MY Articles

Senior artist KB Kulkarni has presented a solo painting exhibition at the KGLD Arts Gallery at Hoysalanagar, Sunkadakatte in the city. The exhibition which began on 27 February is on till 06 March. KBK, as he is popularly known in close circles will be turning 76 soon. Yet, the advanced age is no bar for continuing his favourite passion, playing with the water colours’. Landscapes in water colours’ in abundance: Although the exhibition is a conflux of a variety of works including oil paintings, the ones in acrylic and the abstract forms, landscapes in water colours’ seem to outnumber the remaining drawings. Even in the water colours’, the ruins, mountain terrain and the locations having a connection with the great epics dominate. Paintings on Naku Tanti: However, what perhaps needs to be lauded is his keen interest and enthusiasm in doing a couple of paintings on Naku Tanti, a collection of poems that bagged the coveted Jnana Peeth award to legendary poet Da. Ra. Bendre. He takes prid...

The 1976 SSLC batch of Basel Mission High School, Dharwad held its third successive annual get-together on 12 February at Tekfarm Retreat eco village on the outskirts of Dharwad. The evening was fun filled with the coming together of old classmates, pals and friends for life after a gap of more than four decades! Although six of them didn’t turn up in spite of confirming to join, it was no hindrance for the 14 members to rejoice the occasion like never before. Perhaps the small numbers helped the participants for better, close and intimate interactions with one another. Celebrations begin at lunch time: According to formal announcement on the WhatsApp group the reunion was scheduled after 6 PM onwards. However, a mini luncheon party came handy to the five who could make it earlier to the venue. Sanjay Kulkarni, Gajanan Kamat, Edwin D’souza from the twin Hubballi - Dharwad cities, Narayan G Sabhahit (Nani) and myself from Bengaluru also took part in the same at a nearby hotel. Pranayam...

Dr. D Joseph Bagyaraj (78), former Head of the Department of Agricultural Microbiology, University of Agricultural Sciences (GKVK), Bengaluru is a proud recipient of the “Distinguished Asian Mycologist Award, 2019. Currently, he is INSA Honorary Scientist and Chairman, Centre for Natural Biological Resources and Community Development, Bangalore continuing research in microbiology, especially mycorrhizal fungi promoting plant growth, and taking the results to society. Dr. D Joseph Bagyaraj Further application of mycorrhizal fungi along with selected beneficial bacteria reduced the use of fertilizers and pesticides, thus reducing the environmental pollution. In 2016 he was the only scientist from India invited by FAO to contribute to the Global Soil Biodiversity Atlas on mycorrhizal fungi which promote growth, nutrition, and yield of crops important in Agriculture, Horticulture, and Forestry Mycology – a branch of Microbiology deals with the study of fungi. Fungi range from single-cell...

T he Forest Department, Government of Karnataka has all due reasons to cheer, thanks to a compiled report of the fourth cycle of All India Tiger Estimation titled "Status of Tigers Co-predators & Prey in India", the numbers of Tigers is increasing in recent times. image: ABC News The numerical strength as per the summary report of "Status of Tigers in India-2018", the five Tiger sanctuaries in the state boast of 524 tigers which is not only the highest numbers recorded so far but just short of two to Madhya Pradesh in being numero one to the country. Prime Minister Narendra Modi, while appreciating the efforts that have undergone in preparing the status report has put on record the best tools deployed for this exercise: Tiger status assessment has utilised the latest technology and the best tools for the process. According to the summary of the status report: India's national tiger assessment is the largest biodiversity survey being carried out anywhere in t...

Ravi Belagere  who breathed his last early in the morning today was a multifaceted personality beyond the purview of Journalism. His contributions oscillated from Poetry, Short Stories, Novels, Translations, Publications and a host of periodicals. In fact, he rightly deserved the title "Alphabet Devil". Born in Ballari, then Bellary, hitherto in the then Mysuru state in 1958 he fondly used make fun of the climate in his home district by remarking: There are only two seasons in Ballari. If one is Summer the remaining one is Scorching Summer! Looking back at his "Colourful Innings" in multiple ways of sudden decisions, daredevil ventures, connections with mining goons, underworld dons, Sandalwood film industry, Sadhus and peculiar living beings of that kind, astounding accomplishments, setbacks all make way for a thriller on the celluloid screen. Way back in 1983, he was a colleague in Munjane Kannada Morning Newspaper with veteran legendary scribe SV Jayasheela Rao...

G overnments, irrespective of State or Union, BJP, Congress or Communist have proved beyond doubts that in attending to the challenges of the Corona Pandemic, managing to fill the coffers is much more important rather than striving to protect the lives of the citizens! image : asisonline.org If you were to recollect the developments relating to the spread of the deadly virus disease in this country the funniest and paradoxical facts continue to reiterate that the rulers, political and bureaucratic and all those in the private health sector minting money bags in the name of service to humanity continue to commit grave blunders and not unknowingly! March 2020: India as a whole was not literally in an alarming situation but for being perturbed at the toll of Wuhan originated fatal virus in China. The first infections began with the arrival of the Non-Resident Indians', Students studying abroad, Tourists, Businessmen and Parents on bon-voyage and pilgrimage.It was then everyone started...

T he deadly Coronavirus pandemic has by and largely devastated the lives of ordinary mortals apart from affecting industries big and small in general. It has left no sector unaffected and as a result crores of workers are forced to undergo big havoc unseen and unheard of in their lifetime! Despite such adverse conditions, some companies have gone out of the way to keep going in a minuscule manner possible and at the same time contribute their mite towards the war against combating the killer virus. Aditya Auto Products and Engineering Limited is one such company having manufacturing facility at the Doddaballapur Industrial area on the outskirts of Bengaluru which deserves mention for its innovative ways in performing even during a perplexing condition full of odds all the way.According to Suresh Sethuraman, CFO of Aditya Auto Products and Engineering Ltd. company, they thought of producing Assisted Respirators taking into consideration the huge shortage of Artificial Respiratory System...

T he national high command of the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party has sprung a surprise by rewarding two ordinary workers with Rajya Sabha tickets neglecting hectic political lobbying by the political heavyweights and the like of them. Iranna Kadadi of Belagavi in Mumbai Karnataka region and Ashok Gasti of Raichur belonging to the backward Hyderabad Karnataka area, hitherto much unknown for power lobbying in party politics were taken aback when their names were announced this afternoon. Umesh Katti, former minister and eight times MLA had been in the forefront to ensure that his brother Ramesh Katti got the party ticket to contest the Rajya Sabha elections.When the whole world is embroiled into the Coronavirus pandemic he found the time conducive to play petty politics as he held a dinner meeting with some disgruntled ruling party legislators who also lost the race in entering the state cabinet just a few days back to register his anger for still not being inducted into the cabinet. H...

T hanks to lifting down of stringent measures as part of the preventive action for the containment of the deadly Coronavirus pandemic the decision has given ample scope for divergent views about the pros and cons of the same. image: Deccan Herald Probably what has gone unnoticed is the plain fact that the killer virus originating from Wuhan, the capital city of the Hubei province in Central China with a population of 1.1 crore despite rattling the country of origin and spreading like a wildfire elsewhere didn’t have any devastating effect initially in India.But that solace was only short-lived. It was a different situation once people of Indian origin visiting other countries slowly started heading to their home country individually and in big groups. These foreign returnees were the prime suspects as they were the first reported infection cases. Later most of the foreign nationals attending the Tablighi Jamat Markaz visiting different parts of the country became the official c...

The tiny coastal state of Kerala spreading all across the Arabian sea is again in news, this time for enough good reasons and that too during the deadly Coronavirus pandemic haunting all over the globe and unnerving the so-called superpowers and developed Western nations! Pinarayi Vijayan, Kerala Chief Minister has cleared the desks for the lifting of lockdown in all the 14 districts from tomorrow barring the Covid-19 hotspot areas, thereby accomplishing the unique feat of becoming the first state in the country to do so. image: livemint.com In fact, the distinction of being the first state in the whole of the country in rising to the occasion by waking up with stern measures to combat the fatal virus infections also deservedly goes to the same Kerala state which boasts of many other accomplishments in other spheres of life. The whole state has been divided into four zones depending upon the proportion of Corona infections. These zones have been classified as Red, Orange-A, Ora...

BS Yediyurappa , Karnataka Chief Minister underwent an embarrassing situation Yesterday during a public function at Davanagere when Vachananda Swami, the pontiff of the local Panchamasali sect demanded three ministerial berths in the state cabinet. The yoga teacher turned swami was not content with his single point demand. He warned the chief minister that Murugesh Nirani, former Industries Minister who was also present on the stage, should be inducted to the cabinet at any cost and if not the chief minister will have to face the wrath of the Panchamasali community! This sort of public admonishing made the chief minister being let down and became furious. He pleaded with the swami in his early forties to give suggestions and not warnings and threatened to walk out, giving back the swami in the same coin. However, the former local private TV channel's yoga programmer turned swami directed the CM to stay back and heed to the list of demands. The CM with much reluctance stayed bac...

T hanks to the outcome of bye-polls to 15 Assembly constituencies, it looks the voters of the state are unanimous in their verdict against the Indian National Congress(INC) and Janata Dal-Secular(JD-S): Keep Your Mouth Shut! The ruling Bharatiya Janata Party(BJP) leaders' themselves were not sure till Yesterday that they would be able to garner a dozen seats to their tally. For public consumption all of them kept on reiterating like school children, "We will win all the 15 seats" in a voice which didn't appear to be all that confident. In fact they were perturbed by the initial reports of the state Intelligence agency which projected a result of 6:3:6 meaning six to BJP, three to JD-S and six to Congress. While Congress and JD-S leaders were toying with the idea of forming the second series of Congress-JD-S coalition government BJP managers were seriously setting up in motion "Operation Lotus 2" to poach seven Congress and three JD-S legislators. But people...

T he public campaigning for bye-elections in 15 Assembly constituencies of Nine districts in the state came to a close this evening. However, the door to door canvassing and the last ditch efforts to win over the voters through all possible means will continue unabated for the 05 December polls. Thanks to the resignation of 14 Indian National Congress(INC) and three Janata Dal-Secular(JD-S) Members of the Legislative Assembly the forthcoming bye-elections have been necessitated. KR Rameshkumar, Speaker during the tenure of JDS-INC coalition government had disqualified all the 17 MLAs' and had also barred them from contesting the elections till the end of tenure of the present Assembly. The Supreme Court after hearing the pleas of disqualified legislators upheld the ruling of the Speaker disqualifying them from the membership of the house but permitted them to re contest the elections. Since the defeated Bharatiya Janata Party(BJP) candidates have contested the victorie...