News & Announcements

December 2014

Pillayar Nonbu

• This year's Pillaiyar Nonbu was celebrated on Dec 13th, 2014 at Rean Dr, Toronto. The function was organized by Shanti Suppiah, Lakshmee Annamalai and Sindhu Suppiah. Dr. Valliappan and Mr. Annamalai distributed the elzhais to all the families who attended the event. In total 110 ezhais were distributed. Our current President Mr. Suppiah provided a year-end update on the finances of this comittee and vote of thanks. Afterwards, a Yelam (Auction) was conducted by Mr.V Pal, in which $22,030 was raised to support the CNS education fund. Several members also donated money towards the education fund. Thanks to everyone for their generous contribution. Pot-luck dinner was served. Photos of this event have been posted to the 'Photos' section within this page.

  After the function, new CNS committee was elected to serve the next term (2015-2016). Please find below the message from the incoming president Chinnameyyappan Narayanan:

  Hi All,
  As a new president of Canada Nagarathar Sangam and on behalf of our new committee members, I would like to thank everyone for electing us as committee members for the next two year term. We will try our best to satisfy everyone and make these 2 years as wonderful as possible. I am very content to proudly introduce our new committee members for all the CNS members:

  Secretary: Annamalai Muthupalaniappan

  Treasurer: Palaniappan Ramanathan

  Social Committee: Gandhimathi and Vallimayil

  Education committee: Geetha Ramanathan and Viji Sethuraman

  Editor: Periyakaruppan Subbunarayanan(PK)

  Youth Committee: Sindhu Suppiah, Janani Subramanian and Shangavi Kannan.

  NSNA Regional Representative: Subi Subramanian

  We also want to thank all the past committee members for their valuable work for the Sangam in the last two years. Furthermore, we would like to thank all the volunteers that helped out in the previous term and we warmly welcome our new volunteers to support and help us in future events.

  We all sincerely thank Mr. VPal for his tremendous work on our one and only fundraising event “YELAM” to raise this record breaking income of $22,030. We also thank and appreciate everyone who contributed in the “Yelam” and their generosity to raise this money for a good cause as well as the members who donated money for the education fund to bring this target to this mark.

  Finally we want to thank everyone who attended the Pillayar Nonbu function and the election on this very special day, Dec 13, 2014. We also want to thank everyone for giving us an opportunity to serve this great “CANADA NAGARATHAR SANGAM.”

  Thank you,
  Sincerely
  Chinnameyyappan Narayanan
  President
  (On behalf of CNS Committee)
  

• Sathya & Kannan have been blessed with a baby boy. The baby was born on Dec 13, 2014. Sathya, Kannan and Iniya are very happy with the new addition to their family. We wish them the very best!

November 2014

• Valli Kannappan's baby shower was held @ Ms. Subathra's residence on Nov 23rd. Subathra, Viji & Geetha Organized this event.
• The Bhajan for November was held at Vasantha & Raj's home in Oshawa.

Deepavali

October 2014

Bhajan

• The Bhajan for October was held at Sathya & Kannan's home in Vaughn.
• Mrs.Malathy & Dr. Mei hosted their Daughter-in-Law's (Parvathy Arun's) Baby shower on October 19th at their residence in Brampton. Photos of this event have been posted to the 'Photos' section within this page.

September 2014

Bhajan

The Bhajan for September was held at Muthu & Chockalingam's home in Woodbridge.

August 2014

Bhajan

Summer Picnic

The annual CNS summer picnic was held on August 16th at Meadowvale Conservation Area in Mississauga.

Over 80 people attended the event.

Although the weather was, at times, raining, it didn't stop the men from a fun game of cricket! The rest of the games, organized by Meena, were also very entertaining.

Some new families joined us for the event.

"Big" Arjun's birthday, which happened to be on the same day as the picnic, was also celebrated.

Thanks to all for providing the wonderful food and items to help make the picnic quite enjoyable.

Of course, thanks to Meena and Subathra for their effort in organizing this event.

Please see some photos of the day here.

Pothu Padaippu

Around 60 Nagarathars from the US and Canada gathered together for the warm occasion of Pothu Padaippu, at Annamalai and Banu's residence in Brampton on August 9th.

Not long after most of the families arrived, the men got right to work to cut vegetables (namely, egg plant, plantain, pumpkin, and jackfruit) for some of the Padaippu dishes.

Also in the morning, some of the elders washed and hung to dry a new Vesthi and Saree. These two items of clothing will symbolize our ancestors during the evening prayer.

Later, the ladies made the dishes for the Padaippu. To start the cooking, a conch shell, or "Sangu", was blown. Some explanations of the dishes are included for readers not familiar with them. They were:

• Karupatti Paniyaram (also known as Padaippu Paniyaram), which is a deep-fried, sweet flat-shaped dumpling made of karupatti or "black jagerry" (jaggery made from Palm wine) Kantharapam is similar, but is made with regular jaggery (vellam, in Tamil).
• Paal Choru (translated as "milk rice") which is a sweet rice with a porridge-like consistency. It is also cooked using karupatti. Chakara pongal is similar, but is made with regular jaggery.
• Marakarikai Dosa, or dosa made from dhal.
• Katharikai (egg plant) and Valakai (plantain) kulambu (curried "sauce")
• Parankikai (pumpkin) kulambu
• Palakai (jackfruit) kootu (not as curried or as "liquidy" as kulambu)

Although not required, other dishes were made:

• Vadai (savoury, deep-fried "fritter"), appalam (known as Papadam outside of South India), and cabbage poriyal (fried cabbage).

In preparation for the evening prayer, the washed and dried Vesthi and Saree were folded and placed on the altar, along with garlands, a Rudraksha Maalai (a garland of prayer beads made from Rudraksha seeds), jasmine flowers, and jewels.

Mr. Visvanathan Chettiar of Konapet helped with the "Pallayam", or the serving of the food on three banana leaves, in front of the altar.

Once altar and offerings were prepared, around 6 o'clock in the evening, everyone gathered in the prayer room.

We began with our traditional bhajans and slokas, and after singing, we observed a period of silence to remember our ancestors.

With the event complete, dinner was served with the previously offered food, that was quite delicious.

We hope the next generation of Nagarathars in Canada will continue with this tradition that was started.

Two wonderful sets of photos of the Padaippu are posted, here, and here.

July 2014

Bhajan

Periakaruppan and Meena, who live in Mississauga, hosted their very first bhajan, this month.

June 2014

Bhajan

June's Bhajan took place at Dr. Kannan and Valli's new home in Mississauga.

Father's Day

It seems a little ironic that on a day for dads, most of the moms were on vacation in Northern India!

While many "significant others" were half way across the world, the rest of us had a wonderful backyard barbeque at Uncle Suppiah's place, with the sun shining that afternoon.

Shanthi took charge of the barbequeing of chicken wings, hot dogs, and lamb burgers for all, and did a fine job.

One highlight of the afternoon was the water balloon toss in which Annamalai and Arun Meiyappan won, with Arun ending the game with a "big splash"!

Thanks to Uncle Suppiah, Shanthi, and Sindhu for hosting and organizing a fun and enjoyable event.

Please see a few photos of the get-together. The small amount of photos taken may have had something to do with a forgotten memory card!

May 2014

Bhajan

The Bhajan for May took place at Drs. Yegappan and Muthulakshmi's home in Niagara Falls.

Mother's Day

What a lovely time we had for Mother's Day, 2014 at Northwood Community Centre.

There, we celebrated the day in honour of all moms, who's tireless work may sometimes, maybe even most times, not be appreciated by the rest of the family!

Mother's day is a society's way of saying "thank you" to moms.

Did you know that the celebration of Mother's day actually began in Land of the Free, the United States, in the early 20th century? The year was 1905, to be exact, when Anna Jarvis, a pacifist, campaigned to create a day to honour her mom, and all moms, with a national holiday. Three years later, her wish started to become true as Jarvis' home state of West Virginia made it a holiday. Finally, in 1914, President Woodrow Wilson signed a document proclaiming the 2nd Sunday in May as Mother's Day, and we've been celebrating it ever since.

In appreciation of CNS moms, our dads took part in the Mother's Day cooking contest, with the winner being Annamalai (and Banu) who made the amazing vegetable fried rice, and runner-up being Subi, who made the delicious aviyal. Congratulations and thanks to the winners and participants.

Even though Mother's Day 2014 is long past, we should try to find more opportunities to honour our moms.

April 2014

Tamil New Year

CNS once again celebrated Tamil New Year with a fun-filled evening at NorthWoods Community Centre.

Subathra was our MC for the evening.

A short bhajan started our event.

The evening continued when our youngest CNS members did a dazzling "fancy dress" show, in which the kids came as various figures from Indian culture and history, as well one from TV, as they spoke and sang songs.

The older children gave informative talks on how to "save our earth", in the spirit of Earth Day coming on April 22nd.

A surprise dance by the ladies entertained us.

The games, such as "Connections", done by Ramanathan and Meena, as well as "Minute-to-win-it", were great fun and got everybody involved.

President Suppiah later informed the group about the upcoming CNS Retreat.

The food, catered by both Nilgris and Everest, was very good.

We thank the organizers of the event, and Northwood Community Centre for use of their facility.

We hope you all had a good time. Please see some nice photos of the event, taken by Kannan.

February 2014

Bhajan

The Bhajan for February took place at Anand and Uma's home in Cambridge.

January 2014

Murugan Abishekam

What a nice way to start 2014, by going to the Temple to be part of the Murugan Abishekam.

This year, 45 people attended the Abishekam.

Thanks to all for the effort put in to prepare for the Abishekam, in order to receive the Lord's Blessings.

An Abishekam is a "sacred bathing" of an Idol with milk, yoghurt, honey, and fruit juice, while priests recite mantras.

After the Abishekam, while Lord Muruga was being "dressed", we began our traditional Bhajan.

With a final prayer to Lord Muruga after being fully ornamented, we all went down to dining hall and enjoyed a delicious meal provided by the Temple.

Let's all look forward to a great year!

Please see some photos of the event, taken by Kannan, here.