Hello everybody , wish you a Happy New Year

This year has been a very memorable year for me and my family. We spent the year in Chennai and visited many parts of India and had a great time. Definitely one of the high points for me was the KMC class reunion in August 2009. Just the group photo of our class at MGM was worth the effort. But I hope this would be the start of a live long friendship. Organising reunions every 5 years is probably realistic (in my view) and maybe groups could meet locally every 2 years. Whatever the circumstances maybe; we will meet again.

In the mean time , Happy New Year and hope there is less conflict and more peaceful times in 2010. After all the world has reason to come together- Soccer World Cup is scheduled in June 2010.

Prabhakar Devavaram

PS - I remember a Tamil movie song starring Kamal from the 80s titled- hello everybody, wish you a very happy new year. I don't remember the movie, it was played at almost all of our college parties.

A second full moon in a calendar month is called a blue moon and its expected on this new year's eve in India. Picture from google images.

Happy Christmas

For those celebrating Xmas, Happy Christmas to  you.  India is an unique country, there are many things which could divide us- Language, Religion , Caste etc. But still we are able to live together and be inclusive. I know that we have had serious problems, but for the most part we have the freedom  to lead the lives we want to live.

In keeping with that spirit,  the blog will be celebrating all holidays in the coming years. Though I am familiar with most festivals, please remind me when important days come up. And people who follow Jainism, Sikhism, Bahai faith, Buddhism, zoroastrianism and other religions or Atheism, please let us know when important days come up in your spiritual calender.

Prabhakar

PS- Picture of the star is from the balcony of our flat in Annanagar.

MGR

What a coincidence, Raghu mentioning Puratchi Talaivar - MRG  in the comment section. Today happens to be the 22 nd death anniversary of MGR. I learnt this the hard way. I thought of taking  a scenic route to work today and took the Marina Beach road. But traffic was particularly bad and soon learnt the cause . MGR fans and party members were paying homage to their leader at the samadhi on beach road.

I remember MGR's passing  and it came during our exams (maybe it was ENT orals for me)

Prabhakar

The Lonely Blog

Its been quite difficult to find time to blog, just as people don't  have time to write comments. I plan to request about 4 people in different continents to blog so that we can have one posting per week. So pls get involved and hope everyone is having a good time this holiday season.

Prabhakar

My Back Pages

I am a news junkie, often drawn to the news which is not main stream. These are some stories which caught my eye.

Now Cooum clean up has been in the news a lot in Chennai. Since I studied at MCCHS and  Loyola college, one could say that the banks of the Cooum have been part of my youth. But finally there is a serious effort to clean up the river. Mr Stalin, our Deputy CM has visited San Antonio , Texas and Singapore to get a first hand look at their ability  to clean rivers in their cities. It been reported that the Singapore model is one which may fit the Cooum restoration.

The second photo is about the Mantra Surf Club. The Surfing Swamijis  are an unique group of seers who help others achieve spiritual advancement, thro the adrenaline pumping sport of surfing. The surfing ashram is located at Murfi which is 30 Km north of Mangalore. Its reported that there are only 12 surfers in India of which 7 are Swamijis.

The final photo is about how tough its to get into good schools in Chennai. This is a picture of parents standing in line to get application forms for their children to get admission at the DAV school at Gopalapuram.

Thanks for all the comments. We will start our account soon. But please contribute generously to all our causes, including Meera's.

Prabhakar