Category Archives: Amazing Feats

`Artivist’ from Chennai wins UN’s poster design contest

Amazing Feats, Arts, Culture & Entertainment, Inspiration/ Positive News and Features, Records, All, World Opinion

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By the age of four, she started painting, B and at 10, she was an `artivist’ -using her art work to raise funds and create awareness about different social causes. Now, she is 23, and Anjali Chandrashekhar, has made the city proud! Two of her posters have been selected for a disarmament campaign by the United Nations (UN). In a recent event, which was attended by the top officials of the UN, including the Secretary General Ban Ki-moon, the two posters which she designed were unveiled. In a chat with Chennai Times, she talks about her journey as an artivist, the UN’s disarmament campaign, projects she plans to do in India and more. Excerpts…

TURNING AN ARTIVIST
I have been painting since the age of four. My grandmother ran a trust for children with multiple disabilities and growing up with them made me realise how lucky I was to be what people would call `normal’. When I started getting serious about art, I realised that I had this really powerful platform which I could use to talk about issues that I held close to my heart. That’s when it all began.I did most of my schooling in PSBB and was involved in art then as well. At the age of 10, I founded a global social project called Picture It. This project uses art to raise funds and awareness about health, humanitarian and environmental causes for many national and international organisations, including several campaigns associated with the UN. It was then that I realised I was really passionate about using my art for greater causes.

CAREER IN INDUSTRIAL DESIGN
I headed to New York to study industrial design at Pratt Institute, based in Brooklyn. It seemed like a good marriage of my passion for art and creating physical products that had a tangible impact on people’s lives. I was really excited to try working three dimensionally . There was so much more I could do with an object, and I loved how it was more engaging and interactive.Now, I work as a designer, researcher and consultant and I am trying to gain more experience working at the intersection of design, technology and social innovation.
POSTER DESIGN FOR THE DISARMAMENT CAMPAIGN
The United Nations Office for Disarmament Affairs sponsored the UN Poster for Peace Contest, in commemoration of the 70th anniversary of the first UN General Assembly resolution, which established the goal of eliminating nuclear weapons and all other weapons of mass destruction.The contest aimed to raise awareness for the need for nuclear disarmament and to inspire citizens across the globe to add their voices, and use their artistic talents, to promote a world free of nuclear weapons.Nuclear disarmament is usually spoken about on such a high level and I believe that art has the power to humanise us, and some of the most pressing issues that the world faces today . It is also able to transcend barriers of age, language and literacy, and so, I thought this was a great opportunity for me to show that the brush can be mightier than arms.

Earlier this year, I worked on a couple of posters around the theme of peace and nuclear disarmament when the UN Office for Disarmament Affairs had announced an international call for entries. With over 4,000 entries received from around the world, I had the honour of having two of my posters being chosen for the official 2016 campaign.

RUBBING SHOULDERS WITH THE BIGWIGS
Releasing the posters on May 3 with the Secretary General was a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity that I will cherish forever. I also had the opportunity to meet Mogens Lykketoft (President of the General Assembly), Kim Won-soo (Under Secretary-General and High Representative for Disarmament Affairs), and actor Michael Douglas, who has been the longest standing UN Messenger of Peace. I got to speak with them and understand what they do and the challenges within the realm of nuclear disarmament. Ban Ki-moon also did an art interpretation of my poster.

PLANS FOR PROJECTS IN INDIA
I am working on some exciting projects that are based in India, and I am looking forward to it. A project on water and sanitation is something I have in mind. If I get adequate funds, I intend to definitely go ahead with the project.
source: http://www.timesofindia.indiatimes.com / The Times of India / News Home> City> Chennai / by Ashish Ittyerah Joseph / May 12th, 2016

HIDDEN HISTORIES – When Madras froze over

Amazing Feats, Historical Links, Pre-Independence, Nature, Records, All

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Our city has only three seasons — hot, hotter and hell. Given this, would people believe me if I said that the temperature once dipped below freezing in our city, and that too, in the sweltering month of April? It would probably be dismissed as an April Fool’s Joke. And yet it happened exactly 200 years ago, in the last week of April 1815. The morning temperature was 11 degrees Celsius on Monday, April 24, and by Friday, April 28, it had dipped to minus 3 degrees Celsius. There are unverified reports of snow falling too but that may be an exaggeration.

The cause of this freak phenomenon was the volcanic eruption of Mount Tambora in distant Indonesia. At that time, this was the tallest peak in the archipelago which formed that country, rising to a height of 4,300 m.

Lava burst forth from it on April 10 and 11, 1815, with such ferocity that the explosion killed around 12,000 people and was heard 2,000 km away. It holds the record for being the largest volcanic activity ever in world history till date.

What followed next is best described in Tambora: The Eruption That Changed The World, by Gillen D’Arcy Wood — “Tambora’s dust veil, serene and massive above the clouds, began its westward drift aloft the winds of the upper atmosphere. Its airy passage to India outran the thousands of waterborne vessels below bent upon an identical course, breasting the trade winds from the resource-rich East Indies to the commercial ports of the Indian Ocean. The vanguard of Tambora’s stratospheric plume arrived over the Bay of Bengal within days”.

Madras was perhaps the first to feel it two weeks later, with the temperature dipping to freezing point, thanks to the aerosols in the volcanic cloud absorbing heat from the sun and the earth. Given that our public dons monkey caps and earmuffs in December each year, what was the fashion statement in freezing April 1815? There is, however, not one East India Company record that notes the reactions of the colonial masters or the people to this freak occurrence. There is also no mention of a tsunami. Pumice stone, however, washed up on the coast for a long while.

What followed thereafter was not as pleasant as the cold weather. The ash cloud spread globally, making 1816 the ‘year without summer’. In Madras, and the rest of India, it also meant a year without monsoon. Crops failed, as they did internationally. Famine in India was followed by cholera, which is now directly attributed by scholars to the volcano. Over 70,000 people perished globally, due to Tambora.

In August 1815, the brig Catherina — the first vessel from Java after the eruption — arrived in Madras.The Madras Courier interviewed the craft’s master for an eyewitness description of what happened. He also brought with him a bag of volcanic ash, which was forwarded to Calcutta for further analysis. But nobody linked the big freeze in Madras to the volcano!

source: http://www.thehindu.com / The Hindu / Home> Features> MetroPlus> Hidden Histories / by Sriram V / April 17th, 2016

Short film on Thevar freedom fighters released

Amazing Feats, Historical Links, Pre-Independence, Leaders, Records, All
Statues of the Marudhu Pandiyar brothers — Periya Marudhu and Chinna Marudhu — who were hanged for their revolutionary acts, in Madurai. Photo: S. James / The Hindu
Statues of the Marudhu Pandiyar brothers — Periya Marudhu and Chinna Marudhu — who were hanged for their revolutionary acts, in Madurai. Photo: S. James / The Hindu

One of the freedom fighters, Puli Thevar, is considered the first south Indian to rebel against the British rule.

A documentary, commemorating the efforts of freedom fighters belonging to the Thevar community, was released on Sunday, the 15th anniversary of the Marathiya Manila Thevar Munnetra Peravai, an association of the community in Mumbai.

Titled ‘Contributions of the Thevar Community to the Indian Freedom Movement’, the 20-minute documentary gives a glimpse of the role the community played in the freedom struggle.

At a function in the Shanmukhananda auditorium, the contributions of five Thevar freedom fighters were commemorated in the presence of over 2,500 members from the community.

One of the freedom fighters, Puli Thevar, is considered the first south Indian to rebel against the British rule. He fought between the 1750s and late 1760s.

Varadarajan, founder president of Marathiya Manila Thevar Munnetra Peravai, said: “At a time when women were oppressed, Rani Velu Nachiyar valiantly fought in the 1740s, opposing the taxes levied by the British.”

The Marudhu Pandiyar brothers — Periya Marudhu and Chinna Marudhu — who were hanged for their revolutionary acts, issued a proclamation of independence from the British in 1801. Another freedom fighter, Pasumpon Muthuramalingam Thevar, was mentioned for the role he played in garnering support from south India for Subhash Chandra Bose.

source: http://www.thehindu.com / The Hindu / Home> News> Cities> Mumbai / Alakananda Chatterjee / Mumbai – April 19th, 2016

P. Susheela enters Guinness World Records

Amazing Feats, Arts, Culture & Entertainment, Inspiration/ Positive News and Features, Leaders, Records, All, World Opinion
Veteran playback singer P. Susheela. File photo: Thulasi Kakkat / The Hindu
Veteran playback singer P. Susheela. File photo: Thulasi Kakkat / The Hindu

‘The queen of melodies’ has been officially credited by Guinness Book of Records for singing 17, 695 songs in 12 Indian languages.

Renowned playback singer P. Susheela Mohan, who has won many awards and earned accolades in a career spanning five decades, has added two more to her awards cabinet.

She has now been recognised by both the Guinness Book of World Records and Asia Book of Records for singing most number of songs in Indian languages. The usually reticent singer met journalists in Chennai on Tuesday to celebrate her new award.

While Guinness Book of Records has officially credited her for singing 17, 695 songs (solo, duet and chorus backed songs) in twelve Indian languages, Asia Book of Records has recognised her for singing close to 17, 330 songs.

Speaking about the awards, P. Susheela reminded everyone present that the adjudicators had only considered songs she had song from 1960s. “Please remember that I started singing from 1951,” she said.

None of this would have been possible without the work of her fans, who, by setting up psusheela.org, painstakingly catalogued the songs that she has sung over the last few decades and sent it to the adjudicators of the award.

Reflecting on the recognition, the singer said that she views it as an acknowledgement of her hard work. “There is a lot of hard work that has gone behind this achievement. Today, with so many television channels and newspapers, a talented singer can shine through quickly. But when I was singing, it was very slow and I had work my way up , step by step,” she said.

Crediting her husband for her success, she said that her husband, a doctor, was a corner stone in her life. “He fell in love with my voice and sacrificed his life so that I have a great career in playback singing,” she said.

She was candid in her response when asked why she had never considered a career in acting. “I was offered a chance to act by several directors, but I refused saying that I wouldn’t want to act even if I was paid a crore,” she said, adding, “My heart was in music.”

When asked why she is not singing anymore, the singer said that she would love to sing in movies if someone offered a good song. When she was nudged by journalists to sing her favourite song, she ended the press conference by singing Ennai pada sonnal, enna paada thondrum from Pudhiya Paravai, a hit song of 1964.

source: http://www.thehindu.com / The Hindu / Home> Entertainment / by Udhav Naig / Chennai – March 29th, 2016

Awards given to women achievers

Amazing Feats, Arts, Culture & Entertainment, Inspiration/ Positive News and Features, Leaders, Records, All, Science & Technologies, World Opinion

Chennai:

Celebrating women icons, Raindropss conducted its 4th annual women achiever awards on Saturday at a ceremony presided over by its brand ambassador and music composer AR Raihanah.

Raindropss is a youth-based social organization.

It gave away awards to project director of Agni and ‘Missile Woman of India’ Dr Tessy Thomas, first Indian woman fire officer Meenakshi Vijayakumar, musician Sudha Ranganathan, acid attack fighter and model Laxmi Agarwal and film director Sudha Kongara. tnn

source: http://www.timesofindia.indiatimes.com / The Times of India / News Home> City> Chennai / TNN / March 28th, 2016

Doctors remove tumour from 21-year-old’s oral cavity

Amazing Feats, Records, All, Science & Technologies
R. Madanagopal, professor and head, ENT, Government Vellore Medical College Hospital along with V. Anandan who underwent the surgery. Hospital dean, Usha Sadasivam, is also in the picture.- Photo: C. Venkatachalapathy
R. Madanagopal, professor and head, ENT, Government Vellore Medical College Hospital along with V. Anandan who underwent the surgery. Hospital dean, Usha Sadasivam, is also in the picture.- Photo: C. Venkatachalapathy

After experiencing difficulty in swallowing food and losing close to 15 kilos in two months, 21-year-old V. Anandan is returning to normal life. Little was he aware that a cricket ball-sized tumour was growing in his oral cavity, giving him a tough time even for breathing.

It was only 15 days ago that Anandan, a carpenter from Ambur, knew he had a tumour in the oral cavity after being examined by ENT doctors at Government Vellore Medical College Hospital (GVMCH), Adukkamparai.

“We did a MRI scan and found that he had a parapharyngeal mass present in the oral cavity. This has been causing difficulty in swallowing, breathlessness, change of voice and loss of weight,” R. Madanagopal, professor and head, ENT, GVMCH told reporters on Tuesday.

Following this, the doctors planned a surgery to excise the tumour.

“However, we did not want to perform the procedure by cutting open the neck as the nerves and blood vessels will be compromised. Instead, we did a tracheostomy to enable him to breathe. We secured his airway, and performed the procedure through the oral route and excised the mass,” he said.

A team of five doctors performed a two-hour surgery on March 11 and removed the tumour. Also a Fine-Needle Aspiration Cytology found that the tumour was benign.

However, the cause of the tumour is not known, Dr. Madanagopal observed. “The tumour could have started to grow slowly at least in the last six months,” he said.

The surgery was covered under the Chief Minister’s Comprehensive Health Insurance Scheme. Usha Sadasivam, GVMCH dean, was present. Doctors -Bharathi Mohan, ENT professor, R. M. Elango, Kalidas and Thilagavathy – assistant professors – were part of the surgical team.

source: http://www.thehindu.com / The Hindu / Home> National> Tamil Nadu / by Staff Reporter / Vellore – March 16th, 2016

Only Pancreas; 1st Time in India

Amazing Feats, Inspiration/ Positive News and Features, Records, All, Science & Technologies

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Chennai  :

Apollo Hospitals Chennai has recently transplanted a pancreas.

Generally, the pancreas is transplanted along with kidneys.

The pancreas harvested from a 20-year-old brain-dead person was flown in from Coimbatore and successfully taken to Apollo Main Hospitals, Chennai, with the help of Chennai Traffic Police who created a green corridor from the airport to the hospital.

The recipient is a 33-year-old man with insulin dependent diabetes and ‘hypoglycemia unawareness’. These patients do not get warning signs of low blood sugar (sweat, heart pounding etc) and consequently just drop when the sugar gets critically low.

The organ was transplanted by a team of surgeons at the Center for Liver Disease and Transplantation, Apollo Hospitals, Chennai. Dr Anil Vaidya le the surgery.

source: http://www.newindianexpress.com / The New Indian Express / Home> Cities> Chennai / by Express News Service / February 25th, 2016

HOD With Disability, a 1st at Presidency College

Amazing Feats, Education, Inspiration/ Positive News and Features, Records, All

Chennai :

Associate professor Jayachandran’s is a story of many firsts. A first-generation graduate from an agricultural family, he was also the first visually challenged student to earn a PhD in Tamil literature at the international level. Last year, he was made the Head of Tamil department in Presidency College, the first visually challenged person to become HoD of a department in the college’s 175-year history.

The 53-year-old is the senior most professor in his department. “I was made the HoD based on my seniority,” he says modestly, while dictating notes to an assistant at his office. The furniture in his office and the infrastructure of the classrooms and the department in general seem to have been unaltered since the year the department was formed in 1856. “There are no office assistants and sanitary workers appointed and not enough financial assistance. So, we have to pay from our own pocket,” says Jayachandran.

A native of Kumalam village in Villupuram district, Jayachandran studied in Cuddalore till Class 5 and completed his schooling at the Poonamalee School for the Blind. It is here that his desire to become a professor was born.

“I had a visually challenged teacher when I was in Class 5. I thought, probably this is the line destined for people like us,” he recalls. College education at Pachayappa’s and a PhD at the University of Madras followed — he was a student of the varsity’s former vice chancellor, Professor Porko.

 

Dr R Jayachandran  P Ravikumar
Dr R Jayachandran  P Ravikumar

Jayachandran considers himself lucky, as he could not see the ‘looks’ from people who discriminated against persons with disabilities. But, his hearing sense, which works perfectly, had to bear some of the insensitive remarks. “Please don’t sit on the first bench! Feels like bad omen,” a lecturer had told him when he was a college student.

In 1990, he got his first posting at Kolanjiappar College, Virudachalam, where the students too used to take advantage of his condition. “Compared to my initial days, students at Presidency College are more cultured. They help us out,” he recalls.

Jayachandran, who had climbed the steps of The Great Wall of China in 2006, says he still has a long way to go. His interest now is to help visually challenged students with computer training. His expertise extends to the Braille teaching methods on a computer and he has also helped develop the Braille and audio division at Anna Library.

His wife, Vennila Juliet, is a teacher at a Corporation school and the couple have a daughter.

FACTOIDS

9 Visually challenged professors in Presidency College, including Dr R Jayachandran

5 Professors out of 22 are visually challenged in the Tamil department

3 Visually challenged professors in the English department and one in the History department too

source: http://www.newindianexpress.com / The New Indian Express / Home> Cities> Chennai / by Srikanth Dhasarathy / February 24th, 2016

Associate Prof With Einstein’s Gravitational Pull

Amazing Feats, Education, Records, All, Science & Technologies, World Opinion

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K G Arun, an associate professor from Chennai Mathematical Institute (CMI),  was part of the Laser Interferometer Gravitational-Wave Observatory Scientific Collaboration (LIGO LSC), which made headlines across the globe with its most stunning and significant discovery of gravitational waves.

What is your role in this discovery?

I was one of the 61 Indian participants, representing the CMI in the LSC, under the umbrella of the Indian Initiative in Gravitational-Wave Observations (IndIGO).  The CMI’s role was to check the correctness of the detected GW signals and analyse whether the monitored wave form was consistent with Einstein’s relativity theory which was crucial in the final phase.

What was the method of operation?

We started working on this research right from September 2014. We regularly interacted with the scientists in the United States and other countries through teleconferencing about the recent developments in our research work. Since I have worked with some of these experts in earlier researches in St Louis and Paris, that helped me a lot.

What was the most challenging portion?

Though the entire research work is complicated, we, the Indian scientists, found the initial stages of research more challenging. Since there were several methods and algorithms to validate the relativity theory, we had to explore every one of these to arrive at one single method which can answer the question of consistency. Though the theory was proposed 100 years ago, changes less than the scale of nucleus of an atom were recorded and analysed.

Support from your Indian counterparts and the government?

Research of this magnitude was not possible without their support. My entire research was from the institute (CMI) funded by various government agencies including the Department of Science and Technology (DST). We had several conferences and meetings regarding this and scientists from LIGO-India were extremely supportive throughout the entire process.

What does this detection mean or what is its significance?

This is a very important breakthrough in the field of astrophysics that has provided new ways to look at the universe. This will also allow us to know more about the Big Bang and with LIGO-India’s GW detector proposal in India, this gives us a chance to colloborate with various other industries that can help in differentiating conventional and gravitational astrophysics.

PROFILE

Dr K G Arun

Associate Professor, Chennai Mathematical Institute (CMI)

Qualifications

Ph D, Raman Research Institute, Bangalore

MSS in Physics, Cochin University of Science and Technology

Positions Held Previously

Postdoctoral Research Associate, Washington University in St Louis, USA.

Virgo Ego Scientific Fellow, Institute of Astrophysics (IAP), Paris

Associate of the International Centre for Theoretical Sciences, Bangalore

Research Interests

Gravitational Wave Astronomy

Short Gamma Ray Bursts

High Energy Astrophysics

Cosmology

source: http://www.newindianexpress.com / The New Indian Express / Home> Cities> Chennai / by Ram M. Sundaram / February 13th, 2016

TN IPS officer first woman to head paramilitary force

Amazing Feats, Inspiration/ Positive News and Features, Leaders, Records, All

Chennai  :

Archana Ramasundaram, a 1980-batch IPS officer of Tamil Nadu cadre, has been appointed director general of Sashastra Seema Bal (SSB), a paramilitary organisation guarding the country’s eastern frontiers with Nepal and Bhutan. She is the first woman IPS officer to head SSB since its inception in 1963 and will continue in that post till her retirement on September 30, happy to head next year. “I am happy to head SSB and want to use my years of experience to improve the force,”Ramasundaram told TOI over phone.

In 2014, she was caught in a tug-of-war between the Centre and Tamil Nadu government when the UPA government was in power. She was selected as additional director of CBI in Delhi after clearance from the state government. But the state did not relieve her from TN police after she was selected for the CBI post. Ramasundaram, who has replaced B D Sharma, another official from her batch, who retired from service on January 31, was director of National Crime Records Bureau in New Delhi since June last year. The Union government had upgraded the post of director NCRB to that of director general of police to accommodate her in that post.

In 2014, based on instruction from Centre to join duty at CBI headquarters, she sent a letter to the chief secretary of Tamil Nadu and shifted to Delhi in 2014. This resulted in her suspension by the state government on charges that she deserted office. The Centre, last year, quashed her suspension. Though the state moved the Delhi high court on appeal, the petition was dismissed.

Ramasundaram, known among her colleagues as an upright official, is the senior most IPS officer in Tamil Nadu cadre at present. The pre sent DGP of Tamil Nadu Ashok Kumar, is two years junior to her. She hails from Ballia in Uttar Pradesh and is married to S Ramasunda ram, a 1979 batch IAS officer from Tamil Nadu, who took voluntary retirement from service in 2011.

There are five paramilitary forces SSB, Central Reserve Police Force (CRPF) Border Security Force (BSF) Central Industrial Security Force and Indo Tibetan Border Police and none has ever had a woman chief.

Besides Ramasundaram, IPS officers, K Durga Prasad and K K Sharma, have been appointed directors general of CRPF and BSF, respectively.

source: http://www.timesofindia.indiatimes.com / The Times of India / News Home> City> Chennai / TNN / February 02nd, 2016