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After being a member of this one of a kind family for some time, it is nice to get acquainted with quite a few members, either through their regular contributions or otherwise. I met Mr K. Raman, a founding member of the Group, at a party in California. Seeing his and his wife’s predicament of holding their grandchildren in one hand and the dinner plate on the other, I offered to take care of the kids till they finished their dinner. In the chat that followed, Mr Raman enrolled me in the Group’s mailing list. I have since then been benefiting by a few of his contributions, which are informative and educative. Two years ago I had the pleasure of speaking to Cheenu-Pune on reading his posting that he was in California. But by then he was already in Chicago and ready to take off to Pune the next day. But it was nice to talk to him. He seems to be a Mr Know All. I also phoned up Mr Narendra Gupta on his last visit to California. But the total dependence on children for transportation in both our cases restricted the acquaintance to telephone conversation. I read with interest his postings, and forward some to my family circle. I had written to the other Cheenu, of Coimbatore then, and now of Hyderabad, that I would be visiting Coimbatore to sell my plot of land, and if we could meet. It was all fixed, but with things not falling in place at the Registrar’s office, I was left with very little time to have that privilege. I like his postings, more so his Badrianath trip coverage, the Marutha malai visit, etc. not to speak of his recent useful Good Mornings. In response to my introductory mail, a member rang me up from California. It transpired that his younger brother and I were classmates in school, as were he and my elder brother. Responding to the same letter, Mr Krishnamoorthy, then of California, and now of Coimbatore and California, wrote back to ask me if I was the same Sundaram married to Lalitha, the daughter of his friend Murthy of Calcutta. It was a pleasant surprise to hear from him. For our elder son, he and his wife had recommended a girl, who is now our proud daughter in law. Responding to my one-line letter to Mr Sivasubramanian Perinkulam on a good piece that he had written, he rang me up from Baltimore for a chat. It turned out that I lived in Vadakkantharai, and he in Olavakkode – a distance of three miles. And by his year of birth and the school he studied, he and my elder brother should be classmates, though he could not place him. He introduced his daughter in law Meghna over the phone, and during the brief chat with her I discovered that my father’s Athai’s sons and her mother are cousins. What a small world. Another member whom I have not met but know well is P.R. – Mr P Ramachandran, a retired senior scientific officer based in Bangalore. He was the one to whom I referred, on an average, half a dozen horoscopes a day for my second son, for his astrological opinion, when I was stationed in Geneva. Promptness was the hallmark of his responses. I like his postings on Tharpanam, religious clarifications, and the like. I feel guilty that I have still not had the courtesy to visit him during my sojourn in Bangalore. I will, sir, one of these days, if you happen to read this. It was nice of “Vanakkam’ Subbu to clarify in detail the queries I had raised on remittance facilities from and to India. I like his very useful contributions, and jokes. Then there are members with whom I may not have particularly interacted, but whose contributions I like no less. I may not be able to guess how Mr G. Viswanathan looks like, but I do know him as the friend of my colleague through his posting asking for a suitable girl for my colleague’s widower son. I see points in some of GV’s observations. Then we have MGK Nair, Partha-devarajan, Lalitha Subramanian, Saibaba SV, Vaidya Lingam, and a host of others (forgive me if your name is missing - the list is endless) on each of whom we can write volumes. They have been sparing their time to inform, educate, enthrall, and entertain us, let alone cause us to ponder, smile or laugh aloud. And this round-up will be incomplete without a mention of Mr Gopalakrishnan, whose painstaking analytical study of items ranging from Kachhatti, Aappai, Kodai, Vadi, Thadi, Thengai, Mangai, Chakkai, though may not be my cup of tea, has not robbed him of his fan following. My wife never misses them. By way of gain from the Group if this is less, then what is more? V.V. Sundaram Phoenix, Arizona 480 988 5705 12 October 2011 *
