Avani Avittam

The relevance of this function as told by my grandfather-

Today is 'Avani Avittam'. This is a day when we recollect with reverence our great forefathers and teachers through their contributions to us. 'Upaneetha/Pooanl' change is done on this day. The poonal was perhaps orginally a chord carrying the identity in the form of the deer skin. A seven year old boy when left in the Gurukula may not be able to remember his clan or origin. The identity mark in the deer skin and the details in the 'Abhivadaye' ,the job of declaring his identity. Eventually the real purpose is forgotten and the thread remains. Yet it is occassionally good to recollect our lineage and continuity of the culture.

Election Time

This is the first time I am going to cast a vote....The coveted fundamental right which I was eying upon from the day I learnt it in my Social Science class in fourth standard....Yes,I did apply for my voter's ID..but thanks to a group of people,it went missing from the Panchayat Office..and I had to write a request..


The newspapers which had shown a redundancy of articles are now pregnant with really good write-ups... Many unknown facets of our politicians..And I was surprised to know that there is a better way of showing your dissent to all the demagogues of the Left and the hypocrites of the Right..you can just go to the election booth and publicly declare that you don't want to wont since you don't think there is anyone worth voting for. Sadly,I can't choose to be different this time since some of the candidates are good,whereas others worth giving a chance. Maybe I could give a thought about it during the state elections.


And I came across a particular write up(Courtesy-The New Indian Express) which mentioned about an INSEAD alumni who resigned her job from ABN-AMRO to contest the elections in South Mumbai. Off late I have realised that to give wings to your dreams,you must grow them first.
Education and experience is important to crate difference in the society. Otherwise one could identify himself/herself with the uncouth politicians whose myopic view has crippled the society's development. The movie Yuva/Ayudha Ezhuthu by Mani Ratnam has beautifully portrayed this aspect.


My abstention from the idiot box is snatching away the golden chances of watching the "Meet the Candidate" program.I want to watch it badly ever after I read the article mentioned about this program in almost every channel.

The count down has begun. The ruling government has forgotten the comedy and tragedy of errors it has committed and it is going gung-ho on the parody of the song-"Jai Ho". I am lazy to count the number of zero's in the figures related to their campaign expenditure...


But it doesn't cost me anything to be optimistic.

Savithri Vratham

Today was Savithri Vratham..its a little known festival celebrated by TamBrahms..It is celebrated on the first day of month of Meenam..
On this day,the legendary Sathyavan was detsined to die..Savitri,his devout wife prays to Lord Yama for her husbands dear life..
Details are here-http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Savitri_and_Satyavan
So on this day,married women pray for their husbands long life and young girls pray for their would-be husbands for long life..
And according to the story Savithri made a sweet dish,also called Nombu Ada to please Lord Yama.It is made out of powdered rice and jaggery. The dish is kept in a Vayana Leaf( a variety of spice) ,The women have it in the pooja room.They also tie a yellow thread around their necks to symbolise thaali(the sacred thread which the man ties around the woman's neck at the time of marriage.)

Tour!!

We had a great time in Chennai ,Kodaikanal and in the bus... In Chennai first we visited the software division of a company called Trane.There we were really surprised(and thus realized) that most of the software engg concepts were used in the company. We stayed at Amma's Asram in Vadapalani.While traveling I was wonder struck to see many big institutes like IIT,Anna University and also companies like IGate,TCS etc..On the road we saw staff buses..and really wanted to be in it...the next day we went to egmore museum..i would say it was the best museum i ever visited...well maintained..and it had not just statues and coins of chera,chola,pandya etc....it had a very big building for botany and zoology..and a bunch of bio students like me were pretty excited when we saw the preserved and stuffed animals..also the gr8 collection of plants..and we turned nostalgic when we saw the taxonomic classifications...and when we remembered dat we had tried hard during our 11th and 12th std to remember them....there was a big skeleton of a whale in a room..dats when i realised dat whale was indeed the largest mammal...it is as long as our ground floor lab..and also saw some rare animals like platypus,flying squirrel etc..and it had also a section for fishes..and butterflies...and there was more surprise in store for me..a building full of sculptures and paintings...beautiful ones..by Raja Ravi Varma and other gr8 painters.... and they were really good...luckily our HOD had gr8 interest in photography..he had an SLR camera(i don't no wat dat means except dat it is very costly and sophisticated)..so he took really good photos..one section dealt wid da impact of nature in engg..for example the structure of many leaves has been used to construct gr8 buildings..then we went to spencers mall..of course..the ultimate teen(+2.i no its not fair to call ourselves teens nemore)..hangout...had our food from the food court..the shops symbolized the consumerism in our society...den we went to marina beach and had gr8 fun..the next day we saw a cleaner part of Tamil Nadu in Mahabalipuram.The rock temples and cave temples were really beautiful.They had historical relevance.But we didn't bother about that and went on to take photos.Then we went to Pondicherry.It was very rainy but somehow we managed to reach Auroville.We saw a presentation about the Auroville.It was a different concept.A concept of "Vasudhaiva Kudumbakam".They said they were building a city which would symbolise this concept.Then we were off to Kodaikanal.The uphill drive made many of my friends nauseate but finally we reached our destination.It was so cold and it was very rainy too.Our coordinators who were really good had arranged for a cosy cottage for all of us..The first day we visited really beautiful tourist spots like the Plaar Rock,Guna caves ,Suicide point etc..That night was really eventful.We had a get together in the conference hall since the heavy rains had soiled our plans to have a campfire.The teachers said they were really happy with our coordination and some of the students became really sentimental(The fast track team:-))Then we sang songs and did a little bit of dancing.After having a buffet we started talking about the great time we had in our college realising that they would never come back.The next day we did trekking for about 6 kms to and fro..crossing water falls..finding out spectacular view points..even though it was raining..Then we went to a lake..Actually I didn't even bother to find out its name,because we were busy cycling around the lake..It was really good..Me and my friends did about 10kms cycling..That was exhausting but made me feel that I did something..Then we went back to our cottage,packed dour bags and had a candle lit dinner (cos there was power-cut!!)..and then the worst part..the journey back..but still we did enjoy trying to forget certain realities..One by one my friends started to get down at their destinations..since i got down at the college,i bid good-bye to all my friends who got down at ekm and kymklm...The tour was really good and it left many everlasting memories..Next year I would probably thinking about this tour and will be missing my friends a lot

Amma's Kripa

The three best days in my life..the days when I realized that it makes me happier when I help the needy than when I help myself...I had decided to stay back at the college to be a part of Amma's birthday celebrations.Not because I did not get a chance to d o that before,but for three years I was more conscious of my aims and my efforts.I never thought that spending a day helping others would create a difference in my life.My best friends also decided to stay back because like me they too did not want to 'miss the fun'(a term used by teenagers)..I was told by one of my classmates that he had asked Amma for permission to conduct a refreshment stall during her birthday so that we could donate the profit to the victims of the Bihar floods.Amma had agreed and so we started to discuss what to do.We thought of selling lemon juice and tea."The maximum we as students can do" was my mentality.And we were pretty excited about it.So 2 days before the birthday,when most of my friends were bidding good bye to go home and enjoy their holidays,we started our preparations.It was really nice to see everyone,including my teachers running around to make the place ready for the birthday girl!!Teachers who forget their qualifications,their position,their power ..everything just to do their little bit for Amma...We started off on 25th of September.The most important thing was the setting up of the stall..Of course ,the boys did the lion's share while we were just doing the trivial work.They brought cartons of oil packets,soap,cool drinks and things like that.We had a set of dedicated teachers to direct us.Murali sir from CCR, Shivanandji from our Physics department and Prashantji who were with us throughout our venture.By 6 o clock we had a very special guest.None other than Amrita Atamananda Swamiji fondly known as Rao Swami.He was our first customer by buying a bottle of mineral water. He was very happy with our stall. We had kept Amma's photo in the stall. So Swamiji lit the lamp and prayed for Amma's blessings. The customers started coming one by one mostly to get soap,towels and things like that. Jnanamritananda Swami came with
Bijuji to our stall to see how things were going. We were shocked when he said he expected a turnover of 1 lakh. We were planning to make some 3kRs and here swamiji was asking us to do proper entrepreneurial activity!!!We came back the next day with our spirits high. Our group leaders assigned us the duties and this time I was assigned the clothes section.So my story will be regarding the clothes stall.I guess my friends will tell you about the canteen..So then a few T-shirts,Shirts,Dhothis etc were brought to the stall from Amma's textile showroom in Amritapuri.I was wondering whether people who had come for Amma's birthday would have time to come and select clothes.Quite unexpectedly people started to come to our stall. The first ever customer was a student from Amma's college who had not taken any clothes with him . So he bought a few T-shirts from the stall and both the customer and the salespeople where happy :-)..Actually the number of clothes we had started to diminish and I had to go to Amma's shop.There the ever smiling Ashok Achan was asking me to take more and more clothes with him.I was skeptical about it.But he said-"If Amma's Kripa(grace ) is there with us,trust me child,all of these clothes will be sold off".I believed,rather ,had to believe because I believe in Her Grace.Amma's Kripa was there because I myself handled so many 500 rs notes that day(for the first time in my life).Me and my friends were busy convincing people to buy clothes while the canteen too was buzzing with activity.People running around selling bottles of mineral water,Tropicana and Frooti.We stayed throughout the night. Actually I met a lot of people. You know,people who had hard-earned the money just to come all the way to Amritapuri to see Amma..They just had the money for traveling to and fro.They were looking longingly looking at the clothes and I found my heart melting at the sight of their faces. Actually I reduced the prices for some of them. Amma taught me how to understand the needs for the poor,and not just 'sympathize' but to 'empathize' with them. Amma's birthday was like a dream birthday. The birthday girl was happy but she was also taking care that proper discipline was maintained!!While the Darshan was going on I found myself selling more and more clothes and visiting the textile shop to get more and more clothes(Ashok Achan was giving me a 'I told u so' smile)!!Oh yes,it was a good training ground for my marketing skills too..Convincing people to buy something and stopping them from bargaining and at the same time not losing them was not that easy...A few customers actually congratulated us for our efforts and our tactics in marketing. We were doing business throughout the day and night.Occassionally I would get tired but then when I saw Amma smiling(unlike me) and hugging her children with so much affection,somehow I would regain my energy.And I was surprised when people were still ready to buy our clothes when we were packing up.And then our leader Sabari closed the account and updated all the record.he came and told us that we had sold clothes worth 30k rs.We were surprised.
AND THE BEST PART WAS.......When we actually got to see AMMA to hand over the money!!!!!!!!I told her that Her Grace helped me to sell these many clothes..She started laughing and she turned to others and said-"See,my daughter has started selling clothes.Lekshmi(i believe she must be one of her disciples) used to sell clothes before....I am very happy with you children...You have shown others that you can do anything to help others regardless of your education...Let the world start emulating you..Amma is very happy"............I dont think I need to explain my feelings..right?