Some Thoughts On Advertisements.

I had written previousely about how I did not like that presentation of the teacher in a 'Surf Excel" advt.I do find some of these advts. too annoying and not exactly a taste of either India or Indian living.

1) The advt. where contraception is advertised as effective even after 72 hours.The Mother seems to advocate that too!!!

I shall write again.

Jayamala.

A Rain In The Making.

A Rain is in the making,

The clouds are the ingredient darkened

Like Caramel sugar.

Add a wind strong and wild and you have,

A Rain in the kitchen of this world.

Passers by are weary and wards the rain,

With an umbrella held aloft,

Or with a rain coat on.

But the rain will be made the sky decides and patter,patter,

The droplets fall.

Jayamala.

A View From The Past.

Over my shoulders, the trodden path is visible,

Grey and green and with autumn leaves and some spring greens.

The past looks so grey when sorrow stabbed my heart,

But suddenly the pain gives way to happiness so fresh.


A coffeee well brewed, a story well told,

A friend ever at my call, and a book well written.

A love forelorn and an end so sudden the path is grey,

But life beckons and I am walking.

Jayamala.

Lakshmi.

Navarathri being over, I pray that let there be plenty of prosperity in this world.I am realizing of late that prosperity or no prosperity life goes on.Thw prayers done and the special Friday Pournamy prayers being done to invoke Lakshmi the goddess of prosperity is all needed at one level.But as I write this I am also aware that because I have no food problems I am able to philosophise like this.

A want is generated as the people wanting them are at that level of need.My worry can be how far I can spent on giving gifts and the gardner asking me for RS.400/ tomorrow to buy a second hand cycle.I always think why he was able to ask me?I would rather not present a picture inviting free money.Someone told me that Lakshmi stays with people who do not squander her.

Just my thoughts.I know I will end up by giving that four hundred rupees.

Jayamala.

My Thoughts On Advertisements.

Iam nowadays seeing so many advertisements that are quite bad in presentation.For example there is an advertisement which shows a class and a student, a young boy asking why Rosie Miss is absent.Another informs that her dog had died.This boy goes to Rosie Miss's house and the teacher sits on the front stone steps sad and looking mentally sick with her dog's tie rope empty.The boy acts like a dog consoling the teacher rolling in the mud,fetching the ball etc.The advertisement is for Surf Excel the soap powder.But the teacher who should be a model to the students in courage looks to me like a mental case.

So also in another advertisement for pregnancy prevention( Unwanted),the Mother of the girl advises her get it terminated.I think this advertisement also is bad as it condones and shows a girl a method to indulge in and rectify.I did read in some papers that the Govt. had objected to this advt.But so far nothing is done and it is being shown.

I realize that India is vast and so many such bad media does happen without anyone realizing.But shouldn't we do something.So I am blogging here.

Jayamala.

A Search For Navrathri Dolls.

I write this to correct the information found in websites regarding Navrathri dolls available in Panruti a village near Vilupuram in Tamil Nadu.After seeing information regarding the dolls ( we in our younger days knew about the Panruti dolls which are dolls out of clay and painted ), went to this village.Since no train reservations were available we went from Mysore to Erode and then stayed for the night at Tiruchirappaly reaching there for the night by catching another bus.From Tiruchirappaly there is a train to Viluppuram at 6.30 A.M. and after landing there went straight to this village Panruti.Of course we were puzzled on the way by not seeing any shop selling these dolls.Anyway the auto rickshaw man when enquired did take us to the single artisan living there.This artisan informed us that the artists making such dolls are all gone away from the village and he makes the dolls on receipt of orders.He said that manpower is unavailable for such work now and informed us that we have to go to Kanchipuram or Pondichery to get dolls.In Pondichery there was an exhibition going on since September 2ND and we will get those dolls though the quality will not be like his.He was indeed proud of his work though no pieces were there available to see.He with one labourer was making some dolls which were wet and uncoloured.

Anyway his guidance was helpful as Pondichery being only 33 K.M. away from Panruti we went by bus and as he said saw the exhibition which was well organized and purchased the dolls.So folks Panruti is out of the dolls map.Thank God we did not go to Vandipalayam another village mentioned in the net.Net folks correct yourselves.

Jayamala.

The rains have started here.Day before yesterday it was very heavy and lasted the whole night and the drizzling continued till morning.Today evening too it rained though it did not continue.The climate is beautiful.Cloudy skies.When the clouds have gone it is a blue sky with white cotton clouds.So lovely to watch.I went out and watched a few times,this display of beauty in nature.

I had just cut the grass in the front lawn and because the rains had come the grass is sprouting beautifully too.Nothing like watering by nature through rains for plant health.At these times I have silence in my mind.

Jayamala.

In Retrospect.

In Retrospect.
------------------

I look back at yesterdays,

The past, with colored goggles.

I see darkness and the eyes are sightless.


I look back at the present,

No sunshine, only cloudy haze.

Why so?
The mind works overtime.

The future beckons and I see it will be the same.

For when the past overlaps with the present,

The present leaps and is one with the future,

All things are stale and putrid.


Wash them over, will you?

Sorrow.

She was old and her hands are gnarled now.

Her mind is blank and she has nothing to say.

She looks down most times and seldom does she think.

The old woman must be once pretty,

For her features are good.


She waits always at the same place,

Waiting for a morrow that never dawns.

Why so/For her light has gone out.

Her son, her son, he had gone before her.


Jayamala.

This Day For Me.

This day was very lonely and not so very peaceful for me.I went for Sunday meditation.But when I think without this superficial feeling I find this day like all the days to come.Colorless and with no qualities.When I color it with my superficial self this day is as I said not very peaceful or happy.But when I detach myself and see around like that floating cloud or the breeze passing by, the days are just there.I am beginning to understand this fact of existence.So I just am here.

Jayamala.

A Gateway Called Life.

I am finding more and more silence in me.It is so especially when I start thinking of Rajesh.It has been raining here and the climate resembles Ooty.Chilly floors.I do not wear sweaters though.Some how I could read Mary Higgins Clark's mystery novels and finish them.I also could read Mitch Albom's books(For One More Day,The Five People You Meet In Heaven, and Tuesdays With Morrie.) too.I found one more day to my liking as I saw myself as that mother.

I am being a recluse not wanting to go out and mingle with people. My walking sojourns have stopped, though I want to start then again for health reasons at least.Is there a gateway in this life.Just now I was reading Osho's opinion as today is Guru Poornima day and "Star Of Mysore' had published it.He just says that do get up and live this life.

I think perhaps life itself is a gateway to pass through.Purpose?I agree there with Osho.No purpose.Walking through life itself is the purpose.

Jayamala.

He was a fan of Michael Jackson.His study had Jackson's picture poster.He introduced me to Michael Jackson's dancing and songs.All Jackson's audios were in his possession.I do hope both will see each other now.

Jayamala.

A View From Here.

I am sitting near the window and looking out.The view from here at this time of the evening is one of tranquility.The lights are on in some houses across the street.There is slight breeze stroking the leaves of plants in my garden.

Some of the best views were always from my memory.I see the old man walking for exercise.I see the child and the mother returning from school,the mother bringing the child home.I see the street vendors going across with vegetables, Rangoli powder, and old plastics exchanging new plastics to householders.

This view is life.Immaterial of the one viewing it across life goes on.

Jayamala.

A Day To Remember You By.

This day had begun by being sunny.Because of the recent rains, a carpet of green is around our house.The lawn is green with evenly cut grass.I watch the 20 Twenty cricket remembering you.Australia and Bangladesh are out of the world cup.Lat year I did not watch any matches.Year before last too no matches were watched.But now I am slowly watching movies in English channels,and IPL cricket which happened in South Africa and now some World Cup Cricket in England.Roger Federer won the french open too.

This house also looks as if you have been here. I can transfer memories to rooms here.I can project myself to be there too, including our staircase.We used to sit there watching the sky at night when the power cut was there.

I have started going to Satsanghs on Sundays too from 30-04-09. onwards too.Today is another 9TH.Let the dates come and go and let each day fall one after another.Perhaps I will be again with you.Why this perhaps?Because after reading and experiencing everything I am not sure about us human beings as having life elsewhere and meeting again.But I want to have you as my son always.

Jayamala.

The Twenty-Twenty Fever.

I have always been a die hard fan of cricket.I do watch tennis too.Now a days I have been watching football too.But like my affection for Mukesh as a singer, inspite of Raffi as a great singer, so too cricket remains my passion.I think by introducing the club format in Twenty- twenty format, barriers about nations have been broken just like in football.So I can have many affiliations with one wee bit soft corner preference. That way I think Sha Rukh Khan lost out in expecting too much from his team. It was after all a game and they did well after he left with grand wins over Chennai and Rajasthan Royals.

It is not enough if you are the owner of a team.You must be sportive enough to give the team leeway to be players first and winners next.I hope Shah Rukh watched those stunning performances of his team.One more lesson as I watch the games in progress is that only some have clicked in all the teams and so the vagrancy.Perhaps that is the charm of being Twenty always.Youth.....is always Twenty- Twenty? and error prone.

Jayamala.

An Attempt at Painting.

When I had been emotionally down,I had attempted to paint.Of course in water colour as that was the easiest material available.I did paint a bird, a landscape and a coconut palm lined village pathway.The last one was good enough to be hung on the wall.It was a little too brown and black in colour.

So also I took up blogging not only as an outlet for my feelings but to beat depression at times.There have been stories and a novelette written too.There is still an incomplete venture at a novel.

How to activate a mind trying to die?To be dead seems harder too.I did read an Osho piece where he advises to live at 'this"moment.But the moments that confront me are listless and so listless life tend to be.

I do want to get up and walk away towards a sunset.

Jayamala.

A Storm Is Brewing.

A storm is brewing in this consciousness,

A silent storm of confrontation.

A freedom is due and is to be taken,

Its cost, the little dot in the left forefinger.

When everyone votes for decency, it will be ensured.

But where to identify that?

I just hate this party system,

And this silent trade running for purchases.

I wish a Mahathma to be reborn ,

Or even a King who can rule just,

But perhaps that cannot be.

But there will come a day when things will change,

For change is the norm of every life and its systems.


Jayamala.

The Art Of Placating People.

The art of placating people is learnt the hard way.It stars from the time we are young.You give a good pencil to your sibling to stop him crying and complaining to your mom, as you took his pen.Later if he was old enough and is faster learning the art of demading better than you, you end up with lending your bicycle to him for an hour in exchange of him not telling mom that you bunked the classes to see a film.

By the time you marry one becomes a fullfledged placator with the art being exercised with your hubby when he asks for accounts about how you can spend so fast his money.What do you do to placate?You cook, not him I mean though you try to, but food and you know the old adage," a full stomache is the way to a man's heart".Hm....

Then life comes full circle and you are a mother placating kids.Kids....you know!!!!Buy the boy a new shirt, allow him to go play a cricket match, while you pray your husband wont notice his absense at home.Thank God the girl need not play cricket.But she goes to films with boys, of course other friends are there.Here again pray and pary.

God needs placating too.For all your mistakes and over spending if there is no God, you wont be alive now.Right????

Jayamala.

Just Something Nice.

Yesterday is gone,

And today shall be fine.

Just tell me something nice,

Which will not be politics,

Filmy,or philosophic.

I would like to hold on,

This day with something nice,

That shall not relate me,

To a past that was in error,

Or a future that is yet to be.

But today I want to be nice,

So here I am wearing a new dress for you,

With rememberence of just this moment with you.


Jayamala.

Ragging.....A pathetic Torture Method.

Just now I saw one more pathetic report about ragging,prevalent in campuses in India.This happened in PSG College of Arts and Science.The boy was hit with stone, rolled down steps and beaten and he had lost sight in his eyes.

I am thinking of the violence getting exprssed here.The boys must have been so violent in nature to have done this to another boy.I think strict supervision and strict powers to enlist the rules are needed to condone this type of happenings. It is as good as killing that new comer boy.

I feel sick seeing and hearing of these things.Recently one boy had died in the N.E. university and the acse was widely published.

I condemn the boys who did this to that newcomer joining college to bear similar sorrows if only there was a God.

Jayamala.

A Starry Night.

Have you ever seen a starry night.City dwellers do not often get to see them, unless one chooses to sit in a balcony at night without lights and look up at the sky.Lovely to say the least.I prefer going to the top of the building and sitting there watching the stillness around with only the stars for company.

I remember the days I sit on the starcase too and looking at the sky without having the staircase light on.My son will be sitting on the second step and we will be talking, me just rumpling his head.Lovely companionshop, and so cosy a friendship between mother and son.

A starry night induces in us a sense of wonder at this universe and one does feel aloof though has an umblical chord running, connecting us with this world.

I miss those nights and the nights does beckon me to be with my son, away amongst those stars perhaps?

Jayamala.

I shall not.

I shall not entreat you again,

To be with me and watch this pain.

I shall part with you,

Since you want it so.

I shall not wear flowers in my hair,

For you will not smell them.

Neither shall walk towards a sunset,

For we part ways here.

Lest you forget, I just remind you,

That you were just a flower in my garden.

A flower where I lingered,

For a while, as we passed each other.


Jayamala.

At This Time Of My Life.

At this time of my life I see everything as a little bloated.My loves were bloated, my hatreds were bloated and everything was a size more to use a "cloths' language.It is the emptiness in all things around that make you see so.I wish i will stop seeing such images.

At this time of my life I wish i was someone else too without all that anger in me.So also the ambition.Both did not benefit me.The anger drained me and the ambition took me where I did not want to be.

At this time of my life I feel restless to surpass and know what is there beyond?Beyond the so called "LIFE".It was because a young "Life" went beyond this "Life" much before I expected.

At this time of my life I want to go slow and without physical pain.

I do hope I can hold a little something that will lessen this pain of holding nothing.

Jayamala.

Let Me Say Those Things.

I do not like these things.Let me list them.

1) I do not like the hype surrounding the cricket team of India.I felt that they will be defeated by NewZealand.

2) I feel the media overplays its role many times.There were better films than the "Slumdog" and they did not get the Oscar.None of the media had highlighted this aspect too.

3)Bollywood need not dominate our opinions.

4)Politicians are becoming more and more calibre less.I rue this.

5)We can live with less cars and less petrol.

6) Environmental pollution is a concern.Let us bring the concept of celebrating "Vanamahothsava" in our school and plant trees.

Jayamala.

Some Notes On Entertainment.

Of late I have been watching some good movies in English.I watched,1)Code,The Cleaner,2)Sweet Home Alabama,3)Dark water,4)When Harry met Sally,5)the Pelican Brief etc.Most movies were really good in story line and the Hollywood people do say it straight.

Compared to these movies sometimes I find both Hindi and Tamil movies boring.I have no continuing inclination to watch.Malayalam movies seems to be better that the Hindi and Tamil movies.I am a real Desi Indian as much in love with my country, but we are highly dramatic and unnecessarily lenghthy.These are only my personal comments.

Jayamala.

I Just Want To Be.

I just want to be at a little distance today,

So I will not speak or even think,

This day breaks in slowly at first,

But moves in a hurry.


There was nobody to care and nothing to hold onto,

So the whisper is there that it does not matter,

If I do not speak or feel.

A little loneliness is but a grea distance to cross on.


Jayamala.

This Day Was born.

Today sixtyone years ago, the Mahathma was shot dead.Everytime I see comments that are so bewildering.In Today's eveninger called'Star Of Mysore',somebody was blaming the Mahathma for giving reigns to westernised JawaharLal.I see so much immaturity in this statement.Are 'isms' created by individuals or are they named after that individual attains a certain status?

What are wrongs and rights? And who should judge?Aren't there political immaturists who are ruling this country.Somehow I have started hating anlyises ,especially when you are not living at that time and you are an onlooker after nearly half a century atleast.

Jayamala.

A Silent Day.

This day is sunny,

And so my curtains are drawn.

I am alone with heat around me,

With silence born of nothingness.

Jayamala.

An Option.

We all have options in life.We can be friendly or unfriendly.We can be familiar or just reticent and shy.Some of the options are unconscious and manifest automatically.I have been thinking about the option for interaction via the web.The thoughts have been rather emphasised as I am reading a story by Mary Higgins Clark's novel called"loves Music,loves dancing'.A crime occurs as the girl answers an advt. in the personal column.

The personals in the papers seeking friendship and love becomes dangerous.So also I think is a net friendship.Why? Because one has the option to be someone else even with slightly altered half truths.It is a self satisfying and also a dangerous option when one opts to be seen in live presense.I think one really does not know another through the web.It is not like meeting,my neighbour's sister-in-law who dropped in yesterday simply because she has seen me.

So i take the option with a pinch of salt.

Jayamala.

Of Frauds and Foul Plays.

I was following the Satyam Computer's fraudulent image brought into the open.The question that arises is where were the auditors?Also the banker's to whom the annual balance sheet should be given.I think just like a very small man defrauding the Bank after taking a loan and moving off to another city, this ajor I.T. company too defrauded easily.I used to worry about the Poojari loan mela's in Banks.There were lots of loans given to moving population like a vegitable vendor, Iron shop man, and coconut vendors etc.Some really did well and paid and lots did not.Mostly Banks were providing for them as bad debts.

Now Satyam defrauding by showing revenue that was not earned at all, maens here is a man who just inflated his product and was defunct in a day.At this time I remember the suicide of a major film maker who was Mani Rathnam's( I hope I am correct as to the identity),G.V.Iyer? because he could not repay the loans he took.So too Silk Smitha an actress( Vamp actress) who fell prey to money lending and not getting it back.So money is a cause for downfall and misery.

Jayamala.