An unusual coincidence brought Shankaralingam Pitchaiah to our office today. The monastery, as most of you know, has a five acre organic noni field. We’re exploring producing our own noni juice, and spoke with a chemist at a lab in Honolulu (as testing is required). That chemist turned out to be Tai Khan, originally of Fiji, who knew about the temple and mentioned his friend, Shankara, would be on Kauai on Saturday. Shankara, Tai explained, was a microbiologist who could help me understand the testing requirements for noni. This turned into quite a boon, as Shankara and Arumuganathaswami discussed government regulations for half an hour, greatly increasing our knowledge of this previously opaque area!

He was accompanied by his wife Nagasundaravalli Ramakrishnan and his friend Lakshmanan Pitchaiya and his wife Shanmuga Sundari Subramanian, all from originally from Tamil Nadu.