On every November 1 st and especially during the celebrations of Onam, Kerala stages itself - not through festivities, but through an image regime. A woman in white-gold kasavu sari, a sumptuous sadya spread on a banana leaf and a stylised green face of a  Kathakali actor -  these are not mere festive markers but curated symbols. They adorn government hoardings, tourism ads, school walls and Instagram feeds. But as cultural theorists remind us, no symbol is apolitical. These images are not merely celebratory icons; they function as mechanisms of cultural selection, circulating within an affective economy that assigns emotional value and legitimacy to particular representations. Rather than reflecting Kerala, they actively regulate who is allowed to represent as authentically Keralite. Through this process, some bodies and identities are folded into the dominant cultural imagination, while others are excluded from its glowing frame, rendered invisible or inauthentic.  T...