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Timple truth

K. Timple, a college student, tells parents to trust their children through her recently released CD "Veenai"

She is just a teenager but she has a 20-minute lesson for the doubting parents. Doing her diploma in IT at CSI Polytechnic, Salem, K. Timple, the daughter of a videographer, has brought out a VCD titled "Veenai", which is a kurum p(a)adam (kurum padam means documentary and kurum paadam means a short lesson).

The story is of a girl whose parents doubt her after they hear the tale of another girl, who has left home with her lover. The mother gets many blank calls and suspects her daughter of having an affair and asks the girl to come out with the truth. The girl is hurt when she walks in with a mini-replica of a veenai (thus the title) as a prize for poetry writing, her father fails to acknowledge it and in a scuffle between the parents, her cherished prize is broken. Finally, she leaves home to join an orphanage.

The VCD is about how parents doubt their children, especially teenage girls. It also speaks against the practice of parents comparing their children with others. "My best friend attempted suicide when we were in school because her parents doubted her, which is why I made this CD so that parents will learn to trust their children," says Timple, whose CD was screened in Pondicherry recently.

"Not having faith in children could affect the youngsters adversely. Parents are by nature protective and when girls reach a certain age they become over protective and that turns into a real problem some times. They doubt everything that their daughter does and does not do. Even if there is a blank call, they think it is for their daughter. I did a survey of women in self-help groups and also among girls in my school and college and to my shock I found that most of them have faced such problems at home," says Timple, who has herself played the lead role in the CD.

Earlier, she used to write poems on social subjects since she felt that there were many issues to be addressed. She has brought out a book of poems called "Sindhanai Pookkal" and has given a 10-minute programme in Tiruchy AIR. When she realised that not many people read poems and after her best friend attempted suicide, she decided to make a video for a wider reach. Her father Kumar has shot the video and her mother Chitra, a tailor, has funded the project.

Mother funds it

"During my Deepavali holidays I conceptualised and shot the VCD but then it remained unedited till the end of January. At that time in Salem 11 children had run away from home and I told my mother that it was time to release the VCD. So, my mother sold some of her jewels to help me. We released it in Tirupur at the `Pathiyam and Nizhal Kurumpada Vizha'".

The VCD is prized at Rs. 100 and she has brought out 300 copies so far. But Timple's mother has one grouse - most of them have taken it for free! Timple, who joined the diploma course after passing standard X from the Corporation Girls Higher Secondary School, Gugai, assured her mother that she would earn and somehow get back the jewels.

Though the only daughter of her parents, Timple finds it difficult to pay even the college bus fees and takes the town bus to college. She takes an hour and two buses to get there. "I hadn't paid the bus fees last term. So, the driver did not allow me to travel in it," she says. Though her family is finding it difficult to make ends meet she is now planning to make another CD on the topic of female infanticide.

Copies of the CD "Veenai" are available at 177, Trichy Main Road, Gugai, Salem - 636006 or call 93600 66336.

DEEPA H RAMAKRISHNAN

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