Vox Populi Vox Dei

2011-03-01T19:48:00.001-08:00

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Madurai's Hitler

2010-11-13T08:16:00.000-08:00

Prodigal Reruns K A ShajiMaduraiA story of filial loyalty and political ambition in which ‘Hitler’ doles out biryani to counter Stalin For long a regional satrap, Azhagiri now wants to play bigger political roles. Seen here welcoming ADMK supporters into the DMK fold It

Spectrum Scam

2010-05-17T08:26:00.000-07:00

Out of Thin AirBy K A Shaji Why does Telecom Minister Andimuthu Raja seem so secure? The ‘code division’ and ‘multiple access’ intricacies of Tamil politics.The baying for his scalp has gone up a few decibels. Just how much does Union Telecom Minister Andimuthu Raja have to hide? He is being called the architect of the biggest scam that Free India has ever seen. And his party, the DMK,

Sittilingi's good doctors

2010-04-16T13:45:00.000-07:00

Doctors on CallBy K A Shaji How an idealistic couple is changing the lives of a tribal population in a rural outback of Tamil Nadu. Sittilingi, in Dharmapuri district of Tamil Nadu, looks like an idyllic village. It is a lush hamlet located in a valley at the heart of four green hills. But till 1992, grief was terrifyingly common among the 80,000-odd tribals who lived in this area.

Propaganda on a Screen Near You

2010-03-31T03:50:00.001-07:00

Entertainment in Tamil Nadu is almost entirely motivated by politics, and the DMK is nowhere near loosening its grip on audiences.By T R Vivek and K A ShajiComing as he does from the Cauvery Delta town of Tiruvarur, DMK patriarch and Tamil Nadu Chief Minister Muthuvel Karunanidhi fancies himself as a modern-day, mighty-yet-benevolent Chola ruler (and is often flattered by assorted celebrities as

God’s Own Drunk Country

2010-03-31T03:48:00.000-07:00

The Kerala government is doing a deft balancing act of selling booze and opening de-addiction centres at the same time.By K A ShajiKeralites like to drink. And how! Per person a year, they drink eight litres of the demon drink. The national average is less than 2 litres. As many as 2 million Keralites drink every day, according to the Thiruvananthapuram-based Alcohol and Drugs Information Centre.

The Armenian Representative

2010-03-31T03:46:00.000-07:00

With no Armenians left in Chennai, an Anglo-Indian takes care of this community’s historic 298-year-old church.Till six years ago, Michael Stephen was caretaker of the 298-year-old Armenian Church, said to be one of the oldest centres of Christian worship in South India. Then the priest decided to turn infotech professional and left for Bangalore to work in a call centre, and with him went the

A Rickshaw with a Website

2010-03-17T02:38:00.000-07:00

If you want the services of Chennai’s M Samson, all you have to do is log on to tuktastic.com.By K A ShajiThere’s no way to confirm it, but M Samson may quite possibly be the only autorickshaw driver in India with a website of his own. The services of this 38-year-old semi-literate, who also doubles as a tourist guide, can be booked online by any Chennai visitor who logs onto tuktastic.com.Samson

Once a Comrade

2010-03-17T02:32:00.000-07:00

What does it take to start a revolution, then turn your back on it? What does it mean to believe, then to disbelieve? Former Naxalites on why they left the red path.By K A ShajiPhilip M Prasad was 24 when he planned and led one of the most notorious Naxal uprisings in Kerala in November 1968. He and about 50 others attacked the Madras Special Police camp in the north Kerala village of Pulpally

Anbumani's predicaments

2009-12-03T22:24:00.000-08:00

Where Did Dr No-No Go?K A Shaji/ ChennaiAmbumani Ramadoss shook up TV screens and then vanished. Here’s a look at a politician and a party that miscalculated their future badly.He is out in the cold, unsung and unlamented ever since the caste-based regional party run by his maverick father faced a complete rout in the last Lok Sabha election. But Anbumani Ramadoss is remembered on a daily basis

Kanchana Kottangal

2009-12-03T22:19:00.000-08:00

The Widow of a BachelorBy K A Shaji / KozhikkodeThe heartbreaking story of a Hindu girl and a Muslim boy who fell in love while crossing a mighty river, the war between their parents, and a truce that came too late, as always.Sixty nine-year-old Kanchana Kottangal has ignored the river for 27 years. It hasn’t been easy. Mukkom, Kanchana’s hometown in the north Kerala district of Kozhikode,

2009-11-06T22:40:00.000-08:00

The Taming of the BullThey risk their life for honour—and rewards—at the Jallikattu. Here is what drives them to reach for that bull. K A ShajiAlanganallur and PalamaeduA massive hoarding with a picture of a gigantic bull and an unarmed youngster who is trying to tame it greets those entering Alanganallur, an agrarian village near Madurai, Tamil Nadu. Here, farmers rear their sons and bulls with

Secular lotuses

2009-11-06T22:37:00.000-08:00

Harmony Blooms HereA Muslim village in Malappuram district supplies lotuses to all the major Hindu temples of Kerala K A ShajiThirunavayaEdakkulam village, like the rest of Malappuram district, is predominantly Muslim with about 60 families of the faith living there. At first sight, the only extraordinary feature here is its vast stretches of wetlands. Look closer into the water and you notice

The enigma called Abdulla Kutty

2009-10-30T02:30:00.000-07:00

The Muslim MarxistModi’s communist admirer is contesting a bypoll on a Congress ticket. If anyone understands AP Abdulla Kutty, do write inK A ShajiKannurTill recently, AP Abdulla Kutty was a rare species in Indian politics. A man who described himself as a ‘God fearing Muslim communist’, this two-time CPM Lok Sabha member from Kerala was seen as an ardent fan of Gujarat Chief Minister Narendra

Marriage Portal for Transgenders

2009-10-30T02:27:00.000-07:00

Ek Vivaah Aisa BhiA matrimonial website for transgenders launched in Chennai is getting queries from men in France and ItalyK A ShajiChennaiThirunangai in Tamil means respectable women. So when Kalki Subramaniyan decided to launch a matrimonial website for transgenders, she felt thirunangai.net was apt. The site, in Tamil and English, began operations a month back but the idea germinated a year

Jayalalithaa's long walk in the political wilderness

2009-10-05T22:43:00.000-07:00

Anyone Seen Her Lately?The Lady of Poes Garden has vanished from Chennai to a little known tea garden in the Nilgiris. Tamil politics awaits her return, stars willing.K A ShajiChennaiWilderness has its attractions, they say. About 75 years have passed since Lord Erskine, British governor of the erstwhile Madras Presidency, visited a remote village located on the eastern ridge of Blue Mountains in

Guardian angel of Kerala Mangroves

2009-10-05T22:38:00.000-07:00

Mangrove ManDisillusioned with the communists, he planted 100,000 mangrove saplings to protect Kerala’s wetlands.K A ShajiKannurWhen he was born in a Kerala village in the early 1930s as an untouchable Pulaya, a caste of agricultural labourers and fisherfolk, his parents named him Pokkan. His umbilical cord was like a blown-up balloon, or as the metaphor now goes, the bloated seed of the common

Turtle People

2009-09-28T10:34:00.000-07:00

K A ShajiKozhikodeTill two decades ago, the residents of Kolavippalam, a fishermen’s village in Kozhikode district of Kerala, felt no remorse in killing the turtles that arrived on the local beach every winter to lay eggs. From September to March, both the meat and eggs were part of their daily menu. Some sold the meat in nearby localities.One morning, while Surendra Babu, an autorickshaw driver

Grandmoms in Their Thirties

2009-08-16T03:18:00.000-07:00

In this Kerala district, you see pregnant daughters and their pregnant mothers in the same maternity ward By K A ShajiEarly this January, Sainabha became a mother. She was 31, not an unusual age to conceive. A week earlier, she had, however, also become a grandmother. If you are in Kerala’s Malappuram district, 31 is not such an unusual age for that either. Sainabha had got married at 13 to a man

Breaking Records, Making Movies

2009-08-16T03:12:00.000-07:00

11 days, 23 hours, 45 minutes. That’s the time Suresh Joachin took to complete his movie in Tamil on the Sri Lankan situation By K A ShajiFor the record, Suresh Joachin will possibly do anything. He has promised himself that his name will feature at least 500 times in the Guinness Book of World Records before he dies. And in his 51st successful attempt, he has actually managed to merge it with

Prodigal Reruns

2009-08-16T03:06:00.000-07:00

Madurai's strongmanA story of filial loyalty and political ambition in which ‘Hitler’ doles out biryani to counter Stalin By K A ShajiIt happens every 30 January. Traffic in Madurai is thrown out of gear, and about 700 hoardings spring up, some of them in vain competition with the city’s temple shikhars for skyline domination. Nobody can miss the birthday of Tamil Nadu Chief Minister M

Amma's U turns

2009-08-16T02:54:00.000-07:00

Reverse SwingIn yet another U-turn, Jayalalithaa has warped the electoral pitch in Tamil Nadu by declaring support for the Sri Lankan Tamil dream of an independent Eelam By K A ShajiThe image is more than two decades old. But it refuses to fade from public memory, at least in Tamil Nadu. Jayalalithaa Jayaram, then an out-of-work actress and a novice in Dravidian politics, was knocked off the

Confessions of a Social Worker

2009-08-16T02:48:00.000-07:00

I cleverly manipulated facts and figures, won the confidence of donors and made my NGO a success In the early 80s, with a first class post-graduate degree in social work, I came to this backward area in the Nilgiri hills to work among Adivasis. Their living conditions are still the same but mine have changed considerably. I cleverly manipulated facts and figures, won the confidence of donors and

Confession of an anonymous murderer

2009-08-16T02:45:00.000-07:00

Confessions of a MurdererThere were times when the face of the man I killed haunted me. But I no longer feel remorse. Now, I feel that was his destiny Like everybody else, I too believe murder is one of the most heinous sins. But I had to kill a person—more accurately, an enemy of my political philosophy. I had nothing personal against him. But it happened. This was about two decades ago. I was

Kozhikode's Coconut Tree Climbing College

2009-08-16T02:42:00.001-07:00

How to Climb a Coconut TreeWhy high literacy levels in Kerala haven’t created a shortage of men who can climb the most daunting trees By K A ShajiIt was about 15 years ago that Ramadasan Vaidyar, a noted satirist of Kerala, thought of the need to establish an exclusive college to train youngsters to climb coconut trees. Vaidyar, who made headlines in the late 1970s by organising a contest for

Kozhikode's Coconut Tree Climbing College

2009-08-16T02:42:00.000-07:00

The Cave Dwellers of Kerala

2009-08-16T02:37:00.000-07:00

The world according to Cholanaikkans The world discovered this endangered tribe in 1970. Soon after, the tribals discovered alcohol By K A ShajiGetting to the Cholanaikkans, the only remaining tribal community in Asia that lives in rock-cave shelters, is not easy. A highly endangered tribe, they live deep inside the evergreen deciduous jungles of Nilambur, in Kerala’s Malappuram district.

Hero Forever

2009-08-15T23:25:00.000-07:00