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Lollu Express "IDHU UNGAL IDAM"

POST YOUR ARTICLE, YOUR VIEWS, YOUR WRITINGS In this Section.

I have started a new section called "Idhu Ungal Idam". You can write about anything you like and Your Views, Your Article, Your Ideas will be posted in "Lollu Express - Idhu Ungal Idam". Please Mail me at KANMAN@hotmail.com .

Aticle 9: MAR 1st 2001.

TAKE THE WAY YOU WANT, By My Brother MAGESH, LONDON, U.K.

Hi dear Friends,

As most of you, I'm also a driftwood flown by the mercy of the Technology and Time.. Fortunately or unfortunately, I'm into this IT Profession, enjoying all the pleasure of staying abroad, with all its ease without worrying about the future.... I should thank my brother Prabhu for guiding me this way.. On the whole.. 24 complete years I was living in the East, in Southern extreme of India, invariably with all the Cultural, Social and Traditional inputs from my Parents, Grand Parents, Relatives, Friends, Philosophers and Well Wishers.. During those Childhood years, my mind had a Definition / Boundary of what is Good and what is Bad.. How to Live.... what is right and what is wrong.. Even though I did not define my own boundary for my life, I lived in the pattern of life which my close society (family) followed..

Now I'm in U.K for the past 3+ months.. working as a consultant for a well renown company... Initially when I landed here, I was just admitting whatever I saw and which came across... b'cos for the first time in my life, I see a drastic change in terms of color, climate, culture, economy, psychologyl... etc.. etc....everything was Bright and New... Before even realising that I got to live up in this environment, without my knowledge, my mind started accomodating to these unforeseen changes....

In these 3 months of west life, I'm in to a confused state... All the morals I had in my mind, which the East taught me, is totally in stark contrast with what these Westeners are..West has a totally different Culture, Customs, Thoughts and Philosophies and Way of life.. Now, I'm living in the middle of this Western Culture with my same old Eastern Mind... I'm totally confused of the "Right's" and the "Wrong's" which the East follows.... What is Wrong in East is "Just" in West... Whatever Customs we follow, the Mrals we hold good, the Life pattern we follow, carries absolutely no meaning in this Western Society. Then I came to realise that we are all bound to something called Space and Time.. ( Space is the environment in which we are brought up.. and time is a measure relative to the space..) We, the Easteners belong to a different Space (i.e the environment...) What holds Good in East is irrelevant in Western Space... With the same old Eastern memories in me, everyday my Mind is finding hard to arrive at a compromise of what is JUST....

If I were born in the West, then my Morals would have been totally different.. I should have been hanging around with my 20th Girl Friend.... May be I might even have a kid whom name I would have vaguely remembered, who will just be roaming as I am, living with his step mom with some Government Education.. I should have been hanging around in one of these Pubs chatting with my friends and screaming "wassup buddy" in a funky slang. dreaming about my next trip to Amazon... Still I would be happy living with the Western Mentality...

I was born and brought up in East.. and all the Moral values, East taught me has gone hay straw when I compare my stand with what the West is doing.. West is more of a carefree culture.. They dont' care about the future.. they just live Self.. No body likes to take a permenant job.. They dont have the idea of permenancy at all.. One thing that stands out visibly in the Western culture is - Self first. Thats one of the reasons why we find broken relationships, They are living in Meet-n-Mate-n-Hate stuff. We, the Easteners are brought up in a environment which is like Give-n-Take-n-Sacrifice.

But we cannot simply jump into conclusion that what west is doing is Bad / Wrong.... How can it be?? The ultimate goal of anyone is to live.. and to live happily. We all hold our breath for that only.. They are also living.. I guess they live more healthier and more happily than the East. Neither, We cannot accept what East is doing is only Wise.. East is more concerned about Future.... but for the same future, it is sacrificing its Present..... this keeps on happening and ultimately there is no "Present"... there is only "Craving for the Future...."

We cannot defend the fact that more crimes are happening in east also.. East is finding it difficult to admit that it is living in Chaos.. but that's a part of the Truth.. East has started imitating the western culture and It is slowly drowning in to Westernization...Thou the numbers change, but the Attitude seems to be the same. East is striving to come out of the boundaries which its own society has drawn... it won't burst out of those boundaries.. But it will happen in a subtle manner...because Eastern mind is catchy to old things.. It's afraid to loose its shadow.. It cannot accept abrupt change.. It needs a "Revolution" for a change to happen. It will curse the change....but will accept change thro' its back doors.. as if the change did'nt happen at all.... thats the day to day life of the East.. If West is also living comfortably, then all the Morals we are following are just Morals to satisfy our own mind... they are not the exact Morals... Infact the word Moral is an egoistic word which itself says - you should obey it... so in this world, "Nothing is right and Nothing is wrong.. Everything is just a happening...."

This, I intended to write to those who live in a different country and culture, far away
from their home land, finding hard to accomodate themselves in the new society they're
living in, dreaming about those good old days in their home town..... I think, we don't have
to be too bothered about Right's and Wrong's.. Everything is Right and Everything is
Wrong too.. and Everything lies in your perception.. I think all these things boil down to
how open-minded you are. Do you know yourself first and are you ready to accept
change? Being Open-Minded is going to decide how receptive are you while you come
across situations.

If you feel Annoyed, you think you are being Forced,
If you findit Appealing, its an Attraction.

Attraction is what makes you to Adore new things, If you like to take the changes...
accomodate it... Dont feel bad about it... ultimately, you should'nt have that guilty feeling
about the change... or else, if you want to distinguish yourself from the new Culture.... Go a
head. Live your own.... don't curse or envy the West..
You're to arrive at a conclusion, because you may see many a good things in the new
culture.... and of course... lots of good things in East too.. Its up to you to decide what to
take-up and what to leave....

Either you leave it or take it, do it willfully and happily.....

Live Happily...
Cheers,
Magesh
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Article 8: FEB 4th 2001.

"Home Sweet Home" - An Article About MADRAS By SUJATHA BALU, NJ, USA

Here is one Great Article by Our LE Reader SUJATHA BALU from NJ. A Great One. For those who miss home Badly this article will be a sweet one. There are 100 Years old pictures in this article. Enjoy "HOME SWEET HOME" by Sujatha and mail your comments at : sujatha_balu@yahoo.com

I am a person who could not agree more with the popular saying 'Home Sweet Home'. I have such fond memories of my country, always proud to be Indian and ofcourse have that soft corner for Madras. Reason being I was born and pretty much lived there most of my life. We had been there on vacation couple of months back and the change was overwhelming. I am so at a loss for words that I finally chose to say it all with just two words 'TECHNOLOGY BOOM', right in your face. They have mini malls everywhere and the economy is certainly improving in bounds and leaps. People are at ease shopping at these expensive looking places and you do not even have to go all the way to Mount Road to step into the air-conditioned comfort of one. There is one just down the road from you and many more are springing up every day. There are high rises everywhere and fly-overs connecting most places. The one thing that really caught my imagination and totally bowled me over was this. Anybody from India is well aware of the out numbering population of cows over humans. These animals are most respected and have the most freedom than even the citizens. They roam everywhere, sleep where they want to, eat what they can get to and squat at times very conveniently in the middle of a busy intersection, unaware of all the people going nuts losing their schedule. Even after all this, most people would hesitate to actually physically try to remove the cow or give it a thrashing or two(not that I advocate it myself being an animal lover). Well, coming back to what caught my eye is all the posters that the cows were making meals out of. Atleast 6 out of 10 posters had these letters written in bold in colors that would blind you if you looked at it for a while, neon oranges and greens. As to the lettering itself, it went like this.

JAVA, EJB, SERVLETS,JSP,WEBMASTER,ASP,HTML,WEB GURU
CLASSES STARTING RIGHT NOW, SPEED UP UR CAREER

Is this not enough proof that the city was booming in technology? Every where I went, these posters were there, on the roads, the market, the post office and every possible compound wall or fence or tree branch where they could be posted.

After coming back, I have spent many hours just reminiscing the fun time I had back home. Recently, my cousin Arun sent me these pictures and I was thrilled to see them. These are going to be treasured in my most favorite picture album. Just wanted to share them with people who will love it as much as I did. I guess you need to have lived in madras to actually recognize these pictures by the way.

The first one is our great Mount Road, where better to start with. Notice the date on the lower left corner.

Can you believe that this picture is actually a 100 years old? It is quite amazing, the road is almost unrecognizable. My favorite in the picture is that totally cute and vintage car on the road. Most people are dressed so natively too, I could not spot a single trouser in the picture, let alone finding them on women

The next one is the ever-busy Parry's corner. I am puzzled whether this picture was shot on a weekend or if that was all the traffic flow that we had in those days. Currently, if you visited the same place, you would have difficulty walking 10 yards without somebody shoving you away, it would resemble a human sea if the picture were shot now. This one is dated 1890.

I have saved the best for last. This is Mowbrays Road, it is named T.T.K Road now. For people who do not know the location, this is the road that leads to the Park Sheraton hotel and also has a Boston school in Alwarpet. If you are wondering why this is my favorite, this is where I lived most of my life and still have my house. I am the type of person who loves change but also do not want the most treasured things in life to ever change. I remember I was so miserable when they renamed this road. I must have been in my third grade or later when they did that. This picture is the most unrecognizable of all the three. The bullock cart just adds to the beauty of the picture. Our house was almost the only other house apart from a couple other on this road when this picture was taken. Now, this road is one of the busiest roads in Madras, it is even the official route for all the politicians and the CMs too. They have loads of stores and restaurants and boutiques now. One thing that we have not totally lost is the crown of glory literally, the pretty arch of steady trees that line the road on eitherside. It looks absolutely gorgeous in this 100-year-old picture and is still there, at about 30-40% has been retained as a rough estimate. This one is dated 1885.


Hope the readers enjoy these pictures as much as I did. Couple of quick comments about the lolluexpress site. The reviews are a riot, downright hilarious. Reading them is almost like watching a Govinda movie, totally insane writing by the really humorous author. Makes for real fun reading. The titles for each actor/actress is absolutely creative, I cannot laugh enough after reading them. Keep the crowd in splits as always. Thanks to lollu guys for providing this to us and to Arun, my cousin for sending me these pics.


Ciao,
Sujatha Balu
(Somerset,NJ)

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Article 7: JAN 5th 2001.

" I WAS THINKING ABOUT SLEEP" - By Mahesh Prabhu (My Brother's First Article in LE, LONDON, UK)

Hi dear Guys,

Hope you guys remember me.. I'm Mahesh (S.A.P) Just came back from lunch.... Thought of writing a mail to you all.... Today all my project mates have gone to attend an training programme. I'm not in that training programme. So I'm vetti now.. You know what I had for lunch..... don't laugh...... a slice of Pizza and one vegetable cutlet.. innum pasikkudhu... indha pasangabun thinnuttu eppadidhan irukkaanungalo..

I was thinking about SLEEP... Its such a beautiful thing to do... Everyone likes to do it... Its so natural and it's a part of our life.... When you're awake, your mind keeps wandering.. thinking of so many things.. so many waves inside the mind... both conscious and mostly unconscious.. Many thoughts come and go.. many fantacies make you feel high.. It brings the celebrities to your bed or roses... there is no consistency... No regular pattern.... Some time, you feel very happy and the other time you're totally the opposite.. sometimes you're extremely reactive and other time you're utterly sober.. But when you sleep, you slip and fall from all these thinking, dreaming... sensing.. feeling..etc.. etc.. and it's a drift everyone takes everyday.. It's just a momentary lapse of reason.. No one can escape from it.. Its so dark inside when we close our eyes...but we still know Its not a trap....We're not afraid of it anymore.. Just everyone likes to dive into it.. When we're sleeping, we loose ourselves... we loose our thinking, our physical structure, our consciousness, our sense, self, our ego.. and what not.... This state is so peaceful.... So pleasant... You feel really good when you wake up out of it. It's the thoughtless state.. Its so hard to be in that state when we're awake.. because we have to overcome three stages.. our actions first, then there is thinking... and finally there is feeling..... if we want to be thoughtless, then we have to stop all these three.. That's almost humanly impossible when we're awake.... We are bound to bouncebetween these three states all the time.

LET-GO.... is the beautiful word I've ever come across in the universal language ....English.. if you dare to use this word in any situation, then you can never be the looser.. You always win.. SLEEP also follows the same principles... Be it any situation, it does'nt wait for your command...It simply lets it go... It simply falls.... Falling is a great thing to happen... Its very extremely adventurous.. because we've not experienced the actual essence of falling at all.. we're scared to fall.. we resist even when we fall on the beach... we don't let it happen.. We always pull back from it happening... That's why we're so excited when we swing. I think that's why people call it "Falling asleep...." That's a right word.. but this falling asleep is without any resistence.... You don't know the boundaries.. This falling is a Freeee.. Fall.... Its like the water falling from a mountain..... not so fast... so joyous.. its like a feather falling from a high tree... so soft... so natural.. so slender. It's the surrender to Nature.. It's an everyday surrende to your ownbeing...


Whenever we consume alcohol, it also does the same thing... This alcohol slowly releases all these three stages of Action, Thinking and Feeling.... And you loose your-self. But this is not natural.. You're making this sleep happen artificially.. That's why you get the unusual feeling when you wake up the next day morning called headache or hangover.. Lot more thoughts.. going for a sleep..Good Night..with luv,Mahesh Skely

Mahesh Prabhu,
British Petroleum,
London, UK.

Article 6: JAN 5th 2001., By BALAJI NATARAJAN, GERMANY (Balaji.Natarajan@at.siemens.de)

"RAMARAJAN & KANAGA" in "DHILWALE DHULANIYA LE JAAYENGAE" Remake of "KARAGATAKARAN"

"Good for nothing" GANGHAI AMAARAN presents

"PASU NAESAN" RamaRajan and "Kannazhagi" Kanaga in "En Murai-Ponna Aduththa veettukaran thallikinu poyittaan"
(Remake of Bollywood mega-hit movie "Dilwale Dulhaniya Le Jaayaengae")

Characters:

Shahrukh khan - RamaRajan
Kajol - Kanaga
Amrish Puri - Vinu Chakravarthy
Farida Jalal - Gandhimathi
Kajol's sister - Sangeetha
Anupham Kher - Shanmugha Sundharam
Kajol's Fiancee - AnandRaj
Shahrukh's Friends - Senthil & Charlie
Kajol's friend - Kovai Sarala

Scene 1:

This is basically the introduction scene of Kanaga and her family..

Kanaga is a girl from Vadugapatti village studying in 9th standard in one of famous THINNAI PALLIKOODAM in the village..
Right from 6th standard, she has started dreaming about her MAN and has written lots of KAVIDHAI about the unknown man who is going to walk into her life.. Her hobby is to take bath in the theppa kulam in mariyamman koil along with her friend Kovai Sarla and to sing some Mariyamma songs in the Veppalai costumes.

She has a very good and understanding Mother Gandhimathi who runs IDLY kadai in the same village.. She is so friendly with her daughter and reads all the Kavidhai which her daughter has written in the last few pages of the 40 pages Kanakku notebook.. (That's her hobby)

Kanaga has a very strict and Murattu Father in Vinu chakravarthi who is the owner of 45 x 60 feet size Tea kadai in the centre of the village.. He expects a strict discipline from his daughters and his hobby is to break the leg of the Vidalai pasanga in the village who try to sight-ify his daughters.. Also he has fixed Kanaga's marriage with His friend Ponnambalam's son AnadRaj who has a KASAAPPU KADAI in the same village..

Kanaga also has a sister Sangeetha who studies in 5th standard in the same THINNAI PALLIKOODAM.. She is a big Vaayaadi and always talks things which is beyond her age.. Her main job is to accompany her sister to school and laugh whenever her father and mother scold Kanaga.. ( In short, a traditional Tamil movie sister role).

Scene 2:

This is the introduction scene of Ramarajan and his family.. RamaRajan is a 10th std student in "Thyagi Thilagar memorial Corporation school" in Kolaigaranpatti village.. Unlike Kanaga's family, Ramarajan's family is small with only him and his father Shanmugha sundaram.. Shanmugha sundaram is one of the richest person in the village as he is the owner of a Punnakku Mandi and a Mattu pannai.. Ramarajan is a Chella pillai of his father as he has lost his mother at a very young age.. Due to this, he is a total makku in his studies and is only good enough to milk the cows in his father's Mattu pannai.. His hobby is to play GOLI and Pambharam in the school ground along with his friends Senthil and Charlie.. Another information about him is he is the Winner of last four PGA tours ( Professional GOLI players Association) that took place between the 18 pattis.. He comes back home after failing in the SSLC exam and his father instead of scolding him encourages and asks him to take care of his PUNNAKKU MANDI business from then on..

Meanwhile Ramarajan gets his father's permission to go to the big THIRUVIZHAA in the nearby village where all the people from 18 pattis get together and eat Popcorn, Panju mittai and play Ranga Rattinam along with the village figures..

( Also the thing which is not in the schedule but happens regularly in these VIZHAA-s is one Dhadha who tries to collect maamool from the Paanai kadai owned by a Kezhavi and breaks the PAANAI-s in the shop when she refuses to give Maamool.. As usual our Hero has to go and fight with the dhadha breaking more PAANAI-s than the Dhadha has broken.. In effect, the Kezhavi looses more money only because of the Hero and still thanks the Hero saying "RAASA, Kadavul madhiri vandhu En paanai-ya ellaam kaappaththittayya"
)

Scene 3:

On their way to Thiruvizhaa, Ramarajan and his friends pass thro Kanaga's vilage. Ramarajan wants the fire for his Ganesh BEEDI and asks his Friend Senthil to get a Kolli kattai from Vinu chakravarthy's tea kadai.. Since it is a shop closing time, Vinu chakravarthy kicks senthil out of the place and closes the shop.. Knowing this, Ramarajan plays a trick on Vinu chakravarthy by asking for sukku kaapi and runs away with the Kollikattai instead.. Due to this incident, our Vinu chakravarthy develops a hatred for Ramarajan and goes back home in a bad mood.. Meanwhile our Kanaga who is waiting in the house to get the permission of
his father to go to the same thiruvizhaa is worried about his bad mood, but somehow manages to get his permission to go to
the Thiruvizhaa with her friend Kovai sarala..


Scene 4:

Kovai sarala and senthil are sitting inside the Thalapathi Azhagiri Transport corporation bus in the bus stand waiting for Kanaga and Ramarajan respectively.. Bus starts and both Kanaga and Ramarajan come running together behind the running bus..
Ramarajan boards the bus first and helps kanaga by giving his hand and both end up safe inside the bus.. Just like a traditional village hero, Ramarajan fights with the heroine in the bus throughout the journey .. Extra fitting to the whole episode is the Triangle love which develops between Kovai sarala,senthil and charlie which gives way to a comedy track which is the necessity for the success of the movie.. Bus stops in the middle of the journey near a vayakaadu for all those perisus who want to answer to
nature's call inside the bushes in the vayakkadu.. Kanaga gets down to buy Panju mittai for her friends and RamaRajan gets down
fom the bus to get some Kareem Beedi and Kadalai Barpi.. Both get into a tussle in the Potti kadai and miss the bus
because of this tussle.. They come to know that due to the Vanniyar strike for the next two days, there wont be any bus from
the village and the next bus is only after two days.. Ramarajan hires a MATTU VANDI from the village and takes kanaga along with
him with that.. As expected, there comes Rain with lightning and Thunder and since the Mattu vandi is TOPLESS,
they have to get down and take shelter in the "Iththuppona Idinjupona Ayyanaar koil" nearby..

Ramarajan feels very cold and takes out the back-up SAARAAYAM which he has bought from the shop No:15 and starts drinking.. Kanaga objects to it initially but finally she herself drinks the whole bottle, sings a sexy song in the rain (with S.JANAKI voice in the background). Our Hero who comes Third in the list of Uththama purushan-s just behind Gandhi and Buddha does not exploit the situation but helps Kanaga to cool down and sleep.. Next morning, Kanaga wakes up, realises what a gentleman Ramarajan is and develops a soft corner for him..


Scene 5:

The day comes when Kanaga and Ramarajan has to leave for their respective villages and it is time for our Ganghai Amaran to render his Sweet voice to one of the all time melodious songs composed by him.. The song contains some traditional rhyming words written by Over-rated VAALI like "Maanae... Thaenae", "Kaathirundhaen.. Paarthirundhaen", "Thangachchi... Enkatchi..", "Kaayam... Maayam", etc., This scene is probably the most romantic scene ever seen in Tamil movies with Hero and Heroine holding each other's hands and as they move in two different directions, their hands slowly get seperated with their little fingers touching each other at the tip.. After their hands get seperated, Ganghai Amaran shows his directorial touch with Ramarajan's Kareem Beedi in Kanaga's hand and Kanaga's Echchal panna Panju mittai in Ramarajan's hand.. This indirectly shows that they have exchanged their hearts without their knowledge..

Scene 6:

Our Strict Father Vinu Chakravarthi comes to know that His daughter has fallen in love with some other person and so he forces her to marry Anand Raj.. Since Kanaga is very afraid of her strict father, she accepts her father's order.. Next night around 12'O clock in the night she gets the Panju mittai smell and she identifies it as the one she has left with Ramarajan.. She goes in search of the smell and finds him behind her house.. There occurs an emotional reunion between the two and they sing a song just for the heck of it ( with the background voice of malaysia Vasudevan and Swarnalatha ). At the end of the song, Ramarajan promises her that he will some how enter their family, change the mind of the people in the family and marry her..

Scene 7:

Our hero plans to enter AnandRaj's family and as per his plan he helps Anand Raj to win that year PGA tour title by purposely loosing in the final to him.. Anandraj is moved by his gesture and accepts him as his friend and Ramarajan slowly enter
into their family winning everybody's faith.. Seeing Ramarajan's ravishing looks and exceptional talent in milking cows, Anadraj's sister Vaishnavi falls in love with RamaRajan.. This lead to some side looks and jollufying gestures from Vaishnavi and gentleman type escaping gestures from Ramarajan and it goes on.. Finally the day of Kanga'S marriage comes and Ramarajan has no choice but to run away with our Kanaga.. When he tries to run away, Vinu chakravarthy catches them and all those ever-ready
Adiyaals of Ponnambalam and AnanadRaj attack Ramarajan.. Its time for our hero to show all those fighting skills he has learnt from his GURU Bayilvan Ranganathan and does fights ranging from KUNFU, KARATHAE upto the local Silambam and
wins the fight.. All ends well and Vinu chakravarthy realises his mistake and accepts Ramarajan as his
Son in law..

( As is the case only with Jackie chan movies and Ganghai Amaran movies, all behind the scene Poojai and shooting scenes are shown at the end of the movie with titles on the foreground..)

- By Balaji Natarajan for Lollu Express, LE Fan.

Article 5: November 28th 2000.

" WHAT IS SOUL" - By SATYA JAY DEV, SENIOR LE MEMBER, NC, USA

The Vedas, the very source of all spiritual principles, have been enlightening the whole world from ancient days from this holy land of Bharat. The Vedas are the very forms of God. Divinity resides in all, living and non-living things. Anoraneeyaan mahatomaheeyaan - from the microcosm to the macrocosm, the entire universe is pervaded by divinity. This viswa (cosmos) is the form of divinity. From dawn to dusk, we experience this form of the divine, and yet fail to realize this fact. All that your eyes see are the divine, and yet fail to realize this fact. All the sounds you hear are equally pervaded with divinity. Even the thoughts in your mind are forms of the divine. The bliss that emanates from the heart is also divine. When everything that is seen, heard, experienced and enjoyed is divine, how foolish it is to search for God elsewhere! You are seeing God in the form of the world every moment. Since you lack divine feeling, you see God as the world, instead of seeing the world as God. Once you understand that Viswam Vishnu swarupam (the universe is the form of Vishnu), you will certainly be able to see the world as God. Yat bhaavam, tat
bhavati (as is the feeling, so is the result).

Divinity pervades the entire cosmos. Do not have the feeling that God is present in one place and not in another. He is everywhere. Wherever you search for Him, you will find Him there. But you should give up worldly feelings. Only then can you understand and experience the Vedic dictum, Sarvam Vishnumayam jagat (the whole is pervaded by God). Do not limit God to
a particular name and form. He exists in all beings and all forms as the atmic (spirit) principle. In fact, it is the power of the divine that makes you see, hear, talk, experience and enjoy. In that case you may ask whether difficulties, worries and misfortunes are also divine? Yes indeed! They too are forms of the divine.

Here is a small example:

Lord Narayana protected Prahlada, who constantly chanted His name and contemplated on Him. But He
became the Lord of Death, Yama, for Hiranyakasipu who had no God consciousness and led a worldly life. So, both God and Yama are one and the same. He acts according to the feelings of the individual. Even the evilest of men have some good in them. This goodness is the aspect of divinity in them. The Upanishads say, Easwarah Sarva Bhoothaam (God is the indweller of
all beings), Isavaasyam Idam Jagat (God pervades the whole world). Do not be misled by terms like Atma, Brahma, Easwara, Vishnu, etc. These are all synonyms of one and the same divinity.

The term 'Bhagavan' stands for divinity. What is the inner meaning of this word? The syllable 'Bha' stands for effulgence, 'ga' for one who gives and 'van' means one who is capable. So, 'Bhagavan' means the one who is capable of spreading light and effulgence to the world. This divinity is latent in you. The principle of the Spirit (atma) is one and the same in all, be it a yogi, a bhogi (a pleasure seeker) or a viraagi (dispassionate person). It is present in theists and also in atheists. But you are unable to recognize
this all-pervasive divinity. You are undertaking various spiritual practices limiting divinity to a particular name of individual preference. Spiritual practices should confer the awareness that divinity is all-pervasive. Just as fire is needed till the rice is cooked, so also the spiritual practices are needed till you realize the innate divinity.

Even if you sow seeds, how can you expect crops if there are no rains? Even if there are rains, you cannot expect crop unless you sow seeds. Likewise, both human effort and divine grace are needed to achieve success in any endavour. Though butter is present in the milk, one cannot see it unless one curdles the milk and churns it. Likewise, though divinity is all-pervasive, one cannot experience it unless one makes appropriate efforts. Human effort can be compared to churning the churning of milk. Once the butter is separated from the milk by churning, it will not get mixed with milk again. If you partake of the churned butter, your entire
being experiences it. Likewise, you will become one with divinity once you experience it.

Satya.....
satyahere@hotmail.com
(Prabhu's Friend)
Raleigh, NC, USA.

Article 4: November 28th 2000.

ARTICLE ON DR. RAJ KUMAR RELEASE BY ANAND, BANGALORE, INDIA!!!!

"Kannadigaru kanmani" Dr. Rajkumar popularly called as anna avaru has been kidnapped by our Forest brigand Veerappan in his Gajanur Farm house in Tamil Nadu hope . every one is aware of this. This has caused a great problem in Bangalore for nearly 10 days Bangalore had a look of what it is famous for "Pensioner's Paradise". Fine in agreement with the TN government the Karnataka CM Krishna has taken to solve the crisis. As usual our famous Nakkeran Gopal was selected as a Government Emmissary he has completed 5 of his missions into the forest in vain and in his last mission pro ltte people like nedumaran were part of the mission. I feel there can be a permanent ministry/post created by the TN government for official emissaries with a basic/da/hra etc apart from that a beautiful 10,000 sqft office space with high speed internet connectivity, world class computers/laptops and ofcourse cute looking receptionists and secaretiries. So that it will be easy for the government to ask that ministry people to look into it!

Dr. Raj is 73 years old and he goes around trees and sings duet with jayapradha with lots of kadhal devadhais this is really horrible to assume but the taste of people in karnataka is really strange. Now Veerappan has got links with LTTE/TNLA etc. This is a national threat and this has to be weeded out otherwise every one in this nation will suffer. There is a simple condition put up by Veerappan that his 51 TADA detenees be released unconditionally. The case had gone to supreme court hearing and justice S.P. Barucha is hearing it. There is one famous saying "Alpanuku vasadhi vandhal ardharathirila kodai pidippan" and this guy barucha is blasting both the govts left right and centre for the move they are adopting to release Rajkumar. One more local galij info(dailies like Dhina thanthi) is that according to Dr. Raj's Horscope "andha aal nay thinnu nari thinnu ponam kedaikkama saga poran". This is really pathetic.

The latest breaking news is that Nedumaran has opted out of the team of emmissaries because he was called an anti social element by one of the TMC member now Dr. Raj's sons are behind Nedumaran and subsequently behind Moopanar to convince Nedumaran to join the mission. I don't know how many people they have to beg for the release of Raj. Inspite of all this the 73 year old Raj is healthy in the jungles. He is been served with Maan kari and udumbu kari by Veerappan.

Now our great emissaries team lead by Nakkeran Gopal is about to leave to Satyamangalam on the sixth mission let us wait for the results. One thing i don't understand is that Gopal is going to the forests as is he is going to his mamiyar's house but the trained police people are not able to trace veerappan. Now they have stopped all the operations against veerappan "Operation irundhappo mattum ennaperusa kizhichuttanga".

RAJ KUMAR RELEASED:

Kannadigaru Kanmani Dr. Raj was released by our forest Brigand Veerappan last week!The ordial continued for 108 days. It was really a sigh of relief for the Tamilians living in Karnataka.

The inside stroy is As per the media speculations Dr. Raj was released because of a Doctor by name Banu who examined him the in the jungles and said that it will be dangerous if he is kept in the forest further. As per Dr. Raj's statement in the media, he instructed her to say that Dr. Raj has a very high blood pressure and he will act accordingly (73 vayasu kezhavanukku nadikka solliya tharanum!) he did and he was released.

There is another story that as per the instrns of LTTE supremo Veluppillai Prabakaran's instrns Veerappan released Dr. Raj. But the fact is that the Karnataka minister by name chandre gowda met advani in Bangalore and sought the centre's help and based on that Defence Minister George Fernandes threthend Veerappan of a Commando action if Dr. Raj was not released and the
very next day Dr. Raj was released.

During the release Veerappan gave him a gift as if an old sumangali mami had visited the house on a friday and they are giving vethalai pakku, kunkumam and manjal kezhangu. Veerappan gave him a veshti and shirt and he gave a shall these photographs appeared in the news papers! In return Dr. Raj Gave him a Gold coin having the emblem of Chamundeshwari(this goddess is believed to be a very powerful godess by the people of Karanatka) indha coinukku spl poojai ellam panni kuduthu

irukkar Enna irukkaravangal ellam kena ku...(word is cut on papular demand prabu has the right to fill it). He will kidnap and as a veratham will keep him for 108 days and release him.

Its all a political game played by some people for their benefits and in the name of emissaries around 12 people(mostly kezha boltu inikko nalaikkonnu irukkara kezhavangal) ventured into the forests and got him released. The interesting part is Nakkeeran Gopal did not go into the forest during the last mission. If it is really a thik dense forest how can these people venture so easily and the forces camping there with all modern equipments for nearly a decade could not trace him. And as usual the hunt for veerappan has started by the STF of both Tamil Nadu and Karnataka! This time the Karnataka government has appointed a person by name Sangliyana who is considered to be a terror like our infamous Walter Dewaram. Apart from this the
centre has also assured all help in nabbing Veerappan.

Now they have started digging the background of the emissaries and their links with LTTE/TNLA etc... As usual Let US wait and see if the Governments are successfull in its efforts and on behalf of LE "ALL DA BEST TO THE GOVERNMENT"!!!


The best part to be appreciated here is the stand of the supreme court about the release of the 51 TADA detenus. Three cheers to the Judge S.P. Bharucha....

Article 3:

FROM : SARASWATHI RAMASWAMY, VIRGINIA, USA, "ANANDA VIKATAN REPORTER" EMAIL : (Former "ANANDA VIKATAN REPORTER OF MADRAS)

Here is one good article about "Kodambakkam" by Saraswathi who was a reporter to ANANDA VIKATAN few years before ! Enjoy
Hi Prabhu,

I was a student reporter in anandha vikatan,junior vikatan and junior post. i thought i wd send in some of my interesting assignments now and then-right from kollywood assignments,investigative reporting,meeting people like mr madhan,ms kanimozhi ,kamal,karthik etc. if u like u can go ahead and post this article as a harbinger of more to come...u can mail me at dur70@hotmail.com

The date was 08-08-88. I was a student reporter in the vikatan group-writing for anandha vikatan,junior vikatan and junior post. My friend Charu and me were one of the three student reporters selected for madras city.We were given an interesting assignment:visit the film studios and interview film personalities with the question:what will they be doing on the day with the unique date 08-08-88 at 8 'o clk 8 min and 8sec?

We set off to the venue of the famous kollywood aka kodambakkam. We were excited at the thought of our interesting venture. We first went to avm gardens-there was a malayalam movie shooting going on-it was monisha sitting with her mother and some malayalam actors,whom we didnt recognize(monisha had become famous by acting in a t rajendar's movie)-she said she would be in kerala on that date for a mallu movie shooting(unfortunately for her, she soon passed away in a car accident-god, wasnt she beautiful). There were no other shootings going on at avm that day and all had gone out for outdoor.

We then set off to vijaya - we were told that director s a chandrasekaran was in the third floor-as naive as we were, we had imagined that third floor was in the third level of a building-we found to our surprise that each floor was some kind of a set and was each location actually. S A C said he would be directing some movie in the same floor on that day-guess what, our ilaya thilagam vijay was running around in the background-he would have been in his eighth or ninth standard(that was a schoolday and i dont know what he was doing in the studio-he was not as impressive as he is now-he was looking like just another boy whom we would see at school). Then we saw actress devilalitha(i dont think she acts nowadays)-she said she would be taking up a bank exam on that day!!results unknown.

We then saw another famous actress at that time,whose name i would not like to mention-she was not ready to answer-she was sitting in a chair and an old guy whom she kept calling "anna"(and he was her"thatha" age) was drying her hair (and mind you, he was not her makeup artist!).We met the then famous mohan-he said he would be in bangalore on that day. We also met the legendary nagesh who also said he would be busy in a shooting. The list went on and on but unfortunately for us all the very famous artists were in outdoor shooting and so we had to make-do with whom we sawwe were just one month into our new job and went with great kalar kanavugal -we were hoping to bump into rajini/kamal/balachandar/barathiraja/sridevi range. But atleast we had fun going around the movie sets and studios with the reporter passes which got us some respect. It was a memorable year(or more than that)with such reporting assignments-some more investigative,some helped meeting important personalities,getting to know people in different walks of life.

Article 2 : 2000 HONDA CRV - USER VIEW from RAM KISHORE, Dayton, Ohio, USA

I am Ram Kishore, you can call me Ram, from Dayton, OH. I bought my 2000 CR-V Ex in the month or January 2000 and is my first vehicle in my life. Today I was just browsing the internet to find out more about CR-V and I found the CR-V Information Xchange. I really became a fan of this site and I told all my friends and colleagues here about it. They always tease me and my CR-V, saying it does not compare well to other cars. Well, I Love my CR-V. Now my car has 1800 miles on it. As I travel around the country, most of the time my CR-V sits in my garage. Whenever I come back home I just drive my CR-V until I feel like its time to go home. Being an Asian Indian, Hindu, its obvious on the first day right after I took my car out of the dealer, I drove my car to a Hindu temple in Dayton for 'pooja' (kind of ceremony) just to make sure nothing goes wrong in the future. (Well, I have my insurance too!).

Let me share a few experiences with you. Whenever I drive my CR-V, at least two to three people on the road turn around and smile at me. I used to wonder what's wrong? Recently I was driving to a mall and one gentleman gestured with his thumbs up and smiled at me. At the next stop signal, he waved his hand and told me I have a good car. Then I realized that nothing was wrong with my car but that poeple love it. When I lived in San Francisco, CA, I was looking to purchase a Toyota RAV 4. Back then, I started doing some research on the internet about small SUVs but found the CR-V to be superior in all aspects of ownership. When I was in India, we mostly have Indian made SUVs and Toyota 4runners. After moving to the States, I never looked to buy sedans or sports cars and wanted only to a SUV and the CR-V fit the bill just right!

I love to drive my CR-V. Between us, I sometimes give a little smooch to my beloved CR-V! I really enjoy washing it. I am going to get its glass tinted and plan on changing the tires to a larger size. I always give a second look after parking my car just so that I can see it one more time. It gets great gas mileage and is very reliable. My CR-V is just a plain stock EX 2000 model but after discovering the CR-ViX, I am going to change the LOOK of my CR-V to make it uniquely mine!

Happy CR-Ving...with smiles,

Ram Kishore

Article 1 : TOP 25 MOVIES

The following is a Contribution from one of our Lollu Express Fan from London, UK. His name is Vinay and its really a wonderful contribution. He is working as Electrical Engineer in London. He has selected Top 25 movies of All Time and has graded the movie along with the stars, Director, Music Director and Rating. For Sure its a wonderful Work by Vinay. E-Mail Vinay at Vinay.Uthayanan@bsria.co.uk. Vinay Thanks a lot and Keep it up.

Vinay.Uthayanan@bsria.co.uk (Vinay Uthayanan)

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