FROM THE PRESIDENT’S DESK

SrimatheRamanujayaNamaha

Dear All,

Winston Churchill said – “A pessimist sees the difficulty in every opportunity; an optimist sees the opportunity in every difficulty.”  This quote holds true especially in today’s time when the year 2020 was a hard one and year 2021 seems no different.    

Mandayam Sabha Members, taking a leaf out of this quote, have grabbed the opportunities – most prominentl undergoing complete DIGITAL TRANSFORMATION.  Cultural activities went digital with a plethora of activities every week.  The Annual meet stayed true to the sense of bringing people together with the participation of Mandayam Iyengars across the world, and the performances watched by a global audience.  Hats off to the great achievement by the Cultural Team and its Head – Rajani Rajesh!

Iyengars are known for their knowledge and we do excel in acquiring it. The knowledge attained by our ancestors is archived in the Mandayam Digital Library.  Over 800 books have been painstakingly retrieved from nooks and corners of the internet or physical books borrowed from the family / friends.  The digitized library is a treasure trove for our community.  Hats off to Sri Sridhar Govindraj for the efforts and Sri  Mathre Rangaraj for mentoring.  Browse https://mdl.mandayamsabha.in/ to know the expanse of work done.  

Vamshaparampara Software, designed and developed by the Genealogy team, captures the family tree, hobbies, interests, professions, educational qualifications of the community members.  This application, pertaining only to Mandayam  Iyengars across the globe, provides an insight about our forefathers, our key strengths & capabilities. Access to a large network of our own people, and the demographic profile of our community, helps to forge ahead in developing or working with new thoughts and ideas. Click on http://vamsha.mandayamsabha.in/user to add your family details! Hats off to the entire team of volunteers and Smt. Radha Rangaraj who initiated the data collection with a survey!  The project is spearheaded by Sri M A Parthasarthy, Sri Sridhar Mandayam and Sri M K Narayan.

Kudos to the newsletter team! They have kept the digitization trend going and introduced new features as well.  Hope you will all like it.  

Keep in touch and write to [email protected] for any information or feedback.

Be safe and Stay healthy

Warm Regards

M D Seshnarayan

EDITOR’S NOTE

 

Hi Everyone,

It has been truly a lo………ong time since we published the Mandayam News.  With most normal activities being washed out in the year 2020, the Newsletter also went to the backburner; especially since we were not sure how Mandayamsabha activities will pan out. However, once the Cultural team got into the gear, it was a continuously flowing stream.  From April 2020 to July 2021, the weekly online cultural capsules and annual programs of 2020 have been uploaded for worldwide viewing.  

Though the year 2021 began with a difference, there came another series of lockdowns. While we waited out the first wave, we decided not to wait any further for the next edition of the newsletter. Not just frontline warriors, people across age groups and professions – students, teachers, doctors – fresh or experienced, homemakers – had varied experiences of this sudden pause to “normal” life. We invited everyone to share how COVID-19 had affected them, and we received approximately 15 articles – one of the highlights of this issue. Thanks to all the authors!  A big thank you to Indu, who did all the follow up, compilation and review

Classifieds section has been deliberately omitted in this issue. With so many members of our community attaining Paramapadam, we do not wish to make any errors in publishing the details. Since activities of the Sabha office have also turned virtual, the collation of data of other events has not been complete and may not be accurate.  The entire section will get a digital overhaul shortly, to overcome these.

Keeping up with the trend and need of being Digital, The Mandayam News is completely digital and a new version is being hosted on www.mandayamsabha.in.  Thanks to Srirangarajan NC for making this happen, and helping with the other digital foms too.  The avada – wordpress template, selected by Sri M A Parthasarathy, ensures that design elements of the newsletter integrate well with the design of the Sabha website.

You may

  1. Download the document (.pdf) and read at leisure on your devices or print out a hard copy to read – available on – https://mandayamsabha.in/wp-content/uploads/2021/08/Mandayam-Newsletter-August-2021.pdf
  2. Read as a book – online at https://mandayamsabha.in/newsletter/
  3. Read like any other newsletter/ e-paper on the website – https://mandayamsabha.in/category/newsletter/aug-2021

As always, write to [email protected] with your feedback or for any article contributions.

Happy Reading!!

Regards

Rekha Rangaswamy (Editor)