Normal And Abnormal

India is rich and Indians are poor! May be a mystic fact. India is bestowed with huge amount of natural resources. We have more than enough people to exploit those. Anything produced here have a huge demand within ourselves. We are a large country. With 32,87,263 sq km area Inda stands 7th in the world behind Russia, Canada, US, China, Brazil and Australia. In the case of arable land India ranks second in the world with 394.6 million acres, behind USA. As per UN data the current population of India is above 139 crores behind China (144 Cr) India's total population constitute as - 0-14 age:27%, 15-64 age :67% and above 65 age :7%. As per the estimates of 2020, 50% of the Indian population is below 25 years of age and 65% below 35 years. While what is shown above are the essential ingredients for a country to become rich, in the case of GDP (PPP) per capita (2017), which is the indicator of wealth of a country, India ranks 122 in the list with $7,166, where as Quatar on 1...

Countries  giving the highest pension in the world are Netherlands, Denmark and Israel. It is about 700 Euros (INR 59,261/-) per month in Netherlands. This works out to be 50% of the wages drawn per month. There is no consideration for computing pension whether the employee is retired from government or private employment.  Government of India is reported to be paying Rs 600 - Rs 1000 as old age pension depending upon the state share. Some states are paying more than this including Kerala. However, there are many countries giving old age pension much more than what is paid by our central and state governments. It is also a fact that many of these countries are behind us in GDP. Yet, they can afford it in the name of their people. Note: Readers may please reconfirm the figures shown above as there may be inadvertent variations. K V George

'Oru Adar Love'  - a Malayalam film of 2009. A shot that lasts a few seconds. No one have ever thought that shot would bring her such unbound fame. Suddenly Priya became the most searched person in Google in a few hours. Six lakhs followers in instagram in one day. Priya Varrier is the third person to achieve that feat in the world. She also became the first Indian to bag one million followers in Instagram in the shortest period. The great Bollywood actor Rishi Kapoor tweeted about her 'tricky eye' shot. She starred in few Bollywood films. Priya could sing with Naresh Iyer in the Malayalam film 'Finals.' When and where the door of success get opened cannot be foretold by anyone. And no hardwork required for this strange success. K V George kvgeorgein@gmail.com

      (Images from the war front) We may have a bare comparison of two countries all set to fight each other. It was on 24th August 1991 Ukraine declared itself as an independent country. The former USSR thus became 15 independent countries. Area of Ukraine is 6,03,548 km²  Population is 4.41 cr (2020)  The religious composition of Ukraine is basically Christian domination. As per 2015 statistics 85% of the population belongs to various denominations of Christianity, 13% attached to no religion, 1% Muslims and 0.1% is Hindus. The vast majority of the people speak Ukrainian which is written with a form of Cyrillic alphabet. This language is closer to polish. The currency of Ukraine is hryvnia. Geographically Ukraine Is situated in the central part of Eastern Europe. Military personnel available for Ukraine is 1,96,600 of which the ground force is 1,25,600, airforce personnel 35,000 and naval strength is 15,000. However, it...

    (Views of University of Toronto,                        Canada) A must read presentation for students looking for international destinations for higher education. It can be safely foretold that in another about fifty years the whole world will be governed by the youth of their countries. The knowledge they have acquired and thoughts focused by which shall ensure the progress of their people. They would come up to that level by the education they had. We will now find the standards of education of some countries. Canada 26 Canadian Universities appeared in the Times Higher Education World University Rankings 2018 and the QS World University Rankings 2019 out of which 3 are included in the global top 50 and 11 more Universities are included in the world's top 300. The most popular study destinations for international students are Ontario, British Columbia and Quebec. Different types of educat...

Kerala  Women's Volleyball team defeated Railways recently to win the title. This was the fourth successive title win by Kerala. The performance of women in volleyball is really commendable for several decades. However, we Indians could do nothing in World Volleyball. In Women's Volleyball India ranks 67th with a score of 46. Top ranking teams in the world are, No 1 is USA with a score of 377, No 2 is Brazi with score 366 and 3 is China with 350. It is really surprising and also sorrowful to see that when China can reach to the third slot with a score of 350, India remains at 67 with a paltry score of 46. When our politicians are loudly proclaiming that we are all set to overtake China in GDP, what prevent us to overtake China in the sports arena. The sports ministries of central and state governments should focus more on bringing India to higher level of competition and achievements. Let the state of Kerala make a beginning.  We have a wonderful team in Women's...

We  are discussing here the outcome of religious teachings. We may first find the top five countries where highest number of crimes taken place in the world as per crime index of 2021. Those countries are: 1. Venezuela 2. Papua New Guinea 3. South Africa 4. Afghanistan 5. Honduras Now we may find religion wise population of each of these countries. Venezuela Christian 88% (Catholics 71% and Protestants and others 17%) Other faiths 12% Papua New Guinea Christian 83% (Catholics 26%, other Christians 57%) Other faiths 17% South Africa Christian 86% African religions 5.4% Muslim 1.9% Others 7% Afghanistan Sunny Muslims 82-89% Shia Muslim 10-17% Honduras Catholics 47% Evangelical Protestants 36% Others 17% INDIA According to the census report of 2011 percentage of religion are: Hindus 79.8% Muslims 14.2% Christians 2.3% Sikhs 1.72% Others 2% Crimes registered  in 2019 - 51,56,172. Out of these 10,50,945 were classified as offences including violent acts like murder, kid...

The   Scandinavian country Denmark  and New Zealand, the Polynesian country in the South Pacific Ocean with a ranking of 88/100 are the least corrupt countries in the world. They are followed by Switzerland, Finland and Singapore with the ranking of 85/100. These five countries are the best managed countries in the world. The people of these countries are contented and happy for they get back in the form of clean services from their governments without squeezing their pockets by government employees or middle men. Sweden, Norway, Netherlands, Germany and Luxembourg hold 6th to 10th positions in the ranking list. Pathetically India stands at 86th position  with ranking score of 40. At least some of the fellow countrymen are constrained to suspect whether our country have adopted corruption like a child. Really a sorrowful situation! Right from 1947 we hear and feel the impact of corruption in this country. Most Indians, though some of them are terribly col...

In  a 1967 Tamil film Kandhan Karunai Sridevi first acted as a child artist at the age of 4. That was the beginning of a great actress Bollywood has seen. In 1969 she acted in the mythological Tamil film Tunaivan. Subsequently other than Tamil she acted in Malayalam, Kannada, Telugu and Hindi films. She won the Padmashree award in 2013. Himmatwala (1983), Nagina (1986),  Mr India (1987), Chaalbaaz (1989), Chandni (1989), English Vinglish (2012) etc are some of her best films. K V George

Aravind Kejriwal submitted his resignation on February 14, 2014. He was sworn in as chief minister after winning the election on February 14, 2015. Strange coincidence! K V George kvgeorgein@gmail.com

Police  have enquired about a road accident death in Ernakulam but what is revealed more heinous crimes that can destroy social relationships and peace from our homes for ever. Phone of a tenth class girl was filled with sexual scenes. She alongwith her female friends were regularly using narcotics. These little girls were sexually abused by their criminal friends continuously. The parents of these children seems to have excessive faith in their 'highly matured' children'!  Since these do not fall in their syllabus, teachers too do not give much attention to these activities! Relationships with other members of the families have since been detached in almost every family, they too, it seems have not bothered for the safety of their own blood. We have enough politicians representing countless number of parties dedicated themselves for the upliftment of the people. None of them have time and resources to prevent narcotics abuse all around the Metro City. All the c...

It  is a small church in the Orla Society Lane in Vile Parle, Mumbai. Irrespective of cast considerations, huge crowd is gathered there especially in the festival season in September. People from different walks of life come to this Our Lady of Health of Velankanni Church get healed of different sicknesses. Diana Edulji, the former Indian cricketer, is the one had complete remission from cancer. Every day many come and pray to the Holy Mother and get relief. K V George kvgeorgein@gmail.com

Average marriage age of women in Kerala has risen from 20 years to 21.5 years during the period from 1998-99 to 2019-20. However, according to report from the Times of India dated 30 December 2021, this age trend is different in the northern districts of Kerala like Kozhikode, Malappuram, Wayanad etc. According National Family Health Survey (NFHS) there are evidently a fair dip in the lower age marriage. Marriage rate of women aged 20 -24 years who had marriage at the age of 18 years had come down to 15.3% in 2019-20 from 23.3% in 2015-16. According to a report by the Ministry of Statistics and Program Implementation of 2019 the mean age of marriage of women in India is 22.1 years. However, 27% marriages are reported to be below 18 years in 2021. The lowest mean age of  marriage of women in 2017-18 among states was Bengal with 20.9 and highest was Kasmir with 26.7 years. . (Indebted to the Times of India and other web sources for data) K V George

British Army Major  Summerford was struck by a lightening during the first world war. His legs got paralysed and he was moved to Canada. While fishing there he was again struck by lightning that made his right part of the body incapable. He recovered in two years. After becoming normal, one day he was walking through the park and lightening fell on him again. This time his body was completely paralysed. Two years later Major Summerford died. Four years after his death the grave was again struck by lightning and was severely damaged. Is it the vengeance by the natural forces? K V George

    (Panoramic views of Attappadi) According to a report by Times of India dated 24th July 2015, the state and central Governments had spent Rs 1347 crores during the preceding five years for tribal development of Attappadi region. TOI had reported to have received this information from a RTI activist of Trissur district. While going in detail of the fund allocation, the highest allocation was on education sector, i.e Rs 254 crores. And the outcome of the expenditure was surprisingly low. Only 40% of the tribal students reached SSLC level, 20% of them could only found in plus 2 level and a mere 1.3% could reach degree level. When someone is spending money on something, they should also ensure the output of the expenditure.  Similar must be the result of spending in each sector.  Considerable amount of money has been spent in the name of Attappadi since 2015 too. As per s report of March 2018, the tribal population of Attappadi of that time was...

Corruption in earlier days were in thousands, then it came up to lakhs, soon shot up to crores and now reached an amazing height of 2.5 lakh crores. This amount is beyond the imagination of most Indians! According to media reports, banks have liberally disbursed loans to a number of public limited companies. Had the bank secured adequate securities this situation would not have arised. Banking laws, it seems, are strictly observed in the cases of common man. Relaxation is allowed for the so called rich, who turned to be fraud subsequently. One should not forget the truth that huge sums are spent by central and state governments through countless number of officials all over the country to prevent corruption. I don't know whether the judiciary can step into this voluntarily to find the culprits involved in the whole operation. All is said and done, the common man has a doubt needs clarification from the government. What prevents the government from formulatin...

Here  are some celebrities who had close encounters with death god. Sharon Stone Sharon Stone is a renowned actress and HIV/AIDS awareness activist. This is what she revealed to The Sun. " I had my neck cut to a sixteenth of an inch from my jugular vein when I was 14 on a clothesline." Sharon said. She said she was once hit by an intense lightening. "I was at home, we had our own well. I was filling up the iron with water and I had my hand on the faucet. The well got hit by lightening and it came up through the water." She explained. "I was indoors and I got picked up and thrown across the kitchen and hit the refrigerator. Her mom immediately took her to hospital. In 2001 the actress also suffered by a massive heart attack, which took her years to recover from. "It is like, how I am going to die next time?" Sharon added. "Probably something super dramatic and nuts." Elizabeth Taylor One of the most renowned Hollywood ...

When  we try to answer this question we are certain that we cannot.commit a firm answer as we neither know God nor the universe. All that we gathered from religious scriptures are defined and redifined to focus on an answer with some clarity. Normally we do not get the sought answer because our mind or the brain is too small to contain God and so the universe. It may be like an ant swallowing an elephant. We do not know even much about our own body and mind and nothing about the life it contains. Scientists predict about rain, cyclone, atmospheric temperature variations for the ensuing days. This prediction is done with the help of certain laws. With the help of such laws, if we know, we can predict more things. With the help of such laws we find that in one year our mother earth travels about 940 million km to make one orbit around the sun. The circumference of the earth at the equator being 40,070 km and when divided by the time of the day (24 hrs) the speed becomes...

Mark Twain The renowned writer Mark Twain said in 1909, "I came in with Halley's Comet in 1835. It is coming again next year, and I expect to go with it. It will be the greatest disire of my life if I don't go out with Halley's Comet. The Almighty has said, no doubt, 'Now here are these two unaccountable freaks; they came in together, they must go out together.' On April 21, 1910, he died of a heart attack one day after the comet's closest approach to earth. Truly amazing! Was the heart pre-set with the orbit of Halley's Comet? Are all of us have some strange invisible tie ups with some cosmic bodies? K V George kvgeorgein@gmail.com

It  has become a routine affair in our country that people are killed all over the country out of bomb blasts. In many states it has become a household technology. According to National Bomb Data Centre (NBDC) India had the highest bomb blasts in the world. It is really surprising that the number of bomb blasts in India is much higher than that of Iraq and Pakistan. Recent incidents of bomb blasts are listed below. Year    No. of       Deaths  Injuries             blasts 2015    884               387       649 2016   1025              467       788 2017   1000              470       702 2018     748              350       340 It is really a ...

      (Temple Mount in Jerusalem)      (Abraham set to sacrifice son         Isaac) " And there he built an altar, and set the wood in order on it; then he bound his son Isaac and laid him down there on the altar, above the pile of wood." (Genesis 22:9) This place where the sacrifice was arranged is believed to be the Mount Moriah. It is also understood to be the same place Mount Moriah, as mentioned in the Book of Chronicles where King Solomon had made his temple. Both these places are identified as the current Temple Mount in Jerusalem. In the Jewish Bible the name Moriah appears twice with slight changes. This place is rendered as Marwah in Arabic in Quran. Marwah is located close to the Kaaba in Mecca, Saudi Arabia. Muslims also believe that it was Ishmael not Isaac who was set for the sacrifice by Abraham.  Moriah is a female name in Hebrew means 'God is my teacher'. (Indebted to Wikipedia arti...

                (Garden of Eden)                       (Noah's Ark)       (Tigris and Euphrates rivers) Chapter 2 of Genesis verses 8 to 25 describe about the Garden of Eden and the first man and woman created by God. Four rivers flowing through the garden region is also mentioned. The first two rivers are Phison and Gehon. The third and fourth are Tigris and Euphrates. Garden of Eden from the biblical description is not an imaginary location but an exact one. The Tigris and Euphrates are two rivers that are flowing through Iraq today. It is said in the Bible that these are flowing through Assyria, which is today's Iraq. The location of Phison and Gehon is not known. Gehon is in the Cus region located in the northeast of the Persian Gulf. This however shows that the Garden of Eden has its boundaries with Mesopotamia. If so much can be relied, ...

Prisais Brooklyn Townsend, a 7 years old girl is the youngest bodybuilder in the world. She became the youngest bodybuilder at the age of 10 months old. When her father was doing workouts she used to follow it closely. She is already a master at weight-lifting, pull-ups and gymnastics. Prisais was a different child. She started crawling at the 3rd month and walking at the 7th month. "I knew that was unheard of." Say her father James. He brought her daughter regularly to gym when she was 10 months old and have practice. When she was 14 months old she could jump on to a plate 2 ft away from the ground. James brought his daughter into his Instagram page and that made her popular. And Prisais Brooklyn Townsend won the Global Child Prodigy award in January 2020. We all may hear more and more about this Super Kid in the near future. K V George kvgeorgein@gmail.com

The Dead Sea is located between Israel and Jordan. It has a length of about 50 km and width of about 15 km. Nearly all its water is received from Jordan river. The high salinity, around 35%, prevent even microscopic organism or plants to survive in it. According to biblical account Sodom and Gomorrah were cities inhabited by sinful people. God have decided to destroy the people of these cities enmasse. "Therefore, the Lord rained upon Sodom and Gomorrah sulphur and fire, from the Lord, out of heaven." (Genesis 19:24) This has caused Jordan a sulphur exporting country' or not may be a subject of argument. Scientific studies reveal that the Sodom and Gomorrah were located in the Southern Valley of Jordan river 14 km North East of Dead Sea. Many such biblical stories can be connected with the modern world. We may look into more things later. One will not get drowned in dead sea because of the high density of the saline water. Dead sea is the most saline in the wo...

Rochus Misch  was the one with his boss Adolf Hitler in the Berlin bunker till his final hours. Misch died in 2013 at the age of 96 after scribbling his memoir. Misch followed him to live underground protected by the so called Fuehrerbunker's heavily reinforced concrete ceilings and walls. "He was no brute. He was no monster. He was no superman." Misch said about Hitler.  By genocide, the murder of hostages, reprisal raids, forced labour, 'euthanasia', starvation, exposure, medical experiments and terror bombing, and in the concentration and death camps the Nazis murdered around 20,946,000 men, women, handicapped, aged, sick, prisoners of war, forced labourers, camp inmates, critics, homosexuals, Jews, Slavs, Serbs, Germans, Czechs, Italians, Poles, French, Ukrainians, and many others. Among them 1,000,000 were children under 18 years of age. And none of these monstrous figures even include civilian and military combat or war-deaths. The wa...

We have heard a lot about Antarctica but most of us could never have an experience about this sub zero region on the South Pole of the earth. We may have some close view of this unfamiliar part of our world. According to UN last year reported the record high temperature of 18.3⁰C in Antarctica which surpassed the previous record of 17.5⁰C _89.6⁰C recorded in 1983 remains the lowest temperature in this region Antarctica's average temperature ranges between _10⁰C and _60⁰C Image courtesy: Web sources K V George

We  may have the view of our earth from different points. View from the Moon Earth seen from Mars Earth and Moon as seen from Mars View of Earth from outer space/ International Space Station Image courtesy: Web sources of NASA K V George