Today is the death anniversary of  Gandhiji.  

Purandara Daasa

Yesterday was an auspicious day for Vishnu devotees who follow Dwaitaa School of Hindu Philosophy. It was the aaraadhanaa day of Saint Purandara Daasa.

Past Monday and today were historically important dates to Indians. These two days were celebrated as birth anniversary of Netaji Subash Chandra Bose and 68th anniversary of Republic Day..

In my posts written this month, I mentioned about Jose (a friend who was my colleague in Bhutan way back in the late '70s) and my first cousins Madhu (Madhusudhan Rao) and Shreedhar. 

Jose

Jose with President of Maldives

Madhu

Shreedhar

Madhu is a retired Bank Manager settled in Bangalore. Shreedhar works at a Bank in Andhra Pradesh. Jose worked as School Principal in Maldives and at Senior levels in Kenya. He now teaches English in a college in Rajamundry, Andhra Pradesh.

Thyaagaraajaa Music Fest

Past Tuesday was a very important day to devotees of Shri Raam, an Avataar of Shree Mahaa Vishnu. This day was celebrated as aaraadhanaa day of Thyaagarajaa, Saint, Composer, Musician and more importantly a great devotee of Lord Shree Raam and Seethaa Devi, the divine couple.

Swamy Vivekananda

12 January was the birth anniversary of Swami Vivekananda.

Sankraanthi Fest

In India, Hindu people in states such as Tamilnadu, Andhra Pradesh, Assam and Punjab offer special worship to Sun God and celebrate 3 days (13 to 15 January) to mark the end of rice harvesting season. More importantly they celebrate it as anniversary of several important incidents as mentioned in Hindu scriptures. I'll write about them when I find time. 

Software, sensibility and Shreedhar

We all know that sharing messages and media has become very easy with WhatsApp and that it is also misused like other technology backed social media tools. But fortunately as in other media platforms, there are exceptions in WhatsApp too. As I have mentioned in my posts earlier, effects of these tools depends on the user.

I and two of my first cousins share greetings with each other somewhat regularly. These two guys viz. Madhusudhan Rao (Madhu) and Shreedhar are sons of my late maternal aunt who was very straight-forward and non-gossipy like my mother (for which reasons some people didn't like the two ladies).

It is amazing that Shreedhar finds time in early mornings before going to a bank for work to select very nice `Good Morning’ pictures and videos. Many of the pics centre round simple and meaningful themes and are very rich in quality (colour contrast, background etc etc). Following is one such picture sent by him, thanks to Shreedhar and WhatsApp: 

Vaikunta Ekaadashi

Yesterday was a very auspicious day for most people who worship Shree Lakshmi Naarayanaa. The day, which comes annually, is known as `Vaikunta Ekaadashi'. Devotees of Lord Lakshmi Naaraayana celebrate it today according to their traditions.

Shree Lakshmi Naaraayanaa

Post production problem

In general, we all take pride in what we produce (such as a good book, a meaningful painting etc). It is human nature. But it doesn't work positively in the toilet particularly so in apartments where toilets face each other. I don't understand why some people don't flush their toilets immediately after every time they defecate. I think that it will be nice if we humans can use our ability to reason (that does not exist in other animals) properly.     

A few days back, there was a news item on TV that the former pension chief got arrested in South Korea on charges of corruption. The culprit was handcuffed and taken to prison. (In 1981, nearly 150 school teachers from India were recruited to work in Government schools in Ethiopia. Sebastian (Sebastian Perumcheril John) and I were posted to Endaselassie, a remote village. On the first day, when we locked our rooms as we left for school, our local colleagues were surprised. They told us that none in the village locked their doors as there was no security problem at all. They said that police always kept guard in civilian dress all the time and if they saw any one indulging in crime, they would punish the person severely. This kept people away from indulging in crimes).

R to L: Sebastian and I with a colleague's daughter in front of our rooms

I think that such a form of punishment should be followed in our country, whoever is the culprit. The punishment should be severe enough that none would dare even to imagine going against law and order.