Wrong Media Coverage of Kollemcode Thookam

I happened to see a news in people tv which gave me a shock of my life. How media can hide, manipulate and extrapolate facts.
News was about a festival and tradition we follow in our home town Kollemcode called thookam. The news was associated with a paragliding event happened in kerala with a title "Parakramam kuttikalodalla vendu" which means that "atrocities should never be with Kids".

News started with a scroll running down saying about a case filed on the paragliding incident and following up with a scroll saying that in "kerala tamilnadu border one of the heinous tradition followed in Kollemcode shri Bhadrakali temple called thookam". Minutes later there was an actual news with video of thookam which almost give any viewer that what is being followed really horrendous. Its about my place, a tradition which I participate with thousands of others and of course though managed by some families, every one living in the neighborhood consider the diety as "Amma" means "Mother" who is believed to be enriching every one of lives and being with us in our ups and down.

Before going to the details of thookam let me highlight something really interesting and important facts about the temple. 1) We are the ones who always allowed any one in spite of their caste, creed or religion to be in the temple to perform Pooja's. What to be noted is that, this is being followed even years before the temples in Kerala are opened to all people through acts like "Kshetra Pravesana Vilambaram" or Temple Entry Proclamation on June 1947.
2) We never restrict any one taking part in thookam as "Thookkakar" or people who carry the kids around the temple if he met the only constraint of physical fitness.
3) We are one among the first temple who allowed non brahmin pandits (poojari) to perform poojas and to be precise we have dedicated only on special occasions and for the rest of the year these pandits do poojas.
4) Thookam is covered live in Kerala channels as dedicated live, news clippings and front page news on all malayalam and tamil newspapers.
5) During the ten days celebration we are visited by many celebrities and many of the meetings are presided by dignitaries like Central and state ministers of Kerala and Tamilnadu.
6) During the festival and even otherwise, the temple is visited by lakhs of visitors.
7) We were one of the first temples who abolished animal slaughter.

Now explaining Thookam which was represented by the channel as henious tradition is a belief of thousands of people across from parts of Kerala and Tamilnadu. While reporting the incident what you have failed to convey the viewers are
1) This is not a competition but a culture of people who believe in it. 2) None of the kids who are taken around the temple are tortured in any manner.
3) They are not crushed in the hands of the people who carry them as you have reported. They are carried with atmost care and concern.
4) We are not doing it for fame but this an act of belief (which you may term it as blind)
5) We are not the only temple who does this ceremony. Famous kerala temples like Kulathoor, Poovar, Aryankavu, Pachalloor and the list go endless. Yes, we are proud to say that we have maximum number of thookam, that too "iratta thookam" (a pair) in two "villu". Did you report on these temples which is more closer for you to reach?
6) There is no skin piercing like in garudan thookam or kuthiyottam. To remind you, kuthiyottam is a tradition we too follow like many other famous temple in kerala. Does it not add to the atrocity list?
7) The height of the "villu" or the log is atmost a height of a double storied building.
8) There are specially designed life jackets for the kids which you failed to capture. Even if the "Thookkakar " loose the grip, the babies are safe.
9) To my knowledge there was never an accident happened to the kids which turned fatal. In my entire life a kid fell down once, who was safely caught by people. With the additional security even this issue is addressed.
10) The accident happened once was due to the stampede while pulling the "Ratham" or Chariot. Well please dont claim that this chariot dragging is something new to india.
11) Children cry not because they are tortured but the kids are not familiar to the one who takes them around and the crowd. But fact is almost 50% of kids don't cry at all.

While there are more number of facts to list out, as a resident of Kollemcode I demand an unconditional apology from the channel and air the actual clips which highlights the security and tradition as early as possible.

If you happened to read this and one among who knows the tradition please share it till it reaches the authorities of the channel.

And the manipulated news is added here:

വാലെന്റൈന്‍ ദിന ആശംസകള്‍

തമസോമ ജ്യോതിര്‍ഗമയ

എഴുത്ത് എന്നും എനിക്കൊരു ഹരമായിരുന്നു

അന്നവര്‍ പൈങ്കിളി എന്ന് വിളിച്ചു കളിയാക്കി

പിന്നെയവര്‍ സാഹിത്യ ബോധം തീരെ ഇല്ല എന്നും പറഞ്ഞു

എനിക്കന്നു ആകാശത്തിന്‍റെ താഴെ എന്തിനെ കുറിച്ചും എഴുതാമായിരുന്നു

പ്രകൃതി, പ്രേമം, കരച്ചില്‍, കാമം, ദുഃഖം, ദയ,

തുടങ്ങി എന്തിനെ കുറിച്ചും

എന്നാല്‍ ഇന്ന് സകലതും മാറി,

മരുഭുമിയില്‍ നനുത്ത ഉറവിടം തേടി നടക്കുന്ന ഒരു സഞ്ചാരിയെ പോലെ

പേനയും, പുസ്തകവുമായി ദിവസങ്ങള്‍ അലഞ്ഞു.

എന്‍റെ ചിന്തകള്‍ക്ക് ആരോ കൂച്ചു വിലങ്ങിട്ട പോലെ

ഒരുപക്ഷെ മുന്നില്‍ ഒരു ജീവിതം കത്തിയമര്‍ന്നത് കൊണ്ടാകാം,

അല്ലെങ്കില്‍ പരാജയങ്ങള്‍ മാത്രം ഏറ്റു വാങ്ങേണ്ടി വന്നതു കൊണ്ടുമാകാം

എഴുത്ത് എനിക്കിന്നു തീര്‍ത്തും അന്യമായിരിക്കുന്നു.

ജീവിതം ലക്ഷ്യമില്ലാതെ ചലിച്ചു കൊണ്ടേ ഇരുന്നു

വിജയവും പരാജയവും ഒന്നും അതിനെ ബാധിക്കാതെ ആയി

മനുഷ്യന്‍ എങ്ങനെയാണു മരണത്തെ വരിക്കുന്നത് എന്ന് ഞാന്‍ ഭീതിയോടെ ഓര്‍ത്തു.

അത് മാത്രമാണ് മുന്നിലെ ഏക വഴി എന്ന് തോന്നിപോയ നിമിഷങ്ങള്‍,

പക്ഷെ എന്നെ വിശ്വസിച്ച ജീവിതങ്ങളെ ഞാന്‍ ഓര്‍ത്തു.

മനസിന്നെ തളയ്ക്കാന്‍ ഞാന്‍ ആശ്രയിച്ചിരുന്ന മരുന്നുകളെ

ഞാന്‍ എന്നെന്നേക്കുമായി ഉപേക്ഷിച്ചു

പിന്നെയവള്‍ എന്‍റെ ജീവിതത്തിലേക്ക് കടന്നു വന്നു

തീര്‍ത്തും വിജനമായ എന്‍റെ വഴിത്താരയില്‍ ഒരു ആശ്വാസമായി

ഇന്ന് ഞാന്‍ ശരിക്കും ഭാഗ്യവാന്‍ എന്ന് വെറുതെ എങ്കിലും ഞാന്‍ മനസ്സില്‍ ഉറപ്പിച്ചു

ഉറക്കത്തിലെവിടെയോ ഇന്ന് ഞാന്‍ ഒരു പിന്ചോമനയുടെ ചിരി കേള്‍ക്കുന്ന പോലെ

ദുഖത്തിന്‍റെ അഴിയില്‍ മുങ്ങി പോകുമെന്ന് തോന്നുപോള്‍

ആശ്വാസത്തിന്‍റെ വഞ്ചിയുമായി അവള്‍ എന്നും എത്തുന്നത്‌ പോലെ

ജീവിതം തിരിച്ചു പിടിക്കാനുള്ള ഇ തത്രപ്പാടില്‍

പേനയും പുസ്തകവുമായി ഞാന്‍ വീണ്ടും തുടങ്ങുന്നു

അനുഗ്രഹിക്കും, ആശീര്‍വധിക്കും എന്ന പ്രതീക്ഷയോടെ

 

Unveiling the Logo for JustForUU

My friend, was really behind me to continue writing for JustForUU. Thanks to her, for making me aware that some times it is worth to spend time for our passion too.

Here is the new logo for Ninakkay Mathram, your favorite Blog

JustForUU Celebrates 1Lakh + Clicks

Thank you readers.. Keep visiting my blog and as always your support keeps me engaged in writing. Let me know your comments.

Some Snaps from Kollemcode - My Home Town

Colors: Colors are reflections of India.

Kathakali: Traditional Art form of Kerala

Festivals: Festivals are the soul of India

 Sunset: Every rise has a set, that is univeral

State of Hibernation

As usual my blog has gone to a dead state. No updates, nothing. But my page views remain constant and it is because of Google traffic. I have a lot to tell you on my front but I am forced to be quiet for some more time. I was trying to find inspiration by reading books, listening to music but in vain. Nothing tickled my author cells so it is still in the state of hibernation. I hope to wake myself soon and bring you the exciting offerings from JustForUU

Writers block

Things are never same again. This time I am going to concentrate on my post sincerely. I was reading the interview of great author Jeffrey Archer, He said he never felt writers block. True for me as well, no I am not saying I am great, I just meant when I have something in my mind I can write continuously without a block. I wrote couple of stories and lost it in several unsaved documents in my laptops. Let me try at least this time to post one which is informative.

To all who were asking me

Many people asked me about our Parliamentarian Mr. Shashi Tharoor Sir's Comment in twitter, I have added my twitter page screen about the comments i recieved for the post on Middle Class India

Page From Twitter

Worries of a middle class Man

I am a regular taxpayer. Thirty percentage of my hard earned money is given to the government as it is. I am one among those middle class men who doesn’t have voice in their country. I cannot get bribe because I work for a private company which doesn’t just have ethics in paper but also practice it. Forget about ethics my company follows, even I cannot get bribe because software engineers can never be bribed. I am one among those unlucky who never fits into the so called privileged people and underprivileged people.


When the privileged has all power and money to enjoy the stardom of my country and get extra advantages, underprivileged don’t care about those. They face it as and when it comes but what about the growing insecurity in me? I am scared. I am anxious, flustered, scandalized even after being one among the main source of income for my country.

I cannot cheat my government by underplaying my revenue; I cannot sell spectrums to get a sum of money which has zeroes that I cannot count. I am scared about being me. I am afraid that my car should not hit others because I don’t belong to this state. I am paying road tax, I will soon be paying property tax, I am paying professional tax, I pay tolls but still I am an outsider. I don’t belong to this city. Autodriver who talked to me in English or hindi will turn out to be a localite who knows only the local language when he bumps me into trouble. I don’t have voting rights, I don’t have any means to talk to my corporator that my roads are in worst condition and the only car I have is getting damaged. He doesn’t care if I pay a huge sum to my service garage to fix my suspension.

I am scared to look at people who stare at me with red eyes, though gaining confidence I stare them back I feel insecure to gaze at them. I am scared to go around with my life partner after 10’o clock because I hear motor bikes revolving around me. I scared to look at the newspaper which always celebrates the fall of common man like me. I am among those who feel relaxed to know that none of my relatives are in the accident which was caused due to civic negligence. I spend good amount of time in traffic jams in roads of the country which ask me to pay VAT even for the food I eat.

I am in between the powerfull and who don’t care power. I am a common man, I am so called middle class man. I am bothered about the wrooming Audi’s and Mercedes thinking another tycoon goes on his way. He doesn’t have to care the traffic signals, police, rules, law. He parks his car below the no parking board; he pay a hundred to them if they catch him in a no entry area. I am helpless, I don’t say that I won’t follow law but I am too tired of the law breakers, who twist the law for their sake and I don’t have money or support if in case I break one.

I am a common man, who dreams big, who try big but never succeeds. I am one among those who tries hard to meet the both ends of life. I am one among those “Cattle Class” men, who wish my country’s GDP reach heights than my swiss accounts, one among those country men who wish my country to reach first, one among those patriots who feel proud to hear his national anthem played in a game or just in a movie hall.

I am scared about my future generation. Now they celebrate the day they lose their “v” but I am scared about my future gen who may update his/her facebook status about the anxiousness of the day getting near just before losing “V”. I am not a party animal; I don’t have money to spend for a glass of “sex on the beach” or “vodka with redbull” or even a pitcher of beer. But I wish to dance with my partner, but I am scared about my valet getting lighter after that.

My father is concerned about me getting late but I will have to be concerned about the state of my kid coming back every night. I will have to bother about the long calls of my kids than his/her growth. About the number of people he parties with because my valet is not heavy like them. I have to follow moral and cultural values which my parents taught me. No, it is not my intention to portray myself as Mr. Right, but I am one among those Mr. Wrong’s who trapped their lives with a tag of common man.

I am Indian, proud to be an Indian but I am one among those common man who wish to go onsite earn money and “Come Back”, but this come back is optional for many of them who gets used to the facilities of developed countries. I am not being backed up by any government. My father paid my school fee till 12th standard and after that though government seat I was forced to do my engineering paying forty nine thousand per year for the mistake of my father not belonging to some communities which had reservations. But government spend lakhs of rupees for training people in IIT’s and IIM’s and they boast to be placed abroad leaving a common tax payer like me in dilemma of his mistake to be born in this country. I don’t have people to call for a press conference and say my inability due to coalition or my inability to protest. I am a common man, born in this country to serve the country for ever but always being scared of my life, loved ones and property against the miscreants, against the powerful, against politicians, against police, against acquisitions…against everything which I can’t protest… Just a common middle Class Man

Why do I post in English?

Its actually a genuine question. Why do this guy blog in English. According to believable sources I make 45-55% grammatical mistakes. Well we software engineer bost that we dont have to work with Grammer and Phonetics. Its all the job of the teachers and smarties who work in BPO.

You know, who cares if I make a grammatical mistake in C-Sharp. Well do I have to use grammer while coding,
how about this
                      int iCameHome = 0;
Oops, this is perfect in C-Sharp, not in English. But now a days I mostly work with Documents, so I need to take care of it a little, but i think the Word suggestion will suffice the purpose.

I badly want to blog in malayalam, but what is stopping me from doing it is the pain behind typing it.

for eg: ഞാന്‍ നാട്ടില്‍ പോയി വന്നാല്‍ നിനക്ക് മാമ്പഴം കൊണ്ട് തരാം
To write this I atleast took 1 minute. and still i need to correct it often.
and next is ofcourse some of my friends understand only english.. for them as well.
Thanks for your support .. and forgot to mention "Happy Valentines Day"

25000 Clicks - JustForUU

Its an achievement, Thank you all for this. I am planning for a wonderful celebration this time. Watch this blog for more...

Nama Japam - Sandhya Namam Lyrics

Almost in all parts of Kerala and Kanyakumari district, it is a practice to worship God during the sunset and sing bhajans. It was once a mandatory ritual to recite these hymns by everyone in the family and later it got reduced to a practice that brought children and Grand Parents together. Now, they have become recorded songs of renowned singers like K.S.Chithra and others. These songs are available in market as Sandhya Vandhanam albums.

When I was a kid, after lighting the "Nila Vilakku" (Lamp). We use to sit in front of the picture and recite Sandhya Naamam. Every region of Kerala seems to have different versions of lyrics and the one I am posting is a localized version of Sandhya Vandhanam which is popular in our region. I forgot almost everything, I am sure our next generation wouldn't even be aware of the fact that they had such hymns. Nila Vilakku is replaced by artificially illuminated lamps and Gods are kept in a corner of the living room. I called up my Mother and Grand mother to refresh my memories of the religious songs and I thought I shall post them before they were drowned into the oblivion. You can recite this song as per your wish or you can sing this based on the song of Sandya Vandhanam by Chithra.

I am not sure about few words i have written and its meaning as there are no written text for these and is mainted as Vaithari (Transfered to generations just by mouth). Thanks to my Grandma and Mom who recited me the entire text. Read It Here

My First English Novel

"Diogo is in the transit of Frankfurt Airport. It was a tiring journey from Lisbon. He is anxiously waiting for the announcement for boarding his Lufthansa Flight to Mumbai"...

It’s been some time I updated anything in the blog. This time I promise you something massy, really great stuff, which I ever felt. I am involved in the research for my work and I promise to make it a wonderful experience for you. Please update me about the content, standard and experience. If you don’t find it of international standard then drop a word to me about how I can improve?? You will find Love to lust, culture to cuisine in its real sense in the novel. Novel will be posted as chapters and will be labelled under a common name so that readers can refer to it any time to have a complete reading experience.

Top 50 Malayalam & Tamil Romantic Songs

If you require the list of Top 50 songs of any specific language from this Top 161 Romantic Songs please mail me. I will create a separate list for you and share it in this blog or I will send that to your mail id.

The Deciding Minute

Yesterday I was standing in a long queue for lunch in our food court . In the menu I saw some vegetarian dishes and non-vegetarian too. I had decided that I wouldn’t go for Non-Veg food for at least a month. There is a small story behind it, I love chicken and never actually bother whether it is grilled, smoked, tandoori or fried. I know my friends who eat more than one chicken at a time, but I can surely cross half chicken in one go. In this short (long: 27 years) time I might have ate (27 yrs * 12 months * 4 weeks, I know this number is less when u see my consumption level now, but I had compensated things to my childhood, so my average should come near to the multiplied value of the above said numbers). The souls of the chickens I ate might be lingering around me restlessly, cursing me to out grow my clothes as I still continue to hog them. Now you know the reason why I pledged myself to be a vegetarian at least for a month..............Hmmmmmmmmmm!!!!!!!

My position in the queue was getting closer to the counter. My brain and tongue and heart were having a World War II on the choice. When my tongue suggested going for N.V, my brain took a firm decision that I will stick to veg. I reached the counter, seconds passed like the decision making moment in reality shows . The guy at the counter stared at me, thinking what would be my choice. Okie, now brain tell him that I need a veg thali (Rice Plate (Not Reddy – Ref Quick Gun Murugan)) and I took my Sodexho card and told him “One Non – veg Combo”. Man what I said now. My brain became fierce ordering his fellow guys that they disobeyed his decision. Too add on complexity to my choice, this brain guy drew a picture of myself and made me aware that I will look like that if I continue to do like this. While walking to the stall, I don’t know if my right brain or left convinced other part that I won’t repeat this mistake again.

But intention behind this post was not about the choice war between my heart and brain; it was about the deciding second, the moment which I changed my mind to opt for a Non – Veg food. It is crucial, I thought about a celebrity who opted to go in a wrong way when he had a beautiful wife. I am sure that he might have gone through this dreaded moments of decision. His mind would have opted between the fame and status he had, and his family and on the other side his instinct. The crucial second he went for second choice to follow his heart, things went wrong. (By this narration I never had an intention to comment on him or the case on him. I used this statement to explain more about the Deciding moment in Life)

By this I never meant that it is always negative when your heart makes decisions (I know it is not logically correct, but I guess you might have got the real sense of it). When you are not sure about the outcome, I think it is fine to opt any of those but when you are sure about the after effects of the choice you are going to face it’s important to listen your brain that makes wise decision than following your instinct.

Journey towards Branding dhaneshnair.com

In the process of branding your favorite portal, I have changed the the logo of dhaneshnair.com. News doesnt end by that, I have created a toolbar which you can install in your browser. This will help you search better, get my updates from JustForUU, Twitter. Toolbar will also help you to block popups, chat with all users who read JustForUU and dhaneshnair.com. I am trying to add few malayalam and tamil radio channels soon to the toolbar and an email notifier which will alert you when a new mail comes to your inbox.

Its my request to all my readers to try it once and ofcourse if you dont like it, you can uninstall it and please let me know how I can improve it.

You can download it from here or click on the top corner banner of the page to get the tool bar.

Download our free toolbar

After Effects of Kayyoppu

I always say my people that I don’t read much in Malayalam because I am afraid that I will get influenced. But now the funniest part is I don’t read English book either. I was watching the movie Kayyoppu in which Mamooty plays a character of a Writer. The whole movie speaks about reading of books and its importance in literature. I admit that I feel bored to watch award movies; I prefer to watch a comedy than to spend time in watching an award movie.I often think about my work. I was surprised about my readers who read what ever I scribble.

The movie speaks about an age when people were serious about what they read; they find time in discussing about the world class work written by eminent writers across globe. My fiancé who is doing her master's in literature too do the same, I just feel surprised to know about their analytical skills and how they do postmortem on a subject which we don’t even think of. If I count on my readers, other than the casual or google visitors, the regular readers of my blog are between the age of 18- 30. Its not that I target them while writing, but to be frank that is what the level of knowledge I have. Now the question arises, to what extend u need to be exposed to literature to become a good writer.

One thing I have noticed about my blog visitors is that they are common people who just find time in reading subjects of their interest. Of course Love, Separation, and other subjects which I take for writing poems and short stories are their interest because all of those creations are meant for the level of understanding of the common people.

Next topic I observed on the movie is Writers Block. I am sure that even the people who write a diary might confront such a situation in their life. There should be a source of inspiration for people to write. In that first and foremost is self love, love towards his own creation makes a writer to create a awesome output. Once the inspiration is lost its way you never feel like writing. I have experienced that several times especially when you are not sure about the people who are going to read your creation.

I wish all my fellow bloggers that u finds a real source of inspiration and by them/that you write well, you express well. I also have request to my readers to give me comments on my creations. I know that I am not eminent and I am not targeting that group of readers who are inspired by world class writers as well. Its for you who wish to make you heart light for a moment. I being a Software engineer have limited exposure to books and other articles but if you feel that I could be improved in some way or other let me know. I will be happy to get your comments; rather I request your comments to give you wonderful creations

Its time for abstraction

I always felt that JustForUU is used for every aspect happening around. My photographs are there, general updates, poems, stories, etc. In the meanwhile, dhaneshnair.in was kept with out any updates. Now there is a change, I have decided to use JustForUU only updates which it is meant for. JustForUU will contain all Poems, Lyrics, Short Stories, Yaadein, etc while My general updates and other related contents will be moved to www.dhaneshnair.com

Please visit the newly launched www.dhaneshnair.com. I am sure that you will enjoy it, If you would like to have some more content of your choice to the website, then send your comments, feedback and suggestions to comments@dhaneshnair.com

dhaneshnair.com : Your New Companion

dhaneshnair.in will be converted to dhaneshnair.com
Wait for the release tommorow, with a lot of fun and excitement... So the countdown begins.

Dont forget to login to http://justforuu.dhaneshnair.com on 15th November 2008.
and more blogs added to list...