Gently Falls The Bakula

       Alas!Gently fell the bakula off the tree standing there still since ages,in a sleepy town in a remote corner of the country,off the tree that had made two young people one.However,it fell not normally,but heavily,with the mixed feelings of a sorrow of its own failure and a sense of gratitude to the Almighty,that,at least,at this moment,he could bring peace and satisfaction to that child of the great bakula tree,whose life is compared to the life of the child and also whose presence transformed the life of the same child.

       The reason for the sorrow of the bakula flower was not at all expected and was not even sudden.It was constantly and complexly growing as the tree on which the flower grew, bore a dumb witness to all the struggles and calamities the woman faced in a life that had been greatly affected by the bakula tree itself.

      And then the sense of gratitude for the Lord!Why did this come into the forefront?It is because of nothing but the solace of the bakula that the woman has ultimately chosen her way after so much of struggle in her marital life.

       What is the tree and what is the woman?If you want to know,then have the privilege to read "GENTLY FALLS THE BAKULA",by the accomplished writer of her own kind,Smt.Sudha Murty.Though I try to present here,a brief outline of the touching masterpiece,I very clearly admit that no sort of review can make the story so heartrending as the author herself.And that,nothing can be better than oneself reading the novel oneself.

       The novel begins with the description of several characters under different genres such as age,social position,shrewdness and mainly maturity level.The setting is in a small South Indian town of Hubli  and the evergreen activity bustling city of Mumbai and the author freely and aptly uses the culture of that part of South India for her work.

      With the prime concern being the life story of two young people,Shrikant and Shrimati,the author judiciously uses all the other characters to highlight these two characters.For example,the boy's friends are shown to be small elements of the cause of his marriage. 

       The story takes on its first twist when the usually never ending silence between the introverted,yet sportive Shrimati and the extroverted yet overambitious Shrikant is broken in a train journey and leads to the birth of a new and a sweet friendship that further blossoms into an unconditional and innocent love between these two,Shrikant and Shrimati.

       But where was the bakula tree till now?Yes,it was there ,is there and is the most significant part of the story until the third quarter.It was the bakula that joined the two souls and even witnessed their union when in marriage ceremony.How?To know,go on to read GENTLY FALLS THE BAKULA.

       Next,the marital life of Shrikant and Shrimati.This forms the major chunk of the novel.Shrikant,initially is a n ambitious and aspiring graduate but later becomes overambitious,workaholic and neglects his wife,no her sensitive feelings and ideas.Armed with his practicality,he manages to climb the corporate ladder very easily,from a normal employee to a bright officer to a general manager and to a director.The family's affluence starts increasing very rapidly.On the other hand,Shrimati,a very intelligent woman,a post graduate in history,is a loving and caring wife to her husband and even does jobs against her will to help her husband.She thinks before marriage that she can continue with her Ph.D. after marriage,which she later realises to be not possible.Solely because of the simple,mostly unnoticed,yet highly sensitive problems of the human heart.

       Her feeling of dissatisfaction increases exponentially over years,owing to the added agonies of not having children,the ever increasing workaholism of her husband,etc.Her correspondence with a great American historian and more importantly,a good,elderly human happens to be her only solace and that serves like an oasis for quenching her thirst in an endless journey through a desert.However,initially,she gets adjusted to the situations around her only for her life to worsen.

      As the story unfolds itself to the reader,the initial delicateness,charm and surprise transform into a saga of never ending mental turmoil,agony and misery of 'a simple woman and Mrs.Managing Director'.

       Finally,one of those fine many emotional outbreaks of her paves the way for the conception of a decision in the woman's heart which changed her life and made her live according to herself.

       The story though being not strange or new,and also being common and known,yet is very special.GENTLY FALLS THE BAKULA is really great!

       Of course,the capability of Smt.Sudha Murty that makes the reader read the entire novel at a single stretch is very much worth mentioning here.I found myself sticked to this novel from daybreak and was simply surprised when I had completed this by lunch.


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Extreme care leads to complications

       Simplicity is always the best policy.Every action to be performed,is in general,governed by some simple ideas and rules and it is fairly enough that these ideas and rules are followed successfully.Unnecessary hype and over attitude is not at all beneficial.It often results in health deterioration,emotional breakdowns,etc.So,in addition to showing no good results,this phenomenon of 'over care' worsens the situation also.

       I am not talking about the (extreme) care which is required for some professionals like doctors,international players,athletes etc.It is that 'over care',adopted by people in some what trivial house hold and other things which is emphasized.

       This extreme care may be of many forms and in all of them the outline of attitude is almost identical.Here,I consider the case of raising a child, that to particularly dealing with an adolescent.Extreme care is a required character when the child is in toddler stage and until early and middle adolescence,but later,it is not good.Early and middle adolescences require that much care because that period is dangerous and needs elders' supervision.However,in the late stage of adolescence,individuals are like bird lings with fully developed feathers and they should be allowed to live on their own.By saying 'living on their own',I mean that they should be able to get hold on those important aspects which are to be handled by them in future like booking tickets,dealing with the youngsters and the elderly,shopping,etc.
       At the end,this small story will definitely give a hearty laugh.
                "Once upon a time, a boy lived who was raised by his grandmother.As we expect,she was of an over caring nature.This boy had already been treated a nerd among his friends.On a particular occasion,he had to go to a xerox shop for getting photocopies of some important papers.He had willingly asked his grandmother not to come with him with the intention of making it himself and had set off.While his work there had been in the middle,he had noticed his grandmother coming into the shop.He had tried to avoid being seen by her,but in vain.After she had enquired him about the safety of the originals among all others,huge amount of embarrassment had been the only feeling on his face!"

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Determination is the key to success

        Determination is a quality that makes one reach the summit of their purpose with a great ease.Miseries are common in every life cycle and worries are very frequent visitors.Drooping away for these things which occur in everyone's life is not at all correct.That individual who stands against all these adversities and be able to reach his goal,is considered venerable.
        However,the presence of mere determination also cannot lead to success when there is absence of enough self confidence.Self confidence naturally seems to wash away when the goal set for is too hard to achieve.Therefore,one must select the utmost right option that he can accomplish by all means,physically and mentally.Thus,the quality of Rationality seems to be the mother of determination because,once one feels that he has chosen the right task,the desire to achieve naturally springs and required amount of determination is also born.
        In some situations,there may be a wrong choice.That adoption of wrong choice may also be final.In such cases,it is better to do the work wholeheartedly with determination and achieve even a little bit of success than to completely abandon it and curse the fate.
        This is a poem that is specially intended for the passage.

            "It's dawn,My friend!Wake up!

              Heartily wake up My friend!

                                     

              Worry not My friend!For the grievances

              Of the morning will be withering as the day passes

                          See the sun My friend!

              He is smooth and sensitive at the day break

              And grows brighter towards the dusk

              Work hard My friend!For this is a quality
              That makes you worthy of the every loaf you earn
                          See the pecker My friend!
              He has been able to build so many houses
              Just because of this


              Accept challenges My friend!For they turn out to be sweet meats
              When done though they taste bitter in the beginning
                         See the human My friend!
              He has topped the world
              As he proved this"
        Possessing over determination will definitely lead to problems.If it is an exam and you do very well,then well and good.But if you failed in it,do not take dangerous decisions like killing yourself,etc.If the girl you liked does not accept your proposal,then it is fair to leave the thing than to create unnecessary hell by pouring acids or some sort on her on the name of taking revenge.After all,revenge is an unhealthy thing to possess.
        So,I conclude this passage by emphasizing that determination leads to success in most of the tasks,provided they are good and worthy,but not mean and vicious.

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The missing and the hidden spiritualities

       This is a great moment.I think,probably,this is the only post till now,that is being written by me as soon as the incident making the body of this post took place.
       The day began in the usual manner but with a tinge of satisfaction in my heart as yesterday marked the end of my first set of exams in my professional course.Something seemed fresh and beautiful about the air though it is ,in its own way cruel and fearsome as it generally does in most of the winter days.Mixed with this satisfaction was a natural but strange feeling of performing still better in the next exams to come in the next semester.Strange in the sense that this feeling made me lose even my initial unhappiness of not going to my home as soon as the exams were over.
       However this was a day that contained many twists and turns,a day which had only a few similar  counterparts in the past.My grand mother ordered me to wash my sweaters today along with a detailed procedure of doing so and an added caution to wash them only in a machine.Now,finding a washing machine in the big hostel is easy,I thought.But,I never did washing in any machine in my hostel before and I do not the way how to do it.So, I called my great friend to help me in the matter to which he agreed and in a few minutes we both were on the journey.I had already expected that finding a 'free' washing machine was very difficult as I observed.All washing machines were brimming with clothes and there were lots of buckets in queue.What can I do?I never did washing in any machine in my hostel before and I do not know the way how to do it.So I decided to wait for my chance by leaving my bucket there and return when my turn would come.Mean while,my great friend and I sat down to watch a movie in his room.That was indeed a wonderful movie.After the movie was done, we had gone again to the machine only to find that it might take no less than four to five hours for our work.I had shifted the bucket to another washing machine.There too was an enough queue but this time,I decided to settle.However,here too I could not succeed and in frustration,I set out for washing myself.But oh!how horrible it is to wash such heavy things as sweaters!I was totally tired after the event.All the long,my great friend had been accompanying me.
       Also,there was an invitation to me yesterday to attend a spiritual course going to be held today in the evening given by a well wisher of mine in that organisation.But somehow,I began to feel bad and frightened about the organisation recently and I wanted to avoid attending.I could not tell him the same,so I agreed. But now,after doing a washing of this sort,I did not in the least wished to go and had decided to remain unavailable to him by running away from my room.
       My great friend welcomed me warmly.We had lots of things to talk and having an other friend also with us,we had a great time.We again watched the same movie that we watched in the morning and appreciated the depth of its plot once again.After dinner,my great friend took me again to his room saying that he was doing an experiment on people's mentalities lately and that he wanted to question me in the matter.After all,he was such a kind of person always,I thought,finding myself stepping into his room and during the next two hours,we had a really wonderful and appetizing discussion on things such as the psychologies of our friends,the people we know,etc.I would like to mention that the talk was no less than any kind of propoundings and philosophies and had a spirituality hidden deep inside it.On the other hand,I will very definitely feel that the discourse on spirituality would not have given me this much satisfaction over the day and thus I consider it to be a missing spirituality.Therefore the light and hearty discussion I had with my great friend  had better influence on me than the sophisticated spiritual discourse.I think finally that I have again a day that is unique in its own way with unexpected turns and events.
       Yes,it is really a great moment,before going to bed.

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