I was born in a country where a child is born every two seconds, in a remote village in southern India on a winter night, in the very tiny home of my mother where there were no electricity. As the night engulfs the day, kerosene lamps light up the village house. The sounds of insects, followed by the croak of frogs, break the silence of the night. The calmness of the night, with the sound of slumber, remains till dawn. As the day breaks, I wake up to the cries of a rooster and the singing of birds. Sitting in the front yard of the home, one can see the open paddy fields stretching far away in the distance. The cries of crows, along with cows on the ground, create a rhythm. Paddy fields are followed by coconut trees in rows. The fresh air indicates that no vehicles have passed close by the village lanes.
This is the very place where destiny has brought my childhood. My babyhood was spent in this village home called 'Valiya Parambath'. Bapa, my grandfather, was the prime character there. His voice echoes through the walls of this house and its surroundings. He is the headmaster at a government school close by. I was further destined to have my life unfold through various lands and encounters, which I will narrate in the coming pages. The life book of every person is unique. Everyone writes it on the parchment of time. But mine, I remember, is sweet and colorful. I have enjoyed my own story, to be read again and again, and never to be repeated. If I were asked to rewrite it, I would say 'Nay'. The nectar that I carried along the journey is enough. No more repetitions. 'Life is the art of drawing without an eraser.' It is one journey of happiness where my faith says it will surely continue forever and ever, into an everlasting world where sorrow or sadness will never be a part.
As a baby, I must have been carried along with my parents as they moved on, traveling through the rush of Indian trains to Ratnagiri in the Maharashtra district. My father was an engineer for government projects, sometimes working there. I have been to these places long before I could remember any glimpse of them.
I am a connecting link between an Indian remote village and a metro city. Part of me has experienced the very nature of this natural world, and part of me has witnessed the developments of the man-made world. To cope between the two, to bridge the past with the present, to inhale the aroma of the village mixed with the clamor of the city – life's rollercoasters of various colors and lessons, experiences, and encounters. I am a child of the late seventies and of the eighties, also a man of the 21st century.
Life has to be learned by living, and life has to be experienced rather than explained. So, some may find it interesting, and for me, indeed, yes."
