Veteran actor and playwright, Girish Karnad Dies At 81

News Network
June 10, 2019

Bengaluru, Jun 10: Jnanpith award winning playwright, actor and director Girish Karnad died at his residence in Bengaluru early Monday morning, aged 81.

Karnad was a prominent playwright for four decades, often using history and mythology to tackle contemporary issues. His plays have been translated into English and several Indian languages and directed by directors like Ebrahim Alkazi, BV Karanth, Alyque Padamsee, Prasanna, Arvind Gaur, Satyadev Dubey, Vijaya Mehta, Shyamanand Jalan, Amal Allana and Zafer Mohiuddin.

He was conferred the Padma Shri and Padma Bhushan by the Government of India and has won four Filmfare Awards, of which three are Filmfare Award for Best Director – Kannada and the fourth a Filmfare Best Screenplay Award.

Karnad was born Girish Raghunath Karnad in Matheran, in present-day Maharashtra, in 1938. After working at the Oxford University Press, Kolkata, he decided to become a full-time writer.

Karnad made his acting as well as screenwriting debut in the Kannada movie, Samskara (1970), based on a novel by UR Ananthamurthy and directed by Pattabhirama Reddy. The film won the President’s Golden Lotus Award for Kannada cinema.

In television, he played the role of Swami’s father in the TV series Malgudi Days (1986–1987), based on RK Narayan’s books. He also hosted the science magazine Turning Point on Doordarshan, in the early 1990s.

He made his directorial debut with Vamsha Vriksha (1971), based on a Kannada novel by SL Bhyrappa. It won him National Film Award for Best Direction along with BV Karanth, who co-directed the film. Later, Karnad directed several movies in Kannada and Hindi, including Godhuli (1977) and Utsav (1984).

He has several documentaries, on the Kannada poet DR Bendre (1972), Kanaka-Purandara (English, 1988) on two medieval Bhakti poets of Karnataka, Kanaka Dasa and Purandara Dasa, and The Lamp in the Niche (English, 1989) on Sufism and the Bhakti movement.

He served as director of the Film and Television Institute of India (1974–1975) and chairman of the Sangeet Natak Akademi, the National Academy of the Performing Arts (1988–93).

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News Network
March 31,2020

Bengaluru, Mar 31: Venkara Raghava, a software engineer from Bengaluru, who was infected with the coronavirus has recovered and is currently "doing perfectly well".

"I am doing perfectly well now. I had travelled to Los Angeles via Heathrow airport and that is when I came in contact with many travellers. I might have picked up the infection there," Raghava told news agency.

It was in Los Angeles when he started getting a 'low-grade fever' which led him to prepone his flight to Bengaluru. "When I landed back in Bengaluru on March 8, I had a fever and I isolated myself. The same day I went to a hospital where my travel history was taken and I tested positive for COVID-19", he said.

The next day, he was admitted to the isolation centre. His entire family was also tested but the results came back negative.

When asked about what does suffering from COVID-19 feel like, he responded that it was a like a regular viral fever and was "nothing to be scared of". "The fever is very grinding, and since my childhood, I never had a fever. I had a fever for almost 15 days consistently 100 degrees (F)," he said.

About his experience at the isolation centre, he said that it was an experience unlike that of a hospital. "At the isolation centre, one has to take care of themselves, unlike a hospital where doctors and nurses take care of the patient. I had to put a wet cloth on myself and you cannot overdose yourself with Calpol or Paracetamol," he said.

For him, "The tough times are now over" and now he has fully recovered but in the process, he ended up losing about five kilograms. "After the fifteenth day when I woke up with no fever, they took a test for the nose and the throat and it came back negative," he recalled, and on March 22, he was set free.

For one week, he has been in self-quarantine at home "being completely watchful" that the symptoms do not reoccur.

The number of total coronavirus cases reached 1,251 on Monday. There are 1117 active cases in the country, according to the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare.

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coastaldigest.com news network
June 20,2020

Mangaluru, June 20: A teenage boy lost his life after accidentally drowning in Netravati River at Boliyar village on the outskirts of the city yesterday.

The deceased has been identified as Mohammed Fazil (15), a resident of Nadupadavu village near Konaje. 

According to his family sources, Fazil had been to work in a horticultural land along with his friends on Saturday afternoon. 

On his way back he went to the river to wash his hands and legs. However, he lost his balance in the river and drowned, police sources said.

His body was retrieved at 2 p.m. A case was registered at jurisdictional Konaje police station.

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coastaldigest.com news network
July 8,2020

Mangaluru, Jul 8: A corporator and a staff in Mangaluru City Corporation (MCC) have tested positive for the coronavirus. 

The woman corporator, who was under home quarantine for past few days ago, received her covid test report today. 

A staff of health department who works in MCC also tested positive for the covid-19. 

The woman corporator had recently attended a primary health centre meeting. A person who had attended the meeting was later tested positive. Hence the corporator was placed under home quarantine.

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