Please contribute generously for relief of Tsunami victims. Contribute to the Indian Prime Minister's Relief Fund [See Details].
People who want to help may send bank drafts/cheques in the name Indian Red Cross Society, New Delhi. One may also deposit cash or relief material at the Delhi office.
The society is accepting everything except perishable items and used clothes.
Address: Indian Red Cross Society, 1, Red Cross Road, New Delhi - 110001 Phone: (011) 23716441, 23716234
Source: http://tsunamihelp.blogspot.com/
Tuesday, December 28, 2004
The Goa-Kerala Mix-I
Goa and Kerala claim to have similar tastes of natural goodies with Sea, fish, churches, and of course coconut palms that sway with tsunamistic abandon along vast stretches of beaches. Unfortunately, the similarities end more or less with these. An exception being both states have their natives as Non-residents [The Gulf variety!]. The two states boast of dinars, riyals, and dollars stached as NRI fixed deposits contribute to our overflowing foriegn reserves[$130 billion as on 17 December 2004]. It is interesting to note why the states are so similar but people far apart.
The common obsessions of Kerala and Goa: Chaya and Cha [A cuppa tea anytime, anywhere, everywhere], Sunday morining mass at the church, Mackerel ['Chaala' in Mallu speak] fish is a hit, grated coconut is a must if it is chicken curry in Kerala or Chicken Xacuti in Goa. Unfortunately, Kerala despite having good beaches and tropical clime looses to Goa because of a narrow mindset, lack of trust, and social one-up man ship.
Series 1 starts with Kerala vices, the twin obsessions, Alcohol, and Gold
Alcohol: Though not in alphabetic order, Alcohol will undisputedly figure as a topper in Kerala. It is said if a mallu has a newspaper in his left hand, he holds a drink with his left hand. The drink used to be the piping hot Kannan Devan Chaya [Tea]. Lately, that has been replaced by strong spirits. Every marriage has to be preceded by a bachelor's party with "Teachers" to "Oldmonks" blessing all the young men of the village or town. It is today claimed as a right of every mallu male to get invited for the party. Social networks they say, are built around the brand of drink he holds. It is also very necessary that one lets the whole world know that he is drunk by venturing into the streets, and finally pouring out his "voes". From "anamayakki" to "100 pipers", Kerala boasts of a record per capita consumption of 8.3 liters of spirited juice[1].
Gold, Gold and more Gold...
Getting that precious yellow metal is a keralites obsession. Every keralite lady knows the number 24 worth the gold and that a karat is not same as a carrot. Now, with diamonds shining they have replaced the k with a C for Carat. Every small town in Kerala boasts of a Gold souk, or a Jewel Junction. Alappat, Alukkas, Bhima, Josco have become household names. Marriages become auspicious when the brides father commits in multi-soverigns to the question"Ethra swarnam ittu?" [How much gold did you put?]. A malayalee's worth in kerala is measured in the weight of gold bars, ornaments his wife posseses in the bank locker. The jewel junction in Cochin alone boasts of more jewellery shops than in Goa. Probably, the metal has god in it 'GO-l-D'
Next Blog...will look at the keralite obsessions of Comedy, Sex, and Gulf
Goa and Kerala claim to have similar tastes of natural goodies with Sea, fish, churches, and of course coconut palms that sway with tsunamistic abandon along vast stretches of beaches. Unfortunately, the similarities end more or less with these. An exception being both states have their natives as Non-residents [The Gulf variety!]. The two states boast of dinars, riyals, and dollars stached as NRI fixed deposits contribute to our overflowing foriegn reserves[$130 billion as on 17 December 2004]. It is interesting to note why the states are so similar but people far apart.
The common obsessions of Kerala and Goa: Chaya and Cha [A cuppa tea anytime, anywhere, everywhere], Sunday morining mass at the church, Mackerel ['Chaala' in Mallu speak] fish is a hit, grated coconut is a must if it is chicken curry in Kerala or Chicken Xacuti in Goa. Unfortunately, Kerala despite having good beaches and tropical clime looses to Goa because of a narrow mindset, lack of trust, and social one-up man ship.
Series 1 starts with Kerala vices, the twin obsessions, Alcohol, and Gold
Alcohol: Though not in alphabetic order, Alcohol will undisputedly figure as a topper in Kerala. It is said if a mallu has a newspaper in his left hand, he holds a drink with his left hand. The drink used to be the piping hot Kannan Devan Chaya [Tea]. Lately, that has been replaced by strong spirits. Every marriage has to be preceded by a bachelor's party with "Teachers" to "Oldmonks" blessing all the young men of the village or town. It is today claimed as a right of every mallu male to get invited for the party. Social networks they say, are built around the brand of drink he holds. It is also very necessary that one lets the whole world know that he is drunk by venturing into the streets, and finally pouring out his "voes". From "anamayakki" to "100 pipers", Kerala boasts of a record per capita consumption of 8.3 liters of spirited juice[1].
Gold, Gold and more Gold...
Getting that precious yellow metal is a keralites obsession. Every keralite lady knows the number 24 worth the gold and that a karat is not same as a carrot. Now, with diamonds shining they have replaced the k with a C for Carat. Every small town in Kerala boasts of a Gold souk, or a Jewel Junction. Alappat, Alukkas, Bhima, Josco have become household names. Marriages become auspicious when the brides father commits in multi-soverigns to the question"Ethra swarnam ittu?" [How much gold did you put?]. A malayalee's worth in kerala is measured in the weight of gold bars, ornaments his wife posseses in the bank locker. The jewel junction in Cochin alone boasts of more jewellery shops than in Goa. Probably, the metal has god in it 'GO-l-D'
Next Blog...will look at the keralite obsessions of Comedy, Sex, and Gulf
Monday, December 27, 2004
Kerala Mix-III
Kerala Mix-III
After delving into the three Amigos in Contemporary Kerala -Alchohol, Gold, and Comedy [My previous blogs]. We look at the most repulsive yet omnipresent word in Mallu land "SEX". I donot want to sound like another of those "oh! this is a dangerous trend" conservatists. Read the following article titled "Sex and the Mallu" [pun intended!] which appeared in The Week Magazine [November 24-28, 2004] issue. Sex was always bottled up in the psyche, but what does one do when the bottle is transparent for all to see? Some pointers to the trends;
1. At any point in time, there are atleast 5 sex scandals/crimes in Kerala
2. One out of three Indian Adult films is a Keralites work of art [From Kashmir to Kanyakumari, that sleazy "Pyasi Jawani" or "Raat ki Raani" poster you saw on the Mumbai bylanes or along the Guntur road is a dubbed Mallu porn movie].
3. An established mallu movie sex siren is more popular than a malayalam superstar in India[ Ask 10 Indians in India whether they know Shakeela and Dilip?, chances are 8 out of 10 will say they know Shakeela].
last point...
4. If you know who Shakeela is without my blog link, it proves why Sex in God's own Country is a hit.
After delving into the three Amigos in Contemporary Kerala -Alchohol, Gold, and Comedy [My previous blogs]. We look at the most repulsive yet omnipresent word in Mallu land "SEX". I donot want to sound like another of those "oh! this is a dangerous trend" conservatists. Read the following article titled "Sex and the Mallu" [pun intended!] which appeared in The Week Magazine [November 24-28, 2004] issue. Sex was always bottled up in the psyche, but what does one do when the bottle is transparent for all to see? Some pointers to the trends;
1. At any point in time, there are atleast 5 sex scandals/crimes in Kerala
2. One out of three Indian Adult films is a Keralites work of art [From Kashmir to Kanyakumari, that sleazy "Pyasi Jawani" or "Raat ki Raani" poster you saw on the Mumbai bylanes or along the Guntur road is a dubbed Mallu porn movie].
3. An established mallu movie sex siren is more popular than a malayalam superstar in India[ Ask 10 Indians in India whether they know Shakeela and Dilip?, chances are 8 out of 10 will say they know Shakeela].
last point...
4. If you know who Shakeela is without my blog link, it proves why Sex in God's own Country is a hit.
Blogging and the Semantic Web
The Association of Computing Machinery has dedicated the December 2004 issue of Communications of ACM [CACM] for Blogs [Weblogs, Blogosphere]. Articles and survey research on the evolution, creation, and the reasons of blogging activity are documented. This holds great significance to understand the social networks in virtual reality, virtual communications, psychology of virtual behavior, demographic and social factors behind blogging. Blogging as a knowledge management tool has great potential. It is not too far when all the knowledge of Internet is captured using semantic tags, xml feeds, and syndication. The question is can we semantically map all the information from the internet into knowledge? The idea is to create a self-organising internet that is autonomous in nature. An internet powered by itself can capture, and deliver content without facing hardware and software technology hurdles. A blog can be a warehouse of agents [blog agents] that communicate with other blog agents. The blog agents will conspire to accomplish a desired user goal without any intervention. Say, you are blogging from Rajasthan [India], and you blog that you are lost and cannot find a way back. Your blog agent signals the internet. This trigger unleashes a series of agents that communicate with other travel blog agents residing in other travel blogs. They find precision maps, weather information, travel agents, and even book tickets. Blogs have been regarded as personal diary and journals, but why not a personal secretary or assistant that can accomplish tasks? It makes more sense than a diary.
Saturday, December 11, 2004
Rayachem-Bandar
The history of Goa and Ribandar.
Ribander and Raibander [originates from "Rayachem Bandar" meaning the Port of Rayas 14th century Vijayanagara Kings], Goa, the abode of Goan artists has an envious history. The Vijayanagara kings fought the Bahmani sultans in this place, then called Raichur Doab. V. S. Naipal called the Vijayanagara empire the last frontier bastion of Hindu civilisation. In 1510 Goa went on to the hands of the Portuguese, who went on to make it another Lisbon in the south. They say that he who has seen Goa need not see Lisbon [I donot know how far it is true today!].
Historical places of Ribander-
The Old Goa-Panjim Cause way "Ponte de Linhares"- Built in 1633 by Portuguese Viceroy, Conde de Linhares
Our Lady of Ajuda Church- Built in 1565, today known as the Church of Ribander. The ship carrying the body of St. Francis Xavier was welcomed with canon salute [you can see some canons in the church premises] at this church on the night of 14th March, 1554. You will not be surprised to see the architectural shape of the church. It is built like a Ship, beside the Mandovi river.
Finally, Santa Casa De Misericordia [The Royal Portuguese Hospital]: Today it houses one of the finest Management schools in India-Goa Institute of Management. It is a heritage structure and has been left unchanged despite the pressures of housing a college.
Just some snippets I gathered from some internet research, though it was not easy to get anything on Ribander. Good night
Ribander and Raibander [originates from "Rayachem Bandar" meaning the Port of Rayas 14th century Vijayanagara Kings], Goa, the abode of Goan artists has an envious history. The Vijayanagara kings fought the Bahmani sultans in this place, then called Raichur Doab. V. S. Naipal called the Vijayanagara empire the last frontier bastion of Hindu civilisation. In 1510 Goa went on to the hands of the Portuguese, who went on to make it another Lisbon in the south. They say that he who has seen Goa need not see Lisbon [I donot know how far it is true today!].
Historical places of Ribander-
The Old Goa-Panjim Cause way "Ponte de Linhares"- Built in 1633 by Portuguese Viceroy, Conde de Linhares
Our Lady of Ajuda Church- Built in 1565, today known as the Church of Ribander. The ship carrying the body of St. Francis Xavier was welcomed with canon salute [you can see some canons in the church premises] at this church on the night of 14th March, 1554. You will not be surprised to see the architectural shape of the church. It is built like a Ship, beside the Mandovi river.
Finally, Santa Casa De Misericordia [The Royal Portuguese Hospital]: Today it houses one of the finest Management schools in India-Goa Institute of Management. It is a heritage structure and has been left unchanged despite the pressures of housing a college.
Just some snippets I gathered from some internet research, though it was not easy to get anything on Ribander. Good night
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