My Recent Visit to Madurai.....Meenakshi Temple
I am blogging after a real long time......hope you all will read this...We had been to Madurai Meenakshi Temple, where my daughter was to dance, an opportunity provided by "The Mylapore Trio", who had kept a massive golu in the temple. This is the third year the "Trio" are into this very beautiful task and I have had the opportunity to visit the first and the present one. This year the theme was "Sarvam Bhakthi" and they had conceptualized the theme very well. The amount of thinking and visualization cannot be put in words. The Thematic Golu started with the four Yugas "the krutha yugam", where in they had kept, Brahma Logam, the next step consisted of the Devalogam and the third step consisted of the first six avatars of "Lord Vishnu" with the reference stories for each avatar. The next Chamber consisted of the epic "Ramayana", with reference to the Bhakthi prevailing all over Ramayana, with Bharata portraying his loyalty and love to Lord Rama, Sabari and her devotion, Guhan and his devotion, Jadayu, Hanuman, Lakshman, Vibeeshanan, Sita and many such wonderful stories...which were all under the head "Treta Yugam". The next chamber was "Dwapara Yugam" portraying the Bhakthi towards Lord Krishna from Dwaraka and Mahabaratham, showing the Gopis, Kalinga Narthanam, Govardhana Giri lifting by Lord Krishna, Yasodha's motherly devotion, Arjuna's unshakable trust in the lord, the Viswaroopa Dharshan of Lord to Arjuna, Bheeshma's premai and many such wonderful episodes. The next chamber was "Kaliyuga Bhakthi where in various types of prayers that are being performed such as doing satyanarayana poojai, theemidhithal, alagu sarthal were all kept.. Then followed the Saiva Bhakthi depicting various wonderful stories from the Periya Puranam, depicting Nandanar and Poosalar Nayanar, the story of Manickavasagar, and Naraiku Moksham. The Chamber that followed was Vainava Bhakthi, depicting various Vaishnava saints who devoted themselves to the Lord, where in Sant Tukharam, Meera and Andal were all kept with relevant back ground... The Next Chamber was "Velliyambalam" depicting the Raja's Prayer to Lord Shiva to change his leg as otherwise it would cause a lot of pain to the Lord, as he was always dancing with the left leg lifted placing the right on the ground...Here alone (Madurai) you would see lord Nataraja lifting his "right leg at the request of the king". Then followed the various other forms of Bhakthi, wherein they had depicted, the marriage of Lord Muruga with Valli and Deivayanai, the various forms of Mother Goddess and the prayers and poojas performed....The next one to follow was the very beautiful "Panchapadi Oonjal" where they had kept five stages of Oonjal seva to Lord Sundareswara and Meenakshi...
The spectacular ones are yet to come...The first in the spectacular chamber the depiction of "Kailayam" ...With a beautiful blue backdrop depicting the Ocean, in the abode was seated the "Lord Shiva with Parvati his consort alongwith the Boothaganas, Devas, Rishis and Nandi...which really made us feel as though we were there in Kailasm itself..
The Last but neverthless the least was the depiction of the 108 Thandavas of the Lord, Cosmic Dancer Nataraja...The Chamber itself was designed like a Lingam, and in the front a big Lingam was placed alongwith the various lingams as in Tiruvannamalai and at the back the 108 Thandavas was placed in five platforms, the lowermost depicting "Prithvi" or "Earth" the first of Pancha Bootha. In the Centre was "Ekambaranathar and Kamakshi of Kancheepuram" decked with thandavas on either side. The next row depicted the "Appu" or "Water" with "Jambugeswara and Akilandeswari of Thiruvanaikoil", the third row depicted "VAyu" or "Wind" with "Kalatheeswara and Gnanambika of Kalahasthi", the fourth row was dedicated to the element "Agni" or "Fire" with "Arunachalleswara and Abithakuchalambal of Tiruvanamalai", and the fifth row was dedicated to the fifth element "Agasa" or "Space" depicting the dance of the Cosmic Dancer, "Lord Nataraja and Sivagamasundari" of Chidambaram. All the rows with the Pancha Bootha Lord in the centre was adorned on either side by the vigrahas of the "108 Thandavas"...
It was a blissful experience, and to add up to all these we had a very very special and divine Dharshan of the Lord Sundareswara, Mother Meenakshi and the most wonderful, adorable "Mukuruni Vinayagar"....the sculptures of the temple, you need volumes to explain them...
It was a very wonderful, memorable, blissful and spiritual feel, which would remain very close to my heart ....
Human attitudes... 
rathisrini
TV serial addiction 
I am not against dance and I rather love the art. But the art should be cherished and not forced. At the end of a competetion, when the child loses, it starts crying and its sad to see them weeping. Would the media do something about such competetions...........I wish that the spirit of competetion should prevail to help the participants climb the ladder and not lose their confidence........This is my feeling and wish some change is brought in..........
Sibling Rivalry 
"Varathu vantha manickam" So, I was a rajakumari born into the family and a vvvvvip. My granny used to sing a song for waking me in the morning, and I was grown with only cow's milk as only that suited my health and no one in the home were even permitted to touch it (though I don't know any of these, this was narrated to me by my beloved aunts and my dear mom). One aunt use to bathe me, one used to dress and one use to sing lullaby to me........and I was enjoying each and every moment of all these attention. I remember some of them vaguely - the song was pachaikili koru sevanthi kkodu thottilil katti vaithen.......It was going on for six years..........and then came a new arrival into the family...........my lil bro chubby and like a freshly blossomed flower.........The first shake started.....Being the first male heirloom to carryout the family name (You see we are all jamindhar paramparai) almost every near and dear relatives and friends, thronged the home to see the lil wonder. Slowly Mr.J was peeping in
........Well, it is pretty natural (all this I remember myself) I was becoming envious, and unable to take it......I used to shake the cradle zigzag when no one noticed me, pinch him and do something cranky and watch him cry... My granny realised this, and she stopped petting my lil bro in front of me and saw to it that I was getting the same importance as far as she was concerned. Slowly I was getting used to this.
......Bro grew and it was time for him to join school, and Asharabhyasam was done in a grand scale......Though I was not happy about the fact that my importance was gone in the home, at school I used to really behave like his mom and take care of him totally. He used to be really cute and chubby and all my friends loved him. He was a bundle of innocence (well it was then and not now). Once in school he was playing with chalk piece and without even realising he inserted it in his nose, 
blood was pouring from his nose and I was crying my heart out. I was rambling and running from pillar to post. But thanks to my school authorities they took immediate step and the chalk was out and he became normal......and things were going on as usual. At home the scenario never changed. Whenever something was bought I immediately used to compare wat was bought for me and for him....If it was grapes, i used to count and see if he was given more.........crackers, I used to preserve mine and tease him when his quota was over.......Incidentally our birthdays are in the same month and falls on consecutive days, and the money spent for buying new dresses had to be shareMy 2cents Then at one point of time, I got over all such feeling (may be I really grew up) and started loving him.....We used to walk together to school and share so much and the bondage became inseparable........it was so much that my mom used to say that while sleeping both of us, used to blabber, (eventually we do they same when we are wide awake also) and i used to answer his querries and vice-versa. When I got married, and came to my hubby's place I missed him so much........There were many turmoils in his life after my dad, and he faced them all (thanks to the kind relatives who helped us). I saw him grow, and face everything with a charming smile.
He climbed the ladder of success steadiy. And now my lil bro who is six years you to me, is more like a father to me than a younger brother.........I am proud to say this for he takes care of me like a dad, and he is always available whenever I need him. I really cherish the wonderful love and care that I receive from him and I adore him and his family.
