Loss of a good friend

On 2nd December morning I checked for messages in my Asus and found one from Daniele. His message said " Massimo died this Friday. Aless would appreciate if you would inform our friends". I could not believe it.

Massimo and Alessandra are from Verbania, a village at the north west border of Italy. They are friends of Daniele and Valeria. Hearing a lot of praise for Kerala from Daniele, they decided to go and see for themselves in 2005. I was in Kerala after Libya and arranged for a 15 days trip for them in Kerala. They did not want to go to all the fancy places frequented by tourists, but wanted to see the real Kerala and interact with common people of Kerala. They arrived on 31st December in Kerala. The next 15 days, we (me, Charlie and Dr. Abraham taking turns) took them to new year celebration in Meridien, a hindu marriage, 4 temple festivals, Elephant farm, large veggie market, 2 church festivals, Wayanad, Kuttanad, Fort Cochin, Periyaar and finally, we said Arrividerci during a dinner in Brunton Boat Yard. They thoroughly enjoyed the trip and vowed to come back for their marriage in Kerala. Since then, I had been to Italy in May 2006 and visited them in Verbania. They have just bought an old house and was renovating it. They were also preparing for their first child. Lorenzo was born on 9th January 2008 and they were happily living in their new house.

They were a very adorable young couple. Massimo was into long distance running, cycling and swimming and was lean and healthy. Alessandra, being a pharmacist was also very conscious of health and was lean and healthy. When they came to Kerala they were friends of Daniele and Valeria. When they left they were our friends and friends of Kerala. During their stay in Kerala, they interacted with villagers, ate local food, used even local dress and stayed in homes. They were thoroughly taken in by Kerala and its people. They left after making a lot of friends.

Daniele called me later and explained the circumstances. Massimo attended his office as usual on Friday 28th November and during lunch break he went out to give swimming lessons. He came back to office and collapsed. None of us who have met Massimo could believe it. How could this happen to a person who runs 8-10 km in a stretch and swims regularly? He doesn't smoke or drink much. Unbelievable. Poor Aless and Lorenzo. I called her, but didn't know what to say. Such a lovely family, everything was looking bright and shining and suddenly.... But who said life is fair?

We can only pray for his soul and join Aless and Lorenzo in their grief.

THE BEST EMAIL OF THIS YEAR

Again, this is not my creation. I got this mail from a friend saying this is voted as the best mail of the year. May be yes, May be not. However, this sure carries an excellent message and therefore I am putting it up here. Apologies to the originator.


VOTED THE BEST EMAIL OF THIS YEAR


If you think you are unhappy, look at them



If you think your salary is low, how about her?



If you think you don't have many friends...



When you feel like giving up, think of this man



If you think you suffer in life, do you suffer as much as he does?



If you complain about your transport system, how about them?



If your society is unfair to you, how about her?



Enjoy life how it is and as it comes

Things are worse for others and is a lot better for us


There are many things in your life that will catch your eye but only a few will catch your heart....pursue those...

Thanneer! Thanneer!!! The cry for Water

No, this is not a photo by me.
But this is another foto that impressed me a lot.
This is from the book "The Blue Water Run", an initiative by the Blue Water Planet Foundation which supports the cry for clean drinking water by 1.1 billion people all over the world.

Joke of the Year!!!

I thought I heard it all. Until I heard the news at 9 this evening on Manorama. There was this discussion about the resolution passed by Kerala assembly and how the opposition made a row. Mr. Aanathalavattom Anandan (what a name!) said "you think only Dr. Man Mohan Singh and Sonia Gandhi are patriotic? Dr. Man Mohan was a US / world bank servant and that is why he is acting like their servant". I could not stop laughing! Are they so retarded that they realised this after 4 years of propping up the holy ass of Dr. Man Mohan singh???
Selling government land, appropriating government land, collecting black money, increasing power charge, bus charge, power cut, increasing the fees in gov. & private professional colleges... the left is looking more congress than the Indian National Congress!!!
Well, I could write volumes... If only I could find the time...

 

The Holy War

On an earlier occasion I wrote that I pity those human beings who believe in the power of God, but still think they need to help the God.
Recently, I came across the movie "Fitna".
Now first I have to swear that I do not hold any one's religion / caste / color or nationality against anyone and will be ready to fight for the right of each human being to be respected as one regardless of the above criteria.
I must also state that in the history of all religions, there was a time when someone thought it fit to spread the religion by force whether it was Christian /Hindu or other.
However, the pictures depicted by this particular movie is so shocking that any reasonably civilised person would want to condemn it. Then how come these few people get the support? I believe rather than support, what they get is a silent submission from the majority of good people simply because they are mortally afraid of the few and the destruction they can cause.
I believe all religions are established on good principles and meant to deliver good. Therefore, even while condemning the violence as depicted in "Fitna" and "Submission" (the first movie in this genre - its director was assassinated), I am not ready to fault the religion as the root cause. It is the misinterpretation of the religion and the destructive power of a few supported by vested interests that causes such violence. Therefore the cure is certainly not to accuse the religion and cause many more to join the violent cause, but encourage the better elemnets in that religion to join the mainstream. In many countries they already do. A vast majority of educated Muslims in India or even in pakistan are not fanatic. I even have friends who do not even attend the mosques.
Let us not give more followers to the terrorists by accusing the religion as evil. Let us realise that there are a few black sheep in a good religion and encourage others to denounce the terrorists.
Love thy neighbour!

Contradictions

Ayn Rand wrote: If you see contradictions, check your premises.
1. We need to stop rising prices. So we stop exports of rice. Some one points out that the Non resident Mallus will die of hunger, farmers in Kerala will not get good prices if they cannot export! We do not have enough rice production in Kerala. We depend on TN and AP. So how do we export???
2. Rising prices: We remove import duties for vegetable oils. So, coconut farmers will commit suicide. What next? Let us start agitation!
3. Rise farmers cannot harvest the ripe fields due to absence of farm workers, unions not allowing the harvesting machines. We allow the paddy fields go to hell and then what our politicians do? Fight TV wars! How could we ever increase production without the workers and not using machinery???
4. When one party commissions a toll bridge, the other party blocks the road. Now when the pther party come to power and they declare that no more bridges without toll!
6. You call a nation wide bandh and make crores of Rupees loss of production when the fuel price is increased marginally, then impose additional state levies to increase the prices further!
7. You accuse the others of selling public land and when you get the chance you do the same in larger scale!
8. You call the others Mafia and then take crores in black money as contribution.
9. YOU KILL HUMAN BEINGS AS IF THEY ARE LIFELESS OBJECTS AND CELEBRATE WHEN YOUR OWN KILLERS GET BAIL OR GET FREED BY SOME LOOP HOLES IN THE LAW. WHAT IS THE DIFFERENCE BETWEEN TERRORISTS AND OUR POLITICIANS? THERE IS A VERY IMPORTANT DIFFERENCE. A TERRORIST IS READY TO DIE IN BATTLE, BUT IN POLITICS, THEY HAVE THE CADRES TO DIE FOR THEM!
Dear Ms. Ayn Rand, I am tired of checking my premises, but contradictions abound....
Will I ever find a ray of hope somewhere???