Nandhana Varusham - Tamizh Varusha Pirappu

Yes today is the first day of the tamil new year Nandhana.

இனிய தமிழ் புத்தாண்டு வாழ்த்துக்கள்

Is it necessary to take oath only on English new year?

No. So I have decided to reduce/quit anger whereever and whenever possible and be a calm person as far as possible.

Self motivation is the best tool in the world

All the Best Vinod!!!!!!! :-)

Kashmir to Kanyakumari (Kashmir mudhal Kumari varai)

One of my close friend Giri (Dr.T.V.Seshagiri) & Co is going to cycle the entire Kashmir to Kanyakumari stretch(3600 Kms) as part of Sanjeevini trust's awareness campaign. This cycling activity is to raise awareness about the health benefits of physical activity and sports and to raise awareness that simple lifestyle changes can have significant health benefits including prevention of heart disease, stroke, diabetes and kidney disease. They are planning to cover the entire stretch in about 35 days starting on 27th September 2011. Wow... big fete isn't it?

All the best Giri & Co to complete this huge task successfully.

Well, this event was planned a couple of years ago and I was also in the list of peoples who will be cycling. If not for the entire stretch, I had my own plans to do it at least for a couple of weeks. But now things have changed and I am travelling to India in August, so not possible to be in the group.

Will keep updating more about this trip of Giri & Co on my blog.

The Great Dividing Line of Success

The great dividing line between success and failure can be expressed in five words:
“I did not have time”
-Franklin Field

Coffee with Anu - Kamalhaasan (Deepavali Special)

After a long time we watched Coffee with Anu because the guest was Kamal. It was nicely presented and was different because the interview was mostly focussed on the young age Kamal. We all know he is an atheist, and he has publicaly given his opinions about the existince of God. On this interview towards the end the topic came on atheism and he was mentioning about Vinayakar chathurthi and further comments were strong enough to condemn. I know he has guts to talk on anything. But he should have thought for a second about the day this show will be telecased before answering this question and how this is going to affect the sentiments of the people. It is the producers and directors responsibility as well. They should have avoided these type of questions. It is not necessary that whenever Kamal is being inteviewd he has to be questioned on atheism. And the strange thing is I have not seen any objections from any section of people. Is it because that was Kamal's interview or is it because he has just mentioned on Hinduism?

கங்கா ஸ்நானம் ஆச்சா

தீபாவளி திருநாள்

அதிகாலை எழுந்து

நன்னீர் ஆடி

புத்தாடை உடுத்தி

தீபம் ஏற்றி

இனிப்பு பரிமாறி

பட்டாசு கொளுத்தி

கொண்டாடும் இன் நன்னாளில்

அனைவருக்கும் எங்கள் உள்ளம் கனிந்த தீபாவளி நல் வாழ்த்துகள்.

Navaratri (Golu) 2010

Our sixth Navaratri in Birmingham. (எங்க ஆத்து கொலு)

As usual this year also we had a great navaratri. As the photo explains, there were lots of new dolls(bommai) added to our golu (thanks to Raji atthai for sending those by post and thanks to the postal guys for handling the same with care). The hightlight for this year was two new sets of Dasavatharam, Narthana Krishnar, Veeraraghava perumal and a big kalyana set. This year Vedhika has grown big to understand as what is going on in the house and she was instumental in having a zoo.

It is just 40days after Veebha has delivered Vedanth, but she was decisive in having this year's golu as well in a grand manner. Vedhika was dressed up differently on each of the nine days with great enthusiasm. Veebha and Vedhika went to almost all our friends house to invite them.(எங்க ஆத்துல கொலு வெச்சுருகோம் , come and take vetla pak - Vedhika's version of personal invite). Vedhika did invite some of her classmates as well to this years golu.

All our friends visited our golu and Vedhika offered tamboolam to everyone who had visited and some nice gifts to the little ones.

Maama and Maami (Veebha's appa and amma) were with us this year and they really enjoyed Vedhika's dressups and our navaratri. All the guests were serverd with nine different sundals prepared by Maami on all the nine days.

Vedhika had a very busy day on this Vijayadasami. She has officialy started her Education(Akshabyasam by Maama at home),Classical Music (taught by Mrs.Vijayashree Sriram) and Bharathanatiyam (taught by Mrs.Smita Deshpande).

Once again Veebha and Vedhika has done it. Hope Vedanth joins
them in the coming years with right spirit.

Are we following things blindly?

Is it good to follow the traditions even if it does not suit us?

I do not think so... you should be happy about what you are doing in the day to day life... and if you think it is not going to bring something fruitful by doing so, stop doing it and start being practical. (i want to stress here that the traditions will not harm us in any way and i am not against traditionalism, but make sure that it helps you)

"please do not follow things blindly"

Most of us have adapted to the mordern world and doing all sort of mordern things available in the world, which is reality.

I want to stress here once more, I am not against follwoing rituals or the daily routine what we follow which is proven to be good... but I do not want to do something as mentioned in the below story.

A short story about blind followers.

A great Buddhist master had a cat, which was his true passion in life. So, during meditation classes, he kept the cat by his side in order to make the most of his company. One morning, the master who was already quite old – passed away. His most adept disciple took his place. As a tribute to the memory of their old instructor, the new master decided to allow the cat to continue attending the meditation classes.
Days passed, some disciples from the neighboring monasteries, traveling through those parts, discovered that, in one of the region’s most renowned temples, a cat took part in the meditation sessions. The story began to spread.
Some years passed. The cat died, but the students at the monastery were so used to its presence, they soon found another cat and trained it and made it sit with them during the meditation practices. Meanwhile, other temples began introducing cat in their meditation sessions. All started doing cat meditation, they believed the cat was truly responsible for the fame and excellence of their old teacher, and in doing so forgot that the old master was a fine instructor.
A generation passed, thesis was developed, which were even accepted by the academic community – that, cats have the ability to increase human concentration, and eliminate negative energy. And so, for a whole century, the cat was considered an essential part of Buddhist studies in that region.
Until a master appeared who was allergic to animal hair, and decided to remove the cat from his daily exercises with the students. There was a fierce negative reaction – but the master insisted. Since he was an excellent instructor, the students continued to make the same scholarly progress, in spite of the absence of the cat. Little by little, the monasteries, which were already tired of having to feed so many cats, began eliminating the cat from the classes. In twenty years time, new revolutionary theories began to appear, with very convincing titles such as “The Importance of Meditation without a Cat”. Another century passed, and the cat withdrew completely from the meditation rituals in that region.

Arrived in good condition.... but delayed by two days!!!!!!!!!!!!

Yes, the expected due date for Veebha to deliver the tummy baby(Vedhika calls so) was on 4th Sep 2010. But Veebha delived a gorgeous baby boy "Vedanth" on 6th september 2010 @ 7:03pm UK time. Stayed back in the Birmingham Heartlands Hospital for post delivery recovery and reached home on 8th Sep at around 7:30pm. Vedhika was too exited to recieve the baby. Punyojanam(formal naming cermony) held on 16th Sep and we have named him as Vedanth alias Rengarajan. We followed the same way of punyojanam as we have done for Vedhika. Ramesh mama family were present on that day to grace the occation. Now Vedhika is slowly stopped calling tummy baby and stated telling his name Vedanth. Our house is almost filled with guests everyday. I was on paternity leave for the first two weeks (will come to know on the salary day whether it is a paternity leave or LOP). So it was bit easy for me to drop and pick up Vedhika from school, she has started her Reception which is a full time school this september. Life is changing slowly as all three of us have to accomodate ourselves according to the new born. Toucwood, I have to say here Vedhika is cooperating a lot(atleast in the begining weeks). Maama and maami are tooooooo busy with the houehold. Think Veebha is now bit more experienced in handling the baby (i can feel that). And I am sure that she is happy expect for that pathiya sapadu. As per maami (including my amma, patti, kollu patti etc.,) the pathiya sapadu will give more strength to Veebha after three months of delivery. I am respecting that as they are following that for generations (fool proof and tested method) and definitely not going to end on the negative side.
Hope Veebha recovers quickly and start driving the Vauxhall Zafira car we have bought for her on 19th August.

Retirement and Philanthropy

When a person retires general human tendency is to claim all the money that needs to be settled by the organisation and come home with a big cheque to eat for the rest of his life. But this person decided to do something back to the organisation where he worked for his entire career with heart full of happiness. When I heard this news of philanthropy, I decided to register it here as this is definitely a motivating factor for me in many ways. "Installation of reverse osmosis water treatment plant for the entire college and hostel in around 1.5 lacs Indian rupees". He has made sure that it has become operational and water is being supplied to the college and hostel students in a weeks time. This does not stop here, he has adopted one student to fund for his/her studies in the same institution. And I am sure there are many more things that he is doing which I do not know. I am happy to say that he is none other than my father-in-law Mr R. Sridharan. A happily retired person from a techincal institution in Trichy.

He is here with us in UK now to spend his intital days of retirement.

ps: mama (as I call him), this post is not to propogate your philantropic activities, but just for our memories.

Internet (Good or Bad) – Communication made easy

Website, Email, Blog, Orkut, Facebook, Twitter etc... Today there are so many ways to express our feelings, thoughts, ideas what ever you call it. I just read an article in one of the websites (royal.pingdom.com) about the Internet numbers in 2009.

Some stats from that post

Email
90 trillion – The number of emails sent on the Internet in 2009.
247 billion – Average number of email messages per day.
1.4 billion – The number of email users worldwide.
100 million – New email users since the year before.
81% – The percentage of emails that were spam.
92% – Peak spam levels late in the year.
24% – Increase in spam since last year.
200 billion – The number of spam emails per day (assuming 81% are spam).

Websites
234 million – The number of websites as of December 2009.
47 million – Added websites in 2009.

Web servers
13.9% – The growth of Apache websites in 2009.
-22.1% – The growth of IIS websites in 2009.
35.0% – The growth of Google GFE websites in 2009.
384.4% – The growth of Nginx websites in 2009.
-72.4% – The growth of Lighttpd websites in 2009.

Domain names
81.8 million – .COM domain names at the end of 2009.
12.3 million – .NET domain names at the end of 2009.
7.8 million – .ORG domain names at the end of 2009.
76.3 million – The number of country code top-level domains (e.g. .CN, .UK, .DE, etc.).
187 million – The number of domain names across all top-level domains (October 2009).
8% – The increase in domain names since the year before.

Internet users
1.73 billion – Internet users worldwide (September 2009).
18% – Increase in Internet users since the previous year.
738,257,230 – Internet users in Asia.
418,029,796 – Internet users in Europe.
252,908,000 – Internet users in North America.
179,031,479 – Internet users in Latin America / Caribbean.
67,371,700 – Internet users in Africa.
57,425,046 – Internet users in the Middle East.
20,970,490 – Internet users in Oceania / Australia.

Social media
126 million – The number of blogs on the Internet (as tracked by BlogPulse).
84% – Percent of social network sites with more women than men.
27.3 million – Number of tweets on Twitter per day (November, 2009)
57% – Percentage of Twitter’s user base located in the United States.
4.25 million – People following @aplusk (Ashton Kutcher, Twitter’s most followed user).
350 million – People on Facebook.
50% – Percentage of Facebook users that log in every day.
500,000 – The number of active Facebook applications.

Images
4 billion – Photos hosted by Flickr (October 2009).
2.5 billion – Photos uploaded each month to Facebook.
30 billion – At the current rate, the number of photos uploaded to Facebook per year.

Videos
1 billion – The total number of videos YouTube serves in one day.
12.2 billion – Videos viewed per month on YouTube in the US (November 2009).
924 million – Videos viewed per month on Hulu in the US (November 2009).
182 – The number of online videos the average Internet user watches in a month (USA).
82% – Percentage of Internet users that view videos online (USA).
39.4% – YouTube online video market share (USA).
81.9% – Percentage of embedded videos on blogs that are YouTube videos.

Malicious software
148,000 – New zombie computers created per day (used in botnets for sending spam, etc.)
2.6 million – Amount of malicious code threats at the start of 2009 (viruses, trojans, etc.)
921,143 – The number of new malicious code signatures added by Symantec in Q4 2009.

Sanjeevini Cycling - Day 1

Mission – Cycling from Shirley to Lincoln (102 miles - 164 kms)

Days – 19-Sep-2009 & 20-Sep-2009

Hosts in Lincoln for Sanjeevini Trust – Dr.Ian and Dr.Rama

www.sanjeevinitrust.com

Cycling Team Members
Rahul Raghuraman – Enthusiastic and Energetic 22yr old
Dr.Shreeram Deshpande (Ram) – Orthopaedic surgeon, Mission Director
Dr.Seshagiri (Sesh or Giri) – Urologist, Trustee of Sanjeevini Trust.
Dr.Smita Deshpande – Surgeon, Trained & Casual Cyclist
Varun Deshpande – 13 year old, Young blood. What a spirit!!!!
Vinod Parthasarathy – Cycling for the first time in 15 years.

It was a casual chat with Giri on 12th of September at my home about the cycling event and the members who will be cycling to Lincoln. Suddenly I have a thought why should not I join the team. Had an immediate consultation with my motivator (who else? It is Veebha.) And go-ahead was a reply even without giving time for a second thought. I have a bike, but have not practiced; we thought we have another 5 days to practice. With full cheers I have informed Giri that I will be joining the team for the Lincoln cycling event.

Out of the five days we had before the event, I just cycled for 12 miles in two days. To be frank, I was a bit tensed on the day before. But still I was confident that I can do this task.

The day has come, 19th September 2009, a pleasant morning. The plan was myself and Giri join the rest of the team in Ram’s house at 8.00am. Veebha gave us a good breakfast with a nice coffee.

We started from home at 7.45 am in Giri’s Renault Espace by squeezing our bikes in the back of the car. Veebha and Ramya came down to say goodbye to us. On the way we pumped up air for our bikes in the near by petrol station. We were on time at Ram’s house. Smita’s mom (Latha Kartha) one of the support person for the cycling team welcomed us. Badri’s (the second support person for the team) car entered the compound in another 5 minutes time. Food for the day has been loaded in the support vehicle. (Unfortunately we did not take the photograph of the food box; you know it was soooo big).

Three cyclists Ram, Smita and Varun are from the same family. All the three walked out in a couple of minutes time with all their cycling gears in place. And finally Rahul the sixth cyclist arrived on his bike.

Now all set for the mission. With a quick photographic session the team started pedalling their bikes exactly at 8.55am. I still had the confidence that I am going to do it with the rest of the team members successfully. The team passed thru the Solihull town centre. 15 minutes passed, I just felt for a second that whether I have committed a mistake by volunteering to cycle till Lincoln, and immediately I said to myself “NO- I CAN DO IT”.

This is the first time I am using a geared cycle in my life, and I was struggling to understand initially what is going on with those gears (of course as a mechanical engineer I know how gears work and the purpose of gears). Still remember Ram keep on telling me to put my gears up to apply less effort to move forward. Technically he was right, but my legs did not understand what Ram told me.

There came a break at 9.15, in around 20 minutes of our start. Smita’s back tyre was flat. Ram quickly gave a call to the support team for a cycle pump. That was a bonus break for me to season myself. We started peddling again at 9.30 and cycled for around 10 miles and we stopped in a village pub at 10:15 for a quick break. To be frank I was OK. I gained more confidence as time passed. Again a quick photo session before starting from that point.

The map which we carried did not help and Ram has to take out his mobile to navigate us from thereon. Aunty and Badri were ahead of us in the support vehicle and were waiting in a calm place for us to feed us. At 11.45 we met but decided not to have lunch now and to cycle for another 1 hour before we stop again for lunch. We utilised the brake to have strawberries and some snacks, quickly we shot some snaps. I think this was the distance Ram and Smita would have expected Varun to cycle. But I did not see any tiredness in Varun’s face. We refilled our water bottles and started pedalling again.

As time passed by, I can feel that my legs slowly reduced its speed to cope up with others. I reduced my gears, this time Rahul pushed me to increase my gears and put up the speed. Wherever you find some berries, fruits, vegetables on the way, there was one person from our team to pluck those and share it with others. Yes it was Smita. Around 1.30 Aunty and Badri were waiting for us in a very calm place alongside the road to boost our energy (what else… it is our lunch time). We were ready to eat anything that’s offered to us. But to our surprise we had Bread and chenna masala for vegetarians and Bread with chicken masala for non-vegetarians, finally to finish with we had some great strawberries. Seriously I wanted to sleep after having my lunch. But our mission director has already started looking at the directions for the rest of the day in his blackberry. Gave a quick update to Veebha about the morning session and about our lunch. More than me she was worried whether I will be able to do this task, because she very well knows how fit I am.

The team had a brisk start after 40 minutes of lunch break. The team had some quick drinks break every one hour or so and rest of the afternoon went on peacefully. Every one of us other than Rahul carried water bottle with us. But Rahul carried his back bag all along the route (should weigh at least 5kgs). It has couple of water bottles, biscuits, some fruits etc., as time passed by my cycling speed reduced; Now Giri has an excuse to pedal slowly. Ram, Smita, Rahul and Varun had gone ahead a mile and were waiting on a left. Oh Yeah! There was a sign board which pointed to say “East Leak” 1 ½ miles, the destination for the first day. We did not miss to take a photograph on this left turn. After half a mile there was a huge downhill, was happily cycling, suddenly something came in my mind, oh no I have to climb the hill back again tomorrow morning, but that thinking subsided quickly because we have reached the destination for the day.

We had a quick photo session to complete the day’s cycling. Aunty did not forget to send the photos taken on the evening to send it to Veebha and Ramya from her iphone. It is time for Badri and Aunty to head back home. We unloaded our luggages’ from Badri’s car and said goodbye to them for the day.

Sheeba’s Bed and Breakfast.
A man in his late 60s, Mr.Barry was the owner of the B&B. He welcomed us and we had a quick introduction with him and right from the beginning he was keen in enquiring about the cycling trip and about Sanjeevini. Our initial plan was the team will split and stay in two B&Bs, but Barry decided to accommodate us in the same B&B with some additional beds in place.

Almost everyone needed a shower before the dinner. We decided to go out for dinner, Smita has already enquired about the nearest available restaurants. There was a church just opposite to the B&B. The clock stuck 7.00 when we started walking. We zeroed in an Indian restaurant and fortunately there were places to sit as soon as we entered. Varun entered the restaurant after confirming whether burger and pizzas are available there. Rahul joined us in the restaurant after finishing in pint of beer in the Lions Head pub.

We had some nice chat about the days cycling before the food arrived. In 20 minutes time the food were on the table. Giri, Smita and Rahul shared the vegetable supreme pizza, Varun was with his burger, Ram with his roti and chicken curry and myself with roti and tadka dal (one of my favourite).

Barry was cooking his dinner when we came back to Sheeba’s, Ram was taking some suggestions from him about the route we have to take the next morning. During the course of conversation Barry has offered some huge discount on our tariff and has offered GPB20 towards Sanjeevini as his contribution.

Back on the room, I was watching x-factor, Rahul was reading some book, and Giri was working on the PowerPoint presentation for the next day. Had a quick chat about the day with Veebha on phone and enquired about the first day of Navaratri. I do not know at what time I slept (definitely before 10pm). I heard church clock chiming every hour right from early morning 3’o clock.

contd.....

Sanjeevini - Cycling Day 2

At 6.30am we woke up and had a quick shower. I was fresh enough for the days cycling. I think I had a good sleep overnight. Everyone was present in the breakfast table at 8.00am. We had a good chat in the table while having the hot breakfast with coffee made by Mr.Barry. In the mean time the support team is back with the car. Badri did not forget to ask us whether we need to check the tyre pressure of our bikes. We loaded the bags back in the car and took a couple of snaps with Mr.Barry before we said good bye to him.

The team did not forget to do some stretch exercises (not much) before starting. At 9.00am we started pedalling for the day. Fortunately we started in the opposite direction of the way we came (I was happy that we have avoided the uphill to start with) on the previous day. First hour passed happily without much strain. I have recharged myself physically and mentally overnight for today’s cycling. Time passed by, we took a right turn to enter a village, and we saw an uphill there, I thought I am going to walk in that stretch, finally decided to follow Rahul as he leads us in any uphill. Got thru that and was amazed to see another uphill which is steeper than the previous one. I decided to put my gears down to the lowest and move up slowly. As usual Rahul was there on the top even before I started pedalling. Suddenly we saw Rahul running down just to encourage us pedal fast. Next to reach the top were Ram and Giri, followed by Smita. Varun managed to reach the top with his full efforts. Finally there comes Vinod to the top (you would have watched Mr.Bean pedalling very fast and moving very slowly in the movies. Exactly the same thing happened there with me cycling to the top. Ram did see Mr.Bean in me at that point of time). This was the steepest uphill till now. We stopped there for a couple of minutes to take rest. There were around 50 cyclists passed us at that time in the hill without much effort, at that point I thought why we have to do regular workouts to keep myself fit. Smita took some photographs of the team and we started to move on. Things were pretty cool after that.

The actual route is to go thru A45 for 21 miles which is a busy stretch with single carriage way (it is called expressway), so we were advised to avoid that road as far as possible. Initially we have to cross thru that road for around 2 miles in the morning. We were so close to the vehicles and I remember somebody hitting Giri with a bunch of paper from the car which is a major distraction for any cyclist. We had our first stop in a petrol station to refill our water bottles. We have requested Badri and Aunty to come to the petrol station. Varun decided give some rest to his bike and to his legs and took a break from the cycling team and joined the support team. I think that was quite a long drinks break for us than expected. Utilised the time to speak to Veebha for a quick update on the teams progress.

Now the team have decided to avoid the A45 for the remaining distance and to take a different route with some additional 8 miles for the day. We took a cycling route to Newark for 14 miles. In between we stopped for lunch at round 1.45pm. Ram’s mobile as well needed some food (charge) from Badri’s car as the mobile as the key member in our team which is helping us navigating to Lincoln. We were so hungry and again it was a feast for the lunch. Chicken biriyani prepared by aunty for non-vegetarians and puliyodharai and curd rice prepared by Badri for vegetarians. We literally sat on the road (since that was a cycling route not much of a traffic) to have our lunch. Every time we meet Badri, he did not miss to encourage us and about the speed we progress.

Post lunch was very nice to cycle. Had another 28 miles to complete the mission. All the roads were very calm and we crossed couple of villages, Rahul and Ram were heading the show, followed by Smita, Giri and myself. Most of the places we cycled were green and it was pleasant as well. Climate did understand our problems and it was fine thru out the day for cycling. As time passed by whenever there is an uphill, I struggled to climb that. Other than that things were pretty good.

We have another 18 miles to complete the mission. Dr.Raghuraman and Krishna joined us on their car which was a second support vehicle. There was another photo session in Dr.Raghu’s digital SLR. Next hour was quite good, especially the roads we crossed during the hour was too good. There was one stretch of a road which was covered by trees on both the sides for about one and half miles. Now there was a slight confusion in the route we have to take. Ram browsed thru his navigator to finalize the final route for the destination which is 10 miles away now. Our hero Varun is back on track again in his bike to cover the final distance.

After a quick break we started to pedal again. We can see sign boards now saying Lincoln. Everyone was happy. Just before entering the town we had another quick break in the near by petrol station to refill our water bottles, another 5 miles to go. The team was just waiting to reach the destination, so we started quickly and were crossing the town centre. We saw a beautiful city on the top of a small mountain. Myself and Giri were talking about Drs.Ian and Rama should not have bought their house in the hill, but unfortunately their house was in the top of the hill, by now you guys would have guessed how difficult it was for me to pedal that last mile. The team was waiting in a roundabout for me and Giri. I remember we took the third exit in the roundabout and we heard loud applause on the other side of the road, yes there were people standing across the road giving us a warm welcome. HURRAY!!!! WE DID IT.

We had a good number of audience to receive us and for the charity evening. After having a quick shower we were introduced to the guests by Dr.Rama. Giri made a quick and crisp presentation about Sanjeevini and what we expect from the audience for Sanjeevini. There was a question session as well in the end of the presentation. Dinner started at 7.45pm and the team really enjoyed every moment of the evening.

Thanks Rama and Ian for the excellent evening.

It has been unanimously decided that the Hero of the entire trip was Varun. He has almost cycled 80 miles. “Good Job Varun – Keep It Up”
I would like to thank personally the entire team which encouraged me for the full two days to complete the cycling without any glitch.

Thank you Giri. But for Giri I would have never thought of doing some work for a Charity. Thank you Ashok and Radhika. But for you guys I would have never met Giri.

The team reached back Shirley at 10pm. Badri drove Ram’s family and Raghu drove us back home. I have to underline here and say without the help of Aunty and Badri the trip would have not completed so easily. “Thank you both of you”.

And it is time to drive back home from Ram’s house in Giri’s Espace. When we reached home, there was a surprise waiting for us. Veebha baked a cake in star shape to mark the completion of the cycling event with Hanuman (Sanjeevini Logo) made by Ramya in it.

And finally thank you Veebha for everything, without your support and encouragement definitely I would not have completed this UPHILL task.

Navaratri (Golu) - 2009

This year's navaratri (Golu) celebration is no way less than last year. As the picture explains the traditional Golu arragnement with park, perumal kovil theppakulam etc. has proved Veebha's devotion for the culture yet again.

I have to mention about Vedhika's involvement and enjoyment this year. She really understood what is going on in the house and started enjoying the festival. All the nine days she has been dressed in different costumes and she herself personally invited friends (enga aathula big golu omachi vachirukom..aathuku vaango) to take tamboolam.

Oh Yes... I enjoyed the sundal on all the 9 days.

Veebha and Vedhika.... Keep up the good work.

Is Quitting Difficult?

Is Quitting Difficult?

My mind says "NO".

So I have decided to quit "ANGER".

Controlling Anger - A Self Help Guide

Graduation Ceremony

Yes! Vedhika has graduated on 17th July 2009, at the age of three and half……She has completed her Preschool.

I was surprised when I first saw the invitation from her “OUR LADY OF THE WAYSIDE PRE-SCHOOL”. Yes it was an invitation to attend the graduation ceremony on 17th of July 2009.

The ceremony started at around 10:00am. There was a small introduction by Ann Marie, the head teacher about the ceremony. All the kids marched into the ceremony hall with hundreds of flashes on them. They assembled on the dais with the help of their teachers. Vedhika was right at the centre in the first row, sitting next to her friend Anupama.

On the command from the Head Teacher/Program Conductor the kids started singing rhymes (specially trained). A pianoist was in place to synchronize the kids who were singing on their own rhythm. Vedhika even bypassed the pianoist and was singing rhymes louder on her own (nice to see and hear).

The teachers distributed the hats (traditional black hats for the ceremony) to all the kids. Veebha helped Vedhika to wear the hat with full resistance from Vedhika’s “Rettai Kudumi”. It was fun to see that. Kids were proud and they received their certificate, mentioning their successful completion of their Pre-School.

What next…. Photo Session. Yes, we struggled a lot to take one good photograph of Vedhika with here hat in place and certificate on her hand. Myself and Veebha managed to take a snap with the newly graduated girl after some promises (what else... chocolates after the photo session).

Lunch Time.
Parents were asked to bring some sandwiches/snacks/sausages etc for the gathered parents and kids for the lunch. Veebha managed to do some bread pizza (of course with the help of Vinod… just kidding) in the morning. Vedhika took her mom’s help (identify the Veggie items) to choose her lunch from the arranged buffet. I have to mention here about the appreciation Veebha got for her bread pizza. Every one who ate the dish praised her for the perfection and the taste.

Raffles tickets were sold. Veebha spent a couple of pounds in that and as usual she did not get any prize. But she was happy and proud enough (I am not exaggerating) to leave the compound with her proud daughter who had her graduation some time before.

Hats off to the “OUR LADY OF THE WAYSIDE PRE-SCHOOL” teachers team who have arranged for this programme. Vedhika gave all the teachers a greeting card with her name printed on it (with the help of her amma) and did not forget to take a photograph with all the teachers.

And we too personally thanked all the teachers individually for all the knowledge Vedhika has gained from the preschool. We are really thankful to one and all as we have only good memories as far as Vedhika’s time in the preschool is concerned.

Vedhika has to wait another two months before she start her nursery in the Blossom Field Infant School (Big Akka School as far as Vedhika is concerned).

*It would be nice if the “Traditional Hat Toss” was included in preschool graduation ceremony schedule.

Dsestination - Happiness

Are we running behind money for happiness?

If happiness reaches you with the help of money, apparels etc... no doubt you are in the wrong path to the destination.

If happiness reaches you with the help of love, affection etc... no doubt you are in the right path to the destination.

Better late than never.... If you think you are in the wrong path, change it immedietely. You will feel the difference.

Podungama votu...

Please vote for “Vedhika & Veebha” and make them win this competition. http://www.naarisakhi.com/contest.php

என் முதல் தமிழ் பதிப்பு

என் நீண்ட நாள் ஆசை, தமிழ் தட்டச்சு பயிர்சி பெற வெண்டும் என்பது. அது இயலவில்லை (முயர்சிக்கவில்லை என்று சொல்லலாம்). கனிப்பொறியின் துனையால் இன்று அது சாத்தியமனது.

இந்த தமிழ் புத்தாண்டில் என் முதல் தமிழ் வலைபதிவை வெளியிடுவதில் மிகுந்த மகிழ்ச்சி அடைகிறேன்.

அனைவருக்கும் இனிய தமிழ் புத்தாண்டு வாழ்த்துக்கள்.

Happy Birthday Veebha

Yes. Veebha is 25 today. Solihull News(a local news paper circulated on a weekly basis in the place we live) has covered her birthday on their home page...WOW.Really nice isin't.

WISH U A VERY HAPPY BIRTHDAY VEEBHA.

Is this correct?

Pic Source : ibnlive.com

This happens after the 60th Republic Day.

News: Former President R.Venkatraman Dies

It is very sad to see how our media is responding and prioritising the news. This screen shot was taken from the news site immediately after they published the news. Our Former President R.Venkatraman dies at the age of 98 is not given priority(shown to your right without photograph) and the issue related to the award not given by the President is in the top(with photograph).

The same website was giving minute by minute update of the swearing in ceremony of the American President. I just took picture from one of the website and to my surprise most of the top news websites were in the same category. I think this should change.

Hope you guys agree with me...