My trip to Kerela was breath taking but one thing I am not sure though – is it really God’s own country?
Ten days of driving on a road trip around Kerala has ensured that I am in love with that part of the world. Having lived in Bangalore for ten years I am repenting as to why it took me so long to visit this heaven on earth. People say that it is the land of Red – to me it is land that is Green. God has been kind to that part of geography and not only do you have the rolling mountains covered with Tea gardens but also the blue jumping waves of Kovallam and the laziness of Ashtmundi backwaters. The place is a sight to sore eyes and tranquility to the heart.
However coming back to my question – is it really God’s own country? What credit can God take to the well manicured Tea gardens that are reaping Gold to the economy or the back breaking work on the rubber plantations or the patience that the crop of spices need over many generations. The general well being of Kerala has its own people to credit for – to leave a paradise like Kerala and go to work in the harsh desert of Arab world does not sound like a great idea. To the credit of the locals here not only have they gone to far flung places but also built a reputation for themselves, reputation of hard working and consistent performers. It is no more the nurses or the stenos who come from Kerala but you will find the Malayali’s excelling in every walk of life.
Kerala is a breeding ground for a positive spiral. Literacy has not only ensured that they are able to export workforce across the world but also ensured a clean and green Kerala. Imagine what 90% literacy can do for a state. Any village that you drive through the state is a well maintained one (not that you don’t see poverty or filth). The village is not only clean but well equipped and reflective of well being and healthiness. The roads are well maintained and people industrious. The locals have really geared over this period towards tourism and you see the service oriented approach reflective on food – no more is the cooking done only in Coconut oil but to lure the ‘outsiders’ you actually have food being cooked to all tastes (even Jain food is available!) The people here are not only employed but more importantly are self sufficient and self employed.
There is NRI income, there is tourism income, there is export, there is medical tourism, there is a fledgling industry (wonder why it is fledgling) but most importantly there is a roaring agriculture industry. There is Tea, there is coffee, there is cardamom, there is clove, there is pepper, there is coconut and there is spice…. You name it and all the cash crops are there to see. It is an environmentally sustainable economy. You can actually see the rural India become urban. As you drive you enjoy the good roads, you enjoy the sight but you also see that Kerala is one big village (for the ones who have visited and driven in the state will realize that the village never ends…it only changes names and you keep going from one village to the other). To me Kerala has only one city – Kochi or Cochin – the rest are villages of different sizes! All the villages are well off and the people literate. The best thing is the gender equity (M:F is 100:106!!) I am sure with more women the state is not only clean but better managed. There is business in the air and cleanliness in the corners. If India wants to become a super power then all Indian villages need to learn from Kerala. (The one thing that they need to not learn though is the love for toddy!)
To me Kerala is the most evolved state – though the politics there talks of ‘no religion’ but to me it is more of ‘all religion’. Whether it is Islam or Christianity or Hinduism or Judism all have entered (or re-entered) from Kerala. St Thomas is said to have visited in 52 AD – the Arabs in their dhows came in 7th century (bringing Islam and Judaism) – the first Jews landed in those dhows and Hinduism dates back 5000 BC! (Who can discount that Adi Shankaracharya was born a Nambudiri in Kerala)
With all this early evolution and melting of various religions I am sure God (of all kinds) has been kind to Kerala but I still feel that current state of affairs in Kerala – its well being – its weather – its sustainable economy – its gender equity – high literacy - $ income and all those good things have nothing to do with God. To me for the Mallu’s and the Malayali’s – Kerala is truly “People’s own country”
(and this has nothing to do with any colour - RED or GREEN!!!)
Thursday, October 16, 2008
Wednesday, September 17, 2008
Delhi Blast @ Values, Morals and Ethics
The sound of Delhi blasts can be heard across the country. There is enough being written about the terror networks and the Indian Mujahedeen’s. The politicians are involved in pointing fingers. There are enough sound bites on what the Home Minster is doing (or not doing). The Police and the National security are trying to search under every rock and in every dark corner. However I feel there is not enough being spoken about YOU and I. Not enough being explored on what is driving us to behave the way we are behaving. The response of the common man is not even in the picture. What the community is doing to get out of the situation is the last thing in our minds.
We are all waiting for someone to come and help us out!
What kind of values are we talking about for our community? The big question is what is right and what is wrong. As we grow in India do we really give a thought on what is important and what not? I am not talking about the person who is planting the bomb – I am talking about YOU and I – our values. As a parent I don’t want my child to be growing up with values that allow inaction and approve non-compassion. But look at what I am condoning around me, forget the blast, if there is an accident on the road and someone lying injured do I actually stop to help. If we see a wrong happening at the corner of our colony (whether someone dumping garbage or illegal construction or activity) – do we really act on it to stop it? I respect Big B a lot and his personal blog talked about Abhishek Bachchan’s trauma of being around the Delhi blast but what will really make my heart swell in pride is when all of us really take this incident as a motive to act and fight terror (rather than feeling sorry about it). The police is busy trying to ask help from the public to help find answers but our values tell us to stay out of trouble…. so what happens… we don’t even try to help. (we can make a phony call to get the flight delayed or off-time from the office but calling the Police to help sends shivers down our spine – that is if we really have a spine!) The only way out is for us to re-calibrate our values (or rather ask if we really have values).
I am sure Abhishek’s comments in the press are taking a moral high ground in terms of his reaction to the situation but what is more important is to figure out what his moral values drive him towards. Will we have a big cheque (signed by Big B) coming as contribution to the relief fund? Will we have an initiative being kicked off to re-habilitate the ones impacted by the blast? In our community life our actions are driven by the morals being accepted. What we read (in press), hear (in our community and friends) and see (in movies) help define the moral standards. Look at the masala movies around us – hedonism to the core in Race – callousness galore in Bachana ae haseeno. So till you don’t see a Rang de basanti or a ‘Wednesday’ the message does not get through to you. It is time that we talk about our moral standards – it is not just enough to be safe in our homes but we need to extend that to our colony and our town. We spend many hours trying to teach our child to remember the fathers mobile number to call when there is any trouble – we have clear standing operating procedures in our mind when the maid or the driver act funny. Is it not time for us to have clearer moral (read community) standards that take us to a ‘free’ and ‘safe’ society?
At our homes we are true paragons of virtue. We have bath twice a day (but don’t even think twice before throwing litter from our car window). Our parent’s health is paramount (but the environment-Mother Earth can go to dogs). Even at midnight a slight pain in our child’s tummy makes us rush to the hospital (but the poor women howling on the street is a nuisance). We need ‘community’ ethics (like professional ethics) that codify our conduct in the community. We need a formal set of rules that define our conduct and demand from us for the community (like the 3yrs in Army for Israel?). It needs us to get off the road when we hear an Ambulance behind us (rather than trying to stick in front of it so that we also move fast!). It needs us to willfully expose public thefts and be a public whistleblower. It demands of us to respond to the need of the country in whatever way – to do things rather than expect. It needs us to be part of the answer rather than asking questions.
(But then what do I talk about ethics in a world where parents allow their budding Engineer son to go absconding from work and support him by telling false stories. What kind of ethics do we talk where falsifying documents to get a SIM card or a free subscription or a better job or a visa is a every day story!)
Time to ask ourselves what are our Values, Morals and Ethics?
We are all waiting for someone to come and help us out!
What kind of values are we talking about for our community? The big question is what is right and what is wrong. As we grow in India do we really give a thought on what is important and what not? I am not talking about the person who is planting the bomb – I am talking about YOU and I – our values. As a parent I don’t want my child to be growing up with values that allow inaction and approve non-compassion. But look at what I am condoning around me, forget the blast, if there is an accident on the road and someone lying injured do I actually stop to help. If we see a wrong happening at the corner of our colony (whether someone dumping garbage or illegal construction or activity) – do we really act on it to stop it? I respect Big B a lot and his personal blog talked about Abhishek Bachchan’s trauma of being around the Delhi blast but what will really make my heart swell in pride is when all of us really take this incident as a motive to act and fight terror (rather than feeling sorry about it). The police is busy trying to ask help from the public to help find answers but our values tell us to stay out of trouble…. so what happens… we don’t even try to help. (we can make a phony call to get the flight delayed or off-time from the office but calling the Police to help sends shivers down our spine – that is if we really have a spine!) The only way out is for us to re-calibrate our values (or rather ask if we really have values).
I am sure Abhishek’s comments in the press are taking a moral high ground in terms of his reaction to the situation but what is more important is to figure out what his moral values drive him towards. Will we have a big cheque (signed by Big B) coming as contribution to the relief fund? Will we have an initiative being kicked off to re-habilitate the ones impacted by the blast? In our community life our actions are driven by the morals being accepted. What we read (in press), hear (in our community and friends) and see (in movies) help define the moral standards. Look at the masala movies around us – hedonism to the core in Race – callousness galore in Bachana ae haseeno. So till you don’t see a Rang de basanti or a ‘Wednesday’ the message does not get through to you. It is time that we talk about our moral standards – it is not just enough to be safe in our homes but we need to extend that to our colony and our town. We spend many hours trying to teach our child to remember the fathers mobile number to call when there is any trouble – we have clear standing operating procedures in our mind when the maid or the driver act funny. Is it not time for us to have clearer moral (read community) standards that take us to a ‘free’ and ‘safe’ society?
At our homes we are true paragons of virtue. We have bath twice a day (but don’t even think twice before throwing litter from our car window). Our parent’s health is paramount (but the environment-Mother Earth can go to dogs). Even at midnight a slight pain in our child’s tummy makes us rush to the hospital (but the poor women howling on the street is a nuisance). We need ‘community’ ethics (like professional ethics) that codify our conduct in the community. We need a formal set of rules that define our conduct and demand from us for the community (like the 3yrs in Army for Israel?). It needs us to get off the road when we hear an Ambulance behind us (rather than trying to stick in front of it so that we also move fast!). It needs us to willfully expose public thefts and be a public whistleblower. It demands of us to respond to the need of the country in whatever way – to do things rather than expect. It needs us to be part of the answer rather than asking questions.
(But then what do I talk about ethics in a world where parents allow their budding Engineer son to go absconding from work and support him by telling false stories. What kind of ethics do we talk where falsifying documents to get a SIM card or a free subscription or a better job or a visa is a every day story!)
Time to ask ourselves what are our Values, Morals and Ethics?
Friday, September 5, 2008
There is still some hope for India
Hyderabad is a bustling city trying hard to become a metropolis. An IT hub and at the same time a global village. Dotted across this large village are many movie halls or theatres. Competing with the multiplex are the home grown halls like Anand and the second rung multiplexes like Talkiestown. Still getting a movie ticket on a weekend in Hyderabad is a real tough task.
My story is about one of these weekends where I was thrilled for having got a ticket at Talkietown for one of these 'popular' movies doing the round. So I (with my family in tow) drove down to the fringes of Hi-tech city to watch the movie. I walk in early feeling happy about myself and absorbing the world around me. There were these other movie goers like - the yuppies (obviously from the IT world), the local villagers from Miyapur and Bachupally, these sweet looking 20 somethings, young girls and guys, old grandparents with their ‘khandan’, the young couple trying to hide from the public gaze and the rowdies from the local bar. Everyone was geared to enjoy the evening and have a good time - being a popular movie you could hear the laughter in the air, children demanding for the customary pop-corn and cola, Mother’s surreptiously pulling out the water bottle from their bag and the girls giggling away to glory.
Finally the doors of the hall open and everyone rushes in to find a seat and settle in before the movie starts. The customary documentary is running on the screen followed by some Life insurance company trying to sell kid education insurance in Telegu. The humm and excitement within the audience is very audible and the mother trying to pacify the scared child burning in your ears. Then even before I could hear or experience the sudden drop in decibel levels I see everyone around me getting up and standing. I hurry myself to stand in silence more as a mob-involuntary response than any other thing. Then I see unfold in front of my eyes the rendition of Jana gana mana - the national anthem - in the voice of Lata Mangeshkar. Everyone around me has gone silent. I am amazed that there still are movie halls in India which still play the national anthem before or after a show (as a child I remember this every time… it brings nostalgia). There is pride in the eyes of everyone and pin drop silence in the hall. Not one person is sitting and the person on the mobile has switched off his call hurriedly. The sight is just amazing.
Even though we find families moving from joint to nuclear families, even though the eastern values are being eroded by western ones, even though our political leaders have lost direction, even though the going is tough, even though the environment is going to dogs, even though the social values are being lost - still there is some hope for India. There is patriotism still in the air and the national anthem still makes your heart flutter (even as I type this and visualize that scene my hairs stand!). Hats of to movie halls like Talkiestown that still run the national anthem.
My story is about one of these weekends where I was thrilled for having got a ticket at Talkietown for one of these 'popular' movies doing the round. So I (with my family in tow) drove down to the fringes of Hi-tech city to watch the movie. I walk in early feeling happy about myself and absorbing the world around me. There were these other movie goers like - the yuppies (obviously from the IT world), the local villagers from Miyapur and Bachupally, these sweet looking 20 somethings, young girls and guys, old grandparents with their ‘khandan’, the young couple trying to hide from the public gaze and the rowdies from the local bar. Everyone was geared to enjoy the evening and have a good time - being a popular movie you could hear the laughter in the air, children demanding for the customary pop-corn and cola, Mother’s surreptiously pulling out the water bottle from their bag and the girls giggling away to glory.
Finally the doors of the hall open and everyone rushes in to find a seat and settle in before the movie starts. The customary documentary is running on the screen followed by some Life insurance company trying to sell kid education insurance in Telegu. The humm and excitement within the audience is very audible and the mother trying to pacify the scared child burning in your ears. Then even before I could hear or experience the sudden drop in decibel levels I see everyone around me getting up and standing. I hurry myself to stand in silence more as a mob-involuntary response than any other thing. Then I see unfold in front of my eyes the rendition of Jana gana mana - the national anthem - in the voice of Lata Mangeshkar. Everyone around me has gone silent. I am amazed that there still are movie halls in India which still play the national anthem before or after a show (as a child I remember this every time… it brings nostalgia). There is pride in the eyes of everyone and pin drop silence in the hall. Not one person is sitting and the person on the mobile has switched off his call hurriedly. The sight is just amazing.
Even though we find families moving from joint to nuclear families, even though the eastern values are being eroded by western ones, even though our political leaders have lost direction, even though the going is tough, even though the environment is going to dogs, even though the social values are being lost - still there is some hope for India. There is patriotism still in the air and the national anthem still makes your heart flutter (even as I type this and visualize that scene my hairs stand!). Hats of to movie halls like Talkiestown that still run the national anthem.
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