The all time famous writer of malayalam Kamala Suraiyya passes away

Kamala Suraiya , besides being one of India’s best-known English poets, is the most famous writer of short stories in Malayalam. [She is better known to Keralites as Madhavikutty.]

A short Brief of Madhavikkutti / Kamala suraiyya

Born on March 31, 1934 in Malabar in Kerala, India, she has been Madhavikutty to Malayalee readers and Kamala Das to her English fans. Daughter of the late V.M. Nair, former managing editor of widely-circulated Malayalam daily Mathrubhumi and renowned poetess Nalappat Balamani Amma, she embraced Islam and turned Kamala Suraiya.

Like her parents, Kamala Das also excelled in writing. However, she did not start writing professionally till she was married and became a mother. Her love of poetry began at an early age through the influence of her great uncle, Nalapat Narayan Menon, a prominent writer.

Das was also deeply affected by the poetry of her mother, Nalapat Balamani Amma, and the sacred writings kept by the matriarchal community of Nayars. She was privately educated until the age of 15 when she was married to K. Madhava Das . She was 16 when her first son was born and says that she “was mature enough to be a mother only when my third child was born” . Her husband often played a fatherly role for both Das and her sons. Because of the great age difference between Kamala and her husband, he often encouraged her to associate with people of her own age. Das says that he was always “very understanding”

As her career progressed, her greatest supporter was always her husband. Even when controversy swirled around Das’ sexually charged poetry and her unabashed autobiography, My Story, Das’ husband was “very proud” of her . Though he was sick for 3 years before he passed away, his presence brought her tremendous joy and comfort. She stated that there “shall not be another person so proud of me and my achievements” .

Das has dabbled in painting, fiction, and even politics . Though Das failed to win a place in Parliament in 1984.

She is famous for her many Malayalam short stories as well as several poems written in English. This Keralite is recognized as one of the foremost poetesses of India. She is also a syndicated columnist. She has moved away from poetry because she claims that “poetry does not sell in this country [India],” but fortunately her forthright columns do . Das’ columns sound off on everything from women’s issues and child care to politics.

Religion and politics

In 1999, she converted from Hinduism to Islam and changed her name to Kamala Suraiya. Like the themes of her stories, the conversion too kicked up much heat and dust in the social and literary circles.

She is also active in politics in India, and has launched a national political party known as the Lok Seva Party, to concentrate on humanitarian work as well as to provide asylum to orphaned mothers and to promote secularism. In 1984, she was short-listed for the Nobel Prize for Literature along with Marguerite Yourcenar, Doris Lessing and Nadine Gordimer.

When the government decided to give the prestigious Ezhuthachan award to her considering her overall contribution to literature, the Sangh Parivar criticised the decision, saying that Surayya had nothing in common with the poet in whose name the award was instituted.

Publications
Over the past four decades, Kamala Das has published many novels and short stories in English, as well as in the Indian language of Malayalam under the name Madhavikutty.

Works/Awards

1964: The Sirens (Asian Poetry Prize winner)
1964: Pakshiyude Manam (short stories)
1965: Summer in Calcutta (poetry; Kent’s Award winner)
1966: Naricheerukal Parakkumbol (short stories)
1967: The Descendants (poetry)
1973: The Old Playhouse and Other Poems (poetry)
1976: My Story (autobiography)
1977: Alphabet of Lust (novel)
1985: The Anamalai Poems (poetry)
1987: Balyakala Smaranakal (Childhood Memories)
1989: Varshangalkku Mumbu (Years Before)
1990: Palayan (novel)
1991: Neypayasam (short story)
1992: Dayarikkurippukal (novel)
1992: Padmavati the Harlot and Other Stories (collection of short stories)
1994: Neermathalam Pootha Kalam (novel; Vayalar Award winner)
1996: Only the Soul Knows How to Sing (poetry)
1996: Chekkerunna Pakshikal (short stories)
1998: Nashtapetta Neelambari (short stories)
2001: yaa Allah (collection of poems)published by [IPH]

Where do you keep your Cell phone normally?

A true and sad story.

A lady always having abortions. When the fetus gets to be 2-3 months old she loses it. This happened several times over. The couple went to check with many doctors and at last one of the doctors examined the dead baby and found that the baby’s body cells kept dying as the baby was growing in the womb until he/she could not survive. This was because her uterus was affected by Cell phone Radiation…

The doctor told her that now  she has no chance to give birth to a healthy baby because the radiation has affected her uterus so that the major portion of the cells in her uterus have already died. This happened because she had been keeping her cell phone in her working jacket so that the phone rested against just on the right spot of the uterus..

She had been wearing it like this for a few years.

Please beware of this and take note if you don’t want what has happened to this woman to happen to you.

Dearest friends & family members –Please do not ignore cell phone radiation which will damage our health or body organs. Please put away your cell phone whenever you don’t need it much.

Guys –

Please do not keep your cell phone near to the kidney position and pants pocket as this will damage your ge nital area and affect your ability to father a baby.

This rule goes for the usage of laptop also. NEVER place a laptop directly on your lap, as it does serious harm to the reproductive system. The other doctor also advised another friend to keep her cell phone away from her new born baby to avoid radiation damage to the baby’s brain cells. Do not let the baby or toddler play with the cell phone.. This is because the small young baby or toddler is still very fragile and growing, so he/she is much more vulnerable to radiation damage.

Please remember NOT to sleep with your cell phone on the bed. DON’T even put it next to your bed. Keep all other electronic goods (such as TVs) which also give off radiation, away from your bedroom to reduce risk as we have to sleep a few hours every day in our bedroom at night.

Further, do not imagine that if you switch off the TV there will be no radiation. Actually it is still around in your room. It is not advisable to have even a small digital alarm clock close to your head while sleeping.

Take Care of yourself and your loved ones. I would rather be careful than regret not knowing about these things? Please pass this on to your friends and family.

Girls are always incomplete without boys

WOMAN has MAN in it

_____________________________

SHE has HE in it

_____________________________

Mrs. Has Mr. In it

_____________________________

LADY has LAD in it

_____________________________

MISTRESS has MISTER in it

_____________________________

MADAM has ADAM in it

_____________________________

HOSTESS has HOST in it

_____________________________

FEMALE has MALE in it so on the list is unending

_____________________________

So No need to proud…..

Girls are always incomplete without boys

Swine Flu / Pig Flu Side Effects

JUST FOR FUN…

Indian Heroes – 3. Dr. B.R. Ambedkar

Dr. B.R. Ambedkar Biography
Born: April 14, 1891
Died: December 6, 1956
Achievements: Dr. B.R. Ambedkar was elected as the chairman of the drafting committee that was constituted by the Constituent Assembly to draft a constitution for the independent India; he was the first Law Minister of India; conferred Bharat Ratna in 1990.

Dr. B.R. Ambedkar is viewed as messiah of dalits and downtrodden in India. He was the chairman of the drafting committee that was constituted by the Constituent Assembly in 1947 to draft a constitution for the independent India. He played a seminal role in the framing of the constitution. Bhimrao Ambedkar was also the first Law Minister of India. For his yeoman service to the nation, B.R. Ambedkar was bestowed with Bharat Ratna in 1990.

Dr.Bhimrao Ambedkar was bornDr. B.R. Ambedkar on April 14, 1891 in Mhow (presently in Madhya Pradesh). He was the fourteenth child of Ramji and Bhimabai Sakpal Ambavedkar. B.R. Ambedkar belonged to the “untouchable” Mahar Caste. His father and grandfather served in the British Army. In those days, the government ensured that all the army personnel and their children were educated and ran special schools for this purpose. This ensured good education for Bhimrao Ambedkar, which would have otherwise been denied to him by the virtue of his caste.

Bhimrao Ambedkar experienced caste discrimination right from the childhood. After his retirement, Bhimrao’s father settled in Satara Maharashtra. Bhimrao was enrolled in the local school. Here, he had to sit on the floor in one corner in the classroom and teachers would not touch his notebooks. In spite of these hardships, Bhimrao continued his studies and passed his Matriculation examination from Bombay University with flying colours in 1908. Bhim Rao Ambedkar joined the Elphinstone College for further education. In 1912, he graduated in Political Science and Economics from Bombay University and got a job in Baroda.

In 1913, Bhimrao Ambedkar lost his father. In the same year Maharaja of Baroda awarded scholarship to Bhim Rao Ambedkar and sent him to America for further studies. Bhimrao reached New York in July 1913. For the first time in his life, Bhim Rao was not demeaned for being a Mahar. He immersed himself in the studies and attained a degree in Master of Arts and a Doctorate in Philosophy from Columbia University in 1916 for his thesis “National Dividend for India: A Historical and Analytical Study.” From America, Dr.Ambedkar proceeded to London to study economics and political science. But the Baroda government terminated his scholarship and recalled him back.

The Maharaja of Baroda appointed Dr. Ambedkar as his political secretary. But no one would take orders from him because he was a Mahar. Bhimrao Ambedkar returned to Bombay in November 1917. With the help of Shahu Maharaj of Kolhapur, a sympathizer of the cause for the upliftment of the depressed classes, he started a fortnightly newspaper, the “Mooknayak” (Dumb Hero) on January 31, 1920. The Maharaja also convened many meetings and conferences of the “untouchables” which Bhimrao addressed. In September 1920, after accumulating sufficient funds, Ambedkar went back to London to complete his studies. He became a barrister and got a Doctorate in science.

After completing his studies in London, Ambedkar returned to India. In July 1924, he founded the Bahishkrit Hitkaraini Sabha (Outcastes Welfare Association). The aim of the Sabha was to uplift the downtrodden socially and politically and bring them to the level of the others in the Indian society. In 1927, he led the Mahad March at the Chowdar Tank at Colaba, near Bombay, to give the untouchables the right to draw water from the public tank where he burnt copies of the ‘Manusmriti’ publicly.

In 1929, Ambedkar made theDr. B.R. Ambedkar controversial decision to co-operate with the all-British Simon Commission which was to look into setting up a responsible Indian Government in India. The Congress decided to boycott the Commission and drafted its own version of a constitution for free India. The Congress version had no provisions for the depressed classes. Ambedkar became more skeptical of the Congress’s commitment to safeguard the rights of the depressed classes.

When a separate electorate was announced for the depressed classes under Ramsay McDonald ‘Communal Award’, Gandhiji went on a fast unto death against this decision. Leaders rushed to Dr. Ambedkar to drop his demand. On September 24, 1932, Dr. Ambedkar and Gandhiji reached an understanding, which became the famous Poona Pact. According to the pact the separate electorate demand was replaced with special concessions like reserved seats in the regional legislative assemblies and Central Council of States.

Dr. Ambedkar attended all the three Round Table Conferences in London and forcefully argued for the welfare of the “untouchables”. Meanwhile, British Government decided to hold provincial elections in 1937. Dr. B.R. Ambedkar set up the “Independent Labor Party” in August 1936 to contest the elections in the Bombay province. He and many candidates of his party were elected to the Bombay Legislative Assembly.

In 1937, Dr. Ambedkar introduced a Bill to abolish the “khoti” system of land tenure in the Konkan region, the serfdom of agricultural tenants and the Mahar “watan” system of working for the Government as slaves. A clause of an agrarian bill referred to the depressed classes as “Harijans,” or people of God. Bhimrao was strongly opposed to this title for the untouchables. He argued that if the “untouchables” were people of God then all others would be people of monsters. He was against any such reference. But the Indian National Congress succeeded in introducing the term Harijan. Ambedkar felt bitter that they could not have any say in what they were called.

In 1947, when India became independent, the first Prime Minister Pt. Jawaharlal Nehru, invited Dr. Bhimrao Ambedkar, who had been elected as a Member of the Constituent Assembly from Bengal, to join his Cabinet as a Law Minister. The Constituent Assembly entrusted the job of drafting the Constitution to a committee and Dr. Ambedkar was elected as Chairman of this Drafting Committee. In February 1948, Dr. Ambedkar presented the Draft Constitution before the people of India; it was adopted on November 26, 1949.

In October 1948, Dr. Ambedkar submitted the Hindu Code Bill to the Constituent Assembly in an attempt to codify the Hindu law. The Bill caused great divisions even in the Congress party. Consideration for the bill was postponed to September 1951. When the Bill was taken up it was truncated. A dejected Ambedkar relinquished his position as Law Minister.

On May 24, 1956, on the occasion of Buddha Jayanti, he declared in Bombay, that he would adopt Buddhism in October. On 0ctober 14, 1956 he embraced Buddhism along with many of his followers. On December 6, 1956, Baba Saheb Dr. B.R. Ambedkar died peacefully in his sleep.

See Also :

Indian Heroes -  1. Bhagat Singh

Indian Heroes – 2. Bal Gangadhar Tilak