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Showing posts from 2012

Review of 2 old books

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Hi pals,                   How are you feeling yourself post-Diwali? Ready to relax and unwind for the rest of the year? Have you all planned to be at resorts or any comfort places to energize those tired nerves? Anyway, advanced Happy Holidays!!                             Its been a little busy for sometime, still I've been planning this post for a long time. This time, it is an area which I've never ventured before- BOOK REVIEW!! I am not that good in writing detailed reviews, especially about books, as half of the details do not stay in my mind after I close a book. But, after reading two books recently, I felt compelled to write something about them. No, they are not the books launched recently, but the old ones. Nowadays, it has become a fashion to launch the book of the first timers in some five-star hotels or famous book shops. If we open our newspapers, we can see some news item in detail about a maiden book launch of  the Indian authors. This will make us feel that

Lighting the Lamp

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Hi friends,                   I am back after a pause for more than a month wanting to write something on the eve of Diwali. Diwali is a festival of lights, victory of good over evil, welcoming Goddess Lakshmi and so on. What do families do during Diwali? Make or buy goodies, new clothes, light the lamps, and of course, no Diwali is ever complete without bursting those tons of fire crackers.                                           When we burst these crackers along with our families, how many of us will remember that a fire accident took place in Sivakasi fireworks factory just two months back? Almost every year, some fire accident takes place in that factory which burns some human lives. This time, more of onlookers were involved in the accident. These people rushed into the factory thinking that an explosion had taken place and wanting to save their kith & kin. Nevertheless, it is again another blot and a grim reminder of another tragedy relating to fireworks in Sivakasi

A 'Storky' experience on Canvas-A leaf and a feather from Ranganathittu

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Hey buddies,                       For a long time, I have always been amazed by the variety of birds that exist in our planet. I have made a brief mention in one of my posts that one of my favorite pass time is bird watching. But with increased urbanization and deforestation, lots of bird species are becoming extinct thus tilting the balance of our ecosystem. If, we, city-dwellers want to sight more birds, we will have to travel far away from the concrete jungles and be at a place with lots of trees and lakes.                                                 I have drawn and painted birds in the past using water colors and oil paints by borrowing someone else's photos. I have enjoyed recreating every feather and other features of the birds and would like to do more. This painting is the follow-up of our Ranganathittu bird sanctuary trip and is oil painting done on canvas ( From a photo taken by us). You can read the details of our trip to Ranganathittu bird sanctuary in one of m

A trip to Shivanasamudra falls

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Hello once again,                           It's been more than one & half years since I began my blogging, and I have to say, it has been a wonderful journey for me so far. My husband encouraged me to start a blog, and I thought it will not go past  2-3 posts and will sit idle. I am a relatively late entrant into the blogging world, and though I filled my profile details, I did not start writing for sometime, not knowing how to enter each post!! But, one day, I did start, and after that, there is no turning back!!! As some of you would have noticed, my space does not stick to any particular topic, and so, it is sometimes on social issues, or on travel,  artwork or anything different. Many of the topics are unplanned and written more out of instinct. I would like to thank all of you for the support and encouragement you have given me and I feel humbled. I will want to continue writing more and hope it may bring at least a grain of change for the better of the society.      

Worshipped as Durga and Saraswathi in temples, is an ordinary woman's worth peanuts in our country?

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Hello,             About some days back, I went to my cousin's place which is a few Kms from my home to pick a parcel sent by my parents from my hometown. I took an auto and reached there. My relative was surprised to see that I went there alone. After getting back, she enquired me whether I reached home safely. I was  a bit amused, but I could understand and appreciate her concern. In our country, though it is not a taboo for a woman travelling alone here & there and for work reasons, given the rising crime rate and sexual harassment against her, the safety in public places is still a distant dream. Barring a few percentage of women in cities who use their own car or any other vehicle to commute, many women see to it that they are home before it gets dark and especially if they are alone.                                                                                                                                      The molestation of a girl which happened in Guwaha

Revisited!!-Lalbagh Flower Show-August 2012

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Hi all,          How are you keeping??? How's the weather treating you?? For Indian friends, how did the Independence day (August 15 ) pass off? Was it just another holiday or did any of you do some introspection as to what we are doing for our country rather than what the country is doing for you??? (Famous words of JFK). Last year, around this time, the social activist Anna Hazare almost brought the country together with his fight against the corruption and tried to hasten the passing of the still awaited Jan Lokpal Bill. The UPA Govt seemed to pass the Bill, but still managed to not pass it effectively. Meanwhile, the fight against the corruption lost its steam, and, though Anna Hazare fasted over and again, the public and the media did not seem to care. After a break, the social activist is turning to be a political activist and we seem to be quick to form opinions. Is n't it easy to blame that Anna Hazare should not have got into politics to fight against the corruption?

Indian performance at Olympics

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Hello everybody,                            How many of you have suddenly become patriotic? I mean, not because another August 15 is approaching, but because of the ongoing Olympics in London. When our players perform in any event, we all forget our differences and fervently pray for him/her to reach final and win a medal.                                                        I do not want to proceed on the pessimistic note that only 4 or 5 medals were won and it's such a dismal show for the country of 1.2 billion and, especially, with our super power neighbour  China topping the chart. For all those naysayers, we have to remember that there was a time when our country did NOT even enter the medal tally in successive Olympics (1984, 1988, 1992). Yes, it was an absolute ZERO medals in some olympics. Hockey game did the nation proud by consistently winning the gold medals up to the year 1980. That might be the reason, it was named as the national game. But, after 1980, the hockey

Two songs of Ilyaraja in Kalyani Raaga-In the same boat, yet so different!!

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Hi friends,                 The month of June is supposed to bring the southwest monsoons synonymous with the school reopening. But, if anybody is following anything, they can see that the rain gods are failing to shower us liberally up to now. If there are no rains, water problem is going to be acute, more power shortages, agricultural crises etc. Oh, Tans en, please bring back those rain showers with your magical voice in megh malhar raag. We are all starved for those cloudy, gloomy, hot pakoda-tea days.                       We do not require a Tansen to tell us that music of any form has profound effect on our lives. Music transcends boundaries, languages, and acts as a therapy for the troubled souls and physical aches. As one who has learnt carnatic music from my childhood, (a common practice for tamil girls to learn carnatic music in our community) I have grown up to appreciate music of almost all the forms, irrespective of language and the genre it belongs to. From my persona

Alpam 'chirava puranam' (A short story about coconut scraper)

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This post has been contributed by my dad, S. Muthukrishna Iyer,(a retired ISRO engineer)  who himself is an expert cook and handles all the kitchen items ( like coconut scraper, kitchen knives, wet grinder) effortlessly, even though, he is in his sixties. Hi friends,                   Coconut and chirava ( coconut scraper) are inseparable as coconut and malayali. For Keralites,  a curry or a delicacy is not complete without coconut being part of it in one form or other.                                                                                    The above photo is the one my daughter sent.                                                                                          Another photo sent by my daughter...                                                                                                                        The above photo is borrowed from travelblog.org                                                      The chirava of yesteryear's