The poet
who wrote “ Maveli Naadu vaaneedum kaalam, Maanusharellarum onnu Pole”, would
not have thought that, his description would come true in today’s Kerala.
Surprised ? Look no further, its your friendly neighborhood BEVCO counter. No
caste, No creed, No rich-Poor, No matter it rains or shines, No divide
what-so-ever. We the proud ‘Prajaas” of Lord Mahabali, wait patiently for our
turn obediently. We may fight for a movie ticket; we may even fight at a temple
entrance to get in first. But in the Bevco queue, all such egos get subdued.
And then they say, mallus are ego-centric??
As we
welcome Onam, the common man replaces the O in OCR, OPR and OMR with Onam.
Instead of Happy Onam, he finds a kick in wishing each and every one: “ sHappy
pOnam” .
This Onam
again, the race is not about who does the largest Pookalam. The keenly awaited
race is if Chalakudy Bevco would beat Irinjalakuda and Karunagapally to retain
the championship for the highest sales in a Bevco counter, and then again,
there is nothing official about it.
No matter
Spain, which has just about the same population as Kerala won the football world
cup, we beat them hands down by gulping in more liquor to celebrate their
victory.
Isn’t it
surprising that for such an awakened population, who can actively support a hartal
in the drop of a hat, we never had a hartal to protest against the innumerable
and unjustified hikes in alcohol rates? So what if we cannot have a hartal, we
protest by drinking in an additional peg to wash out our ill-feelings about the
sadist government. That’s our spirit!
Our per-capita
consumption of alcohol is more than 8 liters. Some say, if Kerala was a
country, we would figure in the Top-10 drunken countries in the world.
Malayalis are fighters, and they very soon will beat the likes of France and Czech
to the 1st place there also. Which other population contributes 40% of its
state revenue by drinking their livers out?
But again,
think of this. The poor Malayali has to manage these records by compensating
for all the holidays BEVCO has, including 1st of every month for
stock taking, Republic day to Independence Day, The death anniversary and
birthday of anyone who was someone and the numerous Hartals which we celebrate
as our state festival.
As someone asked, should we not celebrate Independence Day
by raising a toast than being made to sit dry? Food or rather Drink for thought may be?
Cheers and Happy
Onam to all Malayalis, oh sorry “sHAPPY pONAM”
2 comments:
The near 100% tax on liquor not withstanding, keralites still drink their livers out merilly. What would happen if the tax was less, like in other states?
Vibbs, 120% is the tax... And also remember, the 8 liters does not include the thirsty NRKs ( Non Resident Keralites) , who contribute to the revenues in some other state/country ..
Post a Comment