Names for fake identity

The names like Trivandrum, Bombay, Kerala and others are meaningless for some people. They need Kerala as Keralam, Trivandrum as Thiruvananthapuram etc. However, whaty I have to say is my letters addressed to Trivandrum still reaches there on time. Does one require more meaning than this? The names like Kesavan, Kumaran, Karthikeyan, Remesan, Krishnan, Raman, Bhamakshi etc are purely names of Keralaites of yester years. Now they are all known as Kesav, Kumar, Karthik, Remesh, Krish, Ram, Bhama etc. Do these people need a go back to old name identity? And it is also the habit of more refined ones to delete the tags like Nair, Menon, Potty, Pillai, Mappilai etc in their names. Still a few keep these tags for their fake identity.

K A Solaman

Who need ‘Keralam’?

All the burning problems in the State have been settled by the LDF Government! If one still remains unattended it is the renaming of the State into ‘ Keralam’. I would like to say the demand for changing the official spelling of the state to ‘Keralam’ to make it conform to the way it is pronounced in Malayalam is unnecessary and wasteful. The advocates for ‘Keralam’ may have arguments with many examples of change of name such as ‘Bombay into Mumbai, Calicut into Kozhikode, Trivandrum into Thiruvananthapuram etc. What did we gain from these changes? If one writes Thiruvananthapuram instead of Trivandrum he has to write 18 letters instead of 10. What a terrible waste! Today if I write a letter to Bombay it still reaches Mumbai.

Attack against colonialism by people like Pallisserry is silly and superficially restricted only in trivial matters. Keralites are mostly world citizens disposed to see beyond any language barrier. The discussion to change name of the State may kindly be kept in vault.

K A Solaman

Happy secret

The engagement and marriage of the Indian cricket captain, Mahendra Singh Dhoni, and his childhood friend, Sakshi Singh Rawat, were closely guarded secrets. But this cannot be entirely explained by Dhoni’s wish to keep the media at bay. Was it also done to prevent heartbreaks and suicides? Soon after the wedding, Dhoni is supposed to have met the Congress leader, Rahul Gandhi. Perhaps he had a discreet message to convey to the 40-year-old politician — that politics, like cricket, can be managed in wedlock.

K.A. Solaman
The Telegraph, Kolkata, 13 July 2010

Legal protection for campus politics

Kerala Home Minister Kodiyeri Balakrishnan said the Government was planning to give legal protection to lawful political activity in campuses. In one aspect it is good as there is now none to question the spite practices of some unscrupulous managements. For instance look at the anomaly in the fee collected as application money for lectureship in private colleges in Kerala. When one college demands Rs 750 per application form others collect Rs 500, Rs 300 etc. No uniformity could be seen in fee collected from students for various necessities. There is no effort from any corner to control capitation fee for admission and appointment. The fund collected for a lecture post is about Rs 15-30 lakhs whereas fee for a degree seat admission is Rs 3000-15000. Who will check these malpractices other than students? If students, politics is legalized this could be controlled a bit.

Nevertheless, the student leaders in politics, unaware of their duties and obligations most often curtail the freedom of learning of a lot of students. The classes are often obstructed by political outfits for trivial issues and most often smooth running of the college becomes a tough job. And that is why some able PTAs in schools and colleges succeeded in abandoning students’ politics. But it soon brought adverse effect. So while giving legal coverage politics in campuses, students who are not interested in politics should be given legal protection to pursue their learning without the interruption from political outfits.

Interesting aspect is there would be anarchy sponsored by managements if politics is banned in campuses and at the same time there would be more anarchy as that one witnessed in the past if students’ politics are legalized. Can’t we look for an intermediary path?

K A Solaman