Pongal Day /January As Tamil Heritage Month

Total Page：16

File Type：pdf, Size：1020Kb

Pongal Day /January As Tamil Heritage Month

Grace Pushparany Williams 13004 Pine Ct, Bowie, MD 20720 [email protected] 301-938-4065 HB-906 General Provisions - Commemorative Days Pongal Day /January as Tamil Heritage Month Position: Support March 12th, 2020 Dear Chair Pendergrass, Vice Chair Peña-Melnyk, and Committee Members, I am Grace Pushparany Williams, from Bowie in Prince Georges County and I support HB 906. I have been a Tamil American for the last 42 years and a proud Marylander for 32 years. It’s with honor and privilege that I submit this testimony in support of HB 906 to Commemorate January 14th as Pongal day and January as Tamil Heritage Month in Maryland. Pongal Day is the Thanksgiving Day for Tamils and celebrated as the Harvest festival. Pongal falls on the First day of Tamil New Year Calendar, Month of Thai(January) which is the 14th day of January. Pongal means ‘boiling over’ in Tamil and it is also the sweet food made with rice, green gram lentils, all natural sugar, milk, cashew nuts, raisins and cardamom for flavoring. It’s shared with family, friends and neighbors. Pongal is a non religious celebration and celebrated regardless of their religious affiliation. It’s celebrated by about 74 Million Tamils all over the world, who speak the Tamil language, which is the Oldest and one of the seven Classical languages of the world. Tamils live mostly in the state of Tamil Nadu in South India, other countries such as Sri Lanka, Singapore, Malaysia, South Africa, Mauritius, Burma, Canada, UK and Europe. On this Pongal Day and Tamil heritage Month, the richness of Tamil Culture and historical traditions are symbolized. The Tamil Americans/Marylanders help to preserve this very ancient rich culture and traditions by celebrating Pongal and Tamil Heritage. It also gives us the emotional link to our homelands and Tamils all around the world. I humbly request you to support House Bill 906 Respectfully submitted, Grace Pushparany Williams. .

Copy Link

Recommended publications

April 9, 2009 PRESS RELEASE Tamil American Diaspora Groups Meet
April 9, 2009 PRESS RELEASE Tamil American Diaspora Groups Meet with US-State Department on Sri Lanka Crisis Washington, DC: Americans for Peace in Sri Lanka (APSL), a US based human rights activist group, led a delegation of 11 Tamil American organizations for a meeting at the United States Department of State with Assistant Secretary of State Richard Boucher and US Ambassador to Sri Lanka Robert Blake. The meeting to discuss the current humanitarian crisis Tamils face in Sri Lanka took place on April 08 th in Washington, DC, with Ambassador Blake joining by video conferencing. Assistant Secretary Boucher referred to the heightened anxiety of the Tamil Americans over the plight of their loved ones in the Tamil homeland, and expressed solidarity with them in this difficult time. The discussion was divided into two parts, humanitarian situation, led by Ambassador Blake, and views on political solution, led by Assistant Secretary Boucher. The APSL team gave its own presentation under both topics. Tamil Americans thanked Secretary of State Clinton for her call for a ceasefire and phoning Sri Lankan President Rajapaksa to halt directing fire into the “no-fire zone”. They noted that Secretary Clinton’s call was not heeded by the Colombo government. Ambassador Blake gave an update on the US led efforts to care for the 120 – 150,000 Tamil civilians in the “safe zone,” which included 60% of the food aid going through the World Food Program, and evacuation of more than 4,000 wounded civilians. He spoke of continuing problems with medical aid and gave an update on the visit by UN Secretary General’s special representative for the internally displaced, Walter Kaelin, who has extracted concessions from the GoSL in the administration of the IDP camps in Vavuniya.
[Show full text]
IBPS CLERK CAPSULE for ALL COMPETITIVE EXAMS Exclusively Prepared for RACE Students Issue: 04 | Page : 102 | Topic : IBPS CAPSULE | Price: Not for Sale
IBPS CLERK CAPSULE for ALL COMPETITIVE EXAMS Exclusively prepared for RACE students Issue: 04 | Page : 102 | Topic : IBPS CAPSULE | Price: Not for Sale INDEX TOPIC Page No BANKING & FINANCIAL AWARENESS 2 LIST OF INDEXES BY VARIOUS ORGANISATIONS 11 GDP FORECAST OF INDIA BY VARIOUS ORGANISATION 15 LIST OF VARIOUS COMMITTEE & ITS HEAD 15 LOAN SANCTIONED BY NATIONAL AND INTERNATIONAL BANKS TO 17 INDIA PENALITY IMPOSED BY RBI TO VARIOUS BANKS IN INDIA 18 LIST OF ACQUISTION & MERGER 18 APPS/SCHEMES/FACILITY LAUNCHED BY VARIOUS 19 BANKS/ORGANISATIONS/COMPANY STATE NEWS 22 NATIONAL NEWS 38 IIT’S IN NEWS 46 NATIONAL SUMMITS 47 INTERNATIONAL SUMMITS 51 INTERNATIONAL NEWS 52 BUSINESS AND ECONOMY 60 LIST OF AGREEMENTS/MOU’S SIGNED 66 BRAND AMBASSADORS / APPOINTMENTS 68 AWARDS & HONOURS 70 BOOKS & AUTHORS 74 SPORTS NEWS 78 SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY 86 DEFENCE EXERCISES 93 IMPORTANT EVENTS OF THE DAY 94 OBITUARY 96 CABINET MINISTERS 2019 / LIST OF MINISTERS OF STATE 101 (INDEPENDENT CHARGE) CHIEF MINISTERS AND GOVERNORS 102 ________________________________________________________ 7601808080 / 9043303030 RACE Coaching Institute for Banking and Government Jobs www. RACEInstitute. in Courses Offered : BANK | SSC | RRB | TNPSC |KPSC 2 | IBPS CLERK CAPSULE | IBPS CLERK 2019 CAPSULE (JULY – NOVEMBER 2019) BANKING AND FINANCE Punjab & Sind Bank has set up a centralized hub named “Centralised MSME & Retail Group” (Cen MARG) for processing retail and Micro, Small and RBI gets the power to regulate housing finance companies instead Medium Enterprises (MSME) loans for better efficiency of branches in of NHB business acquisition. It is headquartered in New Delhi. Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman stated that India's central bank, Wilful defaults exceed $21 billion in India for the year 2018-19, Reserve Bank of India (RBI) will now be given power to takes over as the SBI holds the highest regulator of Housing Finance Firms(HFFs) instead of NHB(National Housing The state-owned banks in India stated that Rs.
[Show full text]
Prime Minister Modi to Xi
# 1 Indian American Weekly: Since 2006 VOL 13 ISSUE 40 ● NEW YORK / DALLAS ● OCT 11 - 17, 2019 ● ENQUIRIES: 646-247-9458 www.theindianpanorama.news Invites articles and advertisements for the Deepavali special edition, A New Chapter in Our Ties: Prime October 25. Please email articles by October 17 to [email protected]. Advertisers are requested to book Minister Modi to Xi space by October 15 and email MAMALLAPURAM, INDIA (TIP): Prime creatives by October 20 to [email protected] Minister Narendra Modi on Saturday, October 12, For more information, visit said that their second informal summit here www.theindianpanorama.news heralds the start of a new era in India-China Email to: [email protected] relations. The 'Chennai vision', he hoped, would Cell: 646-247-9458 build on the first informal summit between India and China last year in Wuhan that had given fresh University of Houston stability and momentum in bilateral relations. Strategic communication between the two Receives $2 Million countries has led to increased stability, he underlined in his opening remarks at the Commitment to Support beginning of delegation-level talks. PM Modi and Study of Tamil Xi Jinping have met 17 times at structured summits and two informal summits, including the Language and Culture one in Mamallapuram. He recalled that at the Wuhan meeting, the two leaders had decided not to allow differences to fester into disputes. contd on Page 32 Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Chinese President Xi Jinping at the Informal Summit in Mamallapuram. Photo / Courtesy Xinhua “You will be held Ethiopian PM Abiy No Entry If You Can’t Ahmed wins Nobel Pay for Healthcare Sam Kannappan, founding member and board accountable”: Pelosi president, Houston Tamil Studies Chair, Inc.
[Show full text]
Tamil Studies Brochure
Tamil at berkeley Tamil at berkeley Tamil Language Faculty Tamil language and literature at UC Berkeley is taught by Asst. Professor Vasugi Kailasam and Professor Bharathy S. Rajulu, our Tamil language lecturer. DR. VASUGI KAILASAM (Ph.D, National University of Singapore) is a scholar of modern Tamil literature. Her research interests include global Tamil literature, visual/ media studies and postcolonial studies. She is currently working on two research projects. The frst is a book monograph titled Tamil Realisms: Reading the global Tamil novel and the second, Post Millennial Tamil Visual Cultures, arises from her work on global Tamil popular cultural production. Prior to UC Berkeley, Dr. THIRUVALLUVAR Kailasam was the convenor of the Tamil Studies program at the Thiruvalluvar, commonly known as Valluvar, was a celebrated Tamil poet and National University of Singapore from 2015-2019. philosopher. He is best known as the author of Tirukkural (Sacred Couplets), a collection of couplets on ethics, political and economical matters, and love. The DR. BHARATHY S. RAJULU (Ph.D, Madurai text is considered a masterpiece of human thought, compared in India and Kamaraj University) has been teaching Tamil abroad to the Bible, John Milton’s Paradise Lost, and the works of Plato. language and literature for 30 years. Before Thiruvalluvar was celebrated by the Government of India with a coming to Berkeley, she ran the American commemorative postage stamp on Feb 15, 1960 Institute of India Studies (AIIS) Tamil program in Madurai and was also the director of AIIS South India. Dr. Bharathy was awarded the Walt Disney Motif Award in 2016 for her work in promoting Tamil Language Studies.
[Show full text]
Transliteration of Tamil to English for the Information Technology
Transliteration of Tamil to English for the Information Technology ‘jAzhan’ Ramalingam Shanmugalingam (‘appuAcci’) <[email protected]> San Diego CA 92131 USA. ___________________________________________________________________________ ABSTRACT: Transliteration as I understand is a method by which one could read a text of one language in the writing method of another language word to word. In other words, it is the transcription of a text in one language using the script of another language. However the transliterated word or words may not sound the same as the original unless corresponding letters that sound the same are found in the transliterated language. 18 English letters have similar sounds in Tamil that can represent the 18 basic Tamil letters. The balance 13 basic Tamil letters need some 'sound connection'. That is why we have to devise a standard scheme that will also fit into modern technology. The 'jAzhan’ Scheme, therefore, uses only 22 English letters of the QWERTY Keyboard without having to use symbols or diacritical marks that are used to mean different things to different people. Transliteration of Tamil has to fit the need for Tamil to be recognized as the only other known language comparable to the English language with a 26-letter keyboard. This dispels the notion that Tamil is a complicated language with 247 letters in the Alphabet. Whereas there are only 31 basic Tamil letters that fit into the 26-letter keyboard without using any symbols or diacritical marks. Tamil is a unique language and belongs to the Dravidian family. Dr. Steven Pinker, the Peter de Florez Professor in the Department of Brain and Cognitive Sciences at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, in “Words and Rules” places Dravidian language around 15,000 years ago in the Ancestry of Modern English Chart vide (http://www.mit.edu/~pinker/).
[Show full text]
Priyamvada Natarajan
CURRICULUM VITAE: Priyamvada Natarajan Address: Department of Astronomy Yale University P.O. Box 208101 New Haven, CT 06520-8101 U.S.A. E-Mail: [email protected] Phone(Cell): +1-203-435-2294 Homepage: http://www.astro.yale.edu/priya ACADEMIC QUALIFICATIONS & POSITIONS 2021{ present: Science Editor, Extra-galactic Astrophysics and Cosmology, The American Astronomical Society's The Astrophysical Journals. 2021 { 2022: Chair, National Astronomy and Astrophysics Advisory Committee to NASA, NSF and DoE. 2019 { 2022: Member, National Astronomy and Astrophysics Advisory Committee to NASA, NSF and DoE. 2019: Distinguished Visiting Professor at the International Center for Theoretical Sciences, Bangalore, India. 2019 { present: Advisor, Guggenheim Foundation, New York. 2019: Distinguished Visiting Professor at the Institute for Astronomy, Manoa, Hawaii. 2017 { 2022: Member, NASA LISA Science Team, NASA. 2017 { 2022: Member, International Advisory Committee of the Higgs Center for Fundamental Physics, Edinburgh, Scotland. 2017 { 2023: Director, Franke Program in Science and the Humanities, Yale University. 2017 { present: Associate, Flatiron Institute, Center for Computational Astrophysics, New York, NY. 2017 { present: Aﬃliate, Black Hole Initiative, Harvard University, Cambridge, MA. 2016 {2020: Chair-line, Division of Astrophysics, American Physical Society. 2014 {2017: Chair, Yale College Science Council. 2013 { present: Primary Investigator of the International CATS Scientiﬁc Collaboration. 2012: Honorary Professor (lifetime appointment), University of Delhi, New Delhi, India. 2011 { 2014: Chair, Womens Faculty Forum, Yale University, New Haven, CT. 2011 { 2012: Caroline Herschel Distinguished Visiting Professor, Space Telescope Science Institute, Baltimore, MD. 2010 { 2011: Visiting Professor, Institute for Theory and Computation, Harvard University, Cambridge, MA. 1 2010 { 2011: Visiting Fellow, Joint Institute for Laboratory Astrophysics Fellow, University of Colorado at Boulder, Boulder, CO.
[Show full text]
November 7, 202 Hon. Kamala Harris US Senator from California 333 Bush Street, Suite 3225 San Francisco, CA 94104
Date: November 7, 202 Hon. Kamala Harris US Senator from California 333 Bush Street, Suite 3225 San Francisco, CA 94104 Dear Madam Vice President-Elect Kamala Harris, Congratulations on being elected the vice president. This was a hard fought campaign; and this decisive victory is testament to your outstanding service to the people as the senator, and the people’s trust in you and president-elect Mr. Joe Biden. I am especially proud of this moment as the president of the organization that represents more than half a million Tamils who share their heritage with you and your mother Mrs. Shyamala Gopalan Harris. More than 75 million Americans have voted for you because of your message of unity and restoring the soul of America. We look forward to an America that puts science first, that celebrates diversity, and that leaves no one behind. I am Caldwell Velnambi, the President of The Federation of Tamil Sangams of North America (FeTNA). FeTNA established in 1987 is an umbrella organization of 57 Tamil Associations in the US and Canada which represents a major share of about 600,000 Tamils who migrated from India, Sri Lanka, Malaysia, Singapore, and other places. FeTNA operates with a primary objective to cultivate, promote, foster the advancement of knowledge in Tamil Language, Literature, and Culture. FeTNA has also been conducting its Annual Tamil Convention in various cities across USA and Canada during the July 4th weekend. You have my fullest support. As a not for profit organization, if there is anything we can do to help move your programs forward, please let us know.
[Show full text]
Sri Lankan Tamil Diaspora Network
Chapter 4 Sri Lankan Tamil Diaspora Network 96 Chapter 4 SriLankan Tamil Diaspora Network The political freedom enjoyed by the Sri Lankan Tamils in many democratic societies, with the concomitant rights of free speech and freedom of association, has led the Tamil diaspora in Europe and North America, mostly in London and Toronto, to establish a range of Tamil institutions and organizations. They include Tamil owned businesses, media, temples and churches, cultural, political and service organizations, alumni associations and sports clubs. They also include agencies that help new arrivals in finding housing or employment. The Tamil diaspora have their own newspapers, radio and television channels. The LTTE managed to gain control over these institutions to get both political and financial support. Before 1983, the small population of Sri Lankan Tamils, mostly consisting of students and professionals, did not have many prospects for interaction and community development. After 1983, thousands of Tamils migrated to the West. The English-educated Tamil professionals could get easily assimilated with their knowledge of medicine, engineering, Jaw and accountancy. The refugees got into small businesses and established a chain of Tamil shops that could cater for the needs of the Tamil population. After stabilizing themselves economically, the Tamils made efforts to preserve their identity and ensure that there are religious and cultural values among their community. They built temples in the West. To preserve the Tamil language and culture, the expatriates founded Tamil schools for the second-generation diaspora. The Tamil Students' Associations formed in the Western universities also helped the LTIE to reach the young Tamil expatriates.
[Show full text]
1 Dr. Ellyn Shander's Speech at Lincoln Memorial First Year
Dr. Ellyn Shander’s Speech at Lincoln Memorial First Year anniversary of Mullivaikaal Massacre of May 2009 15 th May 2010 Vanakam I want to thank the organizers of this event who invited me to speak. And say thank you to each of you who traveled long distances to pay your respects, to remember the innocent people who were killed in this terrible chapter of Tamil history. Why do we ask for a minute of silence when we remember the dead? Because there are no words strong enough to describe our feelings about this terrible tragedy of the Tamil genocide one year ago. We need silence for our minds, hearts and souls, that are filled with sadness and rage. We need silence in which to remember. Silence to process the horror of the ways people died. Silence for the wasted lives cut short by violence. And silence to commit ourselves to change the present ongoing tragedy of the Tamils of Sri lanka. So let us now stand together in silence and unity. ( for a moment of silence) Today we stand united as one community remembering the Tamils of Sri lanka who were massacred by evil. What kind of evil murders over 40,000 civilians in one weekend? Over 100,000 Tamils in the last 20 years.. Nazis, Pol pot, Sudan and the govt of Sri Lanka. All carriers of evil! Before their deaths, many of the murdered people begged, "Help us, save us, tell our story!!” They sent their messages out in eyewitness videos, thru the brave doctors during the siege, and thru the occasional Tamil who escaped from the fighting.
[Show full text]
Tamil Migration to the United States Kelsey Clark Underwood
Image and Identity: Tamil Migration to the United States Kelsey Clark Underwood Introduction During the year I was doing fieldwork in Madras, India, my husband and I would often stand on the front balcony around sunset talking with our Tamil landlord and landlady about life and politics in India, the United States, and the world at large. One evening after a lull in the conversation, our landlord, a former high-court judge educated in excellent English schools and colleges in India, asked in a pensive and perplexed tone of voice, "Is it true that in America there are no cows walking in the streets?" We replied, "No, there are no cows in the streets." He then asked, "And are there no water buffaloes?" At first we thought he was joking, but after pursuing the subject we learned that he was completely serious. This conversation revealed dramatically to me that Indians find certain images of the United States as incredulous and bizarre as Americans often find descriptions of India to be. Until this moment it had seemed perfectly natural that Ameri- cans often ask with amazement if cows really do walk freely in the streets of India. I had never seriously considered the question in reverse. This incident, however, demonstrated that Tamils both in India and in the U.S. often view America as something wholly alien to much of their previous experience. Images of "the States" or of the generic West are extremely widespread in south India. For example, in Tamil Nadu, the state of which Madras is the capital and Tamil the official language, Tamil movies are shown in every town, city, and village.
[Show full text]
Arsha Vidya Gurukulam Bookstore
Arsha Vidya Gurukulam 31st Anniversary Souvenir August 13, 2017 Saylorsburg, Pennsylvania 1 2 Page Sponsored by Nalini and Prabhu Dev 3 4 Page Sponsored by Kiron and Kamala Das 5 Sunday, August 13, 2017 9:30 a.m. - 1:00 p.m. at the Gurukulam Campus Program ~ Music Concert ~ Maharajapuram Ramachandran ~ 'LJQLWDU\mV$GGUHVV~ Dharmatma Dr. Yegnasubramanian Chairman, Sringeri Vidya Bharati Foundation, USA & Canada & Sri Guruvaayoorappan Temple, NJ ~ $QQLYHUVDU\$GGUHVV~ Sri Swami Viditatmananda on nDUD¬JDWLo ~ Banquet Lunch ~ Question-Answer Session (after lunch) Sri Swami Viditatmananda Childcare Provided ÄÆÙ„ ¢Í,láÊoÄÎ6ÞßÎ Ê}ÏÄÞHÎÈ£ •ŸÛ˜œ• tadahaÑ bhaktyupahÎtam aÚnËmi prayatËtmanaÒ || I receive that offering which is imbued with devotion of the person whose mind is pure. Bhagavad GÌtË 9.26 With deep appreciation to all those, visible and behind the scenes, who give generously of their time, skills, resources, and most of all, loving care to keep the gurukulam healthy and growing. Like any good family, this guru-kulam thrives because each and every family member is doing his or her best to w contribute. We all have reason to be thankful for the results of w our combined efforts. 6 Table of Contents Arsha Vidya Gurukulam 31st Anniversary Souvenir 2017 Arsha Vidya Gurukulam $QRQSURILWLQVWLWXWHIRUWKHVWXG\ of Vedanta, Sanskrit, Yoga and BHAKTI.........................................................................................................14 Vedic Heritage By Swami Dayananda BOARD OF DIRECTORS AND OFFICERS: Swami Dayananda Saraswati DEVOTION ........................................................................................................ 22 Founder By Swami Viditatmananda Swami Viditatmananda Saraswati President Swami Tattvavidananda Saraswati Vice President Swami Pratyagbodhananda Saraswati WORSHIP OF THE DIVINE MOTHER ....................................................... 36 Vice President Its Significance And Importance Dr. Ashok Chhabra By Swami Tattvavidananda Secretary Dr.
[Show full text]
United States of America
UNITED STATES OF AMERICA United States of America Map 4.XX he United States today is home to a small but THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA T growing population of Sri Lankans from Sinhalese, Tamil, Moor, Burgher and Malay ethnic communities, 0 700 kilometres CANADA among others. Sri Lanka’s ‘best and brightest’ have had 0 700 miles a long history of taking up temporary residences in NORTH North America and Europe for advanced education S DAKOTA MINNESOTA ke uper MONTANA La ior WASHINGTON i and professional employment. Since the mid-1980s this p p i s s i s n s MAINE profile has changed as greater numbers of Sri Lankans, i Lake a SOUTH M WISCONSIN g VERMONT i Huron h DAKOTA c primarily Tamils, have fled a lengthy civil war in their OREGON i Lake Ontario NEW HAMPSHIRE IDAHO M MICHIGAN WYOMING e k NEW YORK Boston a homeland to seek political asylum abroad, especially L MASSACHUSETTS IOWA Chicago Lake Erie NEBRASKA New York City RHODE ISLAND in Europe and Canada. Sri Lankans in the United NEVADA INDIANA PENNSYLVANIA CONNECTICUT OHIO ILLINOIS NEW JERSEY States have shown themselves to be a versatile group of UTAH COLORADO MARYLAND WEST Washington, DC Sacramento KANSAS MISSOURI generally well-educated and solidly middle-class families San Francisco VIRGINIA DELAWARE KENTUCKY CALIFORNIA VIRGINIA active in the educational, medical, scientific, political, OKLAHOMA NORTH TENNESSEE NEW CAROLINA social, commercial, artistic, and philanthropic realms of ARIZONA ARKANSAS MEXICO ALABAMA American society. MISSISSIPPI SOUTH A TLANTIC GEORGIA CAROLINA OCEAN TEXAS LOUISIANA P ACIFIC Historical Origins OCEAN FLORIDA Sri Lankan Americans descend from a variety of ethnic G Orlando u l f o groups, and the Sinhalese make up roughly half of the f C a MEXICO l i f G ulf of Mexico community in the United States.
[Show full text]