For the love of God - The Hindu

For the love of God - The Hindu
Click the link to see the original article in the The Hindu



(From the Hindu)



My comments:

Truly heart wrenching... and humbling. We live in our own protected cocoon fretting over trivial issues in life. We must support and appreciate organizations like missionaries of charities.

For starters we can plan to celebrate birthdays with underprivileged children. There were so many sentences in the articles that tugged and pricked my conscience. What mother Theresa says about seeing god in people is so true and in essence is Advaitha (non-dualism)... not trying to get religious here but just commenting on the essence of her belief and similarities between beliefs.



Poverty needs to be eliminated, especially children need to be able to live a decent life and all of us must contribute and help in our own little ways.

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Vijay Awards 8th Annual Awards - Politically Correct!

I was watching Vijay awards today. Felt like Vijay TV was trying hard to please the stars who were in attendance and awards were being doled out  based on what the most politically right thing to do rather than who was deserving, how did Vijay Sethupathi not win an award? What's wrong with Vijay TV who have some decent programming. Why do you have to give Siva Karthikeyan award every year (I like him nevertheless) all his movies are monotonous and the same have the same kind of characterization. Siva, I have better scripts in mind for you :).

Grow up guys, have a professional award event, populism will not work, may be in the short term you can pull stars and the film fraternity. Encourage the right talent and how can there be multiple actor awards (jury and favorite)?

I hope things will change and you will not stoop down for populism and please watch the oscars multiple times before the next awards function. I must say one thing though, that Vijay awards is much better than trashy bollywood awards function which tend to be very plastic and you can see the faction war out in the open.

Jury must decide the awards and jury must have adequate representation from all quarters of the industry. All the best next year.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/8th_Vijay_Awards

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Forgotten stories of Indian soldiers during World War I - The Hindu

Forgotten stories of Indian soldiers during World War I - The Hindu



Very interesting research and I'm looking forward to see this. Why is the government of India or the ASI (Archaeological Survey of India) not researching items like this. History is not just about Indian National Congress of the Mughals it is about the the common people living in those times, their trials and tribulations, joy and sorrow and their lives. We need more such endeavors that will help construct our national psyche for future generations.

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Temple city - Kumbakkonam part 1

Last year I visited the temple city of Kumbakonam for attending my relative's marriage. It presented a unique opportunity for me and my wife to take time off and visit the beautiful and brilliant temples in and around Kumbakonam.

Kumbakonam is a unique city with lots of temples and each temple foretells its history of thousands of years. The city is a must visit for people who are religious, people who love architecture, archaeology and history. More often India is distorted by specific tourist destinations like the Taj Mahal (which of course is a must see) but if you really want see what India looked like in its golden age  and 1000s of years before recorded history then you must visit the temples of south India and places like Kumbakonam, Tanjore, Madurai and host of other temple destinations in Kerala,  Andhra Pradesh and Karnataka.

In this  multi part blog let's take a look at Kumbakonam a beautiful temple city in Tamil Nadu and its temples.
For more information on the city visit the wiki site:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kumbakonam


One of the great things I love about cities like these is that you can relive the history of such places by visiting the temples where tradition of thousands of years are still kept alive through the temple customs, deities and ambience. The experience is just out of the world, in this era where we are always rushing from one thing to another and do not take the time to experience or feel anything, this kind of experience somewhere grounds you when you look at the history and the architectural marvel of these temples. The icing on the cake is the peace and eternal bliss that is experienced in such places, places of worship which are still not shrouded by commercialism and places where you can take your own time to explore and experience.

I found a very good guide map and legend of temple locations in and around Kumbakonam in the hotel where we were staying. We took a cab to go around and I think the cost was a INR 1,500 for a day with the driver who was very knowledgeable about the locations and conversant with the temple timings.

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