Shirley Booth was an American stage, film and television actress. A theater actress, Booth began her career on Broadway in 1925, her most significant success was as Lola Delaney, in the drama Come Back, Little Sheba, for which she received her first Tony Award in 1950. She made her film debut, reprising her role in the 1952 film version, for which she won the Academy Award for Best Actress and the Golden Globe Award for Best Actress for her performance. Despite her successful entry into films, she preferred acting on the stage, made only four more films. From 1961-66, she played the title role in the sitcom Hazel, for which she won two Primetime Emmy Awards, she was acclaimed for her performance in the 1966 television production of The Glass Menagerie. Her final role was Mrs. Claus in the 1974 animated Christmas television special The Year Without a Santa Claus. Booth was born in New York City to Virginia M. Ford. In the 1905 New York state census, she was listed as Thelma Booth Ford, she had a younger sister, Jean.

Her early childhood was spent in Flatbush, where she attended Public School 152. When she was seven, Booth's family moved to Philadelphia where she first became interested in acting after seeing a stage performance; when Booth was a teenager, her family moved to Hartford, where she became involved in summer stock. She made her stage debut in a production of Mother Carey's Chickens. Against her father's protests, she dropped out of school and traveled to New York City to further pursue a career, she used the name "Thelma Booth" when her father forbade her to use the family name professionally. She changed her name to Shirley Booth. Booth began her career onstage as a teenager, she was a prominent actress in Pittsburgh theatre for a time, performing with the Sharp Company. Her debut on Broadway was in the play, Hell's Bells, opposite Humphrey Bogart on January 26, 1925. Booth first attracted major notice as the female lead in the comedy hit Three Men on a Horse, which ran two years from 1935 to 1937.

During the 1930s and 1940s, she achieved popularity in dramas and musicals. She acted with Katharine Hepburn in The Philadelphia Story, originated the role of Ruth Sherwood in the 1940 Broadway production of My Sister Eileen and performed with Ralph Bellamy in Tomorrow the World. Booth starred on the popular radio series Duffy's Tavern, playing the lighthearted, man-crazy daughter of the unseen tavern owner on CBS radio from 1941 to 1942 and on NBC Blue from 1942 to 1943, her then-husband, Ed Gardner and wrote the show, as well as played its lead character, the malapropping manager of the tavern. She auditioned unsuccessfully for the title role of Our Miss Brooks in 1948. Our Miss Brooks became a television hit when the title role went to Eve Arden. Booth received her first Tony Award, for Best Supporting or Featured Actress, for her performance as Grace Woods in Goodbye, My Fancy, her second Tony was for Best Actress in a Play, which she received for her acclaimed performance as the tortured wife Lola Delaney in the poignant drama Come Back, Little Sheba.

Her leading man, Sidney Blackmer, received the Tony for Best Actor in a Play for his performance as her husband, Doc. Her success in Come Back, Little Sheba was followed by the musical A Tree Grows in Brooklyn, in which she played the feisty, but lovable Aunt Sissy, which proved to be another major hit, her popularity was such that, at the time, the story was skewed from the original so that Aunt Sissy was the leading role. Booth went to Hollywood and reprised her stage role in the 1952 film version of Come Back, Little Sheba with Burt Lancaster playing Doc. After that movie, her first of only five films in her career, was completed, she returned to New York and played Leona Samish in The Time of the Cuckoo on Broadway. In 1953, Booth received the Academy Award for Best Actress in a Leading Role for her performance in Come Back, Little Sheba, becoming the first actress to win both a Tony and an Oscar for the same role; the film earned Booth Best Actress awards from The Cannes Film Festival, the Golden Globe Awards, The New York Film Critics Circle Awards, National Board of Review.

She received her third Tony, her second in the Best Actress in a Play category, for her performance in the Broadway production of Arthur Laurents' play The Time of the Cuckoo. Booth was 54 years old when she made her first movie, although she had shaved a decade off her real age, with her publicity stating 1907 as the year of her birth, her correct year of birth was known by only her closest associates until her correct year of birth, 1898, was announced at the time of her death. Her second starring film, a romantic drama About Mrs. Leslie opposite Robert Ryan, was released in 1954 to good reviews, but was poorly received by audiences. In 1953, Booth had made a cameo appearance as herself in the all-star comedy/drama movie Main Street to Broadway, she spent the next few years commuting between New California. On Broadway, she scored personal successes in the musical By the Beautiful Sea and the comedy Desk Set. Although Booth had become well known t

Pranayakadha is a 2014 Malayalam romance-drama film written and directed by Aadhi Balakrishnan. Starring actors Arun V. Narayan and Swarna Thomas in the lead roles, the film was released on 17 January 2014. Arun V. Narayan Swarna Thomas Balachandran Chullikkadu Firos P. S. Govindankutty Adoor Jayaprakash Kuloor Joy Mathew Thara Kalyan Urmila Unni The soundtrack album of the film has been composed by Alphons Joseph, while lyrics have been penned by Murukan Kattakada and Rafeeq Ahammed. On 25 June 2013, the making of the song "Manjil Mungippongum" was leaked on the net by Metromatinee.com. All lyrics are written by Murukan Kattakada. Official Movie Trailer

Ambalavasi is a generic name for a group of castes among Hindus in Kerala, who render temple services. Some Ambalavasi castes are patrilineal; those that practise matrilineality share many cultural similarities with the Nair caste. Their ritual rank in Hinduism lies somewhere between the Nairs; the castes which comprised the Ambalavasi community each contained only a few members. The castes may be broadly classified under the two main heads of - the thread-bearing Ambalavasis and the threadless Ambalavasis. Under the former head come the castes such as Pushpakan, Thiyyadi, Muthathu, Chakyar etc. who wear the Sacred-thread and under the latter Pihsaradi, Varyar and Poduval. Owing to their similarities in social customs and manners, some castes among the sacred thread bearing ambalavasis are together called Pushpaka Brahmins. Pushpaka, who bring flowers to the temples Theeyatt Unni Nambeesan Kurukkal Puppalli Nambidi Chakyar, who stages dramas called Kooth and Koodiyattam Nambiar Pisharody Marar, who act as temple musicians Warrier Poduval,who works as temple watchmanThe feminine names of threadless ambalavasi castes are formed by adding the suffix -syar to the masculine names as, Pisharadi-Pisharasyar, Marar-Marasyar, Variar-Varasyar, Poduval-Poduvalsyar.

Though all Ampalavāsis have to do service in temples, they have sufficiently distinct functions to perform. Pushpakans and Nambeesans are teachers in the Pathasalas or Mutts and suppliers of flowers to temple. Chakyar stages drama. Marar serves as temple musician. Variar and Poduval did managerial and executive functions of temple committees and served as storekeepers Kazhakams or Ambalakkazhakams refer to associations of ambalavasi peoples in a temple to perform specific duties in the temple; the Malayalam or Tamil term Kazhaka is believed to be originated from the Sanskrit word घटकः meaning a unit or part or component. Traditionally, Ambalavasis are associated with various types of temple arts. Earlier, each of these temple arts were performed only by specific Ambalavasi castes. Now there is no caste barrier, they lived in villages either where the land was owned by one Nambudiri Brahmin family or where the land was owned by a temple, the running of, in the control of a group of Nambudiri families.

The latter villages were called sanketams. The temples in which they worked comprised four basic types: Those in sanketams were large and were dedicated to deities which were worshipped throughout India, such as Shiva and Vishnu. Private temples, owned by Nambudiri families, which were the smaller versions of those found in the sanketams; the private temples of the royal lines, feudatory chiefs and vassal chiefs of what is now Kerala, which were dedicated to Bhagavati List of Ambalavasis