I am back with the October issue of your favourite family magazine- ' Partha's Naunet Newsletter'. We had two new contributors in August in Nitya and Rahul and one in September in Radha,This issue features another new contributor- Amritha, who agreed to write after a lot of prodding by me and Prasad. Hope she will be regular. Mukund is back after a long time. His story is in two parts, with the first one appearing in this issue.I have introduced a MESSAGE BOARD, which should help those who do not want to write letters. You can post the message as you surf by just clicking on the link and following the instructions.The Tamil section contains an interesting quiz (TOCCTFL), which most of us will fail. I have set a target to myself of using at least one new Javascript every month. The new Javascript gimmick of the month is the one on catching Neha. I have also continued the gimmick of fitting the head of a relative on a body using Javascript. This time, it is 'Supermen in the family' containing all the sons and sons-in-law of Ranganathans. I wrote a humorous article on the IRAS Retreat in Goa for the IRAS Website. I have reproduced it in this Newsletter. Many (except Jagan) may not know the abbreviations. But the article is not technical. It goes without saying that Sudarshan's page and Prasad's article are there. Prasad has written another very interesting article on 'The Trouble with Canceling flights...', with which I could empathise as I am also in the transportation industry. All the other usual features, Crossword, Cryptogram, Brain Teasers, Interesting bits from the Net, Humour etc. are there. Enjoy the Newsletter and post your impressions and suggestions on the Message Board.

The first feature, as usual, are the old photos.

MEMORIES ARE MADE OF THESE
	Does Kannan (Adyar) remember his graduation? This photo must be about 45 years old.
The second photo is fairly recent, only about 10 years old and has Santhanam's family with his parents.

MY DIARY FOR SEPTEMBER 2002

September was perhaps the busiest month for me after moving to Chennai.

It was a month in which a lot of things happened- Harish came for a week, Shoba got married, I was away to Goa and Mumbai for almost a week with a lot of cricket, Davis Cup and the US Open thrown in.The Asian Games have also started. (Raghu, you can skip the following paras as this is an abridged version of what we already wrote to you in our weekly letters).

First a report on Shoba's wedding. I had taken two days' leave for Shoba's wedding. The reception had a light music concert with 5000W speaker. So there was a lot of noise and we had to raise our voices for conversation. Some songs were sung well by them. The tiffin that evening (Kasi halwa, Bonda, Sevai and vegetable Upma) was excellent. The tiffin (Badam halwa, Idli, Pongal, Vadai, Chutney and Sambar) next morning was again good. Ice-cream was (unnecessarily) served with all meals including breakfast. Neha was very cute and wanted to know when was her marriage. Overall, The wedding was grand.

Santhanam and family left for Arunachal Pradesh on the evening of Shoba's wedding. I left on 7th and Harish on 8th. We had an IRAS Retreat in Goa for three days. I went to and returned from Goa via Bangalore. I spent 1 hour with Aarthi while going and more than two hours while returning. The Retreat was a good idea with about 35 officers at all levels participating in the presentations and discussions.Our stay and food were also excellent. Since we were free in the afternoons, I visited all the beaches and temples for the second time in my life. Goa is really a nice place.

When Harish and Hema were here, we went to 'Signs', Manoj Shyamalan's latest film. He has a knack for suspense and music like Hitchcock. But this film was difficult to understand in the end. I felt 'The sixth sense' was better.

I was to go from Goa to Mumbai for arbitration meetings for three days. But one of them got postponed. So I came back again via Bangalore. I was glad I came back to Chennai. Otherwise I'd have missed the excellent and moving programme by handicapped children for the Annual Day function of 'Karuna', the school for the handicapped children of Railway employees. At the end of the programme, one could see tears in every eyes. When you see such children, you wonder what is the design of God, why should some suffer more than others. We normal people get challenges once a while and get flustered , while for them (and their parents) everyday is a challenge.

Two important pieces of news for the month for us were that we have started getting vegetables from our garden and that we have, thanks to KVIC, arranged a bee-box in our garden. It will help in pollination and we may also get some honey in April/May. It does not need any maintenance. One has to give some sugar solution for the first four days till the bees start honey-collection in full swing. ( Harish wanted to take leave of Gopal on Saturday as Gopal normally does not come on Sundays. He told Harish that he would be coming on Sunday as he had to give 'theeni to theni'. We all had a good laugh.)

As Anand felt odd in visiting every relative for a meal (they only went to Kannan's (T.Nagar) house as it was fixed well in advance), it was decided to host a common lunch by all Pushpa's siblings to Shoba & Anand and Pushpa & Parthasarathy. The venue was Hotel Mathura in Tarapore Towers, Mount Road. It is a nice place which we have gone earlier also. All brothers and sisters of Amritha (and their spouses and children and Neha) who are in Tamil Nadu came, except Radhika who had her exams next day. There were 21 in all (17 hosts and 4 guests) including Neha. It was a nice and cosy get-together.

For a change India snatched victory from the jaws of defeat against SA. Most of the ICC Trophy matches among the senior 9 countries were good. India-Sri Lanka Final was what ICC wanted and got it without any fixing. It is a pity the final got washed out on Sunday. Aravinda got another chance to do well in his last match at home. He is out for 27. Maybe he may do better with the ball. (This Newsletter has been posted at 16.30 hours IST on 30th September, as the match is going on.) The US Open final between Sampras and Agassi must have been a dream come true for the organisers. I missed it since the sports channels were not coming in Goa. Davis Cup matches between India and Australia were one-sided as expected, but was not a total rout. I shall write about the Asian Games next month.

Otherwise life is quiet, but busy. Our routine of getting up at 5.15 AM and going to sleep by about 10.30 PM continues. We got the net for the shuttle fixed and play every evening for about half-an-hour. We continue to read a lot of Tamil and English magazines and watch sports, music and quiz programmes on TV.

anbudan,


30th September2002