TAIL (END) OF TWO SETS OF ‘PAADARAKSHAALU”                                                    

aka “ ALL’S WELL THAT ENDS WELL”

I am sure you would have heard about the ‘Tale of two cities’ – probably, never got the chance to read it. Here is a golden opportunity for all of you to read an abridged version of a similar tale.

I know you will not be in the proper frame of mind to read the blog – mini or maxi, in one go, especially after a loooong week end. However, as a matter of abundant caution to ensure that the blog reaches as many souls as possible, here is the festival discount. As a special case, you are permitted to go thro’ the narrative in 3 - 4 equal installments.

Yesterday happened to be our 42nd happy wedding anniversary (remember kids saying, innakki enakku happy birthday aakkum), and 43^rd wedding day full of sweet memories. Unlike previous years, it was a hectic day, having coincided with Ganesh Chathurthi. As you may know, it is celebrated with fair degree of pomp and glory in this part of India. As is mandatory to visit a temple on this memorable day to thank Him for blessing us with many more happy returns of the day (notwithstanding similar wishes by a host of friends as well as relatives, earlier), we decided to pay our obeisance to the deity at nearby Ishtasiddhi Vinayak temple in Besant Nagar, and seek His blessings. It also, suited perfectly being His day as well.

We could leave only by 8.00 PM, thanks to the various mundane chores, visits, phone calls, and a plethora of activities. (Now, I can visualize the quizzical look in your eyes wondering how this old man is able to type so fast on the mobile in grammatically correct English with no spelling mistakes and most important, successfully overcoming the spell check and auto correct demon.! For the youngsters of the present generation, it is a different ball game altogether to type messages on their smart phones, at an amazing speed, using both hands, like playing a piano.

I shall share the secret a little later. Now continue.

There was huge crowd at the temple, with people of all ages, styles, religions, outfits, and ethnicity, praying to the lord to obviate off all their ‘vighnaas’. Incidentally, the Shabdhakosh gives the meaning of the word ‘obviate’ as

                                                               

टालना,  बचना, हटाना, दूर करना, निवारण करना, निराकरण करना, दूर रहना, छुटकारा पाना, अनावश्यक करना, जरूरी न समझना, मुक्त हो जाना. 

                                                    

In simple English, however, the word means ‘to remove a difficulty, problem, or the need for something’, according to google guru.

Where did we leave?

Yeah. “There was a huge crowd at the temple, …. blah, blah, blah …”

After wading through the devotees, and getting a brief darshan of Ganesha, and the deities installed all around, and most important, collecting the donnaiful of yummy kesari soaked in ghee, we were just about to leave, when the incredible happened….. The sky opened up in full bloom and fury. And how? It was as if a huge cloud had burst. Torrential would be a great understatement. To borrow from our dear Home Minister Amit Shah ji, so also from PM Modi ji, it was “ PRACHANT ” all the way - literally - what with water seeping with full force to the entire stretch of the hall attached to the temple, stream of water right outside the temple, flooding the roads, and in a state of topsy-turvy, bringing the holiday traffic to a grinding halt.

 

And, after about 30 minutes, intensity of the rains came down, and we thought it would make sense to escape from the next onslaught, though it was still drizzling. But then, there was some shock in store for us. With almost knee-deep water at the temple entrance, all foot wears left there got washed away….. !! Some were floating, and my dear wife was lucky to grab one of her shoes. The other piece could not be located despite desperate search. They were not ‘made for each other’, I thought. And no trace of my foot wears which were exclusively reserved for temple visits – bought at a discounted price of about 200 odd bucks from the street corner shop, some 2 or 3 years back. Many hard core devotees were seen frantically trying their luck and that brought some consolation to me, really (like your feeling happy to find that EB power has failed not only in your house, but in your neighbour’s house as well).

Today morning, on our usual walk at the beach front, we took a detour and stopped at the Pillayar temple, hoping for some miracle to happen, now that the water has receded. But not much luck. And suddenly, my wife noticed her Jodi shoe inside the locked shoe enclosure of the contractor. And we returned after finishing the usual quota of our morning walk. After collecting the Jodi shoe, I was glancing through the grand collection, neatly stacked in the racks. There were several pairs, many of them, costly ones, and in good shape, except some minimal coat of sludge.

“Paambin kaal pambaRiyum”, they say. I told myself, and strongly believed that my name (Anantha – the divine snake with 1000 tongues) can’t go wrong ....
                                                                           

“Oru kaal, may be oru kaal, there is a chance that my ‘temple special’ which adored my kaal till recently, is lurching somewhere in the heap. For a fraction of second, I was tempted to pick the best pair available in the lot. Kind of ‘sabalam’ ….. But, luckily for me, I remembered just in time my childhood days, when I heard from my dad for the first time the story of the wood cutter, whose axe accidentally fell into the well. Poor man, was going to lose his livelihood. You surely know rest of the story when God appeared before him from inside the well, and first showed him the golden axe, and seeing the woodcutter shaking his head in the negative, showed the silver axe, and finally, the iron axe, which our hero promptly recognized. And the God gave him all three axes. And, my gut feel didn’t go wrong. I located my priceless possession neatly stacked in a corner on the top most rack. Phewww… At that precise moment, I could visualise how Mackenna would have felt when he discovered the treasure in the midst of the canyon….

To cut a long story short, it was a happy Tuesday, and I decided to lavishly tip the care taker 10 bucks. That’s why I told in the beginning, “All’s well that ends well”

After the tale of two paadharakshaalus, here are two tips for my friends.

1. If you do not want to lose your new chappals while entering a temple, never ever keep them at one place, but put them separately in different locations – and remember the two locations where you kept them, when you return after the prayers.

2.  And, now for the secret about my typing the links, long paras etc., on my whatsapp pages, like an expert. Simble. Just download the whatsapp app on your lap top or system, type what you want in word, copy the matter, and paste. 

ADVANCE WISHES FOR A VERY HAPPY ONAM TO ALL MY DEAR FRIENDS .........

a n a n d . . . . .
for ever..........

Friendship isn't about who you have known the longest.

It's about who come and never leave your side.