Monthly Archives: October 2018
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Malayalam poet MN Paloor passes away
The body was kept for the public to pay homage at his house and Town Hall and the cremation was held with state honours at the crematorium on Mavoor Road.
Kozhikode :
Poet MN Paloor, 86, passed away at his residence at Kovoor here. Paloor aka Paloor Madhavan Namboodhiri was born on June 22, 1932, at Parakkadavu in Ernakulam and was a former staff of Indian Airlines.
His poem Ushas earned acclaim among critics and readers alike. Pedithondan, Kalikalam, Theerthayatra, Sugama Sangeetham, Kavitha Bhangiyum Abhangiyum and Pachamanga are his noted compilation of poems. He has also written an autobiography titled Kathayillathavante Katha.
Along with regular studies, he also pursued kathakali. In 1959, he got a job in Indian Airlines and retired in 1990 as a senior operator in ground support division. After retirement, he shifted his base to Kozhikode.
In 2013, he won the award from National Academy of Letters for his autobiography. Kalikalam won Kerala Sahitya Academy Award in 1983. Kerala Sahitya Academy had given an award for his contributions to Malayalam literature. In 2009, he won the Asan Memorial Award. He is survived by wife Santhakumari and daughter Savithri (LIC Housing Finance, Kozhikode).
The body was kept for the public to pay homage at his house and Town Hall. The cremation was held with state honours at the crematorium on Mavoor Road. District Collector U V Jose and ADM Roshni Narayan paid homages on behalf of the state government and the district administration respectively.
A trip to remember for space buffs
Nearly 4000 people, including school children, visited the Vikram Sarabhai Space Centre (VSSC) to watch the RH-200 series rocket rise into the leaden skies over Thiruvananthapuram.
Thiruvananthapuram :
Inclement weather did not prevent space buffs from lining up to watch a sounding rocket lift off from Thumba on Monday morning.
Nearly 4000 people, including school children, visited the Vikram Sarabhai Space Centre (VSSC) to watch the RH-200 series rocket rise into the leaden skies over Thiruvananthapuram, according to VSSC officials. The launch – the first of three planned this week – was part of an Open House at the VSSC held to mark the World Space Week (WSW) celebrations organised jointly by the ISRO units in the state capital.
VSSC frequently flies small rockets fitted with instruments to study the dynamics of the upper atmosphere. In fact, it was an American Nike-Apache sounding rocket that lifted off from Thumba in 1963 that marked the beginning of India’s space exploration programmes.
As part of WSW, VSSC is planning two more launches for the public this week – one each on Tuesday and Wednesday at 11.45 am. The RH 200 series of rockets can carry a ten kg payload and rise up to a height of 80 kms.
WSW is celebrated from October 4 to 10 every year to mark the anniversaries of two events that changed space exploration: the launch of Russia’s Sputnik 1, the first man-made satellite, on October 4, 1957, and the signing of the ‘Treaty on Principles Governing the Activities of States in the Exploration and Peaceful Uses of Outer Space, including the Moon and Other Celestial Bodies,’ on October 10, 1967. The public also received an opportunity to visit the space museum as part of the open house programme.
source: http://www.newindianexpress.com / The New Indian Express / Home> Cities> Thiruvananthapuram / by Express News Service / October 09th, 2018
Kerala girl Ashwathi Pillai shoulders Swedish badminton hopes
Ashwathi Pillai hailing from Thucklay, 50 kms from Thiruvananthapuram, is a Swedish national champion in badminton now represents the country at the Youth Olympics in Buenos Aires.
Kochi :
Think of sports stars from Sweden and names that come instantly to mind are Zlatan Ibrahimovic, Bjorn Borg or Freddie Ljungberg. Sports like football and ice hockey hold sway in the Nordic country, but an 18-year-old with roots in Kerala might change all that.
Ashwathi Pillai is the daughter of Vinod and Gayathri Pillai, hailing from a village near Thucklay, 50 kms from Thiruvananthapuram. Ashwathi, a Swedish senior national champion in badminton now represents the country at the Youth Olympics in Buenos Aires.
The bout will begin in the Argentine capital on Sunday and Ashwathi is in Group C with Malaysian third seed Goh Jin Wei, Indonesia’s Maharani Sekar Batari and Germany’s Ann-Kathrin Spoeri. The top player from each of the eight groups will qualify for the quarterfinals and vie for medals.
“It is going to be a great experience for me to compete in such a big tournament. The idea is to gain exposure against top players and use that in future,” said Ashwathi, who has clinched Sweden’s U-13, U-15 and U-17 national championships after moving to the country with her parents when she was nine.
She is trained by Indonesian coach Rio Wilanto and Anders Kristiansen of Denmark at the Taby Badminton Club near Stockholm and National Centre, Uppsala. She also trains at the Prakash Padukone Badminton Academy, Bengaluru, when she is in India on yearly vacation.
“My objective is to qualify for the 2020 Tokyo Olympics. I believe the Youth Olympics is a good step in that direction,” she said. “We have great facilities here and I train for around 25 hours a week. I get the services of strength trainers and nutritionists from the Swedish National Sports Federation, ” said Ashwathi who is funded by Sweden’s Olympic programme.
“I started badminton when I was seven. I used to watch my father play during evenings and would join him once in a while. I started enjoying the sport and didn’t want to stop training after moving to Sweden,” said Ashwathi, who will also compete in the World Junior Championships in Canada later this year.
Badminton, like tennis, was once a popular sport in Sweden. The first ever BWF World Championship was held in the Swedish city of Malmo in 1977. “Badminton and tennis suffered as new sports came in. In tennis, Sweden hasn’t had a big star since Borg and Stefan Edberg,” said Vinod, an engineer who works for an IT services company.
“Badminton is slowly gaining popularity and the association and the government are pumping in a lot of money to produce someone like PV Sindhu or Saina Nehwal, who can revitalise the sport,” said Vinod. Ashwathi could just be the one if she lives up to promise.
Achievements
2018-Became the youngest to win the Swedish senior national championship.
2017- Reached quarterfinals of Bulgaria Open.
2016-Won silver in singles at Polish Junior International Championship.
2015-Gold medallist in singles at Swiss Junior Open.
2015-Became Swedish national champion in U-15 category
adwaidh@newindianexpress.com
source: http://www.newindianexpress.com / The New Indian Express / Home> States> Kerala / by Advaidh Rajan / Express News Service / October 07th, 2018
The prodigy who made people sit up and take notice
After leaving conventional schooling, Jaiden is now doing his research in MIT
Fourteen-year-old Jaiden John exudes a certain maturity and wisdom belying his age.
While children of his age were toiling hard with classroom lessons, the tech-savvy lad was busy explaining a technology-driven platform at the exhibition centre set up as part of Cocon, an international cybersecurity conference here, far away from the comfort of his home at Meppadi in Wayanad district.
Teamed up with a much older Navaneeth K.T, who is doing his third-year computer science at Calicut University, Jaiden was not at all overwhelmed, in fact, far from it. He was patient even with those visitors who came up with doubts, which were an insult to his intelligence, but kept explaining the finer points of their product.
Having left conventional schooling in eighth standard, he has now enrolled with the National Institute of Open Schooling. When asked what prompted him to leave school, Jaden, who joined a course in web and application development at the age of eight, would only smile in response.
But there was much bigger surprise in the offing when it emerged that the youngster has been doing his research in machine learning-driven cancer detection with the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) for the past six months after his instructor in a technology course recommended him to the acclaimed university.
“Machine learning-driven cancer detection will be of great help in the rural areas of India where medical service is not easily accessible. Detecting the ailment with the help of a simple device can be revolutionary,” he said.
Jaiden and Navaneeth came together after they won an ideation contest conducted by the Kerala Cyberdome. They are now working on an artificial intelligence and machine learning-driven platform aimed at detecting helmetless two-wheeler drivers with the help of visuals.
source: http://www.thehindu.com / The Hindu / Home> News> Cities> Kochi / by M.P. Parveen / Kochi – October 06th, 2018