Kerala of today is not the Kerala when we were children

My relative in the US had emigrated in the early 1970s. He still retains the image of Kerala he took along. 

I wrote to him. 

"Kerala of today is not the Kerala when we were children, as we grew up or what it was or had been when you chose to emigrate. 

People just did not have enough to go by. It was a Herculean struggle. There were no jobs. Food was scarce. Infrastructure was non-existent. Educational facilities were for the rich and the city dwellers. It was socialism all the way. Poverty extended across all segments. 

It has all changed. No one is poor any longer though it is fashionable to proclaim the travails of the have nots.

Kerala is 100% literate. People have income, though agriculture and industrial outputs lag.

From a position of non avalability, the remotest corners are now flush with availability. 

When you drink a coffee with one or two dollars there, please understand that the needs of a family for a whole day is taken care of with the equivalent in Rupees - eighty or one hundred  and sixty - here.

But with all the explosive progress, the average malayali remains as inscrutable as ever, like in the past. They feel it is a sin to smile. Laughter is unthinkable. Handing out appreciation is taboo. The facial muscles remain stiff. Humour is a point of contention

We have imbibed whatever is there in the society. We'd never change. We'd be true malayalees for ever.

 It is what Kerala is today. No one respects anyone. Love and affection have been relegated to the past. Money, power and postion alone matter now."