Normal And Abnormal

The  above report by a leading Malayalam daily narrate the story of corruption in detail. Opportunity for corruption is created. The vigilance department might have submitted the report to the concerned. No action by the authorities concerned. Corruption is allowed to grow. A petty fee made applicable for transporting tody from one district to another district of Kerala, after  a permit is made compulsory. The fee for the permit is Rs 2/- and the corruption for the transfer is Rs 60/-. If the government abandon this unwanted law the corruption will end there. If the government continue with it can be presumed naturally that the corruption is carried with the knowledge of the concerned authorities. Everyone must know that this corruption is done from the pockets of the poor tody drinkers of the state. It is really a pathetic story. If anyone can find an end to this please do it. (Indebted to the report of Malayala Manorama.) K V George . 

We  will have a look at the motor bikes from different countries. Chopper The US bike of the 1950s Power Cruiser of the 1980s Standard Bike or Naked Bike 150 cc to 1000 cc Honda CB 750 Honda Super Cub Dodge Tomahawk World's fastest bike Speed 420 mph Aprilia RSV 1000 R Speed 280 km/h Price $16,000 (Rs 12,06,320) Yamaha YZF - R1 Speed 293 km/h Price $16,700 (Rs 12,59,096) Different bikes with basic information Note: Prices where shown may be got confirmed from the manufacturer/dealer as the case may be. K V George

India has a road network of 63.73 lakh km which is the second largest iin the world. This can be bifurcated as below. a) National Highways - 1,44,634 km. b) State Highways - 1,86,908 km. c) Other  roads - 59,02,539 km When we take Kerala,the state has 1,812 km National Highways, 4,342 km of state highways numbering about 72 and 25,394 km of major district roads. As per the quality of the roads, the following countries hold the top rankings. 1. Singapore 2. Netherlands  3. Switzerland  4. Japan 5. Denmark 6. Spain. As far as road accidents are concerned, as per available information, about 1.5 lakh people die in road accidents in an year in India. In other words it is 1130 accidents and 422 deaths every day. In 2021 there were 4,12,432 accidents reported taking 1,53,972 lives and causing injuries 3,84,448 people in the country. Now coming back to Kerala there were an average of 12 people died in road accidents every day in 2022. During the period of 2018-2022, ...

The  New Testament has 27 books written between AD 50 and 100. The Old Testament which is the origin of Bible written in Hebrew language, which is the fundamental scriptures of Jewish faith believed to have written between 1200 BC and 165 BC. The fundamental scriptures of Hinduism, the four Vedas Sama Veda, Atharva Veda, Rig Veda and Yajur Veda were written by Vyasa. Though a definite date cannot be said, it is believed that these Vedas were written between 1500 BC and 1200 BC. Faith,  rituals and commandments are the fundamental principles of religion. When it is democracy, the prime principles are liberty, fraternity and equality. But when these two join together the common principles become damage, demolish and destroy. We have been finding this throughout the world for centuries. Of late, we Indians have also joined in this destructive games. Here it is the very strong against the very weak; 79.8% Hindus against 2.3% Christians. It cannot be called a communal v...

The German language Relation aller Furnemmen und gedenckwurdigen Historien printed from 1605 onwards by Johann Caroller in Strasbourg is commonly accepted to have been the first newspaper. India has the world's largest number of paid newspapers.  There were 5,767 newspapers in 2013 and 7,871 in 2015. Now there are about 6,000 nos. This came upto 8,891 in early 20th century . The highest circulated newspapers in the world are: The Yomiuri Shimbun (Japan), The Asahi Shimbun (Japan), USA Today (USA), Dainik Bhaskar (India), Dainik Jagaran (India) & The Mainichi Newspaper (Japan) As per the latest survey the largest circulated newspapers in India are: Dainik Bhaskar (Hindi), Dainik Jagaran (Hindi) Malayala Manorama (Malayalam). On 19 December 1997 Brazilian daily newspaper - Di &# 224; Rio Oficial da Uni # 227;o - had 2,112 pages and weighed 5.27 kgs. In the 19th century Times of India employed more than 800 people. As of 2020 there were 6,567 newspaper companies in...

All politicians and government officials of our country are clean in all respects, it is said. None of them have any dirt in their hands. People and media  frequently come up with strong allegations against some of them. However, none of these allegations could be proved with the support of documents and witnesses. Better, therefore, to stop raising any allegations against them henceforth. It is also be ensured by our law making machinary that a law to be formulated that no one should raise any allegations against the elected representatives and government officials. If raised, it would be bound to be proved undoubtedly; failing which such complainants should be severely punished. This will surely find an end to unwanted corruption allegations in our country. Alongwith this another law may be formulated by all our elected representatives together that anyone in our country proved to have involved in any monetory corruption, irrespective of the value of it, should be sen...

People  who are working on different fronts can be primarily categorised into two groups. One is those working for the sake of work, nothing more than that. The other is those who want satisfac1tion for their doing. Such ones, if do not get satisfaction shall leave the work and move away. The former category shall continue to work until the scope of work is left. Whatever efforts we may put on something, but if it does not fetch any contentment, many of us may not be able to continue with it. Hence contentment is an essential return expected by many who put their efforts for anything. There are another category of people whose ultimate aim is not contentment alone but they find something more by sharing their contentment with the near and dear ones. And what they attain from this is happiness. Happiness is, therefore, derived from sharing our contentment with others. It is a state of ECSTASY. Then comes peace. Peace is not man made, it is divine. While many ...

        Waste to Energy plant in Delhi  We  Indians, surprisingly may not have the sense of cleanliness as required by our environment. Whether it is village, town or city heaps of waste can be found anywhere. There is no effective methods for collection of waste from houses and public places. When there are countless number of boards found at different places saying: 'Don't throw waste here', it is difficult to find any board anywhere saying 'Put waste here'. If places are allocated and proper boards are put people may reach there and dump their waste there. According to available source the amount of municipal solid waste (waste that comes from homes, businesses and other community activities) in India was above 1,70,300 tons per day in the financial year 2022. Over 50% of these waste is combustible. This shows that over 85,000 tons of combustible waste are available with us every day. The following countries in the world are generating electr...

Curry leaves  are indispensable part of Indian cuisine. This is widely used in southern and western coast of India. It is also used in other parts of Asia too. In Combodia and Indonesia it is dried and used as flavour for food items. Curry leaf plant is a native of Indian subcontinent. It is commercially planted in India. Of late Australia has started large cultivation of this plant. While it is a household plant in Kerala, large plantations can be found in Tamil Nadu, Andhra Pradesh and other parts of India.  During the 1980s there were number of large plantations in Guntur region of AP. Many women reach these plantations early in the morning from nearby villages. They pluck the leaves and fill the bags tied on their backs. Many trucks were found parked on the side roads to carry the leaves to Chennai market. Murraya koenigii is the botanical name of curry leaf plant. It belong to the Rutaceae family. Other members of the family are, Rue, Citrus and Satinwood. The...

       Clean water in a German town According to global health index 2024 the healthiest countries are: Spain, Italy, Iceland, Japan, Switzerland and Sweden.  India ranks 39th in the list. Oman, South Africa and Costa Rica are the lowest in the health index.  Cuba has the highest number of doctors per 1,000 population with 8.4 (2023). In the year 2023, in the case of least number of doctors per 1,000 people, Somalia was placed on top with 0.20 doctors per 1,000 people followed by Niger with 0.30 and South Sudan with 0.40. Guinea Bisau, Monaco, Nauru, Aserbaijan, Cyprus and Belarus are the countries with highest number of hospitals per capita in the world. Taiwan, Netherlands, Switzerland, Australia, Germany and Ireland are the top countries in the world who provide insurance coverage to most of their people. The cleanest countries in the world as per EPI index 2024 are:  Estonia, Luxembourg, Germany, Finland, UK and Sweden. In the same EPI ...

Natwar Lal was the greatest con man India has ever seen. He had sold Taj Mahal thrice, Red fort twice, Rashtrapati Bhavan and Indian Parliament with its 545 members once to foreigners. Mithilesh Kumar Srivastava alias Natwar Lal was born in Siwan, Bihar in 1912 and died in 2009. There may be over hundred stories of intelligent cheating by this great con man. During the later years of his life when he was in Pune jail a letter was received from his wife from the native place. She wrote that she had no money for the daily needs and was in short of food too as there was no money to engage someone to delve the land for some cultivation. So she asked him to send some money immediately to deploy some workers to dig and set the land for different crops. As usual the jail officials read the letter and given to him. Nutwar Lal gave a reply to this letter saying that anticipating this situation he had kept large quantity of gold in a bag in their land just one foot below the ground l...

Chateau de Trecesson in France is one of the most haunted houses in the world. A young woman who was believed to be buried alive on the premises of For decades this place is believed to be visited by many ghosts. People even now feared to visit the mansion. Chaonei Church in Beijing, China is a terribly haunted house. Numerous people have been disappeared from this property. At the entrance of the building a notice is placed stating that there is no ghosts on the property, but the legends say otherwise. One of the most common tales about the house is that of a mistress of a government official who committed suicide in the house. Another story purports that the house was built by a British priest who wanted this building to be a church but the priest was found missing before the completion of the construction. However, the property still remains as a haunted place. K V George 

While some sweat blood to get a few chips of money, there are others who do their level best to spend the large money in hand but they are unable to do so. Some years ago during a train journey, a co-passenger, might be a recently retired government official, during casual discussion, said the following. Some parents give over Rs 10,000/- to their young children studying in high school every month as pocket money. A family of husband and wife with young kids and old parents have six new cars in the house. A person  who is doing business abroad visit his home town in Kerala a few times every year. Before every visit he sends his high cost car ahead of him and takes it back when returns. I am told that there are many families who are going abroad every year for a period of one week to three weeks. It is a routine affair for them. I was surprised to hear that there are many people around us who can get Rs 100/- crores or more in cash any time . I have heard about a foreign...

Before and after images of the Hawaii Hawaii fire According to a CNN report the  arctic winter storm of the past couple of years y has spread havoc in United States. 22 people have already been died. Over three lakhs houses spent their Christmas without power. Food supply has been interrupted at different parts. Snow has been mounted on houses, roads and market places. Burning of fossil fuel,  destruction of forests and the warming up by greenhouse gases are pointed out by climatologists as the prime causes for climate change  on earth. According to a global study about 45% warming up has happened in the past few decades. While 4% of warming takes place caused by the whole African continent and one third of the world warming is caused by China alone. The wild fire of the past year in Hawaii killing large number of people is also reported to have caused by the climatic change. The ongoing flood in various parts of India is also the after effects of climatic cha...

(Images courtesy - Kerala Koumudi and Times of India) As  per the findings of the state vigilance department,  about 45% of the roads have been severely damaged within 6 months from construction. There can be two reasons for this. One may be that we do not follow the recognised scientific methods  for road construction. The other may be that the allotted money in full is not spent on road construction. In both cases the authority concerned must give satisfactory answer to the people. Unfortunately, however important the issue may be, our people with so called political awareness, would never react, until someone with a political flag in hand will lead them. We must take up the issues concern us by our own. At least let us bring it to the notice of the judiciary by some of us together. People are falling dead on the road and the people responsible for the deaths are walking freely unconcerned. We still prefer to call the system 'democrac...

There are Satanic Churches and Satanic Temples in different parts of the world. However, they do not believe in building or such establishment for performing their rites. Satanists do not believe in any form of gods. They, however, say that Satan is a symbol not a being. Their youth assemble in the nights, black clad and listening to death metal music. They also sacrifice animals. Satanism is said to have founded in 1960. Though they call themselves Satanists, many of them do not worship Satan in any form. In fact they are atheists. They look for individual freedom, community activism and performing bizarre rites. When founded, they explained themselves as, "Satan to us is a symbol of pride, liberty and individualism and it serves as an external metaphorical projection of our highest personal potential. We do not believe in Satan as a being or person." They also say, 'the name Satanism is to embrace rational inquiry removed from supernaturalism and...

(Finance Minister John Mathai presents the first budget of India on 28 February 1950. Image courtesy, Mint) Every political party while assuming power to rule, announce a set of offers for the people. Sometimes in course of time both the parties as well as the people forget these big offers and surprisingly no one is brother about these great offers. In fact after every election if one make a list of offers given and what are achieved against each offer always find wide gap. Instead of giving such unattainable offers, why not each government record the existing pci while assuming power and every year while presenting the annual budget, the past year's and the current year's pci may announced. This will help the people to truly evaluate the performance of the ruling government. This may be taken as a challenge by the people as well as by each government representing different political parties. K V George  

Sometimes back an Indian made a trip to Japan in connection with some business matters. During the stay in Japan, one day he travelled in a city bus there. After getting down from the bus at the destination he noticed that he lost his purse. He immediately asked a Japanese person found close by that where could he find the nearby police station. That man asked him why he is looking for the police station. Our friend told him that he was from India and he lost his purse in the bus. The Japanese then asked him whether his address or local contact could be found in the purse . He told him that he was staying in a hotel and the card of the hotel is available in the purse. The man said. "Nothing to worry. By the time you reach the hotel, the purse would be available there."  Our man reached the hotel after sometime and told the story of the missing purse to the receptionist. He then picked the purse and gave him. He found that nothing was lost from the purse. Someone w...

Despite having large resources to exploit, and large number of young and qualified manpower available, for one reason or the other, we could not tap those resources and deploy the manpower. Had we exploited those adequately we could have brought our unemployment level to zero, the per capita income of our people could have been brought up to a much higher level. Our export earnings could have been carried to a higher level. Similarly the import could have brought down considerably. We could also looked for a zero population below poverty line. We must not ignore certain facts prevailing in our country. A good share of our population do not have their own houses. Many of our people are suffering from serious diseases and they don't have enough money to avail proper treatment. There are countless number of parents in our country who cannot provide education to their children. However, despite collecting large sum from the people our governments do not focus their attentio...

              Photo of a Spanish bar Following are certain important facts and figures of alcohol consumption in the world. HIGHEST CONSUMPTION  Romanian men are the highest drinkers in the world. They drink an average of 27.3 ltrs alcohol every year. Romanians also have an average consumption of 18 bottles beer and 3.6 bottles of wine per week. They are followed by Georgia with 16.33 ltrs, Czech Rep 14.4 ltrs and Lativia 14.7 ltrs. MOST CONSUMPTION BY WOMEN Women of Germany, France and UK are the top alcohol drinkers in the world. They drink 8.5 to 9.5 ltrs of pure alcohol annually. They are followed by Russian, Irish and US women. HIGHEST NUMBER OF BARS Spain has the highest number of bars per capita in the world. For every 170 to 200 people in Spain there is a bar. There are about 2.6 to 2.8 lakhs bars in Spain. In UK there are about 45,000 pubs and in Germany 15,000 registered bars are there. In USA there are around 69,000 bars and...