So Sapna and I are currently languishing over election results in America and Trivandrum. Our local panchayat seat went to a Bharatiya Janata Party candidate. The BJP is a right-wing Hindu nationalist movement whose politics mainly revolve around political intimidation of Muslims and unfettered liberalization of Indian markets. They are India’s second largest party, but historically played third or fourth fiddle to the Communist and Congress parties in Kerala. In my home state of Wisconsin, the Republicans took control of pretty much everything, including (most devastating to me) Russ Feingold’s senate seat. While news was better in California, we still ended up with some terrible ballot initiatives and Jerry Brown as governor. At least Americans didn’t fall into the BJP trap and elect people based on their anti-Muslim, pro-military, ardently free-market platforms. Oh…
If all that weren’t enough to send us into complete despair, our local temple is doing its best to help on that path. From 5:30am to 10:00pm every day (and midnight on the very first day), the temple is blasting Malayalam film songs and occasional chanting through our windows. Apparently this happens every year for 10 days in early November. No one likes it, and no one knows why or how the practice started, but no one lodges any complaints to the temple- which you think would be pretty easy to do if the temple is tying speakers to your property in order to blast music at you all day long. Couldn’t you just demand they at least move it off your property? But our landlord just shrugs his shoulders in a “what can you do” motion. That’s a bit what it felt like for me this election term. I couldn’t knock on doors or make phone calls, and I don’t have millions of dollars to pour into secretive PACs. But the results made me angry, and want to come out fighting. I wonder what it will take for our landlord to do the same?
*On a separate note, if you’re interested in reading about some of the educational reforms the Kerala Ministry of Education is working on, check them out here. I hear a lot about them from bureaucrats, but teachers generally haven’t heard of them. Which makes me wonder where all the “resistance” the ministers write about comes from?
Mr. Gardner Goes to Kerala 