Newspaper Tradition

Morning rāga alias newspaper reading.

When I moved to Kerala, a small state in South India in 2009 – due to a huge cultural and religious diversity in India I feel entitled to write only about this state ( not mentioning the religious and caste differences) – I was amazed by the fact that even small children were encouraged to read the daily newspaper. No wonder that Kerala, unlike other Indian states, achieved 100% literacy. I was also surprised that the level of general knowledge was high unlike some of my acquaintances from the US, who thought, that apart from America, there was only ocean. No, I am not joking. This should not be a generalization, but even a poor fisherman from my neighborhood has at least heard of the country once called Czechoslovakia. Why? Because Kerala values education and people talk, communicate, exchange and pass information frequently. Especially, our gardener (non-stop talk).