Remission petition by Balakrishna Pillai.

The remission petition seeking a reduction of jail term on the grounds of ill health by R Balakrishna Pillai, who is undergoing one-year rigorous imprisonment in Edamalayar case, seems ridiculous. In the Supreme Court of Kottarakkara, where his son and a few UDF ministers are judges there is all the possibility for him to get exemption for remaining period in the Central prison. This I say because it was UDF leaders who arranged a 'martyr's' reception for Pillai when he was sentenced for one year rigorous imprisonment by the Apex Court.

If Pillai still claims he is innocent, it is scrupulous for him to approach the Supreme Court with remission petition. Instead the gimmicks the sort now played will be detrimental for him and the Government wherein his son is a minister. And any hasty action to reduce the jail term to Pillai would open numerous litigations and its ramification would be high.

K A Solaman

Life after death

World renowned Physicist Stephen Hawking says there is no heaven because the human brain is a like a computer that will stop working when its components fail. This seems rather genuine as every element of a computer is based on logic gates which are merely electronic switching devices. When fail they are dumped into waste boxes.
Our experience with life and death is quite similar. Dead bodies are mere waste that are either cremated or laid in graves where it has no significance even if covered with beautiful granite slabs. And another dead body comes in the same place in a cemetery after five or ten years. Life after death is an ideal abstraction which is beyond human perception.

The observation of Hawking would not immediately affect the prospects of clergies and swamis who live and earn by preaching about life after death and heaven. Nevertheless, one day they would have to admit what Hawking said now. This I say because once flat earth later turned to be spherical in accordance with the physicists of yesteryears.

K A Solaman

All is good that appears green.!

Indian Union Muslim League emerged as a stronger political party in Kerala, after the last election to the Assembly. All its members were with huge majority in the elections and all the efforts made by the Marxist party and its valiant leader V S Achuthanandan to block the League went nowhere in certain electoral districts, particularly in Malappuram. The Secretary of the League Kunhalikkutty became the undisputed leader of his party and all the affairs of the party a one man show. The key portfolios in the Oommen Chandy Ministry were decided unanimously by Kunhalikkutty and he even divided the Ministry of the Local Self Government into three. More interesting is the inclusion of green colour in all activities in Kerlala. While Party MLA were felicitated with green "laddu" instead of the classic yellow ones the payasam served was also green in colour.

Next attempt will be, in all probability, green uniform in all schools, colleges, corporations and elsewhere. The fancy for green colour should invite undesirable moves from other corners and soon the league ministers face consequences for their thoughtless act. It is a mistake to suggest green colour for everything and everywhere.

I hope League ministers will not try to make all trees and plants green as they are already green now.



K A Solaman

Absence of Malayalees in film award committee

It is highly appraisable that Malayalam films won six national awards including for best feature film, best actor and best music director. However, the comments of actor Dileep and director Biju that it happened mainly because not a single Malayalee was in the jury are out of situation and unwarranted. They forget the way they reached at present. Do they need that in future Malayalees should be expelled from award committees? They hope that the new government in the state will take a serious look into how the affairs of the state film awards are being run. It may come true as the new minister of cultural affairs from cinema field may try to pump out all the money to support the cinema industry. For him, cinema and politics are the only arts and all others are silly things.

The new cultural ministry is intended only for cinema and not for any other form of art and culture and that was why all film artists ranging from Salim Kumar to Kavya Madhavan canvassed votes for actor Ganesh Kumar and the Congress.

K A Solaman

Siamese twin separated!

Remesh Chennithala and Ommen Chandy of the State Congress were seemingly the Siamese twin of Kerala for quite long. They have the similitude of late K M Chandy, then KPCC President and late K Karunakaran, the Siamese twin of the seventies. And with the sworn in of Oommen Chandy as twenty first Chief Minister of Kerala bondage between Chenithala and Chandy has broken. Chennithala has taken a strong decision not to associate with Chandy Ministry even if the High Command commands. Does it sound that Chennithala has grown enough to disobey the madam at Delhi?

Look before you leap , that is the message one can give to Chennithala.
K A Solaman

Mani's bent mustache

K M Mani with 9 members for his party in the Kerala Assembly need 4 ministers. It is then reasonable for Muslim League with 20 members to ask for 10 ministerial posts. Where from the Congress find their ministerial berths then?

Even if Mani's demand is met his broad mustache would remain curved down.

K A Solaman

Women get less representation in Kerala Assembly

The state of Kerala where 1000 men have 1085 women has shown scant regard to women regarding representation to newly elected state assembly. It is unfortunate to see that women have only a small representation with only seven out of 140 members in Kerala Assembly. And this is their lowest representation in the past two decades as there were nine women in the 11th and 13 in tenth Legislative Assemblies. Interestingly the Congress party, with a woman president in the apex has only one woman member.

While the Congress MP from State capital finds three occasions to choose three women as his life partners such consideration is not shown in associating women in the Assembly. Is friendship with women is permissible only in family circle and not in State Assembly?. We need an immediate law to attract more women to the Assembly. More women mean less corruption.

K A Solaman

Wafer-thin majority of UDF cheers none.

The wafer-thin majority of two seats in the 140-member Assembly for Congress-led UDF cheer none in the front and the people who wished to see the end of misrule of LDF for last five years. UDF won only 72 seats, crossing the magic figure of 71 required for a simple majority. It is all with Achuthanandan’s propaganda the LDF succeeded in staving off the anti-incumbency trend against the government, which was reflected in the 2009 Lok Sabha polls and civic elections last year. Pinarayi and coterie have no contribution to the 68 seats of the LDF.
Oommen Chandy and company are on the way to Raj Bhavan, however, sleepless nights await Chandy. It is very tough to sail over with Virendra Kumar, Shibu Baby John, T M Jacob and all other ministerial berth mongers of the UDF.

-K A Solaman

Let them speak sensibly.

Re ‘Army Chief’s view’(NIE dated May 11)

Here in a CBSE school at Cherthala, one ex-commander of the Indian Army, who was the principal of the school, was suspended by the Management for slapping on the face of tenth standard boy for lack of discipline. The boy was admitted to hospital. Such is the attitude of most of the ex-soldiers of the Indian Army to all occurrence of indiscipline and their fake patriotism prevents them tolerating against any untoward remarks about Army Chief. What the Army Chief V K Singh said about American model attack by Indian Army in Pakistan is out of the ordinary and his comment, no doubt, is unfortunate.


We have Hindu bomb for teaching Pakistan the lessons of peace and Pakistan has Islam bomb to teach us about war. Likewise Indian Army is intended for peaceful life sustaining purpose and Pakistan Army is anticipated to kill people. Nevertheless, both countries have not enough men to be killed by both armies. Let the Army Chiefs and their political bosses speak sagaciously.

K A Solaman

A welcome move among women

The dress code of women has been drastically changed of late. The sari-cladded women are soon to become a rare species. The dhavani and blouse have become obsolete. The churidar is the most attractive and attracted dress of ladies now. The schools and colleges that demand a dress code for their teachers should shift to churidar as its moreo convenient to wear.
Much to the surprise, in an attempt to equalise with men, more women are cutting their long hair to look like men. Most young women these days cut their hair after a break-up to announce their escape image. Some Hollywood and even Mollywood celebrities too have changed their hairstyle.

Though there is no rule book to understand the psyche behind this move women have understood that smart men like smart women and not the long haired slow moving sari-cladded women. A long haired woman has to spend a lot of time for caring her hair and now she understands it is a total waste. It may also be noted that a woman wants to get a makeover and look more confident, sexy and wants to get over the break-up, hence she goes for a hair-cut. A woman likes haircut that changes her look more refreshing. The hair-cut could also help uplift the confidence of woman and also revive the hope of finding someone new in the social circuit who may fall for the new look. The hair-cut suits to face of modern woman.


K A Solaman

Politicians should swallow their hollow words

The Kerala political leaders are ostensibly excited over the high voter turnout that crossed 75 percent in the final analysis. The turnout witnessed during polling on Wednesday was the highest in the Assembly elections since 1991.Top leaders of the ruling LDF expressed confidence of retaining power while leaders of the Congress-led Opposition UDF said the people had voted for a change in rule. Both the main fronts claimed that the heavy voter turnout would prove supportive to them.

Home Minister Kodiyeri Balakrishnan claims his party would score a three-digit victory in the Assembly and according to KPCC president Ramesh Chennithala the UDF is set to win more than 100 seats. As there are only 140 seats in the Assembly some politicians may have to swallow their hollow words soon.

K A Solaman
The Day After Magazine, May 1-15, 2011 » Open House

BSNL aims to hoodwink 20 lakh new GSM customers.

The BSNL think that there are about 20 lakh fools still remain in Kerala to be hoodwinked by them. This I say because the Principal General Manager of BSNL said they were targeting 20 lakh new GSM mobile customers in the state during the current financial year.

When BSNL is betraying lakhs of land phone subscribers their attempt to maintain good relationship with the customer reach nowhere. It is better for BSNL to sell their gadgets and properties to other telecom providers and watch their performance. The common people have lost in confidence BSNL. Not even a single customer now says a good word about BSNL for their approach was so damaging for last few years. I feel wise when I surrendered my land phone which incurred me huge loss and brought much embarrassment when that gadget was with me.

It is a welcome to see the General Manager has understood the broad feeling among public that the response from the BSNL was inadequate compared to private cellular providers in the country. However, his attempt to seek cooperation of his employees to attract more customers will never work out in the present circumstance. Most of the BSNL employees are customer-rude.

K A Solaman
The New Indian Express dated 9 May 11

Grand affair

Indians in general do not seem to take any special interest in the affairs of the British royal family. But several Indian newspapers and television channels treated the royal wedding with utmost importance (“I will (kiss twice)”, April 30). A huge amount of money was squandered on the wedding of Prince William and Catherine Middleton, even as many other countries of the world, like Japan, struggle with grave misfortunes. A common man like me fails to understand the need for such wastage. There are millions of poor people in the world, a great many of whom could have been fed with the money that was spent on the wedding.

K.A. Solaman,
The Telegraph, Calcutta, 5 May 11

Frailty thy name is Kanimozhi!

Yet another hot subject for DMK MP and poet Kanimozhi to write down a new poem about her experience with the CBI. Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) court in connection with 2G spectrum allotment scandal has summoned her and she appeared along with co-accused, the MD of Kalaignar Sharad Kumar. Kanimozhi submitted in court that it was all folly done by A Raja, the Telecom Minister then.

Justly Karunanidhi's daughter has surprised A Raja, who is now in Tihar jail counting zeros behind 176 of the bribe he and his company received in 2G scam. And after that it is his turn to write a poem in tune with Shakespearean style: "Frailty thy name is Kanimozhi!"

K A Solaman

Osama is dead, fear not

Osama is dead, fear is not. People are, no doubt, indebted to all those who risked their lives to get rid of the terrorist. But his followers are unlikely to sit back with crossed arms. They are more enraged than ever before. A lurking fear, therefore, haunts people across the world.


K A Solaman, The Hindu, May 4, 2011

All India Engineering Entrance Examination question papers out !

All India Engineering Entrance Examination (AIEEE) question papers were sold out in Uttar Pradesh. The cost is only Rs6 lakh for a set. The fate of 12 lakh minus a few privileged students is unsafely in the hands of the CBSE. Immediately after the question papers were leaked, CBSE postponed the two exams to 5 to 8pm with set of question papers kept in the lockers Syndicate Bank.

It is in fact a fierce drill for the students and parents. If the second question paper also out, the schedule of examination with third question paper kept in 'Albarack Bank' is from 9 to 12 and then from 1 to 4am in the night! Who said India is not a wonderful country?

-K A Solaman