சென்னை: இடைத் தேர்தலில் திமுக பெரும் வெற்றி பெற்றுள்ளது குறித்து மிகுந்த மகிழ்ச்சி கொள்வதாக தமிழக முதல்வரும் திமுக தலைவருமான கருணாநிதி தெரிவித்துள்ளார். Read More..

திருச்செந்தூர் – வந்தவாசி தொகுதிகளுக்கு நடந்த இடைத் தேர்தலில் தி்முக அமோக வெற்றி பெற்றது. Read More..

வந்தவாசி, திருச்செந்தூர் இடைத்தேர்தல்களில் வழக்கம்போல திமுக வேட்பாளர்களே முன்னிலை வகித்து வருகின்றனர். Read More..

சென்னை: பென்னாகரம் சட்டமன்றத் தொகுதிக்கு வரும் ஜனவரி 20ஆம் தேதி இடைத்தேர்தல் நடத்தப்படும் என்றும், ஓட்டு எண்ணிக்கை ஜனவரி 23ஆம் தேதி நடத்தப்படும் என்றும் தலைமைத் தேர்தல் ஆணையம் அறிவித்துள்ளது. Read More..

(An edited version of this interview appeared in the Indian Express North American. Sujeet Rajan interviewed me for the weekly. This came out about a month ago, but only today I was suitably lazy to do this job)

You write candidly of love and love-making; leaving windows open to the bedroom sometimes. If it is autobiographical, how difficult is it to tabulate emotions of love and love-making through poetry?

I am not sure it is always the bedroom window I leave open, for love, after all, happens everywhere. And again, I am going to keep the suspense and not own up or disown the possibility of my poems being autobiographical! I think poetry is best equipped to enclose some emotions and exhibit others, because writing of love/ love-making in prose would simply call for too many excruciating details, and in the most cautious of cases, it would require a great deal of aesthetic and choreography to get the damn scene right. And only rarely can such elaborate construction capture spontaneity, which is what love is all about.

From an artistic medium, what is best to express love: the written word, the spoken word, brush on the canvas, silence? Why?

I have done everything but paint. And well, you have left out something which I see as central to love: movement. As in dance, as in theater, and also as in all of language.

3. Is anything taboo for you to write about?

No. Except of course if someone asked me to write a poem of praise, that tends to make me nasty.

5. You were displaced from home, from Chennai, for more than three months, having been invited to a writing residence program in Iowa. What has been the experience like?

I loved the time I spent in Iowa, and I also got to travel widely across the USA. The best part of the program was getting to meet these fabulous writers from other countries. The next best was the University library and the second-hand bookstores. My novel is about the Kilvenmani massacre, and surprisingly I completed most of the research while I was here, in a foreign nation. And lastly, I did write like crazy. I wrote the 50-odd poems that go into my second collection of poetry (Six Hours of Chastity).

6. How has the West influenced your writing during these last three months?

Nothing radical happened. And the subtle changes, if any, will have to be picked out by scholars or theorists, and even in that case, one never knows how accurate it is! I am always in a state of flux, so I do believe that coming here, and being footloose and fancy-free, would have changed me in some ways, and which would change the poetry in a sense.

7. If you were to write a poem based on the experience of your last three months, what would you write about?

I am too involved with the experience to verbalize it right away. There will be a diary at some point, and trust me, there will be love poems too.

8. You are an intrinsic part of the Dalit movement; an indelible, vociferous voice for the underprivileged in India. How do you reconcile yourself to a situation where you yourself live in a metropolitan city which is removed from the caste predicament for the most part, and now are in a developed world which has only academic interest in the problem?

I don’t think the Dalit movement is a rural movement, or that untouchability/ casteism does not exist in cities. The migration to the city does erase some identities even as it allows the scope for anonymity, but the Dalit remains a Dalit for the most part. The metropolitan cities are better suited for the Dalit movement’s growth and establishment because they allow for the Dalits to carry out democratic/ public agitations/ demonstrations without fear of a backlash, of being targetted and done-to-death and crushed by oppressor castes whose violent diktat operates much more freely in the villages. Coming to the second part of your question, yes, the developed world only has a superficial interest in these issues, which is quite disappointing. However, the struggle against caste should be waged only by those who have suffered because of it, and it should be supported by those who don’t believe in discrimination. I guess here the curiousity of the West could help since it actually brings things to the world’s attention. There’s another way of looking at it: the militant and political Dalit struggle (or even literature) has hardly been effectively theorized, or documented, so the academic interest emanating from this is certainly beneficial.

9. You write, commiserate with Tamils in Sri Lanka; is it emotional baggage for you now that crisis in Sri Lanka is no longer in the news with the Tamil Tigers gone?

The Sri Lanka crisis is now in the news in a way in which it has never been before. The US State Department’s report of what happened earlier this year in the war zone in which tens of thousands of Tamils were mercilessly bombed to death by the SL Govt., the Tamil Diaspora re-mandating their right to a homeland in the North-east, people all over the world being concerned about the three hundred thousand Tamils caught in concentration camps, Sri Lanka being the second-most unsafe country for journalists all over the world–these are issues of prime importance, irrespective of whether the media in the US, or India decides to highlight it or not. I take up a cause because I am involved with it, or I empathize for it, and not on the basis of the amount of media spotlight that it accrues. I guess the Tamil issue will always be an emotional baggage until we receive the right to a life of safety and security and self-determination. I trust that now is the time for humanitarian people all over the world to actually support the Tamil cause because things have never been worse.

10. Race, religion and caste come to play the most when elections are around the corner. In that respect the United States might not be much different from India. Emancipation apart, what needs to be done in India to remove barriers for equalization?

Yes, what you describe is the typical vote-bank scenario. I believe that equalization can come about only when the oppressors also decide that it is time for them to change, it is time for them to mend their ways. There is a possibility that such a change can come about through self-directed/ self-initiated efforts, but there are not enough pointers from history which lets us reinforce this belief. Those who seek to maintain the status quo, those who work against equalization and democratization, are known to change only when their own power is questioned and challenged. So, much of the responsibility for bringing about change lies in the hands of the oppressed people, since they have to continue their resilient struggle against oppression. If they resist the subjugation successfully, and if they manage to break out of it, then equalization will come about. It can never be beyond reach. What needs to be done in India is to encourage the freedom of the press, to bring out more stories of victimization and resistance to light, and to empower women without resorting to any cultural dogma. Anyone can observe that all systems of oppression ideally go hand-in-hand, so none of us can be free until all of us are free. For instance, I would like the feminist movement in India to really take up the ideology of annihilating the caste system not just because it is discriminatory and inhuman, but also because it is based on the control of a women’s sexuality (in order to keep the caste pedigree pure).

11. Do you agree with the quota system for the backward classes in government and educational institutions in India?

It is not for anyone to agree/disagree with the quota system, what people need to concentrate on is to ensure that all sections of society achieve real growth, and that no one is left behind and marginalized. I think the decision to extend the quota system for the backward classes (here i make a distinction from the Dalits) was taken because of their abysmal presence in both state-run educational and employment enterprises. We have to become a more tolerance and more inclusive society, and affirmative action is just one way of getting there.

12. Kamala Das backed your poetry; wrote a foreword to your debut collection of poems. Why does that mean so much to you? What do you like most about her poetry?

What Kamala Das said about my poetry meant so much to me because she is a woman who calls a spade a spade, she’s forthright and outspoken and doesn’t say things that she doesn’t mean. So, when such an authentic and genuine (not to mention accomplished and fiery) poet like her encourages your work, you just gain confidence in yourself, and you channel more efforts towards writing more, representing people more. I love her poetry, because she broke the barriers against Indian woman writing on troublesome/ taboo topics; at the core of everything, she was truth-seeking. Personally, I also adore her flamboyance, her fire.

13. How do you reconcile poetry with reality? Does imagination triumph?

My poetry is rooted in my reality: the reality of the Dalits fighting against caste-atrocities and violence of the oppressive forces who want to subjugate them, the reality of women who still have to fight to assert their equality and their rights, the reality of Tamils who have to express themselves in spite of the worst kind of threat to the freedom of expression, who have to struggle against systematic genocide in their own homeland. My poetry is a product of all my multiple, coexisting realities–right now, I don’t think I outsource my poetry to imagination.

‘Poverty pushed MGR into acting profession’ | Deccan Chronicle.

December 22nd, 2009

By Our Correspondent

Dec. 21: One of the best interviews of late chief minister MGR was the one done by his successor Ms Jayalalithaa for a Tamil film magazine in 1968. She was just 20 then. Twenty-two years after his death, the interviews of MGR have been compiled in book form for the first time.
Thanks to 15 years of work by Mr S. Kirubagaran, a researcher on Dravidian writings, the interviews of the Dravidian matinee idol are accessible now. The collection is the first available document of MGR in his own words.
“I chose to start the book with the interview done by Ms Jayalalithaa for Bommai magazine in 1968 as it is the most frank interview of MGR. He says poverty pushed him into acting at age six,” Mr Kirubagaran told this newspaper.
In that interview to Ms Jayalalithaa, MGR talks about his visits to Tirupati and his first meeting with Mr Karunanidhi as dialogue writer at Coimbatore during the shooting of Abhimanyu in which MGR played Arjuna, a minor role.
The book, published by Aazhi, deals with interviews to the media between 1959 and 1984 and captures MGR’s insistence on state autonomy, his criticism of heavy income tax, his frankness about not knowing Hindi or English, his love for books, the reason for his wearing headdress, his split from the DMK, etc.
MGR’s knowledge of Tamil, his praise for Kanchi Chandrasekharendra Saras-wati Swamigal and his support of reservation for all economically weaker people including Brahmins are now documented.

It would be interesting to know if there was any interaction between MGR and NTR, since they were both seminal figures in the development and direction of South Indian politics. They were the faces of democracy for so many people, possibly more so than Gandhi himself. It was due to the cinematic propaganda, that agitation and confrontation with the National Congress party, resulted in separation in to states defined by linguistics. Non-western historical figures don’t often get recognized, and these kids grew to be legends. Obviously, NTR’s family has kept the name alive in A.P., but there seems to be an ongoing schism between the fans of the NTR clan, and that of Chirunjeevi and his son. Hopefully the antipathy towards the fans of each, doesn’t carry over into the current political situation. It makes one wonder why MGR’s family did not follow in his footsteps, either with politics or in the cinema.

MGR - http://mgrroop.blogspot.com/

Brief overview of MGR’s life

சென்னை: “நான் பிறந்த போது என்னுடன் சேர்ந்தே பிறந்த பிரச்சினை இந்த காவிரி விவகாரம். இன்னும் தீர்க்க முடியாத பிரச்சினையான இதனைத் தீர்த்து வைக்கப் போராடிக் கொண்டிருக்கிறேன்” என்றார் முதல்வர் கருணாநிதி. Read More..

சென்னை:​ தமிழகத்தில் தற்போது பொதுமக்கள் பயன்படுத்தி வரும் ரேஷன் அட்டைகள், ஜூன் 2011 வரை செல்லுபடியாகும் என அரசு அறிவித்துள்ளது. Read More..

http://cardstatus.tn.gov.in:8080/newfcp/cardstatus.do

Now that the war is over, there’s a lot of talk about healing the nation, about healing the wounded conscience of the people, about making the Sinhalese and the Tamils love each others. Honestly I have no idea what does this mean. Seems to me they’re just asking the SL government and the Sinhalese people to apologise for the war they won, for wiping off the LTTE. I believe the idea that people like Mahinda Rajapakse, Sarath Fonseka, Gotabhaya Rajapakse, Shavendra Silva should be tried for war crimes (whether they happened or not is another issue) is part of this. Here’s what I think about it. YOU DON’T APOLOGISE FOR THE WARS YOU WON. That’s the golden rule. Did the Americans apologise for bombing down Hiroshima and Nagasaki? Did they apologise for anything that happened in Iraq & Afganisthan? Did the Churchill apologise for any war crimes his army may have committed? Did the israelites apologise for shelling Beirut or phosphorous bombing the Gaza Strip? Then tell me why shoul Sri Lanka apologise for anything? Do some research on USA’s Rendition programme. An outright human rights violation. Do they apologise? It’s only the poor Sri Lankans have to heal their consciences. Of course the Tamils have equal rights. But a separate state out of ours? No way. Ask the Indians. Maybe they’d give up the Tamil Nadu.

To the Rockstar Super Woman:

Imagine having being married very young. And then having a kid to look after and soon 2 kids to look after. Helping take care of a house. Helping run a business. Helping look after 2 sets of parents. Looking after pets. looking after help. Getting up at all hours of nights for odd requests like banana chocolate shake and French fries (trust me the peeling, boiling, frying and cleaning at 3 am is no joke). Now add trying to save the world (and actually doing something about it), to the list. Running a home for orphaned children, running a center for battered women, hand holding an outreach program where medical facilities are provided for tribal people, family planning….with my mom, the list never ends.

I have never met a power house like her all my life. She is a great house wife, an AMAZING cook, the house is always spruced up and beautiful, she is the greatest MOM in the world, an equally good daughter, a hard working business woman and a really passionate social service person. Ok all this is still mortally possible (maybe). But to do all this and always be in a good temper, to not expect one single thing in return and to put up with insane demands on her time all the time! That is what I think is completely impossible and I can never understand how she does it. How she keeps a ready smile and a warm hug to her at all times. How she gets everything done by just smiling at the person.

So today, I take the opportunity to congratulate this superwoman on being a rock star and I think winning the award for the best NGO is nothing surprising considering it is her. Ama, I am so happy you have been given this honor and am proud proud of you. I wish I had been more supportive and done more to help you. But I want you to know, that in every child’s life, parent’s serve as sources of inspiration. The ones from whom you draw strength, love, focus and sight. And Sharika and I are very blessed that we have you both as parents. And if we become half the person you are, we will consider ourselves lucky. Love you with all my heart.

மும்பை:நோபல் பரிசு பெற்ற இந்திய வம்சாவளி விஞ்ஞானி வெங்கட்ராமன் இன்று சென்னை வருகிறார். மார்கழி சீஸன் கர்நாடக சங்கீத கச்சேரிகளை இன்று மாலை கண்டு ரசிக்கிறார். Read More..

சென்னை: தமிழக முதல்வர் கருணாநிதிக்கு தமிழ் தலைமகன் விருது வழங்கப்பட்டது. கொல்கத்தா பாரதி தமிழ்ச் சங்கம் இந்த விருதினை அவருக்கு அளித்தது. Read More..

சென்னை: அழகுபடுத்தப்பட்ட மெரீனா கடற்கரையை இன்று திறந்து வைத்தார் முதல்வர் கருணாநிதி.
உலகில் உள்ள நீளமான கடற்கரையில் இரண்டாமிடம் வகிப்பது சென்னை மெரீனா கடற்கரை. Read More..

சென்னை: தமிழகத்தில் நடந்த சட்டசபை இடைத் தேர்தலில் 81.5 சதவீத வாக்குகள் பதிவாகியுள்ளன. இதில் வந்தவாசியில் அதிகபட்ச அளவாக 85 சதவீத வாக்குகளும், திருச்செந்தூரில் 78 சதவீத வாக்குகளும் பதிவாகின. Read More..

MYSORE: The Tamil Nadu Tourism Development Corporation (TTDC) launched a publicity campaign in Mysore on Friday. Officials attached to the corporation briefed about various measures introduced in the sector to travel agents and promoters in the city. The TTDC are aiming to increase the inflow of tourism to the state by 20% through such publicity meet across India. They have organized such meets in New Delhi, Kolkata, Orissa, Bhutan, Hyderabad and Mumbai.

TN tourism secretary V Irai Anbu said, “Publicity campaign has been organized to create awareness among stakeholders in tourism sector about the new package tours introduced by the corporation. They had organized the meet in Bangalore four months ago and there was good response”.

Anbu stated that TTDC has decided to promote lesser-known tourists spots and attract more youths to the state through conventional tourism. More focus is being given to adventure tourism to attract youths. The secretary said boat houses at Mudaliarkuppam and Muttukkadu have become popular among adventure-loving tourists. Besides operating regular boating, they are having wave runners (water scooter), speedboats and banana boats.

Trekking programmes in forest and hilly areas are also been initiated. Anbu felt all southern states should join hands to promote tourism.

In his presentation, tourism director A C Mohandoss said with a view to provide quick and convenient mode of travel to amusement centres and places of culturally/historically importance in the state, the TTDC launched hop-on and hop-off tour packages, viz, one within Chennai and another between Chennai and Mamallapuram.
“Special buses operate every 30 minutes. The fare is fixed at Rs 200 each and the ticket is valid for two days.

The response to the package is overwhelming,” he claimed. Meanwhile, TTDC are promoting rail-cum-road package tours from places such as Kolkata, Mumbai, Delhi, Ahmedabad and Lucknow. Here tourists are provided confirmed rail tickets from theses places to Chennai, from there they will be taken to different locations in special buses. “Tailor-made package tours are also offered to tourists based on their place of interest, besides South India tours, East West Coast, TN tour packages,” he added.

The director claimed that TTDC introduced about 248 tourist-friendly autos in TN of which 144 are plying in Chennai alone. The drivers have been given training on soft skills and English language.

From TOI

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வந்தவாசி, திருச்செந்தூர் தொகுதிகளில் இடைத்தேர்தலுக்கான ஓட்டுப்பதிவு காலை 8 மணிக்கு துவங்கியது. காலையிலேயே வாக்காளர்களைக் கவர லெமன் சாதம் வழங்கப்பட்டது, வெவ்வேறு கட்சி வேட்பாளர்களால் Read More

The Tiruchendur by-poll in Tamil Nadu is seeing dirty politics again.

India’s southern city of Hyderabad is becoming one of India’s most potent symbols of the greed and corruption that link politicians and businessmen. For the third time in a year, the state has been rocked by a crisis that exposes those linkages – this time over whether Andhra Pradesh should be split in two with the creation of a new state of Telangana based around Hyderabad (white area in map below). 

This is a far cry from the glory and international fame of the past 15 or so years when this prosperous capital of the state of Andhra Pradesh became an international symbol of India’s dramatic growth in software, second only to Bangalore as a thriving location for information technology investment. Companies located there include Google and Microsoft, and Bill Clinton visited as US president. 

click map to enlarge

 The first of the state’s crises came a year ago with the collapse of Satyam, a leading Hyderabad-based software company that was owned by the family of its then chairman, Ramalinga Raju. The Rajus were closely linked with various politicians, including the state’s Congress chief minister, Y S Rajasekhar Reddy (YSR), who died in a helicopter crash in September, as well as his predecessor, Chandrababu Naidu. 

Politicians are widely believed to have invested their black money in both Satyam and in Maytas Infrastructure, an associated company that received favours on contracts from the state government and drained funds out of Satyam. Both companies (Satyam has now been sold) are now being investigated for massive fraud, and Raju has been detained in jail since January. 

Next came YSR’s sudden death and an immediate attempt by his politically inexperienced 37-year old son, Y.S.Jaganmohan Reddy, to become the chief minister. Jaganmohan, who had built a substantial business empire since his father came to power in 2004, was frenetically backed in a campaign by local businessmen who wanted to protect deals they had struck with his father and to be able to replicate them in the future. 

As Bharat Bhushan, editor of India’s Mail Today, put it in an article (“Money backs ‘Son-rise’ in Andhra” – Oct 3, 2009) that listed many company names, YSR secured the loyalty of his supporters not by giving them lucrative government jobs, which is common practice across the country, but by facilitating opportunities for developing new businesses, especially  in booming Hyderabad. 

“YSR converted his key supporters into businessmen, industrialists, contractors and realtors,” wrote Bhushan. “Their loyalty to the party, or the leader, was based on pure economic interest. YSR rewarded them with contracts in state sponsored irrigation projects…….highway projects, real estate activities, development of Special Economic Zones, land grants and housing schemes in urban as well as rural areas…… 

“It has taken decades for Indian entrepreneurs like the Tatas, Birlas, Ambanis and Bajajs to convert family businesses into billion dollar corporations. The Congress Party under YSR in Andhra showed us that this could be done in barely five years.” 

These are the businessmen who are now resisting the demands for a Telangana state. Coming from Andhra’s coastal regions, they mostly belong to the Reddy and Kamma upper castes that must now be ranked along with India’s more famous business castes and communities such as the Marwaris of the north and the Chettiars of the south. 

They fear that the dispute will lead to a crash in Hyderabad real estate values and a cutback on infrastructure projects – and that they might be driven out of the capital by the new Telangana rulers. 

Among the most powerful anti-Telangana politicians is Lagadapati Rajagopal, founder-chairman of the rapidly growing Lanco infrastructure, power and construction group and a Congress MP, whose development plans in and around Hyderabad would be hit hard if the state split. Another MP with powerful Delhi connections is T.Subbarami Reddy, whose Gayatri group has many infrastructure projects. Another businessman who would lose from a split is Andhra-born G.M.Rao, founder-chairman of  the Bangalore-based GMR group that built Hyderabad airport and controversially has 5,000 of acres around the site waiting for development, as well as many other projects. National and local politicians are widely believed to have invested in such companies.  

The Telangana claim 

The Telangana people’s wish for some sort of constitutional identity has been around for over 50 years, and has been fudged and rebuffed by successive Indian governments. But last week (December 9) the central government gave way and agreed to create Telangana in order to end a fast by a local politician and activist, K. Chandrashekhar Rao (KCR), leader of Telangana Rashtriya Samiti, who was risking his life to revive his crumbling political image. 

That humane but politically clumsy decision led to violent demonstrations in Hyderabad, plus resignation threats by about half the members of the legislative assembly. This paralysed the state government and sparked follow-on bifurcation claims from other states all over India. 

But observers of India’s frequently muddled and confusing political scene need not fear any imminent Balkanisation of India’s 28 states. Having prevented the death of the fasting politician, the government is back to fudge, and hopes to stall the Telangana claims indefinitely, maybe even until the state’s next assembly elections in 2014. Meanwhile, other states’ claims to be split will be examined, and some may push ahead a little – but there is no crisis, despite blanket and over-excited media coverage. 

Unlike most other bifurcation claims, the battle over Telangana is about wealth, not language or ethnic divisions, nor dramatic differences in geography. It would also the first time that the capital of a state has gone with the new entity – normally the breakaway has to start afresh. 

The people of coastal Andhra have benefited economically since the days of British rule when there was extensive investment in irrigation, but the Telangana region lagged behind under the thumb of the Nizam of Hyderabad. When Hyderabad began to flourish in the 1990s as an IT centre, wealthy landowners from the coastal region flocked to the city to develop real estate and infrastructure projects, lining up with local politicians such as YSR and his cronies to secure contracts and licences. This is the wealth that they fear the creation of Telangana would put at risk. 

The reputation of Hyderabad and Andhra has been severely damaged by this series of crises. It is causing concern among both Indian and international investors who had not known – or had ignored – the political-business linkages and scams. 

The state now has an uncertain political future. The death of YSR has removed an able political leader who, despite his business links and cronyism, was an effective Congress chief minister. Now the Congress Party is split over who his successor should be, as well as over the Telangana issue. And, of course,  politicians’ fixing of contracts and projects for the benefit of themselves and their cronies is visible for all to see. 

Avid reader that I am, as well as ardent fact-checker, I have come across a different interpretation regarding the symbolism of Nandi/Nandhini as discussed in this post. According to A.L. Basham, in his book The Wonder that Was India , Nandi is Siva’s BULL, and Siva, himself, is called “the bullrider” in Brahmin poetry. This description fits the imagery of Anniyan on his website, as the punisher, as well as Anniyan, the personality, who rides one of the bulls that are being herded into the cave where they trample his first victim.

This could mean one of two things: I am full of shit, OR the symbolic meaning is even more complex than I had originally thought.

தமிழகம் மற்றும் புதுச்சேரியில் அடுத்த ஆண்டு மார்ச் 1ம் தேதி பிளஸ்டூ தேர்வு தொடங்குகிறது. பத்தாம் வகுப்பு பொதுத் தேர்வுகள் மார்ச் 23ம் தேதி முதல் தொடங்குவதாக அறிவிக்கப்பட்டுள்ளது Read More