It is Christmas time again at Varapuzha!

Yes, it is Christmas time again at Varapuzha. It is very visible. The houses are getting painted. The shops are decorated. The christmas stars are hung. Holidays are planned. Churches are decorated. Ready made christmas cribs are piled up infront of the shops. Cakes are getting ready. People are readying themselves for christmas celebrations. The child in me is awakened again. The aura of christmas is setting in…surely.

Yummy biriyani at Kayees !

Yummy Biriyani

 

Are you at Kochi?.  Want to have some really goof Biriyani?…. Then visit Kayees, opposite to Durbar hall ground. They serve very good biriyani and another advantage is the amble parking area !

Just Varapuzha :) :) :) :)

Five star hair cutting @ Varapuzha

An aerial view of Varapuzha

Broadband @Varapuzha!

I am typing this, sitting at my home and using the broadband which cruises at 2Mbps  maximum speed.  It is really nice. No wonder our former president  Dr.Abdul Kalam  highlighted connectivity  as the key for developing our villages. Now sitting here, I can conduct a video chat with anyone from any place of the world. The possibilities are unlimited.

I still remember the day electricity came to this village. Then came the TV and now the broadband. I am loosing my village – it is becoming a town. Next time you want to chat with me, catch on on gtalk or skype

Bangalore, Varapuzha and America

I love Bangalore and Varapuzha. Bangalore is where I was born. I did my college there and worked there for around eight years.  Varapuzha is the place where I spent my schooling days. I am nostalgic about these places and at the same time these two places are in total contrast to each other. One striking contrast is – In Bangalore people love fun, and you can see lot of fun and laughter around you, where as @ Varapuzha all you see is grim faces, or people who smile at you to get something from you. As per the conventional thinking, people say that in cities people are very self centric. From my experience it is totally different. At Varapuzha, people are more self centric than Bangalore. People are very narrow minded, and behave more like frogs in a well.

I see lack of role models as one of the major causes for this kind of behavior. In cities, youngsters are very ambitious and for them there is no dearth of role models. In the villages of Kerala, you have only one Mohanlal and Mammootty, and most of their movies are filled with violence. There are lot of achievers in these villages, but they dont get the visibility, these negative heroes enjoy.

Recently, my brother in law Mr.Paul, who is settled in the US for more than three decades was sharing his experience in Kerala with me. Paul, called his uncle over the phone just say ‘Hello’ to him and to just talk to him for a while. He greeted his uncle, and chatted with him for some time. Then he said bye. At that point his uncle asked him ‘Now come to the point, why did you call me?’.  Normally people call him, only when they need something from him. Here is an American settled Indian, just calling his uncle out of love and care, which his uncle is not used to, as per the culture here.

May be, for a change, let us smile more…. it will definitely look better than the grim faces…

Be happy, not sad

Today I went to the Muttinakam Church for the morning mass. It is a beautiful church now. The curch got re-constructed under the leadership of Father Dominic. There is enough reason for everyone to be happy. To my surprise, during the mass, I found everyone very serious and throughout the mass the message was revolving around ‘ I am a sinner, please forgive me…’.  Is there a better way to start the day. Jesus christ has taught us to be optimistic and joyful all the time. He said, If I am with you, everything is possible for you. Rejoice…..

Let us be glad and celebrating all our lives  for having a savior like him….

Great day…

A BIG thanks to the Kerala Police

Like any other organization, there can be good and bad people within the Kerala Police also, and very often only the bad stuff gets highlighted. I am sure that every day they are doing thousands of good deeds, which never gets highlighted, where as most of the bad ones gets a front page coverage in news papers.

Again coming back to Malayala manorama dated 21/Apr/2007, the front page caption is Abhishek Bachan’s wedding with Aishwarya Rai.. and the next column is the suicide attempt by Abhishek’s old flame. I am sorry to see Manorama scooping to this level, to increase their circulation.

I think Iam deviating from the main topic. The good deeds by the Kerala Police. Yesterday I was driving down to Kochi from Coimbatore and it was raining heavily. One the way, there was a road block becuase a trailer lorry met with an accident and blocked the whole road. It was pouring heavily, and a young team of Kerala police swung into action, when all of us were just taking shelter from the heavy rains in our vehicles. Within one hour the entire road block was cleared by these smart young guys from the Kerala Police. Thanks a ton to them, for their brilliant work, to serve the public.

Here is a caption written on the plice jeep ‘POLITE and FIRM’

Keep up the good work, dear friends!

Vacancy at a leading software company at Bangalore

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Maria – Through the eyes of snowwhite

I am snowwhite, the pussy cat, who is born and brought up at Varapuzha. I had a beautiful childhood at varapuzha, and lives in the green orchards of Pudusserry family. Me, My Parents and Maria were my world till I grew up. Maria is love and empathy personified. Her family comprises of her husband who is bed ridden, her elder son and his wife, and her younger son, who is mentally challenged. Maria earns her livelihood, by doing the household jobs of the rich in the village. There is no word ‘tiredness’ in her dictionary. She starts her day at 5.am and goes on working  till late evening. All those corporate women, who aomplains about fatigue can take a lesson or two from Maria. She is living for her family. Whatever she gets, she uses it for the welfare of her family. She lives in a hut. And now her dream is to build a one room house for her family,  which has proper walls and a roof.  Maria has not gone to any management school, yet she understands the power of ‘FOCUS’. These days, whatever money she earns is for her dream house. Maria never compains about any one or anything. She never pledges her self esteem by begging for money, despite the hardships and at the same time, she has the open heartedness to accept all the donations to build her dream house.

Whenever Maria eats, she ensures that she shares some food with me. Maria can humble all those loud mouths who gives long lectures on animal love. Maria is driven by action…..

to be continued…..

(Snowwhite is a cat and Maria a human being, both living at Varapuzha in harmony) 

Wish you all a very happy Vishu !

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vishu

Take this opportunity to wish all, a very happy, prosperous and peaceful Vishu.

Details about Puthenpally Church

Name of the Church : St George Church, Puthenpally

Parish priest : Fr. Kuriakkose Cheruvallil

Phone : 0484 2512227

Our dear post man

I know him for the past 25 years, yet I dont know his name. He is a very honest and committed person. He does his job with utmost commitment. I consider him as a perfect gentle man and have tons of respect and affection for him. He is about to retire after 35 years of selfless service. Wish him peace and happiness in the years to come. See the photos….  Have a great day !

Ithra cheruthakan ethra valarenam

How much one should grow to be little?

This was the theme shared during the Dec 31st midnight mass at Koonammavu church (monastry).  Definitely it has lots of meaning. When all of us are always trying to become somebody, here the call is to become nobody by serving others. Most of the great people around us followed this – Gandhi, Mother Teresa – some of the big names and I am sure that there are many lesser known ones. I think this is the essence of life itself. Becoming nobody by serving others. Only then life has some meaning. It can be by work itself, by helping others to smile….by helping them improve their lives a little.

One of the most horrrible scenes I have ever seen !

While posting this, the TV is broadcasting the scenes of Saddam’s death. This was most cruel. May his soul rest in peace, and let all Iraqi’s unite to throw the cilprits out.

Remembering Father Simon

Remembering Father Simon  – Recently I was reading the ‘puthary’ souvenier of Muttinakam church. I must say a transformed muttinakam. Thirty years back, Muttikam was a very backward village with absolute poverty. Distilling illicit liquor ‘kotodi’, was the main business. Even police and excise was scared to go there, as there were instances were they were attacked by the villagers. No vehicle could reach Muttinakam, as there was no proper road, and whatever roads were there, were intercepted by small streams (‘thodu’). It was a self contained, closed community lived in poverty. To this place, Father Simon enters, and it was his first appointment. I have faint memories of him, as a pleasant, loving father, who was at the service of all in need, including my Grandfather, who was bedridden at that time. So Father Simon use to visit our house very frequently, and I was just 7 years old at that time. Even now, the glowing face of Father Simon is very clear to me. He was very special. The first thing, father did was to start a school there. He was a visionary enough to understand that lack of education as the root cause for all the problems of the place. And he was very correct. It might have taken 30 years to transform the place and it is real. Now the transformed Muttinakam is a nest housing colony kind of; full of modern houses, a new Catholic Church. The number of high end model, expensive cars plying on the well laid streets of the new Muttinakam is itself proof to the reform that happened there. When most of the other priests served there could speak only of stuff like painting the church, starting a prayer group blah blah….Father Simon stands tall – Very tall. From the magazine I understand that he is terribly sick due to kidney failure, and is spending his old age with his brother at Ernakulam. Thank you dear father, for triggering this transformation.

A holiday in solitude with the trees and plants @ Varapuzha

I am on a vacation at varapuzha, away from the busy schedules. This time I decided on a very silent vacation, doing things which normally I dont do. That means, not doing the stuff, which I normally do. It is a very slow vacation with an even slower life. I think, life need not be very fast. Ultimately what is the purpose of life?.

The ground water levels at Varapuzha is receding and in December itself, the water levels in the wells and ponds are pathetic. Thanks to the sand mafia, who dug the heart of Periyar river. When the depth of the river increases, the water levels of the banks recedes. Now we are are thinking of digging a bore well. That will be the first dagger on the flora here. people are just waiting to emulate. One bore well means another 100 bore wells, which will eventually deplete the water levels further. That is future. Let us not worry about it too much.

Have you ever experienced a very slow life of late?. When was that?. It is not a bad idea to take a break and be with the plants and trees, watering them, talking to them……and even praying for their wellbeing !. I think that is real prayer, and we are created for creation by the creator !

travels

Rosary Queen  Phone : 0484 2513365, 9847470828

taxis, luxury tourist mini buses

Better look and feel for Varapuzha.com

Last week I met Jose Ullattikkulam by chance and he was in all praises for the varapuzha.com initiative. That was the first time, when someone from varapuzha spotted varapuzha.com and reverted back. That was a really motivating moment. With the wordpress format I believe that this blog can add more value and at the same time dont want to loose all the collections made ober the years. So the current blog and it’s contents are maintained as a link on the right side of this blog. Trust that this new format will help us to interact better.