A Letter to Adhirai on her 3rd birthday!

The day exactly three years ago from this day was the second most memorable day for our entire family. Our first milestone was achieved! ya, baby.... you came like a gift to us! That wetness due to the first and last touch of umbilical chord on my left toe! I will never forget in my life. I always feel my toe has that moisture even in a dry land. Whenever I see my toe, the birthing room with full of my emotions only come to my mind. You are a rare soul, you came exactly 5 years 10 months from our marriage. I named you on the very first day you came into me as 'happy'. I think that is why you are giving immense pleasure to us every day. We cherish every moment of our togetherness. Every now and then you weaved a memory with in us. We were not that happy before you born; you showed us life will be this beautiful. We haven't laughed together like we laughed with you. You actually has increased our husband-wife relationship happier and better. Now I & Srini love each other more; have understood each other more; respect each other's differences. We learnt how to love unconditionally from you. Your trust on us has made us responsible. The belief system that evolved in our family, all because of you. You are making our house live. You have become the meaning of our life. You are the mark of our happiness.

The individualism you showed increased our confidence of facing life. You are the person who challenge the challenge. The gut feeling you have….., happppppaaa. We have admired it many times. How this girl can be this confident, this much understanding, this true to self and us.. You have taught me more than I did to you. We are growing everyday by listening to you.

There is no husband-wife setup in our family after your birth. Over the time, our home is like a hostel room of three friends. I always love to play with you; chat with you; hear the dynamic stories you weave everyday, your creative play, your nature walk, your cute cute yoga postures, our single plate sharing eateries, the way you feed your dad and mom; the tight hugs while sleeping; your lazy morning get ups; your lovely 'no's when I wake you up and clinging on to your dad, your 'ohm namachivaya's and slogans; your 'aaruvadhu sinam' talks; your gut talks to your grandpa; your first drawing 'ettu kaal poochi' and your second drawing 'led bulb'; your tight kisses, your cricket plays with dad, your cyclings, you gym time on the park rope… on the top of all, your clinging on me for breast milk… I loved to breast feed you, I enjoyed the entire process of feeding. I have the satisfaction that I did my very first duty as mom fully with lots of love. When you were 2.7 years, I stopped mother feeding with no heart.

Kid, you are the eye opener for me. You made me love you and Srini for no reason. Love you my sweet heart!

  

Kanchi Temple Visit - I

நகரேஷு காஞ்சி ! That's very true and realized while being in middle of Kanchi sculptures... Completely mesmerized... We use to feel lazy to do even small works.. but how these tamizh people have lived a life worth a lot... You will stop breathing for a moment if you see the stone miracles... the ceiling heights of rocky buildings... the majestic view.... the beauty of ancient foot prints and practices.... unable to believe... If I didn't see it direct, I would not believe at all..

Ok. Coming to our journey, it was fine sunday, when my hubby felt relaxed after a long time.. He will be acting like a busy bee at weekends and during weekdays I don't see him at home at all. I and my FIL will call him as a guest of our home. He wanted to spend time alone somewhere. As per the universal saying, a wife will not let hubby to be alone. In that way, I decided to accompany him. As no option, he too agreed. So, finishing our lunch, we started from home by 12 pm by car. Self driving through newly found route is a pleasing thing you know. You will realize it when you do it. We took the route of mudichur, pammal and the road connects with Kanchipuram highways. The route seemed abondonded, full of industries. We found no house and the total place seemed untouched, even no agricultural lands were. Kanchipuram is one of the dry cities in case of agriculture. The water level is 500 to 700 feet under the ground. So, people of Kanchipuram district don't opt agriculture as their profession. That's the reason, it became a industrial area.

We had been going along the route. Finally reached outskirts of the temple city. A wonderful experience started from the moment... Hubby drove and I was enjoying the scenic beauties. It is always better to enquire about the local area to country side people than anyone else. So, hubby stopped car near a roadside tea stall that looked normal. The tea master gave extra information about the temples nearby that holds historical importance.

relaxed parking at kanchi

As per his suggestion, we went to 'Brahmmapureeswarar Temple' (பிரம்ம புரீஸ்வரர் திருக்கோயில்), where the lord Brahmma had made a tabaa towards the lord Shiva. The karbakruham was in circular shape (totally different, I have seen this in Madambakkam temple alone) and the time we entered in was around 3.30 pm. So, none was inside. A sanskrit learning student came and we got stories from him. The lord Shiva's speciality is being very simple with a dignity. Here too, we recognized the same. Because of the peace around us, the prayer turned a heart filled one. And the people told it is a parihaara sthalam for mentally affected people with neurological disorders. It was a new information for us. We did pradhatchanam; got stunned seeing the sorts of trees.. அரை நெல்லி மரம், கடம்ப மரம் and more, for which we don't know the names, were there...

                          Brahmmapureeswar Temple - Inside view

Taking a few snaps and leaving our heart, we started from there. Within 10 minutes, we reached 'Varadharaja Perumal Temple'. 

Varadharaja Perumal koyil

After seeing it, I won't say it is a temple; it is a fort. The compound walls themselves told that we were crossing a magnificent palace. It's a kind of. As it was the first time, we were enjoying the place, we didn't get time to capture the moment. We had enough time for sharing our surprises only. Sure dudes, you will be mind struck and mouth shut. We parked our car safely and went inside. See thess pics. I think you don't need words to understand what was in our mind while entering.

Front view

Chitira koodam

Long chain made in one rock.

The rocky chain is not made separately and chained at last. It was made as it looks. Ya, in one rock. The rocky rings seem detached but cant be separated. The entire mandapam looked like a museum of sculptures.

 I could not make the floor to ceiling's entire view in 10x zoom camera, the ceiling was too high.

Maha mandapam

Temple bell stoobam

Can you guess what the stubi kind of mandapam ( the immediate top picture)? It wa built for placing temple bell.. How advance our Tamizh guys were in interior! such a effort for a simple placement. wondering yaar.. Had a nice feel. Actually thought of visiting all the main temples. but the beauty stopped us here. It became 6.30 when we came out of this. 

Having juice and tender coconut outside, we started our return journey towards home. We both decided to come once more with my mom, who is fond of temple visits. 

Totally we had a very good experience and spent half a day in roaming, nice travelling... The sweet day ended with a light dinner..

Which IDE is developer friendly for Java developers?

The most hitting question for java beginners is obviously 'which platform to choose'. All the integrated environments provide almost all facilities with same functionalities, equal compatibilities with newer plugins etc. The popular ones are eclipse and netbeans.

Both can be learnt easily, user friendly, blended with plugins.. They differ with the level of usage. First I tell about eclipse. It occupies less space than the other; platform friendly. More plugin support is provided. The plugin extensions can be appended with eclipse is so easy and many online how to tutorials are available.

In case of Netbeans IDE, it seems more formal but occupies more memory for keeping its jar cum other sole APIs in our system. So obviously it takes more time to open its workspace than the other. Functionality wise it is flawless but for doing a project, or for creating a website even it is dynamic going for this will build complexity as the web development needs to include more seperate jar, war, ear files and extra plugins.

So in my perspective, don't complicate the platform because definitely complications will be there during project development. So finally the choice is Eclipse. Most of the incremental builds are being done in eclipse.!6x than netbeans.!

Organic Shops in Chennai!

The term 'Organic' plays magic in city lifestyle. Ya, we're ready to buy any utility that is brought in organic way. Peak on them are millets. Many places provide these millets but very few of them are organic. Most of the provisional stores that are selling these goods as they became attractive. But most of the general stores selling products are not 100% organic. So if you want to get such items, walk in an organic store nearby. Compromise the price for not compromising the quality. Personally, I have felt many times while taking these millet foods, I can stand for a long time; I could go for a long walk; I could travel more without tiredness. The complete result was stomach filled feel even with lesser quantity of food. But the strength is triple than from normal intake. More than fruits intake, millet food gives strength to work.

So, I have listed out some of the organic shops that I have got utilities.
1. Restore, Kottivakkam.
2. OFM, Adyar ( Organic Farmer Market) near Gandhi nagar.
3. Linga Bhairavi organics, Medavakkam (sister concern of OFM).
4. one more organic shop next to cake point, kottivakkam- forgot the name.
5. vayal organics - online buying is there vayalkart.in
6. Dhanyam Organics, T, Nagar.

I am damn sure about these shops' trustworthiness as I ve bought from here. Apart from this, Kaadhi store in any location of Tamilnadu is very good for products with lesser price cum good quality.

Using organic products, we're investing in health. It will definitely reduce our forthcoming usage of tablets. In a society, a human is considered as good citizen with three factors viz good health, good manners and good economy. Maintaining health brings discipline in our everyday life.

So start doing it!

Chozhamandal Artist Village - a short trip!

As usual, myself and my hubby got exhausted post lunch on this sunday after spending two days of weekend inside the apartment. We get bored and tensed in apartment as we dont spend time with outside people. Machine life has made us getting involved in some activity all time. Having no work for even a while doesn't seem as leisure time. it is like we are left alone with emptied life.... what a psychological thinking we are getting in this fast moving world. City is more populated but here humans are no where. This is not finding faults in others, but it's the true feel that everyone has in this city. Even limited talks with neighbors... Short mobile talks with family. I was very happy when I talked more... But now finding a person with free time and open hearted is too rare.. so  facebooking and blogging became a companion..

Going through travel blogs has become my later hobby. and I was stunned with the places around chennai... Chennai is not really a city.. It has its roots from old age itself... After lunch only, I surfed net for knowing near by places.. but worried a bit for my late surfing... More and more places are here to spend the whole day time... Ok coming to the point, after long time discussions, fights and arguments, We came to conclude tat the plan is going to Cholamandala Artists Village. We decided tat our late outing should not be a burden for us. bcoz returning late nights is not preferable for me. I will not compromise it otherwise I will lose the joy of outing.  Hubby too agreed as usual. He is a my kind of man and usually he always insists my preference.

We started by 4.30 pm from home. Towards Sholinganallur then to injambakkam on ECR. The roads were very classy and dust free. We can find the difference in ECR suburbs with less traffic and with highly settled people. Hubby likes having tea outside rather than at home, but I don't. So he had his evening tea in a shop in ECR enjoying the beauty of buildings and cars. Meanwhile I inquired about the art village's location. Again we continued moving towards. Finally we found it near a spencer plaza. It was a private road ahead to the artist village. The building seemed some decades old but situated with nature's pride. Platforms were the combination of rocks and tiles. Coconut tree and some other plants welcome us. Enjoying its presence I had a look around. It was totally awesome that I can't believe that I'm standing in highly polluted Chennai city.. Such a calm place it is. pindrop human silence but birds and squirrels were talking.

Parking the vehicle, hubby returned. He prefers staying at calm place. Whenever we go to tnagar or in the midst of heavy crowd, he will see me like his long time enemy showing a sight that why I brought him there. This time with his peaceful face, I found he liked the place so very much. After getting entrance ticket we entered. I completely liked the showcase pieces and some were not catchy for me as painting is too far from my interest. Such kind of lot more technical paintings were kept over there. I liked the way it was showcased. Each and every piece placed in the ground floor can be seen from the first floor too. Such a visibility was there. Air flow was too good inside the building as the ceiling is too high... We liked the interior and we talked about it(on which we had some knowledge about).. Ventilation and all were awesome...

We came to the garden area. Some pieces were showcased there too.. stone carvings, sculptures and some other statues... I took a left and got stunned. It was a BANYAN tree with more sub roots(விழுதுகள்). We took some photos of it.. talked more.. spent around an hour sitting there.... then returned with light hearts...
                                           

Weekend trip was nice.. Short trips don't give tiredness and makes me enthu to drive my life in this highly populated lonely city life...!

Weekend trip to Madambakkam!

Days have changed. We have become busier in weekends too.. Holidays were once given to relax from routine life, taking a short break then coming back to work even more brisk. But in these days, we form a tight schedule for doing all the works left during weekdays and preparing for facing forthcoming week etc.... We cant come out of it. Money plays well in our life by making us machines. Need to run along with time. Taking a break for breathing is really rare. My hubby planned to go out somewhere that gives peace. His ultimate aim is staying out of chennai rushes.. But is it possible in chennai?! so we started moving to suburbs that look like villages. Such places are available around south chennai. You can find small ponds near farm lands. We took a ride towards 'MADAMBAKKAM'.

Really it is a nice place to visit. Dad usually opts going anywhere like temples when it is not crowded. He will tell tat peace of mind will go out and finally at the end we will start thinking why we came to temple if we go in rush hours.. tat got sticked in mind so we started by 10 am.. The temple is maintained by TN Govt after they found it as one of the oldest temples in chennai.

The deity is Lord Shiva. Temple is made of rocks. The prahaaram is big enough and surrounded by trees and flowery plants. Almost you could find all the deities inside. Sthala virutcham is nagalinga maram. For the first time, I saw the flower and it smelled awesome.. it was like feeling the smell of mild perfume...

Rarely, the pond was opened. Usually the pond is maintained and surrounded by compound walls for preserving it clean. Seeing the gate opened, we entered into it.. A family was doing 'karuma kaariyam' at one corner.. Without disturbing them, we started walking along the bank.. It was nice walking holding hubby's hand and sharing the surprises of the building dimensions, walking areas, plants, rocky platforms etc.

 Pond - திருக்குளம்

The bank of the pond

The walking area was too wide. But it is closed now. Normally people are not allowed to walk.. Banyan trees are adding pride to the beauty.. Totally the environment was awesome. If it was a fine evening, we would not have heart to come out of it.. 

  

The view of the temple outer wall

The trip was nice. Seeing such a place near Chennai is very rare.. It was like a grand feast for eyes.. Enjoying the beauty, we returned home.

Food for thought!

எந்தவொரு சூழலும் ஒவ்வொரு நிமிடமும் நமக்கு கற்பிப்பதற்கென ஏதேனுமொன்றை வைத்திருக்கும். அதை எடுத்துக் கொள்வதும், விட்டுச் செல்வதும் நமக்குள்ள பக்குவத்தை பொருத்தது! அனால் அப்பக்குவத்தை பெற நாம் அடைய வேண்டிய துன்பங்களும், அவமானங்களும் ஏராளமே! ஆகையால் அனுபவங்களிருந்து அறிவு பெறுதலை பழக்கமகுதலே நன்று! ஏட்டுச் சுரைக்காய் கறிக்கு உதவாது எனும் தாராள தமிழ் பழமொழி நூற்றுக்கு நூறு சதம் உண்மை!குடும்பம் எனப்படுவது செண்பக சோலையாகவும் இருக்கலாம்; வறண்ட பாலையாகவும் அமையலாம். எப்படியாயினும் அதை கையாளுவதில் நிதானமும், திறமையுடன் கூடிய பொறுமையும் தேவைப் படுகிறது. அவ்விதம் இல்லையேல் வாழ்வின் எவ்வித சூழ்நிலையும் நம்மை அடுத்த நிலைக்கு எடுத்துச் செல்லும் போது அதற்குரிய மன தைரியத்தையோ, சூழ்நிலையை கையாளும் லாவகத்தையோ நமக்கு தராது. இவையனைத்தும் பிறர் பற்றிய புரிதலிலேயே பெரும்பான்மையாக அடங்கியிருக்கிறது. எனவே குற்றம் காணுதல் எனும் நீச்ச குணம் இன்றி சூழ்நிலையை நிதானத்துடன் கவனித்து அறிதலிலேயே உலக அறிவு முதிர்ச்சி பெறுகின்றது.

 (தமிழில் யோசிக்கும் போது நமது எண்ணப் பிரவாகத்தின் வேகத்திற்கு எழுத்தின் வேகத்தை கொண்டு ஈடு செய்ய இயல்வதில்லை.  எனவே என் எண்ணங்களில் இருபது சதவிகிதமே எழுத்தாக விழுகின்றது!)