Dr. George Thayil has been honoured with Lifetime Achievement Award for contributions in the field of cardiology and for publishing awareness books for heart patients.
Thiruvananthapuram :
Dr George Thayil has been honoured with Lifetime Achievement Award for contributions in the field of cardiology and for publishing awareness books for heart patients. The award was presented by Education Minister C Raveendranath during the Onam celebrations jointly organised by the Tourism Department and Mangalam Publications in Thiruvananthapuram.
Dr Thayil is the founder head of the department of cardiology at Lourdes Hospital, Kochi. He has authored six heart disease awareness books. He has received 10 medical excellence awards and is the former state president of Indian College of Cardiology and Indian Academy o f Echocardiography
source: http://www.newindianexpress.com / The New Indian Express / Home> States> Kerala / by Express News Service / September 18th, 2019
Annie Yujin Stephen never thought that her passion for gardening and the meticulous manner of pictorially chronicling them would gain her worldwide fame.
Annie Yujin Stephen
When you devote your time and effort to create something beautiful, you aim to keep it for eternity. This is what propelled Annie Yujin Stephen to start clicking photos of the plants growing in her garden.
However, she never thought that her passion for gardening and the meticulous manner of pictorially chronicling them would gain her worldwide fame. Annie is today a YouTube star and hosts two channels. While one exclusively caters to giving farming information, the other deals with how to live a happy life.
“Actually, it was my brother who asked me to upload the photos on YouTube. The idea was to save them for a long time since even if we save the pictures on our computers or hard disks, there are chances of them getting deleted or corrupted,” said Annie. So, she uploaded her photographs on YouTube.
“It didn’t have any background score or commentary. However, it was well-received and one of the viewers suggested uploading videos. So, I thought why not,” said Annie. She launched her YouTube channel Krishi Lokam in 2012. “I was a bit apprehensive. However, the views and the comments that the videos received increased my confidence,” she said.
With over 3 lakh subscribers and over 2 crore views, Annie now earns Rs 1 lakh a month from the channel! “It helped to be a passionate gardener. I didn’t have to act in front of the camera,” she said, According to her, in the first few videos, she just showcased her garden. “However, later on, I began giving voice-overs. This enabled me to emerge from being a very shy person to a confident one,” said Annie.
A native of Angamaly, Annie at present resides in Kochi and has been uploading videos since 2015. “The comments that I receive have given me the confidence to continue posting videos based on queries that I receive in the comments box,” she said.
Annie also provides farming tips by making videos of the entire cultivation process. “For example, if a viewer wants to know the right time and process of cultivating turmeric, I shoot the same at my farm. Right from telling the time, type of seedlings to be chosen, preparation of beds, fertilisers to be used to harvesting, the videos showcase everything,” she said. Annie and her husband own a one-acre plot in Angamaly.
source: http://www.newindianexpress.com / The New Indian Express / Home> Cities> Kochi / by Anu Kurivilla / Express News Service / August 28th, 2019
Kuttiyamma took to hunting after shooting a bison in order to save her brother’s life
[File] Kuttiyamma was also known as ‘Shikkari Kuttiyamma’ | Rijo Joseph
Kerala’s first woman hunter Kuttiyamma, 87, is no more. ‘Shikkari Kuttiyamma’, whose real name was Thresya Thomas, had shot dead hundreds of wild animals.
Incidentally, she had taken up the gun to hunt in order to save the life of her brother. Kuttiyamma had joined a convent in Raichur, Karnataka to be ordained as a nun when a bison attacked her brother Pappachan in Kerala, leaving him gravely injured. Though he was admitted to a hospital, the family could not pay the bills. However, the hospital authorities said that instead of money, meat of wild animals would suffice as payment.
Kuttiyamma rushed to Kerala and ventured into the forest along with her younger brother Tomy to hunt. Deep in the woods, they saw a bison which Kuttiyamma felled with a single shot. The bison weighed 800kg, but was cut into pieces and given to the hospital authorities. The saga of Kuttiyamma the hunter was thus born.
Hailing from Edamattom in Pala, Kuttiyamma discontinued her studies due to poverty in 1958. She settled in Marayur along with her father Thomman and brothers Vakkachan and Pappachan in 1963. Later, they also bought 20 acres of land at Churulippetty in Chinnar. Kuttiyamma later married Thomas, who belonged to Sri Lanka. He was a friend of her brothers. From then on, the couple went on hunting trips together.
People from other places heard that Kuttiyamma would protect them from wild elephants in Chinnar forest and began settling there. Soon, Churulippetty village came into being with 42 families in 82 acres.
However, the hunting of wild animals came to the notice of the government and a decision was taken to evict Kuttiyamma and the other villagers. At that time, Kuttiyamma owned 17 acres of land. The government took over her land in 1993 promising monetary compensation. However, an error in the gazette notification led to delay in payment and no villager left the dwellings.
Kuttiyamma decided to fight a legal battle. She approached the High Court in 2005 pointing out that no compensation was paid. In January 2006, the court ordered payment of Rs 45 lakh including interest to Kuttiyamma. Still, she received only Rs 29 lakh. Kuttiyamma moved the court again and in 2013, she received the full amount.
Subsequently, the first woman hunter left the forest and shifted to Anakkallu in Kanjirappally. She distributed her property to her son and his children. Advancing age did not deter Kuttiyamma from fighting for her causes as she took up social work. She often visited her Churulippetty, the village she had helped set up, and offered service to its residents.
The funeral prayers for Kuttiyamma would take place at her house in Kappad and the burial at St Antony’s church cemetery, Anakkallu. Her husband Thomas Chacko had died earlier. Kuttiyamma is survived by son V.T. Joseph (Babu) of Matha Organic and daughter-in-law Sherly, belonging to Mathathipparambil family, Marayur.
source: http://www.theweek.in / The Week / Home> News> India / via OnManorama / August 20th, 2019
An initiative of the district panchayat, ‘Vanitha Transport’ is managed by Thrissur District Vanitha Transport Co-operative Society.
Vanitha Transport
Thrissur :
As the state government is gearing up to recruit women drivers in KSRTC to enforce gender equality, a private bus in the district manned by women has been on the road since 1999.
An initiative of the district panchayat, ‘Vanitha Transport’ is managed by Thrissur District Vanitha Transport Co-operative Society. When it started, there were two buses operating on the Thrissur-Kodungallur and Thrissur-Thiruwilvamala route. Though one bus was cancelled, the other service is in full swing even though the society has financial issues.
“It has been almost 20 years and we have never stopped the service. At present, our driver is on leave as she met with an accident while riding a two-wheeler and hence we have employed a male driver. But all these years, we had women as drivers, conductors and cleaners,” said K G Sathi, secretary of the society. The service begins from Thrissur at 7.38 am. “In the morning hours, we operate on the Kodungallur route while after 3 pm we ply on the Thiruwilvamala route,” she added.
They faced serious financial issues last year. But then District Collector T V Anupama intervened to rearrange the timings of the bus and got it approved.
“Now, we get a five-minute halt in the north b there was no time for anything,” said Sathi. It was during C Raveendranath’s term as district convenor of People’s Planning Programme that such a project took shape.
When the state government is all set to appoint women drivers , here are a bunch of ladies, including Thankamani, the conductor of Vanitha Transport, who are happy to be the pioneers in this field. “We were able to bring many women behind the wheel all these years. In some cases, girls were trained by our staff to get a driving licence,” said Sathi.
source: http://www.newindianexpress.com / The New Indian Express / Home> States> Kerala / by Gopika Varrier / Express News Service / August 22nd, 2019
Santhosh Thottingal wins national recognition for the pioneering work
Until the middle of the past decade, typing Malayalam on the computer was not as easy as it is today. That was around the time when a group of technology and language enthusiasts got together under the banner of Swathanthra Malayalam Computing (SMC) with the aim of “my language for my computer”.
Within a few years, their efforts paid off, with the development of tools and fonts in the Unicode system, enabling a standardised Malayalam script in computers, which is now commonly used in everything from government orders to online newspapers to Internet memes.
Chosen for award
Santhosh Thottingal, a software engineer who played a key role in this transformation, has now been chosen for the Maharshi Badrayan Vyas Samman by the President in recognition of his contributions to Malayalam language. A principal software engineer with the language engineering team of Wikimedia Foundation, Mr. Thottingal is behind some of the most commonly used fonts like Manjari and Chilanka.
Free software
“I was active with the free software movement during my college days. The assumption then was that local languages are unsuitable for computers. That is when I came across the work done by a team of Indian Institute of Science (IISc) scientists to develop text-to-speech system for palm-held devices in Kannada. I tried to make something similar in Malayalam when I realised that we have to address the fundamental issues first — being able to type in a proper form in Malayalam. Our attempt through SMC was to build a foundation for Malayalam computing,” he says.
The technology for Malayalam fonts was much more complicated than for English. In Malayalam, the combined letters (Koottaksharam) and their shifting patterns had to be coded. He set aside his spare time for five years to perfect these.
History of the language
“We had to learn the core of Malayalam, how the language has been portrayed and the history of printing in Kerala. That is when we realised that the ‘old Malayalam lipi’ was much more scientific and beautiful. The ‘new lipi’ was developed around the 1980s, cutting down the number of letters and separating the combined letters, under the assumption that the old one could not be replicated on computers,” he says.
Following the work of SMC and the release of fonts in the ‘old lipi’, the Kerala government, in 2010, issued an order that all official communication online should shift to the old system.
Voluntary
“All of our work is voluntary and does not generate any revenue, although this work did secure me a job with Wikimedia,” says Santosh. Now he is about to finish an even more important project, to “teach Malayalam grammar to the computer”.
“Now, the computer understands Malayalam only as a sequence of bytes. It does not understand the language like it does English, which enables the working of devices like Alexa and Siri. For that, grammar has to be algorithmically represented and machine-translated. The work is almost over,” he says.
source: http://www.thehindu.com / The Hindu / Home> News> Cities> Thiruvananthapuram / by S.R. Parveen / Thiruvananthapuram – August 18th, 2019
The forthcoming Investor Cafe to be held by Kerala Startup Mission will be exclusively for women start-ups. The event will be held at the Integrated Startup Complex here on July 31.
Notably, KSUM is organising India’s largest Women Startup Summit at the same venue a day later, on August1.
The Investor Café, spanning from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m., will focus on products which positively impact women.
The Investor Café is an investor start-up meet held on the last Wednesdays of every month.
This month, the theme for the Investor Café will be ‘Developing an Inclusive Entrepreneurship Ecosystem.’Women investors from various parts of the country will be invited to the programme and they will meet selected women founders.
Along the corridor adjacent to ward number 16 of the Medical College Hospital, Thiruvananthapuram, a box resembling a postbox is seen.
Members of the Rotary Club, Kowdiar, who donated the first set of clothes
Thiruvananthapuram :
Along the corridor adjacent toward number 16 of the Medical College Hospital, Thiruvananthapuram, a box resembling a postbox is seen. It is not a mere spectacle but serves a greater purpose. The initiative ‘Dress bank’ which was conceptualised by Health Minister K K Shailaja to provide new and clean clothes to patients admitted to the ICU or those without bystanders, has been garnering much attention. Contributions are flowing in abundance.
After her recent visit to the Medical College, K K Shailaja examined the poor conditions and problems faced by the patients and bystanders. This triggered the idea. The project is being sponsored by the hospital employees and authorities including Dr Thomas Mathew, principal of Medical College Hospital and Dr M S Sharmad, superintendent.
Dr Mohan Roy, the regional medical officer (RMO), said, “We often get patients who have no bystanders and lack basic necessities. Their clothes are either torn or stained. So we considered installing a dress bank in the hospital which will be helpful to patients and bystanders in case of emergency. Dr Mohan Roy is the nodal officer for the project and Dr Sharmad is one of the sponsors associated with the Rotary Club, Kowdiar.
By introducing a dress bank, the hospital employees and authorities believe the issue will be resolved to some extent. Dhotis, towels and nightwears are available at the dress bank installed at the Medical College. The first donation was made by the Rotary Club, Kowdiar. Two weeks since its launch, Dr Mohan opined that many organisations and individuals have come forward for the cause. To check the misuse of the facility, the clothes are given to the patients upon examining their economic background.
A register is being maintained and clothes are being distributed under the supervision of the head nurses and higher hospital authorities. The contributions can be made by the people by contacting the superintendent’s office at MCH. Mohan said, “We have received good feedback from everyone who have made generous contributions. We plan to add more dress banks.”
source: http://www.newindianexpress.com / The New Indian Express / Home> Cities> Thiruvananthapuram / by Express News Service / May 28th, 2019
KV Seshadrinatha Sastrigal | Photo Credit: Special arrangementt
The multifaceted KV Seshadrinatha Sastrigal believes that learning of Sanskrit is important to understand the crux of the Vedas, Ayurveda and the best of Indian philosophy and culture
KV Seshadrinatha Sastrigal, 85, is a traditionalist, for whom tradition refers to customs and ceremonials by means of which the past speaks to the present. Traditions, for this scholar, relate allegiance to authority, storing up as they do the sedimented wisdom of earlier generations. But what makes Sastrigal different from a whole clutch of scholars in Sanskirt, Vedas and Sastras is his contemporary and radical perspective.
Sastrigal understands that Sanskrit, the language through which, for thousands of years, ancient traditions and knowledge were passed on from generation to generation, has been marginalised, diluted and reduced to a pitiable state. Yet, he refuses to believe that the language can be erased.
In an effort to establish, develop, propagate and bring out the need for retention of Indian culture through the ancient texts, he formed a Trust, Veda Samrakshana Nyasa, in 1984, while he was in Chennai. Now, he has formed a new team for developing this idea in Kerala. Sasthrigal has established a Veda Padasala in Kalady, Ernakulam district, where around 24 students are studying Yajur Veda and Sanskrit. In addition, many others visit him to seek wisdom in this ancient language and the texts of knowledge. Sastrigal was honoured with the ‘Mahamahopadhyaya’ title by the Government of India, the first scholar to receive this title after Independence.
Macaulay, whom we call the father of our modern Indian education system, in his historical speech in the British Parliament, clearly indicated that the ancient system of Indian education needed to be dismantled. This, he considered, was the backbone of the country, its spiritual and cultural heritage. And he achieved the goal of eliminating Sanskrit from being an essential part of the Indian education system.
“That is history. So many foreign powers came to our land and brought with them their languages. But Sanskrit was not attacked. When the Muslim rulers came to India, Sanskrit was allowed to flourish, the beliefs were not touched. But everything changed when the British came. English was injected into every Indian brain; Sanskrit was pushed out of our thinking, our intellect. Along with the language they uprooted out culture and threw it away,” says Sastrigal, a renowned Vedic, Sanskrit and Ayurveda scholar and former Principal of Madras Sanskrit College.
Sastrigal refuses to believe that Sanskrit is a ‘dead language’. “Unfortunately, many consider it to be a Hindu language and, therefore, not inclusive. Ninety-five per cent of Sanskrit literature has nothing to do with religion. You cannot kill this language, it is alive, the Vedas too.”
Learning of Sanskrit
There was a time in the past, says Sastrigal, when everyone, irrespective of caste and religion, studied Sanskrit. “Even girls studied the subject; I can point out so many instances recorded in our texts about this. Plays were written in Sanskrit and were they only for the Brahmins? No, because if there were no people to understand and appreciate these plays, they would not have been written and staged.”
Sastrigal also exhorts us to look at what happened towards the end of British rule and post-Independence in our country. The truth is that British scholars started learning Sanskrit, translated the ancient scriptures and documents into English even while they started a propaganda claiming that Sanskrit was a dying language. “At the same time through efforts of scholars like Max Mueller, Sanskrit was being introduced in almost all universities in Europe.”
Born in Kuzhalmandam, Palakkad, on June 20, 1934, Sasthrigal was a Vedic student at Nurani Vedasastra Patasala from 1944-1954. “Like so many landowning communities, my family was also forced to migrate following the enforcement of the land reforms act that abolished the tenancy system. We moved to Madras [Chennai] where I continued my studies and where I still live.” Sastrigal completed his graduation (Sahitya Shiromani) in 1959, winning the Presidency gold medal. He went on to complete Sahithya Vidwan course, passed the Vedanta Shiromani, Ayurveda Shiromani and Ayurveda Vidwan courses. He then did his research in Chithrameemamsa Vakyasudha under Dr V Raghavan, delving into the depths of Malsyapurana. For a while he was an Ayurveda medical practitioner, taught at the Venkitaramana Ayurveda College, Chennai, and was Principal of Madras Sanskrit College for 10 years.
“My association with Dr Raghavan opened new doors and helped changed my outlook towards these subjects. When I came first to Madras Presidency for Shiromani, he was pleasantly surprised. At that time I used to work for him at his house. He told me to join the university and begin my research. It was he who instilled in me that interest. He was a hard task master, made us work a lot but we enjoyed working. I was with him for nearly 10 years.”
Talking about his research subject, Malsyapurana, Sastrigal says that it was not just on the Puranas but more on the theory of evolution. “My only complaint is that people today ignore and discard the Vedas and Sastras even before trying to understand them. Can’t they at least listen, read and understand them before coming to a conclusion?”
A lot of scholars seek Sastrigal’s advice on Sanskrit, the Vedas, Ayurveda and even astrology, but though he swears by Ayurveda he considers astrology as a subject with no known source. “Ayurveda is an ancient system of medicine. It is a general philosophy of health and wellness. It talks about proper diet, exercise, sleep, hygiene, and, of course, the use of herbal preparations. Like most traditional medicine systems, Ayurveda was developed and refined over thousands of years, through observation and experience. The term itself means the science of life. But astrology is not a truth. There is no specific mention of astrology in the Vedas, only astronomy is mentioned. For me, astrology does not exist.”
It is important to understand, says Sastrigal, though the practices of astrology and astronomy have common roots, there is an important distinction. “Astronomy is the study of the universe and its contents outside of Earth’s atmosphere. Astronomers examine the positions, motions, and properties of celestial objects. I do that. Astrology attempts to study how those positions, motions, and properties affect people and events.”
New projects
Veda Samrakshana Nyasa in Kalady has ventured into many projects with the advice and leadership of Sastrigal. A website (www.vedanyasa.com) has been created that offers information about Indian culture and traditions, the Vedas and Dharma Sasthras. Digitalisation of various ancient books and treatises on Ayurveda, astronomy, Vedas, etc., which will be made available free of cost to any user, publication of vernacular versions of these works, training and counseling sessions on lifestyle, food habits etc are some of the other projects that the organisation has on its anvil.
“Sanskrit is the greatest language in the world. And if it is taken away from the life of the masses of this country, a light would be gone. The distinctive features of a rich culture will be lost. I have very little time left. My efforts are to educate the present generation not only on the Shodhasa Samskaras (Hindu traditions) but also the Dharmasastras, which can help them mould their life free from all sorrows, pains, difficulties and given them peace of mind,” says Sastrigal.
source: http://www.thehindu.com / The Hindu / Home> Society> History & Culture / by K. Pradeep / Kochi – April 18th, 2019
Five of them attend normal schools after training at autism centre
The Autism Care Centre in Thrissur, set up four years ago, has sent five children to normal schools after training them for three years. They joined Class I at various schools last year.
“This was possible because they were sent to the centre when they were three years old,” said Ravi A.S., president of Autism Society, Thrissur, and caretaker of the centre which is run by the Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan and the Thrissur Corporation.
A survey conducted by Autism Society had found that there were as many as 110 autistic children in 86 schools in the district. The disorder varies from person to person, and each individual requires support in accordance with the needs. It comes under a spectrum of mental health disorders, and it can be managed only by keen observation of the child and understanding his/her needs, Mr. Ravi said.
While intermingling of children is crucial in the growing-up stage, autistic children cannot be trained along with those with other disabilities as they shy away from eye contact and social interaction. They prefer to sit alone and do not speak even if they hear someone calling out to them.
“It is these particular behaviours that we first need to decode in each child at a young age and prepare them to attend normal schools. Training them along with children with other disabilities will only make them go backward,” said Mr. Ravi. The aim of the centre is to make autistic children self-dependent, he added.
Besides toilet training and washing, the children are offered money management training too by taking them for shopping. “We have adults too [over 18 years] at the centre who come here for training. Other therapies like Yoga and meditation too are provided.”
“An important aspect of training is that parents should associate with the children as autism is incurable. However, it can be managed by minimising the disorder by up to 80%,” Mr. Ravi said.
source: http://www.thehindu.com / The Hindu / Home> News> Cities> Kerala / by Shyama Rajagopal / Kochi – April 02nd, 2019
Mereena Aswani has a goal to make Malayali women get fit.
Mereena Aswani (right) practising at the kalari
Kochi :
At 7.30 a.m., on a recent Saturday, inside the large shed of the Dakshina Bharatha Kalari, at Fort Kochi, Mereena Aswani gazes at the women standing in front of them. All of them are wearing black: T-shirts, track pants or salwar kameez, with a red sash tied around their waists. Soon, they raise their hands upwards, move forward, kick their legs up, turn around, move forward, and kick their legs up again. Later, they sit cross-legged on their floor and Mereena guides them through a series of arm-stretching exercises.
For years, Mereena had been assisting her husband, kalaripayattu exponent Aswani Kumar, but on March 8, Kochi Mayor Soumini Jain inaugurated classes exclusively for women. “It was a desire of my teacher, Sreedharan Gurukal to start a Kalari exclusively for women and I have achieved that dream, with the help of Aswani,” says Mereena.
In fact, the duo got a shed constructed, with a mud-pressed floor, while spears and shields hang on the walls, which have been painted in red. At 1200 sq. feet, it is a spacious area.Once the local women came to know about the classes, they have stepped forward enthusiastically. There are Gujarati working women, ladies from the Muslim community, professional dancers, who want to strengthen their legs, homemakers and yoga trainers who want to learn a martial art. “The flexibility in yoga is different from the flexibility that you gain from kalaripayattu,” says Mereena.
The women range in age from 25 to 50 years. The training is different for newcomers. Mereena looks at them and evaluates their level of fitness. “How flexible are they? Are they willing to work hard?” she says. “I start them off very slowly, with just a few steps. After about eight classes, I will introduce leg techniques.”
One who has been a regular is 38-year-old Thanuja Rauf, an Ayurveda doctor. “I had been learning kalaripayattu under Mereena even before the classes began officially,” she says. “She is a very good teacher. My flexibility has increased. There is a lot of stress relief. And you get a lot of energy. So you are able to be much more active than before. It has also boosted my self-confidence.”But it is not easy. “Definitely, in the beginning, there will be body aches and pains, but you have to practise continuously,” says Mereena. “There is a saying, ‘no pain, no gain’. The biggest advantage is that you will be able to burn away negative energy.”Interestingly, Mereena has been burning away this negative energy for decades.
It all began when she was only ten years old. Because of weak legs, she would fall down often. So, the doctor who treated her told her parents that one of the ways to develop strength in the legs was by practising a martial art.
For the family, this was an easy choice. Just two houses away, at Fort Kochi, was the master Sreedharan Gurukal who used to hold kalaripayattu classes. So Mereena was enrolled. Usually, she would come to the courtyard every day at 5 p.m., after school was over, for training along with a few ladies and girls. “I was the youngest in the group,” she says. And over time, as she practised regularly, her legs became stronger and the pains went away.
But Mereena never stopped. “I was hooked to kalaripayattu,” she says. Asked the advantages of practising the art form, Mereena says, “Your body becomes very flexible. Secondly, in my case, I have developed so much of courage that I feel confident that I can tackle a man bare-handed. Also, through kalaripayattu, I am connecting with our ancient traditions, which are steadily being lost. We are blindly following the West which is not a good thing.”
Kalaripayattu has other benefits, too. Before entering the kalari (ring), the kalaripayattu artist touches the ground with his hand. Thereafter, he or she touches the feet of deities like Ganapati and Bhadrakali, at the different corners of the kalari. Then you have to touch the feet of the guru. “Through these acts, you become humble,” says Mereena.
Apart from kalaripayattu, Mereena also teaches yoga. Last year, she had gone to Germany to teach yoga. At the kalari, Mereena gives a body massage for those who have body aches and pains. Through all this Aswani is right next to her. The couple, who tied the knot on April 30, 2005, has two school-going daughters.
And they have a mission: to make Malayali women get fit. “They are unfit because they are giving up their lives to serve the family and don’t look after themselves at all,” says Mereena. “So I ask them to take out one hour a week only for themselves. And when they come, they experience a lot of stress relief,” she says.
source: http://www.newindianexpress.com / The New Indian Express / Home> Cities> Kochi / by Shevlin Sebastian / Express News Service / March 27th, 2019
