Oscar awardee, Resul Pookkutty’s acceptance comment was quite telling: ‘I come from a civilisation that gave the world ‘Om’, the word before and after silence ….’ Indeed, it is quite heartening to hear India being referred to as a civilisation of yore than as a mere political and geographic nation-state born on August 15 1947.
Author: T R Jawahar
I am rather love-struck this week. I ought to be because the season is such and I will likely lose the license to live on this lovely planet if I am not in the love-loop. At least, that’s what the cupid-hit media and its equally smitten consumers have led me to believe. So if the words that follow fail to make sense, blame it on that omni‘potent’ aphrodisiac that has gobbled the globe this weekend, namely, Valentine.
The vice-like grip of cinema on the masses of TN is an obvious reality. Indeed, it is a genetic obsession here. Yet, I have no qualms in admitting that I too have been bitten by that omnipotent bug. Though I fancy myself as a connoisseur and not a fanatic fan/voter w.r.t film artistes and films, I am aware the distinction is very fine.
A pre-existing health condition is a disqualification for even a mundane thing as an insurance policy. But no such precautions are deemed necessary before vesting a country’s fate with individuals past their prime, at least in terms of their health. Small wonder that in ancient and eternal Bharath, PMs, CMs and prospective PMs well past seventy-five believe they have a ‘future’.
Tigers are among the fastest dwindling animal tribe on the globe. They abound in human form too in Sri Lanka, but here again extinction seems imminent, having been cornered and confined to a few hundred square kilometres now, thanks to some relentless hunting by the military.
Fudging numbers is a natural tendency. Ever since the day early man started to count, he has also been counting wrongly, intententionally or inadvertently. The countdown to numerical nemesis that commenced then has run parallel to the deteriorating integrity of mankind: From the caveman who killed five sheep, hid one in the bush, ate one and reported two, er, three as the day’s catch to his fellow cavemen
Thirumangalam is an auspicious town with an auspicious history. It derives its name from a tradition of goldsmiths who specialised in making the Thirumangalyam. Well, whatever, but the current happenings in the by-poll being held in the constituency, which is spread over three hundred villages besides Thirumangalam proper and a few other towns, seem most inauspicious for democracy.
Did I ever suggest 2008 was a lousy year, full of tears and fears? Correction! Apparently, I overlooked some obvious items of cheer. Or may be I was not being wholly rational, despite living in TN. Whatever, here is a list, illustrative, but not exhaustive, of good tidings that came our way, courtesy Dr KK.
The mental baggage that we all will most certainly carry forward from ‘08 to ‘09 is fear. In the immediate past, I would compare this to ‘05 which started off with the receding waters of the Tsunami of the last week of ‘04 that converted much of coastal Asia into watery graves.