Poems: There is No Way & After the Rain Mehr,

Delicate lines and imagery, especially in ``After the rain``.
Goes to show that poetry can sing out even from very few words as long as they are strung together so hauntingly. Lovely, hope to hear more from you.

Confessions of a Smoker ‘pilloried by society generally and particularly by those who have never smoked a cigarette in their life.’
Those who don`t smoke are also non-smokers by choice, so to be forced to breathe in smoke generated by somebody else just because one may have to share the same space is simply obnoxious. Objecting to that is not pillorying but just standing up for one`s own choice. If smokers want to keep puffing away, sure do it but not where you are forcing it down some non-smoker`s nostrils and lungs. Sitting in the back of an aircraft/bus in so called smoking areas was just eyewash. Thank God the nonsmoking bans are finally working.
The article is well written and amusing, but the spectre of cancer and emphysema are not.

A Moment in Time Like Aldous Huxley wrote:

``Experience is not what happens to a man;it is what a man does with what happens to him``.

Cancer is not an experience that one goes out to find, like climbing that mountain or dropping out of a plane to sky-dive. Rather, it comes looking for one. But what you have done with it, by writing about your brush with cancer is so real, human and un-Readers- Digest-like.
The other nugget of wisdom says:

``Experience is a hard teacher because she gives the test first and the lesson afterwards.``

Hope and pray you pass this life`s test with flying colours and show others how the lesson is learnt and dealt with.
More power, strength and recovery of good health to you, Revathy.

Tribute to Mother But violent hands had bent you in force, they broke you almost! ``

She was bent but certainly not broken and that strength showed up as determination to guide her daughters to independence and therefore, to safety.
The feelings come through very well but if a few more words are pared down to tighten the lines, the poem would be even more forceful. Enjoyed reading it though, Vidya...well done.

Tribute to Mother ``But violent hands had bent you in force, they broke you almost! ``

She was bent but certanly not broken and that strength showed up as determination to guide her daughters to independence and therefore, to safety.
The feelings come through very well but if a few more words are pared down to tighten the lines, the poem would be even more forceful. Enjoyed reading it though, Vidya...well done.

Three Score and Ten? Re: # 17
In a language other than English, there is an accepted adage which says that the oil lamp burns more brightly and flares up just before it burns out and so does life at the end of a person`s life-span. So a flaring up before snuffing out may be the way to Go!! (I think it refers in particular to a life that is coming to a gradual end rather than abrupt or accidental endings.) Down to earth and interesting views by Gopalakrishnan...thanks and please keep writing!!

Carpet Magic Jay,
Spent a few years in Germany and had a friend there who was somewhat inverse of what you are. Born and brought up in a cold climate, he liked carpets, had invested in expensive antique persian carpets and so on. He and his wife now travel a lot in the East and India is a frequent destination. He did the usual Taj Mahal, Rajasthan, Delhi stuff earlier but has now discovered Kerala and Tamilnadu about three years ago and developed a fascination for grass mats.He can`t resist them because they are ``so fresh and natural``. He has done up his house with them, using them in various places other than the floor. I guess what one does not commonly have becomes exotic and interesting and vice versa, don`t you agree? Nice article. Thanks.

Behind the Iron Purdah Bina,
Great stuff! Written with such incisive honesty and understanding, not to mention keen observation of negative nuances in even the most mundane seeming situations in daily life which are the result of deeply ingrained injustice against women. You make me glad that I am a Chowk member; more power to your pen, Bina, you keep going, girl!!

This thing called Love of Country Apropos-
Cut to the Rajnigandha ad. which plays on our television screens. “Indians are not for sale, gentlemen…” as the suited-booted executive struts to the conference table where there are some white people seated and scribbles an enormous figure on the contract, adding, “I’m buying you out.”

Hypocrisy and that rather inapt, inept advert. nothwithstanding, why do people get het up with Indians who decide to go away to study/live/work/run a business abroad? It is a fact of life that people have the urge to go explore new territory and new opportunities.That doesn`t necessarily mean being unpatriotic. History is full of explorers of one kind or the other.Very often, the overseas lot seem to value their homeland as much or more than some of the cynics that live here. Maybe a case of absence making the heart grow fonder?

Love Among The Ruins Or too busy stifling my screams
In our daily rituals

These lines are expressive of the nature of many women`s lives.Hopefully, they will wake up and live their lives bravely rather than give up, unable to recognise the chances that life may offer, without sinking further into despair as this poem seems to suggest.

Ravi Thumkar’s Widow A well written piece...how easily one can judge a person the wrong way by just being observers of a tragedy in the making.Nobody lifted a finger to help the woman when she was a wife but jump in at once to judge her when she is a widow. I too once had a neighbor who suffered for years with an alcoholic husband who was way beyond any reasoning or help and uncaring of the effects of his behavior on their two girls,aged 12 and 5. It was initially ``shocking`` to see how relieved she was when he died of cirrhosis. But later we saw her take charge of their small business and get down to the bringing up the two children.If he had lost his value for them while alive and could not stop preferring alcohol to them, why should they keep up the pretext of mourning for him?

The Islamic Republic of Pakistan’s Destiny? ``India and Pakistan are two enstranged twins whose history now may have become hate-ridden because of the occupational policies of the former...``

Cut a body into two pieces and that creates bleeding, festering parts maybe but certainly not twins...

Pardon, didn’t mean to kill you... rsribore

Yr comment/reply (??) proves the point I am trying to make and that is that u don`t get the point.My main question is ``why the obsession?`` and u catch onto anything and everything but that. Your gift to misinterpret and cheapen something whether it is an ancient Egyptian name or anything else is awesome. I don`t want to ever go down to that creepy-crawly level so u won`t hear from me again if u do pick on my interacts after this.

Pardon, didn’t mean to kill you... Re: # 63
rsribore,
That was really clever....you ought to be writing the kind of UN go-nowhere reports which further confuse issues with a diarrhoea of words in an effort to be clever. Get a life..why this obsession with condoms and incest, bhayya??

Pardon, didn’t mean to kill you... to #59
rsribore,
...poor you, can`t follow simple language, huh? never mind, I forgive u for you know not what u do....

Losing My Religion Re: # 76
Mother Nature does n`t get riled, remember?! She just gets even...like for eg. poison the environment, air, water,whatever, and guess where it comes back to. What goes around comes around..and suddenly we don`t know exactly who is on the receiving end! The receptacle bit is getting to be dangerous these days,right? Me too, just kidding!