Daily Archives: November 25, 2014

GKSF: Unique Bid to Promote Straw Art

Arts,Culture & Entertainment

Kollam :

In a bid to promote straw art, the artists of Kerala State Institute of Design will design 14 showpieces and will display them at the Grand Kerala Shopping Festival (GKSF) scheduled to begin next month. The showpieces will be of historical and tourism icons of the 14 districts.

“The work on these showpieces will commence on December 1 and is expected to be completed by January 10. Each piece will be four feet long and 2.5 feet wide. They will be made by around 100 artists based at Anchalumoodu here who will be guided by 14 master craftsmen,” said K M Anil Muhammed, director, GKSF.

The major icons to be depicted are, Sree Padmanabhaswamy Temple of Thiruvananthapuram, the 13 Arch Bridge at Aryankavu of Kollam, Padayani of Pathanamthitta, Nehru Trophy boat race of Alappuzha, arch dam of Idukki, a scene from Thekkady for Kottayam, the Cochin Shipyard from Ernakulam, Thrissur Pooram, paddy fields of Palakkad, Duffmuttu of Malappuram, Kalaripayattu of Kannur, for Kozhikode will be an image of M T Vasudevan Nair, Edakkal caves for Wayanad and the Maliq Dinar mosque for Kasargod.

The organisers said that the artists engaged in the work would be presented with certificates and a bonus and added that once the showpieces were displayed they would be auctioned.

The money gained this way will be used for a social cause, most preferably for palliative care initiatives in the district, said Anil Mohammad.

source: http://www.newindianexpress.com / The New Indian Express / Home> States> Kerala / by Express News Service / November 24th, 2014

Passion for creative patterns

Arts,Culture & Entertainment, Education
B.S. Karthik’s intricate geometric designs create the illusion of depth. / Photo: special arrangement / The Hindu
B.S. Karthik’s intricate geometric designs create the illusion of depth. / Photo: special arrangement / The Hindu

There are a few rolls of chart-paper kept carefully wrapped in old newspapers in a locked cupboard in one of the classrooms at the Sree Chitra Poor Home Lower Primary School. On three of them are intricate geometric designs, so flawless that they create the illusion of depth and the impression of whorls and arcs when there are only straight lines. They were drawn by a nine-year-old.

The fact that a young child has drawn such complex patterns may not be remarkable in itself. Every year, at the School Science Mathematics Social Science and IT Fair, there are entries for the ‘geometric pattern’ competition that look professional. But, as with the State School arts fete, where the more privileged participants are able to spend a lot on training, costumes, and equipment, the Mathematics Fair too is populated by many such trained candidates.

This is why the achievements of children from the Sree Chitra Poor Home are significant and celebrated by staff and students alike. B.S Karthik, the artist behind the three patterns that are treasured at the school, qualified for the district-level Mathematics Fair and was awarded an ‘A’ grade in the competition recently. He won first place in the Thiruvananthapuram North sub-district contest.

“It took me two days to get these designs right myself. I showed it to him once, and he got it right in the first attempt,” said N. Reeja, one of the teachers. There are no art teachers at this school, where 32 children of the Poor Home are taught. Karthik retraced the steps he followed to draw the designs with only a ruler, pencil, and sketch pen. The competition allows only three hours for three patterns and so there is very little room for error, especially when it comes to filling in the right blocks with colour, said Ms. Reeja. If one angle or a line is out of place even by a fraction, the picture is spoilt. The 9-year-old’s strength lies in the ability to block out all distractions and devote absolute focus to his work.

source: http://www.thehindu.com / The Hindu / Home> News> Cities> Thiruvananthapuram / by Kaavya Pradeep Kumar / November 21st, 2014

Village commemorates 41 Wagon Tragedy victims on anniversary day

Arts,Culture & Entertainment, Historical Links, Pre-Independence, Records, All, World Opinion

Malappuram :

On the occasion of observing 93rd anniversary of Wagon Tragedy, the darkest chapter of Malabar rebellion during British period on Thursday, a village near Tirur commemorates 40 people hailing from the village, who were killed in the tragedy.

A total of 70 among the 90 odd Mappila rebels who were taken in an air-tight goods wagon from Tirur to Podanur were killed on November 20, 1921. The prisoners were taken into custody when the rebellion was in peak and almost 80 detained rebels were despatched in freight wagon from Tirur to Podanur in Tamilnadu. During the journey about 60 of the rebels suffocated to death in wagon.

It is believed that among the 41 persons from Kuruvambalam who were victims of the tragedy, majority were bachelors who left behind no progeny. “Even the historians and local people were not much aware of the role of the Kruvambalam people in the incident till couple of years ago. According to the elders in the village the youngsters here had played a major role in the struggle against the British during the rebellion and more studies have to be conducted to shed light on the contribution of tragedy victims”, said Salim Kuruvambalam, Malappuram district panachayat member, who took initiative for setting up a memorial for the Wagon Tragedy victims at Kuruvamabalam. The district panchayat president Zuhara Mampad will inaugurate the comemmoration programmes in the village.Historians will also attend the programme.

Talking about role of Kuruvambalam persons in the tragedy, the historian KKN Kurupp said that government should conduct a comprehensive study on the victims of Wagon tragedy and other related incidents of Malabar rebellion. ” As there was no such study held so far the state government should initiate action to start a detailed historical and cultural study on the various incidents during the rebellion period. We are going to observe 100th anniversaty of the rebellion in 2021. But still we have no clear data or official document regarding the incidents and the details of the persons who were killed in Wagon tragedy”, he pointed out.

The historian and scholar M Gangadharan has recently opined that the Wagon tragedy was not a cruellest act of the British oppression during the Malabar rebellion, as about 200 Mappila youngsters pulled out of their house and they were killed infront of their family in October of the same year.

source: http://www.timesofindia.indiatimes.com / The Times of India / Home> City> Kochi / by T. P. Nijeesh, TNN /  November 20th, 2014