From barren fields to hallowed turf

July 27, 2016Inspiration /Positive News and Features, Sports, World Opinionadmin

When she chose to wield the hockey stick more than a decade ago, her parents reposed confidence in E. Rajani. Now, they are eager to see her strike gold at Rio as the goalkeeper of the Indian women’s hockey team.

It’s life as usual for Ramanachari and Tulasi even as their daughter Rajani chases glory at Rio. —PHOTO: K.V. POORNACHANDRA KUMAR

Even after their daughter started making a career in hockey, it’s life as usual for carpenter E. Ramanachari and his wife Tulasi, who grazes cows, in Yanamalavaripalle village of Chittoor district. Ramanachari’s education ended in class five and Tulasi never went to school, but that did not deter them from envisaging a career in sport for their child.

Rajani herself hadn’t any sporting aspirations in primary school, but things changed when she joined class eight at Zilla Parishat High School in Nerabailu.

The tall girl was initially picked for volleyball, but physical education trainer D. Venkat Raju found her agility and endurance suitable for hockey.

He got barren paddy fields levelled. Rajani and her friends walked along the field-bunds for 3km to practice. In fact, this nondescript school has sent 14 students to many national sporting events. And now, Rajani has raised the bar, scaling international heights.

Identifying her potential, Andhra Hockey Association secretary A.P.K. Reddy brought her out of the village to the Hockey Academy sub-centre here and later to the Sports Authority of India (SAI) hostel in Hyderabad, exposing her to international events in New Zealand, Japan, China, Korea, Argentina, Australia, the Netherlands and Malaysia. She also bagged the ‘Best Goalkeeper Award’ at an event in Japan in 2013.

“She last visited us ten months ago and we hope to see her back soon with a gold medal,” says her mother, brimming with confidence.

source: http://www.thehindu.com / The Hindu / Home> Sport / by A.D. Rangarajan / Tirupati – July 27th, 2016

Sprawling state-of-art education city in Vizag

July 26, 2016Education, Records, Alladmin

Government alienates 1,100 acres, Vuda submits ADP.

Land compensation for assignees, encroachers is to be released by the government. (Representational image)

Visakhapatnam:

An Education City is coming up in Vizag for which the state government had identified 1,100 acres at Sabbavaram. Of the 1,100 acres, the state government recently issued orders alienating 740 acres in first phase free of cost to the higher education department.

Though the revenue department had fixed Rs 12 lakh per acre for the alienation, the government upon the request of the higher education department had alienated the land free of cost. Land will be plotted and earmarked to be allotted to private schools, colleges, varsities of international repute.

Already representatives of India’s well known private university AMITY had visited the site and evinced interest in setting up their campus at Vizag’s Education City.

The district collector had sent proposals to alienate the land 740.83 acres that comes under survey numbers 109, 135, 240, 241, and 242 of Vangali Village, Sabbavaram Mandal in favour of the Higher Education Department for establishment of Educational City Knowledge Hub Project on payment of market value at Rs 12 lakh per acre.

The Chief Commissioner of Land Administration (CCLA) has stated that the above proposal was placed before the APLMA in its meeting held on 16.10.2015 and the APLMA has recommended for alienation of the land.

The Secretary Higher Education has requested to allot the land free of cost and further stated that if the land is used for commercial purpose in future, the cost of the land may be decided by the government in consultation with revenue department.

Hence, a view may be taken on the request subject to certain conditions, said the GO No: 332 of the revenue department issued recently. The government after careful examination, alienated the said land in favour of the Higher Education Department for establishment of Educational City Knowledge Hub Project on free of cost, subject to some conditions.

“Private universities and organisations like BITS, Sarla Birla academy, etc are to be invited to see the lands. So far seen and earmarked 550 acres for various national-level premier educational institutions and remaining lands available for private institutes will be around 200 acres. As per the Chief Minister’s directions, VUDA has started laying road and other infrastructure of water and electricity have to be taken forward,” said a senior district official.

source: http://www.deccanchronicle.com / Deccan Chronicle / Home> Nation> In Other News / July 26th, 2016

The multilingual scholar who made Tirupati proud

July 25, 2016Amazing Feats, Arts, Culture & Entertainment, Education, Leaders, Records, Alladmin

Multilingual scholar Kozhiyalam Satagopacharya

He was a scholar honoured by the Tirumala Tirupati Devasthanams (TTD) by being carried on a caparisoned elephant around the famous Sri Govindaraja temple here.

Kozhiyalam Satagopacharya received the rare honour way back in 1961-62. Followed by scholars chanting hymns and to the traditional drum beats of percussionists, the procession led by the then Executive Officer C. Anna Rao also dropped him at his residence. His achievement?

He rendered the Ramayana discourse for a full year at the jam-packed Anjaneya shrine located in front of the temple.

While his centenary was observed by his disciples at Mylapore (Chennai) on Saturday, his home town Tirupati too went nostalgic.

It is a rare coincidence that the 100th year of this scholar, who shares the lineage of ‘Abhinava Ramanuja’ Kozhiyalam Swamy, runs concurrent with the millennial celebrations of Sri Ramanuja.

Born in July 1916 in Therani on the banks of River Kusasthali on the Tamil Nadu border, the Sanskrit scholar taught for more than 25 years in the TTD’s Sri Venkateswara Oriental College. The multilingual scholar used to give a Tamil lecture on ‘Tiruppavai’, participate in Sanskrit debate and immediately switch over to chaste Telugu for a discourse on the ‘Ramayana’. Tamil and Telugu commentaries on ‘Sri Venkateswara Ashtothara Sathanamavali’, Vedanta Desika’s ‘Dayasatakam’ and a Sanskrit commentary‘Vidhitraya Paritranam’ on Sri Venkatadhvari were some of his notable contributions.

He mastered spoken English too within a few months. Satagopacharya made news those days by preparing and rendering the welcome address for the then President Dr. Sarvepalli Radhakrishnan at the Kendriya Sanskrit Vidyapeetha. The President was all praise for his erudition, his disciples recall even today. Describing him ‘an authority on Nyaya, Mimamsa and Vedanta’, the then Lok Sabha Speaker Madabhushi Anantasayanam Ayyangar used to refer scholarly material to him.

His abject poverty never had any impact on him. “He never let money or the absence of it cast a shadow on us,” recalls his son K. Srinivasan, Secretary of the Navajeevan charitable group that runs an eye hospital, home for the visually challenged and an old age home, feeding 1000 people a day.

Though he got an appointment as a reader in the Vidyapeetha, he breathed his last before joining duty.

source: http://www.thehindu.com / The Hindu / Home> National> Andhra Pradesh / by A.D. Rangarajan / Tirupati – July 25th, 2016

Kanyakumari — first woman violinist to get Sangita Kalanidhi award

July 24, 2016Arts, Culture & Entertainment, Records, Alladmin

“The executive committee of the Academy held on July 24 has unanimously chosen her for its coveted award,” said N. Murali.

A. Kanyakumari, an outstanding and versatile violinist, will get the Sangita Kalanidhi award of the Music Academy this year.

“The executive committee of the Academy held on July 24 has unanimously chosen her for its coveted award,” said N. Murali, president of Academy.

He said Ms. Kanyakumari was the first woman violinist to get the award in the history of the Music Academy and she will preside over the 90th annual conference of the Academy to be held between December 15, 2016 and January 1, 2017. The award will be conferred on her at the Sadas on January 1, 2017.

“It is God’s grace that I have been selected for the award at an appropriate time. I am very happy because it is considered as the highest award in the field of carnatic music,” Ms. Kanyakumari, a student of late M.L. Vasanthakumari told The Hindu.

A native of Vijayanagaram in Andhra Pradesh, Ms. Kanyakumari had her initial training under Ivaturi Vijayeswara Rao. Later she learnt from noted violinist M. Chandrasekaran, another Sangita Kalanidhi awardee. In 1971 she became a student of MLV. “I was with her for 19 years learning and accompanying her,” said Ms. Kanyakumari.

She is yet another student of the G.N. Balasubramaniam (GNB) — MLV school of music to win the award. Others who had already received the award are vocalists Sudha Ragunathan and Tiruchur V. Ramachandran.

A composer, who constantly experimented with music, she created seven ragas under the title Saptadri , seven names of Lord Venkateswara of Tirupati. “I used Annamacharya’s compositions to give expression to the seven ragas,” said Ms. Kanyakumari.

Her other raga creations include Mahalakshmi, Tirumurti and Bharat, a raga created on the occasion of the golden jubilee celebrations of Independence.

“I have teamed up with nagaswaram and veena players and my Vadhyalahiri was popular in the late 1980s,” said Ms. Kanyakumari, who had accompanied saxophone player Kadri Gopalnath along with thavil player Haridwaramangalam A.K. Palanivel and tabla maestro Zakir Hussain.

She teaches a lot of students in India and abroad, but does not accept money from them.

Mr. Murali said the Sangita Kala Acharya awards will go to Rudrapatnam brothers — R.N. Thyagarajan and R.N. Tharanathan and K. Venkataramanan, vocalist and music teacher.

TTK awards will be conferred on vocalist Nirmala Sundararajan and Thevaram singer M. Kodilingam. Musicologist award will go to Rama Kausalya and Pappa Venkatramaiah award to violinist Sikkil Baskaran.

The Nataya Kala Acharaya award will be conferred on Malavika Sarukkai on January 3, 2017, at the inauguration of dance festival.

source: http://www.thehindu.com / The Hindu / Home> Features> Friday Review> Music / B. Kolappan / Chennai – July 24th, 2016