Aymanam
Aymanam is a village in the Kottayam District of Kerala, India. It is about 4 km from the railway station in Kottayam along the road to Parippu, and 85 km from the Cochin International Airport. Aymanam is the setting for Arundhati Roy's 1997 novel ''The God of Small Things''. Demographics India census, Aimanam had a population of 34,985 with 17,268 males and 17,717 females. Etymology ''Ay'' means "five" in and ''Vanam'' means "forest" in Malayalam. Hence, ''Aymanam'' means "five forests", which, according to tradition, were Vattakkadu, Thuruthikkadu, Vallyakadu, Moolakkadu and Mekkadu. They survive today only as "snake groves", where fertility idols, in the form of snakes, were worshiped under the trees. Families depute Brahmin once a year for ritualistic offering. Geography Lake Vembanad lies to the west of the village, near Kumarakom, with the Meenachil River providing its water supply, which often floods from June to August due to regular monsoons. Consequently ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Aymanam John
Aymanam John (born 10 April 1953) is a Malayalam–language short-story writer. He hails from Aymanam, a small village in Kerala's Kottayam district which was made famous by Arundhati Roy through her 1997 novel ''The God of Small Things''. Writings John has also written several stories of this village including a collection of memoirs titled ''Ennittumundu Thaamarappoikakal'', where he narrates his native place, the scenic countryside, the people and places and moments that he cherishes. His other famous books include ''Ithara Characharangalude Charitrapusthakam'', ''Christmas Marathinte Veru'' and ''Aymanam Johninte Kathakal'' (which won the 2017 Odakkuzhal Award). He received the 2017 Kerala Sahitya Akademi Award for Story The Kerala Sahitya Akademi Award for Story is an award given every year by the Kerala Sahitya Akademi (Kerala Literary Academy) to Malayalam writers for writing a story of literary merit. It is one of the twelve categories of the Kerala Sahitya .... Re ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Mary Poonen Lukose
Mary Poonen Lukose was an Indian gynecologist, obstetrician and the first female Surgeon General in India. She was the founder of a ''Tuberculosis Sanatorium'' in Nagarcoil and the ''X-Ray and Radium Institute'', Thiruvananthapuram, served as the head of the Health Department in the Princely State of Travancore and was the first woman legislator of the state. The Government of India awarded her the fourth highest Indian civilian award of Padma Shri in 1975. Biography Mary Lukose, née Mary Poonen, was born to a rich Anglican Syrian Christian family as the only child on 2 August 1886 in Aymanam—a small village later made famous by being the setting of the novel ''The God of Small Things''— in the princely state of Travancore (modern day Kerala), in the British Indian Empire. Her father, T. E. Poonen, was a medical doctor, the first medical graduate in Travancore and the Royal Physician of Travancore state. Her mother had health issues due to which Mary was brought u ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Malayalam
Malayalam (; , ) is a Dravidian language spoken in the Indian state of Kerala and the union territories of Lakshadweep and Puducherry ( Mahé district) by the Malayali people. It is one of 22 scheduled languages of India. Malayalam was designated a " Classical Language of India" in 2013. Malayalam has official language status in Kerala, and Puducherry ( Mahé), and is also the primary spoken language of Lakshadweep, and is spoken by 34 million people in India. Malayalam is also spoken by linguistic minorities in the neighbouring states; with significant number of speakers in the Kodagu and Dakshina Kannada districts of Karnataka, and Kanyakumari, district of Tamil Nadu. It is also spoken by the Malayali Diaspora worldwide, especially in the Persian Gulf countries, due to large populations of Malayali expatriates there. There are significant population in each cities in India including Mumbai, Bengaluru, Delhi, Kolkata, Pune etc. The origin of Malayalam remains ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Kottayam District
Kottayam (), is one of 14 districts in the Indian state of Kerala. Kottayam district comprises six municipal towns: Kottayam, Changanassery, Pala, Erattupetta, Ettumanoor, and Vaikom. It is the only district in Kerala that neither borders the Arabian Sea nor any other states. The district is bordered by hills in the east, and the Vembanad Lake and paddy fields of Kuttanad on the west. The area's geographic features include paddy fields, highlands, and hills. As of the 2011 census, 28.6% of the district's residents live in urban areas, and it reports a 97.2% literacy rate. In 2008, the district became the first tobacco-free district in India. Kottayam registered the lowest Multidimensional Poverty Index (MPI) of zero among all districts of India, indicating no deprivation as per the report published by Oxford Poverty and Human Development Initiative and UNDP for districts across India. The district's headquarters are based in the city of Kottayam. Hindustan Newsprint L ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Malayalam Language
Malayalam (; , ) is a Dravidian language spoken in the Indian state of Kerala and the union territories of Lakshadweep and Puducherry ( Mahé district) by the Malayali people. It is one of 22 scheduled languages of India. Malayalam was designated a " Classical Language of India" in 2013. Malayalam has official language status in Kerala, and Puducherry ( Mahé), and is also the primary spoken language of Lakshadweep, and is spoken by 34 million people in India. Malayalam is also spoken by linguistic minorities in the neighbouring states; with significant number of speakers in the Kodagu and Dakshina Kannada districts of Karnataka, and Kanyakumari, district of Tamil Nadu. It is also spoken by the Malayali Diaspora worldwide, especially in the Persian Gulf countries, due to large populations of Malayali expatriates there. There are significant population in each cities in India including Mumbai, Bengaluru, Delhi, Kolkata, Pune etc. The origin of Malayalam remains ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Meenachil River
The Meenachil River or Meenachilaar (Malayalam: ), also known as Kavanar, Valanjar, is a river in Kerala. It is one of the most treacherous rivers in Kerala due to its flash floods, heavy undercurrents and woods and debris it carries from the mountains. It flows through the heart of Kottayam district, Kerala state in southern India. 78km long, originates in the Western Ghats main tributaries are Theekoy aaru from Vagamon hills, Poonjar Aaru and Chittar, flowing westward through the city of Kottayam and other towns like Poonjar, Teekoy, Erattupetta, Bharananganam, Pala, Mutholy, Cherpunkal, Kidangoor and Kumarakom before emptying into the Vembanad Lake on the shore of the Indian Ocean. General elevation ranges from 77 m to 1156 m in the highlands and less than 2 m in the lowlands and 8 to 68 m in the midlands. The Meenachil has a watershed area of 1208.11 km². The river has a total annual yield of 2,349 million cubic metre and an annual utilizable yield of ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Kumarakom
Kumarakom is a popular tourism destination located near the city of Kottayam (), in Kerala, India, famous for its backwater tourism. It is set in the backdrop of the Vembanad Lake, the largest lake in the state of Kerala. History Kumarakom was within the jurisdiction of the king of Thekkumkur while that kingdom existed, and it was usual to have fighting and competitions among local kings. Small boats called ''Chundan Vallam'' and '' Kettu Vallam'' were widely used among the local kings for their lightning attacks and fighting in central Travancore. During those days Vembanad Lake was a dangerous area; therefore the king of Thekkumcore kept soldiers in Kumarakom and constructed a fort at the entrance of Kottathodu in Kumarakom. Soldiers were kept in certain areas of Kumarakom for protection against enemy attacks; some of those places still have "pada" (meaning war) in their names, such as Padakkalam and Padanilam. The remains of the fort's wall, six feet broad, can s ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Kottayam
Kottayam () is a municipal town in the Indian state of Kerala. Flanked by the Western Ghats on the east and the Vembanad Lake and paddy fields of Kuttanad on the west. It is the district headquarters of Kottayam district, located in south-west Kerala. Kottayam is located in the basin of the Meenachil River at an average elevation of above sea level, and has a moderate climate. It is located approximately north of the state capital Thiruvananthapuram. Kottayam is also referred to as "The City of Letters" as many of the first Malayalam daily newspapers, like ''Deepika,'' '' Malayala Manorama,'' and '' Mangalam,'' were started and are headquartered in Kottayam, as are a number of publishing houses. Etymology The royal palace of the Thekkumkur ruler was protected by a fort called ''Thaliyilkotta''. It is believed that the name ''Kottayam'' is derived from a combination of the Malayalam words ''kotta'' which means fort (''Thaliyilkotta'') and ''akam'' which means inside. ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Kerala
Kerala ( ; ) is a state on the Malabar Coast of India. It was formed on 1 November 1956, following the passage of the States Reorganisation Act, by combining Malayalam-speaking regions of the erstwhile regions of Cochin, Malabar, South Canara, and Thiruvithamkoor. Spread over , Kerala is the 21st largest Indian state by area. It is bordered by Karnataka to the north and northeast, Tamil Nadu to the east and south, and the Lakshadweep Sea to the west. With 33 million inhabitants as per the 2011 census, Kerala is the 13th-largest Indian state by population. It is divided into 14 districts with the capital being Thiruvananthapuram. Malayalam is the most widely spoken language and is also the official language of the state. The Chera dynasty was the first prominent kingdom based in Kerala. The Ay kingdom in the deep south and the Ezhimala kingdom in the north formed the other kingdoms in the early years of the Common Era (CE). The region had been a prominent spice exp ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Arundhati Roy
Suzanna Arundhati Roy (born 24 November 1961) is an Indian author best known for her novel ''The God of Small Things'' (1997), which won the Booker Prize for Fiction in 1997 and became the best-selling book by a non-expatriate Indian author. She is also a political activist involved in human rights and environmental protection, environmental causes. Early life Arundhati Roy was born in Shillong, Meghalaya, India, to Mary Roy, a Malayali Jacobite Syrian Christian Church, Jacobite Syrian Christian women's rights activist from Kerala and Rajib Roy, a Bengali people, Bengali Hindu tea plantation manager from Kolkata, Calcutta.Siddhartha Deb,Arundhati Roy, the Not-So-Reluctant Renegade", ''The New York Times'', 5 March 2014. Accessed 5 March 2014. When she was two, her parents divorced and she returned to Kerala with her mother and brother. For some time, the family lived with Roy's maternal grandfather in Ooty, Tamil Nadu. When she was five, the family moved back to Kerala, where ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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The God Of Small Things
''The God of Small Things'' is a family drama novel written by Indian writer Arundhati Roy. Roy's debut novel, it is a story about the childhood experiences of fraternal twins whose lives are destroyed by the "Love Laws" prevalent in 1960s Kerala, India. The novel explores how small, seemingly insignificant things shape people's behavior and their lives. The novel also explores the lingering effects of casteism in India. It won the Booker Prize in 1997. ''The God of Small Things'' was Roy's first book and only novel until the 2017 publication of '' The Ministry of Utmost Happiness'' twenty years later. She began writing the manuscript for ''The God of Small Things'' in 1992 and finished four years later, in 1996. It was published the following year. The potential of the story was first recognized by Pankaj Mishra, an editor with HarperCollins, who sent it to three British publishers. Roy received £500,000 in advance and rights to the book were sold in 21 countries. Plot Th ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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States And Territories Of India
India is a federal union comprising 28 states and 8 union territories, with a total of 36 entities. The states and union territories are further subdivided into districts and smaller administrative divisions. History Pre-independence The Indian subcontinent has been ruled by many different ethnic groups throughout its history, each instituting their own policies of administrative division in the region. The British Raj The British Raj (; from Hindi language, Hindi ''rāj'': kingdom, realm, state, or empire) was the rule of the British The Crown, Crown on the Indian subcontinent; * * it is also called Crown rule in India, * * * * or Direct rule in India, * Q ... mostly retained the administrative structure of the preceding Mughal Empire. India was divided into provinces (also called Presidencies), directly governed by the British, and princely states, which were nominally controlled by a local prince or raja loyal to the British Empire, which held ''de f ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |