Happy New Year-2013

Have a nice day!

Wish you and your family a very Happy and Prosperous New Year!

P Shanmuga Vel


SOAR BEYOND YOUR FEARS!!!

Once there was a king who received a gift of two magnificent falcons from
Arabia. They were peregrine falcons, the most beautiful birds he had ever
seen. He gave the precious birds to his head falconer to be trained.

Months passed and one day the head falconer informed the king that though
one of the falcons was flying majestically, soaring high in the sky, the
other bird had not moved from its branch since the day it had arrived.

The king summoned healers and sorcerers from all the land to tend to the
falcon, but no one could make the bird fly. He presented the task to the
member of his court, but the next day, the king saw through the palace
window that the bird had still not moved from its perch. Having tried
everything else, the king thought to himself, "May be I need someone more
familiar with the countryside to understand the nature of this problem." So
he cried out to his court, "Go and get a farmer."

In the morning, the king was thrilled to see the falcon soaring high above
the palace gardens. He said to his court, "Bring me the doer of this
miracle."

The court quickly located the farmer, who came and stood before the king.
The king asked him, "How did you make the falcon fly?"

With his head bowed, the farmer said to the king, " It was very easy, your
highness. I simply cut the branch where the bird was sitting."

We are all made to fly -- to realize our incredible potential as human
beings. But instead of doing that, we sit on our branches, clinging to the
things that are familiar to us. The possibilities are endless, but for most
of us, they remain undiscovered. We conform to the familiar, the
comfortable, the mundane. So for the most part, our lives are mediocre
instead of exciting, thrilling and fulfilling.

So let us learn to destroy the branch of fear we cling to and free
ourselves to the glory of flight.

-- From the Book "Why walk when you can fly"

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Sivakumaran - ICF

26.11.2009 - 2.59 AM
Dear Friends,
Our friend Sivakumaran's (ICF) Mother expired on 24.11.09 around noon
due to heart attack at their residence in Tirunagar, Madurai.
She was 77 and a retired headmistress of Sitalakshmi Girls Higher Secondary School, Tirunagar.

Myself, Tirurupathirajan, Veluchamy and Raja went to his house on 25.11.2009 for condolence on behalf of all our friends.

Let us all pray The Almighty for her soul rest in peace.....

Bye ...
Anand

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Don't Worry. . . .

There seems to have been some confusion about blog, website, contents,
who is responsible for what etc. Like any growing organisation has
growth pangs, we are going through one! Good news is that we are
growing but the bad newsis growing without any direction! This causes
lot of discomfort to many of us; we try to convey this in words but as
you all know words can be misinterpreted . . . .

All I am trying to say is: GET INVOLVED if you really seriously want to
keep this forum alive. Take initiative and contribute. Involvement
doesn't stop with sending some powerpoints or jokes once in a while. We
have to do a lot more than that. . . . Without this cooperation,
neither me, Tirupathy, Shanmuga vel nor Mega could sustain this. . .

I am also posting this in the blog. Please respond immediately whether
you want to keep this alive and if yes how do you propose to do this.

Regards
Ramasubramanian.V

I am closing this blog. .

Dear Friends,

As it has not proved to be a good and practical way of keeping in touch
for a majority of us, I am deleting this blog in about a week's time.
Some of the stuff will be moved to the new website being planned.

The Law Of The Garbage Truck

One day I hopped in a taxi and we took off for the airport. We were driving in the right lane when suddenly a black car jumped out of a parking space right in front of us.
My taxi driver slammed on his breaks, skidded, and missed the other car by just inches! The driver of the other car whipped his head around and started yelling at us. My taxi driver just smiled and waved at the guy. And I mean, he was really friendly.
So I asked, 'Why did you just do that? This guy almost ruined your car and sent us to the hospital!' This is when my taxi driver taught me what I now call, 'The Law of the Garbage Truck.'
He explained that many people are like garbage trucks. They run around full of garbage, full of frustration, full of anger, and full of disappointment. As their garbage piles up, they need a place to dump it and sometimes they'll dump it on you.
Don't take it personally. Just smile, wave, wish them well, and move on. Don't take their garbage and spread it to other people at work, at home or on the streets.
The bottom line is that successful people do not let garbage trucks take over their day. Life's too short to wake up in the morning with regrets, so..... 'Love the people who treat you right.. Pray for the ones who don't.'
Life is ten percent what you make it and ninety percent how you take it.

Have a nice day!
Rams.

Thoughts and Action from a friend

Dear Friends,
This is an email from a good friend of mine who doesnt stop with words - he acts in whatever way it is possible for him to. His house in Bangalore is not connected to grid - he runs the entire house on solar power.  People like him should be the role models for us and our children. . . .
Regards
Rams.

* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * ** * * * * * * * * * * * * *
Email from Mr.Chocklingam, Bangalore.

I have always felt strongly about the absence of social security in our country.
In spite of our government,  we still have the millions who go hungry because they do not have a chance.  They have given up their possessions for our factories, dams, highways and all else that make up our development, civilization etc.
Why aren't these displaced and those who were not placed to fend for themselves by birth, be given the basics?
In our history we have read about chatrams  where the traveler rests for the nights and the temple mandapams where the elderly and not so able rest during the heat of the day or stretch their tired legs for the night.
The temples and chatrams fed them too.
It is this, that charmed me, and left an immeasurable goodness deep inside me when I visited Shimoga, Sringeri and the Horanadu  Annapoorneshwari temple a few days back.
We stayed with a Brahmin Family in their ancestral house in their 17 acre farm.
They treated our taxi driver the same way that they did us; as Athithi (guest).
This driver ate with us and used the same toilet as we did.
We had our lunch at the Annapoorneshwari temple after the darshan and were struck by the fact that there were about 200 during darshan and about a thousand for the lunch.
One could see all kinds of people irrespective of community religion or class partaking food together.
We were served food not as charity but with care and supervision, with the three courses of sambar, rasam and majjige not to forget the payasam.
This is the tradition you find in Darmathala, Kadri, Udupi, Kollur, Sringeri etc.
This sounds magical to me because these are not sponsored by the Government but are community initiatives.
Why cant we do this  in our neighbourhoods?
My friend Shiv asked me if we mind doing it in a Madrasa for girls. Why not? Given the opportunity, We should grab it.
We have taken this forward in Coimbatore and Nachandupatti, where Sivanadian Chettiar was born, under the aegis of his trust.
The Coimbatore initiative is through a local temple where the daily prasadam is given in larger quantity as a start. It costs about Rs.300 per day.
In Nachandu patti the plan is to feed the elderly who are not able to cook a meal by themselves and hence the local "mess" is engaged to deliver the meals to the elderly at their homes every noon.  This will cost us about Rs.350 a day.

We have taken on a budget that we can afford and one could suit a plan to one's budget.
This could also be a collective initiative.
I would like this to happen in Bangalore as well with some help.

In these hard times when a lot of displacement and dislocation is taking place these efforts will go a long way in the lives of millions.  If a few hundred of us who have earned off this society can use this give-back-time, we can consider ours, a civilised society for being civil is to put the other person first in your considerations.

The Vedas ask us to consider following persons as father, 
One who has given  this jeeva (life),
One who has given Vidya (Knowledge),
One who has given the motivation or encouragement and
One who has given anna (food).

If one who has fed me is to be my father, then he cannot take money for that.
That is perhaps why we never had hotels in this country untill the British brought with themselves the Public houses and restaurants.

Best,
Chocku