Dharmapuri (Tamil Nadu), Sept 11 : In a unique ritual, a priest broke coconuts over the devotees'' heads during a temple festival in a village in Dharmapuri District of Tamil Nadu, as part of their abeyance to the deity.

The ritual, which is unique to the festival of Veerapathiran Samy temple, is an annual ritual in which hundreds of devotees participated on Wednesday at Parvathanullur village

By breaking the coconuts over their heads, the devotees pay gratitude to the deity for fulfilling their wishes.

Erode (Tamil Nadu), Sept 4 : Congress president Sonia Gandhi will today address a rally at Tamil Nadu’s Erode District today.

The rally is being held as a part of series of rallies planned by the Tamil Nadu Congress Committee (TNCC) in the run-up to next year''s Lok Sabha polls.

The Congress has planned to hold rallies at Tiruchirapalli, Madurai and Tiruneveli in the next three months, to be addressed by Sonia.

Coimbatore/Tamil Nadu/Mumbai/Pune, Sept 3 : Devotees thronged a temple in Coimbatore, to offer prayers to Lord Ganesha on the occasion of ''Ganesh Chaturthi'', the ten-day long annual festival, which began on Wednesday.

The festival, which marks the birth anniversary of lord Ganesha, is celebrated with great fanfare across the country.

Hundreds of devotees thronged the temple in Coimbatore today, to offer prayers on the first day of Ganesh Chaturthi, in front of the idol, which is claimed by the temple priests to be the biggest in Asia.

Ooty (Tamil Nadu), Sep 1 : Udagamandalam or Ooty, one of the scenic hill stations in India, is abuzz with activity as film makers’ start making a beeline to the hill resort generating employment for locals.

Local people have benefited a lot in terms of employment opportunities with a large number of shooting units flocking to the city in the past few months.

The sudden spurt in film shooting in Ooty provides jobs to more than 1000 persons and 2500 derive indirect benefits.

When five to seven units come here at least 100 cars and vans are hired and a large number of hotel rooms are also occupied.

Ponneri (Vellore) Tamil Nadu, Aug. 29 : Located 14 kilometres from Ponneri on the Vaniyambadi-Tirupattur Road and situated midway between Chennai and Bangalore Yelagiri Hills is a hill resort which is also known as the ''Poor Man''s Ooty’.

Until the other day, the scenic Yelagiri didn’t have much to draw tourists except the boating experience in the stream and lake at the foothills. But today it has many attractions for tourists and the latest addition is paragliding.

On Monday, Tamil Nadu Chief Minister M Karunanidhi announced to pay of Rs. 5 lakhs to each victim, who had been undergoing treatment of eye cataract surgery and complained of blurred vision post surgery, during the eye camp at Perambalur.

Karunanidhi further said the Government would conduct a detailed inquiry into the matter. He also said that all patients who currently are being treated would get a monthly pension of Rs 400.

The patients complained to the administration that they have been given expired eye drops during the eye operation, which was conducted in a camp organized by a private Joseph Institute of Ophthalmology on July 28. Sadly, six victims lost their eyesight completely yesterday.