2018: The Malayalee returns. Published in Kerala Calling

The Septaguint, the first five books of the Hebrew Bible, uses a verb diaspeirein to depict the anguish of a race dispersed from their homeland. Since the twentieth century, the word Diaspora conjures up the migration of a nation’s people across state borders to distant lands and no other state in India has been influenced by its Diaspora as much as Kerala has.

The lure of greener pastures abroad has always been the reason for Kerala’s overseas migration. Armed with very good education and the inherent need to improve one’s lot through hard work the migrant malayalee  proves fortuitous in foreign lands. One often hears that after leaving the shores of Kerala, a malayalee becomes twice as hard working and living examples of the same have served as proof over the years to cement this phrase into common day parlance. Toted as Kerala’s greatest export, its people, never forget the strong ties they leave behind on their journey towards economic progress. Just as George Lukas refers to a union between the universe and the body, the lure of green pastures, verdant forests, rushing mountain streams and rolling rice fields proves to be an irresistible magnet that bestows on every Malayalee the love for the motherland despite the distances. To borrow a phrase from a recent movie “ the force is strong with them“. So strong that whenever they flock together to drown out home sickness with palliative doses of fellowship, they bring their children, squirming in attendance,  dressed in the most uncomfortable “traditional”attire and make them sit through the ordeal of two and a half hours of the latest malayalam tragedy. On the subject of squirming children, nothing aggrieves the NRI kids more than the oft heard question from distant uncles/aunts/grand relatives/ curious friends of the family, on their annual homeward holidays, “Enne ariyammo?” (Do you know who I am?) To which the reply is usually a practised distant look of utter helplessness topped with a toothy bashful smile and an occasional nod in conjunction with the confused “yes, no, maybe”.

Many are the jokes on the ubitquitous malayalee accent and one that I heard recently referred to a malayalee and his NRI neice. “She calls me ANKLE and I call her KNEES”. As much as the vernacular influences any foreign language, no other community has been at the receiving end of linguistic tomfoolery than the keralites. Whether it be the Arabian Gulf or the countries of the West and Far East, the NRI malayalee carries the propensity to convert any foreign language into a sub - dialect of his or her keralite neighborhood. A first hand experience of the American malayalee accent was when a distant uncle of mine asked me to visit him with the words, “Mone, You Must Come And VisiTus In ConNecTicKet”. The specifics may be different but every household in kerala dreams of someone who leaves “for the forin” , and comes back one day driving a “Mersidis-bence”.

            The economic impact of the non resident malayalees has seen crores pouring into the coffers of Kerala. What makes them turn into such financial benefactors? It is a dream that every NRM harbours that one day they will return. That one day for a lot remains a distant dream as they slowly get used to a lifestyle that is markedly different from the one they left behind. When I left India to work in Kuwait I was told on arrival that if you stay beyond two years, you will never leave. One favourite pastime of the Gulf malayalee who repatriates money is to look keenly at the exchange rate. As keenly as the brokers watching the ticker tape on dalal street. No words can accurately describe the profound satisfaction at waiting for the right time to convert dinars/riyals/dirhams. It becomes the most interesting tea time topic or fellowship starter.

            The impact of migration on Kerala’s development is an oft repeated subject yet any footnote on the Non resident malayalees would be incomplete without mention of how they have helped reshape Kerala’s villages. Looking at my village as an example, I have seen first hand the change of houses from mud and clay to pukka brick structures. Transportation changes from cycles to small cars and an increased awareness through access to cellular phones and social media. Whether they thought about it or not when they first left the shores of Kerala, the migrant malayalee has directly or indirectly transformed the past of this state and will continue to be an inherent part of its betterment for the future.

                                               

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