how effective is our brahmin association

[ganesh27]

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Let us put all negative arguments behind us and start planning for making our society much stronger in terms of recognition and muscle power. In fact Brahmins today control the Corporate private sector and money is not a problem. It is how we make use of our strength. we are like Maruthi(Hanuman) and do not really know our strength. We need some good volunteers from our society to work for welfafe of poor people in our society with dediction and hardwork. We can make a complete database of Brahimns and support poor groups within our society. Help fresh graduates to get jobs and settle in their life and so maintain data bank (online) for sharing the horoscope etc.,
If we all think and work with single mind then achieving above is possible.

 

[RVR]

There is no two opinion that there should be unity among our community. Even now we have unity but it is not reflected. Every one of us are interested in the development of the community particularly the poor and downtrodden .

We have nothing against `Tambrass'. There is a website under the url Welcome To KeralaIyers.com | KeralaIyers.com under which tamil speaking brahmin community in kerala are united. There is substantial portion of tamil speaking brahmins in Mysore/Mandya belt of Karnataka. Our people are there in other big cities in India as well abroad . An umbrella organisation uniting all these people is the need of the hour.

I am listing below some of the main objectives and request the members to add/delete/modify as may required. I request the tamilbrahmins.com website authorities to permit us to discuss, deliberate, resolve matters pertaining to our community.

1. Educational Development -
i. Running schools on self financing basis without profit motive. Probably we can offer free/subsidised education to our community to certain extent.
ii. For college education within India, loans are available up to a maximum of Rs.4 lakhs per individual without any collateral security. Government of India has also announced interest subsidy in the last budget for educational loans. We can guide the prospective students to avail such facilities.
iii. Career Guidance - Through our forum, we can suggest/advice students for career growth.

2. Health
We can run a group medical insurance scheme probably with an arrangement with an internationally reputed Insurance Company. Once we combine as a group, we can negotiate premium reductions as well as enhanced benefits.

Sundaram Medical Foundation (managed by TVS group) in Chennai is doing a wonderful service for the entire community. All the fixed assets are funded by TVS group companies
through donations. Entire revenue expenditure is collected from patients and they don't expect profit from revenue collections. Since some of the family members who are qualified medical professionals occupy the Board of trustees, all the procedures are subject to audit so that no unnecessary procedures are prescribed from patients. All the medical professionals employed are of very high calibre. It is a value for money proposition for the patients. They get best medicare at nominal cost.

Sankara Nethralaya is another example for quality service at reasonable cost.

Probably we can combine insurance coverage and well run hospitals so that our community people are benefited at the critical need of the hour.

3. We can use the services of our Senior Citizens who are unable to stay with their families in the adminstration of schools. Probably we can avoid `Old Age Homes' in the process.

Creating an umbrella organisation is our first goal. I am sure well to do people of our community will contribute liberally to the cause.

Let us unite and prosper. Let us not get into politics and we will leave that to the choice of individual members.

Probably we can add few more services connected with our rituals, astrology,matrimonial etc as an add on service.

I request our honourable members to react to my thought

 

[natkaushik]

Dear TamBrahmites!!
It warms by heart to see that the youths of Tamil Brahmins have felt the need for an organisation as an outlet for their ideals, hopes and frustrations.I was in a similiar situation once , when the TAMRAS was born. Today I find it a poor cousin of the "Annachis" of other political parties.Will TamilBrahmins.com be any different say in five ten or twenty years? It will be, provided it does not degenerate to a forum to air grievances,but an active vehicle for achievements.There have been many such organisations both in India( Satyanarayana sect,Marwari associations etc) and in western countries ( the free masons, Zionists,templers Boy scouts) who are known for what they have done rather than what they have professed.
One good deed is worth more than hundred pious utterings.Make a plan of action for the next 5 years and start doing something.
All the best!!!

 

[kunjuppu]

ganesh, nat,

may i please caution you folks, re expectations and hopes re building big organizations devoted to the cause of tamil brahmins.

these issues and dreams have been discussed before. and were left exactly that. discussions.

i think, as a community, in tamil nadu, we do not feel the need for community based/funded educational and medical facilities. had the need been strong, i am quite sure, we would have acted upon it.

ganesh, i don't think, it is right to say, that we 'dominate the corporate private sector'. we have a budding entrepreneurial community within us, but to call us 'dominating' only sound jingoistic and possible bring unwanted attention.

if at all anything, i would say, marwaris, jains and gujjus, have a more disproportionate ownership of indian/tamil private sector.

we have made accommodating clerks and perhaps now, mid level management mostly. we have a long way to go.

we might find satisfaction in the fact that the vast majority of us are considered middle class. it is not the need of the middle class to seek out subisidized education. they can stand, i think, on their own two feet.

way back in the 1950s, when on the onset of industrialization of the north, the TBs moved out in droves to those industrial township like
Dhanbad, Jamshedpur, Bhilai etc. here they established active tamil sanghams, because they felt they were strangers.

with the new generations, i do not know how active they are, or to what purpose. TB are now third or fourth generation, brought up in the north. even the delhi madrassi school is now part of the delhi corporation schools.

what i am trying to say, is that we need to be very specific about what we want.

i used to think that the primary need was for funding education. now i am not so sure.

i sure think, that there is a need for funding the medical expenses of the elderly indigent. we might want to start here.

thank you.

 

[natkaushik]

Hellow Tambrahms!,

Shall we organise an informal meeting of Members in chennai? The agenda can be what do we do in days to come?.could include family also.

 

[vikrama]

My experience with TB associations has taught me this. When two TBs, A&B meet, there will be three opinions.
1 A's own
2 B's own
3 Consensus
Pity is that 1 and 2 are equally powerful as 3

 

[RVR]

[QUOTE=natkaushik;24427]Hellow Tambrahms!,

Shall we organise an informal meeting of Members in chennai? The agenda can be what do we do in days to come?.could include family also.[/QUOTE]


Yes we can meet and discuss at Chennai. But before that we have to be clear about our objectives. It neednot be another parellal organisation for Tambrass. It need not be to discuss politics. Let us be much more clear as to what we are planning to discuss in the meeting.

I suggested certain objectives earlier. It is purely for charitable in nature to support poor and needy among our community. Is it acceptable?

 

[ganesh27]

Hello

When I mentioned " We dominate Private Sector", I really meant the key positions and top management, senior level and middle levels are with us in comparision with any other community. I am chartered accountant working in senior position in UAE and could see most of our community people have relatively better off compared with others. In India also I have seen the current younger generation is very smart and doing well. However I see big gap between people in Metros and living in semi urban and rural areas within our society and those who have accomplished some good achievements should come forward to help the poorer ones by supporting their children education, providing way for getting decent jobs., etc. Definitely lot more to be done within us before expect outside help. First i feel there should be a DATABANK of Brahmins to be stored at one central place and there should be some volunteers to get the required information from each town and village. We should be able to fund for this project and there should be set of questionaires and we ask the volunteers to fill up and get the requirement from each section of our society. Then we can really assess what we need to do for our Society. I am sure there are lot good hearts in our society to help and participate. WHO WILL LEAD THIS PROJECT?
Thank you
ganesh

 

[RVR]

Good suggestion Sri Ganesh27 Ji.

1. If possible please design the questioner and put it in this forum so that we can finalise it.

2. Collection of data has to be done through friends and relatives of our community. I shall collect data from my native village and no expense is required for that. I request our fellow members to do the same thing so that we can collect information to the maximum possible extent.

3. I shall request my second son working in software field to develop a software for processing the data and prepare reports in the required format. We can probably use free software available for this.

4. Once the information is available, we can start providing service to the best of our abilities combining again our members strength.

e.g. Few hours back, I saw a newsitem in our website that somebody requires Rs.40,000 for medical treatment. I offered to get the service in a hospital here at a much lower cost of Rs.4000 instead of Rs. 40,000. I am awaiting the reply.

Money alone is not the problem. our combined knowledge and strength can be used to get things done effectively and efficiently.

 

[gsarathy]

Religious practices...contd...GPS.
Again I feel people are venting their feeling of disunity and noncoperation among bramins.
I once again appeal to restrict to training people for religious works for communit.
When trained educated people enter the profession grihastas feel protected.
how to go about it?
GPS

 

[natkaushik]

[QUOTE=natkaushik;24427]Hellow Tambrahms!,

Shall we organise an informal meeting of Members in chennai? The agenda can be what do we do in days to come?.could include family also.

Yes we can meet and discuss at Chennai. But before that we have to be clear about our objectives. It neednot be another parellal organisation for Tambrass. It need not be to discuss politics. Let us be much more clear as to what we are planning to discuss in the meeting.

I suggested certain objectives earlier. It is purely for charitable in nature to support poor and needy among our community. Is it acceptable?[/QUOTE]
I think that the main agenda will be enlisting all the Tanbrahms in our group. The members coming up with an agenda dearest to his heart for adoption should also come upwith the 'modus operandi' , form a group and take the lead to implement it.Take a leaf out of The "Lion's club projects.

As one wag put it, the best way to get rid of a problem is to make it a part of a bigger one.Let us not do it. Our main problem is uniting the tambrahms. Charity, creation of a brainstrust, schools, oldage homes will follow, the sky is the limit for the achivements.

 

[gsarathy]

organise...

We are already a powerful organised group.
pl post all Qs thro net and let us all take active part in this forum.
we are famous for unnecessary talks and net will prevent such things.
see KIT Kerala iyer trust..a very powerful service organisation ....formred thro net.
Pl come out with objectives point by point.
GPS

 

[ganesh27]

Dear Venkatramani Ji,
Please find below my workings on the set of questionaire and this could be discussed in this forum to refine it and then take it forward

I HAVE ATTACHED THE FORMAT, SINCE THE PREVIOUS MESSAGE is not in good format to read.

 

[vikrama]

என்னுடைய சில யோசனைகள்.
1வைதீக கார்யங்களுக்காக ஸாஸ்திரிகளைப் பயிற்றுவிப்பது போல சமூக சேவைக்காகப் பயிற்றுவிக்கப்பட்ட இளைஞர்கள் பட்டாளத்தை உருவாக்க வேண்டும்.
2 சேவை செய்வோர் பிராமணர்களாக இருக்கவேண்டும். பயன் பெறுவோர் எந்த ஜாதியாக வேண்டுமானாலும் இருக்கலாம்.
3 பெரு நகரங்களை விட அதிகமாக, மிகச் சிறிய நகரங்களிலும் கிராமங்களிலும் சேவை மையங்கள் திறக்கப்பட வேண்டும். நமது கலாசாரம் கிராமியக் கலாசாரமானதால் அது அழிந்து போகாமல் காப்பாற்ற வேண்டும். பிழைப்பு தேடியோ, கல்வி முதலான வசதிகளையோ தேடியோ பெரு நகரங்களில் குடியேறுவதைத் தவிர்க்கும் வகையில் அவர்கள் இருப்பிடத்திற்கே அந்த வசதிகள் கொண்டு சேர்க்கப்பட வேண்டும்.
4 கல்வி, மருத்துவம், பேரிடர்க் கால உதவி, உடலாலும் மனத்தாலும் ஊனமுற்றோருக்கு உதவி, வேலைவாய்ப்பு ஆலோசனை, சுய தொழில் தொடங்க பயிற்சி இவை அந்த மையங்களின் பணியாக இருக்க வேண்டும்.
5 தவறிக்கூட சமயப் பிரசாரமோ சமயக் காழ்ப்புணர்ச்சியை வெளிப்படுத்துவதோ இருக்கக் கூடாது.

 

[RVR]

Dear Venkatramani Ji,

Please find below my workings on the set of questionaire and this could be discussed in this forum to refine it and then take it forward

I HAVE ATTACHED THE FORMAT, SINCE THE PREVIOUS MESSAGE is not in good format to read.

Thanks for your initiative Mr.Ganeshi ji. You are really fast and your effort has to be appreaciated. I request other members opinion if any modifications required. I shall work on creating the data base software.

 

[krsvlr]

if we start a new argument on who is a brahmin then I feel none of us fit the bill. hence the brahmin association is run by a set of so-called not-full-brahmins. We have to be brahmins in mind first. This sect had a population of wonderful brahmins once. The mass upanayanam is not wrong. But most of the beneficiaries (may not be all instances) are either for the economy component or over aged vadus who need the punal for a wedlock or such lowgika reasons.

I find that many retired people are contributing to this cause. May I expect that atleast this segment try to practise perfect brahminism and be fore-runners so that the followers learn from them.

 

[srinivasanb2001]

All communities now a days get things by show of strength and solidarity. The "vote bank" politics in our country is the cause. So it is high time ,the Brahamins who are regarded as intellectually superior, should come forward and unite as a community. We should avoid our boys/girls getting married out of caste. Dowry etc should be banned. Our Religious leaders should educate our community . All the religious heads, of say Sankara Mutts, Vaishnav mutts, Madhva mutts, etc.. should form a Global organisation for the uplift of the Brahmin community, eventhough they may keep their induvidual identities due to philosohical differences of opinions.

Brahmin Association is a first step in this direction, let us make it grow like a Banyan tree.

 

[ANANTH1412]

Honestly I think we are not penetrating to the remaining segment of the population. In order to be heard, we need to focus on charity/social services related activities for the remaining sections of the people may be in slums or remote villages. Once we start doing it, in my opinion, we will achieve fair amount of acceptability. But the biggest question is how many of us are interested in such activities?

 

[GopalaswamyShridharan]

The most effective a brahmana sangham to be successful is (1) provide education (2) provide employment.Automatically the third important (3) spirituality will beging to lead us.Thank you.

gopal.

 

[T.S.Sankara Narayanan]

Some months back I asked our beloved members to Sponser the education of my daughter S,Varalakshmi.She has passed Plus 2 and aimed of Engineering Education.
Firstly she aimed to become an Architect.For that I paid Rs3000/-for a pvt tution in a professors Office.She appeared NATA(National Appitude Test for Architecture)which has base at Delhi and the Test is an All India Test.She passed in her First attempt.I had traces of hope.Then I applied in Anna University.They called her for councilling on 25.7.09 at Chennai.Accordingly we went and attended.We were asked by the University authorities to go out of the auditoriam,as she is denied seat on the basis of Caste as usual.
Then I had no other option except to enter in a Engg College under Management Quota.We appealed in our Forum.Many people Guided but no one helped.
Kunjuppu ji gave me an idea to approch Kerala Iyer Trust.
I appealed in KIT.Smt Kalyani Srinivas sponsered me Rs 10000/-and Shri Prakash send me Rs 50000/- .
Out of the available cash Today I paid the relavent fees and admitted her in Sethu Institute of Technology,.
My self and my entire family is fully happy now...
KIT is functioning like PVT Banks...Very Fast..Very mugh Obliging...
Very very helpful to the Needy..
Our TB is like Nationalised Banks.We have to wait in a longest Q even for taking a DD.Worst and sluggish Service...
Our Tamil Brahmins has to learn a lot from KIT.
KIT is always Fantastic.They see only Brahmin or Not..
Long live their Unity...
Long Live their Glorious service to the Needy....

 

[kunjuppu]

sankar,

i am delighted for your daughter.

all the best wishes for a bright and prosperous future.

 

[RVR]

Some months back I asked our beloved members to Sponser the education of my daughter S,Varalakshmi.She has passed Plus 2 and aimed of Engineering Education.
Firstly she aimed to become an Architect.For that I paid Rs3000/-for a pvt tution in a professors Office.She appeared NATA(National Appitude Test for Architecture)which has base at Delhi and the Test is an All India Test.She passed in her First attempt.I had traces of hope.Then I applied in Anna University.They called her for councilling on 25.7.09 at Chennai.Accordingly we went and attended.We were asked by the University authorities to go out of the auditoriam,as she is denied seat on the basis of Caste as usual.
Then I had no other option except to enter in a Engg College under Management Quota.We appealed in our Forum.Many people Guided but no one helped.
Kunjuppu ji gave me an idea to approch Kerala Iyer Trust.
I appealed in KIT.Smt Kalyani Srinivas sponsered me Rs 10000/-and Shri Prakash send me Rs 50000/- .
Out of the available cash Today I paid the relavent fees and admitted her in Sethu Institute of Technology,.
My self and my entire family is fully happy now...
KIT is functioning like PVT Banks...Very Fast..Very mugh Obliging...
Very very helpful to the Needy..
Our TB is like Nationalised Banks.We have to wait in a longest Q even for taking a DD.Worst and sluggish Service...
Our Tamil Brahmins has to learn a lot from KIT.
KIT is always Fantastic.They see only Brahmin or Not..
Long live their Unity...
Long Live their Glorious service to the Needy....

Dear Sri Sankaranarayanan ji,

First of all please accept our best wishes for your daughter for successful education and career.

Some of our members including me replied to your message almost a month back willing help you though bank loans. Please go through the replies to your earlier message.

Right now we don't have any common trust here and those who approach for help are being looked after on one to one basis.

For your information, one of our members through these forums, requested for a financial assistance of Rs.40,000 for medical expenses for his father. I suggested admitting him in a government hospital were the expenses may be around Rs.4000 only and at the same time, no compromise is made on the treatment. I also deputed one of my staff to see the patient and try to help him through some of the known friends in the hospital. He has already admitted his father and is quite happy with the treatment. He is in touch with me almost daily and I have also offered him financial help which he has not yet availed.

Through this forum I personally appeal to our members not to hesitate requests through this forums. Somebody, if not me, will come forward to help you at your hour of crisis. Our only request will be not to get prejudiced with a particular college or course. There are plenty of opportunities available inspite of the reservations and it is upto us to grab the same. Definitely we would like to respect the tastes of the student but at the same time, there may be better opportunities available at much lower costs which the student should also consider.

Please don't hesitate to discuss your problems in the future also and if required, please send a personal message to me so that I shall try to do my best.

Educational loans upto Rs,.4 lakhs is offered by all the banks without any collateral security. If you still want the same, we shall try to get it. I am positioned at Chennai and I have to request my friends at your place (Madurai, I suppose) to do the needful. Conditions for the loan are fairly reasonable and we can still try the same for future payments to the college.

 

[SN Sugumar]

is it doing anything for the welfare of our community.. or just publishing a magazine and conduct free uapanayanam once a while.

it is pathetic to see the unity among our community members. i personally feel, deep in their heart they feel inferior for being brahmin in today's world/. that should change.. HOW?

Greetings to all.

Shorabji, has said is the association doing anything for the community? It is just Publishing magazines and conducting free upanayanam.

Shorabji, you have completed the message with the word HOW? Why don/t you spell out the HOW?

What do you propose? What action is tobe taken for waht purpose? How are we going to proceed?

What ever you want to do, the visitors, members and others within the forum will read it and will try to pass their remark. Why? The reason is very siumple " Who will Bell the CAT? How many of us can spend a huge amount money to spread the message? The very basic problem in our community (meaning Brahmin irrespective of their language, sect etc.) is not unity but the BIG FEAR of STARTING anything. Shree Anantha1412 has said it correctly - FEAR of Unknown. Secondly - don't mistake me - we have been in the past - were not masters but slaves of the masters. Some three to four decades back Most of the IAS and IFS officers were Tamil Brhamins. What did they do? They followed the masters orders. Did the masters allow them to do anything on their own? No. They got retired and unfortunately their off springs could not get in the fold of IAS and IFS and they went to other copuntries. Now the remaining ones are feeling the heat. We cannot say anything and do anything for our own and to the community. As we were slaves of the masters, we did not have any experience in entreprenueship. Subsequentlly we are out of sinc with everything. If any proposal for entreprenueship is given we will be the first to reject without even thinking what exactly it is going to do. Because of this we are POOR. We cannot even invite people to come for a meeting of like minded people. We are either busy doing nothing or pretend to be busy.

If some one wants to have say in the political field we should promote one or two from our community in each town and start working on indentifying the right one to represent us. Entire community of ours is spread over everywhere. We don't have any town or district full of brahmins. In this case we should do our best to make our communities vibrance in the field of Social Service. The recognition will not come over night but with relentless effort over a period of time will see our community start raising the head.

I have written this just without any thinking. Whatever came to mind I had typed and spelling and grammer mistakes, are bount to be there.

Everybody can think it over and put your best thinking cap and let us see where we go from here!!!

It is said "ROME WAS NOT BUILT IN ONE DAY"

Sugu.

 

[KRS]

Dear Sri S.N. Sugumar Ji,

I do not agree with your views on our community. I have seen folks in this Forum criticizing the community for not doing this or that from not following tradition to lacking entrepreneurship. Saying that how as a community we are lacking this or that has a common quality that my uncle used to employ in raising his children. Just shame them and they will change. This is the biggest misconception.

Apart from this, our community is developing in to an entreprenerial one. Holding an intellectual job in the society was how we started and it takes time to evolve from that. And we are doing it more than you think.

Now that you have said, what you have said, let me pose the same question you posed towards someone else: What are your specific plans to tackle the problems you seem to think exist? Charity begins at home - so let us hear how and what you are doing in YOUR life that will solve the problems you cite?

Regards,
KRS

 

[RVR]

I earnestly feel that all of us have very good intentions in forming a trust but are worried about implementation only. Once we form a charitable trust, we have to have a monitoring mechanism with proper checks and balances. Once we collect money from doners, we have to be very very careful in proper administration of the trust to ensure that it is not misused.

I just thought about few critical areas where we can focus our attention. Infact I drew inspiration from Christian missioneries in short-listing our objectives. Mostlly the missioneries concentrate in two areas.

1. Education
2. Health
Higher education after plus two level is now much easier. Bank loans are also available without collatoral security upto Rs.4 lakhs. If we provide guidance and strategic help in obtaining the loans, it is sufficient. We don't have to provide any free financial assistance.



As far as school education is concerned, it has become very costly. Government schools have become totally useless. Probably we can encourage our members to form schools at local levels with available local resources. Times of India newspaper has already started a campain `Teach India' where lot of people have registered to offer their services free of cost. Some of our community members after retirement can get engaged in the teaching/administration of the institutions. I earnestly feel, instead of old age homes, this will be a better proposition for them and they can be taken care of by the concerned schools. The schools can be open to all communities and we should try to offer best quality education at very reasonable cost. While the revenue expenditure could be met out of fees charged, we can try to collect donations for capital expenditure portion. For example, a person can donate for building a class room in memory of his/her parents or grand parents. Once we prove that we are sincere in our cause, collecting such donations may not be a problem. Probably we can consider offering free/subsidised education to the poor and & downtrodden members of our community to the possible extent. I request views of our members in this regard.

Medical facilities have become very costly. Moreover there is lot of exploitation by some of the private hospitals. We have to choose the right hospital and right medical practitioner. One good thing which is happening now in Tamilnadu is Government hospitals have improved the quality. They collect very reasonable charges for the procedures. For the time being, we shall try to help members of our community through Government Hospitals. Only marginal funding is required and this can be taken care of donations at local levels.

I earnestly feel that if we concentrate in these two areas, we can achieve development of our community to a great extent.

Forming a trust at apex level will automatically evolve in due course. Probably trusts can be formed at local level to cater to the local needs.

Along with some of my college alumini, I have already initiated to form a school. One of our colleague is retiring as Principal of a leading school in Coimbatore in the next two years and we would like to use his expertise for the project.

எண்ணாயிரம் ஆண்டு யோகம் இருப்பினும் கண்ணார் அமுதனை கண்டறிவாரில்லை உள் நாடி ஒளி பெற உள்ளே நோக்கினார் கண்ணாடி போல கலந்து நின்றானே