THE INDIAN COMMENTATOR

  Vlog Reviews: Episode 2 The vlog is only fourteen minutes long, and after about six hours of posting, the video had gathered just above 30,000 views. This is a slow beginning for a vlog episode featuring one of the oldest, and vibrant Youtubers in Kerala, Annamma Pulivelil, who hails from Nadavayal in Wayanad district, Kerala. Her channel Annamma Chedathi Special is one of the fastest-growing Youtube channels and is managed by another renowned Youtuber named Sachin, who owns the channel Come on Everybody . The usual treat of Annamma chedathi special is cooking videos reconstructing many traditional delicacies of Kerala. The video released on 28 December 2020 was titled “Ammachi returns from Kottayam” and features an oral summing up of the vastly successful Kottayam journey of Annamma chedathi.  Since the Kottayam trip started, it is Sachin who appears in the introductory scenes of the videos, a shift from the regular anchors of the show, Babu, Annamma’s son and Annamma her...

  Vlog Reviews: Episode 1 This is the first time in my career that I am reviewing a vlog, a Youtube vlog. I haven’t seen a written review of vlogs as a reader either. If cinema, music, and art can be reviewed, why can’t we review vlogs also? Several people might have a taste for words written on a page. More than that, a written review is a confirmation of the value of the product reviewed. More than a video response, a written response often shares several corresponding information in analytical documentation. Recently, a vlogging community was formed, with the coming together of many video content creators of Kerala. However, there has not been serious documentation of the video contents created in Kerala or in India in general. There is certainly a nuance yet to be explored in every video narrative. It is similar to literature, in that sense.  In today’s review, I would like to focus on the video released by the top lifestyle vlogger in Kerala, Mr Sujith Bhakthan and his vl...

Finding myself at the crossroads of transition not just in a personal space but also in the social space, the writer in me paused for a moment and reckoned with the question of my new identity.  Even though I published my first book in 2012, when I attended certain gatherings in various colleges, the audiences still addressed me as a blogger, a moniker that irritated me at the time. Being a young and upcoming author, it was certainly a matter of great pride to be addressed as an author on public occasions. This, however, did not change the fact that I enjoyed blogging since the day I started my blog, The Indian Commentator.   The part I enjoyed the most about blogging was the reception of comments from readers and also the goodies I received as part of campaigns such as book review programmes. Being a reader of books my whole life, this was the most enticing element that hooked me to blogging and kept me at it for a long time.  I started The Indian Commentator in 2008. A...

  Hi, Anu Lal here.  I have news of great joy to share. My new book is released; an anthology titled  The Notions of Healing .  Renowned scholar Dr Arunlal Mokeri has written a magnificent  Foreword  that aptly positions the anthology in the broader spectrum of pandemic literature. Sixteen superbly talented writers from Kerala to Kashmir have contributed to make this book a reality.  Along with sixteen coauthors, we explore the many notions of healing during the times of the pandemic.  Please support this endeavour with your feedback on the book. I request all my readers, friends, colleagues and students to purchase a copy of your chosen format. Please share the links with your friends, in various groups and also with your colleagues. Kindly notify librarian of your institution and please do not stay back from gently forcing the librarian to purchase a library copy at the earliest. This will make sure that our students would also get a chance to r...

  Editing is perhaps the most challenging of all activities in the life of an author. Once the author realises that the story is complete, she is ready to set up a scaffold of indifference towards whatever comes up in the manuscript. Although one, has assuredly enough written the draft, it is out of one's control to face the words and lines that come up in the reading process.    The reading process endows its inbuilt challenges upon the author. The act of reading what one has written is often a process full of wonders- wondering who wrote these lines or, wondering when I wrote this crap.    Those authors who are experienced in their craft know that only a scaffold of indifference can help us. First, they stand upon this scaffold and then observe the writing with a degree of distance and with an ample dose of indifference. Whatever comes up in this manuscript, I don't bother appreciating or criticising the author of this stuff.    This indi...

When you are reading this title, you might even think that I am referring to my personal life. Those who know me personally are bound to think on those lines. If you are not thinking in those lines, then it’s certain that you don’t know me enough. Before moving further with this post, please subscribe to this blog by using your email id. I assure you that it will be worth it because you’ll get all the updates first hand.  About getting noticed or grabbing people’s attention, I never had a real problem. This is because I am taller than the average Indian. Even if I am standing in a crowd, you might notice me from a distance. I am six feet two.  The story that I am going to tell you is not about one of those occasions when you’d have discovered me in a crowd. This is about the post that I made on my Instagram page a couple of days ago.  I went to Mattannur, a municipality which neighbours Kannur International Airport with my father a couple of days ago. My visit was mostly ...

Have you read all the other posts about my day out after Onam to do Three Tasks? These three tasks are included in four blog posts, which is a single long post that I broke into four parts for the less patient lot of you.  One is here Two is here Three is here Before reading the fourth part Subscribe to my blog by using the box to the right. Give your email id so that all new updates and the latest information regarding the many necessities of life shall be delivered directly to you, first hand through your email inbox! Enjoy! There are Alternative and Allopathic medicine centres that give free treatment and supply free medicines to the public, irrespective of your social class.    After waiting for about half an hour, the ration shop keeper was able to distribute the kits. Between seeing the kits with our eyes and receiving them, there were several phone calls that the shopkeeper placed to some officials in the government to update their system with the number of kits re...

 If you are reading the continuation of the previous post , you can subscribe to my blog right away- that is, if you haven't subscribed yet! See the box on the right side?  I moved towards the bottle of gum. The bottle of gum in post offices is well known in India to have adhesive qualities only slightly better than pure water. So I hesitantly took the gum with an old pen sticking out of the bottleneck. To my utter surprise, the gum looked great. I pasted the opening of the cover using the gum and it worked.     If it is my ignorance that caused me the confusion regarding the sealing of the cover in Book Post VPP and if you know the details about this service, please comment below so that others reading this might be able to make use of the information.    I came out of the post office and went to the ration shop near the locality. It was also the day when food kits for Onam festival were delivered at the ration shop. It was the free Onam food ...