Kozhikode:
Thanks to the CPM, I'm in Kerala for the first time in my life; In Kozhikode.
Kozhikode is not easy to get to. My cameraperson Shankar and I flew to Mumbai first, then caught a connecting, very expensive flight to Kozhikode. Someone I know flew from Delhi to Kochi and then took an overnight train. Others took a train from Kolkata to Bangalore, and then from Bangalore to Kozhikode. So it is a destination not easy to get to.
So why did the CPM choose Kozhikode for its 20th party congress?
History, I am told.
It was in Kozhikode that in 1937, EMS Namboodiripad and a handful of others formed the first Communist cell in Kerala.
Much before that, 500 years ago, Portugal's Vasco da Gama landed at a beach near the city. The Portugese colonised Kozhikode, but didn't have an easy time with the King of Calicut -- another name for Kozhikode -- giving the colonisers a hard time.
Anyway, enough of history.
At the airport, we were greeted by cut-outs of two large elephants and a bunch of drummers and bugle players. They were there to give a red carpet welcome to comrades who came on the same flight as us.
Shankar wanted to know, why elephants ? Elephants are the BSP symbol, aren't they ? He asked the question of some comrades. No reply.
Our driver, Mathew, is a smart young man who drove us from the airport to the city, about 40 km, in record time. It felt like we were still flying. Mathew basically joined a minister's convoy and drove like there was no tomorrow. "If no VIP, he said, "then traffic really slow."
Anyway, onward to the party congress...
The venue is Tagore Hall, an auditorium. But the entire place has been decked up to resemble a fort. Not just any fort but Delhi's Red Fort, I am told. Wishful thinking for a party with 16 MPs and power in one tiny state, Tripura?
But it is nice to see a big sprinkling of women among the delegates. Not from Kerala alone but also from Delhi, Bengal and some other states.
Also bumped into someone who may be the youngest of the 850 odd delegates attending the congress. 30 year old Sayandeep Mitra. He is an SFI leader from Bengal who said he had not doubts whatsoever about the relevance of the CPM in the years to come.
At the inaugural flag hoisting, song, dance and balloons dominated. It was kind of quaint to see elderly CPM delegates holding on to red and white gas balloons. Balloons that they released into the sky as the flag went up.
We were served breakfast after the inaugural speeches. A box with a banana in it, some cashews and dates and a slice of cake. The dates were not the dried up version we are more familiar with but squishy and succulent. Clearly fresh off the trees. A first for me.
Skipped lunch but went for dinner to this wonderful little restaurant our driver Mathew took us to, Paragon. The appams are to die for, so also the fried king fish and prawns cooked in one of Kerala's many traditional styles. Also, fruit juice that Paragon gave us complimentary. A glass of mint and mango juice; simply out of the world!
I am told the comrades who are all eating at the venue are being served a mix of north and south Indian food. There is fried chicken on the menu, lots of fruit and, in deference to the comrades from Bengal, the good old maacher jhol -- fish curry.
So far, only one major hiccup. The ACs at the Tagore Hall collapsed during the first closed door session of the party. Prakash Karat, party chief, could finish placing the political report, it got so hot and stuffy.
But that was yesterday. Today, we are told, the ACs. Are back in action.
The temperature at Kozhikode at noon today was a sweltering 34 degrees.
So, Hallelujah!