Worthy enough?

The  moments that you consider unworthy is the most worthy one that reveals the right options ! – Arunprakash

The Little Atheist

There I was standing in the scorching sun with both my hands tied to the pole ,not any other pole it was the flag pole. I thought I am gonna be hoisted like a flag in the pole along with my friends whom I don’t remember by their name or their faces now! I still don’t remember what was my mistake ,but I was there waiting for the firing squad to bash me along with my co-conspirators. I can’t believe even now ,how I ended up with the pole. Maybe that made me patriotic towards my nation even more! Believe it or not this  happened to me some two decades back when I still don’t know how to talk or write any language in the lower kinder garden at school. I felt like a goat every time I when to school during that time of my life. My parents or my teachers were unable to teach me anything at all ,not their mistake my bad listening skills that I had at that time and my perception towards learning differed with others. I thought everything was drawing and sounds for me not as words or speech coz I valued them equally .no difference I thought. My mother couldn’t make me learn my mother tongue and beyond that I was a born natural leftie at that time, so my writing capacity was very slow ,actually I drew every letter day by day but still I never grasped the idea about speaking. I went to school when I was nearly three years old not a big deal in India. But it was my choice ,I wanted to go to school because every other kids near my home were going ,I had the urge to check what was school like. But soon after getting into the school there was no like or enthusiasm for me. After few months into school I was still at where I’ve started no change or any learning happened for me. Only change I was made to write my letters in the right hand while I stilled played cricket in left hand. Nothing turned out ,within months I was put in a different school. This time on I really hated going to school not cause I couldn’t learn anything or speak anything but because the way the school teachers reasoned out with my mistakes by canes and corporal punishments. Because I couldn’t find a difference between a mirror letters and proper words ,and the realization of “god”. No teacher or god saved me from this tyranny of getting beaten. I don’t even know who god was .or what he was like ,for me I believed what I saw and those who lived along with me nothing else mattered to me. Even now. Looking back there now I wonder is it right for the teachers to trash a kid like that because he couldn’t understand the art of writing in left hand or right hand, he couldn’t differentiate between mirror letter alphabets and proper alphabets and ultimately he didn’t respect god an entity he doesn’t know or identify in that open county where he lived. For me temples were buildings with some drawings and architectural advancements in that rude past and the ticking present now! Because I never prayed to anyone or anything in my life even in distress. I can laugh out loud now about that incident and what made the god believing teachers to tie me up with ropes to the flag pole that sunny afternoon after lunch hours. There I was shouting the famous Hindu chanting you can still hear it now “saamiye aiyappa” not in any temple nearby but in my school toilet along with my two partners in crime, chanting and rising my arm ,circumventing the toilet the way they do in the temple. That was enough for the orthodox school authorities to embrace me with flag pole. Arunprakash LKG anti religious little tyrant they would have thought.Because i dont speak anything,i just stood there  gazing the afternoon sky what was my mistake,why i am i given this flag pole privilage!Here i am after all that cursing the communal environment in this country.Happy that i dont take any decision or weigh people on the basis of their identity in the society.Please dont try to paint your hatred and religious sentiments on kids.With the little ingredient s of do s and donts in their life ,let them be what they are…JUST HUMANS

Faith means not wanting to know what is true— Friedrich Nietzsche

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We : The Girl Snatcher’s ?

We wake up to the sound of fighting women down our streets. Usually if we snoozed the alarm or miss the morning buzz of the birds ,this is the only way to wake us up, good old quarrel and rivalry for a pot of water in the public drinking water facility in each streets in the locality(usual stuff in Southern India),unfortunate enough it happened to be right in front of our rented premises. We don’t use public facility for water hence we don’t do street fighting for the sake of water with fellow citizens. We were the only group of bachelors in the residential area in there, hence we can’t literally get every benefits of a regular family. We sort of like skip everything between our college timings and the occasional visits to food chains for our day to day needs. Apart from this we don’t get to mingle with the friendly society down below(we live upstairs).Plus no one cares who we are or what we do (typical metro approach).But there are certain aspects that really makes our neighbor really care for us (in the negative sense),we are looked as crooks ,thief’s and other type of anti-social elements (something’s wrong in their perspective).We never realize from where they get these really weird ideas about us! We actually have to cover nearly 20-30 kms daily for reaching our college by bus ,we can’t engage ourselves in anything apart from some assignments or some minimal study. Food breaks and some entertainment takes away the rest of the time. Besides we bunch of five occasionally head up to the terrace for a breezy walk or have a chat apart from other things. As mentioned earlier the problems starts with the neighbours view point and their perception towards us even in general context. As everyone residing are family (No matter what we are also part of family in a different city) with their kids. Youths are generally viewed as irresponsible human beings with no real liking to problem free environment, They are boozers and smokers who might corrupt the peaceful residential area, damagers of properties, a real pain to control and vicious enough to elope with their grown up daughters. Apart from the other really messy views ,the last one strikes a chord everyone s mind and their action in our street in unison as one or the other had a grown-up college going girls as their daughter(our mistake to reside here?).Not really .But their actions sometimes or most of the times makes us kind of guilty enough for some unknown crime that we have seldom done or even thought about of doing it. But the story goes on from the occasional talks while we walk the street s or stay in the terrace for a chat, When our neighbor pops out of Nowhere and reminds us that this is a residential area and there are family living around here and “You are all ruining it with your loud talk and laughs” Didn’t he know this when he beat his teenage daughter or quarreled with his wife in a drunken state, Oh yes everyone can hear the neighborhood brawl it aint sound proof and fool proofed enough to create sound barriers because its way ahead of their walls and it’s called Women harassment. But this goes one on every month and this guy comes again as a saviour of social justice with the same warning message to us. Thats not the end of the story ,there s another family who thought we might kidnap their daughter someday or the other, they kind of shut their windows or give that  “Oh yes I know you” look and pull their daughter in.(how can you not walk or live in the neighborhood)without even any looks about who walk s the street or who talks (act blind concept).There s another friendly neighborhood women who advices everyone to marry off their daughter s ASAP coz of the threat levels from us ,she gives friendly speech and peppy advice s to their parents on this vulnerable topic but doesn’t care much about the actual real thing issue s like their leaking drainage system pooling the whole street ,creating a very friendly swamp zone in the neighborhood. Once in a month this emerges and there is nothing like turf wars among the neighbours ,forgot the peaceful neighborhood s and lot of women and children in the locality ,everyone joins the zone with the high decibel quarrels. We the framed girl snatchers of the street never have cursed a child or harassed them mentally nor eloped with somebody s daughter(beaten them on suspicion) or created any drunken brawl over any women, But the so called peaceful neighborhood had one of the above as their day to day ingredient in their life. Please change your opinion towards bachelors and their lifestyle, because those negative s things that you expect out of us are not an exclusive trait that we alone carry-forward to every residential area but remember that you are all married to a former  bachelor who might be still holding one of those traits that you fear among us ,like your sons and daughter s we are also some families hope and future bread winners !

Note : As told be by Sasikumar : pondatti melayum ponnu melayum nambikka illathavan thaanda bachelors a paarthu baaypaduvaan (Only a man without faith on his wife and daughter fears about a bachelor) 

Clouds and Gardens

There was darkness everywhere where ever I walked ,though it wasn’t my worst nightmare but no doubt “The Indian power cut”rituals from the state electricity board. Soon my vacation turned out to be a wild mountain chase .That very night I found out that I was not alone in the darkness ,actually I lost my way from my family members far away shopping in the market place. The chase began immediately after I lost my way in the darkness, it wasn’t one or two competitors but the whole canine unit of dozen were ready and where gaining on me every second that I ran. I ran like a bunny afraid from hunting hounds in the darkness with no idea about where I am running towards. But the more I ran the more they gathered in speed ,there was no sign of any human burrow any human at all which could have stopped my living nightmare in darkness.Eventually I won the chase and finally lost sight of my chasers nor heard their losing howls in the darkness, yes victory in darkness now I can  smile and say but definitely not at the very moment. This was decades back in the mountain of Kodaikanal.

 

here I am sitting in the passenger seat of my friends car waiting for “GOD” to clear traffic after a decade I out maneuvered the “DOG” s in the same mountain. The traffic snarl was caused by the very own “God” they were celebrating Ganesh puja looked as though we took a wrong detour to Karol bagh (New Delhi).Because for me Ganesh puja was already a finished affair back down in my city below the mountains in the far southern part of India.(Ganesh Chaturthi is a one day festivity in South Tamilnadu) I was amused at the possession and their hindutva clan doing the rounds with “GOD”. well that’s that ! We later took a real detour to cross a mere 50 so meters. Including my friends and me ,we where visiting the mountain after a gap of decade, it was altogether a very different “Kodaikanal”.With its improved infrastructure and new retail outlets both international as well as local chains. The town resembled a mini metro with its packed vehicle moments and exploited environments. And they said it was off-season we didn’t have to imagine about the most preferred season by the tourists. At every turn we were up against the tourists from our friendly neighboring states which refuses to give river water to ours, we where venting our anger through war of words at every opportunity in the traffic congestion, saying at least give way for us (instead of water)to move on swiftly. Comparatively more shops all over the town and shrinking space for livelihood for the locals heard from one my friend residing there the recent hype by real estate ventures(lot of real estate ads) has sky rocketed prices even beyond the heights of the mountain resulting in huge sale of lands and properties for commercial activities in the name of tourism. Every space out there has been grown into some kind of shop or mountain resorts and private inns. Off course the main income is through tourism but not at the cost of exploiting the very natural wealth that attracts tourism in the first place. Apart from the restaurant s and the regular market shops you can find here, there are many shops lookalike that have landed from the gulf selling multiple merchandise s .they are actually from the neighboring Kerala with their fonts in their regional language as well as middle east(bang on you can spot them),what kind of target audience would they be aiming for? I wonder. I find these developments in a period of a decade as very consumer oriented and less towards a decent spot for recreation and leisure for the tourist community.Moreover the clean environment there has been completely dumped like a lost love. There used to be days you can walk around with mist and the lush green tree s around it. Now the mis(sed)t is substituted by combusted co2 from automobile emissions ,you miss the spot by cough. I don’t know whether they have any control on the vehicle moments ,it was my first visit here via a car! Though some of the inner parts of the mountain are still intact as they were in the past clean and natural. They have an organized Bus terminus which caters the common commuters of the town. Minus the encroaching shops ,there is lot of things that remain the same way as they where a decade ago. you can find better places to stay according to your requirements and affordability. But it still needs a proper plan for commercial establishments in the town. You can find quite lot of everything from the fake Chinese tooth brushes to the anti Chinese Tibetean restaurants with Indian flags on them. The Kodaikanal refurbished as a new established town poses as a liberalized settlement with multi ethnic and multi religious globalised (I am out of words) mountain range for every tourist who climbs the mountain to witness this beauty atop touching clouds and gardens .

Note : Clouds and Gardens is the name of the place I stayed. and watch out for the big Private resort when you enter the mountain at downhill spot.

Forget the hilltops and their cuisine there do please check out the Tibetean Momos (The Royal Tibetean) and Home Made Chocolates near the bus terminus (Farrukh s I think).

And most importantly walk your way through the beautiful mountain areas to get the true feel of the place. And do visit Dolphin Nose.