The village no God can claim creation

The village no God can claim creation

Pulincunnoo is a small village in Aleppey, a southern district in the state of Kerala all known for its lakes,paddy, boat races and basketball.My father tells me that our forefathers fled during Tippu sulthan's invasion of north Kerala and seven generations of my family have lived here since AD 1760.A typical Kuttandan village,it is yet another blessed prodigy of mother nature.Everything I find new there every other vacation sends a chill down my spine for what I miss in my life.The village is largely carved out of clay raised from the lake and the blasphemy goes on that this was not one village no God can claim creation.

My dad would rush to Pulincunnoo the first day he would be home for any vacation.I have always thought that it is the best way to tell me what he expects from me when he too is retired and all home. As a kid I loved crossing the bridge in a junkar.Junkars consisted of two or three large boats tied to each other and propelled by an engine and were used to ferry vehicles and people across lake.From there we would proceed in a smaller boat so that we could directly step into our ancestral home.

On the way I succumb to two of my dad's routine obsessions.Time again, he would show me the school he studied in and his fifth standard class at the corner.And then he would move on to a closed shop which once sold him a Oxford dictionary at school.This 1965 vintage delight is a rare piece in my library and was also used by all my dad's siblings and bears their sign and date as well.But then I too have learned to enjoy his nostalgic obsessions.Post that he would he would try teach me how I was related to all the homes on the lane.And the journey would continue aside green paddy fields,lakes smelling raw clay and occasional single log bridges which were once my nightmare.

My grandfather would definitely be waiting in the road outside the house.Each time my dad saw it,the joy would echo in his face and his eyes would translate the pride he held in his surname.He did agriculture and hardware business in his prime and was famous in the rummy circles of mid Travancore.Dad would have bought a bottle of my grandpa's favourite Ceasers whiskey and they would join in a boozing party .That rings up the famous achayanic drinking spree where you give company to your dad and his dad.The conversation would move on familiar lines with discussions ranging from people around to politics in Kuttanad.My grandpa would talk of all the land he lost to land reforms 30 years back and that too least moved.I have never seen anyone talking passionately of own loss.

Next on agenda is a sumptuous meal I would die for any day and my choice of a future bride for a next few days would be someone of my grandma's culinary skills and of course a few inches taller.My grandma is one hell lot of a good cook who makes great duck and karimeen, two big addictions of kuttanad and me.But then I hear ladies there can make only those two dishes. She is an English graduate from St:Theresas college, Cochin, an absolute rarity in those times and I can still recollect bits of the Shakespearean stories she told me as a kid.

On a parting note, both my grandparents would cry and hug my dad.Grandpa tells me his wish to see from heaven 6 alphabets after my name referring to medical UG and PG degrees I ought to attain.The junkar has given its way for a ambulance width one way bridge, another joke of Indian rural economics.The little paddy fields left are being levelled synonymous with Kuttananad's agricultural miseries.The boat races are like brothels for foreign tourists.Still it can strike a chord of loss in your heart.Crossing the lake back home, I realise my heart is happier and merrier in that little village.

I promise myself, I ll come back and make it my home at least when Im retired.
Till then I ruminate over the nirvaana of my last holiday.

Kerala's Catholic church v/s CPM feud- clash of the same wine in two bottles

Kerala's
Catholic church v/s CPM feud - clash of the same wine
in two bottles

The duel between the church and communists is not a struggle for existence as might be deemed by a theist-atheist class struggle. Its not Marx v/s Christ or th red flag v/s the cross or the Das kapital v/s the Bible.Its neither history repeating itself nor another chapter in the history.
But then it is no clash of ideologies.If it had been so it could have been perceived as a natural chapter in the log book of church-communist struggles that has happened all over the world in the past two centuries.
It infact is a clash of interests,not essentially based on ideology,but then the idea is to bring in idealism as perceived by each class.
And the contrasting fact is that idealism has the least connection to their professed ideology.

The entire idea of a church going communist or a communist believing in Jesus doesn’t quite exist because both classes have time again asserted the contradictory nature of their respective ideologies.The idea if put candid boils down to a thought that Jesus belongs to the right wing though other Gods are not essentially so. And in such a scenario, a left front-church adjunction is quite immiscible as oil and water.In a country where politico-religious equations have grown to be the ultimate death threat to democracy even after six decades of independance,their inequations are even more lethal.And that is the biggest paradox of the great Indian secularism.

If the current church-CPM standoff seems to be one of the biggest issues in the state,it just shows their cult among the people, the regard people hold for these institutions in their hearts and the desire of people to see them back in the right track.And that is definitely due to the way the clergy and communists changed the way people of Kerala live and think to become one of the most progressive societies in the the country.If our supremacy in the health and educational sector in India may be attributed to the church initiated missionary work,the land reforms initiated by communists is hailed as a model for the entire country.The two were instrumental in fighting the caste hierarchy here as in other parts of the country.

And in many other many fields,the two groups have revolutionised the way our society lives and it was only a matter of time before their interests clashed leaving us engulfed in a flurry of court cases,blame games and public displays of comrade and flock base.The politics and economics of higher education rattled by the entry of self financing institutions has now provided the perfect stage for another episode of the so called Marx's socialist-capitalist or the biblical theist-atheist struggle.The feud now threatens to metamorphose into the second liberation struggle,a church initiated idea after the successful 1957 church sponsored agitation against the move to nationalise church owned institutions by the then EMS govt.

In the last 200 years, the church and communists have been on a collision course around the world many a times.The influence of Pope and the Roman church in preventing the spread of communism beyond eastern Europe may be pointed out.The Russian orthodox church was reduced to a KGB agent by the Lenin-Stalin rule.The church came on a resurrection path only after the decline of Soviet union.With a largely autocratic and authoritative government in power,Chinese bishops and church have often been at the receiving end.

The affinity of Indian communists for their Chinese counterparts has been proved time again and the hierarchy of the catholic church in the state runs up to Rome.Even within their autonomous framework,many a eyebrow is raised about the influences from outside the country on the prominent institutions in the the state.The soft support of the communist party for China in the 1962 Indo-China war,one of the biggest blunders in their history branded them anti-nationalists for long. The educational policies of Catholic church was viewed with suspicion in the initial years.The two worked around the world with little improvisation with respect to local sentiments or traditions and yet managed to develop a cult among them.

And quite understandably,autocratic methods have sustained such modus operanti and opinion of the powerful has subjugated the say of majority.'The party' has an impeccable record of expelling leaders who have raised dissent against its policies.The expulsion of veteran leaders Gowry amma and MV Raghavan will continue to haunt the party for a long time.Left wing organisations have often followed suppressing intra party debates in the name of discipline.Reports of families boycotted under the wrath of the party or the church have run for quite some time.Recently,a case filed at high court pleaded against isolation by the vicarage on non payment of church dues.Women married outside the church are still expelled from the church as per the practice of maharon.The practice of burying people who revolted against the church outside the main cemetery in themmadi kuzhy (meaning rogue's pit) still runs to date.Revolts against church are often termed as revolt against God almighty and naturally qualifies as blasphemy.
What is common here is the way discipline has been 'defined' against any intra organisational debate,let alone democracy.


Recently,the ruling left government and the church coming face to face yet again on a seventh std textbook chapter 'jeevanillatha daivam' (God without life) with serious 'secular and atheist' tones shows how important the interpretation and understanding of their ideology are as important as the ideology itself.Catholic studies are an integral part in any church run school and imagine textbooks of such stature running simultaneously in such schools.The recent letter of bishop Powathil asking catholics to send their children only to church run schools was only a open declaration of the policies church has followed for generations. The church has consciously or otherwise followed a policy of ideological imprisonment in trying to create a flock base trained to believe in its policies without a second thought.And the institutions run by it, schools or colleges have served as the oven of such brainwashed generations. A debate with any student comrade leads me to lot of tailoured views lectured in party classes by the communist intelligensia.These party classes are unique features of communist parties all over the world.The similar thing here too is the absence of a class who cannot do any processing of such ideas.

Add to this media conglomerates run by them, an average Malyalee's starvation for neutral journalism is understood.In an attempt to become to become media barons,they have founded an alternate line of journalism which reports only what it is meant to and reports it the way it is supposed to.The party run Deshabhimani and the church run Deepika are morning jokes for any malayalee whose eyes and ears are open.Be it the sell out of Deepika's shares to Faris abubakker,a dubious businessman or Deshabhimani's acceptance of donations from Santiago martini, a foreign lottery king,the newspapers have done their bit for the controversy crazy malayalee psyche.The comrades compete with the priests in begging for more subscribers.Lets try forget all the issues raised with their TV channels, Kairali and Jeevan in quest of Godly kingdoms and Red empires.Even at the cost of negative balance sheets,running these media houses will remain as important as the existence of their ideologies.These media giants are only a small part of the corporate culture that has grown in them in the last few decades.The church run five star hospitals and self financing colleges and the party run amusement park and star hotel are just a few examples.

The open spat between Pinarayi Vijayan and VS Achuthanandan has threatened to spoil the base of the party in Kerala, otherwise a left bastion.The Thrissur and Changanacherry fractions of the church have been long locked in a ideological and theological deadlock.Not only has such sectionalism not developed into any intra organisational retrospection, but has only threatened to play havoc with the two biggest influences on Kerala's social life.

With the advent of such a bête noire culture and corporate capitalism,the two organisations are drifting away from the real issues threatening them.A dwindling believer base on account of Pentecostal invasion and fake evangelical movements have been overlooked on account of church's politico-economic emergencies.By trivialising the SNC Lavlin case against Pinarayi Vijayan, the communists are shedding their zero tolerance policy to corruption.The alliance with PDP, a Muslim communal party the party has eroded its secular face.

As in any organisation whose clout has grown beyond itself,the two organisations need to come back on a path of revival, retrospection and resurrection.This will be possible only with radical changes in their policies,intra organisational structure and modus operanti.Only if such a change is initiated at its heads,the two will stand the test of times as Kerala's biggest agents of social reformation.

The bahans,didis and ammas of Indian politics

The bahans,didis and ammas
of Indian politics........

PROLOGUE
During the run up to 2009 American presidential elections, Sara pahlin was in the news not just for her candidature. She was spilling ink for her hourglass curves, haute couture and a pregnant teen daughter.The Burlusconi government in Italy turns glamorous with former models assuming ministerial offices.Sarkozy has gifted the French a former nude model and a pope diva as their first lady.

Well,Im not proposing such a change out here,but somehow cant help appreciate the equation of the sexes there.And for sure, such a brand of politics would never work in a country like ours! The stereotypical brand of feminine politics set in our country puts our woman politicians totally out of sync with the aspirations of the new age Indian women.Politics too endorses the great Indian concept of womanhood where as said often, the individuality of the woman is never recognised.
The women politics in our country is all centred about three leaders in three poles of the country,Jayalalitha in the south,Mayawati in the north and Mamata banerjee in the east and they serve as excellent case studies of feminine politics here. All three spinsters strike a chord of similarity in their rise and falls, politics - its equations and inequations.

If you see the popular names by which our woman netas are addressed, the undertones that lie beneath them limits their identity in relation to a male.The Dalit protagonist in Mayawati is 'bahanji' , the Dravidian pride,Jayalalitha is 'amma' to the masses and the Nano butcher,Mamata banerjee is 'didi' to Bengalis.You can virtually catch any female relation in Indian politics except say a girlfriend or beyond! Often they played second fiddles to male patriarchs in their respective parties and so naturally filled its feminine lingos.The 'sisterhood and motherhood' offered by our netas seem to be the easiest way to connect to masses especially in a country where family relations stay herculean strong.

A record number of 59 women have made it to the parliament in the 2009 elections constituting almost 10% of the total strength.Out of that a whooping 36 are wives, daughters, nieces or even in-laws of our already established netas.The surname politics and dynasty rule has taken out its dirtiest leaves raping Indias political consciousness.This post 1990 syndrome reach its all time nadir with coronation of Rabri devi,a politically virgin illiterate housewife as the CM of Bihar by her husband Lalu prasad deseated on corruption charges.Male heirs have often fallen out with their patriarchs in the dirty game of politics leaving our netas to expect lesser resistance from the fair sex.What goes on without being said is that these women end up being political pawns and rubber stamps with the least chance to act on their conscience.Well, all bad things too can start at home.


One peculiar thing to note is the absence of proper intra party democracy or even a second string leadership in our women lead parties.How many of us can quote another leader from Mamata's Trinamool congress,Mayawati's BSP or even Jayalaitha's AIADMK?.Mamata shied away from demanding more ministerial berths at Delhi for her MP's obviously falling for the fear of a second power centre in the party .We see MLA's falling at ammas feet even before the press and being expelled from the party at her whims and fancies.The biggest example is reserved for the self proclaimed dalit saviour in Mayawati whose dictatorial clout is beginning to choke her own party quarters. Immediately after Indira gandhi's death in 1984,congress cadres felt an overwhelming absence of proper leadership,the reason of which too is no different.

No wonder, some of Indias most dictatorial governments have been lead by women.The grand old lady of politics,Indira gandhi still hauls the ghosts of her tyrannical regime which sponsored the only emergency period in the history of the country.But then,she has left a legacy even Nehru would not match and she continues to be the best PM we ever had who led the country to progress like never before on socio-capitalistic line.The last Jayalalitha government in Tamil Nadu was running the risk of setting records so much that it is now two terms out of power.Mayawati is now a national shame installing her own statues all over Lucknow in a disgustful attempt of self immortalisation and exhorbiting large amounts to her party fund through the beaurocracy.May be its de natural reaction of a sex so unsure of assuming power deprived to majority of their peers.

If issues created leaders then,the politics of today seems to believe in creating issues or else watering those of a miniscule nature.Dalit patronism, the USP of BSP is now in front of the mirror for an ambitious pan Indian implementation. Mamata banerjee is riding on the wave of her new found success against the communists,all thanks to her Singur anti Tata nano struggle .The Dravidian cause put forward by Jayalalitha has failed the test of times.Like half the men folk,they also play 'issue' based politics rather a 'cause and reason' based one.What difference should jantha expect of women leaders rather than playing sisters and moms to them?

Most of these women have grown in stature under the patronage of their mentors.Mayawati grew under the patronage of Kanshi ram (whom she later placed under house arrest).Jayalalitha was the baby girl of MGR, a legendary Tamil politician.The intra party politics in our country is still unconductive to rising women participation other than to fill up their woman wings.And whoever fights the system is shown the way out,Uma bharathi and BJP testifying the above fact.
Coming to my home state ,Kerala which boasts as India's most woman empowered state,the recent parliament election was the last nail on coffin of women politics.Congress offered Shanimol usman, the Mahila congress president at a sure to lose seat at Kasargode which she bravely refused.Sindhu joy, a promising left wing student leader contested in a similar situation at Ernakulam where at the end, she lost by 10000 votes which was as good as a battle won.This is quite understandable of a party which expelled Gowry amma in 1994, one of the finest woman politicians India has seen for reasons still undefined.How can one forget Kerala being deprived of its first woman CM in Susheela gopalan after the 1996 assembly elections.Such instances will continue to occur as long as our male chauvinistic culture is all lit up against any subjugation to the opposite sex.

The proposed 33% reservation for women in the parliament is hailed as the last saviour to put women representation on a path of resurrection.What can be purpose of putting up namesake women representation in a country still miles away from the concept of women in power?What is the surety that it too wouldn’t fail like all other models of reservation?Have not we learned from our experience that all netas irrespective of their sex are birds of same flock?Will reservation experimentation guarantee representation over all social classes?Wont our democracy seem artificial dancing to set scripts?Will the society at large gain from the new political class?

In a country where women still are considered impure during their menstrual period and the barbarous practice of sati is still reported, we will continue to see women playing second fiddle to men in shaping the destiny of our country as in other fields.Until that changes,we will be betraying ourselves in taking solace in a little known woman president setting the perfect stage to extra constitutional power in a women party chief.

EPILOGUE
Kanimozhi (Karunanidhi's daughter) fails in a futile attempt to get into the central ministry that too as a first time MP,Supriya salve (Sharad pawar's prodigy) is busy making inroads into Maharashtrian heartland and Agatha sangma (P A Sangma's baby girl ) enrols as India's youngest minister.And may be these three will serve as case studies in a article of similar stature 25 years time from now.

de grand malayalee reception wagon @ kerala's airports.....

de grand malayalee reception
wagon @ kerala's airports.....

Waiting here at the Cochin airport to recieve my dad for easter,im surrounded by a realm of adrenaline rushed crowd all ready to pound onto the airport barricades.Yeah, it is the malayalee reception wagon,an annual all family affair to recieve their loved ones.A sort of a pilgrimage or a holiday tour,negotiating it seems to the welcome drink for the foreign tourists squeezing their way into the 'Gods own country'.My 52 yr old dad is no exception to the suffering in the chaos and he seems to have mastered the art of exiting kerala's airports.My dad hugs and kisses me and i leave with intimidating thoughts in my mind.

In whole of my life i have rarely been to airports to recieve my dad.My dad never believed in this concept of wasting an entire day just to recieve or see off someone."If u can wait for 6 months,why not 6 more hours in travelling?"-the idea seems to have few takers.In a school with almost everyones dad working overseas,it was even an accepted norm to skip a day's class when your dad's leave is due.

If these reception wagons are a testimony to strong family relations in the eastern part of the world,they also stand for absense of a proper social mindset that couldnt invent itself with advancements as little as a international airport.Science can easily change the way you live,but not so easily change the way you think.In airports abroad, you see guests being received by chauffer driven cars leaving airports minimally crowded.That might be a long time ahead of us considering that a proper airport culture has not sinked into our psyches even after 60 yrs of independance.Indian passengers are rarely served liquour on board,thanks to our poor drinking culture neither do we enjoy free hand luggage clearance which is the normal norm elsewhere.That is well complimented by a hilariously unsocial reception crowd at the arrival . No wonder,indian airports seldom allow anyone other than passengers in their lounges .

A deserted arrival terminal is not what im trying to propose.What is needed is radical change in the way we treat airports as an all family destination.If we dont crowd our bus or railway stations, we dont need to crowd airports only on account of a greater magnitude of arrival.

Till then we ll see weekend markets less crowded than airports.