St Patrick's day parade, Uptown Chralotte, 2005

St Patrick's day parade, Uptown Chralotte, 2005

St Patrick's day parade, Uptown Chralotte, 2005

St Patrick's day parade, Uptown Chralotte, 2005

At St Patrick's day parade.

"BHEEM BHEEM BHEEM BHEEM..." - thats how Srinidhi's favourite fire truck goes.

Back Home

At end of a busy day, after playing with Aditi during noon and K Srinidhi during evening, Appu and Amma relaxing. (The shirt is one year old, does not fit him anymore :).

K Srinidhi came over to play with S Srinidhi, March 11th.

Aditi and Srinidhi

Aditi came over to play with Srinidhi, March 11

At the park, March 10.

At the park, March 10.

At the park, March 10.

At the park, March 10.

Hoganakel

I am excited about our impending trip to India (April 2005). We will be celebrating Srinidhi's second birthday in India.

Last year when we went to India (May-June 2004), we traveled to Bangalore, Mysore, Ooty and Kerala. On the way to Bangalore, we spent a day at Hoganakel.

For those who don't know, Hoganekel is a waterfall in the river Kaveri in Tamil Nadu, Karnataka border. The river runs through a rocky plain for few miles and suddenly drops 50 to 100 feet in several branches. The river is probably a mile or so wide before it drops. Beautiful place to visit, provided there is enough water in the river when you visit.

Hoga in Kannada is smoke (in Tamil Poga); Kal is stone/rock. The fog from the fall makes it look like smoke from the rocks, so the name.

You have to ride the parisal (circular coracle) to view the falls up close and to the swimming area; costs Rs 100 (~$2) or so per person. You can get an excellent hour long oil massage for another Rs 100. Kids, you can also enjoy watching the countless monkeys on tree tops.

When you are on the parisal, you can see these teenage boys climbing the rocky sides with bare hands and feet to the top, probably 50 feet, and shouting from there asking you if they can jump for Rs 5! If you nod slightly or even if you hesitate, they jump in a fraction of a second, swim to your boat and plead for the money. It is amusing to most city dwellers who had never swam even in a standing body of water, let alone dive. Of course I felt bad for any kid having to do this to make money. But it is enterprising anyway, I only hope they go to school and do this only on free time and not get hurt. The jump was so quick and the parisal was moving in circle in the current, I wasn't able to click the jump.

See Hoganekel photos below.

Kaveri entering Tamil Nadu.

Another view.

One of the many branches.

All this for Rs 5!

Parisal trip.

Getting there.

Top of their game

Sashtiaapdapoorthi and SathAbhishEkam

Sashti - 60, aApda - years/life (as in Sagaptham), poorthi - completion.

There are 60 years in a Hindu Calendar cycle. Each year has a name. When some one reaches 60, they enter the second cycle. This is reason enough to celebrate, having learned, entering married life, raising children, having devoted to the service of God and setting an example to the family and society.

Since the husband is always older than wife, Sashtiaapdapoorthi is celebrated when the husband turns 60. Widowed or remarried do not usually celebrate.

The celebration is usually organized by children, younger siblings and grand children. In addition to various poojas, part of the wedding is reenacted. The couple that is celebrating Sashtiaapdapoorthi get blessings from elders who celebrated Sashtiaapdapoorthi. Then they bless anybody younger than 60.

I will write about SathAbhishEkam soon.

I have witnessed and got blessings in 3 Sashtiaapdapoorthis and 1 SathAbhishEkam. I incidentally came across these photos from my Periyappas Sashtiaapdapoorthi that happened at my house in Pattakkara Street, Mannarrgudi in eary 80s (must be 1981 or 1982, I will ask mother). I was 11 or 12 years old, I vivdly remember all the preparations, celebrations etc. Take a look at these photos, I will add more details soon since Srinidhi is calling me to play now.

Seer Varisai.

Abhishekam.

MangalaNaan.

Appa, Kannan, myself, Periyappa, Punitha, Periyamma, Amma and Karthy. Deepan not born yet.

At end of day, puppetry show. I will ask mother if it was Ramayanam or Harichandran Kathai or something else.

Units of time

From what I read, the Hindu cosmolgy has units for time measurement from the smallest (comparable to lifespan of some subatomic particles) to the largest (life cycle of the universe). The smallest unit is, 3x10^-8 (one 300 millionth of a) second. One of the longest is a day of Brahma, 8.5 Billion years. There are vedic texts that explain Brahma days, Brahma years and centuries and after how many Brahma centuries the universe is destroyed and recreated (once every 3.5 trillion human years). I am no way an expert in this, there are several websites with more details, this one for example: Hindu Cosmology.

 Mike said...

I have read a couple of books by Graham Hancock that suggest the Indian civilization is one of the most ancient civilizations in the world, and that parts of the vedic texts could date to over 10 thousand years old.

I think it is fascinating. I also think it is time that the europeans stop trying to act like they are the root of all humanity. :) (even tho I am european myself.)

The book I was reading is called Underworld by Graham Hancock.

March 09, 2005 2:18 PM

Sports

I am excited about
- Sania Mirza, first Indian to break into top 100 in women's tennis (she is 77)
- How well Indian Cricket team is doing in these opening days of Pakistan's tour of India

Last time I saw live cricket was India's tour of Australia and Pakistan in 2003. I subscribed to both series on the dish and we had lot of friends come over and had a 'cricket party' almost every night of play. I am not getting the cricket package this time; it costs $250 per tour and I will be in India anyway when the one day games start.

Bubble Bath

We asked Srinidhi couple of times in the past if he wanted bubble bath; he wasn't interested; it appeared he was scared of it. He suddenly got interested in it yesterday. Now he wants it every day!

 Anonymous said...

nice pic

March 09, 2005 9:05 AM

My Family

This is my (only) family picture, obviously I cherish this picture. It was taken on May 21, 1993, the day before I left for USA. My father was working 18 hour days, physical work, everyday of the week in spite of his Asthma and severe pain from his radiation and chemo therapies for cancer. He did that for more than a decade, with the only goal of educating his children. You can see the toll of that hard work on him.

My entire family, worked along with my father with the single goal of providing for my education. For which, I am eternally indebted. My sister and little brothers, helped my mother with the work, each and every day, when their peers were playing outside. I remember and cherish each and every moment; there is so much to share.

Even though, we all worked hard and had so little in terms of material, you won't believe how happy each and every one of us was. I can honestly say, I was much happier then, than I was when making $100,000 a year as a 26 year old in America, leaving family 1000s of miles away.

My father always believed in me, much more than I believed in myself. He knew I will achieve in academics and one day will go to America, even before I had the faintest idea how to or even if I will ever do it. This was the day his hard work was coming to fruition.

 EJ said...

This post made me cry..i remembered my own family and countless others that give all they have for the sake of their children. Your's is a great family and you are a worthy son..

August 11, 2009 6:52 PM

 Shan R Shanmuganathan said...

Thanks EJ. Our parents had set great examples we should try hard to emulate.
-- Shan

October 10, 2009 8:33 AM

Behind Sapphire, 1990

Such happy time, hard to explain it. REC, Trichy, behind Sapphire hostel, late 1990 or early 1991. Guess which one is me?

Others in picture: Kabali (Jeyasakthivel), Butta (Pankaj), Ramalingam, Gurumurthy, Sukumar & Srikanth.

Srinidhi on his rocking horse.

2s conference, Square Table not Round Table. Rithuvik, Srinidhi & Srinidhi (sounds like a law firm :).

Mannai Makkal

I came across this (interesting?), inactive MSN newsgroup, nostalgic Mannai Makkal. One article reads

"...

In 2000 Dec, after almost a gap of 16 yrs, I had been to Mannargudi (where no one of my close relatives live now, though). Tears came to my eyes when I saw the Meenakshi Amman temple so neglected and forlorn (somewhere near the fourth street -- neighbourhood of Third Street). In the early 1970s, the temple was the hub of so many activities, so much fun and frolic, so many devotees flocking...I literally cried. Inside the temple, it looked as if the Gods were crying too! The Kali Kovil nearby is also totally gone. The chariot -- Oh my God...it has crumbled beyond recognition. Weeds all over, and human and animal excreta everywhere.

The only thing that seemed familiar to me was the American Dental Hospital. I had some friends, who have all moved to different parts of the world. Everything from the past now looks so unreal, so much like a dream -- is this what is called 'maya'? Seemingly true, but then seems so unreal too...hmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm...."

Visit the site for more.

Srinidhi and Aditya having a fun evening.

Srinidhi with his first admission letter. He is going to UCUMC Weekday School coming school year (Sept 2005).

 Anonymous said...

Congrats SriNidhi.

Let this be your first step of success in your life.

With Love
Swami Mama

March 08, 2005 10:18 AM