Weirdest Laws From Around The World  Story Dated : Wed,June,19 2013 12:12 hrs IST This past weekend, I was catching up on my travel reading  when I came upon the interesting tidbit that in Venice, Italy, it is illegal to feed pigeons at St. Marks Square. Although just a friendly warning at first, the fines can quickly escalate up... Sirf Dekhneka Nahin  Story Dated : Fri,May,17 2013 17:07 hrs IST Of course,  spot fixing was a scandal just waiting to happen, wasn't it?  And yes, I am talking about the most recent controversy to hit the cash rich IPL.  Just picture the scenario. A billion plus fawning... The Italian Opera  Story Dated : Sun,March,17 2013 23:02 hrs IST Okay, the Italian opera has commenced, and it's time for  a few questions.1. First off, is anyone really surprised  by  the recent volte face committed by the Italian government in the case involving two of their... Maestro of the Bamboo Flute  Story Dated : Tue,March,05 2013 13:36 hrs IST I remember the first time I heard Kudamaloor Janardanan play the flute. It was sometime early in the year 2004, at the Kowdiar Palace in Trivandrum. Prince Aswathy Thirunal Rama Varma of the Travancore Royal family had spoken to me earlier about... Friends, Indians, Countrymen......  Story Dated : Thu,January,31 2013 19:11 hrs IST (with apologies to William Shakespeare)Friends, Indians, countrymen, lend me your earsI have come not to berate  our Honourable Home Minister Sushil Kumar Shinde, nor to praise him,But to simply tell the truth about the person; someone of no great... A Message Of Love  Story Dated : Mon,December,24 2012 13:41 hrs IST The late Shri K.M. Mathew was much more than the erstwhile Chief Editor of the Malayala Manorama newspaper.  He was a person you could look up to; a role model to emulate;  a loving and respected  pater familias, from... There's coffee .........and then, there's coffee !  Story Dated : Sun,December,02 2012 15:28 hrs IST "A little bit of pineapple. Herbal complexity. Super-clean. Vibrant. Sparklingness......  Lush , tropical, hints of white, not yellow peach."Any guesses as to what this pretentious  yammering  is all about? Could it be: a.The  ad copy for the latest... Remembering  a childhood friend  Story Dated : Thu,November,15 2012 15:49 hrs IST Last week, I attended the funeral of a childhood friend of mine. It was a real depressing experience. There were but a handful of us at the ceremony - five of his close relatives, a few others, and me, the only friend of his, so to speak. It was a... Caesar's Wife...  Story Dated : Sat,October,13 2012 16:20 hrs IST should be above suspicion, says the popular proverb.Pompeia was the second wife of the  Roman king, Julius Caesar. According to history, Caesar married Pompeia in 67 BC, after his first wife had  died giving birth to a still born... The Road To Nowhere  Story Dated : Tue,September,11 2012 17:35 hrs IST Bob Morris is  a  writer  whose novels and columns I enjoy reading. He is a person possessed of  a wry sense of humour, and  who, like that  other great Floridian master of black... Remembering Pink Floyd  Story Dated : Wed,September,05 2012 16:31 hrs IST At times I unabashedly say, thank God for television. I was one of the tens of millions of people across the globe who watched the televised broadcast of the closing ceremony of the Olympics over this past weekend.  And what a musical... The Spectre of Fascism  Story Dated : Wed,August,08 2012 12:11 hrs IST The  recent public censure of V.S. Achuthanandan by the CPM Central Committee, and the suspension of the party's former Idukki  district secretary M.M. Mani,  marks yet another turning point in the affairs of the Red... The Joys of Solitude Story Dated : Sun,July,15 2012 19:05 hrs IST I have a medical condition that I find is better attended to by  ayurvedic, rather than allopathic medicine. So once a year, I take off for 21 days and submit myself to the rigors of a full monty ayurveda treatment - abhayanga, shirodhara,... The Short Skirt, Long Jacket Girl  Story Dated : Mon,June,18 2012 17:22 hrs IST Couch potatoes know how it is with television commercials. Whenever a new campaign is launched,  the ad agency goes in for what could be called in military terms as saturation bombing for the next few weeks. Depending upon the target group in the... The Ugly American Circa 2012  Story Dated : Thu,April,05 2012 09:27 hrs IST The Ugly American  was a 1958 political novel  written by Eugene Burdick and William Lederer. The novel was hugely popular, spending 76 weeks on the best-seller list  with more than 5 million copies sold. It was turned into a Hollywood movie in 1963... What's Good That's Left  Story Dated : Fri,March,09 2012 17:21 hrs IST I was recently reading the obituary of the former U.S. athlete, Jill Kinmont Boothe, who died on February 9, at the age of 75. She had been a champion skier -  the reigning national champion in slalom, and a sure prospect for a medal at the Winter... Gunfight At The O.K Corral  Story Dated : Wed,February,15 2012 20:29 hrs IST You can count upon the Comrades to provide us with maudlin entertainment on  a regular basis. The jholawallahs in Kerala seem to be particularly adept at this. Perhaps, the experience of running a General Entertainment TV channel has made... The Great Kerala Art Imbroglio  Story Dated : Tue,January,17 2012 15:20 hrs IST We Malayalis  love a good controversy, don't we?  And if we can't find one we just create one. As simple as that. Barely three weeks into the New Year, we are in the thick of what I would call  the Great Kerala Art Imbroglio. Fangs are bared, claws... Vox Populi Vox Dei  Story Dated : Sat,December,31 2011 09:51 hrs IST 2011 has finally come to an end. Whew, what an incredible  year it has been ! It seemed that the mistakes of the past had finally caught up with the excesses of the present to create an  annus horribilus where everything that could go wrong did go... Portrait of an Artist as a Historian  Story Dated : Mon,December,05 2011 16:12 hrs IST Last Sunday, on the 27th of November, the Durbar Hall Kalakendram  of the Kerala Lalithakala Akademi was dedicated to the nation by Kerala Chief Minister Oommen Chandy at a simple ceremony held in Cochin.  The renovation of the Durbar Hall was... Celebrating The Sandwich  Story Dated : Mon,November,07 2011 17:35 hrs IST The other day, a friend of mine jocularly remarked  that one has  to hand it over to the Americans  when it comes to celebrating wacky days. Name it, he said, and they have an occasion for it. Indeed, it is true. In addition to the traditional... Piracy Nation  Story Dated : Mon,October,24 2011 09:54 hrs IST Last week, the I&B Ministry of the Government of India had organized, in association with FICCI and the US Embassy,  an Industry Consultation to discuss the Ministry's Task Force Recommendations on Piracy. As a person involved... Mohanlal Gets His Mojo Back      Story Dated : Thu,October,06 2011 17:41 hrs IST I am an unabashed Mohanlal fan. I simply adore  him as an actor. And  when I say that, I I am not comparing  him to anyone else, or announcing to the wide world that I belong to some sort of devoted fan club whose members turn up in droves  on... In The Shadow Of Terror  Story Dated : Tue,September,20 2011 19:47 hrs IST Every  year, during Onam, I send a mail to my overseas friends  conveying my greetings and also bringing them up to speed on what has been happening in my life.  A message  containing personal asides, and my... But, Are They Allowed To Do That?  Story Dated : Tue,August,23 2011 13:39 hrs IST History reports that Ferdinand I, the Emperor of Austria, when informed by his Foreign Minister Prince Klemens von Metternich that the people were having a revolution, incredulously asked, "but are they allowed to do that?" That seems to be the... CaveatEmptor.com  Story Dated : Tue,August,09 2011 15:22 hrs IST Recently, Indian trade circles were abuzz with speculation that the popular Indian online shopping site, Flipkart Online Services Pvt Ltd may get an investment of $150 million (approximately Rs. 600 crore) from private equity firm General Atlantic... Bhujagashayanam, no longer Shantakaram  Story Dated : Mon,July,18 2011 17:28 hrs IST Shantakaram Bhujagashayanam Padmanabham SureshamVishwadharam  Gagana Sadrsham Meghavarnam SubhangamLakshikantam Kamalanayanam Yogibhir Dhyana GamyamVande Vishnum Bhava Bhaya Haram Sarvalokaika Natham roughly meaning, Lord Vishnu, the... Simi, You Ain't No Oprah!  Story Dated : Wed,June,22 2011 15:07 hrs IST I was a student living in the US when the Oprah Winfrey Show hit the big league. It was sometime in late 1986 that the show went national, from being a half hour morning talk show airing on a local station in Chicago. The show soon became immensely... R.I.P: The 25 Paise Coin    Story Dated : Wed,June,08 2011 12:41 hrs IST My earliest memories of the twenty five paise coin go back half a century, to my childhood days. I must have been six or seven years old and we were living in Trivandrum at the time. Ever so often, I would go over to spend a day at my father's... Osama-Bama: A Farce in 15 Quotes Story Dated : Tue,May,10 2011 11:43 hrs IST Prologue: "Somoza maybe a S.O.B; but he is our S.O.B." Apocryphal statement attributed to Franklin Roosevelt. A true reflection of  the  double speak and hypocrisy in US foreign policy.    1. "Good evening. Tonight, I can... Anna: Saint or Sinner?  Story Dated : Mon,April,25 2011 11:47 hrs IST Just a few weeks ago, amidst the heat and the dust generated by the World Cup tamasha, a 72 year old ex-army jawan; a school drop out hailing  from a poor family in Ahmednagar district in Maharashtra became the toast of the country. Our... This amazing journey  Story Dated : Mon,April,11 2011 10:22 hrs IST "My family and I wish to thank everyone in India for this amazing journey." In his usual calm manner, these were the words with which Gary Kirsten signed off his three year tenure as coach of the Indian cricket team. And what a journey it has been.... Fool's own country  Story Dated : Mon,March,21 2011 11:10 hrs IST It was Warren Buffet who famously said that it is only when the tide goes out that you learn who has been swimming naked. In the cesspool that is Indian politics, elections usually are a time when the tide recedes; the gloves are off and the game... Uber is cool  Story Dated : Mon,March,07 2011 14:46 hrs IST Uber is cool -  bigger is better; larger is lovelier, and excess is exciting. This seems to be the mantra for modern India. A visit to our National Capital Region, Delhi, will convince you of this new Indian mindset ! I remember the first time I... The 64 dollar question  Story Dated : Mon,February,07 2011 11:57 hrs IST Once again the focus, for all the right or wrong reasons, is on the plight of Indian students studying abroad. It is not Australia this time, but it is the US that stands accused of meting out unfair treatment to our young ones. Last week, students... A gentleman and a poet  Story Dated : Mon,January,17 2011 17:03 hrs IST "Indeevaram" is an unpretentious house,  tucked  away in a quiet lane near the Cotton Hills Girls School, in Vazhuthycaud Trivandrum. It is a modest residence, neat and inviting. As you enter, you are greeted by a small garden filled with orchids... Adieu, Annus Horribilis  Story Dated : Tue,January,04 2011 18:20 hrs IST It feels good to back after a two week sabbatical from writing my regular column. The festive season is one to spent in celebrations and catching up with friends and family. And that's exactly what I did. Kicked back and relaxed.It has become a... Anything goes   Story Dated : Tue,December,14 2010 13:30 hrs IST We are living in trying times. As the 18th century American philosopher and writer, Thomas Paine wrote, "these are the times that try men's souls. The summer soldier and the sunshine patriot will, in this crisis, shrink from the service of his... Arundhati, Moitheen and free speech  Story Dated : Mon,November,22 2010 17:42 hrs IST Within the space of a fortnight, one has witnessed two challenges to the right to freedom of expression in our country. And the public reaction to these two incidents have been dramatically different. On October 26th, our own very diva  of social... The vanishing spectre?  Story Dated : Mon,November,08 2010 14:53 hrs IST "A spectre is haunting Europe - the spectre of communism." Thus, begins the Communist Manifesto, authored by Karl Marx and Friederich Engels.  Published on February 21, 1848, it is a  catechism for the communist doctrine, and... The daddy of cool    Story Dated : Tue,October,19 2010 17:24 hrs IST My introduction to the smoky, sexy, sophisticated and seductive world of jazz was through Miles Davis. It was in the late Seventies, and I was leading my bohemian, bachelor days in Calcutta. I had a large and eclectic circle of friends and we were... A satisficing and a satisfying verdict    Story Dated : Tue,October,05 2010 16:30 hrs IST It was in 1956, that the Nobel Prize winning economist Herbert Simon introduced the term "satisficing" into the argot of the science of decision making. Satisficing, a play on the words satisfy and sacrifice, means that you sacrifice the best... A 'Malayalee' in Stanford    Story Dated : Mon,September,20 2010 16:47 hrs IST I just got back after a visit to  Palo Alto, home to the world renowned Stanford University. I had gone there to  attend the marriage  of the daughter of  dear friends of mine. The wedding was held in the beautiful Stanford Memorial Church. The... Theatre of the absurd   Story Dated : Sat,August,21 2010 17:11 hrs IST The term Theatre of the Absurd, is used to describe a particular type of stage play made popular by Eugene Ionesco, Jean Genet and Samuel Beckett, among others. These plays are based upon the premise that the human condition is basically... Achayan  -  A remembrance   Story Dated : Sat,August,07 2010 08:56 hrs IST To people in the media world, he was Mr. K.M. Mathew, the doyen of the newspaper industry in India  who had raised the standards of the vernacular press to dizzying  heights of excellence and professionalism.  To millions of Malayalalis the world... It's a mad, mad, mad (mobile) world!     Story Dated : Mon,July,26 2010 12:27 hrs IST The cell phone today  has become  the final frontier of technological convergence  - a multi-purpose computer, a camera for taking still and moving images, a convenient e-mail system, an entertainment portal, an effective mode of commerce. It has... Psychic Paul and clairvoyant Mani   Story Dated : Sat,July,10 2010 11:07 hrs IST Oberhausen is a  city of about 200,000 people on the river Emscher in Germany. A google search shows it to be a   typical industrial city with no great claim to fame. That is, until recently,  when a resident of its Sea Life Aquarium  became a... Vidyayamrtam asnute   Story Dated : Mon,June,28 2010 10:32 hrs IST Vidyayamrtam asnute..... With knowledge thou  shalt  become immortal. Thus it is said in the Isavasyopanishad.But it seems that in India, what is more important than vidya is the matter of  where it  is coming... Storming the red citadel  Story Dated : Sat,June,12 2010 19:11 hrs IST What the inept, moribund Congress party could not achieve in West Bengal in more than thirty years, Mamata Didi and the storm troopers of her TMC have managed to do in under a decade! By smoothly hijacking the public imagination of the proletarian... Music with meaning   Story Dated : Fri,May,28 2010 18:36 hrs IST Last week, I had the opportunity to participate in a rather special function.  It was the release of the second volume of the album 'Kavyageethikal' produced by singer G. Venugopal and music director Jaison J Nair.The function was a... Where has  the magic gone?   Story Dated : Sat,May,15 2010 17:22 hrs IST The great Hollywood director, Billy Wilder, was once asked, what makes a great movie. "Oh," he replied disarmingly, "a little bit of magic." So true indeed. Great movies need that little bit of magic  which  transforms the ordinary into the... The culture of greed    Story Dated : Sat,May,01 2010 20:08 hrs IST When I was a student living in the US in the  early eighties, there was this popular ad  on television. If I remember right,  it  was for the investment house Smith Barney. The ad featured the  starchy, Oscar winning, British-American actor John... The Indian Paisa League  Story Dated : Fri,April,16 2010 15:07 hrs IST "Money, it's  a gas./Grab that cash with both hands and make a stash/New car, caviar, four star daydream/Think I will buy me a football team."   That was Pink Floyd singing the popular number, Money, from the album, Dark Side of the Moon, circa... Celibacy debate: to be or not to be  Story Dated : Sat,April,03 2010 16:50 hrs IST We sure are  living  in interesting times.  After the salacious swamis, it is now the star turn of paedophile priests to grab  media headlines, with  revelations  of sexual abuse of children at schools and orphanages run by the Catholic Church. A... The sultans of sleaze  Story Dated : Sat,March,20 2010 16:57 hrs IST It is barely three months into the New Year, and India's raunchy swamis are having a rollicking time.  Already ! First, self styled godman Swami Bhimanandaji Maharaj, then Kalki Bhagwan, and now, the "living enlightened master" Swami Nityananda, are... Quo vadis, public intellectual?     Story Dated : Sat,March,06 2010 15:11 hrs IST Last week, the media space in Kerala got ugly. And I mean downright mean and ugly. What started off as a spat between veteran actor Thilakan and the Malayalam film actors association AMMA, quickly conflagrated into a vicious war that saw decency and... The prince of euphony   Story Dated : Fri,February,19 2010 11:15 hrs IST W.H. Auden once remarked that a poet is, before anything else, a person who is passionately in love with language. In that sense, Kerala's beloved lyricist, Gireesh Puthencherry who passed away last week, was certainly a poet. first... Nil magnum, nisi bonum  Story Dated : Sat,February,06 2010 15:38 hrs IST The Life of Pi by Yann Martel is  one of the most remarkable books I have read. It is both an adventure story and an introspection, and perhaps, even a meditation on life. Initially, I was a bit hesitant about the book. I thought that the story of a...