Mountain of light

I am so much into the business of the world that I look forward to a vacation with as little contact with the outside world as possible. I use that time to let it all churn inside me, I reflect upon the world as it zoomed past me and try to do all that without any television or newspapers. This time I was even so desperately looking forward to the holiday, as the last 2 weeks preceding the vacation was particularly hectic and I found myself sleeping in a new bed every second night. It is very disconcerting and all my dreams were about the owner of the bed coming and throwing me out in the middle of the night.

So we landed up in Kerela for a relaxing, year-end vacation with backwaters, beer and banana chips to boot. It was in a small resort that you can never find unless the owner fetches you from the highway. It is a sort of a resort where the meals have to be placed one day in advance and the staff look up to us for their career planning. Don’t get me wrong, the resort was very good, very clean, with fabulous views of the lake and highly recommended. It is just that it is a sleepy little place. Just what I needed for the holiday.

I almost forgot that I was in Kerela, among the most politically charged up state in the country. I used to think Delhi with its 2 elected governments is politically charged up, but Kerela leaves Delhi way behind as it concerns itself with the governments of the world. Everyone is so into politics, like our resort manager was reeling demographic facts about his constituency of the number of voters who is of what caste and religion. So the staff comes up to us one day and says they are running to the market as a strike has been declared. The strike has been declared in protest of Saddam Hussein being hanged and it is an all-party strike. Ofcourse, the timing was very convenient as it was just before the New Year weekend. So the entire area goes on strike and there goes my vacation as I have to clue into the news and watch endless repetitions of the noose being tied around Saddam’s neck and the local Malayalam news channel calling Saddam’s death as his martyrdom. Reminded me of what the editor of Al-Jazeera’s English channel said that it is important to know the difference between a terrorist and a martyr. On the drive to Cochin we met bands of protestors marching in the middle of a hot day calling Bush a rascal and what not. This would have made my fiercely Democratic friends in the US consider relocating to Kerela.

Next day I checked into a massage shop for a ‘full day rejuvenation package’. My masseur mentioned that he owned a toddy (local brew) shop and laughed at the ironies of preaching Ayurveda and owning a toddy shop. Then we ofcourse got talking about the strike and the guy mentioned that his toddy shop was open through the strike and how he completely agreed with the strike and how it was only the beginning of the strikes. Sure enough, January 1st on our departure from the house boat we were greeted with the fact that the shops were closed again as the Muslims had called a strike against Saddam’s hanging. Ofcourse, our Christian houseboat manager started muttering about vote bank politics and we were strongly advised to stay out of Muslim areas on our drive back.

So ended my trip and a wonderful holiday. I came back refreshed and not feeling a bit out of touch with the world. Truly, God’s very own country.