onam pon onam

Onam pon Onam …Onam song by me …
….


Once upon a time my dear friends
There lived a king called Mahabali ,says legend
He was a wise man ,powerful ,handsome and fair
To find one like him it was very very rare



But the Devas got envious and all green
So they went to Lord Krishna with words so mean
Krishna knew their tricks but still went to Mahabali
Dressed as a humble dwarf Brahmin ,you see



He asked for just three foot of land
And did his magic again without a wand in his hand
He placed his two foots and took all worlds and the third  on the kings head not on the sand
So the king went down to moksha with no ceremony or band



Kerala ……, today still has its kings
After all it is Gods own land as everyone sings
They are mostly red but come in all colour
Some are good but most are an inborn terror
,and definitely an unmitigated error !



God placed his foot on the king that day
Todays kings do it too ,only it is the other way
They hypnotise mesmerise and incite with their speeches
At the same time they  suck us like leeches



Every other day the state of Kerala has a hartal
To many Malayalees it is great way to have a ball
Wherever you look there are bottles ,drunks and bars
The Mallu  needs his drink to make his wars



 The days of whisky and rum  are over
A tussle and fight and bars closed as one got clever 
so  long ques in the beverage outlet
in warm sunshine or rainy wet



 Back to the lorries of smuggled  spirit
and hooch distilled bit by bit
every road leads to Mahe straight
where for the glass one  dosn't wait




Zindabad zindabad ,nengide aykyam zindabad cry our millions
While terrorists ride   on pillions
Castes ,religions and  Gods are used to split  many
They come in hundreds  cheap as a penny…
…

Kerala has its mafia kings and goonda goons
Who cut  hands and heads into half moons
No industry or factory ever comes Keralas way
Are we fools to invest here they say ?



Known as the most literate state in the country
Full of hills rivers and green trees
Beautiful scenery and more beautiful women
To be out into the  top of the ten




But you see we are  doomed
Because of our petty politics  entombed
We have become a state stale and stinking
And like the Titanic we are sinking


Many amongst us fly out
by air as there are no more boats
mostly populating Arab lands
we work hard make money and buy lands


But in our own state we never work
we do all to laze and shirk
we are the only place in the world duly
that charges for work looking ...nokku cooly



Is there hope in the horizon ?
For a new Kerala for yours and my son
For them does the future hold any fun ?
Or should they also make a a fast run



Rise oh dear Mallu from your inebriation
Be aware that todays kings are spoiling the nation
Think like the genius you are man, not  like a mouse
The only way to go is to get awake and arouse



Give them the message this Onam ,hey you stop fooling
Don’t mess with me and  no more drooling
Rule me well and I will adore you all day and night
But make a fool of me  and I will fight



Let us become krishnas from today
Let us show our foot I say
This onam the Message is cut and clear
That is to become smart and slick my dear





Happy onam to all of you



harimohan

Peepli Live .....movie review

Aamir Khan is always associated with movies which arent run of the mill

This time he is only a producer and never shows up on screen .

" Peepli live "directed by former NDTV journo Anusha Rizvi focuses on rural India with so much reality that it sounds and looks more like a documentary than a commercial hindi film .

From the main actors to the rest of the cast it is authenticity taken to so much perfection that people who are not used to that world at times find it a bit unedible .

But then 70 % of India lies in its underbelly which is slimy and unslick . One cannot wish this away

The movie is all about farmers commiting suicide ,a nice take off not a serious exposition on the subject which makes it intresting .

Natha one of two brothers and the simpleton is drawn into committing suicide so that his family would get the compensation of one lakh offered by the Government for suiciding farmers !

The news of his plan gets out and the media is on his doorstep suddenly Natha becomes a celebrity and even his morning shit is breaking news !

With elections around the politicians too make thier pitch and the bureacrats present themselves to Natha with several schemes , the first one is a Lal Bahadur which incidentally is a huge green handpump which is placed in the middle of a room his small house but without any water connection ( typical of Government schemes which are a lot of show and only benifit the donors by way of contract scams in buying them in bulk )the film meanders along with Nathas impending death becoming a national conversation piece

In the end it all ends strangely with the pun on the media itself

I liked it because for one it exposes the reality but as an entertainment it would sadly fall

The satire is brilliant ,to me that was enough .

Clash of the Titans

They say it is every mans fantasy to have two wives ,of course the barrage faced would be twice indeed !

After coming to UAE I have two ........to help me in the housework

Before you gasp , let me hasten to add that both are safely men .

Again before you gasp ! and start supecting things ........

One is for cleaning the house and the other is for cooking my food

The cleaning boy comes weekly twice ( moonlighting for a few extra dirhams )

He is from somewhere near Trichi in Tamilnadu ,working in Alain in a small restuarant he was referred to me by my neighbour

he has been a very trustworthy and reliable person ,

he has a key to my flat and comes when he has time ,this mostly twice a week and it is a pleasant feeling for me to come back to a neat squeeky clean flat with the cleaner nowwhere in the vicinity.

Gopal was honest ,and would not touch a coin found on the floor or anywhere else

He also had great tricks up his sleeve ,

Once my flat was invaded by an army of small pests and he brought a brown paste which he smeared in some places and by the next day there was no living thing in the flat except me

Of course Gopal had no tricks for many pests who used to drop in for a chat

The other man in my flats life was Pillachettan ,

This archetypical middle aged balding malayalee from Ambalapuzha worked in my hospital as a plumber ,

He too was a honest person ,as honest as they come

one day he homed in to me in the hospital as a bee to a flower and asked me

" saare saarunu cook venno ? "which in my lingo means " do you need somebody to cook for you Apparently I had no starved look for attracting the attention of a part time chef like him ,

never had one ,on the contrary some say these days I look like a fattended pig ready for the slaughter ,So it was not the appearance which attracted his attention to me ,

Probably it was the innate sixth sense that comes to cookers of food to lovers of the daily bread

One thing I love as much as writing is eating !

of course you cant expect me to confess my other likes in a blog ..........please rest not your imagination let it travel far and wide

To make the long story short Pillachettan was anointed without fanfare as my official cook on that great day as he recounted his culinary skills ,

Many days he would go off to my flat by afternoon armed with my key when I was still in the hospital and in an hour or two do his magic

he would fill my fridge with delicaies to last for a couple of days .

All fine

everyone happy

But one day the inevitable happened

The clash of the Titans

It so happened (as I heard later ) that Gopal was furiously cleaning my bedroom when he heard a key click and someone opening the front door ,

with a surfiet of dishum dishum movies Gopal like anyone from Tamilnadu felt he was Rajinikanth in such situations and so quitely slid into James bond mode to have a look .

He found a capped fellow slinking into the kitchen ,drinking a cup of water removing his shirt and start cutting onions !!!!

He had never met pillachettan and had forgotten my telling him that that such a character would occasionaly grace the place

Gopal was hard put to place any burglar who would cut onions without a shirt as soon as he entered a house

Maybe thieves did such acts of faith as a good omen before they start thier hard work

Gopal was not one to ponder over cut onions by crooks during crisis times

He just armed himself with a convinient stick for he knew the other guy had a knife in his hands and would be as pleased with a neck to place it instead of an onion .

Daay yaruda neee daay ( who re you ? )

"Ente ammo "this from a surpirsed Pilla ,

having grown up with Yakshi stories in his childhood Pilla was startled at this apparition in front of him who was swinging a stick

nee arruda ? kallana ( who re you ) are u a thief ?

Nee kallan nente appan kallan nente pattan kallan this from Gopal who would leave no stone unturned when it came to his family and its honour

They stared at each other for a long minute before they did anything

There was tension in the air and static crackled

distant thunder was rumbing in the desert sands

suddenly pillachetan had the wisdom of age to say

Dey nee gopala alle ?Saaru paranju ( sir told me about you )

And thus it all ended in a great show of camaraderie between my two worker bees as the identity crisis blew over with better introductions

And so this ends the story of the clash of my titans

LOUDSPEAKER ...MOVIE REVIEW

After a long time I saw a good malayalam film .

Malayalam films a decade back were known for its excellent creativity and were also commercially satisfying ,this slowly degenerated into poor copies of other South Indian language masala films ( not thier good ones ) with dance and songs alien to Kerala roots !

Thankfully the Shakeela specials have petered down these days .

Loudspeaker a movie by director Jeyaraj known for his offbeat but commercially viable films was a delight to watch .

Mammooty the hero is a bumbling simpleton who has no verbal brakes and lacks volume control for his voice box .

He is a village bumpkin by name Mic from Thoprankudy a remote village in the fringes of a forest.

He regales people with his racy tales of encounters with lonley killer elephants ,

coming to the city for badly needed money to buy back a piece of land where his father had died ,he comes across a wily broker looking for kidney donors .

The film is all about the relationship that develops between a donor and a reciever of an organ ,

NRI menon being the man who needs a kidney to survive.

Veteran journalist Sasi Menon known for his intelligent interviews in early Asianet and later national TV is suited to the role to a T ,

As a former astrophysicist in the U.S.A with a guilt conscience he carries the role with restrained dignity slowly warming to the exuberant and at time cosmetically non digestible image of poor Mic .

Mic the man with the golden heart brings out the talent in Mamooty in abundance and the viewer loses his hearts to his innate goodness so do the other characters in the film ,

A graceful Gracy singh ( Lagaan fame ) as a nurse is silent but beutiful ,there is no typestyled heroine or villain in the movie and even the wayward student gang in the flat where Menon is staying turn ptiful and apologetic after a bash with some goondas ably managed by Mic .

Photography is excellent specially when Mic and Menon travel to the aristocratic environs of Menons home and village

At the end Mic again steals the show by his heart and in the last scene the donor and reciever come together as friends

A wholesome satisfying and soulful movie indeed not many of this in the present genre .

would recommend all of you not to miss the DVD

Bhopal Tragedy revisited

25 years back on a tragic day in Bhopal more than 15000 innocents succumbed to poisonous fumes leaked from the Union Carbide fertiliser plant due to gross ineptitude and negligence by the multinational corporate .

Warren Anderson the CEO who had the guts to turn up at the site immediately was escorted to his home U.S.of A. by the leaders governing our country at that time and is still scot free in senility .

As in all such tragedies the real victims are from the poorest dregs of society and they continue to suffer from its ills even to this day with the after effects of the noxious gas

Thier welfare has been ignored and thier rightful claims for compensation swallowed by a corrupt and inefficient bureacracy and politicians
Union Carbide which is now under a new ownership has shaken away all thier responsiblities and got away so lightly for one of the greatest man made disasters the world had ever seen ,

They would be thanking thier stars that this happened in India where the powers running the nation had helped them proactively and by default (the slow pace of justice in the country and its meagre sentences . )

The recent judgement of a paltry fine and two year imprisonement for some of those responsible coming after 25 years has only rubbed salt to the wounds .most of the accused have already got bail !

The real protaganist is ensoncsed in his old age within the security of his country ,

Murmurs of his extradition which surfaced recently in the media has died a quite death when fingers of suspicion started pointing to icons of the present ruling faction ,

probably another case of spiked news .

The British Petroleum oil leak into the Gulf of Mexico strangely coincided with theBhopal tragedy news revival .

Look at the indignation of president Obama and his countrymen at the oil leak causing immense harm to the marine ecology and consequently to thier country and its people

The offenders are made to pay for thier demanours through thier nose and made guilty by the media day in and out
imagine how they wold have reacted to a tragedy of the Bhopal scale ?
how would the offenders been sentenced ?
how much would have been the compensation recieved by the victims ?
they would have transformed a city like Bhopal in the 25 years into a veritable green paradise making Union Carbide pay for it

what we have instead is a still rusting and dangerous remnants of a killer factory in Bhopal even today !

All medical needs for generations of the victims and thier social needs would have been met ,or rather Union Carbide would have been forced to meet them

One feels sad our parlimentarians and rulers have no value for an Indian life ,

The very life they depend on like parasites for thier votes and petty existence ,

they pamper and preen to corporate demigods even the negligent ones who have harmed the nation and have squashed the lives of thier bretheren .

Our elected representatives throwing flowerpots in assemblies or cavorting with bar girls have no time to waste for the poor ,they only have words for them ,orations that hold thier verbal diarrhea

they turn to the poor only during thier coveted elections ,at other times they split them in the name of caste and religion and keep them in perpetual poverty and bleed them like vampires

they are disgusting !

Paul the predictor

This FIFA a wriggly slippery pound of flesh made more news than all those sweating on and off the field .

Somewhere in Germany in an aquarium Paul spread his buttoned tentacles over the can of food never knowing he was making histroy and being watched by millions on live TV .

None knows how his clairvoyant powers were detected and marketed ,but one does know now that he was strangely and uncannily correct in his predictions .

The joke now is Paul died laughing when asked when India would win the world cup .

Dont worry folks Paul is alive ,healthy,and kicking enjoying his customary aquarian fetishes .
There was a subtle hint of rivalry during the games from Mani the Singapoorean parakeet who pecked on a card depicting the winners ,of course having bet on Holland as the world cup winner Manis fame died a natural death and I assume he is back to picking cards for Solaippa Senguttavan and Chellapan Chettiars in the backstreets of India town in Singapore as he has been doing for ages .

There also was news on a crocodile grabbing a live chicken to devour it and make predictions .

The possiblities are endless .

One could have Redbum the baboon ,Grimace the gorilla ,or Slimy the snake ,becoming future astrolgers .
Indian politicians could wait with bated breaths on these soothsayers giving poor swamijis and astrologers a time out ,maybe thier parties could use them as lucky mascots ,the baboon would be ideal for most of them .

The South African president Zuma known for his prowess in the sleeping quarters with many wives to comfort him said his country needs no Pauls or Manis they generally throw bones to foretell thier future ,

so guys and gals go ahead and look up a Paul or Mani to know your tomorrows leave no bones unturned
byeee

Summer in the Desert

Al Ain means the Eye

the garden city of the U.A.E.has been home to me for the last three years

It reminds me a lot of New Delhi .

Wide neat roads lined by greenery and flowers ,No high rises ( AlAin allows no high rises ) and a similar extreme climate

From October till April it is cool and pleasant ,

to make up for this the rest of the months are torridly hot ,

As summer advances it becomes a furnace and like Delhi the humidity is non existent so one does not sweat like a pig but only bakes like one !

With the mercury hitting almost 50 degrees celsius daytime lasting till about 7 pm and nights uncomfortably warm of the unenjoyable kind .

Airconditioning of course saves the day ,

My hospital is so cold at times we even shiver ,and the car AC isnt bad for an older version of Camry except once when the AC gas was low ,

The trick was to venture out only after 9 pm for the mandatory walk or in the dawn ,

I landed here in july and felt like being thrown into a fireball as I stepped out of Abudhabi airport,

The Hilton my home for the first month or so ,was as cool as a cucmber and the hospital car which picked me up daily before I got my coveted licence to ply one ,was cool too in spite of the talkative Pakistani drivers and a particularly talkative Mallu , one who was into stockmarkets and wanted the daily report from my Gulf news copy

( a subject in which I was totally unintrested just like sports ! )

It was a shock those days for me .

I still remember my bravado in taking a walk on Day two from my brother in laws house to view a nearby mall on a scorching friday afternoon promptly losing my way and searching for the house in deserted streets ,I almost died of a sunstroke that day with my in law calling me foolish to do such things in this place in summer !

With time I got wise and would rarely venture out without an AC coccon

Malls were great summer places as they were cool in climate and in visual delights of the consumer and the human kind !

Of course a swim at around 8 pm was heavenly with the water relatively cool and cleansing .

The zoo too has its night safari specials during summer but wonder what the animals do in the daytime !

The plight of labourers in the hot sun is terrible ,but the Government has made rest between 12 noon and 3 pm compulsory and made it mandatory that they are provided with airconditoned rest places

( our commies could learn a lesson from here ........they only exploit workers but never do anything for them )

The Jebel Hafeet a hill near the city would be a formidable place to go in the summer but its bare rocks could make you into a KFC special

Date palms become pregnant with sweet fruits at this time

The same AlAin demands light wollens during december and walking along the fully blown colourful flowers wearing a coat over the jeans and if possible a golfcap listening to good music was a pleasurable pastime to me

The good things about summer was that clothes got dry in a jiffy !

One could eat ice cream in tons if one didnt look down at the growing paunch !

and there was no need to off the Ac at midnite for fear of being frozen !

Traffic too was less as most of the citizens leave the place for summer vacation ,but getting into the car out in the sun for a long time was another thing ,the seat belt buckles could burn you and for the first five minutes one wouldnt dare touch the steering without a kerchief !

Long rides to Dubai and /Abudhabi are pleasurable too ,

once some friends and yours truly cruised off to distant Al Ruwais and Mirfi a beach resort with black long roads glimmering in the haze

with an angry purple sun directing his glare through the windshield ,the car AC barely won the battle .

One could see mirages of pools of water in the road ahead which disappeared as one reached them ,

slumbering on the drive was a distinct possiblity in such somnambulitic environments with the music driving your lids down ,sidewalk rest places ,hot mallu chais and some times a quick smoke were the only saviours against possible disasters looming ahead .

with all its glory summers arent my thing having lived in hot Chennai all my childhood I never liked hot places ( though always loved other hotter possibilities ! kidding of course )

The Arabs are a hardy lot to have inhabited a place like this and making it a paradise ,

one just could not think of an AC less U.A.E which did exist a few decades back as my uncle who had migrated here in the fifties and rose to the top used to recount ,those days all they had were fans which churned out hot air !

The recently introduced long Mercedes public buses are a great boon for those without cars ,to travel across the city in comfort ,

some years back the bus system was not so organised and older buses were never so sleek .

Maybe tomorrow will bring an envelope of glass around the city to make it the first totally airconditoned city

( ouch think of the environmental havoc it would cause what with the ozone layer business )

On the top of the World !

What is it that wants man to soar over all ?

To be in the top of the worlds tallest building and look down at Terra firma is almost philosophical ,it makes your worries vanish without trace !

Me with my son and daughter did just that last week .

I had seen the Burj Dubai coming up over the years whenever I drove to Dubai its pencil like spire growing taller and taller lost in the hazy horizon of the Manhattan like skyline of modern Dubai .

And one fine day it was complete and opened with a bang with a new name the Burj Khalifa .

An architectural marvel it is the tallest man made structure ever built at 2717 feet

( 821 m) ,

construction began in 2004 and it opened in 2010 ,part of the flagship development Downtown Dubai 420 acres big .

The largest mall in the world the Dubai mall ,with the largest book shop in the world the Kinokoniya ,and a huge aquarium spanning two floors ,

The Adress Downtown Hotel facing the Burj itself

( where yours truly had the opportunity to stay for a day in the 64th floor gazing at the Burj coming up ) ,the Dubai fountain ,and a heritage shopping mall .

The total cost of the Burj Khalifa is around 1.5 billion dollars the whole downtown Dubai costing around 20 billion dollars !

An Armani hotel occupies fifteen of the lower 39 floors .

Floors through to 108 floors will have 900 residential apartments which got sold out in eight hours flat !

Rest have corporate offices except the 122 ,123 ,and 124 floors which house the At Mosphere restaurant ,sky lobbies ,indoor and outdoor observation decks ,

It would hold 35000 people at any time and would have 57 elevators and 8 escalators rising at 59feet /second ,

2990 stairs upto 160 th floor ,with state of the art exterior cleaning equipment it would take 36 specialised cleaners 3 to 4 months to clean the outside of the building !

so much for the trivia thanks to Wikepedia

The tickets to the top was 100 dirhams if bought in advance ( at least a day before )

At present no online booking is available and we made a trip to Dubai mall the previous evening to do the booking as immediate booking was a costly 400 Dirhams per head

( as tall as the building )

The entry was from Dubai mall .

One went through a moving platform and reached a small hall with amodel of the tower and touch screen comparisons with other towers .

One has to go through a security check almost similar to an airport check in

( naturally security is important ) and then is ushered into an elevator ,surprisingly small and closed ,unlike the one in Burj Al Arab another tall hotel in Dubai ,which had a glass side and glass floor and one could see the sea on descending .

We zoomed up quite fast and the pressure pooped our ear buds close and the we reached the top .

The view was scintillating

Dubai lay below us in its afternoon summer haze ,we could see the top of the Dubai mall and many high rise buildings in ShiekZayed road far below us .

The toy cars were snaking in the desert mirage

The Jumeirah beach and its lashing waves with the Palm strutting out like a proud peacock were a sight to behold .

There were telescopes where one could focus on buildings which were labelled .
We spent more than an hour leisurely taking photographs for the posterity .

A souvenuir shop sold items at Burj prices ! ( we have been there souvenuirs )

we came down ,the corridor full of videos that showed the building process and photographs of many workers and engineers ,

I could spot many Anthappans ,Sukumaran pillas ,Noushads and Joy mathews there !

and was a bit proud of myself and our Mallus !

Child Labour

20 % of Indian children between 6 and 14 are not studying in schools ,

they have no choice

12.6 million are engaged in work ...........that is child labour for you !

Neither does the media find all this worthwhile to focus on such important issues nor do our great leaders have time to ponder over all this .

Our Constitution clearly states that children have a right to education and are not to be employed in hazardous work but in reality things are different .

Child bonded labour too is very prevalent , specially in the north where poverty forces parents to sell chiildren to agents who lend them money ( at times meagre amounts ) making thier children bonded slaves for a long time .

The match making industry in Sivakasi ,weaving industry in Kanchipuram in Tamilnadu ,and in Karnataka employ children .The diamond industry in Surat ,Garment industry and many more all have thier sweatshops where children are exploited .

We find children cleaning in restaurants mopping tables selling sundry good in traffic stops inhaling the fumes ,in road building ,construction ,metal and welding shops automobile workshops and so on .

They are given pittance beat bullied unfed and ill treated mostly ( there are exceptions too )

All this can only happen with the connivance of law enforcing agencies .

Corrupt officials conveniently look to the other side in such situations

Domestic child labour too is common .

I still remember when I was young we had a boy a bit older than me working and staying in our house ,of course he was looked after well and was my playmate ,but I used to wonder why he never went to school like me !

Those days( 1960 to 70 ) it was common practice for children being brought from native villages (Kerala in my case ) and the parents of the child considered it as benificial to be so brought up in a good home in exchange for some domestic work,

But looking back at it Iam embarassed .

One cannot wish away this wrong by introducing laws alone

Poverty ,ignorance and exploitation are the main causes behind it and as long as we have people who lack the bare essentials it would go on .

with all of us enamoured of a developing India making great strides we often ignore or forget that a vast majority of our countrymen wallow in abject poverty, leading a life of penury

This gray area has to be adressed before we call ourselves as developed

Progress may percolate down but could also get stuck in between by exploitation in the middle

The efforts by the Government for equal rights in educations are welcome indeed but each one of us should be aware of such existing inequalities and fight against them in our own small ways .

The media which can contribute immensely by bringing light such stories in both written or visual forms should do so , instead of wasting all thier time on the pronouncements of uncouth politicians
We hope a day comes when every child in our country goes to the school and does not sit in dingy sweat shops tears dribbling down thier dirt streaked faces .