Tambaram days

Tambaram days and Jaya Mama

Fleeting thoughts 3

A couple of Months ago, I went to Tambaram to attend the marriage of my friend Krishnan.  One of my  National High School mates –(std. 9^th to 11^th) Sankar who stayed in Valmiki Street, East Tambaram next to our house where we stayed during that period had retired recently from National Insurance Company Limited.  He had invited me to visit him – he continues to stay in the same house.  After the marriage reception at Madambakkam I went to Valmiki street  to see him.

I was directing the driver as to how to go from Selaiyur – Christ king Convent – Christudas Hospital and so on – when I reached Valmiki street ( past Lakshmi Rajaram’s house in the corner of Valmiki Street and Kasiyappar Street, I thought of a certain distance in my mind to reach his house.  This distance was embedded in my memory based on the time taken from the end of the street to the House which I used to take when I was in 9^th to 11^th Standard.  On that basis, when I turned into the street, I went past the house  without realizing and I had to stop to call my friend and return back to his house.  He was standing outside the house to welcome me.

Thereafter, I went to the house entrance where we stayed and took a photograph of the same.  It was raining and it was past 9 p.m.  I posted the photo in the Whatsapp  Pankaji Siblings group asking Sreedher, Gopu and Uma  to recognize the house. 

 While  my sister Uma came very close to remember – she said Kasiappar street ( because she and Lakshmi were thick friends) and then she remembered that a important event took place in that house.  Gopu  hit the bull’s eye. Sreedher recognized it as Tambaram but could not place it  first time.

My thoughts went over this experience – firstly why did I miss the house although mentally I had calculated the time taken from the end of the street to the house.  Secondly how Uma could recognize that an important event took place in that house.

I asked my daughter who is doing Post graduate in Psychology – she had an instant answer – our experiences and events get recorded in the memory – some of them in the long term memory.  She said that is the reason why  your sense of timing of the distance was related to how much time you took as a young boy – while as an Adult you travel a longer distance during the same duration of time.  Uma on the other hand remembered it because her Marriage was finalized and took place when we stayed in that house.

Only some of our child hood experiences gets embedded in long term memory creating lasting memories, while many others gets into working memory and in course of time gets forgotten.  Our brain is a Computer –Random Access Memory as well as Hard Disk together  in one place!

Lasting memories  3

Jaya Mama

Talking of Tambaram none of our family members ( Gopaliyer clan) can forget the time we spent with Jaya Mama.  Besides a number of qualities which we can only admire – cannot emulate -- Jaya Mama is a good Palm reader.  When you sit with him either in the Jhoola ( oonjal as  we call it)in Porur street house  or you sit beside him in his house in Oorapakkam after his retirement, he would take your palm and start looking at it.  He would also use acupressure techniques to press the Palm and fingers at the same time.   I have personally experienced this number of times and he I recently came across a picture describing the nerve endings in our Palm. 

Only then,  it dawned on me that he must have been aware of this very well and was using the acupressure technique to stimulate as well as smoothen our nerves.  No wonder we used to feel  well in his presence and we used to enjoy his company.

Talking of the nerve endings in the Palm yet another thought that ran in my mind was the counting methodology taught to us while doing  Gayathri Japam.

Counting during Gayathri Japam

• Gayathri Manthra should *never* be recited *without* count;
• should not count by extending or folding fingers;
• count should start between 2nd and 3rd knuckle of ring finger and move clockwise  to end for a count of 10 at base of index finger; then reverse direction in anti-clockwise direction to 20 and so on (right hand, reverse it in left to keep count of 10s); 
• the base of the middle finger is considered to be ‘Meru’ and should never be crossed;
• the habit of breaking dharba grass at the count of 10 or 100 is taboo; 
• dharba grass or samith sticks should never be broken;  however, each whole stick/grass can be moved for such counts;
  

Please look at both the pictures -  how Gayathri Japam is counted – and the picture  showing nerve endings in our palm and fingers shown above.  Can you notice some thing as we do Japam every day, we ensure that Brain and Pituitary Glands are getting massaged, along with eyes, ears as well as sinus areas.  Our forefathers did not explain this in detail but we were asked to follow as a religious routine.   When we exercise nerve ends  from pituitary gland and brains during Gayathri Japam every day  it would give tremendous benefits.  After understanding this, I thought of sharing this with everyone through this blog!

Please await my My next blog on Kalachakkaram and Balance Score Card 

Nature and Nurturing

Nurturing and Nature

Fleeting thoughts 2

Whenever I go to Insurance Regulator’s office in Hyderabad, during my car travel between Shamshabad  Airport to Hyderabad city, I used to see number of flower trees lined on both sides.  The ones that  used to attract me are the Yellow or red coloured flowers – known as : Kondrai malar – this is considered very special for Lord Shiva.

பொன் ஆர் மேனியனே! புலித்தோலை அரைக்கு அசைத்து,
மின் ஆர் செஞ்சடை மேல் மிளிர் கொன்றை அணிந்தவனே!
மன்னே! மாமணியே! மழபாடியுள் மாணிக்கமே!
அன்னே! உன்னை அல்லால் இனி யாரையும் நினைக்கேனே!

Many times I attempted to bring the seeds of this flower tree to grow it in my house.   On more than one occasion I failed to succeed as the sprouts used to wither away once we transfer them to the pots. This time when I went to Trivandrum for a Conference, I happened to see the same trees outside the Hotel and I picked up some seeds.  We once again tried to get the sprouts and transferred them to Flower Pots. 

Many withered away due to heat wave, but  three of them survived.  As I was observing these three sprouts every day, suddenly I noticed a significant feature of Nature.  It really astonished me. 

Closely observe the three photographs shown below

The first stage is a sprout from the seeds with two leaves and a stem in between.

At the second stage  you can see the two leaves at the bottom left while many leaves have come out of the stem.

In the third stage, you can see the third one where the plant has grown further – but the two  original leaves are not there.  If you look closely at the picture, you can see all the three sprouts – first one on the right, the second one on the left and third one in the centre of the picture. While the two leaves  protect the stem in the first stage and provide some support in the second stage, at the  third stage the two leaves had fallen away.

So what is the learning that this natural phenomenon is giving us?  The moment you identfy the two leaves as Parents and the plant as the off-spring, every thing  falls in perspective..  When the Children grow they need your protection at the initial stages and support at growing stages.  When they are grown, the Parents should leave the children to lead their own lives.

If we observe nature closely, we will get many more such lessons to make our lives simple and happy.

Lasting Memories - 2

Talking of observing a seed grow into a plant / tree, I had an interesting experience in one of the training programmes I attended in the 1990s.  I was a Scale IV officer in GIC of India at that time.  The programme was relating to Human Relations Development.  On the first day  of training i.e Monday  at National Insurance Academy, Pune  when all the participants including myself entered the room, we were introduced to a Professor from National Institute of Bank Management, Pune.  I do not remember his name now.  He handed over a  pot with a small plant inside.  He stated that we should take the plant to our room and keep it outside in the Balcony.  He said that we should ensure that the plant got enough sun light and water.  He also asked us to water the plant  and observe its growth for the whole week.  He asked us to keep a note / diary of what we did everyday with the plant, our observations and feelings.  The caveat was that the plant should not die of excessive sunlight or want of it, or excessive water or lack of it. It should have grown more .

Each one of us meticulously followed  the instructions.  On the last day of the training, he asked us to bring the plant into the Class room.  He asked each one of us to explain the emotions and feelings that each one of us went through during the week while nurturing the plant.

What a nice way to explain the foundation of upbringing and nurturing of our children/ students / junior colleagues  - constant care, support, guidance and protection as needed, but leaving them to grow on their own.

Sekar

Fleeting thoughts - Lasting memories

Fleeting thoughts

On 2^nd August 2015, when I went for my regular consultation with the Preventive Diabetologist for blood sugar, she expressed that I should try to bring down my weight by 2 kgs., in 2 months' time. So I decided to add cycling to my exercise regime, the other being walking. As my thoughts went to my bi- cycling days in Tambaram, I suddenly realised the cyclical life style everyone spends from birth to death.

In climate, economics and business, we talk of cycles and their management. In our physical life have we noticed the cycle of life style  that each one  go through -- here it is .......

Carried ->Crawl -> walk (with holding hands )->Walk -> run -> tri- cycle -> bi-cycle (outdoors) -> 4 wheelers -> public transport, own car (drive)-> flight -> 4 wheelers -Car (driven), public transport-> cycle (indoor)-> walk (with sticks), wheel chair, and -> carried...

Lasting memories

Recent family functions connected with Raghu's 70th birthday, made Gopalaiyer clan from across East North, South and West India, as well as Southern and Northern hemisphere congregate in Mumbai. Such functions are far and few.  However, Gopalaiyer clan excel in such get togethers despite vicissitudes of life each one has.  Lot of gossip kindled the lasting memories embedded in everyone's mind. The common and underlying thoughts were time spent together by us in Tambaram and Alwarpet.

Any physical forms of memories - Letters, poems, greeting cards, photographs, gifts, mementos, albums etc., not even the present day digital forms - Emails -> facebook -> whatsapp ->google photos could capture these memories, so effectively.

When I was in London 14 years ago, I remember Natwest bank had advertised to attract customers " There is another way.  Face to face". There is no substitute for face to face get togethers and reliving our memories of past events.  If sufficient notice of such family functions is given, I am sure every one in Gopalaiyer clan would love to do so again and again. Who is giving the next opportunity?

Sekar.