Ashram school - Truly loved by the children

This incident happened somewhere around a year back. My niece who was studying at Ashram school at that time. One day when the class was going on, my niece stepped out of class without asking the teacher any permission. She returned to class 10 minutes later. The teacher has asked her where she had been. My niece had sweetly replied to the teacher - Since she was hungry, she went to the kitchen to find out if the food was ready. So the teacher asked her if the food was ready for which my niece replied in affirmative. On that, the teacher, trouped her entire class to the kitchen for lunch.

I was so pleasantly surprised at this entire encounter. I have not heard of any school in the past which allows students to leave the class without any permission from the teacher.

I have not heard of the teacher who so pleasantly takes care of the students in her care that the child is treated a child with love.

I was very surprised that the child was not mistreated in any manner or made to feel sorry for her behavior.

The Ashram school is run by Mrs.Latha Rajanikanth. (Our Superstar Rajanikanth's wife).

What good values have been infused that even an elementary teacher showers such love on a child!

My best wishes for such a good school and may many other schools adopt such healthy practices.

US TV NTSC works in INDIA

I am jubilant!!! Finally got the LED TV which I had got from US to work. The LG LED TV LE5400 Supports only NTSC.

With advent of Digital Channels, I was under the impression that any TV will work, but was I surprised. My Tata Sky did not work. It showed only Black and white. I checked out with one of my wife's friends and he had informed that Airtel TV works, but only in HD mode for those 8 channels. (Not at all helpful). Checked out some broadband forums and many people suggested using Dish TV as it was supported also in the computer and I also found Sun TV is hosted in US through the Dish network.

(Did lots of research on the net and asked lots of people also). Some people had also mentioned that Sun Dish has a NTSC option. It was put in a broadband forum. All this left me confused. Was down to 2 choices: Sun Dish or Dish Network.

My dad at that time consulted a LG technician. He affirmed that LG works in SCV as it has a NTSC option. (Thanks a lot for that LG Technician who helped me make that choice) We earlier had a SCV, which my dad renewed. I gave all the connections. It was still black & white. I went into System Options and changed both for UHF and Audio Video Settings to NTSC_M.

Now, I have a beautiful TV which works in India. Some screenshots showing the settings. Hats

off to SCV who are forward in their thinking of providing all options in a set top box, I was able

to see PAL (India), NTSC (US), Secam (Europe). I have temporarily set this up to check its working. Will set up the entire set on the wall by end of day.
Added: Also confirmed that Dish Tru HD set top box using HDMI cable works for NTSC TV.

Om Nama Sivaya - Sidhar Padalgal at Maruntheashwarar temple

I was in Marundeashwarar temple at Tiruvanmiyur around 4 weeks back, on a Thursday. I was a bit late from office and could make it to the temple at only 8:30pm. That turned out to be my luck also. In the closing of the temple doors and the last abhishekam, I was made part of a heartrending composition by a siddhar, which all the persons outside the Sivan sannidhi were chanting. The love with which it was sung really brought tears to my eyes. I was mesmerized during the entire chanting.

Now, I make it a point to go there at exactly the closing time just before the abishekam. This chanting is done on all days during closure of the temple at night about 8:30pm.

I have attached the recording in mp3 and also provided a scanned version in tamil. Also the link here will take you to the actual song (Lyrics). I have provided below a sample in english.

Om Nama sivaya om om Nama sivaya
Om Nama sivaya om om Nama sivaya
Om Nama sivaya om om Nama sivaya
Om Nama sivaya om om Nama sivaya

odiodi odiodi utkalantha jothiye
naadi naadi naadi naadi natkalam kazhinthu poi
vaadi vaadi vaadi vaadi vaazNDhu pona manthargal
Kodi Kodi Kodi Kodi enniRunthe Kodiye

Om Nama sivaya om om Nama sivaya
Om Nama sivaya om om Nama sivaya
Om Nama sivaya om om Nama sivaya
Om Nama sivaya om om Nama sivaya

ennele iruntha unRai yaan ARindhaThilaye
ennele iruntha unRai yaanARinthu konddin
ennele iruntha unRai yaavar kaana villaro
ennele irunthu irunthu yaanum kandukonDene

Om Nama sivaya om om Nama sivaya
Om Nama sivaya om om Nama sivaya
Om Nama sivaya om om Nama sivaya
Om Nama sivaya om om Nama sivaya

naanathethu niiyathethu naduvil ninrathethadaa
konathethu kuruvathethu kooRidum kulaamare
avethethu azhivathethu appuRaththil appuRam
eenathethu raama raama raamaa enra naamame

Om Nama sivaya om om Nama sivaya
Om Nama sivaya om om Nama sivaya
Om Nama sivaya om om Nama sivaya
Om Nama sivaya om om Nama sivaya

anjezhuththile piRanthu anjezhuththile vaLarnthu
anjezhuththai othukinRa panchapuutha paavikaaL
anjezhuththil or ezhuththu aRinthu kuuRa villiirel
anjal anjal enRu naathan ambalaththil aadume

Om Nama sivaya om om Nama sivaya
Om Nama sivaya om om Nama sivaya
Om Nama sivaya om om Nama sivaya
Om Nama sivaya om om Nama sivaya

The Lyrics in Tamil:


And the mp3 version of Om Nama Sivaya Om - 5.55MB - 64kbps - 12:07 minutes. - Rapidshare

Added: MP3 Version - as above - Mediafire (Many people experienced difficulty for Rapidshare.)

I have not found this lyrics with all the combinations on a google search. Let all benefit.

Sunset at Broken Bridge

I had the opportunity to visit broken bridge after nearly 10 long years thanks to one of my recent friends. This is just behind Theosophical society leading to the beach and it is approachable through Besant Nagar Beach. A tiny road mostly made of sand and tar ridden with potholes took us to this spot. This location is situated in a bit of lonely spot and mugging has been common. I would advise anyone traveling there to go with the right companions.This area is also famous for being the starting point for the famous Olive Ridley Turtle walk.

I really liked these two compositions best among my shots.

Recover files hidden by w32 silly virus

I recently got infected by W32 Silly virus passed on to me by a friend. My symantec antivirus has effectively removed the virus but where did all the files disappear from my USB stick?

I have been searching 3 days through googling but so far I did not come across anything effective. I downloaded a couple of undelete programs but they did not give me back my files.

Finally today I discovered all my hidden files. In windows explorer, Tools -> Folder Options -> View , Advanced setting: untick the Hide protected operating system files (Recommended). Now, this will show your files in your USB drive.

Right click the files and tick the archive. Now you can view all the files and folders which have been hidden. Such a simple unlock, wonder why there is no proper instructions in any website I googled.

Amazing Indian Inventor - G.D.Naidu

Today, there was a joke on TV, where the tamil film comedian, Goundamani was calling himself equal to G.D.Naidu. That is when my mother volunteered more information about this amazing person. He was a good friend of my (late) grandfather, freedom fighter Arunachalam.

My grandfather had some amazing stories to tell his children. He had told my mom that he was a whiz at growing plants. Guavas in his garden which normally is the size of an orange, in his garden alone, grows to the size of a large coconut. He used to inject plants with injections containing his marvelous ideas and used to achieve incredible results. Another incident was that a coconut tree which was hardly 3 feet tall, but would grow bunches of over sized coconuts and each of them will be within an arm's length. He did not believe in using any harsh fertilizers and believed in using naturally available insecticides. He was constantly experimenting and inventing and believed that neither education nor age is a barrier to a true inventor. He had at that time also asked my grandfather to send his son to learn through him as soon as he completed his PUC (a degree of the yester years). These incidents date back upto 40 years or more from now.

Neither the government at that time, nor any private investors encouraged him much. He was a patriotic person and he wanted his secrets only among the indian people so that India would grow. He did not beleive in profiting from his ideas, and refused to sell the ideas to foreigners to make money. At the same time, he did not reveal many of his secrets as he wanted it to be of use to the common man and that it should not be made for profit. It is said that the secret of his inventions died along with him, which is a really sad news indeed.

If only, there was a G.D.Naidu or his secrets alive, the world's hunger could have been postponed for some years now or even eradicated.