196. Chronicles Of Ajoy Ron. P S Remesh Chandran Story

196

Chronicles Of Ajoy Ron. Story

P. S. Remesh Chandran
 
Editor, Sahyadri Books & Bloom Books, Trivandrum

Article Title Image 01 By Joel Filipe. Graphics: Adobe SP.

PART ONE 

An explosion wiping away an institution, an employee, and a whole lot of rare and essential medical supplies.

It all began with an explosion in the employees’ state insurance dispensary at Aashraamam, Quilon which institution was then a part of the state health services department of Kerala before being bifurcated into two, as Employees' State Insurance and Health Services Department. An employee of the institution was resealing the hospital spirit bottles which he had unsealed earlier to pilfer a few mille litres of surgical spirit from each bottle, adding to his collection of liquor, which he usually drank a little and sold in bulk to others outside. In fact, this institution was functioning as a liquor shop too where there was only the retailing, and no distilling. Suddenly there was a blast caused from the flame of the burner acting furiously on some vapour escaping from one bottle which was not resealed properly. It was a huge and fatal blast that the whole hospital building collapsed and no bodily traces of the perpetrator could be seen left anywhere. The department lost a building, an employee, and a whole lot of rare and essential medical supplies. 

The perpetrator’s family was sanctioned pension and his widow was given government employment.

The widow of this employee approached the doctor in charge of the institution requesting pension in lieu of her late husband and employment assistance for her. In those times, the government of Kerala had not introduced the scheme for employment assistance under dying-in-harness. In spite of a crime been committed, the doctor out of sympathy for the dead employee recommended for both- the pension for the family of the deceased employee and the employment assistance to the widow. It was the first case of such appointments in Kerala and the widow was posted as a cook- the only job she knew- in the health services department. In the newly introduced scheme, it was stipulated that the pension and the employment assistance will be taken away once the widow was remarried. However she remarried another cook in the same department and somehow managed to retain her job as well as her late husband’s pension. It can happen in the State of Kerala and nowhere else. She was very handsome, so it was said.

Article Title Image 02 By The Digital Artist. Graphics: Adobe SP.

The second husband dies mysteriously and there was a second pension for the bereaved widow.

The new husband one day, while standing on the road in front of their house, was hit by a car which came back fast reversing, resulting in his instant death. It was a hit and run case in which the car could not be identified. Some said it was not an accident but revenge on some past deeds. Anyway, our lady was blessed with an additional pension thanks to the caring authorities in the department. She had her monthly salaries from her job in the department besides. This too can happen in Kerala, but only in Kerala. Her son by her first husband, our character Ajoy Ron, was growing up along with her second son by her second husband. Ron, though the lesser devoted in his studies of the two, was actively interested in youth affairs and in forming rowdy retinues of his own. The Indian communist party sent him as a delegate to Russia to participate in a training programme for the young men of world countries, organized by Comsomol, the youth organization there. After returning from Russia, the rejuvenated Ron claimed that his mother was not looking after him well, that he was left at the mercy of his relatives, had no way for living and was in poverty and hunger, and that she had cunningly snatched away the job of his deceased father which was rightfully his. He also moved the elected communist government of Kerala to appoint him in the health department in a suitable post on compassionate grounds. 

If we look to the very tip of our nose and try to see beyond, we will know we cannot see beyond.

The unscrupulous officers who always give out crumbs to lesser people to save the cream for their sons and daughters promptly took care to appoint him as a scribe in his deceased father’s department on compassionate grounds. It not at all concerned them how many times the job of a deceased person was secured by his family relatives and descendants. It should here be noted that all these things happened in Trivandrum, the capital city of Kerala, under the very nose and eyes of the government’s highest administration. If we look to the very tip of our nose and try to see beyond, we will know for the first time that we cannot see what is happening right under our nose. The nose obstructs our view. So theoretically speaking, a government which supposedly sees everything can not see what is happening right under their very noses. But that is not the case with the ordinary people.

Article Title Image 03 By Mystic Art Design. Graphics: Adobe SP.

The natives sensed how well the rules of government were bent and there was an avalanche of complaints.

The residents of Ron’s part of the city knew well that his father died while indulging in a criminal offence that caused the collapse of a government institution and which incurred heavy losses to government, warranting immediate arrest and dismissal and prosecution and imprisonment. But here the culprit succumbed to death during his criminal act and the people were quite willing to pardon the widow for securing a job in place of her dead husband, assuming that she was in no way involved in the blast. But the son when he attained maturity again claiming and easily securing that very job of his father, and the ruling political party, that too a communist party, yielding to unnatural pressure to look beyond this unlawful act, was beyond any view of leniency adopted by the ordinary citizens in the locale. So there was an avalanche of protests and written complaints made to the government by the natives. 

This order was the first of its kind in Kerala and once precedence is established, there is no limit to the number of persons who seek the protection of that order.

The matter was taken to the chief minister of the state. Ron submitted before the government that his securing the job of his father even after his mother had been given the job was an act which originated out of his ignorance in government, was an act of his ignorant childhood, and so may please be excused by the government. The government instead of dismissing and prosecuting him excused him and kindly allowed him to continue in the employment. The government magnificently and kindly excused him on behalf of the Governor of Kerala. This order was the first of its kind in Kerala and we know that once precedence is established, there is no limit to the number of persons who will seek the protection of that order. 

So this was only the beginning and if it is so how will his entire service in the government stretching some Thirty six years in future be? The legal implications of the incidents in this case will the least affect the conscience of the people in government unless it is a poor man like you or I involved. Someday we will meet again to read another chapter from his chronicle.

 
Article Title Image 04 By Thomas Budach. Graphics: Adobe SP.

Written in: 2000
First published on: 27 March 2020  

Tags:

Chronicles Of Ajoy Ron, Dying-In-Harness, Free Student Notes, Government Stories From India, Kerala Life Society People, Pilfering In Hospitals, P S Remesh Chandran, Short Stories, Surgical Explosions,

About the Author P. S. Remesh Chandran:

00. Author Profile Of P S Remesh Chandran By Sahyadri Archives.

Editor of Sahyadri Books & Bloom Books, Trivandrum. Author of several books in English and in Malayalam. And also author of Swan: The Intelligent Picture Book. Born and brought up in the beautiful village of Nanniyode in the Sahya Mountain Valley in Trivandrum, in Kerala. Father British Council trained English teacher and Mother University educated. Matriculation with distinction and Pre Degree Studies in Science with National Merit Scholarship. Discontinued Diploma studies in Electronics and entered politics. Unmarried and single.

Face Book: https://www.facebook.com/psremeshchandra.trivandrum
Twitter: https://twitter.com/PSRemeshChandra
You Tube: http://www.youtube.com/user/bloombooks/videos
Blog: http://sahyadribooks-remesh.blogspot.com/
Site: https://sites.google.com/site/timeuponmywindowsill/
E-Mail: bloombookstvm@gmail.com

Post: P. S. Remesh Chandran, Editor, Sahyadri Books, Trivandrum, Padmalayam, Nanniyode, Pacha Post, Trivandrum- 695562, Kerala State, South India.

175. Foreword to SWAN: The Intelligent Picture Book. P S Remesh Chandran

175

Foreword to SWAN: The Intelligent Picture Book

P. S. Remesh Chandran

Editor, Sahyadri Books & Bloom Books, Trivandrum

Article Title Image By Inge Hartmann. Graphics: Adobe SP. 

FOREWORD

Single line drawings are rare. Even those who attempted them in the past have not cared to publish them. After going through publishing companies’ catalogues, it was seen, no book of intelligent single line drawings has ever appeared in print or digital media. A few such drawings from my archives are here, all done by me before or during the Millennium Year 2000. They are here in the original form. 

Single line drawings are very easy to create. They are also called one line drawings. They are created with a single stroke of hand. Because of this simplicity of theirs and also due to the limitations in their scope for expression, they are usually created with pencils, pens, quills, crayons and wax, not with painting brushes. Painting brushes need more strokes of the hand to finish a picture. They are generally meant to create depth in pictures through colours. Paintings enjoy much freedom of movement of the hand. Single line drawings cannot take that much freedom or privilege. In a single line drawing, the movement of human hand is limited to one single stroke and therefore the movement of the mind also is, or may be, limited. It is this limitation, barrier, that we break or bridge by incorporating script in single line drawings. Paintings do not have script in them, generally. 

Leopold Stokowski, Pablo Picasso and quite a few others have done single line drawings in their time. Some made an external profile and filled it in with continuous movements of a line to make their pictures. Some envisioned the end product in their minds and realized it on the medium with a single stroke. Some just followed their crazy imagination and spontaneity with their hand. I have gone through hundreds of pictures classified under line drawings, out line drawings, one line drawings and single line drawings. The majority of them, at least of what I had the opportunity to see, were mostly interesting but not intelligent and stimulating generally as brain testers or brain teasers. Not that they weren’t superb but I felt they were not as intelligent and challenging as I expected. I now have arrived at the opinion that these pictures here are unique in that, and that is why I dare release them for the public as a book. 

These pictures are released as such, without editing, colouring, beautification or polishing of any kind. Once such things are done- the background print removed, the lettering projected well-cut in colours and the lines traced in other neon colours- they would add charm to these pages and make them beautiful to look at. How background lines and printings can be removed and the pictures cleaned are illustrated by the last two pictures in this book, the last of which done by my friend, Mr. Pushkin. E. H., a gifted painter and author himself. 

But I leave this remaining task in this book to the gifted children of the world, in the present times and in the future, who surely will come across these pictures someday and see what is to be done. It is their pleasure to do it. In their hands, with their craft in modern image editing and enhancing technologies, I am sure, these pictures will fill up themselves and stand up and please young minds. 

Script in these pages may be in most cases in differing and unreadable styles but making them out with the help of pictures or making the pictures out with the help of scripts is in itself a rewarding exercise, to be practiced by readers, so that their multi skills- aesthetic as well as linguistic- will develop. Sometimes, deciphering the script itself would be the exercise. There are also pictures with no script, the meaning of which are left to the common sense of readers. In such cases, the artist and designer had either forgotten to include suggestive writings or had nothing to write. Perhaps, he himself had not understood them. Also the readers, especially the young and the intuitive among them, may want to add their own meaningful script anyway. 

The script is generally in English. But a few writings are in the Malayalam language of the author’s native land Kerala, and a very few others are in the North Indian language Hindi, which may please be excused by readers. There were a few other images which had words from French and Tamil in them which are not included in this book. There were several pictures from the author’s original diary which are excluded in this collection as they would be totally irrelevant to an international audience. Some of them were fully in regional languages and depend more on script than lines to convey a message. Many of them were tricky advertisement posters for films and books. 

Reading illegible scripts written in different styles is also a skill which these pictures wish to impart to readers. Where scripts are obscure, they can certainly be guessed with the help of the lines and a little common sense. The lines and writings are meant to supplement one another. Lines cannot have a language except one of emotions which appeal to the intellect. Sometimes there will not be pictures but writings alone. They too are meant to convey something intelligent, perhaps a coinage of phrases which, the author thinks, is meaningful. 

Even though these pictures have their position on their pages, they needn’t always be viewed as such, in their usual vertical positions. Often, rotating them will reveal their fuller meaning or other meanings, if writings on the sides, above or below suggest so. Or, if you are reading this book in the print form, simply turning the book will do. Or, you can do it all in your imagination. This book demands the intelligence of the reader anyway. 

Skilled, patient viewers can read them anyway, moving their heads to the desired position, even without turning pictures. Some may want to work on some pictures to see how they look in different positions. It is safer to download and save pictures to your computer and make a copy before rotating, as rotating the images may alter some of their properties. 

Copying pictures to a computer or a similar devise has also the advantage of being able to enlarge them and read undecipherable scripts also easily, which is one of the challenges the author wants to pose before the readers through these pictures. Once they are in your computer, you can start Photoshop or Picassa or whichever and do what you wish. Whatever you do, you will sure be improving the pictures. 

The pictures are arranged not based on their theme or finery in perception but according to the date of their drawing. They stand as such- bare, unpolished and crude. It’s the world’s interested future generations who are going to build on them. There may be good ones among them and there may surely be inferior ones too. It is the reader who is to judge them. 

You may ask why this collection of pictures is termed an ‘intelligent picture book’. It is simply because you can use it to gauge your own or other persons’ intelligence without the aid of anyone or anything else. Gauging another person’s intelligence is a necessity human race always faced. We have had to depend on the collective wisdom of the human race and out own intuition to do that. The tools which we can use to gauge one’s intelligence and his or her quickness of mind are but few. Even those tools which are there are either not accessible to ordinary citizens or unaffordable to them. They exist only in the world of higher psychology, psychiatry and management sciences. They are accessible to and handled by only professionals, and are costly. It is hoped that this book would serve common man’s purposes and needs and supplement those in the fields mentioned. 

Each man responds to this kind of pictures according to the level of his intelligence and clarity and alertness of conscience. Dormant genius and intelligence can be sparked by quick glimpses of vision which the pictures are intended to provide. Some may never read the script in them, some may never connect the script with the images but some others will in no time read the script as well as connect them with the images, in whichever positions the scripts are displayed and however obscure and illegible they appear. 

As a general rule, the lesser time one takes to fully comprehend a picture, the better his intelligence and clearer his conscience as can be gauged. If you know what is there in a picture, you can assess the intelligence of another by gauging the time he or she takes to comprehend the picture fully, without you needing to be anywhere near the higher level of his intelligence. If you are going to interview someone for a top position in your company, be ready with these pictures. And never take these suggestive chapter headings with you. They will take away the surprise and deprive the test of its ingenuity. 

Suppose you are interviewing candidates for a top management position in your firm. Suppose there are several candidates too intelligent and clever to be selected between. You find it hard to select one. Suppose you take up the picture here with of cource the words ‘The Girl With The Mirror’ and ‘A Single Line Drawing’ removed or covered and ask what it represents. If one candidate answers ‘it’s a girl with a mirror’ you can definitely select him. If more than one answers the same, note the time they took to come up with that answer. And there may also be other excellent intelligent interpretations which the author of that image did not even ever dream about! 

Even though these pictures were created in the 2000s, their publishing was not taken seriously until 2009, the year of the beginning of my internet presence. This novel idea of a book was first put before Lulu Publishers who encouraged me to finish this book early and publish it with them. Not only this worthy publisher but others there too presented me with options for publishing. When they were drawn, they were done on pages of diaries and costly books. I could have drawn them on criss-cross-type bond paper which I usually used for my writings but it did not happen that way. Had it, there would have been no need for removal of background and cleaning. 

I knew someday these pictures will have to be cleaned, the printed words in their background painstakingly removed, and lines and pen-written letters traced in neon colours before sending them to press- which all needed the expertise of a professional, then. I was not such a professional and I did not have time to become one. Moreover, I did not have the resources to engage one. What I decided then was that without professional touch, these drawings would never go to press. But now that time is past, and technology has advanced such that guidance and suggestion of how they could be cleaned is enough for the modern reader with his resources which already has been done in this book through one illustration. Besides, now has the option (like this) of publishing them without removing background. 

For a time, my dreams were full of the book becoming a hit and thousands of copies being sold all over the world. One certainly has the right to dream. But I soon recognized that publishing a picture book, especially this kind of a picture book, was not easy. For one thing, a book of single line drawings is not an accepted and popular idea of a book in the publishing industry. For another, the pages of the book were not done in exquisite colours, resembling beautiful neon displays in a thoroughfare at night. Another factor against the marketability of the book is picture books are usually published for little children. Publishing picture books for infants is a very large and lucrative industry also. ‘SWAN’ does not belong to this category. After one or two years, Lulu stopped reminding me of this book. Even before that, I had stopped remembering it myself. 

So that’s how this book came to be. It was started accidentally by a whim of emotions stirred by ethereal elements and completed within a short period of time. Procrastination was not in the creating of the book but in the publishing of the book. As to the modus operandi of this book- how these pictures were envisioned and how the script was conceived- I will discuss in the Afterword part of this book. 

I must admit, someone dead and gone- actually two- took hold my hand and drew these pictures for me, though I was perfectly well aware of what they were doing to me, doing through me. Though it was a hard experience emotionally and physically to stand in those times, I did come up with this book anyway. 

The forbearance I felt in those times is now past and today it’s a sweet memory. My mother stood by me in those hard times and without her presence, kindness, ardence, affection and caring, I could not have withstood the confusion in those times which I could reveal to no one due to its special nature. She is now no more and I dedicate this book, ‘SWAN- The Intelligent Picture Book’ to her sweet memory. 

P. S. Remesh Chandran,
Padmalayam,
Nanniyode, Pacha Post,
Trivandrum- 695562.
18 November 2019

Announced a decade ago. Just released.

[Courtesy: Book Cover Image By Miss Orphelia. Graphics: Adobe SP.] 

Buy: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B081N4WNL1

 An image from SWAN: The Intelligent Picture Book.
 
(Under edit……...) 

087. B’Ware of W-Beginning Writers’ Publishing Platforms? P S Remesh Chandran

087. 

B’Ware of W-Beginning Writers’ Publishing Platforms? P S Remesh Chandran

Editor, Sahyadri Books & Bloom Books, Trivandrum

 01. Article Title Image By Pasja1000. Graphics: Adobe SP.

First published: 26 March 2019

Good things saying farewell to the world is something which saddens us. Author-friendliness is a good thing about not a few publishing sites. They provide authors with good publishing interfaces and provide many other supportive things like lengthy and links-rich author bio pages. In return they get data, information and pages which no other way they will get except by employing highly paid staff. But when enough data has been accumulated, there is a tendency to oust writers from those sites and escape with the materials contributed by those writers.

Google’s Knol and Yahoo’s Associated Content and Yahoo Contributors’ Network.

Google has been famous for retiring its many famous services, caring nothing whether they are good to the world, but only caring whether they provide good and steady revenue resources. Their Knol, abbreviation for Knowledge, was a very good writing platform at which one could write and article in any language and publish it in multi languages simultaneously. It disappeared one day. Not that they escaped with the content; they of course provided time for authors to download their contributed content from their archives. Google Plus which also served as a fine publishing platform for articles, notes, images and videos was the last to go. Still they provided authors with an opportunity to download their content from archives as ZIP files. Knol and Google Plus did not pay authors. Their Blogger platform still remains and no one knows when and whether it would go.

Yahoo’s old Associated Content was renamed as Yahoo Contributor Network. Because they paid, unlike Google, they also held control over articles to ensure good content. For this, they evaluated and checked articles through supervisors before they were accepted for publishing in their platform. They paid according to a system based on Payment Per 1000 Impressions and also provided writers opportunity to take up writing assignments for payment and even showed them what assignments were available based on their experience and portfolios of interest. They even ran an online university to coach writers and even awarded degrees and diplomas! It was an excellent system for coaching writers- their writers and free of course. Anyway, Associated Content and Yahoo Contributor Networks have gone and they have not come with something new. Only the Yahoo News remains which is, it is assumed, invitees only.

Wiki Answers did this and Wikinut may do this.

What will happen if a good publishing site turns sour, angers its contributors and gradually begins to fail in fulfilling its responsibility to writers and regular readers? Such things usually happen- though not rarely- in the publishing world. ‘Publishing world’ here means digital publishing platforms, not traditional book-publishing companies. Because the last to come into this field- Writerly Words- also has its name beginning with a W, I think I have to mention by name two fine publishing platforms which recently either turned hostile to writers, or ultimately closed doors to them. They are Wiki Answers and Wikinut.

First step is providing writers with good intellectual challenges and keeping them writing.

Wiki Answers, or Answers Dot Com, was once described (by themselves?) as the fifth-largest website as regard to accumulation and dissemination of knowledge. Formed following the patterns of the famous and now indispensable Wikipedia, ten thousands of students asked questions and thousands of contributors answered them, all going to a digital data bank. Contributors worked on a voluntary basis and were not paid for their time and services, but were allowed a Profile Page in their site. There they could display a few lines about themselves and provide links to their sites, blogs and portfolios. Many of these contributors worked as Supervisors also, devoting their precious time to enlarging and refining this useful and unique answer bank. There were also Halls of Fame- monthly, yearly and all-time- where the names of the foremost answerers in each category were displayed. In place of an incentive, and also as an encouragement, supervisors were sent gifts each year. Sometimes it would be a bag, and sometimes it would be a blanket. I don’t know about Category and Higher Supervisors: I was only a Floating Supervisor and a long-standing contributor.

Second step is kicking writers out and escaping with their contributions.

All things were going well till some changes in policy took place. This may have been due to new brats entering the Board. Old Hats won’t do such rash and ugly things. Or, some large corporation which is the least concerned about free knowledge gathering and free dissemination of it may have taken over. Anyway, one day, the contributors and supervisors were told by e-mail that they were not any more contributors and supervisors, they were not to log-in anymore, and that their profile pages have been taken down. So also were their names removed from where they appeared alongside the answers they contributed. So, this once-prestigious knowledge bank and free answering platform escaped with everything contributed by thousands of writers, to merchandise these writers’ creations at will at wherever they choose. Today they have all the answers and questions but no names or profile pages of contributors. It was plain piracy. [I do have files of what I contributed and emails of their notifications of publishing. I may someday publish it as a book for the student community to use free].

When Wikinut kicks out writers, they will escape with the full version of all articles free.

The same kind of brats-take-over is happening in Wikinut too. It was considered one of the finest writers’ publishing platforms in the world. In fact, as regard to web resources offered to writers, theirs were excellent. Their publishing interface also was one of the finest in the world among those freely accessible to writers. For years they paid writers in proportion to the advertisement revenue their articles generated. I don’t know how much, because I never even once clicked the ‘Your Payments’ link during my years writing there. (I enjoyed writing there till recently, and the best of my writer-friends were gained from there). In 2017, they stopped paying writers, saying they were thinking about shutting down unless paying writers could be stopped. They lost hundreds of fine writers as a result, along with thousands of articles they contributed through years. A few including me remained, for the sole reason that all articles were open to everyone including students and teachers free. Then they limited Author Bio to 400 characters which meant just two, at the most three sentences. It was like ridiculing writers and challenging them to leave. Then they introduced another change- writers could no more include their names in the titles of their articles- a change which achieved nothing and pleased someone in the board who never in life has been able to put down in words in the form of an article what he or she has in mind. That means, if I intended to publish an article titled ‘New Books From P. S. Remesh Chandran’, I had to title it just ‘New Books’ which would be meaningless anyway. More writers are sure to leave Wikinut, but not me, yet. The meanest thing about Wikinut is, though they allow contributors to download all their articles from archives, they will not allow complete delete of any article; you can edit and shorten the articles but they will keep all previous versions in archives. You know what this means- when they kick out writers finally and escape with their contributions like Wiki Answers did, they will use the full versions free.

Will the new Writerly Words also go the same way?

The point is brats may come to the Board, and the Administration. Uncouth changes may be introduced by the unripe people who somehow got into the information and publishing field. Larger corporations and companies may come with takes-over or mergers. Policies may change. History shows every such thing have only been discouraging and disappointing to writers in those platforms. The last to come to the publishing world is Writerly Words with its comparatively good web resources and supposedly assured writer-friendliness. But ‘Writerly Words’ also begins with a ‘W’ in its name. What will come of it in the future? 



Tags:

Content Writing, English Prose, Free Student Notes, Indian Writers, Literary Articles Essays Reviews, Online Publishing, Prose Reviews Notes Appreciations, Prose To Poem, P S Remesh Chandran, Publishing Industry, Publishing Platforms, Sahyadri Books Trivandrum, W-Beginning Writers’ Publishing Platforms, Wiki Answers Wikinut Writerly,

Link: https://sahyadribooks-remesh.blogspot.com/2019/03/087-bware-of-w-beginning-writers.html 

  

About the Author P. S. Remesh Chandran: 

02. Author Profile of P S Remesh Chandran by Sahyadri Archives.

Editor of Sahyadri Books & Bloom Books, Trivandrum. Author of several books in English and in Malayalam. And also author of Swan: The Intelligent Picture Book. Born and brought up in the beautiful village of Nanniyode in the Sahya Mountain Valley in Trivandrum, in Kerala. Father British Council trained English teacher and Mother University educated. Matriculation with distinction and Pre Degree Studies in Science with National Merit Scholarship. Discontinued Diploma studies in Electronics and entered politics. Unmarried and single. 

Author of several books in English and in Malayalam, mostly poetical collections, fiction, non fiction and political treatises, including Ulsava Lahari, Darsana Deepthi, Kaalam Jaalakavaathilil, Ilakozhiyum Kaadukalil Puzhayozhukunnu, Thirike Vilikkuka, Oru Thulli Velicham, Aaspathri Jalakam, Vaidooryam, Manal, Jalaja Padma Raaji, Maavoyeppoleyaakaan Entheluppam!, The Last Bird From The Golden Age Of Ghazals, Doctors Politicians Bureaucrats People And Private Practice, E-Health Implications And Medical Data Theft, Did A Data Mining Giant Take Over India?, Will Dog Lovers Kill The World?, Is There Patience And Room For One More Reactor?, and Swan, The Intelligent Picture Book. 

Face Book: https://www.facebook.com/psremeshchandra.trivandrum
Twitter: https://twitter.com/PSRemeshChandra 
You Tube: http://www.youtube.com/user/bloombooks/videos
Blog: http://sahyadribooks-remesh.blogspot.com/
Site: https://sites.google.com/site/timeuponmywindowsill/
E-Mail: bloombookstvm@gmail.com
 

Post: P. S. Remesh Chandran, Editor, Sahyadri Books, Trivandrum, Padmalayam, Nanniyode, Pacha Post, Trivandrum- 695562, Kerala State, South India.

086. Swallow's Solitude. Poem By P S Remesh Chandran

086. 

Swallow's Solitude. Poem By P S Remesh Chandran

Editor, Sahyadri Books & Bloom Books, Trivandrum

01. Article Title Image By Masy. Graphics: Adobe SP.

First published: 26 March 2019 

SWALLOW'S SOLITUDE

P S Remesh Chandran

The hillocks where the village folk
Assembled for a fun-
There then at length dissected all
Subjects under the sun.

The roadside shop, where middle age men
Debated and did part;
Through various ways homeward they trod,
Next morning to restart.

Stooped by their golden burdens, swaying
Paddy fields lush lay
Stretching far, far to the edge of river
Beneath the mountain crag.

Tweeting sweet music to the squirrels
And the swarms of bees
Ransacking plantain groves for honey,
Sat high those nightingales.

Before the crows and cocks in morn
Raise loud their lofty horn,
Before the dews of night from trees
Fall down before the breeze,

Beside the rattling reeds alone I
Sat there satisfied;
Reflects in crystal-clear brook
A swallow’s solitude.

Bloom Books Channel has a video of this song.

02. Video Title Image By Masy. Graphics: Adobe SP.

Video Link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LPrErCHTrgY

Tags:
English Poems Songs, Free Student Notes, Indian English Poets, Literary Articles Essays Reviews Poems, Nature Poems, Philosophical Poems, Poem Reviews Notes Appreciations, P S Remesh Chandran, Sahyadri Books Trivandrum, Swallow’s Solitude,

Article Link: https://sahyadribooks-remesh.blogspot.com/2019/03/086-swallows-solitude-poem-by-p-s.html 


About the Author P. S. Remesh Chandran: 

03. Author Profile of P S Remesh Chandran By Sahyadri Archives.

Editor of Sahyadri Books & Bloom Books, Trivandrum. Author of several books in English and in Malayalam. And also author of Swan: The Intelligent Picture Book. Born and brought up in the beautiful village of Nanniyode in the Sahya Mountain Valley in Trivandrum, in Kerala. Father British Council trained English teacher and Mother University educated. Matriculation with distinction and Pre Degree Studies in Science with National Merit Scholarship. Discontinued Diploma studies in Electronics and entered politics. Unmarried and single. 

Author of several books in English and in Malayalam, mostly poetical collections, fiction, non fiction and political treatises, including Ulsava Lahari, Darsana Deepthi, Kaalam Jaalakavaathilil, Ilakozhiyum Kaadukalil Puzhayozhukunnu, Thirike Vilikkuka, Oru Thulli Velicham, Aaspathri Jalakam, Vaidooryam, Manal, Jalaja Padma Raaji, Maavoyeppoleyaakaan Entheluppam!, The Last Bird From The Golden Age Of Ghazals, Doctors Politicians Bureaucrats People And Private Practice, E-Health Implications And Medical Data Theft, Did A Data Mining Giant Take Over India?, Will Dog Lovers Kill The World?, Is There Patience And Room For One More Reactor?, and Swan, The Intelligent Picture Book. 

Face Book: https://www.facebook.com/psremeshchandra.trivandrum
Twitter: https://twitter.com/PSRemeshChandra 
You Tube: http://www.youtube.com/user/bloombooks/videos
Blog: http://sahyadribooks-remesh.blogspot.com/
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Post: P. S. Remesh Chandran, Editor, Sahyadri Books, Trivandrum, Padmalayam, Nanniyode, Pacha Post, Trivandrum- 695562, Kerala State, South India.

085. Today I Had A Strange Experience. Poem By P S Remesh Chandran

085. 

Today I Had A Strange Experience. Poem By P S Remesh Chandran
  
Editor, Sahyadri Books & Bloom Books, Trivandrum
 

01. Article Title Image 01 By Harli Marten. Graphics: Adobe SP.
 
First published: 2013

I regularly take part in discussions in a famous social site of experts and write in two special groups- Poetry and Literature, and Language, Literature & Criticism. A discussion on ‘Whether Poetry Has To Keep Form' became heated and I had to remain at the receiving end of severe but polished criticism for some of my views insisting on metrical form in poetry.


One criticism went: ‘No offense, but it is easy to make generalizations about things you have little or no hands-on experience with. Reading poetry is very different from writing it. How much poetry have you actually written (or tried to write)?’


Another criticism even went to asking me at last: ‘You do not seem to have understood the mechanics of poetry like many of us; have you ever read a poem or at least tried to write one?’


I decided to write my reply to these criticisms in the poetical form and invited other participant members also to reply in kind, i.e., by writing what they have to say not in prose but in poetry and continue the discussion. This poem was my first and original reply to them.

Once Malayalam poets wrote letters to each other in poetry and some even conversed in poetry.
 

In the Malayalam literature in my native land Kerala, there has been a long history and tradition of poets writing letters to each other in poetical form which though lessened the importance of prose for a time did indeed made poetry popular during that time, creating a rich branch of literature on its own. Many even conversed in poetry. Almost all Indian languages have this special branch of literature which became very interesting and rich through the years and is now a prominent feature of Indian literature. This trend gradually died out anyway.

02. Article Title Image 02 By Harli Marten. Graphics: Adobe SP
 
Today I Had A Strange Experience

P S Remesh Chandran

Today I had a strange experience,
Not in this group but in another group.

‘Poetry and Lit′rature' it is not,
In ‘Written or Revealed Poetry' thread.

Asked, have I written poems in my life?
I found it fit to answer it this way:

I'm writing this in reply to a miss,
I have never written poems in my life.

Have wondered where these poems all come from,
From human intellect or nature's store,

To be picked up at moments of revelation;
Or synthesized in rotten human brain!

I was inspired to write these wicked lines,
By those whose verses written were in sand.

Let us debate poetry in poems,
I hope she'll someday answer me in kind.

I ′am not doing anything again,
But asking questions all have answers for.

I have my answers, you can have yours,
This not an illiterate arena,

Where someone asks questions and another from,
Some academic circle answers them.

Some anxious are, to questions throw around,
Some eagerly waits there to answer them;

This not such school or college where one can,
En′tertain answers not from others too.

I know I'm Alexander Pope's close kin,
I stop here, to read Temple of Fame again.

03. Article Title Image 03 By Harli Marten. Graphics: Adobe SP

Tags:
  Discussion Poems, English Poems, Free Student Notes, Indian English Poets, Literary Articles Essays Reviews Poems, Metrical Form In Poetry, Philosophical Poems, Poem Reviews Notes Appreciations, P S Remesh Chandran, Sahyadri Books Trivandrum, Today I Had A Strange Experience,

Link: https://sahyadribooks-remesh.blogspot.com/2019/03/085-today-i-had-strange-experience-poem.html 

About the Author P. S. Remesh Chandran: 

Editor of Sahyadri Books & Bloom Books, Trivandrum. Author of several books in English and in Malayalam. And also author of Swan: The Intelligent Picture Book. Born and brought up in the beautiful village of Nanniyode in the Sahya Mountain Valley in Trivandrum, in Kerala. Father British Council trained English teacher and Mother University educated. Matriculation with distinction and Pre Degree Studies in Science with National Merit Scholarship. Discontinued Diploma studies in Electronics and entered politics. Unmarried and single. 

Author of several books in English and in Malayalam, mostly poetical collections, fiction, non fiction and political treatises, including Ulsava Lahari, Darsana Deepthi, Kaalam Jaalakavaathilil, Ilakozhiyum Kaadukalil Puzhayozhukunnu, Thirike Vilikkuka, Oru Thulli Velicham, Aaspathri Jalakam, Vaidooryam, Manal, Jalaja Padma Raaji, Maavoyeppoleyaakaan Entheluppam!, The Last Bird From The Golden Age Of Ghazals, Doctors Politicians Bureaucrats People And Private Practice, E-Health Implications And Medical Data Theft, Did A Data Mining Giant Take Over India?, Will Dog Lovers Kill The World?, Is There Patience And Room For One More Reactor?, and Swan, The Intelligent Picture Book. 

Face Book: https://www.facebook.com/psremeshchandra.trivandrum
Twitter: https://twitter.com/PSRemeshChandra 
You Tube: http://www.youtube.com/user/bloombooks/videos
Blog: http://sahyadribooks-remesh.blogspot.com/
Site: https://sites.google.com/site/timeuponmywindowsill/
E-Mail: bloombookstvm@gmail.com
 

Post: P. S. Remesh Chandran, Editor, Sahyadri Books, Trivandrum, Padmalayam, Nanniyode, Pacha Post, Trivandrum- 695562, Kerala State, South India.

084. They Both Desire To Rule. Poem Made From Nietzsche By P S Remesh Chandran

084

They Both Desire To Rule. A Poem Made From Nietzsche By P S Remesh Chandran

Editor, Sahyadri Books & Bloom Books, Trivandrum

 01. Article Title 1 Image By Felix Broennimann. Graphics: Adobe SP.
 
First published: 25th March 2019

I was once advised to read Nietzsche's 'On Truth And Lies In A Non-moral Sense.' When I read it, I thought it was pure poetry, but written in prose, to mislead readers. So I decided to rearrange the words to sing it. I cannot help singing poems. If it is not good, worthy and fit for singing, I will throw it away, believing it is not at all a poem. While reworking poems looking like prose, I have a rule: I will not add a single word or not even a syllable of my own, will just only remove a few words. This poem was the end result of reworking Nietzsche. I wish Nietzsche had originally written it this way.

Poetry is condensed thought and condensed prose; prose is elaborated thought and elongated poetry.
 

While writing poems, you too can try this, it is simple. When writing a poem, if you find it not flowing as smoothly and easily as you would desire it to flow to be sung, simply write what flows through your mind in prose. Then devise a simple tune which would fit the entire poem as a song and which could be repeatedly carried on throughout the song, and then rearrange the words sensibly to match it. You will be creating a fine poem. Of course you will be abandoning a few words in this process but remember that poetry is condensed thought and also condensed prose. If you elaborate the thought and elongate this poetry, you will of course get the prose back.

THEY BOTH DESIRE TO RULE

Written in prose by Nietzsche
Recast in poetry by P S Remesh Chandran
 
Ages there are in which the ration'l man
And th'intuitive stand side by side, the one

In fear of intuition, or scorn for abstraction;
Irrational one, the other inartistic.

They both desire to rule over their life,
Unreal or real, counting life to be.

Prudence, foresight and regularity,
The means with which one meets needs principal.

One o'erjoyed hero disregards these needs,
Counts life as beauty and an illusion.

As in the ′case in ancient Greece, th'intuitive,
Handles his weapons authoritatively,

Victoriously than his opponent, and
Establishes art's mastery over life.

All utensils we use in daily life,
Were made from art, not from our pressing needs.

Houses, our clothes, our clay jugs, all them were
Intended to express exalted joy.

Guided by abstractions and concepts, we
Succeeds in warding off our misfortunes,

Without ever gaining any happiness;
So that's the case the ration'l man's life is.

Th'intuitive man, aim freedom from his pain,
Standing a-firm amidst his culture's frame,

Reaps cheer, illumination and redemption.
Defense against misfortunes, he obtains.

 02. Article Title 2 Image By Felix Broennimann. Graphics: Adobe SP.

About Nietzsche.

Nietzsche was a German philosopher and poet.

Tags:

English Prose Poems, Free Student Notes, German English Poets, Literary Articles Essays Reviews, Nietzsche, On Truth And Lies In A Non-Moral Sense, Philosophical Poems, Poem Reviews Notes Appreciations, Prose To Poem, P S Remesh Chandran, Recast Poems, Sahyadri Books Trivandrum, They Both Desire To Rule,

Link: https://sahyadribooks-remesh.blogspot.com/2019/03/084-they-both-desire-to-rule-poem-made.html 

About the Author P. S. Remesh Chandran: 

   Editor of Sahyadri Books & Bloom Books, Trivandrum. Author of several books in English and in Malayalam. And also author of Swan: The Intelligent Picture Book. Born and brought up in the beautiful village of Nanniyode in the Sahya Mountain Valley in Trivandrum, in Kerala. Father British Council trained English teacher and Mother University educated. Matriculation with distinction and Pre Degree Studies in Science with National Merit Scholarship. Discontinued Diploma studies in Electronics and entered politics. Unmarried and single.
Author of several books in English and in Malayalam, mostly poetical collections, fiction, non fiction and political treatises, including Ulsava Lahari, Darsana Deepthi, Kaalam Jaalakavaathilil, Ilakozhiyum Kaadukalil Puzhayozhukunnu, Thirike Vilikkuka, Oru Thulli Velicham, Aaspathri Jalakam, Vaidooryam, Manal, Jalaja Padma Raaji, Maavoyeppoleyaakaan Entheluppam!, The Last Bird From The Golden Age Of Ghazals, Doctors Politicians Bureaucrats People And Private Practice, E-Health Implications And Medical Data Theft, Did A Data Mining Giant Take Over India?, Will Dog Lovers Kill The World?, Is There Patience And Room For One More Reactor?, and Swan, The Intelligent Picture Book.

Face Book: https://www.facebook.com/psremeshchandra.trivandrum
Twitter: https://twitter.com/PSRemeshChandra
You Tube: http://www.youtube.com/user/bloombooks/videos
Blog: http://sahyadribooks-remesh.blogspot.com/
Site: https://sites.google.com/site/timeuponmywindowsill/
E-Mail: bloombookstvm@gmail.com

Post: P. S. Remesh Chandran, Editor, Sahyadri Books, Trivandrum, Padmalayam, Nanniyode, Pacha Post, Trivandrum- 695562, Kerala State, South India.