Rajhuns Gad Yellur Gad the pride of Ancient Belgaum

11:26 AM Posted by ukmad

By Sujay Nimbalkar – Special Correspondent

Rajhunsgad is surrounded by greenery of farms and fields with rice as a major crop. Yellurgad (Yellur Fort) located within the vicinity of Belgaum Taluka, on hillock with a breathtaking view.It is situated nearly 2,500 ft (762 m) above sea level. According to sources, this Fort dates back to history many centuries ago among different kingdom and its rulers including the Yadavas, Hoysalas, Bahamani, Adilshahi, Peshwas-Marathas.View of surrounding villages from top

The fort on top of hill is visible from almost all areas of Belgaum. It is also believed that there existed a secret tunnel from the Belgaum fort uptoRajhunsgad during the ancient period. In this fort, a beautiful Temple of ‘Lord Shiva’ is situated where most of the people staying in and around the villages of this fort visit and pray every Monday. There is Well of sweet water on top of this hill. It is infact an admirable archeology of the past architects and rulers. An awesome view of Belgaum City can be had from this fort.

Nandi in front of Shiva TempleShiva temple on Rajhunsgad Fort

How to reach:

One can reach Rajhunsgad village on the foot of this hill via- Desur village orfrom Yellur & Sulga and then climb the fort on kutcha road. Experienced riders can reach upto the entrance of the fort on top on Motorcycles but this path (kutcha road) is too steep for motorcycles. However, this is an excellent place for Trekking.One of the secret passage at the foot of the FortThe Pillar of the Fort and partial view of secret passage on right

On an interaction with Sri.Siddharth Hiremath (Poojari) of this Shiva temple in the fort told us that, This Fort in spite of having a rich historic relevance is always neglected by administration. The temple’s maintenance cost is mainly borne by the people of surrounding villages of Rajhunsgad, Sulga, and Yellur etc.

Well of Sweet water on top of the Hill

Though MPs, MLAs and a couple of Ministers along with the administration authorities have visited this ancient fort and have assured for its development as a tourist place, the assurance tends to remain on paper as usual. Moreover, miscreants try to damage the sanctity of the fort including the temple’s premises by dirtying the surroundings etc. People of Belgaum should take note of this fact and come forward to help in preserving the structure of our Belgaum having rich historic relevance.

All Photos: Sujay and Friends

85 year young Belgaumite Srikrishna Deshpande ran in Mumbai marathon

1:04 PM Posted by ukmad

Many at the finish line were applauding and trying to shake hands with a winner in life, at the Mumbai Marathon 2010 held recently. The man at the finish line was none other than the young 85 year Srikrishna Deshpande from Belgaum.

Mr. Deshpande retired as a postal department employee in 1981. Then started his athletic career at the age of 65.

He has been running for last 25 years now and he has ran in over 225 events in India and abroad.

Deshpande said he had taken up running to improve his health and was also encouraging his son to take part in it. For three years, the marathon has served as an annual pilgrimage for the 85-year-old.

He bagged a gold medal in an athletic meet in Sri Lanka. Lack of sponsorship forces him to spend money from his pension to participate in national or international events.

Mr. Deshpande, who has five children, six grandchildren and two great grandchildren, dreams of securing a gold medal in a world meet in his life time.

Another senior citizen and Deshpande friend Rajaram Padwal aged 67 also ran along with him. Mr.Padwal was in the MLIRC. Padwal, who ran the race wearing canvas shoes as compared to many runners who wore advanced running shoes, said he was happy with his timing given the fact that the winner had clocked one hour five minutes in the same event.

Deshpande didn’t run barefoot. He had to sport a pair of socks. He had to wear socks as they had to attach chip (to record the time) to his leg.

Source: Yahoo

Mumbai Mirror

Belgaum champions league road show

6:25 PM Posted by ukmad

Bhatkande sports academy organised MLA Sanjay Patil T20 Belgaum champions league road show was organised today evening. Some pictures of the same event.

By standers were surprised to see this rally and at first could not make out exactly of what it is.

Rally is still on: Photos taken at 6.16pm.

This is a promotional video song of NASCO ROYALS Cricket Team, owned by Mr. Nitin Shirgurkar, NASCO Builders, Belgaum. The team played in Belgaum Champions League 2010. This is the first team to create such a video song for promoting its players.

Lyrics, Music & Singer: Sagar Patil
Rap: Kalyani & Priyanka
Directed By: Harshad Nalawade

Nasco Royals theme song

Belgaum Champions League T20 begins from 21 January

10:44 AM Posted by ukmad

Bhatkande Sports Academy organised MLA Sanjay Patil T20 Belgaum champions league will begin with a grand opening ceremony to be held on 21st January at CpEd. Grounds Club Road.
All the matches will be played at the same ground and work is on in full swing.
Today (18-01-2010) a rally with of all the teams will be organized which will start from Chenamma circle and will culminate at Hutatma chowk. The BCL trophy opening was done early this morning by MLA Sanjay Patil at Gomatesh Vidyapeeth.

There are 8 teams namely:
Amrut Aqua Dolphin
Zevar Gallery Diamond
Vardraj Super Kings
Potdar foundation Jewelers
Sri Sai Sports Gladiators
Victorious Lions
Nasco Royals
Gold Museum Crown
This is another golden opportunity for the local talent to show their capability and local talent is getting a nice platform to showcase their talent.

Belgaum Champions League T20 begins from 21 JanuaryMLA Sanjay Patil T20 Belgaum champions league will begin with a grand opening ceremony to be held on 21st January at CpEd. Grounds Club Road. All the matches will be played at the same ground and work is on in full swing.

Pitch being prepared
Today (18-01-2010) a rally with of all the teams will be organized which will start from Chenamma circle and will culminate at Hutatma chowk. The BCL trophy opening was done early this morning by MLA Sanjay Patil at Gomatesh Vidyapeeth.
There are 8 teams namely:
Amrut Aqua DolphinZevar Gallery DiamondVardraj Super Kings Potdar foundation JewelersSri Sai Sports GladiatorsVictorious LionsNasco RoyalsGold Museum CrownThis is another golden opportunity for the local talent to show their capability and local talent is getting a nice platform to showcase their talent.

Feel for Belgaum Run for Belgaum

10:12 AM Posted by ukmad

Yesterday you saw Mumbai running in the Mumbai Marathon, from young ones to 80 year old all were there to run. Celebrities from all walks ran over the roads of Mumbai showing untiy.
The Rotary club of Venugram is organising a marathon on January 24th 2010 with the theme “Feel for Belgaum- Run for Belgaum”.
The marathon will start at 7.30 a.m. from Union Gymkhana. For details, call 9448963874.

Feel for Belgaum Run for BelgaumYesterday you saw Mumbai running in the Mumbai Marathon, from young ones to 80 year old all were there to run. Celebrities from all walks ran over the roads of Mumbai showing untiy.The Rotary club of Venugram is organising a marathon on January 24th 2010 with the theme “Feel for Belgaum- Run for Belgaum”.The marathon will start at 7.30 a.m. from Union Gymkhana. For details, call 9448963874.

E forms you may need

4:59 PM Posted by ukmad

Everyday everyone needs to approach the government offices for some kind of work and what needs to be filled in is a FORM as the Babu says.

Most of the time we get annoyed by the look of the form and what the babu will ask along with it.

The Karnataka State govt. website has compiled almost all its departments and the forms needed.

I still dont know whether a printed from like this will be accepted by the departments, but yes by reading the form earlier you can definitely prepare all the documents one needs or what kind of information is needed.

http://www.karunadu.gov.in/e-forms/Pages/select-eforms.aspx

You can select which department and then the concerned form can be downloaded.

Department Name

Link

BBMP

Bruhath Bengaluru Mahanagara Palike

RTO

Road Transport Organisation

W&CD

Women and Child Development

KPTCL(ESCOMS)

Karnataka Power Transmission Corporation Limited

C & I

Industries and Commerce

E & T

Employment and Training

PENSION

Pension Department

SCHOLARSHIP

Scholarships for Students

ARMS

Arms Department

DS&R

Department of Stamps and Registration

DMA

Muncipal Corporations(cmc,tmc)

CTax

Commercial Taxes Department

Labour

Labour Department

Police

Police Department

Education

SSLC Board

PUC Board

KWD

Welfare of Disabled Department

KSEC

Karnataka State Election Commission

DE&S

Department of Economics & Statistics

KMDC

Karnataka Minorities Development Corporation ltd

F&CS

Department of Food & Civil Supply

Fisheries

Directorate of Fisheries

e-Governance

e-Governance Department

KSWDB

Karnataka State Womens Development Board

KSAMD

Karnataka State Agricultural Marketing Department

KSPCB

Karnataka State Pollution Control Board

KSLMD

Karnataka State Law Monitoring/Measurement Department

DCB

Drugs Control Board

KFDC

Karnataka Forest Development Corporation

KBB

Karnataka Biodiversity Board

DPAR(AR)

Department of Personnel & Administrative eforms (AR)

This list may not be exhaustive and the same is published here in public interest.

Officials work even at night

11:24 AM Posted by ukmad

Times have changed and with time, even the government officials and elected representatives have changed. Take this for example; meeting a corporation official is difficult during daytime but yesterday the whole lot of corporation officers with MLA and councilor were there to make a survey of road to be widened at night in the dark.

Late in the evening a host of cars stopped suddenly in front of the Shahpur police station and all the by standers had some great ideas about they, coming over there.

MLA Abhay Patil & Firoz Sait, Mayor, Dy.Mayor, corporation commissioner S G Patil and other officers were seen discussing about the road widening from Nath Pai circle to Vadgaon. According to sources, the road will be widened to 60 feet.

Citizens were around were amazed at the officials surveying the area at night. In addition, one senior citizen at the spot said, times have changed.

Hope times have changed for the good and not for any other reasons.

Wow AAB facebook fan page now has 1000 fans

6:56 PM Posted by ukmad

Here at AllAboutBelgaum, we love our readers. We love our supporters and advertisers. And, we love our Facebook fans! We’re so excited that we broke the 1,000-fan threshold! And it is all because of you! Thanks, from the very bottom of our hearts.

We created our Facebook page in late June 2009, and reaching 1000 fans for a local site we guess is not a bad number.
There have been some updates only for FaceBook fans and the same will continue.

Thanks again for your support.

Renuka sugar plans 2nd acquisition in Brazil

12:12 PM Posted by ukmad

India’s biggest sugar refiner, city based Shree Renuka Sugars is in the race to acquire a majority stake in Brazil’s Equipav Group for an estimated $300 million (Rs 14 billion).

If successful, this would be Renuka Sugar’s second acquisition in Brazil.
The company has submitted bids for the sugar and alcohol assets of Equipav Group along with other global players.

In November 2009, Renuka Sugars had bought Brazil based sugar and ethanol producer Vale Do Iva (VDI) for $82 million.

Renuka Sugars, primarily a refiner, operates eight sugar mills, five owned and three leased, in Karnataka and Maharashtra. The company’s shares on the BSE closed at Rs 233.45, up 0.89% from last close.

Annular solar eclipse photos from Belgaum

8:01 PM Posted by ukmad

The magnificence of the universe was observed today all over the world, and how could Belgaum be left behind.

The sky was cloudy since the morning but later it cleared.

Here are few photos taken by Mr. Suresh R Khot a student who will pursue his M.Sc. all the photos have been taken by him using a Kodak Camera from his house in Kangrali BK.

The images are nice to see and he said that it was an experience of a lifetime to take these photos.

77 percent solar eclipse in Belgaum

8:01 AM Posted by ukmad

The moon passes between the Sun and the Earth creating a wonder-sight the solar eclipse. This will be 77% visible in Belgaum.

Weather is cloudy and overcast and met dept. forecasts cloudy with lightrain. This is not good news for Belgaumites. Pray that this clears and we get to see the eclipse. eclipse beings at 11.10 am and will end at 3.10pm.

Solar filters are recommended in terms of optical density for safe viewing.

Avoid unsafe filters such as crossed Polaroid sheets, color film, dye-based black-and-white film, magnetic floppy disk medium or compact discs, non optical grade aluminized mylar (wrappers), or smoked glass.

Movies as on 15-01-10

7:43 AM Posted by ukmad

Theatre Movie Timings
Big Cinemas 3 Idiots 2.45,6

Pyar Impossible 12.3

Chance pe Dance 12.15,3.30,6.30,9.30
Nirmal Ram (K) 12.15pm,3.15,6.15,9.15



Huns Chillatad Hudugaru (K) 12,3,6,9



Arun
12.30,2,4,7
Roopali Pretiya Teru (K) 12.15,3.15,6.15,9.15
Balkrishna Raat Gayi Baat Gayi 12.30,3.30,6.30,9.30
Chitra 3 Idiots 11.45

Shikshanachya Aayi Gho 3,6,9
Swaroop Chance pe Dance 12,3,6,9



Hira Pyar Impossible 6.15,9.15

Dulha Mil Gaya 12.15,3.15
Prakash Maleyalli Joteyalli (K) 12.15,3.15,6.15,9.15
Nartaki Shikshanachya Aayi Gho 12

3 Idiots 2.45,5.45,9.15
Santosh Suryakanti (K) 12.15,3.15,6.15,9.15pm
Globe Bandit Queen 12.15,1.45,3.45,6.45
Kindly check the excat timings with the theatres

Synthetic track for Belgaum athletes

11:30 AM Posted by ukmad

To encourage sports and create international athletes a new Synthetic track of international standards will be built at the district stadium. A sum of Rs.2.75 crores will be required for this and it has been approved by the govt.

The synthetic track will be of international standards and will have eight tracks. The work will begin in a few days and contract has been awarded to an American company, which will finish the work in 135 days.

The new track will encourage young athletes to prepare themselves for global sports and by having such facilities in Belgaum local talent can be well groomed.

Citys second multiplex getting ready

10:50 AM Posted by ukmad

Cine goers of Belgaum are having a good time, as another multiplex is getting itself ready to welcome the cine goers.

This will be a THREE-screen multiplex and place is not new to cine goers, it is the CHANDAN cinema near head post office.

The work is currently on for modernizing the said old Chandan theatre and majority of the work is complete.

Sources told this blog that, INOX is setting up shop here, but when this blog officially contacted INOX, we did not get any reply.

INOX in its press statement earlier this month had said that in FY 2010 multiplex of Belgaum would be operational and keeping that in mind, this should be INOX.

INOX will be coming up next to Big Bazaar but due reasons unknown work did not begin there.

Therefore, Chandan would be an ideal place for people to come in as there is ample parking space and very easily accessible to all.

Keep glued here to get more updates as it happens.

Factions Corporate Communications a thoughtful conceptual media house

10:00 AM Posted by ukmad

Factions is not a design house. It has a rare capability of executing every assignment with conceptual clarity & thoughtfulness. This enables the organization to provide solutions for critical behavior of the target audience. Strong market presence and proximity to the final audience helps Factions to provide strategic conceptual solutions that are reflected in their result-oriented designs.


Factions was started a decade ago in Aurangabad by Vishal Sadarjoshi after collecting valuable experience from Lowe Lintas and Kaleidoscope, the leading advertising agencies in India. To provide the best of services and serve the regional areas with the latest trends, Factions shifted its base to Pune after one year. Within a short span of time, Factions spread its wings to Mumbai, Sangli, Kolhapur, Goa and other parts of Maharashtra and Karnataka as well; because of its conceptual and budget based approach.


Roots of Belgaum were calling Vishal to come back and set up shop here and he realized that Belgaum could be a great option because of its strategic location and cost effective work force. Hence, the design studio of Factions was shifted to Belgaum at Mahatma Phule road. Six months of training was given to localities’ from Belgaum with a fine arts background and now Factions, Belgaum takes care of the entire portfolio of over 45 brands in Maharashtra and Karnataka.


Not many will dare to shift shop from a metropolis to a smaller city as Belgaum but Factions did so with an aim of averaging costs and emerge as leaders in the smaller towns. Soon Factions Corporate Communications is planning an office in Bangalore to cater ever growing demands of corporate clientele in south India.


Factions executes everything under the roof for a organization from designing a logo, taking it forward with stationery, brouchers, paper ads, jingles, video ads, corporate films, model & product shoots, conferences, Celebrity & Model management to an event organization you name it and they will arrange it.

They are in this business for a decade now and with names like Videocon Dhoot Hospital Aurangabad, The Haute company Pune, Waterwheel resorts USA, Samruddhi Industries, Sangli, Kalika Steels, Jalna, SKF Bearings Pune, Jehangir Hospital Pune, Taxiads Norway, Amrut Pharma Belgaum, Vega Auto Belgaum are just to name a few.

Excerpts of an interview with Vishal Sadarjoshi:

Questions:

Q. When and how did Factions start? (Elaborate from beginning)

Factions was planned, conceived and started over several cups of coffee, brainstorming which often looked like battles and dreams that always looked so realistic. Factions was born in presence of millions of scribbled papers, a dedicated ash tray and zillions of ideas. Factions was conceptualized in the year 2000 in Aurangabad in a hotel. We used to work in the nights after the hotel used to shut down.

Q. Why did u plan to start shop in Belgaum?

Being from this place, I was always sure of finding intellect here. A small study proved that there were people with talent, which was often wasted in photo studios. Also shifting did not hamper the working of any of our existing clients.

We hail from Chickodi, and my father has spent most of his childhood in Belgaum. My uncles stay here and there are many relatives around. In addition, Pune was becoming very hectic for my parents and they always wanted to shift here. It is only that my transition took a little while or we would have shifted here a couple of years ago.

Q. People in your industry normally flee to metros as there is lot of scope, but in your case, it is otherwise, why?

Exploring the unexplored has always been the mantra of Factions. In addition, SCOPE is not an area or region dependant factor. Advertising or promotion is a need of everybody who wants to expand and grow. Along with this, we have our representation in Pune, Jalna, Aurangabad, Sangli, Bombay and Bangalore. This takes care of our client satisfaction and service.


Q. How many employees are here at your design centre in Belgaum?

Six employees and three management members.

Q. What are the challenges you are facing in Belgaum?

The first and the most important aspect were to train the designers. Talent was there but nobody knew about advertising. Software’s were all known but the conceptualization had to be developed, which at times was very frustrating as we were used to working with skilled and professional manpower.

Secondly designing here was done by printers, so there was no DESIGN CHARGE applicable. In addition, our business being designing, it was very difficult to educate the clients.

Q. Cost wise, Belgaum is cheap but what about clients and delivery?

Through our work and effective presentations, we are already associated with major top ad spenders in Belgaum. In addition, our other clients are very delighted as we can offer faster service and high quality jobs from here. Initially we had to call people from Pune and Bangalore to do our critical assignments. Now everything is in-house and well organized.

Q. Now how many in Belgaum will make a Video ad of 30 secs, so how do you plan to enter the market?

Actually, it is a need of every business house. Cable viewing is exceptional in Belgaum. However, it depends on the vision of the business owner.

The major hindrance is the cost factor. Businesses here tend to work with low quality and low cost production parameters. This will definitely not happen with factions. We will work at the best quality level only. We will wait until somebody understands the value of a conceptual video presentation. Our efforts are on through presentation and storyboards to educate the clients. As it is, our clients from other regions are keeping us very busy with these activities. Therefore, we can afford to go slow with Belgaum on this aspect.

Q. How was your experience concerning the talent pool in Belgaum?(with respect to your field)

Dedication and speed is something that is not associated with Belgaum as far as our field is concerned. Talent is there but there is reluctance in its application. However, the people with us have developed a lot and are sure to improve further.

Q. If Belgaum market does not click do you plan to shift base again?

It has already clicked...so there is no question of shifting. Yes,...we will definitely expand and start more offices in the required regions.

Q. Your thoughts on this website?

Uday nothing much to explain as Google can throw out your traces all over. It is not a site...it is a dedication. I think so much of devotion is amazing. Allaboutbelgaum.com is now Belgaum personified. Every reference, every change, every new thing, lands here first. I should thank you for giving us something that lifts the standards of talents in Belgaum.