Christian family gifts people of Kakkathuruthu land to build temple

By Shevlin Sebastian

Photos: The Bhagavathy Shrine; (from left): Rose Tharakan (extreme left) handing over the property deeds to Surendran, president of the Vadakkinezhath Bhagavathi Temple Trust. Others in the photo include Hormis Tharakan, former Director-General of Kerala Police, Ward Member Binu Subhagan, Ezhupunna Panchayat President Shyamalakumari, State Finance Minister Thomas Isaac and Alappuzha MP AM Ariff 

It was a cloudy afternoon on September 10. But the mood was festive on the island of Kakkathuruthu (Island of Crows), which is 18 km from Kochi. A small white shamiana, with a conical top, had been put up. 

On the dais, there were dignitaries like Finance Minister Thomas Isaac, the Alappuzha MP Ariff AM, former director-general of Kerala Police, Hormis Tharakan, his sister-in-law Rose and the Ezhupunna Panchayat President Shyamalakumari and Ward member Binu Subhagan. On the table in front was a photo of Rose’s husband, PK Joseph Tharakan, who passed away on August 15, 2016, at the age of 77. 

On the island live 214 families, who comprise farmers and fishermen. While there is a resort on one side, called ‘Kayal Island Resort’, which is run by entrepreneur Maneesha Panicker, a large section of the island is owned by the Tharakan family. 

The people had gathered for a giving-away ceremony. For years, the people would get permission and have annual prayers at a small Bhagavathy shrine on Joseph Tharakan’s land. Now, in memory of Joseph, Rose was giving away six cents, and another six has been bought by the islanders. “The local people had no place for worship on the island,” says Hormis. “So, now, a proper temple can be put up.” 

Interestingly, Kochi Biennale co-founder Riyas Komu has offered to design the temple. He had visited the island along with Hormis and was much taken up the simplicity of the people, and the untouched nature of the island. “If the people agree for me to do it, then I will take into account the beliefs and rituals which are followed,” he says. “The aim is to use the local resources and set up an indigenous space for worship.” 

After the ceremony, it was the turn of folk singer Rashmi Satheesh. And as Maneesha says, “The beautiful evening was brought to life by Rashmi who is also an actor and activist. As soon as the islanders heard her deep voice and revolutionary lyrics, they felt an instant camaraderie and within minutes everyone was dancing,” she says. 

Incidentally, Kakkathuruthu hit the international spotlight when it was featured in the National Geographic feature, 'Around The World in 24 hours': one exotic place is featured for every hour. For Kakkathuruthu, the time selected was 6 p.m., for its sunset. 

But now it is going to a perpetual sunrise for the villagers, who will have a place of worship they can call their own. 

(The New Indian Express, Kochi)

A country goes bust

Director Quasar Thakore-Padamsee talks about how the play, ‘A Peasant of El Salvador’ shows the collapse of the Latin American country, the enduring charm of theatre and how audience reaction varies from place to place

Photos: Archbishop Oscar Romero; Quasar Thakore-Padamsee 

By Shevlin Sebastian 

A couple of weeks ago, Quasar Thakore-Padamsee was relaxing in the green room after a show in Delhi with the members of the QTP theatre company. They had just finished performing the play, ‘A Peasant Of El Salvador’. Suddenly, Quasar got a message. The Ambassador of El Salvador Ariel Andrade Galindo wanted to meet the group. Quasar felt a bit nervous. “Not all that we acted would be palatable for a person from El Salvador,” he says.

But Quasar’s fears proved unfounded. Ariel said what had been portrayed was the way it happened. “It was the El Salvador that he grew up in,” says Quasar. “He hung out with us for an hour and we gained a lot of insights. None of us has been to El Salvador yet.” 

This play, which was written by American authors Peter Gould and Stephen Stearns, was first staged by the QTP in 2013. And is still very popular. The audience at the JT Pac, Kochi on Sunday (September 22) were no different: they gave a standing ovation. 

The story is about a farmer Jesus who lived in a small village with his family. But the government, almost like a dictatorship, made a series of moves that resulted in the loss of his land and the deaths of his wife and a few of his children. All these roles have been played by three actors -- Meher Acharia-Dar, Pramod Pathak and Suhaas Ahuja. Amazingly, the trio plays Jesus at different stages. 

With a minimum of props, they told the story in a mesmerising way, using three languages, Hindi, English and Spanish, till it reached a resounding climax: the death of Archbishop Oscar Romero who was shot dead inside the chapel of the Hospital of Divine Providence in San Salvador on March 24, 1980.

What had angered the authorities was through the Catholic radio station YSAX, the Archbishop spoke about disappearances, tortures, murders and the government’s repression. Unfortunately, during the funeral ceremony, about 50 people were killed by sniper fire, allegedly by government agents. All these events led to a civil war (1979–1992), between the government and left-wing guerrilla groups which crippled the nation.

Quasar says that this story has parallels in India too. “So many thinkers and intellectuals have been assassinated -- rationalists like MM Kalburgi, Govind Pansare, Narendra Dabholkar and journalist Gauri Lankesh,” says Quasar. “There is government interference in schools and colleges. History is being re-written, to suit a particular ideology. And there is political use of the military -- Kashmir is a good example.” 

Meanwhile, there were two exceptional differences during the staging of this play. Before the start, the actors came down to where the audience was sitting and read out poems by revolutionary poet Roque Dalton Garcia, who was assassinated in 1975. And at the end of the show, there was an engaging one-hour interaction inside the hall between the actors and the director with the audience, which included more than 40 students and teachers from Pallikoodam in Kottayam. The subjects included how the play was selected, the importance of rehearsals, the present situation in El Salvador and what a career in the theatre entails. 

Quasar has been a theatre professional for over two decades now. And so far, QTP has performed more than 25 plays all over India. But he admits that audience reaction differs from place to place. “In Mumbai going for a play is one of five things you are doing,” says Quasar. “In Delhi, as soon as the show is over, the audience disappears. But we enjoy performing in South India because the people listens to what is being said. They are an intelligent crowd. And we get very good feedback.” 

As for the importance of theatre in these distracted times, Quasar says, “The theatre is one of the few places where we can look at another human being with curiosity and generosity. You can watch movies, Netflix and Amazon Prime, but there is no substitute to watching an actor standing on a stage and talking to you.” 

The actors love theatre too. And there is a reason for that. “When you act in a film, it is the camera which tells the story,” says Quasar. “But in theatre, the actor tells the story. The actor is at the centre of the play.”  

So, despite their busy schedules, the actors always try to make space for the theatre. “Pramod is in ‘Mirzapur’, the Netflix show,” says Quasar. “He was shooting all night at Mumbai, then took a morning flight and came straight to the hall. He will return immediately. Suhaas was shooting in Coimbatore for a web series but still wanted to perform. That’s how much they love the theatre.” 

Quasar pauses….

Then the son of theatre legends Alyque Padamsee and Dolly Thakore says, not surprisingly, “For me, too, theatre is like a drug.” 

(Published in The New Indian Express, Kochi, Thiruvananthapuram and Kozhikode)

When documents yielded their secrets

Through her research with the Portuguese and Dutch records at the State Archives in Kochi, academician Ananya Chakravarti has been able to piece together the life in Kerala during the 16th and 17th centuries

Photos: A. Sanesh  

By Shevlin Sebastian 

When academician Ananya Chakravarti woke up one morning at a hotel in Fort Kochi, in mid-July, she saw an image of an 11-year-old African boy who was staring, with round eyes, at the Raja of Kochi. 

Ananya shook her head and got up from the bed. She realised that she had read about the boy a day earlier at the State Government Archives at Kochi. “I found a sale deed of the boy who was sold by a man named Antonio Fernandes to the Kochi king, Rama Varma (Shakthan Thampuran) on October 11, 1793, for 200 rupias (old currency),” says Ananya. “It was very clear from the archival material that the Raja had a deep interest in acquiring black slaves from Africa.” 

An associate professor of history at Georgetown University, Washington, USA, Ananya had secured a long-term senior fellowship from the American Institute of Indian Studies to study the regional history of the Indian Ocean coast. “I am a historian of the 16th and 17th centuries,” says the 36-year-old. 

As she browsed through the archive, she realised that there was an interesting mix of Portuguese and Dutch collections. “My advantage is that I know how to read and write in both languages,” says Ananya. 

The documents were fascinating. Ananya found everything including long theological disputes in the early 19th century in Portuguese relating to internal disputes within the Catholic Church. “It was very learned with lots of references to canon law,” she says. “There were documents which showed that the leading Konkani merchant cum broker Malpa Poi loaning money to a wide variety of people: wealthy European merchants, the deacon of the Dutch Reformed Church, and the king of Kochi himself.” 

Ananya was also looking at migrations, like the members of the Konkani community who escaped to Kochi from Goa where they were facing persecution by the Portuguese in the mid 16th century. 

There were letters from the Dutch Governor and the Director-General to the King of Kochi often interceding on behalf of their subjects. There were also missives from native Kings asking the Dutch king for military aid in the late 18th century. “All these small kingdoms had complicated relationships with the other kingdoms as well as the Dutch and the Portuguese,” says Ananya. “The Kochi Raja himself was often asking for military aid.” 

In other documents, there were complaints by officials against the way they had been treated by the higher-ups. “The Dutch would intercede on behalf of people that the Raja had kicked out of the kingdom, like the Konkani merchant Kali Prabhu for a perceived misdemeanour,” says Ananya. 

There were financial issues, too. The King often took money or land from the minority communities. “The members of these communities would insist they were subjects of the Dutch and did not have to pay money to the King,” says Ananya. “They played one against the other.”    

Ananya discovered that the relation of these European powers to the natives was much different from the supreme power displayed by the British in the 19the century. “The Europeans did not have the superior military strength and governance technology that the British had,” she says. “The balance of power between the Europeans and the locals was much more equal. They were participating as players in a landscape where the terms of politics and trade were set by the natives. The Portuguese did not have a land-based empire. They were just traders. The Dutch had a trading company called Vereenigde Oostindische Compagnie or the Dutch East India Company. In fact, the birth of capitalism took place with these trading companies.”  

And what will come as a surprise to most people was the incredible quality of the 16th-century paper. “It was thick and robust, which is why it has lasted for 500 years,” she says “In fact, you will see much more deterioration in 19th and 20th-century papers.” 

Meanwhile, the archives staff was happy with her presence. “Because we do not know Portuguese and Dutch, Ananya was able to show us the subject matter of the various papers,” says P Sajeev, archives superintendent. “She was very kind and helpful.”  

Ananya was having 16-hour days, doing field work and research at the archives. So engrossed was she in her work that she frequently forgot to have lunch or tea. “But then the subject is so fascinating,” she says. 

The daughter of a career diplomat, Ambassador Sarvajit Chakravarti (retd), Ananya was born in Spain and grew up in Tanzania, Bangladesh, Namibia, and Holland. But she stayed in Kolkata with her grandparents for three years from the age of 12. “My grandmother Nonda Chatterjee was a history teacher and that’s how I got interested in the subject,” says Ananya.    

Despite this inherent interest, Ananya did a degree in economics with a minor in Latin American studies and creative writing from Princeton University. After that, she worked for a year at the National Bureau of Economic Research at Cambridge. That’s when she decided she did not want to pursue a PhD in Economics and switched to history. She got her doctorate in the subject at the University of Chicago in 2012. It was the basis of her first book, ‘'The Empire of Apostles: Religion, Accommodation and the Imagination of Empire in Early Modern Brazil and India’' (Oxford University Press, 2018).

Following a brief stint at the American University in Cairo, she is now based in Washington. 

And she has a clear aim. “There is a lot of distortions of historical facts to suit a particular agenda,” she says “Hence, I want to put out an accurate and evidence-based history.”

(An edited version was published in Sunday Magazine, the New Indian Express, South India and Delhi)

Still hitting the high notes

Mollywood playback singer Ganesh Sundaram reflects on his career, the changing trends in music, and his new music academy

Pics: Ganesh Sundaram; with composer Bijibal  

By Shevlin Sebastian 

The evening bhajans were coming to an end at the Vasudevapuram Sree Krishna Swamy temple at Perunna. A group of boys were standing and singing loudly. Suddenly, it started raining. “Let’s go home,” one boy shouted. And the group ran out of the temple at high speed. At the back, there was a six-year-old. As he tried to catch up, he slipped and fell on the muddy road and fainted. 

But in his mind’s eye, he saw Lord Krishna. He was in black and had a tulsi garland, apart from a gold necklace. With a soothing smile on his face, he helped the boy to stand up and led him towards a bend in the road. Then he vanished. 

When Ganesh Sundaram regained consciousness, he was lying on the lap of his grandmother. He quickly told her about his vision. She patted him soothingly on the head. 

Ganesh, the senior Mollywood playback singer, was recounting this incident at his newly-opened music academy called Jani at Tripunithara. “The Krishna I saw was the same as the idol in the temple,” he says. “I may have produced this image out of my subconscious mind.”

At Perunna, living with his grandmother, now and then he would stand at the door and see whether his mother was coming. A teacher, she stayed at Tripunithara with Ganesh’s younger brother. Ganesh had been sent to Peruna when he was three years old because his mother could not handle two children at the same time. Their father worked in the Indian Army and lived mostly in North India. 

“Although I pined for my mother, I was surrounded by music,” he says. “My grandmother had a very sweet voice, and my uncles and aunts sang, too. They would make me go to sleep by singing lullabies. I believed I discovered my destiny there.” 

Later, when Ganesh returned to Tripunithara he began formal coaching lessons in Carnatic vocals, which lasted for several years, through different teachers.     

Ganesh began playing for orchestras and brought out an album. But his major break happened, in 1994, when the owner of Amma Cassettes, Babu Koyiputath, a distant relative, asked him to sing for a devotional album. He did so. Thereafter, about 50 albums came out. However, it was only in 1999, that he had his first hit through the album, 'Guruthipooja'. “The songs are in praise of Bhagawathy Devi of the Chottanikkara temple,” says Ganesh. “It has simple lyrics and catchy tunes, and the public liked it a lot. They feel a sense of peace when they listen to the songs. The album is still selling.”  

Thus far, he has sung over 5000 devotional, love and patriotic songs in languages like Malayalam, Tamil, Kannada, Telugu, Hindi and Bengali.

Along with that, he has had a thriving playback career in Malayalam films. Some of the films he has sung for include ‘Violin’, ‘Veneesile Vyapari’, ‘Kudumbasree Travels’, ‘Loudspeaker’, ‘Minnaminnikoottam’, ‘Kayamkulam Kanaran’, ‘Sree Rama Rajyam’, ‘Mayakkazhcha Parankimala’, ‘Daivathinte Swantham Cletus’, ‘Vikramadithyan’, ‘Vellimoonga’, ‘Love 24/7’, and ‘Thondimuthalum Dhriksakshiyum’. He has also sung in Jibu Jacob’s upcoming ‘Adyarathri’, in which Biju Menon plays the lead.  

But he says that singers are rarely recognised. “When radio jockeys play our songs they only name the composer and the actors,” says Ganesh. As a result, he had some bitter-sweet experiences. 

Once he had gone for an event in Muscat. Before his performance, Ganesh was sitting in the front row with a Mollywood director. They started chatting. “I told him I am a singer,” says Ganesh. “He said he liked a few songs and named a few. I replied that I had sung those. He looked shocked and said, ‘I thought Bijibal had sung them’.” (Bijibal was the composer). 

Then the opposite happened. One day, a man called up Ganesh and said his son was a big fan of his and wanted to talk to him. Ganesh agreed and the boy said, “Sir, I loved your ‘Idukki’ song in 'Maheshinte Prathikaaram'.” Ironically, it was sung by Bijibal. 

Often, when Ganesh is sitting in a restaurant, the mobile phone will ring at a neighbouring table. “And the ringtone would be one of my songs,” says Ganesh. “But the man would not know that the singer is sitting at the next table.”  

After 25 years in the trade, Ganesh admits the competition is getting stiffer. “There are so many singers these days,” he says. “And young composers prefer singers of their generation.” 

Asked how music trends have changed, Ganesh says, “People don’t like to hear big words or sombre thoughts,” he says. “The words should be simple and direct. There is a lot of electronic music. Of course, purists say the music lacks soul, but like, in any era, there are good songs, too, like ‘Hemanthamen’ from ‘Kohinoor’ and ‘Paripparakkum Kili’ in Aby.”  

Meanwhile, to diversify, Ganesh had opened his academy on August 23 with the help of two partners, Balram Ettikkara and Ramakrishnan KG, who are music lovers. There are classes in Western vocals, guitar, violin, keyboard and piano, apart from Carnatic vocals, violin, mridangam, Hindustani vocals and tabla. “There are a total of 11 teachers,” he says. “I am happy to say that young people are interested in music. So I hope to develop many new talents.”

Asked what Jani means, he says, “A beginning.” 

(The New Indian Express, Kochi, Thiruvananthapuram and Kozhikode)

A trove of information

Author P Jayaraman’s book, ‘Random Explorations’ focuses on personality profiles, management trends, travel, social issues, and book reviews 

Pics: Author PJayaraman at his home in Kochi; the cover; with his family members in Norway 

By Shevlin Sebastian 

A few years ago, G. Balagopal, who was a former Deputy Secretary in the Information and Broadcasting Ministry was standing in line at the airport at Jeddah to gain entrance to Saudi Arabia. All the hand-bags were being checked. Behind him stood Parminder Singh (name changed) from the Ministry of External Affairs. Parminder leaned forward and whispered, “I have a scotch whisky bottle in my bag.” When Balagopal heard that, he felt an alarm within himself. In front of him, a man was having his bag taken apart, and even the chocolate pieces had been broken to see whether there was any alcoholic content. So, Balagopal knew a major fracas was about to take place. 

Soon, it was his turn. The security officer opened the zip and took out the contents: There was a shaving kit and a few underwears, apart from shirts and trousers. The officer was not glad to see the undergarments. He twitched his nose and asked Balagopal to pack and close the bag and sent him ahead. When he looked at Parminder, he was probably expecting the same. Instead of checking his bag, Parminder was waved on. “It was one of the closest shaves in my life,” says Balagopal. “I heaved a huge sigh of relief.” 

This anecdote has been recounted in management consultant P Jayaraman’s ‘Random Explorations’, which has been published by Prism Books. It is an eclectic mix. There are long profiles (7000 words and more) on Dr M V Pylee, the father of management education in Kerala, G. Balagopal, former civil servant and C. Balagopal, the noted entrepreneur. Then there is a study on power and inequality. 

Here are some fast facts from the chapter: 

India’s richest one percent owned 58 percent of the country’s wealth. 

The top 10 percent earned 80.7 percent of the total income in the country. 

India accounts for almost half the world’s poor but the total individual wealth is $5600 billion. Not surprisingly. India is the second-most unequal country in the world. 

In another chapter titled, ‘Some recent trends in management’, Jayaram’s tips for career success in today’s turbulent world are insightful: 

1. The word loyalty has been replaced by ‘business contract’.  

2. You remain in a job as long as you are the best person to execute a role. It has, therefore, become essential for you to learn continuously for your sheer survival. 

3. Tenure has been replaced by relevance. Every job is for a limited period. Once a CEO, always a CEO is no longer valid.  

4. One should focus on short-term plans in today’s rapidly-changing environment. Long-term planning has become impossible and of little value.   

In another section, he talks about speed. “In this age of disruption, only fast learners can survive and flourish,” says Jayaraman. “Traditionally, people used to treat information as power and hoard it as a method of control. But today’s organisations can ill afford to be hoarders. They have to absorb new information every hour, every day. Companies should instil curiosity and experimentation to succeed.”

The next section is about travel. Thanks to a son, Anand, who is based in Geneva and a daughter, Deepthi, who is living in Nottingham, Jayaraman has travelled to several countries, including Greece, Poland, Split (Croatia), China, Czechoslovakia, Norway and Australia. For each, he has written a history, some of the best places to visit, the archaeological sites, weather, literature, economics, demography, the characteristics of the people, and food and beverages.

Regarding food in Norway, the most common food is polse (hot dog) with pancake, which is topped by raw onions and various dressings. In Czechoslovakia, the staple food is pork, beef, birds like duck and pheasant, and carp. In Poland, Jayaraman enjoyed the Placki Ziemniaczane, a pancake filled with potato and topped with a meaty sauce.    

The last section is about the books he has read. These include ‘Half Lion: How PV Narasimha Rao transformed India by Vinay Sitapati, ‘India Rising: Fresh Hopes, New Fears’ by Ravi Velloor, and ‘An Era Of Darkness: The British Empire in India’ by Shashi Tharoor. 

In Tharoor’s book, Jayaraman quotes FJ Shore, a British civil servant in Bengal who testified in the House of Commons that “the fundamental principle of the English has been to make the whole Indian nation subservient in every possible way.” In 1600, when the British East India Company was set up, Britain accounted for just 1.8 per cent of the world GDP, while India was contributing 23 percent. In 1940, Britain accounted for nearly 10 percent of the world GDP while India was reduced to 3 per cent…

All in all, Jayaraman’s sixth book is a remarkable work, well-researched and well-written and sincere to the core. There’s enough food for thought to last a long time. 

(Published in The New Indian Express, Kochi, Thiruvananthapuram and Kozhikode) 

Let’s be original

Anish Damodaran, of the Backwaters Collective on Metaphysics and Politics, talks about how we are still colonised by the West regarding how we think and act  

Pics: Anish Damodaran; the Malayalam Mandiram building of the Sree Narayana Guru Society of Sri Lanka, at Colombo 

By Shevlin Sebastian 

When entrepreneur Anish Damodaran stood outside the Malayalam Mandiram building of the Sree Narayana Guru Society of Sri Lanka, at Colombo, he thought it looked like a mosque with a peaked top and vibrant yellow and green colours. But when he stepped inside it looked like a Christian chapel, with the high ceiling and wooden benches. But at one end, there was a statue of Sree Narayana Guru looking back benignly at him. (The Guru [1854-1928], as is well known, was a radical, who generated immense social change in Kerala and wrote extensively on philosophy as well as poems).  

Anish had come, along with his father and a few friends for a visit in October, 2010. It was while there he learnt that the organisation had come up through an Act of Parliament. “In the field of education. Narayana Guru had started 42 night schools and libraries in Colombo,” says Anish. “Because of these schools, many people got educated. So the country was grateful to Guru.” 

The civil war between the Tamils and the Sinhalese had come to an end. Anish and his group decided to hold a conference. “We felt it was important to bridge the gap between the Tamils and the Sinhalese,” says Anish. “Since there was talk about reconciliation, we felt we should add to the process.” 

But Anish did not want a seminar which espoused only the ideas and thought processes of the Guru. “The biggest gift the Guru gave the people of Kerala was the idea of original thinking,” says Anish. “Can you think for yourself and thereafter, act for self and society? Thinking by itself was an act for him. We decided to get scholars from outside who could generate original ideas. That’s how we got people like [eminent social scientist] Prof. Ashish Nandy to come across.” 

The seminar was a success. More than a thousand people attended. That became a trigger. A group was formed. It was called the Backwaters Collective on Metaphysics and Politics. And for the past several years, it has held an annual conference, at Kochi. The most recent one, which took place between July 12-15, was in association with the Kochi Biennale Foundation. 

Eminent scholars, writers and artists like Ashis Nandy, Gopal Guru, Julius Lipner, Ajay Skaria, Ganesh Devy, KR Meera, Riyas Komu, and Carnatic vocalist TM Krishna took part. The audience consisted of academicians, intellectuals, activists, historians, artists, anthropologists and social critics.

“Apart from the Guru, we are also interested in the writings of Mahatma Gandhi, BR Ambedkar, Aurobindo, Rabindranath Tagore, Ramana Maharishi, and Sri Ramakrishna Paramahansa,” says Anish. 

The Collective has a clear aim: to produce new ways of thinking. “That’s because there is a hegemony of knowledge by the West,” says Anish. “In a way, we are still captivated by their findings. So, we are blindly following then. The whole world is in thrall. We are always quoting Socrates and Plato. We should come up with Eastern or Indic concepts which can be used to resolve contemporary issues that the world faces.” 

Then Anish asks a rhetorical question: Why hasn’t Sree Narayana Guru or [social reformer] Chattambi Swamikal been taken seriously by academicians? “There are no studies on them,” he says. “These are individuals who have transformed society. They have come up with ideas that can become universal.” 

He says the Global South -- countries in Asia, Africa, Latin America and the Caribbean -- has to be proactive. “Our societies need to find solutions ourselves instead of looking for ideas from the West,” says Anish. “Prof Nandy says that knowledge should come from the slums. That means, it should come from the margins.” 

Meanwhile, when he was told that most people are not interested in subjects like metaphysics and philosophy, Anish agreed. “Society is not reflective,” he says. “We live in a world where we accept Whatsapp messages, many of which are fake, without a critical filter.” 

This lack of interest has not proved a deterrence. “It takes time to change society,” he says. “We have brought out two books which consists of our radical ideas.” 

The first book, which contains a selection of papers from the first few conferences, was published by Oxford University Press under the title of ‘India and the Unthinkable: Backwaters Collective on Metaphysics and Politics 1’. The just-released Volume II is titled ‘India and Civilisational Futures’.  

Finally, Anish has a plea. He wants youngsters to study humanities, philosophy, literature along with science and information technology. “Because everything is human,” he says. “Fundamentally, today, technology is dehumanising us. We are losing our human faculties, like our memory. How many phone numbers can we remember today? Twenty years ago, we remembered a lot more. How do we remain sensitive to each other and nature? We are not alive. That’s why young people should study the humanities. But it should not be standardised. The syllabus should consist of hybrid courses.” 

Will young people and the universities listen to Anish’s plea is the moot question?

(Published in The New Indian Express, Kochi and Thiruvananthapuram)

‘I want to break free’

In Hari Krishnan G’s photo exhibition, ‘Secret Garden’, he focuses on the desire of women to fulfill their dreams and hopes

Pics: Jayanai A and Hari Krishnan G; a still  

By Shevlin Sebastian 

A few years ago, magazine photographer Hari Krishnan G went to the Pain and Palliative Care Centre in Thrissur to take photos of the founder Sheeba Ameer. Soon, he got talking to her and realised that Sheeba herself had gone through a tragedy. Her daughter Niloufa, who was 28, died on August 27, 2013, after a 16-year-battle with acute myeloid leukaemia. And Sheeba remembered that near the end, Niloufa said, 'Amma, will I survive or die? Please save me. I want to live'. 

“When Sheeba was telling me all this, I was thinking, ‘How emotionally strong and courageous women are’,” says Hari. 

Later, he interacted with many women during photo shoots. Another woman he found unforgettable is designer Uma Haimavati Prajapati who lives in Pondicherry. “Uma, who is from Delhi, told me that for many years she had lived for her husband and children,” says Hari. “But when her children grew up, got married and moved away, she felt it was time to live for herself. I thought a lot about what she said. We men fulfill our dreams easily: having a career, buying a plot of land, building a house, and purchasing a car. But a woman does not have the same freedom, especially when she gets married. A lot of her dreams and desires are set aside because of the needs of her husband, children and in-laws. I feel every woman should have freedom. And the family should encourage her to grow and develop as a person.”  

So, it was no surprise that for his first solo exhibition, ‘Emotional Hardcore’ in October 2015, the focus was on woman, but with a difference: they were all dark-skinned. “I wanted to show how beautiful they are, while at the same time challenge the notion that only fair people can be stunning,” says Hari. 

In his second exhibition, in May 2016, he focused on transgenders, while the third, in March 2018, called ‘Alien’, portrayed women in solitude. Now, his fourth, called ‘Secret Garden’, at the Durbar Hall, Kochi, is again focused on women and their desire for freedom. 

It shows a young woman wearing a long white gown, almost like a wedding dress, in different moods. In one she holds a crown which is perched on her head, in another she bends her back and looks upwards, with eyes closed but with roses in her hand, urging the mood of freedom to flow into her. 

In another, she wears a wedding veil with red roses and green leaves pinned on it, but she is waist-deep in a stream. There is an image where she looks directly into the camera holding a green lovebird in her hand. And there is one of her floating face up in a stream, eyes closed, with a look of tranquillity on her face. The images, 11 of them, at 6’ x 4’ were shot, with a Canon 6D, inside a forest in Kollam district. Hari has added a soundtrack of birds twittering and it adds to the feeling that we are watching scenes from a forest. 

The model is Jayani A, who is doing her PhD in Special Education in the School of Behavioural Sciences at MG University, Kottayam. Hari had seen her photos on Instagram and liked her style and poise. Through a mutual friend, he approached her. And she was agreeable because she had seen Hari’s photos earlier. “Images from his earlier exhibitions had gone viral,” she says. 

The shoot lasted for a few hours. But months later, Jayani is still excited. “I never felt more liberated as I was during the shoot,” she says. “Especially when I was lying face-up in the water. At one moment I felt I was floating in space.”  

Later, Hari got a shock when a friend pointed out that it was similar to British artist Sir John Everett Millais’ iconic work ‘Ophelia’ (the character from William Shakespeare’s play Hamlet). “I had not been aware of the artist’s image,” says Hari. “I was struck by how similar both are.”   

What is amazing about the photos is that they look like a mix of an actual photo as well as a painting, with diffuseness and splotches at certain places. But Hari says that these are photos and not a hybrid. “I did not use photoshop to improve or change the images,” says Hari, who graduated in Applied Art from Raja Ravi Varma College of Applied Arts, Mavelikara. But what he did differently was to use light in a new way. Apart from natural light, he used mirrors as well as filters. 

The exhibition will be an inspirational one for women visitors, as they make slow but confident steps to develop their personalities and talents. 

(The New Indian Express, Kochi, Thiruvananthapuram and Kozhikode)

Serving the people

Tom Aditya, a Malayali, has just been elected as the Mayor of Bradley Stoke in Bristol, England. He talks about his experiences

Photos: Tom Aditya by Albin Mathew; the statue of Raja Rammohan Roy in Bristol  

By Shevlin Sebastian 

When history buff Renjith Leen was introduced to Tom Aditya, the Mayor of Bradley Stoke in Bristol, England, at Kochi, the former immediately said, “Isn’t Bristol the place where [social reformer] Raja Rammohan Roy (1772-1833) died and was buried?” Tom’s eyes widened in surprise and he says, “How did you know that?” 

Renjith smiles in return and says, “I learned it in my history book when I was in Class 5.” 

Tom nodded and said, “You will be happy to know that in the town’s square there is a statue of Rammohan, wearing a turban, and gown, and holding a book in his hand. It was made by Bengali artist Niranjan Sarkar in 1997. We also have a commemoration ceremony, every year, during his death anniversary on September 27,” says Tom. 

The Mayor, who was elected in May, is on a whirlwind visit to his home state of Kerala. And he has been felicitated by youth groups, churches, colleges and community organisations. After all, it is rare for a Malayali to go abroad, and then get into politics and make a mark.

“Yes, I am different from the usual Malayali,” says Tom. “Usually, we are involved with their own needs, friendships and community. It is like living inside a well.” 

But Tom’s turning point occurred when he joined the Equality Commission of the South Gloucestershire Council in 2007. It gave him a chance to interact with LGBT groups, senior citizens, women’s guilds, youth clubs, disability forums, voluntary organisations, religious and ethnic groups, families, as well as representatives of the police, fire and rescue. “It was a good exposure and I was able to observe first-hand the problems people faced,” he says.  

In 2011, Tom stood for election and became a councillor. And he did some good work. Every morning, when he stepped out to go to work, he noticed an 80-year-old  widow who lived in the opposite house, with a dog. Later, he came to know she was depressed. So, Tom befriended her. 

She told Tom, “I have nobody. My children are working elsewhere. I have not seen my grandchildren for a long while.”

In Britain, Tom says, many elderly people live lives of isolation. “Their only companion is a dog,” he says. So Tom started ‘Coffee Mornings’. A group of elderly people would be invited to come to a cafe to have sandwiches and coffee, in the morning, which is funded by the Council. “As a result, they were able to have conversations with each other,” says Tom. “The widow overcome her depression through these meetings.” 

When an old skate park had to be demolished, Tom invited the youths in the area to design a new one. They got excited and presented drawings which were approved. “Today, this skate park, made at a cost of 350,000 pounds has more than 500 youngsters using it,” he says. Tom also conducted a successful campaign to increase the speed of Internet broadband in Bristol.  

So, despite a population which is 92% white, Tom was elected as Mayor. He is the first Asian to win in the South Gloucestershire County. A member of the Conservative Tom believes Britain should leave the European Union. “The people expressed this wish through a referendum,” he says. “A country like Norway, which is not part of the Union is doing so well. So we can also do well.” 

Tom was born in Pala, the son of a farmer, Thomas Mathew, who was a noted social worker. Following his BA (Economics) and a law degree, Tom went to do his MBA at the University of California, Los Angeles. Thereafter, he returned to Kerala and worked in the IndusInd Bank as a forex specialist. He was also a consultant for the Amal Jyothi Engineering College, at Kanjirapally, which is now regarded as one of the best in Kerala, apart from many other groups. But in 2002, he migrated to England to improve, as he says, ‘his economic opportunities’. When his wife Liny, a nurse, got a job in Bristol, Tom decided to settle there. Today, the couple have five children: Abhishek, 17, Aleena, 15, Albert, 12, Adona, 11 and Alphonse, 10. 

Asked his observations about Kerala, he says, “Kerala is progressing. There are a lot of roads, new bridges and buildings. But we have a problem with our attitude. We need to introduce values in our education system: how to be self-confident, follow rules, behave well with people, and manage situations. There should be critical thinking among the students. This faculty is not well developed. Our education system should be geared for the future and not the present. We have to think about what is going to happen ten or twenty years from now.” 

As for his career, Tom says, “I want to continue to work sincerely and do good works for the common welfare. This brings me the greatest happiness.”

(An edited version was published in Sunday Magazine, The New Indian Express, South India and Delhi) 

Hear my message

Former Australian cricketer Brett Lee is on a mission: to highlight the importance of newborn hearing screening to rectify deafness

By Shevlin Sebastian 

The baby girl is 11 months old. Born deaf, a cochlear implant has been put in her ear through surgery. Inside a room at a hospital in Kochi is former Australian cricketer Brett Lee, the doctor, a couple of nurses and a few onlookers. The doctor now switches on the implant. For a moment, there is pin-drop silence. Brett stares intently at the baby. Suddenly, the child starts crying. And Brett immediately breaks out into a wide smile. 

The reason the baby cries is because the sound she hears is overwhelming after so many months of complete silence. “I have seen quite a few switch-ons and it is such a happy moment,” says Brett. 

He had come on a visit to Kochi as the Global Hearing Ambassador for Cochlear India. “This has become a mission for me,” he says. “In India, there is a large number of children who suffer from deafness for a variety of reasons. Sometimes, even when parents are aware they do not do anything about it. They believe God will solve it, or some superstition will fix it and when their child reaches five years of age, he or she will be okay.” 

To ensure deafness is identified early so that an effective cure can be done, a universal newborn screening test for the hearing has been set up all over the world. And Brett is so happy with the situation in Kerala. “In government hospitals, it is almost 100 per cent,” he says. “And that’s great. In other states, it is only 2 per cent.” 

If there is early intervention, children can enjoy the sounds of everyday life. “It is also extremely important for the brain to be exposed to be sound from the very beginning for the overall development of the baby,” says Brett. He says he has met three girls who had been implanted when they were babies and now they are studying to be doctors, specialising in cochlear implants. “Isn’t that fantastic,” he says. 

At 42, Brett radiates energy, positive vibrations and an infectious smile. It’s been four years since he retired from top-class cricket. Asked when the feeling of retirement hit home, Brett says, “When the next season rolled in, I noticed that the gear did not come out of the garage, and I was no longer going for net practice. But I have played the odd game just for fun. However, I do miss the adrenal rush of walking out to the ground, where one lakh people are cheering. I don’t think I will ever be able to replicate that joy of representing one’s country. But that’s life. You have to move on.” 

Today, Brett is busy doing promotional activities, television commentary and taking part in charity work. And he keeps coming back to India because he has fallen in love with the country. “The people are very warm and hospitable,” he says. “They always make me feel welcome. Poor people at the front of a hotel or a village, they smile at you. And that makes your day. I have seen boys who use a piece of wood as a bat and play cricket but they look so happy. Those of us in affluent countries complain about little things, but the poor boy on the road who has nowhere to sleep can still smile so easily.” 

What is amazing to see as he speaks is to see how fit he is: strong biceps and a flat stomach. Brett works out in the gym and notches up the kilometres on the treadmill. But he is still adjusting to the after-effects of an intensely physical career as a fast bowler, who took 690 wickets in Tests and one-dayers and was a World Cup winner in 2003.  

“I have a bulging disc in my neck,” he says. “My elbow will never straighten again because I snapped my arm twice. I have had six ankle operations and broke my back twice. Am I one hundred per cent pain-free? No. But I am not complaining. I ignore the pain and carry on.” 

On August 11, Brett did a 14 ½ km charity run in Sydney called City2Surf. What’s clear is that Brett is ensuring that his post-cricketing career is as fulfilling and successful.  

Asked the difference between success and failure, Brett says, “One word: hunger. I was not the most talented player. There were so many more gifted players, but I had a hunger to succeed, along with great training and a disciplined work ethic. I listened to my parents. And I respected the game and had a lot of fun.” 

Interestingly, Brett did not come from a sporting family. His father Bob is a metallurgist, while his mother Helen was a piano teacher. “But she was a 100m sprinter and won a few golds at the junior level,” he says. “I got my speed from her.”

Soon, Brett is ready to get up to speed once again for his cochlear campaign. The flight to Ahmedabad is just two hours away….

(The New Indian Express, Kochi, Thiruvananthapuram and Kozhikode)

When the dentist has to step in

When people suffer persistently from headaches, back, neck and shoulder muscle pains, and nothing shows in X-Rays and MRI scans, it could be a little-known dental problem called temporomandibular joint disorder

Photos: Dr. Renju Jose; photo by Albin Mathew. Bobby John Mana (extreme right) with former Chief Minister Oommen Chandy

By Shevlin Sebastian 

Businessman Bobby Mana sat in the dental chair of Dr Renju Jose at Kochi. He looked tense. Very casually, Dr Renju pressed his left shoulder. Bobby yelled in pain. 

The dentist looked surprised as Bobby said, “Doctor, I have been suffering from this pain for the past fifteen years. Whenever I move my right arm backwards, during a jog, I get shooting pains. I have consulted many orthopaedic doctors and neurologists, but no solution has been found.”  

Dr Renju nodded and then switched on a ‘Digital Bite Scan’ (T-Scan). This is a machine which is used, along with an electromyogram, to detect the pressure points when the upper teeth hit the lower ones.  

When Dr Renju scanned Bobby’s mouth, as he was chewing, he saw on the computer screen that the latter was using his left side to chew 80 per cent of the food while it was only 20 per cent on the right. “There was heavy pressure on Bobby’s last molar,” says Dr Renju. “He was unaware of it.”  

Dr Renju polished away the excessive ceramic on a bridge on the left side so that the upper and the lower teeth could smoothly hit each other. The next morning Dr Renju called Bobby. The latter said that he was now consciously using the right side of the mouth while chewing. And when Dr Renju asked about his shoulder pain, Bobby suddenly said, “Oh my God, it’s gone completely. I can stretch my arm back and forth without any problem.” 

Dr Renju smiles and says, “It took only 10 hours to solve Bobby’s problem, and that too, without any medications.” 

A large percentage of the world’s population tends to use one side of the teeth. But for most, there is no problem. “Normally people prefer to use both sides if given an option, but sometimes what happens is that they may not have teeth on one side,” says Dr Renju. “Or one tooth may have been removed, for some reason. Automatically the biting shifts to the other side.”  

Even without biting, the jaws and the teeth are under tremendous pressure. That’s because whenever we swallow our saliva, we are unconsciously biting our teeth together. This happens around 5000 times in the day, as well as the night. “So there is tremendous pressure on the chewing and biting muscles,” says Dr Renju. “But there is no time to rest and recover.” 

And so, these muscles end up getting fatigued. “As a result, the muscles produce lactic acid which is what causes the pain. This spreads to the head, neck, shoulders and back muscles,” says Dr Renju. 

Other ailments include migraine headache, neck pain, vertigo (falling down), numbness in the fingers and arms, pain behind the eyes, and tinnitus (buzzing in the ears). “When the pain continues, despite treatment by neurologists and orthopaedic doctors, and if there are no findings in X-Rays and MRI scans, then it means that it is a dental problem,” says Dr Renju.

However, he says, not many doctors are aware of this problem, which is called a temporomandibular joint disorder, and the treatments available. “In India, fewer than one hundred know about this machine,” says Dr Renju. “There is an urgent need to spread awareness among doctors and the public.” 

(The Sunday Magazine, The New Indian Express, South India and Delhi)