Women’s satyagrah, human chain mark Martyrs’ Day in Mangaluru

Thiruvananthapuram, Dec 4: Depressed over the communal and racist policies of union government, a 67-year-old retired school headmaster committed suicide allegedly after losing matriculation certificates and documents related to his father.

The victim was identified as Mohammed Ali a resident of Narikunni in Kozhikode district in north Kerala.

On finding Ali missing from home on Friday morning, his family members conducted a search in the nearby areas. His body was later found in a well located in one of his relative’s compound nearby.

A suicide note recovered, suspected to have been written by the victim read, “I have lost all my important certificates. Matriculation certificates of me and my wife. Old documents of my father are also missing. I think all these documents were given away along with the waste recently. None should be held responsible for my foolish act. You may get into trouble.”

According to relatives, Ali was under severe stress after regularly watching programmes related to CAA. He was also actively involved in anti CAA campaign.

“He was worried about the documents and had serious apprehensions about future,” said his younger brother Abdul Nasser.

“After attending an anti CAA meeting in Kozhikode he had shared his apprehensions. He used to frequently discuss the topic with others ,” recollected Jaffer a local resident.

Ali also had health complications. Meanwhile, the local police said that preliminary investigations suggested that the man could have taken the extreme step after losing documents. However, the reason behind the suicide could be said conclusively after detailed probe.

The Post Graduate Department of English, St. Agnes College (Autonomous) organized COSMOPOETICA – a Two-Day International Poets Conference, transcending the boundaries of language and bringing together scholars from English, Hindi and Kannada languages. The key-note speaker was Dr Hima Urmila Shetty and the Panel of Experts included Maggie Harris, a Commonwealth short stories award winning poet of Broadstairs, Kent; Dr Kathryn Hummel, a visiting professor at IIT Hyderabad; Prof Raj Rao, acclaimed poet and novelist, former HOD of English, Savithribai Phule University; Lata Chouhan from Bangalore; Vijay Tiwari from Ahmedabad; Dr. Nagaveni Manchi, an acclaimed Poet and Professor, Govt College, Carstreet and Ms. Chandrakala Nandavara, former Principal of Ganapati PU College.

Dr Sr Jeswina A.C., the Principal; Dr Sr Maria Roopa A.C. the Superior and Dr Sr Vinora A.C., graced the occasion.

Dr Geralyn Pinto, the Staff Convenor; Dr Malini Hebbar, the HOD and Ananya Sneha the student Convenor organised the Conference.

The highlight of the Conference was the Poetry Workshop, Slam Poetry Competition in three languages and paper presentations on various aspects of poetry.

Overall the conference drew together poets and academicians to discuss poetry as a genre and practice with ignited minds.

Bengaluru, Apr 27: As many as 345 Bengaluru-based journalists tested negative for coronavirus on Monday after undergoing a medical check-up got up for them at a hospital here, a top official said.

They had undergone the tests at the Sir C V Raman General Hospital here on April 25 and the results came out negative on Monday. They were among a total of 1,170 journalists who took the tests at the four-day medical check-up camp at the Hospital here from April 23.

"The medical check-up was done in four slots at the Hospital here from Thursday and concluded on Monday. A total of 1,170 journalists undertook the tests, 480 of them on Monday alone, the joint director of the Department of Information and Public Relation D P Muralidhar said.

The test reports of the 480 journalists may come out on Wednesday, he said. Only one journalist tested positive so far and has been admitted to the designated COVID-19 hospital, he said, adding 36 of his primary and secondary contacts have been quarantined.