Tweets on my updates !!!

                   

                        The cafeteria in my university was buzzing with students,holding a sense of excitement and anxiety that was infectious. Most of them were glued to sleek apple products and their fingers caressing the screen of the smart phones. The coke can and the carton of noddles were left waiting, while the students were happily confronting with their gadgets. Cafeteria which was once laden with gossips and giggles have been draped with occasional murmurs. This scenario could be seen in most countries where people call themselves as tech savvy. 

                          Researchers are quite paranoid about global warming and some lethal virus that is likely to wipe out mankind in future. On the other hand I wonder what happens when a mystical force sucks in all these gadgets into its vortex, or seizes Mr.Goggle and its allies. Few weeks back, due to a fire breakout in a telecom unit in Australia, people experienced chaos without internet. So it's more likely to occur, when we would be forced to smile at our neighbors, after ages.

                         In an age, where the levels of comfort have soared high with the aid of machines, people find it hard or annoying to use their cognizance. We need apps and maps to find out the shortest and quickest route to our nearest McDonald; reminders to keep tab of our folks birthdays and anniversaries. When was the last time we used our grey cells to calculate our monthly bills without relying on the calculator. I might sound eccentric or weird in today's context,but that's how most of our forefathers lived for centuries.

                           The most superior race of the planet is now under a curse and being held as slaves under the hands of binary codes (0 &1). With the plight of social networking sites creeping in our living rooms, where the dad hits like to his daughter's hangout photo. The most sickening thing is when I found some relationships being broken based on some trivial updates by him/her. It drives me crazy when my cousin sends me a friend request, masking her real age which is 14.

                            There is no point in pointing fingers either at Mark Zuckerberg or the Twitter guy; it is we, who have pushed ourselves to this paranoid world,updating every single minute on how we feel. The fear of being left alone seems to have engulfed us, leaving us to follow every schmuck in Twitter. This malignancy has struck the chords of children basking them in ignorance and perturbation. The idiot box and XBOX 360 have kept them in their couches. I wonder if they would ever find out, there's something called playground and sun outside.

                           As quoted by the famous environmentalist David Attenborough, children will soon discover on how plants grow and what animals eat. The lack of real world knowledge makes them more susceptible to believe in the information entrusted by the internet and the media community. Today's kids spend time talking to Dora and fighting in Call of Duty warfare. My childhood has been adorned with fables from my granny and I'm not sure if  I could pass this legacy to my future generations.

                            I wish there was an apocalypse that would bring about an end to this techno wizardry and utter madness. An era where we could walk with our loved ones without the vibrations from our phone; a time frame where we can enjoy the hot shower and delicious breakfast, without an update of what we are up to; a journey where there are no ridiculous emails listing jobs on how to earn $589 per hour. At the end of the day, life is all about cherishing little things and saving those precious moments as souvenirs. 

                       

PS: If you don't care about the above stuff, share this and like it :D

Warrior

            "The history of a soldier's wound beguiles the pain of it"

--Laurence Sterne

               The magnificent citadel was cloaked in dust from the storms that flew across the Vale of Lacedaemonia*. It was housed in the midst of sprawling weeds and crumbled leaves.The wind blew across them, filling the structure with the scent of daffodils and leaving a trail of dampness, as a gift for the molds. The early morning sun rays have sneaked into the citadel, elegantly passing through the crevices and recess, to find the wounded warrior, Athanas. The pain never seemed to stultify the glory of the young warrior, who was bleeding from the grotesque wound on his shoulder. 

                       Athanas stooped forward eyeing his hoplon* engraved with his family symbol, the lambda. He knows how it feels to have this in his armory. The hoplon chooses the real men, who unceremoniously fight for glory and welcome death. Now it was dotted in crimson shades and stained with the dried blood of enemies. The ethical liturgy was overwhelming, when the glossy scabbard* shone in sunlight. He remembered the words spoken by his lady love, Elysia, before he stepped in to the jaws of death. 

                         Her words reverberated in his mighty heart, sending a sense of revulsion towards battlefield. The strand of hair that conceals her thick brows and the divine smile that blooms in her face besotted him upon her. Just like a lightening, Elysia struck him and joined his soul, after her subjugation with Greek Gods. Finally, the day had arrived for him to join the legion and seek glory; the moment that tore his fabric of solace. Athanas rested himself in her bosom to listen her soul's whisper, which said,

                       "the battlefield needs men like you, who fight to break the shackles of slavery. Some kill for gold and some do it to taste power, but when you do it, fame will embrace you. Come back with this shield unscathed, I shall be waiting for you with white Horner's flower.."

                       The shrill sound echoed the Gothic structure like a daemon, signaling the warriors for the ambush. The legion arose with mighty spears and a maroon cloth adorning their broad shoulder. The belligerent warrior sprang up, with his spear pointing forward to quench its blood thirst. He lurched forward and joined the legion, like an ant swarm. The bloodshot eyes made rapid movements imbibed with anxiety and fatigue.

                     The blanketing silence was overthrown by the enemy's arrow, which went searching in between their shields. The next moment was marred with cries and agony; the warriors marched forward succumbing themselves to a holocaust. The ground below them trembled with fear; flowery petals lost its chrome to this unprecedented hatred. Amid the shower of arrows, Athanas pounced forward thrusting the spear into the enemy's throat and came down battling for breath.

                         The wind carried Athanas' final breath across ravines and jungles to reach Elysia' castle. the wind rattled its way, before coercing her sleep and bolting her upright. Beads of perspiration hemmed in her forehead with uneasiness creeping in. She moved in elegance carrying her grace with mixed emotions engaged in a quibble. The sight of silvery moon losing its sheen nad the cry of the owls pushed a lump in her throat. Elysia's arms slowly caressed her belly feeling the seed of life in her and mumbled,

                      " sshhh.. Don't be afraid of the bad omen, son. Far across the horizon, your father stands tall against the prowess of evil, to seek light. You will rise against the burgeoning turmoil and  the beasts, along with your father. You will be my son and a warrior.. "

*Lacedaemonia- it refers to the ancient city in Greece.

*hoplon- it refers to the shield employed by the Greeks, to protect against enemy's attack, usually made of bronze or wood.

*scabbard- sheath for holding the sword or knife, made of leather or brass. 

                            

Shades of Green

Prologue:

             “The earth has music for those who listen”,

           I felt like a child in pursuit of a butterfly, while penning down this article. This blog is dedicated to Mr.Rangasamy (my biology teacher) who instilled me the hymns of nature. To the man, who taught us more than science.  

"In the shroud of the blue sky, the smoky clouds were hanging in there trying to embezzle the nature’s beauty. The canopies of trees were the able students to their masters sitting in heaven, brushing aside to nod their heads in acknowledgement. The air was scented with lilies, which could program the performance code in most primitives of this planet. Amidst all, she emerged from the golden ray of the sun, with her head pointing down. She unfolded her wings, which shone and vibrated, to let her muscles warm in the morning light. She loved sex more than her mate and lived in isolation all her life as a queen. The solitary wasp, the queen launched herself beside me, to hunt for its prey. 

       

The wasp was few inches next to me, having landed on a huge hackberry leaf; it was waiting to pound on the caterpillar that was feeding the leaf. Perhaps, it’s a wonder that, how could a wasp far across could track her prey without radar. To unveil the mystery, the Mother Nature has the most intriguing answers to such thought provoking questions. There are approximately 300,000 plants and 900,000 species of insects, of which most eat plants. In this scenario, most plants would have been chewed up by them, but still we find green foliage encompassing us. Plants have evolved defenses in the name of chemical warfare against such attackers.

Plants need to stand their ground when pests attack and there‘s no turning back. They can’t scream for help, but they produce chemicals (green leafy volatiles) which can easily evaporate and attracts its bodyguards. The process is quite simple and symbiotic; the communication is so effective that the bodyguards hop on the leaves to dine on the plant eaters. A distress signal from one plant aids its neighbors, which can have a drastic impact on agriculture. This defense evolution of plants is significant in understanding their communication with other lives.

Plants took at least a few million years to manifest the several thousand chemicals in trillion ways to produce synergistic results which are quite complex. If the evolution has progressed exponentially, then our agriculture would have hit boom. All plants would have been literally kicking out every possible predator on earth; no pesticides and no crop destruction. Conversely, this never occurred; some plants were vulnerable. To understand this, we need a leaf from Darwin’s book ‘Origin of Species’.

 Darwin emphasizes on the underlying concept, i.e. those individuals that are more responsive to change, can survive by means of evolution. It is a common misnomer that only the ‘strongest’ or ‘fittest’ survive; it is an ecological niche. For a population to survive, it needs both strong and weak to thrive. Stronger ones can’t survive without bullying the weaker ones. Just imagine, if only the strong or fittest survived, we would be rubbing shoulders with a population of Einstein and Muhammad Ali. The evolution doesn’t work like that; we have weaklings like apples which could be easily plucked and a pineapple with prickly thorns.

So, some plants can cry for help by means of loud signals, while others only whisper. Individuals which are termed as ‘fit’ in one particular environment need not be the same in another habitat. Cactus can survive in scorching sun but when you put the same in the poles, the rules of the game change. Survival is not just battling the weather and predators; it’s a ticket that Mother Nature throws to all. Every organism tries to increase its odds in seizing the opportunity. It’s no wonder that plants have evolved so much, leaving mankind far behind the race. If at all the mankind, the so called superior race of this planet have reproduced fitter ones, we wouldn’t be walking to our refrigerators to grab the leftovers and diet coke.

Now you can appreciate the signals sent by hackberry leaves, inviting the Queen (the wasp) to chew out the caterpillar. The chemical signals produced by them are in the order of few parts per billion, but still they exert significant bio activity. Normally when we fall ill, the doctor scribbles antibiotics and few vitamin pills for the next 15 days, so that the pharmacist pays for the doctor’s foreign trip.  The antibiotics that we take, try to control the symptoms without curing. So, most medications are excreted back to the environment chemically unchanged. It’s said that most viruses and bacteria have evolved (except we humans) by gaining resistance to most drugs.

The lives of plants are extraordinary; with so many untold stories and process that are performed in loops remain hidden. What we see is staggering beauty, but we fail to appreciate its taciturn approach to most staggering issues. We act as charlatans with trivial things indoctrinated to awe at nature’s fecundity and aggressiveness. We aren’t alone, but with a superior race to maintain weave the sense of uncertainty and heal us when we fall sick.

OMG!!! Wait a minute; I could feel something moving in my jeans. Is a wasp sneaking in, that’s the last thing I needed. Damn, it was my phone crying, at the signal from my queen (not the wasp, but my female friend!!!).

Queen: Just finished my class, I’ll join u in 15 mins

Me: no worries, I m already in the park waiting for you for the past 30 mins.

Queen: I m so sorry to keep u waiting. What did you do so long?

Me: ahhhh!!! To be precise, I was missing you!! "

Courtesy:

http://www.sciencenewsforkids.org/2013/04/a-plant-enemys-enemy/

http://www.susunweed.com/Excerpt_Language_of_plants.htm

http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2004/01/040128080726.htm

http://www.eventfinder.com.au/2013/sir-david-attenborough/melbourne

http://www.michaelcrichton.net/books-micro.html

http://www.livescience.com/474-controversy-evolution-works.html

http://www.darwins-theory-of-evolution.com/

This isn't mine

Author’ Note:

                What do you reckon when you see this title, “This isn’t mine”? Yup! You've nailed it. This work does not belong to me, in the context of plagiarism, but in a lighter tone, this was greatly inspired from the work of Emma Donoghue’s The Room. I knew at the end of my work, I never did a justice, even in the process of lifting her style of writing. Perhaps it’s not fair (to compare!!!) to discuss such literary works in mine. So, I leave it to my loyal readers to comment on my work. Entire work has two parts (lullaby and requiem), which has contrasting tone (deliberate grammatical errors in lullaby part ) embedded to it and I guess I've finally made a blog that is honest and close to my heart.

Lullaby:

                This is how I sit, with my pencil inside the mouth and my tongue tasting the juice of it. The paper in front of me sits just like me, blank without a word, except my name on the top of it, Saranya. I'm Saranya, who often finds trouble in getting her name correct in the papers; so my amma came up with a brilliant idea of having it on my writing pad for exams. That’s how I don’t have a red mark drawn across the name by my miss. Now you can guess how stupid I'm and it will annoy you more if you know that, I'm into my second grade now. Every day my miss asks me a question, knowing that I don’t have an answer for her. She says, “I m good for nothing”. Perhaps, she doesn’t know, what I m good at.

                Now this paper is waiting for me to write down the answer for the question,”Uses of trees”. It took me whole evening to by heart the word ‘education’. The answer for this question has 11 lines (I always write it wrong- leven or elven!!!)  and more words that are longer than ‘education’. So I thought of doing something better than remembering all those lines, so I drew pictures of trees and a sun in orange color with crayons. I like crayons and colors that use water to mix, but my amma screams at me when I get the color in the fingers and on my face. She says, if it goes into my belly, I will fall ill and I need to see doctor uncle.

                 Doctor Uncle and his white place (everything is white there, walls, table, his dress and even his hair) scares me, but he gives me gems, every time I go there.  I always ask for the pink ones, because it makes my tongue pink in color. So my amma got me color pencils, but I always use crayons to color my trees. I showed my picture to my amma, she said trees shouldn’t be in blue color, but in TV they showed blue trees. When I asked her about that, she asked to me to study for the test. I was so sad that I had to take that long answer book again. I asked God to make the answer very small for me, but it was the same and I started to cry.

                I don’t know why my tears taste salty, when I asked my amma; she told me that God made it salty, so that we won’t cry to taste it.  I liked my tears and I was hungry. I went to the kitchen to look for amma and I found her cutting carrots. I put few of them in my mouth when she turned back.

“Don’t eat that without washing them, it has germs”

“I’ll drink some water after eating them, so that water will kill them in my belly. Amma! I m hungry can I have dosa”

“You can’t have dosa daily, kutty! I made upma today”

“I don’t like upma, it sticks to my teeth and not sweet”

“You can have upma in your new Mickey Mouse bowl”

                Today I liked upma because it was in my new bowl which had Mickey and Minnie Mouse stuck on it. Minnie Mouse was coloring its lips with a red crayon. I know my mom has a similar crayon in her table. I went to her room to get my lips colored, but I could not find it, she must have hid it somewhere. Outside it was black with little white stars all over the sky. Every day I tried to count them, I lose my count after 8. I don’t like when the sky goes black, because amma puts me to sleep and when I wake up, I have to go to school again. I m scared about the test tomorrow and my friends who would laugh at me when I don’t know say an answer.

                Amma says everything will be good tomorrow, if I sleep, so I jump in to my bed and pull my covers. I go into them and its dark, like the sky outside and now I remember the monster stories told by my friend. So I hold my covers tightly so that monsters can’t get inside them. Before the monsters came for me, my mom woke me up for the next day’s school. With my eyes opened a little, I brushed, tasting the paste and closed my Duckie’s (Duckie is my teddy bear) eyes when I was wearing my uniform. Amma told me that I had games period after my test, which made me happy and I smelled nice with Johnson baby powder.

                The test paper was still waiting for me to write. I prayed to God to put some words in it, I opened my eyes a little while praying, to see if God was writing in my paper. He never liked me, so he didn’t write. I want to write about my new Mickey Mouse bowl, but I don’t know what to write. So, I drew the trees and the sun. My miss started to get papers from every one, if she sees my paper, then she will show it to everyone. All my friends will laugh and I’ll cry again. This time God heard my prayers by the school bell, we all ran to the ground leaving our papers with her. Now its games period and I m so happy.

Requiem:

                Indeed it was a happy moment for Saranya, because she never realized, that she would experience a monster in reality. On the following day, Saranya was sodomized by her neighbor, in his home. The next morning, Saranya woke up from a nightmare, panting with beads of perspiration. She choked for words, to describe what her neighbor did to her. It was learnt that, the guy let her off, after the poor girl started to vomit.

The poor girl was lured with biscuits by her neighbor. She failed to see the sickness that was staring at her, in the name of cream biscuits. The little girl, who loved to paint, is now getting treated in a hospital, after which she has to undergo counseling sessions to get over her trauma. I’m not sure, if she would love gems again or watch stars in a cloudless night without any atavistic fears blinding her.

The lullaby part was a pure fiction of mine based on Saranya’s interests, as told by her mother. This was penned down out of spite, to showcase the disruption of a childhood. I don’t want to plead on the need for draconian laws, which in no way is going to bring Saranya’s lost dreams. She will never feel safe anywhere, having been destroyed at the hands, which were once considered haven. Now she sleeps in a hospital with her knees close to her small chest, breathing heavily and fear embracing her inside of a teddy bear. 

Coffee and a Kiss

“ur coffee is getting cold!!!” 

                Don’t go mad or panic or you haven’t skipped a page or paragraph. I don’t love to start like this, but this is how my mornings start. May be you are new to my wife’s invitation for coffee. Apparently, my mind was occupied by the last meeting with my editor. He promised that he would kick me out, if I couldn’t bring him an article for the next issue. Last article on chaos theory went to the bins, “We want people to read this, and do you think they will at least glance this?” So it’s like, I m on the verge of preparing my CV for the next job and article at the same time. In a quest for an evocative idea my ears didn’t pick Renuka’s voice. The voice which took control over me, as my better half, it’s no wonder why everyone calls me uxorious.

                I wonder what would have happened, if she wasn’t in my life. Oh God!!! I totally forgot her coffee, which sits in the table enjoying the cool breeze in my balcony. Now you know why she was screaming …. Actually shouting… oh no… speaking in her shrill tone. I beamed my stupid smile when I saw her standing in front of me, supporting herself to the wall, with her elbows bent to her hip.

“This is what you do daily, do you want someone to remind you of your coffee? “

“Sorry Renu!!! My mind was occupied with the article”

“hmmmm!! That sounds a better excuse! Shall I get you another one?”

“Oh no!! This is fine! This can keep my brain working for the next 2 hours”

“Phew!!! Too much coffee, isn’t good for you!”

“Caffeine is actually good; it keeps me away from Alzheimer’s and heart problems”

 “Don’t tell me your next article is on caffeine? I don’t mind tearing it now, before your editor does!!!”

I took my cup and joined her while managing a half smile. “Hey every time I see your face, there’s something unique, like a newly bloomed flower”

She eyed me naughtily biting her lower lip, “Stop that!”

I was holding her arms and toying with her ring, while my eyes were busy trying to lock a stare with her, ”You know that I m not lying, you are full of ideas, when I go blank, you are my source code”

She was smiling with her lip still tugged by her incisors, which made me wonder, is she the most beautiful thing in this world? Or am I under a spell by this woman?

“Idiot!! Did u get ur mind onto something, which could be useful for the next issue?”

“I m already onto something beautiful, ur face. The way you tuck the single strand of hair behind your ears, actually I m admire that, perhaps my character for the next story would be like you”

  

She pulled me close with her arms embracing my waist, “You know something; the caffeine is doing all gimmicks in your brain”

“hahaha!! Now you talk science!! I thought you were my recipe for my brain!!”

Her arms brushed my shoulder in the name of a pat, “Listen man!! Caffeine is an impostor. It kicks ur brain to pump dopamine, which are responsible for your elevated moods”

“Now I see the point made by my mom in picking a pretty biochemist in my life”

“Picking??? I m not a gunny bag to be picked”

I know I pissed her, by my wrong selection of words, “Hey I didn’t mean that, it’s like, she couldn’t ve made a better selection”

“Bloody hell !!! selection?? This is ridiculous!!!”

“You can’t complain for everything Renu! Damn!!!”

                There was a moment of silence hanging in the form of thin air between us, trying to widen the gap. With every second passing by, pride and ego took the upper hand, stopping us from breaking the ice. The self love feeling pushed us towards the corners of our living room. This time it’s not me, who is going to ameliorate her morose mood. Now there’s a soft mumble,

“Idiot!!!”

“What? Are you talking to me?”

“Of course!!! Which idiot is living in this house?”

                I can’t stop myself from laughing at her intended sarcasm, “I thought the only trait we both shared was the stupidity”

“I could see you something mischievous in your face; did you finally get the idea for your next article?”

Women could easily picture what’s in our minds, ironically the vice versa is next to impossible. “Sort of!!!” I started to roll my tongue inside my mouth, signaling that I was through with it.

“Yipee!!! What‘s this about? Coffee? Romance? Or a mockery about girls?

“hahaha!!! I like the order in which u say, it has a tinge of everything to it!”

“Give me a hint at least! Don’t say it’s still in shrouds!”

“Yup! I can’t reveal this time, not like the last occasion”

Before I could reply, her wet lips made a gentle buss on me, but this time it was on my cheek.

“Do you still want to hold back ur title???”

Now it was my turn to part my lips, to say

  “COFFEE AND A KISS”

Pattukutti !!!

My Kitchen

The kitchen is not a pleasant sight, if you have your dishes undone and you are in a hurry to cook something for your dinner.  Crumbled onions’ outer coverings and drops of water that lie all over my dining area makes my migraine worse. This isn’t the way my day is supposed to start. The drumming sound of the compressor in my refrigerator sent a mild shiver in amidst of the cold weather. With my milk going sour, the black tea was the only choice to soothe my parched throat. My palms were cupping the mug to enjoy the little warmth of my tea. I know I can be rude and mean sometimes, before moving further, let me introduce myself. I m Amuda… Amuda Rajasekar.

That’s how they call me, but I m here to talk about Amuda and not Amuda Rajasekar. A girl born in a quiet little town in Tamil Nadu, where it showered every month and housed no crimes. I came to Melbourne to pursue my lost dreams of my childhood; the fantasies that I craved for when I rotted in voids in the name of rooms. The girl, Amuda transformed or went through metamorphosis to become a woman, ironically ending up in a cocoon called as marriage. A failed marriage but the butterfly is out in a new tinsel habitat with a new companion, Parvati.

I was married to Rajasekar rather than saying, “I married Rajasekar”. Everything starts pretty good with beaming smiles all over, but once days and my age started to wane, life took a drastic turn. My marriage souring up like my milk and me shedding my surname ‘Rajasekar’ like an old skin. I neither believed in God nor in fate until Parvati came into my life. Parvati, my 17 year old daughter seems to be the lone solace after my years of struggle. Right now, I need to make my dinner, before that I need to alleviate my migraine. Before moving to Parvati, let me dump some potatoes in the pan to make some curry.

The noise in the name of music that escapes from Parvati’s room seems to reverberate my old home. Parvati is a spoiled brat but still she can be a mother to keep a tab on me. She knows a lot more than me, like online stuffs, using apps to go places and all tech savvy stuffs. Having spent your childhood in a posh environment and western culture, it’s no wonder; Parvati could know so much, which I had barely dreamed of. She is a guitarist, sorry electric guitarist, that’s how she wants me to say. I wonder if they have categories in being a guitarist.

She wants to be a rock star, that’s her dream. The guys who haven’t been to saloons and but lives happily in marijuana.  Now she wants to go her friend’s birthday party. I don’t have any issues of her attending a party, but as a mother I can’t allow my daughter to go to a bar with five guys. So she is furious and not talking to me since this issue has turned up in our routine. Now she tries to piss me off by her amplifiers. What I see behind the door is my pattukutti, Parvati and her dumb argument waiting for an upheaval. Okay let’s take one at a time, I m going to knock her door.

Spoiled Brat

Parvati stepped out of her room after me yelling her name… I know it was a stupid thing to do when the speakers go in full blast, that’s how mothers can be sometimes.

Wassup ma ??

Turn down the volume Parvati? You ll lose ur ears if u r hearing like this…

Phew! (with a sigh) what’s your problem ma? Do I need to ask permission even to hear music??

No Pattukuti !!! I don’t want my child to go deaf. What shall I make for your dinner?

I m done with my dinner, you fix something for u.. (Parvati was shaking her head as if my answer offended her)

What did u eat? The maida stuffs?? Pizza’s are no good for you. You look skinny, Parvati!!!

Amma !!! Please stop ur godammn suggestions and advice for every fucking thing!!!

Parvati!!! Watch your language!!! Where do you learn such things?

From you!!! When u and dad were fighting...

(Damn!! I cursed myself and her answer felt like a blow across my face, leaving me to shut my mouth)

Are you done with ur questions ma? Shall I go now?

Parvati !! I m your mom, don’t see me as a folly!!!

Oh great!! Thanks for reminding me that! But you don’t sound like one…

Stop ur stupid mockery, Parvati! Don’t you understand why I don’t want you to go the party???

As a matter of fact, No!!! Don’t you see how parents treat their children here??? All my school mates go out with guys, I m the one who does nothing, but bull shit!!!

You don’t get my point… we’re Indians and we have our own tradition. Moreover, I m a mother who wants her kid in a safe haven than in a pub.

Amma! We’re in bloody Australia, not in ur shitty village!!! You want all swanky stuffs and education from them, but not their culture.. Bullshit ma!!!

Stop it Parvati!! I don’t think their education has done much to you, other than using your smart phone and a rich vocabulary of shit words. Try to imbibe the good things from them…

I don’t find anything wrong in going to a concert, ma!!! Those guys are really cool ma!! You don’t know how much the thing means to me!!! Do you???

Pattukutti!!! You are in your adolescence, everything looks good and attractive, but they aren’t? Let me cook something for my sweet heart.

Stop treating me like a kid!!! I’m 17 godammitt!!! I know what’s a fucking condom, also to clear your doubts; I don’t have any plans of getting laid in the party. 

I know my involuntary muscles got the better of me, that’s what you expect when your child speaks such gibberish that rips your heart. This time the blow was across Parvati’s cheek. I slapped her. She didn’t say a word; perhaps she was surprised of my act. I could see tears brimming her eyes; anger and embarrassment basking her face. I felt like crying and hugging her, but her harsh words and anger was keeping me in bay. With few minutes of silence hanging in thin air, which seemed like hours, Parvati went into her room and banged the door. I learnt two things, never ever beat your child, no matter what they do, the next one is, don’t try an argument with potatoes in the stove.

Heralds of spring

My presentation for tomorrow’s lecture came to a halt, when the phone came alive with it’s stupid ring tone. Every time it rings, it leaves a sickening feel in my stomach. After her tantrums, Parvati finally went to the party this evening. I don’t want to see tears in her eyes, perhaps she’s the only soul left for me and now this phone doesn’t sound good. When I lifted the receiver, I heard a thick Australian accent,

Is this Parvati’s residence??? If so, can I speak to Amuda Rajasekarrrrr ???

I know something was wrong, with fear sucking in my breath, I choked for my words, “yup, this is Amuda speaking!!!”

We’re calling from Monash Medical Centre, we have a situation here. It seems your daughter and couples of her friends were assaulted by couple of hooligans in the local pub. She is hurt but nothing to worry, just superficial ones.

The floor below me was moving, I was about to lose my control, but the voice at the other end shoved my mind. “Just say she is alive, please say, my Parvati is alive!!!”

Amuda?? Are you here with me??? Your daughter is alive; we’re located in Clayton locality. If you could….

                The next moment I was in my car, with my ignition keys twisting the lock.  Tires were screaming due to friction and my engines whined, every time I stepped on my pedal.  After agonizing minutes of my travel, I pulled my car just in front of the hospital, without minding the security yelling at me, for parking there. With anxious moments binding me, I stepped in to a room with bold letters embedded on it – Trauma centre-Level 3

                Parvati looked small in the bed which was lying in a scary white room. She was breathing slowly with a sling that hooked her elbow and neck. The nurse beside was busy checking the IV and managed a weak smile, saying that everything is going to be alright.

                The patient is on a pain killer, she needs some rest, could please wait outside madam?

                When I was about to turn back, a voice echoed the room, “amma!!!” I saw Parvati was trying to hold my fingers with her lips trembling.

                “Am I still ur Pattukutti, ma? “

                After a long time, my self control got shattered leaving me in a déjà vu. The night when I saw a bunch of divorce papers waiting for my signature. The night in which I lost my strength; the night which ended my marriage; but tonight I m vulnerable to the love of my child. Probably this night will end in a new day. With tears running down my cheeks, I gripped her arms and said,

                “No matter what you do, you‘ll always be my Pattukutti!!!”  

Author' Note: I m deeply grateful for all, who have been buzzing me with honest critics and a pat when I come up with a decent one. If not I wouldn't be kissing my 30 th blog now. If you really like this story, try to share in the social networking sites, which you earn me a lame publicity. :P 

Where s my butterfly ?

            It seems the clocks have stopped their parade when they glanced into my text. Bainite, crystallographic textures and microstructures were creeping in my pages like a bug trying to find its prey.  I was already eyeing my watch, in an agonizing wait for the needles to kiss at noon. With my palms resting my face and my eyelids were pretty eager to come down. To my horror, they have already met once and next in queue were my grey cells. They seem to embrace my Pandora world with alacrity, the bio luminescent creatures jumping around me. Floating mountains, rivers tasting like trickle or the shades left in my palms when butterflies touched me.  Now there’s whirlpool, trying to suck all my hallucinations in to an abyss. I almost lost balance in trying my act of staying alert. I cursed myself for not draining a mug of coffee to keep my eyes open, so that I could launch my plan B.

            Now it was my desktop’s turn to go into sleep mode and I decided to take a stroll. Perhaps I was blank with no really thoughts to brew in my mind. The crowded cafeteria and buzzing library were no more attractive to me. Before my thoughts could zero in a location, I found my legs taking me to the spot which I walk across daily- The Lake at my university. It was a windy day that made the water perform its ballet dance in the form of ripples to an empty theatre. Occasionally, the very few eucalyptus trees that adorned the lake acknowledged their presence by a ghastly blow. The blow rendered the dusty brown colored ducks to quack. Most serene things lie in front of us, but we fail to acknowledge it, like the shimmering lake and solitary girl in the lawn beside the lake.

            By now you would have guessed what my plan B was. I slipped myself under a tree not too far away from the girl. There was a sudden burst of clouds trying to storm in and hang above my heads. I had a half smile when I saw for the day’s weather forecast in my phone. “Bright sunshine for the next four days”. I wondered how mankind always wanted to move ahead in a race with the nature. Ironically, the nature doesn’t mind us; neither as a competitor nor finds itself in a race. That’s how Lorenz would have felt few decades back. It’s time to talk about the man who tried to tie up the loose ends of chaos and order.

            Lorenz was a meteorology professor in MIT, simulating weather patterns which were based on 12 different variables. He left his office to grab a coffee leaving the machine to run. When he came back, he found a different set of results contradicting to the previous one. He was repeating a simulation so he was supposed to get similar kind of results, but to his surprise he found a result that could have a different perception on how we see nature. In his repetition, he had rounded off one variable from 0.506127 to .506. Such tiny alteration could have dramatic transformation in the weather pattern for the next two months, leaving behind Lorenz with a profound corollary of “Chaos theory” or the famous “Butterfly Effect”.

“Does the flap of a butterfly’s wings in Brazil set off a Tornado in Texas?”

            Lorenz saw that if a system is more likely to vary on change rapidly, it is likely to produce a repeating sequence, to speak in English, it’s impossible to predict that changing systems. This ultimately draws us the trait of most natural systems, the chaos. Most things around us exhibit such outlandish phenomenon. The way the ducks move in this pond; arrangement of leaves in these eucalyptus trees; the irregular color tone of grass across the sprawling lawn shared by me and the dame. They all display chaotic behavior, a science that varies within its limits to maintain the chaos in order within itself.

“Tiny variations…. Never repeat and vastly affect the outcome – Dr. Ian Malcolm, Jurassic Park”

           

          There’s a beautiful quote, ‘when chaos began, classical science stopped’. Early 20^th century scientists were keen on inventing things to make humankind more comfortable by sacrificing few heavenly pleasures. They were basked in a special ignorance about this beautiful (I love to call it like that) disorder in nature. What they finally saw was an impeccable order in every chaos and disorderliness in most natural systems. Scientists from every field were digging to find orderliness and predict stuffs that were out of bound. Good economists don’t talk about markets for the next month. They knew it’s like plotting a graph with more than 8 or 9 variables in 3 dimensional space and doing an analysis.

“The key to unlocking the hidden structure of a chaotic system is in determining its preferred set of behaviors called as attractor”

   Our brain could be a perfect example of chaos being staged in an order by neuron signals. At this moment the millions of cells in my heart is working as a cohort in the right sequence to produce a beat or beat faster when the girl beside me smiles at me. These chaotic movements of the heart make it to pump for decades with less wear and tear. Now that we see chaos everywhere, but the first braggart who was chaotic, was our solar system. There pops another question is it possible to identify the butterfly (the driving force) behind the tornado, the answer is simple – No.

“If the flap of a butterfly’s wings can be instrumental in generating a tornado, it can equally well be instrumental in preventing a tornado”

This has led to another hot debate that has been driving several campaigns and political drama. If you can’t predict the weather beyond few days, then global warming becomes placebo and goes in our bins. Nature’s whimsical behavior could be attributed towards its complex roots. Trying to make out the pattern of stars in galaxy or the trivial smoke whirl from an agarbathi. The idea of trying to master nature is out of question, so we try to appreciate what really happens. When we try to exploit or provoke nature, it could be our folly; rather, try to enjoy and appreciate it, it could be your vector for a beautiful relationship.

“Chaos theory tries to find some underlying order in what happens to be random events or data”

The wonderful breeze that flows across with the grey clouds all geared up for the first shower of the month all seem so exhilarating to me. Also my appetite for muffin grew soon, before the first drop of rain landed on my brow. Before I could regain my composure, the rain came down, like children out of their school. The girl beside me stood up while she tried to stuff her Ipod and pink ear plugs in her kit.

“ Heyyy !! I have an umbrella, why don’t you pop in?  “

I thanked Lorentz for not arriving at an equation to predict the weather and my new friend nature for such a lovely day.

PS: Plan A was to look for plan B

Courtesy:

http://www.stsci.edu/~lbradley/seminar/butterfly.html

http://plato.stanford.edu/entries/chaos/

http://brain.cc.kogakuin.ac.jp/~kanamaru/Chaos/e/Lorenz/

http://paulbourke.net/fractals/lorenx

http://www.physicsplanet.com/articles/chaos-theory-simplified

http://theconversation.com/explainer-what-is-chaos-theory-10620

http://www.encyclopedia.com/topic/chaos theory.aspx