Eight States Showing Rising Trajectory in Covid-19 Cases: Health Ministry

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A rising trajectory of daily new cases is visible in eight states and UTs, including Delhi and Maharashtra, while Kerala is showing a declining trend, the Health Ministry said on Saturday. The ministry said Maharashtra, Kerala and Punjab cumulatively account for 76.22 per cent of India’s total active caseload, with Maharashtra contributing to 62 per cent of such cases, while Kerala and Punjab account for 8.83 per cent and 5.36 per cent of active cases respectively.

The top five districts in Maharashtra recording the highest number of cases are Pune (37,384), Nagpur (25,861), Mumbai (18,850), Thane (16,735) and Nashik (11,867). The top five districts in Kerala recording the highest number of cases are Ernakulam (2,673), Pathanamthitta (2,482), Kannur (2,263), Palakkad (2,147) and Thrissur (2,065).

The top five districts in Punjab recording the highest number of cases are Jalandhar (2,131), SAS Nagar (1,868), Patiala (1,685), Ludhiana (1,643) and Hoshiarpur (1,572). “A rising trajectory of daily new cases is visible in eight states. These are Maharashtra, Tamil Nadu, Punjab, Madhya Pradesh, Delhi, Gujarat, Karnataka and Haryana. Kerala is showing a consistently declining trend,” the ministry said in a statement.

The ministry further said that five states account for 81.38 per cent of the new deaths. Maharashtra saw the maximum casualties at 70, Punjab followed with 38 daily deaths and Kerala reported 17 deaths in the last 24 hours. Meanwhile, fifteen states and UTs have not reported any COVID-19 deaths in the last 24 hours. These are Assam, Uttarakhand, Odisha, Puducherry, Lakshadweep, Sikkim, Ladakh, Manipur, Dadra and Nagar Haveli and Daman and Diu, Meghalaya, Mizoram, Nagaland, Tripura, Andaman and Nicobar Islands and Arunachal Pradesh.

The ministry further said India has scaled a significant peak in its battle against COVID-19 pandemic. The total vaccination coverage has surpassed 4 crore. “About 4,20,63,392 vaccine doses have been administered through 6,86,469 sessions, as per the provisional report till 7 am today. These include 77,06,839 healthcare workers (HCWs) (first dose), 48,04,285 HCWs (second dose), 79,57,606 frontline workers (FLWs)(first dose) and 24,17,077 FLWs (second dose), 32,23,612 beneficiaries aged more than 45 years with specific co-morbidities (first dose) and 1,59,53,973 beneficiaries aged more than 60 years,” it said.

As on day 63 of the vaccination drive (March 19), 27,23,575 vaccine doses were given. Eighty per cent of the 27.23 lakh vaccine doses administered in the last 24 hours are from 10 states. Of the total, 24,15,800 beneficiaries were vaccinated across 38,989 sessions for first dose (HCWs and FLWs) and 3,07,775 HCWs and FLWs received second dose of vaccine.

The ministry said eight states account for 60 per cent of the cumulative vaccine doses given so far. They are Kerala, Karnataka, Odisha, Bihar, Madhya Pradesh, West Bengal, Maharashtra, Gujarat, Rajasthan and Uttar Pradesh.

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As tourism opens up, a woman undertakes a car journey across India to encourage people to return to travel

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Mitra Satheesh, a 40-year-old mother of two, is on Oru Desi Drive, a car journey across India.

“After seeing the disastrous impact of the pandemic on the tourism industry, I felt that as a responsible traveller, I must travel to encourage confidence among fellow travellers and people at large,” says Mira Satheesh, Assistant Professor at the Government Ayurveda College, Tripunithura in Kochi who is on, Oru Desi Drive, a car journey across India

As tourism opens up, a woman undertakes a car journey across India to encourage people to return to travel

Mitra, a 40-year-old mother of two, is accompanied by her 11-year-old son Narayan. She set off on the adventure on March 17 in her Maruti S Cross.

Since 2019, Mitra has undertaken solo trips to Bhutan, Nagaland, Manipur and Punjab.

After travel restrictions imposed due to the lockdown were lifted, she drove to Hampi in September 2020, followed by a trip to the Nilgiris in November and a nine-day tour of Karnataka in December.

Mitra’s travels are not just about sightseeing. She loves to explore rare historical monuments, cultures and crafts.

As tourism opens up, a woman undertakes a car journey across India to encourage people to return to travel

Some of the pit stops on her current journey include researching mat weaving in Pattamadai, a village in the Tirunelveli district of Tamil Nadu; the forgotten Cheriyal scroll paintings of Hyderabad in Telangana; exploring the tribal villages of Bastar, Koraput, and Jhabua in Madhya Pradesh; an Aryan village in Leh; terracotta temples of Bishnupur and terracotta mosques of Malda in West Bengal; and meeting the Rabha-Bodo tribals of Assam.

As a health worker, she worked at the Corona Frontline Treatment Centres (CFLTC) and has received the COVID-19 vaccinations.

“Travel is safe if the health protocols are followed,” she says, encouraging women to discover their strengths through travel.

Incredible India has offered support to her unique venture and her biggest cheerleaders are her fellow travellers with whom she will be connected as she gets on the road again.

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When professionals don politician’s garb

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Quite a few doctors, engineers and businessmen are fighting this Assembly elections

Leaving behind their cosy offices, a few candidates are sweating it out on the street canvassing votes and patiently listening to the needs and demands of their voters.

Putting on hold their career as doctor, engineer and businessman, a few professionals have taken the political plunge in the State. They wave at the voters, seek votes with folded hands and make short speeches at corner meetings. Life has been never been this hectic for these professionals.

S.S. Lal, a public health expert, and J. Jacob, an orthopaedic surgeon, took the Hippocratic Oath to treat the sick to the best of their abilities decades ago. These days, the two are slogging it out to win votes.

Dr. Lal, who is the United Democratic Front candidate in Kazhakuttam, will take on Kadakampally Surendran of the Left Democratic Front and Shobha Surendran of the National Democratic Alliance.

Dr. Jacob is seeking the popular mandate from the Thrikkakara constituency of Ernakulam district as an LDF-backed Independent candidate. Congress strongman P.T. Thomas and S. Saji of the BJP are his rivals.

Taking the plunge

After his career with the Delhi Metro Rail Corporation, E. Sreedharan took the plunge and the BJP was quick to field him from Palakkad. It is to be seen whether Mr. Sreedharan who lead teams of engineers and technical experts in building bridges and rail networks would be able to make inroads in politics. Shafi Parambil of the UDF and C.P. Pramod of the LDF are his political rivals.

All through his professional life as a police officer, Jacob Thomas had courted controversy. His service story ‘Sravukalkkoppam Neenthumpol’ had ruffled many feathers. He was suspended from service for his open criticism of the State government. Though it was expected that he would contest the 2019 Parliament election, his political debut came two years later.

Mr. Thomas, who had made his appreciation for the Rastriya Swayamsevak Sangh as a “nation builder” known, is the NDA candidate in Irinjalakuda. R. Bindu of the LDF and Thomas Unniyadan of the UDF are the other key contestants.

New role

These days, S. Rajasekharan Nair speaks to the voters of Neyyattinkara not on his favourite topic, the hospitality sector, but about the need to work together for the State.

In his new found role as NDA candidate from the constituency, Mr. Nair is keen to let others know about his plans for the constituency. S. Selvaraj of the UDF and K. Ansalan of the LDF are other key contestants.

Designing houses, offices and other structures has been her passion. When the LDF approached her with the offer to be the architect of its political campaign in Aluva, Shelna Nishad happily accepted the new assignment.

An architecture graduate, Ms. Nishad has set up her office in Ernakulam and was part of the designing team of the Kochi metro. Anwar Sadath of the UDF and M.N. Gopi of the BJP are her political rivals in the constituency.

Twenty20, a non-political outfit, has also fielded quite a few professionals.

It is to be seen whether the voters would give these professionals a chance to redefine the political narrative of their respective constituencies. One needs to wait till May 2 for the answer.

(With inputs from Mini Muringatheri in Thrissur and R.K. Roshni and Tiki Rajwi Thiruvananthapuram)

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Kunchacko Boban on his two very different roles in ‘Mohan Kumar Fans’ and the due-for-release ‘Nayattu’

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With two back-to-back Malayalam releases, Kunchacko Boban hopes audiences will step into cinema halls back again

Kunchacko Boban describes his two latest films — Mohan Kumar Fans and Nayattu — as different as chalk and cheese. The first to hit screens is the former, which releases today, and the latter April 8. Helmed by Jis Joy, Mohan Kumar… is his first release of the year; Anjaam Paathira (2020) was his last release.

“The movie-goer could do with a family entertainer, the kind that makes you laugh and happy. We need it after the series of hard times we have been having” he says.

Second show screenings have been permitted in Kerala; recent releases such as Operation Jawa and The Priest have seen more families stepping into theatres. “COVID-19 protocols are being followed in theatres, be it sanitisation, after-show fumigation, and social distancing. It is not that people are not stepping out… I hope some walk into theatres as well,” says Kunchacko.

The actor is considered one of Malayalam cinema’s most bankable stars due to his appeal among family audiences, and he laughs when that is mentioned. “I got a few calls about Anjaam Paathira asking if I was trying to scare the wits out of people!” In the thriller, directed by Midhun Manuel Thomas, he played a criminal psychologist who helps Kerala Police capture a serial killer.

Mohan Kumar Fans marks his fourth time coming together with scenarist duo Bobby-Sanjay. “It has the intensity of a Bobby-Sanjay story, while Jis (director) brings in the feel-good factor with humour and emotional connect. After a long time, we see actors such as Siddique, Mukesh, Sreenivasan, KPAC Lalitha and other familiar, well-loved faces together in one film.” Kunchacko essays an aspiring singer Krishnan Unni, trying to make it in the film industry as a playback singer while working as a driver for yesteryear star Mohan Kumar (Siddique). “Theatres need to hear laughter… I think it has been a while since a film that made us laugh out loud. Mohan Kumar… is that film.”

Another reason he bats for a feel-good, light film is due to his personal experience during lockdown. One of the things he initially did, “since everybody else seemed to be”, was to watch films and web series across OTT platforms. “A lot of it was dark. It reached a point that I had to stop because I felt uneasy. As it is, there was so much anxiety around…and thanks to the stuff I was watching, I felt that increase.”

Subsequently, he took to running around his building and working out. He also took to football, playing with the children in his neighbourhood. “I did not play it [football] because I invariably fractured a bone when I did. But I graduated from being a goalie to becoming a defender, midfielder and am now a forward,” he says.

Kunchacko Boban in ‘Nayattu’

Martin Prakkat’s Nayattu also, temporarily, got him into another sport — vadamvali (tug of war). “It was an extreme experience. I play a cop, Praveen Michael, who is into this sport so I had to beef up. We shot with a team that competes professionally. When we were done, I had bruises all over and didn’t need make-up to show a vadamvali guy’s bruises. I was able to, literally, get into the skin of the character… so what if I lost some of mine.” he says, laughing.

Praveen Michael challenged Kunchacko who has done several cop roles before. “It is an intense film, very different from Martin’s earlier ones, about how a system works and how the lives of three people — Joju George, Nimisha Sajayan and I — are affected by it. For the first time in my 24 years in the industry, I acted in a film where 90% of the film was shot in chronological order and recorded in sync sound, all of which gave me the space to grow with the character.” He is full of praise for the film’s technical team that includes besides Martin Prakkat, scenarist Shahi Kabir, cinematographer Shyju Khalid, editor Mahesh Narayanan and composer Vishnu Vijay. “It will be treat to relish!”

He confesses he is excited by the almost back-to-back release of two of his films. But he would rather see them as two very different films than two Kunchacko Boban movies. “I just happen to be the common factor.”

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Morning Digest: Roads to be freed of toll booths in a year, says Nitin Gadkari; EU drug regulator backs AstraZeneca vaccine against COVID-19 after safety investigation, and more

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India will implement a GPS-based toll collection system and do away with all toll booths within a year, Union Minister for Road Transport and Highways Nitin Gadkari informed the Lok Sabha on Thursday. He also shared details of the vehicle scrapping policy, first announced in the Union Budget for 2021-22, according to which the automobile industry in India will see a jump in turnover to ₹10 lakh crore from ₹4.5 lakh crore.

Chief Justice of India Sharad A. Bobde agreed with advocate Prashant Bhushan on Thursday to urgently hear a plea by NGO Association for Democratic Reforms to stay the sale of a new set of electoral bonds on April 1, before Assembly elections in crucial States such as West Bengal and Tamil Nadu.

Top U.S. and Chinese officials offered sharply different views of the world on March 18 as the two sides met face-to-face for the first time since President Joe Biden took office. In unusually pointed remarks for a staid diplomatic meeting, Secretary of State Antony Blinken and Chinese Communist Party foreign affairs chief Yang Jiechi took aim at each other’s policies at the start of two days of talks in Alaska.

The EU’s drug watchdog said on March 18 it is still convinced the benefits of AstraZeneca’s COVID-19 vaccine outweigh the risks following an investigation into reports of blood disorders that prompted more than a dozen nations to suspend its use.

The Rajya Sabha on Wednesday passed the Insurance Amendment Bill 2021 that increases the maximum foreign investment allowed in an insurance company from 49% to 74%, amid criticism from the Opposition parties on the clause enabling “control and ownership” by foreign investors.

The Supreme Court on Wednesday forbade judges from making gender stereotypical comments like “’good women are sexually chaste”, women who drink and smoke ‘ask’ for sexual advances or presume that a sexually active woman consented to rape while hearing cases of sexual offence.

Union Communications and Information Technology Minister Ravi Shankar Prasad said on Thursday that climate activist Disha Ravi’s arrest was based on law and order and it is under judicial process. He added that the House should consider “should some people abuse social media internationally to defame India to promote secessionism.”

Former Chief Economic Advisor (CEA) Arvind Subramanian resigned from Ashoka University on Thursday, days after noted columnist and political commentator Pratap Bhanu Mehta’s exit. In his resignation letter, Dr. Subramanian, said he had been “devastated” by “the circumstances involving the ‘resignation’ of Professor Pratap Bhanu Mehta” two days earlier.

In a major embarrassment to the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), two candidates announced by the party on Thursday for the Assembly polls from Kolkata have refused to contest on the party’s ticket.

The Supreme Court on Thursday stayed suo motu proceedings before the Delhi High Court on the administration of COVID-19 vaccine and transferred the case to itself. A Bench led by Chief Justice of India Sharad A. Bobde said a similar case concerning the vaccination drive was already pending in the Supreme Court, and the case from the Delhi High Court could be heard along with it.

The Supreme Court on Thursday agreed to urgently hear a plea to release and protect over 150 Rohingya refugees reportedly “detained” in Jammu. Chief Justice of India S.A. Bobde agreed to hear the application filed by a member of the Rohingya community, Mohammad Salimullah, represented by advocates Prashant Bhushan and Cheryl d’Souza, on April 25 (Thursday). Mr. Bhushan made an oral mention before the CJI for an early hearing.

The Lok Sabha on Thursday passed the supplementary demand for grants (second batch for 2020-21) but not before significant concerns raised by Opposition leaders on the government’s disinvestment and asset monetisation plans, and rising fuel prices.

If Ishan Kishan was unfortunate to be ruled out of the fourth T20I due to a groin strain, lady luck smiled on his replacement Suryakumar Yadav. The Mumbai cricketer, dropped for the previous outing after not having faced a ball on his debut in the second T20I, grabbed his chance and made it count.

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Meet Lakshmi KV, a Bengaluru artist who makes miniature ceramic products

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A faint scent of fresh earth lingers in the home of Lakshmi KV. “It is the smell of clay, the medium that I work with,” explains the 26-year-old ceramic artist based in Bengaluru.

She spends most of her day wedging clay and moulding it into cups, mugs, bowls and plates on a potter’s wheel placed in her living room. “I usually start around 2 pm and work till midnight. My schedule depends on the number of orders,” she says.

Lakshmi is an alumnus of the National Institute of Design (NID), Ahmedabad and was introduced to miniature pottery in 2017. “I saw the works of artist Jon Almeda and fell in love with them. Initially, I was influenced by his style, but I slowly created one of my own,” she says.

Miniature pottery by Lakshmi KV

Lakshmi’s first piece was a miniature water jug. “It was one-and-a-half centimetres tall and weighed five grams. It came out well in the first attempt and this gave me the confidence to try miniature planters, cups and plates.” She began to post photographs of her creations online and as word spread she started to get orders. “I named my miniature collection Pocket Size Project. So far I have done about 150 of them, and most of my clients are miniature art collectors or people who just find them cute.”

It takes Lakshmi one week to make a piece. “Once the clay is moulded, it has to be dried before being put in a kiln at 800 degree Celsius. This makes the piece stronger. It is then glazed — a process of fusing the ceramic with a layer of glass— to make it shiny and waterproof,” she explains.

Her recent miniature work is that of a tea set. “It has five pieces, including a kettle and a sugar pot,” she says.

Miniature Pottery by Lakshmi KV

While Lakshmi enjoys making both functional pieces and miniatures, she finds the latter more difficult to create. “It needs a lot of patience and hand-eye coordination. While I can use both my hands to work on a real size product, I have to fashion out a miniature piece with just my fingertips.”

Lakshmi sells most of her products through her social media pages, and is now working on her own website. “I hope to bring it out in the next few months,” she says.

Visit @keli.pottery on Instagram to know more.

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As tourism opens up, a woaman undertakes a car journey across India to encourage people return to travel

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Mitra Satheesh, a 40-year-old mother of two, is on Oru Desi Drive, a car journey across India.

“After seeing the disastrous impact of the pandemic on the tourism industry, I felt that as a responsible traveller, I must travel to encourage confidence among fellow travellers and people at large,” says Mira Satheesh, Assistant Professor at the Government Ayurveda College, Tripunithura in Kochi who is on, Oru Desi Drive, a car journey across India

As tourism opens up, a woaman undertakes a car journey across India to encourage people return to travel

Mitra, a 40-year-old mother of two, is accompanied by her 11-year-old son Narayan. She set off on the adventure on March 17 in her Maruti S Cross.

Since 2019, Mitra has undertaken solo trips to Bhutan, Nagaland, Manipur and Punjab.

After travel restrictions imposed due to the lockdown were lifted, she drove to Hampi in September 2020, followed by a trip to the Nilgiris in November and a nine-day tour of Karnataka in December.

Mitra’s travels are not just about sightseeing. She loves to explore rare historical monuments, cultures and crafts.

As tourism opens up, a woaman undertakes a car journey across India to encourage people return to travel

Some of the pit stops on her current journey include researching mat weaving in Pattamadai, a village in the Tirunelveli district of Tamil Nadu; the forgotten Cheriyal scroll paintings of Hyderabad in Telangana; exploring the tribal villages of Bastar, Koraput, and Jhabua in Madhya Pradesh; an Aryan village in Leh; terracotta temples of Bishnupur and terracotta mosques of Malda in West Bengal; and meeting the Rabha-Bodo tribals of Assam.

As a health worker, she worked at the Corona Frontline Treatment Centres (CFLTC) and has received the COVID-19 vaccinations.

“Travel is safe if the health protocols are followed,” she says, encouraging women to discover their strengths through travel.

Incredible India has offered support to her unique venture and her biggest cheerleaders are her fellow travellers with whom she will be connected as she gets on the road again.

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Odisha to review testing strategy after PM pointed out over reliance on antigen kits | India News – Times of India

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BHUBANESWAR: Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Wednesday pointed out overreliance of Odisha, besides Kerala, Uttar Pradesh and Chhattisgarh, on antigen tests for Covid-19, prompting the state to review its testing strategy.
Modi, in a video meeting with chief ministers, pointed out overdependence of these states on antigen tests, saying, “This needs to change. RT PCR tests should increase to check infections. Around 70% tests should be done using RT PCR method.”
Though the Odisha chief minister Naveen Patnaik did not speak in the meeting, as this was part not part of the agenda, in a written submission he pointed out that the long period of this crisis has brought fatigue and complacency in following covid health protocols. “We need to be careful as multiple surges of covid spread is the reality in many countries and as witnessed in many states in India as well,” Naveen said in a statement.
Stating that going back to lockdowns would not be possible, Naveen said, “We cannot go back to the era of lockdowns. However, at the same time we need to ensure that the virus spread is also contained through renewed efforts in awareness and enforcement.”
“As a country with huge population, achieving herd immunity will be a long process and in the meantime we all need to be extremely careful,” Naveen said emphasizing that just because Covid vaccine is available now, there is no place for complaceny in observing covid norms.
Naveen said since Odisha is affected by disasters like cyclones almost every year, the administrative machinery is well prepared to deal with crisis situations that the pandemic has brought.
In the meeting CMs of Maharashtra, Madhya Pradesh, Punjab, Gujarat, Karnataka and Haryana besides administrator of Chandigarh, where the covid cases are showing rising trend, spoke. While home minister Amit Shah made introductory remarks and Union health secretary Rajesh Bhushan made a presentation on the situation.
Additional chief secretary (health) Pradipta Kumar Mohapatra, who also attended the VC, said the state’s testing strategy would be reviewed with all laboratories conducting Covid tests on Friday.
The number of RT PCR tests conducted in the state is around 7300 out of the total more than 20,000 tests being conducted per day, the rest being rapid antigen tests. The number of RT PCR tests is less because the state has been conducting RT PCR tests on people with symptoms such as of fever, influenza like illness and severe acute respiratory illness. Since the number of such people is less, the overall RT PCR tests are less.
Mohapatra said to further increase the number of RT PCR tests, the state is planning to collect samples of people with any possible symptom returning from states such as Maharashtra, Madhya Pradesh, Kerala, Punjab and Chhattisgarh and conduct RT PCR tests on them instead of antigen tests which is being done now at railway stations and airports.
On Wednesday, Odisha reported 82 new covid positive cases, which is the highest in a day in past two weeks, as it increased the number of tests done from around 20,000 to 25000 in past 24 hours.
The situation in Odisha continues to be firmly under control, Mohapatra said. In the first fortnight of March, the state’s case positivity rate is 0.33% while the average number of tests done per day is 21,231. The state has reported two Covid deaths this month.

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Playback singer Nithya Mammen’s scores a hit with ‘Alaare Neeyenile…’ from the film ‘Member Rameshan 9aam Ward’

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Nithya Mammen is surprised by the response to her Malayalam song ‘Alaare Neeyenile…’

Singer Nithya Mammen is riding high on the success of her recently-released song, ‘Alaare Neeyenile’ from Malayalam film Member Rameshan 9aam Ward. The film, due for release last year, is scheduled to hit theatres soon. “When the song was done, I liked it and I knew people would like it but not this much. My inbox is filled with covers of that song,” she says.

The song is her second outing with composer Kailas Menon; she made her debut as playback singer in Edakkad Battalion 06 (2019) for which he composed music. Another song of hers that did well isVathikkalu Vellaripravu…’ from Sufiyum Sujathayum. She has also sung the Tamil and Telugu versions of the song.

Nithya landed her first song rather serendipitously when Menon called her to sing the track (dummy version of the song) of ‘Hima Mazhayayi Varu…’ in Edakkad…

“His mother came across a video of me singing; she told him about me, and that’s how he asked me for voice demos, thus leading to my first break.”

Producer Sandra Thomas and Menon liked what they heard and retained Nithya’s version.

Though lockdown brought the film industry to a standstill, Nithya is happy about the chances she has had.

“I got to work with music director M Jayachandran (Sufiyum Sujathayum) and Ishaan Chabbra for Abrid Shine’s Kung Fu Master. Both were such wonderful opportunities; with Chabbra, the work was done remotely. I sang the song with Karthik and though we did not ‘sing together’, it is an experience I’m happy about.”

It is not all film music; she recently sang for music director Mejjo Joseph’s single, ‘Mayathe’, along with Harish Sivaramakrishnan.

She has been singing covers for her YouTube channel for a while, though she confesses that it did not have many viewers. All that changed post her playback debut. “‘Hima Mazhavayi Varu’ changed everything.”

Music is not new to her, she has always been singing and even has her own YouTube channel, which she started a few years ago. She sang covers on it and on which, she confesses, didn’t have too many people listening. But it blew up after her debut, “Until then not too many were listening, but ‘Hima Mazhayayi Varu…’ changed everything,” she says.

Nithya had been learning Hindustani music back home in Thiruvananthapuram; which she took up again on moving to Kochi, with Bernie of composer duo Bernie-Ignatius.

Singing, which started as a hobby, has taken a front seat for this architect. She says, “I have not quit architecture altogether; I take up freelance projects now.”

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Chemancheri Kunhiraman Nair’s passion towards Indian culture, spirituality was legendary: PM Modi | India News – Times of India

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NEW DELHI: Condoling the demise of Kathakali maestro Guru Chemancheri Kunhiraman Nair, Prime Minister Narendra Modi said on Monday that his passion towards Indian culture and spirituality was legendary and he made exceptional efforts to groom upcoming talent in classical dances.
Nair died at his residence in Kerala early on Monday. He was 105.
He had been honoured with the Padma Shree in 2017 in recognition of his glorious contribution to the art form.
His portrayal of Lord Krishna and Kuchela on stage often left the audience spellbound, and his last notable public performance was at the age of 100.

Paying tributes, Modi tweeted, “Saddened by the demise of Kathakali maestro, Guru Chemancheri Kunhiraman Nair. His passion towards Indian culture and spirituality was legendary. He made exceptional efforts to groom upcoming talent in our classical dances. My thoughts are with his family and admirers. Om Shanti.”



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