By Roona Uthappa Ballachanda
The website does not focus on advertising revenue except for hosting Google AdSense, which just pays a nominal amount that helps keep the site going.
Moreover, the writer was not paid anything for writing this article. Nor did ‘greed’ for fame play any role in the writing or publishing of this article.
The intention was to question certain assumptions that are essentially hurting the community. Along with economic and environmental issues, Kodavas are also facing some acute cultural problems.
Addressing cultural beliefs that are negatively impacting the community does not automatically translate to ‘creating a fire’ that ‘cannot be put out.’ It is unfortunate that such an article had to be written in the first place.
However, when one ‘perspective’ rules over another, both sides need to be heard. It is irrational to say that talking about the prevalence of some negative attitudes in our community will ‘hurt’ the community. If there is no room for debate, for tough questions and hard analyses within society, there is no room for growth and development either.
The above caricature reveals that whoever created it, was greatly impacted by the article, for what particular reason remains unknown.