SWORDMUZIC

                                                                  One of the oldest cave shrines of South India, Karpaga Vinayagar Temple at Pillayarpatti is dedicated to the Lord of Knowledge and the Remover of Obstacles- Ganapathi. The temple which is currently undergoing renovation, doubtless captures the attention of the connoisseur in you with its stunning traditional architecture ,    murals and sculptures. The cave itself is the Sanctum Sanctorum that enshrines the Karpaga Vinayagar.   Once inside temple,   you experience an ethereal atmosphere saturated with devotion, especially during the 'Deeparadhana',   when the tolling of the bells and drum beats from the 'Asura Vadyas' coupled with the incense of camphor and sandalwood   ,amid hundreds of kindled oil lamps, give you an   a...

 

  happened around twenty years ago.   I saw this old man in his sixties donating a book to our village library. If my memory serves me right, the title of the book which was written in Malayalam- was something like ‘In search of the truth behind Earthquakes.’ Now, if you doubt the authenticity of a book simply because it was written in a vernacular language, then it is time for you to do a rethink. Jyeshtadeva’s Yukthibhasha, the first treatise on Calculus (centuries before that fabulous apple fell bang on Newton’s head) was also written in Malayalam. However the analogies end there since the man in question was neither an academic nor a formally qualified expert on the chosen subject which is seismology. I cannot recall his name, but he can at best be called an Astro-Seismologist. Surprised, eh? Wonder what astronomy has got to do with earthquakes? Coming back to the story, the very title of the book piqued my curiosity, and to my surprise, I found that the old ma...

  This is a story I wrote a couple of years back and posted on social media. If you see  an allusion to the perennial political scenario where the opposition is hell-bent on stymying the ruling party's attempt to implement any legislation- good or bad- then it is not coincidental.

                                                               It was with a heavy heart that I saw the image, last year, of a pregnant elephant, standing stoically in a river in Kerala’s Palakkad district, awaiting an imminent death. Despite being in excruciating pain from mangled, bleeding mouth and tongue, the hapless pachyderm never ran amok nor showed any sign of discomfort till her end. However, what those ignorant ingrates who fed the unsuspecting animal with pineapple stuffed with explosives did not know was that elephant is not just another wild beast but a bulwark that protected a region from foreign invasions for millennia. Once a prized possession of Emperors and Kings by virtue of their being formidable war machines and deterrents besides gracing rituals and performing heavy-lifting tasks, the humble animals have n...

                                                                           ACT –I                                                   The scene opens with the jeans and T-shirt clad Mr.Marpy –a gray- haired and bearded fat old man of ninety - sitting on the bathroom floor by the commode, reclining against the wall . He seems to be writhing and growling in pain while holding his left chest with right hand.After...