Back at base

The Kerala trip, which involved the better part of three days wandering around the fraught Kannur/Kasargode region and two days in Calicut indulging in the biriyanis of Paragon and Rahmath, was interesting in ways I hadn’t predicted. There’s a ‘great game’ being played out in the Kannur area — a deadly dangerous political game pitting the Left, led by the CPM stormtroopers, against what it perceives as the “encroachment” of the hard Hindutva sponsored by the RSS/BJP/VHP and allied organizations. It’s the sort of story that merits a deep dive, in the form of a series of essays — for which I have to make a longer trip, most likely in late November. So more on that later.