Notes from Lala Land
A quiet response to loud fears about the “real world.”
Recently, a trailer of a so-called propaganda film was released, and there has been massive backlash—even before the film’s release. We saw similar reactions during the first part of the series, The Kerala Story.
I am not from Kerala. Neither are the makers of the film. And I openly admit—I do not know Kerala as well as Keralites do.
But sometimes, the intensity of the backlash itself signals that something feels off. To me, this looks like a failed attempt to create cracks and unrest in the country—something that ultimately helps no one.
When I discussed this with a friend, he sarcastically said:
“Bro, you are living in Lala land… divorced from reality.”
All I could say was:
A Note from Lala Land
Sorry, bro… you happened to live in the real world and go through all this. I happened to live happily in lala land. Yes, buddy, I agree with you. I’m so sorry. You have to carry trauma every day because of terrorists. Every day, you are bullied for who you are. You are forced to eat what hurts your belief system. Because of the fear of lynching, you hesitate to step out of your home. You watch people turn against each other on the streets. You live in the real world… while I — comfortably, foolishly — live in lala land, divorced from reality. Truly tragic for me, I know.
He seemed to realize the sarcasm in my poem.
After all, the world I described was not quite the real world he live in—
and our world is not as broken as he fears.
So what now, buddy? What exactly should we do? Traumatize people until they leave the country? Bully them for who they are? Police their food? Take away their rights? Create so much fear that stepping outside becomes an act of courage? If that is the prescription for your version of reality, what kind of world are we really trying to build? Because in the end— your version, my version, their version of “lala land” will mostly end up as grave land. History didn’t whisper— we just stopped listening.
Only our shared version of lala land
has any chance
of becoming a world
worth living in.
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