Veda Samrakshanam

Periva Saranam...

On Jan 4th 2018 we initiated our first communication seeking contribution towards “Veda Rakshanam”. All these days we were planning and working on this and able to reach the final stages.
The idea was initiated by Mrs Padmini Chandrasekaran( my Cousin) and we have sent WhatsApp messages and have got good response from like-minded people. Thanks for your response and based on that we have arrived an amount that can be passed on to a Veda Patasala every month.

Before proceeding further would like to answer one question that was common across all of them who responded “ Why only Rs 100 or Rs 200? Why not more? I can afford to do more, can I?"

You could find the reason in the heading Veda Rakshanam in Deivanthin Kural. He states 

“I am asking you to give me one “sampathi daan”. Everyone should study Vedas daily and make your children do it – let this be on one side. It is no doubt an important duty. There is another work much more important than this. You should help to run Veda Patashalas continuously uninterrupted. For this purpose, you should give financial help both to students and the teachers. Further, you should establish many more schools to teach the Vedas, to teach their meaning and to conduct tests on those subjects. During the period of studies, the students should be given stipends. On passing examination, suitable prizes depending on marks obtained, should be given. Veda can exist only if you do so. For all these, funds are necessary. Every month, on the day of your birth star, put one rupee* in a Savings Box, remembering me (am I not asking you to give?). On your birthday, add another five rupees**. At the end of the year, send the accumulated amount to Veda Rakshana Nidhi Trust., You are spending a lot, You pay taxes, This is the tax I levy on you. For me you have to pay a rupee a month. Thus, if everyone does this, just like the saying “many drops of water make an ocean”, Veda Rakshana Nidhi Trust will become self-sufficient”.

"வேத ரக்ஷணத்தை அடுத்த சந்ததிக்கு ஜீவிய கர்மமாக, ஆயுட்காலப் பணியாக வைக்க முடியாவிட்டால் கூடப்போகிறது. எட்டு வயசிலிருந்து ஆரம்பித்து அப்புறம் பத்து வருஷங்களுக்கு தினம் ஒரு மணி இளம்பிள்ளைகளுக்கு வேத மந்திரங்களிலும் பிரயோகங்களிலும் வகுப்பு நடத்தப் பேட்டைக்கு பேட்டை கூட்டுறவு அடிப்படையில் ஏற்பாடு பண்ணுங்கள் என்கிறேன். இதுதான் எனக்கு வாஸ்தவமான கனகாபிஷேகம், உத்ஸவம் எல்லாம்.

நானும் ஒரு “ஸம்பத்தி தானம்” கேட்கிறேன். அவரவரும் அத்யயனம் செய்து, தங்கள் பிள்ளைக்கும் செய்விக்க வேண்டும் என்பது ஒரு பக்கம் இருக்கட்டும். இது அவசியம் செய்ய வேண்டியதுதான். அதைவிட அவசியமாக முதலில் செய்ய வேண்டிய காரியம் ஒன்று உண்டு; அதாவது, இப்போது மூச்சைப் பிடித்துக் கொண்டு நடந்து வருகிற வேத பாடசாலைகள் மூடிப்போகாமல் அவற்றைத் தொடர்ந்து நடைபெறப் பண்ண வேண்டும். இதற்காக வித்யார்த்திகள் (மாணவர்கள்) அத்யாபகர்கள் (ஆசிரியர்கள்) இருவருக்கும் நிதி உதவி செய்ய வேண்டும். இன்னும் பல பாடசாலைகளை வைத்து வேத மூலத்தை சொல்லிக் கொடுப்பது, அப்புறம் அதன் அர்த்தத்தை – வேத பாஷ்யத்தை – சொல்லிக் கொடுப்பது, இவற்றில் பரீட்சை வைப்பது ஆகிய காரியங்களைச் செய்ய வேண்டும். படிக்கிற காலத்தில் வித்தியார்த்திக்கு ஸ்டைஃபண்ட் (உபகாரச் சம்பளம்) கொடுக்க வேண்டும். பரீட்சையில் பாஸ் பண்ணியவுடன் மார்க்கைப் பொறுத்துக் கணிசமான சம்பாவனை செய்ய வேண்டும். இப்படியெல்லாம் செய்தால்தான் வேதம் இருக்கும். இதற்கெல்லாம் மூலதனம் வேண்டும்.

அதாவது ஒவ்வொருவரும் மாஸா மாஸம் தங்கள் ஜன்ம நக்ஷத்திரத்தன்று என்னை நினைத்துக் கொண்டு (நான் தானே கொடுக்கச் சொல்லிக் கேட்கிறேன்!) ஒரு ரூபாயை ஒரு உண்டியில் போட்டுவிட வேண்டும். ஒரு வருஷம் ஆனதும் இந்த 12 ரூபாயை வேத ரக்ஷண நிதிக்கு அனுப்பிவிட வேண்டும். எத்தனையோ செலவு செய்கிறீர்கள். வரிகள் (tax) கொடுக்கிறீர்கள். இது நான் போட்டிருக்கிற டாக்ஸ். மாஸம் ஒரு ரூபாய் எனக்காகக் கொடுக்க வேண்டும். எல்லோரும் அப்படிச் செய்தால் பல துளி பெறு வெள்ளம் என்று வேத ரக்ஷணத்துக்கும் பெரிய பலம் கிடைக்கும்.
We have substituted Re 1 to Rs 5 and considering a family of 3 or 4 does the savings for 12 stars in a year and 1 birthday we roughly get Rs 200 to Rs 240.

On Jan14th 2018 being Pradhosam, we did visit Sri Matam and got directions. The contributions will flow to Sri Pratyaksha Charitable Trust(Will share details on what they do later)

Let us assure that funds collected will be accounted with highest transparency and responsibility. We have pooled in Mr. Ganapathy Subramaniam an experienced person to help us in this journey. We three will be the point of contact and reachable through call or whatsapp for any details.

Mrs Padmini Chandrasekaran – 9884613369 - Bangalore
Ganesh Babu C – 9600006173 – Bangalore
Mr Ganapathy Subramaniam – 9789847448 – Chennai

All three of us have other commitments and want to make this as easy to manage. Hence suggesting the few below points

1. Please transfer the amount to the below mentioned bank account. This account is newly opened and will be used for this cause only.

Account Name - Ganapathy Subramaniam, Account Number - 37950100003694, Bank of Baroda Kamaraj Nagar, Tiruvanmiyur, Chennai 600 041, IFSC code - BARB0THICHE

2. While transferring please mention your name in the description and drop a message with your amount to record the contribution received

3. Most of you use online banking and in case if you don’t have please message me to provide an alternate solution

4. You can contribute every month or half yearly or annual.( For example Rs 100/200 every month, Rs600/1200 every 6 months, Rs 1200/Rs2400 every year)

5. We have committed to provide our first contribution during first week of February’18 and hence will have January 30th 2018 as the end date to accept contribution.

Thanks for reading this long message. If you have any questions, please feel free to contact me. Thanks for participating in this drive. Periyava will bless all of us for even thinking about helping a veda patasala and imagine if we participate in an event like this.


Jaya Jaya Shankara Hara Hara Shankara

North Karnataka

Would like to start with a quote of a famous American writer Mark Twain“Twenty years from now you will be more disappointed by the things you didn’t do than by the ones you did do. So throw off the bowlines, sail away from the safe harbor. Catch the trade winds in your sails. Explore. Dream. Discover.”

As said by Twain I do not want to sit in Bangalore and spare the holidays watching TV programs rather check out long pending wish list. Unlike 2016 the year 2017 has the privilege of having more long weekends and one among them associated with our Independence day. I was fortunate to pick this early in the month of May when Indigo Airlines floated an offer that was almost the price of 3AC train ticket to Mangalore.

Almost all planning including hotels and places to visit are all done by June. In-congruent to my previous travel this one had lot of anxieties till the date of travel and the cancellation made by one of the hotelier created more fuss among all of us.

As mentioned earlier building an enthusiasm to keep the interest high is important especially with kids but this time Prathiba too was excited reason being meeting her school friend Shalini after 2 decades. Of course Ananya got excited with Jog falls and beach.

Initial plan was to start from Kukke and reach Gokarna on the last day of the schedule but has to change the entire plan on the eleventh hour that was exactly opposite to the original which means to start at Gokarna and end at Kukke. Major issue associated with this big change was cancellation of rooms and re-booking to the revised dates and thankfully I was able to overcome this hurdle.

From Mangalore started early morning and reached Honnavar around Saturday noon driving through the western coastline. Gave a sweet surprise to the front desk and requested him to change the dates, initially the request was declined later accepted. After our lunch and a trivial rest started towards Jog falls which is east of Honnavar and later to Apsarkonda beach to glimpse the sunset. Reason for choosing Honnavar is that it is midpoint to Day 1 and Day 2 places.

Day 2 early morning started to Gokarna which lies north of Honnavar and from there to Idagunji on the way to Murudeshwar which is south of Honnavar. Spent a good amount of time in Murudeshwar and post lunch headed towards Kollur. 

Lack of knowledge along with the misguidance of the Jeep driver spoiled meeting plan of Prathiba and Shalini. We are supposed to reach Shalini house late evening but the Kodachadri was the culprit in spoiling the plans. Kodachadri is a place some 20 Kms from Kollur that has to be either trekked or travel by Jeep. Last 10 Kms will take 1 hour of Jeep ride that will break all bones from neck to lower spine sometimes you could see something popping out of your mouth that could be your liver or stomach, tough ride.



On the top you have Adi Mookambigai temple and the place where Adi Shankra did his meditation which needs one hour walk from the place where the Jeep drops and return to Kollur 1 hour. We did wrong estimate of this 3 hours and 2 hours of darshan time in Kollur temple ate the friends's meeting time. Reached their beautiful house near Udupi late night, and Prathiba and Shalini made use of the available time to recollect their old memories.

Day 3 – After a good breakfast from Shalini house headed towards Udupi temple, being Janmastami the queue was flowing to several streets which was expected. Since they have special darshan was able to complete the darshan in an hour. Sringeri was our next destination that was completed as per plan before noon closure and had a wonderful lunch. Finally reached Horanadu in the evening and again surprise to the hotelier for an unscheduled check in but it was accepted.

Day 4 – very early started to Dharmastla and from Kuke Subramanya where again big serpentine queue being Adi Kirthigai. In both the places made use of special darshan to buy invaluable time. Reached managlore and from there 40 Mins to Bangalore by Indigo.

Some of the key learning or highlights of this trip

I normally use booking.com for hotel reservation reason being there is no upfront payment required. Since I booked in June got a good deal and on the day of travel called the hotel to come to know that they have given it to someone else, could be they got better deal considering the heavy demand. Henceforth need to call hotel and confirm a month in advance and pay some nominal amount as advance so that we are at peace.

Due to personal emergency need to make a lot of changes as mentioned above that had lot of anxieties in our minds which created tension and when we realized that the plan change helped us to be on special days like on Janmastami at Udupi and Aadi Kirthigai at Subramanya erased the pain and also availability of rooms was at ease than expected.

As part of the planning got a travels contact who belongs to Tamil Nadu and this helped in communication all through the period.

Normally there won’t be any fuss for food from any of us and these travels will help you get accustomed to any food. Typical to this region the food was extraordinary and in Mangalore the evening snacks was rated as 5/5 by each one of us.

Best period to visit these places are post monsoon, August to December to enjoy the greenery of western Ghats and to avoid the humid climate during other months.

Unlike other tourist places especially temple parking area we will normally find someone collecting parking charges and these people will be locals from the ruling political party. I never paid any parking charges and the toll charges was less than Rs 200 for all days (mostly near Mangalore).

This travel helped me to test the strength of Jio and Airtel, clearly Airtel was winner but Jio never let me down.

If you are planning to make a trip to these places and any guidance required please feel free to mail me at gbramy16@hotmail.com

Click this link for pictures PHOTOS

Snippet - துணுக்குகள் 03 / 17

After nearly a gap of 2 months my renaissance towards sharing my learning/reading/experience erupted, this impediment was due to my steadfastness to my routine schedule. Need to catch up a lot and starting with something that has been flashing for some time.

LATITUDE Vs GOOGLE MAPS

During last week of March 2017, Google unveiled a new feature to its popular Maps app where users can share their locations with friends and contacts in real time.

Yes! Google Maps users will now be able to quickly let friends know if they are running late for meeting and if you are wondering why Google never thought of this earlier then you are wrong. In fact they came up with this idea in the year 2009. The pillar of this great company is its innovation and that too light year ahead of its competitors in bringing innovation to its products.

In 2009 when Smartphone were still at infancy stage Google introduced this Latitude app. At that time this app drew privacy concerns and several articles were published highlighting the risks by enabling this app.

After 8 years they brought this back to public after working on the feedback received on the privacy meanwhile the world has also changed since 2009 when they first tried this. Now more people are in social media when compared to that period in spite of the unaddressed inherent risk associated with the status updates we provide in these social media.

In this particular instance I personally feel there are more benefits of sharing location if you can take care of privacy risk by sharing the information only with known people. For instance allowing parents to keep track of their wards in this highly threatening environment will be welcomed whereas that husbands/wife who party outside without knowledge of his/her spouse will still be hesitant to install this wonderful app.

Whether we make use of this app or not is a personal requirement to each of us. But a key thing to observe is that, let us turn back and take stock of exactly what we gave up some years back and if it is good time to embrace now we shouldn’t be waiting to adopt. It might turn out to be a life changing hug.

RPA and AI - Phobia

If you are associated with IT or ITES industry the buzzword that will obviously encircle you is RPA or AI. When Robotic Process Automation or Artificial Intelligence are talked about then people immediately start picturing about tiny robots that look like humans that renders some activity. Agree to some extent but in reality it is different.

Each day AI surrounds us in all activities we do, be it while browsing internet where it guides you to certain pages or some relevant pages are flashed based on your recent searches. Most of us presume that manufacturing industries are the early adopters of AIs but personally I feel it dates back to evolution of wheels. Necessity is the mother of invention.

AI is no more a “nice to have” choice, it has become integral part of process innovation and cost optimization, which will bring tangible business benefits. Choice is when and where you want to start from?

These innovations can’t be adopted overnight, this needs adoption by organization and its people without any fear.

Ever since RPA/AI came into limelight there has been fear that machines will take over humans. Imagine if the same thought had erupted in the past during the invention of wheel then evolution of human would not have progressed. The way we work is going to change and role we played is going to evolve. Personally I feel that role of humans cannot vanish and it is going to evolve further. Technology cannot take over whereas humans can take over and make better use of it. Having said that, definitely we will have challenges facing this evolution and the foremost one that comes to my mind is how we are going to handle this in designing the curriculum for school or colleges. Though in the past we have made changes to curriculum but this time the magnitude and pace of changes are different to relax.

This reminds me of Philip Kotler’s quote “If you will remain in same business you are in now in next 5 years, you will not exist in the business”, which means you have to be on the wheels of innovation at fairly decent pace so that you are not left out of the race.

21st Century Meerabai - Azerbaijan to Andhra

I was fortunate to read this story in one of the magazine that made my eyes wet and hence thought of sharing the condensed version as part of my blog.

Before proceeding and to get an idea of this blog, would recommend to watch this short video of 6 mins that will help you to correlate the article.

This is an amazing love story from the land of Azerbaijan erstwhile part of USSR and now an independent country. The love story is between Lord Krishna and Ms.Sevanam a 70 year old lady from Azerbaijan.

Click the below picture for Video

I would request you to believe in destiny and rebirth, yes to me this lady was destined in her previous birth and this destiny brought a copy of a Russian translated version of Bhagavad Gita to her place. Someone was distributing this and she got a copy and started to read. In her first reading she got dissolved by the content. Curious to get more knowledge she followed the address in the book that lead her to a local ISKCON temple in Baku the capital of that country.

On her visit to the ISKON temple in Baku, she met a devotee who was giving lecture on Gita. There was an urgent call for the devotee and he excused the class and when returned he was astonished to see Ms Sevanam was providing the lecture on Gita with much more clarity and passion. Though this was the beginning she slowly got engaged into other activities like participating in Kirtana, Bhagavad Gita class etc.,

One fine day she decided to sell her property as her kids were grown and was able to sell in quick time. She requested the temple authorities to accept the proceeds from the property and provide her a small room in the temple premises till her end. After much deliberation it was accepted by temple authorities and from then on it was serving the temple, Chanting and Singing was the duties of Sevanam in the ISKON temple of Azerbaijan.

Some of the positive things I found in that book about this lady are

1. Not only the thoughts were positive but her action and words are full of love
2. Love was towards both god and fellow human being who visited the temple.
3. She used to give small gifts to selected people and would inform them that it was an order by Kirishna. That was her love.
4. She treated Lord Krishna as a kid, had a small cot for him in her room and even toys for him to play. Among them a significant toy was a battery operated toy car and she would seat Krishna in that car and operate the remote and enjoy the ride made by Krishna.
5. She used to feed Krishna similar to how we feed our kids

She had a personal relationship with Krishna and I would call her a Meerabai of Azerbaijan.

Now the turning point in her life was through the above video. She happened to watch this movie and in that an ancient temple of Lord Narashima will be shown, the deity in this temple can be approached if we pass through a chest deep water with bats hanging over your head.

Voice in that video will narrate that since the temple is situated midst of a jungle the priest would come weekly once to perform rituals due to the hardship in reaching the temple. As soon as she heard this in the video she wanted to be in this temple and perform daily rituals, her immediate shout was “Krishna My Krishna is suffering in his land”. Imagine is it feasible for a normal person, then how can it be for a 74 year old lady?

People around her gave terrified views about India and the ISKON people suggested to worship Radhe Krishna so that the 74 year old lady stays back and prevented from any adversity.

In spite of all these arguments she found her way to Andhra Pradesh, nothing stopped this lady in reaching the village. She approached the priest in that village for help to reach the temple that is 5 kms into the forest and the same was obliged by him. Sevanam told him that Lord Krishna wanted her to serve Narashima hence she travelled all the way to India.

Along with her she carried only the idols in her suitcases with couple of clothes, from a developed country she landed in a forest where there was no potable water and electricity. The priest who accompanied her thought she will return back on witnessing the reality but as soon as they reached the cave she lost in admiration.

She requested the priest to build a small tent so that she can live near the cave. Tent was built with temporary materials and she was left alone but the priest on reaching the village spread the news about this Grandma to the people. Curious to see her people started to visit the temple and our Sevanam transformed into a Saint.

The transformation happened to the entire place and she was invited for wedding and new born functions to bless. She also started to perform abhishega to the deity, news spread to far off places and people throng the temple to see this lady and hence priest started coming daily and daily rituals are back.

Now it is the turn of local newspaper to publish an article and then came Governer of Andhra Pradesh with his family to seek blessing of both Lord and Sevanam. On seeing the condition of the place he took personal responsibility of collecting money and built road, water connection, marble steps etc., now it is one of the celebrated temple of Lord Narashima in AP.

Years went and on a Dvadhishi morning people came in as usual to the temple and to the house of Sevanam where they witnessed that she was on her feet embracing Krishna in one hand and Gita under her arms. People thought she was sleeping and no movement for some time created doubts and when checked she had left the body and the Soul joined HIM. Readers might be aware of the significance of death on a Dvadhisi day and how sacred it is?

Earlier in the article I called her Meera of 21st century hope you too agree now…

Snippet - துணுக்குகள் 02 / 17

Varavu Ettana Pathanna Selavu Pathanna Ettana 

Made a small change to Kannadasan’s song from Bhama Vijayam that perfectly fits this situation. Income is Ten whereas expense is Eight annas.

On any given day I am for Namo’s Demo. But the major flaw was in its planning and too flexible in making amendments to combat those who found avenue to sneak through.

One such flexibility made during that period was suspension of toll collection on all national highways. The exemption was made to avoid inconvenience to commuters due to inadequate smaller denominations. By this act it was evident that the vision to foresee future issues was definitely missed.

Some of the following figures will raise our eyebrows

• Average daily toll collection is 70 to 75 crores per day on national highways
• Roughly there are around 320 toll plazas 

For both the operators in the public & private partnership, the Estimated Revenue leakage was Rs 1212 crores for the period Nov 9th to Dec 2nd 

To boost the confidence of these private investors so that in future they stay invested it has been proposed to pay Rs 922 crores to these institutions as a relief measure and balance Rs 290 crores will be borne by NHAI and ultimately written off.

The current contract with these private players has clearly laid out such calculation in case of decisions like these by Government, but NHAI is not venturing into those since it is cumbersome process and might lead to litigation. Hence this onetime compensation.

NHAI has already requested finance ministry seeking funds for the compensation and we all know from where the money will be funded by finance ministry.

• Indirectly net revenue from this Demo operation gets reduced by this amount or
• Additional Tax or Cess for Income tax payers.

Unfortunately people and Government think that tolls are taxes but they are charges for those users who use the roads. Millions of people like me who have not used the exemption during that period will also contribute is the mocking truth and alas can laugh at this situation, nothing else can be done.

ReNEWable Energy

Any Innovation in the energy sector is a blessing to our natural resources and paves way for this world to be a better place to live.

In that context in 2016 a phenomenal breakthrough was made by a French Company Newwind, generating energy from wind. I could understand the perplexity about what is new in wind energy, yes this is brand new.

There is no need for monstrous and noisy turbines that require good amount of wind to generate energy. In this new one we can use a turbine at our backyard and it resembles like a tree with tiny silent blades that could produce energy from breeze, yes I meant breeze that can be as low as 7Km/h speed.

The base frame is made of steel and the turbine sheet called “Aeroleaf” is made of Plastic and 72 such turbines will be placed in a tree. The story of this invention is quiet interesting, When Jerome was relaxing in his Garden on a windless day he observed the leaves on the trees are moving in-spite of the stillness around. He exclaimed there is energy and wanted to harvest it and came this wind tree.

France has already built 2000 such farms and planning to build another 8000 since it believes this as a clean alternative to the current sources.

Initial investment will be around $20,000 and will be able to recoup in one year if the average speed of the wind is 12Kmh. More than recouping the cost it should be considered as natural resources saver.

Energy savings from one tree is equivalent to 1905 Lbs of coal or 3.2 tons of carbon di oxide for the same amount of energy output. One tree can supply power to 15 street lamps of 50W or 1000 sq ft low consumption office or 83% of one household consumption.

Message to Minister of Urban development Mr Venkaiah Naidu to spend some time on these developments that is happening in conjunction with Mr Piyush Goyal instead spending a day near a coffin.

Actually these should be made mandatory to the IT parks and to huge residential apartments to generate power for lighting the common area. Another advantage is that in case if there is no power these people will use Diesel to generate power to light the common areas which could be saved.

Mere having the target as a banner in your webpage will not help Mr Goyal, we need to keep our eyes and ears open and always explore.

Snippet - துணுக்குகள் 01 / 17

I have been persuading myself to include snippet as part of my Blog, with this started my first edition for 2017 though not as part of my 2017 resolution whereas the resolution is to find a suitable Tamil name for each header hence the name "துணுக்குகள்". 

Actually Snippet implies small and interesting news or information, I will try to pick some major that gets unnoticed by most of us since we are tied down with our routine busy schedule. 

X replaces E

Last year it was NEET (National eligibility & Entrance test) for medical college aspirants and now it is NEXT (National Exit Test) for those who leave medical colleges.

After a hard tussle of 5 1/2 years irrespective of further education or practice medical students need to finish NEXT. The logical reason quoted by Indian Medical council is that NEXT will standardize and improve the quality of medical education and help to benchmark which means this will equate a student from X university to that of Y university.

Personally I am not able to understand the logic, IMC (Indian Medical Council) accepts that there is no standardization in the education. Ideal solution should be

• Standardize  the syllabus across the nation
• Ensure  that quality faculty and infrastructure  are available in all colleges

Instead of IMC taking responsibility it is shedding and transferring it to students in the name of standardization.I could foresee only one result, student’s NEXT score will be used by medical colleges to attract more ignorant people and become billionaires from millionaires by these business tycoons.

CESS follows Insurance Premium

Railways want to create a safety fund of 1 lakh crore and requested Finance ministry to sponsor 93% from its budget. However it has been agreed at 25% so for the deficit a cess will be levied from passengers.  I believe this is an outcome of the recent derailments that happened. Normally in our CAPA (Corrective Action & Preventive Action) we quote negligence as the reason for most of the transaction errors. Similarly these people have a common reason for the safety failure “Inadequate Fund”.

We have to wait and watch how this fund creation impacts on the number of accidents. We need to THANK the person who mooted this proposal, reason being this is not part of another CESS in Income tax. It would have been if Finance Ministry accepted the 93% proposal.

Recently the Insurance premium was included as part of the ticket and we all know who gets benefited. Soon we can expect water charges considering the scarcity of water or these educated brats will find an avenue to increase revenue.

IOC Vs IOA Vs Sports Ministry

Like the 5 circles that represent Olympics,Politics and Sports are always tangled together and the intrusion of former is inevitable. But in this country alone we can witness the filthy part due to the invasion of politicians. 

Currency not only plays a pivotal role in electing the General Sectary of a Political party but also in electing President of IOA (Indian Olympic Association).

Suresh Kalmadi’s and Abhay Chautala’s election as life president of IOA clearly indicates how money plays its role in sports. This subject was brought into the agenda of IOA AGM as a last item to maintain its secrecy and got elected. As per the norms a person convicted cannot be elected but in this case how an exception was taken is unclear. 

Obliviously Sports Ministry headed by rival party of Kalmadi will react and they have taken a resolution not to fund IOA until the decision is reversed. Out of the two one is defiant that he will step down if IOC( International Olympic Committee) asks him to whereas Kalmadi refused the position  till he is cleared from CWG games issue.

Let us keep our fingers crossed on IOC decision.Undeniably this impacts our next Olympic preparation if this is stretched beyond some months.

2016 நினைவலைகள் (Ninaivalaigal)

The word Ninaivalaigal means recollection of memories, yes would like to recollect 2016 on the verge of its culmination. During one of my recent long travel a thought came to me on how can I be grateful to 2016, it will be if I gracefully accept the nostalgic moments and travel into 2017.

Let me start this from my blogging experience. When I observe the statistics it shows an interesting number, I have been blogging since 2009 but unlike previous this year the count not only stroked to double digits(22 excluding this) but it is highest. This establishes that the year 2016 was either with

• Lot of interesting events happened that warranted a sharing, though predominately the events were engulfed around travel and sports.I tried my best to share my other experiences too like updates about android apps and short write-ups on other events. OR 
• I had enough free time available at my disposal that contributed to write as many, could be true to some extent. Yes from start of 2016 reduced my TV viewing time and by the end of the year it is almost vanished that helps in channeling my resources towards my more passionate activities. OR 
• Finally could be less occupied (officially) and hence lot of reading and learning. Frequently shared the learning/ reading this year could be another factor. Will try and carry this habit to 2017

Being a sports fanatic, 2016 did not let me down either. The entire year was full of events in all sports and the major ones are

• Euro where a well-deserved maiden title to Portugal / Ronaldo that was eluding this guy for a long time.
• Olympics, though it was not a favorable one for India but enjoyed both Bolt and Phelps moments and of course Sindhu’s silver medal journey.
  

Yet another year where Roger did not carry home a GS cup is the only hitch apart from that an IPL without CSK was another. In tennis no new player erupted for this year too with same oldies like Djoker, Serena lifting the GS cup.

Politics too had its interesting moments this year, but for me the interesting pieces are those failed pre-poll surveys not only in Tamil Nadu but in US public elections too. The predictions made by the pundits were deposed by the public. Another prominent one is the attack on militants by Indian Military termed as “Surgical Attack”.

While in the field of Art and Entertainment, the remarkable moment for me was DiCaprio’s first Academy award for the film "The Revenant" though he got nominated for first time 1994, this leap year brought glory to this actor after several nominations.

In science and advancements, ISRO’s satellite launch was a commendable one. They launched record 20 satellites through a single rocket. Apple Inc foray into Wind power in partnership with Goldwind is its largest clean energy project to date, on the other side the new release of Iphone balances this project by its own way of polluting the atmosphere.

Finally the major one that appeared at the end of 2016 and will make its journey to 2017 is the demonetization by Indian Government. This one word has created estrangements in the societies which I will not penetrate into, to me personally this particular phase reiterated that any tough situations in our life could be conquered by the relationship we embrace with others. This particular trait was imparted by my father without my knowledge and would like to share my learning and experience.

During this period as a common man we would have faced 2 situations among many, one getting money from ATM and the other is to convert the Rs2000 into smaller denominations. First let me share my dad's principle with respect to relationship building that will throw some light on how I surmounted these situations with ease using those principles

Some of my Dad’s shopping habits that acted as a tool for relationship management are  

• A particular object will be bought from a specific vendor, for example he had one for coconut, one for Beetle leaves and similarly vegetables, flowers, fruits and he never invades supermarkets for his purchase. The entire shopping will be made from the road side vendor but each one will be at a considerable distance from other.
• If we misjudge the above to be a cost saving exercise then the following one will astonish, for groceries too he had Bombay Stores in T.Nagar and Jain Stores considered to be premium due to the quality/price. The monthly groceries will be personally picked from these stores and for rice we had a Andhra guy who visit our house to replenish.
• My dad had access to ATM and online banking but will personally visit the bank and have seldom used the ATM, only in case of emergency the services of ATM was received.

Though I have criticized and made fun of these habits, slowly these habits got infused into me since I used to accompany him during those days. After his departure and on my return from Hyderabad I used to shop from the same vendor and made attempt to follow him and was successful to some extent.

Since these have become habits and habits are not easy to get rid-off, these continued in Bangalore too. In the first week of the demonetization, I got Rs20/- bundle from the bank over the counter and getting smaller denominations was never a tough task since in the past I frequently visited the branch and maintained the relationship with each of them. Would like to remind you that I am not a current account holder and in case if I get Rs 2000 then my regular vendors played a pivotal role in getting smaller denomination.

Similarly the same shopping method of my dad was also practiced in Bangalore too. Would like to state 2 incidents that will stand as a testimony.

1. One of the Bangalore vegetable vendor identified me in Guruvayur temple crowd and took efforts to reach me and had a brief discussion, this definitely surprised my family.

2. Normally I use public transport to office, though options are plenty would restrict myself to selected few buses. On a particular day pooled a car and for the remaining distance boarded the bus and that happened to be my regular bus. Friend who accompanied me was astonished with the questions probed by the conductor of the bus on whether I changed my office etc., and the conversation we had.

This demonetization not only diverted the funds but the intent of my final blog of the year where I want to share my nostalgic moments of 2016 however I feel even the diversion was memorable.

              Wish You all a Wonderful & Great 2017

தொடரும் பயணம்

As mentioned in my previous post, travel has become synonymous with long weekends and holidays, for this Xmas vacation planned a short one considering my leave balance. Hence decided Kumbakonam and due consideration was given to the physical strength of Amma, Prathiba and Ananya during planning.

Want to visit this place again not because some places were left out in my last trip in early 2016 but the attraction it has endured on me is colossal. If you observe the list of places some are repeated purely due to the above mentioned reason.

Personally to me, this place Kumbakonam is like a bee hive. Typical to a hive where it is packed with dense cells in its structure and bees lives in that cell. Similarly this city consist of numerous temples densely packed around the city and HE resides in each of them. Another similarity that strikes me is that though the bees are different physically but the intent is similar for all them, which is to collect nectar from flower and help in pollination. Similarly though the name of the Lord who resides in each of the temple is different but the intent is to love and protect all living beings.

Initially during this travel I thought of not to blog this travel but could not resist in sharing. I will not share all that is there in the below list but pick a few whereas for the others will provide the link to my earlier post as some are repeated in this travel too and the rest is left out considering space and time.

The list got appended with the places when I hear or read about these places hence born the below list and planned according to the vicinity of one another.

Day 1	Nachiyar Koil, Thirucherai, Srivanchiyam, Thiruvavur, Swamimalai, Thirvalanchuzi, Patteswaram, Tirukarugavur
Day 2	Thirunageswaram, Oppiliappan, Alangudi, Mannargudi,Thirukolikadu, All local temples in Kumbakonam
Day 3 (half day)	Tirubhuvanam, Thiruvidaimaruthur, Govindapuram, Tirumangalakudi

For Previous Blog click the below links

Previous 1                              Previous 2                                  Previous 3

Thirucherai

This town has both Perumal and Sivan temple both are renowned in their own. Saranatha perumal and Sara Nayaki temple should be 1000 years old and one of Divyadesham.

River Cauveri wanted her status to be equal to river Ganges and performed hard penance. She laid 3 wishes before the god. (a) O! Lord you should stay in this place for ever and ever (b) all the Jeevans in this place should attain your lotus feet (c) I should be treated as pious as river Ganges. Lord Vishnu granted all her wishes and to improvise her status further among all the other river he accepted her as his mother and crawled as a child in her hands. You could see a crawling perumal and Cauveri inside the main sanctum.

Also according to scriptures, during the Pralaya the devasting floods, Lord Brahmma took the soil of this place, made a pot and placed the Vedas in for safety. Since this placed gave the magical mud which held a lead role this place became the reason for all living things to live even after the Maha pralaya so this place is called "Sara Kshetram".

Kadan Nivartheeswarar

Ganavalli sametha Sara Parameshwar koil is known as temple for debt relief, is at a stone throw away distance from peruml temple. Sage Markandya installed and worshipped the siva lingam. The Rinavimochana Eswaran is in the outer pragaram, the general belief is that worshipping Lord Shiva here helps to improve financial status and be debt free. However there is a deeper meaning to it, debt includes financial but not limited only to it. Every human being is born with debts like Deva rina( debt to god), Rishi rina(debt to sages), Pitru rina( debt to our ancestors). If a human is not able to repay these debts in their life they will have another birth to repay.

Before we preform archanai the gurukal distributes the flower and we were asked to take sankalpam and the flowers are taken back and poured over Lord to signify that the debts are paid back to signify that there is no rebirth.

Thirukollikadu

Lord Shiva is praised as Agneeswarar as Agni Bhagwan worshipped Lord in this temple. It is said that Lord Sani was very upset for he was being held responsible for all the woes of human being. He prayed Agneeswarar at Thirukollikadu after bathing in Agnitheertham. Lord Shiva gave him the Dharsan in the form of Agni the Fire and made him Pongu Sani or Prosperous Sani. In this temple Sani Bhagavan is placed in Kubera corner where normally Mahalakshmi will be placed.

The temple has three sacred trees Vanni, Oomathai and Kondrai representing wealth, removal of mental agony and unity in family respectively.  Generally the wealthy people are praised that they attained LAKSHMI KADATCHAM. In one’s life this Lakshmi kadatcham will come and go and may not be stable. But there is an another type of wealth called “ KUBERASAMBATH” which means attaining great wealth along with a complete life which prolongs for generations. Doing poojas with “vanni leaves” (Sthala Virutcham of this temple) to Lord Saneeswara bagavan will provide us with the Kubera sambath.

But travelling to this place will be bone wrecking by our own transport but I saw people thronging this place using public transport. Since my visit was on a Saturday noon this place was full of people. Actually this place was planned for Friday but Driver adjusted and made this on a Saturday.

Tirumangalakudi

Lord Siva is called Sree Prananadeswarar, Traditionally the Linga-Bana is shorter in height when compared to the Avudayar or the seat.The Linga part is taller than the Avudayar part in this temple. Also against the tradition of celebrating the wedding festival during day time, it is celebrated during night in this temple. Married woman receive the Mangal Sutra thread from Ambica directly for a long marital life. Worship of Mother Mangalambica for five consecutive Mondays ensure safety to the Mangal Sutra blessing, relief from the adverse aspects of the serpent planets Rahu and Ketu and of Sani Bhagwan. Lord Shiva of the temple cured the disease of the planets, who have a control over the lives of humans. It is believed that the Navagrahas offered Curd Rice Nivedhana without salt on a Vellerukku leaf to Lord to get cured of diseases and similarly even today Devotees hold curd rice on Vellerukku leaves between 12-12.30 midday time, offer it as nivedhana to Lord and take part in the pujas in the prakara continuously for 11 Sundays for relief from planetary problems and remedy from all diseases.

Finally ended the travel with visit to Govindapuram on Mahaperiva Aradhanai day.

For Photos Click Here

Bhoologa Vaikuntam - 2

The travel we undertake should encapsulate your feelings and vitalize from inner and should never drain your energies, in that aspect this was refreshing due to the magnitude of these ancient temples. At the same time, attention should be provided to all in the group so that the travel is made interesting. I want Ananya to enjoy the holidays so the story of Adi Shankara and the significance of these temples were shared during our journey. Also promises like bathing in the same river where Shankara faced the crocidle and Athirappilly falls excited her and kept her in high energy.

Soon after our Nirmalaya darshan checked out and started for a long day travel to cover the places as per the plan. 

Nalaambalam

Nalambalam pilgrimage is gaining more and more popularity. Nalambalam, means four temples, which are in different locations of Thrissur district.

Nalambala Darsanam involves offering prayers at the shrines of Lord Rama (Triprayar), Bharatha (Koodalmanikyam at Irinjalakuda), Lakshmana (Moozhikulam) and Shatrugana (Payammal), the celebrated quartet of the epic Ramayana respectively, on a single day. In India you will find temples for the brothers of Ram only at these places.

It is believed that the idols of Rama, Bharatha, Lakshmana and Shathrughna were the pooja idols of Lord Krishna. He worshipped these 4 idols in Dwaraka. At the end of Dwapara Yuga, Dwaraka was swallowed by the sea. These four idols floated over the sea water all together and at last reached the Cheetuva region of Kerala shore. They were duly installed in four temples at these places by Vakkayil Kaimal as directed in his dream by HIM.

It is believed, Bharata , second amongst them, is the avatar of the Panchajanya (Conch held by Vishnu) .Lakshmana is the avatar of the Adisesha, Satrughna is the avatar of the Sudarshana chakra held by Lord Vishnu.

Triprayar Temple(Temple for Ram) houses a 6 ft tall idol of the Lord, holding Shankha, Sudarsanachakra, Stick and Garland, in a very ferocious form in standing posture. When we entered we saw a grand ceremony where the Utsavar is being taken around on a Gajaraja, we followed the procession till the Garbagrha.

Koodalmanikyam Temple( Bharatha's) houses another 6 ft tall idol of the Lord,seen in ferocious form in standing posture holding the same things as seen at Triprayar. This is one of the rare temples where only one idol is there in the entire temple complex which is huge.

Moozhikkulam is the only one among the four temples which belong to the 108 Divya Desams. The temple houses another 6 ft tall idol, similar to the idol at Guruvayoor, holding Shankha, Sudarsana chakra, Mace and Lotus, in standing posture.

Payammal is the smallest temple of the four, having the smallest idol, also similar to that at Guruvayoor.

We were fortunate enough to cover all these before noon but not in the prescribed order due to the proximity of Satrughna and Bhartha, so Lakshmana was the last one we visited(Refer the map in my first part). Probably they are closer since the other two left for forest.

When we refer Adi Shankara and Lord Ram, there should be a mention about "Sri Rama Bhujanga" the great work by Shankara on Lord Ram. I love the 15th Verse for its absolute eloquence.

Shilapi thwadamgrikshama sangirenu,

Prsadhadhi chaithanya madhatha Rama,

Namasthwath pada dwandwa seva vidhanath,

                                       Suchathanya metheethi kim chithramathra?

Adi Sankara says he offers his salutations at the feet of Rama, His feet are the ones that brought Ahalya back to life. In fact, Adi Sankara says it is the dust on Rama’s feet which rid Ahalya of her curse.If even the dust on His feet can do this, is it any surprise that worshipping His feet grants salvationn?

Kalady

Kalady is the birthplace of the man responsible for the resurgence of Hindusim, AdiSankaracharya, the great Indian Philosopher who is considered responsible for rescuing Hinduism from its deteriorated state. 

There are couple of stories which I would like share before providing the details of the temple. One such story is, Little Shankara’s mother found great difficulty in walking towards the river for her daily bath, this made Shankara to request Lord Krishna to help his mother. Krishna blessed Shankara that the river will follow his footmarks thus Shankara marked a place in the soil from the main river. You can find the river bends at this place as a tributary and flows near this place.

Another story that is worth mentioning is how Sankara got his mother’s permission for Sanyasa. While bathing in the river Poorna one day, a crocodile caught hold of his leg. Shankara appealed to his mother for permission to become a sanyasi. His mother finally gave consent, only to have the crocodile let go of young Shankara.

There are two main temples on the banks of the river, one is Sringeri Mutt and another one is Sri Krishna Temple.

In the Sringeri Mutt temple premises you will find the Samadhi of Sri Shankara's mother, Aryamba. Also there is a small shrine to Lord Ganesha where Shankara used to pray daily and a shrine dedicated to Sri Shankaracharya and the other to Goddess Saradamba. The pooja rituals in these temples are done by Tamil or Kannada Smartha Brahmins, and not by Namboothiris as is the custom in Kerala.

Whereas the other temple is dedicated to Sri Krishna. This temple is known as the ancestral deity (Kula deivam)of Sri Shankaracharya, you can find this being mentioned in one of his verse in Prabodha Sudhakaram. This idol of Lord Krishna is made of Anjana stone that has high properties of iron and copper. Only Guruvayur and Kaladi temple have this idol of Krishna made of this stone.
The temple is under two Namboothiri families who had close associations with the life of Shankara. It is also the only surviving structure from the time of Shankara. The pooja rituals in this temple are conducted by Namboothiris as is the custom of Kerala. Other significant is the Crocodile Ghat.

Athirappilly falls

As mentioned earlier to make the travel a memorable picked this place and Ananya was not willing to come out even after 1 hour.   CLICK HERE FOR PHOTOS

Finally some observations I made during the travel which will pave way for a good debate

1. Though the people of Kerala should have some lineage to either Aryan or Dravidian races similar to other southern states of India, but the discipline I saw was awesome especially the self-managed queue system.
   
2. Couple of years ago when I visited Ananthapadmanabaswamy temple in Trivandrum, I was not pleased when I was asked to surrender my shirt in the locker cabin even though I was not wearing. I was not able to get the reason, whereas in this visit I observed most of the men especially Keralite were wearing shirt with one hand inside the sleeve (Please refer the attached photo).When the instruction was not to wear why this innovation? Now I got the reason why in Trivandrum they practice that policy.

While we do utmost planning there might be some slip due to time constraint, we also had some like Vadakkunnathan temple, Annakotta Elephant Sanctuary and Chavakkad Beach. Probably this could be the reason to visit again this wonderful place.