Not Short, Just “Orthopaedically Handicapped”

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Just about any way you slice it, life presents us all with some pretty heavy challenges.  Especially in India.  Especially in Kerala.  And especially if you’re, uh, short.   The Beeb reports –

Dwarfs in the southern Indian state of Kerala have come together to fight for their rights.

The Kerala Small Men Association has 300 members across the state and is demanding what it calls “special recognition” from the government.

Why the crisis?   Well, apparently a former, primary avenue of employment has been beat down due to shifting consumer tastes and globalization –

“Earlier, we were getting opportunities to work in the circus but that industry has collapsed and most of us are out of a job.”

The universe finds ways to create balance.   And politics always finds ways to create conflicting special interests –

The [small men] association’s height limit is 135cm (54 inches – [4′ 6″])…The state also has a Tall Men of Kerala association with 600 members over six feet (1.82) metres.

6 feet qualifies you as a Tall Man in Kerala?   Dang, the Punjabi’s are gonna kick our butts.

15 thoughts on “Not Short, Just “Orthopaedically Handicapped””

  2. I saw a documentary about dwarves last summer, where the filmmakers had come back 20 years after a dwarf convention to do a sequel on what had happened to the kids. One Jewish guy had married an Indian Sikh dwarf (I think they’d met in grad school, doing computer science), and she was saying how happy her parents were because they had been unable to arrange her marriage to anyone. They had an Indian ceremony and everything, decked out in smaller versions of Asian wedding bling. 😉

    Speaking of Asians over 6 feet, my friend who registered on shaadi.com says there are only four other local men on the site who are that tall. Since he’s not getting the response he wants, he says it’s a myth that Asian women want tall men. 😉

  3. One Jewish guy had married an Indian Sikh dwarf (I think they’d met in grad school, doing computer science), and she was saying how happy her parents were because they had been unable to arrange her marriage to anyone

    Cool story – Jewish and Sikh is always a good combination anyway.

    What was the name of the documentary would like to watch that.

  4. |What was the name of the documentary would like to watch that.

    it’s called Big Enough, the sequel to Little People both by filmmaker Jan Krawitz (http://www.stanford.edu/~krawitz/)…also both shaadi and jeevansathi blow…that also goes for true, mate1, match, etc., etc.,

  11. One Jewish guy had married an Indian Sikh dwarf (I think they’d met in grad school, doing computer science), and she was saying how happy her parents were because they had been unable to arrange her marriage to anyone.

    I watched the same program. She said that most “little people” in India were discouraged from completing their education, etc. – so when her parents tried to set up an arranged marriage for her, they could not find any little people (little men?) in India who had an education, professional career, etc.

    My paternal grandfather was 6’0 – making him a Tall Man of Kerala. Maybe I should start an Amazonian Malayalee Women’s organization 😉

  13. Speaking of shorts:

    Ron Howard in talks to direct remake of ALBUTHA DWEEPU

    “…Ron Howard and Dreamworks Studios… Malayalee fantasy-film ALBUTHA DWEEPU (WONDER ISLAND… Inspired by Jonathan Swifts novel Gullivers Travels… Using dwarfs primarily from Kerala, Tamil Nadu and Karnataka… Howard and Dreamworks would like to use the same dwarfs used in the original for the remake.”

  14. Actually most of the Punjabis I see walking down the streets of Vancouver B.C. aren’t really that tall. There’s a lot of variation, but most guys seem to be in the range of 64-70 inches.

    My guess would be that the median for Mallus in India probably is shifted down a few inches.

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