Caricaturist Thomas Antony, who innovatively draws striking abstract caricatures, was honoured at an event jointly organised by the Kerala Media Academy and the Kerala Lalitha Kala Akademi at Durbar Hall on Monday.
Self-taught, the media caricaturist devised his own style in which he deftly mixes visages of animals with those of the people he intends to portray.
Mr. Antony, who secured World Press Cartoon’s third prize in caricature for his unusual caricature of former president of Zimbabwe, Robert Mugabe, said his cartoons had appeared in the book brought out by WPC nine times, but this was the first time he had won an award.
“Then there are abstractions, like the yesteryear Brazilian star Ronaldo, identified by certain prominent feature of theirs,” he points to a caricature on display at Durbar Hall Art Gallery. The exhibition, ending tomorrow, also has a section on soccer greats.
source: http://www.thehindu.com / The Hindu / Home> News> Cities> Kochi / by Special Correspondent / Kochi – June 12th, 2018
Dance drama exploring a famous myth of Palakkad to soon hit stage
Kalladikode Karineeli is Palakkad’s own goddess who evokes both devotion and fear in the people here. Legends surrounding her are spread across the district, though her permanent abode is deep inside the Siruvani forests in Muthikulam village.
Her myth has been subject of many tales and hearsays but probably for the first time in art history, the stories surrounding her are now turning the subject for a theatre experiment initiated by a set of artistes from Palakkad.
Scripted and directed by award-winning playwright Ravi Thycaud, the dance drama lasting for about two-and-a-half hours also contains chilling details of the life and times of Thevanasan, a celebrated sorcerer who invoked the ferocious deity.
“Going by the legends, the district had a number of black magicians who considered her as their preferred deity. However, the drama attempts to give a contemporary twist to the legend in a way freeing the myths from obscurantism and exploring the rich cultural traditions of Palakkad,’’ said Mr Thycaud.
In addition, the drama also tries to resurge Karineeliyattom, a traditional ritual dance that was performed across the district till a few decades ago to appease Karineeli and to exorcise evil spirits. Households in Palakkad would hold the ritual dance lasting for the whole night. The upcoming play hopes to bring in elements of Karineeliyattom by using the expertise of surviving exponent Kalamandalam Chandran to give background music to the dance drama.
The theatre interpretation also attempts to tell the history of Paraya community members, the traditional invokers of Karineeli. “It took a lot of research for scripting. The traditional worshippers of Karineeli continues to remain a neglected lot and their history remains unrecorded,” he said.
Drama activist K.A. Nandajan is controlling the light and sound of the dance drama. About 40 artists are appearing on the stage in the dance drama, which would be staged for the public on the occasion of Onam festival.
It was only two months ago, Mr. Thycaud and his team staged a drama on Pulikadu Ratnavelu Chettiar, the first assistant collector of Indian origin for Palakkad region, who committed suicide in protest against racial discrimination shown by his British bosses under the Madras Presidency.
source: http://www.thehindu.com / The Hindu / Home> News> States> Kerala / by Special Correspondent / Palakkad – June 12th, 2018
Vizhinjam Bay is home to the animal which grows to a size of just 2 cm
The Vizhinjam Bay, a busy fishing ground noted for its biodiversity-rich marine ecosystem, is home to the smallest sea cucumber in India, scientists have reported.
Biju Kumar of the Department of Aquatic Biology and Fisheries, University of Kerala, and his student Deepa Pillai stumbled upon the species while scouring the rocky coast during a biodiversity study in 2015.
The animal, which grows to a size of just 2 cm, is named Thyonina bijui, after Biju Kumar.
The specimen was identified as a new species by Professor Ahmed Thandar, School of Life Sciences, University of KwaZulu-Natal, South Africa, while describing several species of sea cucumbers from the Indian Ocean.
The news about the discovery has been published in the international journal Zootaxa.
According to Dr. Kumar, this is the first species of sea cucumber endemic to the Kerala coast and is known only from Vizhinjam.
The animal inhabits shallow waters and has a barrel-shaped body.
It is reddish brown in colour, with plenty of tube feet all over the dorsal surface.
Sea cucumbers and starfish belong to the group of marine invertebrates called echinoderms.
Of the 179 sea cucumbers reported from India, 37 species have been recorded from the Kerala coast.
Culinary delicacy
The larger species of sea cucumbers are overharvested for export as they are considered one of the culinary delicacies in China and many western countries.
The Government of India has listed all species of sea cucumbers (holothurians) under Schedule 1 of the Indian Wildlife (Protection) Act, 1972, imposing a blanket ban on their harvesting from Indian waters.
Occurring only in marine ecosystems, the sea cucumber plays a critical role in ecosystem functioning by recycling nutrients and carbonates.
Often referred to as the earthworms of the sea, these animals are responsible for extensive shifting and mixing of substrate and recycling of sediments into animal tissue and nitrogenous waste which can be taken up by algae and sea grass.
Dr. Kumar feels that detailed investigations of the marine biodiversity of the Kerala coast, especially from the rocky shores and bays, would lead to the discovery of several new species.
source: http://www.thehindu.com / The Hindu / Home> News> States> Kerala / by T. Nandakumar / Thiruvananthapuram – June 07th, 2018
The district administration has been awarded for taking steps to reduce plastic waste. Sujith Karun, district co-ordinator of Haritha Keralam Mission, received the award from Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan on behalf of the district collector in Thiruvananthapuram on Tuesday.
At the function, awards were given to 21 institutions from Ernakulam district for activities aimed at reducing plastic. The office of the Panchayat Deputy Director, Thiruvairanikulam temple committee, SCMS Engineering College, NSS technical cell, Thurithikkara Urja Nirmala Harithagramam, and the Society for Teresians for Environment Protection, were among the institutions that won the award.
The festival at Thiruvairanikulam temple, Malayattoor pilgrimage, Aluva Sivarathri, Edappally church festival, and Moothakunnam festival were among those that followed the green protocol. Biodegradable and non-biodegradable waste were segregated during these festivals and plastics were sent for recycling.
source: http://www.thehindu.com / The Hindu / Home> News> Cities> Kochi / by Staff Reporter / Kochi – June 07th, 2018
Students of Toc H Institute of Science and Technology, Arakunnam, with the Electromyography-controlled prosthetic arm that they developed.
It will meet the basic daily requirements of an amputee
Five engineering students of Toc H Institute of Science and Technologyat Arakunnam near here have come up with an Electromyography (EMG) controlled prosthetic arm.
The students – Mereena Baby, Aysha Zenab Kenza, Nikitha Sajan, Lakshmi Mohan, and Sharon Alex – are in the final year of their B.Tech Computer Science programme.
A release issued by the college claimed that the robotic arm would meet the basic daily requirements of an amputee, even though it lacked advanced features.
The prosthetic arm is priced at ₹2 lakh while those with advanced features cost anywhere between ₹15 lakh to ₹25 lakh, which is out of the reach of the common man, it said.
The students said that the Myo-armband interprets the electric signals produced as a result of the muscle movements and converts them into accurate hand gestures. They are then read by a micro-controller through a Bluetooth dongle.
Server motors
Based on those signals read, an appropriate number of server motors are rotated to move the prosthetic limb, they said.
The release said that the product could be made faster and easier by using advanced technologies such as artificial intelligence.
The students expressed the hope that they would get support from investors to take the product to users.
source: http://www.thehindu.com / The Hindu / Home> News> Cities> Kochi / by Special Correspondent / June 03rd, 2018
Energy Management Centre, Kerala | Photo Credit: Special arrangement
The main campus of Energy Management Centre, Kerala is a global star in the campaign for energy efficiency
After riding for half an hour in the blazing sun, entering the new building of Energy Management Centre, Kerala(EMC), near Chavadimukku, is, literally, a cool experience. The 43,000 square foot office building inside Sree Krishna Nagar was one of the six in the world and the only project listed from India in UN’s ‘Global Status Report 2017: Towards a zero-emission, efficient, and resilient buildings and construction sector’ released in May 2017.
For a long time EMC, an autonomous institution under the Government of Kerala, was operating out of a rented building near Thycaud. “It was in 2006, when I got to visit the Confederation of Indian Industry – Sohrabji Godrej Green Businesss Centre, that I set my mind on building something similar for EMC in Thiruvananthapuram. Although a plan was on paper by 2011, it took another five years for getting the required funds, administrative sanction and construction,” says K.M. Dhareshan Unnithan, director of EMC-Kerala. The building was inaugurated in 22 February, 2016.
Built on a hillside, the building is designed to be in tune with the terrain to avoid landscaping and tampering with the natural slope of the land. Offices, auditoriums and laboratories are all set around a central green courtyard, which slants from one end to the other. “This helps in draining of rain water from the top to the other end where they are diverted to two ponds that we have in this compound,” says Dinesh Kumar A.N., an energy technologist working at EMC, while showing me around the office.
Also, the building is oriented in such a way as to get maximum sunlight on the roof, where the solar panels are located, while the spaces inside it are designed for maximum availability of natural light. On a bright day, most of the spaces inside the building is lit completely by natural light, while artificial lights inside the building are all LED lamps and that is another way of saving energy. “At the same time most of the windows face north and south directions, which means they never face direct sunlight and that brings down the heat entering the buildings in a huge manner. It has contributed a lot to the energy efficiency of the building as we didn’t have to spend a lot on cooling,” Dhareshan adds. The cross ventilation and turbo vents too help in avoiding things from getting heated up inside the EMC office while solar reflectance index coating and high-albedo painting aids in insulation.
The entire campus is powered by 30 kilowatt grid-connected solar capacity. “We are only using a portion of what we are producing and the rest is being diverted to the grid and that makes us an energy positive structure,” says Dhareshan. All this has made the EMC building four times more energy-efficient than the highly energy efficient five-star rated buildings.
Green buildings, EMC scientists say, are the way to future. Although it might cost the common man a bit more than constructing a regular house, going for the green option would mean saving money in a big manner in future. Dhareshan adds, “There are already powerful wall-mounted batteries in the market that can be charged using solar panels. They don’t come cheap, but anything extra you spend on setting such a system would be retrieved within a time period while saving you a lot of money which would otherwise be used for paying energy bills.”
source: http://www.thehindu.com / The Hindu / Home> Sci-Tech> Environment / by Aswin V.N. / Thiruvananthapuram – June 01st, 2018
Maharashtra native Pranjal Patil, who had lost her vision at the age of eight, took charge as Ernakulam Assistant Collector today
Kochi :
Pranjal Patil, who lost her vision at the age of eight, has braved all odds to become an IAS officer. On Monday, she took charge as the assistant collector of Ernakulam district.
Pranjal from Ulhasnagar in Maharashtra had cracked the Union Public Service Commission (UPSC) examination in 2016 and secured 733rd rank in her first attempt. Since, Pranjal always wanted to become an IAS officer, she decided to give it a second try and went on to secure 124th rank in 2017.
Pranjal said that she is excited about her posting as the assistant collector of Ernakulam.
“This is my first major assignment. I completed my nine-month training at Lal Bahadur Shastri National Academy of Administration, Mussorie, Uttarakhand, two weeks ago. Here I am undergoing further training to become a collector. So, this is like a practical exam for me. At present, I am considering areas that need my contribution, the areas I need to improve and what positive changes I can bring for the overall development of the district as a whole,” said Pranjal, who is looking forward to learn more about the city by interacting with people here.
For civil service aspirants, she said, “Have faith in yourself. Don’t listen to any negative comments but please be open to criticism. However, don’t get bogged down by criticism. Things may take time to get the desired outcome but we shouldn’t give up.”
According to her parents, L B Patil and Jyothi Patil, Pranjal lost her vision when a student in her class poked one of her eyes with a pencil which eventually led to retinal detachment and as a result she lost the vision of her left eye. Doctors warned her parents that she might soon lose vision in the other eye too and unfortunately, the warning proved to be right and she lost the vision in her other eye within a year.
However, Pranjal’s parents never let blindness come in the way of her education. Her parents said that Pranjal has been good at studies right from her childhood. They sent Pranjal to Kamla Mehta School for Blind in Dadar, Mumbai,. She did her graduation in Political Science from St Xavier’s College, Mumbai and later earned a master’s degree in international relations from Jawaharlal Nehru University, Delhi.
“People who always look for excuses for their failures should learn from my daughter,” said L B Patil, Pranjal’s father.
Pranjal said that technology played an important role in her education. “I have learnt Braille. Now there is a screen reader software installed on my laptop which would read out chapters from various books for me. This software will scan the pages of the book or material I want to read and the software reads it out to me. The screen reader software also helps in carrying out various activities related with my work. Once you know how to use technology things will be easier,” she said.
Regarding whether cracking UPSC exams was a challenging one, Pranjal said that it was challenging for everyone not just her. “Challenge is in the sense of getting the right material and its accessibility. For me, finding a trustworthy scribe to write my exam was also a challenge. But things fell in the right place for me,” said Pranjal.
Pranjal said that her aim is to learn as many Malayalam words within a short span. “Malayalam is a language which is completely different from other languages that I know. So, it will need a lot of effort. But I strongly believe I can master it once I put in all the effort in right direction,” said Pranjal.
source: http://www.timesofindia.indiatimes.com / The Times of India / News> City News> Kochi News / TNN / May 30th, 2018
File photo of Sreelakshmi G | Photo Credit: Special Arrangement
Sreelakshmi has scored 499/500 in the CBSE Class X examination.
Sreelakshmi. G, a student of Bhavan’s Varuna Vidyalaya, Thrikkakara, emerged as one of the national toppers in the CBSE Class X examinations.
She was one of the four students to bag 499 marks, dropping just one mark in Maths. However, when the news reached her house at Puthiya Road in Vennala near here shortly thereafter, she was not there to celebrate the success.
Sreelakshmi was away attending entrance coaching at Chavara Public School at Pala in Kottayam district. Only her mother Rema L.P. was at home to receive the good news.
“I could not reach her to share the news and instead had to pass it on to her hostel warden,” an excited Ms. Rema, an assistant professor of Zoology and Controller of Examination at the Maharajas College (Autonomous) told The Hindu. Neither could she immediately reach her husband S. Gopinathan, senior government pleader, as his phone, just like hers, was bombarded with calls from the media and friends.
Asked about her daughter’s preparations for the exam, Ms. Rema said that Sreelakshmi was a very diligent student who left nothing for the next day. “Besides, the school notes, she used to prepare her own multi-coloured special notes. Teachers were also very confident about her performance in all subjects except Maths about which she was a bit sceptic. She was also a bit concerned about English since traditionally high marks are not awarded for that subject,” Ms. Rema said.
However, Ms. Rema was candid enough to admit that not in their wildest dreams did they expect her to emerge as one of the national toppers. According to her mother, Sreelakshmi aims to pursue medicine.
Sreelakshmi enrolled for the entrance coaching in April 16 and was supposed to return home on Tuesday. But then it was postponed by a few days at the instance of the school authorities in the wake of the outbreak of Nipah virus.
source: http://www.thehindu.com / The Hindu / Home> News> Cities> Kochi / by M.P. Praveen / Kochi – May 29th, 2018
When the piece of a broken sword turned out to be a vital clue in the murder of Conolly
(A weekly column on the region’s past culled from historical documents.)
The photograph of a painting of H.V. Conolly at the Teak Museum in Nilambur. PHOTO: SPECIAL ARRANGEMENT | Photo Credit: Special Arrangement
Henry Valentine Conolly’s murder marks a bloody chapter in the history of Malabar. Killing a Collector was unheard of and the instance became a much-debated one, spurring research, speculation and analysis. We will spare the causes, political and social, which led to the event. Instead, through two letters find the state of the British administration in the immediate aftermath of the murder. The British predictably were rattled by the act and the letters depict their search for the culprits. The investigation here is centered on a sword which turns out to be a vital piece of evidence.
The first letter which mentions the murderis written in the wee hours of September 12, 1855, by S. B. Tod, the Assistant Collector of Malabar to C. Collett, the Sub Collector. Written at 1 a.m., he breaks the news of Conolly’s death. “This is my melancholy duty to inform that Mr Conolly, the Collector of the district was barbarously murdered this evening by three moplahs,” he writes. Collett is expected to arrive at Calicut as soon as possible.
After this cryptic message, Tod writes a detailed letter to the T. Pycroft, Chief Secretary, Ootacamund, two days after the murder. The focus has shifted to the investigation and the search is on for the murderers. Tod narrates his experiences on visiting Conolly’s residence after the death. Though he took depositions from the employees at the bungalow, no concrete evidence seems to have emerged. “I took depositions from the servants, peons and who were in the house when the murder was committed but regret to say that very little could be brought to light,” he writes.
The workers were scattered across the house and while all came running hearing Conolly’s cries, none seem to have been in state to nab or identify the attackers. “Our servant and peon who came before the ruffians escaped were severely wounded by them.”
Tod quickly comes to the matter of the evidence. “The most important evidence as yet procured is the discovery on the floor of the room in which the murder took place of a piece of a sword of the kind that is used in the jail and supposed to have been used by one of the prisoners who escaped from the Calicut jail about a month ago,” he writes. Tracing the sword piece to the jail, he says the sword was among the weapons which included pistols that were taken from the guard by the fleeing prisoners.
Simultaneously, the British also receive intelligence on 12 moplahs who wounded a Namboodiri Brahmin in the Koduvally taluk. While one Vasoodevan Namboodiri was injured, the attackers later took up the house of his brother who is also the amshom adhikari, writes Tod. The official writes on the need to gear up a force to tackle the insurgency. This attack proves a distraction to the British and while a force proceeds to the Namboodiri’s house they receive their next intelligence message saying the moplahs have left the house in the night. Since the direction undertaken by them is unclear, Tod writes that the troop is instructed to march back to Calicut.
On the morning of September 14 when he writes the letter, Tod mentions getting other linking clues. It follows the visit of the tahsildhar to the Namboodiri household. The attackers had apparently carried off “382 rupees in jewels and money and two swords, bow and arrows.” He comes to the point soon. They “had left behind a sword with an end broken off and some clothes covered with blood stains but that it was not known in what direction they had gone.” The British immediately piece together the facts. The attackers of Conolly had ventured into the Namboodiri’s house after killing the Collector.
“The fact of the broken sword being discovered … is a strong and importance piece of evidence,” writes Tod. The peculiarity of the sword makes identification easier, according to him. “The shape of the weapon being a peculiar one, not generally in use except by the government servants. The clothes had been washed as if with the intention to efface the stains of blood with which they were covered,” says Tod.
Consequently, the search is accelerated, but Tod warns that the task is not easy. “I have little doubt that the insurgents will ere long be put an end to.” But it is the social impact of the incident that will be hard to erase, he believes. “The dread these men have inspired is so great that I am anything but sanguine of them being captured alive by civil powers.”
Tod also discusses the reward for informers. “I have referred of 1,000 rupees for such information,” he writes. In the file is also a notice to the people of the region. It says “that any person of persons who may give any aid, assistance, information or shelter to the four escaped prisoners who are suspected of the murder of the late Collector and their comrades are if convicted of the same liable to be punished with death.” They are warned against admitting strangers into their house. It does not take the British more than couple of days to get to the men. That of course, makes for another story.
(Source: Regional Archives Kozhikode)
source: http://www.thehindu.com / The Hindu / Home> Past Continuous> History & Culture / by P. anima / Kozhikode – June 07th, 2013
Maehal Barthwal wins 99.2% to become regional topper
It was a proud moment for Kochi on Saturday when the Central Board of Secondary Education (CBSE) declared the results of its Class 12 examinations.
City student Maehal Barthwal emerged as the commerce stream topper in the Thiruvananthapuram region of the board. A student of Navy Children School, Naval Base, Maehal was on cloud nine when The Hindu wanted her to share the secrets of her success.
“There is no secret to success. Just keep working hard. It’s okay even if you are not able to score well in your exams at school. Just keep working hard. Don’t give up. Have a good timetable fitting everything [enjoyment, studies etc.,]. Have everything in the right proportion,” said the young talent.
Daughter of Lt. Col Rakesh Barthwal at the Station Headquarters (Army) at the Naval Base here and Alpana Barthwal, a former Army Captain, Maehal said she never expected this result. She won an overall percentage of 99.2 (496/500). “I was expecting somewhere between 97 and 98%. This was an added bonus,” she said.
Asked whether the re-test of economics paper following the question paper leak had put extra pressure on her, Maehal said it was slightly better for her compared to the exam that got cancelled.
A girl who loves to pursue a career in finance and accounting, Maehal said she had applied for B.Com (Hons) course at Delhi University and was hopeful of joining the prestigious institution.
source: http://www.thehindu.com / The Hindu / Home> News> Cities> Kochi / by Special Correspondent / Kochi – May 26th, 2018
