Pranams my friend. Pranams brother.

The whole day I have been trying to type.  But couldn’t.  Mind is fogged. I feel bereaved. As if I lost an elder brother.

KCS sir as most of us called him, is no more.

Not that his leaving is a shock.  From that dark night, in Januarly 1994 when we ran on the Coimbatore Railway Station platform to get into our coach in the Gandhidham Express, when he gasped for breath and almost fainted by the strain, I had known about his poor health condition.  He had high diabetes and a bad heart condition.  He later underwent a heart surgery too.  Yet, he never let it bother him and lived his full life – on his own terms.

His interests were varied.  From getting into hair splitting arguments on Constitutional law, on Excise law and procedure, on Association matters, Music, Literature, Art  and love for life in all its varied forms.

He was also a good player of harmonium, occasionally sang and was greatly interested in drama.

Ever since I knew about his diabetic problem, whenever we used to travel, I used to be a bit apprehensive about feasting on snacks.  He found fault with me for that indirectly by telling me that CSN was liberal.

Our trips to Baroda and Delhi for Federation meetings and also to places like Hosur, Erode, Salem, etc within the then Coimbatore Commissionerate were always enjoyable.  He would be going on narrating incidents from his own life of from the literature he had read.  He was an avid reader of English and Tamil literature. 

He was an ardent devotee of Lord Ayappa and named his house as Sabari Niwas.

Later, after his retirement, he took to learning Sanksrit and wrote and spoke a lot on Sidhantha and Vedanta 

Though he maintained his base at Pollachi, his heart beat for all.  He was a very loving person - liked to be in interaction with everyone.

Having been recruited at Mumbai, then shifted to Madurai and then settled down at Pollachi, he had friends in all places.  Not due to his working in these places alone, but due to his friendliness towards all.

He loved his family and dotted his children so much that it would move any one.

The Pollachi Divisional Office was his second home.  When we go there, it is as if we have gone to his own house. That is how he used to take care of any one visiting there.

Though we had contested against each other for the post of General Secretary of the Coimbatore Inspectors’ Association in April 1993, I was accommodated as the Joint Secretary and later when I came to Coimbatore on transfer, gradually KCS left the entire work of the GS to me.  Eventually, in April or May 1994 he made me the GS in the General Body and he continued as the President.  We both continued together till 1997. Then when I moved on as President, he was in the Advisory Committee.

Those years from 1994 to 1997 were the period of consolidation of the Association.  It was during that time that it became vibrant. He represented the traditional side of the cadre.  There was in the committee a more radical group of ‘young turks’ who felt that the proceedings were rather at a slow pace. I had to balance between the two.  And he understood my predicament too well.

It was during this period that in January 1995 we sat on a two day continuous fast for CR and it was this movement which enabled the Upgradation of 1996-97.  It was a turning point in the history of our Association at Coimbatore and propelled the unit as a formidable force at the All India Level.

It was during this period that we could get the historic ‘Transfer Norms’ issued in writing by the administration.

During discussions with the authorities, I would be on the front foot and he would silently hold the fort.  He once said, my drafts did not require any sharpening – something he would have loved to do, with his penchant for the language.  When he started typing, chewing the betel leaves and nuts, those who have seen him type, would be amazed.  It was non-stop.

His wit was brilliant. Once when we were meeting with the Chairman, CBEC in Coimbatore, among various things, the topic of Bonus came up. The Chairman said we were not entitled for Productivity Linked Bonus.  KCS nonchalantly asked, ‘does Chairman feel that we are an unproductive department?’.   

In 1998 when I was the President and when I was about to embark upon an indefinite fast, he was near me.  We had been asked to vacate the premises, but we held on to the ground stating that we could clear out only if our leaves have been granted or if our demands had been met.  There was a stale mate as the emissaries of the Commissioner standing before us and trying to persuade us did not know what else to say.  At that moment, AKK and PAP brought a photo wrapped in a newspaper.  It was the portrait of Gandhiji, which still adores our Association room.  It was kept on a chair and garlanded. Immediately KCS raised a slogan of ‘Mahatma Gandhi Ki Jai’, twice and in the same tone he continued with ‘Inquilab Zindabad’.  The blending was just amazing.  Then he began singing the bhajan ‘Raghupathi Raghava Raja Ram’.  The Officials had to just leave.  All this was so extempore that anyone else would have thought that all this was rehearsed earlier.  Actually he had not even known that I had asked PAP to get the photo of Gandhiji (as suggested by Dinesh).

He always saw the humorous side of events and people.  His oft repeated remark about the attitude of people in Association work was that once a persons used to pester on the corridors asking what happened to 2000 (pay scale), thereafter he used to ask from a distance what happened to 2 (showing two with fingers alone) then he used to just ask what has happened alone.  He enjoyed narrating the gradual change, every time he narrated it.

The last time we met was when he had come to Souri’s house to bid him the last farewell.  He appeared weak.  But had himself driven all the way from Pollachi, all alone.  That was his commitment to those with whom he had been associated with. 

But today, when I heard the news, it was more awful that we could not even have a last glimpse.  He had passed away in Bangalore after an illness. 

I feel bereaved myself. What else to say.

Pranams, my friend, my brother.  Pranams.

You live in our memories.

 -Manimohan

 

 

 

Removing the blinkers

 

“So long as the millions live in hunger and ignorance, I hold every man a traitor who, having been educated at their expense, pays not the least heed to them.”

— Swami Vivekananda

The above quote is a very often repeated one, by anyone who knows the socio political views of Swami Vivekananda.

It is from this point perhaps that Gandhi ji emphases the concept of Daridra Narayana and holds that any development could be accepted as a development only if it touches the lower most one in the ladder.

More than a century after this basic principle and expectation has been laid down as a measuring rod for any development, we have been eluding ourselves with statistics which show overall growth, the per capita growth, comparative growth of GDP year on year, compared with world index or that of other countries, etc. Much of the changes in the livelihood of the poorest of the poor has most often happened due to mass production and inventions which automatically reached them. Otherwise, as a system, there was very little that happened. There have been few cases of reforms, by some Governments, here and there, during certain brief periods, in India immediately after Independence.

But gradually, over a period of time, the political activities have been taken over by market forces from the shadows first and then in the open later.

I remember when I was in college, (80s) there was a veteran Sarvodaya leader who told me that there was hardly any difference between different political parties. That was a time, I used to think that with political change, a social change could be engineered and that the political change was possible through organizing opinions. He said, the political parties only appeared different from the outside. Inside, they were all the same. He used a simile of two shop keepers, one with a flat hat and another with a long hat. Both of them sold the same product but with two different prices. People purchased from one of them, either because it was cheaper than the other or they thought that the costlier one was of better quality. At the end of the day, both of them used to share the profit. This example could be seen on the roadside platforms also, where one will be selling tomatoes or onions at a lesser price and the neighboring one at a higher price and when one’s pile gets reduced, it gets replenished from the other one.

It was very difficult for me then to understand this concept or more rather to accept it. That was a period when stalwarts were still there in the Janata Party. Some real Communists were also there in the horizon. Of course, with the leaving of Kamaraj and his friends from the Congress, there was no expectation from the Congress to have any great ideals.

But with passing years and with changes seen in the political horizon, one thing becomes clear. Whatever may be the intention of some political leaders or their parties (whether actual or only professed might be again subject of dispute), ultimately, they get manipulated by larger power centers or big business interests. Because, votes of the common man are required only to ascend to a position. Thereafter, to run the Government, they require the support of the moneyed class. This has started having a preceding effect itself. The moneyed class start supporting a particular group which they feel will cater to their needs. So they start investing in them even before elections. If the results of the elections do not tally with their desires, then they try other methods to get around.

Dhirubhai Ambani is said to have told Ramnath Goenka that he (Ambani) goes around with a golden shoe on one leg and a silver shoe on the other and that everyone has a price. A shocked Goenka is said to have asked whether it meant that he (Goenka) also had a price. To that it is said that Ambanis said yes and that infuriated the old News Paper baron which provoked him to take on Ambani openly.

One industrialist told me three decades ago, (around the same time Ambani would have been talking to Goenka) that 99% of the Government officials could be bought for one of the three Ws. For the remaining 1%, he said, their boss could be bought.

Now these, are applicable to politicians and parties as well.

Unlike in the European countries, politics in our country is not a part-time work where one can have some profession and allot some time for public activities. For those in public service there is hardly any privacy. The expenses of an ordinary panchayat member is so huge that when he is on a 24X7 activity, he cannot attend to any private job or business (except of course money lending, real estate, etc). The remuneration given to him as sitting fees for the meetings will be paltry. How then do we expect someone to come for public service at our expense? Hence it will be only naïve to expect that politicians will work honestly with the paltry remuneration.

When at the lowest level in a polity it is so, how can people coming to serve larger constituencies with more people, larger areas and more responsibilities be expected to survive?

The expenses to reach out to the constituency in an election is itself huge. It will be a mindboggling amount. No fresh entrants can therefore dream about that.

This issue had in fact been a matter of public debate in the initial days of the Independent India. People like Rajaji had said that the elections should be publicly funded.

But over a period of time when parties got entrenched and got their own source of income, obviously through the licence-permit-quota raj, this demand faded away. It was taken for granted that the parties are self-sufficient and therefore they will contest and win elections with their ‘own’ monies.

It is at this stage that the business community gets an entry point. The remaining tale of the deal and understanding need not be explained.

Once the parties have got strongly established, no further new entrant will be allowed by the cartelization among the established parties.

Thus the script becomes decided between the already set players.

Now, within this permutation and combination, the drama of ideals, manifestos, etc have to move on.

People going into the polling booths have hardly any choice. They have to choose from what is available. Of late we have an option to go in for NOTA. Otherwise people abstain or vote for someone they do not really think will win at all.

From this multi-cornered contests which are actually tuned to specific corners, the first past the post method ensures that someone not necessarily getting even 51% of the total votes cast also can win.

The next phase is when all these candidates go into one basked called a party to elect their chief.

Once they get identified as a party itself, their identity goes for a toss. The party takes over from that moment. This became firmer after introduction of the anti-defection law. Now, what is to be the law that should be passed, is not determined by these representatives who have been elected by the people, but by the party to which they belong.

In other words, they are sponsored by the party which is going to determine the fate of the people and the electorate votes only for a party and not for the representatives as such. Technically then the relevance of the individual representative loses relevance after the election, once a government is formed. The representative remains in the scene only to be approached by people with their grievances and to speak on either the floor of the house or to participate in meetings of councils or committees, etc.

When policies are centrally decided by a party, the speaking on the floor of a house also is only for public consumption. It is not going to alter any set decision because cross voting will be dealt with by the anti-defection law.

It is in these circumstances that we still believe that we can, with one vote for a post, once in five years, determine what is to be done for us.

The players who continue with this show are part of a full time business. Therefore it increasingly appears that what even choice is made, ultimately, the final decision is taken elsewhere by some other forces which are not directly visible.

Nothing else will explain why a particular party getting into office opposing another one vehemently, including on economic policies, will continue with the same economic policies, even with much more vigor and speed.

The other shrill cries to garner support and vote, in the name of the adversary being corrupt, in-competent, against the interest of the people, against certain communities or religions, etc are increasingly found to be only convenient positioning in such a manner that the ‘real agenda’ of economic decisions in the interest of the business community being carried out by one or the other.

There is a feeling cultivated among un-suspecting minds that the interest of business houses is itself in the interest of the general wellbeing of the people. This is not necessarily true because, the concept of the laissez faire being able to make self-corrections is as much as a utopia as the state withering away on its own. Cartelization is the essence in business and no business man can be expect to deliver to the people a product or service at a cheaper cost than that is made by the state itself.

The running of the state with capacity to produce goods and services that are most essential for all citizens has to be then paramount for any democratically elected government.

But in the decades that have passed by, we have seen that activities performed by the Government have been given away to private players, with one excuse or the other.

The simple question that begs answer is why should a private player bother to offer any service to the people, which their own government is not able to give?

Corruption and in-competence have been an oft repeated charge against the Government machinery for severing its functions. But refusal to correct the system and instead handing it over to business interests directly is throwing the baby with the bath water.

The state constituted by our own volition has an obligation to provide the basic amenities for every life – which is the right to life. They are – education, health and basic needs of food and shelter. As long as these could not be provided to each citizen, then we have failed in our mission.

And we know that these are a far cry.

The vocal minority belonging to us, the middle class, can hardly be expected to portray grievances other than its own immediate concerns.

To this is added the new trend where even out of concern or empathy for the less fortunate someone raises a voice, our own people will shout it down as ‘vested interests’, anti- something’, ‘andolan jeevi’, ‘parasites’, etc. Only those who are affected are supposed to state their objection. When the affected state it or protest, they will always be in a minority when compared to the others.

In this, therefore the people have also only the option to choose among the lesser evil.

When this picture of good and evil are themselves only deceptive and painted according to someone else’s agenda and advantage, we continue to waste our energies by keeping on shuffling and ‘expecting’.

All these WWF like fights will only ultimately wear us out. Once this realization has dawned, we have to get to basics.

What are the parameters based on which the performance of each player is to be assessed. Not definitely what they promise. Not their propaganda. What is that has reached to the lowest of the low could be the only parameter. What they are able to deliver through the state machinery for the sustenance of life and protection of life and liberty could be the standard.

For that again, our resources cannot depend upon their own propaganda or reports of certain media alone which again is only a partner in the whole game.

We have to strive to have our own assessments, through our own sources. From reading between the lines of the reports from various media sources. We have to search for the needle of truth from the hay stack.

Very difficult indeed.

But we have to strive.

At least the understanding that this is the only yardstick will be able to clear our view about the happenings and to take sides ‘in this game’, consciously.

 

 

 

 

Alcoholism and anonymity

              I had a very pleasant experience to be a Chief Guest of an Annual Meeting of a Unit of the ‘Alcoholic Anonymous’ (Called as AA by them for short) at Coimbatore.

        Though I have noticed in Engagement columns of various papers meetings about the AA, I did not actually know what exactly was their programme. Peripherally I knew that it was an organization involved in de-addiction programmes.

       But when I attended their meeting, I came to see how the members of the organization and family members had a great bonding with each other. This emotional bondage was evidently a great support for bringing out the addicts out of their problem. Each one of them called themselves a ‘Alcoholic patient’. That itself serves them to understand their problem so that they overcome the same. Many alcoholics who do not admit to their situation continue with the addiction under a misbelieve that they have a will to stop it at will, but due to their own will they are continuing. Hence, their willingness to accept their situation in life appears to be the first step to overcome it.

Their prayer was itself very captivating:

It is:

“God, grant me the serenity to accept the things I cannot change,

courage to change the things I can,

and wisdom to know the difference”.

     From the web I found that it is called the ‘The Serenity Prayer’ and is said to have been written by an American theologian called Reinhold Niebuhr (1892–1971).

The Original version of this prayer as per Wikepedia is:

“Father, give us courage to change what must be altered,

serenity to accept what cannot be helped,

and the insight to know the one from the other”.

     The prayer is in essence the predicament of the human situation itself. We are not able to know what can be changed and what cannot be, by us and we are not able to reconcile to what cannot be changed.

     Not only Alcoholics, but every individual requires that wisdom to know this and to distinguish between what can be changed and what cannot be.

     Many of those who spoke in the sharing session of the meeting were very good speakers, who could emotionally express how they were being tormented by their addiction, how they suffered due to feeling of guilt, neglect and how they felt frustrated and angry for not being able to come out of the rut but due to the frustration and anger, further slipped into the same miserable habit.

     Many of them recounted that they have been able to come out of the habit after undergoing the de-addiction programme after coming into contact with the AA and have continued to live away from alcohol since then (some said 7 years, some 9 years and so on) due to the continued support of the AA family.

     People from various parts of Tamil Nadu and even many from Kerala had come for the meeting, with their family members.

     In that session itself there were 14 new entrants.

     The organizers informed that people could approach them even online.

     Their request to me was that since Anonymity is the fundamental principle of the movement, as a non-alcoholic I should bring the information about the organization to public knowledge so that many of people who are suffering due to alcohol addictions could come to know of this movement and get benefitted by getting in touch with the organization.

The following are the original twelve steps as published by Alcoholics Anonymous:

1. We admitted we were powerless over alcohol—that our lives had become unmanageable.

2. Came to believe that a power greater than ourselves could restore us to sanity.

3. Made a decision to turn our will and our lives over to the care of God as we understood Him.

4. Made a searching and fearless moral inventory of ourselves.

5. Admitted to God, to ourselves, and to another human being the exact nature of our wrongs.

6. Were entirely ready to have God remove all these defects of character.

7. Humbly asked Him to remove our shortcomings.

8. Made a list of all persons we had harmed, and became willing to make amends to them all.

9. Made direct amends to such people wherever possible, except when to do so would injure them or others.

10. Continued to take personal inventory, and when we were wrong, promptly admitted it.

11. Sought through prayer and meditation to improve our conscious contact with God as we understood Him, praying only for knowledge of His will for us and the power to carry that out.

12. Having had a spiritual awakening as the result of these steps, we tried to carry this message to alcoholics, and to practice these principles in all our affairs.

     The organization does not collect donations or is not funded by any agencies as is seen from their public document itself. The members who were present there told me that all their functions are conducted only by their own subscriptions and contributions. This is laid down in their Twelve Traditions which are guidelines for group governance. They were developed in AA in order to help resolve conflicts in the areas of publicity, politics, religion and finances. Alcoholics Anonymous' Twelve Traditions are:

1. Our common welfare should come first; personal recovery depends upon AA unity.

2. For our group purpose there is but one ultimate authority—a loving God as He may express Himself in our group conscience. Our leaders are but trusted servants; they do not govern.

3. The only requirement for AA membership is a desire to stop drinking.

4. Each group should be autonomous except in matters affecting other groups or AA as a whole.

5. Each group has but one primary purpose—to carry its message to the alcoholic who still suffers.

6. An AA group ought never endorse, finance, or lend the AA name to any related facility or outside enterprise, lest problems of money, property, and prestige divert us from our primary purpose.

7. Every AA group ought to be fully self-supporting, declining outside contributions.

8. Alcoholics Anonymous should remain forever non-professional, but our service centers may employ special workers.

9. AA, as such, ought never be organized; but we may create service boards or committees directly responsible to those they serve.

10. Alcoholics Anonymous has no opinion on outside issues; hence the AA name ought never be drawn into public controversy.

11. Our public relations policy is based on attraction rather than promotion; we need always to maintain personal anonymity at the level of press, radio, and films.

12. Anonymity is the spiritual foundation of all our traditions, ever reminding us to place principles before personalities.

More information is available in: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alcoholics_Anonymous

Their own web site also is available. It could be searched on the google.

     I briefly told them that though I did not drink, I have participated in very many of such sessions and my impression had been that most of the addicts had a very high IQ, but did not know how to get attention of the world to their capabilities. I felt that the realization about their weakness was the first step towards their own strengthening because making good of ones weakness is the greatest method of becoming strong.

    
     I came back with the feeling that the AA is an ideal way of running an organization, how a better understanding of the weakness of oneself becomes a binding factor and how it can help us overcome it and become stronger. Most of us suffer from the feeling that we are strong and therefore we do not want others in our lives.

     Who are really drunk – those who have realized or who have not – their own weakness?

     Who is really anonymous? Who is able to have good relationship within an organization or who keeps himself away in the society?

 

 

 

A CHILD WAS BORN THIS DAY

 

Christ was born this day.

In fact Christ is born every day and every hour, whenever there is a need to bring about balance between the eternal truth and the ephemeral one.

Christ is born to show that to say the truth and to tread the path means suffering alone.

Yet Christ is born again and again, to show that the flame of faith that the eternal truth shall prevail ultimately, cannot be let go off.

Christ has to be born again only because he has been crucified again.

Yesterday truth would have been crucified at the altar of convenience. Greed, with sullied hands would have throttled his throat.

But Christ shall rise again.

Any amount of flogging, any amount of insults, any number of crosses he shall have to carry, shall not prevent him from the dharmic necessity to rise once again and give out his sermons so that at least those who have the eyes to see and heart to hear would get redeemed. 

The heathens worshipping money, power or positions, may not answer to his call, understand or pay heed. 

They will certainly conspire, threaten, give away, betray and prefer that a scoundrel be let off rather.

Yet Christ shall be born again.

He is defiance personified and yet humility to the core. Compassion cares not for logic.

He shall be welcomed by Wise men from the East or West, be protected by his Father in heaven and his spirit shall never be vanquished.

Christ is born again.

He comes as a child, in the most humble of places - in the midst of lambs who care; Lambs who scheme not; Lambs who would rather die, than would go in for the kill.

There and there alone, Christ is born again.

Wishing every one a Merry Christmas.

FAITH, HOPE AND INTELLIGENCE

        There is a constant war going on between faith, hope and intelligence, at very many points in life. 

        When my son was a boy of 3 or 4 years, I had to leave him at his Grandparents’ house for some family function.  They lived at Guruvayur then and my Father-in-law worked in a Bank there.  On the evening before I left them there, I was going around the stalls around the Temple.  Seeing the crowd, I told my son to be careful when coming to the place with his grandparents or mother and that he should not go astray in the crowd. (I remember that I was myself said to be notorious at slipping away at unguarded moments and as a result my parents had to suffer a lot to search and get me from various crowded areas).  ‘Even if you get lost somewhere’, I told him, ‘remember to inform them regarding your grandfather’s name and bank name, because no one will know my name or address here’.

          He looked up at my face and asked, “But will not God take care of children?”.  I was stunned for an answer. Was it his faith or hope?

          He was too young to be taught that one should pray and yet not forget to tie the camel. Too early for such intelligence to be attained either.

         This reminded me of an instance which Sr. Stella, one of the resource persons, told us at a youth camp at Divyodaya, Coimbatore, when I was in my college.  She recounted that a small child used to freely wander about in a hospital, all alone.  When he was asked whether he was not afraid, the child promptly said, ‘why should I? My father is there’.  His father was a bedridden man, with both legs amputated. This was faith and hope foiled into one.

       Faith has been best described in the story of the disciple who walked over a river at the command of his guru, though the guru himself did not succeed. The disciple had implicit faith in his guru but the guru doubted himself.

         But the realised ones are able to see the God in all living beings.  It is not their faith or hope.  It is their knowledge.  That is superior intelligence.  That person who commanded, ‘keep my legs wherever you feel there is no God,’ is an example of such a realised one. For them you and I and He are all the same.

       When vacillating between faith, hope and doubt, it is the intelligence to seek the truth that can alone prevail.  The eternal search for that intelligence alone could sustain faith and hope.  True knowledge can be derived only from that intelligence.  To abandon the path will be therefore as disastrous as not having any faith at all.

     One may not have faith in ‘a’ God, not in morality, not in karma, not in man-made laws. But even to say that, one definitely has a faith in himself.  That is the point where all searches ultimately converge at - to know the source of that ‘Self’.  Till then the search has to continue, by whatever means.  That is the road from faith to intelligence, through hope.  Though the three may look different, they are integral parts of the whole. 

     It is a combination of these factors perhaps that Christ prescribed regarding, ‘how to survive as a sheep among wolves’ – ‘be wise as serpents and innocent as doves’. (Mathew 10:16)

 

A MAGNIFICENT MAN - SHRI S R KRISHNAMURTHY

Shri. S. R. Krishnamurthy of Coimbatore is fondly known as Krishnamurthy mama.  Though he is in Coimbatore, few know the height of his greatness.

He became famous because of a role he did in Bala’s Naan Kadavul a Tamil film.  In the film he is a mouna sami.  He plays a significant role at the climax stage in the film.

But more than that, there is much to his life, many require to know.

He was born in a Brahmin family as the eighth child and therefore was named after Krishna.

But he did not have legs and hands as any one of us have.  Yet, it goes to the credit of his parents and family members that he has been nurtured and brought to what he is today.

He is an A Grade Artist in Carnatic Music in the AIR.  Till date he conducts classes in Carnatic music for children.  He has been awarded Kalaimamani award by the State Government of Tamil Nadu.

Some one asked him whether he did not get (Vangalaya) Padma Shri.  He said it has to be given, not got (Adhellam kodukkanum, vanga kudathu)

His nephew once told me this incident: 

Shri. Krishnamurthy had applied during Indira Gandhi’s time to go to an International event at Moscow.  The District Collector was asked to give a report.  The Collector had called Shri. Krishnamurthy for an interview and perhaps seeing his physical condition said that the will recommend him for a pension.  Shri. Krishnamurthy retorted, ‘I am not a beggar who has come here for money.  I am an artist’.

He himself said this:

He had gone to meet President Abdul Kalam, when he had come to his friend’s house in Coimbatore.  When Shri. Krishnamurthy was taken to the presence of the President, Shri. Kalam asked what he wanted.  Shri. Krishnamurthy said, I do not want anything, I came to give you some soothing moments by singing, if you will allow me to sing in your presence’.  Shri. Kalam said, every one comes to me only asking for something, but you are the first person to have come to give me. I read some where that President Kalam had said that Shri. Krishnamurthy was one of the two persons who had inspired him.

Later the President made Shri. Krishnamurthy sing at the Rashtrapathi Bhavan.

Shri. Krishnamurthy is nearing 75 years.  He does his daily chores like taking food, drinking coffee, brushing his teeth, using mobile etc on his own.  He goes from one place to another within the house by rolling over.  He can paint by holding the pencil or brush with his lips.  Singing, of course his very nature.

I had the good fortune to have him as the Chief Guest for the Arangetram of my daughter.  The entire event became memorable with his presence.

My friend Periasamy wanted me to have a person who could inspire children in a school at Tirupur.  I mentioned about Shri. Krishnamurthy and told him that his very presence will inspire the children.  It happened so.  Though he was asked to speak, he preferred to sing. And the song Kurai ondrum illai marai murthy kanna, coming from him moved every one.  Even he had tears when he finished singing.

I am providing a few links for further information on the great person:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2EQQ8Q83ZMo

https://www.youtube.com/watch?time_continue=4&v=qsZj5VgTS3U

https://www.youtube.com/watch?time_continue=212&v=IWWfA5RPUuo

Last week I asked him how he was coping with the lock down since he cannot go out or children cannot come to him for learning music.  He said, he was spending time by painting.

If human capacity has to be tested to its limits, it is the way to defy the dictates of fate.  Shri. Krishnamurthy is a living example for that tenacity.

Where ego could rule in golden bubbles

Poem 34 from #Fruit-gathering by #RandranathTagore:

"Sire," announced the servant to the King, "the saint Narottam has never deigned to enter your royal temple.

"He is singing God's praise under the trees by the open road. The temple is empty of worshippers.

"They flock round him like bees round the white lotus, leaving the golden jar of honey unheeded."

The King, vexed at heart, went to the spot where Narottam sat on the grass.

He asked him, "Father, why leave my temple of the golden dome and sit on the dust outside to preach God's love?"

"Because God is not there in your temple," said Narottam.

The King frowned and said, "Do you know, twenty millions of gold went to the making of that marvel of art, and it was consecrated to God with costly rites?"

"Yes, I know it," answered Narottam. "It was in that year when thousands of your people whose houses had been burned stood vainly asking for help at your door.

"And God said, 'The poor creature who can give no shelter to his brothers would build my house!'

"And he took his place with the shelterless under the trees by the road.

"And that golden bubble is empty of all but hot vapour of pride."

The King cried in anger, "Leave my land."

Calmly said the saint, "Yes, banish me where you have banished my God."

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     When I first read this poem several years ago, I thought the inspiration or object behind this heart wrenching poem would have been #TheTajMahal.

     It is generally circulated that after completion of #TheTajMahal, #Shajahan had got the hands of the workers cut off and the chief architect killed. This is stated more as folk lore but no historical evidences have been adduced. Yet the grandeur of the structure made people believe in the story. So I had felt that the pain in the above poem was perhaps drawn from that instance.

     But later I came across another instance in the book #VandharkalVendrargal (Tamil) by #Madhan.

     He narrates the episode where # GhiasuddinTughlaq planned to build the #Thuklakabadfort. The Sultan had a feud with a #SufiMystic. The Mystic had cursed the project of new #Thuglakabadfort by saying that it will be deserted. The Sultan however had decided to kill the Mystic on his return from a campaign of Bengal. After the Sultan succeeded in his campaign, while he was coming back to Delhi, some one tells the Mystic that the Sultan is coming back and he may kill him on his return. The Mystic says, ‘Delhi is far away from Sultan’. As predicted by the Mystic, the Sultan got killed before entry into Delhi, at a reception arranged for him for his victorious expedition.

     On reading the above episode, I felt that Tagore had written the above poem perhaps only keeping in mind this incident. That the Sultan was returning from a campaign of Bengal, made me feel the probability, even more.

     Whatever was the inspiration, the pain exhibited in the poem is hard to overcome. It shows how the misplaced priorities of rulers and their egoistic approach to have a stamp of their name in the annals of history becomes tragic, not only to mankind, but even to themselves.

     Any project undertaken by anyone, any time, anywhere has to be, keeping this in mind.