THE CRAPBOOK

I don’t have anything new to write about what is happening in Kerala. Its strikes and protests happening there, along with a student strike yesterday.

Just another day in Kerala !

Now the latest reason why the so called students are protesting is because of a controversial textbook introduced this year for Class 7. Yes you heard it right Class 7.

So what does this text book contain that makes it controversial? The first chapter contains lessons about “”Life without religion” . The opposition is arguing that this is communist propaganda and the Marxist party in kerala is trying to inflict communism and atheism in children. The ruling party argues that the textbook was approved by a board comprising of all party members.

Now I wouldn’t say that the ruling party is right about adding a lesson ‘Life without religion’ for the 7th Std Student text book (”Life without religion” for bunch of 13 year olds?), nor I would support the opposition on how the protests are being carried out.

The seventh standard students are not protesting, nor are the teachers. Its the ‘so called students’ from KSU(Kerala Student’s Union), MSF and Youth Congress that are protesting, well not peacefully. They are on a rampage across the state, destroying public property, burning school books, beating up policemen and media persons, disrupting traffic and destroying government vehicles.

Now these are not something new in Kerala, if you tune into any Malayalam news channel, the half hour program will contain news only about strikes, hartals, bandhs, protests, and more protests. Well its the only place in the world which observed a hartal when Saddam was hanged.

Hey, all is not wrong in kerala. The people of kerala however can breath a sign of relief about one thing, the bus operators association had postponed their planned strike for today to next week.

Welcome to God’s own country.

Related Reading.

80 Shut Downs in 18 Months

[CROSSPOSTED]

Update : Post updated with a link to the news site.

Another price hike?  The Government is meeting on Friday to discuss about a new price hike in fuel. The hike would be in the range of Rs 2 to 3.

Fuel prices in karnataka are the highest in the country because of higher tax component and 5 percent entry fee.

Now that the fuel price hikes are common, I feel many are not bothered. In Kerala however we celebrate every fuel price hike with a holiday(read hartal), mostly declared by the opposition party. Now since the opposition in Kerala are ruling the country, BJP helps Kerala in relaxing with a hartal. In 3 years there were numerous hikes in fuel. We observed one day of holiday for each, but then the prices are still increasing. All we got was few holidays.

2005 by BJP, 2006 by ruling LDF, 2008 by BJP.

In 2004 Kerala scored 124 on its haral-bandh score board. Here is an interesting take on the hartal menace.

Back to fuel price hike.

I remember an old joke which goes like this. (Warning : Bad Joke)

———————————————————————————-

Guy #1 : Petrol prices hiked from 50/litre to 52/litre.

Guy #2 : Nah, its not going to bother me anyway.

Guy #1 : Why????

Guy #2 : I always fill up petrol for Rs 100..

<end of joke>

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This would mean my monthly expenses are gonna increase, it’s already on the rise with the all the prices for essential commodities going up! I wonder when my house owner is going to knock on my door to demand a hike in rent.

Related Post

80 Shut Downs in 18 Months.

Does people go to any extent to get that 3 minutes of fame on TV?. Recently  a ‘not so popular’ Godman was arrested for fraud and rape in Kerala. This made another guy in the same profession working on God domain sad as he was not getting his share of airtime. So he went on to get a gun from the attic, called up the press and the cops, paid a woman to scream and staged a drama to get some attention. And he got it. Big time. The video of this guy trying to suicide was all over the news. I am not sure why he did that, most of channels airing the video did not even know this guy’s name and they referred to him as ‘Godman’.  But then it was entertaining.

My reason for writing this post is not to discuss on why he did it. He might be awfully insane. But on why he was left off, after wasting tax payers money (which pays off the police force)… police time on him. And on why he was left off on bail after endangering the lives of the people around him ? Strange.

This also reminds me of Harbhajan- Sreesanth issue, why was Harbhajan not charged for assault by the police? If I give Sreesanth a tight slap, will I be only banned from ‘watching’ a few IPL matches?

Strange..

Back home in Kerala my Dad has applied for Broadband from BSNL, unfortunately its not yet activated and the request is still pending with the telephone exchange .They have given explanations like ‘there should be at least 30 applications’ ‘infrastructure is not ready’ etc etc.

The BSNL telephone exchanges are technologically advanced ones, the people sitting there are still in the past (especially the ones in villages) they fail to notice the changes happening around them.

The delay was making my Dad angry, if you would have read this post, you would know why he hates inefficient people.

Scene Village Telephone Exchange

Dad hands over 35 applications to an employee.

Employee #1 : What is this?

Dad : These are 35 applications for broadband

Employee #1 : WHAT?

Dad : Yes. With signatures. We need broadband in our area.

Employee #1 : See…..well…..I…… How do I know whether you signed all this yourself?

Knowing that he just want to delay things Dad replied

Sue ME.

Employee #2 : Hey what’s going on? (Seems like this guy is the Chief (Read Cheap) Engineer.

Dad : I have submitted 35 applications of people who require broadband connection. Its in the papers recently that you are required to provide broadband within 1-2 months of application.

Employee #2 trying to act smart asked.

Employee #2 : Okay.. So which type of modem do you want?

His intention was to ask technical questions which my Dad obviously wouldn’t know and will retreat from making problems and asking questions.

“Which all modems do you sell?” came the prompt reply.

“Well. Eh…we have errr..” Employee #2 was a little stunned by this sudden answer.

“Well let me know which all do you have and then I will let you know which I want. Thanks.” Said Dad and walked out.

We have not received broadband connection at home till now. Categorized as a village, it would take at least another 4 months for them to process and get the infrastructure ready.

The communication revolution? Yes the applications are still revolving around.

In case if you wondering if the 35 applications are authentic, yes they are.

The ‘Western Union Money Transfer’ boasts instant money transfer to any part of the world. The idea is simple but the convenience is huge, especially for the people in kerala who have at least one person in their family in the Gulf.

Now my uncle (in the gulf) wanted to transfer 20k to his family here. Now that I am around, he asked me to collect it.  I went to the nearest Western Union branch with my PAN card as identity when they said that they have already closed their counter. It was 4:15PM.

I hurried to the next one. They were open but then they did not have that kinda money.

I ran to the next one. They did not have enough money to give me.

Exhausted and irritated, I went home empty handed.

The next day I tried a few other branches. I was surprised at the number of branches at the small town like kottayam. But they did not have either.

Finally I approached another branch swearing that this will be the last one I am going to visit. I went in asking “DO YOU HAVE MONEY?”

They were like “??? uh?”

They had money. At last.

If Western Union folks are reading this. Please… please ask your branches to store some money with them. Else the purpose of sending money is void when there is no money at your branches.

All said, I am still surprised at the number of branches in Kerala.

Cross posted at mutiny.

This post is also on mutiny.in Having worked out of Trivandrum for more than two years for a software company I am sure that city has everything you could ask for. I  thought of writing this post after the common response I get from my colleagues out here in Bangalore when I tell them that I am worked with a company at Technopark. And the common response is “Technopark? where?” .

Well for those who don’t know, Techno park is (source wikipedia) “the first and largest technology park in India launched in 1990, Technopark currently has 3.2 million square feet (310,000 square meters) of built-up space. Technopark is home to over 125 companies, which employ more than 17,000 professionals.”

Yes, it’s the FIRST technology park in India. While the silicon valley of India (Bangalore) gradually overtook the state in terms of software exporting, Technopark was not far behind. But then most of the companies preferred Bangalore as their outsourcing hub. The reason? Talent pool, favorable government policies and infrastructure. But then why should one (employer or employee) choose Trivandrum now?

• Living cost

This would be the best reason to move. You have to pay just 25% of the money that you now shell out as rent every month and will get twice the space. There aren’t any multiplexes, but you could see all latest movies for 35 bucks.

• Traffic

You would hardly find a traffic jam. But Technopark is 15 KMs from the city, however if you stay near, say 10 kms away from the Park, you could reach office in 10 mins, which is impossible in the major cities.

• No more crowded airports

Reaching airport would be walk in the park for everyone. You would hardly face any traffic jams on the way

• Tax

Since Technopark is outside the city limits, the professional tax levied is relatively less.

But these are changing with more companies rushing to the Tier 3 cities to set up their centers. Infosys (which already have 1000 employees in Technopark) is setting up its 70 acre campus next to Technopark. TCS has it’s main training centre working out of Technopark. Many companies like L&T are trying to push the government in getting land on lease. Many companies have already eyed the city as its next offshore hub, but then will the Kerala government comply? Will the chaos surrounding the new Tech Parks succumb? These questions may go unanswered but I am sure Kerala will be waking up with a new IT boom of it’s on in near future.

(Inside Bhavani building in Technopark)

The other IT park in Kerala is Infopark and the latest one planned is Technocity near Technopark.

Have you ever used obscene words when you pray? Well it’s the custom here.

Here= Kondugaloor in Ernakulam District, Kerala.

The Devi or Goddess, here seems to like obscene talk, sexual humor and sexually obnoxious songs which even Eminem would think twice to include in his next song.

Hard to Believe? (Believe it !!!!! )

These songs also known as poorappattu or Bharani pattu (which now seems to be popular among college-goers) are chanted with devotees dancing to please the Goddess (Kodungallur Amma).

Some say that it started like this.

A young man who was a strong believer of the Goddess and prayed to her daily. But his prayers were not answered and this really pissed him off. He shouted obscene words at the Goddess and his prayers were answered!!!!

Now public singing of sexually offensive songs are banned by the government but still being practiced as the locals can’t let go of their age old tradition.

    You could read some facts here.

How well is it received? The Bharani celebration with the poorappattu had been undisturbed until a decade ago. As part of Hindu fundamentalism, some puritan Hindu Saniyasins got the idea of reforming the celebration by suppressing the sexual songs. Five years ago a Hindu swami who wanted to block the singing by force created a war-like situation. He led a group of upper-caste people to prevent the low castes from singing sexual songs. With that incident, the police, which are the arm of middle-class society, were given the charge of censuring and supervising the singing. Recently, police officers have taken this opportunity to prove their moral integrity by imposing stricter measures to prevent people from singing sexual songs and entering into a trance. 

If you need more information read this.