For all Music Addicts!!

Music is not just a time pass! It’s something that connects people despite their socio-cultural diversities. Music addicts are abundant in the society. It keeps their spirit high and makes them feel better when they are emotionally down. Filmy music is what that always dominates the music industry. But many tend to forget that there is a lot more non-filmy music that is worth listening that are being composed. To emphasis on this fact, recently, Radio One launched its new program that will bring focus on non-filmy music in South India.

  

‘One Chennai One Music’ launched

It was an evening of enthralled music when Radio One launched its new concept called ‘One Chennai One Music’ which will be a new program of its kind that will be aimed at providing its listeners an opportunity to listen to all genres of music, especially beyond film music, all under one roof. This program will provide a platform for those musicians and artists in the genres of Classical, Carnatic, Tamil Fusion, Tamil Hip Hop, Folk, English and Indian Rock, Fusion, Indipop, Dance n Funk etc a good chance to showcase their talents and will be a lime light to prove themselves in this highly competitive world.  

The guests for the evening were Shri. Anil Srinivasan, Classical pianist, Music Director Dharan and Lyricists Karky. Actor Aadhi was a surprise guest at the event. The evening witnessed a lot of live performances from Smt. Gayatri Venkatragavan, Shri. Poly Varghese and many others bands too, such as Nailed, Groove 3, Cynosure, Hip Hop Tamizha, Suprita and Melvin Black. 

Vineet Singh Hukmani, Managing Director of Radio One said, “We want to be the natural catalyst, a bridge and a natural friend between the musician artist and the listener and ensure the multi genre music revolution sweeping this country is given its due respect in Chennai. We are proud to be a part of this era and are therefore driving our vision of being one of the few music stations in a multi-genre space.”

The show, ‘One Chennai One Music’ will be on air on every Sunday starting from Dec 26^th noon presented by Dr. T.R. Subramaniam. So what are we waiting for??! Let’s get geared up and start getting Musi-addicted!

-          Anusha Gunasekaran

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Britania recieves “Corporate Social Responsibility” award

Corporates involving in CSR activities are increasing day by day for the simple fact that they are becoming more and more socially conscious. Its necessary that they are recognized and appreciated for what they contribute for the society. Recently Britannia Company recieved CSR award from the Rotary club. Here's a small briefing about the event!!

“Eat Healthy, Think Better”- We are so much used to this phrase! Know why? Well, it’s the tag line for Britannia food products and the reason why we are so used to it it’s because we all grew up with Britannia products. It’s a 95 year old company that was started in 1892 with an investment of Rs. 295 and now, the company is worth Rs.3500 crores! Britannia Company has supplied biscuits to the armed forces who took part in World War II.  The Rotary Club of Madras Conferred its prestigious “Corporate Social Responsibility” award on Britannia Industries Ltd for the exemplary services it has done for almost 100 years to the society.

This award is given in recognition of the good work done by the Britannia Nutrition Foundation, which is an independent, non-profit body dedicated for addressing the malady of child malnutrition in India. Ms. Vinita Bali, Managing Director of Britannia Industries accepted the award on behalf of the company and said, “I am delighted to receive this award and have come in person to accept this on behalf of my co workers.”

In order that the award serves as a catalyst for a lasting service initiative, the Rotary club launched the “Rotary Club of Madras-Britannia Nutrition Initiative” on the occasion. This initiative will aim at reducing the incidence of anemia in school going children. Britannia readily agreed to partner with the Club for this good cause and said that it will provide specially made iron fortified biscuits free of charge for the first phase of its initiative. “Stronger children with sharper minds” will be the slogan for their initiative and never the less, the club theme for the year 2010-2011 is “Participate, ENERGISE, Transform”!

-         Anusha Gunasekaran

Because you can, help beyond…

In every walk of our life, have we ever stopped a moment to think about the fact that how important is it to educate a child? How important is it to provide livelihood for the needy? How important is it to take care of those children and others who don’t have access to healthcare?? The answer in our minds is, yes of course! It’s greatly important to do all those necessary things because now a days, people are society conscious in every way! Many have realized the need to help those who are needy. All it takes is just a thought! Just a thought about such serious issues will, by itself initiate a change! 

If Education is like a cloud then Encouragement is like a Silver Lining behind every cloud that makes it look bright and clear! Encouraging those who can achieve great things even when they are struck by poverty, physical and mental illness and many other reasons is a task to be thought of next. We have a few organizations that try to educate children who are poor and are not able to afford it. One such organization is The Ma Foi Foundation.

They support Education, Livelihood and Health. They have fixed a nominal amount of rupees for each of their projects and by collecting such funds; the Ma Foi Foundation has touched more than 50,000 under privileged families in the society. Now let’s talk about each of it in detail.

Courtesy : Google

Livelihood – “Give a man a fish and you feed him for a day... Teach a man to fish and you feed him for a lifetime”. This is what they strive to do. Through a project called Sornam, the foundation works for improving the livelihood of women and give financial independence by initiating Self Help Groups. Project Sornam is valued at Rs. 2000 which helps a woman to expose herself to sill based training programs that helps her in earning her own livelihood. 

Courtesy : Google

Health – “He who has health, has hope. And he who has hope, has everything.” These lines were said by Thomas Carlyle. As rightly said, health is something very precious.  In our country, too many die due to the lack of access to basic healthcare. Many die due to the inability to afford expensive treatments. ‘Ekam’ is a project that serves healthcare needs for the marginalized and the needy and is valued at Rs.5, 000 which supports a health camp that screens children for various health related issues and at Rs, 10,000 for intensive care support for a child.  

Courtesy : Google

Education- The project is named as ‘Disha’, which actually provides an opportunity for children from underprivileged and deprived backgrounds to rise beyond all odds by gaining knowledge and power. Its concentrates not just on Education but of the holistic development of them. Through this project, they not only help children to get educated but also a chance to try out their talent in Sports. Project Disha is valued at Rs.2500 which supports holistic development of a child in a year, Rs.7, 000 which supports a student’s college studies for a year and Rs.10, 000 which supports a sports scholar for a year.

Apart from just providing them with education, they encourage them and also recognize their achievements in a big way! One of the ways though which their hidden talents are brought out to the spotlight is through the ‘Disha Young Achiever Awards’ – A ceremony to celebrate the unknown faces with limitless talents! 

Disha Young Achiever Awards 2010

Winners of  'Disha Young Achiever Awards 2010'

It was a day of joy and celebration for the under privileged children at the Disha Young Achievers Awards event, organized by the ‘Ma Foi Foundation. The Ma Foi Foundation, as an initiative of encouraging the under privileged children who achieve in terms of academics and others categories such as sports, arts etc, gave away the Disha Young Achiever Awards to 20 students; 10 for academic excellence and 10 for fine arts.

The chief guest, Mr. Raju Venkatraman, Director and CEO of MEDall Medical Services distributed the awards to the winners in the fine arts category whereas acclaimed film category Mr. Karthi was the special guest who distributed the awards for academic excellence. The award fuction was followed by dance and music performances given by the Disha scholars. 

Speaking on the occasion, Mrs. Latha Rajan, Managing Trustee, The Ma Foi Foundation said, “There are plenty of talented people in the state with great ideas and we are extremely happy to honour these unknown gems, irrespective of their social and economic backgrounds. The Ma Foi Foundation is extremely proud to have taken this initiative and I hope that these achievers will serve as an inspiration to all other children and youth countrywide”. The foundation received around 300 applications of which 50 were short listed for final round. The winners were selected on the basis of their performances, economic background and their drive to achieve. These 20 children were given a trophy, cash prize of Rs.10, 000 and a citation each.

Selvan Lokesh was one among the 10 who got the award for the category of fine arts. He moved many hearts into tears, when everyone saw the short film shown on him. Though he is from a poor family, he had exemplary talent in painting. He studied in St. Louis Higher Secondary School for the Deaf and Dumb. When a physically challenged can become an achiever, overcoming the difficulties in life, why can’t the others too?

- Anusha Gunasekaran 

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Theatre Arts – Evaporating from the souls of the society..

From ages ago, until a few decades before, Theatre Arts was one very special and important art form through which many great inspiring stories and epics of historic value were enacted by very talented and gifted actors using creative properties. It was a way in which legendary, past events came live in front of our eyes, the second time. Theatre is not just an entertainment or educating factor. Its lot more as it is the heritage of our nation. Right from olden days, theatres and drama’s is an integral part of our Indian Society, to be more particular, an important Art form.

Very recently there was a play presented by Evam and The British Council, which was staged in our city that talks about the historic proud moment of “Moon Landing”. Evam is an award winning theatre entrepreneurship in the business of live entertainment shows, workshops and cultural festivals. Evam has done over 25 plays and 400 shows in the last 7 years; Evam won the YPAE (Young Performing Arts Entrepreneur) award for India from the British Council last year and represented India at the YPAE ceremony in England. The British Council is the United Kingdom's leading cultural relations organization and India is their largest operation worldwide. In India, they operate as a division of the British High Commission and have offices in the four main metros as well as a network of nine libraries. Through their centers and programmes they promote the diversity and creativity of British society and culture. There was no much response for this play in our city; despite the play being a huge hit in all the other countries it was staged. I personally feel it was because most of the people in Chennai are losing interest in such a wonderful art form. I hope atleast in future, people realize the essence of Theatre arts and this evaporating art form that’s losing its significance will start re gaining its charm!  Here I share my experience about the play, “One Small Step”.

A trip to the Moon!

A scene from "One Small Step", enacted by Oliver(left) and Robin.

It was a delightful trip to the moon, for all those who were at the Chinmaya Heritage Centre on Thursday! Thanks to the British Council and Evam, the people of Chennai got the opportunity of experiencing the travel to the moon, taken by two highly talented British actors, Oliver Millingham and Robin Hemmings. The play, “One Small Step” was originally a documentary written by David Hastings, who had a great passion for space and flight. It marked the 40^th Anniversary of “Moon Landing”.

“One Small Step,” is produced by the Oxford Playhouse and needs to be actually seen to be believed! It is a spell-bound, humorous, emotional and action-packed play directed by Toby Hulse. It talks about the rivalry between Russia and USA in 1957, which was to send the first man to the moon. The play moves like a history lesson with added flavours of comedy and superb characterization. Right from the first dog that was put on the space shuttle to the remarkable landing on the moon; everything was so real, so true in front of our eyes. Everyone watching the show was just mesmerized, because a documentary made into a play, the kind of properties used, the standard of acting and the visual effects shown was superb!  Imagine, a beach ball used in place of Sputnik, the shadow of a paper-plate used as moon, satellites and space shuttles made of cardboard boxes, file-cabinet used as the steps using which Neil Armstrong descends to reach the moon’s surface! Is it not just amazing?! The overall effect that the play created is captivating and visually stunning. It paves way for limitless imagination with limited household products used as the props.

Another salient feature of the play was the sound effects that the two gifted actors made to bring the scene real in front of our eyes! What a talent! Robin and Oliver took us into TV stations, space shuttles, labs and all the way to the moon. We could see atleast a minimum of twenty characters enacted by just two of them, like the scientists, political icons, astronauts from Russia and U.S, all explained in detail, which makes it clear the amount of initiative, background research and practice done to make this show a huge success. Though it was only two portraying the characters of many, not for a single moment did the audience felt confusing or wired. The presentation was such a visual treat! The crew has been touring around the world of almost 20 countries staging the play and we Indians are fortunate to have them here, doing their 120^th and last show in our land!! The best part of the play was the climax as the two staged Neil Armstrong's moon landing. It was very emotional and touching. It was the most celebrated moment for the mankind and it was a pleasure to witness it once again in real after 40 years!

On asking what was the biggest challenge faced by them in making this play, actor Oliver Hollis said, “Taking up such a serious story and working on it to present it in an entertaining way was the most challenging task”. “We had great experience working with the local theatre groups and friendship is one thing what we will take away from Chennai” he added.  To Robin Hemmings, “Showing special effects was the greatest challenge we faced. To me, imagination is the best special effect and therefore we did our maximum to use our imagination and creativity to portray many things in the play” he said. But yeah definitely, switching over between different roles in a matter of seconds is a challenging task for both of them! Robin said, their prime thought was “Never tell a story, show it!!” and yeah! They really did show the history of “Moon Landing” in an impressive way!

-         Anusha Gunasekaran

Links to similar stories...

http://www.guardian.co.uk/stage/theatreblog

http://blog.huntingtontheatre.org/

My Inspiration.. My Role Model..

ASHANTI OMKAR is a tri-national (Asian, African, and British), London based media person, who has a passion for Music, Cinema, Food, and Travel... She is a Freelance Journalist/Editor in Print & Broadcast medium. She’s also a copywriter, poet, compère and consultant. She has published around 1000 pages and many podcasts in the UK and abroad, on movies, music, books, food, travel etc. She has interviewed many esteemed personalities like AR Rahman, Aishwarya Rai, M.I.A, Aamir Khan & Amitabh Bachchan.

You may spot her on B4U TV, her writing/editing in Cineworld Unlimited Magazine (UK), Anokhi Magazine (Canada/US/UK), Galatta Magazine (India), Desi Hits (Worldwide), judging talent competitions, compering at places like BAFTA, Rich Mix and O2.

Ms. Ashanti writes about things that are filled with inspiring quotes, anecdotes, film and music news and finest food moments! A class, best of the kind lifestyle journalist I’ve ever come across is Ashanti. Her style of writing is simple and powerful. It’s attractive and I feel that she also understands people’s liking, therefore comes out with great features which makes many to read. When it comes to broadcast, things are much simpler to her! One thing I like a lot about her is, she makes the maximum use of whatever is available about anything that she writes/ talks about and presents in a way that is like icing on top of a cake…! She is not from journalism background but the PASSION that she has for writing makes her write so very well. Also, she always has hunger for new kind of food, movie, music and travel. 

The best thing that could have ever happened to her was probably when she saw herself in an exhibition, in the ‘Hall of Fame’ of female magazine editors from past and present. “Katharine Whitehorn, Louise Chunn, Linda Kelsey, Claire Rayner, Ashanti Omkar and Sue O’Sullivan are all there, in all their hugely blown-up photographed glory…!” What more can become the happiest moment of a person’s life! But yeah it’s not just luck or a matter of destiny but pure hard work, inspiration and PASSION that makes Ms. Ashanti what she is… No wonder I call her my role model and she is definitely a great source of inspiration in my life.