Kochi Airport to have Visa-on-Arrival facility
Published January 24, 2012 | The Kochi International Airport is going to be one of the four airports in India that would have the Visa-on-Arrival facility working in a year’s time.
The decision to extend the Visa-on-Arrival facility, provided to tourists from some countries, like Japan, Singapore, Finland, Luxemburg, New Zealand, Cambodia, Laos, Vietnam, Philippines etc, to four airports has been taken by the Government of India. That the Kochi airport is one among these is a matter of happiness for the people of Kerala, especially since people not just from European countries, but from places like Japan and Singapore too visit India, especially Kerala. This could prove a boost for the tourism sector and do good to Kerala.
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Poojapura Chappathis – the latest buzz word in the culinary world
Published January 24, 2012 | 
The poojapura central jail in Thiruvananthapuram, Kerala, which houses some of the hard core criminals convicted in various criminal offenses is grabbing headlines for all the good reasons these days. The commercial chappathi making unit in the jail premises, which started functioning recently has already become a huge hit and a profitable venture.
The prison inmates of Poojapural jail are engaged in making soft and tasty chappathis in hygienic conditions, which are sold through the outlets at the Poojappura central jail premises and Attakulangara jail premises. Priced only at Rs. 2 per piece Poojappura Chappathi is sold out in no time as there is a huge demand for these tasty chappathis that are delivered fresh off the pan at unbeatable prices. At present over hundred inmates are involved in chappathi making and they are overwhelmed by the positive response from the customers.
Chappathi making is turning out to be a profitable venture like its gardening and horticulture activities, which have been tried out successfully in the jail premises earlier Everyday about 16,000 chappathis are made daily and they have already made a profit of three lakh in a span of only a few months.Encouraged by the tremendous response for the chappathis, the prison authorities are planning to launch vegetable curries too in the market. By directing the prisoner’s time and effort in a constructive manner, the jail has become a trend setter in tapping the tremendous man power potential.
Everyone is born good; villains emerge due to the environmental influences and their upbringing and it is never too late for them to come back to goodness as this success story of Poojapura jail inmates would prove!
Hamsa Koya- the name behind Indian goal post nets for over two decades
Published January 20, 2012 | 
The name of Hamsa koya and Indian football go hand in hand. He is not an yesteryear player nor a referee but he holds the rare distinction of being the maker of goal post nets for over 20 years! Hailing from Malapuram, in North Kerala where football continues to be the passion of the local populace even today, Koya has been making high quality nets to the envy of many international brands.
His goal post nets have been used in many international football tournaments including the SAF cup and the Nehru Cup apart from countless league matches that are held every year in the country including the I-League championships, which are currently on. The special twines made from nylon and rope, traditionally used for making the fishing nets make the nets sturdy and he claims that these last for over a decade.
Koya keeps on his pursuit for excellence though the same level of enthusiasm seems to be to lacking for the Indian football team that has been in the news for its appalling levels of performance!
A Kerala tea stall owner who plans to visit all seven continents by 2015!
Published January 17, 2012 | 
Meet this avid traveller fromKerala , Vijayan who has already travelled to seven countries, ,made pilgrimage trips to most of the destinations in India and who has plans to visit all the seven continents by 2015! If you thought he is a well heeled businessman or someone born with a sliver spoon in his mouth you would be in for a surprise. He runs a small, ramshackle tea shop in Kochi for a living and lives with his wife and two daughters.
In the 61 years of his life, he has lived his life to follow the passion of travelling and often he chooses places that he comes across in novels and travelogues. He makes sure to enjoy every moment of his life and feels that gold or wads of currency notes cannot give him the happiness that he derives from touring some of the most beautiful places on earth. This year he and his wife are planning a European tour and a tour company is even making arrangements to take them to Vatican to meet Pope Benedict XVI! They will set out on a 12-day tour to Europe on April 23 at a cost of Rs 2.90 lakh.
A wanderlust in the making, he has visited the hill shrine of Tirupathi over 100 times; and travelled to Chennai just to have a feel of the new AC bus ! A man of different tastes, he also makes sure to catch up all the films on the first day itself. Often people ask him why a small time tea stall owner would dream big to travel all over the world for which he replies with a smile that the money he make by breaking his back from dawn to dusk including Sundays in his tea shop is best spent to pursue his dreams. He has a debt of over 5 lakhs already and is trying to take another Rs 1 lakh as a bank loan, to fund his foreign trips and every month he pays over Rs 10,000 for repaying the loans taken from the KSFE, Cooperative Bank and Society.
When he is not busy globe trotting, Vijayan, reads novels and travelogues . He also plans to write a travelogue on his travel experiences that he has gained through these world tours, which will be published by one of the leading Malayalam news dailies. Don’t worry ; be happy seems to be the motto of this happy go lucky man , who tries to keep aside his worries and look at the brighter side of life!
#Being Mallu- The trending topic in Twitter
Published January 13, 2012 | 
Twitter was abuzz with the trending topic of Malayalis, on Monday, which set off a series of similar topics like “being Indian”, “being Kannadiga” and more! The hashtags like #mallus, #gelf, and #beingmallu became the top trends of the country outsmarting many of the current issues in Indian social and political field.
While the local folks in Kerala took to active tweeting about their concepts and outlook of being a ‘Mallu’, tweeples from the rest of the country and abroad followed it with frenzy with their retweet, driving up the topic all day through the online medium of twitter.
While most of them took a look at the lighter side of the Malayali way of life, others pondered deep to their typical mind sets that keep the malayalees apart from the rest of the world. Though being mallu was started in response to #beinggujju, it soon overtook being gujju, which died down to a whimper in no time.
Some of the interesting tweets that went viral include the following
Being Mallu means your uncle is in “gelf”; Being Mallu is having a drink and worrying about the situation in Uganda, Cuba, and Poland; Being Mallu means you will mock at a non-Mallu at least once a day, and at fellow Mallus half the day.
Although most of the tweets had a dramatic element in them,which made them funny and interesting the bottom line reads that they were bang on target in exposing the lesser known habits and idiosyncrasies of being a mallu!
Pay your bills on the move
Published January 10, 2012 | 
Gone are the days when people used to stand in serpentine lines to remit the payments of their phone or electricity bills. Many a time, customers find it difficult to reach their work places on time after these errands as the staff in the counters fail to turn up at the dot of time! Now the users can pay their bills, get the bill details and payment date details through their mobile phones as the M-governance is being extended to more services like Kerala Water Authority, Kerala State Electricity Board and Kerala State Financial Corporation. Already, the motor vehicles department is using this mobile alert based information service where the users can access the details of the vehicle if the registration number is known.
However, the role of M-governance will not replace the existing system but will act as a supplement to e-governance to bridge the digital divide between rural and urban areas. In addition, a range of facilities including the complaint registration system at Kerala Women’s Commission, helpline and information system for Sabarimala pilgrims bus timings of KSRTC, mobile ticket reservation at Kerala State Film Development Corporation theatres and timber auction alerts at Forest Department have also been introduced. As Kerala moves a step closer to paperless transactions with these smart services, booking your movie ticket or paying the electricity bills have become as simple as a few clicks! Well, that is what we all call smart living!
Kuttanad uses Cotton nets for stronger roads
Published January 6, 2012 | 
The biggest bane of Kerala is the appalling conditions of its roads that remain in a non motorable state all round the year. Pot holes appear as soon as the tarring is completed leaving the users badly grounded. However, there seems to be some hope for this nagging problem in the form of cotton nets that can be used for reinforcing the roads. The water logged areas of Kuttanad have already made use of this product in strengthening its roads and bunds. The project, successfully implemented in association with the Kerala Industrial and Technical Consultancy Organisation in different wards of Edathua last year is primarily aimed at preventing soil erosion.
Soil erosion is rampant in Kuttanad region where floods occur twice a year, which wash off the roads and bunds. The new techniques is expected to strengthen the roads by keeping the soil on both sides of the road tightly wrapped. Recently a stretch of road from Edathua to Puvakkad was constructed using the technique and it is expected to stay in good condition for a minimum of four years.
The cotton nets are first spread on the embankments of the road , which are vulnerable to soil erosion. The nets are then fixed to the soil using bamboo and grass and tree saplings are planted, which keep the net tightly fixed. The need of the hour is to ensure high quality roads, which has a vital role in the economic development of Kerala. These indigenous methods would indeed go a long way in offering cost effective solutions for making the roads stable and long lasting.
The other side of New year revelry
Published January 3, 2012 | 
New Year celebrations in Kerala often boil down into ostentatious show of pomp and money power. New Year revelry is all about fast music, wild dance, DJs and drinks for many. However behind the glitter and the glamour of the New year revelry there were some dark moments that would leave us all ashamed.
The merry making males went overboard after downing a few hard drinks when they tried to molest the North Indian bar girls in the New Year parties in a three star hotel in Cochin. The staff and managers of several hotels had a difficult time shielding the girls from the straying hands of the spirited revelers.
In the city of Cochin alone, 878 cases were registered of which 568 were for drunk driving, wrong parking etc while 200 cases were booked for public boozing and a few related to clashes among party revelers. The city malls were jam packed with young revelers who shouted and sang all night that kept the families off.
The tourist hub of Fort Kochi also bore the brunt of the great carnival. Heaps of plastic containers of take away food parcels , decorative stuff, and loads of empty liquor bottles that remain mute testimonies of the drinking habits of Malayalees were all strewn around carelessly. It is paradoxical that as we become more educated we turn insensitive to everything around us including the less fortunate souls. It is high time that we pick up the art of celebrating special events without causing nuisance to others and littering public places !
2011- A round up of events in Kochi
Published December 28, 2011 | As the city of Cochin is getting ready to usher in the New Year, it is time to look back at some of the major milestones in the city calender. The year 2011 has been of mixed fortunes for this city with a fair share of good and bad events. With a slew of innovative projects like the Metro rail and ROBs on the anvil, the business capital of Kerala indeed can look forward to some brighter and prosperous days ahead.
IPL brings cricket fever to Cochin.
The Indian Premier League’s tryst with the city of Cochin brought in cheers and frenzy among the the die hard fans of cricket . Though it made an unceremonious exit just after a season,The T 20 extravaganza offered a few memorable moments to the cricket lovers of Kerala in the form of well fought live matches in Jawaharlal Nehru International Stadium. The star studded team of the now defunct Kochi tuskers Kerala had some of the well known faces of international cricket who played along the home grown talents of the State including P Prashanth , Raiphi Vincent Gomez and Prashanth Parameswaran , which was quite inspiring for the cricketing fraternity.
Kochi goes global with ICTT Vallarpadam
With the inauguration of The International Container Transshipment Terminal (ICTT) Vallarpadam in February 2011, Kochi became an international logistics hub in the elite league of maritime trading nations. Touted as one of the most modern ports, Kochi will be a preferred choice for traders all over the world for its quick cargo handling facilities and would pose a tough challenge to many other nearby ports like Colombo, Singapore and Dubai. However the internal squabbles between SEZ and customs officials and the high loading and unloading costs have put ICTT in a hard spot now.
Vyttila Mobility Hub
Though the much hyped Vyttila Mobility hub has failed to bring in much respite from the traffic congestion, it could give shape to a long pending plan to have an integrated transit terminal in the city. The hub has been designed as a converging point for all public transportation modes including long distance buses, metro rail and inland water transport. At present the hub serves as a bus station for both city and long distance buses.
Apple A Day - One of the biggest real estate frauds in the State
Kochi will be rounding off 2011 on a sour note of the apple a day scam. In what could be termed as one of the biggest real estate frauds in the state of Kerala , a Kochi based company ‘Apple-A-Day Properties’ reportedly swindled a staggering amount of 100 crore from buyers which included 125 Indian expatriates in the Middle East. Now the cases are pending and the Kerala State Legal Services Authority has appointed an advocate to mediate the disputes between the investors and the company directors and to arrive at a possible solution.
With the count down for the New Year celebrations already started , we at Karma Kerala wish all our patrons and well wishers all over the world Merry Christmas and a prosperous and happy New Year .
Christmas festivities dampened by the dam woes
Published December 23, 2011 | 
Christmas in Kerala has always been a special occasion for all Keralites who celebrate every festival with fervour and zeal irrespective of their castes or creed. For most Malayalees, Christmas is not all about cookies, carols, cakes and wine but well cherished moments of family holidays and tours. Probably Malayalees have evolved to be one of the most touring populace in India these days, in a notable shift of habits of the yore . With a larger disposable income in hand and an urge to live life King size, Keralites make use of their holidays to the most.
However , the raging dam controversy , which has unleashed many violent incidents and unsavoury road blockades and political gimmicks on either side of the Kerala and Tamilnadu borders, has created a smoke screen of mistrust and fear. As there had been isolated instances of stone pelting on the Kerala vehicles crossing the Tamil Nadu border and vice versa, people are not willing to take risk. This could mean that most of them would be forced to put off their holidays till the murky Mullaperiyar dam situation is brought under control. Considering the fact that even private vehicles are not spared by the miscreants, holiday makers are virtually grounded without any options to move out of their cities.
In cities like Cochin ,the revelers will have late night party options, dance , special dinners and festivities apart from the elaborate ritual of downing a heady dose of liquor, which remains the most popular party activity in Kerala. On the occasion of Christmas, the festival of compassion and love , let us set aside the differences and work towards a feasible option to solve this nagging dam controversy, which if left unattended will have a spate of long term repercussions on either side. Let us welcome the New Year of 2012 with smile and peace by celebrating brotherhood and empathy!
For further Reading : A compilation of Christmas and New Year articles