My Musings

We went to Vaithisvaran Koil on 27th Oct 2011. This is our FIFTH visit since 2007. I, Vijaya, Arun, Ashok, Neeraja, Arvind, Sowmya, Aditi, and Sriram left house at 7 AM in a call taxi for Egmore. Gayathri and Krithika couldn't come.The train (Cholan Express) left at 0820 AM. Ashok had booked our tickets in 3 AC both ways and the travel was a pleasure.  Earlier, Vijaya, Krithika, Neeraja had prepared Idli, Lemon rice, and Thayir Saatham for our trip. We ate these on the way, and reached V-Koil by 2 PM. I had booked three rooms at Balambikai Lodge (500.00 per.) After refreshing ourselves, we went to the temple and performed archanai to all the five Deities - Vinayakar, Swami, Ambal, Muthukumara swami, Angarakan. Returning to the lodge, we slept after a nice dinner. Next morning, on 28th, after bath etc, we again went to the Koil and worshipped Lord Vaithyanatha Swami. Lunch at 1000, and then we left for station. The train arrived by 11-30 AM and we reached Egmore by 6 PM. Aru...

We two left Chennai on Saturday, 29 Oct 2011, 1140 AM, for Bangalore. With Ashok, and Neeraja in their Ford Figo car. It was our first travel to Bangalore in car. It was a bit sunny and bright till we reached Kanchipuram junction (1-30PM); however, once we travelled 1 km ahead, it started pouring - very heavy rain, torrential. Rains continued, no abatement, till we reached Krishnagiri. We reached house at Bangalore by 7 PM. Car travel was most enjoyable. 30 Oct 2011 - Sunday We went to Meenakshi Mall, one km away from Ashok's house. A huge mall on 4 floors. Ashok purchased lots of things. 01 Nov 2011 - Tuesday. At 9 AM we left for City station from where we boarded the Shatabdi Express at 1100 for Mysore. Ramani also came with us. Read about our Mysore trip in detail in a seperate post. A marriage function was there in Mysore. On our way to Mysore in Shatabdi Express 02 Nov 2011 - Wednesday Attended the marriage at Mysore. Back in Bangalore by Mayiladuthurai Express 6-45...

Mr Gokulan of Mysore is a distant cousin of Vijaya and he and his wife Jayanti Gokulan invited us for the marriage of his son Barath Narayanan with Saumya d/o (late) Suryakumar of Pune. The marriage was at Mysore on 2 Nov 2011. Both he and the bride's side are related to Vijaya, so we decided to attend the marriage, though we haven't met Gokul at all. We went to Bangalore on 29th Oct with Ashok and from there we proceeded to Mysore on 1st Nov by Shatabdi express. Ramani also came with us. We reached the Kalyana mandapam by 1-30 in the afternoon after two hours travel. Indira and Lalitha had already reached from Chennai in the morning. A large number of relatives were present. Many of them we meet after a decade or two; some of them we met for the first time. The relation of Vijaya with these persons is ::: Vijaya's mother is ANNAPOORANI ==> Annapoorani's father is CHELLAPPA (grandfather of Vijaya). Chellappa's younger brother was NARAYANA IYER ==> Nara...

When we shifted to Karpagam Avenue six years ago in August 2005, i opened/transferred a PO account to Raja Annamalaipuram. From then on, for the past six years, myself and Vijaya used to visit this Post Office every month without fail. The post office was very near to our house,just 10-12 minutes walk. Even when we shifted to Besantnagar and then to Kalakshetra Avenue, we continued visiting the PO every month. I paid my telephone bills every month at this PO. Though the PO was a not a modern structure, its staff were efficient ( i have written a couple of blog-posts on this) and i got my jobs done very quickly. Yesterday i pre-closed the account (their interest rate is too low) and today i collected the cheque. Our association with Raja Annamalaipuram PO has thus come to an end after 6 years. We came out of the PO today with a heavy heart . Thank you all the staff at the PO. rajappa 12:50 noon 12-10-2011

We celebrate Kolu every year and this year(2011) was no exception. We started the preparations on 28th Sep when the slotted-angles and sheets were taken down from the attic and steps (படி) were erected. The dolls were also taken from the attic, dusted, and generally cleaned. This is the first KOLU in our new, own house at Kalakshetra Avenue.   With this step over, Krithika decorated the place and arranged the dolls. Arvind took care of serial lights. Thus the Kolu started this year. Guests started coming from the next day. Aditi was ecstatic and excited. 3 Oct 2011 Today we hired a driver and we two, Krithika, Aditi went to Ambattur first. We took the Chennai bypass road to reach their house. Then to Lalita-Kumar's house at Avadi. Lunch there. Then to Vadapalani (Jayaraman-Kalyani). On our way back, we went to Mrs Saveetha's house at Adyar. She is a close friend of Krithika. Back home after 8 hours' travel. 5 Oct 2011. Today is Saraswathi Poojai. We perfrormed it nic...

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...