The seventh day of Dasara Yuva Sambhrama held at the Open Air Theatre in Manasagangothri here last evening saw the participating students sending out messages on Water Conservation, Save Kodagu and Swachh Bharat through their songs and dance.
While the students of Government Arts, Commerce and PG College, Hassan, gave a message on conservation of environment and water, the students of Virajpet First Grade College presented a dance drama for the song ‘Janana-Janana Yarado Papa, Marana-Marana Yarado Shaapa.’ The students later highlighted the devastation caused by floods and landslides in Kodagu and gave messages on the importance of forest conservation.
The students of Jnanadeepa First Grade College danced to the song ‘Mysuru Dasara Yeshtondu Sundara’ which received appreciation from the audience. JSS Women’s College students of Chamarajanagar, all dressed in green, walked up on the stage and highlighted the importance of conserving, protecting and planting trees besides sending out messages on conservation of forests.
Messages such as women empowerment by students of Devaraja Girls Government PU College, Indira Gandhi Government FGC, Sagar, on Kannada and Culture, Madikeri’s Field Marshal K.M. Cariappa College students on Freedom Struggle and Mangaluru’s Dr. P. Dayananda Pai-Dr. P. Satish Pai FGC students sent out a message on Swachh Bharat through their dance.
source: http://www.starofmysore.com / Star of Mysore / Home> News / October 07th, 2018
The ace Indian shuttler said she felt ‘lucky and blessed’ that she had not faced any sort of sexual harassment in her career.
Ace Indian shuttler Ashwini Ponnappa on Monday backed the country’s #MeToo movement against sexual harassment, saying it’s important to stand by the women who are sharing their experiences.
Since October 5, several women have used social media to make allegations of sexual harassment and misconduct against several journalists, media professionals, actors, writers and others.
“In a nation like India, you need to be tough and careful as well,” Ashwini said. “It’s important to stand by them, listen to them and give them strength and courage. It’s not easy to speak up and voice your opinion.”
Ashwini said she was “lucky and blessed” that she had not faced any sort of sexual harassment in her career. “It’s quite unfortunate with all the things I have read and that’s happened,” she said. “But all I can say is that I am fortunate in that respect that I don’t have much to complain about or say. I am grateful for that.”
Ashwini was speaking to reporters in Kolkata while promoting the inaugural Badminton Express League. The all-amateur meet will have six teams with 14 players each, who will compete for top honours at the Ordnance Club from November 28 to December 2.
Ashwini and her current partner N Sikki Reddy caused a massive upset at the recent Denmark Open, ousting seventh seeds Lee So Hee and Shin Seung Chan of South Korea to make the quarter-finals. Their fine run came to an end against top seeds Yuki Fukushima and Sayaka Hirota in the quarter-finals.
“It’s important to understand that when you play doubles, you win and lose together,” Ashwini said. “Sikki and I had a great quarters match and that has given me a lot of confidence that we are going in the right direction.”
She added, “In the quarters [of the Denmark Open] against the Japanese, we tried doing the same as we did against the Koreans. It did not work. We cannot have the same game style against everyone. We need to get better in a few tactical areas too. It’s important to have something special so that we work it towards the end.”
With the Olympics in two years time, Ashwini said she and Sikki are hopeful and working extremely hard to get better. “We are stretching the top players and it’s about time we start winning,” she said.
“Satwik [Rankireddy] and Chirag [Shetty] have had a great run. Sikki and I have had great matches, Satwik and I have had great matches. We are going to do everything we can to qualify and win a medal.”
With inputs from Scroll Staff
source: http://www.scroll.in / Scroll.in / Home> Field> Badminton / Press Trust of India / October 30th, 2018
The Mard Ko Dard Nahin Hota (2018) actor speaks about his upcoming roles in Eros Now’s Smoke and Commando 3.
More and more actors and actresses are being drawn to web-series these days. From Amazon’s Inside Edge to Netflix’s Sacred Games, all have boasted of versatile ensemble casts. Now it is the turn of Eros Now to unveil its latest online series, Smoke.
The show, which take a look at the drug mafia in Goa, stars Jim Sarbh, Kalki Koechlin, Mandira Bedi, Gulshan Devaiah, Amit Sial, Satyadeep Mishra, Neil Bhoopalam, Prakash Belawadi, and the late Tom Alter.
Actor Gulshan Devaiah spoke to Cinestaan.com about why he took on the role of gangster Jairam Jha in the web-series.
“When the producers came to me, they offered me the character of Jairam Jha who is from Bihar. Being a proper South Indian, I thought it was pretty gutsy of them to offer me a role of a Bihari,” he recalled.
He told the producers he would need time to prepare. But he later agreed to the part, saying, “I take a lot of confidence in people having a lot of confidence in me.” That person was producer Faisal Malik, who had faith in Gulshan Devaiah’s abilities.
“I don’t buckle under such pressure, I thrive,” the actor continued. “I want to try and I do believe that I am a versatile and diverse artiste. These are opportunities that I jump upon when they come to me. This is an opportunity where I can actually put my money where my mouth is. So I was really happy. That’s one of the main reasons why I wanted to do this.”
Further, he believed in the producers and directors on the web-series who wanted to raise the digital content being produced in India.
“I think we suffer from not paying enough attention to quality,” he said. “These people that I was working with, they seemed like they had their hearts and minds in the place where they would say that we want to make something entertaining, that people will like, but we want to make a good product at the end of the day which will take this genre forward in a positive direction. I was in agreement with that.”
source: http://www.youtube.com
SMOKE Trailer | An Eros Now Original Series | All Episodes Streaming Now
Smoke’s impressive cast was another strong selling point. Asked if he knew who was working on the project before he signed up for it, the actor replied in the affirmative.
“I knew everybody that I was working with,” he said. “I didn’t know them personally. It was the first time I was working with Mr Tom Alter, who was such a fine actor and a thespian. We will surely miss him. Mandira Bedi is also a proven actor and it was fantastic to work with her. Kalki and Neil are friends, so it was easy with them.
“Amit Sial, whom I have always admired, he is a fabulous actor and it was a great opportunity for me to work with him and another gentleman from Bangalore called Prakash Belawadi who is a very prominent theatre person,” he continued. “They put together an interesting and diverse cast so that was also an incentive to see how it would be.”
The web-series, directed by Neel Guha, examines characters through the lens of greed and power.
“It looks at greed and power from different perspectives, of all these characters. They are all after the same thing. Everything is in grey and there are different shades of grey depending on the situation and on who they are and what they want. So it looks at that, which is an advantage in the case of Smoke, because in a film it would be a much more narrowed down point of view, and greed and power are things which are very common and we are suffering the effects of that as we speak.”
Besides Smoke and his double role in Vasan Bala’s Mard Ko Dard Nahin Hota (2018), Gulshan Devaiah has also signed on to play the antagonist to Vidyut Jammwal’s lead character for the third Commando film, for which shooting has begun. The actor joked that he did not require any training for the film as he already knows karate after training for Mard Ko Dard Nahin Hota.
“My attempt is always to try and do something different, try and see how I can create and contribute,” he said. “This, to put it simply, would be an out-and-out commercial film. I also feel that I don’t restrict my sensibilities as an artiste to certain kinds of films. Sometimes, you have to do as many films as possible.”
He sat down with the film’s producer and director to work out how his character would take shape.
“We play villains like villains. That’s exactly what I’m not trying to do. For the sake of everybody understanding how exactly I fit in, it’s the antagonist, but from my point of view, I’m not playing it as the antagonist. I would completely disagree and say I’m not the antagonist, I am the protagonist,” he said.
With his approach he hopes to give fans of the Commando franchise something exciting to look forward to. The third Commando film is scheduled for release in 2019 while the 11-episode web-series Smoke was made available for streaming on Eros Now on 26 October.
source: http://www.cinestaan.com / Cinestaan / Home> Interview> Hindi / by Sonal Pandya / Mumbai – October 28th, 2018
Kodagu’s WCM Ananya Suresh won the Karnataka State U-19 Women’s Chess Tourney held at Kalaburagi from Oct.20 to 22, with six points from seven rounds.
Mysuru girl and former State women’s chess champion H.R. Manasa finished runner-up with 5.5 points from seven rounds.
In the open section, Samarth J. Rao won the title with 7.5 points from eight rounds.
In the girls section, Manasa had wins over Arfa Noorus Saba, S. Mahima, Swara Lakshmi S. Nair and AFM Renganayaki. She had draws against Divya, Ananya Suresh and S. Rajashree. Both Ananya Suresh and Manasa will represent Karnataka in the National U-19 Women’s Championships.
Final Placings — Women’s: 1. WCM Ananya Suresh (6), 2. H.R. Manasa (5.5-31.5), 3. Mahima Sherigar (5.5-29), 4. S. Rajashree (5-32.5) and 5. AFM Renganayaki (5-31).
source:http://www.starofmysore.com / Star of Mysore / Home> Gallery> Photo News / October 24th, 2018
Rwanda has made strides in being competitive in the global market, producing quality cash crop.
It only came as a surprise to many who have not followed the growth of Rwandan coffee over the years.
Rwanda’s efforts to produce one of the best quality in the coffee sector has indeed paid off. Rwanda’s coffee has now scooped two awards in the 3rd annual Ernesto Illy International Coffee Awards that took place on October.
Ngororero Coffee Washing Station bagged a brace of prestigious accolades including “Best of the Best” and “Coffee Lover’s Choice” awards, marking a historical milestone. No coffee from any part of the world has ever picked up both awards, which was an achievement that will go down into the history books. Indeed the strategies to make the world’s best coffee bore fruits.
In its bid to be competitive in the international market, Rwanda has made a series of changes in the coffee sector, to ensure high-quality production of the cash crop. Last year, the National Agricultural Export Development Board (NAEB) implemented new approaches that ranked the country’s export among the best, globally.
Based on the beans’ aromatic richness, complexity, balance, elegance and aroma intensity, and strength, a jury of coffee experts in New York, USA considered Rwanda’s coffee as “Best of the Best.” The exposure was vital for the country to learn more about the global market and areas to improve to be at the top of the log.
Bagging the two awards this year, Rwanda edged top producers of coffee in the world including Brazil, Colombia, Costa Rica, El Salvador, Ethiopia, Guatemala, India, and Nicaragua. The country eased past both South American and East Asian countries that as well are potential competitors in producing top-notch quality coffee.
llycaffè S.p.A. an Italian coffee roasting company that specializes in the production of espresso announced Rwanda’s coffee milestone in the gala. The company that was founded by Francesco Illy in 1933 is a global leader in high-quality coffee, passionate about perfection.
Rwanda made its official debut at exporting roasted coffee to the USA in 2017, a ten-tonne consignment with the first shipment valued at U$77,000. The business partnership opened up other investment opportunities for the Rwanda coffee to expand its market and increase its share of export revenue. It also boosts trade in the agriculture sector between the U.S and Rwanda, furthering the partnership between America and Africa.
Rwanda seeks to export at least 24, 500 tonnes of quality coffee in a year, 1,500 tonnes more than 2017 and 2,500 tonnes more than 2016. As part of NAEB’s strategies to produce quantity and quality coffee, they aim at planting 34,000 new coffee trees by the year 2024.
Global prices should increase the export receipts given that the country sells quality cash crop. Rwanda’s total coffee export revenue rose to $59.8 million in the first 11 months of 2017, up from $53.8 million earned over the same period in 2016, registering a growth in value of 11.1 percent or $6 million.
source: http://www.exchange.co.tz / Exchange / Home> Industry & Trade> Agribusiness / by John Green / October 18th, 2018
The old private bus stand of Madikeri being demolished.
The old private bus stand in Madikeri, which had been a landmark for several years, joined the pages of history as it was demolished on Thursday.
The building comprising the bus stand is being demolished using earth movers. During the massive floods and landslides in August, the hillock behind the bus stand had caved in. However, the bus stand building had stood intact. Mud from the hillock had been sliding quite often since then and therefore, the city municipal council decided to clear the building along with the hillock to prevent further mishap.
Shopkeepers and hoteliers at the bus stand complex, have shifted to safer places. Some of them have returned to their native place to start their business all over again.
Regular bus commuters who have been associated with the old bus stand recollected the days when they used to come to Madikeri private bus stand to catch buses which would ferry them to the nooks and corners of Kodagu.
During his visit to the district, Chief Minister H D Kumaraswamy had directed the officials concerned to clear the old bus stand building. The CMC could not take up the clearing work owing to shortage of funds then.
The land which is situated in the heart of Madikeri is worth crores. The CMC has planned to construct a commercial complex, but the project could not be implemented as there is shortage of funds. The commercial complex to be built in Public Private Partnership is expected to fetch revenue to the CMC.
The private buses have been ferrying commuters from the new private bus stand near Race Course road since last two months. But, the response of people is dull as there is lack of basic amenities there.
source: http://www.deccanherald.com / Deccan Herald / Home> States> Mangaluru / by Adithya KA / DH News Service, Madkeri / October 26th, 2018
The quality of coffee that we consume daily could see a dip in purity because of the drop in production.
The Coffee Board has raised fears that the coffee supplied in the domestic market could see a rise in chicory content. Worried about this, the Board has urged the food safety department to look into the chicory content in the coffee supplied to domestic consumers.
M S Boje Gowda, chairman, Coffee Board, told DH that people should drink coffee wisely in the coming days. There has been a drop by 82,000 tonnes in coffee production this year, because of excess rains and landslides in Chikkamagaluru, Kodagu and Kerala.
Around 80% of the coffee grown is exported and there can be no compromise in the quality in the international market. So, there will be a drop in the exports.
The domestic market, on the contrary, will not see a lull because of addition of chicory. Chicory costs Rs 50 a kilo and according to Food Safety and Standards Authority of India (FSSAI), adding chicory up to 49% is permitted. But there are chances that change in its percentage will go unnoticed in many local brands. Thus, it is important that the food safety department keeps a check, Gowda said.
“We are trying to limit the chicory addition to 10%. Now, it is for FSSAI to put a limit and test the quality in the local market. We have also made a proposal to the ministry in this regard,” he added.
The Board had estimated the production to be four lakh tonnes, but it has been only around three lakh tonnes. It is now keeping a close watch on the production cycle and quality.
Rajesh, a local coffee grower from Kodagu, said that it was not just the flowers, but even the stored dried beans have been lost. This will definitely impact the market in the long run as the standing crops have also been destroyed.
An official from the food safety department said the matter will be discussed with the ministry and a call will be taken.
source: http://www.deccanherald.com / Deccan Herald / Home> State / by Bosky Khanna / DH News Service / October 21st, 2018
A coffee shop in Midtown, Manhattan. Flickr CC/ Neo_II www.habenbacher.at
Perhaps because I’m writing this as I sit in a vibrant, quirky coffee shop in Washington Heights, its walls decorated with graffiti-inspired art and fake ivy, it strikes me that whenever I arrive in a new city, I make a beeline for the nearest independent coffee house. But it wasn’t until I read Shachar Pinsker’s new book, “A Rich Brew: How the Café Created Modern Jewish Culture” (NYU Press), that I learned that Jews and coffee shops have been connected for at least a century; Jews, especially Jewish writers, he argues, have made the café their primary gathering place and, in many cases, their collective muse. (Read The Jewish Week’s review on the book here.)
Pinsker, who teaches Hebrew literature at the University of Michigan, chronicles the history of cafés in six cities (Odessa, Warsaw, Vienna, Berlin, New York and Tel Aviv), showing that major Jewish journalists, novelists, poets and playwrights, from Sholem Aleichem to Isaac Bashevis Singer, were not just inspired by coffee shops but frequently used them as the settings for their work.
Jews have a long history with coffee. While coffee houses first sprang up in Constantinople, Cairo and other Middle Eastern cities during the mid-sixteenth century, it was a Jewish entrepreneur who brought the coffee house to Europe, opening one in Livorno in 1632. The first café in England was opened in 1651 in Oxford by one “Jacob the Jew,” who was an immigrant from Lebanon.
A Rich Brew” tells the story of how cafes “created modern Jewish culture.” Courtesy of NYU Press
As coffee drinking became popular throughout Europe, according to the late Robert Liberles in “Jews Welcome Coffee: Tradition and Innovation in Early Modern Germany,” engagements between Jewish couples were sealed by the parents over a cup of coffee rather than a drink at the local tavern. David Liss’ 2003 historical novel, “The Coffee Trader,” centers on a 17th-century Jewish refugee from the Portuguese Inquisition who tries to corner the market on coffee only to be caught up in all kinds of commercial and romantic entanglements.
The kinds of food served in cafés also often had a Jewish connection; think of the Viennese Jewish pastry maker Franz Sacher and his famous creation, Sacher Torte, or Stephen Klein, also from Vienna, a Jewish chocolatier who escaped to America in 1939 and started Barton’s Candy Corp.
Donald Schoenholt is the president of Gillies Coffee Company, the oldest coffee maker in the country. The business, which was started in 1840 by a Scottish family, was taken over by Donald’s uncle, Mac, in 1912. I first met Donald in the late 1980s, when I joined the Little Neck Jewish Center, which he served as president. It was the era of the yuppies; Starbucks (acquired in 1987 by Howard Schultz, a Jewish guy from Brooklyn) was just emerging on the scene and “specialty coffees” were all the rage. As Schoenholt put it, “People were starting to eat brie instead of Velveeta,” and they needed a more upscale coffee to go with their meals.
Schoenholt told me that Jewish merchants participated in the American coffee trade since the 18th century, and that, “with each wave of Jewish immigration, more Jews were drawn to it.” While New York was the center for manufacturing coffee, he said, the major port for the importation of coffee was New Orleans, where Jewish merchants like Jacob Aron traded in both coffee and gold. By the 1880s, Philip Wechsler, an immigrant from Austria who became a major donor to the United Jewish Appeal, had opened a coffee-roasting factory in New York. William Black (né Schwartz), who started by selling shelled nuts under a stairway in Times Square, founded the chain of luncheonettes known as Chock Full o’ Nuts. And Samuel Schonbrunn, a Jewish immigrant from Hungary, created the Savarin brand of coffee, which was served at the Waldorf Astoria.
In our time, coffee shops loom large in pop culture — think of Monk’s Café, where the characters on “Seinfeld” hang out in almost every episode, sitting in a booth near the front door. (The exterior shots were taken, of course, at Tom’s Restaurant, an actual diner at Broadway and 112th.) Ruth Cohen (that’s her real name), the cashier, appears in more episodes than any other character besides the stars. Jerry Seinfeld went on to create and host the web series “Comedians in Cars Having Coffee,” now in its 10th season; it has featured Mel Brooks, Bob Einstein and Sarah Silverman.
And who could forget “Diner,” Barry Levinson’s semi-autobiographical 1982 valentine to his hometown of Baltimore; the film is about a group of 20-something Jewish friends in the 1950s who made the local diner their gathering spot.
Even non-Jews associate coffee with the Chosen People. As a sign outside a church in Harveys Lake, Pa. (in the Poconos) asked last summer, “How does Moses make coffee? Hebrews it.”
Ted Merwin’s column appears the fourth week of the month
source: http://www.jewishweek.timesofisrael.com / Times of Israel / Home> The New York Jewish Week / by Ted Merwin / October 23rd, 2018
Silas Brasileiro, President of the Brazilian Coffee Growers’ Council, will open the Global Coffee Platform’s (GCP) Global Coffee Sustainability Conference 2018, to be held from 8 to 9 November in Belo Horizonte, Brazil.
The annual event brings together sustainability companies and representatives from nine GCP platforms around the world – Brazil, Vietnam, Indonesia, Uganda, Colombia, Kenya, Honduras, Tanzania and Peru – to discuss topics such as the future of sustainability, the role of producing and consuming countries, sustainable coffee regions, and impact investments to promote sustainability.
Other speakers include keynote speaker José Luiz Tejon, Director of Biomarketing Agência de Propaganda e Consultoria; José Sette, Executive Director of the International Coffee Organization; Marcelo Burity, Head of Green Coffee Development at Nestlé; Daniel Martz, Director of Corporate Affairs and Sustainability at Jacobs Douwe Egberts; Han de Groot, CEO of Rainforest Alliance; Steven Collet, Director of the Dutch Sustainable Trade Initiative; and Kim Elena Ionescu, Sustainability Director of the Specialty Coffee Association.
“The conference will be a unique opportunity to interact with prestigious names of the Brazilian and international coffee sectors, professionals of public and private sectors, associations, certifiers and verifiers, NGOs, people truly engaged and committed to coffee sustainability,” GCP Chairman Carlos Brando says in a release.
For more information, visit www.gcsc.coffee.
source: http://www.gcrmag.com / Global Coffee Report / October 23rd, 2018
Hockey India on Wednesday congratulated Rohini Bopanna on being promoted as FIH International Technical Official by the FIH Officials Committee. The World Governing Body for Hockey announced its decision on Wednesday. Earlier this year, Bopanna was also appointed as a Technical Official for the 5th Women’s Asian Champions Trophy 2018 held in Donghae City, South Korea, after having officiated as a Technical Official at the 9th Women’s Asia Cup 2017 in Kakamigahara, Japan.
Rohini Bopanna started her career as a Technical Official when she first officiated during the 4th Hockey India National Championship (Women) in 2014 where she was involved with the Junior, Sub-Junior and Senior categories. Being a former hockey player herself, the 38-year-old has since then officiated in various domestic and international events.
Bopanna considers her first International assignment as a key milestone in her career as a Technical Official which came when she officiated at the 12th South Asian Games 2016 in Guwahati, India. She was also assigned to officiate the 4th Women’s Asian Champions Trophy which was held in Singapore later that year.
Hailing from a family that has hockey in its roots, Bopanna also played for the state of Karnataka in all age groups – Junior, Sub-Junior and Senior level. Her husband, P. Bopanna, also used to play hockey as a Goalkeeper, and has supported the 38-year-old in her endeavor as a Technical Official.
“It is a huge honour for me to have been promoted as FIH International Technical Official by the FIH Officials Committee. Exposure at the 4th Hockey India National Championship (Women) in 2014 helped me start my career as a Technical Official, and I have been fortunate to have officiated in various domestic and international tournaments. I would like to thank my family for always supporting me and helping me in continuing with my duties of being a Technical Official.
“I would also like to extend my gratitude to the Hockey India Umpiring, Technical and Competitions Committee for believing in my abilities and for giving me opportunities to progress and grow as a Technical Official. This would not have been possible without their training, guidance and support,” an ecstatic Bopanna said.
Congratulating Rohini Bopanna on her promotion accorded by the FIH, Hockey India’s Secretary General, Rajinder Singh said, “I would like to wish Rohini Bopanna the very best for her promotion as FIH International Technical Official by FIH Officials Committee. It has been Hockey India Umpiring, Technical and Competitions Committee’s aim to train, guide and support the upcoming officials to the International level by providing them with exposure in domestic and international competitions.
“I am delighted to see several technical officials and umpires making their name through hard-work and determination in the International stage, and would like to wish Mrs. Bopanna the very best for the future.”
source: http:/www.sportskeeda.com / SportsKeeda.com / Home> Field Hockey> News / Press Release / New Delhi, October 24th, 2018
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