It is difficult to believe that three years have passed since the tragic death of Deepu and Sriram. Santhanam's first article to this Newsletter is a moving piece on his memories of Deepu and Sriram. Mukund's story has concluded in a very interesting way. I was disappointed that only Prasad and Mukund used the MESSAGE BOARD. Hope others will also use it. Sudarshan's contributions this month are substantial. So I have a separate section for him, which has an article, riddles and the usual selection of jokes, quotations and quiz. It goes without saying that Amritha's musings and Prasad's article are there. My special thanks to Mukund and Prasad, who contributed despite the pressure of time on them. All the other usual features, Crossword, Cryptogram, Brain Teasers, Interesting bits from the Net 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
	This is the photo of Chakravarthy Iyengar, my paternal grandfather. He was the patriarch of the family and was an interesting person. He learnt English after 65 and read Hindu regularly till his death in 1966 at the age of 80.
The second photo is of Hema at the age of 8 or so.

MY DIARY FOR OCTOBER 2002

Another busy month. I spent more than 200 hours in October in front of the computer (you may ask what's new). It was more than double my normal quota. The reason was my own bravado. A few months back, the top man in IRAS (Mr. Murali) asked me to recommend a few good Vaishnava sites as he knows that I surf quite a bit. In a fit of bravado, I told him that instead of a list of sites, I'd give him a CD with a lot of info on Vaishnavism. I had forgotten this conversation when he asked me in September about it. I promised that it would be ready before his retirement(which is on 31st October). In September, I also told my sister-in-law (Mrs. Rajeevi Narasimhan) that I'd collect info on 108 Vaishnava Divya Desams. So I started learning about Divya Desams, which led to Azhwars and other aspects of Vaishnavism. I was lucky that one of my colleague's husband makes interactive multimedia CDs for TTD Devasthanam and I had bought two CDs on Tiruppavai and Suprabhatham in June. In October, he also made one on Vishnu Sahasranamam. I was able to put everything together and the final output is top-class (even if I am saying it). It has 550 MB data. I have uploaded the non-multimedia pages (about 10 MB with about 120 html/Javascript files and nearly 190 images) in a new site. Please visit this site and give your feedback. The address is http:\\www.oocities.org\knowvaishnavam. I found the experience very uplifting and have got interested in Tamil writings of Azhwars.

Urmila's husband Ravi skidded while travelling in a two wheeler on 12th night. He has been immediately operated upon at Kaliappa hospital as the optic nerve was affected. The operation is over successfully. Let us pray for his speedy recovery.

Jaya Akka's potassium and urea levels went up to 5.8 and 89 which are near-panic levels, as the acceptable limits are 3.5 and 20 respectively. She was immediately put on a saltless, fruitless(?) and many-vegetable-less diet, as well as increased medication. The blood test taken on 29th shows a better result at 5.2 and 62. We hope it comes to acceptable levels

A major news for the month was (no, not that monsoon has hit us or that Tamil Nadu finally got some Kaveri water or Rajinikant's fast, even though they are all NEWS) on Shoba - her clearing MCA and of course her departure to US. Our congrats to her. She and Anand visited all relatives on 2nd October. Amritha and Hema met her before her departure to US. Shoba was supposed to have written a letter to all relatives after she reached the US, but we did not get any letter. Maybe she sent it to the wrong e-mail address.

On 1st, Amritha and I saw 'Run', the only Tamil film that was a hit in the recent past. The film, which had Madhavan and a new heroine called Meera Jasmine, was good though the end was very filmy. Move over Jyothika and take over Meera. That seemed to be the reaction of the audience to her with a lot of clapping and whistling when she appeared.

It was a pity that the Champions Trophy finals got washed out twice. The second time they should have played it as a day match, in which case we would have got a result. Srinath was brought unnecessarily and showed the selectors in a poor light.

The month saw a number of VIPs to ICF, including the Chairman Railway Board and my top boss (Mr. Murali). When the CRB came, there was a splendid Bharathanatyam performance by a railway employee.

On 31st morning, I left for Delhi for a meeting and farewell dinner for two top officers of IRAS. I was in Mumbai on the morning of 1st November.

Though a lot happened in the month, I shall remember October 2002 for the Vaishnava CD and the web site that I made.



anbudan,


30th October2002