Google honours Kamala Surayya with a doodle

coastaldigest.com news network
February 1, 2018

Google on February 1 paid a meaningful tribute to popular Malayalam and English writer and poetess Kamala Das aka Kamala Surayya with a colorful doodle to mark the date of publication of her autobiography, My Story (Ente Katha).

Kamala Surayya was one of the many voices that began featuring in cult anthologies in the 1960s when art in Calcutta was undergoing a tumultuous time.

Kamala Surayya was born in Punnayurkulam, Thrissur District in Kerala, on 31 March 1934, to the former managing editor of Mathrubhoomi VM Nair and Nalapat Balamani Amma, a renowned Malayali poet. She spent her childhood in Calcutta, where her father was employed with Walford Transport Company, and at the Nalapat ancestral home in Punnayurkulam.

She took to writing like her mother. Her great uncle Nalapat Narayana Menon, also a prominent writer, was a big influence in her life. She fell in love with poetry from an early age.

At the age of 15 she was married to Madhava Das, a banker by profession. He encouraged her to write, and she started publishing her works both in English and Malayalam.

On February 1, 1976, Kamala Surayya released her autobiography, "My Story". Her life and work had a certain boldness and shape-shifting quality, whether it was the many genres she wrote in or the various languages in which she expressed herself.

She lived her life fearlessly resisting the labels of a "feminist". She wrote under various pseudonyms. When she began publishing, she used the pseudonym Madhavikutty; Ami was her pet name; and Suraiyya, the name she gave herself upon converting to Islam.

Her autobiography captures her life from childhood to marriage and beyond, describing the rich inner world of a creative soul. She began writing this book in English but soon started translating it to Malayalam as she wrote along. Her relatives, among others, tried to block her autobiography from being published and released; but many others were left spellbound by her honesty and the way she expressed herself through words.

Through every upheaval in her life, Kamala Surayya never gave up on writing poetry and prose. Her unflinching and passionate approach touched many lives even after her death in 2009.

She embraced Islam at the age of 65. Her religious conversion and interviews favouring the purdah came as a surprise to many.

She is a recipient of the Sahitya Akademi award and many literary awards such as the Asian World Prize, Kent Award, and Ezhuthachan Puraskaram.

Her biopic is being filmed in Malayalam as Aami a name given to her by her fans, with actress Manju Warrier essaying the role of Kamala Surayya.

Comments

Add new comment

  • Coastaldigest.com reserves the right to delete or block any comments.
  • Coastaldigset.com is not responsible for its readers’ comments.
  • Comments that are abusive, incendiary or irrelevant are strictly prohibited.
  • Please use a genuine email ID and provide your name to avoid reject.
News Network
February 28,2020

The Karnataka BJP, which faced action on Twitter earlier this month over incendiary tweets, this time has passed the blame of Sangh Parivar sponsored Delhi violence to the victims.

In an insensitive tweet on Friday, it dubbed the protests against the notorious Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA) as "fake" and added that the violence that followed was "the most well-planned assault on the Idea of India," in an apparent attempt to portray the victims as villains.

The handle, notorious for tweets targeting Muslims, blamed the clashes that erupted in Delhi between people demonstrating for and against the CAA on "so called 'Peacefuls'" - a known right-wing slur for Muslims.

Many people on social media called out the tweet for misleading people and covering up the role of Delhi BJP leader Kapil Mishra's provocative speech for triggering the violence or the failure of the Delhi Police, which reports to the former BJP chief and Union Home Minister Amit Shah, in controlling the riots.

Earlier this month, the Karnataka BJP had tweeted a video of Muslim women standing in queue to vote in the Delhi elections, showing their voter ID cards, with the snarky caption: "Keep the documents safe, you will need to show them again during NPR (National Population Register) exercise."

Soon after, the party unit's Twitter handle was blocked by the social media platform for 24 hours after many accused it of encouraging Islamophobia.

NPR has been widely criticised by opposition parties as a precursor to the government's planned NRC or National Register of Citizens which intends to make Indians prove their citizenship with documents that many poor or illiterate do not possess.

Many fear that combined with the already imposed CAA - which promises citizenship to only non-Muslim refugees from Pakistan, Afghanistan and Bangladesh - the NRC can be used to make millions of Muslims stateless.

The government has denied the allegation and said the CAA only intends to help those who have faced religious persecution. In recent weeks, it has gone back on its rhetoric on the NRC which was announced by Amit Shah in parliament as "it will certainly happen".

The CAA, which was cleared by parliament in December, has triggered deadly protests in the country which left at least 25 dead till Sunday. Since then, at least 42 more people have been killed as large-scale violence erupted in northeast Delhi and hundreds of homes and shops have been burned to the ground.

Comments

Add new comment

  • Coastaldigest.com reserves the right to delete or block any comments.
  • Coastaldigset.com is not responsible for its readers’ comments.
  • Comments that are abusive, incendiary or irrelevant are strictly prohibited.
  • Please use a genuine email ID and provide your name to avoid reject.
News Network
April 20,2020

Bengaluru, Apr 20: A ruckus erupted in Padarayanapura on Sunday allegedly over shifting of suspected COVID-19 persons to quarantine facility by the Bruhat Bengaluru Mahanagara Palike (BBMP) officials.

The incident occurred in the late evening at Padarayanapura which is recognized as a 'Red Zone' when BBMP officials went to bring 15 secondary contacts of corona positive patients.

However, some people and youth created ruckus and broke the barricade and removed police post which was stalled in the area.

Soon after receiving the information, Bengaluru South Deputy Commissioner of Police reached the spot and brought the situation under control.

"Lockdown continues, please remain indoors.Tomorrow will be as it was till today. We Understand your situation and appreciate your cooperation," tweeted Commissioner of Police, Bengaluru City, Bhaskar Rao.

In Karnataka, 384 people have detected positive for COVID-19, of which 14 people have succumbed to the infection, as per the Union Health Ministry.

Comments

Add new comment

  • Coastaldigest.com reserves the right to delete or block any comments.
  • Coastaldigset.com is not responsible for its readers’ comments.
  • Comments that are abusive, incendiary or irrelevant are strictly prohibited.
  • Please use a genuine email ID and provide your name to avoid reject.
News Network
February 2,2020

Bengaluru, Feb 2: A woman from Bengaluru lost Rs 2.8 lakh to a 'foreign friend' who promised her gifts, including gold jewellery and foreign currency.

Priya, 37, of Banashankari III Stage, told police a man named Bright Wills from England befriended her on social media in December 2019.

On December 20, Wills said he would send gold ornaments and some British pounds as gifts to celebrate their friendship and took her postal address.

“A woman claiming to be an official from the customs office, Delhi, called me on December 21. She told me there was a courier from England in my name and I should pay Rs 75,000 tow ards customs clearance. I believed her and transferred Rs 75,000 to a bank account number provided by her. On December 23, another woman called and said gold ornaments had been sent to me by courier and I had to pay Rs 2.1 lakh towards the paperwork. I transferred the money to another account number mentioned by her," Priya told police.

"On December 25, I received an email which said I should make a surety deposit of Rs 4.3 lakh within 48 hours or else the courier would be sent back to its original destination. I realised I had been cheated by Wills and others. Till now, I have paid Rs 2.8 lakh to them," she claimed.

Comments

Add new comment

  • Coastaldigest.com reserves the right to delete or block any comments.
  • Coastaldigset.com is not responsible for its readers’ comments.
  • Comments that are abusive, incendiary or irrelevant are strictly prohibited.
  • Please use a genuine email ID and provide your name to avoid reject.