The Legend of Ponnivala (in Tamil) gets a thumbs up from venerable seniors’ group
Dr. Brenda Beck spoke in Tamil this morning to about 35 seniors from the Senior Tamils Centre of Ontario at the invitation of its President, Maya Kandiah. The event lasted nearly 90 minutes and took place in the community hall attached to the Sri Ayyappan Temple in Scarborough. The response from the members was very enthusiastic and a lot of good questions were asked.
Dr. Beck showed the first episode of her 26 episode animated video series: “In The Beginning.” This first part of the giant epic Ponnivala legend explains how the farmers of the Ponnivala area came to be, how they established families, how they came to worship a local goddess, and how they learned to till the rich soil of the area. This initial segment of the story also provides a mythological explanation describing how the social dynamics and rules governing local village life first became codified.
This morning was the very first time that this episode has been shown publicly with its Tamil voice track. The voicing of this entire epic in Tamil is only now being produced in a recording studio in Chennai. Dr. Beck also circulated copies of her 26 graphic novels in Tamil to the many eager readers in the crowd, along with a digital version on an iPad which several seniors enjoyed flipping through. The crowd was charmed by Brenda’s efforts to tell her story in Tamil and expressed their approval of her long term commitment to communicate to the world some of the richness and depth of Tamil culture.
