My team is planning to conduct a survey for Nagarathar youth in our community and hopefully bring about
this awareness if any to Nagarathars in North America.
From Pichappan Pethachi, Regional Secretary, Oldsmar, FL
Pillaiyar Nonbu function was celebrated on Jan 3rd in Mr.Sambandam Odaiyappan's home in Port
Charlotte. Eleven families and few bachelors attended the event and forty-three “Ezhlais” were taken. It
took a long time for the men to take the thread from the “Veshti”. They were discussing about inventing
some machine to do the same by next year and sell it to other regions - discussions were on for various
ways to skim milk - but the actual job took a long time! Efforts were taken up by parallel teams when
women
started having fun at the expense of men. If some one has a better way to do it - please pass on your
suggestions – we would really appreciate it! The method taken up by the men was using a pin and
two men holding each “Veshti” on either side - it looked like they were accomplishing a very difficult task(
like climbing the Mount Everest ). Ladies kept up the spirits by singing devotional songs - they were
running out of songs by the time men finished the job. After dinner - we had a four-hour tussle
between men and women in the game of pictionary – which was prepared by Valli
Pichappan based on Chettinad facts and Tamil Movies. It was a close finish. The hidden talents in
acting especially of some achis and chettiars came to light. It was a fun filled evening at Sambandam's
home. Thanks to Sambandam and family for hosting the function.
Relocation:
Venkat Kannappan's family moved from Florida to Georgia . Our best wishes to Venkat and
family.
General:
Nagarathars are known for their benevolence, specially for education - a group of families - Dr A.
Periakaruppan, Dr.P. Chockalingam, Dr V. Venkatchalam, AL. Solayappan and Dr. Arun
together contributed $601 towards tuition and hostel fees for a deserving chettiar student ( M.
Ramaswamy - Chockalingam Pudur) in India who desperately needed financial assistance.
From Chockalingam Suppiah, Regional Secretary, IL
The annual Pillayar Nombu function was held on December 20, 1997 at the Witkowski Center in Lemont,
Illinois for the Chicagoland area Nagarathars. Approximately 35 families attended the event. This year
the organizers included several extra-curricular activities after Pillayar Nombu prayers. Registration began
at 2:30pm and almost 90% of attendees registered by 3:30pm! Pillayar Nombu prayers were completed by
5:30pm. Immediately after dinner, an event for children under 12 years was conducted by Veena Karthik,
followed by a musical chairs for adults. Surprisingly, the men hesitated at first to participate but gave in
after the requests by the ladies. Then Mr. Peri Narayanan presented the Nagarathar Top Ten List... If You
are a Chettiar (similar to Red Neck Jokes) and a game for children over 12 years old. The final event for
the evening was a discussion titled 'Should we follow Nagarathar Tradition in North America?' facilitated
by Dr. Arumugam and Mrs. Malathy Shanmugam. We had many good discussion points by both youth and
adult members. Our collections for the marriage and educational fund totaled $1,300. The organizers,
Lakshmi and Raju Subbiah, Annam and Kasi, Deivanai and Chinna , Veena Karthik, Peri Narayanan, Mala
Shanmugam and Dr. Arumugam deserve special recognition for the superb job in organizing this event.
We hope to improve and make next year's Pillayar Nombu even better.
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