From Ayodhya Ram to N.Ram.

One more hectic day ends. Really as I received roughly fifty forwards, audio, video n  short thesis on  history, geography, archaeology so on about the origin of the term Bharat vis a vis India and a few PhD thesis on the term Sanatana Dharma vis a vis Hinduism from roughly 5000 BCE to 2023 AD in three days flat. Mind you not in one language but in four languages, Tamil, Telugu, English n Hindi. Thank God I didn't know more languages. Not even in three years of my graduation I came across so much literature on India sorry Bharat that by the end of the third day my head was loaded so much excess of knowledge that I took a few pain killers n to repent, sorry relax from the excess, I decided to watch Tom n Jerry. To be honest I can't for the life of me remember a single damn thing. That's all folks. bye.

 

A Postmaster, Milan Kundera and Nietzsche

Full many a flower is born to blush unseen, and waste its sweetness on the desert air.

The caption is as the cliché goes is like chalk and cheese. Not so really as I realised. It was those strange times when one comes across people almost from forgotten little towns that many a time never ceases to amaze one. It was a professional trip I was taking to a southern town in a day time train. The chair car compartment looked pretty cramped filled to capacity. The afternoon was humid and to my misfortune I had the middle seat.  I was cursing myself for not getting a more comfortable a/c chair car. To divert myself from acute discomfort with frequent sips of water I fished out some dailies I was carrying and started to read and do crosswords. A little later my eyes fell on an eldery man sitting next to my seat neatly dressed was holding a book ‘Immortality’ by Milan Kundera. He broke the ice by asking me if I was a Professor of English. As I replied in the negative. Now it was my turn to ask him if he was one. And his reply took me by surprise. He said that he was a retired postmaster from a small town called Ammapettai where there was no railway line and only half a dozen buses pass through it during the day. I became curious about his background. He then told me that he was from poor agriculturist family and after finishing tenth standard in the local government his education ended and he was helping his father. Then he came to know that his village one man post office was vacant and on the advice of his uncle he applied and got the job. For the rest of his life till his retirement for about three decades he worked in the post office as a clerk, postman and delivery man all rolled into one. I was surprised about his familiarity with the likes of, not just Kundera, but with numerous others from Bacon to Tolstoy to Gandhi to Nehru to Khalil Gibran. He even began to quote some interesting passages. His knowledge of Tamiz literature too was astounding. Right form sangam poetry to the great epics to bhakti poems, all self-taught.  By now I was completely bowled over then to cap it all he fished out from his bag a book on the philosophy of Friedrich Nietzsche. By now I was feeling totally inadequate to continue the conversation with the old postmaster.

The most interesting was that the postmaster makes it a point to read The Hindu that one or two people bought in his village every day and notes down author’s name that he was not familiar with. And whenever he visited nearby town or Chennai he would try and buy those books. By now he appeared to have collected a fair amount of books. He also said that he would read “know your English” column assiduously and improved his language skills. Most of his pension went to augmenting his library with books and as a policy he also donates everyday a particular sum to some needy person. His only lament was that his children don’t read any of the books. I hardly could interrupt the torrent of thoughts that was pouring out of him. As his station approached we exchanged the phone numbers and the retired post master profusely thanked me for having spared my valuable time and apologized if he had disturbed me.  After he got down he came near the window of my seat and bid goodbye in chaste Tamiz and wished my journey be a safe and happy one. I just mumbled a thank you as the train picked up speed and pierced into the growing night that I may not soon forget as Thomas Gray lines came to my mind and in fact I cannot think of any one more deserving than the retired Postman of Ammapett to grace the yearly Lit fest that is held in fancies locations.

A little Humanity please!

 

A tragedy and two reactions  Humanity & Commerce

The tragic train accident that took place on the early hours of 2^nd  June near Balasore, Odisha was the most horrendous in the recent times. The death toll alone it is reported to have climbed to near two hundred and seventy five or more and more than six hundred injured as on date is something shocking especially with all technical advances we have made in many sectors including in transportation. The rescue efforts was no doubt  swift and the disaster relief team is doing commendable job without taking break in the rescue operations and so are the medical team in the local hospital in attending to the injured passengers. There are many reasons ascribed to the disaster right from negligence to mechanical error etc. A detailed enquiry alone would bring the real cause for this humongous tragedy.   It is only hoped that the Government would take immediate remedial steps so that such disasters are averted in the future.

My observation is more on the human aspect of the entire disaster. As soon as the accident took place it is reported that many people living in nearby villages came rushing to the spot and started to pull the victims out of the wreckage. Some took the injured in their own vehicles or taxis to the nearest hospital. Meanwhile within an hour hundreds of people reported to have lined up in the hospital to donate blood and the hospital had to turn away many due to the donours exceeding the requirement of the hospital. News also came that many helped injured to communicate their near and dear ones by phone and send information about their safety. This was not the first time when one comes across commendable sense of humanity exhibited by simple village folks without second thoughts in times of disaster be it the aftermath of Tsunami or the air crash that claimed the former Army General Bipin Rawat.  

Now the most distressing news comes from the air sector. Almost all the airlines quietly increased their fares on all these sectors to more than double right from the day of the accident and many passengers who came out alive of the accident had to make haste to reach to their near and dear ones at the earliest. Many in fact were under trauma and not in perfect mental state even to decide their immediate needs.  I do not have enough words to describe this insensitive commerce that went on at a time such as this. No doubt motive of business by private enterprises is for profit but to practice it at extreme levels especially during disasters is nothing but inhuman. These Airlines, manned by highly skilled and educated professional may learn a few lessons from the simple village folks to become better human beings than merely being meritorious professionals. As our father of the nation said that among the seven deadly sins one of them was commerce without morality.  Is it too much to expect the Airlines to wake to a little more humanity and return the excess fare collected from the relatives and other travelers who used their carriers to reach home safely.

 

Lessons from a crow

Every day morning I used to find a large number of twigs scattered in the front yard. I used to throw them away till it struck me odd for I was not sure as to where these were coming from. Then I realised that they were from a nest of a crow in one of the branches of the jamun tree in the front yard. These twigs were apparently  sourced from several places by the crow for its nest. Now what happened next was very interesting. The crow started to  lay eggs in its nest and during its absence, a koyal, the cuckoo surreptitiously laid eggs in the same nest. As they looked identical the crow didn't notice it but I think the crow knew it but accommodated the new entrants as she probably knew that the cuckoo was not competent enough to build a nest in its own. A first lesson.

After the eggs were hatched for a few weeks the mother crow  painstakingly fed the chicks may be for just a month or so till the young ones grew wings and started to flutter in an attempt to fly. Waiting for this very moment the mother crow abandoned the nest and the chicks never to return. The young ones after desperate wait for a day or so decided to take a chance and tried to fly from the nest out of sheer hunger. A  necessity for survival. Lesson no 2.

Most of them managed to fly an odd one couldn't and so fell down and hopped around for a day or two then managed to fly away.

The abandoned nest was not taken up by any other crow or bird. It was left to scatter in the wind and cease to exist in course of time. A few twigs were taken away by other crows to build their own nest. 

But remember no crow inherits a nest built by its parents. Each time a crow has to build it's own nest when it's time arrives to lay eggs, which it does. It neither inherits nor leaves behind an inheritance. 

That left me wondering as we humans spend a lifetime hoarding wealth to be inherited by the next generation without effort that makes them often lazy and incompetent to face the realities of life boldly as most of them do not learn skills for survival. Surely there is something to learn from a humble crow..

   twigs from the nest

 

 

Valliammal

"As soon as I married I moved  to Chennai with my husband from my village near Ginjee" Valliammal paused to look up after she deftly poked the slipper with a long needle to stitch the torn part.

"we rented a small house where we began our life in this big city." She stopped as a customer dropped by and collected his mended shoes. " How much" he queried, '70 rupees" she said and after the payment she carefully put the money in a small pouch and tucked it.

" Well we had four children three daughters and a son. I have married off all of them"

" We got this bunk made" as she showed her bunk behind her, a small rectangular roughly 6 ft to 3 ft.made with tin sheets,”The corporation tried to remove it but we went to court and got it stayed" she added.

And  Munusamy

" He passed away a few years back. I used to watch him closely for years as he worked so I decided to continue" No second thoughts she has to go on working to sustain her big family. Lesson 1 life has to go on no matter it takes downside all of a sudden.

How many hours do you work.

" I come by  10 in the morning and leave by 6 in the eve."

" Earn, well rs.150 or even 200. But due to corona it was tough for almost a year" she added but without a tinge of disappointment.

 Lesson 2, leave the past and move along.

How old are you now V.

She smiled looking up briefly from her work , " 70" I added helpfully. " Keep it that way" she shot back and added "I’m working isn't that enough" and went back to work.

Lesson 3, yes when your body is fit and you keep yourself engaged does it matter your old.

Can I take a pic of you I'm so happy that I met you maa.

" Really ok do " first time she appeared a bit shy.

" Here Valliammal your pic" she took a look at it and gave a broad toothless smile.

As she finished the job she took a brush and began to polish " No no ma no need" I said gently. She looked at me and as if to chide added " you can't wear a dirty looking slippers" and after polishing gave it to me.

Lesson 4 Dignity is important no matter what your status is.

I thanked Valliammal after settling her fee, very meager to the valuable lesson She taught me in course of twenty minutes.

 

All things great n small the Lord God made them all

 The story of a mosquito.

Once upon a time there lived a King and his kingdom was very prosperous. The first reason was he was wealthy, secondly he had no enemies in the borders threatening to invade. Now the happy king with his loving queen and obedient children ( waiting patiently for their turn instead of despatching their father hastily from the throne) had no worry except occasional bad stomach due to frequent heavy meals which he indulged in due to no other earth shaking events like war etc.

One day as he was happily snoring on his soft peacock bed a mosquito appeared (though the kingdom was faraway from Mambalam) and it's soft drone in ragamalika, near the king’s ear disturbed his sleep. He woke and cursed the mosquito and loudly complained to God as to why he created a creature like a mosquito in an otherwise perfect world.

The King forgot all about the good mosquito but the good Lord above had other plans. Suddenly a neighbouring king perhaps bored of no hostilities found that his soldiers were getting lazy of earning without any work( read killing) and consequent suffering from ailments like diabetes, blood pressure etc. decided to address the issue pronto as he also suspected that the army commander who was equally bored, was perhaps planning a coup. So the King decided to declare war on our happy Kings kingdom. Thus a war broke out just like that ( now that’s how most wars happen) and our hero king soon lost his kingdom ,wife etc en bloc. He fled the kingdom to save his life and found a safe spot in a jungle.

Not happy with capturing the kingdom minus the King the neighbouring king in his infinite wisdom despatched forth a formidable army to capture our hero.

One day when the poor tired ex king was sleeping in the jungle he woke up with a start as he was bitten by a, Yes your right, the real hero of the story, a MOSQUITO! As the fugitive king woke up he saw at a distance armed men apparently come to capture him. The ex King realising the danger quickly escaped to a nearby mountain and hid in a cave.

In safety he pondered about the narrow escape and thanked the mosquito err god above or both. The ex king then realised that the every creature in this planet has a right to exist for its own sake and we have no right to question the relevance of it's existence, if so, Mosquitoes also may ask what's the relevance of human beings ( sounds more sensible). With due apologies to Shri Mukur Lakshminarasimha chariar from his Thiruppavai lectures Vol I. Pub.Vanathi Publications , Chennai.

Desert blooms to Life!

 

                                                                   Bloom in desert

With Lock down in town I took a short walk recently in the morning close to my home in Chennai, T. Nagar. suddenly I chanced upon this plant in full bloom in the middle of the median. In the eerie silence with hardly a few people in sight it completely lifted my spirit. The plant seem to say that this too shall pass and the city will spring back to life soon..