I always thought ‘swami amma’ was immortal - 01

There wasn’t even a speck of divinity in her. She was the first saint I have seen who was completely devoid of all divinity.

During my LL.B years in Trivandrum I once went to meet late abc swami. I was accompanying Tapsyananda swami. We were called into his room and sat on comfortable chairs. The room had mahagani furniture, book shelves and swami sat on a corporate chair. I glanced through the book shelves. From what I remember today, I remember seeing only oxford dictionaries in those shelves. They weren’t the single volume editions but the most comprehensive dictionaries I have ever seen and never seen after. Letter A itself ran into various volumes. Paying no attention to the discussion in the room I was trying to figure out which letter had the most volumes. Drinks came in which interrupted my research. It was served in big glasses the ones you will find in a typical juice shop in Kerala. The drink resembled juice too.

I took a sip and loved the taste. The taste was similar to ayurvedic medicine genre arishtam. I doubted alcohol content in it. It tasted very good. I looked at Tapasyananda swami. He was sipping it as if it was hot coffee. There should be alcohol in it, I thought.

abc swami talked on the origin of the drink. I can’t remember what exactly prompted Devi to come to his dreams but gave him the recipe for this magical drink. The drink has medicinal powers. There are too many details which I can’t remember today and I doubt it had alcohol content.

I finished off my drink, offered help to Tapasyananda swami and went back to my research. My wondering eyes would have annoyed abc swami. I felt as if somebody is staring at me and to my astonishment I realized that swami was actually looking at me. He had just finished on the origin of the drink. I asked, “So there is a speck of divinity in it, isn’t it?” I asked him in English. With all those volumes of oxford dictionaries around me, Malayalam suddenly became too inferior to use. I can’t remember whether he smiled to it but he answered in English, “Not a speck of it ; whole of it”. I loved it. It would have made a perfect advertisement line. I just imagined me on a bill board with my girlfriend leaning on me and the caption said, “Not a speck of it; whole of it”. An energy drink adv or should that be a? I was confused because I was drunk.

abc swami asked my name. I answered. He gestured me to come closer. I stood from my chair and went near him. With the thumb of his foot he pressed the thumb of my foot. It didn’t pain but I felt uncomfortable. He placed the thumbs of his hand on two sides of my forehead and pressed. I looked at him and smiled. He pressed it further. It was neither painful nor uncomfortable. I felt as if my mind went blank. Perfect blackout; just gone from the material world. He took his fingers and asked me to open my mouth. He put some bhasmam (vibhoothi) into my mouth and asked me to swallow which I did. I became perfect. This wouldn’t mean that I was imperfect a while ago. I became normal. I wasn’t drunk any more but my mind got filled with temptations to drink that drink more. With just one glass I became addicted.

Later, I recreated the whole episode. Drunk on various types of alcohols I asked my friends to do exactly what swami did on me, it just pained.

I never went back to see him and oxford dictionaries never reminded me of him.

[The first paragraph refers to swami amma and not to abc swami. That leaves me with no option but to continue]

On the seventh day Pathan said, “Without intelligence you can drive, with intelligence better”

Amores Perros (Love’s Bitch) directed by Mexican director Alejandro González Iñárritu is a great movie. The story has three sub-stories interweaved through a car accident. It is a modern day master piece with some riveting visuals including a killing at day light, underground dog fights and a classic erotic scene involving Vanessa Bauche and Gael Garcia Bernal. Mani Ratnam was accused of plagiarism for adopting a similar structured screenplay for his movie Yuva (Ayudha Ezuthu). Guillermo Arriga wrote the screenplay for Amores Perros. Later the director-writer duo made Babel, an English speaking film which I haven’t seen yet.

However, Babel is not the name of a movie.

Babel was a tower which humans tried to build to reach the heaven. Gods frightened by this task made languages and the men who were building Babel started to speak different languages which ended the construction of this magnum opus.

Some times, I wonder that the whole purpose of languages is not to express an idea but to conceal an idea. One can have an entirely discreet emotion in his mind and at the same time look into the eyes of the listener and convey the contrary. Years ago I read some where that even the commonest wish can become the unforgettable dialogue in some one’s life. Just imagine walking into her and looking into her eyes and saying ‘all the best’ at a time when she needs it the most. She have had that wish a thousand times in her life for obvious reasons but it can so happen that she would cherish those few words as the most memorable lines in her life.

Then comes accent. How many types of English are there? Charlotte who is French told me that people from south and north of France speak with different accented French. An intruder into Monica Bellucci’s bedroom in the French movie Combien tu m’aimes? (How much do you love me?) teaches Bellucci the variations in sound that a woman from south and north of France would make while having an orgasm. I have met two Tamilians in my life who told me that I speak the Sri Lankan accented Tamil. Madurai Tamil is more poetic where a wife would call her husband ‘mama’ which means uncle. It is true that to understand North Keralite Malayalam is a tedious task to a South Keralite.

English also falls into the same category above. There are famous stand up comedians to whom mimicking the accent earn their bread.

It was an early morning in Dubai. Flying back from Munich, I hated Dubai for various reasons. It was humid and hot compared to the snow I had in Munich. Two weeks of luxurious hotel stay had spoiled me and I had too much wine in veins. I was in a taxi driven by a Pathan (Pak national). I behaved as if I am not interested to have a conversation. There was this pest just in front of our car driving a Nissan Tiida. He kept on changing the lanes for no reasons. The pathan tried to over take and failed. He made a sigh which was meant to invoke the curiosity in the listener and said, “Look, gentle man, without intelligence you can drive, with intelligence better”.

I use Emirates Exchange to send money home but there isn’t one near my home. So I asked the girl at the counter where the other exchanges was to which she said, “near piss market sir”. “What????”.

Well, some Philippinos would pronounce friend as ‘priend’ and the ‘sh’ sound is always ‘ss’. The word fish is a classic case of all the unfavorable situations coming together extra ordinarily to create an impact of mammoth proportions. Fish became piss.

At the end of the day, with or with out accents we live together. With or without grammar we convey what we want to. Isn’t it the point?

What the Italian master actor Giancarlo Giannini said in the movie ‘A walk in the cloud’ comes to rescue, “I speak with an accent but that doesn’t mean that I think with an accent”.