B-Log

By common accusation, Keralites are news hungry by heredity. They have an incurable craving for news in whatever shape it comes. The morning rush for the newspaper  or the extreme discomfort a newspaperless day creates exemplifies the same fixation. But is it not perplexing that even after the TV   has entrenched as a staple daily experience in the lives of an average Keralite,  craving for news has not yet diminished? A state where there are plenty more news channels in the local language, scrolling news incessantly on the  bottom scroll bars  and through the (wise) mouths of the newsreaders,  the news craze is still more robust.  Where does this urge to know the 'new' come from? At its bottom the desire to know what is happening around you could be a natural inclination of the social commitment of an individual who is living in a community. In the contemporary idiom, it means to be 'connected'. To be in the know of what happens to the people around you c

Railways is the real place to be in if one doesn't have any intention to  go anywhere! Next to those who derive pleasure from the undertaking of journeys, those Who frequent the place for no particular reason could be the ones who enjoy the place. Just be in the railway station. Be there. Don't walk in with intentions, whether it be reserving a ticket or seeing off a friend or to receive the family. Whether it be checking the train timing or train availability. Just be there. That will do the trick for sure.  The Railways station is a place were you can go and simply be. In the middle of those who are keen to get on with their traveling lives, or those who need to be with with those who love the travelers lives, you will be placed with no strings attached. The strings of a train to arrive and to rush into with luggage, the string which pulls you to empty seats or the strings of those to be received don't hold you here. Watch the people around.  Numberless tr

The academia around is keen to make some fast bucks on the flourishing seminar industry. More and more colleges are jumping into small scale industry called running national and international seminar because it is seen as an easy way to raise fund for the college. Not many questions are raised by the participants who either are mere participants or are contributing papers to be read in the seminar. End of a seminar, the balance sheet looks pretty promising and in the rush to reap the monetary gain principles and ethics are thrown to winds.   National and international seminars are being organized in the country more often than not with financial assistance from the University Grants Commission (UGC). UGC often provides decent financial support for the organizing colleges and departments to run the show. It also promotes fund raising by the college through registration fee from the participants. But what is happening in the guise of the seminars and conferences is often fa

Figurative language does not just add colour, it is an important tool in aiding comprehension. A simile or a metaphor makes the comprehension pretty easy, by switching on the neural paths of comprehension. They can also help us build our knowledge by connecting the unknown to the known. Since majority of the common similes or metaphors are part of the collective (linguistic) wisdom, it is a shared playing ground.  When a figure employed in a specific context to help illustrate a meaning is culled out of the situation and is allowed to roam free, the effect could be strange and unedifying.  A curious case in point which played around in the media recently and is just fading out is the case of the head of CBI. In the course of a media panel discussion, he was commenting about legalizing betting. He asserted that betting need to be legalized. If there are no existing laws pertaining to the same, it is necessary to take up measures to have legal checks in place. We need to