“SHANGHAI ALIAS MALAPPURAM”

most cities in india dream of one day becoming “Shanghai” – the heart of chinese economic miracle. they all dream of a future where skyscrappers and expressways will replace slums and gutters. it’s not what we palakkad-an’s dream of , we just want to be the next malappuram the fast developing Shanghai to the north .

why is our district the most backward ?. is having a 70 hindu population the reason? or is it that we are supposed to be always the picture perfect valluvanadan villages for the mollywood? what ever the reason , we the people of the district are the only ones to be blamed.

yes i am envious of malappuram , envious of the pace at which they have rushed past the economic stagnation of the 80s , envious of the kind of leaders they elect and the say they have on the way the state is run. the infrastructure development is astonishing, almost all the major roads are rubberized and broad , they have some of the best hospitals in the state , shopping malls and hangouts are world class . you have MLA s fighting to better the achievements of their predecessors , ministers promising medical colleges , political parties fighting for the ‘right number’ of ministers. wow…

your neighbour to the south , us , we are proud of being the largest district( by area) , for being the hottest region and many other trivial stuff , and ya for being the most illiterate district and the one with the worst sslc results. our leaders don’t care and we care less, hence we elect anyone who runs on the “party ” ticket . green or white we will always vote red , hence we shornurites voted a lady whose track record as sreekrishnapuram MLA was shameful with huge majority . yes it is true that we don’t have the “vote bank” or the gulf ” black money” but at least we could elect someone capable , can’t we? . iam not a communist hater or a congressman , i still believe that the best MLA kerala has ever seen is mr v.sasikumar of perinthalmanna , but the cpm in our district always field weak candidates , congress is no exception but mr c.p mohammed of pattambi is a clear exception.

the infrastructure in the district is dismal , we are in dire need of a good hospital ,the two major railway stations urgently need a face lift . education sector needs critical attention , we cannot afford to be the worst in this knowledge era . protests wont work , actions needs to be taken , if not we will always remain the laughing stock of kerala.

SHUT UP!!!!!

its been a season of scandals and expose’s .  political careers were burnt into ashes , reputations tarnished and many  king makers walked the boulevard of shame. all thanks to the’ thriving’ media in this country. or I may say ‘rating hungry’, ‘advertiser friendly’ ,’ insensitive’ bunch of jokers who manipulate facts for their own gain. what ever you call them they are omnipresent and omnipotent .

the most disgusting quality of the free media is the eagerness to please the advertisers and the corporates, which they represent . the corporate corruption in this country has grown to such  magnitudes that it easily dwarfs the political scams . reliance industries and the reliance ADAG group is so fraudulent  that most of their  earnings reports are inflated to mask their real worth from the investors and public . reliance is one of the biggest advertisers on television and owns a DTH company . hence you will never hear a scandal originating from that business house ; how can you kill some one who feeds you?? . you will never hear arnab goswami questioning the ambanis about the krishna godavari gas issue or the petroleum ministry about the removal of subsidy on petroleum.

sharad pawar the paralysed messiah of indian cricket , the king of maharashtra is the ‘most’ corrupt politician in this country. his actual fortune will be greater than the gdp of some small african countries . the sugarcane mafia that he heads was the one that produced the sugar scarcity earlier this year sending the sugar prices to the outer space. he is so much in control of BCCI  that one may even doubt his involvement in the many match fixing scandals. the free media that barks at mr chidambaram’s integrity never even raises a finger at mr pawar.

i would just like to ask the champions of free speech , the guardians of democracy to just shut up!! if you cant see the level of corporate corruption or politicians like mr pawar, just shut up!!! if you cant report for the aam admi . shut up!! if you cant tell the truth.

AN OPEN LETTER

this is an open letter to the railway authorities who delay the construction of railway overbridge at wadakkanchery,thrissur.

sir,

last week i had to travel to angamaly ,for which i boarded a thrissur bus from shornur at 11 30 . the running time for private buses on this route is about an hour,so i was expected to reach thrissur by 12 30 . but in reality it took me half an hour extra thanks to the closed railway gate at wadakkanchery. the gate was closed for  two trains to pass in either direction and my bus was able to just whiz pass the gate before the next closure.the same happened on my return ,  it took nearly 2 hours with nearly an hour of block at the gate ,  this time i had to wait for 3 trains to pass  just missing the fourth.

as we all know the stretch of rail from shornur to eranakulam is the busiest in the state with over 70 passenger trains per day. it is also the busiest as far as freight transport is concerned .this makes nearly 100 trains passing through wadakkanchery on a single day. the main road from thrissur to shornur is one of the vital links that palakkad and  malappuram have with thrissur .the one kilometer long traffic snarl that follows every rail closure is the testimony to the immense  volume of traffic that utilizes the road. thrissur , the health care centre that it is , is often the referal centre for many emergency cases from this rural region. we could easily spot atleast one ambulance stuck at the gate every single time.the thrissur ottapalam bus route is one of the busiest routes in palakkad with buses running on tight schedule.every time there is a snarl 7 to 8 buses gets stuck and once the flood getes open they engage in a death  race to thrissur caring less about the two wheelers, pedestrians or other vehicles.

time is precious for both you and me , last Tuesday your official inaction took 1 hour out of my day.thousands of ordinary people have to face this delay every day in their life. its frustrating to be stuck at a place over and over again due to something that can be solved just by official action.the approach roads, the pillars are all ready , just the final completion works on the overbridge remains. its been in this state for nearly an year now.as the number of trains in the route is about to increase we are bracing for one hour closures.sir please take adequate steps to fast track the project.your slumber have made our lives miserable , please heed to our requests and solve the problem with urgency.

valluvanad times

CULTURAL REVOLUTION

kerala was once the destination for immigrants , from jews seeking freedom from persecution to arabs in search of famed black gold.post independence its reversed, we now export people to all parts of the world. a lot have been discussed about the gulf boom and its implications , but not much about the IT boom and the indian growth story . valluvanad from british times have seen its bright ones board trains to madras  never to return. this migration peaked in the 80s then stopped owing to the gulf boom , but late 90s have seen it return.

out of the nearly 40 students in my batch at school all except a handful have gone the IT way. this must be the true for the most among gen Y.  bangalore which is the face of new india attracts most of these young graduates followed by chennai .the booming economy and the weird  insistance on the parent’s side for the children to be engineers have accelerated this to such an extend that its hard to spot a young face at family functions.most of the educated , upper caste middle class families have no young ones at home . many of our family friends are among this “middle people” . middle class, middle aged at home staring at a post retirement life , lonely at home.

the full effect of this mass movement of young people will not be evident in the immediate future but as the parents age the social implications will be severe. it will have catasrophic effect on the cultural  set up of malayalis . ways of life , caste and cultural traditions will be lost for ever .The urbanisation will result in cultural and lingistic homogenisation  with  hinglish replacing malayalam and punjabiyat replasing malayalitvam.

this trend is sure to continue and is hard to reverse . all we can do is to prepare ourself for this big revolution just round the corner ready to adapt to this new world with minimal conflict.

V SASIKUMAR ZINDABAD

i have always tried to be politically impartial in all my posts . but the assembly election results have forced me to take a stand , to be with my beloved MLA Mr V Sasikumar .

before writing this post i would like you to know that i am not a native of perinthalmanna constituency.

how can you describe charismatic leaders who lead from the front , who tries hard to be a part of every joy and sorrow of his constituents ,  whose sole motto is development and people’s welfare . that is sasikumar for you. a man who made perinthalmanna into one foremost towns of Malabar.

i personally have seen perinthalmanna transform over the last four years . during the first year of my study one of the things i feared the most was the traffic jams at the perinthalmanna junction. i still vividly remember one of such jams where my bus was stuck at the bye pass junction for nearly an hour . to combat this menace our MLA renovated the nilambur bye pass and the jubilee road , with the buses diverted through the bye pass . traffic signals were installed at the main junction. as a result of these traffic jams are a rarity these days. he initiated the widening of the section of NH 213 passing through perinthalmanna , which in itself reduced traffic congestion at angadipuram gate . many roads were rubberized including the valanchery road and the cherpulaseery road which is under repair right now.

how can some one forget the aligarh Muslim university campus that is under construction or the medicity .  with the setting up of the aligarh university off campus center perinthalmanna will be thrust into one of the premiere educational centers in south India.

he is the ideal MLA that india needs , but sadly in the last election he lost , that too by a margin of nearly 10,000 votes. how can the populace of perinthalmanna be so harsh on a man who dedicated his life for their service? . you cannot blame the people of perinthalmanna alone , its a general trend in kerala to vote for the party rather than the candidate . this election results have thrown in many such examples in valluvanad. two of the examples are K.Saleekha in shornur and M Hamsa at ottapalam , both from the cpm. the developmental works initiated by both during the ltenure was abysmal. the evidence of which are cherpulassery and ottapalam.  this mentality of malayalis must change , we must give support to leaders like Sasikumar who work for the people .

i dedicate this post to this visionary who will still be the MLA in the eyes of people like me who want India to develop and prosper rather than to fragment and fight over petty dividing lines.

THE GREAT INDIAN MEDIA

the contemporary culture of a country is framed by many factors including the media it consumes , so thanks to the media we Indians have become sensation hungry  “at your face ” kind of people who even in presence of dignitaries like the president or the prime minister boo the one we think have brought shame to the country . Isn’t booing in front of so many  foreign dignitaries a national shame , more embarrassing than the  crores of rupees slashed down the drain by these corrupt officials ? .  we have become so insensitive that we actually follow -  tv shows like emotional atyachaar  , news channels like times now which thrives on plain speculation or serials where women are treated not more than slaves . how have we,one of the oldest and greatest civilisations  came to be  the long-lost  twin of  the Yankees? , how come a country as diverse as ours came to be so homogeneous in its tastes ? – the answer to these two questions is  – the great indian media .

the run up to the commonwealth games have shown the news channels and news papers stooping so low that BBC and its Indian reporting came to be more  palatable . the media thrashed the countries’ image into pieces that the foreign media started to speculate whether the games were ever going to happen . TIMES NOW – the mother of sensational news in india  was in the forefront , HEADLINES TODAY – the cheap cousin of the times group flagship channel followed the suit . so we were bombarded with filthy toilet stories , mosquitoes and dengue . have they been not living in India ? these are basic realities here . I bet even arnab goswami must have been bitten by mosquito, at least once . they just blew things out of proportion that it was made into a national issue . in a country where millions  die of malnutrition these stories dominated the airspace for weeks .and finally when the D day came the opening ceremony went smooth  . so WHY did they make such a lot of noise about the games – was it just for the country to be ridiculed by a country like New Zealand whose population is  smaller than many districts in India or Australia which is barely the size of mumbai? . i guess so , as we will never get the answers – the critics have become admirers of the games, and asking questions to a patriot about the treason he did is treason in itself .

the youth channels have become places were the human emotions or dignity are alien concepts . u have shows like ROADIES where people line up to be insulted to the extent that the average viewer’s heart goes out  for his whole extended family . the reality shows which pit people against each other and manipulate their reactions are so inhuman that in front of those producers Stalin would look a better person .

commenting on the TV serials is more pathetic than they actually are.

there were talks of the government bringing in new regulations to make the media more responsible as of now this has not happened . but such a watch dog is a necessity or else we will turn into a society so driven by these manipulating thugs that we will have our own Iraq invasions and we will never respond to that.

RAILWAY JAM

railway budget is that part of the year when malayalam newspapers brings out long list of demands  – more trains , railway over bridges , new lines etc . with two railway ministers ( minister of state) we have achieved a lot especially new trains most of which passes through valluvanad . but with no adequate infrastructure ( railway over bridges) these new trains have become burden to the common man.

angadipuram

angadipuram railway crossing sits on NH213 between palakkad and kozhikode  just 2km from perinthalmanna , it is crossed by hundreds of vehicles including buses to calicut , manjeri , valanchery and kottakal . with the introduction of some new trains and the late running of the existing ones traffic jams extending for nearly a km is frequent here , it takes 20 to 30 minutes to reach perinthalmanna from angadipuram . this jam spills over to perinthalmanna especially the speeding buses regaining the lost time getting to a halt at the bottle neck in front of the town mosque and the old bus stand . the  buses which ply this route usually run at over speed either to ‘escape’ a KSRTC or to be on ‘TIME’ this in most cases leading to a nightmarish journey for the thousands who use this route . every time i get stuck there i think why a train which usually run empty have to create such a big menace to so many people , why the hell did manorama run long demand lists which include more trains to nilambur every year ? , does this person who compile the demand list ever seen the sufferings that the people in this region go through due to these new  trains which maximum carry a 200 people .

i myself am a victim of these nilambur road passengers . i am a daily traveler on the valanchery route which in  itself is a nightmare due to the KSRTC -private buses that race each other  , on top of that when the gate closes for the train to pass there will be a backlog of both these buses which competes through the  treacherous hairpin bends after puthanangadi .on my return it takes 40 minutes to reach perinthalmanna from MES ( which used to be a 20 min one) ,the bus to cherpulassery a long distance mayilvahanam from calicut which usually gets late due to the traffic skips cherpulassery stand , making me and my fellow co passengers walk .

wadakkanchery

the level cross at wadakkanchery is the busiest in kerala as far as the train traffic is concerned , it also lies on the main artey connecting thrissur with valluvanad . from my experience whether by car or bus you cannot cross it without being stuck there for one train or in cases two trains . this was such a burden for me and my fellow students who raced during the sunday coaching classes  , as the gate opens vehicles would pour out racing to get to thrissur . once i was stuck there for three trains to pass , when it opened we had 6 buses racing to shornur it was quiet a ‘thrilling’ ride , in another situation our car was almost hit by a bus which was competing with three others . the wadakkanchery overbridge is a work in progress for the last decade , still unfinished .

so the people who write these demand lists must atleast think of the thousands who suffer on a daily basis , and  must first consider the existing infrastructure .  I would also like to request  Mr E.Ahamed  who is hell bend on bringing new trains to please consider these facts  .

MUSLIM MALBAR – PART 2

this may or may not be considered as a follow-up to the first article ” muslim malabar – history” . here i would like to focus on the present condition muslim women.

as i mentioned earlier the muslims of malabar were the most backward among the three major communities of the state at the time of independence,  the gulf boom in the 80s and 90s brought them to the forefront of the socio-economic life of the state. though at present the community is more dynamic than the hindus  still they lag behind the mainstream by a generation or two . this is most evident in malappuram which could be called the defacto capital of muslim malabar where the community is plagued  by  social evils like gender inequality and  child marriages  .

muslim women would be the worst of their sex with respect to any social indicators in this state , which is known for its achievements in this field . the oppression of women is so widespread in the community that it would be hard to find working muslim women brisking to work during the peak hours in any major towns of malappuram , this inferior status of women is so deep-seated in the muslim psyche that once while taking case history when i asked a man whether his wife worked he looked at me in contempt and never replied. many of my lady friends doing bds  considers ( rather forced to consider) this degree as a means to get a good husband and 80% of them would not practice it  after getting married . if this is the case with well-educated and comparatively free women the condition of the underbelly of the society is better not described . this attitude towards the social status of women will come as a shock to anyone from outside the community , which was the case with me .

child marriages are so common in the community that no one ,how rich or poor are immune from it . nearly all muslim women gets married before 23 and would be pregnant by the next year , they have no choice in postponing this as the appropriate marriage age for a muslim woman/ girl is set at  18 . nearly 10% of the muslim students in my batch were married by first year and another 20% either got engaged or got married by the next.

one perfect example for this is that of one of my closest friends who got married in the second year , the marriage was basically a love marriage with blessings of both the families   and the husband is an MBBS doctor  . the girl got pregnant the next year and took a years leave , we must remember the fact that this girl repeated the entrance exam  to get into the course in the first hand , she want to continue her study but her husband and the families are against it , as of now its unclear whether she would continue or not.

marriage is the most relevant and discussed topic in the college campuses of malappuram whether it be boys or girls their basic aim in life  is to fall in love / get married before they are old( over 21 years in case of girls) . being a minority in my college the majority expects me  to be like them , so one of my friends asked me when am i going to get married – at 20 marriage was the least of my concerns but i answered 28 or 30 ( as my dad got married at 29) , he was shocked to hear my answer. then came nearly half an hour of lecture about how a man is to get married when his organs are at the height of their activity ( which is supposed to be 24) and how i will end up with an old lady ( aged 24 or 25) if i married ” late” . i still remember his emphasis on “pleasure” and “virginity” .

this article was never intended to hurt the sentiments of the community , but was written from first hand knowledge by the author who is  trying to cope with a world which to him is “stranger than fiction”

UNITED BY FEAR

just a day after the naxals killed 80 CRPF jawans we saw one of those instances of rare unity between the ruling party and the opposition . there were media “speculations ” about the home minister quitting his post, taking moral responsibility for the incident , to this  bjp came up with a statement that the H.M must not resign as it would be a moral victory for the perpetrators of this heinous violence . this was quiet a shocking statement from a party whose leaders  wanted shiv raj patel out right the next second after the Mumbai attacks. why did the opposition react that way?.lets find out the answer.

the various entities that form india is more diverse than the E.U which cannot even stand eye to eye in rescuing Greece . the common thread connecting these thousands of small entities  is the de facto religion of hinduism and many of its cultural extensions . we hindus  may call ourselves secular but beneath this thin membrane of pseudo secularism is the anxiety about our existence . the fear of going back to servitude and falling back to the nearly thousand years of  foreign rule . this fear of extermination which brought us together is still keeping us united.

in this respect india is more like isreal , but not as aggressive in defending its identity . since we are nearly a billion hindus vs a few million jews we could  be complacent , but the indian government still tries to defend its  identity . it knows how to keep this billion under control , so it utilizes tragedies like the above mentioned ones to keep this fear of unity alive . they not only make us fear the minorities(external forces) but make us assert our power on minorities like the many riots till gujrat to make us feel how much safe we are under them. through not punishing the guilty they give us assurance that we will never have to face any forced conversions or loose our gods under their guardianship. we all complain of hindu chauvinism but it is not bjp or rss  that is keeping it alive but the ruling class that always reminds us of our imminent peril whether in the hands of pakistan or the godless chinese.

the Mumbai attacks could be taken as the best example -  we had islamic terrorists bringing india’s business capital to a standstill (the best case scenario) this tragedy was taken up as an opportunity by the pseudo secular forces and their allies in the media  to derail the ongoing india – pakistan peace talks .  the normalisation of  relations would  mean enemy no 1 would be enemy no more . though pakistan is a major nuclear power ,the constant comparison and the fear in the indian psyche is just exaggerated . what can a country the size of uttar pradesh do, other than the proxy war it does , a direct confrontation means the complete annihilation of our smaller neighbor . we may also face casualties but will still survive . this is the worst case, will the international community allow such a confrontation in  the first place?. so the threat posed by pakistan is more on paper than in reality , whose existence is essential for our existence .

the naxalism is another of the “threats” facing us , the ruling class will never take action to suppress them nor will they stop making fables about their ability to overthrow the indian union .here the anxiety  is not about getting converted but loosing gods en mass . more over the socialist ideology is projected as the threat to the free economic system that shows 8% growth figures , the liberal media funded by these vested forces will never try to see the other 75% of india who suffers  . so we will have  arnab goswami questioning the patriotism  of  socialist thinkers  and never questioning  why naxalism is spreading through the jungles at this pace. it is a fact that naxals could never overthrow the indian union , but the capitalist lobby is taking extra mileage of this situation , they care less about the poor whether it be the widows of the dead soldiers or it be tribals caught in the cross fire.

these forces would take undue benefit of our fear if we never believe in the stability and longevity of this great conglomerate . so lets all try to make sense of reality than get guided by fear.

CHERPULASSERY

cherpulassery could be the most common search directed to my blog. i was surprised to see the number of netizens interested  about my birth place , that too not about the cultural history or the heritage of the place but to know about the modern cherpulassery . so for them i would like to share the things I know about the ‘present day cherpulassery’

i pass through cherpulassery twice a day for six times a week, each time i pass the town would have grown by a metre vertically or horizontally.that is the pace with which the town grows . when i was a kid cherpulassery was what the “moonumkudiyodam” was , a junction where palakkad,pattambi and ottapalam roads met , with a few grocery shops, sleepy tea stalls , two movie theatres “anand ” and “devi”and of course sankar hospital where i was born. now cherpulasseri extends from ayyapankavu to puthanalkal nearly 2km in length, with extensions into ottapalam road, akg road,ems road and high school road. the centre of focus is now at the busstand .

there are regular bus services from this place to almost all towns in the neighbourhood. there are a handful of ksrtc services , but the main mode of transport is the private bus.once i had a search directed from the frequency of bus services from calicut to cherpulasssery and another time from ottapalam so for them the following information would be helpful. as i travel in the cherpulassery – perinthalmanna route i know about some 6 direct buses to calicut of which three are green mayilvahanams. the frequency of buses to perinthalmanna is the greatest with average of five to six minutes apart with the shortest being two minutes(that’s  when i return home, usually the bus employees end up in verbal abuse of each other, parents, private parts are all placed in front of the passengers), seven to 10 minute frequency to pattambi and ottapalam , 10 to 15 minute frequency to palakkad,mannarkkad and shornur.

the nearest railway station is shornur 17km through mundakkottukurusssi and 24 through chalavara or vaniamkulam . district headquarters is 39 km from here. calicut airport is the nearest though people prefer kochi.

cherpulassery police station is at kacherikunnu on perinthalmanna road , there is a govt higher secondary school (one of the oldest in the region where mahatma gandhi visited) ,three english medium cbse schools of which one have classes till the 12th . there is a govt hospital at the hospital junction , karunya hospital near bus stand( formerly sankar hospital) and a new cooperative hospital.

cherpulassery is a panchayat with population of 30,000 , but it caters to the needs of nearly 250,000 people of nearby places. it is a bustling commercial centre , though at present the commercial space available highly outstrips demand it was one of the places with highest rent rates till a few years back. there are no major supemarkets except a new govt one, the place have the greatest number of textiles per capita in palakkad but most of them are small one room shops with clothes catering to the local style sense. there are no big jewelleries or home appliance showrooms ( except next) , but have two car show rooms one maruti and the other tata motors. the eateries are limited with a nila bake house near karunya hospital and the famous bakery opposite that, there are no good restraunts or hotels. most shops here are either electronic shops or grocery shops it’s where most businesses takes place.

these are some raw facts about cherpulassery if you have any queries about any other places in valluvanad you can ask me.