Mangaluru readies for New Year bash

Bengaluru, Mar 31: Persons under home quarantine are directed to send their selfies to the Karnataka government in every one hour, failing which they will be shifted to the state quarantine centres, said Medical Education Minister Dr K Sudhakar on Monday.

"All persons under home quarantine shall send their selfies to the government on a mobile application in every one hour. Failing to do so, teams will reach such defaulters and they will be liable to be shifted to quarantine centres made by the government," he said.

The home quarantine persons will be given an exception for taking selfies during the sleeping time from 10 pm to 7 am.

"There will be an exception in this order for sleeping time, from 10 pm to 7 am," he said.
The total number of COVID-19 cases in Karnataka climbed to 88 on Monday after five more persons tested positive for coronavirus.

Of the five, one is a close contact of an earlier confirmed patient and the others are workers of a pharmaceutical company in Mysuru, from where a person had tested positive, the state health department said.

The country is under a 21-day lockdown to prevent the spread of coronavirus, which according to the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare, has infected 1,251 people so far.

When the black and white photos of the ‘London to Calcutta (Kolkata) bus service’ went viral on social media recently, the response of some of the netizens was “stop spreading fake news!” But, it isn’t a fake news. The late 1950s indeed offered people a lavish bus trip from London to Kolkata. 

While one of the viral images shows passengers at the Victoria Coach Station, London, boarding 'Albert', the other image show the same bus travelling through a valley. In another image the bus is stationed at a tourist spot. All these photos were captured during the bus’ maiden international journey in 1957.  

An image of the bus ticket is also making rounds on social media, that shows the route of the bus — London, Belgium, West Germany, Austria,Yugoslavia, Bulgaria, Turkey, Iran, Afghanistan, West Pakistan, India. The route in India followed Delhi, Agra, Allahabad, Banaras and finally Calcutta.

The ticket shows that a one side travel cost 145 pounds (13,644 Rupees at the present day) back then, and it was inclusive of all the luxury provided during the run.

The luxurious bus provided the facilities of reading, individual sleeping bunks, radio/taped music for parties and pleasure and fan heaters, among other things. The brochure reads, "Your complete home while you travel."

Some of the tour highlights included Banaras on the Ganges, The Taj Mahal, The Raj Path, The Rhine Valley and The Peacock Throne. Passengers reportedly got free shopping days in New Delhi, Tehran, Salzburg, Kabul, Istanbul and Vienna.

Mangaluru, Apr 4: The chemistry department of National Institute of Technology-Karnataka (NIT-K) here has started producing hand sanitizers in view of its shortage in the market after the coronavirus outbreak.

The social initiative led by Arun Isloor, professor and head of the department, was launched by NIT-K director K Uma Maheshwar Rao.

The raw materials needed for this product were provided by the institute.