The eminent Tamil scholar and famous novelist of yesteryears Sri. Indira Parthasarathy and I almost on a daily basis exchange WhatsApp messages on many sundry topics and views of the day … He asks usually very sharp and thought provoking questions to me and expects me to provide him ready spontaneous answers …. Not carefully deliberated responses .
This morning Sri IP sent me this tantalising question:
“In the morning when I looked at the wall for time it was blank. The clock had fallen. ‘Time must have a stop’ as Aldous Huxley says and it had! Is this a metaphorical indication that I must not go on and on?”
I know that Sri IP is in his mid-90s , of frail physical health . He lives alone in a well-furnished home for seniors in the outskirts of South Chennai with all modern health care amenities. He reads a lot but his writing today has been reduced to a minimum.
But Sri IP’s novelist mind remains razor sharp and his memory so prodigious enough to even today being able to recall and quote at will from ancient Tamil classics such as Kamba Ramayana, Silapadigaaram and Tirukkural not to mention Shakespeare and Socrates and other medieval poets of Europe. So when he quoted Aldous Huxley to me in the above message I knew that he was expecting me to respond to him seriously and not perfunctorily .
I pondered over his message for 5 minutes and then sent in my below response which he duly acknowledged. And I took his permission to share our exchange of messages with my family and close circle of friends . Hence this blogpost .
My reply to Sri IP was this :
Sir , I can empathise with your feelings …
Let me tell you my personal story .
At age 83 in year 2009 my widower father had a grievous fall in the bathroom at home with multiple fractures which despite surgery and medical attention did not heal . He became permanently bed ridden . We had to provide 💯 % care for him 24/7 since rapidly his Parkinson’s disease developed and he also lost sight in one eye to glaucoma. Soon enough dementia too set in.
For the next 4 years he was confined to bed … my father did not know in what condition he was in … but for me and my family watching him die in slow motion was heart wrenching …. I happen to be the only child to my parents and to see my father in such a state plunged me in despair … I wondered why he must suffer so much … what was the purpose … why didn’t he find release ? ….
I decided to read the Ramayana to find solace …
Reading about Jatayu’s death — and its circumstances — revealed certain invaluable lessons for me.
The old and afflicted suffer much indeed … but it’s not purposeless …. Nature is never without purpose .
My father’s sufferings were not on his account but for us his family …. We were the ones he was protecting us from the life’s other calamities … He was living so he could shield us from some other mishaps unknown to us …. It was Nature’s way of letting a parent put up a last ditch fight in life to protect his children and family …. In some mysterious way, he was taking the blows of life head-on that were really intended for us by fate.
Jatayu was as old if not older than Dasaratha . He lived in the forest alone . To all appearances he was a decrepit old being . No real purpose in life … that was what one might have thought … But then we know that Jatayu’s time on earth was not all misery … The old bird-soul had work to do … He had to protect Sita from danger .
After I read that Sarga in the Ramayana … I had learnt my lesson . I no longer pitied my father . I looked at him as my protector , as the saviour of my family .
There are many profound lessons to be learned, Sir, from the Ramayana.”
**********
Back came promptly Sri IP’s reply to the above message of mine :
“Yes.And Jatayu was destined to have his funeral rites done by Rama!”
I was delighted by his quick appreciation of the point I was making to him …. And I closed the conversation with this final message :
Yes…. That’s the beautiful moral of the story … 🌟🙏
************
Sudarshan Madabushi