musings of a psychic mind

The year that was …

2009-05-03T18:24:00.004+05:30

When it has been over sixteen months since my pen smelt paper, it would only be natural to expect a few lines... soon. Like a painter with palette full of colours and the finest brush, waiting for a good scenery, I have been waiting... waiting for a day with a few minutes just for me. It is yet to come..

First, a few lines about the past year.

How am I doing? Wonderful. My professional life is doing pretty well. I can't say the same about social life, though. I do have contacts with many of my friends from school and college. But something seems to be amiss. Maybe I need to be more active online. Naah, that isn't the same as meeting in person. Some serious thinking needed here.

I got to visit Texas last year. The company took my team to their labs in Austin to give some on-the-job training. It helped us guys a lot in getting to understand the job needs better. What’s more, we got to do a bit of sightseeing too. NASA centre at Houston, a beach in Galveston, an overhead aquarium, biggest mall in Texas, a superb amusement park and almost all the tourist places in Austin. We wanted to do more. Work and the limited time at hand didn’t allow that.

Keat Pecking, one of the protagonists in my previous post, got the pink slip last December. Being a contracted employee, there are no surprises that he was among the first to be pushed down the plank. He had seen it coming and had prophesied, "..problem is that with a bad economic downturn, I would be one of the first to get walked out the door". Linkedin.com tells me he's still looking for a job. So you got a guy with 30 years of experience sitting at home, waiting for a look-in so that he can fend for his 3 kids and physically challenged wife, while people like me with much lesser qualifications still have a job!!! That's economics and globalisation at its best.

Speaking about economics, the current recession seems to be bottoming out. Atleast that is what I feel. But I can be wrong. After all, people who peddle economics for a living never foresaw the current meltdown. The situation in most companies is edgy and tense. Forced vacations, bonus cuts, longer working hours, near-zero recruitment and frozen promotions and salaries are the order. Forced vacations are a sweet way of saying that you can't choose your vacations; the company will. Tough luck for the batches that are passing out now. A piece of advice for the youngsters still in college; the days when a B.Tech/B.E. degree from any college with scraped through grades gets you a high paying IT job are over. Work on your soft skills as much as your tech knowledge. With companies planning to stay lean and fit, it is survival of the fittest.

My reading in the past couple of years has plummeted. From atleast 2-3 books per month while in school/college, it has dropped to 2-3 per year now. I am struggling to find time to read books. The ocean of movies residing in my laptop is the culprit. I am more tempted to see them than read books like "Sea of Poppies". By the way, that book by Amitav Ghosh can be side-stepped. "Why is it that only books and movies that portray India badly get awards?", is a question one of my colleagues asked. And it isn't a bad question at all, if you have tasted "Sea of Poppies", "The White Tiger" and "Slumdog Millionaire".

I am starting Yoga in a couple of days. I wanted to do something different and thought this would be a nice thing. My body can use it too; my back and joints are already feeling like sixty.

The Last Ink-Drop : This post rose out of the prodding and pestering of some of my friends . I am thankful to them for that. I realise that this post isn't enough to alleviate their complaints. But I hope to be back soon.

Failed Actors in a Flat Stage (World)

2007-12-25T18:35:00.000+05:30

The perfume lurking in the air
waiting for none
proud of itself
barged into me.

Blown back, by weeks and months,
it told me the names of
actors and acts
never forgotten,
but rarely remembered.

Two years ago...

Father was starting his scooter. He was going out to pay some bills. Hearing the sound I went to the gates to close them, after he leaves. As I was closing them, an aged man appeared. Frail, grey hair, wrinkled skin and a large thick plastic bag in hand.

Flashing a polite smile, he moved towards me. With an apologetic expression he asked, "Nanaakaan chooral kaserakal vallathum undo (Are there any bamboo chairs to repair)?" Even before I answered, he knew the answer and his expression didn't hide it. "Ivide chooral kaserakal onnum illa (There are no bamboo chairs here)", I told him, waving my hands in the direction of a couple of plastic chairs lying in the front veranda.

I had expected him to be disappointed. But to my surprise, his eyes remained silent and with a steady soft voice he said, "Enikku ariyaam... ippol chooral kaserakal kuravaanu (I know.... bamboo chairs are few now-a-days)". Except the tools sleeping in his plastic bag, he didn't seem sad. There was instead, a glint of triumph; he had been correct in his guess once again.

Thinking the conversation was over, I moved forward to close the gate. Suddenly, the phlegmatic strength on his face cracked open; painfully. The wrinkles on his skin huddled together for strength and eyes squinted, in embarrassment of what was to come. "Oru chayakulla kaashu tharaamo (Can you give me money for a cup of tea)?", he asked. It was a voice too proud to beg, embarrassed about the words he spoke and desperate in need.

I stood there stunned. Standing before me was a professional; an expert in his trade and tools. Yet for survival he had to beg!!!

I went inside and returned with a 2 rupee coin and gave it into his eager hands. Thanking me with a small smile, he moved on.

*******

Two weeks ago...

Excerpt from a net conversation. Character, place and company names have been changed to prevent future trouble.

:
:

8:24:40 PM Sreejith >> I know this is a late question still, Keat, how were you contracted for this project? I understand you belong to a different company and that you are here on contract. Where do you actually work and what is the kind of projects you have handled before?
8:27:08 PM Keat Pecking >> Brief history...

Started my career with MultiTech (an MNC) in 1979. Came to this company, SkyMach (an even bigger MNC), in 1984 and worked here (in this building) until 2000 when I got an offer from a start-up telecommunications company. Big salary, stock options, bonuses, the works. I got laid off 8 months later. Tried to get back to SkyMach, but 2 months later the 9/11 attacks occurred and I was out of work for 2 years. They don't have the ability in this group to get a requisition for somebody of my experience level, but hired me as a direct contract for 3 years. Then laid off again. Now hired as 3rd party contract. Been back for about 3 months.

8:31:15 PM Keat Pecking >> That's the problem with contracts. It's an up and down type of business.
8:31:45 PM Keat Pecking >> I work for a company called GTC.
It took me a few seconds to digest Keat’s history. It was shocking to know that a person of Keat’s experience and knowledge had been out of work for two years.
8:32:43 PM Sreejith >> Ok. But why doesn't SkyMach hire you directly if they need a person of your calibre? Is it economics or something else that i don't understand?
8:34:22 PM Keat Pecking >> It's economics mostly. At my experience level, they would have to hire me at a certain salary. They won't do that when they could get 3 college hires for that price. Personally, I think they are mistaken in their assumptions, but that's the way it is. I kind of like working 3rd party contract now.
8:34:52 PM Keat Pecking >> There's a company in Calsys, US that hires very experienced people only. I heard they're doing very well and intend to look into it.
8:35:22 PM Keat Pecking >> I'm having too much fun right now to go looking very seriously, but also need to keep in mind that this won't last forever.
8:35:48 PM Sreejith >> I sincerely hope you won't leave.
8:36:00 PM Keat Pecking >> Not anytime soon.
8:36:42 PM Keat Pecking >> I enjoy this work. My contract is for 1.5 years. The problem is that with a bad economic downturn, I would be one of the first to get walked out the door.

:
:

*******

Two actors trying to play out their lives to a changed script they had no clue of. Two years have passed since the first episode. Ever since, I have been keen to post it in the blog. So when I decided to revive the blog, I didn't have to search deep for a topic.

All of us have come across beggars; people who survive on the alms and kindness of other people. I had always thought of them as people who were weak or old to do a job or who were plain lazy to find one. The aged bamboo worker gave me a third kind - professionals forced to beg, though only too willing to work.

Keat and the bamboo worker maybe in different geographic locations. But the force that changed their fates is the same - Globalisation. The bamboo worker's case is a classic example of the millions of farmers and traditional artisans who were hit hard by an economy that opened up quicker than they could scamper for shelter. The influx of cheap imports and substitutes from neighbouring and developed countries, and the introduction of new technologies in all spheres that effectively killed complacency and inefficiency was a jolt in the dark for many who hadn't even heard of terms like "open economy" and "free trade". R Venkatesh in his article, 'Why Jet Air is a success and ICAI a failure' (available at http://www.rediff.com/money/2007/dec/03mrv.htm) writes thus, "The lessons behind the calibrated opening of the civil aviation sector are instructive and remain, in my view, an appropriate lesson in our process of globalisation. If civil aviation is a lesson to emulate, the opening up of the Indian accounting sector is in contrast an abject lesson in mishandling the globalisation process. The Indian accounting sector too has extraordinary potential (because of its substantial numbers, knowledge of accounting and of course the English language) to be a global player but has been subjected to premature external liberalization and without adequate preparation.
Consequently it is becoming an endangered species even within India.
:
:
In conclusion, globalisation is the war of entrepreneurs, who are a rare breed and require nurturing by the State. It is the profound duty of the government to ensure that the entrepreneurs succeed by its appropriate choice of policy and programmes......"

The government and the society failed to warn its citizens of the effects of a globalised economy. While opening up the economy was a brilliant move, the economists and politicians who masterminded it, never foresaw the need for educating the concerned people. As is evident from the booming IT, telecom and high-end manufacturing sectors, an enlightened society would have reaped better all-round results. AV Birla group chairman Kumar Mangalam Birla defined globalisation as the most powerful and defining current underlying a multiplicity of challenges. "We must recognise that not all countries benefit uniformly from globalisation. The benefits tend to percolate to the advantaged and to those with the right education and training," he had said once. Keat's predicament forces me to add geographic location to the list of factors that determine the quantum of advantage.

The world has flattened as far as economy is concerned (and I guess that is more important than geography for most). It is our duty as much as the government's to help a generation caught in the turbulence of global economic transitions, act out their final scenes with dignity.

The Last Ink-Drop : This blog had been unattended for the past few months. Few of my friends had asked me about this. It was never intentional. To repeat a cliché, "I was too busy with work". Thank you all, who kept checking the blog for new posts. It feels nice when I write something and I hope I'll be able to do so more frequently.....

Shadows of Dusk

2007-08-04T10:00:00.000+05:30

At the shadows of Dusk,

the rider slowed.

A solitary sparrow streaked home,

mindless of the tepid wind,

blowing to the setting sun.

Orange crimson shades of glow

danced in the wind,

delightfully painting the earth and leaves.

Behind a crimson veil,

a shy-moon waited

for the weary sun to sleep.

“O ye Dusk,

sweet lass of sun and moon;

a virgin you will always awake as

for, for my senses to satiate

you never linger till I sleep”.

****

Ere you

feel the quiver in my breath,

see the plea in my eyes, or

hear the hints in my voice;

you run

to hide behind your mother,

the moon, in her darkness cloak.

W'ere you afraid

I'll ever see you not

worthy of the sighs I made?

Thy beauty, thy etherealness,

was it my making;

thy exclusivity

guiding a wanton desire.

***

The crimson clouds,

with hidden tears in frozen veils,

never showed their colour.

Before I could touch,

tell you the name in my heart, and

smile a tearless farewell,

they came down

pouring, and pouring,

soaking my gaze.

Lashing my brows, my eye-

lashes they fall,

making her naught...

making her noth .....

Knew these were, my

last moments dear;

would you have shown me

those moments lost?

***

The shadows have darkened

and outlines forgotten.

Alone into this night

I ride on...

The Last Ink-Drop : This post, in many ways, is the epilogue of a few plays in my life. It is as much fiction as it isn't. Don't bother searching for the prints on the sand. You would be confused.

Tomorrow, when I leave Trivandrum for Bangalore, an important phase in my life will be coming to an end. Happy and Satisfied - two words to describe my life till now. Everything and everyone has been kind to me. And now future is calling... baby steps for the moment...

I don't know whether the corporate world will give me enough time to put up another post here. Hopefully this won't be the last ink drop from my pen.. Ciao for the time being

A Graduate's Essay on "My School"

2007-07-12T23:30:00.000+05:30

My School - This mosaic image is made from a collection of 338 pictures. All the tiles used in this mosaic are pics from my 13 years of school life. Click and zoom into the mosaic and each individual tile will be decipherable; revealing a page of my life.

Jon Stock in his fortnightly column in The WEEK magazine wrote thus, "Never before has society had the means to travel back in time like this and try again. The internet may have made the world seem a smaller place, but it's also managing to concertina our private lives, allowing us to revisit parts of our past that should, perhaps, remain undisturbed. After all, if you're really happy, is there really a need to go back?"

Stock was concluding his article on the opportunity internet provided to make contact with our long lost crush(es). I too had one.. my school - Loyola School, Thiruvananthapuram. Never have had enough of it; and so still remains one.

This seems to be the season of blogging about Loyola. I have lost count on the number of blogs I came across on Loyola in the past few months. So why one more? The answer - each Loyolite saw a different Loyola. And before my memory falls to Alzheimer or some other such disease, let me put down my memories.

I wish to follow a different style here. The sentences or incidents will never be complete. This is more like a jig-saw puzzle. I'll describe a little, some pieces of the puzzle. Each piece will be complete in itself if you can colour it with visuals and sounds. Strain a bit more, exercise your memory cells a tad more, and you can be in it. Each piece also forms part of a bigger picture. Arrange them the way you want and see it the way you saw.

<||>"O God, our Lord and Creator; Help us to be good and to learn our lessons well; Teach us to know you and ourselves rightly".. twice a day - before morn and noon sessions

<||>A couple of steps and a small concrete platform in the middle of old junior school for making assembly speeches .. and in senior school had to give then addressing packed steps.. one of those moments for which I thank my parents for naming me with 'S' - rarely had I to give them as the list never reached 'S'

<||>The horse shoe shaped old junior school building.. old junior school staff room... Rajappan uncle's room.. Fr M.M. Thomas' Vice Principal office.. the two-door IVth standard class rooms.. running into them from the football ground after games periods.. <||>Sprinting to buses the moment the bell rings for end of day.. seats were scarce and the winner-takes-it-all only made the sprint faster.. cleaning the classroom after classes.. never really liked it coz my end-seat would have been usurped by the time I finish.. hurried through them fearing the buses might leave without me.. never bothered to do them in the senior school as no teacher kept tab

<||>12th std lunch break football games in the PT shed with a half-football size bladder

<||>Special assemblies.. readings from the Bible, Gita.. "Your response is, Lord hear our prayers".. Diwali crackers - the long chain of crackers tied between two trees.. blessing of the buses and classrooms at the start of each year

<||>Adrenaline pumping slogans during basketball matches.. "Are you ready for the magic.. YESSS... Then let the match begin".. "V-I-C-T-O-R-Y.. that's Loyola's battle cry".. Loyola-St Joseph matches.. "whisky brandy soda cup, we will win the BB cup"

<||>Fr Tayil, Fr. Mani Manimala, Fr. Kuruvilla Cherian, dear former Rector and his unique style of speaking

<||>"You are the worst batch I have come across in my 25 yrs of teaching"-Ponnama Ma'm in 7^thstandard

<||>Old UKG park where I played.. the concrete tubes acting as tunnels.. the merry-go-round, swings, slides, see-saws... white sand.. each day I used to come home with a load full of that sand in my shoes..

<||>Graduating to junior school park.. now swinging by standing on them.. the see-saws aren’t that smooth now.. but who cares

<||>"Is your father a carpenter?"..Titus sir used to ask us whenever we drummed our fingers on the old wooden desks

<||>UKG class rooms.. by the side of school day stage.. shifted to junior school and now back here again

<||>Science Exhibitions in the (undivided) Berchmans hall

This collage contains pics from my own collection plus a few unacknowledged pics from other Loyolites's Orkut albums. The center pic is taken from this year's school magazine - The Loyolite 2007. Click on collage to view in full size and quality

<||>All the excursions.. especially the 11th trip to Bangalore, Mysore, Ooty and Black Thunder.. and the 12th trip to Goa with Edassery father and Prabhu sir.. none in my batch can forget the train reservation fiasco and the platforms of Madgaon Rly. Station.. the bus breakdown during the 10th trip gave me my first Harry Potter book..

<||>TCS Quizzes.. shouting down other schools.. largest contingent always

<||>The old forest.. Dracula house.. interpreting and mystifying the writings and pictures on the walls inside it

<||>College hostel corridors and terrace.. has spent a few assembly periods there.. and got caught too, once

<||>The rare football/cricket matches in the hockey ground (where none have ever played hockey) when exams/classes happen for the remaining students

<||>Cardboard & paper-ball cricket matches in the tennis court (another misnomer ground) before terminal exams.. the very short boundaries and its own set of rules

<||>Shouts of "Happy Holidays" while leaving by bus on the last day of exams each term

<||>The python.. never knew its name was "Kaa" until Krishnachandran B wrote it in an obituary in the school mag (saw it again at http://isc98-loyola.tripod.com/wall1.jpg http://isc98-loyola.tripod.com/wall2.jpg).. then the love birds.. rabbits later.. (sources say there were monkeys in our school, once upon a time.. after reading the article on Abdul Uncle in this year’s school mag I think it must be true after all!!!)

<||>St Ignatius Day.. one of those days when our school alone gets a holiday..

<||>School Days.. hustle and bustle before the start.. students running around in make up.. tensed looking teachers checking whether everything is in place.. the school day drama.. "our" drama - "Silence of the Dead"

<||>Youth festivals.. 3 days of absolute fun and enjoyment.. really had enjoyed the competition and programmes.. still remember the recitations "O Captain, My Captain...".. "... into the valley of death, rode the six hundred..". and declamations. ".. I know not what bothers me.."..".. Friends, Romans, countrymen.." ..and house dances.. earlier there was a dance master who used to choreograph for all the houses.. the set of songs remained the same year after year.. only the house dancing to it changed

<||>The old sack-thick sleeveless house banyans.. they used to last pretty long..

<||>Numerous sip-ups while in my first years at school and the countless Fun-Oranges in my last years

<||>Sports day.. march pasts.. "this is the last and final call for the 100 metre dash.." PT, acrobatics and karate display.. tug-of-wars..

<||>"Demonstration for you, Command for me".. do i need to say who said this?

<||>Christmas celebrations.. decorating school buses and classrooms with balloons, colour papers and cards.. lucky dips and gift exchanges.. christmas party - initially they were in classrooms itself; later shifted to the open grounds and steps

<||>Farewell ceremony.. the whole class in "mundu".. group song by the class.. handing over of flags.. candle light ceremony.. in the evening playing the "last" football match only to come back few days later and play another one

<||>"Games" periods each week.. was the first thing I used to check when a new timetable is given each year.. loved the days that had these periods

<||>LaFest.. our LaFest- LaFest 2k2 with the tag line "just when you thought you had seen it all"..

Our LaFest budget - Rs 19, 990/-

15 schools, 1000+ students and 1 full day of fun - Priceless

<||>LaFest, School day, Sports Day, excursions, Youth Festivals - all these need pages of their own.. this post will just remind you that there was one.. fill it the way you saw

<||>School buses were notorious for their "noise".. many have told me, "You can say when a Loyola bus is coming, even from 1km away".. such was (and I hope it still is) the chatter we used to have.. always jam-packed.. when I joined there were 4 and when I left 6.. anyone remembers the colour-style of our old buses? white with a wavy stroke of sky-blue through the middle.. was really disappointed to see the buses painted in mute dark yellows one sudden morning

<||>The Chapel.. beautiful... the enchanting silence there, I really enjoy it.. our chapel is famous outside the school too, especially in CET (Coll of Engg, Tvm).. the First Friday Holy Masses... loved them simply because you get a period free if "sufficient" number of Catholics went

<||>Senior School Library.. hasn't really taken any books from there.. but can never forget the long chat sessions we had there.. Nancy Drew and Hardy Boys rarely stayed on the shelves.. towards my final years it was Tintin and Asterix..

The picture is too large for me to complete alone. I have left out many of the obvious pieces and have tried to describe some of the obscure ones. Complete the jig-saw with your comments.

The Last Ink-Drop : As for Jon Stock's question, if I was really happy about my present situ, would I have gone back? I am not and no Loyolite will ever be. This post is a testimony to that.

Cheer Loyola Sons

“OK”, said I…

2007-06-25T12:45:00.000+05:30

I was born years back.
Much before that,
My parents planned my future.

When time came for me, to go
To a kindergarten, my parents said,
“Son, your Education cycle starts now”
A toy and an ice-cream will we give you,
if you get an admission”.
“OK”, said I, “After all,
A toy and an ice-cream are
the best things in life”.

Little did I know,
Learning has no ending.

Study, Study, Study.
4 years later, and 4 toys richer,
I became the senior most of the juniors.
My parents said, “Son, you are
graduating to next level”
“Do well this year, And
we will give you a cycle”.
“OK”, said I, “After all,
A cycle is the best thing my friend has”.

Study, Study, Study.
3 years later, as I reached the doorsteps of high school,
an Oracle was heard again,
“Son, harder you have to study this year”
“Get admission for ICSE, And
you will get a 100 rupee note”.
“OK”, said I, “After all,
Hundred rupees is a very large sum”.

Study, Study, Study.
3 more years, and the dreaded voice spoke again,
“Son, your first board exams are here”
“Ninety or more – computer;
less – scoldings and nightmares”.
“OK”, said the fool (that is me), “After all,
Shooting an alien is better than
A scolding from father”.

Study, Study, Study.
2 years later, my parents said,
“Son, your school life is coming to an end”
“Your future is being decided;
Get a good rank in entrance exam”.
“OK”, said I, “After all,
College life must be easier than school”.

Study, Study, Study.
4 years later, the voice spoke again,
“Son, your formal Education is coming to an end”
“Secure a good job. Else
no money and no wife”.
“OK”, said the fool, “After all,
What good is life without a wife?”

Study, Study, Study.
Now I have 4 toys, a cycle, a computer,
A wife and a fat purse.

The end of the Education cycle, I have reached.
So thought I, till one day my employer said,
“Mister, you are living in a competitive world”
If you want to keep your job;
Do MBA, M.Tech, PhD,…. and be up-to-date”.
“OK”, said I, “After all,
What good is life, if you can’t live it?”

Now I have realized,
Learning has no ending.

So for me, it’s still
Study, Study, Study.

I won't call this a poem; just garbled bits of truth which may appear to be nonsense written in the garb of a prosaic poem. I had written this in my 3rd semester and now as I wait for my joining date to come, what better theme than being "study-less" for a new post.

I had promised myself, that once I finish all my exams, I would write on how it feels to be not studying anymore. Yes, all my exams are over. Not one stupid exam more will I have to write. Surprisingly, I don’t feel any difference. Maybe this is because four years of engineering has progressively reduced my learning hours and improved my ability to study at the last moment (now that is debatable). This isn't anything unique to me and each and every Kerala University (KU) student must be feeling so.

Things had come to such a situation that even for university exams I start my first glance only the day before. And leaving module(s) isn't taboo. In short, each day of my last few years has been a continuous vacation; occasionally interrupted by an odd exam. In contrast my brother is slogging. He is in his 12th standard. Needless to say, he has got as many tuitions as the number of papers I had in my final sem. He wakes up to go for them when I would have only finished half my sleep.

Coming back to my post-B.Tech life, there has been no change in daily routine yet. Still wakes up at 7:30.. newspapers.. breakfast.. orkut.. lunch.. TV.. noon nap.. orkut again.. supper.. orkut again.. any book till I fall asleep. But all this, without having to worry anymore of a looming university exam. And that is the ONLY silver lining.

It wasn't just my B.Tech life that ended on June 18th, 2007. My 17-year association with Mathew George came to an end. We have been classmates since UKG. Ok, he's here in Orkut and we'll be meeting each other occasionally; but I'll miss him. So will I, some of my other classmates. A post had been dedicated to that (Misunderstanding Missing) and so nothing more now. I already fear I won’t be seeing a very close friend of mine in the near future. If that happens, God, I’ll never forgive you.

Few more weeks and I'll be off to Bangalore. Till then I need to find some good time-killers. hmm..

The Last Ink-Drop : I don’t know whether I'll ever sit in a classroom again. Anyway not for the next couple of years, at least. So for now it's no study, no study, no study!!!

Globalising Religions

2007-06-09T09:00:00.000+05:30

I am taking the liberty of assuming that you are well aware of the details of the recent punyaham controversy at Guruvayur temple, following the visit of Vayalar Ravi, his son and family for choroonu ceremony. If not, please go through the following link at rediff for details.

http://www.rediff.com/news/2007/may/20ravi.htm

I happened to come across the above news link during one of my browsing sessions and I felt I had to give a reply to it. The next few paragraphs below are extracted from the rediff Message Board (without permission) for your convenience. The message under the title “Change the rules” was posted by me while the subsequent messages were replies to my post, given by various other netizens in rediff. I’ll meet you again, below, after you finish reading this.

Change the rules..
by Sreejith Unnikrishnan on May 20, 2007 06:59 PM | Hide replies

Hinduism has rules???
Yes and No..

The rituals and so called rules are a product of a particular time and the people living in that time period. Period.

Most of the rules and rituals we follow today were made by our forefathers. Plenty of water has flowed through the Ganges since then.

Hinduism is a way of living. And ANY religion needs to change and adapt with the changing times for it to survive peacefully without conflicts.

I strongly believe all places of worship in India should be made open to all believers. Each temple/church/mosque can have its own unique rituals. But that should never be to deny a true believer his rendezvous with God.

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RE:Change the rules..
by Sai on May 20, 2007 07:08 PM
We can even open Pubs and allows Mac/KFC to sell Chicken instead of Prasadam ..

There are already people trying to do something similar in Tirupati. Looks like your dreams are coming true.

On serious note, temples & religion are meant to show the path to realise the ultimate. So as a tradition there are some specific rules laid down to discipline the individuals. For ex., the 40 day Deekha for reaching Sabarimalai brought about a transformation in many people. This I am sure would have happened even otherwise if people had observed those rules. If you insist on going to this temple without that "Deekha" aspect you may get some momentary satisfaction but there will be no lasting effect.

So cutting it short, first follow the rules. DO not question everything that is happening around.

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This post has been permanently removed following an abuse alert.

RE:Change the rules..
by Kumar on May 20, 2007 07:20 PM
Sai by your logic India should have remained slave to the British forever! When rules are unfair and bigoted they need to change. This is how humans have evolved out of the cave to the present day society.

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RE:Change the rules..
by Sai on May 20, 2007 07:31 PM
You are right. I did not mean to say that become a zombie and don't question anything. But don't go around putting finger in everyone elses house.
But thinking about it, the British rule itself was probably because some one did not follow the "rules" before?

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RE:RE:Change the rules..
by Girish Nair on May 20, 2007 08:47 PM
Sai, then we should not be crying hoarse when missionaries exploit such practices and start converting people. If he and his family believes in Lord Krishna, why can\'t they worship him. If his family were not believers why would they even conduct the ceremony in Guruvayoor. Looks like we Hindus try to keep others away from our religion, even if they are interested in following it (just because by his birth he/she belonged to a different community0

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RE:RE:Change the rules..
by srinivas swedaranyam on May 20, 2007 07:53 PM
talkabt malayalis being broadminded, a class apart from the rest unique etc. as is propagated by them. They are narrow minded fanatics who cannot think beyond their language and country. It is not gods own country. It is devils own country. A country full of poison. Every malayali is poison. A fanatic to the core, who does not know how to respect others
They are all criminals. so why should we bother abt what these narrow minded dogs think of or do

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RE:Change the rules..
by Sreejith Unnikrishnan on May 20, 2007 09:31 PM
@srinivas
sorry.. but u dont deserve an answer

@sai
you have highlighted DO in "DO not question".. i am leaving out tht "not".. questioning and rational thinking.. God gave us that.. to use it is my discretion and to keep it under wraps is your foolishness

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RE:RE:RE:Change the rules..
by rnambiar on May 20, 2007 10:18 PM
Looks like Srinivas is a Typical Chennai Tamil..with full of hatred against Smart Mallu's

Finished reading the messages? Ok, before you start calling me a pseudo-secularist or anti-Hindu, let me remind you what the whole article is about; it’s about the need for ALL religions to change and adapt to the new world.

Just in case you missed the important points in the article, let me re-state it here.

The rituals, beliefs and so called rules are products of a particular time and the people living in that time period.
All religions need to change and adapt with the changing times for them to survive peacefully without conflicts.
All places of worship should be made open to all believers. Each temple/church/mosque can have its own unique rituals/rules. But that should never be to deny a true believer his rendezvous with God.

There is nothing unique or new in the things I have mentioned above. Similar opinions have been voiced before, and still are being. What I would like to point out, is the need for such a change now.

Almost all religions grew up independent of each other. They started among a group of people who shared similar culture and backgrounds. From there, they spread by word or in some cases by the sword. The problem of how to deal with a non-believer or a person from another faith never arose. Times have changed.

Globalization has resulted in people of all “kinds” coming to live in one small region. Today it isn’t taboo for a person to be practicing one religion while still believing in another one. While trying to retain one’s identity and culture, care should be taken to not hide oneself in a cocoon – a cocoon of mistrust and chauvinism. By over-protectionism and trying to hide your God, you are only demeaning His stature. As God himself hasn’t laid out any cut-offs for entry to his abode, why should we? (provided a believer is willing to follow the other rules).

Opening up places of worship for people of other faiths will help in giving a better understanding of our culture and the rich heritage each religion has. This is even more necessary in today’s world where conflicts often stem up from prejudiced beliefs about other religions and a foolish sense of supremacy about ones own faith.

For true-reform to happen, all people need to change and accept willingly. I fear this is near impossible in today’s scenario. History has shown us that when a law is enforced by a competent authority, it will be followed in letter and spirit. I am referring to the Temple Entry Proclamation Act of 1936. That was the time of kings while today we are the rulers. If the Government can bring about another such law for all places of worship, after taking into confidence all concerned parties, I am sure the succeeding generations will enforce it vigorously.

There is nothing more wonderful than living in a society where religion is only for self-guidance and not for filling in admission forms.

I rest my case. Tell me what u feel by posting a comment.

The Last Ink-Drop : The reasons why I included the replies to my post in rediff, here, are two. Firstly, to show how total strangers reacted to my idea. Secondly, to remind you that internet too isn’t free from racial abuse (or any kind of abuse). The message saying, “This post has been permanently removed following an abuse alert”, had some choice expletives. The north-south divide, mallu-tamilian egos, male chauvinists-feminists bickering, fundamentalists-liberalists clash ... aah .. fodder for another article some other day.

Misunderstanding Missing

2007-04-08T06:00:00.001+05:30

This post is to set the records straight. I got brick-bats and bouquets for my last article. While all blasted me for describing CET as lifeless, almost all agreed with me that it isn't exactly what we thought it would be. CET does lack something. I am not here to argue more on that.

An anonymous reader raised the topic of batch mates and the unbreakable relationships we all have made. "They do shape our lives in many ways than one and most of the time without us realizing", he goes on to say. Very true.

vyali Vishnu said, "...Between I made a hell lot of unbreakable personal relations here."

chandru commented, "… about CET spirit how will you feel wen you meet another guy from CET after few years?. i bet u wil feel a connection.."

As the wait for my course to get over continues, these comments and words seem to become bolder and more meaningful. Many misunderstood my last post about not missing CET, as not missing my friends. This is what I wanted to clarify.

I WILL SORELY MISS MANY OF MY CLASSMATES... A good number of them will be with me at Bangalore. Hopefully the malls and parks there will play hosts for our get-togethers. But an even larger number of them will be in other places like Chennai, Pune and even Trivandrum. When I said I won't be missing CET much when I leave here in a few months' time, I never meant my classmates. The recent class tour has only reaffirmed my apprehensions - I'll sorely miss many of them. I'll miss them as individuals, but not certainly as my class.

A pic from the recent S8 tour

We started off as a class of 60. Truly Heterogeneous. Guys and gals from all nook and corners of Kerala; some mallus from outside too. Did all links fall in place immediately? No. It took time. MHites and LHites grouped quicker. And so as to prove the saying, "Birds of the same feather flock together", true; by the end of first year there were 10-15 groups in class. As time progressed some groups merged, few rearranged and some even split to form smaller ones. In between we lost a few of our mates to death and studies.

A video made from S3-S8 tour pics by somali

Silent ones (a smile.. at most a monosyllable), some who never stop making chalus, other few who rarely ever come to class (and when they do come, 9 out of 10 times it will be a strike), eccentric characters (all are, in a way), mood-swingers (self-explanatory), people who describe themselves as Kings (and Queens) of adichukittal, dead serious first benchers and least bothered back benchers. When the situation demands (or offers), these people transform into bujis, vaynokkis, couples, singers, cricket players, thadiyan, dancers, alamban, pianists, rock lovers, lunch-skippers and madiyan. And among us we are somali, psycho, AC, bajjo, LP, suru, pandu, SRK, mandhu, mandan, atj, AMC, kochu, dasan, lathettan, aprem, annie johny, hameed, prasannan, clintu, maathachan, chogu, suniyandi, chandru, twins (ashamed to admit that even after 4 years I still cant say which is Rajesh and which is Rakesh) and so on... the list is too long. Describing each person, as a friend of mine wanted me to do, is a task I won't be able to do justice to. So I leave it here.

The Last Ink-Drop : Vishnu summarised it correctly,

"Bingo! never as a class

nor as of a college

but as individuals u ll miss a few ppl around!"

The woods and birds I saw……

2007-03-02T12:48:00.000+05:30

At the shadows of Dusk,
the rider slowed.
A solitary sparrow streaked home,
mindless of the tepid wind,
blowing to the setting sun.
Orange crimson shades of glow
danced in the wind,
delightfully painting the earth and leaves.
Behind a crimson veil,
a shy-moon waited for the weary sun to sleep.
“O ye Dusk,
sweet lass of sun and moon;
a virgin you will always awake as
for, for my senses to satiate
you never linger till I sleep”.

I was asked to write something for the college magazine. Any topic, No word limit. Just a deadline - within the week. But what do I write about? I didn’t want to make it another one of my serious analysis. I cant keep them out altogether, either. With just a few months, or maybe days, to go before a new batch replaces us in this college, musings and memories of these four years is good enough theme to fill the next few pages.

And when I did write, the editorial board rejected it saying, “Too negative to be put in CET magazine”. You decide.

So here I go.. Beware - I will be writing just as things come to my mind. True to a human mind, I'll jump from event to event, the link may not be visible.

To start, I think, I should go to the day I joined the college. There are six Loyolites in my class and having heard many dreadful stories about ragging, we decided to avoid the college bus completely for the first few days. So it had to be the KSRTC buses. As per plan we came together and went to class as a group. The class had already started (it's first year after all). Permission granted, we entered the class and occupied the back benches. We already knew the best place in the class, I think. I don’t remember much of those initial classes except that almost all classes for the first few months were engaged. Whenever we got free time, we Loyolites went out together. Be it for exploring the various blocks or for just chatting away in the park adjacent to the arkee building.

That wasn’t really my first day in this college, though. I had come here at least a couple of times while I was still at school; for the school basketball tournament. If rain played havoc with schedule, then the matches were played in the indoor stadium here. I had had a few glimpses of the college then itself. Green everywhere. Plenty of shades and open spaces. Certainly a place brimming with charm. Then I came, again, for the admission process. That was the day I experienced my first dose of ragging. Unfortunately, for us, after the counselling session, we decided to have a small stroll around the place. And whom did we meet? Poonachi!!! At least some of you must be knowing this colourful character. Anoop is his real name. His friends decided to rechristen it to a trendy poonachi (Anoop in reverse). Fortunately, the seniors were having series exams (we didn’t know that then as we hadn’t heard that term before). So after a few futile attempts at scaring us (I think we stood our ground firmly in spite of his sneers and threats), he let us go. That incident made us reaffirm our decision to move as a group, henceforth.

Other than the indoor stadium, what we as school students had heard about CET was the panchaarakaadu. Famous or infamous; I don’t know. But, certainly one of the best places in this college for small talk and.... I know a few guys in my class who had knit many dreams around this lovely place even before joining here. Sadly, those dreams are yet to bloom. As a single, myself, I am not eligible to write more about this place.

Just a few days into the first year and we already knew - CET isn’t exactly the place we had hoped it to be. Lifeless. That sums up my frustration. It's only a couple of students that I have heard saying, CET is better than their school. If you want anyone to miss their school badly, give them admission here. Ok, I am being too harsh. Couldn’t help. The faces all look blank. No activities happening. Sports? Well you can forget that as you are no more in school. Teachers and students lead separate lives, think parallely and have little or no reverence for each other. Their looks and smiles rarely greet. "Boring", was the answer I gave a senior when he quizzed me about the college, during one of my ragging sessions. He too agreed, I think, as he didn’t torture me more for that answer.

"Stop Sreejith".. "That're enough accusations"... Right. There have been many wonderful moments in this college too.

Elections is one week-long festival I have always enjoyed. Demo political outfits and dummy candidates. How can we think of an election without them? Distilled Golgiba, PARI, FLUTES are some of the names that come to my mind as I write now. Dressed in imaginative costumes and with slogans and promises that certainly can’t be reproduced here (read censored), they really helped bring down the temperatures and made elections more interesting. Speaking of weird costumes and demo parties, Demo Week is another spectacle I have always looked forward to. Black Day, Cross Day, Pandi Day (my favourite), School Day, Goonda Day and Miscellaneous Day. Words can never describe the fun and drama that these five days bring. Last year I was treated to a liberal dose of black colour on Black day. Courtesy seniors from my own department. On another day it was glitter powder. All of us had a tough time washing them off. And this year it is our turn. To become the "pandi shavam carried around on a cycle", "a school boy with lollipop and water bottle" or your friendly "local dada". Juniors, watch out!!!

Dhwani, Hostel Days, the sole College Day I have seen while in second year, irregular Electronites, Freshers Day, Sargam... have enjoyed something of all. Alas, all flattered to deceive. None could bring this college to life.

Now let me ask you all one simple question. What made you choose CET, overruling the nearby private or other government college? Placements, of course. I had a pretty good rank and had the option to take the trade of my choice. After considering all pros and cons (read dotcom bubble burst and uncertainty in software sector) I decided to take Electronics and Communication. But did I have the aptitude for it? Hey you wrote an entrance exam and cleared it with a good rank. Fine. But does that mean I have the aptitude? I have the ability to study but needn’t necessarily have had the aptitude. And this seems to be the case with hundreds of students all over Kerala. When you clear the entrance exam you are ensuring for yourself a job in one of the IT sweatshops. Enough.

Anyway the Placement Unit here was doing wonderfully well at the time of my joining. It is still going strong with record placements of around 842 offers this year; at least 150 more than last year. The moment I think about placements, it’s my MindTree Group Discussion (GD) that comes to my mind. MindTree had conducted the aptitude test a day before IBM came on campus. I attempted both. IBM had its test and interview the same day and thankfully cleared all to be selected for IBM-E&TS. Now the funny part starts. The next day MindTree announced its list of short listed candidates. My name was there in it too. GD and then interview was the procedure with elimination at each stage. I didn’t want to take another job, just for the sake of it. Also, there were still many to get a decent job. I couldn’t back out either, as it would be disrespect to them. Finally I had to attend the GD. Dressed in an ordinary shirt, no tie, plain pants, no shoes and not even the basic file and resume, I entered the room – determined to under perform!!! The topic for GD was “Relevance of Internet in today’s world”. Simple topic. After the customary 5 minutes preparation time, the moderator asked us to start. Those who desperately needed the job started speaking immediately. Meanwhile, I bent my head, staring non-stop at the carpet beneath my feet. I am supposed to be nervous and ignorant. I had a pen in my hand and I fiddled with it; turning it, opening it, fingers shaking and all. Once in a while I looked up and cast a furtive glance at the moderator. My aim was to give the impression of being a total fool, nervous to the hilt, and my downward stare also helped prevent myself from laughing. At the end, the moderator asked me to conclude. And I finished it excellently, opening my mouth for the first time then. “internet..hmm.. is very important..we use it for mailing, chatting…aaahh.. hmmm…I use orkut daily … and cant think about daily life without it..”. Can anyone better this? When I got out of the room, couple of my co-panellists came up and said “wonderful performance”. I felt pity for myself. I had to do it; but I wish now I hadn’t had to.

I have always wondered why I am able to criticise my college, so often, without any guilty feeling. Hasn’t it given me the job I wanted? Didn’t it teach me the ups and downs of adolescence? Still, I am unable to relate to this setting. CET badly lacks a strong identity. Just as the college is lifeless, we lack a character too, in general. It’s only in orkut communities that we display our strength. CET’s biggest asset is its heterogeneous student community. Leaving out the part-time students, we still are a 2500+ strong family. Family? Misnomer. We failed to capitalize on our strength - the large population - and shape ourselves into a united fighting force. I agree, developing consensus among all for each and every matter is tough. But self-interests and regional identities matter more than the college. So we have MHites/LHites/Dayscis, Tele/Mech/Civil, freshers/seniors/2nd years, Lords/Bethany/Emmaus; everything except CETians. I don’t know the context in which it is said, but some of the CET t-shirts read “undefined”; it aptly sums up our real case. Nothing to be proud of. All ye juniors – redefine yourselves as CETians!!!

I can go on like this, forever. Four years is a short period, but in retrospect so many things happened to write all in a few pages. The eccentric characters (well my friends consider me one too – psycho) in my class, happy moments like our class tours, sad ones like the death of a classmate are all worth pages. That brings me to the last nagging question in my mind - will I miss anything when I leave this college in a few months time?

ormikaan oru mara thanalo, thazhukaan oru ilam kaato illa. sookshikaan oru pidi nalla nimishangalum, kure kootukaarum maathram. avarennum koode undaakum. appol nashtathinte kanakku poojyam.

Sigh!!!

The Last Ink-Drop : I had read in a magazine, few years back, that having a nickname is after all a thing to be proud of. It just shows how much your classmates care and love you. Psycho stops here.

Change of Address... thewhisperingpages

2007-02-04T14:02:00.000+05:30

Blogging is a pheomenon that came into this cyber world few years ago. But its popularity and acceptance has never before been this high. I clearly remember, in my schooldays, many of us tried to create our own websites. Crude and lacking in aesthetics; nevertheless proud to say I have one. Almost all of them were hosted on free webhosting sites such as geocities and freeservers. But they were difficult to maintain and improve. Unless you were a geek in web designing your website would have hardly got any hits.

Then came blogs and blogging. This gave the ordinary netizen a chance to tell the world what he thinks; ALOUD. Ever since I came to know about blogs, I wanted one of my own. But the lazy fellow that I am, kept postponing it. Also, the forum that cetafi.net gave me to post my articles and poems, mellowed the need. The alumni' site cetafi.net have visitors only from the alumni community and, to a very small extent, present CETians. So when the reservation issue resurfaced after a decade-and-a-half of slumber, I needed a bigger forum to air my views. I decided to create my own blog.

The decision was easy to take. Choosing blospot was easier. But what was difficult was getting the URL of my choice. I had quite a few names in my mind. Alas, smarter netizens had already taken them. Time was running out, as I wanted to express my views immediately; before the issue fades from public. That was how I had to settle for lend-me-ur-ears as my blog address. I dont like using chat lingo or SMS text styles in my blog. Then why did I use "ur" instead of "your"? Reason is simple. The smart netizens I spoke about earlier, had used up these names too. So "lendmeyourears" and "lend-me-your-ears" were unavailable. Had to settle for "ur". The name never satisfied me. It served the need, but I was always on the lookout for better ones.

I dont exactly remeber when "whispering pages" came to my mind, certainly 2-3 months ago. Today when I got the spare time, I decided to change the address once and for all. Blogspot wasnt co-operative enough, though. It told me (again) that there are smarter people in this world. "whisperingpages" was unavailable. I hadnt expected this to happen (I should have!!!). My arsenal was empty. Tried making up new names. None impressed me. That's when I thought, why not add "the"? I tried "thewhisperingpages" and thankfully blogspot agreed (just in case you didn't understand, it's the whispering pages without the blanks). And so, here it is; the new address for my psychic musings.. http://thewhisperingpages.blogspot.com

I had tried quite a few of the new features in blogger2, which is the new version, in my old blog itself. I changed the template to "Harbour", adjusted font colurs and sizes, added a bottom scroll (disclaimer) and also a counter (the six monkeys hanging below). I did cheat on that counter. I had given a starting value around 40, a conservative estimate of the number of people that would have visited my old blog. But as I added the posts from the old blog later and also changed settings many number of times thereafter, the count increased quickly with each refresh; I being solely responsible. The articles from the old blog have been added here with their original date and time settings. To view the responses to each, you will have to view the old blog.

The Last Ink-Drop : TIME magazine's person-of-the-year for 2006 is "you", the common man who has been able to influence government decisions, change policies and rules and shape the future s/he wants it to be. Blogs and the internet have been his main tools for this crusade. I continue mine.

Dear God, what colour is thy hair?

2006-12-26T08:30:00.000+05:30

I am in a dilemma. I can’t write more on this topic. It isn’t a lack of time or words. Something more personal. Still, I had promised to write on this topic. And so let me just give you the gist of my feelings.

Do I believe in God? Yes and No. I don’t believe there is a body or a figure or a force which is omnipotent and omnipresent. But I believe in ‘a God’ for my survival. Read on….

With closed eyes and folded hands what do we pray for daily? Knowledge.. Happiness.. Love.. Peace.. Wealth.. Health.. In short, we pray for everything we don’t know the definite path to. If there were no diseases and all were blessed with longevity, would we have prayed for good health? If we knew how to make money (I don’t know how much that is) then would we have prayed for it?

God, for me, thus, represents the sum total of all the ‘Knowledge we Lack’. There are plenty of things we have found out about this universe. But many still remain as mysteries. Some exist as superstitions while some others continue to surprise us as miracles. It’s this ignorance and the helplessness there-of that makes us plead before the Almighty daily.

God is the elusive secrets and knowledge of this universe and prayers & religion provide us with a path to try and reach it. To uncover everything, and become omnipotent. We will need thousands of years more for that.

If there doesn’t exist a super-powerful being who is omnipotent and omnipresent, why should I believe in one? The reason is more psychological than logical. Besides air, water and food humans require one more fundamental entity for sane existence – Hope. When facing defeat, when no forward path is to be seen, it’s hope that pushes us forward. When we pray to God, we expect Him to rescue us from the situation, like a fictional super hero. Belief in such a super hero will give support to our minds and will help us see through any situation.

I have explained my Yes and No, I hope.

The Last Ink Drop: There was a brief, very brief, period in my life, because of a string of defeats in a single day, I became an atheist. I stopped praying and refused to enter temples. But this didn’t last long. I am after all human and I too need support. I became a believer again, quickly. And as for the colour of God’s hair – he’s bald.

Writer’s Block

2006-12-13T12:29:00.000+05:30

It has been a very loooonnngg time since I wrote anything; anything. There have been many well-wishers who wanted to see new posts in this blog. Though there were many topics in my mind, I just couldn’t make myself write. A classic case of writer’s block.

I am one of those kind who can’t write just like that. I usually write when I strongly feel about a topic. It can be about a very silly incident or about something I recently read. Once the seeds have been planted, it takes some more time, after debating and crossing off points in my mind, before I finally put it down on a piece of paper. And exam season has always been the right time for writing anything new. That’s why you will find in my old college notebooks, the egg-shell remains of many of my articles and poems. I wont say I hate studying but it certainly isn’t something that I look forward to when I reach home. Given the fact that I have a very low concentration (maybe second only to my bad memory), it isn’t very long before my mind drifts off to some topic in mind. With no one to disturb you (as I am studying for my exams!!!) I end up discussing the outline of a new article in mind and when the urge to put it down in writing becomes strong, I just do it…

The past few months, I haven’t been feeling such an urge. And I purposefully encouraged it too. I wasn’t feeling very confident about my seventh semester preparations and I didn’t want any new brainwave to cause havoc. But now that the exams have been postponed I have decided to do some writing. Right now I have uploaded two articles I had written nearly one year back and have been published in cetafi.net. If you ask me why I have put old wine in new bottle; it’s simply because like wine these too have only increased in significance, with age. If you go through the articles you’ll find that the situation discussed is much the same even today. And some of my points have been proved true over the last one year. Before I pass out from CET, you can expect a more comprehensive and detailed article covering all the points mentioned in these two along with my final observations and inferences.

Now coming to my new article, I am thinking about re-writing an old one. It’s titled “Dear God, what colour is thy hair?” As you might have guessed, it has got something to do with God and His existence. I had written one under this title some years back, but it never saw the daylight. I lost that paper too. So I want to re-write that and add some more points, which I have garnered since then. Expect this in this blog in a few days.

I certainly will try to write regularly. There was a feeling of void and tastelessness in the last few months and I realise it’s because I haven’t been writing anything. I’ll try…

‘O Captain, My Captain…...’

2006-12-12T11:16:00.000+05:30

Prologue…

A page from my life (a bit dog-eared): The venue is LMS compound and the event is CAP (Centralised Allotment Process). The demure atmosphere is punctuated regularly with tensed sighs and deep breaths. A computer operator manning an allotment terminal calls out the number ‘84’. Heaving a sigh of relief I, along with my father, responded to the call. Without hesitation, I gave my preferences. EC followed by AE and then CS, all in CET. The good rank withstanding, the computer allotted me AE. Disappointed I left, not before filling the higher options form. A few weeks later I got the course of my choice.

Epilogue…

A page from an Engineering aspirant’s life, 30 years hence (fictious but probabilistic): Same venue and same jamboree. The gaudy sea of humanity is vibrating with the latest ring tones. A computer operator calls out the number ‘5567’. A candidate and his father walks up to the computer terminal and makes themselves comfortable with panache. “Merit seats in self-financing colleges have been filled”, the operator says apologetically. “There are plenty of merit seats left for EC and other courses in CET. May I allot you to CET? ”, the operator asks, even more apologetically. “Nah, we will go for a management seat in a good private college”, the candidate says imperturbably. Finally choosing a ‘good’ college the candidate returns home smirking.

I did break a few rules by letting Epilogue share space with Prologue in the first page itself. The past we know, future we can imagine but the present is the most difficult to assimilate of all tenses. Often the churning is felt only when the butter is seen. Our college is celebrating its 65^th year of existence and in this context let me analyze the transitions in the professional education sector and CET in particular after the entry of self financing colleges into this sector.

CET, for long, has been the undisputed ‘best’ among Kerala’s Engineering Colleges. Till a few years back, there was no other college which could boast of such a large campus, infrastructure and an intellectually bright student-teacher community. It was for these same reasons that I chose CET without hesitation. Why ponder more? The exuberant placement cell is one good enough reason for any engineering aspirant to join CET (At last count the 2002-2006 batch has received nearly 581 job offers).

So that is how the unsinkable CET is cruising. Calm waters. No sharks. Complacent. Very complacent.

Before I ‘sink’ CET, let me recall the histories of some other Titanics. St. Joseph Hr. Sec. School and Model School were once upon a time two of the most prestigious schools in Trivandrum. Both boasted of eminent teachers and had facilities well beyond their competitors. Many of the present day celebrities and bureaucrats are alumnus of these institutions. But if one were to take a survey of the top ten schools in Trivandrum today, you will be surprised to know that they don’t even figure in the 10^th position. The reasons are simple. They failed to upgrade and update with the changing needs. Unaided schools brought in a revolutionary change in the mode of teaching. Besides excellent teachers, they provided students with all the facilities needed for all round development. While St. Joseph and Model School continued to school with the same infrastructure, unaided schools regularly upgraded. So it wasn’t long before these Titanics were sunk.

These facts won’t suffice to convince the hardcore CET-ian, I know. So for these guys, here are a few more painful truths. Are our teachers the best? A difficult question to answer. We certainly have the brightest brains to teach. But how many of them actually teach. CET’s history, too, doesn’t mention about any teacher who has completed the whole syllabus on time. Now compare with a private college. The fatter pay packet has been able to attract quiet a number of good teachers. And by hook or by crook (extra classes on Saturday) the whole syllabus is completed.

Want more? Then, are our infrastructure and lab facilities the best? Everyone knows our college is an old one. But do we need to stamp that throughout our college. Cobwebbed classrooms. Piteous hostels. Defunct and rusty equipments. Shift the scene to a private college. Sparkling marble floors. Latest equipments working with clockwork precision (Speaking of clocks, there is an electronic clock in one of our Electronics Lab. The clock is as old as the college and works on electricity. It never shows the real time as tsunamis are more predictable than the electric supply). Moreover a demure environment has been provided for serious academics.

Still want more? Then chew this. Can anyone match CET in terms of placement? This is one area CET is still king. The number of job offers has been steadily increasing over the years. Though a few companies do visit other colleges, the students there don’t have the same variety and menu to choose from. Still, I feel, this won’t last for long. Companies need men and these colleges have the right contacts to lure them. Almost all the private colleges have a placement cell and it won’t be long before IBM or Microsoft poaches in these colleges, too.

At least now, admit defeat. Barring placements, self-financing engineering colleges have already overtaken CET in all other quality parameters. In spite of this, if CET is still considered the best, then it’s solely due to the collection of the best brains in Kerala. The present situation can be summed up in two lines, “If you want to learn the subject, study in a private college. If it’s only a job you want, then come to CET”.

‘O Captain, my Captain; the ship is sinking’. I will certainly swim to safety, as there is at least 30 years before CET will fully sink. Who will plug the leak and save the ship? I would like to know.

The White Smoke :- I want to use this tailpiece to thank the Alumni members for maintaining the site www.cetafi.net. Why? Because 30 years from now, the nostalgic articles in the website will help me describe to my children the wonderful college that CET was once. Even before I started writing this article, I had discussed its contents with few of my classmates. Most of them vehemently argued and adamantly refused to toe my line. So I am very curious to know how you respond to my analysis. Please let me know.

This article was written when I was in my Fifth Semester and before the College authorities had started utilising the World Bank funds for renovation and new equipments. The original article was first published in www.cetafi.net

Who is the winner?

2006-12-12T10:45:00.000+05:30

“One year to rule us all;
Two parties to divide us all;
And one election to fight it all.”

The present political climate of our college can be aptly described by the above three lines. Even as I write this article, I am not sure whether there will be a college election at all this year as the University and College authorities are trying to make head and tail out of the recent High Court order. Still, to explain to the readers the new bipolar political situation, I would like to set this article against the backdrop of an election; a fight for power.

Before I start analyzing, let me provide some background information for the benefit of Alumni members to bring themselves up-to-date with the recent changes. Two years ago, i.e. before I joined the college, there were mainly three student political parties. The weaklings (read KSU & ABVP) though, got wiser and decided to stand united. Thus was born VOC (Voice Of CET). Though KSU and ABVP are its political parents, VOC in its disclaimer claims itself to be a politically neutral students’ body. So, now the college has a two party political structure with politically active students either leaning to the SFI or VOC.

Readers might have, by now, understood the meaning of the three lines at the top. There is, but, one phrase that I would like to emphasise – ‘divide us all’. One doesn’t have to be a voter to understand the significance of a majority in an election. A 50+ percentage is a frugal necessity for any political party aspiring to come to power. It’s also common knowledge that MH (and to some extent LH) equals SFI. It is this political equation that has helped SFI remain in power for so long. The one-party culture in MH has been good for them as it gave them cohesion and strength. But was it good for the college?

MH is a ‘fixed’ vote bank for SFI. A few hundred more votes and the victory of their candidate is certain. This was enough when the opposition was splintered. But with the opposition deciding to fight on a common plank things changed. VOC can never dream of making inroads into the impervious Red Fort of SFI – MH. But then the votes from MH doesn’t really matter if the rest of the college unitedly votes for them; after all MH accounts for only 600 out of the total 2500 eligible voters. The problem was, there was no single force or person to unite the splintered votes (mainly that of Day Scholars).

This is where the shrewd political strategists in VOC drew inspiration from Lord Curzon and his policy of ‘Divide and Rule’. To consolidate the ‘other’ (everything except MH) votes, VOC decided to champion the cause of Dayschis. If SFI is for MH then VOC is for Dayschis became the unproclaimed political slogan. How far they have been successful can be said only after the next elections.

The writing on the wall is clear with SFI (read Union) and VOC (read Opposition) deciding to conduct separate youth festivals, mock placement tests and strikes. You may call it double dhamaka offer. But I would have preferred one of each, organized by the ‘students of CET’. All this, vindicates my views on student politics and the need for reforms in Kerala’s College campuses. Before my analysis becomes an overdose of criticism, let me stop.

The White Smoke: - As school students we have learnt History. Wise men believe, learning History is to learn our past mistakes. The seeds of divisive, hatred politics have only been sown. Let us stand united and fight it; a fight for our CET.

This article was written when I was in my Fifth Semester and before the College elections for that year had been held. The original article was first published in www.cetafi.net

Homo sapiens – a class of castes ?

2006-05-18T22:23:00.000+05:30

The Indian Constitution guarantees all citizens ‘Equality’. The intention and meaning is simple and straightforward. So let me not muddle it with unnecessary definitions. But wait, the same Constitution, a few pages later, advises the govt. to make necessary ‘provisions for the upliftment of the downtrodden and backward classes in the society’. Now this poses a few questions. How can special provisions be made for a section of the society without it being unfair to the rest? How do we ensure equality for all? The answer is simple, but it certainly isn’t ‘Reservation’.

Even after 58 years of Independence, our society is neck-deep in caste politics and, as though to sustain this forever, a large section of the population (known to psephomologists as ‘backward classes’) is still under-developed. To uplift these sections and to bring social justice to all, reservation is not the way. Reservation in education, I argue, goes against the right to equality our Constitution guarantees. Anything that provides a short-cut for a section of the people is definitely unfair to the rest. Before coming to the solution, let me discuss few more points, which explain the danger and ineffectiveness of Reservation.

To simply put it, Reservation is as ineffective as a ladder at the treetop. A student who secures admission to a professional course through reservation will find the going tough. He is under-prepared for the course demands and in most probability will lag behind meritorious students, if he hasn’t already dropped out after a year. This is not the student’s fault. He or she wasn’t given the proper training/schooling that would have equipped them to handle the course workload. If such students ‘somehow manage’ to complete the course, they end up as a curse to themselves and the society. Imagine the dangers half-baked doctors or ignorant engineers can do to the society.

The architects of our Constitution wanted special provisions for backward classes, with the aim of ultimately creating a casteless society. But today, the number of fake caste certificates being issued and the fight for caste-vote-banks is more prominent than ever before. There are many who cite the experiment of South Indian states with reservation as a success. There are reports, which suggest that the standard of education has gone down in most of these universities. Moreover, it is only a small percentage of the backward class population who benefit from reservation. The proposed number of reserved seats, though proportional to their population, is still only a small fraction of their population. Thus, while a minority among them climb up the prosperity ladder, others continue to support the ladder, hoping that one day they too can climb it. Even among the beneficiaries, a good number belong to the creamy layer whose ‘backwardness’ exists only in the caste certificate. Thus reservation as a means for uplifting the whole backward population is ineffective.

Instead of feeding at the finishing point, we need to start from the kindergarten level. Government schools with good facilities and teachers need to be set up in every nook and corner of our country. All sections of the population have to be made aware of the advantages of education. Once both these have been done, automatically we create a generation, who are equally well trained and differ from one another only to the extent of individual hard-work put in. The knowledge and exposure of all the students is same and this sets a platform from where admissions can be made to professional courses based only on merit. This is the solution and, unfortunately, the proposition government would least like to follow.

Reservation is a crooked short-cut harmful to the society; nevertheless a short cut. Creating excellent schooling infrastructure across the length and breadth of the country requires determination and is time consuming. It requires a large amount of money too. In comparison, reserving a percentage and increasing the total number of seats is easy and inexpensive. But if we consider the fact that the money required is little when compared to the thousands of crores being spent for Commonwealth Games preparation and also the reality that current resources in colleges are strained, my solution seems ideal.

As mentioned earlier, it will take same time before good government schools can be built everywhere. My younger brother suggested, as a temporary measure, adding 4 to 5 seats per division in each private school, to which admission would be only from the BCs. Mind you, the word was ‘addition’ and not reservation. But this won’t suffice to educate the whole population and ultimately it is the government’s duty to provide quality schooling to all.

I would like to go a step further and suggest means by which a student’s economic background can be made a non-factor in the admission process. Out of the total number of seats available, a few have to be reserved for sports, handicapped, Adivasis and other such categories. All the remaining must be filled under the general category with merit as the sole criteria. The fees for a course has to be fixed by the government, after considering all the expenses, and must be applicable to both private and government colleges. Students unable to bear the expense, should be supported by the government directly or in arrangement with financial institutions. A written undertaking must be obtained from such students, stating that the money spent on their education will be repaid over a period of time starting from the time he secures a job. This presents a win-win situation for both the parties concerned as neither is any student denied a chance to study nor is the government losing money as it tries to deliver social justice.

Reservation can never provide the self-esteem that the student enjoys when he/she gets admission through merit. Only when rulers realize this, and stop caste politics, will the backward classes’ true upliftment start.

The Last Ink Drop : I hope I live to see the day, when a student will have to fill in his admission form, besides Name, D.O.B, Parents’ Name and Address, only his Sex; because humans are only of two types – male and female.