The west wind smelled of betrayal and greater agonies. Kunjappan, who rowed the canoe, is used to this smell. For the last 65 years, he has rowed the boat across the river to the ‘other’ world. Under the endless sky, Perumbalam and its natives have remained in isolation.
Nothing much has changed in this island in Alappuzha over the last 65 years. Even as the state heads for yet another polls, there is no hope to bring in development for the 12,000-odd residents of Perumbalam.
A visit to the island exposes the pathetic state-of-affairs. There are no roads. And except for private autos there is no public transport system. The 20-year-old government hospital is in a rundown condition, and the government-run school is almost closed down. Police stations do not exist here. Power supply often shuts down completely, and the shortage of drinking water supply is a perennial issue. Six ferry and two jankars connect the residents with Poothotta in Ernakulam and Panavally panchayat in Alappuzha. “Out of this, two ferry services and one jankar are not operational,” said K R Somanathan, the president of Perumbalam Boat Passengers’ Association. Around 6,000 people depend on these services daily. The stone-laying ceremony held in 2009 to construct a new bridge linking the island Poothotta is almost forgotten. “People are no longer interested in the bridge. They only hope to get the ferries and jankar back in service after repairs,” added Somanathan.
People working in the special economic zone, IT and construction sectors are the main commuters from Perumbalam. In all probability, the present woes are likely to continue for the islanders even after the elections.
source: http://www.timesofindia.indiatimes.com / The Times of India / News Home> City> Kochi / TNN / May 12th, 2016
For Bobby Antony who retails spice powders and mixes, the business is a result of a dedicated search for authentic flavours
It began with coriander, a spice whose distinct taste Bobby Antony had relished as a child. Once she began running her kitchen and buying packets of spice off the shelf, she missed the nostalgic taste of her aunt’s flavoured curries. “I could never find that taste of coriander in my curries,” she says with a smile sitting at Bobby’s Spice Tree, a condiments boutique she opened recently at Justice Krishna Iyer Road in Panampilly Nagar. Bobby’s venture has come at the end of three years after she began making her own concoctions and spice mixtures.
In search of that haunting taste she began visiting farmers and procuring whole spices and processing it manually — washing, drying, and pounding. Soon she was flooded with requests from “friends and cousins” to provide them clean and fresh spices. “It was by default that the volumes increased and I began thinking of business,” she says at the growth of her venture.
Today, Bobby has a whole range of spice powders and mixes that she produces and retails.
Her dogged search for the taste of real spices takes her through different interesting situations. Like a case where a cousin after having sambar at a friend’s wedding in Alappuzha called to tell about its delectable flavour. The sambar mix was made by the friend’s mother-in-law. Bobby sourced authentic proportions from her and created the spice powder, which she retails. The meat masala mix, an all purpose one that can be used with kadala, veg korma and even biriyani, is an exclusive recipe of her aunt Rajamma John.
In hindsight, Bobby narrates a little story from her childhood, which could be the reason she moved into business. “I was always drawn to the world of export and when my father got an offer to set up his dry cleaning unit in West Asia, I wished to go there and run it. But my father was disapproving of a girl venturing out in business. I felt so down at this,” she says adding that today the scene has completely changed. “I am talking to bhaiyyas in North India, procuring whole spices and sending the powdered form there. My husband has been a pillar of support. How much the times have changed for women,” she says.
It was the desire to grow in business that saw Bobby join courses on food processing, packaging and learning the nitty-gritty involved. She began contacting wholesalers in Guntur for large volumes. Soon the five kilos of spice that she made for home consumption grew to 500 kilos for retail. As business demands increased, Bobby took a mill on lease in Thykoodam and a small packaging unit near by. The work shifted from home to the mill. Moving ahead she introduced many new masalas mixes like Goan vindaloo mix, Chettinad curry powder, Tandoori and other North Indian masalas, Coorg pandi curry mix and such. She even introduced door delivery to city clients. Her gift boxes have Indian chai masala, vanilla cardamom tea and vanilla sugar.
Her husband suggested the name of her enterprise and helped her retail. Today she supplies spices to many city hotels.
Many teachers of St. Teresa’s Convent and St. Antony’s school are her regular customers, just as a few clients from Thrissur, where the spices are couriered to. Her clients from West Asia pick spices in large volumes. “Kochi is not a city for me. It’s a feeling, as they say about the city. I should contribute to it and I do so by providing unadulterated spices,” she says.
source: http://www.thehindu.com / The Hindu / Home> Features> MetroPlus> Food / by Priyadershini S / Kochi – May 12th, 2016
Everyone expects that an athlete would have zeroed in on his favourite event by the time he turns 18. But for 17-year-old Sreeshankar M, it was only a few months ago that he realised he was as good at running as he was at long jumps.
Let’s fast forward to Monday. The athlete’s on the podium after setting a new meet record in 100m race in the 6th Olympian Suresh Babu memorial Kerala State Youth Athletics Championship here. And the icing on the cake was that the youngster repeated the same feat in long jump too.
“It was after a long gap that he turned out for 100m race, in fact it is for the first time since the under-12 competitions,” said his father S Murali, who doubles up as his coach. Sreeshankar has sports running through his veins with father Murali, a silver medalist in triple jump at the 1987 South Asian Games, and mother K S Bijimol, an Asian medalist in 800m.
Murali revealed it was through pure chance that he found out his son is also a very good runner. “I recorded his times during sprint training for long jump and surprisingly the speed was excellent. That was when it dawned on me,” said the Southern Railways employee. The youngster’s performance was not that good at the State Youth Meet compared to the Federation Cup Junior Athletics Meet, which was held last week in Bengaluru, but Murali blames the tight schedule of the athletics calendar for it.
“He had to appear for 100m heats at 5 pm, participate in the long jump finals at 6 and then run the 100m finals just after 7 pm. He even had a strained hamstring to deal with,” Murali said. “People just look at the statistics and say his performance has dipped. But these factors also have to be considered,” he said.
Sreeshankar has the national youth meet, which is to take place later this month at the Calicut University Stadium, to look forward to. However, he is disappointed to have missed out on the world youth championship by a whisker. “He leapt 7.41m at Bengaluru, but missed out on the mark. We will come back stronger next year,” Murali said.
The Rising Star
Hailing from Palakkad, Sreeshankar is the son of former athletes S Murali and K S Bijimol
The 17-year-old broke two meet records on the opening day of the state youth athletics meet at Chandrasekharan Nair Stadium
Sreeshankar cleared 7.25 metres in long jump and timed 11.08 seconds in 100 metres race
source: http://www.newindianexpress.com / The New Indian Express / Home> Cities> Thiruvananthapuram / by Adwaidh Rajan / May 10th, 2016
E K Harikumar, Managing Director of SBT, receiving the award from Union Minister for MSME Kalraj Mishra at a function in New Delhi
Thiruvananthapuram :
The State Bank Of Travancore (SBT) bagged the National Excellence Award for MSME under loan category for the year 2016 at the conference on empowering MSMEs.
The function was organised by Federation of Industry Trade and Services (FITS).
The award was presented to SBT Managing Director E K Harikumar by Minister for MSME Kalraj Mishra at a function held in New Delhi.
SBT had also received several awards in the MSME sector during the past many years.
source: http://www.newindianexpress.com / The New Indian Express / Home> States> Kerala / by Express News Service / May 05th, 2016
Despite his prodigious intellect, Indian statesman V.K. Krishna Menon was no armchair intellectual and threw himself into local British politics and life. / The Hindu Photo Archives
“To describe Mr. Menon was like trying to contain the Niagra in a flask,” former civil servant P.N. Haksar famously said of him.
The life and multi-faceted contributions of the Indian statesman V.K. Krishna Menon (1896-1974), especially the less-known phase of his life in Britain, were remembered at a meeting organised by the V.K. Krishna Menon Research Institute at the Nehru Centre in London.
Speakers at the meeting included Cyriac Maprayil, Director of the Krishna Menon Institute; Virendar Paul, Deputy High Commissioner of India; Sir Peter Lloyd, former Minister of State for the Home office; and Chaya Ray, a lawyer who offered interesting reflections on Mr. Menon who she knew as a child in London.
“To describe Mr. Menon was like trying to contain the Niagra in a flask,” said Mr. Maprayil, quoting the former civil servant P.N. Haksar.
Prodigious intellect
Despite his prodigious intellect, Mr. Menon was no armchair intellectual and threw himself into local British politics and life. He an elected Councillor for Camden Town for four terms and was conferred the Freedom of the Borough for his public services.
As a member of the library committee, he wanted to see “as many libraries as pubs” in the area, Mr. Maprayil noted. His interest in promoting reading led him to set up Penguin paperbacks in 1935 with Sir Allen Lane. For a time during the war, he even acted as an air raid warden for his area.
Indian League role
Better known and documented are his activities in the India League, which he founded in 1929 and which canvassed support in Britain for Indian independence.
His contacts were wide and influential and included Bertrand Russell, J.B.S. Haldane, Michael Foote, Aneurin Bevan, E.M.Forster and Marie Seton.
1962 war defeat ‘hard on him’
Sir Peter Lloyd noted how Mr. Menon was invariably “right, but at the wrong time.” India’s defeat in the Indo-China’s war was “hard on him”, Mr. Lloyd said, “not the kind of payback he was looking for from the Chinese.” But on non-alignment, “his timing was right,” as it made the two power blocks take note of newly independent nations, even as it gave the latter a “sense of autonomy as equals rather than as players with client status.”
source: http://www.thehindu.com / The Hindu / Home> News / by Parvathi Menon / London – May 04th, 2016
Dr Philip Augustine needs no introduction. For the people of Ernakulam, he was the man who put Koothattukulam Deva Matha Hospital on the map of world health services, when the gastroenterology department he set up there reported some of the rarest diseases in the world. Going forward, Dr Augustine helmed the campaigns to bring changes in the healthcare sector in the state. One of them was the setting up of the Lakeshore Hospital in Kochi in 2005, bringing together some of the brightest doctors in different fields.
Augustine has recently relinquished his post as the Director of Lakeshore Hospital and is all set enter a new phase of his career.
“I think I have reached a point in my life and career where I should focus on broadening my area of activity. As someone who has done a lot for the gastroenterology sector in Kerala, I wish to strengthen the field and inspire the younger generation of doctors to know more about it,” said the doctor.
He has launched Philip Augustine Associates, a firm set up to see his dream through. A subsidiary organization, Kochi Gastroentorology Group, has also been set up to bring together the knowledge of different branches of the field.
“I had three goals to fulfill in my career – setting up a good and world class healthcare facility, ensuring that top notch education facilities are made available for the medical students to learn and creating good research facilities for the advancement of the science. I have done a worthy share in the first two goals and now it is time to focus on the third,” he adds.
Augustine’s achievements
Helmed campaigns to bring changes in the healthcare sector in the state
Put Koothattukulam Deva Matha Hospital on the map of world health services, when the gastroenterology department he set up there reported some of the rarest diseases in the world
Set up Lakeshore Hospital in 2005
Dr Augustine also feels that the rampant corporatisation of healthcare might not bode well for the sector. Even while lauding the innovations corporate hospitals have brought about, he thinks hospitals run purely with a profit motive is not a good idea.
”I am not against corporate hospitals, but I wish there is more space for small and medium hospitals to thrive alongside. That will be good for the public and the healthcare sector in general,” he adds.
Recently, Dr Augustine decided to take up charge of running the PVS Hospital in Kochi and contribute to the gastroentorology department at the hospital, where he will be a consultant.
I think I have reached a point in my life and career where I should focus on broadening my area of activity. As someone who has done a lot for the gastroenterology sector in Kerala, I wish to strengthen the field and inspire the younger generation of doctors to know more about it
-Philip Augustine
source: http://www.thenewindianexpress.com / The New Indian Express / Home> Cities> Thiruvananthapuram / by Express Features / May 03rd, 2016
