Apple Armageddons

The Apple wars are not always held  in the silicon valley
It has entered my house too
After all Apples are supposed to keep doctors away but my wife never realises this lurking danger and has embraced the apple with her dear  heart
Me Iam wary and stick to my tried and tested Korean love Samsung
having graduated from Galaxy SII which accompanied me to the lofty heights of the Himalayas and even fell with me on the rocky banks of River Yamuna protecting my chest with its smart screen breaking into smithereens but  worked perfectly taking excellent photographs and sharing them in FB though it broke my heart to see its broken face till the day I made it whole back in the UAE ,
haing passed on this priceless heirloom to my doting daughter I opted for a Samsung note II which to me was big and warm and has continued to be so .
wife was in love with the bitten apple symbol and went on to get an I Phone 5 ,good for her
we always had arguments over the screen size user friendliness and i tune downloading which unlike in Android cost dollars !
Recently when there was an issue on the i phone browsing an online troubleshooting forum I was surprised to learn about the number of people who dropped thier i phones into toilet bowls ( dont blame them ),invariably most of them switch it on and its epitaph gets written

the common advice was never to switch on a wet mobile but to remove its battery quickly wipe dry with a soft cloth and put the mobile in uncooked rice for three days ! and then switch it on praying for the best !!!! uncooked rice !!!!

And then just before we left UAE to Brunie wife  insisted  that  I buy an IMAC  laptop with retina display and even managed to convince me to sell off my poor old loyal HP creator of many of my blogposts

Well I Mac with all its sophistication was never meant for me

no wonder it never needed an  antivirus

which machine that needs a password every time you pause to think requires

 Nothing was like the good old days ,

Steve jobs  was not only clever and creative he made something so different from anything !

I was repeatedly told to learn the macs  nuances and there is nothing to beat its sophistication or speed or safety somehow i never could and am back  to my wifes  HP with she  willingly taking over the Mac
and seemingly mastering it
Thus the apple wars go on day in and day out

Well people do mourn Steve Jobs .........RIP

operation coconut ...Bond in Brunei

To the mallu ( malayalee of Kerala ) coconut is indispensable .
from the fronds ,the bark the husk the flowers the whiteflesh the tender sweet water the oil is used by him day in and day out for ages .
.kera means coconut and land of cocnuts is Kerala .
The mallu ladies need to see scraped coconuts in abundance in thier kitchen and coconut oil anointing thier skins and hair to be satisfied
So there was no surprise when my lady started showing signs of acute coconut deficiency syndrome which is a sort of withdrawal symptom when coconut is not available .
this is an impossiblity in India of course and for last many years when we were in the Gulf coconuts in all forms were available as the gulp is packed with mallus .
having landed in Brunei recently we were pleasantly surprised to see it dotted with coconut palms swaying gently in the breeze ,we knew we were in the right place with plenty of fresh coconuts but were we wrong !!
coconut milk and some coconut powedr were available in tins fromAustralia of all places and no fresh coconuts !!! sob sob
most of the groceries were owned by Tamils who like in nearby Malasyia were here in adequate numbers ,and they were not fastidious about coconut .
neither were the Bruneians themselves .
Wife started becoming panicky of how to live a life without coconuts ,
she explored and found out that there was one market called Senguran which was open till afternoon where one could get fresh coconut peeled into  bits by machine ,
so we drove the 10 km to this place only to find acute scarcity and was told the available ones had already been booked by others !!
well cinema /railway booking fine but first time iam hearing of coconut booking .


We were told if we could come on a weekday by 2pm we stood a chance .
so wife gave me a task to  go there during lunch hour  and get it  !
no arguments


i did that
I managed to reach the market
roads were excellent
 the sun suddenly disappeared into a cloud and rain fell in buckets as it often did in Brunei by the time I was in the market it was sunny again green and bright .
I walked through the open market full of vegetables fruits and fish and to the far corner where i saw a couple of shops with coconuts
now I dont know a word of Malaya and none there knew English which is generally well spoken in Brunei .
The amiable cheerful guy knew I wanted scraped coconuts ,so propmtyl started peeling a tender coconut !
 oh no no i dont want that i want a mature coconut
he just smiled and went about his task  ,
I caught his arm.... stop stop please i want a grown coconut and i started miming my best
dont know how to depict a mature cocnut do you ?
I felt like mohanlal did in movie  Thenmaavinkombathu when he was asking for valli ( vazhi ) in kannada speaking in a forest area and finally says disgustedly po veliyamme vazheelukuthirikkade (get lost) .

 I walked off to a far off shop where a  young guy with some coconuts was sitting and managed to convey what i wanted he came back to the other shop owner and explained in the lingo .
 finally realisation dawned and with a wide grin he dehusked a couple of mature coconuts and scraped it for me in a jiffy
I returned victoriuosly back to hospital in time for work

AMRITHAM GAMAYA

Mohanlal is one of the finest actors Indian cinema has produced .
when the combination of M.T.Vasudevan Nair the erudite writer and literary icon of malayalam and Hariharan the renowned Director create a film with this actor it has to be but memorable .
and it has been so for years now .
I saw Amritham Gamaya ages back and over the years many times but seeing it again in TV today it struck the same chords of angst which it did then .

The doctor with a guilt and how he lives with it and finally how he comes to term with it in his life is the gist of this wonderful story and powerful script of MT himself ,
Hariharans choice of characters to make this heart rending story into a visual epic is amazing ,
leaving alone Mohanlal who could   be the only choice for this role ,
 ,Babu nampothiri as a father living with the pain  of his dead son  , a poor  brahmin who does rites for the dead at  Tirunavaya Navamukunda temple  on the banks of river  Bharathpuzha
his turmoiled mind unceasingly questions whether his son is at peace and on the way he died and circumstances brings to him the very man who caused that death though unwittingly .
The emotion that rages in the faces of the two actors during that moment is unexplainable and the movie has to be seen  to know its depth .
the scene where Parvathi the young daughter cryptically asks her father what he would do if a man from a lower caste would ask for her hand in marriage he would answer like any father of his conservative upbringing that he would poke his eyes but then immediately he would say with tearful eyes but  would do nothing of that all he would think was  if his  beloved daughter could have a better life because of that  so be it he  would go ahead and bless them .
Mohanlal to the end is  single facing many odds while  he educates parvathi into a doctor an atonement he makes for taking the life of her brother who should have been one
Amritham gamaya is one movie I could see again and again 

Railway tales

I always had a fascination for  train travel ,

even travelling in a business class of a modern airline would not give one  that primordial thrill specially as I  remember my childhood days on a soot filled hooting steam engine driven behemoth .

My close friend and schoolmate Roneo Chako is today a senior railway officer ,

in school we often used to run off to the nearby Santhome beach in the afternoons with a couple of others to watch the sea and other lurid attractions on offer during the sunny lazy afternoons in a beach ,much more interesting than those deary classrooms !

once we saw a car parked in the beach road and a young couple inside talking they were some love birds parked for some privacy ,we were giggling as we crossed them at which they too were amused later reaching the sea we were full of geticulations and signs that they could have their fun ,
as we returned back again we crossed them ,the man asked so had your fun? and Roneo immediately said yes and did you have yours !!

I was just retelling this to Roneo whom I met after many years in Chennai
cant imagine the same imp of a   Roneo to be in a responsible position today and then he recited one of his many anecdotes ...

once as a train superintendent whose duty was to travel in the train he was somewhere in UP in a remote forested area ,it was night and the train stopped abruptly as someone had pulled the chain ,Roneo got down as did the engine driver and guard and found out an old man had pulled the chain as his teenage son had fallen overboard ,
As both were sitting on steps the boy would have fallen asleep with the cool wind in his face ,the father was wailing ,
telephonic contact was attempted with nearby stations but failed as those days there were no mobile phones ,the father said he would walk back but he did not know where and when the boy had fallen and even if he did trace the boy how could he ever take him to a  hospital if needed in that remote dark area ,
All eyes were on the suptd who was the senior most officer ,
it was against rules for asking a train to go back as accidents could happen with the nearby stations not being aware of the happenings yet Roneo asked driver to go back taking full responsibility of all outcomes ,driver was hesitant and tried to convince him the risk involved for everyone Roneo was firm .

the train slowly lumbered back while powerful torches were shone on side to trace the boy ,after more than 4 km they saw a gleam and when investigated it was the unconscious boy bleeding surely to his death but was saved in time ,then getting him to the next station and the hsopital was easily done and on return a tired worried superintendent was happy to know that the boy was saved and he was commeneded for his quick thinking
my Naughty Roneo

Hoe and Coe Dairies of my uncle

my Grand grand uncle  is in middle standing .



 Valliyil Govindan Nair bent down to pen one more of  his day in the Hoe and co diary ,
his fingers were  knarled and painful and  it was not an easy task for him anymore as age had caught up with him but VG Nair as he was called was known  to be  a stickler to his  habits and he had written in his diary every single day of his adult  life for more than 5 decades .
I have one of those priced diaries with me the year my mother got married and every single detail of my father coming to the house for the first time along with all details of the marriage preparation on and before the event was recorded meticulously down to the last paise spent .
VG Nair was my grand uncle or  grand grand uncle as he was uncle to my grandmother !

A qualified Textile engineer he has to his credit the discovery of new colours and dyes ,he had moved to London in his youth and got qualified and came back to work in Morarajee Mills Bombay for many years .

I had recently mailed to this firm getting a link online and surprisingly received a reply from the present CEO who  informed me that  he would en quire about my uncle from a couple of old time employees of the company and get back but I heard no more from him .

Uncle was a bachelor and a workaholic
he was also known to be a  Brown sahib,an admirer of British customs and rule !
 he had immaculate British habits like punctual timings food of  porridge and eggs with toast for breakfast though I think he had a proper Kerala lunch though meager in quantity  ,he even had a butler for himself ,
this homegrown butler Sankaran Nair was more of a family retainer who was clad in an un butlerine dhoti ,
shankaran nair was way up in the pecking order of the retinue of servants Thekkepat Kovilakkam
( my ancestral fmily house ) had ,he was meant to serve only the Karnavar or head of the family which of course was my grand grand uncle .
Nambiar was the chief cook and was known to have nimble fingers which would create magic in the kitchen for the large household of more than 60 to 70 ,it was a joint family as most matrilineal Nair families were  those days .
My mother used to recount tales of the great fun they all had.
 life revolved around going to school  walking  more than 4 to 5 km carrying umbrellas by the side of speeding trains in poring rains or in burning sun  , frolicking in the green private ponds of the house ,eating raw mangoes till the teeth felt sickeningly funny, and evening prayers followed by a tiptoed walk to the nearby temple  with a servant swishing the chootu or coconut frond torch to ward of troublesome snakes and total darkeness
Fathers were all occasional visitors and the house was headed by the grand uncle with his nieces according to thier seniority acting like cabinet ministers
uncles schedules were his own but he had his strict timetable and was aware of every single detail that went on in his vast far flung lands
His days were busy all year round
By the time  he took his bath in the mornings Sankaran nair  would have laid down starched and neatly ironed dhoti and shirt he would then tuck into his breakfast like a king alone in the western dining room .
by then there would be so many people waiting to see him and his secretary cum manager called karyasthan Krishnankutty nair would beckon them as scheduled
he would hold his durbar listening to thier grievances adress issues in his lands dole out the money  needed for works to be done in paddy fields looking after the harvesting details coconut felling etc
all these were full time affairs and he would meticulously write down all accounts in his neat hand
during coconut felling times he would have to personally go this far off lands each a day as this would take some time he would be welcomed by the kudi or tenant who is allowed to stay there ,made comfortable with a couple of tender coconuts as the coconut climbers would scale up the trees like monkeys .
later this job was given to junior relatives and much later I myself  had gone as a child with my grandfather to one such expedition and thoroughly enjoyed the wickedly pleasant   feudal attention..... sic

VG Uncle had fought with his employers over a principled issue and had   worked for more than four years without any  pay as he had filed a court case against the company and declared he would take salary only after he won the case .
it was a hard time for him to meet both ends and his favorite sister who was my grandmothers mother sold her jewels to help her brother and when he won the case with the accumulated salary and compensation for four years which was big money he resigned and came back to Kerala and built a  huge British castle like mansion Thekkepat Kovilakkam
the red tiled  hall could hold more than fifty people ,most of rooms had attached toilets in those days !
he settled down in Parappanangadi taking care of  his widowed sister and her children and became the karnavar of the house .













All that is left of the house today....sad


He was the custodian of all his sisters children and thier children too
The eldest of his nieces  had the most power after his sister left the world
The whole house had great respect for the grand uncle
He would import books from Britain and had a huge library many of my summer holidays were spent reading those hard bound pleasures which sadly disappeared later .

temple Gate

All I have now are some faded photos of uncle and the one Hoe and Coe Diary of the great man the very diary he wrote on my mothers marriage
.i really wish I had met him .

Haridas ....Review

There has been a spate of Tamil films recently low budget with relatively less known actors whch has fared considerably well in the boxoffice .
Haridas can be slotted under this genre .
Directed by Kumaravelu who has directed two earlier nondescript films which made no impact but with  this creation he as proved himself.
Kishore is the hero of the film who  having been a villain in his earlier film Aadukaalam has the intense manly look needed for the charachter of an encounter specilaist in the police department in this film and handles his role with aplomb .
The action sequences are authentic and gives us a window into the rarefied world of encounter speceilasit teams and the life they lead enmeshed with shady underworld characters and threatened with imminent violence at any given moment .
Into this tough world Kishore is burdenend with the repsonsiblity of his seven year old autistic child brilliantly enacted by Prithiviraj .
The director has done enough research to teach the histrionics needed for authenticity of the role .
how the hard cop softens with love for his disabled child and makes him  into a winner is the rest of the story told as a flashback by the autistic child grown big .

Sneha is the teacher in the corporation school trained to handle  special children is a fine exampe of an actress who has both brain and beauty .

The whole movie has the right mix of emotions and  intenseness needed for live action 

It has  at an edge of the seat feel while delivering a message to a society which is  mostly unaware of special needs children  but at the same time it has no documentary feel to its strong script .

I feel this is one movie not to be missed by anyone

there was no hyphe or drama like some recent blockbusters which were banned but proved to be a wimp on the screen   but it tells its tale quietly and how .

Maha Kumbh Mela

The train trudged slowly testing our patience

The foggy morning occasionally  allowed glimpses of  yellow fields to peep through

it was slightly cold outside and the train stopped ,this was one of the many stops it had made since morning

 by dawn we should have reached Allahabad ,we were only 50 km away but the train was meandering

After some wait another train thundered past us in the opposite direction this was the fourth one to do so ,the authorities were trying to clear Allahabad before allowing anyone in !

On Feb 10^th the day before there had been a stampede in the railway station killing more than 35 pilgrims in a crowded foot over bridge and the authorities were wary of a repeat .

The stampede was a black mark caused by overzealous policemen who used mild force to a  panicky  crowd ,there was also confusion after a sudden announcement of a train arriving in a different platform than what was announced   earlier

This single event darkened this years kumbhmela for otherwise it was peaceful

Foreign universities descend on the Kumbh Mela to study its organization for it was no feat to manage crowds numbering to crores for a period of more than a month in an area equaling 3000 soccer grounds

 To  keep a place frequented by so many clean and tidy and

 to prevent epidemics and stampedes and to provide the infrastructure for a crowd of this magnitude was commendable

Feb 10^th was Mauna Amavasi an auspicious bathing day in the Kumbh mela one of the most important of the three auspicious days when more than 3 crore people had their holy dips at the sangham the jucnction where three rivers merges the Ganga Indias holiest  and most revered river the  Yamuna which  descended from the high Himalayan ranges emptying its icy gurgling waters through the lofty heights and verdant plains of India and the mystical Saraswati river fleetingly seen near its origin beyond Badrinath and later said to be underground merging with Ganga and Yamuna at Allahabad

When we went to Badrinath earlier we had seen this

To India rivers have always been sacred

Its culture ,people, religion   , ethos and its soul itself were in these mystical natural bodies .

Hinduism believed in the continuity of souls and in impermanence of the bodies

Life itself begins ends and starts again flowing  unending like a river probably this reminder could be the reason for rivers to be considered as holy

 The Kumbh mela  is a phenomenon unequalled

It is one of the largest gathering in the earth something that could be viewed even from space

India revers its holy men too

there are so many sects of  holy men who are in a spiritual quest in India even to this day .

from the naked Aghoras fierce in their ash clad  long haired and bearded appearance smoking marijuana  eating flesh and drinking wine their nights spent in crematoriums  in the company of the burning dead  to an Aghora  nothing was disgusting neither filth nor slime they never flinched with pain  they gleefuly endured torture to their bodies ,( there was one sadhu who had his hands raised for past 3 years his limb was shriveled into a twig by disuse atrophy )

To them these were but  but paths to attain salvation

Everything is God

Aghoras  follow lord Siva  the supreme yogi .

Initiation into an Aghora is a tedious process one has to get a Guru willing to take him as a disciple ,he has to use a kamandala or vessel fashioned out of a human skull this would be one his rare posessions and his receptacle for food and drink after months of penance in dark crematoriums and forests an aghora gets intitated by his guru whispering the sacred manthra into his ears an emotional moment when he would burst into tears of exhaustion and joy

Aghoras are the fringe elements in the vast repertoire of sanyasins there are naga sadhus who also have tantric rituals in their programmes but unlike the Aghoras are suitable dressed

Saints of differnet denominations and their followers each following their own ideals and rules are spread all over India mostly in the lower reaches of the mighty Himalayas some worldly with  their matireal posessions willingly donated by their rich followers from across the world some indifferent living in solitudes in the icy wastes and glaciers of the high mountains never bothering about the world immersed in their penance and untouched by the vagaries of nature

Once when we went to Badrinath we saw high up in the hills a red roof which was said to house a great saint who lived for years in isolation in the stark cold till the Reliance group honcho had a fibre  glass shelter built over him to his blissful ignorance

The Kumbh mela draws saints like bees to a flower. It is  a virtual spiritual supermarket with more than 5000 akharas or spiritual sects grouped into areas accorded to them on their rankings in popularity and greatness bestowed on them

the parade of sadhus descending to the mighty Ganga for their dip during the mela on auspicpus days was one of the most visual spectacles of the kumbh and many a photographer  has delighted in capturing those lively colourful moments when the naked aghoras dance with their spears guarding their territorial rights followed by serene saints caparisoned in elephants an camels or on modern automobile with their fellow saints

IThe mela is a carnival which could beat its  Brazilian counterpart with ease by its colour clamour confusion and variety

Unfortunately I was unable to witness this spectacle of a saintly march during my short visit to the kumbh

The kumbh itself has many legends behind it the popular one tells about the Devas or gods and the Asuras the demons churning the ocean of life with a mountain and a serpent vasuki used as rope on mount meru to attain the mythical elixir of life called Amrutha when finally amritha is churned out a fierce fight ensuses to take it and in the process some spills to the lowly earth

the four sites of the kumbh mela Allahabad ,Ujjain ,Nasik and Haridwar are the spots where it does so

Mela is held in these places by turn every three years hence falls in one place every twelve years and is called mahakumbhmela the one that falls once in 144 years is called purva mahakumbhmela

With Ganges Yamuna and saraswati in Allahabad Ganges in Haridwar Godavari in nasik and in Ujjain

Historical studies claim that the kumbh itself is not that old though a riverside mela was said to be there for ages

Chinese traveller Haung sen had mentioned of the big festival on the river bank held once in 12 years

Finally we trundled into the Allahabad station at 3pm the station was a mass of humanity but the crowds were much less than what we imagined and we could clamber up the overbridge which showed no evidence of a recent tragedy a typically Indian phenomenon of life carrying on regardless of events

We went out of the station

All roads it looked led to the mela which was more than 10 km away on the river banks there were no cabs and finally after some bargaining we perched on a jumpy autorickshaw and sped our way

Once the mela area was reached we could connect to Pramodh Swamiji of Amritha mission who had invited us here Swamiji asked us to reach a particular bridge at which point he would pick us up in his Alto

The police stopped us long before the said bridge and we walked more than a kilometre before we reached the bridge

On both sides there were tents housing pilgrims huge compounded akharas blared their devotional songs with bhajans discourses and darshans

People walked vendors shouted their wares streetsmall shops sold things and food stalls were in plenty there were occasional food courts too

Finally we saw Swamiji  to welcome  us

we quickly reached Amritha compound and its few tents went into one of the tents and a barricaded toilet to freshen ourselves after some quick food we started off to our holy dip in the river which was more than 15km of mela grounds away

Swamiji and his friend drove us in their alto twisting and turning on metal laid paths full of people on bailey bridges floating on plantoons built by the army

The police and army were in full force preventing any untoward terrorist incidents and helping the pilgrims go their way

We had to leave our car and walk the last two kilometres because vehicles were prohibited

By the time we reached the Ganga it was dusk

It was a sight to behold

The setting sun cast a purple hue to a cast filled with thronging people distant lights blinked to the infinity voices mingled with prayers and an unaffected river flew in quiet grace the air had an ethereal spiritual quality which came out of the millions who had the same thoughts of devotion and happiness in achieving something that  they were destined for .

To a Hindu it a was a moment of joy to be part of this great event

We too rejoiced in our moment

Swamiji went to the boat area and was trying to get  a boat so we could go to the centre of the river to the spot where the three rivers met called the sangham but the police had strictly issued a stop to boat travel after dusk we were told to have our dips on the banks we felt sad that we were late and we resigned to this .

suddenly from a sharp curve came a  a boatman who had talked to us earlier and he called us to quickly come to his boat we did not argue and the three of  us were in it in a jiffy the police strangely never objected and just waved us off .

We never knew why the boat man Gangaram did what he did but with a name like that we felt it was Ganga mata herself who took us in

We were in the flowing sangham which had a convinient sandbank for people to perch and take their ritual baths

The sparkling flowing water was cold but exhilarating and enlivening

Our purpose to come for a holy dip in the maha kumbh mela was fulfilled .

After returning to the banks we went to some akharas and met some holy souls known to swamiji their conversations were deep in philosophy and their glistening faces shone with their inherent knowledge and penance .

We left with great calmness and happiness

Night saw us speeding to lucknow to catch our flight back to our world .

Kapaleeswarar Temple

After more than three decades I visited Kapaleeswarar temple in Mylapore Chennai the old madras where I was born and brought up till I became a doctor ,then I moved into my native Kerala .
Nostalgia revisited indeed ,strangely even though there was lot of changes the place still retained its flavour and smells ,many landmarks were still there i may have even bumped into many familiars i could recognise .

Kapaleeswar temple in Mylapore in  Chennai was built in

 7 CE  by Pallava kings .

The Dravidian temple architecture was with a 40 mt West Gopuram or tower endowed with fine sculptures and a smaller east gopuram facing the  temple tank

Having spent my childhood in Mylapore the temple to me is pure nostalgia .

My mother used to take us every saturday here meticulously to pray to Saneeswaran there to ward off Sani or evil eye .

The main deity is Lord Siva .

He is called kapal Eswaran as he had plucked out one of Brahmas Kapalam or heads when Brahma acted egoistically once in Kailas .

An apologetic Brahma came down to south of India and made amends by praying to Siva linga here .

Parvathy ,Sivas consort too was turned into a pea hen and prayed here to become Karpagambal .

She had given the divine spear to her son Muruga here to kill demon padma asuran .

The temple is described in Thevaram hymns and famous saints at that time had described it .

Its a paadal petra sthalam .

The streets around the temple bustle with garland and flower sellers vegetable fruit shops jewellers textile showrooms good restaurants where one could get authentic vegetarian south Indian fare and filter coffee of the finest flavour with budget prices .

The place also has excellent centres of creative learning for bharatanatyam carnatic music and instrumental music .

Thiruvalluvar who wrote well known Thirukural a form of couplet verses which would today be called as one of the best management treasties ever written ages back was born in Mylapore .

Mayil in the temple is pea cock and Parvathis personification as one and fact plenty of peacocks inhabited the place once gave it its name .

Mylapore is a bee hive of creativity spirituality culture heritage history and tradition still .

There are four famous streets around the  temple called Mada streets .

North south east and west .

The place was crowded with plenty of shops vendors selling fresh vegetables on the side of the huge temple tank ,offices houses smaller temples madoms .

The North mada street had Mylapore bus stand and now has the Mylapore overhead train and Metro too ..

The South mada street has the huge temple chariot or Ther housed inside a metalled  shed .

During annual ther festival it would be pulled by hundreds of devotees through the four streets packed with devotees ,the position of Ther would be whispered in the crowd as people would ask Ther enge ?or where has it reached ?

Pulling such a tall ornamental temple like chariot through narrow streets filled with electric wires was no small feat .

There used to be a group of men whose job was to hold the wires using tall poles as the ther passed underneath .

The ropes were huge fat and strong .

Another group used wooden wedges to adjust direction of giant wooden wheels .

Its said dying under the Ther gave you nirvana and in olden days some used to throw themselves under it .

The ther festival would be on the last but one day of the 10 annual festival eagerly awaited by thousands .

To us children who grew there it came around April when we had our annual exams  which was quite upsetting as we could not spend all the time in temple .

The last day of festival was famous Arupathi moovar or 63 festival which was honouring the 63 saints devotees of lord Siva 

63 nayanmaar or saiva scholars who were carried in palanquins ..

Another famous festival was Theppam or float festival in temple tank .

Mylapore was also center of entertainment with famous RR Sabha regularly contributiing to quality music dance and theater .

Lady Sivaswami Aiyer girls high school opposite RR Sabha produced many noteworthies .

One famous store the Kalathies sold thier famous Rose milk here ,yesteryear actors used to come to savour it as Madras was hub of south indian filmdom then .

Kalathy still exists and the Rose milk is still a huge hit .

Stores like J.A.Stores has disappeared .

The famous Mylapore Fund celebrated its century even in the seventies and i remember its hallowed halls well .

The place was a melding pot of different professions from educated professors lawyers accountants priests merchants dancers musicians actors businessmen hoteliers etc .

All type of people came to pray to Kapali temple or shop for jewelerry dresses or buy freshest vegetables available anywhere in those days .

The Karpagambal mess completed the morning for me with hot vadas and filter coffee .

Long Walk To Freedom by Nelson Mandela

There have always been leaders who could be called as statesmen ,To be labelled as on ,certain virtues are called for ,like sincerity of purpose ,persistence in ideals ,and ability for self sacrifice for a greater cause ,such people are becoming rarer in public life people like Mahatma Gandhi and of course Nelson Mandela of South Africa .
I recently read the" long walk to Freedom "by Nelson Mandela his  Autobiography published in 1995 thanks to my book lover friend Wendy who lent me this excellent book .
Madiba as Mandela is endearingly known was the adopted heir of Thembu dynasty and was groomed to be a tribal leader ,Mandela means the one who pulls the branch of a tree which means the trouble maker ,he did live up to his name to the racial regime of the whites that ruled over South Africa with the hated apartheid system .
Mahatma Gandhi had done his bit as an young Indian lawyer in South Africa by opposing the inhuman system of segregating people by color in his own non violent protest and to young Mandela this appealed a lot .

As a budding lawyer he joined the African National congress and grew up the ranks .
He was for non violent protest but the Sharpeville massacre made him change his policies to a certain extent He knew that the regime that ruled South Africa would never bother unless they are pricked and hence to a certain extent advocated selective acts that would hurt the Government and its minions but with non violent protests as the dictum .
Nelson was put in prison and banned for several occasions and had to live underground for some years
Finally over the famous Rivolini trial he was incarcerated sfor more than 27 long years where for a major part he was in the infamous Robben island off Cape town .

“The authorities (at Robben Island) liked to say that we received a balanced diet; it was indeed balanced between the unpalatable and the inedible is his qoute on its diet 

The indignities and tortures he encountered and the pang of separation from his near and dear ones he went through is narrated very vividly .
“Prison itself is a tremendous education in the need for patience and perseverance. It is above all a test of one’s commitment says Nelson about those hard times 
Finally with international pressure increasing to release by then the well known prisoner of freedom Nelson was released by the authorities
“I always knew that someday I would once again feel the grass under my feet and walk in the sunshine as a free man”
he  went on to be the top negotiator with the government
 he went on to share the Nobel prize for peace with the South African president and was by then a well known world statesman and became South Africas first president on its freedom
Madiba is still active  for he says
“I dare not linger, for my long walk is not yet ended.

Norwegian Nostalgias

I had written this down in 2008 but never blogged it

So better late than never

In 2008 when me and Premila went to Stockholm Sweden to attend the European society of oncology conference ,

We decided to go to Oslo from there for a day as we had some relatives .

SAS Airlines takes just an hour to fly between Stockholm and Oslo ,

In Oslo dusk settles fast and the sky was overcast with a definite chill in the air as we sauntered down the spacious lobby to our waiting cousin couple .

( premilas cousin a Singapore citizen now a a Norwegian teacher is married to Andreas a Norwegian doctor )

After the initial warm up of meeting them we cruised in their sleek vehicle to Riechstag a drive of more than two hours from the airport .

The roads were neat and pristine ,but literally empty with a few cars zipping past ,

For us Indians  emptiness was always rare this was a treat .

The scenic landscape was mind blowing , there were farms with undulating green hillocks delicate as  a damsels waist , with intermittent mounds of grey hay clusters like the peeping wisps of a an ageing woman ,

Bright cottages with coloured roofs smoking chimneys  with warm lights glowing in their souls , twilight sky burnished by the setting sun ,meandering streams looking like shivas locks  ,pines and ferns growing tall like shy teenagers ,the hush of nature ,the twitter of the birds and all the other  secrets which nature reveals to us in some places ..

We stopped often to click and glimpse at these gifts of the divine .

Soon we crossed the Glomus a famous river of the country ,it was broad and flowing and we could feel the chill of its waters

We  went under a Moose bridge covered by green  ( moose  bridges are built over highways for moose to cross to reach the forest on the other side ) as Moose crossing by road could turn dangerous where  there was considerable damage when a speeding car hit them

 more to man than moose .

Moose incidentally is the national animal of Norway  , it was  something between a reindeer and a cow and was huge with big horns .

Moose meat was a known delicacy there and was said to be tasty though a bit stringy and hard .

We did taste it as Andreas had made a jugalbandhi moose curry for dinner flavoured with Indian spices for our spoilt tongues .

The towns were small with one stop restaurants bars ,schools and offices ,

cottages and villas were  neatly painted with box gardens ,trees ,and flowers punctuating the place .

Everything was well organized and neat but people were hard to find ,either there was mass exodus  or enforced hibernation or they went to bed early !

Even petrol bunks were  unmanned so were  parking slots and this created  an eerie sense of desolateness reminding me oof the Salems lot

( Stephen kings famous novel and later film  ).

We reached the clinic of Andreas our brother in law from Norway ,went inside and discussed the ergonomics of a Norwegian medical practioner ,with three of us doctors ( premila ,me and Andreas )and a teacher Sudha  (Premilas cousin )  the subject should have been boring only to one !

you know who !

Home and to a sumptuous dinner lovingly prepared by the couple with both Norwegian and Indian flavours tickling our palates .

The huge cottage with an internal swimming pool was homely with wooden floors ,wide verandahs and soft cushions ,bathrooms had floor heating which was a first for me ,their  warmth and of our hosts spread into our hearts as we slumbered like babies  in the cosy bed for an undisturbed sleep .

Morning was bright and sparkling and with a cuppa of warmth we went under the apple tree in the compound which rained juicy fruit  and walked over mushey apples strewn in the ground plucking ripe ones and crunching their sweet delights .

A walk into the town made us see more empty roads and lovely picture postcard cottages

One lingering thought we had of Norway was its emptiness .

Norway has high taxes but provides security for its seniors giving them good houses to stay medical facilities and all the necessities till they die ,the idea is work hard during productive years pay tax and the government looks after you in old age ,lovely ( only hassle don’t die early )

 Oslo city where we went to later in the day dispelled the notions  of emptiness as it was as crowded as any modern city could be .

Norway had a checkered history being under several countries over the times ,the early vikings were known for being fierce seafarers and Norway even today has retained its romance with the sea ,some of the best sailors and naval men are from this country and it is known for ship building and navigation .The Viking museum in Oslo is just the place one needs to visit to dip into the fable of the great Vikings ,bearded and tall these brave men of the past strode tall in their exquisite boats which were as sturdy and powerful as them ,the boats were huge and were buried along with their statesmen and have been unearthed now to be housed in the museum ,every boat had the essentials needed for the nobleman and even his servants were buried with them ,the museum could take one back to those ages when the savage wildeness of the earth  was dared by the strength of the men who inhabited it .

One bounces back to the present after leaving the museum to drive along the roads of the city ,climbing up a hilly road which  lead one to the famous ski jump where many have skimmed down into fluffy snow for the winter Olympics ,the jump has a park around it with benches for picnickers and this is where we had our lunch when  Andreas our Norwegian doctor brother in law joined us for an indian lunch eaten with hands

this evoked considerable curiousity for the locals as they saw one of their own  sitting with two Indian women and an Indian guy comfortably tucking in with his  fingers the  spicy concoctions with ease !

There was a statue of the Norwegian king gazing at us benignly as he retuned from sking with all his dogs ,it is said he died of frostbite after one such excursion .

Down the hill and into downtown Oslo we saw the heritage buildings like the parliament the Nobel hall where the Nobel peace prize is given even though all the others are given in Sweden

We went into the cruise harbour and almost into a huge cruise ship which was getting ready to embark to Germany ,we did stop before getting into its bowels and into probably an unwelcoming Germany !

The opera house  a recent landmark to the city with its sloping roof touching  the floor one could walk up the roof and gaze the skyline .

And suddenly it was all over as it was time for us to return

Our Norwegian romance ended there but then we had fallen  in love with the country and its people  for ever

Night  saw us flying back to Stockholm after fond farewells .