With vibrant western ghats and ecological hotspots, Tamil Nadu accounts for 47 waterfalls located in 12 districts spread across the state. “The period from February attracts huge crowds and the activity is sustained till the onset of summer.

Last year, many who had turned up at the Courtallam falls during peak summer were disappointed when the thundering cataract became a trickle,” an official said.

The rumbling Hogenakkal falls bordering Karnataka and situated about 46 km from Dharmapuri had lured huge crowds last weekend.

“The tourism season at the falls has commenced and it will peak during summer vacation,” an official said.

Closer to the city, the Jalagamparai falls in Yelagiri and the Akash Ganga falls in Kolli hills too have started receiving scores of visitors.

However, Chennaiites who got to experience waterfalls during summer had to forfeit it. The massive artificial waterfalls put up during the Kodai Thiruvizha (Summer fest) at the Island Grounds here was dismantled. The project had run into rough weather and the TTDC, which has established the 50-foot high waterfalls — Ayyan Aruvi – on revenue sharing basis shelved the Rs 2 crore project. However, the water-based theme parks on the fringes of the city have planned it big to attract visitors this summer.

The number of visitors would swell when families descend at the falls once the final examinations of children are over in April.

The second edition of Art Chennai 2012 has decided to take art to the common man by displaying works in public places.

The fair, which will have the support of the state government and the Confederation of Indian Industry (CII), is being touted as south India’s biggest art ensemble and aims to strike a chord with all strata of the society.

“That is why we have to let in restaurants, non-galleries and lifestyle spaces this year apart from the 30-odd galleries,” said Sanjay Tulsyan of the Art Chennai team.

Large sculptures will be erected in Ascendas IT Park, Express Mall and Marina Beach, while huge posters on the theme of Chennai will be put up across the five MRTS stations in the city. About 200 photographers are reported to be working on 16 themes.

“Such inclusivity will improve art appreciation,” said Pradipta K. Mohapatra, a board member of Art Chennai, who expects a fourfold increase in footfall from last year’s 10,000.

“To include students, there is also a plan to give an Australian curatorship scholarship for two of their best works,” he said.

Art and craft is the second-largest occupational sector in the country after agriculture, employing 20-30 million people, said T.T. Ashok, chairman, CII southern region.

In 2008, India ranked fifth in export of visual art to the tune of $343 million.

“The art business in India is growing at the rate of 15 per cent annually with the art, culture and tourism industry fast turning into a volumes game,” said the CII official.

Following Dhanushkoti play, a live visual treat on the stage written and directed by K.Vivekshankar for Shraddha, Prayatna  is coming out with Thodarum, horror unplugged on stage in Narada Gana Sabha, TTK Road, Alwarpet,  Chennai on February 23, 24, 35, 26 at 7 PM.   Free invitations are available for download at  kvivekshankar.com/blog

For the convenience of theater lovers across the world, the play will be WEBCAST LIVE FREE on Feb 25 at 7 PM IST. Details of Live Webcast are available on the official site, http://www.kvivekshankar.com.  This is the first time a tamil stage play is webcast live and we are sure this will help the tamil dramas to reach more people.

About Prayatna

Prayatna was started as a tribute to the legendary theatre thespian, Shri. V. Gopalakrishnan, on his memorial day 29th April 2001. Shri. V. Gopalakrishnan not only excelled as a theatre cum cinema artiste but till his last moment lived and breathed theatre. To ensure that his dedication to theatre did not stop, Prayatna was formed to make sincere attempts in order to contribute whatever little it can to theatre and have so far inaugurated all our plays on that day.

URAVUGAL DOT COM by K. Vivekshankar was inaugurated on 29thApril 2001 during Summer Drama Festival conducted by Kartik Fine Arts, Chennai and this play bagged Best Play, Best Playwright, Best Direction, Best Actor and Best Music awards. Also, K. Vivekshankar was awarded Best Director by Mylapore Academy, Chennai for the same year.

SWAYAMBU by K. Vivekshankar was inaugurated on 29th April in the year 2003 during Summer Drama Festival conducted by Kartik Fine Arts, Chennai and this play bagged Best Play, Best Direction, Best Actor Best Character Actor and Best Sets awards. Mylapore Academy has awarded this play as the Best Play for 2003. The movie rights of this play for Malayalam language has been given to noted actor cum writer Shri. Srinivasan.

3 POINT 42 by Absar was also inaugurated on 29th April 2004 during Summer Drama Festival conducted by Kartik Fine Arts, Chennai and this play also bagged Best Actor, Best Character Actor awards here as well as from Mylapore Academy.

Prayatna’s greatest challenge was yet to come as he decided to make an attempt to do a play on the teachings of Swami Vivekananda who according to us is the greatest role model for the younger generation ever. The dream came true in the form of NARENDRA by K.Vivekshankar, was inaugurated on 29th April 2006 which envelopes and revolves around the great saint who is a source of inspiration to mankind. The blessings of Swamiji was showered in the form of Best Play, Best Playwright, Best Direction, Best Actor, Best Sets, Best Lighting awards in the Summer Drama Festival at Chennai.

UYIR MEI EZHUTHU by K. Vivekshankar was inaugurated on the 29thApril 2007 at Chennai during Summer Drama Festival conducted by Kartik Fine Arts, Chennai and bagged Best production, Best Character Actor, Best Supporting Actor awards. Mylapore Academy has recognized and awarded it as a Best Contribution to Stage.

For any enquiries or details

Mr. K.Vivekshankar can be reached at

984143395 or kvivekshankar@gmail.com

Facebook : https://www.facebook.com/pages/K-Vivekshankar/102797489820547

Twitter : @prayatnachennai

There are many temples around Chennai which have been very popular in old times but lost out with age. These temples carry our history known and unknown.  Temples are part of  our heritage and majority of Tamilnadu is synonymous with temples and devotion be it chidambaram, kanchipuram, Madurai, Thanjavur to name a few.  It will be good if we contribute our little to  repair, renovate and upkeep the existing ones instead of building new ones. It is our duty to make sure the temples left for us by our great saints and ancestors are maintained well and continue to exist for our  future generations.

On this auspicious day of Maha Shivratri, we are covering 3 of the ancient temples with rich history patronized by our kings around Chennai.

Thiruidaichuram

This temple, one of the 274 Shiva temples, is located near Chennai. Goddess Parvathi came here as Kamadhenu (cow) with her brother Lord Vishnu and poured milk on the Shivalingam made of Maragatha stone to do the Shiva worship.

Our star hotels are hiring homemakers to give our own dishes an authentic touch. Several hotels in the city have begun to realise that the best way to give their dishes ‘a mother’s touch’ is to, well, get her on the job. Chamundeshwari amma, Rathnam amma, Savithri maami – these are just some of the homemakers that star hotels across Tamil Nadu have hired in their south Indian specialty restaurants to give their dishes an authentic, ‘homemade touch’ .

Around four months ago, Sheraton Park Hotel and Towers in Chennai got Rathnam amma on board for their south Indian restaurant Dakshin. Rathnam, who until a few years ago, cooked for her extended family of 15 using firewood, now spends four hours a day at the hotel, whipping up filter coffee and evening snacks for the guests. She also makes two dishes a day for the menu. “Her coffee has become so famous that guests ask for Rathnam amma’s coffee ,” says chef Harish K. “It’s tough explaining to guests that Sundays are her days off and so they have to drink coffee made by one of us.”

And Rathnam doesn’t even drink coffee. “I just know exactly how to make it. I don’t write down any proportions, I go with the gut feel,” says the 58-yearold , diamonds sparkling in her ears. Rathnam changed the restaurant’s idli batter ingredients and measurements. And chefs say that the idlis have never tasted better.

At Hotel Savera, Savithri maami, a 68-year-old Brahmin homemaker, has been on contract for several years to prepare her specialty evening snacks such as adai, murukku and kozhukattai to the guests of Malgudi restaurant. “My mother-in-law and I still go in to make the dishes,” says Vijayalakshmi, 36, Savithri’s daughter-in-law , who is learning the ropes from her.

Hotels also bring in the mom-paati brigade to learn the intricacies of various cuisines. Three months ago, at Sheraton, executive chef Praveen Anand brought in homemaker Fathima Anwar to teach his team Tamil Muslim cuisine.

She taught them to make thikkadi (dumplings made of rice flour and served with mutton curry), thalicha chor (ghee rice) and thalcha (a kind of mutton sambar), all typical of the Tamil Muslims who live in Madurai. “I have been making the dishes for more than 12 years for my husband’s family. So I was not nervous teaching the chef,” says Fathima.

“We try and incorporate some of these dishes when we have special banquets,” says chef Praveen Anand, adding that ‘aachis’ or older women from the Chettiyar community have guided him and his team.

At the Taj Gateway Hotel in Madurai, Chamundeshwari amma still can’t believe she is on the payroll of a five-star hotel after spending 37 years behind a stove at home. “I have four grown-up children,” says the 49-year-old . “And they are all excited for me.” Most of the Taj Gateway properties across the country have hired homemakers such as Chamundeshwari to create authentic, region-specific food.

Chamundeshwari is at the hotel every day from 11am to 4pm, preparing all the side dishes for the thali. “She’s a hit,” says chef Ashok Kumar. “We brought her in because our guests demand homestyle food. After we brought her in four months ago, our guests keep asking for amma’s thali.”

Chennai’s shopping landscape is set to change with a sprawling two million-square feet mall coming up near Guru Nanak College in Velachery.

Mumbai-based mall developer Phoenix Mills, which is promoting the shopping plaza – christened Chennai Market City – said at that size it would be the biggest mall in the city, toppling Express Avenue, which has a built-up space of less than one million square feet.

Phoenix Mills CEO Shishir Shrivastava said Chennai Market City would house a mall, an apartment complex and perhaps a luxury hotel too. The mall will also have an exclusive wing for luxury shopping with international brands, making it the second mall in India after Mumbai’s High Street Phoenix to have such a zone.

Chennai is seeing a buzz in the mall space with the launch of Ramee Mall and Express Avenue. Three more properties – Forum in Vadapalani, Marg Junction Mall on OMR and The Grande in Velachery – will come up in the city in the next two years.

The first phase of Chennai Market City with a built-up space of over one million square feet will be open to public by June.

“There is a large scope for organized retail in Chennai. The city is still behind other metros and so mall developers are rushing in to tap the huge potential here,” said S Ramaswamy, associate director, RECS Group, a real estate consulting firm. “Consumers’ mindset is also changing now. They are now more into shopping at malls rather than in T Nagar.”

“We bought the land in the second half of 2006, since then things have extensively changed here. The profile of the population in Chennai has changed now with rising exposure to international environment,” Shrivastava said. The 17 acres in Velachery was sold by pharma company Raptakos Brett for Rs 130 crore.The mall will have four levels and above that there will be a 13-storey apartment (five lakh sq ft), taking the height of the building to about 22 stories, Shrivastava said.

Phoenix is in advanced talks with Future Group for establishing stores, and is also trying to rope in international brands like Mango, Diesel and Jack & Jones, among others.

Future Group, which has been associated with Phoenix’s malls in Mumbai, Bangalore and Pune, said it will set up shops in Chennai Market City. “We will have all our retail brand stores in the mall,” said Future Group CEO Kishore Biyani. Another official from Future Group said they could set up shops – Pantaloon, Big Bazaar – in about one lakh square fee. Phase one of the project will be developed at a cost of Rs 550 crore.

The old province known as the Carnatic, in which Madras (Chennai) was situated, extended from the Krishna river to the Coleroon and was bounded on the West by Cuddapah, Salem and Dindigul, all of which formed part of the State of Mysore. The Northern portion was known as the Mughal Carnatic, the Southern the Maharatta Carnatic with the Maharatta frontier fortress being Gingee. Carnatic, the name commonly given to the region of Southern India between the Eastern Ghats and the Coromandel Coast and the Western Ghats, extends from Palghat to Bider and stretches from the Guntur district of Andhra Pradesh in the North, to Cape Comorin (Kanyakumari) at the Southern-most tip of Tamil Nadu State.

It was divided into the Southern., Central and Northern Carnatic. The region south of the river Coleroon, which passes the town of Trichinopoly, was called the Southern Carnatic. The principal towns of this division were Tanjore, Trichinopoly, Madura, Tranquebar, Negapatam and Tinnevelly. The Central Carnatic extended from the Coleroon river to the river Pennar; its chief towns being Madras, Pondicherry, Arcot, Vellore, Cuddalore, Pulicat, Nellore and a few other towns. The Northern Carnatic extended from the river Pennar to the northern limit of the country; and the chief town was Ongole.

Many volumes of history are available on the Nawabs of the Carnatic in the University of Madras and Connemara Libraries and the Public Record Office, Chennai. They are also found in other parts of India as well as foreign countries, all of them containing fascinating narratives. The history of the Carnatic Nawabs and in particular the Carnatic wars, apart from being of absorbing interest, are essential to a correct and complete understanding of South Indian history.

The First Nawab of the Carnatic, Zulfikar Ali Khan (1690-1703 A.D.) to the present Prince of Arcot, His Highness Nawab Mohammed Abdul Ali Azim Jah  keep with the glorious traditions and  has been rendering great service to the society especially in promoting communal harmony, secularism and national integration in the country.

Among the rulers, Nawab Muhammad Ali Wallajah, Nawab of the Carnatic (1749-1795), who belonged to a family having its lineage from the second Caliph of Islam, Hazrath Omar Bin Khattab R.A. – 580 A.D. (May God be pleased with him) was not only a great ruler and most celebrated of the Nawabs, but also a very religious person and philanthropist. His contributions to the society cannot be just forgotten in a few years. Nawab Wallajah stands out as the epitome of religious tolerance and nobility. He was praised by Lord Clive as “his words were more trustworthy than of any Muhammadan I have ever known”.

For more information - http://www.princeofarcot.org/

]]> http://chennaifocus.wordpress.com/2012/02/19/pages-from-history-todays-chennai-was-a-part-of-old-province-carnatic/feed/ 3 chennaifocus2011 map (5) http://chennaifocus.wordpress.com/2012/02/17/reviving-traditional-games-aadu-puli-attam-%e0%ae%86%e0%ae%9f%e0%af%81-%e0%ae%aa%e0%af%81%e0%ae%b2%e0%ae%bf-%e0%ae%86%e0%ae%9f%e0%af%8d%e0%ae%9f%e0%ae%ae%e0%af%8d/ http://chennaifocus.wordpress.com/2012/02/17/reviving-traditional-games-aadu-puli-attam-%e0%ae%86%e0%ae%9f%e0%af%81-%e0%ae%aa%e0%af%81%e0%ae%b2%e0%ae%bf-%e0%ae%86%e0%ae%9f%e0%af%8d%e0%ae%9f%e0%ae%ae%e0%af%8d/#comments Fri, 17 Feb 2012 18:47:29 +0000 Admin Chennai Focus http://chennaifocus.wordpress.com/?p=2705 ]]> Aadu Puli aatam (goat and tiger game) is a strategic, two-player (or 2 teams) board game originated in Tamil Nadu and is also played in Karnataka(Huli gatta) and Andhra Pradesh(Puli Joodam or Puli – Meka). The game is asymmetric in that one player controls three tigers and the other player controls up to 15 goats. The tigers ‘hunt’ the goats while the goats attempt to block the tigers’ movements.

Things Needed to Play:

• Board with the game chart or Chart drawn on a floor (See Picture for chart)
• 2 or more players
• 3 Tiger’s & 15 Goat’s

How to play:

1. Draw the chart as in the picture in a paper or on the ground with chalk powder
2. Start the game with 3 Tigers are one placed on the apex and 2 in the inner place closest to the apex. All Goats start off the board.
3. The pieces must be put at the intersections of the board lines and moves should follow these lines.
4. The player controlling the Goats’ moves first by placing a Goat onto a free intersection on the board.
5. Then it is the Tiger’s turn. One Tiger is then moved to an adjacent position along the lines that indicate the valid moves. Moves alternate between players.
6. A Tiger captures a Goat by jumping over it to an adjacent free position (as in checkers). Goats cannot move until all 15 have been put on the board.

Rules

The Tigers must move according to these rules:

• They can start capturing Goats any moment after the match has started.
• They can capture only one Goat at a time.
• They can jump over a goat in any direction, but it must be to an adjacent intersection following any of the lines drawn on the board.
• A Tiger cannot jump over another Tiger.

The Goats must move according to these rules:

• They must leave the board when captured.
• They cannot jump over the Tigers or other Goats.
• They can only move after all 15 have been put on the board.

Objective of the Game:

• Goat’s objective is to encircle Tigers so that none of the Tigers can move. Tiger’s objective is to kill 5 Goats.
• Tiger wins if all the Goats are captured and Goat wins if all Tigers are blocked from movement.

Courtesy :  Traditional Games

One in 750 children are born with a cleft lip or palate globally. In an effort to create awareness and raise funds towards corrective surgery for such children, fifty-two-year old extreme athlete David Grier recently completed a marathon run from Kashmir to Kanyakumari.

David, a trustee and ambassador of the ‘Miles for Smiles India Challenge’, took up the extreme challenge of covering over 4,000 km, which he completed within 93 days.  This is nothing new for the man who had run 4,200 kilometres along the Great Wall of China in 2006, 3,300 km along the South African coastline in 2008 and a 2,700 kilometres in Madagascar.

‘Operation Smile’, the organisation’s initiative, helps children with cleft lip, palate and other facial deformities by performing surgeries free of cost.

Speaking during a press meet here on Thursday, David said, “The aim is to give children their God-given right to smile. The biggest hospital for cleft surgery is at Guwahati in India, where more than 1000 surgeries are done each month.”

Starting at Srinagar, David ran through Punjab, Haryana, Rajasthan, Madhya Pradesh, Maharashtra, Goa, Kerala and Tamil Nadu, ending his arduous journey at Kanyakumari.

“Now that the run is over, raising funds and awareness is what remains to be done. All funds raised in India will go towards helping Indian children,” said David.

For more information

Check out http://www.operationsmile.org/

]]> http://chennaifocus.wordpress.com/2012/02/17/operation-smile-surgeries-free-of-cost-to-children-with-cleft-lip/feed/ 2 chennaifocus2011 Chittagong, Bangladesh – Operation Smile team ... http://chennaifocus.wordpress.com/2012/02/17/apollo-hospitals-leads-solid-organ-transplant-programmes-in-the-world/ http://chennaifocus.wordpress.com/2012/02/17/apollo-hospitals-leads-solid-organ-transplant-programmes-in-the-world/#comments Fri, 17 Feb 2012 13:24:06 +0000 Admin Chennai Focus http://chennaifocus.wordpress.com/?p=2677 ]]>

Apollo Transplant Institutes have become the busiest solid organ transplant programmes in the world, having conducted 929 liver,kidney and heart transplants during 2011.

Addressing the media on this occasion, Dr. Prathap C Reddy, Chairman, Apollo Hospitals Group said, “Our aim at the Apollo Transplant Institutes is to be the best centre for transplantation in the world.”

Dr Anupam Sibal, Group Medical Director, Apollo Hospitals Group and Senior Consultant, Paediatric Gastroenterology and Hepatology, Indraprastha Apollo Hospitals said, “The first successful liver transplant in India was conducted at Apollo Hospitals, Delhi in 1998.

Since then, our transplant programme has consistently scaled new heights in transplantation. Sanjay, the recipient of the first successful liver transplant at the age of 18 months is now a healthy teenager of 15. We have now transplanted patients not only from all parts of our country but 44 countries”.

 Interested in doing your bit towards Organ donation, read our earlier post, An Appeal to Donate Organs and Save Lives