ചന്ദ്രയാൻ 3

 ഇന്ത്യയുടെ ചന്ദ്രയാൻ 3 ചന്ദ്രനിൽ വിജയകരമായി ഇറങ്ങിയത് ലോകത്താകമാനമുള്ള പത്രങ്ങളിലും TV          ചാനലുകളിലും  പ്രധാനമായ വാർത്തയായിരുന്നു.  എന്നാൽ, കേരളത്തിലെ ചില TV ചാനലുകളിലൊഴിച്ചു ഒരു ഓൺലൈൻ പത്രത്തിനും അതൊരു അത്രത്തോളം പ്രധാനപ്പെട്ട വർത്തയായിരുന്നില്ല. 

എനിക്ക് ഇന്ന് പ്രഭാത്തിൽ എന്റെ ആകാംഷ  റോവർ പുറത്തുവന്നു നിരീക്ഷണം തുടങ്ങിയോ എന്നറിയുന്നതിലായിരുന്നു . വിദേശ മാധ്യമങ്ങളൊക്കെ വളരെ വിശദമായിതന്നെ റോവറിന്റെ പ്രവർത്തനത്തെക്കുറിച്ചു വാർത്തകളുണ്ട്.   എന്നാൽ കേരളത്തിലെ ഓൺലൈൻ പത്രങ്ങളുടെ ഓൺലൈൻ പതിപ്പുകളായിൽ ഇതൊരു അപ്രധാന വാർത്തയാണ്.   കേരളത്തിലെ ‘തെരുവ്നായ ശല്യം’ എന്ന വാർത്തക്ക് നൽകിയ പ്രാധാന്യം പോലും ഈ വാർത്തക്ക് നല്കിയതായിക്കണ്ടില്ല.  ഇപ്രകാരം നൽകിയ വാർത്തയോ അപൂർണ്ണവും!

എന്തായിരിക്കും കേരളത്തിലെ മാധ്യമങ്ങുളുടെ ഈ നിഷേധ മനസ്ഥിതിക്ക്‌ കാരണം ?   കേരളത്തിലെ എല്ലാ പത്രങ്ങൾക്കും ഏതെങ്കിലും ഒരു രാഷ്ട്രീയ മുഖമുണ്ടായിരിക്കും.  പ്രതിപക്ഷത്തുള്ള സർക്കാരോ പാർട്ടിക്കാരോ എത്രതന്നെ ഉജ്വലമായ നേട്ടം കൈവരിച്ചാലും മറ്റു രാഷ്ട്രിയക്കാർക്കൊന്നും അതൊരു നേട്ടമേ അല്ല . ഇത്തരത്തിലുണ്ടായ പുരോഗതി എല്ലാവരുടെയും പുരോഗതിയായികാണാതെ അതിനെ നിസ്സാരവൽക്കരിക്കുന്ന ഒരു പ്രവണതയാണ് പരക്കെകാണുന്നത്.   ഒരു രാഷ്ട്രീയ കക്ഷിക്കും ഇത്തരത്തിലുള്ള ചിന്താഗതി ഭൂഷണമല്ല.’ Political jealousy ’ അഥവാ ‘രാഷ്ട്രീയ അസൂയ’ ലോകം മുഴുവനുമുണ്ട്  എന്നാൽ നമ്മുടെ രാഷ്ട്രിയാർ ഈ  അസ്സുയ മുത്ത് , ഒരു മാനസിക അസുഖമായി മാറി ചങ്ങലക്കിടപ്പെടേണ്ടവരായ  അവസ്ഥയിലേക്കാണ് എത്തിച്ചേർന്നിരിക്കുന്നത്.

I love visiting a particular supermarket in Allen, not for the quality and variety of the products but for another unique reason. In this supermarket, there is a sticker or board by all the products on display for sale mentioning the goodness of the product and finishing with a catchy slogan luring the customers to buy the product.

I think I have read all the stickers in the supermarket, and during every visit I check for new stickers. I always come out of the supermarket appreciating the genius behind the creation of these thousands of stickers.

There have been instances when I could find some customers judging my action through the corner of their eyes and wondering if I had mistaken the supermarket for a museum!

In the picture is a board with mangos on sale, mentioning a three hundred-year-old mango tree in India.

Coronatology

 

 

When Corona was spreading like wildfire; I was held up in the US. This followed many unpleasant incidents like the cancellation of my return ticket, an extension of my visa by paying a hefty sum, returning home in an evacuation flight paying fifty percent more of the normal fare, and so on. The evacuation flight was full but everyone was forced to wear a mask and a wiser. The passenger looked like

prospective contestants on a flight for the final selection of ‘Superman’!

When we reached home

I told my wife: “Most probably, you or I will get the virus”.

“Uhmmm. Probably.” Was her response.

The health workers had been informed over the phone from Cochin airport that two probable Covid infection cases were on their way home. The next morning a lady from the Department of health came and gave us a list of instructions on the symptoms of Covid infection, and how to fight Covid. She said that we had to remain in home quarantine for two weeks.

A notice was pasted on the front wall of our house warding off people away from home! I have heard of isolating people in their homes and leaving them to die during the great plague in London. Luckily, we hadn’t been left to die as we hadn’t been found ‘covid positive’. I had kept a long wooden pole outside. The vegetable, fruit, and grocery vendors would call me out from outside and when my presence by a window is confirmed hook the purchase on the tip of the pole and handout to me. The same way, I used to wrap around their cost using a rubber band and the pole would be withdrawn saying ‘Thanks’.  Very often they said it pitifully!   

Yes, two years ago if you got infected by Covid you had two options – option 1) Go and get admitted in a private hospital. Wait, before getting admitted to the private hospital you needed to make sure that you had Rs.1 M with you! 2) Remain at home, eat some paracetamol, and if you are lucky you will

wake up to a new life or just die away!

After fourteen days we came out like Polar bears waking after hibernation.

We had to go into quarantine though we were not covid positive.

For two years life became dull and slower as leaving home became only when necessary. Whenever I dared to move out I was wearing ‘double masks’, washed my hands whenever I found a tap and soap, and frequently sprayed sanitizer on my hands – sometimes all over me to ward off the coronavirus!

One day last month, I woke up in the middle of the night with a slight fever and choked nose. I just lied down and called the local healthcare assistant and informed him that I had been infected by Covid.

“ Don’t jump to conclusions. Just go for on OTPR test and then call me”. The healthcare assistant said.

The OTPR test result said “ RESULT: POSITIVE.”

I called the health assistant again and informed him the test result was positive.

  “What treatment should I follow,” I asked.

“ Nothing special. Just swallow Paracetamol tablets three times a day and take bed rest. If you feel suffocation while breathing or the oxygen level in your blood drops below 94 just call me, you will have to be hospitalized. Get one oximeter and check the oxygen level three or four times a day”. I was advised.

On the second the body pain started. On the third day night, I was rather very tired. I checked mytemperature and oxygen level. I was still running a fever but the oxygen level was 94. I was not in thedanger zone but my mind started working in a way I did not want it to. I have done various jobs in my life. I must say I am lucky as I suffer from no chronic diseases. It may be because I take everything that

happens in life positively – even failures and calamities.

I believe in ‘Master sprits’ and these master sprits – my ancestors – have guided me through my difficult times. This is not an ancient pagan faith. ¹ Dr. Brian L Weiss the American psychiatrist who specialises in past life regression through his research has confirmed the entry of the master sprites many a time in one’s life.

It was all dark around but for the dim blue light of the night lamp. I could hear the ticking of the clock and the humming of the ceiling fan. I should have fallen asleep sometime after midnight.

The stillness of the night brought into my weak virus-infected mind memories of my friends and colleagues who died infected by covid. There was a parade of their faces in front of me before I drifted to sleep. Then the dream started. I was lying in a bed looking totally tired with a short beard and my hands were put across my chest. The hands were so thin they resembled dry sticks. Was I going to die?! I tried to get up but I couldn’t! While I was lying there totally defeated, I heard someone whispering in a stern voice near my ear:

“You are still strong. Get up. Try again and you can do it.”

I suddenly woke up. I was sitting on my bed with my clothes almost drenched in sweat. The next thing I did was to check my body temperature and oxygen level in my blood. The temperature was normal and the oxygen level was 95. I strongly believe that it was one of my ancestor's spirit  had come down to induce energy into me to make me stand up again.

Now it is more than two months since I have returned to normal life.

                                                    *************************

 

1 .  The Weiss Institute has kindly given me permission to use Dr. Brian L Weiss’s name in this article.   I Thank Beth at The Weiss Institute for her wholehearted support.

in2healing@aol.com	Mar 3, 2022, 10:05 PM (9 hours ago)
to me

Dear Dilip,

You have Dr. Weiss's permission to mention his name, work, and the two names of his books on your blog.  However, the correct link to his facebook page is

 www.facebook.com/DrBrianWeiss

 There is no space between W and eiss.

 Best always,

Beth  at  The Weiss Institute

facebook.com/DrBrianWeiss
twitter.com/DrBrianWeiss
youtube.com/DrBrianWeiss

 

 

                              SARVASUGHANDY MY TREE OF BEAUTY

 

More than a decade ago, during a rainy season, I bought a small ‘sarvasughandi’ (Pimenta dioica) plant from a vendor. Before handing over the pot with the plant, the vendor gave me this advice:

"It is not easy to get this Sarvasughandi grown into a tree. You need to give it extreme care until it grows into a plant".

 The good vendor further gave me some tips on how to tend it as it grows into a tree. I carefully followed his instructions, and in three years, it grew taller than me. I tried to convince my wife about the ayurvedic properties of the leaves of Sarvasungandhi, but she paid no attention to them. But I used to collect a few dry leaves of the plant and store them in the kitchen wardrobe. The moment I remembered that the leaves were in the cupboard, I would take one and add it to the hot water for tea. It really smelled spicy!

 I lost the habit gradually, and the sarvasugandhi was nearly forgotten for a decade. I will water it during the summer and look at its dark green, oily leaves and murmur:

 "You look beautiful and smell beautiful. Ayurveda says you are a medicinal plant, but here you stand just as an ornamental plant".

 One day last month, my wife asked me to get some dry leaves of the sarvasungandhi. I looked at her in total surprise and asked:

 "Sarvasugandhy leaves?!   I have been telling you about its ayurvedic properties all these years, and you haven’t asked even once to test it—just to please me at least!"

 "I will tell you later. Now please go and collect some leaves." She urged me.  

 While I was walking towards the tree, she called out: "Dilip. Thank you for taking the pains to have grown such a valuable medicinal plant."

 This compliment was another shock for me! "Valuable medicinal plant"! I cannot believe her words. There must be some reason for her to address my tree of beauty in this way.

 While I was sipping a tea specially brewed by my wife with the aroma of rich ‘organic’ spices, Uma disclosed her sudden passion for sarvasungandhi.   She showed me a WhatsApp message on her phone. The message was like this:

 "The dry leaves of Sarvasungandhi contain an elixir that can prevent and even cure various heart diseases, high blood sugar, and high cholesterol; (the list was exhaustive). If you add one dry leaf of sarvasughandi while brewing your tea or any drink, it is very much like acquiring a passport to good health".  I am sure the person who first started the message must have read the web page: https://www.rxlist.com/allspice/supplements.htm

 This can be partly true, but not wholly. My ten years of work have at least been recognised by my wife, who had maintained the view that I was only planting useless trees.

 Days passed like this, with almost all our hot drinks smelling of sarvasungnadhi. You cannot keep a Whatsapp message a secret for ages, and some of our neighbours found out that we at our home were consuming a heavenly elixir every day.   I am sure they also might have received the same 1,000 times forwarded message as I did, and my neighbours soon found out that the "Tree of Life" was actually standing in our backyard! I readily gave express permission to all of them who requested that I just collect the fallen, dry leaves. 

 My neighbours have competitively started collecting the sarvasugandhi dry leaves so early in the morning that the latecomers do not get a single blade of leaf. So, the latecomers swipe all the dry leaves in my backyard, carry them home, and separate the Sarvasugandhi leaves. Usually I will have to sweep clean, dry leaves in my backyard every week. Now I don’t do it because my neighbours do it for me!

 

 

 

                          The Sycamore

There was a "Travelers’ Bungalow" in the place where the town bus stand is today in Palakkad. The travelers' bungalow was pulled down long ago but the road passing in front of the travelers’ bungalow is still named "T B Road."

 

There is a very old sycamore tree standing on the western side of the shopping complex. The tree was on the left of the entrance to the travelers’ bungalow. From the structure and size of its bark, it seems like it might have been standing over there for more than a century.

The tree was still there when I was a university student fifty years ago. Every day we would pass the travelers’ bungalow, and every day I used to appreciate the beauty of the magnificent tree. The tree added elegance to the bungalow, though there were many trees in the compound. 

Now the bungalow and all the other trees are gone, and the sycamore alone stands in the bus parking area. Whenever I come to the town stand or pass it, I still observe it with the same charm I had for it. The sycamore stands like a sentinel when the buses pass by, but the buses spew dust and smoke onto it. I affectionately pat it whenever I come close to it. Sadly, every time I go near the neglected sycamore, I feel like the tree is lamenting over its glorious past.

 

 

 

A Colonial time bungalow

In the early twentieth century – before India gained independence- the collectors of the British Malabar were stationed in Calicut (The present Kozhikkode).

Usually, the RDOs residences would be close to their offices and we can still see one such  residence in Palakkad.   This residence remained closed for many years but it withstood the sun and rain of all those years.    A few years back some urgent maintenance works were carried on this building and the village office II of Palakkad was shifted to it.   Recently the Village office II was shifted to a new building in the RDO’s office compound.

When this beautiful RDO’s residence served as village office II, I got a couple of chances to go inside it.   During those visits, my attention was more on the internal structure of the building, the floor and the high ceiling paved with terracotta tiles, the centuries old furniture scattered inside, and so forth.  The table in the room (once served as the ante room) of the village officer was a wonderful piece of furniture!   I resembled a ‘Chippendale’ copy though not original!    (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thomas_Chippendale)  

On the outside to the west still stands  the garage.   The garage floor is still earthen and there was an old coach lamp and two brass buckles – might have been used in the horse‘s harness- thrown away carelessly on one corner of the garage.  I wondered how many times horse driven carriages would have rolled in and out of the garage!     

 

 

                                                     The post-Covid syndrome

When I was infected by Omicron, I had some strange experiences. (I have detailed them in a previous note.https://www.facebook.com/permalink.php?story_fbid=5239453802745326&id=100000422755205)

I have read that post-Covid patients suffer from some form of physical or mental changes. https://www.cdc.gov/.../2019.../long-term-effects/index.html Some unlucky ones just kick the bucket off and go away!!!!! Omicron couldn’t do any harm to me physically but has succeeded in altering the way I normally think in my life.

Formerly, I was keen on completing work on time but hadn’t been tormented mentally about what would happen if I didn’t complete the work within the estimated time. There were only a few occasions I had to regret any work I couldn’t finish as scheduled or not doing it altogether.

Now my thoughts have been altered in a different way.

A feeling has crept into my mind that I have not been doing the work which I have been capable of doing and instead indulge in some minor works which are not worth doing at all! This puts another fear into my mind that I am not doing anything worthwhile and is just wasting my life. The moment this thought comes to my mind, I become over-enthusiastic and stop doing that work and turn to another one which of course is harder than the previous one. I know this frantic effort is to convince my mind that I am not wasting my life and is living a useful one. Sadly, after some time I will be attempting another still harder work! This way I start different works and do not finish any of them at the end of the day. Uma and my mother used to make fun of me for my way of doing work but I made them understand that I was pretty aware what I was doing was not right and had to struggle to resist the temptation of switching aimlessly from one work to another. On certain days when the thought becomes severe that I should do some really good job, I do very hard work and try to convince my mind that I was not just running away from work. I am like the sailor carrying the treacherous old man on his shoulders in the popular story ‘The old man of the sea’. The only difference is, in my case in the place of the old man the 'post corona syndrome' is weighing me down.

(https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Old_Man_of_the_Sea)

Now Uma and my mother feel sorry when they see me work in the backyard or find me sitting by the computer for hours!

I will definitely overcome this weird kind of feeling shortly and will not let Coronavirus take me for a ride!!

If one has gone nuts he/she wouldn’t personally know what drives him/her to do weird things. But in my case, I know pretty well that this is a surreal thought but I cannot resist it completely!

EN.WIKIPEDIA.ORG

Old Man of the Sea - Wikipedia

In Greek mythology, the Old Man of the Sea (Greek: ἅλιος γέρων, translit. hálios gérōn; Greek: Γέροντας της Θάλασσας, translit. Gérontas tēs Thálassas) was a primordial figure who could be identified as any of several water-gods, generally Nereus or Proteus, but...