Newman College Thodupuzha, named after the famed Anglican cardinal John Henry Newman (1801-1890), has been witness to a string of weird incidents for the last four months. In March, a teacher framed a question which obviously hurt the religious sentiments of Muslims. The ensuing rage and waves of protests made the management repeal the question, tender an apology and keep the teacher under suspension. The man absconded and resurfaced recently directly into the hands of the local police.
Now the events have taken an ugly turn. Some yet-to-be-identified hooligans have swooped on him and chopped his right hand off, just like that!! To go by all the indications, the mischief is the handiwork of a gang of extremist Muslims youths who found it impossible to brook insult of their god and prophet. Perhaps they fancied themselves as the warriors of god, entrusted with the mighty task of keeping his name free from profane discourses!!
What does the event portend?
Sunday, July 4, 2010
Friday, July 2, 2010
Remember the Titans
If you have disposable time and flare for regional linguistic variations, take a ride through the roads, streets and lanes of this part of the globe. The glistening flex boards and rustling festoons transport you to another world where every other identity—otherwise rearing its ugly head every now and then—has erased itself. Football has percolated to the nook and cranny of Areekode and Kondotti and Manjeri. Behind the lake, beneath the trees, fluttering and dancing in the breeze, portraits of Pele, Maradona, Roony and Kaka smile at the passer by—stop here or gently pass, if you can.
Mirth and frenzy apart, the visual extravaganza speaks volumes of the zeitgeist and weltanschauung of a cultural terrain that has carved a unique niche in the history of Kerala. Known as the Mecca of Kerala football, Areekode houses a string of education institutes that have been pivotal in the overall social harmony the place enjoys. Look around and you can’t help suspecting whether you have landed in Buenos Aires or Sao Paulo. That can well be an exaggeration. The Latin American cities are not perhaps as abuzz as the football crazy local towns, to go by the media reports trickling in.
Though hilarious and apparently innocuous, the hues and words strewn everywhere betray a silent dimension. An uncanny concoction of popular culture, adages, religion and identity, it can be poured into any number of carafes and written about reams on end.
The most pungent of the recipe is the heap of dialogues lifted out of blockbuster movies, especially mouthed by the senile superstars. They are not plagiarisms like the doctoral dissertations produced in Kerala but deftly customized with added nuances. Only those winding cinematic speeches which thrilled the audience by means of veiled references to warfare and religiosity have found a place in the hoardings. No wonder, some others have picked up religious rhetoric to lend credence to their claims. Argentinean fans are miles ahead in this regard. The fact that the disciples of Maradona sweated to the final round is treated not as a stroke of luck but interpreted as an inevitability, something divinely determined and executed. To remind and reinforce the reality (that is for the supporters of Brazil), they freely use the term “unbeliever”, a term that the Koran uses to address those who prefer to tread a path different from that blazed by the Prophet.
In Malayalam there is a proverb to the effect that half a quail is good enough for a thousand chickens: aayirum kozhikku ara kaakka. The Brazilians fanfares use it with a slight deviation: aarirum Messikku ara kakka, half a Kakka, the Brazilian defender is enough to tackle a thousand Lionel Messies! Not to be outdone, the other section has come up with a hoarding that features a beleaguered Kakka unsuccessfully trying to rein in a charging Messy. At the bottom we read kuthiraye thalakkan kakkayo (Can a crow control a horse?). Kakka, in Malayalam, means crow. As a rule, the Argentinean fans find their existence in relation to the five time champions Brazil. Virtually every single slogan seeks to downplay the Brazilian squad.
How do others fare? Of course there are hardcore fans of France, England, Germany, Italy and Mexico. Though the teams are strong enough to lift the title, the fans are sober and mature in their expressions. Instead of targeting other teams and staking whopping claims, they highlight the relative merit of each team and remain hopeful. The wait is almost over.
Mirth and frenzy apart, the visual extravaganza speaks volumes of the zeitgeist and weltanschauung of a cultural terrain that has carved a unique niche in the history of Kerala. Known as the Mecca of Kerala football, Areekode houses a string of education institutes that have been pivotal in the overall social harmony the place enjoys. Look around and you can’t help suspecting whether you have landed in Buenos Aires or Sao Paulo. That can well be an exaggeration. The Latin American cities are not perhaps as abuzz as the football crazy local towns, to go by the media reports trickling in.
Though hilarious and apparently innocuous, the hues and words strewn everywhere betray a silent dimension. An uncanny concoction of popular culture, adages, religion and identity, it can be poured into any number of carafes and written about reams on end.
The most pungent of the recipe is the heap of dialogues lifted out of blockbuster movies, especially mouthed by the senile superstars. They are not plagiarisms like the doctoral dissertations produced in Kerala but deftly customized with added nuances. Only those winding cinematic speeches which thrilled the audience by means of veiled references to warfare and religiosity have found a place in the hoardings. No wonder, some others have picked up religious rhetoric to lend credence to their claims. Argentinean fans are miles ahead in this regard. The fact that the disciples of Maradona sweated to the final round is treated not as a stroke of luck but interpreted as an inevitability, something divinely determined and executed. To remind and reinforce the reality (that is for the supporters of Brazil), they freely use the term “unbeliever”, a term that the Koran uses to address those who prefer to tread a path different from that blazed by the Prophet.
In Malayalam there is a proverb to the effect that half a quail is good enough for a thousand chickens: aayirum kozhikku ara kaakka. The Brazilians fanfares use it with a slight deviation: aarirum Messikku ara kakka, half a Kakka, the Brazilian defender is enough to tackle a thousand Lionel Messies! Not to be outdone, the other section has come up with a hoarding that features a beleaguered Kakka unsuccessfully trying to rein in a charging Messy. At the bottom we read kuthiraye thalakkan kakkayo (Can a crow control a horse?). Kakka, in Malayalam, means crow. As a rule, the Argentinean fans find their existence in relation to the five time champions Brazil. Virtually every single slogan seeks to downplay the Brazilian squad.
How do others fare? Of course there are hardcore fans of France, England, Germany, Italy and Mexico. Though the teams are strong enough to lift the title, the fans are sober and mature in their expressions. Instead of targeting other teams and staking whopping claims, they highlight the relative merit of each team and remain hopeful. The wait is almost over.
Saturday, January 2, 2010
THE GOD WHO WAS THERE
The refrain echoed by the media that Rajmohan Unnithan was arrested along with a woman under dubious circumstances has proved myopic and grossly erroneous. Had the frenzied self-styled moral policemen and the pack of drooling media wolves considered the possibilities of a divine intervention for a moment, they would have kept off from heaping calumnies on the venerabl
e congress leader. He might have been found with a woman at an ungodly hour. But do you think god was reclining in his heavenly chair, sipping champagne with one hand and fondling breasts with the other? Woe betides those who thought and think so. He was wracking brains figuring out the best way punish the arrogant Unnithan who had lately been busy with accusing Abdul Nazar Madani of collusion with terrorists. They had forgotten that M was living only for us and any move against him would incur the wrath 
of god.
Look back and see for yourself. The man, who sat panic-struck chewing fingernails and trying to mask his face, had made incriminating remarks against Madani: rubbish like he was communal and dabbling in simple terrorist activities like blazing buses, you know. God grew agitated and devised a plan. He made Unnithan and that woman come together and diligently intimated the swelling moral policemen and saw how the mighty fall!! And how about the moral zealots? They were mere pawns in the hangs of the almighty in punishing a nasty snake!!
Let this be a warning to anyone against hurling wild accusations at others, especially the PDP stalwarts.
e congress leader. He might have been found with a woman at an ungodly hour. But do you think god was reclining in his heavenly chair, sipping champagne with one hand and fondling breasts with the other? Woe betides those who thought and think so. He was wracking brains figuring out the best way punish the arrogant Unnithan who had lately been busy with accusing Abdul Nazar Madani of collusion with terrorists. They had forgotten that M was living only for us and any move against him would incur the wrath 
of god.Look back and see for yourself. The man, who sat panic-struck chewing fingernails and trying to mask his face, had made incriminating remarks against Madani: rubbish like he was communal and dabbling in simple terrorist activities like blazing buses, you know. God grew agitated and devised a plan. He made Unnithan and that woman come together and diligently intimated the swelling moral policemen and saw how the mighty fall!! And how about the moral zealots? They were mere pawns in the hangs of the almighty in punishing a nasty snake!!
Let this be a warning to anyone against hurling wild accusations at others, especially the PDP stalwarts.
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