In My Perspective

      A   shrill sound tore through the darkness and shook me up.   It took me sometime to realise that it was the alarm clock that broke my deep slumber.    I had set it at 5 O’ clock to wake me up.   It was   November   5th, the day we would be going to Thirunelli in Wynad for immersing the ashes of my parents in the Papanasini.     It was at Papanasini   where Lord Rama, who after conquering Ravana’s army in Sri Lanka , had offered obsequies for all those persons killed in the battle. I washed my face , brushed my teeth, and sat down at the table for my usual morning tea. “No tea till will be served until you’ve had your bath.”   It was   my wife Vidya.    “You’ve to observe certain rituals on this day”, she added.   “Damn it”, I muttered and walked to the bath room.   The shower damped my ill-mood.    Later when I was leisurely running the comb through the sparce hairs that remained on my shining pate faithfully after all these years, I was shocked to see a disiccated man stari...

As usual my wife   was   glued to the TV screen where her favorite serial Manasaputhri was on, and I, resting to regain my breath after my usual evening brisk walk.   But my mind was nowhere in that room .   It fluttered without any direction! Summer is almost over, and monsoon is in the offing.   The rains will come in June.   Then it will be only one more month before it reaches July.   Soon it will be July fourth .   The much awaited day when   Unni, my five year old grandson will be visiting us.    He is now in Abu Dhabi with his parents.   We are all eagerly waiting to see him. Yet a strange anxiety haunted me.   How will my daughter and son inlaw in Abu Dhabi   feel when they return home in the evening after their son Unni left for India? I wondered aloud to my wife.    “Surely they will terribly miss him.   They will feel emptiness, boredom and cheerless."   her reply was quick.   Perhaps she had experienced similar emotion when our daughter went abroad after marriage.   ...

I was no stranger to cataract.   It runs in our family for more than four generations. Everyone from my grandmother, mother, father… had undergone cataract surgery at one time or the other. The cataract surgery used to be a long 10mm incision below the cornea with 2 to 3 days of admission in a hospital.   This has reformed into a 2 mm incision with no stitches.   And so when it was my turn to lie on the operation table for a cataract surgery, I was not at all frightened.   I had full confidence of Aravind Eye Hospital at Madurai . When the D day came, I got up well before my usual time and by 5.30 a.m. I had a simple breakfast of two idlies immersed in a small pool of delicious sambar, and a cup of strong tea.   At 6.30, the attendants came to take me to the ‘preparation room’ where I found that I was not a lone patient looking at the world with faulty vision.   There were ten others in different beds waiting for their turn.   They looked up as I came in, and I could see a strang...