#Pahalgam

#pahalgam 

Armed to the tooth

Manic thoughts in froth

Holding on to a broken faith

Loathing all outside the sheath

Life is fickle so they say

Innocent lives lost on the way

Lost to individuals brain washed 

Neither feared nor expected 

Mindless violence taking its toll 

Breaking families on a roll

There shall be repercussion

There shall be retribution 

But the family shall be struggling 

Without the son, partner or sibling 

For the rest of their lives

Missing their love and kindness 

Humanity has ultimately lost

While terrorism has a toast

Ramanathan K

Memories

This is a shaving gel bottle. This is part of my shaving kit for the past six years. Before anyone criticising me for being a miser, let me clarify that it is empty for the past three years. 

My dad and myself went to a Reliance mart in late August 2017 and bought this as buy one get one free. One for him and one for me, in  his last outing for shopping in his life. 

He suffered a ischemic stroke shortly afterwards and compounded by his alzeimer diverse, slowly descended to a vegetative stage and passed away in just above one year. 

This empty bottle reminds me of him. His amazing memory, his great humanity and kindness.

He had a strong conviction that our lives existed for helping others.

He despised the social hierarchy based on caste. He often quoted the thirukkural "அந்தணர் என்போர் அறவோர்மற் றெவ்வுயிர்க்கும்

செந்தண்மை பூண்டொழுக லான்" which means that Only persons who have kindness to spare on all life are Brahmins i.e. your birth in a caste does not determine you are Brahmin.

He also was a staunch believer that "Conscience is the greatest God".

His interest in helping students led him to devour books on Accounting and Taxation. He would tell the students these concepts like a tale. Never did he read out of the book. Infact he could recollect page numbers , solution to problems in entirety. However, when I think of it I do get a tinge of sorrow since such a brilliant mind was reduced to nothing after the stroke. He could answer only three questions out of some 30 posed to evaluate him. 

Anyway the empty bottle continues its journey with me reminding me of my father. 

Haiku s in November 2022

Never before have I written a haiku. A prompt from Dr Aarathi B whom I follow in twitter started this . I wasn't there from the 1st day but these are my creations. Some of them might be clichéd please forgive.

Perception Often Matters More Than Truth

#PerceptionMattersMoreThanTruth

In my childhood I had read a mythological story, a part of the ramayana which is still in memory. 

The war with Ravana was over and the victorious Rama came back to Ayodhya. His crowning as a King of Kosala kingdom was planned as a grand ceremony. The entire kingdom was in a festive mood. 

In all this festivities Lakshmana the ideal brother who stood beside Rama throughout the 14 years of penance in the forest and the war, serving him without a single minute of rest was also very happy. You may think "Wait a minute how he can serve without a minute's rest? He is also human right?". However, in those days even actions like sleep were personified as Gods and goddesses and you could see them if you believed in them and prayed to them. Goddess of sleep Nidra Devi was also one such Goddess and Lakshmana had sought a boon from her before proceeding to the forest 14 years before this day that she should not ask him to succumb to her i.e. to sleep till his duty as a brother to safeguard and serve Rama and Sita is not over. There is another tale that only because of this Lakshmana could win over Ravana's Son Indrajith. 

The day and time of Rama's crowning was nearing and very close to the auspicious muhurta, Nidra Devi appeared in front of Lakshmana and as it is normal for them to do, she was visible only to Lakshmana. Lakshmana bowed to her and thanked her for sparing him for the 14 years of penance. She told him like a child obsessed with a toy " I kept my side of the promise, it is now your turn and you should succumb to me immediately , this moment and go to sleep". 

Seeing her child like eagerness and adamancy over such a small issue as one man's sleep, he started laughing uncontrollably. 

The stage was filled with the Royal family, the guests and the countrymen. 

As Lakshmana's laughter continued without an apparent reason, the festive atmosphere started turning sombre.

Kaikeyi mother of Bharatha thought "Certainly Lakshmana is laughing at me only, I'm the reason for this 14 years penance and now I've shamelessly come to participate in it."

Sage Vashishta the Raj Guru had a thought "He might be laughing at me since I only predicted the Muhurta of the first time this Crowning was to take place and despite that not happening, I have come to participate in this second crowning with a muhurta"

Sita thought "Maybe, he is laughing at me for sitting in this throne despite being in Ravana's palace under his control for more than a year."

The people of Ayodhya thought "Definitely, he is laughing at us since we did not share the sorrow of the 14 year penance but now we have come to share the joy alone" 

This thought was shared by Bharatha and Shatrugna also.

All of these private thoughts turned the happy atmosphere into a brooding one. Rama, the ever wise one sensed this and used his spiritual powers to decipher the reason for Lakshmana's laughter. 

On realising the reason, he called the one another being whom he knew was unaffected being as wise or even wiser than him, Lord Anjaneya to shake Lakshmana out of his laughing stupor and bring him to his senses.

Once Anjaneya did this Lakshmana narrated the incident to others and with a collective sigh of relief, the festivities returned. Lord Rama and Mata Sita were crowned King and Queen with blessings of all.

The story is over but what is there for us to learn here. The event was same, the scenario was same but each person arrived at a different conclusion and that too a negative one based on his perception. To arrive at the right conclusion you should be able to step out of the circumstances and see the bird's eye view or be unaffected by any external stimuli till it is crystal clear . 

Let's stop being victims of our own perception. Let's get to the truth.

Doors

To open closed doors strength is needed

But is strength alone enough

No we need courage

To face the challenge on the other side

But is courage alone enough

No we need hope

To believe that the best is yet to come

But is hope alone enough

No we need love

To share the joys and sorrows that arrive

But is love alone enough

No we need patience

To meet the demands of our loved ones

But is patience enough

No we need strength

To bear the pain of disappointing events

Between Strength & Strength lies our life

Which we negotiate with both joy and strife

Among all that's needed to get into fighting form

Days & nights filled with hope should be the norm

Lets hope for the days to come to fill our hearts with happiness

To give strength to all fighting the unknown pervading darkness

That these dark days in which we kept our patience shall turn to bliss

They will not dent  our courage or push us into an abyss

Ramanathan

Foolishness

Agreed it was our foolishness

to lie down on the track

But it was not our first foolishness

By building your roads, buildings & bridges

We believed we can rebuild our lives

By working in your society for your welfare

We hoped to fulfil our needs bare

That was a foolishness

We thought we were wage earners

by selling a decent day of labour

This virus has made us realise loud & clear

that you take us lesser than beggars

That was another foolishness

We trusted our masters to be humane

We trusted our Governments to be caring

We were left out cold in a closed lane

Locked out, hungry and lost our bearing

That was yet another foolishness

We faced our end because of our foolishness

Whatever little we had we lost in one stroke

Please understand our plight and helplessness

To realise this you need not be a bloke

Tomorrow one more brother will do the same mistake

Start to reach home by walk and follow the same route

Not because he is foolish but because his life is at stake

There is no choice to live a decent life within or withoute

Time for all concerned to realise

We are also humans just like you

Our lives are not cheap to trivialise

Treat us just like thou

We still hope that you are human enough

to understand and get our message through

An ode to the lost lives

Ramanathan. K

Lessons from the Virus

It is a once in a lifetime event for many of us to be cooped up in our homes, fearing for our health, our families, our community, our nation and most importantly our economy which provides the livelihood for millions of people in the so called un-organised sector. The following are my thoughts on the past month or so and the future we face though it appears bleak.

Many of us have for the first time realised the complexities of managing our wants in the times of need. We learnt the hard way that once some thing is identified as needed it would be wanted by so many and suddenly will go to the grey market or hoarding market to be sold on "Muh Maanga Dhaam" and as an individual we can't do much about that except doing social media Guerrilla warfare with no or minimal impact.

The concept of a larger carbon footprint on the items we buy which never left even a faint foot print in our mind came stomping hard to highlight to us that the nearer your source, the better its availability, its quality and its price. The pretty Dragon fruit or cute Kiwi Fruit which was your source of Vitamin C has suddenly been removed from your plate and its place taken by the humble ugly local Santra sold by the kilo by local vendors.

We have learned that many of our diseases which clouded our intellect and made us visit hospitals on a regular basis (Of course not serious illnesses and certainly not those of the mind) were actually figments of our imagination and we are better off not visiting the temples of commercial medical treatment.

We have sorted out mentally those things that are really needed from the superfluous list created by our overactive imagination and fueled by our ultra big Ego.

With all these lessons, these days are not a curse alone and we can personally take some lessons from these days for the rest of our lives.

The main among them are:

• Buy local, support local merchants , don't mind the deep discounts in Online Mega deals. Ultimately when we suffered, these were our saviours and in the long term, based on the relationships developed, they will work out cheaper for you
• Separate the chaff from the grain i.e. now that we have understood what is really needed for us lets not rush to the whirlpool of commercialism once the restrictions are over. Malls, Cinemas, Tours, Cruises do have some value in life but they are not the ultimate aim of life. Till the vaccine is developed, it is horse sense that you don't expose yourself to big crowds

The Government has to now focus on the development of self-sustaining communities. It does not make sense for a ball point pen to travel from China to Chennai. Domestic industry should be given support to be able to compete with the imports which have been manufactured with infrastructure that cannot be even dreamed of in our country. This can be in the form of incentives, technology support or creation of industry clusters. But dependence on others from Pin to Plane is not going to help in the event of another pandemic.

Ultimately humanity has succeeded over even worser foes. We will overcome this foe also.