I have but mentioned Kerala very very briefly on this blog and intentionally so: some topics close to my heart require lot of deliberation before I can utter a word; but in keeping with my tendency, the deliberation often translates to laziness, and consequently, inaction.

Without much ado, here I go:

Kerala, known by various names is endowed generously…errr…abounds in natural beauty: and I do detest the notorious tag of God’s Own Country that is attributed to it ad nauseam. That tag I suspect, is the contrivance of the Tourism Ministry for obvious reasons.

I’m truly amazed by this state (and I confess I know very little about its early/medieval history apart from Zamorin, the Malabar tales and more recently, the Red Story)…well, more than the state, the people that inhabit (or those who have originated from) it. These according to me have the most uncanny knack of surviving anywhere in the planet (I stand corrected: outside of the planet, remember the joke about the Malayali tea vendor on the Moon?), one of the most hardworking, and enterprizing people that I’ve interacted with. Yet when it comes to their native land, I fail to understand how they’ve managed to convert it into such a royal mess.

I don’t want to beat this topic again and again, but the mess was created as a consequence of Communism, etc etc etc, that Kerala’s economy is today sustained by tourism and Gulf money etc etc etc. What I seek to sincerely understand is why, despite producing amazingly talented people in virtually every sphere of human activity, Kerala as a state is seriously defective. What is the reason that compels the people there to vote for the selfsame Communists that are only different in hues? And why is it that when these people migrate, they emerge extremely successful? Why is it that they don’t put these talents to weed out the rot at home?

I maybe wrong, but there’s something that seems to defy logic here: Swami Vivekananda visiting Kerala remarked that it was a “lunatic asylum.” Things have definitely gotten better since his time, but there remains that logic-defying element, the contradiction that stares: the state with the highest literacy rate also faces a staggering unemployment percentage not to mention the frequent acts of violence, conversion politics, what-have-you.

I’m not implying that this passive mindset is restricted to Kerala alone; it spawns the whole of India, but in other states barring West Bengal (which now is trying pathetically to invite investment), people for one reason or the other have never opened their doors to the Red Virus. And no other state have they sustained it in power for so long. As for the argument that the Congress does have its say, it is no big deal: it is but dependent on the various shades of Red for its support and survival. Moreover, witness the sickening factional battle between Karunakaran and Anthony that seems to have no end visible.

All this said, I think it’s good in a way that things have come to this pass: things can get no worse (I hope!) and I hope again, that the grime of the regimes hitherto will be wiped away with fresh (back)waters.