Hartals- Do they do any good?
Published April 28, 2010 | Another day of hartal has passed, as usual hitting the normal life of the Indian Citizens especially the people of Kerala. It was a dawn to dusk hartal called by the Left parties and its allies against the Centre’s economic policies. This time the hartal activists turned out to block trains at major places of Kerala, which badly hit the rail traffic adding more disruption to the normal life. Here the Court orders and rules has no value and, the Kerala Govt. which supported the Hartal gained nothing from it. It is only the people of the state who suffered and who will continue to suffer if the hartal activists continue to be like this. 
It was in 2004 may 29th, The High Court full bench ordered the Govt to make sure that Hartals should not hit the normal life and, if necessary the Govt. can seek the assistance of army to ensure this. What people saw yesterday was a complete negligence of these orders. The hartal activists stopped private vehicles, stoned a few and attacked even Ambulances and people who came to work at banks and post offices. This time hartal activists concentrated more at stopping rail traffic, and they supplied food for the supporters in front of the travellers who were hungry and thirsty inside the blocked trains.
At the same time there were single protests against hartal saying the hartals creates bad reputation to the country. For the past years the hartals did nothing good to the people of country, but helped the vested interests of the major political parties and they gained nothing for the people if they say it is all for people.
Have your say about hartals. Do hartals do any good to the people?
Photo Courtesy: The Hindu
Break the Rules!
Published January 23, 2010 | 6 months earlier, I had been in the same railway station on the same platform on my way to Kochi, when I noticed blood and flesh on the tracks. A policeman updated me that a train ran over a woman who was trying to cross the tracks. She was not able to climb the platform in time and the result saw her flesh being eaten by crows!!!
It was sad and I kept thinking of her fate. At least people will learn to obey rules in future, I thought.
But, it is sad, the impact of such incidents do not seem to last in the minds of Keralites or may be even Indians for more than a day or two and the next time I was at the platform, I saw even more people on the tracks, triple the number on the footbridge 
6 months later I’m thinking “when will our people learn!”. And to disobey the rules right when you have a hoarding saying “not to” in front of you. It amused me!
Battling it hard on tracks
Published November 25, 2009 | How many of you have ever given a thought about those millions of poverty ridden people who do have nothing to lose but still weave golden dreams. Well, if you are quizzing what their golden dreams are, then its just to live another day with adequate food and shelter.
Living with such a dream is a family who came to Kerala two years back with a hope to sustain their livelihood. There assets were few pairs of clothes, an old suitcase which never shuts and a harmonium. This family is lead by Devendra (42), Kamala (32) and daughter Sapna (13).
Though they don’t hail from Kerala nor do they have any ties with ‘God’s Own Country’ still they say, they like this place which embraced them with open arms. Now the big question comes; did they get that channel or path to sustain their life here! Music paved their way earning them their bread, but they don’t do any street shows nor they go door to door.
On the contrary this family performs in trains plying in Kerala. Their day starts early and winds up late. You can spot them in Passenger trains, Express and even Super fast trains, selling their skills for mere coins. They do have to face many abuses of those Railway Officals (T.T) who make things worse for them.
On being asked how much do they earn a day, “some time two hundred to three hundred a day while at times have to contain with fifty to hundred bucks” said Devendra. He also added that he has to bear the dis-interest of many of the passengers who do shrugs off them. But he also thanked many of those passenger who do behave nicely and even applaud their skill.
Singing on those hit Bollywood numbers and other languages in order to some how get enough money to earn their food remains the only goal for the family. No time to think for any other thing, the 13 year old girl wish to study and go to school one day.
There are many such hopeful families who comes to this state in a hope to make a living for them and their family. It may be the labourer working in any of the construction sites near to your place or any street vendor selling toys. In the rat race, many of us don’t even realise or notice such faces do exist around us.
Aren’t we all slowly becoming victims of our self-centred existence?
It's all in the 'Name'
Published November 19, 2009 | Almost everyone loves their names and when it reaches out to the public on a positive note then one really feels proud or honoured. Well, this race for popularity is not only shared by high profile people or celebrities who crave for the so called ‘popularity’. But these days Kerala villagers are not willing to miss out on a single opportunity to bring up their names in limelight in one or the other way.
Kerala has always been known for its rich culture and traditions, with festivals on almost week in one or the other part or region of the state. Let’s peek into the other side of these festivals which offers a golden chance for those popularity craving morons to come out to the limelight and shine out like stars. Talk about any small or big temple festival in the villages in Kerala and you can see how active these temple committee members are not discussing the programs or events, but more concern about how big and colourful their pictures are on the brochure and pamphlets.
The popularity saga doesn’t ends here, even special supplementary is issued in local newspapers with almost half page dedicated to the committee members showing off their colourful pictures and names in bold. From young to old everyone wants to look their best on the pamphlets and brochures. One more trend which is very much in practice these days is the way people love to donate things or money, ‘good indeed’, but the catch is that they want their names to be mentioned. I’ll share a recent incident which made me think, “are donations given for some gain?”
It was like any other day, but some fuss was there in my locality, later I came to know that the ‘deepasthambam’ (many-tiered lamps) placed in the ‘Aal thara’ (a Banyan tree with a base foundation considered to be sacred) in our place collapsed, soon a meeting was called by the committee and donations were asked to bring in a new ‘deepasthambam’.
“The estimate amount is around 40 thousand INR”, said one committee member, so all decided to pool in money as donation, this was all really commendable. But then came the idea of why not inscribing the names of the donors on a marble plaque and fix it for public view near the new ‘deepasthambam’ as a remembrance.
Really a small, but an eye-opening instance tells us that, villages too have been infected by the so-called popularity syndrome.