Kargil vijay diwas

July26 th 1999, the day the Kargil conflict was inflicted on India by a frustrated Pakistan ended once again with a victory for India ,

This day is celebrated as Vijay Diwas in India, when homage is paid and gratitude offered to thousands of our brave soldiers,

more than 500 had perished some killed and maimed inhumanly by an army which had no sense of moral right or wrong .

After losing wars in 1947, 1965 and 1971 a section of Pakistan specially in its Army and the ISI had always nursed hatred and frustration at not achieving its ends of taking over Kashmir valley and also to take revenge for its losing all the conventional wars it had inflicted on India, on all occasions in the past the country had been beat soundly but never learnt its lesson, it continued its low key support of cross border terrorism and prepared itself with nuclear arsenal in an arms race.

 

It was 1999 when PM Atal Bihari Vajpayee made his historic bus visit to Lahore and met his Pakistani counterpart Nawas Shariff and both parted amicably.

The two countries looked like they were on the anvil of a period of friendship,around the same time unknown to India regular Pakistani army forces were quietly occupying the icy heights of Kargil , a Himalayan hilly border overlooking the NH 1 from Srinagar to Leh strategically important for India as the only access to the Siachen glacier and to Leh ,

the tall and steep peaks more than 15000 to 18000 feet  above sea level were generally loosely protected as both sides found it difficult to occupy those heights ,but Pakistani army plotted to quietly take over the heights and cut off India’s lifeline ,

 

By the time Indian army realized the enormity of the infiltration it had suffered causalities,its initial scouting army of five were murdered and maimed and it was easy for the Pakistanis to fire from those heights ,to recapture the peaks India would suffer a lot of casualties and logistics was also very difficult because of the terrain but in two months Indian army had cleared every single peak,

 The enemy was chased away and international pressure did the rest.

Once again Pakistan for all its wily acts lost the battle and we all remember this day as the Vijay divas.

Kabali movie review

Rajninikanth the superhero of Mollywood is a phenomenon ,having seen him grow from his first film I could write about him reasonably well .
Discovered by the legendary K Balachander this bus conductor turned film actor from the film institute was low key in the beginning enacting a bearded somber sad antihero in his first film Apporva ragangal in front of a shining Kamalahassan ,in the next Padinaru vayadhinille he burst into film world as a villain totally different from any seen earlier ,

we all those days still remember the swagger of his delivery idhepedi irruku  ? as his wily cunning mannerisms took to work with the sly grin ,these  would earn him a charisma to die for and to get labelled as the style king would surface right from then ,
slowly and steadily Rajinikant would metamorphose into a super hero and reach a peak not heard of much which he carries even to this day at the ripe age of sixty five though a few of his recent films hasn't done well in the box office ,

Rajinis charm never stopped with his films ,his off screen image as the man who was not bothered to patch up his appearance ,to  the large scale adulation not only in India but in countries like japan etc
rajnis movies are events and are multi million affairs a whole industry is built on his films and so when Rajni announced a new film with a one film wonder called P Ranjith it was a bit of a surprise ,it was said he moved away from his tried and tested directors like Mani ratnam ,Sankar etc to try out creativity fresh and  youthful
Ranjith had earlier taken  Madras a very popular film and it was said this movie was the reason for his being selected by the great Rajnini !
I  did see the movie Madras and was suitably unimpressed as it was just another confused Chennai based film with countless youngsters getting drunk falling to girls or stalking them and finally getting into fights with street dances thrown in ,i found no spark of creativity
 in fact I started wondering how could anyone seeing this film take up its creator and I was proved right after seeing kabali
After so much hyphe and build up the movie I feel is dismal ,
poor script ,sad screenplay ,confused director who appears bewildered that he was made to take a movie of this order and did not know what to do and tried to make a copy of his previous one adulated about ( wonder for what ) with almost all the crew of his precious film

Rajinikanth the win win package of the film industry could be called the saving grace of the film in spite of his age ,he to a small extent does continue his swagger and his style to impress though he does look jaded and aged and a bit slow too
He definitely cannot continue this for long even with the best wigs in town !

Its all about an underworld don in Kuala lumpur ,Malaysia out to save the local Tamils getting released from  a 20 year prison sentence and like the legendary phoenix dusting off his past to get back at this perpetrators ,in the process he discovers he has a daughter who now is a skilled sharpshooter and much in demand in the udnerworld and also finds out his  dead wife was still alive in Pondicherry where our man flies in Air Asia ( Air Asia painted a plane for the movie publicity  )and gets her back strangely the wife seems not to have aged a bit and looks just the same as she was twenty years back Radhika Apte does an excellent job in spite of the director !!

then followed a litany of violent orgies in Malaysia and some in Bangkok where a confusing  number of villains in several garbs with one wearing obscene jewelry with a china man added for safety's sake ,
A lot of kuala lumpur is shown in excellent shots but then if only that was there at least it would have been a god documentary
Santosh Narayanan the music director should also have been in a trance after creating the one epic piece of welcome music when the don returns which has become catchy ,after this rhyme  he goes into a cocoon losing whatever talent he has to produce noises  !

with Rajini around fights are a must the fights but here that too wasnt  much to write about .
 even old malayalam films like idha ivide vare had more authentic ones ,not to talk of the many neweer films in all languages

The theme was a good one and Rajni could still have hit off as an new Brandon in a Godfather like film but for that  we needed a good story teller to create a good symphony from a bad story one needs a good director

the story lost its life by intermission and viewers were getting fidgety
post intermission it was a long short haul of endless shootouts and exhausted actors and disappointed viewers

Neruppuda ( that means I am fire )was the great catch phrase
sorry this was more like cheruppuda ( sipper thrown on viewers )

Rajni sir

please select a good man to direct your films the next time

my uncle OUK Nair

Use of telegram ( not the recent IT application in the news ) but the clickety clack Morse code way of conveying messages which only people of my generation would remember ,not the younger ones

Those days the telegram always heralded an emergency and one was tense to find out what it revealed ,if it just said a congratulatory or greeting message or an appointment order or a transfer order etc one was a little revealed ,it could say somebody was arriving by the morning train ,etc

the message we are sorry to inform that .......expired is the worst a telegram can bring ,

I got more than three WA and FB message at a speed no telegram could reach ,telling me that my fathers brother Oootil.Unnikrishnan Nair had passed away early today morning ,and in minutes i had also passed it to relevant people i knew .

Uncle had lived a full life of ninety seven years or more .

I talked of Telegram here is because my uncle unnimamma as i have always called him , on retirement was the Director of post and telegraph Department southern division in Hyderabad ,

that was four decades back .

Tall ,lean ,handsome with a royal visage he was the youngest of my fathers three brothers and two sisters ,their father parameswaran moos was a well known traditional Ayurvedic physician of Malappuram district ,

Unnimamma joined P and T during the early fifties i think and made his way up steadily up .

He always had been my hero as he used to dress so well ,at any time , even in his ripe old age .

Unnimamma was dapper in neatly ironed shirts pants or dhoti ,he was stylish in his habits ,i remember he used to travel in first class only in the in the Railways

i also remember most houses he stayed ,Jolly cottage in Kallayi ,the huge official quarters on top of the P and T head office in Calicut beach .

At that time there was a P and T strike on and no one was allowed to enter the office ,we were staying for a few days then ,in the night Unnimamma was busy as he got phone calls from many ,i could hear his soft but stern voice handling the whole issue with no fear or favor but strictly as it should be ,all this made an impression of my young mind that sincerity and honesty and courage could deal with any obstacles and all we need is a clear conscience ,he never told me all this in so many words but his behavior conveyed ti to me and to all of us in the family

he had a soft corner for me as i had lost my father at ten years

unnimamma had great respect for my dad as he was his eldest brother and had taken care of him and other siblings in their younger age as they too lost their father when young,

i remember him in front of my father standing with great respect and speaking softly but they loved each other a lot

later in recent years whenever possible when in India i would make a point to visit uncle in Calicut ,

He was very interesting as a conversationist and had definite views on the political trash in Kerala which was more or less similar to mine and his sarcasm was greatly enjoyed by me !

he always used to comment on my growing tummy as he was fit as a fiddle .

to know that the karnavar or oldest member of our family is no more is sad ,but to me today is a day of remembrance rather than pain .

,Remembering him when he caught me a ten year old as i swooned after my dads cremation ,

remembering being taken to a doctor in Calicut for some problem i had ,

remembering him when he was so glad i got into medicine

so many small things i could recollect

may your soul rest in peace my dear uncle

please give my hellos to my beloved dad when you meet him wherever !

Doctor bashing

Doctor bashing seems to be the latest of fads in India ,with the media and the law and the political leadership giving no support doctors do a thankless job with inadequately maintained hospitals and suffer from wrath of patients and their families who are spurred on by anti social elements .
Kerala a state where people call themselves literate but are silent against labor terrorism like Attimari and Nokkuooli namely blackmail by thugs on unloading and getting paid for looking at jobs ,both illegal ,but the people of the state who do not dare to whisper against such absurdities because they are cowards know that they can vent their fury on doctors who do their job sincerely .

Recently one more doctor who was brought a patient with chest pain and who gave him first aid  in his small set up and referred him to a higher center to be managed , faced the wrath of an unruly crowd ,when the patient died of his medical condition and no fault of the doctor ,the crowd bashed him destroyed his house and clinic and barred him inside the house for more than six hours and no law enforcing agency helped him till the IMA and other medical officer associations demanded justice to higher authorities ,the media too ignored the incident as none of the TV channels covered it much.

After threat of a strike by the IMA the police finally arrested by the perpetrators 

why should doctors be indebted to a society which treats them like this ? 

A society which has faith in illiterates who say vaccines are bad for health and consequent deaths of little children with Diphtheria and one doctor who herself got infected recently.
A society which believes in quacks and alternate medicines and relies on spurious supplements made by charlatans and has no question to ask them when they realize that they  have been duped by them as they land up in renal failure and other complications and run to the modern medical doctors for succor .

what kind of reaction does one expect from this indignant community treated so shabbily ?

one immediately gets answers like 

are you saying all doctors are above board ? is there no medical negligence ?

 nobody can vouch for those things as there could be many such instances but there are procedures of respite for all such cases ,taking over the law by anti socials is not the answer !

why are the political leaders who grace most association functions to give their lengthy speeches not uttering a word against this gross injustice ?

why is the media so silent ?

why are the people who benefit from the expertise and hard work of doctors against all odds expect doctors to be self sacrificing when they bash up doctors for any death or complications which are very common in medical practice !

its high time the medical associations took this very seriously and stopped all work and demanded they be given protection if they have to work and stop calling politicians to grace their functions till they support their cause .

The associations also have to legally move the courts which has been fair to the medical community always .

The associations also need to start a campaign that the community will not keep quiet anymore if their members are harassed like this ,they need to meet the local police officers and higher ups and get assurances on what action will be taken in case of such emergencies ?
Its not a question of whether there is medical negligence or not ,it is a question of people taking justice into their own hands when avenues for complaints against doctors like consumer courts or even civil or criminal case filings exist ,
if people who are naturally docile when it comes to corrupt politicians bureaucrats are able to do do anything they want with doctors it is the failure of the government to protect its subjects the medical profession and if the Government does not care for that then the medical community should also stop doing anything extra for the society till they learn their lesson ,

so the medical associations should consider this as an important agenda more than their CME and local functions as anyone of them could suffer this fate any time so they need to unite and stand firm at this juncture
doctors standing alone cannot be expected to fight this on thier own steam

Dr Harimohan

Todays special

Food movies to me is particularly appealing since I have a passion for food as well as for cooking .
There have been a lot of Indian films based on food ,the legendary Bawarchi of Rajesh Khanna ,later  Amithabs cheeni kum,, the lunch box ,etc.
In Holly wood there have been plenty ,A matter of tastes ,Ratotulle ,No reservations ,Chef ,
A hundred foot journey,Fast food nation ,Just deserts ,etc 

I happened to chance upon Today's special in Netflix and went through it in one stretch as it was very absorbing .
The reason was the philosophy of the film was rhyming with my views on Desi cooking !

Yes its all about an Indian restaurant in downtown New York one of the hundreds one sees in Queens in the little India run by suit clad rheumy Indians eulogizing on  their curry .

Tandoori palace is one such restaurant run by an obese Hakim ( Harish patel ) ,
having lost one of his sons on whom he had great hopes of his becoming  a doctor he was depressed his son Samir (Aaasif mandvi who incidentally also wrote the screen play of the film directed well by David Kaplan )  is only a sous chef in an upmarket French specialty restaurant ,

Samir  quits one day when passed over for promotion unfairly !
He   plans to go to Paris to apprentice under someone to become a specialist in French cuisine but it wasn't to happen as he finds his dad go into an apoplexy on hearing Samir had lost his job and promptly has a heart attack and becomes bedridden .
His three uncles  play cards there most of the time ,the place is unhygienic , ill organised  with a crude clout of an immigrant with a spittoon as the resident cook 
 when Samir puts his foot down on the spittoon the man walks away leaving Samir with no chef .

Samir  remembers his meeting  a talkative cab driver Akbar once who prides himself as an expert Indian cook who knew  all the secrets of a Nawabi kitchen.
He manages to trace him down .
Thus Akbar brilliantly portrayed by Naseeruddin Shah comes to help out Tandoor palace 
Samir is amused at Akbars way of making the masala  powder ,definitely beyond his trained and professional knowledge as Akbar relies on no recipes but has everything in his mind ,
Akbar pontificates that   cooking rises from  three places ,the head ,the heart and the stomach 
He introduces Samir to the world of cooking with passion !
Madhur Jeffery the world famous cook expert and authour acts as Samirs mother in the film who gets impressed by Akbar and his panache .
The restaurant makes a U turn and crowds start pouring in and after a dust down it looks nice too ,

Samir becomes closer to Carrie his love interest , a fellow chef who comes to work for him to later become his fiancee .

And the day a star reviewer eulogizes on his restaurant he becomes suddenly  famous and there is a big line waiting to get into the restaurant 
His dad and mum who come then are  amazed at the change and Hakim hugs his son and Samir  is very happy at last his dad had appreciated him 
Akbar does the disappearing act as he is a man on the move but gives the masala pan to Samir and giving  him the confidence to go on  alone and succeed and Samir  just does that 
I would recommend this film  to all