Three dancer-sisters lit up the Chennai stage nearly half a century ago. The most popular among the three Travancore sisters, Padmini, exited the stage on Sunday night, snatched by a massive heart attack. As she bowed out, it is curtains for an era of cinema — an era that had crowned her queen.

Born in Poojapura, Kerala, on June 12, 1932, to Thankappan Pillai and Saraswathi Amma, Padmini came after Lalitha and before Ragini (both of whom died earlier). It was dance that brought the sisters into the limelight and a combination of fine skills of acting and dancing that kept Padmini there for nearly four decades.

Since December 2005 there has been an escalating armed conflict between the Sri Lankan Army (SLA) and the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE). The Sri Lankan armed forces have carried out a series of brutal massacres of Tamils, such as the August 14 bombing of an orphanage by the air force. More than 50 children died. On August 4, 17 aid workers, mainly Tamils, were murdered by the SLA. In June, Sri Lankan Navy troops threw grenades into a church where Tamil refugees were sheltering.

Heartbeat Musical Ensemble - 15th Oct 2006

On this international day of peace in the year of 2006, at a time when the vast majority of the people on earth are enjoying a social, political and economic life that is peaceful, dignified and stable, Tamil people in the Northeast of the island of Sri Lanka yearn for the same that has eluded them for the past nearly six decades.