Aiden (little fire)

Meet my grandson Aiden born on May 1. His parents were in Scotland for some time working as architects and they picked up the name from there. The name came to them when the hour to name him came.

The word means 'little fire'... It's a very polpular name in Ireland, Scotland, England, US and so on (Wikipedia tells me), although we know no one bearing the name in Kerala, India, where we live.

Going through the list, I find fine footballers, cricketers, rugby players, journalists, comedians, musicians, writers, artists, politicians, businessmen, dancers, television presenters, pilots, preachers, bishops, cardinals and anti-war activists sharing the name Aiden.

Looking at his face, one gets closer to the meaning of a quote one had given in a recent post in this blog:

She follows to the goal of those that are passing on beyond, she is the first in the eternal succession of the dawns that are coming, - Usha widens bringing out that which lives, awakening someone who was dead.... What is her scope when she harmonises with the dawns that shone out before and those that now must shine? She desires the ancient mornings and fulfils their light; projecting forwards her illumination she enters into communion with the rest that are to come.

Kutsa Angirasa - Rig Veda, I. 113. 8, 10.

*****

slap slap slap

my friend was in very general terms telling me his life-derailing issues hinting them as the cause for his sinking into the whirlpool of alcohol. he paused, because he knew i knew.

there are two approaches to the issue. which is the bullock pulling the cart? is it because one is facing "life-derailing issues" one is plunging into drinks, or, are the "life-derailing issues" an invention of one's urge to sink into the whirlpool?

i had an experience when i thought i was dying. it was a very pleasurable experience, sinking, sinking, as in a dream. a friend kept slapping me on the cheek to revive me. i was irritated he was doing it. all one wanted was to sink into the sweetness of the sinking.

it is like that with drinking too. sometimes one needs a friend to slap you hard on the cheek to come out of the nonsense.

*****

the ache of the toothache

when you have a toothache
all your thoughts and actions
are infused with the ache of the toothache.

you may have saved a young boy from drowning,
or done some such heroic act,
or maybe you have dropped
a five rupee coin
into the bowl of a destitute old man,
yet each thought and act of the moment
is tinged with the ache of the toothache.

being free of the toothache is when you feel clean.

*****
(P.S. I was reading once again a piece i had posted in this blog in August 2008. In fact, it was a mail i had sent a team leader friend sharing my thoughts on how teamwork can happen. There has to be some qualities in the team leader for teamwork to happen. The first of these is the ability to build trust...
The link to the old piece is this: Rainbow

*****

the month of flowers

so many flowers blooming all at once
month of May, of flowers in some part of the world
i am newly grandpa for the second time
a boy
on the first of May, the start of the month of flowers
and of chirping birds
in some part of the world

*****