Ilayaraja : pic credit my friend Joseph Raja
From specialists in
music to wildlife conservation, six persons from Tamil Nadu have found a place
for their distinguished work in a range of fields on the Padma Awards
list. We grew up hearing Isaignani whose
entry into the field with ‘machanai paathingala’ was grand. It was a marked
departure from the days of MSV, KV Mahadevan, Shankar Ganesh to Ilaya Raja..
.. .. though not a regular cinema buff, I
was fascinated to hearing ‘andhi mazhai pozhigirathu …’ the violin that mesmerized
– Ilayaraja combined folk rhythms with film music – my earlier favourites would
include Nandooruthu (Bhairavi); Metti oli karrada; akkarai Cheemai; Sri Ramanin
srideviye (Priya); amma nee sumantha pillai (Annai Oru alayam); all songs of
Nizhalgal and Kadhal Oviyam and more … those were the days when otherwise
ordinary films too would run because of the music of the maestro. That way, conferment of Padma Vibushan is
most liked by his fans like me. He has always
been a very humble person after composing for more than 1000 movies in several
languages. He is quoted as saying that he
believed Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s government had honoured Tamil Nadu and
its people by conferring on him the Padma Vibhushan award.
Some of the other
eminent awardees include Mr Ramachandran Nagaswamy (Padma Bhushan) who had served
as the Director of the Tamil Nadu Archaeology Department, instrumental in starting several regional,
district and site museums, as well as initiating the famous Chidambaram
Natyanjali festival. An accomplished epigraphist and international expert in
south Indian bronzes, Mr. Nagaswamy appeared as an expert witness in the London
High Court in the famous London Nataraja Case where he was described in the
judgment as an unequalled expert in his subject.
At 98 years of age,
V. Nanammal from Coimbatore, regarded as one of the oldest yoga teachers in the
country, will be given the Padma Shri. A teacher at the Ozone Yoga Centre,
which she founded in 1972, Ms. Nanammal has trained lakhs of students who have
gone on to win laurels at international competitions. Another is , 72-year-old R. Vasudevan, dean,
Thiagarajar College of Engineering, Madurai.
Well known among the residents of his city as the 'Plastic Man of India'
he evolved a technology which enables the use of plastic waste in road
construction.
Romulus Whitaker,
founder of the Madras Snake Park, who also set up the Madras Crocodile Bank
Trust, has been awarded the Padma Shri for his work in wildlife conservation.
Smt. Vijayalakshmi Navaneethakrishnan, an acclaimed Tamil folk artist, too has
been recognised with the Padma Shri for the collection, documentation and
preservation of Tamil folk and tribal music. The folk exponent, who is a
retired professor from the Madurai Kamaraj University, had been with the
Department of Folk Arts and Culture and was instrumental in coming up with a
Tamil folk art encyclopedia.
Lakshmikutty, a
tribal woman from Kerala, who prepares 500 herbal medicine from memory and help
thousands of people especially in snake and insect bite cases, is among the
awardees. West Bengal’s Sudhanshu
Biswas, a 99-year-old freedom fighter who serves poor, runs school and
orphanages and set up free school for poor, is among the winners. Kerala’s
medical messiah to terminally ill, MR Rajagopal, has been honoured with Padma Shri. Rajagopal has
specialised in pain relief care for neonatal cases. The list further includes : Maharashtra’s
Murlikant Petkar, India’s first paralympic gold medalist, who lost his arm in
1965 India-Pakistan war; Subhasini Mistry, a poor lady from rural West Bengal,
who toiled 20 years as housemaid and daily labourer to build a hospital for
poor in the state; Nonagenarian farm labourer Sulagatti Narasamma, who provides
midwifery services in backward region of Karnataka without any medical
facility; Yeshi Dhoden, monk physician of Tibetan herbal medicine working in
remote areas of Himachal Pradesh.
Hail the awardees
With regards – S.
Sampathkumar
26th Jan
2018.
