Once upon a time ….
Published May 28, 2010 | 
We all have grown up listening to the typical “ once upon a time’ stories and prince and princess stories from our grand parents. I still remember how the gesticulations and dramatic expressions of my grandma made even an innocuous looking story thread into something really exciting! However with the collapse of the joint family system, grand parents were left alone in their sprawling homesteads in the country sides while the new generation migrated to bigger cities and foreign places in search of a posh life style and fortune. The grandma’s bed time stories made way to CDs and cassettes that parroted children’s stories, rhymes and western folklores unlike the olden days when the kids were acquainted with the local life , culture and traditions through stories. Is it not ironical that these days, kids know more about Peter Pan than Mahabali or the important festivals of Kerala?
Nonetheless, this blog is not about the bed time stories we all loved very much but the lovable narrators of those stories. Things have come to a point where family ties and relationships do not matter any more! Aged parents are being left alone to fend for themselves in their ancestral homes in Kerala or in many cases in destitute homes and old age homes where they will be spending the twilight of their life like a prisoner with no room for personal likes and dislikes. If at all they are allowed to stay with their children, their position will be worse than a house keeper or a nanny where they have to take care of all the house hold duties and attend to the babies while their children go out to work in far away cities.
It is alarming to note that we Keralites, who used to take pride of a good track record in gender equality education, health care and other social issues can become so mean and thoughtless. Old age is not a bane but only an inevitable phase in everyone’s life. As they say, old age it is the second childhood and it is quite natural for the aged to desire or even demand to be loved and pampered. They have devoted a life time of theirs to raise their kids and have nurtured the next generation with love and warmth, which is sans parallel. In your mad chase of material wealth and bigger apartments and luxury vehicles, are we trampling our family virtues and the warmth and assurance that only our parents can give ? Remember, if it has happened to your parents today, tomorrow will be your turn for sure. So make sure that you do not shirk away from your responsibilities citing petty reasons like lack of time or resources lest the same fate might fall upon you.
A friend in need is a friend indeed
Published January 9, 2009 | This could well be a typical scene from a Kerala village road. A packed bus in which commuters were stacked like sardines screeched to a halt to pick up more passengers. The next available bus in this stretch is only at dusk hence the bus was unusually crowded. The passengers comprising of shoppers, students, young and old try to get a toehold at the foot board when a good Samaritan popped up from nowhere from the crowd. He started to mind the crowd and to yell out the names of the bus stops for people to get down easily.
This supportive act helped the hapless conductor a lot as he was finding it very hard to issue the tickets and to manage the doorbell in the milling crowd all at once. Soon, things fell in place and it was a smooth sail till the bus reached its destination where this helpful guy got down after a commendable endeavour.
Though going by the books, this overzealous act may not go well with the general public, most of the commuters were all praise for this selfless act, which grabbed a few eyeballs of the curious travelers. Nonetheless some were heard whispering at hushed tones that he might be on a high, which made him lose the sense of reality! It is interesting to note that as always, this selfless deed has also won bouquets and brickbats all at once!
The mobile fashion boutique
Published October 20, 2008 | Today is a special day for the village bellies; a well cherished guest will be making his monthly visit to their remote village. The ladies finish off their household chores in a hurry and send the kids to the main road to see whether he could be spotted. They wait with bated breath for hours together before he makes a majestic appearance. He is a mobile fashion boutique for the villagers in Kerala. He props up a massive display board on his shoulder that features all the bare essentials needed for their make up box. Festive occassions like Onam and vishu would add up to the shopping frenzy of the villagers, making him busy.
Kids also look forward to his visit as he brings balloons of various colors and shapes apart from various toys and indoor games to make their holidays memorable. Unlike their urban counterparts, though they cannot lay their hands on the world famous game packs like Disney and G I Joe, they get more than their fair share in this mobile toy shop. From toy guns to cars and card games, he brings them all and more to their door step. The goggles in garish hues like shocking pink and green are all time favorite among the kids.
The ladies make a beeline to pick up the latest accessories to dress up for the annual temple festivals and fairs. They select from the best of the lot from heaps of glass bangles and strings of necklaces being put on display. The girls will strike a deal by some hard haggling and he gives out these goodies for a song before walking into the next house. Though the mushrooming of ladies stores and fashion boutiques has dampened his business prospects, he still makes it a point to visit this village on the specified day to cater to the diverse needs of his customers.
A village hotel
Published October 17, 2008 | Just step into a typical tea shop in any Kerala village to sample its rustic charm and the warm hospitality it offers. Functioning from a ramshackle thatched shed, these shops will mostly have names of Gods and Goddesses like Muruka Vilasam or Sreekrishna Café. The interiors would be clean though Spartan with a lighted oil lamp and the fragrance of incense welcoming you indoors.
These hotels will turn into a beehive of activity with the crack of dawn when villagers assemble here to share about the day’s Malayalam newspaper headlines and the hottest gossips doing the rounds in the village. Politics is typically the favorite topic of discussion, where the villagers will foretell the outcome of the next elections and appraise the performance of the elected members representing the village.
It is interesting to note that a ‘meals ready’ board will be hung at the entrance of the hotel at all times of the day, though lunch is served only in the afternoon. The typical breakfast items would include puttu, (the famous steamed rice cake) and gram curry or other favorite combos like dosa and sambar along with side dishes of omlette, boiled banana and the like. The 1 meter tea is probably the most popular item in the menu. The tea will be thoroughly beaten by pouring it in and out of two vessels and the tasty brew will be ready in no time. The supplier would shout out the customer specifications like low sugar, more milk or strong tea with less milk and so on and so forth as he places orders in high vocal pitch.
Lunch will be served in banana leaves and the delicacies would include spicy fish curry and vegetable dishes. Tasty food is served at nominal rates and tips are something unheard of in these hotels. Many regular customers maintain credit and pay off the amount at the end of the month. The milieu is warm and the hospitality affable in these small time restaurants where guests are treated like God, unlike the many plush city hotels, where serving food to the starving forms only part of a lucrative business.
A village free from the grip of private moneylenders
Published March 6, 2008 | 
Thrissur: Here is a model village that is free from the ravenous moneylenders who extend loans to hapless farmers on exorbitant interest rates. Better known as ‘Blade Banks’ in local parlance, these private banks bleed the villagers with abnormal interest loans and difficult terms, which drive many helpless victims into suicide.
The chairman of the South Indian Bank Mr. V A Joseph launched the pilot project of the bank at Meloor Village near here. It is going to be a trail blazer for many other villages, which are burdened with high interest loans.
The project is aimed in making the villagers self reliant. The Kerala Agricultural University has already inked a MOU with the bank for the integrated development of the village. It will help the villagers by offering technical guidance to set up units for ornamental fish rearing, diary, landscaping and medicinal plants. The village panchayat also plans to make available leased land for landless agricultural workers to set up units. The requisite marketing back up will be provided by the Organization for Women Empowerment and Rural Development, which will also help to beget the government subsidies on offer.
Innovative schemes of such genre are sure to make a sea change in the quality of the lives of the villagers in Kerala.
Vetiver- A key to sustainable development of Kerala
Published February 22, 2008 | 
KOCHI: Vetiver or ‘Ramacham’ in local parlance is closely related to the ethnic lives of Keralites. It was used as a water purifier and fan in royal households since time immemorial. Traditional kerala homesteads used to put vetiver plants in drinking water wells and ponds to purify water and to make it cool. However Vetiver was pushed to nothingness by the onslaught of modern technologies.
Now efforts are being taken to popularise the grass technology in agriculture and soil conservation. Governer of Kerala, Mr. R L Bhatia opined that this medicinal plant with low maintenance cost was ideal for improving water quality and retaining moisture content of the soil by preventing water run off. He was speaking on the occasion of the inauguration of a national workshop on vetiver system organized by the India Vetiver Network. Many foreign delegates are participating in the three-day workshop.
Kanan Devan Hills Plantations Company (KDHP), one of the country’s large tea producers, has long adopted this amazing technology in their tea estates. While replanting the tea gardens, they put up vetiver hedges in place of the customary stone embankments to conserve soil and moisture. It is estimated to reduce the expenditure of soil and water conservation work to over 30 per cent and could be a super money saver on waste water treatment and soil conservation. The root system of vetiver is stronger than many trees and is said to have the ability to absorb even poisonous heavy metal traces in water.
The R& D wing of KDHP, under the leadership of P. Haridas, Deputy General Manager, has been conducting trials on vetiver for the last one and a half decades. “We learnt from these farmers that they have been successfully growing vetiver against soil erosion for centuries. It reduced rainfall runoff by as much as 70%, recharged groundwater and improved ephemeral stream flow.” Surprisingly villages that use vetiver have much higher water levels in their wells due to better ground water replenation Recent studies prompted the World Bank to launch The Vetiver Network (TVN), which has been disseminating vetiver technology to the world with a missionary zeal. Kerala is all set to go back to its roots by reviving the long lost vetiver technology.