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Let me never have that doubt

Snowing continues in the morning
No schools, at home too, no learning
The kids no fools to sit with books
The sky changed the playground looks

Last night, in the moonlight.
The earth and the sky looked alike.
Through my bedroom window
Was tough to decide
Which was the sky,
The one above or the one below?

The dawn cleared my doubt
When I got up from my bed
How can I stand on the sky?
So, the sky is above me!

The sky is always above me,
Me always on the earth.
Let me never have that doubt
Whether the sky is above my head
Or below my foot!

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Not empty my glass of wine

IMG_6320Not yet empty my glass of wine,
It will, anytime, I don’t mind.
Glass is fragile, it will break,
Even mountains crack.

No wines can drowse me
Some friends see stars mid day,
And dance on the highway,
Not me, but don’t know why I asked
‘Is your colour from my heart?
Is your smell from my sorrows?’

Meaningless was my query
But the wine was in a hurry
To respond : my color is my own
My smell is my own.
Your sorrows are your own
Your heart, not my part.

It was clear wines care least for me
That’s why I don’t worry
If the wine glass crack or break!

 

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Me and my friends- 3

Anna, namaskar’, I greeted my friend, entering his house. He had retired from Service that day and was opening the gift packet from his office while his wife was enjoying the flower garland’s fragrance.

‘They gave you such a big garland?’, she enquired eagerly her eyes brightening with surprise.

‘Of course. That was why I asked you to come, but you didn’t’, complained the husband.

Instead of answering her husband, the shrewd lady, turned to me, when I was about to occupy a chair close to my friend,

‘While entering, you addressed my husband as ‘Anna?’

‘Did he?’, the retired officer almost jumped from his seat, turned his angry looks towards me, raising his eye brows wondering how I could commit such a heinous crime.

‘In which year did you retire from Service?’ He enquired

I told him the year.

‘And you had the audacity to call me ‘Anna?’

‘Your status I had in my mind, not age’, I clarified

‘What status? You retired as what ?’ He enquired

I told him the last post I held. He was not very pleased as he knew that the difference was only one step, but she was happy as she had no idea about it.

‘More over, your wife has a running account in Kalyan jewelers’, I supplemented my reason,

‘Ammalu mami doesn’t have?’. That was first time, she was mentioning my wife as ‘mami’ and not ‘manni’

‘No. She doesn’t have account in Nalli silk shop too’ ‘

‘Enna?, She addressed her husband affection and respect oozing from her words. ‘Why do you get angry unnecessarily?’

‘Unnecessarily?! Now, my friend really jumped from his seat and shouted at his wife. ‘Madasiromani, the crown jewel of ignorant! He retired 23 years before and you want me to tolerate his addressing me as ‘Anna

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My and my friends -2

 

Went to meet a friend. He was eating. Expected him to invite me to share food. No luck. He continued to eat.

‘Enjoy your eating’, I said.

‘Thank you’, he said and continued eating.

After five minutes, I said again.

‘Enjoy your eating’

Now he asked his wife, ‘give him a plate. He would have finished his lunch but won’t mind giving me his company ‘

My friends, like me, are intelligent !

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Me & my friends – 1

I dialed a friend at Chennai. He is almost of my age.

‘Chuppu, morning!’

‘Morning? You found the muhoortam ( auspicious time ) to call me only now? It is 9.00 pm, here. Should we go to sleep or not?’

‘I’m sorry. Extremely sorry. You must be already on the bed or on your way to bed’

‘Am I a lucky single guy like you? Will your manni ( elder brother’s wife) allow me to go to bed alone ?’

‘Wah, that is the spirit, I admire. Anyway, I’m sorry. I’m extremely sorry, that I called you at a wrong time. There is no worse pApam (sin ) than disturbing a couple on their way to share a bed. I apologize’

‘Mannanktti- stop that nonsense! ‘ screamed my friend. ‘She is following me to the bedroom to ensure that I don’t open my ipad and chat with FB friends’

 

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Ammalu is always right

‘Ammalu, comes to memory the good olden days when you used to fan me with a pretty palm leaf fan, standing close to me, almost touching me. Can’t you repeat that kind act, when my friends visit us, this afternoon?’

‘There were no ceiling fans then. We have a fan now in every room. More over, why do you want me to fan you in the presence of your friends ?’

‘To exhibit proudly that you love me, you care for me. Some of them think that your love is not sufficiently intimate’

‘Did they say so?’

‘They didn’t tell me, but I know’

‘I will do something better to impress on your friends. I will hug you in their presence’

‘Go away, go away! Switch on all the fans in full speed’

‘Sweating, SP? Call your friends. I will get a palm leaf fan from our neighbor’

Cartoon courtesy. My cousin Ramki, Chennai.

 

IMG_3937

 

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Thought sparkles

 

All the animals in the forest are hiding within us, only to urface under different situations.
We hold a forest within us !
——————

Every strike on the surface of a percussion instrument, gives out a sound.
Every sin one commits too delivers a punishment.
The sound vanishes. The sin doesn’t. it will follow the sinner.
————–

For 80% of your problems, there are solutions, if you work out.
The rest, leaving to  Destiny, you can feel free from the load.
—————-

Once, twice you can turn your face against your wife. Don’t make it a practice. She will show her back to you

———-

Better to be brief and to the point when you are taking to your newly wed wife. It is a difficult job but will be long term tax saver for you.

—————-

One, two, three, four— is counted faster than ten, nine, eight, seven —,
That is the only occasion when going up is faster than climbing down!
————-

Give me strength God, not to fight a war, but just to keep me moving . And moving, I should . Every one should be able to move.
The Earth moves, The Sun moves, the planets move.

————–

The problem with problems is, none can escape from their grip, big or small, rich or poor.
The plus point is , invariably there are solution/s for all problems
and what is needed is knowledge, skill and luck to solve those.

Face those on ‘as is where is ‘ basis, don’t worry over , don’t lose heart and smile for a while. The success is yours.

And remember, there is none with no problems. I have my own problems, though there is absolutely no cause for me to have problems. I have hairs on my head- no problem. But those with no hair on head have also problems as head load.

——————-

Eat only if you should, talk only if you should, write only if you should but walk, as much as you can and drink water liberally.

————–

What we get, often, is not what we want or what we ask for. Not in our hands.
But making the best use of what we got, (including discarding it, if what we got is bad for us and others) , is the correct attitude.
It also happens that we get exactly what we want but either we misuse it or dumb in a dust bin. It could be your life, it could be your wife or it could be even a great thought.

 

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Will the Fall last for ever?

‘There seems to be only sleep left in me, not music,’ I told my daughter who wanted me to start singing.

‘You have been over straining your body for the past one year and the accumulated tiredness is having its toll now. Nothing to worry. Let the body exhausts it sleep demand’, said she.

Will this Fall last for ever
With branches standing dark and dry
Fit only to be burnt as firewood
Or will the life return?

Life should return
As my inner flow is still intact,
My veins and capillaries throb
My bones are wet.

The dryness is only skin- deep
The antharvahini, the flow below
Deep below the earth is alive.

When Mother Earth is wet
Why worry for the seed?
When She is totally parched,
Her heart will melt, eyes will shed
A drop of warm water
The seed will grab it
And grow as a huge tree.

But, I won’t allow my mom
To shed a tear in mourn
I will beg my Father in the Sky
To drop a dew in the morn

 

 

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Ammalu is always right

‘Ammalu, I am not complaining, but conveying my disapproval-you should not have wasted so much money on your deepavali sari’

‘Wasted! My sari is still with me and will be with me for several more years. Where are the crackers you spent hundreds on? All went ‘fut,fut’ in no time like your fancy for my women friends’

‘That comparison hurts me, Ammalu’

‘Let it. You bought crackers only to impress the women folk and went behind them cracking one after the other. Oh, what a hero’s acting it was, before them!’


 

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In sleeper class from Palakkad

Apart from the mesmerizing winds passing through the opened windows of the sleeper class train, which kissed me all over, hugged again and again, shared some secrets and sang a Pallavi, there were other interesting aspects during my recent return trip from Kerala. I have, in my blog, already an emotional story on a similar travel earlier.

Usually, I get up more than once, from sleep, to empty my bladder, but my recent journey was so enchanting that I slept whole night, undisturbed, though there was an important reason, strong enough, to wake me up, a dozen times. That was to observe the reaction of an old lady to the ‘kusu, kusu’ sweet romantic chats of her son with his wife, about which she complained to me during the day . I never allow such golden opportunities to slip through my fingers as mothers in law and their actions and reactions always provide fodder to my internal cows of inquisitiveness.

‘Did you, during your young days, engaged in ‘kusu,kusu’, sweet talk with your wife throughout your journey, as my son is doing now,? She had asked me
and I had replied, ‘not with my wife, with some other young ladies’

At Guntur, she woke me up asked me to follow the couple.
‘Don’t sleep like a log. Catch them red handed. They have gone out for a stroll’

I got annoyed.

‘Madam, they are your own son and daughter in law. Your son would have held the hand of his own wife and gone out for a morning stroll to buy a pack of hot Guntur chillies for you. Why do you torture me?’

‘No, my son is not that bold to hold her hand right before my eyes’, she replied. Pride of a mother of an obedient son was shining on her face.

‘The trains now a days start with no warning vessels,’ I tried to explain my fear. ‘If the battery of my hear aids fail when the train moves, with me on the platform, will you ensure that the nenthram pazham and chakkapazham, long plantains and jack fruit, I’m carrying all the way from Olavakkode, will reach my Habsiguda house?’

‘We will uncle!’, the reply came not from her but from her son and daughter in law in the top births!