Aura of love

                                     

"Irugu dishti porugu dishti" My mother indulged herself in the act of cleansing my auras which were polluted by the so called evil eyes. I looked at her through groggy eyes which were no better than my desktop processing a forced shutdown. A pumpkin cradled in her pudgy hands with a cake of camphor icing it.  Little does the poor pumpkin know that it is going to have a crash landing at the end of its giant wheel ride.

It is hard to ignore the tongue of flames licking the camphor even with my eyes closed. Flickering and dancing images of what looked remotely like a five headed snake materialized on my retina. I cursed my entoptic visualisation.

"Under suitable conditions light falling on the eye may render visible certain objects within the eye itself. These perceptions are called entoptical. They are different from optical illusions and visual hallucinations as the observer cannot share a direct and specific view of the phenomenon with others." 

I choose not to share my visions with my mom cos I am drop dead tired for picking up one of those science vs religion wars tonight. She would let me win the war but nevertheless coax me (well! coax might be an understatement .....beg, threaten or emotionalize me to the point I could no longer resist) to pay a visit to the anthill and offer some eggs and milk to Nagraj. So I pressed my upper lip tightly against the lower in an effort not to yawn...you see my mum is a pioneer in 'Aavaliste pegulu lekkapette' batch (ability to count the intestines through a wide open mouth- A Telugu metaphor to describe extreme intelligence.)

"mee office valla dishti, Face book dishti" she ended her long list of possible evil eyes. I stepped over the turmeric smeared threshold with a sooted face to make an exit.

"I am not yet done" she blazed angrily. She took a fist full of salt and repeated the whole act of spinning it around my head. On any other day I would have enjoyed this.  Not that I believe in it but I consider it her way of displaying her affection. But today I am too tired for it. She is already through a round of red chillies, slaked lime water, lemons, a broom and a sickle. what not!

"Stop this charade mom. Let me go to bed. It is dumb of us to believe these evil eyes in the days of I-pads and I-fones" I lose my temper.

"There is perhaps a scientific basis to this which is not yet in the lime light" dad intervenes. I roll my eyes and say "Don't you kid me dad. If you need any favour from mom try praising her culinary skills"

Dad gives me a saintly smile and says "chill. Let's call it a day. There is always a tomorrow".  I finally make it to my cosy bed and have one of those roof rattling snorty sleeps. I wake up to a brighter sunrise and fix myself a cup of green tea.

Dad pushes a Russian magazine towards me as I munch on my cornflakes. The title reads "kirlian photography".

I never realized he is up for a duel without wands and arrows but armed with the thing that can beat me for sure. Evidence. "wotz dis?" I ask genuinely puzzled. "Read it" he says with his eyes smiling the same saintly smile.

Kirlian photography is a technique for creating contact print photographs using high voltage. 

 "You mean a photo without a camera or a lens?" I wondered aloud. Dad nodded his approval.

Kirlian believed that images created by Kirlian photography might depict a conjectural energy field, or aura, to surround living things. These images showed a life force or energy field that reflected the physical and emotional states of their living subjects. They thought these images could be used to diagnose illnesses.

"Whoa! so they believed this aura thing. Really? U me and Mom. All of us have a little halo of a moon behind our heads...like in those paintings and pictures of gods and goddesses?"

"If a key can have a aura, a leaf can have it then why not her highness have it?" he winked like Dumbledore. I had an urge to read on.

Results of scientific experiments published in 1976 involving Kirlian photography of living tissue (human finger tips) showed that most of the variations in corona discharges can be accounted for  the moisture content on the surface of the living tissue.

"But how does one clean it?" I fired my next question.

"salt is a hygroscopic. Remember? It pulls out moisture from your aura by osmosis and the impurities along with it" he concludes to a floored me.

"That's totally fundoo. I never knew there is science behind these petty rituals" I could hardly conceal my amazement. "I thought mom's head is hollow...now I learnt to spell it right...It's a halo".

"so next time when you fight with your mom, just remember that she lets you win bcos she loves to see you win. Anything is fair in Love and war...especially if the war is with the one you love" he adds and I swear I could see his halo glowing extra bright as he exudes gyaan (knowledge).

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kirlian_photography