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GIANT FEAT: Three of the team members involved in the veenai project Lokeswari Gurumoorthy (right), Valarmathy Vellu (centre) and Jeniffer Sandrasegaran with a kolam and the giant musical instrument in the background.
Giant veenai on show ALOR STAR: The country’s largest handmade veenai, an Indian classical instrument, is now on display at Universiti Utara Malaysia in Sintok, Kedah. Costing about RM25,000, the giant veenai is the work of 200 members of the Indian Cultural Club of the university’s Kolej Yayasan Al-Bukhary The veenai measuring 10.3m long and 1.8m high with a 2.4m-wide base would be submitted as an entry in the Malaysia Book of Records, said programme adviser Suresh David. Veenai is associated with the Hindu goddess of education. “We have worked hard for more than a week to complete this project. We have to travel more than 100km back and forth from the campus in Sintok to a temple in Alor Star to build this wooden veenai.” Suresh, who is a third-year finance student, said the fund-raising campaign was initiated five months ago to source for funding for the project. “We managed to raise RM29,000.” The beautifully-decorated veenai was unveiled during the club launching ceremony at UUM last Sunday night. Youth and Sports Ministry Parliamentary Secretary S.A. Vigneswaran contributed RM8,000 while the UUM treasury gave RM2,000. Indian fine art experts R. Karunagaran and S. Sarawana were the designers. Karunagaran said veenai was a sacred musical instrument as the Goddess of Education was often portrayed holding it. |