James John Britto scored 74.38 per cent with 595 marks on 800. — Photo: Shaju John
The Chartered Accountancy examination is considered to be among the toughest academic tests in the country.
It was late evening and 23-year-old James John Britto of Chennai was still getting used to the news that he was the All India topper in the Chartered Accountancy exam held in November last. He scored 74.38 per cent with 595 marks on 800. He still has four months of articleship left at Sharp and Tannan before he can take up a job.
The Chartered Accountancy examination is considered to be among the toughest academic tests in the country and the overall pass percentage is consistently low.
It required planning, strategy and some hard work to achieve this remarkable feat, says Mr. Britto. An alumnus of the Don Bosco, Egmore, he stood third in class X and would have been ranked sixth in the State but for his choice of second language in class XII.
He was a gold medallist in Loyola College and ranked fourth in ACS (company secretaryship), but says, “I wanted to be a CA and will be applying for membership in four months,” he says.
So what was his winning strategy? He began planning in college by choosing to work on his strengths and weaknesses. “Science required me to draw diagrams, so I took the commerce stream. Then I decided to do CA. That settled I had to find my strengths and weaknesses and then choose faculty who could help me improve. Chennai has the best faculty and I had the guidance of seniors who told me about the faculty,” Mr. Britto reveals.
According to him all students felt that the direct taxes paper was tough. “It was a yorker, but they usually want to shake you up,” he says.
His father is also a chartered accountant and has his own practice. But Mr. Britto plans to work six to 10 years in firms elsewhere as he feels he needs mentoring.
Nagulu Mohan Kumar of Tirupati with a score of 572 marks and Avinash Sancheti of Kolkata with 566 marks have been ranked second and third in the country. Of the 42,469 candidates , 2,440 have passed.
source: http://www.thehindu.com / The Hindu / Home> News> Cities> Chennai / by R. Sujatha / Chennai – January 18th, 2016
Anuradha Kapur, former director of National School of Drama, delivering a talk on ‘The place of theatre in the changing Indian context’ after receiving an award in Madurai on Sunday. / Photo R Ashok
The first J. Vasanthan Lifetime Achievement Award, instituted by Nigazh Theatre Centre for excellence in the field of theatre, was awarded to Anuradha Kapur, noted theatre personality and former Director of National School of Drama (NSD), at a function organised by J. Vasanthan Art Foundation at Madurai Media and Film Studies Academy (MMFSA) here on Sunday.
Delivering a speech after receiving the award on ‘The place of theatre in the changing Indian context,’ Ms. Kapur stressed the importance of preserving theatre at a time when space for liberal ideas and possibilities of dialogues appeared to be on the wane. She said that theatre was like a magic mirror that used body as its material and enabled a rare dialogue between artistes and the audience. “That is why we should be very mindful about ensuring that theatre and its dialogues continue,” she said.
Stating that theatre was a social medium, Ms. Kapur urged the artistes to be ethical, socially concerned, thoughtful and respectful.
Pointing out the diverse nature of Indian theatre, she said that there was not a single form of theatre in the world that was not already happening in some parts of India. “Be it classical, folk, traditional or popular, every form is here. Therefore, it is a lost cause to define Indian theatre as it exists in hundreds of forms,” she said.
Ms. Kapur was awarded the prize, which included a purse of Rs. 50,000, by G. Srinivasan, a schoolmate of the late J. Vasanthan and president of GOVEL Trust that manages Aravind Eye Hospital. In a noble gesture, Ms. Kapur donated back the cash award as a contribution for encouraging theatre art in Madurai region.
Earlier, T. Chinnaraj Joseph Jaikumar, Managing Trustee of JV Art Foundation, recollected the multi-faceted talents of J. Vasanthan, who started a theatre group at The American College when he was a professor there. The paintings of JV, as he was fondly called by his friends, were exhibited at the venue.
P. Gunasekaran, a painter, was awarded Vasanthan Artists in Residence Fellowship for the year 2016-2017 by Solomon Papaiya, Trustee of JV Art Foundation. Chandni Appadurai, daughter of JV and Founder Trustee of the foundation, welcomed the guests.
source: http://www.thehindu.com / The Hindu / Home> News> Cities> Madurai / by Staff Reporter / Madurai – January 18th, 2016
Coimbatore :
S Krishnakumar, 31, was pursuing his third year engineering at National Institute of Technology in Trichy in 2005 when he suddenly found himself bed ridden. He and his family did not realise that he had a tumour in his spinal chord, and weeks of neglect led to it suffering permanent damage.
Five years later, in 2010, that he was operated in Hosmat Hospital, but his lifestyle did not improve. Today, the man has a job and moves around independently in a wheelchair.
As many as 256 patients, like Krishnakumar, suffering from spine injuries have been rehabilitated in the city-based Ganga Spine Injury and Rehabilitation Centre in its very first year. This is only the third centre in the country, the other two being in New Delhi and Christian Medical College, Vellore, that specializes in rehabilitating spine injury patients and the largest in many ways.
“Spine injuries are the worst to suffer during an accident because it leaves you dependent for the rest of your life, and it paralyses the entire family,” said the centre’s director Dr S Rajasekaran at the centre’s annual day event on Monday evening.
“At least three people are required to lift them on and off the bed, move them and take care of them,” he said.
“Our centre aims at making them as independent as possible and take care of their needs from morning till night themselves, so that the other family members can go to work,” he added.
However, for patients who have suffered spine and neck injuries even sitting upright on a wheelchair, using their hands or getting off a bed requires weeks of physiotherapy. “For 10 years I was bed-ridden and would be lifted only to a chair. I never moved around or used a wheelchair because my body had no balance and my legs were like rods,” he said.
“It took me four months of treatment to learn how to transfer myself from a bed to a wheelchair myself and use a toilet,” he added.
Doctors say the 33-bedded hospital’s treatment goes anywhere between two to three months since it is a slow procedure. The treatments which costs around Rs 5 lakh includes seven to eight hours of intensive physiotherapy a day. “We, however, treat one patient free a month and give a concession of more than four lakh for every patient with the help of donors and benefactors,” he said.
source: http://www.timesofindia.indiatimes.com / The Times of India / News Home> City> Coimbatore / by Pratiksha Ramkumar, TNN / January 11th, 2016
Tamil Nadu lawyer S Prabakaran was on Sunday elected chairman of Bar Council of India (BCI). He suc ceeds Manan Kumar Mishra of Bihar in the highest office for practising advocates.
BCI is the apex statutory body with power to regulate le gal education and control practice of law. Elected as member of Bar Council of Tamil Nadu and Puducherry in 2011 with second highest number of votes among its members, Prabakaran was then chosen by the state council as its representative to BCI, Delhi.
In 2012, BCI nominated him as chairman of its disciplinary committee and a year later as co-chairman of BCI.
Prabakaran is a three-time president of Madras High Court Advocates Association and also president of Tamil Nadu Advocates Association.
source: http://www.timesofindia.indiatimes.com / The Times of India / News Home> City> Chennai / TNN / January 11th, 2016
The ‘Paramasivan koil’ on the outskirts of Tirupur city.– Photo: R. VIMAL KUMAR
Swords, spears, bows and arrows greet you when you enter this temple at Uppilipalayam, near here.
The temple is believed to be constructed some 300 years ago.
The main ritual of the temple is the puja conducted for weapons used during the period, probably to hunt, or to protect villagers.
About 75 years ago, an idol of Shiva was placed in the sanctum sanctorum of the temple alongside the weapons.
The temple complex, spread over 60 cents, itself is constructed in a way to hold gram sabha, and padashala (school).
It has facilities to deposit money collected by the village administration, a library, space for teaching youth to use weapons, an Ayurveda centre to treat snake poison, and a place to serve free meals for the poor too.
“The temple was called ‘Vel kottam’ in the earlier days before been renamed as ‘Paramasivan koil’ after the idol was placed,” said S. Ravikumar, an archaeologist who has made many a studies about ancient temples in the region.
The temple architecture resembles those situated in Kerala.
“This is because that those who were residing in the village, who originally were from Vellakoil, migrated to Palakkad for a brief period in search of livelihood. After returning, they built the temple to perform puja on weapons to attain prosperity. They might have copied the construction style in Kerala,” said K. Ponnusamy, a historian at the Virarajendran Historical Research Centre.
Even now during festivities, villagers display their skills on using swords and spears.
“Since the temple is not popular outside the region, there is not much crowd,” said S. Ramesh, the temple priest.
source: http://www.thehindu.com / The Hindu / Home> National> Tamil Nadu / R. Vimal Kumar / Tirupur – January 10th, 2015
by Prof. A.V. Narasimha Murthy, former Head, Department of Ancient History & Arachaeology, University of Mysore
Near Madurai is a place called Thiruvadhavoor. A pious Brahmin by name Shambhupadasritar was living there with his wife Shivajnanavati. Unfortunately their exact dates are not known. A wide bracket of 3rd to 9th centuries is given to this Saint. A boy was born to them and we do not know the name given to him by his parents. Actually Manikkavachakar is a name meaning whose utterances were like manikya or ruby by which he became famous. By sixteen years, he mastered all aspects of traditional education and was ready to take up the hereditary Ministership under the Pandya king. But the young man was interested in divine things. Anyway he became the Minister and a famous administrator too. He was a great devotee of Lord Shiva and was always meditating upon him.
One day, King asked this Minister to go to the Sea Port and buy horses. Minister started with some followers after worshipping Shiva (Chokkanatha) at Madurai. He reached the sea port Tirupperunthurai and spent all the money in feeding the Shiva-devotees and on temples. This was conveyed to the king who became furious at Manikkavachakar and ordered him to come back with horses or with money. Manikkavachakar prayed to Lord Shiva and requested him to show the way. God also asked him to go back to his king and tell him that the horses would arrive on the appointed day (avanimulam). He also gave a rare ruby as a present to the king.
Manikkavachakar went back to Madurai and told the king that the horses would arrive on the appointed day. The king waited but there was no sign of any horse; the spies of the king also brought the news that no horses were seen anywhere on the way. The king got angry and put him in the prison. Manikkavachakar prayed to Lord Shiva and God came in the form of the leader of the horse trader. The Saint mentioned this to him. But the king’s ego did not permit him to respect him. However, he received all the horses; gave a silk scarf to the dealer who received it with his whip. The king got offended by this but he was helpless and went back to the Palace.
Next morning a miracle happened. The horses which the king had purchased by paying huge amounts of money had turned into jackals. They ran out of the stables and entered into the streets, houses, temples, Palace and created great chaos. The whole town of Madurai became chaotic. The king thought that it was due to the negligence of the Minister who did not take enough precautions in this regard. Hence, he ordered the arrest of the Minister Manikkavachakar and torture him till he returned all the money.
Again a miracle happened. The level of the Vaigai River rose and inundated the whole town. The king realised that this is nothing but a punishment by the almighty for this folly. He went to the prison and released Manikkavachakar. Immediately, the flood waters began to recede and everybody was very happy at this. But the embankment had breached and it had to be rebuilt. The king ordered all the able-bodied men and women to go for this work and do the repairs without any wages. Each was allotted a part of the embankment. Many old people could not take up this work as they were helpless. There was an elderly woman by name Vanti who was eking out a living by selling eatables to the travellers. She was very old and could not do the manual hard work of repairing the embankment. So she thought of hiring men to do her part of the work on a fixed remuneration. But none came forward to work on her terms.
Being a great devotee of Lord Shiva, she appealed to him for help. Shiva took pity on her and came in the guise of a young labourer and began work. The king who came for inspection saw this young man was not working satisfactorily and beat him with a stick. With this, the basket full of earth fell on the embankment. And to the surprise of the king and others present there, the embankment work was complete in all respects. The woman Vanti was called to heaven and the young labourer vanished in the thin air. A divine voice admonished the king. The king realised his mistake. Immediately he went to the place where Manikkavachakar was meditating and requested him to come back and take up Ministership. But the Saint refused to accept the offer because the divine will had asked him to proceed to Chidambaram, the place of Nataraja aspect of Shiva.
On his way, he visited many Shiva temples at Tirukalukundram and others and finally reached Thiruvannamalai. He was inspired by devotees and composed Tiruvembavai and sang it in praise of the Lord. At Tirukalukundram he had another vision of the Lord.
At Chidambaram, he fell into a trance and sang several hymns in praise of Shiva. These songs contain three representations of Shiva namely; a form as in Nataraja, with and without form as in Linga and finally without form as in Akasha. The last is the Chidambara Rahasya (the secret of Chidambaram). The phrase Chidambara Rahasya is amongst us even today and it means that the form of the Lord cannot be known or understood. But Manikkavachakar understood that secret because he was a devoted soul. He lived in the outskirts of the town and practised meditation on Shiva. He used to go to the temple to see the image of Lord Shiva. Many hymns of Tiruvachakam were composed here.
There is another interesting story in this connection. The Buddhists from Ceylon came there and dragged him to a debate mainly to defeat him. But Manikkavachakar became victorious and all the Ceylonese monks became dumb. At the prayer of Manikkavachakar, the Ceylonese Princess was cured of her dumbness and the king of Ceylon embraced Shaivism. He became a disciple of Manikkavachakar.
Another miracle happened at this time. A Brahmin came to his abode and asked him to recite all his songs and he would be his scribe. At the end he wrote that this was recited by Manikkavachakar and copied by Ambalavan (Shiva of Chidambaram). This news spread far and wide and people began to assemble there to see the script. Manikkavachakar showed them that Lord Shiva of Chidambaram was his scribe; Not only he is my scribe, he is also the meaning and aim of my songs. Finally, he disappeared from this world.
But his works have made him immortal. His Tiruvachakam consists of 656 verses; Thirukovayar has 400 verses. Both these works contain the secrets of divinity and how to reach that stage of divinity. He sang in praise of Shiva and brought a revolution. Perhaps he is the one who gave the assurance that everyone can see divine by his good deeds without going into the rigour of orthodoxy. God himself will embrace such people. This is a great assurance indeed! That is why he was called Manikkavachakar, meaning his utterances were like precious rubies. Now, we have rubies in plenty but no Manikkavachakars!
source: http://www.starofmysore.com / Star of Mysore / Home> Feature Articles / Sunday – January 10th, 2015
Kamini Dhandapani, on holiday here from the U.S., writes to tell me that on a nostalgic visit to the Monegar Choultry, she found it anything but run-down, in fact much of it looked spick and span. The nostalgia relates to the fact that her grandfather, a doctor, was the Superintendent in charge of the choultry for many years and that as children, she and her siblings spent a lot of time in the institution while visiting him every Sunday.
The main building of Monegar Choultry
Monegar Choultry is probably the oldest organised charity in India; it certainly is in the South, what was once the Madras Presidency. Following the famine of 1781, the choultry was established in 1782 by a Committee comprising members of the Government and of the St. Mary’s-in-the-Fort congregation taking over a private gruel centre just outside the northern town wall. In 1808, the Government took over responsibility from the Committee and has ever since run the choultry.
The entrance of Monegar Choultry
Initially a poor-feeding centre, the choultry was developed as an old age home for the destitute, primarily for women, but later with accommodation for men. Today, it has around 60 residents, most of them women. And it is the women who virtually run the place, cooking and serving the food — Kamini says it is food of the quality and variety you would get at home — keeping the premises clean, and looking after the cubicles. Kamini’s picture of the dormitory reflects how well the premises are kept. I wonder how many other Government institutions are as well kept.
Inside Monegar Choultry
In 1799, Company Surgeon John Underwood established facilities in the choultry to treat the aged there and this soon grew into the ‘Native Infirmary’, the first formal Western medical facilities for Indians. Amalgamating it in 1809 with a younger Native Hospital in Purasawalkam, Monegar Choultry Hospital was developed by the Government to become the first organised hospital in North Madras for Indians. In 1909, the Government took over the facility and renamed it the Royapuram Hospital. In due course it was to become Stanley Medical College and Hospital.
When the Government established the Royapuram Hospital, the old age home moved into the adjoining premises by which came up the like-minded Rajah of Venkatagiri Choultry. Eighty years later, around 1990, many of the dilapidated old buildings of the Monegar Choultry were pulled down and today’s tidy campus developed. It is today an institution you can hardly find any fault with, says Kamini.
A visit to Grayshott
The other day, I called on friends at a rather handsome gated community named Ceebros Grayshott,which boasts of 110 apartments. When they asked me where the name came from, I remembered a developer once asking me what could be done to the house called Grayshott which was in the midst of a nearly three-acre property he planned to develop. I had suggested he make it a clubhouse for the development, particularly keeping in mind its history. He, however, sadly demolished it and another magnificent garden house vanished from the Madras heritage scene.
J.O. Robinson and Stanley Edwards
Once, the Grayshott property was part of a huge acreage called Bishop’s Gardens, the first and only building in the Gardens dating to 1817. At some point in time the gardens came into the hands of P. Venkatachellum, the famous condiment maker in the European market but better known in Madras for the 100 or so properties he owned in some of the best areas in town. In 1927, Venkatachellum’s son P.V. Subramaniam sold Bishop’s Gardens in a distress sale, to whom and how much being not traceable. What is known is that the property was parcelled out and sold to different buyers. John Oakshott Robinson, the Chairman of Spencer’s and possibly the first takeover king in India, bought nearly three acres during the division for Rs.14,750 and gifted it to his son-in-law and fellow director Stanley Edwards as a wedding present. Another large acreage with the original house — Bishop’s Gardens — in it, was bought for the philosopher-guru, Annie Besant’s messiah, J. Krishnamurthi, by some of his followers in 1934 and renamed Vasantha Vihar. It today serves as the Krishnamurthi Foundation’s Study Centre.
The neighbouring plot was named Grayshott when Edward and his wife built their mansion in it, the name deriving from the village where they had got married, her father having settled there. The 7,000 sq.ft. mansion Grayshott the Edwards’ built in art deco style was moved into in 1929/30 and remained their home till they left in 1957. Edwards was a racing man and also a very popular extrovert. The racing parties he held on racing weekends and others he held during the rest of the year were remembered as “memorable” by those who attended them. That is why I had suggested to the developer of the gated community that he retain it as a clubhouse where the residents’ association could hold more memorable parties. Neither happened.
When the Edwards’ left, Spencer’s took over the property for Rs.1,50,000 and successive managing directors occupied it — but without the flair of Edwards. When Spencer’s began to downsize operations in the 1990s and was trying to sell the property, the Income Tax Department bought it for Rs.191.8 million. What they sold it for I do not know, but how the property values had appreciated in 70 years!
When the postman knocked…
* Eagle-eyed N.S. Yogananda Rao, with an elephantine memory, takes me to task for repeating in Miscellany December 21, 2015 an item that appeared in The Hindu on December 25, 2011. He was referring to the letter to the Editor of The Hindu appealing to Srinivasa Ramanujan, who had run away from home, to return. Rao wonders whether it was an “oversight” or “mere repetition”. I would say neither.
Much of what appears in this column, which is based on factual information, and not being fiction or literary creativity, would have appeared somewhere else in the past, in The Hindu itself, perhaps in the columns of other newspapers, in journals and books. Someone might have come across a particular bit of information elsewhere but to most readers it would be ‘new-s’. As this bit of information was to me; I for one had not come across it till the Sreedharan biography was sent to me. And I’m sure that the information, even in ‘re-use’, would have been ‘new-s’ to many a reader of this column, particularly in the context of much else about Ramanujan being offered in it. I wonder whether Rao had come across the “attempted suicide” story before; I hadn’t.
* My little tale last week about playing fortune-teller reminded Dr. N Sreedharan that Khushwant Singh had confessed to the same experience some 30 years ago during a speech at IISc, Bangalore. Narrating what he did, when he was Editor of the Illustrated Weekly of India, whenever astrologer Bejan Daruwala’s forecasts did not reach him in time, Singh said that to avoid disappointing readers who looked forward to the column, he wrote the predictions himself. “I was quite familiar with the jargon,” he had added. And then related that there would often be Letters to the Editor after each week stating that the predictions in the last issue were better than usual!
* Did the British ride to the hounds in Madras was an e-mail query I received from a chronicler in Britain, E. Jameson. They certainly did, but for jackals and not foxes. And the hounds came out once a year in an East Indiaman and were kennelled not far from wherever the Madras / Adyar Clubs were located. There was a Madras Hunt which assembled at either of the Clubs and rode to the hounds south of St. Thomas’ Mount or in the west in the Koyambedu area. There are references to a Madras Hunting Society as early as 1776, which would make the Madras Hunt the oldest in the country. The sport seems to have died out soon after the Great War, in the 1920s. Work and Sport in the Old ICS by W.O. Horne (1928) paints some nice word pictures of the sport in Madras.
source: http://www.thehindu.com / The Hindu / Home> Features> MetroPlus> Madras Miscellany / by S. Muthiah / Chennai – January 09th, 2016
