"every day is the best day in the year"...Happy New Year

One of my friends said, “Hey, come on! This is not the first New Year, nor is it the last! Then why such grand plans to celebrate it?” 

I started contemplating… “Is there any good reason for a celebration during the birth of a new year?”

I thought my friend was not right. A New Year is not just another day but it symbolizes the beginning of a better tomorrow. So it has to be celebrated. Every one’s heart is filled with joy and welcoming the New Year becomes an exciting time.  One gets to experience the vibrant colours and joyful atmosphere filled with parties, prayers and social feasts. There is nothing wrong in trying to escalate our happiness with good music, dance, lighting, and good food.

At the same time we should be aware of something else too. The most important thought that comes to us at the end of a year is “another year has gone”. This thought automatically makes us realize the value of time and welcome the new year with high anticipation and expectations for the months to come. I have read that in Ecuador, people make dummies, stuffed with straw, to represent the events of the past year. These "ano viejo" effigies are burnt at midnight, thus symbolically getting rid of the past.

But let us not completely get rid of the past. The old give way to the young. New thoughts sprout from fertile ground. While the New Year summons us with many promises, let us not forget to give the old year its due. Let us learn from past slip-ups and carry the lessons of time. It’s a time of new beginning, a time of change. It’s a time which gives you a better understanding of the value of time.

“The chief beauty about time
is that you cannot waste it in advance.
The next year, the next day, the next hour are lying ready for you,
as perfect, as unspoiled,
as if you had never wasted or misapplied
a single moment in all your life.
You can turn over a new leaf every hour
if you choose.” 
― Arnold Bennett

Let us celebrate the beginning of another New Year in our life with great joy. As Ralph Waldo Emerson has said, "Write it on your heart that every day is the best day in the year". 

WISH U ALL A VERY HAPPY 2017!

காலங்களில் அவள் வசந்தம்
கலைகளிலே அவள் ஓவியம்
மாதங்களில் அவள் மார்கழி
மலர்களிலே அவள் மல்லிகை

Kaalangalil Aval Vasantham.. Kalaigalilae Aval Oaviyam..
Maathangalil Aval Maargazhi.. Malargalilae Aval Malligai..

When a great poet like Kannadasan chose to compare the ideal and perfect woman to the most excellent things, he writes:

 In seasons she is spring,

In arts she is painting;

In months she is “Margazhi”;

In flowers she is Jasmine…

The Tamil month of Margazhi, which is considered to be the best begins today. “Margazhi, Dhanur Maasa (Dec 14^th to Jan 14^th) is the most pleasurable one. It is the time of the year which is considered significant for those on spiritual path because according to religious texts Lord Krishna has said, “In the months I am Margazhi”.  

For musicians, again, it is a momentous month. Spanning some six weeks, a number of large and small Carnatic music concerts are performed by highly competent musicians. “Music is a world within itself, it’s a language we all understand.”

Shakespeare has eulogized the greatness of music thus:

Let there be no noise made, my gentle friends; 
Unless some dull and favourable hand
Will whisper music to my weary spirit.
(2 Henry IV, 4.5.1-3), Henry IV
Play, music! And you, brides and bridegrooms all,
With measure heap'd in joy, to the measures fall.
(As You Like It, 5.4.174), Duke Senior
Give me some music; music, moody food 
Of us that trade in love. 
(Antony and Cleopatra, 2.5.1-2)

If music be the food of love, play on;
Give me excess of it,

(Twelfth Night, 1.1.1-7)

Music is there in the air all through the month. Lets enjoy the month of music and the music of the month.

Mahakavi Bharathi one of India’s greatest poets and iconoclastic reformers was born on this day, 11th December. The rousing compositions of Mahakavi Bharati  helped rally the masses to support the Indian independence movement in Tamilnadu.This great poet in whose “Kannamma & Kannan Poems” love oozes was equally vigorous  in his poems that had the theme of fearlessness.  

The poems of this vigorous man who lived during an eventful period of Indian history not only aroused the passions of Tamilians and gave them the momentum to participate in the national freedom struggle with enthusiasm but also motivated them to rebel against social evils. 

His poems stand out for beauty in both the form and content.

"அக்கினிக் குஞ்சொன்று கண்டேன் அதை அங்கொரு காட்டிடை பொந்தினில் வைத்தேன் வெந்து தணிந்தது காடு தழல் வீரத்தில் குஞ்சென்றும் மூப்பென்றும் உண்டோ?"

A Spark of Fire

 I found a tiny little flame 

and put that in a hole in a forest.

The forest was burnt down.

 Is there youth or age to valour?

Did You Think I Too Will

Did you think I too will

Spend my days in search of food,

Tell petty tales,

Worry myself with thoughts,

Hurt others by my acts,

Turn senile with grey hair

And end up as fodder to the

relentless march of time

As yet another faceless man? 

                  - Subramanya Bharathi

Storytelling Workshop at Ethiraj College

The ancient art of storytelling contributes to the students’ academic success and emotional well being. All that is needed for this art which is useful to all ages and abilities are imagination and the power of listening and speaking. Storytelling that encourages students to explore their unique articulateness is an effective learning tool and can heighten a student's ability to communicate thoughts and feelings in an articulate, lucid manner.

The Post Graduate & Research Dept. of English, Ethiraj College proposes to organize a workshop on storytelling as part of the Chennai Literary Festival 2014.

Dr Eric Miller, Director, World Storytelling Institute will conduct the workshop

• Date and Time: 11th January 2014 between 9.30 to 12.00  in the forenoon
  
• The participants would be UG, PG, Students, M. Phil. &  Ph. D. Scholars, and school/college teachers. 
• Coordinators : Dr. J. Mangayarkarasi &  Dr. P.Padmini

• Last date for Registration: 05/01/2014   

Interested persons are welcome to join. Pls do contact Dr. P.Padmini 9994873826

Nelson Mandela, the icon of Sacrifice & Reconciliation

Nelson Mandela, an icon of Sacrifice and Reconciliation had a special regard for India. He called Gandhiji his 'political guru' and a 'role model'. His first destination abroad in 1990 after spending 27 years behind bars was India which was the land of "Satya and Ahima" for him. 

India conferred him with the Bharat Ratna (1990), the nation's highest civilian honour even before he got the Nobel Prize for Peace in 1993. Mandela was the first non-Indian recipient of Bharat Ratna.

Mandela always praised Gandhi for his principles of 'Satya and Ahimsa' and followed his philosophy.

At an unveiling of Gandhi Memorial in South Africa in1993 Mandela said:

"The Mahatma is an integral part of our history because it is here that he first experimented with truth; here that he demonstrated his characteristic firmness in pursuit of justice; here that he developed Satyagraha as a philosophy and a method of struggle." 

"Gandhi is most revered for his commitment to non-violence and the Congress Movement was strongly influenced by this Gandhian philosophy, it was a philosophy that achieved the mobilisation of millions of South Africans during the 1952 defiance campaign, which established the ANC as a mass-based organisation," 

Let us salute this great man who had great respect for our nation and the people by "reaffirming his vision of a society in which none is exploited, oppressed or dispossessed by another".