In a novel attempt to ensure blood for pregnant women in the state, the Ernakulam district panchayat, in association with the All Kerala Blood Donors Association (AKBDA), has launched a novel project named ‘Save Mother Save Baby.’
Excise Minister K Babu inaugurated the project at Lakeshore Hospital here on Saturday.
“The project will benefit thousands of women who have come across issues in getting blood from the banks. We have witnessed such cases many a times and that has inspired us to initiate such a project,” said district panchayat president Eldhose Kunnappilly, while presiding over the function. To avail of the facilities of the project, people can register their names on the website: akbda.org/bloodforbaby mentioning the details of the pregnant woman including the blood group and its details, hospital to where she is going to get admitted etc. Likewise, they can register their names in a form available with the AKBDA.
“Based on the details, the AKBDA will store adequate amount of blood for the needy in the hospital before she get admitted to the hospital. Whenever the patient faces the urgency of blood, they can easily get it,” said Kunnappilly. For this, a vehicle facility with a seating capacity of 17 is also arranged for the patients and the hospital has donated `10 lakh from its CSR fund for the project.
source: http://www.newindianexpress. com / The New Indian Express / Home> States> Kerala / by Express News Service / December 14th, 2014
Remains of the old fort at Manjaly near Kochi / The Hindu
You might not spot it between a cluster of newly constructed houses and thick, wild shrubbery. Only a part of what was once a strategic fort now remains visible. There are no protection measures or notifications. The craggy ruins, the last of a historic fort, stands set to irreparable damage.
Manjaly on the Athani-North Paravur road, on the banks of the Periyar, was once a flourishing trade centre. Till recently, till the bridge that connected it to the mainland was constructed, Manjaly remained largely cut off. The main road forks away at Manjaly junction. A narrow, tarred road bends and climbs up a gentle steep. This was the path that once led to the famous Manjaly market and now the one that leads to the Latin Catholic Church and the mosque. It is on this road, on the top of the steep, that the remains of the fort stand.
“The first time I came across this fort was in 2001. Then it was not all this bad. The whole structure could be seen, there were no houses around, and one could climb up and see the place. It resembled the Palippuram Fort, built in typical Portuguese architectural style. There was a big room and two ante-rooms. What stood out was a tall tower, this must have also served as a flagstaff. The walls had holes where canons must have been placed. Three years later, when I visited this site, the dilapidation had begun. A couple of houses had sprouted near by, the walls were damaged, plants and roots had come up. I tried bringing it to the attention of people concerned but nothing seems to have happened,” informs Varghese Angamaly, a retired bank manager and local historian.
Research reveals that this fort must be the one mentioned in V. Nagam Aiya’s Travancore State Manual(TSM) Volume I. In the chapter on Archaeology where a list of forts in Travancore are recorded there is a mention of Parasuraman Kotta (fort). TSM states in detail that this fort was located in Alangad Taluk, as property of the Aiyrur Swarupam, on the banks of the Periyar. The manual gives measurements and architectural specifications that match the ruined one at Manjaly. “TSM records that the fort was built of laterite stone and chunnambu (limestone) and divided into two parts one 53×14 and the other 27×22 feet in width and nine feet in height and built on a hillock. The walls were built with a thickness of five feet. The Manjaly fort fits these specifications to a T,” avers Varghese.
Some of the elders at Manjaly recall how this fort was visible from the banks of the river, a tributary of Periyar, that flows close by. In fact, they say that this was a landmark, though no one really thought of protecting it. The woodwork, the rafters are all gone, and the fort has now turned into a sort of compound wall for some of the newly built houses. They also talk of a tunnel from the fort that led to the ferry where huge laterite blocks in the water shut, what they believe, the opening of one end of the tunnel.
The fort was used as a storage place for essential commodities, firearms and gun powder. “Trade, as we know, was what brought all the foreign powers to our State. Conflicts and war were a natural outcome. Being placed ideally along the important water route, Manjaly was a very important trade centre. Sometime in the 1700s Travancore annexed Alangad Taluk, of which Manjaly formed a part, from Cochin, because of its importance in trade, especially pepper, tobacco, and salt. In 1801 Velu Thampi Dalawa established a market here. He did this to end the Thachil Mathu Tharakan’s monopoly over trade. Dalawa must also have used this fort. The market extended to the ferry, almost a kilometre long. Later, communal clashes forced the shifting of this market to Paravur.”
This shifting of the market dealt a death knell to the importance of Manjaly. “There are many historical records that show that Manjaly soon became a den of anti-socials, there were regular conflicts, sometime flaring up into communal clashes. For long Manjaly bore this reputation. This fort, a structure that dates back to 1503, the same time as some of the other forts in and around Kochi, was left to rot.”
Today, the ruins stand as a metaphor of what Manjaly once was. The remains are a reminder of history of this place where every power wanted to stake a claim. There is so much more to glean from a thorough exploration of the fort, which has perhaps never been done. Close to the Muziris project, the archaeological department can at least make a preliminary survey of this fort and preserve what remains of it before it goes to seed.
And who knows what historical treasures lie wrapped inside the layers of mud piled up in the fort.
source: http://www.thehindu.com / The Hindu / Home> Features > MetroPlus> Society / by K. Pradeep / December 12th, 2014
It is a unique post office, and one of its main tasks is to deliver letters to God.
Located near the famed Hindu temple at the Sabarimala hills, the post office may perhaps be the only one in the country which doesn’t work round the year. It comes alive when the peak pilgrimage season of the Ayyappa shrine begins on the first day of the Malayalam month in November, and the period ends towards the middle of January.
The post office is also open for 10 days during the Vishu season.
Functioning six days a week from 8 in the morning to 8 at night, the six employees, led by 23-year-old Sai G. Prakash, have a lot to do.
Prakash is happy to be here, and says he was a devotee of Lord Ayyappa.
“Our post office mostly gets invitation cards for weddings and shop openings addressed to Lord Ayyappa, obviously to seek divine blessings,” Prakash told IANS.
Most such mail come from Tamil Nadu, Karnataka and Andhra Pradesh, he said.
But the three letter boxes kept in the temple complex get more than post cards and envelopes. Every morning, the staff find scores of identity cards and wallets too in them.
“We make it a point to mail these cards to the individuals concerned,” Prakash said. The employees often spend their own money to do this.
“Since this season began, I have posted close to 20 PAN cards to the income tax office.”
Police say all this is the work of pickpockets who operate in the temple town — crowded during the pilgrimage season.
The criminals pocket the money from the wallets and dump the cards — and wallets — in the post boxes.
Situated in the mountain ranges of the Western Ghats at 914 metres above sea level, the Sabarimala temple is four kilometres uphill from Pamba in Pathanamthitta district, around 100 km from Thiruvananthapuram.
The temple is accessible only on foot from Pamba.
During the last pilgrimage season, more than 4.5 million devotees visited the shrine. This season the authorities expect a 10 percent increase.
A feature of the post office is the special pictorial cancellation stamp of the 18 steps that led to the Lord Ayyappa shrine.
“Some devotees come and buy covers or cards and write their own address and post them here,” said Prakash. “This is their souvenir.”
The post office helps pilgrims to post ‘appom’ and ‘aravana’ (the temple prasad). It also sells mobile recharge coupons.
Of the six employees, three walk down the hill daily carrying the outgoing mail on their heads. When they walk up, they carry bags of mail — mostly addressed to Lord Ayyappa.
“Overall we enjoy what we do here,” said Prakash. “We are very happy we got this posting.”
source: http://www.newindianexpress.com / The New Indian Express / Home> States> Kerala / by IANS / December 11th, 2014
Nothing short of gold, goes Suji S Rani’s route to success. The girl-next-door for the city, this shot putter hailing from the coastal village of Pozhiyoor in the capital stands tall by having clinched the first slot for shot put event three times in a row. She clinched her latest gold in senior girls shot put event at the ongoing 58th Kerala State Schools Athletics Championship at LNCPE, Kariavattom, on Tuesday.
‘’I want to stay focussed in the sport for long and work hard to better my results in future. When I join college to pursue higher studies, I want to stay next to my school, Government VHSS Mathirappilly, which has been the bedrock of my achievements,’’ she said.
Alongside her winning laurels, this young talent needs more support to scale greater heights and a house tops her wishlist. Her father Santhosh, who was at the venue on Tuesday, showed the black-and-white photographs of his family standing in front of the crumbled thatched-roof dwelling on three cents of land.
‘’The government has promised us a home when Suji took part in the national meet in Ranchi and won a bronze medal. The verification process was over only two weeks ago. Now we are residing at my sister’s home,’’ her father said.
The sole income for the family is the earnings from a provision store run by her Suji’s father. Suji has an elder brother pursuing his doing a degree course in Hotel Management. Her father admits that he is not earning enough to realise his daughter’s dream.
Suji does not prefer to stay idle and on holidays she uses the free time to practice in a work area at the place near her house as well as the nearest stadium in Pozhiyoor.
‘’My coach P I Babu sir has advised me to keep on practising to hone the talent. His coaching advice increases my self-confidence,’’ she says.
source: http://www.newindianexpress.com / The New Indian Express / Home> Cities> Thiruvananthapuram / by Meera Manu / December 10th, 2014
The house of S L Venkatachala Iyer, maternal uncle of V R Krishna Iyer, in Shekharipuram in Palakkad, which was donated to the ‘gramajana samooham’
Palakkad :
The ancestors of V R Krishna Iyer were ardent philanthropists and have their lineage rooted to the ‘agraharams’ in Palakkad. His maternal family in Shekharipuram had donated their house styled ‘Govinda’ to the ‘gramajana samooham’. The palatial house, a portion of which was rented out to meet the daily expense of the Lakshminarayana Swamy Temple in Shekharipuram– which now owns the property– was gifted by Iyer’s uncle, said Latha Ramanan, a neighbour. She said that Iyer’s uncle S L Venkatachala had donated the house before he left for Mumbai. The three sons of Venkatachala are no more, and one of his daughters is settled in Chennai. She said the grandchildren of Venkatachala had planned to construct a building in the compound of the house so that people could gather and recite vedic verses.
Iyer’s paternal family was from Vaidyanathapuram here. His nephew, Dr S V Ramachandran was a renowned surgeon, who stayed near Government Victoria College.
Jana Jagratha Samithi secretary Dr P S Panicker said Iyer was the president of the Janakeeya Prathirodha Samithi, which spearheaded hundreds of protests on varied issues which affected the adivasis, DPEP to cases relating to land encroachments, and other issues affecting the underprivileged.
Dr Panicker reminisced how at the ‘pattaya mela’, by then LDF Government in Attappadi – in which then Chief Minister E K Nayanar participated– Justice Krishna Iyer had said the land distributed to the adivasis at the pattayamela was unfit for cultivation and they should be provided fertile land instead, causing much embarrassment to the hosts.
source: http://www.newindianexpress.com / The New Indian Express / Home> States> Kerala / by A Satish / December 05th, 2014
On the occasion of observing 93rd anniversary of Wagon Tragedy, the darkest chapter of Malabar rebellion during British period on Thursday, a village near Tirur commemorates 40 people hailing from the village, who were killed in the tragedy.
A total of 70 among the 90 odd Mappila rebels who were taken in an air-tight goods wagon from Tirur to Podanur were killed on November 20, 1921. The prisoners were taken into custody when the rebellion was in peak and almost 80 detained rebels were despatched in freight wagon from Tirur to Podanur in Tamilnadu. During the journey about 60 of the rebels suffocated to death in wagon.
It is believed that among the 41 persons from Kuruvambalam who were victims of the tragedy, majority were bachelors who left behind no progeny. “Even the historians and local people were not much aware of the role of the Kruvambalam people in the incident till couple of years ago. According to the elders in the village the youngsters here had played a major role in the struggle against the British during the rebellion and more studies have to be conducted to shed light on the contribution of tragedy victims”, said Salim Kuruvambalam, Malappuram district panachayat member, who took initiative for setting up a memorial for the Wagon Tragedy victims at Kuruvamabalam. The district panchayat president Zuhara Mampad will inaugurate the comemmoration programmes in the village.Historians will also attend the programme.
Talking about role of Kuruvambalam persons in the tragedy, the historian KKN Kurupp said that government should conduct a comprehensive study on the victims of Wagon tragedy and other related incidents of Malabar rebellion. ” As there was no such study held so far the state government should initiate action to start a detailed historical and cultural study on the various incidents during the rebellion period. We are going to observe 100th anniversaty of the rebellion in 2021. But still we have no clear data or official document regarding the incidents and the details of the persons who were killed in Wagon tragedy”, he pointed out.
The historian and scholar M Gangadharan has recently opined that the Wagon tragedy was not a cruellest act of the British oppression during the Malabar rebellion, as about 200 Mappila youngsters pulled out of their house and they were killed infront of their family in October of the same year.
source: http://www.timesofindia.indiatimes.com / The Times of India / Home> City> Kochi / by T. P. Nijeesh, TNN / November 20th, 2014
Onlookers couldn’t help taking photos with their mobile phones when Manikyam, the shortest cow in the world, stood all decked up with a garland around her neck in front of Guinness Book of World Records officials on Saturday.
The five-member Guinness Book team comprising photo editor Michael Whitty, Ronald Mackechnie, Jackfillery, Mathew Musson and Sidharth Lama came all the way from London to photograph the Vechur cow in the presence of hundreds of locals at Velur.
Actor Pakru with Manikyam, the shortest cow in the world, at Velur in Kozhikode on Saturday | K Shijith
The six-year-old Manikyam, owned by farmer and environmentalist N V Balakrishnan, measurers 61.5 cm from the hoof to the withers. The current holder of the Guinness record for the shortest cow is Blaze who measures 69.07 cm from the hoof to the withers. Blaze is a nine-year-old miniature Zebu cow and owned by Steven DeMoor and Christian Agnew of Sanford in the US.
“We are sure this record will be interesting to a wide range of people. We came here to confirm the honour and take some interesting photographs of her,” said Whitty.
The Guinness Book will update its website conferring the honour on Manikyam only after the photo shoot, which will continue on Sunday, is over.
Balakrishnan claimed the record when veterinary surgeon Priya K Nair told him that the cow was unusually short despite having no deformity. Guinness record holders actor Pakru, Prajeesh Kannan and Job Pottas also attended the function that “crowned” Manikyam.
source: http://www.newindianexpress.com / The New Indian Express / Home> States> Kerala / by Express News Service / November 23rd, 2014
Economic thinker and social scientist Pulapre Balakrishnan has been handed the 2014 Malcolm Adiseshaiah award for contribution to development studies. The award was instituted by the Malcolm and Elizabeth Adiseshaiah Trust, which runs the Madras Institute of Development Studies in Adyar.
An alumnus of Madras Christian College, Balakrishnan also studied at Jawaharlal Nehru University, Oxford and Cambridge. With a formidable academic training followed by research at prestigious institutions across the world, he is now professor at the Centre for Development Studies, Thiruvananthapuram.
Delivering the Malcolm Adiseshaiah memorial lecture on the topic ‘Macroeconomic reversal in India,’ Balakrishnan said that macroeconomics was in riotous disarray.
“Some of the triumph that had accompanied the rise of the New Classical Economics has dissipated after the global financial crisis,” he pointed out.
source: http://www.newindianexpress.com / The New Indian Express / Home> Cities> Chennai / by Express News Service / November 22nd, 2014
“Patre nosso que estais Ceus, santificado seja ta nome; venha a nos o ta reino, seja feita a ta vontade…” (Our father in heaven, holy be your name. Your kingdom come, your will be done …). The voices of elderly members of Nossa Senhora de Esperanca (Our Lady of Hope) ring aloud as the procession comes out from the church. The youngsters, dressed in their fashionable best, walk beside them, struggling to pronounce the Portuguese prayer.
For generations, the Anglo-Indian community has kept alive the traditions of their Portuguese forefathers. They faithfully adhere to the rituals of ‘thocha’ (the carrying of ornamental long silver candle sticks) and ‘cyrial’ (ornamental silver cross) wearing the ‘opa’ and ‘moosha’ (a long white cloak like garment and a brightly coloured collar or bib worn over it) while taking out the procession reciting the rosary in Portuguese.
These are one of the many dying rituals practiced solely at the church by 52 families who are members of the Anglo-Indian community in Vypeen. The dependents of Europeans are planning to record these prayers and hymns in Portuguese and Latin used in the church for posterity, led by the Anglo-Indian Association of Vypeen.
“Even if the young generation does not follow these rituals, these records will help to keep them aware of their cultural heritage,” said Lester Concesso, president of the association. “I have two little girls. It is important that they know what we’ve been practicing for centuries. We will explain the rituals, their relevance and how to practice them. We are the custodians of our culture and it is our responsibility for the future generations,” he added.
The community elders are not sure whether the new generation would practice these rituals and traditions. “I am the last survivor of my generation. These rituals were passed down by our forefathers. We cannot merely rely on an oral narrative as a means of passing on our traditions. So, we have decided to document hymns and prayers in Portuguese and Latin used in the church,” said 93-year-old Winnie D’Souza, a patriarch of the community.
The migration of community members and their assimilation into mainstream society are the main reasons why the younger generation have moved away from traditions. Anglo-Indians of Vypeen are no longer in the majority in the parish, leading the curtailment of their English services and festival masses. A festival which went on for a whole week is now limited to just three days.
Eric Hendricks, a youth familiar with the Portuguese traditions, says that each ritual and rite are intricate. “Many youngsters do not know rituals as simple as genuflecting (kneeling and bowing at the same time) at the altar before carrying the ‘thocha’ or that the bell has to be rung thrice while they pray the ‘devata’ (a ritual practiced during lent),” he says.
The lack of clergy, who are aware of these rituals and practices, has also hit the community hard. According to Anglo-Indian MP Charles Dias, unlike the Jews of Kochi, whose culture has been well documented by scholars, there have been hardly any initiative to document or preserve the practices and rites of Anglo-Indians.
“The Indo-Portuguese Cultural Centre and the Bishop’s House in Fort Kochi have taken initiative to teach Portuguese to those interested,” he said.
source: http://www.timesofindia.indiatimes.com / The Times of India / Home> City> Kochi / TNN / November 18th, 2014
Body of N Gopalakrishnan, writer and social activist who died here on Wednesday morning, will be cremated at the Mavoor Road crematorium on Friday.
Gopalakrishnan (80) died at a private hospital here following a heart attack.
After his retirement as member of claims tribunal of Indian Railways in 1984, Gopalakrishnan was actively engaged in social and cultural activities in the city.
He had translated former prime minister P V Narasimha Rao’s autobiography into Malayalam and K P Ramanunni’s Sufi Paranja Katha into English.
He also translated M T Vasudevan Nair’s novel Varanasi into English. He won the Kendra Sahitya Akademi’s award for translation in 2006.
Gopalakrishnan was also an active member of the Kozhikode Pain and Palliative Society and was in the forefront of collecting fund for the Society.
source: http://www.timesofindia.indiatimes.com / The Times of India / Home> City> Kozhikode / TNN / November 20th, 2014
