Maitreem Bhajata

This song is also one of the pieces very close to my heart . The essence of the song revolves around Universal Peace . . MS has the distinction has first Indian Artist to perform in the UN. This song was composed by Sri HH Chandrasekara Saraswati Swamigal for this special occasion. The song is known for its poetic and literary excellence as well . We see the use of "Da" deftly by the poet from the Brhad Aranyaka Upanishad. ( Mail me to know the exact story )
Like my previous song list , Let me try to put its meaning along with the words ,etc.


The Song is rendered in Ragamalika . Meaning Pallavi is song in a particular raaga , anupallavi in another while the charanams in others.
Now to the Song :

maitrIm bhajata, akhila hrit jaitrIm |
Atmavad Eva parAnn api pashyata |
yudhham tyajata, smardhAm tyajata |
tyajata parEShu akrama-AkramaNam ||

jananI prithivI kAma-dukhArtE |
janako dEvah sakala dayALuh |
'dAmyata, datta, dayadhvam' janatA |
shrEyO bhUyAt sakala janAnAnAm ||

Its Meaning :
Maithreem - Friendship , Bhajata - Pray ,
Akhila - Whole world , Hrit - heart Jaitreem - Conquer
Atmavath = Self , Paraath- Others - Api - Also , Pashyatha - See
Yudham - War , Tyjata - Leave,refrain
Smardan - Competition
Pareshu - others , Akramam - Agresssion


Janani , Prithvi - Mother Earth , Kama - Desires , Dukarte -Satisdfy
Janako Devaha - King Janaka ( Father ), Sakala - Among all , Dayalu - compassionate
Damyata - Self Control , Datta - Give , Dayadvam - Kind
Shreyo - Happy , well being , Bhooya - be , Sakala - All , Jananam - Beings .

The coherent meaning is

``Cultivate friendship which will conquer all hearts.

Look upon others as thyself.

Renounce war; forswear competition.

Give up aggression on others which is wrong.

Wide Mother Earth, our Mother is here ready to give us all our desires.

We have the Lord, our Father, compassionate to all.

Ye peoples of the World!

Restrain yourselves, Give, Be kind.

May all people be happy and prosperous".

Madhu

- one who believes in Maitreem Bhajata .. probably the modern day terrorists need this song .



NB: I was just thinking shd a particular raaga be sung for a particular mood. Isnt this is general conception.Mukhari is supposed to be a sad raaga . But to my surprise , " Anandam Anandam ..." is in Mukhari

Puzzling Pirates...

Its Puzzle time again . I was planning to post puzzles as often a spossible . Thought this is an interesting and a simple puzzle too.. If you get the answer, please post the answer with ur name.

Five pirates discover a chest full of 100 gold coins. The pirates are ranked by their ages. Pirate 5 is 50 years old, Pirate 4 is 49, and so on down to Pirate 1. To divide up the loot, they agree on the following:
The most senior pirate will propose a distribution of the booty. All pirates will then vote, including the most senior pirate, and if at least 50% of the pirates on board accept the proposal, the gold is divided as proposed. If not, the most senior pirate is murdered. Then the process starts over with the next most senior pirate until a plan is approved.
All Pirates are equally intelligent and selfish. Their preference is first to remain alive, and next to get as much gold as possible and finally, if given a choice between otherwise equal outcomes, to have fewer pirates on the boat.
Assume you are the senior most pirate in the group. Come up with a plan that maximizes your gold, and others will accept. How will you divide the coins? Can you generalise ..

Madhu
Captain of Pirates

MMTS Timings again

Ppl have been asking MMTS timings. SO I thought let me upload this jpg file and increase the traffice to my page ..

Mergers and Acquistions

Recently we come across the major deals happening ... India Inc. has been going great guns thanks to huge deals taking place recently . 2006 had mergers worth close to a few million dollars. Come 2007 , the feather of India Inc , TATAs made a giant leap in Indian acquistions . Worth Over 19 billion dollars, they took over CORUS over a stiff competion. They had increased the offer price close to 60 Percent over their initial bid to come through the bid successfully . This certainly is one of the major milestones in Indian history. Not that its because of the TATA brand. Its about the size of the deal and the sector of the acquistion. Prior to this India was more considered to be the back office support of the service industry . Come in the acquistion, India Inc is in the foray among the best in world manufacturing . It catapulted Tatas frm abt 50s in steel sector to No.5 which is quite a huge jump. All this has been happening with with so much hue and media attention, here comes another man by name Kumaramangalam Birla , silently took over Novelis.
Novelis is an aluminium company based out of Canada and Hindalco is the flagship of the famous Aditya Birla group. The deal is valued at abt 6 Billion dollars and is an all Cash deal .Kumaramangalam envisaged that his flagship should enter the fortune 500 by 2010. This deal has made the group to sail through the fortune list easily. Seems kumar's hunger is not satisfied . Reports say he is set to prowl on acquiring foreign cement companies.
This acquistions and mergers is not over. Suzlon is hawking at a few energy companies in Europe. Great guys , Indians fighting gloablly and making mark . A couple of years back when Oracle took over Peoplesoft its closest competitor amongst a lot of hue cry and litigations, we knew it was consolidation time for industries .
Now I see the the big Indian guns, Tatas and Birlas not afraid of hunting in foreign grounds and making a mark globally and making Indians proud.

Some time back I happened to see a movie by name "We are not Tata Birlas " ..I think I would make a movie.." We should be Tatas Birla"...
Think Big guys ..We should atleast dream big even if we dont acheive it .

Madhu

2 Extra dosais

This happened to me when I was in the first semester of MCA. We just finished what I would call the toughest practical examinations in my life. Ask my MCA classmates, they would agree that the first semester electronics lab exam was more a theory exam than a practical exam. Myself , Maha and Kums were the 3 lucky people who got the kind of qn which one would have never expected. All the 3 of us were fuming when the exam was finally over. It was not that the qn was tuf but it was monotonous and it cudnt have been completed in 3 hrs by anyone and there were not enuf chips in our labs to execute the circuit.
I was dead tired and frustrated with the exam and walked after a long 3 hour exam . I was hungry . I wanted to eat as much as possible and walked to one of the best restraunts in TPK . As I was walking towards the restraunt, KK another calssmate joined me . He wanted to know how the exam was and I had to narrate him the whole story and that I was going to have my fill. He wanted to join me and we started walking.
We were close to the bus stop as Muthu another of my classmate was walking and he was also interested to join us for the snack. We were all hungry and went to a small restraunt near the TPK temple to have our fill.
Each one of us were hungry and were ordering gulping the snacks as if we hadnt seen those food items at all. Each finished our idlies and next came the set dosais , gulped a few chapatis and finally the coffee to refresh ourselves.. Each of were full and could not have anything more for the rest of the day.
"Bill Please", said Muthu. The waiter gave the bill and the bill was Rs.82 .I was having Rs 50 and asked KK to pay the rest.I was always of the opinion that as my classmates joined me one by one they would be having enuf cash with them. Now KK didnt have money nor did Muthu. KK and Muthu were thinking that others wud be having enuf cash to pay out the bill. Each of us were looking at each other's face not knowing know this embarassing situation. The waiter was walking up and down around us with accusing look.
Luckily for us Muthu's house was close to the restraunt and he said that he would get the money. 5 mins passed after Muthu left , myself andKK were in unknown waters. KK hit an idea . He called up the waiter and ordered for another 2 dosais for each of us.I was confused and got his idea. KKs idea was simple. By the time Muthu came back, we would slowly munch the extra dosais so that the owner didnt think bad of us . But then we were already full . Still , we slowly munched the extra dosais and thank God by the time we finished the extra dosais, Muthu came back with enuf cash frm his house.
If Muthu had not been in time this blog would have been 10 extra dosais . Myself and KK would have gone in an infinite loop for sure. What say KK ?

Madhu
- Dosai eater

Milk Forest Tamil

What the heck is Milk Forest Tamil ? This was how I was teased by my friend . Transliterating Milk= Pal , Forest = kadu .
I had been to Kerala to attend my ex Roomie's wedding . I was put up in another of my friends house. Now this guy talks a different Tamil . I shdnt call this tamil , infact I should be saying this is Talyalam...no infact it should be malayil ..Whatever we name it , i had one of the tufest time in their house. The last time I have heard abt Palakad Tamil was in MMKR . Now i dont think I shd be expanding this. But these ppl beat the movie hard.
To be frank , my Malayalam is reasonable and my tamil is infact decent( I have started reading Ponniyin Selvan by Kalki)...But these guys were driving me crazy . They were talking in a fashion which neither my Malyalam Parser nor my Tamil Parser could decode. My parser was throwing uncatchable exceptions. Adhu daan ba I wasnt able to understand a bit of their language.Continous context switching and I had to give up .
I had no clue if these ppl were talking malayalam or Tamil ...Finally , Some of the things I have accumulated are
I had always thought Kali was a food item given in Jails , but it referred to games...
Saram was some thing in the house ..but it means a dont care state.
and Raavila meant in nights but this was a turnaround, it actually means in the morning.

I finally took the train thinking why we shdnt have a separate state for these ppl if Indian states are based on languages. Oops...I am adding to more confusion.

Madhu
-kozhandai ( means kutti papa in tamil but is more referred to guys in Palakkad)

Restart ....

Lemme try restarting my blogging. I was tied up with some work ( summa solradhu daan) .. coz of which my writing came to a temp stand still.
I will try to be as regular as possible from now .

This reminds me of the famous cigarette joke.

" One of my friends said he has stopped smoking several times " and restarted smoking many more times .

Discipline is more important . Pongal should mark a discpline in me to write and throw my views

Madhu
- ctlr+alt+del

Ahobilam Day 1

We had a couple of days of holidays for diwali so we decided some time back to travel to Ahobilam. The schedule was for 3 days (22/10 sun , 23/10 Mon and 24/10 Tues ) . All Set for the travel , I would post the travelogue in abt 4 posts to give a picturesque description of our trip.
The first post would contain a general description covering the details abt the place, how tor each etc . Each forthcoming post woudl contain details on my stay in Ahobilam .

Aho+Balam= Oh What a strength ! is the etymological meaning of the place.
Lord Nrsimha is the presiding deity of the place. This avatara a noteworthy avatara in the dasavatara. This avatara was to show the omni present nature of the divine supreme. This also was to prove that belief and Sharanagathi ( principle doctorine of Sri Vaishanavism) to the supreme would never go astray.

This place is also known as Simham vel kundram which is a then(north) naatu thirapuathi (mangalasasanam by Thirumangai Azhwar).

How to Reach Ahobilam

For detail travel and maps , please mail me or I would plan to put them in the forthcoming post

If you are travelling from Chennai . Cuddapah should be the closest city (abt 400-420 kms frm Chn ) . Cuddapah -> Allagada -> Ahobilam (23 Kms).

For bus bookings try this link Bus tickets and for hotel bookings in Ahobilam you might want to try Hotels

From Hyd :
Take NH7 -
Hyd -> Kurnool -> Take a diversion here -> travel towards Cuddapah ->Nandhyal -> Allagada ->Lower Ahobilam .


Having Reached Ahobilam , You should be prepared to visit all the nine temples spanning lower Ahobilam and Upper Ahobilam .

Lower Ahobilam has

1. Prahlada Nrsmha (Not counted in the 9 )
2. Chatravata
3. Bargava
4. Yogananda

While you travel to upper Ahobilam you will visit

1. Karunja

Remaining 5 ..( note that as already mentioned Prahlada Nrsimhar is not in the nava nrsmhars )

1. Ahobilam
2. Varaha a.k.a Kroda
3. Malola
4. Jwala
5. Pavana
   

Other 2 important places one must not miss is Prahlada Padi and Ugra Stambam.

The point to be noted is each Nrsmha is a Swayambu.
Let me take you an overview of each Nrsmha one by one . How one can reach the stalam ..specialities of the stalam as told by a battar( Mr.Phani Raghava 94417 60871).This would also contain in the order we visited.

1) Prahalada Varadan :
Prahalad Varadan sannidhi is in the lower Ahobilam. As I mentioned before this is not counted in the nava Nrsmha sthalam. Moolavar Prahlad varadan stays with his consort Chenchu lakshmi thayar. This is a small temple. The Lord married Chenchu lakshmi thayar here and hence kalyanotsavam is a very common occurence as it is in Thiruvinnagaram.There is a ahobilam mutt close to this temple and this should be your base.

2) Yogananda Nrsmha :
From 1) this temple is about 1-2 kms . One can walk this distance easily. This is located in a very small hillock very similar to the varadan at Kanchi. Yoganada Nrsmha sanidhi is a small sannidhi and I dont remember having seen a thayar sanidhi . This nrsmha is presiding deity of Lord Shanaicharan ( Shani bhagawan ) . All Shani Doshams would be gone if we pray this lord. The battar was kind enough to open the sannidhi for us alone at 7:00 pm.

3) Chatra Vata Nrsmha :
While on the way back from (2) to (1) we can reach this sannidhi . Amma told me these sanidhi's have been renovated and have got much better than what it was before 7-8 years.
Chatra - Umbrella Vata -tree .As it is clear the nrshma is said to be under a tree which was like an umbrella.
The is a kethu Stalam and Nrsmha is "Sangeetha priyan" meaning he likes his devotees to sing songs to please him which the kuttis did by singing Varaveena ( mohanam) and Shree gananatha (malahari) .
I started my SVS rendition as is my usual practise as it was almot 7:30 then. We came back to our base for our night stay where the battar said we could go to (1) for satrumurai ( a special pooja performed in Sri Vaishnava temples ) .
We rushed and myself , Janesh and Puru anna had the divine blessings to be as a part of the Goshti that night.
The best part of the whole trip was that trip fell on Swathi thirunakshtram . Now Swati is the avatar nakshatram of The Lord. The nava kshetras being in remote locations are all open for this Swathi and thirumanjanams are performed on this day. When we ppl were in the goshti amma, manni had booked for Tirumanjanams for Jwala and Kroda.

To add the icing in the cake this Swathi was the 100 th Swathi ..what is 100 th Swathi ? Lord has been in this ddivyastalam for several yugams and is he only 100 swathi's old .. I will tell you what this 100 swathi is about in the next post.
Be ready to trek with me to all the other kshetras ...

Madhu
NB: I dont want to post the fotos as I would suggest you ppl to visit the place to see the beauty of the place for yourself where in you can enjoy the beauty of the places and get the blessings of the divine Supreme.

Lot to write

I have a lot to write .. But stuck with some work .
Please wait for

• Ahobila - Nava Nrsimha stalam
• Bangolrean traffic
• Home Alone

Just have got a few of them ready ..but need to post it

Ciao Soon

Madhu

Nobel Prizes

Its nobel prize time. All nobels have been awarded. If you are a scientist then you want to have the coveted prize for sure. The prize winners in various categories are

Physics
=======
John C. Mather
George F. Smoot
for their discovery of the blackbody form and anisotropy of the cosmic microwave background radiation .
From what I understand their discovery has supported the big bang . Bozz why do only big bang supporters get Nobels .. There are other theories... Come on profs work on them and get the nobels .

Medicine
=========
Andrew Z. Fire
Craig C. Mello for their discovery of RNA interference - gene silencing by double-stranded RNA

I need to read through their lecture to understand what exactly have they done . Onnum puriliya ..Didnt understand head or tail of the work . Only the key words could i understand .

Chemistry
==========
Roger D. Kornberg
for his studies of the molecular basis of eukaryotic transcription.
FYI , Eukaryotes are multicellular organisms like us and prokaryotes are single cellular organisms.
Chemistry and Eukaryotes ....mmhmm must be a biochemical discovery .

Economics
=========
Edmund S. Phelps for his work on macroeconomic policies . Seems his work is on tradeoffs between inflation and employment .
If only his work aids in reducing inflation and increasing emplyment it shd be great...God knows the other way arnd could happen too ..Coz I dont believe economists .

Literature
=======
Orhan Pamuk has discovered new symbols for the clash and interlacing of cultures ..
What ? discovered symbols and got the Nobel .. I too can do this right .

Peace prize
========
Muhammad Yunus
Grameen bank ( Strated by Mohammed Yunus )
Mohammed Yunus started the Grameen bank which works on microcredit to female population of Bangladesh . We in India too should follow this to eradicate poverty . Not that bangladesh is a rich country, But seems this is a good process for the development of the economy .
Agreed but should he not be given a nobel for economics and not for peace .
The logic is Peace can be attained only if poverty is gone. and mr yunus has worked towards the social economic development of the poor .

Source

Last but not least , if at all therz a nobel for Bug fixing.. We SW developers should get it . Aint it ?

Madhu
Nobel prize winner in 2030 ( thinking which category would i get a nobel in ) ..Vote or it and let me know which i best suit for.