A life in reverse!

Cheeniya · Jul 4, 2012

My dear syamala
T.S.Eliot and W.H.Auden are my all time favourite poets. I have now lost all that passion for poetry as my life gets more and more prosaic. Still I do make an occasional foray into poetry. Humour is one thing that I continue to love fiercely. Any writer or speaker who can lace his work with humour is sure to strike an instant rapport with his audience. So much so, even the speakers on spiritual subjects often digress into humorous anecdotes to sustain the interest in their audience!

An eminent psychologist once said that we all cried when mourning the death of a friend or relative partly out of fear that death might strike us one day and partly out of relief that it was someone else this time! Dignity in death is a rare trait and that is indicative of immense strength of character. When I wrote about transit of Venus, I had mentioned that none of us would be around when it occurred in the next century. That's all the time we are given on this earth. But does that thought chasten us?
Sri

shyamala1234 · Jul 4, 2012

Dear Sri,

Very true. Humour can create rapport with anyone immediately. But I think humour is very difficult to write....in my view than poetry or drama. It should be of the right balance...can anyone write like Wodehouse? I don't think so.
Even Swamijis at Ramakrishna Math where I go sometimes to listen discourses, they create a rapport with audience with humourous anecdotes.......but the problem is, after coming back home we remember only those anecdotes and not the real subject!

Syamala

rgsrinivasan · Aug 14, 2012

One of the best, Cheeniya Sir. Thoroughly enjoyed reading it. Took me to that day when I was completely overwhelmed by my friend's answer to a question. Let me try posting that in my way here.

"If you are ever given a chance
To relive just one moment of your life,
Which event could it be perchance?"
I asked many men I met in my life.

Some quoted the day of their marriage,
Some reminisced their achievements
I couldn't find a pattern with age,
Each quoted their sense of fullfilment.

It was all so magnificent to hear
And they enjoyed reminiscing too.
Having a big burden that we bear,
Its good to recollect nice things a few.

Then I heard from one of my friends
Who had been away for a while.
His answer was so good that it sent
Me floating high for a while.

"Given a chance I'll straight away pick
The day I was born, in order to give
That joy again to my mom who's stuck
With sorrow most of the time she lived".

What is so special with that response was that he grew up in another place [fostered to one of their distant relatives, soon after birth, because they were so poor and he was not the first or last child] and knew about his mom very late. -rgs

Cheeniya · Aug 14, 2012

My dear rgs
Thank you for this beautiful poetic FB. It is my honest opinion that you should have posted this as a new thread in the Poetry Section. The concluding stanza is simply beautiful. This reminds me of the song that Vaali wrote for the film 'Mannan' tuned soulfully by Ilayaraja and sung touchingly by Yesudoss. This song never fails to bring tears to my eyes. The following lines in particular are heart wrenching:
"Eeraindhu maadhangal karuvodu enai thaangi
nee patta perum paadu arivennamma
Eerezhu jenmangal eduthalum uzhaithalum
unakingu nan patta kadan theeruma?"

Sri