Posts Categorized: Arts & Culture

Translations of some of the writings of iyakkam women — Writings of Tamil Tiger Women Iyakkam I will wait … by Samarvili (In “Velichcham” Pearl issue marking 25 years of publication, 2001. Note: Kin in this poem refers to fellow comrades.) Midnight… Vultures surrounded the village. Dozing villagers sacrificed to the demon. My eyes blinded in… Read more »

Audiard supposedly came down to the wire to finish “Dheepan” in time for Cannes (where the print screened lacked final credits), and while the version shown here doesn’t lack the director’s typical technical polish (especially in the sleek widescreen cinematography by Eponine Momenceau), some additional time in the editing room might help to smooth over the movie’s rougher patches.

What keeps “Dheepan” engaging throughout is the tremendous charisma of the performers — not only Antonythasan, whose brooding intensity suggests that Dheepan’s real war is the one raging inside him, but Srinivasan, an Indian stage actress also making her film debut here, who is achingly tender as a young woman forced to become a wife and mother when she has barely figured out who she is herself.

Readers – We need help locating the citation for the booklet of cartoons entitled ‘A Cartoonist of His Times,’ probably published in 1994. An established publishing house would like to publish one of the cartoons in the booklet & will not do so without permission, so we need to identify the artist who drew the… Read more »

பொங்கலோ பொங்கல்         பாடு வோம் பாடு வோம் பாட்டுப் பாடு வோம் ஆடு வோம் ஆடு வோம் ஆட்டம் ஆடு வோம்   புதுப் பொங்கலோ பொங்கல் தமிழ்ப் பொங்கலோ பொங்கல் தைப் பொங்கலோ பொங்கல் தைதைப் பொங்கலோ பொங்கல்   சக்திதரும் சூரியனின் பொங்கலோ பொங்கல் பச்சரிசி அச்சுவெல்லம் பொங்கலோ பொங்கல் மஞ்சள்கொத்துப் பானையிலே பொங்கலோ பொங்கல் இஞ்சிக்கொத்துப் பானையிலே பொங்கலோ பொங்கல் புதுப் பொங்கலோ பொங்கல்……. பாடு வோம் பாடு… Read more »

Be Tamil – a poem by NM [PDF] A Poem: Be Tamil… The brief notes below will be informative and is of relevance to the poem. The poem has the phrase “sprouting gopurams”. The  well known Yugoslavian Tamil researcher Kamil Zvelebil, writing about the period that followed the ubiquitous sprouting of gopurams said, “Tamil became “the… Read more »

by Lavanya Ramanathan, ‘The Washington Post,’ November 3, 2014 A decade ago, after just a few ill-fated and highly self-esteem-damaging attempts to learn my native South Indian cuisine, I threw in the rice cooker. Really. I chucked my tiny four-cup nemesis into a dumpster, and with it any illusions that I’d ever make dosa, please… Read more »

‘Vidai Kodu Naade’ by Jessica on the Super Singer Junior TV program in Chennai from the film 2002 “Kannathil Muthamittal” with music written by A.R. Rahman This is a song sung by an Eelam Tamil teenager Jessica living with her parents in Tamil Nadu for her grandmother, who is currently living in Canada. Jessica’s song… Read more »

PRESS RELEASEFOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE “Legend of Ponnivala” airing in India on Thanthi TV – Animated epic series premiered February 15 – GORE’S LANDING, ON (February, 2014) – India’s Thanthi TV has released the launch dates for the long-awaited animated series “The Legend of Ponnivala.” The original 26-episode series premiered in Tamil on Thanthi at 5:30 p.m…. Read more »

Some interesting food & cooking blogs.  Please suggest your favorites to be added to the list. Sri Lankan Cusine at http://srilankancuisine.wordpress.com/…includes such essentials as Jaffna curry powder. My Tamil Kitchen at http://mytamilkitchen.com/ Sri Lanka Recipes at http://www.srilankanrecipes.info/recipes/index.aspx Rice and Curry at http://riceandcurry.wordpress.com/ The Feast for All at http://thefeastforall.com/ Malini’s Kitchen at http://www.infolanka.com/recipes/index.html Tamil Festivals is no longer active, but has many… Read more »

Let me introduce the Common Indian Male, a category that deserves taxonomic recognition: committed, concerned, cautious; intellectually curious, linguistically witty; socially gregarious, endearingly awkward; quick to laugh, slow to anger. Frequently spotted in domestic circles, traveling in a family herd.

Passionate, committed, and deeply humane, these poems bear witness with unflinching honesty to the horrific violence of the Sri Lankan civil war. “Indran Amirthanayagam is above all the poet of the bloody Sri Lankan conflict and division. His work honours the sufferings of the living and the injustices dealt the dead, and for any reader,… Read more »

If those murders are less well known than others (like the Khmer Rouge slaughter in Cambodia a decade later), it is partly because Indonesia has not undergone the kind of public reckoning that often follows such catastrophes. “History is written by the winners,” muses one of Mr. Oppenheimer’s subjects, who led a right-wing death squad in North Sumatra. “And we are the winners.”

He and his former colleagues, who still keep in touch and occasionally socialize with one another, lead comfortable, even privileged lives. Some serve in provincial or national governments. They speak at rallies of Pancasila Youth, a nationalist paramilitary group still apparently popular — and also still feared — for its role in wiping out suspected Communists almost 50 years ago.

Perhaps the most startling thing about the killers in “The Act of Killing” is that they seem to have no interest in denying, excusing or minimizing their crimes. On the contrary, they are candid, even boastful about what they have done, and eager to share their recollections of torture and murder. “Never forget” is traditionally the slogan of victims fending off revisionism, indifference and the passage of time, but in this case the killers themselves seem most interested in keeping the memory alive.