Family

Aaladi Saami Madam and Aaladi Thambidhurai

Those who have read by blog on my parents (1) may remember that we were all born in a one-room house next to a ‘jeeva samadhi’ of Aaladi, a cousin of our great-great grandfather. There are 100s or perhaps 1000s of ‘jeeva samadhis’ all over India/Tamil Nadu. I found a website ‘jeevasamadhi.com’ which may be useful for those who have not heard about this concept (2). From what I understand, a cousin of a great-great grandfather, Aaladi decided on this way to end his body as his soul had attained God. He was buried alive in ‘Aaladi Sami Madam’. Madam is the Tamil word for Math used in Sanskrit/Hindi and Sami is God in Tamil. I learn that Aaladi bought a small land and established this Madam. He had planted tress of banana, coconut, peeple (Arasa maram) and neem (veppa maram) and built a Vinayakar (Ganesa) temple. This Madam was used by several ‘vaidhyas’ (Doctors), josyas (astrologerss) and physical/yoga trainers. He had collected a lot of leaflets with Tamil writings containing ancient wisdom. Until 1939, when my great grandfather, Nallathambi Mudaliar, was still alive, prayers were conducted on full moon days regularly. Several Sadhus (holy men) visited the Madam regularly. Meals were served for the needy periodically. Lot of people would come to the Madam to get some tirtham (holy water) and viboothi (ash powder) which would cure them of many illness.

As I had mentioned, when I was born, we were very poor. After 1939, this practice of regular prayers and feeding were stopped. The vinayagar temple was there, and I do remember seeing a small room with a ‘peedam’ with a Sivalingam and an oil-lamp always lit. We had a terrace on this small room (may be about 40 square feet?) where we used to climb up and play. There were no stairs and we climbed the wall. Occasionally, this terrace was used to dry various items.  In front of this room was a hall with a tin-roof. This was the place used for people to gather during prayers. We used it for playing when it was free. Our father built row-houses in 1970 behind this peedam and ensured that this was left untouched. At this time, the peedam was raised and the Vinayakar and some Naga (snake) statues were installed along with the Lingam and a kumbhabhishekam was done.

The picture above shows ‘annabhishekam’ of the Lingam which is on a ‘peedam’. Taken on 25 October 2026

We moved out of the ‘aaladi sami madam’ around 1980 and started living in bigger houses. At that time, my elder brother Thambidhurai was going through all the old boxes and found out old handwritten notebooks. He was the eldest in the family and took care of his role seriously. He learned about what our forefathers did through the Madam and started all the activities again. In 2001, Aaladi Sami Madam started functioning as it used to almost six decades earlier. He arranged prayers regularly and food for feeding the needy on new moon day and recently on every Thursday as well. During some period, lunch was arranged for the old people who had no other support. In our family, it was common for everyone to pray for everything from relief from a common cold to success in exams/interviews. I had done this after writing the IIT entrance exam for MSc and we had ‘paalabhishekam’ (bathing with milk) for the Vinayakar in our temple (3). All the Madam activities were supported by everyone in the family and several friends. Several volunteers worked and ensured that the activities continue as of today. My elder brother Thambidhurai was leading all these activities.

In 1990s, the row houses were divided between our father and uncle (younger brother of our father). Thambidhurai took care of doing everything properly. Our family got three of the row houses that existed behind the Madam and our uncle got five of the row houses. Since leaving the Madam in 1980s, our family decided not to use that place for our own use. The three small houses and Madam together were used for all the activities. Some years later, Thambidhurai brought our ‘veettu saami’ (seelaikari) back in our house. I left Madurai in 1982 to join IIT Madras for my M.Sc. in Chemistry. Hence, I had not played any role in these activities other than joining the family on important occasions. Thambidhurai was not only the leader in our family, he became the leader in our neighbourhood, which included our extended family, community, and everyone who met him.

Lunch distribution on a Thursday, 15 October 2026

As I had mentioned in the blog on my parents, my father changed his given name ‘Aaladi’ to ‘Elangannan’ (Baby Krishna or Balakrishnan, which is more commonly used). My father started as a very poor young man who had lost his father just as he was in pre-University. He worked tirelessly and ensured that our family grew, and he helped a lot of people as well. He did not have the interest and time to start the activities of the Aaladi Sami Madam which were stopped when his grandfather passed away. Thambidhurai did that and he kept his facebook profile name as ‘Aaladi Thambidhurai’.

During our school days, encouraged by our father all of us learned Hindi through the Dhakshin Bharath Hindi Prachar Sabha for which the classes were held in Gandhi Museum in Madurai. While I stopped with Madhyama, Thambidhurai completed up to Pravesika. He could read a novel in Hindi. He learned Sanskrit to some extent and he read extensively. Thambidhurai did a B. Com. at The Americal College, Madurai and M.B.A. from Madurai Kamaraj University. I had joined the last batch of P.U.C. at American College the same year he started his B.Com (1979) and continued for my B.Sc. in Chemistry there. After his M.B.A., he joined the Tamilnadu Industrial Investment Corporation in Tirunelveli as an officer. His job was to ensure that the loans are given for genuine industrial investment, and these are returned with interest. He experienced corruption by people above and below him and decided to quit shortly. After a brief stint with a private financial firm in Pollachi, he returned to Madurai to help his father and brothers in business. Padhali organization started on 17 October 1989 in a single room and grew focusing on various domains. Several of the employees of Padhali went on to start their own businesses/career elsewhere and succeeded in life.

In the middle 1990s, Padhali was established in the main road (Alagar Kovil Road) right in front of the Aaladi Sami Madam. Within a few years, Thambidhurai and our family started a ‘Thanneer pandal’ (a shelter that provides water, paanaakkam, kanji, …) during the Chithirai festival. Kallalagar is taken from Alagar Kovil to Vaigai river on the road with devotees carrying him by foot. The road from Tallakulam Perumal Kovil to the American College is where lakhs of people will gather and stay up all night before Kallalagar enters the river Vaigai, which is perhaps the most important occasion during the two-week long festival. Recently, a plan to build an elevated highway on this road was stopped listening to the sentiments of the locals. The bridge now starts near the American College.

Thambidhurai was born on 30 September 1960 and passed away on 26 September 2026. During his lifetime, he worked hard to ensure that our family rose and we could start all the activities of the Aaladi Sami Madam again. When we were young, everyone in this area would know Aaladi Sami Madam. Now, people who are aware of Jeevasamaadhi’s and Sithars know this place. Others could identify it as a place behind the famous Amma Mess in Tallakulam.

A recent photograph of Aaladi (Elangannan) Thambidhurai

Thambidhurai and I were close friends and siblings. He was elder to me by about 20 months and we grew up together. Though, I have not been living in Madurai since August 1982, we were continuously in touch. We could discuss about anything under the sun. He informed me about ‘Aseevakam’ (Ajivaka) and shared some of the writing by Makkhali Gosala, founder of Aseevakam. Gosala was a contemporary of Gautama Buddha and Mahavir Jain. I was quite impressed to find the rational thoughts expressed by Gosala. Aseevakam became one of the religion that disappeared. Recently, I informed him about the book on D D Kosambi written by Ram Ramasamy and he bought it and finished reading it and appreciated it much. This he did before I could get a copy and read it.

Our ‘kula theivam’ (God of our tribes?) is Sithar in Puliyuran, which is a small village about 8 km from Aruppukottai, which is about 60 km from Madurai, our home-town. When we were young, it used to take half-a-day to reach there as we take a town bus, inter-city bus and then another town bus and walk for long. Thambidhurai organized the ‘kumbhabhishekam’ for this temple in 2011. His passing away last month was unexpected for all of us, I think, including him. He had plans for Deepavali as he started an Amul outlet just a few months ago. However, as a mature person with a soul in peace, he used to say ‘I am ready to go anytime’. I had posted the news of his passing in Facebook and there were numerous comments. I will collect some of them below. We were lucky to have him as the eldest brother in the family. Let me give the Tamil translation of Gayatri Mantram done by Thambidhurai below (4):

அண்டம் படைத்து அறியாமைப் பேரிருள்

கண்டம் ஒழித்து வணங்கத் தகுந்த ஒளியை அறிவை

வணங்கும் வேளை அறிவை ஒளியை

எம்முள் ஏற்றும் இறைவா வாழி

Vaali, a popular lyricist in Tamil movies described God as follows (5):

பல நூல் படித்து நீ அறியும் கல்வி

பொது நலம் நினைத்து நீ வழங்கும் செல்வம்

பிறர் உயர்வினிலே உனக்கிருக்கும் இன்பம்

இவை அனைத்திலுமே இருப்பது தான் தெய்வம்

Translation: The knowledge you acquire by reading many books, the wealth you give keeping public interest in mind, the happiness you feel in the growth of others, God exists in all these. Thambidhurai had all the three abundantly.

References:

My post in Facebook on 12 October 2026:

My elder brother Aladi Thambidhurai passed away on 26 September 2026 around 3:20 PM. We had the 16th day function yesterday at his home in Madurai. When I invited an elderly relative to come for yesterday’s function, he told me: Your brother was like a father to the extended family and many others. He guided everyone and took charge of the family. I said ‘that is absolutely true’. As the eldest in the family, he took care of every responsibility which helped me and many others focus on our work. In general, I have heard from people that a man proves his worth by building a house and conducting a wedding. He did many of both and took charge of the Kumbhabhishekam of our kula theivam temple in Puliyuran. I wish he stayed on for many more years with us.

Some comments below with the names of the persons:

Sethuraman (A classmate in BCom and a friend for life) Arunan he conducted, arranged two kumbhabisekam at panaiyur itself…2005 and 2017..and many more spiritual work which you know..we miss a guide in that domain 🙏

Manohar (A classmate of mine in BSc) Very high quality person with wide knowledge in all areas. He can talk to any age or category person in their frequency as a good understanding friend. Miss him much🙏

Megha Prakash (Worked for Office of Communication at IISc and Current Science) Oh! This is sad news. Such a lovely soul. I was just talking to my mother about our Madurai trip to your house and how he took me around to the Meenakshi Amman telling stories, and showing me the Goddess. I am deeply saddened to hear this news Prof. Elangannan Arunan. This year seems to be taking away beloved ones. We were in touch and he had been guiding me on my book project. My heartfelt condolences to the family.

Ananthavel (A junior at BSc and a Ph.D. from IISc) True Arunan . I met him 35 yrs ago before i met you. He is truly a father figure.

Karthikeyan Ramagopal (A friend from Madurai, settled in USA) Yes true words, lost a friend, philosopher and guide. Remembering my last meeting at his residence one year ago

Sundararajan (A former employee in Padhali, currently managing several colleges) Annan is great soul sir, I lost my advisor, guide, well-wisher, spiritual guru sir. தலைவர் தலைவர் தான் sir😭😭😭

Mani Ramasamy: I attended Tiruvasagam recitation in your temple back to your shop. He is very sincere in his spiritual activities.

Parthiban Jayaraman: Thalaivar this is how we call him. Indeed the right phrase. I joined with him as an employee and became a family member and induced me to go for my own. A great man.

The following are expressed in Tamil:

Chinnasamy Rajendran, former IRS:

புகழஞ்சலி.

ஆலமரங்கள் வீழ்வதில்லை.

கிளை விட்டு,

விழுது விட்டு,

வேர்பிடித்து,

நிழல் பரப்பி நிற்கும்..

அவர்கள் விதைத்த விழுமியங்கள் வீறு கொண்டு முளைத்து பயன்தரும்.

குல முன்னோர்கள் வாழ்வாங்கு வாழ்ந்தவர்கள்..

திருவருள் பெற்று

குல தெய்வமாக, தோன்றாத் துணையாக நின்று

வழி நடத்திச் செல்வார்கள்… 🙏

மலர், சி. இரா குடும்பத்தினர்

Siddhu:

இங்கே பேசிக்கொண்டிருப்பவர்களிலேயே இளம் வயதுடையவன் நானாகத்தான் இருப்பேன். ஆனால், அவருடைய தாக்கம் என்பது வயது வித்தியாசமின்றி அனைவரிடத்திலும் இருக்கும். இனி அவரைப் போல எங்களை மகிழ்விக்கவும், திட்டவும், சிறு பிள்ளையைப் போல எங்களிடம் கோபித்துக்கொள்ளவும் அவருக்கு நிகர் அவரே!

2010 முதல் 2026 வரை — தம்பி அப்பாவுடன் கழித்த பொன்னான நாட்கள்! ❤️

நிறையப் பேசியிருக்கிறோம்… அருகிலிருந்து பார்த்திருக்கிறோம்… இனி அவை யாவும் நினைவுகளில் மட்டுமே இருக்கும். நேரில் அனுபவிக்க முடியாத தருணங்களாக அவை மாறிவிட்டன.

நாங்கள் அவரை எங்களுடைய மானசீக குருவாக ஏற்றுக்கொண்டவர்கள். இனி என் வாழ்நாள் முழுவதும் என்னுடைய ஒவ்வொரு முக்கியமான முடிவுகளிலும், பக்திச் செயல்பாடுகளிலும் அப்பாவின் தாக்கம் என்பது இல்லாமல் இருக்கப்போவதில்லை.

தாங்கள் கூறியதுபோல, அவருடைய மனப்பூர்வமான ஆசிகள் நம் அனைவருக்கும் எப்பொழுதும் உண்டு.

நன்றி அப்பா! 🙏❤️

N. Ramakrishnan (our youngest cousin)

தாயாய் அன்பு பாராட்டினீர்

தந்தையாய், குருவாய்

அறிவை புகுத்தினீர்

தெய்வங்கள் இன்னதென்று

அறியவைத்தீர்

எல்லோரும் நலமுடன் வாழ

பூஜைகள் பல செய்தும்

அன்னதானமிட்டும்

அரும்பாடுப்பட்டீர்.

“கோபமிருக்கும் இடத்தில் குணமிருக்கும்” என்பதைப்போல் அவரவர் நன்மைக்காகவே யோசித்தீர்.

அண்ணனாய் மட்டுமே நில்லாமல்

அம்மையாய் அப்பனாய்

ஆசிரியனாய் இருந்து

அனைத்தும் போதித்தீர்.

பாதியில் கைவிட்டதுபோல்

பறந்து சென்றுவிட்டீர்.

அவ்வளவு உரிமையாய்

அன்பு பாராட்ட

அறிவை புகுத்த

அனைத்தையும் போதிக்க ஏன் திட்ட  கூட

இனி இங்கு

யாருமில்லை.

என் வாழ்வின்,

என் குடும்பத்தின்

பேரிழப்பே.

Standard
Uncategorized

K. L. Sebastian, Quantum Mechanics with Applications to Chemistry: About the Book and Author

(From the talk given during the book launch on 20 Augsut 2026)

A very good afternoon to everyone gathered here on this important occasion to release the book authored by Prof. Kizhakeyil L. Sebastian, KLS to many of us. He has titled the book: Quantum Mechanics with Applications to Chemistry. I am very pleased and feel privileged to have an opportunity to speak about the author and the book today.

Prof. Sebastian has been an outstanding teacher and researcher. I am very glad that he made the efforts to write this book. Let me give a brief introduction to the Author before talking about the book. Prof. Sebastian was born in Kerala in 1950. His first name, Kizhakeyil would be his house name, I think. It may have been in Thrikkakara at Ernakulam in Kerala. [1] The second letter ‘zh’ is unique to Tamil (Thamizh) and Malayalam, which is his mother tongue. I have heard about this sound being used in Marati as well. He did his B. Sc. from the Kerala University in 1970 and MSc from Calicut University in Kerala in 1972. The same year, he came to this Department of Inorganic and Physical Chemistry (IPC) at the Indian Institute of Science (IISc) and completed his Ph. D. in about three years working with Prof. A. K. Chandra. Incidentally, Prof. Chandra wrote a book titled Introductory Quantum Chemistry in 1974 and KLS must have been in the group at this time. Those days, it used to take several months to a year to have the Thesis evaluated by national and international experts and he got his degree in 1976. During this period, he worked with Prof. S. K. Rangarajan who had joined our Department in 1975. SKR as we call him fondly turned out to be a major influence on KLS. For those who do not know, Prof. Rangarajan may have been the only one to become a Professor in IISc who did not have a Ph. D. He had done BA in Maths. He did train many Ph. D. students in our Department. When we joined the Department, SKR returned to Bangalore from Central Electrochemical Research Institute in Karaikudi, where he served as Director. We invited him to come to the Department regularly and gave him an office. As the Chair of this Department a few years ago, I had invited Prof. Sebastian to come back to IPC and be with us. SKR and KLS are great colleagues with whom one could discuss about any topic in Science. They were both very generous with their time and in sharing their knowledge. KLS wrote a moving obituary of SKR and anyone interested may read it. [2]

Prof. Sebastian seems to have had no ‘break’ all his life. From 1976-84, he served as a Lecturer in Calicut University, soon after completing his Ph. D. In 1984, he was promoted to the Reader position at Calicut and in the same year, moved to University of Cochin as Professor. During his tenure at Calicut University, he went to do post-doctoral research at the University of Liverpool, UK from 1980-82 and Chalmers Institute of Technology, Sweden in 1982. The following year, he went to the University of Munich as an Alexander van Humboldt Fellow to work with Prof. Gerhard Ertl, who won the Nobel prize for developing the mechanism of Habor-Bosch Process producing ammonia from the very inert nitrogen gas. Sebastian served as a Professor in the University of Cochin for 12 years teaching physical chemistry and quantum mechanics in particular. He was working with research students and publishing high-quality papers in not so high impact Journals. He was elected a Fellow of the Indian Academy of Sciences in 1994 and got the coveted SS Bhatnagar Prize in Chemical Sciences in 1995. The next year, IPC Department invited him to be a Professor. Getting into IISc, either as a student or faculty is not easy. In our Department, getting in as faculty after doing Ph.D. in our Department is near impossible, particularly after 1980s. Moving from a state University to IISc is indeed exceptional. KLS did all these extraordinary things. To my knowledge, Prof. Kishore, who was the Chair when I joined, came from Gorakhpur University and Sebastian came from Cochin. In the foreword of the book, KLS says ‘the years I spent at IISc were the best years in my life’. I joined IPC is 1997 and I am glad to have had a nearly complete overlap with him in our Department. His presence in IPC certainly helped me and I suspect it helped many of my colleagues in the Department / Division and the Institute.

Not surprisingly, he was a member of the Centre for Condensed Matter theory in IISc and also a member of the Condensed Matter Theory Unit at the Jawaharlal Nehru Centre for Advanced Scientific Research (JNCASR) in Bangalore. He also had visiting positions at the Max Planck Institute for Polymer Research, Mainz, Germany; University of Milan-Bicocca, Asian Institute of Nanobiosciences, Pusan, Korea and at the National Institute for Advanced Industrial Science and Technology at Tsukuba, Japan. He served our Department as Chair from 2005-08 and the Science Education Panel of the Academies from 2015-17. He also served as the Vice-President of the Indian Academy of Sciences from 2016-18. He has served in the board of education in several Universities and selection committee in several IITs. More importantly, he was the Chief Editor for Resonance, Journal of Education from 2012-14 after serving in the editorial board from 2002. He had written several articles in Resonance. I wrote a few articles in Resonance as well during this period.

In 2011, IISc started the undergraduate program in sciences after a century of existence without one. We were lucky to have Sebastian in our faculty, and he was the obvious choice to teach the first semester course in chemistry dealing with the physical principles of chemistry. His course was very popular. Some years earlier, Prof. Mangala Sunder Krishnan spearheaded the National Program on Technology Enhanced Learning, popularly known as NPTEL [3].  Sunder had spent two semesters on sabbatical in our Department. He convinced Sebastian to give lectures on quantum mechanics. KLS did not like to give lectures sitting in a chair with the laptop on a desk, as it was done in IISc those days. He preferred a lecture hall with students in front and Sunder arranged this in IIT Madras. KLS went there every weekend and recorded 12 lectures on Saturday and Sunday. His NPTEL course is available on YouTube [4]. I noted on 19 August 2026 that the lectures have been listened to 2.4 Lakh times.

I have listened to Sebastian numerous times in various places and occasions. He could explain even the most difficult concepts in a way everyone in the audience can learn. The popularity of his lectures for the NPTEL course convinced him to write this book being released today. He remembered to thank Prof. Mangala Sunder Krishnan in the foreword. When I was asked to speak about the author and book in this function, I readily agreed, though I did feel we have several excellent theoretical chemists who could have done this. In any case, let me share my thoughts on the book now.

Quantum Mechanics with Applications to Chemistry is not the first book on this topic. However, this may be the first book on this topic, perhaps on any topic, which uses interesting cartoons throughout the book to explain difficult topics. He has used the characters found in his famous lectures and modified them, perhaps for copyright reasons. Quantum Ganithathil is the teacher of quantum mechanics. Ganitham in Malayalam is Maths and you can note the ‘il’ which also means ‘illam’ or house. Professor lives in Maths. Mathew Kudiyil is a drunkard claiming to be a Captain in the army who wants to learn quantum mechanics. Kudi is drink in Malayalam and Mathew lives in ‘drinks’. His lectures would use Professor Calculus and Captain Haddock from Tin-Tin comics and he could not get permission to use them in the book. He has four student characters in the book, best being Anita. One can see their questions, comments and the response by the teacher throughout the book in cartoons.

Prof. Sebastian used to begin his lectures on quantum mechanics with two photos. One of dracula and another of Aiswarya Roy, a beautiful actress in India who won the Miss World in 1994. He would say some students think of a dracula when thinking about quantum mechanics, feeling scarred. He himself thought quantum mechanics is beautiful, like Aiswarya Roy. For the book, he has created a beautiful Indian actress using AI. As I was going through the book, I remembered the book with the same title written by Pauling and Wilson published in 1935, nearly 90 years ago [5]. That book was published very soon after all the major discoveries happened in quantum mechanics from 1925-30. Prof. A. K. Chandra’s book is titled somewhat similarly, Introductory Quantum Chemistry, published in 1976, fifty years ago [6]. Clearly Sebastian’s book includes topics that could not have been covered by the previous books. Chapters on density functional theory and computational chemistry are new. Pauling and Wilson’s book starts with a chapter on classical mechanics and one on ‘old quantum theory’ including Bohr’s model of hydrogen atom. Chandra and Sebastian do not allocate a chapter for these initial developments and focus on quantum mechanics as well established after 1925.

Sebastian begins his book with the two slit experiment and acknowledges Feynmann for this. The wave-particle duality is best explained by this experiment which has been done with electrons initially and more recently with C60, fullerene. I have been fortunate to listen to his lectures on this and I am sure all the readers of this book will get hooked to it right away. The book mentions about Einstein’s dilemma and his famous quote ‘God does not play dice’ Chandra also began his book with waves and quanta. Pauling and Wilson have 15 Chapters and except for the first two, one can see that Sebastian has covered and updated all the topics. Chandra’s book has only 9 chapters and the first 8 are covered in Sebastian’s book. The ninth chapter in Chandra’s book discussed Hellman-Feynman theorem and its applications in Chemistry. This is something I have not learned myself and I hope Sebastian includes this when he plans the second edition.

Another topic that is missing is the developments based on electron density topology, Bader’s Atoms in Molecule: A quantum theory [7] and Erin Johnson et al.’s Non-covalent Index analysis [8]. These have proven useful for understanding structure and bonding in small molecules and supramolecules as well. Of course, I am aware that Prof. Sebastian is not appreciative of AIM theory, and he has Prof. Roald Hoffman, another Nobel laureate sharing similar views [9]. Almost 20 years ago, I wanted to use AIM theory and it was difficult for me to read the papers and books and grasp them. I was lucky to have KLS as a colleague. I asked him to read and give some lectures which he readily agreed. I did learn about AIM theory and the fact that Sebastian is not impressed with it. Our group has since used AIM theory and recently NCI, extensively. My only response to KLS about AIM theory was that we should use experiments and theoretical models available to us and be aware of their limitations before drawing any conclusions. All experiments and models have something to teach us. More data and less interpretation lead to good science, less data and more interpretation lead to wrong conclusions.

Due mostly to his health conditions, Prof. Sebastian could not come back and stay with us in the Department after his term as Dean at IIT Palakkad came to an end in 2021. While we missed him dearly, we are very pleased that he has taken the time and put in a lot of efforts to complete this book. I am sure this would remain useful for students and researchers for generations to come. He does worry about the effect of AI and wonders if books would become obsolete. I have no doubts books such as this will remain an invaluable source. I would encourage everyone interested in learning quantum mechanics, and its applications to chemistry, to get your copy and read it. Those interested may contact IISc Press. Thank you, Sebastian, for writing it.

References:

  1. https://fellows.ias.ac.in/profile/v/FL1994021 (Accessed on 20 August 2026)
  2. https://ipc.iisc.ac.in/~kls/skr-1.htm (Accessed on 20 August 2026)
  3. https://nptel.ac.in/ (Accessed on 20 August 2026)
  4. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Yf_4Qv-A55Q&t=14 (Accessed on 20 August 2026)
  5. L. Pauling and E. B. Wilson, Introduction to Quantum Mechanics with Applications to Chemistry, The McGraw-Hill, New York (1935) Dover Edition (1985).
  6. A. K. Chandra, Introductory Quantum Chemistry, Tata McGraw-Hill, New Delhi (1974).
  7. R. F. W. Bader, Atoms in Molecules: A Quantum Theory, Oxford University Press (1990).
  8. E. R. Johnson et al. “Revealing Non-covalent Interactions”, J. Am. Chem. Soc. 132, 6498-6506 (2010).
  9. S. Shaik, H. S. Rzepa, and R. Hoffman, “One molecule, two atoms, three views and four bonds” Angew Chemie. Int Ed. Engl 52, 3020-3033 (2013).

(Reference 9 is an interesting read for those interested in Chemical Bonding. It records the conversation between three theoretical chemists. An excerpt follows:

Roald:  … … and got widely different results. I like to show these to people who claim there is a good way to define a bond. Of course they’ll tell me that I should do a QTAIM analysis.

Sason: Better define that.

Henry: Quantum Theory of Atoms and Molecules, QTAIM, a method based on the topology of the electron density ρ,[14] has its uses.

Roald: I was saying that tongue-in-cheek, Henry. I am no great fan of QTAIM – in the hundreds of QTAIM papers that crowd the literature, I have yet to see one that makes a chemical prediction, or suggests an experiment.

Somewhat coincidentally, the same issue has an article co-authored by me. E. Arunan, R. Brakaspathy, G. R. Desiraju, S. Sivaram, Chemistry in India, Angew. Chemie Int. Ed. Engl. 2012, 51.)

Standard
Uncategorized

Letters to the Hindu (published and unpublished)

During the years 2005 – 2012, I have sent several letters to The Hindu, some of which were published in the next day’s Edition. Other letters were not accepted for publication. In my webpage (EA>Other Comments) I had given links to the online version of The Hindu for the letters published and given the links to the text of the unpublished letters. Recently, I note that the online versions are no longer availble with the links shared in the website. I am collecting these letters in this blog, giving the date and topic. Few more letters sent until 2015 will be covered in another blog later. I started blogging after this and noone could censor my words!

5 November 2005: Rounding off credit card bills to the higher value in Rupees by Reliance: Not published.

Dear Editor,

I have been using the mobile services from Reliance for more than two years now. Reliance has come up with an easy way of making millions from unsuspecting users. I get a monthly statement from Reliance as a postpaid customer for the dues.  The amound due is always rounded off to the next higher rupees. For example, my bill for August 2004 shows “Amount payable as Rs. 91.01” and the “Amount due as Rs. 92”. I was hoping Reliance would stop this practice but it seems to continue.  For October 2005, my current bill is Rs 199.38 and the amount due is Rs 200.  I do not know the number of subscribers Reliance has today.   If they have 1 million subscribers, on an average, Reliance can make more than Rs. 500,000 per month just by rounding off numbers this way. I would like to bring this to the attention of all users and the authorities concerned.  Incidentally, today I received my electricity bill for this month.  Our BESCOM knows how to round off numbers correctly.  If the accounts Department in Reliance needs a tuitorial on rounding off numbers, I can request my daughter who is in elementary school to teach them.

sincerely,

Arunan.

Date: 27 May 2008, Subject: Ban on selling meat

Dear Sir,

This refers to the two Letters to the Editors published by you in response to the article by Mr. Tarunabh Khaitan.  Mr. Guru Murthy says that the ban was for only nine days and need not be considered as an unreasonable curtailment of the rights of any community. Evidently, he considers that a ‘longer ban’ would be a curtailment.  It is suprising to read this view from Mr. Gurumurthy choosing to live in the ‘land of the free’.  Certainly, he misses the points eloquently put together by Mr. Khaitan. Our Constitution does not guarenty absolute rights to some and for others rights that can be negotiated. A Government banning the sale of meat to take care of the sentiments of a few is unreasonable in curtailing the others right to eat what they prefer. It does not matter whether it is for 9 minutes or 9 days. Mr. Rao says that the Author is questioning the Judgment without reference to the facts and arguments. Is Govenrment banning the sale of meat to take care of the sentiments of a few not a fact? or Is the Court upholding this ban not a fact? Your freedom ends where my nose begins. While it is absolutely alright for a group of people to form a housing society and live anyway they choose to do within their premises, Government can not impose these regulations, even temporarily, on the general public at large.  Anyone who reads the article and these letters can see who has presented all the facts. Mr. Khaitan has presented the details of the Judgment and has been careful in reporting it as well. He has carefully stated where the emphasis is from the judgment and where it is his own. He has pointed out the contradictions within the Judgment.  Unless such views are expressed, it would be assumed that there is no fundamental violation in such orders by the Governement and the Court.  I would like to thank the Author for expressing these views and the Hindu for publishing it. I hope the Governments in the Centre and the States and the Courts take a serious note of the views expressed by the Author. Sincerely, E. Arunan

( http://www.hindu.com/2008/05/29/stories/2008052955441005.htm Link no longer works )

25 May 2009 Terror attacks in Mumbai (Not published)

Dear Editor,

The whole of India and the world is united in condemning the terror attacks in Mumbai that started on 26th November 2008 in the late hours of the day. While this is not the first time India has been attacked, two reports after this incidence show that India is finally ready to handle the terrorists with an Iron hand. Firstly, the opposition party, BJP has announced that this is not the time to play the blame game and we should be united in handling the situation. This is a departure in its response compares to all other incidents when it was not in power.  After 9/11, the United States of America stood united in its response and it has not faced another attack since. Secondly, an officer had said that we will not  negotiate with the terrorists.  They either get killed or captured alive. Israel had declared this policy and it did not have to face any ‘hostage’ crisis.  If we are united and deal with the terrorists firmly, I have no doubts in my mind that we will win this war on terror.   I sincerely hope that India has the maturity today to continue on these lines.

E.  Arunan

Date 9 March 2010 Subject: Oscar and women’s representation bill (not published)

I read the front page story on Oscar awards by Narayan Lakshman with interest as the top two contenders for the best film/director awards happened to be ex-husband-wife pair of James Cameroon and Kathryn Bigelow.  For the first time in the history of Oscar, a lady has won the best director award.  Interestingly, the news comes when our parliament is struggling to pass the Women’s representation bill.  More interestingly, this story written by Narayan Lakshman highlights the importance of what the Yadav political leaders are fighting for.  I consider the Hindu to be one of the most liberal newspapers when it comes to fighting for equal opportunities for women and the under-privileged section of the society.  Even in this newspaper, the Oscar winner is misquoted.  Bigelow dedicated the award to the women and men in the uniform world over.  Lakshman quotes her as dedicating it to the men and women in the uniform world over.  What is the difference, an insensitive man may ask. We are a country and society far from achieving equality for men and women and also for Indians cutting across caste, region, religion, language etc …  Yadavs are probably rightly worried that the 33 % reservation for women may in fact go to the forward caste women.  Irrespective of the caste, income, education our men are still insensitive and women are kind.  Yadav’s are probably worried that the women, irrespective of their background, may be manipulated by men in our society.  I hope as a country and society we can allay their fears. Sincerely, Arunan.

27 February 2010: canceling the air tickets (not published?)

Dear Sir,
I would like to bring to the attention of all the airlines the hassles in cancellation of air tickets.  While one can book tickets for travel by bus/train/air online using credit cards, canceling the tickets for air-travel is made particularly hard for the commuters. Indian Railways, Government and private buses allow booking and cancellation of tickets online and the money is credited back to the bank account or credit card from where it was taken for booking. None of the major airlines allow cancellation of tickets online and the passenger is forced to go to the Airport or city offices for canceling the tickets.  When some one cancels the ticket, why should he/she be forced to go the airport for canceling the ticket? Moreover, when a ticket is canceled the passengers are not given any details other than the promise that refund would be done in
1-2 weeks. One does not even get to know the amount that would be refunded. The ticket only has the total fare and does not list the fare for the onward and return.  These fares are often different depending on what was available for each sector at the time of booking.  I request all the airlines to streamline this cancellation process so that the process is more transparent.  Customers should be able to cancel the ticket online. If Indian Railways can do this, I do not know why the airline companies can not do.  They probably handle an insignificant number of passengers in comparison to the Railways.

sincerely,
Arunan. (Now all airlines allow cancellation)

Date 30 August 2010. Subject: Terrorism has no colors

I read the news in Hindu dated 28 August 2010, reporting Mr. Dwivedi’s statement that terrorism has only one colour and it is black. Apparently, it was part of a damage-control process following the home minister Mr. Chidambaram’s reference to ‘saffron terror’. I would have been happy if Mr. Dwivedi had said terrorism has no colour. Branding a group of people based on few extremes is always a dangerous practice. On reading this statement, I was reminded of what the one-time radical leader of African origin, born in Nebraska, U.S.A., Malcom X said about the historic prejudice about colours. Black is defined as dirty, evil, and wicked among the other meanings in most dictionaries. White is defined as pure and innocent, among the other meanings. After witnessing the racial discrimination on the black people of African origin, Malcom X pointed out that the dictionary written by the white people defines black and white in this way. Scientifically, black is pure and is the absence of colour. What you see is what you get. On the other hand white is deceptive and as everyone knows is a mixture of all the colours that it does not reveal. Due to the scattering process of light, when a rainbow appears in the sky, one can see all the colours that combine to form white. To his credit, Malcom X realized the danger of being a radical extreme and disavowed racism. There is no justification for terrorism, irrespective of which group or individual is responsible. It is important for a civil society not only to condemn it in the strongest terms but also to do all that is required to curb it. Sincerely, E. Arunan.

Link to published letter: http://www.hindu.com/2010/08/30/stories/2010083050321001.htm

Date: 29 September 2010 Subject: UID: Let no Indian fall at another’s feet (not published)

I was fortunate to watch the inaugural programme of the prestigious Unique Identity (UID) project this afternoon on live TV. The government has chosen to start this project from Tembhali village and the first UID numbers have been given to the laborers from the tribal area. While I was delighted at this symbolic gesture from the Government, I was deeply saddened to see the first few recipients falling at the feet of our Honorable Prime Minister and the leader of UPA Mrs. Sonia Gandhi.

I am convinced that neither our PM nor Mrs. Gandhi would have asked our fellow Indians to kneel before them and they may have done it on their own volition. However, in functions like this which is telecast live all over India, and may be the globe, it is not enough if our leaders do not ask participants not to fall at their feet. The participants should be advised, and if needed ordered, not to do this. Dr. Manmohan Singh has proven himself to be a man of simplicity and very high integrity and I am sure he would have been embarrassed by this act. Prime Minster is not doing a favor to any fellow citizen by handing out the UID number. It is the responsibility of any civil society and government to treat all its citizens with respect. I must add that it is not at all surprising, having seen these acts even at gathering of scientists, the so called educated elite, in India. However, only when every Indian can feel proud about being an Indian and holding his/her head high, irrespective of region, religion, colour, caste, creed, income, language, etc… We would have achieved a civilized nation. Sincerely, E. Arunan.

Date: 27 August 2011 Subject: Separation of State and Church.

I have given a link in my webpage (EA>Other Comments) which is not working anymore. I do not seem to have this letter in my emails any more. I think this was published.

13 October 2011 Attack on Bhushan caught on TV

Dear Sir/Madam,
While there can be no two opinion about condemning the outrageous attack on the eminent supreme court lawyer Prashant Bhushan, it appears a strange coincidence that the Times Now reporter was there with the camera to record the proceedings live. Though the Times Now Editor Mr. Goswami says that it was indeed a coincidence, would he accept an explanation like this from a politician in a situation like this?  Wouldn’t he conclude without any doubt that it was stage managed?
sincerely,
Arunan.

8 November 2011 Koodangulam nuclear plant (not published)
Dear Editor,
While one may appreciate the efforts of Dr. Kalam to push the nuclear power plant, the news item in the front page of The Hindu dated 8 November 2011 is rather insensitive.  The title (Boosting local economy to allay nuclear fears) is particularly insensitive.  I can not believe a newspaper with the reputation of The Hindu would put this title in the front page.  Is this a suggestion to buy the people?  Is this what a scientist can suggest to ‘allay nuclear fear’?
sincerely,
Arunan.

9 January 2012: Election commission and symbol (not published)
Dear Sir/Madam,
I read with curiosity the news about election commission’s decision to cover up all statues of UP CM Smt. Mayavati and also the election symbol of her party elephant. How did this election commission permit the Congress party to have a symbol of ‘hand’. Is it going to be covering every one’s hand during the election day? How would people vote? They may have ordered the covering of our ex PM Sri. Vajpayee’s photograph on the highways. However, this looks like a biased act of the election commission. The photograph showing a person covering an elephant statue appears strange to me. If election commission was indeed impartial, they should cover up the hands that cover the elephant. Indeed, we are living in days of extremism from political parties, activists, election commission etc… I think the election commission should withdraw this order.
Arunan.

18 January 2012 Lawyers taking the law into their hand

Dear Sir/Madam,
I was shocked to read about the lawyer’s agitation. While a police man should not rough up people driving without a license, I am surprised that a lawyer was driving without a license. I hope the commissioner and the lawyer’s association would also probe the lawyer’s act of driving without a license and take appropriate action.  It is ironic that a whole group of lawyers goes on agitating, supporting the cause of a lawyer who has defied the law!

Arunan.

25 March 2012 caste descriminarion

Dear Sir,
I read the open page comments on the prevailing caste based discrimination still felt by students in elementary school. Tamils were more progressive 2000 years back even considering the United States of America just 250 years back. The great sage Thiruvalluvar proclaimed that all lives are equal by birth (பிறப்பொக்கும் எல்லா உயிர்க்கும்).  One can compare this to the opening statement of the Declaration of Independence by the USA. The founding fathers declared “We hold it to be self evident that all men are born equal”. President Obama when he took oath and addressed the Nation quoted this but removed ‘men’ in his speech. This is one of the reasons Tamils consider Thirukkural as a Veda.  It is interesting that the comment by Priyadarshini mentions a teacher who changed the mark and also an enlightened friend who accompanied him to an Islam friend’s house for a briyani. Bharathiyar, the progressive Tamil poet fought against the system in the last century and Periyaar started the self-respect movement to oppose caste based discrimination. One can clearly see that the fight against such prejudice will continue and it is important for the country and society to do all that is needed to remove this prejudice.
sincerely,
Arunan.

22 June 2012: Is Prime Minister above law?

Dear Editor,
This refers to the opinion of Judge Katju published in The Hindu today.

Lately, many of the comments made by our former Supreme Court Judge, Justice Markandeay Katju surprise me. ‘No one is above law’ is as true as ‘The King can do no wrong’. I would interpret the ‘King can do no wrong’ as a message to the King that he can do no wrong rather than as a message to the legal system that no matter what the King does, do not touch him. I wonder if Judge Katju read reports which pointed out that the Pakistan Supreme Court had quoted Indian courts in pronouncing the judgement. I am sure Justice Katju is aware of the impeachment of President Nixon and the Allahabad court judgement that led to the dark chapter in Indian history. Perhaps he wanted the Allahabad Judge not to touch Indira Gandhi. The esteemed Judge’s opinion can only be interpreted by the leaders as a license to kill and I find it rather unfortunate.
sincerely,
Arunan.

23 August 2012 Freeman’s article on rape

Dear Editor,
I read the article by Hadley Freeman on Rape. He has managed to group the whistle blower with the right-wing politicians for whom fundamental rights of a woman have to be negotiated. While rape cannot be condoned irrespective of who the offender is or what the circumstances are, the charges against Julian Assange do appear to be motivated and choreographed.
sincerely, Arunan

30 August 2012 Dangers of mobile phone!?

Dear Editor,
I read the two recent articles on the Technical report given by an expert committee on the dangers of mobile phone usage. It is a pity that despite having six academies, so  many reputed institutes and scientists, credible scientific information does not reach the policy makers in India. I wonder if everyone realizes that the visible light that helps us see, is radiation having orders of magnitude more energy than the microwave radiation used in telecommunication.

sincerely,
Arunan

17 September 2012 Don’t blame it on the professor

Dear Sir,
Happymon Jacob has given a fitting response to the flawed analysis given by Justice Katju. However, Jacob’s analysis and all the letters to the editors discussing ‘what really is 1/0’ misses one important point.  Mr. Justice Katju had no business asking the maths lecturer this one question in maths and pronouncing his judgement about the quality of teaching. Without knowing the case, it would not be easy to determine if the question had any relevance to the case. One can only hope that the prejudice and arrogance displayed in this question did not cloud the eventual judgement of the case. If it did, there was no justice. An extreme definition of an expert is a person who knows everything about nothing. In our country, once some one becomes an expert in something, (s)he feels qualified in passing comments/judgements about everything under the sun.

sincerely,
Arunan.

12 October 2012 Justice Katju and Nobel prize

Dear Editor,
I liked the commentary by Judge Katju arguing for a secular country devoid of communal tension.  Somewhat coincidentally, the Nobel peace prize has been given to European Union, despite the current unrest there, I hope India, Pakistan, Bangaldesh, Nepal, and Sri Lanka can form an Indian Union or South Asian Union and learn to live with peace and prosperity. Even if we don’t get the Nobel prize, peace and prosperity for 1/4th of the world population has enormous value and no prize can match it.
sincerely,
Arunan.

Standard
Uncategorized

Agathiyar and Macaulay: Why Tamilnadu adores Bharathiyar, Periyar, Kamarajar and Annadurai?

Our Prime Minister has recently commented that India should abandon the education policies started by Macaulay during the British rule and produce more Sarvapalli Radhakrishnans. Of course, he has the luxary of addressing people (perhaps with a teleprompter) and never answering any questions. Radhakrishnan was born as Sarvapalli Radhakrishnayya to Sarvapalli Veeraswami and Seethamma, from a Telugu Brahmin family on 5 September 1888 in Tiruttani. Tiruttani is one of the six ‘padaiveedu’ (divine house) of Lord Murugan, who Tamils consider as their God and provider of the Tamil language. He had his early education at Voorhes College in Vellore. This was started by Mr. and Mrs. Ralph and Elizabeth Voorhees of the Reformed Church in America. He joined the Presidency College in Madras when he was 16 and got his Masters degree in 1907. The Wikipedia entry found [1] said he joined philosophy by chance rather than choice, which was not uncommon in his days, often dictated by affordability. His undergraduate Thesis was titled ‘The Ethics of the Vedanta and its Metaphysical Presuppositions’. The criticism of vedanta having no room for ethics was a motivation for his research. This perhaps explains our Prime Minister’s adulation. Radhakrishnan became the President of India and his birthday is celebrated as Teacher’s Day in India. Radhakrishnan grew to be one of the great philosophers in the last century.

Our Prime Minister would not like to recognize that he was in Congress which made him the President following the education he received from the missionary colleges. Osho, who became Bhagwan Rajneesh, was very critical of the choice for Teacher’s day and pointed out that it’s absurd to honor a teacher who has become President, i.e. a politician. [2] This started within a few months after Radhakrishnan becoming a President, which in my view is incorrect. India had just become a Democracy and our population was used to praising the King in his front and so it is not surprising. He served one term as President and may have liked to serve one more term but that was not to be. Radhakrishnan was a beneficiary of the education system started by Macaulay and learned enough to challenge the Christian missionary’s way of portraying Hindusim. William Meston and Alfred George Hogg, advisors of Radhakrishnan commended his Thesis. In turn, Radhakrishnan commended Prof. Hogg as his distinughuished teacher and one of the greatest Christian thinkers we had in India. Our Prime Minsiter and all those criticising Macaulay Education may do well to ask “how did we let Macaulay come here and write our Education policy?” I remember a meme spreading lies about Macaulay being circulated distorting his words. Some blame Moghuls and British for the conditions we were in when Macaulay came (I do not agree with this). In the large scheme of things, his arrival and education policy did help the people of India. Where is India without it’s people?

I wrote this blog on 24 December, the remembrance day for Periyar and MGR, two of the most popular leaders in Tamilnadu in the 20th century. MGR broke away from Karuanidhi’s DMK, started by Annadurai, and started ADMK which became AIADMK (All India Anna Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam), a few years later. Many in India are surprised by the Dravidian movement which has been ruling Tamilnadu since 1967. Some equate it with communism without having any understanding. DMK is as capitalistic as BJP is. Rajaji supported Annadurai when DMK was elected the first time in 1967, more on this later in this blog.

Why has Tamilnadu voted for the Dravidian parties since 1967? To understand this, we need to know Agathiyar. Recently, R. Balakrishnan, a retired IAS officer spoke about the myth of Agathiyar (Agastya) in Tamil. [3] Tamil is among the oldest language still widely spoken. Tholkappiyam, a grammar treatise on Tamil was written more than 2000 years ago. A myth was created by some that Agathiyar was sent from Himalayas during a wedding ceremony of Lord Shiva as the whole population attended the wedding [4]. Earth (which was only the Indian subcontinent in this myth), unable to bear the weight of all devotees, tilted with North going down and South going up. To bring balance, Agathiyar, a dwarf saint, was sent to South by Lord Shiva. Agathiyar saw Deccan to have grown too tall, higher than Himalayas and stepped on it and reduced its height. He thought Deccan had become too arrogant with undue height and had to be taught a lesson.

He brought some water enroute, kaveri river given by Shiva in a small vessel (kamandalam). While he was on a meditation on Deccan (near what is Thalakaveri, origin of Kaveri river), Lord Ganesha comes as a crow and tilts the vessel and Kaveri starts flowing. When Agathiyar reached South, earth regained the balance and was standing flat (perhaps on the nose of a tortoise which stood all the way down, to borrow the words of Narlikar, one of the posthumous Vigyanratna awardees. Our Government has recently decided scientists with exceptional contribution could still not become Bharatratna as awarded to CV Raman and CNR Rao earlier). Agathiyar taught the tribes living in south Tamil which was given to him by Shiva. Shiva apparently gave Tamil to Agastya in Banaras as some others were arrogant and speaking in Sanskrit and not respecting Agastya. According to this myth, he wrote the first grammar book in Tamil which no one has ever seen. He is claimed to be the guru of Tholkappiyar whose Tholkappiyam is available now. Their brilliance in creating a myth to control a population is increcible.

Linguistic scholars know the origin of Tamil and Sanskrit. For people who want to know some history, there are many books and I recommend ‘Tamil a biography’ written by David Shulman. [5] Those who want to believe Sanskrit or Tamil is the oldest and better than the other langauge(s) may continue to believe so and not read this book or learn any history. I was in Agartala recently and went to a Shiva temple there. I saw the statue of Shiva, Parvati and Ganesha. Perhpas, Murugan is not in their mythology. Murugan, the God Tamils worshipped was accommodated as the second son of Shiva in South and became known as Karthik in some parts of India. Clearly, whether Tamil came from Shiva or Murugan, it does not matter anymore. It can be appropriated and given a date after Sanskrit, which I suspect is the reason for creating such myths!

At Agartala temple taken on 22 May 2025

If I look at Agathiyar and Macaulay, the later seems to be an honest real human being who came to India with people stuck on past glory and introduced education for all. Certainly East India Companty did not come to India with the mission to teach and emancipate the locals. They came to make profits. The UK did not start ruling India to uplift the population here but to loot its wealth for its own benefit. Bengal famine was man (Churchill) made and Sashi Tharoor can talk eloquently about this. He may not like to talk about how uppercastes in Kerala used religion and their association with kings to exploit the people. The UK/Europe, likewise, would not like to characterize Churchill as a mass murderer but would characterize Hitler as one. Coming back to Macaulay, Radhakrishnan ‘s advisors from UK, after teaching him research methodology, appreciated his work and gave him the degree. They did not try to shut him down for showing that the view of Christianity about Hinduism was wrong. They were open minded scholars willing to learn from a student. However, those who created the myth of Agastya, would like the myth to continue and they are not open minded to look at any evidence.

Tamil had been in use all over India in the past. Brahui language spoken in northwest Pakistan/Afghanistan is closely related to Tamil and other Dravidian languages. Apparently, Brahui also means ‘God’s language’. Gandhi gave them a way to appropriate Brahui by saying “Ishwar Allah Tere Naam’. However, their reason for existence is to exclude Islam and hence, Urdu a language really developed in India may be considered foreign soon. Those days, everywhere, God was there for explaining things people could not understand. I suppose, this will continue as long as humans manage to keep earth inhabitable for them and survive. As a proverb in Tamil says, what we could learn is only a handful and we could never learn, is like the whole world (கற்றது கைமண் அளவு கல்லாதது உலகளவு).

People speaking Tamil have eventually settled in what is the state of Tamilnadu today in India. Of course, some Tamils have migrated to Sri Lanka, Singapore, and Malaysia [6] where Tamil is one of the official languages. Agathiyar is a mythological individual who was invented to appropriate the people and their language by people who wanted to claim Sanskrit as the mother of all languages. This is the worst anyone can do to someone else. While Prime Minister is condemning the Macaulay education, his party and Governor are trying to propogate the myth today. TN Governor Ravi and his party/group associates are not trying to honour one of the oldest language but trying to appropriate it without ever contributing to it. Tamil scholars have slammed their attempt to recreate the ‘Agashtya expedition’ based on a myth to appropriate what is not their own. [7] According to the report in the Federal website, the organizers of Kasi Tamil Sangam from IIT Madras did not respond to the critique’s comments. Unlike the advisors of Radhakrishnan from UK, the organizers from IIT Madras did not want to listen and discuss but participated in propagating the myth. They are using the IIT Madras created by Nehru who wanted scientific temper to be in the Constitution, to do exactly the opposite. Thinking about it, this is not different from the myth of Agathiyar who was invented to keep the people in dark.

Periyar came from a rich family and joined congress and worked with Rajaji, who was then a tall leader from the Madras presidency. During a visit to Kasi, Periyar was discriminated by the local Brahmins which changed him. In Tamilnadu as well, he did not like Congress party conferences serving food for Brahmins separately. I joined the Indian Institute of Science in 1997 and have written early about its beginning. [8] In this huge campus of about 370 acres, no restaurants were allowed to serve non-vegetarian food. Student hostels had separate vegetarian and non-vegetarian messes and one which served both. In the annual lunch arranged for all faculty and family, non-vegetarian food was not allowed. When I became the Secretary in the Faculty club organizing the annual lunch, I arranged non-vegetarian food for those who prefer that. Not surprisingly, that was a significant majority. While those promoting such myth get annoyed with the ‘minority appeasement’, they promote majority harassment by imposing the minority preferences in public places.

I was in a committee to bring a restaurant in the campus. The committee decided the menu and fixed prices for every item, including vegetarian and non-vegetarian dishes. When the restaurant opened, only vegetarian items were served. When I inquired with the management, they informed me that some influential people had asked them not to offer non-vegetarian dishes. After complaints from me and others, they started serving non-vegetarian dishes outside the restaurant in an open area. One day, I saw a students group wanting to sit together and the hotel management not allowing them as some of them wanted non-vegetarian and others vegetarians. They wanted to sit together and eat. I complained to the Director that IISc was practicing segregation and the restaurant started serving all items inside. This happened during 2005-2010. I can imagine how it was during Periyar’s time. Most of these staunch vegetarians did not miss a chance to go abroad for their studies, conferences or vacation and rub shoulders with Europeans, Americans, Japanese or Chinese whose primary food is meat, dominated by beef. However, they wanted the public space in India to remain vegetarian. No-one can object to how anyone lived in their home or their food preferences. While using public space, forcing a majority to follow your way of life is unacceptable. Recently, Karnataka CM was accused of having non-vegetarian when some of them were celebrating some festival. This must end. Periyar’s fight was not just about food.

Rajaji as Chief Minister of Tamilnadu did a few things that costed his position twice. During his term as CM before independence, he enforced Hindi and lost his seat. He asked Tamils to speak Hindi on the street and Tamil at home. I have written two other blogs on this issue [9,10] for those who are interested to learn more. Two things he did as CM in 1950s was to close down a large number of Government schools and introduce vacational training (kula kalvi) for students to learn their family skills, carpentry, goldsmith, … Periyar opposed both strongly and encouraged Kamaraj to take on Rajaji within Congress. Rajaji was forced to resign and his candidate for CM was defeated by Kamaraj who became the CM. Periyar asked Kamaraj to fight in Gudiyatham, far from his home, to become a Congress MLA. Annadurai did not field any candidate from DMK. Kamaraj won the election against a communist candidate.

On becoming CM, he re-opened all the schools closed by Rajaji. He stopped ‘kula kalvi’ plan of Rajaji. Kamaraj is called a ‘Leader who opened the eyes of the people through education’ (கல்விக் கண் திறந்த தலைவர்) in Tamilnadu. He is considered by some historians as the first Dravidian CM in Tamilnadu. Later, as Congress CM, when he was trying to impose Hindi, Annadurai led DMK to defeat him. In 1967, when Annadurai won and formed the first DMK Government, Rajaji was supporting him. Let me repeat: Periyar and Annadurai supported Kamaraj to become Congress CM against the policies to deny education for all. Rajaji supported Annadurai to defeat Kamaraj as he did not like some of the policies of Congress at that time. Annadurai as CM, changed the name of the state to Tamil Nadu and led Tamilnadu for two years before passing away in 1969. Like some feel about Patel who passed away within a few years after Independence, I wish Annadurai lived a few more years. Today, in Tamilnadu, one group claims Bharathiyar mentioned Tamilnadu before Annadurai. This is tried after the attempt by TN Governor Ravi to suggest the name of the state to be Tamilagam received a lukewarm response. One of the legislations Annadurai brought was to legalize marriages that were conducted without any rituals sanctified by a religious leader. As I have mentioned in another blog, my marriage was conducted this way.

During the first half of twentieth century several social reformers were fighting against caste based discrimination of fellow humans in Hinduism. Different leaders chose different paths. Ambedkar converted to Buddhism. Narayana Guru did not convert but reformed Hinduism in Kerala and ensured that upper castes do not exploit lower castes. Ramalinga Vallalar denounced all rituals and promoted worshipping only light without any form. He wore only white clothes. Gandhi preached against untouchability and wanted the temples to be opened for all castes. He had a lot of discussion with Periyar and Ambedkar about social reforms. Shahu Maharaj in Kohlapur started schools for everyone including women. When I visited Shivaji University Kohlapur, I was gifted a biography of Shahu Maharaj which was dedicated to some of the reformers including Periyar, image shown below. [11] Periyar chose atheism as he was convinced that much of the population was controlled by religion to keep them in dark. For those who follow Tamil, I would encourage you to listen to the speech in the video of Reference 4 below. For others, I have given the gist above. Periyar and Rajaji remained friends for life and they both lived to mid 90s.

Oplus_17170464

Bharathiyar’s poems are being discussed in Tamilnadu today with every group making different claims. Bharathiyar is one of my favourite poet. I have mentioned often that he deserved the Nobel in literature except that he wrote mostly in Tamil and in his time, no one could promote him. He passed away when he was only 39 and had written from his childhood until his death. I have read his translation of Bhagavad Gita in Tamil with a long Introduction written by him. He was a staunch devotee of Krishna and wrote many poems on Krishna. He was a liberal at heart and wrote about women’s liberation and abolition of caste as well. He evolved and naturally his views evolved. For those who can follow Tamil, I recommend Sugi Sivam’s speech on this issue [12]. Towards his last years Bharathiyaar wrote “கடலினைத் தாவும் குரங்கும், வெங் கனலிற் பிறந்ததோர் செவ்விதழ்ப் பெண்ணும், வடமலை தாழ்ந்தத னாலே தெற்கில் வந்து சமன்செயும் குட்டை முனியும், நதியி னுள்ளேமுழு கிப்போய் அந்த நாகர் உலகிலோர் பாம்பின் மகளை விதியுற வேமணம் செய்த திறல் வீமனும் கற்பனை என்பது கண்டோம்”. In English “We now understand that the monkey flying over an ocean (hanuman), a beautiful woman born in a fire, the dwarf saint coming from Himalayas to balance the earth (agastya), and Bima who went under water to the Naga world to marry a snake’s daughter are all fictions’. Today, as every political party in Tamilnadu tries to own him and ask their friends to condemn him, the fact is Bharathidasan, who changed his original name of Subburathinam was active in Dravidian politics. Kalki (author of the popular novel Ponniyin Selvan and Congress supporter in those days) started promoting Bharathiyar only after his death and did not appreciate Bharathiyar’s progressive writing.

To conclude, I find those who created a myth of Agathiyar to appropriate Tamil to be more evil than Macaulay who came here and drafted an Educational policy to take education to all. The Union Government introduced the Viswakarma Program recently, which made Rajaji lose his CM position in TN. At the same time, the Government introduced a plan to take students from Gurukul (studying Vedas?) to IIT (13). On the one hand, they claim Vedas have everything that we can ever know. On the other hand, they sneak through a plan to admit students from Gurukul to IIT. If this is not an admission that Vedas do not have everything and in today’s India IIT education promises a good life, what else can be? If one were to think logically, Government should have given a plan to admit students who may qualify for Viswakarma program to IIT and help them update their skills at the Indian Institutes of Technologies. They have introduced a plan to stop the education of people who work with their hands. They introduce special plans to give IIT Education to students who go to Gurukul! Tamilnadu Government rejected the Viswakarma program and introduced another bill to support people who are above 30. Union Government introduced the bill to support youth just after their highschool. I wish a middle ground is found.

No wonder, most people in Tamilnadu today remember the important contributions of Bharathiyar, Periyar, Kamarjar and Annadurai as education for all became a motto in the state. This was continued by every CM after them from Karunanidhi, MGR, Jeyalalitha and now Stalin. The results are clear for those who want to see. Empowering the population can be the only goal for any Government. If a Government tries to promote a myth as knowledge to keep the people in dark, I would be doubtful of their intentions. Home minister wants to remove English and introduce Hindi which neither has great literature as Tamil or Sanskrit nor modern knowledge as English. Is this yet another way of keeping people in the dark? Mohan Bhagawat says he would not care about the Constitution and India is a Hindu Nation. Modi says he and Gawai rose to their positions thanks to the Constitution. I would like our Constitution to guide our growth.

References:

  1. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sarvepalli_Radhakrishnan Found on 24 December 2025.
  2. https://www.osho.com/osho-online-library/osho-talks/celebration-completion-radhakrishnan-a643cc1a-4ad?p=79716b3b872b30cfa6ab1cf65246c88a Found on 24 December 2025
  3. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UlWlMJZwfhA Agashtyar: A relook. Speech in Tamil.
  4. https://youtu.be/EUhLto9aQLc?si=cR4zYuoHVR0HXON7 Listened on 24 December 2025
  5. David Shulman, Tamil a biography 2016 https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/29940795-tamil
  6. Somewhat coincidentally (helped by Google and AI?) an audio-recording of a speech in Tamil by M R Radha in Malaysia was recommended by YouTube. I would recommend this for anyone interested in learning how Tamilnadu and Malaysia were in those days. https://youtu.be/LdgXUgrZaBw?si=aKEJbglkoc9e_cVw
  7. https://thefederal.com/category/states/south/tamil-nadu/tamil-scholar-tenkasi-to-kashi-agasthya-expedition-217197 (Found on 24 December 2025).
  8. https://earunan.org/2018/05/27/j-n-tata-planned-the-indian-institute-of-science-and-swami-vivekananda-did-not-influence-it/
  9. https://earunan.org/2025/10/21/birth-centenary-of-m-ilanchezhiyan-social-activist-writer-and-an-excellent-academic/
  10. https://earunan.org/2019/09/14/languages-in-india-some-experiences-and-a-suggestion/
  11. Jaysingrao Pawar, “Rajarshi Shahu Chhatrapati: A social revolutionary”, Maharashtra Ithihas Probodhini, Kohlapur. 2013.
  12. திருப்பரங்குன்றம் யாருக்கு சொந்தம் | Suki Sivam Speech | Thiruparankundram – YouTube Accessed on 24 December 2025.
  13. https://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/india/government-throws-open-iits-for-students-from-gurukuls/articleshow/122961118.cms#:~:text=India’s%20education%20policy%20is%20undergoing,modern%20scientific%20and%20academic%20inquiry. (Accessed on 25 December 2025)
Standard
Uncategorized

Birth centenary of M. Ilanchezhiyan, social activist, writer and an excellent academic!

Some time ago, one of my colleague informed me of a space-time graph in which one can place individuals depending on the influence they had. All humans have the common origin and each one is represented by a point depending on how far their name and fame extended in space and time. Most human beings lie very close to the origin with their influence only extending to their family in their lifetime. Leaders who transformed societies for the better or worse would appear diagonally far away from the origin, as their influence goes beyond their birth place and date. This graph has only positive axes. The distance between the person and those who learn about the person is given in x axis and the time difference between the two is given in y axis. As one can see, no one who lived before the person’s time could know about the person. Some names that come to my mind are Thiruvalluvar, Auvayyar, Buddha, Asoka, Jesus, Raja Raja Chola, Cleopatra, Da Vinci, Napolean, Lincoln, Marx, Hitler and Gandhi. These people are known to many living all over the world for centuries after their birth. It is likely that there are several others in the human history who made contributions which influenced beyond their time and space but remain anonymous. During the time of Goutam Buddha and Mahavir, Makkhali Gosala founded Ajivika (aseevakam in Tamil) and he remains unknown to most now (1). From what I read, Makhali Gosala had thoughts that resonate with me today. Both he and his religion have disappeared now and maybe humanity had been influenced by his thought without knowing. Considering my experience over the last 60 years, I can think of a few whose contributions last but their names fade away. Several of the very influential people that I had known when I was young, are virtually unknown to the youth of today. A. R. Venkatachalapathy, Sahitya Academy winner for Tamil books in 2024, wrote the biography of V. O. Chidambaram Pillai (2), who is popularly called as ‘Kappalottiya Thamizhan’ (Tamil who owned a ship). To my surprise, I found out that most of the youth of today have not heard of him.

Today, 21 October 2025 happens to be the birth centenary of Prof. M. Ilanchezhian who lived in Chennai and Kanchipuram and contributed a lot in his lifetime. I suspect, very few living today know of him. I must reveal that I got to know him as he happens to be my wife’s uncle (elder brother of her father).

There is a Wikipedia page on Prof. M. Ilanchezhian now (3). He was born as the first child of Manikkavasagam and Abirami Ammal in Perunagar near Kanchipuram on 21 October 1925. Father Manikkavasgam was very concerned about the disparity in society we had during his time. Besides, the status of Tamil language in the then Madras state was rather poor. India has a group of people who managed to remain powerful and Tamil was mentioned as ‘narabasha’ (language for the people) and Sanskrit was mentioned as Devabasha. Besides, all classical music festivals would have songs in Telugu and Tamil was forbidden. Tamil is among the oldest language that is still widely spoken and has a rich literature starting from more than two millennia ago. In the middle of last century, Dhandapani Desikar sang in Tamil in Madras (Chennai now) and this upset the organizers. They decided to wash the stage with cow urine claiming the stage has been polluted (4). The popular magazine Kalki wrote an editorial justifying the action. This was strongly condemned by many in the state. After sensing the mood in the state, editor and popular novelist Kalki changed his stand. He had himself written beautiful songs in Tamil (kaatrinilae varum geetham comes to mind). This was sung by M. S. Subbulakshmi and the song was very popular (5). His novel Ponniyin Selvan was very popular as well and made into to a successful movie recently by Maniratnam. Nadars were not allowed to enter the Meenakshi Temple in Madurai and Mookka Nadar was lynched for defying the ban. I have written another blog on this (6). Times have indeed changed now. Recently, I visited Thiruchendur and found out that Shiv Nadar had donated for renovation of the Temple. I understand he donated funds for building the Kalaingar Karunanidhi Library in my hometome Madurai as well. However, during the first half of 20th century, the situation demanded a social reform movement. For most of the people birth determined what one could hope to do in life. Justice party was founded with the main objective of social justice. This led to the Dravidar Kazhagam (DK) and Periyar was invited to lead the organization. Manikka Vasagam was very active in Justice Party and then DK. He had changed his name to Manimozhiyar and was popularly known as Kanchi Manimozhiyar (7). He pushed Annadurai to start a political party and DMK was born. He was an MLA from Saidapet and stepped down to make Karunanidhi an MLA from Saidapet. Though he did not contest, he actively campaigned in the consituency. His son Kumarasamy was with him through all these and changed his name to Ilanchezhian.

Ilanchezhian attended Muthaialupettai High School and completed his SSLC (Secondary School Leaving Certificate), which was after completing 11 years of School. Tamil Nadu had 11+1 school and pre-university before starting college those days. This became 10+2 just after I completed my SSLC. He got BA(Hons) in Economics from Pachaiappa’s College, Madras. He joined Pachaiappa’s College in 1952 as a faculty in Economics. He became a Professor and Head of the Department and moved as Principal at Pachaiappa’s College in Kanchipuram. He also served as Principal at Kandasamy Naidu college before retiring in 1984. However, before he started his academic career, he was actively involved in Justice Party, DK and DMK. He worked as co-editor for the newspaper titled ‘Porwaal’ (War sword) with Manimozhiyar as the Editor. He wrote Editorials which were powerful. His Editorials were published as a book in 2009 (8). He authored a book titled ‘Thamizhan thodutha por’ (War waged by Tamils) telling the story of the anti-Hindi protest that controlled the state politics (9). The cover of the book is shown in the image below. The father-son duo were very active in the social reform movement of the Madras state. It is thanks to the work of many like them that all around development is seen today in Tamil Nadu.

I read a news recently about the Madhya Pradesh Government telling the Supreme Court in India that Caste was founded on Social Harmony (10). When I read a statement like this proposed by a Government or those holding power, I cannot but think how hollow they sound. Ambedkar did not believe Hinduism will solve the problems originating from the caste hierarchy and converted to Buddhism before he passed away. He wrote a book titled ‘Annihilation of Caste’ (11). I would be happy to read from the sections that were at the lower end of caste hierarchy declaring that ‘caste is a western conspiracy and we enjoyed the social harmony’. If these statements come from those who are on top, I see only a conflict of interest. They are justifying a system that allowed them to rule and prosper.

One of the decisions Justice party made was to introduce reservations. Today, it is difficult to miss memes that claim reserved category students got admission after securing zero marks in some parts of India. In 2012, I found out that the minimum marks required form admission to MBBS in Tamil Nadu was very similar across all categories. This was possible as the reservation helped all sections to grow. I wrote an Editorial in Current Science giving the data (12). I had written a blog on reservation in India and affirmative action in the USA earlier (13). I was just reading the autobiography of Katalin Kariko (14), winner of Nobel prize in physiology in 2023. Her father was a butcher and she grew up in postwar Hungary, a communist nation under the umbrelage of USSR. She mentions about school students names ending with F, indicating that their parents are physical labourers. Hungary thought children of labourarers should be educated and created opportunities to do it. Birth should not decide the future f any kid. Most everyone who has completed high school would have learned about the van der Waals equation (15). van der Waals was from a carpenter’s family and Netherlands decided to give education to all when he was young. He started school late and got his Ph. D. when he was 36. It had the equation named after him. Curt Witting was born in a place that was captured by different countries of Europe in his earlier years. His mother took him in a boat to Chicago where he grew up in a bad neighbourhood. Illinois decided to educate all children irrespective of their background. He became a successful experimental physical chemist having a great career at the University of Southern California (16).

Our caste and patriarchy all over the world may have given social harmony, when no one questions hierarchy. As they say, if you love someone, set them free. If they come back they are yours. If not, they were never yours. Using societal controls and planting a narrative of social harmony may bring stability. Not growth. To me this could certainly be one of the reasons for India not growing in the last millennia after having a great past. People like Ilanchezhiyan and Manimozhiyar fought for social justice and to a large extent they achieved it. It is a pity that many who benefitted from their thoughts and actions do not know them. Much worse, some of them are led to believe that they have been cheated by this movement and we should return to the glorious past. I do not know where Prof. Ilanchezhian would appear in the graph, near the origin or away in the diagonal. I am certain that his contributions have helped humanity. On his birth centenary, I remember him with gratitude.

References:

  1. https://www.britannica.com/topic/Ajivika I found this to be a good cite to learn some history. Accessed on 21 October 2025.
  2. A. R. Venkatachalapathy, Swadeshi Steam, Penguin Books (2023)
  3. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/M._Ilanchezhian Accessed on 21 October 2025.
  4. I found a historical article on this by a Japanese author and will add this here. Most today are not aware of this and they do not understand the reasons for the protest. This incident was also discussed in ‘Aettikku potti’ a feature in Kalki magazine.
  5. I love this song: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ikqFFjO_2cg
  6. https://earunan.org/2015/02/01/rosa-parks-and-mooka-nadar-recent-tales-from-the-worlds-oldest-and-largest-democracies/
  7. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kanchi_Manimozhiar accessed on 22 October 2025
  8. Thalayanga Ilakkiyam (Literary Editorials) Vasantha Publications, 2009 (Contains 30 of the impactful editorials published in Porwaal).
  9. Archive can be found here: https://archive.org/details/230225-193143/page/n25/mode/2up The book is still available.
  10. https://indianexpress.com/article/india/madhya-pradesh-govt-caste-system-founded-on-principles-of-social-harmony-10309526/ accessed on 21 October 2025.
  11. https://ccnmtl.columbia.edu/projects/mmt/ambedkar/web/readings/aoc_print_2004.pdf accessed on 21 October 2025.
  12. Editorial available online 0555.pdf accessed on 21 October 2025.
  13. https://earunan.org/2015/05/27/reservation-vs-merit-in-india-or-affirmative-action-vs-equal-opportunity-in-the-usa/
  14. https://www.penguin.co.uk/books/462526/breaking-through-by-kariko-katalin/9781529936391 accessed on 21 October 2025.
  15. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Van_der_Waals_equation accessed on 22 October 2025
  16. https://curtwittig.com/ accessed on 21 October 2025.

Standard
Uncategorized

Gandhi, King and Mandela

On this 2nd October 2025, Gandhi Jayanti (birth anniversary), I am trying to remember these three men who had enormous influence in the World. Not just in world politics but also in influencing the masses. I had written a blog earlier about Gandhi’s visit to IISc on 12 July 1927 (1).

I am very active in Facebook and have posted my views on everything that interests me now and then. I watched the movie “American Sniper” directed by Clint Eastwood and released in 2014, recently during a long flight. The sniper (Chris Kyle, performed by Bradley Cooper) says once: An eye for an eye! I was reminded of one of the famous quote by Gandhi: Eye for an eye will make the whole world blind. I posted about this after returning from the trip. Apparently, it is an age-old concept and appears in the book of Exodus in Bible, Old Testament (Exodus 21:24) according to a Google search enabled by AI today. Humanity has been discussing about crime and punishment since we started living as a society. One of the successful movies of Director Shankar, Anniyan, lists out punishments for some crimes from Garudapuranam and it was horrifying. Nassim Nicholas Taleb discusses evolution of moral symmetry in his popular book “Skin in the Game” (2). He talks about silver rule (Do not treat others the way you would not like them to treat you) and golden rule (Treat others the way you would like them to treat you) and says silver rule is better. He points out that the silver rule tells you to mind your own business and not decide what is good for others. I see this in the life of Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi, who became known as Mahatma Gandhi (Mahatma meaning a great soul).

Mohandas was born in a well-to-do family in Porbandar, Gujarat. As a child, he had read the story of Harishchnadra, who would always speak the truth without worrying about the consequences. He trained as a Lawyer at the Inner Temple in London and started practicing law when he was 22. Clearly, he was not an activist yet. After 2 years of not so successful practice in India, he went to South Africa to represent an Indian merchant in a lawsuit. He lived in South Africa for 21 years. His life in South Africa transformed him completely and he became a civil-rights activist. While traveling in First Class in a train, he was thrown out of the train as First Class was only for the Whites. Most humans, irrespective of their space and time, may have felt discriminated at some point in time in their life. Rarely, any of them recognize that they may have discriminated others in other circumstances. Gandhi was different. He immediately realized that people were discriminated in India based on caste and we had untouchability practiced at that time. He followed the silver rule quoted above. He chose non-violent means to fight for the rights of every human being. His autorbiography was titled ‘Experiments with Truth’ and he embodied truth and non-violence. He returned to India in 1915 and led the freedom movement and is widely considered the Father of Nation in India. Even today, I see a lot of people who are convinced that they should be treated well even while treating fellow citizens with contempt. Ironically, some of them now call Gandhi a hypocrite.

While on a visit to the Indian Institute of Science, he pointed out that the 30 Lakhs donated by Tata and also the generous contributions from the Mysore King, both originated from the same labour of the poor millions! He accused the elites of taking the poor for granted and acting as if ‘they knew what is good for everyone’. One can see why Taleb preferred silver rule to the golden rule. Gandhi wanted all the research efforts to have the welfare of the poor as the main objective. As I mentioned in my blog, I do not really agree with this as a true scientist has to pursue research in search of truth, which Gandhi wanted to represent. The outcome may or maynot benefit the poor immediately or eventually. He said ‘No taxation without representation’ and that is the Skin in the Game given as title by Taleb. I read about the shut down of the US Government which would affect every Government employee, except the ones in Congress and Senate and all those directly involved in the Government. All these law makers have exempted themselves from any such shutdown that would affect salary disbursement to the employees. Clearly, they have no skin in their game. Gandhi did. He influenced the world population significantly. Einstein once remarked: “Generations to come will scarce believe that such a one as this ever in flesh and blood walked upon this earth”.

Among the leaders who were significantly influenced by Gandhi are Martin Luther King, the civil rights activist from USA and Nelson Mandela from South Africa. Decades after Gandhi left South Africa, the native africans were exploited by the White settlers. Eventually, the whole world boycotted South Africa and apertheid was lifted and democracy born. Nelson Mandela was in prison for three decades. He was released and won the election to become the President of South Africa. He once remarked: If you want to make peace with your enemy, he becomes your friend. It would have been easier for him to arrest everyone who was responsible for prisoning him and put them in prision. Eye for an eye. Real leaders want everyone to grow together. Clint Eastwood made another great film on Mandela titled ‘Invictus’ with Morgan Freeman portraying Mandela. Despite the uneasy relationship with the White settlers and the native Africans based on mutual lack of trust and respect, Mandela realized the importance of building trust and respect. He also realized the importance of sport and discussed with the White captain of Rugby team Francois Pienaar, played by Matt Daemon and supported them to win the World cup. Mandela’s objective is peaceful coexistence and progress and was never divisive.

Martin Luther King was influenced by Gandhi and led a non-violent movement to end civil discrimination in the US. Though slavery was abolished by Lincoln in the 19th century, discrimination of the native americans and african americans continued until the 1960s. I had written a blog about Rosa Parks, who was asked to vacate a seat in the bus for a white man earlier (3). When a White law maker reminded King that no law will make a white man love a black man, King responded: I want a law that will forbid the White man from beating up a black man. He was particular about the well-being of all his followers. During a march for voting rights from Selma to Montgomery, with a brutal police force awaiting them, King called off the march and returned. His followers were upset, angry and confused. He abandoned the march as he feared for violence and loss of lives. He eventually succeeded in his attempts to get voting rights for every citizen through legal and non-violent means.

The photos taken from https://www.thehansindia.com/hans/opinion/news-analysis/relevancy-of-gandhi-king-mandela-ideals-802437

Prior to Gandhi, we had Buddha and Jesus. One of the popular songs of the cine-actor turned politician, MGR, film starts with the question ‘Why were Buddha, Jesus and Gandhi born? They were born to uplift the humans’ (4). This was written by Vaali, who had penned many songs for MGR. MGR in another film song, also written by Vaali, characterized Annadurai, the first CM of Tamil Nadu from the Dravidian movement as Gandhi of South (5). Annadurai was always against his party workers losing their life and career and he advised them to be mindful of their responsibilities. He brought in changes to the society through convincing people, winning elections and bringing in laws. One such law sanctifies marriages conducted without any rituals and not sanctifed by a religious head. Somewhat coincidentally, my marriage was conducted in this way and it is legal thanks to the law he brought in. Taleb in his book classifies people in to three different kinds: People with no skin in the game, skin in the game and skin in the game of others or soul in the game. His example for the three kinds are politicians, activists and revolutionaries (dissidents). Those with no skin in the game seek awards, prizes, honors, ceremonies and medals. Those who have soul in their game get the highest (even only) award which is death for one’s ideas and positions. He lists Socrates, Jesus, Saint Catherine, Hypatia and Joan of Arc. We have added Gandhi and King to the list. Thankfully, Mandela had a full life. Buddha managed it too. However, the powers that be who were affected by Buddha’s rebel could ensure that his fight against rituals was annuled eventually. Will the humanity ever learn and progress together?

References:

  1. https://earunan.org/2017/07/11/indian-institute-of-science-on-12th-of-july-mahatma-gandhi-and-morris-travers/
  2. Nassim Nicholas Taleb, “Skin in the game: Hidden asymmetries in daily life”, Penguin Books, printed in India by Thomson Press India Limited, New Delhi. Page 19.
  3. https://earunan.org/2015/02/01/rosa-parks-and-mooka-nadar-recent-tales-from-the-worlds-oldest-and-largest-democracies/
  4. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6TsCVgK5umM
  5. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RY3Q-PDv9qg

Standard
Uncategorized

Science and politics

The organizers of the Astronomy Olympiad this year decided to suspend Israel from participation over its military actions in Gaza (1). I learnt from someone that a similar decision suspending Russia was taken in the previous edition following Russia’s war against Ukraine. A group of scientists have complained to the Prime Minister of India (2). They urged the PMO to take swift action urging the government to step in and create clear guidelines to prevent future events from being politicised. My personal view on this topic is that Scientists should raise above the differences that erupt between nations from time to time and continue people to people interactions. Not only science, sports, arts and all other activities that involve participation from the public should continue as much as possible. Banning cricket with Pakistan is invariably done all the time by BCCI and Indian Government. I was lucky to have had a chance to visit Karachi to attend a scientific conference in 2014. I enjoyed my visit and found that people there are very much like us.

I have been an Editor for the Journal of Molecular Structure. After the Ukraine war, the group of Editors of this Journal decided to ban articles from authors with Russian affiliation. I strongly objected to this and asked them if they considered any such action when the US started an unprovoked war against Iraq. There was no response to this pointed question. Significant majority of the Editors were from Europe and with a majority decision, the Journal stopped accepting articles from Russia. The publisher Elsevier did not follow this policy. They permitted the Editors to reject papers from Russia, as Editors make the final decision about accepting a manuscript. None of the other Journals published by Elsevier did this. Though, I objected, I let the majority decide and did not handle manuscripts from Russia. After sometime, Editors decided to stop this ban. Both announcements were made in public in the Journal website and I am not disclosing any private information (3).

Despite my personal views on this, I find the letter written by 300+ scientists as the real, narrow political activism and not the decision by Olympiad. As mentioned above, the same organization has suspended Russian participation after the Ukraine war. Firstly, the letter misleads the Government by claiming some Indian scientists hijacked the forum and took this action to embarrass the Government. This is a very difficult conclusion to reach given the history of the organization. The event this year happened in TIFR. However, the Olympiad organization has representatives from many countries. They have released a statement clearing the air (4), which reads as follows : “The resolution to suspend Israel from future International Olympiad on Astronomy and Astrophysics (IOAA) editions over its military actions in Gaza was taken by an overwhelming majority of the international board consisting of over 120 individuals from 63 different countries”. They were worried about the starvation and genocide in Gaza and decided that they should take some action. On 10th August 2025, an emergency security council meeting of the UN has warned Israel from taking over Gaza (5). Clearly, the Astronomy Olympiad was not acting in isolation driven by any ideology. Perhaps, acting on humanitarian considerations and worrying about mass murder are some condemnable ‘ideology’ for the group of scientists who have condemned the faculty members from India and complained to the PMO. None of them had any clue that within a short period, Indian PM will attend the SCO meet in China and join the condemnation of US and Israel for their unprovoked attack on Iran (6).

The action by the Indian scientists is rather unfortunate. Should scientists have any consideration beyond their work? There is no right answer to this question. Saha felt Scientists should be active in nation building and join the freedom fight. He wanted to write a science policy for India before independence. Raman felt it was not for scientists to do this and was focusing on his work. The book by Abha Sur titled Dispersed Radiance discusses this in detail (7). Einstein wrote to the US president persuading US to work on nuclear bomb to stop Germany. He would not have imagined that Germany would stop before the nuclear bomb and use of nuclear bomb on Japan may not have been necessary to stop Japan which was already down. It is very difficult to justify the second bomb on Nagasaki. I did visit Hiroshima and one becomes numb looking at the museum there. Nuclear bombs are the result of chain reactions but the chain reaction this created in pushing more and more nations to go nuclear is extremely dangerous. Though Einstein wrote to the US President to go nuclear, I am not sure if he wrote to any Government urging them to take action on any other scientist. The American Chemical Society had concerns about the role played by Peter Debye in Germany and contemplated withdrawing his name from the award given for contributions to physical chemistry. The award continues in Debye’s name. I had written an article on Debye in Resonance which gives some references to this (8).

I read the letter and none of the accusations would stand any scrutiny. The Olympiad released the statement taking responsibility for the action. South Africa was practicing apartheid and international boycatt did help in bringing an end to the apertheid. India played the first cricket match with South Africa when the apartheid and boycatt ended.

I joined the International Advisory Board of the Horizons in Hydrogen Bond Research Conference in 2011, just after successfully completing an IUPAC project to redefine hydrogen bond. When I joined the board, most of the members were from Europe with few from the USA and one from Japan and none from India. I have been attending this biannual conference without fail ever since. The series of conferences goes back to 1977 and was started by Prof. Lucjan Sobczyk in Poland. This year it will be in Germany (9). In 2015, the conference was held in Poland and there was a felicitation of Prof. Sobczyk. I was moved by his talk after the felicitation. He mentioned that scientists used this conference to meet continuously during the cold war. The conference alternated between East and West Europe and was never held anywhere else in the globe. In 2011, I volunteered to organize this in India and the committee turned it down. I realized the reason when I was listening to Prof. Sobczyk. Everything changes with time and in particular politics. India will host this conference in 2027 with Prof. Aloke Das of IISER, Pune as the convener. I only wish the Scientists from India did not write any such letter to PMO accusing the fellow scientists and showed some maturity.

References:

  1. https://www.thehindu.com/sci-tech/science/astronomy-olympiad-held-in-mumbai-this-year-suspends-israel-from-future-editions/article69954499.ece (accessed on 2 September 2025)
  2. https://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/city/mumbai/israels-ouster-from-mumbai-event-splits-indian-scientists/articleshow/123574227.cms (accessed on 2 September 2025)
  3. https://www.sciencedirect.com/journal/journal-of-molecular-structure/about/announcements (Accessed on 2 September 2025).
  4. ‘https://sciencechronicle.in/2025/08/31/ioaa-statement-clears-the-air-on-israels-suspension-from-future-astronomy-olympiad-events/ (Accessed on 2 September 2025).
  5. https://news.un.org/en/story/2025/04/1161816 (accessed on2 September 2025)
  6. https://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/videos/international/india-joins-sco-nations-in-condemning-israel-u-s-pahalgam-finds-mention-in-tianjin-declaration/videoshow/123632965.cms (Accessed on 2 September 2025).
  7. https://navayana.org/books/2012/10/10/dispersed-radiance-caste-gender-and-modern-science-in-india/?v=13b5bfe96f3e
  8. E. Arunan, “Peter Debye” Resonance, Journal of Education December 2010 http://www.ias.ac.in/article/fulltext/reso/015/12/1056-1059
  9. https://hbond2025.desy.de/ (Accessed on 2 September 2025)
Standard
Uncategorized

Even by crossing the oceans, chase wealth!

I suspect anyone who has seen the title and decided to read this blog could guess what I plan to write. Fulfilling an election promise, Trump decided to deport illegal immigrants from various countries in an army flight. Columbian President Gustavo Petro posted bravely lecturing Trump and within a few hours had to toe the line. He decided not to let US deport Citizens of Columbia in an Army flight as criminals and arranged Columbian flight to bring its citizens back with some diginity. An army flight from US deported 104 Indian citizens and the men among them were handcuffed and chained during the long flight that landed in Amritsar. Some are pointing out that the illegal immigrants have indeed committed a crime and deserved the treatment. Opposition parties are appalled at the inhuman treatment of Indian citizens. External affairs minister has pointed out that US has been deporting our citizens periodically and about 15000 have been deported since 2009, when the second UPA term started. I do not have any comments about the reactions of the ruling or opposition parties. I was thinking about my flight to USA in 1986, when I went to the Kansas State University to do my Ph. D and some of what I have read in Tamil.

During the mid 1980s, there used to be email groups in the USA, named soc.culture.xxx where members could exchange emails among themselves. This could be the earliest avatar of social media, like Facebook, Twitter or WhatsApp. I joined the soc.culture.india. I found one email with a title ‘x+1 syndrome’. It discussed about the life of a typical graduate student, like me, coming from India. I could relate to some parts of the article. When one reaches US, take some photographs in front of the University/Department and send it by airmail to the family to be received in typically 2 weeks time. The first car, first snow, and many other things are recorded in a film, devloped into a photo and sent by airmail. In a few years, the student would be informed by the parents that a suitable girl could be found for him to be married. Student goes home, gets married and returns to US with the bride. In due course, wife is expecting. The next sentence I read, hurt my pride: No right thinking parents in law would like to have their grand kid born in India, given the American alternative. I did not like this. I found out that I did not follow some of the typical characteristics given of a graduate student from India. My answer about ‘what would you do after studies?’ did not change throughout my stay there: Return to India. The article points out how it changes over a period of time. The main theme of that article was that no one returns from US and they keep saying they would return in the x+1 year with x changing always. I did get married and fortunately for me, my wife was also keen on returning home. I was prepared to accept a job wherever I would get. IITs, IISc, State Universities, Colleges, high schools wherever, as decision to return was final. It did not depend on what job I might get. We returned in 1994 and lived here since then. I have no regrets. I read news about some parents opting for pre-mature delivery, just in case Trump would bring in a law that would forbid their kids from being citizens of US. As I mentioned in a WhatsApp group, this is where the line dividing desire and greed blur. Greed could lead to disaster.

There is a proverb in Tamil which says ‘திரை கடலோடியும் திரவியம் தேடு’ (thirai kadalodiyum thiraviyam thedu) which roughly translates as the title of this blog. Literally ‘Run through the ocean and search for wealth’! Of course no one can run through the ocean and I am sure everyone gets the essence of this proverb. Wealth is important and only the super rich can say ‘money does not bring happiness’. Everyone else needs money to lead a dignified life. Most would like to find an honest way to earn what is needed. Those who are unable to earn what they consider as ‘enough’ where they are born, go wherever required to earn more. It could be to the nearby or far away cities in India or Abroad. This has been happening for several millennia. Columbus wanted to go to India through West and ended up in West Indies, which he was convinced was India until he died. There is a good satire by Trevor Noah, about Columbus’s confidence which comes naturally for the rich and affluent (1). Poor may be more doubtful about what they do.

Large number of Keralaites have gone to Arab nations in the recent decades leaving the family in Kerala with the hope of raising the standard of their families. Canada has a significant number of Sikhs. US had 5.1 million people of Indian origin, 1.47 % of its population in 2023 according to Wikepedia now (2). Gujarat and Panjab used to dominate the list of immigrants in the past and in recent decades people from Andhra, Telengana, West Bengal, Tamil Nadu, Maharashtra, Karnataka and Kerala are migrating in large numbers. Most readers may have heard about ‘ABCD’ meaning, American Born Confused Desi. One of my friend told me about ABCDEFGHIJ, American Born Confused Desi Emigrated from Gujarat Housed in Jersey. A Chemistry Professor from Rutgers University gave a seminar in our Department and showed the ballot paper from New Jersey which had the names of the candidates in Gujarati and English. Tamils have migrated to many places in the World over centuries: Sri Lanka, Singapore, Malaysia, South Africa, Canada, France and USA and settled there for good. Tamil is one of the four official languages in Singapore. The great Tamil Poet Bharathiyaar has a poem lamenting the conditions of Hindu workers, from Tamil Nadu, in sugarcane fields in Sri Lanka:

கரும்புத் தோட்டத்திலே – அவர் karumbuth thottaththilae – avar
கால்களும் கைகளும் சோர்ந்து விழும்படி kaalgalum kaigalum sornthu vizhumbadi
வருந்து கின்றனரே! ஹிந்து varunthu kinranarae! hindu
மாதர்தம் நெஞ்சு கொதித்துக் கொதித்துமெய் maathartham nenju kodhithuk kodhithumei
சுருங்குகின்றனரே – அவர் surunguhinranarae – avar
துன்பத்தை நீக்க வழியில்லையோ? ஒரு thunbaththai neekka vazhiyillaiyo? oru
மருந்திதற் கிலையோ? – செக்கு marunthithark killaiyo
மாடுகள் போலுழைத் தேங்குகின்றார், அந்தக்… maadugal poluzhaith thaenguhinraar, anthak …

In 14th Century, Pattinathaar lived in Kaveripoombattinam in what is Tamil Nadu today. He hailed from a rich mercantile family. He sent his son in a ship and asks him to bring weath. The son brought only sacks filled with paddy husks. Pattinathar got upset and angry and locked his son in a room. He went to the harbor and threw the sacks with paddy husks. He saw that they were all gold flakes/dusts and precious gems were hidden inside. He rushed back to the room where his son was locked. Son was not found and only a palm-leaf with a sentence written in Tamil ‘காதற்ற ஊசியும் வாராது தான் கடை வழிக்கே’ (Transliteration: kaathatra oosiyum vaaraathu thaan kadai vazhikae, Translation: Even an earless needle will not come with you in your final journey). In this story, the son is thought to have been divine and Pattinathaar realizes the futility of material life and renounces everything to become a Sanyasi (a Monk). While such stories tell us about some hard facts in life, we cannot forget that living in this world requires money / wealth. I remember another proverb in Tamil which says “பொருள் இல்லார்க்கு இவ்வுலகம் இல்லை, அருளில்லார்க்கு அவ்வுலகம் இல்லை” Porul illaarkku ivvulagam illai, arul illaarkku avvulagam illai, which means ‘this world is not for people without materials, that world (heaven, God’s abode?) is not for people without divine blessings’. (Added on 25 Feb 2025. Following a post by Kathir Krishnamurthy, I realized that this proverb has its origin in Thirukkural, verse 247 which is hardly a surprise: அருளில்லார்க்கு அவ்வுலகம் இல்லை பொருளில்லார்க்கு
இவ்வுலகம் இல்லாகி யாங்கு)

As a Scientist who has no understanding of God, I am not sure if that world exists. We do exist in this world and it is important to earn enough to lead a life with dignity. If one has not learned to earn and lead a life in ‘this world’, perhaps they can go to Himalayas and live alone in search of the other World. There is a popular song in Tamil from the movie Chandrodayam in which MGR and Nagesh act “காசிக்கு போகும் சன்யாசி உன் குடும்பம் என்னாகும் நீ யோசி”, ‘kaasikku pogum sanyaasi un kudumbam ennaagum nee yosi’ which translates into ‘oh monk on your way to Kaasi, did you think about what will happen to your family? My previous blog discussed my views about a Family. For most of us, it is important to find a way to earn and live within our means. I do hope everyone finds a way to lead a life with dignity. One needs to have some desire to earn and improve our lives and be supportive of our family. It is very important not to become greedy. It may be difficult to find out when our desire becomes greed. The recent movie ‘Lucky Bhaskar’ has a story which has the hero realizing this and leading a good life.

References:

  1. Trever Noah, “Where was I” Standup comedy show.
  2. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Indian_Americans accessed on 8 February 2025

Standard
Uncategorized

Family = Love, affection, duty and right in reasonable measures!

May 15 happens to to be the international day for families. This year it was right in the middle of our Ph.D. interview week and I could not write this blog. I started it later and finally decided to complete this on 31st December 2024 as the world is anxious about the uncertainties all over. We have more than two wars. Election results in USA and several other countries and states in India have been of concern to some who consider themselves as liberals. Rebecca Trager has written a commentary in Chemistry World titled, ‘Trump is a disaster for Science’.1 I am reminded of a blog I wrote in 2017 after Trump won the first term and Modi demonetized Indian currency that led to disaster for numerous poor people in India.2 Clearly, New York Times would not accept 2016 to be the worst year ever. I suspect they would dub 2024 as the worst year.

In every nation and in every society, the importance of a family has been recognized. Liberal philosophers have always pointed out that all humanity is one family. I have mentioned an ancient poem in Tamil written by Kaniyan Poongundranaar which proclaims ‘yaadum oorae yaavarul kaeLir’ (“யாதும் ஊரே யாவரும் கேளிர்”), which means all towns are our town and all people are our relatives. When India became the head of G20 recently, the slogan ‘Vasudeva kudumbakam’ (written in Hindi in the image below) was chosen which means ‘the world is one family’.

While these are esoteric ideas, everyone knows what is practically meant by a family. I think family means, love, affection, duty and right (in Tamil காதல், பாசம், கடமை, உரிமை, kaathal, paasam, kadamai and urimai) among the members of the family and I must add in reasonable measures. Anything in excess cannot be good. The esoteric ideas pointed out above can be taken to mean that there is no need to hate anyone and we should all learn to live and let live. There is a proverb in Tamil which says “தனக்கு மிஞ்சி தான் தான தர்மம் (thanakku minji thaan thaana tharmam)”, which means you can help others and donate what you have after keeping what you need. I think this is applicable for time as well. Unfortunately, this does not tell you what one needs and that is upto the individual to decide. It is worth remembering what Gandhi said: “There is enough in this world for everyone’s need, not enough for a single man’s greed”.

A typical family, for me, starts with a husband and wife, who take a vow to share the good and bad life will bring. In typical marriages in India, this vow is implied and is not spoken loud.3 Whether the marriage is arranged by family or the individuals who are already in love with each other, this vow is important. Love and affection between them are necessary but not sufficient. There is an old proverb in Tamil which says ‘mogam muppathu naal, aasai arubathu naal (infatuation lasts for 30 days and desire lasts for 60 days). Life lasts much longer. It is important for the husband and wife to take responsibility in each others lives and also the liberty to expect help from each other as and when needed. It would be naive to assume that the husband and wife live happily ever after the marriage. Good and bad times will come. Facing them together, enjoying the good times and sailing through the bad times are essential. Love and affection could help in doing this for some time. If one does not recognize the importance of the duty and right that come with marriage, sailing together becomes difficult, especially when the going gets tough. Now, one can see how world as one family is not practical.

The major challenge for humans in a family, is balancing the interests of self and other members of the family. Between husband and wife, as equal partners, this is important from day one. Neither can expect the other person to take care of him/her all the time and it is important to give space and time for the other person. There will be situations in which one member has to do more and by nature there will be situations in which the roles reverse. With children, until they grow up, parents have to provide everything. Unlike the husband-wife relation which is expected to be that of equals, parents-children relation is typically, and rightfully, one sided. We need to take full responsibility for our children until they grow to be independent adults. Often unconditional love and support are given to children by parents. As the children grow and learn to take care of themselves, slowly some responsibility for the family falls on their shoulder. While most humans do feel sympathy when looking at everyone who is suffering, taking responsibility for everyone who suffers is impossible for anyone. Within a family, it is a responsibility and duty to do this. This is expected in a typical family and this cannot be applied to ‘vasudeva kudumbakam’. However, parents should not force or expect their children to be with them and help them always and let them do what they want in their life. In my view, parents are responsible for the children who are brought to this world by their act. This needs to be one-sided relation. Ultimately, the children have to move on and start their families.

I am convinced that every society recognized the importance of the duty and right that come with marriage. In India, Hinduism (broadly encompassing all religions originated and grew in India, perhaps except Sikhism, Jainism and Buddhism) emphasized this. The most popular poet from Tamil cinema, Kannadasan, wrote several volumes titled ‘arthamulla indu matham (அர்த்தமுள்ள இந்து மதம்)’ translated as ‘The meaningful Hindu religion’. and there is a popular song of him that begins with these words. It starts by saying ‘the meaningful Hindu religion assigned duties for every human’. This includes duties to the family and also to the society, as every human has several roles to play. Thirukkural in Tamil has a chapter each, outlining the roles of different individuals as well. When one recognizes and accepts the importance of duty and right, this continues for life, and members of the family have to do it without any expectation.

Bhagavad Gita emphasized doing one’s duty without expecting anything in return. This is a deep thought that most would accept individually. However, in practice this can be used for exploitation. Ideally, every one should have the liberty to choose what is his/her duty. However, once chosen, (s)he has to remain dutyful. There will be times when some in the family feel others are not doing their part. This could be real or perceived. It would be human nature to exaggerate one’s own contributions. It would be good to have an open discussion and sort these issues out through discussion. It is important for both parties to talk AND listen. Family is an important unit for humans and every attempt to preserve it is essential in my view. As long as family survives, the humanity can survive. Any attempts to dislodge the family structure would be viewed with skepticism by people at large. Perhaps that explains some of the election results. I wish everyone a happy, healthy, peaceful and prosperous new year!

References:

  1. Rebecca Trager, Trump is a disaster for Science, Chemistry World, page 6, December 2024 issue.
  2. 2017 will be a great year for India and the World! | earunan
  3. I found this vow on the web: “I take you to be my wife/husband, to have and to hold from this day forward; for better, for worse, for richer, for poorer, in sickness and in health, to love and to cherish, till death us do part”. There is a beautiful Tamil film song from Vinnaithaandi Varuvaaya which has this vow. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bXa-wbiXiOw In case you know this song, the first line is worth remembering and it is equally important to realize that the second line implies blind love, that cannot last forever. If it does, it is comparable to fatal attraction.

Standard
Family

My parents: என் பெற்றோர் (En petRor)

My father was born in 1937 in Tallakulam, Madurai to Gurunathapandara Mudaliar and Kamalayee ammal. He was named Aaladi. We had a ‘jeevasamaadhi’ (a grave in which someone alive is buried based on that person’s wish) which was called Aaladi Saami Madam (Saami in Tamil could mean God or Godmen) right next to where he and I were born. Aaladi was a cousin of my great grand-father Nallathambi Mudaliar. My father was born in the family of ‘kaariyakkaarar’, perhaps like a ‘Secretary’ for the group of people in that neighbourhood. This responsibility came by birth. Nallathambi Mudaliar did a lot for the society and when he passed away, the locals insisted that he be buried in their neighbourhood, Parasurampatti in Madurai. We visit his Samadhi twice a year, during Pongal and Chitra festival as a family and pray. He fought in a local election, perhaps to serve the people more but lost the election. Moreover, he lost almost all our wealth in this process as well. My grandfather, Gurunathapandara mudaliar, was a man of principle. He ensured that all loans were settled with interest and my father could start from zero rather than being negative. My father was in pre-University when my grand-father passed away and the responsibility for the family fell on his shoulders at that young age. He joined the small business (cloth merchants) we had. He was an excellent football player and has represented school and played in the city tournaments. His education and football came to a grinding halt after he lost his father. All his life he worked to ensure that the family survived and grew. As we grew, he did a lot to ensure that all our relatives, neighbours, community, and anyone and everyone he got to know could grow. He encouraged everyone to get a good education and work hard.

My mother Chellammal alias Seetha was born to Kulandaivelu Mudaliar (chinna thatha) and Paappammaal in 1941. Kulandaivelu Mudaliar’s elder brother was Sellachaami Mudaliar (periya thatha), who was a born-leader. My mother was one of the five girls born to their parents along with five boys. There could have been a few more babies that did not survive. On the contrary, Sellachaamy Mudaliar and his wife Parattai had only one daughter. Both brothers lived as joint family and all eleven kids lived like having two fathers and two mothers. Periya thatha was the care-taker for the family who made the final decision for the family. They lived in a big bungalow, with two floors and an open-terrace and prayer room in the third floor. This was in the Old Agraharam in Chinna Chokkikulam, just about a km from our ancestral ‘home’. My father was living in a mud-house with tin-sheets on top and there was perhaps only one room with a kerosene stove in the corner. There was no attached bathroom/toilet. We had a well in that area and several other huts. Periya thatha decided that my mother would be married to my father, though the difference in their financial status was huge. My father’s family had a reputation which periya thatha was well aware off. He not only got them married, but also got my father initiated in a new business, as a petroleum dealer.

Before marriage, my father excelled in football and took active interest in the Dravidian politics. He voted positively in the Trichi conference of the newly found DMK in their referundum to decide whether to become a political party or remain as social organization like it’s predecssor DK. When he joined pre-university, he decided to give himself a new name. He liked Balakrishnan but did not want to give a ‘sanskrirtized’ name. He called himself Elangannan (இளங்கண்ணன்) which means the same in Tamil. In Tamilnadu, by then people stopped adding caste name as their last name. Kids were given a name and an initial that came from their father’s name. Hence, my father became G. Elangannan and I became E. Arunan. This is continuing to cause problems for people born in this state as they need to give a first/given name and last/family name everywhere else in India/abroad. My father is third from the left in the top row.

My mother before marriage grew up in the big bungalow. Sellachaamy Mudaliar was very close to Swami Sithbavaananda who ran the Ramakrishna Matt in Thirupparaithurai, near Trichi, called Tapovanam. Swami always stayed in their bungalow when visiting Madurai. Tapovanam ran a boarding school in which all five of my uncles studied until their pre-University. My mother studied in a school in Madurai and excelled in her studies. She got a state-rank in her school final year. My mother is second in the middle row from left.

My mother’s studies ended on getting married to my father in 1959. In addition to the huge differences in their background, my father was a non-vegetarian and my mother was a vegetarian. My mother learned to cook non-vegetarian food as well. Though my father’s family was as religious as every other family those days, my father grew up following the self-respect/Dravidian movements. We have heard that he refused to give a horoscope for checking before their marriage. He named their first son as Thambidhurai and me as Arunan. The third child, a girl was named Vanathi and all these were typical names given by the people involved in the political movement. Their fourth child was a girl as well and my mother preferred to name her Meenakshi, the Goddess whose name invariably follows Madurai, and my father wanted her to be named Bharathi. With a compromise, my second sister became Meenakshi Bharathi, and everyone called her Meenakshi (this is one of the reasons I chose Bharathi as the name of my first daughter). Sellachamy Mudaliar and Chellammal’s influence on my father transformed him dramatically and he became a staunch devotee and a committed family man conscious of his societal responsibilities. The two boys born after Meenakshi were named Sidharthan and Ramalingam.

On Mondays he would not leave home between 7:30 AM and 9:00 AM, as this is considered Ragu kala, an inauspicious time to start anything. His daily routine was leaving home before 8 AM and reaching home around 9 PM. He liked to have a chikki (a sweet toffy made of groundnut and jaggery called kadalai mittai in Tamil) and some betel leaves in the night. I used to go to a petty shop after he comes home to buy these. Those days, buying them in packets and storing them for days or weeks was not common. This was done everyday! As children, we rarely got time to spend with him but could always feel his presence. There was a stick visible at home which was used to warn us by mother at home: Appa will beat you with that stick! I grew up in a time when children aged 5 or more joined 1st Standard in a School. I did my first year of School at Nehru Vidhyalaya in Madurai. My elder brother was already in that school. We were both moved to a school formed by our community in Tallakulam in which my grandfather and father were actively involved. My father learned about T.V.S. Elementary School and felt we should be moved there. He met the school principal repeatedly pleading for admission to his family kids. One year the Principal agreed to admit one student brought by him. He decided to put his elder sister’s son instead of my elder brother in TVS School. His elder sister, my aunt was no more and he felt that her son should be given priority. He continued to visit TVS School pleading to admit his sons/nephews and eventually I was admitted in the 5th Standard. Indeed, that took me to where I am today. That was my third and final school and I had not gone to a kinder garden or pre-school. During the summer holidays after 5th, I was enjoying the vacation and had forgotten that I had to go to school for securing admission to 6th, which was in their High School. I still remember my father coming home during the day reminding me and taking me to the school in his scooter.

My mother was always home and she taught us everything. My handwriting has never been good. I had difficulty in writing 2 after 1 and I remember my mother sitting with me with a slate and chalk and helping me write 2. Discipline was taught from the beginning. I remember winning some lottery, 50 paise during my elementary school days when one Dosai was 20 paise. I told my elder brother and we both went to a hotel near our home to have Dosai. Our mother found this out and when we returned home in the evening, we were beaten heavily for venturing out to a hotel on our own. She told us stories like Ramayanam and Mahabharatham. We learned Thevaram and Thiruvasagam and recited them in the morning and evening. Particularly, in our grand father’s house there was a prayer every morning and evening when all of us would sit and recite these devotional songs for about half an hour. The prayer hall had a photo of all our major Gods, including one of Jesus and Mecca.

My father used to tell us several things as a common wise man from his experience. A few of them I remembered and followed. I do owe whatever I could achieve to these three things (they sound and rhyme better in Tamil and I have given it in Tamil for those who can read): 1. Even if your ship sinks, do not worry (கப்பலே கவுந்தாலும் கன்னத்திலே கை வைக்கக் கூடாது kappalae kavunthaalum kannathilae kaivaikka koodaathu); 2. Let us tie our hair and pull a hill, if it comes it’s a hill and if not we only lose a hair (மயிரைக் கட்டி மலையை  இழுப்போம் வந்தா மலை போனா மயிர், mayiraik katti malayai iluppom, vanthaa malai ponaa mayiru). 3. If we go to a town where everyone is eating crab, ask for the middle piece (நண்டு திங்கிறவங்க ஊருக்குப் போனா, நடுத்துண்டு எனக்கு வேணும்னு கேளு, nandu thingiravan oorukkup ponaa, naduthundu enakku venumnu kaelu). The first one convinced me that I would never worry about anything and focus on what I can do at any given situation. The second one convinced me of the importance of trying our best without worrying about the prospects. And the third one taught me to adapt to the local environment. It helped me live with peace and joy wherever I lived. It is well known as ‘while in Rome do what Romans do’.

My mother’s influence is difficult to write in a few sentences like this. She was always there for us and worked tirelessly. I realized that among our age-group boys, we were perhaps the only ones not to utter any common curse words one hears in every language, everywhere. In general, all of us were well behaved students in the school. Anything we needed, Amma was the first person to be approached.  My father and his younger brother (Nalla Thambi Chithappa) lived as a joint family as well. He and his wife Rajeswari had four children. I remember vividly one day, my chitthappa was carrying the body of a baby within a few days after birth. In 1970, my father, with the support of periya thatha, built 8 houses in a row with tiles on top. Each house had an entrance, a hall and a kitchen. All the eight houses at the end had a continuous 3 feet service area and we had three toilets for the 8 families at the end. Appa and chithappa stayed in the middle two houses which were joined and the other 6 houses were rented. Men and children would take bath right behind the houses, where there was a water tap. Women in the house would all take bath after sending the men to work and children to school. A compound wall separating our houses from the TVS Sangeetha Samajam was there on the other side and there was no roof to this service area. We lived in this house until 1981, when my parents moved to an independent house having toilets at the backside.

I went to USA in 1986 for my PhD and my wife, Thenmozhi alias Gomathi joined me in 1990 when we got married. We had our first daughter born in February 1994 in Urbana. My mother came to USA before delivery and was with us for close to 9 months. My father joined after I got the job at IIT Kanpur. I called him to inform about the job offer and asked him to visit us. I told him that we are returning for good and that would be an ideal time for him to visit USA. Somewhat coincidentally, USA was hosting World Cup Soccer that year. His first response: If you can take me to world cup soccer, I will come. Until then, I was not thinking about going to a game, though in Madurai I used to get season ticket to watch the football tournament every year. I did not know if tickets were available at that time. I told him that, I would try but he should visit us whether or not I succeed. I disconnected the call and called the number available for booking world cup tickets. “Hello, this is World Cup Soccer ticket booking online, can I help you?” “Yes I would like to buy tickets for the Spain-Bolivia game in Chicago” “I can help you with that, how many tickets do you need?” I was not expecting to hear this. I knew Appa and I would go. Would anyone else among my friends be interested? I answered 4! “Here is your confirmation number. Come to the stadium two hours before the game and collect your tickets”. I could not believe it. I called my father immediately and told him: I got the tickets, plan your travel. Then I called some of my friends and asked them: World cup tickets for the game in Chicago are available, are you interested? In a few minutes we needed 10 more tickets. I called the helpline again and I was told: Sold out! My parents during a visit to Niagara Falls in 1994.

My parents complemented each other very well and our house was always full. All our cousins, their friends, and our friends were all at our home almost on a daily basis. My mother cooked delicious food, snacks, made coffee any time and all the time. My father would encourage all of them to do well and enhance our skills. Both of them would host everyone with smiling faces. My father was very active in business associations, our temple priests association, Socio Economic Society (SES, which was formed to help people from our community) and any and all groups he was part of. Our ‘kula theivam’ family god is Sithar in Puliyuran village near Aruppukottai. All those having Sithar as kula theivam come from one clan and they are called ‘pangaali’s, translated as share holders in English. As it may have been typical, in some generation, two brothers must have had an irreconcilable difference and their families and generations since became arch-rivals. Since then we have our pangaalis and ethir-pangaalis (opposite group). The most important festival we celebrated was Sivarathiri. The two groups came to an agreement that they will celebrate the festival and take care of the temple in alternate years. Two groups do nothing together, except on the Tamil New Year day, they would assemble in the Temple and exchange keys. My father did a lot to unite the two factions and now I see more interactions between the two groups. My mother remained the backbone supporting him in everything.

My mother passed away on 18th April 2014, during the Chitra Festival after 55 years of married life. My father passed away on 17th January 2024, during the Pongal Festival. These were the two festivals during which we visit our great grand-father’s samadhi in Parasurampatti. I would have yet another important reason to visit Madurai during these festivals. Today’s generation may not be able to appreciate what they did in their life, starting from agreeing to get married to an ‘incompatible stranger’! They accepted each other whole-heartedly and lived a great life. They have together, raised not only our family, they have raised a village. None of us could have done what we did eventually in our life without their hard-work, unflinching support, love and care. In Tamil, there is a saying ‘annaiyum pithavum munnari theivam’ which translates to ‘mother and father are the primary gods’. In Sanskrit, the saying goes ‘Matha, pitha, guru, theivam’. We have been fortunate to have our primary gods as ideal parents.

Standard