Vulnerability in the midst of climate change

1. I’m scared dear mother, because of what we’ve done
The trees have been cut and the birds have no place to go
The land has been ravaged and the seeds cannot grow
The valleys have been filled and the waters keep rising

Chorus: Don’t leave me mother, don’t leave me in the dark
I have no place to go, no place that will be home

2. I’m scared dear mother, because of what we’ve done
Our cars are polluting and we can’t breathe anymore
Our climate is changing and famine threatening
Our waste is choking and fumes rising

Chorus: Don’t leave me mother, don’t leave me in the dark
I have no place to go, no place that will be home

3. I’m scared dear mother, because of what we’ve done
Governments are greedy and selling our resources
People are needy but their voices silenced
Creation is losing its habitat but the signs are being ignored

Chorus: Don’t leave me mother, don’t leave me in the dark
I have no place to go, no place that will be home

4. I’m scared dear mother, because of what we’ve done
The poor are asked to leave, the rich take their place
Justice takes a back seat, oppression rules the day
The mighty rob the earth and we are asked to pay

Chorus: Don’t leave me mother, don’t leave me in the dark
I have no place to go, no place that will be home

My mama won the election!!!

As the Congress-DMK discussions for berths continue, the mandate is clear. The Congress led UPA has been voted back to power. The people of India have shown that they are eager for a stability and sensibility which they have got very less of in the past two decades. Lalu Prasad Yadav added an extra berth inside trains in India only to lose his own berth in the cabinet. (I wonder whether they will do away with this extra berth concept inside trains. Many have confessed that it is quite annoying). CNN-IBN and NDTV are telling us that they won the elections because they came close to predicting the results.

In all this fervor of hectic activity and claims I have to make a confession of my own. One, I did not write a blog on mother's day. (I could be excused because I did not get hold of a computer to type in a blog post and I was also internet-less for a week in between). Two, my mother, like many mothers in Kerala and I am sure all over India, predicted who would win this election.

Now I don’t know whether all the mothers in this land said the Congress would win because they were fed up with the other parties, or whether they had an inclination for the Congress right from the beginning or whether the likes of Rahul, Priyanka and Tharoor did the trick! (I did read an article which predicted a good chance for Shashi Tharoor because women in Kerala also vote for good looking men! :) I can’t vouch for that, but it’s what I read).

As I asked many families in Kerala who they voted for, the women (mostly mothers) would always show me the hand (not literally). “Congress ke hath garibo (mahilaom: women) ke sath.” Meaning that the Congress symbol of the hand would be with them and they would be with the hand. Hand in glove maybe! This gave me some pointers as to who would this election. But I still thought that this election would be a humdinger. I was proved wrong... by my mother. Happy belated mother's day.

Shame (less)

Picture: SmasHits.com






How long will we celebrate?
How bad can we get?
Who all have to die?
Where will we end up?

Today I cry for my mother
My land and all the people
Women, men, children of all colours and castes
From all states and religions

I can’t say what is wrong and what is right
I won’t take sides and preach
But I’ll fight for what I’m worth
To prevent blood shed and destruction

What is a structure worth you may ask?
Isn’t it just lime and brick?
It is till our roof is slick
Intact with our blood, life and memories in sync




(Dec 6 is the anniversary of one of the most terrible days of Indian democracy. As we mourn those who lost their lives in the recent Mumbai attacks we should also make sure that the lives lost to communal violence should be remembered and worth their weight in gold. It also asks for a response from us to go beyond our religious, caste, class, and geographical identities and be more responsive to human life).

Role reversal

We all have our roles to play or that is what we believe. How many times have we heard that if we stick to the role we are given, everything will fall into place and there will be harmony and peace? Depending on which role is played by whom, this makes sense to a few but unfortunately not to everyone.

As a child I was clearly told what I was supposed to do, what role I was expected to play and how. I had to take care to study and get a good job with a nice pay packet. I was not supposed to enter the kitchen and cook food, nor was I expected to do anything in the house. The lines were clearly drawn. As a boy and a man my scope of work was outside the house. Who then was to care of the house? The woman of course. The mother, daughter, wife, whoever fell on the other side of the sex genes!

India is trying hard to shed the old image of cows on the road and poverty, and trying to project sky-scrapers and the sophisticated image. But what usually gets conveniently forgotten is the equality of the sexes and how important this is to reflect the progress that a country makes. The parliament is divided over the arithmetic and caste issues of 33% reservation for women in parliament. First pass the bill, implement it and then think of how it could be made all inclusive! (It is a shame that even in the west many men still expect women to be house makers and fulfil certain roles)

What then is the role of women? Is it to be a house maker, a maid, a cook, a piece of the house furniture? To understand this, we have to come to terms with our role in life. Who am I and what is my role? Am I the king, the master, the lord, or God? Can I go beyond this and can I swap my role with a woman- my mother, sister, wife, friend?

Liquory dickory dock!!!

“Excusheeeee meeee madam, can you help me pleasshhe?” One need not even look to know where this comes from. But I was curious and also a bit concerned that this was a sound directly in front of my house in Thiruvalla, Kerala. My mother took it upon herself to address the situation at hand but that didn’t mean I was out of the equation. I held my breath and listened to the conversation that ensued.

“What do you want?”, my mother asked to the man who had come to our house. “I am a poor man and I need help to marry off my daughter.” My mother’s detective instincts must have worked over time as she replied, “You are stinking of liquor. How can you lie using your daughter’s name?” After a few attempts at denying the charge the man finally said, “Atleast give some money in the name of the service I am doing for the government.” “And what is that?”, asked mother. “I am drinking and through that making sure that the government is getting excise revenue. So you see, I am helping the government!!” Maybe I should let go of what happened afterwards and get to the issue at hand.

The previous blog was about the famous drunkard of Kerala, who has managed to even become a hit with spectators of cultural programmes and a few movies. This is the person who people like to laugh at. But laughing wont take away the gravity of the situation in Kerala. It is not the fact that Kerala has the highest per capita consumption of liquor in the country but the fact that twelve and thirteen year olds have started drinking and it affects their formation as individuals and even leads them to indifferent acts. Road accident deaths numbered 3,066 and 51,352 people were injured in 41, 306 accidents in 2004. (1)

The church as always has been in the forefront of asking for a total ban on liquor. (2) A.K. Antony, a former chief minister of Kerala even banned the sale of country made liquor (arrack) in 1996. (3) But the sale of Indian Made Foreign Liquor continues and the natural toddy drink available in Kerala is now adulterated by an illicit liquor lobby. The church has not thought of a different way of looking at the situation yet.

The writing on the wall is very much visible for those who care to read it. 1. Drinking in Kerala has increased over the years and the minimum age of children who start drinking has decreased. 2. Christians also form a good part of this number and schools run by Christians also have students who start drinking early. 3. Is liquor the problem or is it the way we use it, that is the problem? 4. Will the church ever consider preaching ‘responsible drinking’ to it’s members? 5. The people of Kerala (including me) are comfortable to make fun of the poor drunkards while we remain quiet to the excesses of the rich who drink and drive and cause accidents and death. 6. Will having open talks on drinking and driving, responsible drinking and legal age limit for drinking, remain a taboo in Christian schools, similar to sex education?

Maybe it’s time to discuss these things in church? Maybe it’s time we opened our eyes to what is happening in the world around us? Maybe it’s time we accepted where we are today?




(1)http://www.ias.org.uk/resources/publications/theglobe/globe200502/gl200502_p22.html, viewed on 1-10-2008
(2)http://www.hindu.com/2006/03/18/stories/2006031823890300.htm, viewed on 1-10-2008
(3)http://www.yoursmartkerala.com/tracker/Kerala_A-K-Antony_6.aspx, viewed on 1-10-2008

Help, I'm old !!!

Kerala finds itself staring at more than 3 million people who are above the age of 60. Many have been thrown out (either physically or by being a nobody in their own house) of their homes and some live at the mercy of relatives or old age homes. Even that is a luxury and some end up on the streets with nothing.

But life wasn't always like this for them. There was a life of happiness and content. A life with a loving wife or husband and the fullfillment of bringing up one's children and caring for them. But what was the epicentre of their lives then shatters all expectations. Mother's and father's are taken care of and then conveniently disposed when the time comes. Some are put up in huge mansions constructed by the children who work in the middle east, the U.S. or Europe, and the parents also become a part of the furniture, to be showcased to the public. Without any community support the old are left to fend for themselves or live a life after surrendering every bit of their integrity.

Society itself makes the aged feel unwanted. Everything happens so fast and changes faster that the mother's and father's can't even cross a road or shop in peace. The railway's and banks give special incentives to those above 60 but how will these people reach a railway station or a bank? How is it possible to do anything when one feels they could be mauled down any minute by the traffic.

This is not the case in every house hold. There are children who go the extra mile to take care of their parents, sometimes even overdoing it a touch. There are those who age gracefully and die gracefully. But they are the exceptions. What about those who are pushed into solitude? What about those who feel the carpet has been pulled from under them? When will we assure and give dignity to the aged? These then are the questions before us.

My (our) Mother's face

Mother, it was your sacrifice that brought me here
And yet through the stepping stones of my life
I forgot this momentous truth of 'here' for 'there'.

Filled was I with greed for my own survival
Lived did I in a manner of denial
That seldom did I notice how life was snuffed out of you.

When will your hard work be noticed?
When will the world give you your place?
When will your children accept your kind face?

This indeed is the problem we face
Our memory of our mother is but laced
With lies and fiction in their place

Try shouldn’t we to displace, the path of disgrace?
And bring back our mother to grace
To the land and thoughts which will give her back her face?!!!

Shout the silence away!!!

Jerryyyyyyy…… My mother’s shrill cry cut through the layers of cement, and resonated onto my ears, like the loud sound of cymbals, shocking me out of my slumber. I woke up and tried my best to induce my shut eye lids to catch the morning light. Even as my senses slackened the trumpet sounded again and the theory that light travels faster than sound was challenged (at least in my case). The cause had its effect and I jumped up from my bed and exploded into action. It was Sunday and my mom had just given me the all important wake up call.

Jerryyyyyyy…… The Chemistry teacher was staring at me with eyes like a tiger on the prowl. Had I broken a test tube? , did I miss an equation? , was my tie out of place? , what was the question? A hundred thoughts came to my mind as to why the teacher was looking at me without an ounce of tenderness. I got a nudge from a friend and a calculated whisper, ‘Don’t sleep!!’

Jerryyyyyyy…… Will you go get the news paper? , said my wife in a soft and loving tone at first and upon my reluctance to shrug off my rest, the tone became a bit hoarse, getting me to recoil and jump like I had heard the sound of a gun.

Silence is godly, which is why one doesn’t get much of it. It is so difficult to have a few minutes of silence as it is always broken by something or the other, be it in our conscious state or sub conscious state. “A barking dog doesn’t bite”, so the saying goes. Wonder whether we are uncomfortable with silence because we are scared of it. It freaks us out, scares us out of our wits and our only defence is to shout!