Hope you had a coffee break......after the earlier musings...!! Cheers ...and here you go....
V.Iraiyanbu is an inspirational speaker and has been in lime light for more than two decades. Along with another contemporary Sukhi Sivam, I have a strong feeling that we are blessed to have some of the best thinking and speeches in our mother tongue though they are liberal enough to quote from western world too. (I do appreciate the latter one is more into spiritual realm ... nevertheless, I prefer to quote these two gentleman together for unexplainable reason - as perhaps they appear to be of same age group !!).
Well, I am going to present this musings in an extempore style instead of a compilation of all the points that I liked from the book. It could be a much better if I can make this posting in the style of "glimpses" which is more oriented towards MY learning than presenting another translation work... (after all, I was lamenting about "original" tamil writing in my prior posting !!).
(1) The book basically is "musings" on various subjects with articles not more than 3 page about each of the topic; The topics chosen are very close to our life...and many of them chosen with a purpose to educate and inspire a common man; Lot of quotations, jokes and references from western literatures are available thru out the book.
I remember reading in the preface of the book that it is a compilation of his lectures that he was regularly giving over Radio. Not sure if he is giving this even now.....
(2) As I had mentioned in the previous posting, I had read the first and third volume - but let me tell you , it was a complete experience.
Getting reminded of a particular piece in Kribhanandha Vaariyaar Lecture..... "Rama had adopted a brother in north (Gughan, the boat man) and another one too - down south at Sri Lanka (Vibeeshanan, brother of Ravanan) . It means that all the men in between too are brothers of Rama"
It was so striking to see the evolution in the articles....with the first volume being devoid of humour element while in the third volume, there was a good dosage of entertainment value. Like the style of INDRU ORU THAGAVAL radio broad cast by THENKACHI Swaminathan, all the articles of the third volume end up with a small joke to prove the point. Good presentation....!!
(3) There was so much of information available thru' out the book and it was quite mind boggling to know about those facts that I never knew until now. In fact some of my earlier doubts got cleared as I read thru' the book.
(For Eg., in India, we DO NOT have the species called "parrot" at all....We have only paraketes which has longer tail than parrots. He subtly also mentions "In India, even parrot's tails are longer"; Another example is about some thing I carried a doubt for long time.... Difference between Cheetah and Leopard.... the former is Siruthai and the second one is Siruthaippuli.....He goes on to say due to canniness and skill set, the latter one is still surviving while Cheetah is getting extinct rapidly as it it is not street smart - or is it "forest" smart ??)
(4) There are no dearth of understanding and appreciating poetic beauty in various art forms. He gives a wonderful example of a debate between sculptor group and artists. The former group tells the artists (who paints pictures) that their art (making statues) is 3 dimensional and a painted picture is after all two dimensioned one.... To prove a point, a particular artist (this is a some real life incident in a western society) painted a beautiful girl's back side in a picture and also drew a mirror in front of her which reflects us back her front side. To add more weight, using his creativity he paints a pond filled with fresh transparent water in one side of the girl AND a ceramic wash basin on the other - both of them reflecting the girl's side view.......) !! This example / incident is quoted in the context "all art forms have some wonderful aspects"...How's that ??
Well, I also understood the basic difference between an Artist AND an artisan - the former gives himself completely in the creation process while the second one does the job mechanically. That's why we normally call those people who make utility articles as artisans. He also adds quite sincerely that an artisan can even elevate himself to the status of Artist....AND vice versa too can happen - which all of us can appreciate instantaneously !!
(5) Last but not the least, I was thrilled and got a shudder until the end of my spine when I read a particular instance about Sage Ramana Maharshi. It appears there was a heated discussion amongst his devotee group whether they can compose tamil verses in the form of "parani" - a particular intricate form of poem which is traditionally used to praise high esteemed people like Kings.....
A devout group was arguing that Maharshi richly qualifies to be praised in this format of scripture...while there was another group of people who felt that they cannot make technical mistakes and create exception to future literature of the language. They decided to ask Maharshi himself on his opinion and gathered in front of him - who was sitting as usual - dressed in just a loin cloth and with a mystical silence as usual. When one of the devotees described the situation to Maharshi and asked for a opinion - rather a decision - Maharshi's face became like a rock and his silence got intensified....!! From what I read in this book, for close to two days Maharshi was in a state of Samadhi which was bit infectious making even the devotees too to experience a deep silence. No further talk happened in the hall for such a long time....AND after two days, an unanimous decision was taken by the devotees.....!! YES, with such a high level of maturity and ability to stay with a still mind, Ramana Maharshi richly deserves to be sung Parani on himself....and the decision was carried out without any further delay....!!
Well, I have no intention to extend this musings any more. There are few learning one has to undergo himself and it is necessary to make some efforts in searching. With all sincerity and earnestness, I recommend any one reading this posting to try out this book which should be available in all reputed book stalls. In fact I am going to get one set for my sweet little Madhoo....as the one that I read had been borrowed from a library....!! Libraries Zindabad....!!
With Love
Suren
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