New face of Malapuram
Published November 5, 2008 | Malapuram, Nov 5
The journey from illiteracy to literacy!
Malapuram marks its place as a rich cultural and political heritage district in Kerala. The district which stands proudly with the largest Muslim population in Kerala has been in the news many times before, whether it’s the national movements like Khilafat or Moplah Rebellion. These days this district is again making news, but this time it’s an admirable feat achieved by one of the villages in Malappuram.
‘Nilambur Gram Panchayat’ has come up as a role model for lakhs of other villages in Kerala for becoming the first village to achieve the milestone of total primary education in the country. This laudable achievement came with nine months of dedicated and constant efforts by the Gram Panchayat.
The man behind this visionary accomplishment was the Sarpanch (village head), ‘Aryadan Shoukat’ who felt the need for some dynamic change in the education system of the village. According to him it was illiteracy which was hindering the growth and was pushing people towards backwardness and poverty.
One of the surveys carried out to know the actual status of education in the village highlighted the poor condition of education with 1500 villagers either illiterate or educated below 4th standard. The survey highlighted the dark but real side of the village which pointed out that the prevailing education system need a severe clean up.
In order to overcome this serious issue the Gram Panchayat started ‘Jyotirgamaya’ scheme which eyed to achieve full primary education for the village with the support of Kerala State Literacy Mission. In this process the facilitators were appointed and handbooks were prepared depending upon the syllabus of the State Literacy Mission. In first phase of this literacy mission workshops were launched to educate people the benefits of education.
During this mission it was also learnt that about 80% of the villagers were suffering from eye defects which was also hindering the growth. To solve this issue eye camps were conducted to make sure people face no problem while learning. In order to make this education program more successful and productive different techniques were used including cultural programmes and study tours in order to motivate the learners.
After all the hard work for nine months finally internal and external evaluations conducted by the state literacy mission and Calicut University judged the level of education and the results were satisfactory. Nilambur Gram Panchayat brought laurels to the district at last when the State Governor RL Bhatia declared the village to have achieved the total primary education status, making the dream come true for the sarpanch.
Enjoy a timely treat in Kerala
Published August 7, 2008 | Kerala has many unique characters in its vast abode many of which are widely reflected in its society. You can find lots of peculiarities here, from its lifestyle to traditions all these features makes Kerala one of the impressive states in India. And one of the facets of this incredible land is its food culture.
This gourmet’s paradise flaunts a wide choice of cuisines, from traditional Keralian delights to exotic seafood’s. The land of spices blends a unique aroma and taste to its countless preparations tantalising your taste buds. With so much tourist influx this God’s Own Country has designed itself in a way that every guest does have lots of options to look for.
But when the matter of talk is about Kerala food how can one leave behind the series of restaurants, tea shops and local thattu kada(mobile restaurants) dotted along the busy lanes and rough terrains of the villages. These food zones or eateries are some of the most hot spots for any foodie. Here you can get a whole lot of stuffs to relish on starting from crispy dosa’s to full course traditional Kerala meal served in banana leaf.
But hey, you may find these places a bit unusual than the other restaurants and food zones you might have been before. Don’t get amazed on seeing the waiter telling you your menu for the time, well before you could even place your order which you have planned to munch on. Well, when you are in Kerala you do need to check out the time before designing your scrumptious menu. Because Kerala restaurants are very punctual about time, so you cannot order a dosa at the time of lunch, or tea at the time of dinner. Here you have to dish out your order as per the schedule of the restaurant.
So next time before slipping into these eateries do check the time twice ahead you place your lip smacking order.
Street smart marketing at its best
Published July 26, 2008 | Just take a short trip in one of the passenger trains that ply from Cochin to any of the nearby towns and you will see some of the best marketing techniques at work. These smart marketers do not need prestigious degrees from the Management Institutes to eke out a decent living.
Decently dressed, these youngsters hop from one compartment to the other with a bevy of interesting merchandise that range from pen with torch at its tip, three-in-one pens, flexible pencils, jumbo pens that look like walking sticks, night lamps, mobile pouch, nail trimmers and many, many more all for just 5 rupees without any tax tags, which would make these deals all the more irresistible. They explain the features of these items in a single breath with snappy one-liners, axioms and gesticulations that would sweep the passengers over their feet. In no time most of the ordinary Joes would fall an easy game over their smart communication skills, and loosen their purse strings.
If you thought inflation has slashed the money value to the rock bottom, making the lives of ordinary mortals difficult, just turn your gaze towards these treasure troves, which would allow you to meet almost all your household requirements at a fraction of the original cost. However, the quality desires much to be seen as most of these goods are locally cobbled up with a ‘made in china’ sticker to lure the customers. Nonetheless, many die hard fans of these cheap as chips items are all praise for these stuffs and vouch for its quality. If you are lucky you could hit upon some really cool deals in the crowded compartments of these trains.
A mass drill to the beats of the ‘chenda’
Published April 11, 2008 | 
Payyannur: The mass drill of the students of Pattiyamma Aided U.P. School at Karivellur has an ethnic flavour because here the mass drill is performed to the beats of the ‘chenda’, instead of the conventional band.
The school ground reverberates with the electrifying beats of chenda under the watchful eyes of their talented physical training teacher K.S. Harimohanan, who has introduced this innovative and bold initiative.
The students do their mass drill to the beats of traditional percussion instruments like ‘maddalam’ and ‘chenda.’ Introduced by the physical training teacher, who himself is a famous mridangam artist hailing from here; this innovation has already created quite a lot of interest in the academic circles. Normally mass drills in schools are based on the full beat band, however here the students are trained to do the drill to the half beat to the local percussion instruments like ‘maddalam’ and ‘chenda.’
This ingenious mass drill was crafted by bringing together the physical movements of the students with the thirteen-and-a-half beats. It is based on the exceptional ‘Shivapala thalam,’ based on thirteen-and-a-half beats, which was created by him in memory of his late father, Nadanam Shivapalam, an acclaimed Kathakali and Bharatanatyam artiste.
Mr. Harimohanan says that this innovative ‘thala’ he created has already received won laurels and endorsements from some of the leading names in the percussion field bothin within and outside the State.