Photo Collection -2

Hi Guys,

I found some newly grown chilies in my garden yesterday and took my Camera to shoot them. To my dismay, there was no charge in the batteries and hence I had to charge my batteries. Today morning when I woke up it was raining and the climate was awesome. I took some pictures and here I present them.

White flower with water droplets.

A single flower!

To me, it seems to be some sort of formation, but don't know if I am imagining too much!

Water droplets on a leaf

A left over part from coconut tree

Light from a lamp

Chilies hanging

Here's the link to the album in Picasa Web Albums

Happy Viewing!!!

After Rain!!!

Hi Guys,

There was an unexpected shower in the early hours today. The climate was cool when I woke up and then the sun came out as usual. I went around my garden and took some photos of the effect of rain. Here, I share some of the photos.

Water accumulated in the floor.

I noticed some ants sticking to the wall. They were not moving, but were carrying some white identical object. It must be the ant egg. Ants are said to predict rain and they carry their eggs before the rain.

Water sticking to the leaves!

A close up view!

Water sticking to the buds!

Drops about to fall

View the complete Picasa web album here.

Happy Viewing!!!

True but Unbelievable! Flood in Vaigai River!

Hi Guys,

After my previous post, Indians at the Asian Games, the performance of Indians were much better. So, it won’t be proper if I leave it that way, but I’ll wait for the games to conclude and will write the remaining portion. Anyway now I’ll be writing about something unbelievable, but happening.

I have been living in Madurai from my childhood. Madurai, one of the ancient cities of the country is situated on the banks of Vaigai River. Looking back at history, we can end up with the fact that most of the ancient cities were constructed nearby rivers. The main reason behind this is the need of water for livelihood. So, whenever a king decides to settle down at a particular area, he will make sure that the area is rich with water sources. This is not only important for drinking and cooking, but also for agriculture.

Water touching both banks of the river

The history of how Madurai was formed is not so clear, but anyway some ruler (probably a Pandian king) must have chosen the place to settle in. The earlier city was located on the southern side of Vaigai River. The city must have taken a complete shape around 1400-1600 when Meenakshi Amman temple reached its ultimate architecture. The city is mainly based around the temple, basically square streets named after Tamil months. The city must have been such around late 1800s, when the city needed to be expanded.

Bridge connecting parts of the city

So, still the temple forms the centre point of the city, but the city has expanded dramatically. It has gone beyond the other side of the river too and I live on the Northern side of the river. So, basically Madurai was situated on the banks of Vaigai River and because of that, the river has had many historical incidences too. Many epics praise the river, portraying how water flows through the river beautifully.

But, right from my childhood I have rarely seen the River running beautifully. Rather, it would be filled by grass or wild shrubs and more than that it will have very little stagnant dirty water (my mother used to say that when she was a child, even if water doesn’t flow, it would be filled with sand. Thanks to sand quarrying, I didn’t get to see that too). In November, December when Tamil Nadu gets rains due to North East Monsoons (rest of India gets it from South East Monsoons), the river would be filled with water and it would be nice to see that.

But as time went along and I grew tall, the amount of water flowing through the river got reduced. It was as if my height and the amount of water were indirectly proportional. It reached a stage when each year, water would be flowing in the river in the river for some 10-15 days when there were heavy rains and it would flood very rarely. For the past years, water was not even flowing in those days. So, it became something like history saying, ‘Once, so long ago, water was flowing through this river’.

This year was dramatic. There were no rains, the water tables in the city were very low and everyone was praying for rains. Everyone was waiting for the North East monsoons. Finally November came and rains started and it hasn’t stopped until now. The water level in the Vaigai Dam (situated 70 kms away from Madurai) reached its maximum a few days ago and hence the water flowing through the Vaigai River was increasing each day.

Water flowing with great force!

A few days ago, water was flowing very heavily and flood warnings were issued. A few people who got inside the river ignoring the warning, never returned back. So, it’s something like sort of History restored. These days many people gather around the river to watch the water flowing. On my way to college, I have been able to see people standing on the bridges and watching the water. Particularly, many younger school children watch the River awestruck, as they have never seen this much water.

People watching water flow through the river

Due to this, many lakes and ponds around the city has got filled and even some has broken out. Most of the areas lying in the southern side of the city have been drowned with water. One of my classmates coming from that area told me, all the streets and low lying houses have been filled with water and it has become playtime for kids. They enjoy their time in water and many other boys, engage their time catching fishes. He said fishes up to a foot long were found in the water.

This has caused a lot of hardships to the people too, but generally people are enjoying it, as the city is receiving water after a long time. The atmosphere is great around here. Hope water flows for many more days.

Happy Reading!!!

P.S: Photographs taken by my friend Sundar. All pictures were taken today.

Things that crossed my way!

Hi Guys,

It has been long since I wrote my last post. It is also long since I wrote a post out of my heart. I was busy with works regarding my brother’s marriage (which ended successfully on October 27). After that I was busy setting things at home (as I was alone in home for 2 weeks, everything was shuffled) and of late, I’ve been getting ready for my practical exams, which are scheduled to start next week. Before that I thought of sharing a few things that came across my way in the recent days.

Security Levels

Let me say you about the security levels followed in our country. Recently I and my mother went to Railway Station to wave off my brother and sister in law. It was heavily raining and we went there after some delays. We went through the main entrance and we were asked to go through a metal detector. I had to come out again to get platform tickets and when I went in, I was enquired on why I was going in and out continuously. Impressed? Read the sequel.

Two days later (exactly on Diwali), I and parents were leaving to Chennai to send off my brother who was going back to US. That day it was raining even heavily. The roads were filled with knee height water and we were dropped some 1 km from Railway station. We managed to walk in the water logged road and after reaching railway station, we used the overhead bridge as the entrance was filled with water. We were not checked. After reaching inside, I came to the main lobby of the station, to check the platform number of our train. From there, I saw that the passengers who were entering through the main entrance were checked. So, what is the purpose of this security? Any terrorist or anti social person could easily come through the overhead bridge. Maybe we could easily say that in a country with so much population, we can’t check everyone. But then, at least all the ways should be blocked or checked.

Rains bringing back Water



Water flowing through Vaigai River

There were heavy rains here during the past week. At least, this year North East monsoons blossomed. This has increased water levels in all the places. In our home, we were facing water scarcity and after these rains, the condition seems to have improved. I heard from my mother that the lake nearby our home has been filled with water and this will improve the water table. Also, today when I went to college, I saw that water was flowing in the Vaigai River after very long time. It has been at least 2 years since water flowed through the famous river. It was a good scene, but the river is filled with weedy plants and scrubs and they hinder the water flow. Seeing from the bridge, it appears as if many tiny green islands have come into existence in the river.

Poor clumsy Water filled in Teppakulam



A photo of Teppakulam I captured during last Float Festival

Thepa Thiruvizha (Float festival) will be occurring somewhere in the February month and for that our officials have started filling water in the Teppakulam. The process started a few days back. Water is pumped from the Vaigai River and is flowed into the pond. When the process started the water in Vaigai River was dirty, stagnated and poor. With no worries about that, our officials started filling in. Though now good water flows through, nothing can be done to the polluted water. Each day I go to my college through that area and the stench it has created is unbearable. Today it was quite better as the good water must have diluted the effects. Why don’t our officials think before doing things? Last year the same problem occurred and after media focus, they removed the dirt using machines.

Anil and Apple confusions

This is a message I received in my phone some time back

3 apples were in front of an anil (anil means squirrel in Tamil). Anil ate 2 apples, didn’t eat one. Reason? The apple was plastic.

Now, again 3 apples in front of an anil and anil didn’t eat any. Reason? Anil was plastic.

One original apple in front of an original anil. But, still anil didn’t eat. Reason? Anil was on Discovery Channel and apple was on front of the TV.

Now, anil and apple are on TV, but anil didn’t eat. Reason? Both were on different channels.

I know you are angry, but you have to read this too...

Anil and apple are on same TV channel, even then anil didn’t eat. Reason? TV was off.

After reading this message, I was blank and was not able to do anything for some time.

That’s it for now guys see you later!

Happy Reading!!!

Rainy Days!

Hi Guys,

The weather has been pleasant here for the past few days. There was a heavy rain day before yesterday and a few drizzles before and after that. My mind started to travel back a few years. I’ve always enjoyed rain. My parents used to be so worried about my health and will be warning me to stay away from rain. But I have enjoyed a few circumstances when I have inadvertently drenched myself in rain. So I’ll be writing about those sweet memories in this post.

August 2003

I was studying 8th standard then. It was late august and we were having maths special class (it’s terrible to think that we had special classes even in our 8th standard). After the school, I was coming back to home along with my friend in cycle and it started to rain heavily. There was no cover nearby and hence we had no option but to continue riding. I was soaked completely when I was in home. That was the first time I was drenched in rain and hence I was very scared that I would get fever and the mental thought combined with my parent’s scolding created fever. I became so terrified of rain after this event.

July 2004

Nature had its own plans to take off my fear. This time the event occurred in Guruvayur, Kerala. I was there with my friends and it was a school tour. It was a ten minute walk from the temple to the place where the bus was parked. After visiting the temple I was returning to the bus along with a few of my friends. It started raining all of a sudden. There was no shelter nearby and hence we had to keep moving. This time I had no fear, as I knew my parents weren’t there to admonish me. The only fear I had was the fear of illness and soon I understood that I got fever the first time just because of my mental fear. So, I started to love rain. Though, the journey became damped because of the monsoon rains.

October 2007

A few years passed and I had no fears of rain, but I avoided getting into rain deliberately as it made the dresses waterlogged. It was October, the rainy season in Tamil Nadu (all of India gets rain in June-July by Southwest monsoon, whereas Tamil Nadu and Andhra Pradesh receive rain in October-November by Northeast monsoon).

My brother had come home for one of his weekend holidays. It was a fortnight before Diwali and my mother was insisting him to get new dresses. So he started to the store one afternoon and as I was having a boring time in home, I accompanied him. It was sunny when we started, but as we were shopping it started to rain heavily. We finished the shopping and were waiting for the rain to abate. From inside the shop it seemed that the rain had stopped completely and so we stepped out. But it was still drizzling heavily.

My brother was too concerned about me and asked me to use the shopping bag as a protective cover over my head. He was also using one and I was too lazy to carry it and just kept it brushing my hair. The bag was black in color with some designs. When we were in the bus, I found that the bag was bleached at one particular spot (where it was brushing my hair). I was saying to my brother that the oil in my hair would have reacted with the bag and my brother said that I was thinking idiotically. Soon we found that the bag’s composition was of very poor quality. The color was sticking to our hands and dresses. I won’t forget this incident because of those sticking colors. The black color is still present in the shirt that I was wearing that day.

September 2009

I was in my second year classes and we were conducting a technical symposium in our college and I was the head of the technical committee. I was having very busy time between September 15 and September 25 as I had to download the papers and reply to the sender’s questions (I thought it was an easy job, but I realized the difficulty as I was receiving hundreds of mails). It was one of those days when it started raining massively when I was travelling in bus. I got down at the bus stop at 5.15 pm and went into a nearby shop 10 feet away for shelter, but within that time I was drenched completely. I was waiting for rain to subside, but it was 6.15 pm when the rain reduced to drizzling. Then I went to my home in the drizzling. I was soaking wet when I reached home. It was good that I reached home as early as possible, as I had more than 75 mails to be read on that particular day.

June 2010

This incident happened just a month ago. I was in Chennai for my brother’s engagement. It was June 6, the day before his engagement. My parents went to purchase things. Meanwhile I and my cousin brother were asked to get a reference note from one of my relative’s house. We started by 10 am from his home. When we started the climate was unstable and we didn’t car to take an umbrella. We got into a share auto and it started to rain heavily in 2 minutes. The journey itself was nasty as the crossing vehicles splashed water on us (particularly on my cousin brother who was sitting at the right corner).

We got down at a signal where we had to change directions. It took less than a minute to cross the road but we were already soaked to the skin. We got into another share auto and when we got down at the bus stop, we waited for the rain to end. It was 15 minutes before the rain subsided to drizzling. We were impatient and so we started to walk in the drizzling. We reached my relative’s home in five minutes and by the time we reached there the drizzling had stopped. Again nothing happened to both of us this time.

These are all the things I remember. All of them have been wonderful when thinking back. Rain is one beautiful thing that gives lot of freshness and energy to the soil and nature. I have also received some of the energy. Why don’t you try it out?

Happy Reading!!!