Thoughts on Kerala

Water pressure is a much under-rated luxury, as are soft pillows.  If I were to advise a friend coming to India this would be my first comment -mind the hard pillows and make sure you can have a steaming hot shower at the end of the day.

My second comment would be that you might want to start your trip in the South, perhaps in Kerala.  It is a little more understandable to us because, for example, cows roaming freely on the street are impounded and the owner has to pay a fine to get them out.  In Kerala, if a cow wanders into the street, a policeman will take it to the pound.  If it is yours, you must go to the pound, pay the fine and pick it up. In Rajistan, Cameron had commented on how much safer it would be if they got the cows off the roads.  In Kerala, they obviously think so too.

If no one picks up the cow it goes somewhere, though in Kerala they slaughter cows so I imagine that is where it goes.  Sucks to be a cow in Kerala, I would say.
Having let out a sigh of relief at this elementary level of civic control, don't let it get to you.  Driving in Kerala is still totally nuts and there is poverty at every junction, but it is manageable and not quite so desperate.  As I mentioned in an earlier posting, people paint their houses so at least some people in the South don't have to choose between feeding the family and better homes and gardens. In Kerala, at least, they can do both.

Now for some of you there will be ideological considerations that may make Kerala unworthy of your patronage and that would be a shame because overall, it seems to work.  Its people are ruled by the communist party and educated through the Christian churches, with several flavours of church on offer and, judging by the poster of Che Guevara and Fidel Castro, several flavours of communism as well.  Expediency makes strange bedfellows.

At Alleppey we saw 5 Churches and church schools for every temple - a true surprise. Jesus seems quite dug in here but is achieving a 91% literacy rate, no small feat and a great result anywhere, not just in India.  I read of an arts festival that is now running in which 9000 Keralan children are now participating.  Education, judging by the number of school uniforms, most obviously from Christian schools but more than likely from all faiths, is clearly a key priority.

This plus the tropical weather, at least during the winter, makes this exactly what the state government promotes - God's own country - the perfect place to acclimatize before plunging into the more challenging contrasts in India.