Secularism to the core....

An email chain that I have received has the following contents.. May be this is what India as a country should adapt if we continue to suffer from terrorism...

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***INDIA should pay serious attention to this Australian policy and amendits own soft approach to hooliganism in the name of religion. *

Muslims who want to live under Islamic Sharia law were told on Wednesday to get out of Australia, as the government targeted radicals in a bid tohead off potential terror attacks. A day after a group of mainstream Muslim leaders pledged loyalty to Australia and her Queen at a special meeting with Prime Minister JohnHoward, he and his Ministers made it clear that extremists would face acrackdown. Treasurer Peter Costello, seen as h eir apparent to Howard,hinted that some radical clerics could be asked to leave the country if they did not accept that Australia was a secular state, and its laws were made by parliament. "If those are not your values, if you want a country which hasSharia law or a theocratic state, then Australia is not for you", he said on national television.

"I'd be saying to clerics who are teaching that there are two laws governingpeople in Australia: one the Australian law and another the Islamic law,that is false. If you can't agree with parliamentary law, independentcourts, democracy, and would prefer Sharia law and have the opportunity togo to another country, which practices it, perhaps, then, that's a betteroption", Costello said.

Asked whether he meant radical clerics would be forced to leave, he said those with dual citizenship could possibly be asked to move to the othercountry. Education Minister Brendan Nelson later told reporters that Muslims who did not want to accept local values should "clear off. Basically peoplewho don't want to be Australians, and who don't want ! to live by Australian values and understand them, well then, they can basically clear off", he said.

Separately, Howard angered some Australian Muslims on Wednesday by saying he supported spy agencies monitoring the nation's mosques Quote: "IMMIGRANTS,NOT AUSTRALIANS, MUST ADAPT. Take It Or Leave It. I am tired of this nation worrying about whether we are offending some individual or their culture. Since the terrorist attacks on Bali, we have experienced a surge inpatriotism by the majority of Australians." "However, the dust from the attacks had barely settled when the 'politicallyc orrect' crowd began complaining about the possibility that our patriotism was offending others. I am not against immigration, nor do I hold a grudge against anyone who is seeking a better life by coming to Australia." "However, there are a few things that those who have recently come to our country, and apparently some born here, need to understand."

"This idea ofAustralia being a multicultural community has served only to dilute our sovereignty and our national identity. As Australians, we have our own culture, our own society, our own language and our own lifestyle.""This culture has been developed over two centuries of struggles, trials andvictories by millions of men and women who have sought freedom"

"We speak mainly ENGLISH, not Spanish, Lebanese, Arabic, Chinese, Japanese,Russian, or any other language. Therefore, if you wish to become part of oursociety, Learn the language!""Most Australians believe in God. This is not some Christian, right; wing,political push, but a fact, because Christian men and women, on Christianprinciples, founded this nation, and this is clearly documented. It is certainly appropriate to display it on the walls of our schools. If God offends you, then I suggest you consider another part of the world as your new home, because God is part of our culture."

"We will accept your beliefs, and will not question why. All we ask is that you accept ours, and live in harmony and peaceful enjoyment with us." "If the Southern Cross offends you, or you don't like " A Fair Go", then you should seriously consider a move to another part of this planet.

We are happy with our culture and have no desire to change, and we really don't care how you did things where you came from. By all means, keep your culture, but do not force it on others." This is OUR COUNTRY, OUR LAND, and OUR LIFESTYLE, and we will allow you every opportunity to enjoy all this. But once you are done complaining,whining, and griping about Our Flag, Our Pledge, Our Christian beliefs, orOur Way of Life, I highly encourage you take advantage of one other great Australian freedom, 'THE RIGHT TO LEAVE'.""If you aren't happy here then LEAVE. We didn't force you to come here. You asked to be here. So accept the country YOU accepted."

How I wish we as a nation have this kind of spinal chord!

One Snap & One caption...

The politician - larger than life figure, happy & smiling in a digital banner (no reality around).

In front of him - the living conditions of the general public. (The garbage containers)

Watch out the crows (kaakaa koottam) - they feed on the general public and sit around near to politician.

Any other interesting thoughts?

(Nothing offensive to the person in the picture. Just a general Post :-) )

Secularism & Jihad...

For once the Catholic Church pronounced the truth?

There can be no two versions about the agenda of anyone who swearing in as the head of Catholic Church and the king of Vatican – to spread Catholic Christianity. And during the current pope’s predecessor’s time the head of church became more vocal and nonchalant in spreading this message across. With Sonia at the helm of India, they even had the guts to say that their job is conversion and they would do the same. None of the Indian media had the nerves to talk against this as immediately their brand would become a ‘branded non-secular’. After all, the print and video media are not here to ‘serve’ the nation but to do business.

Pope Benedict XVI delivered a couple of messages this week.

Message 1: He said “the violence embodied in the Muslim idea of Jihad, is contrary to reason and God’s plan. And violent conversion to Islam was contrary to reason and thus contrary to God’s nature” – these could not be words of nonchalance – these are carefully treaded, delivered with utmost great assertiveness and affirmation.

Message 2: The Pope also asserted “secularization of society has impeded the West from a full understanding of reality. Secularism has made it difficult for the West to communicate with cultures for whom faith is fundamental, thus making it incompatible with faith. The world’s profoundly religious cultures see this exclusion from the divine, from the universality of reason as an attack on their most profound convictions”

Message 1 spreads the message loud and clear – Jihad and conversion to Islam is against God’s nature. If that is so, what do we call the statement of the church previously delivered that “Conversion to Christianity is their duty and they swear by it”.

Message 2 clarifies that Pope sees secularism as risk and danger to the faith – Since he represents Christianity, we can understand that secularism of the West is a risk to Christianity and he opposes that! What is the message conveyed here.

Not so long ago, he advised Indian Government to reject the anti-conversion laws as against the secular constitution of India. So he recommended on secularism in India but opposes at West! Why? Simple reason is that “Where there are Christians as majority, secularism becomes contrary to God’s nature! Where Christians are minority he advocates secularism and it becomes God’s command”.

Where are our politicians who claim to be world’s fountain head of secularism? Why are they not releasing any press statements? Where is our media that brings in limelight things that are against the Hindu majority of our nation? Where is Sonia – the modern mother of Indian Secularism? Why is there a silence around?

The answer is ‘Minority Votes’.

But as my take, by delivering the first message, for once the Catholic Church has pronounced the Truth!

Jai Hind!

Towards "Beggars Own Country"?

The new TN government has finished its 100 days at the helm and claims that it has fulfilled almost all the promises made in their election manifesto! They also promise that the rest would be fulfilled soon enough. They claim that they are providing the best regime – ‘nallaatchi’! And as a resident of Chennai, the only visible change I have felt is that across all the roads, across all the parts of Chennai, there are big digital banners with Stalin and MK laughing at the public!

Now I would highlight one of the stories from the Mahabharata.

After the great war of Kurukshetra, Yudhishtra (Dharma putra) started ruling the kingdom. He set very high standards from the governance perspective. There was no theft, agriculture and arts flourished, and everyone in his kingdom lived safely and happily. Seeing all these slowly self-pride and ego settled in Dharmaputra’s mind. He started thinking great about himself – there is noone who could match his caliber of charity, his willingness to give etc. Lord Krishna was silently watching all these and decided that Dharma’ needed a lesson or two to be taught.

He invited Dharmaputra to visit the underworld (Paathaala loga) ruled by emperor ‘Maha Bali’. MahaBali arranged for a ceremonious welcome to Lord Krishna and Dharmaputra. People of the country chanted the great deeds of the Lord and Dharma through their way to the emperor’s palace! Dharma’s self ego and pride was kindled even more – that the power of his valor and generosity has spread to even the underworld!

As they settled in after all the ceremonies, Krishna told Maha Bali. “Bali – do you know that Dharmaputra is known for his charity and generosity. Infact he defines the whole meaning of words like Dhana & Dharma. And in his kingdom everyday he provides free food for more than 10,000 poor people and he takes care of their needs for free!. Have you seen anybody else in this world who could provide such a wonderful regime to his citizens?”

MahaBali started laughing! He said “Krishna. How could you say that a ruler who has kept more than 10,000 of his citizens at a beggar’s status for so long is providing the best regime in the world? In my kingdom even if you promise to give a village as Dhakshina, no body would wait for you to provide food for them. They know how to earn their food and they live their lives according to Dharma. A government which has kept its citizens as beggars and lazy by providing free food and other needs, is only doomed to die soon. There is no prosperity in Dharmaputra’s kingdom Krishna! I pity its citizens!”

Hearing this, Dharmaputra’s self-pride and ego got eradicated completely. He started providing the right regime after this and understood the fact that the thought of ‘HIMSELF’ would only lead himself and his citizens to death.

How relevant is this story for today’s scenario in TamilNadu. I request you to read THIS post of mine. The government is driving towards making TamilNadu as ‘Beggars Own Country’. It stops people who live below poverty line from any progressive thinking. All these free stuff make them lazy and bored. An idle mind would only think of the evil. This is not good for the nation. Like people who lived in Dharmaputra's palace with free food and other stuff, the people of Tamilnadu are also living in an imaginary 'Happy' mood. Nobody cares for the future of this nation. There was one Lord Krishna during the time of MahaBharatha to educate Dharmaputra. But who is there to educate our politicians today?

Once upon a time our mother land used to be 'God's Own Country'. Now slowly we are becoming 'Beggars Own Country'...

A trip to home - Final

Current day of view of the 'once beautiful' river 'Sitraaru'. In the back drop of the coconut groove, paddy fields and then the western ghats!

The visitors having a field and stomach full day...





The rich green vegetation. The courtallam falls at a distant backdrop...
The Rajagopuram from another angle. The 'Seevalaperi' tank is to the brink after many years. But one cannot dream of venturing into this because of obvious reasons - Not all the homes at my town has a toilet!



This is what 'tourism' has done to the serenity of my home town. Plastics, plastics everywhere blocks all the water ways, kills the vegetation. On the way to Five Falls at the Boat house...

From Vivekachoodamani

Vivekachoodamani, a master piece of Shri Adi Sankaracharya, provides a cream of the Upanishads and Bahagavad Gita. I have been fortunate enough to read some of the verses from this great literature. The following is one of my all time favorite verse:

"Sabdhaathibi: panchapireva pancha panchathvamaabu: swagunena baththaa:
Kuranga – maathanga – pathanga – meena – brungaa: nara: panchapiranjitha kim"

In this verse, Shri Adi Sankara gives examples from the animals on how they are doomed to their own destruction because of their own addiction to one of the five senses and tries to educate the most advanced animal as in human.

Kuranga – means the Deer. Deer has the tendency to get attracted by good music (Sabdha). It tends to get mesmerized by good music and hence gets distracted from its usual vigilant self – it can be caught easily.

Maathanga – is the ‘Elephant’. Elephant is addicted to ‘touch’ (Sparsha). Elephants are commonly attracted by its own clan’s touch. It is a common practice to use one ‘tamed elephant’ to catch the untamed ones. Because of its addiction to the sparsa from its opposite sex, the elephants with its mammoth size & stamina could be easily tamed.

Pathanga – is the Moth or Fly. These are mesmerized by the ‘light’ that they see. There is no food for the Moth or Fly in the ‘light’ – but still they get attracted by the image (Roopa) and lose their lives.

Meena – is the Fish. Fish lose their lives because of their addiction to ‘taste’ (Rasa). Fish have no real reason to jump for the food shown to them. They have enough vegetation to feed them in the water. But still they tend to search for a different taste and lose their lives.

Brunga – is the honey bee. Honey bees are the hardest workers. They are attracted to deadly flowers by their beautiful smell (Gandha). Even after collecting the honey from such flowers, the bees tend to sit for some more time on such flowers as they get mesmerized by their scent only to lose their lives. The flowers close their petals to ensure their end.

Each of these animals loses their lives because of their addiction to one of the five senses. But as humans, the most intelligent animals, most of us are addicted to all the five senses. What would be the status of us if we fail to control our senses?

By this verse, Shri Adi Shankara drives the point that human kind should not give it over to the five senses via, Sabdha, Sparsha, Roopa, Rasa and Gandha.

Why is this one of my favorites? It is simple, gives great examples, and kindles you to think but very hard to practice. Like all those animals, we are all still controlled by our senses, only to face our own ultimatum…

A trip to home - Part 1

Hurray!! It was a long weekend. And quite naturally with some last minute hurry-burry I managed to reach my home town on a beautiful Saturday morning. After quite some time, I had an opportunity to visit my home town during the Independence Day weekend. And the trip became just perfect with the ‘season’ being at its very best this year. Courtallam (a place nearby our town) is famous for its ‘Saaral’ apart from its waterfalls – you have to be there to realize this experience. It would rain, the sun would be out, and you feel that you are getting wet, but as you reach home you would see that you are quite dry! And you would feel like giving away all yourself to enjoy that wonderful breeze that gently caresses your body and you tend to lose your soul for that! This is one of the very unique gifts of nature that I was privileged to enjoy throughout my life. With our place fastly losing its identity of being one of the serene places around, in the name of ever expanding tourism, this year Mother Nature still showed her mercy on this cute little town. I captured some of those moments and here are they for your views and comments…

The ever imposing Rajagopuram from our terrace. The pegions are offering their prayer by flying round the gopuram. Its about to dawn...




And a picture perfect sun rise...








Rays of the Sun God glorifies the majesty of the Rajagopuram. With dark clouds lurking in the back, you feel divinity!




Will post some more snaps in the next one...
... to be continued ...

Those Nostalgic Years - Part 6

Festivals

Temple festivals dominated our lives as children at Tenkasi. There were so many of them throughout the year. As a group of kids we were extremely busy during those days. Decorating our street with festoons, used to be so much fun! We required tender palm leaves for making those small articles. We would ear mark certain homes at the street, whose owners would have got into rift with us at some point in time for plucking the tender palm leaves!

Most of the times, the problems would start with we shouting during calm lazy afternoons, hitting the cricket balls into their homes or our cricket ball breaking their tiles (Glass windows did not form a part of Agrahaaram homes). The common reaction mostly would be that the uncle (owner of the house) would come out with a stick and land a couple of blows on the nearest target (usually somebody who would be watching the game!), or abducting our play things or complain to our parents! Each of these would hurt us! These things would be discussed in our afternoon meetings and we would plot for revenge plans. Normal revenge plans would include puncturing cycle/scooter tyres, throwing cow dung rolled in a paper at their door steps so that when they open their door in the morning their first step would land on cow dung, tearing their cycle/scooter seats with our compass, stealing coconuts and Guavas from their trees etc. In some extreme cases we would also damage their water meters!

Such houses would become our primary target to steal tender palm leaves! We would plot a plan, a day before the festival day! We would gather at around Ten at the night and two of the courageous souls would venture out into the dark backyards! Before the dawn we would have done with the palm festoons and so nobody could exactly claim that their trees were stolen!
We had heavy duties during the Tamil month of ‘Marghazi’! The weather would be at its fantastic best as we lived near the Western ghats. Air would be so fresh and smell nice! Trees, plants, flowers would blossom around our street! The entire street would wear a divine look!

All of us used to get up very early in the morning. The ladies and girls would spend atleast an hour in decorating the street the big ‘kolams’ (Rangolis) as we walk around the street. In the center of the kolam would sit a set of flowers (usually Hibiscus) inserted into a small lump of cow dung. We would bathe early, and be at the temple as early as 6am. The bhajans would start! Before us, group of young girls reciting ‘Thirupaavai’ (a Tamil verse by Andaal on Lord Vishnu) would walk through the street! The group of men would walk through the street singing Bhajans.

Each one of the families in the street would bear the Pooja expenses for one day during the month of Marghazi. Some well to do families would provide the Bhajan party hot coffee! (In the picture). The female group used to be lucky that they would get some nice small gifts ranging from hair clips to bands to bangles to what not! We had to be satisfied with the coffee! Bhajan sessions used to be fully engrossing. The main competition would be on who would get to play the ‘Harmoniam’!

K used to dominate on this as well! We would also compete to get the best pair of ‘Jalras’! Jalras are bronze or brass plates bent to a concave shape and attached to the ends of a string – these were used as the percussion in all the Bhajans. Those who come early would get the best one! We learnt good music, a lot of songs on various gods and we had loads of fun! The Bhajans and the Thriupaavai groups would reach the temple with a grand Archana and Deepa aaradhana. Then the distribution of prasaadams would start and we would compete for that also. At the evenings we would recite ‘Vishnu Sahasranama’ & some other exerts from Vedas at the temple and would close the show with Prasaadams!

(Very recently, there are not many people around at the street as of today but in my childhood days these were really big events - Missed to preserve them as snaps :-( But truly happy that atleast the practice is not still lost!)

... to be continued ...

It's Me!

Those Nostalgic Years - Part 5

Inspection Times

It was inspection time at the school. We were asked to clean the entire class room after the regular school hours. The black board received a fresh black coat and we decorated the board with flowers and other stuff using colored chalks. Girls were busy drawing rangolis on the floors. We prepared ‘science’ charts and pasted them on the walls! I was given fresh badges for my ‘first rank’ and ‘class rep’ positions which I wore with great pride! I came up with a brilliant idea of ‘showering the DEO (District Educational Officer) with flowers as he entered the class’. We discussed about girls showering the flowers on him but decided against it as there was no ‘surprise’ element to it.

As usual S gave the innovative idea of hanging a cardboard box with flowers from the ceiling and open it using strings attached to the lids so that the flowers would be showered on DEO. We all accepted it and overnight we made the arrangements. There were two strings – one to lower the box to fill in with flowers and the other one to open up the lid. I didn’t take permission for this from our class teacher – to keep up the surprise! We made the arrangements and tested the system with paper balls and everything worked perfectly! K assumed the duty of pulling the strings at the right moment as I had to stand with the class teacher greeting the DEO! We were satisfied with our arrangements!

The next day, the DEO came in! Our plan was to pull up the string just before the DEO would leave the class. We were very well prepared, neatly dressed and we managed the usual Q & A session very well! DEO was extremely happy with our performance and openly voiced the same to the principal. The moment arrived; the DEO was standing up bidding ‘bye’. I hinted K to pull the string! He pulled the string and there was the moment we were waiting for! The cardboard box came down with full force and exactly landed at the center of the bald head of DEO – it opened up then and the flowers showered all over the place! K pulled the wrong string! The class could not control the laughter! But as class rep I had to act. I cleaned up everything and apologized.

I was terrified as this was an arrangement without permission and K managed to screw things up again for me! I could sense the fire on our principal’s and class teacher’s eyes! But to our surprise the DEO was also laughing and he said the idea was great but execution was wrong! He went away. The entire class was still laughing, I was furious over K! But he was never bothered! He was laughing with the class and claimed that he purposefully pulled the wrong string! In the next five minutes I was summoned to principals’ room! Suddenly the class also stopped laughing and gave me that pathetic look. K said ‘all the best’! Shivering with fear, I followed the attendant to the princi’s room.

DEO was sitting on the center with princi & vice prici next to him. My class teacher was standing in a corner and their sights were unbearable. DEO asked me ‘whose idea was that?’ ‘Mine’ I replied and I begged for his pardon again. He rose from his chair, came near to me. To my surprise, he started clapping! The others in the room also joined him! He congratulated me and awarded the ‘Best Class’ award to our class! He said the award was not for the execution screw up, but for the enthusiasm demonstrated, the way we behaved during the inspection and the sincerity we had shown in our chart preparations! I was on top of the world and so were my friends! That night we collected some money from the class and prepared a ‘Best Class’ Banner and hung it at the entrance of our class! This was again another thing which nobody had done before – the principal stopped by and congratulated the class the next day! And also warned about executing things on our own without permission. But who cared? K managed to give us another memory to laugh!

… to be continued …

Aam Admi - Who?

As the congress pundits claim, the very basis of the existence of the current UPA government is to live for the ‘Common Man’ – Aam Admi. Closely watching all the happenings in the recent past, one wonders who form the part of this ‘Common Man’ group as defined by the UPA. In any business company that is geared towards growth everything is based on ‘ROI – Returns on Investment’. And as an employee if you fail to deliver to the ROI expected out of you, you would be chucked out. And the company would hail all those who perform and deliver the ROI.

Extrapolating the same concept to our country, I think those who pay the TAX are the persons who qualify to be hailed and nurtured by the government. Afterall, they are the very reason for the existence of the government. And what is happening today is the exact opposite! And ironically this happens under the helm of one of best economists in the world and one of the best known Finance brain in the country in the name of P Chidambaram!

For me, as per the above definition, the tax payers should form the ‘Common Man’ bastion for the government. But it looks like the definition of Aam Admi is mapped to the people who live below the ‘mystic’ poverty line and flourish under the Quota raj! All the government policies should be devised based on the welfare of the tax payers rather than the welfare of the ‘non-tax-payers’.

So do I intend to say that we should ignore all those who don’t fall under the ‘tax payers’ category? – Absolutely not. Again mapping to a business company scenario, those who are not ‘sellable’ in the market place, or those who do not show up the ROI, the companies invest on them atleast once – in the form of rigorous trainings to get them into the ROI category. Similarly the government should invest heavily in making eligible the Non-tax-payers community to Tax-payer community – by ways of providing compulsory free education, Changing the current ‘bookish’ education system to something what Rajaji dreamt off – vocational courses forming basic part of schooling system. This would ensure that the next generations of students do not solely depend on their bookish degrees to earn – rather they are ‘skilled’ workers at the end of their schooling that would enable them to earn right away and to elevate themselves to the ‘Common Man’ (tax payers) cadre.

This is what our HRD, PMO & FM should work together. Such things are called ‘Visions’. But what is the current focus of the ‘renowned reformists’ at the helm? Our FM is busy trying to find out ways to impose more taxes, double & triple taxes on the already squeezed out salaried class, where as they should form the Aam Admi cadre and policies should give them benefits! One of worst curses on our nation after VP Singh is what today we have in the form of HR minister. When it is so evident that reservations would only divide the country and would ruin the progress – our HR minister is so adamant that our mother nation should die and he would prosper with the cheap visibility.

And it is better left unsaid about the plight of our beloved PM! I think even the lowest level of congress party man has more saying than PM. Every minister in his cabinet takes him for granted. Let it be the backdoor boys from TN, Anbumani & Dayanidhi or seniors like Pranab & Arjun singh – nobody cares for PM’s words. And another curse on our countries growth is in the form of the Left! Some of the recent incidents where I felt PM’s hands are tied down by his own party men and his coalition partners:

1. The recent oil price hike and the subsequent charge that UPA has failed to keep the prices of agricultural products. Normally the case should be that the PM calls for the CMs meet and advise them on how they should be controlling the prices in their respective states. But what happened in the recent CMs meet is the exact reverse! The Vishalrao Deshmuks and YSRs were advising the world’s best economist on how to keep the prices under control! Could there be a bigger embarrassment than this to PM?

2. Then the modernization of Delhi and Mumbai airport has been strongly resisted by the left. Airports form kind of ‘face’ of the nation to a lot. We all knew the popularity of airports of Singapore, Heathrow and other such countries. And the plight of the airports of our nation’s capital and the economic capital could not even be compared to the rest rooms of those international standards! The left are so engrossed to make sure to keep the first impression of our nation to that of a garbage container.

3. And the most recent one is on the cabinet approved Nalco & NLC divestment! Again PM is stranded alone in the middle of his own cabinet! The CM of Tamil Nadu first suggested selling the stocks of NLC to the employees! The PM said okay – when it is a known fact that the employees could never afford to buy 10% of stocks of a giant in ranks of NLC! Threatened by the mileage gained by former TN CM Jayalalithaa on this issue, M Karunanidhi again threatened to quit from the coalition if the divestment plan is not scrapped! And what do you expect our PM to do – agree for this as well!

The pressures created by reservation policies of HRD minister, by Anubumani ramadoss over the AIIMS row with Venugopal Rao’s sacking – in all these events our PM is left stranded to take all the criticism and the brunt of the major public. Is that what ‘Aam Admi’ all about? How long Mr. Singh could survive with all such embarrassments? It is time to step back and think!

Those Nostalgic Years - Part 4

Schooling snippets

K, S and yours truly became pretty close friends – we were called ‘Mum Moorthigal’. We came from the same street, sat on the same last bench, went to the restroom at the same time, had our lunch together and everything together. K was an expert in all the games, I always managed to secure first rank and hence elected the class rep, and S was kind of a convener. S also gave me a tough fight in the academics but always managed to secure a close second. K was the most mischievous and used my class rep position to bail him out in many instances.

There was one girl R in our class on whom K had special affinity. Making her cry used to be his favorite pass time. We sat right behind the girls’ bench with about a foot long space dividing our desk and their bench. K would prepare a string with a knot at one end. During the class he would slowly insert the knot to her hair and tie the other end to a pencil box placed on our desk. As she would attempt to stand at the end of a period the pencil box will fall down or it would hang there from her hair! The class would burst into a laugh. She could not complain because the pencil box would be hers! K, being pretty short, would easily crawl under the benches and desks to reach anybody’s desk without being noticed by the teacher! This way he had access to many of the lunch boxes. R’s would be the primary target and it would be hidden some where and she would be pleading behind K to get her lunch box.

Another common thing K used to do is to spread the chalk powder from the duster on the seats of R’s place. He would do this when the entire class would stand up to say ‘Good morning teacher’ as the teacher entered the class. Given that we had a white tops and blue bottoms as the uniform, as R would stand the next time, the entire class would laugh. Or he would spray the ink to the back of the bench so that it sticks on to R’s tops! Or he would place the pencil box just before R intended to sit. He would drop a small piece of paper from behind into R’s tops and would claim that he had just dropped in a spider. R would make sounds and attempt to clear her back. K would have fun with all such stuff! Sometimes I wondered even R liked K’s mischief. Because she never complained to the class teacher regarding any of these nor she preferred to change her seat!

One of our favorite pass times used to be hanging around the banks of river Sitraaru. The favorite game is the contest of making small flat stones ‘float’. We would carefully choose flat roof tiles and throw them flat over the water surface. The stone would bump and float. Who ever could reach the opposite bank of the river like this would win the game. We also used to play with the river weeds. You could make the bottom of the weed burst by pressing it hard. K used to carefully select small, fluffy weeds and save them in his school bag. He used to burst them in the class suddenly for fun.

Our Tamil teacher was a pretty jovial person. He taught his classes with lots of fun and we all would wait for his classes. K managed to irritate even him one fine day and he used his bamboo stick on him. K was furious and wanted to have revenge. That very day, K punctured the tyres of teacher’s cycle. The next day he placed four of the weeds under teacher’s chair before the Tamil period. To K’s surprise, on that day, the Tamil and Maths teachers exchanged their periods! The Maths teacher was a very tough and rude guy! As we saw him entering the class, K was surprised and terrified! He was asking for my help! I said I could do nothing about this. Maths teacher hardly used to sit during his classes as for most of his time he had to stand near the board! Every time the teacher approached the chair, our pulse rate would increase in anticipation of the eventuality. Fortunately for K, the maths teacher never sat on that day! We all released a sigh of relief at the end of the class. K removed those weeds from under the chair! Those forty five minutes were probably the worst tense moments we would have spent in our time together at the school! At the end fortune always favors the brave!

Being a class rep I had many a duties on my plate. I had to lead the class to the assembly that meant I had to be at the school before everyone. During intervals, I had to lead the class to the restroom. I would shout ‘first two rows, assemble to your right in twos’. Every one should fold their hands behind and walk towards the restroom in twos. And then come back in the same order! Then I would send the next batch and my turn would be the last! I had to memorize some of those prayer songs which on some days I would be requested to sing in the assembly.

Another important job was to control the class during the absence of a teacher. I had to stand in front of the class, and engage the entire class to repeat multiplication tables, or read English lessons. I would also note down the names of the students whom I observed to be talking in the class. The names would be submitted to the class teacher the next day and each would get a good beating with a bamboo stick from the teacher. Now this was an important weapon I had which K exploited to full extend. The entire class knew that we were best of friends and I would never report K or S to the class teacher. None of them dared to complain about K as his name would be reported by me to the class teacher the next day. I also needed to do the roll call and fill in the attendance register every period, update the board with the numbers, helping the teachers etc.

... to be continued ...

Torture - of a different kind...

In my early working days in Bombay (now Mumbai), five of us shared the same flat – including the toilet. We had to catch a bus to reach Thane station, take the train to Vikhroli and leg it down to work place – in between had to take care of our breakfast as well. We all liked each others company, well except for the morning toilet waits and the fights followed them.

One of my friends from Chennai came to Mumbai with a single goal – that he should go back to Chennai at the earliest. Some time back when he was struggling for his job, he met a numerologist. And he suggested a name change (add R and A to make it to 4 – your lucky number story). The numerologist also suggested that since my friend’s name would have been written lakhs & lakhs of times in the original ‘wrong’ way, the good effects would not be felt immediately. To right this wrong and to see good effects soon, he should write his ‘new’ name one lakh times and deposit it into a temple’s hundi. The sooner he did it the better for him! My friend without any job at that time, decided to go at the one lakh at one go! And he sat for 5 continuous days – to finish it up and deposited in the hundi! And guess what, the next Monday he received the appointment letter from our company! And can’t he count one plus one as two? He forgot all his 90+ scores he got in his exams all through his curriculum; he forgot his efforts to clear the entrance tests and the wonderful interview he had given the previous week; All that he believed was the change in his name & the repetitions!

From that day he got into the good habit of writing impositions! If he wanted that something should happen he would buy a note, start repeating the same word some 1008 times and then deposit it into a hundi! Since his latest wish was to go back to Chennai at the earliest, he started writing ‘K wants to go to Chennai’. Unlike before he was not jobless now and so he found it difficult to set aside time for this. One fine day, he got a fabulous idea! The ten to fifteen minutes he spent on the toilet pot was the time he had been wasting – and atleast he could finish some 108 repetitions in that time! Then started our problems!

He was allocated to an assignment that would atleast run for the next one year and myself & another were allocated to an assignment that would end the very next month and we would go back to Chennai! He became furious on hearing this and decided that the normal 1008 repetition was not good enough for this problem and he would go at 10008! He started spending more time on the pot! Slowly he became a nuisance. He would wake up early and lock himself in the toilet. We the poor souls outside were given the life time experience on the art of ‘controlling’ our natural thrust in the mornings! And you need to live it through those hours to understand the torturous nature of it! We tried all measures – hit the door, threatened to break his shades – nothing worked. He started spending more and more time in the toilet!

One day, I was in great urgency and our man was inside. I consistently knocked the door! My situation was becoming unbearable – from frustration, I was just pleading! He took his own time - As he came out I took him to the height measuring scale – I told sarcastically ‘Bugger! You have grown two inches taller since you went inside this morning’. ‘Thank you for your wonderful finding my friend. This one inch is what has been a problem between me and my girlfriend. Now she would be happy!’ – came the reply. We had no other choice but to adjust to his routine with little sacrifice to sleep!

And my assignment got over; I came back to Chennai and had to go with a different customer for the next six months. After another four months, again I was sent to Mumbai. I searched for my old friends. Three of them replied they were no longer in Mumbai! I called up K – ‘Buddy where are you?’ ‘Right there in the same flat, with three other guys! We are short of one more guy – want to join?’ came the reply. I packed up my bags and went! I saw a drastic improvement – K had pasted charts and reusable whiteboards all around his room! And he was still writing – ‘K wants to go back to Chennai’ methodically!

And it has been six years now. K is married (to the same girl friend), has a kid and settled down in Mumbai! And his wife complains that he takes too much time in the toilet!

For How long?

I happened to read this article and the truth in it pains me. One of the most cruel punishments in the human history is the 'solitary prison' - most of us could not imagine the plight of such prisoners. In my opinion being & treated as a refugee in your own country is no better than the treatment in a solitary prison! It has been fifteen long years, but still no leader in this country could dare to touch this issue. And the only reason is - minority vote bank!

Our PM Manmohan Singh sends a special convoy to meet TN's CM just as we hear about the clash between LTTE (Terrorists) and a Srilankan Army. Our local TN leaders like Vaiko & MK shed tears of blood for the Srilankan Tamils! And in the names of refugees LTTE have started their intrusion into TN. I have personally seen the amount of vigilance and security being practiced in the 'Mandapam' refugee camp. It is a free for all camp! Anybody can come in, go out - not to come back again. So many such refugees are staying outside in rented and owned houses. All said and done Jayalalithaa administered better security policies for TN. Right from the street urchins till Veerappan (including Vaiko/Nedumaaran) stopped supporting any kind of terrorism/rowdism! It looks like that the LTTE were just waiting for a change in government in TN; They started the war as soon as MK sworn in as CM in TN - they are so sure about the assistance they would receive from this land now!

Our PM & super PM are busy flagging off buses across the border defying the whole purpose of the laying a fence along LoC! Cold blooded attacks on Hindus and Hindu shrines during Hindu festivals seem to be the agenda of the Islamic terrorists nowadays. Recent Delhi market blast during Diwali, Blasts at Varanasi etc., perfectly fall into this category. But still nobody in the country has the guts to object this cross border transportation!

For every community, clan, subsect, caste, or sections of workers there is a political back up! They come to the street, burn/damage public properties, and kill innocent people to demand justice! But no one could raise a genuine concern about the majority (minority!) Hindus in this country. The moment someone talks about Hindus, he would be labeled as anti secular by the media and the Congress! It is a shame on our nation.

For how long we would survive like this?

How deep are we divided?

I happened to travel to my native town, down south of Tamil Nadu, over the weekend. To travel around the city and some surrounding villages, the ‘mini bus’ is the most preferred mode in such small townships. I boarded a green painted bus. Enquired the conductor about what time would it leave. ’11.15AM’ he replied. I had another full twenty minutes to go. As I looked around, I noticed only a couple of lazy passengers like me in the bus. The bus was full of decoration – color papers, scenery snaps, a small LCD screen and a good sound box. They were playing some tamil film songs. The lyricist should be hanged – such a cheap and dirty sequencing of lines! What do they do in the censor board? Two more men in uniforms boarded the bus. Heading straight to the front side of the bus, they started conversing with the driver & conductor of our bus.

I shifted my seat closer to them, just enough to overhear what they are talking about. The talk was about the color of the bus. The bus I was in, belonged to a different owner than the other two in uniforms. As soon as Jayalalitha was sworn in as Chief Minister of TN last time, she ensured that all the ‘mini-busses’ were painted ‘Green’ – her favorite/lucky color. Before her tenure, they were sporting ‘yellow’ color – the favorite/lucky color for the then CM M Karunanidhi. Now that MK is back as CM the hot topic among these mini bus owners is about the potential government rule regarding the color change. Apparently these folks are pretty small time business people for whom repainting the buses every five years is no joke. So the conversation went like this.

Our Bus Driver: Our owner has set us very steep collection targets for the next two months. He is expecting to gain as much as possible before the government sends out the change of color memo again.
Our Bus Conductor: Also, I heard that he is planning to sell his two buses before this rule.
New Bus Driver: Even my owner is pretty much worried. Unlike your boss, mine has around 12 buses to repaint and he is discussing the same with the association.
New Bus Conductor: The politicians will not allow us to live. I am so fed up that I didn’t vote to anyone this time.
OBC: Some time back, we used to say ‘Let either Ram or Ravan rule the land. We need to worry about our bread’. But nowadays we cannot be like that because all those are left in competition are only ‘Ravans’. There are no Rams around anymore.
NBD: When is your scheduled time?OBD: Still some fifteen minutes away.
NBD (looking inside the bus): There are not many boarded. Come let us go for a coffee.
OBD: Okay. Lets go.
NBC: To OBC, let the ‘driver Inam’ go for a coffee! We belong to ‘conductor Inam’ – lets go to the other shop for a tea! (Inam – translates to ‘clan’)

I suddenly realized – how even in our day to day life we have started differentiating ourselves from others! I mean all the four of them belong to same worker community – the mini bus workmen! But still from within they felt the need to identify themselves differently! The Dravidian parties are to be blamed for this. They have first created the concept of identifying themselves to be associated with the language and call themselves as ‘Tamil Inam’. I don’t think there was such a usage in TN before the 60s! To my knowledge there was only Manidha Inam (Human Clan), Miruga Inam (Animal Clan) etc., before that. We are already divided in so many ways – Caste, Religion, Rich, Poor, North Indian, South Indian, Aryan, Dravidian etc. The politicians started a new Inam associated with the Language. Each one of the Dravidian leader claims himself to be ‘Tamil Ina Kaavalar’ – Savior of Tamil clan!

They gained mileage over the Brahmins by kindling in the ‘language’ war (against Sanskrit / Hindi later). Brahmin bashing is the main agenda of the Dravidian parties even today. Today this concept is so imbibed to our society that even the uneducated laborers in remote villages have started identifying themselves belonging to different Inams! Where is the end for these divisions? Tomorrow every working community could identify themselves belonging to different ‘Inams’ – Like Paalkaara Inam (Milkmen Clan), Vivasaayi Inam (Agriculture Clan) etc. And within Paalkaara Inam you could have ‘Yerumai Maadu Paalkara Inam’ (Buffalo Milkmen Clan), ‘Pasu Maadu Paalkara Inam’ (Cow Milkmen Clan) etc. Each them already have their own associations! Each of them would have their own list of grievances! If they manage to show their vote bank to any of these politicians, am sure they would encourage such divisive thought process! Just thinking about the potential threat of such divisive thought process, scares me!

So do I sound stupid? May be not – ten years from now!

Yugas & Avatars

I was bored with my normal routine. I decided to dig back some of those books that lie around from time immemorial at my grandpa’s place. Indeed they are not English novels – but are books related to Hinduism. I was reading some material on the Ten Incarnations of Lord Vishnu. A lot of questions were asked and some answers were given. I also read about the four Yugas that Hinduism talks about and their time span! The symmetric pattern of the information surprised me, to say it in a minimalist way! And with some retrofit analysis I had even more surprises! (And by Google, I found that some or all of this information is already available on the net – but what prevents me from presenting them again? After all this is my own blog!)

Time Span of the four Yugas:

Krita Yuga – 17,28,000 years (Kri – four times kali yuga)
Threta Yuga – 12,96,000 years (Thre – three times kali yuga)
Dwapara Yuga – 8,64,000 years ( Dwa – two times kali yuga)
Kali yuga – 4,32,000 years
A total of 43,20,000 years constitute a Maha Yuga!

Ten Incarnations (Avatars) of Lord Vishnu:

The first FOUR Avatars happened in Kritha Yuga – Matsya, Koorma, Varaaha and Nrisimha
The next THREE Avatars happened in Treta Yuga – Vaaman, Parasuraama and Sri Rama
The next TWO Avatars happened in Dwapara Yuga – Balaraama and Krishna
The next ONE Avatar will happen in Kali Yuga – Kalki

Can we see the symmetry between the Time Span of Yugas and the number of Incarnations happened in every Yuga?

I have heard in so many instances, that how each and every invention of modern day science is already hinted in our Puraanas and Vedas. Some staunch believers even claim that everything is derived from Vedas and there is nothing that is available on this universe that is not touched by the Vedas. As per the order of Incarnations of Lord Vishnu, can we relate to modern day evolution?

First Avatar – Matsya – Creatures that live solely in water;
Next Avatar – Koorma – Creatures that could live both in water and land (amphibian);
Next Avatar – Varaaha – Creatures that solely live on land (ofcourse with swimming ability);
Next Avatar – NaraSimha – The half-lion and half-human – a stage between Homo sapiens and animals (Tiryaks?);
Next Avatar – Vaamana – The Homo sapiens with short stature;
Next Avatar – Parasurama – The rough and tough human (Rama with the axe);
Next Avatar – Sri Rama – The perfect civilized human (Rama with a bow & noble practices);
Next Avatar – BalaRama – The human with occupational skills (Rama with the plough – agriculture is his occupation?)
Next Avatar – Sri Krishna – The Superhuman!
Final Avatar – Kalki – The apocalyptic (The one who would end this Mahayuga!)

We can assume that during each of the avatar’s time span the previous avatars’ creatures existed. For example, during amphibian days, water dwelling creatures lived. Extrapolating this to Sri Rama’s period, we can assume that creatures from Narasimha’s time existed(Hanuman, Jambavan etc.,). I am not an expert in the modern day evolution theory and so I should read more towards that to understand the link.

Another interesting aspect I learnt is on the average life span of the creatures that lived in different yugas and the average dimensions of them!
Safely assuming the average life span of human is around 50 years (across the earth) as of today. Going by the same symmetric math:
Average life span of creatures in Kali Yuga – 50 years;
Average life span of creatures in Dwapara Yuga – 100 years; (Twice)
Average life span of creatures in Tretha Yuga – 150 years; (Thrice)
Average life span of creatures in Krita Yuga – 200 years; (Four times)

Assuming the average dimension of human today is around 5.7 - 6ft / 60 – 70 Kgs;
Average dimension of creatures in Kali Yuga – 6 ft / 60 Kgs;
Average dimension of creatures in Dwapara Yuga – 12 ft / 120 Kgs;
Average dimension of creatures in Tretha Yuga – 18 ft / 180 Kgs;
Average dimension of creatures in Krita Yuga – 24 ft / 240 Kgs;

The most realistic example of a life form from Krita Yuga could be the Giant Sea tortoises (Koorma avatar)! Even today they weigh more than 250 Kgs and live for more than 200 years! Modern day scientists date their existence for millions of years! Though a retro-fit I just cannot believe that such a theory could exist from time immemorial!

May be I should read more to understand things better. I am sure there are missing pieces between and we can argue on a lot of them. But I would only attribute them for our inability to read/interpret them in the right form. That is the prime point of Hinduism – It shows us the ways and allows us to argue and decide what the best is? For example one might argue the Vaamana avatar in Treta Yuga – short stature does not go with the dimension assumptions stated – But what was the definition of ‘short’ in those days? There is no end to these arguments. Everything depends on Trust. I trust Hinduism! I feel by just arguing why it could not be rather than why it could be and by not providing enough attention to our such treasures ‘May be we are missing a lot …’!

You don't belong here...

It was a beautiful Sunday Morning! The previous night was good as well. I watched a Chinese Kung-fu movie and laughed my heart out – Now why that strange look on your face?? I am not an intellectual like you. I enjoy stupid and poor jokes. So what is your problem? I had a nice sleep. I decided to go on a lazy drive through my most favorite road that stretches along side a beautiful beach.

I played my pet music on my CD player. Lazing around at 20Km/hr with a cool breeze and a beautiful morning sun – I felt heaven. I just completed one round and turned around for the next. Suddenly I heard the sound of an air plane – near, very near to me. I gently leaped out of my window and looked at the sky – Nothing to spot! That sound faded away! ‘An air plane could not get past this fast’ I thought. Alright, back to normal “enjoy your drive” – went ahead with my second round – same corner to take a ‘U’ turn – Aha! There it is. I heard that air plane sound again! It faded again in very quick time. No, this cannot happen. I pulled over my car. Stepped out, scanned the sky thoroughly – no trace of any plane. I just stood there for the next five minutes. Slowly I heard the same sound at a distance. It came near – I spotted a motor bike speeding across a cross lane. The tweaks he had done to his silencer made such a noise! I strolled down that lane – waiting for that guy to come back. He came and I stopped him. Under the helmet I could find my good old friend! After initial surprises:

Me: What are you trying to do in this lane?
He: Don’t you know that we have our mid night moto races at the beach roads? Am preparing for that.
Me: Whatz the deal with your silencer? Don’t you feel it pollutes?
He: Hell with it! Do you know that I didn’t fix a horn to my beauty?
Me: You have an unmarried sister; you are yet to find a job; and your dad is old enough to retire. What do you gain by these races?
He: Money, fame & girls.
Me: Money fine, fame – sort of okay and where did the girls come into this?
He: The winner gets a date with the most beautiful girl in our group – and we elect the best!
Me: And you spend the money you just won on that b**** the same day? Is it worth the risk? What drives you to be so fast?
He: Speed thrills youth! Speed is the identity of youth;
Me: Am of your same age and Speed does not thrill me. Better than me I bother about others on the road!
He: You have always been like that! You are never ‘man’ish!
Me: What do you mean? I have a good job; married; have a kid; am settled & take care of my family; so what is the big ‘man’ish thing you have that I don’t?
He: See; Marriage has spoilt you; you are an old bugger now; you don’t belong here; And do you know that according to Einstein’s Theory of Relativity time slows down on fast-moving folks?
Me: So?
He: If time slows down on me wrt old buggers like you, I would stay young you idiot! I am preparing myself for that. Now would you mind moving your butt out of my way?
Me: Okay bud; but be careful…
He: You better watch ya back; and don’t try to act smart by hinting the cops!

He left with that air plane sound.

Stop! Einstein’s TOR is for space travelers; at a speed nearing the speed of light (some 200000 miles / sec) which no one has achieved and could achieve atleast in the next hundred years! “Next time I get to meet him, I will explain him this” said to myself and I returned to my car;

As I started my drive, I heard a noise of some ten planes coming back and crossing through me! A group of my friend a-likes zipped past my car!

I was annoyed – “You idiots” – I yelled! ‘Thank you’ promptly came back the reply! I continued my drive – I thought – May be; my friend was right. I am shy to risks; I have huge responsibilities to my family; I care for my status in the society; I bother about tomorrow; I feel heavy at heart; I have confined myself to a society boundry; I feel old.

They don’t; they love risks; they don’t bother about tomorrow; they feel light; they enjoy what they do; they want to cross boundaries; just like Jonathan Livingston Seagull!

‘I don’t belong there…’ I mumbled without my conscious!

Reservation – A Boon or a Curse? (Part 2)

Reservation as a Boon

Do we need reservation? My answer is yes, but I have another angle to it. The government should not reserve seats, promotions, cut-off marks etc, based on Caste - but they should reserve ‘Funds’! Only about 2% of GDP is spent on education in India. This is the fundamental problem. The government aided institutions are awfully short of funds and hence the quality of infrastructure, studies, students, staff, teachers and professors are awfully below par! The government should reserve about 15 – 20% of GDP towards education in the next five years. Majority of this chunk should be spent on improving the quality of primary education in the country. Create a body consisting of all the visionaries, industrial leaders, academicals and other entrepreneurs to maintain the fund. Probably this body could be headed by the President! There should be no other political interference to this body. This body would become the ‘Shapers of Young India’. A mass campaign on importance of primary education should be unleashed across all the villages.

(1) Make education (atleast up to class XII) compulsory for every child born in the country; • Invest on primary schooling infrastructure
• Invest on generating good primary school teachers
• Provide good compensation packages for these teachers
• Reserve funds to provide incentives to the parents who are below the poverty line but still are committed to educate their children

(2) Provide education free till class XII for all the children from families below poverty line. Impose minimal fee structure in the private institutes of education for the children from families above poverty line.

(3) Provide all the aides for education (books, papers, Compass boxes etc) free to all the children below poverty line.

(4) Revisit and revise the entire curriculum – the current curriculum does not produce proud citizens of India! The McCauley’s system of education has killed the pride of being an Indian! Our students lack on self-belief – the fundamental quality to succeed. The overall standard of our educational system should be revised according the modern day’s expectations still preserving our country’s culture!

(5) The government wants to implement reservation across all the private institutes and concerns as well. My suggestion would be to pass a legislation that would provide for all the private companies and institutes to allocate 0.5% of their profits to the national educational fund! This way we ensure that they pay for what they get from this country. They participate in building the next generation. Spare them from Caste based reservations which could potentially kill their existence! Another variation would be to give tax exemption to the donations given to this fund from any body.

(6) Abolish all kinds of reservations based on caste in all the government bodies, private institutes at one go! This would bring back all those people who have grown in the system through reservations to ground reality and make them compete with the rest. After all, they all are educated, would have progressed to good positions (already gained that extra mile over the rest) and so it is fair to expect them to compete the race. The main motive is to enhance the current generation’s productivity which is at soaring worst as of today!

(7) Beyond class XII it should only be a level playing field. Every seat for higher education would be based on Merit! The cut offs would be the same for all. The government would aid the studies of the winners from below poverty line families at this level!

This outline could be built upon and explained to details further. The first step is the toughest - determining the population below poverty line. But with modern days' technology tracking abilities, it should not be an impossible one.

Even today we blame it on our ancestors – the culprits who have created inequality in the society. With the current reservation policy we still do the same! We are trying to right the wrong by committing another wrong! A hundred years from now, you would have representatives of current days’ FC fighting to preserve their reservations!

Overall, our reservation system should be progressive, forward looking and focus on building our country as the best among the rest! This kind of reservation would truly be a boon! The onus is on us to leave our children a better place to live! Do our politicians have IT in them?

Those Nostalgic Years - Part 3

A New Neighbor

The days were passing by as usual. During rainy season we made paper boats, set up traps to capture frogs, cut irrigation canals for all the coconut trees in the backyard, got terrified by occasional appearance of snakes at homes or that swam along with us in the river, gathered as a group to the Thinnais and enjoyed the drizzles, felt the freshness in the air, loved the looks of everything cleansed by rains… K was enjoying unquestionable supremacy in everything we did. The season changed – summer came by and along with it a family of bank officer moved into our street. It was a cute family – parents, one girl and a boy. Boy was of our age and the girl was elder to us. Neighborhood aunts were saying that they had come from Madras (now Chennai) and the person was a big bank official. The presence of a ‘pattanatthu’ girl attracted many of our elder companions on the street. They helped to unload things from the truck and unpack things. We were watching eagerly to check if any stuff would be of our interest – since they came from Madras!

In those days, many of us would have seen only the trains that left for Madras from Tenkasi Junction! Infact, we got to see trains only once in a blue moon - station was far away from our place, and we had no reason to venture out in that direction. Watching trains used to be a fascinating experience with all of us standing in a line along the track and waving our hands in joy! We placed our ears on the track trying to sense the arrival of the train! One more reason we waited for the summer vacation was the new set of people those who would come to spend their holidays at Tenkasi with their grand parents! They always had some surprises to us! Like some one would show us a Bambaram of a different shape, someone would show us a toy train that runs on a track, a boat that circles in a tub of water when a lamp was lit in it or it would be a gun that would shoot plastic bullets etc. We had seen only our Diwali guns that we use to burst ‘caps’. Most of us infact had only a screw with two washers to burst the caps – could not afford to buy a gun!

We were watching the boy – we didn’t speak to him at the first sight as naturally we were shy to strangers. The next day as we gathered around, the boy came out with his mom! His mom introduced him to us as S and he will be studying in our own school – we all should be friends from that day! K was the boldest to greet S to our gang, introduced him again that S came from Madras. We all shook hands and K explained him about our culture. The games we played etc. It was a season for ‘Kitti pul (Gilli)’ and Golis (glass marbles). S had never seen such games and K assumed the role of a coach immediately. All was going well and slowly S became one of us.
S struggled with most of our games – but he would accept everything with a smile! He showed us some photographs of Madras!

S had some secrets as well! He taught us how to make candles!! As per the process, all of us would bring the ‘almost’ finished candles from our homes! Some of us would go around the church to find some or scrape the remains of wax left in the windows / door steps! During afternoons’ we gathered in the terrace of S’s home. S would bring a kerosene lamp and an old vessel. We put all the candles into it and melt them. We collected all types of ‘lids’ of bottles as moulds! Or we bent scrap metal into different shapes to make the moulds! We poured the melt candle wax into these moulds with one person hanging the ‘Wick’ into the moulds as we pour the wax – the Wicks (Thiris) were stolen from the temple/homes or made of old cloths finely cut using scissors! We allowed them to dry for some time – made holes from the top to allow some space for air. Again filled those with wax melt and allowed them to dry. After about an hour, we would pull the substance out of the moulds to get our version of candles ready! We sold these candles for 25paise per piece in the street! Right then it was so much fun and we enjoyed it thoroughly!

S had a different hobby from ours – collection of stamps. He had a wide variety of stamps from different countries. He told that stamp collection is quite common in Madras. We helped him to assort them and create albums. We gave him all the stamps that we could get from the posts/letters that came to our respective homes. S also taught us games like Chess & Trade. We taught him games like ‘aadupuli aattam’ & ‘Pallaanguzhi’. We showed him the ‘Chozhis’ (shells) that were used to play Pallanguzhi. He showed us a big shell wherein his name was engraved! He showed his father’s gold tipped ‘Hero’ pen and how to fill ink to it. We had traditionally seen only the ‘fountain’ pens which literally fountains ink all around them! His father’s watch had a ‘calculator’ built in! S had a lot of comic books at his disposal. Till then we had been introduced only to the ‘amar chitra kathas’ kinds of comics. The books that S had were of different breed – they had Superman, Batman, HeMan etc. Personally I preferred our own amar chitra kathas to these, but many of my other friends were so excited to read those books! They had a big ‘BUSH’ tape recorder in which he played some Hindi film songs which we had never heard of. S had many surprises to us! K and S were becoming best of friends!

… to be continued …

Reservation - A Boon or a Curse? (Part 1)

A lot has been talked about the proposed 27% reservation in higher studies by the UPA government. Each one of us has an opinion about this topic. Debating who is right or wrong would remain a debate – with no real solutions. Most of us still are debating the problem. What we should really be debating is on the Solutions offered. Some of the gurus have come out with some complex formulae that would only worsen the situation. The solutions offered should be simple; easy to Implement; should treat every community equally; but should not based on caste!

Why many us are not opposing reservation for SC/ST? A little deep dive would reveal that still majority of this clan remain poor. Most of them cannot even afford their daily breads; Education does not even find a place in their priority list. In spite of having reservations for about 60 years for SC/ST – roughly translates to atleast three generations - still majority of SC/ST remain poor. The fundamental question to be raised is ‘WHY?’. The simple reasoning any sane person could make is that still for most of them education does not figure in their priority list.

History has shown us many a ways a community gained supremacy over the rest. The most common element in all those instances is that they had a ‘leader’ with vision. This is the part that is missing in India. Tell me one leader who belongs to this clan who is a visionary in the past two decades? The most prominent and probably the only name comes to my mind is Ambedkar! And he is legacy now. At the ground level these people have seen some among them growing rich in unethical ways – politics being the primary culprit. Most of them want to emulate their leaders to become rich quickly. Why wait and slog for sixteen years to gain a degree and then again slog to find a job? Education helps any person to look at rationales. Since most of them still are un-educated, their so called leaders could influence them with short term surprises – like free blah.

Another sad episode to observe would be on the school/college drop outs. Across India in all the institutes, the 22.5% of seats reserved for SC/ST remain under utilized! The dropouts could again be attributed to the misguided youth in this community. Youth look for quick money. When they reach colleges or premier institutes, they get to move with a crowd that looks so alien to them. Fear occupies their mind about their ability to compete with this group. They have come through to this level with lower levels of scores. They lack self-respect and self-confidence! Because right from their schooling their ability to compete with the best are not nurtured. Instead the government has put a ‘cap’ for their ability! With the current educational system and the loop holes available, anybody could reach those targets without much of a fuss! They are so spoilt by the aids of government that they are complacent and hence brittle. Once cornered any cat would fight back – so are these students! They develop anger over the society! They become emotionally challenged and aggressive. They become easy preys for the local leaders!

Following a local leader and participating in political in-fights fetch them good money. Many aspire to be the next leader. They quit studies in the middle to back their political leaders! Or all it takes is a family mishap – an earning member perishes – and these students are pushed to earn bread for their family. They become easy preys as well!

On the other hand, the school dropouts could be mostly attributed to poverty to the extreme! Their parents need to migrate for their living. Finding a job in the new place and a place to live would occupy their agenda. Children’s education remains a distant dream for them! Government does not bother about these basic socio-economic issues.

All these indicate that the existing policy has fundamental flaws! It does not address the root of the problem. So we can safely decide the current policy is a curse and any further enhancement to the existing policy would only ensure graveyard for ethics and morality in the society. Government need to think towards converting this curse to a Boon. How it could be done? I have my own suggestions; there are many a scholars in this country. Consult them; Ideas are aplenty – Who would implement? Who would bring the change? Only time will answer.

... to be continued ...

Those Nostalgic Years - Part 2

K was his name. A natural leader, philosopher, knowledgeable and who stood front in every event that happen in our world. He was short, dark – somewhere I have read that most of the dictators the world has seen are short stature – and K was one in such a mould! He was our savior on all those fights with the next street boys, he had the courage to climb over the electric post to retrieve the cricket ball that was hit to the neighborhood terrace during street crickets, and he knew how to ride a bicycle with both hands off the handle bar! As kids most of us were naturally attracted to him and we followed his rules - without any questions.

He and I were class mates from classes One to Seven. The very first incident I could remember was when we were at class 3. K took my ‘balpam’ without my permission – for those who are not familiar with it: imagine a smaller version of Chalk that as kids we use to write in black slates. When I asked back for my priced possession the answer I got from him was a pinch using a safety pin on my thighs. Like all kids I screamed suddenly at the class and I was loud enough to attract the class teacher towards us. I complained about what K had just done and the teacher decided that this was too big a case to be handled at his level. So he sent us to the principal’s room with the class rep to represent the neutral view! Now the class rep was no real great leader and was afraid of K. In one earlier instance, during a lunch time rumble, K managed to emerge victorious – ripped off the rep’s shorts and thrown it to the exhaust fan opening near the ceiling! And the rep ran back to his home half naked to come back only the next day!K walked towards the principal’s room briskly urging the rep to speed things up. Being a bony guy physically, I could barely manage to enter the principal’s room two minutes after both these guys. In this small gap, all that the class rep could manage to convey the half deaf principal was the exact opposite of what happened– that I used the safety pin on K’s thighs. Being a busy & angry man, the principal didn’t think much – he took his bamboo stick and promptly landed two blows on my thighs – tit for tat!

Weeping loudly I conveyed that it was the reverse and in both the instances my thighs were punctured for no reason. By now the seriousness of the whole issue was lost and K got only a knock on his head. I can never forget this gross injustice committed to me. And for the rest of the years we managed to stick around, K was always the winner.

K led the things from front in our street as well. He decided who would get to bat and bowl. He decided who would stand in the third man position. All of us were somewhat mesmerized by him. He had a charisma to attract people; He knew many of the Tamil Bad words with meaning; Sometimes he would be so nice to me, with a hand around my shoulders; talking loosely; sometimes he would also attack, push, hit me suddenly from behind; He was never predictable. He had many things to share with us during our afternoon meets at the backyards; like how he felt when he smoked a cigarette! In our world those days, girls never had a schema of things in our routines; they had their own games and functions (like Thirupaavai, Paavai Vizha) separately. We all used to feel very shy to talk about them; talking about girls was considered inferior. The best way to humiliate a person was to call him a ‘pottai’ (meaning a lady!). But K had many stories to tell us which were beyond this border! He explained us about the primary physical differences between male & female. He would narrate some of those posters he had seen in the barber shops – we were never allowed to go to the barber shop – the barber would come to our homes for his duties! He would explain us his heroics – like how he followed one of our street girls to find that daily she used to meet a person behind the temple chariot! He had seen a couple from the street at a closed house in the street during noons. When we tried to do the same invariably we found nothing! He would show some of those torn pages from some old books – that would have content and words which most of us couldn’t understand. We would beg him to explain them – he would not! He would demand for 50 paisa! That was a big money for us in those days! Or he would demand for fifty match box labels or ten glass marbles per word. We could not afford them – and till the end I never got the chance to look at those pages! His stories were exciting – something we never heard of!

K used to be very much a leader with a lot of partiality. Most of the times he lied; he favored his own people; if I would have got into a brawl with him directly, probably I would have won! But though physically I was taller than him, I never had the courage inside me to fight back. He would never pick up the cricket ball from the gutter – I had to do it!

Some five or six of us would collectively put some money and rent a cycle for an hour to learn cycling. K was an expert already. In the name of showing us how to ride, he used to ride the cycle for almost half hour. We were made to run with him till the street end and back – just to watch how he rides! The rest of us had to share the remaining half hour! He taught most of us to cycle! I was very slow to learn – one day suddenly he took his hands off from the back of my seat when I was still very new to cycling. I didn’t realize that! The instruction was to look straight! I was riding the cycle at an angle for some distance suddenly to realize that there was nobody to back me up! I was scared – I could not stop the cycle as at that time I could only climb or get down from a cycle from an elevated ‘Thinnai’. I could not find a suitable place to stop – I didn’t know how to turn – the buttermilk vendor was coming right in front of me – shouting ‘Saami – paathu; paathu’. She tried her level best to get away from the way – she climbed to the parapet wall of the gutter – As I was looking at her ‘straight’ as per the instructions, without my control the cycle was running towards her. I collide with her and both of us slipped into the gutter! The pot was broken and her per day wage was in gutters! None of my mates were to be seen around! I got up and ran towards my home and went to the terrace and hid behind the chimney! The vendor came to my home – shouted – got the compensation and went away! To my surprise, instead of being angry with me, my grandparents were busy checking if I was hurt! And they consoled me saying it was all normal when we try to learn new things and the next time I should be more careful! That day I thought I understood my grandparents better! K made me pay for the damages done to the cycle conveniently overruling his contribution – stranded me in the middle when I was quite new to the learning process!

A game of Bambaram

K was an expert in the game of Bambaram.The game of Bambaram had again very simple rules. All of us had to go at the same time for the ‘Goes’ – this was the ‘toss’ for the Bambaram game. The ‘Goes’ process was – one of us would count get, set, go. All the players should wind their Bambarams with their ropes, unwind it on the ground to rotate and then pick it up with the rope as quickly as possible. The primary skill on this relies on shortest rope length usage and still make the bamabram to rotate on the ground allowing you to catch it back with the rope– K used to do it with simple two winds of the rope; I needed atleast four winds; some others needed to wind to the full extent; If the Bambaram failed to rotate on its nail on the ground – we call it as ‘Mattai’, you lose the toss. Or if you fail to catch the Bambaram through the rope then you lose the toss. Similarly the last person to finish the ‘Goes’ lose as well. Their Bambarams would be placed inside the circle drawn on the ground. The rest of the members would have a go at the Bambarams inside the circle. If you manage to land your nail on the Bambarams inside the circle it would leave a mark – called as ‘Aakkar’ in our circles. The best player’s Bambaram will have the least number of Aakkars – and as usual it was a matter of prestige. To avoid our main Bambaram getting too many Aakkars, we would always keep a spare on – we called it as ‘Pondatti Bambaram’ (Pondatti means wife in Tamil). We used the ‘Purushan Bambaram’ (Purushan means Husband in Tamil), to give Aakars to others’ Bambarams and used Pondatti Bambaram to receive Aakars from others. We take special care of the Purushan Bambaram. We would hand pick the nails from the black smith work shop, sit with him to see that he inserted the nail to our Bambaram without any cracks. We also would do a couple of dry runs to ensure that all was well before paying the blacksmith his 60 paisa! We would collect the lids of the soda or cool drink bottles – which we used to decorate our ropes. We would put a hole at the center of those lids and inserted the rope such that the lids would form one end of the rope and the other end would be used to start the winding process. In our petty fights these ropes with solid lids at one end used to serve as our weapons as well and those blows really hurt!

K started the culture of playing Bambaram at the school also. Normally we get around 45 minutes lunch break. We would all finish our lunch as quickly as possible and used the rest of the lunch time to play. Normally we played football with a small rubber ball and one could imagine the pathetic looks of our legs – without shoes playing on hard sand that too chasing a rubber ball! The person who carried most of the cuts was hailed an expert! Some of us broke our nails! We had scars all over our legs that are left by others' nails! But nothing stopped us from playing that game! I didn’t join the Bambaram gang initially – my grandma used to check my bag before I leave for school and invariably she removed all the ‘unnecessary’ items from it. So I could never manage to get my two Bambarams to school! K started bullying me, consistently stirred my ego at the class rooms – that I am afraid of receiving aakars and I didn’t dare to face him in the game. In between periods he would shout 'Pottai' - the whole class would laugh including the girls! Slowly it acted on my mind. The only other way to handle this pressure was to participate in the game – but I needed a Bambaram for that! I checked with some of my friends if they would be able to lend me theirs, in vain. I realized that I needed to get a new one for school!

I started saving some money towards it – it took me two whole months to save the Two Rupees I needed to buy the Bambaram. I used to get 25 Paisa per week from my Grandma towards the expense of filling air to the cycle tyres. If you could help yourself at shop with the mechanical instrument to fill air it would cost 10 paisa. The normal air compressor machine would cost 25 paisa. I preferred to use the cheaper option, sweating it out as I saved the rest towards buying a new Bambaram. I practiced hard at the backyards of my home throughout. Finally I managed to buy a new one on my way to school! I also fixed up an agreement with one of my other classmates that he would maintain the Bambaram for me and bring it to school everyday! The very first day, at the lunch time rumble I proudly displayed my Bambaram and joined the gang. I was always good at the ‘Goes’ and so I managed not to get into circle. I had a field day displaying very good form! A couple of rounds went by – I managed to leave some Aakkars as well. I had a proud look at my face – looking round to realize that even some of the girls were watching the game!

In a rare event of concentration lapse, as K was trying to get rid of a person from the circle, he failed to take the catch smoothly and so his Bambaram went inside the circle. I was excited to the core – the moment I was waiting for! There was my chance to prove K and especially the girls that I was better than the best! I took my time to wind my Bambaram tightly - Aimed properly at K’s Bambaram which was kept at the center among the rest of them. I whipped my rope with full force to release my weapon and I was on the dot! My Bambaram’s nail landed right on the top of K’s Bambaram and left a nice, deep Aakkar on its pink face, sent his out of the circle – but then the lady luck deserted me once more. My Bambaram went on to ‘mattai’ after hitting K’s Bambaram and I could not complete the ‘catch’ process! Mine went inside the circle and K had his weapon on hand! He was enraged to see the plight of his possession - the Aakkar from me - He aimed, released his weapon – on the dot – my Bambaram broke into two pieces! Once again K was the winner! My two month’s savings was lost in a second! Two tear drops on my eyes! Not willing to stand there anymore, I collected the two pieces, ran into the classroom! My agreement with my friend to ‘maintain’ my Bambaram never got materialized! And on that date I swore that I will never again play Bambaram at the school and I managed to keep that promise till this date!

… to be continued …

Netaji -Why Not?

In the heat of reservation debate the Government has silently gone ahead and thrashed one of the most critical historical myth - The Nethaji's death! Why should the government thrash 'Mukherjee Commission report' even without taking it for analysis? The commission has spent 7 years of tax payers money in search of the truth and finally exposed that the 'History' our text books taught us is indeed WRONG! Is it not a big deal? Is this the kind of respect one can give to the great Indian? I mean, how many of us feel proud when we just utter the word Netaji? How fascinated are we when we hear or talk about him? I always felt that we were not fortunate enough to live with such greats! The Mukherjee commission has given a glimpse that my feeling may be wrong! Two of the conclusions in Mukherjee's report excites me!

(1) Netaji did not die in the plane crash, as alleged;
(2) The ashes in the Japanese temple(Renkoji temple near Tokyo) are not of Netaji;

There is a strong notion that Bose actually lived and died (1985) in India in Faizabad, UP as a hermit namely Gumnami Baba aka "Bhagavanji". This means he lived among most of us! He has seen what Independent India is (am sure it would have hurted him)!!.

Now why should the government reject Mukherjee's report categorically? Why the government did not approve the previous two commission reports on the same issue - namely the Shah Nawaz commission (1956) and the GD Khosla's commission (1970)? In 1978, then PM Morarji Desai had to concede that the "findings" of the "inquiries" conducted by Shah Nawaz and GD Kholsa were not "decisive". These two commissions agreed with the populist view!

It is also learnt that Justice Mukherjee did not get the cooperation he needed from this government and infact he has been humiliated in many of the instances. He has also reported that the PMO has destroyed some of the top secret files. It is also proved that the Government destroyed several relevant 'classified & top secret files' and the 'contemporary official documentary records' based on which the govt was constrained to reject the findings of Shah Nawaz & GD Khosla panels.

Now as the government has rejected all the commissions' reports on this, what do we ought to believe? I believe the government has the obligation to this country. They should request USSR to open up their views about Netaji - I still believe we have a very good equation with Vlamdir Putin. The theory suggests that Netaji has escaped to Russia and not to Japan as we have been taught in schools.

Netaji has been one of the most admired Indians in the last century. This great personality truely deserves a great tribute - bring out the truth! Why Not?

Those Nostalgic Years - Part 1

The place, where I spent my first 20 years of life is, Tenkasi - a small beautiful town near Tirunelveli, down south of Tamilnadu is an integral part of what I am today. Like most of us I too had an exciting and fun filled childhood. Some of those incidents are everlasting memories, very green in my mind - those petty fights we had, our kinds of games & rules, our own street girls whom we used to be so possessive about etc. – these thoughts always make me fresh from the dull routine life as a professional at Chennai. For reasons we all know well, the names are faked in this blog – am sure if my old friends happen to read these they can map to who is who – but for the rest, this would be some kind of ‘nice to read’ and might kindle some of your own childhood reminiscences.

Tenkasi has been a lovely place to live. Situated geographically closer to Kerala, at the bottom of Western Ghats, nature has been very kind to that town. Green fields irrigated by Sitraaru (Small River), cool breeze gifted by the Western Ghats, the famous tiny rain droplets called Saaral, and the imposing Raja-Gopuram of Lord Kasi Vishwanatha temple – I have been fortunate to grow up there. Our street comprised of about 30 houses next to each other, a very typical south Tamilnadu’s agrahaaram with a Krishna temple at one end.

My father being a government employee, used to get a transfer very frequently. Considering my educational needs he left me at my grandfather’s place. Given that my grandfather was a powerful personality in that town – his fame has given me both – the unwanted visibility that prevented me from being a part of most of my childhood secretive fantasies and some benefits like some of my petty mistakes are forgiven easily than others by the general people in the street, I was always welcome in anybody’s home anytime which the other guys didn’t enjoy.

We always had atleast about eleven guys in our street and so naturally we always had a cricket team. Every year we would participate in the local tournaments - whether we managed to play cricket or not - we ensured to change the name of our team every year – one year it would be ‘Tiger 11’, the next year it would be ‘New Street Wonder 11’ – I wonder why it always ended with 11! And we had a wonderful method for selecting the playing eleven with just the right mix - seniors as playing eleven and juniors as twelfth man, thirteenth man etc., regardless of their capabilities. I owned four stumps, two pads, a pair of gloves, one bat and two cricket balls – and so a lot of things depended on me. So I used to somehow make it to the playing eleven (well most of the times!).

The rules of these local tournaments are very simple. Played as twenty over each side match, the prize will be a brand new cricket ball for the winning team. There were no sponsors and so the teams would need to collect the money somehow to buy a new cricket ball – some of us would beg our grandmas, some of us would steal it from the kitchen boxes, some other bold guys would pick up some from their dad’s Wallets (those brave souls!) – now this is the easier part of the game. The tougher part happens at the end of the match - as per rules of the game, the losing captain should sign the scorecard and give it to the winning captain. Now that is not easy! It is viewed as a huge prestige issue as the winning captain would go around the town showing the signature to all the street cricketers. An act that ensured to create a lot of embarrassment wherever you go. That too when you get to be bullied in-front of your sister or younger brother the impact on your ego would be tremendous! To counter this embarrassment, in our team meeting we decided to select the youngest of the kids as captain! He would not be playing the game as he would be just about the height of the bat– he would go for the toss, while walking back he would get sick (mostly stomach upset & so would run towards the toilet!) and we would get a substitute to play! As a kid he would not bother signing any paper if we lose, in fact he would be happy to do that! But sadly after five games, one of the other teams identified this trick and all others started objecting to this. So a new rule was passed at the inter-committee meeting - the captain who walks in for the toss should also play. Else the other team would ‘walk-over’! This rule brought us back to the main stream!

Once a match is fixed between two teams, the practice sessions would start. We would choose locations where the rival team could not watch us practice – fearing that they would study our bowlers & batsmen to learn our little game secrets!. Fortunately we had a wonderful place for this. The river Sitraaru runs behind our street –a fifty feet wide bank separated the river and our houses, forming long backyards for all the southern rows of houses in our street. Mostly these yards were neglected, occupied with bushes and open air toilets (not many houses had septic tanks those days!). There is a common way from our street to the river which served the purpose of pitch, run up for bowling & the wicket keeping. (I have promised my great grand mother that I will convert this lane to a concrete lane – which will benefit the public to reach the river comfortably – for their daily needs like bathing, washing clothes etc. A promise that I am yet to fulfill and I am serious about it!). The fielders would spread over the backyards of the houses over the bushes. The seniors get to bat for long and the juniors like me get to bowl a lot. At the end when I get my chance to bat I would be so tired that I would end up losing my wicket mostly to the second ball I face. The seniors always encouraged us to bowl – I was not matured enough to understand this trick for long – until one fine day I realized that even the opposite team’s batsmen always loved my bowling! I realized that I was not in Kapil’s league as my seniors used to encourage me during the practice sessions. Later on I also realized that I bat far better than many of the other seniors! So I applied my veto in one of the meetings – threatening to go home with my kit! And that worked – in all the practice sessions, I started getting to bat right at the top! Our cricket fantasies continued until my under-graduation without a break beyond which I had to move out of Tenkasi. But it was fun, entertainment, a lot of noise and a great memory!

The seasons change and so are the games we get to play. And with the absence of television sets we had our entire holidays to spend together with laughter & petty fights. We had a wide variety of outdoor games to choose from – cricket – the all timer, Bambaram (modern days’ bayblade), Kitti Pul (Gilli), Kucchi Game (Stick Play), Paandi (a girls game), Goli (glass marbles), kabadi, Volley ball, Vattu (driving a cycle tyre with or without a rim, with the help of a stick) etc. We had indoor games like Carom, Hide & Seek, Trade, Ludo, Pallaan-Kuzhi and some customized games with toy Cars & Jeeps. We also had various collection hobbies – stamps, coins were not within our reach – they cost money. Our pet collections included the labels of match boxes, glass marbles, small magnets that we got from broken fan kits, bi-cycle dynamos (a lot of our afternoon times were spent to collect these from the nearby repair shops), different kinds of flies, moths and butterflies pinned to thermo-coal plates, and some self sculptured clay idols. All these had their own prestige and ego associated with them and used to be the deciding factor on ‘who is the best?’ among us.

But for these, we had a host of other outdoor activities that were mostly associated with the rich vegetation in the backyards. Climbing the trees, making customized swings using a truck/bike tyre & rope, building small structures at the backyards using clay & sand (we call them temples with toy statues inside), diving & swimming in the river, stealing a variety of fruits from Mangoes, Guavas, sappotta and coconuts etc. A lot of other activities would surround the temple involving cleaning the temple premises, washing & polishing the lamps & other ornaments, making sandalwood paste for the lord using the huge sandal wood & stone and other such things. Amidst all these we also managed to learn a bit of Vedas, Bhajans, a little bit of Sanskrit, a lot of Slokhas – thanks to the “Aasthiga Samajam” that was run by our grandparents. Most of our parents were very strict in participating in the temple & Samaajam activities. And all of us were made to learn music in one form or the other – Carnatic vocal, Violin, Mirudangam, Tabla, Veena etc.

I never remember being idle during my childhood not knowing how to spend my time! We always wanted extra time to spend together. Round the year we used to have some festival or the other at the temple. Some of our favorites include the morning Bhajans during the Tamil month of Margazhi and the Garuda Seva on the Saturdays of the month of Purattaasi. But for these we also celebrated other festivals like Krishna Jayanthi, Sri Rama Navami, Chittrai maasa Thanneer Pandhal, Kolaattam, Hanumath Jayanthi, Sankara Jayanthi, Paavai Vizha during Makara Sankranthi etc. We would decorate the entire street with festoons made of palm leaves. We had a lot to share, lot to enjoy and a lot to laugh. And most of us (rich or poor) were brilliant students as well. Today as I think back, all these things always kept our mind fresh, continuously stimulating, making us physically & mentally strong!

Now as I get to visit my place pretty regularly, I feel very sad for the current generation of kids for what they are missing - The TV occupies most of the parents’ time, kids are rooted to the computer monitors with all illusionary games shooting and kicking each other. I can hardly see the crowd for the functions at the temple. Today I curse myself for not capturing many of those events in our old camera. There I sit on the stairs of the Lord Krishna’s temple – staring on the empty street, longing to re-live those moments, to hear those joyous shouts, to continue with those petty fights – the moments that stay only as fading memories in my mind…

…to be continued...