In the light,Me and my Nilavu

The name Simon Britto Rodrigues is the one which stands fervidly engraved in the Kerala psyche, heart and soul. His storybook-life is on the dissection table of the medical students. He is referred to as the man who loved life to a great degree. His soul mate Seena metaphrases his life to the ‘one who loved life with unquenched fervour and passion’. Seena Bhaskar, his dear comrade in life is ferrying down the straits of memory, sitting in her house  ‘Kayam’ which in literal sense approximates to the ‘depth’ at Vaduthala in Cochin,  close to three weeks since her husband breathed last.

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This is a story told by Seena Bhasker, Britto ’s wife to Vinod Payam appeared in Deshabhimani dated Jan 20, Sunday 2019.

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The graceful automated wheel-chair looked askance at me as a forlorn figure, pleading; ’why I am being left alone. Britto wouldn’t leave me with such ease like changing apparel”. I caressed its arm with a white kerchief. The waft of the tender dust swept into my nose. It is three weeks, the passenger disembarked. When back as usual after switch-on, the mechanised chair accosted me as Britto does; “Seena, everything ready, No?’

Britto! Biji Hilal, our friend dropped in yesterday. She came weeping, pale as paper with a tender coconut in one hand. She said you had been vivid in her dream!! The girl, who wouldn’t even see her mother in her dreams, was weary and devastated, talking with you in the witching hours. Britto chided her in the dream; “Nilavu craves for the tender coconut. Why don’t you take it for her?” I laughed at the fallacy wondering as to how on earth, could a fervent materialist like him, could show up in her dream!  

Britto! You don’t forget to care Nilavu’. Do you? Didn’t you ditch the darned thrift on me when Nilavu came amongst us?  Do you recollect; when we started life I asked for 5 rupees to buy a rose stem, you mercilessly cared no two hoots making me cry out like bamboos creak. Certainly, I do!!  The last 20 days, Nilavu and I are shrouded fathoms deep in your memory. She would ask for the Abba. The nervous queries of the girl in the Vth class drown me in the dire straits of grief. She, knee-high to a grasshopper, would wipe my eyes in a way as if come of age, console me: “Amma, Abba is with us here.”

Britto ‘walked back to life from certain death’ sharp 35 years ago on Oct 14^th when he clenched back his life from them. After 10 years and a day, we were married, till then we were friends. Our relation blossomed not with intent to become partners in life. It so happened. The friendship led to the nuptials on the culmination of my desire to remain his friend forever. Those days I remember him asking me “Seena, Do you vouch that our friendship would endure if you were married to another man? “ It was because I was serious-minded to remain in the shade of his life that I pulled out of the campus and my relatives to enjoy the half slice of his distressed life.

Now in this huge vacuum, how gracious were our journey and our days that spun with love for life. I had never seen a man with such tenacity to stick on to one’s life. The happiness you enjoy,  given one moment more- vanished like a line drawn by a chock, so suddenly and mercilessly. When I was away on an errant at Patna, Nalanda university, you were on an eternal journey from Thrissur. Why was it? I was at Nalanda to bring Arjun Das to Kerala. Didn’t you tell us to rummage the library to find the travel accounts in India of Xuanzang, the scholar and traveller?  Didn’t you wish to make such journeys as early as 2012? How will we go now? Who would write a book on the experience of such a tour? How I could read that book, enthralled, flummoxed and speechless? With whom Nilavu would quench her curiosities?

When the sourness grew in our private lives, we have shifted to a newly built house at Vaduthala. To reflect the profundity of his thought, he christened it “Kayam”.When the baby came there, she became our “Nilavu” (literal sense ‘the soft, silvery moonbeam’)  Nilavu, our little daughter did not make a fuss, never imposed herself and was discreet enough to know that our life was the incessant journey of troubles and turbulence. As early in her sixth month, she would be on all fours and help him when the book slipped or when his plates fell.  Even as a toddler, she didn’t give a whimper to make sure not to trouble us. Only now after being grown up like her sober father, she has turned to whine, grizzle or groan.

Britto was worried as Malayalam is not taught as a subject in central school curricula. He taught her the language by purchasing the Soviet children books. Britto taught his Dukka-as she calls her- the candy-like Malayalam laying her on the chest. Both were crazy about football. It was sitting on the wheel-chair that Britto dreamt of the vast play areas of life. Britto was a fan of Portugal while Nilavu was fanatic about Brazil. I stood in between their long arguments as a crappy referee, tired and taunted, who knew no ground rules.

Nilavu loved to travel with us. Britto often wondered that not many children at this age would have partaken in such arduous journey to Himalaya.  Britto had always wished to travel unplanned and hassle free. His final exit was unprepared and undecorated leaving no cue. He believed that the travels should not be aimless. It should be like an uncomfortable journey in a general compartment. Reaching out for the references of the places he visited he would say; “Learn about the places where you go, if necessary write on it”

 ‘Britto’s wife’ is not an appellation or an epithet that we both liked. We were friends and comrades. Whenever his masculine supremacy lay bare, I would remind him; ” Britto ! No.” The response would be an amorous and disarming smile. He was a good listener- which I felt was his great plus. He would talk hours together with the fisher-women. He would listen attentively to their miseries, keep an umbrella over their miseries and find solutions. I would swipe at him; ”Who that Britto !! Was she your old fancier? The quick rejoinder is shot back; “Not that Seena. It is great to feel their pleasure when they find someone to listen-somebody who cares them. I have watched that trait in him while he was an MLA. Britto’s intervention had paved the way for the increased attention of Kerala to the problems of specially-abled people. The ramp constructed in the Kerala assembly was after his mediation. Britto moved a bill in the assembly for constructing a graveyard for the castles and religion less who die sans the funeral ceremonies. It was rejected. He was also concerned with what will happen to him after death. After Abhimanue’s murder, the concern had scaled up. He entrusted me to provide his body for the medical college and avoid the wreathe and such other post-death rituals. The only thing he desired was a party flag on his body, which I passed off as black humour, to happen after a long passage of time.

  Britto had planted a passion fruit in the front yard. When Nilavu reaches her 7^th class its canopy would spread over the garden. The mango tree, not far, that gives fruits for all seasons would grow to bring the fruits by then. The picture of a father and his daughter- together they peal a mango and relish its taste!! It is an unfinished art. Britto left us for the immortal journey leaving the palette over to me. I want to finish the painting. There is a huge vacuum in my heart now-the void left behind by the shock when the giant tree fell. Britto would never allow me to keep the vacuum unfilled!! New sprouts would never cease to evolve from beneath the fallen trunk. Britto! Let the yellow passion with lush green and dense canopy flourish that is nurtured between us. My daughter and I would bash in the moonlight- in the twilights sitting under the shadow.

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Britto was a living victim of violence in campus politics. He had been stabbed by opponents in 1983 when he was an activist of the Students Federation of India, left wheelchair-bound. With urine bottle and walker, he had travelled across the country with the never-say-die spirit to live. Britto authored a couple of novels: Agragami and Maharandram. Agragami won a Sakti award and a Patyam Gopalan award. He was a state representative of Kerala Grandhasala Sangam and the first MLA to take part in the proceedings while sitting in a wheelchair. The  officials had organised a ramp to let Britto's wheelchair in and to saw off a part of a seat to accommodate the wheelchair. Britto is 80 per cent physically disabled. But he prefers to say: ""I am 20 per cent able." His body is paralysed chest down.
 
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Can Poojari's be Marxists?

Can the Poojaris, Christian padres, Islamic clerics and the manifold evangelists and holy men, work with communists? It is an old question several times being answered by EMS in toe with the famous Lenin’s narrative in ” The attitude of workers party to religion”. In a nutshell it is-when a priest becomes the part of the day to day politics, conscientiously be part of the party responsibilities, and imbibe and acknowledge the party policies,(The comprehensive Lenin's work: volume 15), he is eligible for party membership.

Lenin has been unequivocal that Religion cannot be annihilated with resistances, putting blinkers to its roots, and atheism which blatantly negates religion cannot be integral to the proletarian movement. Lenin decried the strapline “ down with religion, atheism lives long”  and pooh-poohed the myth, dismissing it as superficial decor that does not conform with communistic concepts.

The resolution of Cuban communist party on religion in Oct 1980 concedes this argument in currency that the religion is a system which alienates men and is a construct to legitimise the exploitation of one class over the other. It is historically true too in that, religion overtime has acted as the ideological moor for political hegemony. Today our experience is that Faithfull’s can turn into a revolutionary who responds well to the societal obligations while equating himself to be a devote religionist. Fidel Castro has explained that the camaraderie of the two can liberate the world from exploitation. When people converge for the resistance against the predatory exploitation and imperialism, it is immaterial to double-check their stripes for faith or revolutionary spirit.

 Harold Sin asserts that the famous quote from Marx; “Religion is the opium of the people” wrung out-of-context had been misconstrued and misinterpreted by the anti-Marxist historians and propagandists with negative overtones that Marxism is anti-religious to its core. Marx had made the remark in the context of the negation of the Hegel’s ideology, in the introduction of Marx’s “A contribution to the critique of Hegel's Philosophy of Right” by extending his notion that it is not religion that created man, but the converse is true. Marx writes; “ Religious suffering is, at one and the same time, the expression of real suffering and a protest against real suffering. Religion is the sigh of the oppressed creature, the heart of a heartless world, and the soul of soulless conditions.”  It is in continuation of this narrative that the opium phraseology (It is the opium of the people) steps in, wherein he delineates how the religions work as an anodyne. When the stormy winds of the harsh realities of life strike on the face, the balm ceases to relieve your pain, it becomes dysfunctional.


Lenin, speaking of religions in 1905 alluded to this Marxian metaphor and said;” Those who toil and live in want all their lives are taught by religion to be submissive and patient while here on earth, and to take comfort in the hope of a heavenly reward. But those who live by the labour of others are taught by religion to practise charity while on earth, thus offering them a very cheap way of justifying their entire existence as exploiters and selling them at a moderate price ticket to well-being in heaven. Religion is opium for the people. Religion is a sort of spiritual booze, in which the slaves of capital drown their human image, their demand for a life more or less worthy of man.”

 

The religion constructs an unreal public conscience that consigns men to the freaks of fait.  Marx underscores the truth that the circumstances that gravitate the layman towards religion is of import. Without due regard to its underpinning causes, any criticism targeting religion ceases to be scientific.

Marxism is not a mechanical instinct on materialistic view. But while it ascertains that the material cosmos is primary, it recognises the different ideologies for its efficacy to influence man. Marx opined that when once an ideology has been accepted by the people it becomes the material forces for a change. Marxism as an ideology strongly disproves the religion when it becomes the tool that strives to hold back the reforms and keep humanity struck in the present.  Marxism recognises the believers who seek solace in their faiths. It is not an ideology that is in perpetual conflict with religion. It is the art and science of class struggle. It understands that the major chunk of the oppressed and the tyrannised are religious adherents.

This is based on an article authored by Sri.P.Rajiv, a RajyaSabha  MP from Kerala.

Bismi-the angel

“Too often we underestimate the power of a touch, a smile, a kind word, a listening ear, an honest compliment, or the smallest act of caring, all of which have the potential to turn a life around.”
― Leo F. Buscaglia

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ith the smile that gloss and glazes like sunbeam-that shines with the aplomb welled up –Anugrah, frail and limp , climbs down the steps of the elementary school closely followed by Phathima Bismi ,his alter ego . Anugragh the boy , afflicted by cerebral palsy is in the lead and the little girl who had been his crutch to lean on from first standard onwards is close to his heels .They wistfully bid adieu to the school as they have to be moving to the higher secondary classes in another school.
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On a rainy june day seven years back, Anugraph came to the school, his body hung on the mom’s shoulder, limbs emaciated and drooping who cannot articulate well. His mother must be near if he has to read, write, drink or to eat. He could not do anything on his own. Cerebral palsy is a loss or inability to control over the body movements; or motor problems in regulating the hand and arms during manual tasks. These losses or impairment of motor functions arise due to abnormal or incomplete brain development .

Bismi watched the mother and the teachers handle him and now she could tend him by herself. The boys mother, being pregnant for the second time stopped coming to school. When Manikandan ,his father comes to school with Anugrah on his bycycle ,Bismi will be ready to take charge of her friend . With books in one hand and the boy half her weight saddled on the left of the wasp waist, she would ramble round through the gardens, class rooms. The tender girl treated the boy as if her own little brother-assisted him in class portions, washed his hands, fed him -took him to the lavatrine, helped him hygienic-all by herself as a mature women above her age. She nestled him close till his third standard, thenceforth he learnt to walk himself.

Bismi has lifted the differently abled boy to the full of the joys of spring, who in most likelihood would have tethered to his own world. When he ran she also ran with him lest he should fall -a bonhomie as scarce as hen’s teeth beyond the cliché of cast, creed or colour. Now Anugrah can walk without fear of fall. He slowly regained the articulative skills. He studies, dances, write storeys and even take part in school dramas. The teaching faculty did all the care and help to the boy. The doctors attest that it was the self-confidence imparted by Bismi which alone took him through the ordeal while the presence of the caring teachers and parents created congenial atmosphere .The solace and succour that Bismi brought in was a matter of astonishment for her teachers ,students and the family .She has become a model .By the time the boy reached 7thbstandard in the Parambinkadavu Mommed Abdulrahman Memorial Upper Primary School ,the pupil were ready at any time to take care of the boy. The school provides all necessary background for the differently abled students to complete the primary classes.The children hogged the media lime light and the external world took note.

UNICEF recognised the report on them. When the news got viral, not to give a toss about, Bismi as usual was with his friend around the water-tapes and in the play-ground .He grew up and need not be lapped up or spoon fed now. But still she needs to be vigilant whether he would fall and get his limbs cracked. The parents of a differently abled boy have to go through a difficult patch. But thanks to Bismi, his mom had to come to school very sparingly.The mother said:”Let all god’s grace be showered on this little angel. She is such a child with all the love of God.”

They have now to move to Payimbra Govt High School to continue studies. The mother sighs; “My mind whispers to me -Bismi shall still be there with my child. I leave the hope in the hands of the girl. .”

In the night on the eve of the final exam ,the boy amidst his restlessness told the mother:”What a nice thing it could be if there is 8th standard in the school.” Prof: Muthukad the leading magician and inspiration speech maker ,also Unicef media adviser and the most revered Catholic Bava Basallius Marthoma Paulose came to visit the school.

Sri.Muthukad was all praise for Bismi and said that she is the embodiment of commiseration for human life. He reminisces the question asked by Almustaffa the main protagonist, in the prose poem ‘ Prophet’ from Kahlil Gibran ;” who is God?”

Muthukad has his answer: ” One who loves the other not for his benefit, the one that artlessly bears compassion in the eyes-I can see that empathy in her eyes.” The educational expenses will now be borne by the magician. He is also in the process of involving the social justice ministry to take up the education and medical expenses of Anugrah.

The catholic Bishop reached Kakkodi to grace Anugrah and Bismi and their family. The Bishop has inaugurated the road construction initiative of ‘The residence Association’ that runs in front of the house of Anugrah.The Gram Panchayath also sanctioned one and a half lakh rupees for the initiative.

“True empathy requires that you step outside your own emotions to view things entirely from the perspective of the other person.” Anonymous.

(The article is originally published in Mathrubhumi, a malayalam daily Weekend edition by Ms.KC Rahna-She is available at rehana.kc@gmail.com)

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The Candy smelling Bappa

“Our soul longs to be of service in some way. It's why we are here. If you weren't meant to touch the world in some way, you wouldn't be here. What act of service calls to you? Even the smallest thing has an effect in eternity.”
― Eileen Anglin

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re you marooned at City Bu Stand in Kasaragod? Do you find no transport to your remote village in the night? Sathar could be somewhere near to take you home.

His father would not come back. He knows it too well but hops on hope:”Some day, he would be spotted in town at a wee hour. I need to take him home.”

In June it does not rain but pours in these part of the country .Sathar summons back the vivid memory of an early June day in 1979, when as a kid clinging to his Bappa’s fingers was on their way to the Subah at Talangara mosque. After the Subah Namaskar he followed his father to the railway station waving him off to Bombay. Hassainar,his bappa(father) was a sailor with MV Kairali ,a merchant vessel owned by Kerala Shipping corporation. It was enroute for Rostock in Germany crewed by a team of 51 aboard. The ship was lost at mid sea moving at a good clip to Jibutha in Africa for fuelling. There were no news of shipwreck that left the family with faint promise of return. Rumours had it that the ship was sunk either in a PLI operation or hijacked by sea-pirates.

Hassainar was dear to the villagers and the family alike. It was his second marriage to Sathar’s mother Rukhiya. They were Darby and Jhon. When he was home, it was gaiety and merrymaking like a wedding day. The separation was a rude shock to his mother and after two years she died nursing the agony. Sathar stopped school going. He helped his uncle in laterite-wall-constructions. He forgot his father. Life was a treadmill.

Years after, when Sathar became a father, when his own children grew up before him he remembered his father. He began to ask; ’’Uppa, where are you now?” The thought that his father would one day turn up in the town was poignant and eerily evocative. He ran his scooter to the nooks and corners of the town, to the railway station, to the bus stops hoping his father would one day show up in the night of the town. During such wistful wait for his father he would ask those strangers stranded in the night where they wanted to go and volunteer a ride. He took them to their destinations without recompense.

Sathar once stumbled upon a man in the bus stand at midnight with his six year old boy –a cancer patient. With them on the pillion he rode 70 Km in that night through the rugged terrain to the remote destination, telling them that he is also on to the same place. His method is to accost the estranged passenger, ask where he wanted to go and reassure the poor mortal that he is also going to the same place and will only be pleased if he would not mind sharing the pillion. The heartfelt words like:”let God grace you” are the fuel for his two wheeler .He has a method in his madness. Safe home, he would say the truth that the journey was actually meant as a help. It was a make-belief, a clever ruse else they would fight shy off and resign. The child’s father was so happy that he embraced him, tears of gratitude run down his cheeks.

Another night a man spotted running on the road in panic was rushed to the Railway station on his scooter. The man’s wife was to undergo a surgery next day at Chennai. He was to deposit a tidy sum of money before the surgery and was in the town to scrape together enough cash .When they reached the station the west Coast was ready to leave.

Sathar was there to help many –whose name was even not known to him. He did not wish anything as return favour.

In yet another night a Muslim scholar on his way to Sa-Adiya,Deli Arabic college was left high and dry in the city stand. Sathar took him to the college. The Ustad was persistently looking for a quid pro quo. Sathar after much coaxing accepted 1Re coin as a token-the token of love. The routine for years gets intercepted scarcely, only when he is confined to home due to fever or is away on inescapable preoccupations. On Hartal days he would roam in the town looking for the marooned.

He lands in the town with tank-full and a few bottles of petrol in reserve. This is the fifth scooter in the love-route, having served one lakh kilometres and had developed considerable wear and tear. He plans to purchase a new one when all the monthly instalments are cleared.

Sathar is known to all the beat-police in town. They used to warn him over the risks in driving in the night for long and remote hamlets .Sathar leaves his life in the hands of God. There are three in his vehicle –The pillion passenger, himself and the God.

Not just well-wish and prayer alone, but he had to fair share of bitter experiences galore. Once a youth half way to the Railway station got off and happily walked away .When he searched his pocket for the 500 Rs fresh note he kept ,he found that he was pick pocketed. Sathar did not nurse any grudge. His penury, his incomplete house on two cents or the liabilities did not deter him from the noble cause.

Once he took a man in the lurch at KSRTC bus stand who wanted to reach a remote place called Buttikadavu ,a good 35 Km away from the stand. On reaching the destination, as being wont to him, he disclosed that he has biked these distances only to help him. He was invited to stay in his house for the night which he promptly declined .They exchanged their mobile numbers. On the way back he was intercepted by a gang of thugs who wanted to know his mission there. As he could not recollect the name of the place where he left the stranger-friend they took their dagger out. He revved the engine up, sped past through the narrow alleys- clutching his life in his hands, the gang being close behind. Somehow he took asylum in a house beside the road. The Battikadavu passenger was rung up and the man came with his associates for his safety. Sathar remembers of similar incidents in the course of his adventures.

There will usually be ten to fifteen people in a day left helpless, as without transport. There will be someone who is disabled or a man who is desperate to reach to his place, whether it be a short hop or long rides. For these men he waits in the night.

“The first question which the priest and the Levite asked was: 'If I stop to help this man, what will happen to me?' But...the good Samaritan reversed the question: 'If I do not stop to help this man, what will happen to him?” ― Martin Luther King Jr.

Courtesy to an article written by Rubin Joseph in Mathrubhumi Malayalam daily on 8th April 2018

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Bystander Apathy kills....

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e watch ,holding breath in awe, the amazing videos on YouTube and in Geographical Channels- of animals saving other animal lives. Baboon saving a deer or an impala from cheetah. Beer help saves a bird from water, elephant fights the lion to save buffalo, so on and so forth. In a dramatic confrontation on the plains of Africa-shot on one vedio in Kruger National Park- we see a herd of buffalo, whose natural born enemy is the lion, save an elephant calf to safety, chasing away a group of female lions .

It happens in the animal world when a co-inhabitant is caught in conflict with a much heftier enemy, a divine common thread binds them, even on the face of an assured damage.

Saji Anto, 46, a native of Kalluvettukuzhi Veedu, Nellankara of Thrissur district in Kerala fell from the fourth floor of the hotel in Cochin where he had been staying. Police said that he felt dizzy while standing on the terrace and plummeted on to the busy MG Road below , his legs hitting a parked two-wheeler before he collapsed. The CCTV footage showed people gathering around him, vehicles streaming, but none cared to take him to a hospital.

Ranjini Ramanand, a lawyer practising at the High Court for the last 23 years happened to be on the spot while on her way to the metro station along with her daughter. She desperately sought help from others to lift him up and shift to a nearby hospital. To her utter dismay, no one bothered to call a vehicle or help her take Saji to hospital despite repeated requests, Ranjini said that she saw youngsters who were not willing to extend a helping hand to the victim . The lawyer finally got help from a couple travelling on a four-wheeler. Saji with injuries to his cervical spine was shifted to the Government General Hospital and later to the trauma care unit at the Kottayam Medical College . Ranjini got accolades from the Kerala Assembly for her timely intervention to save the man's life. Chief minister Pinarayi Vijayan took it to social media to appreciate her, where he also expressed his shock over the muted response of the passers-by. Actor Jayasurya in a Facebook post congratulated her and spoke his mind to bow down to her.

This is not a one-off incidence .The crowd insensitivity does not limit to Kerla alone. We as a race are desensitised bystanders to give no two hoots to the dire need of the victims of violence and accident. People are too edgy, stuck up in the warped logic that works up cravenness and fights shy of the citizens duty-a breed of fascinated spectators, not conscientious enough to help the needy.

Psychiatrist Dr Harish Shetty calls it a complete collapse of the community consciousness. The "bystander effect" that forbids onlookers from taking action, he says, is typical Indian psyche. "We are taught from a very young age not to meddle in others' affairs. When it comes to helping someone who is not a part of your family or friends' circle, people tend to row back. “Taking a stand and rocking the boat is not part of our psyche," he said. He likens the "chronic disaster syndrome" that

India is going through to psychopathic liberation where people wreak havoc in a place stricken by disaster. Just as thefts are seen in places ravaged by earthquakes or wars, there is a collapse of the cultural superego, which is otherwise an inhibitor in these situations.

NDTV reports this shocking public apathy on Feb 02,2017 headlined: Lying In Blood, Karnataka Teen Cried For Help. They Filmed Him Instead. On February 1, 18-year-old Anwar Ali, whose bicycle was hit by a bus, bled to death on a road in Karnataka under the watch of several bystanders . It was only two days before, Mahesh Kumar, a 38-year-old police officer was left bleeding , lay mauled in a police jeep for nearly an hour after a road crash in Mysore. The people stood encircled but did nothing to take him to the hospital. These recent episodes explain the bystander responses in big cities to helpless victims in need of urgent reaction.

Aravindra Pandey the Nirbhayas friend recounts the 90 minutes ordeal in those decisive moments on the fateful night of December :
"After raping Jyoti, the attackers threw us out. We were lying on the road stripped of clothes. I tried to get up and wave at the vehicles and pedestrians in transit. Some cars stopped, saw us and left in a jiffy. Then the highway patrol van spotted us and we were taken to the hospital. People kept staring at me in the hospital.”

A few days later-true to the irony - half of Delhi were on the roads-candle lit, seeking justice for Jyoti chanting in processions ''Saari Delhi yahan hai, Sheila Dixit kahan hai"

In 2013, Kanhaiya's wife and infant daughter were hit by a vehicle in Jaipur. For almost one hour, he huddled their bodies to his chest-begging for help. Nobody stopped and let them die. The media brawled and hollered at the abysmal fall in public passivity. It shrieked and screamed:“ India wants to know why its people have become so unblushing and insensitive”.

Vinay Jindal In July 2015, bled to death after an accident in east Delhi. His death sparked a furore that spurred the Prime Minister Narendra Modi to ask people to come in the aid of road victims. But, we never learn.

A 24-year old Infosys tech worker S Swathi was murdered at a busy railway station in Chennai on June 24. Ramkumar, who had allegedly been stalking Swathi, hacked her to death with a sickle and calmly walked away as horror-struck passersby watched and did nothing. Ramkumar was arrested a week later and allegedly committed suicide in prison on September 18. She died simply because no one came to help. All stood frozen watching for two hours.

Indians are voyeurs; they seldom help victims on road mishap. In countries like France, Germany, Belgium, failing to provide help and passive attitude is a criminal offence. A bystander overlooking an accident victim is liable for imprisonment up to five years and a hefty fine. However, in India, it continues to remain a directive.

Such a tepid crowd response, doing little on the face of heinous atrocities ,even to raise an alarm is despicable. There are also cases where bystanders produced videos as a person was committing suicide, a lower caste man was being flogged and a victim was getting molested.
According to the Law Commission of India, 50% of those killed in road accidents could have been saved had timely assistance been rendered to them. India has just one percent of the world's vehicles. Yet we contribute to 10 percent of the global deaths in accidents. Fifty percent victims die of injuries that could have been averted.

Savelife Foundation , an NGO working on road safety, in a survey in 2013,reveals that 74 percent of Indians will fail to help an accident victim even in the company of other bystanders. On the basis of a national study of past cases conducted by it, the foundation submits that three out of four people in India hesitated to come to the rescue of a road accident victims. Even when indifference can be one reason, 88% of this apathy attributed to the perceived procedural harangues one might face at the hands of police and the hospital authorities. These hassles include intimidation by police, unnecessary detention at hospitals and prolonged legal formalities.

Bystander Apathy – Explains Why People At Accidents Or Emergencies Do Nothing

Psychiatrists and social scientists have delved into the human tendency to remain inert at incidents of street violence, a hit-and-run case, bikers snatching chains of passers-by, eve-teasing and molestation of women and children and harassment of senior citizens. This ‘looking the other way’ when help is desperately needed by victims of street violence is termed the ‘bystander effect.’

Jhon Darley and Bibb Latane , two American psychologists have been the first to coin the term “Bystander Effect in 1968. They conducted a series of lab experiments to examine how the presence of others influences people's helping behaviour in an emergency situation based on a murder which occurred in New York City in 1964.

On March 13, 1964, Kitty Genovese was murdered in front of her home. She parked her car a few feet from her apartment when all of a sudden, a man named Winston Moseley hunted her down and gored to death. Kitty screamed for help and a neighbour responded shouting at the criminal. Winston decamped in his car leaving the girl crawling towards her apartment. Minutes later he returned to the scene. After finding her lying almost unconscious where he left her , he stabbed the already wounded Kitty several times more. He stole the money of the victim, sexually assaulted and fled.

When the news of this tragic crime hit the stands, there was much debates on the selfishness and indifference of people in general, and in particular of the people who live in big cities. Darley and Latane found that the reason people did not help in an emergency was due to a social psychological concept is known as ‘diffusion of responsibility’, also known as the ‘bystander effect’ or ‘bystander apathy’.

Two reasons were offered to explain the bystander apathy effect. First is diffusion of responsibility. This occurs when other people think that another person will intervene and as a result, they feel less responsible.

The second explanation is pluralistic ignorance. This refers to the mentality that since everyone else is not reacting to the emergency; my personal help is not needed. Seeing the inaction of others will lead to the thought that the emergency is not that serious as compared to perception when he is alone.
Diffusion of responsibility suggests that the greater the number of witnesses at the scene of an emergency the less likely the victims are to receive help. This is because each person that is present feels less responsible to do something because he or she feels that someone else will do it. On the other hand, if only one person is present at the scene of an emergency, that individual is most likely to help, because he or she feels responsible since there is no one else around.
There are also other factors that contribute to the bystanders not assisting in an accident or emergency, including ambiguity and cohesiveness.
Ambiguity refers to the sense of feeling unknown in a crowd, so the individual thinks (consciously or unconsciously) that if I do not assist, no one will know because no one here knows me. Cohesiveness means feeling a part of a united whole. So, during that incident and for that brief period, individuals who may never have met before, subconsciously bond together; looking in awe at the sight together, talking together, exclaiming together, and so on. So, if one person does nothing, everyone else is likely to do nothing – because they feel like a united whole, moving together (or not), and in synchrony.
So, in the scenario above, individuals may have stood by without helping because each expected that someone else would help, resulting in ‘bystander apathy’ (no one doing anything to help). visit: http://www.dynacii.com

The bystander effect is further being compounded by the gadget era. We are a generation of cell-fishes ,smart cookies chained in smart phones, tablets, ipads, and the like and are drowned in social media : Facebook, Skype, Instagram, Whatsapp and others. The young in particular revels in capturing the moment, making it ‘viral’ , showcase it and feel proud of the ‘likes’ it could fetch.

According to the Law Commission of India, 50% of those killed in road accidents could have been saved had timely assistance been rendered to them.
A bench comprising justices V. Gopala Gowda and Arun Mishra directed the Centre to give wide publicity to the guidelines for the protection of Good Samaritans at the hands of the police or any other authority which clearly stipulate that people who help victims of road accidents or other calamities are not harassed in any way. The decision of the Supreme Court granting legal teeth to the guidelines assumes significance because the Centre has always claimed that it has found it difficult to enforce guidelines in the absence of any statutory backing. With the court order, the guidelines and standard operating procedures have become binding in all states and union territories. The guidelines are an interim measure to deal with the issue till the Centre enacts appropriate legislation –but are also a crucial step in that direction. In order to ensure the effective implementation of the guidelines and SOPs, it is imperative that a comprehensive Good Samaritan law is enacted at the Central and state level,” the foundation said. Such a legislation, it added, would give legal backing to the guidelines, address the concerns of the Good Samaritans and protect them from all forms of harassment. The panel, appointed by the apex court in 2014, made 12 major recommendations in all, including setting up of State Road Safety Councils, evolving a protocol for the identification.

The guidelines were later approved by the Supreme Court and published in the Gazette of India Para 1 of Section 1 of the notification dated May 12, 2015. The guidelines clearly directs all hospitals, police and other authorities that “a bystander or good Samaritan including an eyewitness of a road accident may take an injured person to the nearest hospital, and the bystander or good Samaritan should be allowed to leave immediately after furnishing address by the eyewitness and no question shall be asked to such bystander or good Samaritan.

The fear remains rooted and we wheel out the same arguments even after a year has passed since the Ministry of Road Transport and Highways issued guidelines for the protection of Good Samaritans, as per Supreme Court’s directives.

With androids in everyone’s pocket it is not a big deal to call for an ambulance or inform the the police. But we would selfie, showcase them on facebook and waltz in our profound indignation on social media instead of taking the timely intervention. This is the case even though the Supreme Court explicitly issued guidelines in March 2016 to protect bystander-helpers or good Samaritans who aid victims in need. Duty to rescue laws force you to rescue someone and Good Samaritan laws prevent you from being held liable for problems

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The dingy ,stinky "Other"

M
adhu a 27-year-old tribal youth has been brutally assaulted and lynched to death on Thursday evening by the irate upscales of Kaduku Manne ooru , a hamlet in Attapady region in Palghat district, Kerala.He is alleged to have stolen some grocery from the neighbourhood provision shops .

Madhu the tribesman was a frail, illiterate, mentally ill and a destitute living in a cave on the fringes of the forest. He was hounded and made to walk 4 miles from his hideout with the heavy load on his shoulder-beaten body-mind all the way, battered, his ribs splintered and tied by the worn-out rag he wore. He was handed over to the police and declared brought dead on reaching the Government Tribal Specialty Hospital at Kottathara. The frenzied mob feted in the selfie - the photographs of which emerged in the social media- that flew the netizens off the handle. The incident had sent shock waves across the state.

Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan described Madhu’s death: ”This heinous act is a blot on Kerala’s progressive society. But I want to assure you that strict action will be taken at the earliest against all the culprits to ensure that such crimes, especially against people from communities that were long marginalised, are not repeated."

Finance Minister Isaac wrote an emotional post. It said: “The innocence in Madhu’s eyes and the images of the merciless mob that killed him would haunt Kerala for a long time. Let’s stop talking about the high social and political consciousness of the state."

Malayalam superstar Mammootty has taken to social media to condemn the incident: “I will not call him adivasi, but my brother. The mob has killed my younger brother. If you think as a human being, Madhu is your son and brother. Above that, he is a citizen like any of us, who has his rights. One who steals food to feed his hunger shouldn’t be called a thief; poverty is created by society,” Mammootty wrote in Malayalam.

Author KR Meera came down heavily on the attackers, sharing a poem that she wrote on the incident: “Next time, ensure that you take more people along, burst crackers outside the cave and threaten him. And when he comes out all frightened, catch him with a trap. Tie him upside down, collect water in a big vessel and light fire to it. From the carry bag, take the rice and boil it. Light the beedis and wait.

Actor Joy Mathew also took to Facebook to condemn Madhu’s killing, saying that the state of Kerala must hang its head in shame."

“They beat him to death, accusing him of robbing a shop for items worth Rs 200. Since Madhu is not part of any political party, there will be no one to fight for him. But we should all feel ashamed thinking about that Malayali who took a selfie and celebrated, just moments before Madhu was beaten to death,” Joy wrote.

Social activist Rajendra Prasad, president of Thampu, an NGO that works with Adivasis in Attappady, said Madhu’s death should be considered as part of broader social ills. He said several Adivasis in Attappady had become mentally ill after they lost land and became jobless. “Madhu’s Kurumba tribe has close to 4,000 members and starvation is a big issue among them. Most of them live in the forest, and come to the plains once in a week to buy food.”

Adivasi Gothra Maha Sabha leader Geethanandan said that Advasis in Attappady were vulnerable to attacks.Settlers are all too powerful and they have the support of the powers-that-be.

Adivasis once constituted 90% of Attappady’s population (1951 census), but their numbers steadily started dwindling with the arrival of settlers from across Kerala and Tamil Nadu. According to the 2011 census, Adivasis comprise just 34% of the population in the area now.

Adivasis in Attappady mainly belong to three tribes – the Irulas, Kurumbas and Mudugas – each with their own distinctive lifestyle, culture and food habits. The Kurumbas are found closer to the forests while  others occupy the plains. Each community lives in colonies of 60 to 100 families known as oorus or hamlets. At present, Attappady has 192 Adivasi hamlets.

Madhu has been victimised by the civil society. who stalk on the tribals and foray into their natural habitats and bereft them of their natural life. They religiously make sure that the myriads of poverty alleviation schemes of both central and state agencies do not reach the needy. The enormous tribal welfare funds are brazenly syphoned off by the interlopers, politicians and the bureaucrats with impunity. They prescribe the mores and delivers their justice system to them. The civilised society cannot be spared from the atrocity inflicted on the youth and does not qualify for remorse. The incidence explains the pathetic and hopeless tribal trauma.

The tribal hamlets are infested with infant deaths, mal-nutrition, liquor and starvation. They hog occasional media glare when deaths visit them and soon be swooned into oblivion. It is shocking that such things happen in the digital era of 21^st century. Illegal settlings, deforestation, embezzling tribal welfare schemes and flagrant exploitation have kept them historically sidelined and silenced. The mainstream that swaggers on being civilised has the bloodstains on their palm. When the galling storeys of the death of the marginalised ‘other’ come to the fore, we delightfully devour it with the raging lexicon of the debates of the social scientists and brainstorming sessions of the intellectuals.

The society needs to make a reality check, an audit on the fallen trees that made the wooden crosses stand tall in the settlements, the ghost of denuded forests and the razed hillocks, broken-eyed rivulets, hunger-stricken stomachs still there. The Government is duty bound to rein-in the crowd that exterminates the ‘other’. Much pep-talking, pampering and keeping in good humour do not salvage the situation.

The painful death of the Adivasi youth that occasioned by the hate-game on the ‘other’ played by the mainstream raises many a question. Also, It gives us the window –at this historic juncture- to make reparations.

Do the mainstream and the Governmental machinery have the grit and grace to look in the face of it?

Renowned Malayalam poet and humanist SuagathaKumari laments:” We taught them to beg, boozed them, dazzled them with Ghanja, tried to corrupt their women with impunity. We were valorous, unkind, thick-skinned and impious”

We dodged the onus of making his stomach full, but gave him bellyful of sermons, homily and platitudes-his just desserts -and consigned him to the netherworld.

Attappadi is the African replica of the Gods own country. We are in the American route of the annihilation of the aborigines.Attappady, the tribal belt in Kerala– a blot on the glorious human development records of the state.-too big for the britches.

Malnutrition, birth defects and poor maternal health continue to afflict the tribals, with a recent report putting infant death toll at 14 in the last year. The report said, in 2016, eight children died of birth defects in the region.Health officials confirm that fetal deaths also remain high in the region and six deaths have been reported so far this year. In the previous year, the number was eight.Lack of nutrition among pregnant mothers and adolescent girls are the main cause of the high infant mortality rate. The government has been implementing many schemes including the community kitchen in which nutritious meal is supplied for free.A team of experts from the National Institute of Nutrition (2013) visited Attappady tribal area for studying infants or children deaths and reported that the infant mortality rate (IMR) there was 66 as compared to 14.1 deaths per 1000 live births in the rest of the state. Attappady is a tribal block established in 1962 and located east of the Silent Valley in the Western Ghats, one of the world’s most famous biodiversity hotspots. Yet the tribal community, there, are victims of state apathy. Among Adivasi children of 12 months or less, 9.1 percent are severely underweight, 32.2 percent suffer from severe stunting and 7 percent suffer from severe wasting.

Attappady can be called Kerala’s “sub-Saharan Africa,” said the Ekbal Committee (2013) observing that most women had undergone abortion more than once and almost all children examined suffered from anaemia and malnutrition.

“The continuing deaths expose the hollowness in the government’s flawed vision on tribal welfare. What is happening in the region is a combined effect of poverty, lack of employment, land alienation, failure to provide forest rights, loss of traditional agriculture and loss of indigenous food. There must be a comprehensive vision to address the tribal issue of the region,” says tribal activist K.A. Ramu.

Madhu was prey to the incessant violence both explicit and implicit that are orchestrated nationally on the downtrodden, subaltern and the tribal.

Madhu’s death could be a one-off incident-sure not be the last- but a pointer to the harsh reality of deaths due to starvation that still prevails in Attappady, the only tribal block in the state, and yet, neglected by the state government.

Kerala is staring at the “silent genocide.”

“Sadly enough, the most painful goodbyes are the ones that are left unsaid and never explained."― Jonathan Harnisch,Frek

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Hikikomori-the new normal

When the volatile and ever-changing life styles aggravated by technical niceties coupled with the shift in civic consciousness go feral ,its necessary offshoot -the social withdrawal as the Japanese say hikikomori becomes the new normal.

The linear and monocentric growth of cities -historically the principal engine of innovative economic glut –is the hallmark of modern life. People live in snazzy and mammoth apartment complexes –graciously proportioned in the city hearts. People live  shut and shunted from the next door in their cozy cloistered closets ,blissfully disconnected from the neighborhood. The ubiquitous androids and the cyber spaces together have worsened the seclusion of the youngsters leaving them burrowed to their selves. They are now slaves of their-self. They are the victims and actors of cyber perversions. The  less fortunate who come from the outskirts and lower strata of society are no exceptions.

In an a typical instance reported from Pathanamthitta in Kerala a mother of a plus two boy has to resort to legal remedy with the State Women Committee .An elder women with whom the boy got befriended and tangled over mobile, eloped with her .Soon they were hammer and tongs over money .The scuffle that ensued  dragged them to the court and the boy  was sent down for 3 months. Only then the mother came to know of it.

The mother who led a hard scrabbled life ,had after much haggling, cajoling and coaxing  made her son to settle for  a mobile phone in lieu  of his ambitious project  to own a pricey motor bike.

The women’s court on passing orders in the case admonished the lady who had waylaid the boy  in to the immoral life and said that the incident is a blot to the society and an eye opener for the sparing fathers and the spending sons. These and other incidences point to the flagging communal values in our societal spaces. Our youngsters who hold back   and get holed in to their spaces glued to the mobile gadgets and the apps bereft of the social sharing’s and the neighbor hoods –are subjects of the  endemic disease of agoraphobia. According to survey results, 46.3 percent of respondents said they'd experienced phubbing at the hands of their significant other –a term  coined in 2013 and is a portmanteau of the words 'phone' and 'snubbing'. 

There is even a Stop Phubbing campaign group, which started in Australia and was set up to address the problem. While phubbing most definitely has social consequences, it also has a significant environmental impact as smartphones consume far more energy than most of us think.

The reclusive culture acts against the social mores and probity- manifesting itself in road rages ,the shameless audacity in flouting the law and cyber crimes .

People are much more thrilled by the two or three dimensional world of computers than getting thrilled by real world  around them. Today’s technology is already producing a marked shift in the way we think and behave, particularly among the young, and this shift is not positive either.A serious lifestyle change is needed.

The vigil should start from homes and schools. The doting parents who slip in to buying anything they want to quench their greed should teach them to abide by the rules of law and also to answer it.

For what is evil but good tortured by its own hunger and thurst-Khalil Gibran

Nobel peace prize

The Nobel Peace Prize for the current year has evoked mixed reactions.Brussels was overjoyed. "The EU is the biggest peacemaking institution ever created in human history," said Herman Van Rompuy, the president of the European council, who chairs European Union summits. The award was "the strongest possible recognition of the deep political motives behind our union", he said.

The prize, which is worth €921,000 (£743,000) will do little to help plug the EU's debt and banking crisis which has so far cost over €6 trillion. An interesting comparison from the internet: "If shared equally amongst the EU's 500 million citizens, it would pay a peace dividend of just €0.002, or less than two thousandths of a British penny."

The Nobel peace prizes have always been controversial and the objects of wild imaginations.While Science related awards often entail  no dissents as the yardsticks to study the contributions of scientists are quiet transparent and tangible where as the critarian in spheres like peace it could be cumbersome and could always pronounce a tinch of subjectivity which could spell trouble.

It is not rare that the Nobel peace prizes to have been received by an organization.Organizations like Red Cross,UNICEF and Amnesty were the recipients over  the years .But it is the first time a conglomeration of states getting the coveted prize.

The EU began decades ago in the 50's under certain treaties as a small organization known as the “Common Market,”to promote economic cooperation breaking down trade barriers among warring European states . Over time the organization expanded to a conglomeration of 27 states with 17 of them sharing the same currency. The union was conceived as a means to bring peace to a continent trampled by centuries of umpteen internecine wars. Over the last 5decades – as the Nobel Committee put it – Europe has been transformed from a continent of war to a continent of peace.

Was the peace in the area the handiwork of EU? Is the European Union, this year's recipient, a more worthy champion of peace? Opinion is divided and the debate is on.

After 1945 Germany was profoundly tamed and was an advocate of peace in the region. The EU was the tool of peace in the member countries . José Manuel Barroso, head of the European commission said "At its origins, the European Union brought together nations emerging from the ruins of devastating world wars – which originated on this continent – and united them in a project for peace." He added that the EU had reunited a continent "split by the cold war" around common values. The monetary Union was pivotal in promoting democracy and able governance across the continent. Spain, Portugal and Greece joined the EU after decades of fascist dictatorships.The Eastern Europe saw the EU as a harbinger of stability after years of Soviet occupation and Communist dictatorship. The EU has defended democratic institutions against authoritarian governments in Hungary and Romania. EU's single market, the 20th anniversary being officially celebrated is a remarkable political achievement, discarding protectionist tariffs that have paved the way for a huge expansion in trade. According to European Commission estimates,by 2006, the single market had boosted GDP by 2.2% and helped create an extra 2.75 million jobs in the EU countries.

Of course, these achievements lack luster in the wake of euro zone collapses, bringing about economic chaos and political harakiri. Much of the continent is mired in a severe economic slowdown.Already, the crisis is taking its toll on the single market,crisis countries remain highly vulnerable to bank runs, debt downgrades, deepening recessions and political instability. EU is on the death bed. It is now 3 years since one of the worst economic crises slapped Europe but there is still no light at the end of the tunnel.The 'fiscally-broke' Greece faces a sixth year of economic recession and the far-Right movements is on the rise in Greece. Riots are mounting in Spain, demonstrations in Italy. The crisis is deep on the streets of Athens and Madrid and is reopening deep historical divisions. Solidarity is breaking down.While Northern European countries, relish in record low interest rates at the cost of supporting crisis countries, harsh austerity measures are thrust on the Southern European countries as the price for assistance .

In spite of all these, explains Thorbjorn Jagland, Committee Chairman  : “we saw that the prize could be important in giving a message to the European public of how important it is to secure what they have achieved on this continent.”

Many a Nobel laureates in peace are in oblivion and many live in our memory with the glean and aura of thousand Suns. It was the fear of antagonizing the British who were in combat with Nazi-Germany from choosing the all time great apostle of truth and non-violence ,the Mahatma for the prize. Mahatma Ghandhi who fought the British colonialism and took 50 crore Indians to the horizon of freedom through his Ahimsa ,though nominated for 5 times ,was not rewarded. Leo Tolstoy who had deeply inspired the Mahatma was also not conferred with the prize for literature.

Between 1901 and 2011,about 99 individuals and 23 organizations were awarded with the prize with out any appreciable controversy though some of the selections were brazenly outrageous. In 2009 freshly-elected U.S. President Barack Obama was awarded the peace prize. As was widely believed ,he won the prize, not for being Nobel's "champion of peace" for he had no qualities or the character to be a champion of peace.He got the prize because the committee was thrilled he was not George W. Bush.

Any Prize will become worth its salt only when it is justified. By conferring to the right person it is the award which gets honored.

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