Praveen Arimbrathodiyil blogs here

Rishma Damodar

Hearing about the life of Kani, daughter of social activist Maithreyan and Dr AK Jayashri is wonderful…

‘I call my dad Maithreyan only. And my mother Jayashrichechi (chechi is elder sister in Malayalam). They are not legally married. Rather, I call Jayashri chechi’s father and mother as dad and mom. I lived with them till I was 15. In a very conservative atmosphere. Maithrayen and chechi lived two houses far.” Kani remembers it with a smile in her small house.

This daughter is also in a different path as her parents. Started acting in plays since 15. Kani acted in movies when she felt it was not enough to live.

”There is only one thing Maithreyan and Chechi told me, don’t respond if you are asked about caste or religion. None of the school certificates have my caste or religion.”

Your father and mother seems different?…

Certainly. They have given me all the freedoms. In our country when a girl has to ask so many people for permissions even when choosing a frock. I’m not saying that is bad. But, there won’t be a place for that girls wishes.

But, it is not like that in my case. Even if I feel like smoking a cigarette, I don’t have to ask anyone. That doesn’t mean I believe smoking cigarette is a bad thing. But even that wishes I don’t have to let go.

Maithreyan and Chechi will tell about its bad effects. but, they never push their decisions on me. I’m not saying there is no difference of opinions. We criticize each other and get angry. But, only for a small time. If I feel like doing something, they only say ‘do it if you like’. But, suppose I do something on my own. If there is a problem in that, they won’t move aside saying, ‘you decided it, you deal with it’. They will be with me.

Are you also opposed to marriage like them?

I have not decided anything now. My dad and mom won’t say ‘you are this old, why don’t you get married’. They will say live with anyone you like. It is my choice.

How did you get into acting in plays?

I used to participate in Sanskrit festival in school. I used to act Kavalam Narayanappaniker’s plays.

Even before that, feminist movement in Thiruvananthapuram ‘Sakhi’ organized many street plays. When mom and dad goes for that, I used to go with them. I was studying in 5th then. I did not have any reluctance to act like this, then.

I learned about requirement of a girl actor in ‘Abhinaya’ theater research center of Thiruvananthapuram when I was in 10th.

By then I had a feeling that play is good. Then, as I grew up, I became very body conscious. I was not in a state to decide anything. After seeing my state, Jayashri Chechi said, ‘you just go and check there. Don’t act if you don’t like. I started liking plays when I reached ‘Abhinaya’. I thought I can make a it my profession.

At last, I went to study in Thrissur school of drama. I acted in one or two plays. it was then that play director Abhilash Pillai came to take ‘Khasakinte Ithihasam’ (History of Khasak). He told me about ‘International school of Jacques Lecoq‘. So I joined a one year course.

I learned more about acting when I went to France. Perspective about life also changed a lot. I only wanted everyone to talk good about me. I even moved aside even small things I wanted to do. But life in France changed all that.

Here we do even things we like secretly saying it is against culture. A small example. I go to a public space. Boys can drink there openly. But if any girls drink at all? It will be a big problem. Earlier I used to give up even if I wished to do it.

But, after that I occasionally drank as part of socializing. But, I don’t drink now. I don’t like its taste, that’s the reason. I don’t think there is anything bad in drinking.

In short you became a rebel after coming back from France?

I don’t think living as one wish is rebelling.

There was a letter from Maithreyan, recently. It read like this, ‘you also have a right to smoke and drink like anyone. Smoking cigarette is comparatively bad. Because, it affects others too. There is nothing wrong in drinking socially. But please don’t drink like it is bad in secret.

I don’t compromise on things I like. I am careful to create a space for that always. Suppose when I travel at night and someone try to grab me. I will try not to provoke him by saying ‘I don’t like anyone touching me’. There were many experiences like that. When traveling at night, one or two men come to me and ask ‘where are you going this night?’. I say something like ‘Aiyyo, sorry brother, I came here by mistake’ and leave.

When you decided to try a hand at movies?

When I was back from France, Shankar Ramakrishnan asked me to act in Island Express in ‘Kerala Cafe’. After that I did ‘Cocktail’. It was the role of a prostitute. Then, Naxal girl in ‘Shikar’ (Prey), then small roles in ‘Karmayogi’ and ‘Urumi’.

Do anyone come with you in film-play sites?

I go alone wherever it is. I didn’t feel girls are not safe be it in play or films. So, if someone likes me physically. When I say I’m not interested, I have seen only people who say ‘ok’ and leave, in both fields. Nobody behaved badly with me.

Name also seems different like the person?

Maithreyan and Chechi named me Kani. When I was enrolled in school, Principal asked, ‘What is her initials?’, so Chechi added an initial just like that, ‘Kani K’. When I reached 10th, teacher asked me, ‘I need expansion of your name.’ When I came home and narrated this, Maithreyan and Chechi told me ‘you pick anything you like.’ So I chose ‘Kani Kusruthi’. (Kusruthi means playful in Malayalam). My passport and all has that name.

Future endeavors?

There is a famous theatre group. Footsbarn. I’m with footsbarn for 2 years. Go inside and outside India with play acting. That is my plan.

Originally appeared in Malayalam daily Mathrubhumi

Some of you are probably pretty happy around now. You’re probably saying to yourself, “Yay, we’ve defeated SOPA and PIPA! Yay, victory us!!!”

Actually, you’ve lost. You’ve lost this war, because you… along with everyone else in this half-decayed republic of ours, allow a specific hot button issue to cloud your judgement and allow public sentiment to be unanimous concerning one specific topic.

Pedophiles.

You may be wondering what the hell Pedophiles have to do with Internet Censorship. The answer is; Everything. You cannot win, you are going to lose your internet freedom. You will be monitored, you will be followed and every act and idea you commit to the web will be logged and archived in the halls of Government.

All because you’re afraid of Pedophiles. If you aren’t, then maybe I am using the Royal “YOU” to comment on the public at large; the ignorant Baby Boomers who don’t understand the interwebs, the vacuous youth who haven’t learned the hard way that real opinions don’t make you many friends and often alienate you.

The sort of “YOU” that cannot argue that Pedophiles, just like Homosexuals, have a right to Exist.

It’s that “YOU” that is responsible for the death of the internet.

“But Wait, Heretic,” You might say. “The Net isn’t DEAD yet, we beat SOPA! We Beat PIPA!”

Wrong. You’ve insured your defeat. Consider the following;

http://investmentwatchblog.com/threatening-new-bill-worse-than-sopapipa-this-bill-entitled-the-protecting-children-from-internet-pornographers-act-of-2011-is-a-bill-with-overly-broadened-language-that-greatly-threatens-all/#.Tx0xqPk8d8G

No no. Follow the link. Copy-pasta if you must. You read it. You understand it… and realize that it is from the same corporate schill that propose SOPA and PIPA.

“What is this thing?” You might ask. Well if you’re part of the vast illiterati, I’ll explain you the thing (Bad grammar intentional).

H.R. 1981 is titled “The Protect Children From Internet Pornographers Act of 2011″.

It is a bill that requires the following; Your real, legal I.D. name, personal home address, IP address, browsing history, search terms you’ve searched and the complete details of your online habits are to be made trackable and must be logged by all ISP’s.

“Wait a second!” You might argue, “That has nothing to do with Children!”

At this point in the discussion is where I typically chime in with; I told you so.

For the last twelve years of my life, I’ve been arguing rationality in the face of rampant, frothing at the mouth hatred concerning Pedophiles and the various scaremongering news articles that are propogated and proliferated across the news media services and sites.

I recognized that this one topic, out of any topic, is where people lose any sense of proportion or reason; people cease thinking or functioning when a discussion starts involving, “People that diddle children”. Or people that might, hypothetically, because of pornography they look at, decide to diddle children.

“That’s monstrous, Heretic,” You might say. “Why would you defend people such as this?”

The answer is I am defending you. I am defending humanity, because if you allow a portion of humanity to become classified as sub-human, you allow the Government to abuse that concept for it’s own gain.

I am defending Pedophiles as human beings, because if I don’t, someone will be next. And then another. Who would it be? The Furries? People into BDSM? Japanese Hentai fans with their schoolgirl fetishes?

It turns out, no. They didn’t just move on to other fetishists and people with peculiar or abnormal paraphilias. They skipped them and decided to bilk the public.

Oh, fat surprise.

This bill will pass. It will pass because nobody in the Congress or House will vote against it. They won’t vote against it because it’s to protect children from Pedophiles.

And there you have it, folks. Because Pedophiles are universally reviled by society, you have your reason that all of your freedom gets to be stripped away.

Not because you are guilty, and it certainly isn’t because you might have child pornography on your computer.

H.R. 1981 isn’t for pornography, it’s the mechanism of control. It is the perfect tool to combat piracy, to punish the public and to create… as some writers would term it… Total Criminality.

You’re a criminal because you’re on the internet.

Who is to blame for this? You are. You are because you didn’t defend the most reviled people in society, did not argue for their rights, did not protect them from having their human rights stripped away.

You can blame yourself for the death of the Internet, because you never put yourself on the line to take the stand nobody else would take.

But I’m sure it’s fine. I’m sure you’re okay with this, because after all, some of you MIGHT be pedophiles.

So when your children ask you when the internet died, you can look them straight in the eyes and tell them it was murdered by everyone who couldn’t stand to think of Pedophiles existing on earth, and how the very idea of such a thing was enough for us to hand our betrayers the keys to the house.

If, on the other hand, you aren’t okay with this bill… I encourage you to fight against it. I say this while laughing, because good fucking luck; the entirety of the U.S. super-ego will crush you into a fine powder rather than hear anyone object to a bill protecting kids from Pedophiles.

Oh, and if you do want to fight the destruction of the internet, why don’t you share this with everyone you know. Print it and give it to your mum, pass it out to the elderly and the infirm, read it to your teenage children, make people understand.

Though I don’t have much hope of THAT happening.

This has been your Heresy of the Day.

Note: Repost of a diaspora update by The Heretic Of Ethics

अमेरिका में न्यूयोर्क शहर में दो महीनों से चलने वाली ओकुपै वालस्ट्रीट आन्दोलन के बारे में सब सुना ही होगा। अब वह न्यूयोर्क के बाहर अमेरिकी शहरों में ही नही पूरी दुनिया में फैली है। अमेरिकी समाज में आज हम को बहुत खैर बराबरी दिखाइ देगा, बहुत सारे लोगोंको अपना घर और नैकरी आज नहीं है, बहुत युवा लोग अपनी शिक्षा के लिए जो खर्चा लिया वो वापस कर नहि पा रहा है, उनको अच्छी नैकरी की प्रतीक्षा भी नहीं है। यह सभी लोग यह अन्याय व्यवस्था खतम करके एक न्याय समाज लाने के लिए आज रस्ते पर आयें है। यह लोग आज पूरे दुनिया के लिए – हम सब के लिए लड रहें है। जो लोग आज एक न्याय समाज और सच्ची लोकशाही का सपना देखते है, उन सबको आज इसमें शामिल होना है और उनकी आवाजको हमारे समाज में पहूँचाना जरूरि है, क्योंकि ये हमारी ही लडाई है। हम भी इधर एक नया समाज बनाने की कोशिश शुरू करेंगे। हम यह लडाई जीत सकेंगे की नहीं ये मुझे पता नही, एक बात तो पक्कि है, हम कोशिश ही नहिं करेंगें तो बदलाव नहीं होने वाला है। कम से कम ये मुद्धे हम सबकी बातचीत और सोच में ला सकते है। जब और लोगोने इसपर सोचना शुरू किया तो शायद कुछ जवाब मिल सकता है। पूरे दुनिया में आज बदलाव के लिए लोग अपने घर और ओफीस के बाहर आकर रस्ते पर आ चुका है, और सबके मन में बदलाव की आशा मजबूत है, आज हमारे सामने यह एक ऐतिहासिक मोका है, हमको इसका पूरा फायदा उठाना है। आप भी हमारे साथ इसमें जुडें।

अधिक जानकारि के लिए http://piratepad.net/18octpune देखे।

PS: Thanks to Sandeep for spelling and grammar help!

SOLILOQUY OF THE MAN WALKING TO THE GALLOWS

K.Satchidanandan

 

Look at me walking to the gallows:

In ten minutes, my dreamles head

will be severed from my desireless body.

 

I have listened to my victim’s blood

scream for my love.

I have longed to kneel

to his family and friends,

longed to weep hugging

the mango trees on his courtyard,

to roll in that sand and ask for

mother earth’s pardon

 

Then I would return to

the half-eaten fruit and

the half-sung song,

to the half-built house

and the half-read book,

to the half- loved love and

the half- lived life.

I would cross the river

to be at the festival in the temple,

cross the hill to be

at the church for Christmas.

I would board the crowded bus

to go to town and tell my friends,

‘Look, I have come.’

 

I had longed to see my daughter

grow up into a free woman,

my son into a man who can weep.

 

I had more dreams than memories

like a flame-of-the-forest in summer

with more flowers than leaves.

 

I am no Sheharazade who can

postpone death telling tales.

The tree of tales has shed its leaves

To become  this gnarled tree of death.

 

They asked me if I had a last wish.

I didn’t tell them I wanted to be

a hare, its ears aloft on the meadow,

a squirrel talking from the jackfruit  tree,

a bird held on a rainbow,the river

of posterity and the spring wind.

 

The sweet they offered me was bitter , like death,

a bitterness with a cat’s eyes

that will survive the gallows.

 

Tell me law -givers,

tell me, judges of men,

don’t you regret this sentence

that renders even regret redundant?

What is the distance

from the hot logic of homicide

to the cold logic of hanging?

 

I leave the questions on the ever green earth

and  go along this worn passage

weary  with the blood

of the guity and the guiltless,

of murderers and martyrs.

Let none have to tread this path tomorrow.

Let there be

T-o-m-o-r-r-o-w.

 

( Translated from the Malayalam by the poet )

Arundhati Roy Writes in Outlook

In most other countries, the definition of Criminal Contempt of Court is limited to anything that threatens to be a clear and present danger to the administration of justice. This business of “scandalising” and “lowering the authority” of the court is an absurd, dangerous form of censorship and an insult to our collective intelligence.

I suggest you read the full story as she writes in a clear and as usual sharp language how the judiciary has grown to such a position even to sent anyone asking tough questions to jail.

Defective by Design is running a
campaign encouraging Bono to take a stand on DRM will send a powerful
message.

Its your chance to be a prt of this campaign by signing the petition.
We have reached about 5000 signatures and we are looking at 10000. So
pass it on to your friends as well.

Dear Bono,

You have dedicated a major part of your life’s work to fighting for
good causes, bringing pressure to bear on the powerful and political
elite to effect positive change. In the same way that you have called
for action from world leaders, we now call upon you to look at the
facts surrounding Digital Restrictions Management (DRM), and join us
in demanding an end to handcuffs on technology and culture.

Read the full petition and sign

Join orkut community Defective By Design and invite your friends.

Bangalore FOSS Community celebrated today (September 16) as software freedom day (teams around the world celebrated the day with passion and fun). In Kerala Schools taught the values of community, sharing of knowledge..
We had sessions at three colleges in Bangalore.

SFD Banner outside of Divyasree Chambers, Bangalore

* BMS College of Engineering
* Dayananda Sagar College of Engineering
* Sir M Visweswaraiah Institute of Technology

In BMS the sessions wer handled by Aanjhan, me, Dilip, Srikanth and Dinesh. In DSCE Laxmi, Ramaprasad and Kanti handled sessions where as Moinak Ghosh, Prabhod and Saurabh from Sun Microsystems along with his other colleagues presented the day at MVIT.

I will write about my experience at BMS here. Lets wait for other folks’ scribbles.

First of all I would like to congratulate Netravathi B, Sharada M and their friends who helped us make this event a grand success. Hats off to you folks !

Also all the students and FSUG team who made the day a memorable one.

I woke up at 7.30 and started the day with SFD wishes to friends. The message was

“If we both exchange one apple, we both have ONE apple each, but if we exchange one good thought, we both have TWO good thoughts.”

-George Bernad Shaw

Share your thoughts for a Free Society NOW!

Celebrate Freedom, Spread the message,
Happy Software Freedom Day.

www.softwarefreedomday.org

I reached BMS College by 9 am and we started the event around 9 30 with Revolution OS and Aanjhan took over by 10.The auditorium was fully packed and it was about 350 students, even some of them were sitting on side steps, and many standing even after bringing some more extra chairs. We had really good interactive session where we clarified basic confusing terms like Free Software, Open Source Software, GNU/Linux, hacking. It was really great to see audience correctly answering some of these queries. We stressed the benefits of contributing to Free software and career opportunities. Srikanth explained the basic motivation behind the computer technological advancements, we are trying to reach as close as possible to the human bodies functionuing (memory, logic, recognition…).

House Full !!

Aanjhan in full josh

We had a rather boring session (should I say quite unwelcome session?) on SUSE Linux 10. It was a complete marketing presentation by one of the Novell folks where he kept playing some movies and talked how SUSE is superior and Novell is the reason for Microsoft to postpone Vista release. We thought it will be some technical presentation about cool features of Novell 10. He even said Debian is a company.

Except for this session it was awesome. We kept smiling at some of his claims. Like how can you ‘download’ windows application to ‘linux’ using mono. But we learned some positive lessons from that. See corporate eye ball trap by Atul (this not exactly the case here though, since SUSE is Free Software). But it gave the students a different perspective and some of the facts which we didn’t wanna tell them. Like our main motivation is to help students to learn and be part of such an amazing community, so some one had to do the marketing stuff. But I was happy with the fact that he took some time to spent with us I would like to thank him for participating in Software Freedom Day.

Srikanth during the BoF session

Anyway the moment he finished we announced BoF sessions for interested folks. About 60 people stayed back and we splitted into 4 groups and addressed their doubts and asked about their interest areas. Me and Dilip took charge of one group and we had a very interesting discussion. Other three groups were handled bu Aanjhan, Srikanth and Dinesh. We had to leave the hall only because they had to close the hall and we left the campus becuase it was already 1 30 and all of us were started feeling hungry.

tuxmaniac, me and dilpu

Me, Dilip, Aanjhan and Srikanth had lunch at angeethi and was back home by 4. It was a great experience we are excited to continue work with them. Stay tuned to bmslug.

Congrats again to Nethra and Sharada. Also to Ramaprasad who was with me from the beginning.

Update: Link to Atul’s blog about corporate eye-ball trap added. Now after reading that again today I felt so bad at the way the presentation was done.

I think it was even worse, because it was a community organised event and it got hijacked. The events which Atul talk about was organised with such motives from the beginning.

Update:
Srikanth has posted the album see here.

Update:

Some more blogs on the day

• Nethra
• Aanjhan
• Hiran
• Pramode CE

??? ??????????? ???????????????. ??????????? ???????????????? ????????? ?????? ???????? ? ?????? ????????????. ???????? ??????????? ?? ???????????? ????????????? ?????????????????? ??? ????????????? ??? ??????????????????????? ???????????????. ?????????????? ????? ???????? ?????? ?????????? ??????? ???????? ??????? ??????????????? ????????????? ???? ????? ??? ??????? ????????????? ??????????.

??? From Malayalam wikipedia

?????????????? ????? ?????? ?????? ?????????? …

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????????

The beautiful Vythiri
Kiren SK wrote in his blog about our Vythiri Camp experience ….

It was really a great chance to attend the National Service Scheme Camp organised at Vuthri by the juniors. Making the arena for another get together with the juniors who were always the embodiment of grt friendship.

The team
We spent two days in the NSS special camp on Dec 3 and 4. The second day we climbed the Chembara peak (2nd highest peak in Kerala). The last day of foss.in I ran to catch bus to Vythiri just after the closing key note and Rock show began. We had not booked tickets so we decided to try our luck with seats. (Even on Friday morning we were not sure to go, but after a phone call from Prashob and MP in the morning I decided we are going). Luckily we got seats thanks to a confusion (Two guys booked a seat for the third guy in the back and the third guy booked two seats in the front !! So three of us, me, Kiren SK and Rakesh sat comfortably).

Rakesh, Kiren, Thomson, Sajeev and Dhanraj sir

We reached the camp site early morning on Saturday. This was my third NSS camp. I still remember the beautiful memories of my frist NSS camp which Pattambi’s team conducted. ( I would love to see someone writing about all days of the camp like this for this camp too)

Haridas entertaining the camp members — from Anakkampoyil camp
Last time we had the responsibilty to make the camp happen. So this time and the first time I enjoyed without any tension. We had taken up reconstruction of a road. It was beneficial to about 25 families. The road was about 2 km long. We joined the team and started for the worksite.

‘Special Group’

They showed us the results of many days hard work with enthusiasm and satisfaction. It gives you a lot of satiafaction when you know that you have made a difference to somebody’s life. Even to go to a hospital they had no transport available as the road was not motorable. Now they can avail transport.

/me having a look at the progress, Jayakumar sir is seen explaining

The people there prepared tapioca snacks for us.

Having a break

The finishing touch- Geo

After the work we had bath in the river near by. Then we had delicious lunch. After the hardowork the luch always is very tasty. We missed Kunchiramettan – he used to cook for all the camps, he could not come this time because he was not feeling well. He used to tell us the experiences of the previous camps. He was there at the time of Rajan [He was a student of REC Calicut and was (believed to be ) murdered by Police during the days of Emergency ]. Even now people know REC (now NIT) as Rajan’s college. We have our cultural festival Ragam named after him. Last time he told us about his experience with Rajan. Rajan was good actor and he was coming back from a perfomance with Kunchiramettan when poilice caught him. To juniors you missed Kunchiramettan this time.

Kunchiramettan at Anakkampoyil camp

We were preparing for the Camp Fire after lunch. The campfire is for my third time and it was wonderful each time. It was filled with Folk songs (original – by the camp members and other popular numbers) and film songs.

The camp fire — Prashob is seen in full swing

Camp fire

Folk song moment.

The Fire

After the campfire there was camp evaluation. Hey folks you did a wonderful job. Congratulations. There has to be suggestions for better camp next time. It is very necessary, otherwise you would feel complacent. Every time you should think how to make the next one better. We also gone through this phase. Take the suggestions to make the next camp even a better one.

Me at the worksite

We were in a confusion whether we should stay for the trekking too. But we decided to go for trekking. We climbed the Chembara peak, the second highest peak after Anamudi. It was a wonderful experience [Still the wound I got from a leech bite not cured ]. We left the campsite by 9 and reached the top by 11.30.

For more photos see the nss website
I’ll update the trekking photos after I’m back from X mass holidays.

Merry Christmass and Happy New Year to all.

Sign the petition at http://www.petitiononline.com/blogbang

The members of the “Bloggers of Bangalore” community would like to bring to the attention of the media and society at large, certain unfair and intimidatory actions undertaken by the Indian Institute of Planning and Management (IIPM) against members of the Indian blogging community.

In June 2005, JAM, a popular youth magazine published out of Mumbai, ran a story on IIPM titled ‘The Truth about IIPM’s Tall Claims” pointing out blatant exaggerations in the institute’s claims about infrastructure, courses, affiliations and placements. For instance, the magazine article pointed out how IIPM continues to use certain rankings conferred upon it AFTER those rankings have been withdrawn by the bodies conferring them.

The magazine ran an ethically researched investigative story on IIPM, revealing what was a marketing fraud by the college.

Alongside, the editor of JAM magazine and a former student of Indian Institute of Management (IIM) Ahmedabad, who is also a blogger, published the same on her personal blog. In August 2005, blogger Gaurav Sabnis, another Mumbai-based blogger, posted about this on his own blog, linking to JAM’s original story. Soon after this, he received an e-mail from the IIPM legal department threatening to sue him for a huge sum of money unless he withdrew his comments. Simultaneously, he was also pressurised by IIPM through his employers, a global hardware manufacturer. Rather than put his employers in a tight spot, Sabnis decided to quit his job. Meanwhile, Varna Sriraman also got a mail from IIPM threatning legal and police action Continue reading ‘online petition for the right to freedom of expression’