Sri Narayani Hospital and Research Centre run by the Sri Narayani Peedam has received an award for community engagement for 2014 from the Association of Healthcare Providers India (AHPI), an apex national body of hospitals.
According to Dr N Balaji, director of the hospital and trustee of the Sri Sakthi Amma Healthcare Trust, the award will be presented to the hospital by the union health minister at the Global Healthcare convention being organized by AHPI in Hyderabad on Feb 23, 2015. The AHPI director general, Dr Giridhar Gyani (former secretary general of Quality Council of India), has over ten thousand members.
The 250-bedded multi-specialty charity hospital conducted 128 outreach programmes in 2014 that benefited 23,062 people who would otherwise not have had access to timely medical help, Balaji said. The awareness and screening programmes conceived and implemented by the hospital has helped in the prevention of many diseases with early detection leading to timely intervention and cure, he added. The hospital focuses on the needy people of Vellore and Tiruvannamalai districts besides the neighbouring Chittoor district of Andhra Pradesh.
As part of the Sri Sakthi Amma Student Welfare programme, the hospital conducted health checkup programmes for the students, he added. The coveted recognition from the AHPI would further strengthen the resolve and dedication of the staff of this health care institution in working more for the welfare of the community, he further noted.
source: http://www.newindianexpress.com / The New Indian Express / Home> States> Tamil Nadu / by Express News Service / February 15th, 2015
Saturday evening saw book lovers gathering at the more than 150-year-old Nilgiri Library at Ooty to celebrate two events—the opening of the refurbished Wardrop Room and the felicitation of member of the Atomic Energy Commission Dr M R Srinivasan. Srinivasan, a longtime resident of Ooty and a member of the library, was feted for recently receiving the Padma Vibhushan.
The Wardrop Room, which underwent a six-month restoration costing Rs 1 lakh, was inaugurated by Lt General S K Gadeock, AVSM, Commandant, Defence Service Staff College, Wellington. The restoration was partially funded by INTACH-Nilgiris chapter.
The Nilgiri Library, which celebrated its 150th anniversary a few years ago, is one of the oldest libraries in the country. The magnificent building on Commissioner’s Road in Ooty was designed by Robert Fellows Chisholm, who also designed Senate House at the University of Madras.
Geetha Srinivasan, president of the library as well as of INTACH-Nilgiris chapter, said, “Books impart knowledge, which builds self confidence. People who have inculcated the reading habit from a young age can never be lonely as books will always be their companions. This is what makes this library important apart from the heritage value of the building and the books within it.”
The restored Wardrop Room has a portrait of Queen Victoria in a gilded frame over the mantelpiece. While the skin tones are Rubenesque, the painting is in the style of the Dutch Masters, she said, adding that there are only three such paintings in the world.
On August 28, 1867, the foundation stone of the main library was laid by A J Arbuth. With its vast Gothic hall and Tudor windows, the Nilgiri Library is a symbol of how public places can be restored and put to modern use, said Srinivasan.
Gadeock said, “The Nilgiri Library is unique and must be preserved.” He donated Rs 10,000 towards maintenance of the library. He also honoured Srinivasan with a Toda shawl and said, “Dr Srinivasan is a great icon who played a pivotal role in the nuclear programme.”
Recollecting his days of working with Dr Homi J Bhabha and Dr Vikram Sarabai, Srinivasan said, “It was a great privilege to work with legends.”
Ramakrishnan Nambiar, secretary, Nilgiri Library, said, “Dr M R Srinivasan has made the Nilgiris district proud.”
source: http://www.timesofindia.indiatimes.com / The Times of India / Home> City> Coimbatore / by Shantha Thiagarajan, TNN / February 09th, 2015
As the new year gets underway, it’s time what is now rather unrecognisably being called Vivanta by Taj Connemara begins thinking of how to celebrate its 125th birthday on November 27th and to tell everyone that it is the oldest Western-style hotel in South India still-in-business. Its roots, however, go back to even before 1890.
On the Connemara’s site by what was once called the Neill statue junction there was one of Madras’s earliest Western-style hotels, The Imperial, dating to 1854 and long pre-dating the controversial statue to one of the hangmen of the Great Revolt, Gen. James Neill. An 1880 advertisement referring to the Neill Statue location and the date of establishment has its proprietor T. Ruthnavaloo Moodeliar stating that the “Premises consist of a large Upstair House, detached Bungalow, and Bachelor’s quarters” and urging the public to take a look at the hotel’s “Testimonial Books, which certify to the respectability, comfort and good management of the Establishment.” The buildings referred to were no longer those of John Binny, who sank the roots of Binny’s in 1799 after having been in the Nawab of Arcot’s service from 1797 and from whom he had acquired the property. He lived in this garden house till his death in 1821 after which Binny’s sold the property which eventually came into Ruthnavaloo Moodeliar’s hands.
Somewhere along the way, The Imperial became the Albany, no doubt the name given to it by a new lessee, and then became the Connemara, the name given to it in 1890 by the brothers P. Cumaraguru and Chokalinga Mudelly who took it on a three-year lease. On December 3, 1890, the brothers “solicited” in an advertisement a trial of their new establishment which was only “a minute’s walk to the Madras Club”. The advertisement (alongside) promised “nothing is wanting to constitute it a really first class hotel” and also “guaranteed” an “excellent table”. Its new name, however, is unexplained.
But The Madras Mail of November 27, 1890, reporting on the opening of the Connemara wrote, “In the dim and distant future when people as yet unborn will bend their steps to Chennaipatnam (a remarkably prophetic quote, your columnist thinks) and seek boarding and lodging at the ‘Connemara’, they may be induced by a laudable curiosity to enquire ‘why does this hotel bear the name of a district of the County Galway in Ireland’. Then will the phenomenally well informed, old inhabitant make reply, and enlarge on the halcyon days when my Lord Connemara ruled the land, lived his little span, and then passed away, neither unregretted nor unsung. Well may his Excellency exclaim with the bard, when he reads the legend in large characters that spans the chief entrance to the Hotel referred to:
‘Nor fame I slight, nor for her favours I call,
She comes unlooked for, if she comes at all.’ ”
Eugene Oakshott of Spencer’s, bent on expanding his empire, acquired the hotel on April 23, 1891 and let the lease to the Mudelly brothers run till its end in 1893 when he got his partner James Stiven to run the hotel. At the time garden houses were the spaces used for hotels. Stiven reconstructed the Connemara and in May 1901 it became Madras’s first hotel to be housed in a building specifically built to be a hotel. On July 1, 1913, Eugene Oakshott’s sons Percy and Roy sold the hotel to Spencer’s in whose hands it still remains a hundred years later, though it is managed by The Taj Group.
*****
Of shells and bombs
At a lunch the other day, my neighbour at the table wanted to know whether I learn something new from the readers who write to this column. I told her that I learn something new every day not only from all those who keep the postman and other means of communication busy but from the journals and other publications I receive as well as the places I visit.
The plaques at the Fort Museum
I mention this because of something I learnt from a picture of an exhibit in the Fort Museum that I found in a publication I received recently. For years I’ve been visiting the Fort Museum but till now had not really read the information on two brass plaques there. After reading the first few lines on the first plaque, I had skipped the rest thinking that all of it had to do with the shelling of Madras by the SMS Emden in 1914, a subject which I had read much about. But to my surprise the picture I looked at the other day showed the second plaque providing me a more positive answer to a question I’ve often been asked about whether Madras had been bombed by the Japanese during World War II and to which I always tended to give uncertain answers. And there the answer has been all these years in the Fort Museum. Yes, Madras was bombed — not in 1942, as all who’ve asked me the question tended to believe, but in 1943. That raises a mystery or two, which I’ll come to in a moment.
First the two plaques. One is titled ‘Bombardment of Madras’, the other ‘Bombing of Madras’. The first displays a fragment of a ‘shell’ fired by the Emden and presented to the Museum by V.K. Ratnasabapathy of Bangalore and the other displays a fragment of a ‘bomb’ — all the terminology, I note, is perfectly correct — “dropped by a Japanese fighter craft on Madras on 12th October 1943…” It was presented to the Museum by A.V. Patro, Commissioner of Police, Madras. And it can’t get more official than that.
But despite the official seal to the information there remains a mystery or two. Few fighter aircraft carried bombs during World War II. Fighters were also short range aircraft, particularly if it was a Mitsubishi Zero (or its seaplane version) as many surmise it was. So did it come from an aircraft carrier? But by 1943, the Japanese had virtually quit the Indian Ocean. So where was there a carrier? Answers from anyone?
******
The Boddam statue
Justice Hungerford Tudor Boddam, a Puisne Judge of the Madras High Court (1896-1908), is one of the few British High Court judges to have a statue of him raised in the city. And I have often wondered why, particularly as he was said to be a mediocre judge. I recently came across an account which might explain why he was so privileged. Apparently he took a considerable interest in the activities of the Madras Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals (SPCA). This included getting its handsome building on Vepery High Road built and inaugurated in 1900 and persuading leading local citizens like Raja Sir Ramaswami Mudaliar, Lodd Govindoss and G. Narayanaswami Chetty to get involved with the Society’s activities. The statue was first raised near the Willingdon (now Periyar) Bridge on Mount Road but was later moved to Napier Park from where it’s gone into seclusion till the Metro authorities keep their promise and return it to Napier Park once their work in finished.
The statue of Justice Boddam
A proposal for such a society was first discussed in 1877 by some of the leading Europeans of Madras, but it was established only in 1881, with the Duke of Buckingham and Chandos its first Patron and Bishop Frederick Gell its first President. It had in its first years an entirely European membership, Indians showing little interest in its activities which focused on preventing the ill-treatment of animals and improving the conditions under which they were maintained. It was Boddam’s efforts that led to Indians joining the Society from 1903. By then Boddam had got Raja Venugopala Mudaliar to fund the Hospital for Animals that stands in Vepery in the donor’s name.
The society had no plenary powers during the first years of its existence. In 1894, Government conferred on it plenary powers and the SPCA was granted police powers to charge persons ill-treating animals. Starting with action it took when, in 1936, 23 goats were slaughtered in a mutt in Kumbakonam to the chanting of mantras and the flesh offered to the deities, it did much to bring down animal sacrifice in the State.
Boddam was also responsible for persuading the local citizenry to found a pinjrapole. The same citizenry, mainly the Gujaratis of Madras, were possibly those whose “subscription” made possible the 1911 statue.
source: http://www.thehindu.com / The Hindu / Home> Features> MetroPlus / by S. Muthiah / February 08th, 2015
Three streets (a main road and two connecting roads) near St Britto School in Gnanaolivapuram here, called Sister Rose street, bear the name of a Canadian nun who pioneered girls’ education in Madurai and founded three important educational institutions in the temple town.
Sr Rose Benedicte Benoit (1898 – 1968), known as Mother Rose in Madurai, was born as Marie Ange Benoit at le Conte de Drummont in Canada. She joined the congregation of Sisters of St Joseph of Lyons in the year 1913 and became a nun in 1915. She came to down to India in the year 1924 and was the first American missionary of the congregation to work in the country. During her service in Madurai, she found that girl children were seen a burden and many daughters used to be abandoned. Realising that empowering women through education will put an end to their misery, she started Holy Family Primary School in 1953 inside St Britto School campus, which she shifted to an adjacent plot in later years.
She eventually went on to found renowned educational institutions for girls here like St Joseph’s School and Fatima College.
“Sr Rose was the pioneer of promoting women’s education in Madurai and she founded three important education institutions for women here,” said Sr A Sahayamary, Head Mistress of Holy Family Girls School in Gnanaolivapuram.
Sr Kulandai Therese, 68, correspondent of the school and hailing from the locality, remembers the personality of Sr Rose. “She was the most compassionate and tender-hearted nun I saw as a girl when I was growing up here. Most of this area included slums inhabited by poor people. She would go to every house and bring girl children from houses, convincing parents to educate them. She did a phenomenal service to women’s education,” she said.
Sr Rose died of lung infection, believed to have been caused by the excess cement she inhaled during the construction of Fatima College. While she was alive, to honour her service, Madurai municipality offered a medal, but she declined to accept it. After her death, her statue was erected in old Kamarajar University Campus inside the city, Sr Therese added.
D Solomon, 62, a resident of Melaponnagaram, said that it was a mostly-dalit area and nuns from the convent helped them a great deal. They educated their children and the streets were named after the foreign nun who worked tirelessly for the cause of women’s education.
source: http://www.timesofindia.indiatimes.com / The Times of India / Home> City> Madurai / by J. Arockiaraj, TNN /February 08th, 2015
A nine-day-old girl, born prematurely with a heart defect and weighing only 750g at birth, went under the knife here to correct a congenital heart defect.
Doctors in the neonatal intensive care unit at Kovai Medical Centre and Hospital (KMCH) found that the baby was having trouble while breathing. “We realised that the ductus arteriosis, a blood vessel connecting the aorta and pulmonary artery in the baby’s heart, was still open. It normally usually closes after birth,” a doctor who was part of the operating team said.
The child’s mother Dhanalakshmi, from Erode, admitted to an Erode hospital on December 21, gave birth just 25 weeks into her pregnancy. Doctors said the baby’s condition, patent ductus arteriosus (PDA), was probably caused because she was born prematurely. Even though PDA is a congenital, premature children are more likely to have the disorder, the doctors said.
Doctors at KMCH decided to surgically close the ductus arteriosus, despite the fact that the procedure would be challenging because of the baby’s low birth weight.
A team of doctors led by cardiovascular and thoracic surgeon Dr S Balasundaram performed the 30-minute surgery on December 30. The baby remains under observation in the neonatal ICU but has shown signs of progress and is able to breathe freely, doctors said. She now weighs close to 1.4kg. “It was a very delicate procedure because the heart and blood vessels are tiny and identifying the right vessel and stapling it is not easy,” senior cardiologist Dr A R Srinivas said. “Another challenge was administering anesthesia, which causes hemodynamic changes (changes in the pattern of blood flow), and could make the baby very sick during the operation.”
“We opened up the baby’s chest from the back, identified the right vessel and stapled it twice,” he said.
Around four babies are born with PDA in the city each year. One of them, Dhanam, in November became the youngest baby in the country to receive a stent implant, doctors said.
Dr Srinivas said the incidence of PDA in premature babies with a birth weight of 1kg is around 45%. Doctors can in more than 90% of the cases close the vessel by administration of anti-inflammatory drugs like ibuprofen and indomethacin. “However, in the remaining 10% it has to be closed surgically,” he said.
source: http://www.timesofindia.indiatimes.com / The Times of India / Home> City> Coimbatore / by Pratiksha Ramkumar, TNN / February 04th, 2015
WINNING COMBO: The Tamil Nadu team which won the women’s trap event in Thrissur on Monday. (From left): N. Nivedha, Asiya Khilji and Asila Khilji / The Hindu
Seema Tomar of Services Sports Control Board (SSCB) held her nerve to win the women’s trap shooting gold in the 35th National Games at the Police Academy range here on Monday.
In the gold medal clash, Seema found a tough customer in Rajeshwari Kumari of Punjab. The latter applied pressure and the former shook a bit midway through. But, before any damage could be done, Seema recovered strongly for a place atop the podium.
The Tamil Nadu girls pocketed their first gold medal of the Games. It came in the team trap event. The trio of F. Asiya Khilji, N. Nivedha and Asila Khilji edged out strong contenders Delhi and SSCB for the gold.
The TN girls tallied 169 of which Asiya shot a possible 62 out of 75. Asila, who is making her debut at the Games, scored 10 less than her elder sister Asiya. Nivetha completed the tally with a 55. It was Asiya’s second-round effort that sealed the gold in favour of the team. The 24-year-old, who is doing her Phd in Finance at the Madras University, started the day badly but finished with a bang.
“It was windy and I was off target and that resulted in a score of 16 in the first round,” said Asiya, who shot a 62 as well at the senior Nationals in Delhi in 2013.
Asiya followed it up with a 24 and 22 in the next two rounds. “The second round effort is my career best score. I had to literally fight back after a poor first round show.”
Asila, a class nine student and also among the youngest in the shooting crowd, was quite aggressive in the first round but lost ground from there. “Trap is a mind game. If you allow the pressures and the scores to get to you then you will be trapped. I am happy that I contributed a bit as well for the gold,” said Asila.
After playing a part in the team event, Asiya staved off a stiff challenge towards the end from Aakriti Khapra of Delhi for the bronze.
The results: Women: Trap: 1. Seema Tomar (SSCB); 2. Rajeshwari Kumari (PUN); 3. F. Asiya Khilji (TN).
Team event: 1. Tamil Nadu (F. Asiya Khilji 62; N. Nivetha 55, Asila Khilji 52) 169; 2. Delhi 167 (Mahima Kumar Mahajan 61, Aakriti Khapra 60, Kirti Gupta 46); 3. SSCB 158 (Seema Tomar 60, Shikha Bhadauria 58, Varsha Tomar 40).
source: http://www.thehindu.com / The Hindu / Home> Sport> Other Sports / by Rayan Rozario / Thrissur – February 03rd, 2015
Charanya Kannan and Deepika Murali win the Mrs Chennai and Miss Madras contests
Charanya Kannan
Charanya Kannan has always been on the go. A corporate professional, a trained dancer, scuba diver and former Doordarshan anchor, when maternity left her home-bound, Charanya was left searching for a positive outlet for her energy. The quest ended when she enrolled herself in the Mrs Chennai pageant organised by Virgo events in association with PGP Joyeria. Leaving home a six-month old baby can be painful, but Charanya was determined to get back to her old active life. “I was posted in Korea and came to Chennai, my hometown, on maternity break. This was when I heard about Mrs. Chennai. After being a full-time stay-at-home mom for six-months and taking care of my baby, I thought it was time to do something for myself. Mrs. Chennai was the perfect opportunity,” she says.
The contest gave her a chance to discover skills she hardly knew she possessed. “While I think the talent round saw me through the competition, where I performed Bharatnatyam dance, other rounds such as jewellery making, spot painting helped me unleash a creative side of me that I had never explored before. Hitting the gym was also refreshing,” says this resident of Mandavelli.
The semi-final rounds were the most hectic and her family ensured she could concentrate fully on the event, by taking care of the other aspects of her life. “People say it is an all new life after pregnancy. But the event made me realise that you could go back to your old life in just six months. I am going to pursue my masters in management at Harvard Business School.” She was the title winner of the contest.
Varsha Vijay, resident of Royapettah, was the first runner-up and Ashwini of Tambaram, the second runner-up.
Deepika Murali
Miss Madras
Deepika Murali had no intentions of joining the event. She didn’t think she would enjoy ramp walking. But when her sister, who was participating in the Mrs. Chennai contest, persuaded her to join, she gave her name.
“I was lethargic at the start of the event. But as we approached the semis, I was so into the event that I was determined to stay on till the finish. I enjoyed the communication round the most. And the jewellery making round has introduced me to the world of quilled ornaments,” says this resident of Alwarpet. She calls the event a launch pad for aspiring models. She was the title winner of the Miss Madras contest.
Meera Mitun of Chetpet was the first runner up and Esha Gohil of Kilpauk the second runner up.
The jury consisted of singer Sowmiya, dancer Prasanna, actors Aditya Menon and Ganesh Venkatram, music director James Vasanthan and fashion designer Richa Kapoor. The event was held at Kamarajar Arangam, Teynampet.
source: http://www.thehindu.com / The Hindu / Home> Features> Downtown / by K. Sarumathi / Chennai – January 31st, 2015
He impressed the Mahatma with his stentorian voice. Gandhiji affectionately referred to him as his ‘loud speaker’!
Subri was closely associated with the freedom movement and along with his wife Kamala courted arrest several times
V. R. Krishna Iyer, a leading advocate in Coimbatore and his devout wife Parvathi named their fifth child Subramaniam, after the deity at Chennimalai. The young boy grew up to be better known as Kovai Subri. Subri was drawn to the ideals of Gandhiji and he quit college in order to join the freedom movement.
In 1921, the town Congress committee was born and textile pioneer G. Kuppuswamy Naidu officiated as the President and Subri (1898 – 1993) became its Secretary.
Freedom fighter C. P. Subbiah (1895 – 1967) also joined them and remained a lifelong friend of Subri.
Subri was imprisoned when he joined the flag Satyagraha at Nagpur under Sardar Vallabhai Patel in 1923 and he spent a year in prison. He was imprisoned on five other occasions and cumulatively spent more than five years of his life in prison.
It was during his years in prison that Subri composed songs which were later compiled into a book called Desiya Geethangal. He composed Muruga Ganam which consisted of 426 songs classified into 12 volumes.
He started a khadi centre at Padiyur near Uthukuli and Gandhiji has praised Subri for his stellar role in the freedom movement in the pages of Young India.
When Gandhiji toured in Coimbatore and Nilgiris district Subri was his translator and he impressed the Mahatma with his stentorian voice. Gandhiji affectionately referred to him as his ‘loud speaker!
Subri was the Municipal Chairman between 1938 and 1942. It was due to his efforts that Gandhi Park came into being. He was an MLA who represented the Coimbatore City Constituency between 1947 and 1952.
He married Kamala (1911 – 1993), the young daughter of A. Naatesa Iyer who was an advocate-cum teacher from Pollachi. Subri warned Kamala about the risks involved in marrying a freedom fighter, but they nevertheless got married on the 14 November 1926. Kamala also courted imprisonment in front of the Municipal office for participating in the Salt Satyagraha of 1930 along with their six month old daughter. She was imprisoned again for participating in the Satyagraha in 1932 along with her colleagues Padmavathy Asher (Tirupur), Ambujam Raghavachari, Muthulakshmi (Satyamangalam), Govindammal Ayyamuthu and Kamala Krishnaswamy.
Subri’s home at 91, Karuppa Gounder Street was always a beehive of activity. He was close to Rajaji, M. P. Sivagnanam, C. Subramaniam, Kalki, Sadasivam, S. N. R. Chinnaswamy Naidu, Kovai Khadar Ayyamuthu, Chinna Annamalai, Dr. C. Nanjapapa, T. A. Ramalingam Chettiar, T. S. Avinashilingam
Chettiar,T. Raghavachari, R. Venkataswamy Naidu and Rasikamani T. K. Chidambaranathan.
Post independence, when Rajaji took the lead to launch a new national party – The Swatantra Party, Subri joined the same.
G. K. Sundaram described Subri’s life as one of sacrifice, which he gave unstintingly to the nation. He said, “Such men are the salt of the earth”.
(Rajesh is passionate about his city and is always looking for ways of documenting its history)
source: http://www.thehindu.com / The Hindu / Home> Features> MetroPlus> Hidden Histories / by Rajesh Goivindarajulu / January 30th, 2015
If you think poetry and mathematics don’t get along, you are wrong. An interesting feature of Indian mathematics is that it is composed in verse, said K, noted mathematician and a professor at IIT Bombay. “Mathematicians successfully managed to couch a variety of formulae in beautiful verses. Among the Indian mathematicians, Bhaskaracarya is held very high,” he said.
Ramasubramanian said Bhaskaracarya, whose main treatise on mathematics is ‘Lilavati’ written in 1150AD, systematically developed a topic – whether it is arithmetic, geometry, algebra or astronomy. He would build on what had been already introduced.
“Lucid exposition of the subject was his hallmark. The examples presented by him are quite appealing, rich and varied. It involved characters from mythology and nature. He also drew a number of incidents from day-to-day life to solve problems in maths,” he said. was speaking at a two-day workshop on Bhaskaracarya’s contributions to mathematics and astronomy on the eve of his 900th birth anniversary.
Talking on ‘The Lila of Lilavati’, said when he started learning mathematics, the teacher would simply ‘teach’ a solution and present a set of formulae. “We were expected to learn the technique, memorise the formulae, and then work out those problems given at the end of the chapter, repeatedly.
I do not recall a single problem that could be related to practical life – as given in ‘Lilavati’. Texts on Indian mathematics, soon after enunciating a rule or principle, present plenty of examples from day-to-day life – all in the form of beautiful verses. Making students aware of the major achievements of their own civilization is the need of the hour,” he said.
source: http://www.thehindu.com / The Hindu / Home> City> Chennai / TNN / January 30th, 2015
This was the second time Capt. Divya participated in the Republic Day parade after marching as an NCC cadet in 2008. Photo: K.V. Srinivasan / The Hindu
Chennaiite Capt. Divya Ajith Kumar led the widely-celebrated first all-woman Army contingent in the Republic Day parade
On a chilly winter Monday, amidst a light drizzle, history was made as an all-woman Army contingent marched on the stretch in Rajpath, New Delhi, during the Republic Day parade.
Seated in the audience, in gallery no. 14, was Binah Ajith Kumar. A resident of Madipakkam, her heart overflowed with pride as the women officers marched by. After all, the contingent was led by her daughter Capt. Divya Ajith Kumar.
“Her contingent was the first to march after the display of military firepower, machines and vehicles. When it was announced that the first ever all-woman Army contingent was marching by, everyone in the audience rose and applauded. When my daughter’s name was announced as contingent commander, I was overjoyed; it was the most memorable moment in my life,” Ms. Binah recalls.
Belonging to the Corps of Army Air Defence, Capt. Divya marched past the dignitaries and audience, flanked by two woman officers. They were followed by 144 serving woman officers from the Army and trainee lady cadets from OTA.
This is not the first time Capt. Divya is marching on the Rajpath stretch. She had also led the all-India contingent of National Cadet Corps’s senior division girls wing for the Republic Day parade in 2008, when she won the All India Best Girl Cadet and best parade commander awards. Capt. Divya was a student of Good Shepherd Convent and a B. Com graduate from Stella Maris College.
Her NCC officer from college, Dolly Thomas, remembers her as very focussed and hardworking. “She was very responsible and used to single-handedly take care of Cadostar, our annual inter-college NCC festival,” Prof. Thomas says.
Capt. Divya graduated from college in 2009, cleared the Combined Defence Services Examination and joined OTA the same year. She passed out in 2010, bagging the sword of honour – the first woman to receive it in the history of the academy, where she is now an instructor. She had earlier served in Anantnag, Jammu and Kashmir.
“It was a terrific feeling and I got a lot of calls of appreciation. I want more young women, especially from Tamil Nadu, to join the army,” adds the 25-year-old, who, like any true Chennaiite, is a fan of the Marina Beach.
source: http://www.thehindu.com / The Hindu / Home> News> Cities> Chennai> Society / by K Manikandan / January 28th, 2015
