Holidays & Education

There was a 'harthal' (strike) in Kerala against the recent increase of petrol prices. Invariably almost all the educational institutions were closed on that day. Owing to the death of state minister there were i believe two holidays. Today & yesterday were holidays in connection with 'Bakrid'. Ultimately, the number of days in which teaching and learning occurs in schools of Kerala are pretty limited.
Instead of so many unexpected holidays primarily owing to bandh/harthal, can we arrive at a consensus to limit the number of such occasions in a year? The right to protest is kind of a fundamental right in a democracy. However, the protest have to be peaceful & not interrupting the life of common man. Ideal protest never occurs in kerala. If all political parties and other groups can sit together and decide on a Harthal/Bandh calendar, it will be highly useful.

P.S. Similarly we can have only national holidays (Jan 26, Aug 15 & Oct 2) for companies. Let the casual leave be increased proportionally so that there is no grumbling.

Birthday of Keralam

November 1, "Kerala Piravi Dinam". Hope young men & women in colleges wear traditional attire. I guess this is probably only occassion when young men put on White Double Dhoti to a professional college. May Kerala live happily ever after. May malayalam soar higher and higher in literary activities.

Former Education Minister Sri.T.M. Jacob was laid to rest today. My batchmates will be remembering him for many things. He removed the 'L' in S.S.L.C. We only had S.S.C. During his tenure long size text books were introduced.I was in class 8. Every year from then on, books either came pretty late or never came up till i completed schooling. The SSC book had students' photo, signature & blood group. The total marks for that 1987 SSC was 1200. Hence many of us had marks in FOUR digits.
He wanted to separate pre-degree from colleges. His proposals were opposed by LDF whose student union went into violent strikes. It is ironical that later on Pre-Degree course was added into schooling by LDF!

Trip To New Delhi

Traveled to New Delhi on October 9th. Landed in the swanky Terminal 3. Nice ambiance. I have been told that it is better than some of the foreign air port terminals. Nice to note that!
Traveling around in Delhi Metro train was a breeze. If one had to go to NOIDA in olden days, it would have taken hours together. Now moving from Karol Bagh to NOIDA is barely 35 minutes in air conditioned coaches. If one purchases a smart card for Rs. 50, the trouble of standing in the queue for getting ticket can also be avoided. One can re-charge the smart card with required amount. Icing on the cake is that while going off from Delhi, one can refund the card value also! Anyway i decided to keep the card with me since i might come back again !!
Developments on the infrastructure especially roads & bridges in NOIDA is to be seen to believe in. I earnestly hope that every Indian state makes one well planned city like NOIDA.
Security was kind of beefed up in view of the impending festivity season. Already people are out onto the streets for Diwali purchasing. Hope nothing untoward comes up.
I was feeling bit unwell. I thought it was the change of place/environment etc. However, to my utter dismay,, i found the fact that old age is catching up with me. I guess i will have to take things sportively ;-)

Onam 2011

Been to Kerala for celebrating Onam with my family. The trip was nice. However the climate could have been better! It was raining incessantly for most of the time. Normally rains end by the time Malayali starts to celebrate Onam. The festivities in kerala continue to grow with government patronage. As of now, Onam has become more of a shopping festival than a harvest festival. Probably owing to the rains, most of the paddy/rice cultivation were destroyed leaving farmers high & dry. Hope some ceremonial harvesting occurred somewhere. In any case, farming has lost its charm long long ago in many parts of the state. With ever increasing cost for seeds, fertilizer, man power etc there is not much of returns. Ever appreciating land cost & tendency to break further in to nuclear families have seen the farm lands getting divided & sub-divided and finally getting into dwelling places. There is no other activity other than farming/cultivation in the world where input multiplies. Still farmers are fast becoming extinct variety. Many of the kerala farmers have switched from food grains to rubber and spices long back in pursuit of better financial returns. Kerala now feeds on rice from Andhra Pradesh. If the trend continues to other southern states, soon paddy fields will become memory & preparation of rice a luxury.

Fasting against Corruption

In this whole materialistic world, it is nice to find persons following Gandhian ideology. I hope the ongoing fast at Delhi's Ram Lila Maidan shall become triumphat. In my humble opinion, victory has already been achieved. As they say, you conjure up things in your mind/heart first. Already a lot of awareness have been created in the minds of common man on the issue of Lokpal Bill. That is a great achievement. However i am bit wary of yet another legislation. We do have enough of them. The crux of the issue is its implementation. We can have umpteen laws prohibiting corruption. Effective implementation of provisions of law must be enforced. Speedy disposal of cases must be ensured. I feel it is better not to have many appellate authorities like we have in Judiciary so that all procedures can get concluded faster.
P.S. With the kind of salary our government officials have (Take the case of a traffic policeman standing in grime & dust in busy junctions) i have a feeling that a little corruption is required in the system for smooth running.. !

Temple Treasure - Saga Continues....

Sri Padmanabha Swamy Temple has been in the lime light for quite some time for the temple treasures kept in its coffers. There is one more to be opened yet. There had been a 'Deva Prasnam' (ritual to find out the position of deity on these matters). Declared results indicates that deity is not happy with opening of coffers. It is not His desire to account & assess these materialistic wealth. It is seen in the 'Deva Prasnam' that if the last coffer is opened, many bad things can happen to members of the team opening coffer. The Royal family who are the chief trustees of the temple are also bound to suffer. Some kind of mitigatory measures like various 'Puja' s have been prescribed. I am just wondering where all these things are leading us to.
It seems in legal circle, Deity of a temple is considered a legal entity & can have lawyer(s) too. In any case trustees have lawyers to plead the case. The million rupee/dollar question is what happens to the treasure !

To quote from bible try Luke 20:25

Global Cues

M/S Standard & Poor has reduced the ratings of US of A from 'AAA' to 'AA+'. I am not sure as to what these 'A's represent. Nevertheless, there has been a downgradation. In many of the western economies, a slump is seen around. This is bound to have an effect on Indian Econoomy too atleast in the short run. Global stock markets underwent a 'correction' in yesterday's trading session. Market analysts use 'correction' but actually it is a downslide i suppose. Is there any bigger 'Correction' is in the offing ? I guess it is better to ask an astrologer rather than to a stock analyst.

In days to come, value of money or the buying power of money is going to dwindle. In the mid nineties, taking up an insurance policy for a few lakhs was considered to be sufficient. As of now a few tens of Lakhs is the requirement. By the time retirement of the individual comes, whatever he/she has set apart might prove to be insufficient ! It is a never ending saga of Gap NOT bridged. The only industry which multiplies the input is farming. However gross neglect has beaten up this sector in India. There had been innumerable suicides by farmers in many states of India. If we do not address the root causes, it will be difficult for us to sustain in the long term. May wisdom prevail....

Height of Poltical Freedom

I have not heard about Indian Institute of Handloom Technology (IIHT). Nevertheless, it is situated in Kannur, Kerala & is an educational institution of higher learning afficilated to AICTE. On the lines of 'Ecole De Mine' of France (Please correct me if the spelling is wrong), it comes under Industry Ministry of Government of Kerala. The French institution is equivalent to IITs in India. Going by that standard, IIHT must also be having quite good standing. After the change of vanguard in the Kerala Government, a particular political party of the ruling United Democratic Front decided to post one of their party office bearer as one of the top executives in the institute.
Normally one expects a person with political leaning but with commendable academic track record in these kinds of postings. However things did not auger well here. The academic community is in fear of losing institute's accreditation as new appointee do not have any technical qualification. The fresh appointee had advocated for freedom of government to post anyone citing reasons of political appointments in various public sector undertakings in the state under diferent ministries. Whether chairmanship of a defunct/loss making corporation offerred as sop to political aspriants should be allowed to go this far into academic institutions is a big question.
Hope wisdom prevails & such unncessary interventions be completely abolished by all political parties.

Musings

Hello !
"Tempus Fugit". Well had been to barber shop yesterday. Thats a place where people get a hair cut right?. One good thing about these shops is that they place a number of mirrors in strategic positions so that you can view your head from different angles. It aids in customer satisfaction under normal circumstances especially if you want to have exotic designs on your head. These are kind of seasonal too. One will find many shapes and colours on heads during a cricket or football match season.
Once you enter into so called middle years of your life, these very objects of customer satisfaction becomes a pain. At these ages, number of hair falling down far more exceed those trying to grow on your scalp. I guess we can forget about the growing part once you enter into forties. Those with a St.Antony pattern of baldness are good to look at from the front. Take a bird's eye view, the picture changes dramatically. Alas, this is what bothered me in the hair cutting session ;-)

Even though there are many brands of hair oil/revitaliser, nothing seems to be working if we go by the heads around. Then why bother ?

Treasure trove at Padmanabhaswamy temple

Erstwhile kings of Travancore Dynasty were ruling their land as servants of Lord Padmanabha. They were good at governance and many more things. It seems dynasty used to keep a corpus for exigencies such famine, war etc. Probably things were kept geographically scattered. Since Temple of Lord Padmanabha was of great reverence, a good lot of treasures were kept there in cellars. These days in the wake of a court order, an exercise is being done to enumerate them. Now that all these information is coming into open, security might have to be strengthened!!

P.S.
Whenever a change at the government occurs these days, the party that comes into power cries about the empty coffers. May them learn from the wisdom of old kings

MonSoon Atlast....

Much awaited monsoon reached visakhapatnam yesterday. We had first rain of monsoon in the evening. There were intermittent rains for the day today. It is nice to see the downpour yet again. Reminds me of days of continuous rains back home in Kerala. Here the frequency of rains are not that good, neither is the quantity. But you can feel the smell of earth with each rain especially the starting ones. Only problem is that insects, frogs & snakes shall come in abundance ...

Hail Rain

M F HUSAIN

Maqbool Fida Husain passed away at 95 in a London hospital. His raise from a cinema hoarding painter to renowned artist of India was a tough journey. He is called 'Picasso of India'. He was living in exile in the gulf owing to threats to his life back home. Controversies remained his constant companion. He took Indian modern art to great levels. This master of very large canvas was living life to the hilt till the very end of his journey in earth. He also directed a couple of movies with leading bollywood actresses. Probably the many horses one sees in his paintings was an indication of youth & virility of his mind. With his passing away, world loses one mastero in the field.

Good Start for UDF Government in Kerala

'Moolampilly' strike for rehabilitation of displaced families were continuing for a good 40 months. A lot of litigation were also involved. It is nice to note that there had been an agreement with state government & the strike had been called off.

Kochi Metro is planned to be implemented in Chennai metro model wherein both central & state governments shall have equal share. May Kochi metro become a reality soon.

When there was a hike in the petrol price, state government decided not have the extra income through taxation of state. Though this did not result in appreciable relief to the consumer, the gesture was well received.

Overall assessment is that present UDF government in Kerala is having a good start. May the tempo be maintained & the opposition continue to play a creative role.

Will all the political parties ban bandh/harthal/whatever name it is called. Or atleast let all agree to a fixed number of hartals in a year.

Fasting is Good

It is heartening to note that protests are being done in the non-violence way as weaponised by 'Father of our Nation'. We had a series of 'fasting Satyagraha' against corruption. They were widely supported by the citizens of India. However, the recent one at 'RamLila Maidan' turned a bit sore owing to state intervention. Leader of fasting was carried away by the police & the participants were evicted. To me, there is nothing wrong in state intervening in any situation as far as the dignity & freedom of individuals are protected. It was sad to note that the eviction was done in dead night. May be state could have avoided that timing. After all people were sitting peacefully demanding action against corruption, black money etc. The issues raised by different eminent persons have been long back shoved into closets. Someday or the other, state will have to act on these issues. A developing country like ours can't have politicians acting on short term gains. Governance must have long term goals & political agenda should not get mixed with these long term goals. At least lets all agree on infrastructure developments - Roads, Bridges, Ports, Telecommunication facilities etc. If we are to get big chunks of works involving huge money, there is a need for private sector & government sector participation. There is profitability issue but more importantly there is issues regarding to corruption via kick backs. By improving upon transparency & involving as many as stake holders, we can alleviate this issue to some extent. May governments look into such directions so that issues raised by civil bodies can be addressed & redressed to a great extent.

A long wait !

The elections to the Kerala Legislative Assembly were over long back. However, we all will have to wait till May 13 to know the result. There had been some changes in this election. Voting Slips which used to be distributed by political parties have been dispensed with. State machinery had taken this burden much to the dismay (?) of government officials. The slips used to be distributed by group of persons to each household. Now one employee of the state has visit houses assigned to him/her to do this job all alone. Silver lining is that now slips come with photos & the same can be used as an identity proof. Last election time, probably owing to the fact that i am not around in election time, all parties ignored my vote. No slips were given in my name. This time i had the fortune to receive the slips for the whole voters in my family at Cherthala.
Hope results will start pouring in right from morning and shall be completed by midday on 13th May 2011. Going by the past trend, it is turn of UDF to occupy the power at assembly. However, fight on many constituencies were quite tough. We might to get kind of 'hung' assembly with marginally higher seats for UDF. Some political horse trading shall follow in that case. As of now all of Kerala is in 'wait & watch' mode.

Impending State Election, Living Cost

The state of Kerala is gearing up for yet another elections. No miracles are expected, in the long running tradition of alternating governments from Congress led UDF & Communist led LDF, this shall be the turn of UDF. However, the incumbent government has put in measures that can be termed as populist. With global economies coming down to India & our opening up from license raj regime, common man is put to many difficulties. Price hike for anything & everything is the most harsh stuff. From daily goods to education & health care, prices are sky rocketing. The upward spiral is expected to continue too. Only silver lining in the horizon is that salaries in govt as well as private sector & wages for the laborers are also increasing. Kerala has come to a stage where it is pretty difficult to find a domestic help for the double income couple staying in a city. Even in big metros of the country such as Delhi, part time domestic help is available in plenty. Kerala has progressed to organised sector in this arena with lot of agencies coming up. They provide home nurse / doemstic help / aayyah (Nanny) etc etc. Since many earning members of malayali community are out in different parts of the world, present average age of Kerala residents must be quite high. The working members have money. There is high demand for these domestic help services and alas the supply is low. To circumvent increasing costs on labour, many construction companies have 'imported' work force from far flung regions such as Rajasthan, Orissa & West Bengal. I heard that the slump in land prices / real estate is over & it got a shot in the arm owing to the sign up of 'Smart City' project. Hope Global warming will be controlled & Kerala will remain as Land ;-)

Kochi Getting SMART Atlast

Whatever be the political affiliations, as a common man, i am glad to note that the SMART CITY project is getting into good shape. It may be recalled that negotiations were started during the regime of last government. After a marathon round of discussions, the agreement was signed towards the fag end of the next government. So much for the speed in governmental sector. Some might argue that this deal is better than the last one, others might have a point or two against this argument. I can simply say 'Better Late Than Never'.

In the present situation, chances of Kerala getting any 'Brick and Mortar' industry is quite vague. Atleast clean & highly technical industries like 'Smart City' project is the only hope of Keralite's youth. May the project zoom at great speed and come to comlpetion asap

Amen

Long Time, No Posting

Just to say that i am alive and kicking.
Am plain lazy to type more