Snow in Kerala

It’s raining cats and dogs in Kerala, or more colloquially it’s raining coconuts here! So much so that the temperature during the day time is around 24°C. Do you guys know what that means?

This is all I’ve been hearing during the past few days :

“It’s freezing boss”

“Tonight’s gonna be realllllll cold , 22°C !!!”

Sometimes I take them on :

“You think it might snow?”

They look worried.

“You know the way it’s going I wouldn’t be surprised if we have snow in December”, they reply.

I half expect to see people wrapped in sweaters and jackets when I step out with all this talk about the chill factor!

I vividly remember the time when I first went to London after having lived my entire life in the tropics. I was travelling alone and the jet was about to touch down in Heathrow Airport. The pilot’s smooth husky voice floated over us. Have you ever wondered how most pilots have a deep husky voice? I bet they get voice training as part of their course. Husky voice to most people, especially women, equates to a tall dark handsome stranger who can weather the craft(any craft!) through all storms. So I’m pretty sure that husky voice training is part of the pilot syllabus just to reassure people. Anyway our pilot was growling thus : “Ladies and gentlemen, we are about to touch down in Heathrow Airport. It’s a sunny day outside and the temperature is a pleasant 16°C.”

I thought the guy was surely being sarcastic. How on earth can 16°C be pleasant? I think I had at least 5 layers of clothing when I came out of the airport and STILL I was shivering. People were looking at me as if I had landed from Mars or something. An acquaintance who had come to pick me up was full of sympathy and assured me that I would get used to it. Sure enough in six months time I was walking around in T shirts at 16°C. Yes, it was definitely pleasant! It really is  incredible how quickly the body adapts to the environment.

Yet the funny thing is that if I stay in Kerala along enough I get the cold bug and soon start shivering at 25°C, even doing the unthinkable like having hot water baths because it is colddddd! But on the plus side this mallu body is cool in heat, no pun intended. I remember trekking in the Himalayas and my companions from the North of the country used to marvel that I never used to sweat walking long distances carrying heavy bags while they used to get drenched. They put it down to my fitness but I guess it’s the mallu body factor that comes into play. We are born into heat, live in heat and die in heat! 

Cumulonimbus in a well

                        The flickering flashes of light and the gentle grumbling in the sky woke me up today. A nice contrast to the boisterous rhythmic croaking of frogs that put me to sleep. The air was suffused with coolness , the soft sound of rain tempting me to linger more in bed. The monsoons are almost upon us and it's the  time of the year that I love to be in Kerala. The dust and heat no more,all around is intense green and a certain stillness which is not hard to come upon even in a city like Trivandrum. Just go down a side road and soon you will lose the sound of traffic and be surrounded by trees and bird calls. Maybe the blessing of slow 'development' and a militant workforce that puts off the big industries.

                       The first thing I do when I come home is to head for the shower. The water is not brackish like in so many parts of India  but sweet, more so if its from the well. Any house worth it's name in Kerala will have this concentric circular contraption that all children and a few demented adults like me love to gaze down into.There's something quite exciting and forbidden in  leaning over the parapet to peer down into a well, to see the depth , width, the shape and structure of the rings and the inexplicable pull I feel to jump and be submerged in water.

Image courtsey : Wikipedia(click to go more deep !)

                         Traditionally there is an aluminium pail and a pulley to pull the water up. If the well is not too deep, people, mostly women do it freestyle, without using the pulley but just the rope which is an excellent exercise ! It's a sight I have seen countless times, the woman drawing water from the well and one which still fascinates me. If she's a seasoned hand , there's a sinewy flow to her movements making the whole process look effortless. She releases the rope  first and the pulley rolls fast ,the pail in a free fall motion to the water surface making a characteristic sound loud enough to  let the neighbours know that water is being drawn ! Then the pail hits the water and she tilts the rope slightly in a subtle movement for the water to enter the pail. And now with both hands she pulls the rope down in a rhythmic flow and the pail jerks upward in a see saw motion. The well in the house has a baby well near it as well. It was originally intended to store water from the main well for people not so keen on the exercise benefits of drawing water from such depths. I look down in the deep mother well in the courtyard and glimpse the static dark grey monsoon clouds in its depths...

Ass warming

My lingo for useless time spent between vagabonding. It’s similar to the feeling of ennui the non-vagabond has going for a 9-5 job she detests but worse coz the vagabond doesn’t even have that detestable job to lose himself in ! Personally, I warm my butt mostly at home. Every self respecting Indian son is expected to stay at his parent’s home if he is within a 1000 km radius. If work takes him away, 'that’s alright, son.' Even after marriage lots of sons still live under mamma’s wing with their wives as per tradition. And hence we have all these exciting mother in law/ wife spats that’s serialized by TV channels as soap operas and hence provide employment to thousands. Yes folks, optimistic oppurtunistic people that we are, there’s always a silver lining in India for even the most hopeless problem.

When I come home after a long trip, I help around the house and finish all those chores my folks lovingly put aside just for my arrival. After that initial adrenaline flush and honeymoon period with my folks, relishing the unbusy streets and clear soft water of my home city, the lethargy soon sets in. Soon im moaning about going to the shop around the corner for bananas. The Malayali’s love affair with bananas, that will have to be another post !

Although my star sign dictates me being loyal and submissive to my blood no matter what, I have not exhibited any such idiosyncrasies so far, much to my parent’s exasperation. So to avoid calling in the cops, I usually get away every couple of weeks when I’m home to the village where my dad grew up. Ah yes the die hard fans of this blog, who devour every word I write, would realize that I have been raving about this place in the past few posts. Terra firma surrounded on 3 sides by a kayal (lake), it’s the kind of idyllic place writers or pretenders like me would feel inspired. I always stay for a few days recharging my vagabond batteries. Also by this time, folks back home think that maybe having me around is not such a bad idea after all. Of course this cycle repeats itself ceaselessly.

to be continued...

The monsoons are finally here and it's a huge relief.Everything's beautiful, fresh again...The past month was a horror trip for me personally.I lost out on a lot but then surprisingly am back on track.Or so it seems.Have been traveling all over the place and my travels took me to Chennai too.Its only when you travel outside Kerala that you're aware of the beauty that you leave behind.Chennai or Madras is so unchanged.Its dry,the place stinks,its hot and you wonder why people bother living in a place where they have to depend on mineral water everyday for basically everything.But I was deploring life in Trivandrum when I left Munnar !! Man, am I a whiner or what!!

The only high point in the Chennai trip was meeting Veena.There was that surprising lack of tension that meeting an online pal for the first time evokes(at least in me!).Yeah she was tense for maybe a minute ,but then it was like we had known each other for years.And awfully sweet of her to come meet me considering she had fever and was pretty weak.I asked her about Madras and she actually likes living there.Maybe just a matter getting used to the conditions.She has a slightly upturned nose and small mouth ,beautiful to watch while she's talking.She talks damn fast too,half the time she had to repeat stuff for me.

The skies have turned a menacing dark grey here..its incredible how quickly the sunlight vanishes and the light just fades away.Monsoons are incredibly beautiful !There's this wedding party or something I might have to go tonight.If there's one thing I hate more than marriages,its got to be newly weds.Man, are they obliviously arrogant about the rest of the world or what? Hate that smugness...Wouldn't have minded if they were in that state for ever ,but its temporary as we all know and till that period God help all those who cross their path.

This blog has become a fortnightly affair .I am rather destabilized now (mentally),not a good excuse for not writing,but still....there's no knowing where im headed next....

Bus Jumping more fun than bungee...

I did something today after nearly a decade,purely out of necessity.It happened in this fashion.I was walking briskly towards the bus stop when I heard the dreaded "ting ting" and saw my regular bus starting to pull away.As luck would have it, I was at the other side of the road.The heat had become intolerable again and I was in no mood to wait for the next bus.I quickly crossed the road ,started running along with the bus and in quick time was in, safe and sound.This however does not give a true description of what actually happened.



Bus jumping is an art form practiced by the youth here since the eighties.The first step in this is of course that you have to be eighteen or at least look that age.Nowadays I see even school kids practicing this art with much fervour so I take it that the age limit has been relaxed.The second step is to travel on the steps.Ahh,this is a very delicate matter and calls for astute observation and impeccable timing.One should get in the bus so that one cannot move farther in because of the crowd but at the same time one should not hang out on the first step.A couple of rides in this fashion and then one can practice getting down before the bus completely stops.At first of course ,one jumps down just a second before the bus stops.Again one has to take into account the speed of the bus,vehicles,pedestrians,cows,etc before the jump.The next step is the real hanging where four ,five even eight men will be hanging out with just some part of their body in the bus.The highest level of this is the "kunjuviral adavu",roughly translated as "small finger move" where believe it or not,the commuter travels with just the small finger of one of his legs inside the bus.



Now to bus jumping proper.I will take today's case as an example.I ran full speed alongside the bus .Once the door was reached(well lets call it an opening ,there's no door as such) the right hand has to get hold one of the iron rods on either side for climbing in.Simultaneously, I had to judge the height of the bus steps from the ground and the speed of the bus.Yes the height is important coz some buses may be missing a few steps.Today I couldn't get hold of the rod in time(the position was different) and so got on board the bus a couple of seconds late...nothing wrong with that except you land in the bus panting and people tend to gawk at you as if you were a madman.(which they do anyways)



Of course its been quite a while and my fitness is not that great these days.I've had only one scary experience ,and that was when, years ago, I tried to board a bus which didn't stop at the bus stop.I ran furiously with it ,got hold of the horizontal railings at the window and...vacuum...I couldn't find the damned foot board to place my legs.So there I was suspended in mid air clinging to the rusty bars of a bus gaining speed all the time, a la Indiana Jones.After an eternity my leaden feet found ground and I stumbled abroad.I tell you each and every face in that bus(except the driver) was looking at me as if i was....yes, a madman.Luckily the conductor didn't say anything .Just ticked and handed me my ticket..Well that sums up one of my innumerable wild rides...

There was a sudden downpour yesterday evening for close to an hour.Phew!! The heat was getting way too much.As always when it rains ,I felt less restless and more peaceful.Yep, Im on my best behaviour during the monsoons.Maybe there's some truth to the saying that the weather has a large part in making us whiny,callous and indifferent.Yeah, next time you blow your top blame it on the heat!! I am all for a study to determine whether the levels of corruption,frustration and indifference in this country goes down during the monsoons.

Yesudas was in town for a carnatic recital and you bet I went.Earlier there was this attitude of "next time" whenever a show like this came but somehow these days I'm grabbing things like these at the first opportunity.It was in the very spacious and antique University Senate Hall. Its a funny thing about Trivandrum that whatever little good is there in this city is courtsey of the erstwhile royal family and that period.The show was superb but the heat was a dampener for everyone including the musicians.

In domestic matters, the kittens are all over the place.They have two cats feeding them and they never seem to get enough.They run around the place(super fast!) ,climb on sofas, shred plants, catch and tear apart coackroaches and in general make a pretty fine mess.But all three chaps are very lovable and supremly innocent.You look into their eyes and you melt.They have a couple of strange moves...one of them is the "reverse gear" ,as I call it.When you approach them they walk back rapidly in a straight line!! Then there is the "crouching tiger", where in they hide in a corner and once you reach that spot they jump out scaring themselves more than us!! Well I guess its not much fun when you describe it, but they are really adorable to watch.

Hartal and Bandhs

India can proudly claim to be one of the most environment friendly countries on the planet.We have this habit of emptying roads of all the vehicles once in a while.Today it was the turn of Kerala.The political parties are ofcourse behind such a noble venture.It's obvious you just can't ask people not to ply the roads and not to go for work.There has to be a reason.So the opposition communists here have declared a "hartal" because police clashed with tribals in the jungles of Kerala err..about a month or so ago.Well actually ,that is not the real reason of course.These dear lovable politician folks care so much about the polluted environment.The air definitely needed some cleaning up and "hartal" it had to be.Now you folks in the west can learn something from us regarding this "hartal" business.

First a little history.These hartals were called "bandhs" first and were effectively used as a weapon against the British by Gandhiji.Basically shops,offices,schools etc are closed. Lately the ever busy body courts here banned "bandhs" because of some cock and bull story of infringement of fundamental rights.Lately ,due to the moral degradation of the people, they have to be forced to close shops.They have the impunity especially , folks with two wheelers, to go about as if nothing's happened.I ventured out today coz I had to go for work.Saw a couple of cars with "examination" posted on the glass.As if the blokes who will do the stone throwing are going to pause and read.Oh I forgot,there was this little uncomfortable business of an examination (nationwide boards C.B.S.E,I.C.S.E).The Govt made a big issue out of it asking the opposition to withdraw the hartal.What nonsense!!

Now all you westerners, you have no idea how the youth of this country look upto the politicians here.One of my friends said the other day :"All politicians are bastards,but the Indian ones are shameless bastards"...tch tch ..he's an exception folks.I mean just imagining what all personal sacrifices they undertake for the country,I'm....sorry, I'm too emotional to continue on this subject..*wipes tears and blows nose into hanky*


Oh yesterday some student activists torched two government cars after they were "lathicharged"..Lathi means cane ,and a very thick stout one too..These poor fellas went for a march to the Govt Secretariat ..They were prevented mid way through by the police.Some stones were pelted on the police,naturally.Just for that they beat the students black and blue..Ouch that hurts..I should know Ive got one when I was a student of The Govt Arts College here.The SFI(student organisation of the communist party) used to round up us students and force us to march shouting slogans against the Govt.In one of these excursions,I got in an intimate relation with the lathi...Lathi in malayalam also means one who talks too much about nothing.At the risk of being called that ,I am stopping for the time being.

Kerala's Day of shame


There is a picture in the paper featuring the two kids in relation to the above story but its not there in the website..Its gut wrenching not because they are hideous or different but because they are like any other kids.Unfortunately I don't have a scanner,but I think it should be there in all the Kerala editions of The Hindu.This story proves the point that there is only so much you can do with education and awareness.AIDS related ads are screaming day in day out of the tv and radios here,what is the use? But in one way its hardly surprising .In southern Kerala you'll find the most selfish stubborn ,rude conservative people on the planet.Nothing will go into their thick skulls.Heres the press report of the story.






Sorry about the pic quality, this was all I could manage.This is NOT the photo I had in mind but guess it will do.

Image courtsey:Mathrubhumi


On the war front, Australian high school students made a strong "Books not Bombs "statement . In USA actors who have dared to go public against the war are feeling the heat

You'll never guess who was the first to visit this site on Valentine's day.."The Pentagon, Washington, D.C., United States" .How romantic,huh?I have several theories on this,but one thing is for sure..Valentine's day couldn't have started on a better note..I don't mean to be disrespectful to anybody but mainly, people come upon this blog either through other blogs,links,web rings etc and then ...AHEM...via search engines...msn ,mamma,kaaza..The search engines are many but the search query is always one:mallu girls.I don't know how this tragedy of epic proportions has come about but I feel sorry for these dudes for ending up on my site when they are clearly out for a night of pleasure and perversion.Even if you add movies,sexy and any other provoking search words still my site figures in there.Now what I am asking is...Why did the pentagon come to my site and if so in what way,eh? ;-)

There are some advantages to being in Trivandrum after all.I challenge any of you reading this to suggest a more unromantic,conservative place.So probably only here you'll find cards like "Happy valentines day Mummy" and all that crap..People are so desperate that its ok even if it's their moms..So no excitement about Valentines day palpable at all..

Seriously ,but ,there's a drawback...you become one of "them"... I have been here for six months and I am half a Trivandrumite...the pessimism,the indifference,the corruption..you don't even realise it.Maybe it's worse in metros like Bombay ,Delhi but I can't stand it...But the best part is you never realise all this unless you leave this place for sometime as it happened with me.As i famously like to say,it has all the bad points of a metro but none of the goodies to offer.It doesnt get duller in the world than good ol Trivandrum folks...Sigh