Kerala Tips

In Trivandrum edition of newspapers, the goonda menace is always in the front page of the “city edition”. There are high tech goondas who has nothing to fear from police (since they pay well) and then there are politically connected goondas who has good political protection. Due to lack of political will and lack of courageous and independent police force, goondas are having a free run in Kerala.

Some of the  immediate steps to be taken are,

• Any goonda with more than 5 serious criminal cases (rape, murder etc.) must be locked up indefinitely (till trials are over).
• Assets of a convicted goonda must be taken over by government. Access to unlimited funds is the biggest problem.
• Speedy trial and conviction in the case of criminals with more than 5 criminal cases.
• In the case of “hired killers” capital punishment must be mandatory. A civil society should consider “hired killing” or “quotation killing” as the worst form of criminal activity.

Some people think that goonda menace won’t affect them. But you will never know when your time will come. Check the real life experience of an engineering student from Trivandrum (CET),

The guy followed and started whacking me with the stick. Initially I shouted out, asking him not to hit me, telling them that I was a nobody (at that time I thought that this was because of the hartal). This was like a reflex action, since on thinking back on these events I never felt my brain giving the commands for me to shout and scream. I had probably got two or three hits then including the one which broke my left forearm. Doctors say that the first instinct when you are about to be hit is to raise the arm which you use for everything up for self protection. I being left handed raised my left arm. I was rolling on the ground when I got my first hit in my face, on my right cheekbone. I fell silent at that point. I could only hear a ringing sound. I stopped feeling pain. Even though I was fully conscious, I didn’t feel any of the subsequent hits. The attackers left me on the road.

The incident above is nowhere near a real goonda attack, but should give you an idea about the menace. The residents of Men’s Hostel are also culprits in this case. It is also notorious for the brutal “ragging” of first year students.

Ragging is another type of goondaism which may force people to take law into their hands.  If your son or daughter is sexually assaulted by a gang of thugs what will you do? What will you do if the principal says - “hey man, forget it. It is part of life”. My opinion is that the hostel warden or the principal should get bigger punishment than the culprits since it happened under their watch and if they try to suppress it.

There are two killings in Trivandrum where the wrong guy was killed by a “quotation team”. In one of these cases, the brother of the person killed took his revenge by killing one of the gang members. Remember, you and me could be next.

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Huda Info Solutions is providing free download of Quran Malayalam translation MP3 files. All 114 surahs are available for download. MP3s are encoded in 32kbits and is of decent quality. You can also purchase high quality CDs from the same Web site.

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Following is a detailed presentation on the SNC lavalin scandal. It is interesting that SNC Lavalin got away with Rs. 300 crore which was initially worth about Rs. 24 crore. What is all the more perplexing is the relation between cancer centre and the power plant renovation.

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Kerala is famous for its caste system. It was so horrible that even someone from India (Swami Vivekananda) called it the "lunatic asylum". Exposure to other cultures and rapid communication mechanisms improved the situation in Kerala drastically.

Yet caste based divisions are still strong. There is a strong undercurrent of both caste based and religion based politics. Take an example - Sri Narayana Guru was a visionary who realized that caste system is a plague. He said "Jaathi chothikkaruthu, parayaruthu, chinthikkaruthu" (Don’t ask, don’t talk and don’t even think about caste). But it is unfortunate that even the organization he founded is now hijacked by people who wants to spread the caste plague in our state.

Now in addition to all the caste and religion based problems, our government has now been successful in introducing a new economic based caste system. Currently it falls into two categories - APL and BPL.  APL means "Above Poverty Level" and BPL means "Below Poverty Level". Now there are even proposals to create additional categories such as WBPL (Way Below Poverty Level) and WAPL (Way Above Poverty Level). Now if you thought introducing such system will eclipse caste based systems, you are wrong. It has only increased the divisions further. Now you have APL Muslim and BPL Scheduled Tribe etc.

Obviously one of the primary mandates for a government is to help who are economically backward. But this has to be done in a sensible way and a practical way. In the case of APL/BPL the objective obviously should be that in next few years, we should have zero BPL families in the state. Unfortunately this is not what is happening. Every year, BPL numbers are only increasing. Businessmen and NRIs who earn lakhs of rupees per month are also included under BPL and are given so much benefits that the families in APL are being squeezed like anything.

Governments have been increasing all types of taxation. Electricity charges, water charges, building tax etc have registered 200% to 1000% increase in last few years. Government ensures that BPL families are excluded from these rises. Which in turn affects APL families more. It has reached such a stage that these subsidies and taxes have made the living conditions of a lot of APL families to the level of BPL families. So instead of achieving merit based social progress, government actions are in some aspects turning out more poor people at the same time making a section of people lazy.

Another problem is the ridiculous level that the issue of reservation has reached.  Any developed society would remove all types of reservation other than those for the physically disabled or those in dire economic conditions. But in India, we are going in the opposite direction (For example, the creamy layer was increased to 4.5lakh rupees in Kerala. This is an unfair definition but there is even demand to increase it to 7.5lakhs!!!) The following is possible future scenario in India,

A businessman sets up an administrative office. He needs to recruit 10 people for his office. According to the law of 2012 (actual scenario could be worse in the sense that there would be no general merit quota), his staff must include (the scenario is tailored for the reservation system in Kerala),

• 30% women (This 30% should follow the below rules as well)
• 20% BPL Scheduled Caste/Scheduled Tribe
• 3% APL Scheduled Caste/Scheduled Tribe
• 20% BPL Other Backward Classes (On rotation basis)
• 7% APL Other Backward Classes (On rotation basis)
• 10% BPL Religious Minorities (Muslims etc.)
• 2% APL Religious Minorities (Muslims etc.)
• 7% BPL General Merit
• 1% APL General Merit

Reservation was adopted after independence to give all sections of society and equal opportunity. Reservation was time bound and was supposed to be removed within 10 years of independence. However, it has grown to a monster which in long term has the potential to destroy our country.

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Today is “world environment day” and it is celebrated to create awareness of environmental issues.  Kerala celebrated this day by planting couple of trees in schools and organizing meetings across the state.  Some also think that having a “census of trees”would help in protecting the environment. Unfortunately many of the suggestions put forward by environmentalists are impractical and without any regard to economic and social situation of our country and state.  What I think is that we need to be pragmatic in environmental protection. Here are some practical ways of protecting our environment,

Improve public transport- For example consider Trivandrum city. If there is good and comfortable public transport, a lot of people will abandon cars/bikes and would take the public transport. Unfortunately, forget about comfortable travel, if you are a female, you will be harassed in KSRTC buses in the city. The problem is the overcrowding of buses. Government won’t allow private buses to operate, they won’t increase bus schedules or plan about metro rail in the near future. Same applies for road infrastructure. There is a lot of resistance against widening a road to a two lane road in the city (from enviornmentalists, business interests etc.). There are many trees in Trivandrum city standing almost in the middle of the road since some idiots oppose removal of them.

Whenever a road is widened government could take enough land on both sides to plant trees as well. For every tree that is removed, two can be planted. In fact I am ready to pay a tax for it, if they are ready to acquire enough land on both sides of the road.

Waste collection & management- Except in city areas, there is no mechanism for waste collection/disposal. In trivandrum city, corporation runs a good waste collection group which charges just Rs.30 per month. This should be extended to other cities.  Also there should be large collection bins across the city. Lack of these waste collection bins forces people to dump waste on the road during night or throw it on a river or lake during night.

Corruption in forest department- There is only one reason for deforestation in Kerala. The corruption of forest department. It is so easy to address this problem.  Just visit the home of any forest department official. You will be surprised at the amount of wood used in his house! A large number of wildlife wardens regularly collect bribe from wood industries near forest areas for turning a blind eye. Now if a tourist enters the forest for trekking or something, the forest officials  would beat him to pulp.  So address the problem of corruption in forest department and you will address the problem of deforestation in Kerala. As they say in my village, without the knowledge of all powerful forest department, not even a squirrel can move in forest!

Limiting the use of plastic - Many environmentalists behave as if plastic is the worst thing invented by humans. In fact it is one of the most useful things that we have invented. However uncontrolled use of plastic is a problem. For example, in retail shops there is no need to use lightweight plastic bags and could be replaced by cloth bags. One of the retail chains in my area (Varkeys group) is giving out cloth bags for Rs. 1 per bag and it is a good idea. Whenever people adopt such good practises, government, media and other organizations should encourage it.  But if someone says we should ban plastic buckets, I would call him an idiot.

Protection of waterways - This is one of the most important thing and is overlooked a lot. The pollution of rivers is one of the most serious problems we face. Discharge of untreated waste into river is one problem. Another is the direct plumbing of sewage to the rivers. Both should be banned. Unfortunately widespread corruption means you cannot do anything until you address the corruption problem. 

But this should never prevent us implementing hydroelectric power plants. The alternatives in this case such as thermal plants or nuclear power plants is never a comparable solution. Whatever power conservation we do, our power requirements are going to double in the near future. If we don’t adopt the cheapest and most nature friendly solution (hydroelectric plants) we are doomed. Another interesting aspect is that a power plant and its associated administrative setup is quite useful in fighting corruption in forest department. For example, take the Idukky power project. After the commissioning of Moolamattom powerhouse, conservation of the forest around it has been successful.

Pesticides- Pesticides is the biggest threat to both environment and health of the people. Uncontrolled use of it is causing both direct damage and also slow poisoning of the population. There needs to be a concerted effort to limit the use of pesticides and promote traditional/organic ways of controlling pests. Unfortunately this is an area where environmentalists are a complete failure. Instead of blocking progress and development activities they should focus on things like pesticide control (Endosulfan is causing unimaginable suffering in Kasargod).  You are able to stop railway lines and hydro electric plants but why can’t you stop pesticide abuse or the new phenomenon of genetically modified foods? Why are you going after coca-cola which contains 0.001% of pesticides while the drinking water supplied by government probably contains 1000 times more pesticide?

Thankfully we don’t need to worry about large scale pollution from industries. Our comrades have ensured that no industry can run in Kerala for a long time!

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Kerala State Electricity Board (KSEB) is one of the most inefficient and useless departments. Over years this department has been roting steadily. Instead of improving power situation and improving their service, they are looking for cheap popularity stunts such as million CFL campaign. Instead of increasing power production, they are asking people to switch of fridge in the evening. And remember, the polio vaccine they give to your child is also stored in a fridge.

It is like cutting your leg to fit it in the shoe.

KSEB has been increasing electricity bills under various heads. There is nothing called “customer service” in KSEB’s dictionary. But they are good in assaulting customers.

Recently I got a bill from KSEB and was stunned by the “terms & conditions” at the back of the bill. It says,

1. If we don’t give you bill or you don’t get a bill, you will be responsible for this incident.
2.  If you are not at home when we come for billing, we will disconnect your electricity connection. You will have to then beg to us and pay us re-connection fees.
3. If you use more electricity, we will charge any money we find suitable.
4. We will keep a huge amount of deposit money and will also charge rent for a meter which you had purchased from us.
5. You will have to stand in a big queue to pay your bill. We think standing in queue is good exercise.

It is urgent that central government takes serious action to dismantle KSEB. Kerala government has been resisting the move since politicians fear that their ability for corruption will be affected (remember lavalin case?).

Here is an action plan for KSEB.

1. KSEB should only handle power generation and high voltage transmission. When it comes to retail sales, there should be competition. We should have multiple vendors for selling electricity. If privatisation can improve BSNL, why not KSEB?
2. It is important to bring the salaries of KSEB employees in line with other government employees. They are the most pampered lot.
3. Fire all incompetent and corrupt engineers who are responsible for the rotten state of KSEB. The problem is that the engineers who can’t find any jobs in private sector ends up in KSEB. So you can imagine how good these people are.
4. Since KSEB engineers cannot even maintain hydro electric plants, hire some good engineers from Canada. According to reports, the power plant at Moolamattam is in urgent need of repair and our engineers either don’t know what to do or doesn’t care.
5. Last but not the least, we need to urgently implement hydro electic projects including “silent valley project”. Militant enviornmentalists are holding the state hostage for over a decade now.

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I am really surprised at the speed of adoption of Internet in government activities. The latest is the Web site hosted by Election commission for LokSabha elections 2009. The Chief Electoral Office Web site can be used to find your polling booth!!  The best thing is that it works!

Here is a step by step guide,

1. Visit the "electoral search screen"  at http://www.ceokerala.com/search.php

2. You can select either "legislative assembly" or "district" from this screen.  Selecting district is the easiest option.  In the following example, I selected "Trivandrum" then clicked on "Search".

3. In the next screen you will have options to search by two distinct fields. The first field can be used to enter your name or your electoral card number. The second field can be used to enter house name.  Use the Malayalam online keyboard on the left side for data entry!

In the above I have selected "Mano" and clicked on search. What it shows me is the list of voters from Trivandrum whose name starts with Mano.

4. Now click on the "Thirichariyal card number" (electoral card number) to access your voter data.

5. Now click on the polling booth link at the bottom to get your polling booth information including the school and the booth number!!

Man, that is one cool stuff by government! And guys, don’t forget to vote. Now even your last excuse (I don’t know the polling booth) is not valid

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Resurvey of land in Kerala is probably the biggest running task (the most inefficient one also) undertaken by Government of Kerala. It is running since 1966 and yet the end is nowhere in sight. Funnier is the fact that since it is running for over 40 years, most of the information is completely out of date. So instead of any benefit, it is causing unbelievable amount of torture for poor land owners in Kerala.

Consider this scenario. You are a very careful fellow and takes every precaution before you buy your piece of land. You have worked 25 years and using all your savings you are buying 8 cents of land somewhere in the outskirts of a city. Now since you are aware of land mafia and other property disputes you are careful to ensure that all documentation is in order. You look at old registration documents and new registration documents and make sure that they are in order. You look at land tax receipts and ensure that ownership is clear. You take an "Encumbrance Certificate" from sub-registrar office which guarantees that the land has no liabilities or loans against it. You even look at any pending cases against the owner. You are sure that it is all clear.

You are happy and you bought the 8 cents.

After a few months, you decide build your dream house on the plot. Your land is in a village and you approach an architect. He says that in order to build the house you need permission from the Panchayat.

Till recently permission from Panchayat was not needed. Government has brought this new requirement much to the joy of Panchayat and other government officials. Now they have new ways of getting more bribe from the poor land owners.

When you approach Panchayat, they claim that the land is not yours!! You get a shock! You had all the necessary documents, but yet it is not yours! The re-survey department is saying that the land belongs to someone else. The re-survey effectively makes all your documents invalid!

Well, it turns out that the land is re-surveyed sometime in 1970 and hence it is now in some dead guy’s name. You are now frantic. The re-survey official is very happy. He got another victim to extract bribe from. You are now being asked for thousands of documents some of which are impossible to obtain. How can you get a "no objection" certificate from a dead guy. You are gradually becoming insane…..

This, my dear friends, is called the "Re-survey torture from Kerala". It will continue till the government dismantles the so called "resurvey department".

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Over the last few years Indian government and local state governments have been introducing a lot of stealth taxes. These are taxes never directly visible to people, but at the same time squeezes money from multiple points. I got a forwarded email which humorously analyzes the situation,

1) Que. : What are you doing?  
Ans. : Business.  
Tax : PAY PROFESSIONAL TAX!  

2) Que. : What are you doing in Business?  
Ans. : Selling the Goods.  
Tax : PAY SALES TAX!  

3) Que. : From where are you getting Goods?  
Ans. : From other State/Abroad  
Tax : PAY CENTRAL SALES TAX, CUSTOM DUTY & OCTROI!  

4) Que. : What are you getting in Selling Goods?  
Ans. : Profit.  
Tax : PAY INCOME TAX!  

5) Que. : How do you distribute profit ?  
Ans : By way of dividend  
Tax : Pay dividend distribution Tax  

6) Que. : Where you Manufacturing the Goods?  
Ans. : Factory.  
Tax : PAY EXCISE DUTY!  

7) Que. : Do you have Office / Warehouse/ Factory?  
Ans. : Yes  
Tax : PAY MUNICIPAL & FIRE TAX!  

Que. : Do you have Staff?  
Ans. : Yes  
Tax : PAY STAFF PROFESSIONAL TAX!  

9) Que. : Doing business in Millions?  
Ans. : Yes  
Tax : PAY TURNOVER TAX!  
Ans : No  
Tax : Then pay Minimum Alternate Tax  

10) Que. : Are you taking out over 25,000 Cash from Bank?  
Ans. : Yes, for Salary.  
Tax : PAY CASH HANDLING TAX!  

11) Que.: Where are you taking your client for Lunch & Dinner?  
Ans. : Hotel  
Tax : PAY FOOD & ENTERTAINMENT TAX!  

12) Que.: Are you going Out of Station for Business?  
Ans. : Yes  
Tax : PAY FRINGE BENEFIT TAX!  

13) Que.: Have you taken or given any Services?  
Ans. : Yes  
Tax : PAY SERVICE TAX!  

14) Que.: How come you got such a Big Amount?  
Ans. : Gift on birthday.  
Tax : PAY GIFT TAX!  

15) Que.: Do you have any Wealth?  
Ans. : Yes  
Tax : PAY WEALTH TAX!  

16) Que.: To reduce Tension, for entertainment, where are you going?  
Ans. : Cinema or Resort.  
Tax : PAY ENTERTAINMENT TAX!  

17) Que.: Have you purchased House?  
Ans. : Yes  
Tax : PAY STAMP DUTY & REGISTRATION FEE !  

18) Que.: How you Travel?  
Ans. : Bus  
Tax : PAY SURCHARGE!  

19) Que.: Any Additional Tax?  
Ans. : Yes  
Tax : PAY EDUCATIONAL, ADDITIONAL EDUCATIONAL & SURCHARGE ON ALL THE CENTRAL GOVT.’s TAX !

20) Que.: Delayed any time Paying Any Tax?  
Ans. : Yes  
Tax : PAY INTEREST & PENALTY!  

21) INDIAN : can i die now??  
Ans :: Wait, we are about to launch the funeral tax! 

The sad part is that most of this money is eaten by corrupt politicians and officials. People who pay these taxes rarely get any benefit.

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Criminal assault (also called as ragging) is common in professional colleges in Kerala. It has reached such a scary situation that some think that they can get away with rape under the disguise of ragging.  Many people suffer horrible abuse at the hands of these criminals.  These criminals know that they can easily get away under the banner of “ragging”.

In the SME case, the court has convicted three of the criminals under multiple sections. Kerala Online has published the photographs of all the accused in the rape case.

Yet it raises more questions. Why are the officials not convicted?  They obviously have resposibility in preventing such crime from happening inside the institution.  Now where are those senior students who tried to protect these criminals so that their careers are safe?

I think the only effective way to curb this is to ensure that the people who has the power to ensure discipline (principals, teachers etc.) are also convicted if anything like this happens. Also the first years students must be educated on the need to protect themselves. Our constitution even allows us to kill someone in self defence!

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The blatant disregard for rule of law in India will turn our country into a battlefield soon. We are no longer a democracy and we do not have freedom. We are slaves of politicians and goons who openly challenge and break the law. The judiciary & police is becoming corrupt and spineless and the day is not far away when our country will disintegrate like those african countries.

For example, Check out the Sri Ram Sena. They are openly saying that they will break law and will beat up anyone who will walk with a girl or will beatup a woman if she wears a jeans!  The funny thing is that the current administration uses them as a kind of proxy weapon. Political protection is what has provided fuel for these people with full of venom.

Check the following video,

All the criminals are on the camera and yet all of them are out on bail in a flash. Now they are planning to beat up everyone going out on the Valentine’s day. I have a feeling that very soon people will be arming themselves to protect them from these idiots.

I think it was better if British ruled us. Where is freedom if we are dictated by a gang of goons?

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Kerala’s capital Trivandrum is slowly becoming a heaven for criminals from other districts. Whenever there is a political, religious or trade union demonstration in Trivandrum, all criminals converge on the capital city and unleash violence. They are pretty sure that police won’t take any action and can continue damaging property and beating up people. Since I live in Trivandrum, I witness this “mobocracy” all the time. We are a failed “democracy”.

Congress organizes violence-fest in capital on Tuesday (20th January 2009)

Yesterday congress party organized a violence-fest in Trivandrum.  Party workers from all around Kerala converged at the city centre and started abusing poor pedestrians and government workers. Some of the women were abused on broad daylight in front of the camera and police. I guess Congress party wanted to make sure that violence is not the monopoly of DYFI cadres!

What is more ironic is the fact that Congress party was protesting against government apathy towards problems faced by people living in Trivandrum Yet they imported people from other districts to beat up residents of capital.

Impotent Police

Police in Kerala over years has turned to political slaves. The violence was happening right in front of them and was captured on camera. Yet, they just stood there as an impotent audience enjoying the violence perpetrated by criminals. Remember, the primary duty of the police is the preservation of rule of law. But right now police in Trivandrum is the “protector of criminals”. They provide protection to criminals from residents of Trivandrum!

Helpless pedestrians

Criminals were openly beating up pedestrians and preventing them from walking anywhere. Politicians and these criminals are mocking at the constitution of India. Police is complicit in all these illegal activities. I am sure our founding fathers who wrote the constitution must be turning inside their graves.

Self defence as in constitution

These criminals are so confident because of their numbers and the impotency of the police. They know that under political protection, they have complete freedom to do anything to anyone else. But our constitution gives us the power to use lethal force in self defence. We can even kill to protect ourselves.  You may be surprised, but our constitution allows use of lethal force even to defend another innocent civilian from criminal assault. Preparing ourselves for self defence seems to be the only hope.

Media turns a blind eye

What is more infuriating is the behaviour of pro-congress newspapers and media. Malayala Manorama completely ignored the violence and just printed a highly biased article on the “Metro” page which is circulated only in the capital city. The Hindu newspaper wrote a report sounding as if the pedestrians caused the problem!

Violence against women

What infuriates me further is the behaviour of these criminals against women. They went so far as to beat up a helpless woman in front of the cameras. Even the media persons refused to help the poor woman. It is a heinous crime and according to our law the police should have taken a non-bailable case. Our culture is so rotten that a mob of men always find it entertaining to molest/abuse a helpless woman.  It is more so because we find it enjoyable in watching it.

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Kerala Kaumudi has recently released the Malayalam calendar for the year 2009. People from outside Kerala might find it an essential download. The calendar is available as a downloadable PDF file and is about 1MB in size.

The calendar is in a printable format and contains train timings, holiday details, panchangam and horoscope.  Thanks Kerala Kaumudi for publishing an excellent Malayalam calendar online!

Click here to download Kerala Kaumudi Malayalam calendar for 2009.

Malayalam Calendar 2009

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Yesterday a large group of vandals (members of the Palayam DYFI area committee) attacked Cafe Coffee Day shop on the Vellayambalam-Kowdiar stretch. They attacked customers including women and partially destroyed the hotel complex. Police just watched as the mob over 100 people went on beating customers and employees of Cafe Coffee Day.  They also damaged vehicles parked near the shop. Police also said that they are not registering a case as no one complained about the attack.

According to the DYFI activists the Cafe Coffee Day was promoting “immorality” by giving out delicious coffee to the customers. Their coffee is so costly that DYFI members are unable to buy and hence in protest they attacked the hotel. I am just joking. They don’t have a reason - they claim that the coffee chain is somehow promoting bike races along the Kowdiar-Vellayambalam stretch.

Now it begets a bigger question. Who are these DYFI guys to act against “immorality”. Is DYFI the new police force of Kerala? What are the police doing?  Are they supposed to protect people from criminals?

I have three possible reasons for the attack. These are the usual reasons behind almost all political attacks. Also never underestimate the influence of “envy” in human behavior.

1. A local DYFI leader was not given enough attention when he visited the coffee shop.
2. DYFI might have asked for large party donations which the owner refused.
3. They were so envious of the people who had better coffee at Cafe Coffee Day than what you get at Indian Coffee House.

Here is a report from The Hindu on the terror attack.

“Around 100 DYFI activists armed with sticks and stones attacked the restaurant. When some customers tried to escape, they also attacked them, including women,” a restaurant employee said. Being Christmas Eve, the restaurant was crowded, mostly with families.

To me these vandals exactly fit the definition of a “terrorist”. A terrorist is the one who ”terrorizes” people. The only difference here is that they don’t have AK47s with them.

Guys, It is not “manly” to attack helpless families and women with sticks and weapons. Only impotent men do that to vent their frustration.

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Just few days back I wrote why free software enthusiasts should be ashamed of the immature protest they did at the National Free Software conference held at CUSAT in Cochin. They went on to do things that clearly was criminal in nature. Police had to be called in to throw them out. What was the whole protest for?  They were irritated that Novell was one of the sponsors of the event. It was unforgivable that Novell had a business relationship with Microsoft (The Great SATAN).

Now let us look at what happened at the “Free Software Free Society“  conference held at Trivandrum last week. It turns out there was no Novell to be seen! But behold! Windows & Microsoft is everywhere! :-)  As this guy points out, there were numerous seminars and display stalls running Windows software!  There was no one to protest.

Here is some food for thought,

• I think a large majority of so called ‘hardcore free software fanatics’ use pirated Windows at home. Otherwise how will they play latest computer games (which also is pirated)?
• Most of them have no clue what the word “Free” in the Free software means.
• The free software movement is being hijacked for political purpose as Kenney points out.
• When I went to the expo I could see a lot of government departments participating. Even the white elephants like KSEB (who can’t even properly run the electrical distribution network) is focusing on free software movement. If these guys start contributing, I guess it will be the end of  FSF movement.

Here are some interesting comments from the FSF India mailing list,

Cannot show my face now to all our student activists here.. What you said is true.. in the phase of engineering colleges turning to GNU.. students of the respective colleges taking care of their labs.. we might be having a tough time.. once we go into people… and they ask…. ” Is it true that free software can’t do with out prop..?” I pray GOD this doesn’t happen….

AND MORE IMPORTANTLY THIS IS AN INSULT TO RMS…. THIS IS AN INSULT TO FREE SOFTWARE MOVEMENT…. we always showed alternatives and better software to people stuck up with proprietary software.. but WE DON”T FIND ONE FOR OURSELVES ???? that too in an international conference ( questioning the movement in India at a global scale )…..  UNACCEPTABLE…

– Siddhartha M.

If  u want to advice others not to drink alcohol, then first you should not
drink alcohol. If u already drinking alcohol and advising others not to
drink the same, then who will listen to ur words? And also this will spoil
all the efforts of other GOOD ADVISERS

If u r a die-hard fan of those proprietary softwares, then please stay away
from all free software activities……….dont spoil the free software
philosophies any more

– Yaanilan

I was at the exhibition hall . It was a real waste of money. The venue was originally made for AITUC national  conference. By the present Kerala standards the bill for AITUC event must go to free software account. Most of the government stalls were manned by known CPIM members who have no clue on free software.  I also spotted a couple of windows machines.   They spent  a lot of money putting out cut outs and posters across the city. What is the use of all this waste to free software. As some one mentioned previously   the free software movement in Kerala has been  hijacked by CPIM and co. This event has proven it.     The event was conducted in a typical communist manner.  Good food for all comrades at Muscot and some free pass to party members. Free software is really free beer. 

– Aby

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