Shubra’s gearing up for Bollywood

June 29, 2014Arts, Culture & Entertainment, Famous Personalities of Kodagu / Coorgadmin

Model-turned-actor Shubra Aiyappa’s on a high with her debut film, Prathinidhi (in Telugu), doing well. Already working on her second movie, this time opposite Arvind Krishna, Shubra’s now ensuring her career takes the right course.

“I have been taking some time to sign the right films, now that my first film has done well,” says Shubra. Meanwhile, she’s also brushing up her skills for Bollywood. “I don’t have anything concrete to comment on yet, but yes, I’ve been taking lessons in acting and Hindi diction whenever I have the time, like currently, since I’m on a break between schedules,” says Shubra.

The actress is clear that career is her priority right now. “With so much on my plate, I’d say I’ve no time for a relationship,” she laughs.

source: http://www.timesofindia.indiatimes.com / The Times of India / Home> Entertainment> Kannada> Movies / by Sunaina Suresh, TNN / June 25th, 2014

Deepika Kamaiah roped in for Bigg Boss?

June 28, 2014Arts, Culture & Entertainment, Famous Personalities of Kodagu / Coorgadmin

The glamour quotient for Kannada’s Bigg Boss season two seems to be going higher. After names like Harshika Poonacha and Neethu being tossed around as confirmed contestants, the latest one to join that list is dusky Coorg lass and model turned actress Deepika Kamaiah.

Deepika, who entered Sandalwood with Darshan’s film Chingaari that was directed by choreographer and filmmaker A Harsha, has been a part of some critically acclaimed films in both Tamil and Kannada. Her first tryst with tinsel town was a Tamil film titled Aanmai Thavarel.

The actress even had a breezy visit ton Bollywood when she had a blink and you miss it role in the initial minutes of Rajkumar Santoshi’s comic caper Phata Poster Nikhhla Hero, which had Shahid Kapoor and Ileana D’Cruz in the lead roles.

source: http://www.timesofindia.indiatimes.com / The Times of India / Home> Entertainment> Kannada> TV / TNN / June 27th, 2014

Uthappa, Rahane Guide India to 7-wicket Win Over Bangladesh

June 28, 2014Famous Personalities of Kodagu / Coorg, Sportsadmin

Ajinkya Rahane, left, plays a shot, as Bangladesh's captain Mushfiqur Rahim watches during their first one-day International cricket match in Dhaka | AP — Ajinkya Rahane, left, plays a shot, as Bangladesh’s captain Mushfiqur Rahim watches during their first one-day International cricket match in Dhaka | AP

Mirpur :

Fine half centuries from Robin Uthappa and Ajinkya Rahane guided India to a comprehensive seven-wicket win (Duckworth-Lewis) over Bangladesh at the Sher-e-Bangla National Stadium here Sunday to help the reigning World Champions take a 1-0 lead in the three-match One-Day International (ODI) series.

Chasing a stiff target of 273, India were cruising at 100/1 in 16.4 overs when the skies opened up. Post the rain delay, the visitors were set a target of 150 from 26 overs which they achieved with seven balls to spare. India are playing this tournament without top stars like Mahendra Singh Dhoni, and Virat Kohli among others.

Playing his first ODI in six years, Uthappa (50) slammed his sixth half century on his return to the national fold. The exciting right hander, who found his way back in to team after finishing as the highest scorer of the recently concluded Indian Premier League (IPL), hammered three boundaries and sixes each in his 44-ball knock.

He was well supported by Rahane (64) and the duo gave India the start they needed with a 99-run opening wicket partnership. But soon after Uthappa was found leg before wicket, it started raining heavily.

After play resumed, India required 50 runs from 9.2 overs.

Cheteshwar Pujara immediately got out for a duck but man of the match Rahane continued his knock before getting out with India only 15 runs away from the target. Ambati Rayudu (16 not out) and captain Suresh Raina (15 not out) finished things off for India.

Earlier after electing to bat, the hosts put up a competitive total despite a slow start with good performances coming from the middle-order.

Bangladesh suffered an early blow with opener Tamim Iqbal perished for a duck after playing 11 deliveries. Mominul Haque (6) also followed soon but other opener Anamul Haque (44) and captain Mushfiqur Rahim (59) forged a partnership to steady their ship.

After the two got out, with the score at 134/4, all-rounder Shakib Al Hasan (52) and Mahmudullah (41) joined hands to take Bangladesh past the 200-run mark and also upped the run rate.

Lower down the order Nasir Hossain (22), Mashrafe Mortaza (18) and Abdur Razzak (16 not out) kept the momentum going with a few lusty blows to take them to 272/9.

Indian pacer Umesh Yadav was the pick of the bowlers, clinching 3/48 while leg spinner Amit Mishra took 2/55. Debutant spinners Parvez Rasool (2/60) and Akshar Patel (1/59) together scalped three wickets.

Brief scores: Bangladesh 272/9 in 50 overs (Mushfiqur Rahim 59, Shakib Al Hasan 52, Anamul Haque 44; Umesh Yadav 3/48, Amit Mishra 2/55, Parvez Rasool 2/60) lost to India 153/3 in 24.5 overs (D/L) (Ajinkya Rahane 64, Robin Uthappa 50, Ambati Rayudu 16 not out; Shakid Al Hasan 2/27, Mashrafe Mortaza 1/25).

source: http://www.newindianexpress.com / The New Indian Express / Home> Cricket> News / by IANS / June 15th, 2014

‘Don’t depend on single crop’

June 24, 2014Agriculture, Business & Economy, Coffee, Kodagu (Coorg), Natureadmin

Growers should concentrate on floriculture, pisciculture and piggery units along with coffee, said Shimoga Agriculture University Vice Chancellor Dr C Vasudevappa.

Speaking at a policy dialogue on future of coffee based economy of Kodagu organised by National Research Programme on Plantation Development (NRPPD), Agricultural Scientist Forum, Coorg Planters Association and Bangalore Institute for Social and Economic Change, he said that farmers should not depend on single crop for livelihood. Along with coffee, other crops should be grown.

The growers should focus on technology, quality in coffee, improvised processing technologies to fetch profit.

Coffee Board former vice president N M Bose Mandanna said that there are 90 per cent small growers.

The Board and the Centre should come to solve the problems faced by the growers. Coffee is part of Kodagu’s life. When the prices slashed in 2004, the growers did not stop growing coffee.

Institute for Social and Economic Change (Bangalore) Prof P G Chengappa said that on the lines of National Horticulture Mission, Coffee Mission should be set up. The Central government and the Coffee Board should also focus on marketing of the coffee. “We have failed in marketing coffee,” he added.

Dr K J Joseph of NRPPD, ISEC Director Dr Binay Kumar Patnaik, and ASFK President Dr B C Nanjappa among others were present.

source: http://www.deccanherald.com / Deccan Herald / Home> District / DHNS – Madikeri, June 07th, 2014

Sainik School Kodagu gets new principal

June 24, 2014Educationadmin

Capt (IN) Ben H Berson assumed charge as the new principal of Sainik School Kodagu, at Kudige, near Kushalnagar, Kodagu district, recently.

After assuming charge, he said, “Every life needs a dream, every dream needs a plan, every plan needs a team”. He said, with team spirit, India can become the best country and Sainik School Kodagu, the best school in the world.

He briefed about his plan of action, expressing that his prime area of concern was development of intellectual and emotional faculties of cadets and staff as well as academic infrastructure in the campus.

Earlier, Berson was accorded an elegant guard of honour and received by Wg Cdr M K Khan, the headmaster, and Lt Cdr A P Ajesh, the registrar. A special assembly was held on the occasion, wherein the headmaster introduced the incumbent principal. During the function, Princy Berson gave away prizes to cadets, who had excelled in various competitions. Saira Khan, president of the Kodagian Ladies Club, was present.

Captain (IN) Berson had headed the faculty for Basic Sciences and Humanities at INA Ezhimala earlier. After getting his engineering degree from Karunya, Coimbatore, he was commissioned as a direct entry officer into the Education Branch of the Indian Navy in 1991.

He has served as instructor and registrar at the erstwhile Naval Academy at Goa and Senior Education Officer at INS Dronacharya and INS Shivaji. He was also the Deputy Director at the Naval Institute of Education and Training Technology, Kochi.

source: http://www.deccanherald.com / Deccan Herald / Home> District / Mysore, DHNS – June 19th, 2014

Squash: Dipika-Joshna win women’s doubles title in Malaysia

June 24, 2014Famous Personalities of Kodagu / Coorg, Sportsadmin

Kuala Lumpur:

India bagged their second title at the Tri-Nation squash doubles tournament here on Thursday when Dipika Pallikal and Joshna Chinappa emerged winners in the women’s doubles final.

Pallikal and Joshna rallied to beat New Zealand’s Joelle King and Amanda Landers Murphy 8-11, 11-5, 11-1 at the National Squash Centre.

Hosts Malaysia were the other country to participate in the three-day event, seen as a warm-up to the next month’s Commonwealth Games.

It was Pallikal’s second title in as many days after she won the mixed doubles with Saurav Ghosal.

The Indians put up a commendable show considering they are busy playing singles for major part of the season.

Pallikal said it was good practice for the Glasgow Games beginning July 23. “I am glad to have won the doubles too. We started off slow today but got better as the match progressed. Joshna played some amazing shots to shock our opponents,” Pallikal told PTI.

She alongside Joshna stunned the mighty Malaysian pair of Nicol David and Low Wee Wern in the semi-finals on Wednesday.

“The win here does a lot of good to our confidence going into the Commonwealth Games. Winning there is our main aim and this tournament helped us understand where we stand in the pecking order. Among top Commonwealth nations, only England and Australia were not here. It was a good test overall,” said the singles World No. 10.

How tough is it switch to doubles while playing singles on the professional tour?

“It is tough but you have to switch off, switch on when necessary,” Pallikal added.

source: http://www.ibnlive.in.com / IBN Live / Home> Sports> Other Sports / Press Trust of India / June 19th, 2014

‘Panel on deemed forest land to meet within a week’

June 24, 2014About Kodagu / Coorg, Agriculture, Green Initiatives / Environment, Nature, Records, Alladmin

The district-level committee formed to do a reality check of the deemed forest land in Kodagu district will convene its first meeting in a week and is likely to submit a comprehensive report to the government within six months.

The committee chaired by the deputy commissioner comprises of the deputy conservator of forest, deputy director of land records and officers from revenue and forest departments.

In order to verify the report submitted by an experts committee on deemed forest in 2002, the State government has formed district committee in district level, zonal committee in revenue level and state committee in state level.

According to sources, the district committee will conduct a survey in the district and prepare a report on deemed forest scenario in Kodagu. The functioning of the district committee will be supervised by the zonal committee and state committee on a time bound manner and give suggestions as and when required.

What is deemed forest

If a land has the features of forest, where trees are grown outside the purview of government recognised forest land, it is called as deemed forest. The experts committee formed in 2002 had put the deemed forest land figure in the State at 9,94,881 hectare. About 69,205 hectare deemed forest land identified in Kodagu district, also comprises of Bane, Paisari, Kumki Malai, C and D land and plantation.

It all started with the Supreme Court directing all states to provide information about the forest land, during the hearing of Godavarman Thirumalapad case in 1995. As per the order, the Karnataka government formed the first experts committee, which submitted the report to the government on April 2, 1997.

While submitting the report before the apex court, the government stated that it has completed the process of identifying the area which has been officially declared as forest land. The government requested additional time for identifying the forest land which has not been officially declared.

On observing the delay by the Karnataka government in submitting the report, the Central Empowered Committee of the SC took the government to task, following which the government revised the experts committee.

This second committee identified 33,24,854 hectare land as notified forest and 9,94,881 hectare as deemed forest. The committee, in fact, included even the barren forest land as deemed forest. It also included C and D land, Bane and Paisari.

Due to identifying even Paisari land as deemed forest in various districts including Kodagu, the government is neither able to take up various projects in this land, nor it can make sites to be distributed to poor. Even the work on providing basic facilities like construction of road can not be taken up.

In several cases, the revenue land (Paisari) which has been sanctioned to beneficiaries under Akrama Sakrama, is also considered in the list of deemed forest, due to which RTC can not be made in the name of beneficiaries. To solve the impeding problem the new committee has been formed for conducting a joint survey.

source: http://www.deccanherald.com / Deccan Herald / Home> District / by Shrikanth Kallammanavar / Madikeri, DHNS – June 19th, 2014

Biddu: Composing Pop music is for young and not young at heart!

June 20, 2014Arts, Culture & Entertainment, Famous Personalities of Kodagu / Coorg, Uncategorizedadmin

Who can forget the sex siren Zeenat Aman dancing and singing to the sensational disco beats of ‘Aap Jaisa Koi…’ in Feroz Khan’s super hit movie QURBANI in the 80’s. Wanna know who composed this all time hit song? Well the music was composed by Biddu Appaiah, popularly recognized as Biddu, the Indian-born, England based music composer who is regarded as a pioneers of Disco, Euro disco and Indi-pop around the globe.

Winner of the prestigious Gramm Award and ranked 34 in the 50 Greatest Producers Ever list of New Musical Express (NMI), Biddu after five decades of career in music has moved to writing and has penned a fictional novel ‘The Abundance of Nothing’ published by Times Group Books.

Speaking about his switch from music to writing he confessed, “I have been regarded as the king of Pop music but truly speaking producing pop music is purely for the young, just being young at heart does not qualify to compose pop music. Hence I decided to silently shift gears from music to my other passion writing.”

Few know that QURBANI had music by famous Bollywood music director duo Kalyanji Anandji but Feroz Khan happened to hear the disco beats of Biddu in London and was so impressed that he hired him to compose just one song for his movie.

Initially Biddu declined the offer as he was busy in the West but when he found Feroz Khan to be serious and willing to pay an enormous amount he gave in.

In an interview Biddu had said, “I am the first person to introduce disco in India thanks to Feroz Khan. It was his obsession that made me compose the song. Before ‘Aap Jaisa Koi…’ the disco fever was nonexistent in India, however the song became such a craze that after ‘Aap Jaisa Koi…’there was a literal flood of disco songs and no Bollywood movie was released without (at least one) disco song

Like today’s item numbers, disco songs had become a permanent fixture till the late 90’s.”

source: http://www.indiaglitz.com / IndiaGlitz / Home> IndiaGlitz> Bollywood / Tuesday – June 10th, 2014

Students from sister city Cincinatti visit Mysore, Kodagu

June 19, 2014Arts, Culture & Entertainment, Education, World Opinionadmin

Students from Sister City Cincinatti, USA, at a tea estate in Kodagu. Seen are (from left) teacher Sarah Langenderfer, Jack Langenderfer-10th grade, Sam Krimmer-11th grade, Sister City President Dr. Ratee Apana, Kevion Howzie-10th grade and Molly Giglia-11th grade. These students are from two schools in Cincinnati — Walnut Hills and Schroeder.

Mysore :

High School students from Cincinatti — Molly Giglia, Sam Krimmer, John Langenderfer and Kevion Howzie — together with teacher Sarah Langdenderfer are in city to see their Sister City, learn about high school students here, their daily lives and get a feel of the culture of Mysore.

They were given a warm welcome by students and staff of Kautaliya Vidaylaya who will also perform a small cultural piece for these students. They will visit and spend time in the classroom at St. Joseph’s School. They will meet with students from Rotary School in Mysore, who will accompany them on a service learning session at the NGO Odanadi. On this visit, they have seen Shravanabelagola and Brindavan Gardens. They experienced Mysore city through the Royal Mysore walking tour company, visited Chamundi Hill as well as the Palace.

They spent two days in Kodagu at Dubare, Siddapur, Kutta, Nagarhole and the interactive park in Kadamakolli. Students learnt about tea and coffee cultivation and enjoyed many different plants, fruits and wild animals of the area.

Teacher Sarah Langenderfer has created a blog for their visit.

Varsha Vittal and Dr. Ratee Apana, President of the Cincinnati Sister City Association are in Mysore to assist with their arrangements in Mysore together with Vice-President of the Sister City Association Dr. Pat Niskode and MaryAnn Niskode in Cincinnati to make this visit a success.

Many families in Kodagu especially Kolera Tuckoo and Puthli, Karthamada Nirmala and Suju and H. Vittal and Sujatha Vittal welcomed students into their homes. They have a good understanding of the cuisine and day-to-day life of their hosts.

“We would like to encourage Mysoreans to contact us and connect with the students. They would love to visit a typical Mysorean home and learn about students their age in this city. We are waiting for a committee in Mysore to be set up that can help us strengthen and sustain this relationship,” said Ratee Apana, speaking to SOM.

source: http://www.starofmysore.com / Star of Mysore / Home> General News / June 14th, 2014

400 KV Line : Expert panel gathers public opinion

June 19, 2014About Kodagu / Coorg, Agriculture, Green Initiatives / Environment, Natureadmin

Kodagu residents oppose the project

Madikeri :

A three members Technical Experts’ Committee visited Kodagu district on Thursday to study the possibilities of finding an alternate route to lay 400 KV hi-tension line from Kozhikode in Kerala to Mysore. This has come up in the backdrop of stern opposition from the people against the electricity line passing through Kodagu district.

The committee members visited the places in and around Maldare where the project is implemented and collected public opinion. Representatives from various organisations, including Viju Biddappa from Maldare, Kaveri Sene President Raghu Machaiah, Convener Ravi Chengappa, K.C. Subbaiah, Basavana Devana Bana Trust President B.C. Nanjappa, Chennayyana Kote Gram Panchayat member Shyam, Coorg Wildlife Society President Colonel C.P. Muthanna and others, shared their opinions.

They all said that thousands of trees will be felled if the line passes through Kodagu. This will have negative impact on the environment, wildlife and coffee growers. Therefore, an alternate route has to be found out for laying the wires, they insisted.

Speaking to reporters after the meeting, Committee Head R.S. Shivakumar Aradhya said that a lot of factors like environment and technical feasibility and project expenditure has to be taken into consideration while finding an alternate route. “We will submit the report to the government within a month. We will visit Kutta and surrounding region on Friday and examine the problem,” he said.

The government formed the Committee chaired by Shivakumar Aradhya, in response to the continuous opposition and protest by villagers and various organisations opposing the project. Forest Department senior officials Ajay Mishra and elephant expert Sukumaran are the other two members of the Committee.