From & To Sathish #6 - Page 15

Avan, Aval Adhu 475

The sun was low in the sky and had begun to sink and drown on the other side of our Planet. The bright white light was slowly fading away and was preparing to make way for the red, orange, and pink attire of the evening sky and for the eventual darkness of the night.

The door opened slowly and softly and Ravi stepped out of the room with Madhu behind him. He stopped and stared at all of them and they in turn stared back at him.

' The door made no noise when I opened it and yet..' Ravi stood thinking and Madhu standing behind him stepped forward and whispered with her lips nearly shut tight.

' They are all worried and there is a reason for that. So, talk, explain, and let us be on our way. Spartan was specific about the timeline' and pointed to the window, ' Jaanu, hurry up for the sun has begun to set '.

Rasaathi Ammal got up from her chair and coming forward stopped in front of them and asked her son what was going on.

' Don't lie and please don't keep anything from us. Something is going on and I know for certain that it has everything to do with that Phone call that Madhu received ten minutes ago.'

Ravi smiled and cupped his mother's cheeks, ' Rasaathi Amma, there is no need for panic or worry and I promise that I am not going to lie about anything.'

He made her sit back down in the chair and looked at Madhu who nodded and turned to face all of them.

' Listen to me very carefully and please don't interrupt me until I have finished ' and hurriedly looked at his watch and at the window that peeped on the western side of Kumarapalayam.

Daksha who had been observing them quietly, now observed vocally, ' Why do I sense that you are on some kind of time schedule which in your case usually means that you are planning something? Am I correct?'

' Correct, Ducks. You get full brownie points for that astute observation. But, for now, I request you to remain silent and let me finish for we are running out of time.'

Ravi quickly began to explain what was going on and then stopped and said in a calm and reassuring voice, ' There is nothing to worry about for Spartan is going to be watching over us.'

Madhu's smile was more radiant than the setting sun and she looked at all of them and finally rested her eyes on Rasaathi Ammal, ' Mother, you saw with your own eyes. We all saw and witnessed with our own eyes. So, there is no need to worry for it will not be just Spartan who will be watching over us but the forest and all those who dwell in it and call it their home.'

Still dressed in their wedding clothes, both Ravi and Madhu stepped out of the house and Major Param Singh seeing them both coming down the steps, walked to them and asked in a curious voice, ' Are we going out? Okay. Just give me a few minutes to organize my team and check out the route that we will be taking to Madurai.'

Madhu shook her head, ' Major, I am sorry but you and your men will remain here and watch over my family here. I am Ravi will be going on our own and not to Madurai' and raising her hand pointed to the forest

Major Param Singh stood transfixed in shock and then he came out of it hearing his mobile phone ringing and saw it was his boss and the head of Chakravyuh calling, ' Yes, Raman ' he answered and then everyone saw him press the speaker button on his phone.

Major Param whispered, ' My boss wants to say a few words.'

A strong, magnetic, and charismatic voice thundered loudly but softly through the phone.

' Madhuji, Congratulations. I wish you and Mr. Ravi Kumar the very best and a happy and peaceful life.'

Pausing for a second, ' Spartan has explained everything to me in detail. There is nothing to worry about for you are in the best hands. I would like to declare that Spartan is equal to my elite commando team but..'

Major Param Singh proudly twirled his thick Moustache and winked at all of them.

' But, I would be lying for the truth is that Spartan is really a Spartan and is better than even ten elite teams of my group.'

Major Param Singh quickly dropped his hand and proceeded to look at the condition of his shoes and how the ground beneath them felt in embarrassment.

' Madhuji, proceed with the plan. All the best. One more thing, there will be teams waiting for you on both sides. It has been taken care of. All the best. God bless both of you.'

Madhu thanked Raman and then taking Ravi's hand in hers slowly walked out of the compound and together both of them slowly made their way into the forest.

When they were quite a distance away from the house, Madhu looked at Ravi, ' Jaanu, why didn't you tell them the truth and the real reason why we are leaving the safety of the house? Why did you hide the fact about Meenakshi calling us and demanding that we meet her in the forest?'

Ravi looked at her, ' Because I felt there was no need to burden them with that information. How do you think my uncle, Meenakshi's father Dharmalinga Thevar would have reacted if I had told him that she had called and threatened to kill me and you if we did not meet with her in our sacred place inside the forest?'

A sad smile filled his face as he said, ' He would have rushed back to Madurai and would have shot her dead without showing the slightest remorse or pain.'

He looked at her, ' I did not lie but just avoided telling them a few details.'

She saw his eyes were full of sadness and she heard his pain when he told her that Spartan must have had a good reason for asking them to do what they were about to do.

' Madhu, even now, I feel a kinship, a bond, and a responsibility towards Meena but she has left us with no other choice but to leave her to her fate and her evil plans.'

She looked at him with immense pride and love swelling her heart and said, ' This is why the whole world including me and your friends look up to you and see you as a true master. Even now, you worry about someone who might be planning something bad for you and for me and yet you are worrying about them and their well-being. This is the mark of a great soul.'

Touching the thali and the Kali pendant that hung from it, ' Everything is going to turn out okay. You will see. If people want to play with fire and refuse to play with evil, then it is their life and they will have to live with the consequences

Then they entered the forest and unknowingly entered the sanctity and security of Perumalvaram and all its creatures that lay waiting for their king and master's word.

Meenakshi answered the call and her friend and her secret spy in Kumarapalayam informed her that Ravi and his new wife Madhu had walked out together and were heading towards the forest.

' Thank you. I am sorry but I cannot talk now. I don't have the energy. I have nothing left in me. Bye.'

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tKvsmMpxk2Q

I found these profound proverbs and sayings in a Jewish page and thought I would share them with all of you.

"The man who cannot survive bad times will not see good times."

"God knows that the best synagogue is the human heart."

"For the ignorant, old age is winter; for the learned, old age is the harvest."

"Man is endowed by nature with two eyes: one to see his neighbors’ virtues, the other to see his own faults."

"The man who thinks he can live without others is mistaken; the one who thinks others can’t live without him is even more deluded."

"Those who chase happiness run away from contentment."

Avan, Aval Adhu 476

Meenakshi stared at the phone devoid of thought and emotion. Then something started churning deep inside her and gasping in fear and horror she asked herself, ' What have you done, Meena?'

Placing both her hands on her chest she desperately tried pressing down on it with force in an attempt to clamp down on her heart that had begun to quicken its rhythm.

Deep in her head, she saw Ravi running towards her and she saw him coming towards her in all his forms. He ran to her as a young kid, a boy, a teenager, and as a man and he ran with his hands extended towards her and then she saw him explode in blood and disappear from her thoughts.

' Ravi ' she yelled loudly and ran towards the gate of the house, and getting into her Black BMW, she raced towards Kumarapalayam. Tapping the button on her steering wheel, she called Ravi again and again but he did not pick up. Then she called Madhu whose number Rajendra had sent her and getting the same response, threw the phone down in fear and frustration and yelled in anger, honked madly, and raced out of Madurai and towards Kumarapalayam.

' I am coming Ravi. I am coming to save you and your wife, Madhu. I am not going to let anything happen to you both. I will be there in twenty minutes. Please, don't go into the forest baby.'

Picking up the phone, she hurriedly called Rajendra who answered immediately and told him to back off.

' Rajendra, please forgive me but I don't want to hurt them. I don't want to hurt my Ravi. Please, stop. I am begging you, stop immediately.'

' Are you sure, Meenakshi? ' and then he asked, ' Are you driving? ' and pausing again, he asked tentatively, ' Are you going there to meet him and her?'

' Yes, Rajendra. Yes. I am going there with a specific purpose. I am going to talk to Ravi and her and I am going to plead with them to forgive me. But right now, I am begging you to stop.'

' Okay, Meenakshi. It is you that wanted them both killed and now that you have changed your mind, why would I go ahead with our plans?'

' Thank you Rajendra. Thank you so much. I will call you once everything has been sorted out. Bye.'

Rajendra looked at the screen of his phone as it slowly faded away into blackness now that the call had ended. He watched with fascination as the bright screen slowly drowned into darkness and he whispered, ' Sembi, connect me to both the Hybrids'.

Sembi, his digital assistant whispered in his mother's voice, ' Okay master ' and instantly connected him to Hybrid 25C and its older version which was called Hybrid 25A.

He felt no surprise when Hybrid 25C answered first and that too in Meenakshi's voice, ' My lord, how can I serve you?'

' By changing that voice and by talking to me in the voice that I had programmed you in the first place.'

Complying immediately, Hybrid 25C spoke in her own uniquely digital but human-sounding voice that her creator had specifically designed for her.

' I am sorry, my lord. I was just trying to please you and make you feel better.'

' Thank you. You can do both of those by simply following my orders and the slight change in your assignment'.

Both the Hybrids looked at each other and listened as their creator gave them their new orders.

' Meenakshi is coming there and I am guessing she will be there in twenty to twenty-five minutes.'

Both the Hybrids who looked exactly like Meenakshi again looked at each other unable to process the new information and rather than wait until her master had finished, Hybrid 25C spoke up loudly.

' But, my lord, this will create unnecessary problems and diversions and will only increase the chances of our plan failing?'

' I am aware of that. If you shut up and listen to me then there will be no problems or failures.'

Rajendra Cholan told them what to do and it took just a few seconds to tell them that.

Both the Hybrids, 25C, and 25A looked at each other and quickly made their way into the forest and disappeared from the outside world.

Hybrid Android humanoid 25A swiveled her head 360 degrees and getting a fix pointed towards the western direction, ' The place is four km from here in that direction and I am confident we can be there and be ready to carry out our master's commands.'

If Olympic Gold medal winner Usain Bolt happened to see two women dressed in sarees run as fast as the two Hybrids did, he would have hung himself from the nearest branch in shame and wonder.

Rain musings

It rained yesterday evening. The rain fell down feet first and danced to different notes and in different shapes.

First came the pitter-patter notes and I turned to the windows imagining a child was knocking on the door, walls, and panes of the house, with its tender palms begging to be allowed in. The pitter-patter droplets were neither here nor there and were generally just making a nuisance of themselves.

The cameraman looked up and all the sheep of his flock, the camera unit along with the lightmen looked up and nodded as he predicted, ' All noise and dust and no chance of Rain, sir'.

The dark clouds swirled, clashed, and danced around each other and the whole world fell quiet. A ghostly silence filled me and filled the world around me and even the air I breathed fell into a lull of quiet. All things beneath the dark clouds waited with bate breath.

The clouds spat a bolt of Lightning and roared with thunder and the rain came down.

It rained and rained last evening and rained well into the night. The rain started in a mellow manner and the rain fellows came down to earth like gentle men and women. Discreet but present.

Dark clouds, thunder and lightning, mild and heavy showers, small pools of water, and muddy pools of water.

I stepped down from the caravan and placed my feet in the elements of air, water, fire, and earth and walked with ether and as ether.

It rained yesterday and I stood in the rain and under my large umbrella watching, imagining, and wondering if spirits that had risen into the ether and other elements were returning back to the earth as new spirits.

It rained and the rain was in seven notes and in five elements and I nodded my head and whispered to no one, " Elementary my dear Watson."

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XCXL1ytil-w

"What Goes Up..."

What goes up must come down.

What must rise must fall...

And what goes on in your life

Is writing on the wall!

If all things must fall,

Why build a miracle at all?

If all things must pass,

Even a miracle won't last.

What goes up must come down.

What must stand alone?

And what goes on in your mind

Is turning into stone!

If all things must fall

Why build a miracle at all?

If all things must pass,

Even a pyramid won't last...

How can you be so sure?

How do you know what the end will endure?

How can you be so sure

That the wonders you've made in your life

Will be seen

By the millions who'll follow to visit the site

Of your dream?

What goes up must come down...

What goes 'round must come 'round...

What's been lost must be found...

“MEMORY'S SO TREACHEROUS. ONE MOMENT YOU'RE LOST IN A CARNIVAL OF DELIGHTS, WITH POIGNANT CHILDHOOD AROMAS , THE FLASHING NEON OF PUBERTY, ALL THAT SENTIMENTAL CANDY-FLOSS ...

THE NEXT , IT LEADS YOU SOMEWHERE YOU DON'T WANT TO GO...

...SOMEWHERE DARK AND COLD, FILLED WITH THE DAMP, AMBIGUOUS SHAPES OF THINKS YOU'D HOPED WERE FORGOTTEN.

MEMORIES CAN BE VILE, REPULSIVE LITTLE BRUTES. LIKE CHILDREN, I SUPPOSE. HAHA.

BUT CAN WE LIVE WITHOUT THEM? MEMORIES ARE WHAT OUR REASON IS BASED UPON. IF WE CAN'T FACE THEM, WE DENY REASON ITSELF!

ALGHOUGH, WHY NOT? WE AREN'T CONTRACTUALLY TIED DOWN TO RATIONALITY!

THERE IS NO SANITY CLAUSE!

SO WHEN YOU FIND YOURSELF LOCKED ONTO AN UNPLEASANT TRAIN OF THOUGHT, HEADING FOR THE PLACES IN YOUR PAST WHERE THE SCREAMING IS UNBEARABLE, REMEMBER THERE'S ALWAYS MADNESS.

MADNESS IS THE EMERGENCY EXIT...

YOU CAN JUST STEP OUTSIDE, AND CLOSE THE DOOR ON ALL THOSE DREADFUL THINGS THAT HAPPENED. YOU CAN LOCK THEM AWAY...

FOREVER.” Alan Moore, Batman: The Killing Joke

Avan, Aval Adhu 477

One. One moment of rational thinking can bring clarity and answer all your questions. A moment spent in thought and in empathy for another soul will instantly erase all the hate and anger that has pent up in your mind over the years. A single moment spent in another person's shoes and thoughts will make you realize the error and wrong in your judgment of them, the person you once were, and the person you have become now.

A single heartfelt apology is usually more than enough to clear the fog that lay between you and your enemy who will now become your friend. Again.

For Meenakshi, that one moment came when she knew that Rajendra was going to kill Ravi, and the moment she knew that she would lose him forever.

' No, Ravi. I am coming to save you. I will not let anything happen to you. I am coming to apologize and beg your forgiveness and am coming to see you and say all that is pent up in my heart looking right into your eyes ' Meenakshi yelled as she drove her BMW towards Kumarapalayam.

She knew the village very well and she knew all the roads that led in and out of the village and she knew where she would find Ravi and Madhu.

Speaking to Rajendra had lessened the tension and anxiety to a certain level but the urge and eagerness to meet Ravi and apologize to him drove her on and her powerful sedan to incredible speeds.

She broke all the rules and regulations on her way to Kumarapalayam and reached it in a record twenty minutes. She skidded to a stop outside the Ancient Archeological site and ran towards the gate. The two men who were manning the gates recognized her instantly and jumped up from their chairs and saluted her and stood saluting as she ran past them into the site.

They stared at her in confusion and saw her head straight into the mangrove and towards the field of flowers that were tended by Headmaster Ravi Kumar.

One of them whispered, ' Master sira meet panna poranga pola irukke? What do we do?' and the other man replied, ' We do nothing. At least I am going to do nothing for I value my balls a lot.'

He stared at his colleague, ' If you value your old balls, you will do the same and stay out of her way and leave her to herself.'

His colleague quickly nodded, ' Rightu. These are matters that are way out of our league. Let her do what she wants.'

At the same time that Meenakshi was running into the mangrove and towards the bench where she knew she would surely find Ravi and Madhu watching the sun go down, both the Humanoid Android Meenakshi's 25A and 25C entered the forest and slammed into an invisible wall and were thrown back several feet by an invisible power.

Both of them were stunned by the strong surge of electricity and it took a few moments for them to get organized and several minutes to get to their feet.

Hybrid 25C swiveled its head all around 360 degrees and scanned everything with its super senses and found nothing.

Hybrid 25A Meenakshi stepped back and said, ' 25C, I think it would be wise to inform our Lord about this development and wait for his thoughts.'

Meenakshi 25C sniggered and shot back sarcastically, ' You do that if you want but I am going ahead and going to do what my master Rajendra has commanded me to do ' and saying that stepped forward and kept moving forward.

Then it stopped and whispered, ' Strange. Very strange for what stopped us and threw us to the ground seems to have disappeared.'

It turned and looked at its older version and asked, ' 25A are you coming or are you going to stay here and rust? Either way, it does not matter to me for I can carry out this little job on my own.'

Meenakshi Hybrid 25A thought for a second and moved forward and crossing the line that had jolted them with a strange kind of power, stopped by its junior, newer but more advanced model and said, ' I am coming with you. I too have my orders and I cannot rest, stop, or hesitate until it has been carried out successfully.

https://za.investing.com/magazine/airport-hacks-every-traveler-should-know/#tblciGiDuszGghScfWZlnuJHpSYxvjOYuuuQnzcuQIW6OifoNviCR5V0oi6zX8qHz2dZa

There is not any thing in this world, perhaps, that is more talked of, and less understood, than the business of a happy life [emphasis in original]. It is every man’s wish and design; and yet not one of a thousand that knows wherein that happiness consists.Seneca

It rained again yesterday evening. But, unlike the previous day, I did not run away like a puppy yelping for its mother. I lowered my umbrella and stood with my face turned upward to the skies and the heavens and offered myself to the eternal ceiling of space.

The clouds obliged and sprayed a few drops on me and rather than say, ' Thank you. Much obliged ' I stood with arms spread wide and fat raindrops spattered down, and then rained down.

' Saar, makeup pochu. Marubadiyum makeup podannum saar ' my makeup man yelled and I yelled back, ' Neela saayam veluthu pochu. dum dum. Raja vesham kalanchu pochu. Dum dum '.

I sat before the mirror facing my reflection with disdain and slowly wiped away the layers of makeup with a soft wet tissue leaving my real tissue exposed. Jayaraman, my makeup man sprayed water using his imported spray can and wiping my face with a soft cloth a bit roughly began to paint my face with disdain.

I opened my eyes and glared at him and his eyes went mellow instantly and in a timid voice, he whispered, ' What if you catch a cold?'

' Is that it or is it because you have been forced to do the same job again?'

He mumbled, ' Both I guess '.

I smiled, ' Andha naal nayabagam nenjile vandhadhe, nanbane, nanbane '.

Smiling wisely, he sang back, ' indha naal andru pol illaye'.

I blinked first and stared and he a much older and wiser man said, ' Yes, we were young once and we ran out to feel the rain and drench in it. But, that was when we were young saar. But now we are all old and our priorities are not about enjoying rain but about staying healthy, making a few bucks, and going home safely.

A ghost of a smile flickered on my face and the ghost inside me sang to the other resident ghosts inside me

Palliyai Vitadhum paadhaigal

Maarinom kadamaiyum

Vandhadhu kavalaiyum vandhadhu

Paasamendrum

Nesamendrum veedu

Endrum manaivi endrum

Nooru Sondham vandha

Pinbum thedugindra

Amaidhi engae

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VtrnHY21zZw