After-School Confusion

Image Source: Vlado / FreeDigitalPhotos.net

It was 4:05 pm.


The school premises that depicted a sacred silence some time back were suddenly abuzz with a clamour of excited voices as children rushed out to head back home.

The little girl was standing near the gate, her hand on the straps of her schoolbag. After a long day, her hair was slightly disheveled and the black ribbons that had now become loose, clung to her two plaits for life.

"Driver anna(brother) forgot to pick me up in the morning and it had gotten so late. If not for that note Amma had sent , that silly teacher would have made me stand out of the class!" she thought.

"Hey !" she heard her classmate Maya’s voice. Maya also happened to be her next-door neighbor.

"My mom asked me to pick you up in our cycle-rickshaw" she said.

"Your mom?" the little girl responded in a perplexed tone.

"Yeah, she asked us to bring you along on our way home"

"B…But my mom did not say anything to me"

"Hey, Your mother was the one who told my mother to fetch you as well"

"Mother Promise?"

"Yes! Mother promise" and Maya placed her hand on her head to swear in the name of her mother.

That was the most supreme of the oaths in their class, Father Promise and God Promise following closely behind.

"Okay" the little girl  replied and climbed on to the rickshaw with some hesitation. She kept looking around to reassure herself that driver anna had not come.

As the rickshaw moved along, she started enjoying the ride. She had never been in one before and travelling like that through the town was so exciting.

The children soon broke into a medley of childish music. Ba Ba Black Sheep transitioned into Bollywood music in a few minutes. The driver slowly pedaled along, amused by the cacophony of their voices.

********************************************************************
Devi was reading the latest edition of Mangai.(a Tamil magazine). She glanced at the clock. It was 4:30.

" Hope that driver went to pick her up on time! " she mused. Her husband was out of station. As always he had arranged for his driver to drop their daughter in school, in the morning and to fetch her back. The driver in question had totally forgotten in the morning and it had been a real hassle getting her daughter to school on time.

Then the telephone rang, its tone piercing the tranquillity of the evening.

" Hello, this is the principal of St Joseph’s convent. I have your driver here with me. He has come to pick your daughter up. Apparently he could not find her anywhere and so he went to the class teacher who in turn came to me. We have looked for her in the playground as well as the usual places where the children wait. My staff are still looking for her here. Please don’t panic. I am sure she is fine. I just wanted to check with you if you have made any other arrangements for her"

"No ma’m, she was supposed to come back with the driver"

"Oh, ok. She should be around here somewhere. You know these kids. I will call you back in some time once we figure out where she is. Please don’t worry"

And they hung up.

"Don’t worry? How can I not worry?"  Devi thought.

A million thoughts flooded her mind. "She normally does not go anywhere and always waits at the usual place"

She went and stood outside looking anxiously at the road that stretched in front of her, chanting all the slokas(hymns/divine chants) she could remember in her mind.

She thought of trying to reach her husband but decided to wait for a while rather than plunging him into panic as well.
************************************************************************

The rickshaw dropped Vineetha first.

As they pedaled away, the little girl said “Her mummy is so pretty”

“My mom says its all make-up” said Kavya.

“Really? Its not nice to put make up !. My mom says its not good for our skin”

Soon, they came to Kavya’s house.

Now it was just her, Maya and Maya’s little sister.

“Kavya’s house is so big”

“Yes and she has three dogs, two white and one black. The white ones are po..po”

"Pomeranian?"

"Yeah Right!They look so cute"

“Thats so cool. I like cats better. My mom can look at new born kittens and say if it’s a boy-kitten or a girl-kitten you know?”

Lost in the stories, about their little world, the friends moved towards home.

As they neared the house, the little girl decided that she would scream “Mummy!”

When she did scream Mummy, she saw mummy’s face full of worry, anxiety and tension almost in tears.

Devi heaved a huge sigh of relief on seeing her daughter’s face. She quickly called up the principal to inform her of her daughter’s safe return.

*********************************************************

This happened more than two decades ago and I was the little girl , that time around six years of age.

My friend’s mother had observed that our driver had forgotten to pick me up in the morning.

A good-natured soul that she was, she had told her daughter “Maya, You bring Jayashree along with you in the cycle-rickshaw, if her driver does not come in the evening".

My darling friend was also just six, so the second part of the sentence i.e. the if clause did not get registered in her mind. Her mission for the day given by mommy was to bring Jayashree along in the evening which she did promptly, just adding the extra part that the request came from my mother.

Then I could not understand why my mother was so anxious and worried. Now being a mother myself, I am able to clearly picture the turmoil my mother would have been in for that half an hour when I was so-called missing.

Every parent undergoes a lot of hardships and challenges in raising his/her kids.

My parents channeled all their effort and energy to give me and my younger brother, a happy life and to realize our small wishes as well as our big ambitions.

My mother has been a great friend and a wonderful guide in my life. She can read me like a book and a few words from her will usually take my confidence level to great heights. She has had her share of ups and downs in life and I admire her and look up to her for many a thing.

I dedicate this post to my lovely amma and I salute all the wonderful women out there beautifully essaying their role as mothers. Not just us the human mothers...the entire motherhood in nature - the cats holding its kittens by its neck, the deer helping its fawn on its feet, the hens giving warmth to its chicks, the linoess teaching its cub to hunt and the list goes on....

‘Happy Mother’s Day’

Image: Nutdanai Apikhomboonwaroot / FreeDigitalPhotos.net

The Attack

Applause and cheers filled the room as the birthday candles were blown out. The digital camera cast its lighting flashes on all the assembled faces - All displaying mirth- All except one.

No one noticed Shilpa slipping away into a bench in the corner of the room. With her eyes staring away into oblivion beyond the walls, she tightly gripped the teak handle, her knuckles white. She was sweating profusely and taking rapid breaths, almost panting. The clenched teeth and a face that had gone extremely pale by now made her expression ghastly; she held her clasped fists between her legs and started counting inaudibly.

Regaining some composure, she rushed inside the rest room and began splashing cold water on her face as mother had always advised.Her nerves soothened a little. She wiped her face with a tissue, added a touch of make up and came out to join her friends.

It was 9 when she reached home. Chitra was watching the evening news , a glass of buttermilk in her hands.

"Hey baby, you are back! I was just about to call you" she called out looking at Shilpa through her reading glasses almost ready to fall off from the tip of her nose.

Shilpa threw her bag on the coffeetable and slumped on the couch next to her mother.

"How was the party? Had fun? Well, Ritu is the richest girl in your college! It should have been mind-blowing"

'Oh ma!' Shilpa gave out a desperate cry and hugged her tight.

Pulling her back to face her, she asked 'What...What happened?' . The look in Shilpa's eyes explained it all and Chitra's expression slowly transformed from one of concern to one of understanding.

"You had an attack again."

Shilpa nodded sadly. "I think it was the candle mom. I had so gotten over all of that, Its been almost 5-6 months now since the last one.Now again!"

"Its okay sweetheart. Everything takes time. Remember what the doctor said. Not to expect it to vanish just like that? " and she gently patted her daughter's cheeks.

"Hmm. I guess so. It was not that bad this time. I became normal pretty quickly"

"Thats great, isn't it? Go have a bath and come. Lets see if we can catch any good movie on TV today"

An hour later, Rani Mukerjee, SRK and Kajol started singing Koi Mil Gaya on the TV screen.
Shilpa was reclined on the couch, her head resting on her mother's lap. It was her all time favorite movie and she slowly got immersed in it, forgetting everything else.

Chitra gently ran her fingers through her daughter's hair. "She has got her father's face but her mother's hair !"she thought - "Radhika's hair!"

Like  a million times before, she travelled back in time into the memories that would haunt her for life.

Radhika's last telephone call still echoed with perfect clarity in her ears. In between muffled sobs she had said "Atleast earlier he used to promise every now and then, to give up this wretched habit. These days he does not even seem to bother.Its almost like he is not there in my life. He is lost with his bottles. My screams and quarrels are falling on deaf ears. He does not talk to me at all and the silence is all the more irritating. Life is miserable!"

The next evening Chitra decided to stop by at Radhika's house on her way back from the NGO office. She opened the gates and found the husband lying sprawled across the doorstep . Radhika's voice vibrating with fury and emotion could be heard from inside, the child's cries faintly bordering it.

"Why did you marry me? And why father this child? To show us such days?You wont listen to me, no matter what? What will make you stop? WHAT?

Enough Now! We will go..WE WILL GO....Not from this house but from this world..Then may be you will mend your ways..."

Chitra rushed inside and the entire scene unfolded within seconds. A strong smell of kerosene struck  her like a bolt . Two year old Shilpa was sitting on the floor and trying to stand up. She appeared wet and  was howling, stretching her arms out.

A few metres away, Radhika stood still like a statue, staring at her husband, kerosene dripping from her eyelids and hair, a hypnotized look in her eyes and was laughing hysterically.

Seeing the lighter in her hands, Chitra screamed"Radhika, What ...What are you doi!" . Before she completed her words and took the next step, a blast of fire blinded her for a second.

The flames engulfed Radhika; She let out a bloodcurdling cry and started rushing towards her daughter.

In a swift, Chitra scooped up the child and rushed outside hiding her face in her chest.

Hours later, as she stood at the hospital looking at Radhika's blackened and charred face a thousand questions ran in her mind. "How could you Radhika, how could you? Taking your own life is cowardice.Who gave you the  right to take a child's life even if its your own?" She was not heartless to ask these to a dying woman.

Hearing a loud thud Chitra sprang back to the present. The remote had slipped and fallen on the floor from Shilpa, now fast asleep.

Fire triggered panic attacks in Shilpa. The memory had faded, but her subconcious mind refused to let go of the horror.

'Did I act right that day,Shilpa ?Did I? Was there any chance for me to have saved your mother as well?' Chitra wondered again.

********************************************************************************

I read recently in the news that a lady had set herself and also her baby on fire after a quarrel with her drunken husband and both had succumbed to the injuries. This inspired me to write this story

The Versatile Blogger Award - Hip Hip Hurrah!

Day before yesterday, as I sat reading and promoting blogs on Indiblogger I wondered how nice it would be if someone would give me something like the Versatile Blogger award and Lo!
Nagini of http://ahomemakersutopia.blogspot.in passed it on to me.

 

 

Her posts are very unique and interesting and she truly deserves it.

 

I am honored and thank her with all my heart.

 

I love putting my thoughts, views, imagination to words and blogging has been a great medium. I would like to express my gratitude to every one of you who stopped by to take a peek. I get absolutely thrilled every time there is a comment in my blog or a vote for my post.

 

Now few things to be done!

 

1) Create a new post

2) Thank the lovely person who nominated you for the award

3) Pass it on to your fellow bloggers

4) State 7 random facts about you

5) Claim and post the award pic

 

Now that the first two are done,

 

I am really breaking my head about whom to mention here...

 

Amit Agarwal ,  Rajagopalan Ratnaraj and D Nambiar first came to my mind but they are there on Nagini's list as well. Also C.Suresh seems to have been nominated just yesterday or so.

 

So here goes my list

 

1. Debajyoti Ghosh
2. Anupam Patra
3. LeoPaw
4. Nanbanita Dhar
5. Ranjith
6. Bhavana
7. Sangeetha Reghu Nair
8. Ravi Akula
9. Sujatha Sathya
10. Akshay Kumar

 7 Random Facts About me:

 

Now thats not tough...er...or is it?...May be...Well,

•  Tamil is my mother tongue but I can read, write and speak Malayalam and Hindi.

• Cooking is one of my favorite activities and I am a foodie too- A vegetarian but I love trying out different types of food - As my father said I get fascinated by names and that sometimes has really disastrous consequences ;)

• Atleast in looks I was intelligent before i.e. I used to wear spectacles as the moon always seemed full to me when I looked up...Courtesy: Short Sight or Myopia....And along with other experiments on my self I decided to undergo Lasik surgery and now I dont wear glasses anymore

• I try walking whenever possible and I enjoy long walks. I have learnt some basic Yoga and I do not practise regularly but am trying to.

• I love to read mystery and suspense novels - One of the stupid few who can stay up all night on the eve of the Engineering Graphics Practical Exam unable to put down Sydney Sheldon's Rage Of Angels!

• My zodiac sign is Cancer and I seem to possess all of the so-called Cancerian traits. An astrologer once told me that I would not leave the country till I was 40 or so...But I have been staying outside the country for quite some time now in 3 countries US,Malaysia and now Singapore and there is a long way to go for 40. Bad Bad Astrologer!

• I wear salwars, jeans etc as per my mood and the occasion but I love wearing sarees and I love wearing nine-yard sarees during the functions at home though I am yet to figure out how to tie the nine-yard one correctly!!

 

And now for the 'Claim and post the award pic' part - Here I go!

 

 

 

 

 

In Memory of my Appa....

I lost my father one year ago on 27th Apr 2011. Cliched but true, time flies.

I remember the day when he was in the ICU of Appollo hospitals after having suffered two heart attacks. He had ventilators and other tubes running through his mouth and nose due to which he could not talk. The rest of the family was allowed half an hour's visit during which he communicated to us writing on a piece of paper. He wrote 'My daughter is my life and soul'. That was in 2009.After a by-pass surgery he was with us for a year and a half.

Today as I write this I keep getting reminded of that day. In memory of my Appa, I dont know whether to call it poetry or prose - I just wrote what I felt like

 The hands that held me
The day I first cried
Are gone !
The eyes that cautiously monitored
My steps tiny and big
And always welled up, manliness aside
Every time I had to depart
Are gone !
Advice ,Comfort ,Wishes, Blessings
The voice that gave it all
Is gone !
I lean back and I fall
As my pillar of strength
Is gone !
My Inspiration,
My Role Model,
My Friend, Philosopher, Guide
All Gone!
I miss you pa,
I miss you terribly;
There's nothing I can do.
I am helpless,sad,frustrated;
There is a void inside,
Very deep!
Its very painful;
Nothing can seem to fill it.
Every man loves his daughter-
But no man can shower
Any more love than what you did.
I look back and I see
An epitome
Of selflessness and unconditional affection

It hurts that you are no more around
To talk, to laugh, to joke, to hug!
It hurts that you are no more around
To watch my child laugh and play!
It hurts that you are no more around
To beam in pride at the tiniest of my achievements!
It hurts that you are no more around
And I dont need a reason. It just hurts!


What do I do pa?
I scream, I cry!

'Jai, Kutti' I hear an imperceptible voice
Its inside of me, its my dad - To me;

'I am still there

I am in
Every cloud that adorns the sky;
Every butterfly that flutters by;
Every gentle breeze brushing your face;
Every ray of sunshine enclosing you in warmth
Every dew drop that kisses you;
Every breath you inhale;
Every flower that smiles at you;
Every fragrance that wafts in the air;

I am there!
Always around -
Caring , Loving , Protecting'.

Wishing my Appa peace and bliss wherever he is, in whatever form!!!

I love you appa!

Crazy about (m)i-phone

Mr. Steve Jobs is posthumously causing a major impact in my life.Not directly, but through one of those rectangular things he gave to the world called I-phones.
It's not just me obviously- the entire planet has been infected with the smart phone addiction . I look ahead in the train and lo- eight out of ten people in front are glued to their phones - Facebook, games , mails, browsing and God knows what else. Well yes ,even I, am typing this post using one! At office team lunches, meant to bind the team together people seem to be talking more to their phones than to each other . Even if they do manage to talk it's usually about some app that caught their fancy!
I did not start with this post to discuss the global impacts of smart phones. So coming back to my case- My 3 year old seems to have developed an obsession for this possession of mine . No habits of kids come out of nowhere. It all has a source and usually it's the mommy or the daddy. This one's no exception !
Well it all started when my son got a sudden interest in circus acts and started jumping from a moving stroller . ( I can almost hear the 'what's the big deal ! It's only a stroller not a train') . Well you will know it when you have to face it . To make him remain seated I resorted to You-tube on my phone and played some of the so-called-oh-cho-chweet videos like Lion King . It worked!
Then when we went to India I strategically loaded some of his favorite videos on my phone. Y? Flashing back to my last trip -
The air hostess completed the umpteenth demo of flight safety guidelines and made sure that all seats were upright. The pilot made an announcement requesting them to assume their takeoff positions. As the wheels began to spin at jet speed V released himself from the belt,stood up on the seat with his arms spread wide like a politician in an election rally and started singing Mgr's 'ore vaanile ore Mannile ore geetham urimai geetham paduvom' .(translates to we shall sing songs of rights in the sky and earth that are one) - waving his hands like a conductor of an orchestra !

Now you know why I needed a strategy.

V used to love the Talking Tom app . Every time that cat talked back he used to erupt with squeals of laughter.

Who does not like seeing a child laugh ? This resulted in the download of various apps that entertained him .

Earlier my husband or I were showing these to him and he would run to us, phone in his hand, with a big grin showing his tiny teeth and saying 'Animals parkkalaama' (shall we see animals) in his baby voice !

Later one day I found my little brat opening the ipod app on his own and deftly moving from one video to another . Boy!wasn't I proud ? And typical dialogues ran in the family 'Kids these days! Born with iPhones and iPad's ' .
Now my kiddo's familiarity with my phone has grown by leaps and bounds. He skillfully moves his tiny fingers like an artist at work and navigates with ease from one app to another - video to game, game to song , song to iPad ! And his favorite of late is You Tube.

In the course of learning he keeps rearranging or sometimes deleting my apps.

One day I got back home after work and was thrilled to see little one come running towards me.'O Darling! U missed me so much!' I exclaimed and stretched my hands out expecting him to run into my arms - he took the phone from it and went and sat on the sofa! Well darling missed my phone so much !

These days, his first words in the morning are 'where is amma's blue phone' 
He has also started expecting everything to be touch-screen. I was browsing the net one evening on my laptop; he came, sat on my lap and tried moving my desktop icons with a swish of his hand! 'To him this is outdated technology' my husband exclaimed.

The best was yesterday . I had hidden the phone from him and had placed it high up on the cupboard.A friend called. As I was speaking he kept following me like a puppy and repeating 'ok bye! Ok bye!' with a cute tilt of his head - translating to 'mama, say ok bye and hang up' . With all the innocence on earth i thought that my son was craving for motherly attention and did not want me to be wasting my time chatting on the phone! The moment I had hung up, like a lightning flash he grabbed the phone from me and quickly ran off to what for him was a safe corner where mummy won't pester him !
I am sure he will lose interest in course of time but for now he is crazy about m(I) phone!

The Role Model

Mohan walked out through the huge iron gates, hands in his jeans pockets. His gaze was directed at the ground, his look forlorn and his stride slow. This had been his thirty-fifth audition; A failure like its thirty four predecessors.He stayed in a rental room on the terrace of a house in Chennai’s Kodambakkam area. Unaware of the bus he boarded, and which way he walked he managed to reach home totally lost in his thoughts.
He climbed what was now left of the steps leading to his room and knocked on the door.“Hey! What happened?” Saravanan who opened the door asked as he entered.
The recognition of a known face and voice plummeted him to the present .
“Wh…What??”“What happened?”
Mohan let out a huge sigh and said “They want a macho muscular man, not me!Its Six Packs era now!”
“But director Kalaimaran makes realistic movies with good actors.”
“Used To. Now he is working for a producer who wants to make an all-in-all commercial movie. His own son is the hero. The audition was for the villain part. They want a new face.”
“Oh!! I heard that producer Devendran of Delta Movies is launching his son. It could be this one. He had produced two of Kalaimaran’s earlier films. Hmm!!”
Mohan slumped into a plastic chair at the corner, the only piece of furniture in the room.
“Don’t get too upset da. You know its not easy to get a chance in this industry. If they did not take you its their loss. Something better is on its way. Let me make some tea.” said Saravanan and proceeded to boil some water on their kerosene stove.
Mohan reminisced through the earlier events of the day. The director had not even thrown a glance in his direction.
The assistant directors who were doing the first level filtering had sent him away with a ‘Better Luck Next Time’. He loathed those words now.

Mohan belonged to a dynasty of zamindars - heir to the family that owned half of the lands in his village. He had a deep-rooted passion for acting from a very young age. His favorite game as a child was enacting snippets from the various mythological stories his grandmother narrated. He missed no opportunity in school to participate in skits and was an active member of the drama club at the local college where he had graduated in arts. He spent hours reading books on cinema and the various nuances of acting.
His father was of the assumption that Mohan would join him in managing the family lands and businesses as soon as he finished his studies. When he came to know of his son's desire to act in movies he was outraged. He belonged to the group of individuals for whom cinema had only one synonym. Vice.
“Its your age!! You believe in fantasies and waste your lives. You have been brought up with luxuries around you. That’s why you are not serious about money matters. You can do as you please. One day you’ll realize that you were wrong and would give up all these stupid dreams that you have built up. That day you can come back and our riches would still wait for you. Till then don’t expect a single penny from my end for these weird ideas of yours. ”
With these words from his father reverberating in his head, Mohan set off from his village with a hundred rupee note in his pocket and his heart heavy with hopes of becoming an actor one day. Saravanan was his best friend from college and was only too happy to share his room with him.Odd part time jobs provided some money to feed himself and to share other expenses with Saravanan who was already struggling to make ends meet with his job at a local magazine office. The rest of the time he went about attending auditions, trying to meet directors and producers to find himself a chance. He was not interested in commercial cinema. He did not want to become a star. He wanted characters that would unleash his acting potential to the fullest extent. The farthest he had gotten so far was playing the role of a guest at a marriage in a movie. He was one among three hundred and that was what he was paid as well. It had been five years now since he set off from his village. Only his mother would talk to him whenever he called up home.
Saravanan handed him a couple of Marie biscuits and tea in a glass tumbler. They stood on the terrace watching the scarce Saturday evening traffic on the road.
“I think my father was right.” Mohan said as he slowly sipped his tea.
“About what?” asked his room-mate.
“This whole acting dream of mine. It’s all non-sense. Maybe I just don’t have the talent and it’s just a stupid desire that I have”
“Come on!!! Don’t get so frustrated. I have seen you perform . You are one hell of an actor. Don’t ever doubt that. It’s just that luck has not favored you yet.”
“Then, may be it will never favor me. Look at me!! It’s been five years now and I am still where I started. I think I am not destined to do this. ”
“You should make your own destiny my friend.”
“This sounds good in books and movies. Reality is far from that. I think I’ll go back Saravanan”
“You mean…to your village??”
“Yes!!! At least my father will be happy. It’s been failure and failure and failure. If I go back I’ll spend my energy on something useful. ”
“Think well with a calm mind before making any decision. Don’t let your haste and frustration take control”
“No!! This has been in my mind for quite some time. I have made up my mind.”
“But this is what you have always wanted to do”
“And that’s why I never tried anything else in life”
“Bb..But”
“You need to be practical at times I guess. I have decided.I need to book tickets for tomorrow’s evening mail. Shall we go to the reservation counter in Mambalam station?”
As they stepped out of the reservation center Saravanan’s cell phone rang.“Hello……Sir.....Yes sir….Oh!!!..... Okay sir.”He disconnected the call and turned to Mohan.“It was Mr.Kesavan, one of our columnists. He is not well and wants to submit an article for this week’s edition to our chief editor. He asked me if I could collect it from him. Shall we drop in for a second and then go for dinner?”Mohan nodded.
The editor Kesavan was in his early forties and was a very pleasing person. He welcomed them both and spoke very amicably. As they sat on the couch discussing general current affairs Mohan noticed the paintings that adorned the walls. He had never seen them before and they were all masterpieces.
“These paintings are very beautiful, sir” he quipped.Kesavan gazed at the walls and replied
“They have all been done by my niece. She has great talent and greater grit and determination.”
“They are all amazing.”
“You would be more amazed when you see her. She is actually staying here with us. Let me introduce her to you. Please come”.He led them upstairs.
There was a white door in one corner, 'Divya's Studio' written on it in a beautiful font. Kesavan knocked and called out "Divya, Some friends of mine want to meet you".A tender voice; that of a young girl answered “Come In Uncle”
Kesavan opened the door. It was a huge room partitioned into two by a wooden frame. The completed paintings were on their side and Divya was working on the other side of the frame and hidden from their sight.“I have a couple of gentlemen here who seem to like your work a lot.”They crossed the partition and Divya came into their sight.
The sight struck like a bolt on Mohan and formed a lump in his throat.Divya was a teenager around sixteen years of age. She was seated in a raised chair. A canvas was spread on the floor and she was working away holding the brush between her toes. The full hand sleeves of her salwar hung loosely on either side of her shoulder where her hands should have been.She looked at them and said “Hello” with a very sweet smile.As Kesavan introduced them to her Mohan could not find the right words to say “I….I ….Your paintings are very beautiful” he said in a soft voice.“Thanks. My paintings are getting exhibited at the Madras art gallery next week. Please do come”
“Sure” Mohan replied.“Well, we’ll not disturb you more. You carry on.” Kesavan said and led them outside.
When they were back in the hall Mohan asked "How did it happen, sir?An accident?”
Kesavan slowly nodded his head and swiped his palms on his face and continued“She was good at drawing and painting even before she learnt to read and write.
When she was around twelve years old she fell from a moving train. We were able to save her life but not her hands. Her parents were shattered. But she has an amazing grit. She refused to let the handicap paralyze her life and snatch her dreams from her. It took a Herculean effort to get where she is now. But she has a never-say-die attitude. With the help of a trainer she learnt to draw with her feet. It was clumsy initially. With repeated practice she has mastered it and her feet now listen to every idea, every visualization in her.Even our chief editor wanted to do a coverage about her. She hates that kind of publicity for sympathy and refused”
After a cup of coffee, Mohan and Saravanan bid good bye to Kesavan.That night Mohan stood on the terrace directing his gaze at the millions of stars in the sky. Kesavan’s voice kept echoing in his ears. The image of Divya bringing her imaginations to life, with those magnificent pieces of art, using her feet was struck in his mind.He took the train ticket from his shirt pocket. He looked at it for a moment,tore it into four and held out the pieces. The wind whirled around the paper bits and carried them away from his hand.

My Bali Trip 3

Went on a trip to India and could peep into neither my own blog nor those of others for nearly ten days.
Baisakhi Temple:





The Baisakhi temple , also known as the Mother Temple, is situated at the foot of Mt Agung, an active volcano . The temple survived unscathed during an eruption of the volcano in the 1960's and hence it is highly revered by the locals . The volcanic rock used for the construction gives the structure a unique black shade .It comprises of 7 ascending levels, the 7th most being at the summit of the mount and hence not accessible to the regular tourist.There are three main temples here dedicated to the trimurthis Brahma,Vishnu and Shiva. Exploring the temple's premises involves a whole lot of climbing steps , a point to be kept in mind when deciding to go there . A tourguide can be arranged for around 50000 Indonesian Rupiahs . Our tour guide doubled up as our photographer there and was highly helpful in getting some family snaps .Unlike the temples in India the sanctum Sanctorum of the temples in Bali remain closed throughout the year except on selected days when there is a ceremony in the temple as per the Balinese calendar.






Just like the temples in India, their Balinese counterparts have their own sanctity and some rules. People wont be allowed to enter in shorts. If you are dressed in one, you would need to buy or rent a 'sarong' a local garment worn by the Balinese and tie it around your waist. Also, in all temples there would be a board that women are not allowed to enter during menstruation.



The murals of Shiva and Vishnu within the temple were very fascinating. Shiva with a moustache and mounted on his nandhi, Vishnu with a discus on his Garuda.


Picture Of Shiva In the temple






Tanah Lot Temple:


The Tanah Lot temple is located on the West coast of Bali, beautifully located atop a cliff on the seashore. This temple offers some breathtaking views and is a feast to the cameraman's lens.




There is a structure located at the foot of the cliff as well. In times of high tide, worshippers just go to this one at the lower altitude. When we went it was a high tide and the waves leapt to heights I have never seen before. Tanah Lot Sunset is very famous. Our guide told us that the Uluwatu temple is similar and that it offers equally great views. As it was a little cloudy we did not stay back for the sun set. Even with the sun perched high up in the sky during the afternoon it was a beautiful experience.