Daily Archives: March 27, 2015

Advocate of law, for 140 years

Arts,Culture & Entertainment, Education, Records, All
Chief Minister Oommen Chandy, Speaker N. Sakthan, and CPI(M) State unit secretary Kodiyeri Balakrishnan at the 140th anniversary celebrations of the Government Law College, Thiruvananthapuram, on Wednesday.— Photo: S. Mahinsha
Chief Minister Oommen Chandy, Speaker N. Sakthan, and CPI(M) State unit secretary Kodiyeri Balakrishnan at the 140th anniversary celebrations of the Government Law College, Thiruvananthapuram, on Wednesday.— Photo: S. Mahinsha

At the first alumni meet of law college, promises pour in

There was pride in their eyes and awe in their voices as the ‘who-is-who’ in Kerala politics spoke about the institution that has mentored thousands in the legal profession and helped hundreds to build careers in politics and social activism.

The chief among them rued the fact that he had not studied there, but was all praise for its alumni. The reference is to Chief Minister Oommen Chandy, who studied at the Government Law College, Ernakulam, and not where he stood on Wednesday evening, at the Government Law College, Thiruvananthapuram, which was celebrating its 140th anniversary and the first alumni meet on record.

Mr. Chandy promised the gathering that his government would do everything possible to lift the college to national status. A firmer offer came from an eminent alumnus of the institution, N.R. Madhava Menon, who promised to hand over to the college his collection of books and also do his bit to raise a corpus fund to develop the institution. He would also be available to guide the research programmes at the college, Prof. Menon said.

Present to celebrate the occasion were Home Minister Ramesh Chennithala, Transport and Forest Minister Thiruvanchoor Radhakrishnan, Information Minister K.C. Joseph, CPI(M) State secretary Kodiyeri Balakrishnan, and former Union Minister of State Kodikkunnil Suresh and Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) leader Ajith Joy. Almost everyone agreed on the need to raise the college to the status of a centre of excellence and, perhaps, a university in the none-too-distant future.

source: http://www.thehindu.com / The Hindu / Home> News> Cities> Thiruvananthapuram / by Special Correspondent / Thiruvananthapuram – March 26th, 2015

A treasure trove of books to Kichangani from Kochi

Arts,Culture & Entertainment, Education, Inspiration/ Positive News and Features, Uncategorized

Kochi :

In less than a month Panchatantra, Aesop’s fables, Gulliver’s Travels and Oliver Twist will reach the remote village of Kichangani in Tanzania, thanks to Somy Solomon and her social media friends. Hartal or no hartal, her team of 50 is busy categorizing the 7,000 odd books -collected from all over India and abroad- at SH School of Communication on Saturday. Around 50 volunteers from the college and Cusat turned up to categorize the books before shipping. The sorting works will be completed by Sunday and the books will be shipped before March 22.

Kichangani Library, which received social media attention since October 2014, is not just a library, but a learning centre for the villagers. “Such a learning centre came to my mind after I reached Tanzania in 2012 after my marriage. Education is a luxury that most people cannot afford. And for the same reason, they are exploited and most kids go for domestic work at a young age. I feel a learning centre would be the first step to help them,” said Solomon, mother of two-year old Pachu. The envisaged centre will also have a reading room, a video room and computer training centre.

While the space for the centre was provided by the Kichangani village chairman, books were donated by people across India, Singapore, Sharjah, Dubai, Germany and the US. The cost of packing and shipment was sponsored by an IT firm based in Kochi and the transportation is being done with the help of a non-resident Malayali based in Tanzania.

The contributions were books and CDs in English and Swahili, including language and literature, general knowledge, biographies and diaries, dictionaries, atlases, geography and history texts, art books etc.

The learning centre, which Solomon hopes to extend to other villages, will have a drinking water facility. “Water scarcity is one of the major problems here. We hope to set up a drinking water facility at the centre for which the people have to pay as per the law of the land. The money collected will be used to run the library,” she said.

Solomon has begun a non-profit organization named ‘Ubuntu Reads’ to get government recognition for the library project. Twelve kids from the village will be given training to run the library. “This is to ensure that even if I leave the place, the movement will still go on,” she said.

source: http://www.timesofindia.indiatimes.com / The Times of India / Home> City> Kochi / TNN / March 15th, 2015