Dec/16/2011

Hooch death toll 148, many battling for lives

Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee orders CID probe

The death toll from consumption of spurious liquor at Sangrampur here shot up to 148 on Thursday, even as 100 other victims were battling for their lives in hospitals.

While over 100 persons have died at the Diamond Harbour sub-divisional hospital since the victims started pouring in on Wednesday, the remaining deaths were reported from other hospitals in the city.

Probe announced

Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee announced a probe into the incident by the State's Criminal Investigation Department. Ten persons who were part of the illicit liquor racket have been arrested.

Chemical analysis will be done of the body fluids of the deceased which are being preserved by forensic experts. Doctors said that along with “methyl alcohol poisoning,” they were suspecting the presence of some chemicals mixed with the alcohol for high intoxication.

Authorities at the sub-divisional hospital found it difficult to cope with the rush of patients, who kept pouring in through the day.

Most of the patients at the 250-bed hospital were lying on the floor, with anxious family members by their side. They were administered saline drips. More than 325 people have been admitted to the hospital since Wednesday. They consumed illicit liquor from hooch dens in Sangrampur and adjoining villages of the sub-division.

“The patients are suffering from an acute stomach pain, blurred vision and nausea. They have been admitted with methyl alcohol toxicity, for treatment of which ventilator is required, but this facility is not available in the hospital,” said Sikha Adhikari, the district's Chief Medical Officer of Health.

A pall of gloom has descended on the hospital. Thousands of distraught people assembled there, many to claim bodies, which were taken out on cyclerickshaw vans after post-mortem.

Locals angry

As the count of the dead kept rising, anger was palpable in the villages against the district administration and the police. Locals at Sangrampur and adjoining villages alleged that illicit liquor dens had been doing a flourishing business in the area over the years. The police did little to clamp down on the dealers, they said.

Irate villagers ransacked the dens at some place and set a few ablaze, alleging that they operated, despite public resentment, because of a nexus between the local police and the illicit trade.

Carnatic music is soul-satisfying, heightens devotion: S.R. Nathan

The curtain went up on a fortnight of Carnatic music in the ambience of the Music Academy here, with the launch of the 85{+t}{+h}annual conference and concert series on Thursday.

Inaugurating the event, S.R. Nathan, former President of the Republic of Singapore, said the deep philosophical and religious roots of Carnatic music helped one's emotions and heightened one's devotion, divinity and spiritual bliss. Listening to good Carnatic music was soul-satisfying as much to a layman as to a discerning listener.

A third-generation Singaporean of Indian, or more specifically Tamil, origin, Mr. Nathan said separation from the motherland had denied him the privilege of intimately knowing about the many-faceted splendours of Indian heritage, of which Carnatic music is an important component. In fact, his appreciation of Carnatic music began with cinema when he was exposed to vocalists such as M.S. Subbulakshmi through films Seva Sadhanam ,Shakuntala and Meera .

While in South East Asia, the consciousness of Carnatic music was aroused only in the 1960s, Singapore became a major venue in more recent years for Carnatic music and classical dance, Mr. Nathan said. A perusal of the list of artistes performing at the Academy this year showed that almost all senior personalities were recognised names among connoisseurs in Singapore and Malaysia, he said.

Mr. Nathan presented the ‘Sangita Kalanidhi M.S. Subbulakshmi Award,' instituted by The Hindu , to mridangam maestro and flag-bearer of the ‘Pudukottai' percussive tradition, Trichy Sankaran, who as this year's designate for the Academy's Sangita Kalanidhi, will preside over the 85{+t}{+h}conference.

The award carries a cash prize of Rs. 1 lakh.

He also launched the second volume of the ‘Sangita Sampradaya Pradarsini' and released a souvenir.

Mr. Trichy Sankaran, who is based in Toronto, said it was gratifying to be the first recipient of the Sangita Kalanidhi title in the ‘Pudukkottai parampara' of his guru Palani Subramania Pillai.

Being unobtrusive was integral to the art of accompaniment, he said, and the accompanist should feel the melodic progression at every stage and be able to respond and provide enhancement.

Earlier, mridangam exponent Sangita Kalanidhi T.K. Murthy proposed the election by acclamation of Mr. Trichy Sankaran as president of the 85 {+t} {+h} conference, and Sangita Kalanidhi C. Saroja seconded him.

Music Academy president N. Murali said the Academy could take credit for pioneering the Margazhi music festival in Chennai, which had evolved into a wondrous phenomenon that greatly enriched the cultural underpinning of the city over the last eight decades, and was unparalleled for its sheer size, aesthetics, quality and undiluted classicism.

The Music Academy and the Singapore Indian Fine Arts Society (SIFAS) exchanged a memorandum of understanding on education and training in Carnatic music, drafting of syllabus and training of teachers.

SIFAS president P. Selvadurai and K.V. Krishna Prasad and N. Ramji, secretaries, Music Academy, participated.

Contest to add files to Tamil Wikipedia gathers steam

The Tamil Wikimedia community has organised an international contest to get more photos, videos and audios related to Tamil, Tamilians and Tamil culture to the Tamil Wikipedia and Wikimedia Commons.

The aim of the contest (themed “Eluthu mattum arivanru” or “Knowledge beyond text”) is “to increase the quality media content related to Tamil and Tamilians in Wikimedia projects, to attract non-text contributors such as photographers, graphic artists, animators, mapmakers and videographers to Tamil Wiki projects and to create a model precedent for cooperation with Wikimedia Foundation [WMF] in organising projects,” according to Bala Jeyaraman, Wikipedia volunteer and lead co-ordinator for the contest.

People may send photos of places where Tamils reside, Tamil people themselves, studies, heritage symbols, institutions, species (plants and animals) and Diaspora; temples, places of worship and buildings. They can send educational resources such as files used to teach in Tamil. Also invited are maps, graphs, illustrations, diagrams, charts, audio and video files that contain explanations in Tamil, pronunciation files for Tamil words and phrases, audio recordings of literary works; audio and video recordings of Tamil cultural practices, arts, dances or sports.

Foreign contribution

Contributions were coming in from Sri Lanka, Malaysia, Norway, America, Canada, Germany and India, Mr. Jeyaraman said.

Kalaiarasy Kugarajh, who lives in Norway, is one of five persons co-ordinating the project. She said she was delighted to know that a Tamil Wikipedia existed. Using an encyclopaedia online was convenient and, being of Tamil origin, she found getting information in Tamil very useful.

She initially began contributing to the Tamil Wikipedia and then added to Tamil Wiktionary and other projects. She thought that contributing to Tamil content online could help Tamil people with limited knowledge of English or other languages. “Especially, when we live in a foreign country, we lack the printed version of books, and dictionaries, encyclopaedias in Tamil. To people who want to refer to something in Tamil or who want the Tamil meaning for something, or want some old Tamil writings, the Tamil Wikipedia and the sister projects are much helpful. The Tamil Diaspora can gain a lot from Tamil Wiki projects,” she said. Besides, storing information online was necessary and efficient.

Categorisation

“We are categorising the uploads and checking for any copyright violations. We have already started to make use of the suitable uploads in Wiki projects continuously too. Finally, we will evaluate the uploads to select the winners.” The contest, while increasing the media files on Tamil, would increase awareness among people of the Tamil Wiki as a source of information and get contributions from them to Tamil Wiki projects in future.

Chennai student Surya Prakash S, who suggested the theme name of the contest, has uploaded more than 120 images taken on his campus (Anna University), photos of film stars and Chennai monuments.

He said: “I just capture images using my cell phone and camera for this contest. I haven't chosen any subject at all. I just captured images that are useful for knowledge such as orchids and ‘bonsai' trees in the “Semmozhi Poonga” [botanical gardens] and some rare herbs from my native [home].”

He was adding files as he “knows well the status of Tamil content in Internet.” The Tamil Nadu government should support such initiatives in its academic institutions to increase the student community's activity in the free, collaborative encyclopaedia-building project, he said.

Prize money

The Tamil Wikipedia Community and the WMF have sponsored a prize money of $850 (with nine prizes) for winners. (The first, second and third prizes are $200, $100 and $50. Three prizes of $100 each are for those uploading the maximum number of quality entries.

A special prize of $150 is for media files on traditional Tamil arts and crafts.

Winners would be announced on March 15, 2012 and they would get certificates with their entries displayed on the front pages of Tamil Wiki projects, said the invitation to contributors.

The contest (http://ta.wikipedia.org/wiki/contest, November 15, 2011 to February 29, 2012) is open to all and is on Facebook (http://www.facebook.com/tawmc).