9/11, 7/11, 7/22...!?

The 'War on Terrorism' is paying off. But who is benefited?

United States of America has always tried its acts of global policing at anywhere it gets a foothold. At the pretext of global peace, they have helped militant groups across the globe to implement their selfish interests as a nation. Consider any of the world’s problematic places, Palestine, Kashmir, Afghanistan or elsewhere, Americans were there either to create the problem, or to worsen it by helping one of the clashing groups which they think will give them some benefit. But eventually, all of these issues have blown out of control, and that is when they finally try to act as peace makers!. Its like, create an issue and then find ( or pretend like trying ) a solution to it! This can be largely attributed to the lack-of-enough-problems-to-solve within the country itself! They had to pay the price for this when the 9/11 attacks on World Trade Centers happened. Ordinary American citizens, who have only heard about the people getting killed elsewhere, probably by the American marines, should have had a real shock experiencing the same. President Bush declared it as attack on world peace and launched "the war on terror"!So far so good! Then the biggest mistake happened, not by US or 'terrorists", but by the nations which decided to join the war on terror.

What really happened was a change in the battlefield, and not a new war as such! The so called terrorists, who were once trained by America for their own advantage (read Osama bin Laden), decided to take the war to the land of US from elsewhere. But US succeeded in making the rest of the world believe otherwise, that it is a war to be fought by all of them. They could also get other nations' troops to Afghanistan and Iraq, even when the United Nations was against all this! And then follows 07/07 and 07/22 series of blasts in London, the capital city of the major ally of US in the war on terror.

The response to the incident has been variant, the British government, as expected, denied that war on terror has anything to do with it. But I, like most of the people with common sense, would like to strongly disagree. Particularly after knowing the whereabouts of the suicide bombers. The bombers, obviously Muslims, were not from any Arabic country but were immigrants whose parents settled in Britain several years ago. So these youth were born and brought up in Britain, studied in institutions of that country and were "nice-to-live-with" guys to their neighbours. Why do they decided to kill themselves, and take many others along with them? Does they do not have any love for the nation or the people who gave them shelter? And how did they, having educated from the best institutions in the world, become prey of islamic extremism? Or how did the so called terrorists manage to persuade these young and well educated people to become suicide bombers?

I think the war on terror made it happen, it made the job of terrorists easier on convincing people. The very cause in this case being the joining of British army in Iraq for "restoring peace". I read in yesterday's newspaper that the death toll of Iraqis has gone up to 24860, which is far bigger than the numbers 4000 at WTC or 100 in London. Then there is the abusing of prisoners, abuse of Koran, and so many other stories that can be used to "motivate" these guys to challenge "their" nation. Had Britain had not joined the war on terror, it would have been difficult though not impossible. It would have been difficult to create a justifiable picture so as to persuade these well educated youths to do this brutal act. Because the Koran or prophet condemns suicide and on jihad, When a man asked "What kind of jihad is better?" the Prophet had replied "A word of truth spoken in front of an oppressive ruler."

Now, as I write this, there is widespread fear among the Asian-looking community in Britain about alienation and racism due to these attacks. And the British government is worried that this can create further disturbances!

So finally who have won, and is the war on terror a success?. Answer depends on who answers it, whether the nation which launched it or the "terrorists" whom it targeted!


P.S: The answer also depends on what is the actual intention of US is, for which it is using war on terror, and which me, the poor chap, does not know at this moment. I think like me, all the "poor" chaps will have to wait and watch! Then, there is this saying by Martin Niemoller which makes me afraid, especially when my mother country is the new found ally of United States of America.
"First they came for the Communists, and I did not speak out because I was not a Communist. Then they came for the Trade Unionists, and I did not speak out because I was not a Trade Unionist. Then they came for the Jews, and I did not speak out because I was not a Jew. Then they came for me, and there was no one left to speak for me"

Payarum Arippayum Pinne....

What do they tell "Payar" in Hindi or in English? We did not know till yesterday, until we decided to cook Payar curry.

I, Jose and Ben decided to cook dinner. But the "Payar" which I had bought from Foodworld had finished. So we had to buy it, and had no time to go to the Foodworld outlet at Jubilee hills. I suggested buying an "arippa" also, a device which is used to remove water from cooked rice. Now, none of us knew what they tell for "payar" or "arippa" in Hindi, English or Telugu. But now that we had decided to cook, we had to buy! So we started off. We went to the local stationary store at Madhapur from where we usually buy utensils. I explained to him in Hindi that we wanted "the device" to remove water from cooked rice. Luckily the guy understood, but he did not have "the device" in his shop. He advised us to go to a near by bigger shop. So in order to make the discussion that was going to happen at the new shop simpler, I asked him what they call this device. And he replied in Hindi, "Chaval se pani nikalne ka barthan!" Utensil to remove water from cooked rice!

In the new shop however everything was on-display, so we could handpick the "arippa" and buy it without much problem. Next one was "payar". Unlike arippa we could not explain what payar is! We checked two shops from outside but there were no payar packets visible. Losing all hopes, Jos decided to try his luck. He went to one of the shops and started making some actions with both hands and explaining in Malayalam that he meant "payar". Ben and I started laughing and obviously the shopwala did not understand anything. We were about to leave the shop when somebody asked from behind in Malayalam "Payarano vangendathu?" Do u want to buy Payar?

The guy who was standing beside us was a Mallu, and knew what they call Payar in Hindi. Finally we could get payar for our dinner! And by the way Payar in Hindi is Moong!

To code or not to...

I am confused and little frustrated. The guy at onshore does not think my design will work. He wants it another way, in a much simpler way actually. He cannot be blamed either. The problem is, I like to write code that is confusing at first sight! :-) (Its just COBOL, so confusing code here refers to a set of nested IFs and PERFORMs and no hard-to-crack coding concepts)

My requirement is to include a provision in the existing code, to check for two new possible values of an existing field. I knew that there are two options to do that. Either I could add some more IFs to the existing set of loops or I could replicate the existing code and use the new values of the field in place of old ones. The first option would make the code a little more confusing but need only few changes and second one would require replicating all the junk in four existing paragraphs. I preferred the first one, but my onshore reviewer tells me that other one is better. I do not want to do it, and do not agree with his comment that my code will not work. (I am sure he got confused by the code! ha..ha...ha...)

I have been sitting idle from morning, thinking whether to make the changes or wait till night to talk to this guy and make him understand my code.

I have had a similar experience in my previous company, where I made some similar "beautiful" coding which the reviewer, a guy with 20 years of experience on the system did not understand (which made me proud of my coding skills), but agreed to proceed with. But the code had a small bug, which became evident on the first day of production run, when the program crashed!

This previous experience and the lack of interest to sit here till night persuades me to think otherwise. I will do what my reviewer says!!

News and Views

After leaving Kerala to pursue my career outside the state, the key link between me and the state have been the Malayalam TV channels. Operators in Hyderabad and Chennai broadcast Asianet, Surya and Kairali, though Kairali is not available with all the networks here in Hyderabad. My cable operator has stopped giving Kairali TV for last one month or so, a great disappoint for me who is not interested in the soap serials broadcasted by Asianet and Surya. So nowadays, the only program that make me glued to TV during the evenings are the news telecasts. And I try not to miss the five minute tele-strip Munshi, which discusses current affairs in a humorous way.

Yesterday's news reports were very disturbing to watch. The headlines were the Ayodhya temple attack by militants, the DYFI/SFI strike and the associated mishaps in Kerala and the resigning of 9 MLAs from state assembly who have become part of the new Indira Congress Party formed by Karunakaran and his son. All these incidents have no or little precedence but can make deep impacts on political India/Kerala.

Another strike.

The DYFI/SFI strike was rated by Munshi as the "best" which Kerala has seen to date, "better" than what they themselves had presented in the past. The news reporters must have had an experience akin to war correspondence, for the clash between police and strikers involved lots of teargas shells, water pouring tanks and petrol bombs. As usual the strikers managed to set fire or damage many Government vehicles, the notable difference this time being that police made a counter attack on AKG centre using grenades, as if they were attacking a fort of an enemy, and managed to damage some of the vehicles of communist comrades parked inside the compound.

I could never and do not think can in the future, agree to this "art" of destructive strikes (irrespective of the name they call it-Bandh or Hartal). Not that I am a follower of Gandhi model satyagraha or something, but that there are definitely better ways to express your discontent. The Communist parties always used this kind of methods to invigorate their cadres, especially youth wings such as SFI and DYFI, when they are in the opposition thuis having less opportunities to lure them on lucrative posts in government bodies. I have lost interest in finding out the very cause of these turmoil, after watching and experiencing them for years and finding that there may not be a solid reason to create these chaos other than uniting the cadres confused on intra party problems. I have got used to the vsuals of these wars shown in TV channels, the fight between police and strikers using teargas grenades and petrol bombs, the burning government vehicles, the broken glasses of vehicles parked and the buildings by the roadside and lately people being thrown away by the water sprayed by water tanks. This time so many girls were seen at the forefront of the marches, and getting injured in the clashes.

I had a hint that this strike was against the high fees charged by private professional institutions in state. The strike was called off after a meeting between state educational minister and Leftist Students Unions. The resolution based on which it was called off was stated as "decision to charge lesser fees in the government controlled co-operative colleges". I doubt if some body told "private colleges", and the entire drama reiterated the rumour that the strike was "organised" to avert the attention of masses from the intra-party clashes in CPM, popularly known as vettinirathal.

Ayodhya on fire.

The attack in Ayodhya by militants was successfully foiled by the CRPF. For me, this gave new information, that there is a make-shift temple that is being protected by a dedicated police station and a battalion of CRPF. But the true drama was yet to begin when the BJP demanded the resignation of PM and Home Minister for the mishap and declared that they are going for countrywide strikes on the issue. Narendra Modi compared it to 9/11 and BJP made it "an attack on Hindus". The Prime Minister later issued a statement such events could hamper the India-Pakistan peace talks. I am doubtful now, have the militants become successful finally? Two days after, BJP has decided to stop talking about the issue, which was an alter attempt to unite the conflicting party cadre, which has finally turned out to be a boomerang with very less people responding to the call for a hartal.

Indira Congress gets 9 ex-MLAs

At this moment, I believe majority of Keralites, like me, do not know what will be the future of Indira Congress would be? And there is not much waiting period to know, as the panchayat elections are on the cards. The same holds true for the future of nine MLAs who resigned their post and quit the Congress to join Indira Congress. Let us wait and see, and meanwhile pray for the people in the ten constituencies that do not have an MLA at present (including Cherthala from where Antony resigned to graduate to MP).

We see all the parties, irrespective of the color of their flags, taking due advantage on any incident that happens, when they are supposed to unite and condemn such threats on national security. They try to make life a hell for the people of their country when they are supposed to make them better. They play petty politics and resign their posts when they are supposed to serve the people who elected them for their good for the next five years. As I write this, Kerala is going through another strike called by all the trade unions together, one of the many hartals and strikes they ought to see this year. No, do not ask me what for this one is, for I really do not know, and as said before, am not interested in finding out! But I seriously doubt if this is what politics in democracy is?

Godspeed my polity, may God save You from these politicos!

Monsoons Again!

After almost three weeks after the first showers in Kerala, monsoons have finally reached Hyderabad. The change in climate is quick and beautiful. But I am missing monsoons in Kerala, second time in my life!!

Monsoon for me was, like any child in lower primary school, raincoat-clad trips to school carrying heavy school bags, desperately trying to save it from getting soaked in the rain. That was till my 5th standard, after which I got admission to the residential system of schooling in Jawahar Navodaya Vidyalaya Neriamangalam. For those who do not know, Neriamnagalam is the Chirapunji of Kerala, the most raining place in the state. I think the long seven years of stay at this place made me a lover of monsoons!

Neriamangalam is a very beatiful place, right at the border of Ernakulam and Idukki districts, on the way to Munnar from Kochi. My school was situated between two parallel hills (mountains is what we called them then), and they somehow created a feeling that the campus was surrounded by mountains on all four sides, creating the best scenery you can think of, with two water falls visible throughout the year. The place looked most beautiful when it rained, the rains were so heavy that you would see countless water falls all over these mountains in minutes. And suddenly the whole campus will be full of so much water that the unusually big drainages in the school campus would seemed too less to accomodate the water. And I have never found more fun than playing in the big football ground when it is water soaked and when there are no body around scolding you to come out of rains ;-) I can write non-stop on my school and life there, but may be on a separate post!

Rains in Hyderabad are also beautiful. This place being a hilly terrain, it almost makes me remeber Neriamangalam. I miss my school days!

American Elections and Kerala Rallies

I have a new colleague who joined my company recently. He was working for a world famous US firm for the last nine years before moving back to India. He is a Muslim, a very religious man, one who can be made a role model in that aspect. I was talking to him about the life and people in America, with the general curiosity of a software engineer who hasn't got an onsite chance yet. He was talking about how people in US react to presidential elections and how important it is to present himself as an "interesting and not boring" fellow for a future American president. I have read in news columns about the importance of television campaigning in US, what he told confirmed all my perceptions to be correct. He summarized people in America in general "They eat a lot of junk food, watch a lot of TV and movies and have sex. They talk most of the time either about movies, TV shows or sex." I am sure there can be disagreements with this argument, but considering the exposure this guy has had to the culture, I think this must be a true generalization!

Now, Kerala is considered to be akin to US in living standards, I thought how people in Kerala behave compared to this. Naturally, it is understood that the above said behavior of Americans come from the fact that they live in an affluent country, where there is nothing much to worry about, other than the life of movie characters. But for Keralites, the idea of open sex talk and junk food are still alien as of now, though the latter is picking up very fast. I can easily say that Keralites are the most conservative community among Indians.

My observations when I went to Kerala last time included so many things. People are building up huge and posh houses and are spending money on making the old ones bigger. They are very much interested in getting best of the furniture and household items so that their house looks no-less or better compared to neighbors'. (This transformation is happening to my Sweet Home also). In most cases, this has been an impact of foreign money flow into the state from early 1990s. The gulf dirhams that come to any Muslim household in northern Malabar or the dollars that get transferred to NRI account of any Christian household in southern parts of the state, include this. This flow of money from outside has created many people in state who does not need a job to survive. In fact this has also changed the attitude of people so much so that they have become spendthrift. It is difficult now a days to identify the financial situation of an individual, especially youth, just by looking to his outfits. This is a far cry from the situation when you had customized dressing styles for a community depending on their occupation.

This mass of people who are unemployed, or who does not need a permanent job for survival, has been utilized extensively by political parties in the state. Politics in the state has become a gimmick on TV screen. The better actor you are, the better you will survive in politics. The 101 channels that try to establish themselves in the state give so much publicity for any XYZ leader of ABC party that it has become easier to be popular. It is not ethics or morals that matters, but how do you manage your screen presence. And the latest popular technique to this effect is RALLY. Every party and religious organization conduct rallies in the state in order to SHOW their strength. And almost all of them have made their rallies successful, a factor determined based on the length of the rally, the time it took to pass a certain point and the time duration for which the rally managed to block the traffic in the city. The rallies are usually organized in the major cities in the state viz Kochi, Thiruvananthapuram and Kozhikode so that the latter of the above factors makes a bigger impact in the success of the rally. Coming back to the original subject, how these rallies are useful for the unemployed youth? As and when the number of rallies increases and when the rallies are conducted almost daily, people get tired and are no more interested in going for any of these. There comes the role of agents who recruit people for these rallies. Agents will offer these unemployed youths a sum of 250 to 500 rupees and a bottle of alcohol for participating in a rally. At the end of it, the organizers are happy because the rally was a huge success, the youth is happy because he got made some good money in two hours and the agent made some money for amassing some stupid people. The one who losses is common public, who is made to see all this drama through the channels and whose life is made difficult by blocking roads and the state which looses the working hours and the name "not fit to start an industry".

And people like me, who is migrating from state to state for a better job, because their is no job available in the state even if you are ready to compromise on your compensations, find the whole scenario as disheartening! There was a time when I felt proud when I heard a common mallu joke, that Neil Armstrong found a Malayalee Tea Shop when he went to Moon. Now, when I understand why so many Keralites have left the state to find a job elsewhere, and with the homesickness now I feel, it no more seems to be a joke to me!

Hyderabad is Hot!

They call Hyderabad as "the hot and happening city of India". Now literally it is hot, with the temperature soring high above 40 degrees and the counter for people dying of sun stroke becoming greater than zero. This week the temperature has been increasing at the rate of one degrees day by day. And the forecasts for monsoon says, it will be delayed by one week. Do not know how I will survive till mid June, that is when monsoon is expected to start.

Posting from my Inbox

My company has blocked internet access on desktop, so the delay in posting.....But this made me to test the blog via email feature of blogger and I find the results satisfying...So thinking of posting from my mailbox....Till then adieus.....

In Top 8...

My statistics tracking website for this page, YTrack rates this blog as the 8th best site in its internet ranking category.

Wondering how they rate the sites, because this page has got only 10 hits as per YTrack! I have also received a mail from YTrack, asking me to pay for their services. Since I am not that rich and since the same services are available free elsewhere, I will have to stop using Ytrack. Thanks YTrack and Goodbye!!

Disclaimer

I was doubtful about the need of a disclaimer on this page. But, not after reading this news about an employee of Google being sacked for writing about his job and the company in his personal blog!

Mark Jen, formerly employed with Microsoft, was terminated after 11 days of employment with Google, reason being his blog named Ninetyninezeros. There are other people too who were terminated from employment because of their blogs. And the idea of blog censorship is gaining support in United States.

True! All this is happening in United States. But being employed in the Indian subsidiary of a software company which has strong ethics and policies related to the use of web, and to be on the safer side, I have decided to add a Disclaimer on this blog.

VidyaBHAsam!!

Students of India are having a tough time!

• The Class 10th SSLC examinations of Kerala State have been rescheduled due to a question paper leak. The first incident of its kind in the history of this examination conducted by State Education Board of Kerala. The new dates announced are almost one month after the original dates for the exam. Students and parents are worried that the long gap in the dates will reduce their interest to study and are apprehensive about another leak.
• Counseling centers have been opened in Andhra Pradesh, to help students who are under stress due to exams, i.e. clinics to shun examphobia!! There are also reports of students committing suicide over exam results. I have seen this type incidents happening in Kerala also.

Indian system of education which stresses too much on exams need a change. And it is the school education system that needs a big makeover. Current system, adopted from British system of education which creates degree holders, was more suitable when we had a job market which consisted mostly of government jobs and which valued the job seekers based on their degrees, irrespective of their skills to do the particular job.

Now with India becoming a job surplus market and most jobs being concentrated on sectors like IT and ITES, Biotech, BPO etc, its time we concentrate more on creating skills for these sectors. At the same time we need to reduce the stress on students by changing the examination system. I believe Kerala Government is doing something towards this, with implementation of new education approaches like DPEP and changing exam patterns with more questions to assess the child's creativity and analytical skills rather than the ability to "reproduce" the text. It may be true that there are some flaws in the initial stages, but this should be tolerated to create a refined and better system of education for future.

My education up to graduate level was done in the old system itself. I have always been in the first five positions of my class and have tried hard for this with my target always being the exams. But now, after getting employed in software industry, I find that I have been made to study loads of junk data to pass these exams. Also, I have always felt that it is important to get high marks in exams and considered this as the ultimate parameter to get a job. My government employed parents have always stressed this!

But this is not always true! At least in the present India where every graduate gets a job. One of the main struggles is to get the best ranks in professional entrance examinations so that you get admission in one of the best colleges (with the assumption that this colleges would fetch you the best jobs through campus placements). But now, every decent college in the state has a long queue of employers for campus placements, and students are "booked" one or two years prior to their completion of course! I have also seen people who have struggled a lot during their graduation, with so many "Supplis" getting better jobs than mine. So at the end of all this, it is not always the marks in your examination, but your luck that matters more! I do not mean to say that students need not study, but that they need not strain themselves much.

In this aspect, our graduation courses also need a change. We need to have more elective subjects based on new technology areas and more practicals in these courses rather than routine subjects which are boring for students as well as teacher community and just make another subject to score in exams. There is also a need to update the syllabus to include recent technology related content in these courses. I believe institutions like IITs and NITs have a course structure like this, but this need to be implemented countrywide.

It is high time that Indians become more realistic about their education system! We have to improvise this system to reduce the unnecessary stress that the students and parents go through when they hear the word "Exam"!!

Yagoohoo!gle

When Yahoo! and Google are competing each other, somebody has come up with an integration of their search services. This site, named Yagoohoo!gle is gaining popularity as per the owner's blog.

Meanwhile, Google has come up with a new product! Google says, it is a drink "designed to maximize your surfing efficiency by making you more intelligent, and less thirsty" and has named it Google Gulp. From searching to blogging to e-mailing to fooding!! What's next?

Yahoo! has launched the beta version of their new product called Yahoo! 360°. Just like a Gmail account, invitations are required to get an account. I got hold of one and had big expectations while logging in! But this one seems like a Yahoo! integration of Orkut and Blogger, both owned by Google.

The God of Small Things

I completed the Booker prize winning novel "The God of Small Things" by Arundhati Roy. Finally, the second attempt became successful!

It is a very simple story told very cleverly with a great climax. No, I am not that stupid to review the book in this blog. Or is it, I am not that wise? Anyways, the best review about the book which I liked is the one which says that "the book finds a language for itself".

"Die-able viable age" and "Orangedrink Lemondrink Man" are not forgettable!! Then there are those repeated words: repeatedly repeated repeats for Roy! Nothing more to describe, you must read it!

Sania Mania!!

Suddenly everybody is behind her, praising, idolizing and making her a brand-ambassador or an iconoclast. Media, businessmen, sportsmen, politicians, and rest of the countrymen who identify themselves as tennis-fans are following her 24*7. Marketing managers of brands from jewellery to sports wear were on queue to make her promote their brand. Well acclaimed print media were behind her to get good snaps (obvious!) and to roll-out special Sania-edited sports supplements (ridiculous!!). There were much celebrated interviews on every TV channel, before and after matches were being played! All after the jump she could afford, within two weeks, in the world tennis rankings list. Else if you had asked these people about Sania Mirza, answer would have been an obvious "Sania, who?".

I agree, we Indians do not have enough sports icons, at least not as much to satisfy the whole of world's second largest population, who have not diversified their sports arena, other than concentrating largely on Cricket and Hockey. For sure, Sania is doing a great job, but the hype that is given to this act of confident performances are surely out of bounds. And up to what percentage can we consider this as love for the country or for the sports event?

India have had sports(wo)men who had excelled in various events of sports. We had Leander Paes and Karnam Malleshwari who won Olympics medals for the country, and Anju Boby George who raised our hopes of another one! We have grandmaster Vishwanathan Anand who has always palyed great chess for the country! Recently we got Narain Karthikeyan as India's first Formula One driver. But publicity that Sania gets is more, though her contributions are not more than any of these achievements, at least as of now. So why is that she adored by all the media and publicity managers? Marketing their brand should be the ultimate aim!


Most of this hype, in this era when consumer is "king" in this "liberalised" country, has been to find new ways of marketing through this girl who did her hard work to reach this position when nobody was around to cheer her. And rest of these new found tennis-fans, who does not own a company of their own, admire Sania not for her strong forehand shots but for her individual glamour! It is the skimpy clothes that she wears that attracts them and the media and that is the same reason why photographers queue up to get her "best" snap. If not, why is that Malleshwari or Anju or Paes or Anand do not get this wide media coverage? Why is that this many brands do not compete to make them ambassadors? It is because, when they won their laurels, they were not in "good shape" to be marketed as a youth icon or a "sex symbol" and had less fanfare.

Let us hope that Sania has the ability to distinguish milk and water! I am sure she does, at least when she told that she want to become a youth icon than a sex symbol!


Lastly, I had read a blog of Rashmi Bansal which actually made me write this one!

http://youthcurry.blogspot.com/

I think that it is the culture in which one is brought up that individual's culture. And it is relative from individual to individual! Even the definition of "fundamentalism" and "terrorism" are relative in that sense!! I doubt how much it is true when one goes on to say that the best cultured women are the least dressed!!


And there are more questions that this blog makes me ask....

• How much worse is the situation (ability to dream big) of Muslim women in India when compared to others?
• Is Sania the first India Muslim women who appear in public with so less clothing? What about those innumerous Muslim women who appeared and still appear onscreen in more "modern" outfits?
• Is Indian Muslim community so much fundamental and arrogant that they made a fuss about any Muslim women's dressing habits? And are we in a situation where rest of the world think that Muslims in India belong to the breed of so-called "terrorists" ?
• On a broader stretch, when will people stop thinking that whole of Muslim community are fundamentalists, for the acts of a minority of them?

Yeah..I can go on asking questions...But it is the answers that are important!!

Chevathar and Blue Mangoes

I just read The House of Blue Mangoes by David Davidar.

The story, starting in a period long before independence (1899) and ending when independent India was born, narrates the life of three generations of Dorai family. It has been told as three sections viz, Chevathar, Doraipuram and Pulimedu.

The first part set in Chevathar, an imaginary village which would fall in the present Tamil Nadu state, takes you through the era when British just came to India, and people began to convert to Christianity to escape caste system and for other economic advantages. The family of the landlord or thalaivar of the village, the Dorais, are among these converted christians. How the change of religion failed to change the mindset of the people is depicted through the thoughts and caste-based customs followed by Solomon Dorai, the baptised thalaivar. The part ends with the death of Solomon Dorai and Father Ashworth - the priest, in a caste war.

The second section is primarily for next generation Dorais Daniel and Aron, by the end of which Daniel becomes a famous Sidha doctor and Aron dies the death of an infamous criminal - for becoming part of an extremist organisation for the cause of independence. The third part is for Kannan aka Thirumoolar, the son of Daniel who becomes (un?)successful by the end of his life!

The first part is pretty much interesting and author has done a nice job in describing Chevathar. Other characters like Charity Dorai-the wife of Solomon, Younger brother of Solomon, Ashworth-the father of village church, vakeel Perumal- a rich man in the village have naturality and their part to play in the story. It would have been better if author had finished the novel with first part, instead of describing next and next generations in the subsequent sections, when there is nothing much innovative in the story line. Instead the story loses the natural touch and becomes more dramatical with instances like Charity Dorai becoming mad, Daniel's effort to take her to some Ashram of occult cure, Daniels India expedition for Mango research, and finally the Will of Daniel which describes how to make gold from his body(?). The third part also is dull except that it is set in Pulimed, a place in the present Kerala state. Again pages have been wasted for (another) story about (stupid?) Kannan hunting a man-eating tiger!

I feel the story could have been told in three books instead of three sections, which would have enabled the author to do more justice to every part and the readers to enjoy it more. Anyways the book is a good read (or good to read), especially(only?) the first part!!

...@Hyderabad.com

When I started writing my blog on Chennai, I never thought that I would be writing the finishing lines from Hyderabad. With the fast pace the things are turning out and considering the time I take to complete a blog, it is possible that I finish this blog from somewhere else. Since I do not want that to happen and since I am new to Hyderabad, I would give my first impressions about this place.

Hyderabad is a great place, but for the climate. The climate was expected to be like this, and I should admit that it is much better than the forecasts I had. But then, the real picture comes only during summer, so let me wait and see..

The place has a clear "Naidu" effect all over, with well laid roads and the software companies' buildings each being an architectural marvel. The most common name used here is "Sai" staring from educational establishments to wine shops, clearly indicating the influence of famous Saibaba temple here in Panchagutta. Then there are share-autos on which its written "4 in All" but carry as many as 8 passengers, quite annoying for me who disliked the chennai autos carrying as many as 6 people in a ride.

There are many other things that I dislike. But then whether you like it or not, "The Show Must Go On" and it does......

Chennai Kazhcha

I have read more than enough blogs on Chennai, those which explains things like how the city is, how you can survive here and who is good and who is bad and so on...but then, that is not a good enough reason for me for not writing my own version of the same. So here it comes.....a mallu Kazhcha of Chennai!

Chennai, Madras for the forgone generations, was a dream destination for the Keralites. And with the boom in software industry, it remains to be, though it may have lost the No.1 position to Bangalore. No survey is required to know the extent to which Malayalees have conquered Chennai, you just need to count the shops that are NOT owned/shared by a mallu here in chennai. You will find almost all chayakkadas and hotels run by Mallus, and the city has atleast two theaters dedicated for mallu movies!!

Before coming here, I had a briefing on Chennai from my relatives who had come here during late 70's. Madras, for them, was the central railway station, the high rise LIC building, the lively Moore market...I came to this place alone with nobody to accompany me, and was a little bit scared when I landed here at Central railway station. I found myself estranged in the local crowd who spoke "something" that I could not understand at all...Then, there was this hot climate and salty water that I found unbearable ...

But now, after more than one year of stay here in chennai, I am accustomed to chennai and very well know how to survive here. Here are some observations and tips on Chennai life, who knows may be in future school children in Kerala may have a chapter in there text book named "How to Survive in Chennai", so let me be optimistic and start with my Chennai Kazhchakal.

The road culture.
The very first drastic difference I felt between Kerala and Chennai is the attittude of people on road. When people are very much careful on road there in Kerala, I find that they are very much careless in here. The worst of them are autowallas and cyclers. And to summarise the mentality of these people on road, autowallahs think they are riding a two wheeler and cyclers think they are riding a racing bike!!
And it is true that I found later that Chennai is better when compared to cities like Bangalore!

The MTC : Running with Old Wor(l)d.
The road transport in Chennai city is managed by MTC, the Madras Transport Corporation. The old name "Madras" has been retained by the corporation and same is the case with the buses used. But still it is the most utilized public transport here. The traffic through the roads are better and the early efforts to this effect are visible by seeing the flyovers built in the city when Bangalore has accepted the idea of fly-overs only recently. The local trains have limited access and new rail paths are being established aggressively. The one from Beach to Tiruvanmiyur and which goes parallel to the road to "IT corridor" has become operational three months back. For those who are not familiar, IT Corridor is the "remote place near to chennai" where the software giants have set up there development centres(?). The farthest in the list is at Siruseri IT park, at a distance of 22 kms from Chennai City.

4 The People- The Chennai attittude
If you go to some unknown place in Kerala and ask for an address to a fellow Malayalee, he will give you a blank reply "Ariyilla" (Tamil equivalent "Theriyath") irrespective of him being a Thozhilalee or Muthalalee the majority in the state. But Chennai is not at all like this, in the sense you will not get a "Theriyath" from anybody. Instead if the fellow whom you asked do not know the place, he will ask 100 other and will find the place for you, especially if they understand that you are not a tamilian. Now think of the fellow mallus who have told wrong route to you and have found enjoyment in that. This is the bething that I respect about Chennaites, that you can trust a stranger more if he is a chennaite than what you do wiht a fellow Mallu.

Evolavu? - The Universal Communicator.
It is possible that you may find it difficult to learn Tamil and that you may find it difficult to handle situations when you need real help in Chennai!! I cannot teach you Tamil here, when I am not good at it. But I will tell you to learn one tamil word so that ou can handle all those aforesaid sitations "Evolavu?". For mallus, you can use your mother tongue except this special key-word equivalent to "How much" in English and "Ethra?" or "Enth?" in malayalam. Typical use of "Evolavu" comes in places like when you want to know the distance to a place in chennai-Evolavu Distance?, you want to knwo the time-Time evolavu?, you want to know the cost of some commodity at a local shop-Evolavu?, you want the rate from an autowallah BEFORE you enter the auto-Tell the place and then ask Evolavu?.....so on and so forth.

Chennai Aatto- The worst you can get in the country
The last thing somebody would forget about Chennai is how to deal with Autowallahs here, and is the first thing you should learn if you want to survive. I have found blogs extending pages explaining how to deal with these fellows, let me summarise this with due inputs from my own experiences. As stated previously, to start with, tell the place and ask them "Evolavu?" BEFORE entering into the auto. Recent increase in the petrol charges have increased the minimum charges from Rs15/ to Rs.20/. So do not expect anything less than that even if you plan to just sit inside for one minute, that is the way it is. He would tell you a rate and USUALLY a good negotiation would be (Half the rate qouted by him + Rs.10/). This is an advice to a new comer to the city and your experience with these fellows would give you a better idea regarding the charges. Also the charges mentioned above are on normal day time and can vary depending on various factors like number of people, amount of luggage, the time of day/night, if it is raining....

I have heard this story about some mallu guys who came to Chennai from Kerala for the first time. They landed at Central station and took an auto to Triplicane. The autowallah understood that these people are new in Chennai and asked them Rs.500/ for the ride when the actual charge would be something around Rs.30/. They argued for half-an-hour and MADE the autowallah to agree on Rs.250/. They were quite happy on there negotiation capabilities but only till they met their Chennai friends who told them the REAL rate.
And one last Question: What if some auto guy "promises" to put meter ON? Answer is: never agree to that in Chennai, because Chennai autos has specially manufactured meters which would favour the driver than you when it displays the charges, in fact these are the most useless parts for autos in Chennai.

Kerala in Chennai: The Mallu Restaurants.
Kumarakom and Tharavadu, these are two eat outs dedicated for Kerala food which we used to go often. You have many of traditional Kerala delicacies available. The best thing I like about these places is that you will get bolied BIG Kerala rice for lunch. And then there are other dishes like Beef Fry, Meen Kari...Let me stop here, rest you go and find out!!


Triplicane: The Poor Man's Paradise.
The cheapest locality in Chennai city is undoubtedly Triplicane. Here you will find mansions and lodges which have rented rooms at affordable rates, and Hotels which offer good food at cheaper rates. Majority of the student community and people who come in search of jobs leave here. Infact there are mansions where mostly mallu( student)s are given rooms at rates as low as Rs.600/- per month. I was in Triplicane for the first few months of my stay in Chennai, in a lodge The City Guest House near Ice House Police Station. It was a good place and rented double rooms at the rate of Rs.2500/- per month. The best thing was you had no water problems and water was better when compared to other places.

Then there are many other things that I have not mentioned. The Spencer Plaza, chennai's biggest shopping mall, the Burma Bazar where ou get smuggled goods at cheap rates, the theme parks like MGM and Kishkinta, the shops at T. Nagar and Pody Baazar where you have cheapest rates in the country(that is the caption of Saravana Stores). But this essay has become so long that my Humanities teacher also will not read this completely. So, as of now ithrayumanu innathe Chennaikazhchakal, shesham bhagam screenil!!!