Pass And Aggregate: Chapter 10: Vacation

Chapter 10: Vacation

“Every time, I make tea for you, why don’t you do it for me today, I am tired” said Kripal, disturbing me while I was recollecting an important chapter of my past.

“Yes, surely I will do that for you, so what are you surfing on the net” I asked inquisitively.

“Arey, I told you na that I am soon going on a vacation so I was just searching for the best package to Goa.”

Vacations are the best time, I thought, I enjoyed so much when we went to Rameshwaram.

Four years ago, we packed our bags for Rameshwaram to our ancestral home. It was the best time of my life, I was going to Rameshwaram after so many years that Rameshwaram was postcard image to me, I only had few memories from my uncle’s wedding rest everything was faded and hazy. These years most of the times my grand parents were in USA, with my uncles and aunts or at times with us.

After reaching Madurai by flight we took train for Rameshwaram, I bet if you have never been to this place you have missed a lot. There is a rail bridge which connects Pamban to Rameshwaram, while you are traveling by train all you could see is vast stretch of ocean and nothing else, the speed of train is slow and it is rickety, the scenery from train is the most beautiful scenery. Nothing but a mysticism takes over your senses.

It is a known fact that this is the place where a bridge was built by army of lord Rama to connect it to Lanka, I don’t know whether it is true (the NASA has proved it beyond doubt)  but after being there all I can say is that a cloud of divinity surrounded us.

My grandparents were waiting for us. I was so excited to be there. Our house was a typical south Indian house, a huge empty space in the center of the house and rooms that surrounded it. I slept in the room which had the sea view. The moon was shining brightly, I guess it was high tide and at night I could hear the waves gushing to the shores. I might sound poetic and imaginative but the waves loved the shore and rhythmically said.

Here we come to our lover gushing and rushing

 We have become crazy in love, and come forth pushing

No one waits for us except the shore

The love swells in our bosom and it becomes much more

Here we come to our lover roaring and soaring

Meeting him is ecstasy and departing leaves us grieving

Oh! Why don’t we live us always together, the waves and the shore?

None could understand our affection and the pain of separation we bore

Why we do have to leave you and feel the pain

Nothing but misery and heart break we sustain

The shore said

You are waves of the ocean and not ripples of the pond

    So what if we get separated, we meet again and bond

Your misery and grief have the made ocean saline

Your love to me is divine and pristine

I know your anxiety and can comprehend your fear

Trust me and come closer so I can wipe your tear

 The song of love is of approaching and receding

   Few good seconds of meeting and sad moments of separating

     Your lover awaits you, draw closer again and gush

    Do not delay, I am ready to embrace you, please hurry, and rush.

While thinking about the wave song, I don’t know when I slept. The next morning I woke up to the hyperactivity at my house, my grandmother wanted to take us to the temple. I got ready in my usual denims but she made me dress up in the veshti, the traditional clothes, to be worn during marriages and religious ceremonies. Along with my grandmother I and Akshya left for the temple.

Rameshwaram temple has the largest corridor in the world. It is said that at this place Lord Ram built a lingam of Lord Shiv to take his blessings and then a bridge was being built by the army of Hanuman to Lanka. It is still believed that the structure of the bridge still exists underwater. Temple these days are hub of commercial activities, I mean even if lord Ram had enter the temple he would have to wait in the serpentine line, then would have to buy the coconut and flowers at lofty price and finally would have to pay for the different prayer as fixed by the temple priest, it is purely professional, may be IIM”s should include it in their curriculum. After going through the rigorous ceremonies we came back to our house.

Back at our home we had someone waiting for us. He was Gopalan Mama, my father’s cousin. Akshyaa whispered to me that I should not talk much in front of him as he was very unevenly tempered and was too eager to give lectures to the breeds of semi adults, like us. As forewarned, I remained aloof to him. I thought that he had spoilt our vacation and was praying so that he leaves for Mamallapuram (temple town of Mahabalipuram near Chennai) as soon as possible but he had no plans to leave.

Gopalan uncle was hardly 40, but he looked 60, he limped a little, because of an accident. He looked like an antique. He was my grand mother’s nephew and shared a great bond with her. His parents lived in New Jersey with their son, his younger brother, Prabhakaran.

That night no poetry struck me, I had to share my room with him all I could hear was constant clamor of snoring.The next morning I got up, uncle was not at my side, I thought he might have packed his bag and left but seeing his clothes on the bed I felt disappointed. I thought may be I should have a walk at the beach. I reached the beach and was beginning to enjoy the winds that flew past me, when I saw a familiar person coming to me, he was Gopalan uncle. I started making excuses in my head so that I could run away without offending him but his speed was faster than my speed of cooking an excuse.

“On a walk. So early? I thought the younger generation hates waking up in the morning” he said.

“No, I usually am an early riser.”I replied in a shiver.

“So you are doing CA, hhan???”He inquired.

I just nodded.

“Why?”

“Because I had no other thing to do”, I muttered to myself but then replied in a confused way, “I want to earn money, and it gives a good status”.

“Why?” he asked again.

“We have to settle in life and be happy”, I meekly said.

“So you can become happy by earning money”? He said in rather muted tone.

“No, but….” He cut me short and continued, “You know what Adithya, earlier I thought all these material pleasures in life give you happiness till I realized all this cannot buy everything! I was unhappy having it all.”

 He sounded like the advertisement of some credit card which said ‘Money can’t buy everything and for everything else there is *****’. I was startled; to me he was now appearing to be a complete mad. He preferred to live like a rogue and he liked it.

I inquired “But why were you unhappy?”

He laughed and said “Thank God you asked, I thought you will never ask”

I was irritated at his laughter.

“While I was working in USA I came back to Mamallapuram on vacation (at his ancestral house). Near the famous Shore temple a woman stayed at the pavement, I saw her often begging for food from the tourists for herself and her three kids. After the Tsunami struck, tourism got hit in the temple town of Mamallapuram; the locals suffered a great deal of loss. Once I saw that woman stirring something in her utensils, she was cooking food for her kids; I sat at a distance and was keenly observing her. To my utter surprise I saw her feeding the kids and herself with leaves of some tree. I realized the whole matter at once I ran home to get something for her but it was too late. When I came back I saw her crying one of her kid died of hunger. It was macabre dance of poverty that day I kept on pondering over this thing I left my job as I was required more in my country then any where else. We all end up settling in foreign countries without ever thinking to pay back to the country which has given us so much, we are selfish aren’t we? This country gave me so much and I was aiding the economy of some alien country. After leaving my job there I with few friends started an NGO for the poor”.

“But uncle we are still underdeveloped and nothing works here properly, no system responds in correct manner, the corruption here is so rampant….

He said “Son, India is a nation in making and we are the pillars of this great nation, it is our duty to make it the best nation, I do not believe in cribbing but doing. Have you ever read the poem by Sir Walter Scott?”

I just nodded my head in negative.

“Well it was like………(and he started humming) 

Breathes there the man, with soul so dead,
Who never to himself hath said,
This is my own, my native land?
Whose heart hath ne’er within him burn’d,
As home his footsteps he hath turn’d,
From wandering on a foreign strand?

If such there breathe, go, mark him well;
For him no Minstrel raptures swell.
High though his titles, proud his name,
Boundless his wealth as wish can claim;

Despite those titles, power, and pelf,
The wretch, concentred all in self,
Living, shall forfeit fair renown,
And, doubly dying, shall go down
To the vile dust, from whence he sprung,
Unwept, unhonor’d, and unsung.

“These were great lines na….” he said.

Later I asked about his work. I could see a glint in his eyes, while he was talking about his work, he was contented. By the time we began walking towards the home I realized I was speaking to a man who was the rarest of the kind to be found on earth. At times we rely on others opinion to judge a person but that is a folly. I was so wrong to be judgmental about him just on the basis of Akshyaa’s opinion.

 I was lucky to have met him. He lived in his world, which was not perfect yet everyday he tried making it better. He stood for what he thought was right and happiness to him meant the happiness of others. In spite of all his odds he came out as winner. He achieved everything in life, his handicap never created hurdle instead he took it as an inspiration to work even harder. His love for the country and country men in today’s world is seldom seen. He taught me an important lesson of my life. At times even a vacation can be instrumental in changing your thoughts. His thinking and sermons left an indelible mark on my mind.