In God's Own country, so many changes....
I belong to Kerala and hence have no qualms in expressing my admiration for this land and also my distaste for some of those things that I am seeing lately. First, it is the bunch of political leaders who are out and out corrupt and the whole system in the state is in a state of disarray.
Second, whenever one passes by a Beverages Corporation( State govt. run liquor shops), I am amused at the crowds there at 10.00am on most of the days. I am told that the queue holds good till they close down. For God's own country, it is their tyrst with the spirits. No wonder they clock sale of over 25 crores on a particular day of Xmas or Onam. Truly spiritual people...
Despite all this looming traits of degenerative society, I still decided to construct my house at , a place around 23 kilometers away from Kottayam on the way to Kumili. Quite a beautiful place, fell in love with the place and began construction. It was contracted and one of our selfless benefactor is supervising the construction. I spend a couple of days at the site. The workers trickle in at around 9.00am. The start work at around 9.30am. The contractor comes in and I ask him about the green cover provided on one side of the construction site. He says that it was to protect from harsh sun rays. But then I pointed out that the brick laying work was happening on the side where there was no shade. He smiled and said that it was not an issue. The only condition is that it needs to provided since they asked for it. Once you satisfy their ego, then it does not matter whether it is religiously followed or not. Great Lesson. The digging of the well was in progress, and they were digging with all their might since I was there and it took me sometime to understand that should they strike water, then the owner had to sponsor drinks to the digging team..some ways of partying.
For the construction site workers, they wanted to see all the windows and doors mounted because the owner was there and it was Saturday..their wage day. They set the expectation clearly stating to me in the morning that the evening bottle needs to be sponsored by me. I do so. All these arrangements done in the first half of the day. Pretty focussed, I must say..:)
I continue to be there and I find a gentleman on a motorbike honking away to glory and all the workers rushing to him. I realise that he was selling lotteries and he would sell lotteries ranging from Rs. 100 to 500 to each individual everyday. This is a practice done for ages. Whilst this is on the contractor makes his second appearance and the workers go scurrying for cover as this is one thing that the contractor has been trying hard to correct them. I check with him on the changes in alchoholic habits and he surrenders stating that there will be no change in it.
This team of workers have been working with the same contractor for the last 12-32 years and I met the oldest serving person...Manikandan. He joined there 32 years ago as an assistant and today he supervises the site. Very soft spoken, but knows every bit of the tricks of construction and very committed. The only problem with him is that he disappears every two years for 6 months and when probed I learnt that he after all did not belong to Kerala. He was from the neighbouring Tamil Nadu and he spoke fluent Malayalam.
Kerala has a long way to go despite its literacy. Hope some day, some sense will prevail and that the wonderful people of Kerala will live a wonderful life, free of false pride, ego, alcoholism, lack of committment to work and expectation of money without earning it. Deserve before one desires..the old adage goes.
Second, whenever one passes by a Beverages Corporation( State govt. run liquor shops), I am amused at the crowds there at 10.00am on most of the days. I am told that the queue holds good till they close down. For God's own country, it is their tyrst with the spirits. No wonder they clock sale of over 25 crores on a particular day of Xmas or Onam. Truly spiritual people...
Despite all this looming traits of degenerative society, I still decided to construct my house at , a place around 23 kilometers away from Kottayam on the way to Kumili. Quite a beautiful place, fell in love with the place and began construction. It was contracted and one of our selfless benefactor is supervising the construction. I spend a couple of days at the site. The workers trickle in at around 9.00am. The start work at around 9.30am. The contractor comes in and I ask him about the green cover provided on one side of the construction site. He says that it was to protect from harsh sun rays. But then I pointed out that the brick laying work was happening on the side where there was no shade. He smiled and said that it was not an issue. The only condition is that it needs to provided since they asked for it. Once you satisfy their ego, then it does not matter whether it is religiously followed or not. Great Lesson. The digging of the well was in progress, and they were digging with all their might since I was there and it took me sometime to understand that should they strike water, then the owner had to sponsor drinks to the digging team..some ways of partying.
For the construction site workers, they wanted to see all the windows and doors mounted because the owner was there and it was Saturday..their wage day. They set the expectation clearly stating to me in the morning that the evening bottle needs to be sponsored by me. I do so. All these arrangements done in the first half of the day. Pretty focussed, I must say..:)
I continue to be there and I find a gentleman on a motorbike honking away to glory and all the workers rushing to him. I realise that he was selling lotteries and he would sell lotteries ranging from Rs. 100 to 500 to each individual everyday. This is a practice done for ages. Whilst this is on the contractor makes his second appearance and the workers go scurrying for cover as this is one thing that the contractor has been trying hard to correct them. I check with him on the changes in alchoholic habits and he surrenders stating that there will be no change in it.
This team of workers have been working with the same contractor for the last 12-32 years and I met the oldest serving person...Manikandan. He joined there 32 years ago as an assistant and today he supervises the site. Very soft spoken, but knows every bit of the tricks of construction and very committed. The only problem with him is that he disappears every two years for 6 months and when probed I learnt that he after all did not belong to Kerala. He was from the neighbouring Tamil Nadu and he spoke fluent Malayalam.
Kerala has a long way to go despite its literacy. Hope some day, some sense will prevail and that the wonderful people of Kerala will live a wonderful life, free of false pride, ego, alcoholism, lack of committment to work and expectation of money without earning it. Deserve before one desires..the old adage goes.
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