Supporting opposition

The petulant juvenile behavior of Indian politicians when things are not to their liking is disgusting

they behave like a sulking kid whose lollipop gets stolen
or monkeys in a cage after a banana
the monsoon session of the Parliament was washed out and crores from tax payers money wasted by a shallow opposition whose only knowledge is on their Italian honcho and the projected heir of a son whose histrionics demeaned parliamentary debating .
The state assembly worthies are no less in their behavior ,
from the secular spouting Yadavs who dance to the tunes of parochialism ,caste ism and communalism or the Bihari biggies who are dictated by the baddies of the hinterland ,the fiery Bengali CM or the Amma from the south who expects people to be prostrate to her plans and herself all the time .
Delhi of late is ruled by a set of broom armed wimps whose main hobby is to spar with its Lt Governor .
Of course one cant leave the most literate state Kerala which behaves diametrically opposite casting doubts on very Education itself ,
its opposition leaders are sincere to one thing they true to their name oppose everything !

And the puch statement that started this small piece was that of its opposition leader Atchuthananthan declaring that they supported Vizhinjam port project but would still oppose it !!!!

hope you could find some sense in that !

i couldnt

maybe they would discuss it in their study classes of how the left forces oppose while supporting

India the future

India has some of its best brains occupying senior positions and managing some of the best corp orates in the US .
From the latest sensation Sundar Pichai a humble Chennai lad who has become the top honcho of Google itself ,there are many examples in every sector .
Some of the best names known are Indira Nooyi of Pepsico,Vikram pandit of Citicorp,Shantanu Narayan of Adobe ,Rakesh Khurana Dean of harvard college ,Nitin Dean of harvard business school ,Rajiv Gupta GM of Hewlett packard ,
Satya Nadella CEO of Microsoft,Rajeev suri CEO of Nokia ,Sabeer Bhatia who invented Hotmail ,,Balamurali Ambattil youngest doctor in world at 17 yrs  and many doctors ,professors ,economists scientists and mathematicians of repute .

Really impressive 

If one see this as an example of Indian intelligence one would expect India to stand first among st developed nations right ?

wrong it isnt 

thats the  hard fact

is it because of all the brain being drained away ?
not so
 we still do have several men and women who are clever and enterprising in India too a lot 

more are coming our from our youngsters 
so itsnt the lack of  talent or intellect 

is it because of lack of opportunities for those who could have excelled ?

possibly true 
The reservations by caste has killed merit to a large extent and encouraged mediocrity especially in Government jobs where progress and development is caste driven .

Even the coveted civil service which needs intelligence to crack has the reservation pollutant spoiling its ranks .

Today we have Countries like Malaysia ,Taiwan ,Indonesia ,Thailand Vietnam are all thriving with modern infrastructure tourism and enterprises coming up at a remarkable pace ,

China's development is spell binding not to talk of the well known Singapore and Dubai ,

why is it India with its talents handling the best in industry arts science all over the world not able to reach that peak  ?
is it because many of the best are abroad ?

Will India become better if all these stars decide to come back ?

the answer is a vehement NO 

Because these men and women need freedom to work and to cut paths 
they are given that and encouraged in the country they have adopted for thier merit is the prime consideration there .

in our country their decisions will be constrained by the ultimate powers which are in the hands of our politicians who are the lowest in the spectrum .
The pyramid is reversed in India 

but that is not to say we have dumb politicians 
no 

Our parliamentarians are not fools if that is is what all this makes you think 

they are very clever in a perverted sense 
they are clever to continue the mirage of doing good while looking after themselves at the cost of the nation
they are clever in corruption in back room wheeler dealing and conning the people 
they are clever in blocking progress if it benefits them 
they are clever in populist schemes and incinatory  divisive politics to assure their lasting share of power 
they are clever in never allowing the few sincere among st them to do good 

Bureaucrats are the smoothies who benefit from their political masters in sharing power and money 
they are part of the machinery that impedes India 
the democratic process of India is unfortunately ridden by caste an religious conglomerates and is neatly apportioned to power brokers for perpetuity

with the executive and to a certain extent the judiciary under its fold the politician is all powerful and able to change things to his convenience,  harm whistle blowers 
 Aided by a slanted media who profess Gospellian untruths the farce continues .

so one cant blame brain drain for India's state 
once cant blame lack of intelligence in its political class 

one can only point ones fingers at selfishness and cunningness of the political powerful and foolishness and helplessness of the average Indian .

is there a release from this catch  22 situation ?

i hope so but the horizon looks bleak with the likes of leaders bent to subvert parliament to their personal ends 

the horizon looks dreary with the family power mafias who pump money out of the country and are willing to ransom the nation only to come back to power by some means 
the future looks dark by the paucity of statesmen with vision 
the future is fearsome with the number of Indians who talk for terrorists rabid dogs and rapists 
the future does not hold good with communal casteist and dynastic forces usurping power to themselves 
the future does not look promising because good people are not listened to and they are prevented from doing good 
God save India 

Born with a golden chip

Onam is the harvest festival of Kerala and the Banana chips fried in coconut oil is almost its USB
 the other being Mahabali the erstwhile king who ruled Kerala
he is almost a mascot !
To me the banana chips has a special place not only for creating an indefatigable paunch but to all those endless hours of  pleasure when I have munched on them by tons over the years .
It was a fairly well known fact that Hari loved banana chips in the family friends circle from child hood so much so most of the presents people used to give us in Kerala used to be only the  chips to the disappointment of my sister who was not a chip addict !

Calicut or Kozhikode is the holy place of chips ,
the puritans will never agree to any other ,
the Calicut chips was something different and could be recognized by the connoisseur in  any place
 he  would snort when faced with paler imitations .
Of course the Malabar chips outlet near Ernakulum Railway station was grudgingly accepted as near perfect as the owners and fryers hailed for Amchi Calicut ,
at any time of day or night a few cars would be parked in front of the shop as shoppers would order large quantities of the yellow stuff  before they boarded a train or flew away from Cochin airport ,
the cochin airport could do well with a branch of this chips making shop in its duty free area
 in fact much better than the dreary things it holds  now .

The other outlet for good chips in Kerala which actually has millions of banana chips places is the famed SNR chips of Alathur ,Palghat which the purists have acknowledged as good too .

the line of shops selling chips in the National highway at Wadakancherry looks attractive but it is for the hurried travelers by road to Tamilnadu more than for  those who have whetted their tongues and tastes to Calicut chips .

Born with a golden spoon is a common epitome but I was born with a golden banana chip in my mouth as from childhood during holidays my grandmother would see that I get my unlimited supply of our Calicut chips when I was around .

even to this date I ask people coming from Kerala for only one thing

Get me that chip buddy !

 

KRISHNANATTAM

From childhood i used to love to watch Krishnanattam kalli in Guruvayoor temple

As we knew one of the chutti students or make up students ( at that time he was my age now hes the senior most asaan or master )
He hailed from my village and it was my grandfather P.C. Manavedan Raja who put him there
We had a ring side view hence
We could see the peacock feather on krishnas crown said to be the real thing as once the samoodhiri or king dreamt on krishna and when he tried to hug him the playful child krishna slipped away leaving the feather with him 
The dancers would sleep on the laps of the make up artistes as they meticulously added layers of arimaavu or rice flour for the lower face mask they painted the eyes with khol and colored the face finally the dancer would lumber up to wear the billowing costumes and the towering crowns instantly transforming into alien Gods and out of this world forms
They would stand behind the curtains as the thayambakka rolled into a peak and pay thier obsequies to the singer and drummer
Sanskrit slogas would fill the air and the huge lamp would glow bright while the curtains caught by two people would part
Starting at around 11pm it would go on till dawn by 1am many children would be asleep suddenly waking up when the superhuman demons came with the drums and cymbals rising to a cresecendo
The burning wicks of the huge lamp would cast a surreal look in the dancers face as his red eyes would roll into the sky
The night and sleep would transform one to the fairy tale of the mythological story and the soothing sanskrit intones would lulabby one to sleep
The graceful dance of Krishna with his benign smile and crinkling kind eyes and the peacock feather in his crown would look so real
The thayambaka drums would richocet the empty temple walls and would rise into the rising dawn as the town and the temple woke to another day
What nostalgia of my krishnattam days