Between thoughts and words

One of my friends met me after a long time last week. She told me "I felt like giving you a Jaadu Ki Jappi" (a magical hug). She meant that I looked sad (her perception!) and she wished that a 'magical hug' could make me feel better. While saying this she also said, "...self-care is very important. take care of yourself first. Working for the society and everything else comes secondary..." In recent times there is a lot of discourse on self-care. Self care is popularly defined as adopting behaviours which ensure a complete state of physical, mental and social well being. In the context of chronic diseases like diabetes and high blood pressure the word self-care refers to adopting healthy life styles like reducing carbohydrates and fats in diet, following regular physical activity, avoiding smoking and alcohol and practicing yoga and meditation to maintain good mental health. However, even when someone is healthy and do not have any illness, self care has bee...

  It has spoilers. Since you must see the movie, there is no point in reading it before you see it. Read it after you see the movie. If you are disturbed the way I am, these words cannot do any justice to the intensity and depth of the feelings that you will experience. If you are not touched by the movie, these words won’t matter. Therefore, on second thoughts, don’t read this. You can ask me, then why have you posted this. I am writing this post because I am feeling helpless. I am feeling sad, angry, frustrated, happy, elated, and all other emotions. Long after I left the theatre my mind is still playing those visuals. I won’t be able to work, sleep or do anything else unless I get these reels of emotions and thoughts that are running in my head as words on this post. That is the only reason I am writing this.    Throughout the movie, I had this nagging sense of helplessness and paternal feeling for young Sivananaindhan. I wanted to run into the screen, hug him tight, a...

If we trace the origin of myths and lore, they start as small routine events in everyday life. These become history. Histories slowly evolve and become myths and stories and these become embedded into culture and tradition. I remember my mother scaring me into having foods that I did not like as a child by saying, “If you don’t eat, I will make   poochandi   come and get you”.   Poochandi   is a Tamil word which refers to someone with a scary appearance. It is said to be derived from the two Tamil words “ poochu ” meaning someone who has smeared their entire body with the holy ash   vibhuti   + “ aandi ” meaning someone who is clad in just loin cloth, has long matted hair and is a devotee of Lord Shiva. This used to refer to an   aghori , with a very scary appearance. A mother must have scared her child by creating the scary image of this   aghori . This became a routine practice and the word got integrated into the Tamil lexicon. This is just an ...

Temples have played an important role in my life. A small temple of my early childhood that I recollect vividly is the   Karkodi Amman   temple in Nungambakkam. We used to live in Kumarappa Mudali Street and stone’s throw from there was this beautiful temple. There used to be metal railings on either side of the sanctum sanctorum to demarcate where people must stand to see the Goddess and offer their prayers. I remember climbing on to these railings as a child and performing mini gymnastics on them even as our mother would pray. As we circumambulate the main deity, towards the left side of the shrine there would be a drain where all the water, milk, curd, fruits, tender coconut and other liquids used in   Abhishegam   (washing the Goddess) would flow out and collect. Sometimes the drain would get clogged, and all the liquid would accumulate there and create a revolting odor. I can smell it even as I am writing this. I remember running round and round the main shrine,...

I am a teacher of community medicine, who does not have a teaching job at present. But I have consciously used the present tense in the above sentence, because I see that most of my fulfilling friendships are with my students and mentees. So even though I don’t teach anymore, I continue to cherish being the teacher that my students love! One of my favorite activities is meeting them over a cup of coffee and having long conversations with them about their life, work and interests. Recently I met a young man who was a student in our college 4 years ago. We were talking about life, over brownies and Shepard’s Pie (a vegetarian version). He said, “You know how I used to read and write a lot when I was in college? Now I seem to have lost that interest. Neither do I read nor write anything. I think I need to understand where I lost myself. If I discover where I lost these interests, I believe I can reclaim them.”     This got me thinking about lost interests and reclaiming them. As ...