Memories, Screams and Reflections...!

[Guest guest]

CAUTION: <Please refrain from reading this long post if you know from

recent past encounters that it will bring your green " bile " spewing

up };-)-->

 

Chela Tales #2

 

This time around, TA* sent himself on a strange mission. This kind of

thought perplexed and worried him always. He knew that $** had

his 'hand' behind each of these missions but the orders never came

from $ verbally or in writing (telepathy had not at that point been

discovered by or available to TA! And yet, TA never brought these

sojourns upon himself. It is not a nice feeling to embark on a

journey without full consent of the " traveller " or knowledge of

the 'travel plan'. IT did assure the traveller of sleepless nights,

though!

 

Uncertainty aside, it was the yellow book with the tattered and aged

pages that had lately been creating more problems for the young one!

Just before $ went on his last teertha yatra, a pilgrimage that he

used to indulge in every year but lately due to failing health only

every third or fourth year, $ called TA just before the train was

about to leave. Carefully and lovingly opening a blood-red silk

package, after unwrapping it from its outer covering of an old

newspaper with dirtmarks and oily spots and a mark on it that looked

as if a truck had gone over it (uuugly!), $ looked around. Relieved

that they were alone, $ shared a story from his youth with TA and

talked about M1***. $'s pensive and deep eyes clouded over

momentarily with memories full of richness and wonder. He shared a

slice of his life long gone by and then hesitatingly talked about

& BEE & . " Always take care of this newspaper, son; never cover it with

any wrapping, no matter what so that the free spirit remains exposed

to the elements and between the akhash and prithivi. Also, save it

from Jala and Agni, always! " . " He still thinks I am a junior DODO

understudy...! " , even as TA drifted momentarily in this musing in

that moment of personal weakness and distraction, he stopped with a

sharp intake of breath! $ knows it all and may get offended! The

stern look that passed through $'s eyes was so fleeting that it could

have been missed due to the benevolent smile that followed and lit

his eyes and countenance. Sigh, all's well that ends well -- the

relieved TA relaxed visibly. Just as $ opened the silk package and

the old yellow handwritten book peeped out, $'s train arrived! Yogi

or not, gyani or not, $ was a totally different person when his train

arrived! It is hard to tell whether he panicked or was just in awe of

this massive elephant of steel! With a " Take care of this with your

life, son... " , his instructions unfinished, $ hopped into the train

and was gone and TA was left holding the package which he hastily

wrapped because he saw a goat (RAM Chagal actually) approaching

determinedly towards the package, its jaws already describing a

chewing motion that was menacing to look at! Quick-thinking TA, took

out his snack box and offered it as a distraction to Lord Ajaikpad

and fled for the A$hram. Even when running back to safety TA wondered

why ASHRAMS had ash (understandable) but also ram (RAM, Ram. Ram-Ram?)

in their title! Maybe there were two languages involved in the first

three letters (triplicity) and the remaining four (quadruplicity)?

 

Once in the ashram, he did what most teenagers would do! He hid the

valuable ancient package under his thatch mattress. He used the lump

so resulting as lumbar support! He literally slept on the legacy that

his teacher had left him with without any instructions or decent

description! Kind of like most jyotishis holding on to ancient,

scriptural supports that prop their ... whatever!

 

One day after chores were all done and TA had some time to kill, a

curiosity stirred within his outer time and inner space [AN: biggest

difference between teenagers back then and teenagers now is the

curiosity factor. Ancient teenagers were very curious but modern

teenagers are anything but! Overwhelmed and flooded by information

from childhood. That is curious but certainly not surprising!].

 

& & & & & & & & & & ...(see footnotes)

 

 

Vinod's jeejaaji was a Leo rising, a clerk of sorts who was very

interested in astrology and since TA was too, he was introduced to

him by Vinod. Vinod was a close childhood classmate but TA never had

an opportunity to be introduced to his family. The same was the case

earlier, with Joshi. Another very long-time friend (in TA years!) and

TA was introduced to Joshi's Nanaji (maternal grandfoather) who made

TA's chart and made some very promising comments! Sadly, soon

thereafter it was apparent that the time that TA's mother gave was

wrong! Although Nanaji had done a lot of angalakshana and other

corroborations and verifications, he never raised or clued into the

doubt that the birthtime could be blatantly WRONG, as it was! When TA

woke up from the SHOCK a few years later -- he realized that even

well-meaning astrologers were human!

 

Then Shyamu (the gemstone-buddy) brought Shuklaji into TA's life.

Shuklaji was -- pretty mildly put, a vagabond and if

TA was born in the indigo generation, he would have labelled Shuklaji

as a " looser " ! Having picked up on some astro-jargon here and there

(this was early 70s!) he was serving as some union leader or

representative for mill-workers. He was a scorpio rising with moon in

tenth house and nothing in the ninth. His astro-logic was weird to

state it kindly! Later on TA found out that he and his wife were

using astrology to black-mail individuals! He begged TA to teach him

how to calculate a chart for he had no clue how to read a panchaang

or do the simple proportional logarithms to find the ascendant or the

interpolation to calculate planets from panchang/ephemeris. This was

just before TA rediscovered Shastriji who was a medical student and

taught TA sanskrit for a few months in his school (probably needed

the money)when TA was in grade 6 or so and eventually Shastriji

dropped out of medical school and got addicted to cannabis or perhaps

the other way around in terms of sequence of things!

 

Then Shyam (different one) introduced TA to Major S.G. Khot, who was

Shyam's maternal uncle. Suddenly the scales changed! TA was in awe,

again after all these setbacks! It was an eerie experience sort of!

TA waited in electrified expectancy in the 2nd floor meeting room of

Khot saheb's residence! He was not at all imposing when he arrived! A

mild, soft-spoken, grandfatherly marathi gentleman about 5 feet tall

in white kurta and pajama showed up. [AN: If I were TA I would be

expecting a six feet tall, burly MAJOR with a waxed moustache and

penetrating burning eyes, a booming voice like Prithviraj Kapoor and

perhaps carrying a machine gun or a machete at the very least, just

for the effect...!]

 

But, he was so neutral that during the next few meetings that TA had

with him he was mostly talking about his research and showing his

registers and notebooks of charts and data and so on. Impressive

collection and scientist-like approach and methodical handling of

research! TA learned from that experience.

 

Vinod's jeejaji's father was a fixture whenever TA visited jeejaji

and jeeji to discuss astrology. Jeeji/Didi was always very quiet and

serious (and always had these unspoken, unasked questions in her eyes

that she never asked TA and NOW he was to be stuck with it all his

life answering to STRANGERS all over the GLOBE because he sensed the

question but did not create the space for the querrent to ask! <karm

ki gati nyaari santo!>

 

Didi/Jeeji just brought tea and samosas but TA always wondered why

she never spoke or said anything more! Was she resenting all this

extra work making tea and samosas for these guests rather than

spending time with her husband? They did not have children...

 

She seemed kind -- sisters always are. TA wanted to talk to her but

those were not the times when that would have been appropriate.

 

Dadaji, as Vinod and TA called Jeejaji's dad who claimed to be in

sanyas ashram, a hermit, but who lived with his son and bahu was

always clad in a dhoti with the upper half exposed to the elements.

He had big glowing eyes and was a rather mercurian person with a lot

of talk talk talk! He would talk about and from scriptures and would

talk about astrology and would sing and chant mantras. TA being the

polite ant that he was would go along but was often wondering as to

why he was visiting and what was he learning! His thoughts kept

wandering to the leo Jeejaji's stories about his office astrology,

his teeth trouble and Vinod's didi's sombre face that was neither

happy nor sad, with many questions but to TA who seemed to be in a

state of " waiting " ! Waiting for what?

 

One day without being begged, cajoled or even asked, 'Dadaji'

revealed a certain form of a well-known mantra often used as a broad-

spectrum antibiotic for any and all spiritual and pretty much ALL

maladies. Then he seemingly half-heartedly stated that the mantra has

to be 'given/blessed/whatever' and the receiver needs to give a

dakshina, even a supari (betel nut) as a token. This was completely

new to TA and he was confused because he had never asked for it and

had nary a clue what was happening. It was obvious to TA that dadaji

was not serious but just going through the procedure of 'asking' as

per some standard operating protocol that he was taught; something

that TA later came to know of as " energy-exchange " one of the laws of

Universe. At that juncture, TA probably may have politely smiled or

something. No one who was present at that time remembers!

 

.... to be continued, godwilling!

 

 

=======================================================

 

FOOTNOTES:

 

*TA= Teenager

**$ = $wamiji (Teacher preacher kinda sorta)

***M1 = Misirji the chowkidar, night watchman pretty close to

retiring and still going strong with his " Jagtey raho " alarm going

throughout the night and irritating both the householder who he was

trying to protect and also the rogues who leave town when Misirji

shows up. Darogas and thanevalas still consider Misirji a nuiscence

except a couple of highly placed officers with their far-reaching

sight, naturally from their higher perspective.

& BEE & = Bhikaran a mysterious creature of the night that is seen

wrapped in newspapers (perhaps for keeping the cold out) and

sometimes shows up as mystical and at other times just a pathetic

illusion.

[AN: Author's notes ...]

& & & & & & & & & & ... = The rest as you know has been history!

 

Written by Rohiniranjan (august 2, 2008) ©