‘Payasam’ outdo liquor in Kerala !!!

It’s nice to hear that ‘Payasam’ outstrips liquor in Kerala !!!
as Kerala is the No 1 liqour consuming state in India, you may find hard to believe this stark truth.
When the Onam celebration starts to penetrate every nook and corner of Keralam each year, it is obvious that the liquor sales also start to splash out, even to the streets. You can see Mallus lying footpaths or somewhere more comfortable, like drainage, Kadathinnas etc.
But making this Onam 09 is a different, Cheriyan Philip, the Chairman of the Kerala Tourism Development Corporation leaped out with a news that the sale of Payasam in KTDC hotels exceeded that of liquor in the last week of August. Clearly, the average daily sales of the bar in three days came to only Rs.45000, when the payasam counter made sales of Rs.1.5 lakh a day. The most sought after was “Navarasa Payasam” which contained the juice of nine fruits, followed by the Amabalpuzha Palpayasam.
However he never seemed to be hesitant to say that the Keralite is supposed to spend more money on liquor than on rice.”

The Procession Without "I"

Truely, its an extraordinary procession in which the processonist, the 'I' hardly takes part. This makes the author, journalist T J S Georges's 'Goshayatra' (Malayalam) stand apart from a plethora of autobiographies.

It reveals George's phenomenal life and experiences of his eventful career. Its a journey set off from Bombay to Newyork through Honkong. Everywhere he got ceremonious welcome and noted colleagues.He has achieved distinction internationally as a professional author, serious political columnist and biographer with a series of major books like Krishna Menon (1964) Lee Kuan Yew’s Singapore (1973) remain the standard works on these controversial subjects. His account of The Life & Times of Nargis (1994) is in effect, a microcosm of the Hindi film industry. The Lessons in Journalism - The Story of Pothan Joseph (2007) is other noteworthy work.

To me the most interesting story in the 'Goshayatra' is about the goat turned tiger story of Bal Thakarey, his colleague in 'The Free Press Journal'. The book clearly depicts a historical account of modern indian english journalism and detailed profiles of its forefathers and their contributions, commitments, dedications etc. This makes this book a must read to the students of journalism and new generation journalists.

TJS George is a journalist who began his career in Bombay's Free Press Journal in 1950, moved through the International Press Institute, The Searchlight and the Far Eastern Economic Review to become the founding editor of Asiaweek (Hong Kong). He is currently on the Company Board of The New Indian Express.

The Reader: Unlock The Mystery Behind Oscar

Well, Kate Winslet finally got the oscar  for best actress for her 'mesmerising' performance in 'The Reader'. It has been, really, a long hard road since her first nomination. To be clear its fourteen years ago that she got the first nomination. Totally its seven nominations, the first for Sense and sensibility, then Titanic (1997), Iris (2001),   Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind (2004), Little Children (2006) and finally The Reader. In-between, there were lots of other attempts to get nominated, with performances in Kenneth Branagh's amazing four-hour Hamlet (1996), Philip Kaufman's fascinating Quills (2000), the awful anti-death-penalty message movie The Life of David Gale (2003), the turgid Finding Neverland (2004), and even a remake of a former Oscar-winner, All the King's Men (2006).

The Reader has done the rounds as the year's most provocative thriller ! Do you know what element in her performance that lead to Oscar in The Reader. To me its nothing but her 'outstanding' seductive performance with the youg boy Michael Berg. Her poetic acting of sex and nudity has got much attention rather than what the whole film is all about.