My idol..My dream fulfilled 

GR8EST DAY OF MY LIFE

Today....oh.....what should i writee...no words are enough to describe this day...a dream of 14 years fulfilled...Never thought it would be fulfilled this soon...When I was in 2nd standard, Roja released..That was the first cassette i brought..then i dreamed of meeting this man..and i've lived with this dream for 14 years with his music providing me solace every moment....and without any warning the D Day arrived today...10th June 2006....a day to remember forever in my life...the day i met my biggest idol...the day i met the man whose music, i've grown up with...the day i met the musical genius A.R.RAHMAN.

Before going into the details let me thank the wonderful person who made this possible...and that is my dear sister Swapna...She was the one who called me at the time when ARR was here. She said ''boy, run run''.and i did just that.The moment i got the call, i rushed outside to my bike...before kickstarting, I called up some of my friends and told this great news and as it turned out, most of my friends didn't believe me and sat at home. They thought ..''ha, this guy is being fooled by some prankster. Let him go out there and be a fool''. But i was sure that my sister won't play that kind of prank with me. Stil I had my own doubts. So with my mind clouded with doubts, I kicked on the bike and started my journey. Sometimes heart rulz over the head..this was one of those moments as i sped through the heavy city traffic at 105 kmph. Atlast i reached the ultimate destination..Kanakakkunu Palace. There was a big flex board in front with pic of ARR and singer Srinivas announcing the launch of a music album. Now i was confident that ARR was inside, still i doubted whether he had left already.

When I reached infront of the palace, I saw a mercedes...sure...he's inside...So I got in...Lots of ppl were standing there. The function was almost over by then. Still I pushed through them and ......ohhh godddd.....my gooodness....there he's....i closed my eyes and opened again,just to make sure that i wasn't dreaming. Yes, it was him with that inimitable smile. I couldn't see anything else between him and me..Mind u, there were some very big singers and film stars sitting there. I would surely have given a second look to them on any other day. Maybe i would have pesteres them for autographs..But, not this day...When my idol is there in front of me....I thought of ways to get close to him...i went near the backstage waiting for the function to get over. I got a pen from a press photographer and stood there. The main function got over and next was the screening of the video and the guests were preparing to get down from the dias to the front row...This was my chance..I ran into the stage and pushed aside the man standing close to ARR[i later realised that it was the popular malayalam actor Jayaram] and got closeee to my idol. First thing I did was to touch him, just to check if this was a real man. Then I shook his hand. He still had that pleasant smile.Lots of people got there by then.The policemen swung into action and drew everyone away and made way for ARR to sit on the front row. Thank god...they din't see me standing there beside the big speaker set. I walked to his seat and gave pen and a piece of paper, which my little cousin had torn from his copy book and had given me as i left home. ARR scribbled ''luv ARR'' on it, but it was hard to make out. By then the policeman had grabbed my shirt and pulled me out. Still, I was happy. I got the autograph...

Then, the function got over. A.R.R was escorted to the outside of the palace and the fans and the police were running after him. Soon he was surrounded by an army of pressmen and policemen, outside the palace. There was no way I could've got near him now. Hmm...now lemme try a trick. I took out my mobile phone from my pocket and held it up and began shouting ''press..press'' at the policemen. This gave them the impression that am a press reporter[he hee...meee] wanting to record an interview with ARR. They gave me way and there I was now again standing close to ARR, the 3rd time this day. Oh...am i dreamingggggggg. Now it was time for the pressman Praveen to ask questions. The guys there were asking some question in Hindi like ''agla project kya hai''. Now I shooted my question, ''Sir, When r u gonna do a concert in Kerala?''..He smiled and said..''I Don't Know''...Then I said..''Sir, there are many die hard fans out here ,as u can see, who would love to see you livee....sir, pls do it for us''....he again smiled and said...''I'll try''. Now he was walking to his car...there were autograph hunters running behind him. Me too ran close behind him. As he reached his car and opened the door, someone called out ''Bolo A.R.Rahman Ki Jai''..We tooo joined him ..''Bolo A.R.Rahman Ki Jai''....He smiled and got in....The door closed. Lotz of guys were trying to catch a glimpse through the closed windows. Some guys clicked pictures of him. The sad thing for me was that I din't have a camera with me then. Still, I was happy for having met him....Now his car sarted to roll...and we all waved him goodbye..He too waved back....Then the Benz disappeared out of sight. I stood there for a few seconds looking at the road through which the car just went. And I could sense drops of tear in both my eyes. The first time in my life, I cried out of happiness...the happiness of having fulfilled a dream that i've been nursing from the day I heard Roja...the day I, for the 1st time truly loved a song....the day from which my life with A.R.Rahman's soul stirring started.....again i scribble the date heree......10/06/06......and in my heart.....No day can be better than this.......am still shaking my head wondering if all of this was a great dream.....

thanking my chechi again.....

i dedicate this post to the millions of A.R.Rahman fans who dream about meeting him someday...Hope all their wishes come true...
with tons of happiness and disbelief, your crusader Praveen

Arjun Singh and OBCingh
Yes, its now official. The central govt. has decided to implement the quotas in July 2007. And, for the 1st time all those dumb ass politicians had a single opinion on an issue. Even those who, at the back of their mind, may have wished to support the anti-reservationists didn't do so fearing a backlash in the elections. How I wished the politicians had shown the same unity in some developmental issue. This rarely seen unity points to another truly sad fact. There is not even a single politician in India who would stand by his ideologies and principles and who is brave enough to speak out what he thinks is right. They always see any issue with an eye on elections and votes.

This power hungry politics is clearly visible in men like Arjun Singh. When I saw his interview on CNN IBN last week, I felt like going out there and shoot him to hell. He was not answer convincingly the scorching queries Karan Thapar put forward. Whenever he was strangled with difficult questions, he kept on repeating, ‘‘its for the parliament to decide’’. It was as if he wanted to wash his hands clean after creating all these problems. And he came across as a person who doesn’t have much knowledge of what actually is happening with the present quota system. Whichever arguments or reports were against him were dismissed as hyped or cooked up stories aimed at tarnishing his image. He simply refused to see the other side of reservations, the ugly side which speaks of shattered dreams of meritorious students. His stand cannot be termed as adamant, as this word has a positive sense sometimes. His is the shameless opinion of a wronged politician who always wants to hang on to power at any cost and by any dirty means. He always wants the spotlight to be turned on him.

Now, coming to Nehru’s comments on reservation. In a letter dated 27th June 1961, addressed to the CMs of the states, Nehru says, ‘‘I dislike any kind of reservation. If we go in for any kind of reservations of communal and caste basis, we will swamp the bright and able people and remain second rate or third rate. The moment we encourage the second rate, we are lost. This way lies not only folly, but also disaster.’’ Though am not a big fan of Nehru’s brand of politics, I agree wholeheartedly to this comment. The Modern day[No No, India is still not a modern society according to Mr. Arjun OBCing] politicians should take a leaf out of Nehru’s book and come out strongly against this injustice. More than half the seats reserved to SC/STs in Delhi University and IITs are still vacant. And Arjun bhai doesn’t even know the percentage of OBCs in India. All he knows is that he will give them 27 percent reservation, even if there are not enough OBCs in India to make up that number. Also there were reports on how for a few 100 rupees, a forward caste person could become an OBC in a day. All this shows that quotas are a futile exercise being thrust upon us under the veil of words such as ‘Social justice’ and ‘oppression of a 100years’. This will only hurl India to underdevelopment and inefficiency.

THE KERALA SCENE
Now coming to Kerala, my own beloved native state, the God’s own country. The so-called highly educated and enlightened people of Kerala were conspicuous by their silence. The Junior doctor’s association of Kerala refused to support the anti-reservationists. The students organisations, supposed to be champions of student’s cause, were also silent. These are the same guys who will hit the streets and destroy public property at the slightest provocation. The same guys who resorted to widespread protests against a minister(its another matter that the minister is kerala’s biggest sucker), after hearing the words of a lady(or is she a pro), who changes here opinions everyday along with her innerwear(Now don’t tell me she doesn’t change that). After all, what does a sex scandal got to do with a student organisation. Neither was the lady a student nor the culprit an education minister. The student organisations should raise their voice for issues that concern the students. If not, what is the meaning of campus politics. Maybe that’s why am still a neutral guy, not owing allegiance to any party, after 3 years in college.

The need of the hour in Kerala is an organisation on the lines of youth for equality. A Kerala chapter of the organisation would be a good idea. OK, the 1st member is here.....lets do it.....plz think abt it and tell your friends about it....such a highly educated society like ours should n’t keep quiet on this....SPREAD THIS MESSAGE.....
Also, could somebody tell me where are the livestrong arm bands manufactured. An anti reservation band or youth for equality band would be a good idea. They could make money and we could spread the message....readers plz respond and spread this message...LETS FIGHTTTT

with love, your crusader Praveen

Quotas...youth...awakening

Some days back, one of my friends was asking, ''hey crusader, u still haven't commented about the quota issue thats raging on in the country''. Now am not gonna postpone it. Because, this is a time when the protests for and against reservation has reached its peak.

We've been having quotas since the time we got independence. And what was said then was that this system would be continued until the day when the backward classes are able to stand on par with the forward class. But even after 58 odd years, the condition have not changed much, although the percentage of quota has since gone up. Also, the backward class has since then expanded to include some more exotic classes. It is in this scenario that Arjun Singh decided to include OBCs too under reservation and deprive the forward class of the already decreasing number of seats. And what was in his mind was clear. This is a nice way to show his power in the UPA. Because, none of the other ministers or MPs would dare to make a public statement against reservation. They could do so only at their own peril. He's just following the footsteps of another Singh, V.P.Singh of 'Mandal' fame, in playing this petty vote bank politics. Arjun Singh wanted to divide India's youth based on caste. But barring a few who support these quotas, a large number of the OBCs themselves are against this.

Arjun Singh was happy that his calculations were going right, as none of the ministers protested against the quota proposal.But the youth of India were not to be kept quiet. Initially, the doctors and medical students from AIIMS started the protests. An organisation called 'Youth for Equality' led the protests. Most of them were peaceful. But the police resorted to violent means and beat them up. Thats what sparked widepread agitations against reservation. Students cutting across professions has joined this fight against injustice. There were many candle lit protests and India Gate marches. These kind of novel protests were seen first after the verdict in the Jessica Lal case. That was the time when a movie called 'Rang De Basanti' released and inspired a whole nation of cine-goers, especially the GenX. The catchphrase 'a generation awakens' has now really come true. This is the 1st time that such a large scale get together of youth have become a reality. Watching the images of this protests on TV, you can see close parallels with the movie. Movies inspiring changes in society is not a new thing. When Swades released, it did give rise to some sort of reverse brain drain on a small scale. I've read some mails in certain forums of Indians working abroad, expressing their wish to work for India. And some of them did return back to the motherland. This change in attitude is also seen in the IIM recruitments. There were so many fresh graduates who refused job offers from foreign companies instead prefering to work here. Some of them expressed their desire to join the IAS and there are many others working in the rural villages striving hard for the upliftment of the downtrodden.

Coming back to the subject, if this reservation policy is implemented, the total reservation will go upto 49.5 percent. And mind you this is going to be done in IITs and IIMs, which is meant to polish out India's best brains. These are the ones who are to contribute in taking the nation forward to the big league. If the reservation is going to be implemented, so many undeserving candidates would get into these premier institutions. Its for sure that they would struggle in this highly competitive environment. They would even find it hard to passout of the institution. The need of the hour is revamping the primary education system with prominence given to the backward classes. We should equip them to reach their dreams rather than put them into more hardships in the name of fulfilling their dream. If they are given special training from the lowest level, they will surely be able to compete with others. The new proposal by the government is to increase the number of seats in the institutions in proportion to the increase in quotas, so the forward classes are not affected. But, still the 49.5 percent is to be taken from this number, which is unfair. And, where is the infrastructure to support such an increase in number?What the Government should do is to scrap the whole reservation thing, which has not taken India anywhere and which surely will not, in the future.This is impractical, u may all argue. But any Government which has the courage to take such a decision would be guaranteed of getting all my votes until death. Its another matter that after taking such a decision, the next election would see the party being wiped out from the face of Indian politics.

Now, Rang De Basanti has inspired all these protests. Some students at Allahabad even performed last rites on Arjun Singh's effigy. The protestors being beaten up reminds me of the 'Khoon Chala' song. All this has happened. Now am waiting for one last thing from the movie to happen. I wonder what the consequences of the next few words would be. Hopefully , not something like what happened to Rockus. Beacuse what I want to see is the killing of the minister by the youngsters, happening in real life. After all this deal of being awakened by the movie, this is one thing that is remaining to happen. Not one, but all those suckers who betrayed the country and the countrymen should be given this ultimate punishment .....HAIL RDB.....DOWN WITH THE QUOTAS......LET ALL INDIANS JOIN TOGETHER IN THIS FIGHT

NB- Some of my comments on this post may appear irrational to the readers. Yes, u r right. This post was written at a time when emotions were ruling over rationality inside me. So, reader discretion is requested. But, I won't find fault with any reader, who in a small period of indiscretion decides to carryout one of the wishes i expressed in this post.....

post your valuable comments

join the struggle against this injustice at http://groups.yahoo.com/group/Youth-Forum-For-Justice/

http://yfemumbai.blogspot.com/

with love, your crusader Praveen

THE RED DEVILS and THE SUN

The election results are out. Most of the results were on expected lines. And yes, my 1st vote has gone waste. Well, am not worried a bit. So lets look at what's special about the results this time around.

Kerala...The media is going gaga over the change that is sweeping all over the state. They are celebrating the change of guard in the state. But, actually i couldn't see any change. Its the same story repeating itself every 10 years. Beacuse, any wayside prophet worth his salt would know that, if it is LDF this time around, then it would be UDF next time. The most heartening news for me was the complete failure of DICK[yes..i prefer not to use tht bracket for K]. Muraleedharan's statement before the election that dick would decide the future of Kerala politics was given apt reply by the people of kerala. yes, DICK and Mr.K sucked big time. Then, another of the men i hated lost-Mr. Kunjalikutty...the man who's followers wrecked havoc at the karipur airport and replaced the national flag of our country with their stupid party flag. Now, its Achudanandhan all the way...the perennial fighter...the betrayed leader...the octagenarian loved by even small kids[the amazing sales of kids t shirts bearing his picture serves testimony to that]. Now, what remains to be seen is whether the red brigade lives upto the expectation of the people...yes, the same false hope we repeat every 5 years.

Tamilnadu...the land where one bag of rice or a punch dialogue from a superstar may win you an election. Sorry, this time around Television was the big winner. And the sun shone really bright over DMK and its allies. Jayalalithaa and her legion of sycophants are still puzzled that their rice program hasn't worked. Maybe, the voters thought that they could sell the TV and buy a tonne of rice if ever the need arises. For, the time being lets have some enteratinment. And it was fun watching JAYA TV today. After it became almost clear that, they were gonna lose, there came a shower of ads. Then there was news. Headlines were like...'Jaya wins by a whopping margin of 25000'....'Karunanidhi won only by a margin of 8000'....'AIDMK wins 8 seats in Chennai'...all this when the main news was DMK's amazing victory. Wonder what all they would show in the coming days. Then, Actor Napolean tasted defeat. I was surprised that an actor could lose an election in TN. oh, then I got the reason. He has done so many villain roles. And the people taught him a lesson for his villainy. Napolean sir, be careful next time u choose your roles.

Westbengal....as expected red army swept WB. Budhadheb Bhattacharya, the man who is changing the face of Bengal was the main factor. This is the Left front's seventh straight term at office. The previous victories, at the time of Jyoti basu, were marred with accusations of poll rigging and booth capture. But this time there are no such problems. Budhadeb's development oriented politics went well with the public. At the same time, he didn't forget about the agriculture sector. Thats the secret of his victory. Then there are 2 more ....Assam and Pondicherry. I don't have much knowledge of the politics there. So, am not goin into that.

Before I stop, lets go to Raibareilly. Sonia Gandhi won there by a record margin. What more can I say other than raising my middle finger at the lakhs of sycophants who voted for this bloody foreigner. 25 years down the line, u'll see Rahul Gandhi's son winning the election by a huge margin. The Indian voter's obsession with the members of the Nehru family will continue......who knows, the next winner from raebareilly could be sonia's dog.

with love, Your crusader Praveen

pic courtesy-CNN IBN

Plagiarism rules the roost

This has been a season in which plagiarism and controversies related to it have hodged the limelight. First came the case against celebrated author Dan Brown, alleged of copying parts of ''Da Vinci code'' from ''The Holy blood and the holy grail'', written by two unknown guys. This case can be seen as no more than a publicity stunt by these 2 authors. And it has to be said that they somewhat succeeded in that since their book sold a large number of copies after this. But, ultimately, and rightly so, Dan Brown won the case.

Last week, a young Indian writer, Kaavya Viswanathan, was caught in the eye of a storm in USA. Her national bestseller ''How Opal Mehta got kissed, got wild and got a life'' was found to have striking similarities with teen fiction writer Megan McCafferty's books '' sloppy firsts'' and ''second helpings''. Kavya, reacting to this allegations, said that the similarities were 'unintentional and unconscious'. According to her, she had grown up on these books and they had influenced her so much that the language and situations accidently came to her pen. But the publishers of McCafferty's books have refused to buy this explanation.They said that there are more than 40 passages in kavya's book, which use similar language or situations. Infact the stories are almost similar. According to latest reports, the publisher's have withdrawn her book from the stores. The literary world is waiting with bated breath to know what happens in this case.

And now comes plagiarism of a different kind. The affected party this time is none other than the crusader, the author of this blog. Two days back, my good friend Akhil send me a blog link and told me, ''Hey buddy, Checkout this link''. The blog name was mexxian. I started reading and found out that the topic was similar to my last post in this blog, the one about my 1st vote. As I read on, to my astonishment, I realised that these were the same things that I wrote in my blog. Yes, the post was completely copied. I can't explain the kind of feelings that came to my mind. I was hurt deeply because this was a post which I valued most because it dealt with one of the most important moments in my life. And this guy unashamedly copied this and made it his own. The most astonishing thing is that he posted this in his blog, barely 4 hours after I published this.

Then I wrote a pretty long comment in his blog explaining how this whole thing is against the spirit of blogging and how it hurt me deeply. My friends Swapna, Meenu and Akhil gave me a lot of support during that time. The next day he removed his post and send me a message in orkut - ''I wrote only what I felt. Hope u got my mail''. But until this moment, I haven't got any mails. Also what puzzles me is that he could still say that he wrote what he felt, when all he did was to blatantly a post from my blog and add 2 sentences of his own. I hope he clears the doubt soon. If u watch closely, u could see some paralells between the reaction of kavya and this guy. And this made me think about a theory that ''when caught, all copycats act alike.i.e. Copycats copy other copycats.''

Last but not the least, a special thanks to Akhil for bringing this to my notice. Otherwise, atleast somebody would have thought that am a copycat[which according to me isone of the worst possible ways to describe an individual]. Be original...That is the mantraa...Lets all fight plagiarism together......well, this is only a tip of the iceberg that is plagiarism. If we move on to films and music, I would get topics to write on forever. So am stopping here....waiting for ur valuable comments

with love, your crusader Praveen

Crusader Casts Vote

Today is one of the most important days in the life of the crusader. Today, I cast my 1st vote and now am proud to say that am a part of the democratic setup of this country. All these days i been a passive spectator to the whole election process. But today I got the chance to excercise my franchise. And lemme tell u one thing, it was really a one of a kind feeling when i pressed that button.

But, the problem was that making a choice on whom to vote was really tough. And standing outside the booth in the queue, I started reading the list of the candidates from a board kept outside. The big round belly of a policeman standing there was blocking my view and i had to strain my neck to get a view of that board. There were total 8 candidates. The usual suspects representing the 3 big parties in Kerala and rest independents. And the choice of symbols of these independents really made me laugh. Some of them are Banana, bucket, torch. Even a person wanting to cast vote for them would turn back when he sees those absurd choices.

oh, now its my turn to vote. The agent sitting there with the list took my id card and started searching the list. He had some problem with his eyes, the man sitting near him signalled to me. O my god, the photo in that identity card is such that even a person with perfect sight would find it difficult to identify me. Yes, my fears were coming true. The man adjusted his specs and started this excercise of staring at me and the card alternately. And he couldn't find my name and picture in the list. Atlast i had to point out it myself. So that part is over.

Now the next part. Putting the ink on my hand. This was really funny. I held out my right hand, as my left hand was full with my stylish sun glasses, bike key and the id card. He pulled at my left hand and I was puzzled. Then i understood[4 ur info, am a tubelight]. I put all the things in my hand on the table and held out my middle finger. Oh no, wrong again, its the index finger. I had heard that they would put a dot on your finger. But this guy was doing something like a canvas painting on my finger and gave this long line across my nails and on to the skin.God only knows, if this would be gone from my finger by the time of next elections.
The next part is taking the photo. Heard that this a novelty this time around. Anyway, the guy taking photo gave me an uneasy look. He can't be blamed for that. Who else would wear a weird t-shirt and jeans, best suited for a rock show to a polling booth. The linkin park thing really made him think who this mad guy is. Well, he took a snap of this beautiful,glamorous, handsome face[hee heeee]. Now the formalities are all over. Its time to voteeeee.....
I went behind the screen and took a glance at the machine...Hmm..smart thing ..only seen on tv and print before. now, i ran through the list of names. And pressed the button...Oh, were u eagerly waiting to know whom I cast my vote for? Sorry, I couldn't reveal that. Its against the law, as told by my dear friend yesterday night, when I asked him whom should I vote for. And if achuthananthan or Oomen Chandy is reading this, sorry sir, no hard feelings ok. I won't tell whom I voted for..he heee
And, now am out of the booth. I walked back to my bike with a proud feeling of having played a part in deciding the future government. Its another story whether the candidate who got my vote would really win the election. Hopefully, the 1st vote from crusader won't go waste....
with love, your crusader Praveen

BLOGTHINGS ROCKSSSSS

U all might have heard of blogthings and may also have did some of those crazy tests urself. But, I for one, even after doing many tests, always dismissed this as crap. But today, after getting an amazing result, that opinion may change sooner than later. This is one is a test on which is my song for 2005.....and guess what, they selected my most favorite song of 2005....by one of my favorite bands green day. Last year and this year too, I listened to this song and album a million times. Still, wondering if this blogthing guy is the same guy who smiles at me from next door.Otherwise, how could he have known this...Hey...Blogthings really rock.....

Your 2005 Song Is

Boulevard of Broken Dreams by Green Day "My shadow's the only one that walks beside me My shallow heart's the only thing that's beating" In 2005, you bummed everyone out. Like you care.

so guys and gals....go get into blogthings and go crazyyyyy

with love, your crusader Praveen

LIVE MY DREAMS
As my mind opens up
On my way to deep slumber
Oh, my thoughts wander
Where am i going, I wonder
Yes, its a question to ponder.

Am on an aimless journey,
Miles disappear behind me
Faces passing by as in a reel
And suddenly, one seems stuck
Now it all seems so real.

The heart melting smile
And the mind soothing words.
The all healing touch
And the sweet scolding looks.

Walking hand in hand,
with words remaining unsaid
The silence speaking more
than the eloquence
Our minds are asking questions
The answers to which are the same.

As we stand there on the hilltop,
With heart and mind as one,
A thought arises within me.
And I ask myself.
Will it be like this forever?
Will it all be gone,
As I awaken from my slumber?

Praveen
14/04/06

with lots of love, your crusader Praveen

Vizhinjam port...the dream of a nation

In the last few posts, I concentrated on music and sports. Now, lets get on to something serious. Its now a pretty busy time with the elections coming up and all the polictial parties are busy convincing the voters of the good things they are gonna do once they get to rule. And almost all the parties have released their manifestos. Its actually a pretty funny excercise to read those manifestos. These are epitomes of sugar coated lying. And the funny thing is both the political parties as well as the voters know whatever is mentioned in those are nothing more than pure lies. Jokes aside, manifestos give a clear picture on the line of thinking of the party. And it came as a surprise when CPIM released their manifesto, the Vizhinjam port was mentioned in just 2 sentences. And this is a project which was hailed as the one which will change the face of the nation.

Vizhinjam is one project which has faced innumerable backlashes from the time it was conceived almost half a century back. Most of the time other states would do something to derail the proposals that kerala put before the centre. This is because they know that once the port at Vizhinjam becomes a reality, then ship traffic to their own ports would decrease. The advantage with Vizhinjam, as u all know, that it has a natural depth of 24m when nearby ports like mangalore has only 10m or something. So it doean't need massive digging operations to achieve depth. Also it is situated 20 km off the international shipping route. Such a transshipment terminal with all these natural advantages needs to be promoted.

But, alas, that is not the case here. The other states trying to lay roadblocks for the projects can be understood, though in the larger picture of the country, its a crime. Here, its our own politicians and beaurocrats who are playing dirty games to make sure that Vizhinjam transshipment terminal doesn't become a reality. Its known that there is a section of highly placed secretariat officials, who are using all their connections at the centre to derail the project. And the stone laying of the project was postponed 2 times. Atlast, elections were declared and as per existing rules it became impossible to lay the stone for this new project. And this was exactly what this officials wanted.

Also, the people associated with Vallarpadom container terminal at Kochi is also playing a major part in delaying the project. They know that once Vizhinjam port is in working condition, then the purpose of vallarpadom itself will be questioned. And the Union ports minister T.R.Balu is also against this project. Whenever a question on Vizhinjam is put to him, he puts the matter of Vallarpadom forward. He once even went as far as asking ''how many ports does a state want'', clearly implying that since vallarpadom is already sanctioned, don't even dare to dream about Vizhinjam. But the state government has to be commented for taking the initiative and calling a tender from private agencies to build the hub. The tender was won by a consortium of chinese and Indian companies, experienced in this field.

Now, everything is in the hands of the next government. Whoever, wants to come to power must convince the people of kerala, that within the next 5 years Vizhinjam port will become a reality. And lets hope that doesn't just remain in words and manifestos, but be converted to action....waiting 4 the gateway to open...for kerala as well as India....So all Indians join in support of this noble cause...dont' bring petty regionalism into this matter. Because, the fruits of this are for the whole country to enjoy...
Those who want to have an active participation in the discussions on this project, join this groups..
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/vizhinjamproject/

http://groups.yahoo.com/group/thiruvananthapuramdevelopmentfront/
with love , your crusader Praveen