Empowering through embroidery
Under the guidance of textile expert Pavithra Muddaya, 40 women have tried their hands at needlework on furnishings, which will be up for sale online
Bengaluru :
In February, when Pavithra Muddaya, founder of Vimor, identified marginalised women in Gadag who would be trained for three months, she hadn’t imagined that the works by “raw hands” would be up for sale six months down the line.
Forty women worked their magic of English hand embroidery on the dead stock bought from weavers. Cushion covers, runners, curtains, stoles, quilts, and masks will be up on the virtual pop-up on September 12. It is organised by make up artist Dipthi Aashok and image evangelist Bia Sandhu Taneja.
It all started with Muddaya wanting to help women affected by the flood in North Karnataka. One thing led to another and she finally zeroed-in on a marginalised group in Gadag.
In February, two experienced trainers, Robert and Kairul, started teaching these women, and despite the pandemic and subsequent lockdown, one of the trainers continued with the classes as and when it was possible.
“A second batch was also started during the lockdown, because we simply couldn’t say no to a group which was so enthusiastic to learn. Next, we plan to hold a similar session with the differently-abled,” says Muddaya, who has just been informed that the Department of Women and Child Development has given them a building, Strishakti Bhavan, where classes can be conducted.
While everyone has been asking about sarees, which Vimor has been known for considering that even former prime minister Indira Gandhi bought sarees here, Muddaya didn’t want to overwhelm women who were newly introduced to this art.
“The weavers, though, worked through the lockdown with whatever yarn they had. In fact, they now call them ‘corona sarees’,” she says with a laugh. But back to training women, Muddaya had hoped that it would create a ripple effect.
“In fact, our initial idea was to hold three-month training sessions where women would be trained for second month and the third would be a teacher training programme which would enable them to go to other villages and teach others,” she says.
Finding that the pandemic has put lot of people on the back foot, both financially and morally, Aashok points out that this is an attempt to step up the morale. “A part of the proceeds will be going to the Vimor Foundation, because we want to empower weavers through training, mentorship,and support,” she says, adding that the biggest challenge is curating this pop up, which will feature clothes and lifestyle products. They are doing it on Zoom, which is a first for the team.
source: http://www.newindianexpress.com / The New Indian Express / Home> Cities> Bengaluru / by Vidya Iyengar / Express News Service / August 24th, 2020
Three teachers from State to receive national award
It recognises their contribution to education
Three teachers from Karnataka have been selected to receive the prestigious President’s National Awards for Teachers 2020. In all, 47 teachers from schools across the country will receive the award instituted by the Union Ministry of Education.
From Karnataka, Chemmalar Shanmugam, headmistress, Kendriya Vidyalaya No. 2, AFS (East), Jalahalli, Bengaluru; Yakub S., teacher, Government High School Nada, Nada, Belthangady, Dakshina Kannada, and Surekha Jagannath, teacher, Government High School, Bandarwad, Afzalpur, Kalaburagi, are the recipients.
The award, instituted in 1958, is presented to recognise the unique contribution of teachers. The award would celebrate commitment and efforts of teachers in improving quality of school education and also enriching the lives of their students. Every year, the award is presented on September 5 that marks the birth anniversary of former president Dr. S. Radhakrishnan.
Selection process
This year, the Ministry’s Department of School Education and Literacy constituted a national level independent jury to select the recipients. The jury reviewed a list of 153 teachers as shortlisted by committees set up by States and Union Territories and also organisational selection committees through a videoconference.
The jury considered the applications and presentations made by all shortlisted teachers and after detailed deliberations, recommended names of 47 teachers. Ms. Chemmalar is the only teacher from Kendriya Vidyalaya Sanghatan to be selected for the award.
source: http://www.thehindu.com / The Hindu / Home> News> States> Karnataka / by Sudhindr A.B / Bengaluru – August 24th, 2020
NIT-K ranked fourth globally in Google Summer Code 2020
The National Institute of Technology – Karnataka (NIT-K), Surathkal, has been ranked fourth globally in the list of universities with the most accepted students for Google Summer Code (GSoC) – 2020.
The GSoC is a global programme organised by Google Open Source team with an aim to introduce students to open source software development. The students are paired with mentors from open source organisations to work on a programming-intensive project. This year, the programme is running from June – August 2020, the institute said in a release.
It said that 23 students from NITK got selected for GSoC 2020 in some of the best open source organisations across the world. A total of 1,198 students from 550 universities globally are participating in GSoC 2020.
Over the past three years, there has been a voluntary and organised effort led by Mohit P. Tahiliani, Assistant Professor, Department of Computer Science and Engineering, and interested students from various departments of NIT-K to structurally plan out open source activities in the institute. The first batch which was a part of the effort resulted in seven selections in GSoC and the number has increased in the past two years, thereby showing the growth of NITK in the field of open source contributions, the release said.
source: http://www.thehindu.com / The Hindu / Home> News> States> Karnataka / Mangaluru – August 21st, 2020
Kalaburagi teacher chosen for MHRD’s national award
A science teacher from the Government High School at Bandarwad village in Afzalpur taluk of Kalaburagi district has brought laurels to the district by bagging the national-level Best Teacher Award for this year.
Surekha Jagannath Dengi has been selected for the prestigious award constituted by the Ministry of Human Resources Development (MHRD).
Ms. Surekha, speaking to The Hindu on Sunday, said that a team of State Selection Committee and Organisation Selection Committee along with jury members shortlisted the teachers and held a videoconference on August 13. “The 10-minute interaction with the jury included a presentation of our contributions towards teaching methods besides publications, research papers, and teaching skills,” she added.
Ms. Surekha was conferred the taluk-level best teacher award in 2016 and district-level best teacher award in 2017.
source: http://www.thehindu.com / The Hindu / Home> News> States> Karnataka / by Staff Reporter / Kalaburagi – August 23rd, 2020
Karnataka’s Jude Felix, Aditi Ashok elated with elite honours
Former athletics coach from the state, Purushotham Rai will also receive the Dronacharya award in the life-time category.
Bengaluru :
Karnataka’s Jude Felix and Aditi Ashok are set to be conferred with the prestigious Dronacharya and the Arjuna Awards respectively on August 29, National Sports Day. The former has been awarded for his contribution as a hockey coach while the latter, who is India’s top woman golfer, has won international golf titles.
Former athletics coach from the state, Purushotham Rai will also receive the Dronacharya award in the life-time category. The 79-year-old trained various athletes, including Ashwini Nachappa, MK Asha and several others, who have done well at various levels.
Felix was India men’s senior team assistant coach when they won gold at the Asian Games and silver at the Commonwealth Games, both in 2014. He was India’s head coach for the men’s junior team from 2017 -19. He also runs the ‘Jude Felix Hockey Academy’ to promote the sport in Bengaluru for underprivileged kids.
“It is definitely a satisfying moment as it is the highest award for coaching. As a player, I won the Arjuna award and now when coaching, you want to reach the highest level. You always feel good when all the hard work over the last few years has been recognised. It is a good feeling. Such things are always going to motivate you,”said Felix, who had won the Arjuna Award in 1994.
Aditi is one among the 27 Arjuna awardees and the sole golf player on the list. The 22-year old was the first Indian to clinch a Ladies European Tour title when she won the 2016 Hero Women’s Indian Open and also featured at the Olympics in the same year.
“It’s immensely gratifying to be conferred with the Arjuna Award and I’d like to thank the Sports Ministry of India for this national honour. This recognition will definitely motivate me to work harder to excel at the highest level. Historically male golfers have won the award more often so it’s great to be a woman golfer getting this recognition and hopefully it will help grow women’s golf in India,” said Aditi, only golfer from country with LPGA Tour card.
source: http://www.indianexpress.com / The Indian Express / Home> Sport> Other / by Ashim Sunam / Express News Service / August 22nd, 2020
Short film in Betta Kuruba language to be screened at Wildscreen festival
It took about two years to make the film
‘Flying Elephants – A Mother’s Hope’, a short film narrated in Betta Kuruba tribal language, in the voice of a mother elephant, is part of the inaugural Official Selection Programme at the Wildscreen Film Festival 2020.
The film is supported by the Centre for Wildlife Studies and Saving Nature. A release said the film was picked as one of 18 short films from hundreds of submissions from more than 40 countries. The film took about two years to make and is six minutes long. It depicts how human interventions such as forest fragmentation and wildlife trade have disrupted the movement and lives of elephants, the release added.
“Flying Elephants, told through the eyes of a mother elephant, pits their glorious past against this century’s reality of survival in the Anthropocene, where elephant habitat is being destroyed at an alarming rate. With this film, it has been my mission to shed light on these sensitive, emotional, and socially intelligent creatures that rightfully deserve their natural world,” said Prakash Matada, the director of the film.
Aditi Rajagopal, the writer of the film, told The Hindu that documentaries based on India and Indian wildlife are often told through a western lens. “We wanted to bring out some of the wealth of ancient Indian storytelling through the film, but within the context of what is happening to our forests and its animals today. We used a scripted narrative style, told through the voice of a betta kuruba woman, because tribes in India are extremely under represented in art in the country, though they have some of the oldest and most beautiful traditions and still pass down their ancient wisdom through oral stories told to their children,” she added.
source: http://www.thehindu.com / The Hindu / Home> News> Cities> Bengaluru / by Staff Reporter / Bengaluru – August 12th, 2020
Civil Defence officer gets Gallantry Award
Dr P R S Chetan, additional chief officer, commanding Quick Response Team (QRT), Civil Defence and his team rescued hundreds of flood victims in the State last year.
Bengaluru :
Dr PRS Chetan, additional chief officer, commanding Quick Response Team (QRT), Civil Defence and his team rescued hundreds of flood victims in the State last year. These include 186 people stranded at the Hippie Islands along the Tungabhadra River.
Dr Chetan has been awarded with the President’s Civil Defence Gallantry Medal for saving several lives in 2019 in the Tungabhadra River Flood Rescue Operation. This is the first Gallantry Award to Civil Defence in the last 50 years.
Dr Chetan narrated to TNSE his experiences running rescue operations and his own near-death experience in the crocodile-infested river. “Around 200 people — mostly foreigners — were stranded at the Hippie Island in Virupapura Gadde. The only option was to either airlift or ferry them across the river to safety. We rescued 186 people and the rest were airlifted,” he said.
The rescue team had members from the Civil Defence (12) and the National Disaster Response Force (20). “Four of us were in a boat, which capsized. Two caught hold of a lifebuoy and floated to the shore, one caught hold of a tree and was airlifted by a helicopter. I was washed away and struggled to swim ashore for four-and-a-half hours.
Fortunately, I was wearing a life jacket, else I would have drowned within minutes. There were strong undercurrents. I couldn’t hear and my eyes started getting tired. I thought I would die when suddenly my legs got entangled in weeds. I got something to hold on to and managed to swim ashore. I blew the whistle, but no one heard it.
I was injured and my body was sore. I walked for 2km, when villagers spotted me. I was taken to the nearest hospital,” said Dr Chetan. Two days in the hospital and on August 14, 2019, he went back to work. “I faced death in those hours in the river. I would like to rescue as many people as I can. It’s my service to the country,” said Dr Chetan.
source: http://www.newindianexpress.com / The New Indian Express / Home> States> Karnataka / by Bala Chauhan / Express News Service / August 16th, 2020
Explore the past, present and future of plants
Science Gallery Bengaluru will hold its first digital exhibition from August 21 to 30
Science Gallery Bengaluru (SGB) will hold its first digital exhibition, ‘PHYTOPIA’, which will explore the past, present and future of plants, from August 21 to 30.
Science Gallery Bengaluru Mediators, a group of selected and trained young adults, will hold 60-minute sessions every day to engage in conversations with visitors based on the theme of the exhibits.
On Fridays and weekends, there will be talks and events by prominent scholars and artists such as on ‘Who feeds Bengaluru’ and ‘On documenting indigenous food culture’.
In addition, there will be workshops, and an opportunity to submit articles that look at plants critically and creatively.
“The United Nations generally has research-led years. For example, last year was the International Year of the Periodic Table. This year, it’s the International Year of Plant Health. Last year, we did our first pop-up exhibition called ELEMENTS. This year, we thought of plant health. We haven’t done it narrowly on plant health, but took that as a starting point to think about what is it that excites us about plants,” said Dr. Jahnavi Phalkey, founding director, SGB,
Stating that while the exhibition is open to everyone, she says the programming, including workshops, and masterclasses, is specifically targeted at young adults between the ages of 15 and 28.
The exhibition has been developed in partnership with the John Innes Centre, an independent, international centre of excellence in plant science and microbiology based in the UK. The programme partner is Bengaluru Sustainability Forum and Bangalore International Centre is the outreach partner. Chemical ecologist Shannon Olsson, ecologist Harini Nagendra and independent scholar Sita Reddy are the academic advisors to the exhibition.
As for the challenges of holding an exhibition online for the first time, Dr. Phalkey said, “We are an institution that was meant to produce physical exhibitions. It meant we had to retool ourselves and reimagine what our programming would look like. We want to provide a high quality experience but not necessarily limited to the 10 people who have high-tech devices. It was about being able to produce an interesting exhibition while trying to catch people’s attention. Because those who can, are already consuming so much online right now, from shopping to education. So, how do you create something that will draw them in? That, for us, is a challenge and a debate.”
Entry is free. Details at https://bit.ly/phytopia2020
source: http://www.thehindu.com / The Hindu / Home> News> Cities> Bengaluru / by Aparna Narain / August 19th, 2020
When Bengaluru shouted ‘Quit India’
The city has a long history of revolts and expressions of resentment against the British
Mysore Bank Square, August 17, 1942. For the ninth consecutive day, thousands of Bengalureans came out to protest peacefully in response to Gandhiji’s Quit India call. People surged and flowed along Avenue Road and slogans suffused with hope and anger rented the air: “Quit India!”, “Inquilab Zindabad!”
But that Monday, some protesters set fire to a post office at Aralepete; others broke into a police station and tried to attack the post office at Chickpet. When the police issued warnings, defiant protesters barricaded the road with carts and boulders and then hurled soda bottles at the policemen, while others threw stones from their rooftops.
The police opened fire, six people died and more than 30 were injured. Bengaluru has a long history of revolts and expressions of resentment against the British. Even in 1800, people were arrested for singing songs against the British and in praise of Tipu Sultan.
Attempted mutiny
Twenty-five years before the First War of Independence swept through India, there was an attempted mutiny in Bengaluru by soldiers who dreamt of overthrowing the British here and then inciting mutiny all over India; their plan was thwarted by a snitch.
From the late 1800s, like the rest of the country, Bengaluru too was gripped with nationalistic fervour. This was fanned by the activities of organisations such as the Vokkaligara Sangha, established in 1906, which did much to raise awareness and education in the community, and the Theosophical Society, which established a branch here in 1886.
Big stimulus
A big stimulus to the still-nascent freedom movement was the return of Mahatma Gandhi from South Africa in January 1915. His first visit to Bengaluru was in May 1915. His second visit in 1920 ushered in a movement for spinning khadi. Khadi sales were frequently held, as were other gatherings — to celebrate Gandhiji’s ending a fast, to mourn the passing of C.R. Das, or protest against a water tax. Such meetings usually began with Gandhians speaking about non-cooperation, Hindu-Muslim unity, against untouchability, and against alcohol.
Hundreds attended these gatherings which were held in the so-called Gandhi Maidan opposite Minto Hospital, Doddanna Hall, which was opposite Bengaluru Fort, and sometimes, even Tipu Palace. Many such meetings had an attendee whose job was to report on them to the Mysore administration: one such report by a spy in 1925 records the speeches made and then dutifully notes that khadi worth Re. 1 and 2 annas was sold.
Except for when he was here to recuperate from illness, Gandhiji’s visits had him criss-crossing the city, holding meetings at Mahila Seva Samaja, the RBANMs school and grounds, a home on Lalbagh Road, a shop at Commercial Street, and so on. Thousands thronged to listen to him speak passionately about non-violence and the evils of untouchability. A meeting in a house on Victoria Road, for example, drew 2,000 people, at National High School, 25,000 people. Many people who attended these meetings donated generously to the cause, sometimes even giving away their jewellery.
But not everyone was so moved: some people held meetings where they denounced Gandhiji’s anti-caste stand as “subversive of Hindu dharma”. The 1920s and 1930s also saw frequent student rallies, boycott of classes, and picketing of shops selling foreign cloth. In that pre-WhatsApp and social media era, when even telephones were uncommon, how did organisers get the word out about upcoming meetings? Enter the cheap flyer. Hundreds of these indispensable handbills were churned out at several small presses around the city and were then distributed door to door, in markets, and stuck on strategic lamp posts.
Turning point
A turning point in the freedom struggle in Bengaluru came in 1937 when K.F. Nariman, president of the Bombay Congress Committee, was invited to speak here. The Mysore government had banned him from addressing gatherings because of his earlier “incendiary” speeches. On October 24, at Banappa Park, as soon as Nariman came on to the stage to address a crowd comprising mainly students, he was arrested. The next day, when students gathered to protest his arrest, police opened fire on the unarmed protesters. One person was killed and 73 people were injured that day.
Little-known memorials at Banappa Park and at Mysore Bank Circle commemorate some of those who died in the 1937 and 1942 incidents.
(Meera Iyer is the author of ‘Discovering Bengaluru’ and the convenor of INTACH Bengaluru Chapter)
source: http://www.thehindu.com / The Hindu / Home> Opinion> Columns / by Meera Iyer / August 14th, 2020