2008-12-05
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Sulekha: Featured Blogs: Story of Some Aak Leaves
Story of Some Aak Leaves
(Drama in real life)

Well, till now Aak leaves were any other leaf I knew by name but now these leaves make me think brood and smile at the same time. Story is not mine but of a very close buddy let me start it exactly the way it happened some months back.
It was Navratri and that particular day it was second Navratra. Sapna, (name changed) got up at her usual time but the temptation of sweet morning sleep lull her back into sleep and when she got up it was almost 8.30. Being a holiday she started her daily course at leisure. A normal day took a dramatic turn when she went out to the main gate to collect paper and milk from the milkman. She saw a polythene bag hanging on the main gate. Out of curiosity she opened it and saw a bunch of leaves in that. Those were big flat leaves and were not familiar to her. She asked her husband and he too said the same. With suspicious thoughts they called their servant and told her to throw the leaves in the garbage outside the gate.
Story did not end there. Now both of them started thinking who kept those leaves on their gate and why? If I were at their place I don’t think I would have bothered much. But it is not my story so let me go back to them.
‘Who could be this?’ Wife was agitated.
‘Don’t know, we have done nothing wrong with anyone.’ Husband was worried too.
‘What should we do?’ wife was more worried.
‘Let me speak to Pundit ji.’ With this brilliant idea husband called him. After an hour Pundit ji came along with a helper and demanded to see those leaves. Maid servant was promptly sent to get the bag from the garbage. After inspecting the contents of the bag Pundit ji made a grim face, and after an hour of calculations announced that someone has sent evil powers to their house, and these leaves are ‘Boj Patra’ and some mantras are written on that and it will surely harm them.
Now both husband and wife were shocked and asked for the remedy to overcome this evil. Pundit ji told them to throw the leaves and start a big Pooja at their place. It would be a Yagna for three days and five Brahmans will stay at their place for this. All they need to do was arrange the things. Husband and wife were keen to get over this evil spell so he said with folded hands to arrange the things and start the Pooja at earliest. After taking the advance of five thousand rupees both the Pundits left saying that they will start the Pooja from next day morning. The couple sighed in relief.
After these dramatic events in the morning I got her call and she told me all the details. I was numb. Sapna and her husband are both graduates from DU, who stayed all their lives in Delhi. With a lavish life style and a roaring business they are like any other rich couple. But believing in such kind of thing was out of my imagination. I tried to reason with her but she was agitated. So I left the reasoning and heard the story. She was going to market to buy clothes for seven Pundits and other things which she needed for their three day stay.
Around 2 o’ clock I got another call from her. She was so excited and angry. After cooling down she told me that the leaves were sent by our other common friend Seema. As it is believed that covering the Khetri (In north Barley seeds are sown in clay pot for nine days and then immersed in water) with these leaves it grows fast. She sent some leaves to her friend but after many bells they did not open the door so her servant left the bag on gate. Around 1pm when she got free she called Sapna and told about the leaves. Sapna called her husband and husband called Pundit ji. Drama ended there. But the advance of five thousand was gone.
Now the question is why do we still believe in unbelievable things? Why we always think negative in all the simple surprises of day to day life? Answer is maybe we are living in modern age but with the ancient ideas and mind sets?
ayaskantam.com: ‘Love Is a Trap’ - 2 By Priyatham
Sulekha: Featured Blogs: Boat Wanted in Chennai
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WANTED!
"Boat wanted in south Chennai. Will need to accomodate entire family of 6 people since house is flooded. Kerala style houseboat with A/C restroom preferred. If not motorized, please provide two oars. Need to commute from Velachery to Prince Infocity in Kandanchavadi since I have a 8 AM meeting tomorrow with the offshore team in US. Builders of the "Titanic" need not apply. Email me at floodedhome@sulekha.com."
Yes - it is that time of the year again and much like last year, the roads in "Singara Chennai" (beautiful Chennai) are waterlogged. Though the rains seem to be slowly abating, residents of south Chennai and other low lying areas such as T Nagar, West Mambalam, Kodambakkam, Velachery etc continue to suffer due to water logging.
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Boats are deployed on the streets in place of auto rickshaws. Fish tanks pulled by 10 year old kids are being used to transport vehicles for a fee. Sewage has gotten mixed with water and some of the streets are one big cesspool of bacteria. Fire engines are deployed on the streets to deploy high wattage pumps to flush out the water since the commercial motors are not powerful enough to do the job.
The Kathipara junction, which is close to the international airport got flooded and vehicles got stranded, unable to negotiate through the floods. Throughout the city, passengers in buses had to use umbrellas within the buses due to the poor conditions of many of the buses!
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Everybody is wishing for the rains to stop!! Everybody is waiting for the water to drain off the streets!!
But wait a minute! This is Chennai - the land of regular droughts and water scarcity; the land which epitomizes the phrase, "Water water everywhere but not a drop to drink"! Something doesn't quite make sense, does it? If it rains so badly every year then why is there also a water scarcity problem almost every year?
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Makes you wonder....isn't technology smart enough to store all this surplus water. Why is that on some days we have too much water on the streets. And on other days we are hoping for it to rain. And we have "poli saamiyars" (fake swamis) conducting yagnas to make it rain. We have scientists come from far away lands with some mystery chemicals which if sprayed into the skies will give us rains! We have politicians crying hoarse about uniting all the rivers of India. We have movie makers make blockbuster movies about water and desalination plants and droughts and deserts. And the mere mortals amongst us are left with nothing else to do than to sing out "kaale megha kaale megha paani tho barsaaaao..."
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Why isn't there a mechanism to store all this surplus water. Is it really that complicated. Cant water flood drains leading to a central reservoir be good enough to at least make use of this water for some non-potable purposes. Granted, this water then has to be treated and purified and stuff and would not be good for drinking. But anybody who has seen Chennai Corporation's drinking water resevoir in Porur would wonder if that is good enough for drinking too. Scary stuff.
Anyways just some random rants of the day from me - thanks for listening!
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