Another year has gone by...

I know time just flies by but you kind of say "that" when you experience few things. This year I again asked Navayugam trust members if we can conduct drawing and essay writing competition like last year in the governement school in mugaliwakkam (closer to my house) and ofcourse it was an yes. The competition was schedule to happen on the same date we conduct last year 25th march. The only thing was it got bigger and better than last year.

There were more takers for drawing competition when compared to essay writing but the overall students number grew which was good. It was so nice to see a full hall packed with students with so much confidence that they are the won who is going to win. The titles were well thought thru suggested by the founder of the trust. Unlike last year where we had essay for 8th and 9th and drawing for 6th and 7th... This year we had both essay and drawing for both the groups...the topis were as follows:

Drawing: Magizhchi (Happiness) for 6th and 7th, Vanmurai (violence) for 8th and 9th. I was a bit skeptical about the topic vanmurai at the first but kicha (the founder of navayugam) told me that let's see what they think violence is. In the process of thinking what to draw for this subject they will surely realize deep down this is violence I should not indulge in it. It turned out to be so true the students had done a splendid job. Some of the visuals were as simple as scolding someone doing on the road without courtesy, communal violence, No big weapon is bigger than violence huamn beings do to each other, jalia wala bagh tragedy, libya war what not... the judges had a tough time deciding on the winners. Every piece of submission had a message which was worth remembering.

Magizhchi was like the topic turned out to be a happy experience... from a small boy playing with kite, a girl with flowers, UNO peace symbol and how people should live in harmony, a jungle scene, but the winner was an entry where the student had visualized 3 poor kids eating from from a banana leaf and a lady happily standing next to them. This drawing had a small write up... it said "when you feed poor and hungry kids you see happiness in their face and it doubles up the happiness in the face of the woman who served it" well written and in tamil. I was one of the judges for this competition.

Essay writing: 'Ketta pazhakangalum athai thavirpathum' (bad habits and how to avoid the) for 6th and 7th, 'Nandraga padipathu yepadi' (how to study well) for 8th and 9th class. This is the best part the first prize winner for 8th and 9th category was the same girl who won last time. Past event.

There were some freebies but unlike election free stuff these kids put their efforts wnich had to be recognized :) Essay writing students got a geomentry box and drawing students got art materials which they can take home after competition.

The 1st, 2nd, and 3 prizes were kitchen utensils... they will find a great value in these kids household. Apart from that all the first prize winners got a letter from the trust with a guarantee that their higher education will be sponsored once they comeplete their schooling. We also donated the school with 2 tables and a book rack.

What a day to rememeber. I was happy that amidst my selfish, self centric life style I was able to do this small thing that brought in a good feeling.




http://mathwho.blogspot.com/2010_04_20_archive.html

Tejas reading tamil alphabet book - funny video do watch

My Vege trip

Let me start by thanking my cousing arvind for sharing about one of my blog post in 2007 about being a non-vegetarian... feels funny to read that. Or rather I feel funny how I changed to a vegetarian from being a staunch non-vegetarian.

I have this little habit if I want something to happen which is a miraculous thing something like I need to get out of a bad situation or my son is unwell, and he has to be alright... I give up on something that is favorite to me for a certain period and that favorite thing that I can never give up is non-veg food. So for a month I stay off non-veg as a pay back when a good thing happens. But that 1 month will be a truly testing phase with treats lined up and me eating vege food.

True to the above said in april I wanted my sister to have a normal delivery since she had some issues with fibroids and quit non-veg until she delivered and yes it was a normal delivery... april and may month went by without non-veg and then came june while I was thinking of when to start eating non-veg (usually I don't think but this time I was thinking don't know why) I saw this extremely disturbing visuals of Tamil Eelam. People being burnt alive. But the immediate recall I had while seeing that visual is of a chicken being grilled... I was thinking to myself what an 'arakan' rajapakshe is but I was also doing the same killing. Just because we are human beings are our lives greater than that of animals and plants? definitely not.
I like to co-exist and not behave like a superior... like rajapakshe.

I have a problem I eat plants that have life... I don't have an answer for this. I asked a good friend who is a vegetarian he gave me this answer. Eating plants is also wrong they have life but you need to survive so can we just eat what it takes to survive and move on. Which was convincing to some extent.

Well I don't eat food to just survive I need the food to taste good also so I guess I still have a long way to go when it comes to surviving without hurting. probabaly that is why sages go to forest and survive in fruits which cause minimum damage to life... of course as long as he plants the seed of the fruit.

Foodie side of me

I am a total foodie... I used to be extremely finicky about food when I was young and my parents let me eat what I like. But during my pregnancy period out of compulsion I started taking vegetables and surprise! I really liked them. And specially when it is cooked by my mother.

My younger sister Shanmu has taken so much effort to make all the receipes available online for the entire family to access and the to rest of the world :)

Here's the URL http://www.ammakaipakkuvam.blogspot.com there are a lot of mouth watering receipes which includes my favorite vadagam chutney, Seppangizhangu (Colocasia) fry and more. Shanmu is updating this regularly... so try the receipe and enjoy.

Blood donor community in India

I came across this awesome initative 'friendstosupport.org' while I was looking at getting some blood donors for an open heart surgery for one of our family friend. This site has got details of blood donors which you can categorize by blood group, state, city, and further area. The url is http://www.friendstosupport.org do register if you are interested in becoming a volunteer.

Tejas teaching me maths

Tejas and his patriotism

On the independence day eve we happen to go to a kid's birthday party in Green park. There were a lot of events for kids that day. Tejas was interested in 2 of them. A magic show and Patriotic tatoo.

First is the Magician and Tejas:

Tejas was happily watching the show until the magician showed a magic and said to teju "This is a magical light I can see what you are doing at home: you are watching TV, eating chips always, fighting with amma" thatz it tejas was zapped. Look at his expression change in this video... he went on asking me how did he know all these things ma. That is how innocent kids are.




Next is Tejas getting his Tatoo done:

He sat and got a painting done on his hand and walked out proudly to answer some questions I asked... listen to the last answer on who he likes in India.

Simple jobs in chennai

I'm sure most of us come across this situation where our cook's brother will want a job, driver's sister will want a job, Office boy's friend wants a job... for all this and more I have launched a blogspot which showcases job openings that are put up in the job venue like a petrol bunk, beauty parlour, danger boards and other places that we cross... which gives details about jobs.

Here's is one place you can refer to when you want to let someone know about a job.

http://www.jobopeningschennai.blogspot.com/

Something I discovered about goverment postal services.

I have become pound wise :). These days I surely check for alternates before I jump into anything expensive. Recently I had to send a courier to Mauritius as always I was checking for lazy options to get it done... after calling up half the courier people in R.A.Puram I made a trip to the R.A.Puram Post office. You know the speed post to Mauritius costed me about Rs.460/- (12 gms) as agaist Rs.1600/- quoted by private couriers.

My colleague and I discussed why private is so expensive when compared to government. And we concluded private has a lot of facility like tracking document delivery, picking up from the venue and a lot of advertisement on why they are the best. But when I came back and checked the net, I was surprise there is an option in http://www.indiapost.gov.in/ which will help you track status of Speed Post. But the excitement din't last long becasue after entering my tracking code it showed a message saying no information on this tracking code available. But there was a phone number which was available to call up and ask the delivery status 044-22313282 (for international) and 040-23463922 (within India - phone number for other metros are also available). Which I called and was told my document had reached the destination.

Private companies promote even little things to market them. I think what government lacks is, one has search far and wide to find facilities. It would really help if information such as this are posted on the counter or printed along with the counter foil offered when we use their services.

Four generation together in a TV Show.

Recently me, my son and my father gave an interview in Kalaignar TV about my grand parents Kalaivanar NS Krishnan and T A Madhuram. My son Tejas sang Kalaivanar's song.
Watch it and enjoy.

Me and tejas


My Father

Bombay dreams

My cousin is getting married and will be relocating to mumbai soon. Tejas, my son was told about this. He never knew mumbai before this actually we said bombay. Mumabi is still bomaby for most of us in chennai I guess or atleast our entire clan refers to it as bombay. A week back when we had gone on a holiday to Coorg we took Tejas on a toy train ride... I asked him sounding like a co-passenger 'Hello sir, where are you going?' 'Bombay'. In the railway station 'I was pointing at a trian and said 'teju where is this train going?' 'Bombay'. 'Which place you want to go for next holiday?' 'Bombay'. Bombay is the next dream destination for tejas. The best part is this... I was driving back home from shopping with tejas and the traffic was bad.. 'I told him, baby the traffic is very bad today?' and he tells me 'Amma, lets go to bombay it is better there.' I learnt even small things sprinkle a world of imagination imagination in kids. Right?

Addition: There was one more last night. "I will go in rocket from earth, amma" "Where will you go Tejas?" "Bombay" ahh looks like there will be more conversation updates to this blog post until tejas goes to Bombay :)

The lesson that I learnt

A long pending blog story. On March 25th, 2010, I was a part of a community initiative organized by Navayugam (co-founded by my husband). It all started when the core founder of the trust and a good friend of mine, JK asked me if we can organize a competition in the Government school, near our house. Getting permission from the principal was quite easy since I knew her quite well. The plan was to organize drawing competition for class 6 and 7 and Tamil essay writing competition for class 8 and 9th. The topics were drawing 'How to avoid accidents' and essay 'Future India'. There was a very good response from the children and the event went on very well. The kids were damn excited about getting free materials I guess most kids participated because of that :). To see such good response was a feel good factor. After about an hour the competition got over and the prizes were distributed. The evening was totally memorable for me. Felt like I have done something worthwhile by co-ordinting the event. I decided to co-ordinate more such events.

In the essay writing category the first prize went to Deepalaskhmi of 8th standard. She lives near our house - their house is among 10 houses in one compund with just 1 room per house and a common bath room and toilet shared by all the tenants. She is a topper in her class. I was happy she won the first prize. While I was walking back home after the chit chat with the volunteers, principal, I walked past Deepa's house and I was shocked, she was casually catching up with her regular household work... washing vessels sitting amidst a huge heap of vessels in the front of their house. Well, maybe it is routine for her, just half an hour back she was the heroine of the day winning prizes (Cup, books, bags, water bag, etc). I felt a deep pain looking at her, if my son teju had even participated in some competition I would have felt so proud, if he had won a competition it would be even bigger calling people to share my happiness, followed by treats and buying gifts for him etc... But at deepa's household I'm sure her parents would have been happy but there ends the matter.

What an imbalance life offers to some children. Almost all the kids who study in that government school come from similar background or even lesser. There is this boy who comes with just one button in his shirt and totally torn shorts, most girls wear totally faded uniforms, no slippers in most cases, safety pins for shirts. But I should say with some conversations I have had with them they are ambititious.

I wish and hope to do more for them. And the lesson that I learnt is to be even more tonned down with Tejas.

FREE Cataract Surgery

Wanted to share this piece of information for a longtime now. The Sai Baba mission is sponsoring cataract surgery for poor people. Our cook told me this information. She had taken her sister for check up and got the surgery done in Agarwal for zero cost.

The sai baba prayer hall in thirumangalam conducts weekly health check-ups on all sundays. If you know someone who is not affluent and has cataract please ask them to visit the the premises on sunday (ask them to reach the place earlier it is a bit crowded otherwise). The doctors will check the condition of cataract and would send them to hospitals like Agarwal, Sankranethrala with date and time for the surgery fixed. On the specified date if the patient goes to the hospital they can have their surgery free of cost.

Here's the route map for the sai baba prayer hall

How some bitter things change over time

Bitter gourd. I used to wonder how someone actually thought this is an edible thing and started to consume it. When some people tell me they like bitter gourd I found that funny. 'Like bitter gourd??? what is there in it to like it?" I used to hate it truly. But off late I have this mouth watering liking for bitter gourd. This morning I was cooking bitter gourd and I couldn't resist it. In the pretense of checking for salt I kept eating it. And that triggered my thoughts on how and when I started to like this so much.

It all started with danesh (my husband) he is one of the bigest bitter gourd lovers I know. Though occassionally I have cooked BG (Bitter gourd is BG from now on) for him I won't even taste it. What is there to taste, by cooking it will become a better bitter but still bitter (sounds like the tongue twister eh?). When tejas was about 2 years he started eating BG and that surprised me. Only that minute I realised maybe there is something nice about the BG. Ventured into cooking BG with lot of oil, onions, tomato, all types of masalas to over rule the bitter taste and kind of liked it... and as days went by I reduced the masala bit, then tomatoes and then onions. Today I made this receipe which is just the BG and nothing else. And I'm loving it :). Now even I am a proud BG lover.

Moral: Bitter things in life may stay bitter for ever but I guess we should develop a taste for it. Be it Bitter gourd, people, work etc. :)

Here's the receipe I cooked this morning.

In a pan pour some ghee, saute cumin seeds and curry leaves. Add the bitter gourd to it (either as thin slices or cut to smaller pieces) after it is kind of cooked, add some salt and water and close it. Keep eating it... oops tasting it until it is fully cooked.

Now let me know if you have hated something before and started liking it now.

Smile you are on Candid camera

Enjoy this cute video.
Ensure your speaker is on before playing video

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5UUbgH5JM-k

Flash Back 2009
This post is an inspiration from 2 of my friends post suresh and krishna

Here are the things that are worth remembering that happened in 2009:

1. A new addition in the family. My sister Malar delivered a baby girl - Anjali pronounced as Anjelee like Angelina Jolie in the US :)

2. Tejas my sweet heart got into Omega the only school I shortlisted for him. I'm very happy about the school.

3. After a long time I found a best friend in Gayathri. My ex-colleague and friend.

4. Got over my mindset with Yoga and meditation. I never had great opinion about these two practices because of other reasons.

5. Broke my left arm and was off from work for about a month. This unexpected thing brought in a lot of change in my mindset, attitute and ego. I made me realize that I have the potential to be a better person :)

6. My younger sister and her husband had come down from UK and we had a ball of time.

7. Late night drives with my cousins (something that I was longing to do for quite sometime now)

8. Amma and Appa have gone to the US, every Indians dream destination :). And they are very excited about it.

9. Started going to guitar class but have put a pause to it because of my broken arm. Will resume soon.

10. Started to give importance to my health. If i know something is health I will eat it however it tastes :)

This year I have a new year resolution too: I read somewhere about reducing your carbon footprint. I think I going to work on reducing my carbon foot print.

New words tejas picks up

Teju takes you by surprise now and then. Whenever he hears a word he stores it and uses it in comepletely different situation. Yesterday when I went home teju was not around he had gone to my neighbour kid's birthday party. When he came home I gave him a good hug and kisses. tejas with a causal look tells me "Amma I'm a ordinary man, yenaku yenn kiss kudukareenga (why are you kissing me)" I was surprise... Ordinary man!!!. I din't know where he picked that up from. but I told him "Kanna you are an ordinary man but with extraordinary character" and I left it there. In th night I usually tell some stories to teju he wanted me to tell the story of the kamal movie we saw recenlty... I asked him what film "that movie ma where kamal says I'm an ordinary man" (Unnai pol oruvan - dialogue). Then I knew the root for this word :)

Tejas loves nature

My kutty Tejas is such a nature lover. He blends himself with nature whenever we go on short trips. Couple of weeks back we had gone to Erode. Our destination was Vallaeswara temple by the river cauvery. What a scenic place. Tejas and I headed to take bath in the river and we spotted a lot of snails on the way. Tejas happily kept counting the snails... after a full 2-3hours bath, reluctantly tejas and I headed towards the temple. This time the snails were missing. Teju asked me "Amma where are the snails" I said..."it is afternoon na they would have gone home for a nap" he gave me a jocular look and said "Ammmma, what are you saying, snails carry their home in the back ma" I was awestruck by his instant reply.... I guess he is showing signs of intelligence which I don't think I ever had as a 3 year old child.... well even as an adult I guess :)