A quiet Sunday.

It was, indeed, a quiet Sunday. After weeks of hectic travel and meeting people, it was a day spent at home. On such occasions, listening to music becomes the core theme and so it was today too, the prime mover being the musical programme, 'Rangoli' on the national channel which covered a Guru Dutt special. All the numbers covered in it were my favourites and that, set the trend.

Talking to mom is mandatory on all Sunday mornings and today she's given me the task of getting her a new, framed photograph of her favourite deity, Guruvayoorappan. My sister and niece had also chipped in with their inputs and generally, things seem to be going fine out there.

Malayalam movies are getting to be interesting with daring themes being explored and quite a few of them by debutant film makers have been worth watching. A movie of this genre was '22, Female, Kottayam' that I'd missed watching at a cinema and was being aired on the television. The film gets its name from the details filled on the application form for a passport! The main protagonist, Tessa's transformation from a meek, back home type of a girl to the confident lady ready-to-take-on-the-bad-world around her, thanks to her sad experiences with the guy that she was in love and with men, in general, forms the backbone of the story. Reema Kallingal, the actor, has done a commendable job in etching out the contours of the character by her subdued acting.

And then, of course, it was the classy way in which the West Indians overpowered the Sri Lankans in the finals of the T20 World Cup finals that kept us glued to the set. The latter's loss, in front of a capacity home crowd, was stunning as was visible by the quiet that prevailed in the final overs!


Tailpiece.

And I must admit that I was batting for the Windies all the way!    

Temple renovation and a television programme.

The society that we live in and the way that we're brought up induce certain beliefs in us that are followed implicitly, without a question being raised even by the enlightened among us.

And are all the inmates of the country's jails actually guilty of the crimes attributed to them? I'm asking this query because our justice system is based on the noble thought that "let the guilty get the benefit of the doubt so that not even a single innocent is punished, ever".


1. Temple renovation.

     My father's family has inherited a 'Sree Krishna' temple in our village and it's a popular shrine. Over the years, it has been renovated many times over with the generous contributions from the people and the family, so much so that, today, the entire complex looks impressive.

     A couple of months back, there was a request from the priest that the 'sarpakkaavu' - the snake temple - required further streamlining, in that, the ground around the deity and the approaches required levelling and paving of tiles to prevent waterlogging during rains. We'd decided to foot the bill, in toto, and towards that end a sum of fourteen grand rupees was handed over to one of the trustees. But the irony was when a receipt for the amount as well as the insistence on a detail break up of the expenses at project completion was insisted upon, the guy felt offended, says my sister who'd handed over the money. His answer was typical, "these things are a matter of faith and trust and we've already given you our estimates. You've to believe us otherwise, you can take back your money".

How does one educate him that expenses of any kind of public money requires transparency in accounting? The temple trust will be prevailed upon to come around to our way of thinking!


2. Nammal Thammil.

     This is a programme on the Asianet channel on the lines of Barkha Dutt's 'We, the people' on NDTV and boasts of a large fan following. Tonight's episode showed the programme being conducted in one of the jails with an emphasis on women prisoners. The stories of the women prisoners, gave me the impression that they've been punished for crimes they'd not committed - at least, that was the message deduced from the teary narrations of those prisoners!

     The implication was that the cases were distorted at the investigation stage to help out the guilty, who're still at large and continue to live in the society as 'decent and reputed' people!

      Felt very disturbed at the end of it all. Was there even an iota of truth in those heart rending narrations? We need to introspect and provide a remedy! 

My pet hates at a cinema.

This evening, since my maman, who was with us for a couple of days, had expressed a desire to see a movie with us we'd gone for one.

As usual, by the time I'd parked my Chevy at a safe place, I'd missed out on about 20' of the movie. Not that anything was missed though! But at the cinema, it was the same old story!

The cellphones rang with an alarming frequency and a few guys did have the audacity to talk into them at unacceptably, high decibel levels and the conversational contents - frivolous that could have best been done elsewhere and definitely, that could have waited for the show to be over! A family, consisting of the middle aged father and mother along with their two children, sitting immediately behind us, were simply ill mannered, in that, they're creating havoc with their feet on our backrests. After suffering for a while, I'd to get up and tell them to cease their 'footwork' forthwith and probably, there must have been enough menace in my looks that they're chastised into a subdued existence thereafter.

Post interval, there was the inevitable 'chomp chomping' of the wafers and popcorn purchased from the counter. While I've no issue on the audience conquering their pangs of hunger by having snacks, the 'chomping' could be kept at an acceptable(?) decibel level with a wee bit of effort! But what they don't realise is the mammoth problem resultant of such indulgences - plenty of cockroaches and rodents moving freely in the auditorium.

And the undue hurry during the exit, on the part of a few, makes one wonder as to what their next agenda was all about, especially, after the second show!  


Tailpiece.

But all said and done - my pet hates notwithstanding - I enjoy watching movies at the cinema and especially, at a late night show!

Seen here, heard there.........

1. Toilets - a must in all schools.

The Kerala government has decided that all the schools in the state must have toilets, in the premises, for the students. Thankfully, wisdom has dawned at this late stage and it's one's fond hope that the drive doesn't lose steam in the coming days after the initial brouhaha. What must be seriously asked is as to how these schools were established, in the first place, without insisting upon this primary requirement?

2. The attack in London.

Lt Gen(Retd) KS Brar was attacked by unknown persons - apologists of the redundant Khalistan movement, in all probability - in London and was left wounded. Thankfully, the old man has come out of it without serious damages. Intelligence agencies are trying to ascertain as to whether it's a precursor to the revival of terrorism in Punjab. 

But what needs to be stopped forthwith is the construction of a three floor structure adjacent to the Akal Takht, in the Golden Temple, termed 'shaheed ganj' attempting to glorify Jarnail Singh Bhindranwale and his cohorts. If not, it will be a grave injustice to many of the soldiers(who fought against all odds with heavy constraints imposed upon them on the use of weapons) and civilians(used as human shields by the inhuman and unscrupulous terrorists) who lost their lives in Operation Bluestar of Jun '84 while restoring the sanctity of the ultimate temple of worship of the sikhs.

3. India out of the T20 World Cup.

India has been rendered out of the reckoning in the ongoing T20 World Cup matches in Sri Lanka eventhough it had thrashed Pakistan in its last league match. I'd attribute it to Dame Luck not being on our side. Regarding the ultimate winner of the cup, may the best team win!

And for the millions of crazy fans of the game in our country, they do not have to crowd around television sets anymore and can work to raise productivity instead!

My fellow travellers.

I'd boarded the early morning Intercity Express to Thiruvananthapuram on work. I'd boarded the train in the nick of time as it had started moving just after I'd boarded. So much about my time management!

I was curious to see the site of the recent accident at the Aroor level cross but the place has been spruced up with the point being manned and the newly inducted, young man was smartly waving his green flag. Ironically, it required a gruesome accident (in which five car borne passengers - including a two year old child - had perished, just a fortnight back) to bring about this idealistic state.

Meanwhile, Asokan (I could get his name from the calls that he made!), a railway catering contractor, was continuously on his cellphone issuing instructions to his minions. And around a half past seven, my breakfast of idlis, vada and sambar on order, that had fetched up, turned out to be cold and insipid. Seeing the miserable stuff, he took it upon himself to get me a better treat in lieu! Damn sweet of him. He was going to the city to meet up with the railway's divisional railway manager to renew his contract.

There was this lady, Chandrakanta(again, the name was gleaned from her high-decibel conversations), a deputy director in the state's education department who'd replicated her office into our space in the train. A meek looking, bespectacled assistant - Shankar - who said 'yes' to everything she said as she browsed through her mail off the lap top, was in attendance! She did give the impression that if she stopped working, her office would come to a standstill. She's going to the capital to attend a very important meeting called by the secretary of education! I also happened to hear her assistant's not so charitable opinion about Asokan that he conveyed to his boss!!

Then there was a father - son duo, on the side seats, immaculately turned out but who remained fairly silent except for snatches of conversation in hushed undertones, occasionally among themselves and generally gave the impression that they were not meant to be there! They'd an appointment with a minister on arrival.

There were two other gentlemen, who're asleep throughout the journey giving the impression that train travel had a sleep inducing effect on them and one of them was snoring at fairly high decibels.

And I browsed through Louis L'Amour's 'Kilrone' for the nth time.


Tailpiece.

The train was bang on time for a change. The return journey, by the Jan Shatabdi was uneventful and it was also immaculately on time. Kudos to the Indian Railways!

And I've handed over the additional charge of Thiruvananthapuram to the new incumbent after 30 calender days!! 

Gandhi Jayanti.

On the 143rd birth anniversary of the mahatma, let's solemnly reaffirm our faith and allegiance to his ideals and his unflinching faith in the power of the 'truth'.

A white lie...or an act of escapism?

Boy meets girl......sparks fly at first sight......Cupid has found his mark......everything ends happily! This is truly 'filmi' but it does happen once a way, I'm sure!! At least, I can vouch for a few cases within my immediate family.

Boy meets girl......sparks fly at first sight......Cupid has found his mark......but there's a problem here. Both are from different faiths. The respective parents go through agony....feel bad about having been let down, especially when they'd brought up each of their children as friends and had deduced that there were no secrets between them. Since I'm close to the boy's family, my opinion and support were sought. Going through the entire sequence of events, there was no alternative but to bring the agonising parents to accept reality and work out a way to welcome their 'new' daughter-in-law because the young couple was already living together!

The boy's parents had gone to the youngsters' workplace last weekend and went through a simple marriage ceremony at one of the city's temples. And as a follow through, the parents were to meet this evening, at the girl's house, with your's truly accompanying them. I think my PJs helped, to a certain extent, in removing the initial awkwardness. And the two families got together to make their newfound relationship meaningful and take it forward for the sake of their children.

Parents, who truly loved their children and hats off, to the flexibility in their attitude!

As we're returning from the interaction, the boy's father had asked me for my opinion about the young lady. The girl definitely will not scorch the ramps of a fashion parade but then who am I, a lesser mortal, to sit in judgement of her physical appearance and heap further agony on the sad parents? My answer was measured, "She's okay. I'm sure that your son has found some sterling qualities in her which needs to be respected and accepted. They're quite comfortable as a couple and that's what we should be happy about".


Tailpiece.

We're served a delicious 'Malayalee' snack of idlis and sambar alongwith other delicacies. When I enquired of her father as to why he wasn't joining us, his "I've already finished my share of 15 idlis" gave me an impetus to bash on regardless!