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The Hindu
05-07-2025
- General
- The Hindu
Award-winning teacher EC Sabu on teaching Malayalam to other language speakers for 35 years
Every Sunday, students from across the country, also a couple of them from Nigeria, eagerly await a WhatsApp alert. Like clockwork, the message pings at 11am, and a virtual classroom transports them to the backwaters of Kerala as E C Sabu, an award-winning teacher introduces them to Malayalam words like vallamkali, vanchipaatu, and kaayal. As the third batch of Amrutham Malayalam, a seven-month online Malayalam course offered by the World Malayalee Council, Coimbatore Province begins, Sabu says, 'Our students are a mixed group of professors, doctors, retirees, school children, and teachers who speak Marathi, Telugu, Kannada, Urdu or any language. It's a big thrill for them to read name boards in Malayalam while travelling in Kerala.' An award-winning teacher, Sabu served as vice-principal, later as principal of CMS Higher Secondary School before retiring from active teaching this May. 'I wanted to be a journalist but ended up becoming a Malayalam PG Assistant in 1990 at CMS School. My first batch of class XII students are over 52 years old now,' he says as he reflects upon his 35-year journey in teaching. Around the same time, he also became a part of Coimbatore Malayalee Samajam's seven-month certificate course that opened its doors to learning Malayalam for non-native speakers. 'The course is on its way to set a record as the longest running course in any regional language. Kerala's State Resource Centre (under the Ministry of Human Resources Development, Government of India) was our sponsor for three decades. Now, with World Malayalee Council's online course for the last three years, the reach has been immense.' In the 1990s, Tamil speakers enrolled in large numbers, especially students of MA Tamil in Bharathiar University, he recalls. Poet Sirpi Balasubramaniam who headed the Tamil department made it mandatory for students to clear a paper in Malayalam. 'Once, 14 Tamil PhD students from the University joined the course and scored cent percent marks in Malayalam exams at the end of the course. They are all now HoDs of Tamil in various colleges, like Dr Uma Maheswari at Government College in Chittoor, Kerala and others at Government College, Ooty and Maharaja College, Erode,' he reminisces, adding that the course is a melting pot of cultures giving rise to new friendships. Sabu's teaching method begins with easy letters before moving on to forms, sentences, grammar, translation, and spoken language. Every year, a number of non-native speakers attend to understand Kerala's art and culture, its landscape, people and literature. Over the last three decades, the certificate course evolved as a literary movement. One of the students translated celebrated Malayalam writer Vaikom Mohammed Basheer's works in Tamil. Another PhD student who joined the course while doing her study on comparative literature on the works of Tamil writer Nanjil Nadan and Malayalam writer CV Balakrishnan turned author with a translation of Malayalam short stories. Sabu who has received a number of awards — Ezhuthani Award, Panditha Sresta Award and Krishna Mangad Cherukatha Award (for his short story) — cant's stop talking about his students. 'The hard work and dedication of my students keeps me going. In the current batch, we have Dorothy, a Bengali who has beautifully picked up the nuances and speaks impeccable Malayalam now. Cardiologist Dr Matheswaran has started conversing with his patients from Kerala. Some join the course because their neighbours are from Kerala or if they are employed in firms run by Malayalees. Then, there are polyglots who join for the sheer love of languages. One of the students Dr Viswaroop is a native Telugu speaker, but also knows Kannada, Tamil and now Malayalam.' While teaching, his social outings come to a standstill. 'I have to thank my wife, K Chitra, a retired Hindi professor, my daughter S Lakshmipriya, my son-in-law J Murali Krishnan, my grand daughter Parvathi Krishna for being supportive. I feel charged when I am with my students. They understand what keeps me motivated,' he says adding that his high schooling at NSS High School at Pala in Kerala drew him closer to the language. 'Especially my Malayalam teachers like Raghavan Nair and Velu Pillai who introduced me to the nuances. It was a turning point in my journey. Later in college, the first batch of Mahatma Gandhi University in Kottayam, our vice-chancellor was U R Ananthamurthy, Gnanapith award winner.' Teaching Malayalam to a mixed group has become a part of his life, says Sabu. 'Learning a new language is not just about letters. It's an introduction to culture, geography, lifestyle. We highlight all these in the classes to make it engaging and alive. Based on my experience, I know the challenges faced by students in learning a new language, so my methodology takes into account these aspects. While joining the course, the question on everyone's mind is 'Is it possible to master a language in seven months?' But once I see the progress, I feel overjoyed.' As for his future plans, he wants to move back to his hometown Pala in Kerala and start farming. 'I have built a house there and we have already planted jackfruit, mango, and pepper. But, the online classes will continue without any break,' he says, adding, 'There is no full stop to learning.' To know more on the upcoming batches of online Malayalam classes, call 9486477891/ 6380701846
Indian Express
05-07-2025
- Entertainment
- Indian Express
From Partition to today, Krishen Khanna's work tells the story of a changing nation
When an artist turns 100, it marks a turn in history, for he has been witness to all the page-turning episodes of his country and brought them to life on his canvases. For the well-known artist Krishen Khanna, who turns 100 today, the most haunting memories are of Partition. Khanna was working at a printing press in Lahore when the rumblings of Partition, and of Independence, began. He depicts this vividly in his work, Refugee Train Late 16 hrs (1947), where a group of men and women can be seen tightly packed together while waiting for the train that can take them across the border. A couple can be seen embracing each other fervently, for they do not know if they will meet again. The artist's memories of Partition are as if it has just happened: 'It was during the crucial months…we trooped out in two cars and came straight to Shimla where the education department [his father was deputy director of education with the government] was then going to be founded. All the records had to be garnered and brought. The ones that didn't come, they had to be made up again through memory… But anyway, I was there, and I was looking out for a job. I couldn't go back…The evenings in Lahore would be penetrated by howling cries, as area after area would be set afire and it still haunts me and holds me immobile.' Khanna's memories of Lahore remain vivid, even today. About a work like Maclagan Road (1990), for instance, he states, 'I spent several years of my childhood on Maclagan Road which was like a microcosm of Lahore. On this modest road lived professors and teachers of considerable distinction as well as my father who taught at the Government College. There was Dr Gurbax Rai, a homeopath who healed even the passerby. He actively participated in the freedom struggle and went to jail several times. During those difficult days, his wife would sell fruit preserves. As a refugee in Delhi he continued to live with the same dignity and simplicity. It was fantastic how this small stretch of road had people of every faith and profession, and belonging to different strata of society, all living in peace and amity.' The artist's family shifted to India, and to earn a living, Khanna arrived in Bombay in 1948 where he joined Grindlays Bank. It was then that he came across the artists who formed the famed Progressive Artists' Group and were at the forefront of modernism. He met like-minded artists like M F Husain and S H Raza, and then he exhibited a painting which they all liked at the Bombay Art Society. The painting was called News of Gandhiji's Death (1948) and featured people reading newspapers under a light. The artist says, 'I was in Delhi when Gandhi ji was assassinated and I was going to Connaught Place and [there were] all these little islands with lights and people were gathered under the lights reading newspapers. That left an image in my mind. So I worked on that and did this painting.' Artists in the Progressive Group met frequently, had fervent discussions late into the night and supported and analysed each other's works. There came a time when Khanna wanted to leave his banking job and paint full time. Supported by his wife, he was to give it up entirely in 1961. There was no looking back after that. His vast artistic resources drove him to make works which threw the spotlight on the marginalised and the ignored during the heady early years of Independence. In paintings like Rear View (1991), the plight of migrant workers huddled in trucks — like bundles of objects and painted in monotones — drew attention to their unchanging situation despite Independence. Khanna's depiction of the bandwallas over the years expressed contradictions in the social situation in a vivid manner. The bandwallas in their bright but ill-fitting costumes and their straggly appearance bring light to the lives of others while remaining in a situation of constant deprivation themselves. Over the years, Khanna's bandwallas sensuously depicted the bodily stances and postures of those on the fringes of society, as well as their immense and heroic struggle to overcome their situation. The retelling of the lives of many came together in his murals, the most well-known of which is the magnificent work, The Great Procession, made in the dome at the ITC Maurya, New Delhi in the 1970s. Presented with sardonic wit, the mural offers glimpses of India with all its contradictions and ironies: A woman scratches her ear in a temple, amid devotees; a man picks pockets outside a mosque; a tiger hides in a mountain cave to pounce on grazing goats; the merry bandwallas play in a corner while barbers and street performers ply their trade. There are humorous quotations as well, and author Khushwant Singh serves tea in a dhaba where the customers include Mulk Raj Anand and the artist himself. These vignettes of a life lived to its fullest are revealed like a procession in this mural of epic proportions. Khanna's moving work, The Last Bite (2005), speaks for itself. It stands out for its reflection of the camaraderie and debates he shared with other artists, as well as the times that they foresaw. In this painting, Husain is central as a prominent member of the Progressive Artists' Group. He is flanked on the left by Tyeb Mehta, F N Souza and Bhanu Athaiya — the only woman member, who later became important as the costume designer for Richard Attenborough's Gandhi (1982). The painting has other members of the artist fraternity, like Akbar Padamsee who seems to be addressing Bhupen Khakhar, who in turn appears to be looking out of the frame as if engaging with the common man. On Khanna's right is the famed V S Gaitonde addressing Jeram Patel, as the painter Jogen Chowdhury looks out of the frame. Manjit Bawa, Raza and J Swaminathan complete the group. As the last man standing, Khanna feels bereft of his friends and contemporaries, but his work and life provide sustenance, not just to himself, but to what he cherishes the most: The ordinary man on the street. The writer is an art historian and independent curator based in New Delhi
Time of India
17-06-2025
- Health
- Time of India
Sanquelim will get pharmacy college: CM
Bicholim: Chief minister Pramod Sawant said that Sanquelim will soon get a pharmacy college. He said that various educational institutions have been set up in places like Sanquelim with an emphasis on skill development along with academic development. He was speaking at the inauguration of the transformative initiative 'Career Udan' empowering youth for a brighter tomorrow, launched by the state council of higher education at Government College, Sanquelim, on Tuesday. There are many opportunities available in the educational sector and with the aim of ensuring 100% employment for students who develop skills, we have started various courses and colleges in Sanquelim and through that, we guarantee 100% employment, the chief minister further said.
Indian Express
14-06-2025
- General
- Indian Express
NEET UG 2025 Result: Qualifying cut-off dropped across all categories; check here
NTA NEET UG Cutoff 2025 For MBBS, BDS, BAMS, BAMS Government College: The National Testing Agency (NTA) today, announced the final answer keys and results for the National Eligibility cum Entrance Test (NEET) 2025 for undergraduate medical courses. Candidates who appeared for the exam can access their NEET UG results on the official website — Rajasthan's Mahesh Kumar has bagged NEET rank 1 in NEET UG 2025. He has scored 99.9999547 percentile. NEET UG 2025 Result Live: Where to check The NEET UG 2025 result will include key details such as individual subject-wise marks, total score, percentile rank, and qualifying status. Candidates must meet the minimum qualifying criteria to be considered eligible for the counselling process. Here is cut off for NTA NEET UG 2025. The NEET UG 2025 qualifying cut-off has dropped across all categories. The NEET UG cut-off in 2025 for the general category decreased to 686-144 from 720-162 in 2024. The cut-off for SC, ST, and OBC candidates decreased to 143-113 from 161-127 in 2024. NEET UG 2025 Analysis Shortlisted candidates will be eligible to participate in the Medical Counselling Committee's (MCC) All India Quota counselling, as well as the respective state counselling processes. The results are hosted through candidate login, and those who qualify will be eligible to participate in the centralised counselling process for MBBS, BDS, AYUSH, and other undergraduate medical programmes across India. These percentile scores are relative and based on the highest marks secured by a candidate in the all-India merit list. Hence, the actual cut-off marks corresponding to these percentiles may vary each year. The official notification also mentioned that NTA has provided All India Rank to the candidates and the admitting authorities will draw a merit list based on All India Rank for the seats of MBBS/BDS falling under their jurisdiction. When candidates apply to their State, they will mention their category as per the state category list.
Time of India
04-06-2025
- Business
- Time of India
Yadav launches tourism projects, renames landmarks in Pachmarhi
Bhopal: CM Mohan Yadav has launched tourism development initiatives exceeding Rs 33 crore and declared the new names for Pachmarhi Garden and Government College, both to be known after Raja Bhabhut Singh. At the Korku community's sacred location, Yadav announced plans for establishing a tribal museum, waiting area, and tin shed. He also revealed plans for developing a logistics park in Narmadapuram. Speaking about Pachmarhi, Yadav emphasised its exceptional natural beauty and historical value. He confirmed the govt's active efforts to eliminate barriers hindering Pachmarhi's development as a prime tourist spot. During his address, the CM discussed Raja Bhabhut Singh's bravery and nationalism, explaining that holding the cabinet meeting in Pachmarhi was a tribute to him. He stressed the enduring importance of Raja Bhabhut Singh's resistance against British authority. The CM unveiled 11 Trex Cruiser vehicles for safari operations. These diesel-operated vehicles, featuring a 9+1 seating arrangement, provide more room than conventional gypsies and will enhance safari services across Tourism Corporation units. New Pink Toilet Lounges were inaugurated at Pandav Cave and Jatashankar, constructed at Rs 20 lakh each through CSR funding. Local women's self-help groups will manage these contemporary facilities. Yadav launched five Tourism Department projects worth Rs 12.49 crore and initiated six development works valued at Rs 21.39 crore, encompassing various infrastructure enhancements across Pachmarhi. The CM's programmes signify substantial changes in Pachmarhi's tourism sector. The newly named Raja Bhabhut Singh Garden and College honour the area's historical significance, demonstrating the govt's dedication to cultural preservation alongside tourism advancement. The forthcoming tribal museum will highlight indigenous traditions, particularly of the Korku community. The Narmadapuram logistics park aims to strengthen regional transport links and economic development, supporting Pachmarhi's evolution as a premier tourist destination. The total development package of over Rs 33 crore includes diverse infrastructure initiatives. The completed and upcoming projects showcase substantial investment in regional tourism development.
