Journey of the Magus

‘A cold coming we had of it,
Just the worst time of the year
For the journey, and such a long journey:
The ways deep and the weather sharp,
The very dead of winter.’
And the camels galled, sore-footed, refractory,
Lying down in the melting snow.
There were times we regretted
The summer palaces on slopes, the terraces,
And the silken girls bringing sherbet.
Then the camel men cursing and grumbling
And running away, and wanting their liquor and women,
And the night-fires going out, and the lack of shelters,
And the cities hostile and the towns unfriendly
And the villages dirty and charging high prices:
A hard time we had of it.
At the end we preferred to travel all night,
Sleeping in snatches,
With the voices singing in our ears, saying
That this was all folly.Then at dawn we came down to a temperate valley,
Wet, below the snow line, smelling of vegetation;
With a running stream and a water-mill beating the darkness,
And three trees on the low sky,
And an old white horse galloped away in the meadow.
Then we came to a tavern with vine-leaves over the lintel,
Six hands at an open door dicing for pieces of silver,
And feet kicking the empty wine-skins,
But there was no information, and so we continued
And arrived at evening, not a moment too soon
Finding the place; it was (you may say) satisfactory

All this was a long time ago, I remember,
And I would do it again, but set down
This set down
This: were we led all that way for
Birth or Death? There was a Birth, certainly,
We had evidence and no doubt. I had seen birth and death,
But had thought they were different; this Birth was
Hard and bitter agony for us, like Death, our death,
We returned to our places, these Kingdoms,
But no longer at ease here, in the old dispensation,
With an alien people clutching their gods.
I should be glad of another death.

– T. S. Eliot

That was the original.

Why Magus?..

I travelled alone idiot

Sat through an excruciating 28 hour journey (general compartment!!) and bone chilling cold winds, to relive the spirit of Christmas..

Jokes apart, all through out the journey I felt a star was guiding me. That gave me hope and courage.

Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year to all the readers of this blog..

I am a Voter!

As a responsible citizen of this country, I filled in my voter’s card application today..

A few thoughts on what it means to be a voter and having your say in selecting the future leaders of this country..

The basic question.. Am I really going to vote? ..

Maybe..don’t know for sure..

The present political situation in Kerala is predictable as ever. No party could ever retain their rule. The ball bounces back and forth between the UDF and LDF. For a young generation voter like me what does this really mean. Probably I would take a day off and rest my limbs on the voting day rather than stand in the queue and make that valuable vote.

The political happenings in Kerala would always make a great movie script..probably it could go on to become a blockbuster..There is enough amount of violence, comedy, conspiracy, tragedy, heated dialogues and as always, some unexpected twists and turns to make the viewer keep glued to his/her seat..

So the basic question still remains unanswered..

How many of us have faith in any party?

When will this corruption and nepotism end?

We shall hope for a better Kerala, rather now a ‘Smart Kerala ‘.

Update :  Finally I got to see my voter’s card.

My father’s name is misspelled. Address is typed in a weird fashion.

Kudos to the guys who made it..