December Music, Dance and other Art Season, Chennai - a overview

December Music season is an unique event that takes place in Chennai, the Cultural Capital of India, every year. Initially this was confined to few Sabhas hosting the festival. Now this has grown big and hence gets started by November itself due to non availability of venue as many sabhas do not own their own auditorium.

Artistes consider that performing in the music season is a prestige. Recently the trend has widened giving scope for full-fledged dance ballets and also stage dramas. Of course Lec-Dems on varied subjects by experts continue to have a place in the agenda.

Rasikas from abroad make it a point to visit Chennai during this season and one reputed Hotel in Mylapore informs that this year also the rooms were full during Nov/December and the visitors stayed till the end of music season.

All major sabhas will have canteens with traditional items at affordable rates, to satisfy the taste buds of the rasikas who will have continuous schedule from 9.00 A.M to 9.00 P.M.

M/S Fortune Sunflower edible oil had plied vans to shuttle between sabhas and the service was free for rasikas. This 'Fortune Carnatic Express' was introduced last year and had a help line painted on it. There were two such vehicles, one operating in Mylapore and the other in T.Nagar. The rasikas to access the vehicle thro' the mobile help line.

There was also a daily issue on the happenings at various sabhas till the end of Music Season i.e 1st Jan 2009 by a Neighbourhood News paper and a website on South Indian Classical Music & Dance.

Below is the photo of December Music Season, 2008, Chennai.

Articles on Lec-Dem and on Dance Ballet will be published in due course.

Sense international (india)-Hope for Special Children

The world exclusively dedicates December 3rd for special children of the earth. We in India conduct many programmes like sports and other competitions, cultural shows etc etc.

But many of us do not know that there is an organisation caring for the deaf blind and also for multiple disorder children. Sense International (India) is the first national non governmental organisation, a registered trust within India to support the development of comprehensive services for deaf blind people. Now it supports services to all multiple disorder children. The office is in Ahmedabad.

The main objectives of the organisation are, 1. To reach out to children with multiple disability who are not getting any kind of services, 2. To train parents the skills to improve the capabilities of the child and accept the child and understand the special needs. 3. Develop the staff and give them training in taking care and educating the children.

The organisation has set up so far 37 services in 19 states in India. Sense International has 3 net works functioning, “Abhi - Prerna” - for the Teachers Network, “Prayas”- for Family Network and “Udaan” for Network of persons with Deaf blindness / Multi Sensory Impairment

The organisation conducts seminar for 2 days in September wherein the children with parents, and teachers of different states are invited and they interact among themselves. Here the problems, lack of professional services, lack of facilities to the teachers are discussed in detail.

This year the seminar was conducted in Ahmedabad itself for 2 days, Sep. 19th & 20th. Though the representation from different states was less, the interaction was good, it seems. Parents felt the need for more trained teachers. But however the teachers vented out their grievances like lack of transportation , meagre pay scale etc. One teacher narrated the story how he had to travel 12 hours to reach the village, teach for 2 hours and travel back same 12 hours. He undergoes this ordeal 3 days a week. He gets only nominal pay which is far from sufficient, but gets immense satisfaction that the child is improving. (These informations were given by a parent who attended the seminar)

Some parents are happy that the child has improved a lot due real care from parents and teacher. One student from the special children school in Muttukadu, Chennai even got awards from state government.

These informations were given by a parent who attended the seminar this year.

The success stories of the children found in their website http://www.senseintindia.org/ are amazing.

I here quote a dream expressed by a 11 year old girl as seen in the website - 'I love the
breeze against my face, the feel of the sand as it flows from my fist. I can smell air and predict
rain. I want to be a meteorologist one day. The first deaf blind meteorologist of the world!!'

O' what a lively dream.

Our Government has brought out several social security schemes for them.

LIC once had a policy Jeevan Aadhar for disabled people. Now that has been closed and a similar schemes has been brought, it appears. However I understand that LIC has s separate wing for disabled persons which functions at their Teynampet Office, Chennai.

The awareness in the society, the organisation says, very very less. Once the parents become member, the organisation will take care of the kid with respect to education, securing job etc if the parents are not in a position to provide the same.

The future plans of the organisation are By 20 17 1. At least 1 deaf blind service provider will be available in each state. 2. About 70,000 deaf blind people (62,500 children and 7,500 adults) will be utilising quality, needs-based services. 3. No deaf blind child will travel more than a day to
get appropriate services.

E-mail: info@senseintindia.org
web site: www.senseintindia.org
Toll free deaf blind helpline : 1800 233 7913

Artifacts of Rural Women Entrepreneurs-Exhibition-cum-Sale

Andhra Mahila Sabha, a voluntary organisation has many units like Hospital and research centre, Women's college, Vocational Training Institute etc under its umbrella. All the units celebrate the birth centenary year of the founder president Padma Vibhushan Dr. Durgabai Deshmukh. The whole year July 2008 to July 2009 is being celebrated as the date of birth falls on 15/7/1909.

In this connection the Vocational Training Institute of Andhra Mahila Sabha, Luz Church Road, Mylapore, had organised an Exhibition cum Sale of Artifacts of rural women entrepreneurs from 22.1108 to 24.11.08 sponsored by NABARD.

NABARD: National Bank for Agriculture and Rural Development is an apex body of Government and its main objective is to help Bank fund for rural development. NABARD gives the refinance in those cases. One of the main innovations of NABARD is formation and funding scheme of Self Help Group.

What is Self Help Group (SHG) ? Rural women with expertise in different avocation join together to form a group and select a leader amongst themselves. The banks will finance the group through the leader, and the other members get money commensurate to their small business output, profit. The leader maintains the accounts of each member and the loan is repaid by collecting from the sale proceeds realised by members.

This is only a broad outline of SHG. However SHG is one scheme which is extremely successful in India since its inception during 1991-92. The growth is incomparable to any other scheme and that can be assessed by the fact that some groups have Chairman, Secretary, cashier, treasurer etc. SHGs mainly consist of women groups but nowadays the facility extended to men groups also.

The main motto of Andhra Mahila Sabha, as they quote, is "Building better lives for women"

So these two organisatons, NABARD & AMS together organised the Exhibition cum Sale of artifacts of women entrepreneurs belonging to SHGs from different districts.

Shall we visit the stalls now?

Jothi of Malligai, Arasu Suya Uthavi Kuzu from Kanakamma Chathiram, Thiruvallur dist. is engaged in making artificial jewellery with stones. She gets the raw material from Gujarat and does nice ear rings, chains, anklets, hip belt used in Dandiya dance etc. Her contact No. 9840645649.

Vasantham Mooligai Marundu Shop from Namakkal: All herbal products to treat obesity, allergy, hair fall, diabetes, constipation besides hair oil, massage oil, shampoo etc., were displayed. As there is general awareness among public for alternate medicine nowadays, people thronged this counter. Contact person P.Selvamani 94435 73225/9442792995.

Nehru SHG from Namakkal: Real nice quality cotton towels and bed spread spinned in their own power loom were exhibited and sold for nominal rate. The sale was overwhelming and they have bagged bulk orders from visitors.

Taramani Women SHG, Dharapuram: Beautiful garlands made of flowers from spongy packing materials of sober colors like rose, pista green, lemon yellow were displayed. Also a small mantap made of ice-stick and match stick with a Saraswathy idol inside looked perfect and artistic.

P. Rajeswari can be contacted on 9442922663.

There were also other fashion jewellery and artificial flower making stalls. Ms. Kamala Dhanasekharan from Mandaveli, Chennai can be contacted on 9380162037. She has a jewellery polishing shop at 56, V.C. Garden Street and belongs to Thendral SHG.

C.S.I. Embroidery Industry Natural Fibre Craft are from Kanyakumari District. Cushion covers, sofa covers, table spread, bed sheets materials are procured from the market in Karur and hand embroidered at the industry at Marthandam. Contact person Hebsibai Dharmaraj at 04651 270147. Hand bags and other baskets are made of natural fibre, a thriving craft and very typical of Kanyakumari. C.Thanga Jothi can be contacted at 94865 50922.

Out of 15 stalls only 2 from other state i.e., Andhra Pradesh.

One unique stall from Dharmavaram had exquisite designs carved on coloured leather. The designed piece can either be framed or fixed at any place with a cello tape. The contact persons from Dharmavaram Mr. Raju can be contacted at 99495 52185.

The other stall is the famous Kondapalli Doll Shop where the dolls are made of light wood with very artistic and realistic workmanship.

Madurai, Nellai, Kancheepuram, Rajapalayaman and Sivaganga had their representations.

Food for the participants for all 3 days was sponsored by NABARD and the accommodation and venue provided by Andhra Mahila Sabha.

What made Andhra Mahila Sabha to organise an exhibition like this? "We are bent upon the upliftment of poor women in the society" says Ms. Bhuvaneswari, the coordinator with a flicker in her eyes. How NABARD came into the picture? Tells Bhuvana, NABARD already sponsors their vocational training activity for computer education, car driving course and tailoring unit for women.

The entire show for three days was simple and the participants left satisfied having grabbed lucrative orders for the festive season ahead.

K.P. Astrology - Birth Centenary of founder Late Prof. K.S. Krishnamurthi

'Krishnamurthi Paddhathi' of astrology is the product of 40 years of research by the founder Late Prof. K.S. Krishnamurthi. Prof. K.S.Krishnamurthi was born on 1st November 1908 at Thiruvaiyaru, Tanjore district. He later moved to Madras ie Chennai. KSK passed away in March 1972. (source http://astropskp.com/)

Prof. KSK was blessed with three sons and two daughters. All the three sons, Sri.Ganapathy, Sri Hariharan and Sri. Subrahmaniam and one daughter Smt. Soundara Rajan practise astrology, K P Paddhathi. Sri. Hariharan heads the research institute opened by KSK, now functioning at Spencer Plaza, Chennai.

On 1.11.2008, the family members along with their students and other astrologers who practise K P method had arranged full day grand function at Sri.Dakshinamurthy auditorium, Mylapore.

The function had two sessions, morning and evening with a lunch break in between. The introductory and felicitation part took major time in the morning agenda and so the number of guest speakers were only 3. The audience, who all had a minimum knowledge in Vedic astrology were disappointed that they missed speech by the sons who were to describe in detail what is K.P. Paddhathi.

I was one among the audience in the morning session and could not stay for the next.

I present this article with the meagre information I could grasp and some study through different web sites on this subject.

K.P. Paddhathi is the outcome of 3 styles, 1. Vedic astrology for basics, 2.Prassna Jothidam for the time of approach for predictions and 3. its own unique system which differs from Vedic Astrology.

Vedic Astrology has a definite horoscope set basing on the date, time and place of birth. It takes the centre of the house as the point and predictions made taking into account the natal chart and the gochara effects of major planets like Saturn, Jupiter and the nodes.

In K P Astology the ruling planets basing on the sign lord, star lord and sub lord for both lagna and Moon and the week day planet are first listed, the lagna being arrived at basing on the time a person approaches for prediction. If Rahu and Kethu are in the sign whose lord owns another sign and that planet is one among the ruling planets, then the nodes are also listed.

If any ruling planet thus arrived happens to be retrograde, that planet is to be eliminated.

Also the planet owning 8th and 12th place from the relevant house that is being studied, if happens to be a ruling planet, that should also be eliminated.

The ruling planet thus arrived gives the source, its star lord gives the effects & results and the sub-lord gives the final direction. ( source http://www.jyotishsolutions.com/kp.htm)

Prof. KSK divided each star into 249 divisions and each division called 'sub' and the ultimate result depended on sub. This explains the diverse destiny of twins born on the same star.

K P system considered the cusp as the point in contrast to the centre point of the house that is being considered in Vedic Astrology

Thus if the prediction for a particular event which will take place within a day, the time when the Ascendant will cross the ruling planet will be the result. Similarly for events within two or three days, the movement of Moon is taken for calculation, for events within a month, the Sun's movement is studied to pin point the day and time and for yearly events Jupiter's movement or the dasha, bhukthi, anthara are studied for fixing the events date and time of happening. (source http://www.kpastrology.com/kpbasics.htm)

People practising this method say that KP system gives the accurate prediction and the calculations are very scientific in nature.

Late prof. K.S.Krishnamurthi could do all the calculations manually when the usage of computers was not in vogue.

The function started at around 10.40 A.M on 1.11.2008 and the bust statue was unveiled by Sri. S.V.Shekar, cine actor, stage artiste and MLA of Mylapore constituency. It was also announced that two new books written by KSK will be released in the evening.

I once again submit that I have no proficiency in any kind of astrology, but can understand the basics a bit.

So I humbly request the readers to feel free and comment on the shortcomings and enlighten me. Any further/allied information is also most welcome.

Surasamharam by Singaravelar of Mylai

"Mayilaye Kayilai: Kayilaye Mayilai" meaning Mylapore of Chennai city is Kailash, the abode of Shiva, for all his devotees.

All Shiva/Murugan temples of south India, particularly Tamilnad, celebrate Kandasashti on the sixth day following Deepavali Amavasya.

Devotees fast all the six days and throng Murugan temples on Sashti (people call it peria sashti) day. Surasamharam takes place in the evening.

The Story: On the request of Indra, the king of Devas, the young lad Kumaran (Muruga), the son of Shiva and Parvathi sets out to fight the demon king Sura and all other Asuras associated with him. Sura takes Muruga lightly being a young boy. But Muruga fights fiercely and beheads Sura. But Sura's head gets replaced by different forms, like lion. elephant, goat etc. Muruga destroys all the heads. Finally he takes the form of a Mango tree which Muruga splits into two parts. Then Sura realises the godliness in Lord Muruga and expresses his wish to be with the Lord forever. The two split parts become his vahana & flag. Thus Peacock is vahana of Muruga and Cockerel his flag. Indra, pleased by this, gives his daughter Devasena in wedlock to Muruga. Devasena's wedding is celebrated in all the temples the next day.

Now we move to Mylapore, Lord Kapaleeswara temple. This temple is supposed to be one of the oldest temples of Madras ie Chennai and has the tradition of celebrating all the festivals according to the norms specified. Kandasashti Kodiyetham took place on 28th October, but the sashti was conducted only on 4th November, while all other temples celebrated on 3rd.

The norm, says Sri.Sambamurthy Sivachariar, is that the theerthavari is done on the day when sashti thithi exists in the morning atleast for '10 nazhigai' , and only on the 4th Nov. there was sashti thithi in the morning for '11 nazhigai' . Hence the Surasamharam by Singaravelar of Sri Kapali temple took place in the evening on 4th November in the North Mada Street of Mylapore.

Though it was simple compared to other famous Murugan temples, the spirit of mylaporeans was lively, as always it used to be, and the crowd enjoyed the full episode as though they themselves are fighting with Sura. Children, youth and the elderly, alike were throwing paper arrows on the idol of Sura when he was retreating from Muruga, vanquished repeatedly. The entire 1 hour fight was really a thrill.

The finale was grand, with 'Seval & Mayil' reaching the deity dancing all through the path.

Mayilaye Kayilai: Kayilaye Mayilai.

Kuchipudi and Cholliyattam

South Madras i.e Chennai is quite popular in promoting classical music and dance almost through out the year.

Two such events that took place in Sep. 08, are Seminar/awards/performance of Kuchipudi dance organised by Saila Sudha, headed by Dr. Shailaja at Bharathiya Vidya Bhavan on 27 th and 28 th and the second by Kalakshethra, 'Sankara Menon Birth centenary celebrations' which had a lec-dem on 'Cholliyattam' a form of Kathakali on 23rd Sep.

This is a belated report, still would like to share because they are basically from neighbouring states.

Kuchipudi had two full day events of lec-dem, documentary, honouring of gurus etc. Evening both days had performances.

On 27th the dancer was Yamini Reddy, daughter of Radha & Raja Reddy the famous Kuchipudi dancer couple. She was young, talented and had variety. First she performed some invocatory items which had the traditional Kuchipudi touch. Then there was a ragamalika with navarasas and Yamini showed her mettle in abhinaya. The final item was a padam as is known to everyone it was in sringara rasa.

The highlight of the program was the performance of Prahalada Charithram by the artistes from the village of kuchipudi and it really had the fervour of the desi, rustic beauty in presentation.

This took place in heart of the Metro, i.e. in Bharathiya Vidya Bhavan, Mylapore, but the artistes were tireless and went probably up to 11.00 as though it is being performed in an open air stage in a village.

The second festival was Kalakshethra's from 21.09.08 to 29.09.08 being the birth anniversary of Sri. Sankara Menon, ex-director (1986-1995), which had Lec-dem in the mornings and kutcheries in the evenings.

Cholliyattam, a folk type classical dance of kerala was performed by P.V. Balakrishnan and his team from Kerala. He gave brief introduction about the dance. Cholliyattam was prior to the evolution of Kathakali, which was an offshoot of Cholliyattam. The rhythm, layam, thalam, nadai are all preset and the artiste has to follow strictly the choreography. He cannot innovate and thus the method of performing is woven perfectly. The rendering of the song is generally slow and the songs, mostly in Sanskrit with only few phrases here and there are in Malayalam. The songs depict any episode from epics like Ramayana, Mahabharatha etc.

The song selected on 23.09.08 was a story from Mahabharatha. Indra wants his son Arjuna to get the Pasupadasthram from Lord Shiva. He sends his messenger (Madali) with a chariot. Arjuna accepts Indra's call, reaches his place and gets the blessings of Indra and sets out to do penance to get Pasupadasthram from Lord Shiva. So there were 3 scenes, Messenger pleading Arjuna to visit Indira, Arjuna accepting it and reaching the celestial palace of Indira, and thirdly, Arjuna doing penance and getting 'Pasupadasthram from Lord Shiva.

The first item was 'salajjoham' set to Adathalam, kanda nadai, irattai kilai. So naturally it was very elaborate and slow.

Sri. P.V.Balakrishnan and his troop did extremely well, but, as he had already told the tempo was slow, duration long and the dance heavy. The students of Kalakshethra would have learnt new dimensions from this performance.

Deepavali - the great indifest

Deepavali or Diwali is an indian national festival which is the most popular among festivals. Why? Simple. There is no elaborate puja, rituals, fasting, bhajans etc etc.


Take head bath, dress trendy (of course within your means), get the blessings of elders at home. That is all, then enjoy burning crackers with friends & neighbours, visit relatives & friends, go to temples, movies (Deepavali release), eat well without restrictions, exchange sweets and snacks prepared at home/purchased. The newly weds enjoy their bounty. The peer group exchange greetings and pep glances in appreciation of the latest designer dresses. The oldies sit at home and enjoy the special programmes on TV. Deepavali, a fest filled with fun & frolic (despite the soaring price rise)

The business community perform Lakshmi Puja, as Diwali is the beginning of their accounting year.

Getting the blessings of elders on a festival day, is that not very much an indian concept irrespective of caste, creed, religion etc? That is why the entire India celebrates Deepavali in such a grand manner.

Here are some deepavali scenes photographed in the past one week.

Rangachari Cloth Stores selling traditional sarees and dress materials

Cloud 9 Mens' & Children wear readymade Shop. Saanskrutie exhibition at C.P. Art Centre.

The New Bombay Halwa House Gearing up on Diwali eve. T. Nagar shopping junction.

Sri Kapaleeswarar Temple and Sri Sai Baba Temple at Mylapore.

Annai Illam Old Age Home at Mylapore on Deepavali day.

New variety rockets that illuminated the sky this year.

Satellite – Role in Telecommunication & Broadcasting

Recently I happened to hear a lecture on the subject topic.
Only a broad outline I could grasp and that I am sharing with you.


The guest who presented the lecture was Nellai S. Muthu, Scientist, Satish Dhawan Space Centre, Shriharikota. He has authored 90 books on Science and Technology, 4 of which got Tamilnadu State award. He has also translated the book 'India 2020' written by Dr. Abdul Kalam into Tamil at the later's request during his tenure as President of India

Sri Nellai S.Muthu, being so versatile, both in technical knowledge and in the language Tamil, the presentation was effortless with amazing usage of Tamil equivalent for scientific nomenclature.

Now I reproduce a glimpse of the subject topic.

Earth’s atmosphere has got different layers.
Up to 16km - Troposphere, where there is oxygen, nitrogen, water vapour etc. and the world’s weather takes place.
16 – 50 km – Stratosphere. This is an ozone layer.
50 – 80 km – Mesosphere, in between layer which is cold.
80km above Thermosphere which is hot

But at 100 km and above there is ionosphere where electrons get separated from atom and these free Electrons allow propagation of electromagnetic waves and radio communication over a long distance.

Our INSAT 2C (Indian National Satellite System) is far above this 100 km layer and its mission is mainly communication.

The applications and usage in communication
Telephone, cell phone, Television, Radio.
MCF – Master control facility.
Tele Medicine Concept.
Video Conferencing
On-line Teaching
Space net configuration

The other usages are:
Satellite aided rescue system
Forest Mapping
Remote sensing
Mapping for Defense and National Security
Historical research
Groundwater prospects
Encroachment spread resoursestat

Now to other relevant and interesting information given by Sri.S.Muthu.

1. The origin of rocket: It is heartening to know that Tippu’s sword was the origin of rocket. The Britishers thought, why not they send a missile through a weapon like Tippu’s sword to attack French army. Then the concept was adopted by French and Germans. When Germany was defeated, Americans abducted all the German scientists to America. Thus the first rocket was designed by a German scientist taken to America.


2. The Thumba Equatorial Rocket Launching Station (TERLS) is located on the geomagnetic equator and hence strategically poised for scientists to conduct atmospheric research. Russia do not have this facility, hence they conduct their research in other countries.

3. India stands seventh in satellite launching, the other six being, Russia, America, France, Japan, Germany and China.

4. The satellite can take a picture from Kanyakumari to Kashmir in 20 minutes.

5. The Moon as a planet receives the rays of Sun like earth. The temperature beneath the surface of moon is cold, around -200 degrees. Hence the solar energy can be preserved as electrical energy at that temperature. A grid around can be formed and energy saved.
He further said, due to global warming of earth, a day may come when people of earth may migrate to other planets. He informed that his book “Bhoomi Thottil” deals with this subject. In his other book “Winnveli 2057”, he said, he has given that children of 2057 will go to moon for their vacation holidays, like today they visit foreign countries.

He also gave a brief note about Chandrayaan -1, how it will take, first elliptical path, leave earth, take again elliptical path around Moon and finally reach after 5 ½ days.

I have left out too technical terms like geo synchronize velocity, sounding rocket, synthetic aperture radar, etc and the chronological statistics about satellite launching in general.

I came to know from News papers/Web sites that Chandrayaan is a Sanskrit word and it means ‘Moon Craft’. Its main mission is high resolution mineralogical and chemical imaging. It will have 11 Payloads (Instruments for experiments), 5 of which designed indigenously.

At this juncture I would like to add that that our Indian ancestors were very much aware of the entire universe and they have accurately studied and recorded the properties of each planet.

Any comment, correction, further information is most welcome.


I am very happy to hear in the morning TV news that Chandrayaan -1 has been launched successfully from Shriharikota despite inclement weather.


Photo 1. Sri. Nellai S.Muthu, courtesy hinduimages web site.
Photo 2. Early days at the Thumba Equatorial Rocket Launching Station. Readying equipment to be carried by a sounding rocket into the atmosphere are Kalam and R. Aravamudan - courtesy hinduonnet web site

Navarathri - Chennai City Turns Colourful

Chennai city was soaked in festivity all these nine days.

A few scenes of creativity, tradition, divinity and colour are presented.

<-Durga-Kapali Temple Mylapore

Kapali Temple Kolu ->

<-Velliswarn Temple Mylapore Kolu, Velliswaran temple Kurathi dance ->

Mylapore- Trio Mega Kolu - Srivari Bhrahmotsvam Set,
5 Sabhas of Lord Nataraja-Myp Trio ->

<-Sethu Kshethram Kolu, Porur

Annapoorani Sethu Kshethram, Porur ->

<- Madhya Kailash Temple Kolu, Adyar ->

Latha, Adyar

Rama, Thiruvanmiyur ->

<- Srividya, Mylapore

Jaya, T.Nagar ->

<- Exhibition at Karpagambal Kalyana Mantapam, Mylapore ->

<-Dolls Sales, North Mada Street, Mylapore

Gift article Shop, North Mada Street, Mylapore ->

Madras Day - Quiz

The Madras week celebration ends with an English Quiz on Madras ie Chennai on the final day, the Sunday succeeding Aug, 22, the Madras founding day. This used to be a general quiz and open to all with spot registration.

The previous day, the Tamil Medium Schools in Chennai will have Quiz Programme in the afternoon. The winning School will get a Rolling Shield and individual prizes.

This year the Tamil quiz took place on 23 rd Aug, Saturday at Srinivasa Sastri Hall in Luz. Around 20 Schools took part in prelims including some corporation schools.
6 teams were selected for final.

The questions were neither very tough nor very easy. Raja Muthiah and Rani Meiyammai

tied for the first place and finally Rani Meiyammai won the first prize.

This quiz programmes are conducted exclusively by Mylapore Times, a weekly neighbourhood newspaper, published by Mr.Vincent D’souza.

Earlier there was a power point presentation competition on Heritage of Chennai for Schools on 19.08.08 at the same venue, Sastri Hall. There were 20 participating schools. The effort the students had taken to document the history was praiseworthy and it is immaterial which school won the prize. But it was unfortunate that there was only one entry in Tamil and even that could not be projected due to non availability of font.

Mr. Vincent, while addressing the students, gave some useful tips to improve and also said that there is another 1 year time to plan and do the document in the best possible way in the year 2009, which will fall on 18th Aug ,2009.

I have a request to Mr. Vincent. All English medium students have the background, facility and exposure to do these kinds of things. But the Tamil medium schools, when I was talking to them, were not even aware of such a competition. Where was the problem?
Can Mylapore Times take some extra effort to involve them? The students of these schools are from middle and lower middle class families, some even from the families of servant maids, labourers, small vendors, hawkers ect. They need to be supported and encouraged. There is 1 year time to ponder over this.

Let us now move on to the grand finale, the Madras Quiz in English open to public on 24.08.08. This was arranged in Gokale Hall in Karpagambal Nagar, Mylapore.
The prelims was for teams of two, either students, senior citizens or any age group falling under general category. The questions were a bit tough, may be because the organizers planned to filter at prelim stage itself.

The final 6 teams included one ladies team and another senior citizens team.

There were 12 rounds with 6 questions in each round.

The finals started at around 3.30 on the Sunday afternoon.

The entire hall with 200 odd people (a little bit cramped, but no problem) of assorted age group was fully charged.

The questions, some simple, some tough, some thought provoking, some yielding to wild guess kept the audience and the fighting teams at the edge of their seats.

The quiz master Mr. Vincent D’souza kept everyone tuned and the ambiance light hearted, informal and a feast to the brains.

The teams were almost equally poised, but of course the first and second teams had slight edge over others throughout.

The senior citizens Mrs. & Mr. Ganesan came 4th and were highly appreciated by the crowd.

Again it is not the question of winner or runner. It is the participation that counts.

For more than 2 hours time Mr. Vincent and his Mylapore Times team gave the public an intellectual entertainment as the finale of Madras Week.

The spark may gather momentum in the coming years, who knows one day the Government may declare a holiday on 22nd Aug. for Madras, ie Chennai residents.