Remains of the British Raj

We had tried to get a reservation for dinner at the fossilized remains of the British Raj in Munnar, the High Range Club.  This was the private club of the British (mostly Scottish) tea planters and continues today as a hotel... with quirks;  the bar is reserved for gentlemen - no ladies allowed - and on Saturdays,  gentlemen wear formal dinner jackets for dinner.

Bar of the High Range Club in Munnar

The objects above the bar are hats, which have been put there by members after they have been a member for thirty years.  They refused to admit us for dinner - perhaps we did not meet their social criteria!

Cricket in  Mumbai

Apart from cricket, where the Indians manage to generate immense enthusiasm even in a match that lasts five days, there are three other facets of the British Raj that are noticeably present: red post boxes,  bureaucracy and school uniforms.

Post Box in Jaipur

Red Post Box in Mumbai

Bureaucracy is taken to quite extraordinary lengths in an "Alice in Wonderland" fashion.   A couple of examples will suffice.

A boat trip on the lake at the Periyar Nature Reserve in Kerala is a very popular activity for thousands of people each week.  Obviously everything would be set up to welcome these tourists, most of whom are Indian...wrong!!   Each person needs to have three tickets - one for the boat ride, one to enter the park and one to use a camera.  It would be too much to expect these to be sold at the same place - three different places not at all well indicated with different opening times.

To visit the City Palace in Udaipur (an absolute "must"), one requires four different tickets, one of which is in three different parts.  Here fortunately, one can get the tickets at one place, but of course not all at the same ticket window.  They all need to be officiously stamped.

While Britain may have advanced to somewhat more user-friendly officialdom, India seems to strive to maintain the full weight of Victorian-era paperwork.


To those of us that abhor the sight of scruffy children in jeans and tee shirts on their way to school, India preserves correct school attire, although the inevitably over-stuffed backpack has crept in to replace the proper school satchel.

Arriving for school in Munnar

School Bus - Munnar
(We lost count after thirteen children emerged)

A less overcrowded school bus - Munnar

Schoolboys in Udaipur

...and schoolgirls!

More neat schoolboys.

The most interesting photos of schoolchildren were taken in the Kerala Backwaters (about which more in later blogs).

Waiting for the School Bus

Waiting for the School Bus

The School Bus

Ready for School

Discussing homework on the way to school!

Afternoon Tea with Marx and Lenin

One of the more difficult things for the tourist in India is finding out when local festivals are taking place.  We had tried to find some as they appear dramatic with elaborately dressed elephants.

We had not  been successful in our search, so imagine our delight as we reached Munnar, the capital of tea growing in Kerala to see that the whole town and its approaches were decorated with red bunting and flags.  It seemed that this must be a major festival such as we had hoped to see.

However we soon realized that this was no temple festival, but was rather the annual convention of the local communist party.

Communism in Kerala is very well established and communist-led governments have been elected several times and alternate with the Indian Congress-led coalition every five years.  The emphasis on social values may explain why Kerala has virtually 100% literacy and life expectancy and infant mortality rates similar to those of the United States.  It may also explain why there is very little foreign investment in Kerala as the workers are highly politicized.

As with Communism in its heydays, there are two different flavors: CPI (Communist Party of India) and CPI(M) (Communist Party of India (Marxist))!!

"The CPI(M) was born in the struggle against revisionism and sectarianism in the communist movement at the international and national level, in order to defend the scientific and revolutionary tenets of Marxism-Leninism and its appropriate application in the concrete Indian conditions."!!!


In practice, the two communist parties are working together and are coalition partners.

 

As we left Munnar, we saw the local youth members preparing for a march through the town.  They were very smartly turned out!

The demise of communist USSR caused serious problems for the tea industry of Kerala.  The USSR was the world's largest tea importer and they imported a disproportionate share from Kerala as part of their effort to sustain the communist state government.  This problem is seemingly being overcome.

Around Munnar, there was relative little sign of politicization in the tea plantations.  This is not surprising because, in 2005 the Tata Group handed over the majority of the shares in the major local company, Kanan Devan Hills Plantations Company Private Limited, to the employees who now receive profit-sharing in addition to an apparently good benefits package.

Tea picking around Munnar is a year-round activity as the leaves are cut every ten days.  An ingenious adaptation of garden shears is used to cut the top two leaves and collect them in a box attached to the shears.

There is certainly no lack of tea plantations in Kerala, which is just as well as the Indians are not only the largest producers of tea in the world, but are also (communists included), the world's greatest consumers of tea!                           

Marriage, Sex and Bollywood

Continuing our non-scientific survey of the priorities of the population of Kerala based on billboards, Romance and its trappings come a close second to Gold.

It seems that Harmony.com has plenty of competition - but then some of these websites undertake the full services of a traditional matchmaker; investigating the family background of the parties and their financial status.

Weddings are a huge business, with parties lasting days.  While dowries are officially illegal, they are absolutely the norm.  One of our drivers had the (mis)fortune of having four daughters.  He had successfully married-off the two elder ones.  When asked, he said their dowries had been a real problem consisting of washing machine, refrigerator and lots of gold and silver jewelry.

We saw two weddings at Catholic churches which still had their Christmas decorations in place.

Wedding in Kochi

Wedding in Munnar

Bollywood is now the world's biggest movie-making area, far exceeding Hollywood in its volume.

Bollywood Movie Ads

As almost all Bollywood movies have a romantic angle, it is not surprising to see that there is a substantial use of Bollywood celebrities endorsing products and services in the wedding industry.

This firm claims to be able to fit 150 bridal dresses at one time in its store!

Even the King of Bollywood, Shah Rukh Khan, whose image is everywhere, is playing a prominent role in the wedding advertisements.

Our billboard survey also showed than sexual performance is considered important both by conventional practitioners...

...and less conventional providers:

WILD VIAGRA!!

GOLD

Driving into Kochi (Cochin) in the state of Kerala from the airport allows one to make a non-scientific survey of Indian priorities based upon the billboards along the way. (Oooops -sorry - that should have read "Being driven into ..." - there is no way that the Whimsical Traveller could possibly contemplate driving himself in India.

Street Scene - Main Road!

Anyway, from the billboards, local priorities would appear to be:

• Gold and gold jewelry
• "Gold Loans"
• Marriage and all its trappings.
• Bollywood

Today's blog will focus upon Gold and Gold Loans, although in practice, these cannot be separated from Marriage or Bollywood.

Gold & Diamonds!

First, some some incredible statistics:

• About $800 billion of gold and gold jewelry is in the possession of Indian individuals.  
• This is about 18,000 tons of gold - just slightly less than the combined gold reserves of the US and Europe (18,900 tons).
• About 65% of Indian gold is help by rural households.
• Kerala has 3% of India's population but accounts for 20% of gold purchases.

These amounts do not include the gold held by Indians in offshore depositories for which there seems to be no reliable estimate, although it is possibly equally important.

....And my all time favorite:

The most amazing recent finding has been the wealth that has been accumulated in the Sree Padmanabhaswamy temple in Thiruvananthapuram, the capital of Kerala.  On order from the Supreme Court, the state is undertaking an inventory of the treasures thatn have been found in five of six vaults under the temple. 

 Padmanabhaswamy Temple

The value of the treasures in the first five vaults exceeds $22 billion, including this gold statue that weighs 30 kilos.

Gold Statue from Padmanabhaswamy Temple

Obviously the Vatican is going to have to step up its fund-raising if it is not to appear as a poor relative.

The related subject on billboards was Gold Loans.

There are many financial institutions in Kerala that focus on Gold Loans.  These seem to be ponsified pawnbrokers who will lend up to 50-60% of the value of the weight of gold jewelry with very little paperwork.  As can be seen from this billboard, they claim to take only 3 minutes to make a loan.  Ironically, the principal purpose for which people in Kerala take out a gold loan is to make purchases of gold and gold jewelry!!!