Tamil conference hot air balloon arrives in city

TIRUCHI: The city was pleasantly surprised to find a hot air balloon in the sky over the St.Joseph’s College grounds on Wednesday, holding out an invitation to the public for the World Classical Tamil Conference to be held in Coimbatore from June 23 to 27.

The giant-sized balloon with a photograph of Chief Minister M.Karunanidhi and the logo of the conference is used as a part of the promotional campaign in the run up to the conference.

A large number of inquisitive school children thronged the grounds to have a closer look at the balloon.

The balloon was in the city for about three hours on Wednesday morning when a few fortunate kids got an opportunity to hop on to it and go up for short tethered rides to about 50 feet high. K.N.Nehru, Transport Minister, and N.Selvaraj, Forest Minister, also took the ride. V.Dakshinamurthy, Collector (in-charge), T.T. Balsamy, Corporation Commissioner, M.Anbazhagan, Deputy Mayor, and officials were present. Mr.Nehru appealed to the City residents to attend the conference in large numbers.

The balloon was being taken to various districts as part of the publicity campaign.

Tamil meet to highlight greatness of Dravidian culture

The World Classical Tamil conference is being organised to highlight the greatness of art, culture, literature and civilisation of Dravidians, Chief Minister M. Karunanidhi said on Wednesday.

Eminent Tamil scholars and linguists will participate in the deliberations, he said in a statement.

Contrasting the theme song of the conference with that of the Eighth World Tamil Conference held in Thanjavur in 1995, he said that the song for the Classical Tamil Conference encapsulated the contributions of Tamil culture and literature down the ages whereas the focus of the World Tamil Conference's song was on the then Chief Minister Jayalalithaa.

The reason as to why he had reminded party members about the 1995 meet was to emphasise “trust not poison, otherwise find yourselves in sorrow.”

About tamil Conference

The World Classical Tamil Conference 2010 officially the 9th World Tamil Conference and informally known as the World Tamil Meet, is an international meet by Tamil scholars, researchers, poets, celebrities etc. from all around the world.

It would be held in Coimbatore from 23rd Jun’10 to 27th Jun’10. ‘CODISIA’ has been selected and announced as the venue of the world classical Tamil conference. Tamil Internet Conference also be organized along the Tamil conference. The chairman of the conference is Tamilnadu Chief Minister M.Karunanidhi.

The conference is organized by Tamilnadu Govt. The Tamilnadu government spending crores of rupees for infrastructure development of Coimbatore. Tamil people from all over world are going to participate in the event.

Coimbatore decked up for world classical Tamil conference

The industrial city of Coimbatore is all decked up to play host to the first-ever edition of the World Classical Tamil Conference next week, an event which the opposition AIADMK has decided to boycott.

The five-day event, considered close to the heart of DMK president and Chief Minister M Karunanidhi, is scheduled to be inaugurated by President Pratibah Patil on June 23. It is expected to attract thousands of people from countries like the US, Switzerland and Malaysia, among others. Musician A R Rahman has scored music to the lyrics of Karunanidhi that will be the theme song of the conference. Leading singers, including veterans T M Sounderrajan and P Suseela, present generation singers such as Shruti Hassan, Carnatic musician Soumya and Rahman’s fellow composer in Tamil cinema, Yuvan Shankar Raja among others have lent their voices. The theme song video has been made by noted filmmaker Goutham Vasudev Menon, maker of Hindi flick 'Rehna Hai Tere Dil Mein.' Finnish scholar Asko Parpola will be awarded the 'Kalaignar M Karunanidhi Classical Tamil Award' during the inauguration. A slew of scholars, experts and political leaders are scheduled to participate in the event. Some prominent names include Tamil scholars V Sivathambi (Sri Lanka), UNESCO Director Armoogam Parasuramen, MPs and political leaders including Sitaram Yechury (CPI-M), D Raja (CPI), PMK founder Dr S Ramadoss and many others. A total of 23 conference halls will be used for the five-day government sponsored event. Union Ministers Pranab Mukerjee, P Chidambaram and A Raja will participate in the valedictory session on June 27. While Southern Railway has announced special trains for the benefit of people intending to visit Coimbatore for the conference, the state government has declared a holiday for educational institutions to enable students participate in the meeting. However, the conference is not bereft of controversy, with principal opposition AIADMK announcing boycott of the event. Soon after Karunanidhi announced last year that the government would hold the conference (last held in Thanjavur in 1995 when AIADMK was in power), AIADMK leader Jayalithaa said it lacked the recognition of the International Association for Tamil Research (IATR), forcing the government to not only postpone it from January to June, but also rechristen it as WCTC. She has also declined to nominate a party member to one of the many committees involved in the preparation leading to the event. Cultural programmes, Tamil IT conference and a mega rally highlighting Tamil culture on the first day of the event are some of the major attractions of the WCTC. Last year, Karunanidhi had hinted that he may quit politics after the successful conduct of the conference. He had placed two things — construction of a new Assembly-Secretariat Complex and the successful conduct of the WCTC - as his top priority. The state is scheduled to go to polls next year.

Additional buses to ply for World Tamil Conference

A total of 250 special buses from various districts in Tamil Nadu and 50 special buses from places having Tamil population – such as Thiruvananthapuram, Palakkad and Mysore – will ply during the World Classical Tamil Conference from June 23 to 27, said Chairman of the Transportation Committee and Minister for Highways and Ports, M.P. Saminathan on Monday.

Mr.Saminathan was talking to reporters after reviewing the progress of works relating to face lift for Coimbatore Junction including amenities at the junction including the parking space.

Mr.Saminathan said that Rs. 10 crore was being spent towards improvements to Coimbatore Junction and Coimbatore North Junction in addition to various development works across Coimbatore.

The Minister was accompanied by former MP K.R. Subbayan, District Collector P. Umanath and Railway Station Manager, L. Chinnaraju.

On Monday, Revenue Minister, I. Periyasamy along with Rural Industries and Animal Husbandry Minister, Pongalur N. Palanisamy reviewed the arrangements at the conference pandal, exhibition hall, Internet centre, media centre and food court.

Mr.Periyasamy said that the exhibition would have 700 numbers of artefacts reflecting Tamil culture, history, legacy and tradition.

The conference pandal is being erected in an unprecedented manner to accommodate 50,000 persons.

Mr.Periasamy said that a 12,000 sq. ft. media centre is coming up with computer facilities and Internet enabling the media persons to send news and photographs.

Inspected

He also inspected the works for setting up counters for distribution of food packets to the visitors.

Mr.Periyasamy also inspected the works for preparation of floats under the theme “Iniyavai Narpathu” for the procession on June 23.

Classical Tamil Conference: Over 15,000 participate in marathon

A section of the participants in the marathon organised to popularise the World Classical Tamil Conference in Coimbatore on Saturday.

More than 15,000 people, including students, on Saturday participated in a special marathon organisation in connection with the upcoming World Classical Tamil conference.

Jointly organised by Bharathiar University and Tamil Maiyam, the marathon was flagged off by DMK Rajya Sabha MP and Academic Committee Chairperson of the conference Kanimozhi.

The race was held in three categories of 3 kms, 6 kms and 10 kms. Senior police officials including city police commissioner, C. Sylendra Babu and West Zone IG, P. Sivanandi, Mayor R. Venkatachalam were present at the function.

Ms. Kanimozhi told reporters that the main aim of the marathon was to create awareness about Tamil and the conference among the youth.

World Tamil Conference preparations in full swing

Over forty statues of ancient Tamil Kings and warriors are being sculpted for the upcoming world Tamil conference to be held in Tamil Nadu's Coimbatore city between June 23 and June 27.

The motive behind the work is to depict the history of ancient Tamil literature.

"Here we make statues relating to the ancient Tamil literature and ancient kings like Karikalan and great Tamil warriors and rulers. We also make statues relating to Silappatikaram, based on the ancient Tamil text," said Marudhu, Art Director of ancient statues.

The works will be displayed on over 40 carriages to depict the history of ancient Tamil kings, warriors, rulers, and scripts in the upcoming world Tamil conference.

Most of the statues are from the ancient Tamil period beginning from king Parivallal.

"Here we make statues belonging to ancient Tamil period beginning from Parivallal and warriors and kings lived even before the Thiruvalluvar, here we design statues of great Tamil kings and warriors like Veerapandiya Kattabomman, Pulithevan, Marudhupandian and so on," said Yograj, statue designer.

The statues will be taken out in a procession on the first day of the conference.

Tamil leaders from all over the world are expected to take part in the conference. (ANI)