What better way to celebrate Onam than to seek out people who are known for their exubernce and at the same time epitomise the cultural traditions inane to this God’s own land.And if you’re in Trivandrum there is no other place where one could savour the rich talent that is incarcerated,literaly,under one roof.And the prominent among them ,undoubtedly,is Swami Amrita Chaitanya.Swamiji’s only undoing was his affinity for good things in life.When the scandal about the wheeling-dealing of swamiji was just surfacing,there was a host of personalities ranging from leading lawyers,politicians and commo folks who appeared on TV and vouched for his magnetic personality,his proficiency in vedas,astrology, among many other qualities.And,
indeed, all through the long saga of investigation shown on TV-him being taken to various places of his mis-adventure,he appeared stoically calm,composed and neatly dressed in pressed kurta.After the Court verdict he chose not to appeal and the last visual one saw was that of his being led into the Central Prison with him holding the slippers in his hand as if to indicate the sacredness of his new home.Well,the swamiji would have found many of the inmates there to
be ingrained with high level of cultural standard of unadultrated fragrance rooted to the soil.The most baffling aspect that is evident now is the large numbers of people with seemingly good social standing ,ending up on the wrong side of the law.That is the enigma we are faced with.
The other positive enigma is the stunning success of Shri Shashi Tharoor in the election.Here was someone who was considered an outsider by his own partymen.At most of his rallies he was subjected to severe ridicules ranging from being an American stooge
to being someone far removed from common man.To make matters worse for him,the powerful Nair Service Socity which supposedly is a watchdog for safeguarding Nair interests,disowned him and issued a fatwa against his candidature.All this made his opponent,the CPI,candidate sure of a comfortable win.After the results were out,every analysts were clueless on which sections of our society voted for Shri Tharoor. Slowly it is now recognised that the very dire scenario which his opponents painted of his international connection with imperialist forces was seen to be appealing to the poorer sections of the electorate.Well,they understood for them to
get rid of poverty they need help, whether it is capitalists or communists is immaterial, to get jobs.Shri Shashi Tharoor won not because of votes from the well-off but his being able to make impreesion with the have-nots.If the Lord Mahabali was a Tamilian he would have no hesitation to pre-fix Tharoor’s name with”Puratchi Thalaivar”,the revolutionary leader.