Clouded sky, gusty wind, pitter-patter rain rushing to meet the thirsty mother earth accompanied by the flashes of lightning and thunder- yes, the stage is set for monsoon boat races in Kerala. As every living being tries to find shelter to hide from the nature’s splash, the participants of the boat races armed with their ores invade the waters to sweat it out. The cloths worn by them become second skin dripping with a mixture of sweat and rain. It seems the Mother Nature witnessing the tireless practice of the racing crew encourages them with thunderclaps and wipes their sweat with rain.
For the people of Kerala, Karkidakam (July-August) is natively called Panja Masom or the month of famine and dullness. But to the folks of Kuttanadu in Alleppey district, it is full of excitement. Every year on the second Saturday of August the most exciting regatta, the Nehru Cup Snakeboat Race, takes place. Though most of the people there find their homes half submerged during the season, their spirit is never dampened. Otherwise routine and uneventful, life in Kuttanadu area comes alive months before the event. Racing crews tirelessly practise fired by the competitive spirit that motivates them on the great say.
In the past Kerala had only two major boat races-the Aranmula Uthrittathi boat race and the Champakulam Moolam boat race. These two have traditional and religious background. A fete in Aranmula is conducted in connection with Aranmula temple and Champakulam boat race is in commemoration of the consecration of the deity at Ambalapuzha Sri Krishna Temple. Despite their religious backgrounds, the fetes witness communal amity.
Kerala today witnesses a large number of boat races all across its rives and waters. The water carnival begins with the Champakulam Moolam boat race followed by big and small boat races conducted throughout the Onam festival season when people there are in high spirits to welcome their mythical king Mahabali who is universally loved by all Keralites. According to a legend, the king visits them once a year from the nether world. The backwaters which were often the battle ground of warring rulers of Kerala and the Chundan Valloms or the snake boats which were the battleships, now race to a different bugle.
The Nehru Trophy Boat Race held on the Punnamada Lake in Alappuzha (Alleppey) is a highly competitive event. The first race held in 1952 in honour of the then Prime Minister Pandit Jawaharlal Nehru’s visit was an impromptu one. About 10 snake boats were present on that occasion. The winner was Nadubhagam Chundan. Nehru was so fascinated and excited that he jumped into the winning boat ignoring all security arrangements. On his return to Delhi he instituted a trophy for the winners of the boat race. In 1953 the boat race was not held. But afterwards it became a regular feature. Every year around 40 boats participate in the regatta.
Though boats like Vepu, Iruttukuthi, Ody, Swan and Churulan also participate in the fete, the magnificent Chundan Valloms which are 60-65 meters in length are the star attraction with highly decorated sterns where the coxswains stand, leaning on their large steering cars, the pace-setters thumping staves and hundreds of men handling a single paddle oar on each side churning the still waters in fascinating rhythm and dip showering spray of water.
Every year the boat race is made more attractive with auxiliary events. This year, the 49th Nehru Trophy Boat Race will be held on August 11. Colourful cultural processions and programmes are being organised on the eve of the race. The best part of the boat race is an opportunity for women to show their mettle. There is a separate competition for them.
The boat races of Kerala display the valour of its people and their folk arts. The backwaters fringed with coconut palms are the venue; different types of boats- Irruuttikuthi, Veppu, Ody, Swan, Churulan and the majestic Chundan Valloms-display the craftsmanship of Kerala: the singers of boat songs "Vanchipattu" and the beats present the folk literature of Kerala and their unity . The performance of oarsmen mesmerizes everyone. The whole fete is an extravaganza of audio-visual arts. Besides, the boat race teaches the essence of life. The oarsmen, coxswains and pacesetters are unified with one particular pace and they are in rhythm with nature. A single mistake by anyone can cause imbalance and the boat may overturn. Human beings can flourish so long as they exist in tune with nature. Modern civilization forgets this truth which the boat race silently reminds us.
Paradise for some, mirage for others in the Gulf
by Haro Chakmakjian (Courtesy AFP)
DUBAI--While most expats from the West live a life of luxury in the oil-rich Gulf, Asian workers often see their dream of escape from poverty back home turn into a mirage in the desert. "It's like a jail here for us, hard work morning, afternoon and night," said Sri Lankan house maid Lena, who has worked in the Gulf for 12 years leaving behind a daughter who is now 20. But Lena and husband Anil, a carpenter in Dubai, can count themselves lucky: they have been paid their full dues and saved enough to build a house and open a shop in their homeland.Construction Boom in UAE, especially Sharjah attracts Asian expatriate labour Cases of unpaid wages, bogus visa trading by unscrupulous recruitment agents, squalid accommodation, unpaid overtime and lax safety standards are common in the Gulf, the workplace of millions of Asians. "It's still the expat dream, whether they come from Asia or the poorer Arab countries, to work in the Gulf, a kind of 'promised land,'" said Abu Bakr Badawi of the International Labour Organisation (ILO). "Where they come from is even worse," said Badawi, the ILO office director in Kuwait who told AFP that his job was "to assist governments and try to improve working conditions rather than enforce a police style of action".
On the outskirts of Dubai and out of sight, men at Al-Qusais camp regain some dignity on Friday afternoons, their only free time in a grinding week in the wretched heat and humidity of summer in the Gulf. They wash, visit the barber's, write letters, phone home, sip tea or play a game of cricket on the sand. Azam Khan, a 32-year-old electrician from Bihar, India who makes 780 dirhams (210 dollars) a month, prefers to just sleep off the
exertions of the week."Life is not good, not bad," he said after emerging at dusk from a spartan but air-conditioned room shared with several other workers under a corrugated metal roof. Without a woman or child in sight at the camp, since Emirati immigration laws lay down a minimum salary of 820 dollars plus accommodation for workers to bring their families, Khan said loneliness and boredom were part of that life.
Suicides and fatal accidents at work are often reported in Gulf newspapers. In stark contrast, many European and American expatriate families in the Westernised boomtown of Dubai live in luxury villas with annual rents of 27,000 dollars or more paid by their companies.
On top of income tax-free salaries, private swimming pools, beach clubs, 4x4 cars and desert safaris also compensate for living away from home. "We used to scrimp and save every year to be able to afford to go on summer holidays. But life here is easy," a British woman teacher told a friend visiting from England over coffee in the upmarket district of Jumeira.
Not counting several long-established trading families from India, the hundreds of thousands of unskilled or semi-skilled Asian workers in Dubai have little time to enjoy the Gulf's leisure and tourism hub. Indian office cleaner Morgesh from a village near Madras, lured by overtime pay, takes one day off a month to make 175 dollars working 14-hour days. "Every six months or so, I go to the beach or the souk (market), maybe," he said. In 1992, he paid a recruitment agent in India more than 800 dollars to secure the job. The worst fate is that of the cheap manpower from the Indian subcontinent that fuels the construction boom in Dubai, home of the sail-shaped Burj al-Arab, the world's tallest hotel."They develop health problems later in life from toiling in temperatures of more than 40 degrees (Celsius, 104 Fahrenheit)," said an Arab civil engineer at a skyscraper site where work goes on day and night. Asian diplomats, whose economies need the workers' remittances, pointed to improvements such as a Dubai ban imposed in April on workers being transported in cattle-trucks and a bank guarantee scheme to curb cases of unpaid wages.
"They get a good amount of money compared to back home, they are happy from that point of view," a senior diplomat in Dubai said. But Indonesia, in a move taken in the past by other Asian countries with workers in the Gulf, this month suspended the export of labourers to Saudi Arabia to press for better protection of its nationals. A cruel but telling joke doing the rounds in Dubai goes: "On his death, an Indian is given the choice between heaven and hell. 'Can't I go to Dubai?' he asks."
Courtesy: AFP
