CORONOLOGY- The Dwindling Status of Gulf Malayali!
What 'chankoottam' (courage)!
In a plural country like ours, all those who eke out a living outside their homestate are in different lands of unknown languages and cultures! It is the same 'chankoottam' that prompted them to migrate to various lands of opportunities including other states in the country and survive. It is their ability to adapt to different cultures and traditions and the daring and dashing nature that helped Malayalis, something that they have inherited from their land of birth of great culture and great traditions. If to name a few of those traditions of Kerala, the oldest and the most sophisticated martial art 'Kalaripayattu' originated here, the oldest and the matchingly subtle dance form Koodiyattam, which later evolved into Kathakali, has its roots here. All these point to the reality that the people in this land of cultural and religious synthesis (Christianity set its first foot here after St Thomas, one of the 12 Apostles of Jesus Christ, landed in one of the oldest harbours in the world Crangannoor, now known as Kodungalloor, in 52 AD. The oldest church in the world is situated in Kerala. Islam began its first venture here in 6th century AD during the time of Prophet Mohammed himself. What to say even Jews came to this land in 65 AD, long before they migrated to other countries.) would think ahead of times in those days and years.
What to say even Adi Sankara that propounder of Advaita philosophy and arguably the most fertile brain this country has ever produced was a product of Kerala. Born and brought up in Kalady village, that mastermind had the courage and determination to travel on foot across the whole country to rescue the greatest religion on earth Hinduism from fading into the unfathomable depths of history. If my knowledge is correct all these intellectual feats were accomplished within the tender age of 15 at a time when there were no aeroplanes, no four-wheelers, no two-wheelers and nothing of those vehicles that can race against time and tide and take you to your desired destinations.
Which Gulf Malayali has displayed more 'chankoottam' than Adi Sankara?
Even the daredevils from the state who had the spunk to migrate to the Gulf by launches, that too without passport, visa and all such official formalities, and succeeded in swimming their way to the destination in the 50s or 60s cannot claim to possess the kind of 'chankoottam' that Sankara showed!
So migrating to the Middle-east is not a big deal to crow about. Undoubtedly this tendency of the Gulf Malayali to flaunt his 'chankoottam' merited a harsh dressing-down. As if that 'chankoottam' is his private property!
Similar traits
A similar trait along with this ensured his fall from grace and low rating among the Kerala public. That is his penchant to glorify his prime position in fiscal arena as if locals here are whiling away their time instead of boosting up the economy.
Then the pretentious touch in his behaviour and comments! For example, when he casts a glance at the roads here, suddenly he becomes serious, then twists his face in a grimacing expression and makes that stupid and ludicrous comment, “What Kerala, you should see them in Gulf, they look polished and dazzling.” The only difference was that our roads had never undergone the rubberisation as in the Gulf in those days and they began to have the same glaze once the rubberisation started. Everything has a time and during that spell anything that is to happen will happen. Nothing needs that sarcastic prodding from the 'divine mouth' of a Gulf Malayali!
Then he will start lamenting over the educational standards, the quality of schools, their appearance, academic and the overall management and again blurt out that reprieve: “What Kerala, you should see them in the Gulf”!
Such drab, monotonous and stereo-typed comments will always shoot from his mouth when he observes any anomaly anywhere in the state. As if he was not born, brought up and spoiled in this land and came from some other world, a world full of bright and amazing things and systems and which is no match for other worlds including ours!
Suppose for the first time he had come on leave after a long period of work in the land of his dreams, he may even, that too with all the seriousness it requires, pretend to have forgotten the land of his birth. If he came across a stranger without the least shame he might ask him, “Which place is this'? Only a Gulf NRI can do this. As a saying goes in Malayalam when a penniless man becomes rich he will throw out such silly idiocies to the extent of inviting others' pungent criticism and contempt.
The reason is simple. Had he been in the homestate even in his faintest or haziest reverie or fantasy he could not have dreamt of such lump sum salary by sweating out as a house servant or a vehicle driver and doing other odd jobs considered ' mean and undignified' in God's own Country. Unlike the present situation, ordinary painters, hotel servants and daily-wagers in the state were not paid handsomely in those days. A perfect setting for a rags-to-riches prospects and that sudden transformation might have puffed up his pride and ego, hence the freakish behaviour and response!
Earlier in the beginning he had created an indelible and typical image that later became the butt of ridicule in all art forms and related platforms. During his leave holidays- that may be once in a year or two or three years- he would be on courtesy visits to his kith and kin near his household or in the nearby villages. During this period you would always witness him invariably in polyester lunki and polyester shirt or in pants and shirt – both of polyester fabric- with a Rothmans or 555 or 777 cigarette packet in his hands.
The funniest part of this ritual was that at the end of these holidays you would always find that Rothmans or 555 or 777 replaced by local Kajah or Apple beedis much to the guffaws of his friends, colleagues and rural folks. The echoes of that noisy laughter might still be ringing in the rural areas of Kerala. That unerasable image still lingers in Malayali psyche!
The same image was an indication of his exhausted funds that he had splashed during those days of extravagance.
It is not simply an extravagance, a runaway extravagance, so to say, that ends up in sky-rocketing inflation. Real estate prices hit the roof and even went beyond that. Forget about that, real estate is the domain of money bags, so you may console yourself but the fact of the matter is that even small fries and every Tom, Dick and Harry would jump into the fray hoping for a rich harvest! Again so many rags-to-riches miracles happened. The paupers of yesteryears were flush with funds! In those days Gulf Malayali was not ready to bargain. According to him, bargaining was something below his dignity. He was ready to buy anything under the sun without the least whisper of a bargain.
Ignore the real estate! It doesn't affect the layman in the street who strives hard for a hand-to-mouth existence. In those days you should have gone to a bargaining hub like fish market. The very mention of the price was enough for him to take a final decision and grab the fish as if he had won a see-saw battle.
Then ensues a profit rain for that hawker and curse for the ordinary consumers because of the hike in price that impudent action has caused.
Another aspect of the Gulf Malayali's hypocrisy is his sneaky attempt to dignify the job abroad deliberately to project it as white-collar. Blue-collar jobs are considered undignified in our country. For that sole reason people attempt to make them appear as white collar though it may obviously be otherwise! Because white-collar job invites respect, admiration and even dignity.
This dignifying process will be changed in accordance with the situation though basically it is a kind of exercise to deceive oneself and others, an exercise aimed at pretending to be what one is not and earning others' cheap respect.
For example he may be working with a construction company abroad as helper. If someone enquires with him about the job so as to appear it as dignified he would skew the very logic of his thinking and quip 'Personnel with the Construction Department'. A naïve listener for the first time might have taken that answer as genuine. Later when he realises his blunder the Gulf Malayali's game might have given away right at that moment itself.
Another example for this bamboozling exercise: suppose he or she is a servant with an Arab household and you want to know what is his job, pat will come the reply, 'Female or Male Officer with the Culinary Department'. Culinary is not a famous word for cooking and is considered as 'elite' (I hope the reader might have got an idea of this confusing exercise).
In a similar manner he may accord a kind of officialdom for every job he does so that his colleagues and friends might take him more seriously. But this exercise has only boomeranged and cut into his reputation and made him a butt of contempt.
Here comes Corona!
And Corona came into the picture with a bang grinding every aspect of life to a halt. And the Gulf Malayali's goodwill went for a complete somersault. Even though his financial strength had undergone a drubbing, he might never have anticipated such an ignominious end that too with the advent of an invisible-to-naked-eyes virus.
How it happened? The prime reason may be Keralites' over-cautious nature. That finicky attitude to view everything with suspicion and in the end succumbing to the same impulse that spurred them into becoming so. At the outset, Kerala succeeded in arresting to an extent the relentless advance of the devilish virus! Certain NRIs, in their keen desire to return home as they found the authorities in Italy unsympathetic to their pathetic condition, returned unmindful of the disastrous impact that the virus could trigger. Return of the Italian NRIs created much furore as that is still deemed as the pioneer in the spread of the disease.
The situation in the Gulf too was no different. The people who would parrot, 'what Kerala you should see in the Gulf' started realising the hollowness of their reprieve. The enlightenment that Kerala is not all rubbish and the Gulf is not all honey and milk flowing incessantly might have prevailed over them. They too were face to face with the apathetic attitude of the authorities abroad and started feeling that nobody can be as generous as their homeland.
Subsequently a massive evacuation exercise to lift the beleaguered Gulf and other NRIs was launched, courtesy to the possible and the necessary benign grace and kindness shown by the state government. With the influx of all these NRIs and NRKs (non-resident Keralites) from other states contacts among the people were on the rise. The relaxations from gradual to speedy in the lockdown did all the damage. Then gradually, step by step, began the massive spread of the disease. And the culprits from abroad in the eyes of the public like Gulf and other NRIs were subjected to all sorts of abuse and attack in all corners of the state. The Gulf NRIs were the worst hit!
Coming to the earlier point, just imagine the community, which was the hot favourite and the most sought-after for huge contributions during the worst-ever deluge and flood, became the target of abuse, heckling and even aggressive if not violent attack. According to reports, in many districts they were chased out of their residences and even threatened with dire consequences if they were seen in the nearby areas of the colony! In one of such cases in Kollam, a Gulf NRI was hooted out of both the colonies where he had residences.
So the NRIs, especially those from the Persian Gulf, from now onwards, should be conscious of the fact that money is not everything!
Locals' arrogance
Apart from that the arrogant nature of the Kerala public, which had been convinced long back that money is everything and even an eagle cannot fly above those green notes, contributed the most to the giant leap in the number of confirmed cases and in reaching the topmost position in the country. Experts have predicted the figure to reach 20,000 mark by October end or November first week. Even then that impertinent and impulsive attitude of the public continues adding to the day-to-day increase in the number.
The same people who were blasting the Gulf and other NRIs for the entry of the virus in the state are becoming the victims of their own callous and consequent haughty nature and helping in the spread of the disease and aggravation of the situation. Now they have to pour out all the abuses on themselves. Since the number of Gulf returnees decreases as days go by there is no point in sniping at the NRIs because all these earlier snipers are the culprits now.
They don't wear masks, they don't maintain social-distancing or may not even wash their hands with sanitizer or soap under the pretext of those pretentious and senseless arguments, 'we are not afraid' and ' there is no point in sticking to every inch of a rule'.
Shame on this public, who claims to be the most educated in the country and degrades itself to the lowest standards in abiding by the government guidelines in regard to Covid-19. They seem to care a hoot to the repeated pleadings of the authorities as if they are not going to lose anything.
A lesson learnt
I think so, the Gulf and other NRIs have learned a lesson from their repeated mistake of 'what Kerala, you should see them in ….... I heard one US NRI regretting her over-dependence on the residing country's faulty medical system which painfully could not cope with the intensified and merciless attacks of Corona.
And with this realisation, I hope they will mend their ways and reconcile themselves with the realities on the ground and improve their lives and character accordingly. They should get rid of that inferiority complex they had been nurturing for long without the least effort to weed it out. They should also get down from that high horse on which this snobbish society had ensconced them in the beginning unoblivious of the fact that the same snobs would push them down from that pedestal the moment they lost the advantage they had gained in the land of their dreams!
(Concluded)
By San (Andrews), the author of Too Bitter to Swallow
ATTENTION PLEASE: Please note international readers! Kerala is a state situated in the southern edge of India the country with which China is locked in a would-be battle or a possible future battle. The inhabitants are commonly known as Malayalis as their mother-tongue is Malayalam, known as a Dravidian language! Half of the Non-Resident Indians in the Gulf countries are Malayalis. These fifty percent Malayalis have converted Kerala into a prosperous state by the din of their hard work. About more than 60 percent of those Gulf Malayalis are unskilled labourers, some of them sunk in hardships and poverty.
Which Gulf Malayali has displayed more 'chankoottam' than Adi Sankara?
Even the daredevils from the state who had the spunk to migrate to the Gulf by launches, that too without passport, visa and all such official formalities, and succeeded in swimming their way to the destination in the 50s or 60s cannot claim to possess the kind of 'chankoottam' that Sankara showed!
So migrating to the Middle-east is not a big deal to crow about. Undoubtedly this tendency of the Gulf Malayali to flaunt his 'chankoottam' merited a harsh dressing-down. As if that 'chankoottam' is his private property!
Similar traits
A similar trait along with this ensured his fall from grace and low rating among the Kerala public. That is his penchant to glorify his prime position in fiscal arena as if locals here are whiling away their time instead of boosting up the economy.
Then the pretentious touch in his behaviour and comments! For example, when he casts a glance at the roads here, suddenly he becomes serious, then twists his face in a grimacing expression and makes that stupid and ludicrous comment, “What Kerala, you should see them in Gulf, they look polished and dazzling.” The only difference was that our roads had never undergone the rubberisation as in the Gulf in those days and they began to have the same glaze once the rubberisation started. Everything has a time and during that spell anything that is to happen will happen. Nothing needs that sarcastic prodding from the 'divine mouth' of a Gulf Malayali!
Then he will start lamenting over the educational standards, the quality of schools, their appearance, academic and the overall management and again blurt out that reprieve: “What Kerala, you should see them in the Gulf”!
Such drab, monotonous and stereo-typed comments will always shoot from his mouth when he observes any anomaly anywhere in the state. As if he was not born, brought up and spoiled in this land and came from some other world, a world full of bright and amazing things and systems and which is no match for other worlds including ours!
Suppose for the first time he had come on leave after a long period of work in the land of his dreams, he may even, that too with all the seriousness it requires, pretend to have forgotten the land of his birth. If he came across a stranger without the least shame he might ask him, “Which place is this'? Only a Gulf NRI can do this. As a saying goes in Malayalam when a penniless man becomes rich he will throw out such silly idiocies to the extent of inviting others' pungent criticism and contempt.
The reason is simple. Had he been in the homestate even in his faintest or haziest reverie or fantasy he could not have dreamt of such lump sum salary by sweating out as a house servant or a vehicle driver and doing other odd jobs considered ' mean and undignified' in God's own Country. Unlike the present situation, ordinary painters, hotel servants and daily-wagers in the state were not paid handsomely in those days. A perfect setting for a rags-to-riches prospects and that sudden transformation might have puffed up his pride and ego, hence the freakish behaviour and response!
Earlier in the beginning he had created an indelible and typical image that later became the butt of ridicule in all art forms and related platforms. During his leave holidays- that may be once in a year or two or three years- he would be on courtesy visits to his kith and kin near his household or in the nearby villages. During this period you would always witness him invariably in polyester lunki and polyester shirt or in pants and shirt – both of polyester fabric- with a Rothmans or 555 or 777 cigarette packet in his hands.
The funniest part of this ritual was that at the end of these holidays you would always find that Rothmans or 555 or 777 replaced by local Kajah or Apple beedis much to the guffaws of his friends, colleagues and rural folks. The echoes of that noisy laughter might still be ringing in the rural areas of Kerala. That unerasable image still lingers in Malayali psyche!
The same image was an indication of his exhausted funds that he had splashed during those days of extravagance.
It is not simply an extravagance, a runaway extravagance, so to say, that ends up in sky-rocketing inflation. Real estate prices hit the roof and even went beyond that. Forget about that, real estate is the domain of money bags, so you may console yourself but the fact of the matter is that even small fries and every Tom, Dick and Harry would jump into the fray hoping for a rich harvest! Again so many rags-to-riches miracles happened. The paupers of yesteryears were flush with funds! In those days Gulf Malayali was not ready to bargain. According to him, bargaining was something below his dignity. He was ready to buy anything under the sun without the least whisper of a bargain.
Ignore the real estate! It doesn't affect the layman in the street who strives hard for a hand-to-mouth existence. In those days you should have gone to a bargaining hub like fish market. The very mention of the price was enough for him to take a final decision and grab the fish as if he had won a see-saw battle.
Then ensues a profit rain for that hawker and curse for the ordinary consumers because of the hike in price that impudent action has caused.
Another aspect of the Gulf Malayali's hypocrisy is his sneaky attempt to dignify the job abroad deliberately to project it as white-collar. Blue-collar jobs are considered undignified in our country. For that sole reason people attempt to make them appear as white collar though it may obviously be otherwise! Because white-collar job invites respect, admiration and even dignity.
This dignifying process will be changed in accordance with the situation though basically it is a kind of exercise to deceive oneself and others, an exercise aimed at pretending to be what one is not and earning others' cheap respect.
For example he may be working with a construction company abroad as helper. If someone enquires with him about the job so as to appear it as dignified he would skew the very logic of his thinking and quip 'Personnel with the Construction Department'. A naïve listener for the first time might have taken that answer as genuine. Later when he realises his blunder the Gulf Malayali's game might have given away right at that moment itself.
Another example for this bamboozling exercise: suppose he or she is a servant with an Arab household and you want to know what is his job, pat will come the reply, 'Female or Male Officer with the Culinary Department'. Culinary is not a famous word for cooking and is considered as 'elite' (I hope the reader might have got an idea of this confusing exercise).
In a similar manner he may accord a kind of officialdom for every job he does so that his colleagues and friends might take him more seriously. But this exercise has only boomeranged and cut into his reputation and made him a butt of contempt.
Here comes Corona!
And Corona came into the picture with a bang grinding every aspect of life to a halt. And the Gulf Malayali's goodwill went for a complete somersault. Even though his financial strength had undergone a drubbing, he might never have anticipated such an ignominious end that too with the advent of an invisible-to-naked-eyes virus.
How it happened? The prime reason may be Keralites' over-cautious nature. That finicky attitude to view everything with suspicion and in the end succumbing to the same impulse that spurred them into becoming so. At the outset, Kerala succeeded in arresting to an extent the relentless advance of the devilish virus! Certain NRIs, in their keen desire to return home as they found the authorities in Italy unsympathetic to their pathetic condition, returned unmindful of the disastrous impact that the virus could trigger. Return of the Italian NRIs created much furore as that is still deemed as the pioneer in the spread of the disease.
The situation in the Gulf too was no different. The people who would parrot, 'what Kerala you should see in the Gulf' started realising the hollowness of their reprieve. The enlightenment that Kerala is not all rubbish and the Gulf is not all honey and milk flowing incessantly might have prevailed over them. They too were face to face with the apathetic attitude of the authorities abroad and started feeling that nobody can be as generous as their homeland.
Subsequently a massive evacuation exercise to lift the beleaguered Gulf and other NRIs was launched, courtesy to the possible and the necessary benign grace and kindness shown by the state government. With the influx of all these NRIs and NRKs (non-resident Keralites) from other states contacts among the people were on the rise. The relaxations from gradual to speedy in the lockdown did all the damage. Then gradually, step by step, began the massive spread of the disease. And the culprits from abroad in the eyes of the public like Gulf and other NRIs were subjected to all sorts of abuse and attack in all corners of the state. The Gulf NRIs were the worst hit!
Coming to the earlier point, just imagine the community, which was the hot favourite and the most sought-after for huge contributions during the worst-ever deluge and flood, became the target of abuse, heckling and even aggressive if not violent attack. According to reports, in many districts they were chased out of their residences and even threatened with dire consequences if they were seen in the nearby areas of the colony! In one of such cases in Kollam, a Gulf NRI was hooted out of both the colonies where he had residences.
So the NRIs, especially those from the Persian Gulf, from now onwards, should be conscious of the fact that money is not everything!
Locals' arrogance
Apart from that the arrogant nature of the Kerala public, which had been convinced long back that money is everything and even an eagle cannot fly above those green notes, contributed the most to the giant leap in the number of confirmed cases and in reaching the topmost position in the country. Experts have predicted the figure to reach 20,000 mark by October end or November first week. Even then that impertinent and impulsive attitude of the public continues adding to the day-to-day increase in the number.
The same people who were blasting the Gulf and other NRIs for the entry of the virus in the state are becoming the victims of their own callous and consequent haughty nature and helping in the spread of the disease and aggravation of the situation. Now they have to pour out all the abuses on themselves. Since the number of Gulf returnees decreases as days go by there is no point in sniping at the NRIs because all these earlier snipers are the culprits now.
They don't wear masks, they don't maintain social-distancing or may not even wash their hands with sanitizer or soap under the pretext of those pretentious and senseless arguments, 'we are not afraid' and ' there is no point in sticking to every inch of a rule'.
Shame on this public, who claims to be the most educated in the country and degrades itself to the lowest standards in abiding by the government guidelines in regard to Covid-19. They seem to care a hoot to the repeated pleadings of the authorities as if they are not going to lose anything.
A lesson learnt
I think so, the Gulf and other NRIs have learned a lesson from their repeated mistake of 'what Kerala, you should see them in ….... I heard one US NRI regretting her over-dependence on the residing country's faulty medical system which painfully could not cope with the intensified and merciless attacks of Corona.
And with this realisation, I hope they will mend their ways and reconcile themselves with the realities on the ground and improve their lives and character accordingly. They should get rid of that inferiority complex they had been nurturing for long without the least effort to weed it out. They should also get down from that high horse on which this snobbish society had ensconced them in the beginning unoblivious of the fact that the same snobs would push them down from that pedestal the moment they lost the advantage they had gained in the land of their dreams!
(Concluded)
By San (Andrews), the author of Too Bitter to Swallow
Comments
Post a Comment