The ace Indian shuttler said she felt ‘lucky and blessed’ that she had not faced any sort of sexual harassment in her career.
Ace Indian shuttler Ashwini Ponnappa on Monday backed the country’s #MeToo movement against sexual harassment, saying it’s important to stand by the women who are sharing their experiences.
Since October 5, several women have used social media to make allegations of sexual harassment and misconduct against several journalists, media professionals, actors, writers and others.
“In a nation like India, you need to be tough and careful as well,” Ashwini said. “It’s important to stand by them, listen to them and give them strength and courage. It’s not easy to speak up and voice your opinion.”
Ashwini said she was “lucky and blessed” that she had not faced any sort of sexual harassment in her career. “It’s quite unfortunate with all the things I have read and that’s happened,” she said. “But all I can say is that I am fortunate in that respect that I don’t have much to complain about or say. I am grateful for that.”
Ashwini was speaking to reporters in Kolkata while promoting the inaugural Badminton Express League. The all-amateur meet will have six teams with 14 players each, who will compete for top honours at the Ordnance Club from November 28 to December 2.
Ashwini and her current partner N Sikki Reddy caused a massive upset at the recent Denmark Open, ousting seventh seeds Lee So Hee and Shin Seung Chan of South Korea to make the quarter-finals. Their fine run came to an end against top seeds Yuki Fukushima and Sayaka Hirota in the quarter-finals.
“It’s important to understand that when you play doubles, you win and lose together,” Ashwini said. “Sikki and I had a great quarters match and that has given me a lot of confidence that we are going in the right direction.”
She added, “In the quarters [of the Denmark Open] against the Japanese, we tried doing the same as we did against the Koreans. It did not work. We cannot have the same game style against everyone. We need to get better in a few tactical areas too. It’s important to have something special so that we work it towards the end.”
With the Olympics in two years time, Ashwini said she and Sikki are hopeful and working extremely hard to get better. “We are stretching the top players and it’s about time we start winning,” she said.
“Satwik [Rankireddy] and Chirag [Shetty] have had a great run. Sikki and I have had great matches, Satwik and I have had great matches. We are going to do everything we can to qualify and win a medal.”
With inputs from Scroll Staff
source: http://www.scroll.in / Scroll.in / Home> Field> Badminton / Press Trust of India / October 30th, 2018
The Mard Ko Dard Nahin Hota (2018) actor speaks about his upcoming roles in Eros Now’s Smoke and Commando 3.
More and more actors and actresses are being drawn to web-series these days. From Amazon’s Inside Edge to Netflix’s Sacred Games, all have boasted of versatile ensemble casts. Now it is the turn of Eros Now to unveil its latest online series, Smoke.
The show, which take a look at the drug mafia in Goa, stars Jim Sarbh, Kalki Koechlin, Mandira Bedi, Gulshan Devaiah, Amit Sial, Satyadeep Mishra, Neil Bhoopalam, Prakash Belawadi, and the late Tom Alter.
Actor Gulshan Devaiah spoke to Cinestaan.com about why he took on the role of gangster Jairam Jha in the web-series.
“When the producers came to me, they offered me the character of Jairam Jha who is from Bihar. Being a proper South Indian, I thought it was pretty gutsy of them to offer me a role of a Bihari,” he recalled.
He told the producers he would need time to prepare. But he later agreed to the part, saying, “I take a lot of confidence in people having a lot of confidence in me.” That person was producer Faisal Malik, who had faith in Gulshan Devaiah’s abilities.
“I don’t buckle under such pressure, I thrive,” the actor continued. “I want to try and I do believe that I am a versatile and diverse artiste. These are opportunities that I jump upon when they come to me. This is an opportunity where I can actually put my money where my mouth is. So I was really happy. That’s one of the main reasons why I wanted to do this.”
Further, he believed in the producers and directors on the web-series who wanted to raise the digital content being produced in India.
“I think we suffer from not paying enough attention to quality,” he said. “These people that I was working with, they seemed like they had their hearts and minds in the place where they would say that we want to make something entertaining, that people will like, but we want to make a good product at the end of the day which will take this genre forward in a positive direction. I was in agreement with that.”
source: http://www.youtube.com
SMOKE Trailer | An Eros Now Original Series | All Episodes Streaming Now
Smoke’s impressive cast was another strong selling point. Asked if he knew who was working on the project before he signed up for it, the actor replied in the affirmative.
“I knew everybody that I was working with,” he said. “I didn’t know them personally. It was the first time I was working with Mr Tom Alter, who was such a fine actor and a thespian. We will surely miss him. Mandira Bedi is also a proven actor and it was fantastic to work with her. Kalki and Neil are friends, so it was easy with them.
“Amit Sial, whom I have always admired, he is a fabulous actor and it was a great opportunity for me to work with him and another gentleman from Bangalore called Prakash Belawadi who is a very prominent theatre person,” he continued. “They put together an interesting and diverse cast so that was also an incentive to see how it would be.”
The web-series, directed by Neel Guha, examines characters through the lens of greed and power.
“It looks at greed and power from different perspectives, of all these characters. They are all after the same thing. Everything is in grey and there are different shades of grey depending on the situation and on who they are and what they want. So it looks at that, which is an advantage in the case of Smoke, because in a film it would be a much more narrowed down point of view, and greed and power are things which are very common and we are suffering the effects of that as we speak.”
Besides Smoke and his double role in Vasan Bala’s Mard Ko Dard Nahin Hota (2018), Gulshan Devaiah has also signed on to play the antagonist to Vidyut Jammwal’s lead character for the third Commando film, for which shooting has begun. The actor joked that he did not require any training for the film as he already knows karate after training for Mard Ko Dard Nahin Hota.
“My attempt is always to try and do something different, try and see how I can create and contribute,” he said. “This, to put it simply, would be an out-and-out commercial film. I also feel that I don’t restrict my sensibilities as an artiste to certain kinds of films. Sometimes, you have to do as many films as possible.”
He sat down with the film’s producer and director to work out how his character would take shape.
“We play villains like villains. That’s exactly what I’m not trying to do. For the sake of everybody understanding how exactly I fit in, it’s the antagonist, but from my point of view, I’m not playing it as the antagonist. I would completely disagree and say I’m not the antagonist, I am the protagonist,” he said.
With his approach he hopes to give fans of the Commando franchise something exciting to look forward to. The third Commando film is scheduled for release in 2019 while the 11-episode web-series Smoke was made available for streaming on Eros Now on 26 October.
source: http://www.cinestaan.com / Cinestaan / Home> Interview> Hindi / by Sonal Pandya / Mumbai – October 28th, 2018
As many 25 poets read out their works in Kannada and five others read out theirs in Sanskrit, Hindi, Tulu, Kodava and Konkani. Main section of the three- day poets meet held at the Jaganmohan Palace on Monday
Mysuru:
The Kodagu disaster and the environment concerns that it has thrown up seemed to be on the minds of several poets at the “Dasara Pradhaana Kavighoshti,” the main section of the three- day poets meet held at the Jaganmohan Palace on Monday.
As many 25 poets read out their works in Kannada and five others read out theirs in Sanskrit, Hindi, Tulu, Kodava and Konkani.
Both 71- year- old, Dr T Govindaraju, who recited his poem in Kannada and Cauvery Udayam, a poet from Kodagu, who recited hers in Kodava , focused on the recent floods and landslides in Kodagu. Dr H S Rudresh, meanwhile, read out his poem on the late former Prime Minister, Atal Bihari Vajpayee.
Thirty two children recited their poems at the first day of the poets’ meet, “Chiguru Kavighoshti” which was held on October 12 and 31 more the next day.
source: http://www.deccanchronicle.com / Deccan Chronicle / Home> Nation> Current Affairs / by Shilpa P, Deccan Chronicle / October 16th, 2018
We head to where the beans grow in India to discover the country’s nuanced flavours.
Coffee berries left out for dry processing on a farm in Coorg, India. Bloomberg
It is still early in the evening, with a few hours to go before sunset, but all I can see outside is the swirling mist. When I had checked into at my resort a few hours earlier, the view from the balcony of my room was a lush carpet of green. Now, it’s white blanket. But I am not surprised. After all, this is Coorg, in south India, and I’m visiting during monsoon months, when the fog sweeps over as soon as there’s a break in the rain.
The scenery on my way from Bangalore changed dramatically once I entered the area; crowded highways turning into narrow lanes and commercial activity making way first for emerald paddy fields and then undulating hills dotted with seasonal waterfalls and sprawling plantations. It is obvious that Coorg is a blessed land; a variety of spices growing with abandon across this tiny region – pepper, cardamom, nutmeg, clove and even honey. The undisputed star of Coorg, though, is coffee.
Known in the local language as Kodagu, Coorg is part of the region in south India where coffee first arrived in the country. Legend has it that Sufi saint Baba Budan was delighted when he discovered coffee during a pilgrimage to Makkah, sometime in the 17th century. And on his way back, via the port of Yemen, he hid a few beans in the folds of his robes. As celebrated novelist R K Narayan wrote in his book A Storyteller’s World, “The origin of Indian coffee, thus, is saintly. It was not an empire builder or a buccaneer who brought coffee to India but a saint, one who knew what was good for humanity.”
“Indeed, he did,” I think, as I sip on the frothy brew at the coffee shop of The Tamara resort the next morning. Located within a functioning organic coffee plantation, the property is proof of how easily coffee travelled from Baba Budan’s base in the town of Chikmagalur to nearby Coorg, and how well it flourished in the wet, hilly landscapes there. The Coffee Board of India estimates that more than 70 per cent of the country’s beans are grown in Karnataka, almost entirely in Chikmagalur and Coorg, and are used for both domestic consumption and exports to Europe.
he fresh fruit that bears the beans. Bloomberg
The cup is my reward at the end of a two-hour walk through the coffee estate with Sareesh Kumar, the resident naturalist who seems to know the names and qualities of practically every plant on the trail. The rain has let up for the morning, and I am exhilarated by the hike through a thick canopy of silveroak and rosewood trees with pepper vines snaking around their tall trunks. Sunlight barely filters into the Arabica and Robusta shrubs all along the path, and the air is crisp and refreshing.
Kumar extols the moody nature of the coffee plant that demands great care and attention along with shade, and describes the taste differences between a brew made from Arabica and Robusta beans. I listen to him with half an ear as I lean towards the plump fruit in the vain hope of smelling coffee. He smiles at my enthusiasm, saying the berry has a long way to go before it reveals its true colours, or in this case, aromas and flavours.
And then it’s quiz time: “What does the coffee flower smell like?” he asks me. I know enough by now not to say “coffee” but I take a lame stab at the response anyway. It turns out, it’s jasmine. That’s what the sneaky coffee flower smells and even looks like.
It is an easy walk, with caterpillars and leeches, parakeets and hornbills, waterfalls and streams for company all the way. Before we know it, we fetch up in front of the small cafe that doubles as souvenir shop. It’s time for the “Blossom to brew” lesson. I learn to select, roast and powder my own coffee beans. Ah, finally, that aroma I have been dreaming of. And then I get to make my own drink. The south Indian in me can allow nothing other than local filter kaapi (a strong drip decoction lightened with hot milk and sugar) and I sit back to enjoy what I consider my personal blend.
On my way back home, I take a detour for a slice of Tibet. Bylakuppe is the second-largest hub – after Dharamshala – for Tibetan monks in India who followed in the footsteps of their spiritual leader, the Dalai Lama, some 60 years ago.
The cluster of monasteries, stupas and residential areas (divided into old and new Camp) was built in the early 1970s on land given as a gift to the community by the king of Mysore. The most famous of these temples is the Namdroling Monastery with its golden roof (it’s also known as the Golden Temple), that beckons to visitors from a great distance. Turning off the main road, we drive through dusty lanes where the only colour is that of prayer flags fluttering in the morning breeze and the maroon and yellow robes of monks walking in small groups or riding their motorbikes with great style.
A monastery in Bylakuppe, a hub for Tibetan monks in India. Charukesi Ramadurai
While the tourist crowds throng the premises of the temple, taking photographs from all angles, bargaining raucously with local vendors and arguing over where to find the best thukpa and momos in the neighbourhood, it is a completely silent tableau inside. There are three gigantic gilded statues of Buddha, in his states as Shakyamuni, Padmasambhava and Amitayus. On one side of the room, I spot a row of monks poring over their scripture books and chanting in low tones. On my walk around the monastery, I come across another group of monks – young, barely in their teens – engaged in a boisterous game of cricket. I realise then that this Tibetan community here is much like coffee itself: both are settlers from another country who have made Coorg home.
Of course, there is more to Coorg than coffee. History residing in the old temples and ruined forts near the town of Madikeri and adventure that ranges from easy treks to canoe rides all over the region. Then there are the popular picnic spots like the perennial Abbey Falls, the Dubare Elephant Camp and the Talacauvery shrine, from where the River Cauvery (held sacred by locals) originates.
But I ignore all these attractions to stay put in my room, watching the clouds play hide and seek with the green hills.
source: http://www.thenational.ae / The National / Home> Lifestyle> Travel / by Charukesi Ramadurai / October 18th, 2018
Deputy Commissioner P I Sreevidya inaugurates cultural programmes at Gandhi Maidan in Madikeri on account of Dasara celebrations on Friday night.
Heavy music, youth dancing to the tunes of the music, Dashamantapas depicting mythological themes, bhajan, dance, and Kodava traditional music along with a large number of spectators were the highlight of Dasara Shobhayatre which continued till the early hours of Saturday.
After the landslides and flood that ravaged the district in August, organisers of Dasara in Maikeri and Gonikoppa were doubtful of the celebrations.
However, with the efforts of the committees, Dasara was celebrated in a simple manner at Madikeri and Gonikoppa.
Cultural programmes were held in Gonikoppa for few days while in Madikeri, cultural programmes was restricted to Vijayadashami day.
The welcome dance by Kings of Coorg, a bhajan by Ramanjaneya Bhajana Mandali, Kodava dance by Kanoorina Sullimada Gowramma and team, a dance ballet reflecting the culture of Arebhashe language speaking people by Kudekal Santhosh, Kodava dance by Kanoorina Gejjetanda, Ganasude by Samveditha, folk dance by Gandharva in Somwarpet, and Thiruvathira by Malayali Sangha unfolded the cultural diversity of the state.
This year, prizes were not announced for the Dashamantapas (10 tableaux).
Each mantapa was given a sum of Rs 2 lakh. A few mantapas had also given priority to simplicity.
A large number of visitors lined up on the either side of the main streets of the town where the tableaux passed to get a glimpse of the Madikeri Dasara.
Compared to previous years, the number of visitors were less. All the tableaux were disciplined in their performance.
The visitors who had come to take part in Shobhayatre were tired of searching for wine shops as the district administration had prohibited the sale of liquor in a 10-km radius of the town.
A few miscreants who were creating public nuisance before the commencement of the procession of tableaux had to face lathis.
‘Rebuild Kodagu’
Deputy Commissioner P I Sreevidya called upon the people to join hands with the district administration in rebuilding Kodagu district.
Speaking after flagging of cultural programmes organised by Dasara Samithi and the Kannada and Culture Department on Friday, she said, “Dasara was celebrated traditionally in a simple manner.”
SP Suman D Pennekar said, “Dasara represents victory against evil forces. Similarly, we have to keep away bad forces and work towards leading a peaceful life.”
Dasara Samithi President Kaveramma Somanna said, “In the backdrop of the natural calamity, a few programmes were cancelled during Dasara celebrations. Let us pray for the Shakthi Devathas to protect the district in the coming days.”
source: http://www.deccanherald.com / Deccan Herald / Home> State> Districts / by Adithya KA / DH News Service, Madikeri / October 20th, 2018
Foraging has long been a way of life for wild-food loving Coorg
Coffee-picking at an estate in Coorg. Photo: iStock
René Redzepi, the foraging genius who stormed the culinary world with his New Nordic cuisine, would have a lot to smile about in Coorg. Here foraged ingredients don’t just put in an occasional appearance but are the main attraction, making Coorg an interesting region for true-blue wild-food pioneers. The eastern declivities of the Western Ghats that make up Coorg are extensively clothed in forests. Shade-grown coffee plantations offer the ideal habitat for rare flora and fauna to thrive as do sacred groves or devakads, designated as protected forests under the Indian Forest Act.
Against this backdrop is a staggering bounty of indigenous greens, weeds, flowers, fruits, berries, nuts, mushrooms and shoots, many of which play a starring role in the local cuisine.
Gazetteer Of Coorg, first published in 1870, devotes reams to Coorg’s jungle bounty: wild pepper, wild ginger, wild cloves, bitter local oranges known as kaipuli, rose apples, jungle mangoes, bastard sago—esteemed for its toddy—hog plums, several kinds of bamboo shoots, and an alphabetical list of over 60 ferns.
Locals keep their eyes open to what’s growing around them, constantly sizing up culinary possibilities. Freshly plucked cape gooseberries go into jams, a tangle of greens are added to stir-fries, and fronds of tender bracken ferns get pickled and ground into chutneys.
Kaveri Ponnapa, author of The Vanishing Kodavas, says in one of her earlier articles on Coorg: “Most women of my mother-in- law’s generation who lived on coffee plantations never set out on a stroll without the equivalent of the Russian avoska, the ‘maybe’ or ‘perhaps’ mesh bag—you never knew what surprise the season would throw your way.”
Several ingredients are unique to these parts. Like kachampuli, the dark vinegar made from the concentrated juice of the garcinia gummi-gutta fruit (called panapuli locally), which adds a sour kick to pork and fish dishes. And the famous Coorg honey, made from wild roses and forest blooms, which locals drizzle on akki ottis or rice rotis, and eat with ghee for breakfast.
Naveen Alvares, executive chef at Evolve Back Chikkana Halli estate, attributes this love of indigenous ingredients to Coorg’s unique geography and culture. “Kodavas, who make up most of the population, are ancestor worshippers and eat what is available off the land. Most have a plantation background or a sacred forest, so the connect with the land is very strong,” he says.
Walking through the resort’s lush plantations, among the oldest in Coorg, I see the coffee-forest symbiosis in full bloom. Coffee bushes sit beneath a canopy of silver oak trees that support festoons of black pepper. Ginger and turmeric, planted for intercropping, dot the forest floor. Jackfruits hang from trees. You can hear red-whiskered bulbuls chirruping.
Several exotic edibles are to be seen, many of them unconventional in the Indian context. As I stop to admire the bizarre artistry of a passionflower, Alvares smiles, “This is what makes Coorg special. It’s wildness.”
Dinner is a knockout pandi curry. The dark colour and complexity of this most iconic of Coorg pork dishes derives from dark roasted spices and kachampuli, a souring agent Alvares clearly loves.
I drive down from Siddapur to Madikeri the next day. The hour-long journey is jawdroppingly scenic. Acre after acre of coffee plantation presents itself, occasionally punctuated by the whoosh of a waterfall or the brilliant blue of a kingfisher.
A treasure trove of mushroom diversity, the Western Ghats are home to 750 species. Edible fungi known as kummu grow wild on Coorg’s hills and are highly prized for their exotic flavour. Vancouver-based blogger Shalini Nanda Nagappa mentions several varieties in her blog, A Cookery Year In Coorg—“feathery, delicate nucchi kummu and kokkalé kummu, succulent aal kummu, the giant nethalé kummu,..and the decidedly meaty pandi kummu.”
Only locals who carry with them an intimate knowledge of when, where and how to harvest the edible varieties can procure them, Nagappa points out. As a result, these treasures rarely make it to local markets and remain confined to the kitchens of plantation owners and local villagers.
‘Pandi curry’ at the Evovle Back resort.
The pleasures of kummu elude me during this visit, but I do feast on other Kodagu treats at Coorg Cuisine, a popular local restaurant in Madikeri. My lunch companion is M.B. Kumar, a Madikeri-based Kodava agriculturist and plantation owner. The wild mango curry, made with small jungle mangoes or kaad maange and black jaggery, is by turns sweet, sour and peppery. It’s unlike anything I’ve ever tasted. Chewing on a mango kernel, it is love at first bite.
The smoked pork, known as chillkana pandi, packs a meaty savouriness, while the freshness of the forest pervades a bowl of lightly fermented and sauteed baimbale or bamboo shoots. There’s pandi curry, of course, intensely flavoured and addictive as always. And akki ottis and kadumbuttus (rice balls) to mop it all up with.
To put pork’s near sacred place in Coorg’s cuisine in context, Kumar narrates a colourful legend. When Parvati expressed a desire to see Arjuna’s back (the great warrior never showed his back—a sign of weakness—during war), Shiva disguised himself as a hunter and shot a wild boar that Arjuna’s arrow had pierced. An altercation followed. As Arjuna fell over his opponent, his back was revealed, granting Parvati’s wish. A shower of flowers fell from the heavens and the pork was distributed as prasad to the hunting party.
The yarn illustrates the extent to which Coorg’s geographical seclusion has shaped its unique cuisine. “While we Coorgs (Kodavas) treat pork as prasad and offer it to our ancestors during rituals, it would be considered blasphemous to go anywhere near pork in neighbouring Mysuru,” Kumar laughs.
As we eat, Kumar draws my attention to the age-old tradition of foraging for monsoon greens, known as thoppus in Coorg’s interiors. The repertoire of seasonal weeds is dazzling. Thatte thoppu has a slightly bitter taste but tastes delicious with akki ottis and a little ghee; kakke thoppu with its purplish-black fruit is effective in deworming; therme thoppu or bracken ferns taste good simply sautéed with onions and pair divinely with eggs.
During mid-monsoon, on the 18th day of a period known as kakkada, Kodavas pick the leaves of a wild plant called madd thoppu and extract its juice to make a payasam.
The bustling Friday market in Madikeri is chock-full of these supergreens and more. Kembe (colocasia leaves) and kaipuli are up for grabs as are spices and meat. Walking around, it becomes abundantly clear that Kodavas are not just master harvesters, they’re also skilled at altering foodstuffs for preservation by yeast and bacteria. A huge assortment of jams and pickles made from the spoils of the land lines the local stores. Everything is home-made and unbranded.
On my last morning in Coorg, I drop in at Coorg’s Progressive Beekeepers Co-op Society store and pick up a bottle of wild honey to take back home. As I make my way to Bengaluru to catch my flight, the resinous, sour-sweet taste of kaad maange lingers on my tongue.
Wild foods, which grow in their natural habitat without fertilizers or pesticides, don’t deplete the earth’s resources. And they taste incredible. What if we, like Kodavas, thought of the forest as our pantry? Let’s tap into our vast underutilized permacultures and support the foragers who gather these ingredients. Let’s showcase our native treasures at the finest restaurants through dishes that startle with their newness and intensity.
Let’s go wild.
source: http://www.livemint.com / Live Mint / Home> Leisure / by Sona Bahadur / October 21st, 2018
‘Karagas’ of ‘Shaktidevata’, the four goddesses, being offered a puja at Pampinakere in Madikeri, as a mark of the commencement of Dasara celebrations on Wednesday.
The traditional Madikeri Dasara kickstarted, though in a sober way, on Wednesday.
As per the age old custom, Madikeri Dasara celebrations commenced by offering puja to the decked up ‘Karagas’ of four ‘Shaktidevata’ Goddesses – ‘Kanchi Kamakshiyamma’, ‘Kote Mariyamma’, ‘Kunduru Chowti Mariyamma’ and ‘Dandina Mariyamma’ at Pampinakere, in the presence of Dasara committee members, elected representatives and devotees.
Special prayers were offered to the deities, seeking protection from natural calamities.
After Karagotsava, a procession was taken out from Pampinakere to Chowdeshwari Temple, through A V School and Mahdevpet Road.
Hundreds of devotees stood beside the road to have a glimpse of the Karagas.
From Thursday, all the four Karagas will visit houses and the devotees will welcome the Goddesses by washing the feet of the persons who carry the Karaga, along with fulfilling their vows, as per the age old custom.
History of Karagotsava
Karagotsava, observed as a part of Navarathri celebrations in Madikeri, has an interesting background.
The religious leaders had sought a divine intervention when the whole district was affected with an epidemic. As per the suggestion of the priests, it was decided to carry out ‘Karaga puja’ to appease the four ‘Shaktidevata’ and accordingly, the spread of epidemic was contained. The tradition has been continuing ever since then.
However, Madikeri Dasara is being observed in a simple way, owing to the massive floods in the district.
No rejoicing
Though the state government has released a grant of Rs 50 lakh, people are in no mood to rejoice. No festivity is in the air, except the flexes and banners wishing people for Navarathri festivity.
As the fear of floods and landslides still haunts tourists, the district is likely to see poor footfall during the Madikeri Dasara celebrations.
The resort and homestay owners have been campaigning to promote tourism, after the recent floods had a cascading impact on the tourism sector.
Inspiration drawn from fashion capitals like Paris or Japan in the business of design is routine. However, when you hear of a handbag collection that is inspired by the Kodagu district of Karnataka, the offbeat element is intriguing. Bengaluru-based luxury handbag label, Aranyani, has launched a line of totes, hobos and clutches that narrate design influenced by Kodagu’s landscape and culture.
“This collection tells the story of Kodagu, its flora and fauna, and culture seen through the eyes of its princess Victoria Gowramma, the first Indian royal to have landed in Britain in 1952. The bags are made with goat’s leather and handloom from Salem,” said CEO Haresh Mirpuri, who launched the label a year ago.
“Kodagu is known for its 250 species of birds like peacocks and birds of paradise that have translated into our design story in the form of motifs and colour schemes. The waterfalls of the mountain province, the nari-mangala or tiger wedding culture and medallions worn by brides at their wedding have been woven into the collection story,” he explained.
Interestingly, Mirpuri was stranded in flood-stricken Kodagu while working on this collection. “My brand draws inspiration from nature for all our lines. Stranded in Kodagu during its recent heavy monsoon and witnessing the devastation first-hand made me realize that we need to be serious and champion the cause of nature,” he said.
The Bengaluru brand has a celebrity client list that includes names like Hollywood singer Vanessa Williams and Bollywood actor Chitrangada Singh and comes in the price range of Rs 8000-75000.
Currently, it is retailed at flagship stores in Bengaluru, Surat and New York. Soon, they will expand to Delhi and Bali.
source: http://www.economictimes.indiatimes.com / The Economic Times / Home> Panache / by Smita Balram, Economic Times Bureau / October 11th, 2018
Gulshan Devaiah, who is set to experiment with a Bihari avatar in the web series Smoke, says he prefers challenging roles over those he can do easily. “Challenges attract me.
Roles that are difficult and that need work are ones that interest me. Roles I feel I can sleepwalk in don’t attract me. I give these roles everything I possibly can and then it’s for the audience to enjoy it or not,” Gulshan said.
Be it the Maharashtrian Mandar Ponkshe in Hunterrr or Kutchi Bhavani in Ram-Leela, Chittappa Gowda from That Girl in Yellow Boots or the Goan Ricky in Dum Maaro Dum, Gulshan has displayed his versatility in his projects.
Smoke is being touted as a gritty and dark crime drama set in the underbelly of Goa. It will premiere at the global entertainment content market MIPCOM 2018 in Cannes under the ‘Made in India Originals’ category on October 15.
According to a source, Gulshan kept his Bihari accent on and off the set throughout the duration of the shoot of Smoke, which will release digitally on October 26.
He will also be seen in a double role in Mard Ko Dard Nahi Hota and as a parallel lead with Vidyut Jammwal in Commando 3.
source: http://www.ahmedabadmirror.indiatimes.com / Ahmedabad Mirror / Home> Entertainment> Bollywood / IANS / October 11th, 2018
The inauguration of Mysuru Dasara on Wednesday came with a special gift for the people of Kodagu, who were hit by floods and landslips recently. Infosys Foundation has announced a grant of Rs. 25 crore for construction of houses in the district.
Foundation chairperson Sudha Murty, who inaugurated the festivities, made the announcement in the presence of Chief Minister H.D. Kumaraswamy. In her address, Ms. Murty said her foundation would build houses for the distressed people of flood-ravaged Kodagu if the government came forward with land for it.
She also promised to contribute more for restoring the Hebbal lake in Mysuru, on whose rejuvenation the foundation is spending Rs. 35 crore. Ms. Murty is the first woman to inaugurate the Mysuru Dasara festivities in decades
source: http://www.thehindu.com / The Hindu / Home> National> Karnataka / by Special Correspondent / Mysuru – October 11th, 2018
WELCOME. If you like what you see "SUBSCRIBE via EMAIL" to receive FREE regular UPDATES.
Read More »
