Wednesday, January 21, 2009

Finding Joshua

It’s the other side of the Red Sea; Moses has his hands raised to the heavens in prayer. With his gaze skyward, he seems lost in this string of undecipherable murmurings. A monotone. The murmuring ends and dollops of air is sucked in only to be followed by the next string. Joshua is standing a step below. He sees the drops of sweat running down Moses’s brow. As he looks at Moses with concern he notices that the tired old man can barely keep his hands raised. It looked as if Moses was pulling some invisible lever in the sky. ‘God must have given him access code to that lever.’ ‘Maybe the code keeps changing every ten seconds and those strange mumbling must be the code.’ ‘He must be saying it aloud so that he doesn’t forget.’ ‘Like how I call out to each of my sheep loudly. So that I don’t forget their names.’ ‘Isfahan, Aaron, Ebola, Tehila.....’ thought Joshua, as he watched Moses intently. His heart went out to the old man. But this is the only way the sea shall part. The people haven’t all reached the right side. ‘Will he be able to hold on till they all get to this side? Is it his raised hands, that’s keeping the sea parted?’ ‘I think it is. And I think he needs help.’
His eyes cringes as the setting sun lets the deep orange rays fall ever so gently on to him. Joshua once again sees the strain etched on the old man’s face. ‘I better help him’ , mutters Joshua under his breath, So Joshua rushes down the hill to find some sticks to support the old man’s tiring arms. He rushes back with two sturdy looking drift wood. ‘Must’ve floated ashore from some wreckage’, thought Joshua. He fixes the wood right under the old man’s armpit. ‘That should give him some support now' muttered Joshua to himself. But what was meant to be merely whisper came out a little too loud. Enough to be heard by Moses, who suddenly realised why he was feeling stronger. His eyes brimmed with tears and it glistened like diamonds in the twilight. Joshua smiled and nodded at Moses. The old man went back to his murmuring trance. The sea remained parted. The people got to the other side unscathed.
This is one particular part of the bible I see in Technicolor like a movie. My rendition of the scenes, are a little more detailed than the ‘Ten Commandments’. I see this in my mind’s theatre almost every other day. After this I remember all those who God send to part the seas for me.
When I had to get admission in college with my rather pathetic mark list, Eddy parted the sea for me.
When I was in a sticky mess of controversies and mishaps, Manoj parted the sea for me. When I longed to go to Austria, Rajesh (my love) parted the sea. God send me several Moses....and if there was a Moses, there must’ve been a Joshua....and I am trying to find my Joshua....

12 comments:

Anonymous said...

Hi,
nice thoughts. wonderful combination of words. I hope you'll find your Joshua. Maybe it's your son. Let him grow.

Now, time for me to be Confucius.
1) Your prose isn't divided into paras. Is this deliberate?
2) This one is the engineer in me talking. The wooden support under Moses' armpits wouldn't have served the purpose. Joshua should have put it under his elbow.

Shalini George said...

Wonderful piece of advice. Most of all thankyou for making your presence felt. I shal correct the 'physics' of a mistake immediatley. always bad in science.

Unknown said...

Very interesting piece Shalini...U sure know how to throw light at a situation with a refreshingly different perspective and rare honesty ,keep up the blogs ( u have a natural flair for writing)

Shalini George said...

Leena, Thankyou so much for making your presence felt. most of all i am glad you think that iam honest in my blogging. Actually that is my one and only brief.this space gives me the courage to be everything i long to be...the freedom to express my thought as it is....therefore there is nothing else you can be other than honest....and you just gave an inspiration for my next blog perhaps.

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josh said...

Offo baba..Instead of waiting, just take an auto. I'll be around Modern Bakery at Edappally - Joshua

No offence, k? Your post reminded me of that old air-condition smell (a chilling cold sensation that comes from a closed hall room sprayed with air freshener) in the dark of Sridhar theatre where I sat by my dad. I must have been ten or so. I remember Moses' fury as he smashes the tablet of the commandments on the rock, disgusted of the pagans' ways of living.

Your thoughts are seeped in your subjective assimilation of those chapters in the OT. You love the scripture, don't you? Have you had a chance to see a painting in one of those old illustrated Bibles, where the grand old man Moses sits looking at the Dead Sea? My dad, who was a painter, left with me this grandest of images, moments, in which he described how Moses died upon a mount, sitting, gazing grandly at a sea. I carried that vision for long. It's still with me and I refuse the official version that he died on Nebo, overseeing the promised land. Isn't that a wonderful way of dying, while sitting and gazing at a sea?

Name Jesus, they say is the Hellenic version of the name Joshua. Perhaps you've already found your Joshua.

Shalini George said...

Joshua :) Am not sure which was the part you didn't want me to get offended with...The one about finding you, or about my post remindin you of the stale smell of the Sidhar theatre ;) Just kidding!

My imagination runs amock when it comes to the old testament. whenever i read the OT, it conjures such vivid images and colours. And for some strange reason, i have it in my head that OT people are all giants.I rever the scriptures. But I am more of a NT person. The OT leaves me bewildered and sometimes in a state of confusion....Yes! these thoughts are subjective, for my assimilation tends to be romanticised for better digestion of the lines. IT's deliberately so.

And Yes! Maybe i have found my Joshua. Thankyou!

mikimbizii said...

Speechless, envious... this is brilliant!

Shalini George said...

Not at all dear...can't even compare it with your sparkling prose.

jose said...

This is not intended to be a sales talk. Though it can be easily mistaken as one.Yet I wanted to share with you how Ginette found her Joshua.

Dear Sir:

After visiting some of your properties, Coconut Lagoon and Marari Beach, in 2000 with my husband who, unfortunately died in 2003, I thought I should ask Ayurveda to help me to recover some of my lost happiness. I came to know about Kalari Kovilakom in 2005 through an article in the French press. Then I spent 15 days in this wonderful place, (looking like a monastery, which I needed at that time) and discovered that our european medicines could not help me in my search of self knowledge. Ayurveda in Kalari helped me a lot and I found there a lot of human comprehension, and my own way of life changed.

At that time Swaswara was to open in 2006. I then decided to continue my ayurvedic experiences and booked Swaswara for one month treatment. In view of the results on my mind and body, I realized that I should go back in 2007, and then in 2008.

I am now back to France after my third one month stay in Swaswara which I simply call Paradise. I wish I could express my feelings but, very simply, I just found a family with the whole team working there : Anjali and Sam, the Front Office, the doctors in Ayurveda and the staff, the staff in house keeping, the restaurant, the kitchen etc.... They are all my brothers, sisters, children and grandchildren. I had great pleasure in offering a meal to the whole staff and had lunch with them in the mess on my birthday 9th January. I knew that 2 years before, they just made my life so happy, organizing Xmas, New Year and my birthday party. They are just GREAT. I know my opinion is shared among the majority of guests. Some of them were also coming back for the third time. Why ?

When talking to the staff, they all seem very happy to work with Anjali and Sam and realize that there is not any other hotel where Management is very close to them. Most of them come from Kerala, which means far from their respective families but they enjoy working in Swaswara where, like me, they found a family.

Regarding the property, the rooms, the restaurants, the ayurvedic treatment every place is Clean, Green and Healthy which is what you wish to offer to all your guests. Isn't it ?

Please convey my feelings to everyone in Swaswara. I am already planning to go back in November 2009.

With best regards, GIN PROUST

Anonymous said...

wonderful...

god is your joshua... he lifts you and cradles you...

i enjoyed everybit of it... could actually visualise the whole scene when u narrated it

Shalini George said...

Thankyou so much Chriz. and nice meeting you.