Twenty-seven-year-old M.K. Hema Chandran lifts gym plates weighing 22.5 kg using his nails.
Every fifth record in the India Book of Records is from the State
Twenty-seven-year-old M.K. Hema Chandran, a juggler by profession, is obsessed with setting records. Six months ago, he lifted gym plates weighing 22.5 kg using his nails. “I grew my nails for seven months and then made a hole in them. I then inserted a nylon rope with which I lifted the plates,” he said. He now holds a record for the heaviest weight lifted using a fingernail.
Last year, Lokesh Jey, CEO of The Sight Media, put out a Facebook post saying that he was recuriting meme engineers. In a week’s time, his inbox was flooded with over 400 resumes. “I received so many meme samples from arcoss India. That’s when I decided to bring all the meme creators together and attempt a record,” he said. The online meme marathon saw over 21,619 memes created in three hours — a record.
Far from being stray instances, Hema Chandran and Jey are part of a growing band of record-setters. In fact, Tamil Nadu is a leader when it comes to records. “It is the leading state in terms of record holders. We receive the most number of applications from there and they make it to the record book too,” said Biswaroop Roy Chowdhury, chief editor of the India Book of Records.
He explained by stating that every fifth record is from Tamil Nadu. At an all-India level, every year close to 10,000 record attempts are made and approximately 1,000 make it to the record book.
Vivek Raja, adjudicator and state head (Tamil Nadu and Kerala), India Book of Records, said that in the last two years a lot of youngsters were aggressively attempting to set records in various fields.
For instance, the Centre for Innovation at IIT-Madras organised an event wherein a team of students fabricated 45 manually controlled floor cleaning robots. In March 2017, the Bannari Amman Institute of Technology organised one where 1,023 Android apps were developed in 12 hours. Both were recorded in the book. Several records have been set across Tamil Nadu in Bharatanatyam. Dancers set records for things like the most mudras performed by an individual in the least time.
According to the India Book of Records, the average age of the record holders is between 25 and 30 years. “Nowadays more women are creating records and smashing earlier ones. They comprise 33-37% of all record holders,” said Mr. Raja.
He added that even government organisations were getting creative and attempting to set records. In December 2017, the Handicrafts Marketing and Service Extension Centre, Salem, which falls under the Ministry of Textiles, Government of India, crafted a 107x45x2 cm replica of a ₹1,000 note.
Fake records
Both Mr. Raja and Mr. Chowdhury cautioned people attempting to set records to go through the right channel, and stay away from fake organisations. “On average we receive 10 to 12 complaints every month. It seems there is a dire need of a regulatory body in India to regularize the norms and prevent fake record books,” Mr. Chowdhury said.
One of the projects taken up by the Triple O Studio
Any mention of Chennai’s architectural marvels instantly brings to mind large, red public structures built in the Indo-Saracenic architectural style. But, there is more to the city’s architectural history in its residential areas.
Madras Inherited, an initiative of a group of architects and volunteers, aims to unravel these hidden architectural gems through heritage walks and document the fast disappearing residential structures in the city.
Spearheaded by Triple O Studio, an architectural firm, Madras Inherited will focus on small residential buildings across the city that have gone unnoticed unlike public heritage structures. While Chennai has some of the finest Indo-Saracenic structures, it is also a confluence of many intriguing architectural styles that the group will research and map through a series of walks.
Tahaer Zoyab, architect and co-founder of Madras Inherited, said a project to document the old houses of Mylapore came as an eye-opener to the vanishing heritage in the city. “The character of the interior lanes is fast changing and we wanted to share the stories with people before residential buildings disappear and also document the rich legacy,” he said.
The team has so far documented architectural designs of about 50 houses in Mylapore. “We have traces of Neoclassical, Gothic and Art Deco styles in structures across the city. We can still find traditional vernacular architecture in some of the Agraharam houses of Mylapore, Tiruvanmiyur and Triplicane,” he said.
Classic example
George Town, one of the older settlements in the city, presents a classic example of a confluence of different styles. Dare House in Parrys Corner, for instance, is designed in the Art Deco style in which there is an emphasis on vertical lines and the distinct design of a ‘sunburst jaali’ for ventilation, Mr. Zoyab pointed out.
Such intricate details imbibed in residential and private building architecture will be documented and shared with heritage enthusiasts in the city. Madras Inherited will focus on cultural tourism and heritage education and management through a series of interactive events like photo walks in historical areas. The initiative will be launched on June 16 with a walk through the lanes of Royapettah, where participants will get to decode the architectural history of the area. The walk that starts at 6.30 a.m. will cost adults Rs. 700 and students Rs. 450. Participants get to take home a bag of custom-made souvenirs, ranging from coasters to bookmarks.
The locality has a range of styles from Agraharam houses, traces of Gothic design and Islamic-style houses. The proceeds from these walks will be used to fund the mapping and documentation of city’s heritage structures. There are plans to expand to areas like Periamet, Vepery and George Town after September. For details on the walk, send an e-mail to mail@madrasinherited.in or contact +91-8939135048.
source: http://www.thehindu.com / The Hindu / Home> News> States> Tamil Nadu / by K. Lakshmi / Chennai – June 15th, 2018
Two chefs set up the highest altitude pop-up restaurant in the world
Chennai-based Soundararajan P, Corporate Executive Chef at Mahindra Resorts and Holidays, India, and Sanjay Thakur, Chef at Etihad Airways, called their mission Project Triyagyoni (which translates to organic Nature in Sanskrit)and it was was certified by Guinness World Records as the world’s highest pop-up restaurant at 5,585 metres, the first record of its kind. Set up on May 30, the pop-up was certified by the Guinness authorities on June 2. An aerial survey was done by the representatives of the Guinness World Records to assess the pop-up and its height.
“Sanjay Thakur, had already done an 80-kilometre trek up the Himalayas, and when we met at one of the Club Mahindra Resorts at Naldehra in Shimla, we took Thakur’s idea of cooking on the highest altitude on earth a step further, and Project Triyagyoni came into being,” says Soundararajan.
The pop-up was set up at Imja Tse (popularly known as Island Peak), tucked away up the Chukkung valley, flanked by the stupendous Lhotse/Nuptse South Wall to the north and Baruntse to the south, making it seem like an actual island amid the gigantic mountains. At a temperature between three and five degrees centigrade, it took the team all of eight hours to set up, and three hours to cook. The meal was served to trekkers who were scaling the Himalayas to get to Imja Tse and the higher peaks.
They reached there after a choppy and nerve-racking helicopter flight from Lukla to Kathmandu, before proceeding to climb. The chefs and their team of seven foraged the scattered Himalayan flora and fauna on their way to their destination to supplement what they had bought at Namche Bazaar, a small town in Solukhumbu district. They collected mint, oregano, small green chillies, green onions, yak cheese and Rhododendron flowers amongst other things. The fresh unadulterated ingredients heightened their experience of cooking in the Himalayas. The team ensured that it was a zero-trash project, and kept the meal, the cooking, the dining area and even the furniture eco-friendly and left nothing behind on the mountains.
Their menu included traditional Indian recipes as well as dishes borrowed from Nepalese cuisine. “We cooked a total of seven dishes, including shisno mousse with mushrooms that we had foraged locally, and basa fish with wild spinach,” says Soundararajan. They also made daal bhat arancini stuffed with nak cheese, which is made from yak’s milk. The cheese is pressed to get rid of the water and then dried over a wood fire which gives it its smoky taste. The dish is served with herbal lemon tea. And on the menu for dessert was yak milk panna cotta.
Soundararajan says he worked hard on his physical fitness before the mission. He had been practising pranayama, and also began to walk 10 kilometres a day. The pranayama helped him with his breathing in the high altitude.
Even so, he says he doesn’t clearly remember a lot of the trip, as people get forgetful, thanks to the drop in oxygen supply to the brain. It also made the cooking process more challenging: the food took longer than usual to cook.
Nepalese lore has it, that sometime in the 90s, there was once a famished Australian, by the name of James Scott, who had to wait for 43 days — lost in the Nepalese Himalayas — to be found and fed. Wouldn’t stumbling upon a pop-up like this have been heavenly for the poor man?
source: http://www.thehindu.com / The Hindu / Home> Life & Style> Travel / by Rajashree Das / June 13th, 2018
The work by a French engineer explains mechanical concepts vividly
The mention of ‘pop-up books’ often has one conjure up images of three-dimensional colourful pictures popping up out of children’s classics when opened.
A French book published nearly 105 years ago had used the technique to graphically explain mechanical and electrical concepts for students.
With over 2,500 illustrations hidden in layers, the book, which now needs careful handling, depicts complex concepts of machines through its movable layers.
‘Grande Encyclopedie Pratique-de Mecanique et d’Electricite’, which translates into a comprehensive guide to mechanical and electrical machinery in English, was authored by Henri Desarces, a French engineer.
The book belongs to Gayathree Krishna, a Chennai resident.
“My father, C.R.Narayanan, who was a mechanical engineer, bought the book in Puducherry that was a French colony in 1950s. I discovered it in our parental house in Puducherry recently and was fascinated that a pop-up book was published a century ago.”
She handed it over to historian K.R.A.Narasiah to be preserved for posterity.
Heritage value
Mr. Narasiah, who is also a mechanical engineer, said: “This book helps readers unravel the mysteries of machines that were relatively new then through its movable layers. Nearly 14 engineers assisted the author in publishing the book in 1913 in Paris.”
Mr. Narasiah said: “SS France, a ship that sailed a century ago, has been depicted intricately — from its exterior, cabin design, passenger spaces to boiler rooms to machinery spaces.
“There are a total of 25 plates in the book. Some of the other fascinating illustrations include an antique rotary dial telephone, Bleriot aircraft, steam turbine engine, motor cars, locomotive engine, balloon airship and submarine.
The book used different printing techniques, such as halftone, blueprints and chromolithographs, as early as 1913. A copy of the book was recently auctioned in London for $586 by Christie’s.
source: http://www.thehindu.com / The Hindu / Home> News> Cities> Chennai / by K. Lakshmi / Chennai – June 09th, 2018
An Ironman Triathlon is an extreme form of the Triathalon and consists of a 3.86-km swim, a 180-km bicycle ride and a 42.2-km marathon run, raced in that order and without a break. I
It was a warm evening in Port Elizabeth, South Africa; the sun had just begun to sink over the horizon. Raghul Sankaranarayanan vaguely remembers the crowds lined up across the last kilometre cheering the weary contestants on. What’s clearly etched in his mind is the pain — the pain from having swum 3.8 kms, cycled 180 kms and run 42.2 kms without a break in the last 11 hours.
With each thud of his shoes on the asphalt, he felt an electric pain shoot up from his ankles to his knees. There was a spasm on his right hamstring, which was close to locking up. He crossed the finish line and looked at his watch: it read 10 hours, 56 minutes and 59 seconds.
Raghul was speechless. He had just broken the Indian record of 11 hours and 3 minutes jointly held by Kaustabh Radkar and Akshay Samel. He was now officially the fastest Indian Ironman.
An Ironman Triathlon is an extreme form of the Triathalon and consists of a 3.86-km swim, a 180-km bicycle ride and a 42.2-km marathon run, raced in that order and without a break. It is widely considered one of the most gruelling one-day sporting events in the world, with a limited time of 17 hours to complete the race.
Sankaranarayanan recalls that day — April 15 — at Port Elizabeth. He says, “Everything started off badly that morning. The ocean was a bit choppy and I exceeded my goal by 2 mins, which for a swimming leg is quite a lot. To make matters worse, the aerobar on my bike broke loose at around 20 kms.”
“The aero bar is where the cyclist leans and places his elbow on, and this position helps cut wind resistance,” Sankaranarayanan explains, “I had to ride the remaining 160 kms in more of an upright position, causing me to slow down a bit and also causing my right hamstring to become a bit sore.”
“As I got off my bike at the 180-km mark, my right hamstring cramped up and the organisers had to carry me off to the side. I sat on the side of the road for a couple of minutes, wondering whether to continue or not. I still had a full marathon to run. But thankfully, after walking for a couple of kilometres, the hamstring eased up and I was able to start running at my normal pace,” he says.
The accidental athlete
Sankaranarayanan was not a born athlete. He played no sport in school and his first exposure to exercise was when he was doing marine engineering in Pune, where it was compulsory for the students to go for a 3-km run every morning. After moving to Chennai for his job, Sankaranarayanan started trekking with the Chennai Trekking Club on weekends in the hills and forest areas of Tamil Nadu and nearby states like Andhra Pradesh, Karnataka and Kerala. In March 2012, the club organised a mini triathlon, which consisted of a 750-metre swim, a 20-km cycle ride and a 5-km run. Though he struggled to finish the race, he was buoyed by it. He started training seriously, taking part in triathlons organised by the club, including a half Ironman in August 2012.
He participated in his first official Ironman in Malaysia in 2014. After completing the race in 15 hours, he was officially recognised as an ‘Ironman’ for the first time.
Sankaranarayanan says his plan for the future is to continue participating in triathlons across the world for the next 10 years. What drives him to push his body to the limit? “I’ve discovered that it’s in pushing myself beyond my comfort zone that I learn more about myself. When people talk of Ironman, they associate it with the body being as strong as iron,” he says, “But what it means to me is the strength that comes from overcoming the things I thought I couldn’t. Endurance training has taught me that true strength is not the iron of the body, but the iron within.”
source: http://www.thehindu.com / The Hindu / Home> Life & Style> Fitness / by Reji Varghese / June 11th, 2018
Sunil Chhetri, Manohar Bhat (Head – sales & marketing, Kia Motors India), Nathania John K., and Rishi Tej.
Ten-year-old Rishi Tej of Karnataka and 11-year-old Nathania John K. of Tamil Nadu will be two of the Official Match Ball Carriers (OMBC) at the upcoming FIFA World Cup in Russia.
One of them will carry the match ball during the Belgium vs Panama game while the other will get a chance to get onto the pitch before the Brazil vs Costa Rica match.
India captain Sunil Chhetri conducted the trials — as part of the Kia Official Match Ball Carrier (OMBC) programme — in Gurugram last month.
As many as 1600 children participated in the programme, with 50 short-listed for the final selections.
source: http://www.thehindu.com / The Hindu / Home> Sport> Football / by PTI / New Delhi – June 11th, 2018
The Daibutsu in Tōdai-ji , the world’s largest bronze statue of Buddha. | Photo Credit: Getty Images/ iStock
The oldest recorded Indian in Japan impacts the country’s culture even today
The Indian diaspora in Japanhas historically been small, but has encompassed a colourful cast, from revolutionaries to textile traders. The oldest documented Indian resident in Japan, and arguably the most influential, was Bodhisena, a monk from Madurai whose outsized impact on Japanese culture persists even some 1,300 years after he docked on the archipelago’s shores.
Bodhisena, or Bodaisenna as his name is pronounced in Japanese, was born around 704 AD. His life and journeys exemplify the multi-directional flows of Buddhist influence and the complex ways in which these tied swathes of Asia into a civilisational embrace. Like many South Asian Buddhist monks, Bodhisena came to believe that Manjushri (the bodhisattva of wisdom) lived on the Chinese mountain of Wutai, and therefore travelled there to pay obeisance. While in China, he met the Japanese ambassador to the Tang court, who persuaded him to carry on to Japan on the invitation of the then Emperor, Shomu (701-756 AD), a devout Buddhist.
Influence of Sanskrit
Bodhisena voyaged to Japan via Cambodia and Champa (central and southern Vietnam) with a gaggle of theological glitterati that collectively shaped much of the contours of Japanese Buddhism and courtly culture.
On board was Genbo, a bureaucrat of Emperor Shomu’s court at Nara, who had spent 17 years in China collecting over 5,000 Buddhist texts. Another shipmate, Kibi no Makibi, is linked to the development of the Japanese syllabary and script of katakana, still in use today. The influence of Sanskrit on katakana is sometimes attributed to the time Makibi spent travelling with, and learning from, Bodhisena. Makibi also introduced to Japan the art of Chinese embroidery, as well as the lyre, which as the koto, became a standard feature of Japanese court music.
The Indian themes
A disciple of Bodhisena from Champa, Buttetsu, rounded off the band of monastic travellers. Buttetsu went on to teach a style of dance that featured themes taken from Indian mythology, set to a musical rhythm, common in South Asia, but unknown at the time in Japan. These dances became known as rinyugaku and were absorbed into the local artistic oeuvre.
Bodhisena’s ship docked at Osaka in 736 AD and the group made their way to the capital: Nara. It was during the Nara era (710-784 AD) that Buddhism, buttressed by learnings from Tang dynasty China, became firmly established in Japan, overcoming initial resistance from the Shinto-devoted elite. Under Emperor Shomu Buddhism was granted official recognition as a religion that was a “protector of the state.” Temples in Nara began to accumulate vast landholdings and wielded huge political influence.
The Kegon school
Bodhisena’s arrival in the capital took place within this context. Until then, Japan’s knowledge of Buddhism had been entirely mediated through either Korea or Japan. As an Indian, Bodhisena was immediately held in reverence and housed at Daian-ji temple, the preeminent education and research institute for Buddhism at the time. The Indian monk taught Sanskrit and helped establish the Kegon school of Buddhism, a variant of the Chinese Huayan school. He died in 760 AD and is buried in Ryusenji-temple on the slopes of Mt. Omine.
The Tōdai-ji temple | Photo Credit: Wiki Commons
Unlike some historical Buddhist sects, the Kegon continues to flourish today, with its headquarters at Nara’s Tōdai-ji temple, a Unesco World Heritage site. Founded in 738 AD and officially opened in 752 AD, Tōdai-ji is best known for its 500-tonne, 15-metre-high Buddha — the largest bronze statue in the world.
The gargantuan sculpture, known as the Daibutsu, was commissioned by the Emperor in hope of gaining divine favour and thereby reversing the effects of a devastating drought, compounded by an outbreak of smallpox that had ravaged the area in 737AD.
The hall that houses the Daibutsu is one of the world’s largest wooden structures. It is Nara’s most popular tourist draw and is thronged with visitors from around the world. After gawping at the Daibutsu, they usually head to a hole in one of the pillars that holds up the edifice. According to legend, the hole is the exact size of one of the Buddha statue’s nostrils and anyone who crawls through it will gain enlightenment, albeit in their next life. No one seems to know the exact dimensions of the hole/ nostril, but it is large enough for a child to tunnel through with relative ease. A number of adult Chinese tourists attempt to pass, but all get stuck at the hip.
To one side of the main temple are the living quarters of the Morimoto family, the head priests of Tōdai-ji. The lodgings comprise a series of low-roofed rooms, interconnected by covered walkways, overlooking classical Japanese gardens, dotted with pine trees and rockeries. Seated in a reception area facing a late-blooming, weeping cherry tree, Kosei Moritomo sips from a cup of green tea. The Elder Moritomo (as he is respectfully known) has retired as the 218th head of Tōdai-ji and leader of the Kegon school of Buddhism. But he remains sprightly, his eyes lively and darting when he talks of Bodhisena, as though an old friend.
He dwells on the role of the Indian monk in the consecration ceremony of the Daibutsu. For it was Bodhisena, of all the eminent Buddhist scholars in Nara at the time, who was chosen to perform the statue’s “eye opening” ceremony. In front of a huge, cosmopolitan gathering that included ambassadors from Persia, Korea, Vietnam, China and Central Asia, Bodhisena painted the pupils on the eyes of the Buddha statue, inviting the spirit in to animate the sculpture.
“I think in India you understand about the spirit coming into the statue?” the Elder Moritomo asks. “It is a very difficult concept to explain to Westerners.” The former head priest turns reflective. He says that Japan has tried to dominate the world first by military means and then with its electronic industry. Both failed. “I believe it is in Buddhism that it can most exert an global influence,” he concludes.
Then he smiles and offers this writer another cup of tea.
The writer is a globetrotter who is currently parked in Japan.
source: http://www.thehindu.com / The Hindu / Home> Society> History & Culture / by Pallavi Aiyar / June 09th, 2018
Lekha Washington is multi-tasking — with a new Social project, installations, and a lunar-inspired artwork that she is planning to cycle with at the Burning Man festival in August
Behind the wooden doors of an ancestral property in Bandra’s quaint Ranwar village, Lekha Washington’s design space, The Upstairs Studio, is buzzing with activity. As I head to the upper storey, I find the actor-designer-entrepreneur in the middle of several works in progress. Keeping her cool in a casual-chic grey robe and strappy silver Steve Maddens, she explains that she and her team, grouped across the room, are grappling with several projects — from an upcoming test run at Bandstand, of the installation she is showcasing at this year’s Burning Man festival, to four new designs (including a moon light) for her company, Ajji. Meanwhile, Shanto, the pet cat, snoozes, curled up in one of her signature Squair chairs.
Chatting about the neighbourhood, now home for the past five years, gives me a fair idea of her easy familiarity with the people and the culture of the place. And also the fact that while Washington may not be acting at the moment, the frenetic pace of her life has not calmed in any way. “I am a dissatisfied soul. I’ll finish a great project and then feel the need to do something big in a totally different field. I need to be constantly evolving,” she says. Just this year, she teamed up with luxury vodka brand Belvedere for their artistic endeavour, Studio B — creating A drop of the universe, an artwork speckled with tiny white dots, that is at once like a disco ball apt for a launch party and an enigmatic spatial body reflective of her current style of work. She is also working on a breath installation she hopes to showcase at the Kochi Biennale (“I have not had the bandwidth to contact them yet”), and her first interior design project, Riyaaz Amlani’s soon-to-open Social in Bengaluru.
Riding in the desert
The Chennai girl, who now calls Ranwar’s hipster neighbourhood home, is no stranger to community living and alternate cultures. Washington is the only Indian artist to be given the honoraria grant for Burning Man (won after an elaborate two-step, year-long selection process) this year. Held annually in Nevada, in the middle of the Black Rock Desert, Burners (as the 70,000 attendees are known) create what the fête’s website describes as a “temporary metropolis dedicated to art and community”.
__________________
It isn’t lunacy
The moon — larger than life but universally relatable — is a recurring motif in Washington’s art. Explaining her interest, she says, “It doesn’t belong to anybody, yet belongs to all of us, and it symbolises a lot: notions of the continual cycles of things, inherent change, lunacy, etc.” Interestingly, in keeping with the concept of change, her work, This too shall pass, has also gone trough multiple iterations since she first created it (and exhibited it at a collateral at the 2014 Kochi Biennale), the final version of which will light up the sky at Burning Man between August 26 – September 3. A self-confessed geek, technology also informs much of her work. “There is so much to explore. I feel technology is the next level when it comes to art — to make it intuitive, real, and not a gimmick, that is fascinating for me.”
___________________
The designer, who is returning for a third time, describes how it is a unique art festival in terms of its non-commercial culture. In what looks like a set straight out of the post-apocalyptic world of Mad Max: Fury Road, the vibe is quite the opposite — one of freedom of expression, free love and creativity. The week-long fair sees people from the world over, living as a community, being part of this alternate shared experience.And all this while braving the extreme weather and figuring out their own means for survival. “It’s a sort of gifting culture, outside of the capitalist system we’ve all been indoctrinated with. It’s why I like it so much; it’s incredibly refreshing to engage with a new system,” she shares.
The focus, she says, is on interactive public art that holds immediacy — reflective of life’s ephemerality — in high regard. Works, often as large as 40 feet high, are set up on location, with the help of teammates and Burners. Incidentally, it was a photograph from Black Rock City — “of an installation of a series of balloons, one tied to the other, very basic in its concept” — that inspired Washington’s moon artwork. “So, for me, it’s coming full circle to show them here,” she says. Her excitement though, is tinged with anxiety. Her helium work from last year did not fare too well in the harsh climate, where the intense dust storms ended up “sandpapering” the work.
This year, she is introducing a newer iteration, This too shall pass – Moondancer— a ginormous 12-foot helium globe modelled on the moon, designed to rotate on its axis, reflecting the changing phases of the lunar cycle. While last year saw her clambering up a stationary plane to hoist her five balloons, this year the single globe will be pivoted on a tricycle that she and two others will ride around the grounds each night, while the shape-shifting ball waxes and wanes against the desert sky.
A fine balance
Washington’s work, though large scale, has a simple idea at its core. “We’ve been trying to create work that positively affects people’s lives in terms of art,” she tells me, leading the way across the wooden floorboards to a smaller room. With Theheraav, a work in progress, one needs to lie down under a sonar sensor placed within a spangle of lights, which picks up one’s micro-movements. The light bulbs grow brighter or dimmer in reaction to levels of stress or calm and, in the process, one is forced to focus on one’s breathing
Currently the centrepiece at the studio is the 18-foot Whirling Dervish, a touch sensitive art piece being readied for Amlani’s co-working space. Both the artwork and the space are designed by Washington, who strays from the norm with a clean, whitewashed look instead of the usual brick-exposed grunge feel of most Socials. It will also include several other artworks, from textile and paintings to 3D, neo-pixel and sound interactive work — the idea being that the space resembles an artist’s incomplete studio, one that is messy and alive, quite like her own. “It is set to open next week. There will be art supplies, each table will have calligraphy pens, and we will have a library of art books and local zines,” adds the designer, who is inspired by artist Salvador Dali and architect Zaha Hadid.
This would not be the first time that Washington’s personal and professional worlds collide. She believes her work, be it art or acting, revolves “around ideas and creativity”, and hence is actually all the same thing. “My work is a sort of reflection of myself”, even when the “nature of the medium” is slightly different.
Lights, camera, action
For someone who walked away from an acting career in an industry that reeks of “patriarchy and nepotism”, she has seen herself grow alongside her company. “The change for me has been much more personal. I’m very comfortable in my own skin and I now have the financial wherewithal to have a freedom of choice: I’m creating exactly what I want to create.” Her studio, she thinks, is an extension of her need to nurture creative expression of all kinds. So it hosts poetry readings, film screenings and experimental plays. “Educationally, creativity is not very nurtured. Academics is, industry is, but thinking out of the box is not. This is what I’m trying to do with this space.” Of course, the access to her space is conditional and open to only “those I like”, she mentions as an afterthought.
Washington is also making a return to cinema, and she hopes the industry post her sabbatical of half a decade is “less insular”, thanks to corporatisation and the influx of online platforms like Netflix or Amazon. This time, in addition to acting (and penning lyrics for Vishal Bhradwaj for Rangoon), she is collaborating on a script.
Taking a stand
Straddling multiple careers has proven to be quite an uphill task, though. She often finds herself in conflict with things beyond her control. From non-existent patenting laws to a basic lack of confidence in one’s talent, she feels India is living in a “design shadow”. As proof, she narrates an incident where her chair, The Pink Sink, was replicated by a German artist just six months after she showed it at the 2014 International Contemporary Furniture Fair in New York. The artist in question ended up winning a Red Dot award! Earlier this year, she also spotted an iteration of The Dot chair at the Salone del Mobile Milano. “The Indian design community needs to come together and make an impact. In isolation, individual designers can’t fight it,” she says.
______________________________
Burning Man checklist
Dust goggles: Because it is “extremely hot and dusty”
Spirit of adventure: “You must be willing to say yes to anything that comes your way”
Minimal yet outlandishclothing:“It’s all about radical self expression. I get to be as ridiculous as possible and there’s no one to judge me,” says Washington, who will also be carrying a red gown to wear while riding the tricycle.
Food and water: She will be putting together enough for a team of 20-odd people, friends from various parts of the world, who will be joining her as co-campers. “I will also be carrying tiny bottles of Old Monk rum to gift people, because it is a gifting culture.”
_____________________________________
Her plate full, she is not exactly complaining. But she is always open to collaborations — earlier ones include works with couture embroiderer Jean-François Lesage and designer Pinakin Patel. “I like the variety, hence the performance, the writing, the art. I just need to find people who are also pushing boundaries,” says Washington, who takes this joie de vivre into her travels, too — deep sea diving, sky diving and “engaging with life” everywhere. And along the way, if she claims to look a tad frazzled, one can nod in (false) agreement. Meanwhile, Shanto, now awake, disappears beneath the dervish, even as her team bustles around.
— With inputs from Surya Praphulla Kumar
source: http://www.thehindu.com / The Hindu / Home> Life & Style / by Tejal Pandey with input from Surya Praphulla Kumar / June 08th, 2018
T.T. Jaganathan, Chairman of TTK Group signing the book ‘Disrupt and Conquer: How TTK Prestige Became a Billion-Dollar Company’ at IIT Madras on Thursday. Co-author Sandhya Mendonca is also in the picture. | Photo Credit: R_Ragu
Times are changing dramatically where world will be owned only by people who innovate, said T.T. Jaganathan, chairman, TTK Group.
He was speaking at the launch of the book ‘Disrupt and Conquer: How TTK Prestige Became a Billion-Dollar Company’ held on the IIT-Madras campus on Thursday.
The book dwells into the success of the TTK group which at one point was failing in its business before rising like a phoenix after the liberalisation of the economy in 1991.
The book has been written by Mr. Jaganathan and Sandhya Mendonca, a journalist-turned-media entrepreneur. Mr. Jaganathan said that his aim was to become an academician and reluctantly entered into the family business. “I still miss the IIT campus and the labs,” he said.
Mr. Jaganthan is an alumnus of IIT-Madras and holds a gold medal in Mechanical Engineering. He also has a Master’s in Operations Research from Cornell University, USA.
The TTK Group, started in 1928, is the second largest manufacturer of pressure cooker in the world and according to Mr. Jaganathan, the company has business plans to become the world’s largest by 2022.
Recounting the time when smart cooker failed and the group staring at bankruptcy, he attributed the success thereafter to the family members particularly his mother Padma Narasimhan.
Ms. Sandhya, co-author of the book, said normally the story of the TTK Group needs to be taken to the people for gaining business skills. She said the information for the book has been collected through personal interviews with family members and friends, and materials taken from other sources.
source: http://www.thehindu.com / The Hindu / Home> News> Cities> Chennai / by Staff Reporter / Chennai – June 08th, 2018
Industries Minister M.C. Sampath on Monday told a delegation of Korean companies that the State would continue to offer attractive incentives if they wanted to invest here.
Offer of incentives
“Post Goods and Services Tax (GST) also, the State is willing to offer attractive incentives. We also invite more Korean firms to participate in the upcoming Global Investors’ Meet and increase Korean investments in the State” he said, while delivering his address at the inauguration of the Korean Chamber of Commerce & Industry in Southern India.
Industries Secretary K. Gnanadesikan said that the State was restructuring incentives to industries post-GST on a case-by-case basis.
Kwi Ho Shin, Chairman, Korean Chamber of Commerce & Industry in Southern India, said the idea behind opening a Chamber of Commerce in south India was to bring together all the Korean firms in this region. “There are 350 Korean firms in Tamil Nadu,” he said.
According to statistics released by the Chamber, there are 450 Korean firms in south India and 6,000 Koreans in this region. The prime objective of the chamber is to promote the rights of Korean companies and create jobs for the young Koreans. The chamber has also indicated that with this the relationship between Korea and Tamil Nadu will be strengthened further.
source: http://www.thehindu.com / The Hindu / Home> News> Cities> Chennai / by Staff Reporter / Chennai – June 05th, 2018
