1. At the Ophthalmologist's.
Mom had wanted to meet the eye specialist, next door, because her left eye was giving her problems. We'd met her a month back and since 'nothing clinical was detected', she'd advised
hot water fomentation over the eyes, thrice a day. That she didn't prescribe any medicine was
something that didn't go down well with my mom then! Her affinity for medicines amazes me
and on that score, we pull her legs quite often.
I don't like to take any chances regarding others' medical discomfort and hence, we'd trekked
the 75 metre distance to the clinic towards a quarter-to-5 as the clinic wound up usually by 5 -
it functioned only on Tuesdays and Fridays while the main clinic was in the heart of Thrissur town.
The main doctor hadn't come this afternoon and her colleague was in chair, instead and she
went about examining my mom's problematic eye(Earlier, mom had expressed her disappointment
about the absence of the main doctor with whom she was cosy and I'd to hush her as we're getting
within earshot of today's incumbent. The problem is that she tends to speak loud because of her hearing problem and imagine the resulting embarrassment had the doctor heard my mom!)
She was attractive but visibly uncomfortable, wonder why? I make it a point to look into people's
eyes while saying my piece and I just couldn't fathom as to what about me was bothering her. No,
I'm well past the hill for people to take note of me and as I'd said in this forum earlier I've pegged
myself at 3 out of a scale of 10, in the looks department. To ease the situation, I'd asked her as to
what her name was as we walked away out of the cabin....... Was I overbearing? If affirmative, my
apologies for that was never my intention!
2. Elated but sad!
Ajith, my classmate and a good friend, has been at an ashram on the foothills of the Himalayas
for over the last 10 years after putting in his papers from the IAF, while commanding a chopper
unit, as part of a UN peacekeeping mission in Congo. We're classmates at school, course mates
at the NDA and have been in touch all the way. We'd spent a delightful couple of hours when
he'd visited us last year and made it a point to return the next day to have supper with us at my
persistence. His food habits are simple and he avoids the masala, in fact, he's stopped having
pickle that he was once very fond of . A die hard bachelor, he was the mentor of his family and
had recently bequethed his pension and other benefits to a nephew of his, since he didn't require
them anymore!
He'd called up a while back to say that he'd moved into the 'Vaanaprastha ashram' (The Hindu
philosophy says that a soul after taking birth as a human being, goes through four phases or
'ashramas' - saisavam, grihastham, vaanaprastham and sanyaasam - before it attains the
Universal soul or become one with God). He said it with the utmost humility, there was neither
elation nor sadness. The spiritual part of my personality was elated by my friend's unique
achievement but the mortal part felt immensely sad that I might never come across him again.
Years back, we'd taken off together from the same starting blocks of life and now he's left me so
far behind and I don't think that I'll cross the 'grihastham' ashram in this life of mine.
This afternoon, I received a mail from him saying that he wouldn't be able to attend the get
together that we're organising in December on attaining 60 years!
Tailpiece.
I've nursed this plan of doing a 'Kailash Manasarovar yatra' - it's gotten easier with the Nathu La
route opening up, now - and spending some time with Ajith at his ashram. At least that would enable me to spend time with my esteemed friend and give me another chance to see him!
Mom had wanted to meet the eye specialist, next door, because her left eye was giving her problems. We'd met her a month back and since 'nothing clinical was detected', she'd advised
hot water fomentation over the eyes, thrice a day. That she didn't prescribe any medicine was
something that didn't go down well with my mom then! Her affinity for medicines amazes me
and on that score, we pull her legs quite often.
I don't like to take any chances regarding others' medical discomfort and hence, we'd trekked
the 75 metre distance to the clinic towards a quarter-to-5 as the clinic wound up usually by 5 -
it functioned only on Tuesdays and Fridays while the main clinic was in the heart of Thrissur town.
The main doctor hadn't come this afternoon and her colleague was in chair, instead and she
went about examining my mom's problematic eye(Earlier, mom had expressed her disappointment
about the absence of the main doctor with whom she was cosy and I'd to hush her as we're getting
within earshot of today's incumbent. The problem is that she tends to speak loud because of her hearing problem and imagine the resulting embarrassment had the doctor heard my mom!)
She was attractive but visibly uncomfortable, wonder why? I make it a point to look into people's
eyes while saying my piece and I just couldn't fathom as to what about me was bothering her. No,
I'm well past the hill for people to take note of me and as I'd said in this forum earlier I've pegged
myself at 3 out of a scale of 10, in the looks department. To ease the situation, I'd asked her as to
what her name was as we walked away out of the cabin....... Was I overbearing? If affirmative, my
apologies for that was never my intention!
2. Elated but sad!
Ajith, my classmate and a good friend, has been at an ashram on the foothills of the Himalayas
for over the last 10 years after putting in his papers from the IAF, while commanding a chopper
unit, as part of a UN peacekeeping mission in Congo. We're classmates at school, course mates
at the NDA and have been in touch all the way. We'd spent a delightful couple of hours when
he'd visited us last year and made it a point to return the next day to have supper with us at my
persistence. His food habits are simple and he avoids the masala, in fact, he's stopped having
pickle that he was once very fond of . A die hard bachelor, he was the mentor of his family and
had recently bequethed his pension and other benefits to a nephew of his, since he didn't require
them anymore!
He'd called up a while back to say that he'd moved into the 'Vaanaprastha ashram' (The Hindu
philosophy says that a soul after taking birth as a human being, goes through four phases or
'ashramas' - saisavam, grihastham, vaanaprastham and sanyaasam - before it attains the
Universal soul or become one with God). He said it with the utmost humility, there was neither
elation nor sadness. The spiritual part of my personality was elated by my friend's unique
achievement but the mortal part felt immensely sad that I might never come across him again.
Years back, we'd taken off together from the same starting blocks of life and now he's left me so
far behind and I don't think that I'll cross the 'grihastham' ashram in this life of mine.
This afternoon, I received a mail from him saying that he wouldn't be able to attend the get
together that we're organising in December on attaining 60 years!
Tailpiece.
I've nursed this plan of doing a 'Kailash Manasarovar yatra' - it's gotten easier with the Nathu La
route opening up, now - and spending some time with Ajith at his ashram. At least that would enable me to spend time with my esteemed friend and give me another chance to see him!
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