Monthly Archives: August 2017

Preserving a home full of memories

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

Madikeri :

The government has not done anything to keep permanent the memory of the first commander in chief of the Army Field Marshal Kodandera M Cariappa. But the house he lived in, in Madikeri, has some remarkable things intact that remind people of his disciplined way of life as a soldier.

Cariappa had purchased a house in Madikeri in 1944 and had named it Roshanara. The house is now maintained by his son, retired Air Marshal Cariappa and his wife Meena, a native of Punjab. Inside Roshanara, a ‘sulking’ room of the Field Marshal is still maintained without change. “It was my father’s favourite room,” says Air Marshal Nanda Cariappa. He invariably spent an hour or so every afternoon, catching up on newspapers, reading mail or catnapping for 10 to 15 minutes. The room was so named because it was a particularly bright and cheerful place that had been added after he had retired.

The drawing room in the house is also maintained unchanged. “In one corner of the drawing room, my father’s chair has been left unmoved,” says Nanda Cariappa. The top wall portion of the chair is visible with four swords. These were presented to him by Hindu, Muslim and Sikh organizations. Another Katana of Japan was also gifted to him. In the drawing room, the depiction of a Kodava warrior, circa, 1850 used on a medallion, was awarded by the British. The table lamp was brought by an English lady Shone, during 1949.

Cariappa was cremated at Roshanara’s outer grounds during 1993, where the samadhi was built and is maintained by his daughter, a spinster, Nalini Cariappa, who lives in a separate house near Roshanara. Nanda Cariappa has four daughters and a son who are all settled outside. His son, Vikram, is interested in adventurous tours and once a year, Nanda Cariappa, also joins Vikram’s team in climbing the 18,000 feet high Himalayas.

Speaking to TOI, Nanda Cariappa called upon Kodagu youths to join the Army. He indicated the scope for minimum service of seven years in the Army for youths. Even girls can join administrative, accounts, electronic, electrical and other sections, he said.

source: http://www.timesofindia.indiatimes.com / The Times of India / News Home> City> Mysore / by G Rajendra / TNN / December 12th, 2011

Coorg Kannada Type Family Gives 50 Million Newspaper Readers a Reason to Smile

Amazing Feats, Arts, Culture & Entertainment, Records, All
courtesy: Ramakrishna Saiteja / ITF
courtesy: Ramakrishna Saiteja / ITF

Name: Coorg Kannada Family
Designer: Ramakrishna Saiteja
Foundry: Indian Type Foundry
Release Date: Pending

Back Story:

23-year-old Saiteja of Bangalore, India, is this year’s Society of Typographic Aficionados Catalyst Award winner, in recognition of his significant achievement and future promise in the field of typography. His elegant design for the Coorg Kannada type family makes reading Indian-language newspapers more of a joy and less of a struggle. Kannada is a Dravidian language spoken by 50.8 million people in southern India. Its written form derives from a 5th century script, Kadamba, and can be a bit tricky for type designers: it has an inherently wide proportion, and an atypical reverse stress when compared with Latin type. Some forms fall below the baseline as subscripts to indicate added sounds. As if this wasn’t challenging enough, the height added to each character by the subscripts forces fewer lines per page.

Saiteja first began working on Coorg Kannada in early 2016 because he found the typefaces in local Kannada newspapers lacking. “The fonts used in most newspapers are poorly designed for text due to an unresolved and uneven texture, and don’t enhance the reading experience in any way,” Saiteja says. Guided and advised by his colleague, Satya Rajpurohit (one of ITF’s founders, along with Peter Bil’ak) he perfected and refined the design and followed up with Coorg Kannada Sans as a more neutral variant of the typeface.

Why’s it called Coorg Kannada?
The Coorg language, which uses Kannada script as a writing system, is widely spoken by the people of Kodava, India, and the type family is named in their honor.

What are its distinguishing characteristics?
Designed to maximize legibility, the Coorg Kannada family’s letterforms in both Classic and Sans follow the proportions of Kannada and are balanced so that they work well together. Certain characters bear stylized terminals plus angled head strokes and ink traps where needed. The subscripts are matched in terms of weight and gray value with the main characters, with a careful eye towards creating an even texture on the page. It adds up to a well thought out, visually coherent type system.

What should I use it for?
Coorg Kannada shines for setting text in any medium. It has five weights unlike previously available Kannada fonts, providing options for a wide range of text hierarchy within the same typeface. The heavier weights of both styles are intended to be used for display purposes.

What other typefaces do you like to pair it with?
The Classic Kannada sits well alongside ITF Gujarati in terms of Indic scripts. William Text is a good Latin typeface match. As for the Sans, try it with sturdy Equitan or Neutral.

source: http://www.eyeondesign.aiga.org / AGA Eye on Design / Home> Type Tuesday / by Angele Riechers / June 20th, 2017

Kodavas face threat of DWINDLING NUMBERS

About Kodagu / Coorg, Famous Personalities of Kodagu / Coorg, Historical Links / Pre-Independence, Records, All

Issue To Be Taken Up During Samaj’s Centenary Bash

Bangalore:

Kodavas, a distinctive race in Karnataka, have often been dubbed ‘tigers’ largely because of the courage, honour and loyalty shown by two popular generals of independent India, Field Marshal K M Cariappa and General K S Thimayya.

However, like real tigers, they too are now facing the threat of extinction. According to a recent census by the Karnataka unit of the Bureau of Economics and Statistics, the population of

Kodavas has alarmingly dwindled from 1.5 lakh in 2001 to 1.25 lakh in 2011. This at a time when the human population is growing at an alarmingly fast rate.

If this situation continues, community leaders fear that Kodavas, who are largely concentrated in Kodagu (70,000), Bangalore (30,000) and Mysore (15,000) will be wiped out by 2030, considering the slow population growth rate in recent times. Aware of the looming danger, Kodava Samaj, Bangalore (KSB) is gearing up to create awareness among its community members of the dangers involved as part

of its centenary celebrations beginning Friday in Bangalore. “The whole idea is not only to create awareness on the challenges among our community but also to draw the attention of the state government to help the community sustain its rich culture and tradition,” said Cheppudira Tilak Subbaiah, president, KSB.

The Kodavas are an anthropological puzzle. No one really knows the origin of the Kodavas but everyone knows and acknowledges that they are different — be it their skin colour, big eyes, long nose, aggressive face and wide chest.

Some say they are the descendants of soldiers from Alexander’s army. Others say they are descendants of a band of Kurds from the Yemen, Oman, Kurdistan and Iraq region, who fled to India to escape forceful conversions by the sword to Islam. Still others say they are Rajputs or Scythian soldiers who fled the North-West frontier during the Mughal Invasions.

So why is the community facing extinction? KSB’s vice-president Monnada Seetha Aiyanna said one reason is adopting strict family planning practices, as a majority of the community has migrated to cities to live the hard life. This is largely due to increasing fragmentation of inherited estates, which have turned out to be unproductive for joint families.

Another general trend is late marriage in the community because of limited choice of brides and bridegrooms. This has naturally impacted the fertility potential of men and women. “All these factors have also given way to the practice of marrying outside the community,” Seetha pointed out.

It’s a complex situation for the Kodava Samaj to push its agenda. “Neither can we ask the community to have more than two children nor we can restrict inter-caste marriages to check the waning population,” rued Kukkera B Chinnappa and Kaibulira K Ponnacha of KSB, who have taken the initiative to organize a special seminar to discuss the emerging problems of Kodavas during the centenary celebrations.

Weekend Celebrations

Kodava Samaj, Bangalore, will celebrate 100 years of existence this weekend. Governor H R Bhardwaj and CM D V Sadananda Gowda will participate in the three-day centenary celebrations starting Friday. The event will showcase Kodava culture and the progress of the people. KSB, an association of about 40,000 Kodavas in Bangalore, was established in 1911 with just eight Kodava families of Bangalore, consisting of 30 people. After Kodagu district — which was a ‘C’ category state administrated by the Centre — was merged with Karnataka in 1956, more Kodavas who migrated to urban areas joined the association.

In 1960, Jayachamarajendra Wadiyar, former Maharaja of Mysore, gifted an acre of land at Vasanthnagar to Field Marshal Gen K M Cariappa in recognition of his distinguished military service to the nation. Cariappa donated this land to the Coorg Association and enabled the formation of the ‘Coorg Association’ which was renamed KSB in 1962. In 1981, KSB extended its service by establishing the Cauvery School in Indiranagar on land donated to the KSB by late CM R Gundu Rao, and also set up a few colleges.

ARMED FORCES: Field Marshal K M Cariappa (in pic), General K S Thimayya, Lt General Apparanda Aiyappa

SPORTS: Rohan Bopanna (in pic), M P Ganesh, M M Somaiah, Ashwini Nachappa, Joshna Chinnappa

FASHION: Prasad Bidapa (in pic)

CINEMA: Prema, Nidhi Subbaiah (in pic), Daisy Bopanna, A T Raghu, Harshika Poonacha

LITERATURE:

Appanervanda Haridasa Appachcha Kavi, veteran Kodava poet

CIVIL SERVICE AND LAW:

C B Muthamma, first woman IFS officer; IGP P K Monnappa, first police chief of Karnataka and Andhra Pradesh, C Somaiah, former comptroller and auditor general of India; Palekanda Medappa, chief justice of Mysore, Palekanda Muthanna, attorney general.

POLITICS: C M Poonacha, chief minister of Coorg state (1952-56) and Union railway minister; Meriyanda C Nanaiah, former minister and MLC; Prema Cariappa, former mayor of Bangalore, MP (in pic). manu.aiyappa@timesgroup.com

source: http://www.e.paper.timesofindia.com / The Times of India / Home> Section – Times City, Page 4 / by Manu Aiyappa / November 09th, 2011

‘Madikeri Dasara committee must comprise people from all walks’

Arts, Culture & Entertainment

CMC president Kaveramma Somanna, who is also president of Madikeri Dasara Samithi, has clarified that she wants people from the four Karaga committees, Dashamantapa members and those who have been in public service to adorn the post of working president of the Dasara committee.

Following a row over amendments to by-laws to the Dasara committee and working president of the committee, Kaveramma told reporters on Saturday that, “The members of various organisations have echoed my viewpoint. At present the CMC president is the president of Dasara Samithi while the vice president is CMC general secretary and another member has been elected treasurer. If the CMC members are elected as working president of Dasara committee, then it would become a Madikeri CMC members committee which would be objected to by the government. Hence, I wanted someone apart from the CMC members to become the working president of the committee.”

“The public must extend financial assistance for Dasara. If the post of the working president is entrusted to politicians, then there will be opposition from the general public. I am committed to organise Madikeri Dasara utsav in an organised manner,” she said.

“The present by-law is old. It was decided to bring in amendments to the by-law through a by-law committee. However, a few persons created unwanted confusion and chaos in the second meeting. As a result, we could not bring in amendments as per the expectations of the people. A few have been disappointed,” she said.

“The government expects amendments as per its guidelines. We cannot seek financial assistance for Dasara as per the old by-law. Hence the amendment was necessary. A few disrupted the meeting by creating confusion and chaos,” she said.

Barring CMC members, a working president would be appointed shortly. We have to value public opinion by setting aside vested interests. A meeting will be convened to put an end to all the confusion,” Kaveramma said.

“Dasara utsav should not be used for political gain. Dasara should be organised under the guidance of the working president. MLA, MLC, and zilla panchayat members should cooperate and sort out their differences.”

source: http://www.deccanherald.com / Deccan Herald / Home> District / DH News Service, Madikeri / July 29th, 2017

Chandigarh Gerrari Offroaders qualify for RFC Global Series

Famous Personalities of Kodagu / Coorg, Records, All, Sports
Gurmeet Virdi (left) with his co-driver Kirpal in Goa. Tribune Photo
Gurmeet Virdi (left) with his co-driver Kirpal in Goa. Tribune Photo

Chandigarh :

Chandigarh’s Gurmeet Virdi and co-driver Kirpal Singh Tung won the Force Gurkha RFC India, which concluded today at Dona Paula (Goa). With this win team Chandigarh Gerrari Offroaders get an automatic entry to RFC Global Series finale, to be held in Malaysia later this year.

The team also won $8,000 prize money. After a week-long nail-biting competition, Virdi and Tung claimed the trophy with a total score of 2019 points out of 2600. Virdi defended his title and is the only Indian driver to have won the country’s toughest off-road motorsport competition since its launch in 2014.

The overall second position went to Jagat Nanjappa and co-driver Chetan Changappa of Team V5 Offroaders from Coorg with 1906 points. In an interesting turn of events, Gerrari Offroaders’ Sanbir Singh Dhaliwal and co-driver Gurpartap Singh overtook Siddartha Santosh in the final moments to clinch the final spot on the podium with 1685 points.

Virdi was elated on winning the country’s most coveted off-road motorsport trophy for the second time in a row. “I am overjoyed that we’ve successfully managed to defend our title. It was a pretty tough competition, the positions kept on changing, but we are happy that we came out victorious,” said Virdi.

As the top Indian driver of the competition, he will get monetary benefits of up to $8,000, along with a paid-for entry in the RFC Grand Final in Malaysia and the travel expenses. Moreover, Cougar Motorsport will contribute up to $3,000 towards the cost of arranging the vehicle to participate in the event in Malaysia. “There was no pressure throughout the event but the last stage of the competition gave me some serious chills as the competition was really close. It’s the first time that our club Gerrari Offroaders has clinched two positions on the podium in RFC India. Overall, I couldn’t have been happier,” added Virdi.

This is the second consecutive year when veteran Indian rallyist Jagat Nanjappa competed in RFC India. He is satisfied about the fact that he has risen up from last year’s eighth position to the second position this year. “This year it turned out to be a brilliant competition amongst the top three throughout the event. Virdi has defended his title with full force and I congratulate him on his superb performance,” said Nanjappa.

Nanjappa took the first position in his category (1611-3010cc diesel). From being eliminated in the first special stage of RFC India last year to making it on the podium this year, it has been a fairytale journey for Sanbir Singh Dhaliwal. “It was really close till the last moment. The first few days I was concentrating on preserving my vehicle. I was observing how the course behaved. Things started to improve with each passing day. In the last 10 stages, I became more aggressive and the event finally concluded exactly the way I wanted it to,” said Dhaliwal.

The Team Spirit Award was given to R Sumanth Shenoy from Chikmaglur, while the Jungleman Award went to Dr. Chaitanya Challa of Hyderabad Jeepers Adventure Association. The Most Unique 4X4 Award went to the Hornet driven by Yamunanagar-based Sushant Saini.

The Environment Award went to William Dwaine Jungen from Arizona (USA), while the Best Service Team Award went to Gerrari Offroaders.

The Team Award went to BODA. The Rookie of the Event was awarded to Goan driver Dattaraj Raut Dessai and his co-driver Pratik Prabhu Dessai for their exemplary performance.

source: http://www.tribuneindia.com / The Tribune / Home> Chandigarh / Tribune News Service / July 31st, 2017