Nature Creates

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Nature Creates

Often bound in the schedules I miss out on the little joy of writing. At such a time rain comes pouring, and the sleeping creativity flows in yearning. The many creative minds around the world might have had an occasion when their creative ventures took shape unbridled at a spur of Nature’s moment.

An acquaintance of mine, ended up creating an excellent music composition hiding himself in the greens and hills of Ooty (a hill-station in Tamil Nadu). Revered writers around the world have taken sojourn in Nature.

In fact, my appreciations for the desert when I visited one in real was on a philosophical note, largely due to the influence and inspiration ingrained in the subconscious, reading the works of Paulo Coelho.

Interestingly, I realise that my mind is therapeutically calm and free from any conflicting thoughts. Yet, I find myself writing. Wonder, how Nature works!

Absolute Freedom, Is It?

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Absolute freedom

Absolute freedom? How often I have heard people mention about their need for absolute freedom. To define it, I quote some of them, “there is no restriction or control and one is free to conduct life her/his way, doing her/his things, and the way s/he wants to do them.” In short, they do not want to be obliged to anyone but be their own masters.

Apparently, “each of us is trapped within our own mind, unable to feel anything but our own feelings and experiences.  It is as if each of us is trapped in a dark room with no windows.” Says a scholarly article.

I recollected the concept of alienation and its repercussions that I had read in detail for an interview I was to conduct once as a  journalist. Also, I remembered the oft quoted line, “man is a social animal”.

To add to the lot, “existentialist author and philosopher Simone de Beauvoir notes that as children we shoulder no responsibility; we live in a ready-made world with ready-made values. As we mature and become acquainted with our freedom we can begin to take matters into our own hands. However, many of us revert back to our childhood ways, trading freedom for security.”       ( http://www.newphilosopher.com)

I wonder how many of us, who have used the term absolute freedom, have given a thought to the usage itself. Referred in a casual manner, most of us may not even understand its real significance.

There are mothers who have told me that they have kept a day of absolute freedom from children and responsibility, husbands who set out on a boy’s day out a week, and men and women who sleep throughout the day on a weekend.

True, it is a feeling we often look forward to, little realising we are still submitting and surrendering ourselves to various factors. Probably, sneaking into the absolute freedom enjoyed by some others, who may be, the means to enjoy our absolute freedom.

When I asked some of my friends and acquaintances if they would like to have their absolute freedom forever, they hesitated. A few days of life debarred from responsibilities and attachments may be a good way of rejuvenating and getting one’s life organised. Forever, indeed nothing is forever! 

How’s Life?

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Photo0190

Lame I feel

Looking at life

Adornment negligent

Way too real

Raw wounds and pains indefinable

How palpable

Smile still lingered

Zest to living

Surpasses weaknesses

And my friend lived fighting

Wanting to make her memorable

While a few found pleasures

Others took her seriously

Smile still lingered

As I fathom the question

‘So, how’s life?’

And find myself answering

‘Good, in fact excellent’

Then when I see their expression

I long to interpret

Smile still lingered

Wonder who understood my friend ‘life’?

If happy I conjure

If unhappy I blame

Definitions simple conjectures

Our life through their eyes

Way too real

Adornment negligent

Looking at life

Lame I feel….

 

 

 

 

 

Taste of Soursop

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soursop

The fruit with prickles stocked in large quantities in the cart caught my attention. Though it is the season of  jack fruit, the fruit in offering looked a distant cousin of the same.

A close look spoke a different story all together. And the fruit vendor insisted that I buy one. To my ignorance, he added a chapter on the significance of the fruit, locally (Kerala)  referred to as ‘attichakka’, and “it is a healthy fruit for cancer patients.” As the Malayalam (language) name goes, the fruit is in fact a variety of jack fruit.

With a thick crust and custard apple like inner formation of white creamy edible pulp surrounding seeds, the fruit left a mixed taste of a tangy and citric custard apple.   Of course, the fruit did not fancy my palate, but my inquisitiveness led me to search. My quest landed me on Google, and with the information in hand I clicked the name ‘guyabano’. A further search led me to its English name ‘soursop’, called so because of its sour or rather acidic taste. In fact, its names were endless.

A native of South and Central America, the Caribbean and the Saharan parts of the African nations, soursop’s adaptability to the tropical climate has brought the fruit to the Southest Asian countries as well.

As a rich source of carbohydrates,  vitamins (mainly C & B) along with minerals such as potassium and dietary fibres, the fruit has become a staple with ailing patients. According to a well researched site , a research conducted in 1976 found a chemical in guyabano or soursop that is “10,000 times more powerful and potent than a drug used for chemotherapy called Adriamycin.”

To quote another site, “soursop consists of annonaceous acetogenins, which might stop the development of damaged cells just before they could become cancerous. {Also} soursop has demonstrated specific guarantee in eliminating cancer of the breast.”

Researches have also found its significance in various other treatments that include  regulating blood sugar, controlling hypertension, preventing anemia, and relieving pain and inflammation.

A fruit is a fruit anyway. Little wonder, the commercial market has utilised soursop to flavour candies, make drinks, and other  sweetmeat. Someday I hope to taste its other delicacies!

Going back to the fruit vendor’s information, the fruit comes to the market and gets sold out fastest, especially with the Regional Cancer Centre working in full swing and the families of patients taking good care of them. I looked at the humble fruit that hardly spoke but works wonders, definitely.