Regarding the performance of Sreemathi teacher, all should forgive because she also had her schooling in the same manner.

More than the spoken form of any language, the prowess in it is proven
when one can write correctly.

E.g. … the words broadcast, forecast etc. should never be ‘broadcasted’
or ‘forecasted’ as is used by you in the first paragraph.

Anyway, the sky has not come down crashing!

Cheers, pal
Q. Fernandes

And then you said – To be blamed me and you for electing so called “leaders” who dont have atleast a degree

How about practicing at least a few of the things we preach?

To be blamed me and you for electing so called “leaders” who dont have atleast a degree .Shame on us.When we do have thousands of qualified people around how come this lady who says “not about you i am talking” instead of ‘I am not talking about you’ reached the respectable position of a minister of our state…..

I have not seen any left establishment leading an anti-English movement, but I agree that there has been an ire against people who speak English. But this has nothing to do with Communists alone but the general public of Kerala including the Congress and BJP men. This could be partly because English has been considered as the language of the Elites and much of the Elites have always disregarded/ignored the less privileged ones based on their financial status. Also I have seen many of these Elites seeking respect at all public places just because they speak English and I have seen them using that language as a tool just for that (blame it also on the colonial slavery mindset of the general public and businesses here who have less respect to their own regional language). And I am talking about it from my own experience (it was a trigger for me to learn English myself).

About taking and implementing policies – what have the other parties been doing? They are not much less militant than Communists are (have heard many stories from politics including murder and it includes all political parties and its leaders, though I don’t want to quote incidents here). So if the other parties (or people) were so passionate about any cause/policy why didn’t they raise their voice enough or why didn’t they follow up? We are not living in China anyways and all major political parties here have enough muscle power, so why?

When talking about policies, how inclusive are we about development and policies? The common public, like you and me, gets angry about the “sorry” state of our state but what can justify our silence on the public issues like Moolampilly, or Chengara or much later the Varkala Dalit issues happened? Where did our anger go then? The media gave it a few space because these happened in a Communist rule. Otherwise, media wouldn’t even put in on the last page. Why so? And what did we call those protestors out there, together with Communists? That they have support from Naxalites? Again how inclusive are our views of development?

Whether we would like to admit it or not, the left establishment has been wielding a stranglehold on all aspects of life in Kerala for the past many decades. No policy or change can be implemented in practically any sphere (other than maybe religious) if the left establishment (controlled largely by the CPM) opposes it.

We are witness to the sad spectacle of so many initiatives that they prevented when out of power, only to subsequently implement the very same when in power. The average Malayali is too scared to even question these actions publicly (they leave it to the other political parties, manorama etc.) and have a “stick with the stronger” (why mess with them?) attitude.

Ours is a schizophrenic society – One that appears on the outside to be bold, literate, politically aware and always ready to respond to social issues but is actually on the inside incapable of independent thought, gutless, emasculated and under the complete control of the Left Establishment.

When the party decides to start an agitation, for example an environmental cause, everybody jumps in with his or her two bit. When the party decides to stop, everybody goes home without a murmur, irrespective of whether the objectives were met or not.

Just as the left establishment can take the lion’s share of the credit for our standard of living that is comparable to European standards (according to UN bodies), they must take responsibility for and correct the pathetic situation that we find ourselves in today.

In George Orwell’s “Animal Farm”, the pigs lead the animals in a successful revolt against the cruel farmer. One of the many things the animals (led by the highly intelligent pigs) agree upon is to maintain the farm house as a museum, to remind themselves of the criminal luxury in which farmer and his family lived at the expense of the poor animals.

They also swore (among other things) never to wear clothes, sleep in a bed, drink alcohol or to kill another animal. A popular slogan that they used to shout at their gatherings was “four legs good, two legs bad!!”

Over the course of time however, the pigs use their control over the fierce dogs in the farm to terrorise and even kill other animals suspected of colluding with the enemy.

Gradually, the animals lose their power to think and are easily manipulated. The laws and slogans are cleverly modified to allow the pigs to behave more and more like their enemies, the humans. They wear clothes, drink alcohol, walk on two legs and even move into the farm house where they regularly entertain humans to all night sessions of loud partying and gambling.

The much loved slogan is transformed into “four legs good, two legs better”. Eventually the enslaved animals would “look from pig to man, and man to pig, and from pig to man again; but already it was impossible to say which was which.”

In our beloved state, there was a time when those who owned cars and used air conditioning were considered as blood sucking capitalists (so many slogans still ring in my head !!). The English language was the weapon that the evil capitalists used to communicate with one another to subjugate the poor toiling masses – hence to be abhorred at all costs. The study and use of it was actively discouraged and ridiculed by the comrades (while the clever among them sent their children to English medium schools along with the children of the bourgeois).

Today we have reached a stage where the comrades cannot think of travelling other than first class ac (while still abusing the wealthy for doing so) and now the good teacher has started to walk on two legs and is valiantly trying to show off her mastery of the “cursed” language in public.

Of course “sensible” malayalis (read – those who have lost their power to react) would hold their peace as they would never know from where the fierce dogs would pounce on them and tear them to bits.

Thus the emasculated malayali “looks from comrade to capitalist, and capitalist to comrade, and from comrade to capitalist again; but already it is impossible to say which is which.”

Talking about education – The lack of a metro atmosphere (except for Kochi or Trivandrum of course), the unaffordable CBSE, ICSE schools education and the sorry-state of English teachers in the state-run schools etc do contribute to the lack of an average student standing up in front of the urban-educated student from other states is a reality, but are they to be blamed? The kids who belong to the former range of schools in Kerala do far better than the state-syllabus educated kids. Do you hear the word “affordability” here? Economics, perhaps?

Net result – the standard of English in Kerala becomes pathetic and Keralites develop a fear-complex towards using this highly useful tool.

This pattern can be seen across the board – politics, education, IT, industry, government services, arts, development…….

That is why Kerala is steadily going backwards while many of the ‘backward’ states are marching forward.

……. today, the emasculated malayali “looks from comrade to capitalist, and capitalist to comrade, and from comrade to capitalist again;
but already it is impossible to say which is which.”