Monthly Archives: March 2018

The holy men of Varanasi through a lens

Arts, Culture & Entertainment
Radhakrishna Ganeshan
Radhakrishna Ganeshan

Photo exhibition highlights the life and practices of the sadhus living in the oldest city of the country

For three generations, Radhakrishna Ganeshan’s family, after moving from Tirunelveli, has lived in the holy city of Varanasi. Pursuing his passion for art and music, he graduated from the Banaras Hindu University in Applied Arts from the Faculty of Visual Arts in 1984 and later completed Masters degree in 1986.

Holding several diplomas in disciplines including painting, music, interior decoration, photography and computer designing from the oldest city, Mr. Ganeshan brings to the former French enclave the share of his world through ‘Sadhus of Banaras – Hidden Discovery of the City,’ a photo exhibition at Aurobindo Ashram Gallery on the beach road.

Growing up on the banks of Ganga river in Varanasi, which he calls ‘the city of subjects’, Mr. Ganeshan would be out every Sunday before dawn with his camera, walking through the lanes across 84 ghats in Varanasi to document the lives of sadhus. “In all these ghats, there are different sadhus. Their personalities, practices differ from each other and I am concerned that this heritage would be lost in the fast urbanisation of Varanasi. With industrialisation and tourism attracting thousands, I felt the need to preserve this heritage through photographs,” he says.

This exhibition is the first of his thematic exhibitions where he has tried to capture different moods of the sadhus whose lives are always shrouded in mystery and represents a world of detachment.

The exhibition gives a closer look at the mundane activities of sadhus, capturing the differences in their practices, identifying every sadhu including an aghori, a sanyasi marvadi, a shaiva sadhu, a vaishnava sadhu or a young sadhu with their uniqueness.

There are more than 60 portraits and photographs of sadhus at the photo exhibition organised by the Indira Gandhi National Centre for Arts. The exhibition will be held for a week beginning from March 5.

source: http://www.thehindu.com / The Hindu / Home> News> Cities> Puducherry / by S. Senthalir / Puducherry – March 07th, 2018

This musical innovation plays Indian classical and Western music at the same time

Amazing Feats, Arts, Culture & Entertainment, Records, All

VishnuCF05mar2018

Twenty-one-year-old guitarist Vishnu on his latest musical innovation that plays Indian classical and harmonic Western music at the same time

“Let me play something for you,” says Vishnu R, as he picks up his latest ‘innovation’, that he’s carefully placed nearby, and proceeds to deliver a neat rendition in Reetigowla raga.

The notes linger, the gamakas sound profound. He’s playing it in an instrument that he can truly call his own. He calls it the Navtar (“it’s been trademarked and is awaiting patent”) and believes that it allows him to play the best of microtonal Indian classical and harmonic Western music at the same time.

The prototype

The seed of this thought was planted in his mind three years back, when he got an opportunity to do a prototype — while working with guitar maker Erisa Neogy, who lives in Auroville. “I got an electric guitar made from him, in which he took the frets off,” he recalls, “The sound was quite different.”

It was at that point that he was travelling around and playing contemporary world music with an Indian classical outlook with Vishnu R Collective, his band. “At that stage, I had to travel with both guitars to play my music.”

One such day, when he was thinking about the direction in which his music was headed, Vishnu’s Eureka moment happened. “I wanted one instrument that could do it all, that could give me the best of both worlds.”

And so, he got in touch with his guitar maker again, and bounced off this idea. “He thought it was crazy,” laughs Vishnu, “But he was willing to work on it.” Together, they worked on ideas for this new instrument, drawing from what modern-day guitarists were up to across the globe. They added three strings. They extended the fretboard, making it look like a fan. “That way, each string gets its space to give its optimum sound.”

First song

Soon, he had a brand new hybrid fret and fretless instrument on hand, which he later named the Navtar. The first song he played in it was ‘Moksha’ — his own composition that draws from Carnatic and Western harmonic elements.

It took him time to get his head around it. But it helped that the feedback from his musician friends was overwhelmingly positive. “Everyone, especially from the Carnatic community, feels that it has a pathbreaking sound,” says Vishnu, whose parents TV Ramprasadh and Indira Kadambi are established names in the classical music and dance circuit respectively.

Vishnu has been associated with the film industry too — but it has been selective. He’s worked on films, including Sonna Puriyadhu and Maan Karate, and more recently, with singers Srinivas, Karthik on a concept celebrating 25 years of AR Rahman. Does he plan to unleash his innovation on filmdom? “If it has a place in the industry, why not,” asks the 21-year-old, who also plays the kanjira.

Navtar: Vishnu’s latest ‘innovation’

 

 

 

source: http://www.thehindu.com / The Hindu / Home> Entertainment> Music / by Srinivasa Ramanujum / March 05th, 2018

Supercapacitor built from discarded lithium ion batteries

Records, All, Science & Technologies
Efficiency: Lithium-ion batteries used widely are disposed, leading to mounting e-waste. Our method helps reuse these, says Subrata Kundu (right).
Efficiency: Lithium-ion batteries used widely are disposed, leading to mounting e-waste. Our method helps reuse these, says Subrata Kundu (right).

Graphene oxide from old batteries was used

Used old batteries can now help create supercapacitors, which can in turn create better long-lasting batteries.

Scientists from CSIR–Central Electrochemical Research Institute (CSIR-CECRI) in Karaikudi, Tamilnadu, and CSIR–Central Salt and Marine Chemicals Research Institute (CSIR-CSMCRI) in Bhavnagar, Gujarat, collected discarded lithium-ion batteries and created reduced graphene oxide from them. This new material showed high specific capacity at low current making it an ideal material for next generation high-performance supercapacitor.

“The specific capacity was found to be 112 farad per gram from fundamental evaluation, which is almost equal to the commercially available ones. Also the ones available in market today are created using activated carbon which is expensive and environmentally hazardous while our method is cheaper and fully environmental friendly” explains by Sivasankara Rao Ede, Ph.D scholar from CSIR-CECRI and one of the first authors of the paper published in Colloids and Surfaces A: Physicochemical and Engineering Aspects.

The new electrodes made using the reduced graphene oxide showed high stability even after 20,000 cycles. They also had high retention capacity where 70% of the efficiency was retained even after 85 cycles. The efficiency slowly increased and reached 108% after 20,000 cycles. The long-term stability and robustness of the capacitor are the key parameters for qualifying as suitable candidates for commercial application.

“Today lithium-ion batteries are used widely and disposed after they run out, leading to mounting e-waste. We tried a new method and succeeded in recycling and reusing these batteries,” says Dr Subrata Kundu, from CSIR-CECRI and one of the corresponding authors.

The graphite anode and aluminium and stainless steel from dismantled batteries were used. The graphite was converted into graphene oxide by oxidation and subsequent exfoliation. Graphene oxide was further reduced to reduced graphene oxide.

Supercapacitors are now being used explicitly in wind turbine pitch control, rail (on-board or wayside), automotive (including hybrid vehicles), heavy industrial equipment, UPS and Telecom systems for power delivery and memory backup. “We are further evaluating the capacitive nature of our prepared electrode in two electrode system and hope to bring it out soon for large scale commercial applications,” says H. C. Bajaj, emeritus scientist at CSIR-CSMCRI and the other corresponding author.

source: http://www.thehindu.com / The Hindu / Home> Science / by Aswathi Pacha / March 03rd, 2018

A glimpse of Chennai’s essence at Chintadripet MRTS station

Arts, Culture & Entertainment, Records, All
Exciting canvas: A student at the Hometown photography exhibition at Chinthadripet station on Thursday.
Exciting canvas: A student at the Hometown photography exhibition at Chinthadripet station on Thursday.

Amateur photographers capture what they love about city

Commuters rushing up and down the long staircases of the Chintadripet MRTS station stopped by for a few minutes to gaze at the walls. For, colourful photographs adorned the usually boring and stained walls of the station.

A team of nine aspiring and amateur photographers who were trained at a photography workshop showcased their works that reflected the city’s varied flavours at the railway station.

Organised by Ueberall, an online photography platform, Chennai Photo Biennale Foundation (CPB) and Goethe Institut, ‘Hometown’, the photography exhibition speaks volumes of the photographers’ connect with Chennai and the vibrant nature of the city.

While the kitchens of Chennai fascinated Vivek Mariappan, who tried to capture the personality of people through them, bright sunlight excited Varsha Narayanan, who was away in London with gloomy weather for sometime.

Her photograph series showed hues of sunlight falling beautifully on various corners of her apartment.

Every photographer had attempted to present themes that affected or touched them be it their memories of the city, migrant workers, threat of encroachment or the relationship between horses and their caretakers at Guindy race course, and affection shared by elderly persons.

Mallika Rajkumar who had a brief stint as a wedding photographer was fascinated by Bharatanatyam dancers.

‘Classic, timeless’

“I wanted to bring out the classic and timeless nature of dance, and Triplicane through black and white portrait of dancers who learn art form at Saraswathi Gana Nilayam that was started in 1939,” she said.

These photographers were trained by Berlin-based photographers — Yana Wernicke and Jonas Feige — who aim to gather essence of the cities from around the world as seen through the eyes of local photographers.

Gayathri Nair, founding trustee of CPB, said, “We wanted to promote photography as an art form in the city that has imbibed music and dance in its culture. We encouraged photographers to look into their homes and neighbourhood for good pictures. The Southern Railway has always been supportive in hosting such events in public space.”

The exhibition will be on till March 17.

source: http://www.thehindu.com / The Hindu / Home> News> Cities> Chennai / by Special Correspondent / Chennai – March 02nd, 2018