I Speak my mind

After 25 years, our school reunion took us to a beautiful resort, turning the day into a perfect mix of relaxation and nostalgia. Old friends greeted each other with warm hugs, some instantly recognizable, others changed by time. We shared booze & meals and  laughed over school memories, and relived moments from the classroom to the playground. The resort’s calm & remote setting made conversations flow easily, while activities brought out our youthful spirit. Between swimming in pool, waterfall and endless photos, we felt like students again. It wasn’t just a trip, it was a celebration of lasting bonds and the joy of reconnecting.

When I was a kid, April and May fell in the list of my favourite months. Not because it's going to rain and there would be mud all around, but those are the months my cousins would be here at our family house, in our hometown in Kerala. Those are the memories I would cherish forever. My grand-mother has 5 offsprings, 4 boys and a girl. My father is the second eldest of five. Then, he was the only one staying in Kerala and everyone else was in different parts of India, a Pan-India Family one could say. We were all present, it's like Parliament, shouting, laughing, scolding children, people everywhere, busy doing their chores. An outsider entering the home can still go unnoticed. Life was less complicated then. We were just ........just ourselves. Everyone you valued dearly is with you. It's like, the world has shrunken to a square block of bricks and mortar. Now it's all feel like a fairy-tale, one of the best things about joint-family. We are all tired of day's...

Wherever I go I’ll always be a Keralite and that's who I will always be. The influence your hometown and its culture and customs emboss on you would be unmistakable in any crowd. From the time immemorial, we kept a bit of weirdness in the way we live, the beliefs and customs we cultivated and the ideologies we followed and the ideals we loved. This 600kms long shoreline of Arabian Sea have stories to tell dating back up to 3000 B.C. Microlithic artifacts as old as 3000-4000 B.C has been unearthed at sites near Calicut(Kozhikkode), northern Kerala. At that time we have been doing trading with Indus Valley people and the rest of the world. We were the Spice Capital of the world. When the time passed by, this small chunk of land spectated lots of changes. Buddhism came to Kerala around 260 B.C and it was there to stay for a long time. After that till 9-10 th   century A.D, Sangham literature and the great Sangham Poets influenced and inspired the soul and mind of people. At...

Guys, you want to see heaven on earth? music at its culmination? elephants, the magnificent beasts at its mighty? the biggest orchestration on earth?  come to “God’s own country”. Today is an auspicious day for us coz today is our prestigious “ Thrissur Pooram ”(Pooram means festival and Thrissur is a district in Kerala), the grandest festival because of its finery and orchestration. i don’t know how many Indians outside Kerala know about this, but its time for everyone to get a taste of this  extravaganza. This is not all, the best part is at the culmination of festival when the fireworks begin, its a view worth watching. Fireworks will last for 3 hours with out a pause. At the end the entire city will be raining debris from fireworks. You must see the “Panthal”, we have a Guinness record for the biggest one ever built. Another highlight is the showcase of umbrellas(called “Kudamattam”, Kuda=umbrella, mattam=change) mounted on elephants. People from  countries like Ger...

             Kerala, God’s own country, one of the most favoured tourist destination in India, has now taken a beat from improper waste dumping and management. The state is in the news for all the wrong reasons. State capital Thiruvanathapuram (TVR) is in the spot light b’coz of the Vilappilshala (a village in TVR ) issue. Villagers staged a protest against the dumping of waste and even against the order of High Court, they blocked the vehicles which brought solid wastes to the waste management plant.  Villagers made it clear that they are not going to bear the burden of city’s waste. They warned the authorities about the consequences if they try to send in more disposal vehicles. The protesters were mainly women and children, so the Police had to be careful dealing with them. Since the option of Vilappilshala plant also seems to be closed, the question in front of authorities being, what to do with the wastes? and how t...

History "Mulla-periyar" is the current buzzword in India. There is film based on this issue, " Dam 999 ", which got its entry to Oscar library. Don't think that it is the name of some celebrity infact it is bigger and larger than that, it is a dam, which is almost 110 years old, across the river Periyar ( Kerala state ). The dam got its name from confluence of "Mullaiyar" and "Periyar" rivers. It is built by British Corps Royal Engineers, at those time when India was a colony of Britian. When the dam was built it was under the jurisdiction of "Maharaja of Travancore" (Travancore presently a part of Kerala state) and the Madras Presidency (British) kind of forced (as every one knows, there is no other option) Travancore to get in a deal with them of leasing water supply for 999 years. After the British rule were over both the Kerala and Tamilnadu (Madras presidency) states renewed lease agreement. Problems Since it i...