Category Archives: Amazing Feats

Lady Wellington College won’t be renamed after leader: Tamil Nadu tells court

Amazing Feats, Education, Historical Links, Pre-Independence, Inspiration/ Positive News and Features, Leaders, Records, All, World Opinion

Chennai : 

There is no proposal either to rename Lady Wellington College after Singaravelar or to erect his statue on the campus, the Tamil Nadu government has informed the Madras high court.
In a counter-affidavit, filed in response to a PIL of A Gowthaman seeking renaming of the college after Singaravelar and construction of a memorial for the freedom fighter at the venue, which was his house, secretary, Tamil Development and Information (memorials) Department said: “The setting up of Singaravelar statue and renaming the college is a matter of policy to be decided by the Government and no such proposal is pending with the department.”

However, it told the bench comprising Chief Justice R K Agrawal and Justice M Sathyanarayanan that a bust-size statue of Singaravelar was to be erected in Singaravelar memorial in Royapuram.

Senior advocate A E Chelliah, who argued the PIL for Singaravelar memorial, had told the bench that the freedom fighter founded the first trade union in India and had vast swathes of land in several places including Thiruvanmiyur and Mylapore. His residence at Mylapore, is now known as Lady Wellington College. British governor Lord Wellington took over his property after Singaravelar participated in the freedom struggle.

In 2011, the government announced a memorial for Singaravelar at Foreshore Estate, but did not proceed due to Coastal Regulation Zone norms. The PIL wants a memorial adjacent to ‘Vivekanandar Illam’ and renaming of Lady Wellington College as ‘Sindhanai Sirpi Singaravelar Educational campus’.

The PIL is scheduled to be taken up for further hearing on November 21.

source: http://www.articles.timesofindia.indiatimes.com / The Times of India / Home> City> Chennai> TamilNadu / TNN / November 18th, 2013

Chess ace Viswanathan Anand a ‘national treasure’ in cricket-mad India

Amazing Feats, Inspiration/ Positive News and Features, Leaders, Sports

Anand’s longevity and perseverance has often been compared with that of Sachin Tendulkar, the world’s batting record-holder who ends a brilliant 24-year career later this month.

vishwaanandCF24nov2013

Chennai : 

In a nation where cricket is a religion and retiring superstar Sachin Tendulkar its resident deity, reigning world chess champion Viswanathan Anand holds his own as one of India’s finest sportsmen.

Anand, 43, who opens the defence of his fifth world crown against Norwegian challenger Magnus Carlsen at home in Chennai on Saturday, has dominated the chess scene in India and abroad for almost two decades.

Anand’s longevity and perseverance has often been compared with that of Tendulkar, the world’s batting record-holder who ends a brilliant 24-year career later this month.

“There’s certainly a case to be made for Anand being the greatest sportsperson India has ever produced,” The Hindu newspaper said. “He is as much a national treasure as Tendulkar.”

Anand showed remarkable promise at an early age but, unlike many others who give up after their first major challenge, he persevered and won until there was no one else left to beat.

The soft-spoken family man, who lives in Spain with wife Aruna and three-year-old son Akhil, is far removed from his temperamental predecessors like Bobby Fischer, Boris Spassky, Anatoly Karpov and Garry Kasparov.

While Kasparov has become a fierce critic of Russian President Vladimir Putin, Anand is more at home musing about subjects such as his pride in India’s space programme and his love of Barcelona football club.

“There is no feeling better than representing your country,” he wrote on his Twitter account last week in the build-up to the match against Carlsen.

“If there is anyone close to perfection in chess, it is him,” said Indian grandmaster Surya Shekhar Ganguly. “He is also one of the nicest human beings to know, a humble man despite his enormous achievements.”

Anand’s game is built on belligerent attack that catches opponents off-guard, but his unflustered approach ensures that he has the right defence in place when the going gets tough.

Born in a small town in the southern tip of India, Anand became an international master at 15, was crowned Indian champion at 16, won the world junior title at 17 and became the country’s first grandmaster at 18.

The Indian government, taking note of the young man’s rapid rise, conferred on him the country’s fourth highest civilian award, the Padma Shri, a few months short of his 19th birthday.

It is significant that when India’s highest sporting honour — the Rajiv Gandhi Khel Ratna — was introduced in 1992, Anand was its first recipient ahead of such cricket luminaries as Tendulkar, Sunil Gavaskar and Kapil Dev.

Anand was just 23 then and the honour came almost eight years before he won the first of his five world titles by beating Russian Alexei Shirov in Tehran in 2000.

However, more losses than wins in the past year have seen him slip to number eight, with Carlsen, 22, assuming the top ranking with 2,870 rating points, 95 more than Anand.

source: http://www.sports.ndtv.com / NDTV Sports / Home> Sports Home> Other Sports> Chess / by Agence France-Presse / Thursday – November 07th, 2013

Surgical breakthrough helps one-year-old gift sight to 60-year-old man

Amazing Feats, Records, All, Science & Technologies

Chennai :

When UK-based surgeon Harminder Dua discovered a new layer in the cornea in September this year, it was considered an achievement. But the real buzz was when Chennai doctors took the breakthrough to a new level and performed a procedure in which a one-year-old girl gave sight to 64-year-old M Shanmugam, a retired air conditioner mechanic from Avadi.

The exciting procedure, which according to Dr Amar Agarwal of Agarwal Eye Hospital that performed the procedure is the first of its kind in the world, is expected to “revolutionize” the way eye transplants are done.

In the new technique, Pre-Descemet Endothelial Keratoplasty (PDEK), the donor can be of any age. In the earlier procedures, the donor had to be above 50 years of age.

Conventionally, doctors were using a whole cornea or parts of the five layers of the cornea to perform correction surgeries. A couple of months ago, Dr Harminder Dua discovered a sixth layer between the stroma and the descemet membrane which is now named Dua’s layer. In the PDEK technique, doctors take the innermost two layers of the cornea, along with Dua’s layer and graft it in the patient’s eye. “The biggest advantage of this technique is that age is not a bar to be a donor. Moreover, as Dua’s layer is slightly more fibrous, it becomes easier to manipulate the tissue,” said Dr Amar Agarwal.

In PDEK, the donor’s cornea is kept upside down and injected an air bubble to separate the layers. “After procuring the tissue, we make a minute incision in the patient’s eye and fix it. Once the graft is unrolled, the transplant is complete and vision is restored,” said the doctor. The entire procedure can be wrapped up in 25 minutes after which the patient is advised to rest and can leave the following day. “Another major advantage of PDEK is that there is negligible graft rejection and no sutures are involved as only a small tissue is used for the transplant. Preliminary studies show that the graft thickness is about 28 to 30 microns and it behaves well,” said Dr Agarwal. “We have performed 16 such procedures since September but this surgery gains significance as the donor is a one-year-old,” added the doctor.

source: http://www.articles.timesofindia.indiatimes.com / The Times of India / Home> City> Chennai> Cornea / TNN / November 10th, 2013

Septuagenarian completes thesis, to get doctorate soon

Amazing Feats, Education

At the age of 75, many choose to take rest at home or spend time with their grandchildren. But a retired government college principal’s determination drove him to complete his PhD research and submit the thesis. His research work was accepted in the public viva-voce held on Thursday and the examiners’ committee has recommended it to Bharathiar University for the award of PhD degree to the elderly man.

N M Viswanathan from Nathakattu Valasu near Kavindapadi in Erode, born on July 15, 1939, pursued his BA in Economics at Chikkaiah Naicker College in Erode and completed his masters at National College, Tiruchy in 1962. He joined as a lecturer in Government Arts College, Ooty in 1964 and in the year 1996 he got promoted to the post of the principal of Government Arts College, Rasipuram. He then became the principal of Government Arts Colleges in Salem, Coimbatore, and retired from service in 1997.

After retirement, he planned to do PhD research and chose to work on ‘A study on the productivity of tea in Tamil Nadu with special reference to the Nilgiris district’. His thesis was evaluated by two foreign examiners and an Indian examiner. The pubic viva-voce was held at Government Arts College, Coimbatore, on Thursday, with Pudukottai Government Arts and Science College Principal J Govindadass as external examiner.

“I decided to get a PhD degree, not for any monetary benefit or career advancement, but because of interest. I chose this topic as I wanted to study the socio-economic condition of a large number of small tea growers in the Nilgiris,” Viswanathan told Express.

source: http://www.newindianexpress.com / The New Indian Express / Home> Education> Students / by Express News Service – Coimbatore / November 08th, 2013

Have you visited the ‘Allah-Rakha Rahman st’ in Canada yet?

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

New Delhi:

AR Rahman’s music is remembered throughout the world for its charm and variety, but now, even his name will be remembered as a road’s name. A street in Markham, Ontario, Canada is named after him. It will be called ‘Allah-Rakha Rahman st’.

AR Rahman, who is also known as the Mozart of Madras, has been honoured for his contribution to the world of music and arts.

He is one of the few Indians to have won two Grammy awards and two Academy Awards, yet he retains the humility of a common man.

A street in Canada is named after AR Rahman. He has been honoured for his contribution to the world of music.
A street in Canada is named after AR Rahman. He has been honoured for his contribution to the world of music.

The music maestro made history when he became the first Indian to win two Oscars in a year, 2009, for Danny Boyle’s ‘Slumdog Millionaire’, the rags-to-riches story of a Mumbai slum-dweller. Rahman had also bagged two awards at the 52nd Annual Grammy for his song ‘Jai ho’ from the same film.

source: http://www.ibnlive.in.com / IBN Live.com / Home / November 06th, 2013

Serving success from a court in Kovai

Amazing Feats, Leaders, Nri's / Pio's, Records, All, Sports

Coimbatore :

Nirupama Vaidyanathan Sanjeev, one of India’s finest tennis players ever, still remembers that afternoon two decades ago in Japan when she lost a match from a winning position. She was done in by a sudden spell of cold weather. “I was totally unprepared as I was facing the extreme cold after coming from Chennai where the temperature was 42 degree. Internet was not so prevalent then for me to check the temperature level before leaving for Japan. The temperature there was sub-zero and I had just a light jacket,” said Nirupama, who was at her parents’ home in Race Course in Coimbatore on Wednesday, after releasing her memoirs, ‘The Moonballer’, in Chennai on Tuesday.

Presently settled in the US with husband and daughter, Nirupama calls Coimbatore her home, the city where her self-trained father taught her to play tennis. It was the Cosmopolitan Club at Race Course where she served and volleyed first. At Perks Matriculation School, she learned to be a winner. “The atmosphere at the school helped me a lot to hone my skills when I was a student there in the early 1990s”, she says.

Her father was her first coach. “I was from a modest background with no sponsors. It was my father’s effort that made me India’s number 1 tennis player at the age of 14 and the first Indian woman ever to win a round in a Grand Slam tournament,” she said.

Though tennis has a long history in India, women have had an insignificant presence. The Krishnans and the Amrithraj brothers at their peak figured in the top 25 ranks. The men did well in Davis Cup. So, when Nirupama started winning international matches, she was breaking new ground. “At a time when no one knew of professional Indian women tennis players, I ventured into this uncharted territory and scripted a path for youngsters to follow. I represented the country in SAF Games, Commonwealth Games, Asian Games and the Sydney Olympics apart from the Federation Cup. I have penned the book to inspire girls to take up tennis,” she said. Like Nirupama, her daughter Sahana, 7, too wants to play tennis at the international level.

The title of Nirupama’s book recalls her modest beginning. “I had beaten the best in India with the Moonball style,” she said. “I realised that I had a lot of stories to tell. The attempt is to inspire youngsters that where there is a will, there is a way,” she adds.

Cherishing her formative years as a budding tennis player in Coimbatore, Nirupama credits Perks Matriculation School for making her a winner. “The school’s impact on my sporting career is irrefutable. I joined Perks in February 1991, and in March 1991, I won the national women’s title,” she said.

“The Moonballer’, Nirupama says, is just the beginning. “My next book will be on parenting a Wimbledon champion and it will be a step-by-step guide for both the parents as well as the aspirants,” she said. Right from choosing a tennis racquet to identifying the right coach, she says the book will break down the entire process of becoming a winner into simple steps.

She should know. For the past eight years, Nirupama has been running Nirus Tennis Academy in the US with her brother, K V Ganesh. “It is a revealing experience to be a coach and many of my students are playing at university levels in the US,” she said. And, she continues to follow the scene in India. “A couple of players in India are doing ok, but the real problem is the difficulty in conceiving a team beyond them,” she says. For that, she thinks, more people needs to take up tennis or the game needs to be made more accessible to the public.

source: http://www.articles.timesofindia.indiatimes.com / The Times of India / Home> City> Coimbatore / by TNN / August 08th, 2013

Soon, a memorial for Kongu chief who built grand canal

Amazing Feats, Business & Economy, Green Initiatives/ Environment, Historical Links, Pre-Independence, Nature, Records, All, Science & Technologies

Coimbatore :

Seven hundred and thirty years after he built the 56.5 mile long Kalingarayancanal to connect River Bhavani with River Noyyal, hoping to enhance irrigation facilities in the Erode region, a fitting memorial for the Kongu chieftain Kalingarayan inKalingarayanpalayam, where the irrigation canal originated, is in the pipeline. PWD Minister K V Ramalingam has confirmed that the memorial would come up inside a children’s park where there will be a special column and statue of Kalingarayan.

A memorial for the chieftain has been a long pending demand from the Kongu Vellalar community. Long forgotten by authorities, there is no memorial of Kalingarayan anywhere in Western Tamil Nadu. When the minister visited Kalingarayanpalayam recently, to release water through the canal, the locals urged him to initiate the long pending project.

The canal supports one of the largest ayacuts in the state. It irrigates vast stretches of turmeric, sugarcane and paddy fields. So, its creator must get a fitting tribute,” said Ramalingam. The canal had deteriorated in recent years and a massive renovation is in progress. Efforts to ensure smooth flow of water till the tail end of the canal and prevent the flow of sewage and industrial waste into it are going on. The canal is the worst affected waterway in the district due to indiscriminate dumping of untreated effluents by the textile processing and tannery industries.

Kalingarayan has contributed significantly to the region’s development. Born Lingaya Gounder around 1240, he rose to become Veera Pandian’s (1265-1280) chieftain,” says Periyaswami Prahladan, a farmer on its banks. The PWD is planning to build the memorial at an estimated cost of Rs1crore. In the beginning, the canal irrigated only about 3,500 acres, as historian and traveller Francis Buchanan noted in his diary, later published as ‘A Journey From Madras Through the Countries of Mysore, Canara, and Malabar”.

Buchanan visited the entire region as per the orders of then British Governor General Marquis Wellesley to check the state of agriculture from April 23, 1800 to January 15, 1801. In his book he writes that Kalingarayan’s family never seemed to have received any reward in the form of land on account of the grand canal that he built.

source: http://www.articles.timesofindia.indiatimes.com / The Times of India / Home> City> Coimbatore> Industrial Waste / by K A Shaji, TNN / August 14th, 2013

Woman barber defies tradition, wields blade

Amazing Feats, Inspiration/ Positive News and Features, Records, All
Devi attending to one of her customers in her saloon in Tirupur district.— DC
Devi attending to one of her customers in her saloon in Tirupur district.— DC

Chennai:

“School mate Yasodha is my only friend. Nobody ever wants to be friends with me because I am doing a man’s job running this hair-cutting saloon.

Even my close relatives do not talk to me because I am forced to touch men while cutting their hair or shaving. But I don’t care”.

That’s Thangavel Devi, 30, who has been waging a battle of sexes for the last five years, fighting for space in what has been all along considered a male preserve.

There are any number of women hairdressers but most of them work in urban and semi-urban areas and they attend to only women customers.

Devi, who has done a degree in commerce but could not get a decent job, set up her own saloon at Palladam (Tirupur district), taking after her family trade.

Her father Thangavel is sick and has incurred big debts, so Devi slogs with scissors and blades on her male customers.

She also attends to a tougher facet of her traditional trade as ‘kudimagan’—attending to calls from bereaved families to clean up the dead body for preparing it for the last rites.

She gets Rs 1,500 per body as her fee and does not bother about the raised eyebrows around.

“I earn about Rs 250 averaging two-three cuttings and five-six shavings a day, a little more on Sundays. I also work at a nearby finance company as a bill clerk for a monthly salary of Rs 5,000.

I don’t have holidays because I need every rupee that comes my way to pay up the loan of a little over Rs 1 lakh taken by my father for his medical treatment”, said Devi, throwing light on her hard life in taking care of the family.

“I have two main goals in life — clearing our loans and fulfilling the dream of my brother, now in ninth class, to become a computer engineer”.

It is not just the physical hard labour that Devi must endure; there is also much mental trauma as almost the entire society around her boycotts her because of her odd career.

“Particularly, the women hate me because of my bold venture, but I need the money to save my family from starvation”, said Devi.  When asked about her marriage plans, she shot back: “That will have to wait. Besides, it will be tough finding a man who will accept me the way I am”.

source: http://www.deccanchronicle.com / Deccan Chronicle / Home> News> Current Affairs / by S. Thirunavukarasu / August 19th, 2013

Chennai kid identifies 210 car models in less than 7 minutes

Amazing Feats, Arts, Culture & Entertainment, Records, All
Lakshin received a certificate from ASSIST World Records Research Foundation for identifying 210 car brands and models in 6.45 minutes. | EPS
Lakshin received a certificate from ASSIST World Records Research Foundation for identifying 210 car brands and models in 6.45 minutes. | EPS

If you are wondering what a six-year-old boy can do in less than seven minutes, meet S Lakshin, who can  identify brands of 210 cars in that brief span of time.

Lakshin, a class one student of a city school, received a certificate from ASSIST World Records Research Foundation for identifying 210 car brands and models in 6.45 minutes, in the city recently.

According to the organisers, Lakshin has set a new record by beating the previous record set by another child, who was able to identify 100 car models in Puducherry.

At the competition held recently, Lakshin started identifying the car models as their pictures were flashed on the screen.

He was able to identify the brands without misspelling their model numbers as well. The car brands spanned from national to international ones including Hindustan Motors, Audi, BMW, Bajaj, Brusa, Bugatti, Caparo, Chevrolet, Chrysler, DC, DMC, Dodge, Ford, Hyundai, Jaguar, Maruti, Mercedes, Nissan, Tata and Volvo.

Sreedaran, the boy’s father said Lakshin developed an interest for cars since the age of two.

“After we noticed his keen interest in cars, we encouraged him to identify the types. He is so fond of cars that our house is filled with toy cars,” he added.

“You show the models of 210 cars in any order, he would be able to identify them in no time,” he claimed.

Asked about his favourite car, Lakshin quipped “Rolls Royce”. “Of late, my son is curious about knowing the prices of these cars,” his mother said.

Earlier, V G Santhosam, Chairman, V G P Group of Companies, lauded the boy for his talent and wished him success in the automobile sector in future.

source: http://www.newindianexpress.com / The New Indian Express / Home> Cities> Chennai / by Express News Service – Chennai / July 29th, 2013

Alisha Abdullah – India’s only woman super bike racer

Amazing Feats, Arts, Culture & Entertainment, Records, All, Sports
Photo Credit : Mid Day
Photo Credit : Mid Day

Mumbai :

Alisha Abdullah is India’s only woman super bike racer and the fastest Indian car racer. With racing in her genes (her father RA Abdullah was a famous bike racer and seven-time national champion), Alisha is someone who gives the guys a run for their money. CS catches up with this feisty young lady who is all set for a tournament to be held in Hyderabad next weekend:

Who: Alisha Abdullah

What: Talking about her life as a racer

In prep mode

We had a race at Coimbatore two weeks back. I finished seventh out of 25 guys, which was pretty decent. In racing, you cannot be training with your bike/car throughout the year. It is very expensive. What you need to ensure whether your bike/car is at par with those of the others in terms of technology and mechanism. I do a lot of physical training in the gym to improve on my stamina, core strength, lower back and neck areas. The sport is too much for a girl to handle physically, so I need to workout really hard.

Daddy’s little girl

My interest in racing started when I was eight years old. My dad was a racer too and I was fascinated by the machine, speed, action, etc. I used to love it when he put on his suit. My dad got me a small bike as well. Later on, I tried my hand at go-karting and did very well. Slowly, racing developed into a passion. Finally, when my dad gifted me a 600 cc superbike on my 18th birthday, I knew that motorsports was my vocation.

Feminine side

Though people might think of me as this girl with a rock chic fashion sense like boots, leather jackets, denims, et all, I am not at all tomboyish off the track. I love wearing pretty dresses for evening events with jewellery as well. In fact, people get a surprise when they come to know that I am Alisha, the super biker (laughs out loud).

My inspiration

My dad has been my biggest supporter throughout. I have seen the kind of hard work and sacrifices he has made in his career. I am a huge fan of Virat Kohli. I love attitude and focus on his game. He doesn’t give a damn to what people say about him. I think that’s the greatest quality in a sportsman.

source: http://www.sports.ndtv.com / Home> Sports Home> Other Sports> More / by mid-day.com / Monday – July 08th, 2013