A Malayalam short story writer, S Hareesh, recently ignited a chain of controversies with his feature novel- Meesa (meaning. Moustache) in a Malayalam weekly magazine- Mathrubhoomi. The said novel, in a conversation between two actors, alleges that hindu women goes to temples well dressed are making a declaration that they are ready for sex with the temple priest. He further comments about the lustful history of the temple priests. The dialogue goes on to say that they skip the temple visit for four or five days a month (allegedly during menstrual periods) to make it clear that they are not ready for intercourse. Even the second character seems to be of an approving attitude.

The novel was initially critically received, which I believe would be revolting to all staunch hindu devotees, especially women. Even several people who approach religions from a rational perspective, yet valuing the culture and traditions, have publicly expressed open opposition. Meanwhile several right-wing Hindu organisations have taken stands calling for the boycott of the novel as well as the magazine. Multiple threats were issued to the author and his family from such organisations. Eventually the author has declared withdrawal of the novel owing to personal safety and that of his family.

However, after these calls and threats to the author, the “practical” polical parties, which were initially mute on the issue, came out lashing the right-wing groups and publicly declaring support for the novelist on the grounds of freedom of expression. Many political leaders tried to cash-in on the situation even by offering publication of the feature novel under their publication company. It can be inferred that these outcries have come under the backdrop of the rising sentiments against the right-wing Hindu groups and the feeling that certain political organisations are trying to hyjack Hindu religion. Hence these days, other political parties take stands which is exactly opposing to the stand taken by the right-wing organisations. The same is visible in cases of several other cases of contemporary nature.

Are you a content creator? Are you a designer, architect or a hobbyist who generally scribbles down ideas? Have you ever felt you get a sudden concept in your mind, and ponder over it and later only to be totally forgotten? You are not alone, there are many out there with you trying to recollect our own throughts at a later point of time.

It has been said for years that pencil and paper are the best friends of engineers, scientists and authors. While I completely agree to pencil and paper as the first responders and often most helpful, there are multiple tools currently available as replacements. And with the advent of ever growing technology and seamless integration between multiple devices, these are growing popular day by day. And perhaps the most usable out of those - a mind map.

Mind maps are nothing really software. It is an age old practice of systematically capturing thoughts by scribbling the concepts over a plain paper as nodes and drawing connectors and links between them. Any scribble can be a valid mind map, provided it conveys a concept or an idea to atleast the one who has scribbled it. However, with the advent of software systems, mind maps are getting more and more standardized and with all the features at hand, much more usable. Lets see a few frequently used mind map tools: