The Tulu Girl

7/27/2019 The Tulu Girl

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The Tulu Girl

“A thing of beauty is a joy forever .”

John Keats

If I were to think of a world , where being innocent was the worst of all the crimes,

where being friendly meant being branded a hooligan, and being kind meant inviting

hatred, then late Thomas More, had he been alive today, would have certainly

brought upon me the same fate that met him. But even though as wild and

inhumane as it may seem, my imagination has every word of justification to be put,

in support of such a thought.

One shouldn’t be surprised by my figments. We are living in a world where each day,

a new lesson on how to terrorize our own brothers and sisters, is propagated much

easier than the lessons of compassion. We forget or rather ignore appreciating

people, but inundate others with criticism. We fear love and being loved, and all we

care about in our life is, winning over things. But we rarely win something, while in

progress invariably losing ourselves. We are all aware of these issues, but choose to

ignore them. It is not my forte to discuss on ways to counter these matters. My onlythought was to put light upon a subject of high importance, but sadly, highly

undervalued.

In spite of these depressing times, we do find times to cherish, enjoy and absorb

those little moments of happiness and joy that come around us. Even those

“significant” occasions of our life help us, because we project them outwards and

dunk our sorrows and miseries deep and safely in them. The result is an ever happy

image of ours, in front of the outside world.

Being an ordinary boy with usual problems at all the usual places, my idea of

enjoying life was getting unusually dull with each day. With an uncertain reason, and

even more uncertain solution, my life seemed to be transforming into more

mechanical, thereby justifying the engineering branch I chose to pursue. It was not

that I was unfortunate. I was blessed with all the comforts my well-wishers could



afford. My actions complemented their expectations. I was satisfied in their eyes. But

there wasn’t any satisfaction in real. A huge unwanted disappointment loomed all

around.

And it is at these times, when you start being skeptical about every other thing yousee, that the universe really waves a wand in your favor. It makes you get involve

with people, places, things or a combination of these, called incidents. Everything

that happens to us is a combination of these magical incidents which shape up

ultimately to a better solution. In my case, the magic didn’t bear the solution, but the

solution was truly magical.

The scenario for the solution came along a friend of mine, who introduced this

person, who was later going to be magical in my life. A young lively girl, she was part

of an assignment my friend had designed. And courtesy the mindful universe, I was

involved with the assignments too. At first, as is customary, we got to know each

other. Our thoughts collided; some remained inert while others coalesced. She

usually kept everything to herself, but my inquisitive mind, was always desperate to

know more about her. Her amazing quality of appropriate speaking made me realize

the kind of talk-tank I was. Then, there were numerous occasions wherein I

discovered things about her.

Someone was right when he said “W e are always seeking our wishes within others”.

Truly agreed, when I was starting to see what I wanted myself within her. I came to

know that she was from a Tulu Brahmin family. Although such a fact didn’t seem

relevant to me, the idea that a person is what he is shaped into made me feel much

more proud about her. Her reserved nature contradicted her idea of enjoying life.

She would never miss an opportunity in doing something she wanted to do. Her

silence contrasted her liveliness. Her voice was light and bore grace. I could sense the

calmness in her, even when she was at a distance. The calmness in her made me

realize that I was too busy in missing out real things in life. I was in awe of her

academic skills. She was never amongst diligent, studious group, but fared well

above those who were in the group. She cared for her parents, like all of us, and, I

believe that is what attributed to her reserve nature in some way. I found she was

with herself, even in the company of her friends. I would lose myself in a crowd in a

whisker, but for her, everything was under control.



Her smile was unusually elegant. I suppose there would be another rendering of

literature describing her smile. But for the time being, I would summarize it as

blissful. At times, when I was frazzled, it was her smile alone that allayed my

exhaustion. And this was the same with all her acquaintances.

My senses started accentuating her presence. Her presence breathed serenity. Her

temperament was a benchmark for people like me who were infamous for our

carriage. She was not like us. Over time I realized that she was a good friend, a good

person altogether, who would comfort me in times of sorrow, compliment me in

success, and correct me in shortcomings.

It took me some time to realize that she was actually one of those moments which I

had talked about earlier. Those moments come in the lives of people, wherein they

don’t consider their miseries and woes over their happiness and start living their

lives with zeal.

My thoughts or rather my descriptions may seem fairly physical and materialistic. If

so, then my readers would find it difficult to comprehend the point. The truth is that,

she had an indelible mark on me. A mark which was beyond the physical and

materialistic factors. There was something amazing about this Tulu girl. Above her

physical beauty and charm, there was an inherent exquisiteness in her. A radiant

field around her, which if struck would make the person feel prosperous, and so

justifying her name. Slowly and steadily, I realized that even though she was no more

a human than all of us, she was different. And ultimately, I inferred that my magical

source of solution was in fact this Tulu girl.

Somewhere I wanted to limit myself and not go beyond a limit. Only thing I cared

about was her happiness. She was a source of immaculate happiness. And when I

was lamenting about life being so dull and non-happening, I was made to meet this

lovely girl, who made me realize that there is happiness even in the little things we

do, and that we decide our state of happiness.

I don’t profess the notion that the Tulu girl might not have had any problems at all. .

She obviously did have, as we all did. But the spectacular thing was that, perhaps her

problems contributed in shaping her the way she was. And that too positively. Unlike

most of us, who fail to exploit our miseries into strengths. Like most of us, she might



have found ways to conceal them. She never wished to see them come in between

those little moments. She chose to be happy and she remained so.

And so with time, I realized that life is certainly more than just crying over things. If it

was not for the Tulu girl, I would have certainly wept my whole life and that too forunwarranted matters.

My allegiance with the Tulu girl continues till today. And throughout these days,

there hasn’t been a shade of drop in her charm and beauty. While all other appeals

were short lived, her flair withstood the time and stands inspiring to others, much

the way it was, in my miseries and misfortunes. I could never tell her as the effect

she had on me. May be someday I will let her know. I am unaware as to whether she

appreciates this nature of herself. I suppose not. I am not sure as to whether she will

remember me or not, but it will be an ingratitude from my part to forget a person

who brought a remarkable difference in my life.

Perhaps keeping in mind my comment on a fictitious world where people who share

compassion are punished, the Tulu girl would be hardest sufferer. And probably now

I feel as to why late Thomas More would want me beheaded, as picturing the worst

for the most beautiful person is definitely sinful and warrants even worse than the

worst.

The idea is not the glorification of an individual, but the values and qualities the

individual stands for. For me, the Tulu girl is a pretty tale of humane qualities. On

closing notes remember to look clearly amongst you, for there is someone who could

be the source of your inspiration, your happiness, above all, your thing of beauty.

Anand T R

S7 ME

RIT .

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The Tulu Girl