Is there any other vital matter to be discussed

[rxrajamo]

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Thanks Silverfox. Friends, I wrote emails and made phone calls to Thaambras. Unfortunately, none of my emails got replied to and I am not able to reach any person of authority at Thaambras on phone. Really, sorry state of affairs. I believe Praveen also had a similar experience.

Please dont take me wrong. I have nothing against them. I am all for working with them to help our community. As I said earlier, we all should sink our differences and work to help our community. Hopefully, Silverfox would be able to meet the Thaambras folks when he is in Chennai and we can get things moving.

Dear friends:
Ramki will write some more on this. Praveen tried to contact them thru several means - email, phone calls - but no reply, no response, nada, zip!
I am terribly sorry to say this but based on our experience I feel they are completely useless bunch of morons, interested only in promoting their own personal agenda. Why don't any of you send them an email and see if you receive any response at all? Their email id is on their website.
Once I reach Chennai (Oct. 29th), Praveen and I are planning to visit their address to see if there is really such an organization exists!

 

[silverfox]

Thank you, Ramki. Sorry! I forgot to mention all the emails and the phone calls you, too, made.
Yes, as you have rightly pointed out, we have nothing against them and we want to cooperate with them; after all, we all are striving for the same common goal of bringing all the Brahmins together. I hope I can meet with some humanbeing from that organization when I get to Chennai!

 

[whisper]

Thank you, Ramki. Sorry! I forgot to mention all the emails and the phone calls you, too, made.
Yes, as you have rightly pointed out, we have nothing against them and we want to cooperate with them; after all, we all are striving for the same common goal of bringing all the Brahmins together. I hope I can meet with some humanbeing from that organization when I get to Chennai!

Dear silverfox,
If you went to meet that organization people please ask them or get any information about brahmins peolpe got elected(any party) in recent local election in tamil nadu.

 

[Silicon Valley-an]

Iit

Vishwanath,

Yes, I agree. Though subjects like Humanities, Political Science and Economics are required courses at the IIT's ( I am an IIT graduate) it would be difficult making Sanskrit a required course because of the fact that it would be difficult deciding what at level of proficiency the course can be offered at. But I do find that we are still growing a whole bunch of convent educated Macaulay kids in India who are brought up unable to speak a word of Hindi though they have lived all their lives in Delhi or can quote Keats and Shelly but know absolutely nothing about Kabir or Kalidasa. May be they should have a course in Indian Cultural studies or something which should be a required course for IIT Students and this should include a smattering of Sanskrit that every student can imbibe.

I agree it is a shame that Cambridge has shut down Sanskrit department if they have indeed done so because even if there is no student interest in the subject, having a bunch of scholars doing research in a language that has the most scientific structure of all the languages in the world is a must for any University worthy of respect. As you will note - Universities like Harvard and UC Barkeley have thriving Sanskrit departments. I suppose the reason Cambridge may have dropped Sanskrit may be akin to the reason why IIT's may not have Sanskrit. Cambridge is more a quantitatively oriented university compared to Oxford much as MIT differs from Harvard. Sanskrit would more appropriately find a home at Oxford or Harvard as opposed to Cambridge or MIT since quantitatively oriented students are less inclined to cultural enlightenment - which is a shame because Sanskrit lends itself to logic more than any other language.

Having said all this, a majority of Indians are still brought up without insufficient knowledge and appreciation of Indian cultural paradigms and tend to view the world through a Western perspective and this must be changed - since there is an implicit inferiority complex in this.

Dear Silicon Valley-an,

Nice post, on the whole.

Re the Cambridge University part of your post, I think you missed the point of my post. It was not the white mans recognition (or lack of it) that I was lamenting. It was the irony of the situation - Man Mohan Singh's doctorate on the one hand & Sanskrit shoo'ed out on the other. The context is this: Unlike other Indian languages, Sanskrit is iconic. It is the backbone of Indian culture. I made that obsevation in the backdrop of all the anti-Hindu propanganda that is going on in India, the conversions, the utter contempt of the media for anything Hindu....
It would be as much a matter of shame if it had happened in India. Whether it was done by a 'white' man or purple is not the point of debate. That an institution which taught the language for more than 150 years decided to close it down is a matter of regret. Of course the reason could well be that there were not enough students showing an interest in the language.
Entirely agree with you when you say that we should set our house in order first before we complain about others.
The other point is when you compare Cambridge University with the IIT's.
Cambridge University, being a university, has many disciplines under it - sciences, technology, languages etc whereas IIT's are not univerisities in that sense. They (IIT's) are there to impart education in technology, period. They need not have Sanskrit in the curriculum.

Just my 2 bits,

-- Viswanath

 

[kspv]

Issues Related to Matrimony

Since this thread is about "other vital matters," may I dare ask this question out of my curiosity? I know this is off-beat, but I am interested to know:

Has it been easy (or difficult) of late, for the youngsters in the Tamil Brahmin community, to find suitable grooms and brides within? Are there any organized attempts within the community, to play a constructive role in match-making, especially with respect to the poorer lot amongst Tamil Brahmins? How prevalent are marital discords amongst the couples belonging to the community, and whether there have been any organized attempts towards community-based counselling for such happenings? What about finding suitable companions for widows, divorcees, and the other not so fortunate categories?

In Andhra, it has actually become difficult in some Brahmin sects to find suitable brides & grooms, with the populations becoming scatterred and isolated. While it may not be so difficult in case of larger Brahmin communities like Niyogis and Vaidikis, in smaller populations like Sri Vaishnavas (who are more in the mold of Tamil Iyengars), Dravidas, Konaseema Brahmins, and Telugu Iyers, to find suitable brides & grooms is becoming increasingly difficult. If you are a widow or a divorcee, God save you!

In Bangalore, an organization predominantly run by Tamil Brahmins, "Parivarthan," is doing a yeomen's service with respect to match-making amongst south-Indian Brahmin communities. Their website is at the following place:

www.parivarthan.com

But I have not come across a similar organization elsewhere. Please share your thoughts on this aspect.