Daily Archives: January 11, 2015

A Cultural Milieu

KalakritiTELANGANA11jan2015

Hyderabad :

The cultural extravaganza that is Krishnakriti festival got off to a colourful start at the Kalakriti art gallery. The inaugural ceremony of the 11th edition witnessed insightful lectures on art, culture and education and a movie that threw light on the social practice of a tribal community from the Northeast of the country.

The inaugural session also saw the conferment of the 2014 Kalaakriti Award for Achievements and Excellence to Uzramma who heads the decade old The Decentralised Cotton Yarn Trust(DSYT) for its efforts to resolve crucial issues facing the handloom industry by including spinners, dyers,weavers,farmers and ginners in a collective working environment and also for the regeneration of the cotton ‘Malkha’. Veteran actor Shankar Melkote gave away the award to Uzramma while author and political scientist Jyotirmay Sharma presented a memento to her.

“In the year 2005, the DCYT mission was to replace the capital-intensive mass production mode of cotton yard production with small-scale localised yarn-making, compatible with the small scale of cotton farming and hand weaving.” states Uzramma. DSYT hopes to see the indigenous cotton textile as a low carbon and clean industry for which India can earn international credit towards emission reduction. The inauguration was followed by two talks- ‘Negotiating the World with Rabindranath Tagore’ by historian R Siva Kumar and ‘Understanding origin of art by ontologist Navjyoti Singh.

The film ‘Every time you tell a story’ was also screened which narrated the change over the centuries profiling Tsungkotepsu, the traditional head- hunter’s shawl, which used to be an honour for the Ao Nagas tribesmen which is a standardised product available in the market at Annapurna Studios.

The five-day festival features dance, music, cinema and painting alongside talks, seminars and workshops. These programmes are free for the public with the proceeds going to the charity. “Every year, the proceeds we receive will go to the charity to deserving students in field of education, we support 125 young students all over the country,” states Prashant Lahoti, founder of Lahoti foundation which conducts the Krishnakriti Art Festival.

Visitors will also get the opportunity to see the works of artistes from different parts of the country such as Akhilesh Varma, Avijit Dutta, Chintan Upadhyay, DLN Reddy, Laxman Aelay, Manish pushkale, Sheetal Gattani and several others at Kalakriti Art Gallery.

The five-day film festival will go on till January 11 at six venues in the city.

source: http://www.newindianexpress.com / The New Indian Express / Home> Cities> Hyderabad / by Revati-Danget / January 09th, 2015

City boy sails the sea of success

Leela Sagar won gold during the Monsoon Regatta last year and also bagged a bronze medal at Coastal Nationals.– Photo: BY ARRANGEMENT
Leela Sagar won gold during the Monsoon Regatta last year and also bagged a bronze medal at Coastal Nationals.– Photo: BY ARRANGEMENT

City boy P. Leela Sagar highlighted his potential as a sailor with a victory in the Optimist National Sailing Championships held in Bhopal recently. He is a product of the Yacht Club of Hyderabad (YCH), which was instituted six years ago.

Leela Sagar handled his boat with great skill to win six races out of 12 and displayed commendable maturity and confidence while doing so. He had bagged gold during the Monsoon Regatta in July 2014, and also had won a bro nze at the Coastal Nationals at Bombay in October 2014. After the triumph at Bhopal, he is now among the top ranked national sailors in his category. “The boy is a natural, is determined and learns by instinct. He has realised that there is no substitute for hard work and resilience. He will surely go places,” said Suheim Sheikh, his coach and mentor for the last three years.

Sagar well and truly proved himself by beating several sailors who had taken part in competitions all over the world. His rise to the top has come after three years of hard work, dedication and participation in several hard-fought championships. He first joined the sport at the YCH through Naandi Foundation about three years ago.

Despite being a quick learner, his light body proved to be a handicap and he finished at the bottom of the fleet on debut. But later, he made up for the lost ground, developed the skill and craft, and made rapid progress. Two more youngsters Musti Saibaba and P. Raju, who joined the YCH through the LSN Foundation, showed promise and finished 14th and 15th.

Wins six races out of 12 in the Optimist National Sailing Championships held in Bhopal recently

source: http://www.thehindu.com / The Hindu / Home> News> Cities> Hyderabad / by Abhijit Sen Gupta / Hyderabad – January 11th, 2014