BeerCamp Kerala!

It has come to our attention that there are so many events happening in our state which is totally misleading us, the Kudiyans (drunkards) of Kerala. One such event is called BarCamp Kerala which took place just some weeks back. We, the kudiyans of Kerala, were totally misguided by the name of the event and were dissappointed to find that the BarCamp had nothing to do with a Bar at all! We had even gone there with a handful of pickle and onion expecting that they would have a couple of pegs for us. But instead we found a group of young people discussing some weird topics. WTF!!

Enough is enough we say! So we have teamed up to come up with the first ever BeerCamp Kerala!! YESH PEEPPLES!!! The official BeerCamp Kerala is to happen in Chalakudy (where the liquor sales break it’s own record on every single festive season in the whole of Kerala) and the dates are to be announced soon. You will get lots of free beer and all you have to do is to bring up a stainless steel glass from your kitchen.

Adding to the free beer, we will also be having an un-derwear-conferene where all of us will be discussing the ways of effective drinking. The following sessions will be there, taken by some eminent personalities from Kerala:

vaaLu vekkal (vomitting) as an art form – by kanaal Vaasu
How to drink a full bottle with one piece of onion – spirit Mathaayi
Idiot’s guide to get rid of hang over – kavutta Mammathu

So what are you waiting for? Get your a$$es out of those sewers! Confirm your attendence now!!

See you at BeerCamp Kerala! Baar Salaam!!

Playing For Change

Playing For Change: Peace Through Music is a project where a song travels around the world and people from different countries add their part to it – vocalists and instrumentalists. The whole process is captured in video as well. Check out this beautiful video of a cover of the Ben E. King classic, Stand By Me, by musicians around the world. This and other songs such as “One Love” will be released as digital downloads soon; followed by the film soundtrack and DVD early next year.

Sign up at www.playingforchange.com for updates and exclusive content.

Blogswara V5 released!

Here comes that moment of the year again where we all get to listen to the songs of Blogswara! Blogswara’s version 5 has been released today at 12 AM IST in our website – http://www.blogswara.in. There are 14 songs in total for this album which includes songs in 4 langauges – Malayalam, Tamil, Hindi and Kannada – and instrumental music. Go to our website, listen to the songs and let the song teams know your feedback. And also if you like the songs, please do spread the word through your blogs and emails. By the way, I have sung two songs – Azhaithathu Yaaro (with Sindhuja) and Etho Oru Pookkaalam. Listen to both and let me know your comments. 🙂

I would like to thank each and everyone from the song teams who have worked hard to make this happen. You guys keep the spirit of Blogswara going on! Also thanks to our moderators panel who have been instrumental in the songs selection process. I want to specially thank Nandu Mahadevan for taking time to master all the songs through his busy work schedules and Jyothis E for taking care of the hosting of our songs and for promptly responding at the crucial times. Thank you both!! And to Connexionz and Don who have been helping us with the website hosting from the very beginning.

For those who don’t know about Blogswara yet, here is an introduction given below:

Blogswara (http://www.blogswara.in) is an internet music community which acts as a common platform for musicians (a majority of whom are amateurs) to showcase their talent before the world by producing original music and share it over the internet. It is also a free-music movement where visitors/listeners can listen and download the mp3 files free of cost. So far we have released 4 internet albums and Blogswara Version 5 is scheduled to be released by the year end. The songs are in multiple languages and so far we have had songs in Malayalam, Tamil, Kannada and Hindi. People from abroad have also shown interest in Blogswara. There is an American musician, who plays Sitar, will be working for this year’s album.

Blogswara proves that people, wherever they are or whatever languages they speak, can come together for a cause – here the cause being music. And the digital age has made it easy for them to meet each other and collaborate. Many of the individual musicians who have appeared in Blogswara have not seen each other in the real world but they are still able to collaborate. Human spirit is what drives Blogswara. Like the Blogswara tagline (United in Music) says here people unite in music.

Wiki: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blogswara

Avant Garde Bloggies Awards

Avant Garde Bloggies Awards is an initiative by Poonam Sharma & her friends to recognize some of the best posts of the Blogosphere. The winners have just been announced in Poonam‘s blog, and there are some very interesting posts out there. I had the privilege of being one of the judges for the Music category. Check out the list of winners and go through the winner blog posts. Congrats to Poonam for taking efforts to carry out this initiative successfully and to all the winners and participants.

Horticop Vegetable Kits

One of the good things (among the many bad things) that LDF Government has initiated in Kerala is the Horticop’s (The Kerala State Horticulture Corporation) vegetable kit supply. Horticop supply vegetable kits at major market places in and around Thiruvananthapuram city for Rs. 18. The initiative was taken place when the vegetable prices shot up and to make sure that the people get vegetables at a good price. The above picture shows the Horticop’s vehicle supplying the vegetable kits at Vazhuthacaud, Trivandrum (picture taken from my office). This supply vehicle comes almost everyday in the evenings and there is a huge crowd gathering to buy the kits and all the kits are sold out in a few minutes. There is also meat supply in another vehicle, which again makes sure that you get good farm meat prodicts at a good price.

The Horticop has also set up small shops in different parts of the city and these stores are also being extended to other districts. This initiative also helps some people get employment and the others to buy vegetables at a good price.

The “Dry Day” Comedy

Kerala’s liquor policy is one of the most stupid and ineffective decisions of the previous government which is being continued to the date by the current government. According to the existing policy, bars and liquor shops would remain shut on the first of every month and on all government holidays. One of the reasons cited for this move was that the employees would spend a good portion of their monthly salary in the bars or for buying liquor from the shops on the first of every month. So the government thought this move would reduce the liquor consumption, but they were wrong.

In fact, the government statistics show that Malayalees’ liquor consumption has only increased ever since the policy put in place. The reasons are plenty. Not all drunkards are salaried people. There are so many people who work for daily wages who spend a good portion of their daily wages to buy liquor from the shops or from bar hotels. And for salaried sector, they buy and store liquor prior to the holidays (including Hartal days as Hartal is also a major holiday here in Kerala). So you can see big queues outside the liquor shops on 30th or 31st of every month. Well, that’s not all. Even on the 1st of every month and holidays, you will get liquor for some extra bucks. Some three star hotels sell liquor on these days through their backdoor. Only difference is that you will have to pay some extra than the usual shop rate. Some ‘wise men’ also store liquor in big quantities and sell them to their ‘regular customers’ on these Dry Days. So you only have to give them a call and get your bottle delivered, again, for some extra bucks.

So in effect, the government’s policy is only helping some private parties to make more money out of the Dry Days. This joke has got to stop and government should think about other ways to effectively implement the liquor policy.

(Image courtesy: Rediff.com)

Learn without Fear

Plan India

Plan India is a Child-Centred Development organisation that works towards promoting Child Rights and improve the quality of life of vulnerable children. They have launched a campaign “Learn without Fear” against violence faced by children in schools and homes. This campaign is currently being launched in seven states (Uttar Pradesh, Uttrakhand, Bihar, Rajasthan, Orissa, Andhra Pradesh & New Delhi) in which Plan works, and will aim to directly improve the lives of millions of children in India.

This campaign is about preventing all forms of violence against children in schools. It includes corporal punishment, sexual abuse, neglect, verbal abuse, emotional abuse, bullying, peer-to-peer violence, youth gangs, use of weapons, and harassment in school and on the journey to and from school.

Plan India, has also set up a Children Advisory Board (CAB) wherein children from different stratas of society meet every month and discuss problems faced by them in schools, share their experiences and views and suggest solutions. They are also planning to work within communities, parents, teachers and children to end violence in schools.

Key findings of the study by Ministry of Women and Child Development, Government of India 2007*

1) 69 % children reported physical abuse, including corporal punishment, i.e. two out of three children were victims of corporal punishment

2) 62 % of the corporal punishment was in government and municipal schools

3) Most children did not report the matter to anyone

4) 53.22% children reported having faced one or more forms of sexual abuse

5) 21.90% child respondents reported facing severe forms of sexual abuse and 50.76 % other forms of sexual abuse

6) The states of Andhra Pradesh, Assam, Bihar and Delhi have almost consistently reported higher rates of abuse in all forms as compared to other states

* Study based on experiences of 12, 447 children, aged 5-18 years across13 states.

(Image courtesy: PlanIndia.org)
(Thanks to Kanika Kohli for the info)

Blogswara Version 5 is coming up!

It is time for another version of Blogswara! Yes, it is Blogswara’s fifth album!! We have posted the song teasers in our website, so hop over there to listen to the 20 seconds long song previews.

We have 14 songs this year and in four languages – Hindi, Malayalam, Tamil, Kannada (the first Kannada song of Blogswara) – and also some great instrumental music pieces. All by some of the people who have participated in Blogswara’s previous versions and many new faces.

So watch out for 12th December 2008, which is only one week away from now, for the grand release of Blogswara Version 5. And do spread the word around!

Visit http://www.blogswara.in

Blogswara’s Wiki page
Blogswara website

Songs preview:


The distance from Taj to CST

The Mumbai terror attack has reaffirmed the fact that there are two faces of India. The common man’s India and the VIPs’ India. The thriving creamy layer has space everywhere and it’s opinion matters while the other India is nothing but some mere objects to use for power. Oh and I ‘m not talking about the political class yet, but the media.

The media reports on the Mumbai terror attacks make us feel like that the CST/VT shootout never happened. It was mentioned in the initial news reports, and then slowly pushed to the back bench. Taj and Oberoi had come in by that time. I can understand if it was because the fight in the Taj was the longest one in the whole terror episode. But even after the whole mess was over, little has been mentioned about the CST/VT shootout where 55 people were killed by the terrorists. But media loved Taj more. The images of Taj with flames filled the background of the news desks and TV channels everywhere. When 26/11 became India’s 9/11, the Taj was called as the Twin Towers of India. An icon of India, they said. The TV cameras couldn’t hold off it’s eyes from Taj even after the whole mess ended up. The common man and his CST was of no interest to them. Then came the elite – TV and movie stars, high-profile writers – right infront of the camera and began recalling their nostalgic memories of the hotel. Shobha De was furious. So was Ratan Tata.

India’s elite and creamy layer have got the clear message – that they could be the next possible victims of a terror attack. It many not always be those people who travel in the packed trains carrying thousands of ordinary people. It may not always be those pan wallahs, or sabji vendors who get killed by a time bomb. And that fear has made the elite spoke like they never did. And I guess the government would listen to them now.

In an article titled “Hotel Taj : icon of whose India?“, Gnani Sankaran writes:

And the TV cameras did not go to the government run JJ hospital to find out who those 26 unidentified bodies were. Instead they were again invading the battered Taj to try in vain for a scoop shot of the dead bodies of the page 3 celebrities. In all probability, the unidentified bodies could be those of workers from Bihar and Uttar Pradesh migrating to Mumbai, arriving by train at CST without cell phones and pan cards to identify them. Even after 60 hours after the CST massacre, no channel has bothered to cover in detail what transpired there.

The so called justification for the hype the channels built around heritage site Taj falling down (CST is also a heritage site), is that Hotel Taj is where the rich and the powerful of India and the globe congregate. It is a symbol or icon of power of money and politics, not India. It is the icon of the financiers and swindlers of India. The Mumbai and India were built by the Aam Aadmis who passed through CST and Taj was the oasis of peace and privacy for those who wielded power over these mass of labouring classes. [ Hotel Taj : icon of whose India? ]

Meanwhile, V P Singh, a former prime minister of India, who was fighting cancer for a long time passed away and not many people have noticed it. The media did not cover the news with the due importance even after the terror attacks. They were after banking upon the emotions after the terror attacks.

Kangal Irandaal (cover)

Kangal Irandaal from Subramanyapuram

Kangal Irandaal from Subramanyapuram is one of the most beautiful songs I have heard in the recent times. I never get tired listening to this song over and over again because there is some kind of innocence and beauty about this song which I cannot really put in to words. And the singers have brought out very good emotions in the song. The karaoke track had Deepa Mirium’s vocals in it and I added just the male vocals part. Another duet version of this is coming up soon. (Thanks to Rosh for the track)

Song: Kangal Irandaal
Music: James Vasanthan
Original singers: Belly Raj, Deepa Mirium
Sung by: Jo (with the vocal track of Deepa Mirium)

Download the MP3 of this song


Kangal Irandaal (cover) | Music Codes

(Image courtesy: India Glitz)