The Marwar Anthem

Clever old river
To flood your backyard
Came from yonder land.
Pious lone tither
Could cleave no plan man
With none to wonder and
Like a burnt down flower
Did Flay my wrought ass
The weather of time demand

Node at the road showed
My foed old code I toed
Goad me the load shod toad I plod
Never cowed I'm loud above my vow
Bow now for thou tau
Know no woe

The Marwar Anthem Video (Music by Dhananjay Thiyagarajan)

Made for MARWAR 7 7 07 at BIM Trichy by BISMARC, the Marketing Club at BIM.

Taking a Break from Adjectives and Adverbs

As I was shampooing myself today, I was wondering why I was too poor at using adjectives and adverbs. The one good reason I could guess was that I seldom appreciated others. May be because the English etiquette I admired as a child allowed little room for superlatives and adulations.

The B-School life asks for adulations and back stabing. For a while I was wondering whether that back stabing was my kind of a thing. I was working on justifications. I did find them. But in the end it felt like prostitution. It actually is. I am yet to decide on that though. For now, I'm hell bent on something. To hell with adjectives and adverbs.

The power of 13

As it has always been, the number 13 continues to be the unlucky number for the unlucky. Not for me. I am a lucky person. For me, anything that happened just happened. Cause-effect relationships in these lines can be at best be on my actions.

If I do not tighten every bolt holding my front mudguard, there is a probability of it getting in contact with the tyres as it vibrates. When my tyres are new and the buttons are huge because they are specialty motocross tyres, the probability increases because the clearance is reduced. When I fix a mud flap to the mudguard using a screw bolt projecting inwards, it starts working like a forked brake on the tyre. When the fork turns out to have the shear strength to hold a few kilos, you can take it for granted that I am going to screw up bigtime when it gets a jerk.

It was the 13th of February 2007. It was two days since we were back from Vellore, finishing the last rites for Sundar Raghavan, friend of ours who had passed away in a road accident. My comfort level with my Shogun was at it’s prime. Every ride gave me a hangover. The exhaust note was invigorating music. I wasn’t using my O2 XDA IIS for long. I had lost its phone book.
It was the IBE class and I had decided not to pay attention. The PDA would be the ideal comparison. And this is what happened…The PDA goes to class, together with the other mobile for internet browsing. I had been looking for my helmet that morning. Somebody had taken it. As I was starting for class, it was drizzling and I wanted it for sure. There were no replies for the messages sent to find it.

Adidas shoes, Nike socks, worked Pepe Jeans, grey collored tees, Tommy Hilfiger jacket, Cramster sling bag, and Suzuki Shogun… there goes Shiju to claim the luck of 13 once again.
The other time it happened was Jan the 13th, last year and the place was the Sanskrit college campus, Trivandrum. I broke four teeth and tore my lower lip playing football. 8 sutures were add-ons. This time it was 22 and just bruises.

The Forgotten God

I have spent a considerable amout of my time on religion and in trying to find out the meaning of life. If you now ask me if that excercise was an useful one? Is it necessary? I have no real concrete answer. This is the truth about the issue.

I was regular to Church and was an ardent Christian. While on this way, life took a turn when I started to find out that there was something more to the whole issue. I started finding people who were defining Christianity as a way of life, which would define our value systems. May be they wanted a little bit of dogmatism, But at that point of time it felt like it was worth trying. I did try. Not just try, but I took a plunge. There was a sense of trying to live on an idealistic line. And, it really does feel good to know that you are on your way that is the best that can be done on earth.

Somewhere down the line, which I dare not explain now, things got messed up. The whole idea of Christianity and their way of life seemed to be damaging, on all scales. I do say that Christians do believe in something. But if their motive is to make conditions of life for the best for every human on earth, I pity them. They don't. They often end up making life hell for others. If you look at those on their own scales of rating evil, in my opinion, none of them would be worth being spared. But they are nice people. See you know, in business circles, if a person talks very nicely to you, you call them a very nice person. That's the way it is here as well. Only when you come in touch with another will you know that the business fellow was sucking your blood.

I went on to the secular world. Life began with a motive of making life better on earth. I was trying to be a realist. Very optimistic... Not everybody can turn this world around, you know. Life is nice this way. But very recently did I realize that it had taken a trun on the lines of an epicure. Now, it's not about getting back. It's about finding a balance that I am worried about. i want to put myself back on track. As I had often realised, i think it;s time for some homework.

Get back to you after I start off.

Love you.

Waves

Walking up the Aisle of the bus, looking for 8U, I was waiting to snuggle into my berth that would take me to Chennai. As I moved closer, I was realising something… that I didn't want that berth anymore.

Why?

If it had been a few years back, I wouldn't have had a problem. The entire idea of gay marriages and the stigma attached to it had a bearing on my life as well. In a way, I hated that realization, because I would have peacefully gotten myself under the blanket for the night. The whole idea of sharing a double berth with a man felt nauseating.

Pulling out the Week magazine from my ethnic Auroville bag, I sat down to wait for the bus to pass through the last boarding station, Erode. The attendant onboard had promised me to offer a single berth once past Erode.

Sitting sideways, with the narrow aisle and the berths standing tall around me, I started feeling claustrophobic. At seven years of age, an effort at hiding myself in a chimney gave me the first taste of the feeling. And when I'm out there trying some hill climbing, you know, it turns out to be a pain.

Now, as i was sitting there gasping, trying to get a breath of fresh air in the low powered A/C, my eyelids were feeling heavy. Thoughts started wandering like a messy market place. Tired, I wanted to rest myself somewhere. I wanted a place where somebody would think for me and carry me afloat the surface of the sea.

The surface of the sea is beautiful and it was then that I felt it was worth my admiration. Seeing me afloat, I could see the continents, the people in them. I could see them like the waters, swaying with the wind. Some gathered together to storm, and the others were in a trough. The troughs knew not the crests. Pushed down, the troughs held high the crests. The crests could see their brothers lying low. Poor things, we'd roll down to help them, they said. Only then did they realise that the wind was their driver. They called their locality democracy. They lauded it knowing it as the way to freedom and equality. The wind turned back and said,” Today is your day, tomorrow can be his". The waves got back into their rhythm of swaying with the wind. All happy and sad, peaceful and fighting, order in chaos, enjoying every moment knowing they'd face eternity.

V.N.Shiju

Strangers in Paradise?

Friendship and love is the Paradise. Now, this is salutation to someone dear, Jacob. I love you Jacob. Thank you. In this shitty world, it's all messed up and lopsided. We've been friends for long. We've loved each other. It's great to tell each other that we are friends, or even better, cousins. What the hell has all that ever done to each other? You bledy go around minding your own business and me, mine. None can help each other. You abandon your family and friends in a pathetic condition and you go help a begger, you become a saint. A begger is a stranger you help and your friend is the stranger, you say you love. We aren't strangers in a way. I pray for you and you do that for me. And more than that I remember your name. There's nothing more. Strangers.. Hun?

Aromatherapy

My home town is Nagercoil, the headquarters of Kanyakumari District, Tamilnadu, India.


In the pre-independance period, our district was part of the princely state called
Travancore. After india got independance in 1947, our District was part of Kerala. Due to
conflicts, both linguistic and chauvinistic, our district was added to Tamilnadu in 1958.

Kerala, as a state is considered to be among the most civilized states in India. True today.
But history tells it was otherwise.

History tells us that evils like slavery, human sacrifices, sexual abuse, etc were rampant.
May be you'll say the world was that way then. You need to get into the details, which I'm
not making mention of here.

I thought of writing this because I had recently been to Padmanabapuram, the former capital
of Travancore. The Capital was later shifted to Trivandrum.

The picture shows a cage like structure made to accomodate a human. This was equipment
used for capital punishment. Men would be locked in it and left to starve, hanging on a
tree. Birds would peck off the juicy corpse, while the aroma satiates the royalty.