As mentioned in the comments section of my previous post, here are couple of "Jalakanyaka" pictures from my collection - on occasions when the seating / standing should have been regular / uniform (Note: click on pics to enlarge )
1. Difficult to say from this angle, but still if one focuses on the backside..... is there an in-born tilt visible ?
2. The ill-fated boat is the green one ( second one ). Do we see an extra dip on its right side ?
A post after about three and half months - its not-so-happy a thing that its about a tragedy.. but yet, can't resist putting out certain unhappy truths that I faced --- thankfully for me, those did not transform into unhappy experiences, but unfortunately not for the victims of the third boat tragedy in Kerala within about seven years
Less than a month before the Sep30 tragedy, U2 and I have been on a trip there - an extended Onam vacation and much more... A few things ( which have probably been now reported in the media) was glaring during the boat trip ...
1) Right from the ticket queue, there is no guidance whatsoever of how things work ( for example you realize that one person can only take max 2 tickets, only when you reach the end of the queue ) , which boat to board, choice of upper deck/lower deck ( or may be those choices are already sold out for "black" or to those with influence)
2) Once you are in the boat too, there is nobody controlling the seating arrangement - I don't think our ticket was ever checked once in the boat, or to see if proper people are seated in the proper deck (So even if more than allotted people stay in upper deck, "nobody" knows .
3) They supposedly issue a stipulated number of tickets for each boat.. but except one time when our boat appeared overcrowded and seatless, nobody asked people to board the boats which they are supposed to ( which if you see closely on the ticket is printed somewhere on the ticket, but you don't know that its the name of the boat until you see the boat)
4) There were no instructions ( like don't crowd on one side), or what to do in case of a problem etc etc.... In fact an old man who was late to board the boat did not get a seat, and so he was seated in the driver's cabin - and alas, the fellow was non-stop lecturing about kerala politics (in Malayalam of course) ALL-THROUGH the journey to the drivers assistant and the latter listening most of the time, occasionally replying or giving him the next topic to talk about
5) And for lifejackets - i was curious to see if there were any - and they were, a few of them, stacked up nicely and tied up in the drivers cabinet...
The travellers were just focused on the joy of the ride and no hardly ever complained. At one point when at the end of the trip, there were elephants on one side ( haaaa... some "wild life" after such a long wait), people did crowd to one side and our boat "Vanajyotsna" did tilt to one side a bit , but I kind of said aloud semi-jokingly ( the other half with the intention that people notice) that the boat is tilted to one side... - ours did not reach a danger level tilt at any point.
Among the theories of the boat collapse, all ultimately lead to neglect of authorities as root cause
If it were overcrowding on one side, couldn't have been avoided by not allowing more-than-capacity and instructing people not to do that ? Also "boat design not suited for all crowding on side" When it says "60 people capacity", shouldn't it be sand-bag tested with all possibilities including this one-side possibility ? And nothing more to say about the possibility of mistake by the inexperienced driver.
I leave this post with some picture of the boat in the accident - Jalakanyaka - taken by chance while on Vanajyotsna .
The pic above shows the case elephants on one side, and people moving towards that side - and you can see the boat tilted a bit. Whether it is within limits or not, I am not an expert to comment. Notice also one fellow hanging out of the boat, quite clear that there is nobody to control
1) Nagma - Nagma to campaign for Congress even if denied ticket
Born of a Muslim mother and a Hindu father, but the real connection is In 2007, she finally accepted Christ as her Saviour ... The anomaly of a Hindu man marrying a Muslim lady has hence been compensated for ... Amen
2) Azhar - Azharuddin to bat for Congress in Moradabad
In addition to the infamous match fixing betrayal of Nation, his claim to fame is having divorced his wife and married ( and converted ) a Sindhi.... and lol.. ex-girl friend of Salman Khan
which brings us to
3) Salman - Salman urges people to vote for Congress
Like a Salmon his migratory ( read as one woman to another ) skills are well knows, and is quite an epitome of al-taqiya ( sans the compulsion part..... well, biological compulsions, may be )
CNN-IBN opinion poll http://ibnlive.in.com/news/alliance-needed-suitors-contact-upa-nda/86007-37-p1.html predicts NDA is behind UPA.. Well all their recent predictons about State elections had gobne awfully wrong. In fact after Gujarat election results were out , the hyper Rajdeep (Cong)ras-desai along with the just-jumped-outta-d-zoo Yogendra Yadav tried to explain why their survey was 'slightly off mark", by making a big map of Gujarat, putting some saffron and white ( I think) colored cubes on the map, ( apparently each of those cubes representing 5 seats each it seems) .. and then moving them around here and there, and telling - aha, thats were we missed... Frankly, I don't remember having seen such a nice comedy show on an Indian channel anytime recently
But this time, not because its a CNN - IBN poll, in fact in spite of it being a CNN - IBN poll, I tend to agree with the numbers in the present state of affairs . ( See my earlier post with the numbers.. the two people needed for NDA - Rajanikanth and Chiranjeevi - have not yet obliged, and even the alliance with ShivSena seems shaky) . Among the possible secnarios, 2 are in favor of UPA ( "possible", "strongly possible" ) 2 in favor of NDA ( both "not impossible") , and the last in favor of a third alternative... The last says CNN - IBN is highly unlikely
Methinks that the chances are the last is quite likely( though may not exactly be a Mayawati)... I believe that history will repeat itself.. Like VP Singh-Chandrasekhar..... like Deve Gowda-Gujral (do people even remember these jokers ?)...... India, unfortunately may have to go through a really bad perios ( not that UPA coming back to power is any majorly better, but atleast not another third front I hope).... Extrapolating that scenario further, such a regime won't last more than 2 years, and there may be a general election, may be in 2010 or 2011
I am no political expert. Though I hope it doesn't come to that, this is what I feel may happen, After all, its said "vinaasa kaale vipareeta buddhi.." ( kind of like "wrong decisions at the time of adversity")
Nope, its not the BJP's performance in the falsely-termed semi-final elections ( note: the Indian-English Language Media - the ELM - did so much more after the results than before it, you guess why !!) that makes me say this... and I hardly ever did election predictions on this blog.. but simple math tells me - the NDA in its present form , with the BJP and allies is NOT going to reach anywhere close to the "thoo-seventhee-thoo" mark in the general elections scheduled, mostly for sometime in April-May 2009 !!
And here is my nowhere-near-perfect, yet you-give-me-a-better-calculation chart. This includes the list of states where BJP or its current NDA allies ( http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/National_Democratic_Alliance_(India)#Past_and_Present_Members ) have any significant presence.. So for example, Punjab is included because of SAD+BJP, but Kerala is not, u-know-why .. And the min and max are at best based on guess and at worst (!) based on recent elections/state anti-incumbency/local considerations, and the underlying assumption is that there is no Ramjanmabhoomi like wave favoring the BJP anywhere
(Ignorance is not always a bliss... that I donno how to put a table on the blog makes this chart a little worse than ugly, doesn't it ? )
State...........................Seats.................Min..............Max
Assam ........................ 14 .................... 5 ................. 10
Bihar .............................40....................10................. 25
Chattisgarh...................11.....................4....................7
Delhi............................... 7......................2....................3
Goa..................................2.......................0....................2
Gurjarat..........................26....................10.................18
Haryana..........................10......................3....................6
HP......................................4......................1....................3
Jharkand.........................14.....................5...................9
Karnataka.......................28....................10................18
MP...................................29.....................12.................22
Maharashtra...................48.....................24................36
Orissa................................21......................7.................12
Punjab...............................13......................5..................10
Rajasthan...........................25.....................8..................13
Uttaranchal........................5........................1.................3
UP.......................................80.....................5..................15
Total.................................... NA ............... 112.............. 212
On a side note, its glaringly obvious that losing UP has been BJP's biggest problems ... with no hope of regaining lost ground any time soon
If its anywhere near the minimum, then one might simply see the end of BJP in a few years, unless may be "NaMo" takes the "center"stage ... Even in the best case scenario, it only adds up to 212 ...... May be some more smaller allies and a seat here and there and a few independents - add a 10 more, and its still only 222 ... Wonder where the bulk of the rest of the seats are gone ? Well, thats where AP with 42 and Tamil Nadu with 39 seats come into play .. It is quite obvious that whoever rules the center next , will have to have won the majority of seats in either if not both of these states ... Well, nothing new, for that is indeed the case at present u wud say with the Congress in AP and DMK and allies in TN... True, I am just stating that fact once more, with an emphasis that the NDA simply cannot think of ruling India without significant number of seats from these two states.... thats all
So now, what going on in these states ? Lets take TN first .. Quite likely the DMK and allies will continue with the Congress .... even otherwise teaming up with the DMK will be counterproductive for NDA due to state anti-incumbency .. AIADMK has already tied up with the left . So the only hope for BJP is if Rajanikanth ( Rajinikanth/Rajnikanth ) joins or actively campaigns for BJP ... Will he ?! Time is simply running out for BJP ....
And coming to AP , though Chiranjeevi (who, I am told will surely have an impact ) prefered the left ( "Allu Arvind wants BJP But Chiru leans Left" .) , the fact that he is strongly oppossed to both TDP and Congress, and that the left already went with the TDP means a PRP-BJP(-TRS) alliance is still a possibilty ... the big question again is, will he ? ... And unlike in the Rajanikanth case, Chiranjeevi has one more option of going it alone at first and supporting NDA from outside post-poll if it helps......
So, like it or not, here is a scenario, where the future of India will depend on what two super stars of South Indian movies will decide !!!!
Thanks Ranjith for sending this news item ..... For those who can't read Malayalam, the gist of the article is that Kerala Kshetra Samrakshana Samithi has trained 24 children , from all backgrounds and "castes" , including 7 "adivasis" (tribals) in being priests ... Well, not really a new thing as the news items at the end of this post would reveal ( readers are invited to post more such relevant links and news in the comments section)
Before that, a few relevant Gita shlokas ... { transliteration and translation c & p from net for ease :-) , so excuse the possible minor errors }
Gita 5:18
vidya-vinaya-sampanne brahmane gavi hastini
suni caiva sva-pake capanditah sama-darsinah
The humble sages, by virtue of true knowledge, see with equal vision a learned and gentle brahmana, a cow, an elephant, a dog and a dog-eater
Gita 18:41
brahmana-kshatriya-visamshudranam ca parantapa
karmani pravibhaktanisvabhava-prabhavair gunaih
Brahmanas, kshatriyas, vaishyas and shudras are distinguished by the qualities born of their own natures in accordance with the material modes, O chastiser of the enemy.
( The next 4 shlokas talk about those qualities and natures)
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Item 1: an old piece - http://www.hindunet.org/srh_home/1997_5/0052.html
---------Youth from all sections of the society, particularly the scheduled castes, came forward in a large way to become temple priests and lead the Hindu masses. VHP organised special training camps f or them. Till now more than 1000 priests have been trained.
News Item 2 : ------------------http://news.amritapuri.org/41/sreedharan-tantri-to-receive-amrita-keerti/ Sreedharan Tantri is the founder and chairman of Sri Narayana Tantrika Research Vidyalayam, a charitable institute in North Paravur, Ernakulam District that trains children, irrespective of caste and creed, in Kshetra Tanta Vidya.
News Item 3:
---------------------------- Forwarded message ----------To: panchaamritam@yahoogroups.com / from: vskchennai@gmail.com
PANCHAAMRITAM 120
THREE
A silent revolution is on in the Vayanad region of Kerala (Bharat), thanks to the Kshetra Samrakshana Samiti (Temple Protection Committee) functioning under inspiration drawn from the ideals of RSS. The Samiti has conducted Poojari training course for the vanavasi (Scheduled Tribe) boys of Vayanad. Of the 29 boys who participated in the course 28 were from vanavasi families. The Samiti had sent out an appeal to all major temples in Kerala inviting applications from boys of any caste willing to join the Poojari training course. Over 70 applications were received. 29 were selected with the permission of parents. All boys were given initiation and guidance in performing Sndhya Vandhanam to begin with. Their daily routine has ben designed so that they do the daily duties like any temple poojari. The boys on their part evince enthusiasm in abundance.
RASHTRA DEV, Hindi fortnightly brought out from Bareily, Meerut and Dehradun; dated September 30, 2007.
By no means am I an economic expert, nor do I understand whats happening right now
And neither do I claim that the dip in oil prices is a creation of the US presidential election....
but what I do know is that I did predict a situation where the oil prices may reduce big time, around the US pres election time ( after a sharp rise a few months before that) - I had based it purely on my experience in 2004.
See my post http://drisyadrisya.blogspot.com/2008/04/tip-of-iceberg-or-end-of-it.html
Whatever be the real reason, it seems to be heading the same way in 2008 too with just weeks left for the US election
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Tata says "tata" to Singur and West Bengal - I am utterly confused as to whom should I laugh at
* At Mamta Banerjee who is day dreaming that she can capture the erstwhile communist votes by doing what they used to do a few years ago ?
* or At the "ruling" CPM themselves, who responded to the pull out with their dogs-tail-never-gets-straightened strike call - Tata must be releieved
As ET reports that "Gujarat and Karnataka has emerged as the two top contenders" for alternate location, the situation is even more irritating for the CPM in Kerala. On the issue of SEZs in Kerala, in its slow but steady progress towards realizing "I don't care if it's a white cat or a black cat. It's a good cat so long as it catches mice" , the CPM faces its biggest roadblock from its supposedly less radical ideological counterpart - the CPI
It must the the great "revolutionary" training that our comrades receive that helps them have not even a pin prick on their conscience while practising the highest hypocrisy . Here are some samples
* While criticizing the central govt, the CPM govt in Kerala has recently hiked water price, milk price, auto/taxi price - God knows what not. In fact two years when I came to India, the minimum charge on bus was Rs 1.75, and now ist Rs 4/- in just 2 years ( not that it maked the Central govt any better, but right now we are just talking about the commie hypocrisy )
* The same commies who are now pained that the Central govt is making India lose its right to test nuke weapons, were the ones who oppossed it so much when India tested in 1998
* And guess from whom the Kerala CM is facing oppossition while he tries to oust the realtors who built resorts on encroached govt lands ? None other than the district CPM committee
Recently "Surya TV" apparently launched a Malayalam channel exclusively for comedy - but one has to subscribe to some Sun-Direct to get the channel. methinks that its a bad business move - who will ever pay money to watch comedy, when the commies have free shows running everyday
