By Umaima ShafiqSubbulakshmi birth centenary celebratedThe 100th birthday of world-renowned Carnatic singer M S Subbulakshmi was celebrated in several states on September 16. Born in Madurai in 1916, Subbbulakshmi died in 2004.Music concerts were organised for Subbulakshmi in many Chennai music academies, while a four-day festival was held at the Shamukhananda hall in Mumbai. Besides this the Mumbai governor presented Subbulakshmi’s 80-year-old daughter Radha Vishwanathan, also a dancer and singer, with the Pracharya award instituted in her mother’s name. A special musical homage was paid at her ancestral home in Madurai. Subbulakshmi learnt her craft at a young age from her mother and later from other gurus. She gave her first concert at the Rockfort temple in Tiruchi in 1926 and moved to Madras (present day Chennai) at the age of 16. For the next 80 years Subbulakshmi became a legend in classical singing immortalising devotional songs or bhajans like Venkateshwara Suprabatham’, ‘Bhaja Govindam’, ‘Vishnu Sahasranamam’, Katrinile Varum Geetham and others besides giving concerts worldwide. She won many awards including the Bharat Ratna, Ramon Magasaysay and Sangeetha Kalinidhi. Jaya inaugurates butterfly park at Chennai zooChief Minister Jayaram Jayalalithaa inaugurated a butterfly park at the Vandalur Zoo in Chennai last week. The park building shaped like a caterpillar with transparent overlapping sheets for a roof is 7m high and is built on 6.7 acres. The park will have 200 species of butterflies. It has host trees along with their bonsai counterparts, two labs and a conservatory. The zoo authorities said: “We have planted two types of saplings -nectar plants to feed adult butterflies and more leafy species in the post-plant garden for butterflies to lay eggs. Once the eggs become caterpillars, they will feed on the very leaves on which they are born.” The building’s humidity is automated and controlled by a reverse osmosis system and the park also has night safaris. Butterfly parks have come up in many districts of Tamil Nadu as part of climate science projects to ensure stability of ecological cycles, plant procreation and rain. Quarry owner held for alleged human sacrificeFour people including P R Palanisamy, the owner of the scam-tainted PRP granites, were arrested for suspected human sacrifice at their quarry at E Malampatti in suburban Madurai last week. The matter came to light after Servakodiyan, a former driver at PRP granites, filed a police compliant that two men, a woman and a one-year-old boy who were mentally challenged were buried in the quarry in 1999. Local district collector U Sagayam ordered an exhumation and found skeletal remains whose forensic reports confirmed Servakodiyan’s complaint. Servakodiyan hinted at more such killings and added that PRP employed him to pick up mentally ill and destitute people, feed them well and submit them at the company offices. Man arrested for stealing Rs1.2mn from ATM A former employee of a security agency was arrested for stealing Rs1.2mn from an automatic teller machine (ATM) at a kiosk in Tiruchengodu town in Namakkal district last week. The robbery took place when the security guard had gone for a tea break. Police became suspicious when they found that the machine had been opened using a password. Surveillance camera footage showed a man wearing a helmet entering the kiosk.