Hi, I have lived in this town for 44 of my 52 years. Having born, brought up, educated right here, I am as much a Keralite as anybody else, I guess.
I have the good fortune of having a Beverages outlet right opposite my gate. Sometimes I am scared to enter or leave my premises when the outlet is having a 'hot' sale and my watchman has heard the choicest bad words from even persons who could be his grandchildren in his attempt to keep the area in front of the gate clear! Over the years, I have seen the progress that has been made. More and more people with family in two wheelers and four wheelers (add the 3 wheelers too) now stop to get their fix which was an extremely rare scene even a couple of years back. Somebody mentioned unemployment for this. I would rather say that it is because people can earn money without working here that has increased the menace. This is the land of 'nokku cooly' (pay for watching others doing the work) and 'kuthu cooly' (pay for watching the tipper unload its conents) and a few others like this, Harthals here does the economy a lot of good, it fills the coffers of our government by the increased sale of liquor and saves the world by less pollution by not allowing vehicles to ply. -- Regards, trrk (Rajesh, Alleppey, Kerala)
