Category: Socio-Political-Economic

Last evening saw a curious trio walking upto our doors. One was holding an Electronic Voting Machine (EVM) model even as a lady in sari overlooked me taking a special interest in my octogenarian MIL standing behind. That aroused my suspicion. The tiny team said they were at our place to conduct a mock demo of EVM voting for my MIL who may not be able to/willing to walk to polling booth to vote in upcoming Assembly elections in Tamil Nadu. (It is another story that my MIL muttered after they left ‘endha porukkikkum vote poda poradhilla!) Postal ballots for the aged and the infirm so that their votes wouldn’t be going waste. How thoughtful really! A certain political party’s volunteers the three visitors, they finally openly asked my MIL to press the button on their election symbol and carefully elaborated how she must ensure that she didn’t commit a mistake allowing her vote to go to null.

I guess this is a first time exercise in India, taking the ballot box door to door. Frankly only the Vadivel joke flashes to my mind! ‘India vallarasu aayiduchu’ he screams and I felt silly wanting to jump up and down like him thinking how smart our political people have become. Who is this desperate not to let even a single vote go waste!!!

I am raring to walk to my polling booth on April 6th to cast my vote. My son ill-advised me to vote for Kamal Hassan party even if I didn’t seek his opinion. How about me asking him to vote for BJP. Can this gen take it from us. Seriously! Looks like Gennext luvs Kamal! My whole family, I mean the younger lot, hooked on to Kamal. To state the truth, I do think he is good and uncorrupted. I was watching Kamal giving names to newborn babies in his election campaign (in tv news bulletins). I am supposed to hate him! I wouldn’t want to squander my precious vote on his Makkal Needhi Maiyam that will divide the electorate without giving a clear majority to any one.

Colourful political campaigns and election canvassing door to door. My DIL who is American is flabbergasted that they beat drums here and blow trumpets as candidates walk through the streets garlanded by crowds! Apparently that will be courting arrest in the US. But not in India! Here sub chaltha hai! After the drum beat again, my MIL feels like fainting. This noise pollution is not good for younger children and the aged and the sick alike. I didn’t expect this fanfare at least in these times of pandemic. This morning tooo a different group came up to meet my MIL but I asked them where their masks were. They were put off by my question and exchanged awkward looks. ‘We want to talk to the patti in the house’ they insisted. Patti Thattha kkum oru time varum!!

(Officials paid a visit by midday with a big ballot box screened from public view on all sides and handed over a printed sheet to my MIL to mark her postal ballot. Two police constables stood guard as she exercised her franchise upon which the paper was asked to be folded by her, then placed in an envelope and sealed to be dropped into the ballot box. Quite a spectacle. I was expecting an EVM at our doorstep really. Casting of postal ballots got over in my constituency today)

I have always voted for JJ. For the first time in over 20 years we don’t have her in election scene. Feels eerie.. At least ‘kattumaram’ old rascal is also no more thank god! Without the two who were running Tamil Nadu between them from 1989 or even earlier, it is again another first time for Tamil Nadu. Feels strange at least to me.

Btw after this postal ballot of taking EVMs door to door for the super senior citizens, why can’t our government consider installing polling booths in our diplomatic missions abroad. My husband and other NRIs have never had a chance to vote for over two decades. Last Lok sabha elections there were rumours that the Indian expats could exercise their rights to vote in Indian High commissions or embassies in their respective resident countries. Instead of asking for voter’s ID or Aadhar card, the passports of NRIs can be considered our IDs for the voting. I expect our PM Shri Modi ji to seriously consider this option. You will be doing a great service to NRI community ji. This community earns valuable foreign exchange for the nation. The frustration in not having their voting rights exercised and not having a say in the nation’s economic/political affairs is building up agonizingly in the NRI communities. Hopefully our Indian govt will do something in this regard soon. PIO cardholders can be exempted from voting eligibility. Only Indian citizens who are NRIs who hold valid Indian passports may be deemed eligible.

Come to think of that, I was wondering how this can be feasible. NRIs come from nook and corners of India, from all sections of society. How many constituencies could be represented in our foreign missions. In how many countries totally. Indian expats have made even African nations their homes, for instance. In some countries there are multiple geographic locations spread out over thousands of kilometers where the Indian diaspora may be dispersed. Classic case the US. Where to take the voting to exactly. What about the timeframe. All these complexities must have stopped the Indian govt from looking into this matter. However, India has been phenomenally successful in personalizing EVMs for every single constituency in the country without hick-ups. By the same measure, we can arrive at a solution to make the NRI vote count. We have to do something about this! Just a thought.

PS: Proud to have a dear friend serving for years as election officer in Kerala. What a mammoth exercise this is. For state assembly elections, the workload is halved. For Lok sabha elections, this is truly a backbreaking exercise. Starts over 6 months to 1 year in advance with initial preparations and tasks assigned apart from manpower training. So much responsibility and accountability. Not to leave out the security aspect. I recommend the mallu picture ‘unda’ starring Mamooty for the season. Chanceh illa. How seriously India takes our democratic status. You will have an idea with the film.

Recently I chanced upon a political post in social media that alleged that, a certain Sri Lankan Tamil organization fueled anti-national sentiments in Tamil Nadu joining hands with a Dravidian party (since long). I wouldn’t want to explore the possibility as I am not interested in the outcome for the reason I believe that, the said dravida party could have in fact betrayed any Tamil cause in the long run in Sri Lanka contrary to what is circulated in the media.

In any case, the post reflected poorly on the intelligence and judgment capacity of individuals who are raring to take over the reins of the government in upcoming Assembly elections.

Only one question pops up in my mind. Should the assassination of one prime minister be reason enough to condemn an entire community that is blood related to mainland Tamils.

Secondly, these are not the Rohingyas from Myanmar with no umbilical cord or cultural connect with India. These are our very brethren who did not migrate to the island nation on their own will. Rather these were brought to Lanka and forced to work as bonded estate labour by the British a good century or two ago.

It reminds me of the cruel ‘Bale Kampung’ slogan that used to be raised in Malaysia at the drop of hat during election times. It meant ‘go back home’ to Chinese and Indian migrants who were moved to the south east Asian nation a good three hundred years back by the British occupiers for working the tin mines and rubber estates in the country. It also brings back to memory the American ideology in the past of resettling back the blacks in Africa (sort of ‘passive’ ethnic cleansing?) footing the bills with generous handouts. Good the native Indians do not harbour similar sentiments of sending back ALL SQUATTERS IN AMERICA!

The British left Lanka without awarding equal constitutional privileges to Tamils who had to fight for even for their voting rights once the colonists departed. There reportedly was no mention of the Tamil ethnic race at all in the Independence charter. No legal sanction for a community that had made the island their home for over 200 to 300 years. Overnight rendered illegal immigrants. The Sri Lankan Tamil story is heart-wrenching.

I had a firsthand information from my biological mother who went on excursion with her school wherein she worked, in 1980 to Sri Lanka. After a 10 day tour, she came back with minimal shopping. She had said that the Tamils in Sri Lanka were living in fear. The tourists could not visit Kadhirgamam already as they were stopped from going there. A river of blood had flown therein only weeks earlier. It was my mother’s greatest disappointment, having not visited the Murugan temple in Kadhirgamam.

It was an age when social media was still a very distant dream and even mass media was dysfunctional or erratic mostly. Newspapers ran censored lukewarm columns.

Violence of Sri Lanka thus had reached my home a two to three years before it was mainstream media news with international audience. Mid 80s saw Sri Lanka hog the headlines.

In Sri Lanka in 1980, my mother and her Hindu Tamil women teacher colleagues had to wipe their bindhis and cover their heads for their own security until they boarded their ships sailing back to Madras that was a mere three hours away by sea.

My mother never lived to see Lanka erupt into flames. Back when had she narrated the Sri Lankan horrors told to the visitors by Tamil traders, merchants, restauranteers, drivers etc., we had been shocked and numbed into disbelief. The Tamils were now the estate owners and business entrepreneurs igniting insane jealousy in Singhalese with their hard earned wealth.

We were receiving Sri Lankan tv in our home as well until 1982-83 perhaps. It was called Rupa Vahini and it was a far better channel than our Indian/Desi Door Darshan!

I grew up tuned to Sri Lankan radio that was my granny’s favourite that would keep blaring in my home all the time. ‘Ilangai oli parappu koottu stabanam Thamizh sevai irandu.’ Tell me which Tamil kid born in late ’60s or early ’70s missed this service.

The early ’80s saw the refugees in exodus from Sri Lanka arriving in boatloads accommodated into settlement camps in the state. Our school received quite a few Tamil girls who had fled their homes with empty hands and not even clothes to change.

We had meetings when these girls and parents addressed us, relating to us the genocide that was taking place in the island nation. Today none of us want to return to this point of reality sadly. As for as I was concerned, it was the first time ever that I heard of violence and bloodshed of any sort in my life. Very sheltered and peaceful village like life in Madras. Even Indira Gandhi was around then. Kashmir had not yet gone out of bounds. What an idyllic state of existence we have had until 1980 or so.

My aunt’s school saw a wave of admissions as well. One parent promised to come back with more girls rescued from the island but never returned. The clothes we donated. The food and medicines we garnered. The funds we raised. Didn’t this phase roll on for another 2 to 3 years at least.

All this is forgotten history now.

So easily and how heartlessly and crudely do some of us reduce all this to mere bloodshed and militancy. Is it all about Sri Lankan Tamils.

Can one assassination turn upside down an entirely justified cause of a population. Not denying the spate of violence that the said dreaded organization unleased in the island nation as well as in Tamil Nadu (in sporadic incidents). Still what drove men and women to found such an outfit and arm themselves to teeth. Was it in self-defence or in offence. Answering this one fundamental question can make a significant difference to our line of thought.

Was the supposed organization that was hardcore militant, sole representative of the island Tamil community. Or were these extremists the only voice of the beleaguered Tamils.

What a contorted notion this is and how far fetched can this be from truth.

One cannot hold a community responsible for any individual/organization’s actions or misdeeds. This is a very sick and mischievous ideology aimed at only one thing: shifting blame and scapegoating the gullible. Opportunistic.

The Sri Lankan diaspora is spread all around the world today, uprooted from their soil. And they can never go back to their motherland the way we Indians take our country for granted.

What a literate and intellectual society is this Sri Lankan Tamil community. The hardships they faced molded them into one very strong steely stock that struggle to uphold far better the puritanical Tamil culture over mainland (local) Tamils.

It was India who abetted their quest for a separate homeland in the first place that none of us can deny. But India changed tack conveniently and quickly abandoning the cause that we sponsored, leaving the hapless lot lost in confusion and mess. Any mental revisit to Mandapam years in ’70s?

And now we blame the unfortunate and battered island Tamils for stoking anti-national feelings in Tamil Nad?

Such a thinking can point to only one fact: how irresponsible and callous and shallow and insensitive can some of us become without a thought to larger scheme of things. There is always the full picture. If we get to depths of truth that can reveal things for what they are, we can never be arriving at nonsensical, hasty and irrational judgments.

This is what I fear most. A justified cause flagged for a one-off blunder that cost dear a tormented people. The wrong type would exactly latch on to such a weakness which is their trademark operating style. Trivializing aspirations and dashing hopes.

It is precisely this kind of political clout that I detest. Rash in action and judgment.

For how many more rounds of elections would we have Sri Lankan Tamils to use as our Trump card. Shame.

Hopefully, the Sri Lankan Tamil community live in peace at last wherever they are around the world, enriching lives, nourishing Tamil culture in far more meaningful way than merely by paying lip service.

I knew a family here in Chennai that was divided in most horrific way. Parents in Germany. Mother rented a house here in Tamil Nadu. Two boys. The eldest lost his life in a tragic rail accident while crossing over to his engineering college in Kattan Kolathur. The flights to Sri Lanka were rarest. Almost never. The parents made it a point to return to roots but the kids stayed away sadly. Very scarred at heart with a heightened sense of insecurity, this was one family that escaped murder and pillage, seeking refuge in Tamil Nadu/India overnight.

What language did they speak: Tamil. What is their Dharma? Hindu. Who were their ancestors? Hindu Tamils/Indians. And how quickly we judge anyone.

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Few go back now but those who do are resigned to fate, swallowing pride and coming to terms with second class citizenship, as uneasy truce prevails now in Lanka. It is very painful to contemplate this harsh reality which has become the norm of their lives.

Let the bygones be bygones. Sri Lanka is done and dusted. We don’t know what pushed people to edges. I hope this never happens to any citizen of India even in our worst nightmares. Having to flee our homes in the dark of the night… the very thought can chill our spine…

If you meet Syrians or Palestinians or Sri Lankans or even Egyptians or Pakistanis/Afghans or Africans in life, you will realize what a blessed nation you are born into. Let us leave the Sri Lankans in peace.

I have met a Palestinian woman who did not even hold a valid passport. Instead the men and women from her place possess stamped loose travel papers.

I have heard from a Syrian how he walked to safety through a landmine stretch in single piece.

My tourist guide in Turkey was a Palestinian as well. Not knowing where to go next or where he would be allowed to step in at all.

Older and wiser these days. Everyone has a story to tell. If we are lucky enough not to become statistics like them, we must only be using our good offices to bring cheer to unfortunate lives than making more people miserable.

First of all cultivate LOVE. There is so much hatred all around that I find suffocating.

The way ex CM Jayalalitha Jayaram was hushed up leaves everyone of us feeling deeply insecure in Tamil Nad including me. If this can happen to the most powerful woman CM of the state and none of us can lift a finger about it, where does that leave us. The famous justification is that the end justifies the means, right? Extremely RIGHT if you get it. Yet, even those like me have to concede with a grudge that the state hasn’t quite missed her somewhat, with surprisingly the EPS OPS team filling (even if clumsily) in the large shoes left by the imposing lady. Nothing stopped working, and the state functioned smooth in extraordinary climate under the pandemic situation. Effective management of the crisis that could have easily gone out hands, with Ayurvedic and Siddha preventive medication to a large extent could have contributed to not only the state but entire India scrape through the Coronavirus spread. Something that will never be acknowledged by the west because it validates eastern/Hindu food habits, medicine and healthy way of life and may in fact mark ours superior to theirs. (Yet I am not for Mixopathy don’t get me wrong. This self-contradiction at every step is exactly my problem!)

Anyway, Tamil Nadu is fit like a fiddle. Most of India is for that matter, compared to rest of the world still reeling under the pandemic (touchwood) and even our economy is stabilizing. We cannot now miss out on how the state government handled even the nonstop continuous monsoon spells in the entire southern coromandel coast that began with the onset of south west monsoons in July and without a recess progressed on to north east monsoons. Timely weeding of the catchment basins such as temple tanks, lakes, reservoirs etc have ensured a good storage for the monsoon country. Good tidings! These things matter more to the public and the general opinion is good.

So where in these circumstances is the need for a change in the office??? It is not a million dollar question as to who is pulling the strings from behind. Aadravan oruvan. Aattuvippavan oruvan. Whichever way it is, I have absolutely no complaints. Except for the way the civic department is functioning. Whatever happened to Swachch Bharat. Down with covid19 is it. Please bring it back with a full vengeance!

On retrospect, a change could have been in the offing. It is open secret who negotiated with who and who backed out for what reasons and who remains yet at the table. Not as you think any impossible scenario. No scruples in politics please! Kind and gracious of PM Modi to have flown into Chennai for Metrorail phase inauguration (!). What other businesses ji? So the stage is set.

One way or other, personally I don’t want to vote for a government that will be anti-Hindu. As simple as that. Church and Mosques can stay but cannot be allowed to expand to overrun Hindu interests. Call me a fanatic, fundamentalist, I don’t care. Dharma has to survive and will survive and it is the responsibility of every single one of us to ensure that it does.

For leftists here is my word: the democracy of India is incumbent on our demography. Islam has to only touch 51% of our total population and we will have sharia the next moment. Where will you guys seek asylum ji, only in capitalist states. As for Christianity, this is slow poison. Wouldn’t want to play second fiddle to America or Britain. Hindu Dharma is one big reason, we in India are the way we are. Neither for bikini nor for burqa culture. Let us live in peace. Our sari is beautiful! Indigenous. Neither belongs in arab world nor in america or australia or africa or even cheeni. We are who we are. And this is what makes us tick.

This generation of Indians carry a lot of responsibility on their shoulders as Hindu population is now increasing at a decreasing rate. Relentless onslaught by the christian missionary mafia bent on conversion like they have done to Latin America and Africa is afoot on one side with islamic madarasas breeding terror minded on the other. Under the conditions India does need a ruthless, sharp, fearless dheergadarshi who can think ahead by a hundred years. We have to be on the offence, not in defence. This is why I want Modi at the helm of affairs. Only if we win this current battle can we save the war. Liberals may or may not agree with me. I have not holidayed but LIVED in foreign countries. I know how their minds work. Everyone is human and generous until you rub them in their wrong side. Or their use for you is over. I have come to the conclusion that India has to stay majority Hindu with 75% of our population being solidly Hindu for our own benefit. Our kids deserve this.

Every Hindu must therefore vote for the nation. Otherwise we will be the next Egypt or Turkey. That bastard Musharraf of Pakistan actually said that once. That by population jehad, India will be won over.

So before the economy, before the farmer issue, before the pandemic, before even India-China-Pak conflict, before inflation and rising oil prices etc., etc., what matters to me is that we ensure a Hindu majority India for next 2-3 generations and leave the rest to our genNext to carry on from where we leave.

Social justice, equality, gender neutrality, gay rights everything is fine. All this have a chance only in Hindu dominant India. Shall we call ourselves Bharat please.

Who you vote for is now upto you.

Like any faith, Hinduism is not 100% perfect. We have our ups and downs. Casteism is our gravest concern. A lot better than we were even a mere half a century ago, Hindu revivalism rests amply on how we take it from here. It is the responsibility of every single Hindu to ensure that none is left out and that our fold is inclusive of those in the fringes.

I shall explain quota reservation the way I have in my previous posts.

Carpark for the disabled is reserved in every corner of the globe – be in shopping malls or cinemas or stadiums or airports or theme parks or public places or wherever. The unreserved if they cannot find parking, can still drive around a block or two and walk a couple of streets to the mall. Something the physically challenged may find difficult to do. Reservation quota is such a small aid given to the underprivileged. You may claim some slots remain vacant, yet they don’t let you fill up because you can take care of yourself as you are fit as a fiddle. You will survive walking the extra 500 m or 1 km. Whatsoever, you will find your way to the mall and will not get lost. You need no direction or assistance. You cannot argue that you have been a fine driver all along and now you are forced to walk in hot sun, but the maimed or handicapped man enjoys the privilege of parking under cool shade even if he arrived late. You cannot argue it is you who is shopping maximum and adding value to economy, and the reserved carpark man in wheelchair shops for nothing and is merely window shopping. You cannot claim the reserved carpark allotted to him is going waste because he brings back nothing from the mall. You cannot lament, you have to carry the shopping bags two streets down to your parked car even if you are able-bodied enough to do it. May be the damaged man/woman was hit by your speeding car in the highway who knows. Hit for long that he cannot raise by himself or drive by himself. He needs a crutch to lean on and to take even a single step forward, while you have been enjoying riding your car at highspeed after a headstart and parking in forefront as long as one can remember…. And in case you deny reserved carpark for the disabled, isn’t there every chance he turns away from the mall disillusioned and disheartened.

At least this is how I see reservation. None in my family has benefited from any form of govt concession. But we enjoy the privilege of our sound birth which has put us ahead of millions in this country. Painfully I remain aware of this one differentiating fact.

Some of us fail to understand the basic lack of humanity in our society and the need to equalize chances for everyone. Which is why we have today ‘Black lives matter.’ If someone is gullible, it does not mean we can continue to take them, for a ride.

The animal abuse in Hindu temples is horrible, horrendous. No endearing kinship between a mahout and an elephant can justify such a blatant cruelty inflicted upon hapless voiceless five sensed gentle giant that belongs in the wild, in the name of God, in the abode of God. One has to be a sadist to do this to a living creature, especially something as beautiful and enchanting and magnificent as the Indian tusker. The spirit of the beast is snuffed in the name of God, the will broken in the house of God. How many know what it takes to ‘break an elephant.’ A sin like none other. Even thinking of this breaks my heart and brings tears to my eyes.

The greatest enemies of Hinduism are right here. If they shut their big mouth, world will be a far better place to live in. Anyway who gave these men and women the right to represent Hindu Dharma. Self-appointed custodians of Sanatana I suppose.

I have raised a lot of questions over conversion, yet I have to concede, none in India is forced into conversion kicking and screaming their way. They embrace the Abrahamic fold in freewill because when one’s dignity is at stake, nothing else matters really.

I have not seen worse passive aggressive lot like my fellow Hindus. I have lived among Malaysian/Arab muslims. Filipino christians. What we nurture that they don’t inherently have in them, is this ‘kallam, kabadam’ or ‘soodhu vaadhu’ – trademark birth character of all Hindus. And this ‘holier than thou’ attitude or this nauseating hypocrisy. Such a smug self-righteosness! What an insensitivity and lack of empathy.

Every single argument or post in mass media/social media these days is about castes or religion. Dear smartass Hindu, Lord Shiva cares really whether I go see him in menses or with a cigar dangling in my lips or after a peg of whisky. Whether I go see him in bikini or burqa. Or whether I had beef or panjamritham. This decorum is yours, NOT HIS! How senseless of you to reduce something so profound and infinite to mere rituality and your petty stupid dirty imagination! Whether He is Shiva, are you sure. Have you come back from Kailasha or what, you seem to know too much! Disgusting!

You are born no better than your neighbour by mere virtue of birth. Denying a fellow human his/her dignity is an unpardonable crime against humanity. Parasitic among us will find a 1000 reasons to counter social justice and equality.

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• Reservation can be phased out step by step, generation by generation. This nation will continue to produce first generation literates/graduates for another 100 years. A clear proof of deep driven schism in Hindu society in existence for millennia.
• Animal abuse in places of worship to be treated as criminal offence punishable with a sentence. With none to argue their case, wildlife/domestic animals in India suffer trauma at the hands of the abusive.