Sea--snaps

The sea at Thirupullani in the morning.
The sea near Dhanushkodi .

None.

There was none like you ,my son,before, now or will be hereafter,

This is brutal finality,
Life's reality,

Scant is my temerity to face this enormity.

27.7.11

The night that passes never returns.
The Ganges discharges her waters into the great ocean but never turns on her back. ---- -- Ramayana.

Offerings.

I find this collective gasps, pants and drools over the 'treasure trove' unearthed from below Sri Padmanabha temple absolutely distasteful and very obnoxious.

They are not the spoils of war but the tearful and joyful offerings of devotees , overwhelmed by their devotion either in seeking the fulfilment of some boon or the thanksgiving for the succor received from the almighty enshrined as the deity , down the ages.

Barring a few aberrations even the poorest Hindu will not touch these priceless offerings not out of any fear of the wrath of the god but due to 'Dharma' ingrained in all of us that one does not steal from the all knower, enshrined in the deity.

We may feel envious of our neighbours wealth ,but none of us are envious of a richly decorated deity. The splendour is accepted and appreciated as a matter of course and considered sacred, by one and all.

According to me it is the prerogative of those managing the temple affairs and the king who is said to be the owner to decide on the matter. Since every other person is voicing his or her view onTV,dailies, weeklies and in letters to editor,so am I.

I find even the tabulation of the jewels and so on under full media glare ,itself sacrilegious. Well it is being done and nothing can be done about it.

The ornaments are for adorning the deity ,to add to the majesty and beauty and not for exhibition in glass cases.. Why not simply do that? I mean the former.Like at Tirumalai.

Other offerings like coins and so on can be invested to provide amenities to pilgrims visiting the temple, like free accommodation, food and water, in training priests, taking up renovation works of temples that are dilapidated and crumbling and boost the finances of those temples that are starved of funds and in building prayer halls.

Kulasekara aazhwar the Vaishnavaite saint ,8 th centAD who was also the king of Kerala then,gives equal if not even more respect to devotees of Bhagwan and says clearly in one of his greatly venerated hymns ,

'My eyes have not truly served their purpose unless they see those' devotees'of Vishnu thronging in the percinicts of the temple and praying in total devotion! ..PerumalThirumozhi .............658.

Does one need a better example than he , to follow and emulate ?

Sughadhara dhagam

Indha aganru virindha bharatha kandathil yengu thirindalum,kootadha kuppaiyum ,agatrapadadha asingamum azhukkum, yen kannil padhughirade'!

Yella idahthirkum sigaram vaitharpol ith thupuruvatra veedhiyil, thupuketta madhiyaal irrukka vidhikapattene'

Yendru thaniyumo yen sughadhara dhagam?

Meella puddhir

Meellaa dhukathirku meellaa thookhathinal meella, mayan, yeppodhu meellavaipano?

Crowning glory.

I met a few relatives after a long pause . Though older than me by a decade or so , one of them stood out amongst others of her age by her jet black hair.When others in the group marvelled at her retaining the colour of youth ,disparaging their own whitening locks,she broke the myth about her youth by letting it slip that she dyed her hair without fail.

Sensing the disapproval at the artifice employed to dodge and mask old age ,she reasoned that grey hair elicits no respect in society but only contempt and that people on the road donot bother to show directions , a small request, when it comes from a person whose hair has turned grey and white.

At this juncture I must mention the popular sports commentator with a shining bald pate and smiling face who suddenly sprouted a thick crop of black hair. I rubbed my eyes several times in disbelief , wondering whether his younger brother had taken up his job! However with this sudden acquisition of a youthful appearance his observations and comments though same as before seemed to have lost their edge ,-- profundity and wisdom.At least to me .

If you think that this yen for youth by coloring hair --a fancy word for plain old dyeing or transplanting hair to get a thick mat, is a fixation only of the middle and well to do classes you have one thing coming.As i got to know today.

Early in the morning I saw a group of men and women labourers squatting on a mound of sand getting ready to start work at the nearby construction site. From a distance a middleaged woman of that group , whom I took to be,of combing lovingly her daughters hair , was actually brushing with great care a Savuri---wig! Presumably hers, to add thickness to the thin strands of her crowning glory!