Gulf News Foreign Editor Neena Gopal is in India covering the state elections.
In this web-only diary, Neena breaks away from the politicians and the soundbites to take an alternative look at the polls, and to find out what's really happening on the ground.
Instant recognition
We are literally thousands of miles away in a remote little village in Kerala, following the Indira Congress leader Muraleedharan as he canvasses for votes in his Koduvally constituency.
You don't expect anyone in Unnikollam and Balluserry to have even heard of Gulf News. But they have!
With the media boom, particularly in television, you get asked one question over and over - by shy girls in colourful head dresses, young Lotharios cycling along and of course the village's fat cats - 'Edaa channel', which means of course 'which channel?', to which my stock answer is 'illa, patram aane' which means 'no, it's a newspaper'.
Probed further I say Gulf News, not expecting any reaction, but there is, their eyes widen and it's instant recognition. This young thing said very matter of fact 'oh, Gulf News Dubai,' as did Mohammed Ali, a young man who turned out to be a shopkeeper in Riyadh. "I read it all the time," he said, "I've seen your name. I have a copy at home."
In this prosperous little backwater, he says, the Gulf is not really that far. Every home in these villages has at least one member living in the Gulf.
The more things change...part 1
A new airport is being built on the site of the not so old one at Kozhikode, but while things are changing, some things remain the same. The first time I landed here from Dubai, a porter tried to grab my bags, and said that as the designated porter, only he had the right to carry luggage, not the passengers! He was egged on by all the other members of the revolutionary brigade.
This time, the porters - dressed not in red but in pale pink - were standing guard over the trolleys but quickly gave way.
Perhaps because it was a flight from Mumbai, not Dubai. Perhaps they did not want to give the communist party a bad name.
But outside the melee of taxi drivers pushing and shoving had not changed much. Nor had the subtle extraction of money from airport users.
My taxi driver had paid Rs 55 this morning as he came to pick up Gulf News photographer Kiran Prasad. He came back for me at half past one but he still had to pay another Rs 55.
No amount of charm or persuasion helped. The pass was valid for three hours. That was it. If he had parked outside to avoid the parking fee, he would have been fined Rs 300 by the traffic police.
"Even if I drove in, picked up my passenger and left I would have to pay Rs 30," says Renjith.
Visitors from Dubai be warned, all the monies are going towards building the new airport. The good news? There's a toll tax, but also a new road, as smooth as glass that takes you from Karippur airport to Kozhikode in 45 minutes; unlike the two hour journey over a bone-jarring, pot-holed 45 kms stretch that passed for a road in the past.
The more things change...part 2
Once you hit this bustling market town, you stew in traffic at various junctions.
The temperature is a sweltering 32 degrees and you wonder why Kozhikode, - which incidentally was the capital of the ancient kingdom of Malabar and discovered by Vasco da Gama in 1498 - has traffic lights that do not work.
Renjith my taxi driver says "'You noticed? Well they do work, it's just that when they were switched on for the first time, nobody took any notice, and there was chaos. So after two days of this, the police just switched it off. Nobody has switched it on since."
