A Paradox

It was a pleasant evening with the Sun God maneuvering his chariot pulled by the seven horses below the horizon. The chirping birds seemed to be bidding adieu to the setting sun. The buzzing insects and the croaking frogs were getting ready to welcome the night. Ramulu's ears were deaf to the these buzzes and croaks, they were hearing only the sound of the gushing water in the river nearby. Ramulu had almost reached the river bank after his travel through the woods for a while. He moved as if in a trance towards the river.

With every step, his sixteen year old heart seemed to get heavier. He wanted nothing but justice. He wanted to know why he had to incur such a loss in his juvenility. He needed answers, though he knew that just answers couldn't douse the rage burning inside him.

He accelerated his walk towards the river; jumped over some broken tree branches and reached the swampy banks of the river. The river was almost full to the brim; so were his eyes. He had been to this place many a times before. But this was different . The affinity and love in his eyes, all these years, with the river was replaced by a blank angry stare. Ramulu was thinking how quickly his friend, this mighty river, turned foe and shattered all his dreams. It had been a week since the river spread its satanic tentacles in the form of flash floods and consumed his entire family and most of his village leaving him all alone grieving for the losses.

The river had calmed and retreated to its usual path, but Ramulu couldn't . He wanted vengeance . With tears flowing out of eyes , he prayed to the Sun God who himself seemed to be sharing Ramulu's rage with his reddish rays. Ramulu then took a handful of mud from the banks and looked at the river like a man possessed .

 "Your hands will get dirty! Take your hands from the window, Rahul", said Rahul's mother. Little Rahul had got excited when his train was moving on the bridge constructed on top of the river. The view of the mighty river flowing under the bridge was enough to excite the 8 year old. After all, he had rarely seen fresh water in such abundance in his concrete jungle. To top it, the view of the setting sun which looked like a red apple made Rahul even more joyous.'How lovely it would be to play in that river', thought Rahul. According to his Dad, that was the same river that acted as the source of drinking water for their city. "See Rahul! The river is almost full which means that we will get drinking water without any trouble for another 2 months. Hope the rains fill it more like last week , so that there won't be any scarcity till the next monsoon. Though Rahul was still too young to understand completely what his Dad told, he had seen the troubles his parents had to go through last summer to get some decent amount of potable water for the family. Just then, Rahul's Mom gave him few rupee coins and asked him to pray for better water levels in the river to the Sun God and throw the coins in the river.

"Oh! The Lord on Seven horses! In your mighty presence, I curse this sinful river which breached its limits and consumed many a lives to go dry and be of no use to anyone. May this river get stripped off its so called holiness!" , shouted Ramulu on top of his voice and threw the handful of mud in the river.

A few metres apart, the 8 year old quietly prayed the Apple like Sun God to bless for good rainfall and better water levels in the holy river. He then dropped the coins in time before the train crossed the river completely.

A curse and a wish expecting opposite results. How would God be able to balance this and satisfy both? Maybe , this is why rivers go bone dry during summer and overflow during Winter. After all, that could be one way to solve this paradox.

The Wait

It was almost 9 in the morning. Shambhu lal was still lying down on his mat. The foggy cold morning was cajoling him to sleep for some more time. But he had to go. He had to succeed today at least. There was no more room for failure . He quickly got ready and went to his destination. Alas! There was a huge line of around 20-25 people waiting before a closed shutter, hoping for the best. Shambhu had been seeing such lengthy queues for the past couple of days and returned back to his home disappointed like the Jarasandha retreating after each failed attack on Lord Krishna in the Dwapara yuga. But Jarasandha aka Shambhu couldn't return empty handed today. He had to believe that that would be 'his' day.He quickly took his position as the last man in the queue. He had to lose the 'last man in the queue' title in a jiffy as there were more and more people joining at the tail.

Shambhu started scanning the people in the queue. There were people of almost all ages, from adolescent to elderly with the middle-aged like Shambhu forming the majority. They were unfazed by the cold weather and were braving the cold by wearing mufflers and sweaters. Shambhu was surprised after finding few women in the queue in spite of the poor weather. There was a hue of sorrow painted on all the faces with a few venting out their anger and frustration with their neighbors in the queue. Shambhu was also having similar feelings and questions. But he knew that that was not the time to get angry. He wanted to move forward in the queue. As per him, he was too far back which would mean that the probability of him not getting his quota was more.

He had many acquaintances standing before him. He could easily seek their help to get for him too. But with the limits and other new rules, everyone would be thinking only for himself/herself. It had been almost an hour and a half. There was no trace of the gentleman aka 'the saviour for these people' in his guarded vehicle. He was getting restless, so were the others. Though it was cold,  Shambhu was feeling thirsty. His hands had started shivering. His knees were getting weak. His vision was becoming blurry. But he stood his ground in the queue. He couldn't give up. He was sincerely hoping that after going through all these, he should get his due and not a board telling to come later. He was praying that not even his enemy should have such a fate.

Just then 'he' appeared out of his vehicle with his bag. There was a loud cheer from the people followed by some chaos. The guard who had come along, somehow managed to restore some order . Once the guy who went behind the shutter, signalled a 'Go', people in the queue started entering one after the another. The more the time it took, the more tensed were the people still in the queue. It was Shambhu's turn. With the sudden rush of adrenaline, Shambhu forgot the pains in his body and ran inside.  After getting his full quota, Shambhu came out clutching it tightly close to his heart. Why wouldn't he? He had been having a nightmarish 3 days. He was not able to sleep or eat well . He then opened his hand to take another look at his hard earned.

Photo Courtesy

 There it was ! In a newer design and style. Shambhu was fondly remembering the days when the people could easily walk in and get theirs at any time. The days, when people like him would sink themselves in the oceans of nectar and enjoying the world as if there were no tomorrow. The days when this magic thing at hand could make the sky their costly roof and the rocky ground their comfy bed .He blessed the guy loudly who came with the stocks . He did a quick check around him before opening his quota. He then gulped it in a single sip. Gone were the chills and pain in his body along with the senses. He then turned back at the guy who opened the shutters of the liquor shop a while back and started yelling "Thanks! Oh Saviour!!" and he fell down unconscious thanks to the liquor hacking his CPU alias brain that just went inside.

The people who were still in the queue to get the liquor didn't pay any attention to Shambhu's theatrics.No one bothered to give a hand to him. They knew once the effect of alcohol subsides, he would come back to senses.After all, who would want to lose their hard earned place in the queue to get the liquor before the stocks run out.

                                                                        

The Believable lies

"Chechi! What are your plans tomorrow?", asked Sulochana.

"Nothing!", replied my mother.

"Oh! I am going to my brother's home and we all will be staying in a hut in the middle of our fields tomorrow night".

"Family get together aano?", asked my Mom.

"Yey!No! Super Moon alle? That's why" came the reply.

My mom was puzzled.

Sulochana continued," It is predicted by NASA that on super Moon day which happens once in 1000 years, due to more gravity from moon, there will be quakes and tsunamis. There are so many posts in Facebook related to this. Didn't you see, chechi?".

"Don't I have any other work?", thought my Mom.

"Anyways if there are quakes, stay away from the electric posts in your field", my mom replied in a sarcastic tone.

There are many such Sulochanas among us nowadays who are easily foxed by the hoaxes and rumours flying all around us in every form. Apart from worrying about the naivety of people who believe such hoaxes, credit must be given to people who could think off such hoaxes, make them believable and trick us, though we know that lies travel twice as fast as the truth like raging wildfires.

The Great Dronacharya in the battle of Kurukshetra, per records happen to be the first major victim of a popular hoax on his son's death orchestrated by the Lord himself. Drona didn't try to verify the news himself but rather depended on other's words.

If it was the immortal Ashwadhama who was rumoured dead in Kurukshetra, many celebrities in the present age are being mercilessly killed by hoaxers in social media.Unlike the Mahabharata days, with the world news accessible through the smartphones with us, people still believe the forwards in social media and not even try to verify the authenticity of the information. This latest fad among the hoaxers in social media spreading false news that a celebrity is no more, is a disturbing trend. 

There are some other less disturbing hoaxes which we see regularly. Most of these would start like "As per NASA release" followed by a warning of Pralaya or other natural phenomena. Not so far ahead is the day when we get and believe rumors like " As per NASA, the sun will rise in the West tomorrow and this rare phenomenon occurs once in zillion years". Even if such a hoax comes up, it would be made very believable so that everyone may be tempted to believe it except for the person in topic, the God on seven chariots.

Rather than falling a prey to such tricks and hoaxes, it is time to remove the rust on our sixth sense and use them to differentiate the truth from the others. After all, the Great Tamil poet Thiruvalluvar has already conveyed the message which I want to reiterate here .

"Epporul yaaryaar Vaaiketpinum Apporul

Meipporul Kaanpatharivu"

Meaning:-

Whatever may be the source of any information, knowledge is to extract and assimilate the truth in it.

Grandma Tales

Childhood is the best phase in one's life. Our minds are free from preoccupations, mental stress and other worries.  Each and everyday we are fed with interesting stories by our grand parents during bed time. Most of the stories will be fantasies with added spice to make us believe that they are genuine. Leisure hours will take us back to that old grandma period and the stories we could hear from them.

Siva Purana says that Lord Ganesa was very much normal when he was born. A handsome, lovable child was he that everybody adored him. But circumstances made him a scapegoat. Failure to obey his father, Lord Siva, caused his head being chopped off by Siva. To appease Goddess Parvathy, Siva had to give rebirth to Ganesa for which he needed the head of any living  creature whom he  came across first, lying with its head directed towards North. At last it was an elephant's head that was to decorate Ganesa. But the story,    my grandma told was something very different from this,

Lord Siva and Parvathy, during their honeymoon days, came across a herd of elephants in the thick forests, enjoying the nature and in their playful mood. Parvathy was fascinated to see that and longed that she and Siva could also roam round the forest like them and enjoy. Hence Siva and Parvathy took the form of male and female elephants and there born the child Ganesa.

At another hour of such playful life, both Siva and Parvathy took the form of Vanaras {monkeys} . That time, Parvathy did not wish to have a vanara child. So the embryo in her womb was transferred to that of Anjana, wife of Vaayu {the god of wind} and Hanuman was born. In that era itself, there were cases of embryo transfer from one womb to another which lead to the modern concept of Hired mothers {Vaadagai thai}.

Further interesting is the birth of Vaali and  Sugreeva. Both were sons of Aruna. It was a total Solar Eclipse day and that the Sun God had no work on that day. So he gave his charioteer Arunan a day's off. Arunan, to have some fun on his holiday, went to the durbar of Devendran where he was prevented from entering the durbar as only women were permitted to enter the durbar on that day. Out of curiosity, Arunan cross dressed himself as a beautiful lady called Aruna and entered the durbar. Noticing a beautiful new face in the durbar, Devendran wished to meet her privately  and hence the birth of Vaali.

Arunan returned to work as usual the next day. His master, the Sun God, asked how he spent his off day and Arunan had to narrate his stories. Sun God was astonished to hear the same and he himself wanted to see Arunan's beautiful lady get up, whence he himself fell in love with him and Sugreeva was born.

Umpteen questions can be asked about the possibilities of such happenings. But a childish mind, an innocent one, naturally  believed all these.

To conclude, let me  quote a few golden lines.

" If it be wrong and upon me proved
     I never wrote and nobody ever read ".

Chithra Gupta

Chithra Gupta, the personal assistant to Yama Dharma, who keeps records of all creatures on earth, good and bad, now-a-days feels the job very cumbersome as the population on the earth has reached Himalayan heights and he is not provided with any assistants to help him in his work. Having only two hands to work with and his old Ezhuthani not so sharp of late, he has to toil hard to record each and everybody's papas and punyas then and there and make a  consolidated statement at the end of each day to be scrutinized by Yama himself.

Umpteen times had Chithra Gupta appealed to Yama to provide two or three apprentices to him to help him do all these works perfectly, but all fell on deaf ears. Old age has hampered Gupta's efficiency and now-a-days he tends to make mistakes, that too very silly ones. Even though mistakes are made by Chithra Gupta, the ill effects of those mistakes take heavy toll on Yama as he has to bear the punishments on that account.

Once, out of mental strain, Gupta wrongly advised Yama to go to Earth and to bring someone back to Naraka  as his days on earth had lapsed, but on arrrival back from earth with the person, Yama noticed that he has brought the wrong person. Yama was confused that he could neither send the man back to Earth nor can allow him to be in Naraka as his tenure in Naraka has not yet started. Caught between the Devil and the Deep Sea, Yama use to scold Chithra Gupta every now and then to which his answer will be like this. " I am aged and cannot manage all alone. I have requested you to appoint somebody to assist me. But of no use. Errors may occur in this circumstance and you cannot put all the blame on me".

Yama thought that something has to be done to avoid such mistakes, as his pride will be at stake, that was how he met Narada, the ever talented Deva Rishi, who can solve any problem under the sun within seconds.

Thus during a Job Fare, Yama also attended as an employer and to his joy, could select a genius in Computer Programming. The selected lad was immediately taken to Yama Loka and for his convenience a brand new Computer with Internet and Wi Fi fecilities was set up. Within a few days, each and every person's bio-data and accounts of  punyas and papas were recorded and Yama was fed with actual informations well in time. The poor Chithra Gupta was sidelined as Yama no longer required his services. Poor man, now he is like a Dharwan to the Computer man in Yama Loka.

A Travel

Avsar looked completely drained. He had just completed one half of the train journey to his hometown for the long weekend. He had to wait for another 3 hrs for the connecting train . He had all the time in the world . But, surprisingly he looked in a hurry. The few passengers in the platform saw this guy in his twenties almost running after being seen restless in the platform for sometime. It was still dark . The dude at the east was yet to illuminate the area. Avsar was running towards the upper class waiting room . "All Indians same problem! ", commented one Dhukanwala with a grin. "Yes! It was becoming too much of a problem for Avsar. He was sensing that his legs were losing their might; his eyes were becoming blurry; His bag was becoming too much of a weight to carry. He had to get rid of the 'weight'. In the midst of all this, there were umpteen questions going through his mind. One of them being, "Will he be lucky enough to find any vacancy in the waiting room to relieve himself from the stressful and delicate situation?" He was cursing the Lassi vendor in the train for putting him in that situation. Phew ! He was never ever tensed like that. He was like running for his life.

"Why don't they build these basic facilities all along the platform ?", he thought. He rushed inside the waiting hall. The attendant, in half sleep asked Avsar to show his ticket and write down his details in the register. But he was not in a mood to listen. He quickly scanned the walls of the room." There it is!", he exclaimed. He identified the board and rushed towards it. There was none. He thanked the Almighty, threw his bag and plugged in the adapter to his mobile phone and then to the vacant plug point in the only switch board in the waiting room. The attendant was puzzled watching the actions of this guy, who shouted "Eureka!" just for getting his mobile charged . "Paagal!", he thought. Avsar was not paying attention to any of his surroundings. After all, he had to reply "I Miss you, Love!" to his sweetheart who had messaged before his mobile battery died, telling how she couldn't sleep even in an A/C sleeper bus on her way home just because she couldn't meet him for four days. After turning on his phone, he replied " Sorry dear! One Paagal attendant here irritated me. Just taught him a lesson. Miss you, Love. Will message you after reaching home. Muaaah". By the time, Avsar came back to his senses, there were some 4-5 people standing around him. He was puzzled as to why they were around him, until one of them asked "Boss! If charged, pls move"

Gone are the days when people went to a waiting room in a railway station to take some rest and freshen up. All we look for is a working switch board with an empty plug point. Same is the case in buses and trains. Some 3-4 years back, people used to fight for the window seats and lower berths. Now, the first thing being checked, especially when traveling alone,(even before the reservation chart. :P) after boarding a train is where the charging point is.

Why exactly are we concerned about the battery charge in the mobile phones? The most common argument would be to have some life in the mobile, so that it can be used in case of any emergency. True, it is. But one another reason could be, we don't know how to pass the time without the nonsenses in the phone, when traveling alone.

It is becoming pretty rare to find people standing near the door of train compartments or look outside from the windows and enjoy the setting sun in the West with a cool breeze hitting them. We find people near the doors/windows mostly when there is a charging point. We are forgetting the beauty of the green paddy fields and hillocks racing past us in the opposite direction as mostly we would be busy fighting a war with our clan, crushing the candies or checking the WhatsApp pics of your friend's ex, when we have a phone with charge in our hand. I felt very sad to see people checking their mobile app to find in which station their train was, rather than taking a peek outside and get it from the numerous illuminated boards.

Good that we have embraced technology but sad that we are missing the little joys in our travel.

The Festivities

Festivals are celebrated in almost all parts of our country in one way or the other. What real purpose is served by this? Can we invoke Gods by conducting festivals in a grand manner? Will the Gods shower extra blessings on us by celebrating temple festivals? None can give a concrete answer to these queries. But one thing is sure that by participating in these celebrations we enjoy some pleasure.In this world, now turned to be a mechanical one, we get some space to breath fresh air, an opportunity to hide our tears and get some solace from the troubles and tribulations for a while. Hence a relief from all our worries for a short period. One of my friends use to say that by attending the village festival a year makes him mentally happy to face any worries he may have to encounter for the rest of the year, ie he will be ready to encounter any difficulty in the next phase of that year.

True! Our forefathers have planned such festivals in such a manner that they cleanse us of all inhibitions in life even if for a short period. I use to participate in almost all festivals in our village. Sometimes I was dumbfounded by the gaiety with which they are celebrated. All my friends, with exceptions, used to be part of the celebrations since we treat this as an occasion to meet together. It is a blessing for me that I can meet some of my old friends after a lapse of  some thirty to forty years. The joy and happiness we enjoy on these occasions cannot be put in words, but something to be felt.

So also is the case with our relatives. In the modern age, members of the same family are scattered with each one getting settled at their own place of work or business and hardly gets time to see or contact the other ones. Each one wishes to be by the side of  his/her dear ones atleast  once or twice a year and hence they prefer the festival times to plan their journey so that he/she will be able to meet all his/her relations at a time and spend a few days with them duly enjoying the thrill and happiness of the childhood.  Of course childhood is the sweetest days in everybody's life.

In olden days, marriages were conducted in the family house itself. The family members as well as their relatives used to gather for the marriage well in advance. The get-together starts almost a week in advance and lasts for about a week past the celebrations. It was like a festival althrough these days in the family. More over, the villagers used to assemble the previous day of marriage to assist the family in decorating the Pandal and in the preparations of feast. The villagers deemed the same as their privilege to do all these.

 The charm of such marriages have gone now-a-days. Almost all families prefer to celebrate marriages in their families in Marriage Halls and most of the marriages are conducted by Event Managers. There will not be any part for any family member, relative or villagers to play. Only thing they have to do is to reach the marriage hall well in time for the muhurtham, witness the function, have food and return.

Thus has gone the charm and pleasure of assembling together, have fun and be happy for a couple of days on this account. Likewise many festivals have lost the charm and merely became a formality, not to say about the pleasure and satisfaction we derived from them.