Coorg Association which had remained behind the curtains for some time met again and celebrated its 97th annual ‘Puthari festival 2018’ (Harvest festival) here on January 6.
Senior community leader and president of the association, Boppanda Appaji offered prayers to deity Iggutappa and Kaveri and set the celebrations in motion. Games, music, dances and entertainment programmes were held.
Community men and women wore traditional attire. Trustees Pandanda Ramesh, Biddanda Jagdeep Nanjappa, Kuppanda Muddaiah, Napanda Ramesh, Biddanda Lekha Nanjappa, Kallichanda Aiyanna, Manepanda Somaiah and Managing Committee members Boppanda Appaji- president, Pandanda Pushpa – vice president, Kuppanda Kavita – vice president, Bollachettira Mandanna – secretary, Mukkatira Somaiah – joint secretary and Areda Raja – treasurer were present.
Priya M Poovayyag and Kavya M Poovayyag sang a prayer song. Boppanda Appaji welcomed everyone. Pandanda Ramesh and Napanda Ramesh presented the details of the programme. Jaggi Manjayya, Akshay Chengayya, Mukuthira Somayya, Lekha Nanjappa and Nithin Chengayya introduced the guests. Balya Mediririra sang Kodava songs. Others conducted dances and cultural programmes. Honorary secretary Bollachettira Mandanna proposed the vote of thanks.
source: http://www.daijiworld.com / Daijiworld.com / Home> Mumbai / by Ron Bantwal, Daijiworld Media Network, Mumbai (EP) / January 08th, 2018
Rohan Bopanna with Ashish D’Abreo (right) and Tej Thammaiah (Express Photo)
At the ATP-250 Tata Open Maharashtra underway at Balewadi, Rohan Bopanna makes it a point to be there at the coffee counter where his own coffee brew is being sold.
Rohan Bopanna, coffee connoisseur. Such an introduction may not ring too many bells, but the tennis star not only grows coffee at his farm in Coorg, he also gifts tennis legends the home-grown brew. At the ATP-250 Tata Open Maharashtra underway at Balewadi, Bopanna makes it a point to be there at the coffee counter where his own coffee brew is being sold. “I am truly well-versed in the nuances of cultivation, processing and blending coffee beans,” writes the champion of the 2017 French Open Mixed Doubles on a flyer at the coffee counter.
Earlier, he had announced the launch of the brew — the Rohan Bopanna Master Blend — on Twitter, posting, “I bring to you a very special part of me from my very own coffee estate in Coorg.” Bopanna has joined hands with the Flying Squirrel – a brand involved in micro-lot cultivation and processing coffee using artisan methods — to set up the counter at the Tata Open.
Ashish D’Abreo, who launched Flying Squirrel with his college friend Tej Thammaiah, says the response to Rohan Bopanna Master Blend has been quite positive. D’Abreo and Thammaiah have been blending, roasting and brewing coffee beans for over five years. “We roast the coffee for 15 minutes before sealing each pack,” says D’Abreo. He then shares some important information for those who enjoy filter coffee: it has to be consumed within a month of roasting.
“Tej owns a coffee estate at Pollibetta in Coorg. So, we experimented with the beans at Tej’s estate… we developed and processed them to arrive at different variants of the coffee,” says D’Abreo. Today, they supply coffee powder online and have also set up a cafe at Bengaluru. It was during a meeting with Rohan Bopanna, which took place over a month ago, that they realised their common goals and decided to experiment with the coffee beans grown at Bopanna’s farm at Madapur in Coorg.
The first variant, Rohan Bopanna’s Master Blend, was launched on January 1. “It is an all Arabica variant, comprising a few differently processed beans, all of them from Bopanna’s farm,” says D’Abreo. He shared that when world no. 6 Croatian Marin Cilic visited the counter with Bopanna, he tasted the coffee while posing for fans. For Nilufer Solai, who came from Mumbai to watch her favourite tennis players in action, the coffee counter was a hit. “…I could buy the beans and have some refreshing coffee,” she says.
source: http://www.indianexpress.com / The Indian Express / Home> Sports> Tennis / by Anuradha Mascarenhas / Pune / January 05th, 2018
Baba Budangiri, 250 km from Bengaluru, where coffee was first grown in India, is going for Geographical Indication (GI) of its variety of the Arabica brew.
On January 1, the Coffee Board filed an application for the GI tagging of Baba Budangiri Arabica and four other varieties — Coorg Arabica, Wayanad Robusta, Chikmagalur Arabic and Araku Valley Arabica — with the Geographical Indication Registry at Chennai.
Coffee Board head (coffee quality) K Basavaraj said: “We have applied for the GI marker and we are also profiling the majority variety grown in Baba Budangiri, a variety called Selection-795,” Basavaraj said. Selection-795 (S-795) is considered to be the natural descendant of two of the oldest African cultivars of coffee — Coffea Arabica and Coffea Liberica — and a third variety is called Kent. Currently, S-795 is the most prominent coffee grown at Baba Budangiri.
Edmund Hull in his book ‘Coffee Planting in Southern India and Ceylon’ says that Coffea Arabica originated in Caffa in southern Abyssina and then found its way to Yemen. According to John Shortt’s ‘A Handbook on Coffee Planting in Southern India’, Baba Budan (Baba Booden), a Muslim pilgrim, brought the brew from Mocha, a port city in Yemen, in the 17th century and introduced the variety in the uninhabited hills that came to be known as Baba Budangiri.
Today, Baba Budangiri Arabica is grown acorss 15,000 hectares around the original hills, where it was first planted. Over the last few centuries, coffee plantations grew beyond Baba Budangiri and the adjoining Chickmagalur and spread to Kodagu and Hassan in Karnataka, and Wayanad, Travancore and Nelliampathy regions of Kerala. It is also grown in the hilly regions of Palani, Shevroy, Nilgiris and Anamalais in Tamil Nadu. The non-traditional areas of coffee-growing in India includes certain pockets in Andhra Pradesh, Orissa, Assam, Arunachal Pradesh, Manipur, Meghalaya, Mizoram and Nagaland.
source: http://www.timesofindia.indiatimes.com / The Times of India / News> Business News> India Business News / by Shenoy Karun / TNN / January 06th, 2018
Backstage activities are in full swing for the district Congress members, as the day of the visit of Chief Minister Siddaramaiah and other ministers, is nearing.
The chief minister’s visit to the district ahead of Assembly elections is considered significant.
The chief minister and other ministers will take part in the ‘Sadhana Sambhrama’ programme to be held at General Thimmaiah Stadium in Madikeri on January 9. The upcoming visit of the chief minister has sprouted many expectations in the minds of the Congress workers. Even as the programme in which the chief minister will attend is a government programme, the discussions on the elections preparations are likely to take place in party cadres.
Siddaramaiah will arrive in Madikeri at 11.30 even though the programme is scheduled at 3.30- pm.
Tough contest for tickets
The names of candidates for Madikeri and Virajpet seats are still not finalised and many ticket aspirants are waiting in the wings. The related issues are most likely to come up in the internal meeting of the party, during the chief minister’s visit.
As MLC Veena Acchaiah has expressed her unwillingness to contest in the elections, the competition for the ticket from Virajpet constituency has turned tougher. B T Pradeep, who contested from the constituency during the last elections, had lost by 3,414 votes. Rumour has it that a search for an able candidate is on, after Pradeep’s demise.
Forest Development Corporation vice president Padmini Ponnappa, minister M R Seetharam’s personal secretary Harihs Bopanna, Karnataka Kodava Sahitya Academy former chairperson B S Thammaiah, Zilla Panchayat member Saritha Poonaccha and District Congress Committee president Shivu Madappa are the main aspirants from Virajpet.
Many more are eyeing the Madikeri constituency. The names of the Somwarpet Block Congress president K M Lokesh, entrepreneur Napanda Muttappa and advocate Chandramouli are surfacing in this context. KPCC general secretary and Zilla Panchayat member K P Chandrakala too, is willing to contest. Kumuda Dharmappa has already approached the High Command for the ticket, according to party sources.
Siddaramaiah is likely to talk to the Congress workers, before finalising the names of candidates.
Agitations for separate taluks
Agitations for the formation of Cauvery and Ponnampet taluks, which are going on from the last 125 days, are likely to have an impact on the chief minister’s visit.
The protesters have been demanding the announcement of the two hoblis as new taluks. Three bandhs have already been conducted in Kushalnagar. The agitators have been looking forward to their demands being fulfilled with the chief minister’s visit.
The newly announced 50 taluks will function officially in the next 15 days.
source: http://www.deccanherald.com / Deccan Herald / Home> District / by DH News Service / Aditya K A / January 04th, 2018
Travelling to Nishani Motte and hiking there was on our bucket list for a long time. We had heard that the place is also called the ‘Leech Kingdom’ as it is surrounded by a large number of leeches during the Monsoon.
On a Saturday early morning, I left Bengaluru with four of my friends for this interesting journey. We took the Hassan Road which is good to drive during the Monsoon months.
The first stop we planned was the Devarakolli Falls, which is a few km after Madikeri on Madikeri-Mangalore Road.
The Falls lie parallel to the main road and there are some shops for the travellers to have snacks. You can’t take bath in the Falls but it is a great place to shoot some good pictures.
After the short break, we hit the road for beautiful Devaragundi Falls, which is exactly 13 km from Sampaje, and located in a village called Thodikana. You need to park the vehicle two km before the Falls and do a small trek of two km on a flat jeep track to reach the Falls, which is so majestically placed inside the forest and is easily accessible.
To say the least, it was beautiful and gushing at the peak of Monsoon. Until January end, there is water for taking bath in the Falls but it gets dry during the peak of summer.
However, one should keep an eye on the kids as the water gushing area is steep. We were informed about this by the local villagers.
After a refreshing bath, we reached Mayura Cauvery in Bhagamandala to stay the night over.
The rooms were decent enough. We had our dinner in the small village of Bhagamandala.
Next day morning, we visited the forest office in Bhagamandala and got permission from the department to trek to Nishani Motte after paying a nominal entry fee and guide charges.
There was also another group who joined us in the trek. The Nishani Motte trek is around five km in total. One has to hire a jeep or travel in their own vehicle to the base from the forest office. The base is around five to six km from the forest office. We started our trek around 9 am.
The initial trek was a mild climb through estates and huge trees. In 20 minutes, we could see the grasslands and the leeches too. No wonder this place is called the ‘Leech Kingdom’ as thousands of leeches jumped over us.
Two hours through the trek, we reached the peak which was misty and foggy. We enjoyed every minute of the trek exploring the greenery and escaping from the leeches.
It started to rain during the last leg of our trek but it was an amazing experience to completely get drenched and enjoy the walk with friends.
Finally, we reached the other side of the base. We had our jeep waiting for us to drop us back to the Forest Department office. We reached the forest office around 2.30 pm, had a great lunch and finally visited the Thalacauvery Temple which is just a 15-minute-drive from Bhagamandala.
After visiting the Thalacauvery Temple, which is interestingly the birthplace of river Cauvery, we started our drive back to Bengaluru with lovely memories to cherish forever.
(The author can be contacted at kavinkishore85@gmail.com)
source: http://www.deccanherald.com / Deccan Herald / Home> Supplements> MetroLife / by Kavin Kishore/ January 03rd, 2018
The popular host caters to EDM junkies in his latest digital show on Jukebox
Nikhil Chinapa has been at the forefront of popularising dance music. He now dons a new avatar in the form of a host of a show titled ‘TGTR (Together) with Nikhil’ at Jukebox, BookMyShow’s audio entertainment platform. The hour -long show will have the VJ, DJ, festival curator and television host share interesting trivia on his favourite dance tracks, discuss the progress of EDM across the globe and also interact on the social media. Aditya Kuber, Associate Vice President of BookMyShow, talking about show says, “Nikhil Chinapa has been one of the pioneers of the EDM movement in India. He’s sure to entertain the EDM lovers, party goers and particularly the young crowd and enrich their music experience on show.” Excerpts from Nikhil’s interaction on hosting the show.
Having hosted shows across various formats, what is the challenge in this digital attempt?
TGTR doesn’t really feel like a challenge because it is an enormous playground. I have been involved in electronic music since the time I would go clubbing in the early 90s; this form of music gives me immense joy. I always wanted to share it with people who didn’t have access to it. So, after I joined MTV in 1997, we started throwing our own parties in Mumbai and created a brand called Submerge. BookMyShow and I worked together on the very first music festival I did in Goa in 2007 and have partnered on several music properties over the years. This opportunity is in line with what I always wanted to do from the early 90s — share music with a larger audience.
Will it facilitate promotion of Indian talent?
Music is music; as long as it is good, it will get played on Jukebox. There will also a focus on highlighting homegrown talent and artistes as we have seen production techniques in India improve and better productions coming out in the past two or three years. But the show is very much global, we will be focusing on playing nothing but great music every week.
Won’t your absence on radio serve as a deterrent on TGTR?
It’s exactly the opposite because you’re talking about people calling a radio station; on BookMyShow Jukebox, we are on a digital platform, people are already on their smartphones and will be responding via tweets, messages on Instagram and Facebook which is something they have already started doing. We have also introduced ‘The Instagram Question of the Week’ where we invite people to ask me a question on my Instagram page and I will be answering on Jukebox. The show is going to be far more interactive because it’s on the digital platform.
How tough is it to maintain a show’s exclusivity amid so many other viewing/listening options?
The fact that there are so many options and everything is available on the internet is exactly where the opportunity lies. The internet can be an extremely daunting place for someone who isn’t accustomed to it or is just curious about trying to find new music. That’s why more people are experimenting with music forms, art forms, and fashion which wasn’t really available to earlier . By creating curated playlists from trusted sources (like me), it becomes easier for someone to tap into the first level of dance music and then go on to explore on their own. Also during the show, I will be directing people to several places on the internet and several artists they can follow and hopefully we will be able to build a larger community together.
How do digital streaming/talent portals contribute in encouraging newer talent?
There are several success stories of people who have been discovered on digital platforms across the world. Being a musician in this era is an extremely exciting prospect because it allows a song writer or a music composer or a singer of quality to be discovered without the help of a god father or a large music label. I genuinely believe that if you have talent, you could be recording a song in your bedroom in New Zealand and posting it out and then it becomes a worldwide smash.
source: http://www.thehindu.com / The Hindu / Home> Entertainment> Music / by Srivathsan Nadadhur / January 02nd, 2018
Coffee planter Manavattira Dore Somanna warned the district administration of locking up the entrance of Brahmagiri if the entry of public is not banned within a week.
He further added that the Brahmagiri, the birthplace of river Cauvery has been converted into an abode of illegal activities. “Tourists have been spoiling the sanctity of the place by littering it with garbage. This will affect the purity of river Cauvery.”
He said that the district administration should also ban the illegal shops near Talacauvery. Tourists should be banned from discarding the food leftovers at the Triveni Sangama in Bhagamandala. CCTV camera should be installed to monitor the activities of people. Additional staff should be deployed at the spiritual destination to perform the religious rituals smoothly. Also, the temple should conduct the ‘Ashtamangala Prashne’, he added.
Badumanda Muttappa, Padiyammanda Yogish Monnammaiah, Manavattira Papu Changappa and Manavattira Harish Biddappa were present in the press meet.
source: http://www.deccanherald.com / Deccan Herald / Home> District / DH News Service / Napoklu – January 01st, 2018
Star Indian badminton player and Olympian Ashwini Ponnappa has been chosen as the ‘Coorg Person of the year, 2017,’ in a poll conducted by www.coorgtourisminfo.com, Kodagu’s first news portal, promoted by senior journalist P T Bopanna.
A release said that what clinched her the title besides her sporting achievements was Ashwini’s decision to marry a fellow Kodava instead of marrying outside her community.
Ashwini had won a gold medal in the women’s doubles event of the 2010 Delhi Commonwealth Games.
There was much rejoicing recently in the small Kodava community following Ashwini’s decision to marry a Kodava. Ashwini, who belongs to the Machimanda clan married model Ponnachettira Karan Medappa.
The close-knit Kodavas (Coorgs) who number less than two lakhs have been worried by the recent trend of community members marrying non-Kodavas.
Iychettira Ravi Somaiah who has built a sports facility for the public near Kushalanagar in Kodagu was also nominated for the title.
source: http://www.deccanherald.com / Deccan Herald / Home> District / by DH News Service / Madikeri – January 01st, 2018
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