Mother Nature

The marvels of Mother Nature show the handiwork of God the Almighty. When the last rays of the setting sun peeps in through the cloud cover it is a spectacle which shows the great hands of God at work. When these rays fall onto the still water there is twilight like mystical effect that is seen. Everything in nature is original, innovative, breath taking and a treat to the eye. Mother Nature is the original innovator in the universe and what man can do is to only replicate what we see in nature.

The best thing about nature is that it is a treat to the senses that is the eyes, ears, nose so on. If we are atop a cloud touching mountain peak the feel that we have when we are there is unique as we are enveloped by the mist on all sides and we won’t be able to see the person right next to us. I was fortunate enough to have experienced this when we went atop Rajamalai which is home to the Nilgiri Tahr near Munnar in Kerala. Just after climbing atop mist started descending on us and what we could do was to wait for the mist to lift and go. Truly speaking it is an experience of a life time a feel which is never going to be forgotten till I die.

Another spectacle of Mother Nature was seen when I visited Yercaud which is a hill station near to Coimbatore in Tamil Nadu. Here what I saw was play of sunlight through the clouds on the Coimbatore town that is spread down as a valley below the peaks of Yercaud. The day we visited there were bits of rain cloud and the scene of the sunlight streaming through the small gaps in these rain clouds cannot be explained in words.

I have always felt that beautiful spectacles like these can never be captured by any camera or video and can never be replicated. Also if we don’t see these at those specific moments of time we wont be able to see it again because changes in nature happen very fast what we see one moment might not be there the next moment as the effect of light and the wind changes within minutes or rather seconds.

But today we are too busy to enjoy and see this marvels we have to take a vacation to some hill station to see these spectacles. For this I envy my grandparents who are lucky enough to see this every day of their life. My Dads ancestral home where my grandparents live is atop a mountain and the front view we have is the neighboring mountains. It is a vision to see the mountains to be hidden by mist which looks as though the cloud has come down and enveloped the mountain when there is heavy rain and how that lifts up after the rain is over. On the other hand my Moms ancestral home has another kind of natural beauty to it. They have paddy fields and streams in the backyard and the number of various birds and small animals that you can spot here is countless. There is calmness which is experienced by me when I go to both my grandparent’s place which just soothes the mind and relieve me of all the stress that I have. The greenery that is seen here is more than enough to relieve us of any stress that we have

Onam

Onam bring in a lot of memories, the floral carpet competition, the song competition, at school.

In school we used to have the floral carpet competition and it used to be between the respective houses. It was a grand affair during those days a lot of things had to be planned and decided like the design, the amount of flower that need to purchased, for the floral carpet. There used to be an allotted time period within which the floral carpet had to be made and only a specific number of people were allowed to be there in the auditorium when the floral carpet was being made. The teams had to make sure that only the allotted number was there in the auditorium near the floral carpet or else the team would get negative marking.

Oh it was so much of fun getting up early in morning and getting ready in ‘Pattu pavada and blouse’ the traditional attire worn by girls in Kerala. The tension filled moments before the prizes were announced. I can still remember the first floral carpet made by me during school and the prize won for it. It was Sherly madam who was our house mistress and she was very competitive in these things and made sure that her house won the entire event taking place at school and get the overall trophy at the end of the year.

In college also there are great memories with regard to onam during my graduation in Bangalore the malayalees in college used to celebrate onam buy wearing the traditional saree and having floral carpets put in the corridors. During my Post Graduation in Kochi we used to wear the traditional saree. Then there used to be some competitions and also the ‘Sadhya’

On the day of onam all my uncles, aunts and cousins used to get together and used to celebrate onam. The uncles and all of us cousins used to be preparing the floral carpet at home and all the aunties used to busy in the kitchen preparing the Sadhya. It is a joyous occasion with loads of laughter and fun in the house. This year I am in Hyderabad far away from the warmth and colors of Onam and I missing home Kerala a lot :(

Atlas Shrugged

Atlas shrugged is an exceptional book written by Ayn Rand where people who do exceptional work are credited. The story revolves around the central character of Dagny Taggart who is the Vice President of Taggart Transcontinental and how she does everything in her ability to save the railroad been taken over by the looters and become extinct.

The beauty of this book lies in the fact that there are many characters in this book whom we look up to like Francisco‘d Anconia, Hank Rearden, Ellis Wyatt etc who have this exceptional characteristic to them that we fall in love with these characters. But the best loved character in this book is John Galt who is really the protagonist of the book in a way. The character has been portrayed in such a flawless manner that we expect people to have these characteristic in them. The brilliance, the arrogance, and the attitude it is like a gem in the pool of human characteristics.

The philosophy advocated by Ayn Rand in her books is the fact that only those who do honest innovative work in this world need to live and prosper. Her books fountainhead and atlas shrugged are as tribute to the great mind s and character in human race. People like Howard Roark, Dagny Taggart, John Galt, Francisco’d Anconia are not seen in the real world but people hope that they do.