After three hours of sleeping every night in the last three days, finally we managed to sleep for longer hours today. In between preparing notes about the next shoot, discussing possibilities of interviews with farmers and moving from one place to another, (and also while looking for "teashops" for "ulli chammanthi" and "Palakkadan ghee roast"), Arun and I had a long discussion with Justin on the present day Kerala.
For someone who had been to Kovalam and the Backwaters some ten years, it was probably unbelievable to hear us talking about a Kerala that couldn't possibility exist for his ears. Like many other guests, he was kind of surprised to hear us talking about communal violence, militancy, sodomy,growing extra marital relations and the sexual frustrations..That definitely didn't sound much like the hyped wonderful God's own country.
Kerala model has become a hot topic for many development students and politicians. A state with less than few hundred dollars as GDP, showing a marvellous record of cent percent literacy (forget the fact that UN declares a person literate if she can read, write and sign her name!), higher female-male proportion (1048 female:1000 male), excellent track record on health, hardly any female infanticide, politically conscious electorate, secular tradition...
This sounds like a good story.
Except, that we still live in the ivory tower and refuses to get out of that "pseudo security of an intellectually perfect society", while ignoring the ground reality. Common man is becoming more and more violent, domestic violence is increasing along with the number of sexual abuses. Kerala records the maximum number of road accidents in India, and the farmer suicides have gone above 700 in a single year(a rough estimation from what is reported in the media)
With all the good Physical and Social indices being reflective of a well balanced society ( the above statistics might look like as if it is from a developed western state!), why do so many Malayalis commit suicides? These are not even suicides but homicides as they kills rest of the family including their own little innocent kids!
You ask a Malayalis if he drinks? (Alcohol) the first response would be, "Oh no, I don't!" but when you look at the statistics, Kerala consumes the maximum amount of alcohol in the whole of India!!! Probably we are just purchasing these drinks to spruce up the economy and draining it out in the gutter!
No one seems to be worried about the number of bride burning in Kerala for lack of dowry, and no concerns about the increasing number of suicides, nor do they seem to be caring about the increase in terrorism (oh yeah! they dont think an attack on a police station by a group of 300 armed people in Kottakkal the day before yesterday fits into the conventional definition of terrorism at all!). Not a single political party has condemned this until today!!!! Can you really believe that we still have a responsible civil society in this state any more?)
It is really disgusting to see that people don't own for this mess created. Even ten years before, when we had our informal discussions with friends, all these topics used to be discussed and we were quite concerned about where Kerala was moving towards.
Politicians talk about ISI(Pakistani Intelligence) interventions in Malappuram district. But our take is that one wouldn't need organisations like ISI to destabilise this country, you only need irresponsible politicians and similar organisations who would close their eyes to developments for the fear of loss of votes from the same people.
It might sound an irony for many that it is the same organisations that went out in public to support the left front in the just concluded elections to the state assembly, who are leading the communal riots. May be that is the reason for the silence even from left parties? While these parties and organisations were working together, some of our friends were sharing the stupidity of such tie-ups on a long term benefit.
Supporting Palestinian movement is one thing, but supporting militant organisations with pan Islamic terrorist agenda and closing our eyes to what is happening in our own front yard is another thing. If you take a ride through many districts in Kerala, you see posters of Saddam Hussein (a big surprise and shock for our foreign friends!). It makes sense to see his pictures with the amount of anti-American feelings around, but the sad part is that hardly any left politicians seems to realise that it was a communist leader that Saddam first had a go at, when he had his first gun!
If not for the main stream political parties, I hope at the least the common man will wake up to the reality of what Kerala is going through.
At least the warning signals are all here. "While bomb-hauls, seditious graffiti and the murder of moderates have become common occurrences, the day may not be far when such sporadic eruptions coalesce into a major terrorist event, says A Vinod Kumar, Associate Fellow at the Institute for Defence Studies and Analyses, New Delhi. ".
The attack on Kottakal police station is just the beginning. Wonder what is in store for us!
Tirur © GP 2007
For someone who had been to Kovalam and the Backwaters some ten years, it was probably unbelievable to hear us talking about a Kerala that couldn't possibility exist for his ears. Like many other guests, he was kind of surprised to hear us talking about communal violence, militancy, sodomy,growing extra marital relations and the sexual frustrations..That definitely didn't sound much like the hyped wonderful God's own country.
Kerala model has become a hot topic for many development students and politicians. A state with less than few hundred dollars as GDP, showing a marvellous record of cent percent literacy (forget the fact that UN declares a person literate if she can read, write and sign her name!), higher female-male proportion (1048 female:1000 male), excellent track record on health, hardly any female infanticide, politically conscious electorate, secular tradition...
This sounds like a good story.
Except, that we still live in the ivory tower and refuses to get out of that "pseudo security of an intellectually perfect society", while ignoring the ground reality. Common man is becoming more and more violent, domestic violence is increasing along with the number of sexual abuses. Kerala records the maximum number of road accidents in India, and the farmer suicides have gone above 700 in a single year(a rough estimation from what is reported in the media)
With all the good Physical and Social indices being reflective of a well balanced society ( the above statistics might look like as if it is from a developed western state!), why do so many Malayalis commit suicides? These are not even suicides but homicides as they kills rest of the family including their own little innocent kids!
You ask a Malayalis if he drinks? (Alcohol) the first response would be, "Oh no, I don't!" but when you look at the statistics, Kerala consumes the maximum amount of alcohol in the whole of India!!! Probably we are just purchasing these drinks to spruce up the economy and draining it out in the gutter!
No one seems to be worried about the number of bride burning in Kerala for lack of dowry, and no concerns about the increasing number of suicides, nor do they seem to be caring about the increase in terrorism (oh yeah! they dont think an attack on a police station by a group of 300 armed people in Kottakkal the day before yesterday fits into the conventional definition of terrorism at all!). Not a single political party has condemned this until today!!!! Can you really believe that we still have a responsible civil society in this state any more?)
It is really disgusting to see that people don't own for this mess created. Even ten years before, when we had our informal discussions with friends, all these topics used to be discussed and we were quite concerned about where Kerala was moving towards.
Politicians talk about ISI(Pakistani Intelligence) interventions in Malappuram district. But our take is that one wouldn't need organisations like ISI to destabilise this country, you only need irresponsible politicians and similar organisations who would close their eyes to developments for the fear of loss of votes from the same people.
It might sound an irony for many that it is the same organisations that went out in public to support the left front in the just concluded elections to the state assembly, who are leading the communal riots. May be that is the reason for the silence even from left parties? While these parties and organisations were working together, some of our friends were sharing the stupidity of such tie-ups on a long term benefit.
Supporting Palestinian movement is one thing, but supporting militant organisations with pan Islamic terrorist agenda and closing our eyes to what is happening in our own front yard is another thing. If you take a ride through many districts in Kerala, you see posters of Saddam Hussein (a big surprise and shock for our foreign friends!). It makes sense to see his pictures with the amount of anti-American feelings around, but the sad part is that hardly any left politicians seems to realise that it was a communist leader that Saddam first had a go at, when he had his first gun!
If not for the main stream political parties, I hope at the least the common man will wake up to the reality of what Kerala is going through.
At least the warning signals are all here. "While bomb-hauls, seditious graffiti and the murder of moderates have become common occurrences, the day may not be far when such sporadic eruptions coalesce into a major terrorist event, says A Vinod Kumar, Associate Fellow at the Institute for Defence Studies and Analyses, New Delhi. ".
The attack on Kottakal police station is just the beginning. Wonder what is in store for us!
Tirur © GP 2007
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