THE PASSING OF THE JEWISH ERA IN KERALA

The death of Sarah Cohen, the grand old dame of the Jewish community, at her home, opposite to the Synagogue in Mattancherry, Kochi, at the ripe age of 96, brings an end to an era of a community that came to be known as ‘Pardesi Jews’, a journey of exile of people of a community that started from Portugal, Spain, Syria and Iran; to be welcomed and allowed to settle down in one of the oldest of trading posts on this side of Arabian Sea. 

It is said that of the pardesi Jews, now resettled predominantly in Israel, Canada and Britain; amounting  to only a few hundred now, has only just two people left here at Mattancherry. It was  five people about six months ago of which two migrated to Israel and now with Sarah gone, practically ceased to exist in the historical land of Mattancherry of 6x4 kilometres dimension, which even today hosts around 35 plus different communities drawn from all over from India and abroad such as Gujratis, Marwaris, Banyas, Kutchis, Saraswat Brahmins, Angola Indians, Jains, Jews, Tamil Brahmins, Muslims of Arab descendants, local Muslims, Hindus and of course, Christians. Whereas in places of high migration such a USA, the melting of culture happens, it is a matter of an unique culture here in Mattancherry where every community, even toady, follows its distinctive traditions, lifestyle and rituals that was being followed for centuries by their forefathers. Such places seldom exist in the world today  and one would urge travelers from across the planet to visit this anthropological wonder called Mattancherry which adjoins another heritage place called Fort Cochin, thus  deriving a double treat of an experience. 

Coming back to the Jews, they retained their exclusivity and did not do any admixture. Very fair and Europeanish, they had made immense  contributions to the state of Kerala particularly on its economy, as most of them were in business of export, import and distribution. All Pardesi Jews could read write and speak Malayalam, the local language and some of them even got employed in government services, for instance, Sarah’s late husband Jacob Cohen worked for the Income tax department. Later, there came in Jews  from other parts of the world and got settled in northern part of Kerala, thus, coming to be known as Malabar Jews (almost all of them had left Kerala by now, mostly migrating to the promised land, Israel. 

History may not  be of much value to the generation today and the end of Jewish culture in Kerala may not be of much consequences to the polity of the state, particularly  when majoritarian culture is swallowing everything. However, this milestone must be viewed as very significant on social and cultural terms, for, it indeed is passing of an era!

THE LONELY BOAT IN GOLDEN TWILIGHT

Twilight sun, filtering through

Dense black rain-clouds

Salty water turning golden

Dancing before the eyes

There floated the lonely boat

Beyond the waves, swaying

Tied to the anchor, going up and

Down, awaiting another travel

Calmly, knowing the job

The responsibility of linking

Man to the sea, the means

To his livelihood, eternal

Taking him far, deep into the sea

Netting, fishing, taking rest in between

Lonely nights, only stars to protect

From the open sky, showing the way

And then bringing him ashore

With bounty plenty, enriching him

Making him dear to family and friends

A proud man, beaming with joy

The glory of fisherman, his life

His dwelling, happiness, all due to me

The boat knew, will it ever break it

Leaving him asunder

Even for a lovely great evening this

With golden rays and dancing waves

The lonely boat, stuck to the anchor, cosily

Knowing the job, awaiting another busy day.

A PATIENT'S IMPRESSION ON HIS CATARACT SURGERY

Though the average life expectancy of a male Keralite is 75 years, it is only when you hit your 60s that you feel to have reached the right side of your life span. It is now a few months left for me to hit that milestone to be officially callled a ‘senior citizen’. 

Generally it is observed that people in their late 60s or mid 70s will have the occasion to undergo cataract surgery of the eye but for me, it happened right at 59. Therefore, am l so lucky to do the cataract surgery this early? “Just don’t worry”, my ophthalmologist said when I was consulting him. “There had been many cases where people in their late 40s and early 50s getting the cataract surgery done. So, I don’t see anything exceptional in your case. Besides you are undergoing the surgery when you are healthy. So, it is good to get it done early”. His expert comments were reassuring. One way I have been lucky to undergo the surgery by the hands of Dr Sony George, a very knowledgeable, experienced and reputed eye specialist in Cochin, now heading ophthalmology department in Medical Trust Hospital, who also is my club member and a great fan of my oratory skills. So, we are a mutual admiration society!

During consultancy, Dr Sony enthusiastically advised me to go for a multi-focal lens than the normal mono-focal one,  describing its advantages for a person like me who read a lot, also saying that with a multi-focal lens, one could even do away with spectacles. Because the doctor was was my reliable friend, I purposely didn’t go online/google to fetch more details of the types of lenses and agreed to go for a multi-focal one. Was he disappointed because I did not go for the latest and best lens but decided on a medium multi-focal one? I cannot tell and I do believe that he was okay with my call. 

It was the right eye and we fixed the D day on 6th February, my 30th wedding anniversary day! Why did I chose the anniversary day for surgery? May be, doing a milestone surgery on a rememberable day, will turn the drudgery of surgery into a celebration! Why not?

Medical Trust is an old but reliable hospital, originally started by Dr Verghese Pulikkan, with financial, moral and administrative support from the great MKK Nayar IAS, then Chairman of FACT Ltd., the doyen in the field of Administration an Management in Kerala who shaped up FACT into the country’s top fertilizer manufacturing company. He was a visionary leader and a philanthropist too. Dr Pulikkan, a very nice, charming doctor caught the attention of MKK to be helped, to set up the state’s first corporate hospital! 

But being the first and therefore old, has its own disadvantages too. Its culture and legacy doesn’t match up with the 21st century new-gen hospitals. Everyone, from top to bottom behaves in the ‘giver’ mode and so you can’t expect behavioural niceties and courtesies like the one you get from a modern day institutions. However, MTH has an efficient working system and some of the doctors here such as Saji Kuruttukulam, Sony George etc are top notch in their field. And, I am safely in the hands of one such doctor. 

On the 6th morning my daughter from Bangalore wished me on WhatsApp with a graphics greeting saying, “keep calm and trust your ophthalmologist” and I duly forwarded it to the doctor. After an early breakfast at home Shali, my dear wife celebrating her 30th wedding anniversary with me, and I left for MTH and at 7 AM reported at the hospital and took the room. The nurses there took my measurements and gave me a tetanus injection and after changing into sterile OT clothes, I was wheeled into the OT at close to 10 AM. To go to the ophthalmology OT one has to pass through the Transplant ICU and there I saw an anesthetized patient spreadeagled alone on a slanted bed with all sorts of equipments and sensors connected to him. It was definitely not a reassuring view. 

We (the nurse and I on the wheel chair) reached the ante room of OT. Already there were two eye surgery patients and a orthopaedic one waiting in the room. Ortho OT is adjacent to the eye OT. I didn’t like it being there. Very insipid room with multi diseases patient on the queue having unimpressive chatter box nurses in very insipid green OT clothes frequenting it up and down. The nurses were efficient but not that empathetic and their conversation were businesslike (“acha, etha kannu, tetanus injection edutho? etc). The thoughts that splashed through my was the mobile phone alert “you are on the queue, please wait”. It was a good wait (my turn was second) and I dozed off. In between while sleeping, and I hazely remember Dr Sony walking in and wishing me before going to the OT.

My turn came and I was taken to the OT. A beaming Dr Sony welcomed me on to the OT bed. I didn’t have any fear or apprehension. But what came into my thoughts at that time was of Professor M Krishnan Nair, my son in law’s grand father, (someone whom I had read plenty and therefore revered) the renowned Malayalam critic and writer, seeking reassurance from his eye surgeon again and again of getting back his eyesight, even while on the OT table. Because, for him, a voracious reader, eyesight was everything and if he lost it that would have been the end! Though I thought of it, I wasn’t worried at all. 

The topical anaesthesia (something of a rarity that could only be performed by an experienced, skillful surgeon, otherwise it is local anesthesia which calls for a dangerous injection on the eye)  took the sensations away and doctor Sony went into work. I was asked to focus on the 3 lights coming from the lamps above my eyes. Then it was all the vroom sounds of the motors and different types of alarms. Occasionally, Dr Sony talked to me to be steady and not to move my head much. Frankly, I didn’t feel any incision happening or the multifocal lens being put inside. The lights, the frequently falling water on my right eye from the device above through the tube and instructions of Dr Sony to his team were all I remember of the operation. Some ten minutes later, Dr Sony said that it was over and I was aske sit and then get up. He got a photo of me made with him on the mobile phone camera with the V sign, I was asked to return to my room saying that he will meet me in the afternoon and he went back to preparing for the third operation of the day. I walked out with the nurse to the anteroom from where after a little wait, the ward nurse came over and took me to my room at the hospital. 

Actually, surgeries these days are hitech affairs. With anaesthesia on, a patient will hardly know what is happening. The equipment and the experience of the doctor using it are things that matter. In the end you hear that it is over and that is it. Since the doctor was known to me and the equipments were world class, why worry at all?

The first post operative phase is what I am on now. I wear a plastic transparent frame over my eyes so that my hands will not unnecessarily touch my eyes that could lead to infection. Actually the medication (5 or six different eye drops periodically being applied every 15/30 minutes have been a big challenge (notwithstanding the fact that I did nothing and it was all done by my dear wife). Still, lying on the bed, always being inside the home the with the eye sight slowly returning to normal, with all precautions taken to avoid infection (no head bath, no sleeping on the right side, always wearing the frame etc) need real discipline (that I do not have) and that was not all that enjoyable. These are the challenges of getting aged, you better take it in and undergo  it positively so that it will help you go through the phase better

WHOM DID THE BELL RING FOR?

The Kerala deluge is over but it’s after effects continues. It would take very long to get back to normal. In many places, it may even not!

More than 500 dead, a million people in relief camps, properties worth billions of Rupees destroyed, many are rendered homeless. Thousands of people had lost everything. Many places do not exist on the map now. Such trauma, such agony!

The political mudslinging had started. Office bearers  belonging to national ruling front advising country not to contribute any money to Kerala as it is only the rich who got affected. The country says no to big voluntary contributions coming from well meaning nations. Opposition leader calls for judicial investigation into the openings of dams without prior warning. The ruling front refutes. Experts at both side reeling  out judgements. TRP rate goes high on TV Channels!

The major saviours, the fisher folks are back home after saving tens of thousands of lives. The National Disaster Relief Force (NDRF) works hard. The local youth daringly come forward to assist, many even losing life in the process!

The Monsoon weather, the low pressure at Orissa, no integrated action plans on Dams opening, the neighbouring state playing truant,  the delay in army, navy reaching; there could be thousands of reasons for the high gravitas of the situation.

While we pay obeisance to the departed Souls on accounts of the floods, let us ponder for a moment on .......

What can be done for such a scenario not to repeat in Kerala, ever?

Do we go back and rebuild the same type of houses on fragile land?

Do we clean up the hill tops to make it habitable?

Do we close up riverbeds to create plantations?

Do we construct palatial mansions touching the river to show our pride?

Will we continue to handover dam management to the same departments without an unified integrated plan on opening them on calamity?

Do we sit idle for the powerful neighbouring state to influence the Federal government and other stakeholders not to act upon to  find an alternative to the dilapidated Mullaperiyar dam? 

Will we clamour for our involvement in the dam/river water management of those being owned (?) by the neighbouring states? 

Or

Do we all forget about whatever had happened and get back to our consumption patterns?

How do we move opinions? How do we take defaulters to task? How do we let go our pride of properties and sacrifice ownership for the safety of our people?

Questions linger...….. Remember, the alarm bell had rung!

The message is conveyed in unambiguous terms!

Now is the time for decisions and actions, so that the bells will not toll again!

REFLECTIONS OF A RECENT GUANGZHOU VISIT

Part of the ancestral silk route by the sea, eons ago

Now part of nation’s progress and Chinese ego

Silk gave way to umpteen new merchandise 

It is the new business avenues that it channelize

 

The city spends its energy on economy and eating

Says the brochure, true, people from all over meeting

Buying things made in and around, original and ‘copy’

Meeting low and high aspirations of all the needy

 

Planned out well, ambitiously copying a marque city

Wide roads, multiple metros, abundant electricity

Growing upwards, tall edifices and a CANTON TOWER

Many industry verticals combine here to show the power

 

Modern amenities, fairs and exhibition centres 

Converges buyers of the world in huge numbers

Them come flying in hoards, fill up lodging halls

Each event beating early records by many holes

 

City of Cantonese loving its rich global heritage

With a fertile delta by Pearl river cultivating in acreage

Thousands miles of flow done into South Sea

Rice, corn, millet, fruits and milk all around to see

 

City dwellers, working to strength but lack the zing 

Is there merriment in doing, on the faces does it bring?

Felt it involuntary, are they in motion for its own sake

Or the rulers conjuring it as happiness on the take?

 

Materialism in culture, overshadowing rich tradition?

Everyone behind fast buck and quick satisfaction

Purpose and meaning of living taking the last seat 

Is it, none knows what is in store, thus showing no heat?

 

Now growing into maximum city, powered by industries

And global clients, yet suffering greater uncertainties 

Trade barriers and tariffs, despite ‘open’ economies 

Will future get marred by  induced economic squeeze?

 

 

EXISTENCE

Existence - the dynamic nature of living

Though born by fluke, without purpose

Some pick up the meaning on the go

Many may not even know

 

Life in its beat sends in strange pictures

Of situations showing up suddenly

Shocked and shivering, you stand to face, get it

Or it gets you, it is survival times, either way!

 

Future becomes  present and past then turns into

An experience in a jiffy and the moment goes by

Away from memory, into oblivion, forever gone

Past is passé you feel, nothing makes any sense?

 

Life begets life, a progeny of your form 

                                   Tradition, legacy and lineage, bringing in

Hierarchies of blood and gene connect 

And keeps you in the maze of lines and layers

 

Ageing, a process, making you realise 

The unwantedness of living, in its end

As repetition of meaningless continuum

Salvation, why is it there in the first place?

 

Endeavours of karma, of getting results 

Without seeking it and then making it out

In a sorrowful world of food chains, of eating

The lower one or getting eaten up by the higher.

 

Excuses, pushing you, finding forsaken meaning

Making you grow up, die and decay

Back into mother earth, as building blocks

As manure, food, air, water and the like

From Devil to Deep Sea. The story of how the Internet Mega Corps compromise our liberty and life

When communism bit the dust, the world saw the failure of an economic and political experimentation that germinated from the thoughts of intellectuals such as Marx and Angels. While communism had its own glorious moments, its fall is attributed to the indulgences of individual autocrats it produced in various parts of the world who ran the governments.

From a bipolar world, in the nineties of the last century, planet Earth turned into a unipolar one. The shift took away the level of balance being maintained between the nations of the world. Capitalism took control of the world and   governmental/regulatory interferences started coming down. Lack of regulatory control led to huge monopolistic growth of corporations and they started spreading the tentacles over every resource available on the planet; be it men, money or material. The result is that of select few trusts/families and corporations controlling the wealth of the world. These behemoths progressed every year higher than the growth of the nations thus growing into extreme higher riches, going beyond the control of the governments of the world.

Here ends the traditional Industrial revolution. That was where we were at the turn of the century.

Enter technology....

Internet started impacting the world of commerce and business in a big way. Thing started moving from brick and mortar to the online 'click' world. With Web 2.0 arriving, the world moved into social networking that completely changed the behavioural pattern of humanity. Today an in individual is all alone physically but dwells in the crowd of the cyberspace. Relationships and social orders are going thru massive paradigm shift.

Add to that the online commerce. Something that had started as a referral purchase from small online companies had come to be established as big time ‘e-Commerce’ now. This Business is moving into trillions of dollars. Online technology companies grew to become Industrial behemoths. Google, Amazon, Alibaba, eBay there goes the endless list, multibillion dollar businesses having huge market capitalisation.

As it is, at the time of the plateauing of traditional industrial revolution, all major assets of planet Earth had come to be owned by business conglomerates. With the online companies invading further, it had completely become so. With scant respect for the governments around, these industrial and online companies flourish with the laws made by themselves for their own operations!  It is almost like the thief keeping the keys. Has anyone bothered to think of a future where humanity will be completely controlled by the corporates? Time and again, these corporates come out with technological innovations that would enslaven the masses and then everything is simple. Just let them do a little arm twist; you are in their hand, forever.....

It is not only wealth but it is the individual liberties that we are compromising now. In the age of cyberspace that we are now, we are at the mercy of technology which is acting as the regulator. Technology may be considered neutral but the corporate that owns it is not. The intent of the corporate owning the technology will be monetize the technology and amass wealth, thru the regulation that it brings forth thru the technology.  This regulator threatens liberty. Our preoccupation with the idea that liberty means "freedom from government" makes us not see the regulation in the new space.

This regulator is code, the software and firmware that the cyberspace is made of. This code and the architecture; set the terms on which life in cyberspace is experienced. Our privacy protection is determined by the code. This code can censor speech. The code decides whether access to information is general or specific in nature. It also decides who sees what and what needs monitoring.  It is a sort of slow poisoning effect.  We take our sweet time to realize that we had compromised many of our liberties in order to use the technology. In effect it is the technology and companies that own them that is regulating us now.

This regulation will soon change the cyberspace from a place that protects anonymity, free speech, and individual control; to a place that makes anonymity difficult, speech less free, and the user at the mercy of technology experts.

As mentioned already, for the technology and software companies, code is the law and architecture, the policy. Both are made by them. Amply protected by Intellectual regimes, the Internet corporations march the monopolistic way in order to monetize the technology. The pattern is similar to the mega corps of the industrial era in Pharma sector amassing huge wealth through patented medicines. This is just an example.  Human being will be restricted to the area designed by the Internet mega corps, at the beat of the technology. For example remember the attempt made by Facebook Corporation to take control of Indian Internet space through the freebees (www.internet.org) in tandem with a leading business conglomerate of India, with the National government abetting the process. What will all these lead to? Liberty will be lost forever; you will be the pawns at the hands of the mega corps.

What are the governments of the world doing about it? Dictated by the mega corporates, these governments stand as mute spectators with no teeth. Also, most of the governments of the rich nations are headed by the rich guys from the corporate world and thus, crony capitalism has come to stay here.

 There isn't much to govern, leave alone enacting regulations. Most of the governments are part of the plunder. Planet Earth is now fast being annihilated.

Technology which we considered neutral has now come to regulate us.  It is time to wake up and start thinking. Is this a world you and I have envisaged that technology would help us reaching our aspirations? We are slowly moving from the devil of Industrial Corporations to the deep sea of Internet Mega corps.

So the question is, what does future hold for you dear?