It’s indeed a
rarity to come across good events where you can listen - in rapt attention - to writers and their thought
processes!
In this regard,
today’s rendezvous with S. Ramakrishnan - author, novelist, thinker, littérateur, in the 'packed to capacity' Anderson Hall, MCC, on the occasion of the inaugural of the activities of the Tamizh Mandram, was way beyond ordinary - and an intellectual and inspirational treat of sorts.
EsRa (S. Ramakrishnan) spoke on the 'three people' who mould and influence our lives –
great teachers
great thinkers
great artists
But unfortunately
for the younger generation, they are so addicted to the internet, to
sportspersons and to hero worship of actors that they forget to reminisce on
these three great moulders of minds, he added.
He persuaded the
audience to read Umberto Eco’s letter to his grandson – which had a great
influence on him, he said. So i thought of promptly putting it down here - that letter of yore - more for the inspirational relevance it has for our times...
About Umberto Eco: Umberto
Eco was a prolific Italian writer and semiologist, best known for his novel, The Name of the Rose.
This excerpt is a
translation of his heartfelt “Letter to My Grandson,” in which he counsels the
youth on the incalculable value of historical memory and of memorizing for its
own sake—especially in the computer age.
Caro nipotino
mio,
I would not want
this Christmas letter to sound too “old school,” dishing out advice about love
for your fellow man, country, the world, and such things. Even if you did
listen to me, when the time came to put it into practice (you as a present
tense adult and I gone to the past perfect), the value system will be so
changed that my recommendations would be outdated.
Still, at the
risk of sounding like a lecturing fogey, allow me first to offer one
recommendation that you can put into practice right now while surfing on your
iPad.
If by chance you
happen on any of the hundreds of porn sites that show the relationship between
two human beings, or between a human and an animal (in all variety of ways),
try not to believe from this that sex is, among other things, so monotonous.
That kind of sex is staged to keep you from leaving the house to look at real
girls (I start from the principle that you are heterosexual; otherwise, adjust
my recommendations to your particular case). Look at real girls, at school or
at play, because the real ones are better than those on television, and there
will come a day when they give you greater satisfaction than those online.
