Chennai Corporation run schools recorded a pass percentage of 91.47% in the SSLC examinations, 4.5% higher than last year. Out of the 8,788 students, 8036 passed in the 72 schools.
The results were declared today.
Salma Haseena, a student of the Chennai Higher Secondary School (CHSS) at Market Street in Perambur, became topper among corporation schools scoring 491 out of 500. She was closely followed by K Yuvarani of Chennai Girls Higher Secondary School in Nungambakkam and Nissi Mariam of Chennai Girls Higher Secondary School in Saidapet. They scored 490 out of 500. Four students tied for third position with a score of 488 out 500. The students are D Mercy Jebarani and Jebaselvi from the school in Market Street, B Bhoopalan from the CHSS, Seven Wells and M Vijay from CHSS, Maduvankarai.
Corporation schools’ performance in the class 10 examinations seemed to have improved to a large extent compared to last year.
Twelve schools managed to achieve 100% pass compared to only two schools that managed the feat last year.
This year 258 students scored centum in various subjects compared to only 18 students last year. Around 1,558 students scored above 400 out of 500 this year when compared to only 400 students who achieved this last year.
Sticking to the annual trend, girls outshone boys with a pass percentage of 93.77%. The boys achieved a success rate of 88.9%.
source: http://www.articles.timesofindia.indiatimes.com / The Times of India / Home> Education> Schools / by V. Aiyappan, TNN / May 31st, 2013
She’s been one of the bright spots this Margazhi season, her graceful exuberance lighting up the stage, perhaps a mark of her tutelage under Priyadarshini Govind. Currently based in Chennai, Shweta Prachande has performed all over India and represented the country at several international festivals.
Originally from Pune, Shweta did a post graduate diploma in Contemporary Dance Studies at Trinity Laban Conservatoire of Music and Dance, London. “One of the initial challenges I faced was my lack of training in ballet, but that didn’t hinder my learning process as we had other subjects like Choreography, Contemporary Jazz, History of Dance etc.
Choreological Studies definitely changed the way I view movement in dance. In Bharatanatyam, we learn mostly by watching our teachers or following the verbal instructions in class, but understanding the source of the movement and using it effectively, is something I comprehend more easily now,” she explains, adding that she practices yoga and the martial art of Kalaripayattu to stay fit.
Having studied contemporary dance while in London, Shweta feels that it’s quite a challenge to be proficient in more than one art form. She has also dabbled in acting, having bagged the lead role in the short film, Notes of Silence, which was screened at the LA Women’s International Film Festival and The NY Indian Film Festival.
Having had the ability to pan out and excel in different performing arts, she also possessed the stamina to embrace a different discipline altogether: rugby. Shweta has played rugby for India, making it to the first Women’s 7 team in 2009, when they travelled to Thailand for the Asian Women’s Championship. She’s also a certified International rugby level 1 coach and referee.
“Rugby happened by chance, on a summer vacation, back home in Pune. I took up the sport for its hardcore fitness, discipline and team spirit. Contrary to popular opinion, in spite of the demanding nature of the game, rugby’s also quite flexible, and we’re trained to deal with its physicality.
Being Indian, we don’t have the same genes that other heftily built foreign players do, but we match their levels by practicing and maintaining fitness. Injuries do happen, but we can control the impact. There’s so much of strength and honour involved in playing for the country. It really was an amazing experience,” muses
Shweta, who also played for an amateur London club during her time in England.
It’s an unusual combination, the grace of dance and the toughness of rugby, each a discipline with lots to impart to the practitioner. Next, Shweta wants to be a Bharatanatyam soloist and a teacher of dance too.
source: http://www.deccanchronicle.com / Deccan Chronicle / Home> Entertainment / TV-Music / by Gautam Sunder, DC / January 10th, 2013
*Referring to my piece on Dr. S. Gopal, that outstanding modern Indian historian (Miscellany, April 22), V.C. Srikumar, an advocate, tells me that Gopal could have been an equally outstanding advocate if only he had chosen the Law as a profession. Gopal took his Law degree from the University of Madras in 1944. The previous year, he was awarded the University Gold Medal for Constitutional Law. But instead of following the example of two of his brothers-in-law, Kasturi Seshagiri Rao and M. Seshachalapathy of the Madras Bar — the latter went on to become a Judge of the Andhra Pradesh High Court — he chose to go to Oxford to improve on his Master’s in History which he had obtained in Madras. The Law’s loss was History’s gain thereafter.
*P. Krishnan, who on a recent visit to the Marina caught up with the Tilak Ghat memorial that was installed after years of appeal, tells me that it’s yet another forgotten landmark in the city: “no one pays any attention to it”. But, he continues, the authorities constantly keep speaking of new plans for the Marina. And there are also now plans for the San Thomé beach, he adds. Perhaps they’d like to add markers at both sites to a historic event — and find them as ignored by the public as the event itself has been forgotten. The event he refers to is the Madras Salt Satyagraha in 1930, following on the heels of the Dandi and Vedaranyam marches. The march to the sea at the Triplicane Beach (later called Tilak Ghat) was led by T. Prakasam, S. Satyamurti and others. At San Thomé Beach, many from the film world were in the forefront. As usual, my correspondent adds, arrests were made followed by releases after brief detentions. And that was that.
*My New South Wales correspondent, Dr. A. Raman, sends me yet another tidbit and I wonder whether the Meteorological Department will have anything to add to these bits of information relating to a Dr. Alexander Turnbull Christie, who was an Assistant Surgeon in the Madras medical establishment until 1828 and who wrote a treatise on “Epidemic Cholera”. When he returned to Scotland on furlough that year, he got interested in Geology and Meteorology and got down to studying them. This academic pursuit of his led to Christie being appointed Geological Surveyor, Government of Madras, in 1830. When he returned to Madras in 1831, he brought with him several meteorological instruments bought from “Robinson, Optician, Portland Place” (London or Edinburgh?). These included a thermometer, a barometer, an oethrioscope, a photometer, an electroscope, a hygrometer, an ombrometer (rain gauge) and an atmometer. Fort St. George thereupon ordered 20-30 sets of this equipment for the Presidency. Dr. Raman, in a footnote adds that “it is interesting to note that Christie speaks highly of (in the Madras Journal of Literature and Science) Centigrade measurements of temperature as against Fahrenheit readings even as early as 1832, when Fahrenheit measurements were followed religiously in the U.K.!”
source: http://www.thehindu.com / The Hindu / Home> News> Cities> Chennai> Columns / Madras Miscellany / by S. Muthiah / June 02nd, 2013
Robert Bruce Foote. Photo at special exhibition at Government Museum, Egmore./ Photo: M. Vedhan / The Hindu
Where did Foote find them?
It was 150 years ago on May 30 that Bruce Foote unearthed those Palaeolithic (Stone Age) finds that gave India a prehistory. The generally proffered story is that he found them in “a ballast pit” in Pallavaram, ballast in this context perhaps meaning coarse stone or gravel for road-building or rail track-laying, for which the Pallavaram area is well-known. It is also reported that he made his finds near the ‘Parade Grounds’ in Pallavaram. The ‘Brigade Grounds’ are also mentioned in this connection. Now where were these grounds in Pallavaram, that southern suburb of Madras?
To the best of my knowledge, the St. Thomas’ Mount Cantonment is really the St. Thomas’ Mount-cum-Pallavaram Cantonment, stretching south from Kathipara Junction to what was the first major industrial unit in the area, once known as English Electric and now as Areva. The almost 3,200-acre cantonment once had, I’m told, three parade grounds. They were the regimental parade ground in Pallavaram, the Madras Area headquarters parade ground that is now the Officers’ Training Academy ground, and the Artillery Park and parade ground in what is now Mohite Stadium in the shadow of the Mount. In which of these or near which of them was the ballast pit that Foote delved into and achieved fame? Juxtaposing Parade Ground and Brigade Ground, the two sites mentioned, I would be inclined to point to what’s now the Mohite Stadium grounds, the only space big enough for the parade of a brigade. But can anyone offer something more than speculation?
The St. Thomas’ Mount-cum-Pallavaram Cantonment is said to be the second oldest in India. The oldest I’m told was Calcutta’s Barrackpore, established in 1772. But it got its administrative Board in 1775. St. Thomas’ Mount-cum-Pallavaram got its Board in 1774 and was a much earlier military station than Barrackpore. So I’d be inclined to claim St. Thomas’ Mount-cum-Pallavaram as the oldest cantonment — and not the second oldest as the Army would have it — in the subcontinent. But then, as many say about me, I’m prejudiced. More definite, however, is the fact that Bruce Foote’s were the first Palaeolithic finds in South Asia. And, so, he is called the ‘Father of Indian Prehistory’, according to Dr. Shanti Pappu who is tracing his life story and re-exploring his excavation sites.
source: http://www.thehindu.com / The Hindu / Home> News> Cities> Chennai> Columns / Madras Miscellany / by S. Muthiah / June 02nd, 2013
As these lines are written, another national hockey championship is about to get underway. Yes, another, for one organised by another claimant to national hockey management has just been completed. Imagine two national hockey championships run by rival bodies within a few days of each other! No wonder our national sport is in the doldrums that it is!
That state of affairs would have broken the heart of the man after whom the trophy for the recently completed championship was named. The S. Rangaswami Trophy was presented by The Hindu in 1957 in memory of an Editor who was passionately fond of sport, particularly hockey.
S. Rangaswami / The Hindu
S. Rangaswami was the son of S. Kasturiranga Iyengar’s elder brother Srinivasaraghava Iyengar, once the Inspector-General of Registration, Madras, and, later, a Dewan of Baroda. Rangaswami, a small-made person, was a keen sportsman at Presidency College where his hockey prowess was well recognised. He was also in his youth a promising cricketer and, later in life, a regular at the billiard tables of the Cosmopolitan Club. His interest in hockey was so great that of him it was said that he never missed a match in the major hockey leagues and tournaments in Madras. It is this interest thatThe Hindu remembered when instituting the trophy named after him. Sadly, it has not been played for as regularly as it should have been; this year, it was competed for after a gap of 16 years!
It was in 1910 that Rangaswami joined his uncle at The Hindu, not long after passing out as a lawyer. In him the paper gained a brilliant analyst and a writer described as a “master of satire and irony”, a writer who contributed “fire, flashes of wit, ridicule and sarcasm, the outpourings of an outraged patriot demanding instant satisfaction.”
His analytical weekly reviews of the action during the Great War were what brought him into the public eye. With no military background whatsoever, he still was able to analyse with remarkable accuracy the happenings on the various battlefronts.
The War over, The Hindu began to pay greater attention to the domestic scene. And this was when Rangaswami was seen at his trenchant best, His “invective”, as some saw it, was neither offensive, vulgar or malicious but was “a fine art”. Of the Moderates who leaned towards the Establishment he wrote, that they are “Moderates only in their patriotism” and that “Moderatism is not a policy but a disease”. Of one of the leading Moderates, the Rev. Hon. V.S. Srinivasa Sastri, he wrote, “It was said of the Austrians that they had a genius for defeat. It may be said with equal justice of Mr. Sastri that he has a genius for surrender.”
A voracious reader of everything from penny dreadfuls to the English Classics, Rangaswami developed not only a mastery over the language but also a rationalist’s outlook to life. A friend described him as “an emphatic, exaggerated and extraordinary protest against all social and moral conventions of the world, especially those attached to a Brahmin by birth”. Reflecting these views were his words to a writer on religious topics:
“The best way of influencing humanity for good would be to carry conviction to your fellowmen by a process of rational persuasion and not by mantras… Never mind your textbook theories and discussions. I realise some superhuman agency (what it is I do not care or stop to investigate) is responsible for the creation of the universe and the best way to worship him is to devote your energies and intellect to the service of the poor, the weak and the downtrodden who are all God’s creatures.” This is what students should be taught, he emphasised over and over again.
Stricken by tuberculosis, he died young. At 40, he had been Editor of The Hindu for only three years. But in those years he had made the paper’s anti-Establishment voice heard louder than ever. It was felt that “a great calamity” had befallen The Hindu when S. Rangaswami passed away in October 1926. But given that he thought the best years of his life were his college years, the S. Rangaswami trophy for the national hockey championships is probably the best memorial to him.
source: http://www.thehindu.com / The Hindu / Home> News> Cities> Chennai> Columns / Madras Miscellany / by S. Muthiah / June 02nd, 2013
Tussor Machine Tools Private Limited, a wholly-owned subsidiary of Spanish computer numerical-controlled (CNC) and flat-bed lathe machines maker Tussor SL Andorra, is planning to expand the manufacturing capacity at its Coimbatore facility with an investment of between Rs 35 crore and Rs 40 crore.
“In the face of the growing demand , we are planning to increase the volumes to 5,000 units per year by 2015,” Ganesh Parthasarathy, chief executive officer of Tussor Machine, told Business Standard on the sidelines of the first edition of the four-day Engineering Expo that kicked off in Hyderabad on Friday.
Tussor SL Andorra, which has the capacity to churn out 5,000 machines a year, established its manufacturing plant at Coimbatore in 2005 with an investment of Rs 100 crore. The 100% export-oriented unit (EOU) currently manufactures around 250 machines a month. It primarily exports its products to Africa, West Asia, Australia, New Zealand and South America.
Stating that the growth in heavy industries was fueling machine tools demand, Parthasarathy said the company had in 2011 changed the status from EOU to the Export Promotion Capital Goods ( EPCG ) Scheme to cater to the domestic market also.
“We have already established around 40 dealers across the country,” he said, adding that Tussor Machine Tools garnered revenues of Rs 65 crore last financial year and was aiming at touching the Rs 200-crore mark by 2015.
source: http://www.business-standard.com / Business Standard / Home> Companies> News / byu K. Rajani Kanth / Hyderabad – May 31st, 2013
Today, everybody is a photographer, and everybody owns a camera. If you go to a function, there are so many cameras
C.S.Balachandra Raju’s ‘Sathyam studio’ in Mylapore is like a curiosity shop. Young Cho Ramaswamy and Hema Malini smile from photographs taken decades ago; cameras that the 75-year-old used as a young boy line the back-room; and he still has a copy of the letter-head from 1940’s, bearing the street name ‘Brodies Road’, long before it became R.K.Mutt Road. “The photo studio was started by my father. It moved to this location — from North Mada street — in the 40’s, and I took over in 1961. Back then, portraits were very popular; judges, cine actors, doctors — all of them came. But now, everybody walks in for passport photos.”
Mylapore, in the 60’s, was filled with coconut trees. “There were trams that came to Luz Corner; I used to board one to go to Santhome, the fare was just six paise! And long before Mada streets became crowded, there was a provision for fire-engines to fill water from the temple tank.” In that black-and-white era of photography, Raju recalls taking pictures of women who came to the studio with flowers stitched into their plaits; infants were carried-in by their parents, to have their first portraits shot, with their hands and knees on a table. “And even now, people come and say they want photographs of their child in the same way.” The only difference is, it used to take two days then, to develop the negatives, and cost a mere Rs.3 for set of passport prints…
The cameras back then were heavy; Raju and his son Anand show me their old ones, imported from Germany. “You had to specially eat just to carry that one around,” Raju laughs, pointing to a square, handmade wooden camera, over a foot wide. Photography then, was truly an art, and the photographer’s skill and judgement produced good images.
Raju then moves on to the present. “This property belongs to the temple,” he says, pointing to the Kapaleeshwara temple gopuram diagonally across. “But the rents have increased sharply, it is getting unaffordable”. Besides, competition is very stiff, he says. “Today, everybody is a photographer, and everybody owns a camera. If you go to a function, there are so many cameras. See, you’re also taking pictures with your cell-phone!” and I smile as I shoot his pictures.
Our leisurely conversation is interrupted, when a man walks in and asks if he can get some papers photocopied; Raju’s son directs the man to the right shop. “My son is now the backbone of the shop, he is my successor,” Raju says, adding that the future, as he sees it, is digital. “We have to change with times,” he says pragmatically. As if to underline that, a signboard behind him offers to “restore old marriage albums to new digital albums”. Raju has also moved out of Mylapore, and now lives in OMR, but he misses the traditional neighbourhood. We’re interrupted yet again; this time, it is two boys whose cricket ball has fallen into the compound. “They live next door; earlier, their parents played cricket and came looking for balls; now it is their turn. We would like to continue our business here for longer, but for that, Kapaleeshwara must help”.
(A weekly column on men and women who make Chennai what it is)
source: http://www.thehindu.com / The Hindu / Home> Features> MetroPlus> Society / by Aparna Karthikeyan / June 09th, 2013
School teachers and students look at the SSLC examination results eagerly at the Government Girls Higher Secondary School in Kancheepuram /. Photo: B. Jothi Ramalingam / The Hindu
The highest score in the State has been secured by two students from Puducherry and Ponneri
Girls outshined boys and districts beat Chennai hands down in the SSLC class X examination results, which were announced on Friday.
It was a complete washout for Chennai district with Erode, Melur, Tiruchi, Tiruppathur, Tirunelveli, Cuddalore, Puducherry and Ponneri educational districts cornering the 11 first ranks.
As many as nine official first rankers and two students who have scored 499/500, one mark more than the official toppers who are all girls, are some of the highlights.
B. Sonia, State first rank holder in the SSLC examination from Tirunelveli District being greeted by her friends at her school / Photo: A. Shaik Mohideen / The Hindu
The list of ‘official toppers’ only gets longer, with 52 students, and 137 students with Tamil as first language sharing the second and third ranks, according to the Directorate of Government Examinations which released the results on Friday. The State’s pass percentage, including only those who appeared through schools, has also increased significantly from 86.2 in 2012 to 89 per cent this year. Only two students from government schools feature in the list.
S. Sruthi, State third rank holder in SSLC examination from Tirunelveli District. / Photo: A. Shaik Mohideen / The Hindu
Kanyakumari, which stood fifth in terms of pass percentage in 2012, has leapt to the top of the list with a pass percentage of 97.29. Though fewer girls wrote the examination this year, they raced past the boys with a pass percentage of 92 per cent, as compared to 86 per cent secured by the boys.
There has also been a quantum leap in the number of centums this year, spurring debate about the standard of the syllabus and nature of evaluation. As compared to 1,141 in 2012, 29,905 students scored a centum in Mathematics this year. Similarly, as many as 38,154 students have scored a centum in Science, and 19,680 in Social Science as compared to 9,237 and 5,305 in 2012.
This is the second batch to write the examination after Samacheer Kalvi, a uniform syllabus for State Board, Matriculation, Anglo-Indian and OSLC schools was introduced.
source: http://www.thehindu.com / The Hindu / Home> Education Plus> Schools / by Staff Reporter / Chennai – May 31st, 2013
When freedom fighter Valliappan Olaganathan Chidambaram Pillai, popularly known as Kappalottia Tamizhan VOC, was yoked to an oil press like a bullock during the freedom struggle, he would not have imagined that a brilliant but poor scion of his family would be knocking on every possible door in Independent India seeking help to continue her higher studies after scoring good marks in Plus Two examinations.
The face of the frail-looking V.Muthu Bramma Nayagi, which should glow in pride in view of her performance in the Plus Two examinations — she scored 1,130 out of 1,200 and stood first in Ottapidaram taluk — has lost all the natural happiness as poverty had cast a shadow on her ambition to continue her studies. Ms.Nayagi is the granddaughter of VOC’s niece, her family members say.
“My father E.Venkatachalam is a labourer, who gets some money only when he is engaged for work by someone and my mother Arumugavalli is a housewife. So I cannot think of continuing my studies beyond Plus Two,” Ms.Nayagi says.
Since Ms.Nayagi, a student of TMB Mcavoy Rural Higher Secondary School at Ottapidaram, has scored 197 in mathematics, 193 in physics, 199 in chemistry and 173 in biology, she has an aggregate of 196.50 for engineering. Her teachers helped her get application for engineering and medicine courses. However, the girl does not know whether she can participate in engineering counselling and get admission to a college.
Whenever functions are organised at VOC Memorial at Ottapidaram to commemorate the birth or death anniversaries of the martyr, Ms.Arumugavalli is asked to clean the entire premises, sprinkle water and draw a ‘kolam’ in front of the monument. “Though the government officials offer some money for this work, I never accepted it as I am doing this with pride,” Ms.Arumugavalli says.
Though the family is reluctant to seek help from others, Ms.Nayagi’s desire to continue her studies has forced her to approach some philanthropists in this regard. The girl can be contacted through Ms. Arumugavalli at 96005 67640.
source: http://www.thehindu.com / The Hindu / Home> News> National> Tamil Nadu / by P. Sudhakar / Tirunelveli – May 30th, 2013
Prem Kumar saved the best for the last, his final jump of 8m setting a new meet record in the men’s long jump /. Photo: R. Ragu / The Hindu
ATHLETICS / Kunhu Mohammad overcomes favourite Arokia Rajiv in 400m
Even as everybody was about to leave the Stadium late in the evening thinking that it was yet another uneventful day, a loud cheer was heard from one corner of the track. A small section of the crowd was seen cheering a young athlete, who in turn, was bowing his head to them.
It was K. Prem Kumar, the 20-year-old from Tamil Nadu, who created a new meet record in the men’s long jump with a leap of 8m on the second day of the National inter-State athletics meet at the Nehru Stadium here on Wednesday.
Prem erased the record of 7.92m set by Sanjay Kumar Rai (West Bengal) in 2001. He is the fourth Indian to break the 8m barrier after Amrit Pal Singh (8.08m), T.C. Yohanan (8.07m) and Sanjay Kumar Rai (8.03m).
Gasping for breath, Prem later said, “I don’t know how to express my feelings. I came here with an intention of clearing 8m, and I did it.
“This is my best ever after the 7.95m I did in the State meet in Madurai a few months ago,” he added.
Prem Kumar was not impressive in the first five jumps. He started with 7.58m, then the next four read: 7.62m, 7.54m, 7.53m and 7.75m. The sixth and last jump made the crowd go gaga.
For others, it was not a great day at office especially high jump star Sahana Kumari. The 31-year-old from Karnataka had to be content with 1.88m for the first place. The National record holder (1.92m) was disappointed with her show.
“I am not happy. I still have one more chance to qualify for the World championship in the Asian championship in Pune,” she said.
Pinto Mathew of Kerala clinched the 110m hurdles gold in 14.56s pipping Tamil Nadu’s Balamurugan. Defending champion A. Suresh couldn’t take part in the final as he had injured his left ankle during practice.
Kunhu Mohammad of Kerala won the men’s 400m gold overcoming favourite Arokia Rajiv (Tamil Nadu) with a time of 46.71s. Arokia Rajiv started off well and maintained a decent lead till the turn, but Kunhu raced ahead in the last 50m.
Neeraj Pawar (Uttar Pradesh) came second while Arokia emerged third.
The 20km women’s walk couldn’t be held due to lack of entries. It will be held along with the men’s event on Thursday.
