VVS

  When Dharmapuram Adheenam announced that there would be pattinapravesam, meaning that the Seer would be carried in a palanquin by devotees, on May 22, the Dravida Kazhagam protested saying that the event should not happen as carrying a human being by fellow human beings is demeaning practice and appealed the Govt. to ban that event. Immediately the Government directed the RDO to issue orders banning the event and the order for the ban was issued. Immediately the BJP and other Hindu outfits termed the ban as interference in religious practice and wanted it revoked. The State president of the BJP Mr K. Annamalai even stated that he would personally go and lift the palanquin. In the midst, the representatives of the Seer met the Chief Minister and the Minister of HR and CE and appealed to lift the ban as there should not be any stoppage of the grand old practice.   On heeding to the appeal, the Chief Minister of Tamil Nadu lifted the ban and allowed the event to go as scheduled...

  Mr.Stalin, on taking over as CM of Tamil Nadu on 7.5.2021, had started on a high note. He had appointed good IAS officers to administer his Government. However, the same cannot be said of the choice of some of his ministers. He had announced free travel for women in ordinary buses. Reduced the price of Aavin milk and also increased the procurement price of milk. As promised, he announced the distribution of   Rs.4000 in two installments to ration card holders in keeping with his election promise. He had also announced lockdown for two weeks with restrictions and complete lockdown on Sundays. Today being a Sunday, 16.5.2021, there is a complete lockdown. But his Government has announced that people can get the amount of Rs.2000 from the ration shops on going there. Even though there is a lockdown, people are forced to go to ration shops to get their money standing in queues. This defeats the purpose of lockdown.   Instead, the State Government should have transferred...

The farmers have been agitating for 65 days peacefully on the borders of N.Delhi. The Government has been indulging in talks with the farmers unions to break the dead lock. On 26 th of Jan.2021 they requested for permission to hold tractor rally. As per the Supreme Court’s directions to the Delhi police to handle the issue all by itself, the police granted permission for them to hold the rally and designated a route for them and also they were asked to hold their rally after 12 noon when the Republic Day Celebrations would have got over by that time. But the farmers started their rally before 12 noon and also they deviated from their designated route. They indulged in violence. The Farmers outnumbered the police personnel and the police were reduced to being spectators. Even though police regrouped and fired tear gas shells, it could not quell the agitationists. They marched towards Red fort and some of them climbed atop of the red fort and hoisted their flags. The entire incident i...

  India has done it. After the ignominious defeat at Adelaide test played with the pink ball, India has bounced back to win the series 2-1 in the four test series. No one expected India to win the series after the first test defeat where they were all out for 36 in the second innings, the lowest test score. India entered the second test at Melbourne with a stand in captain Ajinkya Rahane as Virat Kohli had gone on a paternity leave. Rahane led by example scoring 112 and leading India to a victory. Then when the team went for the third test at Sydney many never gave India a chance. Set to score 407 for victory it was thought Indian defeat was a reality. On the last day with more than half the side gone and India left to defend 42 overs in hostile conditions against an hostile seam bowling with only Ashwin and Hanuma Vihari to defend, the prospects of India drawing the match looked grim. But both Ashwin and Hanuma Vihari defended well with the former scoring 39 not out of 128 balls a...

Actually my wife Latha and I planned to go to Coimbatore in March 2020 when we were invited by my sister in law Seema and co brother Mohan to participate in the Puja which they planned to perform immediately after completion of the construction of their first floor building extension. We in fact had booked our tickets for the 20 th of March 2020. As fate would have it all the trains were cancelled when the Govt. of India declared lock down following the outbreak of Covid 19. So we waited for the restrictions to ease and suddenly planned this trip. We started on the 8 th of Jan.2021 by Covid Special train to Coimbatore(formerly known as Cheran Express). The journey was confortable by II AC and the train reached Coimbatore on the morning of 9 th Jan.2021. My co brother Mohan and sister in law Seema were there to receive us. After exchanging pleasantries and hand shakes.   We were taken in their car to their house which is located at Vadavalli near the famous Marudhamalai Murugan...

  The death of the 93 year old Dr.V.Shanta, Chairperson of Adyar Cancer Institue, Chennai is a great loss to humanity..She had dedicated her life to cancer patients for over 65 years. The Cancer Institute was founded in 1954 by Dr Muthulakshmi Reddy,the first woman medical graduate in the country.The Adyar Cancer Institute was the first specialised centre for cancer treatment in south India,. In 1955 ,the centre opened in a Thatched roof and one of the doctors who joined there was Dr.V.Shanta. She stayed in the institute from then on till her death as she wanted to be close to her patients spurning all material comforts. Dr V Shanta     hailed from an illustrious family. Her grandfather was the physics Nobel laureate DR. Sir C.V Raman and her maternal uncle was Dr S Chandrasekhar   who was also a Nobel laureate.   Over her long career, she has been felicitated with numerous awards including the Padma Shri, Padma Bhushan, Padma Vibhushan and Ramon Magsaysay...

On 20 th January 2021 the oldest President in American History , Joe Biden aged 78 took office after a tumultuous tenure of Trump who had taken America back from its primacy. Trump with his tantrums proved to be a very erratic President and his four years of tenure was marked by racism, and he was also instrumental in splitting the American Society.   When his police killed black men he just brushed aside the crime. He refused to concede defeat when he was defeated in the Nov.3,2020 elections. He continued to defy and litigate. He constantly said the election was a stolen one. He found fault with mail ballots. He also instigated his supporters to storm Capital Hill and wanted to negate the election through hook or crook. He was impeached twice in his tenure. By contrast Joe Biden is an epitome of civility. He has behind him great experience. He was senator for 35 years and also Vice President for two tenures under Barak Obama. Despite his personal tragedies he remains composed. ...

  Right from Nov.3,2020 when the results of the Presidential election started trickling and when President Trump knew that he was on back foot, he started creating problems.   He refused to accept defeat and vowed that there would not be smooth transition of power. All the swing states voted against Trump. Though he had about 75 million popular votes he could not make it. On the other hand Joe Biden had more than 81 million popular votes and also 306 electoral college votes in his favour. Mr. Trump could not digest his defeat. He called the election a fraud. He questioned the postal ballot system. He later questioned   the integrity of the electoral process itself. He refused to accept the people’s verdict. He challenged the election in state after state. He had in fact filed 60 law suits challenging the verdicts in different states.   All the law suits were dismissed. When the Congress convened to formally declare Joe Biden as President on the 7 th Jan 2021 at Capi...

  Rajini and Politics. Yesterday(29.12.2020) Rajini had at last expressed his inability to jump into the political arena and stated that he had given up his intention to start a political party citing health reasons thus putting an end to the intense speculation and political calculations that followed soon after his announcement on 3 rd Dec.2020 that he would announce the date of starting a political party on 31 st Dec.2020. Looking back one can trace Rajini’s political aspirations to the year 1996 when he first proclaimed soon after the release of his much acclaimed film Basha that even God cannot save Tamil Nadu if Ms. Jayalalithaa the then Chief Minister was reelected thereby underlying the rampant corruption during her regime. At that time he was backed by Mr. G.K.Moopanar who started his own political party Tamil Manila Congress after breaking away the Indian National Congress which was in alliance with the DMK. Rajini’s proclamation had its effect. Ms. Jayalalithaa was...

  Ms Sagarika Ghose has written an article in the Sunday Times dt.29.11.2020 wherein she had criticized the recent promulgation of an ordinance that criminalises Hindu-Muslim marriages. That promulgation has since become law after the Governor has given assent. She has argued for inter-caste marriage stating that criminalising it leads to infringement of personal freedom and is ultra vires of Article 21 of the Constitution. She has cited a number of celebrity cases who married outside their caste. Her argument is true. But what had to lead to this legal enactment is the fact in the lower and middle classes the marriages lead to conversion. In most of the cases where Hindu Muslim marriages take place, it is the Hindu boy or a girl who converts to Islam and not the other way round. In the upper strata of society when such marriages take place the married individuals have the liberty to practice their own religion. Unless all people have the maturity to respect the freedom of other in...

  S.P.Balasubrahmanyam fondly known as SPB to all passed away on 25.9.2020 after battling with his health set back due to Covid-19 for 50 days at the age of 74. His demise is a great loss to Indian Cinema in general and all the music lovers across the world. He had sung over 40000 songs in 16 Indian languages and has won six national awards. Despite being not trained in proper Carnatic music he astonished everyone with his songs in the Telugu film Sankarabaranam a musical film based on Carnatic music. He has sung for all the music directors including the younger ones and ruled the roost for nearly 50 years. Despite reaching great heights he was always humble. Even when he was a judge in the reality shows he never used to give any adverse comments on the young singers and encouraged them and egged them on to do well. When the news of his death started trickling huge crowds gathered at the hospital, his residence and also at his farm house at the outskirts of Chennai where he was l...

In Tamil Nadu, all parties cutting across party lines have rejected the New Education Policy 2020 stating that it aims at imposing Hindi. Opposition to Hindi in Tamil Nadu dates back to 1962 when protests erupted across the State. From then on any education policy mooted by the Central government met with opposition from the State Government. In the present Education Policy also the political parties in Tamil Nadu see a conspiracy to impose Hindi language and they swear by the two language policy ie English being the link language and Tamil. Actually, the New Education policy does not aim to impose Hindi. It has clearly stated that the local language would be the medium of instruction up to class 5 and it can be extended up to class 8 at the discretion of the State Government. If in fact there are many states which do not have Hindi as their local language. They’re also three language formula is being adopted. In fact even in Tamil Nadu in the CBSE schools or in the ICSE schools an...

A committee on education was constituted by the Govt of India in June 2017 under the Chairmanship of Shri K. Kasturirangan former Head of ISRO.  It submitted a draft report in 2019. Certain changes were suggested, the final report has been submitted in July 2020 and the same was approved by the Cabinet two days back.  A great policy change in education has been effected after 34 years.  Let us now see the salient features of the National Education Policy 2020: 1.      It aims at Universal access to early childhood care and education. 2.      Universal access to education at all levels 3.      New pedagogical and curricular structure of school education is given as  (5+3+3+4): 3 years in Anganwadi/pre-school and 2 years 1st and 2nd classes totalling to five years. Then preparatory stage 3rd class to 5th class totalling to three years. Then middle stage 6th to 8th classes—three years and th...

As July 31 nears the government of Tamil Nadu is faced with the Hamletian question whether to continue with the lockdown or unlock completely. The Govt. of West  Bengal has announced lockdown up to 31st August 2020. The cases in Tamil Nadu are continuously on the rise. But on the economic front, the picture is dismal.  Manufacturing and production have taken a hit. The businesses are dull. The companies are announcing a salary cut for their employees.  The purchasing power of the people is low.  In this grim situation, the government may be compelled to open up. But opening up has its problems. There are not enough beds to treat the infected patients if there is a surge due to unlocking. But in this situation, the government has to take a decision in favour of unlocking. The buses have to be made to run. Lockdown cannot go on forever. Life of the people is more important than the disease. Dying of hunger is crueller than dying of infection. Whenever there i...

A new kind of virus CORONA has stuck the entire world. At the time of this post those affected by this virus has crossed 22 lakhs world over. In India alone the number has crossed 13000. It has become a pandamic. It is being told that the virus first started at the end of December 2019 in WUHAN in China. It is said that it has spread to the people of the District from bats.  Being a contagious disease it has spread from the people of WUHAN  who travelled to other parts of the world have been instrumental in spreading this virus.  Initially China had the most affected. At the time of this post China has successfully contained the spread of this Virus but other  countries like USA, Italy, Spain, France have recorded more number of affected cases.  USA is the top of it all. The symptoms of this virus are cough, breathlessness, fever.  Till date there is no remedy for this Virus. It is said that to find out a vaccine it would take at least 18 months. Var...

Journey to Gujarat Journey to Gujarat was planned together   by me, my wife , my sister’s son in law Shri S. Narasimhan, a Retd. AGM from State Bank of India, his wife and his sister in law during the first week of February 2019.   It was then decided that we could go on the trip from 9 th March to 14 th March 2019. Tickets were then booked through flight. Self and wife were to travel to Ahmedabad from Chennai while Shri Narasimhan with his wife and sister in law would go there from Hyderabad. The onus of planning and coordination was left to Shri Narasimhan who had wide range of contacts through his banking tribe. Shri Narasimhan   made arrangements for our stay at Ahmedabad in one of State Bank of India Association’s guest house for the period of stay from 9 th March to 14 th March 2019. Further on   reference from one of his bank colleagues contacted Shri Rajeev Sharma a travel agent at Ahmedabad and made the following schedule ready.   On day on...

Recently concluded Assembly elections in Karnataka was a great Natak. The election results saw BJP garner 104 seats Congress 78 and JD(S) Led by Shri Kumaraswamy 38 and two independents in the house of 224 where 3 seats will see by election in June. Immediately after the results the congress announced that it would support Shri Kumaraswamy of JD(S) as Chief Minister, the two independents also assured support to Kumaraswamy. The total became 118. six more than the simple majority. The irony is both Congress and JD(S) fought fiercely against each other but now joined to defeat the BJP. Politics they say has strange bedfellows. But the Governor had other ideas. He invited B.S.Yedurappa of the BJP to form the Govt. beng the single largest party and gave him time for 15 days to prove his majority. The other two parties cried hoarse. Along with them the entire opposition Mamta, Chandrababu Naidu, Chandrasekara Rao, Sharad Pawar, Sitaram Yechury, Farooq Abdullah et al. They resorted to res...

The RK Nagar byelection has become a buy election. Money flowed freely. Novel techniques were adopted to distribute money to the voters. EPS-OPS combine blame TTV Dinakaran for bribing the voters. In contrast TTV Dinakaran blames the EPS-OPS combine. DMK the principal opposition party could not match both the factions of the AIADMK..The victory of TTV Dinakaran is a jolt to EPS-OPS combine.. Death to democracy, Set back to DMK. BJP was nowhere in the picture getting less votes than NOTA. 

Dr.A.P.J.Abdul Kalam our ex-President passed away on 27th July 2015 while he was addressing the students of IIM Shillong. The entire nation was stunned beyond words on the passing away of such a great man in such a sudden manner. His body was kept in state in Delhi where Leaders of various hue paid their homage. Thereafter his body was flown to Rameswaram for the last rites as per the wishes of his family members. He was buried on 30th July in Rameswaram. The funeral was attended among others by the PM Shri Narendra Modi, Shri Rahul Gandhi, various Chief Ministers, Leaders of various political parties and other dignitaaries. The day 30th July 2015 was declared a public holiday by the State Govt. All the schools, colleges, State Govt. offices, private establishments were closed. Special buses were arranged from various parts of the State to Rameswaram for the people to pay their last respects to their departed leader. Interestingly all the shops put down their shutters as a mark of res...