Been some time

Belated Birthday wishes to Jyotsna.
I have been quiet for a while now. I normally check the blog from office (luckily that is still not blocked from the satyam network). Every time, I check in a rush with the intention of posting my replies/wishes later. Sometimes, the number of people I am supposed to wish just piles up and I end up missing wishing them at all. So, please excuse me if I have missed anybody's birthdays/anniversaries.
We have just a day more left of the year 2008. So, wishing everybody a very very happy and prosperous New Year.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY JYOTHSNA

Best wishes ( sorry, I am late by a day ) to Jyothsna. Wishing her all the best and many happy returns,
Ramu Sarada

Happy birthday, Jyotsna!

                       Best wishes to Jyotsna on her birthday, 29 December.  Many happy                                                                              returns!

                                                   Vimala and Jayaraman

FROM RAMU

1. Jayaramanna, that Cabinet Formation is really nice. Where from!
In this also, south is completely ignored like the cricket team! So a reshuffle will come soon after election.
Ramu

Suggestions for Cabinet formation

A 'Punny' Suggestion

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Salman Khan for Prime Minister Yeah, what's the harm in that? MGR was cut-out to rule TN. Jayalalitha loomed large after him. NTR introduced Rama Rajya in AP much before the BJP coined the phrase. Now Chiranjeevi has jumped into the action. Govinda has been MP No. 1. Jaya Prada, Shatrughan Sinha, Dharmendra… The list is endless. So why not go all the way and get Salmaan Khan to rule the country. Here is a speech that he could use while campaigning. Deer Voter, I stand before you with open arms and bare chest to seek your vote. We have heard enough about Rama Rajya. What I promise you is Drama Rajya. You will all get enough Khan-a and peena. And plenty of gaana too. In order to improve the ratings of Lok Sabha TV, I will put together the most attractive council of ministers ever. I, Salman, will personally look after finance. I promise to sternly punish income tax evasion. There will be no black-bucks in this country. My friend Shahrukh will take over the home ministry. He will ensure that there are no riots. No hate. Only love. Love. Regardless of age, caste, religion or er…gender. He will ensure peace. There will be Home-Shanti- Home. Sunjay Dutt will handle the defence portfolio. He is an opinionated fellow, so he'll never sit on de-fence. I will also confer on him the TADAsaheb Phalke award. He will ensure that we are always armed and ready. Dharmendra will take over animal welfare. He has promised to drink the khoon of any kamina who harms a kuttha. And to take good care of all soovar ke baccheys. Aishwarya Rai, will be the minister for environment. No one can doubt her love for trees. She will ban weeding, and encourage wedding. Foreign affairs will be handled by Neena Gupta. She has a Viv-id perspective in this area. Rakhi Sawant will be put in charge of rural development. She has constantly worked for the upliftment of the masses. The health portfolio will be handled by Saif Ali Khan. He has promised to examine potato chips and pronounce them as completely Saif. You might wonder why Amitabh has not been mentioned so far. That is because the Big B will be my nomination for the President of India. To ensure that Raj Thackeray will allow him to return to Mumbai after his term, Amitabhji has requested that be referred to not as Rasthtrapati but as Maharashtrapati. With this star-studded council of ministers, I promise you a lot of action. Every village will get lights and every villager a plot. We will open a dialogue with Pakistan. Our industries will improve their production. And the country will have some direction. Vote for me. Together we Khan. Note: If some of the connections are not readily seen please click the links,- e.g. "Foreign Affairs", "Upliftment of the masses" . If you don't like puns you need not read this.

 

FROM RAMU

1. Very interesting to read both PCRK`s and PCJ`s posts about birth and rebirth. Some points mentioned were running through in my mind when I expressed that next birth as a bird may be better. I have full faith in Dharma . I used to get many doubts about the dos and donts. So, I used to think that best way is to blindly follow what our elders have taught us and what our parents used to do.
I am not able to express anything more eventhough so many points are there in my mind, mainly because I find it difficult to express in words!!
2. Welcome Aishwarya to the blog.
3. PCRKs will be Chennai from tomorrow for a month and I hope we make a couple of visits to Adyar.
Ramu

Birth and rebirth

Ramu's and Ramakrishnan's posts will make us all think about what our role is in this birth.  It is only the rare soul who has some idea of his earlier avatars.  Such people become subjects of study for parapsychologists.  All that we can do is have total faith in dharma and live according to our conscience.  The Gita (as we are learning from Velukkudi Krishnan's talks)  tells us of the different ways by which  one can realise the Supreme Being.  The simplest is karma yoga, provided it is practised without thinking of its fruits.  But religion itself has become a great bone of contention, producing hatred and violence.  How great it would be if all religions would merge into one and every one becomes a citizen of the world! (Ramakrishnan should recall the famous essay on the last phrase, as it was part of his reading in college, if I remember aright.)

Maiden post

Perippa and all others,
Namaskarams. Thanks for such warm way of welcoming me into the blog. I hope to do my bit of contribution to this well-maintained blog gradually. As of now, I’m in the process of associating names with faces :) I know it’d take a good deal time but just hope to be a fast learner. Akila has promised to help me with that. Following the posts in here regularly will, perhaps, help me a bit more.
Aishwarya

Next Birth

My dear Ramu,
You are assuming that in the next birth, you will be born a man or woman. This subject is fascinating and I have got a lot of doubts. Actually, only man is capable of sinning or earning punyam. But they say that the actions of previous seven births will influence your next birth. So, how does one work for redemption. Most of the Mahaans and sages were destined even at birth to become such mahaans, how ? Many of them led unworthy lives early and suddenly God made them great sages. How to explain these things ?
For long, I have felt that what we may be taking with us to the next birth is a part of our knowledge, wisdom, feelings (vasanaas ) and I have thus tried to gain knowledge (which I would like to carry forward) and tried to have good positive thoughts always. I have not gained any knowledge worth mentioning but I have been able to generally have good thoughts and whenever the bad thoughts/emotions surfaced I have consciously tried to overcome them.
One more thing. It seems when a person dies, he is not born immediately. Several years may be spent as Pithrus or something, depending on your earlier Karma.
So, as I said, I have more questions in my mind but we have not reached the level where we can expect to get the answers. Be good and have faith. That is all we can do.
-Ramakrishnan.

Aishwarya's Mail Id

Perippa, Aishwarya's mail id is aishshankar@gmail.com.

Akila

FROM RAMU

Yes Jayaramanna. Even my school admission was quite simple. When I joined P.S.Secondary School in class 6 and also P.S.High School in class 8, I went alone. The Head Master asked father`s name and asked me to pay the fees.
Even when Koushik had to be brought from Hyderabad, for class 11 admission, I approached the Head Master of DAV School, Mogappair only once. After seeing Koushik`s marks he was given a seat.
As usual, this year also I saw a long long que in PSBB,K.K.Nagar, at 05.30 AM , for getting Application for LKG. Our neighbour was mentioning that if a parent is in Hindu, it is easy to get a seat in PSBB .
When I consider myself lucky, the thought that how I am going to face these things in my next birth, really scares me! Sometimes I even feel that it might be better to be a bird!!!!
Ramu

Welcome Aishwarya!

Akila,

Thanks a lot for introducing Aishwarya to the blog.  Please give me her e-mail ID so that I can send her an invitaton to sign up as a member.

When we were kids, joining school was so easy.  I do not remember Appa ever coming to any of the shools to get any of us admitted.  I think it was some one from his office (court) who would take us and just get us admitted.  Of course, times were very different.  The competition was not so severe and the choices were quite few.  Looking at the way school children live these days, I feel sorry that they are msising out on their childhood.

Jayaraman

FROM RAMU

1. Gayathri, your post about Usha manni is brief but very nice.
2. Sumanth wrote an entrance test in PSBB, TNagar on 20th for which Vidya had come. I think she has left this morning. The resuls will be announced on 07th Jan. Vidya will come with Sumanth by end Jan so that Sumanth can attend school till annual exams. Then she will go back and return when the school opens after vacation. Vidya was saying that it is 18 years since she left India! How daysfly!.
Ramu

A new follower

The last few posts have been extremely moving!!! Hmmm...

We now have a new follower to our blog in Aishwarya. I introduced her to our blog a few days back, before she left for Trichy to get back to work. She has been religiously reading all our posts from yesterday during her free time. She can now recognize some of our family members (of course, only by name) :)

Mohan has now moved into an apartment with one of his colleagues. Commute is still a problem though, as he has to take 2 buses to reach office. One of the main disadvantages of going to the US!! That's the update from my end for the day.

Akila

Memories...

..And so the day of memories is almost over. With appa & Charu calling me to tell me that today was her Shraddam, all I had to do was to take a little care not to eat 'pazhayadu'. All of you have memories, I have none. Thankfully I was too young....
But I have never, never felt that a mother was missing, because Saradamma has been just that & more - at every stage in my life.
Gayathri

Usha Manni

       Ramakrishnan's post about Usha Manni brings back to my mind the letter we received in Delhi telling us of her passing.  What a shock it was.  They were days when we depended on the post and telegrams for information.  Most middle class houses had no telephone either.  So we had had no inkling of the happengs in Madras and Appa's letter was a bolt from the blue.  Memories linger.

Jayaraman

FROM RAMU

1. Saw the post from PCRK about Usha manni`s thithi, and that it is 50 years now. I was 11 then. The place where Narayana Rao`s house and office are there now was a open ground then. I think even Madurai Mani Iyer`s house came up only later. We were playing cricket there.Naturally, those days come to my mind!
2. Jayaramanna, Bhairavi was good hearing.
Ramu

USHA

Today (20th Dec 2008) is the annual thithi of the demise of Usha, my first wife and Gayathri's mother (I am mentioning this for those who may have been too young at that time) . Gayathri was less than two years old then. By the English calendar the anniversary will come on 3rd January and it will mark 50 years after her demise.
-Ramakrishnan.

Ustad Barkat Ali Khan, Bhairavi, Rasake bhare tore naine

Barkat Ali was Bade Gulam Ali's brother and a singer of great merit. Here is a sample.

FROM RAMU

1. The first gift for Koushik`s wedding was from Brig.Kumar.He sent a very nice letter (as usual) with a cheque for Rs.501/-, ten days prior to the wedding.
2. Appu anna`s daughter Chithra and her husband Sriram called on us a week before marriage with a small gift.
3. There was a nice letter from Taappu anna.
4. Gopu ( Ramurthy mama`s son) sent a cheque for Rs.501/- with a nice letter.
5. Fortunately there are a very few gifts, probably because the marriage was in Trichy.One interesting gift is a cordless iron.
Aishwarya reported for duty in Trichy yesterday. She will come to Chennai by 28th to join here from 1st Jan.
Ramu