Anecdotes From Kerala..

The God’s Own Country and The Land of Communism

Back in 1957 this state became the first to elect a communist government to power, the shock waves travelled to US and prophecies were made from the USSR, and today as I walk on one of the three states where our own leftists play a mentionable role in the electoral politics, I am more amazed than anything else.

The hammer and sickle decorated by the red background is a ubiquitous presence and so are the churches and temples and mosques. The Sunday Prayers are more visible than anywhere I have been in the country. The temples are proportionately more active. The religions amidst there obvious competitiveness, have been able to coexist. At Kochi a priest at the Santa Cruz Cathedral takes pride in describing to his European audience how they and a Hindu religious trust work together for the poor, he continues to talk about the festivals and beliefs of the Kerala underlining the general harmony that the people live in. And as if delivering the final enchanting spell, he says “all this in a state ruled by democratically elected communist”.

The Santa Cruz Cathedral Kochi

This is the land of Aadi Guru Sankaracharya, and ParsuRam the combative incarnate of Vishnu, some of the oldest tales of the Hindu beliefs come from Kerala, the famed Sabarimalai temple near Kottayam sends Kerala into a spiritual lounge for a period of around two months.   This is the land that sticks to the centuries old customs with all its gusto. The Christians call them sons of St. Thomas (the doubting Thomas of Bible, one of the twelve apostles) and claim to have lived here since the first centuries AD. Some of the best architecture of Churches in the country are here in Kerala. In a Synagogue in Kochi called “Pardesi” synagogue, the Jews narrated tales of their relation with the land, they revel in the stories about the invitation of the king of Travancore to the Jews to his place and also of the Jewish girl who charmed St. Thomas to Kerala with her music. Islam reached here not through swords but through trading seamen, and yet this state elects a communist government.

While the hammer and sickle is everywhere so are the religious activist from all the communities, Kerala at times appears like a cuisine under a continuing experiment with dabblers of various beliefs and ideologies adding condiment to suite their like. To a traveller the state gives an impression of being dawdling but is intense on the inside, with an unabated refinement taking place regularly. It is the state where the church, the Islamic preachers and the Hindu Rightist put much on stake.

There's immense goodness and tranquillity in the state yet all is not calm either, the clashes between the right and the left fundamentalist are common occurrence, these ideological clashes leading to murders and fatalities are common place. The Christians are blamed of structured and lured mass conversions, the Islamic fundamentalism is on rise and all this combined with governance and economic environment which many Malayalis have started considering restrictive is fast breeding a ground for what many predict shall be a silent revolution which will change the way Kerala works, for better.

Kerala must be closely watched, the tensions that exist in an otherwise quiet social structure requires some solution both economic and social. A liberal, often pioneering state like Kerala will find answers for itself. The answers that nation will use as unguent to its own uneasy itches.

Amidst The Backwaters and the setting sun of the shore..

The famed backwaters of Kerala are tranquil and also bustling with life, the salty waters of the Arabian Sea are feed with rivers in the south west coast through these backwaters which are fishermen’s paradise and a tourist hub. Peeping into the slowly moving waters of these pacifying and restful lakes, with vegetation flowing along is an unending leisure. The sea cutting into the land through the shallower waters has turned more sincere and reticent. Ever since it came deeper into the land it has been more considerate and more benevolent, the waters of the lakes invite into themselves. The silent waves are steady and induce confidence, and the coconuts and palms seen all over the state, bath in the still saline waters as the nature seems to collude together in the oneness of green, blue and the turquoise, all colours in the scenery are a gradual shift of shade from the panoramic blue of the lake.

A Fisherman's Boat on the Velly Beach

The Vembanad lake, 96 kilometres in its north-south extent is the largest and the most evoked of the lakes in the backwater networks of the south west coastline of the state, stretching from north of Kochi to Allepy (famed as the Venice of east) and further down, the lake forms an effective waterway which boasts of pristine beauty and varied bio-diversity. These backwaters are revitalising, the sea in them energises those who come in contact with the waters, the fishermen are feed, the water lover’s appetite is satiated, the rowers row there boat in zest, (the famous Onam boat race take place on the Vembanad in Allepy) it’s around these waters a bulk of Kerala’s tourism is focused.

The backwaters are mesmerising but I never stayed for long around one it was the beaches in Kerala particularly Trivandrum

The transparent clean waters at Kovalam and the its deep shore enthused into games with water, on the shore the blowing wind took the sand along and it seemed that the sand specks running on the shore represented the moving time, the nearby rocks changed colour with the sun from crimson-brown to magenta to darker red in the afternoon and finally as the sun set behind it, it was black and dark. The water changed its tints too but the waves remained milky frothy white. And when it was late twilight and the sea was dark black pool the white froth sparkled to the moon, the waves were like the white walls of sparkling salt running towards me on the shore.

The shores see a lot of activity as the waves come into the shore they wet the sand and for a while the wet sand reflects the colour of sky but soon the sand sops up the water and dries again, and just when the blue reflection is red sand again a wave washes in once again and the sky and the sketches of the clouds are again on the sand. On the forming deforming mirror children play football and cricket, a professional game of beach volleyball is also on, the boats stand in perfect discipline and they add to the grace and the aesthetics of the place. As the evening takes over music fills the beach, towards its western end an elderly man sings on a microphone with a group of extollers huddled around him, ice-creams are sold and a hawker throws a shining parachute into the air.

I kept planning and it never happened, I wished to see the shores of Kerala at the dawn, when a birds chirps of its nest, when the winds are cool and I shiver to them and when hopefully the dominant sound is the voice of wave, it didn’t happen this time but sometime again I would come down to Kerala and watch the sun rising over the rocks of Kovalam. 

 

Water- Water Everywhere………. And a lot to drink…

The day after I reached Kerala It rained the entire morning and only after the mid-day did it relent. A lot of rain awaited us for the next three months, not many days do I remember when the clayish soil on the roadside was dry, it was always muddy a testimony to the last night’s rain. It’s a watery kingdom. There are the beautiful streams, with their clear waters, the shores of the saline Arabian Sea, the large lakes and their waterways, the Periyar and the Vamanpuram Rivers, the occasional waterfalls in the hill-stations of the Western Ghats, and the rains coming down so regularly.

This year they told me is a year of unusually heavy rains in the months of October-November, and that smelled in my room, it remained damp and soggy, dampness sneaking into the closet and to my clothes. The place is not hot but humid and wet, and with the abundance of water and a fertile soil the vegetation raises anywhere, the roof beside my apartment gave an impression of a carefully planned green roof garden, I needed a neighbour to clarify that a leaking tank and the Kerala air has together conspired towards this wonder.

The Back Waters

Even as it rains a lot in Kerala, and there’s water everywhere, the love of Kerala towards fluid is never too much, the fruit juice stalls are everywhere and they rejoice with their business, the glass of juice and shakes are invariably pleasing. At offer are delectable banana shakes, pineapple juices to the strangely named yet enticing Abu-Dhabhis and Sharjahaas. Anyone who gets a taste to the fruit sap that is true to itself with the minimal water will crave for it dearly once he is away from Kerala.

But then one disappointment in Kerala was the surprising absence of the coconut from the marketplace, and thus accompanied with it was the absence of the legendary “nariyal paani”. It was only in the commercialized sea shores that I found the coconut on sale or at a sole site on the pavement of the busy highway outside my workplace. I soon found a reason to it, every Malayali plants a few coconut trees around his house and he rarely needs to buy one. Not very lately on who brought coconuts from the market was in effect recognized as landless, with the increasing impact of urbanization and the advent of apartment lifestyle in Kerala, this tradition is seeing a saddening decay.

And talking of the drinks one story that cannot be left unsaid from the wet Kerala is about the long queues of the unwearyingly waiting men seen at many crowded neighbourhoods every evening, with a strictly government controlled distribution system and limited outlets, any booze earned in the state is spirits well earned. 






PS: more to come : of the TechnoPark in the red-country, the kings of Travancore and their temples, and the meals that feed us through the stay.... 

Posted in: Aditya,God's Own Country,Kerala,nature,thoughts,Tourism,vacation