Tasting Trivandrum....

             Dutifully doing my tourist thing here in Trivandrum. Although the Arabian Gulf is nearby, the city does not seem to have any connection to it. Unique in the world, it has democratically elected a communist government into power continuously for the past 45 years. The hammer and sickle flies proudly on all public buildings and I have to say been very successful in cleaning up the city—not perfect, but no piles of refuse on the road sides here, no cows wandering about, or packs of dogs on the roam.                                      

                With a respectable and widely available health care system, life expectancy in Kerala is 75 compared 63 in the rest of India. As mentioned, they have had some success in building tourism along the coast, however in this major city of Trivandrum, the only tourists I have encountered on the streets were three rather scruffy British back-packers looking for cheap digs. Nothing really notable in the traditional tourist sense in Trivandrum---a main drag opposite the railway station and a maze of small commercial streets extending to the north. As a result of the sparseness of tourists, one almost never sees in India, the major US & international hotel brands—the independent local operators are left for the indigenous trade, with low service standards the norm-----high staffing levels of questionable competence, operational and cleanliness issues. My own hotel here, the Aroma Classic Days is an excellent example of  an outfit that is fat & complacent—clients are just too much trouble—who needs them!

               Kerala has high educational attainment levels, with private colleges offering MBAs and PhDs a major industry however with the absence of an industrial base, the ability to offer its young people a realistic future is missing. Hotel work or emigration are the only options for the ambitious. Sadly it is the suicide capital of India for the under 30 group.

Cricket. The passion of India. Round the clock games broadcast on TV. Personally, I always found cricket it in my UK youth to be too slow and totally lacking the glamour and speed of football. How things have changed!. The Indian TV cricket package is offered up in fast paced, full colour & with instant replays from every angle. The bowling rate is fast and furious and balls are hit for 6 with great frequency. As I write this, I can still hear back in 1960, the voice of John Arlott calling the BBC radio test match games while he smoked his pipe!