EPIC SS Padur Celebrates 80th Independence Day on OMR

Padur, OMR: The thatched pavilion and tree-lined campus of EPIC SS filled with tricolour pins, school uniforms and classical dance costume on Friday morning as Padur marked 15 August 2026 as a neighbourhood Independence Day, not a stadium spectacle.

15 August 2026 — By MyOMR Editorial Team

Shantha Sheela Nair IAS, who leads the EPIC SS Padur initiative, described the morning in a same-day note: flag hoisting; the Swaram Academy choir; dance and speeches by students of Government Girls High School, Thiruporur; and a CSR sanction from Lion Dates to Padur Panchayat. Photographs and videos from the campus match that account.

Flag hoisting in the eco-park garden

The national flag was hoisted outdoors, among banana trees and the EPIC SS site boards, on a simple wooden pole. Shantha Sheela Nair pulled the hoist rope as guests in tricolour pins stood close around the pole. A young boy in a blue shirt, women in sarees, and men in formal shirts watched and clapped as the flag went up. It was a garden ceremony, not a parade ground.

Around the pole, the gathering sang patriotic songs. Several guests had small paper flags; others wore saffron, white and green. A 22-second clip from beside the flag records that singing before the programme moved indoors.

Swaram Academy choir

Inside the open-sided thatched pavilion, children from the Carnatic choir of rural students at Dr. Aishwarya’s Swaram Music Academy stood in rows and sang. Some wore white kurtas; others wore festive dresses, including a white T-shirt printed with a map of India. Adults sat along the red oxide floor and recorded the performance on their phones. The pavilion — bamboo, palm thatch, a woven hanging lamp — is the same hall EPIC SS uses for community sessions.

Speeches and dance from Thiruporur Government Girls High School

Students of Government Girls High School, Thiruporur, then took the floor. Girls in blue-and-white checked uniforms stood one after another with sheets of paper and spoke to the seated circle — classmates in uniform, girls in kasavu-style white-and-gold sarees, and a dancer already in full Bharatanatyam costume. Shantha Sheela Nair sat with them, then stood beside a student as the speeches continued.

The cultural programme included a classical dance in the centre of the pavilion. A student in orange, green and gold, with jasmine in her hair, performed Bharatanatyam for an audience sitting on the floor and along the low red ledge — children in the front, women in sarees behind them, one guest in saffron, white and green.

Lion Dates CSR: Rs 12 lakh sanction, Rs 5 lakh advance

The civic centrepiece of the morning was a CSR handover. Abinaya Ponnudurai, Director of Lion Dates Impex Pvt. Ltd., handed a sanction letter to Padur Panchayat. Shantha Sheela Nair, standing beside the two women, later confirmed the figures: a CSR sanction of Rs 12 lakh for Padur Panchayat, with Rs 5 lakh given as an advance.

The EPIC SS event notice named Thara Sudhakar, Padur Panchayat Thalaivar, as the panchayat representative to receive the sanction letter and cheque. In the photographs, the letter is held jointly by Abinaya Ponnudurai, in a maroon saree, and a woman in an orange-and-green saree, both wearing flag pins, with Shantha Sheela Nair and other guests looking on.

Lion Dates also presented a tray of purple-packed dates as a gift. Schoolgirls in uniform watched from the red ledge as the tray was received.

Chief guest and the EPIC SS hall

The printed event notice named Thiru K. Loganathan, B.Com., retired Additional Revenue Officer of the Greater Chennai Corporation, as chief guest. During the indoor programme a senior guest was honoured with a purple-and-gold ponnadai while Shantha Sheela Nair addressed the gathering. She later spoke into a handheld microphone in the same pavilion, with children seated on the red steps in front of her.

The same notice listed members of the Irula and Narikurava communities as guests of the morning. The photographs published here show the flag, choir, school programme and CSR handover; they do not separately identify those guests.

After the programme

The morning closed with a group photograph in front of the EPIC SS sign, then refreshments on the sandy ground beside a stone wall. White bowls were handed from a cardboard box on a folding table. Students still in dance costume joined the queue with children in casual clothes and guests in sarees.

“Independence Day celebrations today at EPIC SS Padur. Flag hoisting, Swaram Academy choir, dance programmes and speeches by students of Government Girls High School, Thiruporur. Lion Dates Director Abhinaya hands over CSR funds sanction of Rs 12 lakhs to Padur Panchayat, with Rs 5 lakhs advance given.” — Shantha Sheela Nair IAS, 15 August 2026

Frequently asked questions

Sources: Photographs and videos from the EPIC SS Padur campus, 15 August 2026; EPIC SS event notice for the 80th Independence Day programme; same-day note from Shantha Sheela Nair IAS. The printed notice listed a planned order of events; this report describes what the photographs, videos and same-day note show took place.