Thomas Vijayan bagged the ‘Wildlife Photographer of the Year – People’s Choice Award,’ constituted on the occasion of the 51st anniversary of the Wildlife Photographer of the Year Competition conducted by the Natural History Museum, London.
Thomas Vijayan is the first Malayali and the fourth Indian to win the award.
The award, which is regarded as the world’s most prestigious award in wildlife photography, is referred to the Oscar in Wildlife Photography.
The award winning photograph is that of a common langur hanging on the tails of two others and swinging naturally as humans do. It was short-listed by nine expert juries from over 42,000 entries from across 96 countries. “This image, captured at Kabini in Karnataka, is special in its own way as it was selected by the juries for the people to select,” said Vijayan.
source: http://www.newindianexpress.com / The New Indian Express / Home> States> Kerala / by Express News Service / January 13th, 2016
Activists take part in a march in New Delhi. (Raj k Raj/HT File Photo)
Kerala will set up a justice board for transgenders aimed at ensuring justice and equality for members of the community.
The first-of-its-kind board in the country, which is part of the state transgender policy announced two months ago, will hear the transgenders exclusively and take steps to bring them into the mainstream.
Also, it will provide free legal aid to check growing discrimination and violence against them.
After the Supreme Court recognised transgenders as a third gender in 2014, many people from this community came out openly to claim their rights. But violent incidents against them also increased subsequently.
The board will set up a 24×7 helpline, issue ID cards and ensure hassle-free arrangements to mark their status in all records.
It will help arrange home stay facilities for those ostracised by their families. Besides, necessary steps will be taken to make educational institutions transgender-friendly.
Some prisons in the state have already introduced separate blocks for third sex inmates.
According to a recent survey conducted by the state social welfare board, transgenders undergo maximum exploitation in jails and police stations.
“We have brought aboard departments such as health, education, home and revenue to set up an effective board which will help the invisible community to be visible. The board will help end their exclusion,” state social justice department director VN Jithendran said.
The department recently conducted a survey with the help of community members and the findings were disturbing.
According to the survey, at least 60% of transgenders tried to commit suicide and 58% dropped out of school because of harassment and similar reasons. Only 10% of the community members revealed their true identity to their family and 80% are forced to marry ignoring their sexual inclination.
In Kerala, their numbers are about 30,000 but only 4,000 are visible. Ironically, Kerala is the first state to bring a state policy for transgenders.
“The situation is alarming. Most of the members are forced to migrate to other states for a living. We hope the transgender policy would bring some acceptability and respectability to the community,” said a member of the survey team.
Though the literacy rate of transgenders is 93%, only 12% have regular jobs, the survey shows. Social activists said an exclusive justice board for transgenders would help reduce their sufferings.
source: http://www.hindustantimes.com / Hindustan Times / Home / by Ramesh Babu, Hindustan Times, Thiruvananthapuram / January 11th, 2016
As a part of Kerala’s vast and scattered diaspora, I grew up hearing interesting titbits about the land I had sprung from: communism, literacy, matriliny and, more recently, Arabian Nights-type tales about treasures hidden in the vaults of Padmanabhaswamy Temple. I absorbed this information in my childhood without exploring it in any depth because the only books available were either written by colonial-era social anthropologists or Indian historians too wedded to the format of academic books to make them genuinely readable, crammed full of dates and details but with little attention paid to literary art.
Portrait of Sethu Lakshmi Bayi by her granddaughter and artist Rukmini Varma |
Luckily, debut author Manu S Pillai has now accessed all of those texts and created the book I always longed for—a narrative history of Kerala that faithfully records and indexes its sources but also tells a cracking story. The focus is on the last queen of erstwhile Travancore state, Sethu Lakshmi Bayi (aka Senior Maharani), who ruled from 1924 as a regent for seven years while the British authorities waited for the future Maharajah, Chithira Tirunal, to come of age. Chithira Tirunal was the son of Sethu Lakshmi Bayi’s adoptive sister who came to be known as Junior Maharani. Many people in Trivandrum remember the publicly fraught relationship that existed between these two Maharanis grappling for power in the decade before India became independent, an event that was unforeseen at the time and ultimately rendered their fight rather poignantly futile.
In reality, the two ‘sisters’ were first cousins who were adopted together in 1900 from the Kolathiri clan of Mavelikkara to preserve Travancore’s shaky matrilineal line. After a series of miscarriages beset the Senior Maharani, it was the Junior Maharani who bore the heir to the throne. While it fell upon Sethu Lakshmi Bayi to play regent as the future Maharajah grew up, the Junior Maharani, cast in an unenviably vacuous position during the regency years, naturally made it her business to ensure a powerful role for herself as soon as her son became king. This was eventually achieved, with much help from the flamboyant and brilliant Sir CP Ramaswami Iyer, and was—the book suggests—employed to make the Senior Maharani’s position untenable once Chithira Tirunal came to power. The present royal family residing at Kowdiar Palace in Trivandrum are descendants of the Junior Maharani while the family of Sethu Lakshmi Bayi left Kerala to settle in Bangalore, Chennai and beyond after the regency period came to an end.
Manu Pillai charts this divided journey in vivid and comprehensive fashion, bringing events virtually up to the present day and telling the story occasionally like a family saga. Personal letters and interviews reveal the kind of tensions and jealousies that run through all families and this is rendered doubly riveting when set against the backdrop of ‘palaces and princes’.
However, it would be doing the book a huge disservice to suggest that it does not rise beyond mere historical biography. This 700-page whopper of a book is much, much more than the story of Sethu Lakshmi Bayi, fascinating as it is to read about this able female ruler who was responsible for many policies now taken for granted in Kerala (eg, the Nair Succession Act that effectively and, in my view, rather regrettably abolished matriliny). For me, the best aspects of The Ivory Throne lay in those authorly excursions that efficiently answered all the questions I had stored up from my childhood in a maranaadan Malayali home.
From Vasco da Gama’s chaotic arrival on the shores of Calicut to Martanda Varma’s ingenious melding of royalty and divinity when he declared himself Padmanabhadasan, from the Temple Proclamation Act that finally allowed lower caste Hindus into temples to the abolition of the privy purse—this book swirls through Kerala’s history like a dervish possessed by the intention of telling a magnificent story, and telling it marvellously well.
source: http://www.newindianexpress.com / The New Indian Express / Home> LifeStyle> Books / by Jaishree Misra / January 09th, 2016
Yuhanon Mor Philoxenos, the former metropolitan of the Jacobite Syrian Church’s Malabar diocese, passed away at a private hospital in Kalpetta at 10am on Wednesday. He was 74. He had been undergoing treatment for age-related ailments at the hospital.
The Patriarch had honoured him with the ‘valiya metropolitan’ title in recognition of his service to the Jacobite Church.
Popularly known as valiya thirumeni, Mor Philoxenos had stepped down as metropolitan in August 2009 following ill health and had been leading a retired life ever since.
His mortal remains were taken to his birth place at Pambadi in Kottayam district. The funeral will be held at the St Mary’s Simhasana Church there on Friday.
Born on December 5, 1941, Mor Philoxenos did his schooling at Pampady and took his BA degree from Baselios College, Kottayam and MA from SV University. Later he took his doctorate in theology from Logos Graduate School of Theology, New York and obtained Doctor of Divinity from Orlando International Seminary, Florida.
He was ordained as ramban at the Pambadi Simhasana Church on August 30, 1985 and was consecrated the metropolitan of Malabar diocese at St Peter’s and St Paul’s Cathedral at Meenangadi in Wayanad on September 12, 1985.
Mor Philoxenos was instrumental in setting up a number of educational and charitable institutions, like the Mor Elias Sneha Bhavan orphanage, Karunya Bhavan old age home, St Peter’s and St Paul’s Higher Secondary School and St Gregorios Teacher’s Training College, all at Meenangadi. He also took the lead in setting up a new diocese based in Kozhikode by dividing the Malabar diocese, in 2008.
As metropolitan, he had introduced many reforms, including retirement for priests on turning 70, welfare fund and pension for priests.
source: http://www.timesofindia.indiatimes.com / The Times of India / News Home> City> Kozhikode / TNN / December 31st, 2015
At a time when the Malayalis are reveling in obscurantism of all sorts, ranging from vasthu to alternative medicine and vedic mathematics to astrology, a small group of dedicated and committed volunteers have taken up an ambitious task of bringing back the scientific temper to the society.
`Swathanthra Lokam’, is a Facebook community of people from different backgrounds such as doctors, journalists, teachers and IT professionals, who are united for a cause.Some of them are former members of the Kerala Yukthivadi Sangham, who parted ways with the organization on some fundamental issues.Others are activists of Kerala Free Thinkers Forum and Science Trust, Kozhikode. “Our primary aim is to carry forward the rational thought process started by people like Sahodaran Ayyapan. Somehow, it was was stalled midway in Kerala, unlike in the West where it was allowed to bloom completely ,” said Dr C Viswanathan editor of Yukthi Yugam, the organ of the collective and a specialist in orthopaedics.
For the Swathanthra Lokam activists, the Western society is a model in many respects. “They are an open and a post-religious society but we still carry many traces of a tribal life. We seek to demolish the clan mentality and modernize the socie ty,” Viswanathan said.
Naturally fundamentalists of all hues view Swathanthra Lokam community as their opponents. They are in an open confrontation with practitioners of naturopathy and homeopathy , which they believe have no scientific basis. “We were actively involved in debunking cheating in the name of mid-brain activation. We oppose everything that is against sci ence and reason. We resist all regressions happening in our society be it the reversal from Sree Narayana Guru to Vellappally Natesan or Nehru to Modi,” said Anu Vinod, an IT professional and an active worker of the group.
The activists of Swathanthra Lokam also take on religious dogmas fearlessly in their endeavour for a free society. E A Jabbar, a teacher from Malappuram, relentlessly fight against the dogmas in Islam and questions the very basis of the religion. Viswanathan has delivered talks against futility of rituals such as yagas and yagnas.
The reactions from the other side had come in many forms including mass reporting to suspend Facebook account to open abuse in social media and even physical attacks. “I was assaulted several times in the past.Once a mob had barged into my house and threatened me. On another occasion I was attacked with iron rods. But nothing stopped me from campaigning against the Islamic fundamentalists,” said Jabbar.
source: http://www.timesofindia.indiatimes.com / The Times of India / News Home> city> Kochi / by M.P. Prashanth, TNN / December 31st, 2015
Jyothi, a tribal artisan, makes bamboo utility products at a makeshift shed in Wayanad.
Lack of raw materials and marketing mechanism hurts bamboo artisans
The traditional craft of bamboo weaving, which was a major source of income for tribal artisans during the harvesting season, is facing a tough time in Wayanad district.
Bamboo artisan families are grappling with multiple challenges, including shortage of raw material, lack of an institutionalised marketing mechanism and a deluge of plastic household items in the market.
A few decades ago, bamboo utility products such as baskets, mats, fish traps, cradle and various household items were in huge demand among the farming community, especially bamboo baskets found takers during the harvest season of crops like coffee, pepper and paddy in the hill district.
However, the demand has declined sharply after the entry of plastic products in the market at a low price, Jyothi, a tribal artisan who sells bamboo products at a makeshift shed by the highway side here says.
Earlier, tribal people including the Kurichiya, Ooralikuruma, Paraya, and Paniya tribes were engaged making in bamboo- and cane-based handicrafts, but only a few tribal families are now active in the sector, she adds.
The availability of raw materials owing to massive destruction of bamboo plants in forest areas is the another concern for the artisans. “We are procuring the raw material now from private individuals at an exorbitant price and it is not viable to run the business now,” Murugan, Jyothi’s husband, says.
“We nurture our traditional bamboo craft against heavy odds to keep alive the age-old handicraft tradition,” Murugan adds. The government should lend a helping hand by ensuring adequate raw materials and marketing opportunities for sustaining the eco-friendly traditional craft, he appeals.
source: http://www.thehindu.com / The Hindu / Home> National> Kerala / by E.M. Manoj / Kalpetta – December 16th, 2015
First time that the Award of Excellence is reaching a South Indian State
Unesco representative Moe Chiba with the Unesco Asia Pacific Award of Excellence at the Sree Vadakkunnathan temple in Thrissur on Friday.— PHOTO: K.K. Najeeb
The Unesco Asia Pacific Award of Excellence was presented to Sree Vadakkunnathan Temple here on Friday.
Unesco representative Moe Chiba presented the award to Cochin Devaswom Board president M.P. Bhaskaran Nair.
“The holistic restoration of Sree Vadakkunnathan Temple represents a milestone achievement in reviving a living religious heritage site using a combination of indigenous knowledge of vernacular building techniques and contemporary conservation practice,” Ms. Moe Chiba noted.
Even with inappropriate minor repairs and a century of exposure to monsoon rains, the project skilfully stabilised the wooden complex for use by local devotees and restored significant decorative works including murals, she noted.
Addressing the function, Devaswom Minister V.S. Sivakumar noted that the Award of Excellence for the conservation efforts of the majestic Vadakkunnathan temple was an honour for the State’s authentic style of architecture. Three hundred artisans worked for a decade for the conservation work.
The award comprises a brass plaque. ‘Award of Excellence’ certificates were presented to important stakeholders, master craftsmen and contributors to the project. The Unesco established Asia Pacific Awards for Cultural Heritage Conservation to promote conservation of heritage in Asia and the Pacific in 2000.
The award recognises private efforts and also public private initiatives in conserving structures of heritage value.
Since the inception of the awards, India has received the Award of Excellence four times till date.
The honour for Vadakkunnathan temple conservation is the first time that the ‘Award of Excellence’ is reaching a south Indian State.
The Archaeological Survey of India (ASI) had been working on the conservation of the temple kitchen, the murals, the wood carvings and the south and west gopurams (gateways) since 1997.
In 2005, the Director General, ASI Delhi, gave permission to Venugopalaswamy Kainkaryam Trust (VGKT), Chennai, the donors, for its overall conservation, as per ASI norms.
“Hindu temples are designed and renovated in such a way that the temple is considered a human body, with life and energy.
“The complex systems of vasthu and tantrasastra are followed to restore and revive the energy and life of the temple lost due to age. Thus the conservation process involved both physical and metaphysical efforts,” said architect M.M. Vinod Kumar, who coordinated the conservation work.
source: http://www.thehindu.com / The Hindu / Home> National> Kerala / Staff Reporter / Thrissur – December 05th, 2015
Says the system preserves the identity of every community
Kerala’s traditional multiculturalism has much to offer to the policy and decision makers in modern times, says Ophira Gamliel from the University of Ruhr, the Israeli academic who has been closely associated with Kerala studies.
Ophira Gamliel says the traditional festivals and performing arts in Kerala are highly structured so as to ensure the collaboration of the various communities at different levels.
Speaking to The Hindu on the sidelines of the third International Kerala History Conference here on Friday, Prof. Gamliel says a closer look at the multiculturalism inherited by the State would point to a dynamic system which preserves the identity of every community, even as it provides space for each of them to integrate into one system.
“You don’t lose your identity. Even small communities do not get swallowed. Your literature, culture, everything are well preserved. Instead of getting integrated at the personal level, you are integrated at the community level,” she says.
Prof. Gamliel says the roots of this unique system, still preserved, could be traced to the ancient long-distance trade exchanges which were exceptionally different in character from the modern global trade. “Unlike the modern global trade, which is marked by brutal expropriation of resources and labour, the ancient trade between the western coast of India and west Asia was marked by a great amount of cultural and knowledge exchanges at the community level,” she adds.
Documents
The more-than-1,000-year-old Cairo Documents (referring to deals between west Asian traders and those from Kerala) and the 9th century Tharisapalli plates (referring to a grant issued to Syriac Christians of Kerala) are rich evidences to this multiculturalism. “In fact, the Tharisapalli plates are signed in three languages: Persian (in Hebrew script), Pahlavi, and Cufic Arabic,” she says pointing to the efforts taken to preserve the identity of the different trading organisations.
Even the traditional festivals and performing arts here are highly structured so as to ensure the collaboration of the various communities at different levels. Beyond the complexity of what happens on the stage, this underlying structure assured collaboration at the communal level even in performing art forms, she says.
This unique system of multiculturalism should be subject of in-depth research, especially at a time when traditional communities are under threat of being swallowed up in the wave of globalisation, leading to tensions and conflicts at the community and societal level, she adds.
source: http://www.thehindu.com / The Hindu / Home> National> Kerala / by George Jacob / Kottayam – November 29th, 2015
A Rs 55 crore wedding extravaganza, capable of surpassing even the most spectacular Bollywood sets, will unveil at the Asramam ground in Kollam on Thursday where NRI business magnate Ravi Pillai’s daughter, Dr Arathi, will wed Dr Adithya Vishnu of Kochi.
Work in progress at the venue of Ravi Pillai’s daughter’s wedding at Kollam. (TOI)
With a net worth of $2.8 billion, Ravi Pillai was ranked first among the richest Keralites in a survey conducted by TOI in June. Pillai’s RP Group has a strong presence in Gulf in construction, infrastructure development, mining and education, and has over 80,000 employees across 26 companies.
Though wrapped in secrecy, sources associated with the wedding plans told ToI that the festivities, planned by the production designer of the multi-lingual top-grosser ‘Bahubali’, will showcase dance performances by Malayalam film actresses Manju Warrier and Sobhana, with a musical show conducted by Stephen Devassy before 30,000 guests inside a 350,000 sq ft pandal modelled along Rajasthan royal palaces.
The main entrance of the pandal (TOI Photo)
The splurge on the wedding will also include Rs 10-crore worth charity initiatives planned in Thiruvananthapuram and Kollam districts in connection with the wedding.
A virtual who’s who of the Gulf and several European countries are expected. The guest list starts with 42 global leaders including country heads, CEOs, government reps, politicians, film-stars, technocrats and diplomats.
T P Seetharaman, ambassador of India to the UAE; Sheikh Khalifa Bin Daij Al Khalifa, president, Crown Prince Office, Bahrain; Sheikh Hamad Bin Khalid H A Al Thani, Royal Family of Qatar; Dr Essam Abdullah, Saudi Royal Family; and, Lebanese ambassador Michel El Khoury have confirmed attendance.
Sources at Thiruvananthapuram airport said two chartered flights are expected on Thursday. “But we can accommodate more as we only need a three-hour alert to prepare for landing and handling of special flights,” sources said.
The wedding set, spread over eight acres, has cost more than Rs 20 crore. The pandal was made by a team of 200 professionals led by film art director Sabu Cyril.
“The design is unique for this event. But it’s largely modelled on the royal palaces of Rajasthan,” said Cyril, who was the production designer for ‘Bahubali’.
He said that the wedding set is larger than the one he had made for ‘Bahubali’. “The palace in the film was set up on five acres but this set will cover 40,000 sqft spread over eight acres,” Cyril told TOI.
While Cyril had to work for two-and-half years for building the ‘Bahubali’ set, it took him close to 75 days to create the Rajasthani ambience in Kollam.
“Various parts for this set were first moulded in clay in Mumbai, and then it was cast in plaster of Paris. It took us about 40 days to assemble the pre-fabricated structures here,” he said. “And it will take us a fortnight to dismantle it and clear the ground back to its original form,” Cyril said.
Chartered flights carrying Union minister Ravi Shankar Prasad and Bahrain royal family landed on Wednesday. An elaborate security blanket has been thrown over Kollam. Apart from 250 cops, the services of 350 private security personnel have been hired.w.
source: http://www.timesofindia.indiatimes.com / The Times of India / News Home> City> Thiruvananthapuram / TNN / November 26th, 2015
The State Central library, Palayam, is organizing an exhibition ‘A Series of Stray Papers’ that will showcase rare books, photographs, cartoons and library equipment from Wednesday to November 30. Minister for education P K Abdu Rabb will inaugurate the exhibition.
The exhibition will display over 300 rare collections of books including ‘A Series of Stray Papers’. The biographies, photo exhibition of world class laureates like Keates, Yates and Galsworthy etc will also be exhibited. “The exhibition will also display the digital print of digitised books. The rare collections in this segments include government gazettes and rare books,” said P K Shobhana, state librarian.
World famous cartoons from the library collections will be displayed along with library equipment that was used since the formation of library in 1829.
source: http://www.timesofindia.indiatimes.com / The Times of India / News Home> City> Thiruvananthapuram / TNN / November 17th, 2015
