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! 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 Top Talents Tamil Language Winner, Shagana Thangarajah!!
The Tamil Language Award falls under the category Academics Awards. It is academics that will shape and structure overall character, judgement, and ones outlook on life. Academics gives you the foundation and tools to achieve dreams and goals you set for yourself at a young age. The Tamil Language Award is awarded to the individual who demonstrates perseverance, passion, and determination for learning. It is important to maintain the Tamil culture in Canada, especially when it is so easy to assimilate wholly into Western culture. The student must have the ability to participate in extracurricular activities while maintaining strong academic results.
Shagana Thangaraj has demonstrated through her extra curricular activities to be an individual who works towards maintaining the Tamil language and Tamil culture. She won the Ambassador Award in Gr.12 for being a Tamil student with well rounded community involvement in Tamil language and Bharathanatyam. She is a certified Tamil language teacher with Arivakam Canada. Shagana was also recipient of the Mary Carole Lant Scholarship at high school graduation for helping out within the community and being a leader while maintaining my academic goals at the same time. She currently serves as the Board of Director for Canadian Tamil Youth Alliance’s Human Rights and Advocacy Council.
CTYA Blog Team: Thank you Shagana 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…
Favourite Person? My Mother…she’s my everything!
Tamil Food or Western Food? I’ll eat anything that tastes good!
Summer or Winter? Summer all the way! I love being outdoors.
Hogwarts or Narnia? Hogwarts
Books or Movies? Movies, although I would love to begin reading more books.
CTYA Blog Team: Tell us a little bit about yourself.
Shagana: To start off, I’m a first year student studying in the Honours Kinesiology program at McMaster University. I am currently working as a tutor at Creative Academy and I also recently became one of the Board of Directors for CTYA’s Human Rights and Advocacy Council. Other than school and work, I like to get involved in as many things as possible! When I graduated from high school, I had well over 1000 hours of volunteer service done. Something I’ve learned over the past few years of my life through my volunteer work is the amount of happiness I feel when I make a positive difference, whether it be a change in my community or putting a smile on someone’s face! I love listening to music, dancing, basketball, playing the piano and spending time with family and friends! I do like to explore and try new things every once in a while and get away from the daily routine. One of the quotes I live by is “Success is not the key to happiness, happiness is the key to success”.
CTYA Blog Team: The Tamil language is one of the oldest languages in the world still spoken today, what do you attribute this to?
Shagana: I would attribute this to our ancestors who have made Tamil one of the most beautiful languages out there. Just looking at the way our language has been structured never fails to amaze me. Every grouping of letters (such as vowels and consonants in the English language) has a reason and story behind it. The structure of our grammar is also very clear and organized and as a result, the language has been able to sustain itself through all these years. Apart from this, I also believe that it is the responsibility of the speakers of a language to keep that language growing. From my point of view, Tamils have always been together through the good and the bad. This solidarity has in fact helped us make continuous efforts together to preserve our language, whether it be through the form of words or the form of art.
CTYA Blog Team: Many Tamil youth have expressed that it has been hard to re-learn Tamil after a gap of not learning it, what would you like to say to these youth, and how do you suggest they can learn Tamil?
Shagana: Look at it this way: learning anything new would be difficult, but would that stop you from learning anything at all? Life is all about learning new things each and every day. So I would tell you to uptake learning Tamil as a new challenge! Furthermore, Tamil is not entirely foreign to Tamil youth. We are surrounded by Tamil everywhere we go, especially in Canada where we are more than welcomed to practice our customs and culture. There are many sources that we can take advantage from, such as media, education and even our family. Next time you turn on the radio, tune into a Tamil station. Or if you are at home, watching TV, flip to a Tamil channel. Make an effort to speak with your family in Tamil during your gatherings. These small steps should help you pull through and learn the language more efficiently.
CTYA Blog Team: What’s your favourite Thirrukural?
Shagana: Friendship is something I personally value and so I love the portion of the book (Thirukkuralkal) that speaks about the importance of friendship. My favourite Thirrukural in that section is Kural number 784. Through this kural, Thiruvalluvar is sending out a message that true friendship should not be misused for laughter and temporary company. Instead, friendship is there to care for you, to lend you a hand and to guide you during your times of need. In my opinion, friends should stick together at all times and do whatever it takes to keep the other smiling.
குறள் 784
நகுதற் பொருட்டன்று நட்டல் மிகுதிக்கண்
மேற்சென் றிடித்தற் பொருட்டு
CTYA Blog Team: If you could name a road, in Tamil, what you would name it? Why?
Shagana: If I could name a road in Tamil, I would call it Vibulananthar Theru. Vibulananthar is an important figure in Tamil history. He was the first Tamil man to ever become a professor and he worked hard to build educational facilities for Tamils at a time when there was no access to schooling or a proper educational system. We all understand the importance of being educated and Vibulanathar was the first to pave way for our Tamil nation. The work that he has done for us in the past should not be forgotten, which is why I would name a road after him.
CTYA Blog Team: Who has been your biggest role model in your life? If you could pick three of their traits to possess, what would they be?
Shagana: The biggest role model in my life is by far my Amma. Three of her traits that I would like to possess are: 1) Courage to deal with any barrier that comes in my way. 2) A positive mind set to experience and love every part of life. 3) Determination to successfully complete every challenge that I uptake and to reach all my set goals.
CTYA Blog Team: Finish the sentence. “To me, Tamil youth are..”
Shagana: the sculptors of tomorrow!
For more information or to suggest a youth to feature, please feel free to email us at blogs@ctya.org! Catch up with us next Friday where we’ll be bringing you another Talented Tamil youth story!
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