Skip to main content

Truths in God’s Own Country


“No,” I said vehemently into the mobile phone.  But he wouldn’t listen.  The zeal for his “Lord and God” had overwhelmed him.

“Why is it that you don’t want me to come to Kerala?” he asked.  “You people claim that it is God’s own land and now you don’t want me, the God’s apostle, to come to God’s own land?”

He was Thomas, one of the disciples of Jesus.  He wanted to bring the light of Jesus to Kerala.  I explained to him with my whole heart and soul that the Malayalis never accepted any truth from outside the state, though they depended on other states for everything else including vegetables.  They think that they possess all the truth and nothing but the truth.

“How can you make such a ridiculous claim?” exclaimed Thomas who was convinced that his Master was the only Truth and Light.  Thomas claimed that he had even verified Jesus’ truth scientifically.  “Empirically,” he amended himself when I asked, “Scientifically?”  He had touched the nail marks on Jesus’ palms and put his finger in the spear-wound between his ribs.

He was carrying truths from the depths of gaping wounds, he claimed.  No truth can be more moving, more dynamic, he said passionately.

“Listen, Thomas, dear,” I tried my best to mollify his zeal.  The Catholic truths in Kerala are fabricated by K M Mani, the Finance Minister and leader of Kerala Congress (M), in connivance with the bishops of the Church, the Hindu truths by Sukumaran Nair of the Nair Service Society and the fledgling BJP leaders, the Muslim League creates the Muslim truths, then we have the Marxist truths, Leninist truths, Maoist truths, Dalit truths, in addition to the elite class truths coming from none other than the Chief Minister himself...

“Truth is as simple as a mere ‘Yes’ or ‘No,’” insisted Thomas.  “How can there be so many truths as you explain?”

An idea struck me suddenly.  “Hey, Thomas,” I said, “do you know that all the 700 plus bars in Kerala have been closed.  And they’re going to close the remaining ones too including the 3-star and 4-star ones.”

I didn’t tell him that K M Mani, one of our truth manufacturers, was facing a serious corruption charge levelled by the Bar Owners’ Association.  I didn’t want to tell him that the Bar Owners’ Association and other similar associations of traders possess all the protean truths in God’s Own Country also just like anywhere else in the neoliberal world.

“Then what will I do for the eucharistic wine?” asked Thomas.

“That’s what,” I said gleefully.  “You’ll only get spurious wine that comes from across the borders along with all the other spurious stuff that the Malayalis eat and drink.”

“Oh, no,” cried Thomas. “Let me see if I can reschedule my flight.”  Religious people don’t like spurious stuff particularly when it comes to food.

I heaved a sigh of relief.  I knew Thomas’ truth would not be able to outlive Mani’s and Chandy’s truths, Sukumaran Nair’s and Vellapally Natesan’s and Pinarayi Vijayan’s and so many other Malayali luminaries’ truths.  Even if it broke even with all these, it would stand no chance before the truths of the new brigands of ‘moral police’.  There would be no way of escaping the nooses dangled by the genetic descendants of Arnab Goswami who have invaded the countless news channels...


Note: It is believed that Thomas, the Apostle, landed in Kerala along with the traders who used to come and go regularly in those days.  


Top post on IndiBlogger.in, the community of Indian Bloggers

Labels:

Comments

  1. UnknownAugust 26, 2015 at 3:06 PM

    I totally agree to what all you have stated about Kerala. The state is known as God’s Own Country and the fabulous tourist places in Kerala such as Kollam, Chembra Peak, Wayanad, and Kabini enthrall the soul. Click here to more about Kerala tourism.

    ReplyDelete

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

The Adventures of Toto as a comic strip

  'The Adventures of Toto' is an amusing story by Ruskin Bond. It is prescribed as a lesson in CBSE's English course for class 9. Maggie asked her students to do a project on some of the lessons and Femi George's work is what I would like to present here. Femi converted the story into a beautiful comic strip. Her work will speak for itself and let me present it below.  Femi George Student of Carmel Public School, Vazhakulam, Kerala Similar post: The Little Girl
47 comments
Read more

Re-exploring the Past: The Fort Kochi Chapters – 3

Street leading to St Francis Church, Fort Kochi There were Christians in Kerala long before the Brahmins, who came to be known as Namboothiris, landed in the state from North India some time after 6 th century CE. Tradition has it that Thomas, disciple of Jesus, brought Christianity to Kerala in the first century. That is quite possible, given the trade relationships that Kerala had with the Roman Empire in those days. Pliny the Elder, Roman author, chastised in his encyclopaedic work, Natural History (published around 77 CE), the Romans’ greed for pepper from India. He was displeased with his country spending “no less than fifty million sesterces” on a commodity which had no value other than its “certain pungency.” Did Thomas sail on one of the many ships that came to Kerala to purchase “pungency”? Possible.   Even if Thomas did not come, the advent of Christianity in Kerala precedes the arrival of the Namboothiris. The Persians established trade links with Kerala in 4 ...
10 comments
Read more

Re-exploring the Past: The Fort Kochi Chapters – 4

The footpath between Park Avenue and Subhash Bose Park The Park Avenue in Ernakulam is flanked by gigantic rain trees with their branches arching over the road like a cathedral of green. They were not so domineering four decades ago when I used to walk beneath their growing canopies. The Park Avenue with its charming, enormous trees has a history too. King Rama Varma of Kochi ordered trees to be planted on either side of the road and make it look like a European avenue. He also developed a park beside it. The park was named after him, though today it is divided into two parts, with one part named after Subhash Chandra Bose and the other after Indira Gandhi. We can never say how long Indira Gandhi’s name will remain there. Even Sardar Patel, whom the right wing apparently admires, was ousted from the world’s biggest cricket stadium which was renamed Narendra Modi Stadium by Narendra Modi.   Renaming places and roads and institutions is one of the favourite pastimes of the pres...
10 comments
Read more

Five Microtales

1.        Development             Chamar, Lohar, Mehtar and many others stood at a distance, along with their families, and watched their huts being pulled down by a bulldozer. They were asked to leave the place where they had been living for decades. “The government has taken over this land for development works,” an officer said. Chamar, Lohar, Mehtar and the others spread their bedsheets under a flyover over which flew opulent vehicles of development.   2.        Impersonation             The old woman went to the Women’s Welfare office. She wanted to register herself for the Prime Minister’s monthly welfare scheme for the old and unemployable women. She placed her thumb on the scanner for Aadhar authentication. “Not matching,” the officer said. She was arrested for trying to impersonate. Sitti...
8 comments
Read more

Re-exploring the Past: The Fort Kochi Chapters – 1

Inside St Francis Church, Fort Kochi Moraes Zogoiby (Moor), the narrator-protagonist of Salman Rushdie’s iconic novel The Moor’s Last Sigh , carries in his genes a richly variegated lineage. His mother, Aurora da Gama, belongs to the da Gama family of Kochi, who claim descent from none less than Vasco da Gama, the historical Portuguese Catholic explorer. Abraham Zogoiby, his father, is a Jew whose family originally belonged to Spain from where they were expelled by the Catholic Inquisition. Kochi welcomed all the Jews who arrived there in 1492 from Spain. Vasco da Gama landed on the Malabar coast of Kerala in 1498. Today’s Fort Kochi carries the history of all those arrivals and subsequent mingling of history and miscegenation of races. Kochi’s history is intertwined with that of the Portuguese, the Dutch, the British, the Arbas, the Jews, and the Chinese. No culture is a sacrosanct monolith that can remain untouched by other cultures that keep coming in from all over the world. ...
7 comments
Read more