One of my friends is from Kerala, and the other day he was telling me about how people consider any communist to be an atheist. He told me many other things that are exclusive to Kerala, and I was pretty surprised to say the least.

• Only two political parties have been ruling Kerala for many terms alternately. It’s almost like a decided phenomenon.
• Bus accidents is the major slice of deaths in Kerala, and despite knowing everything, the government refuses to act and punish the drivers responsible.
• And Lots More…

Anyway the highlight of this post of mine is the Kerala Text Book controversy, for those of you who do not know, a class VII social studies text book included a chapter which was found to be promoting Atheism. The people who are accusing are representing the Muslim and Christian communities, and the claim can obviously be justified because the text book is published by the government, which is lead by Marxists.

So, now we have :

Text Book published by Marxists


Marxists = Communists


Communists = Atheists


Thus, Text Book = Atheism

That’s the short way of explaining it. For those of you who aren’t convinced, let’s see the contents of the textbook. It basically reveals how ancient India had the caste system, and several newspaper clippings showing these acts of discrimination are published. The chapter also talks about various reform movements undertaken by Hindus, Muslims and Christians to fight caste discrimination.

Then comes the part, which has upset the state of Kerala, the state which we so proudly promote as having 99 % literacy ( Cmon.. Just because you sign your name, you don’t become literate)

This starts of with an imaginary situation in which a child named Jeevan is being admitted into a school, his father is a Muslim, and his mother a Hindu. The headmaster has to fill the column of Caste and Religion, and he asks the parents what should he fill. His parents instruct him to leave both of them blank. The headmaster then asks what religion would he pursue when he grew old. And his parents reply “In that case let him choose the religion of his choice.”

This dialog follows a few teachings from Hinduism, Sikhism, Islam and Christianity. And, in the end, a question is asked “What are the instructions of religions which aim at mutual love regarding human behaviour?” And finally, it is answered by saying “All religions aim at the glory of the mankind. Exhort to mutual love and respect.”

Now, I really don’t need to say a word after this. It’s most necessary that we realize that this text is just promoting communal harmony. The only glitch was, the title of this chapter is “No Religion for Jeevan” . It’s really obvious now, to what has happened. The highly literate people have read this topic, and have presumed that Jeevan stands for life ( Oh gimme a break.. Kerala and Hindi ?? ) and the chapter is saying :

“Dear Child, You should not choose any religion in your life.”

They clearly haven’t read a word beyond the title.

Now these protesters are the same people who’ll give you a mean look when you’re about to leave India. They’ll say : “India has given you so much. And is this what you give back to India ? ” and quite hypocritically they’ll give their heads a slow shake. The same people will look at your kids when they come to study in India and separate them as NRIs, and ask you to pay a thousand times extra. And when you retire and return to India, the same people will be looking to be included in the Fund for The Elderly that you established.

I really do not loathe Kerala, neither do I loathe the people ( they are lovely people, mind you.. ) . This post is against the hypocrites. Not against people from any state as such. So please feel free to comment keeping that in mind..

Text book information courtesy : Rediff.com

The Indian Government has announced that it will be launching an economical laptop costing about $100 (Rs. 4000), although initially declaring that the laptop would cost only $10 (Rs. 400).

A transcript released states :

“The Indian Government would also offer assistance to 1,000 polytechnic institutes; 300 in public-private partnership mode and 400 in the private sector, besides taking care of the infrastructure and faculty shortages,” said Smt. D. Purandeswari, in the speech. “Further, to enable students make most out of the advanced technology; the Government also aims to provide 100 dollar laptops to students. Research in this direction is being already carried out at the Indian Institute of Science, Bangalore and the Indian Institute of Technology (IIT), Madras. These steps will substantially take care of the quality of higher education, which, as I have mentioned earlier is an essential desideratum of economic growth.”

A very flowery statement, I must say. Many investors and market gurus are predicting the quick downfall of this project. It’s very easy to see why this may create a controversy. Here’s what I feel..

• Rs. 4000 is way too less for a laptop, and demand will be extremely high. Mass producing a laptop at this rate would be next to impossible unless handed over to a very responsible producer.
• Again, some sections of society will demand that there will be a quota for selling it to them, and at an even lower price, because everything provided by the government to them is subsidized. So why not a laptop too ? Thus government has to hand over the complete product to a private company.
• Distributing it to students exclusively will disappoint other people ( eg office goers, who actually need a laptop more than a student ).

I certainly hope Tata is keeping it’s eyes-n-ears open, considering them getting closer to the launch of the 1-lakh rupee car.