LINES AND STROKES: Paintings exhibited at the Kerala Lalithakala Akademi Art Gallery in Kozhikode as part of poet A. Ayyappan commemoration programme. PHOTO: K. RAGESH / The Hindu
Various programmes mark A. Ayyappan’s death anniversary
The Theatre Art Gallery here has organised a host of programmes to commemorate the fourth death anniversary of poet A. Ayyappan.
An exhibition of photographs of the poet as well as paintings and sculptures based on his works, exhibited at the Kerala Lalithakala Akademi Art Gallery here from Wednesday, throws light into the various moods of the poet and the issues he dealt with.
The commemoration programme was inaugurated by poet Sebastian on the art gallery premises. A video by C. Sharathchandran based on Ayyappan’s poem Greeshme Sakhi was screened on the occasion.
A recitation of Ayyappan’s poems was the highlight of Thursday’s programmes.
A poetry evening will be held on Friday while plays will be staged on Saturday. Arangu Kozhikode will stage the play Njattuvela at 7 p.m.
The valedictory the commemoration programme will be held at 5 p.m. on Sunday. Writer T.P. Rajeevan will inaugurate the programme.
A musical programme by Vinod Shankar and Harinarayanan at 7 p.m. and a documentary Ithrayum Yathabhagam by Sathyan Odessa will be the highlight of the evening.
source: http://www.thehindu.com / The Hindu / Home> News> Cities> Kozhikode / by Staff Reporter / Kozhikode – October 24th, 2014
A Kerala girl has made it to the final 12 of Google’s Doodle 4 Google contest — A place in India I wish to visit — for students across India. Reba Philip, a sixth grade student of Pallikoodam School in Kottayam, chose to travel across Bay of Bengal and explore Andaman and Nicobar Islands, when most of her fellow competitors wanted to visit her home state.
This 11-year-old girl used colour pencils and a ball point pen to tell the world of her dream destination. The doodle is one among the 4 selected doodles in the Group 2 category.
When asked as to what was the concept behind her doodle Reba said, “I have always wanted to go to the Andmans. I love beaches. The photographs of the Andamans have always left me mesmerised. So I decided to create a doodle which represented the Andamans.”
Reba Philip
How has Reba defined her doodle? Reba said that the doodle portrays the various elements of the islands. G stands for surfing, O is for Jarawa Tribe playing drum, G is the endemic bird called Andaman wood Pigeon, L is a rough map of the island and E is Dugong – a marine animal found nearby.
Reba’s doodle depicts various aspects of the Andamans. It took Reba an entire day to create the doodle. The doodle showcases everything from fun and frolic on the Island to its tribes and wildlife.
Reba has seen the other doodles in the fray and thinks “it is going to be a tough competition.”
Proud and excited about her daughter’s achievement, Reba’s mother Julie said, “We are very excited about the results. I was not even aware of what she had been up to, until she came up to get the drawing scanned and uploaded on the website.”
The doodle will be open for voting from October 27, 2014 to November 10, 2014.
The contest commenced on August 19, 2014 and was held in three categories. Group 1 consisted of those students studying from Grade 1 to Grade 3, while Group 2 includes those students studying from Grade 4 to Grade 6. Group 3 includes those studying from Grade 7 to Grade 10.
Each of the 12 finalists will be given a ChromeBook Laptop and a certificate. The winner of the contest would be awarded a holiday to any destination he or she would like to go for 3 nights and 4 days along with their parents.
source: http://www.english.manoramaonline.com / On Manorama / Home> News> Sci-Tech / by Gitanjali Diwakar, Assistant Content Producer / Monday – October 27th, 2014
The e-Jalakam programme of St Teresa’s College has been chosen for the chief ministers special awards for innovation in public service (2013).
E-Jalakam is a model e-governance literacy project that aims to enhance public access to various online government services. The award will be presented on Monday.
Principal coordinator of the project Nirmala Padmanabhan — who also heads the college’s economics department — said that the programme was a social initiative to educate girls/women on how to access government websites.
“Our aim was to educate people who didn’t know how to navigate government sites. So, students prepared a step-by-step handbook to guide them. The handbook helps a person track file movement in any department. Similarly, people can check birth, death and property details, even power and water bills too. The citizen’s handbook called ‘Vivara Nidhi’ and can be downloaded from the IT Mission website or the e-Jalakam website,” she said. Padmanabhan gives credit to her students whose meticulous efforts resulted in such a simple, easy-to-use guide. The group has managed to reach out to 12,000 families in 86 schools over the past one year.
“You can keep the book next to the computer and finish the entire process screen by screen. In the first two phases of the project, the e-Jalakam team trained 17 civic groups covering 2,000 persons,” she said, adding that a decision was taken in the third phase to train high students in government and aided schools where IT@school project was being implemented.
“Student feedback resulted in another handbook called e-Mithram which serves their interests like applying for entrance exams, checking results, application for driving/duplicate licence etc,” she said. The group plans to print these handbooks with their prize money that amounts to Rs 2 lakh. “Everywhere we go, people ask for a hard copy. We will be selling them at a nominal price to make printing a sustainable operation,” she said.
source: http://www.timesofindia.indiatimes.com / The Times of India / Home> City> Kochi / TNN / October 27th, 2014
Deepa, producer of the ‘Sthree Dimension’. / The Hindu
Deepa, a veteran of the visual media, was baptised in the medium at a time when the communication space was opened up for private channels. Since joining Asianet in 1998, Deepa has worked before and behind the camera as reporter, producer and anchor. After leaving Asianet, this award-winning media person worked as an independent producer covering environmental and ecological issues and agriculture. Last year, she returned to take up an assignment with Asianet News. Producer of the recently launched ‘Sthree Dimension’, she has joined hands with her batch mate and friend, Vandana, to conceptualise a talk show for women and of women; a panel discussion that discusses mainstream issues and not gender-related issues alone. Deepa explains what it is all about…
The need for such a show
Women are so poorly represented in most discussions in the visual media. The mandatory women in such discussions are usually politicians. Moreover, women are generally invited to speak when the topic is related to gender or gender issues. Even then the women we see are the same talking heads in almost every channel. It is as if women, the ordinary women that we encounter every day, have no opinions at all on any mainstream issues. There are group discussions. However, the sheer number of participants prevent any serious discussion or analysis. It becomes a venue for arguments and counter arguments and there is hardly any in-depth analysis. We wanted to create a space where women could discuss events that were hogging the headlines. That is how the show was conceptualised. And there are just four guests on the show.
The anchor
Vandana is an experienced media person who thinks on her feet and has a way with words. She has a sense of humour and is able to get the panellists to open up and express their opinion. We work as a team, choosing the topics and guests who appear on the programme. She does the research on the subject and, like any good anchor, ensures that each person gets the opportunity to talk and that the discussions do not deviate from the topic.
Talking heads
When we began, there were doubts if we could get enough women to speak on topics related to politics, economics, health and so on. In addition, we wanted to avoid the faces that we have always seen on various panels. To our pleasant surprise, we were able to get plenty of articulate women from different walks of life. For instance, there was a research scholar who was able to give a very different perspective on the Jayalalithaa issue. She argued persuasively that the former Chief Minister was a symbol of empowerment for many women and that she should not be relegated to the margins of politics because she has been found guilty of corruption. Similarly, there were many instances when the women panellists impressed us with their clarity of thought and interesting takes on different issues. Instead of assuming that women could only talk about certain subjects, we were giving them the opportunity to air their views on current events and they were making the most of the opportunity.
Issues taken up for discussion
The programme is just four weeks old. During the period we covered topics ranging from education, politics, health and lifestyle. While one of the episodes discussed the stand taken by V.M. Sudheeran, president of the Kerala Pradesh Congress Committee, another analysed the Congress decision on Sashi Tharoor. Then there was an episode on the Jayalalithaa phenomenon, and also on the state of our schools. One feature that stood out was the language that was used by the panellists. It never went beyond the realms of decorum and even tricky issues were handled with sensitivity and sensibility.
The response
I feel it is too early to evaluate the programme. But the feedback from those who have seen it has been positive. Nowadays TRP ratings are important and I am optimistic that this show will make the mark.
‘Sthree Dinmension’ airs on Saturdays at 9.30 p.m. on Asianet News.
source: http://www.thehindu.com / The Hindu / Home> Features> Friday Review / by Saraswathy Nagarajan / Thiruvananthapuram – October 23rd, 2014
Six student entrepreneurs at the Startup Village earned global acclaim for their smartphone app designed to improve the skills of skateboarders. File photo
Kochi:
Six student entrepreneurs at the Startup Village here have earned global acclaim for their smartphone app designed to improve the skills of skateboarders. They have now been invited to Canada next month to interact with innovation experts, investors and mentors.
The startup Flip Technologies team’s product, “The Smart Riser” (Skateboard tracker), was ranked among the top five in the Next Big Idea Contest 2014 organised jointly by the Bombay Stock Exchange Institute, the Government of Ontario, Canada, IBM Global and Ryerson Futures Inc.
The Smart Riser is designed for skateboarders to enhance their ability to perform and analyse tricks whether one is an amateur or professional.
The device is connected to the truck of the skateboard and it tracks the dynamics of the board and the data is sent to a smart phone app via bluetooth. The app can determine the trick performed and help the skateboarders to improve their skills and acts like a personalized trainer.
The Smart Riser has also been rated as one of the most interesting products by Intel, which will provide its latest Edison board to the students for prototyping and for development support.
Jibin Jose, Abimanyu Nair, Jishnu Vijayan, Balagovind Girish, Rohith Samuel and Abraham Alexander of Flip Technologies will attend a two-week programme in Toronto’s Discovery District – a hotbed of innovation responsible for more than $1 billion of R&D annually.
“We are really excited about our visit to Canada, where we will have an opportunity to interact with the top people in the industry. We are focused on developing cutting edge IOT (Internet of things) devices and tracking devices for adventure sports,” said Jose, co-founder of Flip.
Startup Village chairman Sanjay Vijayakumar said the student entrepreneurs were “proof that if you have the idea, the enthusiasm and the drive, there is a world of opportunity awaiting you.”
While Jose and Nair had passed out from the Toc-H Institute of Science and Technology (TIST) near here, the other four students are pursuing different courses at the same college.
source: http://www.english.manoramaonline.com / On Manorama / Home> Sci-Tech / by Agencies / Wednesday – October 29th, 2014
