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`Manduva' Houses in East Godavari

82-year old `Manduva’ house attracting with modern outlook

Manduva house entrance

 MADHAVARAYUDUPALEM (East Godavari): A small gram panchayat with 5 thousand population in Kadiyam mandal in East Godavari district is having a distinct features including a 82-year old `Manduva’ is being renovated and restructured last year with all modern amenities and latest fixtures.

The Manduva house in this village is owned by Annamdevula family traditionally from 1930’s. Mr. Annamdevula Suraiah constructed this on August 4, 1931 by bringing logs of teak and rosewood from Kotilingala Ghat of river Godavari in Rajahmundry. Mr. Suraiah spent Rs.3 thousand for wood on entire Manduva house at that time.

Simhadwaram of the Manduva

       After a gap of second generation, Annamdevula Veera Venkata Satayanarayana, who is popularly known as Chanti is representing third generation got an idea of renovating the entire Manduva. He and his wife Vijaya were elected as Surpanch for two consecutive terms and both served as MPTC member and Mandal Presidents respectively from 1988 to 2011.

Central hall of Manduva House

AIR-CONDITIONED, SOLAR SYSTEM: When Mr. Chanti took up the renovation, the walls of Manduva house was constructed with gummy soils or red bricks and the roofs were supported by logs of teak wood. So, he varnished and painted the wood including the main door (simhadwaram) which was beautifully carved with attracting designs. Top of the roof were covered with red tiles (Vadapalli penku) which was removed and again the same red tiles were arranged to bring old look and keep the tradition intact. The inside of Manduva logili was with a common hall and several spacious rooms spanning in all four directions. All these rooms are air-conditioned. The common hall was beautifully decorated with illumination in colours. The roof of the house was supported by several giant wooden pillars. The center of the common hall was topless to let the air and light come in, but it was partially closed and arranged a pipe to drain out the rain water from the top falls into a small constructed pit through the pipe.

GRAND ENTRANCE: Entrance of the house looks like entering into a temple with beautiful wood carvings and large size photos on either side with Anantha Padmanabha Swami in a glass case on the top.

         “Except, air-conditioners every thing runs on solar system in my house. Nowadays, this kind of houses is under extinction because of urbanization, western culture influence and downfall of traditional joint family system”-said Mr. Chanti.

       The entire Manduva is with perfect Vastu and there is a home theater to screen movies, meeting hall, outhouse with high-tech facilities, that too without disturbing old structure with `Boshanam’ (huge wooden box) and 1930’s old traditional iron safe, `patte mancham’ (wooden carved bed) are other interesting items to see in this Manduva.

MODEL PANCHAYAT WITH GOOD REVENUE SOURCE: According to Mr. Chilukuri Srinivasa Rao, State Vriksha Mitra Awardee, it is a record that Madhavarayudupalem got best Gram Panchyat and Nirmal Puraskhar twice for its maintenance under Ms. Vijaya and Mr. Chanti. Both of them laid mango trees all along the route from Jegurupadu to their village (3kms) and the revenue from the yielding will be given to development of the Gram Panchayat.

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eom

Kadiyam nurseries target global market

Kadiyam nurseries spread in 3,500 acres in 11 villages of Kadiyam mandal in East Godavari are doing good business and providing considerable employment to about 20,000 agriculture labour.

However, the nurseries which generate revenue running into several crores per annum are also facing hardships on two accounts. One is exports and other is lack of exposure related to research. Though the All India Nurserymen Association (AINA) has taken up these two issues at different levels with the Central government, it has not yielded results till date.

The scenic beauty of Kadiyam nurseries is often seen in South Indian films . After 2003, All India Nurserymen Summit in this village, Kadiyapu Lanka, which was inaugurated by then Chief Minister N. Chandrababu Naidu, the domestic nursery business has almost doubled. From 2011, two to three big nursery farmers started exporting nursery plants to Middle East, particularly to Dubai, Doha, Qatar, Kuwait and Abu Dhabi.

But, there is no encouragement from the State or Union government.

“So, we decided to conduct our national summit with our member farmers and invite government officials from Indian Council for Agriculture Research (ICAR), National Horticulture Board (NHB) and Directorate of Floriculture Research (DFR) to expand our export network,” said Pulla Veera Venkata Rao, vice-president of AINA and managing director of Sri Satyadeva Nursery, largest nursery in Kadiyam mandal. The Satyadeva Nursery got national and international recognition for its “family-farmer business concept” and Mr. Venkat Rao was invited to about 10 countries to present the scenario of Kadiyam nurseries.

The representatives of Imperial Trading and Contracting from Doha, Qatar and V. Jayakannan, Managing Director of Finegreen Exports, Chennai have already visited Kadiyapu Lanka and held preliminary discussions to hold the International Summit on possibilities of more exports from the 11 nursery villages. “Till know we are doing business from Kanyakumari to Kashmir, now we decided to go for transnational business,” added Mr. Veera Venkat Rao.

Mr. Rao who won ‘Best Nurserymen’ in the country from Gujarat Chief Minister Mr. Narendra Modi during “Vibrant Gujarat Summit-2013” is putting all his efforts to impress upon Union Agriculture Minister Sharad Pawar, Director General of ICAR S. Ayyappan and Director, National Horticulture Board R.K. Agarwal to establish Directorate of Floriculture Research in Rajahmundry or Venkataramannagudem, West Godavari.

Lal Bahadur Shastri...Learn from him...

Former Prime Minister of India Lal
Bahadur Sastry looking at files even
in his flight journey...

Lal Bahadur Shastri doing office work in Airplane. Along with him is his wife, Lalita Devi.
Most of us would have studied about Shastri in our school textbooks in which we were taught that he was initially a freedom fighter, then became prime minister after Nehru, and later died in Tashkent. Thats all we know. 

So, let me share some interesting facts about him here..
October 2nd. Whose birthday is it? Yeah correct. Also, it is Shastri's birthday on same day and most of us dont even know it, let alone celebrate.
If you combine dedication, ethics, honesty, integrity, responsibility, & austerity, you get Shastri!! The above photo is the best example to show his dedication towards his job. Can we think of today's politician doing his job in flight like this? Forget flight, do they do their jobs with this much of dedication even in their office?
Talking about integrity & responsibility.....
There was a major railway accident sometime in 1950s. Being the railway minister at that time, he took moral responsibility and offered his resignation (However, Nehru did not accept it). That shows the moral standards he maintained.

Talking about honesty and ethics.....
During freedom struggle, when he was jailed by the British, he was informed that his daughter was sick. So he asked for 15 days permission and was granted on the condition that he will not participate in freedom struggle in these 15 days. By the time he reached his home, his daughter had died. After performing the funeral for 3 days, he immediately returned back to jail inspite of having 12 more days of freedom from jail!!
Similarly, one day, while in jail, he was told that his son was sick and this time he got a permission of 7 days of leave from jail. He stayed with his son all the 7 days. The son had still not recovered, but Shastri went back to jail to keep up his word!! (Fortunately, the son survived)
Talking about austerity.....
He is popularly called "The politician who made no money". He was born in a poor family, he lived his life in simplicity and austerity. And he died as a poor man. He really knew what austerity meant.
These are the kind of leaders we need today who can demonstrate what real austerity means. Not by someone who boards a train for the first time in his life at the age of 38, and spends a night in huts to prove that he is asture. We need austerity lessons from people who have really experienced poverty so that they understand what real poverty means. Not by someone who has zillions in swiss banks and talks about eradicating poverty here.
So, young political leaders should keep the above lively lessons in their mind and do little service to society as Mr. Shastri did.

-BVS Bhaskar

on Saturday

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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eom 

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.