Saturday morning as I sit on the chair with some breakfast in my hand, staring through my window at the tree that has just bloomed and the rain drop dripping from its baby pink flowers, I ponder; have I seen this before? Of course - everyone has. I've seen it too, and have pondered about it back then, in what they call the God's own land - Kerala. Tile houses are surrounded by flowering plants and trees that get a booster shot as if life has been pumped into them as soon as the first ray of sunlight falls on them. Everything you see and experience out there is divine and is irreplicable (if that's even a word).

Well, that's the land that they all portray on websites and on the top attractions list that India carries in her pouch. Getting deep into the nooks and crannies of the inland, one would start to get the notion that maybe not. It may all be a hype. It is a great tourism destination but a state as big as Kerala cannot survive merely on tourism. Isn't there anything else out there? One would ask. And from what I've seen, there is but its gonna die out sooner or later.

The state has a unique distinction, a magnetic power if you may call it, to repel anything that comes in its path, any new notion, an idea, an industry. Anything that starts to bloom in Kerala is met with an ill fate; some do not even bloom, the idea is opposed and killed before it can even take flight. This is quite evident from the fact that there are almost no industries in the state, most of the people have fled to other parts of the country, the Middle East, the Western hemisphere and Europe.

Hartals and Bandhs are the backbone and the main reason that industries have tried to run away from the state. The state carries unique distinctions - like the most number of bandhs in the country (~100 bandhs a year in the recent times) , the maximum success rate of a Bandh has also been registered in the state. It had become such a nuisance that there was a Court ban on Bandhs and that too more than a decade ago.

Visiting Kerala a few months back, I heard from people that the state cannot go on living like this for long. Nokia was in a negotiation trying to setup a factory in India to make use of the exploding market in the subcontinent and this state was in its radar. They backed away the last minute and opened up their factory in the adjoining state of Tamil Nadu (TN) because of a fear that the labour force would spend more time on the streets raising flags and protesting than in the factory itself [overheard]. We all know the Coca Cola war that was going on a few years back. There are may more examples, which I do not wish to list here, that describe the sad story.

Literacy rate is one of the highest in the country but isn't that big of an asset because the young task force is not able to work in the state after he/she graduates. 20% of the educated class is unemployed (three times the national average). Most of the anger can be diverted to the politics in the state and the involvement of politics in colleges and unions at workplaces. Politics itself is a fire , forget mixing it with education and work .

And when young people try to bring a wave of change, they are opposed throughout their stint in the state and they don't have any other option but to resign to the fact that here I am trying to get some common sense but its all in vain. IPL - the big thing in India these days. A few months of sport and an income that would be enough to sustain one for years. This year, though, it has been in the news for all the wrong reasons. The first half was taken over by the staggering $$ amounts that the team owners have spent and the news that there would be two new teams starting next season - Pune and Kochi.

Kochi - the port city in Kerala and the most happening place in the state. Young crowd that grasps anything that comes in its way, reflects it back to the audience watching and gives a "foreign" look to the city. The new announcement was grabbed with both the hands by the people and the dignitaries of the state. But when it seemed like everything was going smooth, the so called chair of the IPL started throwing dirt indicating that a minister of the cabinet (M Of State for external affair) Dr. Shashi Tharoor (who is an MP from Thiruvananthapuram) was involved in wrongdoings and was involved in obtaining the bid for the winners (Rendezvous).

If there's anything we can learn from the state's history it is the fact that we shouldn't be surprised. As I mentioned before, anything and everything that has attached itself to the state has encountered a road block and the matter has always gotten worse thereafter. Here's a guy who has left a United Nations job to come and serve for his country and finds himself amidst a storm initially and now a hurricane. Should he be targeted for his novice? It looks like he underestimated the state of Kerala and what it is capable of. The name in itself is enough to malign a good deed - he should have known that.

About a month back the state government sent out a letter to the Big B of Bollywood, Amitabh Bachchan, indicating that they would like him to be the state's brand ambassador to promote tourism. BigB agreed only to be rejected a couple of weeks later. The government says it was yet to make up its mind on the matter. The fact was the BigB was promoting the same for the state of Gujarat, India, and they were questioning the fact that he's supporting the state were riots took place a few years back. I mean, come on - grow up. If you need time to think over then just say so before jumping the gun and sending out the letter and being made fun of in the public.

So, at the end of the day, even though many of its (Kerala's) social indicators are on par with the developed world and it has the highest human development index in India, it finds itself in a huge conundrum ... how to save itself. Low infant mortality, high literacy rate, highest life expectancy in the country, lowest school dropout, high gender ratio (women outnumber men), low population growth, lowest rural poverty in the country - are all statistics that look great on paper [stats courtesy BBC]. Even after achieving these positives, the state has one of the highest suicide rates, highest unemployment of the educated class, lacks industries that can make the state sustain itself and politics/unions that threat to shake the pillars and topple the building with a bandh/strike few often. Anything that touches the state or its affairs - turns into coal.

It looks to me that we are observing two extremes here. One extreme will eventually be successful. Which one? We need to wait and watch.

PS - Just my thoughts. Am sure all may not agree.

Yes, the Indian Premier League was out there auctioning cricketers (selling them ... actually) to teams named Chennai, Mumbai, Delhi, Mohali, Calcutta, Hyderabad, Jaipur etc..etc. One thing is sure - the international players would soon get to know the geography of India; whether they do end up playing well and live up to their reputation, ... err ... their "price tag", needs to be seen.

On the one hand players are getting a chance to get to know their worth in the international market, but on the other it doesn't stop one from wondering whether the $$ they are getting are justified? Is it the talent that was being auctioned at Hilton, Mumbai or was it the integrity of International cricket that was being sold.

MS Dhoni ended up earning $ 1.5 mn/yr and Andrew Symonds - $ 1.3 mn. Now come to think of the effort they have to put up - 6 weeks of 20-20 matches in a year - the price tag seems to be way too high isn't it? Of course there are contracts and bindings but who would have imagined that one day these guys would get an opportunity to break the shackles of domestic cricket, county cricket and come up this way on a new 20-20 format that was non existent a 2-3 years back.

Is this the end of Cricket as many of us are calling it ? Or is for the better? Will have to wait and watch as time progresses but one thing is sure - IPL has caught a lot of attention both domestic and international. And what on earth happened to ICL? Remember this was their idea but the BCCI owned IPL muscled them outta the race? May ICL's soul rest in peace.

It was a well earned victory and India played some solid aggressive football (its the most popular sport in the world ... americans insist on calling it "Soccer", but I know it as "Football") in the finals yesterday to shut out Syria & lift the Nehru Cup. Watching the news and reading some articles before the match, came to know that there's more to it, much more than just a 11 member Indian team going out there and playing the 90 minutes. Full credit to Bob Houghton and his team as they ended up defeating 112 ranked Syria.

Its high time we started a movement, enough cribbing about Cricket and treating the players as Gods; I hope we end up re-building our training facilities, promoting fresh talent and attracting sponsors; for money and in turn facilities are a major hurdle right now.

Hope the good work continues and that we do strike while the iron is still hot.

Quite a happening week I'd say, not only in this part of the world but the Asian subcontinent had a fair share -

The much awaited finale of 'The Sopranos' was deemed as the final whack. Though, I've heard a lot about the series, didn't quite want to watch the series. When the screen suddenly went blank towards the end, many people went insane. Started jabbing buttons on their remote control, yelling while panicking and even checking their cable connection to make sure that the screen indeed "went blank". They said -

The Hilton-going-to-jail saga came to an abrupt end and was aired by news channels throughout the evening. So much for CNN and Larry King and the Daily news channels providing news from across the country US. I think I will stop watching CNN one of these days. Larry even aired interviews and had his typical set of questions - oh well!

Conan O'Brien has a smart way of putting things and mentioned that she was dearly missing her facial cream which left her skin dry - sob sob.

Apple iPhones are finally to hit the market on the 29th. They've come up with some good promotional ads - see them here.

They've also come up with SAFARI for windows .... mmmmmmm

Also - the new leopard's out there. Trying to conquer time and space.

Sports

Fan(s) just wanted to remind him something. Now at least he has something to look out for .

And yeah he's already qualified.

Read this article in TOI and thought of sharing it out here with you guys. Though we all know the after effects, I thought let me clarify some points here. Put some details that you might not have thought about - so here goes some analysis. Impact of the big IF looming over the sub-continent.

For starters, you'd know that last week was a happening week in the cricketing world. Two teams, India and Pakistan lost their group matches making life difficult for them. On tops, PAK coach Bob Woolmer passed away the very night their team lost to Ireland. What're the impacts -

Looks like the world's gonna end if the match on Friday doesn't turn out to be a +ve one for the men in blue. Why go through all this pain? Why not win against SL and end all these "question marks". Gauging from what happened last week, it doesn't look that simple, that easy.

Was a superb week(end) as far as the sporting world's concerned. Close to 6 inches of snow Friday, saw my plans of going to watch '300' go down the drain. But thanks to F1 and thanks to Kimi Raikkonen Saturday evening I was all smiles.

One reason - India lost their WC opener against Bangladesh. It seriously cranked me up. I was following the scores on Cricinfo and saw the wickets tumble like crazy. The end result was quite evident as the men in Blue got their much needed wake up call. On the other hand Pakistan was kicked outta the WC after losing 2 matches in a row, yesterday was truly a celebration for the Irish.

Anyways I don't care much about these teams anyways (am more interested in the Fantasy League now), I'm rooting for SA or SL this time. All this seems to be a Deja Vu, I'd mentioned earlier that "I hope I don't see any surprises" ... and what a surprise it was!! Again I have to ask this - What's Sehwag doing there? Enjoying his stay??

Coming back to the F1 - finally Kimi got what he deserved. He was unstoppable right from lap 1 as he dominated the race and never looked back. I'm happy for him and happy that Ferrari would be able to retain their stature as the best team even after MS's departure. The new kid - Hamilton did a superb job as well. Let's wait and watch if Alonso would be able to retain his title this year...

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Name: Rajesh

Location: Boston, MA, United States

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