BIRTH AND DEATH ...LIFE IN BETWEEN---1

                                                                          Monsoon was at it's best possible fury..rain ..rain..and rain..  Heavy downpour , accompanied by lightening and loud thunder...frightening enough mood of nature... Flood water was brimming to the high veranda of the house.... The house was the only one spared by the raging flood , which stood high  amidst the vast, flooded paddy fields . There were some signs of paddy leaves, to give clue of a paddy field drowned in the fury of flood. Only highly built houses were spared by the flood...all low lying  areas were under it...

                        While nature was showing signals of her next downpour,here a lady was writhing in pain of her first delivery. In such a frightening mood of nature, he was born..Born "Still". The first delivery of the lady... In those days , pregnancy was not at all considered a health problem..It was a natural phenomenon.... So , the lady gave birth to a still baby boy, amidst  all the fury of nature, inside the safety of her own home..

                  Now an unthinkable matter.. The moment, when the pregnancy is realized, the run for the doctor starts, which goes on throughout the pregnancy period, and ends with the delivery...Nowadays , pregnancy is a major health problem.. Nothing natural... So the pregnant lady will be attended by a specialist doctor, not an ordinary one... formerly everything was looked after by one family doctor and now there are specialists for every organ of human body.Now , the human being is not at all important. But his organs are ....because every organ of the human body is shared by the doctors of that organ... be it heart, teeth or any thing.
                                                                                                     Anyway, that hapless lady was not having the luxury of the presence of a doctor and the elderly ladies in the house were looking after her...As the new born was a "still" one, everybody there was in agony...After nine months of care and pain , the result was heart  breaking... There was a boy of eleven in that house, at that time the only male member present there ,who could not bear the pain of losing the newborn one...He dared in to the rain and flood , in lookout of  some outside help...At a distance he saw one man moving slowly in the flood water. He signaled for help and the man was , luckily , none other than the village doctor. The boy told him the story of the still birth and the doctor agreed to go with him and have a look...
                                   The doctor checked the still born child and told the mourners to bring some water in a big vessel. It was brought and the doctor suddenly lifted the child and put him to the water holding him by his legs. All of a sudden ,and to the astonishment of the people present, the child had its way and started weeping vigorously.The sun peeped through the clouds giving the message of natures happiness on his birth.Every one there was filled with joy and thanked the doctor, who had done a wonder for them... So the timely act of that boy of 11, brought back to life the new born.. At that time, may be the Almighty , might have sent the doctor to save a young life...So his birth happened with a big bang. Born amidst  a lot of drama , rain and thunder, born to a small time trader  of the neighboring town...still born and came to life...

ONCE UPON A TIME......

                                                                             Once upon a time , when the bullock cart was the speedy mode of transport, I used to look the rhythmic movement of the bullocks as well as the carts. The cart driver will be whipping the bulls for more speed, like now a days we apply accelerator for motor cars...That was a time, when long caravans of bullock carts were lined in front of big go-downs for emptying their cargo...These were carrying  copra, spices and other agricultural products  from far off places which was brought to the port town for export to other countries and for  domestic use. The town in question was none other than Alleppey, which was also called the "Venice of the east" due to its extensive  network of  straight canals. These canals were connecting the vast back waters to the  seaport.
                                                  I was celebrating my early childhood with all possible pomp and show. In early 60's, when even radios were sparse, the only way to look out was only through newspapers. From the age of six, I started reading newspapers.  Even now I am able to recollect the news and photos about the 1961 Indo-China war..Then the passing away of Pandit Jawaharlal Nehru in1964. Then , in newspapers, four full pages were filled with the photos of Nehruji, at different places and occasions. Then comes the 1965 indo -pak war.. At that time , some public places , like Libraries, were having the luxury of  a radio..Not pocket size ones, but table filling type big ones made by Philips and Murphy. To understand what is going on in radio , was very difficult, as sounds like fireworks was coming out from it more than programs. So it was a tedious task to hear something from radio. Radios came to homes slowly and secondly. Now, see the case of Televisions..It first bombarded houses and secondly appeared in public places.
                                                                                           At that time radio owners were have to take licence to use it...But with with the appearance of  Transistor radios, the picture changed. Radios of table tops  has started becoming small and small, fitting to pockets. Due to wide acceptance of radio, the license raj for radio ended...Almost by that time, the gulf saga has started, and radio with tape recorder started tickling in. Purely obsolete in today's standards, but a wonder at that time...The pace of change was so fast that, television started appearing in homes. Only black and white...a wonder at that time..primitive in today's standards..all of a sudden  color TVs appeared in homes, slowly but spread like a wild fire...Poor radios had to had a sad retreat from most homes. TVs started setting the agenda of households.
                                                             With the fast attack of TVs  on homes, the new age media has taken the center stage of our life. Now the visual media dictates the agenda of our life. Reading habit has taken a back seat and the new generation is not at all reading anything. They have got computers..Oh...the new generation is having the world in their fingertips...in the shape of mobile phones and computers..what a change..Once, fifty kilometer was a far off place. To get a telephone call, yes land-line, we were to book the call and wait for hours to get connected. Sometimes the connection will not happen at all...What a change in fifty years..May be, so rapid the changes than, the last 5000 years.