Male menopause.

Here is one fine reason for all members of fairer sex to rejoice. They are one more step ahead of equality with men.

For the first time, scientists claim to have identified the symptoms associated with what has been termed “male menopause” caused by a reduction in testosterone production in some aging men. However unlike female menopause this is relatively rare. The study was conducted by a team from Manchester University, Imperial College London and University College, London.

Now say, in what more quarters women need equality with men.

K A Solaman

CPM Kangaroo court.

People rejected political leaders coming against judicial forums are unacceptable. CPM state committee member M V Jayarajan blasting the division bench of the Kerala High Court and calling the judges 'idiots' for banning public meetings on roadsides, are out of the ordinary. The court has done a very justifiable act by supporting the freedom of movement of citizens.

Freedom of movement or the right to travel is a human rights concept that the constitutions of numerous countries respect. It asserts that a citizen of a state, in which that citizen is present, has the liberty to travel in any part of the country where one pleases within the limits of respect for the liberty and rights of others. It asserts that human beings have a fundamental human right to mobility not only across states but across nations. Blocking roads and curtailing the freedom of movement is against the constitutional provisions. How a judgment based on fundamental rights is against public interest and need further legislative orders?

Making all abuses against democratic system for personal survival is the present day trait of the bespoke politicians. It is not the judges but Jayarajan to quit from politics of lawlessness. A democratic state could not allow kangaroo court of Marxist leaders.

K A Solaman

Fuel price hike is anti-people.

The UPA Government is making common man’s life more miserable by hiking the fuel price.
The Government increasing the price of petrol by Rs 4-5 per litre, of diesel by Rs 2, kerosene by Rs 3 and LPG by Rs 35 per cylinder will rocket up the price of all essential commodities. It is to be remembered that prices of petrol and diesel were increased by Rs three just three months ago at the time of the Union Budget.
Presumably there is nothing in the wallet of Manmohan inc. to lower the misery of common people. The UPA Government is pushing more and more people to self immolation because of utter poverty. The Petroleum Ministry and the Oil companies are in unholy nexus for quite long and Government stand on increase in fuel price being due to hike in international prices is fake. The facts and figures of ‘losses of Oil Companies ‘are unacceptable because they spent crores for advertisement. Petrol is an essential commodity that can be sold without any advertisement.

The government, therefore, should reconsider withdrawing the decision to hike the diesel, LPG and kerosene price because it will result in increase in prices of all commodities.


K A Solaman

Isaacean fatal holes

The potholes of former PWD minister P J Joseph have been christened as Isaacean fatal holes. All the PWD roads in Kerala are full of deadly holes where bikers and other vehicle owners find a tough time to travel. The much acclaimed NH47 is the worst place for road traffic. I wonder how the Kerala ministers travel safely on these horrendous roads.

The Finance Minister T M Thomas Isaac who took charges of PWD is more interested in channel shows than taking any action in removing potholes. The NET savvy minister first asked the public works engineers to take the photographs of all potholes and publish them on the PWD website. I wonder about the chunk of cyber space needed for this huge task. The Minister has announced an immediate payout of Rs 50000 to all engineers to remove potholes but none received the amount. And they gaze about the need for publishing the photographs of potholes on an inactive website. Even if published no pothole could be visible as all of them are covered with water due to heavy rain.

And without a massive operation it is not possible to remove all potholes on the roads. The idle sitting PWD officials and the showy minister in charge of the public work are equally responsible for the present horrible condition of the road. It is now peoples’ turn to take legal action against erring officials by initiating criminal or civil proceedings. The helpless commuters should not be permitted to meet with accidents due the callous attitude of PWD.

K A Solaman

Can’t we have a World Malayalam Conference?

The Coimbatore city in TN is all set for a World Tamil Conference. More than 5,000 people from India and abroad, including a large number of scholars, will take part in the first five-day World Classical Tamil Conference. Thousands of delegates from India, Malaysia, Sri Lanka, South Africa, Singapore, Canada, the US, Greece and other countries have confirmed their participation. These include around 1,000 scholars who will submit research papers. The conference is expected to raise the awareness level for cooperative and collaborative research on the classical side of Tamil language.
Then why can’t the Kerala CM V S Achuthanandan consider a similar Malayalam Conference in Kerala? If one is accomplished in Kerala, and of course not in London as organised by thoughtless people, more students study Malayalam and do research. The Tamil language has already won classical status in the country. The proponents of Malayalam are still knocking at the doors of Delhi bigwigs to get classical status to Malayalam. It is far good to conduct a World Malayalam conference to convince the authority and to make them aware of the importance of Malayalam language. And for this Achuthanandan need not pen title song for the conference as did by Karunanidhi. This job can be handed over to minister poets in the Cabinet like Binoy Viswom or G Sudhakaran.

The classical status to Malayalam should come through activity and not by act of contrition.


K A Solaman

Kerala University bids goodbye to a 44-year-old tradition

University of Kerala bidding to 44 year annual degree system and switching over to credit and semester system is an effort to sail smoothly with the present trend. Nevertheless it would not bring any substantive gain. This is not an isolated opinion but many teachers working now in colleges join with this. The foremost reason is that all colleges in Kerala experience a staff-crunch and without adequate number of teaching staff the semester system cannot be carried out successfully. Teachers in guest faculty are working for a wage and they are not competent enough to make grade in the credit and semester system.

More intriguing is the undue importance of social service in the proposed system. In most of the colleges in Kerala currently what is largely going on is social service and no time for teaching class. Cattle feeding, thattukada running, mosquito census are some of the existing services available in the colleges now. With the introduction of more social services the colleges will turn into a market place where teaching and learning process will be a leisure work. As many as 20 different forums working in the college will bring a pandemonium comparable to one that is full swing at CMS College, Kottayan at present. Offering additional open courses to students, who are not at all interested teaching-learning processes, is very prying to note.

The clause that attendance would fetch grades and each student should have not less than 75 per cent attendance for all semesters will open more war grounds in colleges. The teachers would have to read threatening SMS from student outfits for denying attendance to their workers. It will be a tough time for teachers to manage second-rate degree course students who are destined to join these colleges because of denial of admission in professional courses. The Education Minister had made the school education already a mess. The proposed choice based credit system, will extent this confusion to Arts and Science colleges too. Let us wait and see number of years the students admitted to the newly introduced credit and semester would take to get their first degree.

K A Solaman

Immature students’ politics

Activists of SFI ransacking CMS College, Kottayam has invoked much criticism. The longstanding prestigious institution becoming a plaything in the hands a few immature students is curious to watch. The owners of the college, the CSI church, has now only realised the graveness of unripe students politics. When the neighbouring colleges like SB Changanachery was in crisis with similar agitations the CSI management was pretending to be more intelligent to sponsor student politics. CMS College is also known for political activity of teachers' union.

And it is conspicuous to see that no teacher organization has come in favour or against the agitation in the college. The annual general body of one organization was drafting future programme in a wider perspective when the nearby CMS College was erupted with violence. In fact, no agitation of the sort observed in CMS College should have evolved without the connivance of the teachers. A fellow teacher in the chair of Principal, even if he previously belonged to their association, is an enemy to the teachers. A student in a self financing course indulging in such coarse practice is unheard in the history. It is time to detach all self financing courses from aided colleges and to ban teacher-student politics in school and colleges. The logic in granting special privilege to teachers in aided schools and colleges to join political parties whilst their counter parts in government schools and colleges with the same service conditions, are being denied this opportunity is quite inexplicable. Ill-disciplined students falling in the hands of some crafty politicians and trying to teach the principal and the management a lesson are seemingly dire practices in the higher education sector of Kerala.
The student who has been expelled by the management is unfit to study in that college. His future is in politics as many hard-core criminals have had better rendezvous with politics.

K A Solaman

Ridiculing judiciary

Home Department of Kerala has played hide and seek in evicting the encroachers from private lands in Wynadu and the whole act is seemingly a mockery to Indian Judiciary.
The district administration has not complied with the order for expulsion by Kerala High Court. The Revenue-Police officials and the hardcore politicians in the area are equally responsible for this muddle.

The Home Minister is unfit to his post as he was given in to the pressures of the Left leaders and workers. The CPM activists violating the prohibitory orders, is a clear indication of the dismal state of the law and order in the state. CPM leaders becoming lovers of landless Adivasis when Veerendra Kumar left their camp is curious.
One CPM leader saying some drunken policemen headed by a drunken DySP tried to harass Adivasis, is an accusation to the Home Minister and his Department. How is it possible to maintain law and order by drunken policemen? Who will make spruce the unruly police men?

K A Solaman

Beauty of tobacco

How fast man’s awareness changes? So far it is said that use of tobacco is prone to cancer. Now it has been proved tobacco is useful. An Israeli scientist has developed a substance from the tobacco plant that could be used for beauty improvement and other medical purpose. It is Prof Oded Shoseyov of the Hebrew University in Jerusalem who succeeded in producing this beauty substance from tobacco plants.

With this discovery, no doubt, our cosmetic world would take a new life. Those celebrities who spend tens of thousands of rupees for their cosmetic need would make a large savings out of this.

K A Solaman

World football stirs up Ambani investors.

After all they are of the same blood. Mukesh Ambani and Anil Ambani understanding at home and work and their holidaying with families in South Africa and watching World Football are adequate reasons for Reliance shares to go up. Both Mukesh and Anil Ambani’s stocks registered a marked gain. Nevertheless, the investors of Ambani groups should be more vigilant hereafter as the possibility for another break cannot be ruled out. Both of them have activities in telecom, finance, entertainment and what else.

K A Solaman

Do karma first!

“As you sow so shall you reap” (The Bible, Galatians VI). Meaning: Your deeds, good or bad, will repay you in kind.

The Kerala Finance Minister Thomas Isaac, with his busy schedule in the Finance department, visited his constituency Mararikulam on alternate days and did some public works such as cleaning of ponds and farming of fish, by wearing arecanut leaf hat along with fellow comrades. His action has been finally rewarded. He has been assigned the Public Works Department of Kerala putting Surendran Pillai of KC(PC) to corner. Do karma, then karmaphala will be awarded not by God but by party secretariat!

K A Solaman

Why I love football?

The media is seemed to be obsessed now with the news of the World cup football. The news of cricket is being shelved for football for a while. In my opinion football is definitely a more intense sport than cricket with more countries able to compete at a high level. Watching seven-hour days of cricket without a result is really profitable for channels but a boring experience for the viewers. The 90 minutes football thrills everybody and avoids boredom. Further football offers a much more intense display, and it creates an air of uniqueness that cannot be simulated by cricket. The tribal nature of football crowds may overstep the mark at times, but it undoubtedly trumps the cricket fans in terms of creating and maintaining an atmosphere. Football fans are almost a part of the game and this sort of affection is not seen in cricket.


Football is a simple game that appeals to a lot. In many countries it is the only game. Cricket has only a fraction of the exposure that football has. Scandalous match fixing in cricket is unheard in football. I love football more than cricket.

K A Solaman

Bhopal gas tragedy

The verdict pronounced in the Bhopal gas tragedy demands a soul searching for the Indian Judiciary. It is not the Judge who pronounced the verdict but the prosecution is responsible for the frantic relief. Two years' imprisonment for offenders is hideously insufficient. The human rights in India have become a meaningless topic with the verdict of Bhopal gas tragedy. With this underhanded verdict the foreign company promoters would indulge highly hazardous activities in India.

What I have to say is the Govt of India should take action to compensate the kin of victims from country’s coffers. If the foreign country lacks humanitarian approach it is our nation’s obligation to assist the victims.

K A Solaman

Something foul still with Madani

It is all not well with Madani and the Home Department of Kerala still as a controversy has been surfaced when Madani admitted in the pay ward of the hospital in the context of reports that the Karnataka Police had listed him as an accused in the Bangalore blasts case. The doctor who admitted him was being accused of breaking the rules as the Medical Board felt that Madani had no urgent health complications. The lack of quorum for the initial meeting of the the Medical Board also tells about something fishy with Madani’s admittance.

The Govt that boosts for secularism should allow Judiciary to work in its noble path. And any act of hook or crook in Madani’s case would end up in further failure. The doctor who flouted the hospital rules should be brought to the book.

K A Solaman

Anti-green campaign

I fully agree with Kerala Forest Minister Binoy Viswom that planting of trees will help check the adverse impacts of climatic change and I support the government initiative for green campaign aimed at spreading the message of environment protection. Nevertheless a poignant matter I would bring to the notice of the Minister is that two days back a few men with heavy knives in their hands carved the sides of hundreds of trees at Cherthala-Alappuzha part of NH 47 and numbered. Seemingly these trees are destined to be cut in the immediate future. Let me then kindly know what action has been taken by the Forest Department as a substitution for this anti-green cruelty. Wouldn’t the trees on the roadside consume carbon dioxide?

In my opinion these tree cutters should be asked to plant an equal number of trees before they put knife on these green trees having life. Why can’t the Forest department accept a selective cutting for road development?

K A Solaman

Handloom goodwill ambassador

Dr Sukumar Azhikode is likely to give up his habit of wearing khadi clothes seeing that all his effort against actor Mohanlal to become handloom ambassador has gone futile. Industries Minister Elamaram Kareem has made Padmasri Mohanlal the goodwill ambassador of the handloom industry of the State.

Mohanlal said he would do everything he could to promote the use of handloom and asserted that he would also try to promote handloom among the film fraternity. Does he mean that item dancers of little cloth in his films hereinafter appear in handloom clothes? One thing is sure. Ministers like Kareem, C Divakaran, and Principal Secretary T Balakrishnan are not in the way that Mr Azhikode says aloud. Azhikode can continue fouling his nest.

K A Solaman

Congress group war in Kerala

While accusing the CPM for group war, the infighting in the State Unit of National Congress is beyond any proportion. Congress groups have reached a finale with leaders of variety sects ruthlessly disparaging State Congress leadership. To keep the warring factions united, it is not Defence Minister A K Antony’s soft words but his army is needed.

It is a pity that all leaders like Chennithala, Oommen Chandy, Vayalar Ravi, AK Antony and ailing K Karunakaran have groups. The absence of an able leader to control the groups in the State is the handicap of the party. Madam Sonia Gandhi at New Delhi often gets biased feedback from the State leaders. However, she could pay attention to the words of A K Antony rather than hearing the feedback of those leaders from Kerala who entertain her with prawn and karimeen. P C Chacko’s war with Sate leadership is not in the right path. Chacko should be warned immediately for bringing group war to the public field as his statement is a violation of party discipline if it has one.

K A Solaman

A lesson for Kerala

The thumping victory of the Trinamul Congress in the West Bengal civic polls is a severe shock for the ruling Left government (Mamata gives Left power cut, June 3). The Left government in West Bengal has no moral right to stay in power. This type of occasional bitter medicine is very much needed for rulers who lack concern for the common people. Let us hope that the Left leaders in Kerala also learn a lesson from this.

K.A. Solaman
The Asian Age, London Dated 4 June 2010

Somersault by members of all party delegation.

Due to the mounting pressure from the public to be affected, all-party delegation from Kerala sought 30-metre width for the proposed highway. Nevertheless, all on a sudden some members had a rethought and made an immediate somersault, fearing that they may be cased as anti-developmental, and stood against their earlier stand. In fact 60-90 metre wide highway is unsuited for this thickly populated state. Build-Operate-Transfer mode of road construction is undesirable to a democratic state and stance by Chief Minister V S Achuthanandan is acceptable in this regard. If the road traffic is permitted for price then what is the meaning of collecting a huge sum as fifteen year road tax?

In Kerala there is acute dearth of land. The sponsors of wide roads in Kerala are seemingly associated with land grabbers and realtors. It is not central ministers but miniters in Achuthanandan’s cabinet are keen to get land at a throw away price.

K A Solaman