Dear Mr.SPS, Thank you very much for your encouragement and suggestions. After giving it a little thought, and especially since this is going to be my first attempt, I am at a loss to know where to start. Could you please help me by pointing me in the right direction? What I want to is to tell the youngsters out there is the beauty of our history and what that history is..... Perhaps you could suggest a topic from where to start....
That would be a wonderful idea something which I wanted to do and never had the time Infact the old members would remember me going on abou it and Krupa and Suchi even started archiving things to that effect but we never got off Thanks to me not really having time to do them... I totally agree with SPS it would be great to do sucha thing and encourage youngsters to read it
MONTHLY One Format I think of is :
A main subject :: What is Ponniyin selvan all about....why has it brought 519 people from various walks of life together to achieve what we have achieved......
3 / 4 Titbits :: we could summarise on debate after another as a debate of PS they are there in the files section
A quiz ( 4/ 5 Qnrs) & Answer : below You have four already in the files section Editor may be by some choice for Each News Letter. a focus from varalaru might be good for this like pavithra's tavellogue or gokils payanakatturai
Sriraman is MOST WELCOME to write the First News Letter - of course - with the Blessings of Moderator Dr. Sridhar. you know you always have my support not old enough to bless!!!
Next one may be Suganya / Vidhya .. suggesting on this Womens day!
Whether we can post the News Letter in other Groups - including Chennai Groups / Regional Groups - can also be discussed.
I dont see any reason why not In fact we may even send it to the freebie local newspapers...like adyar and annanagar times
Very good - workable - purposeful suggestion. I totally agree but I would think one of us be it SPS or Ram or Gokul or Myself,Pavi (something like the editorial board if you like) should see it before you send it out at the end of the day it carries the PS name
Dear Dr Sridhar, Thank you very much for the encouragement. But the actual credit for this should go to my history guru and inspirator in this line: Mr.S.Gokul. Either way, my idea in starting this news letter is on focussing on the actual history that all experts, such as yourself, Mr.Gokul etc. have been discussing not only here, but also in the Agathiyar group and varalaaru are discussing and explaining to novices such as myself.
What I want to do is to actually focus on the history in itself and share the knowledge with the younger generation, especially those living and studying abroad, who may or may not know of our glorious past.
What I want to try to do is to simplify and give in a simpler format the history that you experts are discussing, since it is the actual one, and not politically motivated history as specified in many of the books and sorry to say in the white papers as well If one of the group members would kindly give me a starting point as to where I could start the history of our South India, I would be extremely grateful to you all.
The format suggested by yourself and Mr.SPS is indeed acceptable and I will try and do it in the same way.
But I am not sure if I can create a crossword puzzle, as suggested by one of the members. I surely will try.
But... technicalities... (include the words "I feel" before every sentence hereafterwards)
News letters are more of private stuff. So what does it mean? Whatever you write, whatever research you do, they are confined to a set of people, however big it is. Moreover, they are lost when it is read.
The ideal format should be the one with which the work will be stored and preserved, the one that anyone can access, the one that people can search through some other source in the Net, and of course the one which should be easier to maintain and design. Not to mention that the one which should not be boring. ;-)
All these things considered, weblogs would fit this purpose exactly. Websites would be apt, but it requires design and maintenance headaches. Weblogs, or blogs in short, are more powerful. You need not even have to collect address of people all along and remember to send the updates/new letters. All you have to do is, post an article/entry in the blog, and that is it! Blogs are more powerful in that they offer some sort of syndication. So once people see your blog, they can include the feed url of your blog (more like bookmarking a site). Then whenever you update your blog (precisely here, when new "newsletter" arrives), they will get notified automatically.
They can also comment about the blog entries there itself...two-way communication. Maybe they gain something, or they will correct you if you are wrong;-)
So how to create a blog? The basics...
1) Go to: http://www.blogger.com 2) Click the sign-up link 3) Fill the form; regular stuffs...username, password, name (of the blog), etc. 4) Select a template for your blog (can be changed in the future) 5) Start posting... send the URL of your blog to persons that you feel should read.
So during the course of time, the articles will show up in google. People when want to search about a particular word, say "podhigai", would end up visiting the archived article you wrote. If they find it useful/interesting, they may subscribe to your site's feed/read old articles. A new visitor/reader day by day in addition to the regular ones.
Dear Mr.Krupa, Thank you too, but again, I say this wholeheartedly, the full credit for any "OOKAM" that I have had should go to Mr.S.Gokul, who I consider to be my guide in this. And Mr.Gokul has also advised me on the use of blogs for this. But since he is a bit busy with varalaaru and his job, I have not been able to have discussion with him as to the direction of my newsletter or my starting point.
So again I am asking for guidance from all you experts...GIVE ME A STARTING POINT...!
Should I start from Cholas, Cheras, Pandyas.....where do I start from...?
The few lessons that I have recieved from Mr.Gokul has led me to believe that the history of South India is far older, older than even what the Adichallanur (hope I spellled that correct)extractions readings are showing us....!!!!
You see, while I am an amateur in this field, I do have my interests and foremost amongst them are the Bermuda Triangle and the two continents of Lemuria and Atlantis.
What I believe, this is my personal conjecture and not told to me by any1, is that the Dravidans or more precisely, South Indians are from Lemuria.
Anyway, I am digressing..... My confusion is do I start dealing with dynasties individually......or do I treat them collectively or what....?
dear mr.sriraman my best wishes for your innovative idea. actually reagrding the startup i would suggest that you can start with Pandyas bcos i belive they were the first rulers just heresay. i dont have any critical evidence but i resepct with rome pandian relation ship greek writer pilinis works i think they have the credit. with regards s.anandanatarajan
Dear Mr.Anand, Thank you very much for your pointer. I will look into this. But then if the source is European, would it not be biased? The whole Aryan Invasion theory itself is something they created to show us Indians to be bigots and barbarians who needed to be taught culture? I ask this only to be sure of facts.....
Maanbigumigu Krupa avarglku, Adiyen Sriraman ezhuthuvathu..... Thaangal Pallavanin Therin Adhiveerasoorar enbathu theriyamal poyitru. Manikavum. As far as the Chola dynasy tree goes, I shall have an immediate look at it. Thanks for the tip.
But Mr. Ananda Natarajan has suggested that I go with the Pandyas first....so what do you say...?
Next, I am ashamed to say that I do not have sufficient Tamil Knowledge to go through the great classics like Silapathigaram etc. I studied in a CBSE school with Sanskrit as my 2nd language. Though I can read basic Tamil, it is only with the help of my wife, that I have started reading Tamil classics, and with the help of Mr.Gokul, completed my first reading of PS. My interest in these is there from a very young age. I did not read much of Indian History cos it was 2 conflicting. I learnt more of it from listening to older people talk. My right direction in this , as I have said b4 comes from Mr.Gokul, for which I can never repay him.
As far as pointers are concerned, well you should know about them if You know C not C++ .
This is with respect to the news letter that I have been talking about. After a talk with Mr.Gokul, and having heard the suggestions of all you elders, this is the format that I have decided on:
1) An introduction that will try and define the focus of my letter
2) I have decided to start of with the greatest of the Chola kings, Sri Raja Raja Cholan. I am planning to give the history of this greatest of kings in a series of 5 articles at least.
3) As per the suggestion of Mr.Krupa, I am planning to include the genealogy of the Chola clan as well.
4) As per the suggestion of Mr.SPS, I am planning to give in a few other tidbits, like a simple Q&A etc.
I am currently in the process of going through the articles and some books as well about Sri Rajaraja Cholan.
Any pointers or suggestions in this directions are welcome.
dear mr.sriram uncle(with ref to krupa sir) i think mr.krishnamurthy of dinamalar collected coins from arikkamedu(i think so exactly not know which place it is) which referes to pandya - roman relationships.secondly the pilinis work is merely a travalogue so i dont think it should be biased. but i will ask you to consult with experts like mr.sps, mr.sri, mr.sg and elite members of our group and agathiar group
annan thiru krupa shankar avarkaluku vannakam thangale ennudiya sarguru (in letter writing only) yenave thayei koornthu kathukudukumaru vendi virumbi kettukolkirean
Looks like this newsletter idea is really catching up - kudos to the ones who came up with it.:-) and to Sriraman, who's going ahead with it. [Sri and SB - thanks for suggesting me for the 'Editor' post - but you were right about the time constraints :-) All I can do, is the writing part, I think. Only some of it.
Am now walking off to look thru older posts....looks like I'll have to wade thru tons of 'em.:-)
Dear Ms.Pavithra, Thanks for encouraging me on this. The first person to encourage me on this idea was, of course my instructor, Gokul, immedeately followed by Dr.Sridhar and Mr.SPS. Then came in the rest of the team members, Mr.Krupa and every1 else. I have heard of you from Mr.Gokul and am grateful that you are taking interest in this and will be contributing to this. Thank you very much.
Hi, Sorry for the delay in reply...but am now going thru' the PS archives for material on RR. I am planning the newsletter to be only in English, Mr.Sridhar, since I intend it to be mainly for those Indians abroad, who do not have much of a chance to study our history, even the Government version of it. I sincerely doubt if any of them could actually read Tamil. Veena, could you, perhaps work on the quiz and crosswords?
I do agree with SPS. News Letter will be the ideal choice than Blogs or Weblogs (Krupa, kindly excuse!). I am voting for the same just by considering the human nature.
For eg., I know that there are plenty of documents and information present in our PS - Files section. But, I go read them only when I really free whereas I read the daily mail flow and the links in them then and there, even in hectic work schedule.
Same way, while reading the "thodar-kathai's" in the weekly magazines, the urge to read the next issue will be more. I guess everyone who has the reading habit will agree with me.
In my childhood, I used to wait at the doorsteps for the monthly magazines like GOKULAM, AMBULIMAMA, RATHNABALA every month and I will finish reading the full book in one sit. But I wouldn't have done the same if I were given 10-20 similar books.
Hence, I think we should create the interest in the minds of the younger generations first. Then, we have develop the urge in them towards learning(or getting to know) the history. To achieve this, I prefer to go by NewsLetter.
Sriraman,
As SPS sir had mentioned, start from a known but very interesting point of the history and gradually we can go to different roots. The first and foremost one should be very attracting one!
Also, you can have a brief description about the idea behind this newsletter at the end.
Dear Ms.Suganya, Thanks for your encouragement. I am currently doing the R&D work for the first issue. As per Gokul's suggestion, I am starting of with Rajaraja Cholan. Incidentally, I am planning on a blog, as I have mentioned earlier, since it would be easier to maintain, rather than a newsletter. I decided on this based on suggestions from Gokul, and keep in mind the hectic schedules each of us will be having as well.