Divya goes to cast her vote

 

Divya is  CONGRESS I

Sarat her husband is  CPM

Divya  goes to cast her vote at 5pm at Pettah on 9th April 2026

She was told her vote had  already been cast by someone

She started shouting. She said the vote was her right.

She said she won't leave without voting or exercising her franchise

Then they gave her a paper to sign and allowed her to vote

Hearing this Reena said Susan's vote could have been cast like this. 

Susan is away at Kattappana.

It was difficult for her to return on the 9th to participate in the election process.

Question remains.

Had Susan's vote  been cast?

WHERE IS KERALAM HEADED?

Words fail me.

Channel  after Channel (Malayalam) revel in showing off the murder in the open of a young man.

His crime?

He tried to dissuade two groups from a fight in the bar. He dared to interfere where no one bothered to pacify the warring groups.

Result?

The poor man was murdered in the open. He was hit, He was kicked. There he lay on the road helpless. The murderers did not relent. His ribs were broken. He was smothered. 

On lookers stood there watching the sordid drama. They went on capturing everything on the phone. 

The Channels had their bite.

The murder went live across the state, the nation and the world.

A young child lost its father. A young wife lost her husband. A mother lost her son.

Why can't the Channels desist from telecasting the horror.

No they won't ever.

We have become a tribe that derives pleasure from watching without flinching the murder of a fellow human being in real time as long as we are not directly a part of it.

PARENTS MIND YOUR PHONE USE

 

Sneha Bhura writes in The Times of India of 14th April 2026.

Parents, mind your phone use, or your rules for Kids won't matter

The writer continues:

Moms and Dads worry about Digital Addiction. But often overlook their own Roles as First Role Models

Highlights:

Twenty years ago, parenting meant chasing scraped knees and bedtime stories. Today, it is negotiating screen curfews between back to back videocalls. Parents have to juggle Zoom meetings and fight their own urge even as they exhort their kids to 'look up,'

For a parent, in a real story, mindless scrolling was a reflex reaction. She had entered the social media as her neighbours and contacts had considered her too traditional since she was inactive on social media. When her daughter was in Class 10, she advised her to quit social media. However, she understood she should not stay on in social media if she were to suggest that to her daughter.

She calls it social modelling.

The whole family stayed off social media and had shifted their news habits to television. They began watching the TV news together instead of scrolling. While phones keep everyone updated individually, the time spent together watching  TV allowed them to discuss among themselves and gravitate to what was happening around the world.

A study reveals, Indian parents spend over 5 hours daily on smartphones while children spend over 4 hours. The children have identified excessive usage of smartphones as source of conflict between them and their parents.

Delhi based clinical psychologist Rachna K Singh expresses her views:

"When parents frequently check phones during meals or keep them close while unwinding, adolescents perceive it as the normal way to live. Research shows that over 70% of teenagers say they have seen their parents use devices during family time, which directly influences how they set their own boundaries."

We may listen  to another opinion as well:

"Parenting was different in the days before smartphone. If you were told not to do something beyond a certain time, it was at least partially respected. Today that's a very debatable topic."

How to transcend this downward spiral of distraction?

Your own hobbies can come to your rescue.

It's true, during Covid everything was online - Work calls, Zoom, Teams - while the Kids were in online classes. Covid Phase had shaped people's relationship with gadgets. Now, it's instant access to everything. Kids have too much, too easily. It's indeed bad they'll never know the sense of waiting or looking forward to things.

Scrolling has become a reflex reaction for almost everyone.

The cycle could be broken if you would rediscover your hobbies. Parents struggling with tech addiction must find an activity they love.  It would help children pull away from their gadgets if they pick up a hobby or sport.

When the parents go after their hobbies the children will never be far behind.

ABRAHAM EAPEN OF IVY LEAGUE ACADEMY AND A WALK THROUGH THE RAIN

 

 13/4/2026

Raju, or Abraham Eapen, my sister Leela's husband is a tough task master. He's the elder brother of Jose Paikad, a great educator.

Abraham Eapen is former Vice Principal, Ivy League Academy, Hyderabad - Secunderabad

It was with trepidation I had handed over a copy of my book A WALK THROUGH THE RAIN to him. 

But WATCH the conversation afterwards

16/03/2026 

Raju

I read the first 130 pages of the book. The chapters about Robin and Papa’s Hospital Episode were very touching. I liked it verymuch.Succeeded in conveying the emotions intended. Editing left much to be desired. Rest after completion of the book.

16/03/2026

Thank you for the comments.

On editing, I knew something was wrong after it was published.

What happened was, it was a rush job to beat the deadline. I couldn't have a look before it went to the press. I was away at Alapuzha. 

If at all a second edition comes out some of the glitches could be obviated, I believe.

17/03/2026

The chapters on” Kuzhappamilla” and "Back Bench Philosophy" are exactly the same thought I also have. The book cover is excellent! I finished reading it . You have enormous patience to take the pain to write so much . It is an effort worth applauding!

17/03/2026

Grateful for reading it in full.

And thanks for the compliments.

Creative writing is an area where you are compelled to express. 

The cover was designed by Bejoy B. A friend and well wisher.

All credit to him.

I consider the applause from you is worth the diamond standard.

Thank you once again

HOW MICHELE HANSEN LANDED HER JOB

 

HOW MICHELE HANSEN LANDED HER JOB
Adam Grant elucidates in Think Again

In 2014, Michele Hansen came across a job opening for a product manager at an investment company. She was excited about the position. But she wasn't qualified for it. She had no background in finance and lacked the required number of years of experience.

Yet she applied for the the position. Rather than tryiing to hide her shortcomings, she began with them.

"I'm probably not the candidate you've been envisioning. I don't have a decade of experience as a Product Manager nor am I a Certified Financial Planner." 

Then she went on:

"But what I do have are skills that can't be taught. I take ownership of projects far beyond my pay grade and what is in my defined scope of responsibilities. I don't wait for people to tell me what to do and go seek for myself what needs to be done.  I invest myself deeply in my projects and it shows in everything I do, from my projects at work to my projects that I undertake on my own time at night. I'm entrpreneurial. I get things done. And I know I would make an excellent right hand for the co-founder leading this project. I love breaking new ground and starting witha blank slate.

(And any of my previous bosses would be able to attest to these traits.)"

Michele didn't preach her qualifications. She demonstrated she was self aware of her shortcomings and was secure enough to admit them.

A week later she had a phone interview that was followed by another. On the calls she asked about experiments they'd run recently that had surprised them.

Eventually, Michele got the job., thrived and was promoted to lead product development

This is not unique. 

People are more interested in hiring candidates who acknowledge weaknesses as opposed to bragging or humblebragging

SMARTPHONE MAKES YOU OLDER

 

Dr. Baby Chakrapani P S writes in The Times of India of 9th april 2026
Is your smartphone making you older?
Alarming link between Screen Addiction and Brain Aging

When you scroll before bed, the blue light emitted by your screen suppresses melantonin --    -- the hormone that signals the body to wind down. LED screens, which are present in every smartphone, tablet and laptop emit far higher  concentrations of short wavelength blue light than older light sources such as incandescent bulbs. While the scrolling feels like harmless entertainment, your body registers them as a health hazard. The more you scroll at night, the worse you sleep.

The damage runs deeper than a groggy morning, as blue light exposure can reduce dendritic spines -- the tiny protrusions on neurons where memories form and are stored.  Think of them as the branches on which your recollections grow. When these wither, so does your ability to learn and remember. There could be incidence of depression and cognitive decline as well.

When we repeatedly expose our brains to blue light during evolutionarily inappropriate hours, we create what researchers now describe as a state of chronic internal jet lag --and neural tissue pays the price.

It has been observed that more than four hours of daily use of a blue light device is associated with poorer sleep efficiency, greater daytime dysfunction and irregular sleep timing. Moreover, individuals who sleep fewer than six hours per night experience dramatically steeper decline in memory, executive function and attention. Sleep disorders due to late night scrolling induce physical inactivity that in turn cause the onset of dementia and hypertension.

Disruptions in sleep patterns disturb the delicate equilibrium of the gut microbiota, causing dysbiosis - alterations in microbial composition and function that cascade through body's most essential systems.

When your gut suffers, your emotional resilience suffers with it. 

The very device you reach for to relax may be quietly dismatling your mental resilience. The unbridled use of smartphones is, science suggests, a measure of a national health risk hiding in plain sight.

Smartphone addiction could be fought off with following steps.

1. No devices in the bedroom.

2. Morning light exposure.

3. Phone free walks.

4. Digital sabbaths

5. Dietary support.

The solution will come from reclaiming time for what the brain requires -- rest, real connection, and the natural rhythms that sustained human health for millenia.

Your phone is a tool. It was never designed to be a lifeline. And your brain -- that magnificent three pound universe inside your skull -- deserves better than to be collateral damage in the attention economy. 

So today, when you are tempted to scroll "just for a few minutes", ask youself: is this worth a night of disrupted sleep, a gut ecosystem thrown off balance, another morning of brain fog? Or is it time to let your body do what it has been quietly waiting to do -- heal?

The choice is yours.

PLIGHT OF THE PEOPLE PLEASER

 

PLIGHT OF THE PEOPLE PLEASER

Adam Grant  writes in  Think Again

As long as I can remember, I've been determined to keep the peace. May be it's genetic. May be it's because my parents got divorced. Whatever the cause, in Psychology there is a name for my affliction. 

It's called Agreeableness. 

It is one of the major personality traits around the world. 

Agreeable people tend to be nice, friendly, polite. 

My first impulse is to avoid even the most trivial of conflicts. When I am riding in an Uber and the air conditioning is blasting, I struggle to bring myself to ask the driver to turn it down ---I just sit there shivering in silence until my teeth start to chatter.

When someone steps on my shoe, I've actually apologised for inconveniently leaving my foot in his path. When students fill out course evaluation, one of their most common complaints is that I'm "too supportive of stupid comments."

My answer to the question, "Why I avoid conflict," is :

1.It saves time.
2. It might save the friendship
3. It might not help to argue.
4. I don't want anyone to be mad at me.

On the contra, Disagreeable people tend to be more crotical, skeptical and challenging. They are not just cofortable with conflict. 

It energises them.