How can we encourage our kids to go to temple more?

[Nara]

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....I hesitate to launch on an endless loop of arguments on this very provocative topic: American Exceptionalism. For the simple reason that this thread is for a different purpose, dear Servall would say!

Y, I also like the thread to stay focused, but the cause of the "topic purist" is a hopeless one. One can perhaps plead and cajole people to stay on topic, but that will only expedite the death of the thread. This forum is more like the cocktail hour than a conference session.

Cheers!

 

[Yamaka]

Dear Thiru.Yamaka,
I refer to your posts nos.291 & 294(response to Shri.Servall),I come to the conclusion(after reading your two posts) that your son is already drawn towards "Je..su..s".I may be wrong in my presumption.
I have not visited 'Stanford University'.I request you to clarify whether any temple(for followers of Hindu faith),Mosque (for followers of Islam),Gurudwara(for followers of Sikkism),worship place for followers of other Faiths have been provided or 'Je..su..s' is the only God allowed to be worshiped.
Ps.I had gone to School/College long before you.It is universal for all students to make comments/assess the worth of all teachers.It is not an exclusive privilege of students in USA.May be students in other countries do not have direct confrontation with their teachers.

Dear Krish Sir:

1. Your presumption that my son is already drawn towards "Je..su..s" may not be correct. He uses that word in a non-reverent context.

His Mom says that he is going to the religion of his girl friend (whoever it happens to be either a Hindu/Christian/Muslim/Jew/whatever)... same for my daughter. They have plenty of friends of the opposite sex. But, so far none has been "upgraded" as girlfriend or boyfriend as yet!

2. I am sure Stanford has separate clean "worship room or hall" for Muslims and Hindus.. but none would be so very grand like the Church - many visitors go to the Church just to admire the architecture and the ambiance of that awesome place, ideal for calm meditation or introspection.

3. I finished SSLC in 1967, college in 1967-73, and PhD in 1976, got the degree in 1977 in Madurai.

At school in my village, discipline was the most important matter. Whether the kids learn anything or not, "good behavior" was very important to all the teachers and the Head Master, who was such a tyrant!

I vividly remember how a very junior lecturer who came to the very first class in the Chemistry major (in 1968 July, his name is Mr. Meenakshi Sundaram) rattled everyone of us like this "All inward ignorants and outward arrogants will be thrown out of this class room window, if you show any disrespect to me". He was one of the worst teachers, I recall. His understanding of Chemistry was sub-standard, as I recall; I wondered how he got the job, in the first place!

His aim was to "discipline the class to submission", so that there was no disruption! The attitude in the whole College was "Discipline is the most important matter in a learning center"

"Learning per se is just secondary to us". My MSc at the University Dept was very good. That's where I started to learn real good things, as a matter of fact. The teachers respected the students and stimulated lots of thinking.

I don't know whether the current attitude is like this anymore. Probably it is... it's hard to change this!

Most American kids will confront teachers readily in high school ... if not at least the Parent Teacher Association in schools will see that bad teachers are kicked out of the school sooner than later, which happened in the schools my kids attended. Is this happening in India? I don't know.

Parents of young kids in schools may enlighten us here!

Cheers.

 

[Servall]

Nara:

Y, I also like the thread to stay focused, but the cause of the "topic purist" is a hopeless one. One can perhaps plead and cajole people to stay on topic, but that will only expedite the death of the thread. This forum is more like the cocktail hour than a conference session.

Ouch.....this comment oozes with sarcasm and it hurt!! How can I let you get by without my rebuttal!!

I take your comment as a slide remark to my footnote in the OP 'this is for believers". There you had a choice to stay on the side lines and witness if this thread would expedite itself to its speedy death for lack of its customers as you would probably wish or if it will engage in fruitful discussion as to how some of us can encourage our young kids to be more religious by visiting temples. But you chose to enlighten us with your own reasons 'why' kids should go to temples and wanted to make it a happy hour.

Being a democratic forum, whether a topic is hopeless or relevant, needs to be decided by ALL of its members, but not an individual. None of your posts hitherto, I dont think, has earned you the privilege to do that nor have you been given the right!!

Peace out brother...

 

[sarang]

[h=1]Congratulations to all.

Five Indians named 2012 Rhodes Scholars[/h]
Five Indians are among 83 students choosen for the prestigious Rhodes scholarship for the year 2012.

Apart from them, five Indian-Americans students and a Tibetan are among those selected for the scholarship.

The students who are selected from India are: Vrinda Bhandari from National Law School of India University, Bangalore; Akul Dayal from IIT New Delhi; Nikita Kaushal from the University of Pune; Amit Kumar from IIT Roorkee; and Sujit Thomas from St Stephen's College, University of Delhi.

Five Indians named 2012 Rhodes Scholars

 

[Nara]

Ouch.....this comment oozes with sarcasm and it hurt!! How can I let you get by without my rebuttal!!

No Servall, sarcasm was not in the same planet as my mind was when I responded to Y's concern about staying on topic. It was only a general observation from me. If I try to criticize any view I try my best to leave no doubt about the poster.

Peace out brother...

Peace and love to all brothers and sisters ....

 

[guruvayurappan]

dear yamaka!
you have mentioned the chemistry teacher name who is not liked by you .But why you have not given somebody's name of Msc dept.is it because you remember who hurt you than who has done excellent work.i pity for your chemistry teacher.
cheers
narayanan

 

[kunjuppu]

[h=1]Congratulations to all.

Five Indians named 2012 Rhodes Scholars[/h]
Five Indians are among 83 students choosen for the prestigious Rhodes scholarship for the year 2012.

Apart from them, five Indian-Americans students and a Tibetan are among those selected for the scholarship.

The students who are selected from India are: Vrinda Bhandari from National Law School of India University, Bangalore; Akul Dayal from IIT New Delhi; Nikita Kaushal from the University of Pune; Amit Kumar from IIT Roorkee; and Sujit Thomas from St Stephen's College, University of Delhi.

Five Indians named 2012 Rhodes Scholars

sarang,

while it is only fair to congratulate the five candidates, it might be better to inform the public, that every year 5 indians are selected by the rhodes scholarship group.

also some background of cecil rhodes might be of order here. he was a 19th century englishman who made it big in southern africa. he had 2 countries named after him (southern and northern rhodesia, today's zimbabwe and malawi). he had no children, and at his death, set up these generous scholarships.

primarily for white protestant american, canadian, australain, south african and british males. ie white anglo saxon protestants (wasps) ok?

just some years ago, the rhodes committee, decided that in the turn of events and current values, rhodes original wish did not hold true, and expanded the scope to include females and non white citizens. india, due it its huge population and anglo phile public, got 5 seats.

so, it is appropriate, i think, to congratulate the 5 indians, not because they are indians, but because they are rhodes scholars.

btw, if you look at the usa rhodes list, you will 6 indian americans out of a total of 32 americans. now, i would say that is as much to be proud of. what do you say?

Six Indian Americans named 2012 Rhodes scholars - The Times of India

it might be interesting to know, that many many american scholarships, when they were first instituted, were indeed targeted towards wasps, and specifically anti jewish. since 1950s, with the exposure of americans to the rest of the world, and increasing globalization, the west, by and large, have adopted multi culturalism as their official goal, and afaik, we do not hear of racist jingo or national heart thumping, anymore in europe or usa, with some exceptions.

 

[Yamaka]

dear yamaka!
you have mentioned the chemistry teacher name who is not liked by you .But why you have not given somebody's name of Msc dept.is it because you remember who hurt you than who has done excellent work.i pity for your chemistry teacher.
cheers
narayanan

Dear Guru:

For some reason I remember Mr. Meenakshi Sundaram very well. Outside the class room, we used to talk a lot about him, and the waste of time in his class - none of us learnt anything he taught us in the Physical Chemistry class - we had to rely on the book and the notes borrowed from students in other classes of the same subject!

I remember Dr. Krishnaswamy, Prof & Head of MSc Biology and all other faculty members there who brought out the best in me. He and all others were educated in England and America; they were recruited to start a brand new Dept, specializing in Molecular basis of Biology. Traditionally we had only Botany and Zoology MSc those days, and not Biology.

I must also gratefully acknowledge Madurai College, Madurai, TN and Principals, Prof. Varadachari and his predecessor (I forgot his name, who admitted me into PUC class with hostel facility and welcomed me with love and warmth - a timely wonderful gesture without which I would have been lost in the chaos of a the urban Madurai!).

Yes, there are very good teachers in our colleges; unfortunately, bad ones are also around in good numbers.

And, Indians are giving too much importance to "Discipline" not much of Creativity in our students - that's my lament.

Cheers.

 

[ShivKC]

So finally technology has bought here YAMS identity

but, Yams, i'm glad to find you, your wife, and your sons name in india's largest news paper

 

[zebra16]

Look at what I stumbled upon while surfing for Rhodes Scholars. Tanjore Ramachandra Anantharaman - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

This guy inspite of being a Rhodes Scholar was also dabbling in spirituality, philosophy, religion, particularly (hold your breath) vedic and yogic !!! and he has authored two books on Bhagwat Gita. A big let down for some people here

 

[sangom]

Look at what I stumbled upon while surfing for Rhodes Scholars. Tanjore Ramachandra Anantharaman - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

This guy inspite of being a Rhodes Scholar was also dabbling in spirituality, philosophy, religion, particularly (hold your breath) vedic and yogic !!! and he has authored two books on Bhagwat Gita. A big let down for some people here

Shri Narayan,

I don't think there is any question of "let down", as you try to infer. Our contention is that religion, spirituality, and god-belief are not sine qua non for a scientist or Rhodes scholar, or business man. It is probably the theists' case that without god- belief, religion, spirituality, etc., a person is more likely to become indisciplined, innately bad, and hence undesirable. So, it is for them to analyze cases like Bill Gates'.

 

[C RAVI]

Look at what I stumbled upon while surfing for Rhodes Scholars. Tanjore Ramachandra Anantharaman - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

This guy inspite of being a Rhodes Scholar was also dabbling in spirituality, philosophy, religion, particularly (hold your breath) vedic and yogic !!! and he has authored two books on Bhagwat Gita. A big let down for some people here

Thanks for sharing this great info with all of us Shri Narayan!!

This and many such scientifically mastered and greatly contributed people's inclination towards spirituality, philosophy, religion, veda & yoga, shows that, there is nothing waste of time, energy & brainwashing to be irrational in these folks, having been spiritually inclined.


The waste of time, energy and irrational thinking takes place with the people involved spiritually ONLY IF these folks are either ignorant of what the spirituality is or want to hide and take shelter, in their efforts to shirk their responsibilities of some or the other kind, due some or other reasons.

 

[guruvayurappan]

dear yamaka !
we indian mind set up is like that ! we trained to be disciplined . As you said we give priority for discipline and not creativity is true to some extent. most of the people want yes masters.even in office the boss likes man who is not refuting and dislikes person who is making a constructive suggestion.their point is that they can get the desired result from a disciplined man even though he is not possesing the required qualification.management technics books are read now only.because of this only our generation employed in US and UK are unwilling to return to India.
narayanan

 

[kunjuppu]

Look at what I stumbled upon while surfing for Rhodes Scholars. Tanjore Ramachandra Anantharaman - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

This guy inspite of being a Rhodes Scholar was also dabbling in spirituality, philosophy, religion, particularly (hold your breath) vedic and yogic !!! and he has authored two books on Bhagwat Gita. A big let down for some people here

narayan,

'a big let down for some people here?' whom are you trying to mock sir? coming from you, innuendos, does not sound decent. talk openly and tell nara or me or someone else, where the 'let down' is.

it is, i think, pseudo religionists with incomplete understanding of the past, and fear of the present, who indulge in fear mongering and attack through innuendos. i wish you would desist from such.

thank you.

 

[Yamaka]

Look at what I stumbled upon while surfing for Rhodes Scholars. Tanjore Ramachandra Anantharaman - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

This guy inspite of being a Rhodes Scholar was also dabbling in spirituality, philosophy, religion, particularly (hold your breath) vedic and yogic !!! and he has authored two books on Bhagwat Gita. A big let down for some people here

Dear Z:

My hats off to Dr. T.R. Anantharaman. He is a genius, ahead of his time.

I really want to know about his spirituality, and how he experienced it as a Scientist.

Cheers.

 

[ShivKC]

So finally technology has bought here YAMS identity

but, Yams, i'm glad to find you, your wife, and your sons name in india's largest news paper[/QUOTE

yams, since you liked this post citing times of india, now, off late though, may i have the privilege of calling you as 'Habby' instead of Yam?

 

[kunjuppu]

more on rhodes scholarships..

networking-key-to-survival-of-oxford-based-rhodes-scholarships/


john allemang is a respected globe columnist. here is another perspective of rhodes scholarship.

what is important, is for many tambrams here, to understand, that the world has changed and changing faster than what we can catch up. so does attitudes.

today's englishman has no memory of the empire, except in academic quarters. same with the average today's indian.

cecil rhodes was the most ruthless adventurous racist plunderer of southern africa. today his wealth is put to good use around the world. that is a change, that even the most skeptical person, needs to appreciate.

do not carry on ancient grudges. it is self destructive, in the ultimate.

 

[Yamaka]

So finally technology has bought here YAMS identity

but, Yams, i'm glad to find you, your wife, and your sons name in india's largest news paper[/QUOTE

yams, since you liked this post citing times of india, now, off late though, may i have the privilege of calling you as 'Habby' instead of Yam?

Hi Shiv:

I am quite comfortable with Y, Yam or Yamaka!

The other name could confuse people and mislead my position as a practicing self proclaimed Atheist!

Regards

Y

ps. In fact at the time of my Naturalization in the US, I wanted to change my name to Yamaka - my wife didn't like the idea, thus I dropped it. She gets the last word in our household!!

 

[Brahin]

Dear Yamaka,

My heartiest congratulations for your son on securing the Rhodes Scholarship.
Very happy to read this from Times of India.God bless your family always.

 

[Yamaka]

Dear Yamaka,

My heartiest congratulations for your son on securing the Rhodes Scholarship.
Very happy to read this from Times of India.God bless your family always.

Dear Brahin:

Thanks a lot..

It's really funny - how events change:

About six months ago,

My son was telling "Ma.. I am going to join US Marine.. I need Military Service on my Resume"

My wife yelled, "Are you crazy? Why Marines? Why don't you apply for Rhodes and go to Oxford? Do other Public Service?"

He said, "Ok, Ma.. I am going to Haiti and apply for Rhodes, and see what happens! But...,

Ma..remember, Freedom is not really Free; we need to fight for our Freedom...Marines is the coolest place for it"

I was rolling my eyes!

Cheers.

 

[geetu habibah]

Hi Shiv:

I am quite comfortable with Y, Yam or Yamaka!

The other name could confuse people and mislead my position as a practicing self proclaimed Atheist!

Regards

Y

ps. In fact at the time of my Naturalization in the US, I wanted to change my name to Yamaka - my wife didn't like the idea, thus I dropped it. She gets the last word in our household!!

Dear Yamaka,

Please do not change your name.I never used to be comfortable with my name Geetu Habibah because of all the explanation I had to give everyone about it.
But it was only you in forum who told me how dear the name is to you and now I started feeling less conscious of my peculiar name.


My dad used to be called Habib Bhai by those close to him.
I am not all that young so in my heart I will address you as Bhai but in forum I will respect your wishes and call you Yamaka.

Hare Krishna

 

[valli]

Dear Shri Yamaka

I don't know where else to post this, so here you go - your son looks well and truly proud of you! The way he holds you on your shoulder by his arm and his proud face - amma, it tells a LOT!!! Good on you, Shri Yamaka!

You guys are one happy family in the photo! (Ok, dear members, Yamaka and me don't have any personal contact. If you guys are wondering about the photo!!?? )

This is a great victory, particularly to your wife! She is here to prove that, her marrying, not only a NB but one person of a different religion and succeeding in life by raising a very very successful family, the brahmins who are worried that their children are marrying NB and will fail in life, is uncalled for!!!

Shri Yamaka, I personally wish that your wife contributes to the forum by sharing her experiences. There are quite a few brahmin girls who married NB and also succeeded in life, but have a blank spot in their heart, not because of their mistake, but because of the shortcomings of their parents.

It would be resourceful to know how your wife overcame it! It would be guiding and would give great comfort to others out there.

Kind regards

 

[raja subramanian]

children follow the footsteps of the parents. if we visit temples regularly, recite slokas at least for 10 minutes every day surely the children will also inculcate the habit of slokas and visiting temples. what we sow is what we reap

 

[Yamaka]

Dear Shri Yamaka

I don't know where else to post this, so here you go - your son looks well and truly proud of you! The way he holds you on your shoulder by his arm and his proud face - amma, it tells a LOT!!! Good on you, Shri Yamaka!

You guys are one happy family in the photo! (Ok, dear members, Yamaka and me don't have any personal contact. If you guys are wondering about the photo!!?? )

This is a great victory, particularly to your wife! She is here to prove that, her marrying, not only a NB but one person of a different religion and succeeding in life by raising a very very successful family, the brahmins who are worried that their children are marrying NB and will fail in life, is uncalled for!!!

Shri Yamaka, I personally wish that your wife contributes to the forum by sharing her experiences. There are quite a few brahmin girls who married NB and also succeeded in life, but have a blank spot in their heart, not because of their mistake, but because of the shortcomings of their parents.

It would be resourceful to know how your wife overcame it! It would be guiding and would give great comfort to others out there.

Kind regards

Dear valli:

Thanks..very gracious of you.

Yes, we have a very happy family. Our kids (now 27 and 22) are very friendly and tease their parents all day, and we all laugh nearly all the time!

I attribute all our success to my wonderful - Sweet and Smart - wife! She is the Rock towards whom we lean on when the waters are choppy!

She is a very busy person, and very private.. In fact, at home, only boys are verbal and talkative - both girls are very observant and smiling, not much talking!

Most difficult part for my wife was to deal with her folks who just refuse to accept me! After awhile, she doesn't care much of their opinion or acceptance.

Thanks again.

Kind regards.

Y

ps. My wife says that I look much older (than in person) in that photo - I guess in her eyes I always look younger! LOL

 

[Yamaka]

children follow the footsteps of the parents. if we visit temples regularly, recite slokas at least for 10 minutes every day surely the children will also inculcate the habit of slokas and visiting temples. what we sow is what we reap

Hello Raja:

Yes, I agree with you.

However, when the kids go to high school and are 14-18 of age, they will ask all sorts of questions like what that sloka means, why to do it, who listens to it, how it all works out etc etc.

If you don't explain to THEIR satisfaction, they will walk away from you and the temple/mosque/church!

That's what we are debating here!

My solution is the temples must be place of Culture, and God and Religion must be considered as a Link to the Cultural Past.

Of course, the hardcore religious people will oppose my point of view here!

Cheers.