Terrorism weds Politics

As Indians we are quite familiar with terrorism, in fact we are living in a country where our chances of returning home after work is pretty low. Breaking news about blasts has been a regular feature in all the media channels. However, Its no more a shocking news for any of us. Over the years, terrorist organisations and those who are arrested in connection with terrorist activities are invariably Muslims. Now things have changed, we have our own 'saffron terror'.

Terrorism is BJP's main campaign weapon against congress. There is widespread panic among public due to the ruthless blasts across the country. BJP was trying to capitalise on this issue by offering security to citizens if they come to power. All of a sudden news about saffron terror broke out, giving out indications of a political drama scripted by congress to upset BJP's campaign. At first, many thought that this is a step to please minorities and secure their votes, especially after Muslim organisations accused police of staging a fake encounter at Jamianagar. Not sure whether Police will actually sacrifice one among them for a 'fake encounter'.

However, on the other side saffron brigade once again proved that they can match Islamic terror by all means. RSS and Bajrang Dal have a history of attacking minority communities in order to save 'Hindutva'. Hinduism always preached peaceful coexistence with other religions. The self imposed upholders of Hinduism should understand that they are spoiling the image of the religion by their barbarian acts. Why are the saffron clad saints, interested in politics and fighting for power? A saint, as per definition is 'an extremely virtuous person, who has no interest in material things’. I am confused; the saints should be in Himalayas, praying to god standing in one leg. What are they doing here in civilised cities? Apparently they were making bombs and helping other anti social elements to plant bombs in mosques.

Now, is this bombing an oppression against Islamic terror or is there a hidden political agenda as well? Each blast will enforce BJP's point of this country being insecure to live. So these blasts helped to boost their campaign. I have to admit congress has done well to block this campaign by arresting elements of 'Saffron terror'. This has hit BJP very badly as the arrested saint has close relations with top BJP leaders. The most disheartening fact is that the RDX for the blasts was supplied from a member of our 'secular' Army.

This proved that terrorism has no religion. The act of terror can come from any section, any religion, any class. The only thing common is that these acts are initiated by insane minds to express their anger towards established systems by cowardly acts like killing innocent people who have no connection with the 'established systems' they are revolting against.

Politics is a full fledged war now. Political parties use even the acts of terror as a weapon to fight each other. The common man, who is watching all these Tamasha take it as another joke in laughter challenge and move on. Recently Modi demolished temples in Gandhinagar which is Advani's constituency. Its double benefit (oru vedikku 2 pakshi) to him as he can reduce the chances of Advani winning the elections and Modi can project himself as a national leader who is pro-development and secular. Congress is no better, they have been 'auctioning' tickets for elections. God save India!

Dedicated to all venomous cobras in politics - Nagin by Decibel

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Yesterday, Today, Tomorrow

I was tagged by confucius to answer two questions each from past,present and future.



Yesterday

Your oldest memories

My childhood house on top of a hill near a vast paddy field. Most beautiful place on earth.

School days, eventful & fun filled classrooms, stressful exam days, celebrations after the exams (Fishing and swimming in the nearby river), Year end holidays. Balarama, poompatta :)

What were you doing 10 years ago

I was writing my first love letter which I couldn't deliver as I was unable to find the right Hamsam:)

I was studying most of the time, sitting near my window which was facing the backyard of our neighborhood. There was someone cute at the backyard memorising lessons repeating them loudly:). (Dear 'R', u r solely responsible for my dismal performance that year at college)

Today

Your first thought in the morning

Weekday or weekend??????

If you build a time capsule what would it contain?

My laptop with internet connection, beverages (alcoholic) and a big poster of Rani Mukharjee.

Tomorrow

This year

I couldn't foresee any change in job, as the market condition is not that great. Its safer to stick on to this lovely company which gave me a decent hike (0.00000012%) and a record breaking bonus (8 rupee 56 paise).

What do you see yourself doing 14 years from now?

I Will be driving back to my home in a 96 model esteem with the most unlucky girl on earth to stay in the same childhood house, which will complete one full life cycle....

I tag seema, and Layman

Top 5 addictions

I have been tagged by Seema, (Apostrophic Metis) to list top 5 addictions, here it goes

Cyberspace

Orkut – Great place to keep in touch with your old buddies. My friends in school and college are scattered all across the globe. This is the place where I interact with them, view their latest pics, (some of them changed so much!!), recollect the good old times (some nasty ones as well), exchange wishes during festivals, keep tab of latest happenings in their life etc.

Blogs – Amazing tool to understand different views, emotions, thoughts of people whom you have never even seen before.

Akkara kazchakal - This serial portrays mallu life in US. The script and direction could match our subtle old Malayalam movies of 80-90s. George Uncle, Giri giri, boby/baby kuttan and co are doing a great job. Its better to watch this than the latest Malayalam flicks which can be described in one word- ‘ridiculous’.

Rain

From childhood, I am in love with rain. I like to roam around in my bike when it is drizzling; I love to watch the heavy downpour in my balcony sipping coffee. Rain is something which brings back memories of my home town. The smell of soil when the first drop of rain touches the ground is eternal.

Music

I prefer soft peaceful music of any language. Music calms my mind after stressful working hours. Favorites are endless, Yesudas, Unnimenon, Hariharan, Lionel Richie, Kumar Sanu, Savage Garden…..

Recent addiction is Roopa’s romantic voice

Movies

Die hard fan of Padmarajan movies. What a loss for Malayalam movie Industry. Don’t remember how many times I have seen NPMT and Thoovanathumpikal. Addicted to this particular clip in youtube.

Cricket

As an average Indian, how can I miss cricket in the list of addictions. This is one sport where every Indian, including Mr. Raj Thackeray cheer for our country. There was a time when I watched matches even during exams, without commentary of course (sorry Amma!). However, things are different now, thanks to live scorecards, without which I would have completely lost touch with the game.

Communist Cabin Crew in Jet Airways

Jet airways decided to cut 1900 jobs last week. Employees, mostly hired on contract basis protested against this inhuman decision. For a change it was a protest with a lot of glamour and media covered it extensively. If it was held by a bunch of poor labourers, it would have been another anti-industrialization movement. However the employees from wealthy families manage to pressurise the management and they reinstated them. Right decision was made as the management realised that they are not dealing with people who are below poverty line whose protests will hardly get any kind of attention either from the media or from politicians

The most surprising aspect was anti-communists who were against mass protests and trade unions which prevented development of states, suddenly took a U turn and started talking about labour laws! ITES, IT and Aviation are the most glamorous sectors currently in India. All these sectors are directly linked with global markets and employees here are very well paid compared to Indian managed manufacturing sector. The global financial turmoil started having its impacts in these sectors. Job cuts are beginning to hit headlines.IT/ITES sector never felt the need of unions as they are well paid and are have favourable working conditions. However employees in this sector are facing the heat now. News like this started giving them nightmares.

Most executives in these sectors has been criticising communists their employee friendly approach and has been pointing fingers at them for their anti-development policies. But they are learning a hard lesson, that when things go horribly wrong, you will be left with very few options. When our job is at stake and our future is insecure we all will become communists, we will forget about our company’s future and nation’s development. After all we are humans and we all have families to take care of, which is more important than nation’s development.

The funniest part in this whole episode of firing and reinstatement was Raj Thakare. I have no idea what this guy is up to. He is desperate for media attention, in fact starving for publicity. He showed us how dirty politics can become and proved again that he can threaten people better than experienced goons.

Kerala - Proving that its STILL God's own country

Kerala has been awarded number one state based on the ranking in
various socio economic factors. As usual the anti kerala/mallu elements ridiculed the report. The crusaders who blogged their way to fame by abusing kerala and mallus couldn’t digest the Stats given in the survey which is done by Price Water Coopers. There is no doubt that Kerala is lagging behind other states in attracting investment and has a lot of scope for improvement. However, in spite of limited funds available to the government of kerala, they managed to achieve a better rating compared to the other states which has got huge foreign Investments.

Take the example of Infrastructure. People must be wondering how Kerala
got a better rating compared to Karnataka and Tamilnadu which boasts
of Express highways, Flyovers and huge buildings. People who criticize
this survey should understand the variables which are used for ranking. Its not the number of flyovers, but its the connectivity of roads to villages, number of beds/ 1000, schools, telephone density etc which were taken in to consideration. Infrastructure development should not confine only to cities, the benefit should reach to common people through out the state.

It is evident that the money flowing in to the big states are not passed on to the lower sections. Rich will become richer and poor will remain poor and will be deprived of basic amenities. Kerala is criticized for spending money equally in cities, towns and villages when others invested heavily on the cities forgetting masses in small towns and villages. Socialism may be a unrealistic dream for many here, however kerala at least tried to become a socialist state by not forgetting the lower sections and people who live in far off towns and villages. People who are blinded by the wide roads and flyovers in the major cities need to take some time off to visit places outside the city. Karnataka is not just Bangalore and TamilNadu is not just chennai. There are human beings living in other parts as well and they do have the right to have proper roads, schools, hospitals and other basic amenities.

To set up industries in kerala is not easy compared to other big states. It is not because mallus are rude. It is because of various other reasons. Industries, especially manufacturing units will find it hard to find space to set up big factories as kerala is heavily populated. Moreover industries will be forced to follow stringent measures to control pollusion and emission. They are well aware that people and environmentalists react to anything which disturbs the living condition as this will affect the tourism industry of the state badly. Is it wrong to keep our house clean?. The industries will prefer other states to kerala because they get cheap labour (from the so called 'developed states'!!), and this kind of interventions seldom arise. They don’t have to confront people as they seldom has the courage to raise their voices(thanks to poverty and illiteracy). Even if something comes up the companies use their money and muscle power to suppress it. They can easily bypass emission norms in other states (thanks to the corrupt officials).

Typical example is coca cola factory issue. People revolted because the company contaminated the drinking water of an entire panchayath. Can anyone who has at least bit of humanity left in their heart can say they did something wrong. People who sit inside air conditioned offices and blog against the decision taken by the government will never realize the harsh reality. Common man’s drinking water has more importance in kerala than an MNC.

I am not trying to glorify Kerala here; we have a lot of things to improve. Unemployment is the biggest worry. We need to look at the Service Sector as it will not have the bad effects which the manufacturing sector has. I could sense positive signals from the state. Technopark and Vizhinjam project are examples of it. Crusaders hardly comment on it, as their eyes are closed firmly. I have no idea what kind of satisfaction these people get by saying, ‘mallus are hypcrites’, ‘dogs own country’,‘inflated mallu ego’, ‘are mallus generally rude’ (The funniest by far - A Non resident Mallu who visited kerala and thought mallus inside kerala are rude just coz none of the taxi drivers or waiters called him ‘Sir’!!!). The kind of image mallus generate in such blogs will definitely affect the overall image of the state. I am sure even after the implementation of the projects in pipeline, the 'reformers' will not stop as mallu bashing is fashion now.

Inspired by Ajay.

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Dedicated to all those who hate mallus. Special thanks to Laiju

The Other Side of Outsourcing

I watched this excellent feature regarding outsourcing in youtube - The Other Side of Outsourcing presented by Tom Friedman, an American author and columnist.

The story showed the booming IT/ITES sector in India, the westernised youth, RSS, NGOs and finally Slums. Tom has covered almost all the relevant aspects of globalisation in India and really showed the ground reality in India.

I have no doubt that the outsourcing is a boon to Indian economy and particularly for the ever growing youth population. It helped to solve the unemployment problem for the educated middle class to a great extend. Apart from direct employment, it has positive influence in the entire economy, as it provides indirect jobs such as cab drivers, support staff, canteen venders, construction workers etc. The government is also getting richer, thanks to the corporate and income taxes. The land value and the rents went up as a result and the standard of living changed for the better. I am also one of the beneficiaries of outsourcing as I have managed to steal a 'British Job'.

As the video suggests, the untapped talent of India is huge. Our education system is highly competitive and that to an extend developed a youth population who are focused on what they are doing. As the youth gets dispensable time and dispensable money, they tend to deviate from the family bonds, which is a little concern for me. The kind of turbulent personal relationships in western world should not repeat in India. A very valid point by Dr. Anathamurthy, regarding the family bonding in India. It takes care of social security in India. Unfortunately, we are inheriting the demerits of westernisation as well.

Tom decided to cover outsourcing after the outbreak of protests against it in western countries. We can make out that he had genuine concerns about the loss of American jobs. However, the answer was given by Azim Premji . he openly said that west can't have double standards as they enjoyed the benefits of globalisation and open market by selling their products here which has resulted in closure of many indigenous businesses and los of jobs. Now its our turn to benefit from it, and I am afraid Americans will have to be innovative to face competition.

RSS acts as the moral police which opposes any kind of westernisation to safe guard Indian culture. Their reaction against valentines day is absolute rubbish. I believe that its the people who should decide whether to celebrate it or not. Expression of love is nothing wrong as we should not forget that Kama Sutra originated here. You cannot impose culture to anyone. I don’t think our culture, which is thousands of year old, is fragile and needs upliftment. Ours is a secular state and no one has the right to question people's choices.

What we should not do in this bright rosy word of outsourcing is to forget the majority population who are still struggling. The people in slums who doesn't have basic education, shelter, food and sanitation is something which the society and government have to concentrate on. As Indians shows optimism of becoming super power we should not forget that major portion of our population are still in villages. The upliftment of socially backward people and brining them to the main stream is the most important task. I would like to salute the NRI who gave wings to the dreams of those poor students. We should not close our eyes on the fact the sections in the lower class need a dramatic upliftment if India has any chance of becoming a developed country, forget about "Super Power". Apart from flyovers and 6 line roads, there are lot of things which we need to focus on. Education is the most important aspect as we have huge talent which goes unnoticed due to lack of proper education.
Please have a look at teach India and participate. Lets also contribute to this society rather than sitting in our cozy bed room and blogging about it!

Gulf and Communism

The inspiration for this post is a movie named Arabikatha, another excellent movie from Sreeni. The film is about the struggles of a communist in Dubai. Sreeni just lives as 'Cuba Mukundan' in the movie.

Gulf and Communism - Two factors that has a significant influence in life of Keralites. Every malayalee is one way or the other impacted by these two at one point or the other. Communist leaders like AKG and EMS has played an important part in the party's efforts for the upliftment of the lower classes of the society. Lands were recovered from feudal land lords and distributed to poor. Significant efforts were made to improve education and basic health care. Its a crime to forget their contributions to the society, especially to the deprived class, who were treated as slaves at a time. The played a vital part in creating a 'Kerala Model' , which was studied with interest even by foreigners.

However, as we all know Kerala's economy is struggling due to lack of Industries in the state. The fingers will defenitely point towards the red flag. Their aggressive revolts against industries has not just stopped foreign investors, even keralites moved out of the state to start business.



This is where, we should understand the significance of Gulf in Kerala's economy. The money which is pouring from the desert to this small state, was the only single force which backed our economy. Countless malayalees are working in desert now, with their hearts filled with memories of their homeland (God's own country).Their hard work has ensured their families back home,a good life with all the basic facilities. Their interaction with near and dear ones are only through telephone, or during their visit once in two years or so.

The communists today can amass significant wealth (which is against their policies), can run companies (they are against capitalism!), can use laptops (they are the first ones to oppose computer!) also! So hopefully they will change their policy and welcome industries, and bring back those people who work far away from home. Lal Salam.