Karikalan lyrics

karikaalan kaala pola karuthirukkudhu kozhalu
kozhalilla kozhalilla taj mahaal nezhalu
sevaloda konda pola sevanthirukkudhu odhadu
odhadilla odhadilla mandhiricha thagadu
ye... paruthi poova pola padhiyudhu unn paadham
paadhamilla paadhamilla pacharisi saadham
ye... valamburi sanga pola vazhukkudhu unn kazhuthu
kazhuthilla kazhuthilla kannadhasan ezhuthu

charanam 1:
ye... membala vallaivu pola ulladhu unn mooku
mooku illa mooku illa mundhiri mundhiri cakeu
oodhi vecha balloon pola ubbiririkku kannam
kannamilla kannamilla velli velli kinnam
marudhaani kolam pottu mayakkudhu degam
degamilla degamilla thee pudicha megam
maarappu pandhalila marachi vecha sola
solayilla solayilla jallikattu kaala
(karikaalan...)

charanam 2:
kandavudan vettudhadi kathirikolu kannu
kannu illa kannu illu kerangadikkira ginnu
patha vecha mathappu pol minu minukkudhu pallu
pallu illa pallu illa padhicha vaira kallu
surukku payya pol irukku iduppu
iduppula iduppu illa indiran padaippu
kannu pada pogudhunnu kannathula macham
machamilla machamilla nee vittu vecha micham
(karikaalan...)

What the Gods are thinking

Have you ever thought of what the Gods are thinking? The Bhagwad Gita calls God as one without thought. It further says only a thoughtless mind can attain His abode. However, everyday we pray to God to make our lives happy (with the definition of happiness varying before the prayer is over!), to give us money, to relieve us from pain, to make us pass in our exams, I even pray to God to find out my lost pen! So what do the Gods think about our prayers. As depicted in films, is He dressed in silky clothes, wearing innumerable jewellery and sitting somewhere between the clouds? Does he raise His coloured hand and say "பக்தா உன் பக்தியை மெச்சினோம் and then vanish in million watts light?

I remember when we were children how the concept of prayer was taught to us by our parents. When we are two, it is to keep your hands folded whenever we visit a temple. Two years later it develops to keep your hands folded and "ask God to make you study well and get good marks in the exam". When we become two years older, we smear the viboothi or the kungumam in our foreheads and believe that the evil is warded off by God. Then it becomes a reciprocal prayer. Go to temple and say "God give me 100 marks in maths and I'll give you 108 coconuts". Once the prayer is fulfilled, the beggars outside the temple have their stomachs full for a week.

Have we ever thought of why our prayers does/ does not come true? When our prayers don't come true, we become angry with God and say the most obvious "Why me?" When he does fulfill what you wanted most of us forget God but the few faithfuls thank Him and acknowledge His presence (as if God were otherwise not present!).

So, when you ask Him to make you pass in the exams with wonderful marks, what is He thinking? Does he think you are stupid? Or perhaps silly? To quote Hindu religious texts (of which I know very little), God is a witness to all our lives' events. He takes the form of a sakshi swaroopa. He does not think, He does not punish, He does not become angry, He does not get overwhelmed when you offer Him கொழுக்கட்டை.

As a child, I remember asking the question that every child is bound to ask, "Where is God?" Pat came the reply from my Mother, "God is everywhere, dear". "But I can't see Him!" we protest. The answer, "Be a good girl and He will be seen". I argued "Am I a bad girl now?" My Mother after a slight pause says, "Continue being one, and believe in Him, you will see Him one day".

I believe that I'm still a good girl and I believe in Him. Have I seen Him? Yes!! I see Him in my vision, my speech, my walk, my hunger, my digestion, my smile, in other people's goodness, in the smile of strangers, in the thank yous of unknown people, in the deep calm of the seas, in the sky, in water, I can give you numerous instances of His presence. Like my Mother once said, He is everywhere.

We just do not acknowledge his presence!!! Atheists argue that if God were so kind, would he allow women and innocent children to die? Would there be war, would there be hunger, would there be deaths??? To his Rajinikanth has the answer!!! Yes, Rajinikanth in the film 'Baasha' wrote in his auto 'உன் வாழ்க்கை உன் கையில்'. Precisely, our lives are merely in our hands, not parents, siblings, spouses, bosses, neighbours.... Only in our hands. What we think, what we speak and how we act determines our happiness. Only karma, our own actions determines our destiny. I believe in karma what you give is what you get returned, Darren Hayes once sang.

I asked the most logical question that follows from the previous paragraph to my father once, "If we determined our own actions and God merely witnesses our sufferings and pains, why should there be God at all?"

To this the Lalitha Sahasranamam has the answer. It says 'the minutest dust that gathers in the lotus feet of the Goddess Lalithamba has the power to destroy all our karma'.

God will not stop the results of your prarabdha karma. If you lie, blame someone for your mistakes, steal, kill, destroy, are unfaithful, you are reaping its fruits today in the form of misery and agony. Don't ask "Why me?" Instead seek the Lord's feet to relieve you from your suffering. Believe in Him. Have faith.... Trust me, your worries and agonies are wiped away like dust just like the dust in the lotus feet of the Goddess.

Patience is the new life

I'm tired of reading about swine flu and recession. I'm sick of watching the stock markets rise and fall at its will. I'm tired of computers and mobile phones and wish they weren't invented at all. I'm beginning to understand that the problem with the world is two much information in too little time.

I loved the days when I used to call my father at his office phone (phone only meant landline at that time) from my neighbour's telephone. Now I keep track of my loved ones every minute.... sometimes hand phones seem like a pest always itching...I loved the days when I stood for hours at queues in railway station only to learn that tickets were full..... There is nothing like that now.... I check them online and if the tickets are full, there is Tatkal or Flight or .... the alternatives are endless. I remember when my father and I went to theatres every Sunday to buy tickets of the film 'Jeans' a great hit at that time. We succeeded at the twelfth attempt, that too after the film was already 100 days old.... Do I have to explain what we do now?

With these new developments in place, our impatience levels are so high that we can't even wait for the computer to navigate from one screen to another. The new Airtel Broadband's caption reads "Impatience is the new life', as it were not already.

My great grandfather would have been more patient than my grandfather, my granddad more patient than my father and my father more than me. Do I have to talk about the next generation? They don't wait in queues, they don't sweat for a second, they don't have a sibling to share anything with (parents try to pamper one kid lavishly with all their riches these days).

Disappointment and impatience have found new results - crimes! Children kill, commit suicides due to impatience and disappointments as stupid as getting 94.4, when the cut-off was 94.5 as less as 0.1 less than what was wanted.

Sometimes disappointments are essential in life. Getting all what you want is luxury. My father did not have an engineering degree, my grandfather did not even visit school. There was nothing in plenty available for me but the real happiness was the contentment with which you lived. Now-a-days I've only begun to compare myself with the have nots. No, I'm not even suggesting having cars or laptops. Just consider these for a moment:

I see the two bottles of clean water kept at my desk even before I reach office - 'what about people who live in places where they are asked to stand in long queues to drink a mouthful of water'.

I eat at a new restaurant every weekend just to try new flavours, while right in the backyard of my office women and children swelter in the heat, I'm sure they would thank their lucky gods if they ate once a day.

I rush out from my air-conditioned office in the afternoon and run to the nearest shade. There is a boy outside my office, barely 17, handing out pamphlets he can't even read. The pamphlets I take from his hand are wet with his afternoon sweat.

And here are my leaders talking about empowerment of backward people. Which backward people do they mean, if it did not include persons I just mentioned.

When I spoke to my friend about this she asked me "Are you feeling bad for what you can have and enjoy just because someone else is not lucky as you? Don't feel guilty for being happy!"

Valid point, I must agree....

But lets not feel guilty for being happy, but we sure can stop getting disappointed because your fun tour got cancelled or be a little patient while the computer takes a few milli seconds longer to pull out that information.

ஆப்-FUSS

The Law of Newton was re-written by someone in a humourous fashion and was emailed to me as one of those forwards that come in everyday. One of them made me think hard and long. It read: “When you are late to office, if you lie to your boss about having a flat tyre, the next day you will have a flat tyre”. Someone also had written a definition for the term “boss”. It said “a boss is a person who is always late when you are early and is early when you are late”. I don’t know if someone experienced this or if that is the norm everywhere.

My workplace is different – different from what I had expected, different from where I worked earlier. Everyday has been a learning experience; learning to cope with lies, blame and wandering eyes. I brushed aside initial apprehensions (although they existed at that time) of these factors. To my horror, this place has turned about to be a place that needs wits and malice to cope with, something I’m not used to. The only girl I trust and talk to only gossips about fellow employees and I choose to remain mute – for I dislike gossip and these gossips seemed to me like deadly information that I’d rather not have known about. I didn’t even care to find out if they indeed were true. My boss seems like a nice man however, if he wants something, it’s always now. Being new to the company and to the industry with which I work, he has excused a few minor slip-ups, something that I’m grateful to him about. I was later told (through the grapevine, of course) that my boss disliked the girl I speak to and that I should keep away from her!? How can I avoid this girl who has been my only companion since my association with this organisation 4 months ago? I’ve still been trying. However, she now seems to me like a nosy aunt with none else to do other than ask what I’m doing!!!

Fate has always been unkind to me, for I’ve been entrusted with the responsibility of undertaking this task that my boss has strictly branded CONFIDENTIAL, not the superficial confidential but confidential!! Gosh! This nosy aunt has vowed that she’d find out what I’m up to (she dismissed my schoolgirl – excuse that I didn’t know what I was doing!?), a story I thought later too unreal to buy! I’d rather have told her that it was confidential!!!

I have finally learnt the art of politely avoiding this woman that my boss dislikes....

Workplace is one place where diplomacy pays better than your employer!

Now, now time to get to work...