A 53-year-old businessman with end-stage liver failure has received a fresh chance at normal life, thanks to the efforts of a team of doctors from a private hospital in the city and the timely reception of organs from a liver and brain dead man.
Motilal Jain from Jodhpur in Rajasthan was admitted at Cethar Hospital in the city a couple of weeks ago. He was suffering from an acute case of Hepatitis B. He also had abdominal swelling due to fluid collection, blood in the motion and jaundice and renal failure.
A team of doctors, including transplant surgeon Dr G Rajarathinam, transplant anesthetist Dr Rasweth Krishnamoorthy and interventional radiologist Dr Bavuharan, assessed the patient and decided that he had to undergo a liver transplant if he was to live, even though the process would be very risky.
The organ of a liver and brain dead man was chosen, and the surgery commenced. It took 16 long hours, since the condition of the patient was volatile, but the doctors emerged successful in the end.
Motilal is now recovering. Doctors and the patient met the media on Sunday to brief them on his condition and explain the technological advancement that had made the surgery possible.
“Humans come in contact with Hepatitis B virus through non-sterilized injections and other reasons. So, it is highly risky to operate on such patients. Despite the difficulties, our doctors pulled it off,” said executive director of Cethar hospital Karthick Sivakumar on Sunday.
A liver transplant usually costs around Rs15 lakh, but in Motilal’s case the expense ran up to Rs23 lakh because he required the expensive ‘immuno suppress’ injection twice, Karthick added.
source: http://www.timesofindia.indiatimes.com / The Times of India / News Home> City> Trichy / TNN / November 24th, 2015
Realworks Studios, a start up based out of Coimbatore is making heads turn with its open source 3D animation work for ‘Urumeen’ that releases today
Going virtualScenes from Urumeen that were captured virtually by Sivaprasad Velayudhan ( right) and his team
Here are some of the tweets about the new Tamil film Urumeen “URUMEEN 5 mins sequence features,
India’s first film using 3D portion using open source software and motion capture” “The 1st few mins of #Urumeen r goin to b unlike anythin u’v seen b4! Motion Capture 3D by TN technicians! Watch out!”
Sivaprasad Velayudhan
So, animation artist Sivaprasad Velayudhan and his team at Realworks Studios in Coimbatore have reasons to be thrilled.
“We have done the motion capture sequence in an entirely frugal method with free tools that are available online,” says Sivaprasad.
War
The introductory war sequence in the film that takes place in the pre-independent era has been captured virtually.
“Filmmakers get such work done in studios abroad. We have used the motion sensor hardware that is used in gaming and other open source tools to create the 3D portion. The film’s director Sakthivel Perumalsamy is happy with the outcome,” he says.
Urumeen features actors Bobby Simha and Kalaiarasan and has two parallel stories, one set inside a forest and another in an urban background.
It releases today.
Sivaprasad who left his IT career to start this venture says Coimbatore should become the film hub it once used to be.
“In the South, movies started from Coimbatore. Why can’t we bring those glorious days back? The city is buzzing with so many short film directors and film makers . I want to tell film makers, instead of going abroad for animation work, come to Coimbatore,” he says.
His 13-member team operates out of a studio that is based on Linux, which is free.
“I don’t invest on software and workflow. We use free tools like blender and gimp. This way we cut cost and offer work at a fraction of industry standards,” he says.
Next project
His team is currently working on director Ramprakash’s film Pokkiri Raja that features actors Jeeva and Hansika.
Recently, Sivaprasad was in the news when he made a trailer of Ranadheeran , modelled on Rajinikanth’s Kochadaiiyaan , to prove the possibilities of open source software.
“We got 1.4 lakh views in one month. Soundarya Rajnikanth, who directed Kochadaiiyaan , tweeted about our work. It was an in-house experiment. We spent 10 weeks to make the four-minute trailer. It’s an experiment to let the filmmakers know the immense possibilities of virtual production with open source software.”
He says it’s time filmmakers start thinking out of the studios.
“You don’t have to shoot everything in a studio. With films like Baahubali , things are already happening. While visual effects are used to show explosions, car stunts, and action sequences… 3D visualisation is a virtual production. English movie TinTin was entirely virtual,” says Sivaprasad.
Advantage
Talking about the advantages of a digital platform, he says:
“There is an option of undo. And in 3D you see things from all angles. Though I started drawing from an age of four, I made a transition to the digital platform for efficiency. My family has been very supportive. Also my team, who have explored and experimented with me.”
Sivaprasad says the virtual production helps filmmakers explore genres like science fiction.
“I can replicate 1000 pillars, a war sequence, a 3,000 ft waterfall or 10,000 warriors fighting a battle…but the same can’t be said about human emotions. We are working on it. Whatever we do, there is no way you can replicate a Rajinikanth, virtually.”
Visit: www. realworks.in
https://www.youtube.
com/channel/
UCDVbaz6fqec7c-
DH8_nbFog
It’s an experiment to let the filmmakers know the immense possibilities of virtual production with open source software
source: http://www.thehindu.com / The Hindu / Home> National> Tamil Nadu / K. Jeshi / December 04th, 2015
Internet giants Google and Facebook have stepped in with technical aid for relief work in Chennai. Facebook has activated its “safety check” feature through which people can broadcast to their Facebook friends that they are safe with a single click. Google, on the other hand, has compiled all the crowdsourced material available online on the crisis response page. Meanwhile, small efforts by scattered individuals to bring food, candles, even power banks to the stranded, continued in the marooned city.
The Google Crisis Response page for “South India Flooding” has compiled publicly available links with help on food and shelter resources, and emergency phone numbers. Scattered online information in the form of tweets, google documents floated by rescue volunteers, and news reports are all compiled on a single location.
Facebook switched on its Chennai Flooding safety check featureat around 07.30 am on Thursday. At the time of going to press, data on the number of people who had used it was not yet available.
Besides the one-click safety check, there were several SOS calls on Facebook as well. One Kokila Palaniappan sought help contacting her family in Chennai. Saying that about 10 members of her family were stuck and unreachable, she provided an address and wrote in a public post: “They don’t have any food and most of them are sugar or heart patient. Have been trying for rescue boat for the past 12 hours and in vain. Also they don’t have much charge in their cell phones. So it is getting difficult to reach them. Any help extended would be greatly appreciated.” The post received over 3,000 shares.
By Thursday evening, a less than hopeful response came on the thread: “hi koki, went and searched ur house for 4 hrs today.. We went in boats with food and cried their names, no one responded. There’s 15 ft water in that street and it is impossible to recognise ur house from those photos,” wrote one Ashwin Badri.
Surprisingly, #chennairains not only lost its top spot from the national Twitter trends list on Thursday evening, but vanished from the list all together.
Even the city-specific trends for Chennai the tag, or one even related to the deluge, like #ChennaiFlood was nowhere on the list. However, volunteers, rescuers, and those in need of help continued to tweet their locations and the materials they required or could provide.
Angels of Change, a first-of-its-kind coffee table book showcasing the achievements of women in the field of education in Coimbatore, an initiative of The Times of India, was launched by the University Grants Commission vice-chairman H Devaraj at a function here on Wednesday.
The book profiles 15 women educationists from the city who have dedicated their lives to selflessly serve the academic world. All the personalities featured in the book have had strong social and personal reasons to start a school or a college in the city.
Devaraj unveiled the first copy of the book and felicitated the women featured in it. A citation and a copy of the book were given to each of the outstanding contributors to education.
Congratulating all the women achievers, he said, “I am happy to launch this book that showcases the legacy of school and higher education in the city. I will take back messages from the book to frame policies on women empowerment.”
He praised the women for taking forward the legacy of serving the society for which Coimbatore is known.
President of Indian Chamber of Commerce, D Nandhakumar, also congratulated the women for their untiring service to the society and Coimbatore.
He recalled the contribution of women in improving education in the city, and cited the role of the Indian Chamber of Commerce for the betterment of the society through education.
Corporation commissioner Dr K Vijayakarthikeyan also congratulated the women achievers and The Times of India.
source: http://www.timesofindia.indiatimes.com / The Times of India / News Home> City> Coimbatore / TNN / November 26th, 2015
N Hemamalini, with her father Neelakandan, who is a farmer in Odugathur, talking to District Sports Officer Nagaraj on Monday | S Dinesh | EPS
Vellore :
The not-yet-16-year-old N Hemamalini of Odugathur Government Girls Higher Secondary School, the daughter of a farmer from Madiyapattu village in Vellore district in the recently concluded 31st national level junior athletic meet held in Ranchi in Jharkhand, threw the javelin for a distance of 39.69 metres in the under-16-year category. It bettered the previous national level record by 0.60 metres.
She also won gold medals and achieved the distinction of being the record holder in the Junior State (Open) held in Kumbakonam in July 2015 when she threw the javelin to a record distance of 40.98 meter. Earlier, she set the record in the 26th South India Athletic Championship by throwing the javelin for a distance of 38.05 metres. She has won gold medals in state level school meets, state level junior open meets and the regional level CM Trophy.
“I have been practicing hard for two to three hours a day for the last three years. Even during school holidays, I use to train,” said Hemamalini, who is studying in class XI.
Hemamalini has been improving her ability to better her performance in every meet and she even outdid seniors in the recently held CM Trophy, in which she won silver medal and a cash prize of `75,000.
Since January 2014, she won eight gold medals and three silver medals, said her school Physical Education Teacher and mentor V Krishnamoorthy.
“She has the potential to win medals for the country at the international level athletic meets,” said the teacher, who has been training her for the last three years.
The teacher, in fact, arranged an air ticket for the young athlete from Bangalore to Ranchi to attend the national level meet during the third week of November in Ranchi after the trains were cancelled due to rain.
She is the pride for her father Neelakandan.
source: http://www.newindianexpress.com / The New Indian Express / Home> States> Tamil Nadu / by J. Shanmuga Sundaram / ENS / December 01st, 2015
Abhinaya Rangarajan’s Facebook page, ‘The Artist Project’, is a tribute to the Indian craftsman
She is 23, but Abhinaya Rangarajan has her life sorted. While she is an architect during the day, by dusk, she is a busy entrepreneur. The Artist Project, a Facebook page started by her in July, is getting “overwhelming responses”.
The page that is followed by around 5,500 people, features an artist/artisan from across India every two weeks, and promotes his or her products.
“If you are buying a handmade product, you might as well care to know the hands that made it. After all, the product is a cumulative result of all the skills that the person possesses,” she says, taking just a second’s glimpse at her cell phone that beeps occasionally. “Ever since I started the page, messages have been pouring in — orders, enquiries and requests to be featured. I did not see it becoming such a hit. I get around five to six orders a day, am still coping with the success,” she says.
Abhinaya notes all the orders, and at the end of the week, passes them on to the artisans, who either courier it to the address of the customers themselves or send it to her.
“While I used to handle everything myself, with increasing orders, I now have an intern working for me; a final-year college student,” she says. A no-profit venture, Abhinaya runs it for the sheer pleasure of helping encourage the craftsmen/artisans (she refers to them as artists), and to provide a platform for those who either do not have access to market benefits.
Each post on the Facebook page has a brief description about the artist’s background, besides high resolution photos of their products. Till date, seven artists have been unveiled on the page — Auroville-based shoemaker Rajasekaran who runs ‘Aasai footwear’; an alumni of Vidya Sagar, Swaminathan who weaves mats and sells them in his boutique; Nimisha Zachariah who specialises in textile jewellery; Amrita Giriraj, a visual arts graduate from Stella Maris, who makes accessories from shells; award-winning leather puppet makers D. Venkatramana and K. Ramdas from Andhra Pradesh; and Karishma who makes home decor using bangles.
“The artists featured by us are happy. For example, the puppet makers were almost out of business. They were hosting workshops for a living, which hardly helped them meet their needs. Now, they get orders for their products, and make money,” says Abhinaya. “And Karishma, who had started making bangle decor as a means to pass time while she was pregnant, has now taken it on as a full-time project,” she adds.
It all began when Abhinaya, who graduated in Architecture from SRM University two months ago, was interning in Bangalore. “Since there was not much work, I would pack my bags and head to the outskirts every weekend. It was one one of those trips that I came across the wooden-toy makers of Channapatna. There were a line of stalls, all selling the same products,” she says.
And from her conversations with the artisans, she realised that they did not know how popular their toys were all across the world, and were definitely not getting the due for the amount of effort and time they put in.
Besides her steely resolve to give the artists a bigger audience, Abhinaya, who is planning to pursue a Masters in Product Design, says her interest was piqued also by the urge to know more about the creative products. “Also, I was a DIY kid myself. Be it birthday parties or get-togethers, I wanted to make my own earrings and hats. So this was expected,” she says with a child-like laugh.
For details, look up The Artist Project page on Facebook.
source: http://www.thehindu.com / The Hindu / Home> Features> MetroPlus / by Naveena Vijayan / Chennai – November 30th, 2015
