Hillary Clinton @ Anna Centenary Library

Source: IBN LIVE
The who’s who of Chennai turned up to hear Hillary Clinton on Wednesday, the first ever visit by a serving US Secretary of State to the city.

Hillary spoke for 44 minutes. She began her address by 3.05 pm and ended it at 3.49 pm, which was interspersed with applause from the audience. Anna Centenary Library Chief Librarian, P A Naresh made a brief welcome address.

Former secretary to the president of India, P Murari, Apollo Hospitals group chairman, Dr Prathap C Reddy, G Ramkumar, son of legendary Tamil film actor Sivaji Ganesan, Congress leader Karti Chidambaram, actors Kamal Hassan and Gautami, Prince of Arcot, Nawab Mohammed Abdul Ali, TN BJP leader Sukumaran Nambiar and renowned danseuse Padma Subramanyam were among the prominent citizens who attended the meet, besides senior government officials and industrialists.

The clean and brightly lit auditorium with a capacity to seat about 1,000 persons was fully occupied. The audience were predominantly students. Students from Madras Christian College, MOP Vaishnav, Loyola, Ethiraj, Vaniyambadi Islamiah College and Alpha College of Arts and Science participated.

As the auditorium’s capacity was filled, scores of people listened to her speech standing. About 100 students were seated in the hall at the entrance of the auditorium with a television to watch the address.

US officials and those from the Consulate here took centre stage and the whole event was perfectly managed. Invitees were allowed only if their names figured in the official list.

Dignitaries were promptly received at the entrance and taken to the auditorium. Police officials frisked almost everyone barring Prince of Arcot and actors Kamal Hassan and Gautami.

News on Hillary Clinton's Visit

The New Indian Express 21.07.2011


Business Line 21.07.2011


Sakshi 21.07.2011


Tamil Osai 21.07.2011

Dina Thanthi 21.07.2011

U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton visited Anna Centenary Library

U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton visited chennai on 20th July 2011, addressed students and opinion makers at Anna Centenary Library.

She started her speech with "Vanakkam" , her vernacular greeting provoking a roar of approval from her audience at the Anna Centenary Library in Chennai. The thousand-plus crowd consisted mainly of students, and some local celebrities and opinion-makers like actors Kamal Haasan and Gauthami.

The US Secretary of State paid tribute to India, its democracy and its pluralism. Ms Clinton then said, "We are betting on India's future...that the opening of India's markets to world will produce a more prosperous India and South Asia. We are betting that India's vibrant pluralistic society will inspire others to follow a similar path of tolerance. We are making this bet not out of blind faith but because we have watched your progress with great admiration."

Ms Clinton said that America stands whole-heartedly behind President Obama's statement to the Indian Parliament during his visit that his country's relationship with India will be one of the defining relationships of the 21st century.

Touching upon the Sri Lankan Tamils’ issue, she said every citizen of the island nation deserved equal help and opportunity.

The two countries should work together to combat piracy and for maritime security, she said.

Speaking about India’s growing leadership in the world, Ms. Clinton said India and the U.S. could more productively engage in complex global issues and support democratic transitions in Middle East and North Africa.

Ms. Clinton also advocated more economic cooperation among India, U.S. and China, though she maintained it was “not easy”.

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WORLD POPULATION DAY 2011: THE WORLD AT 7 BILLION

World Population Day is an annual event, observed on July 11, which seeks to raise awareness of global population issues. The event was established by the Governing Council of the United Nations Development Programme in 1989. It was inspired by the public interest in Five Billion Day on July 11, 1987, approximately the date on which the world's population reached five billion people.

This year, as the world population is expected to surpass 7 billion, UNFPA and partners are launching a campaign called 7 Billion Actions.It aims to engage people, spur commitment and spark actions related to the opportunities and challenges presented by a world of 7 billion people.

Geronimo Stilton at Anna Centenary library

Geronimo Stilton, our favourite detective mouse visited Anna Centenary Library on Saturday, 4th June 2011. The programme was organised by Scholastic in association with ACL to encourage children to read and love books.

A representative from the Scholastic gave a brief up to the children about the author Geronimo Stilton and her story character - a mouse which shares the same name as the author.

The character mouse came to the Children's section and children thoroughly enjoyed his arrival.

Swathi an avid reader, read out a passage from the author's book.

It was followed by a crossword puzzle based on Geronimo Stilton's younger sister Thea Stilton. Finally, prizes were distributed to the two winners by Scholastic.

Landscape Painting Programme

Anna Centenary Library, Kotturpuram, Chennai organized five days “Landscape Painting“ course for the children aged 8 – 14 years. About 35 children participated in this exclusive course conducted with the guidance of Mrs. Menaka Naresh, expert craft teacher who won more than 80 awards.
Children had a purposeful and enjoying time with poster colours, charts, brushes and created colourful landscapes which was a treat to the eyes. The budding artists paintings were displayed at ACL to encourage their artistic skill. All the participants were given certificate of appreciation and best performers of the course Master. Gokulraj, Master. Keerthivasan, Kumari. Lakshaya were given special colour kit to boost up their talent.

"Boat Race" - Creative Story Telling for Children

Creative Storytelling program for children was conducted in Anna Centenary Library on 8th May 2011. A Story "Boat Race" was screened to the children by the storyteller Ms. Kavita Jayakumar.

The children were taught about how different animals and birds communicated and were given paper models of the characters in the story. At the end children were shown different pictures/scenes from which they created their own story and narrated it to the audience.

*See out photogallery for more photos*

"Ekki Dhokki" - Storytelling Program !

Yekk means one and Doh means two in Marathi told the storyteller to the young listeners, it was the story of two young sisters Ekki having a single hair upon her head and Dokki having two hairs that cheered the children during the storytelling session at Anna Centenary Library on 07.05.11. This Marathi folktale "Ekki Dhokki" which emphasized on the moral that a good heart is the key to all treasures was wonderfully narrated in Tamil by Ms. Shobana.

After the narration of the story, there was a question-answer time and a sensory game time in which the participants won gifts and everybody enjoyed thoroughly.

There was yet another Jewish story "Something from Nothing" which enabled everyone to think that we can be creative and come up in life even if we have nothing with us. Sweets and Bookmarks were distrtibuted to all the children by the storytelling team.

*For more photos visit our photo gallery*

English verbal ability programme @ Braille Section

The Braille section of Anna Centenary Library conducted English Verbal ability programme for the visually challenged students of schools & colleges on Sunday, 1st May 2011.

The programme included a Verbal ability Question & Answer competitive session participated by the students. The Questions comprised of spotting errors in a sentence, finding our exact synonyms and antonyms of words to the context. Ms. S. Saranya, English Literature student of Meenakshi College for Women, Chennai was the winner and Mr. A. Deepan Chakravarthy, English Literature student of Loyola College, Chennai was one for runner up. The students were awarded gifts to encourage for their participation and verbal ability skills.

The programme also had a workshop on English language skills concentrating on spellings, sentence correction, use of articles and preposition in setences for the students. Students doing graduation in English Literature and higher secondary school students who aspire to do their higher studies in English participated.

The programme as a whole was well received by the students and found it much useful. The section team was suggested by the participants to conduct more such programmes regularly to help themselves enhance their English language skills.

Colouring Activity at ACL

Anna Centenary Library in association with Scholastic conducted a Colouring Activity on 1st May 2011 for children between the age 4 & 14 at the children's section of ACL. Nearly 100 children got together for few hours and had great fun. Children of age between 4 and 7 were given a picture of a Dragon and made to fill in colours. The group between 8 and 10 had to make a book mark with the materials given to them and the Senior Category (11-14 ) had to make a book cover. The one hour activity unleashed the creativity of the children.All participants were given a certificate at the end of the activity.

*For more photos see our photo gallery*

Naatiya Sangamam

A Dance programme "Naatiya Sangamam" was conducted at Anna Centenary Library, Kotturpuram on 30th April 2011, by the children of Bharatha Choodamani Academy of fine Arts, Adyar. The programme started with a Pooja dance of three little tinytots followed by Pushpanjali, Jathiswaram, Snake Dance, Peacock Dance,Natesha Kauthavam,Gypsy Dance , Kolaattam, Thillana and concluded with Mangalam.
The colourful and vibrant show of the young dancers was a feast to the eyes and mind. S.Pavithra of Adyar said " I really loved the show and want to learn dance". At the end of the event the dancers were honoured with certificates of ACL.

*For more photos see our photo gallery*

Yoga programme for Children

Yoga was performed for the children at ACL on 24th April 2011 by Master Niranjan and team. The Show started with Suryanamaskara and a formation of the word YOGA with yoga.

An eight-year old Master S. Niranjan (A Gold medalist of the South Asian Yoga Champion at Katanmandu, Nepal). performed some of the toughest yogasanans like Vrischikasana, Gunda Perundasana, Mayurasana and astonished the audience.

The Other performers G.Kamali, M. Sajan Menon and J. Arun Kumar put up a demonstration of some of the simple asanas namely the vajrasana, chakrasana, halasana and sirsasana.

At the end of the event Yoga Master Dr. V.Balakrishnan who trained these children made the children demonstrate 15 simple asanas which if performed everyday would help in better digestion, breathing and get rid of fever, common cold, stress.
Yoga has tons of benefits. It can improve flexibility, strength, balance, and stamina and lot more..

Thanks to Master S. Niranjan and his team!

*For more photos please see our photo gallery*