Euro 2008 football mania grips Kerala

Kerala delirious with bout of soccer fever

Goooaaall!! That's the resounding call that shatters the late nights in Kerala homes and hangouts, as hundreds of soccer fans all across this football-crazy State take in the past-midnight telecasts of the Euro 2008 matches now going on in Europe. In public places, on large screens, they can savour those crisp and tense moments of the best of European football as Euro 2008 enters the final stages.

It is the coastal areas of Kerala that contain the most number of diehard fans, especially in the northern Malabar region of Kozhikode, Talasherry, Mallapuram and Kannur districts. Here, on the beaches can be found huge screens on to which television projector systems beam the matches live to hundreds of fans, most of whom are fishermen.

The coastal belts of the State are also home to several football clubs that organize regular matches between local teams. They also conduct annual coaching camps to hunt out new talent and groom the fresh finds into match-winning footballers. Expenses are usuall covered through the conduct of "sevens" football tournaments, which are a Kerala version of abbreviated football, with seven members in each team. Some clubs manage to get sponsorship from local businesses and companies, while others depend on generous contributions from non-resident Keralites.

One such club, according to a report by ANI, is the Nynanvalap Football Fans Association (NFFA) in Kozhikode, which started conducting beach soccer matches in 1996. The club has received various items from the official sponsors of Euro 2008.

Monsoon weak over Kerala

Still not too many monsoon clouds over Kerala

Over a fortnight into the southwest monsoon season, Kerala is still not yet seeing the kind of torrential rains that normally heralds a good monsoon. A report from PTI in The Hindu says "Despite its timely onset, southwest monsoon has been weak over Kerala with the state registering an average deficiency of 40 per cent in rainfall in its first lap.

While north Kerala received fairly good rains in the first phase, the southern areas, especially the tail-end districts of Kollam and Thiruvananthapuram, had gone without any substantial rainfall in the last fortnight.

According to sources in the India Meteorological Department (IMD), lack of sufficient wind speed was the main factor constricting the monsoon activity in the region.

Shortly after its weak onset over Kerala coast on May 31, a low pressure was formed towards south of the Lakshadweep, which took a good portion of humidity towards the Oman coast. This came in the way of the monsoon activity gaining momentum over the Kerala coast, IMD Director M D Ramachandran told PTI on Sunday.

Now, a low pressure had been formed off the Orissa Coast in the Bay of Bengal, and, if it strengthened, the monsoon would pick up in the coming days bringing good rains across the state, he said.

In its initial phase, the state would have received an average 225 mm of rainfall but till last mid-weak there was deficiency of about 40 per cent.

Traditionally, the first fortnight after the onset of the monsoon -- known in local parlance as 'edavapathy'-- should have brought heavy rains. This was critical factor for farming operations and also essential to sustain the hydel power base of the state."

Qatar flight connections to Kerala

Flying from Qatar to Kozhikode in Kerala

Qatar Airways launched a new flight route to Kozhikode in the popular Indian state of Kerala today. Formerly known as Calicut, Kozhikode is Kerala's third-largest city and home to beaches, historic sites, lush green scenery and Ayurvedic health treatments.

Travellers will be able to link the direct non-stop scheduled service from Doha to the coastal city in southern India with daily connections from London's Heathrow and Gatwick airport, as well as flights from Manchester.

The new route takes Qatar Airways' capacity to India up to 58 flights a week spread across nine cities, including Delhi, Mumbai, Chennai, Hyderabad, Ahmedabad, Trivandrum, Cochin and Nagpur.