Namaste!

As promised I bring to you more titillating tales from Two Wheels Whirled.....

Back to Kerala, land of political extravagance's. As we drove around the state with Kate and Carl, we could see and hear jeeps, autorickshaws and occasionally the odd truck rigged up with a huge set of loud speakers. From the speakers blasted some very fast dialogue, we could not understand the words but just by the sheer tone of it there was no mistaking it's seriousness. En route from Periyer to Fort Cochin we were enjoying a beautiful scenic journey following K and C in the car - this was the day that we saw the wild elephants. We requested the driver for a pitstop so that we could powder our noses - he eventually obliged! When we returned from doing that which ladies must do, the driver broke the news to us that Saddam Hussein was to be hanged. It was not clear at the time when this was due to happen but already the Keralan political parties had responded. There was to be a hartal that afternoon at 3pm, he had been informed of this via a call on this mobile and having spoken to some young men from the village that we had stopped in. A hartal is a universal strike and means that everything would close, traffic is also normally disrupted as people take to the streets. A hartal can happen anywhere in India and it is really something that is best avoided, not just because of the inconvenience but because the situation can often lead to a hysteria as pasions rise in protest. We now had a time frame within which to reach our hotel. As we drove, we could see people already gathering in the streets, we passd convoys of cars and buses and some businesses were already closing down, you could feel a tension in the air. We arrived at the hotel in time, no problem. It only became obvious when we went out for a walk later to view the chinese cantilever fishing nets that trouble was afoot. The market was closed. We went to find out about watching some Kathkali that evening, as we approached the centre we were shouted at by a group of men to go back. As they passed us, we decided to go anyway. The doors were shut to the centre, there were a few more bewildered tourists outside and we were informed that the centre had closed because of trouble as supporters of the hartal walked through the streets. We decided to walk back towards the market where we encountered a reasonably large group of people gathered around a fire upon which were the remains of an effigy, only now it was just the legs of the figure that remained. There were police here and there, some had bamboo riot shields and they were keeping a watch on the situation lest it got out of control. As it transpired after 6pm everything returned to normal and we finished the day with a wonderful meal.

New Years eve was interesting. Saddam Hussein was to be hung that day. I read in the paper that politicians throughout India were not particularly happy (regardless of their political party) because it was deemed that there had not been a fair trial for the former dictator. I had also read that there had been the burning of effigies of Bush in Cochin and that the State Bank of India had had stones thrown at it as a crowd had become rowdy. The DYFI, the communist youth league, were particularly disatisfied and were very vocal that day. As we made our way to our new years dinner, we walked down a street on which our restaurant was to find that the glass windows of cars had been shattered and that hotel signs had been pelted with stones. We were witnessing the aftermath - there were many policemen standing around so we felt fairly safe. We had a great news years dinner. After our bellies had been filled we walked back to our hotel, on the way back I overheard some men in an alleyway tell us that we were not welcome.

Our plans had been to go to the beach at midnight to watch the burning of Santa (a local custom, I think) and to see the fireworks that were to be set off to celebrate the new year. As it transpired we had peaked to soon and by midnight we were all ready to go to bed. This was to be a blessing in disguise. The next day I read in the paper that the party at the beach had been taken over by communist party supporters and that there was a fight over the burning of Santa. Instead of him being burnt he ended up sopping wet in the sea and thereafter was more stone pelting. It was a good thing that we did not go.

The communists were using Saddam as a political icon, this was evident by the posters of him that were appearing in the streets. To them the death of Saddam represented another instance of American aggression and that the imperialists should be stopped. They were also outraged (as well as many other people in India and no doubt across the world) that the hanging should take place on the important muslim festival of Eid al Adha and that there would be further divisions as a result amongst the people of Iraq. I also read a report that suggested that the communists were using the event as a political tool to raise support for their party and that all that they had succeeded in doing was creating more divisions amongst the people of Kerala.

The experience of the two days was particularly interesting for me, it was amazing to see how quickly people could rally and to also see how active people are when it comes to politics in Kerala. I have no doubt that there were also many people that did not agree with the opinion of the people in the streets but they did not make themselves as heard. It would have been good to see a balance. The only thing that was said in contrast was when a man came up to me in the street and said "Saddam was a bad man, it is good that he is hung", he then proceeded to say: "I am a christian, are you one too? I am friend of Americans"....