Warrier's Collage 06092020 : Poetry

Warrier's Collage 06092020 : Poetry Collage prioritises : Please don't miss C1 : Indian Economy : Manish Aggarwal D1 : Learning Management from Eagle : Vathsala Jayaraman E1 : Magazines and Dating : M G Warrier M G Warrier Pradakshinam https://youtu.be/5jJt1MZerrw Some aspects of Pradakshinam related to "Adwaita" explained. A Interaction 1) V Babusenan The British government once observed that the lives of the elders in Scotland were utterly joyless. It called for suggestions to enthuse these hapless people. Someone's suggestion was : Tell them a good story while they are young. That will take care of them in their old age! This is only a story. Though the thought behind the suggestion was not that innocent, there seems to be some truth in it. Such stories attain a certain poignancy while recalled in our old age. Many readers may not agree, but that is my experience. Years ago, while attending a training programme in RBI's Staff Training College in Chennai, I befriended one Mr.Aggarwall from Delhi office. He was an ardent admirer of Krishna Menon and a good raconteur. He told me a few Urdu stories of which one I wish to share with you. Three friends were walking to the next village to attend another friend's wedding. Suddenly it grew dark and a drizzle started, accompanied by thunder and lightning. They didn't mind the drizzle but when the lightning persisted, they were upset. In fact a couple of lightning bolts struck the ground close to them. They saw a dilapidated temple on the way. One of them stopped and said to the others : "Friends, the lightning God wants one of us. If we stick together, all the three will go. If one of us is destined to die, let it happen in front of this temple. We will, one by one, go and stand beside that lamp pillar with folded hands for five minutes. I will go first. "They agreed. He walked up to the lamp pillar and stood there with folded hands.Others watched from where they stood with trepidation. Nothing happened. He came back after five minutes. Then another volunteered. Five minutes elapsed. Except the drizzle, nothing happened. He too came back. Now, think of the plight of the third youngster! He embraced his two friends, told them to think of him at his best and slowly moved forward. Standing near the lamp pillar of the abandoned temple, with folded hands, he started telling his last prayer. Tears rolled down his cheeks. Suddenly there was a deafening noise and the earth trembled . The two were gone!" (Start praying for others. If others are safe, chances are, you are also safe and secure. You won't know what others are asking from God!- Collage) 2) P K K Nair A big Thank U Warrier, for ur COLLAGE giving all of us a large ship of friendship to navigate our fearless thoughts and ideas. Shri Balasubramanian’s briefing on bills discounting of banks is an important route for lending operations indicating movements good which pave ways for higher growth of our economy. I thank him for the input! Smt Vathsala Jayaraman has again done a great service in giving a lucid commentary on Lalitha Sahasranamam. I have been listening to the commentary of this Sahasranamam by one Swamy on the Amrita TV for the last two years or so. He has completed 998 of the 1000 so far. The Swamy explains a lot of mythological facets connected with the evolution of Lalitha, the embodiment of Sakthi, Adipsrasakthi from which the Akhanda Mandalakaram originates and ends into itself. Thanks Vathsala! Shri Babusenan in his inevitable style dwelt at length on the origin of the Kerala art of Kathakali of which one has to learn quite a bit. His contributions to our Collage are quite commendable! I look forward for his enlightening inputs on a regular basis. Sometime back I had an occasion to mention about my hobbies which I pursue in my leisure time and I mentioned about my most passionate one i.e. Copoclephology! If I say that I am a copoclephologist, many may not understand who I am . Don’t worry, I must say I am a collectior of key chains. There is big story behind this! At present I have a total collection of over 8500 of them. My second hobby, in all ten, is graphology. One may define graphology as the art and science of reading handwriting in general and signature in particular. More details will follow later." B Poetry 1) History of Poetry https://blog.bookstellyouwhy.com/a-brief-history-of-poetry We can make a beginning here! 2) 20th Century Poetry https://englishsummary.com/20th-century-poetry-themes/ 3) 21st Century Poetry https://poemanalysis.com/explore-poets/21st-century/ 10 Poets who have contributed more. 4) Land Ballot Book Review : Audio https://www.rnz.co.nz/audio/player?audio_id=201767095 Introductory C Current Affairs 1) Manish Aggarwal on Indian Economy https://youtu.be/N1MlzX2Ei5g This is a two months old video link forwarded by Kiran Warrier in July 2020. Still valid and current! 2) RBI Revises Priority Sector Lending Guidelines https://m.timesofindia.com/business/india-business/rbi-issues-revised-priority-sector-lending-guidelines-to-increase-credit-penetration/amp_articleshow/77927525.cms D Readers Write 1) Vathsala Jayaraman Learning Management from Eagle Today's (Collage September 5, 2020) Guruvandana is noteworthy. Today is Teachers' Day. My father was a teacher for 60 long years, 35 years in a regular school and 25 years in a Tutorial College. He was very famous in Tiruchy District and a few of his students came out to be ICS officers. Not only human beings, but we have teachers all around in nature. We learn Paropakara from rivers and plants. Even from evil people how not to be. Shrimad Bhagavatham talks of 24 Gurus from plant, creeper, honey bee, hunter to prostitute woman. There is not even a single object in the world which does not teach some lesson on some day. Happiness in success makes us how to win. Failures and calamities make us very strong. I am very much interested to know how eagle is treated as a Management Guru. EAGLE When we see eagles flying at great heights we may think that eagles fly by instinct. Many do not know that if eagles are not taught to fly they will be safe and lazy like ducks. Mother eagle builds nest way up high in a tree, gathers soft things to line the nest. The baby eagles love the soft nest. Mother feeds them bit by bit. When it is time for the baby to fly, the same mother becomes stiff. She removes the soft things one by one, roughens the nest with sharp sticks and thorns and make the nest as uncomfortable as possible for the baby. The eaglets, losing the comfort zone come near the edge of the nest, look around the world. The mother flaps its wings. The child climbs on it.Mother flies taking the baby on its wings.When the baby feels very secure seating on her mother, the mother dives suddenly,plummating downwards, depriving the baby of its seat.The baby is in a free fall,tumbling down and down. The mother within seconds catches hold of the baby, comforts and gives some rest. This comfort does not last long. Once again the mother pushes the baby out in the air. The process gets repeated hundreds of times until the baby is strong enough to fly alone & experiences the thrill of total freedom. The mother, notwithstading its affection makes sure what is good for the baby. The intensive coaching makes the child live on its own. She does not hesitate to make the baby suffer for good. What a great training comparable to army training! Many of the business training institutes have "eagle" as their name or emblem. Eagles are role models not only to mothers but also to business people at large. Eagle seems to convey "Don't quake or complain. Soar above the crowd, look around, compare and do better. Eagles soar to great heights, have a sharp vision, have a clear view of the world below especially on the prey to catch. The businessmen should have a clear vision of what is happening in the market from a far off place, recognize the potential customers, attract or (attack) them at the right moment. At the same time, like an eagle, be aware of the probable hurdles and be prepared to face the same. Eagles are mostly confined to certain territories, mountains or forests,but know every nook and corner of the place. So also businessmen should concentrate on certain aspects, should be thorough with technology, product, marketing & competitors etc in their respective fields. Enough is enough. The bald eagles catch only one fish at a time. They know precisely how to catch this one fish and 99% they don't fail. The people have to restrict the number of products they can handle and choose the ones that match their skills and be assured of success. The eagles soar to the sky to get a prey. When they feel that it is beyond their reach, they simply fly down, ignoring the prey. The businessman should be able to assess his downfall and decide to stop his free fall. Any decision leading to disaster is not a decision at all. We see that though these attributes apply well to businessmen, the principles are of great significance to every individual. Mythologically too, Garuda, the son of Kashyapa and Vinata is glorified by Lord Krishna in Gita as " I am Garuda among birds". It is said eagle is of great importance to Christians also. Very often Christians compare themselves to eagles, with the wings representing faith and belief in God and the wind as the Holy Spirit. No doubt, eagle is a symbol of strength, hope, wisdom and perseverence. Eagle is a great Management Guru." 2) Paalpayasam @LOC, 1967 Onam at LOC with a……. (A very interesting anecdote* from a veteran Officer): Year 1967; Place: Command post. The last picket Indian Army have on the LOC on the Srinagar- Pattan-Baramula-Rampur- Uri –Muzzafarabad- Rawalpindi High way. It is the very same spot up to which passengers to Pakistan are taken now a days from Srinagar in Indian buses and transferred to Pakistani buses waiting across the LOC. Two decades earlier in 1947, Pak army was on the run backwards. We were chasing them from Srinagar, through this high way which runs through the southern bank of river Jhelam, at varying heights. As our army reached two third of a bridge, the withdrawing Pak army demolished all the 3 spans of the bridge on the re entrant over a water channel that empties the water from the southern ranges to Jhelum. A cease fire was declared and made effective from that moment. That spot happened to be on the Line of Control henceforth. United Nations Peace Keeping Force was called in to ensure that both sides do not violate the LOC. The UNPKF wanted to use this bridge to move their couriers to and fro from Indian side to POK side, as there was no other land connectivity to the other side. A suspension foot bridge using steel mesh over the undamaged pillars of the bridge was provided for that. For ease in walking wooden planks were placed as deck and wooden hand rails for safety. During the subsequent two decades of varying weather conditions such as snowy, rainy and hot summer, the so called wire mesh bridge got rusted, wooden planks and handrails damaged/ deteriorated and became unserviceable and risky. UNPKF took the matter with both the countries as they faced lot of inconvenience everyday. Only after protracted correspondence by the UNPKF on either side among themselves and with the armies on both sides, and a delay of two snowy winters, they could convince the armies on both sides to repair the bridge. As a Captain of the 19 INF Div Engr Regt located at Baramula I was tasked to undertake the repair work. For everything in the army there has to be reconnaissance. This being on the LOC, it has to be a joint recce in the presence of UNPKF representatives. Date and time for reconnaissance was finalized and I was briefed by GSO-1 Ops of the 19 Div, a day later to Cmdr. Engrs briefing. Both stressed that I should not reveal my identity. Time given to me was 0900 on the very next day of early September. I reached the LOC the previous day and spent a sleepless night in a bunker with the Commander of the “Command Post” At first light I was up with anxiety / excitement, with my feet in boots and poories & potato curry in my stomach. At about 0830 the UN representative arrived. We had another round of hot tea .At sharp 0900 hrs. We put up our white flag as directed by Div HQ and UN. Eagerly and impatiently waited for a similar response from across the LOC. We were not only disappointed but was suspicious in watching some unusual movements on the other side. And the PAK troops were on “STAND TO” {Ready to pull the trigger}. Minute’s hand of the watch rotated a dozen times. It was 0910-0915. We became very impatient, anxious and perturbed. UN Rep contacted his head quarter at Srinagar who requested a little more time to get a confirmation from his PAK counter part. It was 0925! At last a confirmation came. The reason for delay from PAK side was nothing more than a time lag. According to Pakistan Standard Time that was only 0855! And we were informed that they would show the white flag only after 5 more minutes! First time in life, the time difference of half an hour on either side of an imaginary line was realized by all of us. I tried to conceal the shame / belittlement borne out of such an ignorance with a smile on my lips. Soon the white flags were up. We marched forward over the bridge from the home side. A Pak Major in uniform with his engineer troops reached at 1/3rd point, from the enemy side. My troops and I in civil clothes also reached the 2/3rd span. We all were escorted by 2 UN officers from either side. Pak Maj introduced himself as Maj A Khan, which was stitched on his Coat Purkha. He prononced my name! Bit puzzled, but remembering the orders of GSO -1 Ops, I tried to correct him” I am Saxena” I said in my Malayalee accent. Maj Khan with a naughty look told me “But our intelligence people briefed me that a Capt by the name Nair hailing from Kerala is coming for the task! Aren’t you from the Engr Regt of the division?” He queried. “No. I am from the MES and is from UP” I murmured. “What a disappointment! I thought of speaking a bit of Malayalam with a Capt Nair? “Said the Pak Major. Though embarrassed I was curious and tried to assert in vain that I was not a Malayali. Disbelieving my words he emphasized that “Your accent suggests that you are a Malayali?” Realizing my plight he pacified me “OK. Don’t bother my brother. I can understand your predicament” and revealed a pleasantly shocking surprise.” "I studied in the Trivandrum Model School till I947 when my father was an officer in the Accountant General‘s Office there. After independence when I was about 12 years, my father decided to leave India and to come to Pakistan. But I have not forgotten my roots. I do remember that today is Onam & the King Mahabali who treated every one equally and eliminated all types of cheating or lying, is visiting you all”. He then brought out a bowl and said “Any way have some Kheer that I got made especially for a Capt Nair as ONA Payasam”. Out side temperature was about 10 degrees but I was sweating. With humility and gratitude I enjoyed that PALPAYASAM. Took all measurements that were required to make an estimate for the task. I marched back with a smile on my face, sweetness in the mouth, warmth in my heart and a mind with a story to tell the world! *Forward received from Dr T V Surendran, Mananthavady E Blogs and Links 1) Magazines and Dating : M G Warrier https://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/readersblog/warriersviews/magazines-and-dating-25604/ Time zone challenges. 2) Govinda https://www.thehindu.com/features/friday-review/religion/Govinda-nama/article16889523.ece Some research into my own name. Yesterday a participant's father in a TV show was explaining why he named his son "Dharmavrathan". And believe me, the well-educated Dharmavrathan drives an auto in Kerala for a livelihood. When someone forgot to take his bag containing a big amount of cash from his Autorickshaw while getting down, he ensured it reached the right person by surrendering the bag to the nearest Police station. He refused to accept any reward. He wants to live the way his father wanted him to live while naming him "Dharmavrathan"