Celebrating the rainy season with Wayanad monsoon carnival
Published August 2, 2011 | 
A monsoon carnival was organised in the Wayanad district in Kerala during the first two weeks of July to promote monsoon tourism and to soak up the mood of the rains. Aptly named “Splash”, this carnival which took place at the Chandragiri Auditorium in Kalpetta included an array of interesting indoor and outdoor events like cultural performances, singing, music, dance, magic, rafting, rock climbing, trekking, crab catching and archery. The gourmets too had a field day as there was a well stocked food court too at the venue. Stalls selling local handicrafts and spices had a steady stream of visitors.
While many tourism related activities took an off season rest, splash created a buzz in this hill district, which attracted over 200 tour operators including overseas operators who participated in this business-to-business meet. Various interesting sporting events and local games were also included in this year’s event to attract maximum participants.
One of the major attractions this year had been the fun activity of mud football. Some of the other rural games on offer included ‘kambukayattam’ (climbing the slippery tree), ‘vadamvali’ (tug of war), and also life skills like paddy transplantation. The water sports lovers too had a great time as there were many exciting activities like rafting, rain run, fishing, angling and rain trail, which brought out the charm of the monsoons at its best. I found this blog post by Sanjay-Sivadas really catchy as it has encompassed the beauty of Wayanad and the romance of the rains through some lively snap shots and descriptions.
Team Karma Kerala on a monsoon trail
Published June 2, 2011 | 
Kerala Roads, really annoying!
Published October 6, 2010 | How annoying it is to walk on our Kerala roads when it is raining heavily. Most of all are the big potholes and ponds that form during monsoon, which makes travel difficult for all (especially pedestrians). 
Now imagine!!…You are on your way to office dressed all tip-top, and happen to be near a pothole filled with dirty water. A vehicle (It is best if it is a private bus or a private car, especially Omnis) passes by at a 100 kmph. Now have a look on yourself, once the vehicle moved off. You look more attractive now, don’t you? With a dress (no need to say if you have worn a light coloured one) now designed in innovative yet natural way. The person who made you look beautiful anyway is not going to see you, but if any onlookers are nearby, they can have chuckle themselves or pity you. But you are at freedom to curse that driver, but all to yourself. Most of the pedestrians are sure to have experienced this at least once in their lifetime. So, the next time you are going to be more careful when you happen to be near any potholes.
When it comes to drivers, the bad conditions of roads will make them feel they have driven 500 kms after just driving 50 kms. If you need only just 30 minutes to reach your destination, now it takes over an hour for travelling.
Of the 160,944 km of roads in the state, 28,203 km fall under the jurisdiction of the Public Works Department, and around 67 percent of roads fall under jurisdiction of various village panchayats. Over 70 per cent of the roads in the state are damaged and unfit for vehicular traffic. Though the government has taken to repair works on a war footing, the monsoon almost always washes it off.
Every year a lot of money is spend on road maintenance and the roads are tarred every year. But as soon as the monsoons arrives these tarred roads gets torn apart and great pot holes develop which make the roads look really pathetic and are a real nightmare for travellers. Who is to blame the corrupt politicians or contractors or both? A lot of major accidents occur every month due to the bad state of the roads in Kerala. Although Kerala is a major tourist destination in India and is given the title ‘God’s own country’, the pathetic roads in Kerala has not done justice to this self-styled name.
The changing rain spectacles
Published July 13, 2010 | 
Gone are the days when the croaking sounds of frogs were always associated with the rains in Kerala , simply because these days we hardly see any frogs around. Rains and frogs share a close relation. An amphibian, which also breathes through its moist skin, frog needs water for its survival and this could be the reason why frogs wait for the rain clouds. Even today, in many villages in North India, frog marriages are held to appease the rain gods. However, with the change in the climatic conditions and the destruction of wetlands, frogs are facing a serious threat. I was surprised to note that for the last many years not even a single frog was spotted in a pond near my house, which was once the spawning ground of bright yellow frogs. Till the recent past, we could hear the loud croaking calls in various intensities all night and the whole pond would take in an yellow hue!
Things are equally bad for snakes as well. A poet of yesteryear had sung that ‘snakes have burrows, birds have skies and man alone does not have a place to live‘ in one of the most popular songs of a Malayalam movie. However, now the lyrics of the song has lost its meaning as man has invaded the whole of ground, sky, water and even space as his home, leaving all other animals homeless and distressed. As the pressure on land increases by the day, conflict between man and animals is assuming alarming proportions. Last week a fully grown viper got into the sitting room of a posh villa, luckily the inmates found it in time so a tragedy was averted. The residents are now using poisonous chemicals to keep off the snakes , knowing fully well that these highly poisonous chemicals could be carcinogenic if used continuously.
In the olden days, every homestead had a sacred serpent grove where these slithering creatures were revered. I still remember my vacations which I used to spend in my village in Trichur district. A visit to temple was something that we all cherished as kids. A stroll along the embankments of the paddy fields at dusk, often under the guidance of our grand mother was fun. Very often we’ll come across snakes in the paddy fields and the bushes nearby.
A long snake with a pale yellow tinge that seems to be in no hurry to reach its home- it is a harmless , ‘chera, it wont do anything’ grandma would whisper as we walk past. She used to make sure that the kids are well acquainted with the different types of snakes so that they can distinguish between the poisonous and the nonpoisonous varieties. The slender, medium sized snakes that swoosh past the water in the brooks and paddy fields are also non venomous snakes. But watch out for the short and stout snakes with dark bands over it. These could be highly poisonous viper or cobra and it is better not to mess up with these- she would add hastily. Not even once she urged us to kill the snakes the moment we spot it! This sharing and caring attitude is missing now and this could be the root cause for all problems. So it is high time that we lend an ear to the age old sayings and practices of our forefathers to make sure that we ensure a fair chance to live in this universe for the future generations!
Hartals alias extended weekends!!
Published July 8, 2010 | 
Kerala recently made a dubious distinction by holding two hartals for a single cause that too in a week! It is intriguing that the political parties almost always make sure to choose Fridays or Mondays as hartal days. May be this could be a ploy to make it more people friendly by offering sops in the form of extended weekends and more holidays to the people. Whatever be the cause, it is a fact that the majority of the population have started accepting political parties’ decision to conduct hartal without any major opposition.
The bus stands and railway stations were jam packed with holiday revelers as people from other cities planned a home coming to enjoy the unexpected leave they got from the second hartal on Monday. While the general public chose to leave the price hike issues to the political parties, people preferred to enjoy the time with their friends and families. Most of them chose to make use of the extended weekends to catch up with the latest movies in their home theatre or to soak up the charm of the monsoons in the hill stations!
How many of us had even bothered to think about those hapless people who were left out in the middle of the road all day or those countless patients who suffered for want of medical aid on the so called hartal day. In a way are we compromising with the political parties’ decision?
The psychologists opine that people were only trying to take a break from their busy schedules on hartal day though it might make it look like they are actually favoring hartals. The recent shift in the behaviour of the people suggest that holidays in any disguise are welcome in God’s own country. However, this easy go lucky attitude of the jovial malayalis would give a long stick to the political parties to get along with their frequent hartal calls. Most of the antihartal proponents think that if there was a strong public opposition to the frequent hartals, things would have been much better in Kerala; however the happenings around us suggest that malayalees are enjoying the hartals and the unexpected holidays that they bring!
The rain tales continue
Published July 1, 2010 | 
The rain woes in Kerala continue to hit the headlines day in and day out with many people succumbing to fever and other diseases, which was dealt upon in an earlier blog in this space a few days back. As pointed out in that blog, all these chaos are only man made and is not something that should be associated with rains at all.
Kerala enjoys a tropical climate with plentiful rainfall and sunshine and never before have we heard about the strange diseases like dengue, rat fever and the like! So what could be wrong? Blame it on the poor sanitation, lack of cleanliness and non existent drainage facilities that add up to the monsoon miseries of the common man. The disease transmitting vectors like rodents and mosquitoes multiply in the filth and waste generated by cities as their natural predators are fast vanishing.
The natural predators of mosquitoes like frogs are facing extinction due to the rapid destruction of wetlands and poaching by man. Gone are the days when the arrival of the rainy season was heralded by the echoing croaking sounds of large frog colonies. When man decided to fight the vectors with chemicals, mosquitoes that are immune to chemicals emerged throwing open serious challenges for the health sector fraternity.
With the disappearance of paddy fields, snakes, which were the most dreaded predators of rodents are also facing serious crisis. Many newly developed residential colonies in Cochin are constructed by leveling paddy fields and marshy lands. Even today , during monsoons, poisonous snakes like vipers are spotted here, which underscores the gravity of the man Vs nature conflict.
When will man learn to lead a life without interfering the rhythm of nature? When the going gets a bit too much to handle, nature reprimands him with tsunamis, dengue, H1N1 and what not, which we have never heard before in this tiny state of Kerala a decade or so before! If the alerts remain unheeded, the end result could be catastrophic for sure. But as usual the public and the administrative machinery fail to wake up from their slumber until a serious calamity strike us all!
Rains form the lifeline of Kerala, which depends exclusively on the monsoons to replenish the power grid and the drinking water sources. So instead of asking the ‘rains to go away’ to get temporary respite from all these problems will it not be better if we try to solve the sanitation and waste disposal issues to make sure that mosquitoes don’t breed in the stagnant rain waters and the rodents multiply in the stinking garbage on the roads. Organic farming and wetland conservation would bring back the natural predators like frogs and snakes to fill in the missing links of the food chain and this could bring a noticeable change in the situation. Last but not least, let the humans not meddle with the laws of nature, because, he after all is only a small link of a complex interdependent ecosystem of this universe!
A post without a title… From Karmakerala, with love!
Published May 20, 2010 | Shyama, my colleague, wants me to write out a post…..
Now, what shall I write? Confusion indeed…
It’s been cloudy since yesterday, with rains lashing out now and then. It’s a relief, from the scorching summer heat, but I’m feeling terribly sleepy. If given a chance, I’d simply shirk work and go have a nice sleep….Oh, no! I need to earn by bread n’ butter, nay, my Kanji and Curry. So better sit on and write on, after all I am paid to write….
I suddenly remember that the Kerala State Government had yesterday declared 2010 as the ‘Coir Year’. I ask Shyama if I may write about that. Pat comes the reply, over Skype, “Cottage industry, indigenous industry… wah bhai wah!”. Yes indeed. It’s good that the government has decided to announce the year as ‘ Coir Year’ and also has taken the initiative to launch various schemes aimed at uplifting people engaged in the coir industry.
Well, I happen to hail from the Thiruvananthapuram district. There are places near my hometown Varkala where dwell people who are part of the coir industry. But I feel the number of such people are dwindling, with more of our people looking out for making big money with not-so-indigenous methods.
Well, big money is no crime, if it’s not made in an illicit manner. But it’s sad to see indigenous industries going the wrong way. Anyway, kudos to the State Govt for taking the initiative and also for thinking of raising the pay given to coir workers from Rs. 100 per day to Rs 150 per day.
But, is that what I want to write about?
I look out and see vehicles ply on the road. It rained just half an hour ago; in fact it’s drizzling even now. My thoughts wander a bit….
The monsoons are supposed to arrive in a week’s time.
It’s this monsoon, known in Malayalam as the Edava paathi, especially as it comes almost by mid-Edavam (Edavam being a month in the Malayalam calendar), that’s made use of by farmers all over Kerala.
It’s this monsoon, the South West Monsoon that solves water-scarcity related problems and fills up wells, ponds, rivers etc.
It’s this monsoon that used to drench school kids on school re-opening day.
Hey, Did I say ‘used to’. Yes indeed! It no longer comes with that kind of precision, lament many of my friends. I too tend to agree. There was a time when the monsoon would unfailingly greet school kids walking past fields and through narrow village roads.
As a school-boy, when I used to visit Kerala during my summer vacations in the Andaman and Nicobar Islands, I used to enjoy seeing this, sitting in my grandfather’s shop, which used to be there by the side of paddy fields and from where I could catch the sight of a school by the road, almost half a kilometre away.
The school is there. But alas, the shop is not there. Many of the paddy fields too are not there. My grandfather is no more. And no more can I see those many sights that characterised the Edava Paathi. But still, Edava Paathi has its own beauty, its own charm in Kerala.
But I wonder how many of our people are pondering as to whether they would be able to till their fields and sow the seeds or not. Paddy fields are vanishing all around us. Why bother? We get rice, brought in from the other states!!
And what if the paddy fields and marshes disappearing is affecting the water-table? It’s going to affect the next generation only! And we can get mineral water, sold to us at Rs 10 or Rs 15 per litre. (Am sad indeed as I happen to drink well water, unprocessed and unboiled, even now when I visit my home-town, where the well is real deep and the water still pure, unpolluted and cool. But in Ernakulam, I am forced to shell out money and buy mineral water or else get the insipid water from the taps and boil it and gulp it down, to quench my thirst. It cools off the body, but not the mind!)
Hey…I am digressing! Better not…Shyama is our editor. She is also officiating as the team leader for our bunch of writers at Karmakerala. If she is vexed at me, all hell will break loose. She can put in a word against me with our bosses Thejal, Mark and Sholto. Oh no, Shyama is my friend….
God bless you, Shyama! But God knows, God only knows perhaps that I am damn tired…can’t write, er, type out one more line….
Will wind up with this…for today!!!
Monsoon returns… finally
Published November 12, 2009 | Cochin streets, like all Indian streets are always filled with humanity… except when the rains fall. October and November are generally the time for the returning monsoon. Well they finally hit yesterday with a vengeance. Hopefully the rains will fill the backwaters and clear the Cochin canals of their human detritus and the carpets of hyacinths.
The rains may clear the streets, but will they will clear the canals and worse will be the waterlogged lots (aka paddy fields according to the agriculturalist lobby) which lie empty except for a burgeoning mosquito population which will start swarming in a week or two.
Not everybody is unhappy: just listen to the frogs after the rain singing of coming fecundity. Hopefully their tadpoles will eat some of the mosquito larvae in the coming days.
Rain pains!
Published November 12, 2009 |
Which is what a vast majority of God’s Own Men as well Women (not to mention Children!) must be wishing these days. This is all the more apparent in the city of Ernakulam which simply cannot cope with even the lightest spell of rains. A poor drainage system, chockablock with sewage is the chief culprit.
The recent downpour has had the hapless citizens left with hardly any option but to grin and bear it all. If this is the plight of roads, the condition of the open drains (aka canals) is hardly any better.
They dutifully carry all kinds of waste and sewage, as they sedately wind their way across the city. Also, most of them act as hosts to the obnoxious water hyacinth, which further block the free movement of the canal waters.
The recent rains have added to woes of the general populace in no small extent. For one, the mosquitoes which have lai permanent claim to these stagnant waters are having a field day, or rather night.
And if the ‘thulavarsham’ shows no signs of abating, the canals might simply decide to overflow their banks and cause mini-floods.
For more updates, watch this space.
Monsoon Worries in Kerala
Published August 31, 2009 | Every year in April and May the weather gets hotter in Kerala, and dryer as locals wait for the monsoon to break with its customary fury. Now the meteorological service of India are suggesting that may be a thing of the past as India becomes dryer and drought becomes more common in the monsoon months.
The monsoon is a fundamental building block of the climate in India, providing everything from water from agriculture to a ground supply of water for then tens of thousands of Indian villages who still rely on wells.
For the past couple of years the Monsoon has been unpredictable and weak in Kerala’s case. The long weeks of rain have become intermittent and been replaced with sudden savage storms and then long waits for the next rain. In a study of monsoon patterns in India over the last 150 years, BN Goswami, director of the Indian Institute of Tropical Meteorology, said global warming had made India’s weather more unpredictable.
This year alone the poor monsoon has caused agricultural production to fall by 20% and has reduced GDP growth by 2% so the the driving impact of the monsoon is clear to see.
For Kerala which is less reliant on the monsoon for agriculture, the monsoon is critical for hydropower in the ghats where it refills the lakes for the long dry winter. Poor electrical supply is the bane of the lives of keralites who experience rolling powercuts every night.