Tomichan Matheikal's blog

Posters play a lot of role in Kerala's politics. The Keralites love to put up their opinions in the public view and they will put up posters anywhere and everywhere. This is a poster that appeared on the wall of the bus waiting shed which was donated by my father and which land now belongs to me. The poster an many others like this belong to a party which I don't like at all.  And yet can I do anything? That's how politics works, especially in Kerala.  They will kill you if you protest.  Quotation gangs, they call it. Goons on hire, in other words, who will kill you if you question them.

The last time I visited there was only the bakra Now there are both - bakra and bakri That's life [Bakra and bakri are part of my private life.  I'm just publicising it :)]

I lived in Ernakulam (Kochi, Kerala) for about 6 years.  I was a student.  It's always nostalgic for me to go back to that city on whose roads I cycled kilometres and kilometres - especially from college to the Public Library and back to college during off  or boring periods. The city has changed much from those days (1980s).  The marine drive looks totally different.  The backwaters smell putrid.  They smell of business, in fact.  Here is a ship/boat that runs the business.

I was at Ernakulam (Kochi, Kerala) last month and fortunate enough to be taken for a ride (a boat ride, I mean) in the night. The backwaters smelled so bad that my companions who were not used to the smell of backwaters grimaced. But the virtual reality is always nice. The virtual reality belongs to the affluent - those who know how to surmount the real reality!