A Prayer to Dear Vayu and Rudra…

Dear Vayu Deva,

And Rudra Deva,

Don’t blow me away,

Into tribulations,

Blow me into joy,

And happiness,

And softly surround me,

And my kin,

With your cool aura,

To kindly protect us,

From all tribulations,

Forever and ever.

- N. Lalitha Raghu.

Vāyu (Sanskrit वायु) is a primary Hindu deity, the lord of the winds, the father of Bhima and the spiritual father of Hanuman. He is also known as Anil (Air, Wind), Vyān (Air), Vāta (Airy Element), Tanun (The Wind), Pavan (The Purifier), and sometimes Prāṇa (The Breath).

Rudra (Sanskrit: रुद्र) is a Rigvedic deity, associated with wind or storm and the hunt. One translation of the name is "the roarer". In the Rigveda, Rudra has been praised as the "mightiest of the mighty". Rudra is the personification of 'terror'.

నిత్యపూజా విధానం – Procedure of daily worship at home.

In our Hindu Culture, daily worship (Pooja) at home is considered as the simplest way to offer prayers to our Gods and Goddesses for bestowing us with this life and for fulfilling all our wishes and to protect and bless our families.  It is a humble way to convey our gratitude to the Gods. This is a tradition practiced from time immemorial and the daily pooja has gained its importance in every Hindu household. This sacred activity performed in the morning is the best way to start a day and it is not just for the benefit of one’s family but as per the popular Sanskrit saying, "Sarve Janah Sukhino Bhavanthu" meaning, wishing good for all. 

Here is a very simple and brief video, explaining in Telugu the Daily worship procedure at home by a TV Channel, which is based on our Pooja Mandiram / Pooja Room:

Happy Friendship Day!

Happy to get in touch with all of you on this special day. Wish you all a wonderful day and a very happy and bright future.

Now a little about this day: The first-ever International Friendship Day was celebrated in Paraguay in the year 1958 to honour friends and cherish the special bond one has with their friends. Over these 60 years, the celebrations for Friendship Day have changed vastly-from personalised, handwritten greeting cards and notes to digital messages on social media platforms and emergence of emoticons, gifts and friendship bands etc., to express oneself better...but the essence behind this day still remains the same...to celebrate the magical relationship of friendship!

On this occasion of Friendship Day, here are 10 quotes by famous authors on friendship that prove that there's nothing better in life than having friends who are always there for you:

At the marvelous, 104 year old mighty Pamban Rail Sea Bridge!

PAMBAN BRIDGE VIDEO:

We were at the awesome Pamban Bridge recently. The attached photographs and video are of us at this extraordinary bridge. I hope these visuals and my article will convey to you how marvelous and mighty this historic bridge is!

Pamban Bridge is a railway bridge over the Sea which connects the town of Rameswaram on Pamban Island to Mainland India. It was an engineering marvel that opened to the world on 24th February 1914 and even today after 104 years it continues to fascinate us. It is India’s first Sea Bridge and the longest in India until 2010 when the Bandra-Worli Sea Link was opened in 2010. The bridge is located 12.5 metres above sea level and is 2,065 m long. The bridge consists of 143 piers and has a double-leaf bascule section with a Scherzer rolling type lift span that can be raised to let ships pass. Each half of the lifting span weighs 415 tonnes. The two leaves of the bridge are opened manually using levers.

The need for rail connectivity between the Mainland and the Island was felt in the late 1870s, when the East India Company, expanding its trade, decided to establish a rail link between Dhanushkodi on Pamban Island and Colombo in Ceylon (Sri Lanka). On completion, the railway bridge carried Metre-gauge trains connecting Mandapam on Mainland India to Pamban on the Island and from there the railway line bifurcated, one line towards Rameswaram about 10.06 km up and another branch line of 24 km terminating at Dhanushkodi a point closest to the Sea separating Sri Lanka.

Trains ran up to Dhanushkodi until 1964 when the Metre-gauge branch line from Pamban to Dhanushkodi was destroyed during the 1964 Dhanushkodi cyclone…on 23rd December 1964, an estimated 7.6 m storm surge struck the island, destroying the entire town, the population, the houses, the railway station and it also overturned the Pamban-Dhanushkodi passenger train killing all 150 passengers on board. However the Pamban Bridge required very little repairs and within few days trains from Madras Egmore, Madurai and Trichy resumed.

The Pamban Bridge is located in the world's second most corrosive environment after Florida, making its maintenance a challenging job. The location is also a cyclone-prone high wind velocity zone. Despite such environment, this Bridge is functioning well even after 104 years! With of course timely repairs and good maintenance.

Under the all India program of Metre-gauge tracks conversion to Broad-gauge the Indian Railways upgraded the Pamban bridge to carry Broad-gauge trains and the work was completed on 12th August 2007.

In 1988, a Road Bridge was also constructed parallel to the Rail Bridge as you can see in the attached pictures. This Road Bridge is also known as Annai Indira Gandhi Road Bridge. The Pamban Road Bridge connects the National Highway (NH 49) with the Pamban / Rameswaram Island. It stands on the Palk Strait and between the shores of Mandapam on the Mainland and Pamban, one of the fishermen towns in Rameswaram Island. It was inaugurated by former Indian Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi on 2nd October 1988. This 2.345 km long Bridge took close to 14 years to be completed while the Rail Bridge took a little over 3 years, 104 years ago! We traveled by road from Madurai and on this bridge to visit Rameswaram, the holy place full of Temples and Theerthas existing from the time of Lord Rama, Sita Devi, Lakshmana Swamy, Lord Hanuman and many prominent personalities of that era lived and walked all over this Island. Most of the attached photographs and videos are shot from this Road Bridge.

Hope our next visit to Rameswaram would be by train on Pamban Rail Bridge!

Paying homage to Dr. A.P.J. Abdul Kalam, the Rocket Man, Missile Man and People’s President.

Today is the 3rd Vardhanthi (death anniversary) of Bharat Ratna Dr. A.P.J. Abdul Kalam known to every Indian as a great scientist and as the 11th President of our country and as a great teacher.

He passed away on 27th July 2015, succumbing to a heart attack while delivering a lecture at the Indian Institute of Management, Shillong, where he was a visiting professor. He breathed his last doing what he loved the most – imparting knowledge and interacting with youngsters.

His life story; from very humble beginnings as the son of a boat owner in Rameswaram, who had to distribute newspapers in his childhood and study under oil lamps...to becoming a great scientist and President of India, and his speeches, his books and his quotations continue to inspire the youth of our entire country.  

Inspired by his great life, we paid homage to him at his place of birth, Rameswaram, at his ancestral house and his final resting place. Today, on his 3rd death anniversary, we fondly remember him for his greatness. I choose some photographs of us at his place of birth and final resting place and a few inspiring quotations of his for my readers to view.

And here is an article I wrote on 30th July 2015, when he was laid to rest at Rameswaram, to pay my respects. You may read it by clicking on the following Title:

His spirit lives on: Most admired and adored Dr. A.P.J. Abdul Kalam is laid to rest.

Remembering Dr. A.P.J. Abdul Kalam – A Video: