Euphoria evening

Euphoria came to Kerala for a live concert on Sunday at Nishagandhi auditorium where GEC Barton Hill was conducting a college fest. This was my first experience at a rock concert and I must say its really err vibrating! Probably the wrong word to use, but you get the picture – the music system was 50000 watts strong!

 

To be honest I haven’t heard any of their songs before. So I had nothing to look forward to except wonder what a real concert looks and feels like. But why I enjoyed this was that this was that it was easy to be part of it. The few stage performances I have been to before have been pathetically tiring – since most of the audience makes it a point to turn into statues that breathed and blinked! I am not talking about classical concerts. I mean the occasions when the whole stage is tuned to bring the audience to feet or at least ‘shake ‘em up’ – and the only shaking that you get comes from a ceiling fan or a distant tree top!

 

Euphoria had turned the whole crowd into a pack of jumpers and shouters. I realize when I say this that there is an entire school of thought that would harshly come down on this kind of a reaction. Their songs by the way were best suited for the occasion. Sometimes they would come out with slow songs you could sway along to and get lost in your thoughts and dreams in. And the other times you have them jumping songs which need no manual on ‘how to enjoy’!

 

Well it was a great evening. Don’t know if it could be an every-person kind of thing but am sure its worth a try J

Daivamakkal by Sara Thomas

I have just finished reading Sara Thomas’s Daivamakkal. My attempt at a review will not be promising cause I took ages to finish it. So much so that the first pages now seem like a different book I read sometime ago! Anyway, the book is undoubtedly a must-read.

We have all heard of the perils of caste system of yesteryears (and to a big extent, even today). But those days, a little after independence the exploitations were at its extreme. No shelter, little or no food, forget about education! And yet Kunjikannan goes to school. Azhaki, his mother strives hard to take him to school, fighting all oppositions by herself. With a father who has left them long ago, the mother and kid are left to look after themselves.

All through the book Kunjikannan goes through a tortured mind, tortured by the cruel remarks and insults he had to put up with, by the inhuman attitude of the upper caste. A rare Zacariah Sir or a Jamal or a Krishnankutty or a Savithri stands apart from this crowd and lends him a hand to take him to bigger heights. Kunjikkannan studies hard. But even as he rose higher intellectually, he couldn’t help feel the shackles of misery handed down through generations.

Sara Thomas, through Kunjikkanan, takes us through a time when men and women were blinded so, by meaningless chains of caste, creed and colour. Its enough to boil the blood of any reader with a minimum sense of justice, that one could easily identify with the turmoil that Kunjikkannan and his friends go through. Each of them comes up with a different way to deal with their ill-fate and the fight continues – the fight for freedom, the fight for acceptance.

Through one mind, we see the sufferings borne by a big community of humans. Daivamakkal is a reminder to the cruel times our ancestors have been through to bring the world to what it is now. It is a reminder to us that the fight continues, and it falls upon our shoulders now to lift the human community to a world of no differences, no distinctions.

Veli Clean-up on Sunday

The tidycity.org project is going to do a clean up of Veli beach this Sunday, February 8th. The idea of these clean up initiatives, is to send across a message, that every single person can make a difference. More than a clean up, the team intends to promote an awareness about keeping our cities clean.

More details about the drive are available at the website http://tidycity.org


Those who are interested to join the tidycity campaign, can subscribe to the mailing list, available in the website.

നൈസ് പുപ്പ്യ്സ്

Disaster at Pooja

This is a tragic story of unfathomable depths. Everyone please make sure you have a handkerchief to wipe your tears before you read on.

This is the story of how we lost a game of cricket and how the disaster changed our lives forever.

The year 2008. A bunch of guys working together at Cochin.

We registered for a cricket tournament being held at the famous Pooja Ground. 7-over matches.

None of us were professional cricketers but loved to play. So we got together a team of 11, 2 substitute players, a coach and a team manager (myself). We went and watched the other teams play and thought to ourself “This is going to be easy. We can win”. Like our captain said these guys were just striking the ball wildly and did not have the technical expertise.

We practised daily at our nearby school ground. Finally the big day arrived. Before that we had to decide on a name. Most of the other teams had silly, ordinary names like NCC or MCC[place name+Cricket Club]. We needed something grand and finally struck upon “SBL - THE BLACK AND WHITE STALLIONS”. In fact the commentator had to hand over the mike to one of us every time he had to announce the team name.

We lost the toss and had no idea it was just a sign of what was to come. They chose batting and we laughed at their foolishness. The first over was bowled by Sumodh, whose action often reminded us of a fighter plane firing missiles at the enemy. That day he chose to bowl after only a short run up. First mistake. It was only after the game did we realise that what made us afraid of his bowling was his run up and the expression on his face and that the ball itself was harmless.

The first ball went for a six. We shouted “Never mind”.

The second ball went for a six. We shouted “Never mind”.

The third ball went for a six. We knew we were in trouble.

When the guy who hit seven consecutive sixes became out, to a catch (which turned out to be the only catch we would take), we went wild with cheers.

The next guy who walked in hit 13 sixes - consecutively. Was some sort of a record at the ground, again which would only be the beginning of a lot of records.

We could only watch in anguish as balls disappeared into all corners of the stadium, some of them out of the stadium as even the organisers couldn’t keep up with the scoring. Finally when the massacre was over they had scored over 150 runs in 7 overs.

When our team walked out of the ground with drooping shoulders our coach had a brilliant idea and shouted “Great! So its a batting pitch. All the better for us”. Immediately the smiles returned and everyone’s confidence was restored.

The second innings began. Our star batsman Rocky was at the crease. We screamed for blood; “give them a taste of their own medicine” we shouted.

First ball. The cheers reached a crescendo. Rocky mightily swings his magic bat and…

He’s out.

Silence. Disbelief.

To make a long story short we didn’t hit a single six. We didn’t hit a single four. Hell We didn’t even get to hit the ball at all, I think. No we didn’t get all out. Only nine wickets fell. Pradeep top scored with 7 not out. We scored 23/9 in seven overs. Lost the game for 130 runs - the biggest margin in the tournament - the final record to break that day.

To say we ‘lost’ would be an understatement. We were a failure in batting, bowling and fielding - an utter disaster. The crowd made fun of us only at the beginning. Towards the end of the game even the rival team looked at us with pity and sympathy - which was even more unbearable.

While sleeping that night at around 2 am suddenly someone woke me up. I switched on the light looked into the face of the captain. “I will never play cricket again in my whole life” he said.

I sighed.

“Me too”

Modern trends violating ethics

The front page editorial titled “neethidevathayude mudapetta kannukalude sukam” published by the “kerala kaumudi” news paper on 18/12/2008 was a misleading distorted material. “kerala kaumudi” has no right to degrade any of the Judicial proceedings or publish anything that brings down the image of the Judiciary in the public.It is absolutely unethical and clear violation of law.such tendencies cannot be glorified.Media should avoid questioning Judiciary for mere sensationalism.