On September 1st and 2nd, 2018 the Kongu Association of DC held a wonderful Family Reunion in Manassas, Virginia. This non-profit group consists of people now living in the US who trace their family roots to the Kongu region of Tamilnadu, India. Brenda and Eric were there to host a large exhibition of visual panels

During the month of July 2018, Brenda spoke about her new iPad app a conference on Tamil and the Internet in Coimbatore, Tamilnadu. She also spent nearly three weeks in Sri Lanka. In the latter location, she served as a Keynote Speaker at a conference on “Mainstreaming Local Knowledge Systems” that was held in Batticaloa between July

On March 22, 2018, a celebratory event was held at the University of Toronto, Scarborough, to mark my recent monetary gift. That donation grew directly from my wish to advance local engagement in the Tamil Worlds study program already established on this particular UofT campus. On a personal level this legacy bequest is intended to

Twenty One Lectures, Two Exhibitions and Multiple Video Interviews It was a whirlwind trip! In late October and the first half of November Dr. Beck spent just over three weeks in India as a GIAN lecturer. The majority of her time was spent at Ambedkar University, Kashmere Gate, Delhi, where she had two different exhibitions

On September 9, 2017 Dr. Beck attended an amazing (if only partial) dramatic reading, in Tamil, of a new play by Dr. Suvendrini Lena called The Enchanted Loom. Originally written in English by a Sri Lankan immigrant to Canada, the play is about the deep anguish families enmeshed in the recent Sri Lankan conflict felt

Between August 25th-27th, 2017, I participated in the 16th International Forum For Information Technology in Tamil (INFITT) which took place right here in my home territory, at the University of Toronto, Scarborough. The paper I presented contained an overview of a Tamil archive of digitized research materials I have been working to assemble all summer.

On June 26th, 2017, Eric and I were invited to a very grand Garden Party thrown by the President of the University of Toronto. It was held in the gardens of the 3.5 acre grounds of the President’s mansion. There was a “hat” competition, hence we both wore our chosen head coverings! Mine is over

Last Friday, for the first time in my life, I was treated like a king (South Indian Chola style)! Ramanee Shanmuganathan and I performed as a story-telling team at the Toronto South Asian Seniors Spring Fair held at the Armandale Community Centre in Markham Ontario. We presented a skit, in Tamil, and then repeated it

Had lots of fun today making three story presentations at the Milliken Mills Public School, Toronto, all drawing on key events described by the Legend of Ponnivala. I first spoke to 1-3rd graders, then to 4-6th graders and finally to 7-8th graders – each time pointing to links between this ancient tale and events occurring

JOYFUL RELIEF! Just delivered a huge wall-sized panel of images to the Markham Gateway Public School which is located in a residential area on the eastern edge of Toronto. There are many, many immigrant families located here, including large numbers of South Asians. This 20′ by 8′ high display tells the Legend of Ponnivala (a