Pollachi

Despite the wrong reasons and news (Pollachi is most talked town in the media right now), Still I am proud that I am from  Pollachi.

So many wonderful people are from Pollachi. Nature, simplicity and people with true love is the composition of this wonderful town, Pollachi, as I know off. I went to elementary (AMS), middle (VHS), high school (MHS), undergraduate college (NGM) at Pollachi.  My parents, the town, wonderful schools, temples and my friends molded me. Parents guided me to work hard, never give up, be truthful and help others.
Teachers guided us in the school showing us what is fundamentally right. We were coed and was well taught how to behave with girls. The girls were nice to us, One example I can remember as an elementary kid was, I had a habit of biting the pencil and my classmate girl told me not to chew pencils, it is not nice and she sharpened it and made it look nice. Immediately I gave up that habit and still remember that incidence and feel happy about it. 

Pollachi -AMS Days

Viswadeepthi school was  very tight knit family and it gave us the world class fundamentals second to none and took us to next level to face the real world. 

Pollachi - VHS Days - First set

We were 18 of us in the First  set of the school and we all blossomed into Agriculturists, Business People, Doctors, Engineers, Scientists and Teachers. Even though we all scattered all over the World, still connected by Technology and communicate regularly. We did not stop there - one of the doctor friend requested to improve the poor children ward in a hospital and immediately the request was fulfilled by our group. I feel proud that we are in such position and our town molded us in a such a good way.

Next went to high school where we learned how to be street smart. With couple of years there at that school we got a clear picture how real world life is going to be. At that time  we explored, roamed Pollachi. Our focus was on cricket and movies. We were boys only school and had the opportunity to meet the girls only  in the tution center,  We knew our limits and treated them fairly too. They are also in various fields now and are successful. 

During Pollachi days we were playing for Mahalingapuram Cricket Club (MLCC). We had total fun playing for MLCC. We had players from all religions but we were all brothers. Wonderful MLCC cricket family life.

Successful MLCC team at beautiful Pollachi MHSS Ground

Then entered undergraduate college at NGM and the girls came again into our classrooms. Again we knew our limits. Our focus was again in movies , cricket and story books. These were the golden days of my life in Pollachi. all friends became one family. 

Pollachi NGM Days

When the girls thought we were going to cross the limits  they tied Rakhis and became sisters. Still now they are treated how a sister would be treated. we are all  in the whatsapp group. Again we wanted to create a model village and immediately NGMians chipped in and started the project. That's how we grew up in Pollachi. And again I feel proud that I am from Pollachi.

After Pollachi education went on to Coimbatore to complete Masters at PSG and MPhil at Bharathiar University. From there came to USA to do PhD in Environmental field and completed another Masters in Computer Science. Now I live in United States. Simultaneously my beloved Pollachi friends achieved their heights and went all over the World. Some of them ended in USA too. Whenever we meet we show our pride that we are from Pollachi. My brother went to Singapore and we were losing connection to the roots. We wanted to do something for our roots. That's when my brother went back to Pollachi to do Agriculture. Yes, we do Sustainable Organic Natural Agriculture at EA Farms. 

At  Pollachi - EA Farms

I have successfully became an Environmental Scientist and an Information Technologist and still share my knowledge to others and bring them up in life. And I am successful on that fronts. All these happened because of the environment that Pollachi gave me.

Not sure why the Golden land is now spoiled by some bad weeds. Not sure what went wrong. we can blame on so many things - Alcohol, technology used in bad ways, bad movies,  no respect for other gender, no proper guidance to youngsters, no tight families, no true friends  ( A true friend needs to stop a friend when he makes a wrong move). 

Our Pollachi - Agriculture Lands, Nature,  Wonderful people, Schools, Colleges, Friends and Family are still there. Helping tendency is still there. But now our beloved town is tainted with bad elements. But always we will overcome the evil.  Me and my friends with our education, experience and goodwill, will do our part and bring back the pride of Pollachi. 

Praying for that.

Update: October 2019:

Prayers seems to be answered. Lots of good Pollachi people are working towards cleaning the city water lake - Theppakulam. They all have joined together working for good cause, You can see the progress here at https://www.facebook.com/PollachiWaterBodiesReconstructionOrg/ . Wherever you are and if you want to contribute to the good cause, please do, it will bring back the pride to Pollachi. We all will be working together to make Pollachi, an environmentally friendly city for sure with these many supportive people.

Before and After Pollachi Theppakulam Cleanup

Water Quality Lab Result:

Kudos to the great volunteers who have done this great job of cleaning the pond.

Updates on Temple Theppakulam (Pond):

From Garbage Dumping Area:

To a Beautiful Clean Pond:

Kudos to team work by the great Pollachi Volunteers who made this possible and final touch by the Pollachi Municipality Government. Let us team and work towards more 

Green and Clean Pollachi.

mhss_highschool

I am an Alumni of Pollachi Municipal High School - MHSS, Great green environment with excellent cricket ground and a basketball court. Daily we used to go in bicycle to our high school in a group.  This is the entrance with both tall trees on both sides of the pathway. Our principal at that time was 

Mr. Nagaraj and for standin - Mr. Seetharaman, a great principal). He always come in tidy clothes 

( Tucked in shirt into pleated pant with a tie and shining shoes ) and have seen him tradional dhothi and white shirt. We also had unforgetable teachers. Physics (Mr. Krishnasamy), Chemistry (Mr. Muthuveeran), Zoology Madam (Ms. Saroja) and Botany (Mr. Jeyachandran). The clerks of the school were funny too. Coming from a convent school (10 years), this school made us street smart in just two years. We had bunch of diversified students and immediately became close friends.

This is the entrance to our class room - easy access from cycle stand. 
Our daily ride to highschool - Hercules 

Class room was well lit and had both doors always opened. From one door we can easily reach the back ground where we could access the basketball court and cricket ground easily. Again the opened door helped to bunk, escape the classes and walk through the broken compound walls to near by movie theatre ATSC ( Previously called Gopal). Have seen numerous movies in that theatre during high school.

MHSS Cricket Gound.

We had a very strict Physical education teacher Mr. Sankaran. Most of times he is very cool and sometimes he becomes a terror, He is very strict on Uniforms. If there is any glitch in the uniform he will punish us. He will push us to do physical activities. He also has a book of sports newpaper cutting and explain us about each cutting. Mostly it was about Pele - the brazil soccer player. He also taught us about baseball and its fielding positions and ask us questions about that. Some of us used to mostly cricket fielding positions we might answer incorrectly which irrated him and he would become mad and punish us.

 

Our Team MLCC (Maha Lingapuram Cricket Club) won many tournaments and matches at this ground. We always played matches using cricketing mats and the pitch was excellent for that. We have won several macthes in this MHSS GROUND.

Physics was enjoyable class and whenever he comes to class he will say - "Atmospheric condition is not at all good". When he asks do you hae any doubts and a friend would ask something that is not relevant to our syllabus such as - How can people live in moon - and he would be mad. His way of punishment is putting the attendance register on the head. Always had fun in Physics lab - circuit experiments, Tuning fork and several othe Physics experiments.

Chemistry was tough. As soon he comes to the class he starts write complex equation without much explanations. In between he ask us questions on the equation (esp. balancing it ) and if we could not answer he will say write the equation 10000 times  which gives us great shock. Finally after the class is over he would say "Divide the imposition by 100" and we would be happy. Even though the Lab experiments were interesting we were always late in writing reports and submiiting the record note. He would be very mad at that time.

Zoology and Botany were always interesting for me because I had drawing scientific images skill. Zoology madam was good to me and my friend, She even invited us for housewarming. She always caught the right bright students thinking they were the ones that are cheating in the exams. It was very funny to us. Botany teacher was experienced teacher and always gave tough scientific names for each and every plant on Earth and expected us to tell them immediately, which we failed and he would scold us sometimes uses filthy language too for his demeanour.

For zoology we had to submit insect boxes - we would hunt for butterflies, beetles, grasshoppers, bees and some unknow insects then fozzilize them, we fill a garment box and fill it with cotton and pin the insects in a tabular fashion with correct labels with their scientific names. Earned few bucks (Rs 10 per box) for making these boxes for others. Similarly for Botany we did herbarium sheets.

Maths was tough for me since I could not attend classes on Calculus sessions (Later had to learn for higher studies) during summer and it was completely Alien to me. Never ever tried to learn it then and passed the exam with the help of set theories ( which later helped me in Information Technology esp. in DATA Field). Maths was taught by two teachers - one was very experienced (Mr. Ramamoorthy) and the other one was new (Mr. Gnanasekaran). My friend helped me in the last minute to ace the high school maths exam.

Languages (Tamil - Thiru Krishnan Ayya and English - Mr. Nataraj - who rides an Enfield to school) were also taught by experienced teachers. We were always ready for Tamil class. It was a class that took away our stress. The class always was taught with lots of jokes and it was full of laughter. Contradicting to Tamil, English was a lullaby class. As he lectured we will all go to the sleeping mode because of the peanut jaggary balls we ate at the petty shop in front of the school during the interval. 

Most of us were going to Mr. Sheriff's tution for addtional learning. Mr. Ashok taught us biology there. It was fun for us there too and many stories to tell.

Trip to Topslip wildlife sanctuary and parambikulam with Physics master was great trip and brought every highschool mates together to one closeknit family. 

Some of us played during MHSS days played in our cricket team (MLCC). This particular photo is from MHSS days and we were the cup winners from the tournament played at MHSS ground.

We still team up to provide whatever we can to our roots.

We have become doctors, engineers, and researchers and scattered all over the World with great memories from Pollachi MHSS Highschool, still lingering in our minds.

Quotes that motivates

I was born in India and always fascinated by Mahatma Gandhi. Sacrificing his richness, practicing simpleness and Ahimsa teaching attracted me towards him. He has guided so many people to the right path. One quote I get motivated is:

Mahatma Gandhi:  

"First they ignore you, then they laugh at you, then they fight you, then you win."

I became an Environmental Scientist. I did undergrad degree in Biology, Masters in Environmental Sciences and MPhil in Environmental Sciences (Bharathiar University, India) and PhD in Environmental Sciences in Univ. of MD and MS in Computer Science (USA). I love NATURE and was always trying to protect it by research and creating awareness. One quote I get motivated by the great Naturalist

John Muir:

“In every walk with Nature one receives far more than he seeks.”

As a young scientist I wanted to become a man of success. I wanted to earn more and more using my knowledge. Wanted to buy and live in Mansions and also wanted to drive luxury cars. All those objectives were changing as I got older and my perspectives completely changed when I read the following Quote by the great Scientist.

Albert Einstein:

"Try not to become a man of success, but rather try to become a man of value."

When I moved to USA I was fascinated by the research opportunities in the Universities. I was awed by space programs by NASA. When I visited Kennedy space center I heard a speech by the President JF Kennedy. That Quote by great President

JF Kennedy:

 

"Not because they are easy, but because they are hard; because that goal will serve to organize and measure the best of our energies and skills."

Later in life I too was involved in social media always creating awareness on Environmental topics. Positive Thinking and Action,Well being and Voice for Underprivileged. 

All these were my dreams:

EnviroApps Blog,  

EA Farms, 

EAPHARMICS, 

EnviroApps

 and ZoomVin. 

I always get energized and motivated from the quote by the great

ML King:

"I have a dream...."

Follow your dreams not because it is easy, but because it is hard, become a human of value, learn from the Nature and you will WIN.

Wish you all a very Happy and Prosperous New Year 2019.

Music gives a soul

Just wanted to deviate from my regular topics. As we approach the holidays week remembered our passions that we loved so much when we grew up. Coming from a small town we were close knit friends who I would consider more of a family than friends. From high school to Masters - during that time our main passions were Cricket, Music and Story books. Most of the discussions were about Cricket, story books we read (mostly written by great Sujatha and historic epics by great Kalki were our favorites) and music. Tamil movies music was our major topic during every gathering and would discuss about the songs for hours. Great Maestro Illayaraja started his peak ascend during these years.

       Maestro Illayaraja   (Music Legend)    

We loved his music and that continues until today. The thing with his music is that there is something soul touching in it. Just by listening to his song we can go back and re live those days again. We can relate each and every song of his to our life’s happenings. 

Great legends SP Balasubrahmanyam and KJ Yesudas songs in his music gave us best of music to listen to. 

with Legend SP Balasubrahmanyam

with Legend KJ Yesudas

Malaysia Vasudevan (Had the privilege to see these three legends concerts in person), Female legends S.Janaki and Chitra gave us the best songs. There are so many such discussions in the internet and also comparisons with other musicians that are available in plenty. But every time when we discuss among us, we get, what to say the crux of it and feel as if we had a glass of freshly squeezed sugarcane juice with a slight tinge of lemon and ginger. Especially three of us who were close friends riding in the same bike (we used to call triples) to high school and undergrad college; Discussion about music (as a fan) was the main topic. After those years we were all scattered all over the World and started our own careers, me - An Environmental Scientist and Information Technologist,  my friend Venu became IT guy (US) and third friend Sowmy became a nano technology chemistry professor in a different part of the World (Bahrain), but we are still close (thanks to technology) and discussion on the music still goes on. I wanted to share those discussions that I enjoyed so much. 

One day during a discussion it went along these lines - new music by new generation is different and it is becoming hard for us to accept that. Our dads were fans of their generation musicians and even they did not come to terms with Illayaraja music. So I was saying that we have become similar to our dads and current music is for the younger generations and they too have become World famous - example AR Rahman won two Oscars and Anirudh’s Kolaveri song has reached so many people all over the World. To that discussion, my friends shared their wonderful views:

Good perspective! – By Venu:

மாற்றம் ஒன்று தான் மாறாத ஒன்று! 

(meaning Change is the only one that never changes)

 When it comes to music we all belong to our own cult! MSV cult, Raja cult,  ARR cult etc We associate closely with our growing up years. Though we move on, we have some special soft place for things that we associate when we were young!  Parents, Certain food, place, game, friends, house, animals, first love  etc. Music is certainly one of them!  So all three generations went through that and next gen goes through that as well which is natural progression.  Next comes the objective side of the music. 

1. MKT/Kittappa-complete classical(மன்மத லீலையை, ஜெய் கிருஷ்ண முகுந்தா முராரே) very good start for the Tamil film music

2. G. Ramanathan, SV Naidu and many more -diluted a bit still adhered to classical as the mainstream, introduced new western instruments and new western idioms 

3. KVM-classical, folk and still more dilution of the classical  

Legend Singer TM Soundarajan 

Legend Music Director MS Viswanathan 

These great duo along with another Legend P. Susheela gave us the best songs.

4. MSV, TKR-big positive deviation started here. introduced the real light music, lots of new genres were introduced, western instruments and idioms were used to ornament the melodies, introduced lots of innovations in the form, texture, orchestration and arrangements. still maintained the soul and the sensitivity in the music,(பழமை மாறாத புதுமை). They stood on the shoulders of the MKT, GR et al and delivered real stunning music for decades!There are other MDs like TR papa, V Kumar, Vijay Bhaskar et al. They supported  MSV /TKR’s path/trend. 

5. Raja stood on the shoulders of these stalwarts and took the music to the next level whether is it is orchestration, arrangements, style, innovation, fusion, folk, western classical, Jazz, Carnatic classical, singing style, BGM and you name it (How to name it? Right? It is just “Nothing But Wind?) he excelled in all of  them. He propelled the changes in lightening speed!  Even he touched the electronic side of it -first time stereophonic recording, computer based composing.  

6. ARR-took this digital side of it to global and brought some great innovation to marketing and global appeal!  

 OSCAR winner AR Rahman

7. Today’s Anirudh, Yuvan et al, When I listen today's music, my mind automatically asks “what is new in this?” May be popular, beyond that?  Our mind automatically checks the library and if it is already done. Ok and move on. Nothing to say big about it. To me, probably, that is what happening. Perhaps to you as well! Are we becoming old? They really need to do something beyond what we have already listened to rave about them.  

                                      

                                    With New Generation Singers

I remember reading when somebody asked about Einstein’s achievements, he mentioned that, “I stood on the shoulders of Newton and et al  and I told what I saw”. He made it so simple (it was always his strength) but not easy to claim the shoulders of Newton. Right? Lengthy post...I could not resist..when my favorite topic was tossed in front of me! I have less mind control on this.

By Sowmy: 

As usual, Venu's article depicts the Crux of yester years achievements. It highlighted all the stalwarts except few. For me if MSV paved the ROAD of modern music,  Raja – already laid 8 way track superfast express highway. RAJA's forte was he never forget to respect his elders, mentors. Besides being a genius among all, his heart melts for             SM Subbaraman (who was our fathers favorite), ....Madanmohan, Roshan, SDBurman,...Not to mention about MSV. He can go to any extreme  level of politeness/ humbleness to express his regard and reverence for them.  

In Tamil – Illayaraja goes to say MSV கடிச்சுத்துப்பிய விஷயங்களைத்தான் நாங்கள் இப்போது செய்கிறோம். எனக்கு அவர் எந்தெந்தப்பாட்டில் என்னென்ன டெக்நிக் யூஸ் பண்ணியிருக்கார்னு தெரியும், எல்லாவற்றையும் சொல்ல மாட்டேன் (என்னுள்ளில் MSV  ப்ரொகராமில்.) இதைவிட வேறு, அதுவும் ராஜாவைப்போல் இசை ஞானத்தால் உயர்ந்தவர்   சொல்லும்போது, அவரின் மரபு சார்ந்த பண்பு பிரமிக்க வைக்கிறது.பின்பு வந்தவர்கள் யாரும் தன் முன்னோர்களைப்பற்றிப்பேசிய மாதிரி எனக்குத் தெரியவில்லை.

When talking about Tamil music, I should mention the song writing legends Kaviarasu Kannadasan and Valli.

 Wonderful Quote by Plato:   

“Music gives a soul to the universe, wings to the mind, flight to the imagination and life to everything.”

 Enjoy your Music.

Birds - Protect Them

Wonderful creatures that brings aesthetics to any environment. Just watching them fly and hear them sing takes away the stress. Colorful, different sizes, voices, cuteness, intelligent, building nests, raising young ones, migration and many more reasons that make bird watching a pleasant event. One can wake up stress free when woke up naturally by chirping and singing birds. Creator has created birds for a reason.

More about birds - http://www.birds.cornell.edu

https://www.audubon.org/

2018 - Year of The Bird

A little bird such as Cassin's vireo can migrate long way

                                       Some Colorful Birds

    

                         

                                                       

                                                                   

    

Quote - “ I hope you love birds too. It is economical. It saves going to heaven. ” - American Poet Emily Dickinson
- which is a true statement.

At EA Farms we practice Sustainable Organic Natural Agriculture practices along with agro forestry to bring back birds.

A poem written by my daughter when she was in elementary school -                  

The Birds' Spot.

You can see how we create a niche for birds in our backyard, photographed and published it as a free eBook for everyone to enjoy.

Backyard Birds

As I was writing this blog, this Majestic Red Shouldered Hawk came and sat on our backyard compound wall.

                                         

To the young people out there:

There is more than your phones and gadgets out there, Take a stroll into the nature, watch these birds and enjoy the environment. It will for sure - help towards your health and well being.

To see such wonderful creatures erased due to advancement of human technologies, it really hurts.

Against human force they fall into helpless category. Our technology improvements never consider environment, earth co-inhabitants and environmental health. We are just focused on technological achievement as eye closed horse and do not even think about any thing else. Environment is as important as the technology and it should be considered whenever we move forward technology wise, Proper and humane tests should be completed before we move to a new technology blind folded. Even if we move that way at least we should find a way to shield and protect our co-inhabitants such as the beautiful birds and other flora, fauna and under-privileged who don't have any say against the injustice. Also nowadays I see lots of deforestation. Most of the bird habitats are changing to concrete jungles. Where will the birds live?. Eco-justice needs to be considered so that our future generations can also experience the wonderful songs and colorful birds as we do. Praying for that and request you to do your part (by growing trees that supports birds and simple things such as putting up a bird bath). 

Makesh Karuppiah, PhD
Environmental Scientist and Information Technologist