The Fight And The Main Issue

I have noticed this so often that it's second nature to know the result of a fight soon after one starts.

Scene 1
Civic Issues

The auto driver of Chennai never flags the meter 'on' but agrees to ferry a passenger for a fixed amount of say 100/- after coming down from his demand for 150, 130, 120, 110...
On the way the driver starts 'asking' the passenger which place he 'actually' wants to go and starts complaining that this was not the destination that he thought was agreed upon!
The passenger keeps on explaining and the driver keeps on complaining about how this distance is longer....
By the time the destination comes, the fight becomes unbearable. It's about who has stronger vocal chords and gets away with how much fare. If the passenger wins he pays only 100 despite the driver shouting and fighting. If the driver wins he extracts a bigger amount than 100!
Focus is to extract more but the fight is about, 'I told you.. No, you din't.. May the street smart person win.

Scene 2
Office politics.
There is a problem with some facility at office. The administrator takes no notice of it even though he may be very much aware of the problem which is 5 or 6 years old. Whenever new entrants 'discover' the problem they are referred to and complain about it to the admin who sweetly promises to 'look into it very soon' but never does anything about it, as usual.
There's an accident about to occur and the matter is brought to the notice of a higher up in the hope it may see daylight. The higher up responds to the issue with sincerity and promptness but copies the instructions on to the administrator whose domain it is anyways! Back to square one. The problem still exists but the new entrant gets enlightened about the 'proper' channels to go through for addressing them - he also gets to learn that he is a marked man from then on for by-passing the important chair of the administrator!
Here the faulty facility which could prove fatal to anyone is not the real issue. The real issue is with bloated ego, meaningless heirarchies, drawing up 'territories' where no one is allowed to question putting even our jungle lions or tigers to shame!


Family Issue:
Errant son.

A well wisher of a family may try to bring to the notice of parents matters regarding their errant son. Any parent will outright deny that any such thing exists, even though it may be common knowledge in the inner circle.
The parental instinct to protect the son is seen. The son gets 'aware' of this protective ring.
Then starts the emotional blackmailing by the son because he 'knows' his family knows, yet will never expose him for the sake of family honor. The charade goes on until a girl-friend or the newly wed wife of the son makes the same complaint, makes it heard and stands by it!!
Focus here is not to reform the erring son but to reform the informer into thinking that something is actually wrong with him/her.

That's life for us mere mortals.

Mahalakshmi.

Kolam - Creating A Design at your Doorstep

This is the one I drew for Monday.

This one I drew for today - Tuesday.

Kolam is a Tamil word for drawing a pleasing design in front of your doorstep. In the northern India it is called Rangoli in which color powder is used. In one of my older posts I had written why a kolam is drawn.

It gives me a lot of pleasure to draw a design every morning. Its a ritual among us to decorate our front yard through a kolam which is drawn with fine rice flour or lime powder or a chalk piece.

I asked a mason to fix a black granite slab at the doorstep just so that the kolam looks brighter than when drawn on a mosaic floor.

Early mornings are reserved for sweeping, mopping and creating an interesting design on the wet black granite slab with a wet chalk. This gives me a brighter result.

I don't plan any design. As I draw it takes shape. It is a free hand though designs which are traditional are repeated on certain days.
I go by the numbers or dieties attached with the navagrahas - the nine planets for each day of the week.

Sun - sun-like spikes design or a sunflower for Sundays.

Moon - on Mondays - usually a design based on the lotus or any beautiful flower or any beautiful pattern as moon is a personification of the goddess mother.

Mars - a personification of Lord Subramania-muruga-arumugam. I draw a six-sided pattern on Tuesdays. See the photo for today's kolam has a six-petalled design.

Mercury - Anything goes for Wednesday but as it is the planet which represents Lord Vishnu, whose consort is Maha lakshmi, it could be about flowers.

Jupiter or Guru for Thursday - Anything goes for this day so I give myself total freedom to draw any fancy design.

Venus on Friday. It's got to be very traditional like a lotus design or a square plus some curves on top to make it attractive.

Saturn on saturday - 8 is the number associated with saturn, my designs are basically ones in which 8 lines or dots predominates.

I have attached two pictures taken on Monday and Tuesday's patterns in this blog. Shall try to capture a picture each day and upload it for viewing. Though I am not an artist, I take pride in putting my best effort each day. It all depends on my mood that morning. And I just love the rural or rustic designs with simple lines and zig-zags with dots to highlight the pattern.


Cheers.

Mahalakshmi