A Mallu in America

Intro

Disclaimer: There are some generalizations below, and so all the disclaimers for generalizations apply. Some of those being: these are inferences being made on a set of observations so the inferences may be completely wrong, and by definition a generalization means this does not apply to all individuals in that society.

The irony of a Malayalee working in America may not be obvious to many. A Malayalee is someone who hails from the state of Kerala where the native tongue is Malayalam. Kerala is home to the world’s first democratically-elected communist government. America, of course, is a capitalistic society.

Kerala

In Kerala, people would rather spend 10 hours doing nothing rather than spend even an hour working for money. I have a few anecdotes as “evidence”. First, driving lessons in 2014, when I paid around ₹4000 as an advance for the lesson and the instructor simply did not show up for the rest of the lessons which would have earned him another ₹11,000. Another example from more recent times is when I’d given a few clothes to be mended. To begin with, there was barely any signage for me to find the shop. It was almost as if the tailor didn’t want to do business. A different shop pointed me to his “outlet”, which was more like Harry’s cupboard-under-the-stairs kind of joint. After mending 5 pieces, he charged ₹80. I took out ₹400 as I’d given him five pieces. He promptly refused and I realized that he was asking for ₹80 for all five. That seemed insane to me so I insisted he take at least ₹150, which he begrudgingly accepted. As a third example, I’ll use a problem since time immemorial that continues to this day. The number of times my parents have to call the KSEB (electricity board) asking them to restore electricity is ridiculous (the calls never achieve anything). For all the talk about solar energy, it’s embarrassing that we have powercuts in 2025. The people in charge are always on some sort of lunch break, which given how good the food tastes, I could respect. But, I know I’d respect having electricity 24/7 more.

I’ve heard that this may be because the government provides some amount of money to allow people to get by. I think another big factor might be the sunny weather and the abundance of good food. Honestly, at times I think it’s hard to fault people for not wanting to work in these kinds of situations. Is the goal to earn money or be happy? Is earning money a means to an end or the end in itself?

America

On the other hand, we have America - a society where it feels like the average Joe likely has to find some work day-to-day to pay rent. With the added caveat that if you do well, you may be able to stop worrying about rent entirely. However, due to inertia and societal conditioning (peer pressure) you may not want or be able to. You also get an increased standard of living, though with possibly diminished returns on increased happiness. One of the benefits of living here is that you can call the internet company and actually expect them to fix the damn problem. Coming from a community with constant powercuts, complaints about Comcast’s customer service confounded me.

My two cents

The latter approach confers many benefits on society, pushing progress (& so, technological progress) forward not just for that society but all globally. However, I hope I wouldn’t be wrong in stating that Malayalees are some of the most laid-back, carefree people you would meet. In addition, Malayalees are also leaders in social progress with ideas vigorously discussed, women who are relatively more empowered than elsewhere in India and an ability to reflect on many of our social faults (like the heavy use of the caste system in the past). I’ll end with this dude (link) who has a channel of him roleplaying as a potato. This adds likely no contribution to GDP, but it made me laugh.

(Added disclaimer due to the danger of generalizations: I know many, many extremely hardworking Malayalees as well.)