Ten years back I could only think of the multi-pronged benefits a bandh brought to my family. With my hand on heart, I can say that like mine there was many a family who used to look forward to a bandh or harthal.
For me, it was god sent with a day off from college with numerous incentives. Getting up early and travelling by bus 20km one side with high chances of missing the direct bus that goes till college doorstep was not an easy task. A day off also meant postponement of practical record submission dates, class tests etc apart from a great saving of half day’s toil in the midst of foul smelling gases in Chemistry practical lab struggling with pipettes, burettes and titrations. A bandh was a silver lining in an otherwise dull life of 5 days of college and 2 days of special tuitions a week from dawn to dusk.
Equally or more happy was my Mamma. Her daily chore of getting up at 4 am to prepare breakfast, pack lunch for all and rushing to school by 9am made her sick. She never complained. Rather, she found solace in those harthal days which came with a bang irrespective of the reason. It would have brought her some health benefits for sure. I have seen her working like a machine day in and day out feeding the family and earning for comforts of the family. Weekends were harder with cooking and serving for 5-6 people additionally who used to work in our farms. Her children, who were pursuing dreams of becoming professionals, were rather not allowed to lend a helping hand. It is not only that Amma can start lazy on a harthal day, she doesn’t have to go and sign the Attendance Register in Headmaster’s cabin. Latecomers were asked to sign the register in front of Headmaster and Amma had to undergo this humiliation till she went on to become Headmistress of the school towards end of her tenure.
For Pappa, it was a long way to work in city from our farmhouse. He too loved harthal though he never considered saving in petrol as valid reason to be happy. Rather, he liked to spend a day in political discussion with the Congress ward committee members and overseeing the activities in the farm.
Given the fact that the lessons in Chemistry and endurance tests in the practical lab haven’t made any significant contribution to my career, I would not regret the days lost in harthal. Neither the government school which was in news for 100% failure in public examination, nor the government office which takes weeks to move a file to the next desk was affected with the absence of the likes of my Amma and Pappa.
The conclusion is; Harthal was a blessing in disguise those days.
Looking back, those were care free days, a luxury Malayalee still enjoys. Don’t blame politicians for this. Though it might look alarming to the corporate sector to loose productivity for a day, Malayalees by nature cherishes harthals.
I read about initiatives by Government to create an investor-friendly environment in the State. It is hard to believe that single window clearance will do any good in attracting investors when the pillars constructed by Punj Lloyd for the proposed flyovers in the capital city stands tall and spreads a glee for years to welcome the oft visiting Pravasi Malayalees like me.
My humble message to Malayalees who are addicted to lethargy (thy name is harthal); “Change or Perish”. Kerala missed the bus to its neighbouring states who didn't have much to boast about their human and natural resources and even to West Bengal leading the foray in attracting foreign investments from the so called capitalist forces. It would not be a bad idea for Malayalees upbeat about high literacy rates and an economy thriving on NRI and pravasi Malayalee earnings to look around and see how rest of the country is catching with development.
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