As a student and young professional, Saveen Hegde always assumed that oration is an inherent skill.
Saveen Hegde
Bengaluru :
As a student and young professional, Saveen Hegde always assumed that oration is an inherent skill. That was until he was one of two persons to represent India at the 86th Annual International Convention which was held at Vancouver, Canada in August 2017. Now on August 27, Hegde will address a gathering from around the world at the International Convention of Toastmasters’ first-ever Virtual Convention, where he will talk about design thinking in the 30-minute slot. The 34-year old is the only person to represent South Asia and South East Asia region (Singapore, Cambodia, Laos, Mynamar, Bhutan, Vietnam and Malaysia). While it was supposed to be held in Paris, the pandemic has led to the summit going virtual.
In his upcoming talk, Hegde, who has a certification from Harvard Business School, will delve into design thinking as a way of life. “It’s important to incorporate creativity and flexibility in the work space. Design thinking combines creative and critical thinking that allows information and ideas to be organised, decisions to be made and situations to be improved. It’s about looking at a business from an artist’s point of view,” says Hegde, who decided to start his own firm, unboxexperience.com, after leaving an automobile design company in 2011.
Around the same time, Hegde felt the need to hone his public speaking skills. “I then came across Toastmasters’ clubs and felt that a platform where feedback is provided would help,” he says. Hegde is also an improvisational theatre artiste who performed over 300 live performances in four countries for over 2,00,000 people. He is the founder of the Indian Improv Tribe and learned improv theatre at the UCB Theatre in New York, and has played a cameo in two South Indian movies – Humble Politician Nograj and the upcoming Ten.
While he previously feared acceptance, especially on a global forum, regular participation in Toastmasters’ programmes have rid those. “This summit is different from the World Championship, which I previously participated in. This is not a competition but instead it has 14 select educational speakers from across the world. Some years ago, a non-native English speaker won the World Championship, which broke the glass ceiling about how anyone can do it,” he says.
The takeaways from the session, Hedge points out, will be learning why design thinking is effective for leaders in today’s changing world; using it to develop an open, flexible mindset; and applying it to better organise ideas and improve situations.
source: http://www.newindianexpress.com / The New Indian Express / Home> Cities> Bengaluru / by Vidya Iyengar / Express News Service / August 19th, 2020
Every year, on Aug. 9, bibliophiles celebrate Book Lovers Day. It is an unofficial holiday that encourages people to pick up a book or two and spend the day reading. On the occasion of Book Lovers Day, Star of Mysore spoke to a resident of Mysuru who has been very passionate about books and this avid reader has turned her home into a mini library.
Writer and an voracious reader Anasuya S. Kempanahalli is a resident of T.K. Layout, Bogadi 2nd Stage. Her mini library in her house has over 5,000 books. Her book collection includes numerous authors on various subjects, most prominently on Sharana, Janapada and Kannada literature as well as about freedom fighters and achievers in various fields.
Popular Kannada writers are also her favourite picks with a huge collection of books at home including those of Kuvempu, Dejagow and CPK.
Speaking to Star of Mysore, Anasuya said that she started collecting books in 2005. She holds Ph.D and said that she never forgets to buy a book whenever she attends any book release function in city.
She has also been an editor of numerous books including Beda Valmiki Mahile: Srujanashilathe, Ranjita Chutukugalu, Kuvempu: Kelavu Notagalu, Dejagow-96, Kannada Janapada Kathegalalli Atte-Soseyaru, Kavyaradhane, Dejagow Avara Ittichina Kathegalu, Maharshi Valmiki Divya Darshana (Part-1), Nudi Pushpanjali, Badukina Deevige, Maharshi Valmiki Divya Darshana (Part-2), Kannadiyalli Kadamba and Chutuku Sahitya – Ondu Sameekshe.
A recipient of numerous awards, Anasuya has also acted in a shot film, ‘Amma.’ She has worked as a Kannada and Political Science lecturer in Mahajana FGC and Karnataka State Open University and is currently working as a non-teaching faculty in Sri Jayachamarajendra College of Engineering.
Collecting books and reading is my favourite hobby. Books are our best friends. I have gifted hundreds of books to my students. I always encourage them to keep their mobile phones away and instead pick up a book to read, says Anasuya S. Kempanahalli, Bibliophile and writer.
source: http://www.starofmysore.com / Star of Mysore / Home> News / August 17th, 2020
Through the years of its widening reach, aficionados as well as critics of social media platforms have agreed on one thing — that it has democratised expression of opinion.
Mayank Bidawatka (left) and Aprameya Radhakrisha
Bengaluru :
Through the years of its widening reach, aficionados as well as critics of social media platforms have agreed on one thing — that it has democratised expression of opinion. Turns out, there is a lot of scope left to expand the web to more users. This is what the founders of Koo App aim to do with their micro-blogging site, which enables Indians to express themselves in local languages. It was recently selected among the winners of the government’s Digital India AatmaNirbhar Bharat Innovate Challenge.
Koo, which was launched in March, is available in Hindi, Kannada, Tamil and Telugu. “Just 10 per cent of our country understands English. Over a billion speak one of the hundreds of languages and dialects that we have,” says Mayank Bidawatka, who co-founded the platform with Aprameya Radhakrishna. “Twitter largely caters to the English-speaking urban audiences.
Catering to regional audiences needs a fair amount of Indianisation of the product,” adds the city-based entrepreneur, who is upbeat about being one of the 24 winners from 7,000 entries. The innovation challenge was held to identify the best Indian apps in eight categories that are already being used by citizens and can become world-class platforms. Koo shared the second spot in the social networking category with the writing app, YourQuote, while short video app Chingari stood first.
The idea for Koo struck the founders after they came up with Vokal, an expert-based knowledge-sharing platform in Indian languages. “There was no microblog for regional Indian language speakers,” says Bidawatka, a graduate from Asian Institute of Management, Manila, and a former banker. They made the product in some months and first test-marketed it in micro-geographies. So far, Koo has had about eight lakh downloads, and the founders hope to cross 1 million by August-end.
The app has various features like a keyboard that auto-transliterates the English script to the target Indian language. Its people feed shows the top creators, and users can view who visited their profile. Creators can ‘koo’ through 400 characters of text or 1-minute audio or video. “All instructions are in Indian languages,” says Bidawatka, revealing that while he uses the platform in Hindi, Radhakrishna ‘koos’ mostly in Kannada.
“Koo already has Union Ministers Ravi Shankar Prasad and Mansukh Mandaviya, Karnataka Deputy Chief Minister Ashwath Narayan, and celebrities like Anil Kumble, Javagal Srinath, Sadhguru, Ashutosh Rana and Ashish Vidyarthi using it.
They have seen more traction on Koo because of the use of an Indian language,” says Bidawatka, who hopes that Prime Minister Narendra Modi will join soon too. “There are very few platforms that prominent Indian personalities can use,” he adds. “They’d love to use Koo because it helps connect the best of India with the rest of India.”
source: http://www.newindianexpress.com / The New Indian Express / Home> Cities> Bengaluru / by Pallavi Srivatsava / Express News Service / August 13th, 2020
Her popularity as a Doctor was so much, some patients even named their daughters ‘Indra’
When Sam Cherian called me on Saturday morning and gave the news of Dr. Mrs. Indra Amla’s demise, I rushed to their house and paid my last respects to her. In the afternoon when I was sitting at home I remembered some of the events over four decades of association.
Dr. Indra Amla was always seen by us in CFTRI campus during 1972 (when I was a student) as a serious Doctor who spoke less and would go to her work at Cheluvamba Hospital and return for lunch and again go back to work in the evening in a Herald car, I think.
As a Doctor by profession, she was very busy as one could see. Her popularity as a Doctor was so much, I know some patients who have even named their daughters Indra in reverence to Dr. Indra Amla.
Over a period of time when I came back from the USA, Dr. Amla and family too had returned from USA after her stint at the World Bank. I was working as a Scientist at CFTRI and I saw her involved more with some of the Projects on Proteins and Nutrition at CFTRI and other Hospitals of Mysore, in spite of her busy schedule with the local Hospitals — especially pertaining to Nutrition and Paediatrics.
Many people at CFTRI came to know her more at that time. After I took over as Director, she used to bring us new thoughts with JSS Hospital involvement where she was working and after her retirement from Government service.
Her interest in the subject of ‘under-nutrition’ became more and more intense. We made a draft of a project towards that and sent it to the Government. But, like it happens to Governments, it did not move forward fast enough which frustrated Dr. Amla who once mentioned to me “How much does it cost? I will take care of the expenditure and let us move ahead.” It was a small project. That showed her commitment to children and women and to help them somehow. In the end, the project did not take off but Dr. Indra Amla’s passion to serve women and children did not die.
Over the years we used to visit Dr. Amla’s residence on Contour Road, Gokulam and later in Hinkal. She was an excellent host and conversationalist. And her conversations inevitably always led to something to do with service to society.
She had another side too — her love for animals, especially her two dogs Boney and Mint. After retirement the family settled in their own home near Hinkal in a small coconut grove. But the dogs were still attached to the CFTRI campus and would land up at the campus making their way from far off Hinkal. Dr. Amla, who would visit the campus for half-a-day would then meet the dogs on campus and indulge them in a sort of conversation, as if to know how their day went. She would then drive them back home, like a mother picking up her children after school !
Dr. Indra Amla was a committed worker not only during service but even after retirement. I feel with the passing of Dr. Indra Amla, the iconic era of exceptional women doctors who stood for a cause in Mysuru, has come to an end.
May her soul Rest in Peace.
source: http://www.starofmysore.com / Star of Mysore / Home> Feature Articles / by Dr. V. Prakash, Former Director of CFTRI and Distinguished Scientist of CFTRI / August 03rd, 2020
The United States dropped an uranium atomic bomb on the city of Hiroshima on 6th August 1945. Nearly a lakh of civilians died instantly or were severely injured. Another plutonium atomic bomb was detonated over the city of Nagasaki on 9th August 1945 with a similar devastating effect. This resulted in Japan’s announcement of an unconditional surrender to the US Forces, on 15th August 1945. The supreme commander of the allied forces, Gen. Douglas MacArthur, received the formal instrument of surrender on 2nd September 1945 on the US naval ship Missouri, and he continued as the military administrator of Japan. The General arrested all the main decision-makers like the Prime Minister, Chief of Military and a number of others and imprisoned them. One of the main accused was General Hideki Tojo, Prime Minister of Japan (1941-44).
The US and the allied powers were keen to punish the top decision-makers in the Government and the military who started the war. They called them the war criminals. They constituted the International War Tribunal for the Far East, on the lines of the Nuremberg Trials of Germany. The Tribunal had eleven Judges drawn all over the Western world and British Commonwealth. The Judges came from England, France, New Zealand, United States, Philippines, India etc. Popularly known as the “Tokyo Trials”, the trials started on 14th May 1946 and lasted for two-and- a-half years. The final judgement was delivered in November 1948. The defendants included former Prime Ministers, Foreign Ministers and prominent military Generals who were involved in the decision- making to wage and continue the war.
The Tokyo War Trials were long and went on for more than two years. The trials had 816 sessions, more than 4,000 witnesses and 48,412 pages of transcripts. The sentences were pronounced in November 1948. Slowly each of the Judges pronounced the defendants to be guilty. The 11th Judge thundered “NOT GUILTY” and stunned ten other brother Judges and the whole Courtroom. The man who gave the dissent and exonerated all the accused was “Justice Radhabinod Pal” from India.
Justice Pal was born in a small village in present day Bangladesh and educated in Calcutta. He worked as a Professor of Law, retired as a Judge of Calcutta High Court and later was appointed as the Vice-Chancellor of Calcutta University. He was known for his legal erudition and expertise in international law. He was nominated as a Judge on the Tokyo War Tribunal by the then British Government of India in 1946. Justice Pal wrote a lengthy dissenting judgement of 1,250 pages. It seems that Jurist Pal rarely went out of his hotel room in Tokyo and personally typed his lone lengthy dissenting judgement. He felt that the trials themselves were illegal. He opined that like the European countries who had Colonies, Japan too was entitled to acquire its own Colonies. He pointed out that Japan cannot be tried for crimes against humanity. He felt that the large devastation and deaths inflicted by the American atom bombs were as much, if not greater, crime against humanity.
He gave a number of arguments terming the Tokyo War Trials as irregular and illegal. Justice Pal’s dissenting opinion was severely criticised all over the western countries. Pal’s view was “aggressive war was reasonable because it is about National Sovereignty”. He pointed out that the Western countries acquired their Colonies by brutal wars and hence did not have a moral right to stand in judgement. He was of the opinion that conquerors should not pass judgement on the conquered and the Tokyo trials were more of a victor’s revenge. In his judgement, Pal was very severe towards Japan too, but his criticism of the US was very serious.
The War Tribunal and the Western Governments did not like the dissenting opinion of Justice Pal and decided not to publish his 1,250-page-long judgement. Japan signed a Peace Treaty with the United States in 1952, and the military administration of Gen. Douglas MacArthur ended, and Japan was once again a sovereign free nation. Soon afterwards the Japanese Government published the 1,250-page-long dissenting judgement of Justice Pal.
Pal’s opinion that Japan was not legally culpable, was accepted and hailed by a large section and particularly the upper classes of the country. The Japanese society appreciated the courage and passion of Justice Pal. It is said thus Justice Pal’s opinion highly mitigated the shame and remorse felt by the Japanese people and particularly the ruling elite.
A group photo of the Judges of the Tokyo War Trials.
After the Tokyo Trials, Pal was elected to the UN International Law Commission, where he served illustriously from 1952 to 1966. Japan felt very grateful to Justice Pal. The Emperor bestowed on him the nation’s highest honour “Order of the Sacred Treasure” in 1966. He was invited twice more to Japan for lectures. The Government of India honoured him with the title “Padma Vibhushan.” After his death, the Japanese Government erected a memorial for Justice Pal in “YASUKUNI SHRINE”, which is a memorial for the National and War Heroes of Japan. When Prime Minister Abe visited India, he went to Calcutta to meet the son and family members of late Justice Pal.
For his dissenting judgement exonerating Japan, Jurist Pal was highly criticised and vilified all over the Western world. But Justice Pal had the courage of conviction to go against the opinion of all the ten of his fellow Judges and the wishes of the allied powers of the United Kingdom, United States and Russia. This Indian Judge showed exemplary courage in telling the world that in a war, there is no ‘good side’. Justice Radhabinod Pal is almost forgotten in India but remains a greatly admired and adored hero in Japan.
source: http://www.starofmysore.com / Star of Mysore / Home> Feature Articles / by Dr.C.D. Sreenivasa Murthy /August 03rd, 2020
TS Raghavendra Prasad, founder, StepOne, said that this is an effective method to prevent overburdening of our healthcare workers.
Mysuru :
StepOne, a Bengaluru-based Startup has announced a 24×7 national COVID Telemed Helpline. The helpline will provide services related to COVID, non-COVID and mental health issues.
Citizens can call the helpline number 9745697456 anytime and get a call back from a healthcare expert in a few minutes to understand the needs of the caller. After the caller explains the symptoms, if required, a doctor would be put through to guide them further.
TS Raghavendra Prasad, founder, StepOne, said that this is an effective method to prevent overburdening of our healthcare workers. “We aim at serving people with their COVID, non-COVID and Mental Health query. Through a collective effort of 4000+ verified doctors, technologists, entrepreneurs and operators, we aspire to reach every nook and corner of the country and extend our support to the ones in need.”
“One can call on our helpline numbers which will provide with options to choose their symptoms, followed by a call with registered healthcare expert to confirm the findings. On the basis of these, our experts make recommendations to the individual as well as the government. So far, our volunteer doctors have been able to identify over 40,000 high-risk COVID-19 suspects and also managed to prevent about 3.2 lakh people from getting infected and we wish to continue our efforts in this direction,” he added.
“StepOne is an empanelled partner for telemedicine consultations on Aarogya Setu Mitr, an ancillary service on the Aaroya Setu app that enables free teleconsultation for those with COVID19-like symptoms. We are committed to providing high-quality healthcare to all communities in the long run and we see ourselves as a charitable online hospital which will ensure healthcare access to all regardless of their financial or social status,” said Raghavendra Prasad.
StepOne has also come up with a web-based tele-screening both that interacts with citizens who wish to share their symptoms and passes the information to a doctor based on the symptoms. It has also come up with a mental health helpline providing counselling to citizens for expressing their issues for appropriate resolutions.
For the next phase of expanding its services, StepOne plans to launch a mobile app for citizens of the country to share their symptoms with a doctor remotely for e-consultation and free of charge.
source: http://www.newindianexpress.com / The New Indian Express / Home> Business / by K Rathna / Express News Services / August 12th, 2020
The State government has decided to establish the Kannada Classical Language Study Centre on a 10-acre plot at the foot of Chamundi Hills in Mysuru.
A decision to this effect was taken at a meeting convened by Kannada and Culture Minister C.T. Ravi in Bengaluru on Friday.
The proposed land belongs to Mysore university, states an official release.
Mr. Ravi directed the authorities to initiate measures to ensure that the centre began work within one month. He warned that the government would not hesitate to initiate action against officials who delay the work.
source: http://www.thehindu.com / The Hindu / Home> Karnataka / by Special Correspondent / Bengaluru – August 07th, 2020
On display: Exhibits at Museum Malgudi in Shivamogga district.
Indian Railways develops ‘Museum Malgudi’
Passengers alighting at the Arasalu Railway Station in Shivamogga district can savour a slice of the imaginary town of Malgudi, created by writer R.K. Narayan, as depicted in the popular TV serial Malgudi Days.
Indian Railways has developed a museum on the station premises as some of the episodes of the Doordarshan TV serial, directed by the late Shankar Nag, were shot at Arasalu.
The ‘Museum Malgudi’ initiative features photographs and artworks associated with the serial and was inaugurated virtually by Minister of State for Railways Suresh Angadi on Saturday. The museum was incorporated into the renovation plan for Arasalu’s old railway station building as a tribute to the makers of the popular TV serial and the novelist, according to Aparna Garg, Divisional Railway Manager, Mysuru Division.
The old building stood on the metre gauge track and was abandoned after gauge conversion was carried out. Subsequently, it was developed as a museum at a cost of nearly ₹25 lakh. One of the sculptors and artists associated with recreating Malgudi at Arasalu during the shooting of the serial, John Devaraj, was roped in for development of the museum.
There are various scenes from the serial sketched on the walls, apart from portraits of R.K. Narayan and that of the character Swami played by Master Manjunath among the exhibits. A narrow gauge coach stabled at the station has been converted to a tea shop and named ‘Malgudi Chai’.
source: http://www.thehindu.com / The Hindu / Home> News> States> Karnataka / by Special Correspondent / Mysuru – August 08th, 2020
