DOG FOOD

The Chartered Accountant of a restaurateur from South Mumbai was intrigued by a generous amount mentioned under the curious head "Dog Food". When the accountant asked what he meant by this and that such heads were not admissible,the restaurateur,an elderly gentleman,said he would rather explain to the income tax officer himself, if he were perhaps to question it. Sure enough,the I.T official did not pass the audited accounts and summoned the man. The restaurateue, never known to mince the words, told the official," It is for the two legged dogs from your department who come begging and whom I need to pay off every once in a while." His chartered accountant cringed,but the officer,who was clearly taken aback,approved the accounts!

WORLDS LARGEST DOMESTIC CAT

A cat in Reno has broken the Guinness World Record for World's longest domestic cat. The Reno Gazette Journal reports that a five year old Maine Coon named Stewie was certified as the new record holder after measuring 48.5 inches from the tip of his nose to the tip of tail bone. The record was previously held by another Maine Coon that measured 48 inches

WHAT A SWIM

A humpback whale has swum into the record books after travelling a quarter of the way around the world.In the longest recorded migration by any mammal, the female travelled 6200 miles from the coast of Brazil to Madagascar. She was identified by the distinctive markings on the tail.

TOUCHING INCIDENT

* TRUE INCIDENT: There was a man in Mumbai who was diabetic. He had a wound on his leg. It started festering and soon became a huge ulcer. When showed it to the doctor, the doctor said,"The leg needs to be amputated.If it isn't ,the gangrene could spread to the areas above. That will cause serious problems. The man was shocked to hear this.Not only was he dismayed at the prospect of losing his leg, he realized he would have to pay ten thousand rupees for the operation. He did not have a steady income even to support his family with what he earned. He became utterly dejected.One day the pitiable man went to the railway tracks. when the train was approaching, he placed the affected leg over the track.The train ran over the leg,severing it. But he also lost so much blood that he almost died. People took him to the hospital. When asked why he had acted thus, he said," I have no money to pay for the amputation. If it's not amputated, I will not be able to live either. With no money for the operation, I saw no other way before me. That's why I had to resort to this extreme measure."

TWO SHORT STORIES

* FAITH IN GURU: A devotee prided himself on his strong faith in Guru. He wanted to educate the tribe people living in the dense forests.The locals warned him about the wild elephants in the forest. But he entered the forest without heeding their advice. After sometime, he came across a wild elephant. He ran for his life.When asked if he had lost faith that his Guru would take care of him, the man said," Of course I have faith in my Guru! I just didn't have faith in the elephant.

* FAITH AND EFFORT: Three frogs fell into a big bowl of cream. Unable to get out, they desperately swam around in the cream. Finally one of them said,"There is no hope for us. We might as well give up!".Saying so,he sank and drowned.Then the second frog said," I always thought he was the strongest of us all. If he can't make it, I don't stand a chance!".He also gave up and drowned. But the third frog, who was the smallest of the three and who had always been considered the weakest, refused to give up. He continued to swim. All through the night he swam and swam, round and round in the bowl.Finally when morning came he was so exhausted he couldn't swim any longer. He was just about to drown when he felt something solid under his feet-it was an island of butter. By swimming through out the night ,he had churned the cream into butter. He stood on the island of butter and rested for a little while and then he hopped out of the bowl to freedom.

Guinness World Record

Edward Nino Hernandez weighs just 22 lbs and has been just officially certified as the World's shortest living man by Guinness World Records. He is, in many ways, a typical 24 year old Colombian male. He loves to dance Reggaeton, dreams of owning a car, preferably a Mercedes and wants to see the world. Top on the list of people he would like to meet are Jackie Chan,Sylvester Stallone and former Colombian President Alvaro Uribe. He has not grown since he was two years old.

TALLEST TEEN

Fourteen year old Elisany Silva from Brazil is one of the World's tallest teens. She is 6 Feet and 9 Inches tall. Suffering from a rare disease has caused her extreme height. The Brazlian was forced to quit school, as she became too tall for the bus.

HAPPY BIRTH DAY

Female hippopotamus " Yana" enjoyed her birthday cake made up of salad,carrots and concentrated feed,recently at the Opel Zoo in Kronberg near Frankfurt. Tana who celebrated her 50th birthday, is the oldest animal at the Zoo and one of the oldest hippopotamus in Europe.

INTRODUCTION OF TOILETS IN TRAINS-A SHOCKING EXPOSE

Based on the following written complaint by Okhil Chandra Sen to the Sahiganj divisional railway office in 1909,the Railways introduced toilets in train.
"I am arrive by passenger train Ahmedpur station and my belly is too much swelling with jack fruit. I am therefore went to privy.Just I doing the nuisance that guard making whistle blow for train to go off and I am running with lotah in one hand and dhoti in the next when I am fall over and expose all my shocking to man and female women on platform.I am got leaved at Ahmedpur station.
This too much bad,if passenger go to make dung that dam guard not wait train five minutes for him. I am therefore pray your honour to make big fine on the guard for public sake. Otherwise I am making big report to papers."

PARASAKTHY

Recently Kalaignar TV aired a Tamil movie Parasakthy ,penned by the Chief Minister of Tamil Nadu, on his 87th birth day. This was the first movie for the great actor Sivaji Ganesan.Nobody can say that this was his first movie. With his delivery of difficult and lengthy dialogues of Kalaignar perfectly and forcefully, he became an instant success in the film Industry. Especially his dialogues in the court scene,are even now , being appreciated and imitated . This film came in 1950's and directed by Krishnan Panju. Incidently these directors directed the 125th film of Sivaji Ganesan. Worth watching this movie

JAZZ PIANIST

Silent fingers jazz pianist Hank Jones died at 91 in New York. He belonged to Jazz's golden era and played with Ella Fitzgerald,Charlie "Bird" Parker and Benny Goodman. He accompanied Marilyn Monroe when she sang "Happy Birthday Mr.President" to John F Kennedy

An Incident-2

When I was studying in Gopalapuram School during 1960's, Kanchi Periavaal came to Gopalapuram and stayed in a devotee's house for about a week. At that time there was an announcement that Periavaal will give a silver coin to everyone who who has completed writing of 10000 Sri Rama Jayam. Myself and my elder sister completed the writing and went to collect the coin. We were standing in a queue. When my turn came I gave the note book and collected the coin. However my sister had a problem. They said that the book did not contain 10000 namas. She started crying. Periavaal,who was watching the incident called the concerned person and told him to give her the coin. He then said to the person that the intention is not the numbers but to appreciate the devotion and sincerity. How great he was. Even today we used to think about it.

An Incident

When Sri Sankarachariar of Kanchi matt was staying in Gopalapuram in Chennai during 1960's he used to visit all the streets in Gopalapuram.One day he came to Sadasiva Iyer street,where we were staying. As soon he reached our house, he asked his people to stop. He approached our father,who was standing outside our house,to see him. He enquired about his native place, working company and familiy members. After spending out 10 minutes he blessed all of us. It was a great moment for us. Even today I used to wonder how a Great Man stopped in front of our house and blessed all of us.

Humanity Lessons

In the Week Magazine dated 30/5/2010, there is an article "Humanity Lessons" by Amjad Ali Khan. This is an article about children, their present education,etc. Extract of one portion of the article reads as follows:
" Although development is important, administering discriminatory ideas to the minds of the children is a sin.Let the young minds experience peace,harmony,tranquility,equality and freedom.
Today's children are shooting and killing each other,even in schools.They have become so intolerant and unkind towards others and most importantly to themselves. It is sad that even children today need temper counselling.
It is high time we thought about the role of schools. There is definitely something seriously wrong in the education system. We need to teach our children the human and spiritual aspects of life. Teachers should establish their relationship as Gurus,Guides and Perceptors. Parents to give more time to their child from their busy schedule. We don't want to see robots produced by schools. The world will be richer and will be able to achieve its goal if schools could contribute towards making kind and empathetic children."
Wonderful article. It's right time that Government and Schools join together and solve the major issue.

Oh! Father

My father had a second heart attack during 1983 and was admitted in H.M.Hospital in Chennai. Eventhough he was recovering nicely, he suddenly became worse on Saturday night. He was again put in ICU. On sunday he became normal and on Monday morning (20/6/1983) around 8.30 am the Chief doctor Pratap Reddy (now with Apollo) checked him and told us that our father is alright and can be discharged on the next day. Since my father was thirsty, the doctor asked us to give coconut water to him. I gave the coconut water around 9 am. While drinking,he suddenly had a big cough and his heart baets became erratic. I went to the doctor and asked him to see immediately.As he had checked my father only around 8.30am he was not believing my words. However he came and found my father serious. His heart beat stopped around 10 am and the doctors started giving him electrical shock. Finally the end came around 10.30 am. I was watching his death from a window and could not control my tears. I miss my father very much even today.

School Days

I studied in Gopalapuram Boys High Scool in Chennai, from Standard V to Satndard X during 1960's.I was weak in English and used to get 35 to 40 marks. At the time, our Headmaster was one Mr. V.Srinivasan. He was very strict and sincere. He used to punish students who walk on the lovely lawn. In order to get good results for the school, he called all the students,who were weak in English and said that he would take evening classes,(after school hours) for English, without any fee. He selected some few areas where we can get high marks-such as precis writing,punctuation,etc. His simple and effective way of teaching really helped us in getting good marks. It is very difficult to see such a dedicated,committed and sincere teacher nowadays.

TRAGIC EVENTS

When I was doing my BSc degree in 1964 at the New College,Chennai, I used to have joint study with one of my close friend C.S.Padmanabhan (called Ramji). We were staying in the same street. For the second year,we were preparing jointly on a Sunday. The next day we had Physics exam. As we go to the college together,as usual, on Monday I went to his house. There was a huge crowd in his house. I thought something must have happened to his father,who was in hospital. To my great shock I came to know about the brain haemorrhage to my friend. I was really shaken by the news and could not control my tears. In view of the exam I had to leave for the college. But due to his untimely death I could not concentrate on my exam. Somehow I finished my exam and rushed to his house to pay my last respects. His cousin Gopal, who was my school mate ,also met with a similat fate after 2 years of Padmanabhan's death. Both the deaths really had shaken me and even today I think about them and feel sad.

Raining Fish

Residents in a remote desert town in Australia,326 miles from the nearest river,are recovering after two days of fish raining from the sky.Lajamanu, in the northern territory,population 669,has seen hundreds of small white fish fall from rain clouds, with many still alive. Weather experts believe that the fishes were sucked up in a thunderstorm before being dumped over the town. It is the third time,in less than thirty years that Lajamanu has been bombarded by falling fish.

SADHANA CAMP

Recently we attended a Sadhana Camp organised by Arshavidya Gurukulam" at Anaikatti, 30 kms from Coimbatore,between 26th February and 28th February,2010. There were 64 participants,mainly from Bangalore. As usual the camp life started at 4.30 am and ended around 10pm. It covered "pooja" at Sri.Dakshinamurthy temple (5am to 6.30am),meditation for 1 hour and three classes a day for "Hamsa Gita" of one hour each. In the night there were bhajans and question/answer sessions from 8 pm to 10pm.
There are 45 slokas in "Hamsa Gita",representing dialogues between Yudhistra and Bheeshma on vedanta. Due to want of time Swamiji could complete only about 20 slokas.
There is a small beautiful temple for Lord Muruga,situated inside the campus,on a small hill.
We really enjoyed the 3 days camp organized under the spiritual guidance of our swamiji-Swami Chitatmananda Saraswati. As we were cut off from our normal life, we were free from our worries and routine jobs

BALE PANDIYA

Another old tamil movie "Bale Pandiya" was shown in KTV recently. Sivaji Ganesan has acted in three different roles and M.R.Radha in two roles. This movie is a full length comedy. Sivaji Ganesan has,as usual,done the three roles beautifully and differentiated the characters nicely. He has proved that he can shine in comedy role also. What a great actor he was? All the songs of the movie are melodius and penned by Kavingar Kannadasan. "Athikkai kai kai.......""vazha ninaithal vazhalam......" and "neyee enakku nigaranavan....." are some of the melodius songs linger in our mind even today. Music is by Viswanathan Ramamurthy.

KATHALIKKA NERAMILLAY

In KTV,they have shown recently,a tamil movie "Kathalikka Neramillay"-an yester years hit,by Director Sridhar. This movie ran for 200 days for its full length comedy and beautiful melodius songs.Even today,the songs are ever green. It is a clean full length comedy movie without any vulgar and double meaning dialogues. Actor Muthuraman, who must be around 30 years of age at that time gave a creditable performance,as a father to Ravichandran. His punchant and modulated dialogue delivery was another feather on his cap. Actor Balaiah excels in his portrayal of a man ,without much worldly knowledge. Actor Nagesh,an excellent comedian and actress Sachu provide the necessary support for this wonderful comedy movie. Musis of the movie is by Viswanathan and Ramamurthy.

VINNAY THANDI VARUVAYA

Recently we saw a tamil movie "Vinnay Thandi Varuvaya" in Anjali Theatre at Trivandrum. After a gap of so many years we were seeing a movie in a theatre.With the new sound system at the theatre,the back ground music and music for the songs were very noisy and I could not hear most of the dialogues properly due to this. Some of the old songs like "kalangalil aval vasantham..."in Pava Mannippu,"Netru varai nee yaroo..." and "Chinna chinna kannanukku...." in Vazhkkai Padagu are still popular and linger in our minds because they are melodious and importance was given to the lyrics. I am not saying that all of our present songs are noisy but very rarely they are melodius.

Grand Daughters

We have two grand daughters-Hrudya and Smayaa. "Hrudya" means one who dewells in the heart. True to her name, she is dwelling in our heart. After my retirement in 2005,we have spent most of our time with her. She is very affectionate and talented(music,dance,keyboard,etc)."Smayaa",the recent addition,about one year back,means "Smiling."She is also,true to her name smiles and laughs a lot. Even sitting in the potti seat she shouts,laughs and smiles. The way she calls me "thaa...thaa",gives so much of happiness. Whenever we are eating, she comes crawling fast and asks for food.
It's God's gift to us to have such wonderful grand daughters. Because of them, my retired life has become tension free and meaningful. They give lot of happiness and joy. We sincerely pray for their welfare and happiness

Railway Stations of India

Indian postal department has comeout with another set of beautiful stamps on "Railway stations of India". Four stamps,issued on 16/8/2009, cover Chennai,Kolkatta,New Delhi and Mumbai Stations. This is printed in "Wet-offset". Denomination of these stamps are Rs5 each. It is worth to add these stamps in Stamp Collectors' kiity.

STAMPS BY INDIAN POSTAL DEPARTMENT

Indian Postal Department has issued on 27/7/2009, 11 beautiful stamps on Geetagovinda-10 stamps depicting the ten avatars of Vishnu and one on Jayadeva. Geetagovinda was composed by Jayadeva in Sanskrit in 12th Century AD and translated into many Indian languages. The Geetagovinda has been sung,danced and enacted at Puri Jagannath Temple. I find that nowadays Indian Stamps are superior to other country stamps. Be proud to be an Indian