A wedding - a celebration of life?

BP was a year junior to me at university. Coming from a similar family background, we clicked. Our paths would occasionally meet in the daily hustle and bustle of our academic lives. Our course required us to spend two of our five academic years away from the main campus, at the university's teaching hospital in the East Coast State of Kelantan.

It was in my last year that BP used to hang out in my room in between his long studying hours. We used to chat about little things, such as quirky occurrences during ward rounds and other similar topics.

Soon, it was 1988, and it was convocation time, marking the beginning of the different paths life would take us. Working in various hospitals, we acquired the necessary skills to progress in our field of expertise.

Periodically, we kept in touch, trying to stay in touch as often as possible. It was the pre-digital era; hence, we had only depended on landlines and physical meetings.

Just last month, I was pleasantly surprised when BP called me on my mobile phone to invite me to his daughter's wedding. It took place in a private hall in a small town.

I used to think weddings were something personal, only to be shared within a close family circle and friends. That a large celebration was opulence and a waste of money that could be put to better use.

After attending the celebration, it dawned upon me that it is more than flaunting one's wealth or one that irks the roving eyes. I began to view wedding celebrations in a different light. It is a celebration of the path that both families traversed. It brings together all the people who were somehow involved in shaping a young couple into what they are today. They must have gone through their ups and downs together. This moment must be the victory lap for their labour of love, not for others to see but for themselves to bask in the glory for a task well done.

As mysterious as life can be, I noticed that many people BP invited for the wedding celebration were also known to me, but not through the standard university connection. The same people who crossed BP's life also crossed mine, albeit at different times during training in various towns. So it was a good catch-up time for me too. Some of them I had lost contact with for over twenty years.

Life springs so many surprises. Just like how I met BP many years after graduating in 1988. It was 1995, and as I was walking along the cobbled streets of Edinburgh one warm November afternoon, who did I bump into? A jubilant BP who had just passed his membership examinations at the Royal College of Medicine! And I was given the honour to share the proud moment of him receiving the scroll from the President of the College.

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The key to the future in the past?

They say that the key to the future is in the past. Really? Many do not agree with this statement. 

Dodo bird - from the past!

Sure, how would one know that fire scalds if he is not given the opportunity to feel the brunt of heat traversing on the tips of the finger? Once burnt twice shy, they say. The mere thought of the pain of being scorched is enough to keep one on his toes to avoid the same experience. 

The memory of the misery of a checkered past continually playing in mind is a sure way the same mistake and even be a stepping stone for higher achievement. A regular reminder of the past may spur to strive harder and remind one of the missions in hand.

On the other hand, we are accused of clinging on to the past, living in the past, drawing in a shell and residing in the self-pity or nostalgia. As if nostalgia was a bad word!

In environment concerns, records of the past are needed to predict the future. Our knowledge about extinct species may prevent further disappearances of lifeforms. Data from other planets in the solar system may help to avert the bleak future that stands in front of us if they do not care for Earth.

The same goes for our history which tends to repeat itself. Napoleon and Hitler did not have the benefit of hindsight before attacking Russia. They would have probably resisted engaging in war in winter if they have given adequate attention to history.

It is anybody's guess what lies in front of us. Nobody has a crystal ball to predict our future. We make our moves and decide as we go on. Using our mental faculty and the experience of our previous failures, we take calculated risks and plunge on into life, hoping for the best.

Life is a constant change. We accept, we grow, we reinvent, and we tread with caution.

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Pain, but Divine!

Brass, pots, grinding stone, the sacrificial fire, 

millets all essential to symbolise the threadbare

of our existence and the power of the Universe 

over our every action. Till death do us apart 

this irrevocable union for continuity of the 

species. ©FG.

It is that time of my life when friends and relatives start inviting me to their children's wedding. Sometimes I wonder why they do that. Me, a cynic, one who derives schadenfreude by just watching the world go by from the background. The one who sneers within himself which of the weddings that he attends is going to be in the doldrums, which loving couple is going to two-time, which lovey-dovey couple is going to be at each others' throat and much more.

Maybe because of my status of being married, staying married for a reasonable period of time whilst dodging all the curveballs that were hurled my way in my lifetime (thus far) makes qualified to bless the newlyweds. The family may wish me to part with a bit of wisdom to that effect. Maybe, I, being the eldest in the family, had to represent my recently demised father to do the necessary deeds. He, however, was not a great fan of it either and would scoff all the unnecessary displays of fake niceties and falsehoods seen at these functions. Perhaps, the groom's family just wanted the numbers to show their in-laws that they had the manpower and numbers to defend if accusations of shortchanging or shortcoming should arise.

The ancestors knew that people were the worst of eyewitnesses. That is why a Hindu wedding, unlike others, is irrevocable and irreversible as it was done with the elements of Nature as the presiding judge. The sanctity of the occasion is vouched by the elements of Nature - water, fire, wood, wind. The approvals of the spirits of Nature is invoked through the rituals of symbolism and sounds. For good measure, a camera with its watchful eyes is placed amongst the paraphernalia essential in the cajoling procedure. If onlookers in the human form do not stand up if the sacred union were wronged, leave it to Elements. Offenders to the dharmic order would be dealt with and straightened up in their impartial ways.

The couples' intentions may be private but private intentions involving the privates need the approval of the Higher Forces. Within its act, are disseminated the seed of life. Somebody ought to take responsibility for it. Something so good cannot be without a catch. There is no such thing as a free lunch. Somebody has to clear the mess!

You may get away in the mortal world through legal wrangles but beware of the Void. Even video recordings can be brushed aside as fake, Nature, the silent observer would remain anything but quiet. It will definitely get you. If it does not, the guilt and the forces within you would. ©FG

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The Elixir of Life?

The Shape of Water (2017)

Okay, this movie is a sci-fi romance flick which won an Oscar. It is modelled after 'The Beauty and The Beast', about a young cleaner-lady falling in love with mysterious scaly water-creature in captivity, initially captured in South America. There seems to exist more mystery behind the story of this mute orphan who lost her vocal powers probably after a neck injury. She spends a long time in her bath and gets an attraction to this creature. She spots the reptilian being in the laboratory, as he is being tortured.

The story goes predictably as she and her band of misfits try to kidnap him from the science facility. They discover each other and live happily ever after. Of course, it is made more interesting than that. The setting is 1960 Baltimore, in a government lab. It boasts of colourful characters, all with flaws in them. The mute protagonist, her colleague who has been through multiple poor judgements in relationships, a talented but unsuccessful painter as her neighbour and the nasty head of the facility who is a family man, but a dangerous boss, who would stop at nothing to prevent his prized scientific specimen from going missing. Amidst all this, there is a scientist who empathises with the sea creature but is also a Russian agent.

What fascinated me more was the title of the film. The 'Shape of Water' reminded me most of the character of water of having the memory of the things that they have come in contact. Scientists recently discovered that water droplets from different sources show different appearances when they are visualised under dark ground microscopy. When the same water is exposed to other objects, (e.g. a flower) the water clusters of molecules change appearance. Again when another flower is dropped in it, yet another shape takes form. This is labelled as the 'face of water'.

Yogis and religious practitioners over the years have been telling about the unique qualities of water, the elixir of life. It is the only substance in all three states on Earth in its natural - solid, liquid and gaseous forms. It is also the most potent solvent in the world, comprising more than 2/3 of our bodies and the world we live in. Interestingly, it has one of the highest surface tensions that allows creepy crawlies to walk on it and to enable water to be pumped up by capillary action high up xylem of a tree of metres high.

Water which is stagnant gives different vibes as compared to a fast-moving one. This must have been the basis for storage of water in particular earthen or metallic containers before consumption. Water chanted with verses of specific frequencies has medicinal and healing qualities. No wonder water plays such a vital role in cultural and religious rituals.

Water memory is the purported ability of water to retain a memory of substances previously dissolved in it even after an arbitrary number of serial dilutions. ... Water memory defies conventional scientific understanding of physical chemistry knowledge and is not accepted by the scientific community. [Wiki]

https://truththeory.com/2017/01/14/german-scientists-discover-water-memory/ 

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