As one begets the other....

“Join the race”,
Orders the blue hope with a cold voice,
Attracted by purple pride;
It hits and punches and hurts,
Urging us to run, crawl, or walk:
To double our memories and half our love;
The flowers we held drooped,
Yearnfully we turn, to see it being broomed.
Fully drained and tired, we continue to move
Trying to give blue hope a pink glad.

Pink glad transforms into green gifts and trophies,
Objects stolen from earth’s abundance.
Smiles of violet pleasure mistaken for red joy;
Swell of black ego mistaken for grey pride:
Pride:
The acidic, swallowing pride;
The boiling valconic pride.
Grey Pride transforms to Greyer greed
-An all consuming, bottomless well without a seed.
Seedless, barren land it beholds:
A brown parched, dry barren land
Leaving hope complaining of insenstivity
As it declared, “I wish I nurtured the flowers!”

When I grow old.. As I grey..

When I was in my early teens, I had a plan for my college days
My life in college was orthogonal to this,
When I was in college, I had a plan for my life post graduation
My life post graduation was orthogonal to this
When I was in my early 30's, I had a plan for my life in general
My life in general was orthogonal to this.
When I was 35, wisdom prevailed, and I no longer plan for future :)

But one lesson I want to take away from a recent episode is this:
When I grey, when I grow older,
When organizations begin to look at me as a liability than a contributor, I will not be a parasite.
I will let younger staff grow, and see the joy in their growing.
I will nurture them at no cost -
A price I can pay for the kind of experience world bestowed on me.
I will let them bask and enjoy the fruit of their laurels, and will not sneak into it.
I will hold my head high - all I would need is a shelter and food, for which I will save a pension fund. The world is a beautiful place, the relationships that I will build and nurture will testify my values for life.
As hard it has been to stand my feet through this testing times, I will stand through with the same parched feet, grounded and modest.
While the world goes by the principle of 'no free lunch', I will serve this, and not add on to the already stressful situation the younger generation is subjected to.

A sneakpeek into the world of a animal lover. Truly, the child is the parent!

The Eagle

 I hope that the mundane life does not adulterate the animal-loving, insect loving, plant loving boy. When his Math teacher questioned the very famous 'ambition in life question' and declared Bloom to be the Scientist, he was offended and swiftly intervened, 'No, I will be an animal explorer'. The conviction was profound. This is seen in all that he does - he devours on all kinds of books - animal facts, snakes, 1000 facts on birds,  encyclopedia of birds and animals and on and on. What once used to be his favorite - the planet books have taken a backseat.

And its description

Meet Sayara, Banooth and Sayuth our snail buddies

He picked up a couple of snails from the recently seeded flowerpot, and excitedly fed it on coriander leaves from the fridge. Naming them, bragging about them to all his friends, and continuously chattering about them - what they'd do together, what he'd teach them and on and on. Tempted by his non-stop bragging, the friends make repeated requests to visit the new borns :)

 Today, he came to me after his drawing episodes (Which are also full of animals,  birds and insects) and excitedly said,: 'Amma, look, I am teaching triangle to the ants'. It was a sight to see him place a couple of color pencils structured as a triangle blockade. The ants found their way through the triangle, to which he excitedly announces, "Aagh! so the ants have learnt triangles today. They know how to solve a math problem, I am wondering how their brains are!"

When the dad admonished to get rid of the cockroach egg, he couldn't get his head out of killing an insect while it was still in its larva stage - 'Don't you think if we get rid of eggs, cockroaches should be extinct soon? Are there no other way to avoid them interfere with your life' - pat came a repartee. When the uncle narrated how he got rid of mouse in the house, we immediately chided with a, 'Why should you kill them? You could have just thrown them into the dustbin. They would have lived. If everybody does this, rats will be extinct soon'.

I hope this spirit sustains, and this trait is not corrupted.

Unleashing innate skills and acquiring new ones

Bloom has churned out atleast a few hundred drawings during the lockdown period - especially of birds, and animals. Of which there are a few brilliant ones- probably, I'm biased. It's such a sight to watch him draw- he first begins with a bird or animal, then he draws their background- very thoughtfully for each animal or bird, associating what he read about them in his books. My most favourite is his beautiful drawing of life in 4 different terrains- snowy mountains, icy oceans dry deserts, and waterfalls- they are very lively. The meticulousness shows in the final outcome.

 Inspired by his meticulousness, I tried my hands at Mandala art last week, mostly as an excuse for quiet time. What better choice than the Great Sun?!a Satisfied by the outcome, I purchased a set of color pointer pen, and a coloring pencil set. As soon as I came home, I admonished Bloom - " Look boy, this is my set. You should use only yours, and I will use only mine hereafter". He agreed readily, only to come back to me with, "Amma, I drew something. Can I try your color pencil on it?", and slowly trespassed into my territory. First permission gave in to the next, and it soon became never ending volley of requests to use the color pencils and pointers.

Last Tuesday, as I was connected on a virtual call, he used an earlier permission as an excuse and was eloquently drawing and coloring a peacock.

His highness drawing

That night, before hitting the bed, he asked me to draw a similar peacock. As promised, I diligently drew it - even when I drew it, I knew it wasn't as good as the one he drew. The mind being corrupted with the consistency in patterns and boundaries, had done a bad job at randomness.

My poor fixated drawing :(

Although I showed this to him on Wednesday, in his urgency to attend to home based learning, he hadn't noticed it well. Yesterday (Friday) was a holiday, which is when he got the time to look carefully at my drawing. He came to me with the corrections as under, with the remark, "Only if I correct this, you will draw correctly the next time":

Corrections :O

As we become them....

அவர்களுக்கும் ஒரு வாழ்வு இருந்தது
அவர்களுக்குள்ளும் பல ஆசை இருந்தது,
அவர்களுக்குள்ளும் நிறைய பாசம் இருந்தது
அவர்களும் நிறைய நடந்தார்கள்
அவர்களும் நிறைய பேசினார்கள்
அவர்களும் நிறையை கற்றார்கள்
அவர்களும் நிறைய செய்தார்கள்
அவர்களும் நிறைய புதிய முயற்சிகள் மேற்கொண்டார்கள்
அவர்களும் நிறைய உறவுகள் ஏற்படுத்திப் பாதுகாத்தார்கள்
அவர்களும் ரகசியங்கள் பாதுகாத்தார்கள்

அவர்களும் நிறைய உறவுகளை முறித்தார்கள்
அவர்களுக்குள்ளும் நிறைய கோபம் இருந்தது
அவர்களுக்குள்ளும் நிறைய அவமானம் இருந்தது
அவர்களுக்குள்ளும் நிறைய வேதனை இருந்தது
அவர்களுக்குள்ளும் நிறைய பச்சாதாபம் இருந்தது
அவர்களும் தேவையற்ற காரியங்கள் செய்தார்கள்
அவர்களுக்குள்ளும் பகைவர்கள் இருந்தார்கள்

பின்பொரு நாள் அவர்கள் இல்லாமல் போனார்கள்
அப்போது அவர்களைப் பற்றிப்  பேசினார்கள்
அவர்களும் சிலருக்கு ஆசையானார்கள்
அந்த சிலரின் வாழ்வு, ஆசை, பாசம், பேச்சு, கற்றல், செய்கை
முயற்சிகள், உறவுகள், கோபம், அவமானம், வேதனை, உருமாறினப் பின்பு
அவர்களின் அனைத்தும் மறக்கப் பட்டன.

இந்த வாழ்வு தான் பெருங்கனவாம்!