Vyjayanthimala, Karti among Kalaimamani award recipients

Arts, Culture & Entertainment, Records, All

As many as 200 artistes receive awards from Chief Minister Edappadi K Palaniswami as Kalaimamani revived after a long gap of eight years.

Actors Vyjayanthimala and Karthi receiving awards from Chief Minister Edappadi K Palaniswami, in Chennai on Tuesday | p Jawahar
Actors Vyjayanthimala and Karthi receiving awards from Chief Minister Edappadi K Palaniswami, in Chennai on Tuesday | p Jawahar

Chennai :

After a gap of eight years, the Tamil Nadu government has revived the Kalaimamani Award now. Veteran actor Vyjayanthimala Bali, veteran writer Sivasankari, actors Karti and Prasanna were among 200 artistes, who received various awards including Kalaimamani for 2011-18  from Chief Minister Edappadi K Palaniswami at a function here on Tuesday.

The CM announced that hereafter, three special Kalaimamani awards would be presented to talented artistes every year and the Kalaimamani award would carry a five-sovereign gold medal instead of three sovereigns from next year.  Besides, the monthly pension being given to the elderly artistes would be hiked from Rs 2,000 to Rs 3,000.

Stating that since its inception, as many as 1,594 artistes had so far received the Kalaimamani award, Palaniswami said 201 artistes had been chosen from 72 art forms for various awards.  Besides, eight elderly artistes have been given financial assistance of `25,000 each considering their economic background and three organisations who strove for the propagation of different art forms were honoured with shields.

While Vyjayanthimala Bali received the Balasaraswathi award for Bharathanatyam, writer Sivasankari and Villupattu Subbu Arumugam received the Bharathi award.  Well-known Bharathanatyam teachers VP Dhananjayan and his wife received the Balasaraswathi award while Bombay Sisters C Saroja and C Lalitha received MS Subbulakshmi award for Carnatic musicians. Actor Kutti Padmini, T Rajashree, Sasikumar, Srikkanth, comedians Suri and Thambi Ramaiah, choreographer Puliyur S Saroja, art critics Harikesanallur Venkatraman and music director Yuvan Shankar Raja were among those who have received the Kalaimamani award.

Assembly Speaker P Dhanapal presided over the function. Minister for Tamil Official Language and Tamil Culture K Pandiarajan was among those who spoke on the occasion. Actor Vijay Sethupathi, who has been in the news for his views on Jammu and Kashmir issue, did not turn up for the function. He was chosen for the Kalaimamani award for the year 2017.

source: http://www.newindianexpress.com / The New Indian Express / Home> States> Tamil Nadu / by Express News Service / August 14th, 2019

It’s official! This Chennai boy is the best speaker in the world

Amazing Feats, Education, Records, All, World Opinion

These self-professed nerds would take on topics of international relations and economics over sports and pop culture any day.

The champions of this year’s World Schools Debating Championships with PR Venketrama Raja, chairman of RAMCO and his wife PV Nirmala | D SAMPATHKUMAR
The champions of this year’s World Schools Debating Championships with PR Venketrama Raja, chairman of RAMCO and his wife PV Nirmala | D SAMPATHKUMAR

It was India all the way at the World Schools Debating Championships (WSDC) 2019 in Bangkok. The five-man team fielded by the country won the championship and one of the team-members, Chennai’s Tejas Subramaniam, went on to be crowned the ‘best speaker in the world’.

A proud mother Vinutha Subramaniam said she was among those who had given up debating with him as he already was the best speaker in the family.

“After one point he knew too many things. So, we couldn’t debate with him. He started speaking quite early and by the time he was 1, he could speak complete sentences. At around 2, he would speak a sentence in Tamil and be able to repeat it in English so much so that we would call him ‘Major Sundarrajan’ (after a famous Tamil actor),” Vinutha said.

The team, which also included Bhavya Shah, Manya Gupta, Saranya Ravindran and Prithvi Arun, had already prepared 140 motions before the championships with the help of their coaches Dhruva Bhat, Sayeqa Islam and Dhananjay Ashok among others.

“There was not a single topic that we were baffled by,” said Saranya, a student of Padma Seshadri Bala Bhavan Senior Secondary School in Chennai.

The team might have made giant strides this year, but proving their mettle on the global debating circuit was an experience in itself.

“Because we are accented, sometimes I think we are not understood. Like, for example, when the judges give us our feedback, they tell us you made a new argument in your third speech when we clearly made it in our earlier speeches too,” Tejas, who like Saranya studies in Padma Seshadri Bala Bhavan Senior Secondary School, said.

First visually impaired speaker to debate in the final

Bhavya, a student of Rao Junior College of Science in Mumbai, the team’s ‘Funny guy’, became the first visually impaired speaker to debate in a WSDC final and to make it among the top 10 speakers.

He was named the sixth best speaker in the world.

Bhavya shared some of his most memorable moments.

When debating against Canada opposing the motion “This House would ban the practice of ‘importing brides’, Canada’s argument was that if importing brides were to be legalised, other refugees would be affected because of the opportunity cost,” Bhavya said.

“So, I argued that this was an argument against any other form of immigration. What if team Canada so decides, ‘we don’t want Indians coming into the country because they’re better at debating than we are?’,” he said.

Point made, the team went on to win defeat the Canadians 3-0.

It was Canada whom they defeated in the final also, proposing the motion “This house regrets the glorification of soldiers as heroes”.

source: http://www.newindianexpress.com / The New Indian Express / Home> Good News / by Express News Service / August 03rd, 2019

e-slippers, gliding platforms and more: meet the student innovators of Maddur

Amazing Feats, Education, Inspiration/ Positive News and Features, Records, All, Science & Technologies, World Opinion
Students of Buchireddy Palli Government School with their invention — a walking stick with sensors. | Photo Credit: B. Jothi Ramalingam
Students of Buchireddy Palli Government School with their invention — a walking stick with sensors. | Photo Credit: B. Jothi Ramalingam

The students of Buchireddy Palli Government School have been winning accolades for their clever innovations aimed at saving lives

It is morning in Maddur, a little village nestled in the valley of the lush Tiruttani hills in Tamil Nadu. I make my way past the railway crossing that looks straight out of an R.K. Narayan story and climb into a rickshaw. It takes me past houses with decorative pillars and thinnais(porches) of old-fashioned houses. As the auto sputters down, I hear the rattle of power looms — the main occupation in Maddur is weaving.

Maddur, of late, has earned a new distinction. The students of Buchireddy Palli Government School have been winning accolades for their clever innovations aimed at saving lives and improving the lives of people with disability. Maddur has few streetlights, and many pedestrians fall prey to road accidents. So Class X students S. Parthiban and V.M. Akashwaran came up with ‘e-slippers’.

The footwear operates on the principle of piezo-electricity and has LED strips that light up when the user walks. Rechargeable lithium-ion batteries, which charge devices like mobile phones, are connected to the slippers.

The duo has also come up with a multi-purpose walking stick with sensors that can detect hazards such as fires or floods.

The Buchireddy Palli Government School is an austere, three-storied building that houses both English and Tamil medium departments from classes VI to XII. When I get there just before lunch break, I spot some bright-eyed children sneaking out of their classrooms. Science teacher R. Dharmalingam, has nothing but appreciation for his students. “They are self-driven, curious and never afraid to ask questions,” he says.

“Most of their projects are self-funded, but the headmaster has also helped. I have sat with them after school hours to encourage them.” The school’s involvement is obvious. Dharmalingam accompanied Akashwaran and Parthiban when they showcased their work at the Southern India Science and Technology Fair in Bengaluru.

Out of the box

At Akashwaran’s house, we are greeted with effusive hospitality. Akashwaran and his friend Gunasekaran, still in their uniforms, are poring over a cardboard model. I ask them what they are working on. “This is a gliding platform meant for people with disability or the elderly so that they can cross railway platforms without having to use the overbridge,” Akashwaran tells me. The two then demonstrate the working model.

Students with a model of a gliding platform for the elderly cross tracks | Photo Credit: B. Jothi Ramalingam
Students with a model of a gliding platform for the elderly cross tracks | Photo Credit: B. Jothi Ramalingam

Akash thought of this when I complained about the climb at the station. Since then he’s been trying to figure out a workable solution,” beams his mother Vatsala.

“It used to be based on hydraulic motion but I changed it to a motor-based system. The platform will move forward when the switch is pressed. IR sensors will detect approaching trains and the platform will then retreat,” Gunasekaran explains. They have even thought about warning systems — a buzzer sound to alert the blind and a flashing red light for the deaf.

M.N. Haripratap is in Class IX in the same school. He has designed a bridge model where the structure opens up during high tide to allow ships to pass and then folds back again. It won him a district-level prize from the Chief Education Officer of Thiruvallur district.

The students’ love for science and innovation is apparent. “Akash took part in a science exhibition at Sri Krishna Polytechnic and was fascinated by what he saw,” says Vatsala. Interested in electronics, programming and robotics, he recently received a special prize for excellence in science from Anna University, Chennai, during its tech fest, ‘Kurukshetra’. He was also awarded a token of appreciation by former ISRO director Mylswamy Annadurai.

“I want to be a scientist,” says Akash. “Abdul Kalam has always been a role model for me.” I ask him what’s next on the agenda. His small, serious face lights up as he talks of solar-powered cycles, ambulance-sensitive speed-breakers, and earthquake-sensing fences.

Whatever the students of this special school do next, I know they will put Maddur on the map with their thoughtful, people-focused innovations.

The writer is a civil engineer and dog lover with a nose for music and art.

source: http://www.thehindu.com / The Hindu / Home> Sci-Tech> Environment – Young Minds / by Gayatri Ramdas / August 03rd, 2019