In 1999, I got into a debate with a neighbour at Ganga Hostel. Aromal Lily insisted that Kerala should be a separate nation.
I did not present any arguments to support my case. I found this notion so absurd, I just laughed in his face. I reacted to him the way I would have reacted to an auto driver asking me for ₹200 (in 1999) to take me from IIT gate to Sathyam cinema.
To my knowledge, back then, there was no significant industry left in Kerala. They exported all their manpower, and imported much of their needs. Making Kerala a separate country would solve all of its unemployment woes. The demand from passport and visa offices, and customs offices, would be sufficient to employ anyone left without a job. I laughed in Aromal's face with silly jokes like these.
How naive and insolent of me. I suppose Aromal is now having the last laugh. Kerala has largely been a voice of sanity in the ocean of bad news that surrounds us.
I did not present any arguments to support my case. I found this notion so absurd, I just laughed in his face. I reacted to him the way I would have reacted to an auto driver asking me for ₹200 (in 1999) to take me from IIT gate to Sathyam cinema.
To my knowledge, back then, there was no significant industry left in Kerala. They exported all their manpower, and imported much of their needs. Making Kerala a separate country would solve all of its unemployment woes. The demand from passport and visa offices, and customs offices, would be sufficient to employ anyone left without a job. I laughed in Aromal's face with silly jokes like these.
How naive and insolent of me. I suppose Aromal is now having the last laugh. Kerala has largely been a voice of sanity in the ocean of bad news that surrounds us.