Birth place of Adi sankaracharya ..

After praying in Thirubali Mahadeva shetram near Piravom my auto man Prasanth took me to Melpazhur Mana the ancestral home of Aryambha mother of Sri Adi Sankaracharya himself .

This was in Veliyanad very close to Piravom .

This was a huge sprawling Namboothiri mana as those days they were rich land owners .

Swami Chinmayananda bought the slowly decating mana and refurbished the house and temples inside the complex also added some buildings .

Its very well kept and orderly .

On entering security asks us to download a QR code and fill our details to submit online .

The Complex has the main mana or house tradisional kerala architecture looks like a naalukettu as there was one nadumittam though several rooms .

Photography is prohibited inside the house .

Rooms are quite spacious with mural paintings on wall and four poster beds and furniture .

long corridor or Edanaazhis led to the rooms .

In front was a big room with a pedestal or stage where namboothiri guests used to sit and play with slogams .

The room where Adi Sankaracharya was born is a meditation room today .

Visitors can sit and introspect for some time .

I was alone today visiting house so I could be in room for some time .

zi could feel the positive energy reverberating in the room ,it was a very pleasant experience .

I moved out of house and walked around reaching Ayappa temple a swayambhu one where idol was found during reconstruction .

Sri Durga temple 

Krishna temple 

Ganapathy 

and Vettekkuorumagan the family deity .

Vettekuorumagan was said to be born out of Siva in kiratha form  and parvathi 

Adi sankaracharya temple and Swami Chinmayanandha temple .

A blue temple pond and a huge well was there .

A very qauint book stall was there and  I bought two books too .

The complex is well maintained with neat lawns etc .

 

Musings of a pallative physician

 Musings of a palliative physician 

Though in palliative care death is accepted and  many of our patients disappear with time ,the solace being the interval of peace we could give them before it ,to an extent by adressing thier physical and mental problems .

Pain is definitely the most horrible symptom which can change a patients life in every way !

Cancer pain management is a rope walk of benifits and side effects in using opioids and adjuvant drugs  judiciously to achieve a semblance of pain freedom ,which brings great quality to life .

The very satisfaction of palliative care is in that .

To wipe out the wrinkles of suffering  to bring in a sunshine of a smile by using medicines appropriately is its greatest reward .

A palliative physician needs to be equipped with knowledge ,skill,experience ,rationality,common sense,humility,empathy,communicating skills  and to be in touch with the latest in its craft .

 He should  realise the inevitability of losing his patient in time and accept it with grace and cheer .

The management of pediatric pain requires greater skills,more complexity ,and more severe emotional hazards of failure to save the child ,or the throes of the hapless parents .

Hence the palliative physician should accept himself as a curer ,of nothing more than symptoms ,and be seen as a sad memory in the last phase of loved ones in a family ,

He is definitely not  the swashbuckling superman with a steth adorning his neck saving lives .

 somewhere in the corner of thier grief if he could give a peep of sunshine he should  feel the superman himself .

The picture shows an young talented Bruneian naval officer who was under medical oncology but lost  to his disease.

 one of the many .

Guru purnima 10 July 2025

 

Today is Guru Purnima Day 

our Bharthiya culture puts Guru even before God .

Guru need not be teachers always .

My Driving instructor in Dubai who sang mapilla pattu while asking me to shun Indian driving habits for Godsake Sulaimaan is still a Guru .

My young muscled gym instructor who tells me which exercise I need to do next every morning and nods that I can stop for the day is also a Guru .

My Tamil master Swaminathan who brought life to Tamil my second language upto high school punctuating his sneezing with mooku podi and bouts of sneezing Swaminathan sir too is a Guru .

 Our English teacher in 11th std who gave  me a girl role in taming of the shrew that of the shrew and I looked so much like one ,horny high school boys didnt want to leave me alone that day !!

He is a revered Guru .

Danraj master who taught the likes of Ilayaraja and ARR also tried to teach me guitar but since I was a hopless student I learned nothing showing its not the Guru but shisya who should become a good one .

Reggie master the con man guitatist who loaned or sold my guitar for his daily liquid needs  to a Tamil DMK MLA of the fiery kind as he too was his student and I did the David Goliath fight amongst a herd of dangerous Thamil politicians willing to kill the puny spectacled juvenile me  daring to demand return of his guitar if not will give police complaint of MLA stealing guitars

 Reggie too was my Guru .

Dr Ahmed Ali who was my neighbour and unit asst in Kilpauk medical college who taught me surgery rudiments but most importantly guided me to take up Radiotherapy PG and oncology as a career ,I still am in touch with this great Guru .

Above all at my fourth decade of life

 Dr VP Gangadharan  well known medical oncologist who introduced me to its intricacies and has been my guide and mentor always even as I  write this is a true Guru Iam priveleged to have .

Dr Rajagopal Sir who taught me the rudiments of palliative medicine is my reverred Guru always .

The many medical oncologists hematologists palliative physicians in UAE as well as in Brunei and senior colleagues will always be my Gurus .

To name one would be Dr Mohammed Jaloudi who was our Director of medical oncology in Tawam hospital who widened my academic and clinical horizons and still in touch he gone back to being a consultant in USA where he belongs to as a citizen is defintely a Guru .

To all of them I wish the very best on this day

Thirubali Mahadeva shetram Piravom

5/7/25

 

On  my solitude weekend forays to nearby intresting places mostly temples , today I went to Piravom again .Visited Ezakarnad Thirubali Mahadeva Shetram a beautiful temple nestled in nature and later to Melpazhur Mana the ancestral maternal tharavad of Adi Sankara himself .

Arya antharjanams sprawling house had been taken over by Chinmaya trust and maintained with pristine care .

Thank God both places are not under Govt

the temple is managed by devotees not Dewasom and the mana by Chinmaya trust not by the stupid Govt who would have allowed it to rust and rot .

Thank God the filth havent dipped thier greedy hands into these two places .

I will describe temple first .

its 7 km off Piravom town .

I went by KSRTC Bus to piravom

 luckily was advised by a co passenger to get down before Piravom take an auto to temple .

I knew I may not get return auto so I arranged one auto to take me to temple wait for me and return but to Chinmaya center of Adi sankaras birthplace .

It went like clockwork .

There was no rain 

in fact it was bit warm .

Prasanth my auto driver drove fast between rubber estates quaint houses distant mountains 

Kerala is a beautiful damsel dressed in green during monsoons .

The narrow road leading to temple was crowded with vehicles .

I got down and immediately saw the famous small waterfall and stream .

The fall is due to a bund constructed to regulate stream which extended beyond temple into rubber estates .

I saw some people threading thier way through a narrow parapet to probably a bath or stand in the falls .

I made no such attempt , content with the glorious sight and sound of water and chirping of burds buzzing of insects .( see video )

I then went into temple removing my shirt .

I had taken a pusphanjali offering for my grand daughter Tara .

To me doing big pujas in any temple is not very important .

I prefer taking pictures videos knowing more on temple to post as well as soak in the experience than indulge in rituals .

of course each person have thier own likes nothing wrong .

I was told temple was around 100 years old .

Inner sanctum had a Ganapathy and Siva as main deity .

the circumambulation like in any siva temples in kerala was 3/4 .

It was very pristine neat and beautiful .

The priests incantation had a BGM of the waterfall and running stream .

Devotional song was playing too as it was morning .

Lot of people were there but it was not crowded at all .

I went again to look at waterfall and take videos of it and temple inner part from outside !

It was a very happy me who returned to my auto which took me to Chinmaya center and thats in my next post

Baku old city

 Baku is the bustling capital city of Azerbaijan. 

It has two faces: an ancient Silk Route city on a walled enclave with gates (Icerisheher) separating it from the modern, bustling, glass-paned, flame-towered, skyscraper city with architectural wonders like a rolled-in-carpet building, three flame towers symbolizing Azerbaijan's play with fire by tradition over the ages, and the existence of burning mountains and mud volcanoes by seeping hydrocarbon underground reserves.

 It has green parks dotting the modern cityscape, contributing fresh air and oxygen to the bustling city. 

It has a 16km promenade on the banks of the Caspian Sea, a misnomer as it's a saltwater lake bordering the country. 

This huge park is the Bulvar. 

Unlike the new city, Old Baku is filled with granite or brick-layered buildings, winding, cobwebbed, cobbled stone narrow streets with winding steps into open terraces. 

Built from 7 th century to 12 th century  Old Baku leads on to Nizami Street, the shopper's delight, where old and new merge to create a traffic-free expanse of designed street floors, public singers in squares, apostles, and other statues, modern art pieces, fountains, and thousands of shops and restaurants. 

The old city's landmarks are the Shirvansh palace, a two-storeyed simple structure ( hardly a palace to Indians who had seen resplendent exotic palaces in thier land ,this would account to a royal cooks quarters )  of those who ruled and created a city of their victory trophies, swords, and other items. 

The UNESCO World Heritage Site, the Maiden's Tower, a cylindrical 8-storey tower constructed in the 12th century. 

The Jumma Mosque, 

Museum of Miniature Books, 

old caravanserais functioning as restaurants and bars, 

hammams or public bath houses too. 

Old Baku is not a historical ghost town of abandoned towns. but a pulsating living city with many living in it still .

Amongst caravansaries built in silk route times the preserved ones are Multani and Bukharra 

There are more than 3000 residents staying in old Baku and thier houses are i narrow winding streets some with steep steps ,plenty of shops sell antiques of brass copper pottery Russian dolls carpets paintings 

We can see old men intent on their games of dice .

The old Baku has unlimited potential for exploration on foot into narrow streets lined with slices of history reminicing us of the tired travellers in silk route bartering thier treasures of tea or spices for carpets or wool ,the scent of distant lands ,the stubble of beards or the glimpses of slit eyes in covered veils the distant cry of an infant or the click of metal shoes of an old resident meandering in the streets meld old into now in this live stage .

Its advised by a seasoned traveller to go to old Baku in the dawn and early morning far from the maddening crowd of tourists and the hot sun in summer .

In the throes of the cold of dawn when the city comes alive the foggy glimpses of sandstone balconies and towers is like never seen any other time ,far from the tourist circuits one can wander into winding streets to catch surprises at narrow corners .

To sit in a caravinesseri for an Azerbaijani breakfast of sweetened freshly baked vread dipped into fragrant strawberry jam or fresh hotel or bite into a succulent cheese or bite into a soft lamb in an oily sauce would end the Baku by foot .

Harimohan