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October 2006 Volume 4 Sandesh Sandesh Issue 3 The Message : A Newsletter from IndUS of Fox Valley From Editors’ Desk Kerala: Anomalous State? By Dr. Mohan Vishwanathan Dear Readers, Each year the October issue of The taste and aroma of the fresh lime juice of the tiny Marutis, Tata Indicas, and Sandesh is dedicated to the theme with a hint of cardamom linger in your Hyundai Santros that crowd the streets. The of upcoming annual IndUS ban- mouth. The sumptuous and unusually tasty small State of Kerala, that has about a tenth quet. The theme of IndUS-2006 is airline food served by one of the youngest of the US population, is one of the biggest Next Destination: Incredible India airline crew that you would ever see almost markets for automobiles in India. It is and we hope that the articles in lulls you into a nap. But by then the plane mainly a consumer society. Food, as well this issue will intrigue and perhaps would have started its descent into one of as most of the manual labor, comes to inspire you to make the journey to the two major airports in Kerala. Look out Kerala from elsewhere in India. Kerala’s India yourself. The lack of space the window and you will be mesmerized by largest global export is the educated masses prevents us to cover many other the green canopy of coconut trees and the it produces in the myriad of institutions. interesting and important aspects unending strip of white sandy shoreline that By now the friendly driver would have of tourism, but we are sure that at Columbus had originally intended to reach. started-up a conversation with you. Don’t the event you will find the exhibits If it is between November and February, be surprised if he knows the American and the presentations informative apart from a few businessmen and President’s latest Gallup poll rating, or the and the banquet and the cultural government ministers in the executive name of the newly elected Democratic program enriching. class, the plane would be filled with governor of Virginia, or that Tony Blair has vacationing Indian families and foreigners We are very interested in your decided to step down next year. Keralites wanting to experience the cleverly named feedback and would love to hear have a voracious appetite for information “God’s Own Country.” You get off the from you on this issue of Sandesh from the developed regions around the plane into the blazing sun and the moist and its articles. globe. This is partly due to the high number breeze makes it pleasant. Your bags arrive of Keralites working outside the country by the time you get accustomed to the air- and partly driven by comparisons made by conditioned surroundings. You step out authors such as Bill McKibben: “Kerala is Sandesh into the midst of taxi drivers, hotel agents, a bizarre anomaly among developing Sandesh and anxious relatives greeting their loved An IndUS of Fox Valley nations, a place that offers real hope for the ones on a visit from the Middle East, future of the Third World. Consider: This Publication Europe, or the US. small state in India, though not much larger Editors From the insulated, air-conditioned SUV, than Maryland, has a population as big as Dr. Badri Varma taking you to the hotel close to the city, you California's and a per capita annual income Ms. Manjari Chatterji watch the roads getting increasingly of less than $300. But its infant mortality Mr. Dnyanesh Patkar crowded. There is a good chance that the rate is low, its literacy rate among the tame elephant being led to work in a highest on Earth, and its birthrate below Mr. C. Shekar Rao lumber yard strolling along the road would America's and falling faster. Kerala's Dr. Sandhya Sridhar steal your attention. At first, you may not citizens live nearly as long as Americans or Advisor notice the swirling dust, the smoking three- Europeans. Though mostly a land of Dr. B. S. Sridhar wheeled autorikshaws, the stray dogs, or paddy-covered plains, statistically Kerala the occasional lazy cow that blend in with stands out as the Mount Everest of social the throngs waiting for buses, the development; there's truly no place like it.” The views expressed in the articles pedestrians who seem to restrain the slow Tour guides will tell you that this is the are not necessarily those of the moving small automobiles around them region with the oldest Jewish settlement in Editors and IndUS of Fox Valley just with a tiny flick of their wrists without the world outside Israel, and about its any eye-contact with the drivers. A Toyota long history of trade with the Chinese, the Corolla would seem enormous in the midst Dutch, the Portuguese, the Spaniards, and Page 2 Sandesh the English. Perhaps this is the reason Four-Star Asceticism; New York Times, travel alone after dark anymore in this why Keralites make comparisons about August 13, 2006). “Ayurvedic doctors part of the world, which had women doc- their living standard to that in the rest of like Dr. Sreelatha diagnose illnesses and tors and judges much before women the world rather than to other parts of imbalances through darsana, observing gained the right to vote in the United India. During your stay in Kerala, you the way a person moves, walks and be- States. You also may not be told that will be told that this is the land of the haves; sparsana, touching; and prasna, ministers in three of the most recent suc- world renowned film director, Adoor interrogating. The big idea of ayurveda, cessive ministries in the State had to re- Gopalakrishnan. Repeated references said to have divine origin, is that health sign as a result of allegations of sexual would be made to Al Gore and his book is a state of balance between body, mind harassment. that pointed to Kerala as a model of envi- and consciousness. Its sister discipline is If you have not yet read Arundhathi ronment-friendly development, and to yoga, which, before it became an indus- Roy’s Booker Prize-winning novel “God National Geographic Traveler magazine try, was also a science dating back to the of Small Things,” read it before your that named Kerala along with Hawaiian Vedic period. One’s constitution is said visit. Even if you have read it once, read Islands and Greek Islands as one of the to be composed of three doshas — vata it again on your way as it would help you “50 places of a lifetime” to visit. (air), pitta (fire) and kapha (water) — to understand the psyche of the Kerala Tourism has definitely taken a strong encoded in every cell. Initial treatment society. Stay long enough in Kerala and economic hold on Kerala. The whole includes a prescribed diet (supplemented you will come to realize that exaltations State seems to embrace tourism as the with herbs both ingested and applied), of religious harmony in the State are salvation to a better economic future. If yoga, meditation and massages to pre- merely superficial. The society and its you can afford it, try to stick to hotel pare the body for elimination of agni, or major institutions are still structured chains such as the Taj or the Leela waste. Pancha karma, a specialty of Ker- mostly along caste and religion. It might Kempinski in Kovalam beach near Thi- ala and no stroll through the park, in- come as a shock that rather than resisting ruvananthapuram, the capital city. You cludes a stamina-challenging sequence of such a trend, the present generation can take idyllic tours through the many enemas. “We are not treating part by part seems to accept it. According to M.G. waterways that crisscross the middle of and organ by organ,” Dr. Sreelatha ex- Radhakrishnan, the Special Correspon- the State on house boats that resemble plained kindly. “We consider the body dent for a major national news magazine, floating hotel rooms, accompanied by and soul.” India Today, in college campuses young- your own cook and a “captain” and his If you want to experience Kerala from sters these days check the caste and re- assistant. From your floating balcony the common man’s perspective, take a ligion even before falling in love! you could watch the laid back village bus ride on one of the buses operated by Kerala is indeed a “bizarre anomaly.” life. Don’t be surprised if you are not a Kerala State Road Transport Corpora- floating spectacle anymore. Along the tion. You would notice that roads are Mohan is a Scientist working for the Na- river bank the women will be busy wash- getting widened at many strategic places tional Institutes of Health. He lives in ing their clothes with Tide or bathing to accommodate the growing number of Gaithersburg, Maryland with his wife, Mary. their kids with Dove soap. automobiles. The sights and smells from Both of them have been away from their na- Almost all the hotels catering to the tour- such a trip would be worth it. Women tive Kerala for more than 30 years. Along ists would have an Ayurvedic treatment still sit secluded in seats meant for them with their two grown children, Smitha and center. What follows is an excerpt from in these buses. You will be surprised that Anand, they visit Kerala as often as they can. some temples in the State do not allow Mohan's interests include South Asian fic- Patricia Leigh Brown’s fun to read arti- tion, serious films and photography.

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