Prof Lumumba's Africa

In today's  episode, Prof. Lumumba explained quoting several examples how colonisation robs ingenious culture and traditions of people. He mentioned a few famous African writers as well. One of them was Chinua Achebe, whose books are very popular in African countries. I have never come across any school library without books by Chinua Achebe, Wole Soyinka, Gebre Medhin Tsegaye etc. in Africa.

Illegal immigrants

There are lots of debates on illegal immigration to developing countries. 

Common perception seems to be that these illegal immigrants get punished. I think that they are punished for obvious reasons.

This evening, CNA TV Channel telecast an informative documentary that looked deeper into the issue. 

It showed an illegal immigrant from Punjab. His parents are in Punjab and seem to lead a comfortable life with no sign of poverty. Father of the immigrant, a middle aged man with seemingly good health and capable of doing some work and earn money for him and his family says that if his son is deported from the US, the family will be ruined. I think that this is totally unacceptable. Besides, the State Government of Punjab seems to be striving hard to improve the economic status of it's citizens.

I think that TV and other social media give an exaggerated view of issues.

Rudra Fest

Today is a very auspicious day in the Hindu Calender. This day is celebrated as Mahaa Shiva Raathree.

Lord Shiva (known also as Lord Rudraa) is a great devotee of Lord Shree Mahaa Vishnu. 

It is said that when Brahmins perform Deva Pooja (Pooja of Shaligraam Form of Shree Mahaa Vishnu), Lord Rudraa stands behind Him holding a bowl on his hand to collect the holy water that flows from Shree Mahaa Vishnu Shaaligraamam after bathing Him.

Before Lord Shree Raam set His foot on Shree Lanka in search of Seethaa Devi, he prayed to Lord Shree Rudraa at what is known as Raameshwaram.

Raameshwaram Temple:

Shree Rudra Devaa and His wife Paarvathee Devi:

Shree Mahaa Vishnu and His wife Shree Mahaa Lakshmi:

Jai Shree Lakshmi Naaraayanaa🙏

K-12 Tuition Industry

It is very common for parents to send their children to tuition classes after regular school hours in countries like ours. Singapore seems to be no exception. 

This evening CNA TV Channel telecast a very interesting evidence based documentary on the tuition industry in that country. 

Although I have never given tuition classes in spite of requests from parents during several years when I was a teacher, from my own experience as a student and as school principal, effective tuition classes are benefitial provided the fact that most of our k-12 schools have large classrooms with  ineffective teaching methods due to substandard school policies and teacher development programmes.

I think that our k-12 stake holders need to learn from such documentaries and do the needful to fix the bottlenecks in the regular school systems. Let me share the link to the documentary here.

Traditional identity

As a person born and brought up in India, I always identify with our culture and traditions although this identification gets a bit diluted when people like me leave the home country and work abroad for a few years. When they return home, their identification restores to the original level.

During my stay abroad in different countries, I have observed how people are interested in preserving their culture and traditions. 

This evening I bumped in to a TV documentary featuring a young Cambodian entrepreneur who runs a snacks manufacturing unit in Phnom Penh. She uses locally available vegetables and traditional tools in her work. She visits her parents and daughter who live in a village that is 250 km away from Phnom Penh regularly. 

I have come across a few people, including colleagues, like this woman in all countries in which I worked.

Let me share the  documentary here.

Kashyap Patel

News that Kashyap Patel won the Senate nomination as  US FBI Director signifies good step by Donald Trump and his respect for our great Indian culture and traditions. In his name, the term 'Kash', an abbreviation of 'Kashyap' means that his ancestors were descendants of Kashyapa Maharishi, whose is remembered as mentioned in Sandhyavandhanam, a daily Vedic ritual.

Donald Trump's team's Tulasi Gabbard is also a well known Shree Krishna devotee.

I wish that my beloved brother were alive to hear the news about Kash Panel's confirmation as US FBI's Director. My brother was a great devotee of Lord  Shree Krishna.

Jai Shree Krishnaa🙏.

Seethaa Jayanthi

Today is a very auspicious day in the Hindu Calender. This is the day on which Seethaa Devi appeared in a furrow as King Janakaa was ploughing his field as part of Vedic rituals. This day is celebrated as Seethaa Jayanthi.

Jai Shree Seethaa Devi sametha Shree Raam🙏.

All that glitters is not gold

This morning I tried to cook banana curry from the pre-sliced banana that I ordered from Big Basket. The cooked product looked nice as shown in the following image:

But when tasting, it proved somewhat otherwise, indicating that the slices should have been more softened, with a little more salt than what I had used. I hope that I get my cooking improved in my next attempt. 

In 1980s when I was working abroad, the day before I returned home for holidays, I used to phone my parents asking my mother to cook banana curry for me; she knew that it was my favorite side dish. I have never enjoyed the taste of this curry anywhere else. The best culinary expert besides my beloved mother was my maternal aunt by name 'Ahalya'. These two were the best cooks. 

Ofcourse food items cooked by mother is the best to any person.

Loneliness

NHK WORLD JAPAN TV Channel's 'Document 72 Hours' is one of my favourite programmes. This evening's episode of the programme featured regular customers in a restaurant. These people are from different walks of life with different experiences in life, but with one objective: Dining out to experience good company of fellow customers for some time, however small it may be.

Among the customers, there is an elderly man (probably of my age); he comes with his daughter regularly to dine out at the restaurant. He lost his wife a year ago. He says that he feels incredibly lonely. I understand how he feels, as I myself feel very lonely from the time my beloved brother passed away. I am unable to bear the mental pain of missing him. 

Customer at the restaurant. 

My beloved brother.

Theory of Karmaa

My beloved brother passed away last month. He was ill and suffered a lot during his last few months. My beloved mother became increasingly weak and underwent significant physical deterioration in her last few years. Both these people were very kind and good. They were also Shree Krishna devotees. 

Shree Krishnaa was an incarnation of Lord Shree Mahaa Vishnu.

We come across many good and kind people who suffer during their final weeks, months or years. I used to ask the following question to myself: "Why do good and kind people who are Lord Shree Krishna's devotees suffer physically during their last few weeks, months or years?". I think that this question arises in many of us.

A few days back, when I was listening to a divine discourse by a respected Maadhwaa spiritual leader on Utube, he mentioned that even if a person may be good, kind and a Shree Mahaa Vishnu devotee, he/she suffers due to sins committed during any of his/her previous seven births. He mentioned the very popular Karma concept.

Jai Shree Lakshmi Naaraayanaa🙏.