Drawing Artists – It is business as usual at the mini hotel in the Cholamandal Artists’ Village in Injambakkam. / Photo: M. Karunakaran / The Hindu
Tucked away in a corner of the Cholamandal artist village is a canteen that has been serving scrumptious food to artists and the public for more than two decades.
Sixty-five-year-old Augustin Raj had come here in 1990 from Puducherry and started selling tea and snacks in the locality. Little did he know that he would befriend some of country’s well-known artists. “At any given time, one can find artists coming here for tea and snacks. During shows, they order for food in advance,” he says.
Here, one can find dishes like puri, barota, chapatti, pongal and varieties of rice. Fish items are however the most popular, says Aughustin.
Though the canteen has been around for a while, it was only eight years ago that it was thrown open for the public.
“Now, people can make their purchases from outside. Our prices are easy on the pocket and have people from all sects coming and enjoying food here,” he says.
All the food is cooked here and the canteen is run by the family. “We start our day early in the morning and keep the food fresh. We follow authentic recipes and that is the reason we have earned some regular customers,” he says.
The best time to come here is the weekends, after a nice drive along the East Coast Road.
source: http://www.thehindu.com / The Hindu / Home> Features> DownTown / by Vipasha Sinha / Chennai – May 31st, 2014
Hydro-geologist A. Gnanasekaran demonstrates the resistivity meter used to detect water sources below the ground. / Photo: Nahla Nainar / The Hindu
Old-school diviners and certified hydro-geologists are busy identifying sub-surface water zones in Tiruchi
So, you are among those who think that water comes from a tap? Spare a thought for the people who make a living scouting for aquifers below the ground – and have to get it right before the drilling equipment hits earth.
“Most builders don’t plan for long-term water usage or rainwater harvesting in Tiruchi,” says A. Thangavel, 59.
A seasoned ‘water diviner’ of the old school, Thangavel is a native of the nearby Kambarasanpettai village and claims to have “100% success” in finding water in and around Tiruchi since he started out in 1975.
Water diviner Thangavel with some of the traditional implements in his water dowsing toolkit. / Photo: A. Muralitharan / The Hindu
His toolkit (in a hard-backed suitcase) has an impressive collection of implements: pendulums of iron, copper, bronze and brass, a glass bottle, 20 types of rocks and a watch.
The armoury includes a copper dowsing ‘radar’ built along the lines of the old neem-wood witching stick (which Thangavel carries around separately). The coconut is missing, because it broke on his last assignment.
“I wait for people to call me for my services. Up to 2000, I was dowsing water using just a watch, for free,” says Thangavel. What follows next is an explanation based on iffy science: “There is an electrical charge in the flow of water that seems to react to certain groups of blood, but not to those who are overweight, non-vegetarian or diabetic,” he says. A positive blood group and ‘pure lifestyle’ are essential to becoming a water diviner, he insists.
Thangavel starts out with a copper wire, which indicates the presence of water, but not its depth. “I make a marking after studying the lie of the land and aquifer’s location. For this, I start with the copper wire, and then use these tools one by one – I note how activated each element is in that spot, and then finalise my marking,” he says, adding a survey could take anywhere between three to five hours, or more than a day for trickier calculations.
“These days I don’t answer so many questions because the customer doesn’t want to pay me for my trouble,” Thangavel says. So he has narrowed down his findings to just three issues: the availability of water, its depth and the long-term yield. His fees hover in the range of Rs.3000-5000.
Claiming to have boned up on his technique by reading ancient literature on water dowsing, Thangavel says that the construction boom in Tiruchi has led to an increase in the need for water diviners. “But most of them are doing stuff blindly,” he says dismissively. “Water dowsing has been in existence for many centuries throughout the world, but in India it has no official certification.”
Traditional diviners and qualified hydro-geologists have little choice but to co-exist in the crowded marketplace, says A. Gnanasekaran, who has been marking groundwater spots for over 24 years now.
Gnanasekaran decided to specialise in hydro-geology after working on his 1990 Anna University post-graduate project that surveyed geophysical methods to explore groundwater supply and using that technology to help farmers.
While he dabbled with commercial work for a while, Gnanasekaran says he works for the government as well – he is in fact certified by the authorities to scout for water in the districts of Tiruchirappalli, Dindigul and Tiruvallur.
Tiruchi is a winner in the rock formation stakes, says Gnanasekaran, as its alluvium, the fertile layer of soil and sediments deposited by the Cauvery river, is an excellent source of water zones within 30 to 40 feet and is regularly recharged.
“The further you move away from the river banks, to Musiri, Uppiliyapuram and so on, you will find hard rock formation,” he says.
Gnanasekaran and his team of four geologists use the resistivity meter, approved by the National Geophysical Research Institute (NGRI) and the ‘Schlumberger method’ to test for the presence of potable water and that for irrigation. “We work on plots between three to 40 acres,” he says. “We start by studying the local geology and bore-well locations, and calculate our costs based on the extent of land and time required for the calculations. The government has stipulated Rs. 1800 as the charge per water marking. This is what I charge the farmers too,” he says. The rates are higher for institutions or industries.
“Very often customers come to us after they have become confused by traditional water diviners’ markings. Actually we are testing for the conductivity (power to transmit heat, electricity or sound) of the soil rather than for water,” says Gnanasekaran. “The higher the resistivity (the power of resistance to an electrical charge), the lesser the chance of water being there.”
But broadly, Gnansekaran tries to coincide his findings with the calculations of the old-school diviners, to keep everyone happy. “I interpret the result based on my experience, and pinpoint the area personally first. The exact calculations on water depth in relation to its resistivity will be available next day in the form of a computer-generated graph,” he says.
The shallow water layer is almost dry in Tiruchi, says Gnanasekaran. “Around 95% of well irrigation systems, which use water from within 100 feet depth, have died out. In recent years, we have been going for water within 200-300 feet, but even this is drying up slowly. Now the government recommends deep wells of 600-800 feet,” he adds.
Though new software has made it easier to calculate resistivity levels, it is costlier, and therefore less viable for small projects, says Gnanasekaran, who also runs the Annai Trust, an NGO that works with socially and financially disadvantaged people.
A spell of rainy days can deprive water diviners of their livelihood, but Thangavel is confident of training others to take it up.
Gnanasekaran is concerned about the over-exploitation of water resources, but says he steps back once the aquifer has been identified. “I don’t have a role to play in what happens to the water after this,” he concludes.
source: http://www.thehindu.com / The Hindu / Home> Features> MetroPlus / by Nahla Nainar / Tiruchirapalli – May 30th, 2014
Farmers taking an oath to increase land area under pulse production. – Photo: Special Arrangement / the Hindu
The project has been started in Edaiyapatti panchayat in Pudukottai
Pudukottai district is one of the driest regions in Tamil Nadu. The major crops under tank fed and open well irrigation system in this region in Tamil Nadu are paddy, millets, black gram and groundnut. Pulses like green, black and red gram are generally grown as a rainfed crops especially during summer.
But the harvested pulses do not fetch a good net income because of low yields due to pest and disease attack and poor processing facilities for value addition.
New project
The M.S. Swaminathan Research Foundation (MSSRF), working in Illuppur taluk, Annavasal Block, Pudukottai district, for the past seven years to improve the livelihoods of small farmers, designed a project for increasing the production of pulses in the region.
Accordingly the foundation successfully facilitated farmers from five panchayats in the taluk to form a farmers’ federation called South Vellar Agri Producer Organisation (SVAPO) in which 600 women and men farmers are paid shareholders.
Nearly 50 per cent of members are pulse growers whose seeds are much sought after by the state seeds department in a buy-back agreement.
“The concept of the Pulse Panchayat movement evolved spontaneously from the farming community in Edaiyapatti Panchayat. The community passed a resolution to put the maximum available land (474 acres) into pulse production in collaboration with National Pulse Research Station, Vamban, Government Agriculture department, and the foundation,” says Dr. R.S.Shanthakumar Hopper, Director, Ecotechnology, MSSRF.
Training
The farmers’ field school trained them to cultivate pulses with new climate-smart agriculture technologies like accessing quality seeds, pest and disease resistant varieties, soil health cards, seed treatment, foliar spray of DAP (Di Ammonium Phosphate) / pulse wonder (a booster with nutrients and growth regulators developed by the Tamil Nadu Agriculture University specifically for pulse crops), line planting, intercrops, integrated pest and disease management options and post harvest processing for drying etc.
The village knowledge centre provided timely and area specific information on climate smart agriculture technologies, market prices, animal health care, monsoon behaviour and government schemes through phone in programmes, voice and text messages to enhance pulse productivity and profitability.
Monsoon failure
“We faced severe monsoon failure in the year 2012 and 2013 but have managed to cultivate pulses in 406 acres. We are planning for a “pulse panchayat movement” of 1,000 acres in June-August and in September -December 2014 seasons in five panchayats especially on pulse seed production and consumption to combat protein hunger and adapting to drought confidently,” says Mr. Palaniyappan, president of SVAPO.
A significant achievement in this project is that as a result of a series of farmer participations in this movement was the move from traditional black gram (T9) variety towards Vamban 4 (VBN 4) variety which is resistant to virus and pest attack. In fact several farmers have preferred Vamban variety as it yields more and increases income for them.
“The experience in Maharashtra in organizing pani (water) panchayats has shown the value of group endeavour in water harvesting, storage, saving and sharing. India continues to import three to four million tones of pulses every year and thus the initiative of the Edaiyapatti panchayat in initiating a pulse panchayat movement is timely and important development in the history of pulses production in our country,” says Prof M.S.Swaminathan.
Recognition
The foundation was conferred the Bhoomijal Samvardhan Puraskar — National ground Water Augmentation award 2010 for promoting innovative practices of groundwater augmentation which complements the Pulse Panchayat Movement says Dr. R.S.Shanthakumar.
To know more farmers can contact Dr. Shanthakumar Hopper, mobile: 09445394394 and Mr.K. Thachinamurthy, Project Coordinator, M.S.Swaminathan Research Foundation, Samathanapuram, Illuppur – PO, Pudukkottai District, Tamil Nadu, email : thachinamurthy@gmail.com, Mobile 9626737207.
source: http://www.thehindu.com / The Hindu / Home> S & T> Agriculture> Farmer’s Notebook / by M. P. Prabu / May 21st, 2014
Inmates of the Special Prison for Women in Vellore, apart from serving their jail term, are also receiving hands-on training in manufacturing sanitary napkins, which would be disbursed to girl students of the government schools under the State government’s Free Sanitary Napkin Project to promote the health of adolescent girls.
The napkin manufacturing unit was established on March 28, with financial aid from the Confederation of Indian Industry and TITAN Limited that supply raw materials to the prison unit. Additional Director General of Police (Prisons), J K Tripathy said that the napkin manufacturing units were also functioning in the Central prisons in Puzhal in Chennai and Tiruchy.
Through this initiative the government aims to promote the health of adolescent girls and ensure reproductive health of women by providing napkins to the government schools, government hospitals and Primary Health Centres in the State.
Inmates serving life term have been engaged in production of napkins. A total of 58 life convicts are engaged in this project. “All the life convicts are trained in manufacturing napkins. A total of 15 life convicts have been engaged in manufacturing napkins for six hours from 8 am to 11.30 am and 1.30 pm to 4 pm on a daily basis,” Superintendent of the Prison, R Rajalakshmi told Express.
This one-month-old napkin manufacturing unit produces 1,500 sanitary napkins per day, said the official. “We will improve the productivity in the coming days. We also ensure high quality and hygiene as the products are disbursed only after sterilszation,” said the superintendent.
Until four years ago the inmates in the Central prison had been manufacturing handmade napkin but its production came to a halt recently after the contractors failed to supply raw materials, particularly cotton, for manufacturing napkins from Mumbai. “Four years back we had been supplying the handmade napkins to two Central prisons for women and 11 sub-jails for women in the State. Now, again we have started production of the napkins,” said another official.
source: http://www.newindianexpress.com / The New Indian Express / Home> States> Tamil Nadu / by J. Shanmugha Sundaram / May 26th, 2014
Planes have started to roll on the country’s first runway with a bridge. Two flights — an A320 and a B737 — landed on the secondary runway at Chennai airport on Saturday, for the first time after it was extended across Adyar river at a cost of 550 crore.
The pilots had to peer out of the cockpit to control the plane’s altitude, speed and navigate because instrument landing system (ILS), which sends out signals that help a jetliner to home in on a runway, has not been installed.
An Air India Port Blair-Chennai flight was the first to land on the runway at 2.42pm and a Jet Airways flight from Goa to Chennai landed at 4.16pm. It was part of Airports Authority of India’s (AAI) efforts to commission the runway for use.
“Pilots followed visual flight rules as the runway does not have ILS. The runway was found to be fine and the landing proved that A320 and B737 can use it for landing without hassle,” said a senior AAI official.
The AAI has decided to use the second runway only when main runway is closed for maintenance. Besides the fact that it does not have ILS, there are restrictions on its usable length and available space for flight movement.
Director General of Civil Aviation (DGCA) cleared the runway as safe for use in March. Officials were satisfied with the third-party study conducted by Anna University after aviation experts raised concerns on safety of the runway bridge.
The bridge was built to extend the runway length to 11,500ft. In June 2013, DGCA asked the AAI to appoint an independent agency to evaluate the structural safety of the runway bridge. tnn
source: http://www.timesofindia.indiatimes.com / The Times of India / Home> City> Chennai / TNN / May 11th, 2014
The pioneer of the 24-hour medical clinic in Malaysia, Dr K.M. Reddy, has died at the age of 88.
Dr Reddy, who set up 25 clinics nationwide more than 50 years ago, died in London on April 19.
Dr Romel D’Silva, who ran one of his clinics and worked with him for about 40 years, described him as “a man for all seasons, who would help people regardless of their background”.
“The clinics were his innovation, his brainchild. There were none in Malaysia at the time and so he contributed a lot in this regard,” he said.
Dr Reddy was the eldest son of a landowning family in Madras, India. After graduating from Madras Medical College, he travelled to Malaysia in 1952 to further his career in medicine, dedicating his first 10 years to government service.
He started his career at the Penang General Hospital, which was then considered the medical headquarters of Malaysia.
“He started out as a general practitioner at the Penang General Hospital looking after the TB clinic there, and later a leprosy clinic in Pulau Jerejak,” Dr D’Silva said.
“In 1957, he went on to become director and head of the Sungai Buloh leprosy settlement, the second largest leprosy settlement in the world.”
There, Dr Reddy was dedicated to eliminating public prejudice against leprosy and assisting patients in their return to society.
“He was the first to start discharging leprosy patients. However, the government at the time thought it unsafe, even though by then they were not infectious or posed any threat to society,” Dr D’Silva said.
He left in 1965 to open his own private practice in Jalan Ipoh, Kuala Lumpur, which he ran daily until 9pm.
“His practice soon got a lot busier and it was then he thought it best that he run it for 24 hours,” Dr D’Silva said.
The clinic was equipped with advanced facilities and was staffed by four doctors.
“The original clinic was the biggest and busiest. After a while, he encouraged the doctors there to set up more branches elsewhere,” he said.
“The first branch was in Jalan Othman, Petaling Jaya, and the second in Setapak. By the time I first met him, he had set up 21 more clinics.”
Dr Reddy was a founding member of the Malaysian Medical Association. His pioneering work was at the forefront of rehabilitation projects, which the World Health Organisation and International Leprosy Association helped to develop further.
He was known to treat those in greatest need without charge. Such was his generosity that when in Bagan Datoh, Perak, he was known to receive gifts of coconuts in lieu of payment.
He moved to England in the 1970s where his five children and six grandchildren were educated and settled. Among his four daughters and a son, two of them — one daughter and the son — also became doctors.
Dr Reddy’s eldest daughter Jothi, who is a lawyer, said her father’s natural kindness and generosity carried over among his own children.
“He would often offer free services to those who couldn’t afford them,” she said.
“He was also a mentor to many and helped guide and inspire others to achieve their very best.”
The booming cotton business attracted the Telugu community to the city in 1970s. Andhra Pradesh also being cotton producing state then and the growth of Coimbatore nearby as an industrial belt, the textile city was naturally a place for many Telugus to come and set up their business.
Down the years, many Telugus who came to work in banks and IT sectors also made the city as their second home.
ASN Murthy, a chartered accountant from Andhra Pradesh, came to the city in 1970s to prepare for his CA exams and completed the course successfully. He then entered into cotton business and being quite successful settled in the city.
Murthy, who is also the secretary of the Coimbatore Telugu Samithi, said several people like him from the neighbouring state have made the city their second home.
“Coimbatore is a peaceful and enterprising place where anyone who is willing to work hard can prosper. This has brought many from our region to this city,” he said.
Though the Telugu community is known as a prosperous community, Murthy said they were a heterogeneous community. “Apart from businessmen, there are professionals like doctors and chartered accountants to labourers from our state who have come and made this their home,” he said.
Organisations like Telugu Samithi organise events and celebrate festivals like Ugadi and Samkranthi to keep their culture alive. Folk dances and traditional programmes are held on a regular basis. Traditional art forms including folk dramas and kuchippudi are also conducted.
“We still include mango pickles and other traditional Telugu dishes in our regular diet. We have integrated into the city at the same time maintain our culture,” said Murthy.
“There is a large number of Telugu speaking people who had settled down here many decades back. They speak Telugu though they may not be able to read or write Telugu,” said Rajesh Govindarajulu, a history enthusiast.
source: http://www.timesofindia.indiatimes.com / The Times of India / Home> City> Coimbatore / by Arun P. Mathew, TNN / May 12th, 2014
Indra Nooyi is the Charman/CEO, PepsiCo, a highly profiled and globally acknowledged businesswoman. Indra has entered into popular culture as the self-made female CEO. Indra began her career in her native India, working at Johnson & Johnson and textile company Mettur Beardsell, after studying for a BS from Madras Christian College in Physics, Chemistry and Mathematics and an MBA from the Indian Institute of Management Calcutta. She moved to the USA in 1978 to study for a Master’s degree in Public and Private Management at Yale, interning at consultancy Booz Allen Hamilton during her studies. She then joined Boston Consultancy Group, followed by managerial positions at Motorola and Asea Brown Boveri, before joining PepsiCo in 1994.
At PepsiCo, Indra has headed up the company’s global strategy for more than a decade, as senior vice president of corporate strategy and development between 1996 and 1999, senior vice President and CFO of the company in 2000 and 2001, President and CFO from 2001, President and CEO from 2006 and CEO and Chairman from 2007. She has overseen major changes for the business, including the acquisition of Tropicana (1998), merger with Quaker Oats (2001) and divesture of the restaurant company later known as YUM! Brands, inc. (1997). 2010 saw the completion of PepsiCo’s $7billion takeover of Pepsi Bottling Group and PepsiAmericas, leading to the formation of the wholly-owned subsidiary Pepsi Beverages Company. The acquisition of Wimm-Bill-Dann Foods in 2011 was the company’s largest ever international takeover, making Pepsico the number one food and beverage provider in Russia.
Indra has a considerable public profile, being regularly ranked among lists of the world’s most powerful women, including in Forbes and Fortune – the latter naming her the most powerful woman in business each year from 2006-2010. Forbes also ranked Indra third in their list of ‘Most Powerful Moms’ and media attention often centres on her position as a role model for women (and mothers) in the business place. Honours and awards include her election to a fellowship at the American Academy of Arts and Sciences in 2008, being titled CEO of the Year in 2009 by the Global Supply Chain Leaders Group and being named in the Best CEOs list published by Institutional Investor in their All-America Executive Team Surveys from 2008 to 2011.
Indra is married to Raj K. Nooyi and the couple have two daughters. The family is based in Connecticut.
In own words, “I grew up in the south of India in a city called Madras, about 10 million people there, now it’s maybe 15 or more. And I grew up in a city where there was no water. Every morning, my mom would get up at 3:00 or 4:00 a.m. in the morning and she’d wait for the taps to start releasing water because the corporation would release water from the central reservoir and water would trickle in. My mom would find every pot and pan to fill water in and to give the kids and my dad three containers of water, which was your quota for the day. And you’d learn how to wash yourself, to clean yourself, your uniform had to be washed in it, everything with those three containers of water.”
“In the case of Gossip Girl, it really improved my standing with my kids because I never watched the show. I don’t even know what the show is about except that I got a little text from my daughter saying, “Mom, what happened? Why are you on Gossip Girl?” And I said, “Did I do something bad that they’re gossiping about me?” She said, “No, Blair wants to be like you.”
with me. If you think of a name like, you know, a simple name versus say name that’s kind of complicated like Indra Nooyi, I think it sounds a little bit more exotic. So, it has nothing to do with the person and all to do with the name. That’s my story, and I’m sticking with it.”
“I’m going to tell you something from first-hand experience. Of all the countries in the world, the US is still the most open and the most welcoming country bar none. I don’t see any evidence of anything changing in a meaningful way.”
“We need jobs and I am not talking about 5,000 or 10,000 jobs, we need several 100,000 jobs fast so that we get confidence back in the economy, we can get people back to work then have the multiplier effect of people going back into construction jobs and then the multiplier effect of them dragging other jobs with it.”
“Growing up in India, I had a long-distance love affair with America. I admired everything about this country — its ideals, its commitment to justice, equality and its willingness to break barriers.”
While Indra advises business people to be ambitious in their careers – “there are no limits to what you can do” – she argues that “it isn’t money, prestige, or power (which constitutes success) because net worth can never define self worth.” Rather people should work out what fulfils them personally – “devoting your time, your life, to doing what you love most.”
She also wants her company to make the world better and expand at the same time:
“I watched the incredible meltdown of the global economy because there was a singular flaw in capitalism. Capitalism lost its conscience. There was a maniacal focus on today; there was a maniacal focus on 24 hours out. People forgot what the consequences of each of their decisions would be for society at large because they didn’t worry about the stakeholders; they worried very narrowly about a narrow group of shareholders.
“So, performance of purpose was born, and performance of purpose only means deliver great performance while keeping an eye on all of the stakeholders. So, you as a company can do better by doing better. It is not corporate social responsibility. Every aspect of purpose delivers profit. When you use less water, you have lower costs. When you use less energy, you have lower cost. When you do a plant-based product, PET bottles and plastic bottles, you have less commodity volatility, you deliver more profit.
“Performance and purpose are linked; it is not corporate social responsibility. But it’s born out of a deep-seeded experience that I’ve had, and it’s also born out of the nature of society today.”
Indra has always stressed the importance of sustainable and ethical business, in part stemming from her childhood experiences: “you can’t have a large corporation using excess water in a town where there’s no water to eat or drink or live – I think that’s a fundamental problem with this.”
Behaving responsibly is, for her, entirely compatible with wider business goals: “Success comes with reaching out and integrating with the community…and giving back to the communities and neighbourhoods, more than what you took out of them.”
She particularly emphasises the importance of women being able to express and pursue their ambitions, listing her own mother as one of her “greatest role models”
For women to succeed in business she sees them as having to “help each other — coaching, mentoring, and providing tips.” She explains: “we all understand the issues we face. Many of us work in important jobs where we can also help other women navigate a world that is not so full of women.”
source: http://www.businessdayonline.com / Business Day / Home> Leading Woman / May 02nd, 2014
The Making of the Madras Working Class./ Photo by D. Veeraraghavan / The Hindu
High Court and Napiers Park saw the country’s first May Day celebrations
On the evening of May 1, 1923, as factories across the country were winding down for the day, labourers of Madras city revelled in the first recorded May Day celebrations of the country at Triplicane Beach. Legend has it that it was in the celebrations near Madras High Court and Napiers Park that red flags were first unfurled.
The events which led up to this day reveal a dramatic story which saw the city becoming an arena where volatile class wars were waged.
India’s first organised labour union was born near the Perambur Barracks in the vicinity of the Buckingham and Carnatic Mills of Madras. Selvapathi Chettiar and G. Ramanjalu Naidu, shopkeepers whose shops were patronised by millworkers, on hearing about the appalling working conditions in factories, resolved to form a union.
Providing the historical context, A. Sounderajan, CPI (M) MLA of the Perambur constituency, says, “Workers were treated like slaves in the mills. With the end of the First World War in 1918, the management revoked concessions it had granted for uninterrupted production. Discontent was high but news of the Bolshevik Revolution in Soviet Russia instilled hope.”
The specific incident which propelled action was the plight of a B&C millworker who was left no choice but to soil his work station on being forbidden a break to relieve himself. Outraged at the humiliation meted out to a fellow worker, as many as 10,000 employees of Carnatic mills, Perambur Works and other factories assembled at the Janga Ramayammal Garden at Stathams’ Road in March 1918. TV Kalyanasundara Mudaliyar (Thiru Vi. Ka.) editor of Desa Bakthan, and B.P. Wadia the Parsi theosophist, over the next month, delivered a series of lectures on the need for collective action by labourers. Finally, on April 27 1918, the Madras Labour Union (MLU) was launched with B.P. Wadia as its first president.
B. P Wadia, the first president of the union. / The Hindu
Five years after the first labour union in the country was inaugurated, Singaravelar Chettiar, a labour activist commemorated May Day. Urging Indian labourers to join in the celebrations, he said that the occasion would serve as a source of strength as on this day, workers across the globe would unite in a show of power.
One can only imagine Napiers Park and Triplicane resounding with stirring union sloganeering — Reduce working time! Better Wages! More Leave!
source: http://www.thehindu.com / The Hindu / Home> News> Cities> Chennai / by Nitya Menon / Chennai – May 01st, 2014
Supraja Saikumar (right) and Saranya Damodaran. / Photo: M. Srinath / The Hindu
From creating terracotta jewellery for personal use, Supraja and her sister are now teaching the art to others. Vipasha Sinha meets the duo
Terracotta jewellery has found a special place in every woman’s life. It is eco-friendly, colourful and goes with almost everything. Cashing in on the trend are Terracotta sisters who organise regular workshops in T. Nagar.
Supraja P. Sasikumar and Saranya Damodaran learnt the art of terracotta jewellery-making so that they could make their own jewels. Eventually, they decided to teach others the art.
“I’ve always been passionate about jewellery and keep up with the latest fashion. I heard about terracotta jewellery and wanted to learn how to make it. I joined a class three years ago,” says Supraja.
She regularly made jewellery for herself and people always took notice of her accessories.
“Making a piece of jewellery for oneself is different from teaching others. I prepared for three months and my sister helped me out. I am a research scholar and a professor at Adhiparasakthi Engineering College. It is the teaching instinct that led me to do research before starting my classes. Since a year ago, we have been conducting regular classes during the weekends and teaching anyone above the age of eight. We have taught around 350 students,” she says.
At Supraja’s workshop, one can learn to make varieties of studs and jhummkas, anklets and she also teaches how to make Ganesh idols out of terracotta. “The session is inclusive of designing and painting,” she says.
The workshop is held every weekend at 101/35 Bazullah Road, T. Nagar, next to Vivek and Co. For details call 7708752662.
source: http://www.thehindu.com / The Hindu / Home> Features> Downtown / by Vipasha Sinha / Chennai – May 01st, 2014
