Mumbai

It has been a terrible 24 hours (or more) for India. Mumbai is virtually a war zone, looks like a battle field. I started following the incidents from about 19:00hours from yesterday. Mumbai has been brutally attacked by 20 or so terrorists at 10 different locations; more than 100 people are said to be dead; among them about 6 foreigners and many taken hostage. It seems that the terrorists arrived in a boat from Arabian sea after having dropped from a mother-ship off the Indian coast. Most of the news channels around the world have been covering the incidents live with in-depth analysis of what has been taking place. How long will this continue? Hasn't human life got any value?

There will be a lot of questions asked in the next few days. Who are responsible? How can a bunch of people just come in a few boats and attack a country which claims to be the biggest democracy and boast of third largest armed forces in the world? What are the politicians and the government doing?

India is not a stranger to indiscriminate terror attacks. Such attacks have occurred regularly, and with steadily increasing frequency, in recent years. In this year itself there have been bomb blasts in many major cities of India that has left many dead. Mumbai, India's financial capital, has been targeted before. So why did the government not have a Crisis- Management team in place? The terrorists it seems knew exactly what they were doing; where to hit , how to move around the city and even the layout of each hotel probably better than the security forces. Is this an intelligence failure or a Coast guard failure or a security failure or a total failure of law and order in the state?


Countries and individuals are of mainly 2 types; some are proactive, some reactive (early or late!)...In this case I felt that the government and authorities were almost inactive (with due respect to all the security, police and other forces who are still trying to rescue the innocent lives). It took the government about 24 hours to even establish a help line! I remember a movie which I watched recently called 'Wednesday'. In this movie a common man who was sick of living in terror, decided to act as he felt that the government and police were inefficient to maintain the safety and security of common people. No wonder people start thinking along these lines; There is widespread shock, anger and sadness around; especially anger against the politicians. I hope the politicians and authorities start doing something for their country. This should be a wake up call for everyone and let episodes like this never be allowed to be repeated again.

FSS syndrome and Time

Friday- Saturday- Sunday (FSS) syndrome is a new kind of experience which I am going through since my arrival in UK.

I would define FSS syndrome as the physical, mental, emotional and physiological effects and changes in ones body and mind before and after the period spanning between 17:00hours on Friday till about 8:00 am the following morning of Monday..

I did my schooling and undergraduate education in India and never thought that much about week-end and week-days (WEWD). Of course I may have been very naive or may be that I thought everyday is more or less similar. Anyway I never had this concept. Since my arrival here I slowly started to understand that everything here revolves around the concept of weekday-weekend cycle and it seems that every person in the west is a 'victim' of this condition in one way or other.

Most people work very hard, just to relax over the week-end, recharge their batteries, then again back to Monday- Friday cycle.... I know a lot of people have butterflies in the stomach from Sunday morning and have sleepless or disturbed sleeping on Sunday nights, called by the popular term Sunday night syndrome. Some people like to sleep on &on, on Saturday and Sunday mornings with out getting out of bed till noon to 'over-compensate' this...

"For six days work may be done, but on the seventh day you shall have a holy day, a sabbath of complete rest to the Lord; whoever does any work on it shall be put to death-Holy bible Exodus 35.2; So this is not a new phenomenon. Also this is not just limited to the western world. I can see this process very much in India and other eastern countries too. In the Middle-east this is TF (Thursday-Friday syndrome) rather than FSS...

One of the problems with this WEWD cycle specially for a full time worker (ie from Monday- Friday 9:00-17:00) is that everything comes to a halt after 5:00pm during week days. The only time they can do the shopping and other activities like Banking, post office etc is on Saturday. Thank god, in the last few years because of the Sunday Trading Act(a UK law governing a shop's right to trade on a Sunday) bigger shops open for 6 hours on Sundays.

It seems that in UK all we know is Monday morning ie starting a new week and before we realise it is Friday and then the same WEWD cycle. How fast time moves....or is it just normal? I remember recently reading an article on time. 'Clock time' may be about minutes and hours, but 'Real Time' is down to how we experience it, which differs from person to person depending on what we're doing.

A child's school day(9:00-15:30) is like a 20-hour day for an adult. Children are experiencing everything for the first time, all their experiences are new. They also have an incredibly intense vision of the world, an amazing fresh perception. Children are amazingly awake to the world around us, so it seems time passes slowly for them. This is Perceptual theory first put forward William James. Also according to the theory of relativity, time is related to a lot of factors; its not absolute. So I think its all about our perception.

I remember as a child everything seems to be going slow especially each academic year at school. Everyone will be waiting for the summer holidays in each academic year and when we are through a few weeks (into the holidays) , think that the time is going slow and that we want to get back to the new year at school (for new books, new labels, new uniform , pen/pencils etc etc), some how as an adult we have fewer new experiences and so probably time goes too fast. Older people also tend to have fewer new experiences and this may be a reason why it feels like time is going fast.....It may be that Children don't have much responsibility and so feel like there is more time. Also an year is a long period for a child while for an adult it is too short!

If you have a meeting in London, rather than driving (though I love driving), its always better to take a train as one can get some work done or may be meet new people. In a long haul flight we can get 'more time' than our next seat sleeping passenger if we do something, even reading a book/ news paper.

So change your daily routines, bring in novelty, have new experiences. For example if you are an early riser try to do more at night and sleep late. For me who is a late sleeper and a late riser the best advice to follow would be....as the old saying goes..Early to bed and early to rise makes a man (and woman) healthy, wealthy, wise and may be slow down time too!!!

Growing clout?

Just now read an interesting article in BBC. ie The Indian navy has been given formal approval by the United Nations to go after pirate ships in Somali waters.

The background to this is that 2 days ago, on Tuesday, an Indian warship sank a suspected Somali pirate vessel after it opened fire on it in the Gulf of Aden. Piracy incidents have surged off the Somali coast. A number of Indian crews have been on ships hijacked by pirates.

I was thinking can United nations give authority to a member country to patrol another countries coast? Yes, I understand that it will be under certain circumstances that Indian warships can enter Somali waters. Buts still critics can draw comparisons between this and what is happening at present in the world especially Afghanistan and Iraq, though on a different scale....

Switch on your brains, ICC/BCCI

Common...Switch on the flood lights! I am wondering why can't the BCCI and ICC have that rule in place for the third one-day at Kanpur today. It was an even match considering how brutally England were beaten in the last 2 games in the ODI series. India now leads the 7 match series 3-0.

When a match is organised in Kanpur at this time of the year the organisers should have some sense that it will be foggy/dark in the evening by 16:00 hours. They should have made it a day/night match or else made the provision of switching on the lights in case of bad-light. One might imagine that the ICC would have learned the lesson from last world cup final debacle in Windies when Srilanka was made to bat for 3 overs in pitch-black darkness..

I am not sure whether carrying on the game with lights switched on, would have changed the result (other than the fact that India's win would have been in terms of number of wickets rather than 16 runs by Duckworth-Lewis method); but this would have given the English team a chance to fight and may be given them a chance to an unlikely victory making it 2-1 rather than 3-0 at this point in the series.

At least Pietersen and mates can be reassured by the fact that the margins of Indian victories have been coming down steadily ie 158 runs, 54 runs and now 16 runs. This may be due to the fact that this English team at last may be coming to terms with the opposition, the conditions and, perhaps most importantly, themselves (after the loss of 20 million dollars at Stanford match with Windies).

The end of Australian Domination

Australia ended a disastrous tour to India having lost the series 2-0 and the Border-Gavaskar Trophy. Does this mean the beginning of the end of Australian Domination or does it mean that other teams are catching up with them? It is clear that India has made tremendous progress in the last few years, specifically after 2000 under the leadership of Saurav Ganguly. He is the first Indian Captain who raised the profile of Indian Crickets image overseas by building a team with both experience and youthfulness by his astute qualities, leadership skills and killer instinct (which I thought India was lacking previously though individual players like Kapil Dev, Srikkanth etc exhibited this from time to time)

Under Ganguly's captaincy India won 11 Tests overseas including matches in Sri Lanka, West Indies, England, Australia and Pakistan. India's success abroad has continued even after Ganguly's tenure ended with the torch being handed over to Dhoni after a short 'delay' when Rahul Dravid and Anil Kumble were captains

"Winning at any cost", the Australian way, was simply lacking in this series. There may have been many reasons behind this, but the decision of Ponting to use his spinners on Sunday - and then watching them ease the pressure on India - instead of looking for a quick kill and thinking of the consequences later cost them the test , the series and the coveted Border-Gavaskar trophy.

I always considered Steve Waugh as a much better captain than Ponting, but loosing one series doesn't make Ponting a bad captain either. I am sure Ponting will be back to his winning ways when Australia start their series against New-Zealand later this month. However, this series win by India will give a lot of confidence to other test playing nations to take on Australia whose "invincible label" is cracking especially after the retirement of Warne, Mcgrath and Gilchrist. Saying that even when these players were playing for Australia, India have always been a headache to Australians as they have lost 3 of their 4 test series in India in the last decade....

Oh Boy! America My America!!

Barack Obama has been chosen as the new president elect of US. What a resounding and convincing victory! This is probably one US presidential election that the whole world had been following with keen interest. It was clear watching the television-result-saga into early hours of morning, that Obama is going to be the first non-white president of US when he will be sworn in on Jan 20, 2009.

Obama has been a ray of hope to the whole world and specifically the US where its been bad news after bad news in every field. In his own words after the victory"America is a place where all things are possible and the "dream of our founders" is alive; "It's been a long time coming but tonight, because of what we did on this day, in this election, at this defining moment, change has come to America"

The whole world it seems hoped and prayed for his victory. In fact a recent BBC poll showed that all the 22 countries that took part in the poll wanted Obama to be the president of US. Everyone hopes that he will improve the situation in US and also its relations with other countries in today's multipolar world.

Amma 2008

Amma was in London on October 26-28th. On 25th there was the AR Rahman music evening at Rasa Restaurant at Holiday Inn, near Kings Cross; Santhi was waiting for us there. Divya and Sumesh too came with us. It took us a bit of time to reach Kings Cross because of the heavy central London traffic on a Friday. Parked our car just outside the hotel. The music night had already began when we reached there. The hall is rather small and so sound effects were not great. I would say the music was average; but Manoj's tabla and Suraj's performance were great. The food was good too...

On 26th morning we went to Alexandra palace. This time rather than Darshan tokens( which were already given away by the time we reached there) we were given different coloured cards. The idea was that if time permits we Amma would give us Darshan in the morning; otherwise it will be in the evening. Met Prasad and family, who did not want to stay too long as Kannan was getting upset. Nitin and family had also come. All of them were very overwhelmed with emotions after the Darshan especially his parents.

Amma asked all of us to sit near her after Darshan. Somehow just sitting there or spending time in her presence gives a nice feeling. Santhi had come as I insisted. But Amma on seeing him asked Santhi to stand near her for some time. He stood there for rest of Darshan that morning. Amma also told him to be there that evening. Met Renuka chechi; She is a Swamini who works as a supervisor in one of Amma's institutions in Perumbavoor (originally from Kannur). She had relatives in Grimsby too. In the afternoon we went to the washing area and did seva by washing all the waste plates. Amma's Prabhashanam in the evening was as usual in simple words. Stayed at Sumesh's flat that evening.

The next day too we went to Alexandra palace. I did not plan to go there, but just felt like seeing Amma again. Bhavani Chechi kindly gave us darshan tokens when I told her that we will be returning that evening and are not staying for Devi-bhava the next day. Darshan was great and when Amma was returning after the morning Darshan at around 17:00 hours, she came and stopped near me and asked how I was and asked specifically about Santhi! Vava at that time asked about Arathy

That evening we did Seva at the food stall. Manikutty was helping with serving the sweets! It was a nice feeling just being there. Mani took her new friend Eve (from Scotland) to the stage and was seen chatting to Amma. She gave Amma the pictures she had drawn. It seems she asked Amma whether she could stay with Amma for ever!! Amma just smiled back.....
Reached Leicester well past mid-night....

"May the tree of our life
Be firmly rooted in the soil of love,
Let good deeds be the leaves on that tree.
May words of kindness form its flowers
And may peace be its fruits"

Amma

Over the Moon

India successfully launched Chandrayaan-1. Its a major achievement for Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO). It is a time for jubilation for all Indians and specifically the scientific community of India and they are cherishing every moment of it with the successful launch. In two weeks time the robotic probe will reach the lunar orbit (about 100 km).It will orbit the Moon, compiling a 3-D atlas of the lunar surface and mapping the distribution of elements and minerals.

ISRO revealed that Chandrayaan-1 is only the beginning, and that the mission, which is expected to last for two years, will be followed by Chandrayaan-2, which will go even further, by landing on the Moon, and continue exploration with a rover. India’s plans don’t stop here, and in the future, the ISRO also hopes it will be able to send an unmanned spacecraft to Mars and beyond (to asteroids and comets, and even one to study the Sun). Mr Madhavan Nair Chairman of ISRO announced that they plan to send a man to space in 2015. For the time being, the Moon awaits......

Unlike the lunar and space race in the 60's and 70's that was probably exploratory or for supremacy (between erstwhile Soviet Union and US), the present spike of interest in moon exploration (especially from Europe, Japan and China) is more commercial, scientific and even has tactical implications. It is to find out what is there on the moon, and whether technologies can be developed on earth to make rewarding use of lunar resources.The presence of helium-3, believed to be a clean and excellent fuel of the future is just one of the reasons why countries want to literally, reach for the moon. The Moon may well hold hidden tales about the early history of the Solar System, its evolution and of the crucial period when life emerged on the Earth.

The Chandrayaan-1 lunar probe marks an effort by ISRO to go beyond the Vikram Sarabhai dream (Father of Indian Space Program) — a first step in taking on the challenges of deep space exploration. ISRO is setting a trend in space exploration by demonstrating the fact that we are all one world ie "Vasudeva Kudumbakam" (the entire creation of God is one family). It is exemplified by the fact that the mission includes five ISRO payloads and six payloads from other international space agencies including NASA, ESA and the Bulgarian Aerospace Agency, which are being carried free of cost. Congrats to all the scientists and people behind this successful venture. I conclude with the words of Professor Vikram Sarabhai (1919-1971)

"There are some who question the relevance of space activities in a developing nation. To us, there is no ambiguity of purpose. We do not have the fantasy of competing with the economically advanced nations in the exploration of the moon or the planets or manned space-flight. But we are convinced that if we are to play a meaningful role nationally, and in the community of nations, we must be second to none in the application of advanced technologies to the real problems of man and society. "

Mohanlal and Suraaj show

The feedback from the Mohanlal show (termed Mohanlal Daily Delight show 2008- Europe) was that it was average.We went with Sunil and family and it at Royal Concert Hall, Nottingham. One of the reasons why people said it is average because most of the malayali homes at present have Satellite TV and have watched the skits and other similar performances before.

Generally, I liked the programme especially the performance of Suraj Venjarumoodu. He was the star of the show. Mohanlal was also impressive. It was a great feeling watching a legend perform on stage at a liveshow.In dance performances Mohanlal was very flexible and his movements were very subtle and elegant. However, the lip singing was quite evident, though he tried to make it up with his acting performanc. The female artists ie Jyotirmayi and Lakshmi Gopalaswamy were good. Meera Nandan, Jagadish, Mukesh, Afzal and Vineeth were average.

320...in great style

India recorded their biggest test- cricket victory today (in terms of runs). They crushed the test champions, Australia by a huge margin of 320 runs. It was an emphatic win, outplaying the Aussies in batting, bowling, fielding and captaincy, consistently over 5 days. Australia have lost before but it's been a long time since they were so comprehensively taken apart. India is the only team in the last 10 years who has stood up to Australia and such a result was imminent.

MS Dhoni rightly deserves the man of the match award, though potentially it could have been given to any of the nine players with the possible exception of Dravid and Laxman. It was a great team effort ably led by the captain from the front. As I had said in one of my previous blogs, Dhoni is the man for Indian Cricket at the moment and there should be no hesitation in making him Team India's test captain (http://pradeepcvasudevan.blogspot.com/2008/08/msd.html). Congrats to whole team and management and specifically Kris Srikkanth who in my opinion took some sensible decisions in team selection and went for a right mix of experience combined with youth.......

Hanuman Temple

"manojapam marutha thulyavegam

jithendriyam budhimaatham varishtam

vaathatmajam vanaraayutha mukhyam

srirama dhuutham shirasa namami"

I first went to the PMG Hanuman temple (near Vikas Bhavan and Kerala Legislative Assembly building) during my school days. I used to offer my prayers at the temple, every Thursday during my Pre-degree and MBBS days. The temple used to be a small one during those days; but it has expanded and changed tremendously over the last 10 years and has grown into one of the most important places of worship in Trivandrum.

The Temple was consecrated for the benefit of the soldiers (of Travancore army)to offer prayers in the 1850's. The main offerings are 'vadamala', 'vettamala' and cheese. Pushpabhishekham is also a "nercha" (an offering).

Palayam- yet another 'kerala model'

Palayam in Trivandrum extends from the cantonment house in the north up to the present A.K.G. Centre in the south, including areas now occupied by the University Stadium and Chandrasekharan Nair stadium. It was the camping area of the former Travancore state army and cavalry. That place, therefore, came to be known as Palayam/Cantonment – meaning military area.......

A church, a mosque and a temple were consecrated side by side, with their compound walls touching each other near the Palayam junction for the personnel of the State Forces and their family members to perform their religious duties. The peaceful co-existence of these three centres of worship of different religions is a shining example of the religious tolerance, secularism and harmony in the state.

Palayam Shakthi Vinayaka Temple. Note that part of the
Mosque is visible on the right side and both share the same
compound wall .....

Palayam St Josephs Church

Palayam Mosque (Juma Masjid)...P K Ahmed Kutty Moulavi,
imam of the Palayam mosque, opened the doors of the
mosque for women for the first time in south Kerala.
More than 250 women attend the prayers at the Palayam Mosque
on ordinary days, whereas on Fridays their numbers increase
to around 1,000. The imam is of the opinion that there is nothing
unIslamic in women offering prayers in mosques.

The western media always finds it difficult to understand and 'digest' how India can survive as a nation and usually try to portray India as a place where communities and religions fight each other. These media should come and report from Kerala, where about half of the population is either a christian or a muslim,living peacefully and fully integrated for many centuries along with the hindu population.....

Kerala Art and Literary Association

Yesterday went to the KALA (Kerala Art and Literary Association) annual get-together. It always feels nice to be at KALA. The main reason being its different from the usual malayali get-together.

This association is the Brain child of Dr Sukumaran Nair, started in 1996. As its website says KALA is an ever growing network of like-minded friends and families based across the length and breadth of United Kingdom committed to promoting Kerala's rich and varied artistic, literary and cultural heritage among international community, particularly younger British Malayalees.

The annual day celebrations have been held for the last few years at Parmiters school hall in Watford, usually on a Saturday evening in October. I still remember the first time I went to the KALA garden party in 1999 with Balumaman and Susha aunty. It was like a 'small kerala' recreated in this part of the world. Since then I have tried to attend the annual celebrations every year, but have not been successful a few years due to various commitments. I think Balumaman has been to almost every KALA function since 1999.

Every year there will be a couple of invited chief guests who are eminent malayalees from the socio-cultural-literary world. Over the last decade the chief guests have included Sri Madhusudhanan Nair, Sri ONV Kurup, Sri Nedumudi Venu, Singer Sri Venugopal, Sri Vishnu Narayanan Namboothiri etc. 'KALA evenings' reminds me to some extend of the 'Surya' cultural society celebrations or other cultural evenings at Kanakakunnu palace, Trivandrum.

The performances at KALA are usually a class of its own ; but probably the the best part of this evening is catching up with our old friends, meeting new ones and sometimes surprise meeting with a person whom you have not met for many years (how just a casual comment by Unnikrishnan snowballed into a big circle of new friends for me is a long story...will write on that later....)

The dinner is in traditional kerala style..but I like the 'vada' and snacks more, that are served at the start of the meeting. This year I was particularly impressed with the performance of KALA Youth; the skit was excellent. Another unique feature of KALA is the in-house magazine PALMLEAF that has a rich mix of articles written by the malayali talents in UK. All in all it was a superb evening with wonderful performances, great crowd, delicious food and colourful atmosphere. ....like a real 'malabar dream' come true.....

The Ever Smiling Buddha

On Oct 2nd 2008 (Gandhi Jayanthi day!) US Senate approved the 'Indo-US Nuclear Deal' by an overwhelming majority (86/100) and also earlier the house of representatives by more than 2/3rd majority. There was strong bi-partisan support for the bill in US; even rival presidential candidates, John McCain and Barack Obama, besides a host of heavyweights on both sides of the aisle such as Hillary Clinton and Joe Biden, backed the deal on what was a momentous day for the deal. This has paved the way for civilian nuclear cooperation between India and countries around the world.

The context of this bill is very relevant i.e in spite of the hectic and busy discussions that have been engulfing US regarding the 'financial bail out' package and the biggest economic fallout since the 1930's. This signifies the importance 'Uncle Sam' has given to the bill and adds a new dimension to the strategic partnership and foreign policy for both the countries. This bill paves the way for India to get nuclear reactors, fuel and technology not only from US , but also France (already Indo-french deal has been signed) and Russia (when Russian president visits India in December 2008)

It is interesting to look at some of the facts and reality. I think in general, Indians have been welcoming the deal. Naturally Congress party is elated by this and may consider using this as a strong campaign point for them in the next general elections(2009). But I feel this is a personal triumph for Sri Manmohan Singh. He in fact was trying to correct a 'mistake' by his predecessor, the former Indian Prime minister, Smt Indira Gandhi.

In 1974 it was Mrs Gandhi who for 'political gains' gave authorisation to conduct the Pokharan-1 test ('Smiling Buddha'). The scientist's used the CIRUS reactor ("CIRUS" = Canada-India Research U.S.) to produce the plutonium that was a research reactor donated by Canada in 1960, with heavy water supplied by the USA. This led to the formation of Nuclear Suppliers Group (NSG).

India never signed Nuclear- Nonproliferation-treaty(NPT), terming it discriminatory (probably true) creating a world of 'Nuclear haves and have nots'; a view that was unacceptable to the other signatories. This has prevented India from obtaining commercial nuclear fuel, nuclear power plant components and services from the international market, thereby forcing India to develop its own fuel, components and services for nuclear power generation. Thus the NSG embargo has had both negative and positive consequences for India's Nuclear Industry. The positive effect for India has been the creation of a large pool of nuclear scientists and engineers who have developed new and unique innovations in the areas of Fast Breeder Reactors and Thorium fuel cycle.

Nuclear power at present supplies only about 3% of India's electricity. By 2050, nuclear power is expected to provide 25% of the country's electricity. India has limited coal and uranium reserves, but has vast Thorium resources; about 1/4th of the world. I hope the government of Kerala (keeping political differences aside) takes a pro-active role in ensuring that the state uses this unique opportunity, as Kerala has a significant reserve of thorium in its coastal areas.

This nuclear deal should help in addressing the needs of energy hungry India in the 21st century. In the future, Dr Manmohan Singh will not only be remembered as the person who started economic reforms in India, but the person who brought India out of Nuclear isolation.

Tail piece: Even though Sri Buddha is smiling on India, another Buddha deserves all the sympathy ie the chief minister of West-Bengal state where TATA (and Nano project) bid 'tata' to the state......

The poly-tricks in Kerala

Kerala has a lot of firsts to its credit. First Indian State to achieve total literacy/ State first to implement land reforms/ State with highest life expectancy/ State with lowest birth rate/ State with lowest infant mortality/ Only state with hospital facility in every village/ State in which the communication infrastructure is the highest.

Every political party in power, will high-light these 'firsts' as their own achievement...But there is also another side...ie its the state with the highest suicide rate, highest alcohol consumption rate, highest morbidity, highest unemployment rate and probably the home of caste, communal and coalition politics......

In Modern Kerala the usual trend especially in the last 25 years is to vote in either of the two 'democratic' coalitions (Interestingly in the dictionary coalition describes a temporary group or union of organisations usually formed for a particular advantage!). The two fronts are the LDF or the Left Democratic Front headed by CPI(M) or Communist Party of India( Marxist) and the UDF or United Democratic Front lead by the Indian National Congress or simply the Congress party.

The first coalition was in 1967 when the Communist party under the late EMS (Elamkulam Manakkal Sankaran Namboodiripad) led a seven-party coalition including the Muslim League (now called by the Communist party as a communal party) to form the government. Before that in 1957 he had led the Communists to victory in the first election for the state government, making him the first communist leader anywhere to head a popularly elected democratic government. It is said that that government was probably one of the better ones that Kerala had as each and every minister with a couple of exceptions were experts and specialists in their own field like Prof Joseph Mundassery for Education, Dr AR Menon for Health, Mr VR Krishna Iyer for Law etc. This government soon introduced the land Reform Ordinance and Education Bill and subsequently was dismissed in 1959 by the Central Government, which invoked the controversial Article 356 of the Indian Constitution following what became later known as the 'Liberation Struggle' or വിമോചന സമരം ...

Over the years coalition governments with and without the Communists or Congress and with the help of so called 'communal parties' (overtly or covertly) came to power in Kerala. The most popular and deep rooted political party in Kerala is the Marxist party or CPI(M), (though the CPI or UDF wouldn't agree to that)... Their policies have a big influence in the daily life of Kerala. The other parties tends to follow or react to what Marxist party does. However, the CPI(M) tend to exhibit their basic instinct of study and struggle (as the "kutti" comrades of their student faction) even when they are in power. The CPI(M) since the demise of EMS have been searching for a theoretician who can lead them and this remains as one of their main problems. When I recently visited Kannur, Karunakaran Uncle told me that EMS was good in Tharkashasthram ie creating a debate out of context and from no-where, winning the debate and reaping the benefits. The vacuum left by EMS is yet to be filled.
At the other end what the congress party (and UDF) does, is to wait for every alternate 5 years to get into power. The UDF and their supporters love to be in power as it's the 'harvest time'. They become cold as soon as they are in opposition and take a break or holiday for 5 years before coming back into power on an anti-incumbency wave. There is nothing much to say about this party which has been slowly degenerating over the years. There were two major factions the Antony and the Karunakaran group. But now it's all the Antony group, which is being led by Mr Oomen Chandy who is probably one of the better Congress leaders. It's good for kerala and specifically Congress party, that Karunakaran group has lost it's stranglehold in the party.

The 100% literate Keralites are very happy to vote either the LDF or the UDF alternately every 5 years, who are not much different from each other. So Keralites literally and figuratively follow the words of de Tocqueville, who said “in a democracy, the people get the government they deserve.”

World Alzheimers Day 21 September

World Alzheimer's Day is commemorated today (ie every year on 21 September), when people from around the world come together to focus on raising awareness and the reality of life with dementia.

In Kerala there is now some awareness; thanks to the movie Thanmatra and the excellent portrayal of the affected person, Rameshan Nair by Mohanlal. There was also a bollywood movie with the same theme that was nowhere near the quality of Malayalam movie (as usual, not a big surprise!)

The condition was first described by Dr Alois Alzheimer in Germany more than 100 years ago. It is a dementing disease that affects the patient and also indirectly wrecks the caregiver, family member and family resources....there is no cure for this condition, like many other neuro-degenerative diseases.

No time to lose! is the theme for this year. This year is to focus on carers by emphasising and celebrating the contribution they make to society and giving them the recognition they deserve! Alzheimer associations around the world are organising events and campaigns including Memory Walks, meetings, tea parties and seminars.

This condition will have a huge impact in Kerala especially as Kerala has a large ageing population (more than 11% of Keralites are over 60). It is very important that the government take this into consideration and prepare for its efficient management before it becomes a social problem.

Three letter acronyms

BBC, ABC, DNA, RNA, ATM, USD, INR, GBP, LCD, TLC etc etc.

What is common in all this?
They are all Three Letter Acronyms(TLA!). So, Why are the three letters so popular? Why can't it be two-letter or four-letter?

Let us take some examples: If we look in Medicine which has a long list of acronyms; 3 letter ones stand out....For eg: CAD(Coronary Artery Disease), TOF( Tetralogy of fallot or Tracheo-esophageal fistula etc) or FSH ( follicle stimulating Hormone) or DNA, RNA etc

In Clinical-Genetics there are a group of disorders called "Trinucleotide repeat disorders" (also known as trinucleotide repeat expansion disorders) caused by trinucleotide repeats (like CAG, CGG etc) in certain genes exceeding the normal, stable, threshold, which differs per gene.

Countries, Cities, Airports all have popular 3 letter acronyms like USA, NYC, JFK, TRV, DBX etc etc. If we look at the names of politicians; its AKG, EMS, PKV etc or political parties---BJP, CPM, CPI, or INC. The list is endless.

Is this because our brain has some sort of inherent tendency to remember and recollect acronyms especially 3-letter acronyms? I looked in Oxford dictionary and also 'Googled' this: In English language, it says, as literacy rates rose, and as advances in science and technology brought with them more complicated terms and concepts, the practice of abbreviating terms became increasingly convenient especially from the mid 20th century. I am not sure whether this trend is also seen in other languages.

Its interesting to think about the Malayalam saying in this context- ഒന്നില്‍ പിഴച്ചാല്‍ മൂന്നു!!!

Amazing Amazon

I was watching a program by Bruce Parry (on BBC 0ne) who begins an epic adventure in the Amazon following its downstream journey from High Andes. He travels over 6,000 kms down the length of the Amazon river. Parry meets and lives with local tribes, coca growers, loggers and illegal miners during the six part series. In this first part of the series he is in the Amazon part of Peru. This journey takes him from High Andes (with caravans of Llamas and donkeys following an ancient trial) to the Apuramic Valley and Ashaninka tribe, down the amazon river, the path used since the Incan times. The first tribe live about 4000 metres above sea level on snowy mountains....Its a tough place to live and an irresistible challenge...

'Apuramic' is a Quechuan word...the language of Incas ...'apu' means God and 'rimac' meaning speak or to talk. The river ('head waters') changes its name many times (the Ene, the Tambo, the Urubamba, the Ucayali) before it gets the name AMAZON.....one of the greatest (if not the greatest) river system on earth.

It seems over 100 tonnes of cocaine are made here every year. Amazing...how they clear the forests to make bases (bossas) to process Coca leaves. This is illegal of course. They add kerosene, sulphuric acid, ammonia and all sorts of chemicals and put in 4 days of hard work that earns them $80-$100 per harvest (almost the same price of 1 gram of cocaine in the streets of London). This is the start of the multi-billion dollar drug industry. Colombia is the largest producer of Cocaine and Peru is second. It seems Peru is catching up fast. Everywhere the forests are burned to make new coca fields.

This is also the stronghold of redzone (river Ene) which is the last refuge of the most brutal terrorist organisation in this part of the world...Shining Zone (Maoist revolutionaries who fought a bloody war in the 70's and 80's)

'Ashaninka' (literally means 'a brother to all') is one of the oldest and original indigenous tribes in South America...mainly seen in Peru and some in bordering Brazilian forests. Saw how Masato (the local beer) is made. It seems that the women chew 'Yuca' (Cassava or the 'kappa' as called in Kerala) and spit back into a container!The saliva ferments it!!

Should try to watch the rest of the programme in the coming weeks.

“Satisfaction guaranteed ...and definitely”

So what qualities you need, to be called an NRK or Non-Resident- Keralite. You will tell me a lot of qualities they have or should be having that make an NRK. But I feel the common thing which all the NRK's do at present, irrespective of their country or place of residence is watching 'AKKARAKAZHCHAKAL' every week in you tube or Kairali TV.

This is the new buzz word among 'mallus' when ever they get together. Rather than asking the usual questions of ഹലോ എന്തൊക്കെ ഉണ്ട് വിശേഷങ്ങള്‍ or ഇന്നു ഡ്യൂട്ടി ഇല്ലെ...now a days they ask, ഈ ആഴ്ചയിലെ അക്കരകാഴ്ചകള്‍ കണ്ടോ or ആ ഗിരിഗിരിയുടെ തമാശ അടിപൊളിയായിരുന്നു etc......

In a short period of time in 2008 George, Rinci, Gregory, Mahi, Babykuttan, Appachan etc have become household names among the expatriate keralites. They are the 'super stars' in the first-ever, weekly Malayalam sitcom, ‘Akkarakazhchakal,’ broadcast through YouTube.

This Sitcom is a refreshing change to all those boring serials and some 'reality' shows.

The story is based around a Malayali family consisting of George, his wife Rinci(who is a nurse), their 2 children, born and brought up in US, George's dad, Appachan, Gregory or Girigiri, George's hilarious assistant who helps him in getting insurance business and 2 recent immigrant male nurses; Mahi and Babykuttan. Each episode depicts common themes that happen in the everyday life of an average overseas malayali in a sarcastic way. The script and direction of the sitcom is by Abi Varghese and Ajayan Venugopalan. I understand that all the cast and crew are unpaid.

For all the kerala diaspora watching the series, it is as though they have experienced the same themes in their real life at some point or other. As George says about 'thekkummottil insurance' the sitcom definitely guarantees 100% satisfaction.

Drama and Skit

Today we have practice and rehearsal sessions for a drama and a skit. We had performed a small skit at the last New year- Christmas celebrations. It seems that was a success as it was a 'hit' among most people and the feed back was quite good. Skits are not very easy as I had thought before; it needs a lot of practice especially the timing, lip movements, actions and dance (though you don't have to practice the dialogues by heart)

We decided to do a proper drama this time for the Onam celebrations. Most of the scripts were proper professional 1- hour dramas. So we went for a shorter one and was lucky to get this nice short script ('purushadhanam'). The advantage of the drama was that you can demonstrate your artistic and acting talents....but the downside is to learn by heart the dialogues. It's of no use if just you learn it, but the others in the scene also should be telling the dialogues at the right time for you to respond and make it a success. (I still remember the play we did at grade 10; "The death Trap") Fortunately the group we have for the drama this time is quite alright......

Somehow I feel that in the real stage, people act tremendously better than at the practice sessions. Don't know why and how is it like that?

First day at new school

03.09.08
Today was the first day for Manikutty at new school. I went back many years and tried to recollect what happened on my first day at school. I remember clearly the Nursery which Anju and I went as 3-4 year olds. It had huge walls all around like a fort, so that 3 year olds wouldn't jump over it! Royal-blue coloured big gates, had an open space in the centre, classrooms all around, a kitchen, dining hall and office room at one end. It was like a 'nallukettu' so that all teachers and students can see whats happening in the central field. I remember that for many years we had a group nursery-photo taken at that time in our house, but don't know where is it now.

I also remember clearly when my parents took me to HolyAngels Nursery school (Marion Villa Convent) at Kumarapuram for admission to Grade 1. I some how did not like the school, probably terrified by the traditional habit worn by the Nun sisters:-(; It seemed that I was very upset and tried to run away ( in fact ran...) from the school office when I saw the 'officials'..... My parents were puzzled by my behaviour which seemed to be quite uncharacteristic of me. Anyway they got the message that I didn't like the school and so took me another school. That's when I saw Arya Kumara Ashram or Arya Central School for the first time.

I felt in love with the school when I saw it the first time. It had lots of play grounds, few nice buildings and classrooms. There were lot of paintings from Hindu Mythology all around the office walls. I especially remember Saraswati devi, Lakshmi devi, Lord Shiva and also Swami Vivekananda. I met Mr Shankaran Nair, the strict principal at school. He was a bit bald, but what ever hair was left on his temporal side of the head was nicely combed backwards. He always wore light colored clothes (well pressed) and walked around with a long cane in his hand. Usually children from Upper Kindergarten at that school progress on to Grade 1. So I had to write an entrance test that included learning an altogetherly new subject for me - HINDI. I had a couple of days to prepare for the test, including learning and writing all the Hindi alphabets. It seems that I came first in the test( that's what my mother told me) and was offered a place in Grade1 ( though I had a few more months left for my 5th birthday).

Now back to Manikutty. After her 2 years at Montessori Preparatory school and Grammar school, we were looking for good schools around Leicester for year1. We shortlisted a few schools and she was offered a place in all the 4 schools after assessment. Though fairfield prep was the furthest of all schools, we (Manikutty too) chose it, due to many reasons. The moment I saw the school, I felt like studying here! It was a sense of belonging. The school was big with many buildings and lot of open space and playgrounds. It had a proven track history...More than 500 years is not so bad ahh!( http://www.leshigh.org/) .The approach and attitude of all the officials were fantastic, especially the Head Teacher.

Woke up early today and prepared breakfast and packed lunch for Manikutty. Woke her up and got her ready for school. While driving and waiting in the traffic congestion with Manikutty sitting at rear seat, thought about how our parents went through all this; 10 years each for all of us.......felt good and relaxed.....We were listening to 'Shivakeerthanam' in car stereo. Manikutty was also relaxed (as usual) and at the same time excited to reach schools as fast as possible. But the traffic was slow moving, especially when we were nearing Loughborough schools. Somehow got a parking space and carried Mani and her school bag n lunch to reach the classroom before start. It was nice to see the parents, students, teachers etc walking in an orderly fashion through the walkway that led to school. Mrs Collington ( Class teacher) was waiting outside Year I classroom...She welcomed us and took Mani inside. Manikutty was fine and I gave her a kiss before heading back to the car. It all appeared like a movie...so surreal....

Tail piece: Just read that 30 years ago on this day, a group of young men started shooting a Malayalam movie in front of Attukal temple in Trivandrum. Any guesses?.........
The movie's name was 'Thiranottam' and the actor who took the first shot was none other than Mohanlal.

Attukal

Attukal devi temple is one of my favourite temples in Trivandrum. My parents used to take us all to the temple on Fridays during our school days. The divine feeling you get when you enter the temple is difficult to describe in words. The prasadam especially the chandanam is very special. This year visited the temple after dropping Mash and teacher at the Railway station.

Pongala

"Attukal Pongala" is the main festival of this temple. Millions of women gather every year in February (Malayalam month Kumbham) around this temple and prepare "Pongala" (Rice cooked with the ingredients: Jaggery, coconut, ghee etc) in the open in small pots to please the Goddess Kannaki. At the time of festival nearly five kilometers around the temple becomes covered with smoke from the temporary 'aduppu's (temporary hearths made of 3 to 9 bricks). A holiday is declared in the city on that day. Tourists from other countries also join in "Attukal Pongala". The temple is also called "Women's Sabarimala" . It was reported in the media that in 2008, more than 2 million women offered pongala.

Legend:

Goddess kannaki is the Main Diety. Events related to Goddess Kannaki have high influence in the culture,traditions and belief in Tamil Nadu and Kerala. It is belived that after setting fire to Madurai city in retaliation of punishing her innocent Husband, Kannaki left for Kodungaloor in Kerala. On the way to Kodungaloor, Devi took rest for a while at Attukal and gave 'Darsan' (appeared) to the natives there. Finally Bhagavathy settled at Kodungaloor sree Bhagavathi temple. Attukal Temple is more popularly known as the Sabarimala of the Women. The reason is that most of the devotees are women in this temple. The Pongala Mahotsavam is the most important festival of temple. Pongala festival has found a place in the Guinness Book of World Records for the highest attendance of women.

Guinness record:

The temple over the years has acquired international importance as it was listed by the Guinness Book of world Records as "the largest gathering of women in the world". The record was based on the number of pilgrims on 23 February 1997, when 1.5 million assembled to offer 'pongala'

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MSD

It was a good win for India against Srilanka (SL) in the 4th ODI cricket, therby winning the 5 match series. This is their first series win against SL in SL (Earlier this year England also won their first series ODI in SL) There wasn't much to choose between the 2 teams ie SL and India. The major difference and the reason for their win is attributed solely to Mahendra Singh Dhoni(MSD). He led from the front, was the 'centre' of India's batting and when India fielded. It was the minor moves and adjustments that he made in the field that jolted SL and struck major blows at the right time. Iam sure Dhoni will achieve much more than any other Indian captain in years to come. Dhoni keeps things simple, makes strategic moves at the right time, supports young players and has the overall support of all players. He has already won the inaugural T20 world cup when nobody expected India to progress to the semis with a very young team. He has a good chance of winning the next world cup and if he stays and maintain a similar attitude (and of course if the BCCI and selectors support him whole heartedly) , I predict that India, can and will unseat Australia as the top test playing nation in the next decade.....

Olympics 2008

The Beijing Olympics coincided with my trip to India this year( 8-26th August 2008). It is said to be greatest and most successful Olympics ever held. I followed it very keenly over the 2 weeks when I was in India. There were a lot of expected and unexpected results. The expected being China emerging at the top of the medal table with 100 medals( 51-21-28), overtaking USA as the major super power in world sports. US came second with 36-38-36 and the only consolation for them being that they got more medals than China in total(110). The 51 gold medals by China is said to be the second largest haul by a national team in a modern, non-boycotted Summer Games.

Now about the unexpected results. The main being India getting an Individual Gold; the first time it has managed to win an Individual Gold medal in the history of Modern Olympics. India received 3 times the medals I thought it would get ie 2 more bronze medals. It finished a 'credible' 50th place in the medal tally of the 87 countries that managed to get into the table.( I believe 204 countries competed for 302 medals in 28 sports).

I still remember the text I received from Anju saying that India won the gold in Shooting when I was at the passport office in Trivandrum. Both Achan and I were elated and it was a moment to cherish and to be proud of.

The Olympic medal holders will be showered with praises and prizes for the next few months. But after sometime everything will settle down. It will be interesting to ask these individual medal holders how much help and support did they get from their respective associations and states before they went to Beijing. It will also be interesing to see how many associations/coaches will be having a 'vision' or atleast thinking about the 2012 Olympics. A lot of interesting issues..ahh...

The next unexpected result was the performance of Great Britain (not totally unexpected). It finished with a total of 47 medals (19-13-15) in fourth position behind the old super power Russia( 23-21-28). Very impressive indeed. As the host for the next Olympics, Britain had been planning and preparing well and they competed in less spectacular events like Cycling, Rowing, Sailing etc.

I was always of the opinion that, as its very competitive in Aquatics(46) and Athletics (47) that have the most number of medals, it is better to concentrate and try the less popular events like Rowing(14 ), Sailing(11), Canoeing(16), Cycling(18), Taekwondo(8), Fencing(10), Judo(14) etc

After all an Olympic medal is an Olympic medal, doesn't matter which event you got it.

I hope the authorities in India will start planning for the London Olympics (2012) from now and hope that they can at least double what they got in China.....

Bouncing Back

India did extremely well in winning the second test and bounced back in to the test series, in grand style yesterday after surrendering first test by a huge margin. Their win was convincing and clinical. The credit should go to the whole team and camp.....but specifically Sehwag, Ishant and Bhajji stand out. The difference between both teams on Day 4 was the self confidence exhibited by India, riding on the devastating double century of Sehwag and the decisive spells from Ishant and Bhajji. Also the other Indian Batsmen played their part; specifically Gambhir, who proved that he is potentially going to cement that one opening slot in Indian team for many years to come. The old quartet of RSVG (Rahul, Sachin, VVS and Ganguly) too played a part.

The problem with Srilanka was that they were a bit too overconfident after the thrashing victory in the first test. They felt the spin duo M&M (Murali and Mendis) would be 'Double Trouble' to India like in the first test. But Sehwag had other plans or may be that SL did not have a plan B for him. Its unfortunate that a Bowler of Mendis's calibre ended up on the loosing side, in spite of a 10 wicket haul. Its also unusual that a bowler like Bhajji who got a 10 wicket haul from the winning side was not even considered for Man of the match award. Such was the Brilliance and authority of Sehwag......

I think the momentum is with India and I will not be surprised if they go on and win the third test and series.

On this part of the world, it was sad news for English cricket. They lost the series against South Africa( first time sine 1965). More over they lost the best captain seen in English Cricket for a long long time, when Michael Vaughan stepped down. He said it was the hardest (as he loved doing the job) and the most easiest decision. He thought it was the right thing to do.... I feel Vaughan was an excellent captain and a person who did his job with integrity. He won 26 out of 51 test as a captain for England. The high point was when he won the Ashes in 2005. The beginning of his end started when he lost the series to India last year (the first time India has won a series since 1986). It will be difficult for ECB to find a suitable successor for Vaughan. After all a captain is only as good as his team and this team was no where near the team that won the Ashes. Good luck to Vaughan as this decision may prolong his career as a batsman in the team and he bows out with his integrity and dignity intact.

I must congratulate Graeme Smith on winning the series for South Africa almost single handed. He led from the front with his will power and is a great example for youngsters to follow around the world.