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
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
Ayilam Tirunal, maharaja from 1860-80, with his ‘sambandham’ wife Nagercoil Ammachi in the 1870’s. (Photograph courtesy : Manu Pillai )
In the 19th century, sambandham, an informal mode of ‘marriage’ in Kerala, allowed the elites to join in mutually beneficial unions
The arrangement made room for inter-caste unions, with its dynamics determined mostly by economics
Around 1881, a prince of Cochin called Rama Varma got into a relationship with a 16-year-old girl. He had lost his wife and the new connection was with the stepdaughter of one of his uncles (who, like him, would one day sit on the throne). The girl, Rama Varma wrote, “had a regular husband and I proposed to become paramour to her”. And as “the husband raised no objection…it was done so. This kind of things (sic),” he added, “was not considered improper at the time.”
In fact, on the contrary, his mother was thrilled, though rivals did complain he only entered the alliance to butter up the girl’s father. After all, as Rama Varma admitted unkindly, she “could not boast of anything which may be called beauty and…had nothing which might be considered accomplishment”. It was not surprising, then, that some in the family viewed his interest with suspicion.
As it happened, the relationship did not last, and soon Rama Varma was involved with a third lady, with whom he shared a lasting union, the previous lady presumably continuing with her first husband. But what made entering and exiting relationships a matter of ease was the nature of the marital tie itself in 19th century Kerala. For non-Brahmin matrilineal groups, it was the bond between brother and sister that was sacred, not that of husband and wife. The sexual tie was called sambandham—relationship—and designed with much flexibility. Rama Varma’s mother, for instance, was a princess of Cochin, and, in keeping with the traditions of her own dynasty, had formed a sambandham with a Brahmin. Such Brahmins were junior sons of big houses. But they had no inheritance, which made the prospect of alliances with aristocratic ladies and royal women most attractive—and often remunerative.
At its core, sambandhams allowed the elites to join in mutually beneficial unions. For Brahmin families, it gave younger sons wives of lower caste who made no claim on their patrimony—if these wives were well-born, it was better still, for they could pay the Brahmins a maintenance. For matrilineal castes, meanwhile, power and wealth vested in the female line—the husband was, in essence, an instrument of procreation. If he came from a higher caste, he “infused” their veins with the prestige of twice-born blood. The dynamics within this broader framework were, however, determined by economics.
As Matampu Kunhukuttan’s classic novel Outcaste portrays, Brahmins with royal sambandhams often lived in fear that their wives might discard them and opt for new sambandhams; elsewhere, if it was the man who held power, he could access even married women, as we saw with Rama Varma, leaving the female at a disadvantage.
It was not unknown for men and women to have multiple sambandhams—a fact that recently got politician and writer Shashi Tharoor in trouble when a line from his novel was cast as an “insult” to Nair women.
The examples are numerous. The Nair wife of the maharaja of Travancore who ruled between 1860-80, was first married to a Kathakali actor—arriving in Thiruvananthapuram, she met the ruler, and soon the actor was jettisoned. Their daughter was in a sambandham with the maharaja’s nephew—when she died in 1882, the latter lamented his “irreparable” loss. It was 17 years before he entered into his next sambandham, this time with the wife of a palace employee. As in the case of his uncle’s partner, this lady too relinquished her previous alliance to become the ruler’s consort. The author C.V. Raman Pillai, meanwhile, married his late wife’s sister, whose past featured threesambandhams—two terminated by death (including with the painter Ravi Varma’s brother) and one by separation.
By the late 19th century, however, sambandhams were increasingly frowned upon, and the question of whether this was even marriage came under scrutiny. Missionaries saw the system as “very revolting” and the absorption of Victorian morality upset old ways of life. From Madras, newspapers piled criticism on this “obnoxious system of promiscuous marriage”, and, as the scholar K. Saradamoni writes, “Sambandham was equated to concubinage and the women to mistresses and the children called bastards.” It was an awkward moment, for this way even maharajas were illegitimate, while the autonomy women enjoyed was translated as licentiousness. As early as 1875, in fact, the non-Malayali writer of a census report was most apologetic about the “looseness of the prevailing morals and the unbinding nature of the marriage tie, which possesses such fascination for the majority of our population”.
Scholars like J. Devika have shown how the onus fell on women: They had to be “virtuous”, which meant divorcing and keeping multiple husbands was no longer “respectable”. Inter-caste unions between Brahmins, royalty and Nairs ceased to be acceptable, and “reform” movements sprang up in each community to restrict women’s choice of spouses. Widowhood, a non-existent concept for matrilineal groups, became a mark of wifely honour. And with this came the policing of women’s bodies and the injection, through education, of a patriarchal mindset, where daughters were raised to be “good wives” and husbands vested with power over them and their children. Sambandhams became the vestige of an ugly past, remembered with embarrassment—and, sometimes, denial.
Sambandhams certainly could be abused. But, in their day, they served a purpose and defined marriage for the people involved. They could also feature great love stories—this columnist’s great-great-grandmother had a sambandham with a Brahmin in the 1880s. When she had a stillbirth, however, the alliance was terminated: The baby was a girl, and the death of a female child was inauspicious in her matrilineage. The Brahmin wept and protested but was never allowed near his ex-wife again. Decades later, the story goes, his steward showed up at the door: The man was dying, and he wished to see his former wife one last time. But the lady did not go. Not because she did not wish to, but because the year was 1915. The world had changed and she had no power—she had married again, and it was her husband who now called the shots.
Medium Rare is a column on society, politics and history. Manu S. Pillai is the author of The Ivory Throne (2015) and Rebel Sultans (2018).
He tweets at @UnamPillai
source: http://www.livemint.com / Live Mint / Home> Explore> Medium Rare / by Manu S. Pillai / April 19th, 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
Mata Amritanandamayi’s life, which has witnessed success after overcoming several obstacles, is a role model for each and every woman, said Malayalam writer P Valsala.
Writer P Valsala handing over the kit to the members of Amritasree gathering at Puthiyappa in Kozhikode | Manu R Mavelil
Kozhikdode :
Mata Amritanandamayi’s life, which has witnessed success after overcoming several obstacles, is a role model for each and every woman, said Malayalam writer P Valsala. She was speaking after inaugurating the Amritasree district conclave held at Puthiyappa Sree Bhagavathi temple ground in Kozhikode on Sunday.
Amritanandamayi Math Kozhikode chief Swami Vivekamrita Chaitanya, who delivered the benedictory address, spoke on the power of Mata Amritanandamayi’s spiritual benevolence.
Former minister and CPM leader T K Hamza, KPCC General secretary N Subramanian, BJP state vice-president K P Sreesan, Mathrubhumi managing editor P V Chandran, former Malayalam actress Vidhubala and Arjuna award winner and badminton player Valiyaveettil Diju were among the others present for the function. Amritasree has transformed itself into one of the greatest example of women empowerment in the state, said T K Hamza. K P Sreesan said the organisation has evolved itself into a mega initiative for social work.
N Subramanian who also spoke during the function said Amritasree was an example of care and compassion shown by Amritandamayi in uplifting people.The inaugural ceremony was followed by distribution of pension, saree and food to the members of Amritasree self-help groups in Kozhikode. Over 10,000 Amritasree members took part in the conclave. Each self-help group consisting of 20 members was given a fund of `30,000 at the event.
Around 3,000 Amritasree self-help groups are functioning in the district. It was started in 2004 to empower women from lower economic backgrounds.
source: http://www.newindianexpress.com / The New Indian Express / Home> States> Kerala / by Express News Service / March 25th, 2019
From the deep sea-fishing Rekha Karthikeyan near Chettuva to mussel farming Praseela Shaji at Moothakunnam, there is in these women a spirit of determination and readiness to take on the challenges of life in their battle for survival. If you thought fishing came easy to these women entrepreneurs living close to the sea and backwaters, it is not true.
“It was so frightening initially,” says Ms. Karthikeyan, about her first venture into deep-sea fishing. “But the fright did go away. I was never intimidated,” she adds.
She has been recognised by the Central Marine Fisheries Research Institute as the lone woman in the country actively engaged in deep-sea fishing.
She and her husband Karthikeyan use their boat for fishing ventures on a daily basis.
The couple with four children, routinely take to the seas to feed the family.
Undeterred by deluge
For Ms. Shaji, the mid-August 2018 flood was a life-changer. It threatened to derail her life. The floodwaters washed away the mussel farming ventures of dozens of women entrepreneurs like her. While some of them gave up, she did not. Ms. Shaji her friends have put the pieces together and is now fast on the road to achieving normality in mussel production.
The major fishery based micro-enterprises being taken care of by women self-help groups include bivalve farming (mussel and edible oyster culture), seaweed culture, ornamental fish culture, cage culture, Chinese dip-net units, fish amino acid units, fish fertilizer units, clam processing, fish drying, fish pickling, ready-to cook and eat fish products, aqua-tourism, seafood kitchen units, dry fish procuring, fish vending, prawn culture, crab processing, aquaponics and fish feed production, says a CMFRI scientist.
source: http://www.thehindu.com / The Hindu / Home> News> Cities> Kochi / by Special Correspondent / Kochi – March 08th, 2019
Canonisation : Kollam Bishop Paul Antony Mullassery declaring Bishop Jerome as Servant of God during the holy mass at Thangassery on Sunday. | Photo Credit: C Suresh Kumar R
Bishop Jerome, the first native bishop of Kollam diocese of the Catholic Church, has been declared Servant of God, initiating the process of his beatification and canonisation.
Kollam Bishop Paul Antony Mullassery made the declaration during the holy mass held at Infant Jesus Cathedral, Thangassery, here on Sunday. He also unveiled a portrait of the late bishop, who would be now called the Servant of God.
Archbishop M. Soosapakiam was the chief celebrant who led the pontifical mass while the co-celebrants included Changanassery Arch Bishop Joseph Perunthottam, former Kollam Boshop Stanley Roman, Neyyattinkara Bishop Vincent Samuel, Punalur Bishop Selvister Ponnumuthan, Alappuzha Bishop Stephan Athipozhiyil, Mavelikkara Bishop Joshua Mar Ignathios and Pathanamthitta Bishop Samuel Irenios.
First step
Declaring the late bishop Servant of God is the first step towards recognising him as a saint.
Former Kollam Bishop Stanley Roman had started the proceedings for the same and a delegation from Kollam had visited Vatican last year to hand over the report on the completion of the initialisation. Bishop Jerome, who was ordained as the first native Bishop of Kollam in 1937 and led the diocese till 1978, will be bestowed the title of ‘venerable’ in the next stage followed by beatification and canonisation.
Kollam diocese had organised programmes to mark the occasion including workshops on the life of the late bishop and processions.
source: http://www.thehindu.com / The Hindu / Home> News> State> Kerala / by Staff Reporter / Kollam – February 25th, 2019
The 17th edition of the Miss South India beauty contest came to an emphatic end as Nikita Thomas, hailing from Kerala was crowned at the event held at Hotel Le-Meridien, Coimbatore.
Kochi :
The 17th edition of the Miss South India beauty contest came to an emphatic end as Nikita Thomas, hailing from Kerala was crowned at the event held at Hotel Le-Meridien, Coimbatore. The beauty pageant promoted by Manappuram Finance Limited as prime partner was hosted by Pegasus in association with Rotary Club of Coimbatore Texcity. Tarini Kalingarayar from Tamil Nadu and Deepa Thomas from Kerala was the first and second runner up respectively. Last year winner Lakshmi Menon crowned Nikita Thomas. V P Nandakumar, CEO of Manappuram Finance handed over the prizes to first and second runners up.
Miss South India Nikita Thomas with runners up Tarini Kalingarayar and Deepa Thomas
24 beautiful women from five south Indian states competed for the coveted title. The grooming session for this competition, which had the prime rounds such as designer saree, red cocktail and black gown rounds, commenced from January 30 in SAJ Earth Resort convention centre, Kochi. A session handled by prominent personalities in the modelling sector aimed to impart the knowledge about yoga, meditation, personality development, beauty care, catwalk, photo shoot and talent search to the contestants.
Eminent personalities from the film and fashion sectors such as Uma Riyas Khan, Siddhaanth Surryavanshi, Toshma Biju, Kuriyachan and Alesia Raut were part of the judging panel. Cash prizes worth `one lakh was given to the winner and the first runner-up was given `60,000. The second runner up received `40,000. In addition, the winners were crowned with the golden crowns designed by Parakkat Jewellers.
The judging panel also selected the regional title winners and the sub-title winners like Miss Queen Andhra, Miss Queen Karnataka, Miss Queen Kerala, Miss Queen Telangana, Miss Tamil Nadu, Miss Beautiful Hair, Miss Beautiful Smile, Miss Beautiful Skin, Miss Beautiful Face, Miss Beautiful Eyes, Miss Congeniality, Miss Personality, Miss Cat walk, Miss Perfect Ten, Miss Talent, Miss Photogenic, Miss Viewers’ Choice, Miss Social Media, Miss Fitness, Miss ‘Humaneness.’
The contestants have been selected through foolproof audition sessions organised in Kochi, Bangalore, Chennai, Andhra Pradesh and Hyderabad. DQUE watches, SAJ Earth resort and convention centre, Josco Jewellers and UT World.in were the co-partners of the event.
source: http://www.newindianexpress.com / The New Indian Express / Home> States> Kerala / by Express News Service / February 05th, 2019
Researcher and elephant studies expert at the Kerala Veterinary and Animal Sciences University T.S. Rajeev has been selected for the Murray Fowler International Conference Scholarship instituted by the American Association of Zoo Veterinarians (AAZV), Florida.
The fellowship, which consists of a purse of $2,000 and citation, will be presented at an international science conference of wildlife veterinarians and researchers at Prague from October 6 to 12.
Dr. Rajeev, head of the Elephant Studies Centre, will present a paper on impaction in elephants at the conference.
source: http://www.thehindu.com / The Hindu / Home> News> Cities> Kochi / by Staff Reporter / Thrissur – July 05th, 2018
He was recommended for the Nobel Prize nine times, but never awarded
Ennackal Chandy George Sudarshan, popularly known as E.C.G. Sudarshan, who made path-breaking discoveries in the realm of quantum optics died aged 86 in Texas on Monday morning.
Professor Sudarshan was a faculty at the University of Texas for the past 40 years. A globally-recognised theoretical physicist, Professor Sudarshan had often pointed out that Physics meant everything to him. He was recommended for the Nobel Prize for Physics nine times, but never awarded.
Professor Sudarshan made significant contributions to the field of theoretical physics — optical coherence, tachyons, quantum zeno effect, open quantum system, spin-statistics theorem, non-invariance groups, positive maps of density matrices and quantum computation, to name a few.
Born to E. I. Chandy and Achamma in Kottayam on September 16, 1931, Professor Sudarshan graduated from the Madras Christian College in 1951 and did his postgraduation from the University of Madras. He later moved to Tata Institute of Fundamental Research (TIFR), Mumbai, where he worked for a brief period with Homi Bhabha, father of Indian nuclear programme before moving to University of Rochester in New York to work under American physicist Robert Marshak. They founded the V-A theory of of the weak force, which eventually paved the way for electroweak theory.
Contributions ignored
Professor Sudarshan also developed a quantum representation of coherent light later known as Sudarshan-Glauber representation. Glauber was awarded 2005 Nobel Prize in Physics for the contribution to the quantum theory of optical coherence. Renowned scientists in India and abroad had then observed that the Nobel Committee had ignored the contribution of Professor Sudarshan, who justly deserved to share the coveted award.
An eminent scientist who drew parallels between science and Indian philosophy, Professor Sudarshan was honoured with several awards, including Padma Vibhushan (2007), Dirac Medal (2010), Bose Medal (1977) and C. V. Raman award (1970).
source: http://www.thehindu.com / The Hindu / Home> News> States> Kerala / by Special Correspondent / Kochi – May 14th, 2018
