In our country tortoise is consider as bad omen. If tortoise entering into one house, that is treated as great bad omen. But apart from omens, tortoise is the soft creature. But its body is very flexible and strong.

In our epic, Lord Vishnu becomes tortoise for helping to bring 'Amrita'(It is the food for endless life) from the sea 'paarkadal'(Milky ocean). Devas(heavenly beings) are good persons whereas Asuras(like demons) are bad persons. Two groups are decided to bring amirtha from Paarkadal Sea. So, they used one big mountain 'mandara' as churning stick. The churning rope used as one giant female snake  'vasuki'.

Churning and churning the mountain slowly sinking into the water. So, two groups are confused in this situation. For prevent the sinking of mount madara, Lord Vishnu incarnated himself as a tortoise (koorma avathar) and lifted the mountain for churning. Finally amrita got from that sea. So tortoise is the worshipped creature in Hinduism.

Now days, many news heard about illegal export of tortoise to other countries. That should be banned. Because that tortoises export for food.

In Tamil great literature ‘Thirukkural’, the great poet Thiruvalluvar said that tortoise is the symbol of controlling our sense and feelings.

Following is my story. It is funny. It is very funny if one knows tamil.

I have two younger brothers, deepan and prem. In childhood, first brother deepan called me 'annan' (brother). After birth of prem, prem used to call deepan as 'deepan annan'. For me he had to used as 'ram annan'. But he is very difficult to use the syllable 'ra'.

 So, instead of 'ra', he used the syllable 'aa'. He called me as 'aam annan' and 'amannan'. After that deepan also called me as 'aamannan'.

 Not only my brothers, my whole street called as 'aamannan'. Then after some days, that 'aamannan' shrinked into 'aama'. In tamil 'aama' means tortoise. Therefore, I was become tortoise.