THE TROUBADOURS' GUERDON

The Pivotal Chat with Snigdha...

A chance WhatsApp interaction with my niece - Snigdha, just the other day, proved to be the start point of this article. It commenced, with a comment made by Snigdha about my Display Picture on my WhatsApp account.

The way the interaction transpired, is documented below.

Snigdha Bhatia : Love your DP! ?????? ??

Gaurav Bhatia: I suppose looking the part of the quintessential khadoos fauji? While on DP's - I'll probably be plagiarising the thought from your DP to write a post or an article.

Snigdha Bhatia : Haahaa!, and that's a beautiful thought. ??

This image was what Snigdha sported as her WhatsApp DP. Being the research aficionado that I am, the undermentioned thought set me off like a blood-hound, hot on the trail of a juicy story...but first some context and a look into the past.

Floral Games - A Peep into the Past....

The rather simplistic thought in the image above is not new. One has heard, read or discussed multiple variations of this concept over the past many years, that one has walked the portals of the "blue marble". On the contrary, it has evolved over the past thousand years or so.

Historically Floral Games are a series of poetry contests with floral prizes.

• In Occitan, their original language, and Catalan they are known as Jocs florals [???ks flu??als];
• Modern Occitan: Jòcs florals [?d??ks flu??als], or floraus [flu??aws]).
• In French they became the Jeux floraux [?? fl??o].
• In Basque Lore jokoak [lo?e jokoak].
• The original contests may have been inspired by the Roman Floralia (Ludi Floreales) held in honour of Flora.

Toulouse Contests

To my utter surprise, the original floral games of the troubadours were held annually by the Consistori del Gay Saber (the oldest literary society in Toulouse, Europe) wef 1 May 1324 onwards for nearly 160 years till 1484. These contests were judged in accordance with the Leys d'amor, a grammatical and literary treatise on Occitan poetry. The first prize was awarded on 3 May 1324 to Arnaut Vidal de Castelnou d'Ari for a sirvente (moral or religious song of the Proven?al troubadours satirizing social vices) in praise of the Virgin Mary. Additionally, the poetry contest also awarded the following prizes -

• The contestant whose poem was adjudged as the best would receive the Violeta d'aur (golden violet).
• The second prize was a Silver Wild Rose (eglantina).
• The other prizes, awarded for particular poetic forms, were similarly floral.
• The contests were held intermittently until 1484 when the last prize was awarded to Arnaut Bernart de Tarascon. Despite the many years that have since elapsed, this period of 160 years records details of around a hundred prizes having been awarded as per the above-mentioned de nuovo system.

Medieval Era

During the medieval era, many other Catalan poetry festivals were commenced, modelled on those held in Toulouse, Paris / other illustrious cities, and the poems submitted would be judged by a panel of literati.

The Barcelona contest referred to in Snigdha's DP attributed to Billy Collins draws its lineage to the first recorded contest held by John's Consistori de Barcelona, believed to have been held in 1388, by Queen Violante de Bar, a devotee of the Courts of Love in Provence. She brought the games to Barcelona, where the third prize was a silver violet, the second a golden rose and the first prize a real rose, because, like the greatest poetry, a rose can never be successfully imitated —as the winning poem would presumably endure forever, no poet could ask for a greater reward.

On 28 March 1395, the next recorded event was held with the King in attendance in a festival called a Bella Festa. The prizes were provided by the municipal government of Barcelona. There is no record of the names of the winners, the prizes, or their poems. With the death of John two months later and his conflict with the city, the floral games and their source of prize money came to an end. The next great fest was held on 01 May 1408 under the aegis of John's successor, Martin the Humane (Martí l'Humà, Martín I d'Aragón),

Modern Era

At the height of romanticism in 1859, during the Catalan Renaixen?a, Antoni de Bofarull and Víctor Balaguer re-established the floral games (Jocs Florals or Jocs de la Gaia Ciència) in Barcelona on the first Sunday in May with the theme of Patria, Fides, Amor (Country, Faith, Love), alluding to the three typical prizes:

• The Englantina d'Or (golden eglantine) was awarded for the greatest patriotic poem.
• The Viola d'or i argent (gold and silver violet) was awarded to the greatest religious poem.?
• The Flor Natural (natural flower, the prize of honour, an actual rose) was awarded for the greatest love poem.
• There were other lesser prizes.
• A person winning all three great prizes was given the honorific title of Mestre en Gai Saber (Master of Joyous Knowledge).

The Spin to the Tale.....

Allow me to now view this whole treatise on Floral Games through the contemporary lens of modern-day living and try to draw a connection to what I have perceived as the actual hidden message from the simplistic, yet extremely powerful message displayed on the WhatsApp DP image of Snigdha - my niece.

In today's jet-set lifestyle, happiness is often measured in terms of wealth, possession, and abundance. However, contrary to what the current consumerism-driven society wants us to believe, to me as an individual less is actually more. In fact, very often people close to me, allude to me as an oddity, since I seem to be perfectly content with what I possess and prefer to live in the now and present rather than stress about the past or the future. There is a complete absence of that godforsaken "keeping up with the Joneses" syndrome. I am probably one of those creatures who are completely happy with their current state in life - Santosh or a strange sense of contentment usually engulfs me completely. The ubiquitous culture of materialism that places human beings in a constant state of competition with one another, which overrides mindfulness of oneself and one’s relationships - seems to be completely absent from my life.

Is that a good thing ?

I wouldn't know, but I am pretty happy with where I am and with what I have.

To my mind, I feel there is only one way to break free from this consumerism-driven competitive cycle - and that is to adhere to the tenets of minimalism or as some people prefer to call it Intentional Living. Merriam-Webster defines minimalism as a style or technique (as in music, literature, or design) that is characterized by extreme spareness and simplicity.

?Minimalism combats Materialism.

With the little that I know of this concept, I do not think that there are any rules or standards to minimalism. What I have been able to gather is that the concept primarily focuses on prioritizing the things we value most. Minimalism is rooted in the idea and belief that the environment and what we surround ourselves with immensely impact our overall health. This minimalist approach lifestyle, adhering to the tenet of less is more and choosing simplicity over excess, brings a multitude of well-being benefits along with it. Significant amongst them are happiness, satisfaction, and improved personal relationships.

In addition to the absence of stress and anxiety, minimalism also offers the benefits of positive emotions such as joy and peace as a result of simply finding contentment with what we have. Society, of late (especially pertinent to the younger generation and also probably for a few of my own compatriots) has programmed us to believe that happiness can be bought. Wealth (golden / silver rose or violet) equals a blissful life. Yet, it seems the more we have, the less effective it is at bringing us the happiness we seek (multiple golden or silver roses pale in comparison to the real rose - which is the highest award). Embracing minimalism (denouncing the gold and silver rose/violet for the real rose) can be the alternative path. Less could actually be more.

I am sanguine that the shift of focus from being dependent on material possessions to a more simplistic lifestyle liberates us from the never-ending cycle of the pursuit of more (gold or silver rose/violet) and allows us to focus on the more meaningful things (the actual rose) in our lives. Minimalism allows us to appreciate what we already have and find contentment and joy in the present, leading to overall improved well-being and quality of life.

So, I sign off, quoting two stalwarts - Lao Tzu and Confucius with the fervent hope that all my readers achieve Santoshi Prakriti (feeling of contentment) for now and forevermore.

“Be content with what you have; rejoice in the way things are. When you realize there is nothing lacking, the whole world belongs to you.”

-Lao Tzu, 500 BCE.

“Life is really simple, but we insist on making it complicated.”

-Confucious, 551 BCE.