Coloured sands of Kanyakumari

 I made the last trip to Kanyakumari about five years ago - the beach area was full of buildings of different shapes and sizes. There were jetties for launches to take tourists to the Vivekananda Rock, there were churches, hotels residential buildings, shops selling everything from trinkets to items of daily use - the skyline was an eyesore, to say the least.

The beach practically does not exist anymore. Yet, it is the southern most tip of India and the  point where the Bay of Bengal, the Indian Ocean and the Arabian Sea meet.

Memories of my first visit to the place came flooding back... I had gone there with my parents and sister when I was this high. The last building on the mainland was the Gandhi Memorial, with the beach at a significant distance. The Vivekananda Memorial on the Vivekananda Rock was being built, and still in the early stages of construction.

I remember running around the beach with my sister, playing with sea-shells, and pebbles. I also remember collecting sands of different colours. That memory stayed with me as I completed this trip and told my family about the sands of Kanyakumari.

The other day, while cleaning out a cupboard, a flat, white plastic box popped out. I opened it - and there it was !!! The coloured sands of Kanyakumari in three little glass bottles staring back at me from the trip I made more than fifty years ago... 

The red sand was from the Bay of Bengal side, the white, from Indian Ocean, and the black sand from the beach of the Arabian Sea. Sharing the picture for you all :

It is a pity that today's travellers to the place will never get to see this.

The new pandemic

Went swimming at my old haunt after nineteen months !! The pool, the changing room, the shower stalls, were all empty. Felt wonderful to swim all by myself. By and by I was joined by a little six year old boy, then his young Dad, and after a while two other ladies. That was it – five of us in the pool.

 

Back in the old days before the pandemic hit us, it was difficult to swim the full length at this hour without having to stop at least a couple of times for people flailing their arms about, or kids having fun splashing about in the pool.

 

Started off by taking a bath, then as I headed out to the pool, an attendant was standing with a spray can at the steps – I was supposed to sanitize my hands before entering the pool, even after taking a bath. Then, when I got out, I had to sanitise my hands again before taking the shower !!

 

“Orders”, said the fellow, “Sir, I am following orders.”

 

The new pandemic is already upon us – paranoia, sprinkled with a liberal dose of lunacy – like a pepperoni pizza with extra pepperoni. 

 

ORIGAMI – the lost art ?

 Remember making paper boats and letting them float down drains in the rain ? Or watching in dismay as the boat got wet, the folds came apart till it was a sheet of paper once more ?

 

The word “origami” literally means “folding paper” in Japanese. I am sure we all remember the school days when we made paper boats to play with in puddles on rainy days and paper rockets to throw around in class in mock “aerial fights”, the moment the teacher left the room.

 

It seems that with the advent of electronic gadgets kids have moved on from these basic skills and simple interests. Why blame the kids – their parents too, perhaps never bothered about origami after the television invaded our living rooms.

 

I still remember some bits and pieces of the art from my school days and try to show it off to little kids when I get the chance. The best opportunities can be had during flights – and I always hope I get a 4 to 7 year old as a co-passenger on these flights. They are the most entertaining of people almost always, and, because they are not mine...

 

Incident 1 : One evening, while on a two-hour flight, I had a six year old girl on the seat next to me. I greeted her with a “Hello Princess” – as we took our seats, and she was so elated she became “my friend for life” !!

 

Over the course of the next two hours she told me about what she watched on TV every day and I told her some stories from my childhood days, which her Mom sitting next to her was listening with more rapt attention than her, then the conversation drifted to making paper boats. She said she could make them – her Mom promptly pulled out an old exercise book that she currently uses for making things out of paper. She made the boat and I made her a bird, a fan, a rocket, a basket and some other stuff. She was mesmerised by the basket – she opened her tiny “vanity bag” and pulled out a bunch of toffee wrappers. She wound them into little balls and put into the basket, saying they were flowers !!

 

I used a couple of those toffee wrappers to make dancing dolls for her – and her Mom said that from now on she would make them – she seemed more amazed than the kid. As we were alighting, she said she loved watching TV more than anything else.

 

Incident 2 : On another occasion, I had a bespectacled, five year old boy sitting next to me. He had a little electronic device in his hands on which he was playing Pac-Man type of games. It took me a while to get him out of that device and engage in a conversation. He talked about football and how he hated maths... I tried to get him interested in origami as is my wont. Asked the air hostess for a few napkins – and they are a poor choice for origami – to start with. Made him a pom-pom and he was not interested. Made a rocket. He took it, stood up and let go !! It landed on someone a few seats ahead. He demanded I make him quite a few – I told him make it himself while I guided him. He lost interest.

 

I then made him a basket. He took one look at it, then walked up to his Mom sitting on the other side of the aisle, and said – “this is for you, that uncle made it.” Gosh !! If only I had known... And then he went back to his little electronic games.

 

I feel we were extremely lucky not to have TV, Internet, electronic games as kids – we spent our time outside the house, climbed trees, chased butterflies and dragonflies, followed lines of ants as they went about their business, stole fruits and flowers from neighbours’ gardens, built paper boats, flew paper rockets in class, got punished for that, played in puddles in the rain and got sick, and learnt quite a few skills in the process – origami being one of them.

 

Today’s kids have lost out on the joy of creating new things and feeling wondrous at the world around them – a big loss, I must say.

 

Sharing some thoughts on the year 2020...

 

This year, in retrospect, has been a watershed of sorts for the entire human civilization.

 

The “rush hour” as we have known almost all our lives, evaporated for a while as people started working from home and public transport went off the roads. Even after the lockdown was lifted, this rush hour was nowhere near the levels before the pandemic struck.

 

Working from home is now the default paradigm for many. Organizations, for whom this concept was an anathema, have realized the value of this practice to keep business running. My personal experience has been very surprising.

 

I have been working from home for many years now, and this lockdown really did not affect my daily operations. What I discovered and observed over the past few months happening in the organization I work with while everyone was working from home, can be listed as follows :

 

·         People goofed off less on the job – they apparently had more work or pressures of daily chores to be attended to and tried to finish off office work as quickly as possible

·         Conference calls very quickly became highly focused discussions, started and finished on time, almost always. Actions agreed upon during the call were closed off in due time

·         Inter-departmental barriers slowly evaporated – everyone worked as a “single team” during project reviews, project delivery, and customer handling – something I have never witnessed before

·         Number of contributors to address challenges has increased noticeably

·         Lack of “corridor conversations” or “coffee machine gossip” have resulted in removal of many erstwhile thought processes and interdepartmental barriers, and metamorphosed  into a more positive fellow feeling towards colleagues – the organization is becoming more cohesive with time – this, I think, is the most significant benefit that a business entity can have.

·         The organization is seriously contemplating reducing office space and making WFH a regular feature. Will save a fortune in establishment costs over time.

 

2021 will see the advent of a new class of organizations – where WFH will be a default standard, snazzy offices will be smaller and cozier, there will be different timings for different people to attend office and rush hour will be spread out thin across a wider time block.

 

The so-called “work-life-balance” will have a new meaning.

Let me know your thoughts.

Last light of the day

 Last light of the day

 

The light upon my window tells me

The day is ready to go –

There are so many things left unsaid,

So many things to know.

 

So many things I had to do,

Can’t turn back the clock, just once –

Will have to start afresh again

When the morrow comes !

Durga Puja Festival & The Legend of Durga

 

(Collected from many sources – not entirely my own)

 

Once upon a time there lived a demon (Asura) king of the underworld who roamed the three worlds (heaven, earth and the underworld) in the guise of a buffalo (Mahish). He was thus called “Mahish-asura”. Mahishasura was extremely power-hungry and ambitious. But he became an ascetic and undertook a long and arduous penance to appease the Lord Brahma, who finally appeared before him. Mahishasura asked for a boon that no man or god could kill him, and Brahma granted it.

 

This made Mahishasura virtually invincible and he began to torment the three worlds. In sheer desperation, the gods of Heaven and the people on Earth approached the Supreme Trinity (Brahma – the creator, Vishnu – the Preserver, and Shiva – the destroyer) to do something.

 

The Supreme Trinity combined their powers to create the Goddess Durga to circumvent Brahma’s boon. She was duly armed with all the weapons of the Gods and the lion became her mount. The battle between Durga and Mahishasura lasted 10 days and nights, with the last four days being the fiercest.

 

In the end, as Mahishasura lay dying he realized his folly and repented. He realized that Durga was the combination of all the powers in the Cosmos and asked one last boon from her – that he be worshipped along with Durga for all eternity. Durga granted this boon and that is how the image of the Goddess killing the demon (Mahishasur – mardini) was born.

 

***

 

At the philosophical level, this story represents many things :

·         The Supreme Trinity of Brahma, Vishnu & Shiva – the Creator, the Preserver & the Destroyer respectively – represent the Supreme, Powerful Cosmic energy of the Universe, where all three phenomena keep happening simultaneously.

 

A particular Sanskrit “sloka” (verse) illustrates this :

        “Shrishti – Sthiti – Vinasanam – Shakti – Bhoote – Sanatani

        Gunashrayee – Gunamayee – Narayani – Namostute”

 

A rough translation would be : (You are the embodiment of Primordial Force that drives Creation, Preservation, Destruction;  O Narayani, we salute thee...)

 

·         Durga represents virtue (dharma) while Mahishasura represents vice (adharma). These two are always present all the time. Even during worship. That is reality.

·         Mahishasura being worshipped along with Durga means that there is nothing in this world as “pure evil” or “pure good”.  Even Mahishasura was an ascetic once and powerful enough to appease Lord Brahma. But pride, avarice and tyranny brought about his downfall. Even a boon from the Creator could not save him.

·         Most importantly it also tells the tale that when crime, tyranny, and evil forces try to overrun the general scheme of things, the Gods put in their best efforts to counter the evil and re-establish the rule of dharma, or virtue.  A sloka from the Bhagwad Gita that talks about the periodic advent of prophets on this Earth, is perhaps relevant here :

“paritranaya sadhunam,   vinasaya ca duskritam
dharma-samsthapanarthaya,  sambhav ami yuge yuge”  -

(To deliver the pious and to annihilate the miscreants, as well as to re-establish the principles of religion,  I Myself appear, millennium after millennium.)

Masked life

Masks, masks everywhere,

Not a smile to see –

Friend or foe ? You’re challenged there

And none to comfort me !!

A wave of hand, a wink of an eye

Is all that you can do;

Gotta think hard before you try –

Or face problems quite a few.

All the folks are trying now

All the folks, and me –

Trying to read the creasing brow

‘Cause the smile, you cannot see !!

Masks, masks everywhere,

Not a smile to see –

Friend or foe ? You’re challenged there

And none to comfort me !!

8/June/2020