The sombre surrounds of the Tamil Nadu Archives are at home with history, their halls accustomed to quiet scholarship. But on Tuesday afternoon, history leaped off the pages as Dr Bauke van der Pol, Dutch cultural anthropologist, introduced a full house to his recent book, The Dutch East India Company in India. His scholarship studies the trade links between the Netherlands and India, beginning with the 16th century and petering out in the 19th.
It was the archives’ first public address after four years, the institution being a vital resource for Dr Pol’s research. In fact it was the Dutch embassy that helped the state archives preserve and digitize its Dutch papers, which can be accessed on the website of the National Archives of Netherlands, albeit in Dutch.
Back in Egmore, Dr Pol’s presentation opened with a monogram of The United Dutch East India Company, whose acronym in Dutch (VOC) is said to be the oldest trademark of a multinational. Evidence of the trademark can be found across India, in the still-standing monuments of former Dutch settlements like Kochi, Chinsurah, Nagapattinam and Sadras. “India has a longer relationship with the Dutch than America does,” Dr Pol said.
The first Dutchman arrived in India in 1568, but trade ties were first established in 1604, when on November 11, Admiral Setven van der Hagen landed in Malabar to sign a defence and trade treaty with the Zamorin of Kozhikode. The Dutch East India Company had been established two years before this in 1602.
Although Madras was not a Dutch settlement, its neighbouring Pulicat was a stronghold; the best surviving evidence of this is the Dutch cemetery. “People presumed pirates were buried there because of the skull and skeleton carvings,” says Dr Pol, who had to enlighten people about the features of 18th century cemetery design.
source: http://www.timesofindia.indiatimes.com / The Times of India / Home> City> Chennai / by Joeanna Rebello Fernandes, TNN / November 12th, 2014
Several African countries have been taking advantage of India’s expertise in the leather sector and the latest to join the bandwagon is Botswana. Scientists from Chennai-based Central Leather Research Institute (CLRI), who have already been offering expertise to the governments of Sudan, Egypt and Ethiopia, will now help establish a leather park in the land-locked country in southern Africa.
A survey will be conducted and a feasibility report submitted. CLRI bagged the project based on a proposal sent to the government of Botswana three months ago.
“It is a $30,000 project. The park the Botswana government will be setting up would be a full-fledged industrial complex. It will be similar to the one we have in Kolkata but in terms of size, it will be smaller than the one we have here,” said Dr B Chandrasekaran, chief scientist, Centre for Human and Organisational Resources Development, CLRI.
He said a team of experts from the CLRI would conduct a large-scale survey in the African country and a feasibility report would be submitted to its government in three months time. “It is basically taking stock of the situation. The survey will include the animal and human population, meat-eating habits, raw material use, import and export of hides (animal skin), machinery, manpower and status of industries. The report will also suggest suitable location and all that is needed to set up an integrated park,” said Chandrasekaran.
CLRI has already been providing advice to other African countries, including Ethiopia, where they have been working on an 24.4 crore project to develop a leather Institute. They have also offered expertise in developing academic curriculum and investments in the field in Egypt and Sudan.
“Manpower in India and China is no more cheaper and manufacturers are looking to Africa as the next hub. That is the case in any sector. In Botswana, too, we can, in the future, play a role in establishing institutions for manpower development for the park,” Chandrasekaran said and added that offering expertise would also help in expanding India’s commercial relations.
source: http://www.timesofindia.indiatimes.com / The Times of India / Home> City> Chennai / by U. Tenonmayam, TNN / November 04th, 2014
V. Mohan, chairman and chief diabetologist of Dr. Mohan’s Specialities Centre, has published 870 research papers in high-impact journals and textbooks — Photo: Bijoy Ghosh / The Hindu
The Fellowship of The World Academy of Sciences was recently conferred upon city-based diabetologist V. Mohan.
This is one of the most prestigious science awards and is conferred annually on top scientists in various disciplines, globally, according to a press release.
Dr. Mohan, chairman and chief diabetologist of Dr. Mohan’s Specialities Centre, has published 870 research papers in high-impact journals and textbooks and his work has received 23,813 citations till date.
He is one of the few practising medical doctors in the world to be conferred this prestigious fellowship, a press release said.
The award was presented to him at the 25th general meeting of The World Academy of Sciences held in Muscat on October 27.
source: http://www.thehindu.com / The Hindu / Home> News> Cities> Chennai / Chennai – November 02nd, 2014
Members of the G.D.Naidu family with the Stoll family of Esslingen, Germany, during a celebration of the 75th year of friendship between the two families, in Coimbatore. Photo:K.Ananthan / The Hindu
What makes the bonding between the two families significant is that it has expanded to become a relationship between two cities (Coimbatore and Esslingen) and two countries
It was September of 1939 and Europe faced the Second World War. Forty- six-year-old Gopalswamy Doraiswamy Naidu from Coimbatore was on a business trip to Germany and was at Holzmaden, Esslingen. He had no place to stay or get vegetarian food and spent a night under the open sky.
Berta Stoll, wife of Gottlieb Stoll, saw G.D. Naidu and invited him to their home, which was nearby. Naidu stayed with the Stoll family for four or five days, cooked his own food with vegetables picked from their garden and thus began the story of a friendship, which has lasted for 75 years, between the two families.
A few years after his visit to Germany, when businesses were down in that country and there were no buyers for German products, Mr. Naidu wrote to his friends the world over, recommending Festo products from the company of the Stolls.
What makes the bonding between the two families significant is that in the last seven-and-a-half decades, it has expanded to become a relationship between two cities (Coimbatore and Esslingen) and the two countries.
About 20 members of the Stoll family are here on a five-day visit. The second, third and fourth generations of the two families — Stoll and G.D. Naidu- gathered in the city on Sunday to celebrate 75 years of their friendship.
Members of the two families recollected the visits to India and Germany, their education and early days of work at each other’s factories, exchanged gifts and cut a cake.
There is a proposal to twin Coimbatore and Esslingen and the Esslingen Coimbatore Association has been formed. Over the years, the Stolls have also contributed to institutes and hospitals here.
“The Stoll family is into water conservation and research on waste water treatment. We can work together for water conservation and waste water treatment projects here,” says Vanitha Mohan, Managing Trustee of Siruthuli.
According to Coimbatore Mayor P. Rajkumar, cooperation between Esslingen and Coimbatore will help in technology transfer and exchange of ideas. The Mayor of Esslingen is expected to visit Coimbatore next year and efforts are on to have an agreement between the two cities.
“The common interests and value systems have strengthened the friendship between the two families over the years and the friendship has made Coimbatore attractive to them, says a member of the G.D. Naidu family.
source: http://www.thehindu.com / The Hindu / Home> News> Cities> Coimbatore / by M. Soundariya Preetha / Coimbatore – October 29th, 2014
The screening of Kreuzer Emden was an opportunity for the audience to reflect on the shared artistic traditions of India and Germany — Photo: M. Srinath / The Hindu
Despite the rain and slushy roads, film and history buffs turned up in good numbers to watch the 1932 German war film, Kreuzer Emden, directed by Louis Ralph, at Woodlands theatre in Royapettah on Sunday morning.
The film is about the various missions of SMS Emden, a German warship, which bombed Madras on September 22, 1914, and its eventual destruction at the hands of an Australian warship, HMAS Sydney.
The screening, which was organised jointly by German Consulate General, Chennai and members of the Indo-Cine Appreciation Foundation, was preceded by a welcome address by Achin Fabig, consul general, and a short talk by Professor A.R. Venkatachalapathy from the Madras Institute of Development Studies, who provided the historical context.
“The screening of the film does not aim to further understand the role played by the Emden in World War I or to even glorify it. It takes a critical approach to the attack,” said Mr. Fabig.
Drawing attention to how the film’s cinematographer Josef Wirsching went on to work in several Hindi feature films in Bombay, he said that Indians and Germans also seem to have shared artistic traditions.
Professor Venkatachalapathy began his talk by bemoaning the fact that Indians care too little for history. “We understand war as something spectacular and tend to glorify it. India has been lucky not to have experienced destruction of such scale,” he said.
Speaking about the Emden, Professor Venkatachalapathy said that it symbolised the ascendancy of Germany on the seas, which had previously been dominated by England. “Within months of attacking Madras, it managed to pass into popular culture. It is today a part of local parlance,” he said.
source: http://www.thehindu.com / The Hindu / Home> News> Cities> Chennai / by Udhav Naig / Chennai – October 27th, 2014
Indian-origin Singaporean poet and writer K.T.M. Iqbal will be awarded Cultural Medallion, the country’s highest cultural award by President Tony Tan Keng Yam on Thursday night in Singapore.
It is the highest recognition for the 74-year-old Tamil poet whose achievements include more than 200 children’s songs written for Radio Singapore in the 1970s and 1980s, as well as seven collections of poetry.
Mr. Iqbal said he was “delighted” to receive the award which was “an incredible honour”.
“My first love is poetry. We have been together for 60 years. I never imagined this would bring me the Cultural Medallion award,” The Straits Times quoted Mr. Iqbal as saying.
Mr. Iqbal learned the basics of Venpa, a form of classical Tamil poetry from a poetry-writing workshop. “I would sit on the street in the evening to write or an idea might come when I was on the bus,” said Mr. Iqbal.
The poet, also a retired bank executive, has received recognition in the education system of Singapore also.
Mr. Iqbal’s compositions are studied in schools and some of them have appeared in the subway stations as part of efforts to bring the arts close to the community.
Mr. Iqbal migrated to Singapore at the age of 11 with his father from Kadayanallur in South India in 1951.
A Tamil newspaper Malaya Nanban, which is now defunct, introduced him to the simple but evocative compositions of Tamil poet Mathithasan. The poet’s vivid depiction of people and values in society inspired the young Iqbal to start penning poems.
The retired bank executive continues to pen poems and hopes to produce an edited collection of his best Tamil poems and an English translation of it.
Along with the award, Mr. Iqbal will get 80,000 Singapore Dollar grant, which can be used to fund artistic endeavours over their lifetime, according to The Straits Times.
“The money once spent is gone. But to have the nation recognise your contribution is great and it will encourage people to keep writing poetry,” said Mr. Iqbal.
The award will also be given to sculptor Chong Fah Cheong, 68, and 51-year old Alvin Tan, the artistic director of a theatre company, The Necessary Stage. Recipients are each eligible for a 80,000 Singapore Dollar grant.
The award, instituted 35 years ago, has been presented to 115 artists to date, including Mr. Iqbal, Mr. Chong and Mr. Tan.
source: http://www.thehindu.com / The Hindu / Home> News> National / by PTI / Singapore , October 16th, 2014
Poet-activist Salma on her experiences at the Writers of India Festival, Paris
On May 26, this year, poet Salma received a letter inviting her to be a guest of honour at the Writers of India Festival, Paris, in September. The festival, a new collaboration between Columbia University, New York, and the Bibliothèque nationale de France, featured a series of lectures and discussions with more than 12 Indian writers at Reid Hall, Columbia and BnF in Paris. Salma talks about her journey as a poet, her experiences in Paris and how poetry can make an impact.
You used to write secretly when you were young as you were confined to the house from the age of 13. Did you ever think at that time that you would be an established writer?
(Laughs) I was very confident my words would reach the world. I still remember this scene vividly. I was 16. I was standing with my sister in the kitchen and she was rolling out chapatis. ‘You had better learn to cook,’ my sister said. Otherwise, people will say we did not bring you up properly. I told my sister — I’m going to be a famous writer. I’ll go to many countries and attend many conferences. I don’t need to learn to cook!
And now, you have just attended the Writers of India festival. How was the experience?
There were several readings and discussions every day and at least five events were happening at the same time. Everything was well organised. They had French translators. I was the only one to have a screening of my film Salma! It was followed by an interview with senior journalist, Judith Oriol — she came prepared with an in-depth questionnaire.
What was the audience reaction to your film, which documents the story of your life?
Many of them got very emotional. It was hard for people to believe that so many women do not have even the basic rights and that it is a struggle.
Is poetry part of our everyday culture?
Thirukkural
What made you write poems, not stories?
Like many girls in a Muslim community, I was not allowed to leave the house in my small town Thuvarankurichi. I had many conflicting feelings and I wanted the freedom to live life, do many things. A poem can be a powerful expression and all my pent-up emotions came through in verse.
Can you read from one of your poems presented at the festival?
A few lines from Naan Illadha Avan Ulagam (His world beyond me). It is about a mother and son.
He, who had asked me
on a night of the moon’s full retreat
if the sun too would be gone someday,
has no more answers to seek from me.
How have your experiences impacted your writing?
It is an unbelievable life, to be a writer. My poems are for everyone, but I especially wanted to reach out to women, and make a difference for them. They must realise their lives. They must understand their identity.
Your family’s resistance to your writing – did that change?
There were many changes that happened over time, but the big shift happened when I entered politics. At that point, my family had no choice but to accept it.
(Salma won a seat reserved for women in Thuvarankurichi in the 2001 panchayat elections and was elected MLA in 2006).
Your writing got acceptance when it was connected with a larger purpose — political and social. Can writing by itself bring about social change?
Writing alone cannot bring change. We need political will to usher in change.
The theme of the festival in Paris was on the impact of globalisation on cultural creation and consumption. Did the festival address these ideas?
I got the chance to be on the same platform as award-winning writers Jeet Thayil, Vikram Chandra and Kiran Desai and there were stimulating exchanges. All participants had to contribute essays on globalisation, which will be published in the form of a booklet.
In India, many do not consider storytelling and poetry real professions. How did you find it in other countries?
People respect writers. A writer receives more adulation than a politician, in some ways. From the time I landed at the airport, people used to ask me to recite a poem in Tamil, just because they wanted to hear how it sounded!
source: http://www.thehindu.com / The Hindu / Home> Books> Author / by Sujatha Shankar Kumar / October 17th, 2014
Historian William Dalrymple was in the city to speak at the launch of ‘Return Of A King’ at Starmark bookstore and to deliver a lecture on the same at Stella Maris College. Photo: R. Ragu
William Dalrymple talks about his next book The Anarchy that traces the rise of the East India Company and why he still treasures the curiosity and surprise of the outsider perspective
It takes a William Dalrymple to fill malls and college halls with crowds that will wait hours for him to arrive, and hang on his every word while he launches a book that’s over a year old. “Imagine yourself far away from Chennai,” he whispers, “seated on a bleak, empty step in the borderlands between Iran and Afghanistan. It’s a cold, harsh winter in November, 1837. A war is about to break out, and what you are to witness will change the course of history, forever.” Through a rapid tale of pride and ambition, folly and misfortune, Dalrymple spins us through the narrow passes and cruel terrain of Afghanistan, alongside an 18,500-strong British army with Indian soldiers that forces new governance upon a conquered nation, only to be catastrophically overthrown and reduced to one surviving man. It’s the story of Dalrymple’s most recent work Return Of A King, and this is a lecture he’s delivered before numerous heads of State, the Indian Army, at the White House and to former Afghan President Hamid Karzai, himself.
Dalrymple is in Chennai though, for different reasons. The city stars in his next book, The Anarchy, which traces the rise of the East India Company from a private company “five-windows wide and run by 35 people” to a coloniser of nations.
The book opens amidst the drama of 1739, when the ‘Second Alexander’ Nadir Shah of Persia invades the Mughal empire, captures its ruler Mohammad Shah, plunders Delhi and loots the land of wagons of jewels and gold, all of which is shipped back to Persia. As the empire begins to crumble, the French and British East India companies creep into strength. Chapter two cuts to the Madras of the 1740s, to the rivalry between Robert Clive and Marquis Dupleix that unfolded here, and proceeds to trace the Company’s expansion henceforth.
Chronologically, The Anarchy prequels Dalrymple’s last three works White Mughals, The Last Mughaland Return Of A King, all of which unfold from 1790 and 1850, the relatively “unwritten time” between the fall of the Mughals and the rise of the British. As with Return Of A King, though, The Anarchy finds uncanny relevance in modern times. The Return release of Return Of A King coincided with the period of “regime change” the British foisted on Afghanistan, followed by the recent withdrawal of its forces, an event that Dalrymple notes almost exactly replicates the First Afghan War. “I’m most interested in how history echoes backwards and forwards into modern politics,” he says.
With The Anarchy, he examines the relationship between State powers and corporate power. “There’s much to be learned from how the Company infiltrated British Parliament and Parliament aided the Company. Moreover, when Clive and the Company were granted diwani powers , it was the most extreme example of privatisation in history, and when the Parliament finally gobbled up the Company, that was nationalisation right there. Because these events are locked in history, we cease to look at them in modern terms, which gives it a whole new perspective.”
The Anarchy also ties in with a project Dalrymple spent the last year on, writing a sweeping cultural history of the nation that he couldn’t ease a “coherent narrative” out of. The spoils of all that research will now seep into The Anarchy, in true Dalrymple style of soaking his stories in the music and art of their times. “All through the chaotic events of this book, where every small village has its own raja fighting insurgent wars against the raja next door, there was the decentralisation of art. When the Mughals ruled, great art flourished in Delhi, Agra, Jaipur and Lahore, but now, schools of painting grow out of the small towns of Rajasthan and the hill towns of the North.” This was the high point of the Jaipur and Jodhpur schools of miniature, and in architecture the mighty forts and palaces of Hyderabad and Lucknow grew in this age, he adds. It is the vastness of this book’s imagined canvas that, at this stage, enthuses and challenges, yet humbles Dalrymple. “Till you figure out the shape of the thing, it’s like a new relationship. You flirt with the subject initially, realise something interesting is going on, and then at some point, you’ve to make a commitment to it. I’m still haven’t gotten over this flame!”
Back in his Mehrauli farmhouse on the outskirts of Delhi lie the fruit of many past flames. Three travelogues, the first written when he was 22, followed by three historical works and books of essays in between have perfected for Dalrymple an “anal system” of research and organisation, of physical index cards for every piece of information he unearths. All that he discovers about Dupleix, for instance, goes under the ‘D’ category of people cards, and under another label organised topic wise. “It’s the only way I don’t write myself down a blind alley and have to find my way back,” he says. It’s also these early times of research and travel in the average four-year birthing period of a book, before he’s “shackled to a desk”, which Dalrymple finds most exciting. In Chennai, for The Anarchy, he hopes to stumble upon records of the Carnatic kingdoms from the attic records of old families, besides spending months here holed up in archives. “Once all the material is well organised, my writing year can move quickly. You reach a point, eventually, where things seem to just write themselves, where wonderful phrases turn up that you haven’t particularly planned, where it’s all sort of pouring out, and that’s very rare.”
As a writer, Dalrymple firmly places himself as a narrative historian, in the traditions of those like Antony Beevor and Simon Schama. From his days of travel writing for In Xanadu, City of Djinns andFrom the Holy Mountain, he takes the tendency to now write “history books with a strong sense of place”, travelling between the library and the places he’s reading about. And from 30 years of living in India, he still brings to the table the “curiosity and surprise” of the outsider. In writing history, though, he sees it as a “sliding scale between the academic world of the social sciences on one end, and literature at the other end”, with him tilting toward the latter. “History can be wonderful literature, and no less scholarly or valuable for it being written in fine prose. I’ve learnt that there’s no shame in telling a good story.”
source: http://www.thehindu.com / The Hindu / Home> Books> Authors / by Esther Elias / October 17th, 2014
Arushi Nayar, Akshay Venkataraghavan, Aditi Balaji, Abinaya Raman and K S Adhithya Kumar of Padma Seshadri Bala Bhavan, K K Nagar, won the Debating Matters International Final 2014 held in London on October 18.
The debating championship was organised by British Council in partnership with the Institute of Ideas in the UK.
Student participants said the competition was known for its rigorous and intellectually challenging format that valued substance over style. The final round pitted students of PSBB Senior Secondary School, KK Nagar, against their peers from Franklin College of Grimsby, UK.
This year’s debate motion was, “We should be willing to compromise our privacy in the interests of national and international security.”
The Indian students spoke for the motion, while those from Franklin College in the UK spoke against the motion.
The PSBB students had to compete with the best in the country at the national level of the competition, after facing an online elimination round and zonal finals, before heading for the international final round in the UK.
source: http://www.timesofindia.indiatimes.com / The Times of India / Home> City> Chennai / by M Ramya, TNN / October 20th, 2014
VJ Thapa arrived in Chennai only 10 years ago, but has become a household name — Photo: B. Jothi Ramalingam / The Hindu
Sharmila Thapa has been making waves with her work as a VJ and dance artiste
Her wacky dance moves and humour have won her quite a few fans among television audiences. But, what makes her stand out from your average video jockey is a surprising fluency in Tamil.
Meet Sharmila Thapa, or Thapa as she is known on screen, who has been making waves as a video jockey and dance artiste with Tamil comedy channel Adithya TV. A native of Nepal, the 26-year-old, who moved to the city just 10 years ago, has attained an almost celebrity-like status among Chennaiites, both young and old.
Born in Narayanghat, Nepal, Thapa was initially considered an unlikely candidate for compering in Tamil, mainly due to her accent.
“After my graduation, I auditioned to be an anchor for a show in a well-known news channel, but was rejected. Disappointed, I gave up and went on to work as a visa assistance executive,” says the jovial anchor, a graduate in Tourism and Travel Management from Anna Adarsh College for Women, Anna Nagar.
Interestingly, Thapa’s opportunity came during a brief visit to a therapy centre for weight loss in Vadapalani.
“I befriended Adithya TV VJ Archana at the centre who guided me towards an audition with the humour channel. Finally, I ended up at their studio for the audition by the end of 2012, extremely nervous. I performed a few funny skits and dance steps. Some months later, I got the call,” adds the VJ who went on air for the first time on April 14, 2013.
Thapa’s TV performances and celebrity status have had some unexpected consequences.
“People often stop me on the road and ask if my voice is dubbed or whether I can actually speak Tamil. I have been avoiding bus travel to escape such questions,” laughs Thapa, who dreams of shining on the big screen like her icon Kovai Sarala.
source: http://www.thehindu.com / The Hindu / Home> News> Cities> Chennai / by Petlee Peter / October 16th, 2014
