World | India
Poll pourri: Indian election diary - April 18
Neena Gopal breaks away from the politicians and the soundbites to take an alternative look at the Indian state elections, and to find out whats really happening on the ground.
- Published: 23:32 May 3, 2009
Gulf News Foreign Editor Neena Gopal is in India covering the state elections.
In this web-only diary, Neena breaks away from the politicians and the soundbites to take an alternative look at the polls, and to find out what's really happening on the ground.
Mutton sambhar please
Most Indians have heard of sambhar, the hot and sour lentil curry that we south Indians relish with steaming hot rice. But have you heard of Mutton Sambhar? Chunks of meat instead of succulent drumsticks in sambhar?
This, says Qamarunnisa, who heads the women's Muslim League is the normal accompaniment for biriyani when you break bread with the Moplahs of Palghat.
After a gruelling day that began for Kiran and me at 6 am ? no breakfast, just a hurried cup of tea before we left ? we were glad the Muslim Leaguers invited us for lunch at the house of a local businessman in Cheruvanoor village in Kuttipuram. I would get authentic Muslim biriyani, mutton chunks et al.
Luckily for Kiran, there was a vegetarian version.
Qamarunissa and her two colleagues, Sukara Mambad and Suharrabi, and me wiped our plates clean of the scrumptious biriyani, courtesy good citizen Abdul Rahman, who fed some 200 others too. This is when the women asked me if I'd ever tasted 'mutton sambhar', cooked with garlic and ginger!! Heresy in Brahmin circles, gourmet cuisine in these parts.
Oh! A great tip on digesting biryani, have a cup of steaming hot suleimani after ?Malayalees call it 'kattan chai'. "I can eat any amount and not feel sick if I have one cup of kattan chai," said a beaming Qamarunissa, scheduled to speak at ten more campaign stops that night.
Checks and balances
The Muslim League office in Vettichara at the junction that leads off to the venerated Kadampuzha shrine on the National Highway is bustling with activity.
The phone rings off the hook, as young men sporting the most violent check shirts in lurid orange, lime green and turquoise are sent out with errands.
A pass to run an 'announcement jeep' through one particular village must be ready in an hour, the latest posters have to be distributed, and a report on T K Jaleel, the only man who has rebelled so violently and openly against the hitherto monolithic League has to be compiled. Muslim hospitality is in the hands of a 31 year old veteran Haji who has run the League office. Thankfully he's dressed in crisp white dhoti, once ubiquitous to all men from Kerala.
But an aggressive campaign by ColourPlus has meant that for the last year or more, young men no longer wear white shirts, sleeves rolled up, but short sleeved shirts that are not only checked but also figure skimming and well?short!
Teamed with brightly coloured dhotis (sarongs) and you could say that the once colourful Moplah lady, who has dropped her distinctive colourful headgear and blouse-dhoti combo for a drab all enveloping black hijab and cloak like women in traditional Arab societies, is completely overshadowed.
More on colour
Velayudhan Maashe (teacher) is in charge of the Marxist party office in Sedapandi in Ponnani. He lights up when he discovers that my husband's 'tharavad' (ancestral home) is in nearby Kumaran Nellore, and the connection to great uncle Justice P T Raman Nair, and other luminaries of that bygone generation that he admired.
Maashe is in pristine white, like many gentlemen of that era, but the furniture at the Marxist office is limited to one colour scheme. From wall hangings, to plastic garlands to chairs, every single object is red."I had nothing to do with it," says Maash, but nobody, not even the young Marxists there, grinning from ear to ear, believe him.
Share this article
Related Articles
News Editor's choice
-
Shilpa Shetty ties knot with Kundra
Bollywood actress Shilpa Shetty tied the knot with London-based businessman Raj Kundra
-
A weighty issue for Gulf News readers
Should we encourage pupils to slim down? Gulf News readers speak out
-
Work on world's longest sea crossing to begin in 2010
The proposed Qatar-Bahrain causeway project, tipped to be the world's longest sea crossing, is estimated at a cost of at $2.7 billion (Dh9.9 billion)
