*From To Sathish* - Thread 3 - Page 11

Chapter 38

Nothing great is created suddenly, any more than a bunch of grapes or a fig. If you tell me that you desire a fig, I answer you that there must be a time. Let it first blossom then bear fruit, then ripen". Epictetus (C. 55 - C. 135) Greek Stoic Philosopher

First day of school,do you remember,can you remember.I can for my father came along with me and left me with this teacher and a noisy bunch of children and i threw a tantrum.I screamed,cried,rolled on the ground and it did not work and that day and for a few days more i cried,cried standing near the window watching my dad get on his bike and leave and it broke my heart.Who knew then that i would be left alone forever,not me,not my parents and from then a mega serial has unfolded and i have been the lead actor since then.Like the films, truman show and boyhood,i have stepped out of my physical body and have watched myself in all the scenes and in all the episodes that are being aired.i tell myself that my life is the longest running show ever.

In my first school,they taught me something in kannada and something in english and it went over my head.I have been through many schools and today i am whatever i am, not by them but by life and its many experiences.I read a lot,see a lot,hear a lot and yet they lie like a film of oil over water,there but not there and yet floating above the surface.Five schools and only a handful of teachers come to my mind and they are those that have stayed imprinted in my mind.Rather than their teaching it was their personality that calmed my raging mind and made me learn a bit.But sadly those were few instances and i am proud to say that all my reading,learning,discovering was mostly on my own.

The mind is like a knife and it needs to be constantly sharpened or it becomes dull and useless.There are a few books i read again and again and learn and grasp something new and i realise that the words have remained the same and it is i the reader who has changed and metamorphosed.

Into the blue mountains

"The best thing for being sad," replied Merlin, beginning to puff and blow, "is to learn something. That's the only thing that never fails. You may grow old and trembling in your anatomies, you may lie awake at night listening to the disorder of your veins, you may miss your only love, you may see the world about you devastated by evil lunatics, or know your honor trampled in the sewers of baser minds. There is only one thing for it then " to learn. Learn why the world wags and what wags it. That is the only thing which the mind can never exhaust, never alienate, never be tortured by, never fear or distrust, and never dream of regretting. Learning is the only thing for you. Look what a lot of things there are to learn."? T.H. White, The Once and Future King

The Western Ghats are the mountainous faulted and eroded edge of the Deccan Plateau. Geologic evidence indicates that they were formed during the break-up of the supercontinent of Gondwana some 150 million years ago. Geophysical evidence indicates that the west coast of India came into being somewhere around 100 to 80 mya after it broke away from Madagascar.The range starts near the border of Gujarat and Maharashtra, south of the Tapti river, and runs approximately 1,600 km (990 mi) through the states of Maharashtra, Goa, Karnataka, Kerala and Tamil Nadu ending at Kanyakumari, at the southern tip of India.Major gaps in the range are the Goa Gap, between the Maharashtra and Karnataka sections, and the Palghat Gap on the Tamil Nadu and Kerala border between the Nilgiri Hills and the Anaimalai Hills. These hills cover 160,000 km2 (62,000 sq mi) and form the catchment area for complex riverine drainage systems that drain almost 40% of India. The area is one of the world's ten "Hottest biodiversity hotspots" and has over 7,400 species of flowering plants, 139 mammal species, 508 bird species, 179 amphibian species and 288 freshwater fish species; it is likely that many undiscovered species live in the Western Ghats.

After nearly ten days of walking, both of them stopped at a small stream which gurgled quietly deep in the belly of the forest and since it was getting late in the afternoon appanar decided that they would halt for the day and spend the night there. Appanar iyya waded into the stream which was about three feet deep and bathed his tired body and coming back to the bank soon drifted away into a deep sleep

Azhagan left the old man to sleep and decided to explore the surrounding forest and also gather fruits for their dinner. He gathered fallen ripe figs, sweet mangos, ripe bananas and removing the cloth which covered his upper torso bundled them and hoisting them over his shoulder was about to turn back when his senses alerted him to the presence of human beings and dropping the bundle near a bush stood ready to face the strangers who were stealthily moving towards him.

The tall green grass parted and a young woman with a little girl next to her came towards him.She was bleeding from a head would and was on the verge of collapsing and yet she held on to dear life and to her child.Azhagan recognised the bond between the two as the same as the sacred one between him and avini.

He went towards them and realised that they were tribal people who lived in the forest and the woman spoke a strange dialect,but azhagan understood that she was scared, thirsty and most importantly she feared for the safety of her child.

Azhagan smiled and tried to convey that there was nothing to fear and that he would take them to safety.Asking the little girl to follow him he helped the woman to slowly walk back to where appanar iyya was sleeping and shook him awake.Appanar iyya and azhagan slowly lay the woman on the grass and calmed her.Then he left and came back with some herbs and making a pulp of it slowly rubbed it on the wounds of the woman who thanked them both for their help.She tried to stand up and signaled that she must leave for there were men searching for her and her child and would soon track them here and would kill all of them.

Azhagan calmed her and told her it was going to be all right and that they would protect her and her daughter and telling appanar to remain by their side walked towards the direction where he had rescued the woman and her child.

Though just seven years old,azhagan was tall for his age and stood nearly five feet and most people would mistake him to be in his early teens.And add to that the muscles that rippled on his slender body and the fearlessness that he projected,most adults would slowdown, think or even stop before they confronted him.

Azhagan surprised himself for it was the first time his mind did something weird and that was it threw its perception and senses in all directions like a radar and gathered information. azhagan knew that this had something to do with the spirits and the time he had spent with them but it was working for he sensed and saw all that was unfolding before him.He sensed a group of ten people coming towards him and they were on a rampage and thirsting for blood.

Azhagan's body responded to all of this stimuli by slowing down its heartbeat,rather than quickening itself and then everything happened in slow motion.From the dense forest came running wild looking men,armed to the teeth with wicked looking swords and spears and they came rushing towards azhagan.He raised his hand asking them to stop and he signaled them to return back in the direction.The men laughed loudly and two charged and the rest of what happened would pass into history of the tribes and soon it would be the birth of a legend.

The one man who survived the attack and limped back to his tribe with a broken shoulder and a broken knee said that he saw the boy's eyes shine with a strange light and then in a split second he jumped on them and it was all over.Nine out of the ten men lay on the ground with broken skull,broke ribs and broke legs.They would live and live out their lives as cripples, dependent on their tribes scraps.

Azhagan came back and since it had been just ten to fifteen minutes from the time he had left and come back,appanar iyya asked him if they had to run and hide.Azhagan shook his head and said it was okay and that the problem had been solved and appanar iyya knew better than to ask him any further questions about the matter and left it for some other time when they were alone.

The next day azhagan rose early and went up a small mountain nearby and sat in quiet meditation as the morning sun rose to greet him.The sun's rays played on him as if a mother would fondle and caress its new born child and the spirits moved in the forest and azhagan felt the source and was one with it.Hearing noises from the mountain below he opened his eyes and stood up with this stick in his left hand and looked below and saw appanar iyya coming up with the woman and child that they had rescued the previous day.And with them came thirty to forty tribals armed with fruits and flowers and just as they neared azhagan,the sun who had hidden himself behind some dark clouds came roaring with its brilliant light and shone brightly on azhagan and the people gathered anear him.

For the people it was a magnificent sight to see a boy with his wild curly hair being blown in the wind and just with a stick in his left hand a white cloth around his slender waist and a gentle, serene smile playing on his lips .

Huge roars of " vetri vel,veera vel,palani muruga"filled the air for azhagan looked like the god of palani whom the tribals worshipped.Just out of his meditation and having been one with the spirits and the source,a strange halo and light enveloped azhagan and this only reaffirmed the tribals sudden belief that the young god had come down from the mountain to rescue them from the evil men.

Azhagan asked them to calm down and appanar iyya explained to them that he was just an ordinary mortal and yet he knew that the boy was special and more than just ordinary. But the tribal men insisted that azhagan was a god and payed their respects to him. They had come with other gifts but azhagan told them that he would not be able to accept them for now but would stop on the way back and spend time with them.

The tribal leader a formidable looking man thanked azhagan for saving his wife and daughter from the villains and proceeded to enquire where they were going and if they needed guides to help them.

Appanar iyya hesitated for a second and then informed him that they both were travelling to a place called "Sairandhrivanam" for meditation and to seek higher knowledge.

The tribal leader Thinnan looked at them both as if to ask if they knew about the place and the dangers that lurked there.But he was a simple man and knew that these people were not the usual,common people like him or others for they glowed and vibrated with a vital energy.For a man who made a living in the forest trusting and using his senses,they told him that the old man and the divine looking boy would be safe and the question would be if the world was safe from them.

The crowd of tribals left but for the little girl whom azhagan had saved.She came up to him and handed him a beautiful yellow flower and signaled that it was her.

Azhagan realised that the girl was handicapped and could neither hear nor talk and yet she made it clear that she was called by the name malar. She shyly reached out and took azhagans right hand and kissed his fingers and gazed into his eyes and fled down the mountain.

They stood on the mountain,the boy and the old man watching the girl flee and join her people and then turned towards the west and saw in the distance the towering blue mountains.Appanar iyya turned to azhagan and said " child, i was told to bring you here for someone waits.Who or what i have no idea.But that contact is going to be the next step in your destiny.I have also been told that you will be tested before you enter the passage beyond the walls and that only you can enter the darkness beyond."

Azhagan " I wonder what my mother is doing for i am worried about her.I hope we can finish our work here quickly and leave in a couple of days."

Appanar shook his head in amazement and thought to himself, still a child and yet breaks the bones of ten or more men and now wants to run back to his mother.

Azhagan laughed ' appanar iyya,wouldn't you be eager to see your mother if she was still alive"

Appanar iyya " so you read minds to. is there any other trick that i should be aware of."

In good spirits and laughing at each other they went down the other side of the mountain and entered the forest of Sairandhrivanam.

It was late,really late in the night and the loud snores of appanar iyya had chased most of the animals in their vicinity and they fled thinking some evil spirit had invaded the forest and was growling in hunger

Azhagan sat in the lotus yoga pose and was lost in deep meditation and the forest came alive.He slowly opened his eyes and saw the spirits were around him in a circle and wondered when and how they had arrived.A voice in his soul whispered " we are,we always are and will be as long as you are."

Azhagan closed his eyes and went back into his mind,into his soul and deep into the universe and the source waited for him and they were one.

I am azhagan.I am the son of avini.From the light i have come into darkness and i now travel back into light

The Silent valley area is locally known as "Sairandhrivanam" literally, in Malayalam: Sairandhri's Forest. In local Hindu legend, Sairandhri is Draupadi, the polyandrous wife of the five Pandavas, who disguised herself as Sairandhri, queen Sudeshna's assistant, while they were in exile. The Pandavas, deprived of their kingdom, set out on a 13-year exile. They wandered south, into what is now Kerala, until one day they came upon a magical valley where rolling grasslands met wooded ravines, a deep green river bubbled its course through impenetrable forest, where at dawn and twilight the tiger and elephant would drink together at the water's edge, where all was harmonious and man unknown. Beside that river, in a cave on a hill slope, the Pandavas halted. ---wikipedia

Hi,

I am flying off to trivandrum tomorrow and hence will not be able to write and post new chapters for a week or so.I have been busy the past few weeks with this story and so a short break will not be missed i hope.But the whole story until the climax has already been written down in my head and it just needs to be put down into the forum.
sorry but i think i can safely say that there are at least another 25 chapters to go or more if i stop,pause and linger on certain scenes.
until i see you all again i leave now wishing you and your families the best.Be well.


satish

Have a happy and safe journey Satish.

Chapter 39

"Light always trumps darkness. It always has, and it always will. Therefore... if you believe that your world is darkening...if you believe that the culture of your nation is growing dimmer by the year...don't blame it on the dark! Darkness is only doing what darkness does."If darkness is winning the battles, my friend, it is because light is not doing it's job. You are light. So wake up. Wake up."? Andy Andrews, The Noticer Returns.

Sometime in the years between 1919 to 1923,Edwin hubble an american astronomer peered through the Hooker telescope at mt.wilson space observatory and realised the milky way galaxy was not the entire universe as thought of previously and that many more galaxies lay beyond the milky way and fainter light shone from even farther back.It was a huge discovery and was one of the glorious moments in human history.Over the years hubble discovered that the universe was expanding when he found galaxies were moving away and moving faster as the distance grew greater between them.

This brought about the big bang theory for astronomers and scientists realised that if the whole universe was expanding then it must have started from a certain point and using the distances and the speed with which the galaxies were moving away they concluded that the universe started about 13.8 billion years ago in huge bang.But till today nobody can tell why it banged,what banged or who banged it.No astronomer is able to tell what came before or what existed before the big bang and the birth of the universe.

Astronomers have measured the age of the universe to be approximately 13.8 billion years old. Because of the connection between distance and the speed of light, this means they can look at a region of space that lies 13.8 billion light-years away. Like a ship in the empty ocean, astronomers on Earth can turn their telescopes to peer 13.8 billion light-years in every direction, which puts Earth inside of an observable sphere with a radius of 13.8 billion light-years. The word "observable" is key; the sphere limits what scientists can see but not what is there.

But though the sphere appears almost 28 billion light-years in diameter, it is far larger. Scientists know that the universe is expanding. Thus, while scientists might see a spot that lay 13.8 billion light-years from Earth at the time of the Big Bang, the universe has continued to expand over its lifetime. Today, that same spot is 46 billion light-years away, making the diameter of the observable universe a sphere around 92 billion light-years.

Centering a sphere on Earth's location in space might seem to put mankind in the center of the universe. However, like that same ship in the ocean, we cannot tell where we lie in the enormous span of the universe. Just because we cannot see land does not mean we are in the center of the ocean; just because we cannot see the edge of the universe does not mean we lie in the center of the universe.

The source

The western ghats towered over them like an army of giants made of rock and they stood in various shapes and sizes.Azhagan and appanar marveled at the variety of birds, animals,trees and plants that made their home there.The air burst with a vitality and the scent of the flowers was so intoxicating that both wanted to sit and stare at the beauty of mother nature.Gentle streams ran down small hills as if they were brothers and sisters playing catch me if you can and then in unison they toppled over as a small waterfall.

From a tall peak both looked down at Sairandhrivanam and it spread before them till the horizon like a green carpet.They slowly made their way into the forest and realised that human rarely ventured in these dense virgin forests.But thin paths made by deer and bison made it a little easier for them to negotiate and soon they were truly in the womb of the forest.Azhagan looked up and could see the light of the sun filtered to nothing by the tall trees.

Appanar iyya shook his head " child,in all the years that i have lived on this land i have seen many wonderful and beautiful places.I have seen fantastic buildings and palaces.but i tell you none on them can equal the beauty and serenity of this place.Our destiny has brought us here and i am thankful for that."

They reached a small but rapidly flowing river and it looked pretty deep and treacherous. Just as they were wondering what to do azhagan felt the whisper in his head and he looked all around and stopped and stared at what looked like ancient ruins on the other side of the river.

He looked at appanar and said " iyaa,remain here for i think the purpose for our voyage has been reached.I think the ruins hardly visible under the shade of those trees across the tree is where i start and go about the reason for why we are here."

Using the stick to navigate the depths,azhagan slowly made his way across the river and whether he noticed it or not,appanar did and he saw the rapid flow of the river slow down to allow the child to cross over safely.

Azhagan screamed over the flow of the river " i did notice and i promise it was not my doing but a power that lies hidden beyond the ruins.So wait here and i will see what is going on and be back in a few minutes."

Appanar nodded and azhagan quickly made his way to the ruins and was surprised to see many people sitting there in meditation.Realising that his senses would have surely alerted him to the presence of others, azhagan went closer and saw that they were all statues.

The statues did not look like anything which azhagan had seen in perumalpuram or a few other temples he had been to and he thought to himself that they were all of old men of different shapes and sizes.But they all vibrated and pulsed with energy and azhagan knew that they had been great men or saints of a very high order and they had all been in touch with the source.

Then he heard the voice " come.pass the test and enter."

Azhagan closed his eyes and looked at a broken wall which seemed to shimmer with a strange light.Instinct guided him to it and he stood before it and felt it with his senses.He could not know it but his eyes now glowed with a strange light and he placed his hands on the wall and breathed into it.The markings on his left forearm moved as if they were serpents and he walked through the shimmering light into darkness.He stood enveloped by the darkness and realised he was inside the mountain.

I am azhagan.I am the son of avini.I have come from the light and now from light i enter the darkness of the mountain on a voyage into light.

Animate,inanimate and in both at the heart lies the source of atoms and the secret atomic energy that binds,controls and rules the universe.Why does hydrogen, an explosive element combine with oxygen, another explosive and highly inflammable element and emerge as water.Water that can put out flames and water that can breed and sustain life.Souls and us humans can and should marvel at this and try to live harmoniously,in spite of differences of cast,creed,color and religion.Wow,muslims,christians,hindus,jews,buddhists etc all living as one family.possible,impossible but i want to think it is possible.Out of the fiery womb of the sun we came and in its grasp we rotate as the third planet from the sun and yet we are here,aware and alive.

Yaar Yaar Sivam Nee Naan Sivam

Vaazhvae Thavam Anbe Sivam

Ithayam Enbathu Sathaithaan Endraal

Erithayal Thindruvidum

Anbin Karuvi Ithayam Endraal

Saavai Vendruvidum

Anbin Paathai Saerthavanukku Mudivae Illaiyadaa

Manathiin Neelam Ethuvoe Athuvae Vaazhvin Neelamadaa

Yaar Yaar Sivam Nee Naan Sivam

Vaazhvae Thavam Anbe Sivam

"I am nothing special, of this I am sure. I am a common man with common thoughts and I've led a common life. There are no monuments dedicated to me and my name will soon be forgotten, but I've loved another with all my heart and soul, and to me, this has always been enough.." Nicholas Sparks, The Notebook

Hi all,

Satish has started work on a tv project for asianet malayalam channel.The project is called For the people and he plays the role of an Assistant commissioner of police Ananthan IPS.

Posted below are some of the pictures as shared by Satish.

You look awesome Satish. Wishing you all the best.

Nithya