Mirror, Mirror, on the wall

It is time for guest blogs and I was elated when Cyber Nag asked me do a guest post for her.Being a hard core fan of her I was too happy to put in words my emotions.So here is the post I wrote for her.

Mirror, Mirror, on the wall

Thank you Cyber Nag.

To My Twin Cousin

Finally, I wrote a blog for my twin cousin.

Twin Cousin? Sounds weird right? Oh Well, we are like twins.

His Dad and my Dad are twin brothers. We were born around same time.We grew up together, made same crappy mistakes and even fell in love around same time and got married around the same time.

Here is the post:

To My Twin Cousin

Bro, This one is for you. Love L

God!Is that you?

Amma tells me it is hot in Kochi. She adds with an acerbic tone reserved only for her beloved daughter,” I wonder how ‘the NRI’ is going to survive here even for a weekend.”

(Yeah.You heard it too; there was an unnecessary stress on NRI)

I don’t think twice before back lashing,”Ohhhhh yes. Just cannot handle the heat you know.”

Both of us know wherever I go, I will remain forever the “kochikari” with a penchant for convent junction, Shenoy’s theatre , Vrichika utsavam at  Poornathrayesa temple and Amma ’s Sāmbhar

(Definitely in the reverse order if Amma is reading this).

Even before I could read (or for that matter talk properly), I knew about “poornatheecha” of Poornathrayesa temple. The main deity is Vishnu in the form of Santhanagopala moorthy. I have a love-hate relation with him. I talk to him as a friend and as a foe for not taking my side on critical affairs of my life. It is cranky, but then that is the way we are [Me and Him, off course].

Life for natives of tripunithura, revolve around the temple. Irrespective of religion, all the people attend the temple festival, the melam and kacheris. Hence, before I do everything I take a counsel from Him. It so happened on the day before I was to join my college, along with my Ammoomma* I went to the temple to say my farewell. After all, I have been coming often and He should not wonder where I went off without telling Him. I was not at ease about going away from home or as I called, venturing into unknown wild territories of education. In one sentence, I was scared. Period.What if people ragged me? What if I couldn’t study well? What if I flunked? What if I did not have good friends? If there are more than two “what ifs” about a situation, I take a bath and run to the temple for clarity of thoughts. [Okei.I try to talk Him into solving my problem for me. Since it does not happen, I come back even more confused but a lot less scared]

After I finished my hymns, ballads and warnings, I stopped for a moment and like a devotee said,”God, I am leaving this place and going away tomorrow. I know not what life holds for me out there in college. I have no friends there as of now. I pray to you for good friends and good life. I pray that you cast a watchful eye on me (Ever in search for pits of trouble.)” After a full minute of silence, I added,” Bye. See you soon. Do take care of me”

I walked out of the temple to see my Ammoomma chatting with one of her friends (another granny).The topic was random; a randomizer would have been put to shame. It is like the tags on a blog post. Kids, legs, pain, temple, trips, outings, food, medicine, doctor, relatives, cousin’ s daughter’s mother in laws sister’s neighbors marriage (Puff Puff, water please).I like it when Ammoomma meets her friends, she beams from all the information transfer (news gained and news relayed).

As I joined them, her friend looks at me smiles,” Cannot believe children grow up so fast. It feels like yesterday when I had come to see her at the hospital when she was born.” There is an element happiness and pride in her voice of having known my life for so long.
“Heard you are going away for engineering.Good.Good.God bless you. Here take this prasadam.” She pushed a small packet wrapped in newspaper and hurried away. I opened the packet and I was awed for the little packet contained avil **, the favorite snack of Krishna according to Hindu mythology. I was stunned. I had never received any avil from the temple from when I could remember.Today, when I was there asking for His blessing on my new journey, I get this as prasadam.Was this some kind of a premonition that He was going to look after me?

I call it the touch of God or a streak of divine intervention in the otherwise run-of-the-mill life of this mortal. I have not had many interventions, any more. I cleared my papers. No back papers in any semester. No flying colors just normal mundane shade of black and blue. [With the kind of effort I was putting in, it was a miracle]

There will be days when I will beg to God and there will be days when I will scream at the heavens, fist curled,” why me?” and for the screaming quarreling days I keep this memory aside. To remind me of the peak view He gave me of his constant “monitoring” of my life.

P: S: I know it sounds blasphemous to some. I prefer looking at God as a supreme power who is a friend not a armed police man ready to admonish you for every mistake. I’m not superstitious but sometimes things happen which you cannot push away as coincidences. Well, people in medical profession agree,”There are things beyond our comprehension.”

*Ammoomma : Mother's mother.

** Avil : Beaten rice [The same fella of Krishna-Suddama tale]

Restroom Ramblings..

This is another it-happened-to-me post.So the emotions are strictly personal.

The Story:
Last Friday I was supposed to submit by CV to be reviewed for a business school admission.So after I mailed the resume I made a phone call to the school to check on couple of information points I needed.Not wanting to talk about it from my seat,I made the call from the rest room.The entire conversation lasted for less than three minutes,including the "hello is this so-n-so,I am so-n-so"  and "thanks a lot for the support".I was not alone in the restroom,there was another lady.
In the evening at a meeting with CEO,the entire office was talking about my business school admission.I wasn't sure about the discussion as it was in a language I couldn't make head or tail of.Later one of my male colleagues comes an tells me,"You should be careful,when you make phone calls in restrooms."
I was dumbfounded.The lady had talked.She holds a senior position in the organization.What did she gain?
We have never interacted on any levels for her to go talk about me.I'm not even sure whether she knows my name as well.I don't know hers.And from Friday I couldn't care less.

So the important question is where do we draw the line?I have a policy of non interference.As long as I don't dig into your life,stay away from mine.Should we actually tell the entire office what we "overheard"?Isn't there some etiquette about overheard conversations?

I was thoroughly annoyed the entire evening.Now I understand about not mixing personal and professional life.Kind of ruined my Friday evening.Sigh.

The Demand

“I will talk to him today.” The wife decided with no more conviction than yesterday. There was no way he would understand what she wants and for once do it without a request from her. After all this has been going on for the last three weeks.

Life was generally dull for her. Work was hectic and to it the added responsibility of house keeping.” Am I not entitled to ask for it?” She deliberated, stirring the onions in the wok with a skill that comes only with practice.

The issue was minor yet of profound importance in the marital life of a working couple. Wife was in a dilemma.” I’m sure he’ll find some excuses.” Her other wise balanced home environment was reeking with unpleasantness.“If we are talking about time, even I don’t have the luxury of it.” She sharpens yet another arrow in her arsenal.

Even yesterday, she had thought of putting it up. Then, no, she decided, no arguments today. She had sat silently, dicing the carrots, watching him glued to the TV.” Like the sanity of the whole world depends solely on his not batting his eyelids.” she had swallowed the nasty remark with great difficulty.

Today she will have to swallow her pride as well. She had to ask him to the dump the packets of garbage of the past three days. She could do it, like she had done for the last three weeks, but then once a division of labor is done both the concerned partied should abide by the rules.

P:S:On Second thoughts: All characters appearing in this work might be fictitious. Any resemblance to real persons, living or dead, might be purely intentional.