Appooppa, tell me another story!

Neha was staying with us till yesterday evening, having come on February 8 hearing about Appooppa falling down broken-legged and crying. From the time of Appooppa's discharge from hospital, she had been taking good care of him at home. She would run errants from the sickroom to the kitchen to bring oranges and so on (even a matchbox) and tell him nice stories from morning to evening. She would also frequently ask Appooppa to tell her 'yet another story'.

She had to leave for Kannur with her parents yesterday because she had already lost many days' class at her playschool for being with Appooppa in his hour of sorrow.

Her ma'am telephoned her mother even yesterday to express her concern over Neha missing so many classes. She had taught Neha's friends many new things during the past one week. When Neha goes back to school the coming Monday, she will have a heavy load of "activities" pending to be done. But she will surely handle the problem very efficiently. She has to catch up with her classmates!

One of the new things they were taught during Neha's absence was how to stick bird pictures in a noteook. Pictures of the crow, the peacock, the duck, the parrot and the kite, not to mention the kingfisher and the woodpecker.

Neha can do all these things in double quick time! Ma'am does not know these little secrets! Ha ha ha!!!

*****

Shyness

Questioner: Why do you feel so shy?

Krishnamurti: You know, it is an extraordinary thing in life to be anonymous--not to be famous or great, not to be very learned, not to be a tremendous reformer or revolutionary, just to be nobody; and when one really feels that way, to be suddenly surrounded by a lot of curious people creates a sense of withdrawal. That is all.

(From the book 'Think on These Things', consisting of J. Krishnamurti's talks and discussions with students, teachers and parents in India.)

********

a stage still beyond

then will come a stage (i said)
when i am not disturbed
when with global warming and all that sort of thing
the tides rise sweeping away all that is dear and close to me;

a stage (i told her),
when i am not disturbed
and am a man of perfect poise
even when i don't get a cigarette after my supper.

*****

Update

On January 7, while playing for my organisation in the annual cricket tournament of the Press Club of Thiruvananthapuram, I injured my right foot. I hadn't thought the injury serious and had been limping along in pain hoping the foot will mend by itself. Then on February 5, while stepping out of the Cellar where we journalists meet nightly to share the day's gossip over a few drinks, my legs buckled and I had to sit on the pavement. My friends took me immediately to a nearby hospital. The next day the doctors conducted a surgery on my leg to tie up the broken ends of the achilles tendon, which had ruptured. I was discharged from the hospital on February 8, with advice not to put the injured foot on the ground for two months. A tendon injury takes longer than a bone injury to heal; and Dr. Kailas Viswanath, who led the surgery, said my foot was in a very bad condtion. He was surprised how I had carried on with the injury for nearly a month.

So, the long and short of the thing is I am to take rest for around three months. My daughter bought me a laptop computer and these are the first lines I am typing on it. I have started reading Thunchath Ezhuthachan's Adhyatma Ramayana. I look forward to finishing it in a couple of weeks and moving on to the other books I had always wanted to read. It is a pleasant feeling to be without the pressure of work. I started my working career on May 27, 1977, the day after I finished my BSc exams. First I was a supervisor in a Spinning Mill and it was on December 15, 1978, I began my long career in The Hindu. I have less than 4 years left before retiring from my job. I haven't had a break all these years. So now I am taking a break...

Angels in Tiger Land

I was pleasantly surprised just now to see on the internet a story I had written a few years ago on a film on butterflies. I am not a butterfly expert. However, while doing the story I had clearly taken a lot of pain to learn the subject of the film, although I have by now forgotten everything I had learned for the sake of the story then. With the writing of the story, I had forgotten everything. I don't even remember writing the story. That was what surprised me... Just recording the surprise...

This is the link to the story: http://www.hindu.com/2007/09/21/stories/2007092156270800.htm

*****

Story of the year 2012

Given below is the link to the story I enjoyed the greatest doing in 2012.

http://www.thehindu.com/todays-paper/tp-national/tp-kerala/isro-case-police-officers-freed-of-charges/article3960101.ece

My friends tell me it was the story of the year from Kerala and I too feel so. By googling the name 'Nambi Narayanan' you will land on a string of news reports that will give you some idea about the impact the story had made. There has been several developments. The story helped reopen something that had remained closed for more than 10 years and, finally, there is justice happening.

*****

Picture of the year

This is a photo I received forwarded by my son in Mumbai from my daughter in Kannur of my granddaughter Neha playing travelling to Thiruvananthapuram in a night train to see Appooppa. She has converted their dining table and chairs into a cabin and has taken the lower berth and the train is chugging along and when she wakes up she will be in Thiruvananthapuram (and not in Kannur) and Appooppa will be there at the railway station to receive her.  That is the game.

*****