Hybrid Era

"Uzhunnu Vada" or Black Lentil Doughnuts, authored by C.K. Meena is the latest, and a very interesting, take on the omnipresent Malayali diaspora.

Diaspora, according to the definition, is used "to refer to any people or ethnic population forced or induced to leave their traditional ethnic homelands; being dispersed throughout other parts of the world, and the ensuing developments in their dispersal and culture."

So who has created the Malayali diaspora? Who is still forcing and inducing malayalis to leave the state, and not come back?

I think we are constantly churning out batches of these desperate diasporas - at times reminds me of spores, flying in the air, looking for a safe place to land and grow!, sending them out of the state to find shelter, earn a living, learn something new, get a job and so on.

90% of the workers at the various construction sites in Kerala are from out of the state. The supervisors say these workers are their new-found assets as they worked very hard, without unions, without exorbitant "demands" and without false prestige. They said they were scared to employee malayalis as unions, strikes, notices, lock-outs etc came along with them.

Meanwhile, at a "bus-stand" close to the site, fellow brethren were busy ganging up to protest and demand the CM's resignation.