Karnataka Beary Sahitya Academy chairman Rahim  Uchil, writer and film maker, is working towards giving wings to his dreams on making Beary language popular. Rahim, who produced Beary movie ‘Mami Marmol’ and acted in many Beary movies, including ‘Sahana’, ‘Nangala Kutumba’ and ‘Beary’, wants to introduce Beary as an optional language in schools. Another major project,  the academy  has taken up under his guidance is to publish a comprehensive dictionary of Beary – Kannada – Malayalam – English.

Rahim, who assumed charge of the academy on February 6, was assaulted by miscreants at his office at Attavar on March 15. However, the incident did not deter him from going ahead with his dream projects that aims at popularizing the language and literature. Excerpts:

What is the major task before the academy?

Getting land for the construction of a cultural centre for Beary language is the task. We were pursuing the issue and have met district in-charge and  higher education  minister CT Ravi on the issue. A site has been identified at Padil in the city. However, it requires approval from the Mangalore City Corporation council and standing committee there. We will strive to realize the dream of having a cultural centre for Beary language.

Is there any proposal to conduct research on history of Beary language, literature, culture and heritage?

We have urged the government to establish Beary Study Chair at Mangalore University. Research can be carried out on history of Beary language through the Chair. We will also meet university vice-chancellor Prof TC Shivashankara Murthy to discuss about the proposal in detail.

Will academy take initiatives to introduce Beary language in schools?

The academy has plans of introducing Beary language as an optional language. We are in the process of framing a curriculum in Kannada script.

What is the major project on anvil?
The academy will soon publish a Beary – Kannada – Malayalam – English dictionary. We have set up a committee to chalk out plans to prepare the dictionary. The work will commence once the proposal is approved by the government. A meeting of language experts will be convened to discuss about the preparation of the dictionary. We are expecting to complete the work by March next year.

What is your take on the attack on you?

I had undergone a lot of physical and mental pain because of that attack, but the incident did not deter me from returning to office. I do not harbour any grouse nor seek revenge on those who have attacked. It is up to the law of the land and God to decide.

source: http://www.timesofindia.indiatimes.com / Home> City> Mangalore / by Vinobha KT / November 25th, 2012

Always occupied:  Suryakanth Kanade surprises his family with a new hobby every now and then. /  Photo: Harini Shibaraya / The Hindu

From carpentry to photography, Suryakanth Kanade pursues an array of hobbies to keep himself engaged. A retired BEL employee and a long-time resident of Vidyaranyapura, Suryakanth has been surprising his family with a new hobby every now and then. Today, he might be engrossed in making the door of his cupboard, while tomorrow, he might be engaged in capturing the scenic beauty of Ooty with his camera. Sitting idle is one thing he can’t do.

In his childhood, Suryakanth took a keen interest in carpentry and one of the first things he made was a pen stand. Later, while studying engineering, carpentry was a part of his curriculum. After a hiatus he returned to the hobby, making doors and sections of cupboards at home. “I always had an inclination towards carpentry, and as a child I used to observe and practice. I felt instead of spending money on labour, I could make a few things and use the money saved to buy tools,” he says.

Taken with sewing

Then, he traded in his carpenter’s tools for a needle and thread; he even sewed shirts for his two sons and his father, but after four years, he couldn’t find the time for it. “I consulted books and practiced sewing at home. At BEL we got uniform material, so I used to stitch for myself, but it was very time consuming so I had stopped.” he said. Seeing her husband sewing, Usha Suryakanth couldn’t resist joining in. “I got curious and slowly my interest in sewing developed. Now, I stitch salwaars, saree falls, and a few other things,” she says.

One hobby that has been a constant over the years for Suryakanth is photography. From black and white to colour, his love for the camera has only increased since he began pursuing it. “I used to prepare the required chemicals and develop the pictures at home. I took photos of the 1980 solar eclipse from Hubli, and after retirement, I travel a lot to take pictures of different places such as Kanyakumari and Ooty. I am going to take up wildlife photography in the coming days,” he says. His list of hobbies, like his enthusiasm for learning new things, seems endless. Soon, he plans to make photography his profession.

At present, digital painting has caught Suryakanth’s fancy; he feels it is better than painting on canvas. “Paper and canvas take up a lot of space, and paints have become costlier. Digital painting makes things easier,” says this constant learner.

source: http://www.TheHindu.com / Home> News> Cities> Bangalore / by Aisiri Amin / November 21st, 2012

Mangalore:

The digital language lab software that is fuelling English communication skills in educational institutions in the coastal city has aided a move by the World Konkani Centre (WKC) in Shaktinagar here to start a Konkani language laboratory.
WKC under the aegis of Konkani Language and Cultural Foundation has taken up the project under ‘Vision TVM’ propounded by TV Mohandas Pai, chairman, Manipal Global Education.
The Orell Digital Language Lab (ODLL), a professionally engineered, comprehensive, and end-user friendly language learning software tool has been developed by Kochi-based Orell Technosystems (India) Pvt Ltd.
The laboratory with 30 computers using this software saw a trial demonstration on Tuesday for a test of its efficacy with invitees from a cross section of Konkani speaking communities in attendance at WKC.
Gurudath Bantwalkar, assistant director, World Institute of Konkani Language who has taken keen interest in setting up the laboratory told TOI that the software has been dubbed as a super efficient double-edged solution both for the tutor and scholar. “We will now have to leverage the strengths that the software provides and customise it to come up with Konkani language learning modules,” he said admitting that the task in a challenging one.
The centre has planned a workshop featuring Konkani language experts who can help the task of creating corpora of text and speech for the language within next two to three weeks. The challenge also lies in creating corpora for various scripts of Konkani as well as its dialects.
“We intend to make a start by creating corpora for Gowd Saraswath Brahmin and Catholic Christian Konkani dialect and Devanagari and Kannada script as well,” he said.
Aneesh K Murali, area manager, Orell said ODLL serves as platform mainly for teaching English language skills. Text and video files that are professionally recorded can be incorporated to build up teaching modules for any language and the software allows users to customise it to meet their requirements. With plans to dedicate the laboratory for community use shortly, the Centre will hold training sessions for trainers who will teach the trainees in future.

source: http://www.articles.timesofindia.indiatimes.com / Home> Cityu> Mangalore / TNN / November 21st, 2012

These are the days where countries with honest and intelligent rulers are quick to capitalise on their God-given and history created tourist destinations. Even small countries like Seychelles, Maldives, Mauritius and Bhutan, so also many in other parts of the world have more per capita income, GDP and foreign exchange reserve considering their small size compared to many bigger countries like India. It is indeed sad that India, with so many wondrous historical ruins, monuments and scenic nature with the very Himalayas standing tall, is very poor in exploiting the ever increasing tourist business.

To come to the point, I am impelled to write on the subject after listening to the laments of an artist, a well known painter, who had just returned from a visit to Belur and Halebidu, a four hours journey from Mysore.

Belur was the capital of the Hoysala empire near Hassan in Karnataka. The Belur Chennakeshava temple complex embellished with sculptures and carvings of female dancers and scenes from epics and puranas was built by Shantaladevi, herself a danseuse par excellence and queen of the king Vishnuvardhana. The work on the temple was started in 1117 BC and completed later on by Vishnuvardhana’s grandson Veeraballala II, taking some 103 years. The renowned sculptor of the period Jakanachari was credited with the carving of most of the sculptures. There are the sculptures of many celestial beauties from puranas, epics and mythology. According to my friend, the upkeep of the temple complex has always been poor and presently it has worsened.

However, the bad news is from Halebidu, which is 16 kms from Belur. Its earlier name was Dwarasamudra and was the capital of the Hoysala empire and the temple complex has Hoysaleshwara as the main deity. The temple dates back to 1121 BC and is astounding for its wealth of sculptural details. The walls of the temple are covered with an endless variety of depiction from Hindu mythology which includes animals, birds, shilabalikas and dancing figures similar to those found in Belur Chennakeshava temple. It appears this temple took 86 years to complete. This temple is now being proposed as UNESCO World Heritage Site.

Unfortunately, such an important historical and cultural centre of great tourist interest is not looked after with care and concern by the Archeological Survey of India which is entrusted with this task. At the Halebidu temple, my friend saw 20 agricultural labourers perched on scaffoldings, busy cleaning up the sculptures of figurines carved on soap stone [see picture]. They were hired by the authorities on the basis of daily wages.

My friend was aghast looking at the way the scaffolding of wooden poles was constructed. The scaffoldings were held in place by tying them up in ropes around the carved figures of animals and mythological characters [see picture No. 4 above] which would definitely damage the sculptures and it was possible some of the carved images would either get chipped or broken. Such irresponsibility even in such a simple matter of providing scaffolding. These days, scaffoldings made of iron pipes or slotted angles are easily available. These iron scaffoldings stand on their own without being tied to the building, as they have done in the present case.

As regards the cleaning of those images, the authorities do not seem to have applied their mind regarding the liquid and the brush used for the purpose. The so called chemical cleaning seems to be just an excuse to justify billing, says my friend. He found ammonium soap oil was being used and he says the soap stone used in the sculpture will tend to melt gradually. Worse was, they were using a toothbrush for the purpose, which was bound to damage the delicate carvings on the wall.

He also noticed the guides touching the images on the wall while describing them to the tourists. Apparently, they were not qualified and trained guides. In the Sun Temple at Konark in Odisha, much care is taken in this regard to avoid the guides and tourists from touching the statues and figurines, forcing them to keep distance. Rope barricades are used.

According to my friend, the three important temples in this region, namely those at Belur, Halebidu and Somanathapura (which is near Mysore) are built using soap stone and therefore, they need to be well protected from vandalism cau-sed in the manner mentioned above by the tourists and the Department of Archaeology.

In these days of privatisation of many public sector units and public works, the government may well consider outsourcing experts to protect and maintain our ancient heritage structures and ruins to save them for posterity. Otherwise, if they are maintained the way they are maintained today, before long, these temples would become just archaeological sites of ruins and find their place only in our history books and coffee table books. The Government of Karnataka must wake up to the dangers these great heritage temples and other structures are facing and take steps to protect them and not allow civil contractors to destroy them in the name of cleaning, maintenance and restoration.

Tailpiece: My friend had travelled all the way to Halebidu temple to take pictures of the mighty behemoth of an elephant belonging to the lineage of the vehicle of Lord Vishnu, the famed Airavata, being ridden by a king Bhagadatta mentioned in Mahabharata and who fought on the side of Kauravas.

e-mail: kbg@starofmysore.com

source: http://www.StarofMysore.com / Home> Feature Articles / by K.B. Ganapathy / November 12th, 2012