15 PVK letters to the editor of ‘New York Times’ Carried on the NYT’s digital edition.
Letter no 1. 05/05/2026.
I think it is a shame that your correspondent should mention Kerala just once and dismiss it as if it were some basket case.
Kerala has always been different from the rest of India. It was a “model state” as early as during the 19th century. The anthropologist and political scientist Robin Jeffrey, who has been studying Kerala since the early 1970s, wrote a book titled ‘Politics, Women and Well Being: How Kerala Became a Model State’ (1992).
The British presence was benign and ushered in modernity.
India’s best writer for children, the hugely popular and respected writer Khyrunnisa A, a free-thinker born a Muslim, lives here. India’s best political cartoonist and one of India’s best writers, E P Unny, was from Kerala, though now he floats like a butterfly and stings like a bee.
Christians and Muslims and other minorities live and thrive here, contributing to the culture and economy. The Hindu majority are largely peaceful and entrepreneurial, except for a rabid set of nationalists. But they have been shown their place in the recent election.
Modernity was ushered into Kerala by a set of “low castes”: Dr Palpu, a British educated doctor, Kumaran Asan, one of India’s greatest poets and social reformers and Guru Narayana, an atheist swamy who asked all “lower castes” dalits included, to educate themselves, organize, enter business and thrive.
This is happening now in Kerala. The “national mainstream (or lame stream) should adopt Kerala as a model.
Thank you.
P. Vijaya Kumar / PVK
Kamalalayam,
Trivandrum,
Kerala
South India
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Letter no 2. 01/June/2026
PVK letter to NYT on Neil deGrasse Tyson
I was appalled and chagrined to read this report.
I am a 70 year old retired teacher of English living in Trivandrum Kerala South India.
Anyone who has read Arthur C Clarke’s brilliant ‘The Promise of Space’ (1968) will know about the immense distances and hostile environment of space that makes it virtually impossible to traverse the immense distances involved to reach Earth.
And what will they do when they do reach Earth? Ask to be “taken to their leader”?
Imagine how stupid the “aliens” will feel on being taken to the Donald! Or on being taken to another thug Narendra Modi of India. And his number two, “Amitte Shaji” and my people in Kerala have it. (It means a small home-made grenade.)
Thank you, Mr Tyson for your sensible talks, books and public lectures on science. You name be named Tyson but you ‘fly like a butterfly and sting like a bee”.
Keep it up, Mr Tyson. Common sense and rationality are undervalued in this pleasure-obsessed idiotic world of ours.
P. Vijaya Kumar
Kamalalayam
C O Madhavan Road
Vanchiyoor Post Office
Trivandrum
Letter no 3. 06/05/2026.
P. VIJAYA KUMAR
TRIVANDRUM, S INDIA
Three of your correspondents report on India and Modi and not one of them mentions how Modi and Shah rose to power. It was through organizing massacres rarely seen in independent India. The wholescale killing of Muslims in Gujarat propelled him to power in Delhi. Those Muslims, poor people residing in slums in Gujarat, provided some of the basic services that are vital to society.
Modi’s ability to sow the seeds of hatred and reap the political benefits makes him independent India’s most deadly leader. He is semi-literate. He must have heard about Hitler, his model, whose playbook was used in Gujarat and India. Exceptional books have been written about all of this. Christopher Jaffrelot‘s ‘Modi’s India: Hindu Nationalism and the Rise of Ethnic Democracy’ (2021) is one of them. Why is there no mention of any of this in your report? Sucking up to one of the most powerful leaders in the world? Gujaratis do not read; not even newspapers. Perhaps the NYT is worried about the immeasurably rich Gujarati diaspora in America, spreading their deadly business tentacles there. They are among the biggest contributors to the Donald, who is not a patch on Modi when it comes to ruthlessness and cruelty. Your report does not mention the only state in India that is modern, egalitarian and where the rule of the law matters — Kerala in the deep south, a paradise compared to the cow belt that Modi lords over. Shame on you, NYT and your reporters.
P. Vijaya Kumar / PVK Trivandrum Kerala South India. Pin: 695035
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Letter no 4. 06/May/2026
Letter to NYT on Chat GPT.
Dear New York Times,
I am a 70 year old retired teacher of English who lives in a seaside city called Trivandrum in Kerala South India.
I have written a book on Kerala and modernity the working title of which is ‘A Willing Suspension of Belief: Kumaran Asan, Kerala and Modernity‘. It will soon be brought out by Westland, spearheaded by India’s best English language publisher and editor V K Karthika.
My wife Khyrunnisa A is a nationally celebrated writer, primarily of children’s fiction. She created a character named Butterfingers / Amar eponymously named after our intelligent, handsome and witty son who lives in Irving, Texas. Amar is married to a smart dusky beauty named Arpitha. Her intelligence is recognized by her employers, colleagues and friends.
In my view, natural idiocy, of which we are all capable, is better than artificial intelligence. I could give innumerable examples but will refrain so I can be succinct.
Chat GPT produces stuff so bad, in our familiolect it’s Shat GPT. (Pardon the four letter word.) In India we have an idiotic cricket commentator called Ravi Shastri who we refer to as ‘Chat GPT’. Produces ordure in tons.
I have read some of the books you have mentioned in your article. Kara Swisher’s ‘Burn Book’ is a favourite. What wit! What sharpness!
May you burn bright, Ms Swisher!
Best wishes and thanks to N Y T.
P. Vijaya Kumar / PVK
Kamalalayam-2, MRA-112
C. O. Madhavan Road
Vanchiyoor P O Trivandrum – 695035
Email: profpvk@gmail.com
^^**
P. Vijaya Kumar / PVK
profpvk@gmail.com
Note: A couple of minor corrections have been made to the original letters, mostly in formatting.
Thank you. Nandri. Namaskaram.
PVK 06/June/2026
PVK's Book mark 