Monthly Archives: June 2017

Where each stitch tells a story

Arts, Culture & Entertainment, Business & Economy, Records, All

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Designer Latha Puttanna says you cannot duplicate the intricate handwork done over time through machines

From being a housewife and a beautician to one of the most-sought after designers, Latha Puttanna has had an interesting journey. This year, she celebrates 25 years of being a designer with an exhibition of over 100 hand-made designer blouses.

“I was already thinking out-of-the-box, drawing, sketching and executing the design on fabric. Marriage was the best thing to happen to me as I was just not interested in studies. I was just 16 then,” she says with a laugh.

Latha gave up her salon as she felt “stagnated in it” and started “designing my clothes. Whatever I wore was appreciated and friends and family asked me to makefor them too. As an experiment, I designed 80 salwar suits and had my first exhibition in 1992. They were all sold out. That is how my label – Latha Puttanna – came into being. What you see today is a result of my passion and a quarter century of experience. It is not a by-product of any training. The very essence of being an Indian is the USP in my designs. We have such a vast range of textiles and heritage. I am inspired by that.”

Latha has always worked with natural fabrics. “Embroidery is my biggest strength. Today it is hard to find skilled craftsmen, but every design or thread work comes with a piece of history, be it the fabric or the crafts used. They are priceless and can be handed down to the next generation too.”

Latha says the blouse she is wearing has embroidery from “over 25 years ago. This was originally used on a kurta. I cut off the sleeves as the work is priceless and has every kind of embroidery on it. Then I attached it to a new blouse and I got a new design. The blouses that we will display has one style of thread work taken from this very blouse and worked in varied designs.”

Latha says the exhibition is a “tribute to all that I have done over the years, to the people who have worked with me and to our rich culture and heritage.”

When asked about the focus on blouses, Lata says, “People have always asked me for blouses and I tell them it is attached to this sari or that. I felt the time now was right to display the wide range of blouses we have created. Women can buy, mix and match and wear them with the saris of their choice. The best part of our blouses are that they can be worn on a western skirt or a ghagra, with pants, palazzos or saris. You can match them up and go completely ethnic or blend it with western wear, the choice is yours.”

“The sad thing is that today, in the fast-paced world, everything is done in a jiffy, from food to designs. So people are losing out on our rich textile history. You can’t duplicate this intricate handwork done over time through machines. I find it hard to cope with that mentality. People are willing to shell out huge amounts for clothes that are mass produced. But with us, every piece has a story attached. So you are wearing a slice of history when you drape our saris or blouses, so why not invest in a design with a story?”

The exhibition offers over 100 blouses with unique designs. The blouses are priced at ₹4,000 upward and come with Kalamkari prints for lining “so that even the inside looks gorgeous.” Various peek-a- boo openings are in the back with aari work, zardosi and silk patchwork. The venue is Arts village, opposite Bowring Institute, St Mark’s Road, on June 16 from 10 am to 7 pm. Call 7338335169 for details.

source: http://www.thehindu.com / The Hindu / Home> Life & Style / by Shilpa Sebastian R / June 14th, 2017

Child’s rare genetic disorder prompts parents to launch support group

Records, All, Science & Technology

Group for CAH gets listed with international body

When a 15-day-old baby, who had a bout of mild diarrhoea and vomiting became severely dehydrated, the parents, though worried, did not sense something could be seriously wrong. However, they were shocked when their doctor diagnosed the baby with Congenital Adrenal Hyperplasia (CAH).

CAH is an inherited disorder that affects the adrenal glands where the glands cannot produce cortisol and aldosterone, and instead produce an unwanted excess amount of androgens.

A child with CAH lacks enzymes the adrenal glands use to produce hormones that help regulate metabolism, the immune system, blood pressure, and other essential functions. Parents with children suffering from it often have great difficulty in the upbringing of the child, including treatment, getting school admission and other support issues.

For the first time, Shyam Nair and Deepa Kannan, parents of a CAH child, have started a support group called ‘CAH Support India’ ( www.cahindia.org ) involving a community of parents, grandparents and caregivers of CAH children. The International Coalition for Endocrine Patient Support Organisations worldwide has listed this support group as the first such group for endocrine disorders in India.

The couple has also created a closed Facebook group for parents and endocrinologists https://www.facebook.com/groups/433557750183212/ and a Facebook page called Omkar’s journey with Congenital Adrenal Hyperplasia to chronicle all possible events in the life of a child with CAH . The link is https://m.facebook.com/Omkars-journey-with-Congenital-Adrenal-Hyperplasia-872407369539040/

Shaila S. Bhattacharyya, paediatric endocrinologist at Manipal Hospitals, who is also part of the support group, said: “A CAH child gets severely dehydrated even with a mild episode of diarrhoea and needs hospitalisation, which is stressful both for the child and the caregivers.”

Although about one in 10,000 children are born with CAH, awareness about the condition is low. It is either not detected early or is misdiagnosed and turns fatal in most children within months of their birth. A neonatal hormone test 17-OHP should be done to screen for CAH in children before symptoms appear. “However, not all hospitals do this test,” the doctor added.

Ms. Deepa Kannan, a yoga teacher, said she and her husband are trying to spread awareness about the condition, which is not known even in educated circles. “Having experienced the challenges in bringing up our child, who is seven years old now, our aim is to support parents and help them in bringing up their children,” she told The Hindu.

Narrating how difficult it is for CAH children to get admission in regular schools as the child needs continuous monitoring, she said the aim of the support group is to change this mindset of schools. “Such discrimination towards children for no fault of theirs is unfair,” she said.

source: http://www.thehindu.com / The Hindu / Home> News> States> Karnataka / by Afshan Yasmeen / Bengaluru – June 14th, 2017

Meet Bengaluru police’s Meme-saabs

Arts, Culture & Entertainment, Business & Economy

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When you meet young entrepreneurs Chethan Hiremath and Deeraj Gowda , the men behind the social-media makeover that the Bengaluru City Police  pages have got, the first impression that you get from their camaraderie is that they have known each other for a lifetime. They even live together. But as it turns out, this friendship-cum-business partnership is less than a year old.

The Twain Meet 
Chethan tells us, “As people who deal with social media , it is interesting that we met on Snapchat. I was working on a project and needed a new logo and one of the many responses I got was from Deeraj. I liked his design and that’s how we started working together.” The twist in the story here is that Deeraj was, at the time, pursuing his passions in graphic designing and photography, having quit a cozy DRDO aeronautical software developer job. “I had just started my own firm when we met. But after a few discussions we realized that our views were similar and got together,” adds Deeraj.
Initially, the duo catered to a lot of F&B clients, given that Chethan has a flourishing event management firm to his credit. “But then, one day we realized that none of it was really worth our time. It was as boring as a 9-5 job, just delivering what the client wants — put up some posts and get some likes. They didn’t really want to drive content, which is our strength. Which is when we decided to let go of all our clients and refocus our energy on the big league,” says Chethan.

Bengaluru Police Onboard 

One of the biggest clients that this eight-month-old partnership has bagged is the Bengaluru City Police. “Technology is the future and we had read a couple of articles in which Bengaluru City Commissioner Praveen Sood had spoken about his plans in this direction. We knew that if we had impress him and reason why social media should rank high in the scheme of things. It was the perfect opportunity. We sent out a message on their Facebook page, about how miserable they were faring in the online space, while the ground reality was far from it. People didn’t really care what the police were doing. We explained that there are two things that work phenomenally online — negativity and humour — and that we understand both well. We told them that the only way forward would be to get an agency to handle this. We didn’t exactly pitch it for ourselves, but said that we would love to do it for them,” explains Chethan.

The duo didn’t expect to hear from the city cops, as they have their own social-media team led by MG Nagendra Kumar , DCP Command Centre, which has been doing a good job. “They had about five lakh followers on both Twitter and Facebook all by themselves. Yet, within days of our message, we got a call from them. Initially, they weren’t ready to outsource and wanted us to help with ideation and work from their premises,” says Chethan. Deeraj adds, “We showed them posters and memes around drunk driving and no-honking and explained that the only way to reach out to the younger generation is through what they like doing. Most relationships today are about tagging each other on social media and we thought that memes are the best platform to communicate ideas. And it worked well. Praveen Sood was impressed and then gave us the job”

The Game Plan 

Having followed memes over the past 4-5 years, Deeraj says that they have their finger on the pulse and know what is ‘in’ and will trend. “We try to inculcate that meme with a message; that’s how the Game of Thrones and Pablo Escobar memes came about. We blended humour with social messages, without diluting the image that the Bengaluru Police has. Whatever content they have, we find a creative way to put it across. Initially they were reporting stuff, like, for instance, ‘Today we caught a robber’. Who cares? People think that it is their duty. But when we involved a bit of humour to say the same thing, people started paying attention,” says Deeraj, adding that the duo have contests among themselves about who comes up with the better idea and who gets maximum shares and likes.

But given the seriousness of the job, posts go online only after they are vetted by Nagendra Kumar. “Every single post goes through him and a lot does get shot down. We understand pop culture, so there is a lot of convincing that has to be done, and if you reason well, they will accept,” says Chethan.

source: http://www.timesofindia.indiatimes.com / The Times of India / News> City News> Bangalore News / by Prathibha Joy / TNN / June 14th, 2017

Young Bengalureans’ docu on Tibet’s freedom struggle tops Bangalore Short Film Festival

Arts, Culture & Entertainment, Records, All, World Opinion

Bengaluru :

Bengalureans Santosh Chandrasekhar, 26, Aiman S, 24 and Sumit Dasgupta , 24 started working on their dream project Rangzen – a 39-minute-long documentary film on Tibetans, hardly did they know it will fetch this trio the award for best documentary in Bangalore Short Film Festival 2017.

Not just that, this documentary film featuring lives of Tibetans who had escaped Chinese invasion and took refuge in India has made three Bengalureans proud by bagging a special jury award at International Film Festival of Prayag, Delhi and the audience award at Feel the Reel International Film Festival in the UK, this year.

Santosh Chandrasekhar, assistant professor at a city college, “The movie is all about their struggle to hold on to their Tibetan identity in a foreign land and how they dream to go back to a nation that doesn’t exist anymore. The film has got answers to seeking their identities and their perpetual fight for freedom and a struggle to find their self.”

“We, through this documentary, were trying to initiate discourses related to the Tibetan struggle for freedom and generate awareness about our ‘guests’ among our fellow Indians. Although in exile for over 56 years, we fail to recognise Tibetans. We ignorantly see them as either northeasterners or Chinese. The Tibetan freedom struggle being one of the longest after the exodus of the Jews can put this documentary film into major political articulation,” added Aiman S, a copy writer and another maker of this documentary. The documentary has also made an entry to official selection category at International Documentary and Short Film Festival, Kerala and Calcutta International Cult Film Festival, 2017.

source: http://www.timesofindia.indiatimes.com / The Times of India / News> City News> Bangalore News / by Sreemoyee Chatterjee / TNN / June 13th, 2017

SOLS, KMC researchers identify colo-rectal cancer causing mutations

Records, All, Science & Technology, World Opinion

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Manipal :

Researchers from the School of Life Sciences (SOLS) and Kasturba Medical College, Manipal University , have identified cancer causing mutations in long standing ulcerative colitis subjects at risk of progressing into colorectal cancer. They have identified cancer causing mutations in new as well as previously identified oncogenes and tumor suppressor genes.

The mutations identified in the study can be used as marker for early diagnosis of ulcerative colitis associated colorectal cancer. The finding of the study is published in Nature Publishing Group journal British Journal of Cancer entitled “Targeted sequencing based analyses of candidate gene variants in ulcerative colitis-associated colorectal neoplasia”.

SOLS has been working in the field of cancer biomarker discovery, disease modelling and targeted drug delivery for the past several years, says its Director, Dr K. Satyamoorthy. He said: As there is an increased incidence of ulcerative colitis in India due to altered food habits, increased awareness, surveillance and availability of better diagnosis, it is important that early diagnosis of patients who are at risk of developing colorectal cancer is of paramount interest”.

Dr. Satyamoorthy who also led the investigations said the major challenge in the study was long-period of follow up required to monitor the patients with the ulcerative colitis and reluctance of the patients to undergo colonoscopy. Innovative discoveries such as this can lead to better management of individuals with the disease for early detection and personalized care”. While congratulating the researchers Dr. H. Vinod Bhat, Vice Chancellor, Manipal University said the University is supporting molecular genetics programme as there is plenty to discover to the benefit of patients. Manipal University is in unique environment that researchers, clinical practitioners and public health experts can work together to bring about change in the society on how the diseases are managed in individuals”.

Ulcerative colitis is a chronic inflammatory bowel condition with clinical symptoms of ulceration and bleeding of inner lining of colon. The age of onset for ulcerative colitis varies between 30 to 50 years. Ulcerative colitis subjects with more than seven years of pancolitis or more than 10 years of left sided colitis, experience a higher incidence of colorectal cancer than the rest of the population.

Dr. Sanjiban Chakrabarty, lead author of the manuscript said the DNA mutations discovered in the study could distinguish early dysplastic changes in high risk ulcerative colitis and has the potential to predict an adverse outcome.” Lead clinical investigator Dr. Ganesh Pai said the results of the studies are important in view of the rising incidence of both ulcerative colitis and colorectal cancer in the Asia Pacific in recent years. The results can help to better understand the development of colorectal cancer in ulcerative colitis, to develop tests for early diagnosis and to possibly select the best treatment strategies for subgroups of patients in the future”.

source: http://www.timesofindia.indiatimes.com / The Times of India / Home> News> City News> Mangalore News / by Stanley Pinto, TNN / June 07th, 2017

Neeraj Patil, first Kannadiga to stand in British parliamentary election, loses to Justine Greening

Amazing Feats, Leaders, Records, All, World Opinion
Dr. Neeraj Patil who lost to Justine Greening in the British Parliamentary elections held on June 8.
Dr. Neeraj Patil who lost to Justine Greening in the British Parliamentary elections held on June 8.

The first Kannadiga ever to stand in the British Parliamentary elections, Neeraj Patil lost to Justine Greening, a Conservative Party candidate and the Education Minister of Britain, in the polls held on June 8. A native of Kamalapur in Kalaburagi district and former Mayor of London Borough of Lambeth, Dr. Neeraj was selected by the Labour Party to represent the constituency of Putney considering his service as an emergency doctor at St George’s Hospital in London, used by the residents of Putney.

Dr. Patil lost by a narrow margin of 1,554 votes to Ms. Greening who secured 20,679 of 46,894 the votes polled. Though there were six candidates in the fray, the fight was between Mr. Patil and Ms. Greening. Liberal Democrats candidate Ryan Mercer polled 5448 votes followed by Green Party candidate Benjamin Joseph Fletcher (1,107), UK Independent Party candidate Patricia Mary Ward (447) and Independent candidate Catherine Jane Richardson (58). There were 112 invalid votes. The counting of the votes was held at Wandsworth council with James Maddan as returning officer of Putney constituency.

Addressing the gathering after the vote-count, Dr. Patil congratulated Ms. Greening, who has been retaining the seat since 2005 and thanked the Labour Party for selecting him to run for the British Parliament. Mr. Keith Vaz, the longest serving Labour MP of Indian origin, campaigned for Dr. Patil in Putney constituency.

Dr. Patil is attributed to have played an instrumental role in getting the statue of the 12th century philosopher and social reformer Basavanna installed at the Albert Embankment Gardens in the London Borough of Lambeth. He was honoured with “The Rajyotsava Award” by the Government of Karnataka in 2008.

Labour Party had selected 14 Indians, Conservative party 13 and Liberal Democrats 9, respectively as their Parliamentary candidates. The general elections were called following the Brexit referendum by Prime Minister Theresa May.

source: http://www.thehindu.com / The Hindu / Home> News> States> Karnataka / by Kumar Buradikatti / Kalaburagi – June 09th, 2017

Bengaluru girl to get a minor planet named after her

Amazing Feats, Records, All, Science & Technology, World Opinion

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Researching the specks of froth on our polluted lakes has led to a city girl getting her name etched in immortality on the night sky.

Sahithi Pingali, a Class 12 student of Inventure Academy, Bengaluru, joins an elite league of people to have a minor planet in the Milky Way named after them. The honour comes after she excelled in the Intel International Science and Engineering Fair (ISEF), the world’s largest pre-college science competition. As one of the 2,000 finalists, Ms. Pingali presented her paper, — “An Innovative Crowdsourcing Approach to Monitoring Freshwater Bodies”— based on her experiences after having developed an integrated mobile phone app and lake monitoring kit that obtains data through crowdsourcing.

It wasn’t just an award at ISEF that she won. The Lincoln Laboratory of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), which has the right to name minor planets, decided to name a planet after her after she came within the top 3% of ISEF. While the Indian contingent took home 21 awards in all, Ms. Pingali won three special awards and was awarded “overall second place” in the Earth and Environment Sciences category. “I definitely didn’t see this coming. I was expecting one special award at most. I haven’t yet digested the fact that I have a planet named after me,” she told The Hindu.

Currently, she is pursuing an internship at the Civil & Environmental Engineering Department of the University of Michigan to further improve her method to detect water pollution. “I want to make it more accurate and expand it to detect arsenic,” she said.

Her work on Varthur Lake has already seen her get a Gold Medal at ISWEEEP (The International Sustainable World Engineering Energy Environment Project) Olympiad at Houston (U.S.), earlier this year.

source: http://www.thehindu.com / The Hindu / Home> News> Cities> Bengaluru / by Staff Reporter / Bengaluru – June 07th, 2017

Musician G.V. Neela dies

Arts, Culture & Entertainment

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G.V. Neela, one of the pillars of Sri Rama Lalitha Kala Mandira that propagated Carnatic music in Bengaluru South for decades, passed away late on Saturday. She was 81.

Daughter of G. Vedanta Iyengar, an educationist and recipient of Public Service Medal from the then Maharaja of Mysore, Jayachamaraja Wadiyar, she along with her sister G.V. Ranganayakamma dedicated her life of propagating Carnatic music.

Ms. Neela, who had held music classes every single day of her life in the last four decades, continued to teach till two days before her death. Veteran musician Neela Ramgopal, said: “It was music 24 hours for her and nothing else. Such unconditional dedication cannot be replicated.”

Neela leaves behind two brothers and a sister, and hundreds of students.

source: http://www.thehindu.com / The Hindu / Home> News> Cities> Bengaluru / by Special Correspondent / Bengaluru – June 03rd, 2017

Research needs to be multi-disciplinary: Award-winning duo

Education, Records, All, Science & Technology

Bengaluru :

The scientific landscape in India must move in an organic way towards an environment that encourages multi-disciplinary research so as to address the challenges that the country and the world face, scientists say.

G Mugesh from the department of inorganic and physical chemistry, Indian Institute of Science (IISc), said: “There is no doubt that people working with different interfaces need to be encouraged. The challenges before us have shown that just one discipline is not enough, for example, to tackle several diseases that the world at large and India face.”

Mugesh was conferred the National Prizes for Interfaces between Chemistry and Biology (2017), instituted by the Jawaharlal Nehru Centre for Advanced Scientific Research (JNCASR), Bengaluru, in collaboration with CNR Rao Education Foundation. The award is donated by AVRA Laboratories, Hyderabad.

This year’s award is also being conferred on Sandeep Verma of Indian Institute of Technology – Kanpur.

“Compared to 20 years ago, when I joined IIT-Kanpur after my PhD and postdoctoral research in the US, there is a lot of change. All my training in the US was on how to do multi-disciplinary research and when I returned I found that the scientific landscape in India was still very puritan. Researchers like working in their respective areas and seldom interacted with other disciplines.”

source: http://www.timesofindia.indiatimes.com / The Times of India / Home> City News> Bangalore News / TNN / June 06th, 2017

Cochlear implant project to be launched

Records, All, Science & Technology

Available in K.C. General Hospital, Indira Gandhi Institute of Child Health in Bengaluru and Wenlock Hospital in Mangaluru

Working towards a ‘Deafness Free Karnataka’, the State Health Department will launch a Cochlear Implant Project under Rashtriya Bal Swasthya Karyakrama (RSBK) in K.C. General Hospital on Tuesday.

The project, announced by Chief Minister Siddaramaiah in the 2016-2017 budget, is aimed at identifying deafness in newborns and treating it. The project will be implemented through the Suvarna Arogya Suraksha Trust.

As per the 2011 census of Karnataka, there are 1,939 children in the age group of 0-6 years effected with hearing impairment. Most of these children are deaf since birth. As per experts’ opinion, cochlear implant surgery offers the best results when the patient is between the ages of 8 months and 6 years.

Apart from K.C. General Hospital, the Health Department has empanelled Indira Gandhi Institute of Child Health and Wenlock Hospital in Mangaluru for the project. Expert surgeons will conduct the surgeries, said a release.

Children aged between 8 months and 6 years, who have been screened and diagnosed with severe profound hearing loss (if hearing aids are of no help) will be eligible for surgeries under thus project. “RBSK teams will screen children enrolled in anganwadis, government and government aided schools for hearing problems and refer such children to the jurisdictional district hospital for further evaluation and management,” the release said.

A District Cochlear Committee (set up in every district) headed by the District Surgeon and comprising a ENT surgeon, audiologist, pediatrician, speech therapist, psychiatrist and Reproductive Child Health Officer (RCHO) will evaluate the children referred by the RBSK teams. If the child is found eligible for surgery, it will be referred to the nearest empanelled hospital (K.C. General, Indira Gandhi Institute of Child Health or Wenlock Hospital).

“The pre-operative evaluation, implant surgery and post-operative audio verbal therapy for one year will be free of cost under this project. The total cost of the package is ₹5.1 lakhs per child,” the release added.

What is cochlear implant?

It is a small electronic device that helps children with profound hearing loss. It is placed behind the ear. Once the implant is in place, the hearing apparatus conveys audio signals to the brain.

source: http://www.thehindu.com / The Hindu / Home> News> Cities> Bengaluru / by Special Correspondent / June 05th, 2017