November 14 is a special day for the children of India. It is the birthday of Pandit Jawaharlal Nehru, the first Prime Minister of India, who loved children and found happiness in the midst of children. It is observed in India as Children”s day. The Bible says that man was created in the image of God. So he is closer to God than other living things. Children are even more close to God because of their innocence, easy laughter and other lovable qualities. All great souls love children and become children in their midst. They are more happy in their company.
My dad was a great admirer of Nehruji and my introduction to Nehruji, like so many other great and wonderful things in life, was through my dad. He would tell me about the greatness of Nehruji and narrate many an interesting anecdote from his life. He also admired Nehruji”s speeches and writings, which led me later to get “The Discovery of India”, “Glimpses from World History” and a compilation of his speeches, published by the Publications Division of the Govt of India.
In my pre-university class English textbook, there was an inspiring article, “Coming of Gandhiji” by Nehruji. Then I came across Nehruji”s speech mourning the death of Gandhiji. How much he loved “Bapu” and how much saddened was he by the assassination of Gandhiji!
During 1964, on a holiday, I was in a cinema theatre watching the matinee show. Suddenly the screening was interrupted and a handwritten slide informing the “sad and sudden demise of our beloved Prime Minister Nehruji” was put on. We were all stunned. That evening there was a silent procession as a mark of respect to the departed soul in which I took part. I was a eleventh standard student then. I made a scrap book and started pasting Nehruji”s pictures and news items related to him in it.
Much has been said about time; great healer, subtle thief and so on. It erases many of our fond thoughts from our memory. I am unable to remember what happened to that scrap book. So also to the books. I remember to have given “Nehru”s Speeches” to friends who were practising shorthand and about the other two, I don”t remember anything. Probably some relative or friend borrowed them from me and then conveniently forgotten to return.
Another beautiful book to disappear was, “As America remembers Jawaharlal Nehru”, a beautiful pictorial publication from the USIS, New Delhi. However, I still remember a touching quote by Nehruji on himself:
“If anybody chose to think of me, then I should like them to say, this was a man who loved India and its people and they, in turn, gave him of their love most abundantly and extravagantly.”
Then there was Nehruji”s favourite lines from a poem of Robert Frost, in his own handwriting, which was found near his death-bed:
“The woods are lovely dark and deepBut I have promises to keepAnd miles to go before I sleepAnd miles to go before I sleep”(Only Nehruji has written the author”s name as “Richard Frost”).
Nehruji did not believe in organized religion but was a great admirer of Lord Buddha. I remember to have seen a photograph of him meditating in a Buddhist monastery. He was proud of cultural and literary heritage of India. He was a great statesmen, a towering intellect, an inspiring speaker, a beautiful writer, a dreamer, an idealist and a noble soul.
I only wish parents and teachers make a special effort to create an interest in today”s children of Nehruji and turn them to reading Nehruji”s life and works; better than indulging in useless, negative and often harmful pursuits.
My grateful thanks to dad for helping me develop a love and reverence for Nehruji and inspiring an interest in his works. (Written for my blog, “Role Models and Inspiring Lives” on November 14, 2008).
Posted in Random thoughts.
By Sivasubramanian Sivasuriyanarayanan
– December 17, 2008
Written on October 2, 2008 and posted at my SiliconIndia blog today, the December 1, 2008).
Gandhi Jayanthi (Gandhiji’s birthday) is being celebrated today not only in India but all over the world. On this day, I paid my humble homage to Gandhi by offering flowers to his portrait, reading a few inspiring passages written by him and also by posting my thoughts of him in my blogs.
Not that I think of him on his Jayanthi only; actually his smiling portrait adorns the foyer of our office and daily while entering the office, I mentally offer my respects to him and seek his blessings to live truthfully.
To me Gandhiji stands for, as I have said elsewhere in one of my blogs:
NON-VIOLENCE IN THOUGHT, WORD AND DEED
TRUTHFULNESS IN THOUGHT, WORD AND DEED
UNIVERSAL LOVE
SIMPLE LIVING AND HIGH-THINKING
NON-COVETOUSNESS AND NON-POSSESSIVENESS and
SELFLESS LIFE AND SELFLESS SERVICE.
I should like to think that I am moving towards these ideals albeit inch by inch.
I also have a desire to read his complete works (I think they run into more than 100 bulky volumes), before I die and quote from them extensively in my blogs. I hope they will inspire and guide me, as also others who visit my blogs and have the patience to read them.
Some of his lofty and wonderful thoughts I have posted in my blog, “Role Models and Inspiring Lives”. Just a look at them would convince anybody how great and noble a soul he was.
I shall be immensely happy if the younger generation, especially my children, Priya and Vinod, read his writings and benefit by them.
I salute you, Mahatmaji, on this day and may I always keep you in my mind so that inspires me to tread the path of Truth and follow your noble ideals! No matter how many times I fail, I should still pursue these goals till the end, without losing heart.
Detailed Wikipedia article on: “MOHANDAS KARAMCHAND GANDHI” http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mahatma_Gandhi
Full text of Gandhiji’s Autobiography, “THE STORY OF MY EXPERIMENTS WITH TRUTH“: http://wikilivres.info/wiki/An_Autobiography_or_The_Story_of_my_Experiments_with_Truth
Grateful thanks to Wikilivres and Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.
Posted in Random thoughts.
By Sivasubramanian Sivasuriyanarayanan
– December 6, 2008
I take pride in calling myself a booklover and book collector. But my family members have different ideas and call me by different names, which I prefer not to mention here.
I have been collecting books from my childhood. For a person who does not own a house and who is compelled to shift house periodically, this could be a real headache. Under these difficult and painful circumstances, however best I tried, limiting and preserving books was becoming a great worry.
During the course of my life (I am nearing 60), I have hardened my heart and parted with a lot of books out of desperation, despair and dejection. Yet I was accumulating more books and paper-cuttings than I was getting rid of. The painful part of it is the volume of my reading was going down all the time. So it is obvious I was accumulating more cud than I can chew.
The other painful thing is when I wanted something, more often than not I was finding it difficult to locate it. I would be pretty sure that I have the required material with me, still I would not be able to lay my hands on it. It is as good as or as bad as not having it.
What to do?
Sometimes friends are helpful in this regard. They borrow books and never return them. Here the crunch is I have only a limited number of friends. For this sake I can't develop new friendships.
My wife and children were and are making my life miserable by threatening to throw out everything, if I do not get rid of, well in their language, 'the junk' myself. I started having nightmares of finding my room barren with the books having vanished from there.
Then I came across this article in time.com: "How to live with just 100 things"
(http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,1812048,00.html) Very interesting article and if you are like me, a must read and I hope even otherwise everyone reads it. That is how I came to know about Dave Bruno and clutter-free living and goal-oriented minimalists and SHED (acronym stands for 'Separate the treasures, Heave the trash, Embrace your identity from within and Drive yourself forward').
Dave Bruno's online musings caught the attention of a lot of people (obviously there a lot of people like me) and suddenly the Net erupted with websites and articles on decluttering.
When I looked up 'declutter' in Google, it came up with 1,170,000 results for declutter in 0.25 seconds! Hats off to you, Google!!
Some of the results from Google are really very interesting and innovative. I am citing a few examples for your kind perusal, in the fond hope that you also will like them and maybe you may also try to declutter your home.
1. How to Declutter Your Home: http://declutteryourhome.blogspot.com2. Declutter Your Home Fast and Save Yourself from Embarrassment by Ricky Liang : http://ezinearticles.com3. Declutter Forum: http://www.amazon.com/tag/declutter/forum4. Declutter 15 minutes a day: http://www.43things.com/things/view/113682/declutter-15-minutes-a-day5. Get Organized Today with Free Tips Booklet: http://ineedmoretime.com6. Cut Clutter: http://organizedhome.com/articles/cut-clutter7. No More Clutter, Declutter Your Home: http://www.myhouseandgarden.com/declutter.htm8. How to Live with Just 100 Things: http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,1812048,00.html9. Ask the Experts: 5 Steps to Clutter-Free Living: http://www.time.com/time/nation/article/0,8599,1812185,00.html?iid=redirect-declutterA detailed and directly relevant article to this topic I came across in Wikipedia:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Compulsive_hoarding. As usual, Wikipedia is very informative and I picked up a few valuable points from there also.
Now, don't ask me whether I have decluttered my room. As always, implementation is hardest part. Hope I shall get around to do it sooner or later.
Grateful thanks to Time.com, Google and Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.
Posted in Random thoughts.
By Sivasubramanian Sivasuriyanarayanan
– December 1, 2008
During my last visit to Chennai, I was travelling in a car on the GST Road. My daughter pointed out to me white circles with 304-A on the road. She explained that it means there was a fatal accident. During our half-an-hour drive, I could see a lot of white circles with 304-A inside. It was very painful.
Then I looked up with the help of Google to know what exactly 304-A means.At Vakil No.1.com I found the rule. Section 304-A, Indian Penal Code - Causing death by negligence, reads: “Whoever causes the death of any person by any rash or negligent act not amounting to culpable homicide, shall be punished with imprisonment of either description for a term which may extend to two years, or with fine, or with both”.
Then I came across this disturbing statistics in The Times of India, Chennai, of October 23, 2008. “In the year 2007 alone, more than 1.3 lakh people died on Indian roads!”
I do not know how to drive gear vehicles. I have only an without gear moped. I have never bothered to learn driving gear vehicles. Whenever I ride on the pillion with somebody in Chennai, I keep praying all the time. The journey seems so hazardous. So I try to avoid travelling by two-wheelers in Chennai. But the Chennaiaites don’t seem to worry. Men, women and children they drive two-wheelers and four-wheelers casually and nobody seems worried. They overtake on the left and the right. I have seen two-wheelers threading their way between buses and lorries without a care. God protect them!
When I read about fatal accidents, especially those involving youngsters, it pains me greatly. All joy and promise nipped in the bud. I just can’t even imagine the agony of the parents who lose their beloved children in such accidents.
I could see girls driving two-wheelers at breakneck speed with gay abandon. In one way, I am happy. They are so fearless and bold. Kudos to them. Probably if you are born and brought up in Chennai and not a rural pumpkin like me, you get it easily and naturally.
However, one thing is clear. Our roads, especially city roads, are totally inadequate to cope with the alarming traffic congestion and exponential increase of traffic; they need to be widened, rules strictly enforced and offenders punished. More flyovers, more subways, more one-way roads and above all educating the public about road safety measures are needed.
“DRIVING OUR YOUTH SAFELY INTO THE FUTURE” from YoungDriverAwareness.com:
Foundation for the Automobile and Society:http://www.iraptranstats.net/inASIRT (Association for Safe International Road Travel’s) portal:http://www.asirt.org/“ACTING TOGETHER FOR SAFER ROADS” from UNECE (United Nations Economic Commssion for Europe):http://www.unece.org/trans/roadsafe/rsabout.html“TRAFFIC SAFETY CENTER” of the University of California, Berkeley:http://www.tsc.berkeley.edu/
Grateful thanks to Vakil No.1.com, YoungDriverAwarreness.com, Lifeline Foundation, IRTAD, Dept of Road Transport & Highways, Govt of India; FIA Foundation for the Automobile and Society; ASIRT, UNECE, University of California and Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.
Posted in Random thoughts.
By Sivasubramanian Sivasuriyanarayanan
– November 29, 2008
தள்ளல் மன்னர்கள்! - எஸ்.சத்தியமூர்த்தி, I.A. & A.S.
திரு மணியனுக்கு (இதயம் பேசுகிறது) இன்றைய வேலையை இன்றே முடிக்க வேண்டும். பெரிய தொழிலதிபர்களுக்கு நாளைய வேலையைக்கூட இன்றே முடிக்க வேண்டும். ஆனால் பல சாமானியருக்கு இன்றைய வேலையை நாளையோ அடுத்த நாளோ செய்தால் போதும். தள்ளல் மன்னர்கள் இவர்கள். இந்தத் தள்ளல் மன்னர்களுக்கு அமெரிக்காவில் ஒரு சங்கம் 1956-ல் ஆரம்பித்திருக்கிறார்கள்….. ஐந்து லட்சம் அங்கத்தினர்கள் சேர ஆசைப் படுகிறார்களாம். ஒரு செய்தி, அதையும் தள்ளிப் போட்டுக்கொண்டு இருக்கிறார்களாம்!
1823-ஆம் ஆண்டில் சின்சினாட்டி பல்கலைக்கழக நூலகத்திலிருந்து எம்.டூட் (M.Dood) என்பவர் திரு.ஜே.கர்ரி என்பவர் எழுதிய ஒரு மருத்துவப் புத்தகத்தை வாங்கிப் போனாராம். அவரும் ஒரு தள்ளல் மன்னர். புத்தகத்தைத் திருப்பித் தரவேயில்லை! அவருடைய கொள்ளுப்பேரன் 1968-ல் அந்தப் புத்தகத்தைத் திருப்பித் தந்தாராம், ஒரு லட்ச ரூபாய் நஷ்ட ஈட்டோடு!
(திரு எஸ்.சத்தியமூர்த்தி அவர்கள் எழுதிய “தள்ளல் மன்னர்கள்’ என்ற கட்டுரையிலிருந்து ஒரு பகுதி).
“கடைசிப் பக்கம்: சின்னச் சின்ன பூக்கள்“, திரு எஸ்.சத்தியமூர்த்தி, I.A. & A.S., கலைஞன் பதிப்பகம், சென்னை.விலை ரூ பதினாறு மட்டும். (’இதயம் பேசுகிறது’ இதழில் கடைசிப் பக்கத்தில் வாரா வாரம் வெளிவந்த சுவையான கட்டுரைகளின் தொகுப்பு).
Posted in Anecdotes.
By Sivasubramanian Sivasuriyanarayanan
– August 19, 2008
நோயின்றி வாழ ஐந்து வழிகள்!
1. காலை மாலை கடவுள் வழிபாடு
2. சந்தி நேரங்களில் உடற்பயிற்சி
3. ஒரு நாளைக்கு இரு வேளை உணவு.
4. நாள் ஒன்றுக்கு எட்டு டம்ளர் தண்ணீர்.
5. மாதம் ஒரு நாள் உபவாசம்.
நன்றி: ஆடுதுறை இயற்கை நலவாழ்வு சங்கம்
Posted in health.
By Sivasubramanian Sivasuriyanarayanan
– August 19, 2008
பாரதி பற்றி பாரதிதாசன்:
—————————————
பைந்தமிழ்த் தேர்ப்பாகன் அவனொரு
செந்தமிழ்த் தேனீ, சிந்துக்குத் தந்தை!
குவிக்கும் கவிதைக்குயில்! இந்நாட்டினைக்
கவிழ்க்கும் பகையைக் கவிழ்க்கும் கவிமுரசு!
நீடுதுயில் நீக்கப்பாடி வந்த நிலா!
காடு கமழும் கற்பூரச் சொற்கோ!
கற்பனை ஊற்றாம் கதையின் புதையல்!
திறம்பட வந்த மறவன், புதிய
அறம்பாட வந்த அறிஞன், நாட்டிற்
படரும் சாதிப்படைக்கு மருந்து!
மண்டும் மதங்கள் அண்டா நெருப்பவன்!
அயலார் எதிர்ப்புக் கணையா விளக்கவன்!
என்னென்று சொல்வேன், என்னென்று சொல்வேன்!
தமிழால், பாரதி தகுதி பெற்றதும்
தமிழ், பாரதியால் தகுதி பெற்றதும்
எவ்வாறென்பதை எடுத்துரைக்கின்றேன்.
Posted in Tamil Poetry.
By Sivasubramanian Sivasuriyanarayanan
– August 19, 2008
இயற்கை வாழ்வு - யோகி சுத்தானந்த பாரதியார்
பஞ்சபூத நிறை காத்தல் பசித்தபோது பழம் தேங்காய் கொஞ்சுங் காற்று வெய்யிலிலே கொட்ட வேர்வை வேலைசெயல் நெஞ்சு நிரம்ப மூச்சிழுத்தல் நீரில் ஆடித் தியானித்தல் நஞ்சு நீங்கப் பட்டினியால் நல்லியற்கை வாழவாமே.
Posted in health.
By Sivasubramanian Sivasuriyanarayanan
– August 19, 2008
வேப்ப எண்ணெய், மஞ்சள் சேர்த்துக் குழைத்து பித்த வெடிப்பின் மீது தடவ, விரைவில் குணமாகும். - டி.கௌரி, கம்பம்
(நன்றி: மங்கையர் மலர், ஜூன் 2008)
Posted in health.
By Sivasubramanian Sivasuriyanarayanan
– August 19, 2008
கடலுக்கு பயந்தவன்
கரையில் நின்றான்
அதைப் படகினில் கடந்தவன்
புது உலகைக் கண்டான்.
பயந்தவன் தனக்குப் பகையானான்.
என்றும் துணிந்தவன்
உலகிற்கு ஒளியாவான்.
என்னால் முடியும் என்றுநம்புங்கள்.
துணிவுடன் உலகை வெல்லுங்கள்!
(ஆசியாவின் மிகப்பெரிய ‘Spoken English’ பயிற்சி நிறுவனமான ‘வீட்டா” (VETA) நிறுவனத்தின் சென்னை-தி.நகர் அலுவலகம் இப்படியொரு ‘டானிக்’ கவிதையோடுதான் நம்மை வரவேற்கிறது. இருபது லட்சம் பேருக்கு மேல் போதித்து சாதனை படைத்த நிறுவனம்! உள்நாட்டில் 200 கிளைகள், கடல் கடந்து சிங்கப்பூரிலும் தற்போது கிளை!)
(நன்றி: ‘மல்லிகை மகள்’, தமிழ் மகளிர் மாத இதழ், மார்ச் 2008)
Posted in Tamil Poetry.
By Sivasubramanian Sivasuriyanarayanan
– August 19, 2008
