Shivam Diaries

Author: shivam

  • And above all

    Hh

     

    I’m in a totally worry-free,  relaxed mood while with my children in USA , for many reasons:

    1. The first and foremost is the feeling that I’m in the correct place, where Parents of my age should be. 

    2. I see their mother in my children and recall  their childhood days in my grandchildren.

    3. I can live with the confidence that if I fall there will be someone to lift me up.  My brother Vicha is too fragile to handle me. I’m assured of good medical aid and excellent personal support as and when needed. 

      4. I need not worry about my food /drinks / clothings. I get the food I want and my daughter/ daughters in law does everything includng making my bed and also keep a strict vigil not only on my food habits but on other habits too, the old people are likely, to remember and vainly attempt to repeat! 😁😁

    3. The house will be active most of the time with young men and young women and children, at times with guests too, remembering my good old days when my wife was alive. 

    4. I need not worry from morning to evening whether the gates are left open by the servant women or tenants or dogs or cows or beggars or veg and fruit hawkers. 

    5. I need not keep in mind the due dates for receipts and payments.

    6.I can go to bathroom or do pooja without worrying whether the courier guy, postman electrician or plumber will press  the call bell or enter through the side door and carry away my iPhone or such small possessions (I lost two cell phones ) 

    7. I need not rush out of the toilet fearing whether  the sound I heard was due to the fall of coconut from the tree or that of my brother from his chair or bed. 

    8. When I am with youngsters , I feel that I’m not really that old as my pension book shows .

    9. My grandchildren keep pooja idols and other items in proper places and I have to close my eyes and think of God or about my past adventures. In Hyderabad, my landline would ring at least half a dozen times, most of those wrong calls and the rest right calls for a wrong purpose! 

    And above all, I need not answer a dozen questions everyday from the obese lady in the opposite house enquiring what was the name of the lady who came in and went out of my house and why she came and whether she was married or unmarried!😄😄😄

     

     

     

  • You saved me Krishna. A humorous poem

    You have many to feed you

    You can enter any kitchen, any time 

    steal butter, fresh and pure.

     

    I peep into neighbor’s kitchen

    ‘You here?’, yells  the Mami 

    ‘Can I see you for a minute?’, 

    I plead.

    ‘Wait in the foyer 

    Till I adjust my sari layer’.

     

    I wait for an hour 

    Mami  still before the mirror!.

     

    ‘Panthikokku -roasted smell from your house’

    Alerts mandhi Paru.

    Pandhikokku is peruchAzhi or bandicoot,

    Mandi Paru, the obese lady in the opposite house!

    I don’t even roast bread, who roasts a big rat?

    I rush back home.

     

    OMG, i had only one wife and one bed

    The wife had gone, now the bed is floating!

    I had left a water tap fully opened!.

     

    And why this charred smell every where!

    I rush to the kitchen, the stove is on

    The vessel with water was bright and round

    When I kept on the stove ,

    What you call this new shape and color?

    My geometry is poor.

     

    I look up. 

    The ceiling is still seated  on the walls;

    I look at the mirror,

    My head is still safe on my shoulder!

    You saved me Krishna, you saved me!

  • A poetry from the flight

     

    ‘Soda or juice?’

    Enquired the air hostess

    In a sweet voice, neat dress.

    ‘Whiskey with soda’.

    ‘One or two pegs?’

    ‘Two, if you don’t mind’

    Two pegs of whiskey, too small a base

    To let my mind for a wild goose chase

    But wonder how I asked the girl next to me

    ‘What is death, you the prettiest on earth?’

    ‘Death is going, going away for ever’.

    ‘Whither, you,  charming as  a peacock feather’ 

    ‘You’ll know, not now, when you go’, 

    She turned aside, twisting her eye brow.

    ‘Attractive are your eyes’.

    She bloomed, looked deep into my eyes.

    I said, 

    ‘Death grabbed her from me,

    But she didn’t go, she is still with me.

    In the turbulent ocean of my inner deep

    She rows in a small boat ;

    Deep inside my soul 

    She shines as a pearl.

    Above my hardened heart of Meru 

    She shines as a star.

    Look up mademoiselle, can’t you see her sheen?’

    ‘Sorry to say old man,’ she was firm,

    ‘the moment she left

    She ceased to be yours,

    Like your exhaled air, 

    Like your dropped hair!

    ‘Cruel you’re’, she admonished

    ‘Your love for her has demolished

    Her chance of turning a divine bird

    And carry on her back the great Lord.

    Be bold, free her from your hold, 

    Loosen the string in your hand 

    Let her fly far and high

    She belongs to the sky,

    And not to you, and not to you’

  • To baby Shasta, my grand daughter

    Your dad a good swimmer, so what?

    Dad an ace rower, but you got 

    The warmth for water from thatha 

    No doubt in that,  my cute Shasta!

    What a rush in the sky, my moon!

    When embarks the grand monsoon! 

    Dense dark clouds with heavy sounds

    Like tuskers in thousands 

    Push and dash out in great hurry

    Going where and why, my worry, 

    Eyes opened, near a window I stood

    Stunned like you, my kid. 

    And when the pachyderms 

    Poured through their trunks

    Gallons and gallons of water,

    I used to watch clapping hands 

    What a thrill, my grand daughter! 

    Your parents’ passion for ocean and sky 

    Woods and hills will take you high

    Remember then my love for Nature

    And compassion for every creature. 

    That made your thatha dance in rounds 

    Ignoring his inner wounds.

  • Locks and keys

    Locks separated from their keys

    And keys separated from their locks

    Reminds me

    Men separated from their women

    And women separated from their men.

    I feel sad and preserve this junk.

    Junk? 

    Comes Abdullah with a push cart

    ‘ThAlam repair, thAlam repair!’

    I gave him a lock, he made the key 

    The lock is happy, the key is happy.

    But Abdullah is not Allah

    And he can repair only ‘thAlam’

  • Pranamams to all Ganapathies

    Man is born selfish and I can’t be an exception. Close to Kalpathy Shivan kovil, Kshipraprasada Ganapathy is there. A few yards away Mandakara Mahaganapathy dwells. But, my practice has been rush to Chathapuram, crack a coconut before God and come out after darisanam with the satisfaction that all the obstacles on the path to my success have vanished ! Only during my recent visit, I went to the Mandakara temple, as it is adjacent to the function hall of my interest. 

    This time too, I went to the Chathapuram Ganesh temple . After cracking a coconut on the granite slab, I enjoyed the sound emanated from the metal wall and expressed my happiness to a mama standing nearby. 

    Apparently, he was standing there for a long time or he used to stand there every day watching many devotees cracking coconuts. He didn’t, therefore, take my observation with the seriousness it deserved. For me, however, that sound was enjoyable. The only lapse was I forgot to pray God but that has been my general practice. If not for knowing my problems what for is my Lord sitting there? 

    Frankly speaking what problems do I have? Getting food in time, getting good sleep, varieties of clothes I have, friends are there to recognize and smile at me wherever I go, sons, daughter, daughters in law, son in law, sambandhies and their sambandhies are all kind to me,  the good I eat and the water I drink goes down and not up, I have enough money in my wallet always to buy a soda when I go out- does one need anything more other these facilities? 

    Pranamams to that Ganapathy whether he belongs to Chathapuram or Puthiya Kalpathy or my TVM Arsummoodu or Pazhavangadi. 

    I like all Ganapathies as they all like modakams and appams. 

    I will continue liking them as long as they continue liking modakams and appams. 

  • Ammalu is always right

    ‘Oh, Ammalu, my dear sweet girl, in sound sleep last night, I had a feeling of a peacock feather gently moving here, there and all over my body. It didn’t, however, take much time to realize the truth that it was your hand movements.  I’m elated, you’re back to your good old days!’

    ‘Sorry for the damage caused to your sound sleep , SP dear! 

    I was looking for the cash box key and I had to search top to bottom of your body’

  • Gurupoornima musing

    . 

    I don’t claim to have a sadhu  or sanyasi as my Guru, though I respect many honest and holy personalities. As  an ordinary person, for me, Guru is transmitter of knowledge. Transmitter, according to me can be a living or non living being, even an experience. Like others, for me too, my parents were the first teachers who taught me to eat, walk, alphabets etc followed by school and college teachers , colleagues, friends etc etc. who guided me to gain knowledge in various fields. 

    My father was the cause for my developing interest in literature and spirituality. I used to sit close to him watching his reading Adhyatma Ramayanam, in a melodious tone, before a brass lamp, vibhoothi prominently drawn on the appropriate part of his big frame. 

    “JagdAsrayan, Bhavan, JagathAyathum Bhav.an,

    JagadAmAdibhoothanAyathum Bhavanallo—-

    I have forgotten the Physics and Chemistry learned but not the hymns taught by my father in my childhood.

    I consider as a God given gift, my interest  to watch and learn from the Nature. So, is the experience life has taught me. These two gurus have contributed considerably for my mental tranquility and ability to take life as it unfolds before me. 

    And it is my friendship with Nature that helped me to realize that there is a Super Power and installed in me an unshakeable trust in the Almighty.  I feel God’s presence everywhere with the result that I’m not particular to visit temples or do pooja at home, though I do both.  Being a man of emotion, the changes in life do upset me, but I have the capacity, thanks to my trust in God, to regain my balance soon.

    Longer I live more I realize that with all our merits and capabilities we are not the sole decision maker of our life. 

    I take that Supernatural Source which guides my intellect as my Guru. 

  • Fall of a tall tree

    Farewell to another sweet coconut tree of my Olavakkode origin! 

    A relationship of 40 years blown off!

    Yes, I had to cut another coconut tree, as it started playing havoc not only within the compound  but also extending its head towards the road. It was a painful job, as I had brought the seed of a very sweet variety from Olavakkode.  Every time the axe struck the tree, the suffering was mine. I thought, it is OK, let me suffer now but not be a cause for the suffering of others.

    Relationships, however strong they are, has to be severed, when it starts hurting us and others. 

    Sentiments apart, the trees I developed long ago, have become liabilities now as many houses have come up in the surrounding areas and naturally no neighbor will keep quiet when a seed or branch  falls on their head or on their house, however friendly they are towards me. 

    There is a belief that coconut tree doesn’t hurt others and my experience too is not otherwise. 

    Old people, except good souls like me, don’t spend the entire night in sleep, especially when  they are in pairs. Yadayya  and Yadamma, both retired as professors, stay behind my backside compound wall. On the recent Pornami, full moon night, they developed instant intimacy and sneaked out for a stroll in the Central Park close by. A branch from my coconut tree fell very close to them, making a loud sound which woke up their son. He was shocked to see his parents trying to open the gate..

    ‘Where to at this midnight?’ enquired the anxious son.

    ‘To bathroom’,  replied the dad.

    ‘Yes, my son, I’m taking him to bathroom’, replied the mom. 

    ‘But, bathroom is inside the house!’, exclaimed the son. He was right ! 

    Hearing the noise, came out the daughter in law and yelled,

    ‘Ayyo, ayyo! They both have Alzheimer’s disease. Rush them to an old age home’

    The son consoled her, ‘wait, my angel! Let the night pass on’. He was right again!

    The professor gave a strong kick to his wife and yelled,

    ‘See where your midnight romance is leading us – certainly not to the Harithavanam Central Park’

    The professor garu too was right. 

     .

  • Ammalu is always right

    ‘Ammalu, I have every right to question you, as I’m your husband.  Any doubt in that ?’

    ‘Doubt in what, you’re my husband?’

    ‘Talk sensibly. You have any doubt in my right to question you?’

    ‘Not at all’

    ‘Then, what is your problem?’

    ‘You don’t question me at all. You stand  in attention, looking at my mouth, for the questions to come out  and when that happens you look at my face in awe wondering how I could discover your shameful, secret dealings’