Now let us see how the japanese school girls, in an english seminar on India, picturized the onappookkalam. Look at the animated faces and the colorful pookkalam!

This is a glimpse from the English Seminar where I introduced India to the Japanese highschool students. The students were supposed to prepare articles/newspapers on different themes of the country. One of them worked on the “festivals of India” theme and they liked the flower carpet prepared during the onam fetival of Kerala, the pookkalam, and included it in their article.

Date: Oct 2005. Taken 4 years back, while I was at Sapporo, Japan.

Onam this year (2009) is on the 2^nd of September. Happy Onam Wishes from Rocksea & Sarah!

Role of plywood in Kerala History

When I look back into time, one of the memories associated with onam are those when we had the school term examinations before onam. I was in class 6, but new to the school and getting settled. [Every other year I used to change schools, don't know why!] I had given little attention to the onam exam but I wanted to score something for pass marks…

One of my new friends, I think his name was Nelson, told me that it is easy to pass the history exam. How? I just needed to fill the answer paper with whatever words flowing through my mind. The history teacher will give marks according to the number of pages I fill in. That is cool, I thought. BUT I didn’t know how to simply fill in the pages with some unassociated words?!

Nelson had an answer to that too! I just had to copy those words from his answer sheet! And so I wrote the exam. Onam holidays came and went, and I had forgotten everything about it. One day after the school had reopened, the history teacher called me to the staffroom. He had my history answer paper in his hands! He went straight to my answer on Mamankam. [Mamankam is a medieval festival of Kerala, which was mostly celebrated under the auspicious of the Samoothiris (Zamorins), by the banks of the Bharathapuzha river]. The teacher asked me what was the role of “plywood” in Mamankam? I was like I just stood their dumbfound. Later I got the answer sheet. I saw that among all the other dumb words… I had placed plywood as an integral part of Kerala history!

Onam / Thiru Onam: Festival of Kerala, celebrated in the month Chingam (Aug-Sep), of the Malayalam Calendar. In memory of a mythical King MahaBali (Maveli) who ruled Kerala eons back. Legend is that Kerala reached the zenith of its glory under his rule and he was so famous that gods became jealous and send God Vishnu to send him down to the netherworld. Anyways, before sending him down, Vishnu gave King Maha Bali a boon to visit his people once in a year. This day we celebrate as Onam, to welcome Mahabali. One of the most attractive aspects of thiruvonam is the pookkalam or the floral designs we make.

Check here for an earlier article on >> onam with nature and oru ettukaliyude onappookkalam

note: cartoon sketch of mamankam by sarah

The plagiarised photograph which appeared in page 9 of  malayala manorama newspaper on 7th November, 2008.

The original photograph, taken on 24th September, 2005, from my front yard. Note that the copyright embedded was also dismissed by the newspaper.

Fortunately I am in Kerala on vacation now, or I would never have known about this! Going through the rest of the images on the newspaper, it seemed that most of them were simply lifted from the internet, without any consent from the respective photographers/authors.

This is very shameful to come from one of the leading newspapers in Kerala. The editors of the newspaper should ascertain that whatever published in the newspaper is genuine and rightly credited for its source. Failing to do this is a treachery towards its subscribers and the original authors.

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19 Nov 2008. I had called manorama yesterday and they assured to email me regarding the necessary actions that could be taken regarding this issue. So far they haven’t contacted me back.

In case malayala manorama doesn’t come up with a satisfactory solution, I will be filing a complaint regarding copyright violation and protection of my intellectual property rights.

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21 Nov 2008. Reply from Malayala Manorama:

Dear Roxy

We have enquired about publication of the photograph as mentioned in your mail.

The picture was sent to us by the author of the article in a CD. He had not mentioned that it contained photos having copy right. We are sorry for having published it without your permission.

If you have no objection, we will carry a corrigendum stating that that photo was taken by Roxy Mathew.

Incidentally, I went through your blog. There are good photog raphs. If you are ready to contribute, we would like to publish a few photos with articles in Padhippura ofcourse giving credit to you.

We have warned all our contributors to avoid such mistakes in future.

With regards

xxxxx
Senior Sub Editor
Manorama
Kottayam

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24 Nov 2008. Reply back to Malayala Manorama:

Dear xxxxx, Senior Sub Editor:

Thank you for your email acknowledging the source of the photograph.
It is pleasing to know that the future contributors will be made aware
of providing genuine articles/photographs.

However, I am sorry to say that the solution provided is not satisfactory.
The credits should have been there in any case.
Just running a corrigendum stating the author will not
justify having the photograph on the newspaper free of cost.
Malayala Manorama does not run free advertisements or give
free subscriptions for everyone, right?

The photograph taken by me has been published, without credits,
on a commercial newspaper, which is sold in the market.
This means that the content of the news, articles, photographs
carry a price.

Adding the copyright violation to this, the newspaper has
to pay me a suitable compensation.
The newspaper may be aware that copyright violation charges
can carry a compensation from 50,000 to 2 lakh INR.
Please also note that my camera equipments are as expensive
as the amount stated above.

Roxy

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27 Nov, 2008. From my experience, the dealings with Malayala Manorama on the above issue has been clean and amicable, so far. They are regretful about overlooking the copyright of the photograph. The solutions agreed over the telephone:
1. The newspaper will be paying me an amount of 5,000 INR as compensation.
2. The newspaper will publish a corrigendum crediting the photographer.
This, they stated, will be done within a week. So, let me wait and see before any further updates

The newspaper also mentioned that they will make sure about credits of photographs/articles before publishing any, in the future. So far, as it sounds, is a welcome decision.

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01 Dec, 2008. Corrigendum published by Malayala Manorama in the Padippura section. I am also happy to note that many of the photographs published in Padippura these days are credited to their rightful owners.

Translation: The photograph titled Mynah, published in the Padippura section on 7th November, was photographed by Roxy Mathew. The omission of the name is regretted.
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05 Dec, 2008. Happy to note that today I received the cheque from Malayala Manorama. Many thanks to the editorial staff of the newspaper for responding to the issue and taking appropriate action at the right time.

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