Guest post by SUDHA K. F.

[This article was written in response to the recent incident of vandalism and violence meted out by BJP- affiliated Yuvamorcha activists against a restaurant called Downtown in Kozhikode, Kerala. This was the incident that led to the protest – the Kiss of Love at Kochi, Kiss of Love in Kolkata, and now, most audaciously outside the RSS Office in Jhandewalan. Wherever it goes, it acquires a flavour of its own. Thus in Kolkata, hokkolorob (let there be turmoil) mutated into another set of slogans – hokchumban (let there be kiss – or, let us kiss) and now, Sanghi gunde hoshiyar, tere saamne karenge pyar (beware Sangh goons, we will (make) love right before you. Sudha K. F. gives a sense of what it felt like after the goons attacked, the sense of indignation that subsequently burst forth.]

The now “notorious” Downtown restaurant is 5 minutes away by foot, from my home in my hometown Kozhikode. During my schooldays, that place was an old workshop. The restaurant came up after I had been away from my hometown for quite a while for my higher education. I remember being thrilled at the sight of this fine looking restaurant/coffee shop with glass windows, near my home during one of my visits. Earlier a few establishments had replaced the old workshop but didn’t do well commercially and closed down hastily. As I passed Downtown one evening, its busiest hour, my father remarked that this might have a longer life because it is so crowded with so many people frequenting the place for dinner. Still I remained a stranger to that place.

Then much later, few months back I happened to spend a lot of time in my hometown, and it also turned out to be the time when two of my school friends were around. Needless to say, other than the beach, Downtown became our prime meeting place to chatter away to glory, over a cup of coffee or juice or milkshake and sometimes the evening tete-a-tete extending to a dinner, giving me so many exciting memories there. Three girls to be in a nice place, during late evenings- with awesome food and lovely people running the restaurant – Downtown was indeed a blessing for us. There were groups of young women and young men in our age group, and families with tiny toddlers that filled the place by 8 pm that sometimes we had to wait for the chance of getting a table, as my friend mournfully looked at our window-side table which had a direct view to the road, without any of the chaos of the outside reaching us there. Needless to say the service was too good – they ensured extra portions without any charges and were ever ready to pay heed to any of our trivial customizing to be done to the food calls.

The youngsters running the restaurant were our good acquaintances. They occasionally came up for chats, discussing things ranging from how to improve their pastries to interesting details of the business. Personally I remember one very jovial conversation with one of the young owners of the restaurant who had just joined the team and happened to be taking our order. He told us an inspiring story of him being an engineer in Thiruvananthapuram Technopark and resigning from his IT job to do something which he finds interesting and lively.

Another incident I clearly remember is me and a friend walking into the restaurant into the middle of the launch of a music video. I wanted to walk out of the crowd, but soon realized that it was a music video made by a group of young boys and funded by the Downtown team. All of us there were given a yummy Downtown special milkshake as part of the celebrations!!!

I remember the first time my friends took me there and me asking them about that place and them telling me about the good food and awesome service. Many many days spent there chatting away to glory, sometimes even writing had been the most memorable moments in my stay in Kozhikode.

It was my father who called me after he had just passed Downtown that evening witnessing broken glass windows, police presence and a huge crowd, on his way back from office. Needless to say I was in a state of shock listening to the details of the damage done to Downtown by Yuvamorcha members, like a repeat telecast of the attacks that were carried out by the Sri Ram Sene few years back in Bangalore and Mangalore. This is of course in continuity with many many incidents of ‘moral policing’ that have been happening in Kerala centering around public spaces like beaches, parks etc and is not a new revelation for many of us, who has faced some of its worst forms.

Then hours of watching different Malayalam news channel reports, many of them openly supporting Yuvamorcha’s claims and some others with a deafening silence on the claims made by Yuvamorcha.One could easily predict the direction that the discussions would take around Downtown, after the ‘kissing’, hugging’ and drinking tea together, sitting next to each other and rubbing against each others’ shoulders, of young men and women being repeated as if love and its affectionate manifestations has been stumbled upon for the first time! One already knows the terrain- a very slippery one indeed . Because this wouldn’t be a debate or discussion that will elicit easy positions. Most of the self proclaimed “progressives” will remain silent. Needless to say, people who were vocal against the violence meted out by Yuvamorcha activists are soon going to change camps once the discussion unravels and takes its familiar shape. Because morality is always and hegemonically written with a capital M in Keralam’s public sphere. Teenage girls and boys and their passions have always been the greatest of the “monsters” Keralam. Any threat to a possible “mixing” (exemplified through the much popular discourse of ‘Love jihad’ recently) that rejects conventional notions of gender, sexuality and caste are the worst nightmares in Keralam. One is so familiar with the hesitant tones with which the violence will be selectively condemned and the uncertain silences that will follow claims of “obscene” visuals that the Yuvamorcha leader will keep sprinkling after every sentence to legitimize violence. One also needs to think about the possible majoritarian angst that underlies the violence of this attack against an establishment with a majority of members belonging to the Muslim community.

These discussions and debates on the vernacular TV channels end up going around in this unfortunate circle in which some activist or feminist would be called upon to take the opposite position condemning all forms of moral policing, and that being ridiculed in the minds of the majority of the spectators watching TV. Our discourse on choice of the young woman to be with a male friend and have an affectionate relationship with him is definitely not a language even remotely acceptable to a dominant public sphere. Still not losing hope, young men and women flocked to Downtown on the same night of the attack to proclaim solidarity to the restaurant owners and employees. Their presence says that they will not be erased and pushed to cubicles with walls, this very soon.

Sudha K F is from Kozhikode and she is a “Downtown” fan!