Shame Shame M.G. Shame!!

cartoon courtesy: http://www.wittygraphy.com/blog/show/1005126/m-g-sreekumar-2009

The scene is a star award night of a Malayalam TV Channel in the newly found Kodambakkam of Kerala- Kochi. The persistent super stars Mammooty and Mohanlal, the real super star of India, Amitabh Bachchan, a host of other stars from Kerala and Tamilnadu and the thousands of fans thronged the stadium where the function was held. In the middle of the program, all of a sudden, the 54 year old M.G.Sreekumar, the singer-music director, emerges from the fourth or fifth row, wearing a shirt printed with bright color flowers, gallops to the front row like newly born mule, shaking his pot belly and lands in front of none other than the great Amitabh Bachchan. Mr. Bachchan looks at the middle aged man dressed almost like a joker, with sense of bewilderment.  Sreekumar pulls up a dirty piece of torn paper from his trouser pocket and starts singing, looking at Mr.Bachchan and pointing his palm towards the star. It was the first line of the famous song from the 70’s Bollywood super hit “Lawaris” in which Amitabh himself portrayed the title role. The actual words in the first line of the song is thus- “Mere angane mein tumhara kya kaam hai”? And what we heard from the Kerala singer was- “ Mere angaane mem tumara ka kaam hai?”  He repeated the same line quite a few times and one could see a lot of embarrassed faces around.  Amitabh Bachchan gave a bigger bewildered look as if thinking who was this thick skinned crank distorting his famous song. Mr.Bachchan would have never ever turned up for this program if he had expected a  dim-witted oddball shamelessly coming to him and singing, distorting the lyrics and the music of a famous song of his!

Dear SREEKUTTAN-  you could have rehearsed the song and checked the pronunciation of the words in the lyrics before you had started singing it in front of Amitabh Bachchan , the thousands of the audience present at the venue and the millions of TV viewers.  Shame on you M.G. Sreekumar!!  All I can do is pray  -God save Malayalam cinema from these gobbledygooks  …

Kochi IPL- do they deserve a team?

10th Nov 2009

One winter morning Shashi sar woke up in his comfy Delhi residence thinking lazily about the busy schedules for the day. Before he could yawn out his morning sluggishness, he heard his mobile ring. He took the cell phone that was stuffed under his pillow and saw an unknown number flickering in the display. “Some Kerala number?”, he thought. He brought his mobile close to his ear and heard a coarse voice of a middle aged man,

“Good Morning saar, I’m the T.C.Mathai. I’m the secretary of a closet cricket association”

“Uhh”, Sashi sar (SS) shrugged his shoulders in dismay; Some idiot speaking in broken English, he thought.

SS is always a people’s leader and hence took care not to outrightly dismiss anybody from his state even if the person was a preposterous dumb head. His philosophy, like any other seasoned politician was that never shoo away people as they are voters who can make or break the career of a politician.

SS asked in a pleasant tone,” What can I do for you sir?”

“Saar you knows me very very well, I’m the meeting you 2-3 times in a public functions at Kochi and Thiruvananthapuram”

SS just recognized his voice and remembered that he had met this guy quite a few times at various programs related to cricket; an obese who represented the class of people who made fortunes without moving their ass.

“Oh tell me Mr.Mathai, what can I do for you?”

“Saar, a wonderful chance has the come to make a team from Kerala in IPL… you will support us…no?

“Definitely it’s a good thing Mr.Mathai…I’ll definitely give you all my moral support.”

“Ayyo, saar model support is not enough… we want your influence”

“Oh Gosh, I’m in a responsible position and how can I stoop to the level of influencing and stuff…please spare me from this”, SS spoke anxiously wanting to get out of that tantrum as soon as possible.

“Saar don’t say no… you will be the doing good to the state by helping us… once a team comes, the economy will grow and prosperity and prosperity everywhere”!

“Whose economy is going to grow…yours?” SS restricted the spontaneous thought that arouse in his mind to himself and said,” I know Mr.Mathai that the people of the state could benefit, but for that why should I tarnish my reputation by indulging in undemocratic practices?”

“Saar you will also benefit… “, Mathai tried his usual acquiescent  stuff

“I don’t want to taint my image for paltry benefits…”Said an exasperated SS.

Mathai chuckled as if pacifying SS. He said,” Saar, you think small benefits, I can arrange big benefits… you only have to “sweat”..”

“Sweat?”, SS asked perplexed

Mathai chuckled again and said,” I’ll tell you in the person… I’ve some Gujaratis who will invest the big money…everything goes the well we will have the team of Kerala.”

When Mathai hung the phone SS contemplated,” one stone- two birds… not a bad idea”

19th April 2010

Mathai sat in his in living room and gasped at the TV visuals of the sorry figure of Shashi sar coming out of the PM’s residence tendering his resignation. A coveted position- flunged away for nothing! “ Sweat equity aur kya kya? Kochi IPL aur kya kya” Equity be gaya…kaam be gaya  aur naam bhi gaya! SS seriously wished that he could squeeze the nut called Mathai.

After two days when Mathai’s guilt has dried up, he called SS from his Kochi residence to render his condolence .

“Saar, Good Morning the Mathai here.”

“What now?”, SS voice carried all the bitterness that was in his heart

“I’m the sorry… that foolish fellow Modi is the responsible for all the problems…”

“Shut up … now listen, I have lost everything, don’t have to remind me of the bygone things…just do me a favour…”, SS’s voice, although was now devoid of the bitterness it had a few seconds ago, was demanding.

Mathai asked in a confused tone,” what saar”.

“I have lost a lot in the bargain…no problem, but there’s huge outcry for matches to be played in my constituency also…you should make the capital also as one of the home ground.”

What SS heard was a long guffaw from Mathai. SS waited patiently until the guffaw stopped. He asked,” hmm? Why are you farting like an animal?”

Mathai got serious,” you can the ask me my life but not venue…Kochi will be the lone venue and this team will be the known as Kochi team.”

“Why are you so admant about Kochi?”

“Haha..Kochi is the only vibrant city in Kerala…you know and it has the city crowd in lakhs who’ll watch matches ”, Mathai slammed phone in despise.

27^th April 2011

Mathai sat at a corner of the 55000-capacity stadium and looked miserably at the empty stands. His Henchman was sitting next to him and counting the no. of spectators in the stands.

A dejected Mathai said,” stop this nonsense; tell me how many people are there?”

 His henchman said apologetically,” if 2 more guys had come it would have become 3000 people”

“Already half of it are free passes, 2 or even 10 will not make much difference in the collections, Mathai said in a sad tone and then asked,”Leave it, tell me where are the owners?”

Henchman smiled embarassingly and said,” They said they are going to the marine drive, to have some peace of mind…”

Mathai, inadverdently said,” hope they won’t jump into the sea!”

Mathai thought in embarrassment about his famous two words that he gave to the TV channels, to the poor Shashi sar and to various press walas – VIBRANT KOCHI !

 He walked out of the stadium when the final nail on his team’s coffin was thrusted in by the opposition team. He headed towards the Kaloor church to light a candle and when he reached there, he was bedazzled to see the team owners standing in genuflection in front of the church in the dark!

IPL at Kochi a failure?

What happened to T.C.Mathew’s  vibrant Kochi ?

While I’m writing this, four games in IPL has been over and the respective winners were Chennai Super Kings, Rajastan Royals, Royal Challengers Bangalore and Mumbai Indians. The inaugural match between CSK and KKR had a capacity crowd at M.A.Chidambaram stadium, so was the second match played on Saturday afternoon in Hyderabad, which also witnessed a capacity crowd. It was heartening to see the Pune Warrior fans travelling  all the way from Pune to Navi Mumbai to watch their stars play and filled up the D.D.Y.Patil stadium almost to its capacity. With this kind of crowd in working hours, it was definite that there would be a capacity crowd for the late evening Saturday match between RCB and the debutant Kochi Tuskers Kerala at the 55,000 capacity Jawaharlal Nehru stadium in Kochi. Surprisingly what one could see was a stadium not even half filled; a meager 17000 odd crowd was all we had in the Kaloor stadium. No body would have expected such a lukewarm response from the city of Kochi that had seen in the past, swelling with capacity crowds for various one day international matches that featured India.

Sunday’s (April 10, 2011) “The Hindu”, reports thus- “…the Kochi stadium, a big oval that can seat 55000, was not half full to witness the grand party. For a team which was making its debut in the glamorous IPL, the response of the fans was a big disappointment. Just about 17000 fans turned up to witness the opening show that had stars like Mahela Jayawardene, Muthiah Muralidharan, S.Sreesanth, Virat Kohli and Zaheer Khan.

The empty stands at the Jawahrlal Nehru stadium, Kochi makes one to contemplate the following points.

1.    A major chunk of the people who came to watch the one day internationals in the past were from Malabar and the southern districts like Trivandrum and Kollam. The original Kochi crowd might have been a small percentage.

2.    Why didn’t people turn in from other parts of the state? Could it  be related to the reason that people believed that this is just a Kochi team and not a team representing Kerala?

3.    Kochi is a small city of a population of just a shade above 6 lakhs and 70% of it coming under lower income level, and expecting events like IPL (Ticket prices are comparitievly high) to be successful seems to be a serious lapse on the part of the people who took intiative to form the team based in this city. Mathrubumi reported on Sunday that the low turn out could be due to the high rated tickets.

Almost a year ago, when T.C.Mathew, secretary Kerala Cricket Association and Ajith Kumar, the former secretary, fought tooth and nail against identifying the team as a Kerala team and insisted a Kochi tag, people including this writer envisaged this situation of lukewarm response from the people of Kerala. Shashi Tharoor due to the pressure from people had requested the KCA to have a few matches of the team in Trivandrum and Kozhikode as well. The response from T.C.Mathew and his cronies were uncalled for, as they said Kochi has a vibrancy that no other city in Kerala has! Now they have seen the kind of vibrancy Kochi had shown to their debut match. The so-called vibrancy is a Frankenstein  created by certain Medias who have stakes in Kochi. Shame on you T.C.Mathew, who has drooped so low almost like an agent of real estate mafia of Kochi. The event was an utter failure and I seriously doubt in the next edition of the IPL, the team could be shifted to Ahmedabad. Ultimately, the owners want revenue and the gate collections form the major share of it.

 Shakeela for Tuskers!!

                                  Picture courtesy: bollywoodsearch.com

Kochi Tusker’s debut match and Kochi stadium’s inaugural match at the IPL was a great disappointment.  It was a disappointment not because the team was crushed by A.B.De Villier’s swashbuckling innings, but by the kind of luke warm response from the people of Kochi (the fans as they call it).The 55000 capacity stadium had altogether just a 17000 odd crowd (that included 5000 odd RCB fans , some 200 odd journalist, 350 policemen and the KCA bandwagon(that could number in 1000s) lead by T.C.Mathew). A local newspaper report attributed the debacle to the high-ticket rates! T.C.Mathew the self-designated apostle of Kerala Cricket blamed it on Rahul Gandhi; he said that all the fans who were supposed to watch the match had gone to attend Rahul Gandhis meeting (who was there in Kochi the same day). If we play the videos of Rahul Gandhi’s meeting at Kochi, that struggled even to attract 2000 people, we will understand how childish Mathew is. Kerala cricket team former coach Balchandran attributed the empty stands to bad marketing (Poonam "Nude" Pandey should be used for marketing in the future). All are just ludicrous!

Nevertheless, the positive about the whole thing was that, there were hordes of people fixed up in their seats or hovering around, where the cheergirls danced. I thought, 5000 odd might have come only to see the cheer girls gyrate their hips. At this rate, I think, Shakeela in the stands would have made a great difference to the Kochi Machus. Shakeela became the heartthrob of Malayali youngsters with her antics in soft porns of the 90’s. I urge T.C.Mathew to rope in for Shakeela for the next match and force an increased turn out at the Jawharlal Nehru stadium! Shakeela should be made the ambassador of the team at the earliest, or else I doubt the gujju owners of Kochi Tuskers may be forced to shift its venue to Ahmedabad! Those who buy this idea may please send request saying,” We want Shakeela” to Mr.T.C.Mathew, Secretary, Kerala Cricket Association, Thycaud, Trivandrum-6950014. or to the former secretary Ajith Kumar, Kaloor stadium, Kochi. They both know how more vibrant Kochi can become with the presence of the likes of Shakeela and Poonam Pandey.

Sharad Pawar to head GoM to monitor corruption.

India’s world cup victory and the police intolerance to the street celebrations in Trivandrum

This photograph is not related to the original incident.

                             The whole of India could not ask for another day to celebrate in grandeur, other than this day when its team surged to the helm of the world cricket by winning the ICC Cricket World Cup 2011. There was not a city in India that did not celebrate the country's greatest achievement in sports. The street celebrations in almost all the major cities went on untill the Sunday dawn. Our own Trivandrum or Thiruvananthapuram also joined the celebrations in a jovial way with young people carrying Indian flags, shouting slogans, thronged various parts of  the city. The centre of the street celebrations was of course the statue square, which is in front of the secreteriat, the Governing axis of the state of Kerala. The M.G.Road was obviously blocked partially and made a thin traffic blockade in the middle of night. Youngsters rode bikes carrying the tricolor, drove cars, other four wheelers spread with large Indian flags and shouting slogans in ecstasy. Crackers burst at the corners of the city and colorful fireworks emblazoned  the skies.

                                   Video courtesy :Binu; youtube

 However, the happiness was short lived as the police who were watching the whole show silently were ordered to disperse the crowd to reinstate the traffic flow. The police went on a rampage beating up people with lathis; whomever they found on the road were beaten up and were scared off. Is this the way to control a celebrating crowd? Why couldn’t the police control the youngsters who were rejoicing their team’s bigest victory, in a peaceful manner? Are we still carrying the British legacy of lathi charges and violent retributions to nonviolent crowds? Many cities in India, yesterday celebrated almost blocking the roads and traffic, but nowhere had we seen such savagely act! Are the police in Kerala, showing up their ego or are they trying to stamp their authority of dominance on the man on the street. There is no law that suggests violent action against crowd that on the course of celebration was uintentionally creating a few hindrances to the traffic. There was not any curfew imposed that said that people should not flock on the roads. Surya TV reported that most of the policemen were drunk!

A few months back a political party blocked the roads for days in Kerala in the name of blockading central Government offices, Why was the police then a mute spectator? Where did the protectors of law go then? The law should be equal for everyone. The youngsters of Trivandrum were sporty enough, as they did not react to the nomadic and brutal action of the Kerala police. The repercussions  of beating up the youngsters would have been different if it was a Kolkatta or a Mumbai.

Political drunkards

                                                        We are largely ignorant about Indian politician’s drinking habits. A few months ago, the Kochi IPL patriarch Shashi Tharoorji was in news for modelling for a whiskey brand (actually it was a photograph of him receiving an award intiated by the whiskey brand). The Marxist felt that it was so much offending that they started an outcry on the issue. They wanted Tharoorji to apologize to the public. Tharoorji laughed it off; you know he’s practising an American brand of politics and if you don’t sip a peg or two you ain’t considered as a politician there. Remember Tharoorji is the first person in India who kept his hand on his heart while the National Anthem was being played- another yankee style.

What about the communist? Communist in Russia never touched any of the liquor brands as a matter of policy. They stuck to their own indigenous brand of Vodka. The more you drink Vodka, the more you become Communists was their philosophy. In Kerala too, Vodka seems to be acceptable but owing to its price, lower-level comrades might have switched on to Tuskers and OPRs(both constitute the major chunk of the Bevco revenue). Antony deliberately banned the locally made vodkas(read as Arrack) to teach the true communists a lesson.  Although Beedi, Parippuvada(dal vada) and tea were known as staple diet of the communists, clandestinely arrack too took to the list in olden days!

RahulG have had the opportunity to travel all around the world and can’t believe that he could have restricted himself to sipping champagne. He looks scotch to an intriguing eye. Digvijay Singh was a raja once upon a time before he became the scavenger in Congress and obviously, he might have had the expensive Raja Brands of scotch whiskeys before dinner. Talking about the Rajas, the real Raja comes up into my mind. Crores have beeen lying around him like dried leaves in summer; he too could have tried a peg or two of the most expensive liquors in the world.

Finally, the eyelids of Ramesh Chennithala and the lazy countenance of Oomen Chandy tell it all. Infact hardcore Pinarayi Viayan fan and the avid film maker Ranji Panicker portrayed the chief minister, who resembled Oomen Chandy,  in his movie Bharat Chandran IPS, as a drunkard. 

Christian Brothers :Yet another trashy junk by Udayan-Siby

                                     Once upon a time, there lived an underworld don. He was sweet and kind, and bound closely to his family. His dad didn’t like him because he earned his lively hood by donning a robber’s job instead of becoming a doctor or an engineer. He became a don not by choice but by a trickster‘s stratagem or perhaps by destiny (that’s in flash back!).  He has a brother who will make you laugh with his Walt Disney’s character kind of cameo. The hero here, will do everything that is supposed to be done by the police. He fights against a group of villians (they are Hindu brothers) who are not underworld dons but something like panchayat warlords deadlier than Dawood Ibrahims. The Hero uses the entire wardrobe of a near by readymade showroom to emblazon his plumpy body and dances along with the glamorous dolls in between his other antics. Climax and anti-climax follow….That sums up Christian Brothers written by UdayaKrishna- Siby K.Thomas duo and directed by the old formula film war-horse Varkala Joshy( one feels sorry for him- it is believed that creativity is directly proportional to change; sadly  he’s unchanged for last 45 years).

Hardcore Mohanlal fans will say that it is a wonderful movie and hardcore Mammootty fans will make fun of them (they conveniently, will forget their favourite actor’s monkey dance in Pokkiri Raja, another saga of idiotism by Udaya-Sibi).

 “Two hours of entertainment is what we need and not some story that helps in uplifting the society”- says people like Rajesh G. from Varkala (a random representative of today’s youth).

“We are not here to ponder upon high funda stuffs”, says Riju, who’s a hardcore fan of director Shankar and actor Prithviraj( he loves Prithvi because of his physique, I guess, rather than the acting skills).

However, then how long will you bear these kinds of films that have become dull and droning due to the repetition of the story and treatment? Don’t you want a change? Don’t you want to become a part of this changing world? Don’t you think Cinema is the greatest medium that can help in make people think and contemplate about the future of this world? If you don’t think so, then you should applause the puny Rajni saar bashing up 10-15 villains double his size in no time and make you leave the theatre with contended minds. But then you will have to realize that you‘ve been trapped into a virtual world of joy! There is no escape from that untill you will be forced to think late in your life, that you’ve lost!

By acting in these kinds of trashy junks actors like Mohanlal, Dileep and others, believe that this can help them in rejuvenating their thining careers. On the other hand, they are damaging the good name they have earned after the many years of hard work they have put in. Some people have started asking,” which one is better Pokkiri Raja or Christian brothers?” It is like asking- which is better, shit or crap?  

God save Malayalam cinema and its audience!!

Love-lies-bleeding -- excerpts from my novel

( from chapter 2)

                                         It all began in a lazy Kochi Saturday afternoon, when all of Kochi was emblazoned with the oomph of Urmila Matondkar’s skimply clad postures, that attracted amorous gapes by naïve looking pedestrians every where; a slight drizzle added to the revelery by making  the roads shine and fill up with puddles. All roads seem to be ending at the Sridhar Theatre, which was ready with its first show of the Hindi movie Rangeela. A crowd, braving the incessant drizzle, had built up in front of the theatre pushing and prodding for a place near the gate at the ticket counter. Aji stood under the turret of a near by building protecting himself from the drizzle that seemed to be developing into a heavy shower, adoringly looking at the huge cut-out of the heroine of Rangeela. He wasn’t waiting exactly for the gates at the first class ticket counters to open, but for someone whom he was incessantly following for an opportunity to meet. In the morning at the chat, Lathika had hinted to Aji (for Lathika, he was still a faceless guy called Kochunni who lived 100 kms away), of her movie program with her friends in the evening. Moreover, that sent signals to his twisted brain indicating an opportunity to meet Lathika in flesh and blood. Her other attributes revealed on the course of the chat were by-heart to him. Therefore, it wasn’t much of a difficulty in identifying her.

As he stood uncomplainingly under the difficult circumstances of rain and the irksome crowd, he began to feel that; finally, his patience has been paid off, when he saw a lone, tall girl under a colorful umbrella on the road walking with beautiful stride towards the theatre. Lathika! He murmured in joy. She wore a flowery skirt that barely covered her knee and a bright pink top that floated on her curvaceous body. Her face had that sweet innocence that he had stared with adulation umpteen times as images in his monitor. Aji was ecstatic, although he knew that he has to use all his ammunitions to start a conversation with her. Kochunni was not Aji and vice versa! Kochunni known to Latika, atleast in her imagination, was a six-footer handsome hunk and Aji was nowhere near. A skinny guy who could be, not even touching 5’3” ; a bony face character with two protruding teeth in the front, definitely was going to invite that beautiful girl’s wrath.His physical shortcomings were suddenly looming large in his mind. However, he was not letting himself loose such a wonderful opportunity; after all why was he beguiling away the valuable 6 months of his life into enticing the lass. As she approched the gates that paved an opening to the way to the balcony, Aji caught up with her, walking in quick strides.

He called out from behind,” Madam, do you have tickets?”

She was obviously surprised and turned back with a curious look. She had bent her head and look down at the puny guy,

She replied with a smiling face,” Is the balcony already filled up?”

(excerpts from my novel Love-lies-bleeding -Chapter 2)

LDF or UDF?

Publish Post

When the election dates were announced, by the election commission, V.S. Achuthanandan had already maneuvered an advantage LDF situation by digging up the corpse of the ice cream sex scandal case and nailing the vocally blatant Balakrishna Pillai. Those who prognosticated a 100 seat win for UDF, Suddenly had to eat their words. Achuthanandan was in the lime light and according to the political observers; the tables were turning in favour of the LDF. There was obviously a panic in the UDF camp. They had been caught napping. Kunhalikutty was searching for covers; the Congress leaders were groping in dark not knowing how to counter Achuthanandan’s sudden battering. The Congress suddenly was under a catch 22 situation and began to fear that Achuthandan’s actions out of the blue could make mincemeat of their elections dreams. They contemplated hard with their sunnormal brains and decided to target Achuthanandan’s son. It didn’t do a lot good to them and failed to convince the man on the street and the situation largely, remained the same.

No body thought the Congress and the UDF could get a breather and could come back into reckoning for winning the elections. Then, it happened. There is a vast majority of comrades in the CPI-M, who would be happier to loose elections rather than to see Achuthanandan becoming the CM again. When it was time for declaring the leader who would lead Bengal and Kerala to the elections, Budhadeb was there; Achuthanandan’s candidature was neither announced nor did any district committee recommend his name. CPI-M ‘s fortune, everybody thought entirely depended on Achuthanandan’s candidature with regards to his latest actions and the man on the street was ready to forgive the LDF government if Achuthanandan led it again. The Marxist comrades, may be of prejudice or may be of fear, felt easy in squandering the chances of coming to power again rather than V.S. taking up the credit and the limelight, and inturn the Chief Minister position. There you go; the UDF is smiling again and rolling back into reckoning.

Less than 30 days to go for the elections, and as always, it will be difficult to predict how well the poli-tricks in the past and in the coming days are going to the influence the election results.

Animal Slaughter- hasn't 21st century grown sane enough to stop this

This post contains subject matter that is suitable for adults only. Viewer discretion is advised.

The above video evoked comments by various individuals in you tube, facebook and twitter, which said that the scene in the video was not for the weak hearted. When it comes to such brutual and barbaric scenes not only the weak hearted but also the people with stronger will fail to watch it with a stable heart. Again keeping apart the sympathetic factor, how can a sane and a civilized world society allow such an aboriginal and spiteful act done by a society of naives in the name of religion? Killing animals is a grave crime, let alone torturing to them to death. Four legged herbivorous animals are victims of human selfishness in different forms in the world at present. People, who slaughter these animals for food is also destroying the ecological equilibrium. Like the human beings, animals also have a right to live. No one has the right to take their lives.

India has a sensible society compared to those socities with a pre-historic aboriginal outlook and should lead the way of tolerance to animals by baning animal slaughter of any kind. Please raise your voice against this cruelty and brutality, there by we could help in protecting the right to live, whether it's Human or animal. 

Nation should come first and not religion.

We should not despise these ignorants, instead we should be sympathetic towards them. These people need some kind of a counseling and if it doesn't work, the best bedlams in the country should treat them free of cost. India needs citizens who love their nation wholeheartedly irrespective of caste, creed, class, party or religion. Although Pakistan is a hell and dangerous for level headed people to live on, these navies think it is a Jannat (Heaven). These people have become ignorant and poppy-cocky because of the sub-standard education and, hackneyed and hate philosophy they receive  from their religious schools. The Government should shed their rotten vote-bank philosophy and should impose a code of conduct  to these schools that are  run by men who wants to take the world back to the pre-historic times.

Achuthanandan- Lion of Kerala in the making?

Lethargic, inefficient and corrupt are a few words that would describe the Oomen Chandy government that was in power before Achuthanandan ministry came into power in 2006. Except for Ganesh Kumar, the rest were just loads of crap. Achuthanandan too slept for 4 years and suddenly has woken up with such assertion that one tends to feel that, by mistake, someone has injected a powerful steroid into his sleeping ass. The ice cream sex scandal case, which was allegedly thwarted by Kunhalikutty and his men with the help of a series of unlawful methods and bribing the judiciary, many years back, was exhumed again by the Chief Minister’s office. R.Balakrishna Pillai also had to face the rage of the elderly man, who allegedly influenced the judiciary in the Edamalayar case and sent the former to the jail. Achuthanandan’s voice has increased its volume by many decibels. The man who was reading out his speeches lousily a few months back is roaring and daring his opponents publicly. By the latest actions, he has not only put his opponents in defence but has also pushed his competitors like Pinarayi and others in the back yard. The Marxist party, now, cannot refuse a seat to this octogenarian in the coming assembly elections citing stupid technical and ideological reasons.

The scenario that was there in the local body elections is no more prevalent now. The UDF is puffing and panting with issues like Ice cream scandal, infighting between the parties within the front, infighting within the Congress (Sudheeran & Abdullah Kutty/Mustafa & Oomen Chandy), infighting within the second largest party in the front, Muslim league and, the latest contempt of court speech by Sudhakaran. The results in the coming assembly elections will a lot depend on the 20% of people who are neutral and who specifically vote for performance.

Please spare a second to see what's happening in Kerala!!

Dynamics of State Politics: Kerala

Omar-Yasin-Singhji

Indian Football

When India displayed a spirited performance against Bahrain in their second match in the Asia cup football in Qatar, one of the commentators of the star sports said that India being with no football history has earned respect with the performance, although they eventually lost the match by 5 goals to 2. Indian football has miles and miles to go even if they have to reach an Asian standard. The football federation and the sports ministry cannot sit too long for the eggs to hatch. A strong program with the help of corporate sponsorship is the need of the hour that would develop football standards of the country. Why doesn’t the big corporates who throw exorbitant amount of money on IPL teams contribute a small share of it to the growth of the game of football in this country? Mahindra and Mahindra and Zee sports is doing its part, who else is doing? India has enough and more in Cricket. India is the no.1 test-playing nation. It is second best in the 50-50 version by ICC ranking. The other sports should be taken care off too. Cricket has grown on its own, but it should help the other sports like football that is widely followed in the world. The football federation is slow and lethargic. It needs to wake up and act immediately!!

Future of the Indian National Congress

After Rajas and Radias...

After Rajas and Radias, every day a new crop of swindlers and perfidious people are coming into the media glare. Lets see a few of them.

1.NRI power brokers

There is a horde of rags to rich Indian milliionaires who emerged in the 80’s and 90’s in the Middle East. A good chunk of them came from such a destitute background and low education that even now when we see them on TV or in a public forum, we tend to wonder as to how such naïve looking people did achieve the kind of  success they are attributed to. Most of them soared to these heights by licking the chappals of the sheikhs and by safeguarding the black money of the political leaders in India by investing in various businesses in Gulf. I have seen myself a gobbledygook hanging his photographs with sheikhs at every available space in his offices and warehouses in Dubai and Abudhabi to please the Arabs to show his alligience. Offlate these swindlers have reached a position where the Governments in India itself is making them its representaive on important business decision of the states. These people  also have started to influence the Governments decision whether the head quarters of  a public limited company should be in X or Y city. It is alarming to note that the Government is dancing to the tune of these naïve looking aboriginees. These black money Kings are the one who are apparently ruling the states like Kerala.

2. Judicial demi-Gods

Its alarming to note that even people who have emblazoned highest office in judiciary is alleged of dishonesty and fraud . The people who are supposed to uphold truth and justice have become mere instruments to help corrupt politicians evade retribution. Although they are provided with magnificent facilities and handsome salaries by the government, they extend their greed by taking shares of kickbacks and commissions from scamsters and swindlers. These people  never get punished like their political counterparts in this country, even if there are ample proofs against them.

 3.Ex-UN pin-up boy

Somebody in twitter wanted the ex-UN pin-up boy to be the next CM of Kerala; few responded thus- first let him spent time on his Lokhsabha constituency properly ! Working for a constituency is not attending marriages and funerals. It is about understanding the needs and aspirations of the people. It is about finding solutions to the challenges that are involved in the development of the place and it is about overcoming the impediments that hinder the development process. An MP needs to devote 80% of his time in the constituency. Unfortunately the man of this story is seldom seen in his constituency. If some voters still think that an educated sophisticated person can only change the face of this constituency, it is just a  thought marred by hearsay. This person is apparently not much different from the former uneducated and ignorant pony tail MP  in terms of performance. It is the performance that matters and not the looks or accent or education.

5 PEOPLE who earned respect by their conduct and dedication to their jobs in the bygone year.

1.     Kerala CM Achuthanandan, who inspite of the non-cooperation from his own party took, bold decisions on Lottery and Smart city issues.

2.     Gopi Krishnan, Pioneer reporter for unearthing the 2G spectrum scam

3.     Chandan Mitra, editor, Pioneer for giving wholehearted support to the journalistic investigation on 2G scam.

4.     V.T.Satheesan MLA, for giving Minister Thomas Issac a run for his money on the lottery issue.

5.     Nitish Kumar, for putting Bihar into a growth mode.

An open letter to the chief Minister

Site for the proposed cricket stadium at Edakochi

H.E. The Chief Minister of Kerala

Respected Sir,

This is to invite your good self’s attention to the doubts that have roused in the minds of  the public in Kerala in connection with the decision to construct a cricket stadium by the Kerala Cricket Association(KCA) at Edakochi,Ernakulam district. The Kerala Cricket Association under the secretary Mr.S.K.Nair in 2006 had decided to construct an international cricket stadium at Trivandrum

( “The Hindu” on July  31, 2006 http://www.hindu.com/2006/07/31/stories/2006073108251800.htm)  and subsequently, as reports say, that the Kerala Government allotted land for the same free of cost. Clearance was obtained from concerned ministry as well. However, the Kerala Cricket Association under then new secretary T.C.Mathew deviated and decided to built a stadium at Kochi instead. Reports say that KCA had purchased 10 hectares of land at Edakochi at the rate of Rs 1.1 lakh for each cent. The land was reportedly purchased from a finance company that was a part of the Vembanad Lake protected by the Ramsar Convention, an international treaty for conserving important wetlands. It was earlier used for pokkali farming—growing organic rice along with prawns.

The doubt  that arises in one’s mind is that why did KCA ignore its earlier decision and reject Government’s offer of free land and then painstakingly buy a marshy land for the purpose of building the cricket stadium. This is apparently nothing less than a scam. Kerala sports council President Mr.T.P.Dasan also has brought this issue out yesterday in a media brief. There have been allegations of impropriety on KCA and its members with regards to the conduct of international cricket matches at Kochi from many quarters including  Kerala Cricketers Forum, that have been voicing against the misconducts  of the KCA for long and same has been taken up by the Trichur vigilance court for investigation. On that basis, series of raids also been conducted by the vigilance at KCA head quarters, Trivandrum.

I request your good self  to kindly look into the matter with a judicial inquiry.

Yours sincerely,

Jothish Nair

Copy to:

H.E.  Sports Minister of Kerala

H.E. Member of Parliament, Trivandrum

Shri.T.P.Dasan, President,Kerala Sports Council

Shri Balaji Iyengar, Kerala Cricketers Forum, Kottayam

This period is worst than the emergency

         

                                                After the totalitarian and barbaric Government of Indira Gandhi during the emergency in the mid 70’s , this government run by the Italian born Sonia Gandhi and her puppet prime minister seems to be jeopardizing the life of the common man in India in every aspect. The number of scams that run into billions has caused big losses to the economy of the country. The enormous price rise is making the life miserable of not only the poor but also of the large middle class of this country. The inflation level (currently at 8%) is looming large like monster. The inability to curb terrorism and Maoist attacks, failure in international policies (eg. The U-turn taken by Jairam Ramesh on emissions at Cancun, to please his American bosses), inability to channelize food grains from wasting out, containing the black marketeers,  are the few things among other that dispalys  the character of this failed UPA government.

The ministers are swirling like blind men in a typhoon. Chidambaram showing skills of sycophancy well during the plenary meet was wailing like a child few months back unable to get support from his own government to take stern action against the Maoist.  He was incessantly whining that –“ I don’t have the mandate… please give me some mandate!” The cable leaked by Wiki leaks tells that the Indian Army has weakened and is vulnerable; nobody knows what the defense minister’s role is these days as A.K. Antony scarcely opens his mouth. Wiki leaks also revealed the ruling party’s intentions to play murky vote bank politics during the 2009 Lokh Sabha elections. The foreign minister was seen loosing the plot in front of his Pakistani counter part few months ago, putting all of us in shame. The home minister was praising themselves for the growth figures achieved on behalf of Pranob Mukherji , but refrained from explaining the alarming  inflation levels. If you can’t provide a decent atmosphere for the people to live, then what’s the great shake in the growth you’re talking about? Everyone knows what had happened with the telecom ministry. Raja, the choice of the corporates helped the congress to embezzle billions and the Congress obliged him by washing their hands off. The minority affairs minister was defending the banned terrorist organization SIMI as its lawyer few years back. To back up all these blunders, the Congress has the gobbledygook duo of Digvijay Singh and his earnest disciple Rahul Gandhi who are blurting out imprudent statements every now and then.  The tumult and commotion rising from the comedy of errors committed by the UPA hoodwinks are jeopardizing even the existence of this country. This Government should go and the President should install an interim government that will work until the elections. The country has to get out of this perilous situation soon! Sonia Gandhi and her marionettes have proved that they are incapable to rule this country.

Forced Marriages in Egypt

Unlike other Arab nations, Egypt when became independent in 1936, chose to be a democratic republican secularist form of government. Hosni Mubarak who assumed power in 1981 strengthened the secular principles in the country and never looked like calling itself an Islamic state although in 1967 they combined with few Arab states to wage a war against Israel and lost the same.  90% of Egypt’s population is Muslims and the rest 10% is Coptic Christians. Off late, probably due to increasing influence of radical Islam, there have been incidents of discrimination against the Coptic Christians. Forced marriages are becoming widespread. Christian girls are forcefully married to Muslim men and subsequently forced to convert their faith. This is happening even when the government has been very tough on the radicals. Islamic radicals like Muslim Brotherhood were banned from participating in the last elections and various measures were taken to curb the influence of Al-Qaeda among the people. However, there are deliberate attempts to convert Egypt to 100% Islam and the first and easy step seem to be forceful marriages. Recently a news that hit the international media headlines has raised many an eyebrow. A Christian girl named Monica was forced to marry  a Muslim which she bluntly refused; subsequently she was abducted and raped by few men in a secluded place. The police too, is unfortunately heeding to the radicals as most of the complaints on forced marriages are being ignored.

Hosni Mubarak has been in power for the last 30 years and he’s been doing whatever he could to uphold the country’s secularist outlook and democracy, but, his long autocratic kind of Governance has sent sparks of resentment among the people and that, as most of the observers fear, could lead to the strengthening of radical Islam in Egypt. Strong influence of radical Islam has destroyed countries like Somalia, Afghanistan and Pakistan in an irreversible way and hence the educated and levelheaded in Egypt will be in the forefront in the thwarting the country being hijacked by narrow-minded radicals.