‘Poet from the gutters’ does not need ceremonial firing.

The ‘poet of the orphans’ has to wait one more day in cold storage for his last rites. Election to local bodies and the inconvenience of the cultural minister, are the reasons for the delay! Undoubtedly it is an insult to a dead man’s corpus. It is quite distressing to see that poet Ayyappan has to tranquilly wait to get opened his way to ‘ Santhikavadam’ and there from to eternal joy.

Hereinafter, celebrities who wish to die, die only after consultation with the cultural stalwarts of Kerala. Who said the ‘poet from the gutters’ need ceremonial firing from shot less guns?

K A Solaman

Will these children ever get through?

Thousands of tiny tots on Vidyarambham day were taken to the world of letters on all parts of Kerala by gurus extending from literary luminaries, cultural leaders and eminent teachers. Interestingly some of the gurus were hard core politicians with wicked Saraswathi on their tongue (name one?). Will these children ever get through in life?

K A Solaman

Chile mine rescue is unprecedented in the history of the world

The last of the 33 trapped Chilean miners was also rescued on Wednesday and that too after having stayed 700 metre underground for more than two months. All of them were elevated one-by-one in a capsule through a narrowly bored hole.
All world were watching the Chilean effort of rescuing their fellow men and everybody prayed from their heart for the success.

K A Solaman

Novel venture by Math

The willingness of the Mata Amritanandamayi Math to take up the responsibility of cleaning public places and constructing bathrooms and toilets in every town in the country is admirable. It is true that we are lagging much behind many other world countries regarding hygiene and public sanitation. The public awareness is too poor about the standard of cleanliness.
All local bodies and State Governments should support and cooperate with the new venture of Mata Amritanandamayi Math.

K A Solaman

Deal with separatists firmly

Any peace-loving person will be distressed to see the turn of events in the Kashmir valley. It is sad to see that the bigotry of fundamentalists has reached new heights.

The common people of Kashmir are living as refugees in their own country and the Kashmiri children have not been able to attend schools and colleges for the last three months. The Centre and the state should enlist the cooperation of all peace-loving people and try to resolve the Kashmir tangle.

The demand for withdrawal of the Armed Forces Special Powers Act (AFSPA) in Kashmir requires serious introspection. There is no problem in the country that cannot be solved through debate, dialogue and discussion across the table.

K.A. SOLAMAN,
The Tribune, Chandigarh, 23 Sept 2010

Burning Kashmir

It is matter of sorrow for any peace loving person to see the turn of events in the Kashmir valley. And it is sorer to see that the bigotry of the fundamentalists has augmented and reached its new height. The common people Kashmir are living as refugees in their own country and Kashmiri children are not been able to attend their schools for the past 3 months. The State and Central governments along with all involved in the Kashmir entangle should sit together and contemplate for a solution.

The withdrawal of special powers of Army in Kashmir requires serious introspection.

K A Solaman

T J Joseph is in the making of a ‘Thodupuzha Christ’

Dismissed professor of Newman College, Thodupuzha T J Joseph is in the making of a new ‘Christ of Thodupuzha’ by justifying his foolish act of setting up the blasphemous question paper. The argument of Joseph that the management has invented new story to punish him, is on the wrong footing. It is a routine practice of all institutions to get explanation from its employees who erred during their service time. And most often these explanations end with the phrase “feel sorry for the mistake that I had committed and it may be pardoned”. This is a file closing ritual where words find no meaning and the offender is never measured for further action. But enthused by the overwhelming support, from the so called human right crusaders and left wing teachers, who were seen absconding when religious fanatics craving for his blood, Joseph has turned against the church. Joseph has also found his gaffe as a golden opportunity to tick off the church, a recent trend in Kerala which emerged with the blessing of the Ruling Front. The Taliban and the Kerala Christian clergies are akin, according to a few godless party men!

Joseph now says he didn’t want the generosity of the church if he had to apologize for things he had not done. However, he admits that DTP operator of the college who printed the question, smiled at him on reading the question paper. Joseph would have also smiled then. If Joseph needs no generosity, would he accept donation from church that is put in his bank account published in a channel along with a request?

Remember “life is not measured by the number of breathes we take, but rather by the number of moments which take our breathes away”. Joseph has had enough moments in his life that took his breathes way. Don’t pursue further in this direction by thoughtless act. Whatever may be our minister’s claim about earning from lottery selling, it is too hard to subsist by selling lottery tickets alone. The ‘right activists and pacifiers’ will soon disappear into thin air, Mr Joseph. Ask your mother about what to do. The elders know much more about life than the educated.

K A Solaman

Ban lottery, ban spurious toddy

Why the State Government in Kerala wait for action Union Government to amend the Lotteries Act to save Kerala from the lottery steal when fake lotteries of the other states are sold here? Is there any connection for Union government with fake lotteries? The poor and less educated people who buy lottery tickets copiously have now realized that they are the victims of lottery mafia and that is why sale of other state lotteries in Kerala has come to a still. People now like cine actor Jagathy are hesitant to entertain and buy Bhutan or Sikkim tickets.

Inter-State lottery mafia under the guise of selling approved Bhutan and Sikkim lotteries are selling fake lotteries here and for that there is consent from ruling front bigwigs for reasons known to all.

The consumption of liquor and the mania for the lotteries are death traps for poor and ignorant people of Kerala and the Government that is bound to restrict it stand as a mute spectator. Common man is falling prey to this social evil and is spending all his hard earned money without caring children and the ailing old ones in homes. It is not campaigns and awareness programmes that are needed to check the danger but strict law enforcement is needed. By no means should other state lotteries be allowed in the state. If a few people are not able to sustain without lottery and liquor allow only state lottery and that too once in a week as practiced now and provide cheap and non-toxic liquor at beverages outlets.

KA Solaman

Greatest teaching of Jesus is forgotten.

Mahatma Gandhi University Syndicate revoked the suspension of Prof. T.J. Joseph. However, Newmann college management suspended him for the embarrassment created by his setting up of the controversial question paper. It is unfortunate on the part of Newmann College Management to go on with action leading to the dismissal of the teacher from the college. Prof Joseph has made apology to the general public and then why the management is so particular in further punishing him for what is called an appeasement from Muslim fanatics? ‘Forgive and be kind’ is the greatest Christian teaching and a college running on such principles has forgotten this teaching.

I fear the craving for getting 20-40 lakh as donation from a fresh recruit is the crucial issue for any management to throw away an incumbent staff member on an insignificant matteer

K A Solaman

Happy Onam to all who view KAS blog

Never realizable dream

Unattainable dream
After the spoilsport for about 10 years ruining Kerala Collegiate Education, the Government of Kerala has decided to sanction 1,599 posts of teachers in aided colleges in the State. All guest faculties working in various colleges now can search for other income building business like lottery selling or serving in petrol bunks. The aided college managements in Kerala are enthralled at the chunk of donation they likely to get from these 1599 appointments. Assuming Rs 50 lakh for single post private college managements in Kerala are likely to get about 800 crore rupees.

Is there any management in Kerala who appoint a candidate without a price? Is there any interview board constituted for these appointments do their duty without guilt of conscience? Has our Government machinery any mechanism to control the wide-spread corruption in these colleges? For poor and intelligent candidates with NET and Ph D, teaching in private aided colleges, where salary is paid from State exchequer, is a never realizable dream.

K A Solaman

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

Casuality--story

Thomas Mash and peon Krshnankutty took Bhargavan Mash to nearby hospital. Bhargavan Mash was inflicted with a new disease. He remained still with wide opened mouth. Though his respiratory system is normal no other vital sign is clear!

The duty doctor pushed on the puffed up nerve on the throat of Bhargavan sir. Bhargavan sir became normal and started talking to doctor.

The doctor came out of the casualty and inquired the matter.
“Any reason for this accident? I mean an incident in class room?”

“No doctor. Bhargavan Mash was a substitute in the newly started English medium class. The teacher in charge of the class was absent today. He had spent only five to ten minutes in the class, the time for taking attendance”.

“Yes, that is the reason. When a teacher call the names of students as Aswin, Akash, Arjun, Abhinav, Akhil, Azin, Allan, Andrew, Ann, Ashok, Aromal etc., this type of disease will happen. Wide opened mouth is the noticeable symptom. This could happen to anyone calling these names. Our present day parents are making their children first in the class by putting naming starting with A. Could we find any Oommen, Thomman, Kunju, Meenakshy, Ponnamma, Thankamma, Kamalakshy in future?”

By saying this doctor stood from his seat and went for ward inspection.

K A Solaman

This Is Good-Motivational story

An old story is told of a king in Africa who had a close friend with whom he grew up. The friend had a habit of looking at every situation that ever occurred in his life (positive or negative) and remarking, "This is good!"

One day the king and his friend were out on a hunting expedition. The friend would load and prepare the guns for the king. The friend had apparently done something wrong in preparing one of the guns, for after taking the gun from his friend, the king fired it and his thumb was blown off. Examining the situation the friend remarked as usual, "This is good!" To which the king replied, "No, this is NOT good!" and proceeded to send his friend to jail.

About a year later, the king was hunting in an area that he should have known to stay clear of. Cannibals captured him and took him to their village. They tied his hands, stacked some wood, set up a stake and bound him to the stake. As they came near to set fire to the wood, they noticed that the king was missing a thumb. Being superstitious, they never ate anyone that was less than whole. So untying the king, they sent him on his way.

As he returned home, he was reminded of the event that had taken his thumb and felt remorse for his treatment of his friend. He went immediately to the jail to speak with his friend. "You were right," he said, "it was good that my thumb was blown off." And he proceeded to tell the friend all that had just happened. "And so I am very sorry for sending you to jail for so long. It was bad for me to do this."

"No," his friend replied, "This is good!" "What do you mean,'This is good'? How could it be good that I sent my friend to jail for a year?" "If I had NOT been in jail, I would have been with you."

- Author Unknown

Can’t we have a World Malayalam Conference?

The Coimbatore city in TN is all set for a World Tamil Conference. More than 5,000 people from India and abroad, including a large number of scholars, will take part in the first five-day World Classical Tamil Conference. Thousands of delegates from India, Malaysia, Sri Lanka, South Africa, Singapore, Canada, the US, Greece and other countries have confirmed their participation. These include around 1,000 scholars who will submit research papers. The conference is expected to raise the awareness level for cooperative and collaborative research on the classical side of Tamil language.

Then why can’t the Kerala CM V S Achuthanandan consider a similar Malayalam Conference in Kerala? If one is accomplished in Kerala, and of course not in London as organised by thoughtless people, more students study Malayalam and do research. The Tamil language has already won classical status in the country. The proponents of Malayalam are still knocking at the doors of Delhi bigwigs to get classical status to Malayalam. It is far good to conduct a World Malayalam conference to convince the authority and to make them aware of the importance of Malayalam language. And for this Achuthanandan need not pen title song for the conference as did by Karunanidhi. This job can be handed over to minister poets in the Cabinet like Binoy Viswom or G Sudhakaran.

The classical status to Malayalam should come through activity and not by act of contrition.


K A Solaman

Kerala University bids goodbye to a 44-year-old tradition

University of Kerala bidding to 44 year annual degree system and switching over to credit and semester system is an effort to sail smoothly with the present trend. Nevertheless it would not bring any substantive gain. This is not an isolated opinion but many teachers working now in colleges join with this. The foremost reason is that all colleges in Kerala experience a staff-crunch and without adequate number of teaching staff the semester system cannot be carried out successfully. Teachers in guest faculty are working for a wage and they are not competent enough to make grade in the credit and semester system.

More intriguing is the undue importance of social service in the proposed system. In most of the colleges in Kerala currently what is largely going on is social service and no time for teaching class. Cattle feeding, thattukada running, mosquito census are some of the existing services available in the colleges now. With the introduction of more social services the colleges will turn into a market place where teaching and learning process will be a leisure work. As many as 20 different forums working in the college will bring a pandemonium comparable to one that is full swing at CMS College, Kottayan at present. Offering additional open courses to students, who are not at all interested teaching-learning processes, is very prying to note.

The clause that attendance would fetch grades and each student should have not less than 75 per cent attendance for all semesters will open more war grounds in colleges. The teachers would have to read threatening SMS from student outfits for denying attendance to their workers. It will be a tough time for teachers to manage second-rate degree course students who are destined to join these colleges because of denial of admission in professional courses. The Education Minister had made the school education already a mess. The proposed choice based credit system, will extent this confusion to Arts and Science colleges too. Let us wait and see number of years the students admitted to the newly introduced credit and semester would take to get their first degree.

Why I love football?

The media is seemed to be obsessed now with the news of the World cup football. The news of cricket is being shelved for football for a while. In my opinion football is definitely a more intense sport than cricket with more countries able to compete at a high level. Watching seven-hour days of cricket without a result is really profitable for channels but a boring experience for the viewers. The 90 minutes football thrills everybody and avoids boredom. Further football offers a much more intense display, and it creates an air of uniqueness that cannot be simulated by cricket. The tribal nature of football crowds may overstep the mark at times, but it undoubtedly trumps the cricket fans in terms of creating and maintaining an atmosphere. Football fans are almost a part of the game and this sort of affection is not seen in cricket.


Football is a simple game that appeals to a lot. In many countries it is the only game. Cricket has only a fraction of the exposure that football has. Scandalous match fixing in cricket is unheard in football. I love football more than cricket.

K A Solaman