My Musings

IMPORTANT WARNING AND CAUTION: Patients, feeble and weak hearted, those having high/low BP, and other sensitive persons are cautioned before reading further. Be forewarned. VACHATHI . A sleepy hamlet at the foothills of the Sitheri Hills about 12 kms from Harur, in Dharmapuri Dist of Tamilnadu. Inhabited by extremely poor, illliterate Adivasis. On June 20, 1992 (nineteen years ago) about 155 forest personnel and 108 policemen, and 6 revenue dept officials (a total of 269 personnel) swooped on this sleepy village and raided, searching for sandalwood, allegedly hidden by villagers. In the name of inquiry, villagers, mainly women, were dragged out of their homes and fields and assembled under a banyan tree where they were allegedly beaten up; then, they were bundled out to the Forest Ranger's Office in Harur where they were allegedly subjected to savage brutality. 18 women were picked randomly and were gang-raped. 103 women,including a pregnant one, were remanded to Salem Centr...

Appa's Sraththam - 2011 Appa's Thithi is Aavani, Sukla, Dwadasi. This year (2011) appa's thithi came on Thursday.  08 September. This is the second sraththam we perform at Kalakshetra avenue. Vijaya and I purchased all the items like grocery, vegetables, fruits, Vetrilai, pushpam, Vennai, and particularly Vazhai Ilai from around Thiruvanmiyur. This time too got the long variety of pudalangkaai. I purchased Vazhai Ilai from the road-side kadai near Reliance Fresh on 8th morning. Ilais were very expensive this time. Savithri came from Hosur on the previous evening and she, I and Vijaya cut all the vegetables. On 8th, all the three of us  got up by 5-30 in the morning and Vijaya and Savithri started work. Jayaraman, Kalyani, Purnima came by 7-15. Then Saroja, and later Sugavanam. Padma, Prakash, Rajeswari arrived by 10-30. Our regular sastrigal mama had told he wont be coming for the sraththam, so he deputed another sastrigal, Ramani by name from Mylapore. He came by...

This year's Vinayakar Chathurthi was on 01 September, Thursday. We celebrated the festival at our own house, 3 Kalakshetra Avenue. On the previous evening, Arvind and Krithika purchased the Poojai items including Pillaiyar idol. On 01st, we started decorating the poojai room. The idol was also decorated and kept ready for the poojai. Arvind and Krithika did all this, while Vijaya took care of Neivethyams and the meals. She prepared two types of Kozhukkattai (Thengai and Ellu), methu vadai, payasam. I started the poojai at 11-30. Arvind and aditi performed. It was over by 1PM. We had lunch, phoned many relatives re poojai. Sruti had come the previous evening and left after poojai. rajappa 11:40AM 02 Sept 2011

TR Venugopal is known to us since 1971 from our Poona days. He is now Senior Accounts officer at DMRL, Hyderabad. He performed the marriage of his daughter JANANI with Natarajan at Nanganallur Chennai on Sunday, 10th July 2011. Vijaya and I attended it. Venugopal on the right, his wife Saraswathi on the left We left house at 6-10 AM in Wagon-R and reached the Rama Mandiram Kalyana Mandapam at Nanganallur by 6-50. The Mandapam is just next to the Anjaneyar Koil. There we met my former colleagues at ERDL Cell, DRDL Hyd. Ganesan, Nair, Jagadeesan, Saibaba, Subba Reddy, Srinivasa Reddy, S Venugopala Murthy, Venkataramaiah, Ramakrishnaiah, Kaleeswaran, Mohan Rao, Rangarajan etc; they had come with their wives. Ganesan and his wife Gomathi with us NAIR (behind Vijaya) his daughter PREETHI (next to Vijaya) Preethi's husband (Airforce, Agra) is also seen. Venkataramaiah, Srinivas Reddy, Ramakrishnaiah, ME, SVG Murthy, his wife Vijaya, Saibaba's wife, Saibaba Ramalakshmi,...

We shifted to Thiruvanmiyur on 29th May 2011. Since then Vijaya and i are "exploring" the area. First, we went to Sri Marundeeswarar Koil which is about 10 minutes walk from our house. Then, i went to the local vegetable market. Nowadays i go to this market every other day morning to purchase vegetables and fruits. This market experience is totally different from what we had at Kilpauk, Raja Annamalaipuram, or Besantnagar. I won't call Thiruvanmiyur experience is the best but it is not bad either. On 19th June, we walked to see the Pambhan Kumaraguru Swamigal Koil, nearby. Then, yesterday, 5th July, we left house by 4-45PM and walked to Thiruvalluvar Nagar beach (Thiruvanmiyur beach.) It is 50 minutes walk, a long distance even for us ! The beach is quite nice; i had visited it four years ago and now it is totally revamped and good. We walked back to house. Earlier, on 1st July we went to Marina beach. What a difference between the two beaches! Today we went to Marund...

MOHAN, cousin of Vijaya, fixed the marriage of his son VINODH with ANUSHA at Madurai; he and his family came to our house to invite us. Earlier he had informed about the event and asked me to book tickets for GNY family. Accordingly, I booked nine tickets by Pandiyan Express of 27th June and return tickets by Pandiyan of 29th. Mohan - Thilaka We two left Chennai on 27th night for the marriage. Indira, Lalita-Kumar, Mohan, Akila-Raja-Jyotsna travelled with us. Ramani and Padma manni joined us at Madurai Jn on 28th morning. Janani came on 29th morning. The Group [Janani missing] At Madurai the marriage was at Brahmana Kalyana Mahal, SS Colony; we were put up in Hotel Aarathy, near Koodal Azhagar koil. It was about 5 km away but bride's father provided with a van. Mohan's brothers and sisters attended the function. The marriage was celebrated in a nice manner. Vinodh and Anusha became husband and wife. Vratham Jaana Vaasam Oonjal ANUSHA - VINODH We went to Koodal Azh...

Amma's Sraththam - 2011 We three brothers (Sugavanam, Jayaraman, and self) perform the sraththams of our parents every year at Chennai; our elder brother Sundaresan performs at Dapodi, Pune. Amma's Thithi is Aani, Krishna Paksham, Ashtami. This year (2011) amma's thithi came on Thursday, 23rd June. This is the first ever sraththam that we are performing at our OWN house (Flat F2, No 3, Kalakshetra Avenue, 2nd Street, Thiruvanmiyur, Chennai 41). All these years we were doing it in rented houses. Vijaya and I purchased the grocery items and Vaathiyar saamangal from Marthandam Stores, Lakshmipuram, Thiruvanmiyur. Varatti from a kadai near Marundeeswarar koil. A day before the thithi, we purchased all the vegetables, fruits incl vaazhaipazham from Thiruvanmiyur market. On 23rd morning I purchased Vaazhai Ilai and Pushpam from  North Mada Street Thiruvanmiyur. This year too I missed the Mylapore ambience. Except for blouse bits from Amudam Stores, we didn't do any...