Fathers can now relax as the mother and daughter go out and shop to their heart’s content at the reasonably priced Lepakshi crafts mela, inaugurated on Friday in the Mogal Exhibition Hall.

The exhibition was launched by Revenue Divisional Officer S. Venkata Rao and can be called as the perfect place to shop for college-going girls because of its pocket-friendly prices. The exhibition displays a wide variety of items from single stone studs to pretty little anklets for the girls. There are a lot of imitation jewellery sets, kurtis, dress materials and also pure leather bags on sale at this exhibition.

Apart from these items for the young crowd, the exhibition-cum-sale also has items for the older generation like cotton bed spreads, sarees, and dresses for kids, shirts for men etc. There are also a few decorative items like Kondappali toys, wall hangings and replicas of Taj Mahal on sale at the exhibition.

The exhibition has a 10 per cent discount on handicrafts and 20 per cent discount on handlooms. Organised to increase the awareness and importance of handlooms among the general public, it has some of the items on display like Nirmal paintings, Banjara embroidery, pearls from Hyderabad, gold-plated ornaments, silver jewellery, wood carvings, just handicrafts etc.

Handloom section

In the handloom section there are daily wear sarees from Pochampally, Venkatagiri, Bengali cotton, Madhurai etc and Mangalagiri dress materials along with bed sheets from Kalamkari and Jaipur. This exhibition-cum-sale organised by the Lepakshi Handicrafts Emporium will be open to August 5, daily from 10 a.m. to 9 p.m.

source: http://www.TheHindu.com / News> Cities> Vijayawada / by Staff Reporter /  July 21st, 2012

People thronged temples, more particularly Kanakadurga temple atop Indrakeeladri, on the first day of ‘Sravana masam’ in Vijayawada on Friday.

The Kanakadurga temple was spruced up for the ‘Sravana masam’ and ‘pavitrotsavam’. Devotees started coming to the temple from the wee hours of Friday after taking holy dip in the River Krishna. They participated in the poojas performed to mark the beginning of the Sravana maasam.

The temple authorities, however, decided to perform Vara Lakshmi pooja on next Friday. The presiding deity will be decked up as Vara Lakshmi on that day. The temple authorities have cancelled the ‘Khadgamala’ a special pooja on next Friday in view of the Vara Lakshmi festival.

The temple, last year, organised Varalakshmi pooja atop Indrakeeladri. About 100 women participated in the pooja last year. The temple supplied blouse pieces and bangles as ‘prasadam’ to the devotees participated in the pooja.

Special pooja

The devotees took part in ‘Koti Kumkumarchana’, a special pooja being organised at the temple for the last couple of weeks. The pooja will come to an end on Saturday with poornahuti. The temple priests will perform the poornahuti at 10 a.m. on Indrakeeladri. A procession will be taken out from Komal Vilas centre in One Town to mark the grand finale of the Koti Kumkumarchana. The procession will pass through Nehru Bomma centre, Ganapathi Rao Road, Railway Station, Kaleswara Rao Market, Canal Road, and Ratham Centre and reach the temple.

The pavitrotsavam will begin with Udaka Santhi on July 31 evening.

source: http://www.TheHindu.com / News> Cities> Vijayawada / July 21st, 2012

Author of Vemana Velugulu Sahitya Akademi awardee, N.Gopi is a former Head, Department of Telugu, Osmania University and former Vice-Chancellor, Potti Sreeramulu Telugu University. Though basically a creative poet with over 30 titles to his credit till date, he is also a distinguished researcher. His doctoral thesis ‘Prajakavi Vemana’ (People’s poet Vemana) stands reckoned as an authority on the subject, for its holistic approch and comprehensive treatment. He is fondly called ‘Vemana Gopi’ by the literary fraternity, for his sustained research spanning over three decades, resulting in the publication of standard works bearing on Vemana.

The present book is a collection of short essays in the form of commentary on selected verses of Vemana (also spelt Vemanna). The author has chosen 428 verses after taking care to ensure their authenticity, since there are thousands of variations attributed to Vemana. Another factor guiding the process of selection is to see that the verses cover major propositions and paradigms propounded by Vemana. The book is aptly titled Vemanna Velugulu, signifying illuminating thoughts. The verses are composed in ‘ Ataveladi’ metre with uniform refrain (Makutam) ‘Viswadabhirama Vinura Vema’. Its import is obscure. Some contend that it means- ‘Listen O! Vema, dear to the Lord of all”. In fact, the sense of each verse is complete even without the refrain. The first two lines convey the idea and the third one gives an analogy.

Vemana was essentially a reformist — philosopher poet, always on the move. He is called a ‘Yogi’. He disliked evils and superstitions of all forms in the society and derided them in his poems, while suggesting remedies. His verses are loaded with morals, aphorisms, maxims, dicta, satires, adages and precepts expressed in simple, chaste, and crisp language embellished with similes and metaphors. We come across code language in some poems dealing with alchemy and other uncommon topics.

C.P. Brown rendered yeoman service to the Telugu literature by collecting and collating several poems of Vemana and translating then into English for the first time. Gopi admirably unfolds all these traits in his comments. With his profound knowledge of Vemana, he renders the commentary on each poem highly informative and enlightening. Gopi often delves deep into true purport conceptualised by Vemana. Here are few instances in this regard (with Brown’s English version of the lines): Commenting on the poem Atma suddhi leni achaaramadiyela (Observance of ritual devoid of purity of heart)’, the author shows how Vemana lays special emphasis on the purity of body, mind and heart. In the poem Aapagaali venta adavula ventanu (To what end is this toil of pilgrimages to the confluence of rivers), Dr.Gopi explains that Vemana discourages the fad for pilgrimages. The author while citing Aapadandu Choodu maaraya bandhula (In adversity observe well the behaviour of your relations), the author proves the keen sense of Vemana on the attitude of people. In ‘Kadaka nakhilamunaku nadi naalamandunna (That light like the morning star that dwells in the heart of every man is our refuge’), Dr N. Gopi elucidates how Vemana demonstrates his superior knowledge of ‘kundalini’.

This book is a valuable treasure for lovers of poetry, particularly admirers of Vemana.

VEMANA VELUGULU

Commentary by Dr. N. Gopi / For Copies: N. Aruna / 13-1-158, Srinivasapuram /Ramanthapur, Hyderabad – 500 013 / Price: Rs. 250

source: http://www.TheHindu.com / Home> Arts> Books / by Govindaraju RamaKrishna Rao / July 19th, 2012

Devotees offering Bonalu at the Ujjaini Mahankali temple on Sunday | Express Photo

Most parts of Secunderabad were in a festive mood on Sunday as thousands of devotees thronged various Mahankali temples, including the 191 year old Sri Ujjaini Mahankali temple to celebrate ‘Bonalu’, a traditional Hindu festival of Telangana.

‘Bonalu’ is dedicated to the Mother Goddess Mahankali and is held in the month of Ashada Masam (July/August) every year. It is celebrated to ward off evil and to usher peace and harmony.  Womenfolk, dressed in their best traditional attire, carried ‘bonam’ (a pot carrying rice, turmeric powder, jaggery, milk and curd, covered with neem leaves and a lamp placed on top of it) on their heads to the Ujjaini Mahankali temple. The temple was decorated with buntings, festoons and neem leaves.

Siva Sattulu dances under trance near the Ujjaini Mahankali temple in Secunderabad | EPS

‘Pothrajus’,smeared with colours carried long whips and ‘ghatams’ as ‘teen maar’ drumbeats and Telugu folk songs reverberated the by-lanes of Secunderabad.

Separate queues were made for the convenience of devotees carrying ‘bonalu’. Water sachets and ‘prasadam’ were supplied free of cost to the devotees, many of them from the surrounding districts of Rangareddy, Medak and Nalgonda. The ritual of ‘Rangam’ (foretelling the future) by a young spinster will be performed on Monday at 9 am.

The devotees were interrupted by the visits of politicians, including chief minister N Kiran Kumar Reddy, for which they had to wait outside the temple for three long hours. Eventually, when Reddy exited the temple, they expressed their frustration by raising slogans like ‘CM down down’.

They were also unhappy with the discrimination meted out to them by the temple authorities by giving VIP treatment to the politicians. N Chandrababu Naidu, ministers C Ramachandraiah, Mukesh Goud, Danam Nagender, J Geetha Reddy, Pradesh Congress Committee (PCC) president Botcha Satyanarayana, deputy speaker Bhatti Vikramarka, Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) state president G Kishan Reddy, V Hanumanth Rao, Anjan Kumar Yadav offered prayers at the 19th century temple.

Apart from ‘Lashkar Bonalu’, devotees thronged different Mahankali temples in Ramgopalpet, Pan Bazar, R P Road and M G Road, Paradise, Mettuguda, Bhoiguda, Ranigunj and YMCA.  The festival will conclude on Monday with ‘Rangam’ and ‘Ghatam’ procession of Mahankali Goddess on an elephant in the neighbourhoods of Sri Ujjaini Mahankali temple. The temple deity was installed by soldiers from Ujjain, who were part of an army contingent trapped in cholera epidemic.

source: http://www.newindianexpress.com / Home> Cities> Hyderabad / by Express News Service / July 09th, 2012

A compilation of biographical snippets of the life of father of Harikatha (a distinct folk art form) in Andhra Pradesh, Sri Adibhatla Narayana Dasu –“Na Eruka,’’-, penned by Telugu Lecturer M. Ravikrishna was unveiled here on Friday.

The book was released at a function held at Annamayya Kalavedika on the premises of Sri Venkateswara Swamy Devastanam at Brindavan Gardens here. Unveiling the book, noted literary critics U.A Narasimha Murthy and Papineni Sivasankar hailed the contribution of Narayana Dasu to the propagation of Harikatha, a popular folk art and a form of entertainment.

The cover of the book has a wonderful artistic expression of Narayana Dasu painted by Rayana Giridhar Gowd.

Noted industrialist Bommidala Srikrishna Murthy, secretary of temple committee Gummadi Radhakrishna Murthy who spoke on the occasion lamented that the traditional art forms have lost popularity

source: http://www.TheHindu.com / Home> News> Cities> Vijayawada / by Staff  Reporter / Guntur, July 07th, 2012