A month back, when I still had Asianet connection at home, I saw the sad visual of  18 young boys and girls who died while boating in Thattekkad. They had gone for a picnic, with their teachers and their boat drowned in the lake, killing 18 of them. Three teachers died too. The visual of the dead bodies of young children were sad enough, but that was not all. There was the scenes from the homes of these young children. Fathers and mothers who sent their children for a school picnic and was waiting to take them home and hear their stories, suddenly faced with the news that they are not going to come back.

A day later, we started seeing the shocking images of the “boat” in which they were taken for the trip. This was not really a “pleasure trip boat” as you would have expected. Two small boats which could carry upto 5 people safely were tied together with some sort of platform on the top and if reports are correct, upto 40 children and teachers climbed onto it and only half of them returned. Obviously there was no life jacket, no radio communication, no life guard and nothing which would have prevented the gravity of the event when it happened. Additional information provided indicated that the boat had no license to operate and driver had no training. It was just a disaster waiting to happen and it did.

A day later we also saw another scene. The entire Cabinet of the state came to the village and as the dead bodies awaited burial, they met in the school room officially and made proclamations of grief, of compensation, of outrage and inquiry.

In days which followed, boat owners across the state were chased by virtually everybody who had some administrative control over them. This included officials from the police, officials from the transport department, officials from the tourism department and so on. Armed with the strong public opinion, boat rides in many tourist locations were stopped and number of boats taken into custody (sure, is the boat which is the problem, not the people as you would have thought).

One month from then, we don’t hear about the arrest of boats or actions on boat safety anymore. Boat rides are back so are the drivers (without training) and boats (without licence). It is a rule of statistics that the next major accident will not be in boating.

Sure, it was not.

Last week, a shop selling fire work crackers caught fire and exploded in Calicut, killing 8 people and injuring many more. The explosion happened in the early hours of the business which resulted in the low casualty but it could have been much more if the incident happened in the afternoon or evening. By then I had given up on the Asia net, so I did not have to see the images, which I am sure would have been horrific and saddening. But I did read stories of young boys who just started working in these shops during their summer holidays to supplement their family income. That made me sad.

In this case, there was not much of an evidence left. With the fire, explosion and the rescue effort, the shop where it all started had ceased to exist. The owner of the shop was dead. This of course left lot of room for speculation from illegal storage of high grade explosive to deliberate causing of explosion.

But the third part of the circus did happen. The entire cabinet, or at least most of it, came to the site and went around, make proclamations of grief, compensation, outrage and inquiry. Without waiting for any forensic experts, they also alleged conspiracy in the whole incident.

As sure as day follow the night, the entire state machinery was after fire cracker shops since. Across the state, shops are being raided and findings of storage of explosive without licence, explosive beyond the limit of the licence and so on are being found out and exposed. Explosives are being taken to custody (sure !). I think this festive season will have to quieter without crackers.

But two things we can be sure about.

1.                  By next festive season, the cracker shops will be back

2.                  Before that, there will be yet another tragedy, which statically will neither be on the boat nor in cracker shop. But that is not because these sectors have learnt any lessons. There are other disasters waiting to happen to these sectors will have to wait on the back of the queue.

I can think of at least one hundred possibilities which can lead to multiple casualities in Kerala any day. I will not even count traffic accidents in them because it is so common that Malayalees seems to have factored that into their daily life. Here is a sample,

1.                  An electric line passing over a temple pond falls down and electrocute people taking bath in those ponds

2.                  A truck carrying petrol hits an electric post, catch fire and explode in the middle of the town, killing 100 people

3.                  A thunderstorm cause the roof of a school to collapse killing those children

4.                  A landslide caused by the removal of soil from one of the hills buries an entire village downhill

5.                  A factory storing benzene catch fire and explodes killing workers

As a trained HSE personal, I can go on and on with possible scenarios. I can also predict what will happen if any of these things happen;

1.                  The entire public attention is focussed on that event and the individual/organisaton who caused it is vilified

2.                  Government announce outrage and orders inquiry

3.                  Government machinery go after that specific issue for next one month

4.                  All is forgotten, life goes on

This is the biggest tragedy of all. We learn nothing from these tragedies and solve nothing for our children. So they are exposed to ever increasing possibilities of tragic deaths.

But the fact is that people are dying and most of these are preventable death. I was doing a presentation last year and collected information on the number of people dying in kerala from traffic accidents and I compared that with teh number of people getting killed in Kashmir by terrorists. Guess what ?. We kill more people on the road than they do up in the hill. There are thousand of soldiers in kashmir to protect our people and on our street, there is no body to protect us. It is free for all. This is sad.

There are three important things about safety which we should understand if we have to get sustained results.

1.                  Safety is an attitude which has to be planted and nurtured. You cannot achieve sustainable safety standards within a culture of permissivity.

2.                  Safety cost money. You cannot both have cheap goods and services and good safety.

3.                  Safety needs comprehensive and sustained effort. You can’t fix it sector by sector, you cant fix it in fits and starts

If Kerala were to achieve a sustainable safety standard, we have start planting and nurturing a safety culture within ourselves and especially our children. We should train ourselves and our children to look at the safety risk associated with EVERYTHING we do to such a degree that it becomes integral to our whole thought process, something we do subconsciously without being prompted.

• This would mean that we will no loger be able to get driving licence without learning to drive


• This for example would mean that we may no longer stand on the foot board of a bus


• This would mean that we will no longer driver after we had alcohol


• This would mean that we will no longer use a high current appliance on a low current socket


• This would mean that we will no longer get into a boat which has no safety jacket available


• This would mean that we will demand that the driver of every bus displays the number of accidents he has caused his career


• This would mean that we will no longer subject our elephant to the high decibel noise of our music instrument and fire works


• This will mean that we will no longer fix the fuse in our house with copper wire


• And so on…

As you can see, this would alter fundamentally the way we live. This may also cost money, but safety is not cheap.

Incidents such as the tragedies described earlier are occasions for us to start thinking of safety more seriously. Government can also help to create this awareness. Here is a simple suggestion.

I was travelling in Serbia and along the road, I saw a small patch (1 m X 1 m) flower plants from time to time. I asked my interpreter “what is it ?’ and she said “you know this started during the war, when some soldier died at a spot, others did not have the chance to take their body back to the family. So they buried them there itself and planted flower plants on top. Later on their family came their every year in memory and tended to those flowers”. “However, these days, these patches are created by people whose close family members died in a road accident along this road and the family comes once every year and pray for them”.

Now imagine if we had this tradition. Kerala will instantly turn out to be a garden. Some patches in particular will need multiple layers to accommodate for all the dead.

It was Joe Atwood, my consultant and good friend from UK who mentioned about a book about a guy who travelled in India and met all sort of magicians and Godmen. "it is really interesting", Joe said. "I dont know if he actually met all these people, but he should have as he reveals all their secrets".

I forgot all about this book, till it arrived one day in a parcel, from Joe. I promised myself to read it on my trip to Cyprus.

I was travelling by an early plane to Cyprus on Sunday the 11th of February. I misread the flight timing as 8:30 AM (which turned out to be the time of arrival in Frankfurt). So when I arrived at the airport at 6:12, well in advance for the flight, I figured out that the flight was infact at 6:50.  In any case, the guy at the check in counter did let me get on to the plane. Geneva must be the last international airport where one can arrive 38 minutes ahead of the flight time and still be on the plane.  The last time I was in London, in December 2007, I had to be in a queue for 3 hours, OUTSIDE the airport before I could get in to the check in counter queue inside the airport.

Anyway, my comment is not about the length of the check in queues at various airports but about the book which Joe sent. The book's name is "The Sorcerer's Apprentice" by Tahir Shah.

I started reading the book at 6:25 in Geneva airport and let me tell you, I have never enjoyed  a book as much as I did this one. I did not keep the book down, nor did I take time to eat or drink, till the time I finished the book. In between I landed in Frankfurt, waited for next plane, took off. Just as the plane was taxiing in at Larnaca, I finished the book.

The book is about a British guy of Afghan origin, who get fascinated by Magic to which he was introduced in his childhood by another Afghan (who is the guard of the tomb of his great grandfather). In his adulthood, the boy returns to India, to the tomb of his ancestor, to meet with his Magic Teacher and continue his learning. He is then referred by the teacher to another Guru and in the process of learning, he travels all over India seeking out Godmen and Godwomen. He is joined by a young boy who is a "walking crime wave" who can trick anybody to part with their money (including the author). Together they travel to various cities in India visiting Lunatic Asylums and Asrams meeting witches and psychic healers, Gurujis and fish cure experts.

The book is fantastic for its content and hilarious in its style. Tahir Shah is neither celebratory or contemptous about the situations he encounter in India. He is cheated and robbed multiple times in various locations. He comes across criminals, Godmen, witch crafts and so on. But he continue to keep the balance in looking at those incidents as pictures in a great canvas without feeling too much bitter about those.

The book is an honest cross section of India today and might come as a shock to people who have got used to seeing only positive and shiny pictures of India and its IT and corporate world. Just around the corner, the world of superstitions and Godmen is also busy and active. Also, in a somewhat unique feature in India, the new generation IT whiz kidds are equally taken in by the Godmen and some of the later Godmen are well educated charlatans. To take a miracle fish cure administerd by one family in just one day of year in June, half a million people turn up and not only special buses are run on that day, but also special aircrafts !. So there is no distinction in social class too on belief in superstitions. The two Indias are actually not separate worlds, but an intertwined mosaic.

Having visited most of the cities visited by Tahir and also knowing many of the charecters myself, I know the stories are mostly true. Whether he actually encountered all of them, I dont know. Whethere there was indeed a trickster with him all the while, I cant tell. But who cares. His stories are entertaining and the Trickster is fascinating.

I recommend this book to all Indians for they will find it very enlightening. I also recommend this book to non Indians who will find the book very amusing.

I had written few weeks back about the Sabarimala pilgrimage.  My focus then was on the fact that a place where millions of people come every year exists and how it could be managed better as a economic and cultural opportunity.

I am again on this topic, but this time my focus is on the entire tamasha ongoing under the very nose of Sami Ayyappan. Take the following scandals which came to light in the last one year.

1.  The father of the priest at the Malikappuram temple accuse Vellappally Natesan, the Charismatic leader of SNDP of influence in swindling upto 45 lakhs from his son. The complaint was sent to the less charismatic but perhaps more influential leader of NSS, Mr Narayana Panicker. In the end the fight became one between NSS and SNDP. There were street protest arranged by SNDP against NSS and press statements by NSS on SNDP leader.

I found it very amusing, but what stood out is the following. The fact that the jobs of the chief priest in these temples is getting increasingly lucrative. If Malikappuram Shanthi gets upto 45 lakhs, how much will the Melshanthi in ayyappan temple will get ?. I was also told that once you get this job at least one year, then your regular market value for puja elsewhere also go up. So in the end it, eligible candidate, will try to try their best to get into this job. One should therefore not be surprised if there is money changing hand, like for posting in Valayar checkpost. The question really is why is Ayyappan not taking care for this ?.

My friends from other communities often think that all Nairs are NSS and Narayanapanicker is some sort of religous leader. Nothing can be farther from truth. In fact I have never been to any NSS function. The only time I went to the local NSS office was when we had to get a letter from the local NSS to get admission to the NSS co-operative training college. Guess what, we had to pay money to the local office as well as the college to get admission, nair or otherwise. Did we get any concession because we were nair, i dont know. But what I certainly know is that NSS or Narayanapanicker does not represent nairs. They represent the various colleges and institutions they have built up using the Nair brand. Good for them !!.

2.  The Thanthri of Sabarimala was caught with two women in a flat in Ernakulam. It turned out that this was all part of a blackmail racket which has been ongoing for sometime. The investigations are ogoing.

3. There has been multiple allegations of corruption against the officials of Travencore Devaswam Board

4. There were specific scandals about the purchase of goods for Sabarimala and they provision of food for devotees.

The police is working on the scandals, devaswam minister is working on cleaning up the board, high court is working on briging those responsible to book. For people like me, there is a simple question. What is Ayyapan doing about all these. If he want to sort these out, he can sort all these out in a flash. Why doesn't he ?

Now one of the advantage of Hindu religious practice is that one could use astrology to find the preference of the God. So important decisions in temple is made after doing "Devaprashnam" by knowledgeable astrologers.

The last astrological session in Sabarimala to get Devahitham turned out to be a Tamasha of the highest degree. The astrologer made some predictions and then set up his followers to sent faxes to the temple office substantiating his predictions.

Why wasn't there a lightning when this nonsense was going on right in front of Ayyappans eyes ?. Why is that the police and politicians has to sort out the misdeeds which are going in his name right under his nose ?.

To an objective observer, there are only two answers. One Ayyapan don't care. It does not matter to him if his thantri is with women, being blackmailed or his astrologer is setting up stories. It is therefore upto us, the faithful to defeat these people around him. And our way, use your money wisely. Dont pay to the thanthri, melshanti or devaswam board. Go and pray, please. But keep the money with yourself. Once the money is taken out of the equation most of these fraudulent charectors will also take off and real faithfuls will return to the jobs.

When I went to Sabarimala, my brogther in law told me the following. There are lot of people sitting along the way seeking your money in various forms in the name of Ayyappan. But the only person who is honest is Pandalam Raja, he only ask for himself. So let us pay to him.

It is many years since I read a book about God. In my mind, the issue was more or less settled over 35 years ago, when was about 10 or so.  My approach to other peoples beliefs, however, have gone up and down since, but my own have stayed still.

I started reading Richard Dwakins latest book "The God Delusion", partly because I enjoyed his previous book "The Selfish Gene". I actually did not know that Richard Dwakins is indeed very active in the battle againt God(s) and Religion (s). I am glad that he is.

The book is written in a very straightforward fashion and words are not minced when it comes to taking on religion (or God). Most scientists whom I know, would normally concur with Mr Dwakins argument about the irrationality about the belief in God. However, they might give some space for Religion, as a code of life (moral life) and so on. However, Dr Dwakins gives no such corner, and rightly so. Religions gives no moral guidance for its followers. On the other hand it destroys the moral code which people may otherwise have is one of the themes of this book. Somewhere in the book there is a statement such as "Good people will always do good and bad people will always do bad, however it takes religion to make good people do bad" and I feel that is very true.

I recommend this book to all, believers and otherwise. More importantly I recommend this to scientists who are not strong enough in their views on God and children whose world view is not yet fully formed.

I mentioned the other day about me trying to hunt down couple of old friends. It so happened that I did reach somebody in Dhaka after 3 years of searching.

This is how Showkat Osman Surfaced

"Dear Friends,

Muralee