Kerala exhibits great courage post flood havoc

Kerala exhibits great courage post flood havoc

                        Looking back at the massive casualties,heavy loss to properties including landed,residential and commercial;had it been the case elsewhere it would have taken years together for the people to wake up from the fatal effects of the gruesome tragedy but not in Kerala.A whirlwind tour of the state for eight days proved the ground situation to be otherwise contrary to similar junctures in many other states.

Going by the usual normal life as before unaffected in any manner due to the recent traumatic disaster was both surprising and shocking as a onlooker.The traffic on national and state highways,business in shops and commercial establishments,people moving around for their daily chores gave a sight as usual like much before in the terrifically thickly populated coastal state.

Malayalis or Mallus as they are popularly referred to seem to be unperturbed by the devastating man made tragedy during August 2018.Life in the overcrowded small state is back to normal and the nightmare due to the onslaught of nature fury doesn't seem to have taken them aback in any manner.

The state is full of residential units exclaims Devassy Pulickal,retired Geography teacher near the historic pilgrimage center Kalady.It's no surprise comparing to the uninterrupted row of houses throughout the state and finding a isolated place to respond at your desire for nature call really becomes a hopeless case not worth experiencing!

MP Veerendra Kumar,CMD of The Mathrubhumi group of publications and Member of Parliament(Rajya Sabha) in lighter vein admits the piquant situation:Both in Bengal and Kerala you come across a physical problem of urinating on the roads.Nowhere else in the country you face such an unusual problem!

Several logical reasons can be attributed for a feel good factor across the state in spite of a massive catastrophe unheard of since the early twenties of the 19th century.If you carefully watch the Malayalam movies by and large they can be classified as under play or over play.If most of the art movies come under the former usually the commercial one's fall under the latter category.

May be the Mallus' are introverts in general in public unlike for political reasons which could be the prime logic behind their subdued silence over the recent calamity.Another but very significant cause could be the ground reality of their gulf connection.At least one member of the family works in the gulf region since last three generations!

As a result their income due to the earnings abroad is incomparable to fellow citizens of the remaining states of the country.So it's a natural corollary that most of the Mallus' are well off in materialistic measures and any setback due to domestic or natural reasons cannot become a hindrance to their well being and prosperity.

The public debate on their migrating trend is such that if all the Malayalese settled elsewhere make up their mind to return to the home state then all of them will not get enough space even to place their one leg!Reports of the United Arab Emirates evincing interest to contribute to an extent of Rs. 700 crores for the relief operations is a testimony of the Mallu work force pervading the oil rich nations.

Malayalee work force is literally present in all walks of gulf life,beginning from menial jobs to all important responsible positions.Kerala nuns and nurses are present all over the world just like the domestic maid servants.

Due to rigid citizenship stipulations they may have failed to become subjects of the kingdoms they have been working in but such conditions haven't deterred them from thriving there by launching their own business concerns from generations.

Although there's no restriction on such a practice among the major communities of this state like Hindus,Muslims and Christians in making a beeline for green pastures the after effect back home due to such trend is also blatantly visible.

You can very easily see any number of majestic mosques and churches built lavishly in recent times while the number of the temples prove to be quite dismal but for the age old temple shrines.

One more fact quite common among all the three major communities here is that all of them relish beef without any reservations irrespective of lynching those transporting the cattle elsewhere across the country.Incidentally all of them have also become relatives,thanks to ever increasing spree of inter religious marriages and uproar over the same here are insignificant in comparison to other states.

The affluence of Malayalis' is such that the average Mallu deals with a minimum of a quarter kilogram of the precious gold metal when it comes to marriage.More the gold the bride wears much high will be the esteem of the in laws during the marriages here.

Even the business of yellow metal is so predominant here that the state boasts of more than 15 group of companies having a chain of outlets across the country and elsewhere abroad.Some of these gold houses have any number of them in the same place too.

Not just selling and trading in gold and jewellery,these days they have hugely excelled themselves into the new business of lending money by depositing gold and jewellery ornaments.Of course the experience of many poor people availing such facility is hopelessly bad as they have felt to be driven to penury later.Even when it comes to owning up such gold and jewellery outlets and gold finance companies,the owners do belong to the three major communities.

The combination of these religions is so heterogeneous in every walk of life such that just like inter religious marriages being quite common the support of Muslims and Christians is inevitable for any combination to form a government here.Let it be the Congress led United Democratic Front(UDF) or the Communists led Left Democratic Front(LDF) assume power it could be only with the help of the two minority communities in a very big way.

 Another positive aspect of this state is that those calling shots in the state government from the chief minister position will generally be a septuagenarian,octogenarian or a nonagenarian!

The reason for such a paradoxical environment unlike in most of the Indian states is that apart from being a wholly literate state it also triumphs in the fact of having the highest life expectancy level!The average life expectancy here happens to be 74!

Well along with these there could be many more factors which could be the basic reason for the cool nature of the people despite adverse physical conditions prevailing now.

-Manohar Yadavatti