I don’t get Kottayam
This is the home of some of Kerala’s richest people . Home to the rubber and cardamom kings, a place where every other car that passes by in the street is worth more than I will earn in maybe ten years.
And it is so slow. So bloody agonizingly slow. The first shop that opens in this place is at ten o clock, most often eleven.
There is not a decent mall or coffee place to go to, nor one of those much loved places where there’s time and space to just sit and watch the crowd go by. Cos there’s no crowd and they’re probably watching u more. And can a person not shop or get into an auto without being asked where they’re from and why they’re going where they are going. Why is everyone so intrusive here? And you do not get served till you answer.
Service sucks at most places here. People are more interested in looking you up and down then just getting the stuff you want. Why do men here leer so much ? They definitely seem more interested in trying to strike up a conversation with you than getting you the shampoo you are asking for. Sell the stuff you have and try and earn a honest living rather than trying to find out everything possible about your customer.
Is it just that I am city born and brought up and this is supposed to be small town India where everyone knows everyone else and its all just a big village and it’s rude to just buy what you want and leave instead of wasting the day with everyone in the shop. I understand this phenomenon and way of life, but I am not yet used to telling everyone where I live and what my life is like and what I like.
Another thing I don’t understand is the culture of this place. Head of one of Asia’s largest selling news papers, and if u wear jeans in this supposedly cultured and progressive place u get jeered, booed, and commented at. What kind of culture and life is this that doesn’t allow a woman to walk thru the streets freely without fear of being molested and raped? Culture is what culture does and not what you proclaim yourselves to be, not the size of your cars or the readership of your news paper or the no of rubber plantations you own. If you cant treat a woman with respect, you suck.
What’s with men not wearing a shirt in this town? You go into a room to examine an in- patient, come on, the guy sitting with her has his shirt off. And he looks like he has gynaecomastia. Please. Put your shirt on. Pay that much respect. If not to a woman, at least to the fact that a doctor and a nurse are in the room. At least respect the profession. Or does only money talk in this town?
On the brighter side
I love the little church I go to . Packed on all the Sundays I’ve been here. Apart from listening to some of the best sermon’s I’ve heard in a while, I love the response of the congregation. Everyone is so very into the service and the singing and the responses. It is a white washed, tile roofed lots of windows kind of church where for the first time in a really long time I’ve walked into a church and felt comfortable. And belive me, I’ve done a fair bit of church shopping. Actually only when in college, where there was the church where everyone dances, the one where everyone is so incredibly muted, with no choir and its practically embarrassing to sing with all your heart in it. But this one’s just right. It’s truthful and welcoming and is peace. Lovely place, and a wonderful achan and kochamma.
Enough for now.
7 Comments
June 6, 2007 at 4:13 pm
just wondering,
do the same people pester you and make up such a nice church?
June 7, 2007 at 5:05 am
June 9, 2007 at 7:20 am
Repected madam,
first of all, let me ask u from which cultured city r u frm?
i’m an indian,more specifically a proud kottayamite.i can understand ur worries and feelings.first of all let me answer 4 ur idiotic thinking.’Kottayam-the culturless capital’- ur thinking is absolutely wrong.not everyone is the same and no individual r the same.so when a few people behave like that, does that make u to conclude that everyone in this place has hot the same attitude.don’t jump to conclusions.okie?
the particular area in kottayam where i live u can find all sorts of people-good , educated and cultured people as well as drunkards, anti social elements some of who r well educated.
u said it’s home to one of the largest circulated dailies of asia.tat’s right.
u have already told wat ur problem is.u mentioned that u r from some big city.people like u think that only big cities or cities with airport,night life and girls having boyfriend, discos, huge shopping malls, branded coffee shops,fast food shops etc are cultured and ur mentioning that here shops get opened at 10:00 or 11:00 is wrong.u see, i don’t want to let my country capital delhi let down. but i want u to say tat Delhi- a metro city, abt which ‘cultured’ people like u say it is a yo yo city – is not only the administrative capital of india is also known as the rape capital of the world-where women and teenaged girls are being raped even in broad day-light-.i’m ashamed to say this as an indian- but does that mean that every people in delhi have got the same attitude? Absolutely NO. Now abt wearing jeans- obviously dere r a few who behave like that- and this so called eve teasing can be found everywhere in this world, even in the so called cultured cities like-NEW YORK, our own indian METRO cities etc. But 4 that u can’t blame only kottayam and all the people of kottayam.now unless u r properly dressed, some antisocial elements r sure to boo u and make comments at u. which u can find in every place in the world except a few. u also mentioned that u don’t have trustful friends to share ur feelings with.
this is bcoz of ur attitude. u think that everyone in this place-not so popular place r the same, they.ve the same attitude-if u r ready 4 friendship, u can find friends everywhere, even in remote villages.
so ma’am, change ur attitude toward kottayam i think which u developed the moment u came to know that u r leaving ur homeCITy for a few years.
so love it or hate it- but u can’t ignore and blame kottayam.
June 9, 2007 at 7:26 am
sorry.i forgot to edit my comment- so a few spelling and grammer mistakes r dere-pls don’t mind that. and pls don’t think that all kottayamites don’t know the basics of english grammar.
June 11, 2007 at 11:06 am
long march.. u do feel quite strongly about your home town.. good for you !
do keep coming back…
June 13, 2007 at 7:21 am
hi, i can understand u very well because i am going through the same state.. i do not think it is a isolated problem which u see in kottayam alone.. such problems u see all over the place.. the i am pointing at is the eve teasing.. i do not agree with long march either.. i do agree that such problems exit every where but it is definitely more in kerala. i have never seen in any other somebody right in front of u and stare at u from top to bottom.. the education u have does not have much hold.. if this is an 100 % literacy state the expectation from such state is higher and that is what is put u down. the education has no influence over all out look of the people here. in tamil nadu according to the sensus the status of females are poor. but when u walk in the road u never encounter the eve teasing which u face in kerala. every body minds their own business and walks away. nobody will stand and stare at u. their literacy rates are not as high as us but they are more sensible.. they are more work oriented. i love my state. but certain things here sucks. i do not thing i can do much about it. i am standing on the victims box hoping that things will change one day.
June 13, 2007 at 11:06 am
thanks ghost, u certainly understand what is bugging me about this place. take care, see ya around..