Hi all, This mail is going to be long, a la Mathav. Mathav, I sincerely appreciate your ideas on social reconstruction, the betterment of tamil and the quest for knowledge on history of science and technology. Let me start with a quote from Gandhi ( I told you this mail is gonna be like Mathav's didnt I?) There is no principle worth the name if it is not wholly good. http://www.mahatma.org.in/quotes/quotes.jsp?link=bg&cat=quotes (There are more sites on Gandhi's quotes. http://www.mkgandhi.org/edugandhi/index.htm is redundant in the mails). This quote of Gandhi holds good for discussion groups as well. This group is called Ponniyin Selvan, and was started with the sole aim of bringing the novel's lovers together. Initially, all the discussions were like: "wow what a novel!" or, "I always had a doubt while reading it...", which is very common in any historic semifiction written in any language for that matter. Then came Gokul, with new ideas. Here's his first mail: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/ponniyinselvan/message/187 He wanted the group to go beyond discussing PS. (Krupa, http://groups.yahoo.com/group/ponniyinselvan/message/1100 I think Gokul should be given the credit for mudhal yathirai. Kamalakkannan took the initiative and started it http://groups.yahoo.com/group/ponniyinselvan/message/304 but Gokul was the first who came up with the idea, right?) If you read his mail, you will see that he has clearly laid out the ideas. Recently someone said about the use of bullets, if your mail is going to be long. It is not enough to just toputforth ideas, it shouldn't be overwhelming and redundant. If you havent got the response you expected, it could be due to (atleast) 2 reasons: 1. The group is not interested in this thread 2. The group has not read your mail. If the mail is going to be some 10+K size, with somewhere between 3-5 paragraphs interspersed with a couple of links like http://www.mkgandhi.org/edugandhi/index.htm http://www.sas.upenn.edu/~vasur/accamillai.html nobody will be interested to read, atleast not then. Oh its too long, I've got work, let me read it later, would be the general mentality. Very few active people, who, inspite of their busy schedules, read and reply to long mails (Pavithra and Sridhar, to name some). And, it could also be that they are not interested in the thread. Now, you cannot blame them. I would like to quote you: Mar 10, 2003 I think as a member pointed earlier,lets agree that people have different tastes. http://groups.yahoo.com/group/ponniyinselvan/message/880 U asked for the missions and visions of the group: Mar 23, 2003 I would also like to know the visions and missions of this yahoo group,for popularising the work or characters or authors or language or whatever? http://groups.yahoo.com/group/ponniyinselvan/message/932 I dont have to say about the missions and visions of the group, Gokul and Ram have done that already. Discussing PS is one of them, and as Sridhar said, you would realize how trivial things matter if you had read the novel, a lot of questions you have asked, have the answers in the files section. Let me take you through the archives of the group, especially on the unimportant discussions, from which, you think, you cannot learn anything. Here's Gokul's mails on Chola's many wives http://groups.yahoo.com/group/ponniyinselvan/message/207 OK, this may sound useless, but why dont you see it this way: Monogamy and Polygamy. How did the kings maintain healthy sexual relationships with the queen and other concubines? Were there any killer bacteria and viruses we dread now? Were there STDs? If so, how did they overcome? What kind of siddha medicine (or whatever medicine) were there which saved them from such diseases? It is the history of science and technology (another favorite term of yours!). All looks yellow to the jaundiced eye. If you think you can gain nothing from that discussion, you wont. I could have asked those questions here in the group, but there is a place and time for everything (idam poruL Eval). Though there are good historians and learned people in the group, asking the question in another siddha medicine group would be more appropriate. Then Sridhar started the who's love was greatest: This mail came when there was a lag in the discussion. this is how he starts: There has been too much of a silence lately..just to rekindle..who's love was the greatest? Then there has been a lot of puzzles, trivia fromGokul, Kamalakannan, Sridhar. http://groups.yahoo.com/group/ponniyinselvan/message/298 http://groups.yahoo.com/group/ponniyinselvan/message/339 http://groups.yahoo.com/group/ponniyinselvan/message/401 All these, have kept the group's tempo going. Then came mudhal yathirai, after which the whole scenario has changed. We had media attention, more members, more responsibility. At this point, the jump from just a discussion group to a social organization could be seen at the horizon. We did have our share of public services done before that, the donations for AV and all. I certainly agree with you that you want the jump to take place, but, the fact that it was started as a discussion group, and slowly growing out has to be borne in mind. This is no mutation, to take place immedietely. More on mutations: http://www.genetics.org/ It has to be a slow metamorphosis. Till then we need to keep the interests of the group going. Thats why we do have our meaningless discussions (one recent thread involving krupa, ram, yagna, thilak and sridhar, for instance) between meaningful, to the point, discussions. We need to give time for everything. 'Arasamarathai suththi vandhuttu adivayitha thottu paakaradhu maari', nothing will happen overnight. The group cannot change its ideals overnight. If you thought trivia and crosswords on the book was a waste of time, I am not sure why you said like this, in one of your earlier mails: Mar 17, 2003 This club could arrange different sorts of competition among the readers and if possible even non readers,like me ;) http://groups.yahoo.com/group/ponniyinselvan/message/917 Then came your mail, plainly put: the group lacks a mission and vision. Apr 9, 2003 I sometimes wonder if its,Kumbalodu Govindaaa,Is it? And as most of the time,the 230ssss are "are". http://groups.yahoo.com/group/ponniyinselvan/message/1171 I still am not convinced by your explanation on Kumbalodu govindaaa. And then this: Apr 10, 2003 But here I am not defintely referring to "meesais" and "the number of wives".I mean on Tamil developments. ..... What is vital information?What is its use to the Tamil man on the road?or even to the members? .... My sincere concerns were/are/will be for the Tamil developments. What is vital? What is your definition? Could you explain how this: But I would be happy to know if in Ponniyin Selvan, are there any characters who appreciates only the art for art sake http://groups.yahoo.com/group/ponniyinselvan/message/880 would be of ANY use to t