kurian's New Age Blog

                         A  REVIEW  OF  SONY  KARACKAL'S POEM 'MAZHA THUDANGI.. DELAREYVILLE ,29 MAY  2013 INTRODUCTION Things  are becoming  difficult  here day by day,due to the advance of winter.Night temperatures are dropping,there's  much talk about conserving  electricity, including tips as  to how to save electricity, but all the nice words fall on deaf  ears. In some respects, South  Africa and Kerala are birds  of the same feather. To describe all that,I need a full book of about 400 pages,so  I confine my efforts to only one example.In The Kerala Secretariat, the lights and fans are 'on' during the weekend; here in this small town,street  lights are 'on' 24/7/365. The morning temperature  was 11 degrees c.This is reasonable.But  the days are becoming...

DELAREYVILLE, SOUTH AFRICA 25 MAY 2013 The last weekend of the month is a 'mela' in South Africa.Towns and cities come to life early in the morning,despite the cold conditions in the morning.The reason is:the common people rely on their salaries,grants or pensions,and towards the end of the month,it's difficult to make ends meet.That's why people feel rejuvenated and euphoric at month-end. Autumn is in full swing,with some trees at random displaying golden leaves,ready to fall even when a gentle wind blows.It's a beautiful sight when there's a gentle wind,sending hundreds of golden leaves to a soft landing on the ground.Every season has its own beauty.There's a variety of the neem tree,which some people trim like an umbrella,and it assumes pure golden colour during autumn,and it looks like a kuda used in our perunnals. I'm inundated with poems by Sony Karackal and Anoop Varghese P. Unfortunately I haven't done justic...

WELCOME TO DELAREYVILLE PART 2 Atamelnag was /is a small township 25 kms from Delareyville.It's a town of middle class people who live in peace and harmony,in their small houses.It was a part of the homeland,Boputhatswana.Under the leadership of President Lucas Mangope,the homeland launched many ambitious development programmes,in which education was the top priority,and the others were in housing,health,sanitation,agriculture,broadcasting etc.These efforts exemplified the saying,"It's better to light a candle,rather than to curse darkness." Mangoppe's government had a friendly,generous attitude towards Malayalees,and appointed many teachers, doctors,engineers,accountantants and so on.For example,with a simple application,my brother-in-law,the late Dr Mohan, and his wife Dr.Sucy Mohan got appointments and visas to work in a hospital in Bop. The education officials at Atamelang were very friendly and generous towards Malayalees.I...

Makalkkai TUESDAY,14 MAY 2013 Delareyville, 6.50 a.m On my way to school,I spotted my not-so-friendly friends,the ostritches and Kudus unusually very close to the fence.I have been waiting for an opportunity to take photos of them at close range,but my attempts turned fruitless.I stopped the car,and got out very stealthily,aiming my camera. Suddenly ,there was a signal from a guinea fowl,and the ostritches and the Kudu ran away as fast as they could,retreating about 1km nearer to the waters of the lake.I was only 30% successful.Unlike the animals and birds in zoos,those in the wild are very sensitive,alert,panicky,and suspicious of human beings.I have seldom seen people in the vicinity. There are no pedestrians on the road because the place is ununhabited. One or twice a month,I have seen a Landrover of the South African Parks Board moving slowly through the path close to the fence,apparently surveying the area.These birds and animals are not famili...

           Fool n'Mad INTRODUCTION Delareyville,South  Africa 10  May,2013 The euphoria  triggered by perfect  weather  about  10 days ago  has died down.The  weather rating,according  to  me ,has gone down  from 10 out of 10 to 7.This is because  winter is at the doorstep,knocking very hard. As the  days pass,the temperature goes down,the day becomes shorter,the temp. touching the bottom in July,with -degrees.But the winter here is not as severe as in Europe and America.Winter has a negative side:as the temps.go down,the electricity  bill goes up.Thank God,there's no winter in Kerala. Luckily,here there's no power cut. This morning,we left earlier  for school,at 6.35, in order to avoid sunlight  coming straight into the eyes,despite wearing sun glasses.I  narrowly  beat the sun in this 13 Km  drive,along the national road.As ...

KOODORUKKAM INTRODUCTION You won't believe me when I say I was in Facebook long long ago,even before Zachurburg was born.But it's true.But it was a different kind of Facebook, with some ingredients of the present one.It happened when I was a student of B.A English literature at St.Thomas College Pala,in the late 1960s.I started my own hand-written magazine called 'Joker'.It contained humourous articles about events of the day,with cartoons drawn by me.My readers included the late Mr.K.J.Mathew IAS,former Chief Secretary.The magazine was circulated among students,and even at Alphonsa College hostels.Readers used to write comments. Mathew and I were classmates from Predegree to M.A.We were close friends.He liked music.Sometimes,during break,he would request me to sing a song.We would go to an unused room,and I sang for him.We also wrote short stories and articles in "Deepanalam" weekly.The editor,the late Mr.Devasia Anjoottimangalam didn't h...

 During my college days at STC Pala,when I was doing B.A English course,my overenthusiasm for writing landed me in serious trouble.It happened like this:I began writing a diary.It was not new to me.I had earlier done it at an NCC camp at St.Thomas High School,Pala,in 1963 when I was 14 years old.When I wrote the diary in question,I was 18 years old,which is the peak of teenage eccentricities.I  wrote for some months,and when I finished it,I hid it in the arra (a cell) in our house.My idea was to take it out after many many years to read and enjoy it.The arra was a storage place of my father's drama activities.My father ,Narithookkil Kunjettan,was devoted to drama and music.He had only a basic education,but his knowledge was beyond that.He directed plays,did make-up,and even wrote short plays.In 1959,at the height of 'Vimochana Samaram' he wrote an instant play about the killing of a pregnant woman at Valiyathura in police firing.I was cast as a son of Flory.I had...

Adukkala thozhilalikal Delareyville,South Africa 3 May 2013 Today is a happy day for me not only because it's a weekend,the weather condition rating is 10 out of 10,but because today I have found my match in the matter of long names.Anoop Varghese P. has beaten me with one letter.Welcome to South Africa.You will be warmly received here because of your long name,especially at Immigration Counters and road blocks.Even if you drive at 220 kms/per hour,you won't be charged because traffic cops will forget your offense,busily discussing your python-like name.Mine is a padavalanga only. After reading AVP's poem 'Adukkalathozhilalikal',I wrote in my diary: " A poem is a spark that starts a wildfire of reflections,'' Ithu alankarikamayi paranja oru karyamalla.Adukkala Thozhilalikal oru lalithamaya kavithayanenkilum athmayi bandhappetta pala chinthakalum ente manassiloode kadannu poyi.When I learnt that AVP is a Catholic priest,...