Stories / Novel – The Halo Reams      
A Letter
by TA Ramesh

A few months passed. Kannan carried out his regular works as punctual as possible. After a day’s usual routine was over he returned back home in the evening. Instead of taking a book, reading it and writing what he felt, he took a few white papers, went to his table and sat on his chair. He thought for a while looking at the Stars in the Sky and started writing on the paper a letter.

Dear Gopal,

Do you remember that you have handed over to me a wonderful book, Browning – Selected Poems chosen and edited by Kenneth Allot last year? I am sure you would have enjoyed reading these simple poems written by the noble Robert Browning. I suppose you know who this gentleman is as you have studied B.A. Degree Course.

You may remember one or two poems you have studied in the college but not some of the other wonderful poems written by him in this book. The last poem in this book is a Prologue from Asolando (1889). In the beginning of this poem Browning expresses his interest in the discovery of his self knowledge. Next he brings out what the individual traits of everything in Nature are. Then the quotation – All that glitters were not gold by Shakespeare comes to my mind when I go through it in the middle stanza. The succeeding stanza reveals that you cannot play with fire and so also with Nature.

Then the next idea of the poem is about Italy, which is full of beauty with terror that hints at the quality of love. Afterwards there is an account of Nature he has understood. We come across that Nature commands deep silence. His portrayal shows that everything is clear cut in Nature and Fancy is only derived from the natural fact. At the end, he drives home the idea that Nature is your friend not a foe, because it is God, who only can transcend everywhere.

I am also very much interested in Nature. As far as my knowledge is concerned, I can say that Nature has great influence on human mind. The analysis of the function of Nature led to the discovery of many Laws of Nature. This is the work of Science, which interprets Laws of Nature. The mystical experience of poets led them to give new philosophical theories. Nature is the model for men to design new artistic and technical things. In this respect Nature is a teacher too. Lovers of Nature served mankind in a noble way. Newton and Wordsworth are valuable examples in this field. With the help of Nature man has invented many useful things and created many wonderful things for the benefit and development of all.

I am sure the study of Nature is indeed quite interesting to all. But it is a vast subject to deal with! It is approached in two ways to understand its features. The physical part of Nature, which is visible, is analyzed, explored and interpreted with the aid of Science.

Science helps man to discover by various types of experiments the functions and power present in the (external) Nature we see everywhere. Scientific explanations of Nature are quite rational, mathematical, factual and logical. The internal part of Nature is understood by means of Literature.

Poets have discovered so many things in Nature with their power of intuition and explained to the world the mysteries of Nature. Emotionally, intuitionally and spiritually litterateurs have experienced many internal aspects of Nature and have found meanings for such experiences, which they have expressed in a special language in order to solve mysterious problems of man’s miseries, which were not easily approached or possible to solve purely by scientific methods only. That is why the study of Nature is a vast subject. It is a noble pursuit to contemplate on Nature in Nature if we observe it by means of our instinct, intellect and spirit.

Again coming to the book matter I have to say that it is not appropriate on my part to think that you have presented me an incompatible gift. One good man gave you this book since he knew that you are interested in reading books. As the book was about Robert Browning and you know that I was writing poems, you thought that this book would be of help to me and so, you have offered it to me. Therefore it is not well on my part to take whatever you have with you unless and otherwise you give anything whole heartedly to me and unless I bring to your observation what is best in anything. In this case, I took out the best poem in this selection and briefly offered you my views regarding it.

The poems of Browning, Shelley and Byron have been touching my heart to a great extent for the past few weeks. I was so much elated by the effects of these poems that I wrote a new poem this morning. The following lines are from my poem, Moment of Illusion, which I am sure, will reveal you the force of my mind now. Please read it and tell me about your opinion one day.

Moment of Illusion

Iota of debacle making a miracle,
Divine nature beholds a moment of illusion!
Almighty’s creation, a continuous joy of admiration
Abounds the world and the Universe!

Herd of clods moves in cirrus,
Dark with dampness darts down;
Dance of sequence altering the harmony,
Dews recourse the source of eternity;
Patterns paving the waves to swivel forms
Last long washing the bridges,
Raising and lowering the ships and boats
All in Nature’s singular torrential note.

Ocean born wind blows off of the shore,
Interior goes the nascent air to solace the sour;
Days and nights it journeys miles and miles;
Never the vigor vanishes and the spirit stumbles;
Such heedless force develops much measureless tempo
Best known to the Almighty, the most obedient wild force
Shakes off fractostratus and smashes off forest’s status
And beyond plans and fields moves to meet the mounts.

Mounts, highly furrowed, rugged and sharp
Receive the brave breeze and leave in honor;
Elemental fraternity meeting together once in a while
Forgets the new born off springs once and for all
That go down the valley in brutal jollity
Meandering and insinuating all the way;
Gaiety continues filling pouches and bowels to levels
Till at last becomes one with the ocean!

Silent as the dark cold ocean
Vacuum encloses between both ends;
Departing drags deep to the ocean,
Anchored rich with exotic fragrance,
Those boisterous glamours never old
Sweep along the curling waves;
Lingers on the far off lulling water;
Amusing foams dashing off to the shore
Offer never ending beat of countless notes!

Uniformity diverging in anonymity
Confirming conglomeration converges to unity;
Like the alternate note of harmony
Everything functions in uniformity!

About our Haloens I have certain things to say to you. There are many people moving around us. Some use “rough shadow method” and act as if they are friends to you in order to get benefits, helps and even life in a most developed stage from you. This is generally happening everywhere. If the world is so, how can we live in it? We can live, as we know that “man proposes many things, but God disposes everything.” What the irony here is that two of our dear friends took whatever they were offered whether it is a book or a wise suggestion or Tiffin without a word and never bothered whether the thing they received had to be returned in time or gratified or what had to be done with that! They have promises, solemn commitments but they never even felt or thought that they had done anything of that sort.

Why are they doing so? Somehow they want to come up in life and want to appear as developed persons. But they find this very difficult, because they don’t know what their ability is and what the thing they are capable of doing is. Whether they know about these capacities or not, they lack fundamentally two important things that are 1 common sense and 2 presence of mind. These are due to hereditary mistakes. Not only they but many are suffering from this disease. But by education or knowledge these drawbacks could be overcome to a great extent.

Actually the education we got did not provide us the knowledge we require. We bitterly realized this hard unbearable fact. The thought that we have to equip ourselves strong in Science, Literature, Religion, etc. became an indelible thing. In fact, mainly due to this reason, our circle of friends called as The Halo came into existence to fulfill that just desire. Then we decided what sort of a course we have to follow. As a result of this, we committed ourselves to develop originality in thoughts, words and deeds; self-reliance or independence in dealing with problems of life; a cultured friendship among ourselves and a sense of perfection in the things we do. Hence 1 originality, 2 independence, 3 friendship and 4 perfection became the motto of The Halo.

Healthy thinking process is very important for any sort of work. We adopted in practice English language as our medium of communication. The reasons for adopting this medium are 1 to develop our international language power, 2 to prevent unwanted thoughts clouding in our mind as a consequence of our vernacular language and 3 to develop general knowledge by way of discussion.

Then comes the question of occupation or professional activity. It is doubtful whether we have acquired real knowledge in the subject we have our degrees. Another thing is that it is rarely possible to get a job in the subjects we have studied in the present India. Leaving this aside, whatever work we hunt for whether in India or abroad, the essential things that are helpful for us to do a job are 1 fluency in the international language, 2 general knowledge and 3 common sense.

Having these things in view, we started discussing about some general topics every week. The topics we discussed are nothing when compared with the knowledge we should have gained by now. The reasons for this sorry state of affair are ordinary human frailties on the part of one or two Haloens. Their frailties, to put it plain, are lack of confidence, courage and perseverance due to lack of frankness and fearlessness. As a result of these, escapism superseded interest or seriousness in their mind that retarded the positive development of the work we took up to do.

When these two defective Haleons under consideration here forgot the good intention of this friendship and tried to escape from this kind of activity, one of the two usually came late to the meets and most of the time totally failed to turn up. In the meantime one went out of Pudhu Town for a journalistic work in order to comply with his appointment order (myself). Anther one got an appointment outside the town and coolly forgot to drop letter to us by making use of his job as alibi (Vaithianathan). When the first one returned back home another one had to go to a distant place to work (Balu). And two of the five were studying in the Law College. Among these two, for the senior student it was very easy to avoid as many meets as possible by making use of his new degree as an alibi (Selvam). Mainly due to this sort of childishness even magazine work came to a stand still. These are the facts for your remembrance which has afflicted me much and which you would not have forgotten so soon.

Afterwards…….? Friendship lives in good deeds. The Halo friendship was lively as long as the friends got together and discussed on useful topics and wrote articles in The Halo magazine, which were useful both for the writer and the friends of this circle. Indeed only in good deeds, healthy and life long friendship could exist. As the above briefed deeds were vehemently stopped by the ill conceived persons, our Halo friendship faded away in the air like an air bubble could.

To be still succinct, Balu brought Vaithianathan to my group of friendship. When this was done I suggested your name. You also sincerely joined us to fulfill our intention. Then Vaithianathan brought Selvam in our group. I did not lose my faith in you and Balu, because of your reliability and ability; whereas I tried, I have to say, to tolerate the habit of Vaithianathan and Selvam reflecting the locality of their respective places in all their deeds, which did not change till the final day I saw them.

That was over. Even now I have good relationship and good contact with Balu by means of letter correspondences. In the same way I like to have close contact with you, because even now I have confidence in you. I want you to continue the friendship with me forever.

Now I have disposed off all of my debts in business and other things are over. I could not see you in the library, beach or cinema theatres or anywhere else. I hope you will contact me soon after seeing this letter and maintain your friendship with me as in the past, if you desire.

Wishing you every success and offering you my hand of cooperation, support and assistance in all good deeds, I am,

Yours friendly,

Kannan

Copy to:

Balu,
New Delhi.

~*~

Kannan felt satisfied after he had completed writing the letter. He wrote the address of Gopal on one cover and the address of Balu on another cover. He gave the letters to his servant and ordered him to post them that minute itself. Then he switched on his transistor radio kept on the table, relaxed himself comfortably on the sofa and kept on coolly listening to a musical programme.

– Continued

December 23, 2007

The Halo Dreams : A Novel 
Writing a Novel | The Park | Philosophy | The Confusion | The Conversation
The Appointment | The Journey | The First Publication | The Change
The Secret | The Painted Veil | The Halo Magazine | The Debts | The Break
A Letter | A Surprise Letter | The Literary Muse | The Souvenir | The Questionnaire
The Reconciliation | The Lake | The Final Meets | The Surprise | The Settlements
The Result 

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