Talks

Hong Kong Tamil Class 10th Anniversary

Speech delivered during Hong Kong Tamil’s Class 10th Anniversary held on 14 April, 2014. As there were some non-Tamil guests, I spoke in English. It’s a compelling short summary of 10 years told in about 10 minutes. You can find a video of the talk here.

An Insider’s View

Speech delivered during the launching of the book VAARI CHOODINUM PAARPPAVAR ILLAI—Kavithogai, the ‘Sangam Literature’ of China [EVEN IF I ADORN, THERE’S NONE TO BEHOLD—Shi Jing, Book of Songs, the Classic Anthology of China], translated into Tamil by M Sridharan (Payani), at a function held at Delhi on 25 February 2012.

• Video Record
• English: An Insider’s View
• Tamil: கில்மோரின் கட்டில்

Three Worlds of Muttulingam

Dhilligai Ilakkiya Vattam  (http://www.facebook.com/dhilligai1) is a literary organisation promoting Tamil literature, and conducts meetings on every second Saturday. In the month of September 2012, the subject was Tamil Short stories, and I spoke about the short stories of A Muttulingam (amuttu.net). Topic : Three Worlds- Space of A.Muttulingam’s Short Stories. You can find videos of the talk here.

Tiger Claw Tree

P.A. Krishnan’s novel “புலிநகக் கொன்றை” (Tiger Claw Tree) follows four generations of a family, recording not only their lives but also the political and historical situations of the time. I spoke about it at the Ilakkya Vattam’s 27 August 2006 meeting. [Audio file missing, will be uploaded soon.]

Life and Writings of Bharathi

The brief talk at the Ilakkya Vattam’s Bharathi-125 meeting held on 27 January 2007 covered how Bharathi’s life and his writings are intertwined, and I used the book, Bharathiyin Kadithangal, published by Bharathi-scholar Ra Aa Padmanabhan. [Audio file missing, will be uploaded soon.]

YIFC : Tamil Class 3rd Annual Day-Felicitation

The Young Indian Friends Club(YIFC) of Hong Kong has been teaching the Tamil language to young people amidst many hardships. The third Annual day was conducted on 23 May 2007. I was invited to felicitate. The text of my talk (in Tamil) can be found here.

Tamil Language and Tamil Teaching

The Young Indian Friends Club (YIFC) of Hong Kong has been teaching the Tamil language to young people for over three years in make-shift classrooms. The Tamil classes has now moved to formal classrooms in an established school. To commemorate, YIFC conducted a function  on 3 November 2007. I had an opportunity to talk about the Tamil language and Tamil teaching. The talk is mainly intended to the Chinese audience who were present. The text can be found here.

Arunachalam Awarded Pravasi Bharathya Samman Award

Thiru M Arunachalam, a Hong Kong businessman and industrailst, was awarded the prestigious Pravasi Bharatiya Samman in early 2005. The award is presented by the government of India to honor exceptional and meritorious contributions of Indian disapora in their chosen field.  Thiru Arunachalam was recognized for his outstanding contribution towards India’s commercial relations with Hong Kong and China and in enhancing the image and understanding of India. Hong Kong Tamil Cultural Association felicitated him on 19 March 2005, and I was invited to talk. The text can be found here.

School

Delia English Primary School & Kindergarten is one of the pioneering schools in Hong Kong providing education to mainly non-Chinese students. I had an opportunity to talk in their 39th Annual Speech Day festivals as a parent representative. The text extracted from the recording can be found here.