Category Archives: Amazing Feats

Grandson of acting legends to play genius

June 19, 2013About Chennai(Madras) / TamilNadu, Amazing Feats, Arts, Culture & Entertainment, Education, Leaders, Records, All, Science & Technologiesadmin

Chennai :

The grandson of southern acting legends Gemini Ganesan and Savitri will play math genius Srinivasa Ramanujan in a film being shot in Tamil and English.

Abhinay Vaddi, whose mother Vijaya is the daughter of Gemini Ganesan and Savitri, will star as the young mathematician in the film that traces his life from his native Kumbakonam, 400km from here, to Chennai and then to Cambridge before his premature death from pneumonia.

“It is an honour to portray an icon like Ramanujan. At the same time, there is considerable pressure that I must do it right. Then there is the added expectation because of my lineage,” said Abhinay, 29, a former international table tennis player.

The film is being directed by retired IAS officer Gnana Rajasekaran, who has two biopics — Bharati and Periyar — to his credit.

Abhinay said he had little to fall back on when it came to Ramanujan’s physical appearance as only three good photographs were available. “None of us knew how he walked or spoke, so I was coached by the director on how Iyengar Tamil was spoken in those times. Being a Telugu, mastering the dialect was difficult,” recalled Abhinay, who has one Telugu and one Tamil film to his credit.

The first schedule of the film at Kumbakonam is complete, and the story now shifts to Chennai. London-based theatre actor Kevin McGowan plays Professor Hardy, the man who discovered Ramanujan’s genius and relayed it to the world.

Sindhu Rajasekaran, one of the co-producers and Rajasekaran’s daughter, said the director believed in showcasing the lives of real-life heroes.

“When Camphor Productions, promoted by my husband Sushant Desai, Srivatsan Nandathur and Sharanyan Nadathur, wanted to produce a good film, my father showed us the script of Ramanujan and we fell for it,” she disclosed.

Rajasekaran had assimilated information on Ramanujan’s life before finalising the script.

Abhinay familiarised himself with Ramanujan by reading The Man Who Knew Infinity: A Life of the Genius Ramanujan by Robert Kanigel.

Asked why the director picked him, Abhinay said Rajasekaran felt his piercing eyes resembled those of Ramanujan. “I learnt later that he had considered Madhavan and Prashanth before choosing me,” said Abhinay, who had to wear a special wig to portray Ramanujan the boy with a half-tonsured head and a tuft of hair — the traditional Iyengar look.In the past, Rajasekaran had ignored the claims of many Tamil actors and picked Marathi actor Shayaji Shinde to play Tamil poet Bharatiyar in his film In the past, Rajasekaran had ignored the claims of many Tamil actors and picked Marathi actor Shayaji Shinde to play Tamil poet Bharatiyar in his film Bharati.In the past, Rajasekaran had ignored the claims of many Tamil actors and picked Marathi actor Shayaji Shinde to play Tamil poet Bharatiyar in his film Bharati. Shinde captured the restless rebel in Bharati very evocatively in spite of his language handicap.

Rajasekaran has chosen to shoot the film on celluloid rather than on digital medium. Scheduled for a December release, the film also has acclaimed technicians on board — national award-winning editor B. Lenin, cinematographer Sunny Joseph and music composer Ramesh Vinayagam.

source: http://www.telegraphindia.com / The Telegraph, Calcutta / Front Page> Nation> Story / by G. C. Shekhar / Chennai – June 11th, 2013

Motorman who halted train before collapsing nominated for award

June 5, 2013Amazing Feats, Inspiration/ Positive News and Features, Records, Alladmin

A signboard has been put up as a tribute to motorman S.Manohar at the entrance to the Moore Market Complex in Chennai / Photo: R.Ravindran / The Hindu

S. Manohar, the motorman who brought a Chennai-bound suburban service to a halt seconds before he suffered a fatal heart attack and averted a potentially disastrous mishap on May 23, has been nominated for a Railway Board award.

The 48-year-old motorman, in a heroic act, had stopped the train GM 42032 within a few minutes of leaving Gummidipoondi, disengaged cabin controls and switched on the emergency flasher light before falling unconscious. Though the motorman was taken to the Perambur Railway Hospital later in the evening he did not survive the attack.

Manohar’s duty consciousness and ultimate commitment to the safety of passengers has been highlighted in a Southern Railway note to the Railway Board recommending him for a posthumous award, an official said. The nomination of Manohar for an award is over and above the compensation that is being worked out for his next of kin.

Railway administrators and workers have already hailed Manohar as a hero. A signboard put up as a tribute at the entrance to the Moore Market Complex, the hub of suburban services, describes him as a “hero who performed his duty even till his last breath”.

Southern Railway has also recommended an award to loco pilot V. Balachandran who had stopped his train (the GM 42029 Chennai-Gummudipoondi) on the adjacent line on noticing the flasher light on the other train.

Mr. Balachandran had entrusted his train with the guard before alerting the station master at the next station Kavaraipettai of the emergency. He then drove the train with Manohar in an unconscious state to Kavaraipettai. There, he helped make arrangements for transporting his co-worker to a hospital before walking back along the tracks for about four kms to resume duty on his train.

The previous occasion when railwaymen in Southern Railway were honoured by the Railway Board was in 2010 when four employees were given cash awards (Rs. 5,000 each) for averting a major disaster after a bomb blast damaged the track section at Sithani between Perani and Mundiyambakkam stations in Villupuram. The reward was announced for alertness, sense of responsibility and devotion to duty.

source: http://www.thehindu.com / The Hindu / Home> News> National> Tamil Nadu / by M Dinesh Varma / Chennai – June 05th, 2013

TN State Board Results 2013 : Of top marks and soaring dreams at welfare homes

May 18, 2013Amazing Feats, Education, Inspiration/ Positive News and Features, Records, Alladmin

G. Muriel, who scored 1,047, wants to do a B.Tech course./ Photo: Special Arrangement / The Hindu

Nearly four years ago, G. Muriel was rescued along with four other girls from an unrecognised home in Tiruvallur district, by the Child Welfare Committee (CWC).

Today, she and her friends have passed the State board class XII examinations with flying colours.

Another young student, Padmavathi, a resident of Pallipattu in Villupuram, who was rescued from a forced child marriage last year, also passed, scoring 795 out of 1,200.

The six girls are inmates of a home run by Madras Christian Council of Social Service in Perambur.

Muriel scored 1,047, and is over the moon. She, along with Mary Ann (972), Sheeba (961), Rejolia Mary (982) and Esther (680), studied at Everwin Matriculation School, Kolathur. Padmavathi studied at Government Higher Secondary School, Villivakkam.

“Muriel and her friends were rescued by CWC after a complaint about the unrecognised home. The home was subsequently closed down. The six students were referred to us by CWC. Since it is vacation time now, they are about to begin part-time jobs,” said R. Isabel, director of Madras Christian Council of Social Service.

Muriel wants to pursue B.Tech in information technology. “I want to study well and earn a good salary. I am very happy that all my friends have passed. We have been together since childhood,” she said.

Padmavathi wants to do a degree in mathematics and work in a bank.

Ms. Isabel said the students were in need of sponsorships to be able to go to college.

The Government Children’s Home for Girls, Kellys also had reason to cheer, as nine of the 10 girls who had appeared for the exam, passed. “Some of them are orphans, while others have single parents. They are studying at the Government HSS, Purasawalkam,” said an officer at the home.

Of the nine, V. Shanthi scored 760, followed by M. Gokila (727) and B. Pradeepa (711). Gokila, a native of Dharmapuri, wants to become a nurse to take care of the health of her villagers.

Nine of the 12 inmates of Puzhal Central Prison who appeared for the board exams have passed. Notable among them is suspected Maoist leader Sundaramoorthy, who scored 835. Thirty-nine convicts lodged in different central prisons across the State had attempted the exams.

source: http://www.thehindu.com / The Hindu / Home> News> Cities> Chennai / by Staff Reporter / May 11th, 2013

House that? 400-tonne ancestral building shifted by 35 feet in Kovai

May 14, 2013Amazing Feats, Historical Links, Pre-Independence, Nature, Records, All, Science & Technologiesadmin

The house owner A Thangavelu, who wanted to construct a commercial complex at the site where the building was located, faced a dilemma on whether to demolish his ancestral home or to retain it. “We were planning to construct a commercial building on the plot, which is located in one of the prime areas on Mettupalayam Road. However, it required demolishing the house spread over 2400 sq.ft, which was constructed in 1950,” he said.

That’s when a Haryana-based engineering company came to his help, which successfully ‘lifted’ the house in a bid to reinstall it 40 feet away. He has not only saved the money on building a new house, but managed to retain the house where he grew up.

“This would have required a huge investment as the house had to be first demolished and another structure built after getting the approval.

When we heard about the innovative concept of shifting the house by lifting it, we were optimistic of keeping the ancestral house intact by investing about Rs 20 lakh. Building a similar house would have cost nearly Rs 80 lakh,” Thangavelu added.

TDBD Engineering Works Pvt Ltd, involved in lifting and shifting building structures, claims it to be the heaviest building they have shifted anywhere in India.

“The company has shifted many buildings, where the maximum weight of the building was approximately 150 tonnes. This is first time we moved a house weighing around 400 tonnes. For this purpose, we utilised 300 rollers and 300 jacks,” Gurdeep Singh, chief engineer of the company said at a press conference here.

“A team of 12-15 workers over the past 60 days lifted the house by one-and-a-half feet and moved the house by 35 feet as on Monday,” Singh explained.

source: http://www.newindianexpress.com / The New Indian Express / Home> States> Tamil Nadu / by Express News Service – Coimbatore / May 14th, 2013

Collector visits villages on bike

April 1, 2013Amazing Feats, Business & Economy, Inspiration/ Positive News and Featuresadmin

Tiruvannamalai:

The inhabitants of the remote villages tucked away in Jawadhu Hills, about 70 km from here, got the shock of their impoverished lives the other day when their district collector came riding a motorbike to check on their needs.

The young IAS officer, Dr. Pingale Vijay Maruti, brought his additional collector T. Anand on the pillion, riding through 15 km of tough forest tracks winding along steep slopes amidst loose boulders to reach those miserable people and see firsthand the generations of neglect they have suffered through successive regimes. About 5,000 people live in these 11 villages that lack most of the basic needs, including schools, healthcare and ration shops.

“Almost all the people he met told the collector that their most vital need is a road to link them to civilisation. They carried their sick 17 km down the difficult forest track to reach the nearest PHC (public health centre), often too late, and carried the dead body on their shoulders for final rites at home. Moved by their plight, the collector has initiated steps to lay roads through the hills”, said a local official, who had struggled to keep pace with Dr. Maruti on that trip on Tuesday.

Asked for details, Dr. Maruti told DC that he met several village leaders during his motorbike ride up the hills and told them to activate their ‘forest rights committees’ for helping him to lay the roads. Under the forest laws, only thin paths of 3.5 metres width were allowed through reserved forests but the ‘forest rights act’ permitted exceptions to make life better for the inhabitants of inner villages.

Once the roads are completed, it would be possible to motor from Polur on Tiruvannamalai side to Jamunamaruthur and on to Amrithi on Vellore side. “A villager now has to either walk or take the bus on a circuitous route of over 50 km for this travel, whereas the new road will shorten the distance to 12 km”, Dr Maruti said.

“It’s been over two years since I rode a two-wheeler, but this ride was quite exciting. And very satisfying in its results”, added the collector, who hails from Nasik in Maharashtra.

source: http://www.DeccanChronicle.com / Home> News> Current Affairs / DC / March 29th, 2013

IIT-Madras ready for mass production of artificial blood

January 17, 2013Amazing Feats, Business & Economy, Education, Records, All, Science & Technologiesadmin

Chennai:

IIT – Madras scientists have blood on their hands — and nobody is complaining. A team of scientists from the department of engineering design has been successful in creating enough red blood cells from stem cells to be used as ‘artificial blood’ in people who need transfusion.

Having proved their oxygen-carrying capacity, the RBCs will now go into ‘mass production’ before starting human trials in three years, scientists said. The IIT team recently got a funding approval from the Union ministry of science and technology to produce artificial blood on an industrial scale. This blood would be tested on animals before human trials. If the trials prove successful, it will help hospitals overcome shortage of blood and save many accident victims.

“We will be able to provide any amount of safe and disease-free blood at half the cost of blood sold now,” said the study’s principal investigator, Dr Soma Guhathakurta, a visiting professor at the department of engineering design IIT-M.

In the past few months, Dr Soma and her team of researchers have made trillions of red blood cells – the carrier of hemoglobin that delivers oxygen to various body tissues and clears up carbon dioxide – on a Petri dish. They cultured adult stem cells derived from cord blood in the presence of some “easily nutritional supplements” for 17 days in the lab.

The stem cells, which are undifferentiated cells with the potential to turn into any cell, developed into red blood cells. The department of biotechnology (DBT) has recently approved a proposal from the scientists to develop a bio-reactor for large-scale production of artificial blood. The reactor will be built with support of IIT’s biotechnology department.

“We will simultaneously process papers for performing animal trials with the artificial blood. It will first be tested on anemic mice. If they are able to accept it and survive, we will take it to the next level,” he said. Scientists across the world have been working on artificial blood. While a French team has started human trials, a UK team is all set to follow suit. Dr Soma, a heart surgeon, says their research is different because unlike other cases, they have been able to exclusively produce red blood cells. So far nobody has been able to mass produce only red blood cells.

“Almost all earlier attempts have had at least 40% of white blood cells in the culture. Introducing such artificial blood into a patient with a weak immune system could be tricky. As a surgeon, I would prefer only red blood cells,” she said.

The IIT scientists say they did not use any expensive enzyme or growth factors. “Despite this, the yield was a billion times high. In a typical RBC blood bag, there are about a trillion (1 followed by 12 zeros) red blood cells. On our Petri dish we had a yield of about a quadrillion (1 followed by 15 zeros) cells from the starting point of about a million stem cells,” said Venkatesh Balasubramanian, associate professor in the department of engineering design.

The World Health Organization says a country needs a minimum stock of blood equal to 1% of its population. This means India needs 12 million units of blood, but collects only nine million units annually, though demand has gone up drastically. The cost of blood has gone up in the last few years as blood has to be subjected to several tests to ensure it is disease-free, says Dr K Selvaraju, former state blood transfusion officer. This could be avoided in artificial blood.

It may take at least five years for artificial blood to be available for clinical use as large-scale trials will follow. The research hasn’t been published in peer-reviewed science journals owing to the intellectual property concerns of the scientists. The researchers have applied for an Indian patent and are considering an international patent.

source: http://www.timesofindia.indiatimes.com / Home> India / by Pushpa Narayan, TNN / January 12th, 2013

Google Doodles Srinivasa Ramanujam on his 125th birthday

December 22, 2012Amazing Feats, Education, Historical Links, Pre-Independence, Leaders, Records, All, Science & Technologiesadmin

Indian mathematical genius Srinivasa Ramanujam is being honored the Google way on his 125^th birthday with a doodle. Born on December 22, 1887 in Madras, now Chennai, Ramanujam was mathematical wizard and his birthday is celebrated as National Mathematics Day in India.

Google’s Doodle shows an Indian child scribbling mathematical geometric figures in the formation of the word Google.

http://www.bgr.in/news/google-doodles-srinivasa-ramanujam-on-his-125th-birthday/

Ramanujam was introduced to formal education at the age of 10 and by the time he was 12 years old, he had covered advanced trigonometry and went on to discover his own theorems. As a teenager he carried out research on Bernoulli numbers and the Euler-Mascheroni constant.

While he was a mathematical genius he consistently failed examinations in other subjects that led him to change his college. He then took up a job and then sent samples of his work to the University of Cambridge.

At Cambridge, English mathematician GH Hardy called him to work alongside him. He went on to become a fellow of the Royal Society and a fellow at the Trinity College in Cambridge. He came up with 3900 results in mathematics. Most of these theorems were called unconventional at the time, but later have proven to be true. Prime examples of his work are the Ramanujam Theta Function and the Ramanujam Prime.

He passed away at the ripe age of 32 on April 26, 1920 in Chennai.

source: http://www.bgr.in / Your Mobile Life / Home> Google> News/ by Sahil ‘Bones’ Gupta / December 22nd, 2012

The Handwritten Story

December 2, 2012Amazing Feats, Arts, Culture & Entertainment, Historical Links, Pre-Independence, Records, Alladmin

Chennai-based The Musalman, considered the only surviving calligraphic newspaper in the world, is being archived in the Netherlands

In a nondescript building on Triplicane High Road, the oldest neighbourhood of Chennai, there’s an unusual newsroom. There is no din of the printing press or the frenetic urgency of “breaking news”. Instead, as the ceiling fan rotates without a noise, a group of four men and women sits on wooden desks with large sheets of paper in front of them. Using calligraphy pens, they carefully script the news of the day in Urdu. This is the office of The Musalman, possibly the only handwritten paper in the world, whose story has been featured in a recent documentary The Musalman: Preservation of a Dream. Not only this, the newspaper has also found a place at Tribal Perspectives in Netherlands, an organisation that archives ancient and rare publications from around the world.

Conceptualised and directed by Delhi-based Ishani K Dutta, the 10-minute film traces the legacy of The Musalman, a name that has survived 85 years of political, social and communal turbulence in India. From Syed Azmathullah who founded it, to Syed Arifullah, his grandson who currently heads it — the newspaper cherishes calligraphy, which has kept the 1927-born establishment together.

“I’ve been thinking of making a film on The Musalman for very long but had no sponsors. Then I approached the Ministry of External Affairs, who gave their support and we set off to make the film in 2010,” says Dutta. The task, however, was made difficult by Arifullah, who is exceedingly reserved and refused to talk to the crew. “But once he opened up, he had a whole treasure to reveal,” she says.

As the documentary concisely breezes through first-hand accounts of people who are part of The Musalman, the legacy is made clear by one visual — that of the dingy 800 sq ft office, which seems frozen in time. “There may be a few changes here or there, but largely, things have remained the same. You’d think you have been transported to 1927,” says Dutta. The film nevertheless sticks to the core of the publication — calligraphy, something they call “the heart of The Musalman”, and the respect and loyalty it has earned them.

The documentary, within three weeks of being uploaded on YouTube, received widespread positive response. “It was all over the social networking websites and many people called us to get in touch with Arifullah. People wanted copies of The Musalman and offer donations,” says Dutta. Arifullah, however, remains nonchalant to all this.

With a meagre salary of Rs 80 per day given to the ‘katibs’ or calligraphers, The Musalman is carefully penned word-by-word by them, most of whom have been working her for over 20 years. Interestingly, the chief reporter belongs to the Hindu community, and has been working there for over 30 years.

The paper gives crisp and ample space to international, national, local as well as sports news. While a blank slot is kept aside everyday for last-minute changes, a segment is also devoted to verses from the Quran. Its masthead, despite the shift in India’s political and communal landscape over the years, did not have to be changed. Explains Dutta, “While talking to them, I got the impression that this is because of the reverence the effort of calligraphy has garnered from loyal readers. Secondly, their content is balanced.”

Earlier this year, Dutta was approached by Tribal Perspectives, to whom she had sent a copy of the publication. It was followed by the organisation recently adding the newspaper to its collection of rare and ancient documents from the world over. There is, however, a faint doubt that laces everyone’s mind. How long will it last? “There is monetary pressure and there are very few loyal patrons left who give advertisements and buy the paper. It’s just the passion and pride of these people that keeps the newspaper going. I don’t think they know it yet but in its own small way, The Musalman has made history,” says Dutta.

source: http://www.indianexpress.com / Home> IE> Story / by Pallavi Pundir / Saturday, December 01st, 2012

From IIT-M, nano-scale device to detect big explosives

August 29, 2012Amazing Feats, Education, Records, All, Science & Technologiesadmin

Researchers at the Indian Institute of Technology, Madras, (IIT-M) have developed a novel device that can visually detect even a single molecule of TNT used in the making of powerful explosives. Apart from national security, this ultra-sensitive and highly selective detection method will have applications in early identification of diseases and in radiation prevention, the IIT researchers claim.

IIT-M creates nano-scale device to detect explosions

Chemistry professor Thalappil Pradeep and his students Ammu Mathew and P.R. Sajanlal reporated the principle behind this device in the online issue of the leading chemistry journal Angewandte Chemie on Aug 22.

They are now building the device that may be put to practical use soon. The science behind this explosive detector is rather involved and difficult to explain. In simple terms, the detector works somewhat like an alert traffic cop who spots a violator by simply looking at the traffic signal. In other words, if the suspected sample being tested is clean, the detector gives off a red glow on being irradiated with light of a particular wavelength. But if the sample contains the explosive TNT (trinitrotoluene), the signal changes to with a fluorescence microscope has been demonstrated by the IIT team to take place in the presence of even just one molecule of TNT — a lower limit that has not been achieved by any detector so far.

Pradeep heads IIT’s nanoscience centre and naturally the TNT sensor that his team has developed uses a combination of gold and silver nano-particles, which are particles of extremely small dimensions.

The entire detector system is just four millionths of a metre in size and its distinct star shape is of particular advantage because it is easy to unmistakably identify the colour change under the microscope, says Pradeep. According to the scientists, their novel approach “can be considered a single-particle, single-molecule detection technique which is probably the ultimate in ultra-trace sensitivity“.

The researchers have demonstrated that they can also detect extremely low levels of mercury – an environmental contaminant — using the same sensor strategy. They say the concept could also be used for the detection of very low concentration of other substances by incorporating appropriate molecules called “ligands’ on their sensor thereby opening up applications in catalysis, bio-imaging and other areas.

IANS

source: http://www.tech2.in.com / Home> News> Science & Technology / August 28th, 2012

Perambalur school sets record for largest salt flag

August 15, 2012Amazing Feats, Arts, Culture & Entertainment, Records, Alladmin

Students of Dhanalakshmi Srinivasan matriculation higher secondary school create the largest Tricolour made of salt in Perambalur as part of Independence Day celebrations on Tuesday. — DC

What better way to usher in Independence Day as we, the Indians, take a step into the 66th year of freedom by entering record books.

The 19-year-old Dhanalakshmi Srinivasan Matriculation Higher Secondary School in Perambalur on Tuesday set a record of sorts by creating the largest national flag.

The national flag measuring 45X30 metres was made using 20,500 kilograms of salt. Around 2,000 kg saffron colour powder, 2,000 kg green colour powder was also used to decorate the flag. About 500 kg of navy blue colour powder was used for the Ashoka Chakra.

The feat was accomplished in a matter of four-and-a-half hours. The event started by 7 am at Dhanalakshmi Srinivasan engineering college.

“The event happened in a magnificent way and exemplified that we Indians have yet not forgotten the salt march undertaken by Mahatma Gandhi and all the pains endured during the freedom struggle,” A Srinivasan, founder and correspondent, Dhanalakshmi Srinivasan Educational Institutions, said.

The record was adjudicated by Ms Catherine Boussard from London, UK and ambassador of Elite World Records, and Mr Simon Gerard, adjudicator of Asian Records Academy, Singapore. We have also applied to the Indian Records Academy, Mr Srinivasan said. Collector Dr Darez Ahamed of Perambalur district was the chief guest

source: http://www.DeccanChronicle.com / Home> Channels> Cities> Others / DC, Perambalur, August 15th, 2012

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