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5 of theWorld’s Most Festive Airports

December 20, 2015December 20, 2015NatarajanLeave a comment

Being in an airport during the busy holiday travel season can be stressful, but some of the biggest and best airports around the world embrace transform themselves to bring joy to your journeys.

With twinkling lights, pine-scented air, and the sound of sleigh bells, these terminals stand out with their impressive holiday cheer.

From London to Singapore, these airports outdo themselves every year with awe-inspiring displays.

No matter where you’re going this season, a trip through one of these airports is certain to put you in the holiday mood.

5 terminals that stand out with their impressive holiday cheer.

O’Hare International Airport

Where: Chicago, Illinois

Expect dazzling lights and terminals filled with boughs of holly at O’Hare International Airport this season, as the airport continues its annual tradition of celebrating the holidays in style. The nation’s third-busiest airport transforms into a winter wonderland, first visible on the road leading to the terminals, where bright, LED-wrapped trees and giant stars and spheres dot the perimeter of the grounds, forming a wintry landscape. Bright wreaths are adorned on many of the overhead signs throughout the airport roads, while oversize ornaments and lights are placed throughout the arrival and departure terminals. Be sure not to miss Terminal 3, where O’Hare’s signature globe is brought to life with the help of hundreds of LED lights, garland accents, and bright doves that float overhead. Aside from the decorations, O’Hare will host school choirs, jazz and blues bands, barbershop quartets and strolling carolers on select days throughout December.

Changi Airport

Where: Singapore

In addition to its normal holiday decorations, the force is strong at Changi Airport this holiday season thanks to a partnership with Disney in anticipation of Star Wars: The Force Awakens. Testing the limits of intergalactic travel, Terminal 3 welcomes a life-size X-wing Fighter, offering visitors the chance to don costumes and hop inside the iconic aircraft for a photo opportunity in the cockpit. Plan your trip accordingly: Imperial Stormtroopers and X-wing Fighter pilots make appearance at the jet Saturdays at 4 pm throughout December. Look for dozens of other fun surprises throughout the terminals, including Star Wars’ humanoid protocol droid C-3PO which teaches Star Wars phrases in ten languages, a life-sized TIE fighter, and an obstacle course for the BB-8 droid.

Heathrow Airport

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via Fodors

Where: London, England

With an extensive roster of musicians and festive décor, Heathrow Airport welcomes visitors this holiday season with daily events that are guaranteed to spread joy. Carolers, a string quartet, and a brass band are just some of the rotating acts set to entertain travelers this season throughout the airport’s four terminals. Heathrow offers travelers the great benefit of free gift wrapping, available in all terminals. And most helpful of all, Heathrow’s friendly “gift helpers” are on hand in all terminals, expert in finding the perfect gifts for your friends and loved ones.

Zurich Airport

Where: Zürich, Switzerland

A Swiss holiday haven, Zürich Airport glistens with the glow of 510,860 LED lights and 31 Christmas trees throughout the airport this season. During the holiday season, guests are treated to a deluxe offering of events and activities in the airport which include scheduled tours of the enormous double-decker Airbus A380 operated by Singapore Airlines, an elaborate and exclusive Christmas dinner, and cookie-baking classes for kids. Pop-up stores throughout the terminals include a festive Nespresso coffee spot and fine chocolates and sweets at the Läderach pop-up.

Munich Airport

Where: Munich, Germany

Celebrating the season with the warmth and livelihood of a traditional German holiday market, the 17th Annual Winter Market returns to Munich Airport this year. Plan to spend the better part of an afternoon exploring the market’s 46 stands under the roof of the Munich Airport Center, where the sweet smell of mulled wine and roasted almonds fills the air. Arrive hungry and enjoy artisanal wurst and plenty of German beer on tap. With 450 real Christmas trees set amidst the market, the Winter Market is an ideal place to spend the most wonderful time of the year.

Source….www.businessinsider.com

Natarajan

The Rooftop Racetrack ….

December 20, 2015December 20, 2015NatarajanLeave a comment

The Lingotto building in Turin, Italy, is a massive half-kilometer long reinforced concrete structure, five stories tall, that once housed the largest and most modern car manufacturing plant in Europe. Located in the heart of the city, its original owners —Fiat—made clever use of the available real estate by building a high-speed test track on the building’s unusual banked rooftop, where thousands of Fiats underwent testing once they came out at the end of the assembly line.

A Vespa racing event on the roof of Lingotto’s Fiat Factory, organized by Red Bull in 2011. Photo credit: www.motoblog.it

Built between 1916 and 1923, the building was the brainchild of Italian engineer Giacomo Mattè-Trucco, and was one of the first buildings of its size to rely heavily on reinforced concrete. Space constraints imposed by the railway lines nearby and the shape of the terrain, forced Giacomo Mattè-Trucco to develop a building that went vertically up and ended in a simple yet ingenious looped rooftop test track with two banked turns. The track is reached by spiral ramps at either end of the building that thread their way up through floor after floor. These ramps are braced by reinforced concrete ribs that radiate from the columns around the central well like the ribs on the underside of water-lily leaves.

The manufacturing plant’s assembly line itself was unusual, and the test track was an integral part of it. Production started at the ground floor and continued sequentially up through the upper floors. As each floor passed, the cars approached their final shape until they emerged as a finished product at the rooftop where they were ready for testing. While the banked sections are impossibly tight making high-speed testing unfeasible, rumors persist that concepts and racing engines were also tested here, including the one-off 1954 Turbina, with its projected 160mph top speed.

The Lingotto Factory produced 80 different models of car putting out an average of 200 daily from it’s opening until the 1970s, when it was eclipsed by the modern Mirafiori plant. The last Lancia Delta rolled out of the factory in 1979. Three years later, the factory was officially closed.

The Lingotto building was eventually converted into a modern complex with concert halls, theatre, a convention center, shopping arcades and a hotel. The rooftop track was retained and can still be visited today on the top floor.

A Vespa racing event on the roof of Lingotto’s Fiat Factory, organized by Red Bull in 2011. Photo credit:www.motoblog.it

Photo credit: John and Melanie/Flickr

Photo credit: Jacqueline Poggi/Flickr

Photo credit: Marcus Winter/Flickr

Sources: Jalopnik / BBC / Wikipedia

Source….www.amusingplanet.com

Natarajan

Image of the Day…” Blue Marble Earth Image …”

December 20, 2015NatarajanLeave a comment

NASA’s Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter (LRO) recently captured a unique view of Earth from the spacecraft’s vantage point in orbit around the moon.

“The image is simply stunning,” said Noah Petro, Deputy Project Scientist for LRO at NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Maryland. “The image of the Earth evokes the famous ‘Blue Marble’ image taken by Astronaut Harrison Schmitt during Apollo 17, 43 years ago, which also showed Africa prominently in the picture.”

In this composite image we see Earth appear to rise over the lunar horizon from the viewpoint of the spacecraft, with the center of the Earth just off the coast of Liberia (at 4.04 degrees North, 12.44 degrees West). The large tan area in the upper right is the Sahara Desert, and just beyond is Saudi Arabia. The Atlantic and Pacific coasts of South America are visible to the left. On the moon, we get a glimpse of the crater Compton, which is located just beyond the eastern limb of the moon, on the lunar farside.

LRO was launched on June 18, 2009, and has collected a treasure trove of data with its seven powerful instruments, making an invaluable contribution to our knowledge about the moon. LRO experiences 12 earthrises every day; however the spacecraft is almost always busy imaging the lunar surface so only rarely does an opportunity arise such that its camera instrument can capture a view of Earth. Occasionally LRO points off into space to acquire observations of the extremely thin lunar atmosphere and perform instrument calibration measurements. During these movements sometimes Earth (and other planets) pass through the camera’s field of view and dramatic images such as the one shown here are acquired.

This image was composed from a series of images taken Oct. 12, when LRO was about 83 miles (134 kilometers) above the moon’s farside crater Compton. Capturing an image of the Earth and moon with LRO’s Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter Camera (LROC) instrument is a complicated task. First the spacecraft must be rolled to the side (in this case 67 degrees), then the spacecraft slews with the direction of travel to maximize the width of the lunar horizon in LROC’s Narrow Angle Camera image. All this takes place while LRO is traveling faster than 3,580 miles per hour (over 1,600 meters per second) relative to the lunar surface below the spacecraft!

The high-resolution Narrow Angle Camera (NAC) on LRO takes black-and-white images, while the lower resolution Wide Angle Camera (WAC) takes color images, so you might wonder how we got a high-resolution picture of the Earth in color. Since the spacecraft, Earth, and moon are all in motion, we had to do some special processing to create an image that represents the view of the Earth and moon at one particular time. The final Earth image contains both WAC and NAC information. WAC provides the color, and the NAC provides high-resolution detail.

“From the Earth, the daily moonrise and moonset are always inspiring moments,” said Mark Robinson of Arizona State University in Tempe, principal investigator for LROC. “However, lunar astronauts will see something very different: viewed from the lunar surface, the Earth never rises or sets. Since the moon is tidally locked, Earth is always in the same spot above the horizon, varying only a small amount with the slight wobble of the moon. The Earth may not move across the ‘sky’, but the view is not static. Future astronauts will see the continents rotate in and out of view and the ever-changing pattern of clouds will always catch one’s eye, at least on the nearside. The Earth is never visible from the farside; imagine a sky with no Earth or moon – what will farside explorers think with no Earth overhead?”

NASA’s first Earthrise image was taken with the Lunar Orbiter 1 spacecraft in 1966. Perhaps NASA’s most iconic Earthrise photo was taken by the crew of the Apollo 8 mission as the spacecraft entered lunar orbit on Christmas Eve Dec. 24, 1968. That evening, the astronauts — Commander Frank Borman, Command Module Pilot Jim Lovell, and Lunar Module Pilot William Anders — held a live broadcast from lunar orbit, in which they showed pictures of the Earth and moon as seen from their spacecraft. Said Lovell, “The vast loneliness is awe-inspiring and it makes you realize just what you have back there on Earth.”

Source…….www.nasa.gov

Natarajan

Message For the Day….” Follow Sabari’s Example , who always thought of Rama and His happiness…”

December 20, 2015December 20, 2015NatarajanLeave a comment

Follow at least one of the nine modes of devotion (Sravanam, kirtanam, etc.). It doesn’t matter how wealthy or learned you are; God is concerned only with the sincerity and purity of your mind and heart and the wholeheartedness and genuine nature of your love. Valmiki was a hunter. Nandanar was of a low caste. Kuchela was a poor man. Dhruva and Prahlada were five-year-old lads. Sabari was a tribal woman, illiterate and uncivilized. But all of them won God’s Grace in abundance, because of their wholehearted devotion, love and surrender. Follow Sabari’s example, who always thought of Sri Rama and His happiness, and dedicated all her thoughts, words, and deeds to Him alone, such that her every action was transformed and sublimated into the highest penance (tapas).Meditation does not mean sitting idle in a particular posture, like posing for a photograph. Like Sabari’s life, your life must become a continuous meditation wherever you are, and whatever you do.

Sathya Sai Baba

This is Egypt’s Only Waterfalls, And its Man-Made…

December 20, 2015NatarajanLeave a comment

The valley of Wadi El-Rayan, 65 km southwest of Fayoum city, in Egypt, is home to two large artificial lakes created to divert excess agricultural drainage water from Fayoum oasis. It is also home to the country’s only waterfalls.

The Fayoum oasis originally drained into Lake Qarun in the north. But the lake can take only a certain volume of drainage water. Anything over this capacity and the lake level would rise and flood the surrounding land, often doing irreparable damage because of the waters high salt content. This means that the amount of water that can be used in the Fayoum is limited by the region’s maximum drainage capacity. Consequently, until recently water-intensive crops such as rice and reeds could be grown only in very small quantities. Furthermore, no new land could be reclaimed without causing swamping of existing farmland near Lake Qarun. There was a pressing need to find an alternative drainage basin, and the large depression of Wadi El Rayan was found to be suitable.

Photo credit: Roland Unger/Wikimedia

In 1974, a 9-kilometers open channel and an 8-kilometers tunnel were cut through the desert from the western side of the Fayoum depression to the large, dry depression of Wadi El Rayan. Drainage water now flows into Wadi El Rayan forming two large lakes. Water first reaches the northern lake and when it’s overwhelmed, a stream flows towards a deeper part of the depression, where another lake is formed. As the course of the stream was eroded, natural rocks were exposed and waterfalls formed over them.

There are several cascades on the stream, none of them taller than 2 to 4 meters. Yet, they have attracted considerable attention among the local Egyptians, as many have never seen waterfalls before. The waterfalls have also been featured in many Egyptian pop videos and films. The falls, however, will not last for ever as the level of the lower lake is continually rising and the falls will exist only until the expanding surface area allows a rate of evaporation equal to the amount of water flowing into it.

The shorelines of the lakes are densely vegetated making them perfect wintering habitats for migrating birds and breeding spot for many fishes. The area is now a nature reserve and is home to the world’s sole population of Slender-horned Gazelles, as well as 8 other mammal species and 13 species of bird.

Wadi El-Rayan Lake. Photo credit: Mohammed Moussa/Wikimedia

An Egyptian man jumps in the water of Wadi El-Rayan Waterfalls in Fayoum, Egypt, on March 6, 2015. Photo credit: Xinhua/Ahmed Gomaa

Source…..www.amusing planet.com

natarajan

Message for the Day..” Art of Spiritual Discipline….”

December 19, 2015NatarajanLeave a comment

The attitude of the worshiper and the worshiped is the seed of devotion (bhakthi). First, the worshiper’s mind is attracted by the special qualities of the object of worship. The worshiper tries to acquire these special qualities. This is spiritual discipline (sadhana). In the early stages of spiritual discipline, the distinction between worshiper and worshiped is full, but as the spiritual discipline progresses, this feeling diminishes and, when attainment is reached, there is no distinction whatsoever. Irrespective of the object of worship one has grasped, loved and sought by spiritual discipline, one should have firm faith that the individual self(jivatma) is the supreme Lord (Paramatma). There is only one wish fit to be entertained by the aspirant: the realisation of the Lord (Iswara Sakshatkara). There is no room in the mind for any other wish.

Sathya Sai Baba

This Man Left His Job, Sold His Car and Took a Loan – Just to Make India Clean !

December 18, 2015NatarajanLeave a comment

This cleanliness warrior resigned from his job to take the battle against garbage to cars, autorickshaws, buses, and other vehicles. His car trash bins will give income to slum dwellers while helping keep our roads clean.

India is developing fast — roads are jammed with cars, cellphones are ubiquitous, and there is talk of smart cities emerging all over the country.

But are we behaviourally developed as a nation? We still lack civic sense and spit on walls, we don’t show up for our appointments on time, we deface our historical landmarks, we rarely stick to queues when waiting, and we litter our streets indiscriminately.

Abhishek Marwaha was one of us until three years ago when he read somewhere: ‘”A person who throws his trash actually throws his humanity.”

Abhishek Marwaha

He then started making a conscious effort to keep his surroundings clean. His friends made fun of him when he kept dumping used tissues in his pockets or in car back pockets while travelling, instead of throwing them outside the window.

“I used to work in a travel technology firm and travelling to different countries used to be part of my job profile. I realized that we are more conscious of our habits when abroad (like littering, spitting, honking, etc.) but we tend to be careless when we are here in India. So all we need to do is one simple thing to bring a wave of change. Let’s behave in our own country the way we behave in any other foreign country,” says Abhishek.

One day, while having lunch, he found that his lunch bag was worn and could be used as a trash bin in his car. The idea stayed with him and he began to design a trash bin that is easily accessible in a car or any vehicle, even while driving. Once the design was ready, he started making cheap trash bins in bulk and contacting vendors.

This mission to keep India clean has today resulted in the launch of Abhishek’s online store, ujosho.com, which sells the first ever car trash bins in India.

The word UJosho is derived from the Japanese word ‘josho,’ which means ever victorious. Abhishek added a ‘U’ to indicate that we can all be victorious in the battle against littering if we do our bit to keep the nation clean.

Swachh bin for cars

“There are an estimated 25 million cars in any Tier 1 city in India. The problem of garbage will continue to haunt us as the trash thrown from cars chokes the roadside drains and contributes to water logging and floods during rains. There is an immediate need to educate and encourage people to use this simple trash bin in their cars so that many of these issues can be resolved without intervention of civic authorities and with proper and positive participation from each one of us,” adds Abhishek

The car trash bins that Abhishek sells are not machine made. He aims to provide earnings to slum dwellers by getting them to make these trash bins by hand in bulk.

He has also experimented with giving away these bins to beggars for free and was delighted to see them selling these to car owners at traffic signals.

“You don’t have to hold a gun at the border and save the country to be truly patriotic. You can bring about change by changing yourself, your habits and your surroundings. Even if 10% of our population shares this view, it can make a difference. Maybe what I am doing is minuscule, but it will hit the root cause of the trash problem,” Abhishek says with great zeal.

According to Abhishek, installing and using the trash bin in vehicles will be good because:

1) It will help bring about a behavioral change among adults and children with respect to cleanliness, littering and spitting.

2) It will support civic authorities in ensuring optimum use of manpower in cleaning roads.

3) Trash chokes the roadside drains and contributes to water logging and floods during rains. Car trash bins will help prevent that.

Though the car trash bin is a first-of-its-kind product, Abhishek does not want to patent the idea as he wants it to spread widely. He wants other people to replicate it and make it more cost effective if possible.

Happy Customers!

“We also encourage people to share their ideas about cleanliness on the ‘Idea’ section of our website. If we are able to make a product from that idea, we will then give royalty on every sale of that product,” says Abhishek

To know more about Abhishek and his products, you can visit www.ujosho.com

Source….Manabhi Katoch in http://www.the betterindia .com

Natarajan

Places Where Three Time Zones Meet……..

December 18, 2015December 18, 2015NatarajanLeave a comment

When Italian mathematician Quirico Filopanti first sounded the idea of time zones in his book Miranda! published in 1858, he proposed that the world be divided longitudinally into 24 equal time zones, where each zone differs from the last by one hour. But the real world is rarely that simple. Influenced by political, geographical and social changes, the world adopted a much more complicated system where time zones differed by three-quarter, half and even quarter of an hour. Today there are as many as 40 different time zones.

With so many different time zones around it’s imperative that some of them would meet at more than one point. There are exactly twenty-two places, according to various sources, where more than three time zones meet. Some of them are obvious, such as tri-point boundaries between nations observing different time zones. The strangest ones are located in Australia because the way the country’s different states follow time.

The time zones of Australia and the three state corners where three time zones meet.

Australia has three time zones, but from spring until autumn when New South Wales and South Australia adjust their clocks for daylight-savings, two additional time zones appear that horizontally break up the country’s two easternmost time zones into four. These time zones, which differ from each other by 30-minutes, meet at three different places. The most popular of them is Cameron Corner in the outback of eastern Australia, where the boundaries of states of Queensland, South Australia, and New South Wales meet. The other ones are Poeppel Corner (located at the corner of Queensland, South Australia and the Northern Territory) and Surveyor Generals Corner (located at the corner of South Australia, Western Australia and the Northern Territory). Standing at any one these locations allows any person to be at three different points of time at the same time. To take advantage of this anomaly, more than a thousand people descended on the tiny settlement of Cameron Corner on December 31, 1999, so they could celebrate the arrival of the new millennium three separate times.

Marker at Cameron Corner. Photo credit: Kris H/Flickr

Marker at Cameron Corner. Photo credit: Geoffrey Rhodes/Flickr

Marker at Poeppel Corner. Photo credit: Mark161/Panoramio

Marker at Surveyor Generals Corner. Photo credit: jeza1/Panoramio

Another interesting place where a bunch of time zones meet is Antarctica. Being located on the South Pole, where every line of longitude meet, you might be tempted to think that all time zones meet here, but this is not the case, as time zones rarely adhere to geographical divisions. Because of the extreme day-night cycles near the times of the June and December solstices in Antarctica it is difficult to determine which time zone would be appropriate. Instead, researchers working on various stations in the Antarctic Circle observe time zones of the country the station is owned by, or the time zone of their supply base. For example, McMurdo Station and Amundsen–Scott South Pole Station use New Zealand time due to their main supply base being Christchurch, New Zealand. Many areas —those labeled in red in the map below— have no time zone at all, and follow Universal Time, by default.

Photo credit: Phoenix B 1of3/Wikimedia

Sources: CN Traveler / iO9

The Incredible Story of Neerja Bhanot – Indian Flight Attendant Who Saved 360 Lives…

December 17, 2015NatarajanLeave a comment

On the morning of September 5, 1986, Pan Am Flight 73 landed in Karachi. It had arrived from Mumbai and, had nothing gone wrong, would have departed for Frankfurt and onward to New York City. The flight was carrying, among members of other nationalities, Indians, Germans, Americans, and Pakistanis.

Unfortunately, the flight was hijacked while it was parked on the tarmac at Jinnah International Airport in Karachi.

Photo for representation purpose only. Source: Wikipedia

Four heavily-armed terrorists, dressed as airport security guards, entered the aircraft while firing shots from an automatic weapon and seized control of the plane.

This is the story of Neerja Bhanot, the senior flight attendant on board, who helped a number of passengers escape. She was murdered while shielding three children from terrorist fire, less than 25 hours before her 23^rdbirthday.

After the terrorists boarded the plane, Neerja alerted the cockpit crew, who escaped through an overhead hatch in the cockpit. As the senior-most remaining crew member on board, this left Neerja in charge. One of the terrorists asked the flight crew to collect and hand over the passports of all passengers on board. When Neerja realised that the primary targets of the terrorists were American passengers, she hid their passports – even discarding some of them down the rubbish chute. From a total of 41 American passengers, only 2 were killed.

After holding the passengers and crew members hostage for 17 hours on the runway, the terrorists opened fire. Neerja stayed on the plane to help passengers escape, even though she could have been the first to leave. She was shot while shielding three children from the bullets that were being fired by the terrorists.

Most of us will never find ourselves in a high-pressure situation, facing life or death the way Neerja did. True bravery emerges in the face of fear. We might never know what Neerja was thinking or feeling during those terrible hours of the hijacking, but we do know that she chose to respond to the actions of the terrorists with exceptional grace, courage, and grit. Of the 380 passengers and crew members on Flight 73, 20 were killed.

While many others were injured, they did survive – in no small part due to the actions of a 22-year-old flight attendant who chose compassion over cowardice and performed her duty till the very end.

source,….Facebook

Neerja Bhanot’s family suffered an unbearable loss when they lost their only daughter.

“Neerja was the ‘laado’ of the family, the youngest and most pampered. My parents had wished for her, and in a news article after her death, my father had mentioned how, when she was born on September 7, 1962, the maternity ward matron here at Chandigarh hospital rang up to inform, it’s a girl. To her surprise, he gave her double thanks, for Neerja was a prayer answered after two sons,”recalls Aneesh, her brother.

As her father remembers her,

“Neerja was a very sensitive, deeply affectionate and an extremely decent person who believed in sharing with her people all her joys but not the jolts. She had well defined principles and there was little room for compromise in that area.”

Despite their irreplaceable loss, her parents, Rama and Harish Bhanot, soldiered on, and even found a fitting way to honour Neerja’s memory. With the insurance money that they received after her death and an equal contribution from Pan Am, they set up the Neerja Bhanot Pan Am Trust. Through the Trust, they present two awards of Rs. 1,50,000 every year – one to an Indian woman who faces social injustice but overcomes it and helps other women in similar situations, and one to honour an airline crew member who acts beyond the call of duty. There could hardly have been a better way to keep Neerja’s memory alive.

For her actions on the day of the hijacking, Neerja Bhanot was posthumously awarded the Ashok Chakra, India’s highest peacetime military decoration for the “most conspicuous bravery or some daring or pre-eminent valour or self-sacrifice”, and the Tamgha-e-Insaniyat, awarded by the Pakistan government for showing incredible kindness. She also posthumously received multiple awards for her courage from the United States government.

Source……..Vandita Kapoor in http://www.the betterindia.com

Natarajan

” பீடுடைய மாதம்- மார்கழி!’….

December 17, 2015NatarajanLeave a comment

மாதங்களில் நான் மார்கழி என்று மாதவனால் பெருமை பெற்று மனிதனை உயர்வழிக்கு அழைத்துச் செல்லும் மார்கழி மாதம். தேவலோகத்தில் வாழும் தேவர்களுக்கு தை மாதம் முதல் ஆனி மாதம் வரையில் பகல் பொழுதாகவும், ஆடியில் இருந்து மார்கழி மாதம் வரையில் இரவாகவும் கருதப்படுகிறது. இதில் பகலை உத்தராயனம் என்றும் இரவை தட்சிணாயனம் என்றும் அழைப்பார்கள். இவ்வாறு பார்க்கும்பொழுது மார்கழி மாதம், தேவர்கள் விழிப்பதற்கு ஆயத்தமாகும் விடியற்காலை நேரமாகிறது. அக்காலத்தையே பிரம்ம முகூர்த்தம் என்கிறோம். இந்த மாதத்தில் அதிகாலையிலேயே எழுந்து நீராடி தெய்வத்தை வணங்கினால் நோய் நீங்கி, குடும்பத்தில் ஐஸ்வர்யம் பெருகும் என்பது நம்பிக்கையாகும். அதனாலேயே இம் மாதத்தில் எல்லோரும் அதிகாலையில் எழுவது என்பது வழக்கமான நடைமுறையில் ஒன்றாக இருக்கிறது. இதற்கு ஒரு அறிவியல் காரணமும் உண்டு.

மார்கழியில் அதிகாலைப் பொழுதில், (4.30 மணி முதல் 6.00 மணி) வளி மண்டலத்தில் தூய்மையான ஒசோன் படலம் பூமிக்கு மிகத் தாழ்வாய் இறங்கி வருகிறது. ஓúஸôன் என்பது அடர்த்தியான ஆக்ஸிஜனாகும். அதை சுவாசித்தால், நோய் எதிர்ப்பு சக்தியும், ஆரோக்கியமும் கிடைப்பதால் உடல் இயக்கம் எளிதாகிறது. ஆகவே அதன் பலனைப் பெற இம்மாதத்தில் பெண்களை காலையில் கோலமும் ஆண்களை பஜனை பாடல்களை பாடவும் செய்தனர் என்று அறிவியலார் கூறுகின்றனர்.

மார்கழி மாதத்தை சூன்ய மாதம் என்பர். சூன்யம் என்றால், ஒன்றுமில்லாதது எனப் பொருள். நம் வாழ்க்கை ஒன்றுமில்லாதது, நிலையற்றது. இந்த வாழ்வை அர்த்தமுள்ளதாக்கிக் கொள்ள வேண்டுமானால், சரணாகதி எனும் உயர் தத்துவத்தைக் கடைபிடிக்க வேண்டும். லௌகீகங்களுக்காக இல்லாமல், ஆன்மீக நிகழ்வுகளுக்காக மட்டுமே என்று இம்மாதத்தை முன்னோர் ஒதுக்கி வைத்தார்கள். நமது உடலையும் உள்ளத்தையும் நல்ல விதமாக ஆக்கிக்கொள்வதற்கு உரிய மாதம் மார்கழி மாதம். இம்மாதங்களில், சுபநிகழ்ச்சி நடத்தினால், வழிபாடு பாதிக்கும் என்பதாலேயே, இம்மாதங்களில் அவற்றை நடத்தாமல் தவிர்த்தனர். இதற்காகவே, ஆண்டாளும், மாணிக்கவாசகரும், திருப்பாவை, திருவெம்பாவை பாடி, நமக்கு வழிகாட்டியுள்ளனர்.

சிவபெருமான் உண்ட நஞ்சை அவர் கண்டத்திலேயே தடுத்து, அந்த நஞ்சு அவரைத் தீண்டா வண்ணம் காத்த கார்த்யாயனியை வேண்டி தங்கள் கணவரின் நீண்ட ஆயுளுக்காக இம்மாதத்தில் வருகின்ற திருவாதிரை அன்று விரதமிருக்கிறார்கள். இதையே பாகவதம் மார்கழி மாதத்தில் ஆயர் மகளிர் கார்த்தியாயினியை வழிபட்டு, அவியுணவு உண்டு கண்ணனை அடைந்தார்கள் என்றும் கூறுகிறது. கன்னியர் இந்நோன்பிருந்து கார்த்தியாயினி தேவியை வழிபட, தகுந்த கணவன் கிடைப்பான். சுமங்கலிகள் கடைப்பிடித்தால், தம்பதியர் ஒற்றுமை கூடும்.

மார்கழி மாதத்தை, மார்கசீர்ஷம் என்று வடமொழியில் சொல்வர். மார்கம் என்றால், வழி – சீர்ஷம் என்றால், உயர்ந்த – வழிகளுக்குள் தலைசிறந்தது என்பது பொருள். இறைவனை அடையும் உயர்வழியே சரணாகதி.

ஆண்டாள் பொழுது புலர்வதற்குமுன் எழுந்து தமது தோழியர்களை அழைத்து ஆற்றில் நீராடி, அங்குள்ள மணலினால் பாவை போன்ற உருவம் செய்து, மலர்கள் சூட்டி, அப்பாவையை கெüரி தேவியாக பாவித்து, “பாற்கடலுள் பையத்துயின்ற பரமன் அடிபாடி’ பாடித் துதித்து பின் ஆலயம் சென்று வழிபட்டு நோன்பு நோற்றாள். அவளுடைய அன்பை உணர்ந்த ஸ்ரீரங்கநாதர், ஆண்டாளை ஸ்ரீரங்கத்துக்கு அழைத்து வரச் செய்தார். ஆண்டாள் ஸ்ரீரங்கநாதனின் திருவடிகளை வணங்கி நாகணையை மீதேறி பெருமாளுடன் சேர்ந்து அவருடன் ஒன்றானாள். உண்மையான பக்தியின் மூலம் ஆண்டவனை நிச்சயம் அடைய முடியும் என்று, இந்த கலியுகத்திலும் வாழ்ந்து காட்டியவள் ஆண்டாள். அவள் செய்த நோன்பையே பாவை நோன்பென்று குறிப்பிடுகின்றனர்.

இம்மாதத்தில் வரும் திருவாதிரை விரதம் சைவர்களுக்கு இன்றியமையாதது. மார்கழி மாத திருவாதிரையை இறுதி நாளாகக் கொண்டு, பத்துத் திங்கள் திருவெம்பாவை நோன்பு நோற்கப்படுகின்றது. பத்தாவது நாளான திருவாதிரை அன்று அதை நிறைவு செய்வார்கள். இவ்விரதம், இவ் வருடம் 26.12.2015 அன்று கொண்டாடப்படுகிறது.

இந்த மார்கழியில் சிவபெருமானும், ஏனைய தேவர்களும் பூமிக்கு வந்து தவமிருப்பதாக ஐதீகம். சிவபெருமான், சிதம்பரத்தில் நந்தனாரை ஆட்கொண்ட நாள் திருவாதிரைத் திருநாள்! மார்கழித் திருவாதிரை நாளில் நடராஜப் பெருமானை வழிபடவேண்டும். திருவாதிரை நாளில் உமையம்மை, பதஞ்சலி முனிவர் கண்டு மகிழ, சிவபெருமான் திருநடனம் ஆடினார். தாருகாவனத்து முனிவர்களின் செருக்கை அடக்கி, அவர்களால் ஏவப்பட்ட மதயானையைக் கொன்று, அதன் தோலை அணிந்து, முயலகன் மீது வலது காலை ஊன்றி இடது காலைத் தூக்கி நடனமாடி, முனிவர்களுக்கு உண்மையை உணர்த்தியதே “ஆருத்ரா தரிசனம்’ என்று சொல்லப்படுகின்றது.

அசுர சம்ஹாரத்திற்காக பகவான் பூலோகத்திற்கு மூன்று கோடி தேவர்களுடன் எழுந்தருளிய “வைகுண்ட ஏகாதசி’ இம்மாதம் 21.12.2015 அன்று கொண்டாடப்படுகிறது. கலியுகத்தில் நம்மாழ்வாருக்கு முன்னதாக வைகுண்டத்திற்கு சென்றவர் யாருமில்லை என்பதால் வைகுண்ட வாசல் மூடப்பட்டிருந்ததாகவும் பின்னர் வைகுண்ட ஏகாதசி அன்று அது திறக்கப்படுவதாகவும் ஐதீகம். இந்த வைபவத்தை முதன்முதலாக திருமங்கையாழ்வார் திருவரங்கத்தில் ஏற்படுத்தினார் என்பர்.

மார்கழி மாதம் இருபத்து ஏழாம் தேதி திருப்பாவை 27 ஆம் பாடலில் “கூடாரை வெல்லும் சீர் கோவிந்தா’ என்று தொடங்குகிறது. “பாற்சோறு மூட நெய் பெய்து முழங்கை வழி வார’ என்று 27 ஆம் பாடலில் சொன்னவாறு இன்று எல்லா விஷ்ணு கோயில்களிலும் நெய்வழிய சர்க்கரைப் பொங்கல் நிவேதனம் செய்து “கூடாரைவல்லி’ என்று விசேஷமாகக் கொண்டாடுவர்.

ராம நாம ஜபத்தினையே தனது உயிராகக் கொண்டிருக்கும் அனுமன் அவதாரமும் மார்கழியில்தான் நடைபெற்றது. கீதை அருளப்பட்டது மார்கழி வளர்பிறை 11 ஆம் நாளாகிய ஏகாதசி தினத்தில் தான். அன்றைய தினத்தை “கீதா ஜயந்தி’ எனச் சிறப்பிக்கப்படுகிறது. மார்கழிப் பெüர்ணமியன்று “தத்தாத்ரேயர் ஜயந்தி’ தினம். மேலும் தொண்டரடிப்பொடியாழ்வார் பிறந்த மாதமும் மார்கழியே.

மார்கழி மாத வியாழக்கிழமைகளில் மகாலட்சுமி பூஜையை ஆண், பெண் இருபாலரும் செய்வர். இதற்கு “குருவார பூஜை’ எனப் பெயர். இப்பூஜை செய்வதால் சகல ஐஸ்வர்யங்களும் கிடைக்கும்.

மார்கழியில் விரதம் இருப்பது உடல் நலத்திற்கு மட்டுமல்லாது மன வலிமையை வளர்க்கவும் உதவும். இந்த ஒரு மாதத்தை இறை உணர்வுடன் சிரத்தையாய்க் கழித்தால் அதனால் வரும் உன்னத குணங்களும், உடல் மற்றும் மன நலன்களும் நம் வாழ்நாள் முழுவதும் நம்முடனிருக்கும். இந்த வாழ்க்கையை சிறப்பாய் வாழவும், நம் குறிக்கோள்களை நோக்கிய பயணத்தை விரைவுபடுத்தவும் மார்கழி நமக்குத் துணை செய்யும். பக்தி மார்க்கத்திற்கு வழிகாட்டும் மாதமாகவும், வீடுபேறு எனும் மோட்சத்தினை அடைய உதவும் மாதமாகவும் முன்னோர் கருதியதாலேயே இதனை “பீடுடைய மாதம்’ என்றனர்.