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2005
for any open show to establish my love towards my
mother tongue. " - Kamal Hassan
all humanity is my
fraternity”
Tamil &
Sri Lanka
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John Paul Two
By D.B.S. Jeyaraj
One of the greatest strengths or weaknesses of any Pope is the belief in his
"divine" infallibility. One is able to discern the importance given to this
infallibility concept in all the media hype surrounding the death of Pope
John Paul the second. It was this confidence in Papal infallibility by the
incumbent Pope and likeminded faith on the part of followers that
contributed greatly towards the authoritative mystique exercised by Karol
Wajtyla in his Popish avatar.
- Congressman Davis, to Tamil Americans
Congressman Danny K Davis arrived at Washington Dulles International
Airport today morning (April 5, 2005, United Airlines 923, 11:25 AM) after his
visit to Tsunami-affected areas in Sri Lanka. He was received at the airport
by members of the Tamil community in the Washington area. One placard
read "Thank You and Welcome Back US Congressman Danny K Davis."
Congressman Davis visited areas of NorthEast Sri Lanka which was badly
affected by the Tsunami and which have seen very few international leaders
and media attention. He also visited areas controlled by the LTTE to inspect
the Tsunami damage and relief efforts there.
In honor of Congressman Danny K. Davis, TamilWeek presents
excerpts of a speech US Civil Righs leader Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.,
delivered in Birmingham entitled "Keep on Moving.", At St. Luke's
Baptist Church in Birmingham, Ala., in May of 1963.
Vaalvathanai
Soothu
Kavvum;
Tharmam
marupadiyum
vellum"
London Eeelap Patheeswarar Temple Issue
By D.B.S. Jeyaraj
April 7th will be etched in Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam annals as a day
of defeat. This humiliating defeat was not suffered in the battlefields of Tamil
Eelam. The enemy was not the armed forces of an oppressive Sinhala
Buddhist hegemonistic state.The victor this time was none other than
"Dharma Devathai" or the Goddess of Justice. Truth and Justice prevailed in
a British Court. Tiger minions in London brought upon themselves a wholly
unnecessary , self - inflicted debacle. Bharati' s immortal lines "Tharmathin
Vaalvathanai Soothu Kavvum; Tharmam marupadiyum vellum" became true!
Tamil-Sinhala
New year
"Paarthiba"
Varusha
Vazhthukkal
by Prof. S. Ratnajeevan H. Hoole
When my eldest daughter was born I was very keen to name her after my
grandmother Ponnammah in keeping with tradition. I was advised by all sorts
of people not to burden her with a name she would be ashamed of. I finally
settled for Mahilmany, after ancestors of a later generation, but still very
Tamil and avoiding the sh and psh sounds with juxtaposed consonants so
alien to the rules of Tamil grammar. Similarly when I wrote to a newspaper
using the commonly used Tamil term chothanai (examination), the editor had
given into his sh psh compulsions and changed it to pareetshai, its
equivalent Sanskrit term. What I describe is a phenomenon common to
Tamils and, as I will show, to Sinhalese too. It is truly very Sri Lankan. What
did I run into? It is the process called Sankritization which has been
described thus:
Lankan
breakfast
"AYUBOWAN"
on Aluth
Avuruddhe day!
Or greetings on
the New Year's
Day. [The Hindu]
Politics apart, Brahmin-bashing is rampant in literary and cultural worlds
too [OutlookIndia]
For the Tamil Brahmins, it has been one century of being on the defensive. The
community feels castrated. The Brahmins have never anyway been the placard-
holding type; they have rarely expressed their feelings openly. The Tamil
Brahmins have been used to taking insults. Hence perhaps the lack of visible
protests or reactions. Theirs is a guilt-ridden existence, their spirit has been
killed by a negative self-perception… They have been driven to a quiescent
state. Their situation is very similar to that of the Jews in the 1930s.
human lives but left
humanity ashore, its
time now to show
humanity" - Padmashree
Kamal Hassan
Kamal ran into trouble with the title of the movie. The Tamil Nadu State
Government were against the title as it had an English name and asked to
change it to Tamil. But after much discussion, the name finally got approved.
“I reiterate that the title will not be changed. When I entered filmdom, people
even wanted to change my name as I have a Sanskrit name. However, I feel
Tamil is close to my heart and there is no need for any open show to establish
my love towards my mother tongue. I would not bring disrepute to a language
which even the Moguls nor British who ruled the country for several centuries
could not do". - Padmashree Kamal Hasan, Actor/Producer/Director
Fun and frenzy on `Mumbai Xpress' [The Hindu]
Grand Daughter of Jaffna
By D.B. S. Jeyaraj
March 21st was an auspicious day for marriages. In Sri Lanka the media
hype was about Cricketing spin wizard Muthia Muralitharans marriage to
Madhimalar Ramamurthy of Adayar in Chennai.
Even as the Murali - Madhi wedding was on at the Rajeswary Meiyammai
Wedding hall another VIP wedding was taking place at the Mayor
Ramanathan Chettiar wedding hall. If one "Kalyanam" was of interest to
cricket lovers the other "thirumanam" captured the interest of many Tamil
film music fans.
Yuvan Shankar Rajah , son of maestro Illaiyarajah and a composer in his
own right got married to Sujaya Chandran of London . She is the daughter
of medical doctor parents Velayutham and Sarojini Chandran living in
Britain.
Vazhkayil Illai.. "
[Click to hear]
..ain't in life....
[The Hindu]
The experiment of
Jewish social life in
the U.S. is an
excellent instance of
how a community has
maintained its identity
and also taken care
of individual members
in the age of
globalisation.
Strolling through the
streets of Manhattan,
one inevitably comes
across members of
the Jewish community.
The attire of its male
members, with their
black skullcaps, is the
strong symbol of the
community's identity.
It has become a cliché
that the famous
Jewish lobby wields
considerable
influence in the United
States' economic,
political and foreign
policy. But its success
story, according to
members of the
community is due to
its strong knit society,
which provides a
strong social back up
for building a
resourceful human
capital.
It is always a delight to interview director P. Vasu. With 49 films under his
belt, the latest being "Chandramukhi," the Rajini-starrer, he is full of
interesting anecdotes and keeps a set of good photographs — of himself
and the film — ready for the scribe. It was not different this time.
The pictures of Sivaji Ganesan and MGR (Vasu's father, Pithambaram, was
the matinee idol's make-up man) adorn the walls of Vasu's residence and his
table. The beautiful staircase seems to be straight from the sets of a movie.
In this austere background, one settles down for a chat with Vasu and the
conversation soon veers round "Chandramukhi." The director traces the
background and the highlights of production.
There was more to Gemini Ganesh than just being a star of the silver
screen, finds his daughter JAYA SHREEDHAR.
Having lived with my father all my life, I presumed I was privy to everything
about him. Yet, there were several things I could never figure out. How had
he managed to live with a breezy unorthodoxy bordering on the bohemian,
yet have his feet planted firmly on the ground? Where had he learnt the
Houdiniesque skill to wriggle in and out of emotionally knotty relationships,
largely unscathed? Why did it seem like he was always one step ahead of
retribution? How come society winked indulgently at his "excesses" while
reserving stern castigation for the rest? All I can say is that he led a
charmed life.
The birth Centenary of one of the leading icons of South Indian Cinema,
Chittoor V. Nagaiah, was celebrated recently in Chennai.
The stormy petrel of Indian film journalism Baburao Patel, editor of
`Filmindia' described him as `the Paul Muni of India.' During his days he was
one of the most respected personalities of South Indian Cinema. A multi
lingual artiste whose career spanned over three decades of active
involvement in South Indian Cinema as an actor, producer and director, he
was considered one of the greatest character actors Indian Cinema has ever
witnessed.
1447, Gerrard
Street, Toronto
Tel: 416-778-4542
`Perumal Murugan's book may be seen as a response to the genre of Dalit
literature, a literature of protest, resistance and subversion.'
A Telling and powerful novel, Seasons of the Palm tells the story of Shorty, a
young dalit farm hand and his painful growth into self-knowledge. It is not
merely about breaking the spirit of a good young boy by sheer brutality. You
cannot help notice the remarkable literary, almost lyrical, quality about the
work.
Nirupama Subramanian talks to Sri Lankan novelist Nihal de Silva, whose
works address contemporary concerns head-on.
There are moments in The Road From Elephant Pass when the reader
might wonder if this story is about Sri Lanka's ethnic conflict or its birds. The
answer is: both. The pied kingfishers, hawk eagles, eagle-owls, blue-faced
malkohas, paradise flycatchers, hornbills, brown-headed barbets, hanging
parrots, rose-ringed parakeets, lapwings that wing in and out of this
edge-of-the-seat narrative are as important to the plot as the army officer
and the woman cadre of the LTTE, forced to flee northern Sri Lanka
together.
An outstanding oeuvre that reflected the travails of the downtrodden and
challenged the belief systems of the middle class wins the Jnanpith Award
for the Tamil writer Jayakanthan.
A giant among post-Independence Tamil writers, D. Jayakanthan has joined
the select band of pan-Indian literary celebrities with the Jnanpith Award
coming his way. He is the second Tamil writer to receive this most
prestigious of literary awards in the country, the first being P.V. Akilandam
(Akilan), who got it in 1975.
There are also some species that have their closest relatives only in the
distant Himalayas and yet others with cousins in southeast Asia and Sri
Lanka. In the Nilgiris, the bulk of the orchids are residents of the large
forests on slopes and foothills. The upland shola-grassland have
comparatively lesser number of species, albeit rare and endangered ones.
The paucity in this area is perhaps due to the low temperature and humidity
along with the fact that the typical sholas are receding over the past several
thousand years.
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darkness from earth circled by roaring waters. One is the flaming sun, single wheel bright as
lightning, the other is Tamil that has no like." — from the taNTiyalankârum [Berkeley Tamil]
applicable