Warrier's Collage 07982020 : Gardens of India :

Warrier's Collage 07082020 : Gardens of India Good Morning Some readers who receive Collage via WhatsApp mentioned difficulty in opening some links. One option is copying the entire message and pasting in your email draft. My trial showed that then, if you save the draft, all links appear in blue. Have a Nice Day M G Warrier A Interaction 1) Vathsala Jayaraman Dr T. V. Surendran's views in today's Collage made me introspect a lot. What the doctor has expressed is more than a reality. Bringing up children itself is a 24 hour job with associated duties, risks and responsibilities. While this is the case with normal children, stress of mothers with physically/mentally challenged children need not be elaborated. Normally it is the mothers who sacrifice their fine career to take care of such children. The initial anger, grief and denial and 'why me?' feeling slowly vanish and they have the big aim of bringing the child to normalcy ,with as much efforts as possible. Many mothers are unable to cope with the stress which leads to emotional pressures and mental depression. With so many therapy schedules, and with single income, financial burden is too heavy and they start feeling guilty for no fault of theirs. They are reluctant to discuss problems of their child with others and consider the problem as a social stigma. We can very well imagine the plight of mother when the very foundation of the family seems to have shaken. The child depends on the mother for every need including feeding, bathing, attending to calls of nature of girl kids who attain puberty. While parents of her age are talking about ranks, marks, attainments and awards of their kids,these mothers are anxious about the very survival of their child. "what after me? is the main anxiety of these mothers. Evidently all the above mothers are source of inspiration, hard work and determination. But they are unsung and find no place in magazine coverages. We have lived with such a girl child ( a close relative) for nearly three years and I am fully aware of every stress and strain in bringing up such kids.Fortunately or unfortunately the girl lived upto 18 years. The entire atmosphere at home was gloomy and they could not pay any attention to the education of the normal elder boy due to frequent hospitalization of the girl. The mother longs for the demise of the child within her lifetime. What a pity!" B. Current Affairs 1) RBI Monetary Policy Announcement a) Livemint report https://www.livemint.com/news/india/rbi-monetary-policy-live-updates-will-shaktikanta-das-cut-interest-rates-again-11596693274203.html b) Firstpost https://www.firstpost.com/india/rbi-maintains-accommodative-stance-leaves-repo-rate-unchanged-at-4-hints-at-future-relaxations-8678791.html No change in Base Rate 2) Prakash Iyer (@prakashiyer) Tweet : Have you heard of the Choluteca Bridge? The world is changing in ways we may have never imagined. And the Choluteca Bridge is a terrific metaphor for what can happen to us if we don’t adapt to changing times. My column in @BWBusinessworld. Read on. #columns #articles https://t.co/b8krCw7z9R https://twitter.com/prakashiyer/status/1290874327487803393?s=20 Collage's comment : "This Prakash Iyer article keeps coming from different contacts. Means, many find a new approach being suggested for reducing the pains of living in the post-Covid19 world. Even if no one knows when the virus will vanish, the 2020 edition of Covid is already 7 months old, although we don't call it C20. That was a diversion. Back to Iyer. I'm surprised, even Iyer who is willing to think differently and advise us to think of visualising a bridge where it is needed, is averse to say anything about having a different approach to resources, income, profits, asset accumulation and redeployment of existing resources." C Gardens of India 1) Gardens of India https://www.holidify.com/collections/gardens-in-india This link will take you to many gardens in India, some of which you have visited. Some of the lucky among you might have been to all of them. 2) Gardens in Kerala https://www.tripadvisor.in/Attractions-g297631-Activities-c57-t58-Kerala.html Enjoy the diversity. D Musical Water Fountains 1) Watch "A Musical Fountain show for India's armed forces at the Dhirubhai Ambani Square" on YouTube https://youtu.be/UshvjH64Yxs Reliance Foundation has announced its social commitment to the families and soldiers of the country's armed forces. Occasion, a year ago, was the celebrations that followed the wedding of Akash and Shloka. 2) Brindavan Garden, Mysuru https://youtu.be/Sm0JNechFmU Night view with Musical Fountain. 3) Ottapalam, Kerala https://youtu.be/px6uwH-MPWM This musical fountain is a new initiative in Kerala at its final stage of commissioning. The commentary in Malayalam may be ignored. Enjoy the rest. E Readers Write 1) V Babusenan "We in Kerala believe in the dictum: "Even if you throw away something in the river, measure it before doing so. In other words, we want a method for everything, even in madness. We see around us many rich and cultured families going downhill because of persons born there. We have no objection in their doing so, as long as they bring about the ruin systematically. One may not believe, until recently, we have had a failure formula or suktha which I venture to reproduce below: "Kaadi thavidu karuvadu ilakkari" (The thick liquid portion of cooked rice with rice here and there-concentrated and nourishing starch, rice-bran, dried fish and leafy vegetables-an ideal food for animal strength that hugely helps to arouse baser emotions and arrogance) "Paranjhaal appuram para" (When someone says something, retort abusively) "Paranjhal adi kittum" (Then you will certainly get beaten) "Adi kittiyaal mudiyum kaanaam" (That will be the end of you) This formula had been successfully practiced for failure by many, until recently, when fresh research has yielded a totally different meaning. That also I venture to mention here: " Kaadithu vidu" [This (life) is a thick jungle. Leave it.] "Karu vadu" (Think deep) " Lakkari" (Know your direction, that is, spiritual quest) " Paranjhaal appuram para" (When you get an answer, go beyond that. This is akin to the 'Nethi' principle.) "Paranjhaal adikittum" (If you go on like that, you will get at the bottom) "Adi kittiyaal mudiyum kaanaam" (Once you get at the bottom, you will certainly reach the ultimate realisation of Tat-Twam-Asi.) Thus the formula to bring about one's own ruin turned out to be an effective guidance to seek salvation. The researchers said one more thing: "If it were not in Kerala, the real nature of the suktha would have been out long ago." 2) R Jayakumar, Mumbai " The video presentation by Kerala Tourism is an excellent work to attract visitors from other parts of the country to the state as tourists. I enjoyed watching it. I have seen most of the tourist spots in Thiruvananthapuram and have often travelled through the scenic road leading to Kanyakumari . It is lovely and pleasant landscape all along the way. The doctor's dilemma, shared by Dr T V Surendran, is very touching. I have seen patients with serious illness telling doctors with folded hands, ' you are like the God to me now and I will listen to whatever you say '. But the doctor's normal reply would be, ' it is all in the hands of God in whom you believe '. Because a doctor is also an instrument of God, and God performs his miracles through his hands. This morning I received a video of a boy being pulled out of a manhole filled with rain water of yesterday's heavy rain in Mumbai. Water is being sucked into the manhole in high speed and some people including children are staring at the manhole. Suddenly three stout youths appear on the scene, they stand close to the manhole and one of them bends and puts his hand into the manhole and with some struggle brings out a boy who was totally submerged into the water. Who saved this boy from death, God or the three youth? Certainly it is the hand of God working through the hands of the youth. I remember an incident of old, when in a similar situation a boy fell into a manhole filled with water while playing in front of a Housing Board building. The mother who saw it screamed and a passerby venture to put his foot into the water and as he felt the boy's head he put one hand and pulled the boy out of the water. Later when the mother asked the son what did he feel like when he was under the water, he replied that he just closed the eyes and stood steady being sure someone would pull him out. Confident and keeping hope for rescue from the unknown! The boy is now a CA and a rich entrepreneur based in Dubai." ( My response to the question "God or the youth..." : " I find people trying to measure infinity in inches and ounces. Let's not quarrel with them. It's up to the person concerned to attribute divinity in anything good or bad happening. For me, belief is purely a personal thing and a second person should not have a problem with that. Individual behavior must conform to established law. See the quote from Tagore below-Warrier) 3) A Quote from Tagore* Rabindranath Tagore wrote this in 1900 : “There is no god in that temple”, said the Saint. The King was enraged; “No God? Oh Saint, aren’t you speaking like an atheist? On that throne studded with priceless gems, beams the golden idol, And yet, you proclaim that it is empty?” “It is not empty; rather, it is full of royal pride. You have bestowed yourself, oh King, not the God of this world”, Remarked the saint. The King frowned, “2 million golden coins were showered on that grand structure that kisses the sky, I offered it to the Gods after performing all the necessary rituals, And you dare claim that in such a grand temple, There is no presence of God”? The Saint calmly replied “In the very year in which twenty million of your subjects were struck by a terrible drought; The desperate masses without any food or shelter, came begging at your door crying for help, only to be turned away, they were forced to take refuge in forests, caves, camping under roadside foliages, derelict old temples; and in that very year, when you spent 2 million gold coins to build that grand temple of yours, that was the day when God pronounced: ‘My eternal home is lit by everlasting lamps, in the midst of an azure sky. In my home the foundations are built with the values of Truth, Peace, Compassion and Love. This poverty-stricken puny miser, Who could not provide shelter to his own homeless subjects, Does he really fancy he can give Me a home?’ That is the day God left that Temple of yours. And joined the poor beside the roads, under the trees. Like the emptiness of the froth in the vast seas, Your mundane temple is hollow. It is just a bubble of wealth and pride.” The enraged King howled, “Oh you sham cretin of a person, Leave my kingdom this instant”. The Saint replied calmly, “To the very place to which you have exiled the Divine, Banish now the devout too" Rabindranath Tagore, 20th of Shravan, 1307 (as per Bengali Calendar) (*Received as a forward from Dr T V Surendran. Collage has been trying to drive in this point in different ways. It may be recalled, we quoted song No 11 of Geethanjali last week. Please listen to the recent talk by Swami Sarvapriyananda who is in US now : https://youtu.be/0iZ3GG5SYOo explaining the significance of Om and the Upanishadic assertion "Thattwamasi") 4) Ramayana Masam (Month) Special https://youtu.be/LecuioFN9E0 A boatman washes Rama's feet before allowing the Lord to step into his boat. Rama all in smiles. Open the link to listen to the interesting episode narrated by Swami Muktananda.