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thiru adhyayana uthsavam - At Newyork - A Summary (part4)

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Sampath Rengarajan • January 4, 2000 


Srimadh Azhagiya Singar thiruvadikaLE charaNam
Sri RanganAyikA samEtha Sri Rangarajan thiruvadikaLE charaNam

Dear bAgawathAs,

On 23rd evening the gathering that stayed in  Sri  Venkat's  house
was more than 40, and there were more people coming from  airports
and as usual we had to really struggle veruy hard  to  manage  our
available  resources  of   volunteers   to  pick  them up.  adiyEn
could not find anyone  to  receive  my son  and  wife from airport
despite the fact that adiyEn was the  one  who  was  arranging for
pick  up  from airports as a first priority for others. But adiyEn
was never worried nor made any remarks to anyone. It was until one
hour prior to landing of the plane when Sri Krishna came  to  know
of this and took half a  day  vacation from his  work  and  picked
me up and took adiyEn to the airport.  On  the  night of  23rd Sri
Kannan   arrived   from  Syracuse  after a wild  goose chasing for
directions. He  had asked for directions when adiyEn was in goshti
and adiyEn asked him to call us later after goshti. In the absence
of anyone to help, he managed  to  come  after  several  hours  of
calling and yet was smiling, coming forward to help and so on. Sri
Kannan was an asset  to  our  gOshti  and celebrations  as  he not
only brought more enthusiasm but also lot of  gOshti  skills  from
kAnchipiram.  He  reminded me  of  Sri  Varadhan of denver in many
ways. The caravan began  by  7PM  with  volunteers  of  8 vehicles.
All the perumALs  except   Sri  Rama  and Sri  chakratthAzwAr left
the place. Each perumAL's vigraham used to weigh around 300 pounds.

Sri Ranganatha was adorned with a shAlvai to protect HIM from cold.
In Srirangam  Sri  namperumAL used to wear  a muslin cloth when  HE
arrives in 4 kAl mandapam enroute  to  ekAntha sEvai  in  the "pani
vizhum irApatthu". Most of the deities including Sri Ranganatha and
thAyAr and others left for the  hall  in  Sri  KannabirAn's  quest.
There were truck load of groceries and other related materials that
also followed. About 5 vehicles were going in a caravan all through
this 1 hour 30 minute stretch.  At  the  arrival Smt Dr Shashi kala
iyengar was waiting all alone untill 11 pm to hand over the hall to
us and as well to receive perumAL and the gOshti.   PunniyAvachanam
was performed and perumALs were placed on few temporary tables.

The next day the entire group  of gOshti about 40 bAgawathas joined
and thiru vAy mozhi began after doing Kanninun sirutthAmbu.  In the
after noon the dais was ready and the  perumALs were shifted to the
center stage when the gOshti had completed the  morning session and
NAMA event was about to begin.  Everytime the perumALs were shifted
it involved a lot of work and voluneers.  We  could  not  avoid it.
We had to write this elaborately to let fellow bAgawathAs know that
this one was just as similar to the  wedding  of  4 daughters  at a
time. Back at home in India, people may know how difficult it is to
do a wedding of a daughter in our house. Imagine  how  difficult it
will  be if you have to do wedding for 4 daughters at the same time.
It was so much  work  and  involving  to  arrange  for  this  thiru
adhyayana uthsavam for the first time at  Srirangam  USA.  Some one
even remembered jovially  the   famous novel by kalki "Washingtanil
thirumanam" and   compared  this "newyorkil thirumanam"   or "thiru
adhyayana uthsavam at newyork". It was a worthy comparison.

will continue .....

Srimadh Azhagiya Singar thiruvadikaLE charaNam
Sri RanganAyikA samEtha Sri Rangarajan thiruvadikaLE charaNam
thiru kudanthai Rengarajan


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