On Fanaticism

First of all I'm not a believer. To be more precise, I'm an agnostic.  Hence I rubbish theories relating to after- death scenarios in which heaven and hell play a  pivotal role.

I believe that even for people with faith- whatever be the religion- paradise

could no longer be a sought-after destination.  The reason; chances are that paradise is now teeming with suicide bombers, scoundrels. dogmatic religious preachers and conversionists.

I have no qualms nor an inclination to contend with claims of  belief systems which thrive on after-life, nor am I bothered about how many women suicide -bombers and their likes sleep with in paradise or nether world.

But what could never be tolerated is the  barbarities unleashed on innocent people in the name of faith. All religions have blood on their hands. (Let us remember Gauri Lankesh, Dabholkar, Pansare, Kalburgi and their likes)

I would wish fanatic killers are put in a mad house or handed out strict punitive action, though it is easier said than done. Also,  to be kept in mind is that these people don’t emerge just like that one fine day. They are products of the society they grow up in; family, institutions, peer group and, above all, the political ideology embraced by them- all contribute to the creation of fanatic elements.

Unfortunately, there is no easy way out of the quagmire.

But a few small things we can do to alter the situation, I believe, includes, stop admiring aggressiveness, retribution and one-upmanship, etc as virtues and, last but not least, denounce Wars!

ENDS

Ha, Ha, Ha.

Laughter club members go somewhat like: Ha Ha, Ha Ha.

Children skate. 

Lost in yoga a middle-aged couple.

A woman worship the rising sun.

Joggers, walkers, beggars...

Without any grand schemes and issues, 

pigeons and crows fly around Marina.

ENDS

Snake & Ladder

We slip down the squares, either, back to square one, or, some lower place like the pieces in snakes and ladders game; let down by 'destiny' which takes the form of serpent, akin to the one which, the Bible says, deceived Eve.
It's a ceaseless struggle for us, the pieces, to find our way up as we get pulled down time and again.
The destinations, anyway, are illusions.

ENDS.

Destruction

As Consumers,​

What we behold are cause of concern.
What we breath and what we eat are poisoned...

We're wrong to hold over-exploitation of nature synonymous with progress.

"Things are bad, really. What our children and their children have to undergo would be worse," rues a friend,  M S Haridasan Manamel.

The woods
are robbed of trees.
The rivers' are licked dry
The air is polluted,
water and soil are poisoned...
The rapes...rape of nature goes on
as part of mortal man's
fatal deeds.

The outcome of mankind's exploitation of the whole lot is a woeful existence,
instead of ​peaceful ​coexistence.

ENDS

BJP's Kummanam Rajasekharan gives Tharoor a good run for his money in Thiruvananthapuram

Kummanam Rajasekharan’s political rivals ridiculed him when he quit as Mizoram Governor to contest the election. The veteran Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) leader who cut his teeth in the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) is lately found to be giving Congress party’s Shashi Tharoor a good run for his money in Thiruvananthapuram parliamentary constituency. The latest pre-poll survey conducted by a regional news channel (AZ research election opinion survey-part 3) released on Sunday night shows Kummanam, the 66-year-old hardliner, gaining a lead over Tharoor in the run-up to the polls. Not only that, the BJP has reason to cheer up, as the survey predicts BJP candidates, although they are poised to face defeat, bettering their poll percentage in several constituencies when compared to the last general election.

The survey predicts that NDA will poll 40% votes in Thiruvananthapuram as against UDF’s 34% and LDF’s 25%. Former state minister C.Divakaran of the CPI is the LDF candidate for Thiruvananthapuram.

Kerala votes on April 23.

Tharoor is seeking re-election for the third consecutive time from Thiruvananthapuram.

A visit to the constituency last month showed voters in large numbers in assembly seats like Vattiyoorkavu preferring BJP. However, some said that assembly segments like Kovalam and Neyyatinkara would come to the rescue of Tharoor. Although it appeared then that the over-confident Tharoor is on the way to his hat-trick win in the constituency the trend is lately found to be changing.

Lately his electioneering has hit the stumbling blocks as allegedly many Congress leaders were unwilling to campaign for him. This seems to have been solved, for the time being, with AlCC stepping in and directing the state Congress leaders to step up campaigning for Tharoor. A meeting convened by the Kerala Pradesh Congress Committee (KPCC) on Sunday reportedly conveyed the message that the AICC will not accept Tharoor going behind the BJP in the election. Moreover, the AICC has appointed Nana Patole as an observer for Thiruvananthapuram. Tharoor has meanwhile denied that he had asked the leadership to appoint an observer for overseeing the poll campaigning.

In 2014, senior BJP leader O.Rajagopal managed to emerge close in Thiruvananthapuram. While the winner Shashi Tharoor secured 297,806 votes, Rajagopal racked up 282,336 votes. The CPI candidate Bennet Abraham had to be content with the third position.

ENDS

Free. Art.

Are the works exhibited at Loyola college which offended the sentiments of right-wing leaders superb works of art?

No. They are neither superb nor works of art. They are not even paintings or cartoons in my opinion. They are similar to cartoons but lacking in depth... Though crude they depict contemporary political and social reality. The reality is as crude as the works. The author should be appreciated for coming out with the works especially when mainstream media is found to be shirking its responsibilities and playing lackeys to the powerful and the influential.

Do I like the works?
No. But appreciate the author for his courage to call a spade a spade.

Do I support the BJP’s stand?
Never. We may agree or disagree with any work of art or cartoon or whatever. But we can never demand a ban, bully the author, etc..

-----------------endds

On Mahe.

This indeed is a story of my home town attempted several years ago at the request of the then editor at The New Indian Express T.N.Gopalan. As can only be expected of me, I didn't complete it. There is a scope for developing the story now...

(My brother-in-law Stanley D' Silva helped me meet the people including M.Raghavan, C.H.Gangadharan etc. I have misplaced the photographs taken at the time...)

Once a sleepy, coastal town Mahe has lately morphed into a bustling municipality. River Mayyazhi flows standing testimony to the changing times. Mahe is a part of the union territory of Puducherry. The town is shaped by the confluence of myth and reality, Indianess and French…

According to historian C.H.Gangadharan Mahe was once part of old Kolathunadu which shot into prominence after French occupation. Mahe attained independence on July 16, 1954. The De facto transfer was on November 1, 1954. 

Gangadharan reminds that the state of Kerala was carved out in 1955. There has been consistent demand from the inhabitants for merging Mahe with Kerala. The tax concessions and privileges it enjoys as being part of the union territory is one of the many reasons that those who oppose the merger cite. 

The 15 lower primary schools, 4 higher secondary schools, 2 high schools, including 1 French school, 1 college, a professional college (dental), BEd colleges, an ITI and a Navodya Vidyalaya for the measly population of 36,000 attests to the generosity this small town enjoys.

The wine shops, a hallmark of the town, started mushrooming particularly after the early 1970s. The town has over 60 wine shops of which 30 are wholesale shops all within a 1 sq km radius which encapsulates the town.

According to Tayil Sadanandan, translator of Alfred Martineau’s `The Origins of Mahe of Malabar (History of India from 1720)’ Martineau ‘helps us find that Mahe and Malabar had a great history of wealth and wars.’ The French occupied Mahe in the XVIII century for a period of sixty-two years, interrupted twice by ten years of English domination.

The statue of Marianne in the Tagore park symbolizing equality, fraternity and liberty, the French education system, the St.Theresa’s Church constructed in 1736, a cemetery (where my Dad, mentor, and guide, Emmanuel Mathew, rests) and some ancient forts stand testimony to the French rule in Mahe.

The Puthalam temple, owned by the Dalits, where Mahatma Gandhi visited in the year 1934 has great historical significance.

Mahe under the French rule was said to be a place where everybody was equal irrespective of caste or creed. It facilitated an exodus of the oppressed section of the society from parts of Kerala to Mahe where they settled down.

Noted Malayalam writer and Mahe’s own Mukundan has romanticized and popularized this small town in no small measure. The saying goes that there are two Mahe’s: one is Mukundan’s Mahe and the other the ‘real’ Mahe. Many visiting Mahe after reading his books won’t find what they were looking for. For instance, the beautiful myth centering the Velliankallu, a rock far into the sea.

The annual festival of St.Theresa’s church falls during the month of September. The native people living in other parts hardly miss to participate in the annual spiritual gala.

Mukundan’s elder brother M.Raghavan (a writer himself) has this to say about the legacy left behind by the French, “all the same, older generation men like me were enriched by the French literature which we cherish like a treasure.”

“I read Emily Zola in original when I was very small,” recalls Raghavan.

Out of its population of 37,000 the town has 50 families who are French nationals. They have an organization for themselves. 

Every year they celebrate the national day of France on July 14 and Armistice day on November 11. They sing the French national anthem and o

They organize a mass at the local church. Thereafter also take out a procession to the Marianne’ statue where they honour the statue by decking it with garlands.

Although Mahe still holds the French in high esteem there are residents like Morris D’ Silva who declines to eulogize the French.

Freedom fighter Sishubalan Mash says, “French is the most beautiful, immaculate language..." words.”

Recalling the virtues of the French rulers, Sishubalan who had undergone a lot of sufferings during the freedom struggle, points out that it is the local people who spoil the broth.

Down the way, unfortunately, the French education has lost direction and stands neglected.

Stanley D’ Silva (my brother-in-law ) says that during the French rule there were 8 middle schools, 4 public schools, and 3 management schools, all having French as the medium of instruction. The Lours Comple’ Mentaires  is the only one that remains now. The school today has no proper building of its own. The age-old building with much historical importance which was located in front of the church was demolished long ago paving way for a commercial complex. The school was since shifted to a rental building…

The Mahe sports club has its own pride of place in the history of Mahe. It played an active role in the national movement. In those days the youths who visited the club were branded as ‘communists,’ and my Dad was one of them…

ENDS.

On reading Charles Augustin Sainte-Beuve's 'What is a Classic.'

Buffon gets mentioned in the essay. 

The author says, Read Voltaire's Age of Louis XIV., Montesquieu's Greatness and Fall of the Romans, Buffon's Epochs of Nature, the beautiful pages of reverie and natural description of Rousseau's Savoyard Vicar, and say if the eighteenth century, in these memorable works, did not understand how to reconcile tradition with freedom of development and independence.

“It took six hundred centuries for nature to construct her great works, to cool the Earth, to shape its surface and arrive at a tranquil state. How many centuries will be needed for men to arrive at the same point and cease to trouble, to agitate, and to destroy themselves?

When will they recognize that the peaceful working of the lands of their fatherlands suffices for their happiness? 

When will they be wise enough to reduce their pretensions, to renounce their imagined dominance, relinquish their foreign possessions, often ruinous or at least more burden than use?” His hope is for “an equilibrium between the powers of the civilized peoples... that can be maintained, leading to a world at peace… Is there a single Nation that can boast to have arrived at the best government possible, which would make all men not equally happy, but less unequally unhappy?”

--Georges-Louis LeClerc, le Comte de Buffon

http://sjg.lyellcollection.org/content/sjg/early/2018/08/09/sjg2018-016.full.pdf

Morgue

Morgue

Temporary abode of corpses

                                         |

                                     humans no more

                                     finally, free from life’s sores

before, being fed to fire or earth to

           devour.

Sabarimala: BJP, Hindutva outfits at their devious best!

While Rahul Gandhi went shamelessly missing, his men in Kerala were backing the Hindutva agenda.

Having adopted an approach of silence, quite conveniently the past five days, Kerala chief minister Pinarayi Vijayan now comes out with a statement saying there is no going back on Sabarimala issue; Supreme Court order will be implemented.

The shrine which was opened for monthly pooja on October 17 has been closed tonight. Let alone that no women in the age group of 10 to 50 were able to offer worship at the shrine the government's stance on the issue has been that of despair the last two days.

That despair was very much evident when Kerala Devaswom minister Kadakampally Surendran on Monday acknowledged the government is caught between the devil and the deep sea, thereby summing up the predicament the LDF government finds itself on Sabarimala issue. He added that on the one hand, the government has the liability to implement Supreme Court order allowing menstruating women to offer worship at Sabarimala shrine on the other is the arm-twisting resorted to by BJP.

While Rahul Gandhi went shamelessly missing, his men in Kerala backed the Hindutva agenda. The saffron party meanwhile, as usual in such matters, was at its devious best. The Hindutva goons resisted entry of young women, despite being escorted by police, into the shrine while Sangh Parivar outfits stepped up their onslaught.

VHP spokesperson Vinod Bansal declared Sabarimala as South India's Ayodhya, while RSS chief Mohan Bhagwat during his Vijayadashami address chose to emphasize that the situation arising out of the recent verdict on Sabarimala temple shows the nature and premise of the tradition that has been accepted by society and continuously followed for years together were not taken into consideration. He added the version of heads of religious denominations and faith of crores of devotees was not taken into account. And the legal verdict has given rise to unrest, turmoil and divisiveness in the society in place of peace, stability and equality. While all these were taking place, the Internal Security Division of the Ministry of Home Affairs wrote to Kerala chief secretary to ensure tight security in the pilgrim centre. The letter exhorted the state government to be on alert and put in place all precautionary measures in the light of the tense situation prevailing there. What next they have in mind time will unveil.

(The shrine will next open for Mandala pooja Maholsavam on November 15).

As more women summoned up courage to name their sexual assaulters as part of #MeToo campaign, a counter-campaign #WeToo (MEN) was initiated, but apparently with little success, to reveal stories of men who were victim at the hands of women.

The WeToo's emergence suggest misconstruction of #MeToo as generally against men instead of what it actually is: to blow the whistle on sexual assaulters.

Reportedly, film maker Varahi has claimed tremendous response to the WeToo campaign, though no victim's version is available till now.

The vexation the MeToo movement has aroused in prominent personalities in the film industry was on display when veteran filmmaker P.Bharathiraja lost his cool when queried by a reporter about singer Chinmayi's charges against lyricist Vairamuthu.

What is MeToo?, the veteran queried.

"Did you see it?' (the assault), Bharathiraja went on saying he need proof and cannot react to speculations.

Veteran actor Radha Ravi, who was named by a victim as her harasser, chose to ridicule the movement evoking laughter from a gathering he was addressing. 

"Just like that a girl dropped my name and went away," he quipped.

However, anger and laughers apart, more women mustered courage to come out publicly against their harassers. 

Independent filmmaker and poet, Leena Manimekalai joined the MeToo campaign lately by revealing the sexual harassment she faced at the hands of director Susi Ganesan.

In a tweet she said, #Metoo Movement has been emboldening lot of women to share their experiences of sexual harrassment in workplaces, worldwide. That emboldened me also to share one of my traumatic experiences in my facebook page.  

Blake

Borges                   Poets

                              Playwrights

Brecht                   Creators

Beckett

        Each     a     distinct

            Universe.

restrain.

            stay sane.

saints, poets, mystics of love…

             are insane.

to follow them

        is to embrace pain.