Wednesday 9 August 2017

Memories of Dr. Bob Keller and Dr. Dorothy Keller of the USA



Memories of the  BCA India flourish in me through  constant
Interactions with the former Directors of BCA Cochin program.  Among them were  the founder Directors for the BCA India to build the Cochin program. They  were Dr.  Bob Keller and Dr.  Dorothy Keller.  The couple Directors arrived with the ungraduate students from different parts of the USA at a time when the Cochin University students were onintense strike.  I had to visit a guest professor staying at the guest house of the University.  The couple Directors were at the dining room experimenting with Kerala break fast items.  Our friendship flagged off that day.  I visited them in Manvvchester and stayed with them. Recently In May 6, 2017, I visited them at Vermont in the USA. Let me express my impressions about both of them.
Dr. Bob Keller:                                A man of ingenuity,  
magnanimity,  and determination instilling hope in others to do their best and to be their best. A man of much work and less in conversation.  A man of action for others satisfaction. A gentleman  tuned to simple life. I am humbled to get him as my  informal GURU in my Doctoral work to develop the inventory. Thank you Bob for your invisible presence in my life.
I inadvertently entered to the realm of the Keller family through Dee-my USA friend, and guide. She groomed me to be one of her favorite international loyal daughters! I am so proud of her. I love her for her vibrant personality. I appreciate her boldness to enthusiastically live in Vernont. She brought triumph over long odds. I wish to give the best thermo couple award for them on behalf of all of us,  their friends. It is said that different conductive properties of two alloys placed side by side transform temperature in to voltage. They really produce voltage for several others! The life for them at any age will never get blurry. When I am with them,  I always feel the crowning touch of their love. Thanks again to Bob and Dee !

Saturday 26 November 2016

AGE 9to 72 - Long lasting friendship with JUSTINA FERNADEZ



Age 9 to 72
The touch line of age 72 is fast approaching at the end of this year! My birth date is 21, December. After one year Karnatic music experience from Krishnappa sir during my stay at Chavara with my maternal aunts and four cousins, I was exposed to a new school environment at the age of 9. It was a public school, which was under the government sector with only girls as the recipients of primary and secondary education. The very first day I was impressed with one girl who arrived from Kurla in Mumbai.
She dispelled brightness in languages and in her behavior. She was very loving and eager to help other students. We played together, walked back home together and closely listened to the teachers’ instructions with an earnest intention to follow them. We studied together until the 10th grade. I was very much involved in all cultural events. I participated in sports and games. She was my ardent supporter and mind mover during those school days. Our friendship grew like the banyan tree. After her marriage, she flew to England with her lovely husband. She mothered two beautiful daughters and a lovely son. Every year from 9 until 72, without fail, where ever I was, I reminded her of our friendship by sending a beautiful Christmas card! Once a year I visit her family. Thanks Justi for staying as a friend for the past 62 years! You are the most valuable asset in my life!


     LikeReplyNovember 25 at 10:13pm
Sheela Chellappan My cute Chechy.love uuu..ohhhh,shari chechy wat a compliment......love u both.....
Krishnan Ev May your friendship last for ever.
Jeanne Smith Sarada, what a beautiful tribute to your friend! You have so many wonderful friends that I'd be surprised if you could count them all! Love to you, dear sister!
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AGE 6 to 66 - Long lasting friendship with JUSTINA FERNANDEZ



Age 9 to 66
The touch line of age 66 is fast approaching at the end of this year! My birth date is 21, December. After one year Karnatic music experience from Krishnappa sir during my stay at Chavara with my maternal aunts and four cousins, I was exposed to a new school environment at the age of 9. It was a public school, which was under the government sector with only girls as the recipients of primary and secondary education. The very first day I was impressed with one girl who arrived from Kurla in Mumbai. She dispelled brightness in languages and in her behavior. She was very loving and eager to help other students. We played together, walked back home together and closely listened to the teachers’ instructions with an earnest intention to follow them. We studied together until the 10th grade. I was very much involved in all cultural events. I participated in sports and games. She was my ardent supporter and mind mover during those school days. Our friendship grew like the banyan tree. After her marriage, she flew to England with her lovely husband. She mothered two beautiful daughters and a lovely son. Every year from 9 until 65, without fail, where ever I was, I reminded her of our friendship by sending a beautiful Christmas card! Once a year I visit her family. Thanks Justi for staying as a friend for the past 57 years! You are the most valuable asset in my life!

    
Sheela Chellappan My cute Chechy.love uuu..ohhhh,shari chechy wat a compliment......love u both.....
Krishnan Ev May your friendship last for ever.
Jeanne Smith Sarada, what a beautiful tribute to your friend! You have so many wonderful friends that I'd be surprised if you could count them all! Love to you, dear sister!
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Tuesday 30 August 2016

REALITY STILL MY DREAM! BLESSINGS FROM MOTHER TERESA IN 1994!

Reality still my dream!

A huge emotional led investment happened in my life in 1994. Still it remains as an unfathomable experience!
I was routed from Kerala to Dhaka in Bangladesh as the resource person in psychological empowerment for 265 trafficked and sexually exploited women and children living in two rehabilitation shelter homes. After ten days training program I arrived at Calcutta to spend twenty days with my husband Rajeevan who at that time worked as the senior manager in the regional office at Entally. I visited two rehabilitation centers that accommodated women and children of the same category in Calcutta. I spent quality time with them, sang songs with them and bought 10 cotton sarees that they had painted out of which one is still with me as a precious gift! Calcutta enthused me with another compelling need of visiting the convent of the Missionaries of Charity at Tangra. The desire mounted like Himalaya. I knew that Mother Teresa spent significant time in her life in Calcutta. Finally the time arrived.  The magnificent Mother Teresa blessed us! I felt an electric vibration while Mother touched me! I was deeply praying: “Loka Samstha Sukhino Bhavanthu!”  I learnt that LOVE IS THE RELIGION OF THE WORLD. I prayed to Mother for opportunities to serve humanity with good thoughts and actions.  Still it continues without interruption!  In that ecstatic moment we forgot to click the camera.
This is an amazing and an unforgettable experience in my life!

Dr Jeanne smith from Kansas commends:

   
Sarada, I just read your commentary here on Mother Teresa. If you are comfortable doing so, would you mind posting it on my Facebook page for others to see? We never had the opportunity to visit Mother Teresa's dispensery, but your witness here is very powerful. I especially appreciate how you say that you felt, when Mother Teresa blessed you, you realized that God is Love, and Love is the Religion of the World. Yes, God is God is God is God for everyone, everywhere,. The problem comes with our tiny brains trying to make sense of our cultural understandings. Jesus' death on the cross symbolizes LOVE for Christians. Yes, our GOD is bigger than we are!


Saturday 23 July 2016

My reminiscences of age 14: SHEELA PANICKER

My reminiscences of age 14: SHEELA PANICKER
I was born on 21 December 1950. I vividly remember my birthdays from age 3. My mom’s eldest sister was an ardent devotee of Lords Krishna and Vinayaka. I used to accompany her in all the nearby temples when she visited our house. After few days, in every morning at 5 30 am, after taking shower, I started running to the temple of Vinayaka, which was very near to our house at Kollam. There was no need to fear about the surroundings as many people walked through the same road I walked. I was fearless to walk alone as my dad used to over rule the apprehensions of my mom regarding my safety. The first day I wore only a brief. The Poojari of the temple told me to wear good dress while I visited the temple. The next day on wards, I wore my dress. After the temple visit, I used to see the gardener of the collectorate of Kollam. He gave me plants and seeds because my dad was a popular advocate in the district court. I loved gardening and had a very big garden in front of our house. After hard work in the garden, I took shower and spent half hour for prayers, starting at 6 15 pm. After prayers, I took a text book with an earnest intention to study. Text books were my sleeping pills! When my dad saw me in sleep mode, he would call my mom to give me dinner. My mom was very particular that I had to at least read a page of the book before dinner. I did what she told but without attempting to understand anything on the page. Sometime I slept without dinner. I was really astonished when I was told by my very close friend Justi that only five of us from forty students of our class passed in the 10th standard examination. I scored only 269 marks out of 500. But all students who passed from the Government girl’s high school, who represented less than 10 percent passed students out of the total students of the 10th standard were garlanded by the head mistress with gifts on our hands! It was an unforgettable moment in my life. I felt that I was also a bright student who brought fame to my school. That ecstatic moment helped me to decide to seriously study from the 11 th standard. I joined at the age of 14 the third group with Economics, Indian History and World history as the three main subjects. I underwent the Pre- degree two year course at the Sree Narayana College for Women at Kollam where I met Sheela Panicker, a very beautiful girl, wearing full saree, looking much older than I as I was so puny in size, wearing full skirt and blouse! She was the only one student out of 70, who conversed in English in our class as she was educated in North India. She sat on the third row on the bench in our class and I sat always at the front row. In addition to Vijayalakshmi teacher who taught us grammar in English, Sheela was also my teacher in English. Soon we became very good friends. Sheela was selected to represent our college in the Independence Day parade at New Delhi in 1966. She abstained from attending classes for a month. When she returned to our class, I gave her a copy of what happened in each class for the whole month. Will she forget it? Never. Will I forget her English lessons? Never!
As a clinical psychologist, I am thinking of reminiscence therapy for older adults. The use of life experiences gives tremendous opportunities to enhance the psychological well – being, the focus of the mental health personnel. I am reminded of Ericson, Webster, Watt, Lewi, Butler, Comana and several others for their invaluable contributions to the theory of reminiscence and reminiscence therapy.
Intra- personal (with in the person) and inter- personal (between persons) reminiscences are the two types of reminiscences. Individual and group reminiscence therapies are very promising therapeutic interventions to enrich the psychological well – being of older adults.
Please talk to your old friends, listen to them, enjoy your friendship, enrich your memory and stay away from the ill - effects of potential Dementia and Alzheimer. I am trying. Will you? All the best!
Intra- personal (with in the person) and inter- personal (between persons) reminiscences are the two types of reminiscences. Individual and group reminiscence therapies are very promising therapeutic interventions to enrich the psychological well – being of older adults.
Please talk to your old friends, listen to them, enjoy your friendship, enrich your memory and stay away from the ill - effects of potential Dementia and Alzheimer. I am trying. Will you? All the best!
We successfully completed 51 years of good friendship. We decided to celebrate our friendship on 18 July, 2016 at Kollam. Now I am just 65, intensely involved in developing clinical interventions for treating mentally unhealthy clients. I value my reminiscences at the age of 14! Why? Because they are my gurus guiding me in my interventions.

An interactive session with selected students from 27 schools in Trichur in Kerala




An interactive session with selected students from 27 schools in Trichur in Kerala 
I address him Colonel. His name Krishnan E. V. reminds me of E. V. Krishna Pillai, the illustrious writer of Kerala whose humor pervaded all of our minds!. Although he is not that famous a writer, he is a voracious reader. He provides gentle protection to each one of his books in his library at his house. If under hard persuasion he lends one of them to his favorite guests, he takes extra energy to remind that they are his sweet hearts to be positioned in exactly the same way as early as possible to prove his solidarity to them, which means that the borrower of the books takes extra care of his sweet hearts! Same is his attitude to his kids at the school. Colonel studied at Engandiyur in Trichur district. " I love my kids, they are my passion, promise, praise and power." Every time I met him at his house with his wife, he invariably rode right to the "Kids topic". Every time I listened to him, I invariably rode to the same question, " who are they?" Colonel requested to me for 2 hours session on Mental health in Education for his love kids, which I readily agreed. "Nanma", the registered organization is the spontaneous outcome of his love and initiative to add on to value to the thought processes and actions of his love kids, selected from different schools in and around Engandiyur, a very beautiful village still sustaining in its beauty despite attempts of urban type progressions in developments. He was and is tremendously supported by his classmates like Divakaran, Rajan, and friends like P K Jayarajan and C K Jayarajan and his own brother Soman to move on with Nanma programs for selected students from 27 schools from the Trichur district. His focus on qualitative enrichment to mind power with value orientation in education is the punch I liked in him. Yes, Colonel is a giver of love to these kids. They love him so much so that when he was on hospital bed for treatment for fever and severe cough- a condition that stops him from voice movement- he had to abstain from reaching out to them, which obviously made him think more about them. I LOVE HIS ATTITUDE TO LIFE: calm and cool; poised in positive thoughts; happy and celebrating the art of giving; embracing clarity and very systematic and nurturing. You can also add to his qualities! I met him a few months back with Dr. Sarala, his wife. Both are excellent human beings. Both are now in my prayers. Let Amma bless them with health and happiness to serve all of us! Salute to Colonel Krishnan for his volunteer work for his beautiful KIDS! Salute to his all supportive friends! Salute to his love kids! Salute to the Principal and teachers of the schools which they represent. Salute to all of the teaching and nonteaching personnel of the Engandiur Higher Secondary school. Salute to their parents who take real care of their well being. Above all, salute to Dr. Sarala for being the strong pillar of support to Colonel Krishnan. I bow to thee for giving me the chance to interact with the students.

Sunday 12 June 2016

Kamala Surayya- The illustrious Madhavikutty- The Love Queen of Malabar


                                                   Sarada with Madhavikutty
She just loved living life

Author: T S Preetha,  Published   in the New Indian Expresss,  Date: Jun 1, 2009, last Updated: May 15, 2012
WITH them she talked about love, bemoaned the loss of her husband, mused about another marriage, discussed beauty products and listened to songs and poems. For a handful of friends in Kochi, Kamala Surayya was a person with whom they could share anything. She held their friendship close to her heart even after she left Kochi. And her voice came to them from Pune al WITH them she talked about love, bemoaned the loss of her husband, mused about another marriage, discussed beauty products and listened to songs and poems. For a handful of friends in Kochi, Kamala Surayya was a person with whom they could share anything. She held their friendship close to her heart even after she left Kochi. And her voice came to them from Pune almost every day, telling them that she was homesick for Kochi, missed hearing Malayalam.
The conversations would go on for hours, remembers veteran journalist Leela Menon in the latest issue of a women’s magazine. Leela topped the list of her friends in Kochi, a relationship that dated back decades. Leela and her friend Sarada Rajeevan visited Surayya in Pune in February. “We stayed there three days and she was very happy to see us. I must have sung more than a hundred songs and poems to her. She made me write down a couplet from ‘Vasavadatta’ so that her maid Ammu could recite it to her every day,” says Sarada Rajeevan, psychologist and faculty of Cusat. For her Surayya is ‘Amma.’ “I have known her for the last 15 years. We used to sit and talk for hours in her flat. She was so lively, talking about anything and everything,” she says. Sarada went to Pune in March to spend a couple of days and came back promising that she would visit again in June. “It was her birthday in April. She kept asking me to come, telling me ‘I won’t have another birthday to celebrate.’ I never thought that it would come true,” she says in a choked voice.
Among writers she was close to poet Vijayalakshmi and Sreekumari Ramachandran. “But rather than literature it was music that she discussed most with me. She was very fond of songs praising Lord Krishna and I have sung Ashtapadhi for her on many occasions. She would call me home for musical evenings when she had visitors from abroad,” recalls writer ­singer Sreekumari. These friends saw another face of Surayya that was hidden in the controversies surrounding her. She was very close to her sons and grandchildren even when she lived life on her own terms. “She was a typical grandmother and was very attached to children,” says Sreekumari. All her friends here were expecting her to come back at least once to her old abode in Kadavanthra, to her study room and the big brown chair, to laugh about life and its follies.
 ts_preetha@epmltd.com,  The New Indian Express.