Dhanesh got promoted...

Our little Dhanesh got promoted ten days back.... yes... he became elder brother to the new arrival in the family.

Though majority of us were expecting a princess this time, God satisfied the wish of little Dhanesh and his little Aunt's wish that new one should be a prince..


-- Dhanesh Amma

Drishti Bommai

'Drishti Bommai' AKA 'Ward of the Evil Eye’ is kept in front of the buildings while in construction.

These Dolls are considered to be the remover of `evil eyes'.

The simple one would be, drawn face of devil on a pumpkin or a man created with straws and face drawn with charcoal on a white paint pot.

picture for reference below:














Recently I came across an entirely different ward.. posting here for your view.






Probably the owner of building thought that, there are pretty big evils in the city and the ward should be big enough to frighten them up. ha ha ha. LOL.


--Dhanesh Amma

Glass Bangles

When it comes to decoration, first item we choose is flowers.

In temples , God is also decorated with colorful flowers and garlands.

There are cases i have observed with the goddess that decorations are made with fruits and vegetables during the season when their prices come down.

I had seen in some amman temples during the month of aadi, goddess is decorated with glass bangles. I had not observed or heard in my home town about this. So thought this is something happening in Chennai alone.

But when i saw in news paper this year, I could see this is happening in amman temple of all south Tamilnadu region.
Below is a picture showing such decoration made of glass bangles.



Like flowers, these bangles are offered to the god by people before the decoration day. Later the bangles are then distributed to people who visit the temple.

Though there are many varieties of bangles available in market, glass bangles deserve a special place. Still question peeps in.

When there are lot of women accessories, what could be the special reason for choosing the bangles for decoration?? Could it be because it is affordable and available in market easily like the flowers ? then why the month aadi is selected for it instead of all time?

If you have an answer leave them in comments box..

--Dhanesh Amma

adieu to 25 paise

Reserve Bank of India (RBI) has announced, with today 25 paise coin is closed.

There were days, when I used to get handful of ground nut candies. Even mini cone icecream was just 25 paise.


Though we say bye-bye to the coin today, I have handful of those coins kept safe in my cupboard for the next-generation in the family. They would also know history in picture on seeing those coins..

How to hide Facebook profile from search engines

You all may be knowing that you can easily find any person on Facebook right from Google or any other search engines. The basic information like your name, profile picture, gender and networks are visible to everyone. Just search your name in Google and you will see your facebook’s profile in the results page.

But just in case you don’t want your Facebook profile to be shown in search engines, you can easily do this from your Facebook - "Privacy Settings page".

Follow the following steps to remove your Facebook profile from Search Engine cache

1. Login to your Facebook Profile and click the Account tab on the top right corner of the page and select the Privacy Settings option. A new page will open up.

2. In this page, find "Apps and Websites" which will be in the bottom left corner of the page, and click on "Edit your settings" link next to it.

3. On the next page you will see "Public Search" at the bottom of the page, click on "Edit settings" button at the right of "Public Search".

4. Uncheck the "Enable Public Search" option.

Now your Facebook profile will be completely removed from search engine results page. For some search engines, it may take a few days/weeks to get your Facebook profile out of their cache.


--Dhanesh Amma

Mehndi - Bridal Makeup

Mehndi ( or Mehendi) is the application of henna as a temporary form of skin decoration in India.

In Tamil, it is called as Maruthani. The school where I studied had rule not to apply nailpolish / maruthani while attending school. Still, they had exception during the festival time like diwali .

Every year during the festive season , we used to buy the leaves from market before diwali, prepare the paste and apply in our hands. Those were the traditional methods.

myself , my sis and mother used to apply. As my father, being single male in the family, we don't want to leave him and ask him to apply. He will avoid telling some reason. Also I have observed that only boys who are kids, have this maruthani and men don't apply.

In recent years, the ready-made cone was made available at shops, and people started to use them having pictures of modern art , Arabic designs etc.

This maruthani is an essential part in the bridal makeup too. In some parts of north India, they dedicate a day for this mehendi and all the ladies and little girls spend time in applying mehendi and have a fun time.

I was under impression that this Mehendi/maruthani is for sole use of girls, but I was wrong.. Recently I came across a wedding photo , which made me laugh at the view of it. Well, the bride groom in the photo was also having mehendi in his hand, much better than the bride's design.




I had to cut off their faces before posting here, for privacy reasons..

I thought this guy must be crazy. Then on surfing Wikipedia on mehendi came to know that

"The bridegroom is also painted in some parts of India. In Rajasthan, the grooms are given designs that are often as elaborate as those for brides" - [source: wiki]

hmm.. who knows this might soon come to Tamilnadu too..

--Dhanesh Amma

Voting Experience

It is Dhanesh's voting experience. We took him to the near by school, yes that is where the people were listed to cast the vote in our area.

Dhanesh, does not like going to school as most of kids, but as it is for casting vote, he came happily. He was firing questions to me and his grand parents.

On entering the room, he asked in loud voice "are we going to vote here only". The polling officers who were busy at work, just looked up and again started to work.

We replied to Dhanesh as "yes. keep queit". But he was not able to keep quiet. He then asked again , "how to vote?" We then pointed the desk where the voting machine was kept and told, we will cast vote there and he has to keep quiet till we leave the room.

My mother voted first, me second and my father next. Dhanesh was with his grand father.

On returning home, we asked him, how do we vote.. He replied as below.

"There is a machine and we have to press the button. Red light glows and then a sound comes in as piiiiiiiing.. he thought for a while and then told, they kept black ink in the finger."

For a three year old boy, he can not understand the purpose of the election and the voting. He will know more during the next election.

--Dhanesh Amma