My Domain

Fashion is a popular style or practice, especially in clothing. For many people fashion is of higher priority while for others keeping up with trend isn't much important. The one thing that stays the same with fashion is that, it always change . Now with giant chain stores like Fabindia and the dawn of fashionistas like Pallavi namdev and Donna Karan, fashion trends change faster and more global than ever. Let's have a glimpse on the trends in clothing among teenage girls which pave the way for the growth of boutiques.  The full skirt with long blouse, was once the traditional dress for teenage girls. But it's now disappearing from the fashion screen of Kerala. On ceremonial occasions and festival days, girls used to worn Pattu paavada. This is simply stitched from the nearby tailoring shops. But now such a scene has vanished.  The half saree facilitates the transition from pattu paavada to saree, something a bit more complicated garb. But the changi...

Behind the veil there is an attractive young lady with shining mousy hair, twinkling eyes, roly-poly face, beaky nose, tiny ears with hanging ear rings, spunky lips and swan-like neck. This is an average Indian concept about a bride. Huh...Marriage... Indian society is more concerned with "marriage". The moment a baby girl is born, her parents and the entire society they are belonging to will start thinking about her marriage. Once she completed her basic studies, she will be pushed into a "pressure cooker" of deliberately misconstrued social values and rules. The whole world seems to be forcing her deeply to get tied up with a guy. Years back women were just a standing statue behind the door. The society prevented women from making their own living and there was an ineludible dependence on men's income. But now the situation has changed a lot. Women are actively participating in every field such as social work, science and technology etc. The august ...

"Hey...I'll whatsapp you..." This dialog is quite familiar now a days not only among youth but also among children and even senior citizens. The youth rushing into their rooms or making a hurry to open their smart phones and change their profile pic in facebook are disappearing with the majestic entry of whatsapp. Whatsapp together with the smart phones are becoming a dominant culture in Kerala. You all may have heard the news that the Kerala Police has introduced a whatsapp helpline for the public. On seeing such a news I was surprised on the way by which the whatsapp have widened its influence. Utilizing the ubiquitous social media, the police dept in many Indian states is supporting the use of whatsapp to mobilize surveillance. In Kerala, the system was first introduced in Trivandrum and Kochi. I am glad to see that its ambit has now been expanded to Thrissur also.  The system is in such a way that the information will be conveyed straight to the police control roo...

Many days ago I read in the newspaper that a cartoonist of NYT apologized for the unfair portrayal of India's mars mission. In that cartoon it is shown that a farmer carrying a cow is knocking at the door of the Elite space club. This representation made the Indians very much outraged.                                Why should we be so irked on seeing such brainless creations? I am also an Indian. What I saw in this cartoon is the jealousy of US over India. India had launched the Mars mission on spending only $74 billion which is quite unexpected by the huge western countries like US, Russia & Europe. Launching such a substantial mission at a cheap rate is a back-breaking work. India, with the label "developing country", had achieved this very cleverly. This quick-witted activities had thus revealed others that we, Indians are perspicacious. Thus we should feel proud of ourselves. Also we ...

I know I had written an article showing the misrepresentation of women in ads. But by seeing again such intolerable ads, I cant stop myself from writing on it. Two days ago, I saw an ad of the hair removal cream, Veet by accidentally entering into a site (flol.com) while surfing the web.(The ad is no longer available in any other site due to public protest.)                                   In this ad, a woman who hasn't shaved for just a single day is transformed into a bewhiskered man. The ad concludes by saying "don't risk dudeness". Is the body hair something that only men have? Will the women become manly if she didn't use a hair removal cream even for several hours?    What irritated me the most is the dudeness shown in the ad. The ad is compelling women to keep the legs and underarms hairless for the approval of the society. The ad also brings an idea that body ha...

We are all fond of songs. We have an intense thirst in listening and enjoying songs. Some people may be listening to the lyrics while some others may be interested in the music by which the song is composed of. Some songs may be heart-touching and will bring our mind to a relaxed state. But some may lead us to the past bright or dark memories. Thus music can make inevitable psychological effects in human beings. But, are the Malayalam songs today so memorable as the ones in 1980s and 90s ? I just want to let you all know the evolution of Malayalam film songs from 50s onwards making a shift from the phenomenal lyrical value to the nonsensical lyrical value. Omanathingal Kidavo (1950s) "Omanathingal kidavo.." strikes a benevolent chord in ever Malayalee. This song is actually the poem written by Irayimman Thampi. This song lists a lot of mesmerizing things in the world. The song invokes an intense nostalgia for a bygone juncture of our life filled with tender moth...

V DAKSHINAMOORTHY M. S SUBBULAKSHMI                  CHEMBAI VAIDYANATHA BHAGAVATHAR                       G. N BALASUBRAMANIAM   SEMMANGUDI SRINIVASA IYER  Dr. M BALAMURALIKRISHNA BOMBAY JAYASHRI   ANURADHA SRIRAM   SHANKAR MAHADEVAN                         K. S CHITHRA   

The declaration by our honorable PM Narendra Modi from the religious capital of India, Varanasi about 2 months ago put a spark in my mind to write this article. Modi, along the Ganges declare "Mother Ganga needs someone to take her out of the dirt and she's chosen me to do the work." These words stricked me a lot and motivated me to write this.                                  The name Varanasi derives from the names of two rivers, the 'Varuna' and the 'Asi'. The essence of the holy city is it's relationship with mother Ganga. The role of the city in Hindu mythology is quite outstanding. The life and activities in city is mainly depended on the holy river. The spiritual identity of Varanasi is due to the major shrine, the Vishwanatha temple. The city is thus called 'Kashi'. From my friend who had lived in Varanasi about 5 years ago, I came to know a typical day in the city. As the morning ra...

I am not fond of  TV serials and I always refused to see those teledramas. Unfortunately, one day while I was tuning the channels the TV remote suddenly got stuck for about 10 minutes. That 10 minutes...I was forced to see a serial.  Then the next day I watched the same serial to get a picture of what they are tracking. After watching that I feel pity on the way by which those serial makers are representing the relation between a typical Indian mother-in-law and daughter-in-law.      The common plot of most of the serials is the quarrel between mother-in-law and daughter-in-law. There will be a ferocious mother-in-law with heavy make-up, lots of jewelries and jazzy sarees. She is portrayed as the one who is always blaming her daughter-in-law, making her work the whole time and may even try to stop her son having sex with his wife. At the same time, the daughter-in-law is a namby-pamby character who always shed tears. Sons in serials are totally hushed a...

Our traditional culture taught us about two genders-male and female. We all are bothered about these two genders. Then what about the "trans"genders? When I was in Mumbai, there were a lots of transgendered people. I was very much afraid of them. I was totally insensitive to their state of mind and was not bothered about their emotions and feelings. I didn't tried to know why they are so and what made them rejected by the society. I even laughed at them with a strong abhoressenced mind. Then I saw many news regarding the rights of transgenders and I read all those without a genuine mind. But the news on 13th April 2014 stricked me a lot. In that news, the writer had given a clear picture of the sufferings made by transgenders and what they actually seek for. Then only I realized that they also have feelings as we all have. From that day onwards I began to read all news regarding them and I tried to know atleast the major obstacles they are facing.   ...

The idea of writing this article came to my mind when I saw an advertisement of a "cat food". About a month ago, I entered youtube site to download a song. I always used to skip the ad portion shown before the song. But, on that day I accidently saw the ad of cat food. After watching it I was really shocked why the ads include the female sexism for a total unsexual product. On thinking over it again and again I understand that women are made as cheap marketable objects to sell the products.      Women play a major role in almost all ads. Instead of highlighting the qualities of products to be sold, they use women a means to sell their products. Women's portrayal in today's ads is not on the right track. A major deception ads does to women is their hyper-sexualism. Instead of showing woman as a whole, each body part is separately shown and focused with sexual connotations which I think is a cunning marketing trick used by advertisers.     As ...

"Behind every successful man there is a woman". We all have heard about this quote. But, due to the attitude towards women by the current society, a question arises that whether being woman is a boon or bane. Eventhough woman is being active in all fields of work, the society is male dominant. The most blessing that the God has made to a woman is that, only a woman can give birth to a new one. Famous persons like Mahatma Gandhi and Nelson Mandela were all born only because of a woman. It is she who give birth to a child, take care of it and make him/her tomorrow's treasure. It is she who understand her partner, sacrifices for him and always be with him in his happiness, sorrow and whatever it is. Being an individual person, it is she who makes different roles at a time as daughter, mother, wife, sister so and so. Still why the society is showing injustice to the woman ?           In India, many organisations had launched for the empowerment of women. Al...

Behind every darkness, there is a light. But most people in our society  don't  want to bring that light to ignore the darkness. Almost 95% of the people are narrow minded. They are not even making an attempt to see what the darkness is and what the root cause of that is. Many people say that “if there is light, then there is darkness. Its fate…”.  But I believe that this is an utter nonsense. All human beings have the ability to lighten up this world. If each and every one of tries to understand this, then the darkness can be ameliorated. All human beings are responsible for the darkness. Don't you ever think about those who are living in the darkness and whose dreams have fed up in that deep hollow? All of us have to think about this. Otherwise we will be the losers in the life from the perspective of the society, from the perspective of the world and even from the perspective of this sacred nature. Those people in such a dark world will be mentally weakened. So,...