Our Chardham Trail - Oct-2019

Our Chardham Yaathra:

It all started as a casual chat outside the Kapali temple after our daily அர்த்தஜாமம் & பள்ளி அறை. As many of the regulars at Kapali temple have visited Kedharnath we have always wanted to go there once. Ramkumar jii was telling that he is planning to go to Kedhar and Badhri by October after நவராத்ரி and before the Diwali function. Some of us, first timers wanted to join him in his trip. By July, Ram decided on the dates and also booked his tickets. Many of them who initially wanted to join him opted out for various reasons. I was initially unsure because of office uncertainties. Before I could decide to join, Vignesh also booked the tickets to join. By mid-August, I also decided to join and booked my tickets as well.

10-Oct-2019 - Day 0:

As planned, we joined at the Chennai domestic airport by 10 PM on 10-Oct. After reaching Delhi, we had to take another flight to Dehradun. We reached Dehradun in AI flight by 8 AM.

Day 1 - 11-Oct-2019 - Kempty Falls:

After collecting our baggage, we started towards Yamunothri by 8:30 AM. Our cab driver had already arrived by then. After a drive of about 2 hours, we wanted to refresh and had a taken couple of hours break at “Aryana Restaurant and Home Stay” near Bhatta Falls, Mussoorie. I had my first taste of north Indian aaloo paratha, achaar and a cup of curd. But by then, I didn’t have a clue that aalu paratha and achaar would be my primary source of sustenance over the next 10 days. We enjoyed our brunch, had a brief nap and started again by 12:45. On the way, we had a brief stopover at Kempty Falls, Mussoorie. It was late afternoon and the water was
pretty cold even then. We spent about 30 mins there and again started towards Yamunothri.

                  

It was Pradosham that day. So, Ram wanted to make sure we had a darshan of a Shiva temple. It happened all of a sudden by 4:15. We chanced upon a small temple at the riverside. Ram performed his மத்யானிக அனுஷ்டானம் there followed by his Shiva poojai. It was a scenic place with Yamunothri flowing in the valley. We had some shots in camera and started towards Yamunothri again. Ram actually planned for staying at Birla Aashram, near Yamunothri. But then, it was already late when we reached Barkot about 50 KMs before Yamunothri. We checked in Govt guest house, but it wasn’t available. We had to make couple of more stops at Barkot and settled at “Hotel Kanak Palace” for the night. It is at the function where we could take diversions to Yamunothri or Gangothri.

Day 2 – 12-Oct-2019 – Yamunothri Darshan:

We started from our room by 8:30 on 12-Oct towards Yamunothri and we were at Hanuman Chatti by 11 AM. We had to trek for about 7-8 KMs. Half way thru, we thought we are already falling back and so, opted for a horse ride. We had some nervous moment as the horse I was riding struggeled and slipped couple of times dropping me down. I understood that the horse owners sometimes have the habit of using 1 collie for 2 horses. This way they can save on the payment for a coolie. Later when we were travelling in horse back in Kedhar, the horse owner employed the same tactics. But then things were more organized in Kedhar. When the horse wala tried the same tactics in Kedhar, we were stopped by the police and until another horse wals was brought in, we were not allowed to proceed. The horse ride in Yamunothri was more unorganized and was the demand from the coolies wasn’t consistent and had to be directly paid to the coolies themselves. But in Kedhar, we had prepaid counters well before the place we started the ride and it was monitored by the local policemen. Back to the Yamunothri story, by the time we reached the temple, it was about 2 PM. First we had a dip at the तप्त पानी(the hot water pond, I understand it is natural hot water spring due to presence of Sulphur in water). Then we had darshan at the temple, including the main deity and couple of tanks one called Draupati kund. We started back by 3 PM or so from Yamunothri and reached the base at Hanuman Chatti by another horse. We paid Rs. 1000 for the trip back on horse back. We located the parking area and we reached back the hotel at Barkot by 9 PM. We had dinner at the hotel restaurant and closed for the day.

Note: Between Akshya Thrithika in April and Diwali in October or November, the deities reside in Yamunothri. In the winter though, the deity in Yamunothri moves to Kharsali area due to severe snow and cold between November and April. This is the practive in other dhams too.

Day 3 – 13-Oct-2019 – Uttarkashi, Gangothri:

On 13-Oct, by 9 AM we vacated the hotel and started from Barkot towards the second Dham, Gangothri. Ram had planned stopover at Uttarkashi. Between Barkot and Uttarkashi, we had 2 tunnel ways being laid by dredging mountains. The first one is between Barkot and Dharasu on way to Uttarkashi. Detaisl of the National_Highway_134 tunnel at the wiki location. This would reduce the distance between Yamunothri and Gangothri by about 20 Kms and travel time by an hour or more. We drove further and touched the NH 34, had brunch at Bartwal Bhojnalaya, “Dharasu - Barkot - Yamunotri Rd”, Patara, Uttarakhand. Spent 30 mins in there.  By around1:30PM, we were at the Uttarkashi Viswanath temple.

        



To-Do: Ram's video Sthala Mahatmeeyam of Viswanathar temple of Uttarkashi to be added here.

We stared from Uttarkashi by around 2:30 and we headed to Gangothri. It was a scenic drive all along and we were going mostly uphill with Mandagni flowing in the valley. We reached Gangothri by around 5 and we settled down at hotel Manisha closer on way to Gangothri. After refreshing, we immediately started to the temple. The temple was pretty busy on that full-moon night with aarthi going on. We had darshan at the main deity, the homa kund opposite to that and started back to hotel. The night was pretty cold.

Note: Gomuki in Gangothri Glacier is the starting point of Ganges and it is at a distance of 18 KMs from Gangothri. We can trek to Gomuk. Probably should plan for a visit there if I could get to go another time.

Day 4 – 14-Oct-2019 - Gangothri, Travel towards Kedharnath: 

The next day morning, we woke up by 5:30 AM and were at the temple at 7:30 for the Ganga Pooja. The water was almost freezing and cold and it was quite a task collecting water for the Pooja. We caught cold of a purohit, completed the Pooja by around 9 AM. Had a darshan of the main deity and home kund, went around there and went back to hotel. Note: Most of the water containers they sell at the shops around there leak with water filled from Gangothri. So, it would be a good idea to take some leak-proof water bottle or container if you are keen on bringing ganga jal from Gangothri. After finishing the darshan for the day, we started towards the 3rd Dham, the Kedharnath.

Day 5 - 15-Oct-2019 - Gaurikund, Munkh khatiya Ganpathy, Thriyug Narayan Mandhir:

By 8AM on Tuesday, we started from Gupthakashi hotel towards Kedharnath. There was HeliTaxi services provided from 3 or 4 places operated by private players, regulated by Govt. We thought we would take the helicopter ride from one of the 3 or 4 places on the way. One was available in Gupthakashi, just 10 KMs from the hotel, and 1 in Patha another 2-5 Kms further and 1 more in Sirsi, all costing from 3000 to 5000 Rs for a round trip. But due to bad weather, there were many cancellations and many of the pilgrims who had booked rides earlier were also stranded. I understood there are procedures to get refund, but that is complicated. But we were told that we still can get the rides if we are ready to pay a premium. So, if we are sure we want to go only by helicopter, we may have to shell more. By 10 AM we reached Sonprayag, base camp of Kedharnath. We had to take a local jeep to commute to Sonprayag and we had to walk to Gaurikund where the horse ride or Dholi was available. We had darshan at Gaurikund where Parvathi was in thapas for marring lord Shiva. . After completing darshan at Gaurikund, we started walking towards Kedhar. We initially thought we would walk the 16 odd Kms to the Kedharnath temple. As we walked up, it was getting colder and we were also getting tired. So, we ended-up searching for 3 horse walas, but we couldn’t get any going up to the temple. After talking to some staff at “Hotel Shivalik Valley”, we decided to take help on booking for horse and start for Kedharnath only the next day. On way back to hotel, we went to Gaurikund, the place where Parvathi married lord Shiva. After that, we stopped over for darshan at Munkatiya. Here lord Ganesh has his head missing after lord Ganesha tries stopping Shiva from entering Parvathi’s adobe and Shiva cuts off his head. This was a pretty small temple in the hill and probably not much visited as well. 

                            

                    

 

                         

Day 6 – 16-Oct-2019 - Kedharnath Darshan: 
We woke up by 4:30 and were taken to Gaurikund by jeep and we landed up in the prepaid counter. The staff from Shivalik who was accompanying us helped with booking the horse. It was Rs.2350 up and Rs.1500 down, pretty cheap compared to Yamunothri. We started climing by 6 AM and by 10 AM, we were at the dropping point about half a kilometer from the Kedharnath shrine. Apart from horse, we had also dholis which were carried by either 1 or 4 members. Those were allowed much closer to the shrine. . Ram had elaborate plans for Pooja after getting hold of some prohits. We completed the Pooja by 1 PM. There is a bolder behind the temple, which supposedly saved Kedarnath temple from the 2013 cloud burst and floods. We could also see some agoris around in Kedharnath. After coming out, had some snaps around the temple and started back to base by 3 PM by the same horse wala that went up on. By 6PM, we were at Gaurikind the place we started. From three, we had to walk about a KM to Sonprayag and from there we had to take a jeep back to our hotel. It was about 8 PM by the time we were there at hotel and so, we luckily got a room available in Shivalik Valley and decided to stay there that night. Sthala Puranam: After the Kurukshetra war, the Pandavas were very rejected that they killed so many. After consulting Srikrishna, they were at penance at the Himalayas. Lord Shiva appeared in the form of a bull and Bhimasenan was chasing the bull after realizing that it is infact lord Shiva. The hump of the bull is what is considered the Shiva lingam at Kedharnath. Three are other 4 places where the other parts of the bull appeared and they are together called pancha-Kedhar. The limbs of the bull appearing in Tunganath, the nabhi (navel) and stomach surfacing in Madhyamaheshwar, the face showing up at Rudranath and the hair and the head appearing in Kalpeshwar. It is also a practice to visit pancha-Kedhar in one go like done for char-dham. Credit goes to Shri Adhisankaracharya to have discovered this place and established the temple. Note: Hotel Shivalik Valley was one place where we could get South Indian food and had a taste of Andhara meals after 5-6 days of living in roti and aaloo paratha. I understand that the tarrif for the hotel is much higher in May-June-July timeframe when the traffic to chardham is highest.  Kedharnath darshan was the prime objective of our trip. Having done that, we very happily started towards the 4th dham.

    

Day 7 – 17-Oct-2019 – Gupthakashi, Urkhimath, Gopeshwar Darshan:

Sonprayag to Joshimath: https://goo.gl/maps/6LyigLadfK6Tmxra6

We vacated the hotel and started towards Badhrinath by morning. By 11 AM, we were at Gupthakashi Viswanath temple. This is around 30 Kms from Sitapur where we started from. This temple is also connected to Mahabharatha. After spending about an hour here, we started towards Urkhimuth. The Omkareshwarar temple in Urkimutt is the winter adobe of Lord Kedharnath. Also the Madyameshwar deity was would also be in the Urkhimuth temple during the winter and the deity from Madhyameshwar was already in there. We had a sannidhi for Bairavar in Urkhimath and also the 5 kedhar lingams were also in a sannidhi. Gupthakashi or Phata are the 2 of the places well connected by helicopter to Kedharnath. So, if you are planning to go by helicopter, it would be convenient to stay in one of these places.

By 4:30 PM we were at Gopeshwar, another temple town. After driving thru a busy narrow market street, we were in the Mahadev temple, Gopeshwar in Chamoli district. The architecture was different than the other temples we visited till date. On way towards Joshimath, we had a break at Pipalkoti and were at Joshimath by 8:30. We found accommodation at Hotel Malari Inn. There was a restaurant attached to the hotel opposite to that and the meal sumptuous meal night with roti, aaloo paratha, currey, dhal, rice, curd and achar. 

 

Day 8 – 18-Oct-2019 – Badhrinath, Joshimath:


Badhrinath and Back via Vishnuprayag: https://goo.gl/maps/DktnMvtymA4iRtpq5 

By 8 AM as usual, we started towards Badhrinath from Joshimath. It was a scenic 90 mins drive and reached Mana, cicle. At a 3 KM distance from this circle is the village of Mana, which is one of the border villages between India and Tibet. By 10:30, we were at the तप्त पानी कुंड (the hot water pond @ Badhtinath). We had a quick dip at the कुंड. It was a sulphur water sprint, and like in Yamunothri, it is not recommended to keep immerced in it for long. 100 m from that kund is Brahma Kapalam. The legend is that after chopping off Brahma’s fifth head, lord Shiva has the head struck in his hand and to get rid of it, he had go for bikshavandhanam. Lord Vishnu helped lord Shiva get rid of it. It is practice for Hindus to do pithru tharpanam at this place. Ram went for Tharpanam. Myself and Vignesh, roamed around shopping in the place for sometime. We were supposed to meet Ram and together we were to be in the Badhrinath temple. But this was missed in communication and each of us ended up going to the temple alone. Mobile network connectivity was also not good enough and calls hardly went. The crowd was swelling by the time I entered the temple, and I eventually had the darshan at around 11:30. This was again a small temple with the main sannidhi and there was a snnidhi for Naranarayanan(Arjuna and Krishna) and Hanuman in the prakaram. This temple was also established by Shri Adhisankara himself and so, has a mandapan where Shri Sankara himself was in meditation. Badhrinath is one of the divya desams. There is a mountain named Indraneelaparvatham which is 9 KMs behind the Badhrinath temple which is actually one of the 276 celebrated Shiva shrines sung by the naalvars. After the darshan at Badhrinath, I catught-up with Vignesh at the parking area by 1 PM or so. We know it would take time for Ram to complete the darshan and come. So, we went around and in one of the hotels, we sat for lunch. The hotel owner offered if we would like to have south Indian meals and we gladly accepted it. It was sambar rice, vazhakkai kari, papad, tayir sadham and achar. There was a tamil touring parting that was sitting adjutant to our table. We found that the food served in the hotel was actually prepared by them and excess food was given to the hotel owner and he offered that to us for a price. We met one T.S. Vasudevan who was organizing that tour. He said this was his 350th time to Badhrinath. Ram was back from darshan by 2:30 or 3 and we started back to Joshimath. On the way was we took a break at Vishnu Prayag. It is at the confluence of Alaknandha and Dhauli Ganga. Dhauli Ganga is believed to be flowing from padha dhooli of lord Vishnu. We missed the Pandukeshwar temple on the way as it was raining. Back at the hotel at about 4:30, had snack and team and prepared for the evening visit. 

     

 

By 5:00 in evening we started by walk to the Narasimha Mandhir. Just as we entered the temple, aarthi started and we had darshan. Adjacent to the Narasimha temple was navadhurga mandhir. We had darshan at that temple too and proceeded towards Jothir Mutt. This Mutt was the 5 mutts established by Shri Adhisankaracharya. This was actually in Badhrinath, but moved to Joshimath due to severe cold. The other 5 mutts being the Sringeri mutt in the south, Dwaraka mutt in the west and Puri in the east and the Kanchi mutt as well in the south. The sankaracharya of the Dwaraka mutt heads the Jothir mutt as well. We were at the cave where Thodagacharya composed Thodagashtagam on Sankaracharya. Thodagacharyar was amoung the firstline disciple of Sankaracharya and was the first head of Jothir mutt established by this guru. There was 3 spatika lingams in there, 1 of which was established by Ashisankara himself and rest 2 by subsequent acharyas. After darshan at the mutt, we walked back to the hotel. We had already ordered roti, dhal, rice, south-Indian samar and curd. It was an excellent dinner and retired back to the room.

Joshimath Local Visit: https://goo.gl/maps/4faNTmbHEZDGyGReA

     

                      

Note: Like Mana, Maleri is another village bordering China/Tibet. That was also an attraction that we couldn’t go. From Badhrinath, we can go for trek. This was the swargarogan trail, which the pandavas walked till they reached the heavenly aboard. This is supposed to be a 4 day trek with no man-made structure or communication. Youngsters with time and energy can try that trail. Also, we missed the valley of flowers, which again may take half a day and the ropeway in Joshimath(closes by 4:30 every evening).

Day 9 – 19-Oct-2019 – Prayag, Prayag:

 

Day 10 – 20-Oct-2019 – Rishikesh, Home @ Chennai:

Should I buy a car ?

Should I buy a car ? This is a million dollar question every professional has, particularly software engineers in Chennai. There are quiet a number of questions to be asked and number of aspects to be considered to answer this question. Some simple questions are if you are single or married, how long do you commute to work daily etc. In this blog, let me try to analyse this question in a financial perspective.

For this, let us consider a hypothetical situation. There are 3 guys in the similar financial status. Let us assume that each of them commute a distance of 20 Km daily. Let us assume approximately that they commute 600 Kms per month.

At start of year 1, each decide to take 3 different modes of commute for the next 5 years. Guy 1 commutes using public transport, guy 2 in call taxi daily and guy 3 goes for a car. Let us calculate what is the total expense spent by each guy for commute.

Let us assume guy 1 spends Rs. 30 every day on commute. Considering 30 days, the total spend approximately would be Rs. 900 per month and 54,000.00 for 5 years.

At the same time, guy 2 using call taxi spends Rs. 4,200 per month at Rs. 7.00 per Km. The total comes to Rs. 252,000.00.

Let us say that guys 3 buys a car taking a loan of Rs. 4,50,000/-. At 9 per cent diminishing rate for 5 years, the EMI comes to Rs. 9341.26 per month. The total loss on interest on this loan after 5 years is Rs. 110475.59. If he drives 600 Kms every month as assumed, with a mileage of 13 Kms, he spends Rs. 2215.38 on petrol @ Rs. 48 per liter. Additionally , let us assume that he spends Re.0.5 on maintenance. It comes to Rs. 300 per month. And there is insurance to pay. Calculating insurance at 2.5% of the value of the car, for 5 years, his outgo will be Rs. 50212.12. So, his total expense for 5 years comes to Rs. 610,687.71. Looking at the expenses, he decides to sell his car. With a lot of new models available at much lower rates, second hand card don't sell for much. Considering a depreciation of 12%, his car will sell for Rs. 237,479.36 after 5 years. So, his total ex pence for the commute for 5 years is 610,687.71 - 237,479.36 = Rs. 373,208.35.

From these arithmetic, it is obvious that using public transportation is the best option in financial perspective. But there are other intangible things to consider. Some are positive and others negative.

With our own vehicle, we can do better time management and can travel faster. Also in a society like ours, there is a pride associated with owning a car. It feels good to go in a car for a family function or official occassion.

There are some flip sides too. Firstly, it is not an easy task to drive a car in a city like Chennai. It is a tense affair particularly if you are retruning back after a busy day. There is always risk of liabilities arising out of any accident. When we hire a car, this risk is transferred to the owner of the car. And for folks working in software service industry, it is possible that they travel long or short term and the car may be idel for months if there is no body to care. During this time too, the car is going to depreciate in value.

But again, there is a please in driving a car. Particularly with your loved ones, in a winter evening through a highway with not much traffic is an experience worth it.

Finally, your decision to buy a car should be based on the above intangibles. Be aware that our priorities and weightage do change over time. Weigh all the options and how they are likely to change over time and take a informed decision.

Google's new Feature for Mobile Users

Google India has introduced a new feature which enables mobile users to send SMS to a specific number and get information back as messages. We can get a whole lot of information from stock price, PNR status of our train ticket to weather. You can see the detailed information from the google site http://www.google.co.in/mobile/default/sms/. If you are on the move, you can send a SMS with text "help" to the number 9-77-33-00000. In seconds, you should get a reply from the same number with information on what information you can get. This is not much useful unless you go to the site.

The site says that we get this service for the standard charge we generally pay for sending SMS from our mobile. I have tried a some things and I am getting replies back. For example, I send the message with text "stock hcltech" to 9773300000 and in some seconds I got a reply with the stock price. I have to check with the customer care or will wait to see my monthly bill. For customers having corporate plans most of which allows sending unlimited local SMSs, it would be very useful. Before using this, make sure with your mobile operator for the charges applicable for this.

The Gujjar Demand

It is more than 2 weeks since the Gujjaras have been agitating demanding ST status for them. About 45 activists have been killed till date. It is reported that the Railways is loosing about 3 crore INR every day the rail traffic is disrupted. The CM and other top bureaucrats have been wasting a lot of time on this. The loss the daily commuters and the companies that employ them may incur in not reporting to jobs in time and the resulting productivity loss would be hard to calculate. The mental trauma of people who had to commute or travel urgently trough the trouble torn areas would be more difficult to quantify.

In spite of all these, the Raje Govt. is taking a tough stand by not yielding to their demands. With a sizable 15% of the population in the state belonging to Gujjars, it would be a very easy political decision to grant their demand. Just imagine what would happen if this causes a 5-6% vote swing against the ruling front. This would mean a disaster for any party, leave alone a party which has an opposition which is at least as popular. A more worrying factor would be that the state is going for assembly polls shortly.

In spite of all these, I think the Rajastan Govt. is sensible in not yielding to their demands. If a community gets the status of SC / ST just because they have agitate so much, it would send a wrong message to the other communities, particularly those which have sufficient strength in their side. Each of them would start agitating and it would be a total chaos in the country.

In fact, the attitude of the political parties to appease a community or a section of the society has boomeranged back at them. I believe that at least now, the top leadership in most of the political parties would start thinking about the bane of community / caste based reservations. Perhaps this is the start of end of caste / community based reservation. The saying goes that there is an opportunity in every adversary and here too, there is an opportunity to get rid of caste / community based reservation. Hope the policy makers wake up sufficiently early.

Indian Cricket Team - Now at Where It Belongs

I am not sure how many of us ardent cricket fans of Indian expect India to lift the world cup this time. For all those fans, the Indian team had their answer in the match against Bangladesh and Srilanka. This is what will happen when a bunch of models represent the nation for the cricket world cup. Any thing that need specilised skills should be done with passion. These guys are not passionate about cricket, but about the money they earn out of it. They spend more time in the shooting spots and studios than in the nets.

Consider the match against Srilanka. They needed to chase a moderate total of 254. Considering the hype that India has one of the best batting line up and we have 3 of the so-called best batsmen in the world, it is a meak surrender. Tendulkar came in when the scope was at 43/2. How come can he get out for such an ordinary ball from Fernando. He knows it is a crunch game and we need some good partnerships to turn the game. But he didn't seem to have had a thought of how important it is. If he is not able to concentrate and deliver when needed, what is the use of all the hype around him. Why should he be playing at the hightest level of any game. Just for promoting the lables in his bats ?! Very bad. Yuvraj Singh did play some good cricket in the last 2 matches. But the way he got out in the match is too silly .

I don't understand why Agarkar and Harbajan are in the team at all. Anyone can bowl 10 overs and give 50 odd runs. At the highest leve of the game, we don't need a specialized bowler slots wasted for that. They certainily should have delivered better. How does Agarkar justifies bowling 3 full toss deliveries in the last over of the game. Did he have any plan for getting the batsman out or restricting him. I hope any seasoned street bowler would have a better plan for their bowling. With such performance in the team, they certainly don't derserve to be in the super-8. They are left at where it belongs to.

It is the selectors who should take the responsibility for such a dismal performance of the team. They certainly cannot justify selection of people like Agarkar or even Tendulkar. If they have any concern for the tens of millions of Indians watching cricket, the BCCI should revamp the selection board first. They should have a new bowling and batting coach. The team should be selected afreash. The team should have people who have fire in the belly to perform. They should have strict norms on minimum time the players are needed to spend on the nets. Also, the time they spend in studios should be restricted so that it doesn't affect their practice hours.

It is a blessing in disguise for India to have been eliminated even before the super-8 stage. Had India qualified for the super-8 stage, it might have given a false sence of well being of the team. Even if India have had got eliminated in the super-8 stage, the need for a revamp of the selection board and team may not be felt as much as it is now. The BCCI should take this opportunity to revamp the system here.

On a not so lighter note, there are many a good things about the elimination. To mention a few...

1) Getting out an early stage leaves most of us Indians lesser prone to BP.
2) We get to watch some good quality cricket with the non consistent teams getting out.
3) Indians don't need to waste time watching the team play and expecting India to come with the cup, only to seem them goof up at the later stages.
4) These guys have their levels known and be trimmed.

Leadership - The Monkey Way

There was a family of 4, a couple and two children, living in America. There was also another important member of the family. It was a monkey. The monkey was so much involved with the family that it used to share the same living place with the family and also traveled with the family everywhere.

Once the family went to a cocktail party. The monkey too joined them. The couple were enjoying the drinks and the children the cakes and chocolates. The monkey too had a good time with cakes and fruits. The party ended and family started traveling back home. All of a sudden, there was something happening in the car and the car soon stopped after hitting a huge tree.

Soon, all the members of the family were in the ICU. The investigating office wanted to find the reason for the accident. But the officer couldn't get any information as all the members of the family was unconscious. The only traveler who was in a position to provide some info was the monkey. So, the officer went to the monkey and gestured to mean "what was the head of the family doing when the accident happened". The monkey gestures to mean that "the gentle man was kissing". The officer gestured to ask "what the lady was doing". The monkey replied back with the same act. Now the officer gestured to find what the children were doing. The monkey replied back with a pose of a sleeping child. The officer got curious and wanted to know what the monkey was doing. The monkey replied back with the posture of a driver. The officer understood that monkey was left to handle the wheels while the couple had a nice time kissing. All these years, we know this as a very good joke.

The joke apart, there is a good learning in this with regard to leadership and management. If the correct person, doesn't take the leadership when neeeded or if the team trusts the leadership position with some one unequiped for the position, it will be a disaster for the entire team.

In the above scenario, the head of the family is the one who has the management capability (the skill to drive the car). He, in an inebriated state, neglects his duty and trusted the monkey to do his job. This in turn lead to the accident which hurts even the passive members in the team, the children.

Also, it is the responsibility of a true leader to snatch the leadership position when needed. If the correct person doesn't take the leadership position, the wrong person would chip in and will lead to a disaster for the entire team. So, it is important that the true leader takes the leadership position in the greater interest of himself and also the team as whole.

Applying the same paradigm to our political, social and economic scenarios, Are we not playing the role of either the children or the couple and our leaders that of the monkey ?. Yes of couse. We in many a ways are not happy about our social and economic environment. But how many of us dare to take the leadership position to drive the change we need. When we are complain how those things affect us in innumorous ways, most of us have just been mute spectators to what is happending around us. So, not just the leaders (monkey), but also us (the couple and children) are to be blamed for the way our country is now. So, the next time you complain about anything, think about how you can change it. For sure, you will either find a solution or atleast you would stop complaining.

A trip to meet your forefathers

How it is like to go to the places your fore fathers have lived it. Will not it be very interesting ?. This is what happened to me, my dad and some of my chitappas went to Virupatchipuram on 27th and 28th of Nov. Virupatchipuram is a village about 2 Kms from Valangaiman and Valangaiman is about 20 Kms from Kumbakonam on the route to Rajamannarkudi.

By word of mouth thru some generations, this is where my Great grand father (Shri Maha Ganapathi Sharma) was born and lived in. Shri Maha Ganapathi Sharma is also my upanayanam name. My grandpa Shri V.G. Venkatrama Sharma was born in 1913 and his elder brother Guruji in 1910. Considering that, Shri Maha Ganapathy Sharma should have been born around 1890.

His father Mr. Maha Linga Sharma seems to have lived in this village and he was not blessed with a child. After a boy was born to him, he named him after lord Ganesa("Maha Ganapathi") and also constructed a small temple for lord Ganesa inside the Shiva temple there.

We went to the temple and also the houses they lived. There is a brahmin family living there. In those days, with not much of transportation facilities, I hope many of the previous generations also would have lived in those village. It was infact a very energising experience for me.