Latest news with #Kailasa
Time of India
7 days ago
- Entertainment
- Time of India
Chinmayi Sripada says she was anxious when 'Muththa Mazhai' from Thug Life audio launch went viral: 'I cried in countless temples and walked outside pretending to be a brave woman'
Singer Chinmayi Sripada recently made headlines with her soulful rendition of 'Muththa Mazhai' at the audio launch event of 's 'Thug Life'. The original track, sung by Dhee, was performed on stage by Chinmayi in her absence, and it went viral, with people discussing why Kollywood had not explored the singer's potential. Tired of too many ads? go ad free now The online fan debate brought her shadow ban in the industry back into the spotlight. Chinmayi has now opened up about the emotional struggles she faced during the ban and her fight against leading names in the industry. Chinmayi about her ban in the industry In an interview with ABP Live Tamil, Chinmayi spoke about the functioning of dubbing unions in Kollywood at the time. She criticised the dubbing union for mandating a compulsory 10% cut from its members without providing any work-related support. She claimed that the union enforces this rule arbitrarily, and when questioned about the finances, it presents inflated and inaccurate expense reports to the government. 'If the association had collected just from the salaries of Rajinikanth, Ajith Kumar, , and Kamal Haasan, they could've run something like Nithyananda's Kailasa here. I'm not saying this as a joke. Everyone runs things as they wish. They claim the dubbing union spends on struggling artistes. I haven't seen it happen,' she said. Emotional struggles and societal pressure Chinmayi opened up about feeling hurt during the ban and revealed that she had second thoughts about her revelation regarding the MeToo movement. 'I can't say I didn't feel hurt thinking, 'Did this happen just because I told the truth?' But at the same time, I knew this would happen if I spoke out. My heart is filled with pain and sorrow. In these past six or seven years, when there was a situation where no one even wanted to talk about Chinmayi, there were people who stood by me. Tired of too many ads? go ad free now All this praise, recognition, and backlash — they come and go. I've started forgetting all of it. Whatever comes my way hereafter, I dedicate it to God,' she stated. Singer Chinmayi Sripada gets slammed for supporting the Indian woman who talked about how safe she feels in Canada; netizens say 'What the hell are you doing in India?' Viral responses for 'Muththa Mazhai' Chinmayi admitted that after 'Muththa Mazhai' went viral, she was anxious, thinking something bad would happen. 'I just sang a song, that's all. But it turned into a problem for me — I was filled with anxiety, wondering if even this would become an issue. I wasn't even in a position to accept the praise. I cried in countless temples. I would cry in front of the sanctum sanctorum, and then walk outside pretending to be a brave woman. There were four people who stood by me — no matter how much I thank them, it will never be enough,' she added. The state award-winning singer also spoke about facing social stigma while living in a rented house, where even the landlords' own relatives questioned why they were renting to someone like her and pressured them to make her leave. However, the house owners stood by her, expressing pride in supporting her and refusing to yield to the criticism. She admitted that she spoke out publicly without fully considering the consequences she might face. She admitted to cursing God as people would often say, 'God will make everything better.' She even questioned the existence of God during that phase of her life. 'When I was 20, I even threw the deity's photo out onto the road. I would fight with my mother, too. She was the one I would cry to — that's how it was.' Chinmayi on her works post 2018 Chinmayi explained that although she was banned in October 2018, songs featuring her voice continued to be released afterward, such as in the 2019 film Sarvam Thaala Mayam. She clarified that this particular film had been completed four years earlier and that she had recorded the song while lyricist Na. Muthukumar was still alive. Similarly, many other songs released post-ban were actually recorded much earlier. The COVID-19 pandemic had delayed the release of several films, causing them to come out together later — which created the false impression that she was still being actively engaged in the industry after the ban.
The Hindu
10-05-2025
- General
- The Hindu
Sangameswarar Temple car festival held in Coimbatore after 32 years
The Sangameswarar Temple car festival in Kottaimedu took place on Saturday, marking its return after a 32-year break. A large number of devotees participated in the procession, offering prayers and witnessing the traditional event. Festival preparations began on May 4 with the ceremonial hoisting of the temple flag between 5:30 a.m. and 6:30 a.m. Special pujas were performed daily for deities Sangameswarar and Akilandeswari. On Saturday, the temple was opened early in the morning for special pujas, after which the deities were installed on the decorated chariot. The procession commenced at 10:40 a.m. The chariot travelled along Kottai Eswaran Kovil Street, Perumal Koil Street, and NH Road before returning to its starting point at Kottai Eswaran Kovil Street by 2.15 p.m. Vedic hymns were recited ahead of the chariot, accompanied by traditional Kailasa instruments. Thousands of people participated in the procession. As part of efforts to promote communal harmony, members of the local Muslim community distributed biscuits and refreshments to devotees. Security arrangements were overseen by the Coimbatore City Police, with over 500 personnel deployed along the procession route.
New York Times
03-04-2025
- Politics
- New York Times
The Hindu Nation Was Fake. But Its Land Grab in Bolivia Was Real.
They call themselves emissaries of the world's first 'sovereign nation' for Hindus, with its own passports and 'cosmic constitution.' They claim to have created an official currency in sacred gold, managed by a 'reserve bank.' Representatives of this nonexistent country have given statements at U.N. events and posed for photos with global statesmen, American congressmen and the mayor of Newark. Their leader, a fugitive holy man, professes to be able to guide the process of reincarnation, guaranteeing that billionaires who use his services won't be paupers in the next life. But the self-proclaimed United States of Kailasa has now collided with reality. Last week, officials in Bolivia said they had arrested 20 people associated with Kailasa, accusing them of 'land trafficking' after they negotiated 1,000-year leases with Indigenous groups for swathes of the Amazon. The agreements were declared void, and the Kailasans were deported — not to Kailasa, but to their actual home countries, among them India, the United States, Sweden and China. 'Bolivia does not maintain diplomatic relations with the alleged nation 'United States of Kailasa,'' Bolivia's Ministry of Foreign Affairs said in a statement. Kailasa's 'press office of the Holy See of Hinduism' did not respond to requests for comment. The bizarre story of Kailasa stretches back at least to 2019, when the guru known as Swami Nithyananda — a.k.a. His Divine Holiness, the Supreme Pontiff of Hinduism — fled India after being accused of rape, torture and child abuse. Born Arunachalam Rajasekaran in southern India, he became a Hindu monk and started his first ashram in his 20s near the tech hub of Bengaluru. He quickly built an empire across India and in cities around the world. Nithyananda was also grandiose, linking himself to long religious and royal lineages. He claimed miracle powers, like helping the blind see through a 'third eye' or delaying the sunrise by 40 minutes. 'I am a totality of unknown in your life. I'm the manifest of un-manifest,' he said in one sermon. 'The moment you sit in front of me, enlightenment starts.' During a conversation in front of a large crowd, he endorsed the idea of 'the world's first inter-life reincarnation trust management.' Rich people like Bill Gates or Warren Buffett could invest a few billion dollars in a trust; Nithyananda said he possessed the knowledge system to ensure they got the money when they were reborn. That would be important, Nithyananda's interlocutor said, 'because it is possible Bill Gates will be born very poor, Warren Buffett may be born in some African village as a very poor guy.' When the accusations of rape and sexual assault started piling up and the government went after Nithyananda, he claimed that the cases were an anti-Hindu conspiracy 'to grab my land.' It is not clear where he went after fleeing India, but reports put him in South America or the Caribbean. A couple of years later, he resurfaced with the declaration that he had founded the United States of Kailasa, which he said was the revival of past Hindu kingdoms. The new nation's website — where 'free e-citizenship' is just a few clicks away — said its sovereign lands were 'in the Andean region.' Nithyananda, who is now in his late 40s, was up front about the benefits the location offered. 'Many people asked me, 'Swami ji, why did you leave such a huge empire you built in India and are sitting in a corner?' he says in a video, referring to himself using an Indian honorific. The answer, he said, was 'immunity' that made him 'non-prosecutable' as the head of his own state. Since then, Kailasa had popped up now and again when its emissaries caused embarrassment for politicians around the world. In 2023, a senior official in Paraguay resigned after he had signed a memorandum of understanding with Kailasa. Earlier that year, the mayor of Newark, Ras Baraka, rescinded a sister cities agreement with the fictitious nation days after holding a ceremony announcing the partnership. In Bolivia, the Kailasa followers, who officials said had arrived on tourist visas, managed a photo with the country's president, Luis Arce. There is no evidence that Nithyananda joined them there. Scandal erupted after an investigation by the Bolivian newspaper El Deber revealed the leases that the Kailasans had signed with Indigenous groups in the Amazon. Pedro Guasico, a leader of the Baure, one of the groups, said its contact with the Kailasa emissaries had begun late last year, when they arrived offering help after forest fires. The conversations eventually turned to a lease of land three times the size of New Delhi, and the Baure agreed to a 25-year deal that would supposedly have paid them nearly $200,000 annually. But when the Kailasa representatives came back with a draft in English, it covered 1,000 years and included the use of air space and the extraction of natural resources. Mr. Guasico said his group signed anyway. 'We made the mistake of listening to them,' he said by phone. 'They offered us that money as an annual bonus for conserving and protecting our territory, but it was completely false.'
