Kerala Tips

I have had a few emails in the last two weeks from people who are fed up with the way things work in Kerala. Here are two of them,

Rakesh writes,

Dear Sir,

As a proud Keralite who left the state and the Country for over 25 years, I agree to each and every word that you have written about Kerala. Kerala makes me proud, when my foreign friends talk about the tourism and about the highest literacy percentage of our state. But with all these one big question always arise in my mind.  Why did I opt do do my business setup in Thailand,  Why did my relatives move their business to Tamil Nadu?  The answer is clear.  The so called Literacy has only taught most of us “Keralites” to listen to the politicians who capitalize on every opportunity to self benefits.

Each and every time I travel to different countries of the world,  I always Kerala and the potential Kerala has on all aspects.  The location, demography, resources, culture, etc.  There is huge potential for our state to develop into one of the richest states of India!!
But the saddest part is who will make the locals understand what we all mean by the potential that our own state has. 

Few Questions have to be answered here by all the locals:

1)  Do we want our State to develop according to that of other states of India, of even better, say Singapore or Malaysia where many Indians live.

2)  Will the locals say enough is enough to the politicians and stop destroying the state by strikes every other day.

3)  Will the state welcome foreign investment in infrastructure.  There are good sources of electricity at cheaper prices other that Nuclear or Hydro. That is Electro magnetic.

4)  It all these can be done, I bet we can bring our State and our country Indian into greater pride than today.

Sachin writes (I had to censor some lines!),

To all readers,

If you are interested to start a business in Kerala ,DONT!!! Let me tell you why,
Corruption in Kerala is endemic. It is higher than sub Saharan African countries that I have visited where you may even have to pay money to get the entry stamp on your passport. When one comes as a tourist to Kerala they see the beautiful scenery , marvel at it and decide to settle here. Bad decision!!!!.

I am a seasoned businessman and was based in the middle east. I decided to come back to my native where I already had a running business managed by relatives. Thinking that I could manage things here, I started a new one, and promptly shut it down over a period of a year because of extreme apathy and harassment by the government officials. If you are an nri, come here look around and go back. Don’t think of doing business here. Everything sucks out here.

Malayalees work only when they are out of Kerala. Within Kerala the person on the street acts as if he is the owner of Kerala,and you have to fight with everyone who comes along your way. Imagine a weird scenario where a walker by on the street decides to make some money, comes into your office by threatening all your office staff and demands money from you as his birthright, claiming that since his forefathers worked on the paddy field which was previously the land site of my rented office building, I have to pay him 2 months “lost salary”. No connection to anything, but you either pay up or he brings in the cops and the local politicians. Then you have to pay everyone of. THIS SITUATION ACTUALLY HAPPENED . The officials have to be bribed regularly and the way to bribe these officials is to send Goondas. If you send decent people, you have to pay about 50 times the normal bribe. One time bribing is only for one time work.

Everyone is corrupt here even your employees and relatives .Everyone wants money for free out here and there are absolutely no values.No one cares if you go down the drain and lose everything you have ,the people out here are the worst insensitive <censored>. All people do here is watch EVIL television serials and think of how to put heir neighbors in a lot of trouble(para). No one has class out here, to meet classy people you have to travel out of state.If you step out of Kerala border into Coimbatore(Tamil Nadu), the people address you with ’sir’. In Kerala they address you as ‘you idiot come here’ (da ivide vada). If you go out with your household even to a good mall, the malayalis eye-rape all the females and pass real dirty comments.

One of my builder friend told me some time back that in Kerala presently the current reality is that if you live in your house and don’t venture outside it is fine. If you want to venture outside make sure you have political backup because the moment you step outside your house in Kerala now, you are inviting trouble. Swami Vivekananda has proclaimed long time back that Kerala is a mental hospital. “Gods own country and devils own people” - Nice to joke around with this saying but its not very nice when you are at the receiving end. If there is a God up there ,he will <censored> and make the world a better place to live.

Dear Rakesh and Sachin. I know exactly how you feel. After all, I am a Malayalee staying and working in Kerala!

Sachin, while I agree with most your points (eye rape is Kerala special), I must say that living in Kerala is not as bad as it seems. In fact if you are a government official or a pretty rich guy, there is nothing to worry. But of course if you are businessman, you are screwed.

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