alert police by sms

great move from the police in kerala india.

any one can send an sms about a crime ,
unseemly gathering , waste dumping and
what not to the police . they will know the
location instantly and send a team to the
spot.

great as an idea but not sure about the
degree of greatness in implementaion.

another great idea is to install camera for
public viewing in strategic locations like
traffic junctions, parks or any sensitive
places which need to be watched. and feed
the video on to an iternet site which the public
can watch . enable viewer feed back and put in
place a mechanism to monitor it.

any one who is familiar with the internet knows
these video feeds will be viewed 24/7. someone
will be there on the site , from abraod if not from
the country, at any given time. and if the facility
is there they will report anything worth reporting.

24 hour surveillance with almost no cost.

F D I

FOREIGN  DIRECT  INTERVENTION



F D I is probably the most popular word in circulation today.
Foreign Direct Investment in retail trade saw our parliament
sitting idle for days together. It gave our MPs another
opportunity to exercise their vocal chords without taxing
their grey cells.

But it was the media that celebrated the most. while the print
media showcased analytical masterpieces on their edit page , our
broadcast friends brought the experts into our drawing rooms. the only
thing that probably lacked was the facility to link to the experts and
ask them questions during the discussions.

Social networking websites made up for this loss. any one could post
whatever they felt and thought they felt about the issue in these
sites. any one could respond to oppose or support any arguement.

In short the issue was discussed so thoroughly that the parliament
has now decided to restart normal function. which means that there is
no scope for another article on the issue. except maybe to highlight a
specific argument i came across during the celebrations.

The argument which first appeared in an expert article on the edit page
of a prominent newpaper said walmart and other international marts
never skip taxes . it is not in their blood. unlike our domestic maals
and wayside petty shops, these global traders bill every transaction.
and the government stands to gain on the tax account. the article went
on to argue that f d i in retial trade should be supported for this economic
reason if not for numerous other reasons both social and political.

It was indeed an eye opener to me. i never knew that tax compliance
could be ensured that easily. i could not also figure out what this meant
to our economy. and i confess that the scope of our own traders turning
honest billers and tax payers, taking a cue from these global brothers,
was not obvious to me until i read the article.

The very purpose of this article therefore is to support foreign direct
intervention in retail trade. thereafter we can slowly but steadily
invite FDI in other areas like law and order, judiciary , defence
matters and finally elections and other democratic entertainments.



m k mathai

what is happening to malayalam ?

മലയാളത്തിനു എന്താണ് പറ്റുന്നത്‌ ?


" തട്ടിയെടുക്കപ്പെട്ട ചരക്കുകപ്പല്‍ മോചിപ്പിച്ചു "

മോചിപ്പിക്കപ്പെട്ടു എന്ന് വേണ്ടേ ?

തട്ടിയെടുത്ത കപ്പല്‍ മോചിപ്പിച്ചു

എന്നതല്ലേ ശരിക്കും ഭംഗി ?

i am afraid

i am afraid to travel alone . in a bus .
in day light . in a town . in kerala.
any one could stand up and say
i picked his pocket.
no one would hear me.
they would start beating me.
if a police man is in the crowd
i might be laid on a bench
and hit on my vital parts.

i am afraid to travel alone .
i will not be allowed to talk
no one would help me.
no one would stand for reason.
every one would enjoy my plight.
i  might be killed.

i am afraid to travel .
i might be killed.
and nothing would happen to my killers.
they would say i looked like a thief.
they would say i moved suspiciously.
they would say i didnt look a like a person
who owned the cash i carried on my person.

i am afraid to travel  .
i might be killed.
and the society would forget and forgive.
they would say it was my fate.
they would say it was accidental .
they might say it is sad but a warning.
they might make me a martyr .
but nothing would ever change.

i am afraid
you could be killed
any one could be killed
just for no rhyme or reason
becoz not a soul cares
not a man dares
no one  airs any views any more.

sabarimala tragedy

sabarimala pilgrimage is unique in many ways. it is one place where equality is practised not only preached. every pilgrim is a an ayyappan. nothing to distinguish the welathy , the learned , the powerful from the rest. all wear the black robes and carry the the two bags. a rare sight of a million human beings moving with one mind chanting same mantras.

sabarimala pilgrimage is characterised by yet another great feature . during the pilgrimage and the preparatory days one is not supposed to feel negative emotions like anger or behave badly not only with fellow pilgrims but any one on the street. even if you try deliberately to pick a quarrel with a sabarimala pilgrim he will simply say he is an ayyappan and walk away.

sabarimala pilgrim is the embodiment of many other noble traits. compassion, empathy, concern are all hallmarks of an ayyappan. not to talk of restraint and sacrifice .

now read the reports of the tragedy on the makara vilakku eve. ayyappans vying with each other to catch an auto to go back in luxury. shop keepers beating ayyappans and some of the ayyappans retorting in the same coin. ayyappans trampling and walking over fellow ayyappans.

should we doubt that genuine faith is missing ? is sabarimala pilgrimage becoming another festival to show off and enjoy ?

is makaravilakku tragedy a failure of faith ? an omen of the decline and a divine invitation to mend our ways and avoid the fall ? a godsend ? ഒരു നിമിത്തം ?

petrol price hike and the common man

this should be technology at its best .
cars running 30 kilometres or more on a litre of diesel.
great indeed. but the catch is that these cars are costly.

costlier than cars running on petrol.
so the common man ends up buying petrol cars.
and he gets mileage of 10 kilometres or less.

so the rich people run their cars for as little
as one rupee per kilometre while the common man
spends around four rupees for the same kilometre.

so the hike in petrol price hits the midle class,
who drive two wheelers and petrol cars, the most.
but we are told that petrol price is allowed to go up
( while the diesel price is still held down )
as it affects only the rich.

so much for indoctrinating the public. but why the
technology which gives 30 kilometres per litre
of diesel is not adopted in petrol cars remains a mystery.
or why diesel is still subsidised ( shifting the cost
to the exchequer which in turn loads onto the tax payer )
is not clear. if the argument is that goods are transported
using diesel vehicles then what is holding up the adoption
of the high mileage common rail technology in our trucks
and goods carriers is not clear

conservation and all that

let us not destroy the trees. that is fine. but tree is an asset. let us not be foolish not to exploit this asset. allow the trees to grow to its full strength . then cut them and use them. even if it is for the good of the world let us not abstain from utilising our natural resources. the countries which forbid us now are the ones who exploited forests and all other resources mercilessly and in the process overtook the other nations.

but it does not mean that we should deplete our forests. in fact we should increase the forest . and we can . plant more trees. for every tree that is cut ensure that two trees are planted and nurtured.

let us grow trees cut and use the trees and grow more trees