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Soaking in the beauty of rain, watching the swaying trees through the windows of the canteen, with a hot glass of tea in one hand and Paripuvada in the other. Hufff... Hot Tea + Paripuvada + Drizzling rain makes such a wonderful combo!

The minute we say Tea and ParipuVada, mind pictures the roadside tea stall with people sitting on the wooden benches and having hot discussions about all the things under the sun. Right from children to old age, street vendors to star hotels, roadside chitchats to VIP meetings, it plays an inevitable role. The campus hosts a small mess consisting of 4 chairs each around rectangular wooden tables. White fumes which come from a hot tea glass and tea dust on its top, which are served by 'smileless' Bihari boys. They just stare, won't smile back!! Crrrunchy, gummy, golden colored, crisp outside and soft inside, paripuvada, which is actually called lentil/dal fritters in English, makes your mouth watering. Moreover, its price sounds good for miserable people too. In campus canteens, Tea with a snack (Chaya+Kadi) costs just Rs.8.00! These won’t cause warning eyebrows, looking at overpriced bills like in McDonald's and Dominos. Moreover, its calories sound good for health-conscious people. Together it will come around 150 calories only. Paripuvada and hot tea makes make an incomparable pair, which is an evergreen favorite, as well as a healthy evening snack for the majority of the Keralities. I can think about the condition if Tea and Paripuvada is banned in Kerala, like Beef banned in Maharshtra! I am sure we will be doing a hunger strike will we succeed.

   As someone said, Where there is Tea, there is Hope. Yes, let's have a cup of tea with paripuvada and continue to talk about Happy Things... :) :)

#Being #Veggie

Yes, being vegetarian isn't a big topic to think about, but it really made me think a lot when I moved to Malappuram district.

​The change from college student to a working atmosphere was a step to independence with much hope. Making new friends, a new atmosphere, being away from home, the new taste of food, the climate and many more aspects were really challenging.

'Vegetarianism' seems to sound smooth and good, but 'being Vegetarian' is not as black and white, but has shades of gray. 

The hostel I stay in gives non-veg food too. On my 'fresher' days, say I say, 'I am a Vegetarian'  to my fellow hostelites. Later I will be forced to answer all the 'wh' questions and 'if's & but's arise.

Where ever I go for food, I ask twice for veg food to conform and as a reply, I get free advice to have non-veg food. Lack of protein, under weight, unhealthy, could not survive in society, and the advice list goes on & on...

Few appreciate it, while some others feel pity as I can't taste this delicious non-veg food. Anyway, I am truly proud of being so. The reason for being vegetarian is not just parental causes, but also because of animal love, health bothers and to be different from others. 

Train Number 22610

It is a cold Monday morning. I sat down to write the column on Palakkad railway station. Announcements, sounds of vendors, train horns, which geared me to pen this.

I am never drenched in the bare beauty of sunrise on Mondays as I always rush to get ready, pack my bag, to catch a train and the sense of being in a hurry. Railway station is a place where people don’t have time to greet familiar faces, as all are in A hurry to run towards their respective seats when the train arrives.

The train is my new dining hall on wheels. I finish breakfast well ahead of everyone else and eat in bigger bits without savoring the taste of food in just not to stand in queue in front of a wash basin. Another war between passengers is how to arrange baggage and luggage on top. Even stuff in all these stuff, views of roadways from railways are always mesmerizing. Beautiful landscapes which look like a captivating green carpet. At times, I feel the fresh breeze of rain romance; a sensuous touch of Mother Nature. But certainly this is not my journey to relish. Yet I start loving it as the day’s passes. Sweaty summer, cool autumn and chill rainy days change the mood of travel. One thing that never changed in the station, I heard,

Train Number 22610 Coimbatore – Mangalore Intercity Express is expected to arrive at platform number 2.

NH 47

Transformation was like anyone else from puberty stage to young women. NH 47 is currently undergoing conversion to 4 lanes, with some sections being converted to 6 lanes. At this stage, curves and curls make her more beautiful. Teenage pimples can be compared with dust and pits, which is going to make her more pretty later (I believe). As there is mist and fog in foreign countries which makes traffic hard, here it is dust which makes it hard to drive.

           Even if I travel along the same road every day to my college, every single journey teaches something new. NH 47 was getting ready day by day for being a bride. Kerala road journeys are hectic most of the time. It’s actually a nightmare to drive in, as drivers are expected to switch sides very frequently, and struggle under half-built flyovers. To add to the problems, the usable sections have poorly marked lanes, and access to petrol bunkers, shops, restaurants etc. are very limited and hard to find. Certain junctions are unpaved, and the high traffic density only adds to the problems.  Even though many trees were cut down for widening the road, there is a desperate need for infrastructure uplift to overcome traffic problems. The traffic on this stretch comprises trucks carrying consumer goods, construction materials, container trucks and passenger vehicles. Though it can be exhausting and rough, the best way to experience God’s own country is on its roads. The fancy brand-new highways, the interior roads, the small towns along the way, cows, flocks of sheep, goats that always have right of way, paddy fields, trees, landscapes that soothe the eyes and smiles that soothe the soul.

Sorry Tree...

I heard an awful noise. Someone had started to chop her down.

‘She is no more’. 

Still remember the days we friends played cards, caroms and chess in her shadow. We hide behind her. She beautifully swayed with the rhythm of the wind; branches bent downward and made every existence joyful. She was home to many birds and animals. In my childhood days, my grandma taught me to worship trees, water them every day and to plant more. But I don’t know why she said to cut it down into pieces?

Later I found the reason. Carpenter was carving it and making its hard rough bark into a smoother one for making a cot. Wood turned to artistic shapes and reformed as a shining cot. I was asked to lay down on it, as it is healthy to sleep on a Neem-made cot. I lay down. Tears wet my pillow. 

‘I am remorse for being rude, selfish and killing you’.

‘I regret’.

Language Problem!

         Even if we never go to England, it's necessary to know English for certain reasons ; to impress an English teacher in school, to get internal marks, to get a white colored job, to impress freaky girls, and more important, to ‘show off’. English has a significant role in India, as it plays a ‘bridge’ role between different Indian languages. It is found everywhere textbooks to songs, from films to religion. If one speaks in English, there will be 2 types of misunderstanding judgments by common person. Either he is ‘showing off’ and arrogant, or he is smart and genius! When  an immigrant comes to our place, first we name him as ‘Hindi wala’, ‘Bengali’, ’Tamilian’ and so on. Later we started talking about him. Meanwhile, politics, global warming, love gossip step down to the second option!           Being from an immigrant family to Kerala, I suffered a lot as I am poor in all languages! Native language at home, the local language outside home, our own official language English in some places, heritage language like Sanskrit and the National language on the other hand!! As mixed languages is top fashion now a days, it’s not an issue to know any languages in good manner. English is more than enough to survive in India. With a lot of confidence, we make our ‘own style’ of English also! There we mallu stands first. Mother tongue pull is evident when Malayalees open their mouth to speak English. For sure, ‘mallu’ is never going to speak in good English until our English teacher stops teaching English in Malayalam.

KSRTC Pass

 KSRTC buses were neither gentle nor smart. They were simply big and slow. Too big to manage and too slow to adapt. Getting a KSRTC student pass is as tough as reaching top of the Everest top! That was an ecstatic feeling when I got past after a year of hard work. It was essential for me to get a student pass while going to college on KSRTC bus, as it helps to avoid the rush on private buses and I was fed up of hearing shouts from private bus ‘kilees’(not everyone). These guys seem to drive like maniacs to make up for time ’lost’ by picking up passengers and have horns that can wake up the dead bodies. Even in situations where the traffic is slow/stuck because of obstruction, they keep blasting horns as if that would melt traffic. When you board the bus, i.e. your toes touch it; the cleaner/conductor blocks his hands on the door in such a way that you don’t fall and whistle at the same time. If you don’t get down from the bus that moment you hear the whistle, then you’re sure to get down off in the next stop. To avoid these things, fortunately/unfortunately, I was the one who gave a full charge of Rs 25/- on the KSRTC bus for a year and sponsored my money to overcome a negative revenue-expenditure gap of around 55 crore rupees every month!! 

      At last, Finally, I started my royal journey on a KSRTC bus, being a student pass holder. Some travels were interesting, some were sleepy and a few were irritating because of over-chatty co-passengers, snoring, and arm wrestling for the arm rest, honking in the middle of my sleep or at the reading time. But still, travel becomes more interesting when couples get into it and start doing their ‘duty’ by forgetting about the circumstance.  Nothing much, we will get a prey to talk about within friends circle. We have only two KSRTC buses which accept student passes in the morning and in the evening. Most of the time, none of the buses will take off at the correct time. So we wait for a long time to catch it and it’s our only option! As there is a saying, ‘Good things come to those who wait’. We wait, we love it too.