to Prof. DC and her vibrant team at the ELF for having brought out a pepped up vibrant version of Cornucopia – showcasing the creative vibes of our students.

13 December 2011, When the very first issue of Cornucopia
was released by our Principal in the presence of Shri Arjun C Bali

Takes me back down memory lane, to almost a decade ago, when we had back to back issues of Cornucopia, with Prof. DC doing the vibrant cover design and taking full charge of the host of articles of various hues, with beautiful, catchy titles for each and every volume! And yes! each issue was so unique in that, they had such an amazing splash of creative vibes from students present and past, who adorned the pages of Cornucopia with their talent aplenty! 

Cornucopia 2020 released yesterday!

And today happened to be such a memorable day, when Prof. DC gave me a pepped up version of a rejuvenated Cornucopia, done on a grander scale, with a committed, dedicated team to back her up in all her noble academic initiatives! Was so overjoyed to see such amazing talent dazzling through each and every page of this ‘canvas of plenty!’

Our Principal, flanked by our dear Ganesh Sir! [13 Dec 2011]

Way to go, team DC @ ELF! You rock!

Snippets from my little Prefatorial for y’all –

* Cornucopia has always been the pride, the delight and the creative domain proper of the Department of English (Aided) for almost a decade now. On this momentous occasion, it gives me great joy in congratulating team Cornucopia, on bringing out this lovely splash of creative vibes by our students. I also join all my lovely, vibrant colleagues in the Department of English (Aided) in appreciating Prof. Christina Dhanasekaran and her dedicated student team at the ELF and especially the student editors (Ms. Edwina, Ms. Shivani and Mr. Alan), for all their tireless striving in successfully bringing out this amazing ‘horn of plenty’. We wish team Cornucopia all success in all their amazing initiatives.

* From the Prefatorial note to the latest issue of Cornucopia

You may want to check out - 

A Report on the release of the very first issue of Cornucopia Vol. 1, HERE

The vibrant cover design of our back issue of Cornucopia Vol 3, HERE

A Call from Cornucopia, HERE

We hope to make available past issues of Cornucopia on the web quite soon!

In the meantime, please take some time off to read a sample past issue - July 2012 - of Eclectic Representations, a peer-reviewed International Journal from the Research Department of English, MCC, which we had uploaded online, HERE

'We the Students...'

A Seminar - Of, By, and For the Students!

I am so delighted to share with y’all, dear gentle readers, about a particular Seminar that happened this last week, which was so unique and a cut above the rest, on so many counts! 

Well, initially, I was all curious, and all surprised, when I received a mail from a college student that said – 

Dear Sir,

We the students from the Department of English (Shift – II) Sacred Heart College, Tirupattur District are planning to organize an invited talk on Postcolonial Studies. It is going to be a student-organised talk. We would like to invite you as a resource person for this invited talk… We would like to know when you are free, and give us some details about… We are waiting for the confirmation date.

With regards,

Organising Committee

‘We the Students’ was the catchphrase that made me so curious! I’ve never received an invite of this sorts, from the students of any Institution, in this manner! This one was hence special! This one was hence unique!

Added, I was so happy to see the enthusiasm and the vibrancy with which the mail was drafted and sent across to me. ‘This is something quite new by all means’, me thought.

Still curious, yet delighted and happy, I sent them a reply appreciating them on this noble endeavour, and giving them three probable dates in the month of February for them to choose from!

Everything went on like clockwork from then on, and the students (of I MA English) followed up on their mails and their calls with me with such alacrity and responsibility and fixed up on their date, Wednesday, 26 February 2020!

On my day of departure too, right from the time I boarded the train, at around 5 in the evening, they were keeping sweet tabs on me, through my journey all the way, and the moment I alighted, at around 8 in the evening, four young men were there, all sprightly and joyous, waiting to receive me with such excitement and dynamism writ large in their faces!

They then drove me up to my place of stay that they had booked for me - in their own private car! And soon, by 9.30 pm they were back again with a lovely parcel of food – ’Your dinner, sir’, – they said!

The next day, their own sweet Red-letter day, quite early into the morning, as is wont with me, I took a long walk down the campus, to see delightful banners and festoons placed prominently in campus, quite near the entrance, by the students themselves, heralding this, their own Seminar on Postcolonial Studies!