The FINAL Nail

                                                                                The Deity - Bhagawati

Kerala is known for stories of Yakshis (blood sucking female spirits) who appear in the guise of voluptuous women to entice susceptible young men. Gupthan Namboodiri was one such young man who was on his way to visit his friend, the erudite Kosapilli Namboodiri, who was also known to practise the occult arts.

The young man walked through a dense forest, lost in his own thoughts, when he suddenly heard the melodious chime of anklets. In a clearing, he saw before him, a comely maiden, attractive enough to lure him. She had long black hair that covered her back, and eyes that were like bottomless pools to drown a man in. Luckily he was carrying a copy of the Devi Mahatmyam, a treatise on the Goddess Herself, and the Yakshi could do him no harm.

                            http://www.artistrising.com/products/192634/Yakshi-Female-Deity-Summer.htm

His friend, Kosapilli, discerned that his friend was in danger. So he gave him a magical towel that would protect him from the vengeful spirit on his way back. This time, the young man was on his guard, and when he saw the Yakshi, he took to his heels, and ran all the way to the Chottanikkara Devi Temple. There he threw the towel outside and rushed into the temple compound.

However, since the towel was no longer with him, the Yakshi hurled herself at him, catching hold of his feet. Gupthan cried aloud for help, and the Goddess Herself, hearing his cries, appeared as Kali, and cut the Yakshi into several pieces. She then threw the pieces into the Temple pool, which turned blood red in colour. Even today, the pool is known as Yakshikulam or Rakthakulam (loosely translated as 'the Yakshi pool or the bloody pool').

The other legend is that the Goddess washed Herself in the pool, and hundreds of years after, a devotee named Vilvamangalam fished an idol of Kali out of the pool.

The Chottanikkara Temple is a significant Devi temple, located near Ernakulam in Kerala. Bhagawati is worshipped in Her three forms through the day! She stands resplendent as Saraswati, clad in white in the morning, and transforms into Lakshmi in crimson at noon. By evening she takes the form of the awe inspiring Kali, all dressed in blue. Lord Shiva is also one of the deities worshipped here.

This temple is unique in that it is a haven for people who suffer from diseases of the mind. As one walks along the compound, one finds women and men in various states of hysteria, battling their personal demons, running around or swaying from side to side, their long hair tossing around wildly. A chant of 'Amme Mahamaye' resounds as the devotees pray fervently for the cure that only the Goddess can deliver. 

The daily Valiya (Big) Guruthi Puja is an awe inspiring sight. The afflicted women are made to stand in front of the shrine, and at the appointed time, they are witness to the deity's anointment with the guruthi, a liquid that is made from lime and turmeric, and turns blood red in colour. They go into a trance, swaying from side to side, their movements getting more and more frenzied, till the final moment when the Goddess releases the evil spirit from their bodies and they are permanently cured.

The Valiya Guruthi Puja

A huge Pala tree stands, statuesque, at the furthermost section of the temple, its vast canopy shielding the temple. When one looks closer, one notices thousands of long iron nails, which have been driven into its trunk. Legend goes that, in the past, the afflicted people would rush towards the tree, and in the frenzy of their illness, would hit their foreheads against its trunk, driving a nail into it, and keep hitting it incessantly, till the whole nail was driven right in. Then they would be taken back to the shrine, with bloodied foreheads, where they would pray to the Goddess, their illness having been plucked out by its roots and thrown away.

The Pala Tree covered with iron nails

Faith plays a vital part in these cures. There have been cases of patients with schizophrenia, epilepsy, neuralgia and such illnesses having been cured by the Goddess. People with weak hearts are advised not to visit the temple as the sights might prove too harrowing for them. In the month of Kumbam, which falls in February- March, it is believed that the Goddess appears for her ritual bath (aarattu), blesses Her devotees and returns to the shrine.

Epitaphs That Said it All!

“Do not take life too seriously. You will never get out alive anyway.” Elbert Hubbard certainly had the right idea when he put forth this quote. There are many people who went gently into the good night, and yet did so with good humour.

 For example, Winston Churchill, who was known for his quick wit, left behind a cryptic comment on his tombstone.

“I am ready to meet my Maker. Whether my Maker is prepared for the great ordeal of meeting me is another matter.”

Frank Sinatra, the singer with the golden voice, seemed determined to outdo himself in heaven perhaps, as his gravestone read

“The best is yet to come.”

William Shakespeare, who shook up Elizabethan England with his prolific offerings, obviously did not want to be disturbed after his death. His epitaph must have discouraged many a tomb robber, as it proclaimed

The writer. Billy Wilder, seemed determined to poke fun at his profession even after he was no more! 

Graveyard humour is always black hued, but some of the tombstones are downright funny! Like the ones below:

And the next one takes the cake!

Other famous personalities said it the way it was. 

And our very own Steve Jobs, whose headstone seemed eerily apt.

Robert Frost remained poetic till the end.

 "I had a lover's quarrel with the world." And Spike Mulligan amused an entire nation with his tombstone quip below.

The above quote was deemed funnier than Oscar Wilde's "Either those curtains go or I do."  And here are a few more notable examples.

The Irish have always put things perfectly.

Finally that one quote that is so apt for the virtual world today!

And who could end this piece better than Mel Blanc who used his legendary voice to bring alive many of the Warner Brother cartoon characters. He ended the performance of his life with Porky Pig’s signature line.

Dear Diary!

My mother was a great one for diaries! She loved writing down everything that happened in her life, pages and pages crammed with her neat meticulous hand, with an element of drama that seemed to be part and parcel of her life. By the time she was in her thirties, she had a cupboard full of diaries, yellowing notebooks creeping upwards, as though they wanted to claw their way to the very top. Maybe if we had had a chance to read them, we would have known even more than we do about our firebrand mother, who believed in living life to the hilt.

However, none of us ventured beyond Page 1, which had graphic comments like "Keep your nose out of my affairs, if you don't want it cut off!" - much akin to the Queen of Hearts in Alice's Wonderland whose catch phrase was, "Off with their heads!" Another comment was frankly derogatory - "Nosey Parker, venture not beyond this page!"

So when my parents bought me a brand new diary, with a lovely red and gold cover, asking me to record my daily routine, I knew exactly how to start, "Nosey Parker!" was my first inscription, scrawled in bold black letters with a tinge of red and gold to go with the cover. That was when I hit my first road block. What on earth would I write about? Nothing earth shattering ever happened to me! How on earth did Mom write in so many diaries when I could not go beyond the 'Nosey Parker'?

The first few entries reeked of excitement. "Dear Diary, I got up at seven today. I brushed my teeth and washed my face. I had eggs for breakfast. I put on my uniform and went to school!"  Anne Frank had said it so much better!

This exciting pace continued, till I got tired of my own mundane posts. I longed for something wild and exciting to happen to me. Maybe a lion would wander into my classroom... but what if it devoured me? Where would that leave my diary writing? Or maybe my favourite actor would come to town and ask to meet me! Why on earth would he even deign to look at a pimply, bespectacled little girl, was the question that never once occurred to me. I didn't have to worry my head off about it because that date never happened!

I tried to draw events that took place in life. My class teacher, who wore a crisp cotton sari and handed a cane like a pro, was one of my first attempts. When I had finished with her, she looked like nothing on earth, in a sari that looked like a Roman toga and a nose that was more aristocratic that the original. One of my friends grabbed my diary, looked at the drawing and whistled. "Wow, your Julius Caesar looks very authentic!" he drawled. That broke my heart and brought an end to my artistic doodling.

After long gaps in the narrative because I had not written in ages, I came home from school one evening, bubbling over with excitement. I rushed to my room, picked up my diary and sat down to write. I finally had something momentous to describe. 

"Dear Diary, I had the most incredible conversation with my friends this morning in school. Akash said that tomorrow, the world is going to end! So I am sorry, but that means that I will not be able to write my diary from tomorrow onwards. So goodbye, dear Diary! This is THE END!"

The world never ended, but with those fateful words, my diary writing certainly did.

                                                                  The End

My Grandfather's Clock!

 

If you were born around the time I was, or earlier. somewhere in the middle of the last century, 'My Grandfather's Clock' would have been a favourite song. It certainly was mine, not only because I love the tune and the lyrics, but mainly because it reminded me so much of my own wonderful grandfather, who was a man for all seasons. He was a metallurgist in the Railways, a man of science who was very inclined to the Arts. He could quote from any source - The Bible, the Gita and the classic poems. I remember how patiently he taught me to recite 'Lady Clare' when I was very young. It was always fun to go through a book that he had read, because he would write his own, often irreverent comments, on the pages, which would leave us in gales of laughter, his squiggly calligraphy having added more value to the page than not!

  

                                                                                            My grandparents

I remember going with the family to watch the classic 'Sound of Music', a movie which thrilled us all to the gills, as we sat awestruck till the last glorious note died down. After the movie got over, and we got up reluctantly to leave, still under the spell, we cast a glance at Grandpa. "So, what did you think?" I asked him. "Well, a nice movie!" he replied. "Only it had too many songs!" I almost swooned in disbelief!

His hobbies were myriad. He loved gardening and being out in the balmy air. He had this really ancient typewriter on which he would sit down and write articles on every topic under the sun, The only drawback was that he would begin pounding away at midnight, just when all of us were coiled in the arms of Morpheus, the God of sleep, and we would suddenly be awakened by the noise. Once Mom asked, "What are you writing about?" "Noise pollution!" he replied, without batting an eyelid.

His other hobby was winding clocks. We had a number of old fashioned clocks at home and he would spend hours, patiently cleaning them, and then winding them up. Often we would be awoken by clocks chiming away at odd hours through the night, Grandpa did ensure that none of us got an unbroken night of sleep ever!

However, after a fulfilling life, when it was time for Grandpa to meet his Maker, our hearts wept at the idea of losing this wonderful man, who had the kindest heart ever and the largest intellect as well... a man who made our lives richer by just being in it. All the good he had done came back to us as we sat vigil. And when he passed away, the very air stood still, and there was a strange silence through out the night, as he lay, unmoving. For, strange as it was, that night, all the clocks fell silent, as though their great hearts had also broken.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eWwTNQBRLxw

YouTube link - My Grandfather's Clock

The dreaded 'B' Word

The first time I used the 'B' word at the age of five, I remember the expression on the faces of my parents. Mom's heavily kohled, dancer's eyes blazed fire, as she shook a warning finger at me. "I do NOT want to HEAR that word in my house again!" she grated, as Dad looked at me, his brown eyes crinkling in amusement. "Let her be!" he smiled at Mom, who let go of the topic unwillingly, and went back to her book.

Dad looked at me, an eyebrow raised. " Do you know that only people with no imagination use this word?" he asked me. I shook my head vehemently. He continued, with a twinkle in his eye. "Just remember! The next time you feel like using the word, just stop yourself. You don't want others to question your grey matter, do you?" I certainly did not want anything of the sort. After all, I had my pride to think of, didn't it?
After lunch, when the grown ups took a siesta, I would steel myself against using the dreaded 'B' word, and instead, take my pail filled with water and make my way outside. I would collect all my toy pots and pans and make mud pies in all shapes the whole afternoon. I would painstakingly decorate them with round pebbles, little beads, glass shards and strips of ribbon.
Thus, as I grew up, the 'B' word was a taboo word, and I made sure that my daughter also never used it. When she would come to me, and tell me that her friends used it regularly, I would repeat Dad's words about people with no imagination. She would listen to me, her eyes round as she pored over what I was telling her, in much the same way that I used to do, as a child,
As a result, every time the 'B' word came to her mind, she would create colourful paintings, or write short stories, if she was at home. Her father and I encouraged her to go out and play with her friends every evening. "But no using the 'B' word, OK?" would be the last thing she heard before she gambolled away joyfully.
And so it has been with all the children in the family - my oh-so-literal writer of a nephew and all my bubbly talented nieces. who write, sing, dance, act and entertain! For them, time is precious, to be used well and creatively. Which is exactly why they have no time to use the word that they have been banned from using all their lives, that dreadful 'B' word - BOREDOM!

Age cannot Wither Her... Nalini Chandran

"Age cannot wither her, nor custom stale her infinite variety,"

 These words sit perfectly on the shoulders of Mrs. Nalini Chandran, a lady who is fondly known as 'Nalini Miss' by her students, their parents and by her many admirers. At the young age of seventy seven, she refuses to sit back and put her feet up! For all her life she has been racing ahead of time, creating magic in the profession of teaching. An exceptional educationist from a very early age, Nalini Chandran has lived a life most extraordinary, and still continues to do so, and she says that she owes all of it to her favourite deity, Hanuman, who has stood by her through thick and thin! Probably because she would have it no other way! Shirdi Sai Baba is another one to whom she turns whenever she needs a solution to a problem, and He never fails to rush to her aid either.

                                                                                    Her friend, guide and philosopher!

Thousands of students have passed through her loving arms and have gone on to create niches for themselves the world over. For them, Nalini Miss is the person who held their tiny hands and walked along with them through their school years, whispering words of hope, chiding them when they slackened. She gambolled with them, acting out nursery rhymes, as they mimicked her every move, the mentor who smiled encouragingly when they did brilliantly, but smiled even brighter when they did something humane. She insisted that they speak in English when in school, and built up their self confidence through various co-curricular activities which made them hold up their heads against a competitive world outside. Her catchphrase when she caught them being naughty was always, "Woe betide you!" - a phrase that was bandied around whenever she was mentioned, and continues to be so, even today! 

For every student she is Nalini Miss, the special teacher whom they treasured deep within their hearts. especially when they won laurels and collected bouquets, when they met friends and talked about the good old 'Hari Sri' days. She represented the mother, the guru, the mentor, and above all, the friend, who could create magic in their lives. Today there are students who have blossomed forth, thriving in their careers and others who have created families in perfect love and harmony - in each of their hearts there is one little corner in which Nalini Miss reigns!

                  'Amusedly' musing about her next step?

A young Army wife, Nalini stood out wherever she taught, as students sat, riveted to the way in which she made Shakespeare and History come alive through her dramatic skills. Her talents were numerous, as she directed English plays and choreographed exquisite dance items, having learnt Kathakali for seven years, when young. She was at her ease, whether it was doing an item for the School Annual function or a mass drill for The Annual Sports Day. And with every year that she spent teaching, she honed her skills, as she moved from school to school every time her husband was posted to a new place.

One of the incidents she loved relating was about when she once walked into a classroom as a new teacher. The senior girls were waiting to rag her, a feat that they were very good at. However, before their amazed eyes, she gave no one a chance to react, and launched into the opening scene of Macbeth, one of her favourite plays. As the girls sat in petrified silence she acted out the parts of the three witches, making the scene come alive before their very eyes, till the last menacing cackle which made their hair stand on end. They instantly turned into her most ardent fans. “That was the hardest piece of acting ever!” she later said.

                                 "You can speak well if your tongue can deliver the message of your heart."                                                                                                                                             John Ford

When her husband decided to take premature retirement from the Indian Army, he persuaded her to start a school of her own - a school in the tiny town of Thrissur in Kerala, a school which he named Hari Sri, a name so meaningful in that it is the first two words a child is made to write when he or she writes for the first time. A name that was to prove fateful as, the very next year, her beloved husband passed away after a massive cardiac arrest, leaving her with three young daughters. This was the Hari Sri of a new life, and she was just 39 years old in a strange town that looked askance at young widows.

                                                                          The love of a lifetime!

This was when Nalini realized that her work could bring her solace and she went on with fortitude, moulding Hari Sri with patience, working relentlessly to make it the best in the city, pouring into it all the wonderful skills that she had picked up over the decades. Hari Sri Vidya Nidhi was soon a well known ICSE-ISC school, a power to be reckoned with across the country, winning medals and laurels with much ease. While Academics was given importance, students were encouraged to take part in Co-curricular activities and Sports, all of which were blended beautifully with the spirit of sportsmanship and fair play.

All religions were treated alike, and one inspiring slogan that was oft repeated was 'May the Peal of Harmony be the Appeal of all Religions.' "I want my students to be citizens of the world!" she often declared. Juggling academics and co curricular activities was what she did with elan, but even more important were the core values that she wanted ingrained in her students - respect to elders, honesty to the core, etiquette and an ability to stand out for all the right reasons, the so called soft skills that are all so vital today. Her amazing sense of humour and her outspokenness were also traits she shared with people, traits she loved to see in people around her.

                                                                      Talking straight from the heart!

                                                                          Reading - a loved hobby!

Among the numerous awards that have their pride of place on her mantelplace, including the Rangojwala and the Guruvar Awards for Excellence of Teaching, the Kerala Sangeet Nataka Akademi Award for 2013 was conferred upon her for Excellence in Choreography, in recognition of her artistic and dramatic abilities, that blended in seamlessly with her academic prowess to make her a truly enlightened educationist. The fact that around ten Principals around Thrissur have been trained by her only goes to show how generously she gives of herself and her talents to inspire others. 

One of her first major shows in the mid 80s was the Ramayana, a beautiful potpourri that combined dance, drama, music and dialogue. Her Sri Rama was only eight years old. The show was staged in different venues and was also aired on Doordarshan. Over the years many wonderful shows were put up, shows that showcased culture, religion, and the fine arts. Her latest show in January this year was a programme on Kerala history that had myriad tableaux from significant scenes from the history of Kerala - an extravaganza that brought the school, and the formidable lady at its helm much acclaim.

                                                                                                   The Kalari

                                                                        

                                                                          The famed artist, Raja Ravi Varma

However, Nalini feels that her greatest trophies are the visits of her students, the mails and phone calls she receives from them and the emotions they evoke within her heart through their outpourings of love and gratitude. "I have learnt so much from my students!" she loves to say. She enjoys Facebook where she can browse to her heart's content, looking with pride on the achievements of her young ones, and where she can post positive messages along with a healthy dose of the inimitable humour through which she views life.

The true beauty that we have seen in her is her zest for life that keeps her going. She can drop everything and traipse around the country with an equally crazy British friend, also a grandmother, and end up having adventures that would make a younger person quail. Her heart is so large that she can be taken in by sob stories, and she loosens her purse strings with ease. But as she put it, "I am aware that I am being taken for a ride! But I don't mind, if I can help someone!"

  

The dancer, whose eyes speak volumes!

Whatever the case, life is never dull when she is around, and maybe, that is exactly why her repertoire overflows with life experiences that could fill reams of paper. She has faced tragedy and travails with strength and stoicism, and on one occasion when she found herself totally defenceless, the citizens of Thrissur, most of whom included the parents of the children she had nurtured, along with many eminent personalities, stood firmly behind her, ensuring that she carried on shining like the star she is, a star unaware of her own lustre, a fact that endears her to many!

                                             Her favourite stress buster, her little Pugloose

Thus, Nalini Miss carries on doing what she loves - providing light and learning to young ones, teaching them not just English, Maths and Science, but how to sit, stand, eat and behave as well! It is wonderful to see their little faces light up at the sight of Nalini Valiamma, for that is what the younger lot call her, even as they look forward to a little pat from her or a positive comment on their notebooks! And her band of teachers work together with her very diligently, for they know how precious is the clay they have been given to work with! The ne'er say die spirit of the Principal goes a long way, and it is easy to see what Emerson meant when he said, "An institution is the lengthened shadow of one man." Or woman!