என்னோடு மாமா

Every year for 2 months my sister and I, flew to Bombay, not thoroughly enjoying the googy mix of mud and water everywhere. He'd sometimes carry me on his shoulders to avoid my pretty little toe nails getting filled with the brown mix.
We'd run around, tease him, irritate him, wake him up, poke him, mess around and he was just oddly silent. I'd always think, why is he so reserved. There was a sense of curiosity to always want to 'know' what he's all about. My mysterious mama...
Never close to the family, heart of gold; always enjoyed a powerful status. Ever loving professor of Mathematics, his true passion for teaching was always felt and seen by his peers and students.
Suddenly one Summer we stopped seeing him during those months we visited India. Why? In the last 10 years we all knew he was fighting several health conditions.
I will never understand why he chose to live the way he did; but I guess it was a conscious choice and perhaps he was truely content and preferred a short and sweet life. Could we tell? Did he know? Was this all planned by him??
We always talked about him. He was my mother's mentor. She loved him and respected him to a great extent, I could tell. She'd always tell us(my twin sis and I) stories about the things he taught her.
A peculier man- You will always be remembered.............

Closed minds

Off late I've been reading about these various stories in rural Indian villages about 'abnormal' babies being born and them being considered GOD. I think: must one become that weird physically to be considered special or with 'supernatural' powers? I am appalled! My own people, how can we throw some practical light into these poor, simple souls?
A kid with 2 heads, conjoined kids, that looks like one body with 8 limbs, are supposedly incarnations of the Hndu mythalogical goddess of destruction -Kali
I would like to somehow reach out spreading awareness about these rare medical conditions which can be fatal for the little child. In the most recent news of the '2 headed girl child' , her 23 year old father , comments undisturbed , infact quite happy, that they really don't need to seek medical aid as her daughter is responding normally to everything.
Anybody, is there a way we could spread awareness into these villages that these are all normal kids with a severe physical deformity and congenital twins develop so many health issues as they grow up. How would they meet the demands and the medical needs of these kids through the years? Just allow them to rot to death and, call upon the name of "GOD" that it was just meant to be like this.. HOW convenient eh?