Chinese army men ready with Mohabbatein, Kabhi Alvida Naa Kehna in Belgaum
3:41 PM Posted by ukmad
Chinese soldiers who have come to Belgaum for a week's joint military exercise with the Indian army cannot stop humming songs from Shah Rukh Khan movies like Kabhi Alvida Naa Kehna and Mohabbatein.
The 137 infantry toughies from China have in fact collectively memorised the entire Mohabbatein number 'Aankhein khuli ho ya ho bandh' along with the Indian national anthem, and have been regaling the Indian side with some memorable renditions over raucously cheerful and backslapping dinners.
Some Other Video Links:
http://videosfromindia.smashits.com/view/5289/indian-and-chinese-troops-display-their-strategic-skills
http://videosfromindia.smashits.com/view/5281/sino-indian-joint-military-exercise-begins
http://www.cctv.com/video/ChinaToday/2008/12/ChinaToday_300_20081205_4.shtml
Source: Mid-Day Main story
India China Military Excercise Photos
10:04 AM Posted by ukmad
This is a collection of images from various sources like Sina.com, mangalorean.com, abclive.com, cctv.com.
This will be automatically updtaed as and when I find the pics. So keep looking.
BelgaumBlog: 50000 hits: Thank you readers
10:41 PM Posted by ukmad
“It’s Not The Chances We Take; It’s The Choices We Make, That Determines Our Destiny.” Someone said it an
d I am following it. I merely started this blog as a hobby 490 days ago and today it has seen 50,000 hits. These don’t include the 149 people who receive it daily directly in their mail box.
d I am following it. I merely started this blog as a hobby 490 days ago and today it has seen 50,000 hits. These don’t include the 149 people who receive it daily directly in their mail box.620 posts in 490 days, an average of more than one post a day with regular news updates from various sources to special stories exclusively on this blog. From covering events just as they happened and got you pictures the fastest I could to showcasing those talents of Belgaum to the world. It has been a long journey for me.
I have made many new friends by this blog and I would cherish their friendship for life. I got designers to design for me, Thanks Leading minds; you made my job easier and more presentable & Hyperwebenable team for their support.
Lastly, THANKS to all those readers who throng my site, some before starting work some later, it has been your support which has brought me here and I won’t let you down.
At last Big Cinemas to open today
11:54 AM Posted by ukmad
This is just a formal opening of the mall and Big Cinemas.
Big cinemas have two screens in here named KAPEEL -1 and KAPEEL -2, after the earlier Kapeel theatre on which this whole mall is built. There is space for about 55 cars and about 250 two wheelers for parking, which is obviously paid.
The interiors are very similar to all those others in metros with anti fire mats, 4 way surround sound etc.
The mall is still not working, only big Cinemas will commence all others have to take up their space yet and mostly the ground floor is being taken up by leading foreign footwear brands and watch brands.
This first weekend for Big cinemas is going to be a great treat for all, them and as well as Belgaumites. Now we don’t have to go to Mumbai or Bangalore, ‘Apne he shaer mein hain na’.
Belgaumites take War on Terror: Candle light rally
8:11 PM Posted by ukmad
Today evening a huge crowd gathered at the Chennama Circle to rage a war against terror and pay homage to those who were killed in the recent 26/11 Mumbai terror attacks.
The young and the old both were there. Some exclusive pictures and videos only for Belgaumblog readers.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sOFjglTLL6o
The young and the old both were there. Some exclusive pictures and videos only for Belgaumblog readers.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sOFjglTLL6o
Indo China Military exercise Photos held at Belgaum
6:35 PM Posted by ukmad
This is a collection of images from various sources like Sina.com, mangalorean.com, abclive.com, cctv.com.
http://english.sina.com/china/2008/1205/202998.html
http://mangalorean.com/news.php?newstype=broadcast&broadcastid=103955
Big cinemas Belgaum to open for public on Friday 12 December
10:33 AM Posted by ukmad
The mall still looks completely from the outside only the Big cinema floor is illuminated in the night. There is also a pay parking available, but how much space is there has to be seen.
Petrol to cost 51.57 in Belgaum
11:10 AM Posted by ukmad
After the price cut on fuel prices, the effective fuel prices in Belgaum are:
Petrol will cost Rs.51.57 (Unleaded) [old price Rs.57.03] and Diesel Rs.37.14 [old price Rs.39.33].
So effectively petrol is cheaper by Rs.5.46/liter.
Petrol will cost Rs.51.57 (Unleaded) [old price Rs.57.03] and Diesel Rs.37.14 [old price Rs.39.33].
So effectively petrol is cheaper by Rs.5.46/liter.
HC order comes as a relief to farmers
10:11 AM Posted by ukmad
About 20 families of farmers owning small and marginal land on survey Nos. 628, 629 and 630 on either side of the highway, just 2 km from the Central Bus Stand, have been fighting against the move by the Karnataka Industrial Area Development Board (KIADB) to allegedly hand it over to Parivartan Alpasankhyatara Krushi Sahakara Sangha (PAKSS), a private society controlled by Belgaum South MLA Abhay Kumar Patil of the BJP.
The KIADB had initiated steps to acquire the land against the will of the farmers who were depending on it for livelihood. The PAKSS wanted to set up a cold storage plant there. The National Highway Division, Belgaum, in its notification issued on March 27, 2000, determined the “building lines” and “control lines” and declared that 75 metres on either side of the existing highway as “Green Belt Zone” and banned construction activities and development work in this area.
When the farmers challenged the move to acquire their land in the High Court, the KIADB temporarily stalled the process only on the direction of Regional Commissioner Amita Prasad. But the police started harassing and threatening the farmers.
The High Court recently passed an interim order and asked the Government to respond “as to why the State should not take the responsibility of providing cold storage facilities to farmers as sought to be done by PAKSS for whose benefit the land is proposed to be acquired by the board.”
Source The Hindu
Candle light vigil and torch rally against central govt. on Sunday 7th dec 2008 @5:30 pm at Chennamma circle
10:01 AM Posted by ukmad
KRV Belgaum is organizing a candle light vigil for the martyrs who died in the Mumbai attacks and that will be followed by torch rally which will be like a warning to the central government which has been inefficient and incapable in handling terrorism on Sunday 7th December, 2008 at 5:30 pm at Chennamma circle. The central government is still in diplomatic dialogues with Pakistan; indirectly the central government is buying time and thinks Indians will forget this issue as always and thing will be the same again.People are requested not to carry any other flags except for the national tricolor flags.
Please ask all your friends to participate in this; this is just another way to show our solidarity towards those who lost their lives. Many may say it happened there and why this show off here, to all of them, it was Mumbai then and it could be us anytime. At this time no caste, creed or language is a barrier we all need to come up and fight this terrorism.
Chinese army arrives in Belgaum for drill
10:12 AM Posted by ukmad
Indicative of the growing military-military cooperation between India and China, a 137-member team of the People's Liberation Army arrived at this cantonment town Thursday for the second joint anti-terror drill with the Indian Army beginning here Friday.The drill, named Exercise Hand-in-Hand 2008, "is aimed at expanding and strengthening military-to-military ties between the two armed forces”.
During the course of joint training that will last till Dec 14, the Chinese troops from an infantry battalion of the Chengdu Military Area Command and Indian Army troops from for a Maratha Light Infantry battalion "will undergo joint tactical manoeuvres and drills, interoperability training, and joint command post procedures, culminating in a joint counter-terrorist operational exercise with a simulated enemy.The helicopter assets of the Indian Air Force will also be incorporated for conducting special heli-borne manoeuvres and assault operations.
The Chinese contingent had earlier arrived in a military aircraft at Pune. After a brief reception at the Pune airfield, six Indian Air Force (IAF) aircraft transported the Chinese army personnel and their stores were to Belgaum.
The joint exercise is the second in the series, the previous one having been conducted in Kunming, China late last year.
Source
10:40 AM Posted by ukmad
The Belgaum Shahar Shetkari Sanghatana, which has taken up the cause of farmers struggling to save their lands from being acquired by Karnataka Industrial Area Development Board, has alleged that police officials and their staff attached to the Malmaruti Police Station are harassing farmers.
A procession was taken to the DC’s office, against the KIADB had proposal to acquire fertile and irrigated agriculture land off Pune-Bangalore National Highway 4 (Express Highway) falling under Survey Nos 628, 629 and 630 only to allot to a private society controlled by BJP MLA (from Belgaum South) Abhay Kumar Patil. This was being done though the land had been earmarked as Green Belt area.
The farmers are small and marginal landholders. They are raising crops such as paddy, wheat and jowar for their living. However, the KIADB had proposed to acquire their land in an illegal manner and without observing procedural norms only to hand it over to Alpasankyatar Krushi Sahakar Sangh controlled by Mr. Patil.
A complaint was also made to the Governor and the High Court following which the Regional Commissioner of Belgaum Revenue division directed the KIADB against pursuing with the acquisition. Yet, the police were harassing and even arresting innocent farmers and creating panic among their families, it claimed.
The police were behaving in a threatening manner instead of providing protection to these poor families, it alleged. Though the matter was brought to the notice of the Superintendent of Police Sonia Narang, there was no let-up in the harassment by police. It was not clear whether the police stood for the politically influential and the rich or the poor and the weak.
This blog has has been following up this story, see earlier stories
http://belgaumblog.com/2008/09/farmers-concerned-over-kiadb/
http://belgaumblog.com/2008/07/farmers-accuse-mla-of-trying-to-grab-land/
http://belgaumblog.com/2007/10/farmers-say-don%e2%80%99t-take-our-land/
Source:The Hindu
St Paul’s 1993 Batch plan a REUNION — they have set an amazing example of using the internet to maintain school bonds
10:10 AM Posted by ukmad
St Paul’s 1993 Batch plan a REUNION — they have set an amazing example of using the internet to maintain school bonds — theirs truly is friendship of the 21st century!
Carefree & joy–filled days of school can never be forgotten. In so many ways they continue to influence every stage of our life’s journey. This is especially the case with about 160 students who finished their schooling from St Paul’s, Belgaum in 1993. Each batch-mate walked a path on his own terms, many scaling new heights in India and beyond her shores. Now after 15 years, they will come together to share their rich experiences.
The ‘Paulites of 93’ are indeed a very unique batch. They have stayed in touch via a yahoo-egroup since the past 7 years. But, what makes their story really fascinating is that even after so many years their intensity of communicating has not waned. In fact, the year 2008 saw an average of greater than 250 emails clocked each month; one month reaching an astounding 600 emails!
In 2003, precisely 10 years after completing school, they met to relive school days, with about 110 batchmates attending the reunion. Now after another 5 years, they plan to meet again. The planning of the second reunion began about 6 months ago via the egroup. Mr. Rahul Chingale (founder of the Paulites egroup) told this blog, “It is thanks to the egroup we know who is married or getting married — who has kids and how many — and who works where and lives in which city or country”. He and several others in the batch are ardent promoters of uniting the batch through the egroup. Mr Kiran Nippanikar, another enthusiastic Paulite said, “During the 2003 Reunion, donating part of the funds to an Old Age Home set a very solid example of how we should conduct ourselves to help society. This Reunion we intend to use a similar approach by diverting part of the reunion funds to assist the school in whatever ways possible”.
Many batchmates abroad are super-duper excited about the prospects of meeting school friends. They have booked tickets almost 4 to 5 months in advance. Like them, batchmates scattered all across India have been deeply involved in the planning process. The massive flurry of activity on the egroup is a testimony of the level of excitement within the batch of coming together. It is not just the Reunion that is the primary topic of discussion on the egroup — recommendation for jobs and exchange of professional information also takes a lion’s share. During these hard times of global recession, Mr Kiran Patil has stepped up to create a professional database of the batch which could be used in the years to come as a career boosting tool.
The 2008 reunion will be held on the 27th December in Camp, Belgaum at the school campus. There will be several unique sessions held; one of which is called the “Chronicles of 1993”. Mr. Devikant Birje who is making this happen said that the “Chronicles of 1993” would be a collection of events and pranks played in school, for example — it could be incidents involving stealing the teachers’ cake, wild fights, copying during exams, and even extreme confessions of final-exam paper leaks. Already, many batchmates have contributed to these chronicles via the egroup. The goal of this session will be to recreate these memories and turn them into a book accompanied with a short film.
The Paulites of 1993 sure know how to throw party and yet make it meaningful. This blog will report their story as it unfolds. Best wishes to them for decades to come!
Many batchmates abroad are super-duper excited about the prospects of meeting school friends. They have booked tickets almost 4 to 5 months in advance. Like them, batchmates scattered all across India have been deeply involved in the planning process. The massive flurry of activity on the egroup is a testimony of the level of excitement within the batch of coming together. It is not just the Reunion that is the primary topic of discussion on the egroup — recommendation for jobs and exchange of professional information also takes a lion’s share. During these hard times of global recession, Mr Kiran Patil has stepped up to create a professional database of the batch which could be used in the years to come as a career boosting tool.
The 2008 reunion will be held on the 27th December in Camp, Belgaum at the school campus. There will be several unique sessions held; one of which is called the “Chronicles of 1993”. Mr. Devikant Birje who is making this happen said that the “Chronicles of 1993” would be a collection of events and pranks played in school, for example — it could be incidents involving stealing the teachers’ cake, wild fights, copying during exams, and even extreme confessions of final-exam paper leaks. Already, many batchmates have contributed to these chronicles via the egroup. The goal of this session will be to recreate these memories and turn them into a book accompanied with a short film.
The Paulites of 1993 sure know how to throw party and yet make it meaningful. This blog will report their story as it unfolds. Best wishes to them for decades to come!
Edited by PDK
Smart Retail: Reviewed: FIR
8:41 PM Posted by ukmad
Smart Retail has just opened a month back on Club Road at Thakkar Plaza near Harsha. 
Here is the Review of the same:
A regular retail super Shoppe but the name is a bit unknown. Its website http://smartretail.co.in/ does not open at this time, so I could not get the details of the company and its operations.
To begin with, the arrangement from LEFT to right, vegetables on the left then fruits, cold beverages, ready to eats, groceries, soaps and one complete section on the right of the entrance where there is cutlery and storage jars.
Vegetables were in huge quantities and almost all had 2 varieties one looked very fresh and one a bit stale and both were priced also in that manner, the fresher the costlier. Some vegetables like Gourd, Capsicum was very fresh.
Now to the pricing: Vegetable pricing was high; if you, compare it to local Main market (Ganpat Galli and beyond) the prices of vegetables are costly. Onions were Rs.16.90/Kg in the market it was Rs.14/kg. It was with beans Smart price was Rs.35/Kg market it was Rs.20/Kg. Sugar was Rs.20/Kg and in market, it was Rs.19/Kg.
The over arrangement and ambience was ok, AC was off and was a bit hot. Staff was trained but did not find the zeal with their work. There are in total 3 cash counters 2 in the centre at the entrance and one at the left corner.
One notable thing which I had made earlier also, Purohit Sweets and Savories have found a place for themselves in almost all these super markets, may it be Big Bazaar or Reliance fresh.
On a scale of 10, I would rate it 6.5, ok average buying experience. I did buy a few things and my bill said I saved Rs.6.25 so you know how much you saved if you bought somewhere else, all these items were MRP based. If you are near to it, then it is the nearest best option.
A regular retail super Shoppe but the name is a bit unknown. Its website http://smartretail.co.in/ does not open at this time, so I could not get the details of the company and its operations.
To begin with, the arrangement from LEFT to right, vegetables on the left then fruits, cold beverages, ready to eats, groceries, soaps and one complete section on the right of the entrance where there is cutlery and storage jars.
Vegetables were in huge quantities and almost all had 2 varieties one looked very fresh and one a bit stale and both were priced also in that manner, the fresher the costlier. Some vegetables like Gourd, Capsicum was very fresh.
Now to the pricing: Vegetable pricing was high; if you, compare it to local Main market (Ganpat Galli and beyond) the prices of vegetables are costly. Onions were Rs.16.90/Kg in the market it was Rs.14/kg. It was with beans Smart price was Rs.35/Kg market it was Rs.20/Kg. Sugar was Rs.20/Kg and in market, it was Rs.19/Kg.
The over arrangement and ambience was ok, AC was off and was a bit hot. Staff was trained but did not find the zeal with their work. There are in total 3 cash counters 2 in the centre at the entrance and one at the left corner.
One notable thing which I had made earlier also, Purohit Sweets and Savories have found a place for themselves in almost all these super markets, may it be Big Bazaar or Reliance fresh.
On a scale of 10, I would rate it 6.5, ok average buying experience. I did buy a few things and my bill said I saved Rs.6.25 so you know how much you saved if you bought somewhere else, all these items were MRP based. If you are near to it, then it is the nearest best option.
The coloured Sky
8:00 PM Posted by ukmad
This is a picture taken by UkMaD on Tuesday evening near TV Centre, The whole sky had a orange colour after sunset.
