Monthly Archives: August 2016
Across the nation for that perfect cuppa!
If you were an entrepreneur, you would know the kind of ground work that has to take place before kick-starting your business.
Timothy Immanuel and his wife Sharon Dominica, who hope to start a coffee shop soon, understood the importance of research and decided to tweak this tedious process to make it more fun.
They decided to travel across the country to explore various kinds of coffee, their origins and methods of preparation, covering states like UP, Delhi, Haryana, Rajasthan, Gujarat, Maharashtra, Goa, Karnataka, Kerela and Tamil Nadu.
“We love long drives, and thought that this was an opportunity for one memorable drive. We have driven to different parts of UP, Jaipur and even Nepal earlier. But this would be much longer and had to be planned carefully,” says Sharon.
Although coffee is harder to grow, as compared to tea, India is the second largest coffee producer in the world and is home to a large number of plantations.
Timothy explains, “There are two main types of coffee beans – arabica and robusta, and we grow both in India. The Indian robusta bean is one of the best in the world. We learnt about all the various stages of coffee-making, in order to make sure the customer in our cafe gets the perfect cup.”
Timothy who studied hotel management and worked as an Associate Team Leader, Food and Beverage, at a five star hotel Bangalore, moved on to do his MBA, then worked as a HR consultant, while Sharon is an Occupational Therapist by profession. T
he whole idea of a coffee shop sprung up because in Noida, where they were based, there were hardly any places for people to hang out, relax, and spend time with friends and family. They thought this would be the perfect opportunity to make that happen. They started attending tea appreciation workshops and a coffee training by the coffee board of India in Bangalore.
Some of their discoveries include realising that all tea comes from one type of plant, realising that most of India drinks the lowest grades of coffee and tea, that good tea has an amazing smell of its own, and that coffee doesn’t necessarily need to be bitter. Timothy and Sharon also enjoyed sharing their experiences and getting feedback on their facebook page drive across india for coffee
The coffee shop will be located at Noida. “We want to call it The Haven, as we hope that it will be a refuge for people in our community.
In our coffee shop, we want people to experience really high quality, and specialty coffee and tea at reasonable prices. We want to give the average Indian an opportunity to go on a journey in tea and coffee, experience different types, and find out what they like. We also want to teach people more about coffee and tea.
When asked why they would go through such lengths to start a coffee shop, Sharon explains, “We want to give the best quality to our customers. The more thoroughly we’re informed, the more chances there are of succeeding.”
Reach out: http://bit.ly/2bKZaXm
source: http://www.newindianexpress.com / The New Indian Express / Home> Education> Edex / by Blessy Mathew Prasad / August 22nd, 2016
Team Coorg wins Independence Day Trophy
Muscat :
Team Coorg Muscat and Friends of Naqvi Group under the patronage of Embassy of India and in coordination with Oman Hockey Association organised the 70th Independence Day commemoration Hockey Festival at Sultan Qaboos Sports Complex recently. It was the tenth year in a row the event was held.
The Ambassador of India H E Indra Mani Pandey was the chief guest who distributed the prizes to all participants.
It was a great jubilation and historic moment for the organisers as president of FIH Leonardo Negre, CEO of AHF Dato Sree Tayyab Ikram sent their best wishes for the success of the hockey festival.
Dr Omar Zawawi, a great supporter for hockey had offered to sponsor the event and Waleed Associates were the main sponsors. Pramod Karajgikar attended on behalf of Waleed Associates. The Hockey Festival started with the national anthem of India and Oman presented by the Indian School Seeb choir.
The Indian School Muscat exhibited a parade and a march past.
The Independence Day trophy was won by Team Coorg Muscat for the second year in a row by defeating UTSC Muscat in a thrilling match by 3-2.
The Ambassador XI won the second time as they were the winners in 2015 of the Ambassador Cup.
The Ambassador XI won the 2016 cup by defeating Indian School Seeb in a tie breaker.
The 70th Independence Day Hockey Festival organisers expressed their sincere thanks and gratitude to participating teams from Oman and UAE.
In this connection the contribution by Bellu Kuttapa, Mohammed Raffe, Javis Ahmed and Liju Hassan is noteworthy.
The chairman of the organising committee S A S Naqvi along with Bellu Kuttapa expressed their gratitude to the sponsors and the Embassy of India.
source : http://www.muscatdaily.com / MuscatDaily.com / Home / August 21st, 2016
WSF World Doubles: Saurav Ghosal and Dipika Pallikal settle for silver in mixed doubles
This is the first time that India clinched three medals from this event.
India finished a historic campaign at the WSF World International Doubles at Marrara, Darwin in Australia on Thursday with three medals for the first time in the history of the championships. The second-seeded mixed doubles pair of Saurav Ghosal and Dipika Pallikal had to settle for silver in the summit clash where they lost to the third seeds Paul Coll and Joelle King of New Zealand, 8-11, 8-11 in 34 minutes.
Besides that, the second Indian mixed doubles pair of Harinderpal Sandhu and Joshna Chinappa as well as the top-seeded women’s doubles team of Chinappa and Pallikal both captured the bronze after losing their respective semi-finals.
Pallikal and Ghosal had prevailed over the Kiwi mixed doubles pair in a tight match a day earlier in their final group assignment and were thus considered the favourites. But King and Coll put up a determined show that took the game out of the Indians’ hands.
By constantly varying their pace and returns, they never allowed the Indians to build a rhythm. The Kiwi pair’s dropshots and their strategy of keeping the ball in the middle paid rich dividends.
The Indians had more chances in the second game which was neck and neck. But Coll and King applied just the right amount of pressure in the end, to seal the win in straight games.
The performance of all the Indian players at the World Doubles earned praise from the national coach Cyrus Poncha who called it a ‘fabulous show’.“Whichever way one viewed it, this has been a fabulous show overall by the Indians.
Returning with three medals is something to be proud of and the players surely need a pat on their backs for this,” said Poncha, who was with the squad in Darwin.
The Indians will now be turning their attention to the season’s first World Series event – the Hong Kong Open that starts on August 23.
source: http://www.sportskeeda.com / SportsKeeda / Homepage> Squash> News / by Sudeshna Banerjee @Sudsports / August 18th, 2016
Flying Squirrel perks a plan to serve artisan coffee
Bengaluru-based firm plans to take its product from online to roastery-cum-cafés
Mumbai :
Artisan roasted gourmet coffee might not grab you attention. But when it is named Flying Squirrel it does stir up some interest, especially when one shares a cup with Ashish D’Abreo, hardcore filter coffee drinker and founder of Flying Squirrel, who is more than happy to spill the beans on the growing coffee market.
A Creative Director with Origami, an advertising firm in Bengaluru, for 15 years, Ashish noticed how the coffee being served to the clients in the firm repeatedly came in for high accolades. Personally, Ashish dreamt of having different variants of filter coffee every day of the week. He decided to team up with his college friend Tej Thammaiah.
“Tej is a third-generation coffee farmer and owns a coffee estate (Nellikad Estate) at Pollibetta in Coorg; so a no-brainer. Since college days, we used to have his coffee in our house every morning. Some three years ago, we thought: ‘Why not bring this coffee in the open, why not have a lot more people experience the joy of a personalised and creatively cultivated brand of coffee,” says D’Abreo.
And so started the research and development process on Tej’s coffee estate, “to develop the beans and experiment with the growing and the drying processes, so as to arrive at certain points we were proud of,” says D’Abreo. The two-year-long R&D process netted six different variants of coffee, but “there was no one in the mail-order coffee business at that time to take this ahead.”
Working with an advertising firm helped, given its expertise in branding, design, digital marketing and advertising. Three other partners in the advertising firm, “who saw value in the idea” pitched in.
Since one of the most frequent visitors on the coffee estate was the Malabar flying squirrel, the team decided naming the company Flying Squirrel.
“Our coffee was launched two-and-a-half years ago. We partnered with logisitics company GoJavas, (which shut operations last week), at the outset, due to which we managed deliveries across India from day one 1,” reminisces D’Abreo.
He went on to add that initially, roasting of the coffee beans would be done only once a week. “We now do it thrice a week, given the jump in orders. Depending on customer orders, we collate and roast the beans either in medium roast, dark roast, or fine grind. Each pack is customised.”
Shelf life
The company does not have any huge machinery. “We roast the coffee 15 minutes before sealing each pack,” says D’Abreo, who believes in the dictum that exclusivity of freshly ground coffee goes to waste when coffee products are stored in shelves for an extended period of time.
“Not many people know, but coffee is a perishable product. Filter coffee, especially, should be consumed within a month of roasting. There is no harsh taste, no aroma, no flavour left afterwards, and the notes have all but vanished. We set out to solve this problem. We have hardly any retail shelf life.”
Flying Squirrel is currently available online. Its “exclusive personalised roasting” ensures a better coffee experience for avid filter coffee drinkers, affirms D’Abreo, who quit his post at Origami three months ago, to devote himself full-time to the coffee business.
The next chapter is to get into the cafe business. “We would like to bring this experience to a coffee drinker at the ground level, apart from online sales. So we decided to start a roastery, do the roasting in-house and run a roastery-cum-café.”
The first of such cafés has opened shop at Koramangala in Bengaluru. The plan is to have multiple such cafés in Bengaluru and Goa. Most of the coffee beans are sourced from Thammaiah’s estate.
Somwarpet playgrounds in need of better facilities
The taluk is considered as an abode of talented sportspersons. But the lack of facilities has discouraged the growth of budding sports talents.
Somwarpet has produced some of the best sportspersons in state, national and international levels. It still lacks a state-of-the-art playground.
At present, the taluk has two playgrounds — one at the Government Pre-university College and another at Government Higher Primary School.
B P Govind, M P Ganesh, Arjun Halappa, S V Sunil and Vikram Kanth are some of the sportspersons who had their humbe beginnings, practising at these playgrounds. These two playgrounds are in a pathetic state and have become marshy fields.
In summer, children are trained in hockey and cricket at these playgrounds. The playgrounds are not suitable to hold large tournaments. In the past, organisers of various sports tournaments had repaired the ground in their own expenses.
The PU college ground was developed at a cost of Rs 6 lakh 25 years ago. The then Zilla Parishat president J A Karumbaiah and member N M Rajshekhar had laid the foundation stone stone for its construction work.
Despite spending lakh of rupees, the condition of the ground has not improved so far. The playground has an uneven terreain. Also, the pavillion’s construction is unscientific as it does not prevent sun rays properly.
Though turf laying work was taken up two years ago at the playground, the project has remained incomplete. It has added to the existing problems. Organising taluk- or district-level sports tournaments is almost impossible in this condition.
Moreover, there is no water supply to toilets in the stadium. Also, Garbage is being littered all around, creating an unhygienic atmosphere near the gallery. There are no takers for the gymnasium in the playground and equipment worth lakh of rupees are being wasted. Sportsperson Prashant said the playground needs AstroTurf facility. Also, a state-of-the-art gallery is the need of the hour, he added.
The Department of Youth Empowerment and Sports had forwarded a letter to the Public Works Department for identifying a 10-acre land for the construction of a 400-metre track, long ago. But the work has not yet been initiated so far.
source: http://www.deccanherald.com / Deccan Herald / Home> District / DHNS – Somwarpet, August 18th, 2016
Harshika Poonacha at US India Day parade
Sandalwood actress Harshika Poonacha was recently spotted at the India Day Parade in New Jersey, the US. The event, which was conducted to celebrate the nation’s 70th Independence Day, witnessed a turnout of as many as 50,000 people.
According to reports, the participants carried flags, danced to music and evoked so much enthusiasm that security officer struggled to keep the spectators off the parade route at times. The event drew over 20 floats from organizations ranging from the India Business Association to Air India, which had pilots in uniform to waving to the crowd.
source: http://www.timesofindia.indiatimes.com / The Times of India / News Home> Entertainment> Kannada> Movies / TNN / August 17th, 2016
Kodagu’s megalithic link unearthed
3000-yr-old site discovered during temple renovation.
Mangaluru:
A megalithic burial site comprising a Menhir, and a complex of dolmens with unique pottery, possibly dating back to around 3,000 years, has been discovered near the Cauvery river at Siddalingapura- Arasinakuppe in Kodagu.
While a dolmen is a square stone structure with primary or secondary bone remains and pottery covered by a mega capstone, a Menhir is a large upright undressed stone standing on or near the burial site.
The megalithic site was discovered by chance during the renovation of the Sri Manjunatha Temple at Siddalingapura-Arasinakuppe, while land was being levelled behind it. A more detailed inspection was carried out by a team from the Department of Ancient History and Archaeology, MSRS College, headed by department head, T Murugeshi.
“We found a complex of dolmens buried in the soil with each having its own stone circle. There could be hundreds of dolmens. One has been damaged and is being used as a dumpyard,” Prof Murugeshi told Deccan Chronicle. The Menhir, which is 3.15 meters tall and one meter wide, is reportedly the tallest found in the region.
“This is clearly a megalithic site. But more excavation is needed to clearly understand the things found here. The pyriform black jar found here is a rare one. Such jars were used to bury the remains of the head of a community, a priest or some important person at the time,” the professor explained.
The department of Ancient History and Archaeology at the college intends to excavate the site.
source: http://www.deccanchronicle.com / Deccan Chronicle / Home> Nation- In other news / by Gururaj A Paniyadi / August 17th, 2016
Citizens celebrate Kakkada Namme with fervour
Kakkada Namme programme was held at Kodava Samaja in Kutta in Virajpet on Sunday, where people from across the district took part in large numbers.
Mallengada Dada Bellyappa, Federation of Kodava Samaja former president, inaugurated the programme and said that the Kodava culture has its own uniqueness and Kodava people are known for their cultural identity.
The special dishes, ‘Madd Putt’ and ‘Madd Payasa’, prepared during the month of Kakkada, have a significant place in Kodava culture, reminded the former president.
He, meanwhile, lamented that the traditional Kodava cuisine is being forgotten these days, adding that, in the earlier days, the relatives themselves prepared the special dishes during marriage and other occasions.
Kodava Samaja, Kutta, President Kallichanda Vishnu Cariappa presided over the formal function and said that people of Kodava community should come together to celebrate various occasions such as Kakkada Namme.
source: http://www.deccanherald.com / Deccan Herald / Home> District / DHNS – Madikeri, August 15th, 2016
Long weekend fills up all tourist destinations
It was the weekend many were awaiting for. Several popular tourist destinations in Karnataka had started putting up ‘houseful’ boards weeks before the long weekend that culminates on Independence Day. Travel agents and tour operators say though an Independence Day holiday is typically a busy time for them, this year has seen a marked interest among visitors.
Those looking for a quick getaway are taking advantage of the freedom from work beginning with a holiday for the Varamahalakshmi festival on Friday, followed by the weekend and Independence Day on Monday. Kodagu, Chikkamagaluru and Hampi are said to be the preferred destinations. Sanjar Imam, president of Karnataka Tourism Forum, said accommodation was sold out by the beginning of July. “Otherwise, we do see bookings even in August. Some people are driving out to places as far as Goa, which is 10 hours by road from Bengaluru,” he added.
Navin Poonacha from the Coorg Homestay Association said people were coming from Bengaluru, Mysuru and Chennai, though Kodagu district was seeing ‘heavy traffic’ from Kerala as well.
With brand new options for accommodation coming up in Hampi and Sakleshpur, traffic to these two places is picking up, travel agents say.
Some regular travellers are setting out on longer expeditions than they usually do. One of them is Mustaq Ahmed, who will be biking to Kodaikanal with three friends instead of the shorter rides to places like Kolar.
Kerala losing out?
Restriction on liquor coupled with a hike in entry taxes for commercial vehicles from Karnataka are said to be causing a ‘negative trend’ in travel to Kerala. M. Ravi of Arjun Tours and Travels Private Ltd. spoke of a 10 to 15 per cent drop in bookings of commercial vehicles to Kerala in the context of a long weekend.
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Popular spots
Chikkamagaluru
Hampi
Kodagu
Sakleshpur
Nagarahole, Bandipur national parks
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source: http://www.thehindu.com / The Hindu / Home> News> Cities> Bengaluru / by Staff Reporter / Bengaluru – August 13th, 2016
