I am very happy the Chennai Corporation has launched a magazine 'Olichuvadu' (trail of light), for distribution in all corporation-run schools. The aim is to develop leadership and creative skills among students. The magazine, which would be published once in two months, would carry interviews with toppers in state and national level entrance examinations and with other experts on how to prepare for the competitive exams.
'Olichuvadu' would have chapters dedicated to personal and civic hygiene and information on various topics including science and sports. Creative works of students such as poems, paintings and essays would be published in the magazine, which would be supplied free of cost to the schools.
The Chennai Mayor knows it pays to catch them young. And, time is just a magazine!
Sometime back I had written that India will soon overtake China in having the record number of obese people! Most of us blame the food for our obesity.
Recently over two hundred chefs belonging to the South Indian Culinary Association, from twenty hotels in the city, took part in the run-up to the GiveLife Chennai International Marathon on the Marina beach in Chennai. They started with warm-ups and then ran for half a kilometer. After all, the chefs are like anyone else. They have to be careful about their waistline!
Obesity is a serious problem that can have serious ramifications in the long run.
When we enjoy our pani puri on the roadside shop, little do we bother about the children working there. The police recently 'rescued' seven children employed in different 'pani puri shops' in Chennai, arrested three of their employers and charged them under the Juvenile Justice Act, including physical and mental harassment. The children, aged about 15 years, are from different locations in the city, including the Central railway station.
They were made to work between 4 PM and 11 PM and were beaten up when they were slack. They have since been handed over to the Child Welfare Committee in the city.
It was Dalai Lama who said that child labour is a symptom of a spiritual disease – lack of compassion!
Ajmal, who shot to fame with his 'anti-hero' role in the Tamil film 'Anjathe', is awaiting with bated breath the release of 'Thiru Thiru Thuru Thuru,' in which he is starring in a humorous role for the first time. For Ajmal, who has done only 'serious' roles up till now, the role of the lead character in the film by debutante director J S Nandhini is something different. "This film is a romantic comedy. This is the first time I am doing such a film. But I took it up as I found the script interesting and enjoyed every minute of the shoot." Ajmal said it is tough doing a comedy.
Life is a comedy for those who think….. and a tragedy for those who feel!
And, life is full of ironies. Nalini and her husband Murugan, both serving life imprisonment in the Rajiv Gandhi assassination case, will soon receive Master in Computer Application (MCA) degrees from the University that is named after Rajiv Gandhi’s mother, yes, from Indira Gandhi National Open University (IGNOU).
According to IGNOU Regional Director K Panneerselvam, Nalini is the topper among those inmates who took the MCA degree. And, Nalini would be the first prisoner in Tamil Nadu to complete MCA. Currently, Nalini and Murugan are lodged in the high security prison at Vellore.
IGNOU is in talks with the Tamil Nadu Government to set up a permanent study centre in the Puzhal, Cuddalore and Palayankotai jail complexes. Currently, they have study centres in Coimbatore, Salem, Madurai and Tiruchirapalli prison complexes. And, IGNOU is not charging fees for inmates registering for a course with the institute.
In a sense, we are all prisoners of our own history!
A 23-year-old software engineer in Pudhucherry is all set to present a non-stop performance on the `ghatam` on September 26 for more than 24 hours. P Kadirvelu said the Puducherry Tourism Department had agreed to sponsor his programme.
We wish the potter all the best. Hope he doesn’t potter around.
Chennai will soon have a Lord Venkateswara temple similar to the one in Tirupati. Yes, the Tirumala Tirupati Devasthanams (TTD), which manages the world-famous Lord Sri Venkateswara temple in Tirupati, proposes to construct a similar temple near Chennai, on ten acres of land along the scenic East Coast Road (ECR). The effort is aimed at catering to thousands of pilgrims thronging the temple town in Andhra Pradesh, but forced to wait for a long period, sometimes even days, before getting a 'darshan' of the presiding deity. The proposed temple would have all facilities as in Tirupati, like tonsuring and a marriage hall, besides a library.
Yet, the pilgrims will miss the seven hills and its divine serenity. A replica can never be the original.
Well, if Mohamed will not go to the mountain, the mountain must come to Mohamed.
I felt sad that a nine-year old girl died after swallowing the cap of her pen in her class at a school near Pattukottai in Thanjavur District recently. A.Sandhiya felt suffocated after swallowing the cap and she developed fits. She died on the way to hospital.
At times I feel God need not love us. For, whom the Gods love dies young.
Recently read: Keynes’s prescriptions were guided by his conception of money, which plays a disturbing role in his economics. Most economists have seen money simply as a means of payment, an improvement on barter. Keynes emphasized its role as a “store of value.” Why, he asked, should anyone outside a lunatic asylum wish to “hold” money? The answer he gave was that “holding” money was a way of postponing transactions. The “desire to hold money as a store of wealth is a barometer of the degree of our distrust of our own calculations and conventions concerning the future. . . . The possession of actual money lulls our disquietude; and the premium we require to make us part with money is a measure of the degree of our disquietude.”