A 'Morning Mass' in the Line Bus

This is a story from one of my earlier trips..!

         We reached the bus stop early in the morning.  Had just come out of the Railway Station after a strict health check up.  But we were a bit too early for the next bus.  The bus stop lacks space as the on coming buses for Kozhikode and Kunnamkulam come almost to your toes.  One has to be careful here and paste oneself to the boundary wall not to get hurt.  And there are other travellers or those waiting for other buses.  Most of the people left for Guruvayur, a pilgrimage centre and to either Kunnamkulam or Kozhikode.  Now we were left with ourselves (my wife and I) and an elderly poor looking Tamilian lady.  As we could be spotted as travellers the auto rikshaw operators will come one after the other to  invite us as their passengers. We refuse. Next is the Guruvayoor Bus conductors.  We refuse them too as their route doesn’t suit us.  Then they would want to know where we are headed.  Out of courtesy we blurt out our destination.  They tell us as much guidance as a return courtesy.  Next was the old lady standing near us. ‘Where are you going?’ We feel we don’t have to. But don’t want to be counted arrogant, we reply ‘Enamavu’.  She explains we are too early.  The first bus in this route is six fifteen.  ‘I also take that bus ahead to Guruvayur’ .  A sudden feeling of closeness comes among us.  Now we are free to talk. But we don’t have nothing much to speak.So the lady continues by hearself: “I go to Guruvayoor everyday to sell jasmine flowers.” I reply to show courtesy ‘Oh..’   And she takes it as my interest and continues:  “I live here in a big house of a big officer. They never take any rent from me.  I can live there all my life”   “Oh….” I say again and she continue “But I shall never become a burden or trouble for them”  “I sell flowers in front of Guruvayoorppan.  He keeps me well in life”.  By my next Oh….the bus came and she hurried to the front gate of the bus as ladies enter through the front gate in buses  in this part of the country.  That kind conversation so ended.

        Even other wise a bus conversation  or a bus stop conversation does not go far or stay on.  These are chance meetings like the far flying cosmic objects passing near by.  Most satisfying little conversations lasting few seconds or minutes.  At times they make an impression, at times not and are forgotten.

I scrambled in with my two little suit cases and kept them behind the last but one seat where there is a little more space.  Once that was settled, I noticed the one going to be my seat fellow.  A fragile dark hued fellow in a blue shirt, most probably a Gentleman from a neighboring state, looking away through the side window of the bus..!  His fragile stature struck me…! Since he was looking away, I could view him closely.  For a moment I wondered if I have to sit there or in a near by different seat as there were plenty of free seats as it was an early morning first trip for the bus.  But then, it will be construed that I dislike a person who is not that good to sit with as he is poor!   It was time for the morning mass.  Had I been at mass, I shall be praying to Jesus who would have definitely asked me “Didn’t you see me when I was in the bus?”  That would be a question, I may not be able to answer.  That decided it for me. I sat in the seat along with him.    Once settled, my task was to fix my two little suit cases on the huge tyre placed behind a half seat.  Once it was being done the fragile man turned to me and was helping me adjust the boxes.!  Touching that was!  He was not thinking of me, perhaps.  He was only just helping a hand which was trying to adjust his luggage.  Now that was done!  I sat back. And the fragile man also sat back.  The Bus Conductor has started collecting the bus charge now and each one is now taking out the charges in their hand.  I took out the needed amount and kept ready.  My friend in the seat was keenly counting a lot of coins in his fragile hand.  Now the charges have gone up and most of the passengers give their charges in notes mostly.  But here this gentleman was counting a number of coins in his right hand.  He was counting them with his left hand.  In my old times my childhood there was a time when we used to keep small coins in the ‘gullocks’ (piggy-banks) and open it during our festivals to buy possible guddy-guddies.  By the time my friend finised counting the conductor was near us and he gave his coin stock and the conductor counted it at a glance and simply told the old man “The amount is two rupees less” for which my friend did not give any reply.   The conductor did not linger on it, he quickly turned to me.  I paid our charges and he moved away.   Now I was free to inter-act with my friend.  I asked him: “Where are you going?”  “Guruvayoor” he replied.  “Do you have family and other members?” I asked.  “Yes, at Vellaloor”  He was fragile but his answers were simple and straight forward.  “Where is this place” I further blurted out.  He said “Near Kadalur” .   “Oh…I got it, it was near Kadalur which was affected badly in the Tsunami?    I asked.    And he replied:  “Athu than..!”  (That’s it).   “What are you going to Guruvayoor for?” I asked again for which he did not answer but showed both his hands in a gesture as some one would beg for alms with both hands open.    For a moment I was ashamed of myself, I should not have asked that question.  The man was unknowingly very clean in his answer.  He is going to beg till the evening when he may, perhaps, catch the bus back.  That was why the conductor did not ask him where was going.  I scrambled my pocket for a small note which I put into his hands!”  His face lit up a bit….   And that was my morning mass!  It was time for me to get down.  I got up and unbuckled my boxes for which he too was helping me with his fragile hands!  I waved him a good -bye saying   “We will meet some other time, friend” I said.  It brought a wide smile on his face and he waved me back.   And my day was made!  I got out of the bus and the bus moved on to Guruvayoor..!

അക്ഷരമെഴുതാൻ ഒരു മോഹം (A desire to write letters) (Malayalam)

Mathew at the Morning Mass....!

It was a non-issue.  How many times the father looks at Mathews direction.  Mathew never gave a damn to it.  But today, it was different.  That, Mathew was in a mood to attend a good Mass but reached late.  That does not matter on the usual style.  But today, the priest has changed, and the new priest was said to be a stickler.  He has just been told that the priest insists upon every body to have their mass book and be responding from it during the holy mass.  Mathew did not have the book and as a custom, never looked at any religious books.  Now, there are mass books kept at the centre book stand, but to walk up there to the centre of the church hall, made Mathew squirm. No, that is not possible.  In the glaring view of all, one side all the male gender and on the other the women.  Mathew knew that the men folk will rarely care for who is going where even if you walk on their toes, but it is the women he was afraid of.  Some of the women may look at him and he may not be able to look back at them.  So there would be no knowing who were looking or ogling and then the rumour will spread that Mathew Bhai never comes with his mass book. That is something Mathew would like to avoid. 

So he stood where he stood without moving and slightly with a slanting head ogled at the priest who was elderly and in grey hair.  To his utter surprise, the priest was still looking in his direction.  This is absurd, Mathew thought.  A new priest, only two days into the church, looks so intently at a parishner for not carrying a reading from a book?  He started looking down now.  Then a new idea struck him.  The Verger John is his friend.  He is near the altar smoking up the frank incense.  Once he gives the frank incense smoke vessel to the alter boy, he will go out to do other errands.  Now he can go out to meet John and enquire of him why the priest is looking at him.  Soon enough, John walked out and Mathew followed him through another door and met him at the outside step of the church. 

“Oh Mathew, what is the matter? Coming out before the mass is over?”

Mathew answered “No, no, not that.  I just wanted to know why the new priest is looking straight at me. Is it because, I don’t have the mass book?”

John  :“Is he?  You are the first person bringing up something like this. He is a stickler for people having the mass book, alright.  But not heard of looking at anybody personally.  If you want I shall check for you”  and he walked away busily inside the church.

Mathew made a couple of guffawing sounds as if he was clearing his throat in the morning fog, and slowly walked back to his place.  Now the father was looking at the other direction.  Mathew was relieved.   Once in a while Mathew ogled at the priest as he was sceptical of the new priest.  And Lo!  After a few minutes just before a long stretch of prayer, there is the new priest looking in his direction again!  He was really astounded now. He stopped looking at the priest now.  He joined his hands in prayer and closed his eyes, but mentally he was seeing the priest.  He thought about the last priest in place of the new one.  He was also an elderly priest, who spoke in very low voice that even the mike had to struggle to pick up his voice.  Even then it was difficult for the parishners to decipher it.  But he never looked at the individuals during the mass.  He saw all but never saw any, that was his attitude.  His prayers and method of offering the mass was crisp and with precision.  He never added anything to the long prayers, rather at times omitted some of the lengthy areas to the relief of the many.  Now the new priest seemed to be exactly the opposite to this.  He did not add anything, but would keep all the prayers in the book and recite them to the full and in good strong voice.  Added to this was his looking in Mathew’s direction. 

The mass went on and Mathew prayed on and at last the mass came to an end.  Mathew hurriedly came out of the hall to catch hold of the Verger John, who would be now proceeding to the cemetery for the arrangements for the prayers for the departed.  He was coming out of the church with the usual holy water and the fathers vestments for the prayers in the cemetery.  Mathew walked up to John who was walking with long strides. “Hai, John, anything”

John was startled, as he thought it was the Priest calling him from behind.  Once he saw Mathew his anxiety gave way to a smile.  He said smilingly : “Oh Mathew…You were worrying unnecessarily.  The new priest is a holy man.  He has difficulty in seeing the words in the Holy Qrbana Book.  The Thaxa, the Holy Mass Book Holder is kept in your direction.  When he looks insistently into the book, you feel that he is looking at you” “Go..go..happy and have your morning break fast at ease”

“Oh…” That was a sigh of relief which came out of Mathew after such a mental struggle all through the mass.  Now he happily walked home for a good break fast..!

Getting it done and seeing the doc

Driving in Chennai is not easy.  Vehicles fill up the roads and in between there would be umpteen number of two wheelers. Then among the vehicles are huge water tanker lorries, buses and local mini buses all carrying water and commuters according to usage.  Among all these one drives a two wheeler or a four wheeler car.

The weather is cool this time of the year, interspersed with cloudy skies and occasional rain!  On one of these days, I started out to see my Specialist doctor with due appointment.  But the last minute the Doctor announced his absence and I was free to see another usual doctor but not a specialist. We passed the Kumaran Nagar Red Light without much delay but got the Sholi Red Light for twenty five minutes!  Sholi is the short form for our usual Sholinganellur four cross junction.  The techies of the place call it 'Shols' for short.  The best pronounciation I got from the mini bus conductor, a little boy of  fourteen or fifteen.  He used to shout 'Sholielur, sholielur' It took me a minute to understand what he was saying.  Ultimately, I got it.  It is Sholienganellur, no doubt..!  It was nice to see, how people make short forms for places and make it convenient to repeat it when needed.  The Red Light was pretty long and we could cross it in three stops and the fourth pull got us out of it further to take care of the next three more Red Lights and a minor Toll Booth stop at Kandanchavady.  After that we see the Metro rail and then turn right on to the Adyar lead to reach our location.  The whole ride we made in about one and a half hours which is very fair and early for a 24 kilometres ride on the OMR road of Chennai.  We were satisfied with that ride considering the traffic density and the extreme effort of the police who are generally putting up a great show.

The second decade again! The second decade of Joy...!

I mostly get the second decade to start with the Hail Marys...!  At times a thought come to me: What do they really mean.  In the second Joyful Mystery of the Rosary, it is about the visitation by St. Mary to help St. Eliswamma, the Holy Mother of  St. John the Baptist, who was carrying at the time.!  On hearing that her Aunt was carrying, Mary was keen to go to help her and that too, walking a pretty distance.  And we know, transport was too few in those days, generally making us think that she walked most of the distance on foot..!

In these days of technology explosion and media pressure, people generally gasp for time for the daily needs and time for their immediate family members!  I have been in many rosary recitals but has never seen any body speaking after a rosary about getting a great spirit from the recital and it brought thoughts of going out and helping any of their relatives, like, uncles, aunts, grand father or grand mother etc.  Of course, most of us do all that according to our convenience but getting the spirit of the second decade and going to do a bit of help would have been much better. 

The second decade of sorrow is much too touch in which Jesus is bitten black and blue chaining him to a pole or a wooden stub..!  To finish that decade without becoming sad and pained is really difficult..!  The suffering of human divinity and the mirth of the perpetrators of the day, which is being repeated time and again when some of them stand stead fast for truth..! 

When the same is in the Glorious Mysteries, it is the Ascension of the Jesus to Heaven which is more
supernatural and divine!  It really bring some happiness to a people who are otherwise in gloom due to the crucifixion and its aftermath..1

Then at last comes second decade of Light..in which Jesus does his first miracle of divining Water into Wine..!  Those who recite it cannot but love that act of love by Jesus, even though at the insistence of his mom, St. Mary..!  That's all coming to mind now, my friends..!

The Importance of two proper legs..!

I never gave a thought to my two legs all through my life or the blessing of having them in place until I fell into an open sewage canal..!  As luck would have it, it was December and the sewer was dry and clean.   But the sudden going down into it and hitting the cement bottom gave me a broken right leg with the meta-tarsal broken into two. 

Next six months were time for thought..!  First few days were pain and trauma coupled with a plaster.  While lying flat with an up-raised leg on big pillow, it made me think.  I was totally immobilized and for any thing, had to depend on others!  After five days, I had a new hard plaster and a walker on which I could limp around very carefully.  I rarely thanked God for having my proper two legs or for that matter any other body part.  At times, in a Retreat centre or in a Sunday sermon the Priest reminded us and then of course we thanked God for all such gifts, but once out of that, we are back to normal, the normal life in which we forget these gifts! 

Now, here I was looking at the ceiling fan, with the up raised leg and have all the time in the world to think about it and thank God! I prayed to God and most of the Saints I knew, especially, St, Mary, St. Joseph and Arch Angel St. Raphael for their intercession.   That was a solace  for they helped and it was wonderful to be able to pray like that, which is possible only when one is free from other disturbances of every day activities, especially, the TV, Internet and other general activities!

Time went by and after two months I was out of the plaster slowly learning to walk with a walking stick and being able to thank God for his bodily gifts!

A drive from Kazhipattur to Adyar..!

Kazhipattur is just near Kelamnakkam in the OMR road of Chennai.  The road goes on and on to Old Mahabalipuram.  It is a heritage site where there are some age old temples of great fame. On the way comes Kaxhipattur where from I drive my little Alto.  Alto is a little car by The Maruti Suzuki company.  The little car is good for four and a cramped five in extreme need!  We turned onto the north in the Rajiv Gandhi Salai which is also called the OMR.  Roads are called ‘salai’in Tamil.  There are so many salais in Chennai or all over Tamil Nadu.  The initial part of the drive is simply nice as vehicle concentration on the road is less, but slowly increasing as one drives on.

On our trip too, it kept on increasing and was in top from by the one kilometere at the Sipkot turn.  Driving on I came to the Toll plazaa where every body suffer not only the toll money, but also a toll of time.  Vehicles queue up in five lines and some curious guys drive on the extreme left shoulder to come to the front-most point to the entry of the toll check or toll-payment point and push themselves in front of those coming in queue.  This is considered to be an expertise by many especially the taxi drivers and many private bus drivers.    It is good to be tolerant with these guys as they have their own reason to hurry in front of others.

Slowly our turn to pass through the toll channel came near and in a couple of minutes we were out of the Toll Plaza and was slowly rushing past Navallur market to reach our destination.  The drive from Navallur is good through the great Sathyabbama College (By the way, Sathyabhama is St. Mary, Mother Mary of Velamkanni called in Tamil 'Annai Velamkanni'), with a couple of red lights at Kumaran Nagar and Infosys Computer Company turn and reaching the great Shols Red light which takes a good amount of time to cross when the traffic rush is too much.  Once Shols is over (by the Way, Shols is the short form of the great name Sholinganellur) we have two three more red lights to pass before we reach the Kandanchavadi Toll Booth which won't take as much time as the one at Navallur.  Now we have two more big red lights before we take the Adyar right turn.  All through, the road is a great market place on either side.  The Rajiv Gandhi Salai has changed a lot in the last ten, fifteen years due to the computer boom. Once the turn to the Adyar is taken our destination is not far.   We reach our dispensary where we were heading without much problem after covering one and a half hours.!