Moments in Life

Last weekend while relaxing after a small DIY (Do it Yourself) work, I was sipping my black Tea, and was wondering about few things that happens to everyone in life. We all live and repeat the same kind of work throughout our life. I looked at my Old mom, and my thoughts were on her way of life. She does not travel, hardly comes outside, and lives within the house, and thanks to ‘Satellite’ Channels, she is able watch the young Tamil actor walking to the court for another hearing, Politicians in Tamil Nadu burning effigy along with their supporters, and women in Madras City being fooled by con men posing themselves as jewel polishers. So, I picked up conversation with her and we both were talking of ‘moments of our life’.

There are special moments in each one of our life. They are really great and we cherish over them again and again. It gives so much of pleasure and sadness as well when we think about them. Also the moments would have made us happy and sad. But still they are moments. I read in one of Osho’s (Rajneesh) books that everyone gets a glimpse of their best moments of life, like a fast forward just before they die. I do not know how far it is true. But I try to rewind my life and try to remember the past, and only the best moments come to mind.

The everlasting one was lighting pyre on my father’s dead body while I was just 11. I could not believe it and could not understand at that age. I thought it was not true. But while coming back from the burial ground, smiled at ‘Nedunchezian’ who stopped batting when he saw me walking back home. The next day when I walked back to the burial ground along with relatives, thought it could be a bad dream and my dad may sit and laugh at me. But realised the meaning of life, when I searched for copper coins among the ashes, and my ‘Periappa’ a retired school teacher, was talking about each bones found.

The first time when I went to Sabarimala after sixty days of fasting, and had a ‘Jyothi Darshan’ was a great moment. The same way the first time darshan of ‘Lord Balaji’ at Tirupathi was a great moment. Even last year while I was there, it was an action replay moment.

The first time when I had a darshan of the great saint of the Century “Sri Kanchi Kamakota peetam Chandrasekara Swamigal” else called as “ Periyavar” of Sanakarachariars is still before my eyes. I had felt the same when I had met saints like “Andavar” of Srimad Andavan Ashram, Srirangam. I think I met most of those great saints and poets during a “World Tamils Meet” held in Dasprakash Hotel, Egmore probably 30 years before.

One of my ex-colleague was the nephew of “Kirubananda Variar” and when there was a huge crowd waiting to have a glimpse of him in Mount Road my ex-colleague who spotted me pulled me out of the crowd and took me closer to him and introduced me. He blessed and asked to continue being good to all human beings. That was a great moment to receive blessings from such a great person.

The greatest moment in life was when the auspicious instruments were played, and when I tied ‘Thali’ (Mangalsutra) on my wife’s neck. I cannot explain the feeling. That is a great sense of belonging and to everyone’s surprise I started shedding tears, though wiped it quickly.

The next one was while waiting in the corridors of the maternity ward the whole night and when the nurse carried a baby wrapped in white towel and called my wife’s name. A nurse walking with a baby in a maternity ward became familiar since I had been seeing from the previous evening. So as soon as she called out the name, I rushed to know what it was all about, and she showed the baby and said “Look at your Dad”. I think she must have watched lots of movies. If any of you are bachelor and reading this, believe me, that is a great moment. Oh... dear! The way my son looked at me was marvellous. What a great moment it was! Felt so happy to see him. It is a great feeling and the same feelings repeated after the second arrival. This time my son was there to welcome his sister.

When my younger sister got married we all went to leave her in her in-laws house. After everyone left, I stayed back for few minutes since she wanted me to stay for a while. I too felt that she may feel bored and stayed back. But when I was about to leave, I could not resist tears which rolled on my cheeks. Her in-laws and all the ladies in the house became emotional.

I used to act in stage plays within our staff club with my erstwhile employer. Once we entered into a drama competition and I was given a consolation prize for my acting and received it from Director K.Balachander in Museum Theatre. It was a great moment.

I cannot forget my first day of shooting for a Tele Serial along with famous comedian ‘Vivek’and actor director ‘Ramesh Khanna’. That was a great experience. The whole crew was waiting. They explained my scene and dialogue. It was in ARS Gardens (Ambica & Radha Thottam) in Vadapalani. The scene was behind the bars in a prison. Yes... role was Kamanandha Swamigal. I was standing behind the lock up. This is the famous lock up which comes in every other Tamil movie. Every police station scene is shot there. We had couple of rehearsal and they came up very well. The first time when the director said ‘Light, Camera, Action’.. was a great moment.

Also, I cannot forget Vivek’s presence of mind and sense of humour. He has lots of talent and the best part was he respected every other colleagues. I met plenty of Cine stars during those shootings. It was an eighteen episodes or a bit more than that. My role was for 2 or 3 episodes and one of the episodes the story revolved around my character. As a climax I had to rape Vivek who was dressed as a girl in the serial. Vivek and Ramesh Khanna would call the police and I was arrested. More than the shooting audio dubbing was very challenging. The whole experience could be written in few posts. But the entire experience was memorable. Of course, those were the days when Sun TV was just becoming popular. Relatives and friends all over India called over phone to greet and it was a great moment. Probably if I had continued, who knows I would have been there in each and every serial that is being telecast now. Definitely I would have been in ‘Kolangal’ fighting with Abhi. Probably you would have hated my face. I had to stop acting only because I could not find a role, which suited my family. My Mother wanted me to act in serials like Ramayana and Mahabaratha, and that too roles like Lakshmana. My wife wanted me to act only in Serials where there were no ladies. My son wanted me to act as a ‘Super Man’ and he could not tolerate me being a bad man in the serial and getting arrested by police. I cannot forget my experiences in acting as a similar role of ‘Premananda Swami’.

I cannot forget the Audition test for news reader in Sun TV. It was nice to see myself reading a paragraph of news in plenty of TV’s kept opposite to me. I never heard anything after that.
For anyone, I bet flying across the borders first time would have been a great moment. I felt the same when I stepped out of the flight in France.

Moments involve hearing the news of Passing out exams, Interviews and it goes on and on. There are hundreds like these. How about yours?