A Mithra's summer

Old friends

Chapter 16 A Mithra's summer

At the library, some weeks later, Charles ran into a pleasant surprise.

“Aren't you Charles?” he heard, as he passed someone near the shelves.

He turned to look at a petite lady about his height and age who was smiling as if in recognition.

Then suddenly, he remembered. “ Saint....no.....Santa....wait,” he gestured for time, ' Sunder.” Saved at a moment of the greatest self revelation on true friendships.

“What are you doing here?” she continued, as if all the years, between the time they spent on their undergraduate programs at UCLA, and now, had suddenly disappeared.

“I'm on a UNICEF program, teaching business studies.”

They walked over to the staff cafeteria.

Sunder Kaur was not an Indian. She was Sikh. The community subscribes to man's early experience in the days when the single minded personality of the barbarian, Rama, ruled the day. They had met in UCLA 36 years before. They had both lost their virginity for their first time, that night in Yosemite, when they had gone camping with some other students.

She had kept herself well all these years and Charles couldn't help remembering fondly the great companionship she provided during their college days. But she had returned to Malaysia after the graduation and any suggestion he may have made, that they could carry their relationship into marriage, fell on deaf years.

“I can't disappoint my father,” she finally said, coming close to tears. The Sikh tradition and sampradaya was severe about only marrying another Sikh. They had broke up after that.

“Three kids,” she said, “ two girls and a boy. What about you?”

“One daughter, but I'm separated from the wife. We're both too independent.”

She had returned to college, after a life of the family, to do her masters program. Her husband ran a successful truck rental business.

They spent about half a day chatting and left thereafter.

In the days that followed, Charles began to collect whatever information he could find on the storyline of the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles (TMNT). As a preamble, Charles figured that it was a presentation of the way, the average individual preserves their harmony in society.

 

This is illustrated by the master of the turtles, the venerable Splinter. The master is a giant rat. In the annals of the legend of Siva's son, Ganesha, he battles a rat constantly, who tries to steal from him in terms of his learning and claims that such knowledge is the property of someone else.

For both of them, as are the practices of our society, learning is undertaken on a unconscious or subconscious manner. The conscious, is an instrument that serves the 5 senses of the body and may be relied upon for an independent second opinion, on issues undertaken by the unconscious.

In the case of TMNT, the master is served by not one, but 4 members of their group, representing in effect, the 4 major cultural divisions in the world. In a broad summary of the message, the human condition is described as being unconscious and relating to 4 divisions of itself in its world experience.

In the full development of the human condition, the position reverses itself. The human is the conscious and he supports the activities of the 4 different members of his experience, who represent the world. Each of these is 4 members are drawn from a historical time line in the world.

Freud referred to this condition, as it is practiced in the world and therefore did not restrict the definition of sanity to one fixed world view.

With the brief, Charles had a way to design a research study that would indicate how the mind swings like a pendulum, and then reverses itself, for this achievement.

The phone rang. It was Sunder.

“What are you doing?” she asked.

“Nothing much,” he replied.

They met up for drinks, at her suggestion, in the resort area in the northern part of Malacca. Both knew what was to follow.

As they undressed in one of the rooms, Charles started to feel a little strange. She realized he couldn't.

“Not the same ' devil-may-care ' Charles,” she said.

“I grew up, “ he replied.

She didn't seem upset, but it was as if, she found an answer to something she was looking for. Charles recalled how the Gurkhas of Nepal would not put back a drawn kukri, without it drawing blood. He felt the same way.

They compromised by leaning back to back and got it off in the opposite direction. It was highly stimulating, especially in the place where the sun don't shine. It was a new experience for both of them and while it wasn't the proverbial cigar, it bridged many different sensations of the human experience, without having to live in a farm.

They left together. She said that she had never cheated on her husband before, but something that was remnant of their own relationship previously, had been in that way, persistent. Charles reminded her that the incident may not qualify as an infringement of the usual rules.

On his way back, the sky broke and the rain fell in torrents. Charles was suddenly reminded of an ancient friend who had given him a present of the golden scarab.

Sunder never called again.

Reviews

[patricia]

This was a brilliant chapter, whilst still packing it with great knowledge, it was also very human, and tastefully described. Loved it. Thankyou.