Singapore celebrates Tamil
Artists, orators and writers from Chennai participate in the month-long festival to promote the language
Saranya.Chakrapani@timesgroup.com
21.04.2019
Last week, actor Rohini packed her bags and headed to Singapore. She took along verses of poets Sa Vijayalakshmi, Ilampirai, and Tamil translations of Maya Angelou, and had a performance planned around them. To her, these native language works carry enough essence to incite the right amount of curiosity and awe in Singapore’s 1,89,000-strong Tamil diaspora and act as a guide to their roots.
Rohini is among the artists, writers, poets and orators from Chennai contributing to the month-long Tamil language festival hosted by Singapore’s Tamil Language Council and the Education Ministry from March 30 to April 28. “These works talk about suppression, the fight for gender equality, and are powerful tools to engage with the younger generation while giving them an insight into the language itself,” says Rohini. “It’s not practical to expect this generation to be seeped into Tamil culture when they have very little connect with it in their everyday lives.”
Although Tamil is one of the official languages of Singapore, in the everyday lives of children, it has taken a backseat, says Abhi Krish, author and founder of Eli Puli, an initiative that delivers Tamil language resources to children under eight, through fun and innovative techniques. “Tamil is rarely a part of everyday exchanges, especially within local family units,” she says.
This means schools end up shouldering the responsibility of taking Tamil to children, who learn it as a second language only when they enter first grade, by when it is more of a new subject they struggle with than a mother tongue they should be familiar with.
Among the works from Chennai, which are being promoted by Eli Puli to mark Singapore’s Tamil language festival is the ‘Gajapati Kulapati’ series by Tulika Books, penned and illustrated by children’s book author Ashok Rajagopalan. While Ashok created the first book of the series in Tamil, the next two were translated from English to Tamil by popular storyteller Jeeva Ragunath.
“At a time when the language is scrambling for space colloquially, a good way to have children warm up to it is to turn it into a source of entertainment. All my stories are funny and made for ‘read aloud’ sessions. They don’t carry lofty messages and incorporate funny sounds to keep kids engaged,” says Ashok, whose books ‘Gajapati Kulapati Dhobukkadeer’ and ‘Bondapalliyil Bondattam’ are being promoted in Singapore. As part of the celebrations, Abhi has started an illustrator design challenge showcasing 21 interpretations of the alphabets ‘tha’, ‘mi’, ‘zh’ (in Tamil) by 21 artists, including Chennai-based Vasudevan Ananthakrishnan, Lavanya Karthik and Nancy Raj.
Using the festival as a platform for cultural exchange, the council has invited from Tamil Nadu orators such as Suki Sivam and Abdul Kader, a troupe doing Bharatiyar plays and a puppetry group from Kumbakonam, to proliferate ideas of unity and brotherhood contained in the language.
“The intention of the festival is to create greater awareness of the language and ensure that its usage extends beyond the school,” says R Rajaram, chairman of Tamil language Council. “Getting arts people and groups from Singapore and around the world is one of the cornerstones of this festival, as that is how we enable community empowerment.”
SPEAKING VOLUMES: (Top) Ashok Rajagopalan’s book is being promoted in Singapore; actor Rohini at the festival
Artists, orators and writers from Chennai participate in the month-long festival to promote the language
Saranya.Chakrapani@timesgroup.com
21.04.2019
Last week, actor Rohini packed her bags and headed to Singapore. She took along verses of poets Sa Vijayalakshmi, Ilampirai, and Tamil translations of Maya Angelou, and had a performance planned around them. To her, these native language works carry enough essence to incite the right amount of curiosity and awe in Singapore’s 1,89,000-strong Tamil diaspora and act as a guide to their roots.
Rohini is among the artists, writers, poets and orators from Chennai contributing to the month-long Tamil language festival hosted by Singapore’s Tamil Language Council and the Education Ministry from March 30 to April 28. “These works talk about suppression, the fight for gender equality, and are powerful tools to engage with the younger generation while giving them an insight into the language itself,” says Rohini. “It’s not practical to expect this generation to be seeped into Tamil culture when they have very little connect with it in their everyday lives.”
Although Tamil is one of the official languages of Singapore, in the everyday lives of children, it has taken a backseat, says Abhi Krish, author and founder of Eli Puli, an initiative that delivers Tamil language resources to children under eight, through fun and innovative techniques. “Tamil is rarely a part of everyday exchanges, especially within local family units,” she says.
This means schools end up shouldering the responsibility of taking Tamil to children, who learn it as a second language only when they enter first grade, by when it is more of a new subject they struggle with than a mother tongue they should be familiar with.
Among the works from Chennai, which are being promoted by Eli Puli to mark Singapore’s Tamil language festival is the ‘Gajapati Kulapati’ series by Tulika Books, penned and illustrated by children’s book author Ashok Rajagopalan. While Ashok created the first book of the series in Tamil, the next two were translated from English to Tamil by popular storyteller Jeeva Ragunath.
“At a time when the language is scrambling for space colloquially, a good way to have children warm up to it is to turn it into a source of entertainment. All my stories are funny and made for ‘read aloud’ sessions. They don’t carry lofty messages and incorporate funny sounds to keep kids engaged,” says Ashok, whose books ‘Gajapati Kulapati Dhobukkadeer’ and ‘Bondapalliyil Bondattam’ are being promoted in Singapore. As part of the celebrations, Abhi has started an illustrator design challenge showcasing 21 interpretations of the alphabets ‘tha’, ‘mi’, ‘zh’ (in Tamil) by 21 artists, including Chennai-based Vasudevan Ananthakrishnan, Lavanya Karthik and Nancy Raj.
Using the festival as a platform for cultural exchange, the council has invited from Tamil Nadu orators such as Suki Sivam and Abdul Kader, a troupe doing Bharatiyar plays and a puppetry group from Kumbakonam, to proliferate ideas of unity and brotherhood contained in the language.
“The intention of the festival is to create greater awareness of the language and ensure that its usage extends beyond the school,” says R Rajaram, chairman of Tamil language Council. “Getting arts people and groups from Singapore and around the world is one of the cornerstones of this festival, as that is how we enable community empowerment.”
SPEAKING VOLUMES: (Top) Ashok Rajagopalan’s book is being promoted in Singapore; actor Rohini at the festival
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