Encounter #4 – ‘Mr. Kutti, The Coin Hunter’

Feb, 2011,
Mamallapuram.

A fine morning sunrise in Mamallapuram; that was the time i was roaming from nowhere to nowhere in
in search of something that i never knew. In one of those searches i was in Mamallapuram with one of my co-searcher Anand.
We just landed there when the Sun came to wish us a fine morning.

After we broke our fast, we headed to the Govardhana-Krishna carved sculpture. In fact i didn’t know, that it was Govardhana hills that Krish is holding.
I was figuring out each and every character in that sculpture. When am done with that, i could sense somebody is approaching me. Just turned to figure who it was.
It was a kid of age around 5 who was an alms collector out there.

The Coin Hunter

I just asked him, “What’s your name?”

“Hum… Kuttii”

“Didn’t go school?’

“Nooo..”, he replied as if he didn’t know what a school was.

“Had break fast?”

“Yes”.

“What do you want?”

“…”, he raised his hands at me for his alms.

I just randomly put my hands in my pocket and grabbed something.
It happened to be a gold colour 5rupee coin. (By then the government had introduced gold colour 5 rupee coins).
I just placed it in his hands, and here he came up with that kid’s spirit and ran with a dancing gait shouting,

“Ai…!! Thanga Kaasu, Thanga Kaasu..!! ( he shouted Gold Coin, Gold coin)”.

I stood still watching his gait.

Kutti’s Triumphant Gait

Kutti, a lasting impression.

Mr.Lunatic.

Photo Courtesy : Anand Nagarajan.

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Bubble #1 – ‘The Prophet’ and ‘Me’

“What the hell? Couldn’t understand even a page”.This was my first thought  when i first opened that book.

I had bought that book in a ‘used books shop’ that Sunday.

I had just opened that book, and couldn’t get along with the words and the version of English  the author had used.

I could only see some mysterious paintings on one side and a cluster of mysterious words on the other.

The book was so mysterious; I just tried crossing a page and couldn’t resit any further; just threw the book away and went off.

Few weeks later,

Unfortunately the same book caught my eyes, with all my hesitation i took it again to read.

No use, threw the book again even before crossing the very first page.

It had happened almost seven such times (i guess seven, it could be even more.. 🙂 ),

but it wasn’t the same the eighth time.

Somehow, i managed to cross that legendary first page and i felt there is something waiting for me in there.

As i felt, the book unfolded an ineffable joy, beauty, wisdom and most importantly its own questions.

The book am talking about is ‘The Prophet’ by my beloved Kahlil Gibran.

Kahlil-Gibran

I started adoring the book and its contents a lot. Ever since from then, i ain’t the same ‘Me’.

Every morning, i woke and read that from the very first page till a page more than where i left the previous day.

And even now, it remains as the best thing that I’ve ever read. I can’t write a review for that book, even if I try it would be like a blind explaining the beauty to an other blind.

It is a beautiful experience than just a book and i could see ‘The Prophet’ walking with ‘Me’ every now and then.

For those of you who would like to meet the prophet in ebook form : http://www.holybooks.com/the-prophet-by-khalil-gibran/

With all gratitude…

Mr.Lunatic