June is gone

I love summer. Kerala or Delhi or Texas wherever it is and how harsh it may be. It could be that many of my memorable childhood joys are associated with summer vacations. The rustic life of our (my brother,me and other local miscreants) summer holidays... the never ending game of cricket in the parched paddy fields, magoes from trees that flower only triennial, leisurly aftenoon bath in the bossom of the Meenachil river- finishing off Chandrika soap before you can say Jack Robinson, to the utter distress of my grand mother!!! reading and re-reading of summer editions of 'poompatta' and 'balarama' or whatever available - I was a voracious reader (of course no TV at home or in the neighborhood for distraction!!!), the ineffable satisfaction obtained by successfully tuning in the Malayalam program broadcasted by the Cyelon radio (the sound will fluctuate according to the wind and sun giving you the on hand experience of wavy nature of radio signals; half of the song would be gone with the wind, but it is the thrill that matters, you know !!) festivals in local temples, exhibition of old movies in mobile screens, gypsy circus troop where the fee for admission can be given in any form- coconut, rice, old fluroscent lambs, eggs or worn out dhothis, you name it. Bygone are those days, may never come back. I can still see my old village and river Meenachil, thanks to google earth!!, to quench my nostalgia (sometimes an appetizer too). But dont know much about those old buddies whom I left behind there.

Many summers have passed since then, during my undergrad we used to arrange trekking to forests in summer, sometimes NCC camps or volantary services to rural areas. But it was all mixed up with studies, the charm was gone (or forgotten ??). I rediscovered the beauty of summer when I was in Punjab. It was scorching heat in Punjab during summer. But to the surprise of some of my Sardar friends I enjoyed the summer there. Walking miles together to my lab, library, farm and back to the hostel in the buring heat of August, occassionally (err, quite frequently) complementing myself with the desi badam milk or kulfi. The university authorities were smart enough to back up library power with generator, because in summer the electricity would be gone most of the day and in order to sit under the fans the students would come in to library. Since we are in the library what else to do other than hold on to a magazine or book, at least to escape from the staring eyes of library staffs. However, I have seen some creative minds who could convert the thick volumes of year books to state of the art pillows. Sometimes I would take my 'Hero ranger' to ride to the far end of the vast campus through mango farm and wheat fields. Summer escapades!!

"Ah, summer, what power you have to make us suffer and like it" aptly said Russel Baker. Its the turn of Texan sun now. It is exhilarating and exhausting simultaneously. The evening summer sky in Texas is nothin but an elegant poetry. My wife and me just love them. The canvas of the creator!! The scales in the thermometer has crossed 100 degree many times this year, to remind everyone about melting ice caps and widening ozone hole.

However, the timing of summer is different in different places. In Kerala we used to get summer break during April-May and it would be down pouring in June. But in north India summer span over a longer period but the peak is in June-July, as it is in Texas. So it is not the month that matters but its the weather. A little bit of warmth is always good. Right now June-July are the favourite months for me. To put in another way June-July of US is as lovely as April-May of Kerala.

June of 2009 was busy. Went to the beautiful town of Newport to attend Gordon research conference. Could not enjoy the beauty of the city much due to the busy schedule of conference. Newport has many beach houses, owned by rich people. These houses would remain closed most of the year except in summer when the owners visit Newport to enjoy the mild sun of New England. It was a great oppurtunity to meet with many leaders in the filed of breast cancer research. Such small, speciality conferences are better at getting feed back for the work and personal interaction. The meeting taught me one thing, theories can be made and broken based on your data. As long as fundamentals are correct one can dispute anyone.

Summer of 2009 will also be remembered for the lost of Michael Jackson. I remember buying a cassette of thriller, trying to figure out the wordings of the background monologue in the song 'Thriller'. I rewinded and replayed that part several times that the feminine voice of MJ became more and more coarse in few days, as if it were sung by 'Wall-e'. Although I did not follow his music very much, he was there in my cache memory through various controversies. Recently I listened to his coming back announcement. The title of the video in CNN was ' Jacko whacko backo'. I laughed a lot especially the way he talked in front of the fans. The only sentence that he managed to utter was ' This is it! Looking back now, that sounded like premonition. Whatever controversies surrounded him, MJ was a natural performer. A person with highly complicated life. When postmortem was conducted on him, no sinlgle trace of food was found from his intestine. It was tragic for such a man to die in starvation (although not the cause of death). Whatever possession one have, if he/she can not enjoy it whats the meaning of it. It will only create frustrations and enhance sadness rather than providing satisfaction. His life reminded me of the famous story of greek character Tantalus, who was punished by Zeus for his evildoings. Tantalus was chained below a tree bearing fruits on low branches, inside a pool filled with fresh sweet water until his lips. He was hungry and thirsty. But whenever he was reached out for fruit, the branced would be raised so that it is just out of his reach. Whenever Tantalus bent down to drink water the water level would go down so that it would always remain just below his lips. Sorry to know that the King of Pop was also similarly punished by fate (by no means I want to imply that he did any crimes to deserve such a punishment, I do not know anything about that) . May his soul rest in peace.

"Summer afternoon, summer afternoon; to me those have always been the two most beautiful words in the English language" - Henry James