(One)
I am glad that we have been able to land in the fertile soil of the second year after the birth of the ezine. The journey, so far, has been successful by all standards. Of course, in the journey, there were falls and accidents; but we disregarded them and came forward with determination. This time, when we present the sixth issue, which happens to be the second in the second year, we feel proud that we are now able to stand strong enough o attract advertisers and readers with a good level of understanding and appreciation. This issue carries the writings of men and women from different parts of the world. I thank them all. . I extend my heart-felt gratitude to my advertiser, Kadavu Resorts, Calicut. I would also mention my sense of indebtedness to Sunil and Jayadev without whom this issue and the earlier issues would not have been possible.

(Two)
The times are not very pleasant due to situations created by the ruling outfits in our country and elsewhere. The UPA Govt under Dr. Man Mohan Singh seems committed to the US hegemonists to enter the so-called civil nuclear agreement known widely as the 123 Agreement. The reasoning is, beyond doubt, very much feeble: by 2029, India is going to produce a few mega watts of electricity! No sane citizens of the country could believe that our rulers with a line-up of Pranab Kumar Mukherjee and A. K Anthony could speak like simpletons. But, alas! It has happened; they have spoken up in the most obviously unconvincing terms. We can forget Mrs. Sonia Gandhi because she as a politician is a chance happening. We can disregard even our Prime Minister because he was convinced of the invincibility of the US controlled globalization process even before he became the Prime Minister of our country. But there are politicians in the cabinet and the Congress party. Unfortunately, it is mostly politicians who oppose the politics in politics now-a-days. They argue that governance and government should be apolitical and the theory was given an amount of credence when Dr. Abdul Kalam was elected President of the Republic of India. Disregarding all constitutional norms he began to address Assemblies of legislators and formulate policies for them on the floor of the legislatures.
An almost similar stand is pursued by the rulers of India as far as the 123 agreement is concerned. They have total disregard for the elected representatives of the Indian people in the Parliament. But the US authorities are diametrically in the opposite direction in this regard; they would enter any agreement only according to the norms in the acts and bills of the Congress, i.e., the US Parliament. This is the relevance of the Hyde Act, the Act proposed by Henry Joseph Hyde and adopted by the Congress.
And today, when I type this note, I see that the central Govt is going to risk the existence of a secular Govt fro the sake of the so-called 35,000 MW of electricity to be produced by 2029. As if there were no other alternatives to produce electricity! As if the nuclear energy generation is a very harmless adventure! We have before us the history of great mishaps like Chernobyl and others.
It is a sorry truth that rulers never learn from history, especially the rulers of the third world countries; the simple lesson they should have learnt is that wherever the US extended help by way of agreement and aids, it has gradually exterminated the will and power of those societies. Whoever stood firm against the US is still standing on his own legs.
Writings on the US walls also predict the impending calamity to those who share the sentiments of the present US rulers. We hope against hope that our rulers would become wise enough to learn this lesson, before it is very late.
The latest report is that the ruling congress party has, at least temporarily, withdrawn from its haste to implement the 123 agreement. And the Prime minister has said now that even without this agreement the country will go forward. And the country should go forward.

(Three)
Kerala had started on a set of great adventures in Munnar and similar regions. But the course of the action seems misled. The act of the chief minister encircling the Tata-held Govt land in an apparently personal adventurism started the decay of the much acclaimed Munnar bravery. Had the chief minister wanted to take back the Tata-held land, he should have done it with a popular support which his own party and the ruling LDF would have rendered to him. Undue haste in such matters as this is not good. Wearing a rain cap and, perhaps, a raincoat, the octogenarian chief minister performed the task in a rain-ridden atmosphere in the company of a few individuals; he went to encircle Tata-held land on the day when the LDF was meeting. He did not attend the meeting and no noticeably important LDF leader was in the vicinity of his act of encircling. Then whole drive was made meaningless by the mal-propaganda the media gave to the whole episode.
Land of the Munnar and similar regions was grabbed not only by individuals and industrial houses, but even by the Govt, because the land in these areas belong to the Adivasis and the aborigines as the land of the United States belong to the Indians, say, the Cherokees and Wampanoags and the like. So, any move should have led to reinstating the Adivasis in the area.
Will anyone do that? Himalayas will melt; Ozone layers would fully dislocate; but none is ready to reinstate Adivasis and Indians in Kerala and America and elsewhere.

(Four)

The demise of Prof. M. N. Vijayan puts an end to an era in Malayalam literature and thought. He thought different things and said his thoughts in an entirely different way. He was against any kind of organization; when he entered one after he was securely retired from his Govt. employment, he could not stand there according to the scruples of the organization. It would have been better, had he remained without any organization. And the last statement of his mentor Mr. Sudhish that Prof. Vijayan was a Cross he bore etc etc would suffice to validate my stance. But, curiously enough, Prof. Vijayan died differently, too. It is said of Humayun: he tumbled through life and tumbled out of it. Prof. Vijayan lived speaking through out his life; he died speaking, too. I lower my head in respect of the great maestro of thought and literature in my mother tongue.
The great Malayalam short story writer C. V. Sreeraman has passed away. He has contributed hundreds of stories to Malayalam literature and thus enriched our literature. He has depicted diverse venues and avenues of life. But his style is calm, but deep. He does not surf unnecessarily. When he describes nature, it stands a panorama, even if it is done for the particular story. Reading his stories is happy experience, but deep in the hearts, we feel our conscience stung by very sharp needles.
I again lower my head before the memories of this maestro of Malayalam story.