இப்பகுதி இன்னும் பூரணப்படுத்தப்படவில்லை. தகவல்கள் சேகரிக்கப்படுகின்றன. அவ்வப்போது சேர்த்துக்கொள்ளப்படும். Update of this page is incomplete, in progress
In Prabakaran’s birthplace, a different kind of hero - The Hindhu 20 Oct 2012
ஆழிக்குமரன் ஆனந்தன் - Kumar Anandan (Guinness records holder from Valvettithurai)
அலை ஒளி எனும் கையெழுத்துச் சஞ்சிகையின் அட்டைப்படத்தில் திரு ஆழிக்குமரன் ஆனந்தன். 1990 களில் இவ் இணையதளத்துடன் தொடர்புடைய இருவரால் வெளியிடப்பட்டிருந்த இப்பதிப்பில் திரு.ஆனந்தன் அவர்கள் சிறப்பிக்கப்பட்டிருந்தமை இங்கு குறிப்பிடத்தக்கது.
திரு.ஆனந்தன் தொடர்பான தகவல்களை முழுமையாகத் திரட்டி இதில் பிரசுரிப்பதற்கு முயற்சிக்கின்றோம்
V.S. Kumar Anandan was a Guinness World Records holder.[1] His one of many records include Swimming the Palk Strait, from Sri Lanka to India and back [1] in 51 hours, in the year 1971. Once he met with a motor vehicle accident and was hospitalized for six months. While attempting to swim the English Channel on August 6, 1984 he collapsed and died [1] due to heavy currents. Kumar Anandan held the maximum number of Individual Guinness Records at a point in time which included Non-Stop Water treading (80 hours at Chennai), Standing on one leg for 33 hours, Non-Stop dancing, Ball punching for 136 hours, etc.
He was from Valvettithurai, Jaffna District, Sri Lanka. He had a successful educational career; he was a graduate of University of London. He also obtained the Bachelor of Laws degree in Sri Lanka (then Ceylon) and was an Attorney at Law by profession.
"Kumar Anandan, son of Vivekanandan of the Engineering Service of the Irrigation Department, Sri Lanka, was from Valvettiturai, Jaffna. From his early days, Kumar set his heart on distinguishing himself and becoming an outstanding member of the community.
He had a successful educational career, graduating in Science of the London University. He also obtained the Bachelor of Laws degree in Ceylon and was an Attorney at Law by profession.
Very soon he commenced his efforts at winning World Records and seeing his name in the Guinness Book of World Records. By 1983, he had secured several records:
Record - Swimming the Palk Strait, from Sri Lanka to India and back, in 51 hours, in the year 1971.
Record - Twist Dance for 128 hours, in December 1978 .
Record - Non-stop cycling for 187 hours, a distance of 1487 miles, in May 1979.
Record - Balancing on one foot for 33 hours, in May 1979.
Record - Ball punching for 136 hours, in December 1979.
Record - Sit ups - 165 in two minutes, in May 1980.
Record - High Kicks - 9100 times, in December 1980.
Record - Walking non-stop for 159 hours, a distance of 296 miles, in August 1981.
Record - Water-Treading for 80 hours, performed at the Anna Swimming Pool in Madras, in August 1981.
He was unfortunate to meet with a serious motor accident and was in hospital for six months; afterwards he had to be in crutches for another six months. Even after that, he performed Billiards Cue-Levelling and Speed Motor Cycle riding.
But tragedy befell on the 6th of August 1984. A day of disaster for this "Heroic and Restless Life". He collapsed half-way while attempting to swim the 30 mile stretch of the English Channel from Dover to Cape Gris Nez. He encountered heavy and unfavourable currents and collapsed after six hours of valiant defiance. That was the end of a World Record Holder, a restless life who aspired to be Champion Endurance Sportsman of the world."
In Prabakaran’s birthplace, a different kind of hero - The Hindhu 20 Oct 2012
Kumar Anandan did a two-way swim across the Palk Straits
In the town that cradled Sri Lankan Tamil militancy and was the birthplace of its most ferocious exponent Velupillai Prabakaran, a legend of a different kind is now getting belated attention.
VVT, as this north Jaffna coastal town is known, is planning to erect a statue to a less famous son, V.S. Kumar Anandan, who did a record two-way swim from Thalaimannar in Sri Lanka to Dhanushkodi on the Tamil Nadu coast.
Anandan’s son, Rajan, is the present head of Google India.
“Recently, we had a small ceremony to honour Kumar Anandan. We’re now discussing erecting a statue to him. His wife’s family has promised to help with funds,”’ said M.K. Shivajilingam, once a militant in TELO, and now a member of the VVT Urban Council.
“A resolution has been passed in the Council. We need to raise some public contribution too. No date has been fixed for installing the statue, but I hope we will be able to do it 2-3 months after the current spell of rains,” he added.
Anandan’s uncle, Murugapillai Navratnaswami, the first person ever to swim the Palk Straits, in 1954 — he took 28 hours from VVT to Point Calimere — is being considered for a similar honour.
Three years after the LTTE was defeated by the Sri Lankan military ending a war that spanned three decades, the country’s Tamil community is confused and dejected about its place in a Sinhala majoritarian Sri Lankan state.
Post war, little headway has been made on devolving federal powers to Northern Sri Lanka, seen as crucial for the development of the province as well as for the welfare of its predominantly Tamil community.
The conflict consumed two generations of Tamils. The community is left with few role models. VVT had a reputation for Tamils who walked with an extra swagger. Even in the pre-militancy days, its sea-faring community was known for its daring contraband runs to Tamil Nadu and South-east Asia.
Today, it is a subdued little place. The house where Prabakaran grew up and that he slipped out of as a teenager to become a full-time militant, has been demolished down to the last brick. Only the floor of a bathroom and a well remain. The Army did not want it to become a shrine of sorts for the dead LTTE supremo.
People are wary of speaking to strangers. A woman in the neighbouring house would only say that lots of people started visiting the house after the war ended. No one had been living in it since the 1980s, and it was in a decrepit state. One night, soldiers came and levelled it to the ground.
Everyone in VVT has the same refrain: “Things are normal here now. It’s not like before.”
Clearly, people want to put the past behind them. It was here that the original Tamil militant groups, TELO and TNT, were born. From VVT alone, 500 boys who became militants were killed, or just never came back.
A group of fisherfolk, gathered near a community hall near the sea, said their main problem now was Tamil Nadu fishermen, who came in trawlers, indulged in bad practices like “double-netting,” and to add insult to injury, ripped the nets of the Jaffna fishermen.
Close to the Prabakaran family home, VVT residents had put up a statue of AIADMK leader M.G. Ramachandran in 2003-04. As Tamil Nadu Chief Minister, MGR had been a patron of the LTTE, giving Prabakaran large donations.
The statue’s arms were cut off once — no one knows who did it on either occasion — in 2008. There were no plans to repair it at the moment, Mr. Shivajilingam said.
With the limited funds at its disposal, the Urban Council was planning only to resurrect the memory of Anandan and his uncle.
In a volume titled Dictionary of the Biography of the Successful Tamils of Ceylon, by S. Arumugam, and seen on the Internet site tamilnation.org, Anandan is listed as a lawyer, but his penchant for setting records is better known than his law practice.
His first long distance swim, from VVT to Point Calimere, was in March 1963. He took 42 hours to complete it, double the time it had taken his uncle. Eleven years later, his two-way swim between the two points, in 51 hours, saw him enter the record books again. He went on to amass other more quirky records — for non-stop twist dancing for 128 hours, non-stop cycling for 187 hours, covering a distance of 1,487 miles; balancing on one foot for 187 hours; doing 165 sit-ups in two minutes; and treading water for 80 hours non-stop at the Anna swimming pool in Chennai.
He died while attempting to swim the English Channel from Dover to Cape Griz Nez on August 6, 1984. His death prompted British authorities to make it mandatory for all swimmers attempting the Channel challenge to produce a fitness certificate.
That VVT adulates him after all these years was left in no doubt recently when Mangala Samaraweera, a Sinhalese politicial leader from southern Sri Lanka and a close relative of Mrs. Anandan, was given a rousing welcome when he visited the town recently.
Navaratnaswami, Anandan’s uncle, did the swim one-way across the Palk Straits in 1954. Among those who congratulated him were his country’s Prime Minister, Sir John Kotelawala, Indian Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru and Queen Elizabeth, the British monarch.
The Hindu paid tribute to his ‘epic feat’ in an editorial, writing that he “blazed the trail (if one may employ such an incongruous metaphor in the aquatic context) as surely as Captain Webb did, when he crossed the Channel in 1875.
