Date: 20th Dec 2010
Hi All !,
My name is Murali and I am a recent entrant to the forum. Am in my early fifties and south-chennai based. We are an Iyer family and I am an engineering graduate into healthcare instrumentation for over 25 years now. I have been attached to hospitals, in india and abroad, and throughout my career have been involved in maintaining hospital assets. Am now attached to a private organisation and still into the same profession in chennai.
As for myself, I love "brahminism". By 'brahminism' I am only referring to the culture, behavioural and such other attributes that are generally considered good by society, but let me hastily add that I do not have any 'pride' in calling myself a brahmin and also I do not believe in superiority or inferiority of brahmins as compared to anyone else. It is just that I like this 'brahminical' culture and their typical practices such as doing regular prayers (Sandhyavandanam), reciting Vedas ( I like chanting similar often), wearing 'panchagajam', listening/singing devotional classical music, their food habits etc etc. So one may consider me to be a humble brahmin. Also I am not for or against anyone who is from another caste, creed or religion and have been socialising only purely on individual abilities to be able to relate to each other.
The forum makes interesting reading and am presently viewing various blogs, topics, discussions and opinions posted by many. However, when I first entered my 'profile', consistent with the name of the forum(Tamilbrahmins.com), I was expecting to be asked by the owners of the web-site, the applicant's background, as to whether I was a brahmin, and if so whether Iyer or Iyengar and such other details, and if other than brahmin, then what background(caste/community/religion/language) etc etc. However for reasons best known to the web-site owners, such details were not asked for. I like the website and it's contents and would like to congratulate the 'minds' behind this. I look forward to more meaningful participation in times ahead.
Murali . J