Turning Fifty soon - Post 01

Four Lakh thirty eight thousand hours… still counting…

On November 26, 1963 8 PM, a lovely lady, “Pushpa” Alias “Rani” gave birth to her first child in Government Victoria Hospital in Kollam. The baby cried. Parents happy. The first born of a “love” marriage…

At 8 PM on November 26, 2013 it would be four lakh thirty eight thousand hours since then…

Why was I born?

There is a purpose. For fifty years now, I had gone through life facing challenges everywhere and achieving in more cases than not.

First form of schooling in what was called “Asaan Pallikoodam”, a precursor of today’s play school. Slate and pencil, both of graphite. Someone caught my fingers together and with pencil in the middle, said “Aa”. I said “Ahhh” out of pain. Letters started evolving, words and meanings out of it slowly.

Remember walking to primary school for over two kilo meters through highway as well as country roads. The whole journey was mesmerizing. Picked flowers that will make sound when you break them, touched “touch-me-not” sending it to shyness. Evenings out of the class, used to have play time in school premises, walking back only when completely exhausted and hungry.

Sitting in Class I used to think how senior are the Chettan’s of Class IV!

 

Still remember two incidents in the school time in primary which needs mention. Will talk about it in the next post.

 

rgds

 

Robin

 

The Keralite Intolerance

Hello,

This is a true incident that happened today in my Facebook life! A friend and relative of mine, who is also an artist and painter had posted on her personal page about her paintings supporting a recent industrial pollution case. Once I saw this I commented on her post by asking her whether she had really confirmed pollution as truly happening or whether she is taken for a ride ? I also mentioned that if pollution is to be stopped completely then all industry will have to close. Actually even human consumption of food will create an element of pollution in theory...

The moment my comment came up, she called me and clarified that she personally visited the site and checked vast pollution of water and then only made up her mind to paint about the topic. Once convinced, I asked her whether I shall remove my comment now for which she replied asking me to keep the comment intact, as in society opinions can be different but things should move.

But in a matter of minutes I started getting banging comments on the same page from her friends. One comment called me as a creature who is not existing in this century and not fit to be here now ! Another one attached huge motives to my comment saying that I belong to the modern, fascist race who not only keeps wrong views, but discourages creative thinking in others (as in this case!) and favors industrialization for selfish motive.

One gentleman also suggested me to read newspapers from tomorrow!

I thanked them for their valuable comments and updated as follows.

"The person who posted this is my friend and relative. I wanted to make sure she has enough data on what she is doing and is not being drawn into a controversy out of her curiosity and creative genes. Once she briefed me on the event, I was willing to remove the comment, while as a creative person she wanted me to retain the same.

Second point is that in FB when someone posts on personal page a matter, the comments are mutual, in the sense between the friend and the person who posted on their personal profile page. If the page is that of a group created to share or encourage views on a topic, then the comments are for multiple interactions and healthy discussion."

In this case it is personal and not public. I strongly condemned the Intolerant attitude of those who commented with fanatic words about my comment, without getting into the purpose of social networking and friendship what FB is meant to be.

Finally I concluded my comment by saying that tomorrow onwards I will start reading newspaper as a habit...

Epilogue : I daily read The Hindu, Deccan Chronicle and Malayala Manorama and spends three hours in front of news channels. As a person who strongly believes in human love and compassion, I believe pollution is a sin. Hence I would like to pollute less space on this blog too. Bye.

Robin Joy A
Kochi Nov 8, 2013