12-03-2023
The Annual Celebrations of Ramakrishna Math, Ooty was celebrated in a grand manner on 12th of March 2023.
As usual Mangalarathi and Vedaparyana started at 06.00 am at the temple.
The Annual Celebrations started at 08.00 am with Special puja being conducted to Sri Ramakrishna at the temple. At 09.00 AM as part of the winter relief Woollen blankets were distributed to 200 poor families outside the auditorium.
At 10.00 am the programs in auditorium started with Bhajans by Sri Harikeshav, Principal of APS Polytechnic Bangalore, continued at 10.30 am by Sri Ayyappa and Sri Ananda A, Athikaratti. At 11.30 am Classical Vocal Singing was performed by Kumari Lakshmi and party from Chennai. The performers were felicitated at the end of their programmes.
At 12.30 am Lighting Lamp ceremony was held where Srimat Swami Athmaganandaji Maharaj lit the Lamp and gave a discourse on Sri Ramakrishna’s Life, after which Swami Athmaganandaji Maharaj was felicitated by Srimat Swami Raghaveshananda.
At 1.15 pm the winners and runners up of the Inter school sports competition were facilitated with their trophies, mementos and medals. Overall 100 students were felicitated for their winning / runner up performance in the sports meet.
Smt Uma Gujadur from Mauritius presented the trophies and the mementos. Medals and books were presented by Srimat Swami Raghaveshananda and Srimat Swami Parahitananda.
- Volley Ball Boys
• GRG Valaithottam, Masinagudi was presented with the Winners trophy and Memento
• Vivekananda Memorial Matriculation school was presented with the Runner up trophy and Medals.
• Volley Ball Girls
• Vivekananda Memorial Matriculation school was presented with the Winners trophy and Memento
• St Josephs convent Coonoor was presented with the Runner up trophy and Medals.
• Kho Kho Girls
• St Ann’s Aruvangadu was presented with the Winners trophy and Memento
• Holy Angels Thummanatty was presented with the Runner up trophy and Medals.
• Throw Ball Girls
• Holy Angels Thummanatty was presented with the Winners trophy and Memento
• GRG Valaithottam, Masinagudi was presented with the Runner up trophy and Medals.
In addition to the mementos and medals all the students were presented with the book “Manavarkal Vetrikku Swami Vivekanandar”, translated in Tamil by K Vivekshankar and originally authored in English by ARK Sharma.
After the presentation was over, at 02.00 pm Cultural programme from the students of Vivekananda Memorial Matriculation started.
First there was the Igniting speech of Vivekananda where about 15 students dressed in the costume of Swami Vivekananda, Spoke Swamijis speeches and quotes in Tamil language which was inspiring to the crowd of around 860 people which included around 500 students.
The second cultural programme was a drama “Kannagi” who formed the central character of the Tamil epic Cilappatikaram. The drama dealt with how the chaste woman Kannagi’s husband is falsely framed and then punished without the due checks and processes of justice. Kannagi proves and protests the injustice, then curses the king and city of Madurai leading to the death of the unjust Pandian King of Madurai, who had wrongfully put her husband Kovalan to death. The Students enacted the characters very aptly.
The third cultural programme was a nagapambhu(nagin) group dance.
The fourth cultural programme was a drama “Thiruvilayadal” from the “Thiruvilayadal Puranam”. The students enacted one of the 64 dramas and took up the version of the Poets Dharmi and Nakeerar. The story is set in Madurai, the capital city of the Pandya Kingdom. Shenbagapandian, the king, wants to find the answer to a question posed by his wife (whether the fragrance of a woman's hair is natural or artificial), and announces a reward of 1,000 gold coins to anyone who can come up with the answer. Dharumi, a poor poet, desperately wants the reward, and starts to break down in the Meenakshi Amman Temple. Shiva, hearing him weeping, takes the form of a poet and gives Dharumi a poem containing the answer. Overjoyed, Dharumi takes the poem to Shenbagapandian's court and recites it; however, the court's head poet Nakkeerar claims that the poem's meaning is incorrect. On hearing this, Shiva argues with Nakkeerar about the poem's accuracy and burns him to ashes when he refuses to relent. Later, Shiva revives Nakkeerar and says that he only wanted to test his knowledge. Realising it was Shiva's will that Dharumi should get the reward, Nakkeerar requests Shenbagapandian to give it to Dharumi.
The final cultural programme was the classical dance performance of Shiva and Parvathy.
The 860 member crowd was mesmerised by the performance of the students.
After the programme was over, the students who performed with the cultural programme and the teachers of the Vivekananda Memorial Matriculation school were facilitated by Srimat Swami Raghaveshananda.
In the evening at 6.15 pm, as usual Aarti and bhajans were performed and the Annual celebrations came to a conclusion.
Photographs to the album can be found here