Latest news with #Verghese
India Gazette
22-06-2025
- India Gazette
Kerala's budget tourism cell organises buses from Kannur to attend Kottiyoor festival
Kannur (Kerala) [India], June 22 (ANI): The Kerala State Road Transport Corporation (KSRTC) Kannur Unit, under the Budget Tourism Cell, organised a pilgrimage trip to the Kottiyoor Temple on Sunday. The journey began at 6:30 am from the Kannur KSRTC bus stand, covering stops at Mamanathambalam, Mridanga Shaileswari Temple, and Puralimala Muthappan Temple before reaching Kottiyoor by noon. The trip was led by Kannur District Coordinator Tansheer KR and was arranged in response to requests from regular passengers of the KSRTC Budget Tourism Cell. Meanwhile, another district coordinator, Verghese, mentioned that more than 150 trips to Kottiyoor are expected for the festival, using more than 90 buses of KSRTC. 'The budget tourism cell is responsible to conduct pilgrim packages and tourism packages in Kerala. In Kottiyoor, this year we are expecting more than 150 trips from all the districts of Kerala, with 93 units of KSRTC,' Verghese told ANI. The tourism bus service has received a positive response from the public. One tourist shared that this was her first time travelling by bus to Kottiyoor, and she found it to be an enjoyable and safe experience. A tourist told ANI during the bus ride, 'I have been going to Kottiyoor for the last 2 years but this is the first time I am going under the care of KSRTC. Usually as I go, there is a lot of crowd, but this time under the care of KSRTC we got to do darshan and we were able to go to all the places safely.' The Kottiyoor festival, also known as Kottiyoor Vysakha Mahotsavam, is a mesmerising festival held amidst dense forest with the lush greenery of Wayanadan hills and the gorgeous River Baveli forming a stunning backdrop. The Kottiyoor Shiva Temple, also known as the 'Varanasi of the South,' is a significant pilgrimage site in Kannur, Kerala, India. It comprises two temples, Akkare Kottiyoor and Ikkare Kottiyoor, located on either side of the Bavali River. The temples are situated in a dense forest area within the Western Ghats. The Akkare Kottiyoor temple is open only during the Vaisakha festival, a 28-day event that typically occurs in May-June. It's located on the opposite side of the river and is known for its unique structure, lacking the common formal temple layout. The temple is associated with the legend of Daksha Yaga, where Daksha's sacrifice was interrupted by Shiva, and Sati immolated herself. The temple is believed to be a place where the Trinity (Brahma, Vishnu, and Shiva) is present. (ANI)
Chicago Tribune
16-06-2025
- Entertainment
- Chicago Tribune
Review: ‘You Will Get Sick' at Steppenwolf is a slow reveal that's worth the wait
In a graduation speech I heard this May, the physician-writer Abraham Verghese talked about his experience as a small-town doctor during the AIDS era and how he found, to his amazement, that rural emergency rooms had filled up with AIDS patients even as everyone assumed the crisis was restricted to large cities. But many of these mostly young gay men had chosen, Verghese said, to come home from New York or Chicago to the likes of rural Tennessee to die. And for the most part, he observed in another stereotype-busting comment, he found they were treated by their families with compassion and love. The word AIDS is not mentioned in 'You Will Get Sick,' a rather unusual play by Noah Diaz that opened Sunday night at the Steppenwolf Theatre Company with Amy Morton (making a long-overdue return to Steppenwolf) and Namir Smallwood in the two leading roles. All we know is that the central character, known only in the script as #1, has been given a diagnosis of imminent death from an affliction that is never described. But Verghese's speech did come floating back into my head, because this is a play about how we handle not just death itself, but the period of our lives in chronological proximity to our inevitable exit. To understand the incontrovertible truth behind show's title — not exactly a box office seduction — you have to put the emphasis on the . Moreover, there are powerful themes here of working towards acceptance, of finding the courage to tell loved ones you are leaving. Diaz draws imagery from, believe it or not, 'The Wizard of Oz,' but Dorothy takes a long time to reveal herself, and nothing is solved by any clicking of heels. Here is the initial setup. Smallwood's sick character, #1, is having such difficulty communicating about his fatal illness that he chooses to hire someone to do the job for him. He puts out an advertisement to that effect and gets an answer from a woman, Morton's #2, a matter-of-fact opportunist who negotiates hard for piecemeal rates as she sets about her weird job, some of which involves her client's self-involved sister (Sadieh Rifai). Amy Morton is back on stage in 'You Will Get Sick' at Steppenwolf Theatre. What took her so long?That all might sound straightforward but Diaz freights the play with a much heavier symbolic load, including an amplifed, off-stage narrator who voices the things that #1 cannot bring himself to say, stepping pretty much on top of his lines. That takes a good while to understand and for it to become in any way comfortable as a theatrical experience. Meanwhile, #2 has her own eccentricities; she's a sometime actor who turns this truly bizarre assignment into fodder for her actor's studio and perpetual auditioning for her local community theater production. Other people show up (the cast also includes Cliff Chamberlain and Jordan Arredondo), but the less you know about them in advance, the better. Both Morton and Smallwood are superb here, not least because they are two Chicago actors of different generations who share an obsessive interest in finding the humanity in unusual people and then listening not just to what their character is saying to them, but also to others with whom they share the stage. They're both a real pleasure to watch. I think the play's symbols and metaphors get a bit too dense and oblique in places and this is one of those shows (it recalls the work of Noah Haidle) where you need a lot of patience before it becomes clear what the playwright wants to achieve. It's the kind of show that actors easily understand, being so suffused with the iconography of the theater, but it occasionally crosses the line of self-indulgence; I suspect some subset of the Steppenwolf audience might be a bit too baffled to care. Although sometimes moving, director Audrey Francis' production could have used some sharper edges and more of a forward thrust, especially in the studio scenes. But if you hang in there for just 85 minutes, not only are there twin beautifully crafted performances for you to enjoy but the surprise-filled last few minutes really pays off, not just in the writing but in set designer Andrew Boyce's visual landscape Certainly, you'll leave the theater thinking about what Diaz clearly wants his audience to think about. More specifically, it's hard not to watch this show and think not just about sickness but about how it is described and communicated. By a society at large. By oneself. After all, most of us won't be able to get home without having to tell someone where we are going. Perhaps the hardest cut of all. Chris Jones is a Tribune critic. cjones5@ Review: 'You Will Get Sick' (3.5 stars) When: Through July 20 Where: Steppenwolf Theatre, 1650 N. Halsted St. Running time: 1 hour, 25 minutes Tickets: $20-$136.50 at 312-335-1650 and
USA Today
07-06-2025
- Sport
- USA Today
Nebraska hosted 7 on 7 tournament praised by players and coaches
Nebraska hosted 7 on 7 tournament praised by players and coaches Nebraska Football hosted the Battle of the Boneyard 7 on 7 tournament on Friday, and it is proving to be a success. Multiple 7 on 7 coaches have confirmed that other events have already reached out to learn how Nebraska is running the weekend. This was reported by Tim Verghese on Friday. Verghese also noted that this is the first-ever sponsored brand tournament on the Nebraska campus. The tournament itself was sponsored by Adidas. Class of 2027 Nebraska football quarterback commit Trae Taylor elected to be part of this, playing on the Miami Raw team. He had a productive day on Friday and was able to connect with fellow 2027 recruit Ahmad Hudson for multiple touchdowns. Hudson is the top tight end in the 2027 class per Rivals rankings. Several prominent figures in the NFL circle showed up as well. Former Carolina Panthers and New England Patriots quarterback Cam Newton came to Lincoln, as his 7 on 7 team, C1N was present. Former Nebraska football running back Ameer Abdullah also made an appearance on Friday. All in all, this appears to be another successful venture organized by the football program and athletic department. There should be a ton of news to come out of this weekend. Contact/Follow us @CornhuskersWire on X (formerly Twitter), and like our page on Facebook to follow ongoing coverage of Nebraska news, notes, and opinions.
Indian Express
03-06-2025
- Politics
- Indian Express
At Harvard University, a reminder for America and the world: The truth is the best defence
In 2016, Oxford University Press chose 'post-truth' (based on popularity, in large part) as the word of the year: 'Relating to… circumstances in which… facts are less influential… than appeals to emotion and personal belief.' This was also the year Donald Trump was first elected President of the United States. Almost a decade later, (post-) truth featured heavily in physician and writer Abraham Verghese's commencement address at Harvard University: 'This is almost the reflex of so-called strong men: To attack the places where truth and reason prevail.' Since protests around the war in Gaza have intensified, more so after the start of Trump's second term, free speech and universities in the US have come under attack. The Trump administration has tried to clamp down on their functioning, including in matters of diversity, curricula, and hiring. It has blocked federal funding for Harvard and imposed restrictions on international students at the university. But even this, Verghese noted, is not a unique moment. In 1975, when Indira Gandhi imposed the Emergency and thousands of protesting students were arrested, 'citizens…expressed their outrage by voting; she was ousted'. Protest and a valiant defence of truth are the necessary pushbacks to assaults such as those evident in the current moment. The ban on international students' intake was blocked by a federal judge; protests have persisted, and as Megha Vemuri, class president, MIT, said in her speech just this week, 'we cannot let fear keep us' from doing what must be done. The US — on paper and in practice — has been the staunchest defender of free speech. It has taught generations of its young what it means to stand up for reason and justice, to hang in there till the difficult moment passes. Perhaps this is what matters even now: To not be cowed down and to stand up for what is right. As Verghese wrote in The Covenant of Water, 'In a time of deceit, telling the truth is a revolutionary act.'
Yahoo
01-06-2025
- General
- Yahoo
Harvard commencement speaker decries Trump administration's 'draconian government measures'
Stanford professor Abraham Verghese spoke out against the Trump administration's "cascade of draconian government measures" at Harvard Thursday as the White House continues to battle the elite university. The physician and novelist was Harvard's 2025 commencement speaker, where he also received an honorary degree from the university. During his address, Verghese acknowledged that he was speaking at an "unprecedented moment" in the school's history amid President Donald Trump's attempts to cut the school's federal funding and terminate its student visa program due to reports of rampant antisemitism on campus. "A cascade of draconian government measures has already led to so much uncertainty, so much pain and suffering in this country and across the globe, and more has been threatened," Verghese said. "The outrage you must feel, the outrage so many feel, must surely lead us to a new appreciation for the rule of law and due process, which 'til now we took for granted, because this is America." Harvard Graduate Criticizes University For Fighting Trump More Than Antisemitism Verghese added that he agreed to be the commencement speaker to promote the value of immigrants like himself as Trump cracks down on illegal immigration. Read On The Fox News App "What made me eventually say yes to President Garber had everything to do with where we all find ourselves in 2025, when legal immigrants and others who are lawfully in this country, including so many of your international students, worry about being wrongly detained and even deported," Verghese said. "When legal immigrants and others who are lawfully in this country worry about being wrongly detained and even deported, perhaps it's fitting that you hear from an immigrant like me." "Part of what makes America great, if I may use that phrase, is that it allows an immigrant like me to blossom here, just as generations of other immigrants and their children have flourished and contributed in every walk of life, working to keep America great." He later related his experiences caring for HIV patients in a small town in Tennessee at the height of the AIDS epidemic in the 1980s, saying the experience taught him that "love trumps all bigotry. Love trumps ideology." Verghese also celebrated the school pushing back against the Trump administration as an inspiration. Harvard Professor Urges University To Embrace Ideological Balance Amid Clash With Trump Admin "More people than you realize are grateful for Harvard for the example it has set," he said. "By your clarity in affirming and courageously defending the essential values of this university, and indeed of this nation." Verghese's speech came after Harvard President Alan Garber addressed conservative viewpoints being seen as unwelcome on campus. He called it a "problem" that needs to be solved. Fox News Digital reached out to Harvard for article source: Harvard commencement speaker decries Trump administration's 'draconian government measures'
