What a day?

The day had begun on a good note with mom having recouped considerably from her condition last evening. Her intake of food, however, left much to be desired.

I'd quite a few things to do and had left home by 11. Much against my wishes I'd to leave my car as Lekha insisted that I take an auto rickshaw due to the vagaries of behaviour by people on the day when election results were being declared. The LDF has made headway and the BJP has scored impressive wins for the first time in Kerala, despite the fact that its alliance with the SNDP wasn't formalised to the extent that it would have liked.  

I'd returned after completing all the work and then began a feeling of weakness. It was a bad scene but I decided to do two things viz. avoid intake of food and take adequate rest. Things had gotten much better by evening!

        *                                   *                                     *

The One Rank One Pension for the defence forces has been notified by the government. The differences in perceptions will be known after the document has been thoroughly vetted by all concerned.

        *                                   *                                      *

KP Vinod of the LDF is the winner in our ward. He'd come with his core group to thank us for his success and his daughter offered us chocolates. Such acts will definitely give him support from everyone despite differing party ideologies. We wished him success in all his endeavour.

        *                                   *                                      *

Today was Santhan kochachhan's 4th remembrance day. How time has flown? We're also preparing ourselves for Diwali.......last year, the late Dharmettan was amidst us. I remember having thrust an active sparkler into his hands much to his consternation and his wife and daughter were quick to observe that it was for the first time that he'd done so because he's mortally scared of them.....and without our knowledge then, for the last time too!


Tailpiece.

A day that I'd like to forget because I was ungodly sick!

What's he trying to hide his face for?

1. MK Nazar, the alleged mastermind behind the savage attack on Prof. TJ Joseph, when his palm was chopped off for asking a question, in the examination question paper, about the Prophet in Jul '10, surrendered before the NIA court today. As he was being taken away by the police, he tried desperately a lot many avoiding tactics, like looking away from the camera and trying to cover his face with his hands etc.

Background.

2. He's been absconding for the past five years. He's the third accused in the case on the following counts:-
    (a) Deputed two other accused to prepare the sketch to the professor's house.
    (b) Provided weapons, explosives and mobile phones to the assailants.
    (c) Co-ordinated the attack and
    (d) Harboured several of the accused after the attack.

3. He has asked for bail on the grounds that he has been falsely implicated and the NIA has still not been able to prove his involvement.
 
4. I can never forget the smiling faces on the 13 convicted by the NIA Special Court, where 10 were awarded 8 years' imprisonment while the remaining got two years' imprisonment for helping them.

5. The questions that I'd like to ask Nazar are:-
    (a) If you're innocent why did you abscond after the crime?
    (b) If you're innocent why did you've to obscure your face while under police custody, all through
          today?

6. It's my firm opinion that the practice of taking the accused, with their faces covered, by the police should cease unless and until the case requires a future identification parade in the course of the investigation! Their mugshots in full view of the general public, through the media, should be their first bitter taste against their wrongdoing.


Tailpiece.

And why did the authors, the film fraternity, the social activists etc keep mum on the issue? Why're you so selective in giving back your awards? Or shorn of all the niceties, are you shamelessly showing off your political leanings?

     

Exercising my franchise and mom's sudden discomfort.

The day had begun with pouring rain and we'd decided earlier to go and cast our votes in the nearby polling booth, at the Little Flower College, by 7 AM. Accordingly, Lekha's assistant was requested to get the vehicle along with her so that she could accompany them, help my mom disembark/embark from the vehicle and cast her vote too. I'd walked across and cast my vote, the second time in my life, as they waited for their conveyance. Mom and Lekha had gone on my return and came back soon after, as the people in the queue were less and the queue was just beginning to lengthen.

I must admit that all the three of us were excited but mom had an extra edge and she was up around 5, though we'd agreed to get up at a half past 5. The voting arrangements at the booth were excellent and the electronic voting machine worked bang on. I'm saying this because a few of the machines of the booths in the neighbourhood had glitches and are going for repoll tomorrow.

It was a holiday and though the voting process continued all through the day, it was peaceful and quiet. As people have been saying, this is the semi-final, the final is coming in shortly....six months later, Kerala will go to polls for the Assembly elections!

The afternoon was quiet and in the evening, I'd taken mom out for her customary walk in the courtyard. We'd our usual conversation and after the walk, she'd settled on her favourite chair to recite her prayers. As I was going for my walk, I found that she was missing from her seat as she was lying on bed complaining of a heavy stomach and weakness. After my walk, I'd got a bottle of the ayurvedic 'chooran' which she used on such occasions and gave her a spoonful. Minutes later, she'd begun to throw up and it seemed to be never ending. Lekha and me were required to do quite a few rounds of cleaning and changing of mom's clothes. She refused dinner and had gone to sleep in the bedroom at the ground floor. To cater for her requirements at night, I too am preparing to sleep on a sofa in the adjacent sitting room.


Tailpiece.

Baby chechi and her daughter had called up to thank me, yet again, for the hospital vigil before they caught the night train, back to Thiruvananthapuram.

A quiet Wednesday.

It was a quiet Wednesday. The day had begun with an overcast sky but the rains came by, much later, around 9 o'clock at night only to nix my viewing of the prime time news. It was relentless though at a reduced intensity.

Lekha and I went for the movie, 'Ennu, ninte Moideen', for the morning show in the theatre at the western entrance of the temple. We'd wanted to see it but time and space did not permit us to see it thus far. This time, mom had egged us to go as she'd Lekha's assistant, Preetha, for company. It's based on the true story of Kaanchanamaala and Moideen whose union was paradoxically, opposed by the two families despite the fact that the patriarchs participated in each other's annual religious festivals with great fanfare to show their religious tolerance.

The film has scored in every department of film making, as I understand. Rains form the backdrop during the entire duration of the film, so much so, that I was expecting a pouring rain outside while exiting the cinema hall, on completion. However much I tried I couldn't attribute the real reason for the director's use of the rains while finely weaving a sensitive story. One also felt bad that the couple, despite their deep love for each other and having formed a resolve to live together as man and wife, come what may, couldn't do so as fate seemed to come in their way, time and again, in the form of her maternal uncle's(Mind you, the power of the maternal uncle was much, much greater than the dad's in old nair families!) death, followed by Moideen's dad's death and so on till his own watery end while trying to save a toppled country boat's passengers in which he, himself, was a fellow traveller, armed with their passports towards plans of settling abroad!

Truly an immortal love story! Prithviraj(Moideen), Parvathi Nair(Kaanchanamaala), Lena(Moideen's mom), Bala(Her brother) and Sai kumar(His dad) are good with the others ably supporting.

The protagonist in the reel story, incidentally, has a connection with our family. In the mid-80s, a still grieving Kaanchanamaala had joined as an active worker in the KANFED(Kerala Association for Non Formal Education) under the persuasion of my grandfather, PN Panicker. Whenever she used to come to Thiruvananthapuram to attend the organisation's sessions and anniversary meetings, Muthachan used to get her to our home and through those times spent, she'd befriended the huge joint family! I must confess that I didn't have the privilege to interact with her then as I was away on my professional pursuits. 


Tailpiece.

All of 74 years, she lives at Mukkam in Kozhikode and is financially not well off. Dilip, the Malayalam actor, has pitched in to build her a new dwelling place with a library and computer based education for the needy, which is her passion........

...........She was accepted as the daughter-in-law by Moideen's mom and brought into the huge Moideen mansion. But on the mother's death the relatives of Moideen had gone to court, pointing out the absence of any document connecting Kaanchanamaala to the family and hence, she lost the case. The relatives, however, had given her a small plot of land where she lives in quietude.

PS.
Must visit her and see as to what the Foundation can do to support her noble efforts.

The lull......finally.

Today was the last day of the campaigning for the panchayat/municipality/corporation polls for the remaining seven districts of the state. The last month had seen hectic activity from dawn to dusk with political parties outdoing each other in the manner of campaigning from around 8 AM to dusk. Numerous party temporary stop over offices, while campaigning, had mushroomed within a few hundred meters of each other with party men, along with their candidates, making fervent appeals for votes personally.

The usually silent streets and feeder roads were active till about 2100h almost everyday. The lyrical and colourful parodies gave the people the gist of the parties' manifestos without ambiguity - though I must hasten to add - that almost every party had similar targets, their order of priority being different. I shall miss the light, sound nay, the din of the campaigning but console myself to say that the lull is gonna be short lived because the elections for the state's Assembly is gonna take place, six months from now!

I was elevated to the ranks of a patriarch as the candidates came and touched my feet, seeking blessings. May the best man win, I muttered, while I wished each one of them success - a paradox, if you're to ask me but, then, life is full of paradoxes, huh!? ..........And do I look that old and wise, I wondered, prompting me to have a thorough look at myself on the mirror!

Tomorrow, the following seven districts are going to polls viz:-
Note. South to north, these are,

          * Pathanamthitta.
          * Alappuzha
          * Kottayam
          * Ernakulam
          * Thrissur
          * Palakkad and
          * Malappuram.

Kerala is gonna be the first state in the country to use the EVMs - electronic voting machines - for panchayat elections. The type of polling will differ from that of the municipality/corporation and the panchayat, the notable aspects being:-

           - While it will be a single vote/voter for the former, the latter will have three votes/voter viz.                   panchayat, block panchayat and district panchayat. The three votes will be registered on
              three separate voting machines kept for the purpose and if, for example, the voter doesn't
              subscribe to a particular candidate out of the three, he/she has the option to terminate the
              exercise of franchise by pressing the 'end' button!

           - There's no NOTA - none of the above - on the ballot.

           - There will be no photos of the candidates on the ballot.


Tailpiece.

My mom, Lekha and I are excited as we're gonna exercise our franchise, for the first time, after receiving our colour voter identity cards. We plan to go to the polling booth - at the Little Flower College, opposite 'The Quarterdeck' - at 7 itself. Our candidate?.....Ah, that's our secret!!

The father of Boolean Algebra @ 200.

1. George Boole was an English mathematician, educator, philosopher and logician.

2. Born 200 years ago, on this date, George Boole's algebraic approach to logic in which all values are reduced to either "true" or "false", is still used today. His pivotal advances in mathematics, logic and probability provided the essential groundwork for modern mathematics, micro electric engineering and computer science. He also devised a type of linguistic algebra, now known as Boolean Algebra, which incorporates the three most basic operations of "and", "or" and "not".

3. Fact file.

    * He was a self taught child prodigy.
    * He never finished school and had never attended university. He was forced to leave school
       after his father's shoe business collapsed.
    * He became a teacher. At 19, he established his own school at Lincoln. While being a teacher,
       he began to learn mathematics and took several years to master Calculus since he'd no tutor.
       He also taught himself French, German and Latin.
    * He married Mary Everest, the daughter of George Everest - after whom the world's highest
       mountain peak has been named - in 1850. They'd sired five children.

4. Boole died of pneumonia in 1864, at 49 years, after he walked two miles through cold, pouring rain and delivered a lecture wearing his wet clothes.

5. Continue to RIP, Mr. George Boole. You still influence the entire world with your creation!


Tailpiece.

Google celebrated George Boole's 200th birthday by dedicating an interactive doodle on its home page because his legacy of Boolean Algebra laid the foundation of the digital age.

A delightful hour!

I normally hook on to the programme, 'Director's Music' on Amritha TV every Sunday. It's an hour long programme from 2000h to 2100h that brings out the stories behind the songs, its protagonists especially from the Directors' angle and the intricacies of the song like its lyrics, its music with a brief about the playback singers, involved in the rendition. A truly complete entertainment programme!

This evening it was M Kunchacko, the proprietor of the famous 'Udaya Studios' perched beside the NH 47 at Alappuzha, who was being covered. He was a wholesome entertainer and had made 55 Malayalam films in his lifetime, most of which had gone on to be super hits! His 'Valluvanaadan films' covering the brave and heroic lives of Thacholi Othenan (Immortalised by the inimitable Sathyan), Unniyaarcha, Aaromalunni etc are magnum opuses that can never lose their charm despite the passage of time.

Today's episode covered the following songs, everyone of which continues to be my favourite:-

 (a) Kadalivaazha kayyilirunnu kaakka innu virunnu vilichu.....
       - from the movie, 'Umma'.
       - sung by Jikki.
 (b) Paattupaadi urakkaam njaan thaamarappoom paithale.....
       - from the movie, 'Sita'.
       - sung by P Susheela and it was her first effort with Kunchacko!
       - this was the lullaby my mom used to sing for me while rocking me in the cradle.
 (c) Annu ninne kandathil pinne.........
       - from the movie, 'Unniyaarcha'.
       - sung by AM Raja.
 (d) Periyaare, Periyaare parvatha nirayude panineere........
       - from the movie, 'Bhaarya'.
       - sung by Yesudas and P Susheela. This was also the first venture by the poet, 'Vayalar
         Rama Varma' in a Kunchacko movie!
 (e) Kaakka thampuraatti, karutha manavatti koodevide........
       - from the movie, 'Inapraavukal'.
       - sung by AM Raja. Actress Sarada's debut film in Malayalam films along with Sathyan.
         Her name was announced as 'Raahel' both in real and reel life!
 (f) Swarna thaamara ithalilurangum kanvathapovana kanyake........
       - from the movie, 'Sakunthala'.
       - sung by Yesudas.
       - the script for the movie was written by Lalithambika Antharjanam.
 (g) Priyathamaa, priyathamaa pranaya lekhanam engane ezhuthanam........
       - again from the movie, 'Sakunthala'.
       - sung by P Susheela.
 (h) Sankhupushpam kannezhuthumbol Sakunthale ninne ormavarum.......
       - yet again from the movie, 'Sakunthala'.
       - sung by Yesudas.
 (j) Nadikalil sundari Yamuna..........
       - still from the movie, 'Sakunthala'.
       - sung by Yesudas and B Vasantha.
 (k) Paalkaari, paalkari kaattiladine meychu nadakkum kasavuthattakkari.......
       - from the movie, 'Kasavuthattam'.
       - sung by Yesudas.
 (l) Indulekhe, indulekhe Indrasadassile nrithalole...........
       - from the movie, 'Thirichadi'.
       - sung by Yesudas and P Susheela.
 (m) Manjubhaashini, maniyara vediyil mayangi ozhukunnathethoru gaanam........
       - from the movie, 'Kodungallooramma'.
       - sung by Yesudas.
 (n) Yavansundari, nee enikkoru pavizha munthiri......
       - from the movie, 'Pearl View'.
       - sung by Yesudas and B Vasantha.
       - the camera was wielded for the first time by cinematographer, M Vincent in a Kunchacko
         movie.
 (p) Sakhaakkale munnottu.........
       - from the movie, 'Punnapra Vayalar'.
       - sung by Yesudas and chorus.


Tailpiece.

A blissful one hour!

PS.
Today's 'Keralapiravi' dinam. On the occasion, the documentary on Shri PN Panicker was screened
for a special audience at the Kerala House in New Delhi.