Invitation from Anil

Dear All, My sister is getting Married. Please note the dates and venues for the wedding and reception(Click on the card to get an enlarged view). Please make it convenient to attend the wedding or reception.

With love

Anil

Friendship we still expect in writing!

My dear Anil,

Is there any new definition for friendship?

How do you define friendship when you find no e-mails in your inbox? What do you feel when your continued, heart-breaking petitions for tying the bond of companionship go unheard?

Let the Goddess of Friendship reward you, The Lover of Friendship, with all kinds of closeness you demand from friends. Your true and sincere efforts will not go empty-handed, I presume.

I was just going through all the mails you had posted. And it is quite a sort of entertainment reading old mails, also as an attempt to conjure up the cuteness of recollections.

The 'Cruelty' of Brotherhood' was an exasperating topic. Your openness was like a needle injected to the eyeball. Perfectly right is the intention to make a sister stand firm on unreliable grounds. Adopting seemingly dangerous measures to help that sister adept to encounter life's fire-flames is brave.

Friends take freedom to become historians of their own life-records, not necessarily as narrators always. Your e-mail narrations bring out the historian in you, I feel. Oration of personal history without pomp is interesting to listen.

That you are a comrade is information new for me. I was not able to pick out the redness of your political bias earlier, while we were in Press Club

Just raising a question - Is politics an interesting topic for you? For me, yes. Our political leniency start during our school days, I believe. We were once the beneficiaries or victims of Students' Union's conducts. Students' Unions still claim the maximum political strength than any other confederations.

Though we may have similar versions of school days' testimonials, our political experiences in school would differ. Your reminiscence, especially a reverse leap towards your school days prompts me to share with you my political loneliness or political isolation, I faced during the days I wore a school-uniform.

Instead of choosing the reddishness of Students Federation of India (SFI), I preferred to adhere to the political reservations of KSU. It was a photograph of Mrs. Indira Gandhi stuck on the badge of KSU activists that impelled me to make out the tri-colour blood running through my nerves that time. My affection, rather selection of my party did not match with the political tastiness of SFI- partisans who were my friends and classmates. Soon the class was divided into two on the basis of political fondness. The ratio of the strength of that 'political division' was 43:1. Still, the unfit survived. I always bark at Darwin thereafter.

Let me be back to the Blog. To be sincere, reading your mails in the Blog bring all friendly faces of our classmates in front. It may be in light of your call for more intimate attachments between all. That friendship we still expect in writing.

And to be hopeful is the optimistic advice friends share.

Lovingly

Ranjith John
Kuwait

Being what we are...

Dear friends,


Looking our own life from a distance is very interesting.


After all these hues and cries...where we are all going to. One of my friends said this thing about travelling. If you go by bus or plane, you will reach there. If you go fast or slow you will reach there. Then why you are concerned about the mode of travelling. May be priorities..., of what???!!.


Nothing, but our own perception that some things are important than others or some events are important than others and some moments are better than others or some relations are precious than others etc. The make up of the human being is very puzzling. Our thought, action, body, senses, mind (is it there or not), intellect all contribute to be what we are. we are having multiple and singular dimensions at the same time. what we feel is real, then what is unreal. if it is unreal, then what is real.


The quest continues....and it will endlessly continue till the destruction of human being as a species. I think every event, life form and dead material has a significant role to make this picture of universe as it is.


If one thing is not there, then the picture is different. Going by the same logic, we are all born with a special purpose....to complete this picture as it is.The reason why we met at Press Club, and after the lapse of a few years, only a few are able to contact each other etc are all part of the great phenomenon of uncertainities...which we like to call as the LIFE.


In this journey, we are all with each other and when we are together....we are not alone, we can see feel each other a breath away, sense us and visualise us as virtual beings.....in this plane of existence or even with out the plane, in memories......!!


love and take care


yours anil

Its Wedding time!

A.P.Kishore Kumar, the lighting soul of Press Club Evening Batch weds Bindu on 28th May 2006. Pressmeet.blogspot.com wishes all the best for the couple. (kishore is now working at Surya TV News Desk, Chennai)

Thanks for your blessings!

Thank you all for being with us with prayers and blessings ... Your blessings and wellwishes meant a lot for us

Ramesh and Rajani

Cruel Brother ?!

Dear Friend,

Sometimes I feel that I am a cruel brother.

My mother was totally depended on father for her day to day affairs. Better to say that my father was taking all those responsibilities for her, because of the age difference they had. She was new to the city life when she got married. He taught her to live in the city...or atleast to know what will happen in the city. Later when he died, she become alone.

In fact she started doing things her own with the support of me and my sister. However, she was not confident to sign a cheque, to talk to others etc. Me and my sister were aware of what has happened to her. The way she changed from a village girl to today's city lady (I don't believe that she has changed??!! much, she is just the same village woman with strong sense of loyalty and simplicity, and I am proud about her for that).

I never wanted my sister to be like my mother. I just wanted her to understand the world around. Insisted that she should do every thing herself. She was pet of my father. He used to continue his paternal approach he had with my mother with my sister also. May be I too have it in me inherited from him :)).

But his death has changed everything. I consciously made her to take responsibilities. In my mother's words, Its the boys who should take care of the family. The ladies are supposed to manage home and home affairs, why you are making her to do all those things instead of you doing it for her.

I wanted my sister to be liberated and independent. When my father died, she was doing her MPhil. He was so concerned about her when she is going to the college etc. He always said that there is no guarantee with the world around us, particularly for the young girls.

I always tried to counter argue to him with the imperfect knowledge I have acquired from the books and articles about Feminism and new liberalised women society etc.Now looking at the News papers and visual media I really feel shamed and afraid about our society.

As you know I work with the Police and I know the negative side of the society through inside informations. It is a fact that within the rich and so called educated society, girls are well protected by parents. They are not at all aware of the reality out side this protected shield. They are deprived of love and affection of parents only due to the job constraints of the parents.

We are learned, and perhaps many of us are aware of good parenting in theory....but are we practising good parenting, by giving too much protection?.

In Trivandrum, the middle class are too much concerned about the career of their children. Since the job market is there for Engg and Medicine, they push them somehow to become professionals.

From 10 th onwards the children are like machines. Equations, problems, entrance tests, short term entrance coachings, special tuitions etc etc. In the case of the girl child, it is more difficult since the morning and evening journey to the tuition master is an adventure. It starts with the pearcing eyes of the news paper boys, milkwalas etc and end up the day with the evening shows by drunkards. I cannot avoid the young joggers and old walkers who belive in exhibitionism in mornings. I know my sister had met with atleast 5 incidents where she was attacked by various persons of different age groups.

My aging father used to accompany her when she was going for tuition classes during PUC times. But later my father was not able to walk due to arthritis. He was around 60 when this disease caught him. Luckly the tuitions had stopped. she did her graduation without tuitions. Then her MA and MPhil.

After that she joined in a software data processing company and her work life started. Now I am proud about her because of the fact that she learned everything in life herself and her life is a kind of self taught one.

The greatest thing I think I had done with her is that I made her do all those things independently by keeping a watchful distance. If she was in need I will be there....and I am really affectionate about her.

Now the situation is more difficult for us. Mother is away for the past 9 months or so. She is trying her level best to cobine the roles of home making and work life. I am rather surprised the way in which she adapted to the new situation. She is acting like the perfect lady.

But, when she is too tired with her job etc, some signs of frustration will come out. She say if mother is here etc. I tell her that, we are given an opportunity to test ourselves whether we can do these things in the most perfect way and let us take it as a challenge.

I want my mother to do her duty to her mother and me and my sister shouldn't demand for her presence with us at this juncture. But inside me I also feel that emptyness. The emptyness of not having a life companion. The emptyness about my sister not having her marriage and own family with children etc.

I/We (all) know what is happening with me/us, but, we/I always try to hide the feelings....and pretend that everything is OK.

We can read a number of books telling about the self motivation techniques and tools. We can chant slokas and go to asrams etc. Wecan do adventure sporting and watch movies, classical dances or freak out with friends. However, in the end, we are left alone to think about ourselves and about our inner world of feelings and fears.

When my sister is on field visits in distant villages with remote chance for communication, I become concerned just like my father. When she is on tour to certain districts with higher crime rate etc, you know how many times I saw in my dreams her being raped.

It is the hard reality my dear friends,and I expect the worse to happen and tune myself to face that, not with courage but that is the only option available for me.

I sometimes advice her also to be concerned and carefull about her tour schedules etc. She says that if I become fearful, then how can I motivate the more fearfilled ones from the villages. How can I make the poor women from the villages to overcome their problems to have a new brave world. As you know she is heading the district programmes and probably in the near future the State Projects also.

She says that Indian Male has some basic problems which can only be sorted out through years of continuous efforts. I know that she is absolutely correct at the same time I think that unfortunately I am living in this transition stage where the society is changing its social dimensions, but, should we experiment with ourselves.

I can talk endlessly about these topics, but inside me, I am the elder brother concerned about my sister. I am selfish to that end. I am protective about her like all those parents in our educated society.

Sometimes I think that being educated is a curse, because, if you are uneducated, you don't know whether you are being exploited, you don't know whether there is any thing wrong in any social activities etc. It is said that knowledge brings in freedom.

But experience tells me that if the knowledge is not free and all in the society is not sharing the same knowledge, the freedom attained by the knowledge is waste and it brings in fear, insecurity etc.

History of science has lot of episodes where the dicoveries were burnt alive.Even Jesus got crucified. so its like that till we achieve complete freedom in sharing of knowledge and become fearless.

Sorry for this lengthy one, please forgive if I hurt anyone by being open.

Yours Anil

Uncle, are you a Hindu?!

My dear friends,

I was invited by a colleague of mine for the first
communal of his 2nd daughter held on 11-05-2006. The
function was arranged in St.church at Mandapathinkadavu,
a place located 4-5 km away from Kattakkada in Tvm.
The function was scheduled at 5.30
PM.

While my friend was inviting me, we had a discussion
about the culture and systems followed by various
religions and castes in our country and the churches
and temples etc. My friend is around 45 years and a
well studied man with a lot of life experience.

I told him that I like Christ as a human being. I could
identify many actions of mine helping others with out
selfish interest are kind of Christian way of living
referred to there in Bible. I always thought that why
a person like Jesus should sacrifice his life for the
entire humanity.

Then our discussions were about the movies, The
Passion of Christ and The Messenger- Story of Joan of
Arc.

I am fascinated by this movie on Joan of Arc. I
suggest you all to see the movie. There are certain
scenes in the movie when Joan converse with God,
regretting about her passion and aggressive behavior,
forgetting the fact that she just a messenger of God,
she acted as God and ended up in prison. The movie
make you think a lot. It has another dimension, a
dimension of understanding your self and the relation
you have with the omnipresent, omnipotent phenomenon,
you may name it God.

The questions like Why you are in this world, what made you like
this, the purpose of life etc etc. are the quest of a Philosopher. I think
the scientist try to define whatever happening around
us and the philosopher questions the existence. We all
have a combination of philosophical and scientific
temper within us. It may vary person to person, but,
we are all born with certain common thinking ability.
Our thought processes may be complex, but the basic
structure and pattern in it is similar.

On 11th evening I started off in my scooter at 5.15 PM
from my office. Since one of my friends asked me to
drop him at Balaramapuram, I chose a long route. This
friend of mine was a class mate of our PK Rajasekharan
sir, Mathrubhumi at University College, in his MA
Malyalam Course. (In fact I was there in the college
when PK was finishing of his MA. I was a new entrant
to the BSc Maths department.). My pillion driver's
name is Iithiyoor Krishnan. He also writes well in
Malayalam. Unofficially he is running a Tutorial at
Balaramapuram.

It will be surprising for you to know that most of my
colleagues in the department have a background on
Teaching. Many of them are good writers. Many can
recite poetry in the best way. Many write poems with
the classical touch. It is absolutely right regarding
PK's statement to our class about the Government
employees. "The cream of the educated class gets into
this sector by overcoming stiff competition and become
a wasteful lot due to the system. Their talents are
wasted on put up and perusal of meaningless files"
(according to PK).

When creativity of the human being is controlled by a
system, the person becomes unproductive. So the system
should recognize the talents of the people in it. I
think there are two parts in a creative system. It
should have a challenge component evoking effort from
the person involved in the process. Secondly, it
should have a reward component. In order to create
interest in job, the job designer should give
emphasize on these aspects. However, our system is yet
to change in this respect, and hence persons like
L.Krishnan or Iithiyoor Krishnan are never noticed by
the society. Do you know that under his initiative a
quarterly magazine, namely, BHASHA MITRAM started
publishing with serious concern about our Malayalam.
So Krishnan is attaining satisfaction with all these
activities and society benefitting by his actions.

You may be wondering why this Anil is writing all
these stuff under the title "Uncle, are you a
Hindu?!". I was trying to make you think about all
possibilities the society may offer to a human being.
The social conditions make a person to be what he is
in the social dimension.

One may argue that it's not the Profession or job which is the human
being, of course, I do agree with that, but, in social dimension
it matters a lot. Social Perception about a person is
solely depended on the social norms and parameters.
The parents to whom you have born. The place where you
live, the people whom you make contacts,the education
you had, the job you do, the Religion you practice,
the language you speak, the money you have in your
hand etc all makes you the person you are in the
society. One cannot deny it, but, one should
understand it. Is a human being is just that? The
question made me writing down all these was raised by
the Christian Friend's elder daughter who is studying
in Plus two.

I reached the church around 6.20 PM. It was a small
gathering. It is an RC Church. People were of Nadar
community of that area. The ways in which they talk
Malayalam, the colour of skin are differentiating them
from others. The girl in white frock was standing in
front of the Althar, and the priest was conducting the
ceremony. She was looking like an Angel with a bunch
of rose flowers in her hand. There was this idol of
Christ, crucified, on the cross, painted in best way
to make us feel about the sacrifice he had made for
the human kind. A few girls were singing some
devotional songs praising Christ. Nice to hear the
songs at the top of the hill, surrounded by "Rubber
Forests". The neat and tidy way in which the priest
was doing the duties vested with him is something to
be learned. He finished the ceremony and gave away the
"appam" and "veenju" to all those devotees. Then he
told us the story about good and peaceful living. The
function concluded and we were offered a small feast.
Appam and chicken curry.

Though there were only a few people, they have a tendency to create rush.
I was introduced by my friend to one of his relatives, who
is a Head Master to an UP school nearby. We talked lot
about the different sects in Christianity. I asked him
whether the caste system prevalent in the society has
anything to do with the practices in various churches.
He denied it. He said about the Roman Catholic etc of
which I am not very much aware of. But, I know one
thing that the Christians in Kerala or India are all
converted from the people in India. The same goes with
the Muslims also. So the caste system which was there
in India well before the arrival of these Semitic
religions has a big role in the development of these
religions in India. The poor and progressive got
converted fast and others perished.

It was 7.30 PM and I finished eating, washed my hands
and said good bye to the community there. While
introducing me to the other members of the family, my
friend was thanking me for going there at that
distance etc. I said them that it is for the 2nd time
I am attending such a function and I am not aware of
all those proceedings. When the priest was introduced
to me, instead of kissing his hands I just shook hands
with him. The intention is OK, but he would have
rather surprised by my behavior. I asked the girl
undergone first commune about the feeling she had
about the whole affairs. She said she don't feel much
difference. From her father, I knew about her more
than what she thought. Then his elder daughter was
introduced to me. She is planning to clear Entrance
test Engg. This girl asked me the question I have put
above. The answer for this question was in my mouth.
But I couldn't answer it. I just nodded my head.

I am also created just like her. Do you see any
difference in two people by birth? I too have all the
physical appearance as a Christian. Christianity is
not believing Christ or the priests, but following the
path of living suggested by Jesus. The practices of
good habits and culture propounded by the Bible. In
church they talk about all those beautiful aspects
about life and out side they fight with each other. I
don't think it as Christian attitude. A Christian is a
person who believes in Love and harmony of all human
beings and nature. In Hinduism, being a flexible way of
living and practice, any idea of livelihood has its
own sacred position and none can be sidelined. Any
thought has its relevance. Hinduism essentially is a
scientific way of spiritualism, where every religion
become a part of it and integrated into it. The
fundamental element of Hinduism is its flexibility,
rationality, realistic approach and adaptability. The
reason why Christianity or Islam was accepted by the
subcontinent is just because of this reason. People
like me who believe in Community Living and Communism
as a means of achieving social equity and harmony is
because of this greater understanding. Communism is
not just living in communes and attaining socialism.
It is not a theory but a practice. When we go deep
into Hinduism and Communism, we could see more
similarities than difference. But, when we take
positions on the basis of Relgion prfessed by the
priests alone, the Caste System becomes a bigger role
player. So it is always better to be communist than
Hindu. However, things are changing with respect to
Indian-Communism also, due to the deep rooted caste
system. The castes were come from Varna and Vrithi,
basically trade. Some trades were considered to be
better than others and finally the skills were
transferred to one community alone and the whole
system become like this. Can't we see the same
situation happening with the Professional Educational
Setup now? Each professional in a community has his or
her own responsibility. It is the sharing of
responsibilities according to the needs and wants of
the society is the best practice of Professionalism. A
casual sweeper in the street is equal to the MD of a
company sitting in the air conditioned cubicle.
Understanding this in right perspective is Christian
thought in its essence, it is socialism we dream of.
Practicing this in the right way make me a Hindu. I am
yet to become one..rather my object is to become a
Good Human Being than a Hindu or Communist. May be a
Radical Humanist..if I want to give it a structured
shape and name. May be I am wrong or may be I am
right. But I am what I am..that is a truth, I cannot
deny that.

ANIL

cithara bags award

Cithara Paul bags V. Krishnamurthy award for best reporter by Trivandrum Press club. great cithara, keep it up.

Anil...press club and memories...!

May 9, 2006: Today for the first time I went to the Press club new
building. One of my colleagues is a story writer. His name is K.L.Paul. There was book releasing. A collection of stories by him namely, "Sammarda Kalather Pranayam". The book was released by Kanayi Kunjiraman, accepted by George Onakkur and the the
presence of well known artist B.D.Dathan was there. There were a lot of writers etc.
I was invited because, I am also instrumental in the
development of Paul as a writer. He has published two
other collections namely, "kudajadriyile Pambukal" and
"Ozhi".

Some interesting happened today. The audio recorder
was not available today and I was asked by Paul to
note down the proceedings and salient points from the
talks of those well known persons I have mentioned
above. I didn't have papers ready with me. So I just
thought of getting the help of the budding
journalists of Press club of today.

I entered the first floor of the new building and
within the enclosure there were some students sitting.
I just knocked at the glass door and a boy of 25 years
came and asked me "what do you want?". The behaviour
was so peculiar and I couldn't describe that in good
words. I said, I happened to be there because of this
book release and I need some help and do any of you
have a tape recoder.

He answered that we don't have a recoreder and may be it will be available
with the office. I just walked up to the 2nd floor and
went to the office room. The lady sitting there was
previously for Kirali TV . I don't know her name (may
be Parvathy). She is famous in the media circle. She
told me that she recognise me, and obviously she
should recognise me if she come to the Police
Headquarters for any programme. I told her that I came
in the past to Kairali with the press release of DGP
so many times. I told her that I belong to the
millennium batch of the club and I need some help. She
and the officer staff were helpless. After a few
words, I asked the staff member there atleast to
provide me a few sheets of paper. He was kind enough
to give me that.

As of now,they are running two batches, one for print
and another for digital. Obviously the digital think
themselves as superior to others since they use the
technical gadgets. I saw a beautiful girl in a room
trying to operate a digi-camera. I asked her whether
she possess a recorder and introduced myself as an
aluminae of the journalism course. Her name is Priya
and she had done her BSc in Chemistry and planning to
MA in English Literature. She said me that she don't
have one and the office will have one. I know about
the office and I wished her all the lucks.

The function was great and I was reporting it as I was
doing it in my press club days.
The basic issues raised by the all speakers were that
the Malayalam language is in its cross roads. It is a
cultural ivasion etc. Mr. K.L. Paul is one of the new
generation writers who still stick on to the old
schools interest on the society. However, the whole
short story field is changing. There were some remarks
about the effectiveness of sculpture and painting in
comparison to a story written in languages. As per
their view, story written in a language is handicapped
because of the set backs faced by the language.
whereas the sculpture and painting got a universal
appeal etc.

I do agree with some of that. One among
the speakers said that its music which is supreme of
all art forms. My mind was like a volcano going to
burst. I wanted to talk to them point blank and say a
few words countering their views. But I am not
supposed to do that and being a reporter, I am only
supposed to report...........not to comment.
I know K.L. Paul for the past 7 years and what they
know is little compared to what I know.

To me, an art form is an expression the artist find suitable to
express his or her inner feelings and ideas. In Paul's
case, it is not just innerfeelings, but, the need he
has to project himself as a writer make him write. I
know it and I know the way and means in which he tries
to achieve that. I was guiding him in his efforts as a
good friend and I am happy that he is in pursuit of
what he is aiming at. Of the 50 stories he published
in his three collections, only 5 or 6 are good to be
considered as stories with substance. I think he is
lacking in depth in language and reading. But his
efforts cannot be undermined.

The following thoughts came to my mind after that.

1. Why the artist find it difficult to promote his
art in todays world based on the quality of his work,
why so?
2. Why people have to run for a academic forum, some
god fathers, some political support or patronage to
get himself established as an artist in this new
world?
3. If we have a good publisher, good cover and good
media support brought out by the money, mediocre stuff
will also be bought by the people.
4. I find the people to be so much impatient to even
read a mail send by their friend, and how the people
could be made to read a story etc written by the
writer?, whether the same applies to the other art
forms.
5. many times the populistic art is very simple and
appreciated by various sections of the society, but
the same cannot be thought about by a good work with
technical uniqueness, and many times the good artists
have to compromise on to produce mediocre stuff as per
the tunes of the society for their survival. Is good
journalism is that.
6. Why the modern malayalam writers have to adopt
Malanglish to make the book readable, is it because of
lack of reading habit among the people, particularly
the younger generation. How much the visual media is
influencing to form such a mindset?
7. I don't think that the classical works are produced
by compulsion, but the inner urge of the writer or
artist, and its all passion one has with the life
around make an artist to respond in a way to produce
an art work in a specific form for his inner
satisfaction. An artist find solace and satisfaction
of his dreams when reproduced in a particular art
form. But whether the modern art form permits the same
flexibility.

You have to answer it for me dear friends

please do care to respond

yours

anil

Anil to Sandhya

Dear Sandhya

I got a mail from Angel. I thought you are in
Coimbatore. So two persons are there at Bangalore.
Good. Iam forwarding this reply to all. Why don't you
put the whole no. of ids into a group and start
replying. I think that sharing will be possible ony
when we share openly with all others.

Individual to individual communication is Ok, but better to be group
communication. You have a child isn't it. Where is
your husband working now... and where are you staying
in Bangalore.

Ask Angel to send mails to group. Who
was the girl working with the Soorya TV in Trivandrum,
was it Geena elizabeth. I think she is also there in
Bangalore, any news about her. Try to get her Mail id
also.

take care and talk freely as you were in those days

yours

Anil

petti speaks little!

Dear Anil,

Am Sandhya here. How are u? Have been reading all
the mails. Sorry for the delay in reply. Having a
Yahoo group for our press club batch is a great
idea. We will do that together. All my support.
Thanks to ramesh's efforts, we all still know what
all our press club friends are doing.
I am now in Hindu Bangalore.

Will mail again
Sandhya

it is smitha namboodiri speaking...!

Hi friends,

much happy yo hear about the common platform for the Press Club, millennium batch. Well done Anil and other friends. And its nice to see the 'Mr. Serious' Ranjith at his Kuwait office. Enthundu Ranjithe Visesham? Sukhamalle...
Jeeva, what about your Pondi assignment
Best wishes to all friends in the millennium batch

regards
Smitha Namboothiri

Ranjith at his Kuwait office

Ranjith John at his Kuwait office. This is the first photo being uploaded to this blog. Anybody who likes to post his/her photo or any other photo or message to this blog pls. mail it to kiduram@hotmail.com.

mone prashanthe anilettan vilikkunnu

Dear Prasanth

I am perfectly aware of the situation. If you knowP.T. Bhaskara Panikar, the man behind formation of Sasthra Sahithya Parizhath, literacy movement in Kerala, State Resouce Centre, a magazine called Bharana Chakra etc.

I found two role models in my life. The first one is him and the second one is C.Achutha Menaon as an Administrator.The first one usedto send post cards to the person who are in touch withhim, with lot of assignments.Small ones changed the history of the State. The second one never smiles outwardly, but cares a lot.


You know Prasanth, silent efforts are never noticed in this world at the time of happening. But, later, people will learn about it. The misery of man is that he had to live the life pleasant and make himself famous. But the world is not only for the happier ones alone.

When any one of our big group finds some difficulty in life situations, I become really concerned. We must have that concern first and the communication should be the best way to show your concern. When we are positioned at distance, it will be difficult for us to see each other. But we can talk, share our feelings,send letters etc. However, we do prioritise things isn't it.

We have only 24 hrs a day and we need todivide it constructively, particulary when you are in Media. I suggest you to listen to Jnanapana by Poonthanam Namboothiri sung by P.Leela. The poet is talking about Krishna Bhakthi, but I want to replace the Krishna Bhakthi with "Friendship and Friends" asquoted by Renjith. You will get a new meaning to it. let me correct you about your observation about ourcollege and press club. In our college, as in the case of any college we were put into a culture with more emphasise on studies. we were never been trained to become professionals. But at press club the culture was totally vivid and our object was to learnsomething for living. In fact in our evening batch,our intention was to do some course with enjoyment. We never cared about assignments, marks etc. In my case Ijust wanted to be live with studies and make newfriends....and new friendship circles. Journalism as a Career:In the past I had done a course on Personnel Management at Bharathiya Vidya Bhavan, tvm.

I went there to do Journalism as a part time affair. But they insisted that I should do Personnel Management. It was their choice than mine to be get trained in Management. I remember, Mahadevan and Harisundar of Hindu were my batch mates at that time. Mahadevan was doing journalism and Hari was with me.If I had donethe course at that time, you would have not seen me in your Press club batch. I would have been well placedin the journalistic career, not in Police Department.

I don't have regret about it now, because, what I see isonly Job Journalism and in practical terms it is theright decision for a News Company to survive by making profit than die for some crusading effort.I am aregular subscriber to Malayala Manorama, Chintha andDesabhimani. I was a regular subscriber of Mathrubhumi weekly. Apart from that I am constrained to subsribe to certain trade union magazns due to my comrade parivesha. There are some kutti magazns for which I had given subcription to help them. Its all my hard earned income which is distributed. In MM, you willsee the strategy of Professional Management. In Chinta(you can put it Chanthi, or Chitha or Chantha in the long run as the lef movement change its course in kerala)and Deshyabhimani you pay for what you don'tnecessarily required.

When I was in school my intention of reading news papers like mathrubhumi, keralakaumudiand deshabhimani was to know whether we have striketoday. If there is a strike then i will cycle double speedly to my home and take the cricket bat and ballto the school. Then from 11 AM to 5 PM continuos play.

I was in Govt. Model High School, trivandrum. So thats a part of story about me. I want all of you to share things about past and present with all others,so that we get know each other better. let us hope this will be a better opportunity for us all.

love and take care

Anil

great prasanth reghuvamsham has these words...!

Dear Anilji...

Happy to see your mails.....

It is wonderful to be in touch with persons whom we like....
and our press club batch was a different one....

Though I regard our University College the inspiration for whatever qualities, good or bad, we acquired in this civic society, Press Club experience really helped to know that there are three sides to any issue...ours, the other person's and the right one.....

Please do not get upset if somebody fail to respond...Though many of us are in famous institutions technical facilities are not available for many to send even frequent mails....

Jeeva and Renjith,,,good that you responded to this effort....

will be in touch

love

prasanth

Anil to Jeeves

Dear Jeeva

So nice of you to join us. It is not a movementstarted now. We have planned it long back, haven'twe?!. Yesterday, I happened to meet Ramesh during my evening prawl in the city. He had purchased a new bike. There was a small treat by him...He can tell it better.

He was talking about starting a blog than a group since we will be able to post mails forever. Idon't know what will be the outcome. But as I see, ourfriends are so uncaring to reply to mails. Everybody has this feeling that they are the busiest persons inthis world. May be they are not finding any meaning inthese relations. The common platform is already there,since we are the products of press club. The question is how many of us are going to be frequent visitors onthis virtual platform .

I can count persons who even not cared to say a simple hi to my efforts. Is this is what you call the common platform. No, I don't think so. I hope...some day when any one of them feel solonely, displaced, relocated in a world of unknownness due to their social situations and job constrains,they will find solace in the words spoken by stupid persons like me through this medium. That is the onlything I can expect from them. The rest is theirchoice. You may see persons in the city who happenedto be neighbours for so long and not known to eachother. This is what we proudly call as developmentnowadays.

You have a house, a car, money in yourpockets and status in the society....then you try tofind common platform in that segment of the societyjust above your level. It is the human tendency I haveseen in this world. You forget the way you havetravelled and the struggles you had in your past.

You think that you are born with golden spoons in yourmouth. Its all farce dear....every thing you seearound you is a mask. The origine of word Persona means the mask you are wearing in a theatre. This maskis the face you have in the society.

I saw the Hindimovie "Anand" for the umpteenth time today. I am justtrying to reproduce the moving words by Anand @ RajeshKhanna. " Babumosai...zindagi oour mouth uper vale kehath mem he. Hum sub eis rang manch ke katputhale hei.os ke dor upervale ke hath mem he....ha ha ha ....".

You know one thing I am very fond of this moviebecause of many reasons. First thing the friendshipbetween the two characters and seconds due to thehelpnessnes the major character played by Rajeshkhanna who is a victim of cancer. Even if you don'thave cancer, many events in life is like cancer. You think that you are in full control and things happen which you can only desperately experience.

I am going through such a phase in my life also. But I don't ave the comfort to share everything in this group.....of friends who talk lot about friendship anddoes nothing towards it. I think this journalisticgroup lack empathy or afraid of something.

Why we arefearing about life. Ofcourse, we can think it as aphase between two absolute truths, life anddeath....if the first one is there, the second isinevitable. But can we finish it off fast. Do we havethe liberty to cut short our life.

Sorry I am talking in a different language today....yes I know and Icould sense it myself. But these friends made me talklike that, What Renjith talked about is an idealisticsituation.


But, life is far from ideal. It is what itis. penning down for today....for another bright sunnyday

yours

Anil

First female Voice

Dear Anil..

all the best for you movement to create a common platform for the millenium batch..

love, regards

jeeva

Anil replys to Ranjith

Hi Renjith and all


I named this group in my address list as Media Friends. I am forwarding your mail to all of them, I think your mail id is also there. I am forwarding a copy of the mail to Noushad and Smitha Namboothiri. Note: forwarded message attached.

I always see you as a serious sort of guy Renjith. In fact your language also seems to be that much serious. Friendship and Friends is a nice topic to be discussed. I remember the day I spoke to you all in our farewell day. I was actually emotionally moved and tears came on my eyes due to the separation we are going to have.

The same thing happened to me when we assembled there to remember KRV Sir. Gouri sir couldn't spoke much because of emotions. There were our seniors and juniors. Only a few. We listed out the addresses to form a forum of journalists produced by Press club. If I remember rightly, I had given the list to Anitha, a girl from our senior batch for type setting etc in DTP, in fact she took it from me witha lot of promises.

That is the end of it. Inever saw again.Similarly I asked Santhan to hand over our group photo so that we can take copies and distribute to all others.But nothing did happen. The photos we took at Kanyakumari are still with me. I took care to have personal copies and thanks to Faizal. I will be uploading them soon for all of you.

Dear Ranjith, initiating a relation is easy but maintaining one is very difficult, whether it is friendship or something else. I really had many experiences of losing a person very close to me when years passed. In fact I, Cithara and Vinod had a talk about Friendship one night. They were of the view that a Friend will be a friend forever, even with out regular communication. I have a different view about it.

The ability of a person to be in touch with maximum number of people makes him popular and friendship alive. It is more to give and then take policy. I found a quality in Prasanth makes him different from others. It is his ability to push even if he is facing bad situations. Finding opportunities and utilising relations is the best way to be live in media. All of us have various qualities/talents, but what matters in our society is saleablity and I remember Joe sir quoting something like that in our Editing class.

I do agree with him in that account. When Medha padkar can be sold, media is afer her. When she is not in the lime light who needs her. Since I was referring to Lime light, I just want to ask you one question, have you ever saw the Chapline film "Lime light". I think you must see it. You may ask why, just watch it?!! We, me and Binu used to analise our Press Club experience a lot. We share some interest in Managemetn and Human Behaviour.

The difference between the other courses we had undergone with the Journalism at Press club is that, our aim was not to study journalism, but to learn about the uniqueness in our self.Though KRV sir was insisting we were not in line with him. But, that is the right kind of a journalistic development. One experiment a lot with one's ability. I remember studying for exams. Thanks to Sumi and Gayathri, with out them many would not have passed. Dear all, I am a bit older than you all in age, but I know that Iam younger than many of you since I still keep my youth alive by having live relations.

KRV Sir used to talk to me a lot in the absence of others. He was of the view that I was pursuing the right kind of career within the Police, since the Media is farce nowadays. According to him, it has become just another job to be a reporter or editor etc. I am not ready to fully agree with him, because in my opinion every job has a creative spirit in it. One should try to evoke it or kindle it and integrate that spirit with one's life goals. I recommend all of you to read a book by Po Bronson, titled "What Should I do with my life?".

Its published by Vinatage.(www.randomhouse.co.uk/vintage) Many times we end up with a job where we will not get satisfaction. A career is not a job and one may try to experiment with the jobs till one attain one's passionate profession. The book tells about a few people who found why they are here and what do they want with their life. You don't know how you inspire others, but you do: I remember the question asked by Smitha Paylee when we were returning from Kanyakumari after our trip. We were hanging on the rods of the bus. As per the specific instructions of KRV, I was constrained to behave maturally :).

I remember that we sung a lot of songs made by us and I really enjoyed the trip. Let me come to the point. Smitha was asking me whether I made all those songs myself at that time. I replied yes. Then she said that Policeee, you are a good poet. That was inspirational to me..., because somebody appreciated one of my talents. This the kind of positive vibes we have to give each other so that we remain friends. But it should be genuine.

To share another experience of mine was reporting the conference on Democratic Decentralised Planning. That was a great team effort. Meghan chettan (son of N.E. Balram) was there to guide us. Because of the communist background we have, we were family friends. (There after he asked me many times, "deeye nee Public Relations Officer aakanam, PRD-yil varanam etc." ). As part of the assignement I was supposed to translate the papers to be presented by the eminent scholars in Malayalam apart from reporting.I had the experience of getting published my translated work before the actual paper reading took place in the conference.

Meghan chettan told me, deeyee okke oru number alle. The greatest thing happened to me was in the presence of P.P. Balan (now KILA director, my mother's cousine), while a documentary being showed by the authorities about the People's Planning- Successful interventions, and when all those international delegetes were eagerly listening about the achievements of the people in my native panchayat at Kannur (Chappara padavu) with respect to decentralised planning approach (Janakeeya Asoothrana), I was able to report the scene which I think as something great.

I do like to converse with you all, as much as possible. Its a promise that I will stay in touch. As a preliminary step towards grou formation, Can all of us can take an oath to be in connection always. The naming of the group can be done later. Think about it and reply. I want every ones positive reply,which can be consolidated by Ramesh.

Hope everyone is fine

yours

Anil

This is Ranjith from kuwait...!

Dear Anil,

Your suggestion of registering names in Yahoo to form a group of friends to share our camaraderie is sheer dusting off old excitements.We face the crude reality of separation. Still we yearn to stick on to the liveliness of our class room in Press Club.

Bringing up such topics with regard to the necessity of reviving our love for each other in a cyber allotted space is a dream waiting to bloom.Your meeting in Press Club after six long years is a happy news. But you kept away the matters you chanted, discussed and babbled without elaborating those in your mail. A depiction of your talks would have made your mail more appealing. Give me the Minutes of your Meeting.

Did you feel my spirit roaming around you all that time? Your references on the six years' growth of plants to trees, in front of Press Club, created a mandatory nostalgic mood to your description of friends' meeting after a long time. Trees grow upwards, I mean, all the trees in front of our School of Journalism. What sort of philanthropic growth have we been obtaining since our passing out in 2000?

We had one K.R.V. Sir who had been scolding us mindlessly but cravingly asking us to improve through his routine expression '' Meet me''. Salutations to his sanctified memories. I make a conscious pass by, whenever I come on leave to India, through the Press Club Road, to kindle my respect towards KRV sir and love towards all my classmates belonging to both morning and evening batches.As you said, we WERE a great team, absolutely in its sense, due to our attachment towards each other.

We ARE a great team, truthful to its core, in the backdrop of rekindling our love towards each other either by a call or through an SMS or through our e-mail correspondences. We WILL remain as a great team, though we may not always appear as physical images to our friends again, by our sincere inner expressions of wishing the very best to our pals and silently, happily enjoying their growth. Notable contributions have come from Ramesh's part to knit the web of comradeship. He is the master of infinite interactions.

Let historians praise him as friendship incarnate. Anil, your perception of a possible fading out of the colourfulness of comradeship, thus demanding from the very start of our day of separation about forming a friends' group and still doing the same squirrel's job positively and energetically, is praiseworthy. You need a generous pat for your efforts. Students of the millennium batch are dispersed all over the world by the Institute of Journalism. Some have fallen on the right ground bearing the best fruits. Those remaining also try to make the best output in their own respective fields.

Putting aside traits of male chauvinism, may I ask you about our female-friends? Beginning with 'A', I ask you about Angel Rani to end with enquires about 'Z' 's Zoma Viswanath. I remember Gayathri Devi, Cithara Paul, Manjusha M.R., Jeena Elizebeth George, Ronnie Thomas, Sheena Stephen, Sumi Thoppil Thomas, Smitha Namboodiri, Archana Pillai, Jyothi Vijaykumar, Nisha M.V., Jeeva Jayadas, Sandya V.L. and many other friends who come in between the aforementioned two, in the attendance-register.

Annie has achieved one of her most desirable goals and we were its witnesses last year. I have contacts, though occasionally, with ever-smiling Smitha Paili. Once again, my congratulations to Prashanth, Ramesh, Shantan V. Nair, Manoj, Sreejith Kumar and yourself, Anil, for the idea to have a meeting in front of Press Club, thus inspiring others for its genuine imitation.

After all, it is the liveliness of love that binds us together. And that is why you demandingly prompt all of us to form a group in Yahoo.

I express my willingness herewith to such a group-formation, proposing my suggestion of naming the group 'The Tent of Love' or to be more precise 'The Tent'.

May Jesus bless you.

Lovingly

Ranjith John(Kuwait)

And thus the millennium batch got a Blog

Question: What Made this blog?

Ans: A Message!

Dear Ramesh and all,

It was a great evening today. We, Ramesh, ValiyaSreejith, Santhan, Manoj, Prasanth met in front of the Press club. The siblings planted by the club members while we were studying journalism had grown up now and waving their hands atus as trees now. Its nostalgia. I just thought about KRV Sir. Renjith called from Kuwt and we had a longtalk. He seems to be missing all this fun. I called Anand SL mathrubhumi and he is also happy. The otherday I talked to Smitha, Noushad, Gayathri, Vinod CPand Cithara. Though we were a mixed group, with various ed. back grounds and age etc, we were a great team. I could see the future of journalism in Kerala in front of me. In a way I felt that I am the lonelyone who had took the crusade to change the system from within the system. I feel the necessity for having a Group in Yahoo or any service provider. What do you say. First of all, we have to name it. Some body was saying "the Millennium" or so. I think we have to think about some name more meaningful. I remember the day when we were thinking about thename of our in house magazine, while we were studying pathra pravarthanam. Ours was "Spandanam". In the same way, what is the Sanskrit word for 2000. Sahasra is for 1000. I think Ramesh wil get a name forour group. We should have consensus to have a group and norms for responding, even if we are away or busy.I see that many like to remain as listeners than contributors within a group in the long run. This is the group phenomenon. So what do you say. Please do care to respond

yours swantham

anil