Kerala is the long, thin state that flanks the Western side of India along much of its south coast; much like Chile does for the continent of South America, Kerala bears the brunt and the benefit of the East-edge of a vast expanse of ocean, both shielding the country beyond from an unpredictable climate, and reaping such rewards as the ocean brings.

Because of its position in the nation, Kerala is justifiably famed for its seafood as well as its diverse weather which occasionally surprises (I've been surprised once or twice - this is the season for flash storms, unannounced downpours, and surprise tourist/pavement impacts) largely because it is affected by two monsoons and some unusual structuring of the annual climate, as you can see here if you're interested. This rainy climate may not agree too well with the city of Cochin's civil engineering maintenance program though, for example, because I was walking back today under some low-slung electricity cables during the start of another shower, and felt an extremely sharp sting on the top of my head which was, really, quite sharp.
I'm not saying that the public electricity supply is less-than perfect and the wiring is dodgy (althoguh I probably could quite reasonably) nor that I was electrocuted right in the skull, but, I doubt insects appear that suddenly and briefly (materialising for maybe just a nanosecond or two) and that I smelt burning hair. That's all I can say.

Literacy is one of the big goals of India, even throughout whatever governmental change may it will remain one of the essential policies; it is an important precursor to the kind of developed status everyone wants where, eventually, they can happily buy McDonalds and Gucci in the morning and throw their weight about in smaller, less-developed countries for oil profits in the afternoon.

Chuck a few scandals of global proportions onto the table come evening-time, and we can all say that India truly is developed, and get on with bitching at them over the G23½ Summit conference table ;)

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Kerala it is the most literate state in the country currently acheiving, get this, 100% literacy according to the local newspaper. I don't buy that at all myself, but at least it is among the most literate and is almost certainly the leading place to be if you want to read a book, even more so if you want to buy one because one hugely noticeable thing that makes Keralan cities different to those in Karnataka and Goa, for example, is the number of modern, newly-stocked bookshops - a many as one in every 30 shops is a bookshop, I would say, and although many of them sell the same stuff (most of them, in fact) this is still remarkable, and very different to everywhere else I have seen.

Kannur (Cannanore) and Cochin (Kochi) seem to have modelled their downtown or city centre areas very similarly - both are comprised almost entirely of bookshops, hotels, a scattering of assorted business' operating from roll-shotter fronts (half close, half open, on aggregate) and mini-malls.
Mini malls dominate the city, you can find at least 18 on MG road in Ernakulam (I counted) and that's only one half of the whole street: mini malls are where it's at. I suppose low rents and a guaranteed passing trade must make them quite a good bet, premises are small but stock can be held anywhere. There are certainly plenty of lockups around the place.

Literacy as defined by UNESCO, a comparison of literacy with nearby countries, and the importance of it particularly in India is explained here on the lovely Wikipedia for your leisure and boredom, and you can see if you just look at the little chart near the top (reading the whole thing is a bit of a chore unless you have a vested interest) not just that India generally fares well, but more pointedly that in every country the youth rate is higher than the adult rate.

It is quite easy to understand why - education has come on so far recently and was pretty dreadful or didn't even exist in many poorer places until the second half of the 20th Century - although I think Kerala's governing bodies may be a little bit optimistic with the `100%` thing here.

100% Everyone. Everyone between say 8 and 16, anyway, but I would refute this entirely because there are a great many `hidden children` of the lowest castes and homeless who never see a classroom; the state only counts those it wants to count.
Bit like George W.'s Florida election all over again - hey, maybe they're more developed over here than we thought! ;)

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I like Kerala. It doesn't like me much (I chopped my thumb up on its border, came into a state of emergency and public killings in the most Northerly city, and got into some trouble on my first night in its capital) but I'll settle for this unrequited friendliness because of the way a few people have distinguished themselves over the masses, and the masses have distinguished themselves over masses elsewhere by dint of being good readers, containing fewer hasslers (panhandlers and beggars), and having cities like Cochin which, although not drastically different at first glance, has some subtle differences that rather impress.

One thing that I love and laugh at equally is that on the traffic islands at all junctions in the city, they have official metal signs, proper ones paid for by the state not hand-painted like many elsewhere, that tell everyone to "OBEY TRAFFIC RULES" - I love both that they took the time to remind everyone about these rules (God knows what they are - `kill or be killed` I would say by looking) and also that the ever-cheeky motorised citizens of India need reminding at every junction. Brilliant.

They also have, check this, traffic lights. I never even SAW traffic lights in this country until I got to Mysore (Goa, supposedly, must have passed laws against them on grounds of slowing down taxi-men and potentially ruining tourist revenue) but Kochi (Cochin) has them almost everywhere they are needed, which is to say everywhere they are most needed otherwise I could get into trouble.

Not just any old traffic lights mind you, at the biggest junctions there are traffic lights that count down from 60, or 52, or 45 seconds (depends on time of day I think) to the point of changing, so that everyone can gun their engines like a mad thing when the counter reaches to single figures - does this happen anywhere else in the world? Has any other country someone has visited got these digital-display timers for their traffic lights? I would love to know.

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The thing I least like about Kerala though is the system of government - because half the time it is Communist, and I mean literally half the time. It is a bit of a paradox this place; it has the highest literacy levels in the country and is the only hotbed of Communism (perhaps no surprise there - plenty of impressionable people who've just learned to read at every school) but also it is the richest state in the country but also has the most tentative and unreliable state of governance: the time is split equally, by all accounts, between the Marxist Communist-led side and the Indian National Congress-led side, and the defining majorities are incredibly thin.

How any state prospers when the people in power change every few years, their goals and motivations changing along with it, I have no idea (although 20% of the state's GDP is sent in from Keralites living and working abroad - quite impressive as the state has a high GDP for its size).

I disagree with the Communist ideal on principal (I like to work harder to earn more, capitalist through and through baby!) and am long fed up with having people snatch up the idea because they love the glamour of being an idealist, but I have to admit that there is a huge advantage here, because the Communist part is willing to subject itself to elections instead of just storming the Winter palace and killing everyone who's rich, like they do in other places ;)

Still, my main objection to the Communist party is best not voiced in public because they do like to have a bit of a march (and the occasional beheading) and there are posters everywhere for the CPI(M), brackets optional.

This was in fact one thing that annoyed the hell out of me when we went on the little backwater trip; both sides of the road for miles were lined with concrete posts (I would say lamp posts, but I'm sure I wouldn't have a well-lit drive down every country road in central Kerala ;) ) and on every post was the `CPIM` marking and some more lines in Malayalam, the regional dialect. The posts seem to have been made for the purpose. There are thousand, literally, of them on every roadway, making sure no-one ever forgets, it seems.

There are posters everywhere for the CPIM party, there are huge metal red stars with appropriate party messages on them (one down the road from my hotel is 12 feet high or more, just sat by the road at an entrance to a Marxist party building) and in many districts huge metalwork stars and sickles, painted in red, adorn buildings and street signs and everything else you could think of.

Everyone's favourite mis-used poster boy, Che Guevarra, is prominently used too, in posters on every imagineable surface, and so are the local figureheads of the Communist Party of India (Marxist).

This is hugely annoying to me because it seems in direct contradiction to the whole purpose of Communism: this is hero worship, they are treating their marxist party leaders to more poster space than their actors and advertisments, and even more than their gods.

What got me going really was a shrine by the side of the road as we changed boats - a shrine, as you see to Hindu gods - dedicated to the worship of 3 sour-faced fuckwits gentlemen from the CPIM just bult there by the side oft he road.
I asked out guide if, possibly to avoid wrong-stick-end grabbing, these three had died in some way, but received nothing but a nonplussed negative.
Now correct me if I'm wrong, but if Communism came to succeed all other forms of government then what would become of these much-worshipped leaders - why, they'll be in charge, of course, and everyone has already been worshipping them so they will take over the life of the rich, elite capitalists in the name of the poor, everyman Communists, and likely become tyrants as almost every Communist revolution has proven.

It takes more than constantly wearing a military uniform to be one of the people - not when you are living the life of luxury and condemmning the masses to the same (or worse) as they have always experienced.

Poor old Che Guevarra, too, is treated like a `hero of the revolution` as he is by naive 17-year-old students back home, although of course he is now incapable of rallying the indoctrinated at party raliles ;)

And my gripe here though is the indoctrination, the constant reminders posted on every lamp-post for 20 miles, the hero worship, the rallies, the massive signs and party artwork on every street and building, the speaker cars that patrol the streets (you'll hear at least one every day in Cochin) proclaiming the right and might of the Communist party - why, if it is such a great idea, is it advertised so vehemently and unrelentingly?

Surely this is the sign of a weak idea being force fed to impressionable, desperately hopeful people who are given no time to think?

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Literacy. It may not be quite the solution to economic problems that everyone hopes for, not when the only people taking full advantage - I think it fair to say exploiting, in fact - of it are those with an idealistic form of government that has, on every attempted occasion, shown itself to be just as corrupt as anywhere else and marks itself out only in that standards of living are lower than in the capitalist countries is supposed to be a solution to.

To use the vernacular, Bugger That For A Game Of Soldiers.