From & To Sathish #5 - Page 130

Avan, Aval Adhu 419

Their conversation came to a silent halt and the topic forced to exit the moment they caught sight of Madhurima returning through the entrance. It was immediately obvious to Daksha's keen eyes that things had not gone well from the way their new friend and guest walked and looked.

' Will she be joining us for your wedding tomorrow? Daksha enquired politely and Madhu shook her head slowly in obvious disappointment and then looked at both of them and smiled, ' She is not the easiest person to get in touch with and then there is her work which takes her out of the country more often than not.'

Both Partha and Daksha felt the depth of her regret and just as they were both wondering what they could say to appease her, Madhu said, ' It's all right. I bet she is neck deep in work and will find it difficult to get away from work at such short notice.'

Parthiban offered his thoughts by saying, ' Maybe, if you and Ravi can postpone the wedding by a couple of days or a week even, it will make it easier for your stepdaughter to fly down from wherever she is right now.'

Ravi who had just entered the hall, heard Partha's suggestion and stopped and looked at Madhu wondering what she was going to say.

' No, Parthiban. There is no need to postpone the wedding for her sake for there is no guarantee that she will get in touch with me after seeing my message or missed calls. I am going to leave everything to Ravi and his mother and let them decide what should be done.'

Ravi joined them and looked at Madhu and said, ' I am sorry but I could not help but overhear what you just told my friends.'

Madhu looked at him uncomfortably and then things got even more uncomfortable with Daksha's polite but precise and sharp observations that they all knew were hidden questions.

' Then why take the trouble in calling her or getting in touch with her, Madhu when you know she is not going to respond? Why that is or what lies between you concerns none of us but you both. But, you are here and Ravi is here and you are getting married. That is definitely our concern.'

Madhurima smiled and gently patted Daksha's left cheek and said, ' I like you and I like the way your mind works for that is exactly how I operate when I conduct my board meetings or even I am interacting with big clients.'

Ravi tried to intervene but Madhu stopped him by touching his arm and said, ' Jaanu, Daksha is right. My stepdaughter and I don't get along very well. But things are getting better ' and she looked at all of them with hope shining brightly in her eyes and said, ' She called me a few days back and we spoke for a long time and that after a gap of several years.'

Daksha looked at her with genuine concern and asked worriedly, ' Was it or is it about money and property? I don't know about her but from what little I have seen of you, it is obvious money or power don't matter a great deal for you.'

' Right again, Daksha, and for the record, it is the same with her. She works and she lives her life according to her rules and laws.'

She looked at Daksha and then she looked at Ravi and smiled beautifully, ' You will be surprised when I tell you that she is a mix of you both. She never lies, minces her words or her thoughts, and always stands up and fights boldly for what is right and for what she feels is right and will never back down.'

Parthiban asked with a voice full of wonder and admiration, ' Sounds like a real lioness ' and stopping tentatively asked, ' Then what is or was the problem? Why are you both estranged? '

Daksha and Madhu both looked at Partha and Ravi answered all of their thoughts with one word, ' Love.'

All three looked at him and he smiled, ' It's always about love and is never about hate for that comes later and only when love and the heart carrying it is broken.'

Daksha announced in a solemn voice, ' Hear ye, hear ye. Lend your ears for the master speaks.'

Ravi playfully pinched Daksha's cheeks and continued.

' Love and failure of it leads to anger and that leads to actions. Almost all sins and deadly deeds are done in the name of love or the lack of it. People lash out when they are hurt and sadly that is when everyone should calm down and step back in thought and in silence.'

He nodded, ' Once bridges are broken they remain broken and even if they are rebuilt they can never return to their former self or state.'

“Love is hard to find, hard to keep, and hard to forget.”

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Avan, Aval Adhu 420

“What a Chimera is man! What a novelty, a monster, a chaos, a contradiction, a prodigy! Judge of all things, an imbecile worm; depository of truth, and sewer of error and doubt; the glory and refuse of the universe.” Blaise Pascal, Pensées

Daksha looked at Madhurima in question and in a manner that asked her if what Ravi had just said was indeed the right explanation for her current situation with her stepdaughter.

Madhu nodded, ' Ravi is right. My stepdaughter and I are kind of estranged because of Love. Although Love would be too simple a word to explain away what a human soul and mind feel when in it and when out of it.'

Parthiban clapped softly, ' Well said, Madhu ' and throwing a challenging look at Ravi, teased him, ' Dei, careful. We have another master with us now So, no more bullying and no more preaching.'

Ravi bent his head in acknowledgment and looked at Madhu and said, ' She is the original and I am just following in her footsteps.'

Daksha held up her hands and yelled, ' People, stop your mutual admiration right this moment before I throw up.'

Seeing Madhu's shocked reaction at this blatant retort, Partha hurriedly apologized to her and said, ' Madam was born like this only. Even the doctor who delivered her ran for her life when Ducks here who had just popped out of her mother, raised her middle finger and commented nastily on the doctors delivering skills.'

Ravi looked at him in awe, ' So, how is it that you have survived all this acid of her witty and caustic tongue?'

Parthiban wearing a sad look declared loudly, ' I too wondered about that but ceased thinking about it after being constantly called a stupid donkey and a thick-skinned pig.'

Madhu not knowing how to react to all of this glanced at Ravi who chuckled and said, ' At least you know who or what you are, Partha. Be happy that your wife sees you for what you really are and recognizes your breeding and has persisted living with you even after knowing that and for all these years.'

Daksha saluted Ravi and thanked him and then asked Madhu, ' Master here said that love was the problem. In what way did it create problems for your newly married life?'

Madhurima smiled wryly and sighed and said, ' The usual cliched reason that has been flogged in movies and television for ages.'

She looked at all of them and spoke calmly and freely and from her heart and unknownst all of them Rasaathi Ammal stood hearing her and all of them.

' Jealousy, insecurity, and loss. The poor thing who had lost her mother a few months earlier was forced to accept a new mother, a stranger into her house and into her life, and who now posed a threat to her relationship with the only surviving parent. Her father who now also belonged to someone else.'

Parthiban asked in a soft voice, ' Was it bad?'

' Yes, but once I understood the reason for her anger and all her verbal abuse that she constantly threw at both me and her own father, it stopped hurting me or disturbing me.'

Smiling sadly, ' Sometimes, she went too far in her curses and was reprimanded severely, and that too in front of me. That only increased the intensity of her anger and violence which she soon turned against herself. She began to drink, do drugs, and other worse things....'

Placing a hand on Madhu's shoulder, Daksha looked at her, ' How? How did you endure all that and why?'

Madhu smiled, ' I carry a light in my soul. It was a gift of love and bestowed on me with great love and respect. That person who gifted me that light and that love told me that no matter what happens and no matter what tests I have to endure in life, I should never fall from grace and from the pedestal of love that he placed me on.'

She looked at Partha, ' You call me master. If that is so then the person who is the light and love of our lives is a Grandmaster.'

Behind the door, and away from their sight, Rasaathi Ammal stood with her eyes full of tears as she finally realized the true meaning of what lay between Ravi and Madhu and as it dawned on her that they were one and identical in thought and in reality were one soul inhabiting two bodies.

Her eyes flared in worry as she thought to herself, ' What about Gayatri, and what about that monster, Meenakshi?'

Her thoughts and questions echoed inside the room as Daksha true to her soul asked, ' Master, Grandmaster, what about that love that is as pure as yours but is sadly one-sided and remains doomed and unreciprocated?'

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What to read to become a better writer

Five texts that explain how to write simply and well

The first words are the hardest. For many of us writing is a slog. Words drip with difficulty onto the page—and frequently they seem to be the wrong ones, in the wrong order. Yet few pause to ask why writing is hard, why what we write may be bad, or even what is meant by “bad”. Fortunately for anyone seeking to become a better writer, the works recommended here provide enlightenment and reassurance. Yes, writing is hard. But if you can first grasp the origins and qualities of bad writing, you may learn to diagnose and cure problems in your own prose (keeping things simple helps a lot). Similarly heartening is the observation that most first drafts are second-rate, so becoming a skilled rewriter is the thing. These five works are excellent sources of insight and inspiration.

Politics and the English Language. By George Orwell. Available on the Orwell Foundation’s website

Starting with Orwell’s essay may seem as clichéd as the hackneyed phrases he derides in it. Published in 1946, this polemic against poor and perfidious writing will be familiar to many. But its advice on how to write is as apposite now as then. (Besides, it is short and free.) Orwell analyses the unoriginal, “dying” metaphors that still haunt the prose of academics, politicians, professionals and hacks. He lambasts the “meaningless words” and “pretentious diction” of his day; many of the horrors he cites remain common. To save writers from regurgitating these, Orwell proposes six now-canonical rules. The first five boil down to: prefer short, everyday words and the active voice, cut unneeded words and strive for fresh imagery. The sixth—“break any of these rules sooner than say anything outright barbarous”—displays the difficulty of pinning down something as protean as language. But this has not stopped others trying.

Style: Lessons in Clarity and Grace. By Joseph M. Williams and Joseph Bizup. Pearson Education; 246 pages; $66.65 and £43.99

In “Style”, Joseph Williams, who taught English at the University of Chicago, instructs writers on how to revise their scribblings into something clearer, more concise and coherent. (Aptly for a text about rewriting, it is the latest in a long line of reworkings of Williams’s teachings on the subject, which appeared under various titles.) Unlike Orwell, who devised high-level rules for writers to wield by instinct, Williams proposes nuanced “principles” and shows how to apply them. Whereas, for instance, Orwell exhorted writers to “never use the passive where you can use the active”, Williams explains how passives can sometimes help create a sense of flow. This forms part of his coverage of “cohesion” and “coherence”, which could upend the way you write. Insightful, too, is Williams’s guidance on pruning prose and on the ills and virtues of nominalisations—nouns formed from verbs (as “nominalisation” is from “nominalise”), which often send sentences awry. Such technical details, summary sections and practice exercises make “Style” the most textbook-like work on this list. It may also be the most useful.

On Writing Well: The Classic Guide to Writing Nonfiction. By William Zinsser. HarperCollins; 321 pages; $17.99 and £13.99

Less overtly practical than “Style” but far more fun to read is “On Writing Well”. William Zinsser, who was an American journalist and teacher, is a witty commentator on the writer’s craft with a talent for aphorisms (eg, “the secret of good writing is to strip every sentence to its cleanest components”). He embraces slippery subjects like “rhythm” and “voice” that tend to defy rules or principles. But he purveys practical wisdom, too, diagnosing stylistic blunders, exploring genres from memoir to business writing, and analysing passages from well-known works and his own journalism. Zinsser is always encouraging. Introducing a marked-up extract from drafts of “On Writing Well”, a spider’s web of self-edits, he counsels: “Very few sentences come out right the first time, or even the third time. Remember this in moments of despair.” Zinsser also gives fellow writers much to emulate. His paragraph-ending sentences are a marvel.

The Sense of Style: The Thinking Person’s Guide to Writing in the 21st Century. By Steven Pinker. Penguin; 368 pages; and $18 and £10.99

An expert on words and brains, Steven Pinker wants to help writers write better by getting them into the minds of their readers. The celebrated psycholinguist argues that “the curse of knowledge” is the biggest cause of bad writing: like children, writers forget that others often do not know what they know. Bad writers tend to dwell on irrelevant points and make logical connections that are logical only to them. Their prose—the type beloved of academics, bureaucrats and businessfolk—abounds in abstract nouns and luxuriates in long sentences. By contrast, good writing (“classic style”, in Mr Pinker’s phrase) assembles concrete words into straightforward sentences that readers find simple to grasp. Why should this be so? Using striking and funny examples, Mr Pinker shows how working memory, which stores syntactic constructions until they are complete, is easily swamped. In closing, he joins the battle over English usage, as our full review of “The Sense of Style” describes.

Merriam-Webster’s Dictionary of English Usage. Merriam-Webster; 989 pages; $29.95

Every writer needs a reference book to look up troublesome issues of grammar and usage; no one has memorised them all. The quality of such books has improved in recent years, but one from the 1990s has earned its keep since then. Merriam-Webster (MWDEU) is America’s best-known dictionary publisher. This guide contains not exactly definitions, though, but mini-essays: on individual words (can “data” be singular?), confusingly similar ones (such as “comprise” and “compose”) and grammatical conundrums (such as the split infinitive, dangling modifiers and so on).

What distinguishes MWDEU is its relentless empiricism. Where a debatable claim about correct usage is made, it surveys the history of other guides and their recommendations, as well as going to Merriam-Webster’s huge bank of citations from literature, non-fiction and journalism. In many cases, a proposed rule (such as the ban on split infinitives) is shown to be baseless. But in other cases, the guide is conservative. On the “comma fault” (joining two independent clauses with nothing more than a comma), MWDEU finds it in some great authors’ literary work, but warns readers that “you probably should not try the device unless you are very sure of what you want it to accomplish.” Good sense all round.

The Economist, September 9, 2022

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Old wine in a new bottle and its sounds just great.

Time has done such great injustice

You're no longer you and I'm no longer me

Time has done such great injustice

You're no longer you and I'm no longer me

Time has done such great injustice

Our restless hearts met in such a way that

We've never ever been apart

Our restless hearts met in such a way that

We've never ever been apart

You were lost and so was I

As we walked a few footsteps on the same path

Time has done such great injustice

You're no longer you and I'm no longer me

Time has done such great injustice

We can't even think as to where we want to go

But we're moving forward even without a path

We can't even think as to where we want to go

But we're moving forward even without a path

We don't know what we're searching for

Our hearts are weaving dreams all the time

Time has done such great injustice

You're no longer you and I'm no longer me

Time has done such great injustice

You're no longer you and I'm no longer me

Time has done such great injustice

A few songs which have become permanent guests in my house and in my head

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