V Vyu

Deepavali - The festival of masses

2011-11-28T22:41:00.040+05:30

There are many stories attached to Deepavali. But here in India, why Indians all over the globe, whatever be the significance, celebrate Deepavali joyously. People in all walks of life eagerly await Deepavali every year. This year the festival was on 26.10.2011.

Here I am presenting Deepavali in 3 parts. First one is the crazy shopping which people start well before a month. Second, the Deepavali eve which will be all the more colourful and finally the Deepavali day when people visit temples, friends and relatives.

If Deepavali and the new moon day fall on the same day certain communities perform Kedara Gowri vratha at home and offer their special preparations along with haldi & kumkum to the Goddess.
Nowadays, many apart from business people perform Lakshmi Puja in the evening and light diyas and decorate their parapet walls.
These are some pictures of Deepavali sales.

Deepavali eve pictures.

Deepavali day round up.

It invariably rains on Deepavali day. In the picture above(left) you can see the cloudy sky.

Video clipping of fireworks at night has been uploaded in YouTube the URL is
http://youtu.be/CbAhML28Oro

Navarathri - The nine day creativity

2011-10-25T23:40:00.039+05:30

The festival of Navarathri has just concluded and we are heading towards the grand festival of India, The Deepavali 2011.

The actual festive mood is set in the city of Chennai a month before the start of Navarathri. However, it is strange that while South Chennai makes elaborate arrangements, the North celebrates only Ayudha Puja.

The nine day kolu gives prominence to the women and children of the household, but the men behind the show play a significant role in the success of the celebration. Even today the senior lady of the house takes immense pleasure/satisfaction in shopping for kolu, be it the new dolls or the umpteen number of gift articles that flock the market.

People involve the children for what? This is the time when elders can teach the kids, our tradition, culture, history, heritage, religion and the pride we have to carry as Indians.
Children enthusiastically participate in arranging the dolls and show their creativity in putting up parks with a theme.

Here I am presenting some scenes in some popular dolls sales outlets, the new arrivals of this year, some thematic displays of parks, a couple of kolu displays and finally Goddess Karpagambal of Mylapore in Kamakshi alankaram.

Some new arrivals of dolls are Vasthu Lakshmi, Andal Ranganathar, Narasimha, Panduranga etc.

Few popular shops selling dolls, gift articles and other accessories.

We have some thematic kolu presentations.
Birthday theme represents newborn, first birthday, sixtieth birthday and eightieth birthday.

Wedding theme consists of wedding, reception, kutchery, procession and grahapravesam.

Chennai the Super Metro theme depicts the culture, tradition, heritage, secularism, medical facilities, global recognition, intellectual superiority, tech savvy, nature, promotion of sports etc., of the Metro, i.e. Chennai.
Here there is some extra treat. The story of crow drinking water from the pot by dropping pebbles. The set was on display in a store at Mada street of Mylapore.

People do create high-tech parks like Kathipara Junction, Hills of Ahobhilam, festivals of all 12 Tamil months, Five divisions in the land scape of Tamilnadu, etc.

We finally have the kolu arranged inside the temple at SSM Old Age Home,Perunkalathur and the grand Mylai Karpagambal in Kamakshi Alankaram.

Pictures of Deepavali eve and Deepavali day follow in the next article.

Please pass your valuable comments.

Tree Walk - Panagal Park. T.Nagar, Chennai

2011-02-08T14:20:00.015+05:30

Chennai had rains even during December last year ie., year 2010. Also the winter was unusually chill. 'Nizhal', a NGO, which conducts tree walks as one of its activities, in different places in the city periodically, had announced that 5th December, Panagal Park at T.Nagar, will be the spot for Tree Walk. As I had earlier missed Nageswara Rao Park, I thought I will join this, though I could spot only a few backyard trees like Mango, Banana, Coconut etc.

On 5th December, when myself and my husband started at 6.30 in the morning, it started drizzling. I thought the programme is going to be cancelled. But by God's grace the drizzle did not become heavy rain and we, a 20 odd people, could make it with umbrellas and caps. Here is a report of what I could gather from the walk.

Peepul Oldest, found in the world , flowers and fruits 3 to 4 times in a year. Popular with birds, squirrels. King Asoka’s daughter Sangamitra planted this tree in Anuradapura, Srilanka 2300 years back. Villagers conduct their meetings under this tree. Considered very religious. Grows so well.

Nettilingam Tall, not much branches, small branches tend to hang down. English name Mast, branches coming down, so called Pendula. This tree is pollinated by bats.

Custard Apple Seetha pazham . Flower will be greenish, cannot be noticed, comes between leaves. Pollination is done by beetles. Bats love the fruit.

Elephant Earpod Tree. Found in India and South East Asia. The compound leaves resemble Gulmohar a bit. Flowers look like that of Vagai.

Silk Cotton Elavanpanju Not flowering, huge tall tree. The trunk will be green, it is thorny. It has come from South America, through West Asia to India.

Casuarina Brought from Australia to prevent Tsunami. Found in sea coasts. Good fire wood. Pulp used to make paper. Silent. No insects, no birds.

Banyan The biggest is found in a village in Andhra Pradesh with 3000 hanging roots.

Puthranjeeva or Child life tree There are male and female variety in this tree and they are separate trees. Both the trees flower. The leaves give out an oil. Hence will not be eaten by goats and cattle.

Pungam Fungal growth, but young leaves will not have this. During Feb/March flowers appear and will be pale pink in colour.

Custard Cousin of Mast tree. Pulps latex.

Copper Pods Pods are of copper colour. The copper shield lies below the flower. This is cousin of Gulmohar and will fall early.

Rain Tree or Thoongumoonji Maram Brought from South America. Related to Vaagai of Tamilnad. Dirty flowers, homes for insects which will give off a liquid that falls down

Palmyra Palm Green leaves, exotic. This is the tree of our Tamilnad State. Every part of the tree is useful. We get padanir, Nungu etc. Skin, trunk everything made use of. Even ropes are made from this tree.

(National tree is Banyan)

Tamarind Not an Indian tree. Brought from South Africa 600-700 years ago.

Brazilian Iron wood The tree will peel like paper. The wood is hard as iron. The leaves look pretty.

Mahogany Wood The wood is inferior. Brought from South America.

Bullet wood The flowers are extremely fragrant (Mahizham Poo – Tamil). Wood is strong. It is very good as avenue tree. The fruit is edible. It is the cousin of Sapota.

Cannon Ball Tree. The tree is known as Nagalingam in Tamil as the beautiful flower resembles a linga with snake head. The fruits are heavy and may fall anytime and crack. Hence not planted in crowded places. The fruits come out from trunk and will look shabby. The fruits will have 200 – 300 seeds inside.

Bougan Villa Brought from South America. Will have beautiful flowers in red, pink, purple and yellow. It needs to be pruned periodically.

Wood Apple Vilampazham in Tamil. This is an Indian tree. The rind if the fruit is very hard and the inner pulp is sticky. This is related to another Indian tree Vilvam or Bilva. Both are rich in iron, calcium and other nutrients. Bilva is used in medicines.

Jamun Tree Naval pazham in Tamil. Very much an Indian tree, Planted as avenue tree on roads. They flower in March/April and fruit will come in May/June. Birds flock this tree to eat the fruit.

Trumpet Tree The leaves look like fingers. The flowers are in beautiful pink or sometimes white (seen inside Fort St.George). Brought from South America.

Sausage Tree Planted as ornamental trees which will have purple flowers. The tree is bat pollinated one. The fruits will resemble cucumber. They are from Africa.

Yanai Kundumani Red seeds. People in olden days used these seeds to weigh gold. The leaves of the tree are alternative.

I wonder how many of these I will be in a position to recognise, but still when I go out I do look at trees and try to identify. Few more Tree Walks, I may gain some knowledge. So thanks to the organizers, 'Nizhal'

Any wrong identity of trees in the above picture, designed by me, can be informed as a comment for the benefit of all. ( Pictures taken by my husband)
The Walk was conducted by Ms. Chitra, member Nizhal Organisation. The Nizhal Trust can be contacted at 044-42045137, website : www.nizhaltn.org.

Important Winter Festivals of Hindus

2010-11-30T23:16:00.024+05:30

Our forefathers had a way of living in tune with the nature. We, of course, carry with us a few aspects of these as tradition, unknowingly with us still, when we celebrate our festivals.

Here I talk about three important festivals, namely Navarathri, Deepavali and Karthigai which generally fall in the last quarter of the year.

Navarathri comes during September/October when it is rainy season for South India. Navarathri, it is believed that Goddess Durga emerges triumphant after destroying the demon Mahishasura. We pray the other two Goddesses Lakshmi and Saraswathi too during these 9 days.

There is one custom in south India that people follow even today.They arrange dolls of Gods/Godesses, Gurus, other fellow human beings and also those of birds and animals on a special stand erected with number of steps counting to odd number. This is referred as Bommai Kolu and people display all their creativity.

Also, we still follow the custom of preparing sundals from pulses and distributing them to invitees as well as visitors after offering them to kolu gods. Our ancestors had this practice because during the rainy season, the yield of fresh vegetables would either be less or be washed out. To maintain the balance of nutrition in food the sundals must have substituted them.

Deepavali comes on a new moon day and it is the beginning of the month Aswin (Iyppasi) for those who follow Moon Calender. So the second half of the year starts with Deepavali, which means there is drastic change in climatic condition. To strengthen the physical body to adopt to new condition our forefathers introduced the custom of taking oil bath. The custom of taking oil bath cannot be brushed away as old fashion. It cools the entire system, the skin gets enough nourishment, strengthens inner organs. The early morning oil bath prepares us to meet the adverse changes in nature around us. Further, in this season all new viruses emerge in the atmosphere. To kill/drive away the insects we fire crackers which produce smoke.
In olden days even wild animals may come out of their dwelling place. To frighten them the bombs are fired, the loud sound filling the entire surrounding may drive away the animals.

Karthigai The rains will stop and the real winter will start setting in. We have a custom to keep lamps made out of mud ( agal vilakku) in front of the house throughout the month. Those days we had only pockets of villages and not big towns/ cities like today. The lit lamps served the purpose of revealing the travelers and/or the pilgrims the existence of a village nearby. The lamps are lit in the evening itself as the Sun sets early during winter months.

Here a model kolu designed with photoshop is displayed

Few photos taken on Deepavali day at/around Sri Kapali temple are given below.

Deepavali is one festival when, irrespective of age and economic status, people from infants to late 80s visit temples in brand new dress. Hence, I took pictures inside temple and nearby

You will have one more picture where Karthigai is being celebrated at home.

Here is a bonus. Kandasashti falls on the 6th day from Deepavali. Lord Muruga defeats the demon Tarakasura and marries Devasena, daughter of Indra. Lord Muruga splits Soora into two parts and Soora surrenders. Then the two parts become Cock and Peacock. Coak becomes Lord Muruga's flag and Peacock his vahana. The video link given displays the dance of cock and peacock before joining the lord.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CotmHibabvo

L.V. Prasad Film & T.V Academy- Walk with Director K. Hariharan

2010-10-31T14:56:00.029+05:30

Hi everybody
Feels nice to write in my blog after a year.

Yesterday, I had an opportunity to attend an event "Talk and Walk Inside Studio" organised by Namma Arcot Road a recent set up of the Arcot Road neighbourhood. A public talk by the Director of the L.V. Prasad & T.V. Academy, Sri K. Hariharan, on the studio's heritage and walk through the Studio were the agenda. It was open to all.

As I have a passion for videography/docu films I rushed to the venue, a little late due to the distance from my place, rainy weather/festival Saturday.

It was a wonderful experience. Sri Hariharan took us to the hall with high ceiling and different lights fitted to it. From there to the settings like the bar, office room, kitchen, bed room etc and finally to the camera room with projector equipment and the erstwhile 70mm camera. In the meantime we were provided with snacks. Sri Hariharan gave us information about film projector and the 70mm camera of yesteryear.

We then assembled in his class room. We were around 50 in number. Sri Hariharan introduced Sri Sivaraman, the General Manager of Prasad studio for 40 years now. Sri Sivaraman, very passionate about the neighbourhood and also the studio, gave some interesting anecdotes. He could recall the visits of VIPs/Celebrities.

The area beyond Vadapalani Bus Stand was like a village with paddy fields when the studio was
started. There were few more studios, like Vasu Studio, Sharada Studio etc. Beyond Vadapalani the only mode of transport was Jatka vandi. There was only one mess (Subbiah mess) nearby serving as outdoor catering, which provided full lunch for 90 paise.

VIPs like Raj Kapoor, Mrinal Sen, Amitabh Bachchan, Jitendra etc., have visited the Studio.
Mrinal sen once insisted to go to a local South Indian Hotel instead of Star hotel near Mount Road and enjoyed food in a dingy small eatery in that area.

The Vijaya Vauhini Studio was one of the biggest in Asia with 14 floors. But later some floors were closed and Vijaya Hospital was established. The multi speciality concept was first introduced in Vijaya Hospital. The other studios gave way to godowns and multistory complexes.
Once a muddy village Arunachalam Road now has become vibrant where the L.V. Prasad studio is housed.
Sri Sivaraman ended with a proud note about the neighbourhood.

Be it Sri L.V. Prasad, Sri Nagi Reddy or Sri A.V. Meyyappan, they produced national cinema rather than mere Tamil cinemas, exclaimed Sri Hariharan. RajKapoor, Mehboob Khan and other North Indians produced regional cinemas only, whereas we could give in all languages like Tamil,Telugu and Hindi at a time. Great actors like NTR, Ranga Rao, Prem Nazeer and MGR have all lived in Madras as contemporaries.

About L.V. Prasad, he said, the great human being wanted to plough back his entire wealth into cinema, as he earned everything through cinema. He could provide facilities at Hyderabad, Bangalore and Trivandrum when it was requested. His life's mission was to provide a school for film studies in his studios for those who have interest in film making, as he never had formal education in this line. The result, we see today the L.V. Prasad Film & T.V. Academy, established by his son Sri. Ramesh Prasad, for which aptly Sri. Hariharan is the Director who, as all of us know, is an award winning film maker.

Photo 1: Sri. Hariharan with audience in one of the setting rooms inside the studio.

Photo 2: Sri.Hariharan with 70mm film role.

As I had some problem in uploading 2 video clippings in this page itself, am giving the YouTube URL for the same.

The first one is the demonstration by Sri. Hariharan on Film Projector and the second on the 70mm Camera of yesteryear ( the last film probably was 'Ek duje Keliye')

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u9Iib7xdgTo

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aiFKgv9rBdw

Madras Day Celebrations – Kilpauk Walk – 16.08.2009, 7 am.

2009-10-02T14:03:00.006+05:30

Madras Day celebrations in Chennai has become Madras Week, and slowly expanding to Madras Fortnight & Madras Month.

The organizers are keen on conducting Heritage Walks in different places during this week with a view to highlight the rich heritage of our city which is to be preserved by all of us.

I took interest in Kilpauk walk, organized by Ms.Deepa Sekar on 16-08-09 as I basically belong to South Madras.

The tour programme was like this: 1. The Votive Shrine of the Immaculate Heart of Mary, 2. Madras 350 Building, 3. St. George School and Orphanage, 4.Pachaiyappa’s College of Arts and Science, 5. Kushaldass Gardens, 6. Kingston House, 7. Kalki gardens, 8. Citadel Studios, 9.Bhsashyam Naidu park, 10. Tapovan and the last Newton Studios. About 30 people took part and enjoyed the morning walk. A brief account of

the event follows.

1. The Votive Shrine of the Immaculate Heart of Mary: Father Amalraj narrated the story. One Mr.Mathias in 1942 prayed mother Mary to Protect Madras from getting bombed during the 2^nd world war. Mary with her mercy saved the entire India. Hence he wanted to build a Church and an orphanage in Madras. One French gentleman Mr. Edgar Raphael Prudehomme donated this land. This place hosts a Church, a Primary School and an orphanage. There are around 820 students, 90% from very poor families with single parent. The orphanage is the asylum for nearly 250 inmates.

Madras 350 is a building commemorating the existence of the City of Madras

built with a dome in the style of small gopuram. We reached this through Umayal Road where there is Shiva Temple which also has Sannidhis for Rama and Narasimha. The Aadhi Pillaiyar statue was found near the pond, on which the temple is constructed in 1950. The place belonged to Mr. Alagappa Chettiar.

St. George School & Orphanage: Ancient old school started in 1715, which also had a hospital with an isolation ward to house students who were suffering from chickenpox. Behind, there is the 500 year old Nawab Palace which is not in good condition now. Adds Mr. Vincent Cunningham, the chief, that there was a school band which has the history of playing before The Queen inside the Fort St.George, when she visited Madras in 1961. During that time the School had classes only upto 9^th standard. Children used to be sent to Dovton School, at Vepery from 10^th standard by cycle.

Pachaiyappa’s college of Arts and Science: 16 Acres land was donated by Pachaiyappa Chettiyar to build a college. This college alumni list has some noted personalities of Tamilnadu like, Mu.Varadarajanar, Nanjil Manoharan, C.N.Annadurai, Anbazhagan etc.,

Kushaldass Garden: It is in Poonamalle High Road. Those days Maharaja of Trivancore used to visit, stay and celebrate Moolam Thirunal here.

Kingston House: This was donated by Kannan Chetty and a Girls High school in the name of Seethammagaru now exists here. Nearby is the Nowroji Road where Rajaji lived.

Kalki Garden: Once the residence of Bharat Ratna Smt.M.S.Subbulakshmi. The Tulasi Madam and the Krishna statue are still preserved. In the piano room, we learn that, all the songs of the film Meera were choreographed and tuned. Later when Kalki Krishnamurthy joined Mr.Sadasivam, the magazine Kalki got published from this house. Now Maharishi Vidya Mandir has taken possession of this house. Ladies hostel is being run here and the school building has been erected by the side. The heritage house has at present escaped demolition due to stay order of the court.

Citadel Studios: This huge property was owned by one brother and sister who remained single and had no heirs to take over. The property was then divided. The movie 100/100 of Jaishnkar was shot here which was a grand success.

Bashyam Naidu Park: Bashyam Naidu was the fourth gen member of Beri Thimmaiah, the Dubhashi who had a significant part in the formation of Madras City. It was a vast 100 grounds garden, later given to children in parts. Still the descendants live there and the lady shared few of her memories. The song ‘Brindavanathil’ of Meera was shot in the garden and the cow which was shown in the song belonged to them. Sakunthala & Dushyanth scenes on charioit were also shot there . The house was a palatial one with a separate cottage as the kitchen.

The Tapovan: Chinmaya Heritage School is run in this place now. Once it was the place of Chinmayananda.

Newton Studio: Once a very costly studio run by technicians, where the shootings of superstars of yesteryear like MKT and NSK used to take place. Bhimsing took over this later. Now Bharatiya Vidya Bhavan is running its School here.

The tour ended by 10.00 am. Heritage walks during Madras Week are mostly arranged by Mylapore Times, a neighbourhood News Paper. Please visit their site http://www.themadrasday.in/ for details.

Surabhi, a family of 63 theatre artistes

2009-07-29T13:55:00.017+05:30

Hi everybody. It feels very good to blog after a long gap.

Evam is a theatre group with few enthusiastic youngsters as members and they give real good plays in the city of Chennai. Evam, in April 2009 introduced Surabhi, a theatre group from Hyderabad with a total members of 63 artistes from the age group of 1-1/2 to 60+ to Chennai theatre fans. It is strange to believe that they live together as one family at Hyderabad doing their routine as students, employees, home makers etc according to their age, but all in one common profession, ie acting in stage dramas.

Surabhi has completed 120 years of existence as of now.

We were given to understand the artistes get a complete exposure to the stage, in the form of doing their own make up, preparing the back drops, painting the screens, singing in their own voice, monitoring the trick shots and managing the back-stage during the play. Above all any one can play any role if need be.

This troupe gave a visual treat on 25th and 26th April to the Chennai audience by enacting two legendary plays, namely, Pathala Bhairavi and Maya Bazaar, both in Telugu. The Music Academy hall was overflowing both the days. The audience were fully receptive though the language was the local Tamil.

The two plays had mythology, storyline, comedy, music, trick-shots and the presentation was spectacular.

It was news that Maya Bazaar movie came later as an adoption of this play of Surabhi.

Many VIPs viewed the plays both days.

The head Sri. R. Nageswara Rao said that they prefer Mythology as the subject, because there is scope for heavy costume, colour, meaningful songs and trick-shots which will enthrall the audience.

One of the VIP visitors Smt. Padma Subrahmaniam had all appreciation for the artistes and invited them all to her Bharathamuni Foundation for Asian Culture at ECR Chennai.

I have given a glimpse of the above two splendid stage performances as video clippings.
Video 1. Kalavaramaye Madilo (Pathala Bhairavi)
Video 2. Gadodgaj and Abhimanyu Fight. (Mya Bazaar)
Video 3. Gadodgaj as Maya Vatsala dancing. (Maya Bazaar)
Please enjoy.

Akshaya Tritiyai-The glitters are real Gold

2009-04-29T23:53:00.016+05:30

This year Akshaya Tritiyai fell on 27th April. Akshya means without diminishing- hence bring in Aishwaryam home which remains undiminished. Thus goes the significance.

This concept was once the pracitise of those section of the society who believed in astrology which says bring in at least one gram of gold to have prosperity throughout the year.

Now the bug has spread deep and wide and people await the d'day to come and rush to jewellery shops.

However this year the astrologers strongly advocated to bring home diamond or platinum or even silver( white metal).

But, no the yellow metal has all the everlasting charm and there was rush for gold jewellery as usual.

Some of the offers the jewellers had announced on that day in newspapers are given for interesting reading.

Rs. 400/- less with gift vouchers : Service charge 1.5% less for credit cards & Vat 1% less for cash purchases.

Rs. 640/- less per sovereign: Shop open from 6.00 a.m to 11 p.m.

Free gold coin for every purchase worth 15000/-

Rs. 45 less on one gram and no making charges on plain gold jewellery.

For the purchase of gold coin equal weight of silver coin free.

Rs. 55/- less on gram of gold: no making charges for gold jewellery: 7.5% discount on diamonds.

Pre-booking of gold in advance to avail the lower rate among the two rates on Akshaya Tritiyai day.

25% less on making charges and 10% discount on diamond.

T.Nagar and Mylapore, the gold jewellery hubs of south Chennai wore a festive look on the day. The pictures below speak of the festivity.

This year Public Sector Banks have introduced Gold ETF - Exchange Traded Funds as an open ended Mutual Fund Scheme which invest in standard gold bullion. This security can be traded in the market as any other scrip. The banks call this as the intelligent way to trade in the purest
form of wealth.

All said and done this Yellow metal has its own charm and popularity. People, from time immemorial, feel Gold is the safest investment whatever be the season or rate.

The posterity-What are we leaving behind?

2009-04-16T23:00:00.010+05:30

Recently I happened to see a documentary ‘My name is Palar’ produced by one Mr. R.R.Srinivasan at Alliance Francaise, Chennai.

Palar starts from Karnataka, flows via Andhra Pradesh enters Tamilnad and reaches Bay of Bengal near Cathurangapattinam .

The documentary was elaborately dealing with the atrocity the river is facing at the hands of greedy business community, bureaucrats, politicians etc.

The effluent from the tanneries in Ambur, Ranipet and Vellore are freely let out into the river causing severe health hazards to population around who consume the water.

Once people were using natural herbs like ‘Kadukkai’ and others as cleaning agents to treat the animal skin. The effluent had rich herbal value and the agriculturists used to vie with each other to collect the same and use in their fields to get high quality yield.
Now chromium and nickel are being used in the tanneries and hence it becomes difficult to standardize the effluent water as the ill effects cannot be removed.

The other major atrocity committed on the river is the quarrying of sand 10 folds above the stipulated optimum level by greedy businessmen and the same is sent to nearby states. It is highly unfortunate that the local population is used in this service specially women and children. They resort to assist this as they have no other avocation and means of earning because agriculture has totally failed and the soil has become uncultivable. If the sand mining continues at this rate the Palar belt is likely to become fully dried up and no recharge will be possible even during rainy season.
Now we turn to our Nxgen. We have very dynamic, hardworking, talented and enthusiastic Nxgen today. They are tech savvy and advanced in all walks of life. They use their brains and valuable trainings to serve other countries, make them prosperous and are termed very cost effective. But they don’t realize that the earth on which they stand is becoming parched and cracked.

The middle aged population stands silent spectators knowing well that what they leave to the posterity is barrenness, disease prone water resources and scarcity of quality vegetation. They also realize that if our rivers, lakes, wells and other water resources are preserved well, there my not be water scarcity.

India the largest democracy in the world is facing another election now. It is time the youth awake and strive hard to retain our resources intact. Let them bring home foreign exchange and boost up financial prosperity, but let not the motherland lose all the natural resources slowly because they do not show interest in preserving them thereby denying the benefits to the posterity. Let them take a consolidated effort so that the Newnxgen will be thankful to them.

I call upon the Nxgen and Newnxgen to have only one identity i.e., ‘I am an Indian’.

P.S. Photos from the documentary screened.

Umayalpuram Sivaraman & Chennai Sangamam 2009

2009-03-31T23:35:00.022+05:30

Sangeetha Sangamam, the name that was given to the programme by Umayalpuram Sivaraman and his ensemble. Chennai Sangamam 2009 had concerts of top musicians in the south Chennai parks, like Sudha Ragunathan, Bombay Jayshree, Ranjani Gayathri, Sanjay Subramanyan etc.

But this year's highlight was Umayalpuram Sivaraman and his ensemble. It had senior artistes on percussion and other instruments on one side and budding musician like Bharat Sunder and two more boys on vocal on the other side. Here is a report on this programme that took place at Nageswara Rao Park, Mylapore, on the 13th of January, 2009.

Umayalpuram's beat filled the ambiance and reverberated through the pathway around the chess square. Sri. M.A.Sundaresan gave excellent support in violin and the songs literally poured out in a pleasant stream from his bows.

The programme was titled Sangeetha Sangamam and so had both classical and folk songs.

The first two songs were pure folklore and rendered well by the boys. Then there was the fast number Raghuvamsa Sudha, in raga Kathanakuthuhalam. Then came a song which had pallavi 'Eru mayil yeru', on Muruga in Tamil, next was 'Uyyalalugaviah', by Saint Thyagaraja in Telugu, a lullaby for Rama and the final charanam was again in Tamil 'En kanne kannurangu', all in the raga Nilambari. The blend was very smooth. Similarly 'Ramanukku Mannan' and 'Karunalaya nidhuiye' both in raga Hindolam, were combined and given as one single rendation. 'Muladhara murthe' in Hamsadwani followed with swift phrases.

I take a paragraph break here to tell that at this point one VVIP visitor entered. Yes, your guess is right. Madam Kanimozhi, MP and one of the organisers of Chennai Sangamam came and took her seat on the lawn along with her friends. The main song 'Tamizhai Kalvimozhiyakku' in raga Hamsadwani was dealt in detail by all the three boys adding kalpana swaras. There was also a thaniavarthanam by all the accompaniments. Umayal Sir stole the show and the crowd applauded heartily.

'Vallikanavan Perai' Kavadichindu was enjoyable. Age old song 'Adupambe' was handled in violin by Sri.Sundaresan. The next was the English note and the boys were adept in humming in a soft low pitch for the same

The finale was the song 'Shanthi nilava Vendum' followed by "Vazhiya Senthamizh'.

The rasikas present that day were mostly people from the neighbourhood and not the regulars to music sabhas. But they sat through the entire show and enjoyed the performance in toto.

You may also enjoy the two small video clippings given below.

The artistes of Sangeetha Sangamam:
Mridangam :Sri. Umayalpuram K.Sivaraman
Violin : Sri. M.A. Sundaresan
Ghatam : Sri. Pudukkotai Ramesh
Kamjira : Sri. Sri Sundar Kumar
Morsingh : Sri. A.S.Krishnan
Special Effects : Sri. Murali
Vocal 1 : Sri. K.Bharat Sunder
Vocal 2 : Sri. Nanganallur Ravishankar
Vocal 3 : Sri. Parur Ananthakrishnan

Gomatha Illam

2009-03-29T23:01:00.011+05:30

Gomatha Illam

Can you imagine a shed full of cattle, cows and buffaloes, being tended and bred at the heart of the metro Chennai? Yes, the couple Ramu and Bala does it at Mylapore, Chennai at Veerabadran Lane.

Gomatha in Tamil means, ‘Cow, the Mother’ and it is sacred for Hindus. In Gomatha Illam of Ramus there are 20 cows and 15 buffaloes. Breeding these animals is the family tradition of Ramus and they live upto that till date.

Smt. Bala, lady just–above-middle age, looks very pious and soft spoken with very tender, affectionate expression in her eyes as she takes care of all the cattle as her own children.

The couple with their only son runs the entire show. They supply around 75 litres of milk per day, morning and evening to Hotel Saravana Bhavan in North Mada Street, Mylapore and to Grand Snacks in Gandhi Nagar, Adyar on week ends.

This is their family business for generations, says Smt. Bala and hence they want to continue despite the hardships. They don’t realize much profit because the cattle feed and straw prices have gone up many folds. Also they do not have much human assistance to take care of 35 cattle in one place.

We visited them on the day of Mattuppongal, the day next to Pongal, when people show their gratitude to the cattle for providing them milk throughout the year. Previously it was the tradition to take the cattle out, decked up, for a walk on Mattuppongal day and people at their doorstep used to take harathi and offer fruits to the cow and thamboolam to the owner. These things have disappeared now and the puja is being performed indoors only.

I wish the couple a happy and prosperous New Year (Ugadi)

Lecture Demonstrations - December Music and Dance Season 2008

2009-03-25T15:54:00.008+05:30

Hi again! This is a belated report on few of the Lec-dems during December 2008 season

Here is a word about Lec-dems in general. Except at Music Academy the Lec-dems at other Sabhas witness only scant crowd that too all 50+.

The resource persons delivering the lectures are stalwarts and they do extensive research before presenting them in the limited time allotted.

It is unfortunate that the youth, especially those in the music and dance circle, as students, do not encash the knowledge imparted and get benefited by them.

Our senior vidwans, musicologists and dance gurus have treasures with them which the younger generation should exploit for their real growth.

1. Telugu-The special status enjoyed by Telugu in Carnatic Music –
By Sri. T.R.Subrahmaniam - Indian Fine Arts Society at German Hall on 26.12.2008.

In British India, English language was regarded as a status symbol. In the same way Telugu language enjoyed the status symbol among composers of 16/17 century.
Tamilnad had great advantage in that illustrious people like Rama Mathiya, Annamacharya and Narayana Thirthar from Andhra Pradesh contributed a lot and made Telugu a status language.

The influence was so great that composers with their mother tongue other than Telugu composed only in Telugu during that era. Patnam Subramanya Iyer, Poochi Srinivasa Iyengar (Tamilians) , Mysore Vasudevachar (Kannadiga) preferred to compose in Telugu.

The King Krishna Devaraya, whose mother tongue was Tulu, did a kavya in Telugu by name ‘Amuktha Malyada’. In this he has the last line ‘Desa Bhashalandu Telugu Lessa’
meaning among the national languages Telugu is the best.

Sangeetha Sampradaya Pradarshini, which is considered as Bible in music circle was written in the year 1904, in Telugu by Subbarama Dikshithar, the grandson of Muthuswamy Dikshithar's family whose mother tongue was Tamil.

Finally, Saint Thyagaraja who was born and lived in Tamilnadu did his compositions in simple Telugu, which was his mother tongue. His disciples too composed only in Telugu, telling ‘Na guru ela chesaro ala chesanu’ meaning I did the way my guru did.
The beauty of Telugu lies in the fact that all nouns end in vowels like Ramudu ending with u. This gives very good scope in carnatic music to do neraval and is very pleasant to hear. Whereas in Tamil the vowels end in consonants, like in Raman, n is the ending and neraval with that is difficult. In Kannada the vowels are extended with aa at the endings, which will not sound very good and neraval with extended aa is again difficult.

Our great poet of Tamilnad Sri.Subrahmanya Bharathy hence rightly said ‘Sundara Telunginil Pattisaithu’ which means Telugu is very good to hear and people opt to sing in that language.

This trend slowly changed with Papanasam Sivan who made Tamil kirthanas with classical touch popular later.

2. Influence of Yoga in voice modulation by Sri T.Unnikrishnan – Sri Parthasarathy Swami Sabha at Vidya Bharathy on 28.12.08

Voice culture is the usage of right voice technique while singing. Yoga deals with breath control and hence the practice of Pranayama helps improve the tonal quality.

There are three registries in voice, head registry, chest registry and false registry. Head registry is for light singing and 90% modulation comes from chest registry. Breath voice (the false registry) is bad in classical music, but permitted in light singing. (In breathy voice 10% of breath is applied with singing which comes along with the song and it is a disqualified voice for classical music.) Classical singing requires majesty and hence, there chest registry is applied.

When we practice with akaram it is better to replace ‘a’ with ‘h’ and practice haharam. This will enable us to reach the lower shadjamam easily.
Initially sarali is to be practiced with haharam. H works in a tremendous way in voice production. When akaram is applied it presses the larynx in the vocal chord and the voice becomes artificial. It may reduce the range also later on. When the voice gets the position, then akaram can be applied.
The position of the head should be at normal level even while singing in tara sthayi. If lifted up the larynx gets pressed and enough air will not be supplied to the voice.
While practicing any swara it should be plain, in a tight string like pattern without vibrations. This will help, later in applying vibrations and landing smoothly in classical music.

Yoga is for general health, wherein the mechanism is very easy with respect to Pranayama, meaning control and organized movement of breath. The spoken voice and tonal quality in singing gets improved by regularly practicing yoga (pranayama)

Three types of pranayamas can be practiced for 1 to 1.5 hours daily as a special exercise for the improvement of voice.
The vocal chord is a delicate instrument and hence any exercise/yoga is to be done under the supervision of a guru.

Kapalapathi: Imagine a lamp is kept in front. From nabhi pressing the billow apply force and try to put off the lamp. Repeat this for a specific number of counts. This clears the lungs.
Nadi Shodana: This is alternate breathing. There are two nadis; one is Ida, the left (female) and the other Pingala, the right (male). Inhale with your left nostrils, retain that counting upto 6, and then exhale counting 12 from right nostril. Now inhale through right, retain till 6 counts and exhale through left counting 6. Repeat this until there is balance in the exhaling. The effect of this is the mind will be steady with no stress. Both nostrils will be cleared without block enabling the music to flow out smoothly.
Bhastika: This is abrupt blowing of air throw nostrils and repeated fastly. This clears nasal passage and sinus. The area around the nose is purified and the resonating system is kept activated. Anyone can practice without nasal sound or with 10% nasal or with 50% nasal. With ‘OM’ also this can be practiced. The voice starts from vocal chord passes through various resonating system and comes out with sweetness and melody.

For improvement of voice one sarali a day repeated, will be enough. The next day the next sarali to be practiced.
For a steady pitch one should practice from lower panchamam to the higher panchamam. If 5 is the normal pitch one should start from 4.5, go to 5, then to 5.5.
This way one can sing confidently at the 5 pitch.

3. Role of Varnam in Voice Training by Smt. Sumathi Krishnan – Sri Parthasarathy Swami Sabha at Vidya Bharathy on 30.12.08.

We get to know different patterns from singing varnams like the following: 1. Hamsadwani varnam Pagavari, 2.Kanada varnam ‘Nera nammithinaiah’- anupallavi‘maruni kanna sri’and 3. Suruti varnam ‘entha premathone’- the swarams ‘panthamela jesevu e vela’
These give different patterns and modulations. The regular practice trains the voice in these aspects.
In certain ragas the pattern is woven around one swaram like in Goula varnam ‘chelimi kori vachi’ is around Rishabam which is the prime note. Similarly in the Saveri varnam ‘sogasuga’ again rishabam is the important note, close to Shadjam, which has got not only range but combination of swaras too.
In Pallavi Gopala Iyer’s ata thala varnam ‘intha chalamu’ the karvai gets shifted from ‘pa’ to ‘dha’ and also to ‘sa’. Here ‘pa dha dha sa’, ‘sa pa dha dha sa’ ‘pa dhaa dha sa’are beautifully chiseled.
To get good range, it should be practiced from lower pa to higher pa wherein numerous combinations can be achieved.
Varnam Patterns work very beautifully on voice training and also lead to manodarma singing. These patterns when practiced with akaras will be good for voice training

Some varnams like ‘Swami’ in Hamsadwani and Kannada ragas give knowledge about swarasthanas and varjyaprayoham in ragas.

Varnams are combinations of Jhanta varisai and Dhattu varisai, so very useful for voice training.
There are two types of varnams, namely Pada varnam and Thana varnam. Pada varnams are mainly meant for dance performances, whileThana varnams improve the voice texture and pattern.

Shanmukhapriya Thana varnam is produced here as video clip (the image quality is not very good) which can be enjoyed as to how the practice of varnam helps in singing RTP.

Finally madam Sumathy concluded her lecture by a verse in Sanskrit which said ‘have unexhausted control over the voice which does not tire easily, explore mature and correct phrases of ragas and learn from great learned guru’.

Madam Sumathy with her clear and authentic voice demonstrated every single aspect, with the singing of that particular segment of the varnam.

I once again reiterate that these lectures are made available free by Sabhas during December season but it is not reaching the target audience who will carry forward these treasures.

I have given only a small piece of the lectures in the perspective of a rasika and not as a singer or student of music.

I wish one and all a very happy Ugadi.

Dance Ballet- December Music & Dance Season 2008

2009-03-07T19:15:00.015+05:30

Hi friends! It is nice to be back meddling with my blog after a long gap.

I would like to give a very short, crisp note about the Dance Ballets, I happened to see during December Music and Dance season 2008.

Nowadays December season is witnessing Dance Ballets in the place of Solo dances by veterans.

The three of them which I have chosen are again choreographed by veterans and performed by their school students.

I start with Mrs. Chitra Visweswaran’s Chidambaram Academy of Performing Arts which presented ‘Nirantharaha’ meaning ‘the eternal cycle’.

It was told that old Tamil literature speaks of seven stages of woman. Nirantharaha depicts the seven stages of woman which go like this, the girl baby, the little girl, the sweet sixteen, the young woman, the mother, the widow and the released soul. As madam Chitra puts it ‘every moment that goes is a death; and every moment that is born is birth; thus the eternal cycle goes on’. Mrs. Chitra Visweswaran took the lead role and performed effortlessly, deftly accompanied by her students.

The first song of Tagore’s Gitanjali was translated into Tamil and there were many more of his compositions taken for research and formed the source, says Mrs.Chitra. Late Visweswaran had scored the music for the Ballet.

The Music, that had direct influence of Tagore’s Gitanjali , and scored by a santoor artiste, had the melody and softness which prevailed throughout the drama. Odissi style was very neatly adopted in Bharathanatyam, fitting to the melody of the songs. The costume of the dancers very much resembled that of odissi.

The next is ‘Pada Kavitha Pithamaha’ by Bharathanjali Trust headed by Mrs. Anitha Guha.
Around 25 students of all stature from 2’ to 5’ took part in the dance ballet, based on the compositions of Annamacharya, mostly on Lord Venkateswara and Goddess Alamelumanga. The resource person was Sri. Pappu Venugopala Rao and choreography, madam Anitha. She is adept in handling students of different age groups and the audience always remains spell bound by their performance.

Pada Kavitha Pithamaha was another treat that way, with a special mention to be made about the Bhramotsavam scenes, where the Lord with his two consorts parade in different Vahanas on all 10 days.

In dance circle when we speak about spectacular, the one name that flashes is Smt. Krishnakumari Narendran of Abhinaya Natyalaya. This year Smt Nrithya Jagannathan and other students of madam Krishnakumari presented ‘Siva Swaroopa Thandava Lahari’ a celebration of Shiva and his multiple facets. The verses were taken from Sanskrit and Tamil poems like Thiruvachagam, Thirumandiram, Sivanandalahari, Shivapanchakshara Stotram, Siva Thandava Stotram and Charana Sringarahita Nataraja Stotram.

The two special items were the story of Ravana who sings Siva Thandava Stotram to get himself released from the crush by Mount Kailash and that of Padanjali, who composes Charana Sringarahita Nataraja Stotram on seeing Lord Nataraja’s Ananda Thandavam at Chidambaram.

Mrs. Nrithya Jagannathan was versatile in presenting the different facets of the cosmic dancer Lord Shiva.
The settings and lightings play a vital role in Krishnakumari’s dance dramas and invariably steal the heart of audience. These two aspects were exceptionally displayed in this production.

Krishnakumari Narendran is always passionate about her students, and Nrithya, her pet student for the last 25 years, learns, teaches and renders nattuvangam under Krishnakumari. She is also proud that her students do well in their schools/collages with a few pursuing professional courses like engineering/IT/medicine. She was thankful to the artiste who played Ravana, a student from abroad (Sri Lanka, I believe) who air dashed to Chennai, learnt in few days and danced. Of course her performance was quite laudable.

I have given a small tribute to the three great dance gurus of current time, who have established themselves by mere hardwork and untiring effort. It requires lot of patience, understanding and adjustment to plan, do research, choreograph, coordinate, rehearse and finally present a production with heterogeneous artistes and cope with their other important commitments in social life. Women dance gurus of our time are doing it extremely well.

I am happy to release this article on the eve of ‘International Women’s Day’, i.e.,March 8 th and dedicate to the women population all over the world who are adept in multitasking.

I am proud to be a woman and wish all ladies a very happy Women’s Day.

Myilayil Oru Margazhi Maalai

2009-01-14T23:24:00.022+05:30

'Songs of December' was the name given to the unique programme at Nageswara Rao Park , Luz, Mylapore, held on 27.12.08 at 7 p m.

It is called 'Nadopasana' in Sanskrit which means to pray Almighty by singing his praise by dedicated, trained musicians who learn classical music under a guru.

The programme mentioned above was one such unique thing arranged by Mylapore Times/Kutcheribuzz, a neighbourhood newspaper/web site. Students of Balabrundam headed by Smt.Seetha Rajan rendered few Andal Thiruppavai songs followed by Christmas carols by the Revival Singers of Santhome conducted by M.M. Gaspar.

Disciples of Smt. Seetha Rajan, girls aged from 7 to18, dressed in traditional South Indian dress for teens, rendered around 8 popular Thiruppavai songs starting with 'Margazhi Thingal' the first among the 30 songs of Andal, who married Lord Ranganatha himself, the legend says. They were accompanied by a young mridangist.

The voice, the diction, the sruthi, the rhythm, the dedication, the harmony of the group, everything was perfect and excellent. Kudos to the guru Smt. Seetha Rajan.

Next was the choir by 'The Revival Singers' of Santhome. They were around nine youth, 3 male and 6 females accompanied by a young man on the piano.The group was headed by Mr. M.M. Gasper. They presented around 5 songs.

As I understand , the choir is a message from the holy Spirit of god. The Christmas Carol (songs) will have a theme of Christmas and the celebration of the birth of Christ. The Church choir is generally based on classical music.

So the 'Songs of December' presented the songs of the holy month Margazhi (mid Dec. to mid Jan.) for Hindus and holy month of December for Christians. The selective audience that day enjoyed both as Mylapore is a place where people of all religions live together peacefully. The innovative idea (thanks to the organisers) of conducting such programme in the open on a winter evening in December was also welcomed by the gathering.

December Music, Dance and other Art Season, Chennai - a overview

2008-12-31T23:56:00.006+05:30

December Music season is an unique event that takes place in Chennai, the Cultural Capital of India, every year. Initially this was confined to few Sabhas hosting the festival. Now this has grown big and hence gets started by November itself due to non availability of venue as many sabhas do not own their own auditorium.

Artistes consider that performing in the music season is a prestige. Recently the trend has widened giving scope for full-fledged dance ballets and also stage dramas. Of course Lec-Dems on varied subjects by experts continue to have a place in the agenda.

Rasikas from abroad make it a point to visit Chennai during this season and one reputed Hotel in Mylapore informs that this year also the rooms were full during Nov/December and the visitors stayed till the end of music season.

All major sabhas will have canteens with traditional items at affordable rates, to satisfy the taste buds of the rasikas who will have continuous schedule from 9.00 A.M to 9.00 P.M.

M/S Fortune Sunflower edible oil had plied vans to shuttle between sabhas and the service was free for rasikas. This 'Fortune Carnatic Express' was introduced last year and had a help line painted on it. There were two such vehicles, one operating in Mylapore and the other in T.Nagar. The rasikas to access the vehicle thro' the mobile help line.

There was also a daily issue on the happenings at various sabhas till the end of Music Season i.e 1st Jan 2009 by a Neighbourhood News paper and a website on South Indian Classical Music & Dance.

Below is the photo of December Music Season, 2008, Chennai.

Articles on Lec-Dem and on Dance Ballet will be published in due course.

Sense international (india)-Hope for Special Children

2008-11-30T23:08:00.004+05:30

The world exclusively dedicates December 3rd for special children of the earth. We in India conduct many programmes like sports and other competitions, cultural shows etc etc.

But many of us do not know that there is an organisation caring for the deaf blind and also for multiple disorder children. Sense International (India) is the first national non governmental organisation, a registered trust within India to support the development of comprehensive services for deaf blind people. Now it supports services to all multiple disorder children. The office is in Ahmedabad.

The main objectives of the organisation are, 1. To reach out to children with multiple disability who are not getting any kind of services, 2. To train parents the skills to improve the capabilities of the child and accept the child and understand the special needs. 3. Develop the staff and give them training in taking care and educating the children.

The organisation has set up so far 37 services in 19 states in India. Sense International has 3 net works functioning, “Abhi - Prerna” - for the Teachers Network, “Prayas”- for Family Network and “Udaan” for Network of persons with Deaf blindness / Multi Sensory Impairment

The organisation conducts seminar for 2 days in September wherein the children with parents, and teachers of different states are invited and they interact among themselves. Here the problems, lack of professional services, lack of facilities to the teachers are discussed in detail.

This year the seminar was conducted in Ahmedabad itself for 2 days, Sep. 19th & 20th. Though the representation from different states was less, the interaction was good, it seems. Parents felt the need for more trained teachers. But however the teachers vented out their grievances like lack of transportation , meagre pay scale etc. One teacher narrated the story how he had to travel 12 hours to reach the village, teach for 2 hours and travel back same 12 hours. He undergoes this ordeal 3 days a week. He gets only nominal pay which is far from sufficient, but gets immense satisfaction that the child is improving. (These informations were given by a parent who attended the seminar)

Some parents are happy that the child has improved a lot due real care from parents and teacher. One student from the special children school in Muttukadu, Chennai even got awards from state government.

These informations were given by a parent who attended the seminar this year.

The success stories of the children found in their website http://www.senseintindia.org/ are amazing.

I here quote a dream expressed by a 11 year old girl as seen in the website - 'I love the
breeze against my face, the feel of the sand as it flows from my fist. I can smell air and predict
rain. I want to be a meteorologist one day. The first deaf blind meteorologist of the world!!'

O' what a lively dream.

Our Government has brought out several social security schemes for them.

LIC once had a policy Jeevan Aadhar for disabled people. Now that has been closed and a similar schemes has been brought, it appears. However I understand that LIC has s separate wing for disabled persons which functions at their Teynampet Office, Chennai.

The awareness in the society, the organisation says, very very less. Once the parents become member, the organisation will take care of the kid with respect to education, securing job etc if the parents are not in a position to provide the same.

The future plans of the organisation are By 20 17 1. At least 1 deaf blind service provider will be available in each state. 2. About 70,000 deaf blind people (62,500 children and 7,500 adults) will be utilising quality, needs-based services. 3. No deaf blind child will travel more than a day to
get appropriate services.

E-mail: info@senseintindia.org
web site: www.senseintindia.org
Toll free deaf blind helpline : 1800 233 7913

Artifacts of Rural Women Entrepreneurs-Exhibition-cum-Sale

2008-11-27T20:16:00.017+05:30

Andhra Mahila Sabha, a voluntary organisation has many units like Hospital and research centre, Women's college, Vocational Training Institute etc under its umbrella. All the units celebrate the birth centenary year of the founder president Padma Vibhushan Dr. Durgabai Deshmukh. The whole year July 2008 to July 2009 is being celebrated as the date of birth falls on 15/7/1909.

In this connection the Vocational Training Institute of Andhra Mahila Sabha, Luz Church Road, Mylapore, had organised an Exhibition cum Sale of Artifacts of rural women entrepreneurs from 22.1108 to 24.11.08 sponsored by NABARD.

NABARD: National Bank for Agriculture and Rural Development is an apex body of Government and its main objective is to help Bank fund for rural development. NABARD gives the refinance in those cases. One of the main innovations of NABARD is formation and funding scheme of Self Help Group.

What is Self Help Group (SHG) ? Rural women with expertise in different avocation join together to form a group and select a leader amongst themselves. The banks will finance the group through the leader, and the other members get money commensurate to their small business output, profit. The leader maintains the accounts of each member and the loan is repaid by collecting from the sale proceeds realised by members.

This is only a broad outline of SHG. However SHG is one scheme which is extremely successful in India since its inception during 1991-92. The growth is incomparable to any other scheme and that can be assessed by the fact that some groups have Chairman, Secretary, cashier, treasurer etc. SHGs mainly consist of women groups but nowadays the facility extended to men groups also.

The main motto of Andhra Mahila Sabha, as they quote, is "Building better lives for women"

So these two organisatons, NABARD & AMS together organised the Exhibition cum Sale of artifacts of women entrepreneurs belonging to SHGs from different districts.

Shall we visit the stalls now?

Jothi of Malligai, Arasu Suya Uthavi Kuzu from Kanakamma Chathiram, Thiruvallur dist. is engaged in making artificial jewellery with stones. She gets the raw material from Gujarat and does nice ear rings, chains, anklets, hip belt used in Dandiya dance etc. Her contact No. 9840645649.

Vasantham Mooligai Marundu Shop from Namakkal: All herbal products to treat obesity, allergy, hair fall, diabetes, constipation besides hair oil, massage oil, shampoo etc., were displayed. As there is general awareness among public for alternate medicine nowadays, people thronged this counter. Contact person P.Selvamani 94435 73225/9442792995.

Nehru SHG from Namakkal: Real nice quality cotton towels and bed spread spinned in their own power loom were exhibited and sold for nominal rate. The sale was overwhelming and they have bagged bulk orders from visitors.

Taramani Women SHG, Dharapuram: Beautiful garlands made of flowers from spongy packing materials of sober colors like rose, pista green, lemon yellow were displayed. Also a small mantap made of ice-stick and match stick with a Saraswathy idol inside looked perfect and artistic.

P. Rajeswari can be contacted on 9442922663.

There were also other fashion jewellery and artificial flower making stalls. Ms. Kamala Dhanasekharan from Mandaveli, Chennai can be contacted on 9380162037. She has a jewellery polishing shop at 56, V.C. Garden Street and belongs to Thendral SHG.

C.S.I. Embroidery Industry Natural Fibre Craft are from Kanyakumari District. Cushion covers, sofa covers, table spread, bed sheets materials are procured from the market in Karur and hand embroidered at the industry at Marthandam. Contact person Hebsibai Dharmaraj at 04651 270147. Hand bags and other baskets are made of natural fibre, a thriving craft and very typical of Kanyakumari. C.Thanga Jothi can be contacted at 94865 50922.

Out of 15 stalls only 2 from other state i.e., Andhra Pradesh.

One unique stall from Dharmavaram had exquisite designs carved on coloured leather. The designed piece can either be framed or fixed at any place with a cello tape. The contact persons from Dharmavaram Mr. Raju can be contacted at 99495 52185.

The other stall is the famous Kondapalli Doll Shop where the dolls are made of light wood with very artistic and realistic workmanship.

Madurai, Nellai, Kancheepuram, Rajapalayaman and Sivaganga had their representations.

Food for the participants for all 3 days was sponsored by NABARD and the accommodation and venue provided by Andhra Mahila Sabha.

What made Andhra Mahila Sabha to organise an exhibition like this? "We are bent upon the upliftment of poor women in the society" says Ms. Bhuvaneswari, the coordinator with a flicker in her eyes. How NABARD came into the picture? Tells Bhuvana, NABARD already sponsors their vocational training activity for computer education, car driving course and tailoring unit for women.

The entire show for three days was simple and the participants left satisfied having grabbed lucrative orders for the festive season ahead.

K.P. Astrology - Birth Centenary of founder Late Prof. K.S. Krishnamurthi

2008-11-23T16:23:00.011+05:30

'Krishnamurthi Paddhathi' of astrology is the product of 40 years of research by the founder Late Prof. K.S. Krishnamurthi. Prof. K.S.Krishnamurthi was born on 1st November 1908 at Thiruvaiyaru, Tanjore district. He later moved to Madras ie Chennai. KSK passed away in March 1972. (source http://astropskp.com/)

Prof. KSK was blessed with three sons and two daughters. All the three sons, Sri.Ganapathy, Sri Hariharan and Sri. Subrahmaniam and one daughter Smt. Soundara Rajan practise astrology, K P Paddhathi. Sri. Hariharan heads the research institute opened by KSK, now functioning at Spencer Plaza, Chennai.

On 1.11.2008, the family members along with their students and other astrologers who practise K P method had arranged full day grand function at Sri.Dakshinamurthy auditorium, Mylapore.

The function had two sessions, morning and evening with a lunch break in between. The introductory and felicitation part took major time in the morning agenda and so the number of guest speakers were only 3. The audience, who all had a minimum knowledge in Vedic astrology were disappointed that they missed speech by the sons who were to describe in detail what is K.P. Paddhathi.

I was one among the audience in the morning session and could not stay for the next.

I present this article with the meagre information I could grasp and some study through different web sites on this subject.

K.P. Paddhathi is the outcome of 3 styles, 1. Vedic astrology for basics, 2.Prassna Jothidam for the time of approach for predictions and 3. its own unique system which differs from Vedic Astrology.

Vedic Astrology has a definite horoscope set basing on the date, time and place of birth. It takes the centre of the house as the point and predictions made taking into account the natal chart and the gochara effects of major planets like Saturn, Jupiter and the nodes.

In K P Astology the ruling planets basing on the sign lord, star lord and sub lord for both lagna and Moon and the week day planet are first listed, the lagna being arrived at basing on the time a person approaches for prediction. If Rahu and Kethu are in the sign whose lord owns another sign and that planet is one among the ruling planets, then the nodes are also listed.

If any ruling planet thus arrived happens to be retrograde, that planet is to be eliminated.

Also the planet owning 8th and 12th place from the relevant house that is being studied, if happens to be a ruling planet, that should also be eliminated.

The ruling planet thus arrived gives the source, its star lord gives the effects & results and the sub-lord gives the final direction. ( source http://www.jyotishsolutions.com/kp.htm)

Prof. KSK divided each star into 249 divisions and each division called 'sub' and the ultimate result depended on sub. This explains the diverse destiny of twins born on the same star.

K P system considered the cusp as the point in contrast to the centre point of the house that is being considered in Vedic Astrology

Thus if the prediction for a particular event which will take place within a day, the time when the Ascendant will cross the ruling planet will be the result. Similarly for events within two or three days, the movement of Moon is taken for calculation, for events within a month, the Sun's movement is studied to pin point the day and time and for yearly events Jupiter's movement or the dasha, bhukthi, anthara are studied for fixing the events date and time of happening. (source http://www.kpastrology.com/kpbasics.htm)

People practising this method say that KP system gives the accurate prediction and the calculations are very scientific in nature.

Late prof. K.S.Krishnamurthi could do all the calculations manually when the usage of computers was not in vogue.

The function started at around 10.40 A.M on 1.11.2008 and the bust statue was unveiled by Sri. S.V.Shekar, cine actor, stage artiste and MLA of Mylapore constituency. It was also announced that two new books written by KSK will be released in the evening.

I once again submit that I have no proficiency in any kind of astrology, but can understand the basics a bit.

So I humbly request the readers to feel free and comment on the shortcomings and enlighten me. Any further/allied information is also most welcome.

Surasamharam by Singaravelar of Mylai

2008-11-11T22:46:00.019+05:30

"Mayilaye Kayilai: Kayilaye Mayilai" meaning Mylapore of Chennai city is Kailash, the abode of Shiva, for all his devotees.

All Shiva/Murugan temples of south India, particularly Tamilnad, celebrate Kandasashti on the sixth day following Deepavali Amavasya.

Devotees fast all the six days and throng Murugan temples on Sashti (people call it peria sashti) day. Surasamharam takes place in the evening.

The Story: On the request of Indra, the king of Devas, the young lad Kumaran (Muruga), the son of Shiva and Parvathi sets out to fight the demon king Sura and all other Asuras associated with him. Sura takes Muruga lightly being a young boy. But Muruga fights fiercely and beheads Sura. But Sura's head gets replaced by different forms, like lion. elephant, goat etc. Muruga destroys all the heads. Finally he takes the form of a Mango tree which Muruga splits into two parts. Then Sura realises the godliness in Lord Muruga and expresses his wish to be with the Lord forever. The two split parts become his vahana & flag. Thus Peacock is vahana of Muruga and Cockerel his flag. Indra, pleased by this, gives his daughter Devasena in wedlock to Muruga. Devasena's wedding is celebrated in all the temples the next day.

Now we move to Mylapore, Lord Kapaleeswara temple. This temple is supposed to be one of the oldest temples of Madras ie Chennai and has the tradition of celebrating all the festivals according to the norms specified. Kandasashti Kodiyetham took place on 28th October, but the sashti was conducted only on 4th November, while all other temples celebrated on 3rd.

The norm, says Sri.Sambamurthy Sivachariar, is that the theerthavari is done on the day when sashti thithi exists in the morning atleast for '10 nazhigai' , and only on the 4th Nov. there was sashti thithi in the morning for '11 nazhigai' . Hence the Surasamharam by Singaravelar of Sri Kapali temple took place in the evening on 4th November in the North Mada Street of Mylapore.

Though it was simple compared to other famous Murugan temples, the spirit of mylaporeans was lively, as always it used to be, and the crowd enjoyed the full episode as though they themselves are fighting with Sura. Children, youth and the elderly, alike were throwing paper arrows on the idol of Sura when he was retreating from Muruga, vanquished repeatedly. The entire 1 hour fight was really a thrill.

The finale was grand, with 'Seval & Mayil' reaching the deity dancing all through the path.

Mayilaye Kayilai: Kayilaye Mayilai.

Kuchipudi and Cholliyattam

2008-10-30T23:09:00.023+05:30

South Madras i.e Chennai is quite popular in promoting classical music and dance almost through out the year.

Two such events that took place in Sep. 08, are Seminar/awards/performance of Kuchipudi dance organised by Saila Sudha, headed by Dr. Shailaja at Bharathiya Vidya Bhavan on 27 th and 28 th and the second by Kalakshethra, 'Sankara Menon Birth centenary celebrations' which had a lec-dem on 'Cholliyattam' a form of Kathakali on 23rd Sep.

This is a belated report, still would like to share because they are basically from neighbouring states.

Kuchipudi had two full day events of lec-dem, documentary, honouring of gurus etc. Evening both days had performances.

On 27th the dancer was Yamini Reddy, daughter of Radha & Raja Reddy the famous Kuchipudi dancer couple. She was young, talented and had variety. First she performed some invocatory items which had the traditional Kuchipudi touch. Then there was a ragamalika with navarasas and Yamini showed her mettle in abhinaya. The final item was a padam as is known to everyone it was in sringara rasa.

The highlight of the program was the performance of Prahalada Charithram by the artistes from the village of kuchipudi and it really had the fervour of the desi, rustic beauty in presentation.

This took place in heart of the Metro, i.e. in Bharathiya Vidya Bhavan, Mylapore, but the artistes were tireless and went probably up to 11.00 as though it is being performed in an open air stage in a village.

The second festival was Kalakshethra's from 21.09.08 to 29.09.08 being the birth anniversary of Sri. Sankara Menon, ex-director (1986-1995), which had Lec-dem in the mornings and kutcheries in the evenings.

Cholliyattam, a folk type classical dance of kerala was performed by P.V. Balakrishnan and his team from Kerala. He gave brief introduction about the dance. Cholliyattam was prior to the evolution of Kathakali, which was an offshoot of Cholliyattam. The rhythm, layam, thalam, nadai are all preset and the artiste has to follow strictly the choreography. He cannot innovate and thus the method of performing is woven perfectly. The rendering of the song is generally slow and the songs, mostly in Sanskrit with only few phrases here and there are in Malayalam. The songs depict any episode from epics like Ramayana, Mahabharatha etc.

The song selected on 23.09.08 was a story from Mahabharatha. Indra wants his son Arjuna to get the Pasupadasthram from Lord Shiva. He sends his messenger (Madali) with a chariot. Arjuna accepts Indra's call, reaches his place and gets the blessings of Indra and sets out to do penance to get Pasupadasthram from Lord Shiva. So there were 3 scenes, Messenger pleading Arjuna to visit Indira, Arjuna accepting it and reaching the celestial palace of Indira, and thirdly, Arjuna doing penance and getting 'Pasupadasthram from Lord Shiva.

The first item was 'salajjoham' set to Adathalam, kanda nadai, irattai kilai. So naturally it was very elaborate and slow.

Sri. P.V.Balakrishnan and his troop did extremely well, but, as he had already told the tempo was slow, duration long and the dance heavy. The students of Kalakshethra would have learnt new dimensions from this performance.

Deepavali - the great indifest

2008-10-28T16:58:00.031+05:30

Deepavali or Diwali is an indian national festival which is the most popular among festivals. Why? Simple. There is no elaborate puja, rituals, fasting, bhajans etc etc.

Take head bath, dress trendy (of course within your means), get the blessings of elders at home. That is all, then enjoy burning crackers with friends & neighbours, visit relatives & friends, go to temples, movies (Deepavali release), eat well without restrictions, exchange sweets and snacks prepared at home/purchased. The newly weds enjoy their bounty. The peer group exchange greetings and pep glances in appreciation of the latest designer dresses. The oldies sit at home and enjoy the special programmes on TV. Deepavali, a fest filled with fun & frolic (despite the soaring price rise)

The business community perform Lakshmi Puja, as Diwali is the beginning of their accounting year.

Getting the blessings of elders on a festival day, is that not very much an indian concept irrespective of caste, creed, religion etc? That is why the entire India celebrates Deepavali in such a grand manner.

Here are some deepavali scenes photographed in the past one week.

Rangachari Cloth Stores selling traditional sarees and dress materials

Cloud 9 Mens' & Children wear readymade Shop. Saanskrutie exhibition at C.P. Art Centre.

The New Bombay Halwa House Gearing up on Diwali eve. T. Nagar shopping junction.

Sri Kapaleeswarar Temple and Sri Sai Baba Temple at Mylapore.

Annai Illam Old Age Home at Mylapore on Deepavali day.

New variety rockets that illuminated the sky this year.

Satellite – Role in Telecommunication & Broadcasting

2008-10-22T11:14:00.007+05:30

Recently I happened to hear a lecture on the subject topic.
Only a broad outline I could grasp and that I am sharing with you.

The guest who presented the lecture was Nellai S. Muthu, Scientist, Satish Dhawan Space Centre, Shriharikota. He has authored 90 books on Science and Technology, 4 of which got Tamilnadu State award. He has also translated the book 'India 2020' written by Dr. Abdul Kalam into Tamil at the later's request during his tenure as President of India

Sri Nellai S.Muthu, being so versatile, both in technical knowledge and in the language Tamil, the presentation was effortless with amazing usage of Tamil equivalent for scientific nomenclature.

Now I reproduce a glimpse of the subject topic.

Earth’s atmosphere has got different layers.
Up to 16km - Troposphere, where there is oxygen, nitrogen, water vapour etc. and the world’s weather takes place.
16 – 50 km – Stratosphere. This is an ozone layer.
50 – 80 km – Mesosphere, in between layer which is cold.
80km above Thermosphere which is hot

But at 100 km and above there is ionosphere where electrons get separated from atom and these free Electrons allow propagation of electromagnetic waves and radio communication over a long distance.

Our INSAT 2C (Indian National Satellite System) is far above this 100 km layer and its mission is mainly communication.

The applications and usage in communication
Telephone, cell phone, Television, Radio.
MCF – Master control facility.
Tele Medicine Concept.
Video Conferencing
On-line Teaching
Space net configuration

The other usages are:
Satellite aided rescue system
Forest Mapping
Remote sensing
Mapping for Defense and National Security
Historical research
Groundwater prospects
Encroachment spread resoursestat

Now to other relevant and interesting information given by Sri.S.Muthu.

1. The origin of rocket: It is heartening to know that Tippu’s sword was the origin of rocket. The Britishers thought, why not they send a missile through a weapon like Tippu’s sword to attack French army. Then the concept was adopted by French and Germans. When Germany was defeated, Americans abducted all the German scientists to America. Thus the first rocket was designed by a German scientist taken to America.

2. The Thumba Equatorial Rocket Launching Station (TERLS) is located on the geomagnetic equator and hence strategically poised for scientists to conduct atmospheric research. Russia do not have this facility, hence they conduct their research in other countries.

3. India stands seventh in satellite launching, the other six being, Russia, America, France, Japan, Germany and China.

4. The satellite can take a picture from Kanyakumari to Kashmir in 20 minutes.

5. The Moon as a planet receives the rays of Sun like earth. The temperature beneath the surface of moon is cold, around -200 degrees. Hence the solar energy can be preserved as electrical energy at that temperature. A grid around can be formed and energy saved.
He further said, due to global warming of earth, a day may come when people of earth may migrate to other planets. He informed that his book “Bhoomi Thottil” deals with this subject. In his other book “Winnveli 2057”, he said, he has given that children of 2057 will go to moon for their vacation holidays, like today they visit foreign countries.

He also gave a brief note about Chandrayaan -1, how it will take, first elliptical path, leave earth, take again elliptical path around Moon and finally reach after 5 ½ days.

I have left out too technical terms like geo synchronize velocity, sounding rocket, synthetic aperture radar, etc and the chronological statistics about satellite launching in general.

I came to know from News papers/Web sites that Chandrayaan is a Sanskrit word and it means ‘Moon Craft’. Its main mission is high resolution mineralogical and chemical imaging. It will have 11 Payloads (Instruments for experiments), 5 of which designed indigenously.

At this juncture I would like to add that that our Indian ancestors were very much aware of the entire universe and they have accurately studied and recorded the properties of each planet.

Any comment, correction, further information is most welcome.

I am very happy to hear in the morning TV news that Chandrayaan -1 has been launched successfully from Shriharikota despite inclement weather.

Photo 1. Sri. Nellai S.Muthu, courtesy hinduimages web site.
Photo 2. Early days at the Thumba Equatorial Rocket Launching Station. Readying equipment to be carried by a sounding rocket into the atmosphere are Kalam and R. Aravamudan - courtesy hinduonnet web site

Navarathri - Chennai City Turns Colourful

2008-10-08T23:19:00.032+05:30

Chennai city was soaked in festivity all these nine days.

A few scenes of creativity, tradition, divinity and colour are presented.

<-Durga-Kapali Temple Mylapore

Kapali Temple Kolu ->

<-Velliswarn Temple Mylapore Kolu, Velliswaran temple Kurathi dance ->

Mylapore- Trio Mega Kolu - Srivari Bhrahmotsvam Set,
5 Sabhas of Lord Nataraja-Myp Trio ->

<-Sethu Kshethram Kolu, Porur

Annapoorani Sethu Kshethram, Porur ->

<- Madhya Kailash Temple Kolu, Adyar ->

Latha, Adyar

Rama, Thiruvanmiyur ->

<- Srividya, Mylapore

Jaya, T.Nagar ->

<- Exhibition at Karpagambal Kalyana Mantapam, Mylapore ->

<-Dolls Sales, North Mada Street, Mylapore

Gift article Shop, North Mada Street, Mylapore ->

Madras Day - Quiz

2008-09-19T14:47:00.010+05:30

The Madras week celebration ends with an English Quiz on Madras ie Chennai on the final day, the Sunday succeeding Aug, 22, the Madras founding day. This used to be a general quiz and open to all with spot registration.

The previous day, the Tamil Medium Schools in Chennai will have Quiz Programme in the afternoon. The winning School will get a Rolling Shield and individual prizes.

This year the Tamil quiz took place on 23 rd Aug, Saturday at Srinivasa Sastri Hall in Luz. Around 20 Schools took part in prelims including some corporation schools.
6 teams were selected for final.

The questions were neither very tough nor very easy. Raja Muthiah and Rani Meiyammai

tied for the first place and finally Rani Meiyammai won the first prize.

This quiz programmes are conducted exclusively by Mylapore Times, a weekly neighbourhood newspaper, published by Mr.Vincent D’souza.

Earlier there was a power point presentation competition on Heritage of Chennai for Schools on 19.08.08 at the same venue, Sastri Hall. There were 20 participating schools. The effort the students had taken to document the history was praiseworthy and it is immaterial which school won the prize. But it was unfortunate that there was only one entry in Tamil and even that could not be projected due to non availability of font.

Mr. Vincent, while addressing the students, gave some useful tips to improve and also said that there is another 1 year time to plan and do the document in the best possible way in the year 2009, which will fall on 18th Aug ,2009.

I have a request to Mr. Vincent. All English medium students have the background, facility and exposure to do these kinds of things. But the Tamil medium schools, when I was talking to them, were not even aware of such a competition. Where was the problem?
Can Mylapore Times take some extra effort to involve them? The students of these schools are from middle and lower middle class families, some even from the families of servant maids, labourers, small vendors, hawkers ect. They need to be supported and encouraged. There is 1 year time to ponder over this.

Let us now move on to the grand finale, the Madras Quiz in English open to public on 24.08.08. This was arranged in Gokale Hall in Karpagambal Nagar, Mylapore.
The prelims was for teams of two, either students, senior citizens or any age group falling under general category. The questions were a bit tough, may be because the organizers planned to filter at prelim stage itself.

The final 6 teams included one ladies team and another senior citizens team.

There were 12 rounds with 6 questions in each round.

The finals started at around 3.30 on the Sunday afternoon.

The entire hall with 200 odd people (a little bit cramped, but no problem) of assorted age group was fully charged.

The questions, some simple, some tough, some thought provoking, some yielding to wild guess kept the audience and the fighting teams at the edge of their seats.

The quiz master Mr. Vincent D’souza kept everyone tuned and the ambiance light hearted, informal and a feast to the brains.

The teams were almost equally poised, but of course the first and second teams had slight edge over others throughout.

The senior citizens Mrs. & Mr. Ganesan came 4th and were highly appreciated by the crowd.

Again it is not the question of winner or runner. It is the participation that counts.

For more than 2 hours time Mr. Vincent and his Mylapore Times team gave the public an intellectual entertainment as the finale of Madras Week.

The spark may gather momentum in the coming years, who knows one day the Government may declare a holiday on 22nd Aug. for Madras, ie Chennai residents.

Madras Day - Walking Tours

2008-09-14T21:31:00.016+05:30

Madras Day, rather Madras week celebrations this year had many heritage walks or walking tours in its agenda.
Two tours which had their appearance for the first time in the week long events schedule, I wish to share with you here.

Walking tours: The unique walk of this year was the Photo walk led by Mr.Chandrachoodan Gopalakrishnan. I attended the Triplicane walk which started on a Saturday morning from the famed Sri Parthasarathy Temple. We 10 ladies, (6 of the group above 50) thought we will be briefed about the basics of Photography and the locations to be chosen. But strange, Mr. Chandrachoodan categorically said it is a street walk and so no strings attached. Well, me a freedom lover, enjoyed clicking whatever impressed me on the four roads by the side of the tank. As 23rd Aug was Gokulashtami day fruit and flower vendors had started coming up on the four streets. Colourful idols of Lord Krishna of different sizes occupied the street, meant for sale

The ‘Aum Janata’ on the road was very enthusiastic and gave poses for 50 odd people with camera on hand. Apart from people in activity we shoot old buildings, temples, landmarks etc. There was an agraharam by the side of Bharathiar Memorial with a mantap at the centre. Houses with tiled roof tops in natural surroundings with clean air was a relief from the hustle outside on main road

We came to the main road which ‘Kannagi’ will be directing with her index finger, and from there to beach road. Presidency College, PWD, other Government Departments, we passed by where we could capture some wonderful architecture of British era.
We reached Ezhilagam and could see the newly renovated Senate House at Madras University. We were denied permission to take photos inside. We disbursed by 10.10 from there.

The other walk, which also introduced for the first time was Mount Road Walk on 24 th Aug, i.e Sunday, led by Mr. Vincent D’souza one of the key organizers of Madras Day celebrations from the first year, 2004.

We assembled at The Hindu Office at Mount Road by 7.30 in the morning. Being a Sunday, all commercial establishments were closed and we could have a look at the heritage buildings. The intricacies were still preserved in some, namely the Mail building, the P ORR & sons and a nearby building with creepers on the wall and a metal staircase in front, India Silk House, Albot Medical shop in the ground floor of an ancient building,
and also the J E Letoille medical shop near by.

Mr. D’souza gave lots of information and vivid description of the Mount Road Junction where now Anna Statue stands. We could imagine The Hindu Office function at 100, Mount road with Sri Krishna Bhavan and Coronation Darbar Hotels functioning in full swing nearby. How the high society people of yester years combined entertainment, shopping, and refreshments, all in one particular place, that is, Mount Road. He threw light on the famed New Elphinstone theatre, Jaffers Ice Cream parlour and the boxing shows that used to take place, also the private theatre inside the Mount Road Post Office building, which is still preserved and the Philatelic bureau is functioning there now.

We crossed over and came to Musee Musicals where there used to be a Chinese restaurant it seems. We passed the famous Bhuhari Hotel, equally popular was Bilal on the opposite side near Darga.

We halted at the Bharat Insurance Building and were stunned. Though the renovation work is being undertaken whether the grandeur will be preserved is a million dollar question. The Higginbothams book stores is still a treat to our eyes.

The entire row had heritage buildings, like Southern Railway Booking Office, SBI, VST Motors etc. We could also see a small entrance to a Mosque in between these. We visited Murray’s Auction Stores also and finally Agarchand Mansion.

We went up the two storey building and had a fantastic view of the Mount Road Spencer junction.
The tour roughly took 2 hours. Mr. D’souza, who is ever young at heart, could spread the same spirit among the walkers with his torrential speech and no one wanted to miss even a single word.

The Madras day celebrations this year have spread widely this year and north Madras participation is significant.

In the coming years it may grow in geometric proportion and the take-off is going to be very colourful gigantic.
Kudos to the brain behind Mr.Vincent D’souza
(Vincent D'souza in Agarchand Mansion IInd Floor Corridor- Picture)

Madras Day - Lecture series

2008-09-14T18:29:00.005+05:30

Hearty congratulations to the organizers for having successfully conducted yet another Madras Week from 17.08.08 to 24.08.08.

There were around 60 events this time spread over a wide area of Madras ie Chennai.Here I write about few events that took place in South Madras.

The lecture series :
I Would like to mention about the two lectures that took place in Chamiers, one ‘ Some lesser known temples of Madras ‘ by Chitra Madhavan and the other ‘The Parsis of Madras’ by Zarin Mistry.

Chira Madhavan, being a research scholar could authentically give details like the period, history, location, stala purna, architecture etc of all the temples she presented. Some very rare like Kodandaramar Temple at Vunamanjeri, a village near Vandalur still preserving its rustic beauty and Temple at Madambakkam under the care of ASI. The audience remained spell bound.

Zarin Mistry, not a historian, not a regular in giving lectures, but sounded very natural and fluent. As introduction she gave the history of Zorastrians, their migration to Gujarat first, then to Royapuram, Madras as traders. She gave the list of famous Parsis who made a mark in the history of Madras., like Mary Clubwala of Guild of Service, Dinshaw Tehrani, audiographer, Minoo K.Belgamwala of motor sports, to name a few.The audience participation was excellent and the entire process was very informal.

If I compare Chitra’s lec to Kanchipuram intricate Pattu saree, Zarin’s was a beautiful cotton saree, well starched and worn gracefully. Both had the real grandeur and charm.

The walking Tours and Quiz programmes will follow in the next posts

Vinayaka Chathurthy

2008-09-14T17:51:00.004+05:30

I invoke the grace and blessings of Vigna Vinayaka and start postings in my Blog V Vyu (We View).

Vinayaka is believed to be the Lord of Wisdom, Writing and Willpower and hence he will guide me and show me a smooth path without obstacles.

There are many stories on Lord Vinayaka. But here I highlight only one. The story of winning the mango fruit from his father Lord Shiva. The entire episode was to stress that wisdom is more fruitful than hasty action. Vinayaka, having the smallest creature as his vahanam could have been faster in circumambulating the world with his Athmabala. But he preferred to use his intellect. Here we also salute Lord Muruga who allows Vinayaka to win so that it can be established that his elder brother is a Gyani.

So let us view positive things in life.

( I wrote this article on Vinayaka Chathurthy day i.e 3.09.08)