State Budget on March 19
Finance minister K.M.Mani will present his 10th finance budget on March 19. More »
Railway Budget 2012
Railway minister Dinesh Trivedi presented railway budget in the Parliament. More »
Joy Alukkas Launched Joy Jets
Joy Alukkas launched chartered luxury aviation in Kerala. More »
Temple Art Forms of Kerala
Kerala one of the beautiful place in the world is also famous for various temple arts. More »
Chocolate Cake
How to prepare Choclate Cake ? More »
Tourist Places in Kerala
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Waterfall Destinations in Kerala
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Category Archives: General
MAMTA READY FOR MARRIAGE
Another celebrity marriage on the cards..! And this time it’s Actor-Singer Mamta Mohandas who is going to enter wedlock next year. This news might break a few hearts. Mamta is in a hurry completing all her assignments to which she is committed. Mamta had earlier revealed that her parents were on the lookout for an ideal match. Looks like they have finally hunted down her Mr. Right. He is an entrepreneur in Bahrain and both are childhood friends. Mamta says that theirs is not a filmy romance and it’s actually kind of an arranged one. She also added that their affection had been built through years and her future hubby and she have a strong bond between them.
Mamta has been a part of several hits in many Malayalam movies and currently is on top of her acting career. Mamta made her debut in a Malayalam movie named ‘Mayoogham’. Though the movie was not a notable one, young Mamta did get noticed and was acclaimed by the critics for her performance. Her major hits include ‘Anwar’ and ‘Big B’ both directed by Amal Neerad. Lined up for release is ‘Nayika’ directed by Jayaraj, in which she stars with veteran actor Sarada. She has also sung in the film which will be released this Onam. Besides, there is KK Rajeev’s ‘Njaanum Ente Familyum’ and Shyama Prasad’s ‘Nuna’ in which she plays major roles. Her next film in Tamil is ‘Thadayira Thakka.’
But this youngster was not just made for the acting; she is a talented singer as well. She has lent her voice for many songs and many of them proved to be big hits. She first sang in a telugu movie named ‘Rakhi’ in Devi Sri Prasad’s composition. She got her her first Filmfare award for this song. She then sang some songs in Tamil, both featuring her alongside Benny Dayal. Her first song in Malayalam was in the movie Anwar in which was paired alongside Prithviraj. The song also featured Prithviraj as a singer and the song was a super hit in the charts.
The Bahrain-born and raised Indian actress survived cancer and has undergone surgery last year. She was first diagnosed with the condition two years ago and underwent intense therapy as part of the treatment. She says that she has gone through the toughest and is happy to be a successful actress. Mamta believes that marriage is an integral part of life and that she is not willing to waste her youth on the glamor world. She also believes she had a great film career and she has proved herself as an actress and now is willing to settle down in life and start a family.
Here’s wishing you good luck, Mamta!
VAYALA VASUDEVAN PILLAI WALKS INTO MEMORIES
Dr. Vayala Vasudevan Pillai, who enriched the field of drama with his invaluable contributions passed away yesterday. He was suffering from prolonged illness for the past few months. He was 67 years old and was undergoing the treatment for cancer at a private hospital in Kochi.
He earlier worked as the director of the school of drama at Thrissur and was a disciple of G. Sankara Pillai. He contributed to the field as a playwright, scholar and director. He is credited with the title of starting a new spatial concept in modern theatres. Taking into account his great contributions to the Malayalam theatre, he was awarded with the Kendra Sangeet Nataka Akademi Award in 2009.
Pillai did his masters in English literature and a PhD in theatre. Then he headed to complete a post graduate diploma in modern theatre from the university of Rome in 1981. He also attended a training in Japanese theatre in 1996 at Meji university in Tokyo.
He is the author of several well known plays like Agni, Varavelpu, Tulasivanam, Oru Pakshikkunjinte Maranam and Swarnakokkukal. The book, Malayala Nataka Sahitya Charitram is also the work from his pen tip. The book tells the history of Malayalam Theatre.
The first play of vayala Vasudevan Pillai was published in 1975 and it was named Viswa Darshanam. Vasudevan Pillai also floated a theatre troupe at the time while he was in Trivandrum. It was an avant grade troupe and staged a good number of plays. The name of the troupe was Suvarnarekha. The well known film star Jagadish, Sreelata and Alex Kadavil are some of the prominent personalities who worked in the troupe. The directorial attempt of Dr. Vayala Vasudevan Pillai has given around 40 plays to the Malayalam Theatre. These include the plays by Shakesphere, Sophocles, Ibsen, Tagore and Bhasa.
He worked with the scool of drama of Thrissur which is under Calicut University for more than two decades. Pillai retired as the director of the institution in 2005. His professional carrer also carries the name plate of the Professor of English at Mar Ivanios College in Trivandrum.
He is one of the experts on the artistic life and plays of the famous Irish playwright J M Synge. The Italian government respected him with the theatre’s fellowship in 1980- 81. Rangasabha and Yatra are also among the famous works of Dr. Pillai. The cremation is to be held in Cheruthuruthy today.
ONAM: THE SEASON OF OFFERS
As the month of September is about to arrive, we, all the Keralites are ready for another season of joy, another season that reminds of a prosperous history we had, another season that urge the sparks of the nostalgia of our childhood.. Yes we are ready to welcome another Onam season to our homes. There is hardly any other festival that has got as much importance as Onam has in our lives. Every native of Kerala irrespective of being abroad or home waits keenly for the occasion.
For those abroad it is the time to return home and be in their land and for those who are here, the season becomes an occasion of reunion of the family. In every aspect it is our festival.
The importance of Onam is not just limited to our emotions or memories. It is also a season that contributes much to our economy. Every small and big names of the market too are eagerly waiting for its arrival. They are ready with many attractive and interesting offers with their products. It is a trend that started a long time before by the companies to include the customers too in their celebrations. And as in the case of the last year, every brand has came up with their most popular packages.
The list starts right from the BSNL in the government sector to mobile companies including the recently launched ones.
BSNL has announced HAPPY ONAM with their unique schemes on free 2G mobile prepaid connections with unlimited free calls and free GPRS browsing to its customers in Kerala.
Aircel which stepped into the Kerala market a few years ago also introduced a one year scheme with a unique and attractive one year scheme with a single recharge over unlimited pocket internet, sms, local calling and Gulf calling pack.
The big names in the textile and fabric industries have also announced the unveiling of their new stocks with the coming Onam season.
The Parthas textiles is running a ‘Be Special’ lucky dip contest operational from August 28th to September 4 and 8 special customers were gifted LCD television sets and satellite connections for free.
The Emmanuel silks announced a discount up to 10% cash back on every purchases foreseeing the coming season of celebration.
Videocon group also announced their special promotional scratch and win offer which promises to gift a Nano car, LCD tv, washing machine etc for the oncoming season.
The most popular news papers too have modified their editions or even doubled it to join the crowd. In short everyone, every industry, every field and everything here is impatiently awaiting the arrival of the prosperous Onam season.
We too wish you the advance warm and joyful wishes of the arriving ONAM season.
RP MALL AT KOZHIKODE
The most prominent business man Ravi Pillai under whom the largest number of Indians work in gulf countries is extending his business empire to Kerala also. He is aiming to launch his new business projects with Malabar as its centre. The RP mall that started a few days before in Kozhikode is one of the hi tech malls in Kerala. This shopping mall is composed of 6 multiplexes.
It was just before a few weeks that the Kadavu resort at Kozhikode was taken over by Ravi Pillai. This take over was worth Rs.200 crores. He had also took over the famous Blue Diamond theatre in Kozhikode recently. He reformed it with the name Diamond mall and gave it to the Jos Alukkas group for lease. It will also be inaugurated soon.
The first shopping mall in Kerala was launched at Kozhikode. It was named as Focus mall. And now the mall culture will once again be alive with the launch of the RP mall. Another project of Ravi Pillai is expected to start at Kollam which is the birth place of him. It is the first seven star hotel in Kerala that he is giving his motherland as his gift. The hotel which which is named is named as ‘The Ravi’s Hotel’ will be inaugurated on the 19th of this month.
Ravi Pillai became popular in the business field of Kerala with his first big investment in the Malabar group. He is one of the most prominent finance sources of Malabar Gold. More than 50,000 employers work under him in the various business enterprises of Ravi Pillai centered at Bahrain. Amoung them 30,000 are Indians.
He has business enterprises in various sectors including construction, petroleum, real estate and tourism. Over the years, Mr Pillai has built up a relationship of trust with the various governments in the Gulf region because of the huge success of his company. As a result, workers who get jobs with his company don’t have too much of a problem getting their visas and work permits.
“We employ people from all over India in various kinds of jobs. From engineers, doctors and safety personnel to welders, fabricators and fitters, we need people with all kinds and levels of skills,” Mr Pillai says. And though he’s lived in West Asia for 30 years, Mr Pillai is still a citizen of India. “There are over 50 lakh Indians working in the Gulf countries and they send back foreign remittances worth billions of dollars. I think that’s something to be very proud of”, he says.
Besides providing jobs for thousands of Indians in the Gulf, Mr Pillay in engaged in philanthropic activities in India and has set up the Upasana Hospital and Research Centre in Kerala, which gives free treatment to the poor. He received the Pravasi Bharatiya Samman award from the Government of India, and was the first Bahrain-based businessman to win the Padma Shri award from the Government of India.
ANNA HAZARE: A STORY OF ANTI- CORUPTION WAR
Kisan Baburao Hazare who is known amoung the masses as Anna Hazare, was born on 15 June 1937. His native place, Bhinagar village in Ahmednagar district of Maharashtra state was a small undeveloped place where everyone struggled with their lives to move on. He too belonged to a labourer family.
Anna Hazare started his career in the Indian army. During those 15 years which he worked as a soldier, Hazare was selected to serve the country in different states. He was posted at the border when Pakistan attacked India in the Year 1965. It was in 1978 that he took voluntary retirement from the army and returned to his native place, Ralegan Siddhi, a drought prone area in the Amedanagar district. They received a poor annual rainfall of 400 to 500 mm.
And it was the misery and trouble of his people to fetch water that led Anna to his first reformation activity. He was inspired by the water shed management project implemented by Vilasrao Salunke at Saswad and he decided to make use of it in his village also.
The result- the groundwater level increased considerably and Ralegan Siddhi became a role model which improved from a worst village to an ideal village.
It is said that once he was tired of living and he couldn’t find a purpose to move on. It was then he accidently came across a book written by Swami Vivekananda. Anna Hazare was deeply influenced by the views and ideologies of Swami Vivekananda and he found out that the purpose of his life was to serve others, to serve his fellow beings who suffer, to make them feel better and improve their lives. This decision was the turning point in his life. He started a social reformation movement called Bhrashtachar Virodhi Jan Andolan (BVJA) and began his war against corruption. He chose hunger strike as his weapon and protested against corrupt officers at every level of administration. Irrespective of the parties he forced every government to take action against the corrupt ministers and officials.
His indefinite hunger strikes brought to light many stories of corruption, and the guilty were punished. Many times he was imprisoned but was released due to enormous public protests. It was he who made the right To Information act (RTI) into reality.
And now at the age of 73, Anna Hazare has again came forward for the rights of his people with the Jan Lok Pal bill. The government didn’t accept the bill proposed by him and became ready to pass the bill with a few changes. But he didn’t retreat from his needs. And we are witnessing another anti- corruption war from this one man army.
Shafi Parambil, An E- MLA In Kerala
Shafi Parambil has acquired the title of E- MLA by computerizing his services and activities. Software is used for both developmental and office purposes. And the public can have access to the software from his website, www.shafiparambil.com.
A user module is provided for the public and through this user module, people can ask questions to him or file petitions. They can ask questions in the ‘ask MLA’ scheme and file petitions in the ‘petitions’ scheme. The public is also made aware of the everyday programs in the ’events’ scheme. After registration one will get the user name and password.
The software comprises of the management information system for the use of MLA himself, office management module for the use of office staff and the user module for the public. The software collects all the feedbacks from the people and those from the office, stores it in the computer and makes it available to the MLA through mobile phone simultaneously.
The complaints and applications are digitalized and information is transferred to MLA at the same time. This is done with the help of management information system. The problem of fund lapse can be avoided by keeping the track of the details about the project reports and the enhancements in developmental activities. The facility of e- mail and sms is made available to the public to easily keep up with the recent advancements.
The software facility is made available through AKSHAYA centers too. The software has been designed by the CYBROSIS TECHNOLOGIES.
THE FAMOUS NEHRU TROPHY BOAT RACE – TODAY
The famous and proud boat race of all Keralites, the Nehru trophy boat race is to start within a few hours. And representing Kottayam, three snake boats typically known as chundan are participating in the race.
The race had first started in 1952 in the honour of India’s first Prime Minister Dr. Jawaharlal Nehru when he visited Alappuzha. He inaugurated the race in which long snake boats having at least a 100 rowers took part in the competition. He was so much attracted by the love and respect that the people of the state and moreover by the excitement that flooded out of the rowers and the natives. He felt it so much at heart that it is said that he jumped onto the winning boat to congratulate the winners.
The reception at Alappuzha had so much influenced his heart that after returning to Delhi he send a small gift to the winners which later became the trophy of the boat race. It was a replica of the snake boat made in silver above a wooden abacus and was signed by himself. And above the signature there were his words which said “To the winner of the boat race, which is a unique feature of community life in Travancore – cochin.
The story of these snake boats comes from history, when the rajas of the Chempakasseri (Ambalappuzha), Kayamkulam, Thekkumkoor (Changanacherry) and Vadakkumkoor (Kottayam) in the old Travancore, frequently, crossed swords on the backwaters of Kuttanad. The Chempakasserry troops suffered heavy losses by the hands of the superior navy forces of their rivals. It soon occurred to the Chempakasserry Raja that the real defect was with the design of his war boats, which were sluggish.
He called all the boat architects in the land to his court and told them of his desire to have better and faster boats for the troops. After days of hard labour, Koduppunna Venkitanarayanan Asari, a well known boat architect in Chempakasserry, came up with a design which satisfied the raja’s requirements. It had speed, manoeuvrability and capacity to carry 100 able-bodied warriors on board and its eel-like construction was most ideal for launching an ambush since it could be easily kept concealed behind the overhanging bushes on the river banks. The Asari was generously rewarded and in the subsequent battles, in which the Chempakasseri Raja emerged victorious.
This was the birth of the snake boats in Alappuzha. Later the reign of Kings gave way to democracy and new warfare was adopted by the nations. And the snake boats remained here carrying the royal memories of a glorious past.
