All in a garden !

This collection of photographs yesterday is from the front of our cottage.

From tender leaves to tendril, colourful foliage, flowers and blossoms ready to become mango fruits...all in a small area in a garden!

The corona infection continues to frighten us and keep us in suspense about what awaits us! It looks like that the focus globally is on controlling its spread and limiting its death instinct. 

Think of the two sides of coin. On one side millions are at risk of infection and thousands might lose their lives. On the other side millions are out of job, displaced in countries other than theirs, living stressfully not knowing how they would hold their lives together with diminishing resources.

The sight of hundreds waiting in scorching sun to collect a meal packet in the outskirts of New Delhi said it all about the reality of the other side of the story of COVED 19 pandemic. 

The above photographs made me think how they thrive in this season when the day temperature has soared higher than expected for April. They survive because they are conditioned to adapt to different situations.

For about two decades the global economy has been adapting to the market driven forces of investment, profit, competition, extravagance and indulgence in luxuries of lives. Those who have plenty have made more for themselves during this period and those who do not have stay in the margins, living from the meagre social benefits passed on to them. It looks like that the economic planning has been for a 'trickle down' effect to improve the cause of those who are disadvantaged, which has happened in a limited way.

We need now a new orientation to live in scarce times. 

There is an accountability which rest of us have towards those who do not have. How are we to adapt to live in harsh circumstances, where resources would be limited even for the well to do to live!

Plants live sharing with each other the soil resources. 

Will humans consider this philosophy even though the leadership of the super powers, America and China speak of hyper-nationalism as their right.

The civil society is restless by living with this disparity between those who prosper and those who feel depleted and used. 

The 'feeling quotient' of the political leadership towards those who have to depend on the state resources for one meal a day, has been least commendable. 

During difficult times, let us feel so that we allow ourselves to be touched and moved. 

It was a boy with fives loaves and two fish, who gave his meal to Jesus of Nazareth so that He could bless and use it for feeding the five thousand people.

What I have is not mine! What do I have except what is given to me!

Plants share the soil resources.

Humans too are meant to live sharing their resources between themselves. 

M.C.Mathew(text and photo)

Summer sights at MOSC campus

Some scenes and sights at MOSC Hospital campus yesterday and the full moon early morning today!

The earth is still beautiful even amidst the untimely departure of over 70,000 people globally and still with no end in sight!

The hope of tomorrow stays with us while we endure the awful pain and grief of today!

The rich green leaves in the tree in this collection says it all. It might be summer, but 'I overcome it  and stay green'. It is rooted in the depth of soil.

Faith in God is not just a myth or ritual, but is deeply personal!

M.C.Mathew ( photo and text) 

Mushrooms in the garden!

Every year mushrooms appear during this season at the same site in our garden! We are not sure whether they are edible.

I look for them because they are bio-indicators of soil suitability for plants. Mushrooms, of all the plants require strict soil conditions to grow.

To keep the soil suitable for plants is now a challenge because soil receives all toxins from nature!

A proper wast disposal is therefore essential!

M.C.Mathew (text and photo)

Birds and trees !

Birds decorate a tree with their presence!

When they nest in a tree, they make the three their home!

When they breed in a tree the tree becomes their shelter!

A tree is more than just roots, wood and foliage!

Every tree is a home for birds, squirrels, butterflies, insects, orchids, algae and fungi...

The trees are nature's gifts!

M.C.Mathew(text and photo)

Ants at work!

With the recession of monsoon, I notice ant hills around trunks of trees. Our efforts to stop them from excavating around the tree trunks do not stop them!

They have made their home for winter and summer!

We learn from ants about collaboration and determination!

M.C.Mathew (text and photo)

Message form a bird !

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Every time I visit Bangalore Baptist Hospital, I sight this Eagle perched in a coconut tree, outside the guest house in the morning.

Its stillness and composure engage me!

M.C.Mathew(text and photo)

Bird can only sing!

If birds sing, that is what they are meant to do.

The huamns are meant to do good all the time! That would make us the salt and light.

M.C.Mathew(text and photo)

Four wings, each different!

Each species of dragon fly has different patters of sizes and shapes in thier wings.This has all the four wings different size and shape.

But the dragon fly below is fully symmetrical!

Differences are necessary!

If only the political party in governance of the central government in New Delhi would accept that as the way of life!

M.C.Mathew (text and post)

The only fruit !

This is the only fruit in the passion fruit creeper in this season in our garden!

This surprises us as the creeper looks healthy and normally growing. We expected many fruits during this season.

We shall wait hopefully!

But the papaya tree is full of fruits.

M.C.Mathew(text and photo)

The charm of the dusk!

I felt good to have had the camera ready with me to capture this unusual display of colours on the sky immediately after the sun went down in the horizon yesterday. It was a sight from our courtyard in the distant over the paddy fields. This brilliance on the sky after several weeks of cloudy evenings was spectacular. It lasted for just a few seconds. In fact the colours faded to some extent even when I was taking the second shot.

All ecstatic experiences are momentary. It is meant to be that way as humans can take in such experiences only for a short time because we have limitations in beholding what is supernatural beyond ultra short periods. In fact the brilliance on the sky had a blinding effect on me.  I could have only a glance of it!

However there would be such special occasions of delight and insight that would come upon us. Rejoice when it takes place! Even capturing the memory of it would not give us even a semblance of the original experience.

M.C.Mathew (text and poto)

Butterflies and dragonflies !

The butterflies and dragonflies are far less in number as they might have been adversely affected by recent floods and incessant rains. 

In fact environmentalists suggest that when tier population decline, it is a pointer to ecological imbalance. 

They grow and multiply in clear environment. 

I looked for butterflies and dragonflies all along the flower beds on the roadside yesterday and found only one each. Even honey bees were only few in number. 

It would take a while when these little creatures return to our environment. 

I have a suspicion that the bird population too have been affected by the climatic changes. I do not notice waterbirds around the water bodies !

I wish there was a deliberate effort in every garden or farm to have a corner where dragon flies and butterflies can make their home!

M.C.Mathew (text and photo) 

Small, but harmful to Rose plant!

The three grass hoppers, though look small, consume the leaves and buds of the rose plants. My effort to contain them has not succeeded.

The attack on these leaves come from other large grass hoppers as well.

Now what next! Do they win and I lose or vice versa!

I am still not ready to use insecticides! The neem cake on the soil might make the leaves taste bitter and they might look for other leaves and buds. I clip off the leaves which have eggs of these insects! But they reproduce fast and in plenty!

They have now turned to eat the buds as I collect the flowers and keep them in the vase!

All the three buds and leaves in the above picture are eaten by the insects and the buds would not blossom. 

They adapt well!

They are survivors!

Often it is snot the big things which make us vulnerable. The little things such as someone acknowledging a good deed we rendered.

But for these insects I would not have given so much attention to the rose plants. I have an extra interest in them now. Why should they not receive this attention when they give flowers in plenty!

The difficult experiences have this potential to increase our awareness and make us inclusive in our thinking!  

M.C.Mathew (text and photo)

On a granite wall!

There is very little soil in the gaps between the granite stones on a wall. In that small place this hedge plants grows with its beautiful flowers. Some weeds also grow adjacent to it. 

It was our domestic helper who planted it not expecting for the twig to survive. But it has grown and is spreading sideways.

This is a life lesson! Give space for others and they shall grow.

The health care professionals are sometimes inclined otherwise. They contain and control without creating space for others. 

Yesterday a resident mentioned to me that some seniors can be 'rigid and strict' and not transparent enough! The senior professionals ought to be the opposite of this.

They are to nurture and nourish the potential in others. 

I look back over forty years in my clinical service, out of which 25 years have been in medical colleges. I feel immensely grateful for the two medical colleagues with whom I had close association for four years, who have now gone on to become exceptional professionals. Another three professionals of psychology background with whom I have had ten years or more of association are leaders in their professionals specialties.    

As I watch my former colleagues blossom and make meaningful contributions nationally, I feel even more affirmed that when we offer space and attention to younger professionals, they blossom and become mentors to others!

It is necessary for them to feel that they have full trust and affirmation of their senior colleagues.

M.C.Mathew(text and photo)

An abandoned nest!

This nest appeared in a few days in a plant on the plant rack we have in the courtyard of our cottage and remained unoccupied for several weeks. There was no indication of life inside or covering around it. Someone mentioned to me that it might be a nest of a wasp.  I was also told that wasps make nests much ahed of their nesting season. 

The three stems of a rare thriving plant that Anna carefully nurtured died since the nest appeared, which might be because of the chemical effect of mud smeared with toxins from the wasp.

What held my attention was the master art work evident in the nest. About 1 cm thick mud wall with neatly made round holes at the top, and the nest well protected between the plant stems. 

The wasp too is an intelligent planner. A two centimes long insect with mo cerebral or cerebellar volume of any significance, plans and executes what look like a designed nest.

It is this, which reminds humans to glory less in themselves and what they achieve. Although we are at the apex in the created order, with considerable control over most things around us, the truths such as this around us ought to make us revise the exalted estimate of ourselves.

A hospital of considerable reputation serving people in a city close to where Anna and I live, closed down its services after thirty-five years of reputed multi-specialty services. In fact, it was this hospital which was a pioneer in tertiary care in that city in some higher specialties. To me, the story of the closure of the hospital was a sad news because, it exposed the vulnerability of any thing that appears to be strong and secure.   

'He who stands, take care lest he falls', is a statement of some significance.  

I watched a TV programme yesterday of an exhibition cum sale of hand made articles at Kollam, made mostly by people who suffered colossal loss during flood in 2018. They put together their resources mostly by borrowing to earn their annual income through this handicraft sale. The three women who spoke to the interviewer said with choking voice, about the intense personal loss for which they are yet to receive compensation which was promised by the government. They spoke about it with pain but not with malice.

It is this transformation that gives them the human dignity. They accept and endure their suffering and are tolerant of those who are indifferent towards them.

This is a striking contrast to haughtiness and arrogance we come across in our  political and social discourses. 

Ours has become a politics of blaming the past prime ministers for all the ills we go through. Not only that we blame them, but use uncivil utterances to grieve their loved ones who are alive. To descend to this low level of annihilating the gains of the last seventy years and create a euphoric mood when the economy is slipping into recession, the poor have less money to buy, the farmers are still being pushed to commit suicides, the press and visual media feel muzzled from saying the whole truth, etc, is not an honourable character of democracy!

We build democracy by valuing and respecting all, those whom we like and do not like!

What is man! Is he not like the grass of the field which is there one day and might not be there on another day!

Humanity is larger than what self imposed leaders project of their authority and control! They too would become people of the past one day. What would last is values we add to humanity to make people of large heart and self giving disposition. 

The United States of America has a vertically divided polity as of now with the president being under high scrutiny for his acts of commission and omission and tangential view of politics, economy, nationality, etc. The people in Hong Kong have been on street protests for nearly a month for freedom and fraternity. The people in Britain are in distress since the parliament has been suspended, which reduces the parliament to be utilitarian rather than as the symbol of democracy. There are disturbing trends of civil and economic unrest in Pakistan, Afghanistan, Iran, etc. 

Since we are distant by about sixty years from the nuclear catastrophe in Japan during the second world war, our memory seems to fade about the devastating consequences of human suffering we still suffer from.  There are utterances from governments of Pakistan and India of their nuclear capability to win war. What a low state of regard to humanity we have come to!

A nest is a safe place an insect or bird would create for their offsprings. 

The politicians and the elected governments are under heavy obligation to create a better world for their citizens. On the contrary, are we perpetuating added suffering for some segments of people in the community!

Yesterday, at the ATM, I met a senior citizen who said that he has only 200 rupees left in the account till his pension of Rs. 1500 would be deposited in his account on the 15th of September! He has his ailing wife to take care of. He was too exhausted to be tearful while he spoke to me about having been forced to stop selling home made snacks after the demonetisation in 2017 as demand declined. Now there are at least three big snack bars near his home and he does not seem to be confident to compete with them.

He and his wife have no safe 'nest'!

I sense a call within me to think of others even more!

M.C.Mathew (text and photo)

Gareden's invaders !

A garden has visitors and invaders.

The recent invaders are the caterpillars, who eat the leaves and flowers. 

The garden looks normally visually attractive. But with leaves, buds and flowers partly or mostly eaten, the garden looks bereft.

I have refrained from using insecticides to spare a space for the caterpillars that survive on tender leaves and buds. The invaders do not show similar regard.

This is a lesson about all that happen in our lives. 

We would come across those who regard us and those who do not feel that way. 

Sometimes, one might feel drained by being regardful without a reciprocal response. But even in that situation, as much as possible, it is necessary to be mindful of others, even when there is a loss. 

But if the damage is beyond was can be restored, a counter response is needed. So I clip all the leaves where I find insects or their eggs. May be there are other options of using other deterrents. 

Bu then, should not the insects also have a space for themselves!

M.C.Mathew (text and photo)

A landslide !

Since the recent spell of heavy rain in the state of Kerala, there were some serious casualties and human loss following landslide.

We too have had our share of landslide behind our kitchen portion of the cottage. It means building the wall with granite stones to protect the earthen wall which shows cracks extending on either side of the wall. This earthen wall has been intact from my childhood, although heavy rain spells occurred in the past. 

The earthen wall too suffers from an ageing effect.

The earth beneath supports the top soil. When it can no longer bear the weight of the top soil it gives away the support!

I come across many instances, when we can fail others by not being supportive enough. 

A pre-teenage girl with some exceptional abilities, felt recently that her support is failing from her family and some friends. The recent event of her father scolding her brought all that was simmering within her in to the surface. Her interest to socialise and engage the schooling responsibilities declined. The demand on her to perform increased. Her environment caused her this emotional upheaval.

We have a threatening school environment in many schools, where the class room performance so dominates that a child is reduced to the role of being a just a student. 

Children come to school to experience acceptance, affirmation, and direction. Instead if they feel reduced by the comparisons we make with each other, some children would feel the school to a burden, too difficult to endure.

Before anyone comes to the breaking point, there is a season of unsettlement. I wish, we are sensitive to feel the inner feelings of people before they have to erupt in anguish!   

There are 'windswept' people among us living their lives in perpetual distress or anguish, no more able to live above the storms of life. To grow in awareness of the unspoken needs of others is a human mission.

M.C.Mathew(text and photo)

Five of a family!

Nature turns the colours of black and white in to an ornamental quality!

This sight surprised me this morning. The dragon flies defy the rain!

M.C.Mathew(text and photo)

A formation!

Most of the jasmine flowers in our garden have this formation. Three flowers in a stem, the central one being bigger.

It is interesting to watch this phenomenon of the two buds on either side of the big central flower, often all of them blossoming at the same time. When the flowers are open, they look similar in size and in the formation of petals. It is only during the bud stage,  this difference is striking. 

This difference is therefore transient and in one sense looks insignificant. The small differences do not matter because all the three flowers provide the fragrance and gives honey to the bees.

I have had opportunities to work with different groups in an array of organisations. What disappoints me is the experience of facing differences of opinion or thoughts among the leaders which then divide the team to take an oppositional stand. 

All of us are in different positions of responsibilities with unequal abilities and skills. It is coming together of all of our collective skills which create the momentum of growth and impact.

Think of the hours we often spend unnecessarily forcing ourselves to disagree rather than let go of the differences and think of the function we are called to fulfil. 

For the jasmine flower it is providing fragrance, honey and a place in flower decoration. It does not matter if some buds are small or big! Ultimately all the differences get subsumed in the fragrance and beauty the flowers provides. 

I have suffered a lot while negotiating through difficulties in some organisations because differences of opinion persuaded some to take the dissent beyond a level of tolerance or comfort.   

It has set me on a learning curve to study the pattern in nature and appreciate how the differences create coherence and not dissent! It gives me an insight about where I too went wrong in my negotiating role and leads me to a new awareness about the expressed and concealed aspirations of people when we are at a negotiating table!

M.C.Mathew(text an photo)

A spider and its prey!

I happened to watch a spider catch its prey. I t moved along the web form its hiding place in the centre, when it found an insect caught in the web.

 I watched the resistance the insect offered because of which the spider needed to change its strategy to consume it. The spider approached the insect from different sides as it was slipping out of the grip of the spider. 

Those five minutes of struggle between a spider and insect was symbolic of the law of nature. The less powerful looses its chance to defend and protect themselves. They are victims of the circumstances as they do not have the strength to fight back. 

The Narmada Andolan is about to begin shortly. With the Gujarat government deciding to increase the water level in Narmada dam during this monsoon, a few thousands of people are likely to be submerged on either side of the dam. All representations have failed and the agitation is about to start. Those who would be displaced are those who are tribals and economically disadvantaged who live from the produce of the land. They would lose land and are not resourceful enough to pick up another trade!

Our society is unequally placed. Those in controlling positions are not always reaching out to ease the genuine stressful situations of disadvantaged people. 

The big supermarkets have displaced many small shops in our area. The unwisely planned GST implementation and the demonetisation of high currencies seem to have offset the small traders awfully! But the national election held recently gave the ruling dispensation a second opportunity to govern the country!

But do they see or hear beyond the orbit of their political ideology!

The weak among us are the usual sufferers. 

Should this be that way! Mahatma Gandhi believed that, 'till the last person is well enough, we have not earned freedom' fully!

M.C.Mathew(text and photo)

Education in behaviour!

Perched on two adjacent coconut trees these two wood peckers were engaged in reciprocal bird calls and beholding look. It was evening and the garden was otherwise quiet. So it was easy to trace the two who kept hopping between trees. I had hoped that hey whirl be next to each other. That did not happen till they flew away.

The nature is a place to find behaviour that educate us. 

Being fond of each other, these two woodpeckers were lost in being for each other.

How much others come into our consciousness as our priority!

Yesterday, I had occasions to meet different people whom I have not met for a while. That is when I realised how conversations and listening bring freshness to relationships!

Who we are conditioned by how we are to others.

It is when we keep others as formators, we too shall grow.

M.C.Mathew( text and photo)