Monthly Archives: March 2013

Chennai girls launch Purple Club with DC

Arts, Culture & Entertainment, Inspiration/ Positive News and Features

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Students and staff of D.G Vaishnav College gathered at the International Women’s Day celebrations organised by Deccan Chronicle on Thursday. — DC

Chennai:

 Hundreds of girl students in a Chennai college on Thursday resolved to launch a ‘Purple Club’ to create a ‘huge’ network of girls and women who will help each other in all possible ways, from tackling men’s harassment to sharing information on education and employment.

This first-of-its-kind initiative was launched at the International Women’s Day celebration hosted by Deccan Chronicle at D.G. Vaishnav College.

“Purple is the beautiful colour of the International Women’s Day and soon it will become the most vibrant and powerful colour too, as this initiative will grow into a national and even an international purple network of women sharing information and experience through mobile phones, Internet and Facebook.

Purple is all set to go viral,” said Shanti Reddy of Deccan Chronicle. College principal, Dr S. Narasimhan, said the club would enable its members, to begin with women from his college, to share experiences and access other members through mobile phones at times of difficulties.

DC and D.G. Vaishnav College will set up the club with its girl students joining as members.

The membership is free, sponsored by Deccan Chronicle. A central data bank would be created for members to access at times of need. The members would be given a purple-coloured button to wear on the dress for identification among other members.

“There will soon be a time when romeos on the road will keep away from the woman wearing the purple button on her churidar or T-shirt,” said a happy student leader.

Purple Club for overall development of women

Purple Club will be a group of women and girls, perhaps students of a particular school or college, but eventually broadening its membership to include women of the entire neighbourhood, perhaps the city and state, for sharing information and experiences among themselves.

More importantly, a member would be able to access quick help from her purple friend through mobile phone or other e-means. The Purple Club members will wear a purple button prominently on their dress to identify themselves.

Deccan Chronicle is initiating the first Purple Club in association with D.G. Vaishnav College at Arumbakkam, Chennai, for its girl students. It is proposed to expand the network to bring in other girls and women from various schools and colleges in Chennai and gradually include ‘purple friends’ from other districts and states as well, according to Ms Shanti Reddy of Deccan Chronicle.

DC is getting ready thousands of decorative purple buttons for distribution among the members of the club. “The empowerment stems from uniting their strengths through this club to share information and experiences. One member can quickly and easily reach out to another through mobile or other e-means.

I could be wearing a purple button and walking on the road in a new city, and come across an­other purple club woman in that place. We would be strangers but still a smile and a comfortable camaraderie will emerge even during that sudden meeting,” explained Ms Shanti Reddy.

In course of time, Purple Clubs could be expanded to include other cities and states, even other categories of women. For instance, there could be Purple Clubs of Mothers sharing their experiences about bringing up kids, hygiene, food information, education and scholarship opportunities for their children, their husbands’ mood swings and what not.

source: http://www.DeccanChronicle.com / Home> News> Current Affairs / DC / by Pramila Krishnan / March 08th, 2013

MCC felicitates alumni Seshan, Chandrika Tandon

Arts, Culture & Entertainment, Education, Historical Links, Pre-Independence

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T.N. Seshan and Chandrika Tandon are being felicitated at MCC on Wednesday. —DC

Chennai:

 Though two alumni —T.N. Seshan, former chief election commissioner and Cha­ndrika Tandon, foun­d­er of Tandon capital associates — represented two different periods in Mad­ras Christian College, they both went on to achieve in their respective fields wit­h­out forgetting their roots.

And when MCC, which completed 175 years, and the MCC Alumni Associ­ation decided to recognise the accomplishments of various alumni, they cho­se to honour these two al­umni in its first edition of the alumni series held on Wednesday.

Seshan completed BSc Physics (honors) in 1952 and joined the college faculty. “Education has ch­­anged out of shape now. Everyone should have a vi­s­ion to make MCC wor­ld-class in education. Departments like English should be upgraded,” he said.

Another alumnus who was felicitated was Chan­drika Tandon, who completed B.Com from MCC in 1973 and went on to work with 20 global institutions, their boards and CEOs.

Chandrika who founded the advisory firm Tandon capital associates also has a passion for music. She said, “I studied in Holy Angels, T. Nagar and ne­v­er went to Tambaram fr­om T. Nagar. It was difficult for me to convince my mother.

Also, my mother was having this plan of getting me married at a young age.” Though Tandon’s family was very conservative, she said that her focus and commitment to win and achieve in her field made her determined to overcome many obstacles in life.

source: http://www.DeccanChronicle.com / Home> News> Current Affairs / DC / March 07th, 2013

Bittersweet symphony

Arts, Culture & Entertainment, Education

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Nrithya Andrews | Albin Mathew/Express

It’s not every day that you find out that your class teacher is a pop goddess. And when you do chance across a Youtube video of your professor singing an MJ tune, well let’s just say the word gets around. So a week after singer-songwriter Nrithya Andrews joined the Journalism department of MOP Vaishnav College for Women, her students told her that she could take lessons on one condition — she had to sing them a song first.

“It was crazy,” laughs the 24-year-old who has been teaching for almost a year now. “Suddenly, every class I walked into demanded that I sing a couple of lines before I started teaching!” And when the girls found out that she was releasing her debut album, Bittersweet on March 11, the fun went up a notch. “I was going to do a promo for the album at college,” Nrithya relates, adding that for her stage avatar, her regular crisp professor sari was swapped for a formal shirt and jeans. She laughs, “The student who was supposed to introduce me on stage comes up to me and asks — ‘Should I say Nrithya…or Nrithya ma’am?’”

Incidentally, ‘Nrithya ma’am’ has already stepped into Kollywood as well, having sung for music directors like Yuvan Shankar Raja and G V Prakash. Some of her popular Tamil releases include Eapadiyo Matikitein (Siva Manasula Shakthi) and Will You Be There (Thandavam). Her first claim to fame was her Tamil rock outfit, ‘Shrishti’ that was selected as one of the winners of Ohlalaala by A R Rahman.

Although none of her songs on this album have been inspired by the classroom, Nrithya does tell us that all her compositions are based on experience; like her already popular romantic love ballad Boba, that made its way on to the airwaves of an English radio station in the city. “Oh those lyrics were actually sparked by a crush I had when I was 18,” she shares with a mild blush. Incidentally the then programming head of the channel, Geoffrey Thomas was so impressed with it that he went on to push her to make the album long after her internship stint with the company was complete. “And now he’s producing the album as well,” the singer can’t sound happier.

With so much going on for her, one has to wonder what brought on the album title Bittersweet? Apparently, the name is a testament to the constant extremes life throws at her. “The past year has been like a Hannah Montana life for me,” the dusky songstress admits. “In the day, I have 200 students to be responsible for, so I’ve got to be be be polite, I can’t swear…And then once I’m out of my sari, I go back to being me.”

(Nrithya Andrews’ album Bittersweet will be launched at the Sivagami Petachi Auditorium, Mylapore on March 11 at 7.30 pm)

source: http://www.newindiaexpress.com / Home> Cities> Chennai / Home> Cities> Chennai / by Sonali Shenoy, ENS – Chennai / March 07th, 2013

City to get its first cycling velodrome soon

Records, All, Sports

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SDAT has proposed the development of the velodrome near Thiru.Vi.Ka. park (in pic) in Shenoy Nagar. Around six acres is required for the project which would facilitate performance cycling, cycling competitions and practice sessions — /  Photo: K. Pichumani / The Hindu .

The city may have been robbed of a chance to host the 20th Asian Athletics Championship but residents have something new to look forward to.

Chennai will soon have additional sporting facilities including a world-class cycling velodrome and football turfs. A team of officials from the Sports Development Authority of Tamil Nadu (SDAT) and the Chennai Corporation has inspected plots and playgrounds of the civic body for development of the modern facilities. A decision is likely soon.

SDAT has proposed the development of a cycling velodrome near Thiru.Vi.Ka. park in Shenoy Nagar. Around six acres is required for the project which would facilitate performance cycling, cycling competitions and practice sessions.

The Chennai Corporation is mulling handing over the land to SDAT for the cycling velodrome. However, SDAT officials have also inspected a plot in the Tamil Nadu Physical Education and Sports University in Vandalur.

The decision to set up the facility either in Vandalur or Shenoy Nagar will be taken shortly. However, experts fear a number of students from city schools may lose out on the opportunity to train in a world-class facility if SDAT opts for Vandalur.

The sports authority has requested the Chennai Corporation to permit them to develop and maintain football playgrounds in areas such as Vyasarpadi, Tondiarpet and Mogappair. The development of football turfs to international standards is likely to facilitate better training for students in the city.

The Chennai Corporation, a few years ago, initiated the process of improving 10 playgrounds chosen from each of the old Corporation zones into star-rated playgrounds. The facility in Gopalapuram was equipped with facilities for various sports, including volleyball. There are around 250 playgrounds maintained by the civic body in the city.

But, players who make use of the playgrounds have pointed to the fact that many of them have faulty designs and are poorly planned. These have led to inundation during rains. Many such football playgrounds were inundated in north Chennai last monsoon.

The new Chennai Corporation council, too, is yet to make any efforts towards putting in place a sound procedure to create and maintain good playgrounds. The SDAT’s proposal to develop world-class football turfs on Corporation land may be good news for football players in the city.

source: http://www.TheHindu.com / Home> News> Cities> Chennai / by Aloysius Xavier Lopez / Chennai, March 06th, 2013

The queen of the screen

Arts, Culture & Entertainment

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Tribute to yesteryear star Rajasulochana who passed away on March 5

One of the most successful stars in Tamil, Telugu, Hindi, Kannada and Malayalam movies, Pilliarchetty Bhakthavatsalam Naidu Rajeevalochana (her original name) born August 15, 1934, passed away in her home in Madipakkam in Chennai, during the early hours of March 5. Thanks to her father being promoted as PA to the General Manager of M&SM Railway the family moved to Madras from Vijayawada and settled in Triplicane, where she went to school. The school authorities recorded her name as Rajasulochana, and that’s how she continued to be known….

As a young girl, she showed interest in classical dance and had her early lessons at Saraswathi Gana Nilayam in Triplicane; her first guru was Lalithamma who taught her Bharatanatyam. Later, she learnt from K.N. Dandayudhapani Pillai (Bharathanatyam), Acharyulu and Vempati Chinna Satyam (Kuchipudi), Krishnakumar and Vishnu Vysarkar (Kathak) and Kalamandalam Madhavan (Kathakali).

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    MULTI-TALENTED Rajasulochana in “Vanangamudi”.

Those were the days when middle-class families did not encourage girls to perform on stage, and, much against convention, Rajasulochana had her arangetram in Madras, which was presided over by the famed music scholar, lawyer and judge of the Madras High Court and Supreme Court of India, T.L. Venkatarama Iyer.

Not surprisingly, movies beckoned her, and she took her bow thanks to the celebrated Kannada stage and screen maestro H.L.N. Simha. Gunasagari (Sathyasodhanai in Tamil), produced by the Kannada cult figure Gubbi Veeranna, marked her screen debut.

She entered Tamil cinema in the early 1950s with Pennarasi, a costume drama produced by M. A. Venu, written by A.P. Nagarajan and directed by K. Somu. It was made at the famous Central Studios, Coimbatore. Her songs and dances drew enormous attention, and her fame spread far and wide.

Rajasulochana has acted in hundreds of films in many languages. Though it is not possible to list all of them, mention must be made of some that created history. Not many are aware that she was cast as the heroine in the cult film Parasakthi. But she had to opt out of the film because of her pregnancy. It was only then that Telugu actress Sriranjani Jr. was brought on board.

Rajasulochana’s most successful film, according to critics and moviegoers, was Thai Pirandhaal Vazhi Pirakkum with S.S. Rajendran, written, produced and directed by the Tamil scholar-turned- filmmaker A.K. Velan. A raving success, the film had melodious music by K.V. Mahadevan. Many songs such as ‘Amudhum thenum etharku nee aruginil irukkayiley’ became hits and are still remembered. It was remade in Telugu as Manchi Manasuku Manchi Rojulu with N.T. Rama Rao playing the lead. The film was directed by her husband, noted writer-director C.S. Rao.

Rajasulochana had the privilege of acting with all the superstars of South Indian cinema such as M.G. Ramachandran, Sivaji Ganesan, N.T. Rama Rao, Akkineni Nageswara Rao, Rajkumar, S.S. Rajendran, A.P. Nagarajan and M.N. Nambiar.

Her other films worth mentioning are Gulebakavali, Vanangamudi, Nallavan Vaazhvaan,Mangalyam, Rangoon Radha, Pennarasi, Kavalai Illaadha Manithan and Ellam Inba Mayam (all Tamil); Pellinati Pramanalu, Raja Makutam, Jayabheri, Santhinivasam, Mahakavi Kalidasu, Iddaru Mitrulu, Tiger Ramudu, Valmiki and Thatha Manavudu (a super hit and the debut of ace filmmaker Dasari Narayana Rao) (all Telugu); Bedara Kannappa, Valmiki (Kannada); Chori Chori (Hindi, a Raj Kapoor-Nargis-AVM movie she was cast with Bhagwan); and Manasakshi (Malayalam).

In the movies she starred in, she spoke the dialogues herself. This is an interesting feature, especially today, when actors hardly speak in their own voices. Her only regret was she did not receive a college education.

One of her twin daughters, Devi, who lives in Chennai, is a talented dancer. Her other daughter, son and grandchildren live in the United States.

A recipient of many awards, Rajasulochana founded her dance school ‘Pushpanjali Nritya Kala Kendram’ in 1961 in Chennai, which celebrated its silver jubilee in 1986.

A good friend of this writer for over three decades, she was warm, friendly and humble with no starry airs. The artiste is gone but her movies shall live forever…life is short but art is immortal ….

Photo caption has been corrected for an error.

source: http://www.TheHindu.com / Home> Features> Cinema Plus / by Randor Guy / March 05th, 2013

23-yr-old’s liver, kidneys save three patients

Science & Technologies

Chennai :

The relatives of 23-year-old Vaidyalingam were grieving his death. But his liver and kidneys that were donated at least saved three other patients who had organ failure.

Doctors at the Global Hospitals, where Vaidyalingam was brought from Salem, said they used the liver on one of their patients kept on the waitlist and almost simultaneously, another patient in the hospital underwent a kidney transplant. “Both of them are doing well,” a transplant surgeon said.

The other kidney was sent to the Kaliappa Hospital, the eyes were donated to the eye bank at the Sankara Nethralya and the heart valves were stored for future use.

A statement from the hospital said Vaidhyaligam met with an accident on February 27 in Salem and was taken to a private hospital with severe head injury. “He wasn’t wearing a helmet,” the statement said. Doctors at the private hospital referred him to Global Hospitals for treatment. Vaidhyalingam was brought to the Chennai hospital by an ambulance on Friday. The same day, doctors in the intensive care unit declared him brain dead.

When the grief counselor spoke to Vaidhyalingam’s parents about organ donation, they agreed. The hospital then contacted the state cadaver transplant registry for networking among hospitals and the organs were transplanted. The registry has recovered organs from more than 300 brain dead people in the last five years.

source: http://www.articles.timesofindia.indiatimes.com / Home> City> Chennai / TNN / March 03rd, 2013

Inauguration of STC at Velachery

Business & Economy, Science & Technologies

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Union Minister of State for Commerce & Industry, S. Jagathrakshakan inaugurating the  STC Velachery Branch. /by Special Arrangement / The Hindu

STC, software-testing, training and placement company, opens up a branch in Velachery and it was inaugurated last week by Union Minister of State for Commerce & Industry, S. Jagathrakshakan.

EMPLOYABILITY SKILS

Businessman and Founder of Vasanth & Co and Vasanth TV, H. Vasanth Kumar lighted the kuthuvilakku. Murugakumar gave the welcome speech. L. Vijaykumar, Regional Manager of STC Technologies elaborated the employability skills trained in software testing across their branches.

Other senior officials from various departments, industrialists and professors participated. Jegathambiga Murugakumar, Director of Velachery branch, spoke.

For details, contact STC Technologies, (18)28, 1st floor, Nagendra Nagar, Velachery Main Road, Velachery. Phone numbers: 9791119686/22440812-13.

source: http://www.TheHindu.com / Home> News> Cities> Chennai / March 02nd, 2013

Seminar held on ergonomics in interiors

Arts, Culture & Entertainment, Education

The Interior Design and Décor Department of Sri Kanyaka Parameswari Arts and Science College, Parrys, organised an international seminar on ‘Current Scenario of Ergonomics in Interiors.’ The seminar was inaugurated by Rani Vedamuthu, Dean, School of Architecture and Planning, Anna University.

The souvenir of the seminar was released by Oliver Finn, Photographic Argentique and Art Matics, The Liege Academy of Fine Arts, Belgium, and the first copy was received by Pabbisetty Sreeramulu. The technical sessions were chaired by Chitra Prakash, Professor, Department of Resource Management, Avinashilingam University for Women, Coimbatore; K. Kanjana, Professor and Head, Department of Clinical Nutrition and Dietetics, PSG College of Arts and Science, Coimbatore; K.S. Pushpa, Professor and Head, Department of Home Science, Gandhigram Rural Institute, Dindigul; and Kavitha Prasad, Design Associate, Architectural Management Services, Chennai. Alphanso Arul Doss gave the valedictory address and distributed certificates to the participants.

source: http://www.TheHindu.com / Home> News> Cities> Chennai / March 02nd, 2013

Tamil scholar from France gets award

Arts, Culture & Entertainment, Education, Records, All, World Opinion

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Professor Gros receiving the Kural Peedam award in Puducherry on Friday| G Pattabiraman

In recognition of the untiring and eminent services rendered to Tamil language, eighty-year-old Professor Francois Gros was handed over the Indian President’s Kural Peedam award for the year 2008-2009 for Classical Tamil studies at a function organised at the French institute in Puducherry on Friday.

The award carrying a citation and `5 lakh, was handed over to Gros by Gnanamoorthy, director-in-charge of the Central Institute of Classical Tamil, Chennai, in presence of the Consul General of France in Puducherry, Pierre Fournier.

Prof Gros, a researcher at the French Institute of  Pondicherry (IFP) was earlier presented the award in absentia by the President Pranab Mukherjee on December 21, 2012, at the Rashtrapati Bhawan, New Delhi, which he could not attend owing to health reasons.

Later, addressing the gathering Professor Gros said that classical Tamil needed to be kept alive in modern age to understand tradition, culture and value.

The function was attended by French Institute director,  Dr Pierre Grard and staff.

Gros was closely associated with the activities of the French Institute (l’Institut Français) of Pondicherry over a long period of time in Tamil classical literature.

He was involved in the translation of ‘Paripatal’, a text of ancient corpus called Sangam, (Prix Saintour 1969 of l’Académie des Inscriptions et Belles-Lettres) and Livre de l’Amour de Tiruvalluvar (1992), and Tamil Saiva devotion in its various aspects.

He also studied and translated poetry and iconography of Karaikkalammaiyar, Tevaram (1984, edition under the patronage of UNESCO), Periya Puranam (2001), fundamental text of medieval literature, and the works of Arunagirinatar (1980), lyrical expression of a bilingual regional culture, Tamil and Sanskrit.

He was deeply interested in integrating archaeology and study of monuments with history, through epigraphy and environment. In the year 1970, he produced a monograph on Uttaramerur.

In the year 1980, he launched a multidisciplinary project on Tiruvannamalai mobilising the resources of Pondicherry and his associates for fifteen years, and later in 1985 he launched a project on the Kaveri valley.

source: http://www.newindianexpress.com / Home> States> Tamil Nadu / by Express News Service – Puducherry / March 02nd, 2013

Keep our folklore alive, urge experts

Arts, Culture & Entertainment, Historical Links, Pre-Independence

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Performers at the National Conference on Folklore and Literature at the Women’s Christian College.

What happens when around 1600 languages and dialects are submerged into roughly 22 ‘official’ languages in India? It results in the loss of an intangible cultural heritage which resides in the minds of the people said Dr Deborah Thiagarajan, chairman and founder, Madras Craft Foundation. Speaking at a National Conference on Folklore and Literature at Women’s Christian College recently, she said if there is no recognition of the wisdom, abilities and skills embedded in folklore and folk traditions, our culture will be submerged and lost. The process has already begun with the aspiration of small, rural communities having to model their lifestyles along urban lines, she added.

Folklore is a ‘once lived reality’ said Dr Muthukumaraswamy, director, National Folklore Support Centre, adding to the theme.  Literature engages the reader only with the text itself, written as it is by a ‘lonely author with an anonymous audience’, while folklore and performance engages the community. The audience participates, interjecting with their own critical comments or interpretations, hauling up the actors for forgetting parts of the narrative  and becoming part of the narrative themselves as for instance, when the cattle they have driven home from work form part of the setting for a cattle fight on stage.

In a sharing of perspectives, theatre practitioner,  activist and academician Dr Padma (Mangai) reiterated that classical forms had taken off from folk forms. She cautioned, however,  against adopting a protective attitude towards folk culture and suggested a critical approach as folk tales come with a feudalistic agenda and a built in gender bias. “Take it, question it and make it your own,” she said.

Eric Miller, Director, World Storytelling Institute, and Sambamurthy, theatre practitioner and entrepreneur, shared their perspectives on the occasion. Students and delegates from city colleges and universities and also from Delhi, Hyderabad, Bangalore and Thiruvaroor presented papers on a wide spectrum of folklore and literature.

The finale of the conference, organised by the Department of English, was a slew of vibrant folk performances by professionals from Dakshinachitra, who set a reverberating tone with their thappattam and drew the participants into joining them in a lively rendition of folk dance.

source: http://www.newindianexpress.com / Home> Cities> Chennai / by Express News Service – Chennai / February 28th, 2013