Silent Valley among Kerala’s 7 wonders

The evergreen forests of Silent valley, Sreepadmanabha Swamy temple in the capital and the Jewish Synagogue at Kochi are among the seven wonders of Kerala chosen by viewers of a television channel through SMS and on-line votes.

The seven wonders were announced at a function here, attended by Chief Minister V S Achuthanandan, Home and Tourism Minister Kodiyeri Balakrishnan, Culture Minister M A Baby, noted film director Adoor Gopalakrishnan and magician Gopinath Muthukkad.

The other four wonders selected by viewers are the Periyar Wildlife sanctuary, Alappuzha, Kumarakom backwaters and snake temple at Mannarasala near Haripad in Alappuzha district.

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Septuagenarian Malayali actor Thilakan is elated with his performance in his latest release “Orkuka Vallapozhum”, which he called among one of the very few roles that he had “really enjoyed”. “I have been in the Malayalam film industry since 1973 and I have done several roles and the role of Sethumadavan in this film would rate among one of the very few roles that I have really enjoyed,” said 72-year-old Thilakan while talking to mediapersons here Sunday.

“This may not be an out and out commercial film, but this is a film which will certainly stand out,” Thilakan said. Directed by debutant Sohanlal, “Orkuka Vallapozhum” tells the story of 75-year-old Sethumadavan. The story is told in three parts as Sethumadavan traces his childhood, youth and old age. The film also marks the arrival of two young singers – Rajalekshmi and Anand.

“I am really grateful to music director Jayachandran who was willing to try out new singers and that is how I got an opportunity to sing in this film,” Rajalekshmi said.

After a wait for several years and hundreds of petitions from the local public and sports lovers, the first step for Alappuzha to have a stadium of its own will be taken by the end of this month. Alappuzha, said to be the only district in the State which does not have a stadium of its own, had got the State government’s nod for a stadium in 2004. But labour issues, land acquisition controversies and various other obstacles cropped up and the stadium remained on paper even after the government handed over a cheque of Rs.1 crore to the Alappuzha municipality in June last year.

Now, with the State government giving its nod for tenders to be called at an excess of 35 per cent as against the original estimate of Rs.7.23 crore for the first phase of construction, work is all set to begin in the last week of January, according to municipal chairman P.P. Chitharanjan.

Holography scientist P. T. Ajith Kumar has been elected president of the Asian Anti-Counterfeit Association (AAA) – India Chapter. Dr. Ajith Kumar, chief executive officer of Thiruvananthapuram-based Lights Logics Holography and Optics Private Limited, was elected to the post at the annual general body meeting of the Association held at Hanoi, Vietnam.

Dr. Ajith Kumar was head of the Holography and Optical Image Processing Division of the Centre for Development of Imaging Technology (C-DIT) here and had designed the holographic new generation certificates of most of the universities in Kerala and several high security holograms and security documents widely used in Kerala, including the holographic high security tax stamp for the Kerala State Beverages Corporation (KSBC). He was serving as the Director (Technical) of AAA, which is the most active Asian forum against counterfeiting and forgery and promotes use of scientific and technological developments in personnel and product authentication.

Over 100 children from Padiyur and nearby areas here were admitted to various hospitals here on Monday after they showed symptoms of food poisoning. The number of children, mostly in the 7-9 age group, being admitted to the hospitals including the Government Hospital here kept rising as more children with the symptoms of food poisoning were brought here for treatment. Health officials here said that the children admitted with the symptoms were in stable condition. The officials were also directed to conduct an inquiry into the cause of the food poisoning.

As many as 93 children have been admitted to the Government Hospital here, while 13 are being treated in a hospital at Iritty. Three children with the symptoms have been undergoing treatment at the AKG Hospital. Nearly 20 children who developed similar symptoms were being taken to the Pariyaram Medical College. All the children who were taken ill had gone with their parents and relatives to attend the Muchilot Bhagavathi Temple festival at Padiyur, near Iritty, on Sunday night. The officials said that the food poisoning could have been caused by ice-cream sold by roadside vendors that the children had consumed.