The Kerala story

This is the place where I can have beef

with my friends at the table, with their pork and alcohol, and yet,, have no beef with them.

This is the place, as someone said,

that even atheists call 'God's Own Country'.

We fuse opposites, believer and non-believer

wet and dry, and 'forced conversion', an oxymoron

like everything else.

Our minds, as vast as our beaches, and our values, as deep as our backwaters,

and our landslides, our victories,

in each godly act

that makes this 'God's Own Country'.

This is the place

where we know our math: 3 is not equal to 32,000.

But equally, we know, 3 votes are as important as 32,000.

This the place where the ballot is stronger than the bullet'.

This is the place

where Muslim parents marry off Hindu children and a Hindu brother

protects a Muslim's shop from being destroyed.

This is the place where your profit

becomes my business.

This is the place

where we write our own stories through our own actions, not with rhetoric that lasts for a season.

This is the place

where we chose democracy over theocracy for a reason.

This, my friends, is the Kerala Story!

@Rukhaya M.K. 2023