Archive for the ‘Thulirkal’ Category


Thulirkal, Impressions by Annuj

By Editor - August 7th, 2015

Thulirkal, Impressions by Annuj

Today Annuj is one of the most popular Tamil photographers not only within the Canadian Tamil community but also on an international level. He was also named one of the top 30 under 30 Canadian wedding photographers and has won multiple WPPI and Fearless awards.



Thulirkal, Nayani Thiyagarajah

By Editor - April 30th, 2015

Thulirkal, Nayani Thiyagarajah

Between those experiences, I decided with my team on a short film regarding shadeism, which is also known as colourism, a word by Alice Walker. It basically describes the preference for lighter skin as discrimination based on skin tones in communities of colour. I got together with a few of my friends having a conversation and also my niece, which was all filmed and they all also helped me put everything together. As everyone usually uploads videos on Facebook, I did the same not expecting the turnout, it spread like wild fire through Facebook, Tumblr, Twitter, and other social media platforms. That’s where we got support to do a future film for the past 5 years, which we just finished this January.



Thulirkal, Basement Reels Team

By Editor - April 17th, 2015

Thulirkal, Basement Reels Team

Basement Reels runs like a two person team, with support from everyone around us. I (Krusan) do most of the direction, cinematography and editing for Basement Reels, as well as creative writing. Tharshan is the creative brain who brings forth a lot of ideas, and of course is the main face/superstar actor of our team. Basement Reels was started as a way to get us to produce videos, practice, and get audience feedback. Late December 2014, Tharshan came to me with ideas for videos related to a Tamil/South Asian audience. He was passionate about writing and acting these ideas out, and I was passionate about producing videos, so our talents just meshed together nicely. Since then, we’ve found a working system to write great ideas together and produce them quickly while maintaining good quality.



Thulirkal – Nurse and Lecturer, Gaayathry Thurairajah

By Editor - March 27th, 2015

Thulirkal - Nurse and Lecturer, Gaayathry Thurairajah

CTYA’s Blog has started a new Feature on Fridays, Thulirkal. Thulirkal meaning bud reflects the young Tamil youth we will be featuring. These youth are the buds of our community, and are growing into strong, achieving young men and women!  This week, we’ve brought you Gaayathry Thurairajah! Gaayathry Thurairajah completed her undergrad BScN in 2009…



Thulirkal – Entrepreneurs, Banuja and Nirthiha

By Editor - March 10th, 2015

Thulirkal - Entrepreneurs, Banuja and Nirthiha

We founded Your Sarista to provide a simple solution for all the Saristas, who love wearing sarees but never the same one twice! We love receiving overwhelming responses about our collections from customers who get comfort in knowing that we hand-pick all the items in our collection! Being in the same age group as most of our customers, we are able to serve our own market and identify what the Saristas in our age group find trendy in order to provide them with the best. I mean, how do we trust the aunties and uncles to know what the younger generation finds most trendy?



Thulirkal – Actor, Shelly Antony

By Editor - March 6th, 2015

Thulirkal – Actor, Shelly Antony

Shelly Antony is a classically trained actor who recently received his MFA in Acting from the New School for Drama in NYC. His teachers included Tony Award winner Ron Leibman and he was honoured to participate in master classes with Academy Award nominee Mark Ruffalo. His stage work includes William Shakespeare’s Macbeth, Much Ado about Nothing, and Craig Lucas’ Blue Window to name a few. He made his feature film debut as Aathi in Lenin M. Sivam’s A Gun & A Ring which travelled to many international film festivals including the prestigious Shanghai International Film Festival. He recently wrapped up work on Matt Huntley’s film Reach where he played the role of Nick. He is represented in NYC by Renee Glicker of About Artists Agency and was honored by CTYA as a Youth Icon in 2014.



Thulirkal – Entrepreneur, Aynka Satkunananthan

By Editor - February 20th, 2015

Thulirkal - Entrepreneur, Aynka Satkunananthan

Aynka Satkunananthan is a serial entrepreneur living in Toronto, Ontario, Canada. He is the founder of Ankit Designs (web, print, & design), Co-founder of AlterEgo Beats (clothing, music management & production), Co-founder of K.I.S.S. Hosting (website domain & hosting services), and Lead Designer at MyVerse (free online resource for teens). Aynka is a creative thinking advocate and is always emphasizing the importance of being analytical.

Aynka is a proud Ryerson University Entrepreneurship Alumni, and attests a lot of his understanding in business to the relationships he’s built through Ryerson. He is currently managing multiple businesses, but is always looking for ways to give back. He is obsessed with finding and adopting technologies that promote self-growth, and make life easier. He enjoys helping others, and is always looking to do just that whether it’s with a new venture, or just lending a hand.



Thulirkal – Fashion Trendsetter, Kishanth Raveendran!

By Editor - February 13th, 2015

Thulirkal - Fashion Trendsetter, Kishanth Raveendran!

Since I was a kid, I was always interested in fashion. Of course, it was hard not to be while growing up in Paris, France, which is known as the capital of fashion. I had adopted a very European style that portrayed classy and elegance, however when I moved to Canada, I felt insecure to continue dressing this way, as it did not seem to be the look here. So, I started following the trends of that time, and dressed myself with an urban, hip hop style (oversized clothing, bandanas galore, timberlands, etc.). But as time went by, I felt I was being unrealistic and decided to bring back my European style, where I felt more comfortable and happy.



Thulirkal – Giving Back To Jaffna Through Her Photography, Jananie Baskaran!

By Editor - February 5th, 2015

Thulirkal - Giving Back To Jaffna Through Her Photography, Jananie Baskaran!

Palm Roots is a charity-based auction, which I initiated in 2013 to raise funds for children in Jaffna. As clichéd as it sounds, my first visit to Jaffna in 2013 changed my perspective about my life here in Canada. Even though I’ve visited other parts of Sri Lanka regularly, it was my first visit to a place we call our ‘home town.’ Until then, everything I had heard about Jaffna was based on media, books and knowledge that my Dad shared with me. But seeing the consequences people faced due to the war in Jaffna and realizing that we take things such as education, our basic needs such as food and shelter for granted urged me to give back to my community and help those who weren’t able to afford these necessities.



Thulirkal: Star Keeper, Umaesh Sundaralingam!

By Admin - September 2nd, 2013

Thulirkal: Star Keeper, Umaesh Sundaralingam!

CTYA’s Blog has started a new Feature, Thulirkal. Thulirkal meaning bud reflects the young Tamil youth we will be featuring. These youth are the buds of our community, and are growing into strong, achieving young men and women! Each week we will feature a Tamil youth of the week. For more information or to suggest a youth to feature, please feel free to email us at blogs@ctya.org!

This week, we’ve brought you Umaesh Sundaralingam!

CTYA Blog Team: Thank you Umaesh for sitting down with us today. So, let’s get warmed up. Ok, now don’t think, just say what first comes to mind. 1, 2, 3…

Early Riser or Night Hawk? Early Riser

Favourite Sports Team? Liverpool FC

Most Goals in a Game? 4

Most important quality needed for success? Ambition

Editor: Tell us a little bit about yourself.

Umaesh: I’m a 6’2’’, 20 year old goalkeeper currently playing for CTSA U21. I’ve been playing soccer since I was able to walk. My dad was an amazing player back in his days, and I’ve just been born into the soccer lifestyle.
Editor: You represented Team Tamileelam at the Tynwald Hill International Football Tournament in the Isle of Man as part of Tamileelam F.A.. How did it feel to represent Team Tamileelam and wear the Tamileelam F.A. jersey?

Umaesh: Representing TEFA at the Tynwald Hill International Football Tournament was a huge honour for me. Being selected to represent a nation, especially Tamil Eelam, having gone through many struggles, to the amount of lives’ that were taken, really makes a player feel as if he’s a symbol of the nation itself. It was a huge honour wearing the TEFA jersey and performing at an international stage.