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