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Page 2 of 3
"Even though , he is my son , he was acting as if he is my dad. I wrote a letter back to them addressing the Agarwal girl.I wrote , 'Dear , I know you have a large swimming pool at home. But dont let Ajith drown in it. He is bad at swimmming.'"
I couldnt find any joke in those lines , still I joined the old professor in laughing loudly.
"How come you have such a good english?", I was getting curious. He stopped laughing and looked at me.
"I mean, you have never gone out of kerala. You are a professor in Physics and still you got excellent english". I made sure that I'm not offending him by my curiousity. He smiled gently and answered.
"English had always been there in my blood. When I was 12 years old, I could recite 80 poems without a single mistake. I was a fan of Robert Frost. Maybe I was born with English in me. You tell me , whats the spelling of 'grammar'?"
Oops. That took me totally off guard. I wanted more time , so I asked back "What?"
"Spell 'grammar'", he asked again and this time 'grammar' was pronounced with a British Accent. He added, "I can give you different pronunciations if you are interested."
"G-R-A-M-M-A-R" , I spelled it , praying all the while to make it right.
"You are right ! Most people go wrong over the word itself. Now , define grammar. What is grammar?".
"Grammar ...hmm... you can is the rules that helps us to connect english words correctly."
The look on his face said it all. He was totally disappointed by my definition.
"Yeah, you can say that . Still its not complete. Grammar is the collection of rules, that defines how words are to be joined , to make a meaningful sentence. See there is three parts in that definition."
He used his hands to dissect the definition, stressing on each seperate parts. I couldnt stop from noticing that his watch was old and worn out. I rubbed my nose unintensionally, but that caught his attention.
"I had a couple of pegs before coming here. I hope you are not offended".
He said that with utmost concern which prevented me from saying , "Yes".
"No , not at all. You are a brahmin, right? How come you are into drinking ?" , I asked .
He patted my shoulder before answering that. " What your name?, or forget it . I'll call you 'Ajith', my youngest son. You know, you are very sharp and has excellent analytical skills."
I wanted to say that it goes with my job, but no words came out . Because I needed an answer to my question.
"Ajith, who is a Brahmin ?", he started with a question that caught my attention.
"Brahmin, is someone who has brahma jnanam- the supreme knowledge. Anyone can become a brahmin, if you devote your time and energy to attain that knowledge. Once attained , its his duty to pass it on. It has nothing to do with the job you do or family that you are born to..."
"..but sadly, our ancestors created castism to satiate their own personal desires. The brahmins wanted to enjoy the authority and power , so they made sure knowledge is only passed to those who are in the family. The others, Kshathriyas , Vaishyas and Shudras were kept in dark about the knowledge. Still few people like Naraanath Branthan , Sankaracharya attained the knowledge and they were quickly elevated to God like figures. If knowledge was free for all , we would not have faced all our present problems. Those assholes who created the demarcation are the reasons for everything. "
He stopped abruptly and asked , "By the way , you are ? "
"I'm a nair, by birth", understanding his question without much explanation.
"hmmm , my wife is also a nair women. Do you know,'Gayatri Mantra'?" 
"Good, do you recite it regularly ?"
"Yes"
"What does it mean ? "
I gave a sheepish smile.
"There you go !!", He went on to explain each and every word in the mantra. The complete meaning would be
"O God, Thou art the giver of life, the remover of pain and sorrow, the bestower of happiness; O Creator of the Universe, may we receive Thy supreme, sin destroying light; may Thou guide our intellect in the right direction."
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