The Cook from Palakkad

Being the youngest of three children, I was always given preferential treatment at home. Brother was 8 years elder to me and rarely lived with us, while Sister was a good 4 years older. In addition, I was a frail child and parents felt I needed to be protected.

 

This, in addition to the basic closeness prevalent in the family, made me attached to both my parents, though I was closer to my father, to the extend of being his alter ego. Father was a gruff man with a bad temper and one has to be careful with words or deeds in front on him. He was an introvert till he crossed 45, and I was one of the few with whom he would converse a lot. I have inherited lot of traits from him.

 

Mother was a typical busy bee. Carried with her a bit of inferiority complex, for she was short, dark, but  was tremendous at keeping the home spic and span, taking care of all our needs, apart from being a marvelous cook. She was a talented singer and veena player, but for some petty reasons refused to sing or play, though we heard her sing in weddings a few times. She was terrific in drawing kolams and much sought after during functions including wedding (those days ladies from the family took up the job of weaving designs using makkolam, unlike today when it is outsourced).

 

Though I know what I inherited from my father, I was never sure about what I got from my mother. I like cleanliness and organization, but am not obsessed with it. I love music, though I cant sing, but am an excellent rasika, who can identify nearly 175 ragams. That  trait  was passed on to me by my father, and not mother.

 

It just struck me recently that I had inherited a wonderful skill from my mother - Cooking. I have a passion for cooking, and like her, I don't rest until and unless I perfect a particular dish or snack.  I can cook as well as her, and am a bit more daring when it comes to experimentation. And by god's grace I have her 'Kaipunyam', that distinguishes a good cook from an average one.

 

Cooking in our house used to be a joint affair. Father was the choreographer. He decided the menu, and made it a point to cut vegetables for mother every day, unless they had a fight and were not on speaking terms. Mother did the cooking. Despite his knowledge of cooking, father couldn't cook for nuts. In fact he was so clumsy, he couldn't even make a cup of coffee. Since mother rarely left him alone, he didn't suffer.

 

Only once she had to leave for Mumbai to attend her father's first death anniversary, and father was left alone for a week. However, we had a Servant called Velayudhan, who was trained by my mother to cook in her absence, and father somehow managed to survive. The offshoot of this was that Velayudhan learned cooking, and later made a living out of it by cooking for an elderly couple, and many others. Inadvertently, my mother has developed a skill in Velayudhan and he made the full use of it.

 

Speaking of cooking, my maternal Grandmother was a Superb Cook. She lived in Mumbai, and had high regard for my father. She wont even come to the room where he is sitting. Any my father too never spoke to her. It was like that those days. in 1976, my mother's father died and father was forced to stay for 16 days in Mumbai. As was the custom, the grieving Grandmother was not allowed to cook, a task undertaken jointly by my mother, her sisters and sisters in law. On the 11th day, Grandmother told the ladies to stay off the kitchen "Mani (my father's pet name) has come after so many years. I will cook today". Nothing special. Routine Sambhar, Rasam, Poriyal. Father was unaware Grandmother had cooked as he had gone to my Aunts' house. He came just in time for lunch,  took couple of mouthfuls of sambhar rice and remarked "Todays cooking was done by the same person who cooked in this house all these years". Everyone was stunned at the sense of taste of my father, and Grandmother virtually blushed.

 

My mothers both Sisters in Law were average cooks. Her youngest sister is a reasonable cook, but the sister next to her is a terrific cook. Only issue with her is that she will not cook and serve, but rather complete her cooking in all aspects and then only serve.

 

My Father's mother lived in a village in Kollengode. The grandparents had limited income and lived frugally. She used to be a good cook, using scarce resources to good effect. I have heard her mother, my great grandmother, was a wonderful cook.

 

I think I am  blessed by all the good cooks in my family. I love cooking, am passionate about it, I hunt down recipes (my hobby is to look up Palghat Brahmin Recipes that is slowly getting lost), and enjoy watching others eat. Though I am quite comfortable cooking both North Indian and South Indian dishes, I am at home with Traditional Palghat Brahmin Cuisine. Unlike many others, I am at home cooking for 2 people or prepare a full fledged sadhya for 10-15 people.

 

I wish the next generation, male and female, carry the baton, for nothing gives greater happiness than seeing someone eat the food you have cooked with relish, and telling you they are full and satiated. Man never has enough of anything, except food!

Make Supreme Court Accountable for their Decisions

The first thing we learn in Management is that Authority and Responsibility go hand in hand.

 

And if this were to be violated, it could lead to a Management disaster.

 

Our Supreme Court has stuffed itself unilaterally all the Authority in the Country without an iota of Responsibility.

 

They elect themselves, appoint themselves, but are not accountable for their actions. It is virtually impossible to impeach them.

 

They pass judgement after judgement, which borders on absurd, and are clearly judicial over reach. And then they wash their hands off passing the buck to the Executive to implement impossible judgement.

 

In rare cases, they take it upon themselves to rectify a situation, and end up with egg on their face.

 

Let us take the case of Subrata Roy of Sahara Group. He defrauded investors and was asked to pay back Rs 24,000 crore by SC. He had enough assets to cover the amount. It is common sense that SC would seize his assets and auction them, right? Wrong! He was put in jail, and then we went through the absurd scenario of him being allowed to run his business from Jail, have meetings to sell of his assets, and seek extension after extension. This drama is now going on for years!

 

Another mess SC has created is in BCCI. Just because it is a cash rich, high profile body, SC intervened and appointed COA who were supposed to implement SC directives. Well they are doing it for the past 2 years and no one knows when they will finish. In the meanwhile, BCCI has lost its clout with ICC, which took years to build up, and is reduced to a laughing stock, trying to operate with its hands and legs tied. Less said about the COA members, the better. SC stated that no one above 70 should be an official. Fair enough. But last heard Vinod Rai, who heads COA, has passed 70, and is still continuing.

 

5 Senior most judges breached professional discipline, and conducted a press conference against the then CJI requesting that Roster should be managed by the group of 5 Senior Judges. No action was taken against them. And one of them was promoted to become the next CJI! Now that Ranjan Gogoi is the CJI, he continues to be the Master of Roster, and every one is happy. What happened to the concept of Senior Judges collectively deciding on the Roster?

 

SC has given an erroneous judgement in the Sabarimala case. The protests at the ground level, led by Women who apparently were supposed to have 'benefited' from the judgement, has shown a mirror to the SC. And the SC did not consider it important to take up the Review Petition on a priority basis, when a whole State was in turmoil, but rather went for their Pooja Break!! Talk about Accountability.

 

We are seeing SC judgement being thrown to dogs by Government and People in many cases. And this does not augur well for SC. They have become a laughing stock.

 

It is time we brought in accountability to SC functioning.

The Supreme Court needs to be Dismantled and Rebuilt

I was once told by a friend of mine, who has been associated with the judiciary for a long time. And this discussion happened in 1990s.

 

There is lot of monetary corruption in the lower judiciary. This does not mean that Corruption do not exist in the upper judiciary. It certainly does. But the corruption there is more of 'moral corruption', which means either the Judge gives decision that is in tune with his political or religious beliefs, or because of certain inherent biases.

 

Much water has flown under the bridge since. It is beyond doubt that our higher courts, especially the Supreme Court, has become a cabal of self serving, holier-than-thou, crony, corrupt bunch of Judges, who has least interest in serving justice to common people.

 

They appoint themselves, are not accountable to anyone, they interfere in areas where they have no right to and then when they make a mess of it they just keep quiet ( A classic case is their interference in BCCI, where in three years, all they have done is to make the situation murkier in the process shaming one of the better run organization in front of their global counterparts. The Council of Administrators have only one or two left of the initial team, and Vinod Rai is already past 70, an age set by SC for BCCI Administrators to be ineligible! ). No one, including the elected Parliament has any say in the appointment of judges, and they had the temerity to strike down the bill passed by both houses of Parliament that would have brought a semblance of transparency to judicial appointments.

 

The four rebel judges who held a press conference were not even censured. And one of them has now been awarded with the CJI post. Now let us see if Ranjan Gogoi, the new CJI, will relinquish his Master of Roster role and ask the Senior Most Judges to be a part of allocating the Cases, as he wanted in the Press Conference. He has to walk the talk, but am sure it is not going to happen, and the so called liberals will not raise this issue.

 

It is a matter of concern that the SC is fast tracking cases which has an anti hindu slant, and passing judgments detrimental to the majority religion. The Sabarimala case is one such. When a more important, simple land dispute case of Ayodhya, is pending for decades, which is of more importance, SC has to rush in and meddle in Sabarimala. I am not for or against it. The 41 days vrata as an excuse for keeping women out is not acceptable to me, as 90% of men don't observe 41 days vrata. It is more like 3 days to 1 week. But every temple has a right to decide its rituals and right of entry, based on traditions. Any change has to come within the Community, and Hinduism has shown its ability to reform over a period of time, unlike the Abrahamic religions.

 

The issue is not SC interfering in hindu religion, but its reluctance to even touch minority religions. This is unacceptable. If not allowing women of certain age groups in Sabarimala is a violation of Fundamental right, how about not allowing women to pray with men in a mosque is not a violation of Fundamental right?

 

The earlier we have a uniform civil code the better.

 

The lower judiciary is absolutely corrupt. The higher judiciary is packed with judges of a particular political belief, who ensure only their types are promoted through an opaque, unaccountable system. They are also financially corrupt. The case of an ex CJI from Kerala is a case in point. The guy Justice Karnan, who dared to call out that the King was naked, was punished and imprisoned for 6 months. The judiciary as it stands today cannot be mended.

 

It has to be destroyed, dismantled and rebuilt from scratch. We cannot have a situation where SC interferes in a criminal investigation on people who are charged with assassinating the PM of the country, just because they are of the same cabal as a few high priced lawyers. Even after admitting that the case against the urban naxals has nothing to do with dissent, but everything to do with a plot to assassinate the PM, the SC refused to admit its mistakes. It should have pulled back its order on house arrest of the accused, and allowed the police to have their way. But hey! who will bell the cat?

 

The SC should take up only few cases a year, as it happens in US, and that too as a final stage of appeal. To interfere and give bail to Teesta Setalvad, and overturning lower court order on arrest of Urban Naxals is not what they are meant to do. Nor is it the job of HC to decide where Karunanidhi to be buried, and that too admitting a case at midnight!!

 

Will the next Government have the guts to take SC on? If not, then SC will face the wrath of the common man, who will just start defying their orders.

 

That will be a sad day, but that day is not far away.

 

 

 

Interesting Characters I met in my life -2

There are characters and then there are characters!

Life would be very dull without at least one quirky character.

We were only 11 during our Professional Course. 10 boys and 1 girl. Our age ranged from 29 to 20, me being one of the two youngest. As such homogeneity was lacking.

Each one of us had strange traits but this guy took the cake. But he made our 2 1/2 years of life quite colorful.

He had completed his PG. His father, a Businessman was street smart but lacked education, which made him determined to ensure his children got all the education they needed, and was willing to spend any amount of money for their studies. The catch was there. He was willing to invest only in education, but rarely gave them money for their other expenses, including clothes. And as long as his son was staying with him, he ruled with an iron hand.

When my classmate joined us, it was the first time he was staying away from his house, as we were all in the hostel. It was like letting a bird free after being caged for years. The guy just freaked out.

His father would give him any amount of money for buying books. Since his father was not aware how many books were required for the program, my classmate used to run rings around him. He would send request for Rs 1,000 every month to his father for buying books (Rs 1,000 was a lot of money in mid 1980's). His father would promptly send him the money. Son would hardly spend anything on books, and the whole amount went to movies, dresses, cabaret shows, liquor and good food.

Father would come once in a while for an audit, for he never fully trusted his son. The son had an arrangement with his mother, who would intimate him in advance of the fathers visits.

The lethargic son would kick into action. Our university hostel had students pursuing PG courses from Psychology to Physics to MBA to Journalism to English. And all the students were Rank Holders in their UG and very studious. We all bought books, or loaned books from the University/Department  Libraries. My classmate would raid all our rooms, collect at least 8-10 books from each room (never mind the books had nothing to do with our MBA Program) and stack them in his room. When the hardly literate father arrived, he would see a few mountains of books in his sons room, and his son sitting amidst, which would please him no end.

As I said, Father was a street smart businessman. He would insist on bills for the money spent on books. Son, who never bought a book, found a way around this too. He had an agreement with all of us to hand him over the bills whenever we purchased a book. In addition, he struck a deal with the Cashier at Pai &Co, the leading bookshop in the City, to give him the bills of books purchased by the customers, most of whom never bothered to insist on them.

Come exam time, he would be running around for books to study, for he had none. We had a studious classmate, with hardly any social skills, who hated sharing his books. One weekend, he was accosted in his room by this Character, and asked whether he could borrow his Marketing Research book. Not wanting to lend his book, the studious guy told him that he was planning to study Marketing Research the whole day and some. "Anyway, what I wanted was the Sales Management Book. I knew if I asked that, you would say you were planning to study that. Since your focus is on MR for the next day, I am taking your Sales Management Book", said our Character, and coolly walked away with the Sales Management Book.

He was fond of good food. Often one can see him in an expensive restaurant. Once me and another classmate were walking in front of one of the restaurant, when he hailed us from inside. "Come, Come. Join me for food". We happily accepted the invitation, went in and ordered along with him. We were waiting for the food to be supplied, when I had a nagging doubt. I asked " I hope you have the money to pay the bill". The guy without blinking his eye told "Yes, I have money to pay what I ORDERED, but you have to fend for yourself". We were stunned as we didn't have sufficient cash and had gone in believing he was footing the bill. Cursing him we ran to the supplier, explained our predicament, cancelled the order and left embarrassed.

Being University Campus, we had excellent sports facilities, including two tennis courts, which we used extensively. My classmate decided he wanted to play tennis too, mainly because there was a Russian Lady who was playing, and he wanted to get close to her. He bought a state of the art Racquet and the proper attire. The only hitch was that he just couldn't play. His legs and arms would go to different directions when he swung, and the ball would fly all over the place. It was embarrassing to watch for anyone, but he could care less. He persevered for 2 years without making an inch of progress and his style of play (if one could call that) was a standing joke.

Towards our 4th semester he vanished for 3 days. When he returned we asked him where the hell he was. He had apparently gone as Assistant Coach to the Calicut University Women's Tennis Team, as the regular Assistant Coach could not make it due to some personal emergency. He got a certificate for that!!!! Irony died a thousand death and we were speechless.

We had a young lady lecturer for Personnel Management. She was not quite liked by anyone, as her competency was in question, but we had to endure her horrendous lectures. A heavyset dark woman who word different sarees, she was quite vain. One day my classmate came late to the class, got in, loosened his shirt collar for it was hot, and looked around with a contented look. The lecturer restarted the class after his messy interruption. Suddenly my friend looked at her with mouth agape,

"Teachere" (teacher!)
"Entha" (what)
"Nalla Saree" (Nice Saree)
Lecturer was pleased but embarrassed, "Please......"
"Alla teachare, nalla saree" ( No teacher, saree is nice )
Lecturer murmured a thanks and continued her lecture. After a minute, the guy got out of his reverie.
"Nalla colour" (Nice Colour)
"Thanks"
After a while
"Nalla selundu kanan" (It looks nice on you)
Lecturer started warming up to the compliments but carried on teaching gamely, but losing control of the class, who were smiling broadly.
"Evidunna vangiyathu" (where did you buy from?)
"Trichur, but keep quiet now"
Still after a while,
"Ethraya koduthathu" (How much did you pay?)
" Rs 600"
"Nalla labham, Nalla labham" ( Good bargain/profit)
"Oh, thank you".  Lecturer was feeling real good now.
After 30 seconds when she had savoured the moment, came the bombshell
"Vitta aalku, vitta aalku" ( for the seller, for seller) meaning the Seller made a good profit.
The Lecturer who was floating in the world of compliments, suddenly came crashing down, and we all roared with laughter.

There are numerous such incidents one can recall. But they can be expressed properly only in the local language, and not in English.

Temple Elephant Syndrome

Kerala Government and Officials, as expected, has shown its middle finger to all the good Samaritans who helped during the Floods, and those who were affected by it.

1. The immediate relief of Rs 10,000 for those displaced not yet distributed, and not likely to be distributed for a long time. The excuse given is that Government do not have the Bank Account numbers of those displaced and till recently in Relief Camps. Laughable.
2. Complaints are pouring in that the financial aid for Reconstruction is being left to the discretion of the local surveyor, who is hand in glove with Ruling Party Members and allotting money as per his whims and fancy. It is clear as daylight that the CPM party members, who are experts at making hay when sun shines, will corner all these funds. The real needy, who were affected, will not get anything. And the so called 'Literate Malayalis', who cry out loud for anything from Beef ban to a murder in UP to Saddam Hussain being killed, have not even conducted a protest hartal against the absolute mismanagement of the situation by the Government, pre and post floods
   
3. The Chief Minister has vanished to USA for treatment (for God knows what!) for 3 weeks at this critical juncture, without even handing over the charge to his #2. And to add insult to injury, all the Ministers are scheduled to travel to various foreign countries to 'beg' the good hearted NRIs for more money. The NRIs have already rallied very well and if more money is required, all it required was one appeal, instead of these duffers spending public money on foreign jaunts. (One is reminded of the Tamil Nadu 'Temple Elephant' which is taken out every day by the mahout to the market to make 'collections'!)
4. I was listening to a TV Interview by the Chairman of Kerala State Electricity Board (KSEB). He apparently has a PhD in CYA (Cover Your Ass). His astounding claim was that though he knew there would be heavy rains during 13-18 of August 2018, from Private Weather Sources, he could act only based on IMD Weather Report, as otherwise "If he had recommended opening the Dam based on other sources of information, and if it had not rained heavily, "NO ONE WOULD HAVE PROTECTED HIM". And decision to not open all the Dams till it became inevitable was based on his instinct of Self Protection!. Why he was not sacked for that one statement is beyond me. It is another matter that IMD has dismissed his and Chief Minister's statements that adequate warning was not given, and has indicated how the alerts were issued regularly from 9th August.
5. An Ex Justice, who is the Chairman of Dam Safety Authority, made another bizarre statement when questioned about Flood Mapping. His take is that even if Flood mapping were to be done, it would have had no use! IF we had the flood mapping done, and IF the Government had people sensible enough to use the data, they would have released water in a staged manner ensuring steady flow, rather than opening all the Dams at once, leading to deluge. With People in responsible positions like the KSEB  and  DSA Chairmen, Kerala needs no enemies
6. Minister Raju, who vanished to Germany to attend an inconsequential program while the flood was raging, was not sacked, as expected. So much for accountability
7. The CPM is brushing of incidents of diversion of Relief materials as one off incidents, which is not true. There has been massive under utilization and diversion of relief materials. If at all it has reached the right people, it is only due to the good work done by some NGOs and selfless Volunteers
8. Central Government has agreed to undertake Reconstruction directly. But Kerala Government is lukewarm to the idea. Reason is obvious. Their cronies cant benefit if Central Government were to do this directly.
9. It is 15 days since water has receded. We are yet to see an Concrete plan from the Government as to how they are going to rebuild Kerala. And I suspect we will never see it. The whole objective now is to mop up as much cash as possible for the State, which has been following an unsustainable model of Economic Growth for a long time now.

The 'Temple Elephant' Syndrome is in full flight!

 

(P.S: One of the disgusting attitude of Malayalees was noticed during the floods. It could be an off shoot of the decades of Communist ideology, which views Capital Formation as a crime, unless the Party does it. Everyday Newspaper is flooded with statements from all and sundry as to why Mr.X or Mr.Y paid 'only' Rs 25 lakhs and why not 'Rs 1 Crore'. This is absurd. It is for individuals to decide whether or how much to pay. It is his hard earned money. No one other than him has an entitlement to it. If an Andhra Film star donated Rs 1 Crore, accept it gracefully and thank him. But don't ask why a Malayali Film Star didn't match that amount. It is cheap and petty. And it stems out of jealousy that they have more money than you. As I wrote before, Malayalees lack humility, and possess a sense of entitlement and arrogance, as if they are born to be supported by others. This has to be removed from his psyche for him to improve. I am a Malayalee and I have outgrown this syndrome. Time others did too. World will be a much better place then for Malayalees)

Ensure Money donated is not diverted

It looks like sheer incompetency and greed by Government of Kerala led to the floods. Absolute disaster in mismanaging the opening of the dam shutters led to the deluge, and whatever be the diversionary tactics adopted by Pinarayi Vijayan and his team, the public knew what happened and who are to be blamed.

 

The drama enacted by the CPI(M) led Government to mop up as much relief funds in cash as possible, which is certain to be diverted to finance the Fiscal deficit, and to fill Party's coffers is clear to all concerned.

 

The entire Kuttanad went under water, and that too in August, when the paddy fields are ready for harvesting. Kerala faces a bleak rice shortage. Palghat, the rice bowl, also suffered floods. As do many cash crop growers in the high rangers. It is a pity that a 'so called literate Kerala' did not find it worthwhile to insure their Crops with any of the Crop Insurance Schemes. The Pradhan Mantri Fasal Bhima Yojana coverage in Kerala is a meager 7%. And this is mainly due to poor implementation by the Government. If you have not insured your crop, when opportunity existed, you should not demand compensation, as if it is your birthright.

 

The same is true for many Middle Class or Upper Middle Class homes. One can understand the poor not insuring their property and valuables, but there should be no excuse for the Middle Class and Upper Middle Class. They have the financial resources to insure, and if they haven't, they should face the consequences.

 

And the Government could have easily created a scheme where the poor can insure their property for a small premium, with Government bearing a portion of the premium.

 

The refrain from the Government and its supporters to those who ask unpleasant questions is that, this is not the time to do so, as the focus should be on rehabilitation and reconstruction.

 

I beg to differ. The floods is already receding from the mind space of those outside Kerala. And in another couple of weeks, no one will be talking about this, as no one does about Chennai floods now. We need to ask pertinent questions and demand answers, here and now. Accountability has to be fixed.

 

We should not allow Pinarayi Vijayan and his team to go scot free, mop up money from well meaning citizens, and allow them to spend without any transparency. I am afraid a good portion of the money sent to CM's relief fund will not be used for relief, but will be diverted, both by Government and party men.

 

What is required is to create a Reconstruction and Rehabilitation Fund, with clear guidelines as to how the proceeds can be utilized. But this is not likely to happen.

 

Modi made his reputation in reconstructing the Kutch area in Gujarat, post the devastating Earth Quake nearly two decades ago. I may sound drastic, but why not think of Sacking the Current Government, implement President's rule, conduct a thorough Enquiry as to the lapses that led to the Floods, set the Rehabilitation and Reconstruction plan in motion, and then, then only, Re-Swear in the LDF Government. You need to get parliamentary ratification only within 6 months. And by then all the work can be executed, and Government re sworn in. This was Kerala benefits from the vast resources available with the Centre, including Army, and normalcy is sure to be restored within months, than years.

 

Any takers?

 

 

Will the Floods help drill some sense in to Kerala Government and Malayalees?

While my heart bleeds for the affected people of Kerala Floods, it is surprising that proper questions are not asked of the Current and Past Governments. It is as if there is a conspiracy to ensure this doesn't happen. A point to note being the deliberate controversy created over the non existent Rs 700 crore aid offer by the UAE Government, which was used to abuse the Central Government and Modi, who went out of their way to offer all the assistance to Kerala.

 

I would like to post some key points here.

 

Now that the flood waters have receded, many are pointing fingers at the Government, who in their wisdom chose to wait till the last moment to open 34 Dams at one go. It is clear that the priority of the Government was to store as much water as possible to generate Electricity at a later date, and save money for the exchequer. One can't fault them. It was an error of judgement, with hindsight. Till the last minute, even experts were commenting on TV that Idukki dam may not have to be opened. We can give the benefit of doubt to the Government here. But the question to be asked is different.

 

"In this era of Computer simulations, did the Kerala Government have multiple simulations as to various scenarios with respect to opening of shutters of various dams and to what happens when shutters are opened partially or fully?"

 

It is clear they did not have this, as the flash floods caught them unawares. The sad fact is that all it required was some foresight and a few lakh rupees to create this simulations, rather than depend on assumptions.

 

Kerala Economy has been dependent on remittances from Overseas for a long time. And due to vested interests, the Government has been lax in collecting tax, especially from Jewellers and many leading businessmen, leading to the State being in perpetual financial crisis for a long time. The Chief  Minister's initial assessment of the loss due to floods was Rs 20,000 crores, though the final figure could be much higher. Despite being a non BIMARU state, and considered to be prosperous for a long time,

 

"Why is it that the Kerala Government do not have Rs 20,000 Crore as a Contingency Fund?"

 

It is almost pathetic to see the Government virtually begging for money from all and sundry. And being ungrateful when someone offers aid to them.

 

This brings me to the next point.

 

I am a Malayalee myself. It pains me to see the attitude of my fellow Malayalees. The so called 'literate' and 'progressive' State has been 'demanding' that every one helps them, and considers it their god given right to be helped. I saw people demanding that Film Stars donate in Crores, and anyone who offered in lakhs were criticized!. By abusing the Central Government and rest of India, which offered all the help, including Interim relief, and offer to reconstruct the state (the NTPC, REC etc have already had a discussion with KSEB to replace all the damaged sub stations and transformers, and Nitin Gadkari has promised to reconstruct all the destroyed roads, just to give examples) Malayalees have shown once again that they cannot overcome their petty prejudices, and even a calamity of this magnitude has not taught them to be humble and behave with humility

 

"When will Malayalees learn to be humble, not feel a sense of entitlement, and respect others?"

 

And,

 

"Will this disaster make us develop plans for being self-reliant in future'?

(Update 03-09-2018 - At last, in Newspapers and TV Channels, people are talking about 'Flood Mapping', which is what I meant when I said 'Computer Simulation'. Though I don't think anything will be done on this front, at least there is awareness now)