தானா சேர்ந்த கூட்டம் என்ற படத்தில் விக்னேஷ் சிவன்
வரிகளில், அனிருத் ரவிசந்தர் இசையமைத்து
பாடிய "நானா தானா" - என்ற கருத்தாழமிக்க பாடலை கேட்டு ரசித்துள்ளீர்களா
?
நானா தானா… நானா தானா வீணா போனா… சரியே இல்லையே…
ஒரு பட்டாம்பூச்சிய உட்டான் பாருடா ….
.. எட்டாத தூரத்துல !!
அந்த பட்டாம்பூச்சி தன் ஜோடியுடன் பறந்தபோது க்ளிக்கியது
!
Butterflies are not rare ! sometimes they
do sit motionless on leaves or flowers – still capturing them while flying
posed some challenge !!
For the concrete jungle dweller – life is far different and
beautiful as you move out few miles out of the city !!
கூட்டத்திலே கோயில் புறா ! யாரை எண்ணி தேடுதம்மா !!
[கூட்டம் இல்லை ! ~ அழகான புறா எதை தேடுகிறது !!!]
Cycle
on steps
never
thought that this slope was purposefully built !! - Engineer's mind !!!
I get
so enamoured ~ felt happy in seeing this majestic tusker from closer quarters
and taking photo too .. ..2019 pic
ஒரு
செடியில் எவ்வளவு மலர்கள் !!! - Beautiful Roses !! [Repost]
Romaunt of the Rose; Minor Poems - Geoffrey Chaucer
For
Love it prayeth, and also
Commaundeth
me that it be so
And
if there any aske me,
Whether
that it be he or she,
.. .. ... .....
It
is the Romance of the Rose,
In
which al the art of love I close …
Kankrej cow (of Gujarat) and its calf (in black and white) seen in Thiruvallikkeni - majestic because of its horn but looks malnourished too !! – a close-up pic too !!!
Pic of
2021 !!
infighting and attacking their own kith and kin !! - cruel fact of the nature.
This Cow under attack would certainly feel the pain and would it not be known to the aggressor ? !! ..
உயிரினங்கள் தம்மையே தாக்கிக்கொள்ளுதல் ~ கொடுமையான ஆனால் உண்மையான உலக நியதி. மாட்டிற்கும் வலி உண்டே ! ~ கொம்பால் குத்தும் மற்றோன்றுக்கு வலி புரியாதா ???
from time immemorial, mankind too has been involved in such conflicts ! - Internecine clashes are not conflicts with an external enemy, but rather fights that harm or kill the groups with similar interests ! but yet fighting amongst themselves.
An old file picture !!
Ever heard
of Speleology ! (from Ancient Greek σπήλαιον (spḗlaion) 'cave' and -λογία (-logía)
'study of') is the scientific study of caves and other karst features, as well as their composition, structure,
physical properties, history, ecology, and the processes by which they form
(speleogenesis) and change over time (speleomorphology).
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Caves or caverns are natural voids under the Earth's surface. Caves often are formed by the weathering of rock and can extend deep underground. Exogene caves are smaller openings that extend a relatively short distance underground (such as rock shelters). Caves which extend further underground than the opening is wide are called endogene caves. Speleology is the science of exploration and study of all aspects of caves and the cave environment. Visiting or exploring caves for recreation may be called caving, potholing, or spelunking.
Dusi
Mamandur is my native village :
There are many important places in and around Kanchipuram and as you
travel from Kanchi to Vandavasi / Cheyyar, you would cross the SalaiKinaru
associated with Ramanujacharya (from
where thirumanjanatheertham for Devarajar was brought), Iyengarkulam, Palar
bridge, Dhoosi, you would come to the hamlet ‘Mamandur’ – known as Dhoosi
Mamandur due to its proximity to Dusi. This village has a big reservoir and is
about 3 km away from Palar and about 8-9 km away from Kanchipuram. This village now comes under Venbakkam,
Thiruvannamalai district.
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Besides the
big sprawling lake, there are set of
cave temples excavated on the eastern face of a hill running north-south in the
west of the village. Mamandur is situated in proximity to Kanchi, the capital
of the Pallavas. When Mahendravarman I
(600-630 CE) started his quest of constructing a temple without using
materials other than stone, Mamandur would have been a natural choice being in
vicinity of his capital. However, the king did not go with the obvious choice
!! nearer
our village, there are four
rock-cut shrines, numbered 1 to 4 by ASI (Archaeological Survey of India).
Biospeleology, also known as cave biology, is a branch of biology dedicated to the study of organisms that live in caves and are collectively referred to as troglofauna.
A "caveman" typically refers to a stock character representing early humans during the Paleolithic period, often depicted with basic tools and living in caves. It's also used informally to describe someone who is crude or violent. The term gained popularity in the early 20th century, influenced by descriptions of Neanderthals as "simian".
‘Alibabavum 40 Thirudargalum’ [Alibaba and 40 Thieves] was released in 1956 directed and produced by T. R. Sundaram under his production banner Modern Theatres. The film starred MG Ramachandran and P. Bhanumathi. It was a story of Alibaba, a poor woodcutter, who becomes wealthy after finding a secret cave which contains various treasures and antiques. He resolves to keep his source of wealth a secret to lead a peaceful life. Whether he keeps it a secret and protects the treasure from falling into the wrong hands forms the rest of the story. It was stated to be a movie shot in Gevacolor and is notable for being the first Tamil and South Indian full-length colour film. It was a milestone in Ramachandran's career and became a success at the box office which was largely attributed to it being the first full-length colour film in South India. The songs also attained popularity. The film was later dubbed in Telugu as Ali Baba 40 Dongalu.
A real
story of a Cave woman – a Russian woman who has overstayed her visa but had
been hiding /living in forest – in a cave near Gokarna in the Uttara Kannada
district is becoming viral on the web.
Media reports confirm that
- Nina Kutina, a Russian woman was found in a remote cave
near Gokarna in the Uttara Kannada district of Karnataka. The women
who had been found in a remote cave near
Gokarna in the Uttara Kannada district of Karnataka, has told the police that
she loves India, forests and meditation and is devastated about being sent back
to her country.
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Gokarna police Sub Inspector Sridhar S R and his team found Kutina, 40, and her daughters, six and four years old, from a cave in the treacherous Ramatirtha hills of Kumta taluk Friday. The “spiritually inclined” Russian woman and her daughters were to be transported to Bengaluru Sunday to begin proceedings for deportation to Russia after police found that her visa expired in 2017. Sridhar told The Indian Express that Kutina first arrived in India in 2016 on a business visa, and was drawn initially to the tourist and restaurant sectors in Goa and Gokarna. “But when her visa expired on April 17, 2017, instead of leaving, she chose to stay. Even after getting an exit permit in 2018 and briefly travelling to Nepal, she returned to India, disappearing into the coastal forests of Karnataka,” he said.
“She loved meditating and performing pooja for the gods in the forests. Fearing detection if she checked into any hotel, she chose to stay in the forests,” said a police officer. The police discovered that the trio had been residing there for the last two months, which later turned out to be the culmination of an eight-year journey in hiding. The police said both of her daughters were born in India while she was in hiding. They, however, said she has refused to discuss their father, and authorities are still investigating whether she received any medical care during childbirth.
Sridhar and his team found her during a routine patrol at the Ramatirtha hills. While checking for adventure enthusiasts who might have ventured dangerously into the landslide-prone forest, they noticed footsteps leading to a cave. A plastic cover at the entrance and photographs of deities outside suggested that humans inhabited the area. Sridhar said they found some Russian books inside the cave. Upon entering, they found a child playing while Kutina and her other daughter slept. “We convinced her to come out, stating that there were chances of landslides in the area,” Sridhar said, adding that when warned about snakes in the area, she replied that “the snakes are our friends and they don’t harm us unless we trouble them”.
“She claimed that during their visits to nearby waterfalls for bathing, snakes would roam around them without showing any aggression,” he said. “During the rainy season, they lived with minimal clothing. Kutina had stockpiled enough groceries in the cave for their survival, and despite having candles, they rarely used artificial light, instead living by natural light,” he said. It is learnt the woman would charge her phone during visits to town to buy groceries and use it rarely. She would often take her children to Gokarna and other places but always returned to the cave. Sridhar said this has been an unprecedented experience in his 18-year service. “I have seen some youth and sadhus venturing inside the forest, but never a mother with young children. They all look healthy and sane,” he said.
The police noted that when they arranged for the trio to spend Saturday night at an ashram, the children were thrilled by electric lights and beds, luxuries they had never experienced before. Sridhar said he received a WhatsApp message from Kutina in Russian Sunday morning, expressing her heartbreak at being separated from nature. “She wrote that she loved India, the forest, and meditation, but was devastated about being sent back to her country. She said that the police were the reason for separating her from nature,” he said. In the message, also sent by the woman to her relatives, she wrote: “Our cave life is over. Our cozy comfortable house was broken. And we were placed in a prison without sky, without grass, without a waterfall, with an icy hard floor on which we now sleep to ‘protect us from rain and snakes’.”
Sridhar said Kutina had taken care of her children during their stay. “In her mobile phone, there are a lot of photos where the children are seen happily posing. She had kept a schedule for kids which includes drawing, singing, chanting mantras, yoga and other exercises. Even on Sunday morning, she was teaching her kids yoga,” he said. After they were found the woman and her daughters were accommodated at the Woman Reception Centre in Karwar under the Department of Women and Child Welfare. The police said they found her discarded passport near the cave and contacted the Foreigners Regional Registration Office (FRRO), the agency responsible for overseeing the stay of foreigners within the country.
This part of the news (in this colour) is entirely reproduced from the Indian Express, same news is found on the web on various channels too.
Extremely
strange, almost unbelievable story – that a woman could survive, bring up her
kids too in such a scenario and loving it too.
Truth is stranger than fiction.
To the avid Cricket fan, it was a fantastic game of Cricket at Lords, though India lost by a close margin – many armchair critics would now write on what went wrong and how the chase should have been done !!
Not sure whether you have been following the Series in Caribbean and more specifically Test no. 2595 at Sabina Park, which turned out to be a 3 day Test, a total humiliation for the once mighty Windies.
Kingston was founded in July 1692 as a place for survivors of the 1692 earthquake that destroyed Port Royal. Before the earthquake, Kingston's functions were purely agricultural. The earthquake survivors set up a camp on the sea front. Kingston is the capital and largest city of Jamaica, located on the southeastern coast of the island. It faces a natural harbor protected by the Palisadoes, a long sand spit which connects the town of Port Royal and the Norman Manley International Airport to the rest of the island. Two parts make up the central area of Kingston: the historic Downtown, and New Kingston. Both are served by Norman Manley International Airport and also by the smaller and primarily domestic Tinson Pen Aerodrome. Jamaica has always had a vibrant civil aviation industry with the first flight reported in the island on 21 Dec 1911, eight years after the world recorded its first powered flight by the Wright Brothers. Nineteen years later, on 3 December 1930, the first commercial flight, a Consolidated Commodore twin-engine flying boat operated by Pan American Airways (which eventually became Pan American World Airways), landed in Kingston Harbour.
At
Lords – even in despair, it appeared as though India had a fair chance to
making the final line – hopes clinged on whether they could last till the
second new ball even as Bumrah first and Siraj later fought not survival but
kindling the chances and fear more ! England were 5.1 overs away from taking the
second new ball when Siraj couldn't stop the ball from spinning back to knock
off his bail after he had defended an offbreak from Shoaib Bashir. It ended a
23-run last-wicket partnership after Ravindra Jadeja and Jasprit Bumrah had
added 35 in 22 overs. The partnerships frustrated Ben Stokes and his men, who
were challenged by a soft Dukes ball, a lifeless pitch, and a Lord's crowd
populated by mostly Indian fans. Well,
the match is lost – and one of the reasons could well be the high no. of
extras, more so, the Byes, with a regular wicket-keeper donning the gloves and
some inexperienced stroke-play.
Elsewhere
at Jamaica, Australia bowled out West Indies for a paltry 27 – the second
lowest score in Test Cricket History, the worst since 1955 - to complete a 176-run
win and series clean sweep in Jamaica. The Windies total on the third day of
the day-night Test in Jamaica was just one run more than New Zealand's 26 all
out against England in 1955. The previous lowest total by West Indies was the
47 they managed against England in 2004.
Australia pace bowler
Mitchell Starc, playing in his 100th Test, took 6-9 in figures that included five
wickets in 15 balls. It is the fastest five-wicket haul in Test cricket and
also took Starc passed the 400 wicket mark in the longer form of the game. Seamer
Scott Boland also weighed in with a hat-trick as the tourists won the series
3-0.
Sabina Park, the home of the Kingston Cricket Club, is situated in the driest part of Kingston and for many years the pitch was one of the hardest and fastest in the Caribbean. But in recent years the surface slowed, despite attempts to restore life by relaying it on more than one occasion. Sabina Park's greatest moment in Test cricket was the 365 not out made by Garry Sobers against the Pakistanis that stood for many years as the highest individual test score. Conversely its worst moment was when the England - West Indies Test in 1998 was abandoned on the opening day due to an appalling pitch endangering the players. Now this 27 all out would add to the worst performance here.
Starc six-for, Boland hat-trick consigned West Indies to 27 all-out and 0-3 defeat. West Indies' second innings lasted only 14.3 overs and had seven batters dismissed on a duck as they went down by 176.
Yet that was not the end of it. Scott Boland claimed a hat-trick, removing Justin Greaves, Shamar Joseph and Jomel Warrican, leaving West Indies 26 for 9 and in danger of equaling the lowest-ever Test total - made by New Zealand against England in 1955. They edged past it courtesy of a Sam Konstas misfield in the gully, but only by one run when Starc ended the Text next ball to finish with a career-best 6 for 9. West Indies were all out in 14.3 overs. West Indies had to make 204 for victory in another match dominated by the quick bowlers. Alzarri Joseph, with a career-best 5 for 27, and Shamar shared nine wickets as Australia's last four wickets fell for 22 runs but that was nothing compared to what followed. Starc produced one of the great opening overs. He removed John Campbell first ball, the fourth time in his career he had struck with the opening delivery of an innings, when the left-handed edged a perfect outswinger to substitute wicketkeeper Josh Inglis, who was standing in for the concussed Alex Carey. Four balls later, Kevlon Anderson shouldered arms as the ball swung back to strike his shin in front of middle stump, yet he reviewed the plumbest of lbws. Next delivery, another one arched back between Brandon King's bat and pad to demolish the stumps. It was the sixth time in Test history that a team had been 0 for 3.
India would remember Sabina Park for a different reason, the blood split on the ground in that Fourth Test at Kingston – Test no. 776 on 21 – 25th April 1976. The score card would read India 306/6 decl !! ; WI 391 all out. India 97 all out and West Indies making the 13 runs required without losing a wicket. Statistics will never reveal the real bloody story. WW Daniel made his debut in a bloody test, where Indians were intimidated with crowds calling for blood. The short pitched bowling was over done and Holding from round the wickets caused most damage to the bodies of Indians.
Here are the Five lowest innings totals in Test Cricket.
1.
New Zealand Vs. England – Auckland –
Mar 1955
2.
West Indies Vs. Australia - Kingston (today) – July 2025
3.
South Africa Vs England – Gqeberha – Feb 1896
4.
South Africa Vs. England – Birmingham – June 1924
5. South Africa Vs. England - Cape Town - April 1899
The latest entrant to 400 wickets club Mitchell Starc has done in his 100th test. Muttiah Muralidharan achieved this feat at Galle on 12.1.2002 in just 72 tests; followed by Ravichandran Ashwin in 77 tests; mercurial Richard Hadlee in 80 – so also Dale Steyn !!
The first
sign of maturity in life is when One is prepared to listen to the other point
of view and not put across their own in a brash / abrasive manner !! My first
encounter with ‘abrasive’ people (who were extremely nice!) was four decades ago in 1984 !!
Abrasive: adjective : 1. rough and likely to scratch. சொரசொரப்பான. கரடுமுரடான. உராய்கிற. கீறல் ஏற்படுத்தக்கூடிய. 2. (used about a person) rude and rather aggressive. (ஒருவரைப் பற்றிக் கூறும்போது) முரட்டுத்தனமான முனைப்புடைய. சண்டையிடும் தன்மையுள்ள.
In a Civil
society one should not be brash and avoid abrasive behavior in words,
thought and action. The great
Thiruvalluvar advises to control anger and be friendly always :
கதங்காத்துக் கற்றடங்கல் ஆற்றுவான் செவ்வி
அறம்பார்க்கும் ஆற்றின் நுழைந்து.
கல்வி கற்று மனத்துள் கோபம் பிறக்காமல் காத்து, அடக்கமாக வாழும் ஆற்றல் படைத்தவனை அடைவதற்கான நேரத்தை எதிர்பார்த்து அறம் அவன் வழியில் நுழைந்து காத்து இருக்கும். No Thirukkural or advise post but on an equipment, a trade – which slowly has lost its way - the Abrasive business for household !!
Cutting edge – may refer to ‘State of the art’, the highest level of development, as of a device, technique, or scientific field… the real cutting edge ‘Abrasive’ when used as an Adjective would mean : 1) tending to rub or graze the skin 2) harsh, showing little concern for the feelings of others.
Every skill needs to be honed … honing is the finishing process where the burrs formed from the sharpening process are removed and a sharpened knife is finished to a fine edge. Honing is also used to maintain the edge in-between sharpening. Honing does not actually sharpen a knife. Instead, honing straightens, cleans, and polishes the edge of an already sharp knife. The smaller the angle between the blade and stone, the sharper the knife will be, but the less side force is needed to bend the edge over or chip it off.
Middle aged people will remember that till a few years ago, on the streets of Chennai (and elsewhere too) pedlars would come shouting ‘saanai’ (sharpening !) – a peculiar contraption of a wooden case, a cycle wheel, a sharpening abrasive and more …. Not sure whether you spot them still – or in tune with the modern times of ‘throwaways’ … perhaps people are changing kitchen knives (aruvalmanai – the contraption used in Tamil Nadu for cutting vegetables and the like !) and other sharp tools ….
Diamond, as one would know is a common abrasive. Even softer minerals like calcium carbonate are used as abrasives, such as "polishing agents" in toothpaste. An abrasive is a material, often a mineral, that is used to shape or finish a workpiece through rubbing which leads to part of the workpiece being worn away. Abrasives are extremely commonplace and are used very extensively in a wide variety of industrial, domestic, and technological applications. Common uses for abrasives include grinding, polishing, buffing, honing, cutting, drilling, sharpening, lapping, and sanding. Abrasives generally rely upon a difference in hardness between the abrasive and the material being worked upon, the abrasive being the harder of the two substances.
A bonded abrasive is composed of an abrasive material contained within a matrix, although very fine aluminium oxide abrasive may comprise sintered material. This matrix is called a binder and is often a clay, a resin, a glass or a rubber. This mixture of binder and abrasive is typically shaped into blocks, sticks, or wheels. Grinding wheels are cylinders that are rotated at high speed.
The one I had written
about in earlier para is worked with a foot pedal – in industrial processes
there could be electric motors driving the wheel too. There are very huge sized
grinding wheels, depending upon the usage.
Such wheels need to be constructed to withstand greater radial stress to
prevent the wheel flying apart as it spins. While the man on streets doing
‘saanai’ – the professional sharpener may not attract people, unless there is a
need for sharpening the knife or aruvalmanai at home, I have always been
fascinated by this contraption – for this industry was my first job.
In the
Parrys Corner, opposite to Madras High Court and nearer the (once) famous
Ramakrishna Sweets, is a small lane – Francis Joseph Street. My first job
immediately finishing graduation was in that lane in a Company (R. Subbaraman
& Co, No. 11 of Francis Joseph St) – sole selling Agents for Cutfast Bonded
Abrasives – which had factory
in Pallikaranai, manufacturing bonded abrasives – wheels and more in big
sizes. They had another Office that was
dealing in Coated abrasives like emery sheet and the like. Understand that Cutfast at some later point of time was taken over by
Carborundum Universal
Manufacturing. My boss was extremely
inspiring person (Mr Subramanian, tall and classy
moustached man, who had worked as a
Forest Range Officer) … though not a very big Office – everything was
impressive about that Office – I was so
fascinated working in that Office – albeit briefly (May to Dec 1984) before
embarking on a career in General insurance in Oriental Insurance. I remember my colleagues at that time – Sundaram, Viswanathan, Ramakrishnan,
Radhakrishnan, Srinivasan, Krishnan, Ramasubramanian – though not in touch with
any of them now.
No. 11 Francis Joseph St,, opp to High Court – a decade ago !
கொக்கு
மீனை திங்குமா ? - இல்லையின்னா மீனு கொக்கை முழுங்குமா
நம்மில் பலருக்கு காக்காய் பிடிக்க தெரியலாம் ! காக்கை மீனை பிடிக்கும் என்பது தெரியுமா ?
Crows are black birds known for their
intelligence and adaptability, and for their loud, harsh "caw." The
genus Corvus comprises crows, ravens and rooks. These birds are all part of the
Corvidae family, which includes jays, magpies and nutcrackers.
They are scavengers and are carnivorous ! - not sure whether they regularly catch and
feed on fish but here is a Crow catching a fish from waters.
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புலி
உறுமுது புலி உறுமுது; இடி இடிக்குது இடி இடிக்குது
பட்டா கத்தி பளபளக்க, பட்டி தொட்டி கலகலக்க
முறைச்சு
பாக்குறான் இந்த புலி !!
Sri
Azhagiya Singar Aani brahmothsavam – day 9 purappadu
-this
day – 2015 – missing KV Srinivasan (photo Cheena)
Learning from leaning !!
No doubt experience is
the best Teacher – yet one need not have personal experience in every
thing !!! ~ for sure, wait for the Experienced Experts
to validate and say more !! Here is a
picture taken by me back in 2020 at Mumbai airport
Leaning : A tendency or
partiality of a particular kind.
Synonyms: tendency,
liking for, bias, inclination
Galileo di Vincenzo
Bonaulti de Galilei is associated with leaning tower of Pisa. He reportedly
dropped two spheres of different masses from the Leaning Tower of Pisa to
demonstrate that their time of descent was independent of their mass !!
A great photo of Thiruvallikkeni temple photographers taken in 2017 - legends MAPs, Kanakaraj, Shankar, Shyam Balakrishnan, Aravindha Krishna, Kadikaivasan, Mandayam Krishna, Sankara Subramanian and some more are missing - yet there is Bengaluru Sathish, Sundarakrish, Kachi thaleevar, Agaram Sriram, Thiruvinnagar KE Vijayaraghavan, Pondy APV Vijay, Nangainallur Madhavan, (the white bearded me!) and ... .. one prominent lenser who is most sought after man now !!!
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