Back from another trip to Kerala. I'm dangerously close to loving Kerala in a very stark contrast to the annoyance of earlier visits. The male dominance,unprofessional behavior and lack of infrastructure used to turn me off faster than the Kerala rotation power cuts.
Recently I had gone to a reputed supermarket for some basic groceries. At the billing counter I was not surprised to see the icecream packed with bread loaf. The surprise melted like the icecream to give way to the old,familiar irritation when they gave me just 2 bags for like 60000 items! They snorted explaining 'no plastics'. Apparently,a smile will be doing us a favour just like giving an extra bag would be! I started cribbing about how I missed the professional Filipinos in Doha's Lulu mall and stormed out of the store and would have continued with that black cloud over me if not for spotting real black clouds overcast and a cool,pleasant breeze. Ah,Kerala monsoons!
With that change in the mood, I settled to multiple,calming scenes of greenery, houses nestled so deep in coconut groves and mangroves, it's as if they are furtively guarding some formula for living. Fresh fish by the roadside - so fresh that it doesn't stink,believe me. They carry the ocean with them more than any bottle can carry messages. Perfectly contoured shops with houses such that you cannot tell apart between them. Your eyes are mellow with that 'naadan beauty' love and rediscovering something,every damn time.
So for a fortnight this was what my eyes woke upto,mind greeted and heart responded to every morning and with every shower.
Towards the second last day of my vacation, I slowly started to introspect ( we all do when an amazeballs vacation comes to an end,right? ) why Kerala was changing or rather, was I?
As it turned out to be,nothing changed.
I had not become more wiser, neither had CPI(M) allowed any major development in Kerala which may make me love it. Just that a serenity might have come over at a time which made me accept things for their hidden beauty and walk over the obvious threshold of dust. The dust I probably carried from the city's grime and polluted minds.The dust which made me never see my place of roots as it was and demanded the superficial. The superficial which comes from a hangover of fast life.
I stopped chasing the 'click' and went back with tortoise steps to the 'brick' will be too cliche to say, but cliches also come from a lot of history - history of other's lives and mostly our own.
Places like Kerala may be nowhere in fashion lines, has frequent power cuts, is far from any city standards, has very slow development...but all this are plenty in the city and hello!, last checked city people were running to the cows for destressing. So who is developed?
Today greenery is priced above rubies and yet a wild meadow is termed more dangerous the swanky streets of Delhi. We don't like city life but prefer it above the boring ,mundane small town life because we gotta earn so that when we have arthritis we can come back to small towns!
Nah, I am not mocking coz I just complained to my mom why Kottayam doesn't have PizzaHut!
So are we doomed,we city slickers with our leather bags and 3 MBPS speed? No. We are lucky to be exposed to this 'confusion'. Acceptance of our roots, the slow life, the simple traditions are slowly becoming a necessity rather than a trend. There is comfort in puttu kadla and reality in the kuccha roads and as long as we seek these attributes, we will be 'wokay'.
Recently I had gone to a reputed supermarket for some basic groceries. At the billing counter I was not surprised to see the icecream packed with bread loaf. The surprise melted like the icecream to give way to the old,familiar irritation when they gave me just 2 bags for like 60000 items! They snorted explaining 'no plastics'. Apparently,a smile will be doing us a favour just like giving an extra bag would be! I started cribbing about how I missed the professional Filipinos in Doha's Lulu mall and stormed out of the store and would have continued with that black cloud over me if not for spotting real black clouds overcast and a cool,pleasant breeze. Ah,Kerala monsoons!
With that change in the mood, I settled to multiple,calming scenes of greenery, houses nestled so deep in coconut groves and mangroves, it's as if they are furtively guarding some formula for living. Fresh fish by the roadside - so fresh that it doesn't stink,believe me. They carry the ocean with them more than any bottle can carry messages. Perfectly contoured shops with houses such that you cannot tell apart between them. Your eyes are mellow with that 'naadan beauty' love and rediscovering something,every damn time.
So for a fortnight this was what my eyes woke upto,mind greeted and heart responded to every morning and with every shower.
Towards the second last day of my vacation, I slowly started to introspect ( we all do when an amazeballs vacation comes to an end,right? ) why Kerala was changing or rather, was I?
As it turned out to be,nothing changed.
I had not become more wiser, neither had CPI(M) allowed any major development in Kerala which may make me love it. Just that a serenity might have come over at a time which made me accept things for their hidden beauty and walk over the obvious threshold of dust. The dust I probably carried from the city's grime and polluted minds.The dust which made me never see my place of roots as it was and demanded the superficial. The superficial which comes from a hangover of fast life.
I stopped chasing the 'click' and went back with tortoise steps to the 'brick' will be too cliche to say, but cliches also come from a lot of history - history of other's lives and mostly our own.
Places like Kerala may be nowhere in fashion lines, has frequent power cuts, is far from any city standards, has very slow development...but all this are plenty in the city and hello!, last checked city people were running to the cows for destressing. So who is developed?
Today greenery is priced above rubies and yet a wild meadow is termed more dangerous the swanky streets of Delhi. We don't like city life but prefer it above the boring ,mundane small town life because we gotta earn so that when we have arthritis we can come back to small towns!
Nah, I am not mocking coz I just complained to my mom why Kottayam doesn't have PizzaHut!
So are we doomed,we city slickers with our leather bags and 3 MBPS speed? No. We are lucky to be exposed to this 'confusion'. Acceptance of our roots, the slow life, the simple traditions are slowly becoming a necessity rather than a trend. There is comfort in puttu kadla and reality in the kuccha roads and as long as we seek these attributes, we will be 'wokay'.
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