The 6:10 Express

 
Where and how do I start this? There were so many thoughts fighting for attention in my head. I've been writing these birthday posts for the past month in some space in my mind and I imagine those posts have found their way to the destination which is my mom's ears, wherever she may be holding them open, in whichever alter-verse she is currently exploring.

The dawn's copper, brass, silver turn to gold with one touch of midday sunlight

The sparkle is courtesy our genius Sailesh who brought them back to life with his magic touch

There is one place where she has permanent residence though and that's my heart. If ever there is an after-life, it's in the hearts of loved ones. And somehow that transmits itself to those who enter the lives of the loved ones at a later time. 

Just one look at the overwhelming wishes I received today from unexpected sources, will tell you that the energy she passed on to me as she crossed over to a different zone, keeps passing itself around. Everybody everywhere seems to know this Mom of mine. In fact this has been happening over the past 13 years. 

First, I figured that there was no way to celebrate a life that has been with us and around us for a century, in just one compressed birthday tribute. So I decided to weave out of this, a series on the rich heritage for which she was the prime channel, sourcing as she did from all over - what she inherited, what she absorbed from her several homes in two cities and her travels through all the reading she did and people she met. 

For starters what's with 6:10? Mom had got it into her head that she made her grand entry into the world at 6:10 am. That's what memories are all about, little fantasies we rewrite based on what our childish ears pick up from adult conversations. These sometimes stay with us a lifetime. 

My parents spent the last few years of Dad's life moving back and forth between cities(of those wanderings, another time). With them their articles and goods often roamed the country and some got misplaced while others fell victim to floods and termites. Some of those treasures turned up in unexpected places and one such was an old, journal belonging to her dad. She waved it at me triumphantly one day. "Look!" she called out. "Daughter born to Lalitha this morning."  Yup, that was her birth announcement - her dad had entered it in his journal and that journal had turned up in some random trunk. On closer inspection, she found there was a time entered and it said 6:25. Well even in 1920 with the British running the railways, the 6:10 express had been delayed by fifteen minutes!

In a way this feels like my own birthday. When our mothers are born we are already present inside them, only we don't know who we are and we need to be the lucky one that received Daddy's kiss before we turn up in this world as the makings of who we grow into. In fact I was already present inside V A Lalitha (of that precocious child-mom, another time) who had this beautiful baby in an ancient house called Lalitha Vilas in Triplicane, Madras on that special morning. The baby was named Rajarajeshwari Tripurasundari Kamakshi after a Mahavidya as she was born during Devi Paksha. 

In other news, Mom dug out her horoscope (yes back then and even now, every new born had a horoscope cast for them with the usual back and forth squabbles about whether they count the time that the baby's head was visible or the time the entire(!) baby touched Terra Firma) and that corroborated the 6:25 time. Maybe that head(she had an XXL head) peeked out at 6:10 and the rest of the train reached the station at 6:25?

Meanwhile here's the celebratory message and song posted by my dear Dheeman Ghosh (Dimu Bear) on the Quarantine Playlist group that's kept a whole bunch of us sane and forged many new and true friendships through the dismal months we've had to endure. 

"So this is a little something dedicated to our dear QP darling Mayalakshmi/Chakra, on her mom's 100th birth anniversary, from all of us ❣️ . She has been the one who has held so many of us together here through music and her kind of love that has an everlasting resonance in our souls.

This is a live performance by the infamous middle eastern metal band Orphaned Land , who reminds us that concerts can be venues where all can be themselves, young and old, different religions, sexes, dialects , all united in unison in heart and spirit through music :') , a celebration rescuing us from our dreary lives full of depression and loss at times. This song moves me to sheer joy!
P.S: The guitarist's dad has also joined in and is singing, beat that :P .
Much love to you Chakra, from all of us, happy birthday to your mom "