Life in a startup company!

Whenever I hear success stories about big companies or small companies which have made a feat, I would get goosebumps and hooked up completely on it. Especially when I read lines saying how it all started from a garage or a room in their house and how they could hit the headlines of the newspapers later. Sometimes, out of sheer regular office boredom work, I have even imagined how it would have been, if I was part of that small team! The team which brought in the wonderful product that all of us are using now.

Time indeed had come! But for a short while though. I was given an opportunity in a small ambitious start up company which aims to reap benefits of wind power at high altitudes. I never really hoped that I would get an interview call when I applied for the developer position in this start up company. It was like a cake-walk for me during the interview, that I simply made them flat with the knowledge I had acquired all these years! However, my hunch for being selected was the airplane terms that I used which were highly relevant to the work they are doing. I learned terms like ailerons, flaps, fuselage etc when I taught my son "parts of an airplane!" and I believe that helped me to get through this interview :-) (and, of course God's wish as well).

I joined the team, knowing that I will be there only for 2 months and with God's wish and more investors pouring in money, I may continue. Isn't taking risk the first trait needed to be part of a start up team? So I accepted the offer!

After many years of experience in working for big companies like Nokia, I prepared myself mentally on how it would be to work in a start up.However, there were still some surprises! The work in fact, demanded more working time and faster response for all the assignments. So no excuses to relax. And, remember the assignments might also include ones which are  different than our previous experience like in my case from web page design to trash clean up.

Two months just went and I had learned also things which are essential for a start up company from day one! Thought it would be useful to all those including me, who are aspiring to build upon your idea and so here I share them.

• How to plan and manage the activities and tasks? You need to have some software which satisfies the purpose on hand (there are many free cloud based software like "Zoho" with limited options). The software will essentially give the power to prioritize your activities and measure your performance. Ah, needless to mention, visualizing the work you have done these weeks does add confidence in your activity and future work.
• Version control is equally important. So if you have some code based projects, having a handy version control will solve umpteen problems that would pop up in later stages. I do not have knowledge on other domains like mechanical, but for software based projects Git is a very handy version control.
• Have your eyes and ears wide open and look for possibilities to collaborate or rope in investors from diverse fields. Certainly, there is more probability that you do not get response from many of them! However, keep trying as there is some reason behind ignoring our requests. At the same time, do not spend more time with those, who are least bothered about your idea. Time is indeed as precious as money for start ups.
• Be prepared to spend time on accounts and other operational activities which grabs time from focus on developing and building the idea.
• Things change fast, that the work going on currently might seem irrelevant. Judiciously plan the work with long term focus and include ifs and buts during planning. Scenario planning will help in coping up with the surprises and changes.
• Last but not the least, cheer yourself and your co-workers often for the work done and that would keep up the spirits high! Indeed it is the spirit which is driving a human to be passionate.

Two months might be shorter time to understand much of start up dynamics and I am sure I have more to learn. Would be great to hear from you, the reader and your experience.

PS: It is indeed bad that I cannot continue my job in this start up and therefore could not see how life in a start up turns into a job in a flourishing company. BUT, it seems God has some better plans for me :-)

Learning about animals in fun way!

It is always fun for kids to look at animals around them and those in forests. Animals shape, sounds they make, food they eat and their different parts are always interesting for kids. We found an easy and fun way to make them learn about them by creating a poster scene at home wall. On one side we had pasted home and a garden using colored chart paper and the other side a small hill with trees around. We got some stickers of wild and domestic animals. Barathraam got interested in pasting those stickers of animals and understood slowly what are wild animal and domestic animals. Initially, he was head over heels on this activity that he just wanted to paste all at one go! It was indeed difficult to make him wait for next day to paste one more to his animal gallery.

Its an easy activity to do and I am sure kids would love doing it.
Needless to mention, having it as a visual backdrop will help them revise about these animals often.

Age to start this activity: Two and half years+

My childhood Navarathri days and the transformation!

Navarathri festival which spans for nine days is one of the festival which I cherish forever. Navarathri corresponds to nine (Nava) nights(Rathri). Navarathri is celebrated five times a year and the Maha Navarathri which starts from Amavasya in the Tamil month of Puratasi (today) is the most commonly celebrated one. It has always been a fun to dress up and go around homes, be it a close relative or a new neighbor and invite them to get Tamboolam (betel leaf and nut) at our home. I was fortunate to get good friends during my childhood and we turned to be a fun loving, like minded group. Four or five of us, including my brother, start the evening with a typical cloth bag on one hand and haldi kumkum on another. Starting from our near by neighbors, we then continue to reach out to our friends at a distant place. This hopping goes on, till we are either stomach full eating all varieties of sundal (kind of dhal recipe) from each home or we have realized that it is nearing 8PM and we are expected to be back at home.

Sundal is one of the highlights of this festival which is kind of a driving factor for all the kids to visit and invite people. Sundal is offered to Goddess Durga, Lakshmi, Saraswathi during Navarathri evenings at all home. It had been fun to taste the sundal on our way to the next home. Hmm, needless to say we have started grading homes based on the taste and quantity of the sundal.

Apart from this delicious sundal, there have been many more in this festival, that draws our attention as we grew older. The stacking of various dolls, idols and decoration of the stairs, having a theme based park etc adds beauty to the aura experienced at each home. It was once, when we took all the efforts to visit someone far-off, to have a look at their cricket based doll set and a marriage doll set. People and of course businesses flourishes during this time selling stuff which adds difference to our displays. And as you might have guessed it right, we nag our parents to get new stuff and decorate our Golu (stacking of idols and dolls) and make it different from others!

As we still grew old and started learning music lessons, we eagerly wait for the Navarathri time to grab audience attention by singing songs and put our singing capabilities to test. I have to say that though I do not have a mellifluous or clarity voice, or even a good singer, I have never shied away from singing. I have always liked to sing at each home and wanted to learn more in order not to repeat songs. I believe this festival have slowly inculcated the fond of singing in me, irrespective of whether people like it or not! ;-) These childhood days have brought my heart closer to God and the devoted singing enabled me to get even more closer.

After many years of my childhood school days, when I had started my career, I could not find time to spend at home during Navarathri. Once, when I happened to visit my Aunt's (father's sister) home during Navarathri, I visited few homes nearby with my aunt. There were some differences in my experience then from my childhood. The most astonishing was, there was never a request placed to sing a song!With my innate passion to sing songs during Navarathri, I myself offered to sing some songs of Ganapathi, Devi (Goddess), Krishna. I could not resist myself but sing, as I enjoyed it and believed it as my offering to God.

When I retrospect now about my childhood days during Navarathri, I could realize how it transformed from a sundal delicacy driven festival to devoted singing. This thought adds up to my assurance, that all our rituals and practices had an inner motive of reaching(realizing) the highest Truth and Navarathri is surely the best of them from my experience.

Kanchi Paramacharya HH Chandrasekharendra Saraswati Swamigal, has mentioned the significance of Navarathri Golu (idols and dolls stacking). We used to keep idols of Gods and Goddesses (like Ganapathi, Krishna, Rama, Durga, Saraswathi) in the top one or two rows of the Golu steps, which is followed later with saints and holy men (like Meera Bai, Vivekananda) and then some human dolls (like our exciting marriage dolls, cricket set) followed by some animal dolls (ah, yes yes our self created park of animals). Paramacharya shared the insight on this idols and dolls arrangement as the steps to reach higher Self.  If human beings have good thoughts and do good to others, they will be raised to great men, then to saints and finally merge with God. On the other hand, if they tend to have bad thoughts and do evil to others they will go down to the animal level step by step.

The steps in the Navarathri Golu therefore convey us a message of reaching the higher Self by taking each good step in our lives. Hmm, perhaps I have started this Navarathri journey with sundal and have now reached at devoted singing step. More steps for me to go forward to reach (realize) God. I am sure you would have enjoyed your journey towards God through your steps. During this festive occasion, let us pray God to bestow us with energy and faith to take more steps towards Him.

Here is a Navarathri Golu photo of my friend Geetha.



Picture credits: (Geetha Vijay)

Surprising similarities!

I was surprised on listening to some similarities in culture among people from entirely different geographies! Especially at a time when there is no ways of communication across countries and borders. But these similarities could substantiate the theory that human minds could think alike even when distanced apart and does not need any communication tools.

And, the similarities I observed from the two cultures is of course from my motherland India and resident land Finland. One of my colleagues in Finland, had arranged for a team get together in his family owned country side Inn. I got to visit the museum portraying the place's historical roots and the Finnish's cultural highlight "smoke sauna". It was interesting to see the lantern used in the early days, to find the way to sauna which is few meters from the Inn. The lantern looked very similar to those used during my childhood days in India. I am sure these are designed many decades or even centuries before but I wonder how people came up with similar designs, or perhaps settled with this design after many other improper ones.

Then during the dinner time, I was surprised to listen to the Finnish tradition of using "rye-juuri" meaning "root of rye", to prepare Finnish's famous rye breads. They believe some angel would have bestowed them the original rye-juuri and it has been passed along all these years. This rye-juuri is added in small quantities while making bread and is preserved in a container for later use. It seems breads which are prepared without using it is not tasting good. And we had a good round of laughter, when we heard that this rye-juuri could also be bought from super markets! :-) I supplemented the discussion saying that we also have this kind of tradition in India to make curd (yogurt), wherein we save some used curd to prepare curd for the coming days. The obvious question of how the first curd prepared, remains a mystery (at least to me)!

Then the old lady of the house popped in and shared the practice of making "viili" a form of yogurt, in the olden days. They had also added used viili  to milk and prepared new viili and similarly the first viili remains a mystery. The old lady was also telling that they used to hang these viilis in a mud container from the ceiling roof to get it fermented. Ah, this reminds me of the picture of Krishna taking curd and butter from the containers hanging from the roof.

From this short chat about lives in Finland and India, I could observe these few interesting similarities in people's practices in those olden days, despite lack of communication with each other. I am sure there could be many more which might reveal interesting information, like how people's thinking evolves based on the living circumstances and the needs. Perhaps after many tests and trials, people eventually might have settled with the best possible results which could have been same across various regions!

Story behind Lord Ganesha's broken tusk

We all could see Lord Ganesha having two tusks and can you notice one of it is broken?! There is a story behind the broken tusk. Once Lord Vyas wanted someone to write Mahabharata as he recite it. He placed his request to Lord Brahma, who in turn suggested Ganesha as the apt person for this dutiful act. When Vyasji approached Ganesha and told his request, Ganesha consented to it with one condition. It was that, Vyasji has to recite continuously without pausing in the middle. Vyasji agreed to Ganesha's condition and replied that he would in turn want Ganesha to scribble only after knowing the meaning of the recitation.

Then started the record of our epic Mahabharata. While writing fast, Ganesha's tip of the quill got broken. Ganesha did not want to pause his writing, and so immediately he broke part of his right tusk and continued writing. He displayed the importance of performing one's duty at all times. This event left him with a broken task and the name "Eka Dantam".

Evergreen memories of a trip to a story!

We all like to travel to different places and explore and that's even more special and fun for kids.

Summer 2012, we went to Italy along with our parents. It was a very nice trip and we had lots of fun. One day, Barathraam asked my husband Sriram to tell some story and when Sriram told some incidents from our Italy trip, Barathraam got hooked into it and asked more of those.

I got excited seeing Barathraam's longing to recollect his trip experiences, so thought of making it a story! Took some of the photos from our trip where Barathraam enjoyed more, added some captions to them, took print out and had them as our Italy Trip Story Book.

For the next weeks, every day he had a look at those and relished his trip experiences. For the first time, we had used the trip photos creatively and turned them to be alive each day. Here is the book.. 

Its so easy to make and gives your kid a chance to recollect and relish your trip experiences.

Unsung heroines of Independence

I have been on thought many days and also every year on Independence day, about those people who have struggled for our Independence but not came under limelight. Those who stretched their lives, made sacrifices, who came out from the clutches of family and societal pressures for the sake of contributing to the Nation's welfare. They did not think a moment, if they would be part of the publicity, or their sacrifices will be written in history, or they will get some reputation and more than everything, if their participation would even be fruitful!

The drive for all of them, would be (in my opinion) the humiliation they have undergone under British rule, the heart's yearn to express and live independently, and respect to our traditions and culture. During this struggle, there should have been many unsung heroes and heroines from different parts of our country. I was actually on look for some articles about these ordinary people who made extraordinary attempts in their own ways for Independence.

The Hindu article on August 14, 2012 threw some light about these unsung heroines.

Here is the link to the article http://www.thehindu.com/news/cities/Delhi/article3764609.ece

And here is a copy of it, for our future reading.

Thanks to Bula Devi and "The Hindu" newspaper for this article.

Women’s participation in the freedom struggle, barring a few cases, has received little attention in post-1947 male-centric historical records.Though India’s freedom struggle saw a significant participation of women, unfortunately several of them have remained invisible to this day — unknown and unsung. The few women freedom fighters who made it into history books invariably came from elite or middle class backgrounds and their male relatives had often encouraged them to join the movement. In contrast, there were innumerable ordinary women, with no formal education or very little schooling, hailing from poverty-stricken, conservative homes, who got involved in the struggle with undaunted spirit and great commitment.

 Raj Kumari Gupta was one of them. Born about a century ago in the little-known Banda zilla of Kanpur, she and her husband worked closely with Mahatma Gandhi and Chandrashekhar Azad. Her crucial contribution to the Kakori dacoity case barely figures in the narratives of freedom. Raj Kumari, who was given the charge of supplying revolvers to those involved in the Kakori operation, apparently hid the firearms in her undergarment and set out in khadi clothes to deliver them, with her three-year-old son in tow. On being arrested, she was disowned by her husband’s family and thrown out of her marital home.

There is also the case of Tara Rani Srivastava. She was born in Saran near Patna and participated actively with her husband Phulendu Babu in the Quit India movement. On Gandhiji’s call, Phulendu assembled a massive crowd of men and women in front of the Siwan police station to hoist the national flag on its roof. The just-married couple stood in front of the crowd and raised slogans. Phulendu soon fell to police bullets but Tara Rani was not deterred. Demonstrating exemplary courage, she bandaged his wounds and marched with the national flag straight towards the police station. By the time she returned, her husband had died.

 Whether these women can be considered as revolutionaries or not, there can be no denying that they fought against great personal odds for the freedom of the country. They displayed great resolve despite seeing their children ascend the gallows. It is said that the night before activist Ram Prasad Bismil, a member of the Hindustan Socialist Republic Association, was to be hanged on December 18, 1927, in Gorakhpur jail, his mother came to see him. On seeing her, Bismil’s eyes became moist, but his visitor remained calm. She had never actively participated in politics but she understood the underlying importance of her son’s passionate espousal of revolution. She apparently told Bismil not to shed tears like a kayar (coward). Bismil is then said to have answered saying that he was crying because he would not have a mother like her. Steeled by her son’s death, she is believed to have said in a speech subsequently that she was ready to give another son to the nation. Saying this, she had raised the hand of Bismil’s brother.

Given domestic constraints, many women found it difficult to get directly involved in public action, but contributed in their own ways. Many took to spinning the ‘charkha’ as a mark of support for the Swadeshi movement. Others acted as secret envoys and messengers — passing on proscribed material, helping fugitives from the law shift from one place to another and ensuring that they were fed and looked after.

Ganga Devi from Uttar Pradesh had no formal education and had been married at the age of 13 into a home which had over 60 family members. Her husband, a government employee, enforced strict restrictions on her movement so as to keep her away from the raging political ferment of those times. But that did not stop Ganga from encouraging her children to be sympathetic to the rebels. She saved money from the household expenses and cooked food for men in hiding while her husband was asleep, washing the utensils herself to keep the matter a secret even from family retainers.

 The stories of these women do not generally surface in contemporary India save for efforts like those undertaken by the Gandhi Smriti in Delhi recently, when it launched a permanent exhibition on ‘Great Indian Women Freedom Fighters’.

According to Charu Gupta, associate professor, Department of History, Delhi University, history writing in the 60s did not register the role of ordinary women in the freedom movement. She observes, “Implicitly the history of that time projected only a select group and this gave rise to a distorted vision.” She points out how the entire portrayal of the freedom struggle tended to be male-centric, bourgeois and upper caste, with the participation of women being seen as an extension of their domestic roles of serving their families.

 The lack of the presence of ordinary women in historical work, according to Ms. Gupta, was due to several factors — the biggest constraint being that history writing was generally based on official records. She, however, believes that this approach has been undergoing a change, with historians now more inclined to base their work on “creative sources” like personal diaries, family histories, newspaper reports, magazine articles and oral narratives.

 As Suruchi Thapar-Bjorkert observes in her book Women in the Indian National Movement Unseen Faces and Unheard Voices, 1930-42: “Reinterpreting Indian nationalist history required going beyond archival, official and unofficial sources.” On oral narratives, she says, “As a methodological tool, these narratives revealed the individual subjectivities of participants in the nationalist movement. Documenting these life histories opened a new world before me: a world more real than officials records.”

  Women like Abadi Bano Begam, a widow and a freedom fighter from Lucknow, known by her honorific ‘Bi Amman’, need acknowledgement. She observed strict purdah all her life and when the time came to speak on behalf of her jailed son, she did so from behind her burqa in 1917. This was, perhaps, the first time a Muslim woman in purdah had addressed a political gathering. (Women's Feature Service)

Courtesy: The Hindu, August 14, 2012

Tirupur Kumaran

Marking our Nation's Independence day today, I wanted to share the story of Tirupur Kumaran who hails from Tamil Nadu.

Kumaran (1904 – 1932) was an Indian revolutionary and a staunch freedom fighter. . Kumaran was born in Chennimalai on 04-10-1904, a small town in the Erode District in Tamil Nadu. He was deeply involved in desabandu youth movement and participated in the Indian independence movement. During one of his march against British colonial rule, he held the flag of Indian Nationalists. The flag was banned by British rule. Therefore, police started assaulting everyone who had the flag and asked to put it down. But Kumaran did not bend to their order and held the flag upright. Policemen started assaulting him heavily, but despite their efforts Kumaran did not put the flag down. Finally, he died from injuries sustained from the police assault.

Even when he died, he held the flag up and did not put it down. Kumaran is revered as a martyr in Tamil Nadu and is known by the epithet Kodi Kaththa Kumaran – Kumaran who saved the Flag since he gave his life defending the flag. He attained martyrdom on 07-04-1932. His memorial is situated on Kumaran salai, near Tiruppur railway station. His life history and photographs are displayed here for the public The Government has erected his statue in a park by the railway station in Tirupur.

A stamp is also released in commemoration to his sacrifice.

Let us take this day to remember the heroes and of course heroines of our Indian Independence movement.

It is also important to pass this knowledge and spirit to younger generation to instill Nation spirit in them

Picture credits: http://dawnpages.wordpress.com

Story on Krishna's pranks

Shravana month Ashtami thithi (Thursday, August 9th, 2012) marks the auspicious day of Krishna Janmashtami, the birth day of Lord Krishna. Krishna's life is a store house of stories. While some of them sends a message directly, some has many hidden messages. This short story about Krishna's prank is fun to hear and at the same time, has a beautiful message in it.

Krishna was playing with his friend Gopabalakaas. He went silently to one Gopika's cow yard and released the rope tied to a calf and took it near the cow and helped it to drank milk. Seeing this, the Gopika went to Yashoda (Krishna's mother) and complained, "Hey Yashoda, your son Krishna's pranks are growing more these days. He released the rope tied to calf and let it drink all milk from the cow. There is no milk for the babies at home now." Thus the affected mother gave a pity cry. When Yashoda enquired Krishna about it, he told a simple statement with profound meaning. "Like this mother who worries for her child being hungry without milk, will not the cow worry that it could not feed its own calf? That's why I released the calf."
Emotions are same for human beings and other living beings. Through this prank, Krishna laid the importance of taking care of animals in the same status as human beings.

Lets share these fun stories with kids and more importantly try to behold these values in our daily lives.

Story courtesy: www.moralstories.wordpress.com
 

Guru Poornima - Story and thoughts

The Full moon day on Aashada month which falls on 3rd July, 2012 is the Janma dina (birth day) of Veda Guru "Veda Vyasar" and is celebrated as Guru Poornima. The Hindu culture strongly emphasize the importance of learning knowledge from a Guru and more importantly doing Seva (self-less work) for Guru as the foremost thing. The reasoning behind Guru Seva is to inculcate humility in the hearts of the Shishya (disciple), which is a requirement that enables the learning aspect from Sishya.

On this auspicious Guru Poornima day, I would like to share an incident from Life of Sri Krishna, which shows how Guru takes care of a Shishya both in terms of being strict and showing love towards his Shishya.

When Krishna was ruling Dwaraka, His childhood friend Sudhama visited him. They both were having friendly chat and was recollecting incidents from their childhood days at Guru Sandeepani's ashramam.
One day Krishna and Sudhama went to forest to collect dry wood as per the orders of their Guru Sandeepani. After few hours, the clouds turned black and there was a heavy downpour of rain in that region. The heavy rain had blocked the way back home and both the children (Krishna and Sudhama) find it struggling to find their way, as the roads were filled with rain water. Being afraid, both of them got hold of their hands and wandered the forest all night without food.
Guru Sandeepani not finding his Shishya's return from forest, got worried and went in search of them. After he saw both the Shishya's next morning, he felt bad on how much trouble they have gone through because of his orders. However, Krishna and Sudhama were happy to see their Guru and told that they were saved from wild animals and heavy rain because of their Guru Seva. Guru Sandeepani was pleased with their response and blessed them that the Vedic knowledge they possess would protect them forever.

This incident recollected and shared by Krishna to Sudhama conveys that while Guru is strict to his Shishyas, he is bountiful of love towards his Shishya at the same time. So as a Shishya, it is important to oblige Guru's orders, though we might not get the implied meaning behind their strict teachings.

Story taken from: "Deivathin Kural part 4" by Sri Ra. Ganapathi

Sensors in Nature

I am always interested in gardening and it is one of my favorite hobby to grow plants and flowers. I still remember the days when I grew "sanghu pushpam (in Tamil)"  (English name: Butterfly pea, Biological name: Clitoria ternatea) flowering plant. It was like my pet plant and I used to talk with it everyday.
While adoring the plants I also developed a skill to observe it closely and recognize the way they grow.

Now I have some plants in our yard and on close observation I found something interesting which I would like to record and share. It is about the plant "sweet peas" which is a climber plant. It took some days for me to arrange some stick lines for it to climb. But by that time, it had grown well and it seems was already in search of something to climb.. It can be seen from this picture how the tendrils reach out to see if it finds something to climb on.

So in fact, the tendrils act like proximity sensors and react based on some physical object nearby. Once these tendrils finds some physical objects like stick, grass, stones or other plants nearby, they curl themselves with the object and starts growing over them. Like this sweet peas plant whose tendrils have identified the nearby grass and got a hold of it.

That was indeed wonderful isn't it.. I am sure that I am not the first person to recognize this "search and hold" activity of these climber plants. But for me personally, it is interesting to observe them growing.

As a person who has learned some Electronics, I can say that the proximity sensors work based on the amount of light that fall on the sensor and react to the intensity of light. They have some transistors and diodes which does these kinda work. The climbers as proximity sensors made me think how they do this search and more importantly what ingredient in it is doing that logic?! (as equivalent to transistors or diodes)
Perhaps some one well versed in botany studies and has expertise might know the answer.
If you, readers have some ideas or thoughts about this, please do share them with me here.

Nature is full of wonders and I wish I do not stop just wondering, but go ahead to find the truth behind it.
And, that can happen only with God's grace - Nature's creator.

An oxymoron example?

Perhaps this post could be an example of oxymoron, but isn't the world full of oxymoron?
 
Time and again, events happen proving money or lack of funds per se is the most important entity for the survival of a company or an individual.. and so I felt worth posting this video again.

 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p7rvupKipmY&feature=related.

 But hold on, that is not the only case happening in this amazing world. Look at this,  and those who deliberately pursue their interests shunning away the need of money.

Video link: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=djzitB1xyoc

As the old lady reflects, "It is hard to convey the difficulty in living that way" and I could add that "It is also hard to experience the joy she enjoyed unless one experience it oneself".

Putting into practice - the toughest

I am always inclined towards ideals mentioned in Bhagavat Geeta, and "wanted" to practice it in my life. Especially the main essence "To work for the cause and do not work expecting the results". Though it is in my thought all the time, it seems the recent events proved that it is actually NOT. So what is that?

There was a idea submitting competition called IIDA in Tampere, Finland which invites ideas from students and researchers about product or service innovations.
The first time I had participated in it was on March 2009, when I just joined the college. Unfortunately I could not submit my idea & business plan within the contest deadline (as I started working on it only a week back). But gave it a try still by sending my idea a day after the deadline. The organizers told that it is not possible to accept it and promised to send feedback though. I also got the feedback as promised.

Again, I came up with a good idea  (in my opinion though ;-) to submit for this year (2012) contest and worked on it well ahead.. But this time I had noted the deadline date as April 14th while it was April 12th. When I tried to submit my idea, the form threw error.. Deadline over!Ah, same story again this time!
Still I sent my idea through email on April 13th and got the reply that mine will be considered. From then, I used to check often news and updates about that contest and look forward to results. I did this so often, that I got really obsessed about it.
I have neither worked on improving my idea nor implementing some prototype of it, in the coming weeks.

On the day of result, I found that I am not one among winners/runners. I did not feel bad, for I was not looking for winner/runner prize, but a platform or support from them to build up my idea and help me in implementing it.

My introspection later, made me understood that the obsession I had over this contest, had prevented me from working on my concept and try implementing by my own. Though I believe, in working for the cause and not results, I had not put that into practice. That was the reason, I wasted my energy in knowing about the contest news and results and did not channel it properly to the actual cause of my work.

I pray God to bestow me His grace and make me put the ideals into practice. In Sanskrit there is a word called "Anushtanam" which means, incorporate it one's lives. I am keep reminding myself with this word, which would hopefully get me to the right track.

MahaPeriyava Jeyanthi 2012

Today June 4th, 2012 marks Tamil month Vaikasi and Nakshatra (Star) Anusha is auspicious as it marks the Jayanthi (birthday) of HH Sri Chandrasekarendra Saraswathi Swamigal also widely known as "MahaPeriyava".

He is one of the Matt Guru of Kanchi Sankara Matt. Though I could not meet him even once, I am drawn towards His teachings through various books and articles.
From my limited knowledge, I have to say that His teachings are far more simple, that He gives common man examples to explain many spiritual questions.

On this auspicious day, I would like to share with you two of such examples, whose mere simplicity will let us believe in the concepts He relate them to.

Once a group of His devotees came to see him and request him to send some well versed pundit to perform poojas, and other rituals in their city. They complained that the only one pundit in their location though he performs pooja well, does not know the meaning for the mantras and poojas he is doing. So the younger generation are not interested in taking part in those."
On hearing it, Periyava told, "Yes what they say is  true and and has to be acknowledged. At that time, a postman brought some posts to the mutt and delivered it to Periyava and waited for his darshan.
Periyava read some posts and asked the officials and the post man standing there, "All these letters have the word PIN. Do you know what is PIN?". They thought for sometime and later told that they do not know". He replied that PIN means Postal Index Number.
He continued saying, "Even those people who wrote PIN and the number might not know what does PIN correspond to. Postman though he delivers letters based on the PIN does not know what it corresponds to. However, if the sender writes the number correctly, it will reach the correct destination, though the sender and the postman do not know what PIN corresponds to.
Similarly, you might not know the meaning or reason behind these mantras and practices. But if you pronounce it correctly and perform it with Shraddha (determination) it will yield the result it is destined for."

This explanation clears the misconception, that it is better to abstain from telling these mantras without knowing meaning. This example clearly sends a message to follow the rituals laid out by our ancestors which provides nothing but good for us.
It is equally important here to quote that Hindu Dharma also encourages people to strive towards knowing the meaning behind these rituals as discussed in this post (http://meinall.blogspot.fi/2011/06/guiding-verse-of-my-life.html)

So while the first thing is to tell Shlokas with belief, further goals should be to find the reasoning by ourselves.

The second example is about preserving our Vedic knowledge and resources. MahaPeriyava elucidates that our ancient Vedic knowledge is rich in analysis of various subjects like Vimana Shastra (Aeronautical), Pakshi Shastra (Birds science), Astronomy etc. Varahamihra has compiled all of them and gave a book named "Bruhat Samhita". Though we personally could not gain understanding of these knowledge, texts and literature, our future generations could be interested in knowing them.
He explains the importance of it with a simple example. Once, a blind man was walking on the road holding a lantern during night. Another man came on  his way and seeing the blind man carrying a lantern (which is of no use to him) asked him, "Why are you carrying the lantern, when you cannot even see things around?". The blind man replied, "Though I am not having vision, I am carrying it because you have vision. If I am not carrying the lantern, then you would have stumbled upon me during this night time." Thus He explains the importance of preserving our ancient knowledge and pass it on to the future generations, though we are not interested in them.

This raises me the question, "In what ways we can preserve and pass our ancient knowledge?" If you have any thoughts please share them here.

Play around with hand-made animal masks

It was easy to make those Rabbit and Monkey masks colored by Barathraam and myself. Choose your favorite animal mask layout from here http://www.firstpalette.com/tool_box/printables/printable-mask-glasses.html

and get it colorful through your kids hands.

It is really fun to play around with these hand-made masks. Give it a try and I am sure your kid will love it.

Guru Bhakthi - Story from life of Adi Shankaracharya

Vaishaka Masa Shukla Panchami (5th day of bright half of Vaishaka month - April 26th, 2012) is an auspicious day marking the Jayanthi of our Jagad Guru Adi Shankaracharya.
On this auspicious day, let us take few minutes to know about one of the four main disciples of Sri Shankaracharya and his beautiful composition on his Guru.

Sri Shankaracharya had four disciples namely Sri Sureshwaracharya, Sri Padmapadacharya, Sri Thotakachaarya and Sri Hasthamalakacharya similar to Lord Dakshinamurthy who had four disciples - Sri Sanaka, Sri Sananda, Sri Sanath Kumara, and Sri Sanatna.

 Sri Bagavathpaadha after successfully completing his bhashyam on the Brahma Sutras by the graces of Sri Parameshrara at Kashi, used to deliver Vyakyanam (discourse) on the Bhasyas, Vedhas, Upanishads and the Advaitham daily to his disciples. Sri Shankaracharya had abundant compassion for his disciples & he would start his Vyakyanam and Paatam (lectures) only after all four of them had come. Among all four of them, Sri Thotakachaarya was a little bit silent and was not out-spoken like the rest of them. However, he had deep devotion towards his Guru. Sri Bagavathpaadha understood this, and he wanted to make the rest of the three disciples understand the fact that, Sri Thotakachaarya's devotion to the Lotus Feet of Guru is much greater than the knowledge of all of them. Surrendering everything at the Lotus feet of the Sadguru and doing bakthy or devotion to the Lotus Feet of the Sadguru itself would present one, with the complete wisdom of Self-Knowledge, which is the essence of all the Vedas. Sri Bagavathpaadha wanted to convey the message that, Guru Padha Seva is superior even to the Seva to the Almighty himself.

One morning, Sri Thotakachaarya was a couple of minutes late and our JagadGuru Bagavathpaadha was waiting for his arrival. The rest of the three disciples were wondering why would Sri Bagavathpaadha wait for someone, who is not as "bright" as them. Sri Bagavathpaadha had blessed Sri Thotakachaarya and Sri Thotakachaarya came walking, singing a hymn with wonderfully rhythmic words. Sri Thotakachaarya’s words were showing his over flowing Guru Bakthi. This hymn was metered with very complex poetic meter called Thotaka meter. The rest of Sri Acharya's disciples, now understood the deep Gnanam (Poorna Gnanam) and Guru Bakthy of Sri Thotakachaarya and they regretted for their ignorance and they all praised Sri Thotakachaarya’s knowledge and his fervent Guru Bakthi. Since then he was called as Sri Thotakachaarya although his deeksha namam was Giri.

Here is the composition made by Thotakacharya

Thotakashtakam:

Vidhithakila Shaasthra Sudha Jhaladhe Mahithopanishadh Kathithartha Nidhe
Hrudhaye Kalaye Vimalam Charnam Bhava Shankara Deshika Me Sharnam

Karuna Varunalaya Paalayamam Bhava Saagara Dhukka Vidhoona Hrudham
Rachayakila Darshana Tathva Vidham Bhava Shankara Deshika Me Sharnam

Bhavatha Janatha Sukitha Bhavitha Nija Bhodha Vichaarana Chaarumathe
Kalayeshwara Jeeva Viveka Vidham Bhava Shanakara Deshika Mey Sharanam

Bhava Eva BhavaaNidhi Me Nitharam Sama Jaayatha Chethasi Kouthukitha
Mama Vaaraya Moha Maha Jaladhim Bhava Shanakara Deshika Mey Sharanam

Sukruthe Dhikruthe Bahudha Bhavatho Bhavitha Sama Darshana Laalasatha
Athi dheenam imam paripaalayamam Bhava Shanakara Deshika Mey Sharanam

Jagadtheem Avithum Kalitha Kruthayo Vicharanthi Mahaamaha Shachalathah
Ahi Mamshuri Vathra Vibhaasi Guro Bhava Shanakara Deshika Mey Sharanam

Guru Pungava Pungava Kethana The Samatha Mayatham Nahi Kopi Sudhee
Sharanaagatha Vatsala Tathvanidhe Bhava Shanakara Deshika Mey Sharanam

Vidhithaa Na Maya Visha Dhaika Kala Nacha Kinchana Kaanchanam Asthi Guro
Drutham Eva Vidhehi Krupaam Sahajaam Bhava Shanakara Deshika Mey Sharanam

Sri Thotakachaarya has enlisted all the divine qualities of Sri Bagavathpaadha
in his 8 verses.

Kathithartha Nidhe (Vaibhavam of Sri Bagavathpaadha's writing commentary to all
the Upanishads, Vedas.., which are like the waves of milky ocean.)
Vimalam Charanam (preaches all of us to bear or to think of
the divine feet of Sri Bagavathpaadha, which he says would give us the knowledge of all
the darshanas and the Vivekam of Jeeva-Eshwara Vidham )
Krupaam Sahajaam (quality of daya or compassion by birth)
Tathvanidhe (sole authority for all the Thathvas or the philosophies)
Sukitha Bhavitha (Many householders are delighted by your grace and renderings)
Chaarumathe (pure consciousness moon)
Karuna Varunalayam (ocean of compassion)
Guru Pungava (JagadGuru or the Guru for all the "local" Gurus, who have been emerging from time to time in various parts of the Universe)
Samathamaya tham Nahi (one who does not have any one equal to His intellect)
Sharanaagatha Vatsala (one who always protects His refugees)
Ahimamsurivatra Vibhaasi Guro (Shines like a sun amidst the group of monks)





This incidence is a proof that Guru always recognize immense devotion and faith rather than the knowledge. It also emphasizes the importance of observing or putting into action in our lives whatever knowledge we possess, otherwise knowledge serves no purpose, but increases our ego.

Listen to this wonderful rendition of Thotakashtakam by M.S. Subbulakshmi amma.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QUGg29s0IQs

Satyavan-Savitri: The story of persistence, belief and wisdom

The story of the couple Satyavan and Savitri speaks the power of persistence and belief. The story is associated with a fasting ritual called "Karadayan Nonbu" in Tamil. Today, marks the transition of Tamil month Masi to Panguni and people celebrate it as "Karadayan Nonbu". Eager to know the story behind it!! Continue reading below..

King Ashvapati had no children and prayed towards Sun God "Savitr" (another name for Sun God) to bless him with a progeny for his lineage (a son). Soon his prayer was answered and he was blessed with a daughter. He named her "Savitri".

Savitri was very wise and beautiful. When she attained marriage age, her father asked her to choose her husband. She went in search out to woods and found Satyavan serving his parents with utmost dedication. Even before she knew that Satyavan was a Prince with his parents being thrown out of their kingdom, she fell in love with him and decided to marry him. Satyavan's parents & Satyavan also accepted her proposal. On her way back to her kingdom,  Narada told her that Satyavan has limited lifespan of one year from now and it would be better if she change her mind about the marriage. Savitri did not pay importance to Narada's words and replied that she has decided to spend her life serving Satyavan and his parents.

Later, she went and informed her father Ashvapati about her choice of Satyavan and he consented to it as well. Narada again came to his father and briefed him about Satyavan's lifespan. The news made Ashvapari worrisome and he talked to his daughter and told not to marry Satyavan. But Savitri was persistent in her decision and replied the same way as she did to Narada.

Soon the marriage of Satyavan and Savitri took place and Savitri accompanied her husband and in-laws to the forest.

When she knew that Satyavan's lifespan is going to end, three days before the destined death date, she started her fasting and prayer. Though her in-laws were hesitant initially, later they supported her vratam (fasting). On the destined day, she decided to accompany Satyavan wherever he go. Satyavan went to the forest to cut trees and Savitri accompanied him. Suddenly, Satyavan felt dizzy and fell down. Savitri knew that he is going to die, laid him to her lap. Satyavan died the very next moment. Savitri could see that Lord YamaDharma is approaching Satyavan's body with a rope. She went towards him and bowed down.

At first YamaDharma was surprised to know that he was recognized by a human. Because, YamaDharma cannot be perceived through human eyes. He enquired about her and she being a Pativrata (noble wife), begged and prayed to Him to give back life to her husband, so that they can live together and serve their parents. But YamaDharma denied saying its impossible for him to give life back to a mortal and also it is against nature laws. Savitri kept on saying verses from literature in praise of belief, obedience and noble conduct and presented her request again. YamaDharma pleased with her approach and her choice of marrying Satyavan even after knowing his limited lifespan, offered her 3 boons to make except the life of Satyavan.

Wise Savitri proceeded asking him, "May my in-laws be blessed with eye vision and kingdom they lost! May my parents are blessed with hundred sons to continue their lineage! May I be blessed with hundred sons as well!"

YamaDharma replied, "Dadastu (Done)"  and later realized the trick in her boon, that she wanted hundred sons for herself, which would mean Satyavan to be alive.

YamaDharma then replied her that he was impressed with her persistence and Pativratvam (noble chastity) and he would give life back to Satyavan. Savitri paid her obeisance to YamaDharma and was happy to see his husband waking up from his drowsy state. On return to her in-laws, she was happy to see them with eye vision and a news that they got their kingdom back.

People in South India (especially Tamil Nadu) observe this time of the year (when the month transition from Masi to Panguni) as "Karadayan Nonbu", the same way as Savitri did her 3 days pooja and fasting. They make sweet adai made of rice and offer it to Goddess Shakti, Durga or Ambal  and draw inspiration from Savitri's belief and persistence. Married women pray for their husband's long life and unmarried women pray for a good devoted husband.

Simple pattern matching game

We had borrowed from library a Finnish book on numbers and pictures corresponding to the numbers.
The picture below is a page for number 100 listing 100 items.

While Barathraam enquire asking names of each objects, slowly he also started identifying that there are more dogs, bears in it and started recognizing the patterns.
Then I realised how wonderful game it was for him to identify star shapes, dog shapes in this picture of random objects.

And I thought I could share here, for kids of all ages would love to recognize patterns and locate objects. Try it out and share your ideas.

-- Sheer joy of sharing

Introducing Numbers - fun way

One day, we just came across the number train rhymes in youtube website and it became Barathraam's one of the favorite videos. He could count from 1-10 in Tamil & English now.. So I just thought of making a number train at home using color charts, that way he could associate the numbers he tell with the way it is written.
And, it turned out to be good that he could now point to the correct number as he tells it [ah, yes provided he is in a good mood :-)]

I read in "Baby Minds" by Linda Acredolo et al, that kids find it interesting to see patterns in what they see.. To aid this skill, they suggested drawing some simple figures from numbers and alphabets. I could come up with my limited creativity the below figures associating it to numbers.. Barathraam does enjoy it and hope he could come up with better ones as he grow.

-- Sheer joy of sharing

Introducing days

I just came across some website which mentioned a fun way to introduce days to kids..

I thought I could introduce the days to Barathraam along with the significance of the day by representing a God deity.

Here it goes,

In the small carboard box we used to put the current day's significant deity  while telling name of the day..
like for example, picture of sun and tell that it is Sunday..
We can alter it slightly with any specific activities like music/reading/drama and let them guess name of the day..

Try out and do let me know if you have any suggestions..

-- Sheer joy of sharing