Memories of midday

Meenakshi called Meenacchi was my ayah and her love for me transcended my age. She had no teeth, had a large hole in the ear lobe, which accommodated a three quarter inch roll of thin plated gold on festive day! It was embarassing for me when she put both her palms in my face and made "tsu!tsu!" with her lips - the sound of kiss!- even when I grew up to be a young man. For her I was her "Thangam" (gold). She died when I was 17 or 18. Even my mother can not say any word of reprimand to me. Her grandson Chandrakasu ( son of Azhagu (beauty)  Meenaccni's daughter) was my play mate in my young days when my days were occupied in climbing up trees and the rest of the activities of village boys. The games we played were marbles, and a game in which a rounded stick of about 12 to 14 inches was used to strike a wooden block of about one and half inches length by an inch diameter thrown at the batsman. One can be caught out as in cricket! There is no photograph of Meenacchi and what all remains is my image  of her. I do not even know what happened to her descendants. That is how life is - those who have given you unconditional love, vanish and seldom return, but are live in memory. I can never forget Meenacchi or Azhagu or Chandrakasu.

Memories of mid-days

My friends need know introduction and those who read my blog, devoted mainly to my life will come to know of me, warts and all. Just as a start, I was born on 13 December 1928. I believe that was a Thursday and I arrived at about 6.30 pm Chennai time. In those days there was a time difference of one hour or so between Calcutta and Madras. My arrival after the alloted period of occupancy of my mother's biodegradeable pouch, the sixth tenant,  was of no moment, no thunder and lightning, no birds chirping or devas singing, just an ordinary darkening evening, lighted by kerosene hurricane lamps;  of no moment in time but probably a momentous moment for my mother, as she was much relieved to have borne a second son after four daughters, and please my father!
I am blessed to have been born of such parents and of such distinguished lineage. From those beginnings, my life's journey for the past eight decades plus is one of many adventures, myriad associations, defiance and occasional adherence to social norms, travels to and in five continents, a career that defined me to an extent as a person and so on. I witnessed and experienced changes in every sphere of human life in my long years of life. These changes shaped and radically changed my views, beliefs and behavior, though sometimes I wonder whether I harbored certain beliefs in my early days. I am not writing an autobiography and so chronology is less important than recollections and reflections. I have always been interested in reading. With the gradual and perceptible decline in my vision, my reading is much reduced but when I was able to read, I read much, without contemplation but now when I read little, I contemplate on what I have read and find this more rewarding - Contemplation's sober eye!