Treks transform us every time in its own way!

Trekking is always a rich experience, when embraced with open arms it has the power to transform us physically, mentally & emotionally.

Gearing up!

When we planned our first mother-daughter duo trek to Chopta-Tungnath-Chandrshila trek, I was certain that I needed to be double prepared to have my 10 year old daughter climb a Himalyan trek, though a beginner friendly trek. We started preparing ourselves for the trek 20 days before with a 30 minutes daily fitness routine comprising of fast walk, jog, cycling and climbing stairs.

Whenever anyone enquire us about vacation plan, my response would be "We are planning to go on a trek, hope it goes well", Meera would ask "Why are you not replying as we are going on a trek and always say planning to go". Smilingly I would reply, "It's always a plan, making it happen is in Bhagavan's grace." Though we prepare physically, the mental & emotional preparation is much more needed for a trek to happen successfully. This trek made us understand the real meaning behind these statements.

Two weeks before the trek had tense war situation of Operation Sindoor by India, so we were not sure if we could go ahead with our trek. By God's grace, it became normal and got informed by the Trekking organization "Trek The Himalayas" that the Trek is on as per the plan. It's a 3 days trek, we reached Dehradun airport, went to Rishikesh after a 45 minutes taxi drive and stayed in Swami Dayananda Saraswati Ashram.

On the first day morning, TTH trek team picked us from Rishikesh and took to Baniyakund. It was a slight descent hill drive of approximately 6 hours. We stayed on a Swiss cottage tent and went on a stroll to nearby meadow. Meera enjoyed the weather, new place and excited about the trek. There were totally 10 trekkers of which 8 were ladies. Our trek leader briefed us about the trek and asked us to get ready for the trek by 1 AM the following day. You read it right - early morning 1 AM, which will let us see sunrise from the summit among snowclad Himalayan mountains. Both of us ate dinner, packed backpacks and slept early at 8pm. We woke up at 1 AM got ready and reached the base camp. Trek team gave us some cooked black Chenna dhal which would give us energy during the trek. Meera liked it and ate a full bowl.

Twist on the trek!
Geared with head torches, hand gloves & jackets to cope up with below 10 degrees, we started our trek at 2 AM from Chopta village offering our prayers by ringing bells on the Tungnath arch on the entrance. It was quite dark, cold and silent without even birds chirping sound. While I was the last one on the group to climb, Meera joined others before me. After 20 minutes, I could see Meera slowing down a little and a bit uneasy. She started complaining of stomach pain and sat on a stone. With initial symptoms I could understand it to be gastric problems and gave Digene tablet to chew. We both walked together accompanied with the trek leader. Within another 15 minutes, she again sat down with stomach ache. We gave her something to drink, comforted her and started the climb again. 

Can we make it?

After an hour, she had tears in her eyes because of stomach ache and just sat on a rock. While I soothed her, trek leader gave her medicine. We were halfway through the 5km trek. It was quite dark and cold perhaps 5 degrees. I prayed to Bhagavan Shiva from the bottom of my heart to give strength to Meera to climb up and reach Tungnath, for we cannot rest here in an open freezing dark mountain place. We can neither go down nor stay there as it would worse Meera's health. The only option is to keep going and reach Tungnath which has some dhabas (hotels) to rest. 

Grace of Bhagavan Shankara

While I asked her to chant "Jai Sriram" and motivated her that she can climb up overcoming this challenge, I chanted "Jaya Jaya Shankara, Hara Hara Shankara" deeply with a bhava that He alone brought us here & He alone can take us to reach Tungnath. By taking breaks every 20 minutes, with silent prayers going inside, we reached Tungnath around 5.30 AM. The dhabas were open then and we both sat inside a dhaba just 100 metres away from the temple. While rest of the team went to Chandrashila summit which was another 1 km climb from Tungnath, Meera slept on my lap inside the dhaba. Cool breeze made me shiver a little and I realized from a visiting customer that the temperature was  -1 degrees. 

Birds chirping sound, snowclad mountains amidst beautiful ochre sunlight, warmth of the hot piping tea made two hours go in a jiffy. Around 7.30 AM Meera woke up and after she went motion she felt a bit relieved of gastric problems. Tungnath temple got opened at 6AM and I cajoled Meera to walk 100 meters more to have Tungnath darshan. She agreed and extended beyond her pains to climb up to the temple. She could not remove her shoes and walk as it was freezing -1 degrees, she had darshan from outside, while I went inside temple and offered my deep pranams to Tungnath Mahadev for blessing us to reach his abode in Tungnath - the highest Shiva temple in Kedar range and prayed for everyone's welfare.

Thrilling solo horse ride

On our way back, Meera ate few spoons of Khadi Chaval (buttermilk & rice) and agreed to hop on a horse back on her way back downhill. Thankfully our local guide accompanied the horse and Meera as the horse climbed down very fast. While the horse ride took 40 minutes to reach the entrance bell, I took 3 hours downhill and eager to see Meera. She was feeling better and waiting for my arrival.

When asked about her experience she chuckled and replied, "It's the early morning trek that I could complete even with stomach ache & the solo horse ride on the hills that made this trekking special!" For me, the trek certainly developed endurance to handle emergency health situations with poise and developed a deep and strong bhakti bhava towards Bhagavan by connecting through prayers.

It is these situations that makes trekking a rich experience that transform us in physical, mental & emotional aspects. This first Mother-Daughter duo trek certainly will be etched in our memory forever. Meera also understood the meaning of my response,

 "We plan to go on a trek and Bhagavan's grace makes it happen".

Here is a short video on our trek and Rishikesh ashram stay made by Meera 

Ganga Arti - 

@Pujya Swami Dayanand Saraswari ashram, Rishikesh

Ganga Arti @Swami Narayan ashram, Rishikesh

Ganga Maa flowing mellifluously

Om Tat Sat

Rani Velu Nachiyar life story - The Warrior Queen of SivaGanga

 

After many many years, I took time to read a 200+ pages book!

I am very happy that I could get a sight of this inspiring book "Warrior Queen of Sivaganga - The Legend of Rani Velu Nachiyar" by Subhendra and complete reading it!

I am writing this book review blog post to make this book read by many more Indians and Tamilians, for it is very important for each of us to know what qualities and characteristics our freedom fighters possessed which got us the freedom for our Nation.

These qualities and traits are inspiring and still relevant for us to acquire them. This book would certainly be a thrilling treat for both young students and adults alike. Now to the review!

About the book and story

1. Author  Shubendra has written the story vividly, capturing all the essential details of spearheading a kingdom like describing the land, people emotions, war tactics, strategy formation and many more. The author's style of weaving the storyline highlighting the important events and mentioning them in a terse yet not in thin air made the novel very interesting to read.

In my opinion, what made me to read the whole book in just 2 nights or 6 hours, is the powerful and inspiring story of Rani Velu Nachiyar and definitely the author's narration of the story.

This book made me believe that an author can transform any one who gets easily bored with history to a compelling book reader!

A big Kudos to Author Shubendra for his stupendous efforts taken, to get this book published and taking the story of warrior Queen of Rani Velu Nachiyar to the masses.

My key takeaways from Rani Velu Nachiyar's life story

1. The Queen can converse well in many regional languages and foreign language like French! It is because of her language prowess she could get the trust of her strong ally Mysuru King Hyder Ali and French Colonel. This underlined the fact how our ancestors were open to learn new languages and we should indeed be open to learn regional languages like Samskrit and Hindi. We never know when they will be of immense benefit to us.

2. The Queen was raised to become a courageous warrior, an able administrator, a strategic diplomat and take the role of beloved King! The queen has strongly believed in the power of women and empowered her women bodyguards to become able warriors. Our ancestors were certainly the pioneers of women empowerment and believed in the power of multifaceted women. The Queen's win over British and regaining Sivaganga would certainly instil the confidence in all women to pursue their passion despite any odds.

3. I am surprised and taken aback when I read, that the Queen decided an able person from the King's family to follow the throne instead of her own daughter! Reiterating the words from the story, it says, "This may not seem fair, but this is the right thing to do!" This is indeed what we call "Dharma" - where you adhere to the right thing even that does not go with your favour or liking. She has clearly sent a strong message opposing the dynasty rule with an incapable king or queen.

4. For those who are interested in strategic thinking and formation, this story is a must to read. The story covers not only war strategy but also other aspects surrounding strategy like land terrain, negotiation for peace, diplomatic approach, changing mindsets and of course treachery! This would give us the readers, to understand and analyse geo-politics in a better way.

5. The story has stark contrasts of different people making emotional and objective decision making, which is a relish to read. Mainly it underscores that both emotional and objective decision making is needed  and weighs on when to take up those respective paths. The Queen herself took the emotional decision making of transforming into a valorous warrior with the vow to regain her Sivaganga kingdom barely without much support! When it comes to war strategy and tactics against the enemies, Commander Syed Karki highlighted the importance of analysing the situation objectively and making decisions and the Queen conceded to his suggestions. In our own lives, though we may say emotional decision making may not lead us to right path, the Queen's vow made me think, "The hunger for a higher purpose made her to take emotional decision leading to right path and regain Sivaganga!". It is also to be noted by objectively weighing in on the situation made the Queen and their commanders win over the British and Arcot!

Lots of inspiring messages from this book and certainly the life story of Rani Velu Nachiyar is a must one to read by all Indians and especially by Tamil people. I am sure those who read this book will certainly draw many such inspiring key take aways, so please do take some time to read the book!

Happy Independence Day to all my dear fellow Indians.

Transition from building Great Products @Cisco to Building Great Minds @GYM Foundation

It has been one year since I left Cisco to support my kids and family during the pandemic. Being in the industry & working for around 18 years, I was certain that I cannot be idle & I should not be idle. So, when I took the critical decision of leaving a great company like Cisco, I also had the plans of what I am going to do in the coming years, like

1. Enrich the thinking process of NOT ONLY my kids BUT kids at large.

2. Spend dedicated time to understand & imbibe our Indian Shastras from revered Guru Pujyasri Swami Omkarananda ji.

3. Volunteer and give back to society.

The first plan of enriching the thinking process of kids did not occur all of a sudden. Being a curious kid during my childhood, I used to scribble down many math patterns, small findings about shapes, formulas etc in a red colour diary! Unfortunately, I did not get a handholding or environment on how I can build that math interest further. So after few years, the board exams & marks took over & my interests faded slowly. During my Engineering studies, the math interest sprung again, however I could not relate my interest with real life or subjects I learnt. With the advent of Internet, I slowly built my passion on math over a period of many years.

Thanks to open resources offered by many renowned Universities, Educators around the world, I understood how math concepts are linked to real life and how it can be shared with children in an engaging way. The main goal of making kids "Think and Enjoy Math Learning" paved way to start "The Growing Young Mathematicians Foundation". The focus of the programs offered by GYM is to make kids think systematically; enjoy exploring and finding patterns & formulas on their own; get the skills & confidence to solve math problems. The monthly once open to all "Math Everywhere" event showcases how math concepts are related & applied in the environment around us.

It has been 10 months since I conceived the idea of GYM Foundation and took it to execution. Thanks to the parents and kids who believed in the STEPS in MATH concept (Systematic Thinking Exploring and Problem Solving) and enrolled their kids. When I hear below messages from the kids, I am glad that GYM Foundation is serving its purpose of cultivating "The Joy in Guided Discovery Based Learning" among kids.

From kids own words,

"I found this pattern & came up with the formula by myself & enjoyed the AHA moment!"

"I never thought Math is related to Music! Math pattern can be seen in plants! Now I want to know more about Math & how it's seen in Nature!"

Personally my transition from Building Great products @Cisco to 
Building Great Minds @GYM has been a satisfying & enriching experience.

If you are interested to Volunteer or Share your knowledge with GYM Community; Support this cause and help in taking it to wider kids community & build Great Young Minds, please comment or send mail to thegymfoundation@gmail.com

Pleasant Visit to Mango Village, Palakkad - Flam of India

After a hectic and tiresome work, my husband Sriram wanted to spend leisure time during our 12th wedding anniversary. He specifically wanted the place not to be a tourist spot or with lot of attractions but a place where we can enjoy nature as it is. He identified Mango Village home stay in Palakkad through his friend and booked for 2 days.

As the trip was planned in short notice we travelled to Pollachi by bus and then took a cab to Mango Village. By its name, the place indeed is full of acres of mango trees, though devoid of mangoes as its not the season.
On our anniversary day, we got refreshed and had typical breakfast and went to a natural pond attached to the resort. All four of us had life jacket and enjoyed swimming in 20feet deep water(!).

The pond had a wondeful view of western ghats mountain surrounding it. Small streaks of waterfalls were seen at many palces on the mountains. It looked as though we were in Flam - a place in Norway, which was surrounded by mountains with waterfalls & Fjords. Flam is also called as a village with a scenic environment just like Mango Village.

                                                                                          

Later we relished the taste of typical Kerala
lunch and had a good sleep under the tree on hammock. The home stay hosts were very friendly and made us comfortable. Later in the evening, children enjoyed playing in the open park & lawn along with home-stay owner kids and a new friend from Thrissur called Advika. Meera liked playing with her and fond of calling her as Advika Akka.

Around 6pm, we thought of visiting a temple closeby as it was our anniversary day and came to know most of the temple would close by 7p,. Luckily , by God's grace we were blessed to have darshan of Lord Ayyappan.

That night dinner was special as we had it on the open lawn, enjoying moonlight & cold breeze. The minute we completed our dinner, it started drizzling. After a leisure day we had a good sleep.

Second day we planned to go to nearby Seetharkund falls where Goddess Seetha had taken bath. Path to that lake seemed a small hiking on the mountain and

Sriram had been careful in choosing a safe place to take bath, as the water was flowing at high speed. Spent an hour enjoying the waters and wondering the nature around.
After having breakfast had a good time reflecting on Tamil movie songs with Advika's father Anil and mother Preethi. It was a relishing chit-chat spanning on spiritual, philosophy, music etc. On
the other hand, Kids had a good time playing around. 

That day evening we went to a paddy field and stream nearby. Kids had good time playing with water again. While returning Sriram and myself went on zip liner above the pond. There were also some challenging adventurous rope walkers which Sriram wanted to do. He mustered courage and went on to do that.

However, as children wanted to do swimming along with Advika, I accompanied them to the swimming pool. Later when I saw the video of Sriram crossing the rope walkers in eveing dim light, I was surprised. Very happy to see him taking up challenging rope walking.


 Advika and family extended their stay for one more night, as Advika wanted to spend time with Barathraam and Meera. It's some nice to see children gelling with each other within short span of time. Had a wonderful stay in Mango Village - home away from home!

Third day we bid adieu to the hosts and Advika's parents and started to visit Isha Yoga center in Coimbatore. We were blessed to see Dhyana Linga and Adhi Yogi. I could feel the vibrations and peace while doing meditation under Dhyana Linga, seeking Lord's blessings to always think, speak, do good deeds along with good people and community.

With Lord's blesssings had a memorable Anniversary trip.

Introspection on this Teacher's day!

Recognizing the noble work of all teachers and salute them on this Teacher's day. A small write up based on my introspection.

On this Teacher's day, I read an article about how, many young students get inspired by their teachers but not aspire to become a teacher! Yes, indeed that's true and even worse some parents also might not want their children to become teachers! This made me ponder on what I felt when I was in school. I remember such questions of what do we want to become propped up and most of the answers were to be a doctor/scientist/computers/engineer etc and may be very few mentioned Teacher! I myself did not want to be a teacher and would think how can Teachers teach the same book always throughout their lives. Teaching might not be interesting as it would require us to go over same class, same book, same syllabus and no room for creativity, challenging tasks, recognition etc, leaving aside the salary part. In my myopic view from my childhood, I saw the role of a Teacher, though considered to be noble, as a person who toil more to make the children understand and get good marks. And some special teachers do share us inputs on how other traits like discipline, self-interest are more important for students along with marks. However, in my childhood view, I did not see any extended roles for teachers other than knowledge delivery. And that made me kinda decide not to pursue Teaching profession.

           In recent years, I had the opportunity to take some volunteering teaching options for college students, school students and community kids and I felt like I thoroughly enjoy the time I work with them. Yes, I want to mention it as working with children rather than teaching children. For teaching to me seems to be one way from teacher to student and working kinda gives scope as a co-creator and co-learner including both children and teacher.

           From my recent experience, I have to say, that my childhood notion of teaching as a profession lacking creativity and challenging task, is not true and it largely depends on the setup or environment (schools) where Teachers are working. During all the instances of working with children recently, I had the option of not having syllabus, room for creativity to engage with children and come up with interesting activities, thinking ways to grab their attention and create responses. Certainly this kinda role would demand Teachers to spend more time in preparation and execution, but I think over the years, Teachers can surely master it such that it comes naturally.

           It's also a welcome change to see many Role Model teachers who take extra steps in reaching out to students and help them evolve as a better and successful human being. Teachers do have a BIG heart to ignite passion in minds of SMALL children. I am sure students would remember some special teachers forever who brought that change in them. And this could be one of the intrinsic motivation and a sense of satisfaction for the teachers that would keep them pursue this as a profession. Have to give a big applause and standing ovation to all the teachers who brighten up everyday of a child, despite their health, family and other problems. Especially when this act of theirs is neither recognized nor paid well off. Teachers definitely need a good recognition platform, that would just not stop with awards.
             
              Now, after spending more than a decade in industry, having an inclination on science oriented learning, if I ask myself about pursuing teaching as a profession for the rest of my life - the answer would be "Yes I would certainly enjoy, however would be giving a thought on what roles I can take other than working with children in academics - be it a co-ordinator, career counsellor, mentor to brainstorm science projects, mentor for transforming ideas to solutions etc.. Not just a teacher though!"

             It would be really good to see a paradigm shift in the teaching domain, which would allow more teachers to take the role of not just teaching but being a co-creator, co-learner and influencer along with children, such that seeing them children gets aspired to become teacher. Its good to know that these points form the basis of International Baccalaureate curriculum and essence of Akshar Arbol International School. Happy to be a parent volunteer there.

I take this moment to pay my gratitude to my school teachers who instilled the habit of self-interest in my learning. Would love to hear your thoughts on this!

பட்டு விட்டுப்போன மனம்

உணர்வுகளுக்கு மதிப்பில்லாமல் போனால்

மரத்து போனதாகிவிடும் மனம்

மரம் கூட வெட்டுபட்டால்

பட்டு போய்விடும்

மனம் வெட்டுப்பட்டால்

பட்டு போகாமல்

விட்டு கொடுத்து போ என்பது தான்

பெண்மையின் உயர் குணம் 

ஆனால்  மரத்து போன பெண் மனதிற்கு

பரிசானாலும் பழியானாலும் பாசமானாலும்

வித்யாசம் இல்லை !!!

நீண்ட வருடங்களுக்கு பின் ஒரு கவிதை -- வித்யா

Joy of Learning & Experimenting & Executing

The year 2017 had been a wonderful year, where I could say I have accomplished some of the personal goals I have  set myself (not really goals, but like to do-s).

I always wanted to do composting and not let the useful vegetable & fruit waste get into landfills. I was a bit reluctant all these years to take this action of composting, as I was not sure if I can do it, I will get place to do it and moreover if my family can support it. After ensuring the above three check points can be made possible, I ordered one Gobble Composter from dailydump during mid 2017. Now all my family members including my little son and daughter do not throw any veggie or fruit waste to dustbin and put them instead to our compost bin. Though it took me sometime to get into the routine of collecting waste from compost bin and putting them to composter and spend 10-15 mins every weekend, to swap the composter bins and all, I was really happy to see the mature organic compost  after 2 months.. I was surprised to see that I have harvested 5 kgs of compost in my first attempt.
My terrace plants are now happy to be fed with our home compost.. what a happy moment it is :-)

The second learning I could achieve and keep learning is Tailoring.. Now that my daughter Meera has a strong liking towards dresses and dressing up, I thought if I learn Tailoring I could make many good custom made dresses for her and joined a weekend tailoring class. (The trigger was also because of the cost of stitching small girl dresses in the shops.. its very costly.)

Here is the first best one from my stitches.. will add more as and when they are ready!

Hope the joy of my learning keep growing all the coming years. Something good to reflect upon as the year winds up.

I wish everyone a Happy New Year, best wishes to everyone to kick start with your personal goals and happy learning!