Four years ago, D Vasanthakumar a student of art, had to submit an assignment. “ I noticed a few leftover fire crackers in a corner of the room and decided to use the powder inside them for my work. I mixed it with camphor, applied it on the canvas and set it alight. I was taken aback at the pattern the fire left behind. That is when I began to experiment with using fire to create new paintings,” recollects the 25 year old. Vasanthakumar had organised an exhibition of his ‘fire paintings’ but it had to shut down due to the lockdown, he says.
It was a challenge, says Vasanthakumar, to take forward this technique. “I had no references and had to learn on my own. There were times when my entire canvas caught fire and I had to throw it away. It was through trial and error that I learnt about the precautions to take, the quantity of the flammable substances to use, and so on,” he explains.
Obviously the works using this technique are largely in brown and black. “The amount of the powder decides the shades; the larger the fire, the darker the mark will it leave behind,” he says. Of course the artist is aware of the dangers and challenges. For one, if he makes a mistake, it can’t be covered up. More importantly, it is potentially dangerous.“I always make sure to work in an empty room for safety,” he says.
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Know Vasanthakumar better
Vasanthakumar works as an assistant professor in the Department of Visual Communication, Dr GRD College of Arts and Science.
After school, while he signed up for a course in Computer Science, he realised painting was where his heart lay
He joined Lalit Kalakshetra for a degree in fine arts where he learnt the nuances of compositions, techniques and different mediums.
For now he wants to focus on his fire-painting technique
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Speaking of one of his favourite works, he says, “It was a realistic fire painting of a sculpture that I saw online.”
Vasanthakumar is sure he will hold another exhibition.“Obviously, the dates cannot be finalised yet,” he says.
source: http://www.thehindu.com / The Hindu / Home> Entertainment> Art / by Susan Joe Philip / Coimbatore – April 04th, 2020
Meet good samaritans in Chennai who are working to ensure that people don’t go hungry during the lockdown imposed to fight the coronavirus.
Image for representation: PTI
HIGHLIGHTS
Chennai eatery distributes free food packets
NGO volunteers provide dry rations, health kits
‘We have to help each other out’: Eatery owner
It’s tough to find better words than Trilok Babu’s to capture spirit of good samaritans working to ease the pain of life under lockdown: “We have to help each other out.”
This owner of a Chennai eatery, Dosa Corner, is having free packets of food — rice, sambhar, rasam, buttermilk and pickle — made for anyone who needs it.
“No questions asked,” he said.
Trilok Babu underscored the importance of such charity in a situation that he said was unprecedented for him.
“In my 40 years, I’ve never seen anything like this.”
– Trilok Babu to India Today TV
All of India is under lockdown to curb the spread of the coronavirus, a new kind (Sars-CoV-2) that was first detected in China and causes a potentially fatal respiratory illness, Covid-19.
In Tamil Nadu, over 300 people have, or have had, the virus, according to an India Today tracker . One person has died.
Many of the infections were traced to a religious congregation held at a markaz in Delhi’s Nizamuddin, now linked to a large cluster of coronavirus cases.
DRY RATIONS AND SANITISING KITS
Sneha Mohandoss, the founder of the NGO Food Bank, is also working to make sure people don’t go hungry during the lockdown and has teamed up with the Greater Chennai Corporation (GCC).
Since the corporation is asking the public to provide dry rations instead of cooked food, the Food Bank, too, is asking its volunteers — a small number, since prohibitory orders are in place — to donate accordingly.
“We are a small group of volunteers working together, as it isn’t advisable for a huge group to be out on the streets,” said Sneha Mohandoss, one of several women who took over Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s Twitter account on Women’s Day this year.
For the poor and destitute, who have been affected more by the lockdown than the rest of us, Amma Unavagams are a godsent gift.
Workers resting between work at an Amma Unavagam in Cuddalore | Express
Cuddalore :
For the poor and destitute, who have been affected more by the lockdown than the rest of us, Amma Unavagams are a godsent gift. With most cheap eateries shut, these government-run canteens ensure people don’t go hungry. And behind this successful enterprise are a bunch of low-paid temp staff, who are as underprivileged as the people they serve.
When the lockdown was announced, Chief Minister Edappadi K Palaniswami promised that Amma Unavagams would continue to work through the period, serving three meals a day across the State.
Rajathi (name changed) shows up to work at 4 am, and so do her friends. By 7 am, they get the breakfast ready. By the time dinner is done and they wind up for the day, it’s 9 pm.
Walking into the outlet where Rajathi works, we found that the food prepared for lunch had gotten over. There were still people waiting to eat, and the workers had to cook a fresh batch. “This outlet serves 80 persons on average. Now, we are serving about 130,” says Rajathi.
“Even then we cannot meet the demand.” As per statistics quoted by official sources, on March 31, 377 people ate breakfast, 370 had lunch and 105 had dinner at the outlet inside the Cuddalore GH. On April 1, the numbers steeply increased to 411, 412, and 200 respectively.
The entire operations here are managed by just 7 women. “It is satisfying to serve the poor and government staff in times like these, but the administration should also consider our hardships,” says a staff member. “Since 2014, our contract payment has been standard – a paltry Rs 7,500.”
The workers are seeking extra payment for the lockdown period.
Commenting on this, Cuddalore Municipality Commissioner Ramamurthy said, “I suggested them to bring in more workers so that they can share their work load or work in shifts. But, they seem unwilling to do that. They instead sought salary revision. Since this is a State government scheme, we are only following the guidelines.”
Meanwhile, Cuddalore Collector V Anbuselvan told The New Indian Express that he would take up the concerns of workers for salary revision and regularisation of jobs with the government.
source: http://www.newindianexpress.com / The New Indian Express / Home> States> Tamil Nadu / by Nirupama Sampath / Express News Service / April 03rd, 2020
Padman may have become a household name owing to his single-minded crusade to make sanitary napkins accessible to women across all range of the socio-economic spectrum.
READ NGO and women self-help group members at the pad-making unit in Erode | special arrangement
Erode :
Padman may have become a household name owing to his single-minded crusade to make sanitary napkins accessible to women across all range of the socio-economic spectrum. However, in his own state are many villages, where neither padman nor a sanitary napkin is known. This is an anomaly Rights Education and Development Center (READ) NGO has undertaken to set right.
In collaboration with women self-help groups (SHGs), READ set up 10 pad-making units at 10 villages at Sathyamangalam and Gobichettipalayam, TN Palayam blocks of Erode. Now, these women have access to pads at Rs 3 per piece and Rs 30 per packet of 10 pads. The added benefit is jobs for 100 women.
READ NGO Director Karuppusamy told Express, “Even today many women use cloths in tribal hamlets and villages in Erode. When we enquired about the reason, they pointed out two factors — affordability and lack of awareness on the importance of using sanitary pads. So we decided to pool funds and develop a social enterprise model to manufacture sanitary napkins at a subsidised cost.” A few of them were inaugurated earlier this week, he added.
The NGO identified major places that require immediate intervention and did a pilot study to set up a pad manufacturing unit. To make it more effective, the NGO collaborated with the local women self-help groups (SHGs) and directed them to take over the social enterprise. There are ten members in each SHGs and the work is equally divided among them — one group takes care of production and another does marketing. The units are registered under the Ministry of Micro, Small & Medium Enterprises under the brand name ‘Feel Free’.
One member of an SHG at Polavakaliyampalam in Gobichettipayalam, Nirmala, said, “Our motive is to make women in our region aware of sanitary pads. We go to every house, schools and colleges and talk about its significance. We do not just sell the pads but also teach them everything from using them, the time period for which one pad can be used to the disposing methods.”
On an average one unit produces up to 200 pads a day. The units are set up on a 10*12 sq ft area and it cost Rs 4,20,000 to set up one unit. The machines were sourced from Uttarkhand.
“Since it is an automatic machine, work is easy and quick. We need to place the cotton tissue sheets in the machine, which converts them into a series of pads. The organic winged napkins are made of cloth, wood-pulp cotton. All the pads are sterilized using ultraviolet radiation before packaging,” she added.
In a lengthy interaction, the artistes spoke about their style and schooling – that they will look to bridge and unify into something truly harmonious.
German violinist, composer, arranger and Founder of the artistic collective, Pool of Invention, Florian Willeitner was in the city for a very special performance – conceptualised and hosted by the Goethe-Institut along with Rotary Club of Madras East – titled, Classical Strings Violinkonzert, along with the renowned duo of Ganesh and Kumaresh. The medium of exchange was the violin. In a lengthy interaction, the artistes spoke about their style and schooling – that they will look to bridge and unify into something truly harmonious.
Ganesh and Kumaresh
Excerpts:
Importantly, how have you been keeping out the sounds of firecrackers?
Ganesh & Kumaresh: Our motherland reflects a life of celebration. We deal with various kinds of sounds at the most critical junctures, so dealing with the sounds of the festival is a joy. We believe in the concept of internal silence while the rest of the world is still alien to that concept. So, the sound of firecrackers is musical to us.
Florian: It is, of course, necessary to rehearse in a space where we can fully concentrate on the music. Also, the Goethe Institut’s hall is a very good room to rehearse. There weren’t any rehearsals taking place on Diwali, so no firecrackers came in our way. Actually, I was practising in my hotel room on these days, and almost died of several heart attacks, as there were detonations all over the place… but luckily, I survived!
All three of you were music scholars at a young age. Give us a sense of how similar, or different, your study routines were?
G&K: The discipline in formative years is of paramount importance for a free-spirited exploration in the romance with musical days. Freedom without discipline is an open recipe for disaster in any walk of life, and it is the same with music as well…
FW: I am grateful for the strictness of Western classical education, as I see it as one of the best ways to actually, really get to know your instrument in every technical aspect. I dislike the absence of creativity in this tradition though, as the main focus is on interpreting written music by composers. Therefore, I have always been looking for creativity through other musical styles and approaches, and I am now fighting very much to bring creativity back to Western classical education.
How difficult or easy has it been, to bring together your styles, and schools of music?
G&K: When two personalities from different cultures meet, there are bound to be differences. Music by default is an indivisible medium – it is the human mind and the society that has divided the sound of music like this and that. So, we found a way in which there’s a musical synergy to what we presented, so the audience got to listen to a very new, dynamic and traditional sound of music!
source: http://www.newindianexpress.com / The New Indian Express / Home> The Sunday Standard / by Jaideep Sen / November 03rd, 2019
True to the idea The house is both sustainable and local
Madurai architects Vignesh Sekar and Shamini Lakshmanan are winning global attention for a climate responsive Chettiar House they built in Thiruppathur near Madurai
One national award, five nominations (including four international) and nine articles in appreciation in journals of repute over the last 10 months have put architects Vignesh Sekar and Shamini Lakshmanan in the spotlight; a feat they never imagined to win at 25.
In fact, both were set to go overseas for higher studies after completing a challenging project in Thiruppathur, 64 kilometres East of Madurai, last November. “The client wanted a house with contemporary aesthetics while combining the cultural essence, traditional architecture and context of his native Chettinad region,” says Vignesh. “We debated and researched a lot, developed a timeline and came up with several innovative low cost ideas. It turned out to be much above everybody’s expectations,” says Shamini.
Until then, they mostly worked on public spaces in Hyderabad, Chennai and Bengaluru. However, their first major project was in Madurai in 2016 when immediately after graduating from Thiagarajar College of Arts, they were commissioned by the Madurai Corporation Commissioner to transform the abandoned Bharathiyar Park.
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Project highlights
The house was built in the middle of a grove of 200 plus coconut trees. Only three were felled as they were damaged but were used for concrete shuttering.
A lotus pond at the entrance has a crocodile sculpture made with stones collected from the site. Big boulders from the surroundings have been used as steps to climb on to the front verandah. Stones of different shapes and sizes have been moulded into a statue that works as a railing to the steps.
The main door to the house is seamless matching the facade of the wall. It is made with finest form of marble, egg whites and white cement. The interior walls have leaf imprints of the trees in the vicinity
Instead of a big puja room, a smaller one has been built with a big lounge that can accommodate more peopleand one side wall has a vertical garden to purify the air
The terracotta jaalis that dapple the light and thermally insulate have been fool proofed for security. Iron rods have been inserted in each brick and the bricks have been further twisted and shaped for aesthetics
The design of the house is complemented by rustic finishes like the exposed concrete on the ceilings, a combination of wood and Athangudi tiles on the floors
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“Encouraged by the positive feedback we received, we submitted it to the Arch Daily, a social forum and an online magazine from New York,” says Vignesh, “but it was rejected.” But there was an upside to it. Impressed by their design , the owner of a hotel in Thiruppathur approached them to design his dream house over 5,000 sq.ft. inside a coconut grove. “He told us not to mimic the Chettinad architecture but retain the spirit of a Chettiar house, in terms of lay-out and play of natural light and air,” says Shamini
Combining aesthetics with contemporaneity, the architects consciously chose to be sustainable and vernacular. “We started from the scratch in July 2017 and handed over the project in November 2018. After Arch Daily wrote about the house in January this year, the recognition from various associations, platforms.i
Combining aesthetics with contemporaneity, the architects consciously chose to be sustainable and vernacular. “We started from the scratch in July 2017 and handed over the project in November 2018. After Arch Daily wrote about the house in January this year, the recognition from various associations, platforms and publications has been overwhelming,” says Vignesh.
So much so that the duo have not only postponed their idea of studying overseas but also opened an office in Madurai two months ago for their company STOMP (Studio for Modernism & Practical Aesthetics).
“Till now, we were mostly travelling and working from home but now international agencies ask for our official address while approaching us for articles and awards,” notes Shamini.The duo has won the Young Designers Award 2019 given by India Architects & Builders (IAB).
So what is special about the building they created? “We incorporated an earthy palette of native materials either sourced from the site or from within 50 kilometres and juxtaposed them with traditional aspects of Chettinad region like its colours, fabric and (Athangudi)tiles. We employed local labour and artisans for every aspect of the work,” notes Vignesh. “We stuck to the client’s brief howsoever difficult it appeared,” adds Shamini.
For instance, the owner chose a large front yard to the typical open courtyard and wanted the three layers of a typical Chettinad house to remain — the public frontage in the front called the thinnai; the semi public area in the centre (like the puja and living room and the dining area) and the private bedrooms at the farthest end. The terracotta facade of the building and the skylights on the first floor ceiling allow natural play of light and ventilation and minimise use of electricity. The house runs on solar power and there are only four fans installed. Customised clay pots in the skylight made from the soil at the site reduce the temperature by five degrees.
“There was a purpose in the enhanced spatial, functional and permeable structure we planned and executed for a lifetime living experience”, says Vignesh, “and we are glad that it is garnering attention,” says Vignesh. “We faced our challenges gracefully and the awards are fuelling our passion now,” adds Shamini.
A WINNING DUO
They are among the top three contenders and the only ones from South India for the FOAID (Festival of Architecture & Interior Designing) -2019, a genex competition for young designers. From 250 submissions, they were among the six shortlisted in the first round. The finalist will be announced on November 29.
Their design was among the 20 selected projects from around the world and only one from India featured in the 45th issue of Australian publication, Habitus Living in September-November 2019. They also made it to the top five in one of the categories that describes the designers as champion paying attention to materiality.
It has been shortlisted for the prestigious Women In Architecture Awards – the only Indian project on the list that includes some of the world’s most important practitioners.
From 500 entries it was one among four Indian teams to have been shortlisted among top 100 for the Merit List 2019 announced by Cycle by Matter.
Out of 550 projects from 54 countries, it has been shortlisted for Continental Architectural Awards 2019 in Spain
source: http://www.thehindu.com / The Hindu / Home> Life & Style / by Soma Basu / November 01st, 2019
Every morning D Arul Raj wakes up with one goal — to rescue at least one homeless person and put a roof over his/her head.
D Arul Raj founded the trust in 2017 and has rescued more than 320 homeless people till date Debadatta Mallick
Chennai :
Every morning D Arul Raj wakes up with one goal — to rescue at least one homeless person and put a roof over his/her head. He drives his autorickshaw, picking up savaaris for four hours each in the morning and evening, and the rest of the day he goes around the city to look out for homeless people who need help. Arul founded the Karunai Ullangal Trust two years ago to help abandoned people. So far, he has rescued more than 320 people.
On Tuesday, when we were waiting to talk to Arul, he gets a call telling there is someone in Perambur who needs his help. The 34-year-old autorickshaw driver doesn’t think twice before getting into his vehicle, asking us to hop on and zooming past the city.
How it all began
“I have a wife and two children. Till 2015, I had no intentions of doing social service. During the floods that year, my wife received an emergency call from one of her friends at Saidapet. He told her that they were starving and were unable to get out of the locality due to stagnation. I brought food to their place only to realise there were hundreds who needed help,” he says.
Using a push cart, Arul ferried people out of the area. That’s when he first felt the need to help a fellow human being. “It was the amount of trust they had on me that shook me. I then joined a Facebook page and a WhatsApp group called Makkal Ku Udhavalam, created especially to help people during floods. Requests for help kept pouring in and I did what I could,” he says.
Arul was then working in the collection department of a private bank. He would go from house to house to collect bank dues. However, when the office management realised he was busy with social service for most part of the day, they fired him in 2016. Arul was jobless for six months. “We worked for six months after the floods on cleaning and providing relief materials. After six months, when the admin of Makkal Ku Udhavalam decided to delete the page, I decided to manage it and changed the name to Karunai Ullangal. Simultaneously, that was when I lost my job,” he says.
Goal oriented
From helping cancer patients to poor children getting scholarships, Arul did everything he could. One day, towards the end of 2016, a woman on the roadside in Saidapet asked him if he could help her join a shelter home.
“I did not even know what a shelter home was until then. Earlier too, during floods, a woman had asked me the same, but I could not help her. But this request made me take the step to rescue the homeless and this changed my life forever,” says Arul. In January 2017, he received a call saying an injured homeless man was lying by the roadside and that he might die if they don’t help him soon. “This time, I took help from different NGOs and enrolled him in a private shelter home at Porur at 1.30 am. When that sense of satisfaction kicked in, I decided this is what Karunai Ullangal Trust will do from then on — rescue homeless and enrol them in a home.”
Daily routine
For each rescue, the fuel costs alone comes up to Rs 500. When Arul did not have a job, his friends and volunteers stepped up. “Each month, we were doing about ten rescues and I did not want to depend on them forever. So, I bought an autorickshaw in 2017. A dear friend of mine gave me `90,000 and the rest of the amount, I am paying through installments every month,” says Arul.
From then till now, Arul’s daily schedule has been the same. Ride the autorickshaw from 6 am to 10 am, carry out rescues from 10 am to 6 pm and again ride the autorickshaw from 6 pm to 10 pm before he heads home to spend time with his family. Of the people they have rescued, 120 have been reunited with their family, while others are in different shelter homes across the city. Now, Arul funds most of the rescues himself.
Alarming stories
While carrying out the rescues, Arul says he found some incidents alarming. “One day in 2018, I saw a distressed man on the roadside in Tambaram with a shabby long beard, torn clothes and his face covered in a thick layer of dirt. Talking to him, I found out that he was a film director who took to the roads after his wife divorced him and kids did not support him,” says Arul.
It is often common issues that lead to situations like this, he says. “Next time you find a distressed person, talk to them. Most of them have homes, but they don’t go because there are no loving people inside that house,” says Arul, as he swipes through the pictures of rescued people on his phone.Learning first-aid Pointing to a huge first aid box attached to his seat, Arul says that he is also trained in first-aid. Often, when they head out for a rescue, the notice that the victim’s legs and hands are infested by maggots due to living in unhygienic conditions and with diabetes. The 34-year-old learned first-aid, so he could clean their wounds before taking them to shelter homes.
As he shares his story, we reach the place of rescue. Outside Perambur loco station, we see an old man lying in his own feces, and his feet were half eaten by worms and maggots. Arul gets down and quickly takes the mask, gloves and other necessary equipment out of the first-aid box and runs to the man. He talks softly to him, consoles him as he cleans the wounds. Within an hour, he convinces him to go to a home, and four hours later, he was admitted. Arul looks at us and says, “This is the best part of my day.”
‘App’solutely helpful
Arul also introduced the Karunai Ullangal Trust mobile application on Google PlayStore in September. The app lets public upload pictures of the abandoned people and assigns volunteers for the rescue.
It also has a database of all the rescued people so that you can help them find their family if you know someone. If you want to report/help a homeless person on the roadside, contact 9841776685
source: http://www.newindianexpress.com / The New Indian Express / Home> Cities> Chennai / by K.V. Navya / Express News Service / October 31st, 2019
Opened in 2014, The Brew Room is one of the first cafés in the city to introduce different brewing methods, including Japanese, Turkish and Italian.
Nivruti with mother Nina Reddy
Born into one of the most prominent families in Chennai, Nivruti Reddy, 35, says business was all she knew while growing up. However, for her, choosing a career in hospitality was not about joining the family enterprise.
“Unless you are passionate about it, you cannot make it big,” says the Managing Director of The Brew Room at The Savera Hotel.
“My parents never told me or my sister (Ritika) what to study or which career to choose. My initiation into the field was of course, with a firm hand-holding by both my parents (Nina and Vijayakumar Reddy). At the same time, they also gave me the freedom to explore,” adds the management graduate from the University of Warwick.
Having taken her baby steps in the industry with a brief stint with Savera’s sister company Shyam Group of Restaurants in 2008, Nivruti’s first project was Baker’s Code that specialises in fresh bread, cakes and cookies. She recalls, “Here, I got to try a lot of new things with respect to the menu, customer experience and marketing.”
Opened in 2014, The Brew Room is one of the first cafés in the city to introduce different brewing methods, including Japanese, Turkish and Italian. With Auroville-based coffee consultant Marc, they also introduced the concept of an interactive coffee bar where the beans are ground and the coffee brewed fresh in front of the customer.
Mother knows best!
Being the daughter of Nina Reddy, joint MD at the 50-year-old Savera, we ask her what she has learned from her mother and her list goes on. “My mother’s greatest ability is to turn most of the things she’s passionate about into successful businesses like fitness and people management. Her interpersonal skills, positivity and perseverance shine through anything she does. She pioneered a health studio called O2. Today, the brand has nine gyms. She believes that growth is the only way to sustain and constantly strives to bring out the best in all the teams she works with.”
Talking further about working with her mother, she says, “We are constantly bouncing ideas off each other. We value each other’s opinions a lot. From something as simple as introducing a new product to something as big as creating a new restaurant brand, every idea is discussed among us. She encourages me to dream and also gives me the courage to make decisions.”
As for her future plans, she adds, “Right now, my main focus is to expand The Brew Room brand through franchising. We have opened two outlets in Chennai, one in Delhi and Pune, and want to expand to other cities.”
source: http://www.newindianexpress.com / The New Indian Express / Home> Lifestyle> Food / by Fathima Ashraf / Express News Service / October 25th, 2019
Choreographed by Jeffery Vardon, the audience was taken aback by the flamboyant display of elegant embroidered shararas supported by young models and Kanjivaram saris supported by smart ladies.
Chennai :
In what one could call a fitting display of festive fashion, A Nina Reddy, joint managing director of Savera Hotel, along with The Duchess Club, organised an fashion extravaganza, showcasing the latest festive collection by Dhwaraka, a boutique owned by Sowmya Vijay, who recently opened a branch at Chamiers Road. Supermodel Sameea Bangera was the show-stopper at the event and was interviewed by former model Uma Muthuswamy.
Choreographed by Jeffery Vardon, the audience was taken aback by the flamboyant display of elegant embroidered shararas supported by young models and Kanjivaram saris supported by smart ladies.
Launched in 2018, Dhwaraka was Sowmya’s dream project. “Saris take two weeks to a month to be stitched. I had an in-house tailor who could do the job in two days. That’s when I decided to launch my boutique,” she said. Actress Suhasini Maniratnam, actress Lissy Lakshmi, journalist Mini Menon and actress Poornima Bhagyaraj were present at the event.
source: http://www.newindianexpress.com / The New Indian Express / Home> Cities> Chennai / by Naaz Ghani / Expres News Service / October 26th, 2019
The Sammelanam was part of the Chatur Masya Sankalpa activities of Kanchi Kamakoti Pitam
Occupying the top place among the plethora of rituals practised by a grihasta is Agnihotram — worshipping fire through the performance of a yagam. Fire is the source of energy and the fountain head of life. “The Vedas give it a noble place enjoining upon a grihasta to do it daily,” says Balakrishna Rangarajan, who has been coordinating the Agnihotris Sammelanam of Kanchi Kamakoti Pitam for 14 years.
“It was in 2005 that Sri Jayendra Saraswati told me: ‘We should organise a meeting of all the agnihotris in the country.’ Taken aback, I said that I didn’t know where they all were. ‘I do,’ he responded and gave me a list. The first All India Agnihotris Sammelanam happened that way and we have not looked back,” recalls Balakrishnan.
In a country of 130 crore population, there are only 130 Agnihotris and only 40 of them are Nitya-agnihotris — performing the yagnam on a daily basis. The latter perform the task of keeping the fire alive 24/7. How is that done? “They take care of the fire like they would a baby,” says Balakrishnan.
An Agnihotri has to master the Vedas and engage them through thought, word and deed — recalling the mantras, chanting them and perform the Agnihotram. The Rig, Yajur and Sama Vedas blend to please the devathas — Rig through the visualisation of the mantras, Yajur by giving it a form and Sama through its mesmerisingly musical chanting.
The yaga is not done for the performer’s welfare. That comes last. The Agnihotri prays to the fire to fill the earth with ample water, which in turn will provide grass, which in turn will feed the cows’ whose milk and ghee nourish the world and are essential for the sacred fire. It is ultimately for human welfare, they pray.
The wife is given an exalted position in this ritual. “Without her there is no yagnam,” states Balakrishnan. She has to chant mantras too and the two observe the discipline prescribed. Incidentally, Agnihotris at the Sammelanam this year discussed the subject: ‘What happens when the lady is unable to participate?’ The proceedings take place in Sanskrit.
Ultimate sacrifice
“The fire preserved by the Agnihotri is so sacred that it goes with him in his last journey. Sastras prescribe that the day after his funeral, his bones should be collected, powdered and a yagna done with ghee. He is thus given back to Agni, completely. Can there be a better sacrifice than this,” asks Balakrishnan. “There were 98 Agnihotris when the Sammelanam was started. Now there are 130. But for the perseverance and patience of the successive pontiffs of the Kanchi Math, this would not be possible,” he stresses. “These are giants, but are eager to congregate and share their knowledge under the benign leadership of the Kanchi Sankaracharya,” he adds.
If they are all pundits, where is the need for debate? And it is a Science, where every step has been clearly defined. “True. But there are differences, depending on the region to which they belong, the sect and the rishi parampara,” says Balakrishnan. The core is the same but there will be variations in the execution. The Sammelanam gives them an opportunity to raise doubts and clarifications. Each will adhere to his own tradition but gain knowledge about other systems,” he explains.
Scattered in different parts of the country, the Agnihotris had come for the Sammelanam from Jodhpur, Mumbai, Satara, regions of the Godavari and Krishna, Kerala and Tamil Nadu. “That was how Sri Chandrasekharendra Saraswati Swamigal preferred it to be. He wanted the smoke from the Agnihotri’s havan to purify the air in all parts of the sky,” observes Balakrishnan. The Agnihotris, who participated in the Sammelanam on September 7-9 were honoured by the Sankaracharya with a purse and gifts of gold and silver.
Compiled by Geetha Venkataramanan
source: http://www.thehindu.com / The Hindu / Home> Society> History & Culture / by Geetha Venkataraman / September 12th, 2019
Received a Bright Smile as soon as I gave her the meal box 
