Promotional preparations far ahead than religious preparations for Christmas

While I was walking through the Broadway in Ernakulam on December 01, 2017, seeing the Christmas sales promotions, I whispered in my mind, “Oh Christmas is around the corner.” No Church could trigger that thought as well as emotion in my mind. While passing St. Francis of Assisi Cathedral, Ernakulam, and St. Mary's Cathedral Basilica on my way to Broadway there was no Christmas star seen in front of both the churches to indicate that Christmas is around the corner, whereas shop fronts are filled with stars and Christmas decorations.

Passion for tele serial made 75-year old grandmother internet savvy

Of late, the life of Kerala women is revolving around tele serials that is being telecasted on prime time - 7PM to 9PM, from Monday to Saturday. They would wrap up all their domestic works, finish the bath and would be there ready in front of the television set at sharp 7PM.

From 7PM to 9PM, men in the family wouldn't have any voice for TV remote control, as women take control of it. Sometimes, telecast related issues, hiccups in the cable connection or interrupted power supply prevent the women from watching their favourite tele serials. In this technological era women find alternative ways to enjoy their regular tele serials despite these impediments. 

Aren't we all "Technologically Challeged"?

We keep seeing many people in and around us who are either physically, mentally or intellectually challenged. Seeing them we are moved with sympathy and some empathy, and we all feel that God has created us fit in all respect. Majority of these disabilities are by birth and a few of them are due to accidents or side effects of medical treatment.

The definition of a challenged person is someone having a physical or mental problem that makes it difficult to do daily things as easily as other people do. If this is the definition of challenged, we all are Technologically Challenged, since without the aid of technology we are unable to do anything in our life.

Are our teachers updated as much as Educational Apps?

Technology has not left any sphere untouched by its influence, the same is true with the educational sector. Perhaps, it is the sector that has witnessed so much of technological intervention in terms of providing effective learning tools for the students, thus, making the process of learning so much easy and effective.

Apps like Byju's Learning App, the leader in providing the most innovative, interactive and visually appealing educational content, cater to the learning needs of the new generation students, who are tech-savvy. When educational tools based on technology are actively promoted, the question is how much our teachers are updated in terms of innovation and novelty, to match with these new generation learning apps.

Projected as developed externally but primitive internally

India has been projected as the fastest growing economy, on the way to become a super power by 2025. But for the sake of vote bank politics, the leaders are keeping the citizens of the country primitive with age old customs and inhuman activities, where animals are given predominant consideration than humans themselves.

What an irony it is, that human beings are butchered in the name of cow, which is seen as an incarnation of God. In the hierarchy of species, man is considered as the crown, but that man is treated worse than the way the animals are treated - beaten to death. And we call ourselves a developing nation.

Food is our basic need - but the ones who feed us always starve under neglect

The very fundamental needs for our survival are air, water (rain) and food, the first two are a direct gift from nature, which are almost free, whereas food has to be produced and in the current scenario majority of the people in our country are consumers rather than producers when it comes to food, despite us being called an agricultural community.

Rev. Dr. Geo Thadikkatt, the outgoing vicar of St. Thomas Catholic Church leaves Cheppukulam nothing to desire

People, as outsiders, who had been to Cheppukualam 6 years ago and have been recently to Cheppukulam, will be astonished by the kind of facelift and makeover that Cheppukulam had been being undergone for the last 6 years.  What a makeover and what a facelift!! People will speak out loud that the outgoing vicar of St. Thomas Church Cheppukulam, Rev. Dr. Geo Thadikkattu, leaves Cheppukulam with nothing to desire.

Data war among telecom companies leaving Indian youth loggerhead?

The advent of Jio has literally disrupted the telecom sector in India. In order to woo the mobile users Jio entered into the Indian telecom market with unlimited data offers as ‘Welcome Offer’ for 3 months until then the data was a costly affair. For the data hungry Indian youth, it was a flabbergasting offer. Of course, the entry of Jio with unlimited data offers toppled down the monopoly of the trinity; Airtel, Vodafone and Idea, which mainly constitute Cellular Operators Association of India (COAI).

Sr. Abhaya case - Church washing its dirty linen in public for the past 25 years

Sr. Abhaya would have turned 44 years old in 2017 and would have been a Mother Superior in any of the convents of St. Joseph's Congregation for Religious Sisters under the Syro-Malabar Catholic Archeparchy of Kottayam. Instead, today, on March 27, 2017, her soul completed the legal battle of 25 years for the murder of her body. Sr. Abhaya lived only 19 years on this earth, and her murder case has been 25 years old, and is still pending legally.

If the Church and authorities would have let the culprits get duly punished, perhaps my generation and the coming generation would not have come to know about what Sr. Abhaya case was, which has been defaming and haunting the Catholic Church for the past 25 years and still counting.

'Those academically good are bad at motor skills' notion changed by my life partner

My life partner always thinks that the toughest challenge i had to face after marriage was to teach her how to drive a four wheeler than to get the chemistry between both of us fixed.

It is always easy to speak about woman empowerment but to make her empowered there should always be a man behind and she was empowered enough by her father. I wanted to further empower my life partner by teaching her how to drive a four wheeler, 'an empowered driver.'

Private bus employees plying the service having faith in God but not KSRTC

There is a long tradition that we have imbibed from our parents that to begin our day invoking the blessings of God and giving offerings to God, so that all our undertakings shall be turned fruitful. When it comes to employees of private and KSRTC buses plying the service, only the former keep up the tradition.

In private buses they have the images of God, some having images from various religions as well, garlanded with fresh flowers in the morning, devotional music being played and making offerings to God, irrespective of temple, church or mosque. No wonder, most private buses ply their services without loss, a person who starts the business with one bus going on to own several buses in the blink of an eye.