A visit to USA never ceases to surprise me every time I happen to be here. Not that, I am an ardent fan of American culture nor I approve of many things going on here. However, a few things do impact me and I do not fail notice the difference.
During my current visit during Feb, 2010 I happened to meet and interact with a few so-called ’Desi’ kids in the age group of 6 to 8 and I was pleasantly surprised at a few things about them.
First of all, the level of their exposure to knowledge and information was something incredible. A seven year boy is able to log on to internet, search files and information, find websites that interest them, play computer games downloading them from internet, watch base-ball, football matches and comment on the games and the players, visit science museums and comment on functioning of heart, recall names of comic characters in comics and stories, and what not.
Secondly, it is about their attitude and self-confidence. They treat elders as their equals – rather they raise themselves in their image about themselves in the presence of elders and talk and move with elders as if they are equal to their elders; this is a typical American way of life.
They were very inquisitive, persevering in trying to get what they wish to have, had more than tentative view of what they wished to be when they grow old, they could be politely firm about many things, expressed themselves freely about what they thought on many issues, stayed silent when elders were trying to do something – even cooperating in completion of any task the elders were indulged in and many things more.
I was really impressed by their communication skills, clarity of thoughts, ability to explain things, events and happenings, people, and even their thoughts and experiences.
They are more rounded up in their growth in initial years, taking interest in a host of extra-curricular activities. They take interest in a variety of physical activities, hands-on skills, hobbies, out-door sports and events and the likes. It is even more surprising that their parents seem to be patiently able to help them learn and grow in their knowledge and information. I was taken aback once when one of my relative parents opened his car engine bonnet and explained to his four year old son, how a car engine functioned. The child appeared to greatly appreciate how a car worked evidenced by his manner of questioning his father.
More than anything else, I found many parents bringing up their children in a true spiritual path, helping their children develop qualities like acceptance, patience, understanding, tolerance, prayer, living with nature and appreciating nature, not wasting essentials, respect to elders and ancestors, family bondage and the likes.
I do not know whether I am exaggerating the situation, but this was the impression I gained.
Eventually, a couple of days ago, I met a family from Chennai who had come to USA on a visit during vacation and whose little girl was just seven. When I met the little girl, I could clearly discern the quality of her education by her knowledge, communication, attitude and interests. Clearly, she was a city bred girl with superior facilities and opportunities of learning.
I am assuming that the kind of children whom I met belonged to fairly well-educated, upper middle class, and well-to-do parents living in more sophisticated societies with far superior living standards and quality of life. So I cannot rightly summarize this across the board about all children.
But the point I was pondering about: Are these children born superior? Are they born genius?
Here I should remind myself that the children whom I met in America were no different from other children as far as their childish tendencies are concerned. They were children anyway and behave that way – but with a difference.
I have always noticed the difference when I have spoken to children from rural and semi-urban areas. Typically many children whom I met in rural areas were shy, lack vision, had poor communication, had less exposure to information, and had limited ambitions and aspirations. They were also practical, smart, intelligent, and had lot of practical wisdom. My interactions with parents were more discouraging and disgusting.
In fact, I chose a rural and semi-urban area for my retired living to find out whether I could do something for those less privileged children and youth so that at least a few of them may be brought on par with or at least challenge, the city or urban centre bred boys and girls.
I am really not familiar what methodology, tools and aids they use in most primary schools in rural and semi-urban areas. Yes, I am currently groping in darkness about what I can do and have been only evolving so far in my quest to do something worthwhile in a rural area and I am willing to put in resources if I get meaningful ideas from well-intentioned people. Can someone advise me?
Wednesday, May 26, 2010
A Short Story: KPL 20/20
Killiyoor Premier League: A Cricket Match
It was summer time. Our annual exams just got over when the Third Version of IPL 20/20- Indian Premier League Cricket - matches had an exciting close. We missed watching most of the initial matches. After cajoling our parents, we were allowed to watch the semifinals and finals matches. Finals were an exciting fight between two great titans – Tendulkar and Dhoni. When Chennai Super Kings led by Dhoni won the finals, we jumped to the roof. We had bet among our friends for the finalist and I ended up losing three rupees entertaining my comrades with masal vadas. Sachin was in great form and I was so sure he would win. I didn’t know why he let me down.
I stayed in Killiyoor and ours was a small rural town. Ours was a narrow street where century old houses stood majestically in multi colors. Many of them wouldn’t have seen painting for at least a few decades. Though a small town, people had large hearts. We were all very friendly with each other, though occasionally we had punched each other’s nose when it came to burning real issues like ‘Who was a Superstar – Ajith or Vijay?’ Very rarely elders interfered with youngsters. Our fights were usually settled with exchange of some ‘kit-kats’.
My name is Venky alias Venkatakrishnan and I was twelve and Kicha alias Krishnaswamy who was younger to me by two years was my dear friend.
“Why don’t we play a cricket match?” Kicha asked me one fine morning pulling me up from my bed. He ought to have lost his sleep over this previous night.
I couldn’t wait to brush and wash. We ran out. We had some fine players in our street team - our talents matching only with the likes of Suresh Raina and Virendra Shewak. I already started dreaming about the match.
“But we are only seven people – how can we form a team, yaar?” asked Kicha
********
We immediately called a general body meeting of all the little ones. Kicha’s house was bigger than others. Our meeting went on acrimoniously even while Kicha’s grandmother ‘Sundari Patti’ distributed sundal to all. The only other interruption came from his grandfather when he was powdering betel nut in a hand-held stone-grinder with loud thuds and when he intervened to tell us how earlier days’ five day test matches were superior and how Chandu Borde those days used to stand at the crease not-out even three full days while his score wouldn’t have crossed even 50.
“Hey, Vasudev and Harini are reaching here next week for the vacations. We can include them in our team.” This was Subbu. They were his cousins.
“You fool! Harini is a girl yaar …… we can’t take girls in our team” said Sai. Immediately a long list of all those who were expected to visit our village during summer vacation was drawn and probable team members were considered. We spent next several hours selecting team, even as we devoured tasty murukku, kadalai and other snacks sent by Sundari Patti!
We narrowed down on fourteen names to be included in the team. We were still falling short of people.
“I can bring Sailesh and Gopu,” I told, bringing some hope to our discussions. They were my seniors in the school. “But they will come on some conditions” I paused adding suspense.
“They will play only if we get them onion rava masala dosa from Murugan Idli shop.” I said. They were cricket giants in our school and also notable gourmets.
Sundari patti shouted from the kitchen, “Oh Children! I would provide puliodarai for everyone that day………… your food problem is solved.” Sundari patti was in irresistible mood.
“I know Sailesh and Gopu stay far away. My father has a TVS 50. He will bring them to the play ground. Don’t worry!” assured Ramki.
With suggestions coming from different corners, we somehow cobbled up twenty members. The next battle began for the captainship of the teams.
Kicha wanted to be captain for one of the teams and insisted on his right to choose his team. Others did not agree and there was a fight. Situation got flared up and suddenly Kicha walked out of the meeting.
Gone! His participation was important. We weren’t ready to lose three of his stooges and patronage of Sundari patti. Some of us ran behind him and virtually prostrated. After much persuasion from me, he finally settled for vice-captainship on the condition that he would be given the opening for batting and allowed to choose at least four of his team players.
Many promises were given and many compromises were made. Vasudev was chosen as captain for one team and Subbu would be the rival captain. We heard that Vasudev was a big guy now and he had even started having his shave. Knowing Vasudev was a big-time batsman, Kicha jumped to be his vice-captain and we couldn’t refuse. Subbu was hardly ten, but was an able bowler with his slow ball that could beat even Dhoni.
Somehow, the team composition was agreed upon, but there was one catch. We had only eleven members in each team, the twelfth man was missing. We hoped that they would somehow emerge wherever they were.
*******
Finances were a real problem. We needed cricket kit, bat, stumps, and balls. We agreed to go for door to door collections. We set out in small teams on a Sunday morning. The highest donation – Rupees ten – came from Gopalasamy, the vegetable vendor who supplied vegetables to most houses in our street every morning. Subbu’s team collected seven rupees, I collected five and Kicha fifteen, thanks to Sundari patti who was ever generous with her contribution of twelve rupees. His thatha had grumbled, but Sundari patti over-ruled him as usual. On day one our kitty swelled to thirty seven rupees – very meager, but promising.
“What can we buy with just thirty seven rupees, Everyone is a kanjoos yaar.” Subbu retired dejectedly.
*******
“Hey, how can we play without any practice?” questioned Ramki. Our conditioning camp began the very next morning. Ramki pulled everyone out at five in the morning. Not only that, he also spoke to his father who was a good friend of Ganapathi Sir, our school drill master who agreed to be our coach and umpire for the match. Though he was due to retire in the next couple of years, Ganapathi Sir, was enthusiastic and energetic even with his rounded little belly and grey overgrown moustache and side-burns. He promptly reached our place at five thirty every morning in his khaki shorts and blue cut banian. He made us run for twenty minutes all the way to the nearby water tank. This was followed by exercises and then the cricket coaching began. We had two used bats with multiple plasters and some old balls and Ganapathi Sir didn’t grudge about them.
*******
‘We need a name for our tournament?’ said Kicha one day. Everyone immediately assembled in the courtyard of Rangu Thatha. Discussions went on for a few hours.
“The name should be very captivating,” said Rangu thata. Many names got sponsored and finally Subbu’s team was christened Killiyoor Demons and Vasudev’s team Roaring Lions. Great! I came up with the title “KPL - Killiyoor Premier League 20/20” for the game and the name spontaneously captured the excitement of all.
The D day was nearing and some of us were getting nervous. One thing, money collected was short. The visiting team members’ arrival was getting more and more uncertain. In between, three of our players fell sick due to fatigue practising in heat. Subbu cut his toes while trying a return catch as he bowled to me during practice and took rest next few days.
Suspense and drama was heightening day by day.
On Ramki’s suggestion we did 108 pradakshinam at the street Ganapathi temple seeking His blessings for the success of our match. Lord Ganesha too answered our prayers soon.
*******
One evening Subha gave us the good news that her uncle was expected from America in a week’s time.
“Hey, Can Subha talk to her uncle about financing our cricket kit?” asked smart Subbu.
“Oh, Subha is very haughty, yaar!” snubbed Sai.
The responsibility was thrust on me to talk to her. Subha was only six and could be very demanding. Somehow I persuaded her to talk to her uncle and she agreed on the condition that her two American cousins should be included in the team.
“Oh, that is not an issue at all!” I promised without knowing the consequences. It was only much later when her cousins arrived we came to know that one was five and the other three and half years old. Subha, however, maintained her side of deal and got us the entire cricket kit – two new bats, six stumps and a dozen balls and a few hand gloves through her American uncle. Her cousins were graciously included as twelfth men in the team. We got a bonus too. Her American uncle volunteered to capture the entire match on his Digital video camera.
So, it looked everything was set for the great KPL 20/20 match.
*******
There was a lake nearby our place and it usually got dried up during summer. It was agreed to be our stadium. Three days before the match, our drill master also cleared and approved the pitch. On the day prior to the match, it rained unexpectedly. It not only dampened our playground, but our spirits too. We cursed weather god. We all marched once again to Ganapathi temple to make 108 rounds.
Even after our clear messages that all players must be present in our village at least one day before the match, yet, on the previous day when head count was made we were only 20 including those American toddlers. We required two more players. Seshu mama and Ranghu thatha filled in the place on the condition that they take care of our evening snacks – couple of pooris and aloo masalas.
On the day of the match, our whole street bore festive look. People assembled at the play ground very early. Sun God was kind and shone brightly. The pitch was somewhat wet delaying our starting the match. Some old people were seen discussing each team’s prospects. Many compared notes about their good old days when they had played cricket. Even mamis were ready finishing their daily chores early.
Latchumi akka painstakingly brought several pots of water from a nearby well for our use.
Revathi (6), Visalakshi (5) and Aswini (7) provided the much needed entertainment by way of their belly dance. They were present with the most colorful and enticing minis. (Who would watch KPL – Killiyoor Premier League 20/20 if entertainment was not part of it?) Sankaran Anna and the visiting Thiagaraja mama provided music with their harmonium and dolak that they used to play during Bhajan sessions in Margazhi month. All the non-players sang in chorus some popular numbers and cheered the dancers.
Sundari patti sent a large basin filled with puliodarai. A few other houses sent roasted ground-nuts, candies, kadalai sundal for refreshment.
Subbu won the toss and decided to field as the pitch was still wet.
The two American little ones were allowed to open the batting and were cheered by all. They never touched the ball and it took fifteen balls to get them out. My senior Sailesh scored just one run. Most catches were dropped. Finally, Roaring Lions of Vasudev managed to score twenty eight runs in twenty overs including a brilliant twenty runs from Vasudev before he was declared run out during their first match. Kicha scored just one run. We had agreed to play three matches to decide the winner.
Ramki opened the batting for Killiyoor Demons. He played a great innings with twenty runs and at the end they scored twenty nine runs – one run ahead of RL. I got out scoring a humiliating duck.
During the second match, both the teams got out for sixteen runs each and so there was a tie. But we were all too tired as sun started rising above our head. Most of the elders who cheered the players initially all left the ground and the spectator gallery was looking deserted. Drinks interval was liberally taken by everyone, but no one could complain. During the third match, everyone got so tired. Kicha and Subbu had serious private discussions about continuing the match. It was left to our umpire to decide. After almost two and half hours of play, it was decided to halt the match citing the scorching sun.
Finally, based on some complicated rules, Ganapthi Sir declared Subbu team as the winner. Kicha was unhappy and picked up a quarrel with me and Subbu. He threatened us with dire consequences and loss of patronage by his Sundari patti.
Somehow, when everyone was hungry, issues were forgotten and we all returned home to take a dig at awesome puliodarai.
Saturday, May 08, 2010
News on Godmen and Gurus
I have no soft corner for Swami Nityananda or for that matter any other Guru or Godmen. Nevertheless, the point to remember is how many of us really know what a spiritual state is. We have only bookish knowledge about spiritualism and we forget that, information with us is not knowing or experiencing. How many of us can really feel the kind of experience Swamy Vivekananda went through when he received enlightenment from Bhagavan Sri Ramakrishna or when Yogi Sri Paramahamsa received enlightenment from Yogi Yuktheshwar? History is full of evidences of people having been treated badly when people spoke truth and we celebrate those very same people today as great human beings after they leave earth. Take the case of Lord Jesus Christ. He was crucified for showing love unconditionally to everyone. Take other cases like Galileo or Copernicus who were detained or who were reluctant to make their truth public for fear of retribution. Socrates was forced to take poison for advocating Self Discovery. Even a great genius like Einstein could not initially accept a theory of expanding universe. No one could have challenged and criticized so much Bhagavan Sri Satya Sai Baba like the former editor of the then one of the most popular newspaper groups during 1960s only to note that his entire views got completely reversed at some later point. Religious wars have been waged in the past and continue to be waged over faith. Religious and spiritual leaders are attacked in all religions in all societies by some section or other. We seem to have no tolerance for any contrarion view point and we immediately attack people. We seem to be spending too much time on scandals – thanks to our media who appear to flourish on every sensational episode, only to forget in short time. This seems to be true in politics, business and spiritualism.
Of late, there seems to be some kind of war against spiritualism and spiritual people in our country. Naturally, many of them flee our country to take refuge in foreign land where they receive better following. We wouldn’t have understood Lord Krishna or Lord Rama or Arjuna or even Lord Jesus or Prophet Mohamed (Peace be upon Him) if they were alive today amongst us. We also do not seem to have a true understanding of scriptures and we fight over them.
We believe only what we can see and what we cannot see does not exist in our view. But the reality is ‘objects exist only when we notice’ according to Quantum Physics. We know very little about spiritualism and let us not come to hasty conclusions about spiritual people. Ultimately, let people decide what they want to do with their Gurus and Godmen. When people find they are being taken for a ride, automatically they will desert those places, only to go somewhere else. People somehow seem to need places to go to find happiness and peace. This appears to be the eternal reality.
Lot of good things happen in many places in India and around the world and let us pay our attention to them – they deserve our attention.
Of late, there seems to be some kind of war against spiritualism and spiritual people in our country. Naturally, many of them flee our country to take refuge in foreign land where they receive better following. We wouldn’t have understood Lord Krishna or Lord Rama or Arjuna or even Lord Jesus or Prophet Mohamed (Peace be upon Him) if they were alive today amongst us. We also do not seem to have a true understanding of scriptures and we fight over them.
We believe only what we can see and what we cannot see does not exist in our view. But the reality is ‘objects exist only when we notice’ according to Quantum Physics. We know very little about spiritualism and let us not come to hasty conclusions about spiritual people. Ultimately, let people decide what they want to do with their Gurus and Godmen. When people find they are being taken for a ride, automatically they will desert those places, only to go somewhere else. People somehow seem to need places to go to find happiness and peace. This appears to be the eternal reality.
Lot of good things happen in many places in India and around the world and let us pay our attention to them – they deserve our attention.
Friday, April 30, 2010
A short story: Journey to a Vortex
Dharini never stopped wondering at me.
“Seshu Bhaiya, how is it that you know so much?” Sesha Gopalan Venkatanarayanan was such a tedious name even for more matured and understanding. So I became Seshu for everyone from tiny tots to golden oldies. Dharini is my younger sister. We were separated by a gap of fifteen years. She was turning from five to six in a month or so and always had a question to ask me.
‘Why is this?’ ‘What is this?’ ‘How is this?’
Once, I tried to prove myself to her as a walking encyclopedia– thanks to Google, Wikipedia and a host of websites on internet that provided any information you wanted in an instant. ‘How can one color one’s hair?’ ‘How can one change diaper for a kid?’ or ‘Why madisar style of wearing saree is superior for ladies?’ You have answer, many times with pictures, photos and videos even. It is there for our asking on internet.
I loved Dharini, her un-quenchable thirst for information and unending questioning. What one day, she became another Nobel Laureate when my name would be mentioned prominently in her biography and her memoirs. “Madam, Can you tell who was your mentor?” an interviewer might ask her. “Oh, I owe everything to my dear Seshu Bhaiya.” She would respond. Good imagination.
We are basically South Indians. Our father was working for Central Government and so we were also Delhi-ites. That answered for ‘bhaiya’ and ‘acha’ that frequently appeared in our conversation.
This morning, I was surfing internet and I was looking at some stories of experiences of people who had visited vortex locations in Sedona in Arizona State in America. I did not notice Dharini quietly moving behind me except when she exclaimed loudly, “Oh, what a nice picture is that?” I was momentarily startled.
It was the picture of certain rock formations in Sedona that shaped like a bell and another like a cathedral. The caption “VORTEX” appeared boldly on the screen.
“What is that? V…… O……. R….. T…….E…….X” she asked.
“It is known as VORTEX” I explained.
“What is meant by Vortex?”
“The motion of the fluid swirling rapidly around a center is called a vortex. It is a spinning, often turbulent flow of liquid. A vortex is created from spiraling motion of air or liquid around a center of rotation.” I googled and showed her a picture of an air vortex.
“Acha! Does it mean that water is flowing underneath swirling?” she showed her fingers in a swirling fashion. She understood a lot.
“No, this is different ………… this is a vortex of energy …………. People over there believe that vortex in Sedona is created by spiritual energy.” I tried to keep the language simple to avoid more bombardment from Dharini.
She was looking puzzled unsure how she could pursue her questioning. To my relief, she asked abruptly,” Have we gone to that place?”
“You mean, Sedona…… Oh, yes! We went three years ago… Paappa took us to USA for some vacation…. You remember Sadhana aunty there!”
“No…. I don’t remember at all. Did I come with you when you had been to Vortex?”
“No…. You were too young and we left you in Sadhana aunty’s place.”
“It was very bad, you people left me at home …. Please tell me how your trip was.”
“It was very exhilarating and enjoyable.”
“Acha……….Tell me in all minute details about your trip. I am very eager to know.”
*********
After parking our car in the parking are, Dad, Mom, Rajan Uncle, niece Malu and me went up a small stream along a small trail. The stream was small and beautiful. Sizzling sound from the water stream falling over several small rocks was music to our ears. The whole ambience was serene and quiet. There was a small water fall as the stream flowed.
At one place, the stream split up to form a small island. We found, a number of people had crossed the stream to reach the island. I couldn’t have gone to that island without completely drenching my clothes. Malu was very insistent, but Rajan uncle refused. Besides, we had to cover quite a good distance of walking if we really wanted to look at things up the stream and meet with vortex locations. Besides, we also didn’t know where exactly we could feel the effect of vortex.
Malu was very sad that she could not cross over to the island. As we just walked up a little ahead of others, there we found a large branch of a tree at the ground level crossing over the stream from our side. Malu and I climbed on the branch when uncle and dad were not noticing us. We slowly crossed over the stream and jumped on to the ground. When they noticed, we were already on the other side of the stream. There were tall dense trees and plenty of shade and across the stream it was much darker. Malu was a bit scared. She was only seven you remember. So, she held my hand tightly and we walked back on the other side of the stream slowly and …….
Eventually we reached that island. We were overjoyed and just ran on that flat rock that formed the island shouting and screaming. Dad and Rajan uncle started waving and shouting at us to come back.
Once we were at the edge of the island, we didn’t know how to get back to the other side. Malu started crying out of fear. I physically lifted her on my shoulders and got into waters even without knowing how deep the water was. Dad was shouting and cursing me from the other side. Partly apprehensive, partly scared and partly daring, I just plunged into walking across the stream that was getting deeper and deeper until it was almost to my chest.
I was really worried now. Malu was sitting on my shoulder screaming though I tried to convince her that we were safe. That is when I noticed a large block of rock underneath projecting out and I climbed over that. From there it was not difficult for me to cross the remaining part of the stream. But we were dangerously close to the small waterfalls. A small mistake I could have fallen into a pit. Another visitor standing over there cautioned us that the place was fairly deep.
Thank God, I was back on the main trail. I was completely wet. I was sure the small and elegant camera phone inside my pocket would have been completely damaged; I was carefully avoided talking about it. However, I was happy about the adventure and I felt like a hero in a movie. Our dad was heaping rebukes on me for some time and I tried to ignore.
We continued our hike. We came across a little open space where we found several miniature stone cairns (cairn is a pile of stones, usually conical in shape, raised as a landmark or a memorial) arranged on the ground. Uncle told me that it was symbolic of prayers by visitors.
Enthusiasm returned back to Malu and she started picking up stones for arranging one above the other. I asked Malu, ‘What did you pray for?’ ‘No, rather I was giving a thanks prayer to God that you were there to save me from drowning in water.’ I just touched her cheek saying she was a nice girl.
We were walking for more than an hour and we could not reach anywhere on the trek. Tiredness was slowly creeping in all of us. Dad was not sure how far we needed to go and was already enquiring whether we could get back.
That is when, uncle noticed a small rock on the sides and he sat down. He called over us to rest for a while before we decide proceeding ahead. I too sat on that small rock.
All of a sudden, I closed my eyes. I could feel the sweat flowing down my nose even while the mountain breeze was blowing across my face. I started feeling some kind of mysterious energy flowing though my body and I began to feel some strong vibrations in me. I could feel my nerves, hear my heart beating, notice some strange smell, see my breathing in and out, and I also felt that for a few moments I was blackening out. I felt dizzy and could feel some strange causeless happiness filling me inside.
Was this Vortex effect? I jerked and opened my eyes. I wasn’t sure.
“Uncle, did you feel anything?” I asked panting. They didn’t seem to. I explained. Then they tried by closing their eyes and observing their breath.
“Yes, we get some strange feelings,” said Mom.
*******
“Wow, what a great experience you had?” exclaimed Dharini. She was keenly listening to me all along, her palm on her cheeks, and eyes glittering with amazement. “Can we go back any time now to Sedona?” she asked.
“Maybe, who knows? Or, one day, you will be old enough to fly down on your own to Sedona and you can feel the same experience.” I replied.
After some thought, I said, ‘But do you know something? Vortex is a place where one can feel the movement of earth’s energy. You need to be tuned in to feel that energy. You can feel similar energy in any other place too, I discovered.”
“Can you show me?”
“Sure yes, come with me.” I took her to the garden in our backyard. I noticed a small butterfly joyfully moving from place to place, one plant to another.
“Now, look at the butterfly closely. Follow the butterfly where all it flies around……….. Now close your eyes…………. Imagine that you are the butterfly, moving from place to place, batting your wings, sucking honey from every flower, resting on leaves, feeling the small dews resting on the plants and leaves, the flower petals gently caressing you when the wind blows gently, you feel so restful, calm, quiet, enjoying every moment of your existence…………………..”
After a few moments, Dharini opened her eyes, saying “What a wonderful feeling? Is there a vortex here in our garden?”
“Maybe! Mother Nature is strange and wonderful.”
She ran into the house shouting and wanting to share her little feelings with Mom.
“Seshu Bhaiya, how is it that you know so much?” Sesha Gopalan Venkatanarayanan was such a tedious name even for more matured and understanding. So I became Seshu for everyone from tiny tots to golden oldies. Dharini is my younger sister. We were separated by a gap of fifteen years. She was turning from five to six in a month or so and always had a question to ask me.
‘Why is this?’ ‘What is this?’ ‘How is this?’
Once, I tried to prove myself to her as a walking encyclopedia– thanks to Google, Wikipedia and a host of websites on internet that provided any information you wanted in an instant. ‘How can one color one’s hair?’ ‘How can one change diaper for a kid?’ or ‘Why madisar style of wearing saree is superior for ladies?’ You have answer, many times with pictures, photos and videos even. It is there for our asking on internet.
I loved Dharini, her un-quenchable thirst for information and unending questioning. What one day, she became another Nobel Laureate when my name would be mentioned prominently in her biography and her memoirs. “Madam, Can you tell who was your mentor?” an interviewer might ask her. “Oh, I owe everything to my dear Seshu Bhaiya.” She would respond. Good imagination.
We are basically South Indians. Our father was working for Central Government and so we were also Delhi-ites. That answered for ‘bhaiya’ and ‘acha’ that frequently appeared in our conversation.
This morning, I was surfing internet and I was looking at some stories of experiences of people who had visited vortex locations in Sedona in Arizona State in America. I did not notice Dharini quietly moving behind me except when she exclaimed loudly, “Oh, what a nice picture is that?” I was momentarily startled.
It was the picture of certain rock formations in Sedona that shaped like a bell and another like a cathedral. The caption “VORTEX” appeared boldly on the screen.
“What is that? V…… O……. R….. T…….E…….X” she asked.
“It is known as VORTEX” I explained.
“What is meant by Vortex?”
“The motion of the fluid swirling rapidly around a center is called a vortex. It is a spinning, often turbulent flow of liquid. A vortex is created from spiraling motion of air or liquid around a center of rotation.” I googled and showed her a picture of an air vortex.
“Acha! Does it mean that water is flowing underneath swirling?” she showed her fingers in a swirling fashion. She understood a lot.
“No, this is different ………… this is a vortex of energy …………. People over there believe that vortex in Sedona is created by spiritual energy.” I tried to keep the language simple to avoid more bombardment from Dharini.
She was looking puzzled unsure how she could pursue her questioning. To my relief, she asked abruptly,” Have we gone to that place?”
“You mean, Sedona…… Oh, yes! We went three years ago… Paappa took us to USA for some vacation…. You remember Sadhana aunty there!”
“No…. I don’t remember at all. Did I come with you when you had been to Vortex?”
“No…. You were too young and we left you in Sadhana aunty’s place.”
“It was very bad, you people left me at home …. Please tell me how your trip was.”
“It was very exhilarating and enjoyable.”
“Acha……….Tell me in all minute details about your trip. I am very eager to know.”
*********
After parking our car in the parking are, Dad, Mom, Rajan Uncle, niece Malu and me went up a small stream along a small trail. The stream was small and beautiful. Sizzling sound from the water stream falling over several small rocks was music to our ears. The whole ambience was serene and quiet. There was a small water fall as the stream flowed.
At one place, the stream split up to form a small island. We found, a number of people had crossed the stream to reach the island. I couldn’t have gone to that island without completely drenching my clothes. Malu was very insistent, but Rajan uncle refused. Besides, we had to cover quite a good distance of walking if we really wanted to look at things up the stream and meet with vortex locations. Besides, we also didn’t know where exactly we could feel the effect of vortex.
Malu was very sad that she could not cross over to the island. As we just walked up a little ahead of others, there we found a large branch of a tree at the ground level crossing over the stream from our side. Malu and I climbed on the branch when uncle and dad were not noticing us. We slowly crossed over the stream and jumped on to the ground. When they noticed, we were already on the other side of the stream. There were tall dense trees and plenty of shade and across the stream it was much darker. Malu was a bit scared. She was only seven you remember. So, she held my hand tightly and we walked back on the other side of the stream slowly and …….
Eventually we reached that island. We were overjoyed and just ran on that flat rock that formed the island shouting and screaming. Dad and Rajan uncle started waving and shouting at us to come back.
Once we were at the edge of the island, we didn’t know how to get back to the other side. Malu started crying out of fear. I physically lifted her on my shoulders and got into waters even without knowing how deep the water was. Dad was shouting and cursing me from the other side. Partly apprehensive, partly scared and partly daring, I just plunged into walking across the stream that was getting deeper and deeper until it was almost to my chest.
I was really worried now. Malu was sitting on my shoulder screaming though I tried to convince her that we were safe. That is when I noticed a large block of rock underneath projecting out and I climbed over that. From there it was not difficult for me to cross the remaining part of the stream. But we were dangerously close to the small waterfalls. A small mistake I could have fallen into a pit. Another visitor standing over there cautioned us that the place was fairly deep.
Thank God, I was back on the main trail. I was completely wet. I was sure the small and elegant camera phone inside my pocket would have been completely damaged; I was carefully avoided talking about it. However, I was happy about the adventure and I felt like a hero in a movie. Our dad was heaping rebukes on me for some time and I tried to ignore.
We continued our hike. We came across a little open space where we found several miniature stone cairns (cairn is a pile of stones, usually conical in shape, raised as a landmark or a memorial) arranged on the ground. Uncle told me that it was symbolic of prayers by visitors.
Enthusiasm returned back to Malu and she started picking up stones for arranging one above the other. I asked Malu, ‘What did you pray for?’ ‘No, rather I was giving a thanks prayer to God that you were there to save me from drowning in water.’ I just touched her cheek saying she was a nice girl.
We were walking for more than an hour and we could not reach anywhere on the trek. Tiredness was slowly creeping in all of us. Dad was not sure how far we needed to go and was already enquiring whether we could get back.
That is when, uncle noticed a small rock on the sides and he sat down. He called over us to rest for a while before we decide proceeding ahead. I too sat on that small rock.
All of a sudden, I closed my eyes. I could feel the sweat flowing down my nose even while the mountain breeze was blowing across my face. I started feeling some kind of mysterious energy flowing though my body and I began to feel some strong vibrations in me. I could feel my nerves, hear my heart beating, notice some strange smell, see my breathing in and out, and I also felt that for a few moments I was blackening out. I felt dizzy and could feel some strange causeless happiness filling me inside.
Was this Vortex effect? I jerked and opened my eyes. I wasn’t sure.
“Uncle, did you feel anything?” I asked panting. They didn’t seem to. I explained. Then they tried by closing their eyes and observing their breath.
“Yes, we get some strange feelings,” said Mom.
*******
“Wow, what a great experience you had?” exclaimed Dharini. She was keenly listening to me all along, her palm on her cheeks, and eyes glittering with amazement. “Can we go back any time now to Sedona?” she asked.
“Maybe, who knows? Or, one day, you will be old enough to fly down on your own to Sedona and you can feel the same experience.” I replied.
After some thought, I said, ‘But do you know something? Vortex is a place where one can feel the movement of earth’s energy. You need to be tuned in to feel that energy. You can feel similar energy in any other place too, I discovered.”
“Can you show me?”
“Sure yes, come with me.” I took her to the garden in our backyard. I noticed a small butterfly joyfully moving from place to place, one plant to another.
“Now, look at the butterfly closely. Follow the butterfly where all it flies around……….. Now close your eyes…………. Imagine that you are the butterfly, moving from place to place, batting your wings, sucking honey from every flower, resting on leaves, feeling the small dews resting on the plants and leaves, the flower petals gently caressing you when the wind blows gently, you feel so restful, calm, quiet, enjoying every moment of your existence…………………..”
After a few moments, Dharini opened her eyes, saying “What a wonderful feeling? Is there a vortex here in our garden?”
“Maybe! Mother Nature is strange and wonderful.”
She ran into the house shouting and wanting to share her little feelings with Mom.
Thursday, April 29, 2010
A new library in every village in Tamilnadu
There was some interesting news today, the 28th April, 2010 in The Hindu newspaper. The Education Minister of Tamilnadu had issued a statement that the government is proposing to ensure a library in every village in the state by the end of this year. This is a yet another positive step being taken by the Government of Tamilnadu. Already Government had initiated moves to create a world class library in Chennai and I am sure in the days to come, we may have much better libraries in every district headquarters. The question is: Will this become yet another standing symbol of governmental efforts? Only time will tell.
Most villages have schools – at least a primary school. But there are reports about many deficiencies about their functioning including lack of basic amenities like proper classrooms, roofs, toilet and drinking water, quality teachers and absenting staff and so on. Government has sponsored several lofty programs for education that have failed at implementation levels. People also seem to lack the discipline and feeling that the facility and the program belong to them.
To me the problem appears to be one of lack of commitment, involvement and dedication and hyper-active politicizing of every issue. Those at the top will have to demonstrate their will power to implement various government programs in an open and transparent manner and ensure that the benefits reach the people for whom they are intended. Before we create more infrastructure and facilities, we need to strengthen and consolidate existing ones.
Book reading habit should be widely spread and encouraged among more people. Through awards and incentives, the school children and college students need to be encouraged to spend a part of the day or the week in reading. Regular library hours in all educational institutions should be encouraged and enforced. Thanks to stupendous growth and proliferation of electronic and visual media, the print media seems to be struggling against their onslaught. However thrilling they are, the children should be weaned away from spending undue time on electronic video games, which may lead to serious health problems over time. Today, we see even children in lower classes spending their entire evening time in tuition classes, and special classes rather than spending their time in a library or playground. There could be many like me who could be interested in opening small street libraries as a social service and this could be encouraged.
Nowadays, many new books are prohibitively costly and only libraries and affluent can afford. The authorities in charge of selecting books should be impartial in buying quality books rather than encouraging favoritism. A number of people have book collections and may be interested in donating them to libraries if they find that the libraries are run well and efficiently used. This may be encouraged in all districts. If private people are willing to open libraries, after proper scrutiny, they could be given state support in getting books at subsidized prices and other means. Language bias should be avoided as far as book selections are concerned –whether we like it or not, English has come to be accepted as a language that is understood by most and used for communicating with each other by most world population.
More than anything else, children should be freed of today’s stressful overloading of homework and compulsive need to be competitive in academic performance. They should be encouraged to seek more knowledge and information (not just filmy tit-bits alone) that improves their awareness and kindles curiosity and seeking that lead to research, development and innovation. Reading helps improving the way we communicate and develop our power of expression that improves our leverage and influencing in human relationships. Today, everything is about selling and persuasion. You see around, anywhere and everywhere, someone is always trying to sell something or persuade someone to buy something, may be an idea, a product or services – be it in family or business.
Reading as a hobby is a great stress reliever and develops our ability to visualize and imagine and develop our creative power. Look at children books like ‘Lord of the Rings’; several million copies have been sold all over the world – the story is just a fantasy. Can’t we create a parallel that sells at least a million copies? At least in Tamil language, some of the older people might remember the stories of ‘Thuppariyum Sambu’ (Detective Sambu), Veera Vijayan pictorial stories, Kanni Theevu daily serial pictorial stories, Chandamama stories and the likes that were great hits among children and elders alike a few decades back. There are many more legendary tales about stories and writers of yesteryears. In my young days, all in the family used to have a fight over who would read that day’s Dina Thanthi or the weeklies Kumudam or Vikatan, when they arrived. Today, probably the TV serials have taken over that place and reading is given a go-by. But what do the serials encourage – revenge, challenge, plotting, enmity, infidelity and what not – look at most of the serials to have some proof. Not that every serial is bad –there are many good ones too, but how many watch them?
I am grateful to the Municipal Library and the Saiva Sidhantha Noorpathippu Kazhagam’s library in my native place during my younger days for greatly influencing me in so many ways in my shaping up. I also thank my college library, the old Moore Market old book shops, the legendary roadside old books shops at Luz, Mylapore, Chennai or Ajmal Khan Road, Karol Bagh, New Delhi for my book collections about which I am quite proud of.
A library in every village! Very good move Minister! Please make them work. We wish you and the movement well. We will support you unhesitatingly.
(Readers may also look at:www.neel48.blogspot.com for my other stories)
Most villages have schools – at least a primary school. But there are reports about many deficiencies about their functioning including lack of basic amenities like proper classrooms, roofs, toilet and drinking water, quality teachers and absenting staff and so on. Government has sponsored several lofty programs for education that have failed at implementation levels. People also seem to lack the discipline and feeling that the facility and the program belong to them.
To me the problem appears to be one of lack of commitment, involvement and dedication and hyper-active politicizing of every issue. Those at the top will have to demonstrate their will power to implement various government programs in an open and transparent manner and ensure that the benefits reach the people for whom they are intended. Before we create more infrastructure and facilities, we need to strengthen and consolidate existing ones.
Book reading habit should be widely spread and encouraged among more people. Through awards and incentives, the school children and college students need to be encouraged to spend a part of the day or the week in reading. Regular library hours in all educational institutions should be encouraged and enforced. Thanks to stupendous growth and proliferation of electronic and visual media, the print media seems to be struggling against their onslaught. However thrilling they are, the children should be weaned away from spending undue time on electronic video games, which may lead to serious health problems over time. Today, we see even children in lower classes spending their entire evening time in tuition classes, and special classes rather than spending their time in a library or playground. There could be many like me who could be interested in opening small street libraries as a social service and this could be encouraged.
Nowadays, many new books are prohibitively costly and only libraries and affluent can afford. The authorities in charge of selecting books should be impartial in buying quality books rather than encouraging favoritism. A number of people have book collections and may be interested in donating them to libraries if they find that the libraries are run well and efficiently used. This may be encouraged in all districts. If private people are willing to open libraries, after proper scrutiny, they could be given state support in getting books at subsidized prices and other means. Language bias should be avoided as far as book selections are concerned –whether we like it or not, English has come to be accepted as a language that is understood by most and used for communicating with each other by most world population.
More than anything else, children should be freed of today’s stressful overloading of homework and compulsive need to be competitive in academic performance. They should be encouraged to seek more knowledge and information (not just filmy tit-bits alone) that improves their awareness and kindles curiosity and seeking that lead to research, development and innovation. Reading helps improving the way we communicate and develop our power of expression that improves our leverage and influencing in human relationships. Today, everything is about selling and persuasion. You see around, anywhere and everywhere, someone is always trying to sell something or persuade someone to buy something, may be an idea, a product or services – be it in family or business.
Reading as a hobby is a great stress reliever and develops our ability to visualize and imagine and develop our creative power. Look at children books like ‘Lord of the Rings’; several million copies have been sold all over the world – the story is just a fantasy. Can’t we create a parallel that sells at least a million copies? At least in Tamil language, some of the older people might remember the stories of ‘Thuppariyum Sambu’ (Detective Sambu), Veera Vijayan pictorial stories, Kanni Theevu daily serial pictorial stories, Chandamama stories and the likes that were great hits among children and elders alike a few decades back. There are many more legendary tales about stories and writers of yesteryears. In my young days, all in the family used to have a fight over who would read that day’s Dina Thanthi or the weeklies Kumudam or Vikatan, when they arrived. Today, probably the TV serials have taken over that place and reading is given a go-by. But what do the serials encourage – revenge, challenge, plotting, enmity, infidelity and what not – look at most of the serials to have some proof. Not that every serial is bad –there are many good ones too, but how many watch them?
I am grateful to the Municipal Library and the Saiva Sidhantha Noorpathippu Kazhagam’s library in my native place during my younger days for greatly influencing me in so many ways in my shaping up. I also thank my college library, the old Moore Market old book shops, the legendary roadside old books shops at Luz, Mylapore, Chennai or Ajmal Khan Road, Karol Bagh, New Delhi for my book collections about which I am quite proud of.
A library in every village! Very good move Minister! Please make them work. We wish you and the movement well. We will support you unhesitatingly.
(Readers may also look at:www.neel48.blogspot.com for my other stories)
Tuesday, April 20, 2010
My stay at Tenkasi
When I told some relatives and friends that I had decided to settle down in Tenkasi, a small town in Tirunelveli District in the Southern State of Tamilnadu, not many were really ready to believe me. They thought I was joking. All through my thirty six years of work life, I had stayed in metropolitan cities with best of comforts and life styles and this, they were aware. Choosing to live in a rural town was the craziest thing I would ever do in my retired days - this is what they initially thought.
When the idea was initially floated, my wife was the first to raise apprehensions and objections about living in a village town. She never trusted the small medical facilities in rural towns. Thanks to the intervention of one of our revered Masters during those days, she relented finally.
I took my retirement from work two years before I could officially retire. I had been dreaming about the freedom to do what really mattered to my heart, retirement offered. I loved quiet places, picturesque natural settings, greenery, shades, breeze, open space and green fields and forests.
We zeroed on Tenkasi after lot of deliberation. First of all, I did not consider Chennai as a livable place and so it was ruled out. Coimbatore where I had a piece of land was a choice, but got rejected as we felt we had no base there. Our native place Tirunelveli was too hot and had neither the attraction of smaller towns nor the conveniences of bigger cities and so was voted out. Trivandrum in Kerala was in the reckoning initially as we had several relatives staying there, but was dropped on language issues.
Why not Tenkasi? That idea came just out of blue. We used to be passing by Tenkasi in the last couple of decades to visit one of our relatives. Tenkasi fell within our native district. It was only three kilometers to Courtallam another small hilly town with several waterfalls. It was bordering Kerala and enjoyed sufficient rains. It enjoyed cool breeze throughout the year as it was closer to hills. It was a small agricultural town well connected and growing yet to become busy and nasty. People had simple life styles and there were several temples in surrounding towns, rivers and water dams in adjoining places, and it was only three and half hours from Madurai and one and half hours from Tirunelveli to reach in emergencies. All of a sudden, the idea gathered momentum and strength.
"When our intent is very strong, nature conspires to bring it to reality soon." I have heard this from my Master, but I experienced this as a reality very soon.
Sometime in early July 2006 soon after my retirement, we were returning from Courtallam and Papanasam, another nearby small hilly town with a roaring waterfall across a water dam in the company of my in-laws and we passed by Tenkasi.
As we were just leaving Tenkasi, I happened to stand in front of the Main Temple at Tenkasi and I found myself praying spontaneously to Lord Kashi Viswanath to help me find a suitable house in Tenkasi if I was destined to stay there.
No sooner than we crossed the limits of Tenkasi, my relative phoned to me to tell that there were two houses available for rent at Melagaram, a smaller outskirt of Tenkasi and he had known the landlords closely from his father’s days. Melagaram is another town panchayat, just a kilometer away from Tenkasi on the way to Courtallam. I promised him to return back to Tenkasi from Madurai in the next couple of days to have a look at the house. We returned back two days later and liked one of the two houses he showed us. It was a street house in an 'Agraharam', a predominant brahmin locality. We paid the advance rent on the spot without even bothering to decide when and how we would be shifting to that place.
But we were not to be staying there for long during 2006 as we were planning to visit our children in USA during October. Besides, our debate continued as to how far we genuinely wanted to stay there. We moved into Melagaram house with very small baggage sometime in August and stayed there for four or five days. Our definitive move to Melagaram happened in June 2007 after our son’s wedding. It looked like shifting from Sheraton Hotel thirtieth floor to the nearby hut.
We were total strangers in Tenkasi and we were trying to grasp the life-style in an 'Agraharam'. People over there were supposed to be very tradition bound, conservative, educated, some of them agricultural landlords, many fairly poor. During the initial days, coming to know that we had stayed in Middle East for quite long, the people at Agraharam also looked at us with great curiosity and interest wondering what we would be doing in a village town.
Tenkasi was not to be the sleepy village that we had imagined it to be. We got a BSNL phone connection within a couple of days of making an application and the broad-band internet connection followed in a week’s time. The Indane gas distributor acted a little tough initially about transfer of our gas connection without our ration card, but gave in on the condition that we submit to him the ration card before we could ask for a refill. A stranger neighbor in the 'Agraharam' took us to the Village officer and got us a residence certificate. He also took us to Tehsildar to make an application for a new ration card; as we were staying abroad for almost a decade, we never knew what happened to our earlier ration card. I never realized that staying at Agraharam commanded so much respect among many in the government departments. A ‘Honour card’ which did not allow us to draw any provision supply, but would be sufficient proof of residential address was issued in the next few weeks. Melagaram, and more particularly 'Agraharam' seemed to be a respected place where more of educated people resided. Many friendly neighbors were willing to offer their help for a host of nitty-gritty things.
We met with several pleasant surprises at Tenkasi. Let me tell you some of them:
• We could just walk to many cinema halls and watch even newly released movies for just thirty rupees.
• We could see boys and girls playing out-door games - ‘goli,’ ‘vattil,’ ‘pamparam,’ ‘gilli,’ ‘paandi, ‘hide and seek’, in our street carefree without having to worry about traffic reminding me of my school days.
• Most residents seemed to enjoy lot of spare time that was spent just sitting on the verandah in front of their house and turning to ‘East’ and ‘West’ and that was sufficient past-time for them. I thought, probably, they were in high spiritual state not needing anything specific to engage themselves in or to keep themselves happy.
• Almost everyone seems to be noticing arrival of visitors to any house within Agraharam; this offered us phenomenal sense of security.
• The Ganapathi temple at the west end of the road was kept open by the priest every morning and evening and most residents gathered at the temple regularly in the evening for prayers. The small temple was a convenient place for people’s congregation. The Melagaram Magalir (Ladies) Mandram (Club) met almost every day, after their daily chores, to practice and chant slokas and devotional singing; they preferred this to sitting before the dumb box ( I mean television box). Children used to run to the temple during prayer times when the temple bell rang - the enthusiasm coming more for collecting sundal, puliyodarai and pongal prasadams.
• Milkman arrived every morning at around five and mid afternoon with fresh milk; he had not missed even a single day. Greens, vegetables, curd, atta for making idli-dosa, tamarind, kolappodi (the lime powder for drawing kolams), fruits, chappals, cosmetics, toys, dresses and sarees, metal items, repairing dresses, vessels and the likes and many more were available right at our doors through walking vendors.
• A decent provision store that could be thought of as a Walmart for Melagarm had every supply needed for a house, at fair prices.
• Buses were frequent and a bus journey was so cheap – not more than two or three rupees.
• Hot and delicious vadas were sold on road-side shops on the main road every evening stock running out within minutes of preparation.
• You could take a pleasant walk up to Courtallam in the evening enjoying the cool breeze blowing from the hills.
• On important auspecious days like beginning of Tamil months, New Moon days or eclipse days, male elders clothed in 'pancha kachham’ paraded to the temple to perform ritual offerings to their forefathers.
• Other major attractions were:‘Margazhi’ month early morning bhajans, Akanda Naama bhajans, Sree Rama Navami, Mahadeva Ashtami, Ganesh Chaturthi, Kolaattam, Karthikai deepam, Chokka paanai . All celebrations were reminiscent of my young days at Tirunelveli and things I missed for nearly four decades.
• The children were all quite simple, smart and possessed lot of practical intelligence.
• The Kashi Viswanaatha temple front yard was a Tenkasi parallel to Marina beach in Chennai, but a lot more clean.
• One could eat stomach full any time for less than about twenty rupees in most eating joints. At least one such eating place offered six or seven varieties of dosas and tourists who came there round the year, made a beeline to these eateries.
• The nearby Courtallam provided the cheapest holiday resort for the not-so-affluent. One is never tired of taking bath in those waterfalls.
The above is not an exhaustive list, but only a sample. My wife who was the most apprehensive about our decision to shift to Tenkasi for our retired living initialy is now willing to stay alone there even if I ever get bored with Tenkasi and wanted to travel out. Such was her profound transformation within a very short period of staying over there.
For me, many educational institutions in Tenkasi and nearby areas started recognizing my approach to Youth Development and called me to do programs for their students, and faculty for better motivation, self-confidence and inner development.
Not a day passed by when we had not patted ourselves for our decision to choose Tenkasi for our retirement life.
When the idea was initially floated, my wife was the first to raise apprehensions and objections about living in a village town. She never trusted the small medical facilities in rural towns. Thanks to the intervention of one of our revered Masters during those days, she relented finally.
I took my retirement from work two years before I could officially retire. I had been dreaming about the freedom to do what really mattered to my heart, retirement offered. I loved quiet places, picturesque natural settings, greenery, shades, breeze, open space and green fields and forests.
We zeroed on Tenkasi after lot of deliberation. First of all, I did not consider Chennai as a livable place and so it was ruled out. Coimbatore where I had a piece of land was a choice, but got rejected as we felt we had no base there. Our native place Tirunelveli was too hot and had neither the attraction of smaller towns nor the conveniences of bigger cities and so was voted out. Trivandrum in Kerala was in the reckoning initially as we had several relatives staying there, but was dropped on language issues.
Why not Tenkasi? That idea came just out of blue. We used to be passing by Tenkasi in the last couple of decades to visit one of our relatives. Tenkasi fell within our native district. It was only three kilometers to Courtallam another small hilly town with several waterfalls. It was bordering Kerala and enjoyed sufficient rains. It enjoyed cool breeze throughout the year as it was closer to hills. It was a small agricultural town well connected and growing yet to become busy and nasty. People had simple life styles and there were several temples in surrounding towns, rivers and water dams in adjoining places, and it was only three and half hours from Madurai and one and half hours from Tirunelveli to reach in emergencies. All of a sudden, the idea gathered momentum and strength.
"When our intent is very strong, nature conspires to bring it to reality soon." I have heard this from my Master, but I experienced this as a reality very soon.
Sometime in early July 2006 soon after my retirement, we were returning from Courtallam and Papanasam, another nearby small hilly town with a roaring waterfall across a water dam in the company of my in-laws and we passed by Tenkasi.
As we were just leaving Tenkasi, I happened to stand in front of the Main Temple at Tenkasi and I found myself praying spontaneously to Lord Kashi Viswanath to help me find a suitable house in Tenkasi if I was destined to stay there.
No sooner than we crossed the limits of Tenkasi, my relative phoned to me to tell that there were two houses available for rent at Melagaram, a smaller outskirt of Tenkasi and he had known the landlords closely from his father’s days. Melagaram is another town panchayat, just a kilometer away from Tenkasi on the way to Courtallam. I promised him to return back to Tenkasi from Madurai in the next couple of days to have a look at the house. We returned back two days later and liked one of the two houses he showed us. It was a street house in an 'Agraharam', a predominant brahmin locality. We paid the advance rent on the spot without even bothering to decide when and how we would be shifting to that place.
But we were not to be staying there for long during 2006 as we were planning to visit our children in USA during October. Besides, our debate continued as to how far we genuinely wanted to stay there. We moved into Melagaram house with very small baggage sometime in August and stayed there for four or five days. Our definitive move to Melagaram happened in June 2007 after our son’s wedding. It looked like shifting from Sheraton Hotel thirtieth floor to the nearby hut.
We were total strangers in Tenkasi and we were trying to grasp the life-style in an 'Agraharam'. People over there were supposed to be very tradition bound, conservative, educated, some of them agricultural landlords, many fairly poor. During the initial days, coming to know that we had stayed in Middle East for quite long, the people at Agraharam also looked at us with great curiosity and interest wondering what we would be doing in a village town.
Tenkasi was not to be the sleepy village that we had imagined it to be. We got a BSNL phone connection within a couple of days of making an application and the broad-band internet connection followed in a week’s time. The Indane gas distributor acted a little tough initially about transfer of our gas connection without our ration card, but gave in on the condition that we submit to him the ration card before we could ask for a refill. A stranger neighbor in the 'Agraharam' took us to the Village officer and got us a residence certificate. He also took us to Tehsildar to make an application for a new ration card; as we were staying abroad for almost a decade, we never knew what happened to our earlier ration card. I never realized that staying at Agraharam commanded so much respect among many in the government departments. A ‘Honour card’ which did not allow us to draw any provision supply, but would be sufficient proof of residential address was issued in the next few weeks. Melagaram, and more particularly 'Agraharam' seemed to be a respected place where more of educated people resided. Many friendly neighbors were willing to offer their help for a host of nitty-gritty things.
We met with several pleasant surprises at Tenkasi. Let me tell you some of them:
• We could just walk to many cinema halls and watch even newly released movies for just thirty rupees.
• We could see boys and girls playing out-door games - ‘goli,’ ‘vattil,’ ‘pamparam,’ ‘gilli,’ ‘paandi, ‘hide and seek’, in our street carefree without having to worry about traffic reminding me of my school days.
• Most residents seemed to enjoy lot of spare time that was spent just sitting on the verandah in front of their house and turning to ‘East’ and ‘West’ and that was sufficient past-time for them. I thought, probably, they were in high spiritual state not needing anything specific to engage themselves in or to keep themselves happy.
• Almost everyone seems to be noticing arrival of visitors to any house within Agraharam; this offered us phenomenal sense of security.
• The Ganapathi temple at the west end of the road was kept open by the priest every morning and evening and most residents gathered at the temple regularly in the evening for prayers. The small temple was a convenient place for people’s congregation. The Melagaram Magalir (Ladies) Mandram (Club) met almost every day, after their daily chores, to practice and chant slokas and devotional singing; they preferred this to sitting before the dumb box ( I mean television box). Children used to run to the temple during prayer times when the temple bell rang - the enthusiasm coming more for collecting sundal, puliyodarai and pongal prasadams.
• Milkman arrived every morning at around five and mid afternoon with fresh milk; he had not missed even a single day. Greens, vegetables, curd, atta for making idli-dosa, tamarind, kolappodi (the lime powder for drawing kolams), fruits, chappals, cosmetics, toys, dresses and sarees, metal items, repairing dresses, vessels and the likes and many more were available right at our doors through walking vendors.
• A decent provision store that could be thought of as a Walmart for Melagarm had every supply needed for a house, at fair prices.
• Buses were frequent and a bus journey was so cheap – not more than two or three rupees.
• Hot and delicious vadas were sold on road-side shops on the main road every evening stock running out within minutes of preparation.
• You could take a pleasant walk up to Courtallam in the evening enjoying the cool breeze blowing from the hills.
• On important auspecious days like beginning of Tamil months, New Moon days or eclipse days, male elders clothed in 'pancha kachham’ paraded to the temple to perform ritual offerings to their forefathers.
• Other major attractions were:‘Margazhi’ month early morning bhajans, Akanda Naama bhajans, Sree Rama Navami, Mahadeva Ashtami, Ganesh Chaturthi, Kolaattam, Karthikai deepam, Chokka paanai . All celebrations were reminiscent of my young days at Tirunelveli and things I missed for nearly four decades.
• The children were all quite simple, smart and possessed lot of practical intelligence.
• The Kashi Viswanaatha temple front yard was a Tenkasi parallel to Marina beach in Chennai, but a lot more clean.
• One could eat stomach full any time for less than about twenty rupees in most eating joints. At least one such eating place offered six or seven varieties of dosas and tourists who came there round the year, made a beeline to these eateries.
• The nearby Courtallam provided the cheapest holiday resort for the not-so-affluent. One is never tired of taking bath in those waterfalls.
The above is not an exhaustive list, but only a sample. My wife who was the most apprehensive about our decision to shift to Tenkasi for our retired living initialy is now willing to stay alone there even if I ever get bored with Tenkasi and wanted to travel out. Such was her profound transformation within a very short period of staying over there.
For me, many educational institutions in Tenkasi and nearby areas started recognizing my approach to Youth Development and called me to do programs for their students, and faculty for better motivation, self-confidence and inner development.
Not a day passed by when we had not patted ourselves for our decision to choose Tenkasi for our retirement life.
Saturday, January 31, 2009
What it meant to me to be back in India
1st February, 2009
Like everyone else, I also returned back to India with great enthusiasm after spending nearly four months in America in the company of our children. The stay in America was as memorable as it every used to be, not only for the reason that it was spent with children, but also for a variety of other extraneous reasons about which I need to write later.
Our flight via Zurich landed at Delhi airport at midnight. It was pleasantly surprising that the passport control, customs procedure, and baggage clearance at the Delhi airport went very smoothly and efficiently. We were safely housed in a hotel at Karolbagh after we made arrangement with Delhi Tourism Corporation counter at the airport. We could even recharge our credit to our cell phone right at the airport and use it to communicate with our children at USA about our safe arrival. The airport presented a clean look. Several amenities had been added. The whole picture before me was tantalizingly different from what I had remembered about Delhi airport from my decade old memory. Our taxi ride to Karolbagh from the airport did not take much time as there was very little traffic on the roads. We saw considerable expansion going on near the airport and Delhi had changed vastly in the last ten years since we last visited in detail. We went over newly constructed over-bridges that allowed streaming traffic smoothly. Buddha Jayanthi park, Daula Kuan and the ridge road on the way to Karol Bagh all looked deserted and ghostly. We saw several constructions coming up for the Delhi Metro. The imposing over-bridge at Pusa Road looked majestic and gigantic. Ajmal Khan Road at Karol Bagh remained the same except that it was much more crowded. But the areas surrounding Ajmal Khan Road had completely changed. Most independent houses had been converted into a four or five storied hotel or some office. We could hardly see any residential houses. Ironically on Ajmal Khan Road, there was an old house still majestically sitting there where I had once, some thirty three years back when I was working in Delhi, fondly hoped to stay but didn’t succeed due to failed negotiations with the landlord, kindling nostalgia in me. The Punjab Sweets, Kailash Sweets, Lovely Sweets were all still there roaring with business. The restaurants had become dirtier and no one seemed to bother. Virtually one sat over heaps of dirt to devour lovely chole-bhature. A visit and walk around Ajmal Khan Road never satiated me. The suit-case wallah, the belt wallah, the kerchief wallah, the photo album wallah, the table cloth walah, the paani puri wallah were all still there flourishing. Cycle rickshaws had been introduced – a very sensible move helping large energy savings - to manoeuvre through the pedestrian traffic in Ajmal Khan Road fighting for the little space with the Suzukis and Bajajs.
With all due respect to Lallu Ji, our honourable minister, our train to Chennai got delayed by nine hours. We were told that there was a derailment of a goods-train near Bhopal on the previous night and all passing trains without exception made a queue from station to station on both ways. Every train got delayed – reason: railways have made phenomenal profits and cash surplus by over-exploiting the only two rail tracks; while the track capacity did not increase over years, the number of trains passing over it had become manifold resulting in accidents and delays. Computers may have replaced the old line man who used to climb up the narrow control rooms to pull levers to change or align track manually each time a train passed through a station, but computers have still not acquired the skills and intelligence to allow one train to pass over another – result: accidents and delayed trains. Tamilnadu Express, a prestigious train once upon a time, used to take off from the first platform, now relegated to seventh platform. I do not know whether the ‘aam aadhmi’ trains have taken control over the first platform. The train that was supposed to reach Chennai in the morning at 6.30 reached at 4.00 in the evening and our whole day was ‘merrily’ spent in the train enjoying the ‘delicious and nutritious’ uppuma and vegetable biriyani supplied by the pantry car. In retrospect, rather I seem to be uncharitable and ungrateful to the ‘railways’ to have provided us with something cleaner to eat rather than leaving us to eat the fly-infested food packets sold in several railway stations. Most North Indian railway stations continue to be ugly and unhygienic – New Delhi station seems to be crowning the place for ugliness; one must only stand outside New Delhi station to witness the extent of spitting of saliva and artistic spitting of red colored ‘meeta paan.’ People seem to have lost all sense of cleanliness at Delhi. We travelled by Air Conditioned Two Tier coach and were given berths just adjacent to the exit door. We could see how dirty a vestibule connecting the coaches could be. The catering employees from the dining car mindlessly threw the food waste down the moving train scattering left-over food on the footboard connecting two coaches. My stomach churned at the ugly sight. I wondered why these employees could not be provided with neat trash bags to collect the left-over food and used disposable plates. One must also give credit where it is due. I salute the porter at the New Delhi station – a young man - who singly managed to carry our large luggage all the way to the 7th platform over the bridge for a very nominal sum in comparison to the merciless loot at Chennai Central Station.
There is nothing much to say about Chennai city excepting that people seemed to have learnt to live in the midst of dirt and garbage joyfully. Wherever one turned, one saw mountains of garbage with their ‘pleasant odour.’ This is the beautiful Chennai that is talked about with great fanfare as being re-created. And there is crowd and human wave everywhere. We believe this is sign of our progress. Who ever told there is inflationary pressure or economy is slack in India? Please go and see Usman Road in T.Nagar. People seem to know only one entertainment that they are obsessed about– shopping, shopping and shopping.
Back at our place at in the rural town, we were back to our routine. Why don’t you ask: “What routine?”
Everyday there is a minimum two hours power cut with nothing happening in many places when power is not there.
The local potable river water supply had improved from daily supply to alternate day.
B.S.N.L slapped a bill for a little over two thousand rupees for broad band internet service they did not make available to me during the four months of our absence from India. People at the counter in B.S.N.L merrily mislead clients into believing service conditions that are not true. I had no choice than to pay the amount as I am addicted to internet services at home. Several people, I am told, were waiting for new broad band connections in this place for months together and this is a monopoly business at our place for B.S.N.L. Thanks to technological advancements we boldly claim and proclaim from all our roof tops that people wait for several months for important communication services.
Our cooking gas agent suddenly discovered that their computer system had locked my gas consumer connection – reason: why do you worry, something can always be invented. ‘.. please bring your ration card and the original gas connection receipt. We want to verify.’ I felt bullied. The same gas agency had earlier stamped my ration card that they supply gas to me and already possess a copy of my ration card on their files. But, can I argue with them? Absolutely no chance! I go back to them next day with the ration card and show them their endorsement. The clerk over there did some manipulation with the computer and said to me ‘everything is ok now, Sir, don’t worry – we shall book your refill request now.’ Why this harassment? ‘How long will it take to receive the refill?’ I asked. The owner promptly dialled a number and handed the telephone receiver to me and I heard a recorded message that the number dialled is not functioning. I was told that this was the IOC number and the gas agency itself was not in a position to ascertain when refill cylinders will arrive at his depot. Hopefully in the next fifteen to eighteen days I should receive my refill, I was told. Why so much delay? Transporters strike, IOC strike and what not. In the office of the gas agency, people had gathered in large numbers fretting out and anxiously waiting for answers about filling up forms, new connection, and so many paraphernalia. This much I could see for myself for the ‘India Shining’ story. I need to find out what polish was used.
Raw rice what was earlier sold for about Rs.22 is now sold for 33 rupees,. No vegetable is available for less than Rs.25 a kilo. Cooking oil, cereals and many daily requirements have become exorbitantly costly. Petrol and diesel prices stand very high though a barrel of oil now costs less than one third from its peak price several months ago. So what! You see more vehicles on the road – India is very rich now and we should thank some of the new private banks who had been mindlessly helping people buy vehicles, homes, TVs, Fridge and what not. People seem to have no regard for how much money they spend – rather money has become valueless.
Away from the local scene: Everyone in Tamilnadu seems to have suddenly discovered a passion to exhibit their love and sympathy for their fellow Tamilian in Sri Lanka. Not a day single passes without someone or other protesting about killing fellow Tamilians in that Island. Everyone wants the war to end and the Sri Lankan army cease fire. What about several people who have died due to escalating terrorism by the banned group? This is not something to be talked about, one could be branded a traitor. Every small and big political party has raised its banner. One gets a doubt – whom are we supporting – the banned outfit or the innocent Tamilians in the Island. We have an issue to beat around during the forthcoming elections.
Elections to the Lok Sabha are just around the corner, a couple of months away. Everyone is making intelligent and wild guesses and forecasts about possible electoral alliances. Different political parties are being wooed by different other parties – the smaller the party, the more valuable they are for their local influence. One wonders why not Congress woo B.J.P or vice-versa and it won’t look strange or funny at all considering the present political conglomeration – possibly the only combination not yet tried since our Independence. I am sure that they might make the best ‘made for each other’ pair- after all, what difference it makes when one can gain and share power.
In between one visionary leader had passed away – Shri R.Venkataraman, the former President of India. May his soul rest in peace! Another versatile Tamil actor Nagesh who brought laughter and cheers (sometimes tears too) to many homes also is no more. May his soul too rest in peace!
The other thing I wonder, why senior leaders in politics do not wish to make room for youngsters to move to forefront and try it out. The last time we ever had a refreshing change was when Shri Rajiv Gandhi Ji became Prime Minister. Yes, youngsters could make mistakes due to lack of experience. They could be brutally frank. But won’t they be quick to learning from their mistakes? If an unbelievable history can be created in USA – an African American becoming President and his staunch contender and opponent becoming his Secretary of State, can’t something radically different happen in India too? It appears that time is ripe for radical changes to happen for India to move up. Sooner this happens it is going to be better.
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