ST LOUIS: Federation of Tamil Sangams of North America (FETNA) and Tamil Sangam of Missouri jointly hosted 26th Annual Convention-FETNA 2014 from July 3 to 6 in St. Louis, Missouri.
FETNA 2014 was designed to commemorate the 100th Anniversary of Kudandhai P.Sundarasanar & Progressive Philosopher Ayothi Daasar and the 200th Anniversary of Robert Caldwell. The three Tamil scholars were remembered for their services to Tamil language and Tamil society.
FETNA 2014 convention blended with a balance of programs performed by American Tamils themselves. They have developed enough expertise to stage and showcase the various ancient art forms in this Festival along with professional artists.
FETNA has a long lasting tradition of encouraging and reestablishing the glory of ancient art forms like Parai dance, Silambattam, Tamil vocal music, street plays, dance dramas by funding and consistently staging them in North America. Now the community has started witnessing the benefits of this initiative as various chapters of North America’s Tamil associations have started these clubs and grown enough to deliver a program in big stages like this and also in some of the prominent universities.
Star night dinner was held on the eve of the FETNA convention, on July 3 with the introduction of special guests, ice breakers, photo sessions and informal renewal of friendships.
The event was officially kicked off with Thirukkural recital, Tamil Thai Vazhthu, American National Anthem and lighting of lamps. Dr Dhandapani, the president of FETNA and Kumaravadivelu, the FETNA coordinator delivered the welcome speech to inaugurate the function. It was followed by Guru Nagai Balakumaran’s opening dance for the festival, Kalaikkaka Poovadhu Yaaru – a comedy by Kansas Tamil Sangam, a commemorative speech by poet Kutti Revathy on Ayothi Daasar and special presentation on Tamil Percussion instruments by Prof Zoey Sherinnian and Aaron Paige.
A short presentation of Kuthuvarisai and Varmam, ancient Tamil martial arts was given by Ezhelan Ramarajan. Dallas Tamil Sangam teens amazed the audience with their Thirupugazh dance.
Theodore Baskaran rendered his thoughts on “Tamil Literature in Tamil Movies”. As the prime event of the convention, the Convention souvenir was released followed by commemorative speeches on Kudandai P.Sundaresanar by Ramamoorthy and on Robert Caldwell by Albert Chelladurai.
After lunch session was marked by poets delivering poems on the theme “Kilanbittru Kaan America Tamilar Padai” presided by Poet Kutti Revathy.
The special speech delivered by one of the remarkable Tamil pioneers, Padmabushan, Marconi awardee Stanford Prof Dr Paul Arokiyasamy attracted huge applause from the audience. Dr Chitra Dorai and Jay Vijayan were felicitated on stage for their successful pioneer works as Tamil Americans.
The audience was tested for their literature knowledge and memory during one of the most noted special events – Tamil Literary Quiz. The two groups which competed consisted of people across generations.
The Sangam literature translator Mrs Vaidehi Herbert inspired the audience with her speech ‘Tamils’ contribution to business and technology.” Speeches on Siddha were followed by Tamil Isai by BKM Tamil Sangam and Gnanamani Rajapriyar.
The story of Theeran Chinnamali, one of the unsung heroes of Indian freedom movement, was staged as a dance cum drama by St. Louis team. Tholpavai, an ancient Tamil form of story telling, was staged by one of the handful of artists still practicing this art. The Silapadikaram story was expertly enacted in the ancient street play format by Minnesota Tamil Sangam members. The evening was thus marked by staging important art forms. Star time was glazed by Actor Napoleon with his open and candid speech.
The second day was marked by interactive speech of Special Guest Murugananadham, the social entrepreneur listed this year as one of the 100 most influential people on earth by Time magazine. He evoked the audience by his questions and lifetime experiences. The afternoon was electrified by Velu Saravanan’s Children’s Theatre interactive presentation of “Elipathy” a version of the Pied Piper of Hamlien with the help of St. Louis kids.
The kids Tamil Jeopardy show brought out the Tamil talent of the kids who were competing as groups. The results of the short film contest, Tamil Bee contest and Tamil Isai contests that were conducted as concurrent sessions the previous day were announced and prizes distributed on stage. The group dance “Laya Kavithai Naatiyam” performed by the Canadian Tamil Congress enraptured the audience.
The FETNA Thillana dance competition, Iyarkaiyin Padaippukkal dance by Missouri tiny tots and the presentation of their Tamil talents by next generation kids set the stage for the pinnacle event of Parade of all Tamil Sangams called “Sangangalin Sangamam”. The parade of representatives of the member Tamil sangams were followed by the group Bharathanatiyam on the Fetna theme song, Silambam. Parai Tamil percussion dance vibrated the Tamil sentiments of the crowd.
Rev. Perur Marudhachala Adigalar, the principal of The Tamil College, delivered an action plan on “Tamil in all walks of life”. Actress Trisha appeared on stage and gave short answers for fans’ questions. The after dinner music entertainment was provided by Ganesh Kiruba orchestra with super singers Sonia and Diwakar along with homegrown talent. The music and dancing were a blast to culminate the festivities in the Chaifetz arena.
On the third day, scholars talked to a small group of audience focusing on addressing the status of their art forms today and ways and means to achieve higher levels of success in the future.
Concurrent sessions
Catering to different age groups and preferences, mini focused sessions were conducted in various halls and rooms in the Chaifetz arena and Hotel Renaissance.
Apart from competitions, workshop on Siddha medicine by Dr Selva Kumar, workshop on communication and human relationships by Velu Raman, workshop on Parai Tamil percussion instrument, short film contest, workshop on children’s theatre, World Tamil Forum, WTO, Youth games like Kho Kho, Kabaddi , Youth discussion, workshop on movie making by Dr Swarnavel Iswaran and Swamy Kandan, Hollywood director, Tamil American Pioneer gala, Tamil youth professionals networking etc were fully participated and appreciated. To encourage Tamil language learning and Tamil music in kids from Tamil origin, the two competitions were held in separate sessions and prizes were distributed.
Entrepreneur forum
FeTNA 2014 Entrepreneur forum session was to motivate and help Tamil families to start and successfully manage their own businesses. The highlight of this session was the inspiring speech by Murgunantham Arunachalam, the social entrepreneur from India who was recently recognized by Time Magazine as one of the top 100 influential people in the world.
The ‘Youth Business Plan Competition’ was introduced in this FETNA 2014 and the participants were asked to submit their novice business plans The winners were judged and selected by these 7 accomplished Entrepreneurs. Tamil American Pioneer (TAP) Awards Gala recognized seven Tamil Americans for their extraordinary professional achievements. They are: Dr Raj Chetty, Professor of Economics at Harvard University; Dr Chitra Dorai, IBM Distinguished Engineer and Master Inventor, IBM Corp; Dr Arun Mohan, Chief Medical Officer, Apollo MD Hospital Medicine; Dr Arogyaswami Paulraj, Professor Emeritus, Stanford University; Dr K. Sujata, President and CEO, Chicago Foundation for Women; Arun Subramanian, Partner at Susman Godfrey, LLP and Jay Vijayan, CIO at Tesla Motors, Inc.
Continuing Medical Education (CME) in collaboration with Washington University School of Medicine in Saint Louis, MO was a half day event and six speakers from different specialties discussed on interesting and wide range of topics. About 60 participants attended the CME. CME was organized and conducted by CME Chairman Dr Jeb Ratnaraj.
The 28th FETNA convention will be held in Bay Area, California on July 4th of next year.
Ashwin Patel
