Tuesday 18 October 2016

Tamil Culture: A Curtain Raiser - Presentation by Prof. Swaminathan

SLI organized a session on Tamil Culture to familiarize the heritage of Tamils among Auroville Community on 18th October 2016 at the Institute. Prof. Swaminathan, IIT - Delhi (Retd) gave a wonderful presentation on Tamil Literature, Music and Temples. Please find below some of the pictures taken during the programme. Devotional Songs from different Tamil Poetry sung by Mrs. Swaminathan added value to his presentation. It was a wonderful learning experience to most of the audience who are from different walks of life.







Tuesday 11 October 2016

SLI Lecture: Tamil Culture, A Curtain Raiser

SLI Lecture: TAMIL CULTURE: A CURTAIN RAISER
Date: 18th October 2016, Tuesday
Time: 10 a.m. to 12 noon



Summary: The Tamils contributed significantly to the fabric of Indian culture with a continuity of over 2000 years. The major fields fall under all the three major areas of creative expressions, literature, fine arts and performing arts, mostly form a religio-spiritual angle typical to the Indian sub-continent.  Such complex web would not be easily understood by those who have not been brought up in this tradition or even those who have been brought up without the awareness of the arts, music or literature. An attempt during this occasion would be made to demystify the culture of the Tamils by profiling the emergence of their literature, arts and music during this lecture.
Speaker: Prof. Swaminathan. S. Swaminathan was born in Pudukkottai, Tamilnadu in 1940. After qualifying as a Mechanical Engineer, he worked as a professor in Indian Institute of Technology (IIT), Delhi for more than 30 years.
Realizing that Indian youth have an inadequate understanding of their local heritage, Swaminathan decided to acquaint the students of IIT-Delhi with various aspects of Indian culture. The topics he begun to research and explore were Indian music, Sanskrit, ancient Tamil literature, Tamil prosody, development of scripts, Gandhian philosophy, etc. He has authored books on Mahabalipuram monuments and Ajanta caves.
As an activist, he has participated in and initiated a number of socially relevant projects. Among other projects, he co-founded Tamil Heritage Group in Chennai which has for over 5 years now been organizing significant talks and events to promote Tamil heritage. He was also instrumental in setting up a Centre for Arts and Culture, called Sudharsanam, in Pudukkottai, his native place.


Saturday 8 October 2016

Workshop for Fine-tuning District Diagnostic Process and Roll-out Action Plan by TNRTP - Auroville October 6- 8th, 2016


A three day District Diagnostic tool Workshop organized by Tamil Nadu Rural Transformation Project at Auroville. SLI played host to this important event in which the World Bank officials and the Tamilnadu Rural Transformation Project executives and consultants came together to shape and finalize the District Diagnostic Tool for the upcoming project that will be implemented over the next 6 years in over 25 districts of the State. SLI has been  requested to be a partner for the project.





Saturday 1 October 2016

Memorial Meeting for Nick Klotz

SLI organized a memorial meeting for Nick Klotz at Institute's backyard. Friends and Well-wishers of Nick from Auroville joined and payed tribute to him.