2 Days of Fun, Water and Mafia

“machi enga amma kitta kekanum da” tis was the trademark reply when we asked prince for this much awaited trip to allepy by our friends. Allepy – the Venice of Kerala. I always had a wish to visit this place after seeing it in VTV and when my sister visited this place recently with her husband and posted the pics in FB, further increased the thirst in me to visit that place. My friends prince, adithya, arun v s aka sori, santhanam aka sexy, shrivignesh aka chittu, anand aka puluthi mama and kalingaraj wanted to take a break from their busy schedule from their work. Then we zeroed on  2 places  Ooty and Allepy.  Me and  adithya somehow managed others to select  allepy.

We gave that job of organizing the trip  to sexy as he was well versed in doing it right from our IVs to BAJA. There was a bigger task of getting the consent of others n making them come to this trip. Chittu, me, sexy, kali, adithya and sori were always ready for it as soon as tis trip came up. The most troublesome guys were prince and mama. Everythime we ask him abt the trip this trade mark dialogue of his come from him “enga amma kitta kekanum da” as if our ammas and appas are not concerned about us. And here comes our mama as usual his puluthi thanam surfaced. He was not telling clearly whether he is coming or not til the last date.  Sexy somehow managed to book the house boat with his otta  Malayalam. The best part was he didn’t even tel us exactly how much it costed. Then with the help of mama a cab was arranged for the trip.

The day arrived everybody were set to go and were praying for only one thing sori should not come late to cbe for the trip. But it was a sort of miracle he came half an hour before our expected time. Then we all met at sungam  junction and finally we started our trip. As soon as our cab started adithya started pulling legs of mama, as it was the funniest and easiest pastime for us.and our journey to allepy took 9hours instead of 7, thanks to the lorry which ran into a pole and spilled all the goods in it on the highway. We met our boatman in bus stand and we were escorted to the boat which was parked in some corner. With all excitement everybody got into the boat checked our rooms and started our photo shoot. Even though light was not good we clicked many pics. Then adithya came with the idea of playing mafia. It was totally new for us. He explained the whole rules of it n he was the moderator for the first time. N then it started. we started shouting at each other suspecting other. It was a superb mind game we jus have to find out who he is based on his activities. Prince was bang right in pointing me out what I was whether a mafia or a villager, purely based on my reactions. I tried a lot by showing different gestures but all in vain, he found out all the time. We were so much into the game that it was 3am. We didnt even notice it. We al went to bed and it al started the next morn. It was like water, water everywhere not a drop to drink. Its jus backwaters, houseboats and smaller boats. And first time in my life am seeing a city boats as we have city buses in our city. Prince was busy with his camera and everybody got freshened up and our boat set sail for some round trip. We had the usual breakfast of idli sambar which all south Indian homes will have on a regular weekday and the difference was we got boiled egg as an addition to idli. Mafia again started haunting us, even for the second day I was given the role of mafia though it was by lot and prince found out easily. Then sexy and chittu wanted prawns for lunch so they were scouting for some fish shops and after seeing the rates of it they jus settled for the fish fry which was already there in the lunch menu. They boat was anchored at some place for lunch wher chittu and sexy had a holy dip in waters. And prince as usual was covering their jalakridai.  

After lunch our boat and mafia again started. It was the inland water ways where our boat was sailing. And after a brief journey in backwaters. It came to the spot where it al started. And now comes the best part of our trip. The settlement. Til this time nobody knew how much this boat trip costed. Whenever we ask abt it to sexy he ll tel “machi onnum prachana illa pathukalam”. This gave us a picture that everythin was under control but it wasn’t. After checking out the boat guy came n demanded for 15k for the trip telling some lame stories and reasons. And our sori had to step in. “vayi illaina nai kooda mathikathu” this phrase best describes sori’s convincing skills. He started negotiating with the boat guy teliing all type of nonsense lik “naanga china pasanga na” , “first time allepy vanthirukom na”, “enga family la yaaru vanthaalum unga boat laye poga solrom na” and finally “enga ellarodaya honeymoon unga boatla than na”. then finally after many rounds of negotiation for half an hour. We settled for most 11.5k. this shows our sori’s talent. And this was the best dessert for our trip. we all left the place asap. And started back to Coimbatore.  

UNAKKU THAVAINA NEE THAAN PANNANUM

Many people say life gives a lot of lessons for us to learn. As i have lead just one-fifth of it. i can tel you that i have learnt a few lessons, one of which is nothin but the title itself which means if you need to succed or win over an issue you have to work hard for it no matter wat ever it takes, nobody will come for your help. in the corporate world nobody is going to safeguard you or sacrifice for you as it was in the college, where if some problem arises nobody will betray you or put the blame on you. but here in the corporate world you are all alone nobody is there for you to give company or travel wit you in the journey. this was very difficult for me to digest or bear as i have so far had a companion till college right from my childhood. may be that was also my drawback which has led me to this situation. if i was also all alone lik my other frens were in their college this would have been easy for me to cope up with it, now i got used to it after a great dificulty. you also cannot entirely depend on anybody for your help or mentorship fully. they will help you to some extent, when ever they feel they are insecure or answerable for certain things they will easily rope you in for that problem just because you were there with him for that problem. if you want to excel or succeed you have to work hard individually, take decisions boldly on your own to solve a particular problem and to get a good recognition for you. this is all about the lesson  'unakku thevaina nee thaan pannanum'.

Staircase Trolley

Trolleys in general are designed to be used on plane surfaces, where the trolley can be pushed or pulled with ease. However, if something is needed to be moved over stairs or to a higher elevation, a ramp had to be built for this purpose or an elevator employed. In any building that has more than one floor, a staircase would definitely be present, but a conventional trolley could not be pulled over such a staircase. The cost involved in building a ramp or using an elevator was high for moving a few things and this persistent problem faced by the industries in particular drove us to come up with a solution.

The straight forward objective was to design a pull trolley that could be pulled over a staircase. A simple concept of using a tri-star shaped arrangement for the wheels, accommodating 3 wheels on each side was used, thereby making the trolley ‘climb’ over a staircase effectively. These trolleys could arguably be the first of its kind in India making it unique.

This trolley would go a long way in alleviating the pain and risk involved in handling heavy loads over higher planes. It would help the workers in an industry to move heavy loads without hurting themselves in the process. The trolley is not confined to use only in industries, it can be used in hospitals to carry oxygen cylinders between floors, in railway stations to carry loads over a staircase, in docking yards, and basically in any environment where a load has to be moved to a higher level over a staircase.

E - WASTE

E waste is the name given to the electronic products which are nearing the end of their useful life. They are considered as dangerous waste because of the presence of hazardous substance present in it. They pose a serious threat to human health. Some of the common e wastes are discarded computers, televisions, VCRs, stereos, copiers, fax machines, electric lamps, cell phones, audio equipment and batteries. These items contain chemicals like lead which pollutes the eco system.

The main reasons for the generation of these wastes are because of the industrial revolution and the advancement in the information technology, even though these helped human beings to overcome a lot of problems but they led to some new problems like pollution and contamination. Computers have become the most commonly used gadget in the world in all kinds of activities from schools, residences to industries. The major e toxic components are circuit boards containing heavy metals like lead & cadmium, batteries containing cadmium, cathode ray tubes with lead oxide & barium, brominated flame­retardants used on printed circuit boards, cables and plastic casing, poly vinyl chloride (PVC) coated copper cables and plastic computer casings that release highly toxic dioxins & furans when burnt to recover valuable metals, mercury switches, mercury in flat screens, poly chlorinated biphenyl's (PCB's) present in older capacitors, transformers, etc

INDIAN SCENARIO

While the world is marveling at the technological revolution, countries like India are facing an imminent danger. E-waste of developed countries, such as the US, dispose their wastes to India and other Asian countries. A recent investigation revealed that much of the electronics turned over for recycling in the United States ends up in Asia, where they are either disposed of or recycled with little or no regard for environmental or worker health and safety. Major reasons for exports are cheap labour and lack of environmental and occupational standards in Asia and in this way the toxic effluent of the developed nations 'would flood towards the world's poorest nations. The magnitude of these problems is yet to be documented. It is imperative that developing countries and India in particular wake up to the monopoly of the developed countries and set up appropriate management measures to prevent the hazards and mishaps due to mismanagement of e-wastes.

The management of these wastes in India is pretty new concept whereas its quite common in developed nations in west. The major problem in our country is the collection of e wastes. most of the offices or industries which are in very small scale use the second hand computers and electronics goods i.e. used products in order to reduce their expenses. There are some exclusive dealers for these second hand goods. Collecting the waste from them free of cost is a Herculean task. Our govt is taking serious steps to overcome tis problem in the budding stage. There are some very few e waste recyclers in our country, which may not be sufficient to recycle all the waste generated in the long run. There should be some serious steps taken both by the govt and we citizens to reduce these wastes.

THINK OVER IT!!!!

    Slumdog Millionaire  - a 2008 British film directed by Danny Boyle, written by Simon Beaufoy, and co-directed in India by Loveleen Tandan. It is an adaptation of the Boeke Prize-winning and Commonwealth Writer’s Prize-nominated novel Q & A by Indian author and diplomat Vikas Swarup. This movie has won 8 annual academy awards, 5 critics choice awards, 4 golden globe awards, 7 BAFTA awards and also a lot of criticism and controversies.

         There are some things in the movie which are not known to everybody. It is not the exact story of the book Q & A, a lot has been changed to suit the audience like - The Bombay Hindu-Muslim riots played no role in the book, as the ethnic or religious heritage of the main character was uncertain. In the book, the character of Jamal is instead named 'Ram Mohammad Thomas'. He was given a Hindu name, Muslim name and Christian name by the village elders in order to maintain the balance between all the religious communities after his mother abandoned him after birth. Unlike the movie, Ram does not have a biological brother, but Salim is instead his best friend in the novel. He grows up in an orphanage and his only 'brothers' are his fellow orphans. He never knew his mother. Ram is adopted by a Christian priest as a youth, which is where he learns English, and then is nearly molested by a visiting priest. The priest scenes were not included in the script for the movie, and the movie does not explain how Jamal learned fluent English. Latika is not his childhood friend in the book but rather a prostitute named Nita that Ram falls in love with in a brothel when he was 18.

   In August 2007 Warner Independent Pictures acquired the American and  Warner Independent Pictures paid $5 million to acquire these rights to the film and became a co-producer.However, in May 2008, Warner Independent Pictures was shutdown, with all of its projects being transferred to Warner Bros. Pictures, its parent studio. Warner Bros. doubted the commercial   prospects of this movie and suggested that it would go straight to DVD without a U.S. theatrical release. if it was done so the movie would not be even eligible for the annual academy awards. This movie has been appreciated and acclaimed in our country , even it was appreciated in our parliament for its good run in the awards ceremonies, the central board of film certification commonly known as sensor board has also approved for the release of its English, hindi and tamil versions of the movie without any corrections or changes, but it was not the case with other Indian documentaries which portrayed our Indian slums like slumdog. The reason behind this is it has got international fame and name.

     The success of this movie is celebrated all over the country. Of course cast and crew were mostly Indians. And the awards for A R Rahman and Resul Pookutty should be duly appreciated for their work on this film. But just two Indians got awards respite a lot of other Indians working on it, slumdog’s success is not Indian cinema’s   success.

     The main problem in our country is that we take pride for others work, for instance a person who achieves something some where in the world, whose great grand fathers would have lived for sometime in our country and we take pride and say that “He is an Indian, A man of Indian origin has done that”. We don’t understand that it s not a pride, it’s a shame for us for taking the pride for others work. Same is the case with this movie. we say  “its a victory for Indian cinema”, “its the pride for Mumbai”, “Mumbai’s victory” etc etc.

      The critics – who are paid for doing criticism, play a major role in the success of this movie. There are a whole lot of critics from India and as well as from other countries who have poured in a whole lot of their opinion about the movie.an American critic who works in India has said "Say an Indian director travelled to New Orleans for a few months to film a movie about Jamal Martin, an impoverished African American who lost his home in Hurricane Katrina, who once had a promising basketball career, but who -- following a drive-by shooting -- now walks with a permanent limp, whose father is in jail for selling drugs, whose mother is addicted to crack cocaine, whose younger sister was killed by gang-violence, whose brother was arrested by corrupt cops, whose first born child has sickle cell anaemia, and so on. The movie would be widely panned and laughed out of theatres. " Anand Giridharadas argues in The New York Times that the film has a "freshness which portrays a changing India, with great realism, as something India long resisted being: a land of self-makers, where a scruffy son of the slums can, solely of his own effort, hoist himself up, flout his origins, break with fate." also calls the film "a tribute to the irrepressible self." Some even say that the depiction of the Mumbai in the film was spot on. Some even wonder " how did he know about all these things ".

     The movie slumdog millionaire was a British movie shot in India has won several awards has nothing to do with India, in spite of Indians working on it.we should be proud for the music of Rahman and the work of Resul pookutty for their extraordinary work in  that movie. The movie has best showcased the country and what ever it has showcased it is true. The movie slumdog millionaire is a treat for the movie lovers and we the Indians should not take pride for the success of the movie.