Raju and his second innings

The founder and master brain of Satyam Computers, Ramalinga Raju, now spends his life inside a jail, after the expiry of the bail he was granted.It may look funny for somebody outside the walls, but the jail authorities might, otherwise,have wished to get Mr.Raju inside.November 1, 2010 will mark a new phase of life for those inside Hyderabad jail.Mr Chidambaram, home minister, will inaugurate a BPO unit working inside the confinement of it of which R.Raju will be appointed as CEO.This is of course a typical example of a revolutionary thought and implementing the same, one another way of using the potential trapped(!?) inside.It attains a special significance for making those people engaged and enabling them to live honoured, though they are living inside.This is very much a honour to the rights of those inside, to live honoured, making right use of the potential in full.

Learning, from the past

The first mass movement that still inspires me, like many others, is the mass literacy campaign in the late 1980s in Kerala.Being a child of around 8 years, I was just looking around all with a curiosity.My mother, who was a teacher in a government aided, privately managed, school, was an instructor responsible to conduct the class for the identified illiterates in our area.Hanging onto my mother most part of the day, I happened to be there with her during the class timings.One day, when my mother went for a short break during the class, I was approached by the participants of the class to check right what they had written on their black slate.I was totally amazed thinking why they approached me; the attendants of this class were those who aged equal to my grandmother at least.I could derive no meaning at that age for having little idea on the real importance of the efforts behind such a popular programme, but learned it later how greater were the efforts behind such a mass mobilization, taking Kerala society further ahead into new heights of social upliftment.

Literature – The real Common Wealth

(Paul Zachariya speaks at the concluding session of the 'Writers meet')

It is our tradition to enjoy every festival, be it sports, games, art or culture.On the (silent)side-lines of the second largest multi-disciplinary sports and games festival, ie., the Commonwealth games, Delhi had been witnessing many programmes including the ‘Writers’ Meet’, with literary personalities from Commonwealth countries.The apex body of Indian literature identity, ie., Kendra Sahithya Academy, was the host for this literary exercise.On the concluding day of the event, 13 October, there were five writers on the stage, with the absence of Rana Dasgupta who was down with the talk of the day disease, dengue.Of the five, four were Indian writers and one from Malawi.Indian writers included, Geetha Hariharan who have a Tamil-Kerala-US link in her built, Paul Zacharia from Kerala who is known for his ‘Bhaskara Patteler and My Life’(English translation of his own famous Malayalam novel), Surjit Patar who is a famous Punjabi poet and a retired professor of his language, and Tamizhachi Thangapandian(P.Sumati) a Tamil poetess and an active politician.The only foreign representative was Chisomo Mdalla, a young Malawian who have a variety of interests in creative thinking.He, is a poet, writes prose, is a theatre activist and he is good at fine art forms of expressions too.Every writer caught the attention of the audience in different ways, all had some of their works to present before the few who gathered in the hall.Surjit Patar, the oldest among the attending writers, was to start the presentation with his ‘Mago’(a Spanish word for magician) which arouse the curiosity inside a child for his magical touch on words to make it a poem.It was really catching for its simplicity and he was simple and straight in putting ideas into words with the remaining items he had.All praise should go to him for making the evening meaningful with his attendance and presenting his works.Sumati was very strong in her words and was taking some critical assessment on what happens around the world, particularly against the attack on a girl, who was in her pubescence, by US soldiers, which happened a few years ago in Bagdad, the capital city of Iraq.Mdalla was also very strong in his words, trying to put all his energy to express.Geetha chose herself to remain in the chair, the duty she had in the session.Finally, it was Zacharia to address the audience.But there was nothing new from his side.He was presenting a few chapters, from the beginning and end portions, of the novel ‘Bhaskara Patteler and My Life’(in its translated form) which was the story behind a Malayalam film ‘Vidheyan’.The efforts put in by Sahithya Academy should be praised for presenting an alternate side of Commonwealth which is the only Common Wealth in its real sense, ie., literature.