Coastal Plus

In the country where superstitions are deep rooted, in times when champions of anti-superstition bill are being killed, to make a film like Stree is undoubtedly an act of bravery. In Bombay cinema the genre of horror films has always played to the stereotype using the superstitions to its benefit and has strengthened those superstitions. Stree breaks away from this tradition and subverts not just...

Amidst the growing the Muslim population, the rise of middle class in Muslim-majority countries and improved access to travel information and the increasing availability of Muslim-friendly travel services, Halal tourism is now gaining tremendous traction across the world. A considerable number of Muslim travellers are focusing more on the “halalness” of the trip. The Muslim travel market was worth...

When the teenage Kashmiri girl Iram Habib expressed her wish to join the aviation sector after Class XII, no one was ready to support her. But, she did not give up on her dreams. Now, the 30-year-old has become the only woman pilot from Srinagar to fly a commercial aircraft. She will join a private airline next month. It took her six years to convince her parents to allow her to pursue her dream...

Bengaluru, Aug 30: Karnataka Chief Minister HD Kumaraswamy completes 100 days in office today. But there is no enthusiasm among the party cadre and the celebration is muted across the state. Apart from the lack of coordination, and mutual distrust between the coalition partners, the recent floods in Kodagu and neighbouring districts, and unending draught in parts of the state have dampened the...

A biography of former prime minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee, who passed away on August 16, 2018, looks at the hardline roots behind his liberal image. Ullekh NP’s The Untold Vajpayee: Politician and Paradox, (published by Penguin Books India) which was released on December 25, 2016 to mark Vajpayee’s 92nd birthday, looks at his relationship with leaders of his party and his love–hate association...

Bengaluru: The union government of India has urged the Karnataka state government to set up a “detention centre” in Bengaluru exclusively for overstaying foreign nationals and illegal immigrants from other countries. The Union Home Ministry wrote a letter last week to the Principal Secretary of the State Home Department, directing to take up measures to set up a detention centre in Bengaluru at...

Bidar, Jul 30: In the tiny hamlet of Murki in Karnataka’s Bidar district, inspector VB Yadwad surveyed a pile of bricks and stones in a ditch where he and other police officers had been attacked earlier this month while trying to save a group of five men on a road trip from a violent mob. "We tried hard to stop them," said Mr Yadwad, pointing to injuries on his back. "They wouldn't listen to...

Dentist-turned-politician Dr Y Bharath Shetty, who wrestled the Mangaluru City North constituency from Congress leader B A Mohiuddin Bava in 2018 Karnataka Assembly polls, feels that police should be given a free hand to keep a check on communal tensions in coastal Karnataka. The enthusiastic first time MLA, in a candid chat with coastaldigest.com, also elaborates his plan for the constituency...

It was a regular Zoology assignment in 2004 that triggered the sudden interest of then student Sammilan Shetty towards butterflies. Fourteen-years since, having quit his fulltime-lectureship post, this 32-year-old has been successfully running Karnataka’s first private butterfly park in coastal district of Dakshina Kannada since 2011. At the foothills of Western Ghats in Belvai village of...

Udupi, Jun 17: India’s coffee cradle Chikkamagaluru has given South India’s first ever woman fighter pilot. Meghana Shanbhag was the only woman among the 113 flight cadets who graduated as flying officers of the Indian Air Force at the combined graduation parade at Telangana’s Dundigal yesterday. She has joined the club of five other women fighter pilots of the IAF, who hail from Madhya Pradesh...