Hello Readers!!!

Today is the last day of the first decade of the second millennium. So I will give it a miss if I do not blog on this very special day of 2009.
This year made me an independent and responsible big lady and at the same time marks the end of my fun-filled college days. This year had given me loads of experience, fun, and sad moments alike, sad that I miss my friends in college, the time when I knew nothing about the challenges of a world in real out there.
“And there… I can see a star shining ahead…
Is that me? I am waiting :-)”
I wish all my readers a very Happy and Fabulous New Year 2010...

Home New Home!!!

With just over a year of its construction, the Department of Journalism and Mass Communication, University of Calicut, has finally moved-out to the brand new building near the CHKM library premise. Prior to relocation, the department was located in Chenakal (a local place name), aka the "Chenakal University" as informally termed by the student populace.
The foundation stone was laid on February 11, 2008 by the University Vice Chancellor Prof Anwar Jahan Zuberi.
The new building, with a cost estimate of Rs 64 lakhs, comes with the state-of-the-art digital arts facilities, an impressive audio-video and multimedia laboratory, promisingly to continue the legacy of producing quality journalists as ever before.
The traditional Kerala-model mix of architecture adopted in design of the building resembles a typical Naalukettu, with its inner central open courtyard (Ankanam) only. The central focus is the roofed porch attached to the central structure with two columns for support that leads to the vestibule.
The first floor which is construction-in waiting is proposed to be allotted for the Department of Political Science. An idea to construct a seminar hall in the floor is in discussion and work will start anytime with the approval of the Syndicate.
The Assistant Executive Engineer Abdul Gafoor K, Department of Engineering, is the man behind the house design. Built in 805 square meters area, the ground floor counts an office room, five rooms for the HoD and teaching faculty, AV lab, multimedia lab, library, restroom for ladies and two washrooms.
The need for a sophisticated building and latest technical facilities in a changing media scenario is a dream come true thanks to the Vice Chancellor Prof Zuberi who had helped in all ways to speed up the construction process and last but far away from least, the Former Department Head, Sasibhooshanan Nair, who was the chief planner, supervisor, architect, all in all.
The department thanks all who have been instrumental in making the project come true.

For the exclusive image gallery, visit our Dept of Mass Communication & Journalism website at: http://univmasscom.org/univ/image

"Never Say Diet"

Hang on…I m not here to give you suggestions on how to easily fit into that size-zero designer apparel as does the title too suggest, but hey, I would rather insist you to see thro’ the glasses of Ladies Against Skinny Diet.
Enough is enough with all the annoying news about the size-zero fad and its stars eating out the main headlines of news channels and the lifestyle columns of national newspapers. It seems as if the Indian media too is out to prove the ‘beauty before brains’ theory right. To top it all there’s this dangerous entrant these days, the cosmetic surgery, with its experts and advocates vowing on their new-found happiness in their social and love life by going under the knife.
Now, it is not that we should be against this all, but the ‘beauty’ is being continually stereotyped. Being fit and looking beautiful is always great and pleasant to the eyes but at stake is the concept of a wholesome diet and natural physique. The age where stars make it out to support for gay rights and so on with point-blank media backing (also, I m not against gay rights in India; indeed would be happier to see them join the mainstream), why don’t they see the flaw already within their system? And that is what it makes the whole game ridiculous.
Being smart, smarter, smartest isn’t enough, the way a woman look is far more important than what she has to say. Consequently, a media report claim that 90% of women lament on their natural physique as opposed to mere 45% in men.

Flip through any lifestyle mag for that matter; half the articles try to persuade readers for getting it perfect. If I quote a magazine “Lose those last 20 pounds, look sleeker, you will have it all- the perfect marriage, loving children, great sex and a rewarding career.”
Here, why do we impose the standards of beauty on women when majority of them are naturally larger and bulkier than the sculpt-like models? The reasons are galore. In the first place, it is the economics of running pure business. We all know by presenting a model difficult to get and maintain, we usher in a plethora of cosmetic and diet products and it’s no surprise that there are vested interests.
Consequently, the results are wary too as you read about the teenagers and women by and large are keen on fasting, skipping meals, excessive exercise, laxative abuse, and self-induced vomiting. And the reason? They feel that they might lose their spouses to younger women or because they want to look as good as someone else. The pressure is rising by the day.
I take cue from my experimental diet to imitate a Brazilian model’s skinny diet, a solitary carrot for 24 hours of metabolism. Of course, I ate 5 carrots that day, but nearly fainted at the end of the day. Amazing how they work 365 days, yes?

Hence, a solution must be found on the media created hype about skinny diet and related issues. In the first place, fashion industry should put a ban on models looking ultra-thin. Let’s not forget the recent story of a model who died of cardiac arrest, thanks to her love-to-hate-food resolution. Till now, supermodels meant super-thin. Why don’t we instead solicit voluptuous and realistic models to drive in the concept of positive body image; being skinny is no role model.

Still want to cut those extra calories? Then snub all fatty foods, eat three balanced meals and maintain high metabolism right through the day.
So all the average-sized ladies (and others), this article is for you; ‘feel special, feel hatke’ as losing calories is not all that counts in one’s life that need to be perfect. Shun out your skinny diet, and be a total foodie as it doesn’t come to all. Take Care!

A Survey Experience

Its the election fever.. thought I should write down my experience as a Field Investigator, for the Centre for Electoral Studies, Thiruvananthap'rm, assigned to a rustic village in Kozhikode Parliamentary constituency. I enjoyed the designation as part of a pre-poll cum post-poll survey during the General Elections 2009 in some way or the other. The post field investigator seems so hefty to me, guess what? I was a Field Investigator (though for juz 3 days), before reverting back to my age-old designation that of a student. But I tell you its is nothing special than tolerating the feel-sorry looks of old women and the doubtful looks of old men in Muslim dominated areas of Calicut, who are chosen randomly for the All Kerala opinion poll survey. Why are these men so cynical when they come to encounter simple questions in politics? Had I been a Muslim girl, I surely would have been recieved well in these homes notwithstanding the honest answers I may get. Women sympathise me by my appearance as naive and childlike (truth be told lol) and also so short of money, perhaps thats why they see me wandering for getting the right persons out in the sun. Some ask me whether it is some innovative game to vote for their candidate even before elections and invest them in a small ballot box (the casting of vote in a secret ballot used for the opinion polls).
End of the first day of a bumpy and weary survey ; I wasted half the day in searching the samples in wrong places, accidentally meeting a lovely old couple who served me lunch with great love for a stranger like me.
Day 2. There's no option left for me than to hire a bicycle to go by, if I had to locate the voters in the list provided to me. Now, thats something a novel approach as far as girls are in question. I had to somehow cajole a cycle mendor to hire me a cycle in the promise that I would return his gadget by evening. and he did provide me one! God bless....

And now to some election news...
The ACV pre- poll was telecast on TV on 12 and 13 April in which it predicts 13 seats for UDF and 7 seats for LDF with 4 pc voters remaining undecided.
Let us all wait and see how this election turns out to be, whether it be favour to UDF as the poll predicts or does it take a U-turn? 48 hours remain...

Movie Review: 2 Harihar Nagar

The comedy-drama In Harihar Nagar, chronicling the story of four intimate friends Mahadevan (Mukesh), Govindan Kutty (Siddique), Appukuttan (Jagadish), and Thomas Kutty (Ashokan) is a gem beyond price, a movie class apart for Malayalis.
I went by the review where someone said the multi-starrer, 2 Harihar Nagar, written and directed by Lal, is so simply rocking, and that all you need is to grab some popcorn and watch it in cinemas because it is ‘so genuine’. Sure I grabbed some popcorn, but was enjoying it more and busy defending the pack from my friend, than the movie before me.
The release date of the movie, April 1, is simply not co-incidental; it was to fool its thronging audience with trite comedy (my classroom is even funnier), familiar Sardar jokes, except that here the sardar is Appukuutan who is a dentist, and upsetting performance by some of its lead actors.
The film opens with childhood days of the quartet when they vow to stand by together in all times. Scenes shift to their present times, where they are now irked by their responsible and dutiful lives. The four are in search to spice up their lives beyond the lens of their families and end up meeting each other after many years in the backdrop of the wedding of Thommasutty.
The plot picks up when beautiful Lakshmi Rai comes to stay in Harihar Nagar under false name, Maya. She allures the foursome, and eventually traps them in her spin saying her husband, Vineeth, a dancer by profession, was ravished by John Honai, their common enemy. The four tries to rescue her and their kidnapped friend, Thomasutty but eventually comes to know that it was a well-planned plot by both. The trio then meets Vineeth, who claims to know Maya, but under some other name and warns them to steer clear from her. Took by surprise that the dancer is no way her spouse, they realize her intention was to dig up the cash suitcase they were associated with from the prequel. The twist is Thomas Kutty too is a party to this perpetration. He questions his conscience while he passes through the old church where the friends once bonded each other. He changes his mind and abandons the suitcase in the doorstep of Govindan Kutty’s home. The final scene is when the trio present the same suitcase for his marriage the next day.

In a manner of speaking, the first-half of the film is simply anti-woman. The playboy manners of the quartet send wrong signals to the society and reinforce such thoughts already present in some nasty men.
As an actor in profession with years experience, Ashokan just piss off with his poor acting skills, Jagadish seems overly stupid and clown-like with his loud, straight and unfunny jokes (CHALI, in colloquial) but not all times though. On the whole, Appu Kuttan, the dentist, we love you more than any character in the plot. Mukesh and Siddique and Lakshmi Rai does justice to their roles.
The choreography for Vineeth in his dancing role was a real laugh. The time has exceeded for him to call it quits as he is not even able to perform a bold leap, age constraints, you know.
The good-old Harihar Nagar seems to have gone upmarket, never mind as it cannot remain the same 18 years before.
The music is good remix, full stop. An easy job for the music director, Alex Paul as there’s nothing new in it.
The post-production team was busy flaunting the technological advances in film-making. It would have been better to KISS, I mean, Keep It Simple, Stupid.
As a viewer, I think I have all rights to rate a movie, and I go by 2 stars on 5 for 2 Harihar Nagar.
Whatsoever, the audience has heartily welcomed again the funny four, as a good excuse to revisit the golden years of comedy films in Malayalam.

The EU Film Festival 2009

Kozhikode, one of the six Indian cities that have been chosen for this year’s European Film Festival, hosted the 14th European Union Film Festival held from March 29 to April 2. Films from 15 countries were been screened for the festival.
Most of the films I viewed in the package seek to shore up friendly-ties between EU and Asian and African countries or to prove the stand of these countries vis-a- vis some political issue, better still to acquaint their audience with people, culture, language of other countries.
I truly, madly, deeply loved the Polish movie Hania (2007) directed by Janusz Kaminski and Arabian Nights (2007) from Luxembourg directed by Paul Kieffer.

The plot of Hania revolves around the life the perfect young and gorgeous couple, who has good jobs, good home and so forth, but Ola, the cute wife of Wojtka, yearns for a child. Wojtka who is a workaholic disappoints her saying that they are not still prepared for it. She turns to her childhood friend, Jozef, who runs a pre school to help adopt a child. She brings home a quite, unconventional, contemplative wonder kid, Janek who plays a big role to bring the couples closer. The setting of the film is a livid, lovely winter and the Christmas with all its liveliness. Janek teaches Wojtka the essence of a man’s short life and how can it be made worth living with people you love. But I don’t why the script kills the boy with some ailment after he takes an effort to fly in the air. And he does it! The final bird’s eye view shot is Janek’s from heaven, watching the little family take a stroll in a lush garden with their biological baby.

Another must-watch in the fest is Arabian Nights, a Luxembourg movie. “What happens when a westerner falls in love with the enchanting East?”
When ticket inspector Georges Turmes first meets Yamina Ben Khouri on the train between Luxembourg City and Bettembourg, she is just another passenger. When he sees her again, she is trying to sleep between some old petrol barrels and an abandoned garage near the railway station. When they run into each other a third time, she is trying to hide in the train toilet, severely beaten up, blood all over face. Georges offers her help, and she accepts, reluctantly – and both their lives will change forever. Then Yamina disappears, leaving Georges completely disoriented. He leaves a final note to his wife that he was going to leave her. Trying to find Yamina, Georges meets her old acquaintances. The more of them he speaks to, the less he seems to know about her; everybody has a different version of her life. Finally, he is convinced he has to go to Algiers to rescue her.

From being penniless to hire a room at night, the ghastly accident he witnesses in which Yamina was traveling, and the consequent spending a night sleeping in cold mud floor, the second half of the movie chronicles the real hardships he has to undergo to locate the whereabouts of his damsel. He walks through the red-hot desert sands and reaches at an oasis populated area. He sees Yamina and her family under a tent. Totally worn-out by the cruel Saharan desert, Georges, wearily walks towards her and both immerse in a deep hug.
“Dream or reality? A simple and beautiful drama from Luxembourg.”

Role of media in combating terrorism

Enough is enough, clichéd it may seem, but a reality-check determines the situation is even more serious. Indeed, the time has really exceeded in overhauling the entire system of the working of the media in India. The whole country, even the international circle, is upset with the recent media faux pas (especially the televised coverage of the attack) with their irresponsible live reportage of the NSG-terrorists encounter in the rear of the Mumbai terror attack on November 26, 2008.
The TV as witnessed was purely prioritizing ways to shoot-up the TRP ratings amidst a national crisis. There is competition among the different stories that will finally be emitted; those that are victorious are more dramatic, are more spectacular in a visual sense, are more emotional and contain other elements that are able to be assimilated by an image-oriented culture.
But then what India needs at this hour paradoxically, is sharp journalism focused on bringing to light the rampant corruption, insurgency, terror, political-highhandedness and development rather than the exclusive and sensitized reporting of terror or P3 life.

The media are not simple entities that transmit “raw” information. It has an active role in “constructing” the news, making terrorists actions understood in a context that simplifies, prioritizes, and structures the narrative flow of these stories.
The media persons should realize that they are not manipulated by terrorists into promoting the cause of terrorism or its methods. The challenge for policymakers is to explore mechanisms enhancing media/government cooperation to accommodate people’s need for honest coverage while limiting the gains that may be provided for terrorists or their cause. Communication between the government and the media here is an important element in any strategy to prevent terrorist causes and strategies from prevailing and to preserve democracy.
In the first place, we must scrutinize what terrorists want from media. It should be free publicity as it cannot be availed directly to spread their mission, and this in turn is modeled to seek a favourable understanding of their cause, if not their act. Further, it is been also said that in hostage situations, terrorists need to have details on identity, number and value of hostages, and details on the public exposure of their operation or a possibility for any plans of military retaliation. And at last but far from least, these radical elements seek coverage to amplify panic on the enemy side, to spread fear, to facilitate economic loss (like scaring away investment and tourism), to make populations loose faith in their governments' ability to protect them, and the overall threat of terrorism.
Sadly though, terrorists could achieve just that in India.
What we can infer from a series of reportages is to separate the terrorist from the media and present them as criminals and avoid glamorizing them; to foster the viewpoint that kidnapping a prominent person, blowing up a building, or hijacking an airplane is a criminal act regardless of the terrorists' cause.
Media, with its imminent power of publicity can help diffuse the tension of a situation by feeding the public relevant information during an attack to minimise damage.
The CNN IBN dished out a series of reportage which portrayed Mumbai as a ‘phoenix city’ which rose from the ashes of the shoot outs and bombings with full vigour, despite the chain of terror attacks which started from CST railway station. The cafe owner who had lost two employees during the shoot out was hell bent to re-open the shop immediately after the attack; thereby dishing out a silent but firm message to the perpetrators, ‘Nothing can kill the spirit of a Mumbaikar.’ Such messages should form the news content, and avoid covering emotional stories on relatives of victims.
It was media’s folly during the Mumbai terror attack on November 26 to have revealed the planned anti-terrorist actions or provide the terrorists with data that helps them. Media should have remembered the nation was in a state of war even if the government had not explicitly said so; also is an urgent need to cut loose talk at this juncture, with supporting instances like the Antulay issue. It is the job of the media to play down news that undermines the spirit of a nation.
During such a crisis, media ought to restraint themselves and follow governmental rules as security of the nation weighs more than the freedom of press.
From various careless coverage of news one can easily deduce that media should never reveal government secrets or detail techniques on how successful operations were performed or publicize successful terrorist technological achievements and operational methods which may inspire other anti-elements to function.
It is very necessary to form a voluntary press coverage guideline on terrorism reporting like agreeing not to air live unedited interviews with terrorists; or interview police and army officials during combat, checking sources of information carefully when the pressure is high to report information that may not be accurate, limiting information on military, or police, movements during rescue operations and so on.
If we have to curb terrorism, we need to be cleverer than the terrorists. The problem with terrorism is that they are learning from our mistakes. The media and the government have common interests in seeing that the media are not manipulated into promoting the cause of terrorism or its methods.
Terrorists will suffer a blow in the hands of people’s determination and the support of the fourth pillar of the democracy. Media can control the publicity scenario by portraying the never-die-attitude of the public that can etch the coup-de-grace of all terror outfits, and help the government in all ways in building a terror free society. In any case, optimism rules!

“Never talk defeat. Use words like hope, belief, faith, victory”, Norman Vincent Peale.

Book Review

Zionism: v. 1: The Real Enemy of the Jews
* Hardcover: 596 pages
* Publisher: WORLD FOCUS PUBLISHING, Kent, England.(2005),Camel Books, Calicut (Indian Imprint) (2007)
* Language: English

“If the conflict in Palestine goes on, it has all the potential to go to hell, the Armageddon,” said Alan Hart, a former British television executive, an analyst in Middle-East affairs, narrates the terrifying global consequences of the conflict which has certainly led to the Clash of Civilisation, that is Judeo-Christianity Vs Islam. The author is also a correspondent with ITN’s New at Ten and BBC’s Panorama Programme.
Alan Hart in his latest book, ‘Zionism: The Real Enemy of Jews’ provide a deeper analysis perhaps for the first time ever, of why we are on a course for a Clash of Civilisations and how it can be averted.
The book is a rewrite of the Arab-Israeli conflict, narrating its regional and global dimensions.
The author finds out Zionism has a negative influence on several aspects, be it world economy, politics, media, anything you name it, are under the control and fear of Zionism. It relies constantly on terror and Antisemitism for its survival.
But the author seeks to blame the "Zionists" for anything he can. Here is a small sampling of quotes from the first chapter: "Arafat is loved by many of his colleagues," his "kindness and his humanity is something unbelievable," and his courtesy is "unfailing." One person is quoted as saying that compared to Gamal Abdul Nasser, "Arafat is a saint."
The author adopts a style of writing like a novel rather than a conventional historic account to make it accessible to all. The book cannot be read in a jiffy, instead needs time and effort to grasp the points author wants to highlight the readers. But it is worth a read who like to read on world politics. He says enough for me to understand that a two state solution will never work, it will be based on the Israel state dominating the Palestine state. Hart says that a unified fight against Zionism from within Israel and beyond is the only real solution to this problem.