Saturday Digest

Saturdays are for fun!

2008-05-25T08:31:00.000-07:00

It took some time for me to figure out where does Saturday Digest go at this pace. It has been a void out there in the communication scape where more genuine satires were needed, especially in our language, Malayalam. The reason: the mindset of an average reader is influenced by some run-of-the-mill media in conventional languages. Saturday Digest indeed is trying to fill up the niche evolved in media communication.

That is how it is working now. Saturday Digest is changing, or rather undergoing a metamorphosis. Please check it out.

Sometimes you may turn wrong!

2008-04-06T19:20:00.001-07:00

Yes. Life around us is not what we believe or think. You occasionally come across weird things or happenings or events you thought hitherto impossible!

Here's what I thought of a mosquito: a mosquito drinks blood. But I took this photograph of a mosquito sitting on a flower in my garden early morning the other day. At the first glance you think it is drinking honey from the flower. Even the photograph tells you so. It is the visual evidence for it. If anyone see this picture they are forced to believe that mosquitoes do drink honey too!

Being armed with a Canon Power Shot digital camera I am learning to explore the world around me. And a shot like this proved I am heading the right direction. I am happy. I am happy with the mosquito. I am happy with Kochi City, where I live, that breeds mosquitoes "freely".

Come to Kochi where mosquitoes are! You need not go to the deep rain forests of Amazon in South America to get a feel of a mosquito bite, unless you are on a scientific expedition. Just pull your chair outside the sit out and sit in waiting for a mosquito to come and "kiss" you 'howdy'.

They say mosquito breeds out of dirty water. In Kochi where is dirty water? All the dirty water available in open ponds, and wells in Kochi is being transported in containers for drinking purposes and sold to flats. So mosquitoes are deprived of their breeding grounds.

But where do they breed now? In the sewages and drainages of Kochi.

Mosquitoes were aplenty in Alleppey district years back when "elephantiasis" was rampant in that district. Somehow the district administration and the then government came to know how to control the disease that spread through mosquito-bites. Today, 'elephantiasis' is history there. And the mosquitoes that spread that disease are an extinct species.

Kochi is very shy and reluctant to copy what other district administrations do to survive. Kochi could never learn from the lessons of Alleppey in eradicating mosquitoes at any cost. I wish Kochi also did what Alleppey did in getting rid of mosquitoes for ever.

But wait. I would love to have them around here occasionally keeping you alert and engaged with their presence and bites. I would love to photograph them again and again and enter into the world of Guinness Book of Records for photographing mosquitoes.

I love dogs, what about you?

2008-04-03T20:01:00.000-07:00

I love dogs. What about you? We men love dogs. Man has been domesticating wild dogs since 15000 years back!
Wow. That shows how closely dog is connected with human history. I wonder now what our ancestors did call those dogs then. They might not have called their pet dogs 'Caesar', Hitler', 'Tomy' or 'Rex'. I'm sure. Even today man seldom call his pet dog 'Alexander the Great', 'Aristotle', 'Lenin' or 'Budha' or 'Krishna' or 'Ghengish Khan'.

I am sure men do not call their pet dogs with a name having any connotations that leads to a religion, cast or creed. Men love to call them with a name as fanciful and as smooth on their tongues as possible. They are very particular that the name of a dog should not hurt anyone, leave alone the dog itself. Such is the care they give to their pet dogs. But men seldom give any care to other men, whom they hate, when they call a man a 'dog'. I often wondered why men cultivated this 'contradicting' attitude with respect to the very term 'dog' and about the very 'animal'.

I nearly spent a day thinking about dogs and their influence on men. Dogs have conquered men unlike any military dictator did in human history, with love, loyalty and faithfulness. Yes. Dogs do teach men these are the virtues you dont learn from any printed book. But men do think that "no old dogs could be taught a new trick." How funny we men are!

How many of us have at least read a classic novel about a dog? How many of us have seen the movies like "The Incredible Journey" or "101 Dalmatians"? How many of us have heard of 'Argos', the faithful dog of Odysseus in Homers' Odyssey? How many of you could recall the name of Hagrid's dog in Harry Potter novels? Literature is full of enduring feats of dogs. Some excelled better than the heroes of the novels. There are films and TV shows centered around dogs. Still why we men hate another man and compare him with a dog?

A dog is man's best friend. I would say his best 'mentor'. But men are lazy and to a greater extend jealous to learn what they have to teach us from their life. That is why man blames a dog saying that 'Old dogs cannot be taught new tricks.' That's how man survives! Finding fault with others, be it a human being or animal or even an inanimate object.

Tail Piece

Quite recently I read in the newspapers about a stray 'bitch' feeding a human baby with her milk somewhere in Bangalore. Unfortunately I could not find any media clippings to display here. I wish I could meet that 'bitch' and offer my profound thanks for showing "humane" kindness to a little orphan girl!

If any of you, dear readers, have the news clippings, I would appreciate a copy of the same in my email, along with your picture, name and location. I want to thank you too for helping me.