A day with those lovely tribal students

My mobile made that most irritating sound in the world, the alarm sound. “4 A.M” Was blinking in my mobile along with a dancing bell. A little conference went on in my mind whether to press “Stop” or “Snooze”. I choose the former but unfortunately slept off again. Woke back again by 5’o clock and answered Saravanan’s call. “They’ve come. Get ready soon” told Saravanan. Nandha Kumar and his team had come to our hostel by then. They are our sponsors for our GEO’s (Green Eco Organization) project for the students of the Kadamboor school . it is a tribal village 25 KM from our college. We use to trek on those hills regularly and we have planned to sponsor a few under privileged students of that school for their higher education. Nandha’s team & GEO had already installed 3 solar lamps at Malliamman Durgam(I know it’s tough to pronounce, go letter by letter), it’s a village on top of the hill, they neither have a road route nor electricity.


Nandha is working for a private corporate firm, so is his team along with him. They are sponsoring to our club for our activities, out of their own interest, lead by Nandha. Thanks to our Orkut profile Ad through which we came to know these people.
We had planned to talk to those students on how important their education was to their village and to themselves, and conduct Elocution, painting, essay writing and Rangoali competitions among them. We had bought grocery for that days lunch for 200 children, ‘Wings of fire’ by Dr. A.P.J. Abdul Kalam, a stationery set along with a notebook, a school bag(they use to carry books only in a sack) for every one of them.
We reached the school on time and that cook whom we had hired for the lunch made everything available except the wood to burn! Velavan and me went along with few kids from the school, to buy some wood. Velavan praised that cook with all those available bad words to his knowledge, throughout our walk. Finally we managed to get two bundles of wood.

“Anna give that to me I’ll carry” said the 12 year old Ramesh.

“It’s not a problem for us” said Vel and me, raising our shoulders.
I realized that I made a big blunder when we were half way. It was so heavy and I kept on switching the wood on both my shoulders. Finally, Ramesh carried it for me. “We are used to this” Ramesh winked.
None of your push ups and Gym workouts will help you up. To carry wood, you should have been use to carry wood, that’s it.
Competitions had already begun. Jagan was hosting DumbC in a class of 50. Everyone was lighted up to hear about the movie of their favorite heroes, except the girls! We pulled the girls out calling out their names, it was shy overall. Generally all were reluctant to talk, to face the crowd. Most of the girls didn’t know what to answer when asked about her ambition and just replicated what her neighbor told! We really need a modern Periyar as one of our policymakers. The resource gap between the urban and rural India is dangerously drastic. It is high time we start fixing it. But few were really shrewd, shouting out the answers to the G.K. questions.
“Who is the president of India?”
“Prathiba Patil”, a clear shout.
“Who is the leader of DMDK?”
“Vijayakant” chorused the whole class. Some delicate darlings in my college wouldn’t know that, I bet. I’m not kidding, I’m serious.


Ambi was busy with his like minded people. He kick started a gully cricket among them and things were going in good pace. I grabbed the cam from him. Clicked a few rangolis, some colorful paintings depicting their village, and quite a few think tanks busy with their essays.


Conducting Elocution among them was an amazing experience for me. Only five had given their names but we almost made ten students to talk on the stage. (‘Participation is more important than winning’ – Le Coubertine, from my 10Th Standard English text book!)”Importance of protecting our environment” was one of the given topics. The students touched the every aspect of it right from recyclable plastics to ozone layer depletion. Few were ready to take on the stage though they were not prepared. When things were done, some of us requested them to sing. Again, shy overall!. Some bold enough singers came up to the stage finally. Maheswari was one among them, sang a song about, she writing a letter to her mom, depicting her hostel life, asking about their usual troubles back at home. It really moved us. We again went back to her for the lyrics and came to know that one of her seniors at the same school was the lyricist. Velavan got onto the stage and talked about the purpose us coming there. The talk went on for while and the students were listening to him with at most sincerity. I could see the sense of satisfaction on the faces of Nandha’s team. Velavan just emotes you.


Children sat for their lunch. You should have seen their smiles and hisses when papad was brought into the hall. It was a complete joy to serve sambar rice to those kids, which is a rarity for them. Nature has really blessed us in what we are now.
We were packing up after the prize distribution. We were asking those kids about what do they think about us and we spending timing with them. Few wanted us to come back, few were sad that we were leaving, few didn’t answer at all.
One of the girls among them said “Even we would like to study hard and go to such schools when we are grown up”. Victory for us, temporary one though. A long way to go:)

An unexpected Cesarean watch

I never expected to watch a Cesarean operation right in front of my eyes when Anand kept on invited us with his usual "vaanga boss polam" on-liner. Thanks a lot Anand. A mixture of our Quench(quiz club) & GEO (Eco club) went on to a trip to Guruvayoor (guess I've spelt it right) for a three day spree.

We were on our final day of the trip, Sunday. I was sitting with the Indian Express, examining the Kerala's edition. Few were busy with the Pazha bajji, few in the bathrooms after our long insists on 'get ready soon'.
All of sudden, uncle (Anand's dad) came out of his room with the mobile in his hand after answering a call, and shouted "Those who want to see a Cesarean operation can come along with me, but only three are allowed". There were lot of hisses all over the house. Only three were allowed, and we were thirteen, first of all how many of them will be interested to watch a Cesarean operation, who cares, Purush and me ran back to our rooms to put up a decent pant, since I was in a lungi.

Uncle is an Anaesthesian and working in different hospitals in the town for the past 22 years. Anand's both their parents are doctors and Anaesthesians too.

Unexpectedly, there was no big fight for the three seats. Only Archana was ready to come among the girls.
Uncle blowed the horn for the second time.
"What is Archana still doing?"queried I.
"She went to change up her dress" replied Purush.
"She was already in a pretty decent dress right?"
"No, she was wearing a 3/4th".
Archana came running out of the house, but still in a 3/4th, different one though. I stared at Purush.
"Though its a 3/4th, its made up of jean, unlike the previous one which was a night pant" argued Purush.
Oooof. Ya, Archana is now relatively decent.

We travelled in the car for half an hour, to reach the hospital. Between, uncle was patient enough to answer our questions. Right from his college days, his profession, Psychology, his other area of interest. Finally we were in the operation theatre, wearing that head mask and a cloth to cover our mouth(don't know how do you call that). There were already four nurses and a surgeon in the theatre who winked at us. Uncle took a thin needle and pierced into the patent's vertebrate. He waited for a while and then injected the local Anaesthesia. Uncle said "This process seem to be simple. But to do this with this ease,it has taken me 22 years of experience!".

The surgeon worked over the patent's skin and muscles. Purush went out of the theatre the moment he saw the bleeding. I really dint know what they were doing with that knife, technically. The surgeon, nurses were really cool and tense free, except Archana and me. Ten minutes later, there came the head of the baby. The surgeon slowly lifted its head out of the womb. There was a huge cry. The baby was lifted out of the womb completely. Too small, small enough to fit the surgeon's palms jointly. Now the umbilical cord was the only physical connection with its mom. They made a cut and clipped it.The baby was all alone to this world. The entire world belongs to him. And now its up to him to live it, grab it, love it, hate it..what ever, depending on its DNA, his brought up. Oh ya, its a he. No more its a 'it'.

One of the nurses wiped out the baby hard, looking at me and asking where I am from. I tend to say "be careful". The baby was covered with a white protective surface, formed during the gestation. The surgeon was busy stitching the mom. Uncle took the baby out of the theatre to check its health. The baby was still crying. Uncle lifted the baby with both its cute little arms. He put that down abruptly! The cry became louder. "This is to check the entire nervous system of the new born" said Uncle. He put stethoscope over my ears.
"Can you hear the 'lap tap'?".
"Oh yes".
"No cardiovascular problems as of now".
"Can your hear its breathing?" putting the scope over its lungs.
"yes yes"
"The baby is fine, lets leave" said Uncle.

Things went smooth, simple, without any exaggeration. Everything happened all of sudden, in no time.
We were out of the hospital now,
"One thing is for sure" said I.
"What?" asked Purush.
"LIFE IS SO SIMPLE". This is my cross interpretation.

Naan Kadavul - The movie and my guilt

A leader of the beggars mafia slams the back of an heavily wounded
lady and blood spills out of her skin. Another woman, whose hip bone
has been manhandled and broken, so that her appearance is conducive
for the people to feel pity on her and throw away a few coins. She
revolts against begging and gets slammed again. I don't think no one
other than Bala, in Tamil industry, would have the guts to show the 'behind the scenes' of
the beggars life as he has in NAAN KADAVUL. You will definitely feel
thankful for living a life what you have got now. Guess Bala has
gone to places where even the cops wouldn't have gone. Apart from
the deviation inside the screenplay, the making of each and every
gesture is mind blowing. Are there men like Rudra (Arya), who just have
ganja, eat dead bodies, and poses differently
all over the day? Seems like there are. The aghoris from Kasi.
"Its hard hitting, disturbing and
real!" says the Friday review. Yes it is. In Slumdog millionaire,
boiling oil is poured onto that little kids eye. And people say that
was too hard a portrayal. Excuse me, try watching Naan Kadavul.

The movie is no exaggeration when
it comes to the depiction of a typical day of the beggars. At times I
disagreed myself over the exaggeration factor. But my subconscious
mind shouted "You are trying deliberately not to accept the fact". Ilayaraja mesmerises through out the movie. Especially along with Madhu Balakrishnan in the song "pichai pathiram yendhi vandhaen". Suprising to see pooja in such a role, especially when her conterparts in the movie world are just showcase dolls except for a few.

After coming out of the theatre,
some would cry, some would be disturbed, some would have absconded
during the interval. I felt guilty. Our fellow men and women in this society
are undergoing such turmoil in their life and we are looking at them on
silver screen, sitting relaxed over a cushion sofa, munching pop corns.

Love

What is love? How does it one feel? How does one 'fall' in love? Here I'm talking about the love that is been portrayed by the literature and movie world. And the love which we ascribe on ourselves when seek the company of an opposite sex. Lets get into the roots. Why does a man/woman seek the company of an opposite sex, in their journey through life? The reasons that I find are,
1. To be cared and develop an intimacy, so that when you are in trouble you could grumble. Discuss your personal problems, desires with a single person so that your weaknesses are not let known to the world when discussed with more number of people. Talking out a problem stresses you out.
2. To have sex with the same single person. So that you don't satisfy your sexual desires with a lot other people and be prone to sexually transmitted diseases.
3. And topping it all.. THE CONTINUATION OF YOUR SPECIES.

A guy proposes an "I LOVE YOU" to a girl. What does that mean?
"I would like you to accompany me throughout my life. This decision is completely based on my current desires, aspirations, my needs and my view on you." Love is not a spark nor a "feeeeling". It doesn't 'come' all of a sudden. Its a decision. When ur desires change.. needs change.. perception of ur life betters.. it naturally affects ur previous decisions. Anyway, the compromise you do to sustain that love depends on the intensity of the change.
Why am I typing this? I find a lot of people who let 'love' to affect their careers and aspirations. Who compromise their individuality to sustain a love which is decision. A decision which is reversible if found wrong.
I love my mom and dad. I love my sister. I love my wife. Whats the difference? Here comes the lust factor and a lot more secret sharing when it is my wife and not with the rest. That is the only difference I find.