Dear members of the Tiruvenkatam Group, Some of you may have wondered about my long absence from the group-list. (Some others might perhaps have been rather relieved too to escape my spate of incessant postings to which the Group-list is accustomed!). The reason for my absence is that I was away for a fortnight from Kuwait visiting Chennai during my annual summer vacation. This vacation (2006) was really one of the most memorable one I have had in recent years. The enervatingly humid weather of Chennai not withstanding, I enjoyed it thoroughly for the spiritually elevating events which, by the Grace of the Almighty, seemed to fill up the calendar of the period. The first event was connected with the celebration of the "sathAbhishEkam" (80th birthday or 'tirunakshatram') of my dear father which it was my privilege and honor to celebrate in true 'vaideeka' manner. The second event was my visit to Sri Perumbudur to firstly have darshan of the Lord there in His form as Sri Adi Kesava PerumAl and of our "pratamAchArya" Sri Ramanuja too at his very place of birth -- his "avatAra-sthala". Secondly, the visit also served the purpose of my visiting the construction site at the temple of the public-facility now being built under the supervision of Sri Manoram Chaitanya Das (a member of this group and others) thanks to the financial support extended by scores of members of the Tiruvenkatam and Oppiliappan Group-lists during the last few months. The third event that occured (rather fortuitiously indeed thanks to the prompting of my good friend Sri GK Ramakrishnan of Kuwait) during my memorable vacation was the brief but thrilling visit to the campus of the Sri Sarada Ashram (of the Ramakrishna Order) at Ullundoorpet, T/Nadu (about 200kms away from Chennai on the highway to Trichy). Here I had the good fortune to witness at first hand a sampling of the kind of low-profile, quietly efficient but magnificent work of social and spiritual upliftment that the monks and nuns of the Ramakrishna Order (and the Sarada Ashram) are engaged in all across rural India over the past several decades since the independence of India. All the three events above I experienced gave me great satisfaction and enjoyment not in any narrow personal or selfish sense but in the significant way they helped to open my eyes to and made me, in all humility, keenly aware one or more lesson or insight of life that was both new and valuable. A few years ago I had resolved to maintain a personal diary in which I intended to enter daily journals of events and impressions of life that I believed possesssed some kind of extraordinary meaning of significance for me. Alas, that resolution was never really carried out. In the midst of a working life that is so full of 'loukeeka' agitation (i.e. deadlines, schedules and travel-plans) and with all the attendent distractions and disturbances of life in today's corporate world, it is really not that easy to find time to faithfully record the important happenings that fill one's life. When I reflect, however, upon my experience of the vacation of Summer'06, I cannot help wondering if, thanks in the main to the events described above, it might not have merited registering, by way of a series of journal notes or entries, in the pages of a daily diary. That such a diary never saw the light of day is another matter but reflecting about it certainly makes me want to resort to the next best alternative: recounting the experience through a few brief postings on the Tiruvenkatam Group list! So, dear members, in the next few postings to follow, let me share with you all a diarized account of my summer of '06 vacation. I sincerely hope you will all find it interesting at least if not instructive. Regards, dAsan, Sudarshan Sudarshan Madabushi Chief Financial Officer & Vice-President KGL Ports International Plot A-21, Kuwait Free Trade Zone. PO BOx 24565, Safat 13106, Kuwait. Ph: (965)- 4827804/5 Ext 212 Fax: 4827806 mob: 7063337 email: mksudarshan2002@xxxxxxxxxxx __________________________________________________________ Yahoo! India Answers: Share what you know. Learn something new http://in.answers.yahoo.com/ Yahoo! Groups Links <*> To visit your group on the web, go to: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/Oppiliappan/ <*> To unsubscribe from this group, send an email to: Oppiliappan-unsubscribe@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx <*> Your use of Yahoo! Groups is subject to: http://docs.yahoo.com/info/terms/
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