ñān pēāyiṭṭ varāṁ

As I was closing my eyes and mentally preparing myself to actually wake up and write my thesis, on the other tab that was open since a long time a sentence popped, it said
Dear Kochi, nan poyitt vara! I went behind that thought and this is where it led me..

I had read stories, watched movies, heard people speak about this God’s own country and thought to myself what’s so special about it? In the 14 months I’ve lived here, I’ve asked myself this many times, why so charmed by Kochi – Ernakulam – Kerala, Avanthika?

I don’t know, I mean I’m one simple person da, I thrive when I’m left on my own without anyone’s kirkiri. If you let me be, I’ll gladly let you be; all up for drama but just not in my own life kinda vibe, one might say it’s a lazy mentality but I like to think of it as Queen’s way of living! Lemme explain, I know it’s a very big responsibility to take care of the entire citizens, to live up to the expectations of the kingdom, so many things to think about but do you think when the queen is taking a long relaxing shower or slipping into sleep she’ll think about all this?! I don’t think so, I mean of course she’ll defend and protect and do everything in her power for her people and their good but that’s only if and when she has to, otherwise she’s chillin only. No ? For some reason, I feel this queen of Arabian sea lives the exact same queen’s life!

Just another day at work!

There’s room for everyone here, she’s blessed in terms of beauty, on her watch, the leaves are never covered in dust, there’s enough for everyone and more, she’s compassionate, she’s kind but she’s a Queen who’ll not go easy – there’s consequences but most importantly, she’ll let you be!

There are just so many incidents that are very normal, everyday scenes that feel like it’s from some movie or a book! That’s what I like the most about this place – the extra- ordinary!
The thing about this place and its people is that they are simple – Stand near a chaya kada with a cup of chaya, munch on pazham pori\ parippu vada or kappalandi and just watch life happen!

There’s protests, crime and fights but there’s also unity, joy and immense pride for the roots they belong to and a tree grows only when the roots are strong and healthy!

Cheta’s on a break!

Here there’s place – to sit and do nothing, streets to walk without any purpose, so much backwaters to turn to while turning your back to the real world, to stop everything and watch not just the setting sun but also the sky after!
Here people know the art of doing nothing – at least for a short while, taxis and autos stop under huge trees, two feets crossed over one another pop out while the brain peacefully shuts up! People make a living out of lottery either selling or buying (subject to market risk), from small fights to major issues get sorted over a cup of chaya and there’s always love in the air, always!! Because couples are just everywhere!! There’s parotta and beef, putt and kadala curry, appam and stew and the Sadya to feast! Oh! There’s absolute love for football, Onam and Christmas like nowhere else!

‘Tis the season to be Jolly!

You’ll not even know when God’s own country slowly seeped into you, making you feel it’s own and being a part of you in its own subtle ways!

Like elsewhere, there’s chaos here, life’s tough, living isn’t the easiest and everyone’s got their own shit going on but The Queen takes you under her wings, she’ll let you be and there’s space so you learn to give it some time, Buddy, be it Sulaimani tea or kattan chaya unless the powder settles, you won’t be able to savor the real taste! And Kochi taught me that!
For me, it shall always be Dear Kochi, ‘ñān pēāyiṭṭ varāṁ’
Now I better sleep because Avanthika needs this degree and a real job because she isn’t really a queen in the real world.
So, what’s your thing about Kochi? Shall we talk about that over a kattan chaya and beautiful sunset backdrop, whatsay ?

PS: Not converting, Mangaluru is Mangaluru.

Note: Wrote this few days ago, done with defending my M.Tech dissertation work, submitted my thesis and on my way home to my dog!

Onam Alle

‘Hold the rope,’ NCAAH ready? The whistle blows, and all the cheer suddenly becomes background noise. Before you realize what is happening, you are putting all your weight on a rope, either walking backward or defending your stance with your dear life on the line until the second whistle is blown and if you see everyone around you jumping with joy, yayy!! More power to you; you just won the tug of war. Lessgo!!! Maaannhh, I had no idea tug of war is this intense sport. I mean, just stand on the side and watch a bunch of Malayali guys from different departments having a tug of war – the power, the faces turning red, the energy all around, the cheering, the screaming, you can see the veins stiffening, the single focus in everyone’s eyes… Uff!! It’s too damn intense! For someone having played this sport for the first ever time in life (I mean for real, full seriously. Of course, I’ve played for fun, friendly tug of wars, but this was no less than an actual war!) with the fast-paced beating of the heart and all that heat radiating from my own body, I felt like Naruto haha. The body pain that kicked in the next day gave me the much-needed reality check and reminded I’m no ninja. (yet) 

For the over-excited kid, that I am, experiencing ONAM in God’s Own Country was no less than a dream come true. I’ve been telling everyone about it since, shall also try my best to describe the whole scene but again, I don’t know how much you’ll enjoy it because frankly, you just had to be there da! 

Pookalam in Railway Station

Even the weather, sky, clouds, plants, and dogs get excited about Onam! The whole city comes to life; every gate will have beautiful ‘rangolis’ outside it, a vast ‘mela’ right in the middle of the town, fairy lights, sales, and Sadhya special boards catch your eye everywhere. The railway stations are filled with people, and train journeys have a lot of kids running around, excited about meeting their grandparents! 

Onam is the only time you’ll find research scholars obsessing over cutting flower petals rather than their unfinished experiments, Ph.D. scholars worrying about the geometry of the ‘Pookalam’ and not one of the objectives of their work, and you’ll also find M.Tech/MSc. Students who barely put Rangoli back in their homes sincerely cutting the whites off from purple petals to help their department achieve the color gradient of their dreams. In short, for about 24 hours, everyone switches to a creative mode where gradient refers to only color and not PCR. So, on the previous night of the ‘Pookalam’ competition, the whole lab will have spreads of different flowers; everyone sits together, playing an old OG Hindi playlist along with evergreen Malayalam melodies, talking, laughing, and bonding over a bunch of flowers! (some watch football too :P)

All that hardwork put into use, beautifully. Artists: Team NCAAH

With the catchy ‘Nadan pattu’ (Folk songs) and graceful ‘Thiruvathira kali’ (a traditional dance around the lamp), people from God’s own country ought to be somewhere at the top in creative aspects as well! No surprise there. 

Don’t get me wrong, but they all look so pretty! Ladies wearing the traditional saree or sett mundu, the jhumkas, the jet-black hair with white mullappu (Jasmine flower), the kajal in their eyes, and the sweet smile on each face completes their look. There’s no way out; you have to simply appreciate the beauty! The men are no less, the white Mundu paired with the Kurta or Shirt, the neatly folded sleeves and well-groomed hair, beard; it is difficult to leave all this unnoticed. (No, Amma, I do not have a Malayali boyfriend :P) And if you look at the small kids in their small Mundus and kurtas, your heart will melt. No doubt about that. 

Now coming to the best part – The ‘ONAM Sadhya’. So many varieties of dishes, each one with a different flavor; just tasting will fill your stomach, heart, and soul. Yeah! Drink the Palada off your banana leaf, and you’ll be in the hangover instantly.
Petition to make Onam sadhya a quarter-yearly deal. Please? Thank you! 

The OG – Sadhya

It is believed that ‘Bali Maharaj’ (Mahabali) from the ground below (Patal Lok) visits God’s Own Country once every year, and the people of this land show him that everything is going good in the hood! They are happy and celebrating life so he can go back feeling peaceful. Therefore, this celebration is taken quite seriously, irrespective of religion, caste, and place; everyone from this land celebrates this in the best possible way! 

Now that I was part of the Onam Celebration in a college in Ernakulam, I can vouch that the scene we all saw in ‘Premam’ happens very much in real life! With all the beauty, the happiness, the ‘chendey,’ the Sadhya – total Onam vibe casts its spell on you! Before you know it, you’ll be dancing with your juniors, smiling at unfamiliar faces, making new friends, laughing, and enjoying with everyone around. That, for me, is the true sense of celebration – including everyone and making some great memories! You can’t help but feel like you’re in a still from a Malayalam movie; at least that’s what I felt 🙂 Don’t take my word for it. Experience it! 

Maybe I’m giving too much hype; perhaps it is totally justified the hype. I don’t know?!
I know that no matter where I am, I’ll think of this Onam memory with a wide grin on my face on every Onam and try to celebrate this festival in my own way, involving people around me, making them eat palada and slip into a food coma. Until next time, Happy Onam, people! 

PS: I missed hiding behind my DSLR and taking pictures of beautiful strangers (with their permission, of course!) But I was so busy living that I forgot to document it with pictures. 

Post It?

Letters are like pictures but only better. A photograph captures a moment, while a letter is simply a bouquet of different moments, incidents, and feelings, like different versions of you, safely wrapped in an old leaf. It’s like a platter of ice creams with all your favorite flavors and sometimes even the flavors you don’t prefer. Oh! I should have been a tad bit clear; here, I refer to letters that you write simply for fun, to your Annu, Amma, Akka, friends, maybe to yourself, or just some open letters. Some get sent as emails, some as actual physical letters, while most are still saved in your drafts. (maybe all this is just me, anyway.) 

If you know me, you already might know that I like writing letters; likely, you may even have received one! I write long emails updating about what’s happening with me to even my parents because they sometimes are so busy for a call, and I have many vishayas to tell! But mostly because I feel letters are a much better way of giving an entire story. 

Here’s why –

1. When you are having a conversation, it usually gets diverted depending on the answer given by the other. But in a letter, you have the entire stage, full limelight, and undivided attention of your audience. 
2. Letters often are not based on real-time, so you have the total freedom of enjoying the event by fully being present and then re-live it while you describe it to your intended audience. And it’s not a given that the person will receive the letter right away or that they will give it a read and reply in a jiff, which means, by the time you receive a reply, you might even have forgotten about the letter altogether! 
3.  You also get enough time and chances at trial and error; you can translate your thoughts into sentences that have a high resemblance to your thought. You can choose the tone and the words. Basically, you control what to tell, how to tell, and how much to tell! 

Other than these, it improves your language, imagination, understanding, and, most importantly, patience. So, yeah, Letters are simply awesome! Oh no, I don’t have a problem with telephone, text messages, emails, WhatsApp, social media, and recent advances because they are very much a part of our everyday lives now and necessary. I do not deny their power and need at any cost. They do make life easy. But I would like to bring to your notice that letters have an old-school charm, something royal and the most personal touch. 

Now that I think of it, I have always been a fan of the Indian Railways and The Indian Postal service. They connect the most rural parts of our country. It gives me so much joy to receive or send a letter that will travel through so many states, cities, villages, by air, by rail, by road, in train, in van, in ship, bus, and cycles to finally reach the destination – doesn’t it make you feel special, like some important being?! To me, it does. 

In a world where we are running to save time while ending up wasting all the time that we manage to save, I think letters take us back to a time where we can feel like that old self who wrote it/received it, at least for a short while and that brings me joy! Letters are not like a time machine because they are a present that reaches someone in the future carrying a past. In short, Letters are simply the best, and we should bring them back. 

Would you be willing to post something? 

Lit.

You know Girish Karnad sir has met our Nana, said the older brother to the younger one. He took the big fat hardcover book, read the name, and then looked at his older brother in complete awe; this person has met our Nana? Woahhh!
I was standing opposite these two kids, scanning the big pile of books, so many books written by so many authors waiting to be taken home by so many readers! Those two siblings reminded me of my Akka and myself. How Akka would tell me things that would totally amaze me, how she was my company that turned any boring event into an entertaining one, how at times, she would be an example of what not to do but mostly always show me the best way to do something and suddenly I got a text from her saying ‘today is siblings day it seems, couldn’t have imagined being the only child to my parents!’ Ah! The feels. Total feels.

My Akka is a vivid reader; growing up, I mostly saw her with a book all the time! And I am maybe 5% the reader that she is, but now, I’m slowly drawn to this world of books, and trust me, a book fair is the best place to be. Ever.
Recently there was an international book festival at a ground next door; I had heard that Kochi values art, literature, and culture. In fact, the places and people here had proved it right, but today I saw it happen right in front of me! Ah, what joy!

Kids were coming with their friends, yes, just a group of kids buying books to read, a family enjoying a Sunday evening at a book fair, kids showing their parents the book they want to buy, retired chillers buying bundles of books to be read in all the time they have, housewives not limiting themselves to cookbooks but having classics of literature in their hands, young adults, budding entrepreneurs, future business tycoons, uncles dressed all in white, hippie lads looking for some profound sense and of course outsiders who are just getting to know this beautiful place and people like me who just like to be!

The experience of reading a book simply can’t be explained, it needs to be lived by everyone at least once in their lifetime, and I’m glad I love it! In this fast-moving world, where everything’s going digital, content-driven, and more visual, an evening at the book fair tingled my imagination, the conversations I heard, the people I silently observed, the books I graciously brushed my hands over, the intros and passages I read, the happiness and excitement in people, the mystery and wisdom in books, the words and beauty in this place and not to forget poetry recitation in the sweet language of Malayalam was an absolute treat! Whatte a Lit evening!

Like how a devotee never fails to take the blessings of his God even as he just crosses a temple, you can’t just return from a book fair without buying a book or two! Money well spent.

Kudos to this land of God that is teaching its younglings how to be friends with books because that’ll surely make this world a better place, and thank you for that.

So, what are you reading right now?