This blog will contain an assorted mixture of whatever that pours out of my mind and finds expression in words.. I love the beauty of words, I love my friends and above all I love the dark pearl of Dwaraka, the one and only Krishna
Mahabharatham is an encyclopedic storehouse of all knowledge.. So the scholars are unanimous in classifying the epic in the august company of the four great Vedas.
But a second and rather impish tag is added to this eminent saying.
The son in law is the tenth planet..
We know the parents of female children go through a lot of physical, mental and material turmoil as the child is to be joined in marriage with a suitable groom. First they circulate and compare horoscopes, and in this process, they are left to the vagaries of the nine planets.. even the best matches in India are denied just because the positioning of a planet in a horoscope is not considered auspicious..
This is the conditions before the child is married off. The nine planets may be benevolent of malevolent at times.. Opinions may vary among astrologers on this issue.
But once the marriage is over, a fresh planet, never benevolent, appears in the firmament for the parents of a girl.. This is called the son-in-law..
The nine planets are capable of being pacified even from the worst moods through pariharams and all ..
But the son in law is never pleased..
Hopefully the situation is changing with girls becoming more educated and articulate.. But old habits do not disappear easily..
यस्मिन् देशे न सम्मानो नवृत्तिर् न च बान्धवाः। न च विद्यागमोऽप्यस्ति वासस्तत्र न कारयेत्॥ (चाणक्यनीत्यां) yasmin deśe na sammano navṛttir na ca bāndhavāḥ| na ca vidyāgamo'pyasti vāsastatra na kārayet|| cāṇakyanītyāṁ
another nugget from Chanakya, the down-to-earth realist
His advise is that "One should not venture to reside in a place where he gets no respect, where he has no job opportunities, where he has no relatives and where there are no avenues to gain knowledge"
The urge to strive hard to gain the approval and if possible respect and even accolades from people around is the distinctive trait
that makes human beings so different from other beasts..
Life for us is not just a
process of eating and living..
For a human being with self
respect, dexterity in some profession and the opportunity to apply
such skill and gaining the means of livelihood from such exertion is the
most noble and desirable way of life..
For this the opportunity to put to use one's own skills
is as important as the skills themselves.
A human being is
never an island in himself
..He can never live alone..
He yearns to be in the
company of parents, siblings, wife, children, and other relatives and
friends..
Life for a human being will be dull and apparently purposeless if he cannot enjoy the company of close relatives or friends with whom he can share his joys and
sorrows, gains and losses.
And education for a decent human
being is a continuous process.. A place without schools, colleges and
libraries is worse than a desert.. Learned men who are capable of enriching our knowledge could be found only in places where there are universities and libraries ..
An Alexandria or Nalanda or Takshasila was always a coveted place for
all to live because learned men and temples of knowledge were located
there..
One may ask. "What is so special in this statement of Chanakya?
The specialty lies in the very fact that Chanakya has put it so
crisply.. he has enumerated all that is there for one's life to be of any meaning ..
A little girl went to her bedroom and pulled a glass jelly jar from its hiding place in the closet.
She poured the change out on the floor and counted it carefully. Three times, even.. The total had to be exactly perfect... No chance here for mistakes..
Carefully placing the coins back in the jar and twisting on the cap, she slipped out the back door and made her way 6 blocks to Rexall's Drug Store with the big red Indian Chief sign above the door.
She waited patiently for the pharmacist to give her some attention, but he was too busy at this moment.
Tess twisted her feet to make a scuffing noise. Nothing. She cleared her throat with the most disgusting sound she could muster.
No good. Finally she took a quarter from her jar and banged it on the glass counter.
That did it!
'And what do you want?' the pharmacist asked in an annoyed tone of voice. I'm talking to my brother from Chicago whom I haven't seen in ages,' he said without waiting for a reply to his question.
'Well, I want to talk to you about my brother,' Tess answered back in the same annoyed tone.. 'He's really, really sick....and I want to buy a miracle.'
'I beg your pardon?' said the pharmacist.
'His name is Andrew and he has something bad growing inside his head and my Daddy says only a miracle can save him now. So how much does a miracle cost?'
'We don't sell miracles here, little girl.
I'm sorry but I can't help you,' the pharmacist said, softening a little.
'Listen, I have the money to pay for it. If it isn't enough, I will get the rest. Just tell me how much it costs.'
The pharmacist's brother was a well dressed man. He stooped down and asked the little girl, 'What kind of a miracle does your brother need?'
' I don't know,' Tess replied with her eyes welling up. I just know he's really sick and Mommy says he needs an operation. But my Daddy can't pay for it, so I want to use my money..'
'How much do you have?' asked the man from Chicago .
'One dollar and eleven cents,' Tess answered barely audible. 'And it's all the money I have, but I can get some more if I need to.'
'Well, what a coincidence,' smiled the man. 'A dollar and eleven cents---the exact price of a miracle for little brothers.'
He took her money in one hand and with the other hand he grasped her mitten and said 'Take me to where you live. I want to see your brother and meet your parents. Let's see if I have the miracle you need.'
That well-dressed man was Dr. Carlton Armstrong, a surgeon, specializing in neuro-surgery. The operation was completed free of charge and it
wasn't long until Andrew was home again and doing well.
Mom and Dad were happily talking about the chain of events that had led them to this place.
'That surgery,' her Mom whispered.. 'was a real miracle. I wonder how much it would have cost?'
Tess smiled. She knew exactly how much a miracle cost...one dollar and eleven cents...plus the faith of a little child.
In our lives, we never know how many miracles we will need.
A miracle is not the suspension of natural law, but the operation of a higher law.
I know you'll keep the ball moving!
Here it goes. Throw it back to someone who means something to you!
A ball is a circle, no beginning, no end. It keeps us together like our Circle of Friends. But the treasure inside for you to see is the treasure of friendship you've granted to me.
Today I pass the friendship ball to you.
Pass it on to someone who is a friend to you.
MY OATH TO YOU... When you are sad.....I will dry your tears. When you are scared.....I will comfort your fears. When you are worried.......I will give you hope. When you are confused......I will help you cope. And when you are lost...and can't see the light, I shall be your beacon...shining ever so bright. This is my oath.....I pledge till the end. Why you may ask?....Because you're my friend.
Signed: GOD
REQUESTED TO SEND IT TO THE PERSON WHO SENT IT TO YOU.
I have no celebration for Vaikunta Ekadasi today because my Ambi Mama passed away
yesterday.. my own eldest maternal uncle, must be more that ninety. I am
in Trivandrum and with difficulty to travel I could not go to Coimbatore
to see him for the last time. Must go to see the elderly mami within ten
days.
He was a good man ultimately.. people who can do no harm to
others apart from just shouting angrily without any rancour in mind
can be really termed as good.
He was an employee of Government of Kerala and had lived for more years than his
service to draw pension, and now leaves mami to draw family pension also.
But the greatest quality to be given credit is that in spite of
being a clerk and superintendent in the Public Works Department, where one can
get rewarded even for just simply occupying the seat, the man was surprisingly
clean..one can say with absolute conviction that he did not take benefits
either in cash or kind for favours done.. Indeed a great achievement for a
government servant and a PWD employee.
He was childless..This fact has nagged him for about 56 years of married
life.. He adopted a nice girl.. but still..
He was blind for the past twenty years or so. Even earlier right from
childhood he was wearing highly negatively powered glasses for short-sight . a
family heirloom for at least fifty percent of our family members.
But his lack of vision did not impair his capacity to speak out. Even
when he knew that his was an isolated voice, he would shout incessantly if he
smelt someone was dirtying the municipal road. The people in the
agraharam gave him the title "Public Road" for this quality. But such
public heckling never bothered him. He could not sleep without calling a
spade a spade, however unpleasant his words were.
I have inherited many of his characteristics, perhaps excepting his
stinginess( understandable as he was born in a big poor family of eight
siblings) and short-sight . But being the wrong birds of the same feather,
we were not at all friendly with each another. When I was a small boy
he would shout at me. But when I grew into a postgraduate and a gazetted
officer ( he was never destined to be one) he would not face me but shout
at me to his heart's content ensuring that I was present somewhere in the
earshot.
After migrating to trivandrum, I have not seen him for the past ten
years.. Not even talked to him all these years. Still I was conscious of
his presence as a Jambavan in our family..
He lost his three immediately following siblings one above and two below
earlier. My mother is now the senior-most (at eighty three or
four) in the line. That realization adds pace to my heartbeats.
I have no health to run to Coimbatore before the funeral, but my mind feels
the void created by the vacancy of my own Ambi Mama, Sekharipuram Vaidyanatha Iyer
Vaidyanathan
this is a forward from my dearest friend Karunakaran. It touches certain parts of the heart in an inexplicable way
BURNED BISCUITS...............
When I was a kid, my mom liked to make breakfast food for dinner every now and then. And I remember one night in particular when she had made breakfast after a long, hard day at work. On that evening so long ago, my mom placed a plate of eggs, sausage and extremely burned biscuits in front of my dad. I remember waiting to see if anyone noticed! Yet all my dad did was reach for his biscuit, smile at my mom and ask me how my day was at school. I don't remember what I told him that night, but I do remember watching him smear butter and jelly on that biscuit and eat every bite! When I got up from the table that evening, I remember hearing my mom apologize to my dad for burning the biscuits. And I'll never forget what he said: "Honey, I love burned biscuits." Later that night, I went to kiss Daddy good night and I asked him if he really liked his biscuits burned. He wrapped me in his arms and said, "Your Momma put in a hard day at work today and she's real tired. And besides - a little burned biscuit never hurt anyone!"
You know, life is full of imperfect things.....and imperfect people. I'm not the best at hardly anything, and I forget birthdays and anniversaries just like everyone else. What I've learned over the years is that learning to accept each other's faults - and choosing to celebrate each other's differences - is one of the most important keys to creating a healthy, growing, and lasting relationship. We could extend this to any relationship. In fact, understanding is the base of any relationship, be it a husband-wife or parent-child or friendship! "Don't put the key to your happiness in someone else's pocket - keep it in your own."
