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The Pied Piper

Discussion in 'Cheeniya's Senile Ramblings' started by Cheeniya, Apr 8, 2016.

  1. Amica

    Amica IL Hall of Fame

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  2. Cheeniya

    Cheeniya Super Moderator Staff Member IL Hall of Fame

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    My dear Priya
    It is not that every life is extraordinary. Life itself is extraordinary. That is why the scientists keep training the world's most powerful telescopes heavenwards to see if there are any signs of life in other planets. It is a pity that people are becoming increasingly insensitive to this most amazing feature of our planet and life gets snuffed out for the most flimsy reasons. The number of young people deciding to end their lives for reasons bordering on the absurd is increasing at an alarming rate. These are extraordinary occurrences that profoundly affect the ordinary man.

    Why am I stoutly defending the ordinary person? Because I warm easily to anyone whose favourite things are 'Raindrops on roses, whiskers on kittens, bright copper kettles and warm woolen mittens' . What a sin it is to shake him out of his beautiful reverie and talk to him of the extraordinary! Dump the extraordinary! Life can be most beautiful in its most ordinary level.
    Sri
     
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  3. shyamala1234

    shyamala1234 Platinum IL'ite

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    Dear Cheeniya sir,
    I was out of city for hour days. No access to computor. I read The Pied Piper on my smart phone. Could not give FB. Difficult to type on mobile. So, just clicked Like. Came back today....now on my regular laptop.
    Yes, in your reply given to Priya...every parent (almost all) is trying to make their kid extraordinary. If he/she is learning music then she should be another M.S. Subbulakshmi, in studies another Einstein and on and on. In that rat race children have forgotten to lead a normal childhood and they are pushed and pushed till a breaking point comes. In Bangalore one of the daughters of my relatives wrote on 10th April Prelim for IIT online yesterday. My God! she is so stressed out. Parents asking her what are the questions, how she answered repeatedly. She has to write 8 exams before May 29th. Intelligent kid she is I agree.....but still!
    To live life as we want to and do what we want to do....Do you think it is easy? Not at all. If that is living ordinary life then What is extraordinary? Really extraordinary people never think that they are extraordinary........it is not pretended humbleness. That is why we are able to interact with you freely expressing our opinions. Making people around them feel important, encourage them and at the same time making some thought provoking statements about life (as you mentioned in your reply to Priya)....... We sit back and think. If this is all ordinary we prefer to be ordinary.
    It is one the the best writings (ramblings!!!! No) of yours.
    Thank you.
    Syamala
    This snippet reminded me of another Pied Piper, not Hamli. The Pied piper by Neville Shute. I like that book very much. I am sure you must have read it. An old man taking five kids between the ages of five and ten out of the war zone in second world war time.
     
    Last edited: Apr 11, 2016
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  4. iyerviji

    iyerviji Finest Post Winner

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    My dear Anna

    First of all wish you a very happy New Year. Reading everyone's feedback I do not know what to write. Those who are extra ordinary they think themselves ordinary.You are special thats why you are the Super Moderator here and loved by everyone here. Its a tough job selecting the winners every month and you do it so well and the announcement is superb. Those who do not go in search of happiness are always happy. To bring a smile on everyone's face and make them happy is a great thing instead of thinking of making ourselves happy. In every action of yours we can see how well your mother has brought you up. Everyone here wait to read your reply to their feedbacks and the nominations.

    Seek your blessings on this auspicious day
     
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  5. Cheeniya

    Cheeniya Super Moderator Staff Member IL Hall of Fame

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    My dear Shyamala
    To tell you the truth, I always look for your FB and when it was not forthcoming, I wondered if I had written something absolutely substandard. I am not beyond committing such blunders and I could, of course, blame it on my age! What a relief it was seeing your FB!

    There are very few parents who would willingly give the freedom to their children to evolve on their own. They want them to become a product of their dream without ever pausing to think if such a role will be to their liking or not. In my younger days, a Government job was the be-all and end-all kind of a thing. Government employees commanded a high premium in the matrimonial circuit. The only reason was that a Government job was for life, job security being the Mantra that got everyone going. If you see the obituary column in The Hindu, most of the old men would have been a Government employee!

    The situation slowly changed with the advent of multi-nationals and subsequently the IT explosion. This was the time, the westward exodus started. Today's parents do not clamour for Government jobs anymore but want their children to become technical wizards so that their future will be strewn with roses. It is nothing wrong in placing high expectations with really top class students but if they happen to be mediocre, the pressure on them takes a heavy toll. Out of every 100 students, about 80 want to be 'ordinary men' and it is their case that I plead.
    Sri
     
  6. Cheeniya

    Cheeniya Super Moderator Staff Member IL Hall of Fame

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    My dear Viji
    Thank you for your loving greetings and I wish you a very happy New Year. You have been extremely liberal in your praise of me and I am acutely embarrassed! I know that it is a manifestation of your affection for me. It is a fact that I want everyone around me to be happy whether I am responsible for it or not. It is not humanly possible for any one to make everyone happy all the time, not even for the Gods! I am grateful to all who find my writings interesting. God bless you with all the very best, my dear Sister!
    Sri
     
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  7. Cimorene

    Cimorene Platinum IL'ite

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    Dear Cheeniya,

    Has everyone left?
    (tip-toeing)

    What am I supposed to do? Abomination on you! Even Charles Dickens was considerate towards his readers that he published his much-vaunted stories in monthly installments. But you? You make your readers wait, wither and wait till they get long in the teeth. What option do we have, but, to read your blog hungrily on day#1, 'like' it after few days, and then comment after prolonged delay. That way your dereliction is offset with our slow and immersive reciprocation.

    So what do we have this time — the extraordinary feat of staying ordinary. I often tell my friends that one doesn't have to swing great things in life. There are so many great people who flung great achievements on mankind that it takes a greater soul to follow up and enjoy such gratuitous badassery of great men. I am one of those self-proclaimed 'greater' souls who enjoys presence of greatness more than striving for it. Someone should seek, revere and admire this evocative greatness in others! Being ordinary and invisible is such a blessing at times because no one expects you to surmount other's sweaty greatness.

    All mothers are same! They sniff the tiredness of their kids in bed and let them sleep for an extra hour. I skipped so many classes in college just because my mommy dearest commiserated with my eye-singeing late night telly watching and did not wake me up in the mornings. Moms, I tell you, have waxy hearts that melt even with slight compression from pucker of their kids.

    I was trepidatious of a mocking Pinocchio at the end. Cheeniya pulling a mickey on us and squashing all claims of 'ordinary'. When you conjured a 'Pied Piper' as mascot, affirming your loyalty to bog-standard lifestyle and mannerisms till the end, I could resonate with you. I strongly feel I'm a younger version of you or I'd grow to become more senile than you. The undisputed communality we share of celebrating identical personal narratives makes me strive for the latter which in itself is no less ordinary.

    Why did I ask in the beginning if everyone has left? When Pied Piper played his pipe to an entrall, one deaf or lame kid, who lived to narrate the woeful tale, was spared because he could not join the pack due to his disability. Similarly, in your snippets, there's one sly, dithering, retreating and advancing entrant who hunkers till the ground is clear, and then emerges to frolic in the cadence of your writing. She wants to be a wanton fixture, wilfully, on those derelict grounds to unabashedly enjoy your suspended notes in solitude.
     
    Last edited: Apr 17, 2016
  8. Cheeniya

    Cheeniya Super Moderator Staff Member IL Hall of Fame

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    Cimorene
    Of all the numerous punch lines that the great Rajni Kanth is credited with, the one I like the most is: 'I may come late but I'll be the latest'! It implies that the crime of coming late is absolved by being the latest. It is not important how you steal a march over others in giving a FB to any thread but what makes it important is the import of what you write. I see that you have chosen to explain your late arrival as some kind of quid pro quo for my tendency to make you wait 'till you get long in the teeth'. Fair enough as long as the growing teeth remain soft and not hard and calcified like Dracula's!

    In Chennai, there are a number of vegetarian restaurants that offer a plethora of stuffed dosas. It is mind-boggling to see the variety of stuffing used to fill the folded dosa and yet a majority of the discerning gourmets order for the ordinary or plain dosa. When I asked the owner of a restaurant about it, he said that the ordinary dosa was popular because it could be consumed with any side dish unlike a stuffed one that has a closed mind. I am only attempting to explain to you the importance of being ordinary!

    You ought to have seen by this time that I am a bit different from the Hamelin guy. He lured the rats to drown in the river. I lured the rats from the fiercely competitive world and saved them from drowning in the Sea of Sorrow eventually!
    Sri
     
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  9. Viswamitra

    Viswamitra IL Hall of Fame

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    Dear Cheeniya Sir,

    A very extraordinary snippet from a very ordinary person! I agree 100% with you that being ordinary is the most difficult task in life. I have been trying to be ordinary all my life but without any success. Ordinary brings with it simplicity, humility, austerity, acceptance of life as it happens, ability to live in the present moment, less desires, less attachment and so on. Let me present two quotes of extraordinary individuals:

    "I do not know what I may appear to the world, but to myself I seem to have been only like a boy playing on the seashore, and diverting myself in now and then finding a smoother pebble or a prettier shell than ordinary, whilst the great ocean of truth lay all undiscovered before me." - Isaac Newton

    "I think a hero is an ordinary individual who finds strength to persevere and endure in spite of overwhelming obstacles." - Christopher Reeve

    A Noble prize winner in Physiology Sir John Gurdon had a report from his biology teacher as follows:

    ‘I believe he has ideas about becoming a scientist. On his present showing this is quite ridiculous; if he can’t learn simple biological facts he would have no chance of doing the work of a specialist, and it would be a sheer waste of time, both on his part, and of those who have to teach him.’

    In fact most people who have achieved great heights think themselves as very ordinary or were branded ordinary by others.

    Mother Teresa said, "Everyone can't do extraordinary things but can do ordinary things with extraordinary love."

    You being an ordinary son has taken very good care of your extraordinary mother for years. Your ordinary snippet and response writing skills stand as testaments to how you would have written proposal for approval in SBI. Your ordinary performance in the Probationary Officers' Exam and interview has resulted in 25 years of banking experience. You being an ordinary man has raised two extraordinary daughters. Your very ordinary talent has something in it that is more valuable than most extraordinary people.

    I am ready to exchange your ordinary 75 years of experience with my extraordinary 62 years experience anytime, if you are willing to enter into a deal.

    Viswa
     
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  10. Cheeniya

    Cheeniya Super Moderator Staff Member IL Hall of Fame

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    My dear Viswa
    When did you acquire this new skill of embarrassing ordinary people till they got red in the face? As if all the beautiful quotes are not enough, you offer to swap your position too with mine! If I accept it, the first to suffer would be your numerous fans in IL. They feel so rewarded by your spiritual knowledge, that they are sure to feel let down by a sudden dilution in the tutelage.

    In your opening paragraph, you have made a profound observation that being ordinary requires simplicity, humility, austerity, acceptance of life as it happens, less desires and so on. Honestly, an ordinary person does not have to cultivate all these traits. He is ordinary because these qualities are inbuilt in him like Hydrogen and Oxygen in a glass of water. If we are offered a glass of water, we simply drink it without thinking of the components that make up the life-giving fluid. An ordinary person remains ordinary as long as he does not flaunt all these qualities. He ceases to be ordinary and becomes extraordinary the moment he becomes aware of these qualities in him and starts flexing his muscles!

    We all know of Mahatma Gandhi's simplicity but Sarojini Naidu sums it up succinctly saying how much it costs the Government to keep Gandhiji in poverty! That is the difference between an extraordinary person wanting to remain ordinary and an ordinary person wanting to remain ordinary!
    Sri
     
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