At Thiruvananthapuram.

The drive, as usual, was exhilarating and I'd gone on a slight detour from the main track, to pick up my mom and my younger sister. In the process, I was privileged to see the school in which the latter teaches.

During my half - an - hour's stay in the school, what struck me most was the ambiance prevalent within the compound. The buildings encasing the offices, the staff rooms and the class rooms were aesthetically built to merge with the undulating, hilly terrain and were adequately complemented by the tall green Asokas and quite a few fruit bearing trees bearing thick foliage! The Principal, the Headmistress and a few of the teachers with whom I was able to interact with, exuded dedication and had the good upbringing of the children uppermost in their minds. As we drove out of the majestic school compound, I said a silent prayer for the school's glorious future and was particularly happy that my sister was a much liked member of the dedicated team of staff members.

In the course of the day, I 'd also got the opportunity to meet with a wide cross section of people and hear their views on a variety of issues. Many of them remembered the efforts of my grandfather and a few, even narrated incidents and their experiences with him that were 'game changers' in their lives! There was this anecdote that highlights his personality and I reproduce it below.

He had gone to Kochi in connection with the review of the performance of certain libraries and give them their annual grant. By the time, he'd finished his work he'd missed the last train. Since he did not wish to use public money on hotel charges for himself, he prevailed upon his assistant who was accompanying him on tour, to spend the night on the small mound of sand kept for construction purposes in front of the railway station!      

Another wasted day.

A 24 hour nationwide strike called by the joint co-ordination council of 11 trade unions from midnight of 27/28 Feb had paralysed the state, nay country. The trade unions, cutting across party affiliations, had taken this step to highlight the following:-

      (a) Sidelining of workers by governments, from time to time, with regard to their welfare.
      (b) Lack of effective steps to contain price rise.
      (c) Disinvestment of public sector companies to be stopped.
      (d) Privatisation of services that could lead to job loss.

It was yet another day of agony for the common man. People were stranded at airports, railway stations and bus stations! Was enraged to see a few of the smiling trade union leaders come on television, on prime time news, in the course of the day claiming success of their call for the strike. Successful in causing undue hardship for their brethren? What does one do to these spoilsports? And what are they attributing their success to?

       (a) Over million productive man hours gone down the drain?
       (b) No production of any sort which would have fetched crores of rupees in return?
       (c) Losses due to damage to public property?
       (d) Causing untold pain and suffering to their fellow citizens?

Are they friends of the nation or otherwise? Always wonder as to why we do not have the Japanese - they love their motherland - culture? An oft repeated story of the workers of a shoe company making one shoe out of a pair to protest against their management's policy - no loss of man hours, no loss of productivity and above all, no loss or damage to public property!

And exploitation took another unprecedented leap in malluland, in terms of novelty! Some of the guys who'd given the call for the strike were using their vehicles to ferry stranded passengers at exhorbitant rates!!

Yes, this happens only in India!!!

Familiar reactions........

Too many things have been happening today and I'm glad that I'm able to follow each of them and I'm gonna give my reactions without being asked for......

But what makes them interesting is that they're breaking the predictability tag - I think so! - and so here I go.


1. Oscars 2012.

It's always a wonderful experience to watch the Annual Academy Awards as the event has become a much haloed one and the style that's projected, year after year, has a uniqueness about it. Members of the silver tinsel, the world over, covet an Oscar award and would go any length to achieve it.

I make it a point to watch the awards ceremony on the television, though the transmission timings clash with my Monday morning chores! It's simply because of the professionalism and the excellent packaging that go to make it an awesome presentation. This year too was no exception.
      (a) Was very happy that Meryl Streep had picked up the award for the best actress for her role as
            Margaret Thatcher in 'The Iron Lady'. She continues to be a favourite of mine and mind you, has
            retained her elegance and grace even at 62 yrs.
      (b) For a black and white, silent movie like 'The Artist' to win the award for the best movie shows as to
            how a strong story line coupled with taut narration makes the observer riveted to the film!
      (c) And I thought it most appropriate that the Iranian film 'A Separation' won the award for the best
           foreign film as the film depicts the Iranian people with emotions like you and me, unlike what they're
           being portrayed these days thanks to the warped thinking of their political leaders.
      (d) Kudos to the Pakistani film 'Saving Face' for having won the award for the best documentary. It       talks about a non resident Pakistani Plastic Surgeon, in London, returning to his roots to help acid burns' victims.



2. India's rebuff.

To China's objection of the Indian Defence Minister's visit to Arunachal Pradesh, there has been an instantaneous retort from the government and with Mr. Antony's reply we've told the Chinese that we're no more going to take their shenanigans lying down! It's my hope that we maintain this 'no nonsense' attitude with the dragon country!!


3. Are we bad losers?

We seem to be! Having displayed miserable performances in the tri - nation cricket series, currently on in Australia, we've started whining about bad umpiring decisions. Why does the team play awfully to get into 'close quarter situations' with the umpires? By doing so, you're undermining the efforts of the winning team.

And that's definitely not gentlemanly, simply not cricket!!  

A drill gone awry!

I'm really shocked at the way a 24 year old lady lost her life, at Bangalore, during a fire alarm drill last week. What makes the matter worse is the apathy shown by those concerned who doesn't seem to want to learn from the catastrophe!

Recapitulating the incident, the unfortunate young lady who'd volunteered for the tricky escape from the higher floor was given a rope by the fire servicemen to use for traversing down and no sooner had she started slithering down, the rope had snapped plunging the poor thing into that fatal fall. Two questions immediately spring to one's mind:-

      (a) Why wasn't the safety net in place to break the fall in case of such an eventuality?
      (b) Was the rope and all other material used for the exercise checked adequately for their worthiness
            prior to the commencement of the exercise?

The guilty needs to be brought to book without fail because this is an example of professional slackness and blunder.


Tailpiece.

There's a general tendency to take exercises lightly and not give them the seriousness that they deserve. They're executed and done just to fill up the registers and clear subsequent inspections! To highlight my statement, here's an announcement that I'd heard a 'Fire Officer' making quite a while back and I quote, "Surprise fire fighting exercise will be carried out at 1630 hrs next Saturday".

Wonder who was being surprised in this instance?

The Sicilian - nay, Italian rhapsody!

Over the last fortnight or so, the media in Kerala - both print and visual - has been actively covering the goings on in connection with the killing of two malayalee fishermen, off the coast of Kochi, by armed marines of an Italian vessel.

The story goes something like this. An Italian merchantman, Enrica Lexie, was passing through our seas, about 23 nautical miles off the coast of Kerala when it observed a fishing vessel in its vicinity. Since the vessel was passing through the Gulf of Aden, where there have been very many cases of midsea piracy in the past few years, she had a posse of armed marine guards on board to thwart possible attacks from pirates. Mistaking the unsuspecting mallu fishermen in their bright lungis and colourful vests to be pirates, the Italian marines emptied their weapons killing two of them instantly.

Thanks to some quick and deft moves of the Indian Navy, the Indian Coast Guard, the Customs and the Kerala police, the vessel has been brought alongside the Ernakulam Tanker wharf for investigation and legal proceedings at the court of the Judicial First Class Magistrate. Representatives of the Italian government and its consulate, in our country, have also come in to assist in the legal proceedings closely monitored by the Kerala High Court.

 The question that would nag any seasoned mariner would be as to whether the ship had used force commensurate to that of its supposed adversary. Or was it an over reaction? And going even further, was it a case of pure trigger happy gunmen having a go?

It'd be interesting to note as to how the 'rhapsody' will play out eventually!  

Where - o - where's he?

Every day, as I go from my home to the office and back, he's been a regular sight at the railway level cross that falls enroute. Today, much to my surprise, I've realised that he's been missing  and that too, for the past few days.

I must sheepishly admit that I do not know his name. He's fairly tall (over 51/2 ft, as I reckon) with a slight hint of a stoop due to advancing age but looks fairly healthy with a hint of a smile all the time and a faraway, wistful look and is dark complexioned. He moves from one vehicle to the other - waiting for the level cross to open - asking for alms. He's never perturbed if someone were to shoo him away and mind you, he never approaches me when I'm in uniform but obliges me with an affable smile. So, on Saturdays, when I'm in civvies and driving my Cruze I hand over his share to enable him to have a satisfying meal (notwithstanding the fact that I advocate that we should not encourage begging and hence, must desist from giving alms!). What I find remarkable in him is that his pride is intact while he goes about his daily ritual or is it just a mask to cover his seething discontent, deep within, in having to demean himself in this manner? I would never know.

I find that I'm missing him thanks to the last one year of our quaint relationship. Wonder what has happened to him? Hope he's keeping well. And I have decided to know more about him when we meet next, of course, at the level cross!

God, please take care of him till then!!

And we aspire to be a 'superpower'!

In my reckoning, a superpower would ensure that all its people lead a decent life that derives benefit from the state of the art technology which ensures optimum use of resources. Consequently, having even a single citizen bereft of the essentials of life or being denied essential services like health care or financial assistance would be tantamount to blasphemy. In other words, the country must indeed be the proverbial 'land of milk and honey' where each and every citizen feels secure and wanted!

It's against this backdrop that the story of the travails of a newborn baby girl brings about anguish and revulsion. The place of occurrence is Guna in Madhya Pradesh. Earlier, the child's mother, who was going through birth pangs, had approached the local government hospital for delivery only to be thwarted by the staff under the pretext that there were no doctors available. They didn't even have the courtesy to provide her with an ambulance for transportation to any of the nearby hospitals for immediate medical management because of the simple and stark fact that she was very, very poor!

The poor lady, then, gave birth to baby 'Gudiya' out in the open, within the premises of the hospital. Exhausted by the ordeal, she was in a semi conscious state when a pig tried to drag away the child and in the process, the little one had sustained injuries. She was saved in time by an alert villager who happened to pass by at that point of time. The subsequent reactions from the concerned authorities are pathetic and disgusting.

This has come out in the open thanks to an alert media but what about the many that go unnoticed by the print or the visual media? This happens only in India!

And when numerous such unacceptable conditions exist, isn't our aspiring to be a superpower a big joke? I, as an Indian citizen, am ashamed!!