Tuesday, November 29, 2011

There is sweat and toil behind every BIDRIWARE

Exquisite:Shah Rasheed Ahmed Quadri working on a Bidriware at Shantiniketan School at Alevoor in Udupi.

Udupi: You simply cannot take your eyes off the exquisite engravings on the goblet, vase and other items made of Bidriware. Such is their mesmerising power.

The rhythmic sound of a hammer on a chisel while dedicatedly engraving designs on a Bidri vase is what attracts you to the master craftsman Shah Rasheed Ahmed Quadri, who is the creator of these beautiful items.

The basic material of Bidriware is an alloy of zinc and copper in the proportion of 16:1. It is on this alloy that artistic designs in pure silver are engraved.

The Birdriware undergoes an eight-stage process. The eight stages are moulding, smoothening by file, designing by chisels, engraving by chisel and hammer, pure silver inlaying, smoothening again, buffing and finally oxidising by soil and ammonium chloride.

The soil for the Bidriware is found in Bidar Fort and in buildings where neither sunlight nor rain has fallen for hundreds of years in the town of Bidar.

According to Mr. Quadri, the origin of Bidriware could be traced to 14th century. Sultan Ahmed Shah Wali Bahamani of the Bahami dynasty invited Abdullah bin Kaiser, a craftsman from Iran who was known for doing beautiful engraving work, for decorating his palaces and courts. Some local people then learnt this work, he said.

At present, there are 200 persons in Bidar who are well versed in producing Bidriware. Various items such as goblets, vases, wine decanters, hookahs, cardholders and multi-purpose boxes are produced in Bidriware metal. “It takes eight craftsmen and 15 days to produce a goblet,” Mr. Quadri says.

Producing items from Bidriware has been a family profession of Mr. Quadri. This profession has been passed on from one generation to another. “My brothers and two sons are in this profession. I even trained some outsiders, but they did not stick to it,” he says.

But the stoppage of subsidy of Rs. 16 lakh a year by the Karnataka Handicrafts Development Corporation had hit the craftsmen hard. “Many craftsmen are leaving the trade to work as electricians and plumbers. The Government should act fast and save this glorious metal handicraft otherwise it may become extinct,” Mr. Quadri says.

A recipient of several awards, Mr. Quadri gave a demonstration of Bidriware craft as part of the Karnataka tableau during the Republic Day parade at Rajpath in New Delhi on January 26, 2011.


Source: kemmannu
URL: http://www.kemmannu.com/index.php?action=highlights&type=619


Tuesday, November 22, 2011

Women killed in Firing in Bidar (vidya nagar)

: A five-member gang sprayed bullets on a 40-year-old woman travelling in a car here on Sunday afternoon over previous enmity. She died of bullet wounds at Bidar Government Hospital within hours.
The victim – Vidyavathi Basavaraj Gode – was returning to her Vidya Nagar home along with her second son, Johnson, when their vehicle was attacked by the car-borne assailants at Ramatheertha Circle here. The gang fired at Johnson, but when he ducked, his mother took the hit. Police said Vidyavathi’s daughter-in-law’s former boyfriend, Rubin, could be behind the attack, as he felt he was cheated in love.
Hanumanth Ladu, a former member of the Bidar zilla panchayat, claimed that Rubin was in love with his daughter, Swarna, and tried to elope with her. After rescuing her from Rubin’s clutches, Hanumanth married off his daughter to Vidyavathi’s first son, Symond.

Police said Rubin’s target was Symond, who used to drive the car regularly. On Sunday, his brother Johnson was at the wheel. The five attackers have been identified as Ismail, Ishaq, Rubin, Neelamma and Jaipal. Both Hanumanth and Basavaraj have filed complaints at the Gandhi Ganj police station.



Source: times of india

URl : http://epaper.timesofindia.com/Default/Scripting/ArticleWin.asp?From=Archive&Source=Page&Skin=TOINEW&BaseHref=TOIBG/2011/11/21&PageLabel=7&EntityId=Ar00701&ViewMode=HTML


Monday, November 21, 2011

Sharad Pawar to visit Bidar


“Union Agriculture Minister Sharad Pawar will inaugurate an agriculture research centre at Tadola village in Basavakalyan taluk on November 26,” Ishwar Khandre, MLA, said here on Friday.

He said Mr. Pawar would address a sugarcane growers' conference on the Mahatma Gandhi Sahakari Sakkare Karakhane premises at Hunaji village in Bhalki taluk and inaugurate a warehouse on the factory's premises.

He will inaugurate a warehouse in the factory premises, said Mr. Khandre.


Source: The Hindu

URL: http://www.thehindu.com/todays-paper/tp-national/tp-karnataka/article2641111.ece



Tuesday, November 15, 2011

Hawk fighter aircraft soars over Bidar



The Hawk brings a huge step-up in capability as a training aircraft, bridging the gap between the basic piston-engined trainer and the high performance flying of an advanced fighter aircraft.

Situated around 160km from Hyderabad, the small town of Bidar is host to one of the Indian Air Force’s (IAF’s) five Flying Training Establishments. Here, trainee pilots fresh from the Air Force Academy are taught the skills and techniques required of a modern fighter pilot before being assigned to one of the combat units of the world’s fourth-largest air force.

Bidar has been an IAF training base since the early 1960s but has been remodelled and refurbished for the arrival of the BAE Systems Hawk Advanced Jet Trainer. The runway has been extended to 9,000 feet to make it more in tune for training requirements, new facilities for aircraft and engine maintenance and testing have been built and a new computer-based learning syllabus introduced.

The responsibility for this new era of training for the IAF has recently been inherited by a new Commanding Officer at the base, Air Commodore Dharkar, who shares the reasons behind the Hawk’s selection.

‘The Hawk is an exceptional training platform with good hands-on training capability. It provides a good introduction to new pilots of the electronic cockpit so that when trainees go on to fly other platforms they have prior knowledge of how to use them effectively. The Hawk is a good bridge from a low capability to a very high capability platform.’







Read full at: http://www.indiastrategic.in/topstories1248_Hawk_soars_over_Bidar.htm

Source: indiastrategic