After a long gap of almost an year I had the chance of stepping into Kerala for a friend's marriage. Driving has always been a pleasure, especially on the NH 47. 22 kms from Coimbatore Tamilnadu ends and Kerala begins. The transition is quite contrasting, this time the dam in the border was full of water. Kerala is a unique place for a couple of reasons. One is the presence of greenery everywhere and another is the different shades of people one can meet there. There are simply myriad types of Malayalees (Mallus), each has his/her own distinct trait. We had to go to this place called Shoranur which is almost between the road connecting Palakkad and Thrissur. The easiest way to reach Thrissur from Palakkad is to take the NH 47, but this one runs parallel to it and passes through places of traditional significance. A Nair malayalee wedding meal is a sight to the eyes as much as to the palette. There are 3-5 different kinds of vegetables, 3-5 different kind of dishes you can mix with par-boiled rice before gobbling them. There is a sweetish-sourish-tangy paste called 'injhipuli', banana chips, sweets and ofcourse, payasam - 3 types of them with pappad.
Driving back from this place to my hometown was tedious because of the road work that was in progress between Shoranur and Palakkad which took apart the speed off the vehicle. Secondly it was 27 hrs since I last slept which was causing considerable fatigue. But once on the wheel I am quite a steady person (this is what all drivers think, even alcoholics) and made it home in 2 hrs and 15 minutes. There is just one thought running across my mind now, the next time I'd get into Kerala and spend some time in my maternal grandparents place. Enjoy the early morning walks in the field with my Granny (she's 87 now), fresh milk direct from the udders of the bufallo. Baths in the stream running alongside the field, driving tractor in the ploughed field. Tapping rubber trees for sap and treating it before it becomes rubber sheet ...... I guess I am more a farmer than an engineer, it's the root I inherited from my parents. Make no mistake, my parents were not farmers either though my grandparents were. But there is this liking towards earth deep sown in us that it at times make us wonder all those good time a 100 years ago.
