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The Muse speaks from prison
Poems by ten people who were imprisoned during the Emergency.
The Emergency in 1975 has had many gruesome after-effects. But ‘Thadavara Kavithakal’ is one positive outcome of the times.
The anthology, the English translation of which is getting ready to be published soon under the title ‘Poems from the Prison’, consists of poems penned by ten people who had been imprisoned during the emergency for various reasons. It was their endless days in prison that unearthed the poets in most of them.
The anthology in Malayalam was first published in 1977, edited by Civic Chandran, one of the poets, and republished with extensive notes and memoirs in 2010. Some of the poems had been translated and used in various English anthologies over the time.
First time
This is for the first time an attempt was made to translate the anthology completely into English and published as one book.
Freshly translated by noted Malayalam poet K. Satchidanandan, with a foreword by Balachandran Chullikkad, the anthology carries 25 poems by ten poets, most of whom are still alive, while a few like Muhammed Ali and Udayabhanu have bid adieu to this world.
The remaining — M. Somanathan, V. K. Prabhakaran, M. M. Somasekharan, Das (Kuttikrishnan), C. K. Raghunath, Purushothaman, C. K. Abdul Azees and Civic Chandran –- are mostly still active as writers, theoreticians, editors and activists, having moved away from the Maoist ideology that had stirred them in the Seventies.
The poems are on diverse themes. ‘An evening note’ by P. Udayabhanu recalls the turbulent times when revolution was brewing across the country while V.K. Prabhakaran’s ‘The People of my village’ is about the unrest beneath the surface.
However, they are marked by certain recurring symbols such as storm and rain and the spirit of revolution.
source: http://www.thehindu.com / The Hindu / Home> News> Cities> Kozhikode / by Aabha Anoop / Kozhikode – November 04th, 2015
Kerala Center to honour six Malayalis
The U.S.-based Kerala Center will honour six Indian-American Malayalis for their outstanding achievements and service to society.
“Every year we invite nominations and the committee has to make a unanimous choice for a candidate in a category to be selected to receive the award and this year is no different from previous years in terms of their achievements,” said Kerala Center board member and trustee Thomas Abraham.
Four-member panel
The honourees were selected by a committee consisting of four members headed by Mr. Abraham. They will be honoured at the Center’s 23rd Annual Awards Banquet on November 7 at World’s Fair Marina in Flushing in New York City.
The honourees include Navin Manjooran, Global Director (Energy) for Siemens AG; Sasi K Pillay, Chief Information Officer, University Wisconsin System; Prem Soman, Director of Nuclear Cardiology and Associate Professor of Medicine and Clinical and Translation Science at the University of Pittsburgh Medical Center for Medicine.
Other honourees are George M. Kakkanatt, a former U.S. Air Force Captain and chief editor of Azchavattom Malayalam news weekly, Leela Maret, Scientist at New York City’s Environmental Protection for Community Service, and Captain Jophiel Philips, Judge Advocate General in the U.S. Air Force. — PTI
source: http://www.thehindu.com / The Hindu / Home> News> National> Kerala / November 04th, 2015
They called this deaf man an ‘idiot’ and look what he went on to build
Thiruvananthapuram :
The neighbourhood kids in Saji Thomas’s remote Idukki village used to call him ‘potten’ (idiot) and not just because, as children often cruelly do, he was born deaf and mute but because he was also constantly trying to piece together junk into something new.
The 45 year-old ‘potten’ has come a long way. Thomas designed and built a twin-seater ultralight aircraft on his own from used parts and recycled material which got him into the record books and will see him featured on Discovery Channel in a programme called HRX Superheroes beginning on Monday. The programme is anchored by Hrithik Roshan and showcases nine people who overcame physical disability to achieve their dreams.
His ultralight aircraft, called Saji X Air-S, has already done several successful flights at a private flight training academy owned by Thiruvananthapuram-based SKJ Nair, a (Rtd) Wing Commander. Thomas’s passion for planes was kindled when as a 15 year-old he saw a small aircraft spraying pesticides on nearby rubber plantations.
He mustered the courage to go and ‘talk’ to the pilots, one of whom gave the mute kid their Mumbai address. A few months later, Thomas ran away from home to Mumbai. Impressed by his enthusiasm, the pilots gave him some manuals on aviation to read up and put him on odd jobs.
Over the years, Thomas has had to undergo severe hardships to build the aircraft, even selling all five cents of land he owned. “First he could only construct the frame of an aircraft and the second one could not fly as an engine from a motor bike was used in it,” his wife Mariya told TOI.
After Thomas sold the second aircraft’s model to an engineering college, he bought an aircraft engine with that money and completed the work on Saji X Air-S last year. Thomas, whose name is mentioned in India Book of Records as the first differently abled person to build an aircraft, often worked as a rubber tapper, an electrician and band photographer to earn a living.
“It was when we lost all hope that support came from Nair who made arrangements for Thomas to test his aircraft and also helped him in flying the aircraft at Manimuthar in Tamil Nadu,” Mariya said.
Thomas is now seeking a licence from the Directorate General of Civil Aviation and plans to build a twin-engine aircraft. He is also seeking a job as an aeronautics mechanic and hopes that some reputed company recruits him.
source: http://www.timesofindia.indiatimes.com / The Times of India / National> City> Thiruvananthapuram / by Anasooya S, TNN / November 02nd, 2015
Designer Who Can and Enables
It was a heart-breaking moment for Joe Ikareth when his daughter Tilotama was born 10 years ago. Nerves that send signals from the spine to the shoulder, arms and hands were cut off, leaving her with limited mobility in her arms and a partially-paralysed right arm.
As Tilotama grew up, she proved to be an inspiration for her fashion designer father. Ikareth began to make clothes that she could wear easily. “I would design a dress with a larger arm area, and instead of a zip, I would use Velcro or a magnet,” says the 41-year-old.
Today, he is focused on making clothes for the physically challenged. He uses natural fabrics, like the Kerala handloom. “I plan to use material that will not get stained by liquid and will not need ironing,” he says.
Ikareth hopes to make the clothes economically viable for customers, but most of the 70 million physically challenged people in India are not well off. Hence, he will be tying up with NGOs and social service groups so that they can subsidise the garments. Clothes in the ‘Joe Ikareth’ label range from `2,750 to `9,500.
His differently-abled fashion line Move Ability Clothing is also gaining popularity in Europe. He was a finalist at the Danish Business Cup 2015, and in the top 25 at the NORDEN-Nordic Innovation Living Challenge at Copenhagen with his Danish partner Jeanette Kaeseler Mortensen. “Joe has exquisite technical skill and a strong creative competence,” says Mortensen.
Lakshmi Menon, a trustee of Kochi-based NGO Good Karma Foundation, calls Ikareth’s clothes “beautiful and elegant”. Mumbai-based marketing consultant Suranjana Ghosh Aikara, an above-knee amputee, says “clothes designed by him are functional and fashionable”. Her favourite is a pair of linen trousers. “It looks like a skirt, has a flexible waistband and is easy to wear,” she says. “Usually, there is wear and tear on clothes when you use a prosthetic leg. Jeans tear after wearing them about 15 times, but Joe has made two layers in the trousers, so it lasts longer.”
The designer wants “to help increase self-esteem and confidence of differently-abled people and change the way people perceive them,” he says. He is also designing uniforms for employees of hotels, hospitals and companies. For staffers of a new hospital in Kochi, Ikareth designed uniforms for nurses in colours that would be soothing for patients. “If you apply design and movement to a uniform, it becomes very interesting,” he says.
Ikareth graduated from the National Institute of Fashion Technology, New Delhi, in 1996. Thereafter, he worked with designer Suneet Varma for three years. “In the initial years, it used to revolve around the wedding season, with its kurtas, pyjamas and formal clothes,” he says. “Now it has become a huge business. A designer needs several assistants to make his creations and to meet deadlines.”
In 1999, Ikareth returned to his hometown Kottayam. He began getting orders right after he created his website joeikareth.com. The Cobblestone Gallery in Sussex, England, asked him to design clothes for plus-size people. Mohiniyattom danseuse Brigitte Chataignier of France, who has a dance studio in Shoranur in Kerala, asked him to make clothes for her troupe.
Ikareth has also worked with Kalaripayattu and Kathakali artistes. “I make dresses which are a balance between the traditional and modern,” he says.
source: http://www.newindianexpress.com / The New Indian Express / Home> Magazine / by Shevlin Sebastian / October 31st, 2015
Now, dialysis for canines too in Kollam
Jack, the Labrador, is the first dialysis patient in a government vet hospital in the State.
Jack, a seven-year-old ebony Labrador, has become the first canine patient to undergo dialysis at a government veterinary hospital in the State. The dog, diagnosed with acute kidney failure, underwent treatment on Thursday for about six hours.
Veterinary surgeon B. Aravind, who led the treatment, said the dog would have to be on treatment for two weeks. The owner, Dilip of Mundakkal in the city, took Jack to the District Veterinary Centre (DVC) after noticing that the animal was constantly vomiting and was very lethargic.
Dr. Aravind, who found that Jack was not responding to medicines, subjected the dog to a thorough check-up and diagnosed it with acute renal failure, probably caused by ingestion. The dialysis was carried out with machines installed by the district panchayat at the DVC.
The fee for the treatment on Thursday was Rs.5,000. On subsequent days, the fee will be less. The Kollam DVC is attached with a superspecialty veterinary centre constructed with funds provided by the panchayat. Dr. Aravind said that another canine patient bitten by a snake will also be given treatment at the DVC on Friday.
source: http://www.thehindu.com / The Hindu / Home> News> National / by Ignatius Pereira / Kollam – October 30th, 2015