I don’t have anything new to write about what is happening in Kerala. Its strikes and protests happening there, along with a student strike yesterday.

Just another day in Kerala !

Now the latest reason why the so called students are protesting is because of a controversial textbook introduced this year for Class 7. Yes you heard it right Class 7.

So what does this text book contain that makes it controversial? The first chapter contains lessons about ”Life without religion”. The idea of the lesson was that everyone is equal, the way it was executed was very confusing. The opposition is arguing that this is communist propaganda and the Marxist party in kerala is trying to inflict communism and atheism in children. The ruling party argues that the textbook was approved by a board comprising of all party members.

Now I wouldn’t say that the ruling party is right about adding a lesson ”Life without religion” for the 7th Std Student text book (”Life without religion” for bunch of 13 year olds?), nor I would support the opposition on how the protests are being carried out.

The seventh standard students are not protesting, nor are the teachers. Its the ’so called students’ from KSU(Kerala Student’s Union), MSF and Youth Congress that are protesting, well not peacefully. They are on a rampage across the state, destroying public property, burning school books, beating up policemen and media persons, disrupting traffic and destroying government vehicles.

Now these are not something new in Kerala, if you tune into any Malayalam news channel, the half hour program will contain news only about strikes, hartals, bandhs, protests, and more protests. Well its the only place in the world which observed a hartal when Saddam was hanged.

Hey, all is not wrong in kerala. The people of kerala however can breath a sign of relief about one thing, the bus operators association had postponed their planned strike for today to next week.

Welcome to God’s own country.

Piracy would be the No 1 competition for music and movie industry. Now why do the pirates survive and how come the police or the law is not bringing them to justice? The answer would be simple. The public. There is a greater demand for pirated movie CDs, Audio CDs in India and the piracy business is booming like never before. Although the law enforcers’ crack down (1 2) many piracy rackets all across India, we know places like National market In Bangalore, Bhima Palli in Trivandrum, Chor Bazaar in Mumbai still exists.

We could see them often on the roads and street corners selling latest movie CDs. We can bargain with them on the price and watch new movies for as low as 20Rs.Now what is the police doing? Well it’s deplorable that the pirates sell this in public and right under their nose, so it doesn’t take rocket science to figure out that the police are paid off to keep away.

Back in college, while I was doing my engineering there was one student who supplied pirated CDs. So where did he get all the CDs from? Interestingly his dad was a policeman who conducts raids at shops who sells pirated CDs. So the CDs were taken as evidence and it was all over our hostel!!!!!

Now how can we stop piracy? What can the public do? What can the industry do? Continue Reading »

There are incidents of mob fury all over India. The latest one is at Bihar where a murder suspect who was being treated in a hospital was assaulted by a fiery mob. Even if it’s a murder suspect that the mob is taking its fury on, but does that give anyone the right to take law into their hands? I am wondering what is fueling these mob fiery in India. Well the President has this to say. I agree with her. (Read the entire speech here). She says it’s because of slow procedures at our judicial system that are sparking these mobs to take law into their own hands.

Even for a small case like the consumer rights court takes more than 4 months to settle the case, the complainant prefers to settle issues out of court. Some never bother to go to the court. In more serious cases like murder or theft, it takes even longer. Statistics says that eight months ago there were three million cases pending at our courts, the figures would have only increased. And to make things worse courts goes on vacation for 2 months every year.

So the questions pending are : Did the common man lose his trust on the Judicial System? What can be done to provide speedy justice?

80 shutdowns in 18 months, on an average 4 every month. This figure is haunting as this is after the courts have banned bandh and ‘forceful hartals’. While the political parties have given assurances that the hartals will be peaceful and there wouldn’t be any ‘forceful’ closure of shops or disruptions in traffic, it’s seldom followed.

Kerala witnessed yet another hartal yesterday with all major institutions, offices closed down. There were stray incidents caught on camera where the activists forced shopkeepers to close down and abused people who took their vehicles on the road. In one incident a cab with foreign tourists were stopped and the driver was manhandled. The terror in the tourists’ eyes was clearly visible. No wonder these warnings are part of standard country specific documents in foreign government sites.As the two parties try their hand at blaming each other, the people are left tormented. While students enjoy their holiday, there are thousands of travelers left with no other choice but to ruin their day at bus stations.I see no end to this unless the politicians themselves come with a new form of protest and give people the ‘choice’ to take part if they want to.

(This post is not to debate on the health issues as a result of alcohol consumption but yes, alcohol consumption is injurious to your health.)

A long queue, thick crowd and a traffic block. Yes that’s a state owned liquor shop. Wish I had a photograph to prove it.On my visit to my home town in Kerala during Christmas I found this sight pretty amusing. Not that I am seeing it for the first time, but because of the anguish in the eyes of the people waiting in the queue.

Ever since AK Antony (now Defence Minister) banned Arrack in 1996 and closed down all private owned liquor shops in the state, the ‘dry days’ for the people of Kerala had begun. At one end the move was to protect the interest of the families whose lives were ruined due to domestic violence. Looking at the other end of the story, we find more illegal arrack being smuggled into the state (or manufactured within the state) and heavy pricing on alcohol.

The burden is on the lower middle class or the laborers who drink, has to shell out twice as what they had to earlier. Thanks to the 100% tax on alcohol. But did the consumption come down? No. Lesson learned? Increasing the prices do not reduce the consumption.

Now if it’s any festival, you find people waiting in long queues to get themselves a bottle. Why can’t the government (any one of them, during their term) just give away with the regulations? Reason? Revenue. (Tax collected through the liquor sales was Rs. 15 billion in 2006; it is Rs.18 billion in 2007)

Continue Reading »

Valentine’s Day is approaching. It’s time our dear moral police take on the streets. The one who claims to control the moral practices of this country.

Two years back some mobs attacked the Archies and other gift shops in Trivandrum, Kerala. There were isolated incidents of violence against young couples through out India. So whom are they targeting? Couples who ‘degrade’ the society or whose ‘actions’ shame our ‘culture’ ? Actions like walking in the park together, exchanging gifts or holding hands?

There are hell lots of posts on the blogosphere deploring the activities of the moral police. But they, the moral police fail to answer our questions, what’s your reason for these attacks? Why?

Continue Reading »

Having worked out of Trivandrum for more than two years for a software company I am sure that city has everything you could ask for. I  thought of writing this post after the common response I get from my colleagues out here in Bangalore when I tell them that I am worked with a company at Technopark. And the common response is “Technopark? where?� .

Well for those who don’t know, Techno park is (source wikipedia) “the first and largest technology park in India Launched in 1990, Technopark currently has 3.2 million square feet (310,000 square meters) of built-up space. Technopark is home to over 125 companies, which employ more than 17,000 professionals.”

Yes, it’s the FIRST technology park in India. While the silicon valley of India (Bangalore) gradually overtook the state in terms of software exporting, Technopark was not far behind. But then most of the companies preferred Bangalore as their outsourcing hub. The reason? Talent pool, favorable government policies and infrastructure. But then why should one (employer or employee) choose Trivandrum now?

• Living cost

This would be the best reason to move. You have to pay just 25% of the money that you now shell out as rent every month and will get twice the space. There aren’t any multiplexes, but you could see all latest movies for 35 bucks.

• Traffic

You would hardly find a traffic jam. But Technopark is 15 KMs from the city, however if you stay near, say 10 kms away from the Park, you could reach office in 10 mins, which is impossible in the major cities.

• No more crowded airports

Reaching airport would be walk in the park for everyone. You would hardly face any traffic jams on the way

• Tax

Since Technopark is outside the city limits, the professional tax levied is relatively less.

But these are changing with more companies rushing to the Tier 3 cities to set up their centers. Infosys (which already have 1000 employees in Technopark) is setting up its 70 acre campus next to Technopark. TCS has it’s main training centre working out of Technopark. Many companies like L&T are trying to push the government in getting land on lease. Many companies have already eyed the city as its next offshore hub, but then will the Kerala government comply? Will the chaos surrounding the new Tech Parks succumb? These questions may go unanswered but I am sure Kerala will be waking up with a new IT boom of it’s on in near future.

The other IT park in Kerala is Infopark and the latest one planned is Technocity near Technopark.

Have you ever used obscene words when you pray? Well it’s the custom here.

Here - Kodungallur in Thrissur District, Kerala.

The Devi or Goddess, here seems to like obscene talk, sexual humor and sexually obnoxious songs which even Eminem would think twice to include in his next song.

Hard to Believe? Believe it!!

These songs also known as poorappattu or Bharani pattu (which now seems to be popular among college-goers) are chanted with devotees dancing to please the Goddess (Kodungallur Amma). Some say that it started like this.

A young man was a strong believer of the Goddess and prayed to her daily. But his prayers were not answered and this really pissed him off. He shouted obscene words at the Goddess and his prayers were answered!!!!

Now public singing of sexually offensive songs are banned by the government but still being practiced as the locals can’t let go of their age old tradition. You could read some facts here.

How well is it received?

“The Bharani celebration with the poorappattu had been undisturbed until a decade ago. As part of Hindu fundamentalism, some puritan Hindu Saniyasins got the idea of reforming the celebration by suppressing the sexual songs. Five years ago a Hindu swami who wanted to block the singing by force created a war-like situation. He led a group of upper-caste people to prevent the low castes from singing sexual songs. With that incident, the police, which are the arm of middle-class society, were given the charge of censuring and supervising the singing. Recently, police officers have taken this opportunity to prove their moral integrity by imposing stricter measures to prevent people from singing sexual songs and entering into a trance.”

For more information on this ‘one of a kind’ festival read this.