The Mallu Bong Connection

I recently read that the ex-chief minister of West Bengal, Mr. Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee, loves choru-meen. That’s Malayalam for the Bengali bhaat-machh: fish and rice, to the English-speaking world.

If one tends to delve a little deeply into the psychographics of people from these two states, there are many similarities to deduce. Despite the obvious cultural and geographical differences.

Commonalities start with a series of F-words: Films. Fish. Football.

Thanks to these two states, films from India started getting international critical acclaim. While Bengal had directors like Satyajit Ray, Mrinal Sen and Ritwik Ghatak whose films scorched the festival circuits, Kerala produced incredible directorial talents like Aravindan, Adoor Gopalakrishnan and John Abraham (not Bollywood’s six-foot, beef cake with acting abilities that would make a piece of plywood proud).

Fish is the staple diet in both states. For every hilsa-relishing bong, there is a karimeen-devouring mallu licking his fingers in style. When Kerala began producing fine athletes like PT Usha and Shiny Wilson, way back in the 80s, the reason was attributed to the humble fish.

Soccer-crazy Bengal had clubs like Mohun Bagan, Mohammedan Sporting and East Bengal. Soccer-sozzled Kerala had FC Cochin and Kerala Police. However, the current statistics says that the popularity of football is on the wane. Cricket has taken over. You could accept that in West Bengal, which produced a star like Sourav Ganguly. What about Kerala? The only international cricketer of any repute, or rather disrepute, from this southern state is Sreesanth. A man famous for his flaring nostrils than a nose for wickets.

Besides these F-words, another similarity between both these states is the B-word: Bandh. This infamous practice is a fallout of another common factor the two states were wedded to: Marxism.

A bandh in these two states means that the state machinery will remain fully paralysed. Partial bandh is for other states. Not for West Bengal or Kerala.

Winds of change

There is a local saying in Malayalam that when it rains in China, the Malayali will pick up his umbrella. Such was the effect of Marxism in these states for many years. While one could debate for and against such Leftist leanings, it is amply clear that it had hampered the states’ progress to a great extent.

But there’s hope. A reversal in trend is being witnessed. A hunger for progress has finally gripped them, and today, we can see sectors like IT / ITES, Tourism and Manufacturing, booming slowly but steadily.

Both West Bengal and Kerala have a few redeeming factors that can catapult them into the forefront of growth: a rich tapestry of culture, an impetus on good education and a large pool of intellectually vibrant population.

The common man from these kindred states, surely deserve to be in a better place. A place so beautifully articulated by Nobel Laureate Rabindranath Tagore: “…Where the clear stream of reason has not lost its way / Into the dreary desert sand of dead habit / Where the mind is led forward by thee / Into ever-widening thought and action / Into that heaven of freedom, my Father, let my country awake.”