After spending days together in the royal city, it was time for the Dasara jumbos to bid farewell to each other and return to their abode in the forests. Of the 14 elephants camping in the city, 11 left on Tuesday while three jumbos, Gajendra, Srirama and Durgaparameshwari, will head to their habitat in K Gudi in Chamarajnagar district on Wednesday.
Before they bid adieu to city life, they got a traditional farewell at the Mysore Palace from bureaucrats and politicians led by district minister V Srinivas Prasad. The herd led by howdah elephant Arjuna started their journey at 3pm as they were loaded on to trucks. Their mahouts, kavadis and family members too accompanied the jumbos in the trucks. By 6pm, Arjuna had reached Nagarahole national park.
Veteran Abhimanyu too has returned to the forest. “He is healthy and doing well. That is why we chose to send him back along with the 10 other jumbos,” vet D N Nagaraj told TOI denying that the 48-year-old tusker was injured. Abhimanyu has been part of Dasara festivities for 15 years now and is traditionally assigned the job of pulling the musical chariot, known as Aane Gaadi.
source: http://www.timesofindia.indiatimes.com / The Times of India / Home> City> Mysore / by H.M. Aravind, TNN / October 08th, 2014
After three Kodava celebrities — Shwetha Chengappa, Deepika Kamaiah and Harshika Poonacha — participated in the just concluded TV Reality Show Bigg Boss Kannada Season-2, here is another Kodavathi from Mysore — Cheeyakapoovanda Ravika Somaiah — taking part in another Reality Show on the television, Pyate Hudigiru Halli Lifeu – Season 3, which got off to a grand start on Oct. 6, after the grand finale of Bigg Boss.
She is one among the 10 contestants participating in Pyate Hudigiru Halli Lifeu, a happening reality show on Suvarna Channel everyday at 8 pm.
Ravika Somaiah has been a top model for Needle Works under Jayanthi Ballal for the last two years.
source: http://www.starofmysore.com / Star of Mysore / Home> General News / October 08th, 2014
Tournaments to be held in various locations in the district from Oct. 10 to Dec. 28
Virajpet :
The Hockey Kodagu Association will be conducting Kodagu League-2014 Hockey Tournament on knock-out basis at the Junior College Grounds in Ponnampet from Oct. 10 to 20.
Kakotuparambu Grounds will play host for the District Level Hockey Tournament for registered teams from Oct. 22 to 26.
The Kodanda A. Poovaiah Memorial Inter-School Boys and Girl’s Hockey Tourney will be held at the Junior College Grounds in the month of November and the Chowrira Acchaiah Memorial Inter-Collegiate Hockey Tourney will also be held in November.
Addressing the media here yesterday, Association President Paikera Kalaiah said that the best teams from the Hockey Kodagu League-2014 will be selected for the district level tournament to be held in Napoklu in November. He said that the Kodava Champion League would be held at Ammatti High School Grounds from Dec. 2 to 14 and added that the tournament would be held between 16 teams that had entered the quarter finals of Kodava Family Hockey Tatanda Cup.
He further said that the District Level Tournament among the 12 teams selected through Kodava Champion League will be held from Dec. 18 to 22 in Somwarpet and added that eight teams would fight in the District-Level tournament in Kandangala from Dec. 26 to 28.
source: http://www.starofmysore.com / Star of Mysore / Home>Sports News / Tuesday , October 07th, 2014
Ashwini Ponnappa and Vladimir Ivanov, who have teamed up for mixed doubles events, talk to RIR about their badminton partnership and the upcoming Denmark Open.
Vladimir Ivanov. Source: Grigoriy Sokolov / RIA Novosti
Indian women’s doubles badminton player Ashwini Ponnappa and Russian multi-format men’s player Vladimir Ivanov have partnered for mixed doubles events sanctioned by the Badminton World Federation. They would be seen in action together at the upcoming Denmark Open Super Series.
Both Ponnappa and Ivanov have established credibility in women’s and men’s doubles events, respectively. Ponnappa is the current Commonwealth Games silver medalist in women’s doubles. Ivanov has been riding on a winning streak in men’s doubles along with his partner Ivan Sozonov. They are the reigning European Champions.
However an ideal mixed doubles partnership has eluded them till now. Given their shared aspiration to do well in the mixed doubles format, this partnership could be their best shot. “My career began with singles matches and then I also started playing doubles,” Ivanov says. “It’s really hard to compete in both the formats simultaneously at the top most level. I am good enough at doubles, but I haven’t had a strong mixed doubles partner for the international circuit. Now I have this chance and I hope this partnership will be good for my career. It could also help me balance my efforts towards singles and doubles categories.”
Ashwini Ponnappa (right). Source: AP
Ponnappa also believes that their ambitions can be aligned. “I want to focus on mixed doubles some more. I was looking for someone outside the country,” she says. “I had seen Ivanov play at the Indian Badminton League and I think he did really well. He was also looking for a mixed doubles partner.”
Ivanov caught the fancy of badminton followers during the inaugural edition of the Indian Badminton League (IBL). He achieved an upset by defeating the Indian star P Kashyap in men’s singles and also contributed some significant doubles wins for his team.
This Indo-Russian team has got the nod of the governing authorities of both the countries. “In badminton, the associations play an active role and help their players a lot,” Ponnappa says. “That is why it was important for us that the Indian and Russian badminton associations approve of our team. Fortunately and thankfully we’ve got their support.”
In this sport, players mostly travel as national teams. Unlike tennis, it is hard to find a precedent of international pairing in badminton. The only other such team is that of Petya Nedelcheva of Bulgaria and Imogene Bankier of Scotland who participated at the World Championships earlier this year. With prominent players such as Ponnappa and Ivanov teaming up, international collaborations will surely gain popularity. It would also create participation opportunities for players from those countries where badminton is not played extensively.
The foremost challenge in this arrangement is that of geographic distance. Ponnappa and Ivanov are ready to deal with it. “We haven’t played together as yet,” Ivanov reveals. “It is difficult to draw any conclusion at the moment. But I think it will work out for us. I’ve watched her play and I can say that we have a similar approach in mixed doubles. The key here is to be clear about what each player has to do in each game.”
Ponnappa is also positive about their teamwork. “We are both experienced in playing doubles. I believe that it won’t be a major problem for us to coordinate with each other. We’ll have a few days to practice before the Denmark Open and we’ll take it from there. I am sure our strategy will evolve with every game,” she says.
Both the players assert that the upcoming tournament wouldn’t be just a trial run. They plan to compete together in the French Super Series and the Bitburger Open events that follow the Denmark Open.
Ivanov has already established synergistic association with Indian badminton players owing to his experience at the IBL. “It is an exciting and charged atmosphere during the games and also among the teammates. This experience is really close to my heart,” he says. “This psychological comfort is important in our profession, that’s why besides expectations about winning in mixed doubles, I think our partnership will lead to an even stronger connect with the Indian players and fans.” Ivanov, who had to depend on a translator when he first arrived in India, now feels a certain affinity with the Indian badminton fraternity.
This Indo-Russian badminton partnership can be a game changer not just for Ponnappa and Ivanov, but also for the sport itself, provided that they manage to serve an ace.
source: http://www.in.rbth.com / Russia & India Report / Home> Culture> Sports / by Priyanka Gera, specially for RIR / October 05th, 2014
In literature that delves into social miseries, there is a common feeling that those who have words don’t have the stories, and those who have stories don’t have the words. If you’re living on the pavement with your family, you probably don’t have the means to record the experience for posterity. On the other hand, if you sit at a desk of your own and compose literature, you don’t have access to the miseries you want to write about.
To reconcile that problem, writers set up a peculiar kind of narrator, the person steeped in the rough life who somehow has the vocabulary and wider perspective to tell the stories. It is the kind of construct we find in old fiction, like Nelly Dean from Wuthering Heights or the flamboyantly criminal Moll Flanders. Nowadays, it seems an unnecessarily elaborate way to get to the stories. Readers are primed to accept them without that explanatory frame.
In Kavery Nambisan’s A Town Like Ours, the peculiar narrator is Rajakumari, a retired prostitute who lives in a dark room somewhere in the temple of the village goddess. She knows everyone’s back story and is not ashamed to tell it all. In her early years, she was enterprising enough to trade sex for lessons in maths, language, anatomy and other subjects. With education comes some preachiness, but we are Indians and that’s how we spin a fiction. Rajakumari has plenty to say about the chief industry of the town, the way it has poisoned the wells, contaminated the soil and whitened the children’s hair. She opines on religion and knee joints. But mostly she studies human nature. Old acquaintances come to visit, women come to confide their sorrows, and young boys help her walk to the sanctum of the goddess. Through her tiny window, she reads the faces and gestures she sees on the basis of the many souls she has entertained in her working life, and she puts it all together.
At the centre of her stories is the family that lives out of an Ambassador taxi. Father drives it during the day, mother runs a tea-and-bajji stall out of the trunk after she comes home from her housecleaning jobs, the sister and brother go to school and spend the rest of their time on the streets. But there are in fact no brothers, sisters or fathers in the case. Saroja and Sampathu, each escaping a frightening past, have simply joined forces and are bringing up two children together. In spite of strong affections, the family is a fragile composite that holds together for some time and then fragments again. One child goes missing and then the other, and suddenly Sampathu is not to be seen.
Elsewhere in the town, Manohar and Kripa separate after a fight and come together again. This couple become enmeshed with Saroja and help to look for her family. Nambisan is spot on in drawing Saroja’s situation as the woman left behind. She cannot tell her neighbours she doesn’t know where the other three are. Every day she parries questions about when her husband is “coming back from the village”. She must keep up appearances, or she will be judged and found wanting.
Up to that point Nambisan’s novel is leisurely. We move back and forth through memories and conversations to find out what kind of person each character is. But the suddenly precipitous pace near the end throws us, as each member of the family comes wandering back and misunderstandings flower among them. The whore in the temple says a prayer for herself, and leaves us with unfinished stories.
source: http://www.thehindu.com / The Hindu / Home> Books> Literary Review / by Latha Anantharaman / October 04th, 2014
The High Court has refused to allow public access to the Kadanga, an ancient war trench, which is part of a private property.
A petition was filed by Iynanda K Chinnappa of Yadoor village in Kodagu district claiming exclusive right over the trench, located adjacent to the land he owns.
It is said one Balachanda Thammaiah, a villager, had appealed against Chinnappa and his sons for obstructing free passage through the trench. Thammaiah claimed that the trench belonged to the government due to its ancient origin.
The revenue officials and the Assistant Commissioner dismissed Thammaiah’s application stating that the trench is now private property. The district court, however, ordered for removal of the obstacles. Challenging the said order, Chinnappa moved the High Court.
Hearing the appeal, Justice Anand Byrareddy said the Kadanga is not public property and that over time, it has merged with the land of the petitioners and been in the exclusive possession of the petitioners for more than 50 years.
He also observed that under the Coorg Land Revenue Regulations, the Karnataka Revenue Survey Manual and the Mysore Land Revenue Code, do not define Kadanga in proper terms. Since there is no practical use of these trenches today, the government has not thought it fit to exercise any exclusive right over it, said the judge. The High Court set aside the order of the district court and said the Kadanga was not meant for public use.
source: http://www.newindianexpress.com / The New Indian Express / Home> Cities> Bangalore / by Express News Service / October 05th, 2014
With the arrival of Dashamantapas and Karagas of four temples to Banni Mantapa in the wee hours of Sunday, curtains were down for the vibrant Madikeri Dasara.
Thousands of people viewed Dashamantapa procession which passed through the main streets of Madikeri on Saturday night and culminated on Sunday morning. Ten tableauxs of Pete Sriram Mandira, Kundurumotte Sri Chowtti Mariyamma, Dandina Mariyamma, Kote Mariyamma, Kanchi Kamakshi, Kote Ganapathi, Chowdeshwari, Kodandarama Temple, Dechur Rama Mandir and Karavale Bhagavathi Temple were taken in a majestic procession.
Main temples, government offices, private buildings, main streets of the city were lit with colourful lights. The procession of Dashamantapas started after 11 pm. Each temple tableaux depicted different story based on mythology. Kote Mariyamma temple Mantapa won the first place in the contest, followed by Chowdeshwari temple (II) and Kodanda Ram temple (III).
Valedictory
Madikeri Dasara is organised in an equivalent manner to that of Mysore Dasara. It has been organised with more grandeur by every passing year, said Home Minister and Kodagu District-in-Charge Minister K J George.
source: http://www.deccanherald.com / Deccan Herald / Home> District / DHNS – Madikeri, October 05th, 2014
He was speaking at the valedictory of Dasara cultural programme at Gandhi Maidan on Saturday. “Madikeri Dasara is not just limited to Kodagu district, but also it has been drawing people from neighbouring districts and states. It is a challenging job for the district administration and the police to controlling a large gathering in Madikeri during procession. Yet, all have done a commendable job, he said.
MLA Appachu Ranjan congratulated the State government for granting Rs one crore for the purpose.
source: http://www.deccanherald.com / Deccan Herald / Home> District / DHNS – Madikeri, October 05th, 2014
The procession of Dashamantapas marked the conclusion of Madikeri Dasara celebrations on Saturday.
Thousands, including a large number of tourists from outside the district, lined up on either side of the main roads in Madikeri where the tableaux passed through— to get a glimpse of the Madikeri Dasara procession. The city was decked up with lightings.
As per the tradition, the procession was led by Pete Srirama Mandira mantapa. The tableaux on the theme of Mahishasura Mardhini attracted the spectators. The sound and light special effect was centre of attraction. After offering pooja at the temple, the Mantapa passed through College Road, Chowki, private bus stand, Town Hall to reach Gandhi Maidan.
Kundurumotte Sri Chowtti Mariyamma, Dandina Mariyamma, Kote Mariyamma, Kanchi Kamakshi, Kote Ganapathi, Chowdeshwari, Kodandarama Temple, Dechur Rama Mandir and Karavale Bhagavathi Temple tableaux also passed through streets of Madikeri. The procession that started on Saturday night went on till wee hours of Sunday.
A large number of people from outside the district had arrived Madikeri on Friday itself. All the hotels, home stays and resorts were full in Madikeri. After visiting tourist spots in Madikeri on Saturday morning, they arrived the city in the evening. Gandhi Maidan had turned into a mini bazar with eateries, stalls selling clothes. The stalls made brisk business during the night.
Traffic jam
The police had banned the entry of vehicles inside Madikeri town to check traffic congestion. The movement of vehicles on the streets where Dasha Mantapas passed through were banned. It had caused inconvenience to the vehicle users. The police had arranged parking of vehicles at APMC and Dairy.
Parking of vehicles in a haphazard manner caused inconvenience. To prevent the entry of additional vehicles inside the city, more than 100 buses from Mysore and other districts had to park their vehicles in Kushalnagar. The passengers from Kushalnagar were ferried to Madikeri in special buses. DH News Service
source: http://www.deccanherald.com / Deccan Herald / Home> District / Madikeri – DHNS, October 05th, 2014
Robin Uthappa recorded 4000T20 career runs in the final match of the Champions League T20 (CLT20) 2014 against Chennai Super Kings (CSK) in Bangalore on Saturday.
Uthappa became the sixth Indian to register 4000 runs in this format. Suresh Raina has scored 5000 runs in this format and is the only Indian to touch this figure. Overall, Chris Gayle has scored the most runs in the format.
The Karnataka batsman had a sublime IPL 2014 and also ended up as the highest run-getter in the tournament after which he was also selected in the Indian squad for the Bangladesh tour.
source: http://www.cricketcountry.com / The Cricket Country / Home> News / by Cricket Country Staff / October 04th, 2014
Genes decide if you will love coffee or not (Thinkstock Photos/ Getty Images)
In a first, researchers have identified six new genetic variants associated with habitual coffee drinking, suggesting why some people love to have coffee while others hate to sip it.
The genome-wide large study, led by the Harvard School of Public Health and Brigham and Women’s Hospital, helps explain why a given amount of coffee or caffeine has varied effects on different people.
“Our findings identifies sub-groups of people most likely to benefit from increasing or decreasing coffee consumption for optimal health,” said Marilyn Cornelis, research associate in department of nutrition at Harvard School of Public Health.
To reach this conclusion, researchers, part of the Coffee and Caffeine Genetics Consortium, conducted a genome-wide meta-analysis of more than 120,000 regular coffee drinkers of European and African-American ancestry.
They identified six variants that mapped to genes in areas involved in caffeine metabolism, influencing the rewarding effects of caffeine and involved in glucose and lipid metabolism.
“The findings suggest that people naturally modulate their coffee intake to experience the optimal effects exerted by caffeine and that the strongest genetic factors linked to increased coffee intake likely work by directly increasing caffeine metabolism,” Cornelis explained.
Genetics have long been suspected of contributing to individual differences in response to coffee and caffeine.
“Like previous genetic analyses of smoking and alcohol consumption, this research serves as an example of how genetics can influence some types of habitual behaviour,” added Daniel Chasman, associate professor at the Brigham and Women’s Hospital.
The study appeared online in the journal Molecular Psychiatry.
source: http://www.timesofindia.indiatimes.com / The Times of India / Home> Life & Style> Health & Fitness / IANS / October 08th, 2014
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