Shame less Indians !

we dont accept Indian rupees - Cochin International Airport

 

Each time I visit the duty free at cochin international airport, I get hurt (may be becuase I take pride in being an Indian). In cochin international airport (CIAL) airport alone Indian currency is not accepted. They accept all other currencies. When I asked about this, they put the blame on customs. When I spoke to the customs guy standing there, he said there is no such instruction given by them.  Can you imagine about an American duty free shop, where USD is not accepted. Can you think of a Dubai duty free where Dhirhams are not accepted?. 

Oh! shameless Indian, at last apart from me, it took a foregner to quetion this injustice….and we are celebrating. What a Shame !. 

If you want to join hands with me, in fighting this injustice, please share your views….

Tilting the Indian Table

At last, Indian media is getting better and more credible day by day, by fearless reporting. This can be attributed to the professionalism in the media with the arrival of CNN-IBN, NDTV which are beyond the reach of politicians. It was very evident…and still evident …post Mumbai terror attacks. The result, One central minister and a chief minister lost their positions. Rahul Gandhi was criticised for attending a party during the eve of the terrorist attacks, The chief minister of Kerala saying Sorry, The army and the para military forces becoming heros overnight , the upraisal partriotism in the Indian mind and the anger against the corrupt politicians, police…. ….lot of such incidents suceeded the recent Mumbai terror attacks. Thanks to the media for their fearless non stop coverage of the events, un biased.

In one of my earler posts, I had post saying “Indians are at their best when challenged”. India would not have got independence from the British, if Gandhiji was not challenged by a white skin by throwing him out of the railway compartment because he was not white skinned, despite having a valid ticket. Similarly, India would not have won the cricket series in Australia, if Australians did not abuse Indians (sledging). Going by these events, this Mumbai terror attacks is a blow to the pride of every Indian, and I am very optimistic about the repurcussions of this.
The Indian psyche based of ahimtsa can forget and forgive very easily. That is the only risk. Media can play a major role for not allowing this hurt to the Indian pride to subside and if it channelise the unrest of the common man in the appropriate direction, we will have a zero corrupt India …soon.

Bangalore, Varapuzha and America

I love Bangalore and Varapuzha. Bangalore is where I was born. I did my college there and worked there for around eight years.  Varapuzha is the place where I spent my schooling days. I am nostalgic about these places and at the same time these two places are in total contrast to each other. One striking contrast is – In Bangalore people love fun, and you can see lot of fun and laughter around you, where as @ Varapuzha all you see is grim faces, or people who smile at you to get something from you. As per the conventional thinking, people say that in cities people are very self centric. From my experience it is totally different. At Varapuzha, people are more self centric than Bangalore. People are very narrow minded, and behave more like frogs in a well.

I see lack of role models as one of the major causes for this kind of behavior. In cities, youngsters are very ambitious and for them there is no dearth of role models. In the villages of Kerala, you have only one Mohanlal and Mammootty, and most of their movies are filled with violence. There are lot of achievers in these villages, but they dont get the visibility, these negative heroes enjoy.

Recently, my brother in law Mr.Paul, who is settled in the US for more than three decades was sharing his experience in Kerala with me. Paul, called his uncle over the phone just say ‘Hello’ to him and to just talk to him for a while. He greeted his uncle, and chatted with him for some time. Then he said bye. At that point his uncle asked him ‘Now come to the point, why did you call me?’.  Normally people call him, only when they need something from him. Here is an American settled Indian, just calling his uncle out of love and care, which his uncle is not used to, as per the culture here.

May be, for a change, let us smile more…. it will definitely look better than the grim faces…

Encashing negativity !

Today morning, I woke up and started my day very positively. I even went to the morning mass and had the holy communion. I was determined not to give ear to any negativity today. While having breakfast, the TV was on, and in one malayalam channel (I think India vision, not sure, and it does not matter), they were showing the clip of a mahout being killed by an elephant during a festival. It was horrifying. It looms large in my head. It was shocking. The reason for them to air this was to highlight the cruelty to animals. I could see this as only cruelty to the dead man, and his family.

Then I took the Malayala Manorama daily to read. One of the front page news is ‘Veetil TV Kanave, kuttiye theruvu naya aakramichu’ – ‘ Street dog attacked the kid, while watching TV at home’. This has to be in the front page. Next one is explosion in Iraq, 2 MPs got killed. All about encashing negativity.

I was feeling disgusted. My blood pressure shot up and had a vomiting sensation.

Then I got out of my house with my camera, and two romeos were in a romantic mood, which I shot with my camera (see the photos section). Dont think that it was easy to capture them on the camera as they were very shy. I think they were demonstrating more moral values, then the money hungry media….

Am I encashing negativity?……  Creation is better than destruction