From & To Sathish #5 - Page 40

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

Hi friends,

I usually refrain from getting into troll videos and that too when it concerns others. I do absolutely never refrain from trolling myself and sharing troll videos of my acting skills. But, I just could not help sharing this content that has been trending for a few weeks now.

The reason behind my posting this and sharing this with all of you is to prompt a question in all of us and in all of those who believe in God and a higher power.

How far will you go with your belief and how low will you sink or suspend your reality for anything that has to do with God?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J2lwuQrYn3U

https://tamil.indianexpress.com/viral/fake-godwoman-annapoorani-arasu-amma-video-trending-on-social-media-388660/

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u0yElvTE11I

Vaanathai Pola 419

CNN's Asian region anchor Mallika Kapur and her cameraman Milind stood a long way away and yet everything was visible through their expensive Zoom lenses. From their hiding, they had watched a small jet plane land on the other runway and then slowly cruise up to the Gigantic Qantas A380 Jet that dominated its surroundings with its massive presence.

Milind zoomed in on the small plane and whispered ' Civilians boss. Do you want me to start recording?'

' No' Mallika told him and then changing her mind, said, ' Maybe you should. For God only knows what the f..k is going on down there on the runway. Is it a bomb? If so, what kind of bomb did they find there? The garden variety C4 that terrorists use or is it something far more advanced and dangerous like......?

Milind hitting the pause button on the camera in a hurry, turned to her with panic-stricken eyes, ' what, you mean nuclear? Holy christ? You mean we are in the blast range of a nuclear bomb?'

Mallika Kapur looked at him, ' If it is so and if it happens to detonate....?

' F..k boss. That is a lot of if's there.'

Cursing his stars, CNN'S cameraman Milind turned and zoomed in on the action and a few seconds later, he turned and tapping his viewfinder said, ' People in PPE suits. I wonder what's going on down there. Looks like some kind of action scene out of my favourite show CSI Las vegas.'

Mallika Kapur stared at the small viewfinder and then looked at Milind and stammered, ' Can you, can you zoom in any more?'

Milind nodded and slowly turned the knob to its fullest and then adjusting the focus to make the image as sharp as possible, glance at Mallika and said, ' that is the best I can do but I think it will do.'

Mallika Kapur placed her eye, her right eye which she knew had better sight than her left and stared at the scene around the Giant plane and whispered, ' Milind, those are not people from your crime scene investigation and those are not just your common PPE suits but suits worn in the most dangerous of environments.'

Milind looked at his boss as she frowned her forehead and watched quietly as her mind connected the dots and got a glimpse of what was happening on the runway and tentatively asked, ' Boss, you are scaring me. What do you mean by those suits being worn in dangerous places?'

' BSL Level 4 suits, Milind' Mallika said and pointed to the lens, ' Look carefully and tell me what you find different in the suits these people are wearing and the ones the characters in CSI wear.'

Milind took a good look and said, ' Okay, the colours are different and apart from that, these people near the plane are carrying small tanks on their shoulders as if they were going into space or scuba diving.BSL Level 4, dangerous environment. WTF is going on, boss?'

She looked at him and said, ' Biological Bomb, Milind. Those people down there are here to collect one or more people who have been infected and if that is true then it means all those who were on that plane could have been infected and if that is the case, then' she halted and stared hard.

Milind completed her, ' then we could be possibly infected for we were in that meeting.'

Both stared at each other and then Mallika taking a deep breath looked at him and said, ' Shoot everything and once that is done, we will go live. I am going to call the boss and inform her about what is going on. This is dynamite, Milind and it is going to make our careers.'

' or end our careers for there will be none when we are dead' Milind observed cryptically and lighting a cigarette, resumed recording.

From the darkness, darker than the night, Buddha whispered, ' Lord, do we let them shoot or are we going to take them down?'

Azhagan replied, ' No, let them shoot and do their thing. It will save us a lot of trouble and while all that is going on, we can go about doing what we came to do.'

' What about, Raman, my Lord? Do we leave him all alone and without any protection?'

Azhagan's face hardened as he replied in a grim voice, ' Raman knew what he was getting into and he also knew that there was a chance that he might not make it out alive this time. There is no way through this maze, Buddha. If the sons of Gaia have to be stopped, then we need to find a way in. A clue that will lead us to them.'

Holding up Raman's mobile, he stared at it and whispered, ' The only thing left now is to take care of Raman's family and friends.'

Buddha yawned, ' Well, he must have reached them and with him there, it is one less worry for us.'

The boy who went into the dark and came back with light.

Vaanathai Pola 420

Dr Raja Rao stopped abruptly as he recognized Major Param and Brigadier Sooryanarayanan standing there at the bottom of the stairs that led up to the plane and even though their faces were nearly covered by surgical masks.

' Major, what are you doing here in Chennai? Were you and Chakravyuh notified of this situation much earlier than our department?'

' No doctor, I have been here for a few days following up on another matter which I cannot talk about right now for it is Top Secret.'

Dr Raja Rao smiled and said, ' Param, anything to do with you and your boss and your team is Top Secret.' Throwing a cautious look at the plane, ' What is going on, Major for the Prime Minister himself personally called me and requested me and my team's presence here? Who is up there that is so important?' and turning to Param, he asked with a twinkle in his eyes, 'Not your boss, Rudran is it? For his reputation of diving straight into any dangerous situation is well known among all of us.'

Major Param Singh shook his head and replied, ' No, not our boss, Rudran but the new boss of R&AW, Mr Raman.'

Dr Raja Rao's eyes filled with surprise on hearing this new and sudden development, ' When did this happen and what happened to V.K. Singh, my friend of so many years?'

Both Param and Brigadier Sooryanarayanan fell silent and Dr Raja Rao misunderstanding their silence, asked sarcastically, ' Oh! so, he was kicked out or should I say in our lingo, gently shown the door. Poor guy, he had but a few more months to live out his fight with lung cancer and he has been shown the door and now his replacement has gotten himself into a shitstorm of a problem.'

Brigadier Sooryanarayanan placed a soft hand on his shoulder and said, ' Rao, V.K passed away about an hour ago and it was his choice that Raman was made the new head and rightly so.'

His eyes blazing with pride, ' Dr Rao, you have not had the privilege of meeting Raman before this moment for had you met him, you yourself would have proclaimed to the whole world that he is far superior to V.K who we all know was the best in the spy business.'

The news that his friend of many decades had finally succumbed to cancer came as a painful shock and it swayed him and it took Dr Sathya who was standing next to him to grab him and steady him.

' Thank you, Sathya' Dr Raja Rao said and looked at both Param and Brigadier Sooryanarayanan and asked, ' So, what is going on here and up there in the plane that is so dangerous and that has prompted me and my team from Centre for Cellular and Molecular Biology to be flown here from Hyderabad.'

Brigadier Sooryanarayanan quickly explained all that had happened over the past few hours and when he had just finished with the part where Raman had used the Microwave oven to kill whatever Pathogen was there in that glass tubes, Dr Raja Rao interrupted him and asked in a ( Don't Bullshit me, kind of voice), 'You mean to say this guy, Raman actually did that.'

Shaking his head, ' blessed with both balls of steel and the brains of a genius and the guts to use both of them in time. Bravo.'

Brigadier Sooryanarayanan looked worriedly at the plane and said, ' Dr Rao, all we know is that he is down. Major Rajeev who was with him told us that he was nearly kicked out and only after he had left, Raman had tried destroying the bomb or whatever it was using the microwave oven.'

He played the videos of the bomb counting down to Dr Raja Rao who commented, ' It is very clear that he destroyed that supposedly biological bomb before it finished counting down. So, why is he down? What happened up there?'

Taking a deep breath, ' I will need to speak to that Major Rajeev who along with his dog discovered this biological bomb. Have him brought here immediately for there might be still some information that can be gotten from him.'

Turning to his second-in-command Dr Sathya and the other two members of his team, ' Okay, enough talk for it is time to move on ' and with that went up the stairs followed closely by the others.'

CNN's Asian region anchor Mallika Kapur's fists were clenched hard in anxiety and not able to take the tension, she leaned forward and closer to Milind's back who smiled and whispered, ' A little bit closer would feel even better.'

Blushing, she quickly stepped back and kicked him playfully in his heels and said, ' that will come later, I promise. Just concentrate and shoot the damn plane and those men in the PPE Suits.'

Milind paused the recording and said, ' Those people in the suits have entered the plane. What now, boss?' and tapping his camera, ' I think we have enough to go live right now.'

Casting a pensive look at him, Mallika shook her head and said, ' No. Patience. We will wait for that headline photo of them returning carrying bodies on a stretcher' and smiling in ecstasy, ' Imagine that, Milind and with my photo on the front page and every tv channel from north to south pole carrying my live broadcast from Chennai and Ground Zero.'

Milind spoke in a worried voice, ' But, Mallika, have you thought of the consequences and what we might have to face after this? There is a chance of us being arrested and charges such as spying and traitors levelled against us. Decide before you go live for this is our country, our nation that has been attacked and we are selling her out?'

' Milind, reporting news is what we do and the buck stops there. Everything else comes after that, mister' and continued angrily, ' Wtf, man. We are on the verge of reporting live a very important piece of news and here you are yanking the chains of my conscience.'

Taking a deep breath, she said, ' I am sorry but my reporting job takes precedence over everything else.'

No sooner had she said that Major Param whispered something to Brigadier Sooryanarayanan who nodded and called Defence Minister Rajnath Singh who without hesitation agreed and made the call to the Minister of information and Broadcasting who said, ' Rajnath Ji, Whatever you want will be done .'

He made the call and the internet connections in and around the Chennai Airport were switched off. A second later, powerful army jammers switched on and all signals coming in and going out of the airport were jammed and totally blocked.

Totally oblivious to this, Milind continued aiming his camera at the plane and both he and Mallika Kapur waited with bated breaths for things to happen when they had already happened.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HZDd7Er_510

Computer commands in Tamil . (Those who understand Tamil slang, have a hearty laugh)

Save - vechika

Save as - aiye apdiye vechika

Find - thedika

Find again - inoru thaba thediko

Move - jaga vangu

Zoom - persa kaatu

Open - thora naina

Replace - itha thooki apdika podu

Cut - vetti kadasu

Paste - ottu

Paste spl. – nala yechi thottu ottu

Drag&hold - nalla isthu puchika

New - putshu

Old - payatsu

Do u want to delete selected item? - maiyalume thookidava?

Home – uudu

Window – sanna kathavu

Web – ottadai

Search – kandupudi mae

Cookies – biskoothu

Read only - Kai vecha keeseduvae

Escape – kaindiko

Help – lite.a kai.a kudthu kaapaathu kannu

Print – adichi thool kelapu

Monitor – sarakku mamae

Recycle bin – kuppa kuda

Compress - Adaki vaasi

Force quit – aaniyae pudunga venaam.

Copy – aattaya podrathu

Crash – Maamu nee puuta kesu

Avan, Aval, Adhu 110

“When we honestly ask ourselves which person in our lives mean the most to us, we often find that it is those who, instead of giving advice, solutions, or cures, have chosen rather share our pain and touch our wounds with a warm and tender hand. The friend who can be silent with us in a moment of despair or confusion, who can stay with us in an hour of grief and bereavement, who can tolerate not knowing, not curing, not healing and face with us the reality of our powerlessness, that is a friend who cares.” Henri Nouwen

The place called Whispering Rocks had been christened and no, I am not being funny for the place had indeed gotten its name from a pair of Christian Missionaries hailing from America. The reason for that name being given was for on the southern edge of the property, there ran down a path that lead into a maze of rock formations through which air slipped in and out making whispery noises. Although, it should be pointed out here that many people who had visited that particular site had come away whispering among themselves that the sounds the air made as it tunnelled through the various rocky funnels sounded more like condemned spirits that were begging to be released from their hellish prisons in the underworld. A small stone crucifix guards the steps that lead down into the maze and a picket fence gate denies access to it.

But for this lonely and forbidden place that is seldom visited, Whispering Rocks is really heaven on earth for it is a place that fills a person's soul with peace and tranquillity the moment they enter its boundaries.

The first thing a newcomer to Whispering Rocks says is, ' I am not sure what it is but there is something different about this resort when compared to the other resorts' and usually it takes sharp eyes and keen minds to home in one that difference and they do it much quicker than the others. That difference is in the vegetation that lives inside the estate.

For, the 150-acre tea estate is home to 90 per cent native species like Jamun, pungam, silver oak, senkanthal (Glorisa), neem, kottalan and rudraksha which are perennial trees that grow on plains as well as high altitudes. The reason for native species of trees to have found a home in Whispering Rocks was none other than Ravi Kumar.

Parthiban had met Daksha 18 years ago when he had tagged along with a close friend to a dinner party in Whispering Rocks and back when it was only a tea estate. The dinner party had been an afterthought of Daksha who had invited all her Kodai School Alumni back to her estate for a drink and like in books, the night never ended and the day never began.

Parthiban had been slouching comfortably in a cane cushioned sofa nursing his 8th or 9th drink when Daksha had shown up and both had gotten talking. The conversation had invariably started with his artificial legs and had gradually progressed into life and stuff that were deeply personal.

Parthiban had been stunned and left feeling sad when Daksha who was five years older than him and a divorcee confided in him about the reason for her being single and divorced.

She looked at him with wet eyes and had told him in a bitter voice, ' Life gave me everything. Money, brains, big tits and nice are but it screwed me royally when it came to having children.'

She had then reached for his glass and had downed the whiskey and water combo in one gulp and had cursed more.

' I was not aware of my shortcoming and only came to know about it a few years later when my Mother-in-law began to wonder aloud about my womb and other stuff.'

Partha feebly, ' Adoption. Did you talk about it?'

Daksha smiled, ' F..k, my husband would have punched my face for such talk was prohibited in his male-dominated Patriarchal family.'

' Then. How did it all end?'

' He asked me, sorry, correction, he demanded a divorce and I caved in and gave in.'

' Arranged or love marriage?'

She squeezed her face and had made a monkey-like expression, ' Love of course, silly. Do I look like a girl who would walk into a slaughterhouse called arranged marriage?'

Partha should not have said it, but he said it. ' Maybe the slaughterhouse would have been a better experience than the one you had to endure for a quick death is much better than a slow and painful one.'

Daksha smiling bitterly, ' In hindsight, my dear fellow and the opposite to that is foresight.'

Thus had begun their friendship and that had slowly blossomed into a beautiful relationship and a few years later, they had taken the next step and had walked down the aisle and had become husband and wife.

Daksha's full name was Catherine Daksha Scudder and she hailed from a family whose roots were from both Netherlands and Germany but more from the USA. It was her great-great-grandfather who had founded Whispering Rocks back in the 1860s and had built the first church in Kodaikanal although it is still referred to this day as a chapel.

It was in that chapel that they had been married and pronounced man and wife and Parthiban's best man had been, Ravi Kumar apart from his father and mother who had quietly accepted his choice even though their daughter-in-law had been of Christian faith.

It was only 1.00 pm and yet the mist began to fall, flow and fill all of Kodaikanal.

Partha stood watching as Ravi vanished in the mist and as he walked towards the Number 7 cottage that lay at the edge of the property and very close to the path that led down the mountain and into the maze and labyrinth of eroded rocks that mostly howled and only sometimes whispered and sent chills down the spines of all those who heard it.

Ravi was the only one who embraced it lovingly and had on his very first visit declared, ' I feel the mountain singing a chorus of some lost composition. It is music to my soul, guys.'

Daksha placed a gentle hand on his and asked, ' Baby, what's wrong?'

' I am not sure but I am certain of it. Ravi is not his usual self, Ducks. Something has happened down in Madurai that has forced him here.'

Daksha smiled and said, ' Baby, this is Ravi you are talking about. We know him well.'

' I know ducks but I sensed something, a change, a difference in him. It is as if he is worried or scared about something.'

Daksha looked at him with anxious eyes, ' You think it has something to do with what happened back then?'

' I am not sure but I am sure of one thing and that it is somehow connected to Madhu.'

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ilzgp5nIvoM

Vaanathai Pola 421

Symptom word origin - late Middle English synthoma, from medieval Latin, based on Greek sumptoma ‘chance, symptom’, from sumpiptein ‘happen’; later influenced by French symptome .

Symptom meaning-subjective evidence of disease or physical disturbance broadly : something that indicates the presence of bodily disorder. an evident reaction by a plant to a pathogen. something that indicates the existence of something else symptoms of an inner turmoil.

Difference between sign and symptom- A symptom is a manifestation of disease apparent to the patient himself, while a sign is a manifestation of disease that the physician perceives. The sign is objective evidence of disease; a symptom, subjective.

I will start with my own experiences and slowly lead you into this chapter called symptoms.

My earliest memory of suffering from ' The Runs' or the condition more commonly called Diarrhea was when I was about five or six years old. I must have surely suffered it many times earlier than five but my memory is a bit too scratchy and faded to recollect them. Early-onset of Alzheimer's.

I remember feeling weak and stumbling to my Grandmom who shoved a tablespoon of fenugreek ( Vendhiyam) in my tiny gob and poured a jug of salty buttermilk down my tiny throat and told me to rest. ( Fat chance of me doing that). That advice has stayed with me till now and has served me very well indeed.

More recently, just a few months back, the rains helped spread a stomach bug ( Dysentry) around Chennai and it lovingly visited our shooting spot and kissed us all and left us with weak bodies and aching backs.

The ghost of my grandmom whispered, ' Sati, Vendhiyam and buttermilk, child' and I nodded and followed.

I gladly share my knowledge fully with all of you and how I finally realized why diarrhoea is called " The Runs." One moment I was sitting and the next moment I was running to the loo faster than Usain Bolt. One moment I was facing the camera as Gopi and the next moment I was running up the stairs hoping for the best and praying the loo was empty. God heard my prayers on both counts.

Now, you know what gets you an olympic gold medal in sprinting races.

These are some of the stuff that is still practised in my house to this day and hey, it works.

Dry scalp - massage warm oil into scalp an hour before bath

Dandruff during winter months - warm oil with lemon juice

small cuts and scratches - manjal ( turmeric)

Sty - sandalwood paste

pimple - jadhika( Nutmeg) with sandalwood paste and a bit of pepper

Kosu thollai ( Mosquito) rub coconut oil on legs and hands

general body health maintenance oil body bath using nallennai once every month ( Sesame or gingelly)

Speaking in general and broad terms, most of us know that if a person sneezes more than once, we slither away assuming he has a cold or some kind of viral. If we see a person, an older person with trembling hands, we know that he must be suffering from Parkinson's.

When a person you know very well, an older person smiles and asks your name and then a few minutes later, asks your name, 'you mentally tick those boxes, 'senile, dementia, Alzheimer's and all issues that comes with old age.'

You are in public and happen to see someone collapse and convulse violently and you say " Fits, Fits" although today we know it as Seizures caused by Epilepsy.

A person whom you have known for a long time begins to lose weight and is constantly coughing, those deep racking ones and you go in your head, ' Cancer or TB' and you request them to get checked up.

Constant burping and you know it most probably is an ulcer.

Holy Christ, enough already.

Dr Raja Rao was the head of the Centre for Cellular and Molecular Biology, Hyderabad for a reason. Seniority. Yes and no. Experience. Yes indeed and decades of it. Educational qualifications. Loads of it and a person who is constantly striving to learn more. Long ago, a few of his colleagues had made fun of him for not displaying his qualifications on his nameplate that hung on his office door and in a momentary lapse of reason and out of sheer spite, he had done that exactly by hanging a new nameplate and that was that. All of those who had been the so-called reasons for his action had apologized to him in private and a few in public and they were the ones who to this day had remained his closest friends and confidantes. Yet, Raja Rao to this day felt great shame and embarrassment when he recollected what he had done. So, what had he done?

He had hung a huge nameplate that displayed his qualifications but not all of it.

MBBS, MD, DM in Neurosurgery, MSC Virology, PhD virology, PhD immunology, PhD in Cell Biology,

Dr Raja Rao was the first one to enter the Gigantic aircraft and the first one to climb up the stairs that led up to the upper deck and so the first one to lay eyes on the person called Raman.

He raised his hand and Dr Sathya and the two others behind him stopped and heard him say, ' I am going to approach the subject and you will join me only after I am done with my first observations.'

All three whispered but clearly, ' Okay sir.'

All of us are born with that evolutionary gift of survival called " primal instinct " and when that is honed sharp to a certain degree, one becomes more aware. To put it simply, when one learns to see more, listen more, hear more and use all that along with their instincts, then one is more aware of a situation and has an inkling as to how it is going to develop.

Dr Raja Rao at seventy years old knew very well what his instincts were telling him and yet the Doctor, the scientist in him wanted more than that and that in this case was proof and proof meant Symptoms.

I was in my 3rd std when we shifted to a new house on Kothari road. The new house was an individual four bedroom bungalow and had a huge garden space along with a well behind it and on both sides of it. Even the front portion had enough space for two cars to be parked conveniently. The compound had two large gates for entrances.

But, the Drumstick tree, Murungakai maram is the story here. On the third day, my monkey ancestors beckoned me and so I climbed the tree and perched on one of its branches peered, nay peeped into the adjacent compound to see our neighbours.

A few minutes later, I began to feel itchy and saw huge swellings on my arms and bare legs and not knowing what was going on, did what came best to me and bawled my head out.

Bawling is the best way to get attention and my aunt, grandma and cook baby came running out and they screamed out,

More in anger and frustration than in panic for there I stood like an alien covered in giant swellings.

How? What? Why

Kambili poochi. Caterpillar and they were all over the small tree and dumb me had brushed past them and they had brushed their poison on me through their fine silky hairs.

My body reacted violently and displayed allergic reactions to the caterpillars and the swellings were the symptoms.

I was dragged to a nearby clinic and two large syringes emptied into my tiny, bony butt. That apart, I did get my ears boxed and I am much wiser and better from that experience.

Babu proceeded to burn down all the caterpillars and needless to say, a few days later drumsticks from that very tree found their way into the sambhar.