a cup of coffee

Quote of the day

love

blessings

birdsong

Happy Vishu

Attitude

Happy Easter♥️

Less is more

Capsula Mundi

When I breathe my last, cry no tears for me

Cremate me and scatter me in River Green;

Save me from those crowded churchyards

Where you can hardly stand and pray for me.

If by that time, there are burial pods here,

I’d love to come back as a white magnolia

Like the one near the verdant campus gate,

Whose flowers we picked and smelt daily.

Give away my stacks of favourite books,

The majority of unread ones, if any good,

Discard all my unfinished writing attempts

You can read no sense when hardly I can.

When your time comes join me as a favourite,

To leave a green forest tribe named after us. 

healing

A growing hunger

faith

Twilight

Serendipity

There are times when one is amazed by the kind of coincidences that happen in life like when you think of a friend and she calls you on the phone exactly at that same moment. Sometimes, you crave for a book or an item of food or a object and it appears right before you. This phenomenon is called serendipity.

I have been an avid fan of the concept of serendipity considering the fact that I have been amazed by my good fortune in getting some of my desires granted. The word means a pleasant surprise or a very fortunate occurrence. It is said that Horace Walpole coined in this word in a letter to his friend in 1754, where he makes a reference to a Persian fairy tale The Three Princes of Serendip, in which three princes main were always learning by accidental discoveries of things. 

Another favourite quote on serendipity has been from Paulo Coelho’s The Alchemist: “When you want something, all the universe conspires in helping you to achieve it. In the novel, Coelho expands on the concept of the Soul of the World, which is supposed to bind all beings together. I guess that’s how Santiago creates the wind and saves himself and the Alchemist from death. 

However, the best description of this process comes from the nineteenth century American philosopher Ralph Waldo Emerson in his essay “The Oversoul”:

The things that are really for thee gravitate to thee. You are running to seek your friend. Let your feet run, but your mind need not. If you do not find him, will you not acquiesce that it is best you should not find him? for there is a power, which, as it is in you, is in him also, and could therefore very well bring you together, if it were for the best… Every proverb, every book, every byword that belongs to thee for aid or comfort, shall surely come home through open or winding passages. Every friend whom not thy fantastic will but the great and tender heart in thee craveth, shall lock thee in his embrace. And this because the heart in thee is the heart of all; not a valve, not a wall, not an intersection is there anywhere in nature, but one blood rolls uninterruptedly an endless circulation through all men, as the water of the globe is all one sea, and, truly seen, its tide is one.”

However, if you ask me whether I live only by this philosophy or whether it is possible to get anything specific with this philosophy, I can only answer in small print like advertisers do : Conditions Apply!

different

Othappu

The Novel Othappu by the celebrated Malayalam feminist writer Sara Joseph has a strong woman character Margalita. Set against the life of Christian Thrissur, the novel depicts how Margalita, a nun hailing from one of the ancient Syrian Christian families flouts all traditions to fall in love with a Christian priest Roy Francis Kareekan. Their love is made intense by the vows of chastity that both of them have to keep and they throw away everything just to be together. But is breaking all rules to be with the beloved worth the trouble? Which is more important listening to your heart's voice or listening to the world? These are some of the questions posed by the novel.

Instead of creating a melodrama out of a delicate subject of love between a nun and a priest, Sara Joseph has delicately handled it but at the same time creating a very strong woman character before whom every other character pales in comparison. She is like a rock in times of trouble and creates her own identity in a society that has divested of all her previous roles- daughter, sister, believer and nun. For her, "love is joy; the joy of love is God; and when you can keep the joy of love in your heart, the whole world will be at peace and the earth will blossom" as she lives a life of sacrifice with Nanu, an orphan child and her unborn baby in her womb.

The English translation of the novel by Rev. Dr. Valson Thampu and published by OUP is also available as Othappu: The Scent of the Other Side 

Summer Love

When we meet again, this summer, after a long while;

We sit once again in our favourite spot near the fountain,

On the pink carpet of blossoms, we make our seat to chat

The serious thoughts about life, the trivial about the world. 

Again the words couple goals make sense to us both,

Who have been lone wanderers in this weary universe,

To dream of the world of delights that we can travel,

To sip from the wine of togetherness till death parts us. 

May be we could dream of watching the nightskies now,

To spend time reading books or chatting for long hours,

May be one might spend time roaming new destinations 

Treading the surprises that this Earth has to offer us. 

We celebrate this second bout of love in this midlife,

To weave dreams around a bond of growing understanding.

definitions

Copernicus

He proved that the earth was not the centre
Of this mighty sprawling universe.

Sorry my dear to break your illusions
You are not the centre of this world either.