In Lalettan Land

7.30 a.m. Kurampala in Lalettan Land built by Parashurama a 10 year old Kutta on a one wheel bicycle parts with copies of Malayala Manorama and The New Indian Express, adding a Chetta. Rama dives into Manorama writing of Lalettan Land. She beats Malayalam while me is silent knowing not Malayalam. Rama sprouts Malayalam bumping into women in kasav sarees at temples. Watching birds and flowers and chatting them is enough for me and when they fly off take to the grandpa chair, Kurup has kindly vacated to read the book: a comma in a sentence by R. Gopalakrishnan and the migration of an Iyengar family from Vilakkudi village in Thanjavur district to Calcutta and on to the West. R. Gopalakrishnan now lives in Cuffe Parade, Mumbai. TamBrahm migration has been less chronicled as there is less drama and a near absence of violence and hurt. The community seeps into foreign locales unlike Rohingyas, tortured and driven. Yes, they were disliked in Tamil Nadu (and some say nothing has changed), moved on to be liked. Similar walk aways are happening in Lalettan Land where the young yearn for West Asia and today with M.Tech degrees take flights out to Canada, New Zealand, Australia and Europe, leaving their olds in green padams and veedus. Me friend Narayana Karunakara Kurup lives amid brothers and sisters past their 70s and 80s; their children are breathing in foreign climes with a marked reluctance for farming and naadu. Yes not a dislike but a disinterest in Lalettan Land. Kurup does not see them coming back .... and then what? Like in Goa, as Paul says old men and women wheeze in spidered bunglows while children sun and moon in Australia. Will there be a younger generation in Lalettan Land? Today, Lalettan Land offers subsidised grains across three colour ration cards, vegetables come from padams, leaving men and women with cash and drinks, freely accessed. Wages are high; Rs.800 per day for preparing the soil at padams with work done for an hour; government jobs are no strain as taking bandhs, rains, festivals, a government employee works for about an hour a week. Every government act has to be bribed say seniors; for the world Lalettan Land is God's Own Country; for those in Lalettan Land its Devil's Own Country. Sure, it is the same in India but me thought social indices in Lalettan Land were on a high. Every veedu has a car and two bikes; rarely, does anyone walk in Lalettan Land; like the absent house sparrows in Kurampala; small talk is about traffic jams in small and big towns; veedu vekkayanam is an ambition; in Kurampala village, a cent of land costs Rs.3 lakh; for one cent of land near the town road it is Rs. 5 lakh; and 100 cents make one acre; most homes look like dhows or ships, floating on rials and dirhams flowing in waves from Gulf. Pride entering a private hospital with underpaid nurses; government hospitals are shunned. Lalettan Land is clean; smoke a cigarette on the road and invite an on the spot police fine of Rs.500; me couldnt get a fag for days. No begging. Beggars absent at temple gates. Has Lalettan Land abolished poverty? If so, that's something. Lalettan is a neck ahead of Mamootty; if they stand against each other in an election, Lalettan could just about make it. Yet, in Lalettan Land women are second to men; kept that way by Indian men in pride. Not many will agree. Thanks be to EMS, starting it all. Lalettan Land is far ahead of India. Thanks again Elamkulam Manakkal Sankaran Namboodiripad.