Pochampalli? Pochampally?

I am considering what it means

To have a last name of a village,

I am even thinking what that name means

And how it is related with that name

Ages back my forefathers moved to this place

And spread over around that place in all the local regions

I come from the family of Pochampally,

A village in the district Nalgonda in Andhra Pradesh

The moment I think of the place I came from, 

The state of Andhra Pradesh, I realize 

 How great the History of AP has been

It was formed as a state based on Linguistic basis 

of a common language of Telugu from all the erstwhile 

southern regions of India, after the sacrifice of 

The great soul who starved till he reached heavens

Who was, Potti Sreeramulu, from AP.

I also think of the great civilizations 

that ruled the area and the great culture 

my language held, and still holds as a seat of culture

Great poets of country lore and literature

Held high positions in palaces and kingdoms

Come to my mind and appear so strong

Coming to the name Pochampally, 

which I rewrote as Pochampalli, 

Could mean, in my view, Pochamma +Palli

And Pochamma is Pochi plus amma

Pochi may have been a young girl or village damsel

Who may have been in love with the Lord Shiva himself

For husband, for a Hindu woman is like Lord Shiva

So they call Pati Parameshwar

I am not sure why villagers pray to the Goddess Pochamma

The lady called Pochi or Pocha

Was she a girl, taken away by force in marriage with a king?

Was she someone who gave up their life so as not to fall in the hands of another man?

Did Pochamma fight for the village against tyranny and save the people?

Did she vanish all of a sudden in a wild forest and they call the place 

By her name? Was that why the place was surrounded by forests all around?

I know one person who brought credit to the village,

His name is Ramachandra Reddy, 

Who donated his property to the cause of the saint

Vinoba Bhave, from Maharashtra, and earned a new name

For the village, since then: it was called Bhoodaan Pochampally

Which means Pochampally, that donated land, for the poor and downtrodden.

So I am from that place and call myself Uma Pochampalli.... Sounds different,

But the change of y to i in the end is to say I am Pochampally, 

Pochampalli I am!

Matters of Mind: News for interested people

It is important that the aspects of mind be dealt with professionals in times of need. For those who require help:
http://www.mindmattersonline.com

Situational Leadership, link from my class at HCCS

http://www.google.com/url?sa=t&rct=j&q=&esrc=s&source=web&cd=1&ved=0CCMQFjAA&url=http%3A%2F%2Flearning.hccs.edu%2Ffaculty%2Fuma.pochampalli%2Fbmgt1301%2Fsituational-leadership%2Fsituational-leadership&ei=Wyx-UNCOEMOg2AWX5IHwCQ&usg=AFQjCNEtdrjUUMUtgM_yMHCrHuKvZOfvjg&cad=rja

Enjoy the work and get back to me!

Vegesna Foundation and its efforts in promoting culture while fund raising for differently capable children

This is a Saga from twenty five years.

The Cultural exchange in USA with music as a fund raising event started for a reason

Seven years back a family tried to commit suicide
Parents died but a little girl was alive losing limbs
That girl was saved by Shri Vamsee Ramaraju garu
To save children of such nature and many other handicapped children the Vegesna Foundation has taken up to bring about change in the lives of those individuals who were allowed to grow into individuals, who were given education and healthcare.
Vamsee Ramaraju garu spoke about the young children needing care.
Houston has helped the cause to uplift the lives of the handicapped children.
Vamsee garu has organized several events of high level of cultural activities.
Some of the international organizations that promised to help transfer funds were irregular in sending funds to India.
So Vegeshna Foundation was registered in USA
However the funds collected by Vegesna were not issued once sent to INDIA.
So in the US, Vanguri Foundation came up to rescue the handicapped. Dr. Vanguri Chitten Raju garu has generously arranged for the Vegesna funds to be processed with no restrictions, as it is a US based non Profit Organization

Vanguri Foundation is a nonprofit organization that helps in publishing books, preserving culture and helping several organizations.
No one bothers about the handicapped children when it comes to microlevel management.

However, with the help of Vanguri Foundation that is funding the music programs, better care is possible towards the care of children who are physically and mentally challenged.
Among the children  until November 2011, that Vegesna supported, 10 students are engineers and 10 students studying medicine.
Vamshi Ramaraju garu takes effort to visit USA and collects funds for handicapped. So he encourages artists and promotes art and cultural programmers and they also do fundraising. They are doing the celebrations of Ghantasala and other great singers by local and international talents to perform the world wide tours. They are asked to perform songs from old melodies.
There should be a channel for transferring funds and channelize the transporting of those funds to the parent country from the sponsoring country.
They do these programs because there are families depending on the efforts of the people who are fund raising
They have to bear the expenses of the artists and the tour expenses such as transport and hotel stay. During 2011,
Vinod babu
Balakameshwar rao garu
Mani sastri garu
 Geetanjali (vijayalakshmi)
Sharada garu

participated.

He made friends with artists and took the permission of the families to allow him to undertake the tours around the world
They are doing musical concerts relentlessly almost establishing world tours
Their idea is to create a corpus fund, Vamsi Ramaraju garu quipped, if Jitender Reddy garu of NATA gives 7 Crores, The fund will be created
Singer Vijayalakshmi garu also known as Gitanjali is thankful for being invited to participate in the world tour
All the singers thanked for the great efforts
They are planning to sing songs from the past 80 years
All the melodies from old films
 Balakameshwar rao garu, apara ghantasala thanked by singing a song from Tenali rama Krishnudu -Chesedi emito
Children are given catering food when they have fund raising
Normally they are given ordinary meals but they are also given care and provided an opportunity to develop them into well educated and developed individuals and also responsible citizens of the world.

This year Vegesna Foundation is back again, with old melodies from golden films to new films. This year the new singer from India is Krishna Prasad, who sang a melodious prayer to Ganapathi, as a gayatri mantra. Mani Sastry garu, Balakameswararao Tata, Akhila, Suman Mangu and Krishna Prasad have sung in this evening’s musical night.

They have performed in the Arya Samaj bhawan in Houston, starting their annual tour all around US to fund raise for the physically and mentally challenged children as well as adults.

The program in Houston is organized by Vanguri Foundation and Mani Sastry.

Mrs. Mani Sastry has hosted the guests from India.

Meditation- An Experience under the guidance of Brahmashri Patri Swamy ji

As I was entering the meditation hall, I could see all the seekers closing their eyes and meditating. They were not even aware of the surroundings. There was Swamy ji in the forefront and playing melodious flute, reverberating within the hall and giving an ambience that was leading to something more superior than mere appearance of the things around you. It was the same things, same air, same kind of people and chairs that you see everyday, but it was not. It was leading you to some far off lands, unseen before, appearing in front of your eyes. Oh, wait a minute, it was not right away that I could perceive any of these. All I could see was people sitting in the meditation hall and closing their eyes and thats it. I was looking at everyone wondering what is everyone doing.

Then I heard the metallic tone of the Swamy ji, very directive, ordering us, to remove the eye glasses, close eyes, and cross feet and keep breathing. They told us to follow the rhythm of breathing, think of nothing other than paying 100% attention to breathing, and go in its rhythm.

Swamy ji was also directive for everyone, chiding when they tried to open the eyes, repeatedly told us all to keep eyes closed, all the time. It was not easy, but not impossible.

Then the music goes on again, flowing lucidly, as if river Yamuna water would flow while Krishna was playing flute listening to those rhythms the river Yamuna ji was making as she listened to the notes from His flute, each in unison with one another, the soul of the flowing river Yamuna ji with its ebbs and flows, flowing over the pebbles and sand and finest soil, taking along the living beings embedded in her bosom as the notes themselves had a soul of their own urging all who hear the notes to meditate on Him.. and He was playing the flute folding one foot and stretching the other leg as if making a right angle, placing it across the knee.. His attire was like a cowherd, His tunic was the color of sand as the evening Sun Rays were making it change the color from white to orange like Reddish tint in everything that was visible as if the nature was sprinkling kum kum all over the place and sanctifying everything that was visible.. and the music flows, and again flows taking the tune creating waves of love towards the Supreme and you would visualize a young toddler running as if He would want to keep His mom fit by giving her more exercise as she wants to feed Him rice with sugar and milk and He would make her run along to catch Him and feed Him, such was the glory of the session of meditation this evening when Swamy ji was playing flute and I could visualize all this and rejoice as I enjoyed the melodious flute notes touching not my ears, not my heart, not my mind but something superior to all this that may have taken one towards the long lost days of Dwapar when He was playing the flute closing His eyes halfway and creating waves of passion among the Gopis and the Queen Radha ji and their bright dupattas with their ghaghras and Saris swirling in Raas Garbha around the Shri Krishna ji, and He as innocent as ever, would keep playing the tunes, to cause them even more pining when seperated as He needed to leave Nandgaon and go to Madhura to take care of business.

You hear the Master recite Gita slokas of “Vaatamsi Jeernaani Yathagathani...”, “Nainam Chindanti..” and many other sloka verses and it dawns upon you than you are also seeing that vertical white eye with dark pupil in it, looking as if smiling, like the bindi of Mata Lakshmi ji , generating kindness towards beings all around Her. That would be for a split second as you quickly see the dark robed Krishna in shining armour blowing the Paanchajanya and telling the valiant Arjuna to pick up the Gaandiva and fight and perform his duty, and not get frightened by the complicated ideas that crop up in his mind and cloud his spirit to establish order and eradicate bad deeds. The voice of the Swamy ji was bringing back the day at Kurukshetra, what Prince Arjuna learnt back to us, humans on earth in this day.

It reminded me of my dad, who would recite the Gita although not so entwined with music, but still the message is the same, and thought that Krishna must have sounded exactly so while singing to Partha on the battlefield, being his charrioteer. The Great Lord was right in front of your eyes, all you needed was to perceive that this is the same air that He breathed, this is same water that He must have sipped from and played with and the notes of Krishna’s flute, if you pay close attention are reverberating and resounding in the flute Swamy ji was playing as if effortlessly and so beautiful like the love flowing from Krishna Himself.

Before we could open eyes, we were taken back to close eyes for about five minutes with music and enchanting music all the time and just before you would open your eyes at the zero second, you would see the lotus feet of the Lord in gold!

That is when, each of the seekers was sharing their thought processes as they were meditating just a little while back. Everyone experienced such great positive vibes that it clearly made them feel different. They could see and feel the presence of the Lord, who brought the change in their awareness about the surroundings.

This was followed by another short session of chanting song in praise of the Lord and then we again closed our eyes and listened to the song as we concentrated on breathing alone. One would see the Lord Parabrahma as if playing veenna and singing the Vedas, in Sam gaan.

I could see the presence of multi headed snake and Lord Ramanuja under His hood, He was like Anant Nag Himself.

Lo, that is shifting again, and I was visualizing fumes of poison spitting out of a different nag a very big, dark one and the fumes had no end. Suddenly a golden eagle with a wing span of an airplane lengthwise comes up. The golden winged Garuda drives the fumes away and leaves the atmosphere clean, You would see Ramanuja back, all smiling. Then all the scenario is changed while you see that Ramanuja Jeeyar Swamy ji is looking like a lotus crowned Shirdi Sai Baba and everything looks like the day is fulfilled, and everyone is blessed.

I open my eyes and see Guru ji. I prostrate before Him, but lo! the great soul that He is, repeats the same, I am so humbled, Sarvam Sri Krishnarpanam.

Asmad Gurubhyoh Namah||

Some Sunshine

Around the globe there are still people who are living in the 17 th century or may be 25 centuries before the current era started. To them sunshine is very important part of their livelihood. It is nice to know that there are communities which take the heat and light of Sun and start their day. They ought to live the life of a historical human being though... That lived way back in the time continuum.
What do I mean by this?
Communities that get water from the river or from the wells far off from their living quarters.
Communities that do not have sanitation and water supply facilities.
Communities where power supply is far from their reach.
Do such communities exist?
You bet your shirt on your back, they do.
Do they exist in remote villages or in places where human dwelling is impossible?
Well, they may in such remote corners of the world, but they definitely co-exist amid the hustle bustle of the cities, where there are crowds of people living in a somewhat social life, despite the lack of sanitation, water supply, electric supply or any form of development in their living grounds.
Where are they?
Who lives in there?
May be they are the slums that are part of the urban life as much as the activity and modern technology is part of the urban areas.
For those people living in such conditions, it is a thing they have no choice but take it and work hard to change it.
Would they change the infrastructure of such communities?
No.. No no no.. You did not get what I was saying..
I did not mean that they would bring in new facilities in order to bring about that change in their lives. It is they, who move to a different locale, the circumstances would be different.
So, if Fatima Bi or Shakuntala amma or Mrs. Robinson want to wash their clothes and dry them in sunshine, they may be able to do so. However, they might have to walk to a river site or area with water abundance, at least at one point of time in the day. In their living grounds, it would not be possible, if they were to wash their clothes they wear or the clothes they use to keep themselves dry in the days when they are may be, say, menstruating.
Not that people are not aware of the measures societies take to cope up in those special days. It is just that they cannot afford to buy the sanitary napkins and use those to keep themselves free. They, day in and day out, all the five days or so in a month, each time they have periods, only use washable clothes in its place.
So, they use clothes in place of sanitary pads, what's the big deal?
They can be washed and dried in the sunshine, no? No. Absolutely not. Women do not display their undergarments, let alone sanitary clothes in public, so where is the question of getting Sunshine in their lives or those of the clothes.. some sunshine is all they want to protect themselves from being infested with bugs and germs...
They cannot expose things of such private nature in public, it leads people to think about their genetalia, if they happen to see those clothes and if you extrapolate the consequences and into the imagination of human mind, the thing that they can think about the size of that part of the body of the female who uses it, no? Extrapolate further...
Then what is the point in discussing this?
The point is that, washing facilities for communities can be provided, not by government municipalities, but also private agencies or ownerships.
There could be washetarias built in areas where people dwell, and allow them to use such facilities. May be, they could even provide space within four walls to clean up their mess with a time limit and limit to the usage of natural resources like water, to some reasonable extent. The ladies who depend on such facilities could contribute to the maintenance of such facilities, and if they use that in large numbers, may be the cost would be divided to a bearable burden...
In the west, people live in small apartments and they are restricted from hanging their clothes, let alone sanitary pads in the open.
They however get to have washer or drier connections or laundry areas where the people can use the facilities by shelling some quarters or nickels and dimes...or whichever...
Sometimes, individualized services are available, when they order private vendors to clean baby diapers, that are recyclable. They not only provide service, but also provide reusable baby diapers, made of cotton. Why not? Privatize, the methods to cater to those needs. Take things in your care..watch the difference.