The last rites of city-based pilot Rajiv Hoskote (30), who died in a helicopter crash in Khonsa district of Arunachal Pradesh, was held at Harischandra Ghat at the foot of Chamundi Hill here this morning. Rajiv’s mortal remains were brought to Mysuru yesterday night at 11.35 pm in an ambulance from Bengaluru and was kept for public viewing. A large number of people had gathered at Rajiv’s house on Ramanuja Road to pay their last respects. Rajiv’s family members, who were in deep grief, were inconsolable.
The body of Rajiv, which was found by Indian Army person- nel along with the bodies of two others on Aug. 10, six-days after Dauphin VT-PHK helicopter crashed into a deep gorge near Pongkong village on Aug. 4, was identified by his relatives on Aug. 11 after being brought to Khonsa village.
The same day the body was shifted to Dibrugarh in Assam from where it was brought to Guwahati in a helicopter.
On its arrival to Guwhati, Rajiv’s body was shifted to Bengaluru in an Indigo Aircraft and later to Mysuru in an ambulance. As the body arrived at the residence, the family members burst into tears and were inconsolable.
Manjunath, Rajiv’s father, thanked MP Pratap Simha, DC Shikha and Pawan Hans Company for all help in tracing his son’s body. Rajiv is survived by his father Manjunath, mother Vani, younger brother Rakshith and younger sister Ramya.
Corporators M.V. Ravishankar, B.V. Manjunath and M.K. Shankar and BJP leader Srivatsa were among those who paid their last respects to Rajiv.
source: http://www.starofmysore.com / Star of Mysore / Home> General News / Friday – August 14th, 2015
Cars always fascinated Amarnath, a businessman and proud owner of a fleet of classic cars and two wheelers. He grew up watching his father drive around in the most expensive of cars and as a child, he always dreamt of owning one of his own someday. As the years passed by, Amarnath’s interest in cars grew into a passion.
Walk on the sprawling lawns that lead to Amarnath’s bungalow, tucked away in HBR Layout, and the first thing that catches your attention are a row of cars and bikes — all neatly polished and parked in line. The spick and span vehicles are those that have stood the test of time. “I’ve consciously made space for all these cars and bikes to be parked in my compound. There’s enough room and shade to keep them way from the heat to prevent any damage,” he explains, pointing to an enclosure that he has constructed exclusively for the cars to be parked in.
Among the prized possessions in his stable is a 1963 model of Standard Herald that he bought a while ago. Explaining how he stumbled upon it, Amarnath says, “I was always drawn to two-door cars. They are grand and look like an Indian Ferrari.” He then points towards a 1952 model of a Morris Minor, “It was in a pitiable state when I first saw it two years ago. It had to be brought back to life, so I found the perfect restorer in my friend Sripathy, an expert on just about any car. He helped me restore it and bring it to perfect running condition.”
Walk further on and a 1952 model Hillman Minx catches your attention. “That’s my father’s car,” he explains, “My father always wanted to own a Hillman. He didn’t miss the chance to buy it as soon as the opportunity arose.” He also has two Mercedes standing at the far corner. “These are 1973 (yellow) and 1982 (blue) models of compact Mercedes which you now see only in the movies. They are in perfect condition and we usually drive around in them only on the weekends,” he says.
If you think his collection ends with cars, you’ll be in for a surprise when he shows you a 1970 model of a Bobby Rajdoot. The Bobby moniker was later added after the bike did a little acting stint in the Raj Kapoor movie of the same name. “I first spotted this bike on Gujli Street in Shivajinagar six years ago. A closer examination and I was overjoyed that I had found the Bobby I had been hunting for a long time. I paid Rs 3,000 and bought it almost immediately,” he says. At a time when people focus on making modifications to bikes and cars, to make them look slimmer and swankier, Amarnath intends to retain all his classic beauties in their original shape. “I don’t want to bring in unnecessary modifications and spoil the originality,” he reasons. He also owns a 1972 model of Suvega as well.
Amarnath’s older son Varun has taken after his him and spends a lot of time washing the cars and keeping them clean. “I am proud of our collection and some of my friends come home just to see our cars and I occasionally ride the Bobby Rajdoot as well,” says Varun. Amarnath’s wife Rajashri is also supportive of him every time he adds on to his existing fleet.
(R Amarnath can be reached at ramarnath1969 @gmail.com)
source: http://www.deccanherald.com / Deccan Herald / Home> Supplements> MetroLife / by Nina C. George / DHNS – August 18th, 2015
A bust of Gandhiji installed at the Bhujanga Park, Ajjarkad, in Udupi, where he delivered a speech in 1934.
He addressed a public meeting at Ajjarkad ground
The place where Gandhiji visited and gave a speech during his only visit to Udupi on February 25, 1934, is now a park. There is a bust of Gandhiji in the midst of the park and a radio tower also stands close to it.
Vinith Rao, researcher and in-charge of Gandhian Study Centre at the Mahatma Gandhi Memorial College here, told The Hindu that Gandhiji had come to Udupi as part of his tour for collection of funds for the uplift of the weaker sections of society and also to promote temple entry for people of weaker sections through a consensus. Another object was to collect funds for the relief of persons affected by floods in Bihar.
Gandhiji toured the coastal region in a car. But since there were many rivers and rivulets in between, he and his car were ferried in a barge, then called ‘jungal’ and taken from one bank of the river to another. He was welcomed in Udupi at around 3.30 p.m. by philanthropist Haji Abdulla Saheb.
After inaugurating a ‘Khadi Bhandar’ at Kadabettu here, he went to the Ajjarkad ground to deliver a speech. Nearly 3,000 people attended the event as per a report in the Kannada weekly ‘Rashtra Bandhu’.
In his speech, which was reported in The Hindu on February 28, 1934, and also published in the ‘The Collected Works of Mahatma Gandhi’ (Volume 57), Gandhiji urged the people to create public opinion for opening temples for weaker sections.
But, he emphasised that the opinion can only be formulated by the gentlest of means. Gandhiji also pointed out in his speech that Lord Krishna had turned himself to give “darshan” to saint-composer Sri Kanakadasa at the Sri Krishna Temple here. He also emphasised on the removal of untouchability.
This speech of Gandhiji in Udupi has also been reported in the journal ‘Harijan’ dated March 9, 1934. Gandhiji received a donation of Rs. 1,240 here.
Gandhiji then left for Kundapur the same day and addressed a public meeting there also and spoke against untouchability. He participated in prayer meeting in Kundapur on February 26, 1934, which was a Monday and Gandhiji used to observe silence on that day. “On February 27, 1934, Gandhiji left Kundapur for Karwar in a steamer named ‘Dayavati,” Mr. Rao said.
Since this was the only visit of Gandhiji to Udupi, a plaque should be erected at the Bhujanga Park, where Gandhiji gave a speech. “Besides the plaque, a small museum could be constructed there with some photographs taken during Gandhiji’s visit to Udupi,” Mr. Rao said.
source: http://www.thehindu.com / The Hindu / Home> News> Cities> Mangaluru / by Ganesh Prabhu / Udupi – August 15th, 2015
Felicitations mark Centenary Celebrations of City Central Library
Chief Minister Siddharamaiah, District Minister V. Sreenivasa Prasad, Primary and Secondary Education Minister Kimmane Rathnakar, Co-operation Minister H.S. Mahadevaprasad and others are seen with the Librarians from across the State who were felicitated during the centenary celebrations of City Central Library at the open air theatre in Manasagangotri yesterday.
Mysuru :
“Inculcate the habit of visiting libraries and reading books and literature as reading not only enhances one’s knowledge but also helps one to overcome bad habits,” said Chief Minister Siddharamaiah here yesterday.
He was speaking after inaugurating the ‘Librarians Day’ to mark the birth anniversary of Dr. S.R.Ranganthan, the Father of Library Sciences in India, and the centenary celebrations of City Central Library at the open air theatre in Manasagangotri.
Describing library as a good friend which helps overcome tensions, Siddharamaiah added that people like Dr. B.R. Ambedkar and Kuvempu, who grew in stature were closely associated with libraries and called upon the students to visit libraries to acquire knowledge.
The advent of internet, which has driven students away from reading habits, is no match for a library which has enhanced the knowledge of people for more than 100 years, he observed.
Library Centenary Bhavan at People’s Park: Recalling the services of Nalwadi Krishnaraja Wadiyar in the establishment of the City Central Library, Siddharamaiah said that the State Government would extend all support for construction of a Central Library Centenary Bhavan at People’s Park in the city.
Felicitation: Earlier, the Chief Minister felicitated retired librarian of Bangalore Central Library I.C.Sangannanavar; Deputy Director of Dakshina Kannada District Library C.G.Venkatesh; Assistant at Bangalore Central Library Sridharamurthy; Supervisor at Yaldur GP in Kolar District Manjunath; Deputy Director of Mysuru City Central Library B.Manjunath; Librarian of Bhadravathi Library in Shivamogga District Susanna Sowmyalatha; Assistant at Bangalore Central Library S.P. Somaprakash.
Among others who were felicitated on the occasion for their outstanding services included Supervisor at Jalihala GP Library in Raichur District S.Nagaraju; Deputy Librarian of Birla Technological University Library in Ranchi Dr. M. Vijaykumar; University of Mysore Librarian Dr. C.P. Ramashesh; Retired professor of Library and Information Sciences in Dharwad Prof. S.L.Sangam; Librarian of Rajiv Gandhi Varsity in Arunachal Pradesh Dr. Malathesh Motebennur and Dr. M. Chandrashekar of University of Mysore Library.
CM Siddharamaiah, who felicitated Mayor R. Lingappa and other former Mayors of Mysuru, also released the theme song of the Library centenary celebrations scripted by litterateur Dr. C.P. Krishnakumar (CPK).
While District Minister V. Sreenivasa Prasad released a CD, Primary and Secondary Education Minister Kimmane Rathnakar released a booklet brought out by the Department of Libraries; Co-operation Minister H.S.Mahadevaprasad released the souvenir “Grantha Sourabha.” Mayor R. Lingappa, who also heads the City Central Library Authority, released the centenary newsletter.
Legislative Council Deputy Chairman Marithibbegowda, Cauvery CADA Chairman C. Dasegowda, State Safai Karmachari Commission Chairman S. Narayan, Mylac Chairman R. Ananthu, KEA Chairman R. Murthy, MUDA Chairman K.R. Mohan Kumar, Zoo Authority Chairperson Rehana Banu, MLC Sandesh Nagaraj, MLAs Vasu and M.K.Somashekar, Centenarian Nadoja Prof. Dejagow, ZP President Dr. Pushpa Amarnath, Vice-President Madappa, Deputy Mayor M. Mahadevamma and Dr. C.P. Krishnakumar were among those present.
source: http://www.starofmysore.com / Star of Mysore / Home> General News / Thursday – August 13th, 2015
An Independence Day Cup football match being played at Cox Town in Bengaluru on Saturday.— Photo: Sudhakara Jain / The Hindu
While other localities hoist flags, Cox Town hosts a football tournament.
Fifty-nine successive years of the world’s favourite sport on east Bengaluru soil. Enthusiasm among spectators is such that they can be seen desperately grabbing seats on trees, walls and on Bengaluru East railway bridge to get the best view of the game. All this is an annual affair on Independence Day.
The Independence Day Cup football tournament final on August 15 is festive occasion for fans in Frazer Town and the rest of Bengaluru. Crowds throng the East Indian Sports Club ground on Moti Masjid Road to watch the game unfold. The roar of the fans surprises pedestrians and motorists passing near Everest cinema hall.
“I’m 42 years old and this is the 32ndyear I’m coming for the final. I used to come as a child to cheer the team wearing the jersey with the brightest colour. Now, I have come to support the home team — Camp Boys Cox Town,” says D.S. Raju, a grocery from MS Nagar. R. Giriraj (59), General Secretary of East Indian Sports Club, had played in the tournament four decades ago when the entry fee was only Rs. 5.
He describes the I-Day football tournament as a sensation among the locals. “Teams from all parts of Bengaluru, Mysuru and even Tamil Nadu and Andhra Pradesh participate. Crowds throng the ground from around Bengaluru on August 15 to witness the two semi-finals and the grand final,” says Giriraj who doubled up as a referee for the ties on Saturday.
The club has been hosting the tournament since 1956. This year, there were 64 entries. Ambedkar Nehrupuram Football Club from Cox Town lifted the cup after a floodlit final game.
source: http://www.thehindu.com / The Hindu / Home> News> Cities> Bengaluru / by Petlee Peter / Bengaluru – August 16th, 2015
In the run up to the 2009 Lok Sabha elections, former HAL software en gineer PG Bhat formed Smart Votes, a not-for-profit organization to urge people to vote. While doing this, he and his friends realized the electoral rolls were full of errors.
“A woman was listed as male, a person who had been dead for years was still on the list, photos on voter ID cards were wrong… I could go on,” says Bhat, 65. In 2010, he wrote software that could detect obvious and logical errors in voter lists.
He paid Rs 2 per sheet to get the electoral rolls as per the rules, and began testing his software. “When lakhs of entries are made, errors are bound to creep in. Back then, the election office did not a system for verification. Even now, my software detects more errors than theirs,” he says.
For example, if a name appears twice, the age is below 18 or above 100, or the photo does not match the gender, the system throws up an alert. “I’ve found some patterns in the errors that can be fixed automatically. Other errors that the system cannot find or fix are detected by me, one by one,” he says.
Bhat looks after his grandson during the day while his daughter is at work, but once she is home after 5pm, he is at the computer cleaning up the electoral rolls. “At peak times, I have worked for 15 hours at a stretch,” Bhat says. He also gets requests from citizens to find their names on the electoral rolls and check if all their details are right. He complies cheerfully, and doesn’t charge anyone for his time or services.
He has asked the Karnataka election office to use his soft ware or adopt a similar one, but “every time I speak to the officers they insist that they don’t need it. They say their system is better though we all know it is flawed”, he says.
When Bhat did a detailed analysis of the voters’ list released recently ahead the BBMP poll, he found errors. “Such errors are a result of mistakes committed while making addition, deletion and corrections to the electoral list. There are more than 70 lakh voters in the 198 wards within the BBMP limits. The chief electoral officer (Karnataka) has said they deleted 58,110 names during the revision of the rolls. However, many of these deleted names are still in the voters’ rolls uploaded in the BBMP website,” he says.
According to Bhat, the errors could prove costly during the election. “Thousands of voters IDs don’t have the EPIC numbers. We also found that the gender of many voters is wrong and there are mistakes in the names. Voters will face problems when they go to exercise their franchise. The commission must take care while making entries as the continued presence of errors in the list would ultimately discourage genuine voters.And this is one of the reason why people don’t come out and vote,” he says.
source: http://www.timesofindia.indiatimes.com / The Times of India / News Home> City> Bengaluru / by Aparajita Ray, TNN / August 17th, 2015
City’s Karate Master Renshi Johnson became the first Karate Master from city to be trained and evaluated by 32 grandmasters (Red Belts) of four major Okinawa Karate Schools; Goju-Ryu, Isshin-Ryu, Shorin-Ryu and Uechi-Ryu, assigned by the Japan Government and successfully completed the Okinawa Traditional Karate and Kobudo Worldwide Seminar in Naha, Okinawa (Japan).
Governor of Okinawa Prefecture Takeshi Onaga certified Renshi Johnson, felicitated and awarded the certificate on July 18, 2015.
This is the first time a Karate instructor from Mysuru was selected and invited by the Okinawan Governor himself to take part in a worldwide Karate and Kobudo event and was evaluated by the living legends (grandmasters) of Okinawan Karate.
Renshi Johnson, a resident of Roopa Nagar, Bogadi in city, is a 5th Dan Black Belt in Karate and 2nd Dan Black Belt in Kobudo.
source: http://www.starofmysore.com / Star of Mysore / Home> Sports News / Sunday – August 09th, 2015
The centenary of late Prof. E.N.K. Viswanathan, who was a Mathematics Professor at St. Philomena’s College, Mysuru, was celebrated in city recently.
Prof. E.N.K.V., who served the institution from 1947-1973, retired as Head of the Department of Mathematics. Some of the many disciplines he taught were geometry, algebra, trigonometry, calculus, analytical geometry, and astronomy. He also wrote a number of books on the various disciplines of mathematics.
Known to everyone as a teacher par excellence, he was also a great father to three daughters and a considerate human being to all his friends and colleagues. Prof. E.N.K. Viswanathan and his wife Vinodha Viswanathan were residents of Mysuru for over 50 years.
The centenary celebration at Dasaprakash Paradise was attended by over 125 people from far and near. Among the attendees were members of the family, students, colleagues, friends and well-wishers. Fr. Leslie Moras of St. Philomena’s College graced the function and spoke about Prof. Viswanathan. He belonged to the last batch of students taught by the Professor.
Family members, colleagues, and students spoke about Prof. Viswanathan, recollecting various facets of his personality, sharing anecdotes and sweet memories about the great teacher. They also spoke about his humble nature, honesty, integrity, and teaching skills. During the function, colleagues of the professor who had worked with him were felicitated.
One of the books written by Prof. Viswanathan, containing articles on mathematics and astronomy, was released during the function. A copy of the book was distributed to all the attendees.
source: http://www.starofmysore.com / Star of Mysore / Home> General News / Sunday – August 09th, 2015
Atul Vikas Kulkarni, an engineering graduate from The National Institute of Engineering (NIE), Mysuru, has secured All-India 180th rank in Civil Services Examination-2014 conducted by UPSC recently. He belongs to Computer Science batch of 2007.
Kulkarni hails from Gokak, a small town in Belagavi. After he graduated from NIE, he served at MindTree as Senior Software Developer for three years and later joined Tata Institute of Social Sciences, School of Habitat Studies, Mumbai, to pursue M.Sc in Habitat Policy and Practice. After M.Sc., he served at CRISIL Risk and Infrastructure Solutions Limited (CRIS), Mumbai, as Consultant at Nashik Municipal Corporation and Arghyam, Bengaluru, as Project Officer.
On getting motivation to join Civil Services, Kulkarni said that during his field visits to slums and homeless, he understood the ground realities related to water issues, sanitation and poverty that shook his conscience. The sufferings of the poor people who came from other geographical area to city in search of income and harassment of women and children living on pavements motivated him to become a civil servant.
Currently an independent Research Consultant, he is also involved in making handmade paper, paper products and eco-products at ‘Divya Sparsha,’ a social enterprise based in Bengaluru.
He represented India in the first South Asia Youth Conference held in IIM, Bengaluru, in 2011. He was the finalist in International Business Summit, IIM Calcutta, Antyodaya for a concept of “Environment Museum” on sustainable development; was selected for Tata Jagriti Yatra in 2010; was national winner of Mahindra’s “Spark The Rise” competition for project titled “Smart Sanitation and Solid Waste Management: A Holistic Approach”, “Water Ambassador” by World Bank in Water Hackaton event; winner in Vodafone Mobiles for Good programme in 2012 for his project titled “Locating and Rating of Public Restrooms in Indian Cities” and many more. He did his thesis on the lakes in Bengaluru “Land, Water and Local People: A Case Study of Bangalore-Mysore Infrastructure Corridor.”
NIE has, in a press release, congratulated Atul Kulkarni for his achievement.
source: http://www.starofmysore.com / Star of Mysore / Home> General News / Sunday – August 09th, 2015
Kannada University at Hampi has condoled the death of renowned litterateur Kayyara Kinhanna Rai.
A condolence meeting was held at the university on Monday, where a two-minute silence was observed to pay respect to the departed soul.
K.M. Metry, dean, Social Science faculty, recalled Rai’s relentless struggle for getting the Mahajan Commission report implemented in toto , to ensure that Kannada-speaking border areas, including Kasargod, were merged with Karnataka.
A. Venkatesh, Deputy Registrar, also spoke. Heads of various departments were present.
source: http://www.thehindu.com / The Hindu / Home> National / by Special Correspondent / Ballari – August 11th, 2015
