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Temple Tank Clean-up

A big group of volunteers, the Sivanadiyargals who lend a hand in all the socio-religious activities at Sivan temples got to work last weekend inside the tank of Sri Kapali Temple.

This, after word went out that although the same volunteers had cleared the tank of vegetation many weeks ago, the recent rains had only aided wild growth that stood tall all across the tank.

This growth would suck up the water much later

after the monsoon and was needed to be cleared.The volunteers spread themselves to all corners

of the tank, focussing on the south side where the growth was heavy.

IIT-Madras is said to have submitted a study done on water retention in this tank but the results are not yet known. It is obvious though that the water collecting here gets sucked up by hundreds of private borewells in this region.

By Our Staff Reporter

The managing committee of Kartik Fine Arts sabha under the presidentship of K.M. Narasimhan has de-cided to confer the following awards at its 47th Year Art Festival 2021 powered by kalakendra.com (on the digital platform).

Here are the artistes who will be decorated –Isai Peroli – Sandeep Narayan. Nadanamamani –

Jagyaseni Chatterjee. Nritya Peroli – Sudharani Raghupathy. Tamil Isai Vendhar – Dr. S. Sunder. Isai Chudar – Aditya Madhavan. Natya Chudar – Akshaya Arunkumar Kartik Rajagopal endowment award for best cultural organiser – R. Nagarajan, secretary of R R Sabha.

Titles will be conferred during the inauguration of Kartik Fine Arts’s Art Festi-val, at the inauguration of the festival known as ‘Musically Margazhi” ; this will be streamed on 1st December on the website kalakendra.com. and the entire festival will be available for viewing up to 31st December.

Kartik Fine Arts’ December Seasonawards for artistes

Sudharani Raghupathy

The Mylapore neighbourhood had a quiet, monsoon-re-freshed morning on the day of Deepavali. Even as it drizzled in some places, the streets were empty yet neat and clean, the avenue trees looked lush and green – the rain had been steady all through the night, though not heavy.

The rain limited the bursting of fire-crackers on Deepavali eve. People were seen visiting temples though the stream was thin – even so at Sri Kapali Temple and at the Navashakti Vinayaka Temple in Luz. (photo used here was shot at this temple)

A Deepavali freshened by monsoon showers

MYLAPORE TIMES Nov 6 - 12, 20212

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By Our Staff Reporter Rowing on the Adyar River was revived

a few months ago after the pandemic break. Now, efforts are on to get all member rowers to be regulars on the river banks off R. A. Puram.

On Sunday last, the leaders organised a fun event that saw members row all the way to Whale Island that lies opposite the TN

ROWERS ARE BACK ON THE ADYAR

Music College campus on the north bank.The monsoon clouds, the shy sunshine

and the November chill made this outing welcoming.

But rowers are most happy with the quality of the water.

Says S. Karthik, assistant secretary, “I have never seen such clear water in the Adyar before. I think this is so because the sewer outlets are shut and the sand bar at the river’s mouth is being cleared often to allow water flow in and out.”

Karthik says he observes fish jump in and out of the river when he rows here, which is almost every day.

Sunday’s rowers were on the 8s, a boat that calls for some expert co-ordination. Says rower Gayathree K, “So the teams had experienced as well as junior rowers.”

A row from the Cosmopolitan Golf Club

end to the Broken Bridge end in the east and back to the Club point covers some 9 kms plus. While a row from the Boat Club to the island and back will cover about 5 kms plus.

Rowers are regrouping now after the long break. Also, Karthik says the Club does not have a coach and is looking for a new one.

The Club has always invited students - college and school ( 11 years and above) to become members for a small fee and learn rowing - some youths have taken to it seriously and taken part in state and national championships.

Karthik says youths keen on rowing here can apply now.

Besides, the Club through its CSR project is nurturing a bunch of local area school students in rowing.

Photo: Dinesh Jaikumar

By Our Staff Reporter Do you know of women

who will benefit from a course in tailoring or home nursing? Poor women who can use a new skill to get a job or set up a shop?

Short courses in tailoring, home nursing for poor women. Admissions open

Then put them on to the SUDAR centre run by the FMM nuns in their San Thome campus now.

FMM Social Work Centre, Chennai Prov-ince established a project centre named SUDAR – Socially United for

Development and Access to Resources - to work ex-clusively for the welfare of the people from down-trodden community.

SUDAR have been providing skill develop-ment trainingsto women, Single mothers, teens and

transgender.Tailoring

and Home Nursing courses are the success-ful projects of SUDAR.

SUDAR has just inaugurated the fourth

batch of tailoring course and second batch of home nursing course on No-vember 1.

The courses of-fered in Tailoring and Home Nursing run for 3 months.

The timings of the shifts are: Shift 1 9. 30 am – 11. 30 am and Shift 2 is from 11.30 am – 1. 30 pm.

The fee for the tailor-ing course is Rs. 300 per month; a certificate will be provided at the end of the course.

The home nurs-ing course is a free, 3-months-long course where the syllabus focus-es to develop both theory and practical knowledge.

Sister Philo of SUDAR says these students will

be studying a specially modified syllabus fol-lowed by a B Sc Nurs-ing student. The course is open to women / transgenders who should have completed 9td Std. studies

Admissions for both the courses are still open. Interested people can register by contacting 73053 89425.

MYLAPORE TIMESNov 6 - 12, 2021 3

QMC’s library assists visually impaired students in their academicsRecently, college librarian Jeyashree was honoured for her services

By V. Vasantha

As colleges begin to manage aca-demics after a delayed re-opening and students get used to the ‘new normal’, at Queen Mary’s College in Mylapore a group of visually impaired students will be looking forward to a space on campus which has been very useful for many like them in past years.

The space is the college library.It is here that resources have been of

help to these students, whose numbers have been on the increase over recent times. And helping them all has been a librarian.

Dr. Jeyashree is in charge of the Digi-tal Library at QMC.

She was among two others who were felicitated recently on campus for their services to the visually challenged - this event was hosted by the Department of English of QMC.

The library stocks Braille books in various subjects and this aids the stu-dents in their daily studies.

There are also books of general inter-est which are in Braille.

Dr. Jeyashree says that most visually challenged students take Thamizh, Eng-lish or History as their major subject.

QMC offers doctoral studies in all these subjects.

Recently, the Music, Sociology and Economics departments have also started admitting impaired students.

The list of books in Braille available in the college library are catalogued. The library gets new books printed by the Indian Association for Blind on re-quest. Recently, it received a copy of the Thirukkural printed in Braille.

This library has a collection of audio books too.

Dr. Jeyashree says these students are trained to use the laptops which are loaded with special software that aid in their use and learning. “The keyboard is so designed that it provides for audio support on the left, right and front side,” she says. “Students are welcome to make use of these resourc-es in our rooms.”

There are city-based voluntary organizations who co-ordinate sup-

port that the students need in their stud-ies. Reading notes and writing for them in exams are two key needs.

Says Jeyashree, “Their classmates also render their help during examina-tion times. Friends read stories to them from books in the library.”

The specific role played by the digital library is to implement programmes rolled out by the state and co-ordinates in providing technical assistance in the classroom and lab.

The library staff also assists them in filling up application forms and record books.

In recent times, impaired students seek out special cell phones and iPods available in the market; these are loaded with softwares relevant to their needs.

Some 75 visually challenged students now study in QMC. And the Digital Library of QMC takes care of all their needs.

The special parcel booking counter at Mylapore Post Office on Kutchery Road was a busy space for over three weeks as its team packed and booked packs of sweets and savouries booked by Mylaporeans.

The past three weeks, this section has been on over-drive since bookings to the USA take close to a fortnight and a big stream of people kept packing off sweets to their loved ones. A India Post staffer said the local office must have done business of over Rs.50 lakhs.

In the days leading to Deepavali, packs meant for destinations inside the country were handled.

This counter is open throughout the year and many people seem to prefer its services.

You can ask the team to pack the sweetmeats or spice powders for you for a small fee and if you need the stuff to be picked up, call 94548 42115 ( PO staff).

Leading stores are also using this facility to cater to their clients. Grand Sweets did so this festival season, we are told. In the past years, the PO has also handled bookings of Navaratri kolu dolls to be sent abroad.

At Mylapore Post Office, the parcel counter was extra-busyMylaporeans packed off sweets and savouries to families and friends from here

By Our Staff Reporter

Two incidents in the city which left two people dead high-lights the dangers monsoon time poses to people. An IT profes-sional on a bike lost his life when while trying to avoid a large pothole near Little Mount, lost balance and fell down and was run over by a MTC bus. Elsewhere, at Fort St. George campus, a crashing tree killed a policewoman.

There are a few streets / roads in Mylapore zone which are pot-holed or dug-up and not relaid which can pose dangers to motorists, especially in the dark.

We spotted two messy zones – Luz Avenue 1st Street was dug up to lay Metrowater pipes but though the work was over many weeks ago, the street is now a long stretch of mud, cra-ters and water pools.

On St. Mary’s Road, at the VC Gardens colony junction, the road looks like a Martian surface, riddled with potholes, now filled with rainwater. ( seen in this photo)

There are a string of deep pot-holes alongside the pavement of R K Mutt Road opposite Rani Meyyammai Girls School, pos-ing dangers to motorists rushing home at night.

Activist C. R. Balaji reported flooding on South Canal Bank Road ( alongside the playground) and got GCC staff to address the issue

GCC has advised its local units to standby to address issues like potholes and trees that are weak or leaning dangerously. You can call GCC at 1913 to lodge complaints.

Pot-holes. Water stagnation.Monsoon problems

MYLAPORE TIMES Nov 6 - 12, 20214

CHRISTIAN CEMETERIES ARE FULL. IS CREMATION CONSIDERED?Priests say the Church allows cremation. Easier solution is for civic body to allow quicker recycling of old gravesBy Our Staff Reporter

Even as Fr. Y. F. Bosco, parish priest of Our Lady of Guidance Church in R. A. Puram was supervising the clean-ing of the cemetery on St. Mary’s Road to prepare for All Souls Day ( Nov.2) he got calls for a new burial.

This cemetery, belonging to the city’s civic body, Chennai Corporation is solely for Christians and managed by the R. A. Puram church. But it does not have space anymore for the dead. “We now make space between old graves and bury people here,” says the senior Catholic priest.

All Souls Day is a day set apart by the Church to remember the departed. So families visit graves of their near and dear that day. But due to pandemic rules, people were asked not to visit on Nov.2; rather plan their visits during the week and space out the stream of visitors.

Be it at this cemetery or the Quibble Island Cemetery on the other side of R. A. Puram.

Space for graves got exhausted last year at the St Mary’s Road cemetery. Most bodies of Christians who died from Covid were buried here and space was at a premium.

Even as the church team scraped space between graves or at the far ends, it wrote to Chennai Corporation and to community leaders , seeking new space to bury the dead.

At Quibble Island, family graves are recycled. There is no space for those whose families aren’t registered here.

What about cremation?Fr. Bosco says the Church does not

object to cremation and whenever people

seek small spaces at the GCC cemetery to bury the ash of the cremated, he allows for it.

But these are very few instances.Obviously, cremation is not a popular

option yet among Christians.Says retired Catholic priest Fr Bal-

aswamy L., who now resides at Vian-ney Home in San Thome, a place for the diocese’s retired priests, “Cremation is acceptable to Catholics. I once called for a meeting of pastors of non-Catholic churches. Some of the Pentacostal and A-G pastors were opposed to the idea. We do accept the ashes for burial in our cemeteries. In Singapore only cremation is allowed for want of space.”

But cremation is not actively ad-vised and spoken about in local Catholic Churches and priests seem to shy from talking about it in case it ruffles people who prefer to stick to tradition.

Fr. Bosco says he is hoping that Chen-nai Corporation locates space for a grave-yard in south Chennai so that he and his team do not have to face a crisis in the months to come.

He says that they suggested using the space at one end of the Mylapore crema-torium campus located behind the TN Police headquarters campus in Mylapore.

Some priests also want Chennai Corporation to revise its policy as far as recycling of graves goes.

Explains Fr. Balaswamy, “Many of our cemeteries are closed ones and there is no fresh burial. We had requested the civic authorities to permit us to reopen the old graves after two years of the burial as is done in Mumbai. At present we get permission to reopen after 14 years from GCC.”

A family prays at a grave at the St. Marys Road cemetery

By S. Prabhu To mark 25 years of Prabhandham acharya service

at Sri Vedantha Desikar Srinivasa Perumal Temple, the sishyas of Natteri Srihari Parthasarathy number-ing close to 100 organised a grand celebration at the temple last week.

On Oct 27, Srivan Satakopa Sri Ranganatha Yathindra Mahadesikan, the 46th pontiff of Ahobila Mutt anointed him with the title of ‘Arulicheyal Sem-mal’ for creating the next generation of Prabhandham members and presented him with a citation.

Natteri Srihari Parthasarathy began his Divya Prabhandham tutoring in the mid 1980s initiating the sacred verses of the Azhvaars to a small group of stu-dents. A decade later, in 1996, he formally began the full-time Prabhandham classes at the temple.

The first batch of students, who are still an integral part of the Prabhandham ghosti at the temple utsa-vams, graduated in 2007.

With these students, he adopted different tech-niques to get them to imbibe not just aspects relating to the recital but also to understand the essence of the verses through a ‘secret’ process. Over the next decade, he initiated around 40 students into Divya Prabhand-ham.

Now well into his 50s, Srihari has begun teaching the third batch comprising another 35 students.

Former Head of Sanskrit, Madras University and current Srikaryam of Ahobilam Mutt S. Padmanabhan, who spoke on the occasion, said that Srihari’s 25 year effort was especially commendable as he came back from office every night after 1 a.m. and yet was at the temple the next morning at 6 a.m. to teach the stu-dents.

“He has done this consistently year on year for 25 years without a break. That’s a great commitment on Srihari’s part. In the third batch, there are students who are not yet 10 years old but are already proficient in Tiruvoimozhi and currently learning the Iyarpa verses.”

Prabhandham acharya Natteri Srihari honoured for his 25 years service

Photo: S. Prabhu