Yogarasu Kumaran, along with two other young men, also recovering from mental illnesses, runs a vegetable shop at Villivakkam market, facilitated by Better Chances, an NGO working in the field of mental wellness — Photo: K. Pichumani / The Hindu
City NGO helps those with mental illnesses lead better lives, make a living
Until three months ago, K. Yogarasu Kumaran would sleep, wake up, eat, then go to sleep again, all day long, every day.
Diagnosed with schizophrenia, the 25-year-old had shuttled between private mental health facilities for years, but none, he said, had really helped.
Today, Mr. Kumaran, along with two other young men, also recovering from mental illnesses, runs a vegetable shop at Villivakkam market, facilitated by Better Chances, an NGO working in the field of mental wellness.
For a lot of people who are recovering or have recovered from mental illnesses, finding a job is a huge challenge. “This is what we wanted to address. Additionally, we also wanted to make them a part of community and ensure their illness is not stigmatised,” said Porkodi Palaniappan, director of Better Chances.
When Mr. Kumaran decided that enough was enough and that he wanted to change the way he lived, he joined Better Chances. “At first, I had anger issues every day. But over time, I began taking my medication again, and recently, I stood first in the screen-printing class at the centre,” he said.
With vegetables sourced from Koyambedu market and space given to them by the owner of the premises S. Krishnan, the shop, called Roots, is bustling on Saturday morning.
Tomatoes, onions and greens line the front section, and Amul Raj, who was earlier treated for schizophrenia, calls out to customers.
Mr. Raj, said Ms. Palaniappan, thought at one point he would never get out of an institution. Now, he dreams of entering politics some day.
The tables at the shop have been made by a carpenter who has also recovered from a mental illness, said Ms. Palaniappan, and the two women who help out at the shop are mothers of children with Down Syndrome.
“The idea is to empower people — both those with illness and caregivers — with opportunities to work,” she said, adding she hopes to facilitate more such initiatives soon.
source: http://www.thehindu.com / The Hindu / Home> News> Cities> Chennai / by Zubeda Hamid / Chennai – October 12th, 2014
Could India develop a hyperplane? Yes, says India’s noted scientist Sivathanu Pillai, who is working on the hyperplane project, which will use hydrogen-based fuel and is 25 times faster than sound.
Speaking on the sidelines of being conferred with Lifetime Achievement Award by Rotary Club of Madras, Pillai said the success of hyperplane lies in mastering the scramjet technology, a type of very fast jet engine. Although the US and China have successfully developed the scramjet engine, they are yet to design materials that can withstand the heat generated by an object travelling at such high speed.
Usually in a high speed aircraft, air friction causes extreme heating of the leading edge where the temperature could be very high (Mach 5 generates 1,000 degree Celsius).
Currently, there is no technology that can withstand the heat, said Pillai, adding that the Indian Space Research Organisation, DRDO and other organisations are working to develop hyperplane.
source: http://www.newindianexpress.com / The New Indian Express / Home> States> Tamil Nadu / by Express News Service / October 15th, 2014
Renovation work at the Srirangam temple seems to have become an excavation of treasures. While clearing sand from the Venugopalaswamy temple, workers have found elaborate stone sculptures. And HR&CE department has decided that the Srirangam temple premises will be excavated thoroughly and sand will be removed.
Three days ago, the temple authorities found that the Venugopalaswamy temple had been buried in the sand. They are now proceeding with great caution as several sculptures have been found. A few days back, the 100-pillared mandapam was freed of sand deposits and workers found that more than half of the hall had been buried in the sand. HR&CE officials now believe there must be more such mandapams within the temple premises and have decided to excavate them all.
The Venugopalaswamy temple is located in front of the Andal temple situated at the entrance of the Ranganathaswamy temple premises. Several sculptures of deities in various positions have been found during the excavation.
Inspecting the renovation works, the Hindu Charitable and Endowments Commissioner P Dhanapal said that the excavation that is being carried out as part of the renovation has led to several findings. He added that the cleaning works will be carried out in a thorough and phased manner. The painting work of the gopurams has also begun for which artists from various parts of the state have been brought in. The painters will first clean and wash the idols before painting the idols.
“The priests in the temple are helping in carrying out the renovation activities and the public are also coordinating well. The renovation works are expected to be finished by the middle of next year and Kumbhishekam will be held as planned,” said P Dhanapal.
Totally, 243 works are being carried out across the temple premises. Much of the work is on 14 gopurams of the temple. Cleaning and washing has begun on the gopurams and will continue for another six to eight months.
source: http://www.timesofindia.indiatimes.com / The Times of India / Home> City> Trichy / Harish Murali, TNN / September 26th, 2014
V Chandrasekar, Secova co-founder, R Narayanan, chairperson, program committee, TiECON, Anup Bagchi, CEO and MD of ICICI securities and Ashwin Narashimhan, MD, Bank of America, at a press conference | r satish babu
Chennai :
Four of Tamil Nadu’s companies have been judged as potential ‘Billion Dollar’ concerns by The Indus Entrepreneurs (TiE) Chennai. Not one of these four potential ‘big billion’ firms though, are from the state’s manufacturing sector.
Seeking to showcase Tamil Nadu’s success stories and their potential to become truly big players in the global industry, TiE Chennai’s ‘Billion Dollar Baby’ program announced four winners on Monday – Cross platform, global digital magazine store Magzter, Financial services major Financial Software Systems, water processing giant VA Tech Wabag and technology services company Congruent Solutions.
With the four companies showcasing the strength of the Services sector, manufacturing was conspicuously absent on the list. When asked, CEO and MD of ICICI Securities Anup Bagchi, one of the two jurors who selected the companies, said the spectrum of entrepreneurship was very broad in the state and that the absence of a manufacturing firm in the top four was only a coincidence. “I was quite happy with the spectrum of entrepreneurship in the city. But we did not see it through any particular lens when judging the companies. It is only a coincidence that there aren’t any manufacturing firms,” he said.
Chairman of the program committee of TiECon Chennai 2014 R Narayanan did admit that of the 12 companies that were shortlisted from the 50 nominations they received, only four were from the manufacturing
sector. “The conditions of the last few years have made it hard for manufacturing concerns to grow at the pace that the services sector has grown. This could be where the economy is headed,” he admitted. The four companies will be showcased at the TiECon Chennai 2014 conference which will begin from November 1.
source: http://ww.newindianexpress.com / The New Indian Express / Home> States> Tamil Nadu / by Express News Service / October 14th, 2014
COLLECTORS’ DELIGHT Books at Ananth Lakshmanan’s store. Photo: S.R. Raghunathan / The HIndu
Brittle pages, long-forgotten titles, musty rooms covered from floor to ceiling with books from around the world. Retailers of second-hand books talk about their passion
In the presence of thousands of rare and second-hand books, stacked from floor to ceiling, in teetering piles and bursting cardboard boxes, there’s space enough for just one standing person, and one emotion: amazement. Amazement at that little, hard-bound Manual of Movement (War), 1933, which was once in the pocket of an army officer in the battlefields of the Second World War. Amazement at that 1905 souvenir album of the Prince and Princess of Wales with its hundred-year-old photograph of a firework display from the warships docked at Madras Harbour. Amazement that so much history and so many stories exist to be discovered in these ancient tomes. For collectors and sellers of second-hand books in Chennai, every day brings fresh journeys and new discoveries for this amazement.
For 40 years, S.A. Govindaraju has followed his “drunken obsession” for second-hand books, from paperwalla to paperwalla across the length and breadth of Chennai, looking for that discarded, unassuming book that could be his next treasure. At 78, age has dimmed his wanderings, but his network of over 60 hawkers brings to his doorstep, almost daily, their day’s acquisitions that they suspect may interest him. From the garage of his apartment in R.A. Puram, Govindaraju runs ‘Rare Books’, an enterprise that has turned his passion into a moderately commercial venture. He inherited his love for old books from his doctor father, began his own collection with the Penguin series (he still has the Number 01 book Ariel (1934) with him), and took to retailing second-hands in 1999 to fund the habit. “I keep in intimate touch with my books,” he says, “I need no computer, no online inventory, to keep track of all I have. Everything in the whole of this jungle is in my bald head!”
Hard times, a few years ago, lead Govindaraju to sell his entire collection of 12,000 books to a man just as obsessed, Winston A. Henry. Winston took to collecting second-hands 25 years ago from an interest in wildlife. His first piece was Wild Beasts of the World a 1909 book of gorgeous animal colour prints. While Govindaraju has since returned to collecting second-hands, Winston’s existing trove of 4,000 books was substantially enriched by Govindaraju’s, and he now runs ‘W & H Book Search’ in Anna Nagar, a venture that specialises in thematic collections of rare books. Old war books, non-fiction on Madras and maps are among his specialisations. From behind old cuckoo clocks, rotary dial telephones and stacks of vintage biscuit tins, he pulls out a bus map of Madras in 1952, replete even with a list of ‘Madras amusements’, of which 50,000 copies were printed for two annas each.
Into this territory of used second-hands, enters Ananth Lakshmanan of Berkshire books with his shipped containers of ‘fresh second-hand books’ from the U.K., which he sells for Rs. 200 per kilo from a basement in T. Nagar. Mountains of young adult fiction, children’s fiction, bestsellers, health and lifestyle books tightly populate this space and his warehouse of three lakh books in Ambattur. His merchandise is replenished every two weeks with fresh shipments from the vast stocks of unsold books of international publishers, old editions of bestsellers and leftovers from charity book auctions abroad. For school teachers, young parents and students, Berkshire has become a favourite haunt for works that are budget friendly and mostly in mint condition. “My clientele includes artists and art director who pore over the art print books and collectors of old encyclopedias and dictionaries, especially, old Readers’ Digest series.”
“I may have started by dealing in second-hand books, but today, it’s about almost anything on paper — from magazines to newspaper cuttings,” adds Govindaraju, who treasures his vast collection of vintage advertisements, posters and photographs of veteran film stars. His challenge today, though, is to restore and preserve the books he finds. Kilograms of books arrive at paperwallas, who customarily rip the covers off the books for efficient pulping. Nothing could be more tragic for Govindaraju, who then spends his time hand-binding back covers to pages bored through by bookworms and crumbling to powder in his palms.
The prices at which these second-hands are sold is largely determined by their conditions. Autographed copies, first editions and limited editions are certainly steeply priced, but as Winston puts it, “I may buy a book for Rs. 20 and sell it for several times more, but for me, it’s important that the buyer understands its value first.”
It is this sentiment too that Mary Alwar, wife of the ailing A.K. Alwar who ran his second-hand book store from the pavement at Luz Corner from 1952, echoes. The rains have destroyed huge chunks of his collection of fiction and non-fiction, business has fallen considerably in the last decade, but just as Mary narrates the times’ woes, a lady comes along, drops four boxes of fiction at the stall, and leaves without asking for a penny. “All we have are books,” says Mary, “and all we will have are books. It’s such people that love books that keep us going.”
source: http://www.thehindu.com / The Hindu / Home> Features> MetroPlus / by Esther Elias / October 12th, 2014
For a long time, Ajay Jayaram was known for losing out on an Olympic berth to Parupalli Kashyap during the 2012 India Open. It seemed as if Jayaram had all but sealed the spot with some good performances round the year, but Kashyap pipped him courtesy a lucky break as the then World No. 4 Chen Jin gave the latter a walkover in the quarter-finals that eventually proved decisive.
Jayaram was crestfallen and since then has been trying hard to bounce back. He enjoyed a decent run but not as much he would have liked. To add to his woes, a shoulder injury during the Hong Kong Open in January this year put him out of action for more than six months.
Jayaram underwent a surgery and did the necessary rehabilitation. But at only his fourth tournament back, the Mumbai shuttler won the biggest event of his career when he clinched the Dutch Open Grand Prix on Sunday.
Ajay Jayaram wins the Dutch Open
“Definitely it has surprised me. I played some good attacking badminton. I need to maintain this level of focus and discipline in the coming tournaments. That will be the key to getting good results,” Jayaram told MAIL TODAY.
“I am elated. It has been a tough few months. Even after I resumed playing, it wasn’t easy to find my rhythm. It took me a while to get back the match temperament and touch. But I am happy I managed to dig deep and get the muchneeded win which also happens to be my first Grand Prix title. I couldn’t have asked for a better comeback,” he said.
The manner of his win, coming against a tough field, should give Jayaram immense confidence. Beating the likes of third seed Dionysius Hayom Rumbaka (World No. 26) of Indonesia and top seed Rajiv Ouseph (World No. 29) of England would do him a world of good.
“With higher-ranked players like Ouseph and Rumbaka in my half, it wasn’t going to be easy. I secured convincing wins against both. The final was against an upcoming Indonesian (Ihsan Maulana Mustofa). It was a hard fought five-game battle which swung both ways. I had to dig deep and bring all my focus into play in the fifth game where I was 1-5 down. But I played well and was positive when it mattered.”
Coming back from the shoulder injury was never going to be easy and Jayaram admitted that he was often frustrated. “The first few tournaments were quite hard to adapt to. But I knew it was a matter of perseverance. There were trying moments when frustration set in. But I had to keep my chin up and keep working.” Now Jayaram has got a feel of the new scoring system that is being introduced at the Grand Prix level on an experimental basis. The 11-points best-of-five games scoring format has been criticised by many top players. “Although the game gets shorter, most of the match is played under more pressure which requires more focus. Hard to say if it is the way to go for badminton, but I’m glad I was able to adjust to it and do well.” Jayaram, who was ranked as high as 21st in early 2013, has now fallen to 66th, and with many Indian players going past him, he was not part of the Asian Games squad. Getting back to the national team is his priority.
“If I am able to maintain the same positive tempo, I’m sure I will regain my place in the core group,” he said.
source: http://www.indiatoday.intoday.in / IndiaToday.in / Home> Sports / by Avishek Roy / New Delhi – October 14th, 2014
Just the mere strands of tonsured hair offered by devotees brought windfall to Samayapuram temple, the second highest revenue generating temple in the state. The temple authorities sold the tonsured hair for Rs 1.89 crore during an auction on Thursday.
Every year during the day of Ammavasai and Poochoriyal festival, many people swarm the temple. It is visited by about 3,000 devotees from various parts of the state on a daily basis. Devotees offer their hair in order to please the deity and wash away their sins and get one step closer to nirvana.
The temple collects all the tonsured hair and at the end of every year hold an auction, for which numerous bids are received, and these are not limited to Tamil Nadu, bids are made from various dealers from different parts of the country.
According to temple authorities, about 3,638kg of hair was auctioned off on Thursday and the tender was officially closed a few weeks ago.
A dealer from Vellore district bagged the tender for a sum of Rs 1,80,62,500. The temple started off the auctioning on a yearly basis but in recent months the amount of tonsured hair has increased and so the temple authorities have decided to hold an auction for the tender every two months.
This decision also gives an insight on the belief and devotion that people have for the Mariamman deity and the hoards of devotees that the temple pulls in on a regular basis. The funds will be used by the authorities for infrastructural changes in the temple. The money from the auction will be used to provide devotees better facilities and Rs 26 crore would be invested to build a cloak room with 96 bathrooms and a two-storied hair tonsure centre to handle the growing numbers of devotees.
The temple also plans to build solar plants at three locations inside the temple.
Solar plants would be implemented at the Ammavasai mandapam, Mudimandapam and near the guest house, said the temple authorities. Several projects are underway to improve the amenities of the temple.
source: http://www.timesofindia.indiatimes.com / The Times of India / Home> City> Trichy / TNN / October 10th, 2014
A swanky building just off OMR is bustling with activity. Legions of men in uniform are constantly pouring in with huge bags on their backs and sheaves of papers in their hands; several take off on bikes, and there are vans and lorries queuing up to handle bulk shipments at E-kart logistics, a company that delivers Flipkart products.
These men are part of the e-tail army, the ones who zoom around the city on their two-wheelers, the ones who convert the few clicks from your laptop or mobile app to a product in your hands.
“We individually handle 40-50 deliveries a day. Around festival time, the number shoots to 70 and upwards,” say Ganesh and Mani, as they share and wolf down lunch from a stainless steel container. “Our shift starts as early as 7.30 am. Based on the orders, we split the routes and go about deliveries,” says Ganesh, rushing off to pick up his next consignment from the office after his brief lunch.
Ganesh is a field executive who drives a two-wheeler, while Mani drives a van. When orders are placed in bulk by companies, vans go out to deliver consignments, Mani informs.
Madhan is part of a team that does only one thing — reverse deliveries. That’s right, there are dedicated teams to pick up goods that are faulty, or those that don’t match the consumer’s specifications. “We get calls to pick up and return products for a plethora of reasons — the colour is different, the photo of the product shown on the web site is different and so on. We check it and take back the product,” says the lanky, soft-spoken 20-something.
“Sometimes, real mess-ups happen. Customers who returned the product get the same kind of product even the second time. That’s when we really face the music. But whatever happens, we stay calm,” he adds.
The executives are trained on how to speak to customers and are given firm instructions — no executive is supposed to call up a customer more than two times to check for an address. And the newbies are told to tag along with the more experienced ones for about 10 days to learn the ropes.
The number of products returned or exchanged, though, seems to be a touchy topic, with a source requesting anonymity while informing that if there are about 500 deliveries a day, about 80 of them — about 16 per cent of the customers — call back for a new product or to return them.
But Manigandan, Area Manager, says that they usually handle about 2,000 deliveries a day, but due to ‘Diwali spike’, they are now delivering 3,500 to 4,000 products a day. And that’s just from one hub alone. E-kart operates from seven branches in the city, so that works out to a whopping 14,000 deliveries in the city on normal days and double that during the festive season. Manigandan says that certain areas are ordering hotspots, such as those near SRM university in Kattankalathur and RMZ Millenia Tech Park in Taramani.
Coming back two or three times to deliver for customers who are not at a specified address, getting lost and driving through pothole ridden roads and even walking down lanes where bikes are too narrow to even enter, these delivery men accomplish what is no mean feat — 70-80 deliveries a day during festival season works out to a lightning fast 10 every hour, or 1.6 deliveries every minute. Mind boggling, ain’t it?
source: http://www.newindianexpress.com / The New Indian Express / Home> States> TamilNadu / by Varun B. Krishnan / October 13th, 2014
N. Ram, chairman of Kasturi & Sons Limited (centre), hands over the National Accreditation Board for Hospitals and Health Care Providers’ certificate to Sister Magdeline Fernandes, president of St. Isabel Society — Photo: B. Jothi Ramalingam
Saturday was a milestone for the doctors and nurses of St. Isabel’s Hospital in the institution’s 65-year-old run.
The hospital, which is run by the Franciscan Sisters, received accreditation from the National Accreditation Board for Hospitals and Health Care Providers (NABH).
N. Ram, chairman, Kasturi & Sons Limited, who handed over the certificate to Sister Magdeline Fernandes, president of St. Isabel Hospital Society and the provincial superior, wished that the hospital would be able to continue its dedicated service to society.
He recalled how the hospital had taken care of M.S. Subbulakshmi at a very difficult stage. He said he was happy to note the hospital had been able to modernise and was also a teaching institution.
It took three years for the hospital to follow and implement the 625 stringent objective elements stipulated by NABH.
Though the Franciscan Hospitaller Sisters of the Immaculate Conception arrived at Goa in 1886, they came to Madras only in 1942 and the hospital was set up in March 1949. Initially, St. Isabel’s Hospital was a maternity home with a few beds. It has now grown into a 300-bed facility with 31 clinical departments.
Sister Celine Philip, administrator and president of St. Isabel Hospital Society, Sister Danis Mary, assistant provincial, Sister Betty D’Souza, vice-president of the hospital, Sister Philomina Joseph, medical superintendent, George Thomas, senior consultant and head of emergency medicine, and K. Ravi, ophthalmologist, were present on the occasion.
source: http://www.thehindu.com / The Hindu / Home> News> Cities> Chennai / by Special Correspondent / Chennai – October 12th, 2014
Meenakshi Sundaram, winner of the Yamaha World Technician Grand Prix 2014, is seen with Masaki Asano, MD of Yamaha Motors, India. Photo: Bijoy Ghosh
Two-wheeler technician Meenakshi Sundaram (34), a resident of Madurai, was a nervous man when he flew to Japan in September to represent India at the Yamaha 6 World Technician Grand Prix 2014.
However, he returned home with the coveted world title that he won on October 1 after beating 19 other contestants from 18 countries.
On Wednesday, Sundaram was felicitated by Yamaha in the city for his achievement. Clad in a bright red jumpsuit, the technician was overjoyed to receive the winner’s trophy from Masaki Asano, managing Director of Yamaha Motors, India, to thunderous applause.
Addressing the audience, Sundaram recalled the morning of May 5, 1998, when he joined a Yamaha service station in Arapalayam after completing class X. “My love for Yamaha’s RX 100 model drove me to join the team of mechanics. Now, I have come a long way and cannot believe I have been crowned top technician in the world by Yamaha,” he said.
In 2012, after clearing a written test, Sundaram got a shot at winning the National Technician Grand Prix India, but could manage only the 11 place. “I gave it another shot in 2013 and was one of the two winners who went on to represent India at the grand prix in Japan,” Sundaram added.
The biennial event in Japan, whose winners this year were from 18 countries, including New Zealand, Germany and Vietnam, was dominated by the Indian technician, who worked with a Yamaha R15 to showcase his talent. He excelled in five categories — trouble shooting, electrical wiring, wheel alignment, periodic maintenance and a written test — and was adjudged the overall winner in the commuter model class.
source: http://www.thehindu.com / The Hindu / Home> News> Cities> Chennai / by Staff Reporter / Chennai – October 09th, 2014
