January 17, 2009 by Soma.

2009 பொங்கல் விழா

சனிக்கிழமை, சனவரி 17, 2009

தலகாசி, அமெரிக்கா

Dr Mano and Mrs Priya arranged for a Pongal vizha for Tamil loving people of Tallahassee, Florida, USA. The celebration began with about 50 people gathering together for an evening of drawing of kolam, prayer, play for kids, preparation of sweet pongal, and eating of a communal dinner.

First nine separate teams of ladies and children participated in kolam drawing competition using colored kolam powder on black plastic sheets. The friendly event kept the whole crowd interested in the activity. The teams worked on their kolam for about an hour. Three non-partisan judges evaluated the team’s work and prizes were given to first (1 team) and second place (3 teams).

பொங்கல் விழா ஒளவையாரின் “பாலும் தெளி தேனும்” கடவுள் வாழ்த்துடன் துவங்கியது (விவேக் மற்றும் சோமு). பின்னர் குழங்தைகள் விளையாட்டுப் போட்டி நடந்தது.  இனிப்பு பொங்கல்  தயாரான உடன் அனைவரும் உண்டு களித்தோம்.

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January 14, 2009 by Soma.

2009 பொங்கலோ பொங்கல்!

புதன்கிழமை, சனவரி 14, 2009

தலகாசி, புலாரிடா, அமெரிக்கா

அனைவருக்கும் 2009 பொங்கல் நல்வாழ்த்துக்கள்! வாழ்க வளமுடன்!

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October 31, 2008 by Soma.

My First Web Page in Tamil Language

Fridaym, October 31, 2008

Tallahassee, FL , USA

With the help from couple of articles and an utility by Yesudas, I was able to write a whole webpage in Tamil in Unicode. Unicode allows the webpage to be seen in Tamil without one having to install any fonts. The page should be in Tamil on all modern operating systems (Win2k, WinXP, Vista, MacOSx, Linux, etc) and on all modern browsers (Firefox 3.0, IE 7.0, Safari, etc).

Enjoy!

வருடம் 2000-த்தை தலகாசி தமிழ்ச் சங்கத்தின் ஆரம்பமாக கருதலாம். அந்த வருடம் திருமதி மற்றும் திரு முத்துசுவாமி அவர்களும், பானுவும், நானும் தலகாசியில் வாழும் தமிழ் நண்பர்களையும் அவர்களின் குடும்பத்தோரையும் ஒன்றாக கூட்டி ஒரு மாலை நேரத்தில் ஒரு விழா தோடங்கினோம். அன்று மாலையில் இந்தியா, மலேசியா, சிங்கபூர், மற்றும் இலங்கை தமிழ் நண்பர்கள் பலர் பங்கு கொண்டனர்.2000‍ முதல் 2002 வரை எங்கள் கூடுதல் பொதுவாக தமிழ் நண்பர்களையும் அவர்களின் குடும்பத்தோரையும் பார்த்து பேசுவதும், பழகுவதும், உணவு அருந்துவதுமாக இருந்த‌து. அற்சமயம் திருமதி உஷா சந்திரா மற்றும் திரு நமா சந்திரா அவர்களும் (கல்லூரி ஆசிரியர்கள்) தலகாசியில் வாழும் தமிழ் குழந்தைகளுக்கு தமிழ்ப் பாடம் சொல்லி தர ஆசைப் பட்டார்கள். அதை அடுத்து வந்த தமிழ் வருடப்பிறக்கு அனைவரும் தமிழ் நிகழ்ச்சிகள் செய்ய வேண்டும் என்று பிரியப்பட்டார்கள்.

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October 1, 2008 by Soma.

Speak at Tallahassee Saint John’s Episcopal Church Group
Religions of the World Class
Rev. Canon Lee Graham’s Group
Wednesday, October 1, 2008; 6:30 -7:45 PM

I was invited as a guest speaker at the World Religions Class organized by Rev Lee Graham, Rector Emeritus of Saint John’s Episcopal Church of Tallahassee. Father Graham’s class of about 30 people asked me to present for a Question and Answer session about Hinduism and Hindu Beliefs.

The Questions were either from the Group or from Rev Graham himself. I was given the Questions few days earlier and I prepared the Answers and delivered them as a informal speech. Following the speech I entertained impromptu Q&A as well.

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April 26, 2008 by Soma.

Sarvathri Tamil New Year Program

Saturday, April 26, 2008
Tallahassee, FL 32310

We celebrated Sarvathari Tamil New Year as Chithirai Sirappu Vizah (Chithirai Special Function). About 70 adults and children from Tamil families attended the cultural program and the potluck dinner that followed it.

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April 13, 2008 by Soma.

Sarvathari Tamil New Year Beginning

22nd year in the 60 year cycle

Sunday, April 13, 2008

Tallahassee, FL 32317

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January 14, 2008 by Soma.

Bogi or Boghi Festival

Monday, January 14, 2008

Tallahassee, FL 32317

We started to clean our house on Sunday in order to prepare for the Bogi and Pongal festivals that are on Monday, January 14, and 15, 2008 respectively. Since this was the second week after we reached US from our vacation to India, it gave another reason to throw away old items and clean the house.

Historically the day before and the day of Bogi we cleaned our house at Vedaraniam and occasionally even white-washed it during that week. Usual cleaning meant removing cob-web (ottadai adipathu), deep sweeping the brick floors, then washing it with plenty of well water. Going up the attic and throwing away old magazines, newspapers, and other stuff.

So we more or less did the same thing except there were not that many cob-webs to clean out. We collected old clothes for donation, we did lots of laundry, we swept and moped the wooden floor and tiles at our home. We also did pooja with VTS doing the aarathi with incense stick. Then we ate sweet pongal and vadai.

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September 22, 2007 by Soma.

Natyanjali by Smt Padmaja Kelam’s Troupe

Moore Auditorium, Tallahassee, FL 32306

Saturday, September 22, 2007 ; 4:40-6:30 PM

Srimathi Padmaja Kelam from Atlanta and her students from Kalaivani Dance and Music Academy gave an enthralling dance performance that combined the classical and contemporary dance styles.

About nine dancers entertained the crowd of hundred Tallahassee audience with eight separate pieces of performance. There were two vernums one of which was 25 minutes long performed by two artists. There were two fusion entries and others were classical dance performances. Two artists gave individual dance performance as well.

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July 4, 2007 by Soma.

We saw Rajinikanth’s recent movie, “Shivaji -The BOSS” today at Movies 8 Theater. Some of our friends brought the movie for a special screening. We all enjoyed the movie. There were about 100-120 people at the special screening.

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