Category Archives: Arts, Culture & Entertainment

Celebs at Trendz expo at Taj Krishna in Hyderabad

Arts, Culture & Entertainment, Business & Economy

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Where there’s a designer exhibition, there are our P3Ps. And mana socialites didn’t disappoint, when they turned up in large numbers at a designer exhibition held at a hotel recently.

Dressed in their stylish and elegant attires, these ladies turned heads as they posed for shutterbugs. All wore a look of happiness and contentment after indulging in retail therapy.

source: http://www.articles.timesofindia.inditimes.com / The Times of India / Home> Entertainment> Events> Hyderabad> Celebs / TNN / January 23rd, 2014

A reunion to cherish

Arts, Culture & Entertainment, Education, Records, All, Science & Technology
Graduates of Andhra Medical College’s 1959-64 batch recollecting their college days at a reunion in the city on Saturday. / Photo: K. R. Deepak / The Hindu
Graduates of Andhra Medical College’s 1959-64 batch recollecting their college days at a reunion in the city on Saturday. / Photo: K. R. Deepak / The Hindu

The 1959 batch of doctors of AMC has a gala time

They are all in their mid-seventies and have held important positions which earned them fame and name. Now most of them are enjoying their retired life. Some of them are still active, practising their profession and providing consultation when needed.

They belong to the 1959 batch of MBBS of Andhra Medical College and are meeting up with their old buddies at a reunion at a star hotel in the city on Saturday. It brought back memories of golden days of college life. The whole day they laughed and generally enjoyed the get-together. They called each other by first names and recalled the fun and happiness they enjoyed during college days.

Spade work

The reunion was planned and organised by Vyakaranam Atchuta Rama Rao, a retired consultant psychiatrist who has settled in the UK some 40 years ago, Prayaga M.M. Krishna, who settled in the city after working in Norway for 25 years as consultant anaesthetist, a leading medical practitioner of Anakapalle and former governor of Lions Club G. Subhram, and others. There were 120 students in that class and 35 of them had passed away. Among the rest, 60 attended the reunion, 40 of them with spouses. One of them N. Gajananda Rao, has done computer-aided medicine course in AIIMS after doing general medicine, and established the Indian Association for Medical Informatics. “We are all feeling happy to meet again. Actually this is the third reunion. We had the first one in 2000. We are recollecting the mischief we have done during our college days, the boys teasing girls and vice-versa,” said the 75-year-old doctor. “We are thoroughly enjoying the reunion. We are not sure of meeting again,” said former HoD of Microbiology of AMC Leela Kumari. Her classmate K. Kamamma came from Sompeta for the programme. A general physician of the city G.V. Krishna Rao said the reunion was a golden opportunity to meet everyone in the class. The former students felicitated their teachers who were in their nineties or thereabouts, such as neurosurgeon S. Bala Parameswara Rao, Prof. K. Somasundaram (physiology), Prof. A.V.S.S. Rama Rao (biochemistry), Prof. Nirmala Kumari (pharmacology), and Dr. S. Srinivasa Reddy (paediatric surgery).

source: http://www. thehindu.com / The Hindu / Home> News> Cities> Visakhapatnam / by Special Correspondent / Visakhapatnam – January 19th, 2014

Hyderabad-based Meraevents.com eyeing Rs 50Cr in revenues in FY14, looking at global expansion

Arts, Culture & Entertainment, Business & Economy

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Launched as an event listing, promotion and ticketing platform, Hyderabad-based Meraevents.com is now connecting organisers, delegates, and service providers in its endeavour to become a one-point solution for the events and trade fair industry. Besides introduction of new features and services, the company saw multifold growth in terms of people buying tickets and the number of listings on the website in 2013.

“While in 2012 we saw about 1,000 people buying tickets from our website, this number doubled in the last year. In fact, we had sold Rs 1.4 crore worth of tickets for the ‘new year’ itself with 200 listed events,” said Naidu Darapaneni, founder and CEO of Versant Online Solutions Pvt Ltd, the company behind Meraevents.com .

How is it faring?

It has sold over 10,000 tickets in the last two years, which translated to about Rs 3.6 crore in revenues. Last year, the company launched MoozUpLite, which replaced the event paper agenda with a detailed mobile application. It also launched MoozUp, a web app that enables every attendee to interact, share and access event information before, during and after the event. The application also offers features like meeting scheduler, messaging, calendar, photo, video and document sharing.

The company has also developed Venues.meraevents.com  help people in finding the right venue in their preferred city and location. While the section is live with data of 3,000 venues as of now, the company is planning a proper launch in April 2013 with 10,000 venues. In addition, it is launching ‘DigiBroc’, a digital brochure for the exhibition and trade fair industry, which will enable visitors at exhibition stalls to scan QR codes and access an electronic copy of the brochure, rather than picking up a physical copy.

Fundraising and global expansion

A mostly bootstrapped company—except a seed capital of $200,000 it had raised from friends and family in the US in 2009—Meraevents.com is raising venture capital between $2 and $5 million to take its event promotion and ticket-selling platform to global markets. “We are looking to expand in the Middle East and eventually the entire Asia,” says Naidu.

With a team size of 80 employees, Meraevent.com is now looking to do Rs 50 crore in revenues in FY2014. “The event industry is worth Rs 5,000 crore. Presently, we are looking at a business of 1 per cent of the entire events market in the country in this year,” said Naidu. He wants Meraevents.com  to be largely-recognised all over the country, and for a company that is less than point one per cent of the market as of now, that is definitely a bold claim – but not an impossible one.

Explara.com , another event ticketing and discovery site run by Pune-based Signature Technologies Pvt Ltd, is also close to raising its first round of VC funding in the range of $2-3 million, VC Circle had earlier reported . Started in 2009, Explara has in place a cloud-hosted event solutions platform and focuses on four service areas—event ticketing/registration, payment processing (online, retail and cash on delivery), event marketing and logistics. The company has operations in Pune, Mumbai, Bangalore and Delhi and has served event organisers from India, the US, the UK, South Africa, Singapore and Philippines.

(Edited by Joby Puthuparampil Johnson)

source: http://www.techcircle.vccircle.com / TechCircle.in / Home> Feature / by Nikita Peer / January 21st, 2014

19 antelopes released into Ananthagiri

Arts, Culture & Entertainment, Green Initiatives / Environment, Nature, Records, All

Hyderabad / Vikarabad :

Picturesque Ananthagiri hill-forest, located only 5 km from Vikarabad, received 19 antelopes on Sunday. Senior officials, chief secretary P K Mohanty, DGP B Prasada Rao and principal chief conservator of forest BSS Reddy were present at the hill resort, 75 km from Hyderabad, to release the animals in the reserve forest. They let into the forest 14 spotted deer – females and 6 males – that were brought from Hyderabad’s Nehru Zoological Park. At the same time, 5 blackbucks – three females and two males – brought from Tirupati’s Sri Venkateswara Zoological Park were also released.

“There are no blackbucks in Ananthagiri reserve forest. This is the first time they are being introduced to the area which is rich in grassland and deciduous forest,” Ramana Reddy, chief conservator of forest, Hyderabad Range, told TOI.

The officials led by A Joseph, chief wildlife warden, gathered at the forest guest house atop Ananthagiri hill overseeing the Haritha Hotel of AP Tourism Development Corporation. They were later taken deep into the forest for releasing the animals.

The reserve forest block is spread over 1,505 hectares, which is chiefly grassland. Its existing wildlife mainly comprises spotted deer (chital), chowsingha, nilgai, wild boar and peacocks etc. “The nilgai had disappeared from the area about five decades ago. It was sighted a few years back again. Now, they are seen roaming in the forest in large groups,” Joseph said.

B S S Reddy said that Ananthagiri RF was chosen for releasing the animals as the department considers it to be the best area close to Hyderabad. “There is resurgence of herbivorous animals in Ananthagiri and its surroundings,” he said.

Ananthagiri forest block is one of the series of RFs in Manneguda and Vikarabad that connects up to Tandore and beyond. They cover a stretch of 20 km and are spread over 6,124 hectares. Except for the wolves and wild dogs, there are no predators in the forest.

source: http://www.articles.timesofindia.indiatimes.com / The Times of India / Home> City> Hyderabad> Animals / TNN / January 20th, 2014

Nonagenarian keeps Gondi language alive

Arts, Culture & Entertainment, Records, All
Worth preserving:Professors Jayadheer Tirumal Rao (left) and V. Krishna, University of Hyderabad, watch as Atram Kamalabai reads from a Gondi primer at Gunjala in Adilabad district on Saturday. / Photo: Harpal Singh / The Hindu
Worth preserving:Professors Jayadheer Tirumal Rao (left) and V. Krishna, University of Hyderabad, watch as Atram Kamalabai reads from a Gondi primer at Gunjala in Adilabad district on Saturday. / Photo: Harpal Singh / The Hindu

Kamakabai, the oldest woman literate in the community, has taught her son and granddaughter the language

Atram Kamalabai, the Gond from Gunjala village in Narnoor mandal of Adilabad district, has a good reason to feel elated as she has been receiving unexpected attention from her compatriots as well as people from ‘outside’ even at the ripe age of 95 years. She is perhaps the oldest woman literate, functional literate to be precise, in the adivasi community having learnt Gondi alphabet and numerals some nine decades ago.

A chance discovery of some manuscripts written in the almost-extinct Gondi script in this sleepy village in 2011 brought her all the attention needed from language aficionados. She has now become a role model as well as a driving force for those who have taken up the task of propagating the ancient script especially within Gondi community.

“My father taught me Gondi at the age of five which helped me assess correctly the quantum of produce in our farm and any transaction thereof. I used Gondi in day-to-day life,” recalls Kamalabai.

“It’s a matter of pride to know your own language,” she observes, as an afterthought. “That’s why I taught Gondi to my son Mohpat Rao and granddaughter Annapurna,” she adds.

“This is a rare occasion in adivasi ethos in the country that three generations in the same family are able to read Gondi script. Kamalabai has stuck to tradition by passing on her knowledge to the future generations,” points out Professor Jayadheer Tirumal Rao, retired Director of the A.P. Government Oriental Manuscripts Library and Research Centre and visiting Professor at the Centre for Dalit and Adivasi Studies and Translation (CDAST), University of Hyderabad, who called on the nonagenarian at her home on Saturday. He, along with CDAST coordinator Professor V. Krishna and Dr. G. Manoja of Palamuru University are currently involved in translation of the Gondi manuscripts found in Gunjala. “Research on Gondi script could lead to deciphering of proto-Dravidian languages,” Professor Jayadheer Tirumal Rao opines.

source: http://www.thehindu.com / The Hindu / Home> News> National> Andhra Pradesh / by S. Harpal Singh / Gunjala (Adilabad District) – January 19th, 2014

Vizag to house Bonsai Garden on the lines of New Delhi

Arts, Culture & Entertainment, Green Initiatives / Environment, Nature

Visakhapatnam :

Taking a leaf out of the National Bonsai Park in New Delhi, the Visakhapatnam Urban Development Authority (Vuda) has mooted a Bonsai Garden at Kailasagiri, one of the busiest tourist spots in the Port City, as part of its efforts to boost tourism. Vuda is presently busy preparing an action plan for the project and is likely to start on the garden by the beginning of this summer.

Confirming the proposal, Vuda vice-chairman, N Yuvaraj, said that they will be conducting a meeting with the officials concerned and Bonsai lovers, including the city-based Visakha Bonsai Society, at the Vuda office in the first week of February this year, to take a final decision on the Bonsai garden project.

Before that, the officials concerned, including Vuda’s divisional forest officer (DFO), will be given special training on Bonsai plantation and gardening in the last week of January. The garden will be the first of its kind public garden in the city, he added. People are presently seeing Bonsai plants at exhibitions only and there is no dedicated garden for these plants in the city.

“The Bonsai Garden was proposed in the Vuda board meeting. As so much of space at Kailasagiri is presently lying unused, we felt that the Bonsai garden will give a new look to the hotspot and may also serve as an attraction to lure more visitors to the spot,” Yuvaraj said.

To begin with, Vuda will invite all Bonsai lovers to extend their support to the development of the park. “Vuda will not be procuring Bonsai plants from across the globe but will depend on Bonsai lovers to come forward and voluntarily donate Bonsai plants to the garden. Vuda will spend around Rs 10 lakh in creating the initial infrastructure in the garden,” Yuvaraj added.

While P Lalitha, vice president, Visakha Bonsai Society, welcomed the Vuda’s decision to set up an exclusive Bonsai Park, she was not too happy about the location mooted by Vuda. “Kailasagiri is not a suitable place to display Bonsai plants as they cannot survive for long in sea breeze. Our society is very keen on YSR Park at Dwarakanagar for the garden and have already suggested that Vuda allocate us some space there for the Bonsai garden,” Lalitha told TOI.

According to Lalitha, Bonsai plants are mostly brought in from Kerala, Coimbatore and Kolkata in India apart from China, Japan and Singapore and their prices range from Rs 1,000 to Rs 1 lakh, depending on the size of the plant and species. “The maximum lifespan of a Bonsai plant is around 20 years. The Visakha Bonsai Society will be able to provide nearly 50 to 100 Bonsai plants to the garden and is ready to provide more if there is no space problem,” she said.

While admitting that the Visakha Bonsai Society had indeed earlier asked Vuda to allot space at the YSR Park for the Bonsai garden, Yuvaraj said, “Though the Visakha Bonsai Society had sought space at YSR Park for the Bonsai Garden, Kailasagiri was finalized as we wanted to set up the garden at the earliest. At present, Kailasagiri has adequate space for the project while YSR Park has not yet been readied and will take nearly nine months to complete. We will think about a Bonsai garden at YSR Park once it is ready.”

source: http://www.articles.timesofindia.indiatimes.com / The Times of India / Home> City> Visakhapatnam> Vudu / by V. Kamalakara Rao, TNN / January 18th, 2014

Nagarjuna, Amala launch Bindu Madhavi Fashion Calendar

Arts, Culture & Entertainment

Tollywood actor Nagarjuna Akkineni and his wife Amala were the cynosure of all eyes at the launch of Bindu Madhavi Fashion Calendar 2014 in Hyderabad.

Nag looked uber cool and was seen exchanging pleasantries with his friends and industry colleagues while Amala looked graceful in floral lace frock with white pearl necklace adding elegance to her persona.

source: http://www.timesofindia.indiatimes.com / The Times of India / Home> City> Hyderabad / TNN / January 15th, 2014

Andhra celebrates Bhogi with gaiety

Arts, Culture & Entertainment

Makar Sankranti, the harvest festival, began Monday across Andhra Pradesh as people celebrated Bhogi – first day of the three-day festivity – with gaiety and religious fervour.

Bhogi, also known as Indran, is celebrated in the honour of Indra, the Hindu god of clouds and rains. Hindus worship Indra for good harvest and prosperity.

Towns and villages came alive with people setting bonfires on the streets with agricultural and household waste.

The celebrations began in the early hours of the day with people cleaning their houses and burning old items with a belief that new things would usher into their lives.

Bonfires were seen on streets in every town and village, with people burning unwanted goods like old clothes, mats and broom sticks.

Men, women and children go around the bonfires with prayers. Some sing and dance.

Villages, especially in the fertile coastal Andhra region, wore festive look with women decorating the entrance with intricate rangoli designs and men, mostly youngsters, took to kite flying.

‘Haridasus’ and ‘Basvannas’, the uniquely attired alm seekers with ornately decorated ox, made rounds of the villages.

After thoroughly cleaning their houses, women set cow-dung balls called as ‘Gobbemma’ and placed among the rangoli patterns. They also put fresh harvest of rice, turmeric and sugarcane.

The houses were decorated with marigold flowers and mango leaves.

The families, after offering prayers in temples prepare various dishes, especially Pongal – made of rice and daal.

Decoration of bulls, cock-fight, bull-fight and other rural sports mark the three-day festival.

Despite the ban on cock-fight, hundreds of people including politicians and businessmen bet crores of rupees on them.

Though police impose curbs in many towns and villages in coastal Andhra, people organised cock-fight, saying it is part of their culture.

The festival provides an opportunity for people settled in Hyderabad and other cities to visit their roots.

The state capital wore a deserted look as thousands of families left for their villages in coastal Andhra and Rayalaseema for the festival.

source: http://www.business-standard.com / Business Standard / Home> News-IANS> Religion / by IANS / Hyderabad – January 13th, 2014

Veteran Telugu actor Anjali Devi passes away in Chennai

Arts, Culture & Entertainment

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Chennai:

Veteran Telugu actor and producer Anjali Devi died at a hospital in Chennai on Monday. She was 86.

Anjali, who had made a film debut as a child artist in 1936, is survived by two sons.

Though she began with Telugu movies, Anjali later became an acclaimed multi-lingual actor, as she got several offers in Tamil and Hindi movies too.

She has been credited with introducing veteran Bollywood actress Rekha to Telugu industry with Rangula Ratnam.

Anjali, who was married to music director and lyricist P. Adinarayana Rao, also produced over 20 Telugu films under the banner of Anjali Pictures.

Before entering films, she was a theatre artist. She has been known for her performance in movies of mythological importance like Lava Kusha (1963), Bhakta Prahlada and Bhakta Tukaram.

source: http://www.deccanchronicle.com / Deccan Chronicle / Home> News> Current Affairs / DC Online / January 13th, 2014

Police Launch Apps to Help Women

Arts, Culture & Entertainment, Inspiration /Positive News and Features, Records, All, Science & Technology

The State police have introduced a new device called ‘RAKSHITA APPS’ to help women in distress/trouble/danger, according to DGP Prasada Rao.

The police chief who visited Mahabubnagar and Kurnool districts on Saturday on an foundation laying/ inauguration spree, told newsmen that any woman in distress/trouble/danger could just dial 119 and seek help from police.

The call would be passed on to the police station/ set-up through the ‘RAKSHITA APPS’ so that the police could rush to the trouble spot and rescue the woman. The DGP said that due to better awareness among the women now about the Nirbhaya Act more cases under the Act were being registered in the State.

Referring to the increasing number of highway accidents in the two districts, the DGP said that that most of these accidents were occurring due to over-speeding and rash driving. He said that to curb the accidents, speed-recording gauges would be installed at the tollgates to check the speed of the vehicles between one tollgate and another.

Answering newsmen’s questions on the Palem bus blaze incident, Prasada Rao said that there was only a single driver in the ill-fated bus on that day. He also ruled out any possibility of sabotage in the blaze.

source: http://www.newindianexpress.com / The New Indian Express / Home> Cities> Hyderabad / by Express News Service – Mahbubnagar/Kurnool / January 12th, 2014