Inauguration of Palash Bidappa’s Designer Boutique ‘CLOSET’.
Actress Harshika Poonacha chief guest, MLAs Anil Chikkamadu, A.S. Ponnanna, K. Harishgowa and G.D. Harish Gowda and Corporator Bhagya Madesh guests of honour, ‘CLOSET,’ G3, Damden Centrum, Gokulam Main Road, V.V. Mohalla, Mysuru ,10.30 am.G D Harish
source: http://www.starofmysore.com / Star of Mysore / Home> Events Tomorrow / June 10th, 2023
Madikeri:
Former Union Minister Dr. Subramanian Swamy has written to Karnataka Chief Minister Siddaramaiah, urging him to form a commission to provide special status to the tribals in Kodagu, as requested by the Kodava National Council members.
Dr. Subramanian Swamy, who has already approached the High Court with the request to fulfill the demand of the tribal natives of Kodagu for a separate district, has a court hearing of the application on June 14. The veteran politician said that he wanted to meet Siddaramaiah on the occasion.
Referring to the demand of the natives in his letter to the Chief Minister, the former Union Minister stressed on the urgent need to form a government panel that would work at giving special status to the Kodavas in Karnataka.
source: http://www.english.varthabharati.in / Vartha Bharati / Home> Karnataka / by Vartha Bharati / June 10th, 2023
Mantar Gowda, MLA, directs the officials to coordinate with different departments to mitigate any extremities in weather.
With the monsoon set to keep its tryst with Kodagu in the next few days, the authorities reviewed their preparations to meet any eventuality.
A meeting was convened in Madikeri on Friday, June 9, and Mantar Gowda, MLA, directed the officials to coordinate with different departments to mitigate any extremities in weather.
He said the revenue, forest, PWD, CESC and other departments should coordinate and ensure that they attend to any problems caused in case of a landslide, uprooting of trees or telephone and electricity poles. The teams constituted for the purpose should reach the affected spots immediately and carry out repairs or any other mitigatory exercise to tide over the crisis.
The MLA said relief centres should be stocked with basic necessities and be equipped to deal with flood victims who could be shifted from their villages.
The officials were also instructed to counsel those affected by floods and infuse psychological strength in them and professional counsellors should be roped in with the assistance of Department of Health.
The nodal officers in charge of different relief centres should ensure coordination among different wings and branches of the district administration, said Mr. Gowda.
The authorities were directed to impress upon the people living in the vulnerable areas to be ready to relocate at short notice. The Chamundeshwari Electricity Supply Corporation (CESC) personnel were directed to ensure that electricity poles that are uprooted are immediately replaced and power supply restored at the earliest. Similarly, the forest department staff were asked to be on alert to clear the roads of any uprooted trees to pave way for traffic movement.
The district health officer was directed to monitor for any outbreak of water-borne diseases during monsoon and ramp up the preparations to handle any epidemic. The Education Department officials were instructed to ensure that no classes are conducted in schools identified to be in dilapidated conditions.
The ZP CEO Shekar said that meetings have been conducted at the Gram Panchayat levels and 19 schools have been identified for conversion as relief centres if need be. The principals of the respective schools will also function as nodal officers, he added.
There is a helpline at every Gram Panchayat and volunteers will also be deployed in case of any emergency, said the official.
Shantilal Jatia, heading the NDRF at Kodagu, said that a team of 24 personnel are stationed in the district and they would be ready for deployment at any time in case of emergency.
source: http://www.thehindu.com / The Hindu / Home> News> India> Karnataka / by The Hindu Bureau / June 09th, 2023
Mycelium hopes to conserve 10,000 acres of Western Ghats through private forests.
When Bengaluru-based serial entrepreneur Nishanth Prasannan moved to Kodagu with his family in 2016, it was an escape from the hustle and bustle of the city.
In his own words, Mr. Prasannan, an urban dweller until then, developed quite a “romantic” association with Kodagu, which was all so green and misty. It lasted for about two years. The heavy rains and landslides that shattered Kodagu in 2018 woke him up to reality with a jolt.
“The year 2018 made me realise that not everything green is beautiful,” says Mr. Prasannan. When India’s State of Forest Report (ISFR) 2021 came out last year, environmentalists and conservation experts called out how the report had counted plantations as forests, which was misleading. “Forest cover is a skewed concept. Our landscape has been abused for years, and the abuse is not visible because it’s all green.”
Mr. Prasannan, along with Abhishek Jain, who is a naturalist based out of Kodagu, then started probing ways to monetise land without exploiting it. This led to the birth of Mycelium, a Bengaluru-based start-up that aims to buy private lands outside of protected forests and conserve or restore these spaces.
“We are not buying land for real estate purposes. Our idea is to look at rapidly depleting forests and pause that depletion. We are looking at private lands adjacent to forest or corridors of sorts that are prone to conflicts and then taking them off the market,” says Vinod Chandramouli, who joined as a co-founder in 2022.
Mycelium takes the help of individuals who care for the cause and would invest money into it. They form a “collective”. The money is used to buy the land and develop the habitat. “The collective members do not get demarcated pieces of land, but equity in the company,” Mr. Chandramouli clarifies.
The start-up aims to conserve 10,000 acres of Western Ghats by 2035 and is currently finalising the registration of its first property, a 70-acre land near Pushpagiri. Named Dancing Frog Habitat, it has four collective members as of now.
According to the founders, 80 per cent of the land would be conserved as a pristine forest, while in the remaining 20 per cent, there would be facilities enabling the co-existence of humans with nature. The team is looking at revenue models such as forest experiences for communities, building interpretation centres, organising treks and building a marketplace of forest produce. The private forest would also be open for research purposes.
“The idea is to not attract urban dwellers to come and take selfies but to build a narrative that inspires them. Buying organic honey is considered cool today, but can we shift the narrative from buying honey to adopting a beehive? That’s what we are trying to do,” Mr. Chandramouli says.
The Mycelium team is building an advisory group that would guide the team and build a playbook that the founders hope would enable more people to replicate the same in other parts of the country. The ground-level execution would be with the help of the local community, say the founders.
Private forests are not entirely a new concept in India. In the 90s, a group of nature lovers came together to develop Vanvadi, a forest about 90 km from Mumbai. In 2021, Bengaluru-based entrepreneur Suresh Kumar converted 21 acres of barren land in Sagar into a forest with the help of environmentalist Akhilesh Chipli.
There have also been quite a few takers for forests inspired by the Miyawaki method in different parts of the country. Private forests adorned headlines in 2017 when Bollywood celebrities Saif Ali Khan and Kareena Kapoor gifted their son Taimur Ali Khan a forest on his first birthday.
Mycelium founders try to marry the concept with their entrepreneurial capabilities, build systems into the process of conservation, and make it economically sustainable. “We are exploring if there are ways to make a for-profit conservation narrative,” says Mr. Chandramouli.
In 2018, the Karnataka government proposed the Karnataka Private Conservancies Rules-2018, which encouraged private conservation lands adjoining national parks and wildlife. The policy was vehemently opposed by environmentalists and conservationists who feared it would lead to encroachment of protected forested areas, circumvention of eco-sensitive zone regulations and increased man-animal conflict. Increased greenwashing attempts by corporates have also been making experts sceptical about for-profit conservation initiatives.
“Be it privately or government-owned land, if the forces are strong enough for changing land use, invariably land use gets changed in India. From a bird’s eye view, such initiatives come with several potential risks as too many elements are beyond the control of well-meaning investors. What are near these private forests? Are there human settlements? What if potentially dangerous animals start coming into these lands? Will it lead to increased human-animal conflict? Who would then be responsible? All these are issues that need to be thought through,” says Ravi Chellam, coordinator, Biodiversity Collaborative and CEO, Metastring Foundation.
He adds it is vital for such initiatives to invest in and empower local communities and not end up dispossessing them of their lands and restricting their access to these lands and the forest resources they offer. “There are also concerns related to justice and ethics at a broader scale because such efforts are in some sense resulting in consolidation of wealth by the wealthy.”
Nityanand Jayaraman, an environmental activist, echoes similar concerns. “Given that the market is a cause of the crisis, trying to solve it again using the market is concerning. Even if your aim is conservation, the idea is essentially profits. There’s an ecological and social crisis here which are both interlinked. Such initiatives marginally address the ecological issue but do not address the social issue.”
Mycelium founders, however, think differently and emphasize that the initiative will enable the locals to engage with them and tap into their knowledge. Prasannan says, “We have been really tight-fisted about the kind of funds we have been using. We are absolutely sure that we will not take financial institutional funding. If someone gives the money and says they want ‘x’ per cent returns, then there’s no investment into the cause.”
Mr. Chandramouli adds, “If we were to let this land become a coffee estate, it would have a larger impact on the Pushpagiri region than it would have if you take it off the market. Any collective member who comes in is heavily gatekept. We tell them from day 1 that this is not a real estate team and to not expect the appreciation of the land to go from ‘x’ to ‘y’. Nor is money going to come in as interest. These 70 acres are for the next 100 to 300 years.”
source: http://www.thehindu.com / The Hindu / Home> News> Cities> Bengaluru / by Shilpa Elizabeth / June 08th, 2023
The forest staff used techniques like the dung density method where they used photographs and GPS to scientifically record elephant dung.
Madikeri :
A total of 1103 wild elephant population has been recorded inside the forests of Kodagu. The statistics were released by the forest department following the completion of the elephant census.
However, the population of the wild elephants herded inside the estates of Kodagu has not been taken into consideration and a fresh census is required to verify the same.
The elephant census is conducted once in five years across the southern states and the same began across Kodagu in the month of May. Over 800 foresters from the department were involved in counting the population of the elephants across the forests of Kodagu.
The census was conducted in three phases and was spread across three days.
During the first phase, the forest staff took to the block count method and recorded the number of elephants sighted by the staff across designated forest regions.
The dung density method was used in the second phase of the counting where the foresters scientifically recorded the data of the elephant dung through photographs and GPS locations.
In the third phase, the foresters halted by the lakes, rivers and other water bodies inside the forest and counted the number of male, female and calf elephants in the herd.
The forest department confirmed that 200 teams with three to four forest staff were formed to conduct the census. The staff was geared with arms and ammunition in case of any untoward incident.
The census unfurled across the four divisions of the department including Madikeri, Madikeri Wildlife, Virajpet and Nagarahole Tiger Reserve divisions. While a total of 787 elephants were sighted in Nagarahole, the Madikeri division recorded 179 elephants.
The Anekadu area near Kushalnagar alone had 116 wild elephants, which falls under the Madikeri division. Virajpet and Madikeri Wildlife had a population of 73 and 64 wild elephants respectively.
Conservator of Forests of Kodagu Circle BN Murthy said, “The census was conducted only inside the forest area. However, there is a need to conduct the census within the estates and this will increase the numbers. It is not possible to get the actual count and the census was conducted across 1.15 lakh hectares of forest land in Kodagu.”
source: http://www.newindianexpress.com / The New Indian Express / Home> States> Karnataka / by Express News Service / June 06th, 2023
The Thar is so different from my BMW 320d, in all senses, and driving this SUV was indeed a very different experience.
BHPian Dr.AD recently shared this with other enthusiasts.
Just about three months ago, I would have never imagined I would be writing a Thar travelogue, that too so soon. My road trips used to primarily be with my red BMW 320d, and there was no real plan to do something very different so soon.
But then, as always, life is all about unpredictability and experimentation. In somewhat of an unexpected (to myself) development, and purely as a fun experiment, I bought a brand new Mahindra Thar (Petrol AT 4×4 in Napoli Black) just a couple of weeks ago. From now on, this would be a new companion to my trusted BMW 320d. I plan to create my Thar ownership thread someday. But I thought it would not necessarily be inappropriate to start with a travelogue ahead of the ownership thread.
I always buy cars for long road trips and visit beautiful locations as my primary purpose. And every time I bought a car, I took that car for a long drive pretty much immediately. Thar is no exception. I got the Thar just a couple of weeks ago. In those two weeks, all I had managed was about 200km of driving around (mostly due to busy work schedules and work travels). This first road trip added about 700km to that, and was a perfect introduction for me to the new Thar and its capabilities.
In a nutshell, this trip was memorable to me because this was my drive in the new Thar. Thar is so different from my BMW 320d, in all senses, and driving a Thar was indeed a very different experience. Getting used to the Thar and understanding its capabilities was a big part of the motivation for this drive. Another thing that made this drive special to me was that, unlike my road trips in the 320d, this time, there was plenty of off-roading too. The main purpose of Thar is to explore rough terrains, and we did that on this very first road trip.
My new Thar in the hills of Coorg:
One of the many reasons I love TeamBHP is because of the friends I made thanks to this forum.
My partners in this drive were our close friends Mr. and Mrs. @robimahanta, in their Aquamarine Blue Thar (Petrol 4×4 AT).
But as a bonus, this time, we made new friends.
It was a great pleasure to have Mr. and Mrs. @justwheels, in their Red Thar (Diesel 4×4 AT). We met them for the first time on this drive, and we had a great time together.
And of course, my better half was with me in my Black Thar, and she enjoyed the Thar experience (including some off-roading) even more than I did. I am glad she likes the Thar so much and so quickly that she is hooked on the idea of exploring difficult terrain in a 4×4 vehicle!
The Three Thars together on the hills of Coorg:
We stayed at the same homestay where we had stayed back in August 2022 and loved it so much, as I described in my tip report from that time. The homestay is called Green Pastures, Coorg.
The homestay owners and hosts, Hemanth and Tripula, are wonderful hosts and good friends now. Just like my previous experience there, this time too we had a great time at the homestay and had a wonderful experience overall.
The homestay has three rooms, and that was just perfect for the three Thars and three couples traveling together.
Green Pastures is not only a beautiful homestay, but one more speciality of the place is that the owner Hemanth is an off-road enthusiast and a very experienced off-roading expert. He himself owns an old Mahindra MM540 4WD, and also organizes some off-road events in Coorg. He knows the trails and hills of Coorg like the back of his hand. One of the main motivations for visiting his homestay in Thars was to do some off-roading explorations nearby guided by his knowledge of the area. He indeed gave us some great routes to explore and even took out his MM540 and lead us on a beautiful hill trail the first evening we were there. It was a great experience to follow his MM540 and watch it handle the terrain with so much ease and poise.
Anyways, I will stop this prologue here and share the off-roading experiences and photos below.
One of the main agendas for me on this trip was to try off-roading in my new Thar. I have done one major off-roading expedition in the past in the deserts of Rajasthan (described in this old travelogue) and then did a couple of small off-roading events here and there. But still, never did any off-roading in my own car. This trip was my first experience of off-roading in my own car in a small private group (without any official “organizer” of the event). Overall, I am still new to this game of off-roading, but thankfully, I had expert off-roaders @robimahanta and @justwheels with me, and their guidance and the tips they shared were also a great learning experience for me.
We did not do any hard-core off-roading on this trip (and that was not the plan anyways), but we did some mild off-roading, and then also drove around on some random hills and some mud paths we saw along the way. All of this gave me a good taste of off-roading in one’s own car and I enjoyed it a lot.
The first evening we were there, Hemanth (the homestay owner and our host) took us to a nice trail in the hills nearby, leading us in his MM540 4WD, at the sunset hour. It was a short drive, but still was a wonderful drive.
The MM540 leading the convoy of three Thars on a nice hill trail at dusk:
It was a short but nice trail. We saw some great views from the viewpoint we reached the top of that small hill. For me, this was also the first time I used 4-wheel drive mode (4H) on my new Thar. It worked well on the first attempt, and everything was fun. I enjoyed this short off-road drive for sure.
The next morning Hemanth suggested a nice circuit that included some off-roading and some driving on lesser-known hill roads that were so broken that it justified having a Thar there. I would have never driven on those broken hill roads in my BMW. But the Thar was totally in its elements on those roads, and we managed to cover both totally broken roads and the off-road hill climbs with ease. Both I and my wife enjoyed this new experience, and we enjoyed this new aspect of motoring.
To start the driving day, we first hit a hill called Kote Betta. We reached the peak and randomly explored some paths nearby.
From Kote Betta, we started driving on some lesser known hill roads and some very narrow country roads. At one point, we found a random mud path leading to some flat grassland, and just randomly drove on those mud tracks. I got another opportunity to use 4H in my Thar and I enjoyed it again.
We continued our drive on the rural hill roads, and at one point, found another hilltop where we could go off the road again.
After driving on these narrow hill roads, we hit a proper off-road trail to reach a hilltop known as Mandalpatti Peak. This is a hilltop with panoramic views all around. And it takes a proper 4×4 vehicle to reach this location as the path to this is a dirt track full of stones, and at a couple of points, requires tricky maneuvers over rocks and a few steep rocky sections.
At the beginning of this off-road trail, there is a check-post which allows only 4×4 vehicles to enter, after paying the appropriate fees.
After some careful crawling on those rocky sections and the stone-filled road, we reached the hilltop.
The three Thars at the top of Mandalpatti hills:
This trail was not too difficult for Thar, but yet was just right to give me a good idea of Thar’s capabilities and a preview of what kind of drives I would do in future in my Thar. I used 4H and Hill Descent Control (while coming down the hill), and I was happy that both of these features worked very well. This being my first drive in the new Thar, I was still getting used to handling this vehicle on such hill trails.
But here, @justwheels went ahead of me, and started giving me instructions on radio and I started following the lines suggested by him. Thanks a lot to him for his expert guidance that helped me quickly understand the nuances of handling Thar on such terrain. @robimahanta was behind me and was watching me carefully and giving tips as and when necessary. The three of us were using radios for communication and that was of immense help. Thanks to both of these expert off-roaders for making my first off-roading experience in my own Thar both easy and fun.
It was a short and sweet weekend drive that was made memorable by the beautiful Thars, the great company we had, the idyllic homestay and the wonderful hosts there.
Thanks to all of these for making this trip so much fun. Everything went well except for the weather. We were expecting some rain (common in Coorg at the end of May), and looking forward to driving in the rain and mud on the hills. Unfortunately, we were unlucky with the weather. There were no rains at all when we were there, although it rained before we went there and the forecast showed a lot of rain in the following week. Just the weekend we were there was bone dry and quite hot, something totally different from what we expected.
I was happy that I got to use the Thar well and got accustomed to it quickly. I wanted to try out various mechanisms in Thar, and I got to use 4H and Hill Descent Control on multiple occasions. I also used Cruise Control on the Mysore-Bangalore highway and everything worked fine. The only thing I did not get to use was 4L (given the bone-dry weather, there was no mud or slush anywhere and there was no chance to use 4L). Hopefully, my future trips will give me plenty of opportunities to use 4L.
Personally, for me, it was a new experience for sure. Thar is so different from my BMW 320d that driving it felt like playing a totally new game compared to what I am used to. And honestly, both I and my wife enjoyed this new Thar experience. True that both the ride and handling are quite bad in Thar. However, once you experience and appreciate what Thar is capable of beyond the tarmac and smooth roads, it is easy to look past these shortcomings and start liking the vehicle anyways. The simple joy of motoring with peace of mind on broken roads and wandering around on hilltops without worrying about your vehicle was something that we totally loved. And that exactly is the USP of Thar. Anyways, it is still early days for me with Thar and I will comment more on my Thar experiences after a few more drives.
Of course, I absolutely love driving my 320d too, and I plan to use both the 320d and Thar for different kinds of road trips from now on. Hopefully, I will have more Thar stories and travelogues to share in the future, but for now, this simple weekend drive was the first chapter in a new driving experience for me.
Well, that is all for now. Thank you for reading!
P.S. During my final reading of the travelogue after composing it, I realized that every single photo I included in this travelogue has a Thar in it. Not a single photo without a Thar! This was certainly not by design and certainly not done on purpose, but it just so happened and I myself noticed that only in the end. But this shows the photogenic appeal of the Thar. I just did not bother shooting any landscapes or sunset pictures this time, when I had three beautiful machines to shoot instead.
Check out BHPian comments for more insights and information.
source: http://www.team-bhp.com / Team-Bhp.com / Home> News / by Utkarsh Chaudhary / June 05th, 2023
Traders from the Middle East introduced the beverage to the Mughal empire but the British made tea the subcontinent’s preferred drink.
The sun sets behind regal yet dilapidated Mughal mansions and the magnificent dome of the Jama Masjid as the call for the evening prayer fills the auburn sky in Old Delhi.
Chandni Chowk’s bustling streets reverberate with the sound of honking cycle rickshaws navigating the serpentine lanes.
The sunset marks the beginning of business hours in the neighbourhood, which emerged during Mughal emperor Shah Jahan’s rule; a pocket within the once spectacular walled city of Shahjahanabad, founded in 1648.
Immersed in the soundscape, one’s senses are drawn to the aroma of food being prepared, complemented by the unmistakable scent of masala chai – the Indian version of spiced tea.
Tea stalls, resembling busy beehives, draw Delhiites patiently waiting for their daily dose of evening tea – some having travelled from the far ends of the city to satisfy their craving.
Tea is without a doubt a national obsession in India. However, the incredible popularity of the drink in the subcontinent is less than two centuries old and only came about as a result of British rule in the region.
It may come as a surprise, but before the arrival of the British, it was coffee that Indians preferred.
Coffee was brought over from the Horn of Africa to Yemen at some point in the 15th century and later spread north into the Near East and then to Europe by the 16th century.
The beverage also spread eastwards, and India’s Mughal elite was quick to adopt it as their beverage of choice.
While the Mughal Emperor Jahangir had a penchant for wine – preferring the Shiraz variety – both Hindu and Muslim nobility in his court freely indulged in coffee.
Edward Terry, a chaplain with the English embassy at Jahangir’s court, mentions that members of the court were captivated by the then-novel qualities of coffee, believing it could “invigorate the spirits, aid digestion, and purify the blood”.
The coffee bean was brought to the subcontinent by Arab and Turkic traders who had strong trade ties with the Mughal Empire.
They not only brought coffee, but also other items, including silk, tobacco, cotton, spices, gemstones, and more from the Middle East, Central Asia, Persia, and Turkey.
Such goods would reach the farthest corners of India, including the easternmost region of Bengal. By the time Jahangir’s son, Shah Jahan, ascended to the throne (1628-1658), interest in coffee had spread across society.
Coffee was considered a healthy drink, an indicator of social mobility, and an integral part of Delhi’s elite social life.
Like Terry, another contemporary European visitor, the German adventurer Johan Albrecht de Mandelslo, wrote about his travels in the east through Persia and Indian cities, such as Surat, Ahmedabad, Agra, and Lahore in a memoir titled The Voyages and Travels of J Albert de Mandelslo.
In 1638, Mandelslo describes kahwa (coffee) being drunk to counter the heat and keep oneself cool.
In his work Travels in The Mogul Empire (1656-1668), Francois Bernier, a French physician, also refers to the large amount of coffee imported from Turkey.
Besides its use in social settings and supposed effects to ward off heat, the drink also had a religious purpose for the subcontinent’s ascetics.
Like their brethren in the Middle East and Central Asia, India’s Sufis consumed coffee before their night-long reverential rituals known as dhikr (the remembrance of God).
Legend has it that a revered Sufi saint named Baba Budhan carried back seven coffee beans in the folds of his robe on his way back from Mecca in 1670, planting the seeds for Indian-origin coffee cultivation in a place called Chikmagalur.
While this story may or may not be true, today the Baba Budhangiri hill and mountain range in the Indian state of Karnataka bears his name and remains a significant centre for coffee production, as well as housing a shrine dedicated to the Sufi saint.
In another variation of the legend, shared by the government’s Indian Coffee Board, the Sufi saint travels to Mocha in Yemen and manages to smuggle out the beans discreetly despite strict laws on their export.
From the 16th century onwards, India became host to a cafe culture influenced by the one emerging in the Islamic empires to the west, particularly cities such as Damascus, Aleppo, Cairo, and Istanbul.
The nascent coffee culture found expression in Shahjahanabad’s own “qahwakhanas”, or coffee houses.
In her essay Spilling the Beans: The Islamic History of Coffee, food historian Neha Vermani describes the coffee served at the Arab Serai, which was “famous for preparing sticky sweet coffee”.
The Serai, which was commissioned in 1560 by Hamida Banu, the wife of Mughal Emperor Humayun, still stands today as part of a Unesco heritage site ; the wider complex of Humayun’s tomb.
Historians say it was used as an inn by Arab religious scholars who accompanied the royal on her pilgrimage to Mecca and that it was also used to house craftsmen from the Middle East who were working for the Mughals.
Historian Stephen Blake in his 1991 work Shahjhanabad: The Sovereign City in Mughal India 1639-1739 describes coffee houses as places where poets, storytellers, orators, and those “invigorated by their spirits” congregated.
Blake described how vibrant these coffee houses were, their milieu of poetry recitals, storytelling and debates, long hours of playing board games, and how these activities impacted the cultural life of the walled city.
Coffee houses of Shahjhanabad, like those of Isfahan and Istanbul, accelerated the rise of a culture of consumption and a thriving food culture, with residents frequenting snack sellers offering savouries, naanwais baking bread, and halwais specialising in confectionery.
This is a legacy that continues to be felt in Old Delhi’s Shahjahanabad area to this day.
While Blake’s descriptions paint a picture, there are no extant visual depictions of the interiors of these establishments, and unlike their Ottoman or Safavid counterparts, there are no miniatures or Orientalist artworks depicting what they would have looked like.
Rembrandt depicted Mughal men drinking something very closely resembling coffee but the Dutch artist does not identify the contents of their cup, and never visited India. But his images were inspired by Mughal paintings brought over to the Netherlands by Dutch traders.
Provincial courts sought to replicate the ambience of Shahjahanabad and embraced the cafe culture on offer there. Among them, none cherished coffee more than Alivardi Khan, the Nawab Nazim of Bengal.
Khan was of Arab and Turkman descent and ruled Bengal from 1740-1756. Known as a diligent ruler, coffee and food were the two biggest pleasures of his life.
Seir Mutaqherin or the Review of Modern Times, written by one of the prominent historians of the time, Syed Gholam Hussein Khan, offers a fascinating description of Alivardi Khan’s routine.
He writes: “He always rose two hours before daylight; and after having gone through evacuations and ablutions, he performed some devotions of supererogation and at daybreak, he said his prayers of divine precepts, and then drank coffee with choice friends.
“After that he amused himself with a full hour of conversation, hearing verses, reading poetry or listening to some pleasing story.”
This morning routine was followed by a bespoke Persian dish prepared by the nawab’s personal chef.
Khan’s portrayal presents Nawab as a man of fine taste, who valued the luxuries of courtly life as much as effective governance.
A connoisseur of exquisite food, witty conversations, and premium Turkish coffee, Khan went to great lengths to acquire the best coffee beans, importing them from the Ottoman Empire and bringing them all the way to Murshidabad, his capital.
He believed in nothing but the best for his court. Not only were his coffee beans imported, but his kitchen staff also hailed from places renowned for their culinary excellence, such as Persia, Turkey, and Central Asia.
The royal household employed a diverse range of professionals, including storytellers, painters, coffee makers, ice makers, and hakims (physicians).
Khan personally handpicked his baristas (qahwachi-bashi), who brought along their specialised coffee-making equipment.
The descriptions paint a vivid picture of courtly culture, a world of opulence, artistry, and a profound affinity with caffeine.
It is puzzling, therefore, to pinpoint exactly when Mughal coffee culture vanished from pre-colonial Bengal, but it likely lasted until at least 1757.
Siraj ud-Daulah, Khan’s grandson and successor, could not live up to his grandfather’s legacy, and faced with threats from the British, the courtly culture swiftly dissipated, along with Bengal’s fortunes.
When Bengal lost the decisive Battle of Plassey in 1757, the East India Company took control of the region, and slowly coffee vanished from public consumption and consciousness.
The rise of the East India Company, which was the primary agent of British control in India, marked the end of the subcontinent’s dominant coffee culture.
Britain’s penchant for tea began in the late 17th century and China was its main supplier.
Lizzy Collingham writes in her book Curry: A Tale of Cooks and Conquerors that between 1811 and 1819 “70,426,244 pounds” out of a total of “72,168,541” pounds of imports from China were associated with the tea trade.
She remarks that Britain, therefore, had an “interest in finding an alternative source for tea”.
With its fertile soils and appropriate weather conditions, India was the perfect spot.
In February of 1834, then Governor General William Bentick appointed a committee to look into India’s potential as a place to set up the East India Company’s own tea production unit.
In the native Indian population, they found not only workers who would cultivate and harvest the leaves but also consumers of the beverage.
As coffee production became overshadowed by tea farming, Indian tastes also shifted to the latter.
Further consolidating the decline of Indian cafe culture was the British ban on Indians visiting coffee houses, which were barred to all but Europeans.
Nevertheless, reports of the death of coffee in India were premature.
Regardless of British influence on local culture, the subcontinent was not immune to global trends.
The Indian historian and author, AR Venkatachalapthy, writes in his 2006 book In Those Days There was No Coffee: Writings in Cultural History that there was no escaping the physical effects or symbolism of coffee in late 19th century British India.
“Drinking coffee, it appears, was no simple quotidian affair. Much like history, the nation-state, or even the novel, coffee too was the sign of the modern,” he writes.
Enthusiasm for coffee grew at the turn of the 20th century, and the same book quotes adverts for coffee in south India in the 1890s: “Coffee is the elixir that drives away weariness. Coffee gives vigour and energy.”
This energy and vigour were first reflected in the east, in the colonial city of Calcutta (present-day Kolkata) where the first Indian-run coffee shop, named Indian Coffee House, opened in 1876.
Turning into a chain in the 1890s, by the first half of the new century the name Indian Coffee House would be adopted by a growing network of 400 coffee houses run by Indian workers’ cooperatives, with only Indian-origin coffee.
These were the people’s coffee houses where any Indian could walk in without being discriminated against on the basis of their race.
Today, the ambience of the Indian Coffee House reminds one of the inclusivity of coffee shops in historic Shahjhanabad.
The chain is one of many Indians can visit, with others including the Bengaluru-based Coffee Day Global, which now has more than 500 outlets in the country despite only opening its first in 1996.
Six years later Starbucks entered India’s voluminous urban market and the rules of the brew changed forever in the subcontinent.
source: http://www.middleeasteye.com / Middle East Eye / Home> Discover> Food & Drink / by Nilosree Biswas, New Delhi / June 05th, 2023
Bengaluru:
Virajpet Congress MLA and senior advocate A.S. Ponnanna has been appointed as the Legal Advisor to Chief Minister Siddharamaiah.
Ponnanna, who is also the KPCC Legal Wing President, was an aspirant for a Ministerial berth in the Siddharamaiah Cabinet, after having won from Virajpet Assembly segment defeating BJP stalwart K.G. Bopaiah. But he missed the bus and now he has been appointed as the CM’s Legal Advisor of the rank of a Cabinet Minister. He is the son of firebrand political leader from Kodagu late A.K. Subbaiah.
Ponnanna had also served as Additional Solicitor General when Siddharamaiah was the CM earlier (2013-18).
source: http://www.starofmysore.com / Star of Mysore / Home> News / June 02nd, 2023
Actor Ambareesh’s son Abishek and Aviva Bidappa tied the knot in a grand Hindu wedding ceremony. An even more grand reception is planned on June 7.
Veteran Kannada actor Ambareesh’s son Abishek Ambareesh got married to entrepreneur and model Aviva Bidappa on Monday, June 5, in a grand ceremony that was attended by many notable personalities of the film industry as well as several politicians. Actors Rajinikanth, Mohan Babu, and Yash among others attended the wedding ceremony and blessed the couple.
Rajinikanth has starred alongside Abishek’s mother Sumalatha in a few films and the two get along well. Murattu Kaalai, Anbukku Naan Adimai, and Kazhugu are three Tamil films in which Rajinikanth and Sumalatha collaborated. The ceremony also included KGF celebrity Yash who can be seen hugging Abishek in a video.
According to reports, the family will host a grand reception on June 7 in Bengaluru on a large scale. The pair appeared ethereal in the wedding photographs wearing traditional South Indian clothing. Aviva wore a red saree with gold jewelry, while Abhishek wore a beige kurta and a dhoti combo with sunglasses. The stars who attended the wedding also captured everyone’s attention with their simplicity. Rajinikanth was attired in a white kurta and dhoti, while Yash was dressed in a light pink sherwani.
Abhishek made his acting debut in the 2019 Kannada film Amar. He has also worked in the upcoming film Bad Manners, directed by Duniya Suri. Aviva is the daughter of Prasad Bidappa, a well-known celebrity fashion designer. Aviva herself is a popular model, TV personality, fashion designer and a successful businesswoman.
For the uninitiated, Ambareesh was an Indian film actor and politician from Karnataka. Ambareesh made his acting debut in Nagarahavu, Puttanna Kanagal’s National Award-winning film.. After that, his acting career continued with a brief phase of portraying antagonistic and supporting characters in Kannada films.
source: http://www.indulgexpress.com / The New Indian Express – Indulge Express / Home> Entertainment> Celebs / by Team Indulge / June 06th, 2023
The late legendary actor Ambareesh’s son, Abishek, recently got married to model and entrepreneur Aviva Bidapa. The wedding took place in Karnataka and was attended by family members, friends, as well as notable personalities from the film industry and politics. Superstar Rajinikanth, actor Yash, politician Venkaiah Naidu, and many others graced the occasion.
Several glimpses from Abishek’s wedding have been shared on social media, capturing heartwarming moments from the joyous occasion. Photos also showed the presence of renowned personalities like Rajinikanth and Yash, who blessed the newlyweds with their best wishes. Yash, along with his wife Radhika Pandit, looked stunning in matching pink ethnic attire, radiating elegance and charm. Kichcha Sudeep and Ashwini, the wife of Puneeth Rajkumar, were also at the ceremony.
Abishek and Aviva looked beautiful in ethnic South Indian attires.
Who is Aviva Bidapa?
Aviva Bidapa comes from a family with a strong background in the fashion industry. Her father, Prasad Bidapa, is a renowned celebrity fashion designer known for his contributions to the Indian fashion scene. He has made a significant impact and has been instrumental in shaping the industry. Aviva’s mother, Judith Bidapa, is also reported to be a popular personality in her own right.
Aviva herself has made a name for herself in the fashion world as a well-known model, fashion designer, and TV personality. Her skills, talent, and entrepreneurial spirit have contributed to her success in the media industry. With her diverse range of abilities and accomplishments, Aviva has carved a niche for herself and continues to make her mark in the fashion and entertainment world.
source: http://www.thestatesman.com / The Statesman / Home> Entertainment / by Suman / June 05th, 2023
