Saturday, June 25, 2011

Back After a Tiring Journey to Vellore

Last week was one of the busiest week as far as I am concerned. I had to travel to Vellore in Tamil Nadu regarding a admission for my sibling and I had to stay there for almost 5 days. I started my journey on Saturday evening from Aluva Railway station on Kerala Express.  I didn't have a confirmed ticket but luckily we got the berths till Katpadi junction, where we needed to get down. We reached Katpadi Junction at around 3 AM and hired an auto to a lodge near circuit house in Allupuram.

When I left Kerala, the climate was a wet one, but the climate in Vellore was just the opposite. It was pretty dry and hot climate in Vellore and I really felt uncomfortable. The next day we had to go to CMC in Vellore where the admission interview was to take place. We went to CMC's Bahayam campus and the procedures started smoothly.

The food and water was a real issue, as most of the hotels offered foods which we could not really enjoy. And the water offered at all the hotels in Vellore were pathetic. We had to buy bottled mineral water and settle on that. By Wednesday evening the results were announced and we happily returned back to Kerala on Thursday evening.

Al the crappy food items were expensive when compared with the same in Kerala. The only good thing that I felt there is the bus and auto fare which were far better than the fares in Kerala. After spending 4 Rs in the bus, I was able to travel almost around 15 kms. In Kerala we should pay around 10-12 Rs to cover that much distance.

The 4 days that we spend there was one of the most boring one, that I have experienced in the near future. Vellore is not a place where one gets a lot for sightseeing and other time passing activities. The only thing that I saw out there was the Vellore Fort and the Temple inside the Vellore Fort, which were worth watching. We spend around 4 hours in Vellore Fort and at the end we got really tired and headed back to our hotel rooms.

The other major time pass was taking snaps of the places through which I had to go through and I would surely be sharing those pics in this blog very soon.

Monday, June 13, 2011

M G University Kerala is Really Spoiling Student's Future

M G University in Kottayam is one of the oldest University in Kerala which offers different kinds  of courses. I did my graduation from M G University and ever since I never had a pleasant experience with this University. They never conducted exams on time, they never published the results on time and they never even do anything to solve out students complaints and issues. Whenever we go to the university we can see a bunch of lazy workers over there who doesn't even dare to hear our problems.

I am not sure how we afford such lazy workers in a university which leads to utter problems to a student's career. During my college days, some of my friends also faced some serious issues to their career, due to the delay in the publication of the final year results. At that time the final year B Sc result was published by around the month of August and by that time most of the the colleges in other universities closed the admission for M Sc and other Post Graduate programmes. As a result most of my friends lost out on a seat in some of the best universities and colleges in India.

Recently I also had a bitter experience and this time my sibling was at the receiving end. She had qualified for a M Sc course in another University in Tamil Nadu and she strictly needed any proof of passing the qualifying exam and as a result we are afraid that she might lose this seat. I tried calling various departments in the M G University, which was provided in their website, but non of the single phone calls got attended. It really creates frustration and all our hard work and dedication goes in vein. M G University is really playing with the future a large number of people and still there has not been any action taken against these idiotic employees.

Monday, June 6, 2011

At Last Sun Shines Over Kerala

After raining heavily and continuously for the last 1 week, the sun has finally appeared over the sky which is a much welcome news for those in Kerala. Actually the continuous rain had made life miserable as one could not even actually come out from their respective houses. The steady rain also spread the threat of severe flood, but since the sky has cleared and the sun has come out, the threat seems to have vanished for the time being.

Going to the office was yet another hectic task, as I had to ride the bike under the heavy rains. Those who used public transport also had their own share of problems.  The chances of road accidents was also at its peak, due to low visibility, bad road conditions etc. Most of the cities experience heavy water logging in the last 7 days and this has caused more problems for the commuters.

Washing the clothes faced yet another setback due to the rain, as it was difficult to get the clothes dried. Even if the clothes dried, there would be a foul smell  on the clothes. Hopes that the sun stays here for a good time!!

Some Good News for Kerala Rubber Farmers

The arrival of monsoon in Kerala would see a fall in the overall production of rubber in India and as a results the natural rubber prices may rise up to Rs 10 per kg in the domestic market. The current price for rubber is Rs 226 per kg. The arrival of monsoon in Kerala have put  a halt on the rubber tapping and as a result the overall supply has gone down, as Kerala is one of the highest rubber producing state in Kerala.

As per the officials the rubber prices are unlikely to rise sharply as demand is expected to remain subdued as import has increased on low global prices and a change in import duty structure from 20 per cent of the price of the imported good to Rs 20 per kg or 20 per cent, whichever is lower.

Anyway this is again a good news for the rubber farmers in Kerala, as they are already enjoying  a great market price for the rubber. I really feel sad that I sold out my rubber plantation 13 years back, as the price hit a  low of around Rs 20 that time. But a few years after I sold out my rubber plantation, the prices started to pump up in an incredible way :(

Thursday, June 2, 2011

Monsoon in Kerala Makes the Roads More Worse

The monsoon have started in full flow in Kerala and it has been raining heavily for the last few days. Almost all of the low lying lands in Kerala have been affected by water logging and people are having a hard time. Another major issue with the monsoon in Kerala is that almost all the major roads would get transformed into bad shape and make traveling a nightmare.

Today also I noticed that some of the major roads have started showing deterioration and hopes that within a week all these roads would be bad enough to create fear among the travelers. But there are certain roads that do not get into any trouble during the monsoon and these roads are also having one of the highest traffic rate. It makes really confusing how some of the roads sustain the monsoon while some other turn into pieces.

This seems to be mainly due to the corrupted construction of the roads and the authorities have to be blamed for this. They take a huge amount of bribes from the contractors and as a result the contractors are forced to cut down on the expenses for the road taring and maintenance purpose. Hence they end up doing road maintenance of low quality and as a result the roads would not be able to sustain the climatic conditions.

Really feel frightened to travel through these roads in the coming months when the monsoon would be at its best. The pathetic conditions of the roads in Kerala during the monsoon season would be inviting more serious accidents and the pathetic state of the roads would remain till the month of December. It would be only after December when the authorities wake up and do some hasty patch works on the roads, making it more uncomfortable for traveling.

Wednesday, June 1, 2011

Monsoon Keeps Date with Kerala

As per the MET predictions, the monsoon has kept its date with Kerala as it has started raining heavily in Kerala since today morning. The MET predictions had stated that monsoon would hit Kerala by June 1st. It was a happy feeling to wake up hearing the rain drops pouring on the terrace as it brought back memories of my school days where it always rained on the first week of June when the school opens after the long vacation.

It seems to be one of the best time to spend the day on bed watching the rains from behind the windows. But that would remain a dream as I have to go to the office, which is my main source of income. The arrival of monsoon would also throw fear into my mind as we can expect flood and other natural calamities as the monsoon strengthens. There is already water logging near my house in Kadungalloor and it makes things difficult for those who travel by foot.

Any way I hope the authorities make sure to avoid such type of water logging, and helps us to enjoy the monsoon season to its maximum. I am really waiting for the weekend to happen as I can spend some sweet time on the bed watching this amazing phenomenon of the nature. The arrival of monsoon has also made my travel more difficult as I have to wear rain coats while traveling on my bike. Needs to be more careful while driving in the rain and we can also expect our roads to be more horrible in the coming days as our roads gets torn apart after a strong rain every year.