My family, my short cut to salvation

>> Daddy

Would you call the task Herculean, if you need to vary the ranks of the armed forces to bring back the lost smile on your father’s face? I bet you would not. His broad shoulders (grew broader with shouldering responsibilities), small clear eyes reflecting his clear conscience and his sturdy walk, all seem to say one thing unison – “I am a self made man.” Even if you do not know the adorable characters ‘Chackroos’ and ‘Mangroos’, you may be tempted to hear the stories. Well well only those privileged few, who have spent innumerable hot summer, cold winter, pleasant and not so pleasant afternoons and nights with him, would vouch for the originality, innocence and out-of-nowhere elements to these characters. Well, if I forget to mention his strong affinity to the words ‘Manathil’, I would not to do a wee bit of justice to him. If by chance you did not believe in your roots, better not be found anywhere close to him, else you might just stop believing in yourself! He knew what I would be even before I had started thinking what I wanted to be...

Some things are better when they are not understood and just felt.

>>Mummy

The warmth in her eyes and the soft touch of her hands can take away any lingering pain. She lives her life, no façade, no pretence. When she laughs, she laughs, when she sobs, she sobs and mind you when she growls, just stay away. There are no emotions she pretends to hide, making her more alive every moment. Caveat : when she is hibernating, she means that too...If you wish to experience the love that oozes out when she hugs and kisses you, you need not do anything extraordinaire, every moment lived is a reason for celebration. Not a single frown, a muffled laughter, an unspoken word, a stray thought goes undetected from her radar. Not only that, she know exactly what needs to be done to shoot down that UFO on my mind. Well something which I learnt quite young – if you have something in one hand and you are going to pick up the second one, stop. Keep the first thing in your hand at its rightful place and then pick the second. It always helped, literally and otherwise.

>>Brother

If I knew anything that is dangerously contagious, it’s his ‘spirits’. Well let it be a bright day, dull day, sunny day, dark day, rainy day, sunny day....no matter what, if he can’t cheer me up, chances are no one else can. You don’t have to seek the wisdom hidden in his words; it’s always served right on the platter, often garnished with adequate humor. For a contemplative soul like me, I could not have asked for me... Lots of our things fall into the same boxes, the ones which do not help us fill ‘our’ empty boxes neatly. Chances are he will sense that something is going on your life but you may just not take notice of the tumultuous tide in his life. That’s unfair right? Hidden behind what he ‘yells’, ‘mocks’, ‘acts’, ‘croons’, ‘jigs’, ‘jokes’, ‘cries’...is his true self. Very few are able to see ‘him’, those who do cling on...


Well what’s it all got to do with salvation? Well for me salvation is what I need for my quotidian woes, and nothing short of divine providence gives that to me in abundance in what I call MY FAMILY