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The LNS Pillayar Nombu event was held as per LNS tradition at Petts Wood Memorial Hall, Petts Wood, Bromley, BR5 1LA. Members started arriving from 5 pm onwards and the event lasted until 10.30 pm. The meeting was attended by 54 families totalling 172 members (120 adults and 52 children).

The meeting was initiated by lighting of kuthu vilakku by Mrs Annapoorani Achi. This was followed by prayer song by Mrs Valli Lakshmanan and Hema Nagappan and ladies (Mrs Nithya Palaniappan, Mrs Uma Valliappan, Mrs Geetha Selvaganesh and Mrs Valli Lakshmanan). Ms Priya Muthiah sang a beautiful Pillayar song in Sanskrit and all members joined in singing more Pillayar songs led by Mrs Valli Lakshmanan.

Mr S. Ganesh Kumar welcomed all the members and prior to electing the new committee, Mr Thiagarajan annan spoke about the importance of members voluntarily coming forward to take up committee positions. After this, new committee was selected which consisted of

President Lakshmanan Somasundaram
Secretary Annamalai Chockalingam
Treasurer Umarajeswari Valliappan
Committee member Kavitha Shanmugam
Committee member Sivaraman Chockalingam
Webmaster Ashok Chellappan

The incoming president, Mr S. Lakshmanan briefly thanked the current committee and mentioned that the new committee will work hard to the satisfaction of members. The current president, Mr S. Ganesh Kumar congratulated the newly elected committee and wished them the very best of luck and support for the next year.

New members’ introductions took place next and this was followed by members queuing familywise and prayed Vinayaka peruman before partaking elai. The elais were given by Mr Thiagarajan, Mr Shanmugam and Dr Mani Babu annans assisted by Mr Ashok Chellappan and Mr Sivaraman Chockalingam.

After all the members took elai, Mr S. Ganesh Kumar briefly detailed the disbursement of the charity account. This year London Nagarathar Sangam has disbursed £2000 for charity (£1000 towards education assistance and £1000 towards marriage assistance). LNS charity team consisting of Mr K. Karunamoorthy (as permanent member), Mr S. Ganesh Kumar (as current president) and Mr M. Sethuraman (as previous president) also coordinated the education assistance in partnership with MA PL Ramanathan Chettiar Trust, Pallathur, which meant that the LNS charity team were able to double the number of people supported through the charity work. A total of 10 marriages and 21 students were supported this year (details were distributed earlier through email). The president thanked all the members who contributed to the Sangam to make this possible and encouraged members to take part in the ???? to allow more charitable assistance in the coming year. LNS charity team coordinator Mr S. Senthilnathan was also thanked for his work in reviewing and shortlisting the multitude of applications.

ஏலம் took place next, led by Mr Raja Alagappan and assisted by Mr K. Karunamoorthy and Mr S.Sentilnathan. The following items were taken by
மஞ்சள்– Mrs and Mr Kumar Muthualagappan for £301
தேங்காய் – Mrs and Mr Lakshmanan Somasundaram, £31
சக்கரை – Mrs and Mr R. Valliappan, £101
கல்கண் டு – Mrs and Dr C. Nachiappan, £61
எலுமிச்ரச – Mrs and Mr Raja Alagappan, £31
உப்பு – Mrs and Mr Kumar Muthalagappan, £201
கல் உப்பு – Mrs and Mr Lakshmanan Alagappan, £131
வெள்ளிப்பிள்ரளயாை்– Mrs and Mr K. Venkatesh, £211
வெள்ளி விளக்கு – Mrs and Mr N. Thiagarajan, £301
வெள்ளி பசு கன்று – Mrs and Mr Lakshmanan Alagappan, £311
வெள்ளி குங்குமச்சிமிழ் – Mrs and Mr S. Ganesh Kumar £181
வெள்ளி துளசி மாடம் – Mrs and Mr K. Karunamoorthy, £311
வெள்ளி குலொழும்பிள்ரள – Mrs and Mr Subramaniam, £151
தங்க காசு – Mrs and Mr S. Senthil Panayappan, £301
தங்க காசு – Mrs and Mr R. Selvaganesh, £301

Overall, the ஏலம் items came to £2925 and Mrs and Mr N. Palaniappan donated £75 to round the total ஏலம் collection to £3000. The committee would like to thank all the members who won the ஏலம் items and raising money for good causes to be donated through the Sangam. Members who obtained the ஏலம் items are requested to make the payment by 1st February to LNS account (once payment has been made, please advise the Treasurer, Mrs Annu Alagappan):

A/C Name: London Nagarathar Sangam
Bank: HSBC
Sort Code: 40-06-21
A/C No: 41561847

Members then took dinner and commented on the variety of food items (which included some traditional Nagarathar dishes like vellai and karupati paniayarams) that was a relish.

Tamil daily calendars for 2017 were distributed to all the members.

Special thanks to the achis who prepared the delicious food in sufficient quantity. Mrs Sivagami achi’s effort in preparing the very tasty elai maavu is appreciated (thanks to Mrs Geetha Vijay for bringing the maavu) and thanks to the chettiars who helped to make the elairapidly on the day. Committee acknowledges the support of Mrs Vasantha Shanmugam for sponsoring the malligai flowers and Mrs Annapoorani achi for bringing swami pictures and poojai items. Mrs Nithya Palaniappan for sponsoring and bringing the calendar cakes from India and Mrs Dhevi Senthinathan’s assistance in purchasing the ஏலம் items are also acknowledged.

Thanks to all members who voluntarily helped to clean up the hall.

The meeting concluded at 10.30 pm. Link to the Photos: 

The next LNS event will be to celebrate Tamil New Year. Venue, date and other details will be announced closer to the time.

Signing off for the final meeting minutes,

Dr R. Palaniappan
LNS Secretary on behalf of LNS Committee 2016-17

For the first time LNS sangam organised a live music troupe for the Deepavali celebrations which was held on the 30th of Oct 2016.

Thanks to the members for their attendance at this year’s Deepavali function. It was one of the largest gathering of Nagarathars in the UK, all age groups throughly enjoyed the event.

The LNS Deepavali event 2016 was held with great gala in Manor Park Hall, Malden Road, New Malden, KT2 7AZ. Members started arriving from 12 noon onwards and the event lasted until 8 pm. Diwali function this year hosted a live music event, which was a first for LNS, the committee continued the first attempt following the away summer trip which was also a first for LNS, and to put LNS committee’s fear at bay, LNS members came forward resoundingly and with one of the largest Nagarathar participation of 218 (144 adults, 56 children and 18 infants) from all across the UK, the event was indeed a grand success.

While waiting for the lunch from Anjappar to arrive, the event was initiated with Sivagami Achi lighting the vilakku followed by special prayer song invoking Lord Krishna for healthy life sung by the ladies lead by Mrs Valli Lakshmanan. This was followed by welcome speech by the President, Mr S.Ganesh Kumar and chocolate cutting to celebrate Mrs Nachu and Mr Raj’s son, Master Hari’s birthday.

The wait for food was worth the time as the members had delicious lunch comprising gobi and chicken 65, mutton and vegetarian briyani, chettinadu chicken and ennai katrikai curries, paratha, vegetable kurma, potato masala, curd rice and gulab jamun. Various refreshments accompanied the lunch.

After having sumptuous meal, the members were entertained to a beautiful dance by Ms Valikannu Ramaswamy and the introduction of new members took place. The highlight of the event, the performance of Nisari music troupe began with the lead singer, Mr Rajesh singing the carnatic based song, Sankara. LNS was fortunate to have Mr Sridhar, a famous drummer from Chennai who won Limca Book of Records for 24 hours non-stop drumming, as visiting member of the troupe. Mr Rajesh’s beautiful singing was matched by melodious female voice by Mrs Vani. The pair sang many songs from 80s to recent songs with medley of songs, mostly Tamil but some Hindi songs too. Mr Sridhar also entertained the audience with his solo drumming and another member of the Nisari troupe showcased wonderful mimicry talent. There was also a song by the talented daughter of Mr Rajesh who sang the song Ooru Sanam Thongiruchu that received wide applause.

Members took a break around 5.30 pm for tea with samosa, vadai and cakes. There were delicious brownies too made by Mrs Valli Arumugam. The kids had fun next with the night sky being made colourful by bright fireworks display in the park next to the hall; the little ones too had fun with sparklers. Members returned to the hall for a final hour of music performance. The event ended around 7.30 pm with all the members helping to clean and tidy up the hall and leaving by 8 pm.

The support of corporate sponsors, Lebara (£300) and Union Bank (£250) and our members as below is greatly appreciated as otherwise, it would have been difficult to manage the finances for the event (special thanks to Mr Annamalai, for the sponsorship even in absentia):

•  Mrs Meena and Mr Annamalai Adaikappan, £51
• Mrs Nachu and Mr Manikandan Ramanathan, £51 (to celebrate the birth of their son)
• Mrs Lakshmi and Mr Lakshmanan Alagappan, £50
• Mrs Valli and Mr P. Arumugam, £50
• Mrs Nithyakalyani and Dr R. Palaniappan, £50
• Mrs Sivagami and Mr S. Ganesh Kumar, £50
• Mrs Kalaivani and Mr Karthik, £40
• Mrs Meena and Mr Siva Sockalingam, £30
• Mrs Vasantha and Mr N. Shanmugam, £30

In addition to the sponsors, the committee is grateful to the help of many members: Mrs Valli Lakshmanan for bringing swami picture and pooja items; Mrs Nithya Palaniappan for compiling the song list; Mrs Sivakami Ganesh for finding the music troupe; Mr M. Muthiah for capturing the beautiful moments with his SLR camera; Mr Raja Alagappan and Mr T. Karuppiah for collecting the money.

Many members also came forward voluntarily to help in serving food, decorations, firework’s marshalling, hall set-up and cleaning (in time for handover!) and the committee is indeed grateful for their kind help – it would have impossible to run such a big event without these kind support.

Overall, it was a successful event and the committee is happy that their and their families’ efforts over the past few months have been fruitful noting the positive feedback from the attendees.

The next LNS event will be to celebrate Pillayar Nombu on 7th January, 2017 from 5-10 pm. Venue and other details will be announced closer to the time.
LNS Committee 2016-17

Links to Photos and Videos

The summer trip this year was held over a weekend (two days) instead of the usual day trip.Walnutree Manor was the decided place located in a village called Haughley deep inside the Suffolk County. As the event was first of its kind to be held by LNS, the committee was worried on the participation but LNS members came forward resoundingly and with the participation of 69 members, it turned out to be a success. The weather too was supportive of our initiative and was sunny all through the event (except for a slight drizzle during early hours on Sunday, which actually cooled the climate a bit) and allowed a lot of planned outdoor sports activities to take place.

The committee arrived around 1 pm to complete the safety tour and other formalities, followed by gradual arrival of members from 3 pm onwards. The members were shown to their respective rooms and settled-in with their luggage. Refreshments with samosas and cakes were served with tea and coffee to the members in the evening. While the sports hall was being set-up with the projector and PA equipment, members took the opportunity to play some games in the field with the gents playing football and ladies playing dodge ball.

Around 6 pm, all members assembled in the sports hall and prayer song was sung by the ladies followed by welcome speech by the President, Mr S. Ganesh Kumar. A nice initiative of introducing parents of several members by their grandchildren took place, which was then followed by introduction of new members.

This was followed by cake cutting for those having birthdays in July. Mr Mohan Subbiah anchored the Family Fortune game among ladies and gents, where the gents won. Mrs Geetha Karuppiah announced her son Dr Arun has got engaged and wedding is likely to be next year. In this regard, LNS would like to congratulate them and wish them very best of luck.

Around 8 pm, members had a variety of delicacies for dinner prepared by achis in the dining room. After dinner, Ms Abirami Ganesh Kumar and Ms Shalini Mohan Subbiah painted mehendi and nail art for the kids as well as adults and donated the proceedings to the Sangam. Mrs Devi Annamalai set the boutique stall, which proved to be hit among the ladies.

After this, gents joined together and collected some logs in the nearby woods and set a camp fire while ladies played Pictionary. Surrounding the camp fire, members sang Paattukku Paattu songs and enjoyed the twilight under the open sky. Close to midnight, some members retired for the night to their rooms while the gents played trump card game and the ladies played dumb charades until wee hours of the night.

Several groups of ladies and gents went for a walk in the nearby green pasture and farm in the early morning the next day. After breakfast, some members took up archery while others (including kids) played badminton and tennis. Football again seemed a popular game and gents took up the opportunity to play a couple of games. Ladies played bluff game of cards. Lunch was ordered from Anjappar and members enjoyed the sumptuous food around 1 pm. Members packed and checked out of their rooms around 2 pm. Game for parents and kids were conducted in the open green field where parents were asked on knowledge of their kids such as their friend’s names and ambitions. All the variety of games was prepared by Mrs Annu Alagappan.

Just before the group photos were taken around 3 pm, the president and secretary thanked the attendees for their support that made the trip possible, and with a heavy heart, members slowly departed the venue to head home.

The committee would like to thank Mr Sekkappan Alagu for arranging and collecting chapattis and channa, Mr Ramananathan Subbu for samosas, Mr Thenappan Gnanasambandham for several Costco items, Mr Karunamoorthy Karunanithi for buying milk, Mr Selvaganesan Ramanathan for buying water and Mr Senthil Panayappan for returning the Anjappar vessel. All members also came forward voluntarily to help in setting up and cleaning the premises throughout the two days as if it was their family function and the committee is grateful for their kind help. Overall, it was an indeed
a very successful event and the committee is happy to note the positive feedback from the attendees on the arrangements.

Link to Photos LNS Summer Trip 2016

We from London Nagarathar Sangam (LNS) have been participating in Race for the kids 5k charity run for a few years now and this year’s edition happened today (15/05/2016) at Queen Elizabeth Olympic Park, London. Below are the highlights

Weather: Largely dry day with some sunny spells, feeling pleasant in the sunshine with light winds – perfect for a 5k run.

Team: LNS Hotwheelz team went in with its largest ever representation of twenty two registered participants which was augmented by on the day participants. When the team assembled for the start we were 30, doubling in size from 2015. Included thirteen children and seventeen adults – aged from 26 months to 50 plus years.

Performance:

Fastest runner – Kanishka Senthilnathan beat his personal best and team best to finish at 21 mins – fantastic performance – Kudos

Fastest adult runner – Vijay Narayanan beat his personal best and finished the run in 27 mins – another adorable performance

Fastest lady runner: Shivagami Muthiah having participated for the first time, finished the run in 33 mins.

Fastest first time runner – Ganesh Kumar, after not having run for 20 years finished the run in 33 mins – commendable performance

Three ladies who need to be mentioned for running/walking 5 kilometers with young children – Sindu Sendhil, Uma Valliappan and Lakshmi Thirunavukkarasu, – Hats off to you

Foreign runner: Nice to see Ramesh Ramanthan from the UAE (IBCN 2017 fame) finish the run and receive the medal. Sets a precedence for the coming years 🙂

I was able to maintain my last years timing of 33 mins. I can go on adding all the runners but for a lengthy blog, will stop it here.

Funds:

Raised – £ 439 so far

Highest individual fund raiser – Senthil Thiagarajan annan at £157

Highest family funds raised – Laks and Lakshmi at £ 144

Congratulations to all finishers (every participant) and thanks to sponsors and cheer leaders. This run serves multiple objectives – Motivates people to run (Sethu started going to Gym after last years run and finished today at 38 mins), a great day out for the entire family (with goodies and medals), raise funds for a great cause and networking opportunity, among others.

All in all a great day – Lets go next year with an even stronger team (as Sethu says double in size every year ie sixty 2017) – Already looking forward to next year.

 

The traditional “Chithrai Tamizh Puthandu (Durmukhi Varudam) vizha” was celebrated on the 16th of April 2016 at the Bromley Hall.

The new 2016-17 LNS committee took over as office bearers on this occasion.
Thanks to the members for their attendance at this year’s Tamil new year function. With all their help and presence the function went on very well.

Minutes of LONDON NAGARATHAR SANGAM

Tamil New Year Meeting Saturday, 16 April 2016 (3 Chithirai 2047), Bromley Parish Church (BR2 0EG)

The meeting was attended by 80 members (52 adults and 28 children). Mrs Sujatha Sethuraman conducted the meeting and it was initiated at 7 pm by lighting of kuthu vilakku by Annapoorani Achi. This was followed by prayer song by Mrs Sivagami Muthiah, Mrs Uma Venkatesh and Mrs Sujatha  Sethuraman.

The outgoing president, Mr M. Sethuraman gave the welcome speech and thanked his committee for the efforts in the year that made the events to be successfully conducted. He also wished well for the incoming committee. Next, the outgoing treasurer, Mr K. Venkatesh read the income and expense details for the past year including the details for charity account.

Thiagarajan annan spoke briefly thanking the previous committee and also wished well for the new committee. At this juncture, the members gave huge applause to the previous committee. The incoming president, Mr S. Ganesh Kumar was handed over the committee with Dr R. Palaniappan, taking over as
secretary, Mrs Annu Alagappan as Treasurer, Mrs Dheivanai Senthilnathan and Mrs Valli Lakshmanan as committee members. Mr Venkatesh handed the Treasury accounts to Mrs Annu Alagappan.

Dr Palaniappan thanked the previous committee and hoped that the new committee will be able to follow suit of the previous committee and meet the increasing expectations of the LNS members. He thanked Mr N. Shanmugam for sponsoring the flowers and the achi margals for the wonderful Chettinadu dinner. He also expressed gratitude to the sponsors in the previous year and hoped for continued support from them and all LNS members.

Mr Ganesh Kumar gave the inaugural speech as president by thanking the previous committee. He described the planned summer trip at Walnutree Manor on July 16-17 and encouraged more members to participate in the exciting overnight stay trip (a first for LNS) as there is still capacity to accommodate another 40 members. Live music arrangements (another first for LNS) during Deepavali was also mentioned. The dates for the following year events have been tentatively scheduled as:

• Overnight summer trip: 16-17 July 2016 (Sat-Sun)
• Deepavali: 30 October 2016 (Sun)
• Pillayar Nombu: 10 Dec 2016 (Saturday)
• Tamil New Year: 15 April 2017 (Saturday)

Mr Ganesh Kumar mentioned about LNS sporting activity: cricket league where teams are based on local areas and indoor league (such as badminton) where teams are divided based on Nagarathar Kovils.

Meiyammai Achi, mother of Mrs Sujatha Sethuraman and Mrs Priya Mani gave an aspirational talk on living. This was followed by new member introduction. The first was Mr C. Sriram from Panayapatti with his wife, Mrs Kavitha and son, Sai Krishav. The other new member was Mr AR. Chidambaram from Rayavaram and his wife, Mrs Vinodhini and daughter Aishwaryaa Kannammai.

The raffle tickets were won by Mr N. Vijay and Mr R. Valliappan. Photo sessions took place next for gentlemen, ladies and children. Games were conducted for young and older children. The smarties straw pick up game was won by Sachin and the English-Tamil word game was won by group comprising Nikitha, Nagu and Shalini. The games were conducted by Mrs Sujatha Sethuraman assisted by ladies.

Dinner was served and members commented on the variety of food items (including some items from (Anjappar) that was a relish. Special thanks to the members who helped in the food serving and clean up of the hall. The meeting concluded at 10 pm.

Link to the photos:  LNS Tamil new year 2016

Apologies if anyone or any details have been missed (kindly let me know).
Dr Palaniappan, LNS Secretary on behalf of LNS Committee 2016-17