Roughly a week after the Prime Minister inaugurated the Kochi Metro and all around awesomeness, Times Now and its editor-in-chief Rahul Shivshankar seems to have some serious beef with Kerala.
On June 24, he went all out with, “How was a conversion factory allowed to thrive in a state?”
What you might notice when you click on the link is the URL:
Responding to a question about the Fire Force’s rejection and tough stand on rejecting safety permits for buildings higher than three floors, Chief Minister Oommen Chandy said that Kerala has to decide if it want to grow high like the rest of the World or down?
He added safety is paramount and there is no question about compromising on it.
Does these statements when read in entirety make sense? Is it impossible to have both safety, security and development at the same time? Is safety a luxury we have to compromise for development?
On Thursday night (12th November), the seventh edition of The Kitchen CAN event took place at 6:30 pm at the Crowne Plaza, Kochi. Aside from an interesting mix of speakers from big business and startups belonging to diverse fields, there was another twist to this event: the grand finale was the launch of the video of ‘Thanks Bhai’, a community campaign by the people of Kochi.
A large number of migrant workers (fondly-referred to as ‘bhais’) have been actively involved in the construction of the Kochi Metro. ‘Thanks Bhai’ began as a community project which aims to express the citizens’ gratitude to Kochi’s often unacknowledged ‘bhais’ for their hard work. Supported by Asten Realtors and powered by Autotree, ‘Thanks Bhai’ is a crowd-funded campaign to raise money for sweets, and to collect personalized messages of gratitude from the citizens for the workers for Diwali.
The campaign began at the Kaloor Metro yard. The event, which started at 9:30, was inaugurated by Shri. Hibi Eden, MLA. Sweets along with handwritten messages by the people to the workers were distributed. “Migrants of the city – the ‘bhais’, are among the most hardworking people, but are sadly, the least acknowledged section of Kerala’s population,” says Hibi Eden MLA. “Many of them leave their families behind and move to Kerala to work selflessly for projects like The Kochi Metro. This noble initiative which expresses gratitude to these unsung heroes is quite laudable.” The sweet distribution started from Kaloor metro yard and went to Kacheripady, M G Road, Elamkulam, Palarivattom, Muttom Depot, CUSAT, Kalamaserry and Aluva, and concluded at FACT casting yard. It covered a total of 3000 Metro workers at 16 stations.
“When we decided to begin Reelmonk.com, we always pitched it as a platform for same day release of Malayalam movies. But to our disappointment as well as for many of our users, we never managed to do that. We have hosted quite a few amazing movies like Njan Steve Lopez and Nee-na on this platform but that dream of same day release has always evaded us,” says Vivek Paul, Co-Founder and COO of ReelMonk.com
“So it is with great pride that I would like to inform you that Ottaal, the national award winning Malayalam movie directed by noted filmmaker Jayaraj will become the first movie in India to be released online through www.reelmonk.com, an independent movie platform, on the same day of its theatrical release. The movie that will hit the theatres today (Nov. 6th) will also be available on Reelmonk.com for downloads at prices starting at INR 180.”
Ottaal will become the first film in India to release online, through an independent platform, on the same day, as it’s theatrical release scheduled for today (November 6, 2015). Film producers can release and promote their movies across 2.5 million screens of Indians cross the globe through reelmonk.com
That was advocate Naveen Chomal, legal advisor of Sanatan Sanstha. Why does Times Now and Arnab Goswami invite and give people like this a podium to spread falsehood and hatred? It is very clear to anyone who watched the show that this man has no clue what ‘beef’ means.
The discussion was on “Kerala House now, your house next?” and the other panelists were:
Dr Sambit Patra, national spokesperson, BJP
Praveen P Gopinath (born on November 1st 1981) is a bestselling Indian Author. He graduated in History from Annamalai University and is an astrologer of repute.
His debut book Being Moon on 31st Crossroad, his autobiography which are inspiring and touching little anecdotes that takes the reader through the journey of his life, is one of the most sold books in India in 2014. His first fiction ‘In Our next life, at the Salsa Class’ was critically acclaimed for his poetic writing and justification of extra-marital affairs. One of his stories was published by Penguin Book’s anthology titled, ‘Something Happened on the way to Heaven’ edited by eminent author Sudha Murthy.
His first Malayalam book Thanthonniyude Maryathakal, accounts of a live-in relationship with a girl called Mantra, is an instant hit and is being made into a movie. Praveen’s 4th English book, ‘People I See- 43 inspiring real life stories’ is considered India’s answer to ‘Chicken Soup for the Soul’ series. His verified Facebook page Praveen P Gopinath (Mr. Mallu) where he writes excerpts from his life, has over fifty thousand fans.
On 8th October, Uber made an appeal on their blog, “KOCHI, THE CHOICE IS YOURS” stating that several of their partners (drivers) are considering staying of roads due to threats and violence from certain unions.
Over the past few weeks, certain unions have begun a campaign of intimidation and violence against Uber in Kochi. Several of our driver partners have been threatened and subjected to physical assaults, apart from damage to their own vehicle and company owned property. Out of fear, a majority of our driver partners are contemplating staying off roads, which is depriving them of their rightful earnings. The group’s campaign is aimed at forcibly ceasing our service, causing the loss of thousands of jobs and earnings for drivers and reliable, safe and affordable transportation choices for the city. RESTRICTING FREEDOM OF CONSUMER CHOICE A proposed restriction on fares is being contemplated which could effectively have a high price floor intended to protect the taxis and autos from competition and a price ceiling that will deprive the city of reliable transportation when most needed. This will result in:
![By Stephan Gillmeier [Public domain], via Wikimedia Commons](https://secureservercdn.net/160.153.137.210/a72.a6c.myftpupload.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/10/Wilde_huendin_am_stillen-600x400.jpg)
Photograph by Stephan Gillmeier [Public domain], via Wikimedia Commons
Ranjini Haridas has posted on face the apology letter by Jose Maveli address to YAthish Chandra GH IPS, District Police Chief, Aluva, Ernakulam Rural.
The Hindu had reported on September 29 about the arrest of three individuals:
Rahul Easwar (Wikipedia, Twitter, Facebook) has always been a mystery to me. I have never met him but I do see him on TV often, he seems to be the go to guy for anything to do with Hindu society. Often defending, in my opinion, the indefensible. He is young and articulate in both Malayalam and English, perhaps there are only few like him on his side of the spectrum. He is popularly referred to as activist but he prefers the label, “Reasonable, Responsible Right of Centre Position in Political Spectrum”.
I decided to ask him on Facebook if he would answers some questions for us. This interview was conducted over email. If you have followup questions, please feel free to ask in the comments.
Photograph by Dforest (Own work) [GFDL or CC BY-SA 4.0-3.0-2.5-2.0-1.0], via Wikimedia Commons
The company has not released a list of stations, only a map. It looks like Kerala will have three to five stations in the first 100 based on the map.
[Photograph of Athirapally Waterfalls By rusticus80 (Flickr: Athirapally waterfalls) [CC BY-SA 2.0], via Wikimedia Commons]
Compared to previous years, Kerala did not win the top prices at the national tourism awards 2013-14 by the Ministry of Tourism.
Photograph of Pratap Pothen from Facebook by Hasif Hakeem
If you are a Malayalee, you know Pratap Pothen. I am not going to bore you with a lame introduction. He has a detailed Wikipedia page and an active Facebook page if you want to refresh your memory.
A few weeks ago he was kind enough to spare some time for The Kochi Post and answered some of our questions over the phone.
