Capital punishment - various viewpoints.

I have been reading different views in the newspapers by readers, apart from the editorials, concerning the courts awarding capital punishment to the accused in the Parliament attack
case.

Some are for capital punishment. Some are normally against capital punishment, but want
it to be awarded in this case, as it involves terrorism. And the rest are fully against capital punishment etc.

Those that do not want a pardon to happen in this case cite the following :
1) A terrorist act and an attack on our country's foremost institution.
2) It would be unfair to the 9 security people killed in the attack.
3) The accused showing no remorse and not asking for pardon personally
(it is his family that have asked for pardon on his behalf).
4) The accused not accepting Indian constitution and authority.
5) A reduction to life sentence would mean that he will be again out in the
streets in 12 years plotting another attack.
6) If sentenced to life, could lead to another air hijacking in future to get him
released and free to plot more terror games.

Those that want a pardon in this case cite :
1) No human has the right to take another's life.
2) It is inhuman; the world as such is moving away from this type of punishment.
3) India, the land of Ahimsa, should not practice such western punishments.
4) If at a later stage, it turns out that the person was not guilty, it would not be
possible to reverse the injustice meted to him etc.

I personally am confused. I think that this is a grave crime and deserves serious
punishment. Also, I am worried about the signal this would send to our armed
forces (and their families) who sacrifice their life for our safety. But, I also believe
that no human has the right to take another's life. But if the sentence is reduced
to life, there is the possibility of trouble later as in points 5 & 6 above.

A person I know mentioned another novel / simple approach - pardon him (which will
satisfy those protesting against his being hanged), then bump him off in a stage-managed encounter (will satisfy those that are baying for his blood).

Ingenious, eh ? More like, killing two birds with one stone, and satisfying everybody.

Long time, no post.

Phew ! It's a long time since I posted anything here.

Not that I have any regular readers that are complaining. But still, need to start devoting
some time on a regular basis to this blog.

A nuke in hand is worth two with Bush.

So, finally Bush came, saw and conquered too, if we are to believe the media. I am not
against new technology, FDI or responsible nuclear behaviour, but somehow the visit
of George Bush left a bad taste.

I feel bad that my country and its administrators were laying out the red carpet for a
criminal responsible for the deaths of hundreds of thousands of innocent civilians that
include children and women, who due to no fault of theirs or their country had to suffer
bombing of their country and illegal occupation by foreign forces.

All this so that the US could dip into the huge oil reserves of Iraq to feed the increasing
oil-dependency of its citizens. All this by misling Americans and the world that somehow
Saddam Hussein was responsible for 9/11 and could wreak more havoc on the world in
general and the US in particular with the WMDs that he is in posession of. Even when
the whole world knew this to be untrue, the US and UK went ahead with their plan of
bombing Iraq to dust and even after 3 years, there is no sign of any WMDs.

And BTW, most dictatorships have always been armed by the US, to further its aims
or to have an ally in its erstwhile war with Russia. So, even if Saddam had any WMDs,
it would have been supplied by the US only. What a big joke. You supply a dictator
with WMDs so that he can wreak havoc on his enemy countries or even his subjects
and then later you accuse him of having WMDs which you sold him in the first place.

I am pretty sure that India will not benefit as much as the US from this much hyped
nuclear treaty. We could be lucky if we even get a 25% benefit for every 75% benefit
the US gains from this treaty. And, as history has proved time and again, while we
will be expected to keep our end of the treaty, do not even in your wildest dreams
expect the US to keep its word as we go down the line.

Till the Prime Minister briefs Parliament and we see the fine print of the treaty, all we
can do is keep our fingers crossed.

Saamy gets connected. And how ...

Saamy, my neighbour living in the colony adjacent to our apartment complex has got
connected. He's got his own cellphone, which is great since it indicates that all sections
of Indian society are reaping the benefits of the telecom revolution.

BTW, I guess this must be the only instance where all sections of the society have solidly
embraced a new technology in the Indian scenario. TV comes close, but I guess it took a
lot more time to spread, when compared to cellphones. And even today, the spread of TV
in India is much less compared to that of cellphones.

Our cellular penetration is awesome, to put it mildly. Go to any city, town or village in
India and you can see people chatting on their mobiles. I don't remember seeing such
high usage even in the US or Europe.

Saamy, as I mentioned in an earlier post, is a house painter by vocation and I guess the
mobile phone helps him get more work / business. However, what I found irritating was
his kid-with-new-toy behaviour. Like any new mobile user, he wants the world to know
that he has a cellphone. So, he positions himself on the stairs of his first floor home, calls
up friends / relatives and then proceeds to chat at real loud volume. I am sure his banter reaches each and every home in a 20m radius around him.

Last weekend, he was again at it, talking in a loud voice with a friend about meeting him
in the evening for a few drinks. Luckily for everyone around, his wife stepped out of their
home as soon as she heard the "drinks" part and told him in no uncertain terms that there
was no way he would go drink that day. So, Mr.Saamy disconnected the call and tried to
persuade her to grant permission for a boy's night out.

I am not sure he succeeded because I did not hear at night the usual racket that he makes
on returning home drunk. Maybe, this incident will make Saamy talk quieter on the phone
from now on and us neighbors could have it easier.

Why single out only the RSS for criticism ?

Reading my previous posts could give an impression that I am singling out only the RSS
(and thus only Hindu fundamentalist organisastions) for criticism. However, that is not
definitely the case and it is time I made my intentions clear.

I am against any form of religious fundamentalism, be it Hindu, Christian, Muslim or any
of the other religions in the world. I believe that religion is separate from politics and the
thrust of any religion should be to prompt its followers to do good. If a religion preaches
the so-called Golden Rule "Treat others as you would like to be treated", then I guess it
is worth following.

A religion should bring me closer to God, should teach me to be good towards other human beings, to lead a respectable life. If instead, a religion teaches me to kill my fellow human
being, I would rather stay away from it.

We do have fundamentalist / communal outfits from other religions also like the Indian
Union Muslim League and I am sure there must be some Christian outfits also (though I
do not know of any myself).

All these are abominable as far as I am concerned and can only do more harm than good
to our country. I hope that the Indian youth do not get caught in the web laid by these
so-called nationalists and have the prudence to avoid them.

Indianising Muslims and Christians, whatever that means ...

Another one from the head-knickerwallah of the RSS, Mr.Sudarshan, who seems to be bent upon proving conventional wisdom wrong. As people age, they tend to become wiser & tend
to deliver sage counsel. But not so for the types of Mr.Sudarshan.

After his stupid exhortation to India's Hindus to go ahead and multiply, about which I wrote
here (http://indiandream.blogspot.com/2006/01/go-ahead-and-multiply.html), another
great idea has struck him. This time it is to Indianise those who are not Hindus, whatever it means. To quote him, "We cannot throw our Muslims and Christians into the ocean. So, let
us Indianise them."

From when did India become synonymous with a particular religion ? My passport mentions
my country as "Republic of India". It does not mention "Hindu Republic of India" as in the "Islamic Republic of Paksitan".

Who the hell is Sudarshan to think about what should be the ethnic / religious composition
of India ? What authority does the RSS even have to debate such things ? They are at best
a group of thugs who use religion for their own petty gains. What locus standi does the RSS
have to make such an observation ?

Who made them the voice of even the Hindus, leave alone all Indians ? If they were indeed
the voice of all the Hindus in India, the BJP would be in power today, which fortunately is
not the case.

India is lucky that the majority are not taken in by the absurd logic of communalists. Else,
we would have probably degenerated into the kind of chaos that can be seen in countries
where religion is allowed to mix into politics.

Playing a vigilance officer.

This was a funny incident that happened during a trip to Kerala few months ago. As is my practice for years, I board the Tvm Mail at Chennai in the evening with enough stuff to
read to last me atleast till I hit the bed around 10PM. And, since the scheduled arrival
time at my station is 9AM (usually the train is late by atleast 30 mins), I can afford to
sleep late till 8AM or so.

This time also, I was sleeping or actually half-asleep around 8AM when I was woken up
by some shouting coming from the next coupe. What I understood was that a lady had
boarded the train at Cochin and got into the sleeper compartment with only a normal
ticket. And to top it all, she had some 4-5 kids with her.

As per Railway rules it is illegal to do what she did and though the T.T.E. can fine people
caught doing so, they usually ask them to detrain at the next station and board the
unreserved compartment.

However, this T.T.E. looked at it differently. He saw a great opportunity to make some
money on the side. He started off with berating the lady about how grave a mistake she
had done and then went on to explain the huge amount of money that she will have to
pay as fine. And then left it to her. Kind of like "OK, pay this huge amount or pay me
something and I will gloss it over".

I was already irritated having been woken up from my slumber and to top it, here was
a guy brazenly engaging in corruption apart from harassing the poor lady who most
probably did not know that she was not supposed to board that compartment.

I woke up, took a few minutes to freshen up & came back to my seat. I expected atleast
someone to plead the lady's cause, but everyone was sitting back and enjoying the drama,
if you could call it that. Finally, I decided that enough was enough & walked to the T.T.E.,
bent a little (he was sitting) and looked at his badge as if trying to read the name.
This done, I just returned back to my seat and took out a book to read.

As my seat was facing away from the TTE, I am not sure of his facial impression, but I
could bet that he was astonished and maybe this was something he never encountered
in his whole career. There was silence for a couple of minutes and then the TTE walked
over to me and sat on the opposite seat.

TTE : What were you trying to do ?
Me : Just looking at your badge.

TTE : What for ?
Me : What else for other than knowing your name ?

TTE : Why do you want my name ?
Me : Just like that. You have the badge there to indicate your name. Is it a crime to read it ?

TTE : No it is not. But, what are you going to do ? Who are you ? Show me an identity.
Me: Why are you bothered about what I am going to do with that information. And
regarding my identity, all you can demand to see is my ticket. I need not produce my
identity when demanded by the TTE.

TTE : Oh, OK. Why don't you write down my name so that you do not forget ?
ME: Well, now that you mention it, it is a good idea as I might forget. Thanks.

And then I take out my pen and my diary, look again at his badge & note down the name.

Now, the guy is like mad and unsure what to do next. He sits there staring at me for a few
minutes, while I continue reading my book. Everyone around is watching us.

He gets up, goes to the adjoining coupe and says "I am trying to do things as per the law
and here you have people noting down my name for that". And so on .....

Finally, he tells the lady and kids to detrain at the next station and board the unreserved
compartment. No fine charged or bribe demanded.

Mission success, I return to my Malayalam novel by Zachariah.

Moral : All we need to do is stand up against corruption instead of just talking about it.
As in this case, you don't even need to say a word to put the point across.
Let's do our bit to make India corruption-free.

P.S. : Since I travel very often to Kerala, and since the TTEs aboard the train are regulars,
I do come across this guy occasionally. Don't know whether he remembers me though.
But I am sure, he would never forget that incident.

The Danes were here ?

While on the topic of cartoons published by a Danish newspaper, I was thinking of a
recent discovery that I made about the history of our nation.

It all started during a trip to Karaikkal (part of the Union Territory of Pondichery).
Though a part of Pondichery, it is physically located around 150kms from Pondichery.
Nothing unusual, considering the fact that Mahi and Yanam (the other two parts of
Pondichery) are located much farther away in Kerala and Andhra Pradesh respectively.
All these places were French colonies and joined the Indian Union after India secured independence from the British.

While at Karaikkal, I decided to go around the place and visit any places of interest
including the famous temple of God Sani (Saturn) and then came to know that a few
kilometres away was a fort from the colonial times at a place called Tharangambadi.
Unable to pronounce it, the French had shortened it to Tranqebar.

When I directed the cab driver to go to the fort, he was always referring to it as the
Dutch Kottai (Dutch fort). So, I was like, "OK, so who all were here ? The French, the
British and also the Dutch... ". However, I was in for a big surprise when I reached the
fort and read about its history. It seems the term "Dutch fort" was a misnomer, because
the Fort was built by the Danes who had visited the place sometime in the 16th century.

I do not claim to remember all the history lessons that I crammed at school. But, I was
pretty sure that I had never read of the Danes having a colony in India (I might be wrong
though). I remember reading about the French, the British and the Dutch. Looks like the
Danes had also caught the colonising bug and had reached Tranqebar where they had
established the Fort just close to the sea. Later, unable to withstand the British
onslaught, they had sold the fort to the English, and left for sweet home.

Over the centuries, the sea had damaged the fort and infact some structures were taken
by the sea. But the ASI has done a commendable job of restoring the fort to its past glory.
A must-visit place, if you are anywhere near Karaikkal or Nagapattinam, not just for the
beauty, but also for that bit of history that we were not aware of.

Just close by is a temple from olden times, severely damaged by the sea. It is sad that
no one is taking any effort to renovate it or atleast to limit any further damage.

Does 10 equal 35 ?

Strange logic isn't it ? I can hear you asking, how in the world can 10 be equal to 35 ?
Unless ofcourse you are an employee of a call centre in India catering to US customers,
in which case you know the logic behind it.

Apparently, it seems this is one golden rule that the Indian call centres (dealing with
American clients), make sure that all their employees are aware of, during the initial orientation / training.

What this means is that a 35-year old American has the mental build-up of a 10-year
old Indian. And thus, the call centre employees need to be extra patient dealing with
them, as if they are kids, and be ready to handle all sorts of inane queries.

Well, it is not like all Americans are like this because I do happen to know quite a few
Americans and they do not fit into this logic. They are pretty intelligent guys with a
sharp mind and aware of things around them. But then again, they are techies that I
work with and I do not have any exposure to normal Americans who would have been
the rationale behind this logic.

Infact, you need not go far to find an example that perfectly fits this logic. Just think of
the most powerful man in the world today who also happens to be an American.

OK, OK, I know. For him, the rule would need to be changed to 60 equals 10. :-)

Logic courtesy : The novel "One night @ the call centre" by Chetan Bhagat.

The Danish storm in a tea cup.

A big storm has been unleashed by the publication of some cartoons depicting prophet Mohammed in a supposedly derogatory way, in a Danish newspaper. Ofcourse, as far
asMuslims are concerned, depiction of Mohammed itself is a no-no, irrespective of the
way he has been depicted.

I was trying to find the cartoons on the Net, to see what is it that could have offended
so many people all over the world to such an extent, that they have been protesting for
weeks & also setting ablaze Danish embassies (and even that of other western countries).
I google-ed the cartoons and to use an oft-repeated cliche, one link led to another and
finally I landed at http://www.faithfreedom.org/ where they had the cartoons.

I could not make sense of most of them and was like, "Did these necessitate the attention
that was generated ?"

But then, I am not a Muslim and thus might not be able to comprehend their outrage.
Anyway, the point here is not about whether the outrage is justified or not. This article
is about the website mentioned above and the contents of the website.

This website is managed by a group of ex-Muslims. Yes, you heard it right. The term
ex-Muslim refer to those who were born as Muslims, grew up as Muslims, but then of
their own free will decided to renounce Islam. The reason for denouncing/leaving Islam
was because, they learnt that Islam propogates / advocates practices that are not
advocated by other religions in the world.

And this understanding comes from their reading the Quran and the Hadith itself. They
also cite references from these books, which suggest that Mohammed has committed all
sorts of crimes (their list includes rape, paedophilia, immoral behaviour, lust etc) which
are not becoming of someone who is supposed to be a Prophet & the intermediary
between GOD and man.

Reading those articles can change the outlook you had about Islam. With the kind of
religious fanaticism prevalent today, it is surprising how these guys can dish out such
stuff and still hold on to their lives. I am not an expert on Islam and have never read
the Quran. So, am no authority on this subject & thus am not sure which side is correct.

Anyway, these guys call on everyone to do something to prevent a disaster. They want
Muslims to leave Islam due to the evil propogated by it. And they want non-Muslims to understand how much of a threat Islam is to the world and to work towards erasing it
from the world.

India needs more like him.

It is tough writing about someone whom you have not even met, forget knowing personally. All you know about that person is from someone else who knows him and then it is upto you whether to believe it or not. In this case, I guess I could take my wife's views as the truth because I know that she is not one to speak what she is not sure of .

The person in question here is Dr.Jacob Thomas I.P.S., the Chairman and Managing Director (CMD) of the Kerala Civil Supplies Corporation (better known as Supplyco). The Supplyco website does not give any details about his academic qualifications except for the "Dr" prefix indicating a doctorate (I heard he has more than one doctorate) and is an I.P.S. I do know that he is an Agriculture graduate. Don't know his post-graduate specialisation though.

It would be in order to give a brief description of Supplyco also, which he heads. Quoting from their website "http://www.supplycokerala.com/"

"Supplyco is the gateway for the 30 million people of the State of Kerala, assuring the much 
needed food security in a substantive style by supplying life's essentials and reaching out to the 
rural-poor and the urban-rich alike. Incorporated in 1974 as a fully owned Government 
Company with an authorised capital of 15 crores, to meet the limited objectives of regulating
the market price of essential commodities at reasonable prices."

OK, the above is the official description about Supplyco. To know what Supplyco means to the public in Kerala, all you need to do is tell someone that you are working at Supplyco. If that person has heard of Supplyco, I can guarantee that the response will be something like, "Really. Then you must be making a lot of money on the side. Lucky you."

Coming back to the CMD, what makes him special or any better than the other bureaucrats manning other government organisations in India ? Actually, he cannot be compared to any usual bureaucrat due to his various qualities like integrity, dedication to work, broad outlook, an eye for technology and involvement in social work. If I remember right, it is maybe a little more than a year since he took over as CMD of Supplyco.

And it has been more than two years since my wife started her career with Supplyco as a Junior Manager (Quality Control). She was part of a group of 7 young guys/girls recruited by the Kerala Govt to the post of J.M. (Q.C). Their role in Supplyco includes inspecting the quality of food items (rice, pulses, spices etc) procured by Supplyco to sell at their stores and at the local public distribution system (PDS) outlets which are also known as ration shops.

I have met these group of young people who were excited about getting a job (a Govt. job does not come easy in India) and more importantly wanted to do it as per the rules. But then, they were not aware of how things worked at Supplyco at that time. Corruption was rampant, the suppliers were bribing everyone that mattered and would supply inferior stuff which was either not as per the specifications or in some cases even spoilt. Still, they would get their bills cleared on time and were minting money like crazy.

The new batch of managers found themselves in an unenviable position. They had only two options - either get corrupted and face the consequences at a later stage OR work with integrity and face the wrath of not only the suppliers but also their managers, who would bombard them with memos, suspensions and enquiries for doing their job the way they were supposed to do.

It is a good sign for India and a brownie point for today's youth that these young people decided that they would not get corrupted, come what may. Ofcourse taking a resolution is easy, but standing up to all kinds of pressure to hold on to that resolution is tough. There were cases where the supliers threatened them with official action if they rejected the sub-standard stuff. There were cases of managers verbally (never in written form) ordering them to accept stuff not meeting the specifications. And along the way came vigilance enquiries and memos for actually doing their job.

While it was tough for all of them, a couple of them were slowly loosing their morale and started deciding about quitting Supplyco. How fun is it to work in a place where you are actually punished for doing your job properly? One girl even put in her papers.

Luckily for them, the existing CMD was replaced with Dr.Jacob Thomas. Here was a person who meant what he talked, was aware of Supplyco's reputation and who was serious about what he was doing. For him, this was more than a job. He had a mission to achieve - to set things right at Supplyco and bring things back on track. Not an easy mission when you think of how prevalent corruption was in the organisation. But then, he is also no normal person.

He came in, took some time to study the existing situation and started putting in place new ideas to stem the rot. He had meetings with the managers, understood the pressure faced by them and promised them all his support in doing their job. He personally talked with the girl who quit and convinced her to come back to Supplyco. He changed the tender practices, made things more transparent and made people accountable. He streamlined the purchase department, which usually is the starting point of corruption in any organisation.

Ofcourse, he met with opposition along the way - from suppliers who felt the heat, from his own employees who were now denied the cut from suppliers that they had been used to for so long. Fortunately for him, he had the full confidence and backing of both the Chief Minister Mr.Oommen Chandy and the minister that he reports to, Mr. Adoor Prakash, which helped him in dealing with all kinds of opposition.

Under his management, Supplyco has set record turnover levels, never seen before in its history and employees can do their work with freedom. He is constantly looking for new avenues in Supplyco that he could make better, areas where computerisation would help and at how technology can help in making things better. He puts in long hours at work and it is the office gossip that his driver and Personal Assistant are two unlucky souls - they can't leave for the day before him, right ? :-)

And after all this, he finds time for his family (wife and two daughters), to keep fit and also for social work (he is part of a group that works for the developement of slum dwellers). If only we had more like him, India would accelerate from being a third world country to the best in the world.

Dr. Jacob Thomas I.P.S., we appreciate your selfless and true service to the nation.

Women and the art of persuasion.

You gotta hand it to women, when it comes to the fine art of persuasion. Got to witness a
sterling example of this the other day from my bedroom window, which overlooks a very densely populated colony.

At any given point of time, you could hear someone quarelling with someone else in this
colony with lots of onlookers to egg them on. Drunken brawls are common and so is the
use of real filthy language. Anyone living near this colony is sure to pick up real fast the
choicest abuses that have become part of the classical language called Tamil.

The main characters here are Mr.Saamy, his wife & two kids. Saamy is a house painter
by vocation & his wife works as a maid in a few homes. He must be having a real name,
but I have always heard him referred to as Saamy which I guess is due to his penchant
for visiting Swamy Ayyappan's temple in Sabarimala (Kerala).

As is his practice the year round except when he has taken a vow to go to Sabarimala,
Saamy returns from work either a little drunk or somewhat drunk or fully drunk. On
most of these drunken days, he is pretty decent & limits his antics to singing a movie
song or enquiring with the neighbours about their well-being etc. But on certain days
when he has had a little too much to drink, he can be hard to control. This was one of
those days.

Saamy stays on the upper floor of a 2 storey home. He is in no mood to climb up to his
home and instead is content to stand below and starts singing loudly. In between, he
stops to abuse someone at work and to cut the story short, is creating quite a ruckus.
His wife and kids come down and try to convince him to quiten down and come up to
their home. But, well Saamy is not convinced so easily.

His wife pleads, the kids request him and yet Saamy stands his ground. His wife almost
falls at his feet & pleads him to come up. She keeps repeating, "Enge, dayavu seydhu ulla
vaanga. Ulle vandhu pesalam inge" meaning "Please come in. We can talk it out inside the home". This continues for some 5-10 minutes. You start pitying the poor woman who has
so much respect and patience for her man, even though he has come home drunk and is
creating such a nuisance.

Finally, they somehow are able to convince him and he agrees to go up. They literally drag
him up the stairs as he is clearly unable to walk properly. They get him inside the house &
the doors shut. I am about to move away from the window when I hear the wife shouting
at him like a madwoman. She is using all the abuses that you only normally hear men use
and which also includes the Tamil word for "bastard". And to top it, she is also hitting him
left and right. It takes her around 5 minutes to give vent to all her pent up anger. Ofcourse Mr.Saamy won't remember this the next day.

I was astonished at the sudden change in that woman. Someone who was the epitome of
patience a few minutes ago had transformed into almost a witch. And to think that she was
so patiently getting him inside the home only to treat him to her anger in the privacy of
their home.

All I got to say is, "I would not like my wife to emulate her".

call centre lingo

I was having my usual 6PM coffee + cigarette routine outside my office complex, which incidentally has various IT-related businesses like call centres, medical transcription
centres etc apart from software development companies.

6PM Indian time would be early morning in most parts of the US (except maybe the West
coast) and the US of A is slowly waking up. Europe has already been up for sometime now.
What this means for the Indian call centre industry is that, there are calls to attend and customers to face (over the phone that is).

You can see the cabs hired by call centre companies rushing past as they drop employees
at work. Some of them gather for a quick cigarette before they get in for the night shift.

I did not really intend to overhear their conversation. But they were so close and also so
loud that there was no way I could have avoided hearing it, even if I wanted to. Well, it
was about nothing serious. Just about how they had spent their weekend.

The usual banter about the discos / pubs visited, the hot chicks etc. What did strike me
was that for every two words they uttered, they used either the word "fu.." or some
variation of it. I mean, I can understand it if someone uses that word once in every
sentence, which itself is not a rational use of the word. But, here these guys were like
using it more like punctuation.

Have noticed this phenomenon earlier too and always with call centre guys. I am not in
any way implying that all call-centre guys talk like that. But the ones that do, usually
seem to be from that domain. I was wondering how this speech phenomenon came about.

Do they think its cool ? If so, it is definitely not. It actually sounds crude. Do they think Americans talk like that ? None that I ever met during my trips abroad. It is strange to
see our current Indian generation think of such things as fads.

Well, why blame them when most of us are aping the Western way of life in some way
or the other - food, drinks, materialism, spending, sexual habits, whatever ? While the
westerners having understood the uselessness of their habits are moving towards the
good facets of our culture.

Go ahead and multiply.

The title of this post can be found at more than one place in The Bible. Over the years,
this exhortation has lost its relevance because today we are in a different age and the
above maxim can prove suicidal, if followed.

The Earth can support only so many people and resources being finite, this could have
a huge impact on the planet and the people on it. No wonder, even the Christian leaders
do not ask their following to toe this line as they are aware of the negative fallouts. Even
when they are against contraceptive methods like condoms / pills etc, they do not suggest
unlimited procreation. Instead they suggest methods like abstinence which I know are not
really very helpful.

I personally do not think the Bible is against condoms and believe that condoms are the
best bet to control the burgeoning population and also to control the spread of AIDs.
However, I am digressing from the topic.

This post is a reply to the call by Mr.Sudarshan (top RSS leader) to Hindus to go ahead
and have a minimum of 3 kids. Ofcourse he would be happy if they have more.

Reason behind this twisted logic is to overcome what he feels is the high rate of growth of
Muslims, which was made infamous by the 'butcher of Gujarat' by the line "Hum Paanch, hamare pachees", which translates to "We Five, Ours TwentyFive". This refers to a muslim
man & his 4 wives (the max they are allowed) and their kids. Other than illiterate Muslims,
I am not sure how many of them have more than 1 wife. The Muslims I know, do not, in
any case.

As mentioned earlier on this blog, there is no way any of the minority communities (all of
which total up to a mere 15%) can be a threat to the 85% majority. But then logic is useless
to politicians and fundamentalists who find it better to serve up absurdities to the majority public who are illiterate and will swallow whatever they say.

The main obstacle today to India's development is its high population. The reason why
infrastructure fails to keep with the demand, the reason for illiteracy, the reason behind
hunger etc. And here we have a leader exhorting his cadres to go ahead and spawn more.

When will our leaders ever start talking sense ? When will they rise above the petty hatred
and think of the national well being. As far as I can see, not in the near future.

So, what can be done about this situation ? Is there nothing we can do as Indian citizens ?
Yes, there is a lot that can be done. To start with, we could stop talking about change and
instead be instrumental in bringing it about. The following maxim sums it up well,
"Be the change you want to see in the world."

Let us not rely on our so-called leaders to lead the way to a better India. Let us instead
think of contributing our efforts to making this happen.

Jai Hind.

Some miracles of Nature.

Had been to Kerala for a short 3-day X'mas vacation. The moment I reached home, wifey
asked me to grab the camera and have a look at some real strange phenomena observed
in our backyard.

With a Masters degree in Agriculture, if she finds some plant-related thing strange, then
I can bet it would be something that I never would have seen before. Got a chance to see
some really strange stuff. Surely amazing are the ways of nature.

1) Normally, Banana plants flower from the centre of the pseudostem of the plant. This
one flowers from the trunk of the plant itself. It started as a swelling of the stem (sort of
like pregnancy) and when we cut open the swelling (caesarean section ?), the flower was exposed.



2. Arecanut trees usually propogate via the nuts that fall to the ground. But here's a way of
propogation unusual to arecanut trees - new saplings sprouting from the roots of the mother tree.



3) And finally a coconut tree with the trunk branching into two individual trees. This has
been around at our place for a few years now and does not evoke much curiosity now.
But when it happened years ago, it was an amazing sight.

Kee Kee. Keeya Keeya.

Each language has different variants of it that are spoken in different places. Malayalam is
also no exception and depending on which place in Kerala you are from, your Malayalam
will be modelled accordingly.

Those from Thrissur are known to sing (not speak) Malayalam. It is infact quite interesting
to hear their version of Malayalam. Those from Central Travancore are supposed to speak
the correct version. OK, being from that region, I can pride on speaking correct Malayalam.

Those from Trivandrum speak some gibberish which they like to call as Malayalam, but
which essentially is quite amusing to others. Using plurals for things like water (Vellangal),
wrong pronunciation (jwali for Joli meaning work) etc.

Till last week, I was under the impression that no other region in Kerala speaks worser Malayalam. But that was only till I met a few guys (friends of my friend) from Kannur.
Man, these quys could talk to you in what they call Malayalam, but you would not be
able to make out most of it.

A few samples :

On odthu ?
" Avan endhiye ?" is the Malayalam equivalent, whose English is "Where is he?".

Idhu angittu chadikku.
"Idhu angottu kalayu" in Malayalam. The english version being "Throw this there".

The funniest part is the "Kee Kee. Keeya Keeya" incident that he mentioned and which
inspired this blog-post.

Two women from Kannur reach Trivandrum by bus. When they get to the stop where
they need to get off, one of them gets down from the bus. Due to the crowd blocking her
way, the other women is finding it difficult to get out.

The woman outside gets worried and says "Kee. Kee." The conductor and others in the
bus are perplexed. Then they hear a voice from inside the bus "Keeya Keeya" leading
the conductor to wonder aloud whether this is some kind of bird language.

For those who do not know bird language, "Kee" in Kannur Malayalam means "Irangu"
ie. "get down". And "Keeya" is "Keeyuwa" ie iranguva in Malayalam proper and "I am
getting down" in English.

There are instances where particular words in a language transform into something else,
like say the Tamil word "Kazhuthai". In the version of Tamil spoken in Madras, this is
said as "Kaidhe". Still, there can be seen some connection with the original. But where
is the connection between "Kee" and "Irangu", for God's sake ?

BTW, I have heard people from Kannur say that they are the most straight-forward of
all Malayalis and Malayalis elsewhere are cunning and crooked. I would agree with that,
but then also wonder why Kannur is also the hotbed of violence in Kerala - such a lot of
political killings happen there (mostly between RSS and Communist party cadres).

What would I not give to get back the old days?

Yes, the days when I was still a teen. The days when love was an innocent emotion, devoid
of lust. A girl was an object to worship and admire, not something to lust for. When all a girl
had to do was throw a glance at you (a smile would be a bonus) and your heart would pound madly with excitement.

I was 15 years old when we moved from Assam to Kerala. All my life till then was spent in
Gujarat & Assam. And Kerala was just a place where we went on a 1-month vacation every
year. A place that was raining forever, with a nice home in half-an-acre of land, with doting grandparents, a place that had mangoes, jackfruits, cashewnuts and all varieties of bananas.

A place where fishing was fun and easy - the fields behind our home would invariably get
flooded every year from the nearby river.

But, when the same place becomes home, it takes on an entirely different meaning. It was
no longer a place to vacation, but a place where I would be living, studying and growing up.
I discovered lots of things during my 2-year stay there and also took on a couple of bad
habits which are still with me.

But then I also learnt a lot during the 2 years there - the culture, the people and especially
the fact that the girls there are the best in the whole world. Yes, after having been in almost
all parts of India, some of Europe and a few states in the US, I can take the liberty of saying
that they are the best.

At that time, love was an emotion that was still unclear. You see it in the movies, but do not know what it is about. Every time you see a girl, you fall in love anew. You would go to the
inter-church cultural competitions and are watching the programmes. Suddenly, your eyes move from the stage and lock on the eyes of a pretty lass. That brief look from her is enough
to make you feel like Mr.Universe.

You do not know who she is, what her name is, where she is from. But those are trivial to
you - you are already in love. You act like you are watching the stage, whereas your eyes
keep darting to her every now and then. She also obliges you occasionally, making your day.
The eye-games last till the programme is over & you reluctantly leave the place - ofcourse
only after she has left. In all probability, to never see the girl again, but hoping against hope
that you will.

Do we see this excitement today when love is confused with lust and all that we think of is
to satisfy the body ? Where are those emotions that made you fly ? Is it that as we grow,
we keep losing the innocent pleasures and hanker after short-term pleasures ?

Is it still haraam ?

It was raining almost the whole weekend in Madras - atleast quite a bit on Saturday and
really good on Sunday. This year, the weather gods seem to have blessed Madras quite abundantly, as far as rains are concerned. On second thoughts, is it a blessing ? Because
Madras will not really be able to cope with such rains and the place would get flooded
creating problems for all. The last time I saw such rains was more than a decade ago
(electric train tracks flooded, no traffic etc).

So, what do you do on a weekend when it is pouring and without much that you can do ?
Well, if you are Mallus (the Tamilians too are catching up), you get a few friends together,
buy some nice liquor, order some great home-delivered and have a blast. That's exactly
what we did on Saturday evening. Initially planned to be a small group of just 3 friends,
it extended to double that number due to some friends dropping in.

The three new entrants were friends of my friend and not previously known to me. While
introductions were being made, I found that one of them is a Muslim. I have many Muslim
friends and what I have noticed among them is that a vast majority of them do not drink.
You could say around 95% do not drink. But, take Christians or Hindus and it is exactly
the opposite - you might not even find 5% that do not drink.

To my surprise, our friend (let's call him Ahmed) was the most impatient for the glasses
to go around. After a few rounds had gone around, I slowly put forward my doubt to him.

Me : Is it not haraam for you guys to drink ?
Ahmed : Which age are you living in, man ?

Me : Well, I have not seen many Muslim guys that drink.
Ahmed : Well, earlier they did not because it was haraam.

Me : So, what has changed now ?
Ahmed : Well, 3 years ago, a minor modification was made to the rule book and so it is OK
for us to drink too.

Me : What modification was done that makes it OK for you guys to drink ?
Ahmed : Instead of "Liquor is haraam", it has been modified to "Liquor is haram".

That was a good one that I heard in a long time.

P.S. : For those who don't know, "Haraam" means something that is forbidden & "Haram"
in Malayalam means "fantasy" or "desire".

A tribute to the Indian Jawan.

OUR TODAY FOR YOUR TOMORROW

Every day without fail,
we read in the papers;
The news that makes a family go pale,
‘Jawans shot dead by ultras’.

We, with rocks in place of hearts,
do calmly turn the page over;
Not a sob escapes our lips,
as we go about our daily chore.

With no time for a moment of silence,
as a mark of respect for our guardian angels;
Not a thought about the pain intense,
of the orphaned wives and kids.

They belong to the unfortunate ilk,
trained to protect the country from enemies;
Ending up with the unsavoury task,
of having to fight their own buddies.

Men with bravery and partriotism in their heart,
preferring to die than live as cowards;
Unlucky to be controlled by politicians corrupt,
and made pawns for their selfish needs.

Guarding the country in the North East,
from the cunning and greedy chinks;
And the mountainous North West,
from our troublesome erstwhile siblings.

Never the guys to say No,
even on the killing fields of Siachen;
Do we know what we owe,
to each and every Indian jawan ?

Those of us lucky to have seen the holy place,
known better as the Kohima War Memorial;
And after having read the inscribed message,
do leave with misty eyes, the ground of burial.

Is written there for us heartless,
“When you go back to your loved ones,
Tell them that we gave our Today,
For the sake of their tomorrow”.

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© 1999 - 2005 Biju Rajan - Inca Red Creations.

Who will wipe her tears ?

The dawn wakes up to the cry of an infant in hunger,
the starving mother rushes to feed and wipe its tears.
Who is there to wipe the tears of this mother,
having a billion sons & daughters.

Men and women dressed in khadi on the stage,
talk about fifty years of her independence.
Does she feel any difference between her own & the English race?
It hurts more to be stabbed by her own sons.

The wheel is turning full circle once again,
with brother stabbing brother & the mother helpless.
In the Mahabharata, it was atleast for pecuniary gain,
her sons today die over meaningless caste and religious issues.

Her children grow up studying Science and Technology,
with no one to breath in them a whiff of Patriotism.
Growing up into adults ashamed to admit love for their country,
lacking the knowledge and will to stand up for the national anthem.

The star-spangled banner is an object of pride,
for every American worth his salt.
Can we say the same about our compatriots,
most of whom won’t know the Tricolor upside down ?

Never hesitating to fight for our selfish rights,
conveniently forgetting our duty towards her.
Ain’t it time we asked ourselves,
what we did for our Mother ?

For every hundred of us ready to fly to the land of dreams,
do we have atleast one to work for her advancement.
Or, have we turned away our eyes from her sorrows,
holding money and not our Mother important.

Can’t we make an example of the illiterate auto-driver,
proclaiming proudly on the back of his vehicle that,
“Eighty percent of Indians might be dishonest,
still my beloved India is the best”.

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© 2000 - 2005 Biju Rajan - Inca Red Creations.