Caste Away

Sometimes I'm embarrassed to be traveling as a tourist. Traveling in another’s land pursuing pleasure based on a monetary economy is an ethical question. However, if you’re surrounded by a bunch of burly men at their local liquor store muttering about the place of women in society,as I was,there is little time to think-I grabbed my Old Monk and fled.I resolve this tourist dilemma by traveling that involves a political commitment to people like the feminist research methods workshop at the University of Kottayam, Kerala.
I traveled a few days ahead, staying at a Christian ashram.
Tourists visit palaces as voyeurs do forbidden pleasures.Looking for palaces took me into lonely, quiet villages like Aranmula.I was told about a ‘fabled’ mirror made from a secret alloy of tin and copper.Mirrors give us a sense of ourselves.The Aranmula Kannadi is made by a family with a geographical patent but provides limited income.Anand took me through the elaborate procedure but I could only afford the smallest mirror.
The palaces are rather modest on the outside.The roofs are low. Enter and admire the woodwork.The centre of the house harvests rainwater. The aara doubles as a storage place, hidden from view.The kitchen window opens up to the well. Convenient! I climbed a ladder and an annoyed bat flew past me only to settle in another dark corner.Fortune has not favoured those who have remained.
At the old village temple with distinctive mural paintings, a month long sadya for the Onam snake boats was being served - 62 vegetarian items! A student pointed out to me that the meal is a privilege of the upper castes and should not stand in for Kerala cuisine.Dalits ate cheap meat and couldn’t afford such meals.We later went out for spicy beef curry and shawarma brought home by Keralite labour from the Gulf.
Most people turn to the backwaters and Cochin as highlights of their Kerala experience.Mine began when I walked into a curio shop that housed an old snake boat from Aranmula.