CORONOLOGY- The Dwindling Status Of Gulf Malayali

 

Once upon a time he was the cynosure of all eyes, source of all sorts of riches and solace to every caring person at any poor household that became rich due to his hard days in Middle-east. Such was his charisma, such was his attraction for he was the brain behind all the makeover that Kerala had undergone in 70s, 80s, 90s and then in the beginning of 21st century. So says the world; he takes pride in such a situation and brags of his achievements and skills to that effect. As if had it not been for its Gulf NRIs Kerala would have gone to dogs!

It's a fact that Kerala's rustic background splendoured itself due to his arduous days in Gulf (read Middle-east). European, American, UK and all other NRIs from the state may be rich because of fat bank balances but they cannot claim to be enjoying that freedom in spending and remittances to their fill as Gulf NRIs. It is the 'thick' line of difference that separates him from his counterparts in other nations. They have to suffer the restriction of forking out a large chunk of their wallets in the residing countries with lots of checkings and cross-checkings apart from the dos and don'ts. Similar financial crick is not in these oil-rich countries! The same silver lining went in favour of Gulf Malayalis and Kerala rose to an incredibly prosperous situation though some so-called experts may try to debunk it.

Where is the charm now!

There was a time when the very mention of the word Gulf Malayali was enough to arouse the intense material and monetary if not the sexual desires in Kerala girls. Not that he was handsome, not that he belonged to any aristocratic family but because of his money power that can quench their thirst for worldly pleasures of all sorts. They used to make beeline to catch his attention or be his first choice as a bride. In those days, I don't think any Kerala girl might have dared not to dream of a Gulf Malayali as her bridegroom. All their dreams hovered over him. All their craze for perfumes and trendy, voluptuous and gorgeous dresses concentrated on him. All their attempts to grab attention were directed at him. In fact, he was their all material dreams personified!

But by the quirk of fate or his own making those good old days are gone now. Those days are completely out of sight and will never come back. The facility of free food and accommodation has been out of the reckoning since long, shrinking his bank balance and cutting down on his remittance. Add to this the high house rentals there and Gulf Malayali's cup of woes is full. If my information is right the remittances that had stood at Rs 8,000 crore at one time has plummeted to a paltry Rs 3,000 to 4,000 crore. Who will bother about sinking ships in a state that runs after cash-rich cows. Still the exodus to the Gulf continues! Why? God alone knows!

Then why this exodus!

A Malayali may claim about the perks and benefits that Middle-east employers are dishing out. A stupendous lie because every living being in Kerala is well aware that the 'magnanimous' facility of free food and accommodation had been scrapped long back. Then why come he is so keen to migrate to Gulf?

That is what exactly happening. All the odd and technical jobs that he is ready to take on out there can actually be carried out here in his home state. He is ready to be a salesman in a mall or a shop, even take up works like that of a painter, construction worker of any status and even odd jobs of low social rating only in the Gulf. If he can do it in the Middle-east, why can't in Kerala? That is because he cannot stand his pretentious colleagues, friends and relatives laughing and jibing at him with the nasty comment, 'don't you have shame to do this mean job at home'! Even his parents, kith and kin of the same mode will isolate him. The saving grace is that takers for such a prejudiced attitude is on the wane though their number is still in simple if not brute majority! Migrants out there in the Gulf are of the same outlook and ready to do any job irrespective of its social status. They need not worry about the despising or denigrating look of their friends or even get frustrated over the neglect that they have to face at home. All these non-residents are of the same mode and disposition and blindly ready to understand each other.

That is the secret!

Therein lies the crux of the matter and revelation of that truth will give away the contagious tendency that we Indians are vulnerable to. Our love or respect for dignity of labour comes out in the open only outside the state. Inside we are steeped in false prestige or that fake status! The consequent inhibition creates so much repressive feelings that we will not be able to talk what we want to, what to say, even think what we wish to. We just flow along the current for fear of isolation by fellow beings! Or we just smile away that psychological or societal stumbling block the removal of which is enough to bring about a Himalayan change in our prejudice-ridden country!

Then why don't these helpless people try to shed that emotional obstacle called false prestige or fake status that prevents them from going ahead?

According to an old saying habits die heard. So too prejudices, those ingrained and stock responses that had been hammered into our psyche since centuries and passed on from generations to generations. Nothing else can be expected from a society like ours that does not realise its 'backwardness' practised since long and prides itself in the 'great' history that it can uphold, oblivious of the fact that it will have to carry also the burden of a disgraceful history wherein shackles of inequality played irreparable havoc on human dignity and split people into upper castes, entitled to enjoy all privileges and lower castes, deprived of all of them.

Solace is here!

Anyway times are changing and sense is prevailing over the modern generation in the state as they are ready to break those chains of myths and go forward. In what can be termed as an eye-soothing sight for progress-mongers like me, you will find students both from schools and colleges toiling out for catering companies or working as salesmen in any kind of shops or even doing odd jobs and gathering the pocket money required for school or college fees and their extra-curricular activities. Thank God, they do not have to extend their hands before parents as people of our generation would! Unluckily these people are in minority.

But those in majority, who don't have the guts to flow against the current, are sill shying away and flying to Middle-east to feather their family nest. The same or more than that wealth can be stacked up in his homeland! But instead of imbibing and accepting that reality he is engaged in glorifying his audacity or what they call in Malayalam 'changoottam' to migrate to another land of unknown language and culture.

You will not have any critics or adversaries or doom-sayers there in the Gulf to pull you up for doing a 'mean' job. Which indirectly means you do not have to swim against any current in the opposite direction and for the same reason you do not have to bat against unsavoury comments. The situation is convenient and smooth. A scenario that entails a peaceful co-existence among the non-residents. Do you need an extra amount or a different kind of audacity or what you call 'changoottam' in such a context? Never! You don't need!

This is 'changoottam' my dear! 

So where do you require such a qualified courage? You need that real courage of conviction (you cannot call that audacity) at home! In your home state where people immersed in false prestige snipe at you to satisfy their immatured impulses! Where people believe more in prejudices rather than sense! Where those prejudices are glorified as universal truths! It is there you need that 'changoottam' to clean bowl those denigrating, despising and even demoralising looks and comments! It is these brave hearts from the modern generation with lots of grit and courage and even perseverance to march ahead against the pungent or hooting barbs from the mindless sadists, suffering from chronic inferiority complex and lack of self-respect, who deserve kudos, admiration and appreciation! This is what is 'changoottam' and not the other way around!

Are you hearing Gulf Malayalis? 

(To be continued)

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.

By San (Andrews), the author of Too Bitter to Swallow