A Century of the Nasranis of Central Travancore
The “migration to migration” story of four generations of a Nasrani Christian family of Meenachil Taluk, Kottayam, Kerala.
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Kerala’s Millennials – How Graduate Unemployment (in Kerala) is Changing
I happened to visit an engineering college in south-central Kerala to help a small IT company with their campus placements. I was expecting things to be like they were when I was graduating nearly two decades ago: scores of anxious young people thronging rooms with lots of expectations, apprehensions, questions. But what I found was…
OMG! Fancy-Number Calendar Dates!!
(This was written for 11.11.11, but is applicable for any date, like all the 12.12.12 hype people are stupidly frothing at the mouth about right now) Human stupidity knows no bounds. An example of this is staring us in the face today where we have another fancy-number date on the calendar. And as it always…
The People Who Valued Bags More Than Their Lives
What seems to have attracted more attention than the fact that all 300 souls on board Emirates flight EK521 TRV-DXB escaped the burning Boeing 777-300 at Dubai International on August 3, 2016, with most of their hair still on their backs is that most of them paused to collect their hand baggage before escaping the…
Oppa “Billion” Gangnam Style, the Mayans and the End of Music
1,070,523,801 – The number of views the path-breaking, mother of all viral-videos, never-seen-in-human-or-alien-history “Oppa Gangnam Style” video had amassed at the time of writing this post. Phenomenal! Astounding! A Billion views! 100 Crores! If this is not success in these digital times, though it may sound mediocre, what is? In ancient times, success was measured…
The World is Oranje! The Netherlands and The World Cup – Part 1
Please be noting that this is NOT a fail post, but emotional stuff. :) This one will be a ‘before and after’ affair. One part before the World Cup final and one part after it, whatever be the outcome. Octopussy be damned, I believe that the Netherlands a.k.a Holland a.k.a Oranje should bring the long-overdue cup home to…
Nothing Is What It Seems!
“Nothing is what it seems!” – Walter Burke (Al Pacino), The Recruit In the mediocre-at-best spook movie ‘The Recruit’, CIA chief trainer Water Burke (Al Pacino) kept reminding his new recruits that in the CIA, “Nothing is what it seems!” In other words, everything is an eyewash, what you see and what you have been told is…
How to Save and Revive (Kerala) KSRTC Part 1
The Kerala State Road Transport Corporation (KSRTC) has a long and illustrious history that precedes even the state of Kerala or India. It starts in 1937 when the Travancore State Transport Department was constituted by HH Sree Chithira Thirunal Balarama Varma, the Maharaja of Travancore. The first buses were imported from England. Post independence the TSTD was incorporated as an…
Diamonds Are Forever (1971) – Very Dusty, Mr.Bond.
Sean Connery returned as James Bond in the seventh installment of the series after one appearance by George Lazenby. This also was the Connery’s last appearance in the official series. The movie was rushed, without imagination and tries to achieve much but falls flat, despite some well executed sequences. Will be remembered for kicking off…
METALLICA! LIVE IN CONCERT!! IN INDIA!!!
Note: This is a pre-concert post. Click here for a review account on the concert as it happened OH YEAH?? OH YEAH!!!! The long wait has ended!!! The Gods of heavy metal, the undisputed kings of rock, the legends Metallica are finally coming to India!!!! Rumors were afloat for weeks after Bassist Rob Trujillo said…
Don’t Complain. Better Safe than Sorry.
Life in India is an obstacle course. Every day we face thousands of hurdles which make our life more and more difficult. And most of these impediments are the handiwork of people trying to make money by making our lives uncomfortable. These range from politicians swindling off crores of public money to hawkers occupying public…
Why I Am Not Buying an Apartment Part 2 – The Home Loan Trap
Notwithstanding all the arguments put forward in the previous part, the single biggest reason why I am not buying an apartment in Bangalore (or anywhere else) is because I don’t have the money to pay for it. “But who has that kind of money? You can take a home loan no?” they will say. No….