GAUTHAM VASUDEV MENON

Gautham Vasudev Menon born 25 February 1973, also known as GVM, is an

Indian film director, screenwriter and producer who predominantly works in Tamil
cinema. He has also directed Telugu and Hindi films, which are remakes of his own
Tamil films. Many of his films have been critically acclaimed, most notably his
romantic films Minnale, Vaaranam Aayiram, Vinnaithaandi Varuvaayaa and his
thrillers Kaakha Kaakha, Vettaiyaadu Vilaiyaadu and Yennai Arindhaal. Vaaranam
Aayiram won the National Film Award for Best Feature Film in Tamil. Menon
produces films through his Photon Kathaas film production company. His production
Thanga Meengal won the National Film Award for Best Feature Film in Tamil.

Menon was born to a Malayali father and a Tamil mother on 25 February 1973
in Ottapalam, a town in the Palakkad district of Kerala. His father died in 2007.
Although born in Kerala he grew up in Anna Nagar, Chennai. He earned a bachelor's
degree in Mechanical Engineering from Mookambigai College of Engineering,
Pudukkottai.

Menon was a student of Mechanical Engineering at Mookambigai College of

Engineering as a part of the class of 1993, and his time there inspired him to write the
lead characters of Minnale, Vaaranam Aayiram, Vinnaithaandi Varuvaayaa,
Neethaane En Ponvasantham and Enai Noki Paayum Thota who were students of the
same course. During the period, he was inspired by films such as Dead Poets Society
and Nayakan and expressed his desire to his parents to change his career path and
become a filmmaker. His mother insisted that he become an ad film maker by
shooting various commercials and he took an apprenticeship under filmmaker Rajiv
Menon. He went on to work as an assistant director for Minsara Kanavu, in which he
also appeared in a cameo role

Menon launched a Tamil romance film O Lala in 2000 with the project
eventually changing producers and title into Minnale with Madhavan, who was at the
beginning of his career, being signed on to portray the lead role. About the making of
the film, Menon revealed that he found it difficult as the team was new to the industry
with only the editor of the film, Suresh Urs, being an experienced technician.

Menon came under further pressure when Madhavan insisted that the film's
story was narrated to the actor's mentor, Mani Ratnam, to identify if the film was a
positive career move. Despite initial reservations, Menon did so and Ratnam was
unimpressed; however Menon has since cited that he thought that Madhavan "felt
sorry" and later agreed to continue with the project. The film also featured Abbas and
newcomer Reemma Sen in significant roles, whilst Menon introduced Harris Jayaraj
as music composer with the film. The film was advertised as a Valentine's Day release
in 2001 and told the tale of a young man who falls in love with the girl engaged to his
excollege rival. Upon release it went on to become a large success commercially and
won positive reviews from critics, with claims that the film had a lot of lot of verve
and vigour and that it was technically excellent.

ISWARYA. P
 RAJINDER SINGH RAHELU

Rajinder Singh Rahelu is an Indian Paralympic powerlifter. He won a bronze

medal at the 2004 Summer Paralympics in the 56 kg category. He represented India at
the 2008 Summer Paralympics in Beijing, finishing fifth in the final standings.

Arjuna Award recipient, Rahelu, represented India at the 2012 Summer

Paralympics in London, United Kingdom; he failed in all his three attempts at 175
kilograms.

Rahelu was born on 22 July 1973 in Mehsampur village, Jalandhar district,

Punjab, in a poor Kashyap rajput family. He is the youngest of five siblings, with two
older brothers and two older sisters. His father, Rattan Singh, worked as a
bandmaster, and his mother Meera Singh was a maid. Rahelu is suffering from
infantile paralysis. He contracted polio when he was eight months old. He is married
to Jaswinder Kaur and has two daughters named Ridhima and Ravneet.

After finishing higher secondary education, Rahelu chose not to continue his
education further. He decided to pursue powerlifting following encouragement from
his friend Surinder Singh Rana, who himself is a powerlifter. Captain Piara Singh
Vashisht Seva Medalist was his coach in 1996.
 He lifted 70 kg on his first bench press attempt and within six months he was
able to lift 115 kg. He won his first ever title in powerlifting in 1997 at the Punjab
Open Meet. In August 1998, he won National Powerlifting Championship held at
Chhindwada in Madhya Pradesh.

Rahelu competed in the 56 kg category at the 2004 Summer Paralympics in

Athens, Greece. He finished fourth in the final standings after lifting a total weight of
157.5 kg. However, this position was later upgraded to a third place after Syrian lifter
Youseff Younes Cheikh, bronze medallist of the event, was disqualified due to
doping. In doing so, he won the first ever medal for India in the powerlifting event of
the Paralympics. In 2006, he was conferred by the President of India the Arjuna
Award, India's second highest sporting award.

Rahelu was one of the two Indian competitors at the 2008 Summer
Paralympics. He participated in the powerlifting event. He managed to lift a total load
of 170 kg putting him at position fifth, behind Polish Mariusz Tomczyk, out of
thirteen contenders in the final. Rahelu won silver in 2014 Commonwealth Games,
with a total lift of 185 kg.

ISWARYA. P
 NOVEL

The novel originated in the early 18th century after the Italian word "novella,"
which was used for stories in the medieval period. Its identity has evolved and it is
now considered to mean a work of prose fiction over 50,000 words. Novels focus on
character development more than plot. In any genre, it is the study of the human
psyche.

The ancestors of the novel were Elizabethan prose fiction and French heroic
romances, which were long narratives about contemporary characters who behaved
nobly. The novel came into popular awareness towards the end of the 1700s, due to a
growing middle class with more leisure time to read and money to buy books. Public
interest in the human character led to the popularity of autobiographies, biographies,
journals, diaries and memoirs.

The early English novels concerned themselves with complex, middle-class

characters struggling with their morality and circumstances. Pamela, a series of
fictional letters written in 1741 by Samuel Richardson, is considered the first real
English novel. The first half of the 19th century was influenced by the romanticism of
the previous era. The focus was now on nature and imagination rather than intellect
and emotion. Gothic is a strain of the romantic novel with its emphasis on the
supernatural.

The novel became established as the dominant literary form during the reign
of Queen Victoria of England. Victorian novelists portrayed middle-class, virtuous
heroes responding to society and learning wrong from right through a series of human
errors. Sir Walter Scott published three-volume novels and ingeniously made them
affordable to the general public by making them available for purchase in monthly
instalments.

The 20th century is divided into two phases of literature modern literature and
contemporary literature, also referred to as postmodern. The characters in modern and
contemporary novels questioned the existence of God, the supremacy of the human
reason, and the nature of reality. Novels from this era reflected great events such as
The Great Depression, World War II, Hiroshima, the cold war and communism.

Realism and naturalism paved the way into postmodern surrealistic novels
with characters that were more reflective. The postmodern novel includes magical
realism, met fiction, and the graphic novel. It asserts that man is ruled by a higher
power and that the universe cannot be explained by reason alone.

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ISWARYA. P