Them Thar FM Prattles…

It is quite some years since the first FM radio station, promising ‘24×7,continuous , non-stop  music ’ hit the ether in Kerala… way back  on November 29, 2007 ,to be precise. Close on its heels followed many others , like vultures after a kill…all promising the same kind of fare.

Initially,  it was indeed like a breath of fresh air after the ‘monotonic tonic’ dished out by the the government-owned FM radio stations. As a morning walker with the earphones glued to the … er… ears, I was quite happy at first , relishing  the technical plus points of the new broadcasts and trying to enjoy their contents. And then slowly the real nature of these broadcasts hit me  and I felt  a terribly let down.

Normally you build a  wall using  bricks with cement in between them. What happens if the process is reversed into one where   the wall is built with cement , with a few bricks thrown in? That is exactly what now all these neo-FM channels are indulging in…and I don’t mean ads… Read on…

Between playing  numbers, the radio jokers…ooops!…I meant the radio jockeys- let their hair down . With the  unisex appearance preferred these days that is possible, irrespective of the gender of the Jokeys . They  shoot off a continuous barrage of  of frivolities of the worst kind which leave the serious music  listener cold…a terrible, debilitating , numbing minus 40 degrees  !

For the first time I realised the huge potential  of the pair of ear phones supplied with my mobile for hands-free use ( the non-glued variety) . You can pull the damn things off when the going gets excruciatingly unbearable. A god-sent, they allow your ears to have a   much needed rest when  these  so-called ‘young things’ get going  full steam!

As if that is not enough torture, durng some intervals between songs   they test the ‘pea brains’ of their special variety of  listeners ( there will some in any lot )  by switching over to the  “Option round”( Courtesy: Idea Star Singer contest ?)

Here is an imaginary  sample..( the real ones are close to it!).

“Here is the next SMS question for you , folks !
What is the full name of Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi?
Option 1: Pandit Jawharlal Nehru
Option 2:  Sardar Vallabhai Patel
Opton 3: Lalu Prasad Yadav…
SMS your answer to “idiot0000’… blah blah blah…
The worst looser  will get a second hand carry bag of 25 micron thickness.. and stubs of two used tickets for the mega-movie IDIOT ”

Mind you,  there are takers for that!

Then there is this ‘cake-taking’ ‘dedication round’ during some intervals. It normally goes  something like this:

“This song is dedicated by ‘Ms. Blouse ’n Bra’ to her close   friends,  Ms. Pantless Eena , Ms. Braless Meena and Mr.Briefless Deekka …

I have heard of people dedicating something of their own creation to someone they care about, say a book, but dedicating a song  which is not of your making to somebody?
Or has someone changed the meaning of that word?

The most callous thing, the unkindest cut of all, that they do is to wake up some unsuspecting bloke ( who is  at his ‘ vulnerable best’ when woken up in the early morn like that ) and spoil his  beauty sleep !

When the phone is answered, they coo…

“Good Morning , Briefless, here is wishing you a happy birthday from Braless Meena! By the way, you are   Briefless,  aren’t you? Oh! You have your briefs on? Sorry! Please go back to sleep!’

And the last straw on the camel’s back is  the repeated didactic comments  by these DJ’s when the song ends.

These ‘still-wet-behind-the-ears’   hand down coolly unsolicited  advice about LIFE ( not of the variety dished out by Discovery Channel recently ), and its related complexities  as though they are the last word on the subject! They then proceed to  add insult to injury by telling  the listeners ( that is,  those who have not pulled the ear-phones off) how to face them !
It is  like the ‘emerging’  baby giving expert advice to its mother  in labour as to how to ‘push hard ’ during  labour !

Long Live The Kerala’s FM Stations…

_

Read Full Post »

It Ain’t Cricket Any More…

When I was a kid we used to play cricket with abandon on a small stretch of land in a large playground, proving ourselves to be a veritable menace to the people who crossed our path…

We  guys had the best of cricket paraphernalia to boast of…

 3 used stumps  for the batsman’s end.
 1 equally used stump for the bowler’s end.
  a pair of tattered and abandoned keepers’ gloves cast aside by our ‘elders’ ( a local club with a clutch  of ‘players’  who were the ‘seniors’ in the business and from whom we learned the ropes ) ,
 one-and-a-half cricket bats ( the ‘half’ was the one having a broken-off  handle and was invariably assigned to the ‘shorty’ in the group)

 And a much stitched-up cricket ball which at times , especially after   a ‘ heavy hit’ , opened up  like a heavily pregnant woman struck by a 5-ton truck .

We played the game bare-footed, no fancy boots…And the game we played had no room for skirmishes,  rancor, controversy or in-fights. It was pure and simple   which left  behind no rivalry or heart  burning after  a session. So much so that both the teams   used to troop into the nearest vegetarian restaurant after the practice and order a ‘’2/5  masala dosa plate” – that is 2 masala dosas cut into 5 pieces, one each for each individual…or 3/7 if it was our unlucky day and we had   two more mouths to feed in the group…

Those were the days when cricket was cricket… played for the pure pleasure of it!

Watch what  is happening now!

After  Kerry Francis Bullmore Packer, the Australian media magnet and founder of World Series Cricket, known popularly as Kerry Packer ,  ‘packed off’ the ‘old ideas’ and speeded up  the game’s proceedings by shoving  a large piece of what I would like to call  ‘chillius Hotanamus’ ( hot chilly to you:-) up its bum,  the game  of Cricket underwent a metamorphosis  . This change  was   welcomed by the  impatient  folks  who had no time  to sit through a typical game of English Cricket- called ‘TESTS’ . These ‘anachronisms’  were therefore relegated to the back benches and left to nurse their wounds quietly.

Soon all that was overshadowed and ‘Modified’ by the money mafia. Cricket was high-jacked by the likes of Modi et al…and today it  has turned out to be a business venture, a shady one at that.. with the Game taking a back seat and nursing – once again you guessed it right!-  the above-mentioned wounds

Now,   erstwhile rivals are  co-players and erstwhile co-players are rivals.. Participating teams have  no national identity  to whip up spectators’  loyalties and exhort them  to  cheer honestly. The new teams  have only a ‘stable horse’ existence in the field. One  doesn’t feel a sense of ‘Mine’  towards any team any more…

Of course  with the Americanisation of the poor game of Cricket, bottom-shaking , ‘reveal-all’ babes, the so-called ‘cheer girls’ , are in prominent attendance  but that is all contrived cheering and  not  the spontaneous type … They will shake their tits for any damn team which comes along… They have allegiance to none…!

The roar of lucre rumbles through the stadiums now as  the stable owners’ stocks line up for a face-off . And it may well be against their own for all they know – What they  enact is a modern version of the Roman Gladiator Games…

At this rate we will soon be hearing about Wankade Colosseum, Chinnaswamy Colosseum, Feroz Kotla Colosseum , Eaden Gardens Colosseum…  the list is bound to  grow!

Cricket ? …This?
You must  be joking!

And our Cricket Gladiators?
Click here>>>slave-trade2

Read Full Post »

It Ain’t Cricket Any More…

When I was a kid we used to play cricket with abandon on a small stretch of land in a large playground, proving ourselves to be a veritable menace to the people who crossed our path…

We  guys had the best of cricket paraphernalia to boast of…

 3 used stumps  for the batsman’s end.
 1 equally used stump for the bowler’s end.
  a pair of tattered and abandoned keepers’ gloves cast aside by our ‘elders’ ( a local club with a clutch  of ‘players’  who were the ‘seniors’ in the business and from whom we learned the ropes ) ,
 one-and-a-half cricket bats ( the ‘half’ was the one having a broken-off  handle and was invariably assigned to the ‘shorty’ in the group)

 And a much stitched-up cricket ball which at times , especially after   a ‘ heavy hit’ , opened up  like a heavily pregnant woman struck by a 5-ton truck .

We played the game bare-footed, no fancy boots…And the game we played had no room for skirmishes,  rancor, controversy or in-fights. It was pure and simple   which left  behind no rivalry or heart  burning after  a session. So much so that both the teams   used to troop into the nearest vegetarian restaurant after the practice and order a ‘’2/5  masala dosa plate” – that is 2 masala dosas cut into 5 pieces, one each for each individual…or 3/7 if it was our unlucky day and we had   two more mouths to feed in the group…

Those were the days when cricket was cricket… played for the pure pleasure of it!

Watch what  is happening now!

After  Kerry Francis Bullmore Packer, the Australian media magnet and founder of World Series Cricket, known popularly as Kerry Packer ,  ‘packed off’ the ‘old ideas’ and speeded up  the game’s proceedings by shoving  a large piece of what I would like to call  ‘chillius Hotanamus’ ( hot chilly to you:-) up its bum,  the game  of Cricket underwent a metamorphosis  . This change  was   welcomed by the  impatient  folks  who had no time  to sit through a typical game of English Cricket- called ‘TESTS’ . These ‘anachronisms’  were therefore relegated to the back benches and left to nurse their wounds quietly.

Soon all that was overshadowed and ‘Modified’ by the money mafia. Cricket was high-jacked by the likes of Modi et al…and today it  has turned out to be a business venture, a shady one at that.. with the Game taking a back seat and nursing – once again you guessed it right!-  the above-mentioned wounds

Now,   erstwhile rivals are  co-players and erstwhile co-players are rivals.. Participating teams have  no national identity  to whip up spectators’  loyalties and exhort them  to  cheer honestly. The new teams  have only a ‘stable horse’ existence in the field. One  doesn’t feel a sense of ‘Mine’  towards any team any more…

Of course  with the Americanisation of the poor game of Cricket, bottom-shaking , ‘reveal-all’ babes, the so-called ‘cheer girls’ , are in prominent attendance  but that is all contrived cheering and  not  the spontaneous type … They will shake their tits for any damn team which comes along… They have allegiance to none…!

The roar of lucre rumbles through the stadiums now as  the stable owners’ stocks line up for a face-off . And it may well be against their own for all they know – What they  enact is a modern version of the Roman Gladiator Games…

At this rate we will soon be hearing about Wankade Colosseum, Chinnaswamy Colosseum, Feroz Kotla Colosseum , Eaden Gardens Colosseum…  the list is bound to  grow!

Cricket ? …This?
You must  be joking!

And our Cricket Gladiators?
Click here>>>slave-trade2

Read Full Post »

When Nature Calls…

The bees do it…

The birds do it…

and   Human beings also do it…

When ever  we can…

Ugh..Ugh..No..No.. ! If you think what I think  you are
thinking  , it is a No No No…  ..

I am talking about  a universal law of nature that demands that what goes into any living being has to come out at the other end in some shape or other… sometime or other…
But the ‘other’ may not be a convenient time is all this blog is about…!

Alright, …let me shed  charades and come clean…

What I am talking about is the need of all creations of God to evacuate themselves after a hefty meal. And , if you are a creation of God, then my advice to you is that you don’t come to Kochi after wacking up a sumptuous meal…If you do, you will be under pressure ( pun intended ) and hard put to find a place to ‘download’…

That is Kochi!

A lot has been written  about the   the grave ‘public toilet situation’ in this commercial capital of Kerala. Considering the floating population here, the city has a dearth of public toilets which puts the visitors to this   metropolis under terrible mental and physical strain- not to talk about embarrassment- when it comes to doing the honour.

Short of sqatting on the road side, with a towel to cover your face as criminals do while being brought to the courts  , the options available to the average visitor to this great city for easing himself are few…

However, if you are sagacious enough like… ahem …me, there are a few adventureous alternatives, though all people may not be able to  pull them off successfully 😉  Incidentally, the following  methods are  based on  my own research  …

One alternative is to walk into the nearest railway station . Bide your time and when the platform ticket checker , if any , is busy oggling at the sweet thing waiting for the next train to Timbuktu,   just pop in to the platform   ( Shh…Not taking a platform ticket is the recommended  manoeuvre since that  saves time, especially when you are ‘hard-pressed’ for it ).

Walk in with all the confidence you can muster ,  acting  as though you have come to meet a dear friend arriving  by the next train . Approach any  stationary train ; its destination is not important  . ( There has to be one or this method is a disaster with very little time for other manoeuvres ). Enter  any comparatively empty  compartment,  after looking right and left to make sure that no prying eyes are focussed on you. Trains have these ‘empties’ or ‘semi-empties’ , especially if they have just arrived and  disgorged their incoming ‘toilet seekers’.

Pop into its toilet and …well,  let go!

However, there is an attending risk here , in that the train may start when you are  right in the middle of Chapter 1 Act 2!

There is another alternative…

First  make sure   that you are wearing something reasonably decent. Lungis and half-vests are strictly taboo. Then walk nochantly into any nearby 3-,4- or 5-star hotel.
( Walk into a no-star hotel and you will get the boot for what you are planning  to do) . Walk  straight into the  lobby without showing any hesitation. It requires nerves of steel and a strong control on your bowel muscles!

If you display the right body language- and that does not include clutching at your stomach- chances are that the darwan will open the doors with a flourish and sweep you in with a smart salute. Stage one is a success…

Walk across  to the Reception counter, nod your head ever so slightly at the gorgeous things  manning (?) the counter to show that you have class, and then  take a slow detour ( avoid   sharp turns, or you will be tagged !) to the  the nearest staircase  . Climb up leasurely ( easier said than done in your condition) to  the 2nd floor . This one is  considered to be  the safest bet by ‘yours truly’, after many dry runs!  . Turn right or left- it doesn’t matter which- and you are sure to find salvation within walkling distance with no peeping toms about.

Repeat the drill in reverse order and get out before your luck runs out…

Despite an Ombudsman’s direction  for making available    more public toilets in Kochi to the …er.. public, and a provision for their construction in the last 4 budgets of the Corporation, the latter is yet to come up with a viable solution. And until it  does you and I will have to depend on ‘railway rake assaults’ and ‘5 star sneak-ins’.

Well , of course there is yet another  way out of this situation…To find out,

Click here!>>>public-toilets

Read Full Post »

Sectarian Star Wars…

The average Malayali , it appears , is  sectarian by nature. Be it in the field of art ,  or politics he has to belong to a sect. These sects are like bacteria that divide and divide and divide… and go  on and on until the ultimate level is reached where the sect has only one person.. Then, as one wit put it, he sits up and laments that he can’t divide himself any more!

When I think of this, the picture that comes to mind is the Malayali’s favourite fireworks during the  Trichur Pooram Festival’ where the ‘rocket  goes up and dispays a brilliant ‘sectarian’ multiplication!

And while in his sect he has to indulge in his favourite past-time.. torpedoing the moves of rival ‘sectarians’. The desire to do so is so strong that he won’t think twice about taking on an adversary 100 times his size…It is all in the gene…

Take the recent case of the skirmish between Malalyali actor Thilakan and his opponent, ‘AMMA’, short for ‘ Association of Malayalam Movie  Actors’ !

That acronym incidentally appears to be  the most unsuited one for this organisation, vis –s –vis  its recent  acts of bravery against this  lonely oldie….

The word ‘AMMA’ in Malayalam, or its variants in other languages are considered to be a universal symbol of love and compassion or so Mata Amrithanandamayi’s followers would have us believe, huh?  The word  invokes a feeling  of protection… but does it, in this case?

On the contrary, it is a determined fox hunt, where a pack of aging ‘have-beens’ of the Malayalam film world hunt a lone, limping old fox and does an over kill by suspending him from the Organisation! The entire episode  looked like using an over-flabbed road roller to kill a ‘refusing-to-die’ mosquito!

Apparently, this thespian’s only fault was his  determination to take on this set of aged, ‘have been’  grease-paint-sporters  of the  filmdom head on  … deciplinary action be damned!

And he is now  nursing the wound of the boot!

If all he aired is true , he  has apparently been given a raw deal by some top rankers in the Org.   Perhaps because of that he had spoken out loud and clear,  about the underhanded   tactics employed  by some of the these clout-wielding members at the helm of ‘Amma’s affairs…!   And the ‘Amma family’ was not amused… not at all!

But there is an school of thought that tends to  agree that  his uttering have a grain of truth in them , though the methodology he used to air his greivences by going public  maybe frowned upon. But some of his allegations  do make you sit up and wonder…I did!

These  happenings were also widely telecast by most channels who knew where their next buck was coming from! This washing of the dirtiest of linens in public must have bagged a  high  viewer-rating , perhaps higher than that of the Idea Star Singer show on the air!

Last heard, this ‘Outcast’ is now planing to float an independent   association to produce his own films…

For what?

Maybe To split again 😉

A ‘sectarian’ to the core!

Click here>>>  spilt-personality

Read Full Post »

‘Kar2nism’ In ‘Kommie’ Land!

It is  generally an accepted  fact that the Indian State of Kerala   has produced one of the finest  bunch  of Kar2n-Krazy guys a.k.a.  kar2nists in the Country. Some of the best ‘pencil wielders’ , dead or living, came from this land of Parasuraman…From kar2nist Shanker down …
Kerala has even  an Academy for Kar2nists now, named  ‘Kerala Cartoon Academy ‘ ( hereinafter called KCA 🙂  run by the kar2nists, for the kar2nists and bla..bla…bla …   you get the drift? ).

In recent times , I for one , in my ‘envious’ position as a ‘tail-ender’ of this ‘community’, have been watching  this institution   growing  from strength to strength during the last year or so. It is now   more  visible   than it was during the past few years,  thanks to the many initiatives taken by the it’s ‘sarathys’ and the contributions from its talented members. Camps, exhibitions, contests, TV Interviews, books… the routes taken to reach that stage of visibility have been many and what more, quite effective. And the latter brings me to my story of today….

KCA had recently ventured upon an unconventional unheard of initiative of inviting kar2ns on Lord Ganapathy’s local rep , the ubiquitous elephant of Kerala , from  kar2nists of the Planet Earth as a whole.  And their kar2ns were later compiled into a book   which  was released in a glittering  function in Kochi last week by … hold your breath there… Oh! Me God! …an Elephant , an elephant of all things  !

A Book Release , I understand , is a function where you need three constituents – one, a VIP to give the book , two, an Important personality to accept the book and ,three, last but not the least , the book itself, of course  😉  Apparently any new book is declared as ‘published’ by handing over a copy of the same   by the aforesaid  ‘ VIP ’ to the  aforesaid ‘important personality’ with a lot of  fanfare . But as mentioned earlier, our    aforementioned ‘VIP’ was  no less than a two-tonner Elephant ( pure guesswork, I didn’t carry any scales with me , so give or take a few kilos there ! ) and the aforementioned ‘ important personality’ …  a shivering,  scared-to-death 5 year old ( who wouldn’t? )  !

The kar2n book  on  ELEPHANTS , titled ‘Anavara’ was  compiled , I am told, jointly by the Kerala Cartoon Academy and the DC Books . It was then  formally released by a temple pachyderm ‘RUDRAN’ –  maybe a Guinness Record, that!  –  at the DC Books International Book Festival held at Ernakulam Marine Drive  on 1st January 2010 . A young  visitor to the Festival venue, Master Neeraj Babu, received the first ‘ANAVARA’ from Rudran, albeit, feeling a little  shaky in the legs ;-). RUDRAN of course was quite at home with the crowd, and was seen smacking his lips and rolling his eyes in enjoyment  after ‘down-sizing’ a 20kg ( again guesswork!) Banana Bunch which would have taken you and me a good 30 days to finish off.

As for me, I prayed like hell that RUDRAN  remained in his state of bliss and didn’t loose his cool  ( well known in the Kerala Elephant circles ! ) till I left the venue with some copies of the book and my life .

Incidentally  this ‘tail-ender’ was  also lucky to have captured  some of those  historical moments in a video for the Posterity 😉

Wana watch some short clips from it ?

Please go to the YouTube home page and type TheKar2nist ( case sensitive) in the search box

And for my customary kar2n ?  Click here too …>…>african-kar2nist

Read Full Post »

'Kar2nism' In 'Kommie' Land!

It is  generally an accepted  fact that the Indian State of Kerala   has produced one of the finest  bunch  of Kar2n-Krazy guys a.k.a.  kar2nists in the Country. Some of the best ‘pencil wielders’ , dead or living, came from this land of Parasuraman…From kar2nist Shanker down …
Kerala has even  an Academy for Kar2nists now, named  ‘Kerala Cartoon Academy ‘ ( hereinafter called KCA 🙂  run by the kar2nists, for the kar2nists and bla..bla…bla …   you get the drift? ).

In recent times , I for one , in my ‘envious’ position as a ‘tail-ender’ of this ‘community’, have been watching  this institution   growing  from strength to strength during the last year or so. It is now   more  visible   than it was during the past few years,  thanks to the many initiatives taken by the it’s ‘sarathys’ and the contributions from its talented members. Camps, exhibitions, contests, TV Interviews, books… the routes taken to reach that stage of visibility have been many and what more, quite effective. And the latter brings me to my story of today….

KCA had recently ventured upon an unconventional unheard of initiative of inviting kar2ns on Lord Ganapathy’s local rep , the ubiquitous elephant of Kerala , from  kar2nists of the Planet Earth as a whole.  And their kar2ns were later compiled into a book   which  was released in a glittering  function in Kochi last week by … hold your breath there… Oh! Me God! …an Elephant , an elephant of all things  !

A Book Release , I understand , is a function where you need three constituents – one, a VIP to give the book , two, an Important personality to accept the book and ,three, last but not the least , the book itself, of course  😉  Apparently any new book is declared as ‘published’ by handing over a copy of the same   by the aforesaid  ‘ VIP ’ to the  aforesaid ‘important personality’ with a lot of  fanfare . But as mentioned earlier, our    aforementioned ‘VIP’ was  no less than a two-tonner Elephant ( pure guesswork, I didn’t carry any scales with me , so give or take a few kilos there ! ) and the aforementioned ‘ important personality’ …  a shivering,  scared-to-death 5 year old ( who wouldn’t? )  !

The kar2n book  on  ELEPHANTS , titled ‘Anavara’ was  compiled , I am told, jointly by the Kerala Cartoon Academy and the DC Books . It was then  formally released by a temple pachyderm ‘RUDRAN’ –  maybe a Guinness Record, that!  –  at the DC Books International Book Festival held at Ernakulam Marine Drive  on 1st January 2010 . A young  visitor to the Festival venue, Master Neeraj Babu, received the first ‘ANAVARA’ from Rudran, albeit, feeling a little  shaky in the legs ;-). RUDRAN of course was quite at home with the crowd, and was seen smacking his lips and rolling his eyes in enjoyment  after ‘down-sizing’ a 20kg ( again guesswork!) Banana Bunch which would have taken you and me a good 30 days to finish off.

As for me, I prayed like hell that RUDRAN  remained in his state of bliss and didn’t loose his cool  ( well known in the Kerala Elephant circles ! ) till I left the venue with some copies of the book and my life .

Incidentally  this ‘tail-ender’ was  also lucky to have captured  some of those  historical moments in a video for the Posterity 😉

Wana watch some short clips from it ?

Please go to the YouTube home page and type TheKar2nist ( case sensitive) in the search box

And for my customary kar2n ?  Click here too …>…>african-kar2nist

Read Full Post »

‘RUN’ For Your Life…

One sure way to pass an idle hour is to join some “RUN” or other…There are quite a few to choose from these days …

These are organised by people with a highly developed sense  of ‘social guilt’ . They also fool themselves that they can change the abhorrent ways of the world by running from point A to point B ! These People  want to do something , at any rate, to remain in the public eye …and running doesn’t cost you anything !

A few weeks  ago in Angamaly in Kerala some blokes thought up a fantastic idea.. why not ‘run’ for a green cause! What green cause, you might ask and so did I! It turned out to be something to do with ‘global warming’ , the latest ‘cause’ going round in the ‘socially guilty’ circles, and for which  even Copenhagen had not been able to do much…

It seems the organisers of this ‘fanta-run’ wanted to organise and run a … ahem…

‘RUN ’ as ‘a part of creating  awareness in people at large about  ‘global warming’ and its effects on Mother Earth’! They banded together a few white ‘designer T-shirt-clad’, white ‘expensive  Sneakers shod’ and white ‘topless cap’ped like-minded  members of various organisations , students and teachers ( and whom so ever they could   fool into joining the band wagon ), called it a Green Run’ and ran, yeah, you guessed right, from Point ‘A’ to Point ‘B’, some 5 kilometre apart!

As part of this joker gang  was a VIP  ,  who uttered the some   very profound    ‘thought provoking’ words…( words being VIP’s  staple food 😉 He announced pompously that ‘the World is getting warmer’ ( as though it  was his very private discovery ) ‘and warmer’ ( a second discovery!)   ‘threatening  the very existence etc…etc..’ . He also presented the  most important finding of his life  that ‘ we are all duty-bound to adopt all methods to put an end to this global warming… ” I am sure he had no clue what methods , and so possibly he too ran!

Will running help to cool down mother earth ? !  All running can achieve is to make you feel warmer…, if anything !  Ask those thousands of daily commuters who run in the morning and in the evening en mass to catch   the  speeding   red-killers ( private buses, to you ) in the city!

Then a few days ago another group in Kochi, the capital of ‘guilty-runs’ , got the itch for a ‘run’. This  time it was what the papers called a ‘Mini-Marathon’ ! It was ostensibly   for a ‘clean green city’ awareness !  What made it ironical  was  the fact that one of its  co-sponsors was  none other than the Corporation of Kochi  which could neither keep the city clean and green   nor could provide these poor guys any decent  roads
to run on !

This second ‘RUN’   also had as its proclaimed aim   ‘Creating Awareness’ . The Corporation, all by themselves and without any  running around , had already created a good amount of awareness in the city folks about the need for a clean, green city …enough  to last a life time ! These guys  were the prime cause  for  making the city a stinking  mess  ! Who wants further awareness lessons from them?

This  Run , it seems , was of a higher calibre,    in that it was tagged as a 10KM run… The Organisers also claimed this one  was the mother of all RUNs, one of the biggest events that city had witnessed in recent times’ .  It is quite likely that  the publicity angle was the one that provided the self-propulsion  for its take off !   And to hell with the ‘green and ‘clean’ and the City !
How many could have completed it is ,of course,  a moot question . Many must have retired half way after getting a belly-full of ‘awareness’  

And of course nothing gets done here without some awards tagged to it. Here too,  some guys bagged awards for the best runners, be he aware or unaware!

Looks like even if we run for our lives there will be no respite for us from these ‘runs…

Click here…>penguine-run

Read Full Post »

'RUN' For Your Life…

One sure way to pass an idle hour is to join some “RUN” or other…There are quite a few to choose from these days …

These are organised by people with a highly developed sense  of ‘social guilt’ . They also fool themselves that they can change the abhorrent ways of the world by running from point A to point B ! These People  want to do something , at any rate, to remain in the public eye …and running doesn’t cost you anything !

A few weeks  ago in Angamaly in Kerala some blokes thought up a fantastic idea.. why not ‘run’ for a green cause! What green cause, you might ask and so did I! It turned out to be something to do with ‘global warming’ , the latest ‘cause’ going round in the ‘socially guilty’ circles, and for which  even Copenhagen had not been able to do much…

It seems the organisers of this ‘fanta-run’ wanted to organise and run a … ahem…

‘RUN ’ as ‘a part of creating  awareness in people at large about  ‘global warming’ and its effects on Mother Earth’! They banded together a few white ‘designer T-shirt-clad’, white ‘expensive  Sneakers shod’ and white ‘topless cap’ped like-minded  members of various organisations , students and teachers ( and whom so ever they could   fool into joining the band wagon ), called it a Green Run’ and ran, yeah, you guessed right, from Point ‘A’ to Point ‘B’, some 5 kilometre apart!

As part of this joker gang  was a VIP  ,  who uttered the some   very profound    ‘thought provoking’ words…( words being VIP’s  staple food 😉 He announced pompously that ‘the World is getting warmer’ ( as though it  was his very private discovery ) ‘and warmer’ ( a second discovery!)   ‘threatening  the very existence etc…etc..’ . He also presented the  most important finding of his life  that ‘ we are all duty-bound to adopt all methods to put an end to this global warming… ” I am sure he had no clue what methods , and so possibly he too ran!

Will running help to cool down mother earth ? !  All running can achieve is to make you feel warmer…, if anything !  Ask those thousands of daily commuters who run in the morning and in the evening en mass to catch   the  speeding   red-killers ( private buses, to you ) in the city!

Then a few days ago another group in Kochi, the capital of ‘guilty-runs’ , got the itch for a ‘run’. This  time it was what the papers called a ‘Mini-Marathon’ ! It was ostensibly   for a ‘clean green city’ awareness !  What made it ironical  was  the fact that one of its  co-sponsors was  none other than the Corporation of Kochi  which could neither keep the city clean and green   nor could provide these poor guys any decent  roads
to run on !

This second ‘RUN’   also had as its proclaimed aim   ‘Creating Awareness’ . The Corporation, all by themselves and without any  running around , had already created a good amount of awareness in the city folks about the need for a clean, green city …enough  to last a life time ! These guys  were the prime cause  for  making the city a stinking  mess  ! Who wants further awareness lessons from them?

This  Run , it seems , was of a higher calibre,    in that it was tagged as a 10KM run… The Organisers also claimed this one  was the mother of all RUNs, one of the biggest events that city had witnessed in recent times’ .  It is quite likely that  the publicity angle was the one that provided the self-propulsion  for its take off !   And to hell with the ‘green and ‘clean’ and the City !
How many could have completed it is ,of course,  a moot question . Many must have retired half way after getting a belly-full of ‘awareness’  

And of course nothing gets done here without some awards tagged to it. Here too,  some guys bagged awards for the best runners, be he aware or unaware!

Looks like even if we run for our lives there will be no respite for us from these ‘runs…

Click here…>penguine-run

Read Full Post »

A Hollow Ritual…

Remember this night last year? The night of 31st December 2009? (  I wrote a blog on it which must be somewhere in this bunch  …)

People  gathered around in Star hotels,   at least those who could afford the moolah…, and  at the stroke of 12 everyone shouted   to the skies   “Happy New Year!” and also to any one else who cared to listen, the chances of that being  pretty slim, of course, since  the   “Ushers” were all  pretty plastered themselves to care   two hoots about it !).
…. After which  they drank another round or two of beer or whatever and went home, assuring themselves that  they have done their job well…
And what happened to that   year that unfolded since then, and which has now gone  behind the curtain of time ?
There were too many  things that went wrong, or shall we  say  didn’t go right ,  despite all that shouting and downed pints….all wasted on a Destiny that was hard of hearing! Whatever will be , will be…

But we won’t learn the lesson.. This night also a bunch of ‘Naives’ will gather around and go through the same hollow ritual  of “ushering in the New Year, as though if they didn’t the earth will stop rotating and the poor New Year will get  stuck in “Trisanku Swargam”.. neither here or there.. We can’t let that happen , can we? So off we go and drink some more of the best of stuff and go through the motions… !

Last Christmas, Gods Own Country downed 44 crore rupees’ ( give or take a few rupees) worth of liqueur to celebrate the birth of Christ…( He  would have turned in his grave had he heard this…)

And if Christmas comes  can New Year be far behind ?…and  its alcolic arithmetic ? Guinness Guys, are you listening? Keep a tab on it , please!

So I wish   all my blog-visitors another About-to-be Maimed and About- to- be  Mangled New Year…a  prosperous , happy and healthy one good enough to usher in the next one…, the same time , next year !

Click here>>>2009-to-201000012
( the rhyming is accidental, folks!)

Read Full Post »