Thathapanda Jyothi Somaiah, daughter of Thathapanda Dally Somaiah and Pookunji Somaiah (Thamane Chettolira) has left for Poland to represent India in World Seniors Badminton Tournament 2019. The tournament will be played from Aug. 4 to 11.
The 2019 BWF World Senior Championships, officially BWF World Senior Badminton Championships Katowice 2019, is a tournament which will be held at Spodek in Katowice, Poland.
This is an individual championship with men’s and women’s singles and doubles, and mixed doubles events. The age categories are divided as: +35, +40, +45, +50, +55, +60 +65, +70 and +75.
The World Senior Championships is a prestigious individual event for players and the winners of each category is awarded a gold medal and crowned World Senior Champion in their particular age category. The runner-up gets a silver medal while the third place winner gets a bronze medal. Jyothi studied in Government Primary School, Maragod and Junior College, Madikeri. She graduated from of FMKMC College, Madikeri and did her B.Ed at Sarvodaya College, Virajpet.
Jyothi has the credit of being a Kodavathi to take part in Republic Day Parade at Delhi in 1984. She has worked as an announcer on AIR, Madikeri.
source: http://www.starofmysore.com / Star of Mysore / Home> Sports / August 02nd, 2019
MANEYAPANDA – Bidappa G., MD July 23, 2019, age 83.
Forever husband of Barbara G. (nee Marker) Maneyapanda; loving father of Dinesh, Jeremy Maneyapanda and Chanda (Jason) Agro; cherished grandpa of Jacob, Cameron, Zachary and Alexander; caring brother of Ponnappa (Chitra), Belliappa (Shaka), Poonacha (Jamuna) and the late Kuttamma (late Ganesh); dear brother-in-law of Gary (Jan) Marker and the late Robert (Carol) Marker; also survived by nieces, nephews and friends. He did what he loved until the very end.
The family will be present on Saturday from 12-3 PM at the (Tonawanda Chapel) AMIGONE FUNERAL HOME, INC., 2600 Sheridan Drive (corner of Parker Blvd), where Funeral Services will follow at 3 PM.
Friends invited.
Share condolences at www.AMIGONE.com
Funeral Home: Amigone Funeral Home, Inc.
source: http://www.buffalonews.com / The Buffalo News / Home> Deaths> Death Notices / July 25th, 2019
Aiming for a Goal: A match in progress during the Kodava Hockey Festival 2016 in Madikeri, Kodagu. Photos by DH, Niran Shantheyanda
Kodavas loved to pursue two patriotic passions. One was to be part of the nation’s defence forces and the other was to play the national sport. Hence, it was said that a Kodava was born with a hockey stick in one hand and a gun in another.
Hockey was not just a sport in Kodagu, it was a way of living. Kodagu’s children practised and excelled in hockey. There was untapped talent in Kodagu but there was no way to demonstrate it.
Aiming for a Goal: A match in progress during the Kodava Hockey Festival 2016 in Madikeri, Kodagu. / Photos by DH, Niran Shantheyanda
Considering this, Pandanda Kuttappa (Kuttani) and his brother Kashi Ponnappa decided to begin the annual Kodava hockey festival in 1997. “I wanted this festival to be of use to children. I wanted them to get a chance to play for India,” says Kuttappa , former first-division hockey umpire.
That year, Kuttappa’s extended family helped organise the event. Teams from 60 Kodava clans came to participate. The Kaliyanda team won the Pandanda cup. The event is called a festival (namme, in Kodava language), and not a tournament because it helps bring people together to celebrate. Each year one Kodava clan conducts the tournament and the cup is named after the clan. The Kodava Hockey Academy governs the annual festival.
Members releasing the banner of a hockey tournament.
The academy also decides which family can organise the tournament in a particular year. As of now, families have been selected to organise the tournament until 2025.
According to Shantheyanda Ravi Kushalappa, any family that wants to organise the festival should apply to the Kodava Hockey Academy. The application will be checked and considered on a first-come- first-serve basis. The selected family will have a year to prepare for conducting the event. The state government partly funds the event on most years. Lok Sabha MP for Mysore-Kodagu also grants some money. The rest of the money is collected by the family through donations.
Kodava hockey festival.
The family puts together a committee which is responsible for organising the event. They select a convenient ground and arrange all the facilities near the family’s ancestral residence.
According to the Limca Book of Records, the Kodava hockey festival is both the largest and the longest hockey tournament in India. This is probably the world’s largest family tournament as well. In 2018, 329 teams participated in the Kulletira Cup held in Napoklu.
Men, women and children take part in the tournament. There is no bar on age or gender. Among the prominent women players are goalkeeper Shivachaliyanda Nilan (Ekalavya awardee) and Malamada Lilavati.
In 2014, the Thathanda family organised a rink hockey event for 35 families. Later, two formats were supported: league matches for champions who regularly made it to the semifinals and knockouts for others.
In recent times, a number of similar family tournaments such as Kodava cricket, badminton, tug-of-war and golf, Kodagu Gowda cricket, Kodagu Heggade hockey, Amma Kodava cricket, Yerava cricket, Kodagu Muslim football and volleyball events are held in Kodagu.
The champions
There are a few strong family teams who often make it to the top. The Palanganda team has won the festival the highest number of times (five) so far. They entered the finals eight times (between 2006-2016).
Kodagu has produced several Hockey Olympians like Maneyapanda M Somaya, Mullera P Ganesh, B P Govinda, Arjun Halappa, S V Sunil among others. Most of the winning teams have Olympians in their midst. The Koothanda team, led by former Olympian K K Poonacha, comes a close second, having won the festival four times (including the 1999 draw with Kulletira team) between 1998-2008. The Cheppudira team, with another Olympian C S Poonacha, were the runners-up in the 2001 edition.
Olympian goalkeeper Anjaparavanda B Subbaiah’s team has been consistent over the years since 1997. They were winners twice and in the finals five times. Subbaiah attributes the team’s success to the remarkable individual efforts of its players.
The Kaliyanda team won thrice and came second twice. The Nellamakkada team won thrice and hosted the 2001 Cup. Kulletira won all the three times it came to the finals. The Mandepanda team won the tournament once.
In the 2018 finals, the defending champion Chendanda scored two goals and didn’t allow Anjaparavanda to score. Two Olympians were on the field: Nikkin Thimmaiah, a young forward, and Subbaiah, veteran goal-keeper.
“The hockey festival brought the family together. The family members stay in different villages. Earlier, there were no interactions between them, and they didn’t know each other (for many decades),” says Subbaiah. This has been the case with many Kodava families.
The kids of Kodagu are taught to wield the hockey stick at a young age. Their parents make crude hockey sticks and play the game with them after school hours.
Every summer, during the months of April and May, this festival brings together members of joint families. The relatives living in the cities, in the army or elsewhere converge in Kodagu. Uniforms and kits are prepared and at least eleven players are registered. For weeks, the teams practice playing with their hockey sticks on fallow fields and empty grounds.
Personal touch
My family team, the Mookonda team, is quite strong having players like Nikhil, Jnapak who trained in Sports Authority of India.
The first time I watched a Kodava hockey festival game was in our hometown Ammathi. It was the 2001 Cup. Cousins, aunts and uncles came together after a long time. Even my paternal grandmother, who was bed-ridden at the time, requested us to take her to the stadium to watch the hockey game.
The air was filled with slogans being shouted out cheering our home team: “Come on, Mookonda! Steady, Ammathi!”
We also went to watch the Muckatira family match during the 2002 Chekkera Cup in Hudikeri. Even while the sun was beating down upon us and we were all sweating, we cheered the team enthusiastically.
Paused by calamity
Floods and landslides ravaged parts of Kodagu in 2018. In order to show solidarity with the victims, the 2019 hockey festival was initially cancelled. However, the cancellation was not appreciated.
“A year break would make youngsters lose a chance to practice and display their skills,” says Hockey Coorg treasurer Palanganda Lava. Paikera E Kalaiah, who played in the 1975 Hockey World Cup, presides over Hockey Coorg.
Therefore, Hockey Coorg organised a 2019 family tournament with 146 teams in Kakotparamb. Funds were handed over to the calamity victims during the closing ceremony.
In 2020, the Harihara Muckatira family will host the event.
As families bond during this annual festival, hockey players, both young and old, exhibit their talent.
source: http://www.deccanherald.com / Deccan Herald / Home> Spectrum> Spectrum Top Stories / by Mookonda Kushalappa / July 13th, 2019
According to industry reports, coffee shops and cafés market in India is projected to grow at a CAGR of over 11 per cent during the period 2016-2021.
A cup of coffee is all it takes to get one’s day started
While the essence of coffee is lost amongst major players in the industry, a group of coffee lovers are taking their adulation for the beverage to a larger audience, nudging them to wake up and smell what real coffee is.
In this quest, they are also bringing forth the significant role India plays as a major player in the production of good coffee.
According to industry reports, coffee shops and cafés market in India is projected to grow at a CAGR of over 11 per cent during the period 2016-2021.
This high growth is primarily on account of the growing coffee culture among the young population, especially the millennials, rising disposable income among other factors.
“This coupled with the implementation of various government plans to develop smart cities, etc., is projected to drive growth in Indian market for coffee shops / cafés over next many years,” shares Aharnish Mishra, co-founder of Bizibean, which got involved in the B-to-B R&G (Roast and Ground) coffee segment from 2004. They were naturally inclined to foray into the retail segment.
“This was a natural extension to our roasting business. We thought the market is ready for a brand that epitomises gourmet coffee and offers its patron speciality coffee both in bean form as well as RTD form,” he says.
While there has been a growth in the coffee market, it is still in its infancy as compared to the global market.
“People are only just beginning to learn the basics and are willing to experiment with different coffees and brewing equipments,” says Krittivas Dalmia, Co-Founder, Kaffa Cerrado, adding, “There is a very small percentage of the market willing to experiment. So there’s a long way to go before we can become a mature coffee market.”
Desi cuppa
The Indian fresh R&G coffee market for domestic consumption is a very small one and is geographically concentrated in the southern part of the country.
Mishra believes that there is no mainstream coffee variety and due to the cost factor, cheaper Robusta blended with a little Arabicas and Chicory is the de facto coffee blend consumed at home.
“The Indian coffees that are internationally popular but find little takers in the domestic market are Monsoon Malabar AA, Mysore Nugget Extra Bold, Plantation AA and Robust Kapi Royale,” he adds.
However, according to Dalmia, there are a lot of plantations that have started selling under their own branding or as a single plantation. “These are all unique because of the different practices and procedures they follow in processing and harvesting the coffee. The beauty of the third wave is that it’s all unique,” says Dalmia.
Brewing hot in India
“Traditionally this role of educating and growing the market is taken up by the bigger players like CCD/ Starbucks in conjunction with the government bodies like Coffee Board of India,” says Mishra, adding, “Sadly, in India this hasn’t happened with the result that the smaller and newer player have to expend energy and resources to nurture the market.
“At BiziBean, we assume the role of missionaries and spread the story of the coffee bean by bean! We have taken the kiosk format route with value pricing strategy to make the experience of having or buying coffee a very pleasurable one.
“All our counter staff is well versed with the intricacies of coffee and performs the role of guides to our patrons.”
On the other hand, Dalmia works with the farmers in bringing out their story and flavour in the way they roast. “The more we’re able to educate our consumers on that, the more they’re willing to try.
So it’s a lot of work in educating the consumer by everyone in the coffee chain right from the farmer to the roaster to the barista and coffee shop,” he states.
The competition is usually in terms of cafes or instant coffee space. There isn’t much completion when we talk about home coffee, feels Ajai Thandi, Co-founder of Sleepy Owl.
“Rooted in the spirit of Make in India, their vision was to rethink the in-home coffee experience while wanting their patrons to have the best quality coffee as conveniently as possible and consume it its best; using the best quality coffee sourced directly from Indian farmers.
source: http://www.newindianexpress.com / The New Indian Express / Home> Lifestyle> Food / by Express News Service / July 08th, 2019
United Arab Emirates Kannada Doctors expressed gratitude to Hemmeya UAE Kannadigaru family for arranging meet and greet of Kannada doctors’ in Dubai on behalf of National Doctors’ day.
The stage was set on June 28 at Hotel Conrad, Sheikh Zayed Road in the city for the joyous celebration of ‘Doctors’ day’ and proud United Arab Emirates Kannada Doctors’ first ever get together in Dubai.
Hemmeya UAE Kannadigaru Dubai Family, the pioneers of promotion of Kannada language and culture in the UAE since four years organized the first ever gathering of Kannada Doctors with the theme ‘UAE Kannada Doctors Meet & Greet’.
Over 100 eminent doctors from all across the seven emirates attended this maiden occasion. The UAE national anthem, Indian national anthem, Karnataka state anthem ‘Jai Bharatha Jananiya Tanujaathe’ filled the hall with great spirit.
‘Kannada Deepa’ was lit by Dr Guru Madhva Rao, President, RAK Medical and Health Sciences University along with the Hemmeya UAE Kannadigaru organizing members with the prayers of well being to humanity.
Dr Savitha Mysore from Hemmeya UAE Kannadigaru family warmly welcomed the guests musing about their medical college days, professional challenges, dedication, success stories and explaining the purpose of the formation of the group and its vision.
Vishnu Murthy shared Hemmeya UAE Kannadigaru’s works, vision and mission to promote the Kannada Language and culture and sought the doctors’ support to take it to newer heights, which was warmly reciprocated with assurance and applause.
Self-introduction of the Doctors had many nostalgic moments as each one of them shared their home towns, education, specialization, workplace, worldwide and UAE experiences and love for Kannada. Teachers found their students and vice versa.
A special cake cutting celebration was arranged by Hemmeya team celebrating Doctors’ day. The cake was cut by Dr Guru Madva Rao, Dr Vasanth, Dr Anil Kumar, Dr Aris, Dr Shanthi, Dr Ragavendra Bhat, Dr Mamatha, Dr Fauzia, Dr Godfred, Dr Vasanth, Dr Anil along with all the other doctors.
Several key points on forming the Doctors’ Associaton, conduting Medical CME, cultural meets, professional workshops, and Doctors’ protection were discussed. Dr.Guru Madva Rao welcomed all the doctors to RAK University Campus with open arms and to utilize the facilities for professional development.
Rafiq Ali Kundanda Kunjila and Dr Lekha Thammaiah explained how lives are lost during golden hour of emergency and patients had to be rushed from Kodagu to far away Mangaluru, Mysuru or Bengaluru due to lack of facilities and made an appeal for an early set up of Super-speciality Hospital in Kodagu supporting the ongoing campaign in Karnataka. Doctors supported the noble cause by raising their hands and speaking in one voice that it is long overdue for decades and an absolute necessity to save lives. A video appeal was recorded for submission to the Government of Karnataka.
Vote of thanks was rendered by Dr Lekha Kodagu, from Hemmeya UAE Kannadigaru group, in which she thanked all the doctors for their precious presence and appealed to connect all the Kannada doctors, and to work for the professional development, give employment opportunities to Kannadigas and promotion of Kannada culture and language was well received.
The lunch with the North Karnataka cuisine of ‘Jolada Rotti Oota’ was followed by singing of Kannada songs by the multi-talented Dr Santosh, Dr Manjunath, Dr Mamatha and Dr Lekha.
The doctors immensely appreciated and thanked the organizing members of Hemmeya UAE Kannadigaru family Rafiq Ali Kodagu, Sudeep Davanagere, Senthil Bengaluru, Shashidhar, Mamatha Sharja, Hadiya Mandya, Pallavi Basavaraj, Vishnu Murthy Mysore, Dr Savitha Mohan, Dr Lekha Thammaiah for bringing all the minds and hearts together and expressed their strong support to their future events and initiatives through active participation.
Programme video youtube link
source: http://www.daijiworld.com / DaijiWorld.com / Home> Middle East / July 04th, 2019
On Monday from 7 to 8:30 p.m. is the next program in the Sanctuary Lecture Series, “Sinkholes to Stars: Diving into Lake Huron’s Sinkholes while Reaching for the Heavens.”
Doors open at 6:30 p.m. for this free program at Great Lakes Maritime Heritage Center, 500 West Fletcher St., Alpena.
Grand Valley State University Professor Bopi Biddanda will share the excitement of over a decade of exploration of life in Lake Huron’s sinkholes carried out in collaboration with Thunder Bay National Marine Sanctuary, and ponder the relevance of these findings to major issues of both scientific and societal interest such as Earth’s current biologic and physiologic diversity, oxygenation of early Earth in the distant past, and humanity’s ongoing search for extra-terrestrial life.
Biddanda is an aquatic microbial ecologist studying the movement of carbon driven by microbes at the Annis Water Resources Institute at GVSU. He grew up in the lush subtropical mountains of Southwest India, and came to the U.S. in the 1980s to obtain a Ph.D. in ecology from the University of Georgia. Subsequently, he went on research and teaching adventures at the Alfred Wegener Institute for Polar and Marine Research (Germany), National Institute of Oceanography (India), University of Texas Marine Science Institute, University of Rio Grande (Brazil) and University of Minnesota.
For the last decade and a half at GVSU, he has been studying the microbial cycling of elements in the Laurentian Great Lakes — exploring life in extreme environments such as Lake Huron’s sinkholes and operating a world-class time-series buoy observatory in Muskegon Lake.
Courtesy Photo A diver navigates a sink hole in Lake Huron.
He teaches classes in marine biology and aquatic ecology, and directs NASA’s Michigan Space Grant Consortium programs at GVSU. He hopes to continue to study Earth’s lakes — one of our most vital freshwater commons — as sentinels of change.
For more information, contact Stephanie Gandulla at steph.gandulla@noaa.gov or 989-884-6200.
source: http://www.thealpenanews.com / The Alpena News / Home> Life / June 06th, 2019
App-solutely smart: In the case of white stem borer, growers and the Board have validated 90% accuracy. | Photo Credit: Reuters
Apps fed with data help forecast weather, predict leaf rust
For the 3.5 lakh coffee growers in India, 98% of whom are small-scale, challenges affecting production include labour shortage, climate change and pest attacks.
One way to manage these is by adopting technology, which the Coffee Board is trying to bring about for the growers.
Last year, Eka Software Solutions took up a pilot project for the Coffee Board of India on machine-learning based applications. According to Shuchi Nijhawan, vice president – agri business for Eka Software, the Board and the company took up three areas to try machine learning based apps. One was addressing the white stem borer problem, another was weather forecasting, and the third, predicting leaf rust.
Machine-learning
“Based on the data, photos provided, we created a machine learning algorithm to forecast each of these issues (for a grower). We worked with 20 liaison officers of the Board and they coordinated with the growers.
“The success of the app depends on the data fed in. In the case of white stem borer, the growers and the Board have validated 90% accuracy,” she says. Eka’s digital platform for agriculture aggregates data from different sources and applies the algorithm to provide insight to the coffee growers.
Srivatsa Krishna, chairman of the Coffee Board, adds that though there is no exact data, it is learnt that in the last 10 to 15 years white stem borer would have brought down Arabica production by 25-30%. “The growers do need solutions for such issues.”
“Despite the Coffee Act having been around for more than seven decades, farmers have zero technology. The only way to increase productivity is by bringing in technology,” he says. Even before smartphones became popular, coffee growers had checked prices on the London and New York exchanges almost on a daily basis.
Hence, adopting technology should not be difficult for them. The Board has plans to scale up the analytics technology for adoption by more farmers.
Currently, 90% of the estates depend on labourers for most of the work and there is not much technology adoption among coffee growers in cultivation or to increase production.
“If someone is ready to do it [technology] for us, we will adopt it. It will help increase yield,” says Sundar Subramanium, executive director of Mother Mirra Coffee Plantations. Ms. Nijhawan says the company is exploring partnerships for other crops too. “Indian farmers want such technology services. There are several agriculture institutes and cooperatives in the country that have a lot of data. I see a huge potential for these technologies.”
source: http://www.thehindu.com / The Hindu / Home> Business> Industry> Green Shoots / by M Soundariya Preetha / June 02nd, 2019
HIGHLIGHTS
Dr Sowmya Dechamma C C, Associate Professor at the centre for comparative literature, University of Hyderabad (UoH) has been awarded the Fulbright-Nehru Academic and Professional Excellence Fellowship for the year 2019-2020.
Hyderabad:
Dr Sowmya Dechamma C C, Associate Professor at the centre for comparative literature, University of Hyderabad (UoH) has been awarded the Fulbright-Nehru Academic and Professional Excellence Fellowship for the year 2019-2020.
She will be hosted by the Department of Comparative Literature, Queens College, The City University of New York where she will teach a course on “Modern Indian Literary Cultures” and work on her research project “Understanding the Modern: Of Oralities and Languages”.
Dr Sowmya Dechamma’s Fulbright proposal aims to look at how and in what ways issues concerning languages spill-over and charge other spheres of our lives. By foregrounding minority languages (specifically Kodava language) and its relationships with major languages (Kannada and English), the project seeks to understand the nature of modern for speakers of minority languages.
Emerging from this concern around the modern is the course she plans to teach – “Modern Indian Literary Cultures”. Her research and teaching aim to investigate the notions of modern that emerge through these texts; the manner in which they are connected to ideas of community and of region, nation; Ways in which texts engage with the constant presence of oralities in their own cultures; and what acts of writing tell us about the cultures written about.
source: http://www.thehansindia.com / The Hans India / Home> Hans> Young Hans / by Hans News Service / May 31st, 2019
Tata Coffee has opened its first free-dried instant coffee plant outside of its native India after GEA, a tech supplier for food processing, completed work on the new Vietnam plant.
After Brazil, Vietnam is the world’s second largest producer of green coffee and the new plant based in Binh Duong Province produces 5,000 metric tonnes per year of free-dried coffee.
GEA supplied the entire production line from roast bean treatment right through to the packing of the freeze-dried powder.
This isn’t the first time GEA has undertaken work for Tata Coffee, having built a coffee extraction and evaporation plant for the company in 2013.
“This type of project is ideal for us at GEA because our expertise and scope of supply allows us to build the entire coffee line using our own resources,” said Kim Knudsen, Head of Sales, Coffee and Freeze Drying at GEA.
“This means we can maintain control and take responsibility for the entire project from start to finish.”
source: http://www.fdiforum.net / Food & Drink International / Home> Production / by Dominic Cuthbert / May 28th, 2019
Leader, Commander, Benevolent Father to his children and a guiding beacon that led an entire nation and her armed forces — Field Marshal Kodandera Madappa Cariappa was the first Indian Commander-in-Chief of the Army. He was to his men the epitome of gentlemanly conduct and selflessness. His ideals still hold sway in the Indian Military Establishment. His greatest gift to the Indian People, probably was a fighting force that was no less compared to any other in the world and yet had the commendable restraint that prevented the Army from ever meddling directly in the political machinations of the country. This delineation lent a sense of integrity and unique purpose to the Military Establishment that has held it in good stead all these years. The credit for this must go to K.M. Cariappa. May 15, 2019 was his 26th Death Anniversary and it would indeed be a good time for a look back on his life and events…
By Dr. S.N. Bhagirath
On the 28th of January, 1899 the residents of Shanivarasanthe in Coorg heard a shot fired from the revenue quarters heralding the birth of a baby boy. The boy’s parents were Kodandera Madappa and Ammayya. He was the second among six children and was fondly called ‘Chimma.’ Madappa was a Sub-divisional Magistrate in Shanivarasanthe at that time. Chimma would one day command the Indian Army in Independent India and play definitive roles in WW-II and wars with Pakistan soon after Independence. He nurtured an Army that has stood the test of time. Till the very end of his life, he dedicated to the Army, a spirit of camaraderie and patriotism which remains legendary to this day.
Field Marshal K. M. Cariappa stuck to one particular daily habit — he would get up every morning, finish his ablutions and before his breakfast, walk up to the fire place by his bed side to render his salute to three things lined up there — the two photographs of his mother and father and a small silver statue of the unknown Indian Soldier! Like a true gentleman he sat for breakfast wearing a full suit, often alone.
K.M. Cariappa had his schooling at Madikeri. His English teachers C. Rensford and W.H. Whiteworth made quite an impression on the young Cariappa and imbibed British values in him. He was fond of playing Cricket and Hockey. In 1918, he went to Presidency College at Madras for his graduate studies. On his return to Coorg, there was an ongoing recruitment for the post of “Commissioned Officers” for the Army. Chief Commissioner Cobb was impressed by K.M. Cariappa and selected him over others.
Cariappa joined ‘Daley Cadet College’ on June 1, 1918. His first posting was in the 88th Carnatic Infantry (2nd Battalion) wherefrom he was transferred to 125 Napier Rifles. This regiment was stationed at Mesopotamia (Iraq) for two years. At the end of two years, he was transferred to ‘Prince of Wales’ 37th Dogra Regiment, which was at that time stationed in Afghanistan. During these postings, Cariappa learnt and incorporated into his men the tricks of guerrilla warfare — a move that caught the attention of his British superiors which eventually resulted in his promotion to the post of Quartermaster. He is believed to have got the nick-name ‘Kipper’ around this time. This nickname was later adopted by Nehru and Indira Gandhi as well!
As a representative of the British Indian Army, K.M. Cariappa had the opportunity to visit and observe many other armies. While in Japan, he sadly lost his mother in India. Upon his return, his reputation as an able officer had begun to make rounds in the higher echelons of the British administration. He was entrusted with the onerous task of escorting Viceroy Lord Irwin to Madikeri on an official visit. Cariappa was just 24 years old ! By 1927, Cariappa was a Captain in the Army. Cariappa’s coaching at Royal United Services Institute in 1932 and his time at Small Arms School (SAS) and Royal School of Artillery (RSA) prepared him well enough to clear the Quetta Staff College Entrance Examination. In 1936, he was appointed as Staff Captain and in 1938 he was promoted to the rank of Major.
Personal Life
On his 37th birthday, he was sent back to India and was stationed at Hyderabad. In the same year, he got married to Muthu in a traditional Coorgi style wedding. He had his first child, a boy (Nanda Cariappa) in January of 1938. His daughter Nalini Cariappa was born in February of 1943. His tedious and hectic schedule and the constant transfers across the continent eventually took a toll on their marital life. The couple separated in 1946. After the separation, Cariappa took both his children (aged eight and three years) under his wings. He was ably assisted in this effort by his sister. A sudden transfer for Cariappa’s sister’s husband to Andaman & Nicobar Islands meant that he could no longer take care of both children by himself. He decided to send his daughter with his sister and retained his son with himself. In 1954, Cariappa learnt of the sad demise of his former wife Muthu in a car accident.
Professional Life
At the start of Second World War (1939), K.M. Cariappa was stationed in Iraq under General Slim in the Tenth Indian Division. By the end of 1939, Slim recommended Cariappa for the prestigious ‘Mentioned in Dispatches’ distinction. The next year (1940) saw Cariappa taking command of the Indian Divisions in Iran & Syria. In the succeeding decade, Cariappa became the first in Indian history to be offered the post of a ‘Commander.’ He took command of the ‘Rajput Machine Gun Battalion’ as acting Lieutenant Colonel in 1942. In 1943, the Japanese army occupied Burma and Andaman & Nicobar Islands. K.M. Cariappa was transferred to Calcutta (Eastern Command) to take back territories of Burma and Andaman & Nicobar Islands. His valour and able leadership at the height of Second World War earned him the ‘Order of the British Empire’ in 1944. Soon after World War II, he was promoted to the post of Brigadier.
[To be continued tomorrow]
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source: http://www.starofmysore.com / Star of Mysore / Home> Feature Articles / May 29th, 2019
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