Bit of sweet, bit of spice

 When someone asks me about my stay in Kerala, I always say that it was not pleasant at all. Two seconds later, I would be praising Kerala’s natural beauty and appam( a dosa like thing). When I look back, I feel Kerala was the best thing that ever happened to me.

 It was my first time, I was staying outside home. Kottayam is not like Chennai, Delhi or Bangalore. It’s a town in southern Kerala where everyone is either addicted to studies or church. 

Kerala made me way tougher than I could have possibly imagined. The language barrier, strict rules , hostel regulations , having no one close to give a call, made me independent.

Transition from a city to a town is difficult to adapt and we girls had a hard time coping up to that. I don’t understand whether it was Kerala or because it was small town, locals were more interested in knowing what was going on in our lives.  We had to reach hostel even before sunset while our counter-parts in other IIMCs were having the time of their life. I feel it made us more mature and responsible citizens.

It was here, the dirty word ‘politics’ that I normally heard it on roadies surfaced. Even though, I  remained quite obnoxious before to all these events it did hamper me then. Politics was everywhere and everyone had their own agenda. Most of it remained concealed under the ‘burkha’. One can imagine how the body looks like but can’t feel or see it what remains under it.

 In Kerala, I learned to stay within limited means. My beloved “Momos” costed around 170 rupees in Tonico Café . I can’t shell out that much money on dumplings when I was not sure how will they taste?

Kerala taught me that if I need to do something, I better make my own space rather than trying to change the environment.    

I fell in love with Tamil and Malayalam songs even though I never understood a word of it. But that is how music is supposed to be right?  Everything in Kerala resembles peace. Everyone’s favourite colour is white until Nivin Pauly made black shirt sexy. Even though Kerala is peaceful but something tells me that something is not quite right here. It feels like there is frustration beneath every smiling face.

For the most of our stay in Kerala, we were discouraged from travelling . But, we did travel after we returned  to Kerala. We became actual backpackers. At one point of time in Munnar, we literally didn’t have any place to stay for the night. However, out of the blue a person who runs a home-stay approached us and finally we had shelter.  Here in Mumbai , I find myself comparing the beaches of  Mumbai to that of  Kerala every time. It feels like I left a bit of  myself in Varkala and Kovalam.

Here, I became a believer from a hard-core atheist. I learned how to pray for myself , ask the universe  what I wanted even if it didn’t add to world peace. After shunning places of worship for such a long time, churches and temples felt like a great place to visit. I didn’t become religious or anything of that sort.

Now, when people ask me why did I choose Kerala , I answer because I wanted it, I choose Kottayam as my second IIMC option. I could have been easily stayed in Aizawal (where I initially got) . It is hardly 12 hour bus journey from Guwahati but instead I choose Kerala. Maybe it is in my personality to walk the tougher road or maybe Kerala choose me,

I will never know.