Dipika Pallikal Karthik upset the top-seeded Anni Au while Joshna Chinappa made light work of the sixth-seeded Tong Tsz Wing.
It will be an all-India final for the first time ever in the Asian Squash championship when Joshna Chinappa and Dipika Pallikal Karthik clash in the women’s singles event.
The two Indian women made the final of the tournament with contrasting wins.
While Pallikal, seeded fourth, upset top seed Annie Au of Hong Kong 11-9 7-11 11-7 11-9, the second seeded Chinappa made short work of Hong Kong’s sixth-seed Tong Tsz Wing 11-6 11-4 11-8 to storm into the final.
In the first semifinal, Pallikal stunned Au in 50 minutes.
Starting brilliantly against the pre-tournament favourite, Pallikal took the opening game to lay down the marker. However, Au came back strongly to claim the second game with a series of impressive stroke-making.
Pallikal seized the initiative from thereon and kept Au off balance by staying aggressive.
The Chennai-based Pallikal closed out the match for a memorable win.
With this victory, Pallikal has posted only her third win over the Hong Kong player, ranked 11th in the world, in 10 meetings.
Chinappa, meanwhile, completely dominated her rival as she took the first two games easily before Wing posed a challenge in the third.
But the Indian shut her rival out to win in front of a cheering crowd at the Express Avenue mall here.
Earlier, men’s top-seed Max Lee of Hong Kong ousted third seeded Malaysian Nafiizwan Adnan 12-10 11-6 11-5 in 51 minutes to book his spot in the final.
source: http://www.indianexpress.com / Indian Express / Home> IE Sports / by PTI / Chennai – April 29th, 2017
The Flying Squirrel serves high quality artisanal coffees
Catching up over coffee these days seems passé. The same cold coffee served under some fancy name, leaves you confused over whether you are drinking melted ice or cold milk. But all is not lost for coffee connoisseurs. There are cafes committed to serving the best coffee without compromising on quality.
The Flying Squirrel, located in a bustling food street in Koramangala, stands out for their high quality artisanal speciality coffees. The cool 36-seater micro roastery and cafe has a relaxed ambience with plenty of natural light streaming in. Make no mistake, though, this is no ordinary cafe. It is a coffee brand and the emphasis is on coffee, there’s no deviating from that.
The Flying Squirrel, started in 2013, by Tej Thammaiah and Ashish DÁbreo, has coffee beans sourced directly from an estate in Coorg, from where the cafe has got its name. One of the common sightings at the estate is the flying squirrel.
It is also where coffee is freshly roasted and ground before it is retailed within the city and to other parts of the country.
As you enter the micro roastery and cafe, the aroma of freshly roasted coffee and the sound of swirling in the coffee machine, fills the air. We make ourselves comfortable and then look through the menu, which has salads and burgers to choose from. The emphasis is on the coffees, which are available as pour over, espresso or Americano, cappuccino, and latte. We can’t wait to try their signature coffees, so we order parama cuppaccino , a blend of arabica and robusta. Its smooth taste gives you ‘coffee coma’ so to speak. Eager to try another variety, we are served clouds in my coffee, which has a bolder flavour than parama, but it leaves you refreshed. ‘Tis the season for cold brews, which is a welcome addition to the menu to beat the sweltering heat. So we sample citrus bloom cold coffee, infused with a hint of orange, which is a burst of delightful mildly sweet flavours.
The food has been specially designed to complement the coffees, which is central to the menu. We try the buckwheat noodles with smoked salmon. It is fresh and healthy, but the salmon slow cooked in olive oil gives it a delicious twist. There’s the Coorg bird eye chilli (grown in Coorg) spaghetti with jumbo shrimps that is again mildly flavoured. And if we thought that the food couldn’t get any better, we are serve millet lasagna.
Wrapped in multi-millet and grain lasagna sheets with baby spinach and mushroom filling. YUM! The beef burger is served with a lovely relish and fries.
Here is a place that feels like home. Where you can spend some quality time with friends over freshly brewed coffee in large servings.
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The Flying Squirrel Micro Roastery and Café /
@136, 1st Cross Road, 5th Block, Koramangala /
HITS:Coffees and millet lasagna /
MISSES:Beef burger/
MEAL FOR TWO:Rs. 1,200 /
: 40991044
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source: http://www.thehindu.com / The Hindu / Home> Features> Metro Plus / by Sravasti Datta / April 28th, 2017
If you are an avid coffee lover and miss the taste and aroma of filter coffee when you travel outside Karnataka, here is an instant solution.
Mysuru-based HABICAF (Habit and Coffee) has come up with a readymade coffee decoction that will give you authentic coffee filter anytime you desire. They will be in Bengaluru from April 28 to 30 as part of the Organic and Millet Nation Trade fair at Palace Grounds.
HABICAF which started marketing and selling its product in October last year is getting a good response. Vijai Bopanna hails from Kodagu, and for him, coffee estates were a common sight at his native, Gonikoppa. “I tried a couple of other ventures before starting HABICAF a few months ago. As packaging, we are supplying filter coffee decoction in a sachet with a nozzle,’’ he says. The sachet is specially designed to retain the aroma of the coffee, Bopanna adds. He says that they make filter coffee with the coffee powder from his hometown.
“We use the traditional method to extract decoction, just like we do at home, but in a larger quantity. We add Central Food Technological Research Institute (CFTRI) – approved preservative that keeps the decoction fresh for longer time,” he adds. M S Jayashree is his partner in the venture. If the seal is not opened, one can use the decoction up to six months. If the seal of the nozzle is opened, it can be used up to 20 days without the need for refrigeration and 30 days when kept in a refrigerator. Each sachet contains 200 ml of decoction and can prepare 30 to 40 standard sized cups of coffee, depending on how strong the person loves his or her coffee.
According to Bopanna, most of the coffee beans are procured from Coorg, Sakleshpur and Chikmagalur. For civet coffee, they are procuring beans from Indonesia. “We are coming up with many other flavours other than the regular coffee. Our flavours will be Vanilla, Cinnamon, Hazelnut and much more. We also coming up with herbals. There is cold brew coffee which can be served cold and without milk,’’he adds.
HABICAF decoction is available in Mysuru and Bengaluru. “Very soon we are planning to sell our products through an e-commerce platform,’’ he says. “Right from getting the beans, making powder, adding chicory, extracting decoction, 90 percent of our processing is natural,’’ he adds.
source: http://www.newindianexpress.com / The New Indian Express / Home> Cities> Bengaluru / by Ashwin S. Sripad / Express News Service / April 26th, 2017
After shaking a leg for a special song in Case No. 18/9, Harshika Poonacha is all set to spin her dance magic in Srujan Lokesh’s Happy Journey — one that she calls a proper item number.
Speaking to a daily about the song, Harshika said that she feels that every actress needs a super-hit number, and after having heard the song in Happy Journey, she was bowled over and was sure that it would be a hit.
Harshika is a dancer and her thirst to be in an all-out dance number seems to have finally been fulfilled.
source: http://www.timesofindia.indiatimes.com / The Times of India / News> Entertainment> Kannada> Movies> News / TNN / April 15th, 2017
While Gautam Gambhir and Darren Bravo were punishing the Kolkata Knight Riders bowlers at will during the team’s pre-match training on Tuesday, Robin Uthappa didn’t even pick up the bat at the Maharashtra Cricket Association stadium. Instead, with his headphones plugged onto his ears with a nonchalant look, he preferred to do his sprints.
Come Wednesday, however, the Bangalorean blasted the Rising Pune Supergiant bowlers to hog the limelight. No doubt he was fortunate to have been dropped on the boundary line early on in his innings. But the manner in which he exploded thereafter — scoring a 47-ball 87 — to help Knight Riders overhaul a target of 183 with no trouble was an exhibition of Uthappa at his best.
Such was Uthappa’s onslaught, especially against the Supergiant spinners — he fetched 57 runs off 25 balls, that the wicketkeeper-batsman stole the thunder from Gambhir, who was featuring in his 100th game for Knight Riders.
The belligerent knock turned out to be a perfect icing on the cake for Uthappa, who had earlier did his glovework to perfection. His three stumpings were instrumental in Supergiant being unable to run away with the game in the first innings.
No doubt that young chinaman Kuldeep Yadav, who combined with Uthappa to see the back of M.S. Dhoni and Manoj Tiwary in the same over, lavished praise on his senior teammate.
“85-plus is a very good score in T20. As compared to Test level, it would be around 150. In T20 if someone scores around 85, you have almost won the match,” said Kuldeep. “He batted very well and was good in wicketkeeping. He has been working very hard on it. Hopefully, he continues to do the wicketkeeping like this.”
Under-rated performer
Uthappa may have had a quiet season of domestic cricket, losing his place in the Karnataka Ranji Trophy squad for the first time in a decade. But when it comes to the IPL, the 31-year-old is one of the most reliable batsmen. However, despite having entered the list of top-5 run-getters in the IPL, Uthappa is often not given his due as the backbone of the squad.
During his 10-edition stint in the IPL — spanned across four different teams — he has put in impressive performances on a consistent basis. Still, he is not often considered in the league of top IPL batsmen. No wonder then that Matthew Hayden, the former Australian opener, called him an “under-rated” batsman in T20.
Over the last couple of years, having tied the knot with his long-time girlfriend Sheetal, Uthappa has tempered down. If he continues to remain at his nonchalant best, as was evident on Tuesday, he would do a world of good for himself and Knight Riders.
source: http://www.thehindu.com / The Hindu / Home> Sport> Cricket / by Amol Karhadkar / Pune – April 27th, 2017
Lord Shiva temple accessible to devotees after 33 years as water in Chiklihole reservoir near Suntikoppa recedes
Summer is peaking in the state to compound the prevailing drought and as a result of receding water levels in dams across the state, submerged structures have been resurfacing. With some of the buildings showing up being temples, people have some reason to celebrate even in the eventuality of a shortage of water. So it is, at the Chiklihole dam near Suntikoppa of Kodagu district, after a lord Shiva temple emerged recently.
The temple that was submerged in the reservoir is visible for the first time in 33 years. The spot has since been attracting tourists, who are otherwise missing the pleasing sight of surging waters in the Cauvery catchment area in Kodagu they have been familiar with.
The Chiklihole reservoir, from which water is supplied to farmers of Kushalanagar, Rangasamudra, Bettageri, Nanjaraya Pattana and Guddehosuru among others, has a storage capacity of 0.18 TMC.
The temple area was included in the Chiklihole dam basin in 1983, after experts concluded the land was a good source of water. The government ordered an alternative temple to be built nearby, and in 1993, a Magdooru family constructed the temple of Vishwanatha and installed the main idol of lord Shiva from the old temple in it.
That Vishwanatha temple of Magdooru went on to become famous.
According to residents of Magdooru, Shivaratri is celebrated grandly in the new temple of their village, but with them now being able to access the old temple, they will celebrate the festival even better. Sai Kumar of the Magadooru family, which hails from Kerala, told Bangalore Mirror, “Our ancestors moved from Kerala to this place
in 1947 and they constructed the temple in 1969. As the temple was sunk in the reservoir in 1983, we constructed another one in 1993 on land allotted by the government. We are very happy to see the original temple now.”
Karthik Prasad, a tourist from Mysuru, visits the reservoir at least once a year. “This year I saw the temple, which was like a fantasy,” he said.
source: http://www.bangaloremirror.indiatimes.com / Bangalore Mirror / Home> News> State / by Bangalore Mirror Bureau / by Manoj Sharma / April 26th, 2017
Hockey Coorg made it three out of three with a 9-0 thrashing of Telangana Hockey in a Pool C encounter of the Hockey India sub-junior men’s Nationals here on Thursday.
Hat-tricks by N.T. Tarun and Ashik Uthappa ensured that Coorg is yet to drop a point while all the other teams in the pool have.
Elswhere, Namdhari XI followed up its 20-0 win on Tuesday against Goa with another huge win — 15-0 over Hockey Puducherry.
The results: Pool B: Namdhari XI 15 (Hanspal Singh 4, 22, 29, 35, 44, 45, 59; Hardeep Singh 41, 49, 58; Princepal Singh 34, 69; Jaskaran Singh 63, 65; Surpreet Singh 8) bt Hockey Puducherry 0.
Every year, during the months of April and May, different villages in Kodagu celebrate an interesting festival called Boad namme. Usually these celebrations are associated with the shrines of Bhadrakali.
Residents of Chembebelloor, Bilugunda and other villages roister around their respective temples on different days. The observances, however, begin with a stringent period called pattani. During this period, certain foods and activities are prohibited.
Celebrations
The revelry that follows has boys and men wear various guises and dance around the village.During that night and the following day, these performers masquerade around the town. They are accompanied by musicians who mostly play percussion. Some of the entertainers participate in band kali, while others participate in puli vesha.
Apart from these two, several other enactments are displayed by various entertainers. The Chembebelloor Bhadrakali Temple is west-facing and there is a small Mahadeva shrine inside the temple. One performer carries the moga, a parasol with a mask upon it, of Bhadrakali and performs the theray. A theray, a sacred dance ritual by costumed dancers who emulate spirit deities, is organised at the shrine. During the day of the kudure aata (horse play), teenaged boys wear horse-shaped cane frames around them. One horse performer comes from each of the three hamlets (keri) of Chembebelloor.
According to Coluvanda Jappu, a resident of Chembebelloor, the village comprises three keris: Podakote, Podikeri and Nadikeri. Performers and residents from the three keris gather in the ambala, a public gathering place at the centre of the village. When I had attended the festival last year, there was one performer, in black rags and a tin over his head, who called himself a bear.
Others included people in priestly garbs. Last year’s attraction, however, was a set of men who dressed up as Spartans, in purple chitons and hoplite helmets with red coloured mock horsehair tufts on top.
Folk singers from the Kundera and other families paid a visit. They sang the mane paat, a song in praise of the resident family they visited, while they struck on drums that they carried. Later, we went to the temple yard where we sat and watched with the rest of the villagers. Some villagers with leafy twigs kept in their shirt collars entered the temple at the head of procession, as per tradition. All the actors and musicians entered the shrine after them.
Horse leads the way
Bhadrakali Temple of Bilugunda is in what was the village of Bonda and now between the Bilugunda and Nalvathokkal villages. It is south-facing and has two entrances: one leads to the south and the other to the east. During the Bilugunda Boad namme, the people of Bilugunda enter from the east while the people of Nalvathokkal enter from the south.
In Bonda, dand theray (two theray) and naal theray (four theray) happen in alternative years. During dand theray, as in last year, Bhadrakali and her sister Karikali are impersonated while during naal theray the two daughters of Karikali, one of them being incapable of speech, are also emulated.
The Bonda theray performers dress in white panches around which are tied red skirts that are held up by canes. Upon each of their white turbaned heads they hold up flat wooden framed white umbrellas each of which have flowers and a metal mask of the fanged goddesses. At the back of this parasol hangs a red cloth.
The chief oracle wears a white panche, is independent of the theray, and is called a thiralekara. One horse performer comes from Bilugunda, while another comes from Nalvathokkal. The nine extended families and 18 houses of Bilugunda take turns every year to have a teenaged boy become the horse performer, and a younger boy dresses up as a woman. Traditionally, the horse and the woman performances happened on separate days but now, due to time constraints, they happen on the same day. Last year, Mandepanda Dali, a folk singer, and other folk singers sat within the Madappanda house and sang the dudi paat as some of us listened.
The horse performers wore white turbans, long shirts, trousers and horse frames. They were accompanied by a procession comprising their respective family and village members. A thiralekara walked before each performer while another man carried the traditional oide katti, a war knife, and walked beside him. Two other men carried dudi drums and sticks. A young girl carried a lighted oil lamp on a plate.
A small boy from Bilugunda, who, as an exception, was from the Iynanda family, was dressed in a simple red sari. He carried a mirror and a betel leaf in his hands and walked behind the horse performer. A woman accompanied him in order to help him with the dress if required. Likewise, there was another young boy from Nalvathokkal as well.
Both horse performers came and stood before the shrine in front of the fire altar. Then they raced twice on fallow fields, once in Bilugunda to the east of the temple and the second time in Nalvathokkal to the west of the temple. Once they finished the races they returned to their starting points, by walking rapidly backwards. Meanwhile, the two small boys who dressed as women were made to stand on either side of the temple door. In Bilugunda, there were some performers who dressed up as army men and yakshagana artistes. These are some of the rituals that make this festival unique.
source: http://www.deccanherald.com / Deccan Herald / Home> Supplements> Spectrum / by Mookonda Kushalappa / April 18th, 2017
The cup that cheers has come a long way. Artisanal coffees are taking the centrestage for the distinctive taste that these possess
Bindu Gopal Rao
In the recent years, wine tasting is a word that most urban folks have come to understand. However today, coffee-tasting sessions are slowly but surely making a mark in the pretentious tasting space. The reason is a clear trend towards having speciality coffee, artisan coffee, and even micro roastaries akin to micro breweries. Well if that sounds like a lot of jargon, it is really not. For the uninitiated, micro-roastery is a small space where coffee is roasted in small batches that allow better control over profile roasting, manipulating temperature and time graphs to throw up interesting nuances and taste detailing. Artisan coffee is about applying artisanal cultivation, processing, drying and roasting methods to create unique and distinct coffees merging science and art!
New vistas
Coffees can come in a number of varieties, even if you ignore the variations introduced by types or sources of beans.
“The brews themselves are pretty much the same — save for a few bells and whistles like almond milk and Nutella, but the brewing methods have changed. The real magic happens in the roaster (machine), with the hand of the roaster (person) being paramount in successfully crafting a product that deserves the tag artisan coffee,” avers Mihir Rebello, co-founder & Roaster, Coffee Mechanics.
Cold brew is catching on and is basically brewing coffee without any application of heat. “We leave the coffee grounds in cold water for about 14-20 hours, and then filter it to create a refreshing, well-rounded, naturally sweet brew. Nitro brew is cold brew infused with nitrogen under high pressure. The nitrogen blends into the brew, stretching the natural flavours of coffee, without adding any additional taste (nitrogen has no taste or smell). The brew is also rendered creamy and full bodied,” says Ashish D’abreo, founding partner of The Flying Squirrel, Artisanal Coffee.
Today, artisanal coffees are taking the centrestage, considering the unique and distinctive taste profile that these coffees possess and offer in the cup. Sunalini N Menon, director of Tata Coffee Ltd and CEO, Coffee Labs India (P), says, “bullet proof coffee that entails to the addition of coconut oil to the coffee drink to energise and stimulate the coffee drinker, especially those who would like to have that extra dose of energy is trending. Besides micro, lots of coffees, single estate and single origin coffees continue to enjoy a special place in the niche coffee market.”
iStock
Being arty
At the heart of artisan coffee is the idea that what you are consuming is a special product, one that took hours of painstaking effort to create and provides you with an experience that is above and beyond what the market generally offers.
“The new-age coffee connoisseur wants a ready solution to their coffee desires, and that’s where artisan coffees come in the capsule format, thereby eliminating the hard work and ensuring that a perfect coffee is only moments away,” says Tuhin Jain, co-founder of Bonhomia. Coffee By Di Bella is currently showcasing different flavours via innovative coffee beverage creations like Spanish lattes, diamond cappuccinos, sparkling cloud drinks and coffee from different regions like Panama, Ethiopia and Colombia.
“Every cup of coffee has a story and artisan coffee pioneers want to showcase and bring to life the entire drop to cup process of the ultimate coffee experience,” says Phillip Di Bella, founder, Coffee By Di Bella.
For the connoisseurs
The name of the game is customisation and that is possible by playing with roast levels and grind size. The clincher, however, is the story for each coffee in terms of its origin, the terroir, the processing methods used and the roast profile. Rhea Sanghi, community manager of Blue Tokai Coffee Roasters, explains what makes their coffees tick. “Firstly, the coffee is completely traceable and the information about each of the farms is shared on the pouches as well as the website. The coffee is freshly roasted only on order and the roasting date clearly stated on the pouches. This matters because you want to consume the coffee within three weeks of the roast date (not the date the pack was opened or the coffee was ground) to get the best flavour.”
Home brewing is catching on and the cafe experience is now at home. Kobid Sinha, beverage manager at JW Marriott, Kolkata, avers, “People strive to take everything back to the basics by starting with green un-roasted beans and crafting our own syrups. Everybody now wants to make everything fresh and from scratch.”
Although maybe not fast enough, the awareness of different brewing methodologies is making equipments such as a French press, Moka pot and AeroPress household names.
According to Tapaswini Purnesh, director marketing and promotions, Classic Coffees, “Food pairings with coffee is a trend that is further evolving every year. If paired right, a simple nibble with your sip of coffee can create a flavour explosion and expose some beautiful flavours from your cup.”
Bullet proof coffee that involves the addition of coconut oil to the coffee drink to energise and stimulate the coffee drinker, especially those who would like to have that extra dose of energy,
is trending. Besides micro, lots of coffees, single estate and single origin, continue to enjoy a special place in the niche market
Coorg to Seattle
The Nullore microlot of Tata Coffee is an example of an artisanal coffee possessing distinctive features of flavours such as orange, lemon, chocolate and caramel. Grown in the Tata Coffee Limited estate in Coorg, block 19 of Bhuthanahadlu division, was selected due to the presence of fruit bat for a microlot. The coffee berries from this area were picked at the right stage of maturity and processed separately. The traceability of the lot was ensured at every stage till it was dispatched to the curing mill and the lot was garbled to ensure 100 per cent uniformity. The lot was eventually selected to the Starbucks reserve programme and is now sold out at the Seattle outlet.
source: http://www.tribuneindia.com / The Tribune / Home> Trends> Bling It On / April 15th, 2017
Harshika Poonacha is burning the midnight oil working on her upcoming movie Chitte. The shooting for the movie started recently.
Most of the scenes of the movie are set in the night. “My shoot starts from 6 pm and ends after midnight,” says Harishika. Although the schedule does get hectic, there is a different kind of excitement involved with shooting under the stars, she adds.
Yashas Surya and Harshika Poonacha
City Express caught hold of a photo where the hero, Yashas Surya expresses his love through a painting on her body. “Yashas plays the role of a painter. He conveys his love for me through the artwork. We recently shot the painting scene,” she says.
The film directed by ML Prakash is a thriller, and is a story that explores the romance of a newly married couple. “We are in the first phase of shooting right now,” she informs.
source: http://www.newindianexpress.com / The New Indian Express / Home> Entertainment> Kannada / by Express News Service / April 25th, 2017
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