Newsgraph Online

  Karnataka's physically challenged snake man shows no fear in duty The ease with which Girish M performs his task belies the fact that his movement is constrained, and he needs his crutches. Published:  16th May 2021 05:39 AM   |   Last Updated:  16th May 2021 12:30 PM By  Ajith MS MYSURU: Pushed out of home by a serpent slithering in their living room, a family on the outskirts of Mysuru city waits in trepidation, until Girish M rides up on his specially-designed scooter for the physically challenged. Girish darts into the house with his crutches, and in no time, lures out the snake from under a cot in the living room. Swiftly, he plucks the hissing reptile and stuffs it into a bag, ready to be released into the wild.  The ease with which Girish performs his task belies the fact that his movement is constrained, and he needs his crutches. In a world where society willy-nilly pushes the physically challenged to the fringes and pre-judge...

  Returning favour: Doctor volunteers free of cost at Mysuru Covid hospital which saved his mother When words come up short to express gratitude to health workers, who are involved in saving thousands of lives amid the pandemic, actions speak. Published:  13th May 2021 06:04 AM   |   Last Updated:  13th May 2021 08:45 AM By  Ajith MS MYSURU: When words come up short to express gratitude to health workers, who are involved in saving thousands of lives amid the pandemic, actions speak.A young doctor, who flew down from Chandigarh, has now volunteered to work for free at the Mysuru district Covid-19 hospital where his mother, who was in a very critical state, was saved.  Dr Harsha, who hails from a family of agriculturists in Mandya district, is pursuing his doctor of medicine (MD) in Radiodiagnosis at the prestigious PGIMER, Chandigarh.The gesture has come in for much praise at a time when hospitals, especially governme...

  Defence Food Research Laboratory develops patented technology for waste management on Gaganyaan By Ajith M S MYSURU:  As the country waits for its first manned space mission, Gaganyaan, slated for 2022, and our Gaganauts expected to carry aloo parathas and idlis as their food, scientists have developed an indigenous, or an  atmanirbhar  solution to tackle food waste issue in the space. The Defence Food Research Laboratory (DFRL) here has come out with a patented food-waste pouch system for the mission that would restrict the growth of microbes and prevent food from getting spoilt. Recently, DFRL had announced it has made Indian foods suitable for space travel, and had released a menu of 30 Indian dishes, including idlis, veg pulav, moong dal halwa, dal, aloo parathas and chicken curry. The food will be put into specially designed desiccated packages and can be eaten after filling the packets with water. But tackling leftovers and food waste was one of the concerns ...

  Target for ASHA workers in Mysuru district: Get 10 seniors for COVID-19 vaccination The move comes at a time when the third phase of vaccination is yet to pick up, especially among senior citizens in villages and hinterlands. By  Ajith MS Express News Service MYSURU: Targets and deadlines are common in the private sector. But now, authorities, in a desperate move to push the vaccination figures, have set a target for ASHA workers, bill collectors, watermen from rural areas and gram sevaks to bring at least 10 senior citizens or those aged above 45 years, with comorbidities, for vaccination by month-end in the district. The staff has been told that their performances will be monitored regularly by superiors. The move comes at a time when the third phase of vaccination is yet to pick up, especially among senior citizens in villages and hinterlands, despite the induction of primary health centres along with taluk hospitals as vaccination centres with walk-in facility to ge...

  Tigers fed chicken instead of beef due to ban in Mysuru Zoo; tigers turn lazy Carnivores are the most active and ferocious creatures, but at the Mysuru zoo, they have turned lazy and inactive because of the recent change in their diet to only chicken. By  Ajith MS Express News Service MYSURU: Carnivores are the most active and ferocious creatures, but at the Mysuru zoo, they have turned lazy and inactive because of the recent change in their diet to only chicken.All zoos under the Karnataka Zoo Authority (KZA), including the famous Mysuru zoo, switched to chicken by January-end as the State Government had pushed beef ban through an ordinance. Karnataka has the highest number of zoos in the country and the Mysuru zoo has a host of carnivores, including exotic cats like cheetahs, white tigers, jaguars along with over a dozen Royal Bengal tigers, two dozen leopards as well as wolves and foxes. Before switching over chicken, the zoo used to procure 350 kg of beef a day...

  NGO Hasiru Dala takes books to ragpickers' kids in Mysuru, hopes to reduce dropouts To children of ragpickers in Mysuru city, Chaitra’s two-wheeler signalled that the magical world of books had arrived, and was of great help even during the lockdown. By  Ajith MS Express News Service MYSURU: To children of ragpickers in Mysuru city, Chaitra’s two-wheeler signalled that the magical world of books had arrived, and was of great help even during the lockdown. Chaitra is a coordinator, along with Mangala and Harish of the Buguri initiative of Hasiru Dala, an NGO engaged with over 200 children of ragpickers in the city. The initiative aims to prevent children from dropping out of school. At a time when there is deep concern over dropouts, and the government now allowing partial reopening of schools, this initiative has shown how to keep students engaged, despite the limitations imposed by the pandemic. The library on wheels gives neighbourhood kids books to read, which they c...

  COVID-19 effect: Bengaluru's IT/ITeS firms eye office space in Mysuru to trim costs With a readily available talent pool, many firms are on the lookout for office spaces in the city and some have moved operations. By  Ajith MS Express News Service MYSURU: The COVID-19 pandemic seems to have managed to achieve, albeit for starters, what the government has been pushing for all along — tech companies moving to tier-2 cities. With IT majors embracing the Work-From-Home culture and no signs of employees getting back to offices in the foreseeable future, many companies, specially those engaged in back-end operations, are looking at setting up shop in the heritage city. With a readily available talent pool, many firms are on the lookout for office spaces in the city and some have moved operations. More importantly, they can save big on operating costs, especially property rents. A majority of them are units with 50 to 100 employees, but sources also say that some big names in the B...

What is your idea about a horror movie with a creature in it? Well, it should have innumerable chase sequences with gory action from the creature, more lines of screams than the dialogues are a must and also ritually, it should also feature horrified humans struggling to overpower the being right. Much Like what we saw in “The Thing “or even the recent “Maze Runner”. But this is not true in the case of “Possession”, where the creature is the least horrid part of it. Yet it sutures terror, realistically into the viewer’s eyes even after the movie. Possession, the 1981 horror movie by Andrzej Zulawski reels through the life of Anna (Isabelle Adjani) who asks her husband Mark (Sam Neill) for a divorce without any reason. After a series of altercations, Anna starts to behave strangely and leaves home, an amused Mark initially discovers Heinrich (Heinz Bennent) as Anna’s lover. Mark then goes to meet Heinrich only to discover the fact that Anna does not go there too. He then devi...

The year was 2009, and my brother like every techie was hunting for a car, not just any car, one with a dickie specifically. For Indians, dickie or the boot is not just another colonial vocabulary hangover, it is rather a symbol of status. And this demand was addressed at the best format by none other than Maruti, with their Swift Dzire, the re-booted version of their most popular hatch, Swift. But, Dzire never came out of its maiden name, for people it was still “Swift with a boot”, however, it did manage to sell very well in the market. And after years of its launch, Maruti has finally tried a hand at separating Swift from Dzire, literally. The new Dzire is marketed without the name of its hatchback version and has undergone a massive shapeshift inside out. The new version has undergone a positive transformation from the glued boot car into a proper sedan. With curvy body lines and a snappy front grille, the car stands out from its competitors. The front grille is closer...

“Taxation is theft!” said Murray Rothbard a twentieth-century libertarian, but the twenty-first century India is celebrating the launch of a new national tax regime, Goods and Services Tax, abbreviated as GST. The launch is organized in an extravagant manner with a midnight launch resembling the announcement of Independence for India. The resemblances are very striking, we have the confused citizens across the nation and a clueless administration.                 “ I do not own a computer and at this age, it is not possible for me to even learn it. Even if I buy one I will not be able to afford a staff to operate it.” Says Ramdev, a cloth merchant from his hundred square feet shop in Maruthi Seva Nagar.” They are saying that it is mandatory to have a computer with internet to do the billing, what will I do? ” Retailers like Ramdev are the worst hit and they say that the implementation was in such a short ...