Cards & Curry

Author : Abraham Tharakan      Blog : Song of the waves - Parayil A. Tharakan Blog      Date : 6/17/2013 10:52:00 AM

';;; A few days back when my brother Jacob called to say that he was planning a ‘Cards & Curry’ session at our Tharavad, Thekkanattu Parayil, Olavipe I was rather stuck. I didn’t know what it meant. Any way, Jacob explained and I told him to go ahead.Well, the event is just a session of games, lunch tea, refreshments and fellowship for a compatible group. In this case, just our cousins and their children. About sixty turned up.  Arrangements were made for gin & rumm(...)'

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Photos from our garden

Author : Abraham Tharakan      Blog : Song of the waves - Parayil A. Tharakan Blog      Date : 6/11/2013 6:43:00 AM

'  CLICK TO ENLARGE.Photos by me. Copyright reserved. ?alt=rss'

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Diamonds: The Two Sisters from Golconda

Author : Abraham Tharakan      Blog : Song of the waves - Parayil A. Tharakan Blog      Date : 6/5/2013 11:25:00 AM

';;;; Koh-i-Noor and Darya-i-Noor – That is how they are known now. The first means “Mountain of light” and the other, “Sea or Ocean of light”. These great diamonds, amongst the largest in the world, were found in the Paritala-Kollur Mine near Golconda, India, perhaps 5000 years ago. Over the centuries several dynasties had possession of them. They symbolized, power, wealth and glory. ;;;; Glass copy of the famous Koh-i-Noor in its current (newer) cut from the "Reich der Kristal(...)'

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Dasapushpam

Author : Abraham Tharakan      Blog : Song of the waves - Parayil A. Tharakan Blog      Date : 6/2/2013 6:46:00 AM

'Aerva lanatafrom Wikimedia Commons. ;;; I have been getting some enquiries about Dasapushpam recently. The term refers to ten different items listed below: Evolvulus alsinoides [2] (Malayalam വിഷ്ണുക്രാന്തി - vishnukranthi)Cynodon dactylon (ml കറുക - karuka)Emilia sonchifolia (ml മുയൽ ചെവിയൻ - muyal cheviyan)Ipomoea sepiaria [3] (ml തിരുതാളി - thruthaali)Aerva lanata (ml ചെറുള - cheroola)Curculigo orchioides (ml നിലപ്പന - nilappana)Eclip(...)'

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A village temple scene in Malabar

Author : Abraham Tharakan      Blog : Song of the waves - Parayil A. Tharakan Blog      Date : 5/29/2013 1:01:00 PM

'This ethereal scene is an engraving based on ;;;Daniell's drawings, 1835. It is ao beautiful except that the herons seem to be a little out of proportion.Source: Wikimedia Commons.Also see:  http://parayilat.blogspot.in/2013/05/a-village-temple-scene-in-malabar.html?alt=rss'

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Progress in agriculture

Author : Abraham Tharakan      Blog : Song of the waves - Parayil A. Tharakan Blog      Date : 5/21/2013 7:31:00 AM

'This photo of plowing land for paddy cultivation was taken in Kerala in 1901. Can you recognize a change that has taken place in over a century?Today there won't be a man holding a palm leaf umbrella for the master. He will cost too much and not many Keralites would like to be seen doing such low jobs.Of course, the palm leaf umbrella has has beenreplaced by modern ones and the mastercan use one himself.;;; ■?alt=rss'

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Kerala to have more Medical Colleges

Author : Abraham Tharakan      Blog : Song of the waves - Parayil A. Tharakan Blog      Date : 5/14/2013 10:28:00 AM

';;;;; ;;;;Those who have read my 2011 post Creating Gen Next Engineers would not have been shocked by Kerala’s engineering results this year. Now it would appear that Medical Education in Kerala too is on the slide.  According to Indian Medical Association (IMA) (Times of India Kochi, May 10, 2013) the doctor patient ratio in Kerala is 1:550. This compares very well with the developed countries. Obviously, Kerala does not need more doctors. The MBBS graduates are under-utilize(...)'

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Interesting Old Photos From Malabar

Author : Abraham Tharakan      Blog : Song of the waves - Parayil A. Tharakan Blog      Date : 4/30/2013 11:42:00 AM

'Fishermen on the beach. (1921)A lonely walk along the beach. (1936)Thali Temple, near Calicut. This photo was taken about 1900-1 by the Archeological Survey of India.Pilgrims with offerings to Kannadiparambu Temple. (1902)Nilambur Raja. (1908)Ali Musaliyar, an important leader of the Moplah Revolt in 1921. (1922)Nayar Women. (1914)Muslim women. (1901)Christian women. (1912)A low caste woman. They were not allowed to cover the breasts. (1912)A Kalari School, 1905. Interesti(...)'

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Old Kerala Jewellery

Author : Abraham Tharakan      Blog : Song of the waves - Parayil A. Tharakan Blog      Date : 4/23/2013 11:50:00 AM

';;; What prompted me to write this post is a TV ad that is quite familiar to watchers of Malayalam channels – the one where the famous actress Revathi talks of gold chains of the past and the making charges the customers have to pay for gold ornaments now.Revathi mentions some of the old chains like manga mala and palakka mala but leaves out real aristocratic ones like padikettu mala. That, unseen these days, was a great one, so elegant against the white cambric fabric of the chatta(...)'

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A missed Vishu

Author : Abraham Tharakan      Blog : Song of the waves - Parayil A. Tharakan Blog      Date : 4/16/2013 6:51:00 AM

';;; After A missed Onam it is a missed Vishu. My wife was in the hospital for a few days and there was no way for me to publish a post to wish my readers Vishu. Her blood sugar suddenly shot up to 500 and the doctors found it difficult to bring it down. Any way, by God’s grace she came through okay after a few days as inpatient.Though belated, please accept Vishu Greetings from me.?alt=rss'

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A painting and a story

Author : Abraham Tharakan      Blog : Song of the waves - Parayil A. Tharakan Blog      Date : 3/27/2013 7:46:00 AM

'; Many thoughts rushed to my mind when I saw this creation by the Royal Painter Raja Ravi Varma by chance yesterday. It is titled ‘The Reaper’. An untouchable woman waiting for a boat with the paddy she has harvested, gazing into the sunset.This is a scene we shall not see again. It belongs to another age.  ;;; I grew up in a basically agricultural background in the sense that we owned large stretches of land. I have watched the great changes that came about for 70 years and mo(...)'

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The Italian Marines Came Marching In

Author : Abraham Tharakan      Blog : Song of the waves - Parayil A. Tharakan Blog      Date : 3/22/2013 12:00:00 PM

';;;; On arrival at Cochin yesterday from Rome where he had gone to attend the Conclave to elect the Pope, Mar George Cardinal Alencherry said that the Italian Marines who are to face trial for the killing of two Kerala fishermen last year should return to India and submit themselves to the Indian Judiciary. That has happened. After the tumult and the shouting, and trying defy the Supreme Court of India, the Marines are back. But judging by the past conduct of the Italians, we should(...)'

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Anchal: The mail must go through

Author : Abraham Tharakan      Blog : Song of the waves - Parayil A. Tharakan Blog      Date : 3/13/2013 9:59:00 AM

'; An old, dilapidated building atop an isolated hill. Totally deserted. No one goes there anymore. The path that led to the structure once is no longer traceable. The letter box is crumbling with rust and may topple any day. But it is all part of recent history.A few decades back this place was a hub of activity. It was an Anchal office. Now, Anchal was the name of the postal service of India’s native state, Travancore. I haven’t been able to clarify when this service began. Initial(...)'

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Nutmeg, the super spice

Author : Abraham Tharakan      Blog : Song of the waves - Parayil A. Tharakan Blog      Date : 3/4/2013 10:49:00 AM

';;;; At one time it was considered as the best of spices. Bloody wars have been fought over it, particularly by the Dutch and the British. A person who had a few of these in his possession was acknowledged as a rich man. It was an accepted ingredient in cuisine from Penang to Europe. Some men consumed it on the sly because of its reputation as an aphrodisiac. That is nutmeg, Myristica fragrans.The original home of nutmeg was the Banda Islands of Indonesia. That was under Dutch contr(...)'

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Malayalam Cinema: The Celluloid Controversy

Author : Abraham Tharakan      Blog : Song of the waves - Parayil A. Tharakan Blog      Date : 2/27/2013 1:36:00 PM

'Poster from the web.;;;; Within 24 hours of Kamal’s Celluloid winning seven awards including Best Film and Best Actor (Prithviraj) at the Kerala State Film Awards on February 23, 2013, a major controversy erupted. It was ignited by K. Muraleedharan, son of the former Chief Minister K. Karunakaran. He claimed that the film insulted his father and a bureaucrat who had worked under him.The debate was fuelled by the politicians. The Minister for Cultural Affairs condemned Kamal. Neither(...)'

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A Syro-Malabar Church Wedding

Author : Abraham Tharakan      Blog : Song of the waves - Parayil A. Tharakan Blog      Date : 2/21/2013 7:12:00 AM

';;;; Syro- Malabar Church with its headquarters in Cochin is the second or third largest Rite in the Catholic Church. It is also the largest denomination among the different factions of the original pre-Portuguese Malabar Church. There is a great deal of similarity in the matrimonial customs among the various Christian segments in Kerala. Some of the procedures are even common to those practiced by the Hindus. But regional, cultural and status-wise variations do exist.  Though (...)'

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JJ Murphy remembered

Author : Abraham Tharakan      Blog : Song of the waves - Parayil A. Tharakan Blog      Date : 2/10/2013 10:15:00 AM

';;; I am getting back to Kerala’s much loved Irish planter, JJ Murphy about whom I have already written so much. There are two events that I have to report.The first is that The Mundakayam Club which Murphy built in 1912 is holding a one year long Centenary Celebration and so much is being said about Murphy. Incidentally, my post Short Story: DANIEL OF THE MANMALAI CLUB would give you an idea of how club life was for the planters during the last century.Given below is the portrait o(...)'

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Apollo Tyres - the beginning

Author : Abraham Tharakan      Blog : Song of the waves - Parayil A. Tharakan Blog      Date : 1/30/2013 6:34:00 AM

';;; Two days back a former colleague from Apollo Tyres telephoned to invite me for his son’s wedding. I was quite touched because we had no contact for about three decades. And the call kind of opened the memory box for me.The idea of an automobile tyre factory came to my mind during the visit of the General Manager of Hungarian rubber industry to Ruby Rubber Works, Chenganacherry, Kerala. That was in 1968 or 1969. I was then the marketing manager of Ruby.I mentioned the idea to Mr.(...)'

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Republic Day 2013

Author : Abraham Tharakan      Blog : Song of the waves - Parayil A. Tharakan Blog      Date : 1/25/2013 10:38:00 AM

'; On this Republic Daylet every Indian male swear that he will always honour Bharath Matha and her daughters.  The painting is by Raja Ravi Varma.Both images from Wikimedia Commons. ;;?alt=rss'

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A dismal beginning to 2013

Author : Abraham Tharakan      Blog : Song of the waves - Parayil A. Tharakan Blog      Date : 1/13/2013 12:33:00 PM

';;;; After the last year ended with the shock of Nirbhaya’s tragic end, everyone was hoping that things would be better in 2013. Sadly, the first two weeks of the New Year are loaded with a shocking array of crimes against women and children and absurd statements by people in important positions.We have the habit of getting focused on just one point when a tragedy occurs. Now of course, it is crime against women. Blame the government, blame the police, and blame the judicial process(...)'

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