Appooppanthaadi - 48

A view from my apartment

Sitting in the 28th Floor apartment in Suzhou, I can hear a shrill screeching sound. Please, for the Heaven's sake, don't think that I am always sitting in my room. I am on job. I work 10 hours in a day for my company. My client is happy, my employer is happier and my readers are the happiest. 


There is no place for doubt in anyone's mind please. But still, my dear friend Anathakrishnan has serious doubts about what I am upto. Everytime after reading my essays, he calls me from Doha. Though he compliments me for the essay, he asks me without asking, if I have no other job here. He strongly believes that I am enjoying paid holidays whereever I go!!



I was interrupted here. An employee of the Chinees vendor, while discussing about various matters, suddenly opened a link on the internet. The link has opened a number of photos about our River Ganga. It was not all about the holiness of the river. A fully decomposed human body floating in the river, a skull on the bank, another corpse somewhere else. People taking bath elsewhere. Some others drinking water from the holy river. 

Click the link to see more about this:
http://www.chinasmack.com/2010/pictures/filthy-india-photos-chinese-netizen-reactions.html



I am not sure if these photographs were really shot from Ganga. But, this is how, our country is portrayed here in China. An average Chinese is well informed about India. They can talk about the child marriages, religious fanatism, dirty habits and so on. Above all, they have clear information about Kashmir issue. They believe that Kasmir is a part of Pakistan and India is occuppying it forcefully. Perceptions are deep rooted, especially when they are mostly exposed to the government controlled media. 


They will never know what RTI and NREGP are. They cannot even imgaine such things happening in their country.  These are the revolutionay schemes our welfare governments do for us.  Even the most advanced countries in the world do not have a ground braking rule like RTI. We must be proud of such rules in our country.


 Let me come back to the shrill noice. The sound has a rythem in it. It starts from one end and then spreads like a fire to the other end. Suddenly it stops. Though it is no music to our ears, it is definitely nature's expression of gladness. We must enjoy it, because now a days, nature shows up its happiness very rarely. Rather, we should say, we do not allow the nature to do it

This is the season, the cicadas occuppy every tree in China. They are the source of this shrill noise. Wherever trees are there, from there we can hear this sound. In China, there is no dearth of greenery and hence the sound is present everywehre. 


 Cicada is the familiar "cheeveedu" in malayalam. These insects are present in our country too. They too make noise, but at a much lower pitch. Its sound is audible in the night in our country. Here, the sound is not heard after the nightfall


I heard this sound the most when I visited Nantong town recently. Wherever I went in the town, from both sides of the roads, there was non stop noise. Still in big cities like Shanghai or Beijing, this sound is hard to listen. The major reason, perhaps, is over urbanisation.

the greenery inside the Century Park

I must say, there are exceptions to this, like the Century Park in Shanghai. The sound there was like a wave. It was similar to the ones created by the football fans while they watch matches in stadiums. It starts at one end and like a wave, it reaches the other end. Here too, the sound started from one end and gradually progressed to the other end. Suddennly it is stopped as if someone has switched it off. After a brief lull, it starts all of a sudden. It was quiet an  interesting experience.

Jinji Lake in night

There are beautiful parks in Suzhou too. Like the Century Park, Suzhou too has a number of parks. Suzhou Industrial Park is a part of Suzhou city, one of the most beautiful places in China. The Jinji Lake is breathtaking and we shall never miss the night view of the lake. 


Click the link to see more photos of Jinji Lake :https://picasaweb.google.com/ppnatesan/JinjiLake?authkey=Gv1sRgCKnsw9-749fRQA&feat=email
 

It is just 100KM away from Shanghai. We can reach here by train that takes 40 yuans and just 20 minutes from Shanghai Railway Station. There is a music fountain show on the lake on every Friday and Saturday at 8pm. The jaw dropping show is hard to miss. It is an enchanting blend of fire works, water, light fire and music. 

Have a look at it on youtube : http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P36WpsCDFOw

 I have been walking in one of the parks in Suzhou recently. Like in any other park , this park also has a lot of trees. The cicadas were producing its usual sound here too. I was enjoying the sound while walking in the park. The parks are interesting places in China. 


On one end of this park  there was a group of women making steps to the tune of some music. The group included from young women to the ones as old as 60 or 70 years. They are all trained to do this as a part of physical exercise.  There are a number of devices to do simple exercises installed on another corner of the park. People of any age group can do exercises in these  device. The heartening thing is that women are more involved in exercises in China.

On the other end, there were another group of people dancing to the tune of some music. The music sounded the same as what the other group was playing to do exercise. Here, this group had men and women. Dancing was in doubles. It can be a woman and a man or two women together dancing. They dance not only for entertainment but also for physical exercises. The interesting thing in all these scenes is that people of all age groups participate in this.  

Watch the video on the exercise in open places :
http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=endscreen&NR=1&v=a8dxYPJ_8CA


Just a few meters away, tiny tots wearing scating shoes were seen moving very fast on a platform in front of the shopping complex near the park. Many kids were also seen moving so adeptly on scating boards.

Believe me, none of these scenes changed my mind. I was never tempted to try any of the devices placed in the park. I never felt like joining a beautiful woman to dance. I was more concerened about preserving my little but elegant tummy. As I said earlier,  tummy is the symbol is musculanity. I shall not do anything that undermines my manliness!

As I was walking out of the park, I saw a Ford car being taken out from the parking space on the side of the road. The driver was taking it backward to take a turn. He did not notice an on- coming Audi car. The reverse moving car hit the audi car on the rear with a thud. Though the collision was not so small, there were not much damages to both the cars. There were minor dents or to be more precise, some scratches on both the cars.


 Surprisingly, both the drivers stopped  the car as it is and got down from them. They did not start abusing each other. There were no fisticuffs. One of them took his phone and called police. The story will end with the police appearing in the scene and dispose of the matter based on the situatioal evidances and the brainwaves produced in their skull at that time. I did not wait to see the conclusion anyway. 

Salute...

Michael Jakson's casket costed USD 25000. It was a 14 carat gold plated bronze coffin that was used for burying him. The King of Pop rests in peace in a golden casket. Perhaps it is a fitting tribute to the King who gifted many an electrifying moment through his songs and dances on stage. Michael Jackson's Moon Walk is the most famous dance no one could imitate as perfectly as he did so far.

I am not a follower of pop music nor a fan of Jackson. Still I respect his talent. I felt so sad when I heard the news about his sudden demise, neverthless he was accused of child abuse and drug abuse.

Now, let us talk about aother lesser mortal. She may not be world famous. She has not "electrified" millions of people but certanily helped a few thousands of poor people in her humble ways. Her name is Captain Lakshmi Saghal. She deserves a salute from all patriotic citizens of India.

"The 97-year-old revolutionary turned social activist served the country all her life. Even after death, as per her will, her eyes and body were donated to medical college. The eyes will give vision to visually challenged and the body will be used for medical studies."

To read more about her, click the link : 

http://articles.timesofindia.indiatimes.com/2012-07-23/india/32803358_1_rani-of-jhansi-regiment-cpm-leader-social-worker

This summerises about the greatness of a person. She never opted for a golden casket. She even did not opt for a cremation of her body. The body goes to a medical college for the students to study. Only noble souls can do it. Let us salute the spirit and try to emulate at least bits and pieces of what she did. (I cannot follow her foot steps because I am a typical materialist). She was given an emotional farewell by her followers by shouting "lal salam". I too give her a lal salam. A true communist needs to be like her. I only wish our country is enriched by the presence of such good communits....

Now, let us look  at another personality. The first Indian who got a gold medal in individual item in an olympics. Abhinav Bindra won a gold medal in Beijing Olympics in shooting. In the history of our country, this is a first. He made 1billion+ people proud. But even after that epoch making achievement, Abhinav was just smiling. A very composed response indeed.

Read more by clicking the link : 

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Abhinav_Bindra

In sharp contrast, look at the cricketers and footballers. If they take a wicket -even of a tail ender- or score a goal merely due to his presense at the right time for an excellent pass to connect, they express their happiness in a very exaggerated manner. All these expressions are surely disproportionate with the 'achievement' they made. They are certainly concious that hundreds of cameras are focussing on them and millions are watching them. This is the main reason for these theatrics.

Cristiano Ronaldo is the most prominent in  enacting such dirty dramas. He even stands in front of the camera and shows some actions to express his happiness after scoring a goal. This is perhaps the most obnoxious act I have ever seen. In the recent Euro Cup, he scored 3 goals and the celebration was 300 times inflated. In the last, he could not even take the spot kick and take his team to semi final. I believe a footballer is the finest creation of the God, because he creats a symphony with his feet. But, Ronaldo is a footballer whom I hate. Despite his superstardom, he behaves like an ordinary trickster most of the time on the field. 

The all revealing smile by Abhinav Bindra is the finest example to emulate. One shall not be over excited in happiness. Perhaps he knows more than anyone, that nothing is permenant....


 "He whose mind is untroubled by sorrows, and for pleasures he has no longings, beyond passion, and fear and anger, he is the sage of unwavering mind. 

Who everywhere is free from all ties, who neither rejoices nor sorrows if fortune is good or is ill, his is a serene wisdom." (Bhagavad Gita)

Andaman Islands -1

It was like a pigrimage. Ever since I saw the pictures of my Chennai friends' visit to Andaman in the year 2000, a desire has sprouted in my mind. I must one day visit the place. Honestly, even in 2000, I could not dream of flying. Making family vacation trips was still far away from my reach. 


The desire has grown bigger by the time I came out of the cinema hall after seeing the movie Kalapani. I could not further stop making a trip to Andaman. I only wanted to see the Cellular Jail in Port Blair. This jail was coomonly known as kalapani during the Brishers ruled us. Of course, this is a place one should visit, if he/she cares for the freedom fighters of our country. This is also the place for ones who dream of a military rule in our country. There were hundreds of people who laid down their lives to secure freedom for us. It is this freedom, they want to hand over to the military in a platter!!

On 23.05.2010, we boarded the Kingfisher flight to Port Blair in the morning from Chennai. Then it was only KF and AirIndia who were operating the flights from Chennai and Kolkatta. The flight time was nearly two hours. Now that KF is in trouble, it seems Jet is operating flights to Port Blair. There are ship services also from Chennai and Kolkatta. It may take 3 days to reach Port Blair by sea. There are so many people traveling up and down Chennai and Kolkotta by sea. They are mainly traveling for business purposes or visitng their relatives in the main land. 

It was the first flight for my kid. Needless to say that he was excited beyond words. But, when the plane started swaying in the turbulant spots, he was really frightened. 


The flight landed at Port Blair airport at 8 in the morning.
 From the window of the aircraft, we could see the hills and greenery all over. Exqusite was the word I have never used to term a place before. I have reserved it for Andamans. Let me use it now. Port Blair has a single 
runway airport. 


After alighting from the plane, we just walked down to the exit. We can walk down to exit at Kochi airport too. Those who got down from the ariplane, started hanging around and taking pictures at the back drop of the aircraft. Securitymen had tough time sending away all the passengers to the exit gate. 


Surprisingly, this tiny airport had a different name. The airport is named after the great freedom fighter Veer Sarvarkar. It was painful to see that why this airport too was not named after a person from the Nehru family! Sarvakar was the most prominant among the prisoners in the Cellular jail.


As we walked out of the airport, like in any other city in our country, there were a number of people waiting to 'receive' us. They tagged on us, offering hotel rooms, taxis, auto rikshaws and so on. All speak Hindi. The official language in  Andaman is Hindi. 


Staying in Port Blair does not look to be expensive. If we go by the people at the airport, rooms are available even for Rs350/-. Of course, it will not be difficult to get a decent room at around Rs 1000/- 


The inhabitants of the present day Andaman Islands is the expacts from the main land. Most of them are the decendants of the exiled freedom fighters and the ones who came to 'torture' them on behalf their masters from England. So, it is a mini India that is living in Andaman Islands. Nicobar is still occuppied by the native advasis. Entrance to tourists and outsiders is restricted to save the identity of the natural inhabitants there.



We had a taxi waiting at the airport, thanks to our friend Ratisbhai. The taxi took us to the PWD guest house.  It was another helping hand extended by Bhai. The guest house is for the visiting government employees from different part of the country for official and tour purposes. He managed one room for us. The daily rent was just Rs 100/- and food was served in the canteen at a price. 



Immediately after checking in, we wasted no time. The mission needs to be accomplished. The mind was brimming with excitement.  With all its thrills of a dream come true, we dashed off the Cellular Jail. 

The Technical Committees

 World's best brains are ever included in many of the technical committees of big and reputed organisations. Technical committees are an essential part of any organisation to grow and beat the competition in the market. Technical Committees form Standards and Specifications of every products in the world. For everything from organising an event to manage economy of a nation or a company or a home, techincal committees are essential.



I know so many bright brains. So many of them were sitting by my side in the same class room when we studied engineering. But, sadly, all those best brains are not interested in lending their brains for technical development. They are steeped in reaserches about how to make big monies.

There was a Technical Committee in the dark ages of history. It was a three member Central Committee in the government of Soviet Union's Joseph Stalin. It was a high power group whose job was to identify and eliminate any kind of dissidence againt Stalin's regime in USSR. They did their duty in right earnest. Thousands were killed that included intelluctuals, activists and anyone who was believed to be anti government. Whenever opponents were killed, the deaths were picturised as a suicide or an accident or a natural death. For countries like USSR which was a union of a number of independent republics (soviets) forcefully joined together, nipping dissidence in the bud itself was very important.

Read more here : http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/NKVD

USSR is gone long ago. The world has moved away from the dark ages of Stalinism. Tecnical Committees started solely concentrating on improving the quality of life. The human kind has entered the 21st century with new hopes of better life. The science world has almost reached the God's Particles. China has sent a missile to orbit and destroyed a spy satellite with clinical precision in the not so far past. USA had sent a missile to destroy a drifting spacecraft that lost control on its way back to earth. Sunita Williams blasted off to space from a Ukrine Lauching Station. Indian Scientists supported by committed administration reported zero Polio case in the country last year. It is a remarkable achievement. Scientists all over the world are working day in and out to to reach out to new heights in technologies. People all over the world are looking up to the 4th generation gadgets now.

But still, there is a society in the southern part of our country who missed the bus. There, people are more worried about their idiologies, faith, caste, religion and Gods than their own life. They can go hungry for days together, but their Gods shall  not be displeased. They are ready to kill and die to safe guard their idiologies. Many of these so called idiologies and faiths are outdated and only fit to exist in stone ages, alas! They can never even imagine someone insult their Gods. The all powerfull Gods are, unfortunately, need protection from their believers in the God's Own Country. The saddest part is that people have lost faith in God's powers and abilities!!!



Religions and castes formed powerful Political and Human Rights Organisations to protect their interests. Their leaders started preaching their followers to love only people of their group. They did not stop there. They wanted the followers to kill and die for their faith and ideologies. The air they breath, water they drink and the clolour of dress they wear are all communalised, politicised or cummunally politicised. 

The latest incident of this frightening trend in the most "advanced" part of the country was the brutal murder of a political leader by another Political party. There were 51 stab injuries on his face itself. Imagine the horror. I do not want to show that image here, but that terrifying image is available on the internet. Just type T.P. Chandrasekharan and search. 

Closely on the heals of this incident, one of the leaders of the killer Party reaveled another shocking news. His party used to prepare lists of the people who need to be killed. They execute this list in different forms. If we have to believe his words, his party kills people by shooting, beating, stabbing or any other method the Party decides according to the excigencies. Whatever be the truth behind these utterences, there are so many disturbings things happeneing in this tiny part of the world. Stalin's Technical Committee is not gone for ever. It has just shifted its place to this Mental Asylum

If you happen to see a Malayalam news paper, please do not read it. You will be shaken too badly. Your mood will be spoilt for the day. The front sheet will only have news about murders, sex rackets and communal agendas. Two days back an activist of a Student wing of a political party has been stabbed to death by another gang of students in front of a college. Lessons of hatred, death and distruction are imparted on the impressionable minds from the early stages itself. 


There are suicide squades maintained by many plotical and religious organisations here. There are specialised killers in the parties. In most of the killings, the specialised killers are protected by the political parties and religious leaders. They prepare a list of loyal workers of their outfit and hand over to the police. The loyal police 'arrest' them and in all probability the procecution fails to proove the charges against the 'accused'. This is not a fiction. It is for real. This is happening in this 100% literate state of India for the past several decades.  


There are not even a single month in any year that passes off without seeing a minimum of 2 bandhs. Life comes to total halt on these days. Not even a single vehicle runs on the road. Not even a single restaurant or a pan shop opens. People as a whole celebrate a Bandh. Tourists are caught unawares.  They may have to spend their day on the bus or railway station platforms along with children. So, if anyone has any plans to visit the God's Own Country, remember, even Gods cannot take care of you there. If  you still want to go there, I have to only say - fools rush to where angels fear to tread....

Please note this too. If you happen to be in China or Europe, just ask anyone what his/her religion is. In all probability the answer will be a strange blink. They may even wonder, what this religion means. Perhaps this is the secret of their civilized and peaceful life.  Look around. World's most miserable places are where religions and Gods rule the roost.

Appooppanthaadi -47

He is lucky. He has a girl child. I have two boys. I have to really worry about it. This was what one of the employees told about another when we were discussing about the social issues in China. As we all know, China has a strict one child regime. Still, it is possible to have two children, as per the law, if the prospective parents are the single children of their parents. Using this provision in the rule, this man went for two children, but 'unfortunately' for him, both the children are boys 


( This never means that girls are not discriminated against in this part of the world. It is impossible to believe that female feoticides are not taking place here. In one of the documentaries in the government controlled CCTV's English channel, they say the post marital harassments of women in China are on the increase. CCTV is funny, according to the locals. They even edit the weather report. If the temperature is so high, they don't even let it know to the public, for fear that people start restless and it may phychologically affect the effiency!)

We can hardly find a girl or a young woman without coloured hair. The natural colour of hair in China is as black as ours. Girls dye it using different hues. They spend a lot on dying hair. (But take heart, they make up this expense in their clothes!) She sits in the adjacent chair in which a man sits to do her hair in a saloon. There are only a few boys and young men who colour their hair. Perhaps boys are in no mood to enjoy such luxuries here. They have a lot to worry about....

In China, having a boy child is a real cause for worry in the present situation. Sky rocketing real estate prices, rising unemployment problems and increasing living costs make a man's life miserable. As the boy attains adolecense, he has to look for a girl friend first. Then, he has to maintain her and ensure that she never loses interest in him. Everything is a struggle till it reaches the logical conclusion, and that conclusion is only possible when so many blanks are filled up. He has to own a house at first. Then preferably a car. He must definitely have a source of income. In short, he must be a Mr Perfect before he ties the knot.

The apartment in which our company guest house is located is a sub-urban area, around 30 kilometers away from the Beijing airport. This single bedroom apartment itself cost us a rent of around 4000 yuans per month. They provide fully furnished houses that include sofa sets, television, refrigerator, washing machine, air conditioners in all rooms, micro wave oven, water heater, room heater and so on. People who vacate a house here need not hire a big truck to transport their belongings like we do in our country. Of course, the rent we cough up here is too high to afford by a middle class family.

The picture on the right side is one of the big housing complexes in Beijing. There are hundreds of such huge apartments all over the city. These are not definitely like those dreaded "party villages" of Kannoor in Kerala.     Those god forsaken villages of Kerala are no way comparable to these 'party villages' right inside the bastion of communism. These are the abodes of rich and ultra rich people vallowing in every kind of material comforts. 

So many latest model sedans- from Land Rover to Audi to BMW to anything you name are parked all over. There are huge parking space in every housing colonies. These parking lots are invariably constructed underground of the tall buildings. At the same time, we can spot so many poor people roaming around and searching for empty water and beer bottles and other wastages in the trash cans placed on the walkways.

By the way, I forgot to mention one important thing. No where in China, we can see party flags fluttering in the road junctions, traffic islands or on the road dividers. No kind of advertisements, posters and bannrs of political events or agitations can never be spotted anywhere in public places. Anyway, since there will not be any Party Congress or Congress Party here, there need be no advertisements. 


Not even a single road junction has a statue of any important personalities - not even of their supreme leader Mao's. No compound walls, traffic signs, road direction boards are used for pasting advertisements. In a way, people need not know anything. The Leaders know everything. There is no need to waste tremendous energy and resources on bringing information to public.

Appooppanthaadi -46

Today was the day I had to collect my passport from the visa centre in Shanghai. I am in China on a business visa. For Indians, China issues business visa for 30 days with a validity period of 90 days. We can enter China within 90 days from the date of issue of visa and stay here for 30 days. Before the expiry of 30 days, if we wish to continue, we can get our visa extended for another 3 months with 2 entries. Our company's registered office is in shanghai and hence I went to the visa centre in Shanghai.

Last week I deposited the passport there with a request to extend the visa. It is so simple. We just have to carry our passport along with the filled up application and some documents to proove our office address. I just walked into the second floor hall, pressed a button on the machine at the entrance. It gave the queue number. I waited in the chair there. within 15 minutes, my turn has come. The visa official, checked the documents, collected my passport and then issued a receipt. All this process ended in less than 5 minutes. There was no teeming crowd anywhere and there was no queue and in turn no queue jumping.

Babus do their job as they are expected to do. Everything was seen like a well greased engine. I was out of the visa center in one hour. from there I headed to the Century Park. Centry park is a vast beautiful park in the middle of the city. It is a natural jungle in the middle of the concrete jungle. There is a big lake in the middle. An escape from the concrete jungle to the cool breeze and chirping sounds is simply relaxing. If you are Shanghia, you shall not miss Century Park. 



While collecting back the passport with extended visa, it took just 10 minutes. There was a queue on the first floor         (there is no ground floor in China) to pay the fee. I paid 252 yuans and then stood on another queue to collect the passport. All was over in just 10 minutes.

In the morning, I traveled from Suzhou Industrial Park to Shanghai by train. Shoshou Industrial Park is a well designed Industrial Area around 100 KM away from Shanghai.There are so many well organised Industrial Parks in China that propel the country to prosperity. 

Inside a first class coach of the train

One interesting thing we have to notice here is that, in front of most of the manufacturing units, national flags fly. One, the Chinese flag and the other, of their bete noir USA's. Suzhou has a cute little railway station and so many bullet trains have halt here. The train chugged on to the platform at 1035hrs and it did started off sharp at its scheduled departure time 1037hrs.  Exactly after 20 minutes, the train was at Shanghai railway station. The train has been running at 300KMPH. There was no time to take even a short nap.

Though visa extension was the reason, the main purpose of visitng Shanghai was always to go around the city. This time my destination was Shanghai Science and technology Museum. Immediately after collecting the passport, I walked down to the Museum. Took ticket at 60 yuans. Shanghai
Science and Technology Museum is a well maintained Technology exhibition centre. It is not a museum but a Science centre. We have equally interesting science centres in our cities. I could visit them in Chennai and Portblair. Though it is heard that Bangalore's science and technology Centre is excellent, I could not vist yet. Still, there is a big difference. Most of the proto-types that are on dislay in our science centres will be dis-functional, thanks to the civic sense we show in the public places.

The Brain wave game, the magic room, the mirror house and the picture drawing robot were really interesting. For the first time in my life, I experienced an earth quake. It was really frightening. No wonder, when the earth shakes for a few seconds, we are badly exposed of our weeknesses. We look so silly and helpless. But, as our Rathisbhai from Andaman says, earth quake never kills anyone, it is our own buildings and structures do.

The 4D film show, the skeloton of dinosaurs, the space craft experience and so many items are there to explore. A full day needs to spared to complete the visit to this Tech centre. I wish I had my kid with me. This is one of the best places in Shanghai to enjoy and learn. 

Click the link here and have a photo tour: (remember to see the captions at the bottom of the photos) :
 https://picasaweb.google.com/ppnatesan/ShanghaiScienceTechnologyMuseum?authkey=Gv1sRgCM7do7zsv7T3xgE&feat=email

Soliloquies of a Poor Man

Both ends hardly meet everyday. My salary just vanishes into thin air by the time, the date on the calender reaches 5 every month. From then on, life is a struggle. There begins a long wait for the first day of next month. The only solace is, I have three credit cards offered by the new generation banks. They allow me to spend as much as I can. They are from the modern age, and so, they are generous. They may have so many hidden agendas while apparantly keeping me in good humour. Many times, I end up paying a few thousands as interest to these banks each month. Their interest rates are a whopping 36% per annum. Look, how keen they are to serve me! 

I was born to a businessman father. My mom says there was a silver spoon in my mouth when I came to this world. The spoon really wreck havok in her womb and hence, it took a Ceasarian dissection to force me out from there.  As everybody knows, my father's business too was  running in 'loss'. He had struggled a lot to bring up his five children. He had sent us to the best schools in the town. I mean, the most expensive schools run by various religious and caste groups. A religious symbol invariably welcomed us to the schools everyday. From then on, we ate religion, we drank religion, we breathed religion. All that we learnt  was that only our religion is the best and others' are nonsense. Believers of other religions and Gods can never reach heaven. They need to be hated and if possible decimated. Anyway, since I was born with a chicken heart, I could not think of hurting any one.

My father never took us to Europe or Singapore for vcations. He allowed us only twice in a month to order pizzas from Dominos or Pizza Hut. We just had only a laptop and a desk top. He never bought us a play station or an  ipad. The horror of horrors was that he never allowed us to have an account on Face Book. He always egged on us to go out and play. He always told us the most boring stories of his childhood. Those boring oft repeated stories about grandma's fish curry, football, 'kuttiyum kolum', 'kallanum policum' and hide and seek. So boring. First of all he never shows a place to play. Every inch of the place where he lived his childhood is now converted into houses. No open place to play. My father lived in his nostalgia. We, the kids lived in our on world of Ben 10, Doremon and the silly car race games.

 

Thanks to so much of coaching classes and a big hole in father's pocket, I secured a seat in a professional college. Somehow, I got out of it with not so flying colours. That was not in my agenda, after all. But the degree certificate was enough for me. When I came out of the college - no wonder, no body took me in the campus interviews- I saw a big bandwagon passing by. I saw so many like me jumping on to it. I too did not miss it. The bandwagon straight away took me to a big glass decorated building. Inside, I was given a rotating chair and a personal computer with internet connection. I was given some training to do my job. I was sent to Singapore, Frankfurt and Tokyo to receive training. Above all these, I was given a hefty salary too. A salary I could never imagine. Like that I turned a techie. I don't know why I was called  techie. What I dealt with was neither Information nor Technology!

 

I never looked back from there anyway. I was promoted to the Lead and then I felt my salary was not enough. I found there are so many avenues outside. I just crossed one of them. The remuneration jumped to a new high. This process continued or rather I should say, is continuing. Meanwhile I booked a villa at the outskirts of the city. It costed me around 1.5Crore. I had to take a loan for a hefty amount. Now I have to pay to the new generation bank around 30% of my salary towards repayment of the loan. Neverthless, it is the price I pay for my dream home. It has everything that a human being can have.

A high end sedan is parked at the car porch. Looking from the balcony of my house, I can get the full view of the beautiful lake. I sit in the swing in the middle of the garden and sip away a cup of hot chai accompanied by the news apearing in my ipad. This is the time I used to curse our politicians and the democratic system in our country. I also wonder loudly about when we will have military rule in our country. Like in our neighbouring country Pakistan, our military too must lead our country to prosperity. Under army rule they could aquire self suffiency in many products. They started exporting such products to many countries, most of them to India. All that came to India have ISI mark on them.

While looking at my palatial villa and the sedan parked there, I feel a sense of accomplishment. I am sure, there are a lot more to conquer. But this is certainly not a reason for the God not to grant me 'Moksha' this time. Still, before 'Moksha', I must see a Rolls Royce car parked in front of another opulant bungalow that I will construct in future. By any yardsticks, our social status is measured with what we possess. To boost my social standing, I must have a plush villa, a luxury car and high end gargets in hands. People may not respect me if I have none of them.

 

Back to the statistics. Another 20% of the salary goes to Mutual funds, Stock Market and new generation insurance schemes.  20% goes to buy 'essential commodities', elctricty charges, maintenance charges and for outings with family. 30% is gone to Income tax. The slaried ones in our country are always destined to pay taxes- every time through his/her nose. I wish I were a businessman like my father who never paid a single paisa as tax. How could he pay tax for a loss making business?! 

Now, I hope all of you are convinced about how my purse turns empty by the 5th of every month. Huge amounts are still needed to go on domestic and international luxury holiday trips  along with family every year. Another big cheque must be signed to maintain the club membership. I lead a miserable life indeed. In between all these tensions, I get a lot of phone calls from the charity organisations. My kind heart always bleeds for the poor and disadvantaged in the society. But, where is money to pay them? So, I never attend any phone calls from these organisations. Believe me, I, at times, light candles as a gesture of sympathy to the poor. The only phone calls I attend are the ones from my fund managers 

After 40 long years of research, I discovered that friendship is a colossal waste of time. Relationships are loss making bonds. So, one shall never  invest a single minute of time or paisa for friends and relatives.  I always like to go by the famous quote : "Familarity breeds contempt". My world has just an area of 2400 square feet and the inhabitants of this world are my wife, my kid and me. This is an island and I do not want to be bothered by others. Look, I am a poor man.

All India Radio : My Childhood friend (part-1)

Grandpa could brook any nonsense but the English news broadcast. As soon as the announcer says "within a shortwhile, you can listen to Englsih News - Delhi relay", our grandpa's index finger will be on the switch. The beep sounds before the news starts, somehow sounded so bad to the grandfather. He never allowed the beep sounds to complete. Still, we could here, at times, the first sentence by the news reader - This is all India Radio, The news, Read by...Grandpa's intention was clear - he shall not allow any of our family members to be exposed to a language that sounded just like Greek and Latin!

Those days, having a radio in a house was a luxury. It is just a good surprise to know that the radios needed licence. We had to pay a small amount to the Panchayat for owning a 'modern gadget' like a valve radio. Transitor radios were yet to make their presence. A radio was like A big box becasue all the components were based on electrical principle rater than electronics. Radios were called Valve radios thoses days. I still remember, employees from the panchayat roam around in our village to collect tax for the radio and issue licence. It was a source of income for the panchayats. 

Hold your breath, to receive another surprise. Bicycles too needed licence! Bicycles were a rare commodity when we were going to schools. Not even a single kid came to school on a cycle. We trekked more than three kilometers everyday to reach school. Several others too did walk from farther places to the schools. Licence for a cycle too was aimed  at augmenting money for the panchayat. Cycle owners always feared police if they did not have licence. It may look so strange now. We learnt cycling by hiring 'half cycles' from the nearby town Poochakkal.  People in our village may not turn their heads even a BMW car rolls along our road in the present days!

Let me come back to the humble valve radio. This Murphy radio was brought by our father from Visakhapatnam. Along with this, he brought a gramaphone too. We had a number of discs that contained so many hit songs of yesteryears. The most important programmes in the radio was film songs, dramas, "katha prasangam" and of course Kathakali music recitals. Grandpa always relished the kathakali music. Most of the time, English news followed his favorite programme. So, he never wanted to spoil the mood with something alien to all of us. Even if he allowed the radio to tell the news in Englsih, none of us would have undestood a single sentence. Honestly, I never could make out anything the news readers told, till I reached the professional college. So pathetic was our knoledge in English those days. Remember those epic battles with the usages like 'not only...but also; so that...not; no sooner...than' ? At least a few of the readers of this story will definitely identify with this.  Most of time we fell down with bloody noses!

Renjini was a one hour programme that broadcasted super hit film songs based on demand by the listeners. It was a real entertainer and we usually waited anxiously for the next Ranjini day. I learnt most of those old golden songs, memories of which still soothe my soul, through such programmes. 

The most remarkable part of the radio listening experience was Light Music. As the name indicates, these were simple lyrics,  closer to a poem, rendered by mostly amature singers accompanied by simple music instruments. Of course, the most famous among the light music songs were sung by none other than K J Yesudas. "Ghana Shyama Sandhya Hrudayam" is one of the best light music songs that was ever made. This song still lingers on even after several years of its birth. This song was invariably sung in any competition and every music teacher in every school attempted to teach this song to the children. Such was the beauty of this song. 

Lalithaganam (light music) had seperate time slots and there were even music classes on air those days. Broadcast of light music classes taken by renouned music directors were an integral part of raio listening. My eldest brother had a habit of writing down these songs. As soon as the announcement comes about the begining of light music songs, he will be ready with papers and pen. He writes the lyrics with lightning speed, though it looked too vague to read. He then copied to a book in good hand writing. There was a big collection of such songs in his possession.




Now, the valve radio is gone. So is the 'Lalitha gaanam', the light music. Still, the sweet memories of both still linger on in the hearts that were touched the most, in their every day lives once upon a time....