Another honour at a memorable event in my life

3^rd Aug,2023 will go down as  one more memorable day in my life. The day I was honoured as a Founder Trustee of Round Table Foundation(RTF) and for being one of the three architects of the Round Table House housing the Permanent Secretariat of Round Table India (RTI)  located in Nungambakkam. The project was born from a vision of one man R. Jagdish (Bob) Chandran, Chairman of Premier Mills of Coimbatore, and his generous contribution of Rs 20,00,000 in 1981. As one Round Tabler quipped the building was `the vision of Bob, professional input as an architect by Krish Chitale, and R.V. Rajan`s sweat and blood`. While Bob contributed the money, Krish provided his services free as an architect, I did all the running around to get the papers processed in the corridors of power.

Krish was the Chairman of RTF for the first  5 years and I was the  Secretary for the first 8 years. Simultaneously I was also performing the role of the Chairman of the National Secretariat located in my office before it moved to the Round Table House.  My deep involvement with Round Table almost cost me my job as the Senior Vice President of Grant Kenyon Eckardt advertising.

The building was inaugurated in 1984 to coincide with the Round Table India AGM in Madras. Today the building also houses the secretariat of Ladies Circle India  (ladies wing of Round Table India), 41 Clubs of India(ex-Tablers), and Tangent Clubs of India (Ladies wing of 41 Clubs). The Foundation today has a corpus of Rs. 12.5 crores the interest from which is distributed as donations to the clubs of all the four institutions for their deserving projects

The event appropriately titled `Honouring the Knights of the Round Tables` also honoured the second founder trustee Suresh Gokuldas and eight major donors** whose contribution to the Corpus over the years, ranged from Rs 10 lakhs to Rs 50 lakhs. The special honour-  King Arthurs Medal - was reserved for  Bob Chandran who has donated over Rs Two crores so far and still counting. I missed my good friend Krish Chitale at the event. He passed away two years ago.

The Award part of the event was followed by felicitations from Heads of all the national associations connected with RTF. It was a grand & classy event attended by the who`s who of the Round Table Community ( both current and ex-Tablers), meticulously planned and executed by K.Ilango, the current Chairman of RTF, and his team including the ever enthusiastic Ashvin Kumar, Secretary of RTF.

I was very happy to meet a lot of old friends and make a few new friends from the next generation. It felt as if I was attending another RTI AGM. Among the awardees, I was one of the four who was given a few minutes to speak. Though I had already received the Distinguished Service Award ( DSA) in 1984 for my services to RTI, I was pleasantly surprised to be honoured again with a beautifully worded `Certificate of Gratitude` (attached) after almost 4 decades. As I mentioned in my talk,  Round Table opened up a whole new world to me, a boy from the Chawls of Bombay. Whatever I am today I owe a big thanks to the  Round Table community

It was nice to be in the limelight at a Round Table event after almost four decades.

List of major donors:

1. Ganesh Ananthakrishnan - Knight of Round Table

2. V.S.Surendar - Knight of Round Table

3. Sumanth Ramamurthi - Knight of Round Table

4. C.S.Vigneshwar - Knight of Round Table

5. K Premanathan - Silver Knight of Round Table

6. K.Ilango - Silver Knight of Round Table

7. Vagish Dixit - Golden Knight of Round Table

8. B.V.Ramanan - Golden Knight of Round Table

 

 

 

The Kuvikam Twins

Creating Waves in the world of Tamil Literature

What to do post-retirement from a job is a question that starts haunting many people when they are nearing their retirement age.  Many start pursuing their passions for which they had no time while employed. Two ex-bankers, well known as Kuvikam Twins in the Tamil literary world decided to not only follow their passion for writing but decided to provide a forum for other writers – both budding and established, to express their creative talents in Tamil.

Sundarrajan & Kirubanandan, both ex-employees of Bank of Baroda and old friends, are the twins who are creating waves in the world of Tamil literature with a series of activities they have implemented in the last ten years to engage and reward Tamil writers. Both were pursuing writing as a hobby while employed and were interacting with each other sharing many ideas on Tamil literature.

It was In 2013, Sundararajan, who had actively participated in the computerization of branches of his Bank and was tech savvy, initiated an e-magazine called "KU VI KA M," inspired by popular Tamil magazines like KUmudam, VIkatan, KAlki, and kungumaM. KUVIKAM is a newly coined Tamil word that means "FOCUS" (குவி) and "GATHERING TOGETHER" (குவிவோம்). Initially, the entire issue contained articles written by him but with the growing popularity of his idea and a few issues later he started publishing articles/stories from other writers.

In 2015, Kirubanandan joined hands with Sundararajan to establish a new literary platform called "KUVIKAM ILAKKIYAVAASAL" aimed at fostering literary interest among like-minded individuals by organising physical meetings every month with renowned speakers as speakers followed by group discussions.

Sundararajan says, ”Inspiration for this venture came from similar meetings of  Ilakkiya Sinthanai a pioneering Tamil literary forum headed by Shri Paa. Lashmanan and Ilakkiyaveedhi founded by the well-known and dedicated literary stalwart Iniyavan who passed away a few months ago. The third organisation which kindled the idea was Virutcham.

Azhakiyasingar of Virutcham, the Kuvikam twin`smentor, has been involved in the Tamil literary field for over 30 years. He is well known as the editor of Quarterly Magazine Navina Virtcham and  as a  publisher, he has  published over 100 books under his banner, Virutcham Veliyeedu  covering modern poetry and short stories”

 The first Kuvikam Ilakkiyavaasal meeting took place in April 2015 at Srinivasa Gandhi Nilaiyam in Alwarpet featuring speakers Tirupur Krishnan, editor of Amudhasurabhi monthly, Va Ve Subramanian, former Principal of Vivekananda College and the poet  Jayabaskaran. It was attended by 50 people. Subsequent Kuvikam Ilakkiyavaasal meetings were held at various locations across the city until Srinivasa Gandhi Nilaiyam offered a regular slot on the 3rd Saturday of every month where the meetings are held now in association with Ilakkia Siinthanai.

In 2017, a talk by Mr. Sreekumar on ‘Print on demand’ in one of the monthly meetings sowed the idea of publishing books for friends. The publication wing of Kuvikam known as KUVIKAM PATHIPPAKAM came into existence in July 2017. With equally tech-savvy Kirubanandan helming the initiative, Kuvikam Pathipakam offers writers to realize their dreams of seeing their writings in book form at an incredibly low cost.

Once the text matter is sent to him, Kirubanandan converts the text into book format (DTP) and also provides the cover designs required for the book. This service is provided pro bono( Free) by Kirubanandan.  The writer pays only for paper and printing costs. The use of the Print on demand facility makes the cost of publishing affordable to many aspiring authors who have taken to self-publishing their books using this facility offered by Kuvikam Pathippakam. So far around 170 books of over 70 writers/authors have been published. Though Kuvikam does not have a distribution network nor does it offer marketing services, quite a good number of books are sold at book release functions organized by the authors or Kuvikam. The books published by Kuvikam are also sold at the Virtucham Stall in Chennai Book Fair  under a tie-up between the Kuvikam twins and Azhagiasinger

In Feb 2018 when Kirubanandan’s flat at T Nagar fell vacant, it was converted into an Air-Conditioned KUVIKAM ILLAM. It hosted a library, audio-visual room for short films /documentaries, and a meeting room to conduct weekly meetings called KUVIKAM ALAVALAAVAL. This small venue can accommodate only around 25 people. The Sunday literary meetings held here feature group discussions, book reviews, screening of documentaries, etc. A few Drama rehearsals were also held at the  Illam.

The same year another idea- a book Exchange program was also started with the  catchy slogan “ படித்ததைப் போட்டுவிட்டு பிடித்ததை எடுத்துச் செல்லுங்கள்”. (Leave behind read books and take books you have not read). So far more than 500 books have been collected under this scheme. This is being done at the Illam. The scheme is also implemented at Virtucham Stall at Chennai Book Fair, thanks to Azhagiyasingar.

During the pandemic when physical meetings were not possible, Kuvikam switched over its weekly meetings to the Zoom platform calling it Inaiyavazhi Alavalaaval (Internet conversations) every Sunday evening. Kuvikam became a pioneer in conducting literary meetings in Tamil  over ZOOM. The number of this program has crossed 170 and counting. The hallmark of this program is the variety.

This was followed by another informative and interesting program “MAHAKVIYIN MANDHIRA CHORKAL every Wednesday. Prof Va Ve Su enlightens the audience on the literary, spiritual, and nationalistic nuances of the works of Bharathiar. The hundredth episode of this very popular programme was held in the first week of April and it is surely marching towards the 150 mark.

In 2021, Kuvikam started a monthly print magazine namely KUVIKAM KURUM PUDHINAM (Kuvikam Novellas) Each issue has three novellas of which two are selected through a competition process while the third one is chosen by the editors from classic writers, translations, abridged versions of novels, etc. Currently, 150 friends have subscribed to this edition. The money collected (Rs. 1200 per annum) is being spent entirely in the form of Prizes for the top 3 stories and for all other stories published.

In May 2022, Kuvikam started a Podcast of 15 minutes to be released every week along with Sunday Alavalaaval. Chathurbujan, a popular writer with a golden voice was roped in as its anchor and 60 podcasts have been released so far.

All Kuvikam events including ZOOM meetings are properly recorded and the videos are uploaded on YouTube. A huge collection of over 400 videos is available under Kuvikam’s ILAKKIYAVAASAL channel. The information available in these videos can be a single source of literary information in Tamil for researchers and knowledge seekers.

 From July 2022 onwards Kuvikam started identifying the best story of the month among stories published in leading print/web magazines. Kuvikam borrowed this Ilakkia Chinthanai idea and started selecting stories every month. Sponsored by Mrs. Sivasankari, the eminent writer this project has been aptly named ‘SIVASANKARI – KUVIKAM SIRUKATAITH THERVU’

Prabha Rajan Talent Foundation (PRTF) provided an opportunity to conduct a Short Story Competition in 2022. The funding was by the Foundation and the execution was by Kuvikam. Over 300 entries were received for the competition. The prize distribution and the release of a book titled “SOLAKKAATU BOMMAI” containing 30 selected stories was held at the Tenth Anniversary of PRTF on 15th January 2023.

Starting the meetings through Zoom during the pandemic  has helped Kuvikam to have three meetings per week, which is almost impossible if held as physical meetings. Besides zoom meetings offered opportunities for Tamil writers in other parts of the world to participate in Kuvikam activities thereby widening the reach of Kuvikam programmes. These days, physical meetings are held as hybrid meetings (Direct as well as Zoom) for the benefit of people living in various parts of the country and the world. Besides all these activities there is a whats app group called `Kuvikam Ilakkia thahaval` which offers opportunities for the Kuvikam family of 200 writers to exchange their views and also share news of their literary activities and achievements instantly.

Kirubanandan says, “Out of the 200, there is a core group of 30-50 dedicated Kuvikam friends who are very active and others in the outer circle who silently watch programs and videos. Except for Kurumpudhinam, there are no subscriptions for anything else!” I was surprised to learn that Kirubanandan and Sundararajan find joy in meeting the expenses of running Kuvikam from their  personal contributions.

To a question about the division of responsibilities between the two Sundarrajan said, ”There is no watertight compartment. I look after the web Magazine, Zoom Meetings, podcasts, new ideas, and planning.  Krubanandan looks after the Padhippakam, physical meetings, posters, and YouTube Channel”.

Raya Chellappa, an ex-banker and popular writer himself who has been closely associated with the Kuvikam group has this to say about the Kuvikam twins;  “If Kuvikam is a Clock, then it has two hands: one is called Sundararajan and the other,  Kirubanandan. The big hand sometimes acts as a small hand and the small hand becomes the big one.  They always act in unison with military discipline. A really marvelous combo of literary acumen and technical execution!”

People are attracted to Kuvikam through word-of-mouth publicity. The initial programs like கதை கேளு /கதை படித்தல் and programs organized by Kuvikam have attracted a good number of people. Kirubanandan's presence in book exhibitions and Pathippakam (publications) also brings people closer to Kuvikam.

What the Kuvikam Twins have done in the last ten years to bring together Tamil writers and offer them not only a forum to express their views in person but also in writing, is commendable. Considering the fact that many popular Tamil magazines have drastically cut down on the number of short stories they publish creating a big void that  Kuvikam is trying to fill up. Kudos to the Kuvikam twins for their total devotion to promoting Tamil literature through their multifarious activities.

Readers of MM who are interested in joining the Kuvikam group can write to ssrajan_bob.yahoo.com or magazinekuvikam@gmail.com

A pleasant function at Durbar hall

I was one of the special invitees for the Book launch function held at the beautiful Darbar Hall of the Raj Bhavan in Chennai , yesterday. The Hon. R.N.Ravi , the Governor of Tamil Nadu released the 1100^th issue of Kalaimagal, the 92 year old Tamil magazine and a book titled `Suthantharamum Muthamizhum` authored by Kizhambur Sankara Subramanianm the editor of Kalaimagal for the last 27 Years. First copies were received by some eminent personalities of Chennai .  In his talk the Governor talked about the role played by thousands of Tamil freedom fighters who had sacrificed their lives and also recalled the role played by Kalaimagal in freedom struggle. He congratulated the Kalaimagal team for bringing out the magazine for the last 92 years without compromising  the values established by its founders. In his talk responding to  the address by the Chief Guest Kizhambur mentioned that this was the third time that one of his  books was being launched at the Raj Bhavan and thanked the Governor for agreeing to  be the Chief Guest and host the function at the Raj Bhavan .

I was attending a function at the Durbar Hall for the first time and was quite impressed with not only  its elegant look but also the excellent facilities offered at the hall. The staff were also very courteous and went about performing their duties efficiently. The meeting was followed by High Tea. I am glad that I could participate in this pleasant and memorable event which I thought I will miss  if I had left for Coimbatore  on Friday, as per my original plans.

 

 

Gut feeling or Intuition

Google says, `Intuition or a gut feeling is an understanding or knowledge of a situation without specific data or evidence at the time.` I am sure many of us have used our gut feeling to make major decisions in life or judge people. I have done it many times. My instinct about people is 80% of the time right. The same applies to other decisions that I have taken based on gut feeling.

I remember an incident in connection with the mega IFRA Expo India in Chennai which my small team at IFRA was handling. I consider IFRA Expo India in Chennai 2007 as the crowning glory of my 18-year association with IFRA ( now called WAN-IFRA)*. With over 100 exhibitors participating, nearly 3000 visitors, and over 600 including 200 foreign delegates attending the parallel conference, IFRA Expo India was a resounding success. As a part of the programme we had planned to have a beachside dinner for the 600 delegates at the beautiful Fishermen Cove Hotel owned by the Taj group. The month was September when generally the weather was fine with clear skies.

A few days before the event, accompanied by my colleague I visited the Hotel to check on the arrangements for the open-air dinner we were planning. A special dance programme featuring a well-known dance group was to perform on a specially erected stage facing the Sea. The dinner was to be served in a covered area on the beach. But the audience was to be seated in the open.

When I asked the Hotel team about the possibility of sudden rain ruining our open-air programme, the hotel assured me that it does not rain in September and in the previous ten years only once they faced a problem. When I expressed my fear about the possibility of rains happening that year the Hotel team told me that they could put up a temporary Shamiana covering the audience area. But it will cost Rs 3,00,000 extra. Though my colleague was not keen to incur that extra expenditure my gut feeling told me that I should not take the risk. I cleared the supplementary budget.

On the day of the event, after successful meeting sessions, the delegates assembled at the entrance of the Conference Centre to get into special buses organized to take them to Fishermen`s Cove for dinner, a distance of about 45 minutes by bus. As we proceeded on the East Coast Road I could see dark clouds slowly enveloping the city. By the time we reached the venue, there was a slight drizzle. On reaching our destination the guests rushed to the closed shamiana to take their seats. As soon as the last guest had taken his seat, it started raining cats & dogs accompanied by thunder and lightning. Thanks to the protection of the closed shamiana, we could continue with the dance programme, which the visitors thoroughly enjoyed. Fortunately by the time the programme had ended the rain had stopped entirely and the guests could have their dinner without the rain god bothering them.

If I had not taken the decision to go ahead with the Shamiana based on my gut feeling the evening dinner would have been a disaster. Needless to say, both my colleague and the hotel staff commended me for my foresight! I did not tell them that I had also promised my favourite elephant god at Gandhi Nagar that I would offer 108 coconuts if he ensured that the function went off without any hitch!

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** The World Association of News Publishers, or WAN-IFRA, is a global organisation of the world’s press headquartered in Frankfurt in Germany. It is a global network of 3,000 news publishing companies and technology entrepreneurs.

The Culture of Hugging

What comes to your mind when you see the word `hugging`? For many spiritually minded people, it will be Mata Amritanandamayi Devi aka Amma also known as `Hugging Saint`. She is known to hug every one of her devotees to convey her blessings.  The other name that comes to my mind is our own people`s Prime Minister NAMO employing `hugging diplomacy` to instantly connect with god knows how many political leaders from across the world that he has met in the last nine years. Thank god he doesn`t indulge in the `cheek to cheek` diplomacy followed by political leaders in many parts of the Western and Middle East countries. That is not in our culture. Though I have never seen him hug any female leaders, he makes it up by vigorous shaking of hands. Suffice to make them feel important.

Hugging has been a big issue in my family. My mother was clear that even a father cannot hug his own daughters when they come of age. The same thing applied to siblings and even grandchildren.  You also cannot hug your own wife in public. With the result that there is no hugging culture in the family. I cannot recall any instance where my father or mother hugged me to show their affection after I became an adult. I have followed their advice blindly much to the disappointment of my children. This sensitivity to hugging has led to a lot of embarrassing moments in my life.

A long time ago I was waiting for my colleagues from Bombay- a pretty lady and a gentleman- in front of a star hotel in Chennai. They were on an official visit. While the gentleman shook my hand vigorously, the lady hugged me; she also did cheek-to-cheek greetings! I was so self-conscious that I cringed- looking around to see if anyone was watching my encounter with the lady. It was an embarrassing moment for me. Over the years I have had similar experiences with me feeling more embarrassed than  thankful for the genuine affection expressed by the ladies.  These days I have learned to extend my friendly hand to such ladies even before they hug me or give me a C to C  greeting. 

Times have changed. Neither my wife nor I imposed any restrictions on our children. They are welcome to express their affection to anyone they want using the age-old custom followed by many communities. Hugging is also a good way to express one`s love for aging people who are forever longing for the expression of love from their near and dear ones. Though I have not changed my attitude towards hugging, I do miss the occasional hugging in private by my late wife. These days I make up the void by demanding a mandatory `hug & kiss` from the two little angels in my home; my resident grandchildren;  5 years old Thavam & two years old Bakthi. It is a wonderful privilege that I am enjoying as an Octogenarian! God Bless them. 

I am Adyar. Adyar is me

 A few weeks ago a team from Federal Bank accompanied by executives from Ogilvy Advertising landed in my home. As a long-time resident of Adyar (49 years), they wanted me to share my experiences with Adyar. What it meant to me and highlights of my long association with Adyar. I was told that this was being done as a part of  `I am Adyar. Adyar is Me` campaign that celebrates people and their culture in Adyar. For the launch of campaign the Adyar branch of the Bank had been converted into an exhibition venue featuring portraits (caricatures) of over 40 long-time residents of Adyar along with an extract in text form converted from a  video recording they had done of everyone. The text shown alongside my photo titled ` Walking is my medicine` highlighted my tryst with  Elliots Beach and the quality time I spend every morning at the beach road walking and spending fun times with friends which charges my body battery for the whole day. At the inaugural function, I was presented with a copy of the nicely framed portrait and a box containing delicious sweets and snacks. The fortnight-long exhibition was being promoted heavily through mobile banners and other publicity efforts through various media.   While it seemed like a good PR effort on the part of the Bank,  I would like to know how this would help improve the bank's client base. I am, however, thankful for the nice portrait of me that the Bank presented me.

 

 

A memorable musical evening!

In the last few years, I have been following the policy of making at least one person happy daily. Yesterday I made a group of my walking friends very happy at a musical evening I had organized, where members in the group with a talent for singing performed delighting the audience consisting of nearly 40 senior citizens. While a few songs were based on carnatic genre , most of the participants belted out popular film songs in Tamil and Hindi in some of which members of the audience also participated. My sambandhi ( son`s father In law) was the last to show his talent for playing the harmonica, which he learned to play three years ago when he was 65, during the lockdown period. Many others had also honed their talent for singing during the pandemic. It was clear that everyone was having a good time and there was good bonding among members- one of the purposes of the get-together. The 90 minutes show concluded with a sumptuous and delicious High Tea consisting of a sweet ( jangri) , veg. samosa and a cutlet.

The idea for such a get-together came to me when I witnessed a new and comparatively young member of the walking group displaying his talent for singing one morning at our usual meeting place at the Elliots beach. I decided to rope in other talented members in the group and have a show where they could display their hidden talents. I must say that the idea clicked judging by the demand for more such shows at regular intervals from the audience. It was agreed that in future we can think of other forms of entertainment like a humour show, a Karaoke night or even small skits to be performed by members with talents for acting. The enthusiasm generated by the show was palpable.

I must thank my good friend Vishwakumar, the owner of the flat converted into an air-conditioned meeting hall, who offered the venue with a seating capacity of 50 people free! He informed the audience that he has been offering the facility free as a social service to selected people who want to conduct music/dance classes, religious discourses, or even friendly family get-togethers subject to certain conditions.

True to my style of organizing any show, the meeting started on time and ended on time. I must thank all the friends who turned up on time and also the performing group who came prepared with the songs they had selected for the evening.

A memorable evening spent in the company of good friends.