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The Hindu :

Poornaprajna Education Centre, Indiranagar, held its investiture ceremony recently. V. B. Virupaksha, the district superintendent of physical education (south district), was the chief guest. He pinned badges and administered the oath to the new leaders. He urged the students to imbibe true values of life.

The Principal, Maiya, welcomed the gathering and introduced the guests. S. K. Bhat, the secretary of the school, was present.

(INPUT BY SUDHINDR. A.B.)

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The Hindu : M.S. DEEPTHI

The Japanese art form inspires Ragini to create amazing works of art.

Drawing on convictions: Vivid depictions of Girl Power

“The big eyes and the expressions of Manga Comics’ characters are very inspiring,” says young artist Ragini Srikrishna, who had her debut art show in Bangalore recently.Adding colour

Her works are inspired by Manga Comics, the Japanese comic series originally in black-and-white, to which Ragini has added plenty of colour. “Pictures always stay vivid in my memory,” says Ragini, who is also a football player and a writer with several magazine credits.

A firm believer in girl power, she intends to donate 50 per cent of the proceeds from the show to FAME India, a local NGO working with mentally challenged children. She is a student of Std. IX at Sri Kumaran’s (CBSE).

The Manga comics inspired her to create an acrylic series titled ‘Girl Power.’ Ragini’s specific interest in Manga was triggered by the drawing style of Manga masters (mangaka) such as Osamu Tezuka (Astro Boy, Buddha) and Machiko Hasegawa and women artists such as Satomi Ikezawa (Othello). Her recent visit to the Manga Museum in Kyoto inspired her to embark on the current ‘Girl Power’ project.

“She has got a lot of patience to paint for long hours,” says her proud father K. Srikrishna.

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The Hindu :

All the world is a-twitter, but what’s the truth of the matter?

Photo: reutersBITTER ABOUT TWITTER? It may not be as happening as one would like to believe

One of the biggest reactions to Twitter is the outburst of buzzwords. Posting tweets, greeting tweeps, being a twitt, celebrating twestivals, chasing the twitterati. And if you’re not in the know you’re a dim-twit. Everyone seems to be rising to the challenge to come up with as many catchphrases as possible, in 140 characters or less.

“A lot of it is first-phase excitement,” says Shruti Krishnan, a college student. “Everyday I get notifications saying that a friend has joined Twitter, but most people don’t really do anything with it. Out of the 100 people you ‘follow’ on Twitter, your home page is swamped with updates from barely 10 per cent.” To many, Twitter is an experiment — get an account, post a few updates…and become fairly dormant, if not inactive.

Also, there is a surprising lack of real communication. “It’s very narcissistic,” explains consultant Anand Menon. “Looking past the news tweets, Twitter is a mesh of singular updates on what your friends are eating, what they think of the rain, what colour they’ve painted their nails! Oddball occurrences are fun updates, not your entire routine!”

But do not take too much away from Twitter. One of the best things is the splattering of celebtwities. With Twitter now verifying accounts, it’s a thrill to get day-to-day information directly from the horse’s mouth. How else would followers know about Tyra Banks’ fear of cellulite? Or see Priyanka Chopra’s candid shots taken from her phone and tweeted to the rest of the world?

Also, Twitter has emerged as a powerful medium of exchanging on-ground news, from Mumbai to Iran. Sadly, the term ‘Twitter Revolution’ is being overused to the point of a cliché. “It’s like the tool is being given more…More

The Hindu :

The good old canvas shoe takes on funky colours, designs and graffiti

STEP OUT IN STYLE With designer canvas shoes

After having spent many years wearing canvas shoes to school, the very thought of wearing them again makes many of us cringe. White, flat and often reeking of shoe whitener, the humble canvas spent most of its time crawling about in the playgrounds,slush and mud or nervously beating against a table in a quiet exam hall, never really managing to become a style statement. Just as it was about to give up on its plain Jane appearance, somebody came up with the brilliant idea of giving these shoes a makeover. Bright, funky and chic, these pairs are immensely comfortable too and a must-have.The shoe is their canvas

City girl, Anushka Mayne, who gave up her job for designing canvas shoes, says, “The canvas’ in their colourful avatar are fun, bright and make me happy when I wear my pair.” She was introduced quite accidentally to this art. “At a friend’s party I was playing with a string of sequins. I put it on my friend’s Converse and it looked quite lovely. So I decided to design canvas shoes,” the twenty-year-old says with a smile.

Anushka mostly uses Converse shoes for designing and charges anything between Rs. 900 to Rs. 1,700. She is currently working on a pair she calls ‘Bollywood shoes’. It has a silhouette of Amitabh Bachchan and colour scheme of the movie “Johnny Gaddar”.

Of all the pairs she has designed so far, her ‘Disco shoes’ are the bestseller. With blue and silver sequins on the soles, blue clouds all over it and a blue satin lace sitting daintily on top, the pair sure is a show stealer. Sequins, lots of colours and a little bit of imagination are her mantra to transform those insipid pairs into funky footwear.

Lavina Mahbubani, also…More

The Hindu : y>Lasya Shashimohan says differently-abled people don’t need your patronising attitude

The creator is a patron of diversity. No phenomenon in nature is a carbon copy of another form. People with disabilities (differently-abled, to be politically correct) have also been created by the same Supreme Being, like all others. They are also people with different dreams, features and interests. Yet these diverse individuals are typecast into the “handicapped” category.

I was afflicted with a condition that left my lower limbs weak, forcing me to wear calipers from childhood. As I grew up and learnt to comprehend language, I used cry every time blunt vernacular versions of the H-word were used by a child or adult. I faced a great deal of isolation by peers and was subject to unfair treatment by teachers at the school I attended. These incidents forced me into a shell and made me an introvert.

Things changed for the better when my family shifted base to Bangalore a few years ago. I managed to achieve decent grades at school and college level, thus enhancing my confidence levels a great deal.

However, though no longer direct, discrimination continued and still continues to exist among ‘normal’ people, who subject differently-abled people to many clichés, with adjectives such as courage, intelligence and talent. These words are used in most cases in such patronising terms that force us to say, we do not require random praise or censure.

We do not want to be put on a pedestal and would like to be assumed as normal people, who are capable of fun and enjoyment and also make mistakes.

Do you have anything to say? About the state of the world, the city, your angst?

Pen it stylishly and you might get it published.And dash off your piece with your photograph. Email it tobangmetro@gmail.com or post it to MetroPlus, The Hindu, 19 & 21, Bhagwan Mahaveer Road (Infantry Road),…More

The Hindu : y>Many traditional instruments are on their way out. Experts tell Shalini shahwhat needs to be done to keep the music going

Photos: AVINASH CHANDRASHEKARold-world charm The sarangi (left) and other rare instruments at University of Madras

Indian classical instrumental music is an anthology of string, wind and percussion instruments dating back centuries. In each category, there are instruments that enjoy extreme popularity — such as the sitar, veena, santoor, violin, flute, tabla and mridanga. At the same time, there are others dying due to want of patronage, restricted to certain maestros and musical families—such as the sarangi, balasaraswati, surbahar, swarmandal and bulbul tarang.

While it’s easy to locate Spanish and electronic guitars, violins, percussion instruments, sitars and veenas in most music stores, their less-famous counterparts have become collectors’ items.

V. Raman, director of Lakshmansruthi, says that even the harmonium, previously used by vocalists for keeping sruthi, is making way for the more portable sruthi box. “Now, we sell 10 harmoniums for every 200 sruthi boxes. Also, in film music, the electric guitar has largely replaced the mandolin,” he adds.

However, Melvin Ranjan of Musee Musicals says the popularity of the sruthi box has more to do with convenience.

Rikhi Ram, an online store for music instruments, sells the rare dotara, surbahar and swarmandal.Owner Sanjay Rikhi Ram says they sell one to two surbahars a month, and four or five swarmandals, orders for which mostly come from Germany. The dotara is only used in meditation centres and institutions, so we either get bulk orders or nothing.”

The sarangi is part of the rich Hindustani music tradition. “Scholars say a sarangi was found in a temple attic in Tirunelveli, which leads us to believe that they were used as an accompanying instrument,” says Premeela Gurumurthy, professor and head, Department of Indian Music, University of Madras.

“The sarangi, however, has been replaced by the violin,” she says.

“The sarangi, and even dilruba,…More

The Hindu :

Catch Shankar’s hard-hitting cartoons spanning over a decade

Photo: Sampath Kumar g.p.ACERBIC LINES Shankar’s critique of his times was always pithy

“Don’t spare me, Shankar. Hit, hit me hard.” Jawaharlal Nehru told cartoonist Shankar (born K. Sankara Pillai) when he first released Shankar’s Weekly in 1948, Shankar’s brainchild and India’s first magazine for political cartoons.

Shankar bit the bait, and how! Over 400 cartoons appeared week after week, chronicling the ups and downs of the Nehruvian era; delivering sharp critiques on socialism, Non-alignment, the Cabinet and financial instability among other things.

Now, an exhibition “Don’t Spare me Shankar,” featuring 90 cartoons published between Independence and Nehru’s death in 1964, is on show till August 22 at the Indian Institute of Cartoonists housed in Milford House, off M.G. Road.

For the generation born past Shankar’s time, the exhibition reveals how a crisp caption and a few deftly drawn strokes can flesh out past issues in a flash. The pertinence and precision of Shankar’s work transcends barriers of age, language and authority, leaving nothing but reverence for the high priest of humour.

Older generations remember events and issues through the frames of Shankar’s weekly dose, recalling the wisdom behind Shankar’s critiques on linguistic reorganization of States or the gibe meant for politicians drunk on power during prohibition.

Shankar enjoyed the patronage of the first prime minister who appreciated his sharp sense of satire and ready wit. In fact, he quit as the staff cartoonist of The Hindustan Times in 1946 to start Shankar’s Weekly two years later with Nehru’s support.

Inspired by the cartoon great David Low, Shankar himself played guru to a recognised crop of Indian cartoonists such as P.K.S. Kutty, Abu Abraham, O.V. Vijayan and Yesudasan.

V.G. Narendra, managing director of IIC, and one of the last protégés of Shankar says of his mentor, “He was very sharp and to-the-point. Even the British were afraid of his scathing one-liners.”

He…More

The Hindu :

This fortnight at seventymm.com

Death on the Nile (1978)

Cast: Peter Ustinov, Jane Birkin (Louise Bourget), Lois Chiles (Linnet Ridgeway), Bette Davis (Van Schuyler) Mia Farrow (Jackie), Olivia Hussey (Rosalie Otterbourne), Angela Lansbury (Salome) David Niven (Col Race), I. S. Johar Manager of the Karnak

Director: John Guillermin

Screenwriter: Anthony Shaffer from a novel by Agatha Christie

Composer: Nino Rota

Cinematographer: Jack Cardiff

While David Suchet’s interpretation of Agatha Christie’s little Belgian sleuth, Hercule Poirot, is now taken as the gold standard, this film is engrossing for its big picture grandeur and star-studded cast. In 1974, Sidney Lumet directedeveryone’s favourite Christie novel, “The Murder on the Orient Express.”

The film starred Albert Finney as Poirot and featured Hollywood royalty in its cast — from Ingrid Bergman (who won an Oscar for actress in a supporting role), Lauren Bacall and Jacqueline Bisset to Sean Connery and John Gielgud. The movie was a lavish production which brought alive the art deco palate of the 1930s. Come to think of it, the USP of the David Suchet television series is the loving recreation of the 1930s.

In the making-of feature of “Death on the Nile”, director John Guillermin says how important setting is to a Christie novel, as the story pretty much follows a template. So while in “Orient Express”, the closed circle of suspects, all of who had reason to do away with the obnoxious Mr. Ratchett are snowed in the lush Orient Express, in “Death on the Nile” the suspects are aboard the Nile steamer, the Karnak.

The victim is the rich American heiress Linnet Ridgeway and there is no dearth of suspects as every passenger has the means and motive to do away with her. There is Linnet’s best friend Jacqueline, whose fiancé, Simon Doyle, Linnet married. Pulp fiction writer, Salome Otterbourne and her daughter, Rosalie might have reason to do away with her as Linnet threatened to sue…More

The Hindu : y>

Heroes all Krishna and Chota Bheem

On Krishna Janamashtami, Cartoon Network and Pogo launches two shows “Krishna And Balaram” that premieres on Cartoon Network at 2.30 p.m. on Friday and “Chhota Bheem Aur Krishna”, which will premiere on Pogo at 12 noon.

These two animated movies are a throwback to the mythological stories about Lord Krishna. Co-produced by Turner and Hyderabad-based Green Gold Studios, both movies are exclusively created for Cartoon Network and Pogo.“Chhota Bheem Aur Krishna” revolves around Pogo’s Chhota Bheem. The conqueror of innumerable villains, Chhota Bheem meets Dhuni Baba, who advises him to pray and seek the help of Lord Krishna. Lord Krishna answers his prayers and comes to Dholakpur as their saviour and helps Bheem fight the enemies

Also watch Krishna and Balaram rescue their friends from the dreaded monster in “Krishna And Balaram.”

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The Hindu :

What are the after effects of chemotherapy and how does one cope?

Photo: Shaju JohnPRE-EMPTIVE MEASURES Cognitive impairment therapy helps

As more people with cancer survive and try to return to their former lives, a side effect of chemotherapy is getting more and more attention. Its name is apt, if unappealing: chemo brain. Nearly every chemotherapy patient experiences short-term problems with memory and concentration. But about 15 percent suffer prolonged effects of what is known medically as chemotherapy-induced cognitive impairment.

The symptoms are remarkably consistent: a mental fogginess that may include problems with memory, word retrieval, concentration, processing numbers, following instructions, multitasking and setting priorities.

In those affected — and doctors at this point have no way of predicting who might be — it is as if the cognitive portion of the brain were barely functioning. Symptoms are most apparent to high-functioning individuals used to juggling the demands of complex jobs or demanding home lives, or both.

The chemo brain phenomenon was described two years ago in The New York Times by Jane Gross, who noted that after years of medical denial, “there is now widespread acknowledgment that patients with cognitive symptoms are not imagining things.”

Some therapists have attributed the symptoms of chemo brain to anxiety, depression, stress, fatigue and fear rather than direct effects of chemotherapy on the brain and hormone balance. Yet when such factors dissipate, the symptoms may not. Recent studies that took other influences into account and analysed how patients’ brains worked before and after cancer treatment have shown that cognitive effects of chemotherapy are real and, for some, long-lasting.

There are now two new books“Chemobrain” (Prometheus Books), by Ellen Clegg, an editor at The Boston Globe, and “Your Brain After Chemo” (Da Capo Press), by Dr. Daniel H. Silverman, a leading researcher in the field, and Idelle Davidson, a health journalist and former breast cancer patient. Silverman heads the neuro-nuclear imaging…More