Lit Notes

Elephant woes Kerala’s educated and highly-literate people seem to be on a mission to exterminate the elephant population. The pachyderm is in danger. Yesterday a hapless elephant was electrocuted in Kottayam .The elephant was being transported on a truck. The poor animal hit the low hanging electric cables and died immediately. Every week there are so many cases of elephants dying in extremely tragic and painful circumstances. The elephant is a majestic mammal. It is an animal that arouses our awe and respect. Today elephants have been reduced to mere money-making machines by temples and nefarious elephant owners. Elephants mean big money for many. Providing elephants for temple festivals is a lucrative venture. Elephants are transported from one festival venue to another on top of lorries and trucks. They are tied with ropes and made to stand for hours. The tired elephant is then forced to walk for kilometers and kilometers carrying the deity on its back. Sometimes the journey may la...

Missing the gentle giants Trivandrum is a growing city.Once upon a time it was just a little town sitting pretty on the coastline of the Arabian sea.Tree-lined avenues,majestic red coloured buildings and an earthy old worldly charm rendered this place with a unique flavour of its own.But today my little town is getting to be a little too big for her boots.She is gradually expanding to swallow her quiet suburbs.She is straining to accomodate an ever increasing number of denizens.Her tree-lined avenues are being felled to make way for development.The gentle giants of yester years are being mercilessly chopped down.The destruction is rampant and heartless.It is mindless devastation on a scale i have never witnessed before.Trees on the Palayam,LMS stretch and in the court premises are being felled day after day.All this is being purportedly done for road widening.Well ,broad,wide roads are indeed a blessing for one and all.But why not make an allowance for the gentle giants also.Chennai is...