India has a new Twitterer: Sachin Tendulkar, the legendary Indian cricketer. In a country where cricket heroes are akin to Gods, Tendulkar could lay a good claim to being the hero of the Gods. He was running at tens of thousands of followers within hours.
Find him at sachin_rt.
Indian Idol
I caught a few moments of the opening rounds of Indian Idol and identified the ‘baddie’ judge straight away, despite not understanding a word of it. I did notice that the contestants bend down and touch the feet of the judges if they get through.
Now don’t give Simon Cowell any ideas.
Death Penalty
The sole surviving Mumbai bomber was sentenced to death last week. The night before the sentencing, a particularly vocal political debate took place on TV here. A pro-death penalty participant uttered the immortal words (paraphrased):
“The reason that the situation in Northern Ireland went on for so long and was so difficult to solve was that they do not have the death penalty!”
Funny, I’d have been hard pushed to mention one thing that could have made the Troubles worse…until now.
Politics
On reflection, perhaps Kerala wasn’t the best place to come to escape the UK general election.
This is one of the most highly politicised places on earth: Communism and Marxism sit quite happily alongside Hinduism and various branches of Christianity.
I have fielded questions on political parties and on coalition governments. And, on one train journey:
“Could you please explain to me why your country has a Queen?”
Politics, Kerala-Style
And Finally...
I'm heading back home tomorrow (4.30am taxi! Noooo....!) so this is the last of my posts from this trip.
Thanks for reading, hope to do some more soon!
1 comment:
Wonderful, evocative articles! My favourite quote from the Kerala series? "...so I, a white woman from a capitalist country, handed over a donation so that I could stop oppressing people." Brilliant.
Struggling to get the image of a Soho Rubber Exchange out of my head though...
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