An Appeal to Celebrities

An appeal to Celebrities

Celebrities are expected to be role models as general public put immense faith and confidence on them. Without belittling their talent and effort in achieving the celebrity status, it is an irrefutable fact that more than their talent and effort it is the public support which helped them to gain celebrity status. There are innumerable talented people in various fields who are unknown, unheard and unsung leave alone getting at least a VIP status. India is the world champions in Kabaddi. How many of us know the name of at least the captain of our team?  Common man eulogies the celebrities treat them as demy Gods; shower them with praise and encomiums.  They show blind faith and belief on celebrities and many of them are even prepared to die for them. In some parts of the country, people sell blood to buy tickets to see their films. Common man blindly follows the words and deeds of the celebrities. In view of all these, celebrities have a solemn duty to justify the confidence reposed on them and live a noble and principled life which others can emulate.  However, it is painful to note that many celebrities shows utter disregard to common man’s faith by endorsing spurious and substandard articles injurious to health. While the celebrities who endorse these products do not themselves consume these items and will be holding them only for making the advertisement film, the common man who uses this based on the indirect recommendation of their idols face a grave health hazard.  Inspite of the fact that these celebrities are multi millionaires, the greed for money make them to endorse anything unbecoming to the status of men of principles. They may be able to escape scot-free with their clout and money power from Indian courts because though theoretically all are equal before the law, practically are all unequal before the law, they will be treated as guilty in the people’s court and in the court of Almighty.  There are only isolated cases where a celebrity refused to endorse unhealthy products. One shining example is legendary Badminton player and former All England Champion Pullele Gopi Chand who refused to become brand ambassador of an aerated drink because it is injurious to health.  He is a true nationalist and patriotic person who set up a Badminton Academy with his lifelong savings.  He even had to mortgage his house to find funds for the Academy.  It is gratifying to note that his efforts and sacrifices put paid off as his Academy did produce several world class shuttlers like Saina Nehwal, P V Sindhu, P Kashyap,  K Srikanth etc to name a few.  How many of our so called celebrities have contributed to charitable and philanthropic   activities beneficial to the common man or any national duty to uphold the prestige of the country in the international forums.  Owning sports teams is for their passion and publicity only and cannot be treated as a national service.  Have any of them shown the sagacity to adopt few talented sports persons and groom them to create Olympic and World champions thereby upholding the prestige and status of the country in the international forums? Have anybody started   hospitals or educational institutions for the under privileged sections of the society? Bill Gates the wealthiest person of the world spends substantial portion of his income on charity. Did any of the Indian Billionaires and celebrities follow a fraction of his noble example?

Respected celebrities.  If you cannot help the suppressed, oppressed and depressed class of society and the common man who constitute a major chunk of your fan following, at least do not play havoc with their lives by endorsing spurious and sub standard items injurious to health. Greed for money breeds corruption and amassing money by unprincipled and dubious methods is also a part of corruption. Father of the nation Mahatma Gandhi has rightly said that God has given everything to meet the needs of the people but not to meet the greed of the people. It is ridiculous to amass wealth for your siblings and future generations as it will make them lazy, lethargic and mediocre.  One can neither take a single penny at the time of their death nor open a bank account in the other world (Heaven or Hell or anything else).  Earning money is not a bad thing provided it is earned by ethical and moral means. Celebrities should not stoop to the level of petty politicians, for whom cheating and dishonesty are their fundamental rights. They befool the common man by giving false promises and the politicians who can befool the maximum people for the longest time are considered as the most successful politician. No wonder, even today politics is considered as a profession unfit for men of principles and is the last refuge of a scoundrel. Barring exceptions, politicians command respect from their own party men only, whereas celebrities command respect from people cutting across politics, caste, region, religion etc. Please do not allow to destroy the confidence created by sustained work by your own unprincipled actions. It takes years to build an image but takes only seconds to shatter it.   

Once again I appeal to the celebrities not to endorse spurious things or do anything harmful to the people or the country which will only help to rattle the confidence reposed by millions of people across the world. Celebrity status is not permanent as today’s hero will be tomorrow’s Zero.   

Neglect of Athletics

Neglect of Athletics.

Athletics is the most glamorous event in the Olympics and an athletic medal carry much weight than any other medal.  In athletics also short distance running like 100 M and 200 M are considered to be the most fascinating events and 100 M winner in Olympics is considered as the fastest man on the earth. Despite the glory of athletics the world over, in India athletics is a neglected field. This is evident from the fact that so many promising and talented athletes emerge at junior and sub junior levels, but many of them go into oblivion before reaching senior level due to lack of recognition, lack of facilities etc.  Many people especially the youngsters may not believe that way back in 1952 Lavy Pinto reached the semi finals of 100 M and 200 M at Helsinki Olympics.  After that we could reach nowhere near that standard including at Asian level.  India’s latest best performance in short distance was at the 2000 Jakarta Asian Championship, where Anil Kumar won silver in 100 M.

Competitions at international levels are very tough and it requires highest quality of training, best diet and much needed international exposure.  In fact training is required at foreign countries to enable them to compete with world class athletes.  P T Usha arguably the finest women athlete India have ever produced, did not get  much competitive exposure as there was no pacers to enable her to improve her timings.

Anil Kumar silver medalist at Jakarta championship recently revealed, “I was so confident after that Asian Medal; I even told officials that if I did not go below 10 seconds after American training, I would reimburse all the money they would spend on me. But it didn’t   work “. What more our authorities require to send a promising and talented athlete for foreign training? What a tragedy! Present day athletes will be also having lot of grievances and they have nobody, not only to air their grievances but also to share their sorrows and sufferings. It is the duty of AFI, SAI and Ministry of Sports to ensure that their genuine grievances are resolved to enable them to enable them to give their best performance at international competitions. Let us not wait till their retirement to know about their problems of the past. Anil Kumar’s startling revelations should be a lesson for the authorities to act without wasting further time.

Ministry of Youth Affairs & Sports selected 45 sports persons for financial assistance under the Target Olympic Podium (TOP) scheme. Selected athletes include 17 shooters and six shuttlers and only 5 sports persons were selected from Athletics. The TOP list does not include 3 promising and talented athletes qualified for the world athletic championship, out of which one of them is “arguably the finest athlete of the country at present” as per Athletic Federation of India. The coach of an athlete OP Jaisha who qualified for World Athletic Championship  gets a salary of Rs 5 lacs plus accommodation plus perks whereas she don’t get even Rs 5000/= as monthly allowance.

The situation has not much improved over the years. Government spends crores of rupees in the name of sports, repeat in the name of sports, but only negligible percentage reaches the sports persons. No wonder we return from international sports meets with peanuts and become a laughing stock in the eyes of the world.

Let us hope for a favourable change and India becomes a super power in sports at least in Asian circuit. Legendary athlete Milkha Singh has a dream to see an Indian athletic winning an Olympic Medal in athletics during his life time. We can only hope and pray that his dream will become a reality.

A Small Gift and Great Joy

A small gift and great joy.

The small shop from where I regularly purchase vegetables, a little girl sits in the absence of her father. She is able to calculate the price of vegetables correctly even if the weight is not in multiples of 250 grams. Today I asked her as to how much marks she got in the examination. Despite having no tuition and spending lot of time in the shop, she got 86 % marks. I told her that I wanted to gift a pen to her. She was reluctant to accept saying that she is already having a pen. I suggested her that she can ask her father and if he approves, then only I will give the gift. In the meantime her father came and the girl narrated the story. He was very happy that somebody is appreciating her daughter on her academic excellence and wants to give a gift. In fact her father was not aware of her exact percentage of marks as she corrected him while replying to me. I took her to the nearest shop which is barely 5-6 meters from her shop. I told the shop keeper to show the best quality pens and she shot listed 2. She was confused whether to take this one or that. Then I advised her to take both. She was so excited and thrilled as she ran to her father with pen on both hands. I could see the joy and ecstasy on her little face which cannot be measured in money terms. Let us hope that she will continue to excel in studies in the years to come.

Trial Run at Lodhi Road

Age Dispute

Age Dispute (Not of Gen V K Singh)

Monday is the weekly off at PDPK (Poorv Delhi Khel Parisar) where I daily go for swimming. Earlier it was completely closed on Monday and now it is open to walkers and joggers on Monday. Yesterday I went there for a trial run. I requested the person sitting in the office (who is known to me) to come with me for running. When he was little hesitant, I told him that I am elder to him, and if I can run he too can run. When he does not seems to be convinced about my seniority, I told him that I am 65. Then he replied that he is 63. In that case, I told him that he is 2 years younger to me.  But he countered that he is elder to me by 2 years. I am confused as both are sticking to their claim. At this point I even thought of referring the case to General V K Singh, who is expert on such matters. On further verification I found that his year of birth is 63 (1963) whereas my age is 65. I told him that my year of birth is 1950. Accordingly he is 13 years younger to me. As a proof of my age, I showed my membership card. He could not believe his eyes, but he had to believe the record prepared by his colleague.   

Aam Panna*.

My Experiments with Cooking

Name of the item                 Aam Panna

Ingredients                            Mango pulp, Pudina, Dania, Sugar

                                                Black salt, Jeera & Ganga Jal.

Screenplay, Direction

& Production                         E M Adithyan

OnlineTechnicl Support     Savitry

Material cost                          Rs 180/=

Labour Hour                         2

Hourly rate                            To be computed

Labour Cost                          To be computed

Consultation Fee                 Nil      

Market Value                                    Rs 2000= (50 glass @ Rs 40 per glass)

* I did not like the name “Panna” which means sub standard in Malayalam.

Ambulance

Ambulance

What are the requirements of an Ambulance? In Delhi the first and foremost requirement of an ambulance is that the word “Ambulance” should be boldly written on both sides of the vehicle.  Maruti Van is one of the most uncomfortable vehicles for travel. Whenever I book a taxi, I specifically tell them not to send Maruti Van. A vehicle which is not convenient for mango people (Aam Aadmi) is extensively used for transporting patients. Probably they may be thinking that before reaching the hospital, they can divert the route to crematorium. At this rate, auto rickshaws and E Rickshaws will also be used as Ambulance. Delhi will add another feather in its cap (Government is thinking of getting an ultra modern cap as the present cap has little space to put additional feathers) as the city (or state) having the largest number of ambulances.  

Herbal Juice

Herbal Juice

Every day after swimming, I take one glass of herbal juice. The ingredients include several medicinal herbs like Giyol, aulovira, Arjun Chhal, Amla, Tulsi, Neem, Kiraita, Methi, jamun  leaves, wet turmeric, bitter gourd, ginger, grass of wheat etc. It tastes very bitter, bitter than Karela juice. One day I gave a small quantity to one of my friends. He was not happy with the taste which was evident from his face. He asked me “Aap ko sugar ka bimari hai?” (Do you have sugar problem?)  I said no. He again asked “Aap ko aur koyi bimari hai ?” (Do you have any other disease?) I again said no. Then he retorted “Phir ithana kadva ras peene ki kya zaroorat hai? Meetha piya karo“. (Then what is the use of drinking such bitter juice? Drink sweet items)

Many people do not understand the importance of preventive measures and will not do any servicing of their body or mind. This is despite the fact that they periodically service their car, scooter and other mechanical, electrical and electronic equipments. Ayurveda extensively deals with preventive treatment and realizing the importance of Ayurveda people from across the globe visit Kerala for rejuvenation treatment, but we Indians still believe in slow poisoning i.e.; allopathic medicines. It is unfortunate that even in many Public Sector Undertakings, Ayurvedic treatment is not considered for reimbursement. It is regrettable that even after 68 years of independence, slavery mentality is still in our veins. Many people still believe that anything “Phoren” is good and Indian items are bad. However, the sad part is that while we adopt their traits which are not conducive to our culture, climate and system, we did not adopt their good qualities like discipline, punctuality, respect for rule of law etc. Our education system gives knowledge only and not wisdom and commonsense (which is most uncommon)

If Ayurveda is popularized, Kerala the citadel of Ayurveda can become an herbal garden and a simple stay of 10-15 days in a Kerala village will cure half of your ailments. 

Mentoring

Mentoring

Yesterday night one FB friend came on the line and he requested that he wanted to chat with me for 5 minutes. I agreed. Subsequently, I found that he is not chatting.  I had a doubt whether he wanted to chat with me or cheat me.  Then I started asking questions. He is a young college student, who is very fond of running and wanted to become a great runner. I gave him few tips about running and advised him to become member of running clubs in NCR like Sunday Running Club (Delhi), Noida Runners Club, Ghaziabad Runners Club etc. I also explained him the procedure as to how to participate in various competitions. I think he was fully satisfied with my mentoring and online running class as he profusely thanked me. He is free to contact me any time from 5 AM to 10 PM. I find a potential future champion in him as he appears to be very much devoted, determined, dedicated and enthusiastic. I will closely monitor his progress and expect that he conquers new heights (or lengths?) in the days to come.  My dear young friend! From now onward world will be watching your progress I am very happy and proud that I could motivate and inspire a young runner. 

Pudina h

Pudina* Chutney

My Experiments with Cooking

Name of the item                 Pudina Chutney

Ingredients                            Raw Mango, Pudina, GrenDania,

                                                Salt, Onion & Ganga Jal.

Screenplay, Direction

& Production                         E M Adithyan

Online Technical Support  Savitry

Material cost                          Rs 28/=

Labour Hour                         45 Minutes

Hourly rate                            To be computed

Labour Cost                          To be computed

Consultation Fee                 Nil      

Market Value                                    Not Available

·         Though it is called Pudina Chutney, quantity of Dania is more than Pudina.  

Note: Friends can share their experience with cooking, good, bad or ugly.

PM's Visit to Israel

PM’s Israel visit.

Prime Minister Narendra Modiji will be the first Indian premier to visit Israel. Despite the fact that Israel is neither our enemy nor did any harm to our country, none of the Indian Prime Ministers visited Israel during the last 68 years.  Arab Nations were having enmity with Israel and India was friendly with Arab Nations. We adopted a skewed policy that friend’s enemy is enemy and enemy’s enemy will be friend. These are narrow minded, immature, selfish, illogical and irrational policies and is not befitting to a country which was pioneers and leaders in the non aligned movement.  Friendship with Israel would have helped India to control if not eradicate terrorism much earlier as they are masters in dealing with terrorism. Israel is a fearless, forthright and no nonsense nation and they had great leaders like Golda Meir, Moshe Dayan etc. In fact, Israel had done an indirect favour to Arab Nations as only after the Arab-Israel war, Arab nations realized the worth of their oil resources and Arab nations start progressing after Indians, especially Malayalees went there for work. Inspite of the fact that Indian workers played a stellar role in the development of Gulf countries; they are still treated as second class citizens.  What benefit or favour the Arab Nations have done to India is anybody’s guess. They supply oil to India at much higher rates than what they charge to Pakistan and Bangladesh. Still we pamper Arab nations for the reason best known to them. Hence Prime Minister’s initiative to visit Israel is laudable.    

Message 4 to Athletic Federation of India

SAI Meeting

In continuation to my earlier messages, I have to further submit the following. I understand that TOP Committee made the selection of athletes for TOP program based on their past record and not based on present performances. While this may not have made much difference in the case of most of the athletes, as they are pursuing the same sport and same item for several years, in the case of OP Jaisha this has made a significant difference. Jaisha switched over to marathon at the instance ofher coach barely 6 months back and since then she participated in only one marathon i.e. SCMM in January 2015. However, the fact remains that she broke 20 year old record on her debut which is unprecedented, unparalled and amazing in the annals of athletic history. As per AFI’s information and monitoring, she is one of the finestathletes today and improving regularly, but for others there is no evidence in black and white to show her consistent progress because she did not participate in any official marathon meet since then. Selection based on past record may prove faulty, irrational and illogical in some cases. A classic example is the selection of Yuvaraj Singh by the Delhi Daredevils Team based on his spectacular past records. The astronomical amount of Rs 16 crores paid by the team to acquire him proved too costly as cost of one run works out to Rs 8.5 lacs. Jaisha’s timing in the debut performance cannot be taken as yardstick for her selection to TOP as there will be considerable improvement from the debut timings. Variation or improvement from the previous record may be minimal in the case of those athletes who have been practicing the same item for several years. I am a 65 year old half marathoner and I clocked 2:44.0 on my debut and my latest timing is 2:14:43. I am sending a table showing my performance record along with full details which can be verified from the net. Therefore, it appears that an inadvertent misjudgment of facts has been made in the case of Jaisha.A God sent golden opportunity has come in the way of AFI in the form of another crucial meeting to reconsider the left out candidates and I am sure that AFI will not allow slipping this opportunity by fiercely fighting her case to include her in TOP programme. The meeting which was scheduled to be held on 22^nd (not 19^th as wrongly mentioned in my previous message) has been postponed.  A fauxpas happened earlier should not be allowed to repeat.

Wishing all the best to Jaisha, AFI and the sports fans of the country.

E M Adithyan

23^rdMay 2015. 

Rajdhani fiasco

Rajdhani fiasco

My friend Mr. T C S Nair booked a ticket for 28^th May from Alleppey to Hazrat Nizamuddin by Rajdhani Express for his brother Vijay Kumar under PNR No 4726644467. On enquiry from Trivandrum station, they were informed that the train will run, but the actual time of departure is not available.  He got a message from IRCTC at 08:12:13 PM which reads as follows:

“Train No. 12431 boarding at ALL dated 28-May-15 is cancelled by Railways. Pl Cancel your PNR No 4726644467 online to get refund as per railway rules”.

A second message was received at 2: 58: 19 AM (29^th May) which reads as follows

“Train no 12431(TVC-NZM) leaving TVC on date 28/05/2015 is running as per its scheduled time. Please ignore the previous message”

In fact, the train which was scheduled to leave Trivandrum at 7.15 PM had left at 10.05 PM. The second message was received about 3 hours after the train left Alleppey.  Fortunately the passenger did not cancel the ticket on the advice of Railways and thereby able to board the train.

                                                    

Such a callous, indifferent, irresponsible attitude is not expected from a double octogenarian organization like Indian Railways. They should learn some fundamentals of Railway Management from their great grandson Delhi Metro Rail Corporation.

Let us hope that Railways will be more careful to avoid such fauxpas in future.

Cricket Musings .

Cricket Musings       .

Anil Kumble Chairman of the ICC Cricket Committee has submitted a detailed report to ICC suggesting several changes in the game format. His main argument is that cricket is becoming a batman’s’ game and bowlers importance is being relegated. The report suggests removal of power play and many other changes. I as a layman suggest the following changes.

1.    Substitution rule should be introduced in cricket also like other games. Team can be of say 15 members or more. (Only 11 will play) Thus we can have the best batsmen, best bowlers and best fielders in the team. This will also gives chance to more players and also to excellent fielders who are neither good batsman nor good bowler.

2.    Size of the cricket ground (playing area) should be standardized and should be uniform everywhere. Only in cricket we see small ground, medium ground, big ground etc. Such type of non standard grounds will make cricket a non standard game and comparison of runs in different grounds will be meaningless.

3.    At present 6 runs are provided for a sixer irrespective of the distance covered. I suggest that nomenclature of “sixer” may be changed and if the super hit covers more than 100 meters, the batsman may be awarded 10 runs. That will make a great spectacle for the viewers.

4.    If a player is injured during the match, he may be substituted with another player instead of declaring him ‘retired hurt’. Umpires can take the help of doctors also to find out whether the injury is serious enough to warrant replacement.

FB friends especially those avid cricket fans and cricket experts may comment on these suggestions. Whether implementations of these suggestions will make the match more attractive or not is the moot point. Technical feasibility and cricketing viability of these suggestions may also be examined and commented upon.

Duranto Express

Duranto Express

Railways are running a Duranto Express from H Nizamuddin to Ernakulam every Saturday. Last Saturday, many passengers who came to the station to board the train were taken aback by the cancellation of the train. Some passengers who sent SMS to know about their seat number/coach number etc got reply that the train is cancelled. Reason for cancellation of train is Gujjar’s strike in Rajasthan demanding reservation for jobs. Duranto is a nonstop train and its first and last stop is Ernakulam. If there is disruption of rail traffic in Rajasthan, Railways could have diverted the train via Bhopal Itarsi etc as there is nobody to get down in between. This is the peak of summer vacation and people had booked the tickets two months in advance. Most of the people who booked tickets in this train will not be able go home with family during this vacation as no train tickets are available till the end of summer vacation and air tickets are available at exorbitant cost which a negligible percent can afford. There is a lot of difference between cancelling a local train and a long distance train covering more than three thousand Kilometers. Railways have played a cruel joke on the hapless passengers. There is a popular saying that common sense is most uncommon.

Let us hope that Railways will not repeat this folly and cancel other long distance trains in the coming days. Whether a safe and comfortable journey benefiting the vast majority be the top priority be of any sensible Government , rather than having superfast and bullet trains, which may in the end, not justify the huge expenditure incurred on them is a moot question.      

AFI 3

Message 3 to Athletic Federation of India

I understand that TOP Committee made the selection of athletes for TOP programme based on their past record and not based on present performances. While this by and large a logical pattern for most of the athletes who are pursuing their sport for several years, in the case of OP Jaisha this has played a spoilsport. Jaisha switched over to marathon barely 6 months back and she participated in only one marathon ie: SCMM January 2015. However, the fact remains that she broke 20 year old record on her debut which is unprecedented in the annals of athletic history. As per AFI’s confession, she has improved tremendously, but there is no record to show as she did not participate in any official marathon meet since then. Selection based on past record may prove faulty in some cases as if evident from the selection of Yuvaraj Singh in the Delhi Daredevils Team by paying an astronomical amount of Rs 16 crores which costed the franchiser Rs 8.5 lac per run. Jaisha’s timing in the debut performance cannot be taken as yardstick for her selection to TOP as there will be considerable improvement from the debut timings. Variation or improvement from the previous record may be minimal in the case of seasoned athletes who have been practicing the same for several years. I am a half marathoner and I clocked 2:44.0 on my debut and my latest timing is 2:14:43. I am sending a table showing my performance record along with full details which can be verified from the net. Therefore, it appears that an inadvertent misjudgment has been made in the case of Jaisha.

Inspiring and sensational story of a legendary Athlete

“Unable to bear the acute hunger, I had to eat mud and my mother silently watched the horror with tears rolling down her eyes” Legendary athlete OP Jaisha told during the course of an interview with a Journalist. She belonged to a very poor family and her father was a daily wage earner. She is the fourth daughter of her parents.  They were able to survive with the small earnings of her father. Her father met with a Bus accident, while going for work and was bed ridden.  There after her mother had to suffer untold miseries, hardships, trials and tribulations. Family income was totally dependent on a cow which was insufficient for the treatment of her husband and two square meals for the children. Being the youngest child, Jaisha was lucky to get some “Kanji vellam” (Rice boiled with lot of water), while her sisters slept empty stomach on many days.

Fighting against all these odds, she became a top class athlete. Her dedication, devotion and determination can be gauged from the fact that with just 3 months training she participated in Mumbai Marathon and not only won the race in 2:37:29 but also broke the 20 year old record on her debut. Completing the grueling 42 KM race itself is a stupendous task and breaking a 2 decade record is unprecedented in the annals of the athletic history of the world. Unfortunately such incredible achievements did not get the desired publicity where as much lesser achievements of other sportsmen are prominently published in all Medias and internet. In the recently concluded National Games, she won gold in 10000 Meters in a record time of 33 Minutes and 8.55 seconds. She finished far ahead of her competitors and even the second placed athlete was more than one lap behind her, whereas generally such runs will end in photo finish. She also won the 5000 meters race comfortably. Jaisha won several medals at National/ International competitions including Asian Games, Asian Athletic Championship and Commonwealth Games. She is a golden girl with nerves of steel. Her performance is unparalled, incredible, unprecedented and amazing. She is our best bet for an Olympic Medal as she has the potential to improve tremendously.

Notwithstanding all her superlative performance, she could not find a sponsor despite knocking several doors. While we eulogies some sports persons, treat them as demy gods, shower them with awards, rewards, medals, money etc, it is unfortunate that a highly talented athletic prodigy could not get a sponsor. She is arguably the best athlete India has produced after P T Usha. Legends are born once in a blue moon and we should not allow slipping this opportunity. History will not forgive us for this lapse. There is not an iota of doubt that given the best training, best diet and much needed international exposure, she will make her career best performance in the future sports meets and take the country to the pinnacles of glory.

I am surprised and dismayed that name of such a legendary athlete O P Jaisha is not included in the list of TOP (Target Olympic Podium) announced by the Ministry of Youth affairs and Sports recently. How anybody can ignore the incredible achievements like breaking 20 year marathon record on debut, beating  the nearest competitor by more than one lap at the 10K race (Normally it used to be a photo finish) in the recently concluded National games at Kerala is a million dollar question. There are innumerable reasons for her inclusion in the TOP list, but there is not a single reason for her exclusion. I still believe that it was an inadvertent omission and the mistake will be corrected sooner than later.

Her monthly net salary is around Rs 19000/= (Rupees nineteen thousand only) and from this meager amount she has to look after her aged and infirm parents, spend around Rs 5000/= for food and tips and also to find money for purchase of costly shoes. She practices 35-55K on regular basis as a part of her training. After all, she is doing such herculean tasks not for her personal benefit but for upholding the prestige and status of the country in the international forum One pair of shoes last a little over one month and anybody except a stone hearted person can understand her predicament. Since she switched to Marathon only recently, her earlier shoes which are heavy are not suitable for marathon. This is not just denial of any facility but cruelty to a world class athlete.  

Government of Kerala had sanctioned Rs 5 Lacs for construction of a house. The amount is woefully inadequate in this period of skyrocketing prices. She is not able to get loan from Bank also as Bank refused to give loan on the plea that there is no road connecting her house. In India rules and regulations are used to harass and humiliate the suppressed, oppressed and depressed class of society and they are misused, misinterpreted and flouted to give undue favour to the rich and mighty. The mounting arrears of NPAs in the banks are not due to release of loan to poor but due to non recovery of loan from rich and powerful.

Let us fervently hope that she will soon get a sponsor to fulfill the great Indian dream of winning an athletic medal at the Olympics which was narrowly missed by Milkha Singh and P T Usha.  The second largest populated country of the world which represents 1/6^th of the world population should not continue to suffer the ignominy of not winning a medal in the most glamorous event of Olympics i.e.; athletics. 

                                    _________________________________________

Embodiment of Extra ordinary Justice

Embodiment of extraordinary justice- A touching story.

Long back in 1993 a 7 tear boy died in a road accident. His father filed a case in the Motor Accidents’ claims Tribunal. (MACT). After 4 years the court ordered a compensation of Rs. 98700/= along with interest. An amount of Rs 20000/=was directly paid through court and another amount of Rs 90308/= was put as a fixed deposit in a nationalized bank. Due to a clerical mistake, the amount was deposited in the account of some other person. Having got the amount through an error the recipient Mr. Radhakrishnan should have returned the amount in all humility. However with the help of some lawyers he withdrew the money in 3 installments.

Unaware of all these happenings, the boy’s father continued to fight the case with the insurance company in the court. Seeking justice to his deceased son, his father virtually became a regular visitor of the court. In the mean time the person who surreptitiously got the amount died in a road accident.

Two years ago Mr. Manohar Kini took charge as the MACT Judge at Palakkad. He was not even remotely related to this case. But having realised the agony and pain of a person who is fighting the case for last 2 decades he decided to take the moral responsibility of the incident just because he is also a part of the system. Taking moral responsibility is not by mere words but by action as he gave Rs 1 lakh to the family of the victim from his personal account. Such unprecedented gestures are unparalleled and unheard of in the annals of judicial history. At a time when many people even in highly responsible positions are reluctant or refuse to take responsibility of their own mistakes and actions, Mr Kini’s gesture needs to be recorded in golden letters in the judicial history of the country.

A Big salute to Mr. Kini a great human being and a true Judge. Let his tribe increase. Day in and day we see and hear bad news and rarely do we get an occasion to eulogies the magnanimous and philanthropic deeds. The least we can do is to propagate such great deeds so that these Samaritans will remain in the hearts of millions of the people across the country, if not across the globe. Let this type of act also inspire the people to do great humanitarian works.

Legendary Athlete not on TOP List

Letter to Editor

Legendary Athlete not on TOP List.

Ministry of Youth Affairs & Sports selected 45 athletes for financial assistance under the Target Olympic Podium (TOP) scheme. Selected athletes include 17 shooters, 6 shuttlers. 5 athletes, 7 wrestlers, 8 boxers and 2 sailors. One notable omission in the list is celebrated athlete O P Jaisha.

O P Jaisha is one of the most promising and talented athlete of India. Her dedication, devotion and determination can be gauged from the fact that with just 3 months training she participated in Mumbai Marathon and not only won the race in 2:37:29 but also broke the 20 year old record on her debut. Completing the grueling 42 KM race itself is a stupendous task and breaking a 2 decade record is unprecedented in the annals of the athletic history of the world. In the recently concluded National Games, she won gold in 10K in a record time of 33 Minutes and 8.55 seconds. She finished far ahead of her competitors and even the second placed athlete was more than one lap behind her, whereas generally such runs will end in photo finish. Jaisha could have definitely improved her time, had there been better competition. She also won the 5K race also comfortably. Jaisha won several medals for the country at National/ International competitions including Asian Games, Asian Athletic Championship and Commonwealth Games. She is a golden girl with nerves of steel. Her performance is unparalled, incredible, unprecedented and amazing.

                                                                                                         

I am amazed and dismayed that name of a legendary athlete O P Jaisha is not included in the list of TOP (Target Olympic Podium) announced by the Ministry of Youth affairs and Sports recently. She was strongly recommended by the Athletic Federation of India and according to AFI she is “arguably the finest athlete of the country at present”. How anybody can ignore the incredible achievements like breaking 20 year marathon record on debut, beating  the nearest competitor by more than one lap at the 10K race (Normally it used to be a photo finish) in the recently concluded National games at Kerala is a million dollar question. She is one of the 3 athletes qualified for the World athletic championship at China during August 2015. Another athlete-Vikas Gowda- who recently qualified for the meet, is included in the TOP list. Jaisha belongs to a very poor family and she spent her childhood in abject poverty.  “Unable to bear the acute hunger, I had to eat mud and my mother silently watched the horror with tears rolling down her eyes” OP Jaisha told during the course of an interview with a Journalist. She practices upto 55K a day and has to spend money from her feeble pocket to buy costly shoes. I am attaching a photo of our house which will give a glimpse of her poverty. Jaisha is our best bet for an Olympic Medal as she has the potential to improve tremendously.  In the 120 year old history of Olympics, we had only two chances to win an athletic medal, first way back in 1960 by Milkha Singh and second by P T Usha in the 1984 Olympics. Usha’s talent was exposed to the nation during the 1982 Asian games.  If she was given best possible training and international exposure by participation in various meets worldwide during those two years she could have definitely won a medal. While her competitors participated in several international meets before participating in Olympics, P T Usha did not participate in a single event. The country was deprived of a possible gold medal due to the negligence and lethargy of some people. We should not repeat that mistake again in the case of Jaisha.

There are innumerable reasons for her inclusion in TOP list but there is not a single reason for her exclusion. I still believe that it was an inadvertent omission and the authorities will correct it sooner than later.  

E M Adithyan

  2^nd May 2015

Elangalloor Mana

Edapal-679576

Kerala

Fifa Ranking

FIFA RANKING

India has reached its worst position in football. As per the latest FIFA ranking, India’s position is 173 out of 209. Over the years, there has been a steady decline in the standard of Indian football and during the last 20 years we have fallen from 100 to 173. Football was the most popular sport in the country till few years ago and several national level tournaments were being held at various parts of the country. Even in a tiny state like Kerala 7 national level tournaments were being held. In other words, 7 out of 10 district headquarters were hosting major tournaments. In those days, matches were being played in front of jam packed gallery and many had to return disappointed without getting ticket. DCM trophy football tournament was one of the prestigious tournaments in the country and many popular teams from South Korea, Japan, Thailand, Malaysia, Iran etc used to participate in that tournament. Even the king of football Pele representing Cosmos Club New York participated n a friendly match with Mohun Bagan at salt lake stadium Calcutta.

Golden era of Indian football was in the sixties. India was soccer champions at 1962. Jakarta Asian games.  India reached quarter finals of 1960 Rome Olympics and we were in a tough group comprising Hungary, France and Peru. We lost to Hungary by a narrow margin of 2-1 and drew 1-1 with powerful France.   We can remember those days with nostalgia only. Today we find it difficult to beat minnows like Nepal, Bhutan etc. in SAF games.

There was a proposal to bid for world cup football. For god’s sake let us not do that blunder. Host team will automatically qualify for the final round matches. We will have to helplessly watch the massacre of the host. It will only help to create some world records like maximum number of goals in a match, maximum goals conceded by a team etc. Moreover conducting a world cup will entail enormous expenditure which will be followed by another major scam.

When will India be able to regain a semblance of its glorious past?

Defence Awards

Letter to Editor

Defence Awards

President of India conferred various military awards like PVSM, AVSM, Shaurya chakra etc at the defence investiture ceremony at Rashtrapati Bhavan on Saturday. PVSM is awarded in recognition of peace time services of the most exceptional order. AVSM is given to recognize distinguished service of an exceptional order to all the rank of the armed forces. All the award winners of PVSM and AVSM are high ranking defence officials. It appears that primary consideration for conferring these awards is rank and exceptional service criteria are only secondary. Accordingly all the higher awards are cornered by senior officials. During the British rule, rules and procedures were made in such a way to give undue benefit to the rulers and high officials. It is unfortunate that even after about seven decades of independence we are blindly (or deliberately?) following the same old practices and precedents. Otherwise how is it that not a single lower rank official or jawans is there in the list of awardees? Does the Defence Ministry want the public to believe that nobody below the rank of Major General or equivalent has done any exceptional service? The tragedy in India is that while we eulogies small achievements of big people out of proportion, spectacular achievements of ordinary mortals on many timers go unnoticed, unheard and unsung. It is high time that we should change our mindset and start honouring exemplary services irrespective of the rank. Conferring an award to lower ranked defence personnel for their commendable service will be a great motivating factor to the defence forces as a whole. Earlier the Bharat Ratna award was predominantly given to politicians. Government made a welcome departure from this practice by conferring it on people who have excelled in other fields also. We should make a departure in this case also by conferring these awards to exceptional services of ordinary jawans also. 

E M Adithyan

  23^rd March2015

Elangalloor Mana

Edapal-679576

Kerala

Reservation for OBCs

Letter to the EDITOR

                                           Reservation for OBCS

In a landmark judgement, Supreme Court struck down the notification to include Jats in the list of Other Backward Classes. The government notification was purely on political grounds with an eye on the vote bank. Supreme Court’s observation that caste cannot be the sole decider of backwardness of a class is pertinent. Politicians cutting across party affiliations joined hands to oppose the judgement. It is the ‘boon’ of Indian politics that they will come together forgetting their ideological differences (if at all there is an ideology) on matters of mutual interest and issues of national importance. A classic example is the solidarity shown while passing the bill for increase in pay and perks of MPs. It is unfortunate that more and more powerful groups are clamouring to include their caste in the OBC category. India may be perhaps the only country where people want to become backward. 

Our founding fathers, while drafting the constitution had enunciated a reservation policy for a limited period, for the emancipation of those who were socially, educationally and economically backward at that time. Over the years, many families have availed the benefit of ‘backwardness’ for the second generation and some even for the third generation. How is it that the son/ daughter of an IAS officer, doctor, engineer etc can still considered being backward and avail the backward class concession? The benefits of reservation are cornered by a few influential people and the condition of the poorest of poor remains the same. Thousands of talented youngsters are not able to pursue their studies/passion in any field due to acute poverty and there is nobody to support them.

The protagonists of reservation policy do not seem to realise that, this policy has of late   become counterproductive because reservation creates a sense of complacency leading to inefficiency. This irrational and illogical policy is largely responsible for the gradual erosion of efficiency especially in our government offices.

Politicians want to keep people backward by providing reservation and freebies to protect their vote bank and to keep them under their citadel. If a country like Japan with meager resources can become one of the most advanced countries of the world, there is no justification why a country like India with a reservoir of resources (natural, mineral, forest, water, human etc) should lag behind. Common man should come out of the clutches of these politicians and wield their power to force their elected representatives to work for the welfare of the nation instead of working for own and party’s welfare. Otherwise our students of economics and commerce will continue to chant the age old slogan that India is a rich country inhabited by poor people.   

It is high time to stop reservation and instead provide all facilities and incentives to the real backward class people (including economically backward) so that they can come to national mainstream and compete with others in all walks of life. Otherwise the backward classes will remain backward as long as the reservation policy exists. Caste based reservation is primarily responsible for spreading the virus of casteism and communalism in the country. We should remove the column ‘caste’ (and religion also?)  from all our forms.

E M Adithyan

22^nd March2015

Elangalloor Mana

Edapal-679576

Kerala

PATHETIC STORY OF A LEGENDARY ATHLETTE

Pathetic story of a legendary athlete

“Unable to bear the acute hunger, I had to eat mud and my mother silently watched the horror with tears rolling down her eyes” Legendary athlete OP Jaisha told during the course of an interview with a Journalist. She belonged to a very poor family and her father was a daily wage earner. She is the fourth daughter of her parents.  They were able to survive with the small earnings of her father. Her father met with a Bus accident, while going for work and was bed ridden.  There after her mother had to suffer untold miseries, hardships, trials and tribulations. Family income was totally dependent on a cow which was insufficient for the treatment of her husband and two square meals for the children. Being the youngest child, Jaisha was lucky to get some “Kanji vellam” (Rice boiled with lot of water), while her sisters slept empty stomach on many days.

Fighting against all these odds, she became a top class athlete. Her dedication, devotion and determination can be gauged from the fact that with just 3 months training she participated in Mumbai Marathon and not only won the race in 2:37:29 but also broke the 20 year old record on her debut. In the recently concluded National Games, she won gold in 10000 Meters in a record time of 33 Minutes and 8.55 seconds. She finished far ahead of her competitors and even the second placed athlete was more than one lap behind her. She also won the 5000 meters race comfortably. Jaisha won several medals at National/ International competitions including Asian Games, Asian Athletic Championship and Commonwealth Games. She is a golden girl with nerves of steel. Her performance is unparalled, incredible, unprecedented and amazing. She is our best bet for an Olympic Medal as she has the potential to improve tremendously.

Notwithstanding all her superlative performance, she could not find a sponsor despite knocking several doors. While we eulogies some sports persons, treat them as demy gods, shower them with awards, rewards, medals, money etc, it is unfortunate that a highly talented athletic prodigy could not get a sponsor. She is arguably the best athlete India has produced after P T Usha. Legends are born once in a blue moon and we should not allow slipping this opportunity. History will not forgive us for this lapse. There is not an iota of doubt that given the best training, best diet and much needed international exposure, she will make her career best performance in the future sports meets and take the country to the pinnacles of glory.

Let us fervently hope that she will soon get a sponsor to fulfill the great Indian dream of winning an athletic medal at the Olympics which was narrowly missed by Milkha Singh and P T Usha.