Daily Archives: April 22, 2016

Students devise ways to conserve energy

ConserveEnergyKERALA22apr2016

Innovative ideas developed by students for energy conservation were on display at the Kerala State Student Energy Congress 2016.

Thirty-seven teams from various districts participated in the event organised as part of the ‘Smart Energy Programme’ of the Energy Management Centre (EMC) on the centre’s premises. Hundred-odd upper primary and high school students from all over the State attended the one-day congress held as part of the EMC’s energy conservation programme.

Aparna V.S. and Kavitha K.M., students of Holy Angels School, Thiruvananthapuram, came up with an idea of converting mechanical energy into electrical energy at a low cost.

They turned a bicycle into an exercise bike which can pump water and generate electricity. Arathy Ramesh and Sreekutty Udayakumar from the Aluva educational district bagged the first prize in high school section. Ayisha and Alsa Bin Shahul Hameed from Kozhikode got the first prize in upper primary section.

S. Somanath, Director, Liquid Propulsion System Centre, gave away the prizes at a function presided over by K.M. Dharesan Unnithan, Director of EMC.

source: http://www.thehindu.com / The Hindu / Home> News> Cities> Thiruvananthapuram / A Correspondent / Thiruvananthapuram – April 21st, 2016

Choice School bags Architizer A+ Award

Kochi:

The Choice School, Thiruvalla, has been selected for the Architizer A+ Award for the best designed educational project in the world. The programme focused on promoting and celebrating the year’s best architecture and products.

An online voting was also conducted as part of the selection process. The design has received more than four lakh votes in the public voting.”We are extremely honoured to receive the award. The complete design was carried out jointly by a Kochi-based Kumar group and a New York-based architecture firm,” said Jose Thomas, president, Choice School. tnn

“The building is a four-storeyed structure that can accommodate 3,000 students. The work is expected to be completed by June this year,” said Jose.

The award will be presented on May 12 during a week-long event to be held in New York.

source: http://www.timesofindia.indiatimes.com / The Times of India / News Home> City> Kochi / TNN / April 21st, 2016

From Calicut to China, a 700-year-old tale

The chinese connection: Joe Thomas' documentary traces the history of a Malayali family that migrated to China 700 years ago. (TOI photo)
The chinese connection: Joe Thomas’ documentary traces the history of a Malayali family that migrated to China 700 years ago. (TOI photo)

Kochi :

During the time when the Yuan dynasty was ruling China, a Malayali family from Kozhikode crossed the seas and settled in the Land of the Red Dragon. Over 700 years later another Malayali, Joe Thomas Karackattu, who was doing research on the Indo-China relations during the pre-colonial times and the historical and cultural exchanges that took place at the time, stumbled upon this story. He decided to trace the descendants of this family. ‘Guli’s Children’, a documentary written, shot and edited by Joe Thomas, tells the story of this search. The film was premiered at a function held at Malabar Christian College in Kozhikode on Wednesday.

Thomas, an assistant professor at IIT Madras, was trying to bring out the cultural and historical linkages by locating physical artefacts that connect Kerala with China. “It was during the research on the subject that I came across accounts of this family that moved from Calicut to China during the Yuan dynasty, which got me intrigued. So, along with the physical artefacts that show the Chinese connection, I decided to a search for this family,” he said. Guli in Chinese refers to Calicut and hence the title Guli’s Children.

“Several people had varying accounts on where they were based. So the real challenge was to locate them. The research took me nearly 20,000 kilometres across India and China–from the east to the north to the south of China. The story would be told through an academic paper as well, but the visual dimension to such a search gave me the motivation to capture it on film in the first instance,” said Thomas.

“The thrill of meeting the descendants of a Malayali who had moved to China over 700 years ago was incomparable. I hope that the documentary will open up the way we look at Indo-Chinese relations,”he added. “Cultural interaction with Southern India and China, peaked between the 12th and 15th century. There are historical accounts that refer to connections with Kerala, chiefly Calicut, Cochin and Quilon in Chinese works like Yingyai Shenglan by Ma Huan, Xingcha Shenglan by Fei Xin and Ming Shilu,” he said. “I feel we are stuck in a time-warp or a paradigm warp, when it comes to looking at China. That paradigmatic optic needs to change.”
Thomas, who was born and brought up in Delhi, studied at St Stephen’s College and JNU and was a Fox Fellow at Yale University.

source: http://www.timesofindia.indiatimes.com / The Times of India / News Home> City> Kochi / by Rochelle Dsouza / TNN / April 21st, 2016