Winding up a business after 22 years of operation! Yes, COVID-19 has forced a reputed advertising firm in Kochi to shut shop. The firm is heavily dependent on revenues from gulf countries and financially constrained to outlive the COVID-19. When Gulf sneezes, Kerala catches a cold! COVID-19 is going to have a lasting impact on Kerala. Prof. S. Irudaya Rajan of the Centre for Development Studies, Thiruvananthapuram, which publishes Kerala Migration Survey, estimates 2.5 million emigrants from Kerala across the world. Of this, 1.89 million live in the Gulf countries. Remittances from entire emigrants to Kerala make up to $16 billion. This is equivalent to 35% of the state income! Professor opines that emigrants returned to Kerala through Vande Bharat flights (0.15 million) is just like a trailer of the movie about to be released in December! He predicts the remittances from entire emigrants to Kerala to be lower by $2 billion this financial year. The economy of Kerala would be hit hard!...

When a couple of same-sex marry, who is the husband and who is the wife? For want of an answer to this, our solicitor-general argued in Supreme Court that the landmark order in 2018, decriminalizing sexual life, is just that. “nothing more, nothing less”. Our society and values do not recognize the union it seems! The fight is going to be very long for the LGBTQ community to make their own deserved space and identity in India. In Kerala, no one seemed to have shared an opinion. For a state, striving to make space for the LGBTQ community, we should be vociferous and demanding for the cause. Instead, we are focused on parochial politics. For weeks now, our brothers and sisters are in a street fight with police. As they bleed, hawkish media captures everything in detail for all of us to devour from our living room! Media picks ‘bites’ from all three sides, throw them at others for more ‘bites’, and more and more. Media is making the discourse vicious and evil, all in the name of the publi...

A friend returned from the gulf and wanted to start a business, manufacturing concrete blocks in Thrissur district. Running pillar to post, for months, he failed to get all required approvals. The time, effort and expenses all in vain! No wonder that ranking of Kerala in “Ease of doing business” dropped over the years from 18th to 21st to 28th now . Enough of our ‘single window clearance’. But we are getting better at another number - suicides. The number of suicides per one lakh population increased from 23.5 in 2018 to 24.3 in 2019 . 1,963 of the 8,556 who took the drastic step were unemployed - 22.9%! Is there a connection? How about 'mango' as an election symbol? Refreshing right? Yes, that is the symbol of Twenty20, the political party in Kizhakkambalam backed by promoters of Kitex Garments. The political scene in Kerala took an interesting turn with the arrival of Twenty20 a few years back. A political party with corporate-style functioning, backed by capitalists, in Kera...

A street vendor with fruits was found cross-selling cashew nuts. The vendor reasoned that cashew is from a nearby vendor. They are being kind to each other in difficult times for more wallet share. Being kind and smart! Onam went by without anyone noticing much. There were no new movie releases, except the Amazon release of "C U Soon". What an Onam without an Onam movie! The industry is at pains as shared by stalwarts. People who eke out a living in this industry would have had a tough Onam. Sales of textile, automobiles, white goods and liquor were subdued. The government did their share by ensuring an Onam kit of 10 items worth ₹500, for every household. Political discourse is as usual except that two families lost their breadwinners near Thiruvananthapuram. We cannot be proud of ourselves with such barbaric murder of our brethren. Eastern Condiments got acquired by Orkla . Meeran family (promoters) is now expected to own 10% of MTR. The perseverance and grit of the patriar...