A midsummer nightmare

This is no ordinary summer for Malayalis: election days – always cherished across Kerala – coincided with an escalating conflict in the Middle East.

When the Assembly poll heated up, Iran’s retaliation in the Strait of Hormuz choked LPG supplies, unsettling kitchens across Kerala. Restaurants and hotels bore the brunt of the crisis.

A scorching summer is already in full swing, with temperatures and UV radiation above normal levels. Candidates and party workers battled the sweltering heat just to get through the days of campaigning.

‘It feels almost Márquezian,’ a friend remarked, invoking Love in the Time of Cholera by Gabriel García Márquez.

Tea talks, dimmed
A war that jeopardised eateries during election time was something Malayalis never anticipated. Though slowly fading, elections in Kerala still invigorate morning debates in local tea shops – usually alive with newspaper discussions.

That quintessential scene in tea shops – traditionally male-dominated – was muted this time for one simple reason: there weren’t enough gas cylinders to light the teapots.

Adding to the strain, many Tamilians running tea shops in Kerala have returned home, uncertain about when the cylinder shortage will end.

“Who knows – perhaps even if gas supplies resume, they may choose to stay back in Tamil Nadu. It is a rapidly developing state, and there could be better business opportunities,” said a retiree, forced to forgo his habitual cup of tea midway through his morning walk.

The Kuwait War in the early 1990s triggered a fuel crisis across Kerala. A familiar sight in those days was kilometre-long queues of vehicles stretching in front of petrol pumps.

However, LPG shortages were not a major concern then. The number of restaurants depending on gas cylinders was limited, with firewood remaining the primary source of fuel, particularly in villages.

Firewood days
Kerala’s transition from firewood to LPG over three decades has been remarkable.

Just rewind to the days before the war in Iran unfolded. It was almost impossible to find a restaurant in Kerala relying exclusively on firewood, even in remote interiors. Even the much-celebrated vintage ‘chayakkada’ of Chellan Chettan in Kollengode, Palakkad – reminiscent of a bygone era – uses cooking gas alongside firewood.

How swiftly a distant war has pushed restaurant kitchens back to firewood. For Kerala’s eateries, the Middle Eastern conflict leaves a stark choice: return to firewood, wholly or in part, or perish.

According to news reports, countless hotels and restaurants have closed across all fourteen districts since the war began.

This election summer, Google Maps alone may not help you find a chai spot. A hotel hoarding may not help either. Look instead for stacked firewood and a row of parked vehicles – you’ve arrived at your destination.

During a recent visit to an iconic vegetarian restaurant in Thiruvananthapuram, it was learned that their sumptuous sadhya is now cooked using firewood. A kitchen staff member at Lulu Mall said that firewood is being used to prepare many of their dishes.

War menu
When a full transition to firewood is not practical or possible for restaurant owners, the result is a ‘war menu’ – a drastic reduction in the number of dishes.

At a frequently visited modest restaurant, an elaborate menu still adorns the wall, though only a handful of items are available to order. All four variants of porotta, including the special banana porotta, have vanished in no time.

The owner spoke while carrying firewood from his scooter parked outside the restaurant into the kitchen. “There were usually good sales during election time. We had good business during the Panchayat poll days,” he said, lamenting the losses.

He was then desperately trying to secure a new gas cylinder before the elections, even at an additional cost. His business plan was to reintroduce porotta to the menu one by one, starting with kothu porotta, which is always a hit among party workers.

The small-time restaurant owner’s “porotta plans”, however, hinge on a question of global importance: whether Iranian forces will allow Indian LPG tankers, one by one, to pass through the Strait of Hormuz.

Perhaps what many in Kerala dream of is the moment when all restaurants return to their pre-war menus.

“When dosai is on, life is on!’ reads the WhatsApp status of a friend, a South Indian restaurant owner, who shared a picture of a ghee roast being served in his restaurant for the first time since the onset of the LPG crisis.

Not an election issue
So far, the LPG crisis has primarily affected commercial cylinders, with domestic consumers remaining relatively less affected. However, many Kerala households fear that, if the war continues, there could be a complete return to the firewood era.

These are days when many Malayalis regret not having made provision for a fireplace in their modular kitchens, as well as quietly discarding their favourite clay pots after years of disuse. Most such pots were indeed cherished ones – carefully chosen from street vendors, tapped and listened to for their resonance to ensure quality.

“But who will clean the clay pots with ashes every morning? It’s not simple dishwashing,” asked a middle-aged housewife who had lived through a silent domestic revolution – from a mother bound to firewood to a daughter raised on the ease of cooking gas.

Though politically sensitive in many ways, the LPG crisis didn't emerge as an election issue in Kerala.

Malayalis are said to be the most ‘enlightened’ among the Indian electorate. It seems they are optimistic enough not to link the short-term impact of a Middle East war to their Assembly elections.

Despite war-related uncertainties, the 2026 polls witnessed one of the highest voter turnouts in Kerala’s electoral history, even amid rising mercury levels.

If Malayali optimism holds and the US–Iran talks in Islamabad succeed, the LPG crisis may soon fade into memory. It may be remembered as nothing more than a midsummer nightmare in the midst of a fiercely contested election season.

The bigger question is whether the new government in Kerala will further promote solar-powered alternatives, which have already replaced LPG with electric cooking in many homes. After all, solar is an energy source least affected by humans and their conflicts.