Notes for a Summer Diary (2006): SathAbhishEkam/Sriperumbudur project/Toopul visit/Sarada mutt visit

[Guest guest]

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 (AT) (DOT) co.in

 

 

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