A proud Mallu

A bus journey from Ernakulam to Bangalore:

I overheard the following conversation from two North Indian Muslim Businessmen whose business base is in Bangalore.

Business Man1: Here (Kerala), the quality of life is really good!
Business Man2: Yes. True. Initially when others used to tell me, I never believed it. Now I see it. It is far better than any other states of India. The common man of Kerala has a much better quality of life.
Business Man1: Yes. Yes. Sometimes I wonder if Kerala were in some other state, India's Human development Index would have been really low.
Me (in my mind): Hmmm... feels good to hear an 'outsider' talking high about your own state. But this last point I disagree. The HDI will become low for sure. But nor "really" low.
Business Man2: But what I liked most is the peace. I have done business in UP, Bihar, Rajasthan. I had no major (communal) issues there. But when I came here, I felt the real difference.
Business Man1: Very true. The southern states are in general peaceful. But Kerala is much peaceful than any of them.

I wanted to record their conversation and post it. I felt really proud of being a Mallu and the manner in which the keralites are brought up. They are brought up in a communally congenial environment and are taught to make best use of their common sense.

Said that, I don't think everything of a mallu is great. There are quite a few things which I don't like about them. Guess I'll cover that in another blog