Raghavendra Fest

Today is a very auspicious day for Hindus. This day marks the beginning of three day festivities in worshipping Raghavendra Swamiji, one of the most revered saints in the Maadhwaa sect. I'll write more about this when I get to my notebook. Thanks for reading my posts.

Onam

Today is celebrated as Onam by people across barriers in Kerala. This is the day on which king Mahaa Bali, grandson of Prahlaadhaa, the greatest devotee of Lord Narasimhaa, visits the region every day.

Billions of years back, according to Hindu Scriptures, Shree Hari descended on the earth in the form of a small Brahmin boy (known as Vaamana Avataar) and blessed king Mahaa Bali.

Onam greetings to all my friends from Kerala.

Vara Mahaa Lakshmi Vratham

Today is an auspicious day in the Hindu calender.  This day is celebrated as Vara Lakshmi Vratham. All spiritually inclined Hindus worship Divine Mother Shree Mahaa Lakshmi who is the consort of Shree Mahaa Vishnu, the Almighty.

I fondly remember my beloved mother who used to offer special worship to the Divine Mother on this day.

Mr Kofi Annan who passed away recently was not only a hard worker (like most Ghanaians) but also a good human being. I think that numerous people will remember him for years to come.

World Hindi Conference

World Hindi Conference is being held in Mauritius for 3 days from today. I wish that such events are held for Sanskrit also not only because it is the most anclient language but also most importantly because it is a divine language.

It was great joy in viewing Shree Bhupendra Bhai Pandyaji's Scriptural Discourse on Sanskar TV Channel this morning after a long time.

Birth centenary of Dr Nelson Mandela

It was a pleasure to view the Nelson Mandela birth centenary speech by Mr Barack Obama, former US President, in Johannesburg, on BBC World, today.

It is rare to come across inspirational leaders like Nelson Mandela, Rev Dr Martin Luther King and our own Mahatma Gandhi.

Sometimes these leaders are placed on par with self centred politicians . It is a well known fact that Martin Luther King and Nelson Mandela were proud to follow Gandhian principles unlike in the case of dubious politicians like K Kamaraj, former Chief Minister of Tamilnadu, who was believed to be a Gandhian, though it was an open secret that he could not resist the temptation of eating chicken curry even in public luncheons and was instrumental in oppressing people of certain castes in Tamilnadu, during his regime. His skewed grudge based policies were followed by other political parties as well resulting in nasty public administration governance permeating across all Tamil Nadu State Government regimes except that under the leadership of Dr MGR.

People centered Governance

While our Central Government seems to be doing well in many development areas, I think that it is high time that the Government should consider law and order as 1st priority. 

It is still common to hear criminals being acquitted, given bail etc with no valid reason. This is obviously because of corrupt police officers and judges (Though honest officers are there in Police and Judiciary, there contribution is overshadowed by others). It is very high time that corrupt officials in Police and Judiciary are given very severe punishment including irreversible life imprisonment or death penalty.

Similarly, criminal friendly advocates who defend criminals in our courts of law should also be given very severe punishment. If they are merely banned from practising their profession, they can still influence and mislead the judiciary processes in the wrong manner. If I remember it correctly, many years back Ram Jethmalani, a senior advocate in the Supreme Court, defended the person who assassinated our former Prime Minister Indira Gandhi. I think that this Ram Jethmalani was also made a Minister in former BJP regime/s a few times.

Any advocate who defends criminals or people who go against dhaarmic principles (law) should be accorded irreversible life imprisonment or death penalty. Once this happens, lawyers will also be cautious not to practice in the wrong way.   

Yesterday there was a TV news report that the Tamil Nadu Government is going to release life imprisonment convicts on a day of national importance (the date of which I don't remember). Due to some problem my TV doesn't work since this afternoon (though this has nothing to do with payment as I am always prompt in payments and I have paid to TATA SKY for a year's connection). Hence I can't find the date and occasion on which these criminals will be released.  

All of us Indians know that this is not the first time that such a thing happens. I think that such moves are very bad as these criminals will continue their evil works after they get released. I think that our Governments and political parties should not be allowed to do any thing that they like for selfish reasons if their wrong action can cause problems to common folk.

People of my age may remember that in Tamil Nadu, it was only during the time duration when Mr MGR's was the chief minister that such wrong actions were not taken and that during DMK regime such actions were common. 

Nearly three months back I had mentioned that my cousin (my maternal aunt's son) Shreedhar was recovering from an illness after discharge from the hospital. Nearly two months back, he passed away. I fondly remember him.