Pudhuyugan ponders

 An armed monarch,   order’d his horse to a momentary freeze   At the sight of an old man who sure had a skeleton and skin   Sitting curled, like a circle in the freezing cold and teasing breeze   He had none to cover, yet had a warm grin to wear and win The conqueror irked, tossed a shawl as alms in regal beckon   ‘None I take from beggars’ said the naked to the startled king   ‘For one who needs is the needy and I need none’   ‘You still need territory, O beggar!’ said the Solomon’s ring   Attitude galore yields altitude for sure and true majesty   Riches real are in the mind and not in the external find   Many he owns, spend he does and makes money today aplenty       Does he then stop these in the day next with a satiated mind?  Skies shower rain, air blows life and silken stars shine   The best things in life have no bill ever, for you to whine - Ram Kallapiran

Can a story be told in as short as 100 words? And what if it is made in exactly 100 words excluding the title? What follows is a succinct endeavour to enthral.                                           Lipstick strikes I stood on a bridge over a river when I discovered that I was in front of an underworld don. My boyfriend had kept me in the dark so that I deliver this dodgy package. I didn’t want to die or get raped. Smiling sweetly, I made a call. ‘Hi honey, the package was delivered to this gentleman at 67 Kimberley Avenue. But why on earth did you ask me to report him to the police?’ My mobile then fell into the river. The don swore my ex-boyfriend. And the reason I dropped my mobile is I had made this call to 999. - Ram Kallapiran

On a comic morning, the hazy spirit of Sir Issac Newton revealed to me the remaining 7 laws; Gentlemen of Physics, accelerate your pen on paper now. Newton's 4th Law of Motion [quite literally!]: Every eating action eventually has only one reaction. Newton's 5th Law: The loss of width in any corner of the room is directly proportional to the increase in your body width. Newton's 6th Law: Every woman in a state of shopping tends to remain in that state unless an external door is applied to her. Newton's 7th Law: Every man in a state of uniform peace tends to remain in that state until an external force of marriage is applied to him. Newton's 8th Law: The relationship between your remote control m, your acceleration a, and the applied body movement F is F = PATHETIC! Newton's 9th Law: The relationship between your mobile phone chats m, your busy bee look b, and the real fact of life R is R = LIFESTYLE! Newton's 10th Law: The sens...

Can a story be told in as short as 100 words? And what if it is made in exactly 100 words excluding the title? What follows is a succinct endeavour to enthral.                                              A visitor I went speechless. I was delivering a speech to the visitors at our museum. Pointing to a model, I had told them ‘standing here, Galileo Galilei, accused of heresy, faced the Roman inquisition’. A stocky gentleman turned his face away. ‘How sad!’ He had a dour look on and I felt awkward. ‘Any questions sir?’ ‘You exaggerate, but I’m tired of arguments.’ He left abruptly. My embarrassment was overtaken by something very strange and strikingly similar. Was it his beard, his Italian intonation or the sombre eyes? ‘So what then did Galileo...

Can a story be told in as short as 100 words? And what if it is made in exactly 100 words excluding the title? What follows is a succinct endeavour to enthral.                                     Robotricks ‘God decoded in the Robots’ conference 2050 AD’ read the newspapers. ‘Humans never decoded God. We’ll do it’ said Robot primary R1, amid cheers. Humans, robots and world channels zoomed on R1. ‘A zillion processes and more to decode God and I touched infinity. Canis lupus familiaris, a friendly species, barks, a mammal and is called Dog’. Someone said ‘R1’s complex analysis should have gone beyond ‘one-point compactification’ where +infinity and -infinity are treated the same. Hence ‘God’ has been reversed to ‘Dog’’. The robots processed the failure. Since humans could marvel at the omniscience...

This question triggered a series of other questions. What is the scarcest commodity in the world - oil, water, gold? None of these but lovers are the scarcest commodities in the world as only a rare few are au fait in loving fellow beings. Why do we remember the day from the past decade when we shared our food with a hungry stranger more than the gossip about a co-worker that happened last week? And how can we use the term unconditional love when love is always unconditional? If a condition is involved, even a trifle, then it is bondage or alloyed versions of love. Bondage in relationships ties us down to something. It is a give-and-take without a contract. This means we have a need to expect something from others. When this need is met we feel happy and if not we feel put down. Our world of happiness, hence, is not of our own making but that of others. If being happy is the basic nature of humans, we rely on others for this very basic need. In other words, we beg someth...

Contemplating on a dusk-dusted red sky, Mahatma Gandhi said, ‘Strength does not come from physical capacity. It comes from an indomitable will’ Down south, late T.K. Ramanuja Kavirayar, a poet from Nellai, cherishing the evening glitters of tender Tamiraparani walked across his lifeline with the same indomitable will. The poet sang the life of Mahatma Gandhi as an epic called ‘ Mahatma Gandhi Kaviyam’ in Tamil and as ‘Bharath Reborn’ in English. The messiah of Ahimsa who forgave his own assassin said, ‘ Hate the sin, love the sinner’ The noble landlord of Nellai demonstrated the same through his creations and intentions. At Sabarmati Ashram, the father of India spelt out the most spiritually perilous things to humanity; 'Wealth without Work Pleasure without Conscience Science without Humanity Knowledge without Character Politics without Principle Commerce without Morality Worship without Sacrifice' The epic poet of Tamils evinced each one of t...