Of Interest – 2021
Photos & Videos
News & Announcements
December
Pillaiyar Nonbu
Message from Incoming President:
Hello CNS members,
On December 11th we had a very successful Pillaiyar Nombu function at Sringeri Temple with over 155 ellais taken. The function was well organized by PK & Meena family and Arun & Sigappi family with the support of the CNS committee led by Dr. Arun Chockalingam. After two years of virtual events due to COVID restrictions, it was great to meet everyone in person again. We met many newcomers to the CNS group and enjoyed our delicious traditional Chettinad food. We hope that COVID will be behind us, so we can enjoy more functions in person this year. We appreciated all the members' cooperation, especially the young children, in following COVID restrictions at the function by wearing their masks. At the end of the function, two young families quickly volunteered to run 2022 Pillaiyar Nonbu function; Nagasubramaniam Kumarappan & Meenakshi family and Vairam & Swetha family – thank you to them both for volunteering, we look forward to supporting you with next year’s function.
Ellam
At Pillaiyar Nombu we also had a record-breaking ellam collection in which we raised over 25,000 dollars (our funds increased by 1,000 dollars due to contributions from Dr. Yegappan & Dr. Muthulakshmi and Ramu & Solai). Your generous contributions will help many underprivileged children fund their university education and support others with marriage and medical assistance. It was nice to see ellam contributions from many youngsters, past CNS members, and even a non-CNS member, Dr. Lakshmanan from Sringeri temple. 25,000 dollars is a significant donation from our small group of Canada Nagarathars, which is reflective of our community’s generosity and commitment to the wellbeing of others. This success is due to our strong community involvement in the ellam; the auction was led by V Pal and as always, he did a fantastic job engaging us to contribute to such a great cause while adding in his signature comedic touch. The ellam would not have been successful if not for the families who were so gracious to donate items including one non-CNS member for the Altar, purchasing items in India and Canada and transporting them to function. Once again, an outstanding job by all involved and it is great to see the hard work from everyone be rewarded with such a successful ellam!
Change of committee
The Pillaiyar Nombu function also marked the transition from the previous committee to the new one and we want to thank the past committee for all their hard work during the past three years - taking on an additional year of leadership due to restrictions from the pandemic. Dr. Arun Chockalingam successfully led the committee and managed to implement many changes to our Sangam despite the persistent challenges from COVID. Working with a bank in India, he managed to quickly and efficiently e-transfer funds to all deserving students for education. Once students received funds, they acknowledged receipt of funds to the educational committee – creating a transparent and effective way of tracking our donations. This was a material improvement to the previous long and arduous process of writing cheques and mailing them. Dr. Chockalingam also made Canada Nagarathar Sangam truly Canadian by inviting Nagarathars across Canada to be part of CNS. These initiatives only represent a small subset of Dr. Chockalingam’s accomplishments over his tenure. Kudos to Dr. Chockalingam for all his hard work, the CNS committee truly flourished under his leadership. The Education committee led by Kannan Muthiah and Geetha Singaram streamlined the process for awarding students’ education funds; they made it easier to apply online and enabled continuing students to get funds without excessive paperwork – thank you for your commitment. The Social Committee led by Nirmala Sethuraman and Kavitha Sathyamoorthy managed to switch all functions to virtual format with the support of their entire families and successfully managed to keep us entertained for over three hours at a time; well done. Our Treasurer, Srinivasan Chidambaram efficiently managed to collect and disburse large amounts of funds supporting CNS initiatives – we appreciate your dedication. Thanks to Ganesh Annamalai for successfully managing the CNS web site and streamlining it as well. Dr. Yegappan managed monthly virtual Bhajan with ease and efficiency; he made Bhajan a learning session and fun for all – thank you for your support. Thanks to V Pal, who was our NSNA representative and successfully linked our Sangam to other Nagarathars all around the world. Last but not least, thank you to my better half, Vasantha Valliappan, who served as CNS Secretary. I have seen her work first hand to coordinate and execute CNS committee initiatives with ease and efficiency. Our heartfelt thanks to the previous committee members for all their hard work, we know these past three years have been unprecedented times for CNS and your persistence and dedication has been instrumental in leading the Sangam over the past three years. New CNS committee is as follows:
- President: Raj Valliappan
- Secretary: Nachiappan Muthukaruppan
- Treasurer: Meena Suppiah
- Social Committee: Karthik Chockalingam and Kannathal Kannappan
- Education Committee: Karupan Chetty and Soundharam Lakshmanan
- NSNA Representative: V. Pazhaniappan
- Bhajan coordinator: RM. Murugappan
- Web Editor: Suriya Thittani
- Past President: Dr. Arun Chockalingam
We have a tall order to follow in the previous committee footsteps. With your support we look forward to fulfilling the CNS mission of helping those less fortunate. Remember this is your Sangam, please feel free to let us know of any initiatives that we should be considering, we appreciate your input and support.
Looking forward to another great two years.
Thanks,
Raj Valliappan
November
Deepavali
Our CNS family celebrated the Diwali function virtually on Nov 14th, from 4 to 8 pm. We began the event off with a prayer song by Shanvika, followed by a warm welcome speech by our CNS president. He also introduced the new families that joined CNS.
Read more on page 35 or Watch recorded event
September
Bhajan
Vasantha & Raj were the hosts for the bhajan in September.
June
Bhajan
For June's bhajan, Sathya & Kannan were the hosts.
May
Mother's Day
Thank you all for attending our Mother's Day function on the 30th of May!
Hope you all enjoyed the event!
We began with an address by President, Dr. Arun Chockalingam.
A wonderful Mother's Day slideshow was presented with photos of the moms and children, as the kids spoke about what they found inspiring by their moms.
For comic relief, we had some "Adzap" commercials to tickle our funny bones, along with some singing and dancing.
We were also honoured to have Dr. Pal of Youtube fame, come to present and join us for the occasion.
Please also see some photos of the event.
Thanks to the Social Committee, and all who helped, to make this a joyous and wonderful celebration of Moms everywhere!
Bhajan
Malathi & Dr Mei hosted May's bhajan.
April
Bhajan
In April, Geetha & Singaram were the bhajan hosts.
March
Bhajan
Chittu & V Pal were hosts for the bhajan in March.
February
Family Day
ஃபேமிலி தினம் இம்முறை மெய்நிகராக கொண்டாடப் பட்டது. சமையல் போட்டி பிப்ரவரி 14ஆம் தேதி அன்று ஞாயிற்றுக் கிழமை காலை 9:00 மணி முதல் 11:30 வரை கொண்டாடினோம். இதில் மதுரையில் இருந்து செஃப். நாச்சியப்பன் அவர்கள் கலந்து கொண்டு பெரியவர்கள் மற்றும் குழந்தைகளுக்குக் காணொளி வாயிலாக சமைக்கக் கற்றுக் கொடுத்தார். பெரியவர்களுக்கு ஒன்பது வகையான காய்கறி மற்றும் நட்ஸ் கொண்டு மிகவும் ஆரோக்கியமான நவரத்தின புலாவ் மற்றும் சிறியவர்களுக்கு மிகவும் பிடித்தமான ஓரியோ ரொட்டி கொண்டு ஓரியோ கேக் எப்படி செய்வது என்று மிகவும் எளிமையான முறையில் வீட்டில் உள்ள பொருட்களைக் கொண்டு அனைவருக்கும் கற்றுக் கொடுத்தார்.
Bhajan
For February's bhajan, the hosts were Drs. Muthulakshmi & Yegappan.
January
Talk On Thiruchendur Murugan
CNS's first annual event each year is our Murugan Abishekam at the Richmond Hill Temple. This year that event was not possible because of the COVID restrictions. When pondering how we might start off our CNS events for this year, we thought of asking, சொ. சொ. மீ ஐயா a Professor and a Tamil scholar, who is well versed in Thiruvasagam and Tamil literature. Aiya lives in Madurai and is a native of Devakottai, he enthusiastically accepted our request and took us on a spiritual journey to Thiruchendur, and spoke on the topic called ௧ால் பட்டு அழிந்த கையெழுத்து.