Dead end

The whole idea of living is to get through the day so that one can sleep at night, only to wake up the next day and live through it. That does not sound encouraging. But it depends on how one looks at it. If getting through the day is a chore then life does not seem very encouraging. The activities of the day would seem dreary and at the end of the day, one would hit the bed dreading the dawning of the next day. But if there are activities of interest that sparkle among these chores, then the days and nights seem more welcoming. Of course there are exceptions.  Regardless how one looks at one’s life, some nights seem to last forever as the next day is so exciting that sleep eludes and one keeps tossing and turning in the bed waiting for sleep or dawn to arrive. When the dawn finally arrives, one finds that the sleep of the previous night was not enough and that some of the excitement from the previous night is lost to the lack of sleep. Through half open eyes one looks at life spinning around and wonders when one will be able sleep well. At that moment, one... 

Damn it! It's about time one replaced all these ‘one’ in the previous paragraph with ‘I’. From now I will use ‘I’ instead of ‘one’. If necessary, the one who is reading this piece for God knows why can reread all the above written material replacing all the ‘one’ in the previous paragraph with ‘I’. Note: one of the ‘one’ mentioned in the previous sentences refer to ‘you’ and not ‘I’.

... At that moment, I heard the words from the Pink Floyd song 'Free Four', which goes 'Life is warm short moment, death is a long cold rest'. The second part of that line has made me look at death yearningly. I mean one (this ‘one’ can also be replaced by ‘you’ but I don't want to tell this to you directly and so am using ‘one’ instead of ‘you’. I now think I am taking this ‘one’ business too far and should stop it. One hopes... I mean I hope I stop it now. Damn, there are too many sentences here. I should not have placed it inside bracket but I have already placed the opening brackets and so I have no choice but to close it now. Here it goes.) Oh lord, where was I? Oh yes, the 'long cold rest' from Free Four.

You might think that the cold of the long cold rest might detract me from the resting part. Nope, It does not! I have lived most of my life in Chennai and love the cold rest when the air conditioner is blasting at 16 degrees and I am lying under a thick layer of blanket. If the line in the song went 'death is a long hot sweaty no fan due to a power cut rest' then I would have looked at death with dread. But then this song was written by folks from Britain, which is a cold country where people are buried in the cold earth. So cold rest makes sense from their point of view. But I live in the hot, hot Chennai and belong to a creed of people who cremate people. Cremate is a word used to hide the word burn. So, in my case I am not sure if will be a '...long cold rest'. It probably would be '... long and terribly hot rest'. Damn! I should not have thought about that. Now I don't look forward to death. I must add that people in my creed go through a lot of post death customs involving close relations of the dead dipping a million times in a river to cool down the soul of the dead. But in case, that will not be of much help either. The other day the one who should do all this dipping on my passing away informed me "Listen, don't expect me to do all this shit, ok? Nothing more than burning for you." So, no cooling down for me, no departing for me. I am going to be around haunting my loved ones and unloved ones too. 

Going off on a tangent, I love this song. It's a happily sung miserable song. Such songs in the background make the miserable parts of life hummable. I love the way the group starts off with "One, two, free four". For a long time, I thought they went "One, two, three, four" but no, it is not 'three, four", it is "free four". Cool trick. This song is a part the album called 'Obscured by clouds" and the whole album is brilliant. This album was followed by "Dark side of the moon" and already many elements of the latter album appear in a raw form here.

I find death fascinating. One day you are a person who is giving pleasure and pain to others, the next day you are a body, the day after a memory and soon not even that. But that is all in the mind of others but what about you? What happens to you? Do you exist beyond death? There are many who think so. Some believe in heaven and hell which is a concept that cannot be written off, but it sounds ridiculous. I can’t imagine a world where Amul butter grows on trees, nor one in which one is fried in Amul butter. Reincarnation is not believable at all. I mean I can't remember my previous births and so I have no reason to believe that they exist. Of course, it is possible that this is my first birth and so I can't remember my earlier births. But I know almost no one who remember their earlier birth. There are one or two who think they have some idea of their previous births, but I am not sure if I agree with that side of their mental faculties and so I am ignoring their beliefs So, I don't think reincarnation works. The same goes for ghosts. Never seen one and so won't believe it. The day I start seeing one I have to start checking the functioning of my brain. Soul is a possibility but what the fuck is a soul? It does not seem like anything other than heat and dust. So maybe soul wins! This is a comforting thought. After going through the hardships of life, one ends up becoming heat and dust. No afterlife of any sort, just live, die and become poof. Life is a warm short moment and death, cold or not, is a long rest anyway. 

So I live

Through the hardships

Thrown at me

By life and the people in it

With the hope that one day

Neither they nor I would exist

To give and take hardships

All I have to do is to wait

Wait for that day to come.

The end.

In-cat-ation

There's a cat on the floor
Not a real one
It's just a sketch
Just a graffiti.

There's a cat on the floor
Looking up at the sky
It's just a sketch
Just a graffiti.

People love their cats
Walking around leisurely
But this one's a sketch
Just a graffiti.

Parakeets on the tree
Chatting noisily
Looking at the cat
It's just a graffiti.

This cat's at this end
At the other end another
Neither of them real
Just graffitis.

In pops a question 
Why do they exist?
Does it really matter
For they are just graffiti.

The cats come to life
To roam these streets
No longer sketches
Not just graffiti.

Terrorizing the rats
Praying fervently 
For them to be sketches
Just graffiti.

But isn't it ridiculous
Writing about cats
They are only sketches
Only graffiti.

But there are no rules
On what I write
Though its about a sketch
About a graffiti.

In the end
It's all real
Yet nothing's real
For its all a sketch
A graffiti.

Fish out of water

And I sat there 

Feeling like a fish out of a pond

No, no, not fish

I prefer to say I sat there

Feeling like a pond out of an octopus

Nope, that's messed up 

For its an octopus out of a pond

But in fact

Octopusses don't live in ponds

Worse, I got that metaphor wrong 

Never was it a fish out of a pond

It always was a fish out of water

So octopus out of water it is

But again, it should be said

That octopusses survive out of water

For twenty minutes or so

So I probably felt more like a fish

Not an octopus 

Though I wish I felt like an octopus 

With its eight legs or was it hands?

But no, I am just a fish

With no hands

No nose to breath on land

Forced to stay in water

To avoid feeling like a fish out of water

Wayward incidents

He looked at the level of the liquid inside the bottle he held in his hand. He gave a smile of satisfaction and took a swig out of the bottle. He looked at the vehicles passing by and wondered where everyone was going. He shouted "What's the hurry? Take it easy. Have a drink, have many drinks. Take it easy people." A couple of people passing by looked at him displeased. He ignored them. No, that would be incorrect to say. He did not notice them; he was completely unaware of their existence. He took another swig of the liquid and said "What is the point of existence if you slog through your existence so that you can exist? You don't need much in life. Some food, some drink, some cloths, ... No, no, no, you don't need cloths, you clothe yourself for others sake. No, no, no, that’s not true either. You do need some cloths for the winters but only to keep yourself warm. You could wrap a thick blanket around you and walk around the place. You don't need much. Some food, something to drink, a blanket, maybe two. Thats all. Nothing more. No car, no house, no marriage, no children, no nothing. What is the use of a house when you have a blanket, a nice thick blanket. People, take it easy!" One of the passersby got annoyed by his shouting and said "Quiet man!" He looked in the direction of the protesting voice and asked "What affects you? Is it the loudness of my voice or my words? Which is sharper? Tell me, tell me now."

He took another swig from his bottle and passed out. By the time he woke up, his surroundings had become empty. He looked at his bottle. It wasn't empty. He smiled at it and took it towards his mouth. When the bottle came down, it was empty. He lay the bottle on the ground and gave it a push. It rolled down the pavement noisily. He looked in direction of the rolling bottle and sang shakily "Keep rollin, rollin, rollin, rollin..." The sound of the rolling bottle stopped. He got up shakily. He looked to his left and said "Hmmm, where is it?". He looked to his right and said "Ah! There it is". He walked unsteadily towards the  bicycle that was standing against the wall. After taking a few steps, he said "Stay! Stay right there, cycle. Stay!" On reaching the cycle, he held its handlebar and said "My steed! I hope someone fed you. Someone did? You feeling full and healthy? Yeah? Good, let's go." He climbed the cycle and started pedalling. The handlebar of the cycle went this way and that. With it the cycle and he too went this way and that. He stopped and admonished the cycle "Listen Steed. Did you consume alcohol? Yes? No wonder you are going all around the place. Do not drink alcohol. It's bad for your liver. Haven't you heard the saying 'if you don't have a liver, you will no longer be a liver, for you will be deader than a lever'. What? No, mmm mmmm. I did not make that up. Stakesbear wrote it in ‘As long as it goes’. Anyway, the point is, no alcohol for you. Now shake your head, clear your head and then go." He shook the cycle's handlebar vigorously. In the process, he lost his balance and fell into a hedge. He called out from inside the hedge "What! Home already? Good night steed".

Back home, morning started at 9 am, during holidays that is. But here, on most mornings, she woke up at 5 am. Fifteen minutes later, she walked through the cold air. On most mornings, it was so cold that she had to touch her nose to ensure that it had not fallen. Fortunately, the nose fought bravely against the cold and managed to stay in its place. It was numb but alive. On some mornings, she wondered why she was putting herself through such misery. The warm bed below and the warmer blanket above seemed like a perfect place for her to be in during such cold mornings. But her father and uncle loved to walk during these unearthly hours, and she liked their company. At most times, they talked about the stock markets and their respective jobs. These topics did not amuse her. But at times, they talked about other topics. More than anything, she liked spending time with her father. So, every morning she walked behind them listening to him talk. 

At that time of the day, only a few vehicles plied on the road. Yet, all the traffic signals worked religiously with red turning yellow and yellow turning green. Depending on the greens and reds, the pedestrians were allowed to cross the road. Their route for the morning walks required them to cross many signals and every signal displayed a red coloured palm asking them to wait till the empty roads became safe for them to cross. Having lived for many years on this planet, her father and uncle realized the futility of waiting for the red palm to disappear before crossing the empty roads. But she was young and had not lost her idealist nature yet. So, she waited at most signals for it to give her a go ahead. She pressed the button at her end of the road to inform the gods who controlled the signals that she wished to cross the road. The gods responded instantly and menacingly by saying "WAIT". Every few seconds they reminded her to wait. She waited sincerely for the red palm to disappear. Finally, when the red palm disappeared, the gods announced that it is now safe to cross such and such a road. She ran across the road to catch up with her walk mates.

Like every morning, on this morning too, the waiting and catching up game continued. The midpoint destination of their journey was a coffee shop close by. The Iced Vanilla Latte at the coffee shop had captured her fancy. Her uncle was flummoxed by her affection for this cold drink. He asked, "How can you drink this cold drink on such a cold morning?" She responded, "I like it that way." When the coffees arrived, she found the milky heart shape that floated on top of her father's coffee fascinating. She clicked a picture of it and added it to her collection of milky hearts. 25 minutes later they started their journey back. The way back seemed colder due to the cold breeze blowing steadily against them. She walked at a slight distance from her uncle and father. Soon, she passed by an SUV that was parked in the parking lot of a mall. She had noticed this vehicle almost every day. A lady sat inside the vehicle looking at her smartphone. She wondered aloud "Why does this lady sit inside the car so early in the morning, every day of the week?" She had seen the lady on her way to the cafe. She was still there on the way back. This meant that she sat inside that vehicle for at least 45 minutes. Her uncle heard her and responded, "Maybe there are too many people in her house, and she wants a few minutes of peace before starting her day." He continued "Maybe she is a school teacher who has many children of her own at home too. So, this is probably her moments of peace." She glared at him and said, "If she were a teacher, she would love children." His uncle retorted "Not all the time and not tens and hundreds of them every day. Haven't you heard the saying 'adhikamayal amridhamum vishamaane'. It’s probably like that." 

She did not like her uncle's logic. Teachers must love children regardless of how many there are in her life. She wondered why the lady became a teacher and why she had so many kids if she could not be with them all the time. At that moment, she realized that her uncle had only speculated about the lady. Neither her nor her uncle had any idea about her or her activities. She struck her forehead with her palm and said loudly "What's wrong with me?" At that moment, a voice from inside the hedge besides her responded "How would I know?" At the same time, she noticed a pair of legs jutting out of the hedge. She screamed, jumped over the legs and ran towards her uncle and father. 

He woke up from his sleep when he heard a loud voice asking, "What's wrong with me?" He felt confused. The voice did not seem familiar, and he was sure he did not know the person. He wondered how he was supposed to know what was wrong with the person. He responded, "How would I know?" In response he heard a scream and the sound of someone running away. He sat up and said "Hey". He saw the vague figure of someone running towards two others. He called out in their direction "But how would I know? I don't even know who you are. How do you expect me to know what's wrong with you? You should know it, but you are only a human. Humans do not have the ability to know what's wrong with them, they only know what's wrong with others. Don't worry. You are only a human." He sang "Human, human, human" in a robotic voice as he sank back into the bush.

Cybertruck

You can't a Ford a Tesla

Not the Cybertruck anyway

80k dollars for a truck

That looks like a stiff collar

A cardboard box half open 

A car drawn by a little hand

It ain't no good for you collar

Driving a Cybertruck

Is like being a driver muck

But there are a few

Who think otherwise

Five of them in just two days

Seen driving their cryber bucks

To Lord knows where

Can't be to hell

For Satan can't stand

Those stammer ducks

So they stand lined up

Outside their showroom

Waiting to be taken

By someone, just anyone

Coffee song

Woke up this morning
Checked my phone
No new messages, it claimed
My friends, IG and FB 
Had many things to say
Irrelevant nonsense
Interspered with bits of information
IG and FB, my besties
Ever responsive unlike the human oafs

Got up
Walked to the kitchen
Boiled water
Two spoons of filter coffee
Waiting in the filter
Welcomed the boiling water
Many minutes later
A cup of bitter black coffee
Waited in a faded mug
Having my name on it

Sleeping by the television
Was the weighing machine
I kicked it awake
By stepping on it
Screaming in agony, it said
"Aaaah! You are heavier by a kilo"
I placed the blamed
On last night's fried rice
And promised to eat fruits that night

But it won't happen though
For I dine with my parents
Tomorrow night's gone too
For I dine with my human bestie
One of the few that's left
I looked down at the weighing machine
And screamed "Next time it will be two"

Drank the bitter black coffee
Became a cheater
By saying "Hmmm"
I have ditched tea
And moved to coffee
Rather drink pee
Than tea with no sugar

I don't care for coffee
And can drink it
Any which way
Black bitter coffee's good 
For your heart, liver, gut and butt
Said the experts in the web
Expertizing their displaced, misplaced
Knowledge on social media

With the used coffee powder
In a kettle filled with water
Walked to the balcony
Three plants awaited licking their lips
Two sisters and a neighbour
Who exists for no reason
Not for love, for sure
But can't let them die
They need coffee to live

Coffee
From plant it comes
To plant it goes
Only the flavour remains
Inside me, around me.

Engaging oneself

"Dumb, dumb, dumb, another one bites the dust", sang Freddie Mercury into my ears as the train arrived at the station. As it halted, I realized that I was not standing at the right spot and walked back towards my compartment. When I reached my coupe, I saw that the remaining three seats were occupied by two women and a child. The girl was lying down on the berth assigned to me. Her mother asked her to move to her own berth, which created some confusion in her. I smiled at the mother and daughter and said "It's ok, I will take the other berth" and placed my bag on the other berth. Then, I did what I usually do when I board a train - sat on my seat, put on my headphones and ignored the world. Usually, I put on some music and run through the social media but for the past few months I have been stricken by an ailment. It has changed my behaviour. Instead of listening to some brilliant metal music, I watch K-drama these days. 

Being more rational than religious, God remains in peripheries of my life. But my new found obsession of K-drama has convinced me of the existence of God, not the kind, benevolent type but the type that hides cloths of bathing women in the trees and laughs at their plight. My affection for K-drama can only be the assigned to such a god's mischievous act. 

For many years, I felt contempt towards anyone listening or watching anything K - K-pop, K-drama, K-ellogs, ... Two years back I saw a K-drama called Mr. Queen. I was blown by it. It was funnier than anything I had watched till then (and since too). The heroine of the series was really good. Though I did not understand Korean I felt I understood every word she uttered. I really wanted to see other series that featured her. A few months back I implemented that want. Since then I have watched nearly 10 K- dramas and much to my disgust I enjoyed watching each one of them. That said, everything about K-dramas is not good. They tend to be cliched and manipulative. As a result, I believe I will stop watching them in the near future but I can't say for sure. 

Before getting back to the train, I feel the irrestible urge to talk about a couple of cliches that I have observed in some of the K-dramas I have watched.  Coincidentally, the same heroine figures in all these dramas.

1. The main characters in the K-drama, who are complete strangers, feel a strong dislike and then strong liking towards each other. By the end of the series, they realise that they knew each other when they were small and right from that age they were destined to be with each other. As I said earlier, the same heroine figures in all these series. She seems to be the queen of the long lost love series.

2. In one of the series, the process of falling in love involved the heroine tripping on something or other and falling into the hero's arms. For the next few seconds, the two characters stared into each other's eyes. In those few seconds everything from love to lust to Limca flowed between their respective eyes. I remember, one time, I shouted out in agony "No, please be careful! Don't trip. You will once again  fall into his arms. Stop being ridiculuous". Obviously, she did not hear any of my words of agony. She tripped, fell into his arms and spent a few second looking into his eyes before realizing "What are we doing" and moved away from him. Incredibly, after realizing that the two of them were always in love with each other, she stops tripping. Kinda suspicious, won't you agree?  

The other annoying aspect are the product placements, from Kopico to Papa John's everything figures in the series. In one series, the mothers of the two lead characters work at Papa John's and eating pizza becomes a major part of every episode. This unfortunately resulted in me attempting to order Domino's pizza one night but they insulted me by informing me that I stayed too far away from civilization and so the pizza cannot be delivered to my tree. Feeling frustrated, I shouted "hoo, hooo, hooo, heee, heee, heee" and went back to watching K-drama. The last two parts of any K-drama are boring as hell and the only way to survive these episodes is by forwarding many parts. But those are not the only parts that require forwarding, there are the frequent flashbacks. If the series makers were not obsessed with 16 or 20 one hour episodes, these would have been incredible watches. These criticisms notwithstanding K=dramas are not banal. They are great tools available for people to escape from the drudgery of life.

Damn! How did I become such a K-reature! Will I ever become a human again!

Getting back to the train, I put on my headphones and started watching one of the K dramas I was watching (I always watch two at a time, when one gets boring, I move to the other and vice versa). These were the last few episodes of the series and I felt a desperate desire to get it over with. So, I watched them with interest and forwarded parts which were not interesting. Suddenly, I felt that the mother and daughter were trying to communicate with me. I looked up and saw both of them looking at me intently. I took off the headphones and heard the two of them say in unison "Are you watching K-drama?" When I said yes, the mother asked "She wants to know which one. We too watch a lot of K-dramas". The daughter chipped in "We started watching K-dramas during the lockdown days. We have watched many series. We love them. My favourite is ..." I don't remember the name she mentioned. She continued "What is your favourite?" I said"Mr. Queen." She did not know the series. The mother took out her mobile and noted down the name. She asked "What is the name of the series you are watching?" I gave her the name of the series and warned her not to watch it with the daughter. I was not sure if she heard it and so I repeated it again. She nodded her head and noted down the name of the series anyway.

To get away from the topic of K-dramas, I asked the daughter "Are you from here or Thoothukudi?" She said she was going to Thoothukudi for the weekend. Her mother chipped in "My sister and I are makeup artists and we are going to Thoothukudi to take care of makeup for a bride." She took the opportunity to hand me a visiting card. I took it from her tentatively and wondered what to do with it. My son is probably many years away from marriage and I don't believe he would require a makeup artist anyway. Then I remembered my niece. As per the astrologer, she only had three and a half years left to get married. I took out my purse and placed the card inside it carefully. By this time, the mother and daughter got into a minor argument. She claimed that she was going with her mother to help them but her mother argued that the daughter was just tagging along for the food at the wedding. I smiled at them politely and wondered when it would seem not impolite for me to get back to the K drama. Suddenly, I asked the daughter which school she went to. She gave the name of the school and said that she studied in class 3B. The mother and daughter stopped talking to me after that. I wondered if it was due to the mentioning of school. I happily went back to the different sets of lovers falling in and out of love by the end of every episode. 

When twenty minutes remained in the last episode, I received a message on instagram that read "Life's a tragedy" from the girl getting engaged at Thoothukudi the next evening. I felt worried. She had barely managed to maintain her sanity during 2024 and had finally heaved a sigh of relief when 2025 started unfolding. All the worst case scenarios started running through my head. I decided to call her before the train reached Villipuram. She picked up the call in the second ring and started a monologue that is given below. But before I get to that, it is important to place a note on how it was spoken by her and hence how it should be read. It was spoken at double the normal speed of speech. Also, a few vowels in some of the words were dropped. For example, the sentence "today was a complete disaster" should be read as "tdaywascmpltdisssaaastr". Also, a large chunk of what she said is not placed here for reasons of privacy. She said something like the following.

"Today was a complete disaster. They did a makeup trial and it was horrible. The makeup person applied tons and tons of powder and cream on my face, I ended up looking like someone else. And then the lipstick, peach coloured lipstick. Did you even know that peach is a colour? You thought it was a fruit, right? It's not just a fruit, it's a lipstick colour and it looks terrible. And the hair, she made it seem like a bird's nest (kurivi koodu to be precise). All I wanted was curls but when I saw myself in the mirror my toes curled. I looked like Medusa with all the snakes on her head howling at the moon. Usually, people say that a beautiful nose look like an inverted 7. She made mine look like an 8. I don't know how she managed it. Many people say I have a beautiful nose but the one I had after the session looked anything but beautiful and then she brought a lens to inspect if I had facial hair. I stopped her before she could get the lens anywhere close to my face. She seemed disappointed and had some thoughts and suggestions. I said no. And then..." 

This went on for 36 minutes and 40 seconds. During the monologue I probably said some words but the only acknowledgement I received was "I can't hear you". Once or twice, I wondered the effect makeup artist sitting besides me would have on the bride the next evening. After a few more minutes of talking about her ghastly trial makeup session she said "Anyway I will put minimum makeup tomorrow. That person is not coming anywhere close to my face. Not a chance. Ok. I will see you tomorrow. Good night." When the call ended, I felt relieved as the tragedy she talked about did not seem like much of a tragedy. She had just built a Jurassic park inside her head. 

Thoothukudi is a small town in south of Tamilnadu. People from Thoothukudi might not agree with the 'small town' part of my statement but for a person who has lived in Chennai most of his life, it seemed like a small town. Twenty minutes of drive was all it took for the town to end.  I went for a walk around the block after breakfast. For reason I don't wish to mention here, I decided to not take a second round around the block and went back to my hotel room. As soon as I entered the room, I got a call from the girl who was getting engaged that evening. She said her mother wanted to talk to me. Before I could ask why her mother wanted to talk to me, her mother asked "You wanted to go to Sivagalai. Many from my family live there still. What did you want to see there? As far as I know there is nothing there to see." I tried to explain that there is 5000 year old burial site there. The finds from the place have caused a major excitement among Tamil archaeologists and historians, not to mention politicians. She said she will check with someone and get back to me. 

A few minutes later her father, not the mother's father but the mother's husband, called and said "A friend of the family is an archaeologists and he will reach out to you soon." In 30 minutes, I received the call. The person worked with the archaeology department and seemed a knowledgeable person. Later, I realized, he had a doctorate and worked in dating pottery found in these sites. He gave me the number of two people who he said will help me at Sivagalai and at another site called Adhichanallur. By the time the call ended, the family had arranged for a car. Ninety minutes later, I walked between pits containing 5000 year old pottery of various sizes. The bigger ones were used to store bones of the dead with materials used or liked by the person placed besides. Medium sized pots containing the favourite food items of the dead were placed around the large pot. From these pots husks and remnants of rice and millet were found. Analysis also found that some of the pots were used to store milk and curd at the time of burial. 

I was informed by the person at Adhichanallur that this site, which was on a rocky mound, was a secondary burial site. This meant that initially the bodies of the dead were buried inside similar large pots at a primary burial sites closer to places where people stayed. The pots were reopened after a few months and the bones of the dead were transferred to another pot and reburied in this site. The person who took me around mentioned that some of the pots were nearly six inches thick. They found a number of iron and bronze objects too. These and the bones of the dead were taken to the labs. The person showed me a few small pieces of the bones in one of the pots. An image of the place and people, as they existed 5000 years back, started forming in my head. I felt I was transported to those times. 

The site at Sivagalai dated to 3345 BCE. The archaeologist found iron implements from that time at the site. As a result, it is now believed that the iron age in Tamilnadu started more than 5300 years back. The site itself was more recent and much less developed site when compared to Adhichanallur but its bareness made me feel even closer to people from the distant past. The watchman at the site was a good person who had information and stories about the site.  The site was enclosed within tin shed. Initially only the top was covered and the sides were left open. Once when it rained the cattle grazing outside rushed into the shade of the shed. As a result, many of the large pots found intact in one of the pits were broken. The pots that remained intact and the contents of the pots from the pit were all taken to the labs.

The trip went on to the peripherals of the red sand desert called Therikaadu and the temple at Thiruchendur, which held a special place in my heart. During my younger days, many mornings started with Sirgazhi Govind Rajan singing loudly into my ears "Thiruchenduril kadal orathil senthilnathan arasangam..." from the local temple's loid speakers. Unfortunately, i could not see much of the temple and the sea as there were too many buildings and other constructions around the temple and I could neither see the temple's gopuram nor the sea. At the temple I observed yet another instance of human selfishness. The line to the inner sanctum ,which was not long, moved excruciatingly slowly. It took almost twice the time that it should have. When I reached close to the inner sanctum I realized that many people ahead stood praying to the god for a good 3 or 4 minutes. They blocked the queue and did not let anyone pass. At other temple, I have noticed that there are people who push such people ahead. Here no one cared so these selfish devotees stood there blocking the queue's movement asking their dear God for all kinds of favours in this world and the next. I wondered how God tolerated such selfish devotion. 

I reached the engagement ceremony early. Other than the girl's father and brother I knew no one there and no one else knew me either. The father greeted me respectfully. Not being used to such a treatment in life, I felt I was the CEO of a company. Her brother, being the 7th or 8th most important person at that occasion was floating in cloud 9. Though I felt like I was the CEO of a company I could only reach up to cloud 6.5 and so he did not see me. I called out his name and he came running towards me saying "Oh uncle, I did not see you." Like his father he treated me respectfully too. I reached cloud 7.5. and felt like I was the CEO of a mid size company. 

The girl appeared 45 minutes after I reached the location. In the time, I had read three articles on my phone and swiped through Instagram and Facebook four times. I also had a glass of grape juice which suspiciously tasted like grapes, unlike the purple coloured sweet solution I am used to. The poor chef thought grapes were actually used in making grape juice. I thought "good fellow". 

The boy reached 15 minutes after the girl. Soon many members of the family were seen on the stage. The boy and the girl and a group of Reverends sat in its middle. The Reverends had a copy of the Bible in each of their hands. They read out parts from the book and advised the future bride and groom about married life. I am not sure I agreed with everything they said but i enjoyed listening to them.  To give them credit they did not paint marriage as being a rosy picture, instead they dwelt on the do's and don'ts in married life.

The most interesting statement of the evening came from the boy's uncle. As soon as I saw him, I realized he is an important person. As I looked at him, he looked towards me. I wondered if I should give him a smile but then decided to smile only if he smiles first. He did not smile but turned away. I felt myself falling from cloud 7.5 to cloud 4. As the person walked up to the stage he was introduced as a famous cardiologist from a town close by. I felt relieved. I did not deserve receiving a smile from him. I was back to cloud 6.5. He talked a few lines about the goodness of the boy and girl. He went on to advice the girl "Man is made from clay and woman from the bone of man. This means that the woman, as she is made from man's bone, is stronger than the man." I thought that was an interesting way to look at the line from the Bible. It made women seem stronger, which usually does not happen in most of the texts from 2000 years back. Unfortunately, he followed it up with a cliche "It is for this reason that they say behind every successful man there is a woman".  I find this line annoying. It neither satisfies the man nor the woman. The protest from the man would be "What! Why? Why can't my success me just mine? So what about all the success I had before I got married?" At that moment, the man would have heard a small voice in his head say "Maybe that woman is your mother!" On hearing this, his protest would have turned towards the small voice "In that case, what about my father?" At that point the small voice would have found it to be wise to say nothing. On the other hand, the woman would have protested "What! Why? Why should I be behind him? What can't I take care of my own success, which as such takes away a lot of my time and life? I can't take care of his success too. That's his responsibility." Of course, I have no idea if the boy and the girl on the stage thought any of this. Due to this train of thought I did not hear the concluding part of the uncle's speech.

I had dinner with... Well! It's tough to explain who the person was. Suddenly, he held up a fried chicken leg piece and said "Chicken is so expensive these days. When I was young, I used to buy one full chicken for 60 Rupees. Now it's so expensive. It's all due to these vegetarians eating chicken and mutton now. Their love for non-vegetarian food has raised its price. Even the price of fish is high now. They only eat vanjram fry and look at its rate. I can buy 10 kg of mathi for the price of 1 kg of vanjram. That is because they only eat vanjram fry. They don't like fishes like mathi. Now, Vanjram has become too expensive." This thought had never struck me. I always felt happy to see a vegetarian eat meat. It made them as unholy as me and I felt happy with the feeling that both of us would ultimately end up in chicken hell or goat hell. I did not believe in the person's observation though and wanted to counter him. But I was afraid I would be considered a vegetation turned non vegetarian. So, I said "hmmm" and continued eating.

The evening ended for me a little later. I shook hands with the girl's father and waved bye towards the boy and girl. I had felt a lot of love in the air. As I look back at my actions during the days after the function, I wonder if they were driven by this love.