Kerala - Green excess

Glimpses of the village that I was lucky enough to 'come from'. All school vacations were spent here with the grandparents. Click on the image to see a larger view.


Bridges, the main way of transport to neighbour's houses:

There are multiple islands as seen below in the 2 photos, in the middle of paddy fields. These islands usually house a single hut and numerous coconut trees. Seen here is our neighbour's property. un occupied for nearly a decade. Now you know why the place is still pristine. Its void of people - the chief pollutants.

Another neighbour dries the firewood that got wet due to the morning showers

Spend a week here and the memories of colours other than green will fade away from your brain! whats seen below is the view from the front yard of the house

Seen below is the beloved backyard where we spent whole vacations hanging on trees and scouring up earthworms and other similarly highly intellectual activities.

The memory collector

And one more year passed. And one more day passed.

Did anything special happen today?

Not really.. but thats okay. Every single passing moment need not be special. As long as I get special moments now and then, I will survive. But I do need the special moments and some special days and I do want to put them all locked and cherished in my memory. Because, thats what I live for. Those memories, they are my life.

I AM.... THE MEMORY COLLECTOR. well... one of them

Heres to a happy new year and an amazing one at that.

Give me one good reason why anybody should read The God Of Small Things

On a reckless evening when I could have just about done the craziest thing, I went to a library and got myself a membership. The regular vanilla that some people think I am (not without reasons), this was the most reckless thing-to-do that I could think of.

As a result, I treated myself to this new rush and made a list of books that I would like to read before I die. Since there is no possibility of attaching an exact date to that event, I started thinking - technically speaking it could be anytime now. I started with 'The God of small things' by Arundhati Roy.

I knew roughly the outline of the story and the cause that the book stands for. Ten years ago, when I read a passage of the book and wondered what it meant, I had the good sense to put it away. I had however put it down in my mind's 'read when you are older' list of books. Not because I would not understand the story, but because I could not enjoy the prose. A book, in my mind, is a piece of dark chocolate, one with 72% cocoa..something that has to be relished.

As I said, a social cause is weaved into the story - untouchability. As I tested waters with the first pages, I enjoyed the rich prose and the layered style of writing, the setting is in Kerala, there is liberal usage of malayam words and phrases. As I kept reading, I realised that it is a very dark tale indeed. It is the story of twins Rahel and Esthappen, their misfortunate life and the misfortunate lives of others in their family. all of their lives are muddled in despair and darkness. It is very disturbing to read and having to know the characters.

I have not completed the book, but it has left me with only sad and depressing images..A lecherous police officer who taps on a woman's breast with his stick as her two children watch, a spinster aunt who had never had anything in life to cheer for and thus enjoys others' miseries, husbands who beat their wives, for the kick of it, another who does not hesitate to push his wife into prostitution, children taught by their mother never to trust or love anyone easily, the low caste man who gets killed for the sole reason that he loved a woman from the upper caste, and the ultimate act of incest where the twins end up having sex with each other at the age of 31, having met after a long gap

I understand that the issue of untouchability had been addressed and probably the author was against untouchability and perhaps thats why she weaved such a disturbing tale around it. Now, why should we tell such dark and complicated tales to address our issues?? So that people read it and the awareness is spread that untouchability is indeed bad?? The book's prose is so intricate and complex that the people who appreciate it already have a very clear idea that untouchability is bad.. Even if they didnt know about it, there is really no need to tell them dark and shady stories to explain to them how bad untouchability actually is. Arundhati Roy, respecting their intelligence, could have just painted a bright banner that said 'Untouchability is a sin, It affects lives' and leave it at that.

All people who ever lived on the face of the earth have gone through their share of disturbing incidents in their lives. What is the necessity of reaffirming their back-of-the-mind belief that life is a bitch?? Yes, the writing is excellent, maybe we can call it art. But why does art has to be profanity? So glaring and so disturbing?

As I turned page after depressing page of the book, I kept looking at the face of the author that was printed at the back cover. How disturbed and distraughted should one be to express such depressing filth in a story? What ghosts have haunted this pretty lady that she wants other people to experience it as well?? Because she can really make us experience her book, such is her writing. plush and intricate. I found just one reason to read the book, but that does not necessarily mean that I will finish reading it. This is going to be the second book in my life that I never wanted to finish. And believe me, I have read my share of absolute trash, but have always completed reading them, for reasons I do not know..

Ok, call me shallow, call me a blockhead, call me boring, downright normal, someone who does not appreciate the complexities. But what the heck! why should I appreciate it if its complex?? Agreed, I appreciate Chetan Bhagat, but that does not go to say I do not appreciate Ayn Rand or Abdul Kalam's books. We live in a world that is stranger than fiction, it is dark, it is complex, it is disgusting, but why should we document and celebrate pain and muck? Isn't it best not prosed, taught and handed over for generations to come?

Sneha

This weekend, Lets pray

One of the best weekend messages I received in recent months!
This weekend, Lets pray

Conversations with mom

It was difficult looking at her face like this..especially because my cheeks were hot, it felt different. and i felt shy, i had never spoken anything like this to her before, nor had i felt anything like this before.. quietly confused, but not very troubled, I turned away from her face, but curled up in her loving arms.

Its hard to see my mother like this, relaxed. I hardly ever saw her relaxing. This was an exceptional sunday afternoon and we were just lying down for an afternoon nap.

She nudged me on.."Go on, tell me..". I was smiling away from her, she couldn't see my face, but felt my smile anyway. "She hugged me warmly and said "its ok molu, tell me"

"Mom...mummy, there is this guy in school.."

"hmm...?"

"he is very nice. he talks to me sometimes.. he is very funny and he looks..you know"

"hmm.."

Now I felt my mother smile. "I just like looking at him. I mean.. when we stand at the main grounds during the assembly sessions, he is very tall. I keep looking at him"

"He is the leader of his class so he stands first in his class line, you know all classes form lines, separate girls' line and boys' line.."

My mother was stroking my hair gently, probably musing over the fact that her little girl had suddenly grown up and now she as a mother was facing the difficult task of guiding her through the years of distractions that lay ahead of her young life.

She cleared her throat, still hugging me and stroking my hair, she said "When you grow up, its natural that you feel like this.. It is a feeling that comes and goes. It need not mean anything, sometimes if you see something that you like in a person, you get attracted to it.. It can be anything, for example - you like tall people, so when you see tall guys, you will naturally have a liking to that person. And when you see more things that are good in that person, you develop more liking towards him"

Though I was listening to my mother, in my head, I was playing again and again the last conversation that he had with me. He had liked my drawings and he told me that I should enter in the drawing competition that was coming up.

"Its not wrong to feel this, but you have to remember, you have to study first, get good marks. Get a nice job."

"If you get distracted now, how will you do your homework and get good marks"

That hit home, I was suddenly all attention. tall boy's face popped away like a bubble. I wasn't sure about the job part, but I definitely wanted the marks. If I dont get really good marks, Madhu would get the general proficiency prize this year. I couldn't possibly let that happen.

"There is time for that also, you know, to get interested in boys. Its all a matter of.."

"Ok mummy, what time is it?? I will go study now, tomorrow we have the science test" Suddenly Madhu's face started floating around in my little head. I jumped out of the bed and started walking away. The moment had passed and all of a sudden, I got troubled.. What would my mom think of me now that my little dirty secret is out? Maybe I shouldnt have spoken about it.. She must be really disappointed in me..

Before I left the room, I turned and looked at my mother. there was a smile on her face - that was the one reason that holds this memory in my not so little head, even now..

Sneha

Stephen Covey* and John Grisham** revisit paatti vada sutta kadhai

The way it was:
The paatti was making hot delectable vada under the tree. The crow stole the vada and just when he was about to eat it, there came the fox with his own plans of eating the vada. Since the crow was on top of the tree and out of reach, the fox decided to be mean. the crow had the vada in his beak. The fox told the crow that he had a wonderful voice and would he sing a song for him? Flattered, the crow opened his mouth to sing and lo, the vada slipped down. The fox caught it in mid air and off he went with his tasty lunch!

Bringing on the paradigm:
Irreversible and un-pardonable.. The 'paatty' should be given a total paradigm view of the events that followed her unthoughtful action of open-fire cooking of the vada.
Gravely important events that were caused/could have been caused:

1. By making the vada in the open space, she endangered the surrounding trees from a forest fire! She chaffed the whole grass area with her firewood anyway. She would be sued by the Friends of Green Trust
2. The crow stole the vada. This could have been tactically avoided if paatty had thought through her strategy before sending everybody concerned into a downward spiral. This case needs a new paradigm: The paatty had put the crow in the way of unsolicited temptation, the crow was the victim of the situation.
3. The fox not only humiliated the crow with his ill intentions, but put the crow in a situation where he had to face his insecurities
4. The crow went into depression, fell into bad company and started taking party drugs to dance through the night and to get over the emotional trauma. He had to be checked in to rehab by 'Mrs.Crow' - Who in the first place had not cared enough to make lunch for Mr.Crow and indirectly caused him to steal the vada. This is what happens when you do not love and care for your family. Always give care for your loved ones, Make this your nineth habit.

Last I heard, the crow was going to sue the paatti for punitive damages.

Reference:
*Stephen Covey - author of self help books like 7 habits of highly effective people
**John Grisham - author of several legal dramas (fiction)

Sneha

The guilty generation

• Punishing yourself for no apparent reason.
• Living a loser's life by letting go what could be yours if you had focussed and worked towards it,
• Wanting to have no interest in people, work and the things around you...

In other words,

• Penance,
• Sacrifice,
• Denial of worldly pleasures..

Sometimes we are a confused lot. What should ideally be considered as a psychiatric condition that should be cured is considered as righteousness and spirituality. If a person loses interest in everything around him, inflicts pain on himself, runs away from happiness like its a plague, shouldnt we take him to a doctor and get his head examined? Much worse, what if he starts preaching these things to other people and calls it religion?

Should we acknowledge and agree that we should feel guilty for happiness or should we just tell him to shut up and get lost?