Scaly serpent writhes
Amid rough and tumbled rocks;
God created all.
Serpent Haiku
2
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Hooded Thoughts
Sable clad, the dread silent night arrived,
Quiet as the full sated homing herd;
Dusk crept in gloom cover and cast a pall
O’r muted chimes and dead footfall in couching
Heavens loomed in ebon splendor, couchingi
Above my gloomy bower; lonely and parching
I lay waiting, waiting for slumber’s balm-
On sagging springs – my wayward thoughts to calm.
Solo and in pairs, paced the squadrons combined,
Unruly hordes, soul’s dark companions, to bind
Fetters on dreams; and hooded.thoughts collage
My lone nights and enthrall my peace in cage.
Gentle Paraclete, whisper and dispel
My gloom as day brightens in morning’s spell.
Sunsets Heartaches
Cattails threw shadows
Into placid stream surface,
Gleaming at the setting.
Beak to beak crooning,
Floating on curvy waters,
The swans patterned heart throbs.
From the west oozed
Burnt orange blaze, and
The waningred red glow
Silhouetted life’s moments
In earnest molecules.
And in pallid seconds,
In the midst of the angst of torment,
Between the demented heaven
And the heartbreaking earth,
The struggling soul gasps.
Eden Haiku
At first, there was light
And the Garden of Eden;
God came down the light.
A Centennial Reminiscence
By Rosy V Pynadath
(Rosy Joseph Vadakkethala, Alumna 1962)
“If you think in terms of a year, plant a seed; if in terms of ten years, plant trees; if in terms of 100 years, teach the people.” Confucius
In the context of universe or multiverse, time is an infinite dimension. But in the lives of humans, optimum time is around hundred years. St. Mary’s Convent schools have achieved the human optimum. They have realized the Confucian principle in their endeavors by educating thousands of girls within hundred years. They amplified education in the rural communities of Kandassankadavu and its surrounds. They also brought a welcome and safe learning environment to the girls in the area when education of women was rare indeed. Young women were systematically prepared academically, culturally and spiritually in the peaceful atmospheres of Sacred Heart of Mary’s Convent Girls High School. Primary Standard level students of both genders enjoyed the results of the ardent teaching of the Sisters of the Carmelite Congregation in these years.
I attended the S. H. Of Mary’s schools during the period between 1953 and 1962. I was a transfer student from St.Anne’s in Mangalore. The transition was bumpy. From a stylish urban school to a rural school, the change was significant. But, I endured. These were the minor irritations in the lives of any student. Soon, I was not a new student. I blended into the daily school life.
In retrospective ruminations, I hark back to the days at S. H. Of Mary’s C. G. H. S. They were harmonious days without major upheavals in our lives. The teachers were mostly the Sisters of Carmelite Congregation. The student body was evenly distributed between Catholics and Hindus, no religion dominating. There was a secular clarity about our morning Assembly hymns. Newman’s “Lead kindly light” and the generic “Sachchidananda Swaroopame” were more secular than denominational, invoking Light and Truth. The Catholics attended Catechism daily while nonCatholics had Ethics classes. Before the State exams, everyone went to the Chapel, finding the need for external help. The Catholics knelt and the Hindus stood as if in a temple. There was no insistence on maintaining any particular protocol. Religion was not a bone of contention unlike it is in the modern times.
I experienced the special privilege of attending an all girls school. There was no one to tell me that I could not attempt certain subjects because “girls cannot” do it. In our school, girls could participate in any academic or nonacademic discipline, without prejudice.
Carmelite Sisters lived in the adjoining convent. So, they were available after school for help unlike today’s teachers who have to rush home. Most of them were committed to nurturing the students academically as well as nonacademically and taught with diligence. The students were always respectful and the teachers were mostly revered. Very few students were defiant.
Only a fence stood between my house and the school. The proximity of the school opened many opportunities for me. I was able to hang around the school even after school hours. The Sisters used the time to practice their hobbies. This was a pleasant time for us. I could stay with them and learn a few crafts. Sr. Immaculate was an expert in making flowers from crepe and tissue papers. She also painted greeting cards. This was my introduction to art and, subsequently, I won First Place in Drawing in the Thrissur Jilla Youth Festival. Sr. Hyacinth liked gardening and we were reined in to help her. I was very good in avoiding the mixing of cow manure for fertilizing the plants. I could also play ball badminton with the teachers. This had a long lasting effect. I continued to play this sport in college. I represented St. Mary’s College and Vimala College for the Kerala University Championship. We won the Trophy in 1967 -1968. I was in the Kerala team at the Ball Badminton Nationals twice, Kerala Women’s team securing Runners Up and Third Place in consecutive years. Having the school as a neighbour was quite a boon , because I was given many opportunities to improve myself.
Even though I began my English education in the Fifth Standard, I started my public speeches in English in the Sixth Standard. I was a reluctant recruit who detested memorizing speeches. I was not a good fighter and I succumbed. I ended up making at least three English speeches a year. As time passed, I needed less and less memorizing. When I went to college, I was an accepted public speaker and it became easier to extemporize. I lost my stage fear and found it easier to articulate even in a foreign country.
I was fortunate in my teachers. They allowed me to learn independently and never subjugated me to rote learning. I still hold the opinion that it is better to understand the material to enhance learning instead of memorizing. I could develop my own solutions to problems in Mathematics and develop my ideas in composition by selecting vocabulary to enhance the rhythm and melody of the language without losing logical clarity. I believe that my teachers enabled me to secure the only SSLC First Class in the area. This earned me the H.R. H Maharaja’s Scholarship.
I feel immense gratitude towards several teachers who led me gently to achievements I never visualized. My parents were not cognizant of all the possibilities in school. It was my teachers who directed me to many activities and competitions.
I can fondly remember the special people who encouraged me in many endeavors. I wish to pay homage to some of my special mentors. First of all, Sr. Corsina, my first Head Mistress, comes to mind. She recognized that I was an avid reader. Even from my younger grades, she provided me with the new arrivals to the library. I came into contact with various genres of writings. This led me to secure two Masters degrees in English Language and Literature, one from Kerala University and the second from the University of Albany. My sister remembers her with immense gratitude for clarifying mathematics to her when she came from a Karnataka medium school. Sr. Abraham was my second Head Mistress. A Social Studies teacher, she took general knowledge seriously. She was the reason that I participated in the State Test for General Knowledge and placed Sixth. Sr. Immaculate was not only an artist, but also one who recognized the student needs. My younger sister Lily gave the Sister Immaculate the credit for clarifying the intricacies of mathematics to her. Dear Sr. Josephat brought sunshine into our lives with her angelic disposition and melodious voice. Sr. Heraclia was gravitas itself and our English standard was elevated to college level. Sr. Bonosa was intricate. She did not make any effort to endear herself. One did not mess with her. Now, I realize that she was enabling us to make the maximum effort. She managed to get the best results from me. I joined the KCSL Short Story writing competition reluctantly. She was prescient. I won a Second Place. I had to make solutions for all the SSLC math questions and provide the Guide for other students. Madhavi Teacher made the mechanical and literary sides of Malayalam language accessible to us without wasting a word. I always found her comment “നന്നായിട്ടുണ്ട്” on my compositions very precious. Then last but not least, there was K. L. Rosa Teacher who taught Needlecraft. She did not correct me, but accepted my work with the admonition that I better not teach my method to someone else. I was holding the crochet hook in the wrong way even though my lace was acceptable! She did not change me, but accepted me.
I remember with clarity the friendships I made in school. The friendship with my neighbor and classmate Ambi is a lifelong experience. Before and after school, we had a lot to communicate. The Sisters wanted us to keep a physical distance. We obeyed the stricture to the word. But we disregarded the spirit of the law. We kept talking to each other during the recess while keeping the distance. Now septuagenarians, even situated in two continents, we are still in touch. One is a grandmother and the other a Clarist Sister, Sr. Jenevieve! I had failed to receive the vocation call my teachers had envisioned.
Did I have regrets? There is a big one. I was the Senior Girl and was given a great opportunity to lead. I did not rise to the occasion. Even today, I look back and see that I could have done more and proved my worth as a leader. My school taught me that it was my duty to make use of my talents wisely for the betterment of the world around me.
I am fortunate that I lived long enough to see my alma mater reach its pinnacle of achievement. Hundred years of service to the community, especially in the honorable field of education, is remarkable indeed. With immense gratitude, I reminisce about my formative years and the women who left indelible marks on my development. Thank you Sacred Heart of Convent Girls High School and Congratulations!
I am Fortunate; I am a Reader
I am fortunate. I had opportunities. I became a reader for life.
Hamlet equivocated, “Words, words, words…”. Words fascinated me. All around me, there were details. I needed words to express them and to store them in memory. Curiosity overcame me. I needed words to express what I discovered. Printed words opened a repository of words. Here I found my treasure.
My childhood till the seventh year of my life was spent in a polyglot world. We lived in Mangalore. At home, we spoke Malayalam. To my dismay, when I started schools at five years of age, the medium of instruction was Karnataka. I was not aware that I would be immersed in an unknown language. In the Catholic church, the payers and sermon were in Konkini. My older sisters often spoke in English which they learned in higher grades. My Mother spoke to the domestic help in Thulu. Words surrounded me.
My family moved to Kandassankadavu, my parents’ hometown. Everyone spoke Malayalam. Students started English in fifth grade and Hindi in sixth grade. Kandassankadavu is a rural community situated ten miles west of Thrissur, the closest city.
I grew up listening to stories. I had four older sisters. Annie and Baby were avid readers. There were five sisters and one brother. When the young ones were sick, the older sisters were responsible for entertaining them. Most of the time, it was by telling stories. Annie and Baby took over this job. They were both great storytellers. I was exposed to fairy tales, Arabian Nights tales, Pancha Tanthra fables, Aesop’s Fables, Bible stories and many others. Cinderella, Snow White and Seven Dwarfs, Little Red Riding Hood, The Three Bears, Hansel and Gretel, Shaharazad, Ali Baba, Sinbad, Aladdin and others became alive. They also read stories to us. They showed us comics and explained the dialogues. Thus I came to know Phantom, Mandrake the Magician, Flash Gordon, Br’er Rabbit , Curly Vee, and so many others who came into my world. I became impatient about waiting for someone to read stories and tell stories. It became imperative that I read. The change in medium of instruction did not deter me.
Unlike the other households in our village, my home had various reading materials. There were English and Malayalam dailies, Reader’s Digest, Mathrubhumi weekly, and Catholic publications such as Mary Vijayam Sathya Deepam, Amma, and Catholic Digest. Astonishingly, the village had a Reading Club. It subscribed to several periodicals and magazines in both English and Malayalam. The Hindu, The Mail, and The Indian Express were the regular dailies in our house along with Mathrubhumi, Deepika and Malayala Manorama.This was wealth indeed. Many American and Indian publications entered this Club’s collection. It had hired a courier to take four publications to the houses of the members on Mondays and Thursdays. Thus, a family could read eight periodicals every week. It was a real hustle to get your hands on one when there were more than one reader. Publications such as Life, Today, Span, Illustrated Weekly of India, Kala Koumudi, Jana Yugam, Shankar’s Weekly, etc. became familiar friends. Only later I realized that not many of my contemporaries had this privilege.
Mathrubhumi weekly was a veritable source of all levels of Malayalam writings and translations of classics from other Indian languages and foreign languages. In my younger days, I read “Adventures of Tom Sawyer”, “Treasure Island”, “Horrors of Dracula”, “Sherlock Holmes” stories, etc. In Malayalam.
In sixth grade, I read my first English book, “Adventures of Robin Hood”. After that, there was no stopping me. Jane Austen, Dickens , Mark Twain and others became very familiar. I asked my sister’s advice about what books to read. There was a copy of Jane Austin’s “Emma” in the house. I read it in eighth grade. It was a struggle. But I wanted to leave a mark on my reading life. I found many books left over by older family members.
I was lucky that my school was my neighbor. The Sisters of the Carmelite Congregation ran the school. They were very friendly. The Headmistress, Sr. Corsina, encouraged my reading and used to lend me the new book arrivals.
The Kerala syllabus of those days included many English, Malayalam and Hindi classics in prose and poetry whether in school or college. In the younger grades, the English books were abridged to make it easier for younger readers. So the language retained the purity unlike the simplified versions. Thus I was in the company of Shakespeare, Austen, Dickens, Wordsworth, Tennyson, Keats, Swift, Shelley, Coleridge, Stevenson, Mark Twain and Milton to name a few. College curricula in those days emphasized Humanities.
College opened the door wider. Even though I majored in Mathematics, my college did not offer much in graduate studies. I elected English Literature and my reading widened. Studying became a hobby. Later, my marriage took me to the USA. I managed another post graduate degree in English. The public libraries in the USA are its best feature. I thrived I in reading.
My life can be put in a nutshell as the product of reading.
Not Yet
It is not yet time for “Good Bye”
When I have not fully loved and lived
With every fiber of my being stretched,
Thinking every thought
And feeling every emotion to the utmost.
Let me not step into the wintry days
Sans life and sans color.
I yearned my heart to leap
At every glance, at every touch;
I craved the glow of love
To envelope me snuggly
To feel the warmth of love.
“Wait”, my heart spoke
And I held my breath
Before the death knell of “Good Bye”
Drowned me for ever.
Winter Transience
Latticed flakes, feather light,
Floated like eider down
And lightly lingered
Upon eyelashes aflutter,
Cheeks aglow and nosetips in freeze.
Amid the snowy florets
In the winter hush,
My footfalls muffled
In the downy pavement.
I walked with upturned face
Where crystalline blooms,
In whispering touches,
Winked and vanished.
In candy sugar ice,
The twigs and branches
Gleamed in fairy luster
In the charmed wood
Where the pathway crossed.
Winter’s brittle splendor,
In ethereal sheen,
Wafted me to enchantment
Aloft myriad graces
Into intimate magic, and,
Alas, a world of transience.
Bane of Old Age Haiku
The viper strikes
With venomous loneliness-
The bane of old age.
Summer Girls
Summer slipped in
Taking stealthy steps
Lagging behind nippy May
Which cool-caressed cheeks.
The sun began to linger
Making days longer
And humid air
Pearl-beaded foreheads.
The light-washed scenes
Brought warm-colored thoughts!
What a joy it was
To watch summer girls
Waltzing in
To parks and picnics
In their floral-print dresses,
Wafting their flutter sleeves,
And dripping sunlight in their smiles.
The ubiquitous bird-watchers
Stood by gleefully,
Sighing in deep satisfaction
While the elderly reminisced
About the bygone summers
Of spent youths.
RosyView 