Category Archives: Records, All

Hidden Histories : A portrait of the past

Arts, Culture & Entertainment, Historical Links, Pre-Independence, Records, All
Going Out, a painting by Raja Ravi Varma, depicts Allamai (Aloo) Khareghat, of a well known Bombay-based Parsi family / The Hindu
Going Out, a painting by Raja Ravi Varma, depicts Allamai (Aloo) Khareghat, of a well known Bombay-based Parsi family / The Hindu

Last week brought the heartening news that the National Art Gallery at the Egmore Museum complex is to be restored at a cost of Rs. 11 crore.

For years, heritage activists have feared that the weak dome would soon collapse.

The Empress Victoria Memorial Hall as it was originally named, had its foundation stone laid on January 26, 1906 by the Prince of Wales, later King George V. Designed by Henry Irwin, it is inspired by Akbar’s Bulund Darwaza in Fatehpur Sikri, though much smaller in size. Completed in February 1909, it became home to the Victoria Technical Institute. In 1951, it became the National Art Gallery, displaying some of the country’s best paintings.

A personal favourite among these, and which I hope will be displayed at a prominent place when the building is restored, is Allamai (Aloo) Khareghat, of a well known Bombay-based Parsi family. It is a rather unusual work of the painter who was better known for his portraits of gods, goddesses, kings, queens and stunningly beautiful women. This is a portrait of a shy Parsi girl, clutching a parasol and setting out for a walk. The story behind the painting is given in Rupika Chawla’s Raja Ravi Varma, Painter of Colonial India(Mapin Publishing, 2010).

The subject is Allamai (Aloo) Khareghat, of a well known Bombay-based Parsi family. Ravi Varma and his brother Raja Varma were frequent visitors to Bombay and while there, became very close to the Khareghats. The artist, according to his sibling, greatly enjoyed conversing with Allamai, who was, “a very intelligent lady having a thorough English education.” One day, Ravi Varma was particularly fascinated by a pose that Allamai struck as she stepped out for a stroll and captured it on canvas.

In 1902, Allamai moved to Madras where her brother Meherwanjee Rustomji Khareghat worked for the PWD. She married Rustom T. Patel, a businessman of Ooty and made her home there. In 1926, the couple’s daughter Mary married Nogi P. Clubwallah, who came from a front-ranking Parsi family of Madras.

Widowed early, Mary dedicated her life to social uplift, joining the Guild of Service, becoming an honorary presidency magistrate and remaining for life a magistrate of the Juvenile Court. Her contributions to the war effort earned her the sobriquet ‘darling’ of the Army from Gen. Cariappa.

In 1952, she founded the Madras School of Social Work, which is now recognised by the government as an institution of higher education. The MSSW pioneered several things we take for granted today — meals on wheels, health centres, bakery units and schools for the deaf. Mary Clubwallah-Jadhav (she married again) was nominated to the Madras Legislative Council in 1946, serving three terms. All this is only a part listing of her contributions and achievements.

In 1952, the Khareghats donated the Ravi Varma painting to the Government Museum. Allamai Khareghat-Patel was present in person as was her daughter. A photographer captured the old lady, standing beside her depiction in the first flush of youth.

source: http://www.thehindu.com / The Hindu / Home> News> Cities> Chennai / by Sriram V. / Chennai – May 14th, 2013

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

Amazing Feats, Historical Links, Pre-Independence, Nature, Records, All, Science & Technologies
Workers in action during the task of relocating the house on Mettupalayam Road in Coimbatore | EPS
Workers in action during the task of relocating the house on Mettupalayam Road in Coimbatore | EPS

In a mammoth task, a 400-tonne house with a ground plus one structure, is being lifted and relocated from its original location at Saibaba Koil in Coimbatore. So far, engineers have been able to shift it to a location 35 feet away from the site where the house stood. The structure will be moved further away by five feet.

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.

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. | EPS
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. | EPS

“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

Tamil Nadu: Boys corner top two ranks in Plus-2 exam

Education, Records, All
Kaavya’s classmates lift her on hearing about her marks in Chennai on Thursday.— DC
Kaavya’s classmates lift her on hearing about her marks in Chennai on Thursday. — DC

Chennai: 

Breaking the trend of the last few years, two boys secured the first spot this year in the Plus-2 examination. However, girls did outshine boys once again with 91 per cent pass percentage as against 84.7 per cent by boys.

Last year the pass percentage among girls and boys had stood at 89.7 per cent and 83.2 per cent respectively. A total of 13 students, including seven from Namakkal district, sha­red the top three ranks.

Jayasuriya S from Vidyaa Vikas Boys High­er Secondary School, Namakkal and Abinesh S from Greenpark matriculation higher secondary school, Namakkal shared the first spot with a score of 1189 of 1200 marks.

Palaniraj S from Vidyaa Vikas Boys Higher Seco­ndary School, Namakkal and Akalya R from Sri Vijay Vidyalaya matriculation higher secondary school, Hosur shared the second place with 1188 marks. Nine other students shared the third spot.

But Chennai girl is ‘unofficial’ topper

Neither happy-go-lucky ch­a­racter nor a personal tr­a­gedy at home could stop S. Ka­avya (17) from attaining glory in her Plus-2 examination. Kaavya, who scored 1192 out of total 1200 ma­rks, may not officially be the top ranker of the state, but she had every reason to be happy on Thursday, as she has scored 100 per cent in four subjects. Inte­re­s­t­i­n­g­ly, this Chennai girl, who studied French as her second language, has scored th­ree marks more than the official state topper.

Only child of bank manager father A. Shanmugam and housewife mother S. Sh­anthi, Kaavya, who sco­red full marks in Comm­e­rce, Accountancy, Business Maths and Economics has decided to become a chartered accountant. “I am not going to join any college. I have already started att­ending classes for CA foundation course,” she said, adding that studying in London School of Eco­no­mics is her dream.

Kaavya, who was class captain of 12 C at Rosary Ma­triculation Higher Seco­ndary School in Santhome, developed interest in vario­us subjects at a very you­ng age. She completed her BA in Hindi through priva­te ex­ams and holds gr­a­de-3 ce­rtificate for guitar and gr­a­de-2 certificate for dru­ms fr­­om Trinity College Lo­n­d­on. This apart, she al­so pl­a­ys chess and enjoys tr­­y­i­ng out new recipes. Her ne­xt ta­­­rget is to learn swimming­.

“She is a very friendly person. As a class captain she never showed off her power,” said S. Sathvigha, who studied with Kaavya fr­om LKG. Their class te­acher Elizabeth Rani, who taught commerce and acc­o­untancy, praised Kaav­ya for her obedient, sincere and hard working attitude. “Her hand writing and presentation would be neat. She always finished within top three ranks in the class,” Ms Rani added.

School principal Mary Zacharia pointed out that the school has introduced continuous assessment programme last year, which seems to have yielded res­ults. “We started compulsory morning test (7.30-8.30 am) and special coaching in the evening (2.30-3.30 pm). It has proved helpful,” she said, adding that the school used to achieve lot of state first ranks earlier, but this year’s result was its best performance in the last one decade.

Meanwhile Kaavya’s mother Shanthi dedicated her daughter’s success to her sister’s son, Jayendra Prabhu, who died after meeting with an accident when Kaavya was in the midst of her exams. “We had to leave Kaavya in the care of our neighbours and attend my nephew’s funeral. Despite our absence and tragedy in the family, she managed to score well in the exam,” Shanthi added.

90 government, private schools get 100% pass

Of the 400-odd schools (government and private) in Chennai city over 90 have secured 100 per cent pass percentage.

According to an analysis provided by the directorate of government examinations, several government schools had a pass percentage of over 80 per cent. Some private schools like Little Flower Convent higher school for deaf and blind, A. V. Meiyappan matriculation higher secondary school, Jai Gopal Hindu Vidyalaya matriculation higher secondary school, West Mambalam, Shri A Ganesan matriculation higher secondary school, Velachery Sri Krishnaswamy matriculation higher secondary school, KK Nagar and several others scored 100 per cent results.

Correspondent of a private matriculation school in Chennai says its obvious that city schools would produce 100 per cent results as it had better faculty, infrastructure and especially electricity for students to work in the laborato-ries.

“There is disparity even in the city with top schools scoring more marks and some schools located in northern suburbs securing less marks”, another administrator said.

source: http://www.deccanchroincle.com / Deccan Chronicle / Home> News> Current Affairs / by N. Arun Kumar / S. Sujatha, DC / May 10th, 2013

TN State Board Results 2013 : This Corporation school creates record of sorts

Education, Records, All

 It was the only Corporation school to achieve a centum pass

Madurai Corporation's Sethupathi Pandithurai Higher Secondary School on New Jail Road created a record of sorts by achieving cent per cent pass in the Class XII examination./ Photo: R. Ashok / The Hindu
Madurai Corporation’s Sethupathi Pandithurai Higher Secondary School on New Jail Road created a record of sorts by achieving cent per cent pass in the Class XII examination./ Photo: R. Ashok / The Hindu

Sethupathi Pandithurai Higher Secondary School, managed by the Madurai Municipal Corporation and located next to a public toilet on New Jail Road here, created a record of sorts with all the 41 students of the school passing the Plus Two examination this year.

This was the first time since its establishment as a high school in 1937 and subsequent upgradation as a higher secondary school in 1978 that the institution, functioning with limited infrastructural facilities, had registered a centum pass in a Board examination.

It also turned out to be the only school among the 14 Corporation schools in the city to score a centum pass this year.

The other schools registered a pass percentage ranging between 85 and 99.2.

School headmistress A.Esther Emma Olive said the fete could be achieved only because of the cooperation of the students, their parents and six higher secondary teachers. She said special classes were taken up to 8.30 p.m. for the students.

Fruitful efforts

The efforts had borne fruit as the school first rank holder V.Veerapandi, son of a casual labourer, scored 1,025 marks despite studying in the science stream.

“Almost all of our students are from Below the Poverty Line families. It is a real challenge to groom them and we are doing it successfully with God’s grace,” she added.

Corporation Chief Educational Officer R.Mathialagan said 2,537 students from the 14 Corporation schools had appeared for the Plus Two examination this year. Of them, 2,365 passed.

The pass percentage was 93.04 which was very close to the district’s pass percentage of 93.77.

source: http://www.thehindu.com / The Hindu / Home> News> Cities> Madurai / by Special Correspondent  / May 10th, 2013

A village dates back to Iron Age

Arts, Culture & Entertainment, Historical Links, Pre-Independence, Records, All

IronageCF05may2013

Chennai:

North Tamil Nadu has been industrially active — at least 2,000 years ago! This surprising piece of information could provide ample lead to probably rewriting the history of mankind and his abilities to utilise natural resources to make iron-based tools and utensils.

In addition to an ironsmelting unit in Kariamankalani village, evidences of the earliest human settlements — presumable that of well-organised tribes who knew the uses of iron was discovered for the first time in Kariamankalani village about 30 km from here. Both these discoveries came to light during a recent excavation by S. Rama Krishna Pisipaty, professor and geoarchaeologist, SCSVMV University, Enathur They seemed to have mastered the art of making blocks with iron ore and charcoal husk. “The settlement shows signs of early living place of humans and contains evidences of temporary huts,” says the professor who unearthed stone boulders at the site near Vadamangalam, a nondescript village near Sriperambudur.

The big boulders were used to form a circular structure. About 50 such circular structures besides 20-25 iron smelting units using bloomery method has been unearthed for the first time in northern Tamil Nadu. Also some 15 x 10 cm rectangular blocks were found. “It may not be workers’ dwelling places,” Pisupaty said in reply to a query.

Though people were nomadic at that time, they however lived in groups close to the places where natural resources abounded. “This explains the presence of habitations near the smelting units. Hardly 3 km away, last year I had found the tortoise-shaped burial grounds dating back to the same period,” he adds.

Besides a mountain, a lake also exists close to this site. Preliminary estimates reveals that the people during the Iron Age had extracted iron, purified the metal and made blocks, which were exported to other places.

Pipes (for blowing wind and cooling the molten iron) of varying sizes are also found. At Palnerllur in 2010 the same team discovered iron smelting and smithy. The present site is much earlier than the Palnerllur site. Human activities at the new site dated back from Stone Age.

Pebble and other microlithic tools were also found, says professor Pisipaty.

source: http://www.deccanchronicle.com / Deccan Chronicle / Home> News> Current Affairs / by J. V. Siva Prasanna Kumar – DC / March 31st, 2013

TN doctor bags UPSC sixth rank

Education, Records, All
Thamburaj.
Thamburaj.

Chennai:

“Hard work brings success and that’s my victory mantra,’’ said Dr Ashok Arun Thamburaj who secu­­red all India sixth rank and first rank from Tamil Nadu in the civil service final exam, results for which were announced on Friday.

Speaking to Deccan Chronicle on phone from Karnataka, where he has been posted for election duty, Dr Thamburaj said he had crac­ked the ex­am in 2011 in his first attempt to choose IPS (Delhi cadre) and at present he was under probation at the national police-training academy in Hyderabad.

“Right from my childhood, I wanted to become an IAS officer but I scored 197 out of 600 in Zoology in my first attempt due to which I had to take IPS. But now I am sure that I have scored more”, a jubilant Thamburaj said.

97 from TN clear civil services exam

Ninety-seven candidates from Tamil Nadu have cleared the UPSC civil service main exam this year for which results were announced on Friday. A total of 998 aspirants have been selected for 1,091 vacancies in four services, including Indian Admin­istrative Service, Indian Foreign Service, Indian Police Service and Central Services (A&B).

According to civil service trainers, 97 students from Tamil Nadu have cleared the final interview to join the civil service. “This year it was not an easy walk for students they had to take on the tough interview panel which fired aspirants with several questions. As our students had good training to answer any kind of questions they managed to outperform others to bag several slots in the list,” one of the trainers said.

Another trainer from a top city based IAS coaching academy felt that more engineers and doctors have been successful in clearing the exam as they were trained to clear analytical oriented questions.

Interestingly for the third consecutive year, a woman has topped the prestigious examination. Forty five students from Mayor Saidai Sa. Duraisamy’s Manida­neyam IAS academy cracked the finals successfully to get a slot in the all India list.

TN top ranker clears exam in second attempt

Dr Ashok Arun Tham­buraj, who secured all India sixth rank and first rank from Tamil Nadu in the civil service final exam, said he had taken Geography and Zoology as optional papers as he thought these papers would fetch him high marks.

He stood first from class I at St.Bedes Higher Seco­ndary School at Sant­home. Thamburaj had secured state first among police officers’ children and received chief minister’s gold medal.  Tham­buraj said he had belie­ved in change which made him attempt civil service for the second time.

As an MBBS student, Thamburaj had bagged two gold medals in Surgery and Gynecology subjects and finished his house surgeonship at Madras Medical College. He is the son of T. Ashok, former principal of the police training college in the city. His sister Vijayarani works as assistant professor at a private medical deemed university in the city.

source: http://www.deccanchronicle.com / Deccan Chronicle / Home> News> Current Affairs / by N. Arun Kumar – DC / May 04th, 2013

Hidden Histories : Ill-fated castle

Arts, Culture & Entertainment, Historical Links, Pre-Independence, Records, All
Brodie’s Castle on the banks of the Adyar is one of the historic homes of Chennai. Photo: Special Arrangement / The Hindu
Brodie’s Castle on the banks of the Adyar is one of the historic homes of Chennai. Photo: Special Arrangement / The Hindu

Brodie’s Castle, along the Adyar, is said to have brought ill luck on several of its residents

Bradis Kesil Road, says a signboard towards the end of R.K. Mutt Road. This is what lack of awareness and official apathy have done to one of the most intriguing places in the city.

Brodie’s Castle on the banks of the Adyar is one of the historic homes of Chennai. It is said to have brought ill luck on several of its residents. James Brodie, of the firm of Jarvis and Brodie, built it in 1796. Perhaps inspired by an eponymous castle in Scotland, he designed it with sloping outer walls and two castellated turrets. The nearest settlement was Mylapore and the road leading there became Brodie’s Castle Road. Today most of it is R.K. Mutt Road, with the last short stretch alone retaining the old name.

Shortly after he moved in, Brodie’s businesses failed forcing him to rent out his castle. The first tenant was Sir Thomas Strange, Chief Justice of the Supreme Court of Madras. Brodie moved back in 1802 only to drown in the Adyar. The business family of Arbuthnot then purchased Brodie Castle. They rented it out as a house by the river fetched high rent in hot Madras. It was also an artist’s delight making it a favourite subject for watercolours.

In 1810, Edward Vaughan, chaplain of St. George’s Cathedral, moved in, only to lose his wife immediately. He rose to become archdeacon and stayed on at Brodie’s Castle till his retirement in 1829. In 1866, Brodie’s Castle was in the news for the wrong reasons when James McIvor of the Bank of Madras was its occupant. His two daughters, an aide-de-camp to the Governor and the president of the Madras Corporation were killed in a boating accident.

In 1906, the firm of Arbuthnot crashed and Brodie’s Castle was bought, in the distress sale that followed, by Subramania Pillai of the firm of P. Venkatachellum, famed for its condiments and curry powders. It became one of the 75 houses that Pillai owned in Madras. He chose to rent out Brodie’s Castle. Charles Cotton, chief secretary, was a tenant, and he filled the house with fine furniture and art. He was one of the few lucky residents.

Chief Justice Sir Lionel Leach occupied it in 1937. One afternoon in October 1943, the Adyar burst its banks and destroyed many of Sir Lionel’s possessions. Lawyers had a good time imagining the dour Judge sitting in his high-backed chair and futilely commanding the river to rise no further. In 1949, Brodie’s Castle became the residence of P.S. Kumaraswami Raja, the then Premier of Madras State. He lost his post following a stunning electoral defeat in 1952, despite contesting from his family stronghold of Srivilliputhur.

Brodie’s Castle was never a residence thereafter. In 1956, it became home to the Central College of Karnatic Music, now the Isai Kalluri, and in 1968, was renamed Thenral. Maintained after a fashion, by the PWD, it survives, and is worth a visit.

source: http://www.thehindu.com / The Hindu / Home> News> Cities> Chennai / by SriRam V. / May 02nd, 2013

Museum in Gummidipoondi offers a ‘hearty’ welcome to visitors

Education, Records, All, Science & Technologies
Visitors at the Maurice Lev & Saroja Bharati Cardiac Museum at Frontier Mediville at Gummidipoondi on Saturday. / Photo: V. Ganesan / The Hindu
Visitors at the Maurice Lev & Saroja Bharati Cardiac Museum at Frontier Mediville at Gummidipoondi on Saturday. / Photo: V. Ganesan / The Hindu

In the vast room guarded by a solid ornate wooden door are about 8,000 hearts. None of them beat. Jostling against the translucent fluid in glass jars, the hearts sit, in all sizes, shapes, colours, and stages of disease. Welcome to the Maurice Lev and Saroja Bharati Cardiac Museum at Frontier Mediville in Gummidipoondi, about 50 km from the city.

The museum has not only hearts – most of them human, with some animal specimens – but also heart components. “If we put every specimen we have in a jar of formalin, we’ll need 10,000 containers,” says K.M.Cherian, chairman and CEO, Frontier Lifeline Hospital and Frontier Mediville. “It is the largest collection of cardiac pathology hearts anywhere in the country, possibly even the world,” he claims.

Pathology is the branch of medicine that studies the altered anatomy of an organ. A surgeon corrects the structure or functionality of an organ, and so, unless he or she gets the pathology and biochemistry right, he or she is likely to be just a person with a scalpel.

The museum gets its name from the primary contributors to the heart section, Maurice Lev and Saroja Bharati, from the Maurice Lev Congenital Heart and Conduction Systems Centre, Chicago. It cost about $1,00,000 to ship the specimens, and a further $1.5 million in insurance, Dr. Cherian says.

“I had not even imagined that these hearts we collected since the 1970s would be in India one day. But, here they are,” Dr. Bharati explains. “Every heart is different. When you look under the microscope, even the hearts of identical twins are not identical.” As someone who has written the pathology reports of over 9,000 hearts, she should know.

In the museum, inaugurated by Governor K.Rosaiah on Saturday, are hearts at various stages of disease, and repair, diaphanous valves which put you in awe of a cardiac surgeon’s skills, pacemaker probes nesting in hearts split wide open.

“This has been my dream. I visited Prof. Lev and Bharati in Chicago when they were just setting up the museum to spend months studying the anatomy of the heart,” he explains, giving us a personal guided-tour of the museum on its inaugural day. “I want students to benefit from this wealth of information, completely free of cost. Some professors of pathology from other countries have also expressed interest in visiting the museum.” And what is the favourite specimen in the hall? Dr. Cherian doesn’t bat an eyelid, “Mine.” It probably is happiest ticking in the good doctor’s chest cavity at the moment, but is it to be available for display sometime in the future? “For sure!” he says, “I don’t believe either in burying or burning the body.”

source: http://www.thehindu.com / The Hindu / Home> News> Cities> Chennai / by Ramya Kannan / Tiruvallur – April 28th, 2013

Stuntman down memory lane

Arts, Culture & Entertainment, Records, All
Judo Rathnam with actor Rajinikanth in a Tamil film. / DC
Judo Rathnam with actor Rajinikanth in a Tamil film. / DC

Vellore: 

Stunt master Judo Rath­nam of Gudiyattam, who performed stunts for more than 1,500 films, has now found time to pen his biography in Tamil — Thama­raikulam Mudhal Thalain­agaram Varai which is set  be released on May 3 in Chennai.

“Thamaraikulam was my first film in which I appeared in a small role, and Thalainagaram was my last film, though I am working for two or three films now. Modern Thea­tres Sundaram gave me the chance to become stunt master in Vallavan Oru­van, Vallavanukku Va­ll­a­van and many other films produced in the late ‘60s and ‘70s. I wanted to write my memoirs and it took two years to share them with the public,” said K.K. Rathnam, who was given the title ‘Judo’ by Modern Theatres owner T.R. Sundaram.

Rathnam has done 49 films with Rajini, 16 with Kamal Hassan, 69 with Kannada Rajkumar, 4 with Amitabh Bachchan, 16 with NTR and had worked in a couple of English films. But, he laments, he didn’t get to work with MGR.

“Writer Manohar has written dramatically the instances in my life. As I found the work tedious, I wanted to give up the idea of writing half-way, but my wife R. Govindammal (73) forced me to complete the book.”

His wife Govindammal interrupts, “My husband is very shy. I used to ask him to act in films, but he was adamant about stunt direction.” Rathnam (84) is still agile because he does yoga every day. He has eight, well-settled children.

source: http://www.deccanchronicle.com / Deccan Chronicle / Home> News> Current Affairs / by N. Thygarajan , DC / April 27th, 2013

Assam poet translates Tamil classic Kuruntokai

Arts, Culture & Entertainment, Education, Historical Links, Pre-Independence, Records, All
Bijoy Sankar Barman | EPS
Bijoy Sankar Barman | EPS

The Sangam-era Tamil classic, Kuruntokai, has now broken down yet another language barrier. Young Assamese poet Bijoy Sankar Barman, after a struggle of nine years, has managed to translate this classic anthology of 3rd Century Tamil poems to Assamese.

“Beautiful poems from Kuruntokai has enthralled me. I am happy that now our people can also taste the classical Tamil text,” Barman told Express on the sidelines of Northeast and Southern Young Writers’ Meet organised by Sahitya Akademi here on Saturday.

Barman, whose poems had been translated in many other languages, including Bengali, Hindi and Kannada, first came across A K Ramanujam’s English translation of Kuruntokai.

“When I read the poems, I was surprised to find the ecology, love and human relationship that was described in them, happened  to be similar to ours,” said the 33-year-old writer, an employee of the postal department in Guwahati.

Since then, Barman began collecting more details about the Tamil classic.

While he depended mostly on Ramanujam’s translation work of Kuruntokai and other Tamil classics for understanding the Tamil literary tradition, he also read the Sahitya Akademi’s publication on ancient Indian literature.

“For the next nine years, I was re-reading the translations of Kuruntokai to understand the depths of the poems, the expressions of love, the emotions explained by the colours in the poems, before deciding to translate them,” said Barman, who already won the prestigious Munin Barkataki Award.

Currently pursuing a PhD on tribal myths of Assam, Barman feels that the Tamil folk tradition had a lot of similarities with Assamese.

“I am planning to read more classics in Tamil in the near future,” he said, adding that the government should take steps to translate southern Indian literary works to north-eastern languages as it would encourage more people in India towards cross-cultural studies.

Stressing similar points, Karabi Deka Hazarika, an eminent Assamese writer, addressing the writers at the meet, said, “Translation is the only means through which a glimpse of the literary merits of the writings of these areas can be brought within the comprehension of the readers of other linguistic groups.”

Readers of northeastern India had very little opportunity to taste the literary beauty of the writings in Tamil, Telugu, Kannada or Malayalam.

“In Assam, we have lots of translations from Bangla literature, which is an easy target for the translators. But, the same is not happening in the field of Tamil, Telegu or Malayalam literature,” she pointed out.

source: http://www.newindianexpress.com / The New Indian Express / Home> States> Tamil Nadu / by Gokul Vannan / ENS – Madurai / April 28th, 2013