What about your parents?

Do you think it is a crucial question? But I think so. Once I heard an incident which alarmed me about the plight future of the aged parents. You believe or not : an old lady was found in a bus stand in the midst of a waste deposit as tightened in a sack. It was found by the Kudumbsree members came for cleaning that area. When they were categorizing this waste, heard a  kind and pathetic voice. 

Actually I had wrote an eye opening results of a survey conducted by Help age. Unfortunately that failed to publish.Now I am trying to replicate that. But that figures are not available. India having above 40% youths and above 30% aged.... can be considered as a boon or bane. Why it is so is in the sense of boon - more man power will be available, but in bane is the shortage of employment opportunities and high investment on  health aspects. 

90% in loneliness, 35% forced to work for earning in their disabilities, 60% uncared by children, 27% separated etc......................

Why we cant care our parents? I also remember some sad moments with my grand parent. I cant remember these terrible moments that I made wrong emotions. But I fully realizing his love, affection, care, humbleness and all. Most respected by all........ Strong believer of God who guided me a lot to move ahead. Frankly speaking. Sometimes my sadness flow out and my heart will beat faster than normal. At his old age his hearing lost partially but his affection increased thrice. Some times I irritated by his countinious questions and hesitated to answer.    You know, he was some what bold and self conscious, he will not change when he decides something, eat sumptuously and shout irresistibly. There were some strong  fights between him and me. not physically but verbally. Some times it exceeds the limit of our house walls. Not by our sound but by our strong grit and uncompromising attitude. Now I am praying...........My God, I know I am very emotional in nature and uncompromising in attitude and pride with ego. But great fortune that I have realized it. 

At his last times he loved me very much and enormously. But I was out of station. Once I visited my grandpa while he was in bed and very tired. He stood up with all his efforts and embrace me hold his hand on my neck and kissed. Then put his hand on my head and blessed repeatedly. That happened many times/occasions. But I failed to accept his love. I was not in a mood to fell a  drops even his funeral function. 

I know,  now it is a deep wound in my heart and I am fearful remember my wrong doings. I am realizing that some uncompromisable attitude of my grand pa made me like that. I can explain you an incident, When I got a job in Trivandrum, I normally gone to my house twice in a month. Once I reached my house, my grand pa was not there and he was in my Uncles house. Some what intentionally I refused to meet him that day by remembering some bad incidents. Tomorrow morning I met him and expected a warm welcome and love. But he refused to meet me and remarked that why dont you come to see me yesterday?. I was really insulted and left there. I thought that he said it in a wrong intention. But later I realized that he loved me very much. But my chance were over while accepting this fact.

I have heard a stroy in my child hood and it says like as follows.

An 80 year old man was sitting on the sofa in his house along with his 45-year old highly educated son.Suddenly a crow perched on their window.The Father asked his Son, "What is this?" The Son replied "It is a crow". After a few minutes, the Father asked his Son the 2nd time, "What is this?" The Son said "Father, I have just now told you "It's a crow". After a little while, the old Father again asked his Son the 3rd time, "What is this?" At this time some expression of irritation was felt in the Son's tone when he said to his Father with a rebuff. "It's a crow, a crow". A little after, the Father again asked his Son t he 4th time, "What is this?" This time the Son shouted at his Father, "Why do you keep asking me the same question again and again,although I have told you so many times 'IT IS A CROW'. Are you not able to understand this?"A little later the Father went to his room and came back with an old tattered diary, which he had maintained since his Son was born. On opening a page, he asked his Son to read that page. When the son read it, the following words were written in the diary: - 

"Today my little son aged three was sitting with me on the sofa, when a crow was sitting on the window. My Son asked me 23 times what it was, and I replied to him all 23 times that it was a Crow. I hugged him lovingly each time h e asked me the same question again and again for 23 times. I did not at all feel irritated. I rather felt affection for my innocent child".

The elderly can be seen as burdens rather than blessings. Sometimes we are quick to forget the sacrifices are parents made for us when they are in need of care themselves. Instead of taking them into our homes—whenever that is safe and feasible—we put them in retirement communities or nursing homes, sometimes against their will. We may not value the wisdom they have acquired through living long lives, and we can discredit their advice as “outdated.”

When we honor and care for our parents, we are serving God as well. The Bible says, “The church should care for any widow who has no one else to care for her. But if she has children or grandchildren, their first responsibility is to show godliness at home and repay their parents by taking care of them. This is something that pleases God very much....But those who won't care for their own relatives, especially those living in the same household, have denied what we believe. Such people are worse than unbelievers” 

The decisions of Governemnt is welcoming and there efforts to care our old aged people. National Policy on old persons, Parent maintanace act, pensions and orphanages etc. are most welcoming. But I think it is not sufficient for parent caring. An in depth study, strong amendments and implementation mechanisnm etc should strengthen.  

Caste Census - Logic

In a secularist country, boiled on democracy and cherished by equity is now decided for caste census. It is unfortunate that it has been included as a separate category in Census 2011. Our leaders refer to a casteless  society only in speech not in practice. 

I am really wondering that how this caste system and census help the growth of our economy. I think it will divide society further as more and more groups will demand reservation in government jobs or in education institution on their caste identities. 

It may create more disturbance if some category dropped from reservation and if some unreserved entered in to this list. This nexus lead to a miserable situation to Government as well as decision making authorities. 

Creative Criticism - Common wealth Games

Frankly speaking I realized the worth of media only after the common wealth game controversies. Perhaps most of the criticism were political in nature and focused on personals. But all the creative and cremate arguments contributed well to complete this game village which was appreciated by authorities. This criticism continued till the game started. But that made to be vigilant and careful the Games committee.   Initially the condition games village was so pathetic and that gave shame to sports of India. But every thing happened well.

Now I request your interest to some needs - especially my most respected and dignified journalists and media personnels , not the paid news authorities and craca agencies. It needs your immediate and intense attention to social matters, corruption, social upliftment and rural development.   Most of our people are not aware about their rights and benefits. In addition to this they are exploiting by majors. Now its the moment to intervene in these aspects. A wide positive and  creative criticism in this aspects are the need of this hour. Be a responsible media

Manishankar - Yet another humiliation

Former senior congress leader Manisankar Iyyer left Delhi after his controversial statement against Common Wealth Games Delhi. He remarked that he will be very sad if the game become a success. What he mentioned that - We are not expected to spend such a huge amount of money for Common Wealth Games and this amount should spend fro the poor village people and for the sports infrastructure development. This may be a creative but desperate suggestion. In the middle of this humiliation he escaped from India to Iyerland and proclaimed that I am not in a mood to attend this game.

What I found in this remark is that we are spending huge amount of money for development aspects that are also deal with rural, employment, health etc. and it is also in a progress stage. In addition to this we are optimistic that we can achieve a major slice of pie of Millennium Development Goal (MDG) before 2015. Along with  this we should spend sufficient amount of money in sports development in India, identify and train qualified sportsmen, equal importance for all items, avoid over importance of cricket etc. should be our major objective. We are countiniously  out of major games and that may be because of  lack of competency and training.Another stark fact is that the Olympic medal for medicine was grabbed only by the personal efforts and investments of athletes. 

Obviously it the time to give more focus on sports and regain Hockey world cup, play Foot ball world cup and gain sufficient medals in Olympics. The positive shift of developing sports infrastructure like sports injury center, training center, rejuvenation center etc are paving way to build the sports potential of India. 

ANOTHER CONCERN - KASHMIR

It is the need of our to think seriously on Kashmir - paradise of tourists. Once it was the state independent for seculars - those didn't like to move towards Pakistan and India. Later it was demanded by three countries simultaneousnesly, Pakistan, India and China. We are calling a part of Kashmir as Pak occupied Kasmir (PoK) and China remarked that 'India controlled Kasmir'. But the fact it is still under the ownership of India.
Now the question is why these huge riolts and violence going on in Kashmir. ?

Omar and Farookh Abdullas striven their best to made the situation under control and utterly failed. Chidambaram, Pranab and Manmohan were put their efforts and it was again in vein. At last a all party meeting that reached to a short term relief to violence. As per the constitution - Military has special power in Kasmir and it is not accepted by some evil powers. I think that 8 point formula clicked well.

Obviously I meant this terrorists especially Gilani. The foreign fraud Gilani- Pak and internal horror maker Gilani Kasmir are the real players and pivotal of Kashmir issue.A strong military movement id further impossible and a peace initiative is most welcoming.
The Gilani like people who strongly influenced the people of Kashmir lead them to a bad and worst impact. They again need to be the part of Pakistan.
The 81 year old Geelani is seen as an icon of the 'freedom struggle'by most yong people in Kashmir. Notwithstanding his hard - line pro - Pakistan views and uncompromising stand on the Kashmir issue, he consolidated the pro - freedom sentiment that was revived after killing of teenage. In addition to this Asiya Andrabi, a supporter of Islamic state and Massarat Alam.
Lets hope this successful package stick these people with India.
                     
 

Yet another pride for Malayalam

Recently our epic  poet and professor O N V (Ottaplavil Neelakandan Velu Kurup)  honored by Jnapith for his extraordinary contributions to the field of Malayalam literature. This ever high honor for literature by Govt of India reaching to Kerala fifth times. ONV, as he is popularly known, has been selected for the award for 2007. He is the second poet after G. Sankara Kurup to get this award for poetry.

The other three Jnanpith award winners from Kerala are S.K. Pottekad (1980), Thakazhi Siva Sankara Pillai (1984) and M.T. Vasudevan Nair (1995).

The poet ONV has a great influence from my child hood onwards. As a environmental activist and conservative, I was really worried about the environmental concerns and this concern was ignited by the poem 'Bhoomikkoru charamageetham' that was written by our dearest poet ONV. Now I look back and realize what is the sharpness of letters - if it is from the heart of realistics. 

As a poet he has great affection towards his mother land as well as mother tongue. He fights well against the distraction and violent habits of human being. In addition to this he loved our mother tongue Malayalam and once remarked - this continuous neglecting of Malayalam by modern generation will not lead to a sustainable growth. As Keralites we should respect, dignify and use our mother tongue Malayalam. 

Lets come together....................... and

stand for our Malayalam and move for our nature and environment. 

Maoist - a Threat

Some times I think Maoism is the biggest threat to our democracy and country. The parallel and rebel mechanism not only deplete the well organized structure of democracy but badly influence people. I mentioned this in post earlier.  But now we should think it deeply and avoid all hesitation to destruct this evil force. 
Maoist in literal terms means the followers of Mao Je Dang, the most popular face of Chinese communist movement that overthrew the monarchy in China few decades ago. Maoists in India have a similar intention to defy the democratically elected government and establish an autocratic state based on communist ideologies. Originally started a popular peasant movement in the state of West Bengal during 1970’s, it gradually turned into a violent struggle and spread to almost a third of country’s geographical area mainly covering less developed, tribal dominant, inaccessible hilly and forested areas of West Bengal, Andhra Pradesh, Chhattisgarh, Odisha and Maharashtra.

Maoist movement is often argued as a reactionary rebellion of capitalist exploitation and government apathy. After independence, India’s growth has not been able to alleviate the regional disparities but eventually worsened it. The capitalist oriented industrial economy couple with the inaccessibility of the hostile topography and lack of political will has left the central part of India far behind its other parts. However many mining industries have tried to make use of its huge reserves of mineral resources. These mining activities have mostly encroached upon the social systems of the original inhabitants. Their lands have been forcefully taken over in exchange of some inadequate compensation. The lifeline of their economic and religious activity, the hilly forested areas, has been torn apart. In addition, various social and economic program of the government fail to reach them due to high level of redtapism, corruption and inefficiency. As a result, the deprived people turn to using force against the state citing the reason of years of injustice and inefficient grievance redress system. With the availability of arms and plenty of landmines mainly used for mining activities in the area, this struggle takes the form of a violent armed revolt. There is little doubt that the Maoist movement is one such mass struggle. But some also argue it to be a foreign aided internal conflict to destabilize the country. Whatever may be the cause of this movement, it is definitely fuelled by the industrial repression and government inaction. Over the time, Maoists have somehow distracted from their ideology and instead of fighting for the poor in a democratic manner, they are on a killing spree eliminating anybody who they suspect to be against them.

Maoists have their base camps deep inside dense forests. They collect arms by attacking local police arsenals and possibly through some foreign consignments. By blackmailing and threatening the local wealthy property owners and industrialists, they gather their finance. It is also reported that Maoists have taken off the food grains provided to schools, situated in their controlled areas, under Midday Meal program. They often attack in groups, most of the time outnumbering the personnel on the target, and leave posters with their messages. Their prime target has been various communication networks like mobile towers and state establishments like railway stations, railway tracks and police stations. They declare the area of their influence as the so called “Liberated Zone”. They establish an autocratic style of rule for the same. They justify the violent public killing of innocent civilians by charges of police sympathy or exploitation of local people. The railway track damages often lead to derailment like accidents killing many innocent lives. The Maoist menace is now treated as single biggest internal threat to the security and integrity of India.

Government response to the Maoist movement has been that of double standard. On one hand it declares to take on the armed revolt with force but on the other it backtracks due to the protests by human right activists. Booker Prize winning writer Arundhanti Roy has termed the forceful government suppression as a war raged against its own citizens. The result has been a delay in military deployment. An operation named “Operation Greenhunt” has been executed by the paramilitary forces like CRPF and CoBRA. However this has met with marginal success and there has been many life losses of the security personnel. The Dantewada Massacre of 72 policemen by around a thousand Maoists in April this year is the worse ever setback faced. Security forces and sometimes civilians are routinely getting killed by landmine blasts and collective attack by an overwhelmingly large number of armed cadres. Reports of beheading of a government employee also speak about the barbarism and fearlessness of Maoists. In states like Chhattisgarh, government sponsored militant outfits like Salwa Judum are fighting the Maoists in their very own way. But this has been severely criticized for its human right abuses and worsening state’s credibility as a guardian of law and order. Andhra Pradesh has built a specialized commando force named “Grey Hound” and has met with some success in tackling the growing insurgency. Overall, the acute scarcity of policemen in comparison to the Maoists, difficult terrain, lack of jungle warfare expertise and sometimes hostile local population has limited the success rate heavily.

Some scholars advocate to look at the crisis from an ideological angle. Maoists follow communism and its reflected in their organizing structure. All the cadres are treated as equals and only the decision making lies with the cadre up the hierarchy. The head even shares the same cigar with the fellow cadres. But our mainstream society is far from being egalitarian with the caste ghosts and power hierarchy still looming large. A significant social transformation is required to solve it ideologically. Maoist sympathizers have rightly awakened the government to its inefficient regional policies and failure to integrate the poor tribal populace with the mainstream. However the brutal and animistic killing of innocent lives by Maoists in retaliation can never be justified. Government needs to step up its police actions and if needed to take the military assistance to make the Maoists abjure violence. At the same time it needs to guard against any human rights violation and provide adequate social and economic incentives to all sections across the length and breadth of the country.
I strongly suggest that this Operation Green hunt and Kobra should be more practical and creative. Nothing happen like in Srilanka. But it is possible by taking the people in our hands not by force, threats and money but by effective welfare packages.