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The Hindu :

Paraplegic sports Venkatesh K. Yathiraj is a true champion in the sporting arena

Photo Bhagya Prakash K.Sporting hero Venkatesh insists on greater support for better results

He stands only three feet and nine inches tall, but his deeds and achievements on the sporting arena have made him tower over many of his contemporaries.

He is Venkatesh K. Yathiraj, a 40-year-old, who has bagged more than 19 international and 35 national medals in arena of paraplegic sports.

Venkatesh is the youngest of six siblings and was encouraged to take up chess by his father, when he was a student of Vidyavarthak school in the city. He soon bagged the State school chess championship and won it for three successive years.

He says, “However, I soon lost interest in pursuing the game at a professional level, though I did participate in games with friends. I became interested in sports and used to visit the Kanteerava stadium to watch basketball and volleyball matches. It was one such visit to the stadium that was to change my life.”

In due course, Venkatesh met the likes of C.N. Janaki, Mahaveda and Ramesh tikara; all of them actively involved with the paraplegic sports.

“Since the State championships were completed, I was encouraged to go for the nationals directly. I managed to do well in the discus throw event and booked a place in the Indian team for the International Paraplegic Championships at Berlin in ‘94.”

He adds, “I was thrilled to be in the stadium itself and considered it a great honour. However, I could not perform well and was quite disappointed.”

Despite the setbacks, he was offered a scholarship by the efforts of the late Dr Jeevraj Alva, a philanthropist and a former minister.

“I did not achieve any success in the ’96 games at Nottingham. However, I managed to bag my first gold in an international event at the multi-disabled championships in 1999. I…More

The Hindu : y>

Flower power Enjoy a stay at The Oberoi Udaivilas in Udaipur

The Oberoi and Trident have come up with various festive offers. The “Oberoi Exotic Vacations” package is priced at 35,000 for a two-night stay at The Oberoi Rajvilas, Jaipur and at Rs. 36,500 at The Oberoi Amarvilas, Agra and The OberoiUdaivilas, Udaipur.

These offers include accommodation for two persons in a premier room, daily breakfast for two, a round-trip car transfer between the local city airport or railway station and the hotel, special reduction of 15 per cent on all spa therapies and an additional room for up to two children (aged below 12 years) at a 50 per cent reduction.

The offer is valid until September 30. The hotel will offer a special rate for those who stay longer. Rooms for single occupancy is also available.

For details on the holiday packaging and the bookings call 011-23890555 or the toll-free number 1-800-11-2122 or log on towww.tridenthotels.com.

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The Hindu :

Karen Anand on the dynamics of food

Photo: R. RaguCooking right Karen Anand

She conjured up treats, trickled in exotic recipes and spurred a culinary dalliance on television when celebrity chefs were yet to dot the map. Karen Anand’s identity has been wedded to food and its various facets. A gourmet chef, television anchor, food writer, food consultant, a restaurateur for a brief while — no food segment is untouched by Karen.

She was in the Capital for “Men Can Cook,” a “fun cookery contest” to “encourage men to cook.” Her last book “Simple Cooking for Smart Men” too treaded on the subject. “Usually, if men cook, it’s just on the weekends,” says Karen. The mission, it seems, is to make them shake off their reluctance to discover the kitchen.Quick results

Karen is the author of over a dozen cookery books, almost all aimed at making cooking simple for men and women. “I love writing and television shows. The end result comes in quickly,” says Karen. However, she says, finding a foothold in the food sector did not come smoothly in the 1990s. “There was a time when I used to work 12 to 14 hours a day. Not anymore,” she says. Karen slips in details on the long hours in office and research, as many notice only the glamour of being a gourmet specialist.

She says, “It is out of interest” that she ventured into the field of food. “I have never done it as a business plan,” she adds. On the perception of fine dining and gourmet adventures of Indians, Karen says there has been a marked change over the past decade.

“We have become far more experimental now, but we still tend to associate fine dining with European food,” says Karen. Our fetish for foreign cuisines, she says is seen in the popularity of Chinese and Italian food here….More

The Hindu : y>

Be the change Get a glimpse of innovative devices being developed to counter global warming

Discovery Channel is airing “Changemakers: Asia”, a three-part series that puts the spotlight on Asia and takes a look at some of the issues and innovative projects emerging from the region that will help combat climate change and globalwarming. The series looks at three important areas – Energy, Waste and Lifestyle – in the fight against climate change, and explores the extraordinary work of Asia’s trailblazers. Lifestyle which will be aired on September 29 at 8 p.m. sheds light on the green home of the future. In India, an engineer guides us around his self-sustaining and eco-friendly home, and a company develops a way of cooling server centres intelligently.

A Japanese dreams of technology that saves the world, and a complicated Japanese gizmo allows us to generate clean power within the comforts of our home. In Taiwan, a tribe of aboriginal people leads the way in eco-tourism; a Taiwanese scientist has come up with a miraculous combo-glass that insulates skyscrapers from the tropical heat yet generates electricity for the building from the sunlight.

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The Hindu :

Leave alone the children, even adults cannot take in the blood and gore dished out by TV channels trying to out-scoop one another

Photo: Nissar AhmadBrutalised What’s the message in the TRP race

8:07 p.m., A movie channel; A bunch of street toughs surround a school girl, one of whom fishes out a bottle filled with a liquid. He threatens her. In steps the hero, who pushes the girl aside, just as the goon throws the water from the bottle on her. “What if it was acid,” says the hero’s girlfriend.

8:10 p.m., Another channel, a reporteris reconstructing a crime scene where agirl’s parents have been killed and the girlhas a slashed throat.

“Rajesh climbed this wall and raced intothe house, where he confronted Srinivas’swife and stabbed her…” he narratesbreathlessly and shows the bloodsplotches.

8:11 p.m., Another channel, this is a chatshow where the T.V. screen is spliced intothree parts, one where the grieving girlher neck wrapped in bandage is carried ona wheelchair around her parents’ cortege,another segment is the anchor holdingforth on how crimes against women arerising, the third part shows the macabrereplay of a young man being beaten withhis hands tied surrounded by a pool ofblood.

Gross? Grotesque? Gory? Mind-numbing?Did you switch channels? Apparentlynot. According to the rating agency whichtracks TRP, this is what people want.Just last week one TV channel crowedthat its TRP reached an unbelievable 30points when Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister,Y. S. Rajashekhar Reddy’s chopperdisappeared. And they were the first toscroll the `exclusive’ footage of spinningdead bodies on a stretcher being winchedup to a hovering helicopter.

The dead deserve dignity? Perhaps notin the age of race for TRP. Private grief -haven’t heard of it yet.

“We are treading a dangerous territoryhere. The repeated visuals of blood andgore may not just be responsible for triggeringother copycat attacks by peoplewho have nothing to lose and have lowself-worth but will have the terrible consequenceof lowering the…More

The Hindu : y>Shoot a movie on climate change and bag a fellowship

Are you a filmmaker who feels strongly about climate change and environment? Here’s your chance to do your bit and be heard. British Council and the British High Commission invite applications across India for the 2010 UK Environment Film Fellowships (UKEFF).

The eligibility criteria are work experience in filmmaking; originality in research work and topical relevance to theme area; capability to identify and build a team of subject expert / professionals / institutions to work closely; and deliver a well-researched and high quality short film. The themes are ‘Climate Change and Cities’, focussing on the various aspects of climate change and how it particularly affects cities in India, and ‘Climate Change and Water’, highlighting issues around this resource.

A filmmaker can submit more than one proposal based on either or both themes.

Four fellowships worth Rs. 8 lakh each will be awarded after selection by a jury. The films will be launched on World Environment Day — June 5 and will be broadcast on television and later be made available as DVDs to various target audiences as tools / aids to raise awareness.

The last date for entries is November 2. For details, call 42050600 or visitwww.britishcouncil.org.in/LCF

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The Hindu :

Event The Jazz meets Folk concert in the sylvan surroundings of Vaderahalliwas an evening of soul-stirring fusion music

Photo: By AuthorStringing along The Bangalore-based Moonarra played with local musicians to create sweet sounds

Just as the sun began to set on the western sky, the lull in the chirpy village air was broken with the melody of the harmonium and tabla gently blending with the sounds of the guitar and drums.

Amidst the lush green trees and thatched huts of Vaderahalli village and set in the backdrop of grey hills, Moonarra, a Bangalore-based jazz group and musicians from the shadow leather puppetry troupe presented an evening of soul-stirring fusion music.

Organised by Tazad this event, titled Jazz meets Folk, was an unique interaction where experienced jazz musicians and talented folk musicians came together for an impromptu performance.

Colourful notes from Prakash Sontakke on the Hawaiian guitar combined with the melodic jazz spurs of Suzuki guitars played by Jagadeesh M. R. and Kenneth Wilson accompanied by Karthik Mani’s flamboyance on the Cajón marked Moonarra’s contribution that evening. Madhuri, the group’s vocalist, added spice with her husky singing.

Local artistes – Shivakumar and Rangarao played the harmonium with Nagaraj on the tabla as Meenakshiamma and Sundaramma sprinkled energy to their music with vocals and hand-held Indian cymbals.

The artistes performed a series of spontaneous fusion numbers interspersed with vocals. As the sun dipped below the horizon, the music faded into the night and the folk artistes started their shadow puppetry.

Beneath the starry sky, the sound and light extravaganza was an absolute delight. The story of Rama and Ravana echoed though the village as the troupe presented an exquisite display of puppet mastery on the temple steps. Intermingled with songs, music and vocal rhetoric, the play was a moving tale of love, comedy, tragedy and good winning over evil.

Rangarao expressed delight over the experience. “It felt very good blending our…More

The Hindu : y>Sparsh Ke Niyam Sikhiye is aimed at child protection against sexual abuse, writes SANGEETA BAROOAH PISHAROTY

Photo: V.SudershanWhat feels right Rajender Kumar, the director of the mime production, with Ragini and Shalini, two of the seven girls taking part in it

This is the story of little Ravi and Rani, playmates in the colony and the best of friends. One day, an older boy wants to play a new game with them. The game — doctor-doctor — will however be a secret one between the three.

Startled, both look at him in confusion. While the older boy will be the doctor, Ravi and Rani are to role-play as his patients.

Ravi obviously doesn’t like this secret business but fears that the older boy would bully him otherwise. Rani, however, gathers enough courage to say no and drags Ravi with her to report the matter to her mother.

Well, as adults, you can look at this little story from two angles. One, just an innocuous difference of opinion among children. Two, why does the older boy want to play with such young children and why must the game be a secret one?

Don’t be surprised if you end up thinking that it is an innocuous game — most grown-ups do that in this country, little realising that such negligent thinking has made child sexual abuse alarmingly frequent.

The story of Ravi and Rani is a part of an audio book, released in New Delhi yesterday, to help the cause get the attention it deserves. Brought out by Tulir, a Chennai-based NGO working against child sexual abuse, with the support of Terre des Hommes, a children’s aid organisation from Germany, the book, “Sparsh Ke Niyam Sikhiye” is aimed at making children and their parents aware of the issue.

In the book, on Rani reporting the matter to her mother, she appreciates their courage for sharing something they didn’t like, and tells…More

The Hindu :

Young guns Shivakant Shukla and Bhuvneshwar Kumar are determined to make it big nationally

Photo: P. V. SivakumarMoving forward Bhuvneshwar and Shivakant are putting Uttar Pradesh on the cricketing map

The Moin-ud-Dowla Gold Cup held in Hyderabad this year may have lost most of its pristine glory and old-world charm. However it continues to be the platform for young cricketers to prove themselves, and that is what keeps it going. It was no different for the two of the most successful cricketers in the Ranji Trophy last season, representing the new face of Uttar Pradesh cricket. Twenty-three-year-old opener Shivakant Shukla scored that epic 821-minute 178 not out against Tamil Nadu in the Ranji semi-final last season. Eighteen-year-old lanky fast bowler Bhuvneshwar Kumar entered record books by being the first bowler to dismiss Sachin for his maiden duck in first-class cricket in the Ranji final early this year.

These young guns from Uttar Pradesh believe it is time to script something special this season to be in the national reckoning. In fact, Shukla had already hit a century in the very first big event for his State team this season. Thanks to their wonderful run last season, they are now familiar figures in the streets back home in Allahabad and Meerut – cities which were not major cricketing centres till a couple of years ago.

But they don’t want to rest on their laurels. Shivakant, who admires Sachin Tendulkar and vividly remembers the sharp catch he took in the slip cordon to dismiss the master in the Ranji final, believes it is time for him to make a decisive shift in his approach to batting – to prove his ability in the shorter version. “With so much one-day cricket scheduled over the next few months, it is imperative for me to be as successful in the one day game to be in the top bracket…More