timesexclusive saturday

Padma Bhushan' To Kamal Hassan...?

As the list of 'Padma Awards' is being announced, there is a strong rumor doing rounds in Chennai film circles that Ulaganayagan Kamal Hassan's name has been confirmed on the list of Padma awards this year and he is to be conferred the 'Padma Bhushan' award. There was a strong rumor last year itself that his name was omitted at the last moment due to the Vishwaroopam controversy.

If he is awarded, he will join the South Indian Superstars Rajinikanth and Chiranjeevi. The personal PR of the actor however was tight-lipped about the reports.

Kala Ramnath is breaking barriers with an initiative to teach music to underprivileged children.

Special Arrangement Kala Ramnath.

Her’s is the singing violin. When Ustad Zakir Hussain heard a 14-year-old Kala Ramnath, niece of violin legends N. Rajam and T.N. Krishnan, he greatly appreciated her musical dexterity but asked who would listen to a copy when her illustrious family was still around. Thus, began a quest to fuse a new musical expression which took her to Pandit Jasraj and as they say, the rest is history.

A foremost classical instrumentalist, a Grammy nominee, a frequent collaborator with the London Symphony and London Philharmonic Orchestra and a much sought-after teacher, Kala Ramnath is currently endeavouring to train and take music to the underprivileged children of India through her Kalashree Music Foundation (KMF). Excerpts from an interview.

How was Kalashree Music Foundation conceived?

During my extensive concert tours abroad, I was surprised to discover two countries that have achieved 100 per cent literacy in music: Hungary and Venezuela. For instance, in Venezuela, I encountered how music was used to keep their underprivileged children away from drugs and violence, give them good values and a positive focus in life, and also enable them to support themselves. These efforts have inspired me to do something for the children of India. I felt that Indian children, especially the poor, could benefit from being exposed to music, and find a way out of the hopelessness often induced by a life of poverty and hardships. So I started a non-profit foundation called Kalashree in both Mumbai and Kolkata, and also in California.

What are the current projects of KMF?

We are working with a number of NGOs who will provide us infrastructural support: the children themselves, their time and the space for teaching them. We have a five-year curriculum whereby we educate the children enough for them to pursue music seriously later if they wish to. If not also, we know we have created a discerning listener with a love for music and an individual who’d contribute in some way to society.

Shouldn’t there be music education in India cutting across class boundaries?

Absolutely. I feel the whole of India should be music-literate keeping in mind that we have such a hoary tradition in music. The rich and the middle class have greater access today to learning music than the underprivileged. Kalashree welcomes everybody but we feel it’s the underserved who require our support far more.

Have organisations like Spic Macay not performed a desired role?

Organisations like Spic Macay — through the medium of concerts, lecture demonstrations and workshops — create an awareness of music only but not teach music to the children. We intend to do the latter in a significant way.

How has the response been from fellow musicians? Do you think more musicians should spearhead such initiatives?

KMF is not even a year old. We are just starting out and I am sure not many people are aware of what we are doing. But those who are aware have been supportive of our attempt. Whether other musicians should spearhead such initiatives purely remains a personal choice of the individual concerned.

Adopt a diabetic

When Deepali Phadnis lost her father to diabetes, she realised how deadly—and for some, deadly expensive—this lifestyle disease could be. We find out how Deepali’s NGO is helping diabetic children and adults stay healthy and sweet on life.
PHOTOGRAPH BY HEMANTH KUMAR

As I make my way to Dr Mohan’s Diabetes Specialities Centre, in Chennai, to meet Deepali Phadnis, I think about what this young woman has gone through. Losing a parent is a nightmare.
In 2011, Deepali lost her father to diabetes, a disease that is not perceived as life-threatening. “He was only 62 when he was paralysed by the disease,” says Deepali. “He had just retired, so we wanted him to relax, see the world and find time to do things he had been too busy to pursue all his life. But the paralysis put an end to that, and soon after, he passed away.”

Her father’s death made her realise that diabetes may not be a terminal illness like cancer, but, it still has the potential to kill. There are so many complications that can arise due to diabetes—ranging from blindness to kidney failure to heart attack to amputation of a foot due to gangrene—that, if left untreated, diabetes is a killer disease. The bad news is the incidence of diabetes is on the rise in India—in fact, India is the diabetes capital of the world. There are currently nearly 5 crore diabetics in India, according to the International Diabetes Federation—15 times that of the population of Denmark.

It was this personal tragedy that spurred Deepali to set up an NGO, Green Queen, through which she now educates and helps people who suffer from diabetes or are at risk of being diagnosed with it.
For Rs.5k, save a child
Her search for children diagnosed with diabetes took Deepali to the Government Hospital in Chennai. She also contacted the UK-based NGO Punch (Physicians United for Child Health), and tied up with Dr Mohan’s Diabetes Specialities Centre to help patients—she offers monetary help as
well as spends time with them. “At the Government Hospital, I met over 200 children with diabetes, and started helping them out with money from my own pocket—paying RS.20- Rs.30 for an ID Card for children with diabetes to begin with. Additionally, monitoring the insulin level of patients with Type 1 diabetes once a week costs about Rs.40 per person. The insulin is free, but monitoring it still costs money. I started helping with that as well, and from there the desire and need to do something more just grew.”

“The bare minimum required to adopt a diabetic child to care for his or her treatment is Rs.5,000 a year—this includes testing just once a week. So if everyone supports even one child, we can do so much!”

Mumbai organisation among harmony award winners

Mohinder Singh of Delhi and N. Radhakrishnan of Kerala have been selected for the award in the individual category.

The Centre for Study of Society and Secularism, Mumbai has been selected for the National Communal Harmony Award 2013 in the organisation category. Mohinder Singh of Delhi and N. Radhakrishnan of Kerala have been selected in the individual category.

Established in 1996, the Mumbai-based CSSS is working to promote peace, secularism and communal harmony in the country. It has also been working on human rights issues and issues of the marginalised and deprived sections of the society.

The Centre has published a number of books and literary material highlighting different facets of violence and communalism, peace, secularism and communal harmony which have a wider readership. The Centre has also been regularly publishing a quarterly journal Indian Journal of Secularism which is popular amongst academics and the masses.

Dr. Singh, 72, is a scholar and presently member of the National Commission for Minority Educational Institutions. Earlier, he was also Member of the National Commission for Religious and Linguistic Minorities from 2005 to 2007. In 1984, he along with other social activists, organised relief camps at Delhi and restored friendship between the Hindu and Sikh communities in the wake of anti-Sikh riots.

Dr. Radhakrishnan, 69, is a well-known academic, a Gandhian scholar and a peace worker. He initiated the Shanti Sena programme at the Gandhigram University and extended this work to other parts of the country. He has been actively working to restore peace in communally tense areas of Tamil Nadu and Kerala. Having served as director of Gandhi Smriti and Darshan Samiti, New Delhi for more than a decade, he was instrumental in initiating and implementing many innovative activities in educational institutions by using Gandhian values and principles. His campaign ‘Himsamukth Bharat Andolan’ motivates people to become foot soldiers in campaigning for peace and sustainable development.

The National Communal Harmony Awards were instituted in 1996 by the National Foundation for Communal Harmony (NFCH), an autonomous organisation under the Union Home Ministry. In addition to a citation in each category, the award carries a cash award of Rs. 5 lakh for individuals and Rs. 10 lakh for organisations, according to an official release in New Delhi on Saturday.








Arvind Kejriwal dreams of making Delhi India's first corruption-free city

New Delhi: Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal today vowed to take all steps to make Delhi first corruption-free city in the country, saying it is his government's dream.

 

"It is our dream to make Delhi the first corruption free city of India. I was not born in 1947, I was a small kid in 1977, but I am present today to see a revolution. If good people with honest intentions come together then it is possible to make India corruption free," Kejriwal said, during his Republic Day address at Chhatrasal Stadium.

 

The Chief Minister said that corruption is a major challenge for his government and claimed that it has come down after the launch of anti-corruption helpline.

 

"I do not say that corruption has been completely eradicated from the city in the last 20-25 days. But I have come to know that officials are now afraid of asking for bribe. The corruption has gone down by 20-30 per cent," he claimed.

 

"Anti-corruption officials have told me that all the traps laid by them to catch officials taking bribe red-handed are failing in the last few days. I want all the traps to fail and not a single officer should go to jail," Kejriwal said, adding the motive is to instill fear in the mind of the corrupt.

 

To substantiate his claim on decreasing level of corruption, Kejriwal said, "While coming here (Chhatrasal stadium) my car stopped at a traffic signal. Many people surrounded it. Many of them were auto rickshaw drivers and they told me that cops have stopped asking for money for the last 15 days."

 

"This is not a small thing. It is a big thing. In this 65 years many governments could not remove corruption, but if good people come together with honest intention it could be eradicated," the Delhi Chief Minister added.

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Mumbai dance teacher raped by building guard

    

A 25-year-old woman returning from a night out with her friends was sexually assaulted by the security guard of her own building in the early hours of Friday in Mumbai's Powai. Police have arrested the guard who has been sent to police custody till February 1.

In the latest addition to crime against women in Mumbai, the woman, who runs her own dance classes, was sexually assaulted by the security guard of her own building. According to police, the victim had gone for a party with her two friends. All three returned early that morning by an autorickshaw, where her male friend dropped the victim at her building and went ahead.

The Mumbai Police say the victim's brother found her lying on the floor with injury marks when he went to walk the dog early next morning. He rushed her to the hospital.

Police have arrested the guard who has been sent to police custody till February 1.

The doctors who examined the victim found injuries in her private parts and informed the Powai police station. The police zeroed in on two building security guards and seized CCTV footage from the building. During their questioning, one of the guards, 32-year-old Pramod Upadhaya, kept changing his statements. DCP Mohan Dahikar said, "We checked the CCTV footage and found discrepancies in the statement by Pramod and what the CCTV was showing, when we confronted him he confessed to the crime." The DCP said, "We have booked him under the amended law of rape and robbery."

The incident highlights how vulnerable women in Mumbai have become. Recently, the Mumbai Police was pulled up by the National Women Commission for callous attitude they shown in the alleged rape and murder case of software engineer Esther Anuhya.  Mumbai Police Commissioner Satya Pal Singh said, "I want to assure the people of Mumbai, especially all the women, that the city is safe and we are working hard to keep it safe." He added, "We have detected the Powai case within a few hours and Mumbai Police will work to ensure that everyone felt  safe in the city."