With the end of my five months internship at Infosys Technologies Limited at Mysore, my tryst with the southern part was far from over. As soon as I stepped back into Delhi, assuming that my coconut borne days have finally ended, I was informed that my family was planning a holiday in Kerela. I had to concede to the plan as my sister had already told her class mates about this trip and now it would be too embarrassing for her to go back to school without any souvenirs. So we went ahead. I didn’t pack any expectations in my luggage because I was least interested in the trip. All I wanted was to spend time with family which came at the cost of my college farewell party.
We boarded a holiday special Rajdhani Express to Ernakulum, Kerela. These railways people surely don’t mean it when they say ‘We would love to serve you again’. Their much famous frequency of meals and an equally annoying quality of that food surely increases one’s expenditure on antacids. You know, the strange part is, if we know that they will serve tomato soup at seven thirty then we start feeling uneasy as soon as the hands of our wrist watch near to showing that time. But, if in case their service gets delayed by significant amount of time, then we’ll think, ‘why aren’t they bringing the soup?’ and we’ll look at our watch in every five minutes. Not only this, our POA for playing games, dozing off or even for answering the nature’s call depends on the time table of the meals! The first day in the journey was fine. We played cards, dumb charades etc. But towards the end of the day, when the TT told us that the train is running six hours late, I started losing patience. ‘Kerela better be good’, I said to myself.
As soon as we stepped out at the Ernakulum Junction, we were welcomed by a quick monsoon shower. I love rain. So, all my frustration of the train’s journey was rendered away. Now, I was all set to enjoy this trip.
Papa had already booked a car and a driver to take us around. The driver was a cute Mallu uncle. There was a huge communication gap between us. The only language he knew was Malayalam. Though he understood a little English, it was very difficult for us to communicate our plans to him. Every time we would want to tell him something, we would literally telegram him. For instance, if you want to tell him that you want to go to a restaurant for lunch, then you’ll have to say, ’Restaurant… Go… Lunch’, or some other combination of these words. This telegrammic conversation was often accompanied by some hand actions which made the scene funnier. It was quite amusing in the beginning but after some time, we felt like going on foot rather than telling him to drive us to some place. Apart from this, he was very well equipped with the knowledge of all the tourist places and best timings to visit them and so he made it sure that we can be at the right place at the right time. Though sometimes, we were lazy enough to skip a few spots.
We started our day at Ernakulum with a typical south Indian breakfast, that is, Dosa, Idly-Sambhar, Uttapam and Pongal. Being acclimated to the southern cuisine, I was not as surprised to see the variegated list of Dosa as my sissy. Unlike the north, these items are cheaper here. After the breakfast, we had the whole day with us, and as our actual tour was to begin the next day with Thekkady, we had abundant time to kill. So, we decided to begin with the very famous water park at Cochin- the Veega Land. It was about ten kilometres from the place we were staying at. With much excitement we reached the place. As soon as we stepped out of the car, it started raining heavily. Anyways, we decided to go ahead. But seeing the kind of rush there, my mother became quite apprehensive about the hygiene and became worried about catching some skin diseases and all. We couldn’t convince her (actually nobody can, once she makes up her mind), and hence we had to cancel our Veega plans.
Next, we decided to take a tour of the city. So, as the protocol, Papa said to Mallu uncle, “City… Tour… Go… ”. These three keywords activated our driver to start the engines and hence we commenced with our mission of aimlessly wandering around the city. Surprisingly, it turned out to be good. We saw the Cochin Port, the Dock, the big Navy ships (and a few handsome navy guys) etc. at the Wellington Island which is a man-made island. Well, this island is not a picnic spot but a busy port, and it also houses some very important shipping and naval offices. I never saw any big cargo ships or navy ships in real life. They were really amazing. I was reminded of my seventh grade Geography lessons which taught me about the shipping industry in India (Yes I remembered them thoroughly as I used to be a big nerd back then, unlike now). Then we boarded a one hour long cruise to take a trip along the coastline. Around sixty people boarded that cruise all of whom were talking in an alien language. All the ladies had jet black, oily and wavy hair. I had automatically adopted that wavy and oily hair feature since that morning. Coastal climate does that to my hair. I don’t know why, but at the coastal regions like Cochin, Mumbai etc., almost every day becomes a bad hair day for me.
I don’t know why, but I am fascinated by heavy machinery such as cranes, planes, ships (especially air force jets) etc. I can just keep looking at them for hours (that was one reason I wanted to study mechanical engineering, but again, there is a lot in it other than this stuff. So I dropped the idea). I enjoyed watching those big cranes shift the huge and colourful containers into the cargo ships. I don’t know about others but that was a delightful sight to me. As our leisurely cruise ended, we next headed to the Broadway Market at the Marine Drive. I hate shopping except when shopping for clothes (for myself), earrings, bags or stationery and sometimes cushions (:P). But Southern fashion wasn’t a magnetic enough for me. So I let Ma shop for spices and stuff (Spices and tea are the main agricultural products of Kerela), whilst I wandered around to find a coconut free eating joint.
The day ended with all of us lying drop dead tired at our room watching the movie Guru. My eyes were carrying sand bags but I was waiting for just the right moment to hit the sack. As the dragging commercials ended, the movie resumed.
Abhishek Bachchan enters the hospital room to see his newly born twins and I make a last attempt to keep my eyes and ears open just for that moment.
Abhishek (Guru) says ‘Disha…’ and I blissfully go to sleep.
