A view of Sriramnagar near Gajuwaka in Visakhapatnam./ Photo: C.V. Subrahmanyam / The Hindu
Sriramnagar near Gajuwaka is home to about 2,000 families
Once the breadwinners head out to their places of work and children to schools, life moves at a snail’s pace at Sriramnagar.
The colony, located near Gajuwaka, which stretches from Vadlapudi railway track to 100-ft. road near GVMC Zonal Office, seems to have a life of its own.
Surrounded by hills and temples of Lord Siva and goddesses Pydithalli, Nookalamma, and Kanaka Durga Devi, apart from a church, the colony is now home to 2,000 families living in absolute harmony. Several apartment blocks are coming up and the independent houses in the area look pretty old.
Area history
The history of the area dates back to 1980. Daily labourers of Visakhapatnam Steel Plant made the hill area their dwelling place, putting together thatched houses. After a couple of years, the land was regularised by the government in a phased manner. However, the colony sprang to life much later when housing loans were made available to its residents.
Initially, the apartment culture was new to the colony. It was in 2007 that the first apartment block, Swarna Plaza, came into existence. Though the Sriramnagar Yuvajana Seva Sangham addresses the colony issues, the neighbourhood yearns for better maintenance.
“A few cement concrete (CC) roads were laid when the colony was under the Gajuwaka Municipality. Once it merged with the GVMC, there was no sign of progress in the area. Municipal water pipes and foundation stone for new CC roads were laid very recently,” says Pappu Sankara Rao, president of the sangham.
Colony residents say the weekly market caters to their kitchen requirement and that children spend time either watching television or reading books.
“With a majority of women in the colony being homemakers, the only way we keep ourselves occupied is through spiritual activities or catching up with the neighbours or viewing favourite TV channels,” says M. Kousalya.
With good spacing provided between houses, the residents enjoy natural light and breeze in abundance. And with each window of the apartment opening out to a magnificent view of the hills, the place seems to be apt for those who wish to lead a calm and peaceful life.
source: http://www.thehindu.com / The Hindu / Home> News> Cities> Visakhapatnam / Neighbourhood Watch / by Rani Devalla / Visakhapatnam – February 28th, 2014
Railway Board Chairman Arunendra Kumar is on the test drive of John MorrisFire Engine, one of the priceless possessions of Indian Railways maintained at the National Rail Museum, before its participation in the 38th Statesman Vintage and Classic Car Rally to be held in New Delhi on 2nd March, 2014.
This vintage FireEngine which was built by the famous Fire engineers M/S John Morris and Sons Ltd., Salfor, Manchester in 1914, completed 100 years of its existence this year (2014), coinciding the formation of Telangana, erstwhile Nizam’s state.
Will Telangana also fight for its vintage and priceless proud possession, now that the new state is born?
(PIB)
source: http://www.microfinancemonitor.com / MF Monitor / Home / Thursday – March 13th, 2014
The Greater Hyderabad Municipal Corporation (GHMC) on Sunday launched a pilot centre of a scheme which would provide subsidized hot and hygienic meals to the poor for Rs 5 at Nampally Sarai.
GHMC, which plans to feed 15,000 people a day, will set up 50 such centres, each equipped to serve 300 persons.
The actual cost of the meal would be Rs 20. GHMC will bear the balance cost.
To start with, GHMC has partnered with Akshaya Patra Foundation, run by Hare Krishna Movement, which will prepare the food.
The vegetarian meal of rice, dal/sambar, sabji and pickle shall be served on first-come-first-serve basis in paper plates during 12 noon to 1 pm.
The civic body has earmarked Rs 11 crore for this in its 2014-15 budget.
GHMC commissioner Somesh Kumar said that intended beneficiaries were the migrant workerswho can not pay Rs 40-50 that a meal costs in hotels.
“I have seen many poor people at labour addas. I come from such a social background and worked with NGOs and I felt this is an opportune time,” the commissioner said when asked about the inspiration for the scheme.
As the trial run started today in collaboration with Akshaya Patra Foundation, whether it will be a single implementing agency which will prepare the food or multiple agencies will be decided in future.
Other pilot centres will come up at Koti, Chintalbasthi and Mehdipatnam, Kumar said, adding, “We will study and try to understand the issues that crop up, before feeding 15,000 people.”
source: http://www.timesofindia.indiatimes.com / The Times of India / Home> City> Hyderabad / by PTI / March 02nd, 2014
The present show at Taj Krishna by Hari Srinivas titled, ‘Off the walls’ is the artist’s 50th solo exhibition. The artist has decided to donate the amount from the show to the BIBI Cancer Institute and Research centre.
Trained academically as an artist, he has been working in art related streams like designing and teaching for a long time. After working within the communication stream and applied designing for almost 27 years, artist Hari Srinivas decided to concentrate completely on his paintings and is presently working as full-time freelance artist.
Srinivas refuses to adapt a single style or genre of expression for his work. He says that he enjoys the freedom to delve into multiple subjects and different styles of rendering. While some works reflect the accuracy of photorealism other works are rendered in abstract style.
The artist’s works are inspired by nature. He rejoices in creating reflections of nature through landscapes and other compositions which include natural elements in abundance. He paints portraits of men and women and also fondly recreates a few glimpses of happenings from day today life.
Through his work the artist says that he intends to bring forth to his viewers the innumerable pleasant experiences which they forget to rejoice and celebrate.
source: http://ww.newindianexpress.com / The New Indian Express / Home> Cities> Hyderabad / by Palak Dubey – Hyderabad / February 28th, 2014
Frauke Quader loves the rocks of the Deccan. She, along with her colleagues at the Society to Save Rocks, has been a leading force in maintaining the rock heritage of our city.
But it was not always so. Over a couple of interviews in her calmly beautiful home, she fills us in on how it all came about. The first time she came to Hyderabad was in1968, driving down with friends in her Volkswagon, from Delhi. “We stopped for lunch somewhere in North Andhra and I saw the rocks of the Deccan for the first time. I did not pay it too much mind!” It was when she got married in 1975 to a Hyderabadi and came to live here, that she started falling in love with them.
On her walks and picnics with the family, she found many favourite rock sites. A few she mentions are, Piran Shah, a small dargah near PBEL City and its Ghar-e-Mubarak: a natural prayer room deep into the rock. In Sheikhpet, off Whisper Valley road, is the Mallikarjun Temple upon beautiful rocks. Sitting on those rocks, watching the city life unfold below, is a moment of serenity that she treasures and describes with contagious intensity!
While Hyderabad is now her home, she came from Wuppertal, a city known for lace and ribbon making and the famed dancer Pina Bausch! This is part of the Bergischesland country, which has medium size mountains of slate. She describes the soil and slate mix of the mountain side, with the slate component reflecting the sunlight, such that it is conducive to the grape vines that are grown there.
It is hard not to speculate that it is a harking back to those slate mountains that roots her love for the rocky hills here. She has been working for decades against the destruction of the rocks of Hyderabad. She tells of how prohibition of sand mining in the rivers has impacted the rocks. With rock cutters and mechanical crushers active all over the city, it is so easy to cut, crush and convert the rocks of the city into pebble and sand. Slate granite is quarried and exported. Entire hills are flattened for development.
“India has no landscape protection laws, only environment protection laws,” she says. There is a heritage protection law and Hyderabad has taken a lead in placing its stunning rock formations on the government heritage list. The Society to Save Rocks has been performing valuable service in identifying these rock formations.
For example, the Trident Hotel site in Cyberabad had some great rock formations. One of them is on the Heritage Rocks list, so it is protected. It currently forms a spectacular visual at the entrance of the hotel. Frauke tells of how this rock was named “Bear’s Nose Rock” since that is what it looked like! Perched high on a rocky outcrop it was used by walkers in the area as a “pole star” rock to find their way! While the larger formation is irretrievably gone, the heritage status of “Bear’s Nose Rock” protected it. Currently it enriches this Trident chain hotel with a uniquely Hyderabadi identity, and, keeps alive the local landscape.
The beautiful sheet rock of Fakhruddin-gutta, which has a dargah on top and a temple inside the rocks, is also on the Heritage List. However, part of it, on one side, has been cut for an ongoing project. The Society is working to get a rock park established at Fakhruddin-gutta, to save it from any further threats. This will ensure a beautiful lung space for the city that the public can enjoy, retaining usefully the landscape heritage we have been blessed with.
Irrevocably however, too many rocks in Hyderabad are gone. Heritage precinct status has often not deterred matters. Frauke says, “What is frustrating is that the government goes against its own regulations.” While development seems unstoppable, if something is on the Heritage List of the government, it should be preserved. She describes how Venkateshwara-gutta near Shamirpet, another sheet rock formation of enormous beauty and ecological value which is on the Heritage List, is currently being broken at one end for reservoir construction. Clearly distressed, she says in a tone of forced optimism “We will have to move out of Hyderabad to Mahbubnagar to see beautiful rock formations.”
(Uma Magal is a documentary film maker, writer and teacher.)
source: http://www.thehindu.com / The Hindu / Home> Feautures> MetroPlus / by Uma Magal / Hyderabad – February 27th, 2014
Pilgrims at Sri Raja Rajeshwara Swamy devasthanam in Vemulawada of Karimnagar town on Thursday morning on the occasion of Mahashivarathri. / Photo – by Special Arrangement / The Hindu
All the Shiva temples were reverberating with the chanting of “om namah shivaya”, hara hara mahadeva” on the occasion of Mahashivarathri celebrations in various parts of Karimnagar district on Thursday.
There was heavy surge of pilgrims at Sri Raja Rajeshwara Swamy devasthanam (also known as Dakshin Kashi) in Vemulawada of Karimnagar district since Wednesday onwards. The devotees formed serpentine queues since early hours after taking a holy dip in the ‘dharmagundam’.
Government Whip Arepalli Mohan, DCCB chairman K Ravinder Rao offered silk vastrams on behalf of the state government on Thursday early hours. Devasthanam chairman Bomma Venkateshwar and the temple authorities have accorded a traditional welcome to the dignitaries. Special prayers would be held at the temple shrine on Thursday evening.
Similarly, Sri Kaleshwara Muktheshwara Swamy devasthanam in Kaleshwaram of Mahadevpur mandal also witnessed heavy pilgrims rush. People took holy dip in the river Godavari and offered prayers at the temple shrine. Karimnagar range DIG RB Naik had offered prayers at the shrine. It is learnt thatthe general public faced several problems in having darshan following the authorities according priority for the VIPs.
Other Shiva shrines were also packed with the devotees in various parts of Karimnagar district including Karimnagar town.
source: http://www.thehindu.com / The Hindu / Home> News> National> Andhra Pradesh / by K.M. Dayashankar / Karimnagar – February 28th, 2014
YWP 2014 is being held in 15 cities across south India.
This year’s edition of the popular painting competition for school students – The Hindu Young World painting – is back and the finals will be conducted on Sunday (February 23) at Swarna Bharati Indoor Auditorium here.
YWP 2014 is being held in 15 cities across south India.
The painting competition is an integral part of NIE programme of The Hindu attracts talented young minds apart from promoting healthy competition among schools.
The competition is open to students from Class IV to VII in the junior category and Class VII to Class X in the senior category. The participants in the finals are selected from the entries received and they are given topics to showcase their talent in painting.
Certificates
The winners would go home with certificates from The Hindu and prizes sponsored by Symbiosis Technologies.
Presenting sponsor is the MIOT Hospitals, snack sponsor is FoodEx and the venue sponsor is the Greater Visakhapatnam Municipal Corporation.
All the contestants are expected to reach the venue by 8.30 a.m.
The competition is scheduled to begin at 9 a.m.
source: http://www.thehindu.com / The Hindu / Home> News> Cities> Visakhapatnam / by Special Correspondent / Visakhapatnam – February 21st, 2014
No man’s land: German photographer Thomas Luttge has been chronicling Hyderabad since 1975./ Image: Sanjay Borra / The Hindu
Following German photographer Thomas Luttge as he tramps through graveyards, in Hyderabad, looking for that munching goat and other unusual juxtapositions
“You cannot turn the cow,” says Thomas Luttge firmly. I am at an exhibition of his photographs at the Goethe Zentrum in Hyderabad. Even talented Western photographers have met their Waterloo in India. I’d asked him about his images, quite different from the usual cliché-ridden scenes. “Europeans come and look for the cows. Where are they cows? Oh here is a cow. And then they —”. Luttge shakes his head. “And there are photographers who do all kinds of tricks so the cow might turn and you can get the beautiful lines and the shape of the cow. I would never do that. I would say if the cow is like this, I have to accept it.”
Luttge, who bears an uncanny resemblance to Jeremy Bentham, moves with a spryness belying his seven decades. He has been coming to India since the 1960s. How does he avoid getting swamped by curious onlookers, I ask. “As a photographer, you are like an actor on the stage. So you have to develop something, you guide people and make them do what you want. I have trained myself in this way.”
We decide that I can tag along on one of his photographic explorations to Mir Momin ka Daira (a cemetery located in the old city).
Graveyard shift
Around us crowd thousands upon thousands of gravestones, islands in an ocean of death. At the heart lies Mir Momin Istrabadi’s tomb, who was a Persian and the original architect of Hyderabad. Luttge has been cataloguing the fate of Mir Momin’s city from his first visit here in 1975, believing that in Hyderabad the “tension of time stays open”. Like all photographers he is a scholar of the sun, a savant of the light. He approves of the morning glow around us. At this hour the necropolis is quiet. Some graves have fresh flower petals on them, the spoor of mourners.
A goat skips along munching on the flower petals, now on this grave, now on that, like a finicky guest at a buffet. Luttge, carrying both a digital camera and a medium-format camera with black-and-white film, immediately crouches down to try and frame the creature amidst a stone canopy that covers a grave. The goat suddenly grows self-conscious and leaps, even as he shoots. A quick glance at the screen. A shake of the head. “Too late,” he says. I point to more ruminants headed this way. He is not interested. Once a quarry escapes him, it escapes him forever.
Later we return to the Goethe-Zentrum. The exhibition is a distillation of half a century of work. The photographs span the globe — Morocco, China, Germany, New York. Some of the compositions are pervaded by a sense of dry humour. Humans are placed ironically. An empty Cola bottle is all that we see of humanity in a photo of a dense façade of Manhattan. Unusual juxtapositions of people and objects are a recurring motif in his work. “Life comes out of contradictions, life doesn’t come out of harmony,” says Luttge.
I examine the cityscapes — under louring skies, they seem like a photograph of a memory of a place rather than the place itself. They are in border zones between decay and growth, a kind of transitional space that reflects the semantic No Man’s Land that Luttge favours. This contrarian approach sometimes catches the viewer on the wrong foot. I pick up a catalogue and we leaf through his work. A nude pregnant woman on a beach. A souk in Morocco divided by brilliant shadows. A mist-shrouded river in Bangladesh. “I am asking something from the viewer. And, of course, for some viewers, this is also too much. They don’t want to be asked. They want to be served. The image should serve their feelings. Should serve their expectations. Should serve their dreams. And then they are happy. I don’t serve. I just offer.”
Savant of the light: Jesus Saves, Pune,1986 / Image: Thomas Luttge / The Hindu
Luttge picked up his first camera at age 12, shooting images of his garden in the family house outside Munich. Fifty years on he is still at it. The journey hasn’t been easy. “I sit at home and write hundreds of emails,” he says, looking for funders, looking for exhibition space. Ninety-eight per cent of them lead to nothing. Working in his darkroom, he can at most make one to three prints a day. “These are all originals,” he says. “They are all made in my own darkroom. I did them with all these chemicals, the same way as I did, 50 years ago. And here you get this quality which you can never get elsewhere.” Now even the photographic paper that he prints his work on is going extinct. “This is my life, there is never any guarantee,” he says. Now he is busy compiling his latest images of Hyderabad to be exhibited in Berlin later this year.
Savant of the light: Souk at noon, Marrakesh, 1966. / Image: Thomas Luttge / The Hindu
To Luttge, whenever you pick up the camera, as much as you turn it outwards, you are also turning it inward into the shadowy recesses of the self. The landscapes of the interior are as mysterious as those that can be found in the outer world.
Jaideep Unudurti is a writer and the founder of the Hyderabad Graphic Novel project
source: http://www.thehindubusinessline.com / Business Line / Home> Features> Blink / by Jaideep Unudurti
The city will host the first Hyderabad Travel Meet (HTM), which is expected to bring a host of national and international brands on one platform.
The three-day event organized by the Andhra Pradesh Tourism Development Corporation beginning February 21 will be a ‘buyer-seller-consumer’ event to showcase the best of Andhra Pradesh tourism. Over 40 exhibitors, including Cox and Kings, Taj and Novotel groups of hotels, Thomas Cook , Park Hyatt, Kerala Tourism and Karnataka Tourism, are expected to participate in the event.
The brands will look to create new business contacts, launch products and boost visibility of their businesses. “The travel meet is essentially a platform for sellers and consumers to promote Andhra Pradesh as a tourist destination. Consumers could include individuals, institutions and corporate groups who want to forge relationships with professionals,” said Chandana Khan, chairperson, Andhra Pradesh Tourism Development Corporation.
Over 25 international brands are expected to have a deeper insight into the tourism potential of Andhra Pradesh. Also, local tour operators, travel agents and other tourism stakeholders are expected to make their presence felt at the event.
Special panel sessions on heritage tourism, international and inbound tourism, technology in tourism, luxury and lifestyle tourism, cuisine experiences and film tourism will be held during the event. Members of other state tourism boards, historians, bureaucrats and other eminent personalities will also participate at the event.
source: http://www.timesofindia.indiatimes.com / The Times of India / Home> City> Hyderabad / TNN / February 20th, 2014
District Collector S. Suresh Kumar unveils thebronze statue of Tikkana Somayaji on the premisesof Pulipaka High School in Guntur on Friday. MLCK.S Lakshmana Rao, MLA Sk. Mastan Vali andsecretary, Tikkanna Literary Association MachirajuSeethapathi Rao are seen./ PHOTO: VIJAYA KUMAR / The Hindu
Bronze statue unveiled on school premises in Guntur.
A government school, facing an uncertain future over its existence, has got a new lease of life thanks to an act of munificence by the Tikkana Literary Association.
The school with over 350 inmates has been caught in a legal wrangle till recently with the association claiming ownership rights. Recently, the Supreme Court had given a judgment in favour of the association.
On Friday, the association showed its magnanimity by handing over the valuable site to the Department of Education for a benevolent cause. In a symbolic gesture, secretary of Tikkana Literary Association Machiraju Seethapathi Rao handed over a silver tray to the Collector marking the handing over of the property.
Member of Legislative Council K.S Lakshmana Rao, who had convinced the association to part with the property for the sake of the school, said that they had fulfilled the first desire of the association — to have a bronze statue of great poet Tikka Somayaji on the school premises. District Collector S. Suresh Kumar unveiled the statue on Friday.
One of ‘Kavitrayam’
The association had also wanted the school to be named after great Telugu poet who was born in Old Guntur and lived during 13th century. He was one of the three great verse poets (Kavitrayam) who translated Mahabharatha into Telugu. Mr. Rao has pledged Rs.5 lakh out of his MLC constituency funds to develop ‘Tikkana Vidyanilayam,’ a treasure trove of classical books in old Guntur.
The library remains the only monument preserving the legacy of Tikkana in the town.
source: http://www.thehindu.com / The Hindu / Home> News> Cities> Vijayawada / by Staff Reporter / Guntur – February 22nd, 2014
