‘Thirukkural’ hot air balloon to adorn sky next Pongal

COIMBATORE: They have graced the surfaces of palm leaves, mugs, book covers, banners and walls. But for the first time, the revered couplets of the Thirukkural, would be seen on a hot air balloon that would be fired into the sky next Pongal. The project titled ‘Kural Balloon’, a tribute to Tamil, was launched on Tuesday to mark the Tamil New Year.
Global Media Box announced on their Facebook page that they would launch a hot air balloon which would have all the 1,330 couplets of the Thirukkural printed on the balloon.“Each couplet would also have the English translation and annotation printed right below it,” said Benedict Savio of Hot Air Ballooning Company, Global Media Box. “One of the reasons we chose the Thirukurral is because it contains Tamil virtues, knowledge, morals, advice on love and compassion among many things. We want to showcase the depth of Tamil literature,” he said.
The company, based in Chennai and the USA, came up with the idea when brainstorming novel ways to celebrate Tamil. “We had been doing so many balloon festivals in countries like Taiwan and Australia for about eight to 10 years but nothing specifically for Tamil Nadu or India despite having a base here,” said Savio. “That was when my friend Selva Saravanah and I came up with this idea,” he added.
The verses would be printed through a special inkjet on the balloon material, which is usually made of a variety of fabrics, known as Normex and Ripstop. The Kural balloon itself will be 100ft tall and 1,33,000 cubic feet in volume. Since the cost of printing text on the balloon is likely to push up its cost from Rs50lakh (cost of a plain balloon) to upwards of Rs90lakh, the balloon would be crowd-funded. “We are looking for 1,330 people to invest in the balloon. The incentive is that the picture of every contributor would be printed below the balloon, along with their name, city and country,” said Savio.
The balloon which would be launched next Pongal in Pollachi would be taken across the globe, to every country that has a sizeable Tamil population. “We plan to take it to England, France, Germany, Australia, Malaysia, United States of America and to Canada,” he said.