Gods own craters

This is just a filler-post compiled from a forwarded e-mail I received today.

Courtesy: Metro Vaartha

One more reason why you should have a comprehensive insurance cover while taking-on the Kerala roads during monsoon. You never know where you'll end up, like this hapless biker found out.












Yes its funny, untill its you or me with our family down there...Hope the guy is ok, though.

These roads must be specially designed for amphibians, as found out by the warm-blooded dude who came to the rescue of the lad in the pool and ended up in 'hot water' himself. Able to swim must be a mandatory requisite for all the emergency-crew in Kerala, you concur? ;)

The Pen, the ink & the colours PART III

Disclaimer: This post is not aimed at spreading detestation, nor is this an attempt to differentiate the good, the bad and the ugly. I'm aiming to evaluate in a small detail how one of our leading vernacular dailies has been doing their business around with regard to the ethical principles in journalism. The views expressed here are personal and the links to the blogs provided in this article is for the purpose of a broader description, but I do not claim responsibility for all the statements in those posts.

Concluding, from Part I and Part II

The claim is pretty vociferous and veracious... Malayala Manorama is the most circulated newspaper in Kerala. It is ahead of its nearest opponent by over 5lakh copies (ABC 2008)




And the lead still keep climbing...

Manorama has a few points to their credit. It appears the most glitzy of all mallu dailies; it has an attractive makeup, is colourful and catchy, leads by miles in the quality of print and paper and sits pretty on a strong advertising cushion. Good for ém, sure!

Manorama is second to none in reporting business and development news, is forward-thinking when it comes to showcasing the state as an investment destination and is one of the well known Superbrands of Kerala. I like their Sports page, hosts a superlative 'Opportunities' supplement and dishes out a trendy 'Metro' pull-out in the bigger city editions. Not surprising at all, Manorama hosts the best online edition among all contemporary regional papers.

But wait a minute. Are we talking about a newspaper or a waxpaper here? Manorama is surely an 'intellectual product' and certainly not a 'material' one. And you take out the mundane features like colour and texture and look at MM in the right way, then you'd see why its no better than toilet-paper.

Have a look below to see how Manorama gets people to 'see' things. Below is the Manorama report of Pinarayi Vijayan's 'crowning' after the Navakerala march. The MM photographer's focus was on V.S. Achutanandan and his apparent disinterest with the proceedings. MM makes sure the point gets across by the tagline below the picture.



And see how Kerala Kaumudi has reported the same news. And hey, Achumama is all glued up into the action!

Images: Courtesy Sajith Vijayan, Rajith Mohan

I'm the last person to support our current CM Achuthanandan or his commie Govt, nor am I closing my eyes to the open war between the two senior comrades, but what kind of reporting is this? May be you could argue that it was the Kaumudi reporter who waited for the right time for his click, but given MMs track record this is another instance where it has created an avenue for sticking the hot rod onto the reds' ass.

Not the least surprising, given the history that the late godfather of this paper had vowed that he would commit suicide if a Communist Govt ever got elected in Kerala. Period.

The tradition is still kept alive by the new generation MM journos by news like "CPM activist's wife commits suicide" , "CPM supporter kicked his wife" and so on...It isn't an exaggeration to say that Manorama and Deshabhimani will balance each other when it comes to biased reporting, you know what I'm talking about. Wonder if Congress will ever need another "Veekshanam" ?

The newspaper's wicked and shady deeds need just one undignified example: the ISRO Espionage Scandal that rocked the nation in the 90s. Who else could be behind such outrageous dreamwork rivaling the Hollywood fiction writers other than Manorama? The fairy tale cooked up by Manorama was taken over by other media and turned into a full-blown scandal. Spare a thought for the innocent souls, including the foreigners and the scientists, caught in the trap.

Recently, when the whole country was unanimous in condemning President George Bush and the United States for triggering another unnecessary and monstrous war in Iraq, Manorama shocked the entire state by exhibiting in the front page an emotional photograph of an American wife bidding a tearful farewell to her Marine hubby departing to destroy Iraq in a US warship!!! Disgraceful is a mild word to use here...What was MM thinking???

The accusations against the Manorama House doesn't end there. In the modern democratic era the word "lobbying" is as essential as it may sound obscene. Newspapers have their own regional preferences but Manorama is being constantly accused of playing the dirty regionalism card by torpedoing the developmental projects outside their turf.

When Infosys Technologies announced their interest on Kerala, MM jumped in with a clinical assessment of the locations Infosys considered and shortlisted their choice: Cochin. They even went on record with this one bit, totally exclusive which none of the other newspapers heard. When Minister Rajagopal proposed the Habitat Centre in Kowdiar, Manorama cited someone in the Finance Dept proposing to move the project to Cochin to help the project break-even early! Ditto with the Central University where what GoI wanted was 500 acres within 50km of an Int'l Airport. Manorama couldn't see beyond Malayattoor even when the Trichur location met the same criteria. When KCA announced the Cricket Stadium, MM came up with a report that 'officials' in BCCI had quoted that ''If not in Ernakulam, then nowhere in Kerala" WOW! The curious thing is that none of the other newspapers reported these 'demands', even though they were all present at the respective locales and conferences. So its logical to conclude that MM suffers from some kind of auditory hallucinations.

And lately,the finger has been pointed at the Manorama House for attempting to scuttle the Vizhinjam Port project for the favour of the business interests of their own backyard. Speak about the larger interests of the state!

This is what pisses me off to the maximum. Every newspaper has the right to be the patrons for their own niche, but could it only be done by annihilating the other locales? All these years I was reluctant to believe this one accusation against Manorama, but the Vizhinjam episode gave me first hand proof to see the truth. The personal account from one of my friends about the indifferent attitude of Manorama to report an awareness-campaign in favour of the port project put the newspaper in the right light, for me.

And Manorama, as shrewd as they are, pitches in with some seminars on Capital Development, Malabar Development and Coconut Development once a while, just for the namesake of it! Lets keep everybody happy, eh MM? and pull the plug from behind...

Even weird is some of the social issues and moral policing taken up by Manorama and its team. True, there have been some instances where the media house has to be given credit for reports like "How Kerala behaves towards the fairer sex".But there is ample proof that Manorama pays some of the stupidest journos in Kerala who haven't the faintest idea what they're writing about. First a stir-up in Vanitha about how mobile phones are perpetrating social morality, then comes a teething attack on Bluetooth technology which created a wave of laughter among the techies. And now Manorama has jumped upon the major medium of communication, the email!!

What does Manorama want us to do? Lock our telephones, throw away the mobiles, discard laptops and computers and go back to the Damayanthi- Hamsam era?

To crown it all, have a peep as to how careful and technically impeccable MM dudes are with their reporting. C'mon, have a look and enjoy! The report is of Planning Commission Deputy Chairman M.S.Ahluwalia speaking about the Budget, and look whose pic is there instead of the man...Nithari serial murderer Mohinder Singh Panther! Oops!

How very Manorama-istic... :()

So Manorama, behind all those glitz and colour, is an incredibly seedy organization. It faults at its basic function: taking the truth to the public. You can argue that truth depends on which angle you look at it from, but view it upside down or in 3D, Manorama still stinks. It is a glorified example of the most-sold not necessarily being the best.

There is little hope that Manorama will change for their own good. They have a force behind them which keeps them going, not talking about the poor subscribers here. And at times I feel that as Keralaites we deserve something better than this load of crap.

Land of no returns

When I christened my weblog "No Man's Land", it was actually meant in a dysphemic sense. How things are spanning out in Kerala kind of concur to the real meaning of the term. Kerala is turning out to be a classic oxymoron.

The amazing consistency in which Keralaites kill off the geese with golden eggs baffles me. In a land where industrial productivity is close to the null factor, any trickle of investments cropping up are destined to vaporize in a matter of months.

Kerala, perhaps will be the state with the maximum no of paper tigers in the shape of investment proposals. All of them either condemned to be still born or subject to an eternal gestation period. Here is the roll...

Project: Smart City
Conceived: 2004
Location: Cochin
Type: IT Park
Job opportunities: 90,000
Area: 400 acres
Developer: TECOM, Dubai
Status: Dead
Credits: the cat n mouse game and groupism in the current LDF Govt.

Tagline: It is getting clearer that this is a case of the fence stealing its own produce. The whole blame lies on the Chief Minister and his handling of the IT Dept. It was all mumbo-jumbo all the way down and the sheikhs have packed their bags, for good. Pinarayi won, Achumama lost, but whose loss is it eventually?? The other Smart City in Malta is well on way to completion. Did I hear the R-word?



Project: Technocity
Conceived: 2003
Location: Trivandrum
Type: IT Park
Job opportunities: 2,00,000
Area: 500 acres
Developer: nobody
Status: on paper for the past 5 years. Land acquisition still not over.
Credits: Efficiency of IT Dept headed by the inutile CM. Not able to pool the land even after 3 long years.

Tagline: ok, blame it on the recession, but where is the land for development? No infrastructure constructed yet, and the Govt still haven't a clue about the no: of families which need to be evicted.


Project: Vizhinjam Port
Conceived: 1960
Location: Trivandrum
Type: Port project
Area: 2000 acres
Job opportunities: 2,00,000
Developer: This project has the unique credits of 2 developers embroiled in a cat fight for the construction rights. We all knew where this was heading, didn't we?
Status: Almost dead, awaiting resuscitation
Credits: The regional foulplays, filthy lobbying and legal-bureaucratic tangles.

Tagline: The worst debacle of them all...the latest casualty... The horoscope-changing project is all in doldrums now, courtesy some vested, regionalistic business interests. The project seems on its way back to the drawing board, and a huge whip to the development ambitions of Trivandrum and Kerala. This mentality of "only in my backyard" has virtually strangled a landmark project.



Project: Cochin Metro
Conceived: 2004
Location: Cochin
Type: Transport Infrastructure
Job opportunities: 1000
Developer: Unknown
Status: runs on paper, still no idea as to how the project is going to be implemented
Credits: Policymakers, NIMBY-ism along the proposed corridors

Tagline: No one appears to be sure what to do with this one. Files are flying between offices and by the time they settle it may well be 2020. As for Cochin, suffer for a few more years on the roads, that looks to be the fate.



Project: Kannur International Airport
Conceived: 2000
Location: Kannur
Type: Transport Infrastructure
Job opportunities: 2000
Developer: Not finalised
Status: vigorous paperworks undergoing. hopes to be stillborn sometime next decade.
Credits: thoughtful planners, politicians and associated real estate barons.

Tagline: Who is serious about this one when you have another Int'l airport barely 70 km south? Oh, when we are talking about paper tigers lets talk about Jumbo ones, shan't we?



Project: National Highway Development
Conceived: 1990s
Location: pan-Kerala
Type: Infrastructure development
Developer: Govt of India
Status: no sign of labour pain
Credits: The current CPM led Govt and their moth-eaten ideologies.

Tagline: When the whole nation was marching ahead with the Centrally sponsored project, Kerala commited the heinous act of wasting 2 precious years 'discussing' the toll-issue. A few 'policy' issues are yet to be sorted out. God save the commuters!



Project: Kerala Expressway Project
Conceived: 2000
Location: All Kerala
Type: Transport Infrastructure
Developer: hahahahahaaaaaa
Status: Project included in the PWD website, for a start.
Credits: a couple of leading dailies, political foulplay, poor marketing techniques, myopic administration and the infamous mallu skepticism

Tagline: Now there are talks about a North-South Road, not an expressway. It will be access controlled and 60m wide. Perhaps if you call a crow a swan its colour may change? How very communist-ic.. :chuckle:






Project: IIT
Conceived: 1990s
Location: not finalised
Area: 500-1000 acres
Type: Education & Research
Developer: Govt. of India
Status: vapourised
Credits: indecision on location, inefficiency of Govt

Tagline: Kerala featured in the primary list of possible locations a few years back. Again the regionalistic differences torpedoed another conerstone development, and the IITs proposed along with ours have started functioning. Lets hit the sack, comfy...



All this in a world where markets are evolving into highly competitive ones and moving towards the goal of self-sustainability. We toil for a better today so that our children could work, play and live in this beautiful land.. The question is how many generations could we afford to destroy?

in da club!

This post has absolutely nothing to do with anything/anyone else other than me, me and me... Yes, let me take the liberty of writing a few words about myself and my family this time :)

I'm a daddy now.



Life has changed permanently for me from 9th May 2009 19:33 hrs GMT when I saw my little little baby girl arriving in this big big world...

I don't know how to describe the feeling of seeing your offspring for the first time, the pleasure of taking her into your arms and the rejoice of hearing her cry out for the first time...She is immediately a part of my heart... Its seventh-heaven.

They say we pass through very few milestones in your life before the finale. As a kid or as an adolescent I remember the date when I first bunked class to watch Rangeela, first day in College, my first bike and car, the day I proposed to my first love, first time I flew in an aircraft and even more trivial things like that. But the first big day in our life would probably be the wedding day, but there is nothing as significant as the day you see the face of your first child.

Nothing in life can give you more pleasure...I wouldn't be more exuberant if I had hit the Euromillions jackpot that day, honestly.

Especially when you consider how you're blessed with a healthy child. Nothing more matters.

Its a great joy to pass through this developmental crisis and I'm taking some good hard lessons to graduate from a man to a daddy, and tell you what, its not easy. I'm not sure when I'll get the cert but if at all, this is one test I want to come out with flying colours.

You know I'm all ears now, from matured and experienced parents of how to rear my child. I've been told to learn to be cruel to be kind, that you cannot spoil a child with love, to learn to say no and about what to give and what not to. I'm taking it all, you never know which advice would come in handy and when.



This is a time when you start looking at yourself and the world through a different angle. My life revolved around the job, my wife and the computer, but all of a sudden the fulcrum has changed. Now the days and nights move around my piece of moon and its amazing how naturally and effortlessly she has managed to get hold of the pivot.

How can I speak about my daughter and keep mum about the woman who did all the sacrifices? How can I ever forget my sweetheart wife who refused to take Domperidone for those distressing sickness, Gaviscon for the heartburn and even Paracetamol for the splitting headaches for the fear of her treasure inside her. Being a medical professional herself, I was surprised by her total reluctance to take in the chemicals which even the docs gave green signal to.

And I'm not talking about the difficulties in changing a nappy or sponging the li'l one, its laughable if you compare with what my better half went through. Daddy talks more but mother knows best!

So I'm all elated to be in the daddy's club, at the same time I miss my father, terrible, who departed a bit too early. I know his blessings will be with his grand-daughter but that's the way life is. You control most parts of your life, but there are instances where you're nothing but a helpless spectator.


Special thanks to Mathew for encouraging me to put this up. And all of a sudden, an old movie I saw, Father of the Bride has sprung up as my all time favs!

Dedicating this post to my father who left this world on 24th April 2008.