𝐀 𝐥𝐨𝐭 𝐟𝐫𝐨𝐦 𝐥𝐨𝐭𝐭𝐞𝐫𝐲 𝐭𝐢𝐜𝐤𝐞𝐭𝐬

𝐀 𝐥𝐨𝐭 𝐟𝐫𝐨𝐦 𝐥𝐨𝐭𝐭𝐞𝐫𝐲 𝐭𝐢𝐜𝐤𝐞𝐭𝐬

My Grandpa’s table always had many lottery tickets.

He was not a seller, but a sincere and committed buyer of lottery tickets for decades in the 1970s and 80s. Like the present-day share market trader / investor who is glued to the screen to check the share prices, he used to look at the newspapers searching a few ‘matching numbers’ holding the lottery tickets in the other hand. That was part of his routine.

Kerala State lottery which started with a price of One Rupee and first prize of Rs 50000 in the year 1967 has become a major revenue earner for the state. Kerala is the first State to launch a government-run lottery in India. In the last 59 years, Kerala lottery has created many millionaires from the ‘have-nots’ of the population.

In the past, there were incidents of grabbing the winning lottery tickets by chasing the poor men who won them by the ‘rich’ men. Those who had stacked huge ‘unaccounted money’ buy those winning tickets paying huge premium as per the advice of some ingenious tax practitioners. That was a rudimentary method of money laundering engaged by a few big tax evaders in India. A few of them who were super ‘lucky’ year after year were caught by the Incomer Tax Department as they found them to be reporting winning bumper prizes on a regular basis!

The turnover from lottery in the FY 2025-226 was around Rs 14000 Cr and the net profit for the government is estimated to be around 1100 Cr. Apart from this, Central Government earns around 31.2% of the prize money as Income Tax and Cess.

Kerala Lottery gives direct and indirect employment to over 2.5 lakh persons. 1% of the total turnover is kept as a welfare fund for the benefit of lottery agents and sellers. Most of the retail sellers who sell the tickets in the streets and bus stops are financially poor and some of them are differently abled. When we buy ticket from a lottery seller standing under the hot sun near traffic signals or bus stops, we are in fact financially supporting a family. For a lottery ticket priced at Rs 50, the last mile seller would get around Rs 6.

The decision to buy a lottery ticket stem from the aspiration to become rich. There are many who buy the lottery tickets regularly spending their wages and have been branded as ‘lottery addicts’. There is a view shared by some that the lottery should be banned stating that it is gambling. Most of the buyers of lottery are from the economically weaker sections of the society. When they do not have a livelihood to lead an aspirational life for themselves and their families and a way to clear their debts, they tend to try their luck.

The habit of buying lottery tickets in its present form is a less harmful addiction when compared to the habit of drinking and smoking. If governments happily earn money from the sale of alcohol and cigarettes, there is nothing wrong in earning money through lotteries. If lottery buying is gambling, the stock market trading indulged by lakhs of people (intra day or speculative trading within days) is also a type of gambling. However, lottery business run by the State in an organized, systematic and restrictive manner cannot be equated with harmful online gaming, gambling and betting which are illegal and exploitative.

While the above view is true for a State-run lottery, there is a menace of illegal lottery sales in many parts of the country. People have got cheated through such illegal lottery operations which are nothing but organized scamming. Do not try your luck with fraudsters.

"You gotta try your luck at least once a day, because you could be going around lucky all day and not even know it." — Jimmy Dean

(Please consider buying a ticket from one of these individual sellers when you take a drive in Kerala. It would help him, the government and many...)

𝓟𝓱𝓸𝓽𝓸: Taken near Perumbavoor, Kochi, Kerala. Met this wonderful seller of lottery ticket. He proved to himself that he is truly differently abled and assured the family the earnings by being productive, with dignity and satisfaction. He feels that he is working for the State and its people. (Proceeds of the Karunya lottery by the Govt of Kerala is exclusively for the health care of the less privileged.) It was a pleasure to have a brief interaction with him.

© Sibichen K Mathew

#KeralaLottery #SibichenKMathew

Of Sunanda Pushkar, Mallus and the Sexual escapades

The paradoxical malayali mindset and related behavioural aberrations were demonstrated in full media glare recently in Kerala’s capital Thiruvananthapuram.  A 19 year old young man made indecent advances to the 50 year old wife of a newly sworn in Union Minister when the jubilant couple were surrounded by hundreds of followers and onlookers. Thankfully, and to the molester’s utter misfortune, the elegant non-Keralite lady managed to make her right hand freed from commotion, to hit at him in rage.

In an interview later to a national TV Channel she said:

  ‘Men feel that in such mob situations they can take advantage of the body of the women and they will grope in unwanted places. In such circumstances, men feel they have a right to abuse or hurt women. Some people told me I shouldn’t have hit him. The ‘politically correct’ thing would have been to smile and grin and bear it. And that’s what our women have been put through for centuries. I forgave him after he profusely apologized for the offence.’

What a shame for  Keralites and  malayali men particularly. Also, what a great lesson she has given to all women who live in and visit Kerala. How many women who travel in public transports have not received such indecent advances from co-passengers or the staff? How many women have not experienced eve teasing on public roads? How many women have the guts to react like Sunanda Pushkar on such deliberate attempts by men? 

High rank in Molestation

Please update your General Knowledge.

 Kerala is on top not just for its highest literacy rate, life expectancy or lowest infant mortality rate, but for many other shameful achievements. 

• Kerala ranked 8 among 35 States and Union Territories in India in the contribution to total crime against women in the country in the year 2011. 
• Kerala is in the 3^rd position in total number of molestation incidents in the country. 
• It has also the ‘credit’ for getting the 3^rd rank for total number of sexual harassment under section 509 of Indian Penal code.
• Kerala’s capital Thiruvananthapuram has all India 5^th position among 88 major cities in the country for total number of molestations reported in 2011.  

(Number of molestation incidents for 2011, Kerala lost third position to Maharashtra for just 38 incidents)

Some more interesting data from the statistics of National Crime Records Bureau.

•  Kerala got 3^rd rank in incest (rape) and first rank in total number of rapes (incest) where victim is below 14 years. 
• There is good performance in the area of molestation year after year. In 2010 it was 2939, and in 2011 there were 3756 molestation cases. Remember, thousands of cases go unreported every year. 
• As per the statistics of Kerala Police, in the year 2012, upto September, there are 715 incidents of rape, 2798 cases of molestation (with capital city topping with 545 cases), 343 cases of eve teasing, out of 9758  total offences against women in Kerala. 

Yes, there is steady growth!

Kerala is one of the few places in the world where women outnumber men. For every 100 men, there are 109 women in Kerala.  Even globally, the sex ratio has been negative for a long time. In 2000, there were only 986 females for every 1,000 males in the world. More number of educated women means more incidents of harassment and molestation? What a paradox!

The incorrigible Mallu

The word ‘Mallu’ (a widely known nickname for a malayali) is a popular internet key word for any sort of sexually explicit literature, images, videos and movies. It is true that Pornography, a world-wide multibillion dollar industry caters to a large number of population since several centuries to fulfil non-intrusively their sexual urges. But what is intriguing is the predominant ‘mallu’ presence in the cyber space (See my article on ‘Mallu Web Culture’). Even movies and videos with erotic overtones are being named as ‘mallu stuff’ irrespective of any other  Indian language in which they are made. This is because of the unique historical background  of Malayalam movies. The directors of many Malayalam movies released in the 1980s and 1990s disseminated new definitions and conceptions for sexuality, eroticism and women. They created a new wave among youth based on misconceived notions about female sexual expectations, misplaced physical attributes of sensuality, and mistaken perception about marital relationships.  This resulted in creating sexual perversions among the youth of those times and impacted their attitude and approaches towards women. This attitudes and behavioural pattern got ingrained in Kerala Society.

The problem got aggravated in due course. In an outwardly conservative society, the double standards and pseudo morality resulted not in reduction of sexual crimes and perversions, but in radical increase in the incidents of molestation, sex scandals, organized sex rackets, sexual harassment etc. Women in Kerala cannot travel alone in public transports or walk alone on the roads after evening hours. Even when they are accompanied by men, they are not spared of the lecherous eyes of men of all ages.

Will giving a vent is a solution?

Noted Malayalam writer Paul Zacharia told once in an interview to my friend  T.S. Sreenivasa Raghavan that ‘a place where one can have healthy sex without fear or anxiety would be welcome’.  It is an absolutely ‘out of the box’ proposition for the conservative Kerala. And morally unacceptable too. But would this be like a ‘placebo’ as believed by Zacharia? Will this save the men suffering from sexual suppression and repression and will curtail the sociopathic behaviour of sex maniacs?   Supporters of the above point towards the licensed service providers in many countries where men go and relieve their urges rather than peeping, leching  and pouncing on hapless ladies. Shall we think of adopting this as a therapeutic approach, without infringing on the moral principles?

Sunanda Pushkar could face it head on. But what about ordinary mortals? We need policy intervention more than the police intervention on this sociological malady. The reason is that, Kerala is more than a State; it is a state of mind!

(views are personal)                                                                                       Sibichen K Mathew

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Click here to see related articles in CYBER DIARY:

Sensual Mallu and web culture

Aleph, Paulo Coelho and my Friend   (About child sex abuse)

Once upon a time...It was God's own country!

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Broken slate and a lovely dream

All She Needs is Love

PART-IV

Broken slate and a lovely dream

Lukose master was going through the slates of his students in Class IV in St Thomas School, Karukachal. He found that the tall slender girl who was sitting in the last row on the cement floor had written so neatly, all the letters of the Malayalam alphabet.

He said ‘Sabash!’ meaning ‘excellent’.

The girl, who was clad in a white chatta^[1] and mundu^[2], felt happy and looked at her friends with a proud smile. Her name was Mariamma.

Lukose master was a terror not only for the students, but also for most of the teachers. No one used to be bothered much about the headmaster Kuriachan Sir who was regularly irregular to the school. Kuriachan sir was more interested to look after his chena (yam), kappa (tapioca), kaachil (another variety of yam) and a host of vegetables in his land rather than teaching students