Comments on: The Roach Story (Kerala)

By: Bala Chandran

Bala Chandran — Wed, 04 Jun 2008 11:42:50 +0000

Though bit late in the day ,it was really interesting reading your’wonderful day horrible night’roach story.The story is still very hot,as roaches are,here with us,though not in large numbers,as west-inspired insect killing spreys are now so common.Comparing to those,your trusted weapons ‘Anna karenina’or even’kazanstakis’ is almost stone age stuff.Well,being a journalist ,professionally trained to see a ‘man attacking a roach’, the real story rather than ‘a roach flying down on a man,I think your strong sentiments against the’alien’ roaches are fully justified.I still have a doubt,isn’t there a possibility that some charity exsists that looks after the welfare of roaches,that may possibly be helping to keep the environmental balance.(You haven’t really thought about it, in your premodial frenzy to finish off the enemy,have you?)Don’t forget that after a nuclear holocast the roaches would be the only living creatures left in this world.

Though your writing is every bit evocative and out and out hilarious,you seem to be a bit politically incorrect, looking from the point of view of cockroaches. I still dont understand the big fuss about cockroaches honestly,as we in India (and all Asians) have been in peaceful co-existence with them(like myriad other creatures,some harmful,and most otherwise).I have the same wonderment when my British born sis-in-law now living in Austin TX, jump up and howl on seeing some puny little creature we don’t even notice.
I read the essence of the story thus”inspite of the roaches Kerala is wonderful”.Thank you for being objective.So when you are in Kerala next time,dont miss Trivandrum,where I am sure we breed not that much roaches.

By: Priyank

Priyank — Thu, 24 Aug 2006 18:44:24 +0000

I had been to Kerala recently. Fortunately we did not encounter roaches of the magnitude which you described.
You may want to take a look at my travelogue:
http://priyank.com/photo-gallery/kerala-gods-own-country/

By: Pramod

Pramod — Sat, 01 Jul 2006 14:32:47 +0000

It’s great to see that the roach story is still livid. However, the roaches spoiling an otherwise wonderful trip to God’s own country makes me feel bad. Well… I am sure that all houseboats does not have this problem… may be one of those poorly maintained one’s in which our author happen to ride the serene waters

Anyway… hope we gets the update from Carolyne after her trip… Have fun!

Btw… those who are a little more adventorous should try visiting the north Kerala region of Malabar. The tourists generally stick to the more tourist saavy South Kerala… so if you want to trek through some wonderful untouched beaches and hills… check out…. Malabar

By: Ron

Ron — Wed, 28 Jun 2006 22:49:40 +0000

carolyne, i’m glad you enjoyed the story! (and if it gives you nightmares, i’ll be honored–i can call myself the Stephen King of the blogosphere.) i’d like to recommend some good hardcover books which will make good reading and also effective weapons. in general, think heavy; War and Peace should do the trick.

your trip sounds exciting; we wish we could go back to india soon. it’s great that you’ve got 6 weeks to explore the vastness of that wonderful country.

we’d love to hear more about your asia adventures, not only out of idle curiosity, but also because we’re in the middle of planning our next trip–laos, cambodia and thailand–and we could use some tips!

By: Carolyne

Carolyne — Sun, 25 Jun 2006 02:29:07 +0000

Ron,

This story made me laugh so hard for an early Sunday morning! I’m also from NY (but currently live in Australia). I’ve been to parts of Asia where you feel have to clear way for the cockroaches to pass on the sidewalk (and they can be just as large in Australia, too). I’ve struggled to figure out which is worse- the small NY roaches in plethora, or the monster Asia roaches in less quantity. Still haven’t decided which is worse. At the end of the day, they are equally repulsive.

We’re going to India for 6 weeks in August. Kerala is our first stop for a wedding. We’ll be spending two nights on a houseboat, as well. Up until reading this article, my thoughts were consumed with real fears of being a victim of mosquito-fest. After reading your story, I now see that I have additional concerns to occupy my before-bed-thoughts, which are sure to carry on into my sleep… no doubt, in the form of nightmares! I’ll be sure to pack hard cover books instead of soft covered ones. There will be the burden of extra weight in my backback, but I’m sure it will prove to be a necessity during those late nights in the dark, quiet canals of Kerala….

Cheers,
Carolyne

By: Anil Pillai

Anil Pillai — Thu, 29 Dec 2005 21:12:18 +0000

Ron,
Stumbled on to your site. Cracked up reading the roach story. I am from Kerala, and my wife is from St.Louis, MO. She – this is the girl who let out a blood-curdling scream when she saw a house lizard while we were in the Keys – and I were in Kerala and lemme tell ya, I had so many of those funny moments. Lets just say a house lizard barely even gets her to raise an eyebrow anymore.

And to give your story some more veracity – I attest to the size of those roaches. Although I have to make one distinction. I think the NY variety differs from the ‘footsteps’ variety of Kerala in that, the latter tend to make the coconut trees (which are abound in the state) their home base and periodically conduct air-raids of nearby houses. Since almost all houses in Kerala are hugely ventilated, this do tend to result in those pitter patter in the middle of the night. I am not sure unhygenic situations play as much of a role here, as I would suspect the case for the NY variety. I know – when I was in grad school, we were made quite unwelcome by the resident roaches of our shabby student quarters.

I wish I had travelled in India as much as you and Sara did. And Kerala is enchanting. I am hoping for a visit this coming September during Onam.

Keep writing!
-Anil.

By: Ron

Ron — Sun, 02 Oct 2005 05:06:40 +0000

gram,

i could say the same about sara’s family!

–

jacob,

hi! good to hear from you! hope things are good on your beautiful farm; we have such wonderful memories from there–and from our entire honeymoon. (yes, even the roach story is endearing in its own way )

did you see our trip photos? here’s one of me outside our cottage on your farm: http://ronrothman.com/gallery/hmoon/130_3070

by the way, we recently recommended Haritha Farms (along with Olive Brook) to someone who inquired about places to stay in Kerala. they’ll be visiting you in january–and we’re sure they’ll have as fabulous a trip as we did!

By: Gram

Gram — Sat, 01 Oct 2005 23:57:38 +0000

Just found this GREAT FUN site of the left brained bog. Had I known he was so crazy I would have had second thoughts about giving #1 granddaughter to him!!!!!!!

By: JACOB

JACOB — Thu, 29 Sep 2005 02:24:09 +0000

hi Ron and sara

hope i have suggested a day trip on the house boat .

it is hightime to popularise the day time house boats in kerala .or a sunset cruise or full moon curises .

Jacob

By: Ron

Ron — Fri, 02 Sep 2005 01:40:33 +0000

excellent–i’m glad you liked the story! (also glad you proved to everyone that we were not exaggerating when we described the -enormous- keralan roaches.)

it sounds like you had quite a traumatic roach event too. 81 man-hours of roachfighting. we feel your pain. (but… just try to think of it as a small, familiar piece of home. )

By: K. Pramod Krishna

K. Pramod Krishna — Fri, 02 Sep 2005 00:27:05 +0000

Well, I liked the roach story… But being a Keralite who has spent the last one year in Western New York, I found there was no way i could stop myself from writing a comment. There is one difference which i have noticed thus far in the size of roaches… Kerala roaches are big ones… atleast 5 times the size of a NY roach. But NY roaches exceeded even my worst nightmare in numbers. The story goes like this… My apartment was a roach infested one and we didn’t notice this when we moved in…, but when we brought this to the notice of the apt company later, they would charge me $150 for extermination. Being students, we set out on a fumigation/spraying/baiting drive of our own and took a whole 27hrs (keep in mind that there were 3 of us fighting this for 27hrs)… and alas what did the scoreboard look like??? Needless to say the Keralite won it… but the margin was big…something like 400 – 0.

Hmm… i should write my NY roach story in more detail. Well… no complaints otherwise… i am enjoying NY state very much!

By: Ron

Ron — Sat, 02 Apr 2005 04:16:43 +0000

thanks for the kind words! (but we actually think the story is kind of boring. we like yours better.)

and hah, in fact my goal is to keep you up at night!

By: Irina

Irina — Sat, 02 Apr 2005 03:12:53 +0000

Now, this is a gggreat story that will keep me up at night!

Good job, R!