The unbridled thoughts. 'Palavicharangal'

Most of the unbridled thoughts occur during the morning mass or at the time of the evening prayers. These are the two times when mind becomes peaceful and at rest. Once at peace, the mind enjoys running away to the wild World of thoughts and possibilities.
The fragrance of frankincense sends it off to Yemen whose Capital Sana is said to be immersed in the fragrance! May be true. Whatever, the Altar boy starts reading the Letter of the Apostle. The Mike always is at its lowest this time. If ever it is ok, then the little boy does not keep his face near and makes it difficult to understand. If all these are good, it is my turn to take to my own thoughts of nothing and miss out the whole thing!
The priest pull us back by the heavy voice in which he exhorts the Holy Bible! Then is prayers for mercy and forgiveness which we avidly reply and the forgiveness is given.  Once forgiven, the mind is such a great master it takes on its tour again to the various life events I had come through and also how best I could improve upon it... personal, political, official, village life, city life, old age life...all come to mind... endlessly.
Then the altar boy brings me to rapt attention by jingling his little bell with its sheer sound. The Heart of the mass take place now and all are in deep prayers. We all have needs and wants which we all place in front of Jesus. ..!   

The mass continues with prayers for one and all in the world in which we the repentant sinners come at the last. No harm. It is like a train. W are connected. Once those long prayers are over, the Holy Communion is served for those who have taken confession and prepared for it!
Then comes the last Blessings and the awesome statement thanking God and continuing to state 'I don't know, if I will come or not for another Mass' .

Once that statement is over we come back to the everyday reality. Till now we enjoyed the most peaceful time of our life in every day life! 

A ride on the two wheeler scooter after a long time!

A ride on the two wheeler scooter after a long time!

The ride was to accompany a friend to hospital in Kelambakam.  The village we are in is called Kazhipattur from where it is easy to reach in fifteen minutes by car.  But as my friend thought it wise to ride his scooter I had but no option but to accompany him behind.  I had been riding a scooter a long time but had discontinued to do so minding my age after sixties and the increase in traffic in South Chennai and else where in south of India.  All of a sudden the increase in traffic could have gone to cars and four wheelers, but the of and  on increase in fuel prices keep the young and young at hear to the two wheelers., either scooter or motor cycles of which umpteen number are available in the market.

Always, when a ride on a two wheeler is undertaken the main thought is it is to a near by place.  That is right.  But the places one will pass through in a ride is uninteresting from time to time.  The OMR road which we have to cover, even for a short distance, is not very safe considering the huge vehicles and plethora of four wheelers and the ubiquitous water tankers coupled with huge cement mixers and other kinds of vehicles on the road.  Most of the vehicles, including the transport buses ply at a good speed and one has to be doubly careful in manoeuvring the roads here. We started off from the little housing complex jumping the usual humps and little bye-lane which has its own muddy areas due the people on the side of the road houses, pouring used water on to the road as a matter of custom.  I have seen this in many other places too, where people instead of finding a way of using the used up water in the households throw it on the roads.  By this the road is not only wet but also collet puddles of dirty water in places where the road is broken.

Once on the main OMR we have to take a left and again a U-turn to be on the route to the Chettinadu Hospital complex.  Taking a U-turn on a busy OMR road on the peak hours are a delicate matter for any one but when you are on  two wheeler you are covered only on the head and the rest of the body does not have any defence to any vehicle.  The cars, trucks and mini buses whiz past us when we wait for the U-turn as the vehicles passing on the right side has to subside for us to cross over into that lane.  Once that done, now is the time to be prayerful, as the vehicles behind us have to pass by us, especially cars and others who are all in a great hurry.  My friend being good at the riding, I was comparably safe, but can’t see his rear view mirror and I did not dare to look back for fear of losing balance or making my friend lose his balance.  I delicately hung on to him and kept saying my prayers.  At times he over took one vehicle or two as they were slowing down, and many on our right side over took us and went past.  In a matter of ten-twelve minutes we were at the entry gate of the Chettinadu Hospital Complex where again we have to wait to cross over to our right side to go into the Hospital Compled road.  Here we drive on the left of the road and for any buildings or institutions, have to cross over the opposite side of the road which is used by drivers on the opposite direction.  For this we waited for a time the road became a bit free and did it with our usual elan and went past the gate to the Complex.  By this time, I was getting really scooter born and my fear of the road started lessening.  The Hospital had put up a number of road block boards on the road on the left and right intermittently, so that we had to drive in a zig-zag fashion.  This was new in the Hospital as earlier it was very straight and had no hindrance. 

Once that test was over, we took a left turn and arrived at the parking lot where scooters and two wheelers had a huge parking along with cars.  We parked the Scooter, kept one helmet in the dicky of the scooter and held one in my hand as the scooter can take only one helmet in its dicky at a time.   Since the helmets are made compulsory in Chennai, Tamil Nadu we cannot lose it either.  Chennai Chettinadu Hospital is a great place to be in and we got in and got our required medical help in time for my friend and were back on the Scooter in half an hour. 

We rode back and now I was getting used to the road and was getting off my ride-fear.  I thought, a ride is after all a nice thing.  I remembered my thing of old when I used to drive my Priya scooter o the road of Delhi where the Haryanvi drivers used to be very considerate of the two wheeler road users.  Those were good times, when every driver was generally good to each other with concern for life and limb.   The evening air after the rains passed through the helmet visers with a boo-boo sound and we were fast back to our bye-lane and into our housing complex.  That was an afternoon ride in Chennai on a two wheeler scooter in mid-July!

A local bus ride..!

Walking from the house to the bus stop is a joy. But will take more time.  One has to by pass the wet little by lanes which are slippery in the rain of June.  The side houses on either side of the by lanes are small but beautiful.  But not spacious as all small houses.  Once the main tarred road is sighted the attack of dust clouds raised by the passing trucks and cars will cover the walking folk.   If it is raining, it will be red mud which will be the threat.  This is not for no reason.  We have a pipe line which has been put after cutting out the good road well spread with good black bitumen.  Once the pipe line is put in place no body usually cares to re-do the tarring.  It will take some time to do it with all the procedures and permissions completed.

The bus stop is a small covered and concretised structure with a cement bench. For the elderly it is a solace as one would definitely like to sit away from the traffic moving so fast, rubbing the sides of the road users.  The bus comes in great speed and screeches to a halt to pick me up and the conductor gives his customary "Weisse..." which means 'Right'.  As soon as I put hold on the handle bar of the gate the bus starts to move and by the time I get into a seat the bus has picked up speed.  Now in the seat the sight is really soothing and enjoyable.  Any one travelling in Thrissur know that.  Either side of the road is good houses with greeneries and greeneries all over. 

The road is good at places, bad at places, but all along is narrow.  So the driver has to be good at his art of swinging and swerving, turning and cutting etc.  Out right, he has to use his unofficial air horn to frighten away the small vehicles coming in front of him.  It is not that he has to scare away all, most of them are dead scared and give way as soon as the bus is sighted in the rear view mirror, but there are some who come from outside and some youngsters who are new drivers ..!  They do not know the set up going on and fall prey to the driver's horn.  Once in a while there would be such a vehicle.  The buses are always on their fittest as they have to pull fast to overtake and manovure at small spaces.

All along, a cool breeze passing through make one feel the joy of a bus ride as the poor driver takes away the pain of driving and the riders are left at peace to sight seeing or day dreaming all through.  People get in and get out, both men and women, many a time carrying little children.  The conductor see to it that people get in without any hurt and once settled, approaches and collects his fare.  There are two pieces of beautiful green field roads, one at Kanjany and another at Chettupuzha.  Once the famous Chettupuzha is over the next suburb of Thrissur town city is there called Olari which is adorned by the famous St. Therese church and a famous temple nearby.  Both are great in their own ways and are a joy to see on each trip. First come the church of Little Therese of Lieux and then comes the  temple.  The Chettupuzha has a little river in it which has dwindled with time but was a deep canal earlier in the times past.  Once upon a time there was a serious accident in that river when it was in spate   in the  Onam festival time, in which a number of Onam clelebrants and a good number of the other travellers in the bus had to lose their lives.  It was told that the driver of the bus was a good natured fellow and the owners of the bus specially treated him with a great Onam meal, which is customary.  As ill luck would have it, at that particular time, near the river the bus lost its brake and that was it!  The bus full of passengers plunged into the river in spate and many could not swim into safety.  The one single story apart there never had been any ill incidents or accidents on that road.

After Olari, the traffic will steadily increase and the ride willstill be enjoyable, but a tard slower.  Once can see around the beautiful houses and Government offices of Hospitals around, most of them very old  or be in their own world either listening to music which many of drivers would play in their good music boxes for the benefit of the travellers, but not in all buses.  By now, in my trip, we got a good rain and all had to put down their shutters.  This is most uninteresting time inside the bus.  The passing air will stop and one can't see much to the outside.  At times the customers will lose their designated or intended stops also.  Within this confusion we approached the 'West Fort' which is a bus stop only.  There was a Fort on the West side of the city at one time, but till date I have not seen that Fort. Now have to search for it.  By now the sides of the road is full of all sorts of shops and businesses of the city town of Thrissur and the bus crawls with traffic to approach the famous 'Vadakkumnathan Temple'which is in the centre of the Town Thrissur!  I disembark and my ride is over. 

Starting Trouble on a Humid Morning in Chennai

The starting trouble on a humid morning. 

The mornings are always a time of starting trouble, either it is for men or it is for vehicles.  The old times vehicles had that at a higher rate.  It was an effort to put into life an old car or truck in those days.  Always there were more than one person involved in starting a vehicle then.  The driver always used to have a helper who helped to turn a handle vigorously and turn the fan inside the engine from the front, while the real hero, the driver used to sit in and accelerate until the engine started to catch up and rev on its own.  As soon as the fire starts the handle turner pulled back the handle, swiped the sweat on his brows and took a deep sigh of relief.  Next he put the handle back inside the vehicle and either waited to see the driver revved up for a while to heat the engine and then sat in.  

Now that was about old vehicles.  Old people are almost the same, but generally, do not need any helper!  Getting up is generally without effort as long as one is in village areas where birds wake up almost every body in the morning.  But waking won’t do.  One has to get moving. That is the challenge.  First one says all the prayers one can remember.  Then sit up and get up.  This is to move and see if the morning news paper has arrived!  If it has not come, one an go to bed again.  But as it is the morning paper very rarely make a miss and it is there at the door.  One avidly grabs the paper and open the pages quickly flipping away the first couple of pages of mere trade in the form of full page advertisements.  These days, there are prompting words like “FREE, FREE’,  ONLY FOR TODAY, ONLY FOR THESE ..FEW…DAYS,  YOU SAVE…SO MUCH’ etc., etc.  Once the news comes the big headings with more ink is gone through quickly to see that the world is on its axis properly turning and then slowly one strains ones eyes for the smaller inked stuff !  By the time a cup of tea is made available by who so ever is in the house hold and that triggers the day!

The effect of tea is now a real winner after cigarettes and desi cigarettes called beedis are a strict ‘no, no’ due to their cancer properties well known and advertised these days.  All that is good and fine but the heat of the weather chart make one drowsy in Chennai this time of the year.  A much wanted rain does not come down and the clouds are going hay wire hither and thither to rain or flood in places where it is not expected.  What ever happened to climate, every body wonders! But one has to suffer it.  No one can do anything single handed.  As such has to suffer the vagaries of the extremes.  One hastens to take a morning walk early as before long it is going to be too hot to walk outside.  Even when there is a cloud, still the hot winds from the west make it uninteresting outside in Chennai.  So it is good to be indoors after the morning walk or reaching office if it can be so done.  At least until after some welcome rain which is expected in a week or two.

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My Mother had a Tail...!

                                                   

                                                           My Mother Had a Tail…!

             That is true.  The tail was pure cotton white.  Me and my siblings loved this tail as it was a convenient towel for us to wipe our hands whenever needed.  Most of the mothers in other houses also had tails.   Those were the times of old.  Mothers in old Kerala had different ways of dressing up.  Mothers of different religions dressed up differently.  Among these, we loved our mother’s tails the best for its convenience.     Life was simple and cool without TV, Radio, Inter net, IPod and Lap tops. Most of the transport was by bullock carts.  Faster modes of travels were rarely performed by the local folk.     Fathers were busy finding out the daily bread for their children. Mothers were busy keeping home and preparing food for the children from time to time.

           I was a little boy of six or seven at that time as I recall now.  Houses were small and in the limited number of rooms, the smell of any recipe prepared in the kitchen wafted in quickly.  The most attractive was the smell of pappads being fried in pure coconut oil.  Such a smell pulled us children to the kitchen where mother will be frying them and we conveniently appeared behind, located the vessel in which she was putting the fried pappads, took one and left.  Mother always noticed this and grimaced. At times she said “Ok, ok, you have it, but will get only less than what you take now”.  But she never considered it while serving.  She served us all equally again.  At times she smilingly said while serving: “I really need not serve you again.”  She endeared us all to her by that simple but loving statement.  Such actions repeated at times with curries or other fried items which become irresistible to us children.  At those times, we have to wash our hands and we are in a hurry to rush out to play. That is when ‘The Mom’s tail’ became a convenience.  We wiped our hands on the tail and ran out to play out side. 

             The Christian mothers only had the tails as I noticed.  Till the last ten years or so, I had seen such mothers.  But now the fashion in dressing has caught up and mostly I see mothers have lost their tails and all have shifted to sarees or other forms of dress.  Even some mothers now look like Dads in Men’s kind of ware.  Their children won’t naturally get this convenience.   And some of the mothers are not fully house bound as the mothers of old.  Many new mothers move far and wide and at times are away from their children which creates great love loss to such kids. 

              In our times the mothers were always at home and we could never think of a house without a mom waiting for us with some good food and smiling face when we returned from school, college or office.  They were a contented lot.  Movements far and wide were less.  Families were compact, earned less but lived happily.  It made us urge for more and better facilities and we as children were encouraged to learn with all our might.   The schools by the Christian sisters and monasteries all over Kerala really helped us upwards with the free education for which those Catholic Sisters, Brothers and Fathers dedicated themselves.  Then there was the dedicated teachers mostly and many of them considered any child in the class as their own children.   Such situation is fast changing and education is slowly becoming a less dedicated area and profession.

            We came running home from schools and as soon as we enter the command generally is “first go and wash your hands and feet! That included the face also.  We did it quickly and came running in to Mom for any kind of food available at home.  That is when we wiped our hands and face on her tail.  She never prohibited us from doing so which endeared us to her.  These things could happen in only lower middle or poor families.  In richer families also our friends had better looking mothers in same sort of dress very white and clean.  And generally unsoiled.  But their children (who are our friends) were not allowed to wipe on their tails, lest their cloth tails are soiled.  We had no such bar.  Mom had her own way of duping us.  She told us from time to time “Don’t do it, that is the only ‘mundu’ .  Don’t soil my cloth by all of your wiping and sweeping(the long white cloth used by Christian mothers of Kerala along with a white top called ‘kuppaayam’and another over cover cloth called ‘neriyathu’ which is a very nice light white cloth), that is my only Cloth which I have for Sunday Church.  But we always knew, that she had a fresh set of cloth in her mother’s cloth box (‘mundum petti’) a special box of the mothers which were kept in most simple Christian households).  

Those were the times in which we enjoyed life a lot and were much more happy with far less amenities.  Now, that happiness is gone along with those lovely parents. Now most of the families are trying to rediscover that happiness again through other endearing methods!

A flat tyre at Thrissur...!

       Thrissur is home place.  So no doubt about where I am going.  This yesterday I was heading to the Railway Station to put my dear ones in the train to Chennai.  So I was relaxed and at the entrance of the Station had a hunch to have a cup of tea with all.  The place and time was perfect.  It was evening before dark. Had thirty five minutes for the train.  So I took a U-turn on the road and in the turn entered a shop mall courtyard to complete the turn.   There was a shining object at the edge and that was under my front right tyre which was uneventful...!  Or was it.?  Whatever!  We brought the car to the near by way side motor cycle repair shop to park it there.  On request the shop owner kindly agreed to allow my car to be parked there! That was really kind of him.  Relieved we moved to the tea shop for a fantastic cup of tea and an urad vada., which too was delicious.

     With a relaxed gait we walked back to the car to see my front right down and the tyre was dead under the wheel. My heart sank.!  Now I cannot take it to the Railway Station parking. Instead have to change the tyre or get somebody to do it.   There was no time to go for calling somebody now.  The best option was to change it myself how so ever difficult it was.  I had practised the change a couple of times earlier in difficult conditions with the limited resources of the changing levers the company had provided while buying the car along with the little car jack.  I had also noticed the correct position for placing the jack.

    I instructed my dear ones of the option available all of them cooperated. The back dicky was opened and I took out the levers and pins to open up the flat tyre.  The motor cycle shop owner seeing the whole thing came out to help open up the nuts.  He did two and I did two. Then was lifting the tyre on the jack.  A young gentleman came out of the nearby hotel to help out on turning the lever to lift the jack.  That was angelic of him to have done that.  He took leave once the jack was up and the tyre was loosened.

    There after I took out the steppny tyre and inter-changed them.  As I loosened the jack to bring down the car on the wheel the new changed tyre was seen lacking in air as it had not been filled for quite some time as it was cumbersome to filling it in usual fillings.  Now, it was pay up.  But a quick idea flashed in my mind.  I can drop my people to the Station near by. To that extend the tyre will hold.  My motor cycle repair shop owner told me that in the opposite directions close by there is a tyre repair shop who have air too.  However, I took, the first route to put the people into the Railway Station. We had ten minutes in hand.  Straight away I drove into the station with the luggage of my family and they followed on foot, lest the changed tyre gave in!   And the station was near by.  Once they walked up I removed their luggage and left them to embark the train and left for the tyre shop.

    The shop was farther than I thought.  The guide had told me the shop was near ...by the car..standards!  Never mind!  The repair wala quickly brought out his air hose and was trying to fill.  But in the hurry, I had put the plastic plate in the wrong way covering the air valve tube.  The repair man was unfazed! He just pulled out the plastic cover at the side of the valve and I held it pulled for him, so that he could fill it.  He did a good job by filling all the four tyres!  I was humbled their quick help and understanding. The shop owner also checked my punched tyre.  It had a good punch whole to which something has gone in but no nail or anything was found.  The air was seen freely going.  The shop owner said it can't be repaired with his normal rubber pieces as that may not hold. He said it would be a good idea if the valve is pulled out and the tubeless tyre is used as a normal tyre putting a tube inside.  On considering the fact my tyre itself is near a change for new ones I declined and decided to run without it for the time being.

    Then came the call from my family saying the train is twenty four minutes late.  That was the exact time I needed for all these works.  I drove into the Station.  Went in and helped them to board the train.  The drive back was uneventful.  That was a good rejuvenating experience.  But a little tiring, indeed!

Mothers are angels on earth!

Waiting by the calendar - A mother's wait..!

Mother's are angels on the earth. I had one. She always asked "Do you want some tea water?" . Black tea was called tea water. She always brought it for me when I was young. When I was studying. When I was sick. When I was happy! When I was in a hurry! When I was at ease and relaxing. That was an all time elixir.

It actually was not the tea, it was that endearment which got me.  Now, I am grown up and up.  And she is gone. At School, at college, when I didn't have any means, that is when she got me the black tea all the time.

As a mother she would have  treasured
the experience. When I came on leave she was still having the black tea. I had stopped taking black tea except at times occasionally.  But whenever I was at home she came with her endearing cup of black tea and asked: "You used to like black tea. Do you want some now?" .I always said "Yes, yes. You are bringing black tea, please give it to me. Hadn't had it for long" I will take a sip and say "How rejuvenating!" Her face will be lit up. It was the old time memories which actually rejuvenated me. She will leave saying "I have work to do. I am making a special dish for you" She won't be long. She will return with some recipe or the other which I had a liking.
"When you are gone after your leave, I count the days on the calendar to wait for your next leave" which brought tears in my eyes.
Now, she is gone. No body remembers any special preference of any one else. That is the prerogative of mothers to their children. How they react make them happy or sad.

When mothers are gone all those experiences become memories and nostalgia. These days when ever I took a cup of black tea or lemon tea her memories and endearments came gushing in.

Mothers are really angels on earth!