Book Launch: Monographs on two localities of Tamil Nadu

THE LAND, PEOPLE AND HISTORY OF

ULLAVUR AND KUNDRATTHUR

We have compiled two monographs on two Tamil localities in the neighbourhood of Chennai. One on these is the intensely agricultural, rich and ancient locality of Ullavur lying near the sacred confluence of Palar, Cheyyar and Vegavthi rivers. This is one of the most beautiful and fertile parts of India. The other monograph is on Kundratthur, the suburb in which our Centre is situated. It is an ancient centre of religion, scholarship, culture and crafts. Sekkizhar, perhaps the greatest Tamil Saiva savant and poet of historical times, was born here. It also has the highly sanctified temple of Murugan on the Hill, after whom the town is named.

We present these two books as our homage to our ancient, rich and holy land, on which flourish lakhs of localities like Ullavur and Kundratthur. We wish similar monographs could be written on everyone of those localities. That would indeed change the narrative about India, about which so much concern is being expressed nowadays.

I shall try to present significant facets of these localities in future posts.

Venue: Indira Gandhi National Centre for Arts

Time: Friday, August 9, 2024, 5.30 PM

Loksabha 2024

THE NDA SUFFERED A DECISIVE LOSS IN PHASE 1 OF THE POLLING

The results of Lok Sabha 2024 elections show that of the 102 constituencies that were polled in the first phase on April 19, NDA has won only 34, while 68 seats have gone to others. Part of the reason for this low score for the NDA is that 40 of the 102 seats in the first phase were from Tamil Nadu and Puducherry, from where the NDA could expect to get little. But, unexpectedly, the NDA also lost 4 of the 5 seats in Maharashtra, 8 of the 12 seats in Rajasthan and 6 of the 8 seats in Uttar Pradesh. It also lost all of the 6 seats of Manipur, Meghalaya, Mizoram and Nagaland. In addition, it lost a seat each in Assam, Bihar and West Bengal.

This looks like a decisive loss in the very first phase of polling. The leadership must have been made aware of the scale of possible loss by their cadre, pollsters and the intelligence outfits. Could that be the reason for the very visible and audible shift in the style of campaigning in the later phases?

Incidentally, out of the 34 seats won by the NDA in this phase of polling, 30 went to the BJP and 4 to its allies. Of the 68 seats won by others, INC obtained 27. The two parties were thus running neck to neck in this phase.