General Interest « Badagas of the Blue Mountains

7 Dec

General Interest

Posted by Bellie Jayaprakash.

In Oct 2009, I received an email from Mª Teresa Llop Navarro (Spain), President of a NGO called ‘ESPURNA’ which has been formed as an association for international co-operation which collaborates in helping poor families in the Nilgiris. She said “We support and help them so that their children attend school or do not leave school for economic reasons. At the moment we are helping one family in Ooty and three families in Ketti Valley. ….. we believe many of the economic problems in the Nilgiris are due to the crisis in the tea industry.
We collaborate from Spain but have an intermedy in Ooty. We would dearly like to count with people who are a part of the culture as it is very important for our Spanish members and collaborators to receive information from the Nilgiris…..”

She was kind enough to send me the September, 2009 bulletin of ESPURNA.
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Es Purna in Catalunya (Spain) is an association for international co-operation to give an opportunity to the beggar children and their famlies in the Nilgiri Mountains in South India.

What opportunity ?….. to go to “school”

Seems easy enough, normal one might say, for a boy or a girl to go to school every day. But for some this is impossible.They and their families live in the streets. Every family has a different reason for “living” in the bus station , or the cricket club, or the hippodrome sharing the houses with the horses but all the children of these families see themselves in the necessity to beg some rupees and food to survive.That is part of the families´ sustenance.

The Nilgiri Mts. are beautiful. Very special I can assure you. The Ist time I arrived in the Blue Mountains, such is its translation in the indigenous language, I felt at home. As if I had arrived at long last. During many years my children and I have visited the mountains.And every year we found more children on the streets of the cities, small cities such as Ooty, Conoor or Coimbatore.In the evening time we would go down to the city with some provisions for the children.Never money. We would buy biscuits and fruit-juices and they and their families would sit on the pavement partaking of what we brought and looking at us as if we all had two heads.I had always asked myself “ Where do these families live “ ?. This year, accompanied by my son, who is no longer a child, we have seen the children much closer and from another perspective.On the day of the full moon in Leo which in Ooty is celebrated in style, I felt the need not just to hand over biscuits and juices but to get to the bottom and see what was behind the tired look of Ragu, the smile of Aswani, the blinking of Savitry or the betel-filled mouth of Babu.How could children be beggars in the “ Queen of the Hills” as are called the hills which surround Ketty Valley and overlooking the city of Ooty ‘?

The family of Ragu live just beside Sri Shanti Vijal school, on the terraces of the cricket club. Ragu and his sister, who is still too young to talk but walks with hand outstretched and pulls at your clothes insistenly to give her something, go every morning at 9.30 to the gates of the school and ask for a bit of breakfast of the girls who enter. There is always one who shares with them the first bite of the day. Ragu likes biscuits and his sister likes everything. Their mother wakes badly and only thinks in something that is not combustible i.e. betel or wine to help her get started and forget the wet night in the open air, the cold, the low clouds of the mountains invadng her body, the sobbing of the children. One day I took a photo of them and asked her to please let me bring the children to school.I then put 500 rupee in her hand and she offered me Ragu.

A brave mother:

This mother is the bravest I have ever met.She lives in the bus station with her two children , Aswini and Prasat. Her husband threw her out of home She begs in the temples amongst the tourists who arrive in Ooty for a long week-end but her children go to school. Every morning she checks their school-books which are spotless and covered with newspaper within which is good hand-writing. They study Tamil (language of their state) and also Hindu and English.They speak good English.The mother has lost hope, believes in nothing nor nobody.

This month of September we sent 250 rupee per child to this family and in the month of December we hope to be able to rent a house for her and her children. We are looking for a job for her. Maybe she could be our keeper when we go to India, cooking and looking after our house- centre.

Angeli:

Angeli goes to school. She lives with her mother in her maternal uncle´s house.

Her father appears and disappears and has a serious drink problem.For this reason she and her mother have gone to live in the valley where her uncle lives.Her uncle who works as a taxi-driver, is married with one child and finds it hard going to pay for everything. Angeli´s mother grows and sells flowers.It is a possibility that if the situation does not improve Angeli would have to leave school and work in the tea plantations or the gardens of the resorts.This month they have also received 500 rupee. In December we want to buy clothes and school material for them.

The third family is a widow with 5 children. They live in Ketty Valley in a mud and grass hut. Water seeps in when it rains and smoke from the fire invades the house.It smells of sickness and sadness.This month she has received 500 rupee. In December we wil try to come to an agreement with her to see if she will send the children to school.

In the municipal market of Ooty a kilo of potatoes costs 10 r, of tomatoes-20r. of padi rice-5r, of cooking oil-6r, of chapati flour-20r.In August the ruppee exchanged rate at 60 rupee-1 euro.
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Along with that Ms.Teresa Llop also sent me the following >

A homage from Barcelona for a Badaga (tribe which lives in the Nilgiri Mountains, the majority of whom work on or are small owners of tea plantations) woman.

I left India the 18th of August and she came to visit me the week previous having just left hospital. She could barely walk but she climbed the steps little by little barefoot with swollen feet holding onto her sari which scarcely covered her breasts. She came to see my kitchen,have some tea and put flowers on the altar in my house. ( In all Indian houses there is a small altar which at nightfall is lit by an oil-lamp.On the altar are the deities for which the owner of the house feels devotion , in my case , as related to me, the deities were Saraswaty, the godess of wisdom and for Visnu the god of balance, the owner of the house being a doctor who works in the Apolo Hospital in Hydrebad.) During the time of the monsoons at the end of June, beginning of August ,in Gandinagar, a town-land on the outskirts of Ooty in the Nilgiris where we had the house, the light goes quickly in the evening and I acquired the habit of lighting the lamp then and she saw the glow from her house.She wanted to come and visit as she had never seen a white woman in the flesh before.

She entered slowly, sat on the cane sofa. I touched her feet in a sign of respect

as she made a movement as if saying “ No, no I´m not that important “I touched her feet and then my front.I prepared a tea with milk and sugar in the hindi style.She took a sip looked ar the kitchen and said “nice tea and a clean kitchen“. Her English was fairly incomprehensible.I sat beside her.Her daughter-in-law , Sarda, looked at me and then her. Visw amma closed her eyes and began to pronounce words strange to me. Now and again I heard the word –Yoga-.When she had finished, very tired and with eyes shut she lay as if asleep.Sarda said that lately she was speaking a lot of yoga, of her Master and her childhood. That she did not fell well and was in and out of hospital where they could find nothing wrong with her except old age and fatigue.Visw amma took her leave of me her last words being –Love, Master and Yoga.

The day I left the Nilgiris for Europe on an early flight she was asleep and I left a red rose at the door of her house.

This month of October I heard she had died the 28th of August.

In Barcelona I light the lamp-light on the altar in honour of mother of Viswa who will always be in my heart.

I was indeed touched by her act and am sure so will you be, too. I thank Mª Teresa Llop Navarro on behalf of all Badagas.

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Drinking Warm Water to avoid Heart Attacks

This is a very good article. Not only about the warm water after your meal, but about

Heart Attacks . The Chinese and Japanese drink hot tea with their meals, not cold water, maybe it is time we adopt their drinking habit while eating.

For those who like to drink cold water, this article is applicable to you. It is nice to have a cup of cold drink after a meal. However, the cold water will solidify the oily stuff that you have just consumed. It will slow down the digestion. Once this ’sludge’ reacts with the acid, it will break down and be absorbed by the intestine faster than the solid food. It will line the intestine. Very soon, this will turn into fats and lead to cancer. It is best to drink hot soup or warm water after a meal.
Common Symptoms Of Heart Attack…
A serious note about heart attacks – You should know that not every heart attack symptom is going to be the left arm hurting . Be aware of intense pain in the jaw line .
You may never have the first chest pain during the course of a heart attack. Nausea and intense sweating are also common symptoms. 60% of people who have a heart attack while they are asleep do not wake up. Pain in the jaw can wake you from a sound sleep. Let’s be careful and be aware. The more we know, the better chance we could survive.
A cardiologist says if everyone who reads this message sends it to 10 people, you can be sure that we’ll save at least one life. Read this & Send to a friend. It could save a life. So, please be a true friend and send this article to all your friends you care about.

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Some thoughts…..received as an email from ‘true friends’…….HOW True !!

Time is like a river . . . You cannot touch the same water twice, because the flow has passed and will never pass again.

- For those who are already 45, start practicing.
- For those almost 45, get ready.
- For those where 50 is a long way off, help your parents do it.

For Those Over 50,

1. Focus on enjoying life, not on indulging in or accumulating material things.

2. Plan to spend whatever you have saved. You deserve to enjoy in the healthy years you are left with. Travel if you can afford it.

3. Don’t leave anything for your children or loved ones to quarrel about. By leaving too much, you may even cause more trouble when you are gone.

4. Live, here and now, not in the yesterdays and tomorrow’s. It is only today that you can handle. Yesterday is gone, tomorrow may not even happen.

5. Enjoy with your grandchildren (if blessed with any) .

6. Accept physical weakness, sickness and other physical pains. It is part of the aging process. Enjoy whatever your health can allow.

7. Enjoy what you are and what you have right now. STOP working hard for what you do not have. If you don’t have them, it’s probably too late.

8. Enjoy your life with your spouse, children, grandchildren and friends. People, who truly love you, love you for yourself, not for what you have. Anyone who loves you for what you have will just give you misery. And you probably know that by now.

9. Forgive and accept forgiveness. Forgive yourself and others. Enjoy peace of mind and peace of soul.

10. Befriend death. It’s a natural part of the life cycle. Don’t be afraid of it. Death is the beginning of a new and better life.
So, prepare yourself not for death but for a new life with the Almighty.

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The following information from Manjoor Raja is very interesting and useful

This help is for the Windows XP and Windows 2000 users to send emails in Unicode Tamil

1. Without doing anything, you should be able to see Unicode Tamil

2. Down load and install NHM writer from http://software.nhm.in/

ekalappai (anjal) http://thamizha.com/modules/mydownloads/viewcat.php?op=&cid=3

3. If you have gmail account, it is excellent, otherwise no problem. This will work for other email services too.

4. Open your Internet Explorer. Change as follows from the menu: View – Encoding – Unicode (UTF-8)

5. open your mailbox

6. select UNICODETAMIL in ‘K’ icon sitting on the right side of your Windows taskbar. The ‘K’ icon shoud turn to red color Tamil ‘a’ now

That is all, you will see Unicode Tamil charecters falling from your sharp fingers when you start typing

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யுனித்தமிழ் எழுத்துக்கள் அட்டவணை

உயிரெழுத்துக்கள்

அ – a
ஆ – aa, A
இ – i
ஈ – ii, I
உ – u
ஊ – uu, U
எ – e
ஏ – ee, E
ஐ – ai
ஒ – o
ஓ – oo, O
ஔ – au

மெய்யெழுத்துக்கள்

க் – k, g
ங் – ng
ச் – c, s
ஞ் – nj, X
ட் – t, d
ண் – N
த் – th, dh, T
ந் – w, n-
ப் – p, b
ம் – m
ய் – y
ர் – r
ல் – l
வ் – v
ழ் – z
ள் – L
ற் – R
ன் – n

ஆய்த எழுத்து

ஃ – q

கிரந்த எழுத்துக்கள்

ஜ் – j
ஷ் – sh, ch, Z
ஸ் – S
ஹ் – h
க்ஷ் – ksh, kch, kZ
ஸ்ரீ – sr

If you need more help please contact : manjoorrasa@gmail.com

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Click on the PIX below….

……For some great animation !

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HOW TO SURVIVE A HEART ATTACK WHEN ALONE?

SINCE MANY PEOPLE ARE ALONE WHEN THEY SUFFER A HEART ATTACK, WITHOUT HELP, THE PERSON WHOSE HEART IS BEATING IMPROPERLY AND WHO BEGINS TO FEEL FAINT, HAS ONLY ABOUT 10 SECONDS LEFT BEFORE LOSING CONSCIOUS

WHAT TO DO ??

ANSWER:

DO NOT PANIC, BUT START COUGHING REPEATEDLY AND VERY VIGOROUSLY.

A DEEP BREATH SHOULD BE TAKEN BEFORE EACH COUGH, THE COUGH MUST BE DEEP AND PROLONGED, AS WHEN PRODUCING SPUTUM FROM DEEP INSIDE THE CHEST.

A BREATH AND A COUGH MUST BE REPEATED ABOUT EVERY TWO SECONDS WITHOUT LET-UP UNTIL HELP ARRIVES, OR UNTIL THE HEART IS FELT TO BE BEATING NORMALLY AGAIN.

DEEP BREATHS GET OXYGEN INTO THE LUNGS AND COUGHING MOVEMENTS SQUEEZE THE HEART AND KEEP THE BLOOD CIRCULATING. THE SQUEEZING PRESSURE ON THE HEART ALSO HELPS IT REGAIN NORMAL RHYTHM. IN THIS WAY, HEART ATTACK VICTIMS CAN GET TO A HOSPITAL.

Published in the JOURNAL OF GENERAL HOSPITAL, ROCHESTER

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GOOGLED

I am a ‘Googlian’. Anything from Google…I take it to be goog..er…good.

I was surprised to see an exclusive browser from google called CHROME for I always thought FIREFOX and GOOGLE complimented each other.

You can download Google Chrome from here

I have just installed google’s ‘chrome’ as a third browser after Firefox v3 and Internet Explorer 8 Beta.

This website in Google Chrome

Want to search in TAMIL GOOGLE ?

Numericals in Tamil

௦ (0)

௧ (1)

௨ (2)

௩ (3)

௪ (4)

௫ (5)

௬ (6)

௭ (7)

௮ (8)

௯ (9)

Bored up :-
Click on PIANO below. You will see a Japanese web page….hold a sec.. the ‘PIANO’ will pop up. Just play it with your mouse or keyboard [hover the mouse cursor over the '?' mark for display of 'keys'. Unbelievable, try it!!