Food For Thought

108: Just a Random Number or….

Have you ever wondered why do we have to chant a Mantra 108 times, take 108 pradakshinas around the temple deity? Why is 108 viewed as holy for all Hindus?  You will be amazed when you read this article.

You see 108 is a divine number that is crucial for Life and Death on Planet Earth. The very existence of life on Earth is based on this number 108.  To think our Ancient Sages did not know this is a gross understatement. With all their collective wisdom they laid the foundation of our entire Sanatana Dharma to be a way of life as opposed to just a religious order.  

Is it just a random number or is there a deeper connection to it? Our Ancient Sages attribute a lot of importance to 108.  Now let us dissect this meaningfully.

Amazing aspects of “108”:

There are 108 vital points or marma in a human body according to Ayurveda. Each chant of a Mantra goes through each of those vital points.

Also, in Hinduism, there are 108 Upanishads, the sacred texts of wisdom from ancient sages. Additionally, in the Sanskrit alphabet, there are fifty-four letters. Each letter has a feminine, or Shakti, and masculine, or Shiva, quality. 54 multiplied by 2 equals 108.

There are 12 Raasi’s or astrological houses and 9 Graha’s or Navagraha’s planets.

An average person is said to breathe 21,600 times in a 24-hour period. Half, 10,800, is solar energy (breaths during the day), and the other half is lunar energy (breaths during the night). 100 multiplied with 108 equals 10,800.

The Yog Gurus always tell us that our body contains seven chakras, starting at the top of the head and ending at the base of the spine. Each chakra is said to be an energy center within our body. The heart chakra, located at the exact center of the chest, is associated with transformation and love energy. It is believed that opening this energy center will lead to joy and compassion. Apparently, this heart chakra is also said to have 108 nadi (energy lines) that converge to form this energy center.

River Ganga spans a longitude of approximately 12 degrees (79 to 91) and a latitude of 9 degrees (22 to 31). 12 multiplied by 9 equals 108.

The Sarsen Circle at Stonehenge in the UK has a diameter of 108 feet.

The Brideshwara Temple in the city of Tanjore has a height is 216 ft which is 108×2.

The Koh Ker is the modern name for an important city of the Khmer empire in Cambodia. During the reign, the Kings Jaya Varman IV and Harsha Varman II Koh Ker were briefly the capital of the whole Khmer empire (928–944 AD). Inscriptions in the town mention this city as Lingapura (city of lingams). Koh Ker Pyramid at the time had an impressive Lingam atop this impressive structure. The height of this pyramid    before the Lingam was destroyed was 108 ft

Now for the real interesting part:

If you were to divide the distance between the Earth and Sun by the diameter of the Sun it is approximately equal to 108

If you were to divide the distance between the Earth and the Moon by the diameter of the Moon it is 108

The diameter of the Sun is 108 times the diameter of Earth. The distance from the Sun to Earth is 108 times the diameter of the Sun. The distance from the Earth to Moon is 108 times the diameter of the moon. This is also the reason when you look up in the sky you see the size of the Moon and the Sun as the same. We all know that Sun is at least 400 times larger than the Moon. The Moon should have appeared as a speck in front of the Sun, but what you see every day and during eclipses is vastly different. All of this is attributed to this unique number.

The very existence of life on Earth is because of this unique position of the Earth, Sun, and Moon and the axial tilt of the Earth. Imagine if this was not 108, our existence on this planet would be at severe risk exposing us to catastrophic calamities such as Tsunami, Ice storms, Heatwaves. Very soon this Blue Planet would be like Mars or Venus.

For those Geeks out there, look up the equations to see what you get when you measure the distance to the Sun divided by the diameter of say, Mars or Venus. And do the same with the moons of those planets respectively. The reason why Life does not exist is said to be because of this.

But then you may ask the question is there a planet out there which can sustain Life. Perhaps yes, but certainly not at least in this Solar system. In another Galaxy that may have its own equivalent of a Sun and planets revolving around it, this may be a potential scenario. Again that 108 is crucial to have to sustain life.

When you look up and see the Billions of stars in the galaxy, surely there might be at least one Planet out there that follows this equation.  Who knows the Gods must be watching us from this Planet… aka Swarga / Heaven?

Coming back to why we were not told about going around the deities in a temple 108 times or reciting a mantra or a prayer 108 times; Well, WE SIMPLY NEVER ASKED OUR PRIESTS. But now you know.

If you are a Sanatana Dharma follower, you have to be just AMAZED at how our Ancient Sages knew this when they spun the foundation fabric on Santana Dharma and deemed it as a Way of Life. No wonder Sanatana Dharma regards 108 as a Divine Number

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Kids Corner

Gen Z – Ronak & Seher Shenoy

"A person's a person, no matter the age" - Dr Seuss

Hello OKA Folks,

It is already February’2022.. whaaattt!! Don’t you feel like time is just flying?

It feels like by now, most of our kiddos have gotten used to surviving amidst this pandemic!! After all, it’s been 2 whole years !!

I’m sure it has been really hard on all our kids- to not get to attend school in-person or not meet their friends, as much as they would have liked to or to have to stay quiet when mom/dad are on their work calls..

But they have all been so understanding and for that- A HUGE SHOUTOUT and lots and lots of virtual sanitized HUGS to all our OKA Gen Z’s and Gen Alpha’s <3

We have two little Gen Alpha’s today who want to say Hi. Their parents Shyamala and Prasad Shenoy have helped pen their introduction: Say Hi to RONAK & SEHER SHENOY

Hi everyone,

I am Ronak. I am 5 years old and I live in Waterloo, ON. Prior to this, I used to live in Singapore and it was VERY hot there!! I thought it would be amazing to move to a colder country and now that I have, I am not so sure, as It’s SOOO COLD here !! 🙂

(Agreed Ronak!! But wait till you grow older- You will love to ski and sled down the slopes and the cold will slowly grow on you 😊)

I enjoy riding my bike, playing soccer, building using Lego, I love to draw and absolutely Loovvee DINOSAURS !!

I love watching videos about different animals and learning more about what they eat, how they live etc. My dad recently explained about evolution and how tigers came from sabretooth!!

DID YOU KNOW THAT?

This is some of my art of my favorite animals:

(Ronak.. We love all your art and your fascination with animals.. Wild animals :P)

My mom gets mad when I watch TV and dad’s my partner in crime!! She gets mad at him too!!

(Moms.. Tell me about it !!)

Last year I was promoted to BIG BROTHER and now she is my favorite person in the whole world!! Seher makes funny sounds, always smiles at me and wants to take all my toys. I love reading stories to her but she doesn’t really listen and just wants to eat the books. Grrrr.. haha!!! 😊

(Awww.. She seems like a little ball of delight!!)

I hope to meet you all someday!!

Until then, stay warm and stay safe!!

Ronak and Seher- Thank you to your parents for introducing you both to the OKA klan!! Sending you lots of warmth for these cold days!! Please enlighten us with more interesting facts about animals, the next time we catch up!! 😊

It was a pleasure getting to know you both and we can’t wait to meet you soon!!

About the author…

Neha Mallya is a Chartered Accountant and currently in the unchartered territories of motherhood. In her spare time Neha loves to write…


Remembering

Midas: Our Child, Our Pride!

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Sunday, November 28, 2021 was a dark day that will never be forgotten. It was 6.30 a.m. and it was not a “Good Morning”. We were cruising on Highway 401 to our son Shashank’s house in Brampton, to witness the last breaths and pay our last respects to Midas, our family’s Golden Retriever, our Heartthrob. It was still dark with poor visibility and was snowing, the first snowfall in Toronto of winter 2021. Our hearts were heavy, just like the outside sky with dark clouds, beating fast. We were thinking of our loving Midas, now 13 and a half years old and about to leave us forever. Just two days earlier, Shashank called us to say that Midas’s health was declining rapidly in the last 10 days, as he was suffering from a tumour, a weak heart, and a fragile hip. At that point, he hadn’t been eating well or drinking much water for 2-3 days. It was painful to see Midas suffering like that and a hard decision had to be made to “put him to sleep” on Sunday, November 28, 2021, to relieve him from his agony/suffering.

We reached Shashank’s house at 8:15 a.m.and it was sad to notice that Midas wasn’t coming to the door to welcome us as he always had. We entered the house and there lay Midas, with his eyes turned in our direction. He didn’t have the energy to even get up and receive us, his tail which he normally wagged, now lying low on the floor. It was heartbreaking. Shashank, his wife Eve, my wife Sheetal and I fed him cooked chicken pieces that Sheetal made especially for him, which he ate to our satisfaction knowing perhaps that it was his last meal on this planet. The four of us sat around Midas, him turning his eyes to see each and every one of us in turn, as if expressing, “Good-Bye, my family members. Thank you for looking after me so well, thank you for all your love and thank you for everything you did for me.” We started chanting the Maha Mrityunjaya Jaap and Vishnu Sahasra Naam near his ears with tears held in our eyes, waiting for the vets to arrive to put him to sleep.

As we waited for the vets, the last 13 years flashed through my mind…

Being a person who always lived in apartments in Mumbai and Dubai, I never had a pet. When Shashank and Sheetal mentioned to me that they want to get a pet, I strongly opposed it, explaining the responsibilities and all the extra work that had to be put in to look after a pet. Just a few days later, Shashank showed me the picture of a very cute, small three-month-old Golden Retriever puppy, saying “Dad, I am bringing him home tomorrow”. I refused again but mother and son overruled my decision and a little puppy, our Midas, entered our lives in August 2008.

Since I showed my unwillingness to look after this pet, Shashank had to take Midas to his house in Hamilton, which he rented with his roommates while studying at McMaster University. Two months passed by and in October 2008, Midas returned to Scarborough for a visit, now well-grown into a big dog. He stayed with us for two days and returned to Hamilton. Shashank used to bring Midas to our home whenever he visited us. After Shashank graduated from McMaster a year later, along came Midas back to us. Midas was now a “Family Dog” rather than “Shashank’s Dog”.

I watched Midas every day, watched his actions and experienced his love and slowly but surely, he started growing on me. Being a good-looking, intelligent, obedient, and above all, a very loving dog, he made me change my negative views about having a pet. With his expressions and actions, he became popular within our immediate family, our extended family, our friends and even in the neighbourhood. He would go out to our backyard, sit there and chase cats, squirrels, and at times, raccoons too. He was the “King” of the backyard.

Eating food and going for walks were his favourites. On Saturdays and Sundays, he used to enter our bedroom in the mornings and try waking me up to get ready to go for a walk.

To get his treat, he would do anything, ready to “give a paw” (left or right when asked), “speak”, “rollover”  and many more actions. He used to stand behind Sheetal when she was cooking, his eyes looking at the food. Being a bilingual dog, Midas listened to and responded to our daily English and Konkani conversations. He also followed Sheetal’s Konkani instructions like “Sune, maakshi!” while in the kitchen. He would simply make a 360 turn and come back to the original spot where he was, just to respect her words and to get some food.

We, out of our love, called him by various names – Maidu, Migdi, Trippi, Babu, Baby and Petto –  and he used to respond to every word with an apparent smile.

Midas was our “pious” family member. Whenever we performed pooja, aarti and chanted mantras, stotras on religious days like Krishnashtami and Ganesh Chaturthi, Midas would come into God’s room, attend all the rituals and leave only after receiving aarti, teertha and prasaad.

Midas loved to go to picnics, be it my office picnic or the OKA picnic. He loved OKA picnics the most, going around with his favourite red leash held in his mouth, walking with a kid or an adult. He loved to play with kids at picnics, pose for pictures whoever wanted him to. But whenever lunch was served, he would run to us to get his share. A true “food lover” Aamchi!!

I am proud to say that his visits to OKA picnics every year made him very popular and well-known among our OKA members. Almost everyone in OKA knew Midas. His over-friendly nature even inspired some of our Konkani families to get a dog.

Whenever we were invited by our friends, we were always asked to bring Midas with us. Midas knew where to sit under the dining table particularly when our grandkids visited us and were having their food.

After Shashank’s wedding in May 2015, Midas moved to Brampton with Shashank. Now, he was a “Brampton Boy ”, as the people in my neighbourhood liked to call him. Just like Shashank, his wife, Eve, also became a very loving person for Midas.

Years passed by and in the last year 2020, Midas started showing signs of slowing down, his age catching up. No more long walks, no more running! Slowly, he was getting exhausted.

As I continued drowning into visualizing Midas’s yesteryears ………. suddenly, the doorbell rang and the vets walked in. It was 10:35 a.m. Midas lifted his head for the last time to check who walked in.The vet checked Midas’ heartbeat and blood pressure just before the process began. Shashank, the person who looked after Midas like his baby all the years, had Midas’ head on his lap as it began. It was 10:40 a.m. when we saw the last grateful looks from Midas towards us. Within two minutes, at 10.42 a.m., we could see Midas’ eyes close for the last time. Our loving baby had left us forever to the heavenly abode, leaving us all in deep grief, with tears rolling down our eyes.

While Midas may have physically left us, he taught everyone he met something only he could show: “unconditional and abundant love”. He left his cute paw prints on our hearts forever, never to be erased or forgotten. Our minds know that Midas’ loving spirit is and will always be with us. We humbly pray to the Almighty to keep Midas happy wherever he is.

May God bless the noble soul of Midas, Our Gentle Giant, Our Child, Our Pride.

By Shivdas Pai

Seniors Corner

Learning Avenues

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The next SVBF/OKA webinar “COVID 19 Vaccination/ Immunization: Expert Recommendations and Debunking Common Myths” will be held on Sunday, February 6, 2022, from 11:30 AM to 1:00 PM. Please see the attached flyer for details. If you have any questions to the panelists, please send them in advance to sadanand.mankikar@gmail.com

COOK WITH CHEZ SIVA – DIABETES FRIENDLY RECIPES:  SVBF in collaboration with OKA AND South Asian Diabetes Chapter will hold two online Cooking Demonstrations on March 27 and April 17, 2022. Chef Siva is the Founder and Executive Director of South Asian Diabetes Chapter and owner of CHEZ SIVA where she offers cooking training and demos. Details to follow.

TWO SVBF EVENTS SPECIALLY DESIGNATED FOR SENIOR’S WELLNESS: 

1) Active Seniors – Active body and mind through the dance movements by Karthiha Partiban, Artistic Director and trained classical dancer from Kalakshetra, India. Fridays and Wednesdays 11 AM to 12 NOON in February, starting from 4th. To register and for additional details, please see the attached flyer.

2) Music, Mindfulness and Intergenerational Approach by Smt. Sandhya Srivatsan, Gerontologist and Director of Ganavarshini School of Music. On February 2, 23, March 2, and 23, 7 PM to 8 PM. To register and for additional details, please see the attached flyer.

OTHER USEFUL INFORMATION

OKA EMERGENCY PREPAREDNESS PROGRAM: Estate, Will and Power of Attorney, and End of Life Planning are two major elements of this OKA Seniors Forum Program. 

For preparing Wills and Powers of Attorney you may contact Marvin Talksy (905) 405-0199 ext.  257 or Mary Bojkovski (905) 405-0199 ext. 276 of Nanda & Associate Lawyers. For additional information or assistance, you may also contact Raghunath Kamath or Ashok Bhatt.

For End of Life Planning, one may contact Harjinder Bilku of Chapel Ridge Funeral Home at (905) 305-8128 or (647) 966-0093.

Additional information about OKA Seniors’ Forum is posted on www.ontario-konkanis.com 

Jevan Khann

Valentine’s Day Special

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ROSES ARE RED

VIOLETS ARE BLUE

LOVE NEVER CROSSED KONKANI MAM TILL THE DAY HE MET HIS SOULMATE!!!

It is February, Valentine’s Day is just around the corner. One of the most romantic moments occurred to our Konkani mam while walking through the pizza aisle in his favorite food store when his loving wife said. “None of these frozen pizzas have the taste of your homemade pizza.”,

Konkani madame could no longer enjoy readymade pizza. That is the beauty of home cooking made with generous amounts of love. Amchilgelo mam muttered and that made for a classic TV moment.

Every cook seems to have their own rules about which foods should always be prepared fresh and which can be purchased, whether from a grocery store or restaurant. Some of these reasons are cultural and some are personal. My mother used to make her own butter. I bet the present generation would think it is rocket science and would not even dream about making their own butter. When our kids were younger there were always a few cans of Campbell’s soup in the pantry. Now that they are grown and gone, our cupboard has never since been graced by those red and white cans. These days soup or kolombo is always made from scratch.

In my experience, when you cook an exotic dish people think you have some kind of talent. We recently served our guests homemade falafel and hummus. Even though we found it a breeze to make, they were impressed because of the perceived difficulty. I think it is because the packaged and restaurant varieties of these foods are so ubiquitous that we imagine them to be trickier to make than they actually are. Few things are more exciting as a cook than the moment when you discover that food you believed you had to buy is no trouble to make.

We each have our own mental barriers about foods that are too intimidating to prepare but once tried, the homemade version will often trump the packaged version.

Browsing through the library of cookbooks, I came upon an interesting book, “An Unapologetic Cook” by a young chef named Joshua Weissman, who is trying to encourage people to make more foods from scratch instead of buying them. Weissman’s argument is that you do not know how much better something can be made until you make it yourself. This brings me back to the comments from Konkani mai, that homemade pizza made with sauce from scratch made grade A plus for authenticity and taste.

What is the point of making your tomato sauce and pizza crust when it is so easy to buy? Mr. Weissman offers a few different reasons. He observes that making your own is an instant ego boost and an even bigger flavor boost. What about making something like butter? Josh’s view is that it is “essential to learn how to make “one of the greatest foods on the planet.”

It is certainly a fun project to follow Weissman’s butter recipe by whipping heavy cream in a food processor for a few minutes before straining and rinsing in ice-cold water. Once you try your finished pat of golden butter you think “wow, did I really make this?”

That evening Konkani mam got an interesting suggestion from his Valentine, “How about franchising your pizza recipe?”. Cheers and smiles!!!, A happy wife is a happy life, that was the musing from Konkani mam. That made for a very happy Valentine’s Day in this Konkani household.

Here is a challenge for my OKA family. How about making something romantic for your Valentine from scratch and sharing it on OKA Facebook page. Creativity and romance all in one.

Wishing all of my OKA family Happy Valentine’s Day!

Source Image Credits

About the author…
Madhav Shanbhag moved to GTA in 2017, after spending more than 40 years in Fredericton, New Brunswick. In retirement, Madhav enjoys the luxury of a few hours of leisure and nature time…

Food For Thought

My New Year’s Resolution

I do not know what it is, everybody wants your opinion. Today I logged into my bank account and the bank wanted me to take part in a customer satisfaction survey. I dropped off my car for repairs, no sooner had I picked it up than a message popped up with a survey with a chance to win a free oil change. Then when I was at the grocery store, the receipt offered a survey and a chance to win $1000. Walmart asked me to help them serve better, by writing a product review. Even OKA wants my opinion after the show. Guess what, in all probability the chance of winning that 1000 dollars or a free oil change is as remote as me winning a million-dollar lottery. And then there is Whatsapp and other social media with their constant pings and likes. Some days I lie in bed wondering what did I achieve that day.

If you feel you never have a quiet moment to think then join the club. Maybe I am so special and important that everyone wants my opinion, but I doubt it. All the survey monsters really want is more of your hard earned dollars.

So as 2022 rolls in, here is my resolution: I will not let surveys and social media waste my precious time and capture my attention.

No, I do not wish to rate my latest transaction.

No, I will not take a short survey.

No, I will not help improve customer service by commenting on my experience

No, I will not go online when I get home and share my thoughts.

No, I will not write a few words about how to receive or try your new product.

No, I will not tell you if I will be recommending your services or products to my friends.

No, I will not give you hints on what you could do better.

No, I do not want to earn bonus points or even 5 cents off my next purchase by volunteering a few moments of my time to share my views on the last person who assisted me.

I do not have enough moments left on Earth to only be writing reviews.

If my kids heard my opinion, they would most likely reject it (with a polite roll of their eyes of course). As for my better half, I do not want to even get into that. Other family members probably argue with my opinion. Friends pretend to listen and act as if they agree with my opinion and then go on to do something completely different. Based on my track record thus far, even getting someone I know to appreciate my opinion will take all the time I have left, to live in this world.

What will I replace all my time completing surveys with? What will I say yes to where I will now say no?  Some ideas:

YES, I will continue to say when the cashier asks me $2 for the food bank.

YES, I will continue to volunteer.

YES, I willcontinue to support worthy causes.

YES, I will help build stronger communities.

In the words of Winston Churchill, “We make a living by what we get, but we make a life by what we give.”

I lay my head down on my pillow and close my eyes. I am about to dose off to sleep when I pause to open my mental self-survey of how I did at the end of this day, and at the end of this life and I click the little box that says “extremely satisfied.”

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Food For Thought

The Number Game

When quantity takes precedence over quality

Here’s a thought experiment: Ask a few people to randomly pick between quality and quantity. A surprising majority would pick quality, even in the absence of context. It is an ingrained idea that quality is superior. But is that always true? Sometimes, we might be better off broadening than deepening. Let’s examine.

The more we travel, the more we explore.
The more we read, the more we understand.
The more we fail, the more we learn.

Often times, letting quantity steer the wheel can expose us to a wide range of experiences that would otherwise have been limited to a few.

If efforts are streamlined and directed, the synergic effects can be greater than a few targeted efforts. Take content-creation for instance. Gary Vaynerchuck, entrepreneurship’s poster child and the king of PG-13 keynotes, has been a long-time proponent of voluminous content-generation for creators. Essentially, he says it’s better if creators put out huge amounts of okay-quality content than a small number of high-quality content. I concur for the most part. Primarily because it helps to get the ball rolling, but also because in hiding behind the ‘quality’ wall, one’s overall momentum often slows down. It’s the generation of doers, and with the Internet, speed-to-market is more important than ever.

Further, quantity often helps gather large datasets that aid better decision making. Take dating for instance — dating one person before getting married isn’t nearly enough experience to make a life-altering decision. Barring the few lucky ones that find their soulmates in the first go, plain Janes of the world need to kiss a hundred frogs before finding their prince (figuratively speaking). Having a few in the basket helps draw comparisons, and in the process, determine the best path forward. Just like machines learn through data, humans learn through experiences that can come by way of getting more in the bag, even if that means setting the bar a little lower.

Finally, the evident compounding effects are too obvious to ignore. Take the west’s infatuation with emerging markets in Asia and Africa. While per capita return on investment for most mass consumer brands is substantially lower in comparison to domestic markets, the little droplets add up. And in this scenario, it truly is a number game.

Imagine this – you have 3 bananas and 100 peanuts at home. You need around 500 calories immediately for a moderate day hike. It’s much easier to eat the 3 bananas and get going, so that’s what you do. The next day, you again need 500 calories immediately for a 10K run. You already ate the bananas, so you stop sulking and start eating the peanuts. It takes more effort to eat 100 peanuts and it may feel like it’s not worth it, but you’re an ambitious athlete. Notwithstanding the hassle, you now have the 500 calories you wanted.

That’s what developing countries (the peanuts) and developed countries (the bananas) are to western businesses (you). But you eventually gain 500 + 500 = 1000 calories (the $$$). All’s well that ends well.

The three examples mentioned above are random — which is exactly the point. It can be beneficial to chase numbers and numbers only in any situation, as long as we’re cognizant of the inevitable trade-offs.

As is the case with pretty much everything, balance is key. On the quanti-lity graph, it is imperative that we find a balance and not compromise on our core objectives. If the goal is to have meaningful long-lasting relationships, then it is only apt to be strongly tilted towards quality because achieving quantity would mean compromising the very core objective. Defining where we must stand is personal and has to be an independent quest. But once we know what we aim to achieve, it gets easier to define how to get there.

This article was originally published on Medium.

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Kids Corner

Gen Z – Saachi Ullal

"A person's a person, no matter the age" - Dr Seuss

Happy 2022 everyone!!

The last 2 years have been hard on everyone, especially our Gen Z!! We have also had so many babies in our OKA family who were born amidst the pandemic. These poor babies have lived their birth years being protected and distanced from everybody!!

We have one such little darling this month who wants to say Hi to everybody reading this and wish them a Happy new year !!

This month’s and year’s 1st Gen Z is Sangita and Sanket Ullal’s 11 month old daughter, ‘Saachi’.

Saachi wishes to share a few interesting details about herself…

Saachi- You are so precious!! <3

We all wish to meet you soon too!! Until then, please accept our virtual cuddles and kisses <3

Thank you for bringing smiles to our faces and making the start of this year joyful for all of us 😊

Dear OKA members, please let us know if you wish to showcase your kid or grandkid (no matter the age) or if you simply wish to share any of their art/achievements/funny incidents etc. with us. We would love to know more about our OKA Gen Z.

About the author…

Neha Mallya is a Chartered Accountant and currently in the unchartered territories of motherhood. In her spare time Neha loves to write…


OKA Kudos

Dr. Lucky Lakshmanan, supporter of OKA receives Order of Canada

We are extremely happy that Dr. V. I. (Lucky) Lakshmanan, has been conferred with the highly prestigious Order of Canada by the Office of the Governor General of Canada “For his philanthropy and for his expertise in hydrometallurgy and business, which have greatly benefited his profession, community and Canada-India relations”.

Dr. Lakshmanan is one of the Founders of Sringeri Vidya Bharati Foundation Canada and currently he is Chairman of SVBF Canada. For nearly 50 years, he has helped and mentored countless newcomers to Canada to settle, find jobs and become contributing members of the community. 

Dr. Lakshmanan has always shown great interest in the OKA activities and wholeheartedly supported OKA Senior’s Forum and Health Awareness Program.  His active participation in and financial support to the Health Seminars will never be forgotten.

Dr. V.I. Lakshmanan is an internationally renowned teacher, scientist, and innovator in the area of sustainable development. He has more than 40 years of experience in technology commercialization and skills development initiatives with both private and public sectors including the United Nations. He has successfully guided process technologies from concept through development and demonstration to commercialization for resource, energy and chemical industries.

Dr. Lakshmanan moved to Canada in 1974 after serving as Lecturer at the University of Birmingham, UK. His corporate experience includes positions at Noranda, Eldorado Nuclear, ORTECH Corporation and Process Research ORTECH, the last of which he founded and guided to become a global leader in sustainable process technologies through its laboratory and pilot plant.

While congratulating Dr.  Lucky Lakshmanan for this great achievement, we take this opportunity to thank him for his support to the OKA activities.

*Some of the information was obtained from the announcement by Canada India Foundation on Wednesday, December 29, 2021

OTHER USEFUL INFORMATION

TECHNICAL SUPPORT PROGRAM FOR SENIORS: “Super Tech Savvy Seniors” is the brainchild of Ria Koppikar a 11th grade student from Minneapolis to help seniors feel confident and comfortable in the use of the emerging Technology. Ria with her team members Aditya Pai, Ananya Pai and Kiran Swan, all from Canada, is ready to help seniors online. Those who need any assistance in handling emails, phones and computers/programs may email their questions to supertechsavvyseniors@gmail.com. Ria is also looking for youth to help her on the Team. Those who want to volunteer should send an email to the same address. This program is mutually beneficial. We thank Ria for this initiative and wish her all the very best.

OKA EMERGENCY PREPAREDNESS PROGRAM: Estate, Will and Power of Attorney and End of Life Planning are two major elements of this OKA Seniors Forum Program.

For preparing Wills and Powers of Attorney you may contact Marvin Talksy (905) 405-0199 ext.  257 or Mary Bojkovski (905) 405-0199 ext. 276 of Nanda & Associate Lawyers. For additional information or assistance, you may also contact Raghunath Kamath or Ashok Bhatt.

For End of Life Planning one may contact Harjinder Bilku of Chapel Ridge Funeral Home at (905) 305-8128 or (647) 966-0093.

EMERGENCY PREPAREDNESS KITS: If you have not received complimentary kits, for a limited time, you may obtain them by sending an email to sadanand.mankikar@gmail.com. Additional small, medium and large size kits at cost may be obtained by sending an email to the same address.

Additional information about OKA Seniors’ Forum is posted on www.ontario-konkanis.com

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Culture Corner

Gotra – A Scientific Reasoning

In the last article on Gotra we read about what is a Gotra, what are the various Gotra’s. In this write up let’s analyze why these Gotra’s were established and what is its scientific rationale. We all know that most Hindu families, marriage within the same gotra is prohibited since people with same gotra are siblings. Let’s look at reasons why this has been the practice for thousands of years amongst Sanatana Dharma. Gotra is always passed on from father to children among most Hindus, just like last name(surname) is passed on worldwide. Additional rule in the Gotra system is that, even if the Bride and Bridegroom belong to different Gotras, they’ still cannot get married even if just one of their Gotra Pravara matches.

It is generally a well accepted norm that women after marriage not only carry the last name of their spouse but also their Gotra. Why would they do this? Is there any scientific rationale for this practice which to many modern liberal thinker’s reeks of Male dominance. Truth is that its anything but that. Let’s analyze this further.

Genes & Chromosomes

Humans have 23 pairs of Chromosomes and in each pair one Chromosome comes from the father and the other comes from the mother. So, in all we have 46 Chromosomes in every cell, of which 23 come from the mother and 23 from the father.

Of these 23 pairs, there is one pair called the Sex Chromosomes which decide the gender of the person. During conception, if the resultant cell has XX sex chromosomes, then the child will be a girl and if it is XY then the child will be a boy. X chromosome decides the female attributes of a person and Y Chromosome decides the male attributes of a person.

When the initial embryonic cell has XY chromosome, the female attributes get suppressed by the genes in the Y Chromosome and the embryo develops into a male child. Since only men have Y Chromosomes, son always gets his Y Chromosome from his father and the X Chromosome from his mother. On the other hand, daughters always get their X Chromosomes, one each from both father and mother.

So, the Y Chromosome is always preserved throughout a male lineage (Father – Son – Grandson) because a son always gets it from his father, while the X Chromosome is not preserved in the female lineage (Mother, Daughter, Grand Daughter) because it comes from both father and mother. A mother will pass either her mother’s X Chromosome to her Children or her father’s X Chromosome to her children or a combination of both because of both her X Chromosomes getting mixed (called as Crossover). On the other hand, a son always gets his father’s Y Chromosome and that too almost intact without any changes because there is no corresponding another Y chromosome in his cells to do any mixing as his combination is XY, while that of females is XX which hence allows for mixing as both are X Chromosomes.

Women never get this Y Chromosome in their body. And hence Y Chromosome plays a crucial role in modern genetics in identifying the Genealogy ie male ancestry of a person. And the Gotra system was designed to track down the root Y Chromosome of a person quite easily. If a person belongs to Kashyapa Gotra then it means that his Y Chromosome came all the way down over thousands of years of timespan from the Rishi Kashyap.

This is also the reason why females are said to belong to the Gotra of their husbands after marriage. That is because women do not carry Y Chromosome, and their Sons will carry the Y Chromosome of the Father and hence the Gotra of a woman is said to be that of her husband after marriage.

Shrinking size of Y Chromosome

Y is the only Chromosome which does not have a similar pair in the human body. The pair of the Y Chromosome in humans is X Chromosome which is significantly different from Y Chromosome. Even the size of the Y Chromosome is just about one third the size of the X Chromosome. In other words, throughout evolution the size of the Y Chromosome has been decreasing and it has lost most of its genes and has been reduced to its current size. Scientists are debating whether Y Chromosome will be able to survive for more than a few million years into the future or whether it will gradually vanish, and if it does so whether it will cause males to become extinct! Obviously because Y Chromosome is the one which makes a person male or a man.

A Y Chromosome must depend on itself to repair any of its injuries and for that it has created duplicate copies of its genes within itself. However, this does not stop DNA damages in Y Chromosome which escape its local repair process from being propagated into the offspring males. This causes Y Chromosomes to accumulate more and more defects over a prolonged period of evolution and scientists believe that this is what is causing the Y Chromosome to keep losing its weight continuously.

Y Chromosome which is crucial for the creation and evolution of males has a fundamental weakness which is denying it participation in the normal process of evolution via Chromosomal mix and match to create better versions in every successive generation, and this weakness MAY lead to the extinction of Y Chromosome altogether over the next few million years, and if that happens scientists are not sure whether that would cause males to become extinct or not. And that is because Scientists are not sure whether any other Chromosome in the 23 pairs will be able to take over the role of the Y Chromosome or not.

Now let’s look at a very contentious issue. Will humanity survive or it really does not matter if Males become extinct? The reality really may be that the females do not need the Y Chromosome to survive after all. Since all females have X Chromosomes, it may be possible to create a mechanism where X Chromosomes from different females are used to create offspring, say like injecting the nuclei from the egg of one female into the egg of another female to fertilize it and that would grow into a girl child.

Theoretically one may ask a few scientific hypothetical questions:

a)    Will the human body choose to go only a X Chromosome route?

b)    Will the human genome pick another chromosome from the group of 23 to conceptualize foetal union? 

c)    Will that human be a more advanced version?

The bottom line is yes, there is a strong possibility that humanity may still exist with only Females and Males may go extinct after all. A grim reminder to all.

Gotra System helps to protect the Y Chromosome from becoming extinct

Its only now in the 20th Century that the modern-day scientists have concluded that children born to parents having blood relation (like cousins) can have birth defects. But keep in mind this was known to the Ancient Rishi’s thousands of years before. For example, lets assume if there is a recessive defective gene in a Male / Female. What this means is, this defective gene can be expressed in the child and may lead to serious birth defects. It is also possible this defective gene may not be expressed for many generations because the corresponding gene in the pairing Chromosome is stronger and hence is preventing this abnormality causing gene from activating.

Now there are fair chances that his offspring’s will be carriers of these genes throughout successive generations. If they keep marrying outside this genetic imprint, there is a fair chance that the defective gene will remain inactive since others outside this person’s lineage most probably do not have that defective gene.

Now if after 5-10 generations down the line say one of his descendants marries some other descendant carrying this defective gene, then there is a possibility that both are still carrying the defective gene. In that case their children will have the defective gene express itself and cause the genetic abnormality in them as both the Chromosomes in the pair have the defective genes. Hence, the marriages between cousins always have a chance of causing an otherwise recessive, defective genes to express themselves resulting in children with genetic abnormalities.

So, thank our Ancient Rishis for creating the Gotra system where they barred marriage between a boy and a girl belonging to the same Gotra no matter how deep the lineage tree was, in a bid to prevent inbreeding and eliminate all recessive defective genes from the human DNA.

All I can say is we have to be amazed at such insights coming from our Ancient Rishi’s thousands of years before the Modern-Day scientists had figured it out.