Doctors of the Department of Internal Medicine at Government Royapettah Hospital have brought out a book, Manual of Toxicology — An Indian Perspective, which, they say, will fill a lacunae in the knowledge about poisons.
“Most toxicology manuals are silent on many of the Indian posions, as they have been written from a western perspective. This book is based on our experience treating cases involving toxins,” says Dr. A. Shaik Sulaiman Meeran, one of the doctors who spearheaded this book project.
Dr. P. Paranthaman was the editor-in-chief. Dr. Sulaiman, Dr. A. Samuel Dinesh and Dr. D. Venkateswaralu served as associate editors and Dr. P. Raja as co-editor. The book has been brought out by Chess Educational Publishers.
Dr. Sulaiman says that knowing the sources of danger will prevent accidental ingesting of poisons or strikes by venomous reptiles and insects.
Knowing where to seek help will be a crucial factor in recovery.
He says snake bite cases from the southern suburbs, which include Tambaram and surrounding areas, parts of Old Mahabalipuram Road and East Coast Road are common. Anti-venom serum for treatment of bites by cobra, viper and krait is available. Government general hospitals have them.
Residents of semi-urban areas can face the problem of snake bikes, it is available in primary health centres, he says. Here is a word of caution. “Ninety percent of the sea snakes are poisonous and there is no anti-venom serum for them. Only supportive treatment can be given. Sea snakes are sometimes found near fishermen’s settlements. They get entangled in fishermen’s nets and are brought ashore. There is always a high possibility of finding them near fishermen’s hamlets on East Coast Road,” says Dr. Sulaiman.
source: http://www.thehindu.com / The Hindu / Home> News> Cities> Chennai / March 23rd, 2018
The Hindu ‘World of Women 2018’ awards that were given away on Friday celebrated talent, excellence and the accomplishments of women across various fields. The awardees were recognised not only for their contribution to their respective fields but also to society at large.
Nirmala Lakshman, director, The Hindu Group, welcomed the audience and the chief guest Kiran Bedi, Lieutenant Governor of Puducherry, gave away the awards to 11 achievers.
Mrs. Y.G. Parthasarathy, founder and dean, P. S. B. B. Group of Institutions, was awarded The Hindu Torchbearer award — recognising excellence in education. The 92-year-old came to receive the award with her grand daughter-in-law, who spoke on her behalf. “I began my career as a journalist with The Hindu. I was the first woman journalist back then and I remember interviewing the cosmonaut Yuri Gagarin. I still have miles to go in keeping up with technological developments. I accept this award with all humility,” she read.
R. Tara, director, SCARF, received the Excellence in Healthcare award. She recalled the story of a young girl, Shanti, from a village in Tamil Nadu, who topped her school but developed schizophrenia. Since her brother didn’t know how to handle her, she was chained near a cowshed for over a year. “Today, she can take up a part-time job,” she said.
Beno Zephine N.L., the first visually-challenged IFS officer, was awarded the Inspiration award, in absentia. The Entrepreneur award was given to Nina Reddy, joint managing director, Savera Hotel; Visalakshi Ramaswamy, founder of M.Rm.Rm. Cultural Foundation, received The Hindu Agriculture and Rural Development Award. Akhila Srinivasan, MD, Shriram Life Insurance, was presented The Hindu Business Woman Award. The team from Tamil Nadu, which won the 23rd National Women’s Football Championship, was awarded The Hindu Flying Colours Award for Excellence in Sports.
Supriya Sahu, IAS, Director General of Doordarshan, received the Contribution to Society award. “My journey as an IAS officer from U.P. and Bihar to Kanniyakumari and The Nilgiris district has taught me how much I can serve as a government officer,” she said. Dancer Malavika Sarukkai, who received The Hindu Heritage in Arts and Entertainment Award, spoke of the need to look at dance beyond the ‘performative’. Actor Nayanthara won the Dazzler award.
Lifetime of service
The Hindu Lifetime Achievement Award was given to V. Shanta, founder/chairperson, Cancer Institute, Adyar. “I dedicate this award to the memory of Dr. Muthulakshmi Reddy. It is 62 years today and I continue with this institution. We have been unique because we continue the same ethos even when health, which was a human service, has now become an industry,” she said.
“Each one of us women has fought our own battles to reach the centrestage; we must continue to be a support system for each other,” said Ms. Bedi.
source: http://www.thehindu.com / The Hindu / Home> News> Cities> Chennai / by Staff Reporter / Chennai – March 24th, 2018
Urmila Surana with her medal from the Mumbai Marathon | Photo Credit: The Hindu
Coimbatorean Urmila Surana on running marathons and preparing for the World Masters Athletic Meet in Spain later in the year
“I am young. At times my husband says that I am not, but I know better,” laughs 52-year- old Urmila Surana, who has participated in 25 marathons from 2015 and had a podium finish in all. “My daughters are both married and my responsibilities are over. Now is the time to explore my capabilities.”
Surana’s fitness routine is strict. “I wake up at 4.30 am, workout for an hour, finish the kitchen chores, go for swimming class, and badminton sessions. I also do yoga and have recently started cycling. I go to bed by 9.30 pm everyday. Sleeping early and taking a day off from workouts once a week is important for the body to recover.” She is also particular about her diet. “I am a vegetarian. So I eat lots of sprouts, sweet potatoes and drink orange and beetroot juice.”
Her interest in marathons began after reading an article on the Coimbatore Marathon. “I enrolled for the 10K in the veteran category. And I came first.” It took her six months to progress to 21K.
“That was also in Coimbatore and I came second.” But she doesn’t have good memories of this marathon. “I was tired and exhausted. I spoke to fellow runners and understood that I lacked strength training. So I enrolled for swimming lessons.” Playing badminton also helped her to build up her endurance.
In January, she participated in her first 42K at the Mumbai Marathon. “I could not sleep the previous night. I was worried about whether I would be able finish it. But it was smooth and I enjoyed the run. That evening I got a call saying I had got the second place for my time of four hours 30 minutes. I was surprised.”
Surana has run marathons in Chennai, Hyderabad, Bengaluru and Kochi. “The Hyderabad one was the most difficult. It was a 21K and we had to run over six steep bridges. This year I am going to enrol for the 42K with 16 bridges.”
She has been selected to represent India at World Masters Athletics Championships to be held in Spain in September. “The selection process was long. I had to clear the district, state and national level trials. I am now qualified to participate in 800m, 1500m, 5K and 10 K runs and the 5K walk.” She has been training since November last year. “My coach Vairavanathan gives me confidence. I am enrolling for the Kochi 42K marathon this year. If I win, I will get a chance to participate in the Boston marathon. I know I can do it.”
She believes that everyone should take some time out for themselves to stay fit. “One hour is all it takes.”
source: http://www.thehindu.com / The Hindu / Home> Life & Style> Fitness / by Susan Joe Philip / March 19th, 2018
Contrary to popular opinion, brown eggs aren’t more nutritious either. | Photo Credit: M. Moorthy
Mullipatti-based Happy Hens sells the country’s first brand of free range eggs that ensure the birds are treated more humanely and minus the antibiotics
Earlier this year, a report in the The Hindu highlighted how the wrongful use of antibiotics in the poultry industry was spawning global superbugs and skewing up the food chain. But this is just one of many problems plaguing the conventional poultry industry.
The battery cage system of rearing egg-laying hens is notorious for its disregard of hygiene and the natural behaviour of the birds. “In the conventional poultry farm, seven to eight hens are squeezed into a cage that is only about as big as an A4-size sheet of paper. Birds have no space to flap their wings or even stand comfortably. Commercial farms may be labour-effective, but they are bad for the animals,” says Ashok Kannan, co-founder of Happy Hens, the company that produces and sells one of India’s first brand of free range eggs.
Their brown to off -white colour is an indicator of the eggs being free range | Photo Credit: M. Moorthy
As the label implies, free range farming is based on a more humane treatment of animals, with extra attention paid to the feed.
In the case of Happy Hens, which has its main farm in the village of Mullipatti, (around 60 kilometres from Tiruchirappalli), this means that the birds get lots of space to express their natural traits such as scratching the ground for food, walking around, laying eggs in nesting areas (fitted with earthen pots) and eating feed that is based on a unique blend of grains, cereals and herbal infusions.
“The basic components of our feed are maize, soya, rice bran and groundnut cakes, combined with a 100% herbal formulation that works on building up the immunity of the chicken rather than merely treating the disease. When the bird’s immunity increases, the risk of disease reduces,” says Kannan.
And he adds just a moment later, “It’s our 36th feed formula since we opened for business in 2012.”
Cracking the solution
Ashok Kannan, co-Founder of Happy Hens | Photo Credit: M. Moorthy
Kannan, a person with disability caused due to polio, has shifted with his wife and two children from his hometown of Madurai, to oversee the operations at the Mullipatti farm. The leased 43-acre property houses a coconut plantation and native cattle, besides the poultry project. Kannan gets around the farm on an adapted cycle-rickshaw, and receives visitors in the same vehicle. “It’s my office and home,” he jokes.
“As I have been unable to move independently since early childhood, I thought that poultry farming would be an ideal agri-business for me,” he says.
“The egg is the most wholesome food in our diet, if it is produced in the right manner. I wanted to create something that my children would enjoy. We have a greater variety of food now, but it is much lower in nutritive value than that of our forefathers.”
The very first year, Kannan lost 800 of the 1,000 chickens that he started out with. He realised that he had got their diet wrong. A chance meeting with Bengaluru-based Manjunath Marappan helped them both reset their model, and enter into collaboration.
Manjunath Marappan | Photo Credit: Sudhakara Jain
“The first two years were just about identifying the right breed and standard of production, because there was no precedent for free range eggs at that time,” says Marappan.
“Ashok was very strong on the feed aspect, while my experience was more to do with marketing the eggs. In end-2012, we started working together, making the best of our strengths in the field.”
Marappan wound up his own Bengaluru farm and slowly shifted operations to Mullipatti in 2013. At present, he says, Happy Hens produces 4,000-5,000 eggs per day, and has 20 franchisee farmers in Ariyalur, Perambalur and Tiruchirappalli. Marappan is now building a second Happy Hens farm in Hiriyur, around 160 kilometres from Bengaluru.
Manjunath Marappan | Photo Credit: Sudhakara Jain
Egg facts
Happy Hens produces eggs that are brown to off-white in colour. This is a key indicator of the egg being free range, says Ashok. Anything that is conventionally produced will be evenly white, and weigh more or less 50 grams to a piece.
And, contrary to popular opinion, brown eggs aren’t more nutritious either. “The colour of the egg shell is actually determined by the chicken’s diet. And since our birds eat anything from our special feed to worms or termites, their eggs have different colours,” clarifies Kannan.
The eggs that don’t pass the 50 gram weight test are donated to local animal shelters and orphanages by Happy Hens. Currently, the farm’s stock of birds comes from the improved native breeds Khadaknath, Gramapriya, Cauvery, and Asil Cross.
A niche product is accompanied quite naturally by a higher price tag. | Photo Credit: M. Moorthy
The birds are sourced from Government agencies as day-old chicks, and then reared for five months before they are ready to lay eggs. At any given period, Happy Hens has 3,000 chickens at the growing stage, along with its normal layer birds.
“The hen can actually live up to 15 years in its natural state,” says Kannan. “But in our poultry farming model, the fertile period of the bird gets over in 20 months.” Some 200 mature layer hens are culled per week, their meat marketed in Bengaluru.
A niche product is accompanied quite naturally by a higher price tag. Will consumers be persuaded to pay ₹25 per piece when conventional eggs are easily available for as less as ₹4 to ₹6? “Why not give the free range egg its due credit?” says Marappan.
“The low cost of the conventional egg obviously comes by cutting corners. If we want to keep the chain of people involved in our industry — the farmers, retailers and consumers — happy, we must ensure these high prices. That’s how you can survive in this competitive world,” he says.
source: http://www.thehindu.com / The Hindu / Home> Life & Style> Food / by Nahla Nainar / March 15th, 2018
The first Indian woman botanist, E K Janaki Ammal, ought to be more widely known for her huge contributions to science. But she remains unknown within the country and outside academic circles and even our textbooks have failed to teach our children about her glorious scientific history
: Just a fortnight before the International Women’s Day, the John Innes Centre in Norfolk, UK, announced a new scholarship for post-graduate students from developing countries in honour of an Indian woman botanist. Under the scheme, 88 applicants who wish to study plant and microbial sciences can apply in commemoration of the distinguished work and contributions of Dr.E.K.Janaki Ammal who was an international alumni of the leading research and training centre between 1940 and 1945.
A heart warming gesture from an institution abroad, but may be India should have done something similar for the country’s first home grown woman scientist, who went overseas and returned accomplished breaking every caste and gender barrier through her work.
Just take a moment to think where we would be without the inventions of this brilliant mind.
Janaki Ammal in younger days | Photo Credit: Special Arrangement
After laborious crossbreedings in the laboratory of Sugarcane Breeding Institute in Coimbatore in the 1930s, she created the indigenous variety of sweetened sugarcane that we consume today. Till then India was producing sugarcane in abundance and yet importing as they were not as sweet as the ones grown in the Far East.
During the World War II bombings in the 1940s, she continued her phenomenal research into chromosomes of thousands of species of flowering plants at the John Innes Horticultural Institute, Norfolk, where she worked with some of the best names in cytology, genetics and botany . While working on the gorgeous Magnolia, she co-authored The Chromosome Atlas of Cultivated Plants with renowned biologist CD Darlington.
The magnolia saplings she planted on the Battleston Hill in Wisley continue to bloom every Spring and one of the pure white blooms is named after her, the Magnolia kobus Janaki Ammal and apparently only few nurseries in Europe have the variety today.
At a time when most Indian women did not even attend school, she received scholarship and obtained her MS from University of Michigan in 1925 and later returned as the first Indian Oriental Barbour Fellow. She remains one of the few Asian women to be conferred honorary doctorate (DSc. honoris causa) by her alma mater in 1931. There she discovered a new variety of brinjal that exhibited triploidy instead of the normal diploid, where there are two sets of chromosomes in the cells.
The flower Magnolia Kobus Janaki Ammal | Photo Credit: Special Arrangement
At the insistence of Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru, she returned to India in the 1950s and restructured the Botanical Society of India travelling to several remote areas of the country in search of the plant lore of the indigenous people and scouting for medicinal plants in her home State, Kerala.
A fascinating figure of the early 20th Century she was. E.K.Janaki Ammal lived a life which perhaps very few women of her time could dream of. The distinguished geneticist, cytologist, global plant geographer studied about ecology and biodiversity too and did not fear to take on the Government as an ardent environmental activist. She played an important role in the protests against the building of a hydro-power dam in Kerala’s Silent Valley in the 1970s. She made a mark with her paper on “Man’s Role in Changing the Face of the Earth” at an international symposium in Princeton in 1955 and two decades later, she was awarded the Padmashri in 1977.
With a profile like hers, Janaki Ammal never got into spotlight. If anything she fought her status as a single woman from a caste considered backward and problems with male mentorship in her field. But she proved through her work that Science knows no caste, gender or social boundaries.
Yet for her extraordinary journey from small town Thalassery to the finest institutions across the world, there is no archive related to her in India. Her papers are available only in hard copy at the Bodleian Library in Oxford, according to Vinita Damodaran, who teaches South Asian History at University of Sussex and has also published a well researched paper on “Gender, race and science in twentieth century India: E.K.Janaki Ammal and the history of science.”
Luckily, the Nikari series of talks held under the banner of ‘Manarkeni’, a Tamil research journal, brings to light the works of lesser known women in different fields. In the previous years, the focus was on women in literature and history. This year it chose science and brought the story of Janaki Ammal to the fore.
The talk delivered by S Krishnaswamy, former professor at the School of Biotechnology, MaduraiKamaraj University, highlighted various stages of Janaki’s career both in India and overseas. “Her career shows that scientists must speak their mind with social consciousness even if it means going against the policies of the government. In today’s context, it becomes necessary to bring achievers like her to the forefront,” he asserts.
Janaki Ammal must have conquered her fears and broke the glass ceiling for a rewarding career in science. “She wanted to be known only through her work. Let her work be known to all successive generations, who have much better opportunities” says Krishnaswamy.
An inspiring role model, Janaki Ammal passed away in 1984 at the age of 87 at Maduravoyal near Chennai, while working in the field laboratory of the Centre for Advanced Study in Botany, Univerity of Madras. She perhaps did not receive the acclaim she deserved but devoted herself to research, opening up a universe of possibilities. Let our children not be bereft of that knowledge. It is worth knowing and remembering leaders in science like Janaki Ammal.
source: http://www.thehindu.com / The Hindu / Home> Society / by Soma Basu / Madurai – March 09th, 2018
Even in this day and age, when any music is available at the click of a button, their passion propels them to keep adding hours of music to their personal stockpile.
They seek out the old and forgotten and curate them back to life. They hoard them, in thousands of hours, they revel in their possession — even if they can no longer ‘touch and feel’ it. They are the collectors of Carnatic music.
Even in this day and age, when any music is available at the click of a button, their passion propels them to keep adding hours of music to their personal stockpile.
There are many, like K.G. Sivaramakrishnan, a retired physics teacher and a die-hard Madurai Mani buff, who has about 700 hours of music in his possession. There are people, like Rajappane Raju, an oil industry professional and an avid photographer, who has built a collection of Sanjay Subramanian’s music by picking up every bit of his music put on sale. But people like Sivaramakrishnan and Raju are really small-timers in the collection game.
The big collectors are those who have tens of thousands of hours of music, and counting — result of decades of meticulous mopping-up of private pools of music, often lying in the cellar gathering dust.
S.L. ‘Yessel’ Narasimhan of Triplicane, Chennai, claims to own the “biggest collection of Carnatic music in the world” in his computer — about 60,000 hours of music. R. Sridhar, executive vice-chairman of IndoStar Capital Finance and a former managing director of Shriram Transport Finance, owned about 25,000 hours of music. R.T. Chari, a septuagenarian, who runs the TAG Corporation, is another major collector who merged his 10,000-hour collection with another huge trove of the Music Academy, the premier music and dance chamber in Chennai.
Yessel would track down a person who has old music — cassettes, spools, gramophone records, or even iwire — and talk him into gifting the huge collection. He never stops until he succeeds in his mission. He has no compunctions about having sometimes copied the music clandestinely, without the knowledge of the owner, for after all, there is no commercial angle here.
“Those who possess recordings generally are willing to share, but they fear the cassette or spool may not be returned and are loathe to part with it even for a few hours of recording,” says Chari. “Many people had old music recordings in the form of spools, but would say, ‘you bring the machine to my house and copy it here’, and that is what I did.” Sometimes, people died leaving a pile of music and their family, not being particularly interested in classical music, would happily hand them over to a collector like Chari or Sridhar.
Sridhar recalls a happy moment in 2003 when he made a big acquisition — about 2,500 concerts. An acquaintance of his, called Krishnamurthy, told him he had some music recordings and invited him home to see his huge collection — filling up the shelves. Just when Sridhar thought he had seen it all, Krishnamurthy pulled a big drawer from under the cot filled with cassettes. Krishnamurthy himself had built up the collection, copying private recordings of concerts from spools and gramophone plates.
When Krishnamurthy expressed his concern about safe-keeping of his stockpile, Sridhar offered to digitise the entire hoard. The cache changed hands. Meanwhile, Y. Prabhu, son of R. Yagnaraman, who was the secretary of Sri Krishna Gana Sabha, also donated recordings of around 1,000 concerts from the sabha archives to Sridhar, for remastering it digitally.
Chari’s story is similar, except that he began collecting earlier than Yessel or Sridhar.
Why do these people collect music? After all, there is only so much music a person can listen to in a lifetime! The answer is: to preserve for posterity.
Chari, who is the vice-president of the Music Academy, after donating his collection to the Academy, sets himself upon the task of digitising the whole lot. The Academy, in May 2008, made available a room and four full-time assistants. Chari, spending ₹ 30 lakh, has converted about 12,000 hours of music and “another 25,000 hours waiting to be converted.” Meanwhile, Mathew Chacko of the Precision Group of Companies developed a software for the Academy, gratis. The result of the effort can be seen in the archives of the Academy — it has ten terminals, with individual headsets, where any person can come and access music and dance according to the year, artiste or raga-wise. A researcher can compare the same artiste’s music over the years, or a raga sung by different people over decades and analyse the evolution of music.
Like Chari, Sridhar also donated his collection to the Yagnaraman Memorial Trust that he founded, in memory of the late secretary of Krishna Gana Sabha.
Yessel, who prefers to call himself an ‘archivist’ rather than a collector, says his 60,000 hours of music, available in hard disk, is a database for any researcher. He has put a lot of his music for public access at sangeethapriya.org.
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But how many access it? Unfortunately, not many.
For instance, the Music Academy archives gets not more than three visitors a day, says Chari. And the visitors are either students or junior artistes, who want to pick up tips from the masters or researchers. Rare is a visitor who wants to listen to the music for the pleasure of it.
“You have to make music available to people on their mobile phones,” says Sridhar, who, in collaboration with Yessel, attempted, in vain, to get people come to his ‘listening sessions.’ Now the two are jointly developing an app for that purpose.
That is the irony of Carnatic music today. While the supply has increased exponentially, both with new artistes coming onboard and collections in Cloud, the constituency of listeners has not gone up.
“Nothing can be done,” says Chari, nonchalantly, “Carnatic music is a complex system to understand.”
source: http://www.thehindu.com / The Hindu / Home> Entertainment> Music / by M. Ramesh / February 01st, 2018
TALE OF A TOWER: The Eastern Gopuram which stands testimony to the poignant tale of Vellayi, in the Srirangam Temple. Photo: S.R. Raghunathan
Eastern gopuram, symbol of sacrifice
On the eastern entrance of the Srirangam temple, there stands a white tower, popularly known as the Vellayi Gopuram. Residents of Srirangam call this east tower as the Vellai Gopuram. It is generally believed that the tower is so called since it has been painted white by the temple authorities. But the tower has actually been named after a Devadasi called Vellayi who had sacrificed her life to protect the idol of Namperumal from the Sultanate forces who had invaded the temple.
Srirangam was attacked by the Sultanate forces in the year 1323 during the Tamil month of Vaikasi. Nearly, 12,000 residents of Srirangam island had laid down their lives fighting to protect the temple. The forces attacked the temple and Lord Ranganatha’s jewels and the temple gold were taken away.
The forces also wanted to seize the idol of Namperumal, which they believed was made of pure ‘Abaranji’ gold. They searched for the idol but the Vaishnavite Acharya, Pillailokacharya had taken the idol away and fled to Madurai. (The idol of Namperumal that left Srirangam in 1323 returned back only in 1371).
Unable to locate the idol, the Sultanate forces killed the temple authorities and later launched a massive hunt for Pillailokacharya and Namperumal.
Fearing that the forces would capture the Acharya and the idol, Vellayi, performed a dance before the commander of the forces thus gaining time for Pillailokacharya to escape with the idol.
Her dance lasted for hours together and finally she took the commander to the eastern gopuram and pushed him down. After killing him, Vellayi jumped to her death from the tower chanting the name of Ranganathar.
Hailing Vellayi’s sacrifice, the chief of Vijayanagara forces, Kempanna, who drove away the Sultanate forces, named the tower after her. The gopuram continues to be painted white in her memory.
source: http://www.thehindu.com / The Hindu / Home> News> Cities> Tiruchirapalli / by T.A. Narasimhan / January 04th, 2012 & updated July 25th, 2016
Bama’s Karukku remains a trendsetter, 25 years after its publication
Long, long ago, 25 years ago, Karukku was published in Tamil by Ideas, of Madurai, in 1992. It was not a big name in literary publishing. Nor did Bama write Karukku as a literary work.
For her it was pages written in a notebook given by Fr. Mark to heal her wounds and the pain of her major decision to leave the convent. She was recovering from the trauma of having her utopia smashed. Never did anyone imagine that with Karukkua new voice in Tamil literature will start.
In full bloom
In fact, at a festival in 1993, the self-appointed ‘agmark’ literary critic Jayamohan had referred to Karukku as reportage. He still keeps spouting such comments.
What irked Bama the more was that people in her own village felt that she had written about them in “an ugly way”.Of course, the youth of Kandampatti laboured to change that opinion by reading aloud the text to the villagers. Bama was invited to her own village and felicitated.
In December 2017, Karukku’s 25th birthday celebrations were held in her village as a whole-day event with seminars, procession, dances and songs. Bama has mentioned in many places that it was the recognition she truly craved for and was gratified. Karukku is on the literature syllabi of many colleges and universities across the world today. Bama’s writings have also been dramatised. At 25, Karukku is in full bloom.
It is also important to understand that Karukku is the child of Ambedkar Centenary. As Bama said in an interview, if Karukkuwere published in the 80s, it probably would not have drawn this level of attention.
“When Karukku came out at that time, it fed that fire of social awareness,” she said. Though the works of Poomani and Imayam were already in circulation, the Tamil literary circle saw in them an extension of the social realist trend.
It is interesting to remember here that they did not wish to be classified as Dalit writers. That is primarily because Dalit discourse had not yet been brought into literary debate by the gatekeepers of Tamil literary criticism of that time.
Bama faced the brunt of it all. The tendency to discredit her literary potential died down only after Karukku was translated into English by Lakshmi Holmström. It got further validation with the awards that came its way and the many translations in different languages of the world.
Karukku defied genre classification. It was not a novel. The protagonist was not named. The story did not have a linear or non-linear structure. It had the quality of an oral narrative. It was not autobiography in the traditional sense.
It was not the story of one person. It was the story of a community. It painted the Tamil-Indian village from the perspective of the cheri, thus turning the socio-cultural geography upside down.
For those of us fed on Janakiraman and Kalki in Tamil, for the first time, the temple was not the centre of the village, and therefore, of the discourse.
Even progressive literary texts situated in rural Tamil Nadu hardly ever had the voices of women going about their everyday lives.
Bama peopled her texts with persons who were proud of their labour. They laughed, cursed, fought and cried; but were never cowed down by authority. Even the direst situation elicited at least a smirk in them.
Deceptively simple
Autobiography was not a flourishing genre in Tamil, as in the case of Marathi Dalit writing of that time. Among women’s writing in Tamil, Karukku was followed by Azhagiya Periyanayaki Ammal’s Kavalai, a documentation of the Hindu Nadar community women in the southern districts; Muthu Meenal’s Mul narrated how she won over leprosy; Muthammal Palanisamy’s Naadu vittu Naadu documented the migrant labourer’s story. So Karukku set the trend of autobiography, especially among women writing in Tamil.
Karukku challenged the time-worn tools of measuring aesthetic appeal. It forced a re-thinking of aesthetics, which is needed to make sense of this new, deceptively simple kind of writing.
Even the well-meaning, liberal readers/ critics were upset that her characters spoke obscene language in public with ease.
Again and again, Bama explained that she has captured the language of everyday life without any cosmetic facelift.
As we celebrate Karukku’s silver jubilee, Bama continues to enrich us with her compassionate reading of people. As she always says, she presents people who come her way. If that irritates or upsets readers, N.D. Rajkumar, the powerful Dalit poet, has an answer in this poem translated by Azhagarasan:
“When readers of communities other than my own
Read these…/ They will feel giddy, experience acute palpitation in the heart,
And intense, painful soreness in the eyes.
What is more, they will unlearn everything.”
source: http://www.thehindu.com / The Hindu / Home> Silver Jubilee> Lit for Life / by Mangai / January 06th, 2018
Rich tributes were paid to Kalakshetra founder Rukmini Devi Arundale for her immeasurable contribution in giving Bharatanatyam a respectful position among the arts at an event organised here on Monday to present the Hamsadhawani R. Ramachandran Award of Excellence to Kalakshetra Foundation, Chennai.
Mylapore MLA R. Natraj said Rukmini Devi Arundale took great efforts to chisel Bharatanatyam into a beautiful art form, retaining only what was good from its earlier version. He said she showed society that only the good will last long.
Industrialist Nalli Kuppuswami Chetti appreciated Kalakshetra for preserving Arundale’s work and teaching dance and music to students.
He said it was very apt that the R. Ramachandran (RRC) award was presented to such a great institution.
Kalakshetra Foundation chairman N. Gopalaswami, who received the award along with Kalakshetra Dance College principal Pakkala Ramadas, said Arundale was a godsend to revive Bharatanatyam.
Sabha secretary R. Sundar said RRC, founder secretary, would have turned 94 this month.
Hamsadhwani president Ramnath Mani, secretary T.R. Gopalan and religious exponent Dushyant Sridhar were present on the occasion.
source: http://www.thehindu.com / The Hindu / Home> News> States> Tamil Nadu / by Special Correspondent / Chennai – January 02nd, 2018
With Suvastra Designs, this NIFT graduate creates fashion for everyone, regardless of disability
Meet fashion designer Shalini Visakan, a pioneer in adaptive clothing style in India.
When big brands like Tommy Hilfiger and Burberry launched their adaptive clothing lines in 2016, they weren’t successful, mainly because their designs were wearable for only a certain category of the differently-abled.
The physique of each differently-abled individual differs according to their disorder and lifestyle, and Visakan understood this. She understood such requirements better, since her husband is also differently-abled. And that is how Suvastra Designs was born.
Ergonomic designs
She says, “We used to travel a lot, and every time he had to move, people wouldn’t know how to lift or handle him. So, I designed pants with handles to carry him along, with extra crotch length that would give space for his urinal cups, unlike normal pants. The important part is that it should also look good and formal.”
Visakan took it forward by designing a one-piece sari for her friend’s mother, who wasn’t allowed inside a temple because she was wearing a nightie. The sari has an attached blouse, inskirt, pleats and pallu.
She states, “My friend’s mother is very religious and had to stop visiting the temple since she couldn’t wear a sari any more. So, after looking at the clothes that I had designed for my husband, he requested me to do the same for his mother.”
“We either meet the customer in person or ask them to send a video about themselves to understand their demands. For example, thicker fabrics such as denim are used to stitch pants for someone with polio.
Likewise, for people with spinal cord problems, clothes are designed using materials that allow free air circulation. Velcro or elastic-attached towels are made for people who are fragile and unable to control their own body. People who are paralysed on one side of their body can use shirts with magnetic buttons and an easy-to-handle zipper,” she explains.
Bridging the gap
Her husband and pillar of support, Visakan Rajendiran, says, “In a country like India, people feel more comfortable attending a social gathering in traditional attire. We realised that there is a big gap between the clothes available in the market and the requirements of the people.”
The Trios fashion show, held at Hilton, Chennai, in January this year, was India’s first fashion show that had models on the ramp in wheelchairs, alongside able-bodied odels. Visakan took the initiative to include physically-challenged models, and designed outfits for the ramp.
She explains her intent, “The idea was to create awareness about an inclusive society. There is no need to be sympathetic. The disabled also live a normal, happy life. This show was not made to showcase their struggles or tell inspiring stories. It was instead a show where the platform about equality; to show that beauty is inclusive.”
The success of the event was soon evident, as a lot of people started approaching Visakan. Their recent ad shoot for Suvastra Designs showed a differently-abled model.
“We approached a lot of brands, offering to shoot for free, but the idea was rejected. Only then did we decide to shoot an advertisement for our own brand, Suvastra Designs. Many people weren’t able to tell that the model is differently-abled. We wanted this to be a motivating factor for others,” discloses Shalini.
Bigger gains
The custom-made clothes start from a basic price range of ₹1,000. The couple reveals that although the business isn’t profitable yet, they want to expand its reach, rather than focus on profits.
The couple is also planning to train differently-abled persons to groom themselves, maintain fitness, ramp walk and build confidence, so that they can enter beauty pageants. They also hope to expand their stores across India to cater to the larger population.
source: http://www.thehindu.com / The Hindu / Home> News> Cities> Chennai / by Priyadarshini Natarajan / December 29th, 2017
