My Blessed Village

After living many years in cities, I do crave for my tiny village in north Kerala as desert longs for prairies. I havn’t never enjoyed being in my native place when I was a child as my eyes were accustommed to those lovely landscape blanketed by lush greenery; blessed with tranquil and spectacular Thejaswini river. But I explore the wild beauty of this virgin land of late - ofcourse away from the mosquito bites, dust and dirtyness of Indian cities. My home is not in a village in its strict sense of the term as such villages hardly exist in Kerala. It has got many ‘vices’(sophisticated communication system, fashion and people far from being naïve) of a city but without losing its conscience. It is a place where one would like to lose her soul and be one with nature as Wordsworth sang in his poems. There are few things that make me proud of Kerala (forgive me if I sound parochial, that is not my intention) though I don’t really support ‘isms’(read regionalism, religionism, communism, etc.) of any kind or prefer myself to be called a citizen of the world by rooting firmly on the soil where I belong to. One can’t think of Kerala without its women population. Let me quote the words of famous painter M.F Hussain, ‘If Kashmir is all about Men and Mountains, Kerala is about Women and Nature’. I hardly seen any little girl begging around or doing house hold works, as happens in many parts of India sans going school. Even poor will toil hard to give their girl children good education. I feel Kerala is one among few states(I hope there is atleast one more)where female infanticide is not reported. Of course the educated women of Kerala make all the difference.

Keralites are politically aware and generally well read. Writers like Pablo Neruda, Marques, Thela etc. are like house hold names. Issues as Iraq invasion, the recent Russia-Ukraine war and American imperialism are widely discussed and protested, often that justifies the saying about communist party here, ‘they open umbrella when it rains in Russia’.Keralites generally are interested in what is happening around them and often sympathise with the underdog. Communism and many social reformation movements by Ayyankali,Sree Narayana Guru etc had contributed to her social development and intellectual growth. I do remember the good old days when we in Kerala used to get books of all Russian masters like Tolstoy, Dostoïevsky, Chekhov, Turganev etc, from Russia (former Soviet Union) at an incredibly lower price-thanks to Communism. But I must admit that too much politicisation is pulling the state backwards. ‘God’s own country’ witnesses hartals (new incarnation of bandh as Kerala high court banned Bandh)and too many strikes as part of ‘political game’. But I am happy that God still dwells in this land! And true, my blessed village in north Kerala sail in my mind more often…