Perceptions by Gokul Rajagopal

Hello Readers! I extend my warm greeting to every one of you. After a short lull, I am delighted to connect with you all through this Blog - The Shola Bungalow . If you haven't gone through the other blogs of mine, you can swiftly have a glance by clicking the link . "Covid" "Corona" "Sanitizer" "Pandemic" "Quarantine" "New Normal" "Social Distancing"

Every life, born in this Motherland fulfills some cycle knowingly or unknowingly. Let me dig out some of your schooling memories. Everyone of us would have come across Ecosystems and bio-diversity in our syllabus. If you observe keenly, every action happens unknowingly, but for a reason. Image Source: Freepik Similarly, in our day to day life we do many things and activities unknowingly. Those activities benefited few living beings. Imagine the benefits that you have contributed unknowingly for so long years. Kudos to everyone. Tap on your back and be proud of yourself. * What if you get a chance to help someone or fulfill some cycle knowingly? * What if you get a chance to bring a tremendous change in the life of a person? Image Source: Freepik Sounds interesting right. Let me share you one such interesting activity. By any chance if you feel interesting or you feel like being part of this good cause, then click on the below link and register yourself. Yesabled...

Bonjour Quarantine , Boredom & Corona - These are the most hatred word among plenty of us in the recent days. This Quarantine changed the mindset of every common person from  " I want leave !" " I badly need a break !" " I should enjoy my holiday " to " Allow me to do my work from my office " " Reopen schools & colleges shortly " " I want to go out " " I want to eat outside " and lots more. To that extend, Quarantine has created boredom in everyone's day to day life. To kill this boredom, people do plenty of things and try to keep them engaged. This article picks the Top 5 activities that most Indians did during the months of April & May (the Covid-19 quarantine period) . This article also speaks about the Top issues during Quarantine with a note that every coin has two sides. (The article is not intended to promote anything, any product or service or mislead anyone or comment on anyone...

"Ravi de partager avec vous cet article sur la ville de l'aube" Yes, many of you rightly guessed it. Pat on your back and join me to explore the elegant City of Dawn (The Auroville). The Globe - Auroville (The Matri Mandir - click here to view my other articles ) History Mirra Alfassa was a spiritual collaborator of Sri Aurobindo and co-founder of "Sri Aurobindo Ashram - Pondicherry". She reached India in 1920 and settled in Pondicherry. Mirra Alfassa became a Yogi in the late 1950s. She was constantly having a dream, about a place on earth where no body or no nation could claim it as its sole property. She wanted it for every human and humanity with no distinction. Mirra became Mother for all her followers. She was 90 years old when she started building a Universal Town (Auroville) near Viluppuram district - Tamilnadu. Architect Roger Anger gave life to Mother's dream of building a town for atleast 50000 people. The city was inaugurated and name...

Bonjour In 1870s, Bankim Chandra Chattopadhyay had written a poem for his novel Anandamath . The Novel was published during 1882. It was one of the leading selling Novel during that period in Bengal state. The poem was completely a religious based song that was penned to praise Mother Durga and it had more than 10 verses (stanza). " Vande Mataram " means " I Bow to Thee Mother " In 1896, Rabindra Nath Tagore used the first two verses of that poem in the Bengal Independent movement rally. He was treating the Mother Nation as equal to a Goddess. Thus the meaning of " Vande Mataram " was understood as "I Bow to Thee Motherland" instead of "I Bow to Thee Mother". " Vande Mataram " soon gained an identity among all freedom movements that was taking place in India during that time. It became an important lynchpin in the history of Indian freedom struggle. Most regional language poet's started to translate Vande Mat...

Sila Manidargal - A blog to recognize, identify some of the great legends who remarkably changed the society. "Agriculture and Industry should be complemented to each other and it should be aligned to unrivaled Indian culture" Today in Sila Manidargal, we will see about Dr.Tiruppur Subrahmanya Avinashilingam Chettiar. He was a Lawyer by Profession and later, he joined the Independence Movement. He was a strong follower of Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi. He served as the Education Minister of TamilNadu during 1946 - 1949. During his reign, he brought in many reforms and responsible for the below notable achievements: • He was the reformer who introduced Tamil as the medium of instruction in schools • He was the legend who created encyclopedia for kids in Tamil • He was the one who nationalized Bharathiyar Poems • He was the person who mandatorily included the Thirukkural in Primary and Secondary school syllabus Avinashilingam also established few institutions to serve th...

Sila Manidargal - A blog to recognize, identify some of the great legends who remarkably changed the society. Today in Sila Manidargal, we will see about Mr. Khan Sahib who was a brave and a ferocious warrior . He was born in Panaiyur in a Hindu family. He married a Christian girl and followed Islam. Due to caste based murders in his local area, he escaped to Pondicherry. Later he moved to Tanjore and joined British forces as " Sepoy " (In earlier days, Sepoy was considered as least military force) He swiftly learnt different languages, and military defense. Due to his ability and military intelligence, he was promoted as Commandant of East India Company's Sepoys. He was asked to move to Nellore and work under Mohammed Kamal. A few days later he was asked to work for Chanda Sahib as TAX Collector. In 1750s, Chanda Sahib was the ruler of Madurai and Khan Sahib was appointed as one of the TAX collector of Madurai and Tirunelveli. Khan Sahib and Chanda Sahib both t...

Hello Readers! Vanakkam. Nice to meet you all again, through my blog Perceptions . Through this blog, I share some insights and experiences about Travel, venues and Reviews about services. Today I am planning to share yet another Travel Diary. I hope you will enjoy it. To quickly see my other articles, click here . I'm delighted to share this article regarding my visit to Dzogchen Monastery (One of the active Tibetian settlements in India). I was fortunate enough to visit this place on the birthday of Siddhartha Gautama Buddha (8th April). Buddhist Monastery Dzochen Monastery One day, when I was hunting for a new place to visit, I came across the Dzogchen Monastery. The location seemed to be perfect for a one-day trip. I started to surf and gather more information regarding the venue. All these days, I had a thinking that only Northern part of the Nation had Buddhist Monastery. But, I was surprised to find one next to my place. Some of the famous Monasteries in Southern part: Namd...

Sila Manidargal - A blog to recognize, identify some of the great legends who remarkably changed the society. Today in Sila Manidargal, we will see about the person who coined the word "Jai Hind". This South Indian commanded Hitler to ask apology. Who is he? Yes, your guessing is right. It's Mr. Chempakaraman Pillai . His family was of Tamil origin and moved and settled in Thiruvananthapuram. A Botanist from Europe visited India and he got impressed by Chempakaraman's intelligence. He took Chempakaraman along with him to Europe. Later Chempakaraman started the International Pro-India Committee later merged with the Indian Independence Committee in Berlin. His intelligence, brilliant organizational abilities, and courage helped him get appreciation from the German Kaiser. He became the operations head of the German Navy in Indian Ocean. During this period, he destroyed the English war-vessels. For 20 years, he worked for Nazi against British as part of Indian Independ...

Sila Manidargal - A blog to recognize, identify some of the great legends who remarkably changed the society. Today in Sila Manidargal, we will see about Dr. Lakshmi Swaminathan (Capt. Lakshmi Sahgal) who was a doctor by profession. She completed her MBBS degree and MD in Gynaecology and obstetrics. She started her career in Chennai Kasturba Hospital. In 1940, she left Singapore and started to help for Tamil people in Singapore. In 1942, Subash Chandra Bose started Indian National Army in Singapore and his plan was to March India from Singapore via Burma. As per Subash Chandra Bose request, Lakshmi joined and formed INA Women wing (Rani of Jhansi regiment). Women responded enthusiastically to join the all-women brigade and Dr. Lakshmi Swaminathan became Captain Lakshmi. At Burma border, British arrested Captain Lakshmi and she was in jail for a year. In 1946, she was released and she reached Delhi. That was the period where British decided to end Colonial rule in India. ...

Sila Manidargal - A blog to recognize, identify some of the great legends who remarkably changed the society. Today in Sila Manidargal, we will see about " Mr. V. Thirunyanasambanthan" who is a Malaysian Tamil Politician and one of the Founding Fathers of Malaysia along with Tunku Abdul Rahman and Tan Cheng Lock. In 1957, Malaysia attained its Independence from British Empire. Like Mr.Gandhi in India, Sambanthan was a signatory of the Agreement for Malaysia.  Before Malaysian Independence, he fought for the workers' rights which made him more popular among Malaysian Estates. After Independence, he was elected as a Labour and Health Minister. After crowing, Sambanthan started more recruitment campaigns among plantation workers. He promoted Education, Health Plans and Social Security to all Malaysian resident Indian origin people.  British people started to sell the Estates they had after Independence and he made all Plantation working people as partners to buy th...

Sila Manidargal - A blog to recognize, identify some of the great legends who remarkably changed the society. Today in Sila Manidargal, we will see about Theagaraya Chetty , whose name was given to Chennai's first Planned Town - T.Nagar (today T.Nagar is the Chennai's Shopping paradise and one of the busiest commercial street in TamilNadu) Theagaraya Chetty - Lawyer by Profession and turned into a politician. He was a freedom fighter and worked in various sectors in Madras Presidency. Under the British rule, Brahmins were dominating and it was the time untouchability and racism were common and popular in office premises too. Brahmins used to corner the non-Brahmins even though they are well educated. Non-Brahmins were not allowed to work in offices and they were not allowed to fight for their rights. The Madras Dravidian Association was formed against this. Initially, Theagaraya Chetty joined and worked for non-Brahmin Movement. Later, along with TM.Nair and Natesa Mud...

Corona  - This word is ruling the entire world now. " Your 5 Minutes please " post is not related to Corona but the way to spend your valuable time worthy during the Quarantine days. I have consolidated few interesting and useful websites, YouTube channels and pages. This is completely to share the knowledge and not promotional purpose. These sites will help you to spend some time usefully. Feel free to comment the best sites, channels that you have come across. Interesting Facts across the World • 50 Interesting World Facts • 1000 Random & Interesting Facts • Facts about Indian Railways • Incredible India • The Maharajas Express •  Traditional Games of TamilNadu Tamil - The language, people and the place always holds some special things in it. We had a lot of indoor & outdoor games. But due to the advancement in technologies and current lifestyle we have forgot few things. This website is providing information on things that we forgot. Video Channels • TE...

Nice to meet you all again through my blog ( Perceptions ). This article is about one of my short Evening visit to the Light of Truth Universal Shrine (LOTUS) Temple   which is located at Chettipalayam , Coimbatore. It is a unique temple in the Kongu region dedicated to the Light of all faiths and world peace. LOTUS is always one of the special Flower. LOTUS is considered as flower of Purity. It represents the purity of Heart and Mind, Long Life, Health and good Fortune. This could be a reason for the structure of the temple. This is the birthplace of Sri Swami Satchidananda, who preached that “ Truth Is One; Paths Are Many ”. As he realized, there is no deity in this temple instead there are 12 light rays representing 12 major religions across the world.

பயணம் - ஒவ்வொரு மனிதனுக்கும் பிடித்த ஒரு செயல். சாலை வழி பயணம் / சுற்றுலா செல்பவர்களின் எண்ணிக்கை ஏராளம். நம் அன்றாட வாழ்வில் இருந்து ஒரு இடைவேளை எடுத்து இவ்வாறு செல்லும் பயணம் மகிழ்ச்சியாக அமைய ஏராளமான திட்டமிடுகிறோம். இவ்வாறான பயணத்தில் ஒரு முக்கிய பங்கு வகிக்கிறது பொது போக்குவரத்து. சாதாரண உள்ளூர் பேருந்து தொடங்கி ஆடம்பரமான சொகுசு பேருந்துகள் வரை ஏதேனும் ஒன்றில் நாம் பயணிக்கிறோம். அவ்வாறான ஒரு பேருந்து பயணத்தை பற்றி தான் இப்பதிவு. கோவையில் இருந்து மூணார் செல்லும் புதிய அரசு பேருந்து அது. 7 மணி நேரப் பயணம். அனுபவம் மிகுந்த ஓட்டுநர் மற்றும் நடத்துநர். சுமார் நான்கைந்து வருடங்களாக இருவரும் ஒரே தடத்தில் பணி புரிகின்றனர். உடன் பிறந்த சகோதரர்களையும் மிஞ்சும் வகையில் ஒருவர் மீது ஒருவருக்கு பாசம். தாங்கள் இருவரும் மக்களுக்கு நேரடியாக தங்கள் சேவைகளை வழங்குவதாக எண்ணுகிறார்கள். இருவரும் தன் அலைபேசியை ஓட்டுநர் அருகில் உள்ள பெட்டியில் போட்டுக் கொள்கிறார்கள். பயணத்தின் போது அலைபேசியை பயன்படுத்துவதில்லை. பொது போக்குவரத்து என்பதை உணர்ந்து அவர்கள், பேருந்தில் குப்பைகள் இட வேண்டாம் என்று ...