BreakingNews : Kerala plans to close remaining (all) bars. Shut down announced by Oomen Chandy today

Aug 21, 2014: The Kerala Government has apparently decided to close the remaining bars in the state. This means that by April 2015, all the bars in Kerala will be shut down and licences will not be given/renewed.

This news today was announced by none other than the Chief Minister Mr Oomen Chandy during his conversation with journalists at a press conference today.

Note – This is breaking news so there might be some clarifications issued by the Chief Minister once specifics are detailed.

In news that is surely going to create a storm (in a rum bottle? 😉 , the Congress has made its intention clear that they are working towards total prohibition. However, right now tons of loopholes exist for drinkers to get their fix. Only 5 star hotels can serve liquor to patrons, and that obviously will be out of the reach of the common man. Looks like dry days are ahead for the notoriously alcohol addicted state.

Technically it isn’t a water tight prohibition, because the civil supply corporation can continue to sell liquor through its outlets. This means that the queues of people waiting to buy alcohol is going to get longer at these Bevco outlets.

There are going to be plenty of people going to say that this assumes that people who can afford 5 star hotels are being given preferential treatment, and that allowing 5 star hotel bars to continue serving liquor to customers is a bit elitist – it makes it look like the common man cannot be trusted with his habits.

I wonder how the government expects to service tourists who come to Kerala and want to have a drink , but not at a 5 star hotel. I guess some of the illegal but tolerated systems like at Kovalam beach will continue to flourish. I learned to my surprise from a friend that only one or two hotels in Kovalam have the license to serve liquor at their bars.

There is also a talk that Saturdays are going to be dry days! Imagine that! One can’t but help feel that the rule (if it is confirmed) is that this seems to be a bit draconian in terms of freedom to do what you want.

The news seems to be that none other than Chief Minister Mr Oomen Chandy mentioned during a press conference about this policy. Here is the news article on the Asianet news website where his comments have been published –

http://www.asianetnews.tv/news/article/15867_dry-days

The press conference by Mr Chandy happened today on August 21, 2014

So the question on everybody’s mind is – when does the bars in kerala get shut down according to this new liquor policy? The answer is that it is from April 1st 2015 onwards. Atleast according to what the Chief minister Oomen Chandy says.

The curious thing is to watch what impact this news will have on the short term and the long term. Will people spend this money on something else? Or will they stubbornly spend it at BevCo? Will they Stock up at home and cause a mushrooming of house parties? How will these hotels survive (many of them make all their profits from the bars, while the rooms and facilities are just eyewash for retaining the license). Will the long (now longer) queues at Bevco deter drinkers or will their addiction win over the soul sucking wait for reaching the front of the queue? What about those who work at bars – will the restaurant industry absorb them? Will someone write down the tips and tricks of the bar industry before it is lost to history?

The trend so far has been that even though around half the bars in kerala were shut down the total consumption was distributed amongst the remaining bars, and at the sales at the Bevco outlets or what is called “Civil supplies”, or “Civil” in short – rather ironic considering some of the stuff done after a tipple is hardly “Civil”

The Bar license issue has been festering for some time in Kerala, ever since the government took the step of shutting down bars based on their ratings. There was a major tug of war going on between politicians in the ruling Congress party in Kerala regarding the policy on liquor and bars. The head of the KPCC Mr VM Sudheeran was dead set against allowing bars to open, while other more “practical” elements were in favor of relaxing the rules.

The Indian Union Muslim league had come out against the consumption of alcohol and said they support a ban – which seems to be a given because their official stance will be driven by their religious rules against consuming alcohol.

Meanwhile the Strongman and leader of the SNDP (an organization of the Ezhava caste in Kerala) had come out in support of the bars in Kerala, saying something to the effect that the ongoing bar shutdown is not ‘practical’. While SNDP in principle is against alcohol, considering its patron saint Sree Narayana Guru, many of its members hold key investments in the Abkari businesses, so it is not a surprise that they want a much more pragmatic stance. Wonder how they will react to Chief Minister Oomen Chandy’s comments today in the press conference regarding the upcoming shut down of the remaining bars.

So what are the new rules of pleasure and leisure (and a bit of anti social behavior) for the tipplers of kerala? Maybe like the incessant Diesel fuel hikes that creep up month on month, the drinkers in kerala will slowly adapt to a world without bars

I guess the malayalees who will queue up at the bars this onam, will cherish their last memories of their watering holes.

Saritha Nair of solar scam fame publishes official Facebook page, profile racks up followers and fans fast

Update: Apparently some Videos of the Solar Scam accused Saritha S Nair have been leaked and are circulating on Whatsapp mobile application. Since these videos contain nudity and sexually suggestive/adult material, the video clips have gone viral on Facebook and are being picked up and reported on Video channels. Apparently the mobile clippings show her naked and seem to have been filmed by herself. She has (kaumudi reports) issued a statement that those who have leaked her videos will be subject to legal punishments. That hasn’t stopped thousands of people sharing the leaked video on whatsapp and others from trying to download the video from the web. There are apparently upto 6 mobile video clippings that seem to have been shared.

(From few weeks ago ) Saritha S Nair launched her Official Facebook page today, just a few hours ago. Looks like a real profile, not a fake one  that is typically made in the dozens with anonymous profiles. It is not confirmed that it is an official profile, though i expect the various TV channels from Manorama to Mathrubhumi would start to cover this news sometime. Saritha Nair’s claim to fame (or infamy) is that she was the figurehead of the solar scam that erupted in kerala and threatened to take down the Oomen Chandy government.  She has added some information about herself and photos of herself as Facebook posts.

This is the link to the profile that has popped up on Facebook –

https://www.facebook.com/pages/Saritha-S-Nair/508358825962367

(This page seems to have been taken down after Saritha’s videos have been leaked and shared on Whatsapp)

As soon as Saritha Nair launched her Facebook page, it started to collect thousands of followers. Within the first 18 hours of publishing her facebook page, it got close to 10000 fans.

It is pretty interesting to watch how a page by a popular (well by fame or infamy) get launched and grow so fast in terms of facebook followers and fans. Some companies would kill to get the same traction! And the post engagement is good too – the first Facebook photo post she has put has crossed 1000 likes!

She’s (if it is her) written a short introduction about herself, and also put up a banner with a quote from Buddha about moving on. Perhaps Saritha has decided to use Facebook as a medium to hit back at her detractors who have been hounding her on media. It remains to be seen if her official facebook page will open up another route for people to rave and rant on her and the solar scam.

This is particularly complicated by the fact that Saritha is a lady, and the incident is politically colored. So plenty of the usual nervewrecks and political commentators will be onto her very soon.

All kinds of creative comments and jokes have started rolling into the facebook postings that she has put up so far.

Earthquake at technopark trivandrum, kerala

I was at work at Technopark when all of a sudden everyone experienced a mild earthquake! I had never thought that Kerala was earthquake prone, and that too an earthquake in the Technopark area in Trivandrum!! apparently Kerala does have seismic activity in areas like Idukki!

UPDATE: Someone in twitter is saying that the earthquake that hit us in technopark it was richter scale 3.4 . Unsubstantiated. Im off to wikipedia to read this up. Someone else is telling these richter scale points are exponential so there is a big difference between each point.

The odd thing is that i had rented out the bottom of my house (in Trivandrum, but around 12 kms from Technopark) to a couple who had been in San Diego California. And the woman swore yesterday that she felt tremors! And we dismissed it (perhaps the sheer boringness of Trivandrum got to them – apparently they were lured by the laid back lifestyle at Technopark!) . But turns out she was right! In San Diego they have mild shocks every few days and people are used to it.

Another interesting thing is that of all the comments in different blogs, most  people use their town name, or their specific area of living like “I experienced the earthquake at Pattom” etc but for us ‘Technopark’ians we mention our company name or the name of our building.  This kind of shows a different psyche. We define the space around us in a way different from normal people.  Our company, our building and then everything else!

Technopark comments on the Trivandrum Earthquake also include a lot of humourous (or not!) flak for the project managers et al. Apparently some stoic project managers and team leads have asked the teams to meet the ‘dead’ line before they leave today 🙂

Another thing – i expect flat prices around Technopark to come down quick!  SFS and co are going to have some emergency meetings to dispel any rumours. Particularly since they were banking heavily on the boom near Technopark. And we are soon going to see some advertisements about ‘safety features’ of the upcoming buildings. Its about high time we focussed on building safety too.  This might be as good a time as any, and those who invest in building safety should deserve the publicity. One of the first links i got when searching for ‘Technopark Earthquake’ was an entry about the new leela buildings earthquake safety norms! (Leela has set up a 400 000 + floor space building in Technopark, near the Nila building.  Ironically Nila is one of the oldest buildings in Technopark.)

Its not like we are minting money in Technopark – its pretty hard work (well atleast most of the time : ) ) So the construction folks better start spending some of our ‘flat booking’ money into making their buildings a bit more safer in case a stronger earthquake hits us in the future.

As soon as everyone started to feel the Earthquake, the phone lines started to get jammed and i get the feeling that the internet lines clogged up a bit. Maybe it just my connection. Or maybe WordPress doing some updates.

Twitter seems to be the fastest of the lot in covering the news. Within 5 minutes there were pages of comments covering the event. I checked Orkut and Facebook but no movement(even though quite a few Technopark folks have active profiles  – though many companies in technopark block these social networks at work) . Neither the Gmail chat symbols. The Technopark oriented websites made some updates after taking a bit of time. Maybe the adminstrators are having a drink at the local Technopark watering hole B6.

Being into online marketing myself, was curious to see how quickly google picks up the different postings (including mine) and they didn’t let me down – it was up in just a few minutes. Not bad. Infact someone’s already picked up content from my posting and plastered it over their own blog site 🙂 Thats not bad – updates, plagarism, and what not – in just minutes.

Speaking of B6 , the rumour in Technopark was that they were the only people who didnt know about the earthquake at technopark. They just thought it was a stiff drink shaking them up!!

For those living under rocks – B6 is the only ‘Bar’ within crawlable distance of Technopark. Its the lifeline of Technopark and might even get some venture capital from Technoparkies, if it ever threatened to shut down. But thats unlikely because half of the Technopark salaries go straight and quick into the drains right there!)

Anyway thank god everyone is safe. I heard there were mild earthquakes  after-shocks  in Pattom, Nalachira etc from the comments on the other blogs.

Hope there is no damage to the big dams like Mullaperiyar etc due to the earthquake. Right now the news we have is that its the Trivandrum district that experienced the quakes.

Need to check up the Manorama, Mathrubhumi and Kaumadi channels to see which one picks up the news quickest.

Another pleasant/unpleasant shock is how quickly technoparkians recover from this kind of potential crisis. Everyone is playing around and cracking jokes. Wonder if the IT ‘crisis management’ culture has made us a bit too fatalistic or downright ‘come-as-it-may’ in our attitude. Anything short of the Dollar dropping in value equivalent to the Rupee, is not going to fluster us Technopark folks (that would be an Earthquake of historic proportions if it even happened).  On the other hand, worrying is not going to help.