Krazy Kochi

Strike tourism: St Mark's Square, Venice: Striking Workers T he marked shift from picture postcard tourism to the participatory kind has given our perception of tourism new spectacles. To view from a distance and snap a picture “Wah Taj!” is considered the jaded route. Tourists have outgrown brochures and are experiencing the esoteric. “The elections in Kerala”, “Monsoon Tourism”, are the new packaged ideas that now draw tourists to this God forsaken destination. And it was the Minister for Home and Tourism of the State of Kerala, Kodiyeri Balakrishnan, who suggested that the striking trademark of communism as a marketable tourism commodity. Even in jest, his was the pitch of a true blue capitalist salesman. He said, “After Monsoon tourism, strike tourism seems to be the emerging trend in the state. There are tourists who visit the state to witness strikes.” Political Tourists Ahh! Even Working Communism with its practitioners has the potential to bring in the political tour...

If ONLY. If only some nun or some son of a gun had asked me what I did for fun: I went through school, through college and through some life. My list of fun…..Long. But no such question was put to me. My favourite fun thing: (Advisable to Hold your breath here) Cultivate my underarm hair, Curl it, Braid it and Bow it. Definitely would have breezed through Harvard . And The Dean of admissions would have loved it. THe GOOgle GAGGle At the work place I hang out with the Google Generation. I like to call them that coz for better part of their lives Mama Google has suckled them. Imagine Life without Google! But I have been weaned on a healthier diet of Doordarshan before I gorged on the alien Star TV and the Newsage.( Very much like the Iceage- all that information kind of smothers you and buries you .) For foreign affairs on DD, I was treated to the suave stuck record Prannoy Roy with his “Good evening and welcome to the world this week’’. He never let go of that l...