Registered with the Registrar of Newspapers for India under R.N.I 53640/91
Vol. XXVI No. 14, November 1-15, 2016
Heritage Conservation Committee
Colours of Glory
Over 100 children from classes V-X took part recently in a painting contest organised by the Colours of Glory Foundation and 18 prizes were won. They also took a ‘Military History Tour’, viewing the exhibition organised by the Foundation at the venue.
Colours of Glory Foundation (www.coloursofglory.org) is a first ever initiative in India to promote public awareness of the country’s rich military heritage and seeks to do this by popularising literature and art
forms with a military theme, opening vistas of military tourism, and memorialising battles and war heroes. It
hopes to rekindle the country’s collective consciousness about its rich military heritage. The contest was the first event of the Foundation. (Pictures: Capt. D.P.Ramachandran)
At long last, the grapevine has it, the Heritage Conservation Committee, as stipulated in the Tamil Nadu Heritage Commission Bill 2012, will finally see the light of day. If this is true, it is a welcome development indeed, for the State has not seen any worthwhile steps being taken towards heritage conservation despite six years having passed since the High Court of Madras stipulated the formation of a Heritage Conservation Committee. Still, it is never too late for action and we hope that the present initiative will be effective and result-oriented.
Madras Musings has it from impeccable sources that the Government is very keen on setting the ball rolling on heritage conservation. It has reportedly seen the resultant goodwill from what little it has taken up on this front – the restoration of the National Gallery, Chepauk Palace and Ripon Buildings.There is an eagerness in Government circles, say these sources, that the heritage of Tamil Nadu be protected.There is another side to this too. The High Court has repeatedly come down heavily on the lack of protection afforded to heritage structures in the State. The latest judgement, stipulating that all temple restoration taken up by the HR&CE can only be done in consultation with UNESCO, has only added to the pressure.
Among cities in India, Ahmadabad has always been different. It has often led the rest of the country in terms of political thought, commerce, science and the preservation and conservation of heritage. True, it does have its negatives, including strong inter-caste tensions and ghetto-isation on religious basis, but some of its positives are worth emulating. The Centre for Heritage Management (CHM) is one such initiative.
It was the first four letter word that was strictly forbidden at home.
Amma always said never to utter it all by itself.
Strangely enough, you always found adults uttering it all the time.
Aiyo … he left me … cried grandmother in anguish over Grandfather’s dead body.
Aiyo … you cried in pain when you cut your finger while cutting a mango.
Aiyo … your reflexes uttered when you lost your balance and slammed your bicycle against the bushes before you learnt to ride it.
Aiyo … you said when you heard about that hit-and-run case…
Skin irritations, respiratory distresses and sometimes even death, it is a life of suffering for the cleaners of human filth. Though people no longer carry excreta on their heads anywhere in Tamil Nadu, the practice of manually handling and disposing of human waste is still prevalent in many parts of the State, including the capital city.
India has come a long way since the days of its rigid top-down Central Rural Sanitation Programme, which had minimal community participation. First it was the Total Sanitation Campaign, which then became the Nirmal Bharat Abhiyan and, most recently, the Swachh Bharat Mission.