Kumbakonam Iyer Kaapi, a right spot to stop

BVS Bhaskar

TANJORE (Tamil Nadu): Kumbakonam Degree Coffee is popular in most parts of the Tamil Nadu and particularly it denotes the traditional habit of taking pure coffee by Brahmin community. On the same lines, another coffee house was found to the much excitement of tourists and students of Sasta Engineering College and University on Srirangam and Tanjore state highway. No one will believe that it is a coffee parlour as it looks unique in all its features. 

     At the entrance of the `house’ there is a big flower pot in which green Tulasi plants were planted. The driver asked me to look at one corner of the house, where a round sign board was kept “Kumbakonam Iyer Kaapi”. So, I understood that is a coffee house. The walls of the clay house were neatly plastered with cow dung and two small rope-cats were tied on the left side of the entrance and a cart was parked on one side of the wall.

      One would say Wow! as they enter into the coffee house, because the old artifacts displayed in all corners of the big hall. The artifacts include oldest cots, ancient Indian traditional stoves, brass vessels, brass tumbler and drinking glasses, very old dried bottle guard, traditional wooden cot, gramophone record and so on. All the walls were colorfully painted with caricatures and oldest photograph of Tanjore Brihdeeswara Temple was hanging on one of the walls.

    “We want to create good atmosphere, environment and feel for the visitors. So, I collected these artifacts one after one from last three years”-said Vijay Murugan, owner of the Kumbakonam Iyer Kaapi. Mr. Vijay who hails from Tanjore mastered in Hotel Management and shifted to Bangalore. He started Dolci Hospitality Innovations, a consulting agency to start big hotels, restaurants, coffee shops in an innovative way. “The shop is one of my dream projects. Kumbakonam Degree Coffee does not owe much to the powder but to the purity of undiluted milk used in the preparation of the coffee. Most locals are indignant that the Kumbakonam Degree Coffee name is used to market coffee all around the State. But, Brahmin community had popularized this from long back in my native place”-he added.

        Anand, who worked in Maldives, Sasikumar and Ganesan from Singapore-all from Tanjore are maintaining the above Iyer Kaapi. According to Mr. Anand “The credit goes to Panchapikesa Iyer, the proprietor of the old Lakshmi Vilas in Kumbakonam, also called Pasumpal (cow’s milk) Coffee Club, where coffee would flow from 5 a.m. till late evening”. Mr. Sasikumar said that his proprietor Mr. Vijay Murugan had started this coffee house only in April this year and being on the state highway every vehicle passing this way used to stop here for a tumbler of coffee. He also added that students of Sasta College are frequent visitors for not only coffee, but also for ice creams, milkshakes, cold coffee, Italian Cappuccino Coffee that they serve in artifacts like bamboo bars, variety of brass articles.

     Mr. Vijay Murugan who spoke over phone from Bangalore said that he is having Freddo Ice Cream shops on the other side of the highway and also in Tanjore in which all varieties of foreign ice creams will be served along with Kumbakonam Kaapi.

     So, it is the time for all tourists and locals to make a visit to the coffee house.

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NTR fan uses his films to campaign for Samiakyandhra

B.V.S. BHASKAR

  

A diehard fan of NTR near Kakinada got a novel idea of contributing something for Samiakyandhra agitation. He used audio-visual medium to spread the message to the masses, particularly the young generation. Putchakayala Chandramouli of Valasapakala village in the rural mandal of Kakinada and working as Assistant Executive Engineer in ONGC, Rajahmundry Asset has dedicated one entire floor in his house for NTR Library and named it “Nataratna Kala Mandir”, and collected 302 original CDs of NTR films -- from 1949 (“Mana Desam”, his first film) to 1993 (Srinath Kavi Sarvabhouma”, last film).

Moved by the movement for unified Andhra, Mr. Chandramouli launched an audio visual campaign with NTR songs titled “Kalasi vunte kaladu sukham.” He released a huge poster and a CD on which it was printed - a new film presented by united Andhra people - “Kalasi vunte kaladu sukham,” directed by “Telugu Talli,” produced by people of Andhra, music bearing sufferings of Telugu people and audio is released by S.A. (Seema Andhra) Audio’s. In this compact disc, there are songs, highlighting the unique features of united Andhra in NTR films.

Along with this CD and the huge poster, Mr. Chandramouli arranged an exhibition about three days ago in Kakinada on united Andhra map with his 302 NTR’s rare CD collections and posters of NTR.

The ONGC engineer built a house in his native village Valasapakala which he named “Taraka Rama Nilayam”. In “Nataratna Kala Mandir”, he arranged and preserved his 16 year’s collection of NTR CDs, all the old cinema posters of NTR films, particularly two life-size posters -- one showing NTR as Lord Sri Krishna in “Sri Krishna Pandaveeyam” and the other as Dhuryodhana in ‘Dana Veera Soora Karna’. He also collected 1,300 CDs of actors of yesteryear.

Mr. Chandramouli took up service activities for which he got awards. They include training to children in dance and drama, observing birth and death anniversaries of Potti Sriramulu, Prakasam Pantulu, Ghantasala and S.V. Rangarao along with that of NRT and distribution of free books, school bags, etc. to children. His collection of rare CDs entered Limca, India, Telugu Book of Records.

New Project Commissioned in AP Paper Mills with Rs.100 crore

New Project in AP Paper Mills (IP) Commissioned

Bhaskar, Principal Correspondent , The Hindu, Reporting from
AP Paper Mills (IP), Rajahmundry o 3/9/2013

AP Paper Mills Limited, an International Paper Group Company in India is going to launch high quality products into market shortly, which includes jam free copier friendly paper.

On 3^rd September 2013 Journalists of Rajahmundry were taken to AP Paper Mill plant with all security measures like helmet, glasses for eyes, shoes and so on.

The Managing Director and Chief Executive Officer of APPM (IP), Rampraveen Swaminathan has said that they are evaluating the market opportunities for making top quality cut size paper for Hewlett-Packard (HP), an American multinational information technology corporation and they are having firm plans on this issue.

He said that keeping the demand for finished cut size paper of 10 to 11 percent out of 4.3 million tons per annum, they have commissioned Rs.100 crore World Class cut size sheeter in Rajahmundry mill on Monday. He added that, a new Bielomatick A4 sheeter will enable the mill to increase the conversion capacity of the branded copier paper and IP has number of A4 sheeting lines installed in various countries including US and Brazil, has for the first time installed this new palletize technology in India. He informed that the conversion capacity of this fully automated new facility is 300 million tons per day and at a speed of 450 meters per minute. Answering a question he said that at present they are having 10 percent export order for A4, A3 and FS (Fullscape) size products and rest in domestic market.

      Mr. Swaminathan said that the automation may affect employment in some areas, but it will improve quality, productivity and achieve sustainability. However, he affirmed that they are committed to local community employment. Responding on pollution related quarries, the CEO said that the APPM and IP are compiled with government regulatory and norms and effluents discharge system is very effective in their mill. He announced that they are going to commission one more Sewage Treatment Plant near APPM in next week. “We will not run away from our responsibility in safeguarding environment and greenery”-the MD added.

Old Telugu movie songs collection center at your doorstep

A treasure trove of Telugu songs

“Janaranjani”, an audio library named after the popular Telugu songs programme on All India Radio, is all set to offer full volumes of 3,500 old hit songs divided into 72 volumes.

Floated by music lover Goli Lakshmi Prabhakar alias Saibabu, the library has a collection of songs starting from 1931 when the Telugu film industry was in its nascent stage to 2010.

All the film songs were arranged in 72 volumes with 50 songs in each volume.

The “Janaranjani” — audio library grabbed everyone’s attention in just two years after an article was published in The Hindu in 2011 and Mr. Saibabu received calls from different parts of the World.

“Some Telugu people from US, New Zealand and Europe came to Rajahmundry for recording songs of their taste,” he says. Saibabu spends most of his time with vintage gramophone records and thousands of cassettes and compact discs in Janaranjani library. In his library, one can find a handbook ‘Janaranjani’ Part-3 ‘Ragam, Tanam and Pallavi'.

Golden hits

“I divided the period of 1931 to 2010 into three parts and started printing the data of Telugu film songs. First, I brought out the third part starting from 1989 to 2005,” says Mr. Saibabu. The book contains the title of the film, year, banner, producer, director, music director, hero-heroine, songs, lyric writer and playback singers. Except dubbed films, all films released in a year are recorded in the book and the same were collected in the shape of gramophone record or cassette or CD.

Website soon

Mr. Saibabu is all set to start a website by name Janaranjani in which he will provide all the details of 3,500 songs.

“Any one can walk into my library and order for collection of songs of their choice and taste. I will give it in a pen drive or CD format with 48 RPM (which means clarity of song and music with original track),” Mr. Saibabu said.

Contact 9390158999

Music lovers can contact him on mobile no. 9390158999 for getting copy of books in which he published all the details of 3,500 songs with lyric writer, film title, year of release, actors and first line of the song.

Icon for Physically challenged with patriotic zeal

Ratinam Tangaraj proves that faith can work wonder

Ratinam Tangaraj, a postgraduate and diploma holder in engineering, started crawling from his childhood as he was physically challenged by birth as a result of polio. But, he did not lose his courage or hope to come up in life. He decided to dedicate his life at the adobe feet of Swami Vivekananda and joined as an employee at Vivekananda Kendra, Kanyakumari, Tamil Nadu.

Not like others, he wanted to do some thing unique in his life, in spite of his disability and convinced his employer at the Kendra to a journey from Kanyakumari to Chennai from January 19 to February 6 this year.. He wanted to awaken the youth of his home State and enlighten them on the speeches of Swami Vivekananda.

After this mission, he did not stop his journey. He took another bold step of covering 2,600 km on his tricycle. Mr. Tangaraj named the yatra as “Narendra-Vivekananda Yatra” on the eve of 150th birth anniversary of Swami Vivekananda. He started his journey from the house of the Swami at Kolkata on the day of Guru Pournima (July 22) and decided to cover West Bengal, Orissa, Andhra Pradesh and Tamil Nadu to reach Kanyakumari by September 11.

He reached Rajahmundry via National Highway on Thursday and took a break at Lalacheruvu Centre. Mr. Tangaraj garlanded the statue of Raviprasad, Kargil War martyr, along with ABVP national executive member Kompella Sastry.

Speaking to The Hindu , Mr. Tangaraj said that he had covered 1,050 km till now and had not faced any problem throughout his journey. He is covering about 30 to 40 km a day and meeting college and school students on the way.

“Students of the State are not interested to join politics. But, they are waiting for a good leader to lead the country,” he said.

JOB VACANCY: Wanted a leader for Seemandhra...interested can apply....!!!
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There is no dearth of leaders in Seemandhra. But there is no leader like KCR or Prof. Kodanda Ram in this region to lead agitation under one roof or under one banner. 
Take Kavuri Sambasiva Rao and Lagadapati Rajagopal. Mr. Kavuri is having good political knowledge of present and past and also vision. Mr. Rajagopal may not be knowing much about past, knows about contemporary politics and maintaining very good back office with volumes of information by using IT. Vision without view, arguments without any substance are some of the qualities of Mr. Rajagopal. Unfortunately, both have pledged their self interests at the feet of High Command. There is no exception to Mega Star Chiranjeevi, who is having no knowledge about politics, history and subjects like irrigation, agriculture, IT and so on. But, he is great brand ambassador for Congress party for crowd pulling in South, Icon for Tourism ministry and his charisma is nothing less than NTR. 
The think tank, "dubasi" of Congress party and Seemandhra's `valuable' leader is Rajahmundry MP Vundavalli Arun Kumar. The translation specialist from Indira Gandhi time to Sonia Gandhi is dillydallying and uncomfortable after bifurcation announcement by CWC. It is quite obvious that he is to dance to the tunes of Sonia Gandhi and at the same time, he has to won the hearts of his voters at home town, fans in AP. He is having credibility, respect and charisma. He is bookworm and computer savvy. But, he never gives solution to any of the issues he rises during his annual reports during public meetings. Mr. Arun Kumar makes scathing attack on KCR and shows clippings of his speeches against Seemandhra leaders (including Mr. Vundavalli). He is indecisive on whether to support united Andhra or only speak on Hyderabad.
Another mass maharajah is Amalapuram MP GV Harsha Kumar. He is good organizer, but in some occasions his credibility is at stake. His great minus in this movement is, he is speaking in support of bifurcation of state from the beginning. And now he is fighting for Hyderabad. Union Ministers Purandhareswari, Pallamraju are not crowd pullers and there are not much followers. 
Next comes, Bireddy Rajasekhara Reddy or TG Venkatesh or limited to three to four districts and they are not in a position to command the entire region. 
No minister in Kiran's Cabinet in Seemandhra are capable of leading entire Seemandhra people under one banner like Telangana Rastra Samiti or Telangana JAC. Katti Padma Rao, Anam Ramnarayana Reddy, Kasu Krishna Reddy, Gade Venkata Reddy, Balineni Srinivasula Reddy (Ongole), Mahidhar Reddy (Kandukuru), Kodelsa Siva Prasa, Devineni Uma, Somireddy Chandramohan Reddy are confined to their districts and not considered as state or regional leaders.
Business interests, doubts about their tickets in 2014 Parliament and Assembly elections, lack of knowledge about past history, present status and future political scenario are some of the regions for dearth of collective leadership.
Congress high command very well knows that there is no leader in his party to unite Seemandhra people from Tada to Itchapuram, Tirupati to Hyderabad or Visakhapatnam to Anantapuram.
People of Telangana agitated for separate state aggressively from last 12 years. We started our `struggle' only 15 days back. There is no seriousness in our agitation and there are many if's and but's in our efforts for united Andhra. 
Anyway, we are fighting for United Andhra Pradesh, if public are not having any problem, I want to make a suggestion. Shall we import a leader from Telangana to fight for Samaikhyandhra?
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BIFURCATION OF STATE...KCR COMMENTS, REACTIONS, REPERCUSSIONS..

Rajiv Gandhi statue is in flames in Konaseema

KCR is a very sagacious politician with cunning nature. He knows where he can cross his fingers and timings. Every one thought that Mr. KCR was quite and clam when there was a big hue and cry about bifurcation of state. But, he racked up new issue by asking non-Telangana NGOs to back to their respective district to "contribute to their new state", which instigated Seemandhra leaders, NGOs in Secretariat. 

The Telangana protagonist knows very well about the mindset of Congress leaders who started lamenting on KCR, because he started getting mileage after non-Telangana NGOs statement. He completely turned tables in favour of TRS and now Congress is in soup. 

One of my political friend's wife asked me, whether the ongoing agitation by Seemandhra is a "paid agitation"?. I was shocked and also surprised on her question. I simply said, "I don't think so". But she went on telling that each youth who are participating in agitation is being paid by different political parties on every evening.

But, fact is that NGOs, Advocates, students from different colleges including professional colleges, Universities in East Godavari are participating in agitation voluntarily. When, Rajahmundry Un-aided Colleges Association and All private schools management association met on Saturday and declared that they will sponsor part-time agitation by sending their students for one or two hours every day and seek police protection to run their institutions from Monday (5 Aug) as usually, my self and other journalist friends who are present at the meeting strongly opposed their move and suggested them to re-think about their decision. We told them that Seemandhra interests will not be safeguarded unless we are ready for some or other sacrifice. "At lease we have to a little sacrifice what the Telangana people have done earlier"-we suggested.

FIGHT...AND ALSO GET READY FOR STATIC PLAY

 No one will say that agitations be should stopped immediately and every one should be in closed doors. But, the agitations should continue by major sections of people and the think tank in the society should play a strategic and static role in getting our legitimate rights and share in all aspects.

Where is NIT (Regional Engineering College), it is in Warangal. After bifurcation, Andhra students are going to be non-locals in NIT, Warangal. Where is B-School, it is in Hyderabad, if Hyderabad is given to Telangana, our students are going to be non-locals. Like this, we are not having IIT, IISC, Hi-tech City, Metro Rail Project and so many. We are going to loose so many things. 

Already, the parents started sending their lads for Engineering this year to Chennai instead of Hyderabad as the process of EAMCET was not completed and agitations in Andhra had flaring up. Private medical seats are also vacant. 

It is the time now for our Central ministers, MPs to give pressure on CWC, Cabinet, PM, Ministerial Committee headed by Mr. AK Antony to give major share in every aspect. As told by Amalapuram MP Harsha Kumar, Telangana is not divided, "Andhra is separated".

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