Just Jo

Borders, re-drawn by Google

Jo — Sun, 15 Nov 2009 10:16:01 +0000

It is quite normal of businesses to have different strategies for different regions but there are some things which should not be hurt just because of the business interests. And I think it is a pity that somebody has to remind a company like Google about that.

Google Maps, in it’s English version, has marked India’s borders with China as disputed area. However, Google Ditu, the Chinese localized version of Google Maps, has portrayed Arunachal Pradesh and other parts of India as part of China. Google Ditu also shows Taiwan and the South China Sea Islands as part of China. This is quite a big insult to the Indian nation and it’s people and I think there has to be a wide spread protest against this.

Google Maps screenshot

Google Ditu screenshot

(Thanks to Aravind for the info)

Do we want blood on our hands? This news from Times Online, comes as shocking to me....
Are We a Free Country? The picture on the left shows a screenshot from NDTV’s...
Divided We Stand? [This article first appeared as the cover story (on...

Related posts brought to you by Yet Another Related Posts Plugin.

Love Jehad?

Jo — Fri, 13 Nov 2009 03:00:19 +0000

Three of my good friends who are Christians married Hindu girls. All three of them were either studying or working together when they first met and fell in love. The girls got converted to Christianity. What do I call this? Love Crusade? I would like to know what Catholic Church has to say about this.

Two of my Hindu friends married Christian girls. The girls got converted to Hinduism at Arya Samaj offices. What do I call this? Love Karseva? I would like to know what Viswa Hindu Parishat has to say about this.

I have mentioned this over and again in many communications that at least in Kerala, those who have to compromise on their religion for a wedding happen to be Women. I have said that this is more of a gender issue because I have never heard of a boy converting to his girl’s religion to get married.

However, when the boy happens to be a Muslim and the girl happens to be a Christian or Hindu, why is it linked to the word Terrorism and an immediate interest in calling it Love Jihad? Why is it that our media even called it an organization without even investigating a little? Why are they remaining silent now that the DGP has submitted a report before the court that there is no such organization and no indication of anything like Love-Jehad? How could the Catholic church shamelessly join hands with VHP in keeping the numbers of the herd intact?

To conclude, an old online acquaintance of mine who happens to be a Muslim married a Christian boy some years back. Both of them have not changed their religions.

What do I call THAT?

KCBC has got it wrong I was happy to hear that the Kerala Catholic Bishops...
The Sene Sainik Hey! What’s up? Haven’t seen you lately. Yeah, I’ve been...
Church & Politics – An Un-Holy Alliance It is not a secret that the Church in Kerala...

Related posts brought to you by Yet Another Related Posts Plugin.

M G Sreekumar on Tamil songs

Jo — Wed, 11 Nov 2009 15:56:36 +0000

I saw this when a friend of mine pointed me to this video of an episode from the Malayalam musical reality show – Idea Star Singer. One of the contestants sang the beautiful Yesudas-Salil Chowdhury song “Shyaama Meghame” and the judges began to comment. The pointers, as usual, were based on the adherence to the original. After the famous Sangathi Man’s comments, the voice-of-Mohan Lal came in. And he started lecturing and here it is:

“You people are addicted to the Tamil songs. Agreed that there are songs with such level of “sangathis” in Tamil, but there are no songs with such variations like we have in Malayalam. So if you try to sing this song in Tamil style, such Sangathis won’t come out.”

There is absolutely no reason to bring in Tamil music there. And if I am to believe what M G Sreekumar had said, what were music directors like Ilaiyaraja doing all these years in music? According to M G Sreekumar, none of them have done any songs with variations in Tamil yet.

Though I am scratching my head to find out the difference between the words “sangathi” and “variations”, I can’t also help thinking whether this is an out-pour of a singer who could not make his mark outside Malayalam music industry. Considering that his success in the Malayalam music industry is mainly attributed to his friend, schoolmate Mohan Lal, because their voices sounds alike, and to his friend director Priyadarshan, we have reasons to believe that he was just pouring his anger on a poor boy who came to test his luck with singing.

PS: My friend also comments that Salil Chowdhury is a Bengali and not a Malayali. So if he had the “variations” composed in Malayalam, he would sure have done it in his own language!

Malayalam songs of 2008 – My picks Choosing the top 10 Malayalam songs of 2008 was not...
Blogswara V5 released! Here comes that moment of the year again where we...
The Cons of Singing Karaoke Reproducing a popular song is not an easy task....

Related posts brought to you by Yet Another Related Posts Plugin.

Blogswara on Twitter

Jo — Mon, 09 Nov 2009 16:49:08 +0000

Blogswara is now officially on Twitter! You can follow us @Blogswara for the updates.

On another note, we have received 15 song submissions for our next album (which will be out in January, 2010). The song evaluation process is to begin soon, so keep watching this space for more updates!

Blogswara V5 released! Here comes that moment of the year again where we...
Blogswara Version 5 is coming up! It is time for another version of Blogswara! Yes, it...
Blogswara in Malayalam Vaarika Blogswara has been featured in this year’s annual edition of...

Related posts brought to you by Yet Another Related Posts Plugin.

Commonwealth and Common Good

Jo — Fri, 06 Nov 2009 03:00:24 +0000

Yesterday on TEDIndia, Hans Rosling predicted that the average Indian would match up to the average American on 27th July, 2048 (yes, he’s even got the date). The Twitter stream was overflowed with Tweets rejoicing in the prediction. I am not sure if this is because of the TED organizers believing that “Indians are feel-gooders anyway, so let us just give them such feel-good statistics“, but I think Mr. Rosling has got a point there. We are matching up with America of the early days on many fronts. We are fast discriminating and ignoring some sections of people in our society. We are almost on the tip of a civil war. The central Government (with support from other political parties and corporations) has declared war on Naxalism which is sure to take the lives of it’s own people, including the innocent tribal people. I do understand the need for a military action against militant forces that threats the existence of a country, but it is going to be a mere exercise as a solution because the Government is doing almost nothing to root out the root problem – Though the Prime Minister himself has identified that very root problem.

There has been a systemic failure in giving tribals a stake in the modern economic process that inexorably intrude into their living places. The alienation built over decades is now taking a dangerous turn. The systematic exploitation and social and economic abuse of our tribal communities can no longer be tolerated.

That is what our PM has said some weeks back. And what is being done to solve that issue?

As Himanshu Kumar, a Gandhian and the only human rights activist on ground zero in faraway Dantewada where Operation Green Hunt is to be launched, says, “We can all be agreed on the premise that Naxalism is a problem, but why are these poor people attracted to a politics that will end in death? Have we created such a heinous system that death is more attractive than the deprivations and humiliations this system doles out? If that is so, why should I defend this system? All that these people want is food, health care, school, clothes and their legitimate right over their land. Yet, instead of weaning them away by strengthening the democratic process, if we are going to run our democracy only on the strength of weapons, I fear we are entering a dangerous and irrepairable state. We are headed for civil war.” Men like Himanshu should know. For 17 years, he has functioned like an ICU on the edges of a wounded society, providing education and health care, painstakingly drawing tribals into the electoral and constitutional process. The government, loath to undertake the trouble, has been happy to outsource its functions to him. Yet now, it is deaf to his wisdoms. Worse, it hasn’t even consulted him. [via]

And yesterday the Headlines India tweeted that “The government today more than doubled the budget for the 2010 Commonwealth Games from Rs.767 crore to Rs.1,620 crore“. Commonwealth seems to be more important than Common Good in this country. Such is our time.

Indian Penal Code, Section 377 I can’t understand how they feel this thing! It is...
They love Dalits It looks like the news of Dalits and Tribals forming...
The oldest profession in the newest form Some women sell themselves for hours. Some of them do...

Related posts brought to you by Yet Another Related Posts Plugin.

Sreemathi Teacher’s English

Jo — Wed, 04 Nov 2009 17:58:24 +0000

There is a YouTube video doing the rounds through emails in these days. Featured in the video is an English speech by P K Sreemathi, Kerala’s Minister of Health. The clip shows her struggling to speak in English and it was taken off a political satire programme broadcasted in Manorama News channel. The video is quite popular now and everybody is making fun of the level of softskills of our ministers.

I do agree that the politicians should learn how to speak in fluent English as there is no other language that they can use these days to communicate their opinion nationally and internationally. When they can’t speak on their own, they should at least attempt to read a written speech in such seminars or conferences just to avoid any embarrassment to themselves or to the people whom they represent. Here the minister has been made a point of ridicule, but I wonder how many of our local politicians/ministers of all parties actually know how to speak good English. Show me one, please (and exclude Shashi Tharoor for now).

English has become an important language to communicate in these days and times, but the reason for such ridiculing of the minister is our obsession with the English language. Though not many of us speak good English, we want the person next to us to speak good English or we make fun of them. Even “good English” has become a farce term these days as some people consider British English to be superior and most of the soft skills sessions in the IT and ITES or other corporate industries now ask people to unlearn the British English and learn it in the American way.

And if our media makes so much fun of a state minister, what would they do about a President if he speaks bad English or doesn’t speak English at all? Search “Sarkozy English Speech” in Google and see how the French president speaks in English. But French are proud of their own language and culture so they worry very little about this. But we celebrate/worship people like Ranjini Haridas who has made Manglish a fashion signature and keeps killing the language as the lead anchor in a popular television show.

Then what about the Malayalam media? How many people in the Malayalam television media know how to speak good English? How many of them can pronounce the English words right? I have seen in many instances where the interviewer struggles to speak English in our television channels.

And what about the rest of us, if I may ask? We are the people who can’t even rightly pronounce “audio” or “auditorium”. Just take a look at the people who work in the so-called elite service sectors, including IT. Most of them speak funny English, leave alone grammar. I remember attending an interview in a company that has offices in USA and North India, and the HR person spoke funny English and was struggling to find the right words. Are those the guys who represents a multi-national company?

So I think before we start making fun of an old lady (I doubt if the media would care a hoot if she belonged to Congress party), we, the young guns, should at least take a look at ourselves and ponder over the matter. I think Sreemathi teacher spoke better English than an average Malayalee. But my advice for her is to at least have a written speech next time.

What happens in the News Room A video is doing the rounds in You Tube showing...
Left & Right – United The Varkala Murder case (in Kerala State) and the Police...
Don’t play with the Holy Cows! A few weeks back, the (Twitter) Minister of State...

Related posts brought to you by Yet Another Related Posts Plugin.

Is This It?

Jo — Tue, 03 Nov 2009 21:20:27 +0000

I went to see Michael Jackson’s (or I’d rather say Sony’s) “This Is It” on last Saturday with much expectation. But I was left disappointed. I brought along my 4 nephews with me, but even they were not so happy about the film/documentary. I thought I would get to see the glimpse of, to quote MJ himself, the “person, not just the personality”. But it is mostly just song and dance. Though you would initially get charged a little with some of his popular songs, the enthusiasm would soon die down as this is nothing close to what an MJ show really is (compared to what I have seen in his live show videos of course) . You would soon lose interest in watching him sing and dance. But the movie does give us a glimpse of what a great show it could have been if “This Is It” happened. And what a great performer MJ was, organizing every single detail of the show to make it sound/seem perfect.

The movie seems to be carefully edited. You do not see a tired, sick MJ in the film like the news reports after his death mentioned. You always get to see his happy face and his enthusiastic, energetic self. Also the movie is very badly edited, as scenes fading from one to another not leaving any emotional moments or something that emotionally moves the fans or the viewers. It also ends with a weird ending, not quite a tribute to MJ, who, if given a chance, would have done this a lot better. Like many of the MJ fans have mentioned, this movie seems to have been made just to make money out of Michael Jackson’s death.

To sum it all, the movie is not worthy of watching in a theatre. Perhaps in a DVD, yes, but that is only if you are a hardcore Michael Jackson fan and can trade some bucks just to see him sing and dance.

(Image courtesy: Wikipedia)

My Top Favs from Michael Jackson Here is a list of my top favorite songs...
‘What More Can I Give?’ Like my friend Arun said in a comment to the...
Goodbye Michael Jackson Goodbye and Thank You for your music. Thank you, ’cause...

Related posts brought to you by Yet Another Related Posts Plugin.

Don’t play with the Holy Cows!

Jo — Thu, 29 Oct 2009 14:31:11 +0000

A few weeks back, the (Twitter) Minister of State Shashi Tharoor was in the news for his remarks on “Cattle Class” and “Holy Cows”. The supporters of Shashi Tharoor were quick to respond and to point out how we Indians do not understand the pun of English language or can’t take a joke for its humor sense. The good part of the whole incident is that people like me, who are neither well versed in the English language nor familiar with the phrases related to Air travel, could learn a new word – “Cattle Class“.

Shashi Tharoor’s aide(s) went a step ahead during this incident. They kept re-tweeting the supportive (only supportive) Tweets, indicating how we Indians have run out of (English) humor. Now on to the story – A Mumbai based journalist started a fake Twitter account (clearly mentioning that it is THE FAKE twitter account) of Shashi Tharoor and started tweeting political satire. No vulgar language, no insult per say. But those who saw humor in the use of Holy Cows did not quite understand what the word Satire meant. They contacted Twitter HQ and got the account suspended.

Techgirl writes:

On Oct 6, I started a Twitter account ‘Shashi Tharoor Fake’. The bio in this Twitter account had the word satire and the front page even linked to my satire blog techgirltalk.blogspot.com.

My Twitter account Shashi Tharoor Fake, started on Oct 6, has built up about 100 followers. Even the United Nations Information Centre was following me. By Oct 23, Shashi Tharoor’s team had contacted Twitter in USA to suspend my account.

Shashi Tharoor’s aides never emailed me to ask for clarification. Till today, Twitter has not given me an explanation on why I am locked out. Perhaps, if they had emailed me before cutting me out, this article would never have seen light of the day. Hell hath no fury like a female satirist scorned.

And she does not forget to mention that she is “a big fan of Shashi Tharoor” and “our country and polity needs such capable people“. But what about the people who are not his “fans” or who does not think so much about him? What if such people do political satire? Would that be an even greater crime?

War of the Royal Class I think there are too many politicians who are...
Sreemathi Teacher’s English There is a YouTube video doing the rounds through emails...
Vote for… errr… whom? There are a lot of online campaigns going on behalf...

Related posts brought to you by Yet Another Related Posts Plugin.

If there’s a will…

Jo — Wed, 28 Oct 2009 12:44:14 +0000

[From YouTube] Campaign “Let’s Do It!” – a grassroot initiative to clean up the country from illegal waste in just one day. There was over 10 000 tons of illegal waste lying around all over Estonia and it was an outrageous plan — to clean it all up on one day! More than 600 volunteers were working to make it all happen with only 3 full-time employees. On May 3, 2008 with help of 50 000 volunteers more than 10 000 tons of garbage gathered and Estonia was cleaned up from illegal waste.

No related posts.

Left & Right – United

Jo — Mon, 26 Oct 2009 11:20:55 +0000

The Varkala Murder case (in Kerala State) and the Police relating it to a Dalit organization have once again exposed the mindset of mainstream media, mainstream Left and extreme Right. The interesting thing is that the Left and Right (CPM and Shiv Sena) allegedly join hands along with Police to hunt down the Dalits in this case. Journalist BRP Bhaskar who has had a chance to visit the Dalit colonies in Varkala writes:

This FB friend voiced two other criticisms about the video, which was taken by a member of the fact-finding team. One is that there are no men in sight. The other is that the women refer to RSS, not Shiv Sena. The answer is simple. No men are in the video because they are all in police custody or hiding to avoid arrest and torture. The women mention RSS because they lack the sophistication needed to distinguish between different elements of Hindutva. [...]

[...]The major media institutions did not cover the Commission’s visit to Varkala, although they had prior knowledge about it. That, however, did not inhibit them from playing up the statements critical of the Commission’s visit. There was nothing to indicate that they had sought the Commission’s response to the allegations. Incidentally, Malayala Manorama and Mathrubhumi which have consistently ignored the police’s month-long Dalit hunt, found time to pursue the appearance of mysterious white drawings at the site of Sivaprasad’s cremation.

Also read: Chengara / Varkala : Beware of the Dalit – Insight Young Voices

The Blogger Rights Bloggers and blogging have come to the news again with...
What has made DHRM possible? On September 23rd, a 61 year old ordinary citizen...
The P-knife The police force in Kerala has been often subjected to...

Related posts brought to you by Yet Another Related Posts Plugin.