Saturday, 14 September 2013

Onam celebrations in my office : Sept 2013


Onam @ Trinfy … 



Onam is round the corner. Onam the traditional festival of Kerala was celebrated by Infoscions with lot of excitement and jubilation. 

Onam the harvest festival of Kerala signifies the homecoming of the legendary King Mahabali (popularly known as Maveli) and it is celebrated in the month of Chingam. As per the legend, King Maveli once ruled Kerala. He was greatly respected and was considered to be wise, judicious and extremely generous. Everybody was happy and the rich and poor were treated equally. There was neither crime, nor corruption prevalent in his kingdom. There was no poverty, sorrow or disease in his kingdom.  It is believed that other gods were annoyed when he became the ruler of three worlds and on the Thiruonam day, Lord Vishnu took his fifth avatar as Vamana upon the request of the other gods and sent him to the underworld. As per the legend, on every Onam day Maveli visits his people and people celebrate Onam in order to welcome their beloved king and believe that it brings forth good luck and fortune for the next year. It is a festival which is celebrated irrespective of religion, caste or creed and it spreads the message of love and harmony! 

UTSAV  2013 the greatest event in Trinfy (Trivandrum-Infosys) – a two week long Onam celebrations in the DC, was flagged off  on September 4th  with  the hoisting of the UTSAV flag accompanied by a Chingaarimelam (traditional rhythmic beat of chenda(drum)) performed by professionals.  UTSAV is the most awaited event in the year.  The DC was in festive mood that day and the people gathered in front of the building (SDB1) with lot of excitement and enthusiasm to witness the beginning of this year’s celebration. The celebrations comprises of  lot of  fun events, games, dances and music conducted and performed by the competing teams ; viz  - KD Company, Kolakombans, Padakuthiras and Maveli Arts and Sports Klub(MASK).

On the grand day of UTSAV celebrations, September 6th 2013, everyone came dressed in their traditional attire. Trinfy was thundering with the hullabaloo of the celebrations.  There was an athapookalam(the traditional intricate arrangement of petals forming a beautiful floral carpet) competition,  a rally by each teams  and the traditional Onam feast (Onasadhya).

The mega event of the day the Onam Rally began by 12PM. The rally comprised of people dressed in various costumes depicting legendary characters from Indian mythology, various traditional dance forms and art forms of Kerala, people dressed in the attires of folks of various Indian states and their culture, character from movies and folklores of the West etc.  It was like an “Indian Halloween” with an interesting mixture of costumes portraying people of various walks of life and varied culture. The entire DC was reverberating with the din of the cheering and shouting of excited participants and the shrill sound of their “vuvuzelas”. Even senior managers weren’t hesitant and enthusiastically participated in all the events. 

The athapookalam competition was conducted with high spirits and the participants arranged it diligently. The food court was lined with various stalls and the athapookalams arranged by each team.


Nordies weren’t staying aloof from any of the celebrations amidst their hectic work schedule. Everyone came in their traditional attire on that day to showcase their unity and strength. It was a day of fun and merry making which is truly cherishable. Nordies from STP also travelled to SEZ to be part of the celebrations. All of us enjoyed a sumptuous Onam sadhya together. It was served in the traditional way on plantain leaves with all the exquisite dishes and payasams.

Even after the meal, few of us stayed back and took rounds in serving the staff and food vendors . It was one of the few moments we get to serve to the ones who serve us. When you serve and is served that’s when your joy is complete.

The benevolent gesture of various teams and Sanjeevani in indulging in various CSR activities (*CSR - Corporate Social Resposibility) which include – books, toys and cloth donation for the poor, distribution of  Onam payasam kits to  rickshaw wallas outside SEZ, etc, are truly appreciable. Hats off to all who took up and was part of this venture.


It was indeed a great day of euphoria and fun and it is always a moment of pride to say that you belong to this fraternity!



 -  Suveen Jacob Abraham.




Please click on the below link for the above article in PDF :

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The Lost Movie - Vigathakumaran(The Lost Child)


Vigathakumaran (The Lost Child) was the very first movie ever made in Malayalam. Unlike the movies in those days which were based on events from religion & mythology; this was a very brave attempt as it dealt with social drama. It was written, directed, produced, acted & edited by JC Daniel. Though a silent movie, it had a very good script and was a brilliant work in those days. Daniel himself played the protagonist in the movie. Daniel had invested a sum of Four lakh British Indian ruppee(which was really a huge sum of money in those days) and it was released in the year 1928.
The movie wasn't welcomed by the public. The society being very orthodox in those days, where caste system played a pivotal role in the society; couldn't accept the movie as it depicted a Nair (high class) lady named Saroja which was enacted by a low caste woman. Acting in movies by women were at par with prostitution in those days, and the public created great ruckus in cinema halls where it was screened. They pelted stones at the screen.
Daniel suffered from debts as the movie was not a commercial success. To pay his debtors, he had to sell his equipments and close down his studio. He was bankrupt & towards the end of his life he was in total poverty.He died in April 1975, The Father of Malayalam Cinema, with no recognition for his works & forgotten by all...
The Malayalam movie - "Celluloid" directed by Kamal, which is a biopic on Daniel's life  portrays the efforts and hardships of JC Daniel and how the very first Malayalam movie was lost forever.

Check out the below links:
Vigathakumaran - The first Malayalam movie :  
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vigathakumaran


Who was J C Daniel ?

- Suveen Jacob Abraham.

 


Saturday, 13 July 2013

Is man a superior being ???




Man is also an animal. But unlike all other animals, man is different. Though he is just another creature on Earth, he has gained dominance over all the other species and has become the ruler of the whole world. But what makes man unique? The intellectual brain?  The erect posture? The conscience?  The disproportionate ratio of the brain size & body size ? i.e, a large brain in a small body ? By the way, will man ever get extinct like the dinosaurs??? 

Well ironically, dinosaurs even with their disproportionate ratio of their brain size & body size, that is with very tiny brain in a huge body, they had dominated the earth during the Mesozoic Era (248 million to 99 million years ago) which is divided into three periods: the Triassic Period, the Jurassic Period, and the Cretaceous Period and have survived for around 150 million years. But modern man has only been on earth for only about 200,000 years .

Before pondering deep into this, let’s compare human beings with other species. Man was the last product in the whole universe. All entities in the universe -  the living & non-living were created before man. So is that just a coincidence or has the creator of  the whole universe, saved the best for the last ? Dinosaurs which dominated the Earth was wiped up much before humans appeared. Was it just an unfortunate accident ( the universally accepted theory suggests that the bombardment of a meteor on Earth) which led to mass extinction or was it deliberately done to make the stage set for humans to sustain ?

As per Darwinism, primates (which includes human beings, apes, gibbons, lemurs, monkeys etc)  evolved from a common ancestor. So monkeys, apes, lemurs & humans are 'cousin-species'. Moreover studies have also proved that there were lot of "intermediate species" which evolved before man which are believed to be the ancestors of modern man, but vanished from the face of the earth much before man evolved. Those species include Neanderthals, Cro-Magnon, Australopithecus sediba, Peking man, Homo floresiensis, Homo habilis, Homo ergaster, Homo Erectus etc. Darwin points this out as a potential clue which corroborates his theory that man & apes evolved from a common ancestor , and the evidence of  "intermediate  species" affirming his hypothesis.

Without being too scientific or philosophical, by mere logical reasoning it seems to anyone that when man was created, unlike any other species he was created with utmost care. The creator was too careful, diligent and meticulous with His "last creation"- the homo sapiens, that it was accomplished after repeated meticulous testing and observation.
Various "test samples" used were the ancestors of man  - Neanderthals, Cro-Magnon, Australopithecus sediba, Peking man, Homo floresiensis, Homo habilis, Homo ergaster, Homo Erectus etc each with different morphological & anatomical features. So after rigorous and meticulous testing and diligent observation was the final species - the 'Homo Sapiens' created. Hence man being made superior to the rest of the species is not a mere coincidence but something that was deliberately done.

Now man is unique in various ways. It is not just the sophisticated complex brain alone, but there are other significant differences. No other species has a level of conscience like humans - to know what is right and what is wrong ; No other species believe in the existence of a supreme being - God & worship Him;  No other species have any needs other than food, shelter, mate; No other species has  the inquisitiveness to attain knowledge, to know the unknown; No other  species feel 'naked' like humans; and so 
on...  The differences are many. But all these facts point out that man is indeed a superior being!

On the contrary, various factors force you to defer your perception. The inhuman acts and cruelty meted out by man, wars and bloodshed that happen around you, and various atrocities of man alters your perception.

Wars & bloodshed were a part of human civilization right from time immemorial. Even in all the mythologies of the world battles & slaughter play an important role which has impressed & inspired everyone.
Brutal battles of Alexander the Great, to the Gladiator games that were held in the Roman Colosseum where people used to gather to watch with enthusiasm  the gladiators being scourged to death by beasts. It was one of the most brutal & inhuman  "entertainment' in the history of man.


Right from the earliest records of human civilization wars & atrocities formed an integral part of their history. The Holocaust, The World wars, the brutalities of Hitler during world war-2 the Nazi's atrocities in concentration camps, the nuclear attack of US on Japan during the world war-2 were some of the most significant one which shocked the world. Heinous crimes of murder, looting, & rapes - including the recent brutal Delhi gang rape garnishes the dish of human cruelty served to the devil!

When you lists down man's atrocities, the list is never ending. Even ferocious beasts on earth like the lion, tiger, leopard etc won't even mete out such cruelty to their prey. The carnivorous animals hunt down for food & they never derive any sadistic pleasure by tormenting its prey - but man does. He inflicts cruelty to others not to quench his thirst or hunger but to satisfy his sadistic mind and wicked desires which demotes his status among other species.

So the big question still remains unanswered - Is man a superior being?



- Suveen Jacob Abraham.





Please click on the below link for the PDF version of this article :