Milestones in recent history

Today is a very important day in recent history of Bhaarath, our great country, as the birth anniversary of Gandhiji. 

I nostalgically remember my boyhood days when this day used to celeberated by all communities. 

I also remember my memorable visit to Gandhiji's Phoenix Aashram when I was working in Southern Africa in late 1980s and early 1990s. The Ashram was set up by Gandhiji.

It is odd that our successive Governments have not used his views on Basic Education in our School Systems properly.

Today is also the birth anniversary of Shree Lal Bahadur Shastriji, another great leader that our Bhaarath had.

All TV Channels in our country telecast programs about Gandhiji. One such was Amrita TV. In today's episode of 'Sandhya Deepam', the charismatic anchor explained how Gandhiji used the revered Bhagavath Geethaa in his own life.

Screenshot of today's 'Sandhya Deepam'

Shree Krishnam Vandhe Jagadh Gurum🙏 

Travelogue

It was pleasure viewing a travel program featuring Ireland on travelXP. I have had a special liking for Ireland as it is a relatively peaceful country unlike it's neighbour Northern Ireland. This country is the birth place of many poets, novelists and dramatists. This country's classical dancing traditions are immensely interesting as depicted in movies such as Titanic in which the hero, played by Leonardo, is a youngster from rural Ireland. 

I remember viewing this movie in Mahesh Reddy's house on a sunny afternoon in Chittoor in 1998. Mahesh Reddy was the CEO of Camford English Schools.

I joined their Senior School as Principal the next day. Chittoor has always had a special place in my heart as my birth place. My maternal grandparents were settled there.

Many formerr US Presidents including J F Kennedy and Bill Clinton are said to be from Irish ancestry.

teavelXP TV Channel is an informative channel. Still, I don't like many of their shows that show half nude women and men. Such shows need to be banned.

Ancestral worship

Day before yesterday, I performed ancestral worship of my beloved parents and brother. As I mentioned in day before yesterday's post, worship is performed not only to ancestors but also to all others who passed away including relatives, friends and acquaintances. 

Although my beloved sister too passed away, according to Sanaathana Dharmaa Scriptures, I can begin performing the ritual for her only after one year goes by after her demise. In my next year's ritual I intend adding her and Naagamani maausee  (my beloved mother's elder sister) and Shree Balaji Rao (her husband). I like and respect them. My maternal aunt and her husband were very good, unlike other relatives of that generation. 

Shree Krishnam Vandhe Jagadh Gurum🙏 

Google's birthday

According to Google Doodle in Google , Info, Google celebrates it's birthday. As all of us know, Google has brought in numerous benefits to us. It has helped in many areas including Education.

Ancestral worship

Today is a very auspicious day in the Sanaathana Dharmaa Calender. It begins the 15 days long Mahaalaya Paksha. Ancestors, relatives and friends who have passed away are worshipped with specific spiritual rituals during this period. I performed the ritual for my beloved parents and beloved brother this morning.

My beloved parents 

My beloved brother 

En route the venue where I performed the rirual, I spotted a beautiful peacock as shown in the following photo amidst green plants:

Peacock is of special significance to Indians. It is our national bird. It is a vaahanaa of Shree Kaarthikeyaa, one of the sons of Lord Rudhraa. Most importantly, it is close to Lord Shree Krishna.

Lord Shree Krishna 

Shree Krishnam Vandhe Jagadh Gurum🙏 

Message from my niece

A few minutes ago Reshma, my niece (my beloved sister's younger daughter) sent a few photoes when Harish, her cousin (her paternal uncle's son) visited her family. Let me share the photoes as follows:

L to R: Baby Agasthyaa (Reshma's baby boy), Reshma, Harish and Murali (My sister's husband)

L to R: Satheesh (Reshma's husband) and others mentioned in the previous photo

Reshma and Satheesh work as Electronics and Communication Engineer and Mechanical Engineer turned IT Engineer respectively. I think that Harish works as an Engineer and is settled in the US. He is married to a caucasian girl and they have a son.

Toyota Corolla

As I am typing this post, I am viewing an interesting TV documentary 'INSIDE TOYOTA'.

Screenshot from the doc

Screenshot from the doc 

As a self driving car owner and driver who had driven my favourite Toyota Corolla 1.3 L for a few years when I was working in Southern Africa, I had first hand experiences with my indispensable car. When I returned to India, I liked to bring my car with me. But unfortunately Government of India had fixed 300% customs duty for any car new or used. Hence as it was not economically feasible, I sold my car in Southern Africa itself and bought a locally manufactured car after return from Southern Africa. 

I and my car in 1990

I and my car 1987

I still miss my Toyota Corolla. 

Shree Rudhra Paarvathi Fest

Tomorrow is a very auspicious in the Sanaathana Dharmaa Calender. Devotees perform Uma Maheswara Vratham on this day and offer special worship to Shree Rudhraa and His wife Shree Paarvathee.

Shree Paarvathee sametha Shree Rudradeva anthargatha Shree Lakshmi Narasimhaa🙏

Shree Paarvathee sametha Shree Rudradeva anthargatha Shree Lakshmi Naaraayanaa🙏

Shree Paarvathee sametha Shree Rudhraa Devaa🙏

Jai Shree Lakshmi Naaraayanaa🙏

Multicultural melting pot

This morning I had the opportunity of viewing two interesting documentary shows: One on DW TV and the other on Aljazeera TV. Both feaured multiculturalism. I tried to provide a link to the DW documentary in this post, but in vain; it was not listed even in DWTV'S 'Latest Episodes' and was not available on Utube.

The Aljazeera doc featured Africans and Indians recruited to work as slaves in sugar plantations in the Carribean. Despite the hardships that these people faced, Indians managed to preserve their cultural and traditions. 

Viewing the two documentaries was somewhat like reading a novel by Mark Twain.

I think that our youngsters should be guided to view such serials so that they can appreciate the values handed down by ancestors and follow them to this day.

Tigray in turbulence

This morning I heard a news report that violence has erupted again in Tigray region in Ethiopia. 

I nostalgically remember a few weeks of my stay in Makelle, capital town of Tigrai, along with my fellow country folks from India; we were teachers recruited to teach different subjects in Ethiopian Government Senior Secondary Schools. I remember our visits to restaurants, shopping centres and cinema halls that showed popular Hindi language movies from our country. 

I particularly remember one evening when I and Sebastian (Sebastian Perumcheril John), my Malayaalee colleague from Keralam, had our dinner at Abraha Castle, a castle turned restaurant. The gravy was vegetarian and made of green leaves. It was delicious. There was my favourite 'makkiatho' (strong coffee with milk).

I wish that peace returns to the region as early as possible.