PGR’s blog

Archive for October, 2010

BACH’S CONCERTO NO. 1 IN C MINOR

October 25, 2010 By: PGR NAIR Category: Poetry

BACH’S CONCERTO NO. 1 IN C MINOR

It was a leisurely dinner evening in a Greek restaurant in Toronto. There were only three of us- my friend, Dr. Roger Greenwald, poet and distinguished translator of Norwegian poetry, and my wife Raji. We reached the restaurant after visiting the Toronto public library near our residence to pick up a book I had reserved- ‘The Selected poems of Nazim Hikmet’ translated by Randy Blasing and his Turkish wife Mutlu Konuk. I had read poems of Hikmet in the late eighties and the only poetry book of Hikmet I had owned is now the permanent property of my friend after loaning it to him. He still says he will return:). So, it was a pleasure to read a new translation of him after many years.

As we settled down in the restaurant, I showed Roger the book I had picked up. He instantly recognized it and asked me whether I had read the poem, ‘Bach’s Concerto No. 1 in C Minor’. As I am a huge fan of the baroque music of Bach, it was the first poem I picked up to read while I went through the book sitting in the subway. With rapturous joy I yelled-Repetition!!!. Roger laughed hearing my euphoric exclamation and endorsed it as one of the most beautiful poems of Nazim Hikmet.

I have posted below this poem to add to my perennial joy of sharing beautiful poems with my friends here.

Nazim Hikmet was one the greatest poets of modern Turkey. Hikmet revolutionized Turkish poetry by introducing free verse and modern poetic techniques, and combining these with traditional and folk styles. He was also jailed and eventually exiled for his leftist political beliefs and his work for social justice. I love Hikmet’s fresh imagery and spirited tone. He is comparable to Pablo Neruda in his style and humanistic vision which can be summarized in the following two lines that appear in one of his poems.

“To live like tree, unique and free

Like a forest in harmony”

Incidentally, both were friends and shared the same ideology and no wonder they became endearing poets of humanity.

Nazim Hikmet is a poet of great compassion and courage, and a believer in the human race in spite of having been in jail for many years. His poems are intimate, honest, uncompromising, gently humorous, filled with longing and hope and refusing to let despair triumph in spite of outward circumstances.

This poem is a simple one and he speaks, probably to his lover Rose, about the innumerable repetitions that one sees in nature. They are verily joy dancing in nature and without those voiceless, clueless and endless repetitions, our life is monochrome. As the poet affirms at the end, the key is, ‘to repeat without repeating’.

BACH’S CONCERTO NO. 1 IN C MINOR

Fall morning in the vineyard:
      in row after row the repetition of knotty vines,
                      of clusters on the vines,
                      of grapes in the clusters,
                      of light on the grapes.

At night, in the big white house,
                       the repetition of windows,
                       each lit up separately.

The repetition of all the rain that rains
                      on earth, trees, and the sea,
                      on my hands, face, and eyes,
                      and of the drops crushed on the glass.

The repetition of my days
                      that are alike,
                      my days that are not alike.

The repetition of the thread in the weave,
                      the repetition in the starry sky,
                      and the repetition of “I love” in all languages,
                      and the repetition of the tree in the leaves,
                      and of the pain of living, which ends in an instant
                                                          on every deathbed.

The repetition in the snow -
                       the light snow,
                       the heavy wet snow,
                       the dry snow,
the repetition in the snow that whirls
in the blizzard that drives me off the road.

The children are running in the courtyard;
in the courtyard the children are running.
An old woman is passing by on the street;
on the street an old woman is passing by;
passing by on the street is an old woman.

At night, in the big white house,
                     the repetition of windows,
                     each lit up separately.

In the clusters, of grapes,
on the grapes, of light.

To walk toward the good, the just, the true,
to fight for the good, the just, the true,
to seize the good, the just, the true.

Your silent tears and smile, my rose,
your sobs and bursts of laughter, my rose,
the repetition of your shining white teeth when you laugh.

Fall morning in the vineyard:
       in row after row the repetition of knotty vines,
                     of clusters on the vines,
                     of grapes in the clusters,
                     of light on the grapes,
                     of my heart in the light.

My rose, this is the miracle of repetition -
to repeat without repeating.

(PS: I have strived to maintain the syntax as given in the book.)

Ref: Poems of Nazim Hikmet, Revised and Expanded Edition [Paperback] Nazim Hikmet (Author), Randy Blasing (Translator), Mutlu Konuk Blasing (Translator), Mutlu Konuk (Foreword)

Tags: BACH'S CONCERTO NO. 1 IN C MINOR; Nazim Hikmet; pgr nair

Comments (3)

Shift Foreman Speaking

October 19, 2010 By: PGR NAIR Category: News

“Shift Foreman Speaking”

Luis Urzua (in green) with President of Chile standing on his left

The extraordinary feat of rescue of the 33 Chilean miners trapped 2,000 feet underground for 70 days will be ranked one of the most inspiring events in modern memory. The rescue began at midnight on Tuesday, 12^th October, when the metal capsule Phoenix 2 pod was lowered to where 700,000 tons of rock had collapsed on Aug 5 entombing the miners. The mission was certainly an unqualified success, both from technology and leadership angles. I am more enchanted by the leadership and command-and-control strategies one could witness during the unfolding of this human drama. I did considerable reading of various newspapers and articles on this incident and what I have given below is a summary of the leadership episodes that emerged from the beginning of the tragedy to its miraculous finale.

It was Napoleon who said, “A leader is a dealer in hope’. Right from the beginning, the Chilean President Sebastian Pinera shared this hope in no uncertain terms. The president was not a mere spectator.He was in the thick of everything and his visibility was simply amazing (Compare it with the importance our Indian counterparts give to such tragedies). If perpetual enthusiasm is a force multiplier, this was evident in the missionary zeal with which the technical and leadership teams worked together to ensure synergy at every step.

Instilling courage

When audio contact was first made with foreman Luis Urzua after 17 days of search , the first words he uttered was, “Shift foreman speaking,” a true professional voice even in times of extreme crisis. The 54-year-old took charge of the situation, distributing food and allocating jobs to keep the men busy. That voice, “Shift foreman speaking” will be remembered as one of the greatest leadership quotes in recent times. The most miraculous part of the story is not the rescue. The real miracle — and most inspiring part of this story — is how shift boss Luis Urzua managed to overcome darkness, despair and the prospect of starvation to mobilize a team, who worked together to ensure that every man survived and thrived in the worst of conditions. He had a reputation among employees and one said- “He is very protective of his people and obviously loves them.” This reputation had to be pivotal when he needed to convince 32 other hungry miners, many of whom thought they’d be rescued within days, to ration two-day worth of supplies to last the 17 full days before they were discovered. The miners, at Urzua’s urging, reportedly ate one teaspoon of tuna and a half-glass of milk each 48 hours. True leaders like Luis Urzua follow heart and soul, even in circumstances that seem impossible and hopeless.

Teamwork

Everyone wants to survive. In crisis, it’s tough to keep people focused on the team rather than themselves. One of the techniques Urzua used to remind the miners that they were in this together was to have everyone eat their paltry rations in the same spot at the same time. Knowing that there could be no cheating, that no one had more than another, had to help obviate the natural tendency to break away from the team into a every-man-for-himself mentality that would have sunk them all. By the end, the miners were so bonded that they asked rescuers if they could all remain on the site until the last man was brought to the surface. Not surprisingly, Urzua was that last man.

Discipline

Every miner had a job. One became the religious leader; others helped map their tunnel to see the potential ways out. Urzua organized work shifts, giving each miner responsibilities that kept them busy, improved their living conditions and emphasized that individual’s importance to the the team. They maintained a schedule, shining lights to simulate day and night. They also maintained a strict diet even after they were delivered food. They were focused on a goal — getting out. They needed to be disciplined to keep their living conditions acceptable and keep their waistlines in check to be lifted to safety.

Strategy and goal-oriented focus

The power of plying with a purpose was the most visible leadership lesson in the whole episode. The Chilean rescue was truly a multinational and multidisciplinary affair, with contributions from a variety of companies and institutions around the world. The rescue capsule was designed by an Austrian firm. Experts from NASA and other American agencies helped to sustain the 33 miners underground, and an American company from Pennsylvania supplied the drills that bored through half-a-mile of rock. Geologists, psychologists, and other experts from several different countries offered advice while the Chilean government, under mining minister Laurence Golborne, remained firmly in control.

This might sound a facile task. One should but it’s extraordinarily difficult to assemble resources from dozens of providers while preventing turf battles from bogging down the whole effort. Not-invented-here syndrome is a universal danger to any multilateral effort, since people in charge always prefer their own solutions to those offered by somebody else, especially when national pride is at stake. Military and law-enforcement officials routinely face this problem when operations cross jurisdictions or involve units under different commands. Corporations often struggle to get agreement between department heads, even on the smallest matters. In the pursuit of a singular goal—rescuing the miners—the Chileans have shown focus and discipline that ought to humble so-called leaders the world over.

Under-promise and over-deliver

“Under-promise and over-deliver” is a popular quote by business guru Tom Peters. Yet, this is what Chilean authorities did. This may be an old cliché, yet leaders at every level routinely ignore it by creating unrealistic expectations that leave people disappointed. The Chileans did the opposite. In early August, when the mine first collapsed and the fate of the miners was unknown, Chilean Mining Minister Laurence Golborne said there was a slim chance they’d be found alive. That brought criticism, but it also set the stage for a tragic outcome while still leaving room for hope. Then, when the miners were found alive, Chilean officials cautioned that it could take as long as four months to reach them. That might have come from naiveté or lack of familiarity with state-of-the-art drilling equipment, but now that the miners have been rescued ahead of schedule, everybody awaiting the rescue feels relief rather than anger. And the Chilean government looks competent instead of ham-handed, which would have been the case if they had to backpedal from an overoptimistic timeline.

Compare that to the BP oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico and low-ball estimates of the amount of oil spilled, which were continually revised upward by huge amounts, trashing BP’s credibility.

Have backup Plans

Yet another leadership trait is the virtue of laying backup plans. The shaft that ultimately reached the miners was the second of the three being drilled, and the only one using innovative air-powered drills that turned out to be ideal for the type of rock in the area. Since miners had never been rescued before through such a long shaft, the rescue operation was basically an intense experiment. Trying several different things at once obviously raised the odds of success. That can be hard to do in more mundane situations where nobody’s life is at stake and funding is tight, but it’s always worth keeping in mind that there might be more than one way to succeed—and that your first idea about how to do it could be wrong.

Shared credit

When it came time to speak to people at the surface, Urzua stepped aside, preferring to have another miner narrate a video requested by health officials. While miners in and out of the shaft talked about Urzua’s leadership, Urzua talked about the skills and welfare of his men.

Marching with a single heartbeat

Finally what everyone witnessed was the joy of team pride. It was gratifying to see the Chileans come together and win one for the home team. In an era of corporate bloodletting, political warfare, and generally low morale, the Chilean rescue is a reminder that people really can work together to accomplish something.

Celebrate Humanity

Rare are the incidents that attract international media attention for their power to instill wonder and joy, rather than horror and trepidation. This was one occasion where all citizens of the world could forget their many differences (cultural, religious, and historical), at least temporarily, and unite in a collective outpouring of human empathy. Ultimately, the miners’ rescue is a study in the capacity for peoples from diverse backgrounds and cultures to recognize that what ties them together is often just as significant as what makes them unique.

There is no rocket science to leadership. Leadership is a collection of seemingly minor things that, taken as a whole, create a climate in which people feel honoured and valued. The Chilean Miners rescue will be remembered for long time as a glorious leadership exercise in the history of human endeavour where every team member felt valued and honoured.

Reference: Articles on Leadership experiences from Chilean Mine Rescue by Rick Newman and Kathy Kristof

Tags: Shift Foreman Speaking; chilean mine rescue; leadership

Comments (6)

NOBEL PRIZE FOR MARIO VARGAS LLOSA

October 08, 2010 By: PGR NAIR Category: Uncategorized

NOBEL PRIZE FOR MARIO VARGAS LLOSA

The great Peruvian writer Mario Vargas Llosa (pronounced as MAH’-ree-oh VAHR’-gahs YOH’-suh) has finally won the 2010 Nobel prize for Literature. The Swedish Academy which manages the Nobel Prize stated that the award goes to him for “his cartography of structures of power and his trenchant images of the individual’s resistance, revolt and defeat.” For many years, he had been sidelined by the academy for political reasons. He is a worthy successor to Gabriel Garcia Marquez, the Columbian author and the last novelist to win a Nobel Prize from Latin America (famous for masterpiece, “One Hundred of Solitude”. He won Nobel Prize in 1981). My joy doubles as I am a huge fan of Latin American Literature . The academy’s perennial neglect of great Latin American writers like Jorge Luis Borges, Julio Cortazar, Roberto Bolano and Juan Rulfo-all who died without winning the Nobel- is notorious. I pray that one day the living Mexican writer Carlos Fuentes too wins this prize.

Non-literary readers may still recall Mario Vargas as the Peruvian presidential candidate who contested against Albert Fujimoro in 1990 and lost it. His Cuban friend and writer Guillermo Cabrera Infante had at that time characterized his defeat as a gain for literature. As Infante said, “Literature is eternity, politics mere history.” Throughout his storied career, Peruvian writer Mario Vargas Llosa has been regarded as one of the most influential writers in South America. Mario Vargas Llosa is very popular among literary readers for his astonishingly great works like “Green Hose”, “Aunt Julia and the script writer” and “War of the end of the World.

“Aunt Julia and the script writer” is a novel that walks on the thin line of fact and fiction. It is a novel that I discuss every time I encounter a fan of his works. “Aunt Julia” is perfection in craft and thematic integrity. Mario, a 19-year old Law-student working in a radio station, falls in love with his aunt-in-law, Julia Urquidi. She thinks Mario is a child and calls him ‘Varguitas’ but soon he proves to her he’s a young man already, with great ambitions of becoming a novelist in Paris. They end up in love, and issues arise when relatives become aware of this. They flee to an unknown town intending to be married. Meanwhile, Mario finds a friend in Pedro Camacho, a soap opera radio writer who, after achieving great success, has begun to lose control over his characters (they die in one episode to reappear the next) and runs of the risk of being fired since the audience is getting confused. The boiling imagination of Camacho’s scripts and the riotous life of Varguitas is interwoven in the novel. This is the most fascinating aspect of this novel. Varguitas confronts his family claiming that he will provide a good life to Julia. She encourages him to pursue his dream of going to Paris and the script writer Camacho loses his mind and is sent to a mental hospital.

The starting passage his chaotic epic novel “War of the end of the World” is one of the great literary passages in Latin American literature. The emergence of the hero at the beginning of this novel is an example of riveting characterization. The novel presents a detailed representation of Latin American history and epic storytelling. It is a fictionalized history of Canudos, a community in the dry interior of Brazil that was utterly wiped out by the Brazilian army in 1897. Llosa has a singular tenderness for this novel, asserting it in many interviews as his best book, and I cannot agree more on this.

“In praise of stepmother” is another very short novel that I thoroughly enjoyed reading, especially for the intellectually and erotically stimulating content. I would say it tastes exactly like ‘Bloody Mary”. Wickedly witty and fun, this is a strange and beautiful little gem and a truly masterful and original piece of erotic storytelling. The book is primarily around 3 characters - Don Rigoberto, his son Alfonso and second wife Lucrecia. I would recommend this to a casual reader who wants to taste his works. Another novel that hugely explores his arsenal of humor is “Captain Pantoja and the Special Service”

Most of his novels combine scathing political commentary with complex literary style that engrosses the reader. His first novel, “The Time of the Hero” is a thinly veiled account of the corruption Vargas Llosa himself experienced at a military Academy. “Clubs” explores the brutal rite of passage from adolescence to adulthood by telling the story of a boy emasculated by a dog. Another noted work, “Storyteller”, weaves together the lives of a Peruvian man who goes to live with an ancient tribe in the Amazon and a college friend who is haunted by the thought of the tribes. It alternates between sections of the writer`s life and the stories told deep in the rainforest. “The Real Life of Alejandro Mayta” is about a failed revolution of the 1960’s that was perpetrated by a high school classmate of a writer in contemporary Peru. “Death in the Andes” is structurally a mystery story in which two soldiers assigned to a barren outpost, investigate the disappearance of three men in the remote mining communities of the Andes.

Lastly, I would cite one non-fiction book, “Letters to a Young Novelist” (modeled on Rilke’s “Letters to a Young Poet”) which has been hailed as the cheapest resource on how to write a novel. He has condensed his lifetime of writing, reading, and thought into an essential manual for aspiring writers. I would gladly recommend this to all budding writers. It is written in a lucid style with a plethora of illustrations drawn from many literary works of high repute.

Mario Vargas Llosa is a highly committed litterateur. In his Paris Review Interview (that appears in the book “Latin American Writers at Work”) he says, “You could say that to write is necessary and to live is unnecessary. Literature has been important to me ever since I was a child. Literature is more than a modus vivendi : I believe the choice a writer makes to give himself entirely to his work , to put everything at the service of literature instead of subsuming it to other considerations is absolutely critical. Some people think of it as a kind of complementary or decorative activity in a life devoted to other things or even as a way of acquiring prestige and power. In those cases, there is a block, it’s literature avenging itself, not allowing you to write with any freedom, audacity or originality. That’s why I think it’s important to make an absolutely total commitment to literature”.

At another place he says, “My greatest quality is my perseverance. I am capable of working extremely hard and getting more out of myself than I thought was possible. My greatest fault, I think, is my lack of confidence, which torments me enormously. It takes me three or four years to write a novel – and I spend a good part of that time doubting myself. I write because I am unhappy. I write because it is a way of fighting unhappiness”. While this can be rated as the mere modesty of this great writer, the Nobel Prize should surely skyrocket his self-confidence.

Reading Vargas Llosa is a treasured experience in life that no fiction fans should ever miss. If any of you think that it is not worth it, I can cite a passage from “Human Province” by Elias Canetti: ‘While the hemlock was being prepared, Socrates was learning a melody on the flute. “What use wlll that do to you?”, he was asked. “At least I will learn that melody before I die”, replied Socrates ’

By bestowing the Nobel Prize on Vargas Llosa, the academy has truly recognized the grandeur and legacy of legitimate literature as the finest expression of humanity.