Rubber Price in Kerala Goes Down with Japan Tsunami

The recent Tsunami and earth quake in Japan has claimed a lot of lives along with other destruction to properties and industries. Japan is the largest produces of automobiles and most of the famous automobiles comes from Japan.  Japan is home to some of the major car manufacturing companies such as Suzuki, Mitsubishi, Nissan etc and most of these factories have been shut down for the time being as a result of this unexpected tsunami and earth quake.

The recent earth quake and tsunami is also going to affect Kerala in some other ways, as Kerala is one of the leading rubber suppliers to Japan. As Japan is very much active in the automobile manufacturing activities, most of the rubbers are imported from Kerala. Since Japan has been affected by the natural disaster the rubber prices in Kerala has come down considerably low. Most of the rubber merchants have faced the loss due to the fall in the rubber price.

Kerala is one of the leading rubber producers in India, as it has a large number of districts which are know for its rubber plantation and production. The rubber price in Kerala was above Rs 200 before the tsunami in Japan, but after the tsunami had hit Japan the prices came down below Rs 200. So the rubber estate owners has to wait for some time, for the rubber price to increase. Once things are back to normal in Japan, we can expect the rubber price to increase once again.

This is an Amazing Piece of Art Work in PhotoShop

Art is one of most valuable talent that one possess during a life time and everyone is not born with an artistic talent. There are various forms of arts such as singing, acting, painting etc. Here I would like to share one simple painting art created by one of my friend and he did it in Adobe PhotoShop.  The first time when I saw this, I could not simply believe that it was an art work. But when he showed be the PSD file, I had to forcefully believe that it was created using PhotoShop.

This image created by him is just one small piece of his artistic talent, but I cannot help myself from posting it on my blog, as this one is simply superb. The image is of a coffee cup having black coffee and this one is designed with utmost perfection. Hope you also enjoy this cup of coffee....

The first Indian Movie with Sound : Alam Ara Celebrates its 80th Anniversary

Today is the 80th Anniversary for Alam Ara, which is the first Indian Movie with Sound. The film was released in 1931 and the literal meaning of Alam Ara is "The Light of the World". The movie was directed by  Ardeshir Irani and the movie made its debut at Majestic Cinema in Mumbai  on 14th March 1931.

I have seen this movie some times back, but don't remember the story of the movie as I was too young to remember. Today Google Doodle is also celebrating the 80 years of Alam Ara as we can see the image representing the movie on Google's home page. I still wonder how the viewers watched movies before that which had no sound at all. It should be really a tough thing and we are really lucky as we are living in an advanced world where we can watch movies with all the technological features.

The movie was a hit and so was its music.  The movie was noted for a hit song "De de khuda ke naam per", which was considered to be the first song of the Indian cinema, and by actor Wazir Mohammed Khan. Other actors included  Master Vithal, Zubeida, Jilloo, Sushila, Prithviraj Kapoor etc. There actors might not be remembered by the current generation, but they would always maintain their place in the history books as the first actors of the first Indian movie with Sound. I desperately needs to watch this movie if it is available on the net.

Overall a busy day!!

Today was a busy and hectic day for me as I had to take care both my personal and professional life in a balanced way. I started the day with going to the hospital at 5.30 AM to take an admission for a health consultation and the hospital was Little Flower Hospital in  Angamaly. The purpose was to show my daughter to an ENT specialist, as she was having some ear infection.

The out patient department was supposed to open at 10 AM, so I expected to reach my office in Kakkanadu (Ernakulam) at a delay of 1 or 2 hours. I went to the hospital with my kid and wife and met the doctor at around 10.30 Am. After that I had to collect a certificate for my wife from a Nursing College of the same hospital and actually got it in no time.

My next venue was Sree Sankara College in Kalady, where my wife completed her pre-degree course and I had to collect a certificate from there also. But 10 minutes after I entered the college a strike broke out and due to the intensity of the strike, a few policemen were also seen roaming around. I saw the Principal going out of his room and later came to know that he has gone for a compromise meeting with the various party members and I had to wait around 1.5 hours for him to reach. Once he reached, I got all the necessary documents and when I looked at my watch it was 1.30 PM. I was shocked as I had to reach the office by 1 to get atleast a half working day. But since I had some urgent work to complete, I had to hurry and after 2 hours I reached my office. Everyone was looking at me in some sort of amazement as the time had reached for them to leave the office. But I have to sit in the office to finish of my work which would take around 6-7 hours more.

Aluva to Kakkanadu Bus Service - A Real Woe for Travelers

Kakkanadu is a place where a lot of government and private companies have their offices and operation centers. As a result people from other part of Ernakulam come to this place daily for work. There are a lot of people from Aluva who regularly comes to Kakannadu for job. But the misery is that despite of a large number of daily travellers, there are no sufficient transportation facilities. There are no private bus services from Aluva to Kakkanadu and people have to rely on the KSRTC buses. As per KSRTC's time table, there are buses operating from Aluva to Kakkanadu every 20 minutes. But the reality is that you would find yourself waiting for even 1 hour to board on to a bus to Kakkanadu.

If you don't board on the KSRTC buses to Kakkanadu from Aluva KSRTC bus station, then it would be very difficult for you to get a seat. For those boarding from Kalamassery and HMT junction, getting into the bus is one of the most adventurous things, as they have to face the huge rush and most of them tries to catch the next bus hoping to get a seat or atleast a place to stand. But the next bus would arrive almost after 30 minutes and that too jam packed.

I am still wondering on when the Government of Kerala or the KSRTC department would make sure to make enough bus services through Aluva - Kakkanadu route so the people can travel comfortable without any rush. Even in the peak hours, there are no sufficient bus services through this route. I have seens empty buses plying unnecessarily through other routes more frequently than the Aluva - Kakkanadu route. Why don't these KSRTC officials take sensible measures and add few more services through this route??

The number of people using these bus services are on a rapid increase every day and still no measures are taken to increase the number of services through this route. To worsen the scene, most of the buses cancel their trips due to some reasons without making any alternative arrangements. Its high time that the travelers organize and file a request to the authorities to issues some more buses through this route so that we can have a comfortable journey without too much rush.

Finally Signed the Agreement

After searching for a house for almost 2 months, finally signed an agreement to buy a house near Aluva at Kadungallor. After reaching upon an agreement on the rate, I had given a token amount to the owner 2 weeks back. After that I was waiting for the amount to arrive so that I can sign up the agreement. And on 2nd March 2011, the deal was made and I need to pay the full amount in a period of one month in order to complete the registration of the property. The house is locate around 4 kms away from Aluva town and is hardly 10 kms away from Cochin International Airport in Nedumbassery.

Actually buying a house is one of the most tedious jobs, as there are a lot of things that needs to be taken care of. First the agreement has to be made and before the completion of the registration we need to make sure that all the required documents are produced in front of us. The documents include house tax receipts, land tax receipts, encumbrance certificate etc.

Hopes that the coming days would be a busy one for me as I have to make sure that all the formalities are in place before we start living in the new house. Anyways I will keep you updated on this.