The Telugu Cultural Association of Greater Toronto(www.telugutoronto.ca) organized a special program on this Sunday afternoon to celebrate Annamayya Aradhana at the Hindu Temple Society of Canada at Richmond Hill. The site of this temple is http://www.thehindutemple.ca(10865" rel="nofollow">LINK, Bayview Avenue, Richmond Hill, Ontario L4S 1M1, Canada; Tel: 905-883-9109). Incidentally this Hindu Temple is one of the most beautiful temples constructed in North America. This temple is well maintained and is in the traditional south Indian style. This temple has deities of Balaji(Venkateshwara), Ganesh, Murugan(Shravan) the largest idol in the whole wide world, Shiva and many others. The priests in this temple are from South India are fluent in Tamil, Telugu, Kannada and Hindi.There are special music classes (Carnatic vocal/dance/mridangam)organized there and also on Saturdays/Sundays mornings chanting of \\\"Vishnu Sahasharanamam\\\", \\\"Rudram\\\" and other important shlokas are done here.This temple location is a must see to anybody who is interested in learning more about Hinduism. The temple wants your donation of books on Hinduism as they are setting up a library there. These books could be in English or Tamil language.There is also a hall here for holding concerts, conducting marriages, upaynayanam and various functions for your family.

The program on Annamacharya a saint from Andhra Pradesh had many singers from the ages of 5 to 70 singing various kritis of Annamacharya.The chief guest on this occasion was Mr.Amar Devulapalli, Chairman - Press Academy of Andhra Pradesh and a famous journalist from Hyderabad. The two singers who stood out was Mrs.Manjula Shrikanth a resident of Mississauga(who incidentally conducts carnatic music lessons for children and adults). She sang the Deva Devam Bajhe and was well received by the audience. She has trained many students in Muscat and one of them is currently a playback singer in Malayalam movies!.
The other singer was Mrs.Ratna Sasthry Charla who gave a mini concert of the kritis of Naraayanaya, Sakalam Bhesaki, Namo naaryaayaNa and Entakati.

The program ended with a nice prasadam session which included a delicious Tirupati style(taste) Ladoo, Puliyodhara and Curd Rice. The prasad was heavenily and out of this world.

There are many other such programs in the planning, which can be looked up in the earlier mentioned website and it would be ideal for Telugus to participate and also to network with the other telugus who are already well placed. This forum is ideally suited for people interested in Carnatic music(people who are non telugus but interested in Carnatic music, bharatnatayam and traditions from South India ike me) and other related cultures.

Hope to see some of you in the next program !.

Thank God that Tirupati did not go to Tamil Nadu during the partition of India!.

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Speech by Thomas Friedman of The New York Times....

"When we were young kids growing up in America, we were told to eat our
vegetables at dinner and not leave them. Mothers said, 'think of the
starving children in India and finish the dinner.' And now I tell my
children: 'Finish your maths homework. Think of the children in India
who would make you starve, if you don't.'"

HAve been twice to this temple. very beautiful, went even yesterday, attended the ganesh festival, called trival (?)

thank u Mr.shankaracharya for your information.