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Alamparai Fort
Driving from Chennai to Puducherry on the East Coast Road, about 50 kilometres from Mamallapuram I noticed a small board on the left that reads “Alamparai Fort” with an arrow. I have never heard about this fort, so I got curious and took the turn to a small road towards the shoreline. I had to drive through a local market for about two kilometres to cross a wide bridge and then reach a dilapidated wall. A big blue board in front announced this was the fort. The entry was free, there were no gates or tickets to buy. There were no crowds or tourist buses to bother the visitors. Remember,…
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75th Anniversary of Indian Independence – Azadi Ka Amrit Mahotsav
Today marks the 75th year of India’s Independence from the colonial rulers. Hon’ble Prime Minister Sri Narendra Modi has called for every citizen to celebrate the event as Azadi Ka Amrit Mahotsav. He terms the Azadi Ka Amrit Mahotsav to mean elixir of energy of independence; elixir of inspirations of the warriors of freedom struggle; elixir of new ideas and pledges; and elixir of Aatmanirbharta [Source: amritmahotsav.nic.in]. Happy to have the national flag of India affectionately called the Tricolour (seen in the picture above) in front of my house. Thanks to the volunteers of the Arulmigu Vinayagar Temple next to the auto stand in my street, who distributed the tri-colour…
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Donate to help Afghan earthquake victims
With the war in Ukraine, rising inflation, stock market crashes, and the possibility of a rise in COVID cases in India, we all have many things to worry about. The world is not what it used to be. Yet, we need to do what little we can to help those in need. Right now, it will be the unlucky Afghanistan people. After a devastating civil war of two decades which followed another one a decade earlier, last week they suffered a massive earthquake in one of the poorest, most remote terrain in the world. BBC World News reported that the victims have received no foreign aid. Seeing it, I was…
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101 Sahabiyat Stories and Dua by Good Word Books
A few years ago, The Hindu Tamil Newspaper published tiny stories from The Holy Quran, I found the stories interesting. Once the series ended, I bought the book “The Greatest Stories from the Quran” which was the source of the stories, the book was well made and printed on glossy paper – and I learned a bit about Islam from the book. Later, I bought another book, titled “101 Sahabiyat Stories and Dua” from the same publisher (Good Word) for Rs 345 (USD 4.5) Today, being the Eid festival, I thought it is befitting to read the book “101 Sahabiyat Stories and Dua”. This too was a hardbound one with…
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Got my third dose of COVID-19 vaccination
Two days ago, got my booster dose of Covaxin at the Apollo Medical Centre, T.Nagar, Chennai for INR 390. It was easy and thankfully, had no troublesome side effects. Though I had gotten (natural) infected with COVID19 and recovered during the January (third) wave, I wanted to get this done when there is little demand. I booked a slot in the Cowin portal. I was in and out of the clinic in ten minutes, including the five minutes post-injection recommended wait. In India, for those who are above 60 years of age, booster doses are available for free from Government centres. For those in the age bracket of 18 to…
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A fast-growing district in India – Gachibowli, Hyderabad
Over the last 15 years, when Gachibowli (the hi-tech township near Hyderabad) was getting developed, I had visited a few times, but the pace of development activity I saw happening when I visited last week felt unprecedented. Every housing community seemed to have 1000s of apartments, each building was having over 20 to 30 floors. The basement parking in one of the apartment complexes I visited was ten times bigger than the largest I had seen in Chennai (which would be the Phoenix Mall, Velachery). The roads were wide and well-laid. It was mostly American and German cars on the roads. Logos of every well-known American, European and a few…
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My diary of COVID-19 days
I wish the 517 Pages, 166 thousand words I have written were for a novel, but they are not. Two years back, a few days after India was lockdown, I started writing – what can be called as – personal notes. It started as an emotional support tool for myself, daily COVID-19 numbers in Chennai, then expanded to be a health record & (contact) traceability record of who I met during the day and a bit of news and later matured into a diary. Today I saved the file for a final time, renamed it to “Notes on March 2020 to March 2022-COVID Years” and stashed it away. My own…
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I recovered from COVID-19
Recovered from COVID-19 After dodging the virus for the last two years, I got infected last week. A wave of cold/cough/fever was circulating in our house from the week of Pongal – first my son, then mom and then my wife. I should’ve picked it from one of them, even though my son and mom on the first symptom were isolated in their individual rooms. Last Monday (17th Jan 2022) I was feeling dryness in my throat, then on Wednesday, I got a fever, which rose to 102.8″ F in the next two days. I did myself a Rapid Antigen Test (RAT) which showed positive within the first minute, confirming…
