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Mantri Pragada Markandeyulu Follow

Mar 2019

Wings of Love (5000+ Words)

WINGS OF LOVE

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There are five main characters in this Story. (1) Krishna, 27, Civil Engineer (2) Shankar, 27, Management – MBA- Degree holder (3) Ms. Julie, 23, Management – MBA – Degree holder, old Saint Guruji, (70), palmist, astrologer and philosopher and Gopi, 25, son of a Cobbler

It is a city and thickly populated residential locality. Two friends, Krishna, a qualified Civil Engineer and Shankar, a qualified Management degree holder lived with their family people and was neighbors.

Both families live separately, side by side. These two friends are in 27 years age group. Both earn their lively-hood by doing small real estate and construction business. Both families participate in all the house-hold functions and attend to marriages of their known persons. They lived happily. Krishna earned substantial money and acquired own building and car.

On one day, due to election season, a well known person of that city floats a new political party for contesting elections. This new political party invited all the people to enroll membership. These two friends who live as neighbors enrolled their names in the new political party. Civil engineer Krishna, who was showed much interest in politics, worked hard for the party and the party gives a responsible position as an important functionary. During election days, Krishna worked hard along with others and canvassed for the party. Krishna was nominated to contest the elections gets through the local elections.

Krishna earned some good amount of money through pyravi (negotiations) and as middleman. Krishna purchased land around 1000 square yards and constructed four storied building with ultra modern design in a span of two years. He even purchased brand new car. Krishna and his family members shifted from their old house to the new building.

Krishna could not spare time to meet Shankar and also stopped speaking. Shankar during the course of his business transactions, lost heavy amounts and gone red and could not recover and confronted many an impediments.

In the same locality, Shankar's college mate and classmate, Ms. Julie aged 23 years old with 5 Feet 6 inches height with very fair complexion and an out spoken personality completed her Master of Business Administration (MBA), resides near to Shankar's house. Ms. Julie has an ingenious vision. Shankar, 27, is a 5 Feet-10 Inches, well built with healthy physique.

Ms. Julie looked beautiful and a replica of Ms. Merlyn Monroe, one of the beautiful actress of golden era. Ms. Julie, a good singer and learnt vocal and instrumental music right from her childhood. She gave few performances on the stage and TV.

Ms. Julie also gave few short lectures before stage performances. She tell friends and people that –

"it is good to be in right time, in right dress and in right mode at right place. But, one is to be better late for any type of functions/programs/events/parties than never and at any cost, one is to be present, at any time, on the day of the program than absent".

She once said "INCESSANT MUSIC PRACTICE CAN GIVE ENERGY, RELAXATION AND PEACE OF MIND". She says that – "Our Body, Mind and Soul are the gift of the Nature. To keep perfectness of these, one need to meet & keep up deep involvement in extra-curricular activities like music, dance, arts, photography, culture, sports, and martial arts apart from basic & professional education which ultimately preserves a person's physical health & thinking power in ship-shape condition with brilliance of mind & with an enormous tongue power. These activities will maintain body & mind in good & sober activation which could lead to perfect fitness of health at all times; thereby the man or woman feels pleasantness with instant resourceful reserve energy".

Shankar and Ms. Julie had close association, good rapport and understanding. Both planned to become life partners soon, though they belong to different casts. Shankar belongs to Gouda family and Ms. Julie, a converted Christian family. On few occasions, she visited Shankar's house to attend various functions. Engineer Krishna too had some thought on Ms. Julie and wanted to express his feelings to her, at appropriate time, and also to Shankar. Krishna always has crow-shouting habits.

Every day Shankar used to see and think of Krishna's new four storied building and living style. The same thing Shankar used to discuss with Ms. Julie. But, due to Shankar's financial constraints, the understanding between Shankar and Ms. Julie to get married has been put off, for some more time.

One aged Saint Guruji at a nearby Temple, a well known and experienced palmist, astrologist and philosopher, used to observe Shankar who used to look at Krishna's building every day. One day the aged Saint Guruji asked Shankar - why you are seeing everyday this new building? What is the matter? The aged Saint Guruji asked Shankar, if you want money, gold, silver or property, I will get you and show you many ways. Shankar replied, no Guruji, I do not need anything. Then the aged Saint told Shankar, you need to become like your neighbor friend Krishna, who has built the four storied building? Shankar replied to Saint Guruji, no. Shankar told Saint Guruji that Krishna had illegal earnings and black money through "Pyravis" (negotiations) and back-door methods.

Saint Guruji told Shankar that the fate of a person cannot be changed and told him that a day will come for a down-fall, if he does not mend his behavioral attitudes and crooked thinking. Saint Guruji also told Shankar that one cannot change buffalo-minded people. Saint Guruji also told that luck knocks the door only once in life time and at that time, one has to utilize opportunities. Then Shankar, self-advocated, kept silent, mum and never watched Krishna's building from the following day. Saint Guruji briefed Shankar and Ms. Julie about the LIFE'S PHILOSOPHY.

QUOTE - "Nothing lasts forever in this world. The philosophy is that, one comes in to this world of living from the nature and vanish & disappear into natures fold. Only thing is the living and longevity time-frame fixed by the Nature of God, in each individual living case is not known to anybody on this earth. As per the Nature of God directions, every human being is written with a life pert-chart, almanac and a life identity consisting of sufferance's, bad things, good things, troubles & enjoyments, small living & high living. As far as the human being case, the Nature of God has fixed a maximum of 100 years living life span depending upon place, environment and geographical weather conditions. Life is a cyclic process of birth and death. It will take it's own course, turns and events during this process. One should not short-close life due to any type of reason. One has to take things in righter perspective angle.

The God given Body, Mind and Soul with "PANCHENDRIA's" 'accelerate & function' with the 'support and blessing' of "PANCHA BHUTAS" (Air, Water, Fire, Earth and Sky) is a gift of beautiful "Human Life". This "Human Life" is pure, precious, valuable and priceless. One has to work for the betterment of humanity, mankind and for preservation of human values. "SERVICE TO MANKIND AND NATURE IS SERVICE TO GOD". To think in terms of "what one has done well to the Humanity, Mankind and the Society" is important rather than what the Society has done to oneself.

Everyone has to obey directions of the Nature's orders. One cannot escape fate written on the fore-head by The God/The Almighty/The Lord Christ. What one has done well to the people and community is more important than what people and community have done to oneself. It is every body's duty to preserve the nature's beauty and not to pollute geographical things like air, water, and fire etc. –UNQUOTE".

This impressed Shankar and Ms. Julie, a lot.

One Starbucks Café is located nearby residences of Shankar and Julie. Both used to visit this Starbucks Café regularly. She always used to carry a hand bag and used to wear Punjabi Dress with scarf. On few occasions, Shankar and Ms. Julie used to meet at this Starbucks Café to exchange ideas and used to discuss their daily problems.

On one fine day, she sat in the Starbucks Café sipping her coffee and staring out the window. The blood stained knife lay next to her hand bag, covered with her blue silk scarf and was 1

Mantri Pragada Markandeyulu Follow

Mar 2019

Wings of Love (5000+ Words)

WINGS OF LOVE

(5000+ Words)

Best for Movie/Short Film making.

Copy Right Story

Ms. Julie also gave few short lectures before stage performances. She tell friends and people that –

This impressed Shankar and Ms. Julie, a lot.

Mantri Pragada Markandeyulu Follow

Mar 2019

Wings of Love (5000+ Words)

WINGS OF LOVE

(5000+ Words)

Best for Movie/Short Film making.

Copy Right Story

Ms. Julie also gave few short lectures before stage performances. She tell friends and people that –

This impressed Shankar and Ms. Julie, a lot.

On one fine day, she sat in the Starbucks Café sipping her coffee and staring out the window. The blood stained knife lay next to her hand bag, covered with her blue silk scarf and was feeling

On one fine day, she sat in the Starbucks Café sipping her coffee and staring out the window. The blood stained knife lay next to her hand bag, covered with her blue silk scarf and was feeling nervous, as if she lost something. She got upset and was feeling uneasy and little-bit perturbed. She took-out her mobile phone from her bag and dialed Shankar's telephone number and asked him to come to Starbucks Coffee Café at once, without informing any details. On Shankar's meeting Ms. Julie at the Starbucks Coffee Café, she was weeping and had tears in her eyes, expressed the ghastly incident that took place with engineer Krishna who compelled Ms. Julie to marry him. She told that Krishna tried & attempted to molest her and told that Krishna planned to trouble Shankar, if she did not marry him. She told Shankar that she had heated arguments with Krishna on this one sided love. She also explained Shankar that a stiff tussle took place with Krishna, and on several occasions Krishna threatened her, if she tries to move with Shankar. She took-out the "blood stained knife like device from the blue silk scarf" and showed it to Shankar, without anybody's notice. However, she and Shankar washed the 'blood stained knife' and 'blue silk scarf' at an unknown place to avoid complications later.

She narrated the incident slowly after sipping coffee in the Starbucks Cafe. She told that the Son of a Cobbler, Gopi, aged 25, years having a small shoe repairing shop opposite to Krishna's house saw all the confrontation and tussle with Krishna. On hearing the shouting's and screams of Ms. Julie, Gopi came from his shop with a small knife like device, which he was working with that knife at that particular time, intervened and told Krishna to be careful while speaking to her and tried to pacify both of them. But, Krishna, in a fit of rage beat Gopi very badly. The enraged Gopi, in a flick moment and in a fit of emotion, took-out the small knife like device, swiped & scratched at the back-side of Krishna threatening Krishna with dire consequences. A small line cut with two inch length, one millimeter deep cut took place. Blood was profusely oozing & bleeding and spilled on the floor. In the tussle and arguments, Ms Julie's 'blue silk scarf' fell on the ground during this incident while taking out her mobile phone from her hand bag to speak to Shankar. In the meantime, Gopi instantaneously took-out the blood stained small knife which fell on the ground at the incident spot, was wrapped in the 'blue silk scarf' out of fear, anxiety and kept in the hand bag of Ms. Julie, in a flick second. Some blood stains appeared on the floor at the incident spot near the house of Krishna. Ms. Julie left the spot immediately and went to Starbucks Café located at nearby area. She was sipping her coffee, which was ordered by her and staring out the window looking for Shankar's arrival.

Injured Krishna got self first-aid treatment at the house itself, fearing enquiries from hospital authorities, Police verifications and further complaints & complications about the incident. Krishna feared Police filing any FIR, if Ms. Julie or Gopi gives a complaint. Krishna cleaned & washed the blood stained floor to avoid any impediments. Gopi left the place immediately to his native place fearing trouble, if Ms. Julie files a complaint to Police.

Shankar came to the Starbucks Café immediately after the phone call from Ms. Julie. She explained the entire incident which took place near Krishna's place. Shankar cooled down her and discussed about the course of action on this incident. Ms. Julie and Shankar decided not to give any complaint to Police about the incident, fearing Court cases and unnecessary publicity. Police later came to know about this incident and summoned Krishna, Shankar, Ms. Julie, and Gopi and enquired details. Police noted the information in their books, though Shankar and Ms. Julie did not give any complaint. Ms. Julie later narrated the entire incident about threatening, trying for molestation, abusing sexually and using un-parliamentary language on her by Krishna.

Later in due course, Police produced Krishna and Gopi in the Court. The case proceedings went on for a year, but due to lack of evidences both were acquitted. In due course of time, Krishna's assets and money were seized by the Income-Tax Department, Anti Corruption Bureau and CID, due to his illegal black money earning through back-doors methods.

Engineer Shankar lost his property, and was imprisoned in four wall jail for few years.

Krishna did not heed advises on various issues of Saint Guruji, deaf-eared and not followed any common minimum life principles, because of his money and power minded behavioral attitudes, Krishna landed in trouble and lost everything.

Shankar and Ms. Julie gave values to Saint Guruji's advises, which lead both of them untroubled prospective progress.

Gopi shifted his Shoe repairing shop to another faraway place.

Ms. Julie, later married Shankar and left for Bangalore in search of a software job and settled in an IT field, as both were qualified Management graduates with some of software packages, and flew to US through their company sponsorship.

The couple got blessed with twin babies, a son and daughter. In few years of time, Mr. & Mrs. Julie Shankar acquired land and constructed their own beautiful building in their old local area. The genuine, pure, and confident wings of love, as per God's Wish, obliged the new couple.

The aged Saint Guruji told Mr. & Mrs. Julie Shankar to help and work for Less Privileged and specially abled children/people at appropriate time, wished & blessed the young new couple – Shankar & Julie – all the best in life. Mr. & Mrs. Julie Shankar instantaneously gave an assurance to open a Trust in India, at an appropriate time, exclusively meant for Less Privileged children and contribute to the Trust some amount from their monthly income regularly. Also promised to Saint Guruji that funds for the Trust will be raised through singing programs & event management programs for which Saint Guruji felt very happy and blessed Mr. & Mrs. Julie Shankar whole-heartedly.

Then Saint Guruji shifted his base to Varanasi (Kasi) to settle-down and to lead the rest of his life. The Saint Guruji's words and blessings reverberated in the minds of Julie & Shankar later, whenever they think of old memories.

************************

Mantri Pragada Markandeyulu

Hyderabad-India

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Interesting Literature

14 Classic Must-Read Poems about Plague and Pestilence

interestingliterature

3 years ago

Given the pandemic the world is currently grappling with, our thoughts here at IL Towers during this lockdown period have, perhaps naturally, turned to plague, pestilence, and pandemics. How did poets of previous generations deal with, and respond to, plague and mass illness? How are poets of today writing about the current pandemic? Here are some of the best poems to deal with this terrifying topic. We'd like to thank Caroline Collingridge for suggesting a number of these poems to us here at IL Towers; a poem by Caroline, reflecting the mood during the current pandemic, concludes this selection.

Lucretius, from De Rerum Natura. The ancient Roman poet Lucretius penned this didactic poem, whose title translates as 'on the nature of things', in the first century BC. Lucretius set about writing his long poem in order to explain Epicurean philosophy to a Roman audience, but his poem also contains these lines on the Plague of Athens, which conclude the poem: 'Mortal miasma in Cecropian lands / Whilom reduced the plains to dead men's bones …'

Thomas Nashe, 'A Litany in Time of Plague'.

Adieu, farewell earth's bliss!

This world uncertain is:

Fond are life's lustful joys,

Death proves them all but toys.

None from his darts can fly;

I am sick, I must die—

Lord, have mercy on us!

Rich men, trust not in wealth,

Gold cannot buy you health;

Physic himself must fade;

All things to end are made;

The plague full swift goes by;

I am sick, I must die—

Lord, have mercy on us!

So begins this poem which Nashe wrote in 1593, when an outbreak of bubonic plague closed the London playhouses (Shakespeare would take advantage of the closure to write his narrative poems Venus and Adonis and The Rape of Lucrece, and probably most of his sonnets). The repeated refrain at the end of each stanza – 'Lord, have mercy on us!' – strikes at the heart as much now as it must have done over 400 years ago.

John Davies, from 'The Triumph of Death'. Davies (1569-1626) was another poet to live through the plague outbreaks in London in the 1590s:

London now smokes with vapours that arise

From his foule sweat, himselfe he so bestirres:

'Cast out your dead!' the carcase-carrier cries,

Which he by heapes in groundlesse graves interres

Now like to bees in summer's heate from hives,

Out flie the citizens, some here, some there;

Some all alone, and others with their wives:

With wives and children some flie, all for feare!

Here stands a watch, with guard of partizans,

To stoppe their passages, or to or fro,

As if they were not men, nor Christians,

But fiends or monsters, murdering as they go …

Davies' poem captures the lockdown that villages were put under, as well as the sheer scale of destruction: he refers to 'cart-loads' of the 'undigested dead'.

Mary Latter, 'Soliloquy XVI'. Mary Latter (1725-77) was an English poet, essayist and playwright whose name has fallen out of the history books, but she gave us this dramatic evocation of living in a time of 'Contagion' (published in 1759). The soliloquy is reproduced in full below:

(With particular reference to Mrs. ______r and Co.)

Now calumnies arise, and black Reproach

Triumphant croaks aloud, and joyful claps

Her raven wing! Insinuations vile

And slanderous spring from pestilential breath,

And tongues thrice dipped in hell. Contagion foul

Steams from th' infernal furnace, hot and fierce,

And spreads th' infectious influence o'er his fame!

Then each unworthy, ignominious fool,

Each female basilisk with forky sting,

And outward-seeming, heart-unmeaning tear

(Offspring most loathsome of Hypocrisy,

The vile, detested, double-damning sin:

Confusion and perdition overwhelm

And blast them, execrable, into ruin!),

Chin-deep in malice shoot their bitter darts

Of mockery and derision: adding, sly,

Th' invidious wink, the mean, contemptuous leer,

And flouting grin, 'emphatically scornful'.

Nor less th' insidious knave, supremely dull!

Mixture of monkey, crocodile and mole,

Yet stupid as the ostrich, ass and owl;

In high redundance of Typhonic rage,

With harsh stentorian tone, disdainful, flings

Unmerited reflections, vehement, long,

Nonsensical and noisy. Vain, he struts

With domineering insolence replete,

And, lordly, tramples on distress in anguish.

Philip Freneau, 'Pestilence'. Philip Morin Freneau (1752-1832) was an American poet, polemicist, sea captain and newspaper editor who has been dubbed 'The Poet of the American Revolution'. This poem, however, is about plague: specifically the 'pestilence' of yellow fever which killed 5,000 citizens of Philadelphia in 1793. Whilst not technically the most brilliant poem, Freneau's 'Pestilence' does pay tribute to the horror of the disease as it ravaged the new American city:

Hot, dry winds forever blowing,

Dead men to the grave-yards going:

Constant hearses,

Funeral verses;

Oh! what plagues—there is no knowing!

Priests retreating from their pulpits!—

Some in hot, and some in cold fits

In bad temper,

Off they scamper,

Leaving us—unhappy culprits!

Murdo Young, Antonia.

Around that man whose breath is pestilence

They crowd – buy – touch and bear contagion thence.

Behold Affection haste with panting breath,

To bless her children with the feast of – death!

Each fondly presses to her bounteous treat,

And each receives what hunger longs to eat …

Young (c. 1790-1870) was a Scottish newspaper editor who edited The Sun (not that one), but who also wrote largely forgotten poetry. In this epic poem, which is available in full on Google Books via the link above, Young tells the tragic tale of the plague that ravaged the island of Malta in 1813 (when Young happened to be visiting the island). In heroic couplets, Young weaves a narrative poem out of the epidemic. His forgotten poem was published in 1818.

Christina Rossetti, 'The Plague'. Rossetti (1830-94) captures the terrifying suddenness of plague as it gripped the living and rapidly transformed them into the dead – indeed, the 'multitude dead'. This Petrarchan sonnet is included in full below:

'Listen, the last stroke of death's noon has struck—

The plague is come,' a gnashing Madman said,

And laid him down straightway upon his bed.

His writhed hands did at the linen pluck;

Then all is over. With a careless chuck

Among his fellows he is cast. How sped

His spirit matters little: many dead

Make men hard-hearted.— 'Place him on the truck.

Go forth into the burial-ground and find

Room at so much a pitful for so many.

One thing is to be done; one thing is clear:

Keep thou back from the hot unwholesome wind,

That it infect not thee.' Say, is there any

Who mourneth for the multitude dead here?

Tim Dlugos, 'My Death'. Probably the first poem of note to be written in response to the AIDS epidemic of the 1980s, this four-line poem is especially poignant because it was written by a man who would later die of the disease. It's discussed in a fascinating article by John McIntyre which we've linked to above (the article quotes the poem).

Jayne Cortez, 'There It Is'. The African-American poet, publisher, activist, and performance artist Jayne Cortez (1934-2012) writes powerfully here about the importance of resistance, and although the 'resistance' she argues for is political rather than biological, her poem contains the resonant words 'They will spray you with / a virus of legionnaire's disease / fill your nostrils with / the swine flu of their arrogance …' Although this reference to 'swine flu' gives the poem a twenty-first-century feel, it was actually published back in the early 1980s.

Meghan O'Rourke, 'The Night Where You No Longer Live'. O'Rourke is a poet, essayist, and memoirist who was born in Brooklyn, New York in 1976. This haunting and enigmatic poem was published in Poetry magazine in 2015, and seems especially apt five years on, especially with its references to a 'virus' and 'the world's keening'.

Simon Armitage, 'Lockdown'. Written in the last couple of weeks while the current UK Poet Laureate has been on lockdown with his family in his Yorkshire home, 'Lockdown' responds to the current Coronavirus pandemic by going back in time to the plague of 1665 and the self-isolating 'plague village' of Eyam in Derbyshire, England. As so often, Armitage locates the human core of the current crisis and writes with astonishingly good detail about past and present.

Kitty O'Meara, 'And People Stayed Home'.

And people stayed home

and read books and listened

and rested and exercised

and made art and played …

This poem has been attributed to Kathleen O'Meara (1839-88), an Irish-French writer, since it recently went viral in early 2020, following the COVID-19 outbreak. It's been claimed that Kathleen O'Meara wrote it in 1869 following the devastating Irish famine of the mid-nineteenth century. However, the poem sounds far too contemporary to date from the 1860s, and indeed, it's actually far more recent in origin – it was written by Catherine 'Kitty' O'Meara, from Madison, Wisconsin, in 2020.

Laura Kelly Fanucci, 'When This Is Over'.

When this is over, may we never again take for granted

A handshake with a stranger

Full shelves at the store

Conversations with neighbors

A crowded theater

Friday night out …

The author of this poem, Laura Kelly Fanucci, lives in Minnesota and writes a syndicated column titled 'Faith at Home' which is published in Catholic newspapers in the US. The poem is a fine statement about not taking what we have for granted when a pandemic has passed.

Caroline Collingridge, 'Staying In'. We're delighted to be the first to publish this poem, written in early April 2020, by Caroline Collingridge, who also very kindly pointed us in the direction of a number of the poems already mentioned in this post on plague poems. Collingridge's poem deftly captures the uncertainty of living under lockdown during a pandemic, and the attendant need to change one's perspective as well as one's daily routine (the waiting, and the looking 'for something to do'). We'll give Caroline the last word:

Staying In

02.04.20

Staying in

Bringing within

The hopes and whims

Of times gone before

Hoping for

Longing for

Space outside

To breathe in the air

Sitting on

Our cushions upon

Which we sit

Waiting for what?

The end is coming

What is it drumming?

I know it will stop

But how I don't know.

Questioning about

Looking about

For something to do

When I can't go out.

Just sitting on

Wondering on

How to help

us and our planet.

Image: via Wikimedia Commons.