Mountbatten’s Coffee Cup

Lord Mountbatten opens the newspaper a week back and as a habit he reads the news from India first. After all he was the one who was entrusted with the task of a handover from British India to an independent India. Handover he did, but not before approving a surgical procedure of dividing the country into two, India and Pakistan resulting in the death of millions of citizens of erstwhile British India in the name of religion and region.

 

The news about formation of Telangana, the 29^th state of India takes the centre page. Mountbatten had a smirk on his face while reading through the news. He was quite amused at the irony of it when he recollected how fiery were the arguments Gandhi, Nehru and Patel among others had, when they talked to him about the need for an Indian Union. Yet again, here is a country which was split into multitude of pieces which perhaps was one of the most complex jigsaw puzzles ever existed. He was the man who helped the people of the country to solve the puzzle. The fact that the jigsaw board was joined with a considerable amount of blood remains history.

What struck Mountbatten as an irony is that, this is the same set of people who accused the British Crown for implementing the policy of Divide & Rule. Of course yes, Britain did that and they did it with a purpose. Unless they had maintained these conflicts within the regions of the subcontinent they would’ve never achieved their agenda of domination. The strange thing that is happening now is the people of the country wanting to walk back to history where they existed as scattered regions of smaller power houses. They conveniently forget the truth that it took a lot of struggle to draw the map of what they see as India today.

Edwina came with a muffin which Mountbatten likes along with his morning coffee. He showed her the news. Her first reaction was, “What’s wrong with these people?” All over the world, even countries are trying their best to unite themselves to form stronger bonds, politically and economically. Here is a country, which by virtue of its size and diversity has earned the title of a subcontinent, predicted to be the next super power in the world and counted among the potential leaders of tomorrow’s world, fighting among themselves to march back to its pre-independence era. 

Unions are getting formed or at least discussed across the globe. The United States remain as a mighty power. European Union has shown its strength. Gulf Union is being thought about. It is a reality that stares at your face that the less disconnected you are, the more powerful you will be. Civil unrest and geographical tensions is the result when states try to defend their territories. Blessed are those who realize the power of being together!

Mountbatten let out a sigh. He was quite painful to see these developments. He has been living all his life watching the result of the partition he approved. He wish he could convene a meeting again with Gandhi, Nehru, Jinnah, Patel and the likes of these men and raise their voice to the people of this country about the dangerous waters they are getting into. It is a Telangana today; a Gorkhaland tomorrow and even surprising was a demand from the God’s Own Country down south for a state of Malabar to be formed!

Ridiculous is the word! It is high time the country realized that splitting is not a solution, it is creating further challenges. Wake up and realize that you are now fighting with yourself. If this continues you’ll end up tearing the country apart to tiny pieces which you may never be able to join again. What could be more alarming are the birds of prey that must be flying high watching your moves awaiting a right moment to strike! Beware of these modern day imperialists who will be waiting for an opportunity to invade and establish their empire even before you know you lost your freedom forever!

Mountbatten got up from his chair and as he turned the coffee cup slipped from his hand and hit the floor. He stood there helpless as he watched the beautifully crafted porcelain which now lies on the floor broken into hundreds of little pieces and they all seem to be asking him a question, ‘Can you make a cup out of us, again?’

When God Delegates

Article for Bethlehem Matrimonial - Feb 2014

Do you remember the kind of needs you had during your school days? Did you ever want something very badly but was a bit hesitant to ask your father to buy that for you? The most logical step you would’ve taken at that time is to approach your mother with the request. In some cases it would’ve been one of your elder siblings instead.

 

You would’ve seen the result of such an indirect approach taking shape in many ways. In some cases your mother will get it done withouteven consulting the ‘traditional’ head of the family. At times you’ll get a response in negative from her, stating a reasonable excuse for not getting that for you. Many a times you’ll see her waiting for one of the most suitable time of the day to present the case in a tactical manner to your father. This auspicious moment may arrive on the same day of your request or in some cases a day or two later. The matter is taken for a discussion and a judgment is usually made within the same day.

Things are not too different up there in Heaven. A mere thought on the volume of requests that reaches the Supreme Power, will be mind boggling. Imagine the number of prayers that get churned out every other moment by those who are alive, asking for a variety of needs that are to be fulfilled. Add to that the belief of praying for those who left this mortal place so that these prayers will make their entry to Heaven easier. Things become even more interesting when we believe that these heavenly beings will be submitting their own set of prayers for the well-being of their dear ones back in the Earth. If the Creator has to be the single point of contact for answering all these prayers I am quite sure that He’ll go crazy with this avalanche of requests that reach Him!

That’s when God has successfully empowered a next-in-line operations team where He expects a considerable number of requests to be handled by them. We call them Saints. There are quite a few of them known by different names and instilled with specific responsibilities. Historically, people have learned that God has delegated some of His powers to these Saints and asked them to deal directly with people, very similar to how your mother dealt with your request.

They are the mediators for God. It is not necessary that all your requests need to be directed straight to the Father in Heaven. He has entrusted His beloved set of Saints to handle some of these requests so that they can be addressed, probably at a much faster pace than what would’ve been queued up at the pearly gates of Heaven awaiting the attention of the Mighty One.

Though I am afraid a few of the above statements may be perceived as bordering satire, the fact remains that a divine intervention need not always be direct in nature. What is important as God Himself said is to believe. He is the one who created us and knows for sure that there is an element of materialism in all of us. Each one of us who are born mortal will have needs and wants for which we look up to Him. All what He expects from us is to believe and ask. “Ask and it will be given to you”, is what He said. And He created different ways by which we could ask.

I used to be a strong believer of direct communication with God Himself. Over the last few years I’ve understood that He does work through others. Many a times your wishes get fulfilled even without you asking for it. For this He may choose one of your loved ones itself or maybe a total stranger too. Nevertheless a bigger part is being played by the Saints on creating this pathway to Him in a seemingly easier manner. The prayers, material or otherwise, can be directed through these Saints which is one of the biggest realizations I had in the recent past.

It gives a very special feeling of happiness to know that there is someone out there who is closer to God and ready to help you with your prayers. All what you are expected to do is, to talk to them, tell them your concerns and request them to take your prayers to the One whom you believe in. And trust me; it never fails when you have an extra pair of hands to knock and you’ll see the doors getting opened for you! Believe!

Secrets of Communication

It was day one of our second year graduation class of Commerce. The professor who was assigned to take the subject Business Law introduced himself as Jacob Thomas with the suffix Jr. There obviously was a senior professor with the same name. Soon after, he started writing on the board and what I saw was the last thing I expected. A man in his late forties teaching a relatively dry subject wrote on the board in such a beautiful manner that I could see an art form unveiling itself! His handwriting was not just impeccable but extremely attractive that after he left the class, none of us even felt like wiping the board.

 

Days passed by and we got further acquainted with the professor and his communication skills. His excellence did not stop with the calligraphy-class of writing but he proved to be truly awesome with his verbal communication as well. Hailing from a small town in the state of Kerala, down south in India, where we hardly had to use English in our daily lives, a sight such as the discourse by our professor was worth attending the class. Not sure if that was the reason for an almost complete attendance during his sessions.

We were fascinated by his ability to speak in fluent English using such words that we had to refer to a dictionary to understand the meaning of some of them at the end of each class. It was even more surprising to hear him say one day that he did his schooling in Malayalam, the vernacular language of our state. For a moment I genuinely wondered about the irony of getting an English medium education and not even capable of communicating even remotely, like this man, who had none of these amenities. A few of us got really interested to know how he managed to pick up this skill and requested him to share his secrets of communication.

He was a soft spoken man with a delightful smile to his credit. He was indeed happy to receive such a request from us and smiling throughout, shared the recipe of his success. These were the pearls of wisdom he shared with us that day which I quite distinctly remember applying in my life, which I honestly believe helped me improve my communication skills.

·         Read an English Newspaper – Helps you develop your vocabulary. Please be careful about the choice you make since there are ones that are published with the sole intention of increasing circulation and not giving due importance to the language. But there are others which genuinely communicate using exemplary language.

·         Listen to English news in radio/TV – During his days there was no television and hence the radio news from BBC was his only source of good English. These days we’ve plenty of options in radio/TV. Again beware of your choice.

·         Make a friend out of your mirror – This is one of the most effective ways to improve your communication. Talk to your mirror just like the way you speak to a friend. Make this a habit and you’ll see how your ‘friend’ helps you better your communication.

·         Read a lot – A habit, the worth of which is unimaginable! Develop this hobby. You do not have to focus on a particular topic initially. Start with something that interests you and slowly widen your horizon. You may stumble upon words, about which you are totally clueless. Have a dictionary handy. These days the options are quite simple with smart phones and apps which provide good dictionary services.

·         Write – This is an extremely effective way to improve your language. Start with simple topics. Develop a hobby of diary writing which can be very rewarding. Create a blog. Write about happenings in your life which you could share with the public. Take a shot at writing competitions. You won’t even believe how your communication skills improve over a period of time with this awesome method.

Nothing should stop you from improving yourself. Communication in any form, spoken, written, non-verbal, whichever may it be always has room for improvement. Never stop learning and that’s one secret we need to remind ourselves time and again!

Mr. & Mrs. Change

Article for Bethlehem Matrimonial - Jan 2014 

 

A few months after being admitted into the institution of marriage, I remember talking to a friend of mine about how life has changed. Guess I was cribbing too much that he had to stop me somewhere in the middle and asked me a genuinely simple question. 

 

“Before getting married, you were away from your family, living here in the same city, working with the same company on the same job and with the same set of friends. All that is new in your life is a wife and a house. Have you ever thought what change means to her? She was staying with her family, working with a company in a different city and had her own set of friends. She had to leave all that and move to a totally strange place, being unemployed and hardly any friends around, but live with a man whom she met just three months back. And you, complain about change?!”

Needless to say, the question stirred my mind. I looked at him with the kind of expression of disbelief that he had to literally shake me out of my world of thoughts. I realized what he said was right; it is just that my independent soul was not so prepared to accept this fact of life that is seen all around me. It was apparent that the patriarchal society we live in today had blindfolded me from the truth in our life. I was enlightened and thanks to my friend I could think beyond ‘me’ in life. As I read in one of the recent blogs by Seth Adam Smith, I realized that marriage was not for me, but for us!

Things may not be the same with all the couples out there. There are the blessed ones who work in the same company or same city, who get married and the change is pretty much the same for both the parties. Though I do not have any statistics to prove, I feel such blessed ones are far and few in numbers. The majority belong to the category where my sweetheart and I come from. The plot is usually the same; the woman leaves her family and her social circle, quits her job and moves along with the man to a totally strange city. If the couple had not known each other for too long that only adds to the complexity.

All the men folks out there, who have at least once thought or said that things will or have changed with marriage, have you ever thought about this paradox of life? It is the women who bear the brunt of the change most often and they still have to put up with the pseudo concerns of their men who whine about the changes in life.

On further thought the blame cannot be fully bestowed on these poor creatures called men. These behavioral patterns could well be attributed to the conditioning we all receive from our society. Historically we’ve seen our sisters, mothers and grandmothers being married to a different family than the one they were born into. The in-laws became their new parents and the traditions followed at husband’s home became theirs as well. These children of God are blessed with a gift of acceptance that they gel with the changes in a seemingly simple manner.

The male of the species are never taught about the changes their female counterparts experience with this arrangement. Hence from time immemorial every married man thinks more about the changes that happen in his life than her life not to mention, their life. With all due respect to the older generation, this would’ve been acceptable then, but not anymore. In the modern times where women are equal or even better than men in many fields they interact, it is high time that men understand and appreciate the nuances of change a girl faces who joins him in Holy Matrimony.

Changes are part of any discipline. Married life comes with its own set of changes as well. Never spend your time and energy thinking hard about how to face them individually. It becomes quite interesting if you continue to hold your hands just the way you did during the wedding ceremony and face the challenges of life together. Holding your hands was not only a gesture but a promise that you give each other for a lifelong commitment to face and overcome any difficulties life may pose in front of you.

You have decided to take the boat named marriage together. Why then row it by yourself? Hand over each other the oars of faith in the One that united you as well as faith in each other. It’ll help you cut through the waters of life and you’ll see for yourself that your boat remains intact even in the mightiest of the tempests.

Change is a way of life. Acknowledge, accept and act on it together. God be with you!

Perceptions

I remember eagerly waiting for summer vacations during school days. A whole year of classes, tests, punishments and all gets into the oblivion with the onset of long holidays. The feeling was quite similar early in the morning today when I woke up at my home in Dubai to a beautiful sight.The roads and trees were all fresh with the rare event of rains in this part of the world! Lovely drops of rain were lashing the roads and everyone driving seems to feel quite happy about not being indoors. I wanted a piece of the happiness pie as well and got ready quite quickly and headed to office. My red beauty from Toyota seems to be dancing in the rain since all what she usually gets is a bucket of water on alternate days.

 

The traffic was quite lean today with schools closed and people perhaps feeling lazy to get up from the bed in such an awesome weather. The drive to the office was very smooth and I thanked God for gifting me such a beautiful day. The excitement was even greater when I thought I’ll be onboard an aircraft in a few hours heading straight home to my sweethearts!

The half empty parking lot welcomed me and I got out inhaling the fragrance of the desert rain. It was slightly drizzling as though the Goddess of Rain was embracing me with her tender love. There were beads of raindrops that laced the border of my office building and I hopped across each time a droplet came down and playfully avoided them from hitting me. I reached office and for a moment thought of having a hot cup of tea with some breakfast which will complement the gorgeous weather, instead of my usual oats. I overcame the temptation and walked directly to my desk and unlocked it to reach for my laptop. Alas! I was greeted by an empty space. A moment of panic struck me. Losing an office laptop is not a major concern since all the work has a back-up created; nevertheless losing was scary!

My gaze was directed to the window while I tried to deduce what could’ve happened. The dark clouds outside now appeared to me like a devil with an ominous cloak on and performing some black magic ritual, the result of which poured down as drops of fire. I suddenly realized that my laptop didn’t get stolen; in fact I had taken it home last evening assuming that I may need it to do some checks for remote mail access. In all the happiness and excitement early in the morning, I conveniently forgot about it while leaving to office.

I was really upset for such an oversight. This will now mean I’ll have to drive back in the rain which now annoyed me big time. The rain drops that earlier felt like a soft feather touch, now were like sharp needles pricking me. I scolded myself for not getting an umbrella and somehow tried to protect my head with a handkerchief. The droplets continued to fall from the office building. I cursed the maintenance department for not doing a proper job. Ducking down to the falling drops and jumping across pools of water thinking about the poorly designed drainage facilities of this city, I reached where the car was parked. I was about to get in when it dawned on me that I forgot the house key in my bag that I carried to office! It didn’t matter that temperature outside was coming down closer to a single digit; I was boiling from within.

All that appeared beautiful a few moments back were turning out to be an eyesore for me. All the exhilarating experience of the rarity of rains went down the drains of despair. I went back to the office, got the home key and headed home to get the laptop. While waiting at a signal on the way I overheard the last bit of a conversation between my heart and my mind.

Heart said, “I was jumping up and down with joy a moment back and now I don’t even feel that I’m moving.” Mind replied, “It is all about perceptions my dear”. 

Happiness!

Two more days and I’ll be off for Christmas to my hometown in Kerala from this desert kingdom of Dubai. Told my colleagues, friends and the folks in the apartment complex as well. They all wished me ‘happy journey’. The day before travel, I was having lunch at the office cafeteria. I mentioned casually to the waiting staff about my trip. His service was exemplary as usual. At the end he gave me the bill, smiled at me and said ‘happy journey’. I felt a difference this time. I felt happiness! :)

Day of Purple!

Liya woke up to the sound of her pretty little alarm. Her house seems to be quite different today missing the usual hustle and bustle of a normal week day. Instead of the usual sounds from the kitchen she could feel the silence in her home which seems to be holding its breath as though not to wake up anyone even with a slightest sound.

She peeped into the hallway and was surprised to see darkness still there with all the curtains drawn. Her parents were fast asleep, but Josa, her brother who shares his room with a number of gadgets seems to be lost in one of his powerful telescopes. He was considered as a young genius in inter-planetary communication. She tip-toed to his room to check what is happening. On any other day he would’ve shouted at her to be out of his ‘experiment lab’ which is the name he had given to his room. She was instead surprised when her brother with a grave face called her in and showed her the breaking news that one of the channels were airing.

Yet another launch! She heard her brother saying, this time it is very interesting to observe that it is a sequel to the previous attempt which almost exposed their lives, unknown to the rest of the universe. It is a humble yet powerful nation in the ‘Blue Planet’ which has set forth with their latest vehicle. Among all the things she liked the name of the space shuttle; it was called ‘Mangalyaan II’. The previous attempts to probe their home, which people in Earth call as the ‘Red Planet’ alias MARS had all been successfully encountered or re-directed by a team of scientists with whom Josa spends considerable amount of time.

Though she could see the tension on her brother’s face one thing made Liya happy. As the case was in the previous such incident, a global holiday was declared with governments across thinking hard on how to tackle this latest invasion. It had to be a strategic maneuver, just like what was done earlier so that the rest of the world should not be aware of such a fully flourished Martian civilization living below the red surface of the planet.The whole of Martian race is sustained by the extraordinary scientific and technological brilliance that at times they need to remind themselves not to get too carried away by narcissism.

Josa recollects what happened with a major incident of incursion from the NASA where a four wheeled toy named Spirit landed on the surface of MARS more than a decade ago. It generated enormous amounts of concerns that a global crisis center was set up to deal with the grave danger. Strategists across the planet were sent for and the advanced brains in the science community worked overtime to figure out a subtle but effective way of defending this well-kept secret from the rest of the universe.

All that was history and now this latest incident proves to be the greatest of the challenges the planet has ever faced. The attempt is from a nation that has always been considered ‘developing’ by the mighty powers on the face of Earth. Little did anyone notice how steady the growth of this country had been. It has proved to be so good that they have become the first country from Planet Earth to attempt sending a human being to Mars!

Josa had learned that there was a sole traveler on board on the space vehicle, Mangalyaan II. It was a matter of time before it reached the gravitational surface of Mars and for the first human being to touch down on the red soil. He was contacted earlier by the scientific community which had formed a ‘Think Tank’ on how to create a sustainable protection for the planet of Mars especially from the intrusion from other planetary beings. ‘Operation Code Red’ was drawn and is currently put in place to pre-empt any invasion such as the upcoming vehicle from Earth.

Months passed by and the plan was fully executed awaiting the final approach of the vessel. Josa had the privilege of being outside the perimeter of the Martian territory and was taking a ride on his favorite Red Bike which allowed him to traverse the surface of Mars at ease. Operation Code Red had started transmitting powerful seditious signals covering the approach track of Mangalyaan II. The signals were intended to confuse the binary code package that forms the brain of most of the advanced space technology from Earth. From the latest news that was captured from the Earthly media, the signals are doing exactly what was intended to do. Mangalyaan II reported certain technical failures, the reason for which is largely unknown to the scientists back in Earth. They are trying their best to steer the vessel on its right course and ensure the safety of the lone astronaut on board.

Dr Lena Jain, has already become a celebrity back on Earth being the brave soul who took up this assignment of travel to the unknown. She had always been the odd one in the family who was quite used to taking risks that no one else even dared to. Many of them were failures but the successes she had, outweighed the bitter taste of failures. The feeling of success made her intoxicated that each time she aimed higher.

While the on board computers started acting funny, Lena was thinking about how she overcame the stiff resistance from her family when she announced her decision to be part of Mangalyaan II. Everyone said she’s getting into a suicidal mission. Everyone except her dad tried persuading her to withdraw from the plan. There was no pressure whatsoever from the Indian Space Research Organization [ISRO] which was instrumental in this mission to Mars stretching the limits which no other country on Earth had ever attempted before. In fact they were quite surprised when she conveyed her decision. She had an unusually strong will which ultimately landed her the captain’s hat on the Mars Orbiter, the official name of the mission.

Lena was not sure what was happening to the systems when the final approach was set in. All the complex machines around her started giving warning signals. The compass seemed to be going berserk though she could not feel any unusual rotation of the spaceship. She knew something was wrong but did not panic. What’s the point in panicking when you are prepared for the worst? She had accepted all possible odds in this travel. There were more chances of failure than success. Nevertheless she was quite happy for being the only human being who has reached so near the planet of Mars. Her communication channels with the space centre back home was still open and she knew that an entire planet was praying for her. The world suddenly became her family and she had relatives all over the globe!

The vessel was fast approaching its destination. The warning sounds in the cockpit had become quite intense that she had to put on her ear plugs and depend only on the signals appearing on the screen. Everything seemed to be going haywire that she started feeling a bit eerie about the whole atmosphere around her. It was a matter of few minutes before Mangalyaan II touched down on the surface of Mars creating history. Her excitement levels had never been so high that she literally punched the air amidst all the confusion around. All of a sudden the warning sounds stopped and the communication line back with the space centre got cut off. She couldn’t hear even a tiny bit of sound. It was as though someone had clothed her with a blanket made of absolute silence! She could see from her windscreen an entire planet awaiting her visit and extending her a red carpeted welcome, literally.

Josa was taking a wild turn near one of the deepest trenches on the Martian surface when he saw a feeble blinking light from the North East direction. That was something totally new to him since it was neither a star nor one of the satellites he was so familiar with. This has to be it, the visitor from Earth. He was surprised that Mangalyaan II could surpass the signal jamming attempts and managed to enter the atmosphere of Mars. As he awaited the final stages of approach he received a warning signal stating transmission of a powerful electromagnetic field over the surface of Mars attempted to disable all electronic devices on the surface. He promptly switched off his device so as to save it from structural damage due to electromagnetic waves.

While he was on it, Josa saw the spaceship and did a mental math of its speed. He knew it was approaching quite fast and as expected crashed on the surface of Mars. He also knew that whatever equipment that were available on the spaceship will no longer be useful due to the powerful magnetic waves that would’ve disabled everything creating a dangerous proposition to the human being inside as well.

He knew he couldn’t wait for the search party to arrive and had to rush to the space shuttle. As he was about to reach for the door Lena stepped out and fell on the floor of Mars losing her consciousness. Her oxygen apparatus had stopped working and the surface of Mars offered very less in terms of inhalable air. Josa was quick to take her to a XO chamber, standing for eXtreme Oxygen, specially built on the Martian surface for emergencies involving people of Mars since they also needed this precious gas for survival.

It was a matter of minutes before Lena opened her eyes. The last thing she expected was to see a handsome young man extending a warm hand holding a steaming cup of coffee. Startled of course she was, but took the cup from Josa who introduced himself. Josa knew it’ll be sometime before the search party arrived locating the point of impact by the space vessel. He wanted to have a quick conversation with this specimen from Earth who was courageous enough to travel all the way across and finally managed to land on the Red Planet.

Josa and Lena got along pretty well. Two young and brilliant minds shared many ideas they had and the most important one was the welfare of their respective races. It didn’t take much time for Lena to picture the survival strategy of Martians and she also figured out the apparent criticality they were facing with the reduced levels of Oxygen production.

People of Mars had figured out long back that the Oxygen levels they had on Mars was way too low for generations to survive. Unless they figured out a way to produce further Oxygen their very race itself faced total elimination from the history of Universe. The supremely brilliant minds were set to work immediately and needless to say they found an alternative.

The water tables of Mars had a feature similar to Earth but in a reverse manner though. The water in Mars mostly was fresh in nature whereas only one third was saline. The analysis led to the discovery of extracting a magical element from the salt in sea water and generating Oxygen out of that. While the discovery was majorly lauded across the planet, the question always remained of the limited availability of sea water which will eventually prove to be insufficient on the long run.

They were amidst this dilemma when Mangalyaan II was announced as a global threat and the attention immediately got shifted to this new intrusion. Lena’s mind was working quite fast all throughout the conversation and was quick to identify the process of extracting the magical element from sea water. A realization dawned on her in the likes of revelation for St John or enlightenment for Buddha!

She shared her thoughts with Josa on creating a sustainable inter-planetary survival package. The whole idea was based on utilizing the sea water from Earth which was available in plenty and extracting the magical element which will provide a sustainable Oxygen generator for zillions of years for the people of Mars. In return, the tremendously intelligent brains of Mars will devise a strategy to transport the fresh water back to Earth where it was much needed.

It was the birth of a galactic brilliance which promised a renewed hope for both the planets! The day henceforth will be called ‘Day of Purple’ when the people on the Blue and Red planets joined hands to realize the importance of collaborative community living proclaiming to the universe the brotherhood of love!

Let there be peace in the universe!