Wednesday, November 2, 2011

After retirement hobbies- 3 stotra rathnas in English

After retirement hobbies- 3 stotra rathnas in English
During the time I was 16 till I reached 60 , I was fond of praying using several stotras. When I was studying in the university I used to get charmed by reading Sri Krishna Karnamrutham, Vishnu Sahasranamam, Lalitha Sahasranamam, Devi Mahatmyam , Dakshinamurthy stotram and so on. Though I used to read them with devotion and was happy , I thirsted to knew the meaning of what I was reading. Fortunately I could get books on some of these great stotras. Then I drifted off by getting busy in my job and problems of my little poor family which I was trying my best to raise up. From then on , till I became 60 , I used to chant many stotras but recite only few of them understanding their meaning. So one of the first job that I took up was translation of some of these stotras in to English. I was not sure that I was doing a correct job. So I took a print out and them to the Kanchi and Sringeri Mutts. Swami Jayendra Saraswathi immediately replied. The draft that I had send was over all OK. This made me little more confidant. It was at this time that I went to the second time to USA. By that time I had translated about 40 stotras which included two sahasranamams and Abhirami Andathi. Our new daughter in law helped me by teaching me the first lessons on web design. BHagyam Ramaswamy put my translation of Abhirami Andathi in his web site. Several internet friends like Achalam encouraged me for launching a web site. So my new web site of Stotra rathnas was launched under tripod http://english_stotras.tripod.com/.
I came back to India and started putting lot of efforts for translating more and more stotras. All these were put in my own web site under geocities.com. Slowly and steadily this web site grew up. www.brahmanas.com helped me further by putting some of my translation in their web site. An organization called Rajajinagar Bhaktha Sabha released a CD containing 260 of my translations. A young gentleman in north started a web site called www.stotrarathnas.com for putting my translations . Sri Lakshmanan of www.celextel.org requested me to translate 21 minor Upanishads. They also put all my translations in their web site. It was at this time that the geocities.com closed all free web sites. I was worried that all my translations would be lost. One of my admirers from Hyderabad printed a few of my
Translations. A web site called http://sathyasaibababrotherhood.org/ from Holland allowed me to post all my translations in their web site. Giri Traders published my translations of Lalitha Sahasranam and Rudram. The Kanchi Kamakoti mutt made my translation of Devi Mahatmyam , a part of their book. www.hindupeda.com who were trying to build up an encyclopedia of Hinduism, made me as one of their editors. As on today I have translated more than 600 great stotras. In few more blogs I will make a brief review of what I have done so far, Ramachander

After retirement hobbies- 2.Kerala Iyers web site

After retirement hobbies- 2.Kerala Iyers web site
During the same trip to USA 12 years back , Getting to know about Yahoo search for the first time, I tried searching for information on iyers. I could few references which included a few references on PICO iyer, an Indian American writer. But when I tried searching for Palakkad Iyers/Palghat iyers / kerala iyers there was no information available on the web. Without much reference work, being a member of that community , I had in my memory some information about them. So Icreated a small web site in www.homestead.com about them. This attracted lot of attention. Many people contacted me and among them was Sri Krishnamurthy who was son of a little house of a neighboring Mami in my village Chelakkara. He told me that he would build a better web site if information is supplied to him. So as soon as I came back , I started collecting information about my community. I met many people went to various places and started my enquiry. By another one year I had collected lots of information and this was put in the new web site www.keralaiyers.com which was launched ten years back. The paper Mathrubhumi had a news item about its launch on the day it was launched. It was then that Krishnamurthy suggested that we start a yahoo group. I named it “Pattars group” This group has got the largest membership of iyers among the many iyer groups. Many of the members started groups of their own. Iyer123 and 4 Brahmins are two such groups. It was at this time that my younger brother DR.Kasiviswanathan came up with an idea of starting a trust to help the needy Kerala iyers. After much discussion, this was launched and one of our Young friends Sri.Ramprasad ,who was a class mate of my son took up the job of managing the group with untiring support on receiving the money and channelizing it to deserving people by my younger brother and his Wife. By the tremendous cooperation of the Pattar Group members, several volunteers and executive committee members we have been able to disburse several crores of rupees as an aid to the needy Kerala iyers. Another aspect we got interested was to help the needy to find suitable grooms and brides. We initially started a yahoo group Kalyanam, which has lead to the marriage of many and recently a web site called www.ikalyanam.com , which allows free registration for matrimony to all iyers. Sri Krishnamurthy is now doing the job of revision and restructuring the web site www.keralaiyers.com.
I am having great hope that several newly socially relevant activities would be started in the years to come. Ramachander

Tuesday, November 1, 2011

After retirement hobbies- I. astrology and matching of horoscopes.

After retirement hobbies- I. astrology and matching of horoscopes.
P.R.Ramachander
I knew some amount astrology from my father and later learnt a bit myself. When I was in service, I used to help a few people to match horoscopes for matrimony. Immediately after retirement I happened to Go to USA to be with my daughter. I used to find a lot of time to waste. It was at this time that I came in to contact with Sri Murugavel through his web site sysindia.com. We used to talk with one another in phone. He was at the time engaged in building a matrimonial web site called tamilmatrimony.com. As he knew that I knew astrology, he suggested to me that I can spend my time helping people settled abroad with matching of horoscopes. After getting my consent he was the one who put an advt in his site about my availability to match horoscopes. This kept me slightly busy. I also contacted cyberkerala.com and they also put an advertisement in their site about my willingness to match horoscopes , free of cost over the internet. When the tamilmatrimony .com grew up and they introduced soft ware to match horoscopes in their web sites , naturally the announcement regarding me was taken out. Meanwhile I returned back to India and continued what I was doing. Me and one of my young friends built a web site called keralaiyers.com and even there we put an announcement. Ten years back , it was a unique service and so many other web sites gave announcements about what I was doing.
As a result of these , I have been matching horoscopes for matrimony for the past eleven years. Thousands of people belonging to all communities have contacted me and I too have made it a point to answer their mails promptly. Hundreds of marriages have taken place . I also give in a small way personal consultation to match horoscopes in my house.
Though not very willing I also do forecasting of future in a minor scale . I have become an astrologer for very many families. Several families have taken my help in matching horoscopes for all their children. I have made hundreds of friends through this hobby.
Looking back , I think I have so far done a great job. I am getting old and I am not sure how long I will be able to continue what I am doing.
Since it was my first post retirement hobby and it was a social service of sorts , I want to thank God for guiding me so far.