A temple for travellers!

"Vazhithunainathar"
another name for Margabandeeswarer- or Siva in the form of an eternal guide!
His consort in this temple is Marakathavalli Amman .
The temple is in the little village of Virinjipuram, 12 kms from Vellore, in Tamilnadu.

Have I been there? No. Wish to go sometime soon.
The story is- Virinji is another name for Brahma.
Remember how Brahma cheated in the contest,  with Vishnu-, when each of them tried to reach one end of Shiva in his full form?
Vishnu is supposed to have travelled towards Shiva's  feet, and Brahma towards his head. but could not reach it. Not wanting to accept defeat, he found a "Thazhampoo" floating down from Shiva's locks, grabbed it, and asked it to bear witness (false witness) saying he had picked it from Shiva's head. Of course, the truth came out and Brahma was shamed into not having any temple dedicated to him in the south, and Shiva said the thazhampoo shall never be used in any decoration for him!

However, Brahma's  request for forgiveness was granted, when Brahma was born in this tiny village as Sivasarma.This child lived with the widowed mother, but their family was the heriditary priests of the temple. The relatives wished to usurp all their property, so the village leaders put forward a condition,that this child should perform all the puja's as per the agama sastra, in the temple on a special day, or forfeit their property and all rights.
Now this child was so small, his upanayanam had not yet been done.
Nevertheless, the child took the dip in the brahma thirtham of the temple on the appointed day. Miraculously, an old man appeared to perform the upanayanam. Soon the temple elephant came up and took the child on his back, and the procession reached the temple.
The gates opened on their own.
The child did all the puja's perfectly, but finally could not reach the Lingam's top to place the garland.
The lingam (Shiva) bent down to receive the garland, making up for Brahmas inability to reach his head once before!
So to this day the lingam in the temple is slightly bent forward.....
The sthala vriksham or holy tree is the palm tree here..(our state tree).

This deity safeguards all travellers and shows the way.Surely worth a visit.
Found this story in "amudasurabhi"deepavali malar by Sudha Seshaiyyan.
What a lovely tale.
I dedicate this story and my sketch to my friends Pradeep Chakravarthy and Priya Thyagarajan who helpmany of us enjoy these heritage trips...maybe we will all go there one day!
Nithya- Dec. 20th 2015.

A quiet Chola temple, lost in time!

A group of us had recently signed up in Oct. 2015, with Pradeep Chakravarthy, our young enthu heritage expert, who organised amazing tours with his partner Priya of Embassy Travels.
We all landed up first in Srimushnam- a small temple town near Chidambaram.
This place has the awesome Varaha temple- with some superb stone carvings. But tucked almost back to back with this popular temple is a little known , much older Chola period Shiva temple, called "Nitiswara Alayam" which also has a lovely tank, full of water.The main shrine was unfortunately closed when we went in, however the placid , tranquil garden and the amman shrine with a superbly flowering Nagalinga tree- made my day! I share some photos with you - from this experience.
First photo is entrance of the temple, with old figures of Shiva,Parvathy with long tresses, and bull .
2nd. image is the lovely tank outsdie this gateway, which had lots of clean water.
3rd -unspoilt garden.
4th- the fabulous Nagalinga tree in bloom. Only buds at noon, flowers were all at the feet of a chubby Ganesha inside the main shrine!

Tsunami tales 2004-6.

Our Nalamdana team were touring the Tsunami affected areas early 2005 and this meant contacting some of the wonderful NGO groups helping in these coastal transit camps , to help them and address key issues through staging our drama specially created  to communities huddled in crowded temporary relief camps.

Some unforgettable stories were told to us.Some heart rending, some sad some happy. and mostly very very moving. I thought I should pen down some of them and share with friends.You could also visit our www.nalamdana.in site and view the vidwo- on the "Nambikkai Project"- as this was called.

Near Kalpakkam-
a fishing village where we staged our drama- a group of people ponited to a dilapitated structure some distance off in the sands. It had once been a church. "When the wave came,( they said)  we all ran for our lives. Some ran to the church- imploring the Father to save them.The priest let them all into the church, women and children in large numbers. Bolted the door and thought God would save them. Even as he stood guard, the second and third wave came- sweeping, he was washed away- but escaped alive.All the people inside , unable to get out, died."  We were aghast. What made him do that? why did he lock them inside? Is this true- what happened to the Priest? These were all our Qs.
The poor man is still alive but has lost his mind. he roams around here- ...........

Near Cuddalore-(happy ending..read on...:-))
Another fishing village- another bunch of people, another set of stories- all true.
The women and men stood around us, chatting, some recalling their escape. Some of them said-
We ran to the high ECR road- trying to escape.The waters swirled around us. May were swept away. One father tried to save his infant baby-passed him over his head- to someone able to run..the baby got passed on over several hands and ultimately ended up alive and well in a local hospital- where survivers were treated. After some weeks the parents- both alive- found each other and were searching all local hospitals and village clinics..they arrived in this one- and lo- found their baby alive and well.What a celebration! Everyone joined in relief..and of course the baby was renamed- "tsunami".

I have some more stories too..will try to search my notes and continue!
Sorry no sketches this time....maybe I will do some later and add them.

A College Speaks

I was a germ of an idea – floating around in some minds, till one of them talked about me to another. And lo! 

I took shape.

At the same time..I was also a dream, a longing in many a girl's heart.

In the early 1900s, after the 6^th form of those days.. where does a girl go?

Only teacher training was the option, as they were not allowed to study along with men!

One such brave girl wrote about her longing- as an essay.

This essay won a prize and she was asked to read it out to the visiting dignitary from the Madras legislature. She did. But he laughed at her idea- "What a college for women? How many of you will join if such a one was indeed opened?"

He was most surprised to see the whole class putting up their hands!

So wheels started moving, and soon Sir Sivaswamy Iyer put up a note for discussion in the Madras assembly. A finance member objected to the cost. But Lord Pentland the Governor supported it.

The rest is history.

So I was born on 14^th July, 1914- and named " The Madras College for Women".

Ms.Dorothy de la Hey lovingly nurtured me from the first day.

(The girl who dared to dream was Nallamuthu, sister of Dr.Muthulakshmi Reddy.

She was studying in Presidency and Training School when she wrote the essay.

Soon she joined the re named college- Queen Mary's College.

She later became the first Indian Principal to head that institution.)

She was one of my fine daughters..who later held many important positions including that of a member of Parliament in Independent India.

I have many noble daughters. One of whom fought for this country: the late Captain Lakshmi Sahgal- INA.

I am proud of my girls- who have served and continue to reach out to the most deserving sections of our society- Some of my senior and unforgettable daughters are:

Ms.Kamala Devi (Chatopadyaya) founder of Crafts Council of India

Lady Dhanvanti Handoo a leader in social service

Mary Roy – who filed the first PIL asking for equal property rights for women.

And many more- all illustrious trail blazers in many professional fields-

many of my daughters were the First women in their chosen field:

the first chartered accountant, first veterinary doctor, first Doctorate in Home Science,Vice Chancellors of Womens Universities,renowned musicians ,musicologists,economists, mathamatecians, medical researchers (she would have done intermediate in my arms)!

The list of illustrious Queen Marians is long.

It continues to grow.

They are scattered all over the world now.

I call on them with love-to join me on my birth Centenary!

Join my celebrations. Come to your mothers' house, your Alma Mater.

There are many matters here that need attention!

(Visit qmc100.com)

KUCHINERLA-

A story behind the sketch.

It was some 5 to 6 years ago, as part of my work with Nalamdana, the NGO I belong to, I visited this little village of Kuchinerla near Mehboobnagar-Andhra Pradesh.

The region is arid. Poor villagers raise a cotton crop in fields not owned by them. Cotton blossoms are pollinated using a male flower- contacting a female one- by human hands in the field.

Preferably young hands- child labour. The poor parents send their little girls (sometimes as young as five years old ) as they have little fingers, and can be easily made to work long hours.They bend over the plants and work their way from one end of the field to the other, inhaling the deadly chemical pesticides used to keep the crop healthy. Of course there is a strong rumour (belief) floated that only girls in their pre puberty age can ensure a bountiful crop!

Our visit was to one rescue farm cum NGO- where an amazing man (Dr.Reddy) seemed to have evolved a system of rescuing girls from these fields, and making them attend school, created with unbelievable wisdom, a bridge school which helped put them into existing main stream schools within one year! He had been saving around hundred little girls per year when we visited.

This is easily the most fantastic work I have ever seen in my life-time, and in my 20 years of field experience in Nalamdana.

Thanks to our funding partner- World Education, Boston, we visited this NGO to share our skills and learn from them.

The school had informal classrooms, under the trees as well as in simple sheds.   Telugu and English alphabets and related pictures drawn by teachers and children hung on branches. They sang songs, went through books, quickly graduated to next levels within months.The residential school came up for firing by parents who saw no future in their girls learning English or Telugu. So life skills and square foot gardening was introduced  to help them learn simple facts about nutritious diet, easy to grow vegetables etc. The farmer parents soon saw this was useful.In fact they too could contribute to this learning.

We spent three days here, shared our fun teaching tools on adolescent  and re productive health education. Mostly the teachers found our entertaining teaching aids very useful.We screened our films in the village for the parents and rest of the community.

We sat with the children at night singing songs.

Would love to go back and see how they have progressed.. Some day!

The sketch shows a girl at her books, with the free roaming mascots- some geese on the farm. And of course the cotton fields in the background.The circular diagram in the left corner..well that's another whole story!

Posted on 17th Jan.2014.

On Sketching live.
 Our group landed on N.Mada Street, Mylapore and started to pick some scene to sketch.
I stood near a row of stalls - looking across the road, wanting to capture an old house that still stood its ground.
Started sketching standing, holding my book at chest level.
Suddenly - people jostled and I was almost knocked down -
there burst upon the scene - a procession, in full tilt.
Traditonal temple unbrellas, deities - two of them, carried by priests,
bare foot.They were running on the super hot tar road.
I stood open mouthed and watching, my pencil frozen.

Suddenly they stopped. Right in front of me.
They did some aarti - and people came out of houses - to get prasadam.
I quickly tried to sketch the scene - managed a very rough sketch.
Thankfully one of our members was taking a photo - of the scene.
That's how I could complete the colouring at home.

These were Vaishnavaite deities - probably from the temple near the smaller tank to the South of Kapaleeswarar temple.
Too soon- the priests picked up the deities again and started on their run!