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Monday, January 14, 2019

Raw agent

Photo story ...

It was snowing
The chill stole up my windcheater and into my bones gnawing it like with a chain saw .
A RAW agent in New York cannot use cold as an excuse .
Extremes of climate was part of an agents life
Drawing a loaded weapon aiming it and hitting targets cannot point at frozen fingers
Excuses and apologies dont exist in the vocabulary of the profession
The targets dont understand them
They know only one chance the thin thread between life and death
I hardly fit the role which was exactly what was needed
I looked every inch an academic Indian who had come to 53 avenue 24 th street for another dreary meet .
The ubiquitous Indians seen on the Manhattan thoroughfares .
They were there all the time
With families towing grinning at selfies in Times square
Gingerly holding a Manhattan cocktail and wincing at its bitter Bourbon in the crowded bar
Bouncers watched somberly as scantily clad girls moved around hunting for prey
The smoke inside the bar was more than the flakes outside.
As its warmth descended down into my bowels a glow suffused on my homely face
Anything to beat the cold
The wait in the Brooklyn bridge for hours was a torture till i saw the short Japanese walk briskly giving me a camera to shoot his picture like any tourist would !
Only difference after that he just walked away while the camera found its way into my windcheater and now to give it to the lanky huge Russian bartender was my job .

The cocktail was half empty when he sidled up to me with arched eyebrows
Idrastinikov
He grunted wheezily while i extricated the chip in the camera and slid it near my glass
With the deft of a magician he took it and left the scene
I looked around

The crowd was behaving no different
An indistinct Indian nursing a cocktail in a Manhattan bar made no news which is precisely what I wanted
Merging into crowds was our USB drilled into us during our years in training !
One minute we are there and then a crack of a shot and we disappear like Houdini .

The satellite phone I had was tiny the latest
i took it as it trilled
And just said two words
Cocktail good
Thousands of kilometers away sitting in an old Delhi office an obese officer tapped into his laptop an indistinct coded message
Mission accomplished

Buying a camel

Since wife has gone to Rajasthan with her sister when she asked me what i want i told her to buy me a camel .

.its ideal for cochin traffic

With present roads it will be at home similar to desert dunes full of ups downs
I can ride it in any hartal
If errant drivers graze it they will get a good kick and i will have no issues .
I will have no parking problems as all i need is a rope
No insurance issues no depreciation
Can export it to Saudia after few years as pure kochi breed to some sheikh

During hot days all i need is a straw into the camels hump which is like a water tank maybe can add some ice cubes too
If i fit a bag to collect dung i can sell it as fertlisers
I may need some hay
mebbe it will get used to mallu parottas
It wud never get punctured

The only service it requires is a kick in the rump

Swamiye saranam Ayyappa

Four decades back on this day I was trudging on the slanting hills of Sabarimala with thousands of black clad pilgrims .
It was evening
We had reached the previous day .
I was in a troupe of more than 50 pilgrims from Madras led by a venerant Guruswami .
For 40 days I had woken up at pre dawn , had my bath twice a day ,avoided non veg food visited temples .
Then I had just completed my second MBBS and just got into my third year MBBS where we enter hospitals ,and start our clinical foray when we sort of experience being virgin doctors.
On January first I had gone to Royapettah hospital straight from a bajan mandal in Perambur ,where the whole night of 31 dec I had been with my Sabarimala group fervently singing bhajans .

This was a vow I had made to Lord Ayappa that I would climb the hills if I get medical admission
For someone born in the so called FORWARD caste ,who are treated as backward but , by a strange stupid system , and ,a fatherless boy who could ill afford capitation to finance a medical seat in a private medical college ,though they were far and few those days it was a literal miracle I got a seat by merit .

Yes that year, Emergency was declared in Tamilnadu ,and Karunanidhis DMK was dismissed .
As medical admissions were fully corrupt it was decided that year the criterion would only be merit ,and for someone who got university first in physics ,in the 3 subjects physics, chemistry ,and biology I  had 84 % aggregrate percentage more than the 80 kept as cut off that year .

So it was a miracle I still believe Lord Ayyappa made me a doctor .

My first trip was a long one lasting 2 weeks  ,
We went rough by train ,public buses ,to many temples in Tamilnadu reaching Trivandrum ,later Chengannur, and in Erumeli ,as first time pilgrims we all adorned ourselves in colourful ribbons baloons and danced our way into Vavars mosque .
It was the practice to pray to Vavar the muslim bosom friend of Lord Ayyappa before we trekked the hills ,later after a nice bath we started trekking the hills by the long route .
Later I had gone to Sabarimala four more times by the shorter route from Pamba river .

It would take hard climbing for almost 3 days barefoot when we stayed on the banks of flowing Azhudha river on first day ,and climbed the very tough Karimala on second day .
We climbed down into Pamba ,stayed there for 2 days ,later we climbed up the steep Neeli mala and reached sannidhaanam .

The climbing of the 18 steps was emotional as we were literally supported by police men on sides .

The crowds were mamoth ,but everything was in order as the policemen too were devout ,helpful , and everyone were Ayappas , women of prescribed age ,men ,children ,all
no caste , no religion ,no rich ,no poor ,no state ,no nation ,it was humans meeting the divine ,in the greatest pilgrimage in the world .

And today to hear insults heaped on this temple of discrimination !!
by idiots who know nothing of its sanctity.
 who have no belief in its deity ,who by force and convoluted mindset are bent on destroying such a sacred place ,by bringing in issues ,which the same holier than thou wouldnt dare mentioning in other religions 😡
As a sincere devotee like thousands of men and women,yes ,
 women like my daughter and mother both I had taken to sabarimala , later women like my wife ,women in my family, my friends ,thousands of them sincere,  faithful ,devotees of Lord Ayyappa , not only feel not discriminated ,but are willing to wait for the time to go .

Are we Sanghis ,RSS ,saffron terrorists ?
 which is the label given to all sabarimala pilgrims by the cunning devils .

Its our faith .
Its our belief.
Who the hell are you to interfere ?
What right has the supreme court to insult us ?
Who is that man sitting as keralas honcho , to turn his police force on pilgrims hosing water , hitting them with lathis ,tear gassing the pilgrims ,arresting them as common criminals !😡😡😡😡

What kind of a state is this which discriminates tortures one community to carry on its agenda while looting temples ?

Its ministers ridicule our thantri ,or chief priest calls him an employer ,who should be kicked out ,this when they cosy up on terror accused mullahs ,and rapist Bishops !!
The hurt on sabarimala pilgrims is deep and permanent .

It has turned a silent ,soft ,civil ,law abiding spiritual group of humans , into angry men and women.

Angry and frustrated , that this could happen in the country they call it their own.
This is true intolerance ,Nasserudhin shah ,Aamir khan ,we feel we want to quit this state ,this nation , no not because we dont love it like you , not because we think as Hindus ,but because we have monsters bent on hurting us only ,because we dont react ,because we need to be exploited for those parasites to live here .

Today at 6.30 pm just like that day 4 decades back ,thousands would be sitting on the cold mountain waiting for the call from lord Ayappa ,praying to him as we had for aeons ,that he will destroy the evil and help us in doing that .

Swamiye saranam Ayappa
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