Category Archives: Leaders

Queen of cuisines

Arts, Culture & Entertainment, Famous Personalities of Kodagu / Coorg, Leaders, Sports

Ranee Vijaya Kuttaiah talks about the intense relationship of her Kodava community with food, her quest for recipes across two States, and reveals secrets of the early years of food styling in India

Bursting with ideasRanee Kuttaiah has collected recipes from households of different communities in Karnataka / Photo: Bhagya Prakash k. / The Hindu
Bursting with ideasRanee Kuttaiah has collected recipes from households of different communities in Karnataka / Photo: Bhagya Prakash k. / The Hindu

Avid golfer. Kalakshetra student. Bharatanatyam and Kathakali dancer. Great grandmother. Lived the good life in the Nilgiris. Travelled the world giving performances. Anjaneya bhakt. Ford Motors PR in New York. Writer. Food stylist. Lecturer. Hotel manager. A very good cook.

Ranee Vijaya Kuttaiah is so many things rolled into one, it’s difficult to keep pace with this energetic Kodava matriarch as she flits from one story of her life to another. She can hold forth on anything from how politics is dirty to why prostitution should be legalised. And from how to boil lobster just so, to how to make ice cream that won’t melt under bright lights. All this coming from a woman who, when she got married, didn’t know how to make a cup of tea.

“I used to write for The Hindu when I lived in the Nilgiris with my husband. I’m a Kalakshetra dancer. My husband died when he was young. I was just too heart broken and swore never to wear my anklets and dance again. I started writing short stories, started a company called Shadow Light Co-ordinators and we would do high-end food and fashion shoots in Bangalore,” says Ranee, of the beginnings of how she came to write about food.

ITC Windsor and Sterling Paperbacks re-launched a revised edition of her famous recipe book, Cuisine from Karnataka with her other classic Cuisine from Coorg this week at an evening that saw the who’s who of Coorg and Ranee’s friends bond over food and wine. Talking of the strong bond that her Kodava community has with food, she points out: “We worship our ancestors with liquor! On any occasion, we first offer a little bit of whatever we cook in front of the photos of our ancestors. We are a kshatriya race used to good food, and we are big agriculturists.”

While studying for her masters in the United States in the 1960s, during her summer break she chanced upon a food styling course in one of the hotels. She signed up for it and a whole unknown world was revealed to her. “Cooked food doesn’t style well. It creates a mess. Food is best shot uncooked. I’ll tell you a secret. You can’t photograph steam. So when I had to shoot a hot, steaming kettle, I would blow out smoke from a cigarette just in time for the photographer to shoot. Mind you I don’t smoke. Ice-cream melts under lights. So we would whip paint and freeze it to look like ice cream! I would par-boil lobsters and then paint them with lovely orange oil paints before setting it up on a silver platter.” When she styled food for the famous Sangeeta Khanna cookbook, her present publisher appreciatively ate a meal in her house and asked her to write a book on Coorg cuisine. Ranee turned to her mother for the classic recipes of Coorg. It’s a book that’s been going into reprint for the last 14 years.

One book led to another. Having lived 30 years in Tamil Nadu and having performed all over the State, she recalls taking down recipes whenever she travelled in Madurai, Ramnad, Thirunelveli and Thanjavur, recording recipes of Nadar and Thevar cuisine, which featured in her book Cuisine from Tamil Nadu. Her own personal favourite, though, is Syrian Christian non-vegetarian food from Kerala, she pipes in.

She decided to write about Karnataka cuisine because — “it’s my State and largely ignored” she says, with a mix of pride and hurt. “It’s was as if holige and bisi bele bhath were the only things Karnataka had to offer,” she says talking of the limited popularity of food from the state then. She had close friends in political circles like Ramakrishna Hegde. “Many of the ministers were Lingayats and Gowdas. I would travel to Mandya and Maddur, visit the homes of the Gram Panchayat chiefs and ask their wives what they cook at home. I would collect four to five recipes from different families of the same dish, come home and try them in my kitchen and arrive at what I thought was the best of them.” Her book on Karnataka covers food from the Lingayat, Gowda, Bunt, and Madhwa Brahmin community (into which her sister was married).

source: http://www.thehindu.com / The Hindu / Home> Features> MetroPlus / by Bhumika. K / October 17th, 2014

Surgeon’s write path

Arts, Culture & Entertainment, Famous Personalities of Kodagu / Coorg, Leaders, Science & Technology
Kavery Nambisan. (Photo: DC)
Kavery Nambisan. (Photo: DC)

Hyderabad:

While she was still studying surgery at the University of Liverpool in England, Kavery Nambisan was informed by her friend that a mission hospital in Bihar was in desperate need of a surgeon, and asked if she would be interested in the offer. She took it up as a challenge and landed in the town of Mokama, a dacoit infested area, where she went on to treat patients who had faced several degrees of violence.

After Mokama, she worked at rural hospitals in Uttar Pradesh, Tamil Nadu and Karnataka, where she presently works in the Coorg district. But in the meanwhile, Kavery found time to write seven novels in the last two decades.

Her last book, The Story That Must Not Be Told was shortlisted for the DSC Prize for South Asian Literature as well as the Man Asian Literary Prize. “I started writing once I had become a doctor; initially it was few flippant pieces here and there, and then I ended up writing two children’s novels. It was a revelation for me, because I don’t have a literary background,” she says.

Kavery soon ventured into writing adult novels because she felt there was more to her imagination that she could put down on paper. Her recently released seventh book A Town Like Ours, chronicles the growth of Pingakshipura, a village that has now become a town. It is a place where the water runs a poisonous black and the hair on every child’s head is white. And all of this is through the eyes of an ageing prostitute who resides at a temple premises.

The central character is borrowed from one of Kavery’s childhood memories. “When my father was transferred to Delhi, there was a temple we used to visit often. Right next to the temple, in a room, I found this scantily clad elderly lady who was smoking a hookah and had several men huddled around her. She had a loud voice, and as a young girl, I was mystified and yet disgusted by her appearance,” she adds. But do most of her memories, or her medical experience find place in her books?

“Not constantly, but since I am a writer, I do observe. I listen to my patients intently when they confide in me about their family problems. Any inclusion is not always intentional but I guess once you have the seed of something, you can always create,” she says.

Kavery, who writes early in the mornings and during weekends, says that she never had a problem juggling her professional expertise with her passion for writing. “Since I have always had it this way, I never have really seen it as a problem. Apart from medicine and writing, I don’t feel the need to socialise because I meet so many people anyway. However, I have discovered that I can write an awful lot in hotel rooms when I am travelling, because there I have no other responsibilities,” she adds.

In the present times, when bookstores are stocked with new authors writing about college romances and urban life, there are barely a handful of voices which document the rural facets of our country. The author adds, “It’s not their fault that most of these young authors did not have any rural experience to write about. On my part, I am deeply saddened by injustice which plagues our society. When I have the opportunity of education and upbringing, someone else is continuously being denied it. I constantly think of it, but I haven’t been able to come up with an answer. But instead of feeling helpless, we must realise that we can’t do everything to resolve the situation, but can continue to do what we do best.”

And Kavery’s decision to spend her life writing about and aiding the rural folk in villages, where healthcare is deemed a luxury, is a clear example of that. “It was partly the influence of my father and my teachers, who instilled in me the sense of purpose, of why you do something. And being born and brought up in a village, I realised this is what I should do, because this is what I do best,” she says.

source: http://www.deccanchronicle.com / Deccan Chronicle / Home> LifeStyle> Books/Art / DC / Amrita Paul / August 30th, 2014

Hearth in heart

Arts, Culture & Entertainment, Leaders, Records, All
Author Kaveri Ponnapa stresses how we're all becoming a monoculture. Photo: V. Sreenivasa Murthy / The Hindu
Author Kaveri Ponnapa stresses how we’re all becoming a monoculture. Photo: V. Sreenivasa Murthy / The Hindu

Kaveri Ponnapa worries that her small community of Kodavas are slowly getting dissolved in the monoculture that the world is morphing into. She tells her book The Vanishing Kodavas could be the starting point to explore the people from the hills of Kodagu

So we sing.

Singing this song/ What do we gain?

If we sing with faith…

Planted vegetables will thrive/

And the baby in the cradle will live

This excerpt from a song of the Kodavas exemplifies the simplicity and beauty of the life of the Kodava community. It offers a whiff of the essence of the community — establishing its agrarian roots, its oral tradition, the questioning of what one gains in continuing a tradition, of the hope that its warrior people will flourish…

The song is one of the many lesser-known aspects of the Kodava people, that author Kaveri Ponnapa has recorded in her book, The Vanishing Kodavas. In popular culture, knowledge of the community is limited to facts such as they are good-looking people, valiant warriors with a phenomenal presence in the country’s armed forces and the place is home to beautiful hill stations, is where pandhi curry and bamboo-shoot pickle comes from.

Born and brought up outside Coorg, and having lived a large part of her life overseas, Kaveri was mesmerised by how “the presence of Coorg within me has been a constant part of my interior landscape”. That presence drew her back to her homeland, where right through childhood, she spent two months a year during summer vacation. “We all shift cities, countries, continents. We should look at ways to internalise culture and pass it on, carrying it within us,” is Kaveri’s hope for her people. Painstakingly researched over 15 years, the book goes deep into the community’s history, its grand houses, laws of the land, customs, worship, songs of the warriors, the forests and sacred landscapes, coffee, stories of its people.

Kaveri holds a masters in social anthropology from the School of Oriental and African Studies (SOAS) London. Even her thesis was on the culture of the Kodavas.

“After I shifted to Bangalore 16 years ago, I started visiting Coorg more often. It was a search to find what hold this place had on me. It became a quest for identity, exploring the unarticulated parts of you.” Slowly she started documenting festivals, ancestor propitiation ceremonies, whatever she witnessed in the villages of Coorg, and what came out of conversations with people on the rural areas. “I became conscious that the culture was vanishing and dwindling away.”

As she kept going back year after year, fewer people were attending annual celebrations with each passing year, older people in the community pointed out how youngsters weren’t learning their songs; how young men don’t know the ritual dances. “When I titled the book as ‘vanishing’, people from within the community too questioned me. It’s such irony that though numerically we are larger than we ever were, we are becoming like everybody else. Monoculture is a global problem. Just as there is a need for biodiversity for survival, so is it with people. Now with borders being porous, how are we going to continue looking at ourselves in new circumstances…that is the question,” she elaborates. The culture, which has been maintained in the living culture of the villages of Coorg, says Kaveri — “even there an erosion has taken place, with economics in play, and people moving away…”.

“Small cultures are well balanced with the environment. The link to land and agriculture anchored us to our culture. Now you have a dominance of the economy and tourism. While we were the prominent community in Coorg, we maintained equilibrium with other communities. There was great foresight among our forefathers to acknowledge that we can’t survive on our own,” says a passionate Kaveri.

The research that went into the book took Kaveri on a search for records. Official records, correspondence, colonial accounts, recorded history of the Rajahs of Kodagu… she sifted through them all. The book also has a detailed account of the Lingayat Rajahs and their council of Kodava chieftains and the role they played in the rise of the East India company in south India.

Finding archives was not easy, she admits. There were a few books from the early 20th century and gazetteers written by Missionaries from the then Britishadministered Coorg.

“The thing that really struck me is that the history of my people from manuals and gazetteers spans about the last 200 years, but we’ve been around 2,000 years. But the people had a definite sense of history that comes out in folk histories. I’ve interwoven these micro-histories into the book. Just because it wasn’t in a book doesn’t mean those events didn’t happen.”

She travelled alone into the villages, introduced herself, having the advantage of being an ‘insider’ to participate in ceremonies, got invited into ain manes (ancestral homes).

Some events, she went back to every year, sometimes seven years running! “It possessed me and sucked me in…I was no longer the writer,” observes Kaveri, who, incidentally chronicles oracles and spirit mediums in the Kodava community. At the end of it all, she had developed a great network.

Elders were forthcoming and gave permission to photograph intimate ceremonies related to everything from birth to death.

“Despite the photography being intrusive, I’m grateful to my community that they placed trust. Not one door was closed on me…so in that sense it’s not my book really.” So when the book was published in September this year, she launched it in Madikeri, Coorg, where 250 people from the villages turned up to look at the book they had made together. “What struck me was the great sense of dignity in their lives, the beauty of their lives and how they balanced between the hard times they have had. Despite being a warlike people, there was a tremendous sense of justice and fairness.”

“The book was a personal journey; despite both our families (hers and husband’s) being rooted in Coorg, we knew very few people in the villages…with education and going away, you tend to lose links,” she points out.

You definitely can’t dismiss it as a coffee table book laden with fantabulous pictures, though it can also be seen that way. “For the non-reader who would want to just look at the pictures, we put in detailed captions that should make you go back to the text. This is to bring in the younger generation, yet retain the depth of the work.”

You can find details on the book, of more than 350 pages and 300 images, and place orders from www.thevanishingkodavas. com or www.coorg.com.

Proceeds from the sale of the book, priced at Rs. 7,500 will be donated to the Coorg Education Fund.

source: http://www.thehindu.com / The Hindu / Home> Books> Authors / by Bhumika K / December 19th, 2014

Former Kodagu ZP VIice-President Iqbal Hassan shot dead

Famous Personalities of Kodagu / Coorg, Leaders

IqbalHassanMPOs24sept2014

Virajpet :

Local Congress leader and former Kodagu ZP Vice-President Iqbal Hassan (46), was shot dead in broad daylight by unidentified assailants at Virajpet town in Kodagu district on Wednesday.

Iqbal was taking his seat for having lunch at a hotel in the busy Gadiyara Kamba area of the town at about 2 pm, when one of the two miscreants who came in a maroon coloured Maruti Alto car shot him in the chest, killing him instantly.

The miscreant reportedly fired another round which hit another person by name Chandrasekhar, a resident of Shivakeri, who was having lunch in the hotel, injuring him on his leg and chest. He was immediately rushed to Virajpet Government Hospital, from where he was shifted to Madikeri Hospital for advanced treatment. The miscreants managed to flee in the car in which they had come.

It is said that Hassan was reportedly involved in a dispute over a property with one Moosa, his neighbour, which had resulted in a clash between the two rival groups a few days ago, with both the groups complaining to the Virajpet Police.

Following the complaint and counter complaint, the Police had summoned both the groups to the Police Station yesterday and had succeeded in making both the groups arrive at a compromise, it is learnt.

The deceased Hassan is survived by wife and two sons aged 15 and 12. On hearing the news, residents of Virajpet town and surrounding areas streamed into the hospital and demanded arrest of the culprits.

Iqbal Hassan, who was associated with the Congress was serving as on office-bearer of the party’s Kodagu District Minority Cell.

He was elected to Kodagu ZP from Kadanur Constituency in Virajpet Taluk and served as ZP Vice-President from July 12, 2000 to March 12, 2002. He had also been ZP incharge-President for some time.

IGP (Southern Range) B.K. Singh, Kodagu SP Varthika Katiyar and other senior officials rushed to the spot. The Police have stepped up security in Virajpet Town following the murder.

source: http://www.starofmysore.com / Star of Mysore / Home> General News / September 18th, 2014

Guest house in memory of State’s first IGP planned

Famous Personalities of Kodagu / Coorg, Leaders, Records, All

It will come up at an estimated cost of Rs. 25 lakh

Kodagu District Retired Police Officers’ Association has mooted the idea

They want CMC to name a road after

Pemmanda K. Monnappa

Madikeri:

The president of the Kodagu District Retired Police Officers’ Welfare Association, M.A. Appaiah, said here on Tuesday that a guest house in memory of the State’s first Inspector-General of Police, Pemmanda K. Monnappa, would be built near the Maitri Police Community Hall here at an estimated cost of Rs. 25 lakh.

Pemmanda K. Monnappa had served as the Commissioner of Police of the old Madras province. Later, he became the first Inspector General of Police, Karnataka (the then Mysore State), under the S. Nijalingappa government.

Funds

Mr. Appaiah, a retired Superintendent of Police, told presspersons that the guest house would be called ‘Swabhimana’. While some amount was being contributed by the Police Department in the form of grants, the rest would be mobilised through donations, Mr. Appaiah said.

Other cities

Memorials have been built in Mr. Monnappa’s memory in Chennai and Hyderabad. In Karnataka, it was the retired police officers’ idea to construct a guest house, Mr. Appaiah said. The association proposes to urge the Madikeri City Municipal Council (CMC) to name the road branching off from the College Road, near the Maitri Police Community Hall, leading towards the Subramanyanagar area, after Mr. Monnappa.

Career details

Pemmanda S. Ganapathi, a senior member of the Pemmanda family, recalled the services of Mr. Monnappa, who belonged to the Indian Police (IP) cadre. He had served in the Malabar area in Kerala and as the Superintendent of Police in Kurnool and Guntur in Andhra Pradesh. Mr. Monnappa then became the Commissioner of Police in Madras.

Milestone

Mr. Monnappa was instrumental in suppressing the Razakars rebellion in Andhra Pradesh as the Inspector-General of Police, Mr. Ganapathi said. The then Union Home Minister, Sardar Vallabbhai Patel, had chosen Mr. Monnappa to quell the mutiny in Hyderabad.

Recognition

After the reorganisation of the States in the country in 1956, Mr. Monnappa came back to the State, which was then called the Mysore State, to become the first Inspector General of Police, during the reign of S. Nijalingappa.

The British government, in recognition of Mr. Monnappa’s meritorious service, conferred on him the titles: ‘Rao Saheb’ and ‘Rao Bahadur’. He retired from service in the year 1958.

Mr. Monnappa’s son retired from service as a senior IAS officer and has now settled in Chennai.

Members of the Association, B.D. Mandappa, B.A. Poonacha, Y.D. Keshavananda, A.A. Appanna, A.B. Devaiah, A.M. Balakrishna, K.B. Belliappa and M. Achutan Nair, were present.

source: http://www.thehindu.com / The Hindu / Home> National> Karnataka / by Staff Correspondent / October 01st, 2008

Pages from history : Musings on Victoria Gowramma

About Kodagu / Coorg, Arts, Culture & Entertainment, Historical Links / Pre-Independence, Leaders, Records, All, World Opinion

By Prof. A.V. Narasimha Murthy, former Head, Department of Ancient History & Archaeology, University of Mysore

Victoria Gowramma is an enchanting but a perplexing name as it is a curious combination of western culture represented by Victoria and Hindu culture symbolised in Gowramma. In fact, an old fashioned and devoted Hindu woman with traditional virtues is referred to as Gowramma. Actually Gowri is Parvathy, the consort of Shiva. Slowly the name Gowramma is vanishing from Hindu household in preference to more modern names. However, that name still persists among the Kodavas.

I was re-reading D.N. Krishnayya’s book Kodagina Itihasa (History of Kodagu) in Kannada. It is a good book and reads like a novel but gives authentic history of Coorg. He has devoted many pages for sketching the life of Gowramma. In fact, C.P. Belliappa has made a special research on the charming lady and has written a book titled Victoria Gowramma: The Lost Princess of Coorg, which I have not been able to read unfortunately. Further he has taken the trouble in exploring and locating her cemetery at Brompton in South-West London. Thus Belliappa has given a new lease of life in history to this extraordinary Princess of Coorg and has added a new chapter to the history of Coorg. K.B. Ganapathy has also written about her in his book ‘The Cross and the Coorgs’ and its Kannada version Kodagina Mele Shilubeya Neralu. All these books are useful in understanding the personality of this Princess who passed away when she was just 23 years (1841-63).

Victoria Gowramma was the daughter of Kodagu King Chikka Veerarajendra Odeya, son and successor of King Lingarajendra. He was just 17 years when he became the king and due to bad company he became a cruel and autocratic king and people of Coorg cursed him to the maximum but were scared of him to raise their voice. Killing people when he did not like them or those who did not toe his line had become a daily affair without any mercy. A low class person by name Kunta Basava, who was looking after the Palace dogs rose to the position of a Dewan of the State and encouraged the King in all his atrocious acts. Added to it, he had a strong weakness for women and as soon as he saw a charming woman, he would get her into his harem. The British warned him but he ignored their advice. Finally he submitted himself to the British and became a prisoner in his Palace. He was first taken to Vellore and finally to Kashi where he was kept as a State prisoner. He requested the British government to permit him to take his dear daughter Gowramma with him to England and the British permitted him.

Thus Princess Gowramma went with her father and reached England in March 1852. The deposed King and Gowramma were given a rousing reception at London and Veerarajendra was actively participating in social life of London along with his daughter Gowramma. Suddenly he thought of her future after his own death and wrote a letter to Queen Victoria, requesting her to take Gowramma under her protection and convert her to Christianity and give proper education to her. The queen was very happy and Gowramma was converted to Christianity in Windsor Castle church by Canterbury Archbishop.

Queen Victoria became her guardian and gave her the name Victoria Gowramma. Chikka Veerarajendra was also present on that occasion and he expressed his gratefulness to the queen. The responsibility of her protection and education was entrusted to Major Drummond and his wife. As they did not look after her properly, she was sent to Lady Login and Sir John Login who were proficient in Hindustani. She was not encouraged to meet her father frequently and was allowed to meet him on special occasions only. Gowramma had forgotten Hindustani and Veerarajendra did not know English and hence the father and daughter talked to each other through a bilingual interpreter. Most of the time Veerarajendra was weeping whenever he met his daughter and thought that he was responsible for her plight under the British but it was too late. He became sick and when she came to meet him, he handed over a bag to her which contained a large number of precious stones and rich ornaments and asked her to wear them. Both of them cried.

Veerarajendra died in 1859 in London but Gowramma could not go to the funeral as she was living in White Island, far away from London.

His body was kept in Kansal Green Cemetery and after two years the body was brought to Calcutta through a ship. From there it was taken by road to Kashi and was buried there as per the rituals of Veerashaiva community and a tomb was built over it. The expenditure for all this was Rs. 2500 and the British government sanctioned this amount. When he died he had cash and valuables worth around rupees four lakhs and it was distributed among his relatives. Nothing was claimed by Gowramma as she was under the protection of the queen herself.

Gowramma was under the protection of Mrs. Drummond. The latter had two daughters who were active and were going to school. But Gowramma was always inactive and had no interest in learning. Hence she was being treated badly by the family. She felt that under the influence of Gowramma, her two daughters also may get spoilt and requested the queen to relieve her family from the responsibility of Gowramma. Then Gowramma was entrusted to another European woman by name Lady Login. She had a good knowledge of India, and also had the responsibility of looking after Dilip Singh. He was the first King to be converted to Christianity whereas Gowramma was the first woman to get converted.

As part of the ritual, the queen wanted her to go to Italy. The queen had sent an expensive diamond ear-ring and necklace of pearls and asked her to lead a life acceptable to God. Veerarajendra who was present on the occasion was happy at this gesture. Then Gowramma was taken to Italy (Vatican) by Lady Login and the new climate made her healthy and enthusiastic, regarding the royal life. Though some people tried to get her married to Dilip Singh, the latter did not agree as Gowramma did not come up to his expectations.

Then Gowramma came to England along with Lady Login. The latter wanted to be relieved of the responsibility of Gowramma and she was put under the care of Lady Katharine Harcourt. But the latter put Gowramma under a Junior Governess and Gowramma did not like that. Then she was put under the care of Sir James Wirhog. At that time Colonel Campbell used to visit her house. He was a young widower and showed great interest in Gowramma. They were married and they had a female child who was given the name Edith Victoria Gowramma. Campbell and Gowramma enjoyed fairly good life, visited many places and took part in royal festivals and parties. The queen was very happy and ordered that there should be no deficiency in providing funds and amenities to Campbell and Gowramma. Thus everything looked wonderful to the couple.

Gradually her tuberculosis was becoming severe. Queen Victoria made all arrangements to get her the best medical help. But the medicines did not help and finally she died in 1864 (March 30) when she was just 23 years. As per the desire of the queen her body was buried in Brampton Cemetery in London and an epitaph was carved on the marble stone as follows:

“Sacred to the memory of Princess Victoria Gowramma, daughter of ex-Raja of Coorg, the beloved wife of Lt. Colonel Campbell. Born in India, July 4th 1841, she was brought early in life to England, baptised into the Christian faith under the immediate care and protection of queen Victoria who stood sponsor to her. She died on 30th March 1864.”

After her death, her daughter married Captain Yardley and had a son who died in a road accident. Thus ended the family of Victoria Gowramma. Now she has entered the pages of history, the ultimate of everyone including kings, queens and princesses. But there is something melancholic in her life which makes us to have a soft corner for her. That is the greatness of Victoria Gowramma.

source: http://www.starofmysore.com / Star of Mysore / Home> Feature Articles / August 30th, 2014

New Chiefs Appointed to Academies

Arts, Culture & Entertainment, Famous Personalities of Kodagu / Coorg, Leaders, Records, All, Uncategorized

Bangalore :

The Department of Kannada and Culture has appointed heads and members to various academies.

M S Murthy (Bangalore) has been appointed the Chairman of Karnataka Lalithakala Academy, B A Mohammed Hanif (Dakshina Kannada) is the new chairman of Karnataka Beary Sahitya Academy while Kolkada Girish (Madikeri) has been appointed as the Chairman of Arebhashe Samskruthi Sahitya Academy and Biddatanda S Thammaiah has been appointed the Chairman of Kodava Sahitya Academy.

Members Named

For Karnataka Lalithakala Academy, B L Chauhan, Mahalingappa, Prabhu Urs, B K Badigera, Vishweshwari Tiwari, Devarishi, C Chikkanna, Krishna Devadiga, T H Shanmukappa, Khasim I Kansavi, Sharanappa B H, Wajid Sajid, Vedamurthy, Bargur Markandeya and C Rajashekar have been appointed the members.

source: http://www.newindianexpress.com / The New Indian Express / Home> States> Karnatkaka / by Express News Service / August 14th, 2014

The glass ceiling in diplomacy

Arts, Culture & Entertainment, Famous Personalities of Kodagu / Coorg, Leaders, Records, All

WOMEN OF THE WORLD: THE RISE OF THE FEMALE DIPLOMAT
Helen McCarthy
Bloomsbury, London, 2014
404 plus xii pages; Rs 595

This book’s core message is how the male-dominated world of British diplomacy gradually – and grudgingly – let professional women in. As an academic, the author scores on objectivity, but the reader may miss an intimacy of personal experience that an insider might have provided. The author’s reliance on documentary material, and absence of interviews with working diplomats, produces a disproportionate emphasis on history; the book is weak on the contemporary scene.

This 400-page tome is fluffed up with an extended introduction on the evolution of the world of British diplomats from the late 19th century onwards, in which women were notable for their absence. But useful nuggets are thrown up. Who might imagine that as far back as 1893, most of the candidates recruited into the Foreign Office passed through a “crammer” called Coombes to prepare for entrance tests? It was the shortage of men during World War I that brought women into clerical-level diplomatic work in London, but few rose to executive positions. When in 1933 the Foreign Office asked embassies if women could handle diplomatic and consular work, most ambassadors were aghast. It was the Soviet Union that in 1924 appointed the world’s first female ambassador, Alexandra Kollontai, to Norway. The United States appointed its first female head of mission to Denmark in 1933 (that was a “legation”, headed by a “minister plenipotentiary”; such junior embassies, withered away after World War II, or WWII).

Two chapters (the fifth and the sixth) are devoted to the proceedings of a 1934 committee that examined and recommended against the entry of women in the diplomatic service. It took WWII to bring about real change in British mindsets. At the nine-week conference at San Francisco, five female delegates were among the participants, from Canada, China (KMT), Dominica, Uruguay and the United States; the United Nations Charter bears the signatures of four women.

The main narrative is sketched through the archival material that the historian author has tracked down after rigorous search through official papers, personal diaries, and letters and other sources. This produces fascinating pen portraits of strong characters, such as the Soviet ambassador Kollontai, fluent in 11 languages, who served in Norway, Sweden and Mexico; Dame Edith Lyttelton, the United Kingdom’s delegate to the League of Nations who argued in vain for women’s entry to the diplomatic service; and Freya Stark, a Briton who became an Arab affairs specialist in the 1930s, exploring little-known corners of Syria and the Arab peninsula, and during WWII worked with much verve in Cairo, Baghdad and Tehran. The few women that found diplomatic assignments, such as Nancy Lambton in Tehran, had to appear in academic gowns on formal occasions, since a diplomatic uniform – de rigueur in those days – did not exist for women.

It was as late as 1942 that Mary McGeachy became the first woman to be given diplomatic status, at the United Kingdom Embassy in Washington, D C. While other civil services had become accessible to women 20 years earlier, the ban on women in the service’s executive-level “A Branch” was lifted in 1946. This was preceded by a 1943 white paper that amalgamated the diplomatic and consular services, and a committee appointed in 1945 that recommended removal of the ban. But it came with two caveats: a marriage bar, and a “quota” of 10 per cent. Yet through the 1950s, women did not make up more than two per cent of the executive branch.

Presented through the eyes of female recruits, the final section of the book is fascinating, depicting the recruitment process (including the two-day “house party” where candidates that had passed the written tests were put through problem-solving and goal-achievement skills; how I wish such a process was used for the Indian Foreign Service, or the IFS). The Foreign Office was hugely behind the times in waiting till 1973 to remove the bar on marriage for female diplomats. Indian female diplomats confronted the same prejudice. They were required to resign on marriage; in the 1950s, we lost outstanding persons, such as Rama Mehta and Mira Sinha Bhattacharjea. This irrational rule was lifted in 1962 when Manorama and Hardev Bhalla, both in the IFS, married. In 1973, the United Kingdom appointed its first female high commissioner, but their first married female as ambassador emerged only in 1987. India appointed C B Muthamma (the first woman to join the IFS in 1949) as its professional female ambassador to Hungary in 1970.

The United Kingdom’s glass ceiling remains much worse for professional women than one may imagine. In 1995, the senior-most female diplomat, Pauline Neville-Jones, Foreign and Commonwealth Ofiice (FCO)’s political director, could not win the prize she sought – the Paris ambassadorship; that went to a male colleague six years her junior. She declined substitute assignments and joined a bank. Till date, a woman has not headed any of the United Kingdom’s top six missions, nor served as the FCO permanent under secretary. India has seen three female foreign secretaries since 2002, and ambassadors of both genders at virtually all its top posts.

The book evokes real issues that all foreign services face today: the old formula for wives of diplomats to immerse themselves in “housewifery and hospitality”, treating the embassy as an extended family, with roles assigned by status of their husbands, no longer works. The challenges faced by spouses taking up jobs while accompanying diplomats are all too common in all foreign ministries. One wishes the author had examined this further, looking also at practices in other countries.

The reviewer is a former diplomat, author and teacher
source: http://www.business-standard.com / Business Standard / Home> Beyond Business> Books / by Krishna S. Rana / August 10th, 2014

Kodagu girl dabbling in OZ politics

Famous Personalities of Kodagu / Coorg, Leaders, Nri's / Pio's, World Opinion

Charisma Kaliyanda with Australian Prime Minister Julia Gillard
Charisma Kaliyanda with Australian Prime Minister Julia Gillard

Mysore :

Kaliyanda Charisma is in the thick of Australian politics. She is currently running up for election to the State Parliament of New South Wales, which is one of the States of Australia. “I hope to be elected in March 2015, at which time I will work hard to represent the constituents of the seat of Holsworthy” she said. Charisma is contesting from Holsworthy on a ticket from the Australian Labor Party, who have selected her as their candidate to contest the upcoming State election.

“I was inspired to become involved in politics by three incidents that all occurred around the same time. Firstly, my University (University of New South Wales) was making big changes to our degrees and I was complaining in class when one of my classmates asked me “what are you going to do about it?” She invited me to stand with her friends for election to the Student Representative Council (SRC) of UNSW. I realised I was just wasting my breath by complaining without taking any action, so I joined my classmate and her friends. The following year, I was elected President of the UNSW SRC,” said Charisma, speaking to Star of Mysore.

“Secondly, as part of my studies I travelled on exchange to Mexico. Here, I realised the value of being involved in politics — if people from all walks of life are not involved in politics then the decisions that are made cannot be representative of society as a whole,” she said.

“Finally, it was around this time that I was diagnosed with Type 1 diabetes. This experience made me realise that the health system we have in Australia is fantastic, and that health and education are so important to being able to succeed in life. So, I got involved in local politics,” said Charisma.

Charisma is an occupational therapist by profession. Her experience with the health system there led her to get Masters in Occupational Therapy from the University of Sydney. “I love working in paediatrics, which is why I completed a program working at a school for children with physical disabilities in Mumbai last year,” she said.

About her background, Charisma said that she is the daughter of Kaliyanda Jaya and Banumathi, from Kolakeri village, Madikeri taluk, Kodagu. Banumathi is working for NSW railways. She and her brother were born in Bangalore. When she was around four years old, her parents decided to migrate to Australia. “Although the size of the Kodava community in Sydney has increased in recent years, it was relatively small when we were growing up. However, despite having lived in Australia for over 20 years, my parents have ensured that we have never forgotten our roots, our language and our traditions,” said Charisma.

“I have always found it a privilege to be able to share my heritage, particularly with Australian friends, as Australia’s multicultural society celebrates the richness of different cultures. We speak Kodava thakk at home, and make sure to celebrate Kailpodhu, Puthari and Kaveri Shankramana with not only our Kodava friends but also our non-Kodava friends. The Kodava community in Sydney gets together for our festivals every year, but we also celebrate at home. My friends love my mum’s pandhi curry and wotti” she said.

“My family is extremely supportive – they have always encouraged me to pursue my goals wholeheartedly. I am lucky that we have been able to visit family and friends in India every 3-4 years. My father is Kaliyanda Jaya, from Kolakeri and my mother, Chottera Bhanumathy, is from Kunjalageri. We still have family and friends living in Coorg and Bangalore, however, we make it a point to visit our grandmother in Kunjalageri, whenever we are in India,” she said.

source: http://www.starofmysore.com / Star of Mysore / Home> Feature Articles / August 10th, 2014

M.C.Nanaiah urges Government to honour Joshna Chinappa

Famous Personalities of Kodagu / Coorg, Leaders, Sports, Uncategorized

NanaiahKF15aug2014
Bangalore :

Veteran politician and former Minister M.C. Nanaiah has urged the State Government to honour Kodagu sports person Joshna Chinappa who won gold medal in the Squash Doubles in the CWG-2014.

Speaking to press persons here yesterday, Nanaiah said the Karnataka Olympics Association (KOA) must honour Joshna as she hails from Polibetta in Kodagu, with her grand parents and parents all belonging to this place.

Pointing out that her parents moved to Chennai seeking a career, Nanaiah said that Joshna was born and brought up in Kodagu and she belonged to the State. The squash player was living with her parents in Chennai and it was not correct on the part of the KOA for not honouring her citing that she was a resident of Chennai.

Noting that the KOA honoured Vikas Gowda who is settled in the US and others such as cricketer Azaruddin and tennis player Sania Mirza earlier, Nanaiah wondered why the Association ignored Joshna, who through her feat in the Commonwealth Games (CWG) had brought good name to Karnataka.

Pointing out that the Tamil Nadu and Andhra governments had announced cash rewards ranging from Rs. 20 lakh to Rs. 50 lakh for CWG achievers, the former Minister urged Chief Minister Siddharamaiah and Minister for Youth Services and Sports Abhayachandra Jain to look into the discrimination against the squash players, which has hurt sports lovers across the State and take measures to felicitate and reward Joshna as early as possible.

Referring to the spurt in atrocities and sexual violence against women in the State, Nanaiah observed that the effective implementation of the POCSO Act will go a long way in preventing crimes against women.

Reiterating the need for implementing the POCSO Act to curb sexual abuse of women and children, Nanaiah said that the Government has constituted a 26 member committee, headed by him, to look into effective measures needed for preventing sexual violence and other crimes against women and chilren, including implementation of POCSO Act.

The Committee, which is due to begin work shortly, will deliberate on the laws related to sexual violence and atrocities against women and children and come up with practical measures for tackling such crimes, he added.

source: http://www.starofmysore.com / Star of Mysore / Home> General News / August 09th, 2014