Light of the Lamp

"Oh, well, there is a difference between privacy and secrecy"  -  Laura Schlessinger Hello everybody,                     As the nine days of fasting, feasting of snacks (read as 'chundals'), pujas are on (Navarathri or Dussera), there is a chief minister who is fighting for her life from September 22. It is almost 3 weeks since J. Jayalalitha, the chief minister of Tamil Nadu, has been admitted in the Apollo hospital citing 'fever and dehydration' as reasons. But, as the days passed, the chief minister still remains in the hospital and the period is obviously too long for the simple 'fever and dehydration'. In this age of flashing news (also rumours) every other minute through all kinds of channels and social medias, it was looking strange and conspicuous that there were no updates on her health condition in the news channels and the leading English and Tamil  dailies of Tamil Nadu. Few words somewhere would mention t...

Hi,               I don't know how many of you follow the Olympic games of 2016 going on at Rio in Brazil. But when I talked to some of my friends, they do ardently and passionately follow some events in Olympics and also sports where Indians are involved. This time, largest ever Indian contingent (about 120 people) went to Rio to represent the greatest sporting event on earth. So naturally, some more medals were expected this time. I wanted to write this article after I, rather the whole of India, witnessed Dipa Karmakar's stupendous performance in gymnastics.  But it got postponed to another 2 days, and now I am sitting and writing after Sakshi Malik became the first woman wrestler to win a medal in the Olympics and which came as a huge relief for the medal starved country.                  I am sure my fellow Indians would not have heard of 'produnova' vault in gymnastics which is life threatening...

Hi,               Now that summer months are over, and the rainy season is on in some parts of our country, it is the time of cold and other infections. As such our country lacks cleanliness and civic sense and it is not surprising that the infections and fever are common among children and also among poor. So it is again, as you sow, so you reap. The two incidents which recently happened in the North East are the death of the famous writer Mahasweta Devi and the ending of the 16-year-old fast by the Manipuri iron lady, Irom Sharmila. Smt Mahasweta Devi stood for the oppressed, mainly tribal population, and fought for that marginalized society against the powerful Government and corporates with pen as her weapon. She is the winner of many prestigious awards for her writing and social work. Irom Sharmila's fast was to protest the enforcement of Armed Forces Special Powers Act (AFSPA) in Manipur, giving Army special privilege to detain people in the na...

Hi folks,                      I would like to present an article written by my dad, Shri S Muthukrishna Iyer, recollecting his childhood and formative years. Deepa. This article could help ‘seniors’ to recollect their childhood days. More importantly, it could give a glimpse to children on how their grand parents led their lives   “Change is permanent” is an age old saying. Universe underwent significant changes over billions of years. Changes which took place on earth very long ago include continents formation, and formation of unbelievably vast deposits of coal and petroleum underneath earth’s crust as a result of millions of years of weathering on biological matter. The changes which took place on utilization of these fuels in a very large scale after 1900 A.D. are beyond description. The young are unfamiliar about the life of those who lived, say, until about half a century ago. A glimpse on the younger days o...

Hi all,                  My previous article about my late maternal aunt is 3 months old! Yes, after that I have not posted anything though I keep visiting my space everyday to check on visitors. Forget about other visitors, even my visits here reduced as the vacation bug bit me. Though I planned to write something during the break, as they say, it never happened. Yeah, there were lots of distractions also. The rains, shopping, minor commitments, travel etc kept me away from this space. At the end of each day I just wanted to hit the bed and sleep tight. Due to pleasant weather in Trivandrum, my hometown, sleep was not a problem and everyday was relaxing and so I came back refreshed.                                          During the month of May, this year, Assembly elections were held in 4 States and one union territory to decide who...

Hi all,                A relaxed and a fresh mind paves way for the words to flow from a writer. And what better time one can get to write a planned article other than Saturday night, if one has relaxed the whole day and look forward for a lazy Sunday ahead. If I write something unplanned and out of instinct, I do not need a Saturday night. With all the ugly events in the name of nationalism or anti-nationalism in JNU (Jawaharlal Nehru University) and that which took place in the name of caste in Hyderabad University (death of a Dalit student Rohit Venmula), it is natural to wonder where our country is headed. With the words like sedition, jingoism, caste, anti-nationalism looming over us like demons, it is understandable that if we want to voice our opinion, people like me will think twice before putting down in words out of fear that it might offend somebody who may read these lines. Among all these depressing events, one incident which brough...

Hello everybody,                               I am back soon as I promised. I have this so-called 'travel bug' in me, though I am not a frequent traveller. If I travel a lot, in the sense, leisure travel, this blog would have doubled up as a travel blog because I love putting down in words and pictures, the experience a new place gives me. So it is no wonder that somebody like me will always cherish the visit to the first place or a country abroad.                                                    The very first foreign land on which I set my foot was many moons ago. The name of it is not San Fransisco, not London, not Sydney or Melbourne but Isle of Man which belongs to British group of Isles. This island looks like a drop from an aerial view and is perched in the Irish sea betwe...

Hi,          How is the new year, or rather this leap year treating you?? Leap years have fascinated me for reasons not known. Of course, for those uninitiated, the concept behind a February having 29 days is that our earth takes 365 & 1/4 days to complete 1 revolution and so to make up for the lost time, 1 more day is added to February once in 4 years. Every leap year is also the year of Olympics. If one is born on Feb 29, how will he/she celebrate the birthday every year?? Of course, you have no option but to celebrate on March 1st, but the confusion will always persist.                                                    Now, coming to the main topic, shopping is an integral part of life, be it in any form. Shopping is nothing but the activity of purchasing goods from the shops. But the activity of purchasing goods from the s...

Hi,        As the year 2015 whiffed past us, yet another year is ready to make a grand entry with all 'new everything'. All through evolution of mankind, no year has been clean or utopian and no year is going to be like that. Because man or mankind is never perfect and cannot be. Every year is  a cacophony of events, which include political, terrorist, natural disasters, change of Governments, never-ending atrocities on women and their desperate fight to compete with men, deaths or assassination of famous personalities, dirty display of wealth and power not just in our country, but all over the world. It is just pointless to say that then world was much better about 50 or 100 years back and now it has changed for worse. Every period or era has its own problems and the humankind has overcome and still struggles to overcome the challenges through the survival instinct. Why I changed from mankind to humankind is that women ARE included.       ...

Hi,       My long cherished dream to visit Napier museum and art gallery in my hometown finally got realized during my recent stay in Trivandrum. This museum was built during British rule in 19th century and designed by a British architect, Robert Chisholm. The museum, which is one of the star attractions of the city was built in a particular architectural style with Gothic roof and minarets. The ceilings are built in such a way to enable natural ventilation and air flow.                                          But it was not a star attraction for me when I was a child nor for my parents. The adjacent zoological park with lots of flora and fauna, and of course animals and birds, was visited many number of times. The museum is nothing but a building showcasing lifeless objects to drive us to sleep!! I do not have much memory of visiting and 'enjoying' our museum. ...

Friends,                       I always look forward to go to my hometown Trivandrum to be with my parents who are alone. The city of Trivandrum is less polluted, unspoilt (or 'townish' as my husband puts it) compared to the hustle and bustle of big cities like Mumbai and Bengaluru. The everyday life is not fast paced and stressful as in big cities , and so I feel one can lead a better quality of life there.                           As I moved to Bangalore after my wedding, the one thing I found which was conspicuously missing was our neighborhood friend, crow. I used to think that this black beauty is present in every corner waiting to have the scraps of the leftover food items. The nature's scavenger, as we learnt in schools, is not omnipresent in the city of now high-rise buildings, Bangalore.  That was when I realized that crows need trees to survive, bui...

Hi,           I still remember that day in my school when those attractive, yellow, lightweight '2-minute noodles' packets were distributed to each one of us by the sales people  telling us to give the packets to our moms and tell her to  prepare the tasty dish in 'just 2 minutes.' That is how Maggi forged into the Indian market about 30 years back promising the consumers especially children that you don't need to take all the time in the world to please your family with a tasty delicacy. Needless to say, this instant noodles instantly became not just a household name, but a member of every Indian family as it was reasonably priced. The concept then was totally new to the Indians most of them who did not know about the noodles other than the Chinese Egg noodles which was not very popular as it contained 'egg'. Maggi monopolized the Indian market and the name became synonymous with the '2-minute noodles'.             ...