CLOSER LOOK: Kamala Harris, Pramila Jayapal, Raja Krishnamoorthi. Photo: Special Arrangement
Jayapal was born in Chennai, Krishnamoorthi in Delhi, while Harris was born in US
Three of the five Indian-Americans elected to the United States Congress on Wednesday have south Indian connections.
They include Kamala Harris (52), the first Indian-American Senator; Pramila Jayapal (51) the first Indian-American woman in the House of Representatives; and Raja Krishnamoorthi (43), who became a Congressman in his second attempt. All three are Democrats.
Jayapal is the only one born in Chennai; Krishnamoorthi was born in Delhi while Harris was born in the United States.
Understands Tamil
Krishnamoorthi’s parents, of Tamil origin, migrated to the United States when he was only three. He was elected from Illinois’ 8th Congressional district. Krishnamoorthi is the son-in-law of the sister of T.R. Balakrishnan, who retired as the principal of Presidency College in Chennai.
“His father, a physics professor, went from Delhi to teach at a University in the U.S. His family speaks Tamil at home, and while he does not speak the language, he understands it,” said Mr. Balakrishnan, adding that Mr. Krishnamoorthi visited his relatives in T. Nagar regularly.
“He is very devout, calm and organised,” Mr. Balakrishnan said.
Ms. Jayapal, who traces her roots to a Nair family in Palakkad, left the country aged five and lived in Indonesia and Singapore before relocating to the United States as a 16-year-old.
She was elected from Washington’s 7th Congressional district. In March 2000, she published Pilgrimage: One Woman’s Return to a Changing India , saying that she had cultivated an emotional attachment with the country and revealing that she held on to her Indian passport during her formative years.
Harris won from California
Kamala Harris, who won from California, is the daughter of the late Dr. Shyamala G. Harris, world-renowned breast cancer researcher.
Ms. Harris left India as a 25-year-old to study at the University of California, Berkeley.
Her father and Stanford University’s Professor Emeritus Donald J. Harris is of Jamaican descent, which makes Kamala Harris only the second African-American woman senator.
Harris’ niece Meena Harris has been quoted as saying that her aunt likes shopping at Chennai’s Nalli for sarees and GRT for jewellery.
source: http://www.thehindu.com / The Hindu / Home> News> Cities> Chennai / by Deepu Sebastian Edmond / Chennai – November 12th, 2016
In recognition:Tyagis and leaders being honoured in Dindigul on Tuesday during celebrations to mark the 58th anniversary of Tamil Nadu Formation Day.— PHOTO: G. Karthikeyan
Tyagis and leaders, who had fought for the retention of Tamil-speaking areas in Tamil Nadu at the time of reorganisation of States, were honoured as part of Tamil Nadu Formation Day celebrations here on Tuesday.
Honouring the district-level leaders at a function held here, Tamil Scholars and Tyagis Association State president Ramu. Ramasamy appealed to the State government to increase the pension being disbursed to those who fought for the formation of Tamil Nadu as the existing amount was fixed by the government 10 years back.
They had sent several appeals and requests in this regard, but the government did not consider them, he also said.
Former president of District Congress Minority Wing A. Abdul Jabbar said the government should extend new medical insurance scheme meant for government employees and teachers to tyagis and persons who fought for Tamil-speaking areas at the time of reorganisation of States.
Several fighters for Tamil cause, including Ramu Ramasamy, K.V.A. Rajan, N. Govindarajan and K. Muniappan, were honoured at the function. Several persons, mostly octogenarians who struggled to walk, participated.
source: http://www.thehindu.com / The Hindu / Home> National> Tamil Nadu / Staff Reporter / Dindigul – November 02nd, 2016
Shakira gets annoyed when she recalls her troubles with traditional dentures for almost five years. They fell out while she talked, made it tough to chew and worse, often choked her.
Shakira, now 30, lost her teeth and a substantial part of her jawbone because of a condition called juvenile aggressive periodontitis.
Dentures were the first choice, but understanding her difficulties dentists soon told her to consider implants -prosthetic teeth fixed to the jawbone with titanium screws.
But that wasn’t easy either because Shakira did not have enough of the upper jawbone to help doctors fix the prosthetic teeth. “Traditionally, we would graft the jawbone using the cheek bone so we could fix the implant and then prosthetic teeth. But that comes with risks because we expose the entire cheek bone.
At times, we abandon the surgery. There is delay in treatment time,” said senior maxillofacial surgeon Dr Gunaseelan Rajan, medical director of Rajan Dental Hospital.
So, Dr Rajan and his team decided to use modern technology, adopted in many European countries, to simplify the surgery.
A day ahead of the surgery, doctors scanned her jaw and made a virtual stent using specialized software. Technical experts using a special polymer printed out a 3D model of the surgical stent that became a guide to anchor four zygomatic titanium implants on her cheekbone.
“The stent is discarded and the implant will act as the jawbone where a denture can be permanently fixed,” he said.
The five-day process is done under anesthesia but is more precise than the conventional surgery.
“We did not have to open the cheek bone. The procedure has lesser morbidity and is a lot more comfortable for patients as it is customized to their needs,” he said.
Shakira is happy too. The titanium screws in the jawbone secure the prosthetic teeth to the implant, making them feel almost normal.
“They don’t wiggle or slip, as dentures did,” she said, giving a broad happy smile with her new shiny white teeth.
Dr Rajan has done a similar procedure on 63-year-old Muthukrishan, who lost all his teeth due to old age.
“As of now it costs up to 6,000 more to customize these implants. Soon, we will have customized implants completely replacing dentures,” he said.
source: http://www.timesofindia.indiatimes.com / The Times of India / News Home> City News> Chennai / TNN / October 20th, 2016
The 2016 SASTRA Ramanujan prize, for outstanding contributions by young mathematicians to areas influenced by the genius Srinivasa Ramanujan, will be jointly awarded to Kaisa Matomaki of University of Turku, Finland and Maksym Radziwill of McGill University, Canada, SASTRA University announced on Thursday.
The University release said the duo’s works have opened the door to a series of breakthroughs on some difficult questions such as the Erdös discrepancy problem and Chowla’s conjecture, previously believed to be well beyond reach. The SASTRA Ramanujan Prize was established in 2005 and is awarded annually for outstanding contributions by young mathematicians to areas influenced by Srinivasa Ramanujan.
The age limit for the prize has been set at 32 because Ramanujan achieved so much in his brief life of 32 years. The prize will be awarded during December 21-22, 2016, at the International Conference on Number Theory at SASTRA University in Kumbakonam (Ramanujan’s hometown) where the prize has been given annually.
Matomäki and Radziwill will share the $10,000 prize this year. They are especially recognised for their spectacular collaboration, and also for their significant individual contributions.
Kaisa Matomäki is one of the strongest young analytic number theorists in the world today.
MaksymRadziwill is one of the very best of the new generation of analytic number theorists, highly original, and technically one of the strongest and broadest.
source: http://www.newindianexpress.com / The New Indian Express / Home> States> Tamil Nadu / by Express News Service / October 13th, 2016
He holds a record that is not easy to beat. A lawyer based in Erode, K K M Kesavan has to his credit, a PhD in Legal Aid, 14 master’s degrees and eight PG diplomas to his credit. And he is 75!
Now, he is in the second year of a correspondence master’s programme, even as 2017 will mark the golden jubilee of his legal career. Among his degrees are MA in English, Political Science, History, Sociology, Economics, Public Administration, MCom, MSc in Education Management and MBA, besides his degree in lawfrom the universities of Periyar, Annamalai, Bharathiar and Alagappa.
His success in life was achieved against the odds as his family was neither well off nor highly educated. Born to a small farmer in Arathil village in Kannur district of Kerala (then in the Madras Presidency), his mother died when he was just a year old.
In 1959, Kesavan came to Erode and joined his uncle Sankar, who owned a small hotel. He got a bachelor’s degree in Commerce from Delhi University through correspondence and then studied BL in Bangalore University.
Kesavan joined as a junior advocate under V S Venkatrama Ayyar, who later became a High Court judge. He then worked under A P Chinnasamy. Later, he started his own practice.
“As my seniors mostly handled civil cases, I have attended over 2,500 civil cases so far and won nearly 80 per cent of them,” he recalls.
Of the 45 juniors who have worked with him, seven became magistrates and munsifs. There are now four juniors working with him.
Kesavan’s quest for learning started at a young age and continued even after he started working as a lawyer, as per the advice of an uncle, Vasudevan, a school teacher in Erode.
Practising actively in Erode, Kesavan has held the president’s post of advocate associations several times and is now the joint secretary of the AIADMK lawyers wing.
His son K S Jeyaganesan is a Central government pleader in the Chennai High Court. His daughter, also based in Chennai, is a Bhartanatyam exponent. She had served as a college lecturer for a while.
Proper use of time is the secret to his achievement. “All of us get the same 24 hours a day. How we utilise it, is important in coming up in life,” says Kesavan.
His wife, Savithri, should also get some credit for it. As she took all responsibility for the family, he was able to focus completely on his work and studies. The author of many articles on law, Kesavan’s only pastime is reading.
On the judiciary front, Kesavan suggests a National Judicial Academy to select judges for high courts. It should also conduct tests for the judges before elevating them to the Supreme Court.
This method, along the lines of IAS selection, would end the present controversy over the collegium system, which is not transparent.
source: http://www.newindianexpress.com / The New Indian Express / by Express News Service / September 26th, 2016
Since he lost his left ear lobe in an accident last month, 14-year-old Jayanth has been wearing a cap pulled down over his ear. He will throw that cap away coming weekend when his new 3D-printed ear arrives from Mumbai.
“The ear will be made of polyjet plastic and coloured to match his other ear,” says Chennai-based maxillofacial surgeon Dr John Nesan who is handling Jayanth’s case.
After providing organ models for surgeons to practice, 3D printing service providers are now making exact replicas of diseased organs in the latest marriage of technology and healthcare. While ear lobes and teeth are easy to print parts, teams are working on printing liver cells which is a complex task.
“The cost and ethics involved in using such 3D bio-printed living human tissues for medical research is much better than animal and human trials,” says Chandru. “In the long run, these technologies will allow on-demand manufacturing of personalised human organs, and alleviate the acute shortage,” says Chandru.
In Bangalore, at Pandorum Technologies, Arun Chandru and his team are working on 3D printing live cells to be used in liver toxicity studies. “The cells are printed into tissue-like architectures, which are then grown in bio-reactors for further study,” he said.
“To print the cells we use what is called a bio ink, which is a mixture of cells and hydrogel,” says Chandru, who adds that the cells are printed into tissue-like architectures, which are then grown in bio-reactors for further study.
On June 27, interventional cardiologist Dr A B Gopalmurugan of SRM Institute of Medical Sciences, Hospital, Chennai, used a 3D printed rubber heart to help prep for a complicated stent insertion. In November 2015, city-based cardiac surgeon Dr K M Cherian used a 3D model before operating on a child with a complex congenital heart disease.
source: http://www.timesofindia.indiatimes.com / The Times of India / News Home> City> Chennai / Kamini Mathai / TNN / July 10th, 2016
Consisting of 1,330 couplets, the Thirukkural is part of the Tamil sangam literature and was authored by famed poet Thiruvalluvar. (Representative image)
Chennai:
When Carnatic musician Chitravina N Ravikiran decided to set the 1,330 Thirukkural verses to tune, music just flowed through him. Notes and rhythmic structures effortlessly set themselves to suit the ancient couplets and history was made. A project that was to take 50 hours of work was miraculously finished in 16 (composing) hours, creating a world record.
The Historic Thirukkural Project, which was completed on January 14, was launched in India on Thursday at the Narada Gana Sabha by Potramarai president L Ganesan.
“The project is unique as the verses are secular, non-religious and non-regional. But the verses haven’t been brought on to a music or dance platform, except sporadically. The idea of the project is to enrich the classical repertoire by setting the couplets to tune. Also, it’s easier to remember something when it is presented in melodious tunes,” says Ravikiran, who was inspired by celebrated poet Sri Vedanta Desika who is believed to have composed over 1,000 verses overnight in praise of Lord Ranganatha.
The project was conceptualised on January 9 and Ravikiran got to work almost instantly, beginning as early as January 12, as he didn’t want to lose the momentum. Consisting of 1,330 couplets, the Thirukkural is part of the Tamil sangam literature and was authored by famed poet Thiruvalluvar.
And musically rendering one of the most revered works of Tamil language was quite challenging even for the Chitravina virtuoso.
“The couplets are unevenly sized and it was difficult to fit them in the existing talas. I had to come up with different rhythmic structures to make them fit lyrically,” says Ravikiran, explaining that he used his musical and lyrical experience to tune the verses as faithfully as possible.
The harmonious rendition of the ancient verses was launched on Thursday and is available on Ravikiran’s YouTube channel.
source: http://www.timesofindia.indiatimes.com / The Times of India / News Home> Cities> Chennai / TNN / July 05th, 2016
Tom Kibble has also done path-breaking work in cosmic strings and several awards came his way
Chennai-born physicist Tom Kibble, whose work was crucial in the theory of the Higgs Boson, died on Thursday. He was 83. Prof. Kibble had been working with Blackett Laboratory at Imperial College, London.
“After Peter Higgs formulated his ground-breaking mechanism for the [simpler] Abelian gauge theories, in 1964, Tom Kibble came up with a more general version for non-Abelian gauge theories, in 1967.
This immediately led Weinberg to make the connection and postulate the Higgs Mechanism. Kibble’s contribution was crucial in making Weinberg see the connection,” says G. Rajasekaran, leading particle physicist from Chennai.
Several awards and honours did come Prof. Kibble’s way, including the Order of the British Empire, and Albert Einstein Medal.
However, the fact that he was not included in the Nobel in 2013, for the discovery of the Higgs Boson, which went to Peter Higgs and Francois Englert, reportedly worried even Higgs himself. Prof. Kibble has also done path-breaking work in cosmic strings.
Prof. Kibble was born in Madras, as Chennai was known then, in 1932, and his father was a math and statistics professor at Madras Christian College (MCC).
During his trip to Chennai in 2012, just after the discovery of the Higgs Boson, Prof. Rajasekaran recalls accompanying him on a visit to MCC, where the latter was feted. Joshua Kalapati, Associate Professor of Philosophy and co-author of Life and Legacy of Madras Christian College, said Prof. Kibble had shared many anecdotes related to his college life and the city of Madras.
His parents, Walter and Janet, were an integral part of MCC for close to four decades between 1924 and 1961. “While Professor [Walter] Kibble, with a Mathematics Tripos (Cambridge University), and Doctorate in Statistics (Edinburgh), contributed to the growth of the Mathematics Department in the college, Janet served as the first warden of the women’s hostel in Guindy,” Mr. Kalapati said.
This article has been corrected for a typographical error. Francois Englebert has been changed to Englert.
source: http://www.thehindu.com / The Hindu / Home> News> Cities> Chennai / by Shubashree Desikan / Chennai – June 04th, 2016
Arjun Shankar, creator of the ‘Breaking Bad’ board game. Photo: Yash Suda
A chance $100 ticket, and the opportunity of a lifetime. Arjun Shankar tells how he went about creating a board game based on Breaking Bad, and met its creator Vince Gilligan
Like every other teenager, Arjun Shankar got hooked on to Breaking Bad while still in college. He watched the 62 episodes 25 times.
In 2015, he quit his three-year-old auditing job in a multinational firm, decided to drop out of CA with one exam to clear, and started working on a board game based on the Emmy award-winning series — complete with the popular characters Walter White, Jesse Pinkman and Gus Fring; Meth labs and dollar rolls.
In eight months, after 15 different versions, a brand new Breaking Bad board game was born. “Probably, the only one in the world as of now,” he claims.
Arjun then went a step further. He decided to meet the creator of the series, Vince Gilligan. And early this year, he did.
The journey from the comfort of his home in KK Nagar to a red carpet event in LA, where he finally got to meet Vince, is a story that seems straight out of a movie script.
With no prior background in board games, except for playing the conventional Snakes and Ladders, Monopoly, and so on, Arjun went ahead to give life to a “path-breaking idea inside his head”.
“It was the time when Chennai was marooned due to the floods. There was nothing much to do anyway, so I locked myself up inside a five ft by eight ft store room for 19 hours every day, conceptualising the game. I cut off from friends, films, television and social media. Things were pretty bad at home as well. I come from a conservative family, and it was tough for my folks to understand and accept what I was doing,” recalls the 22-year-old.
“But, I held on to my passion. There were times when I worked till I almost passed out, woke up with a new idea all of a sudden, and worked on it for the next 12 hours. Though I lost nearly 25 kg in the last five months, mentally, I was never exhausted. I told myself it was something no one else in the world could do, but me,” he says.
Once the board game was ready, he created a one-man company called Tripeee Games, and applied for his U.S. visa. “I wanted to show Vince what I had created. I knew I was a ‘nobody’ with no network to reach the guy. But people always talk about destiny, about how the universe rearranges itself for those who wish for something, and I wanted to see if there was any truth in it,” he says. Turns out, there was.
“I got my U.S. visa in three days, and flew there in the next two days,” he says. Once there, he arranged to meet Vince’ lawyers at Santa Monica, LA, and presented before them the game prototype. Impressed with it, they said he would be put in touch with a higher authority. A few weeks passed before Arjun got any reply. “Vince’s direct lawyer got back to me saying she saw potential in the game, but could not sign a deal, as it needed to come through a proper channel,” he recalls.
The rights for the characters are with Sony Pictures, and to proceed with the development of the game, Arjun would need an investor who could help him get the rights, and a game developer. “I realised I still had a long way. Considering it as nothing more than a good learning process, I started packing my bags for India,” he says.
That’s when Arjun came across the public event ‘2016 PaleyFest’ at the Dolby Theatre in Hollywood — Vince Gilligan was part of the panel. Call it divine intervention or just sheer luck, “but there was just one seat left in the first row of the hall for $100, and I spent the last few dollars left with me on it,” he says.
Arjun shares with us a video recording of the “biggest moment of his life”. In the video, Vince and the rest of the cast of Better Call Saul — an offshoot of Breaking Bad — are on the dais; and on the first row in the audience is our Chennai boy. When the moderator announces the session open to the audience, Arjun, all suited up, pounces at the opportunity. “I was numb. There were 1,500 people in the audience, and two heavyweight bouncers right in front of me. I knew that this was my only chance to talk to the director. So, I went ahead and grabbed the mike. I couldn’t remember a thing I spoke, until I saw the recording,” he says.
Arjun spoke to Vince about his story, took out the prototype of the game which he had taken along with him to the event, and asked feebly, ‘Would you like to see it?’ “Vince was perplexed. He probably hadn’t met anyone as crazy as me. However, he did agree to see it,” laughs Arjun. And, just like that, Arjun’s board game was screened on the big screen before hundreds in the audience, and probably thousands worldwide on their televisions. “Vince seemed pretty impressed, and said: ‘We will connect you with the right person’, before pointing at his assistant,” recounts Arjun, who was mentioned as a “bold game maker who pitched his invention to Vince”, on the next day’s Hollywood Reporter. “I hope Vince does not forget me and my creation in the near future,” he says.
That’s probably enough time for Arjun to get his game out.
source: http://www.thehindu.com / The Hindu / Home> Features> Metroplus> Television / Naveena Vijayan / May 30th, 2016
B Bavyasri did not let her partial blindness be an impediment to score high in the board examination | Express Photo Service
Chennai :
She can barely read her textbooks because she is partially blind. But B Bavyasri did not let her visual impairment of – 17.9 diopters negatively impact her overall marks of 431.
Even though her disability allows her to use a scribe to write faster and exempts her from the language exam, this 15-year-old chose neither. “What if the scribe made a mistake and lost me a mark?” reasons the aspiring chartered accountant.
Her strength of will to do it ‘her’ way has certainly paid off. Has it been mentioned she scored just as much in Tamil as she did in Science: 96? And her proud mom, Vijayalakshmi, tells everyone from the school watchman to her neighbours during her short walk from Velammal Higher Secondary Matriculation School, Mogappair to her home where her daughter is.
Vijayalakshmi, who has been working as a lab assistant at the same school to help her daughter move around easily, and her father R Balaji, a cab driver have Bavyasri as their lives’ focal point. “She can’t take the bus or even a walk down the street because of her eyesight,” Vijayalakshmi explains. This is why they live only a few streets away from the school to which either her mother or grandmother walks her everyday.
So how does Bavyasri read the blackboard or take notes in class? Her class teacher Mini P V says, “I make her sit in the front row; and for notes, she usually gets a little help from her peers once classes are over.” Bavyasri may be one of those who literally has her nose in her textbooks, but she assures us before we leave that she uses her limited vision to enjoy herself as well. “I play a lot of Candy Crush,” she admits with a laugh, “And oh, I love Mahesh Babu!”
source: http://www.newindianexpress.com / The New Indian Express / Home> Cities> Chennai / by Sonali Shenoy / Express News Service / May 26th, 2016
