A Trip Down South

I just got back from a trip to Kerala (my native), and I haven’t felt this way before.

In one word, it’s heavenly. Totally!

Look right, left, up or down, it’s all green. When you look up, coconut tree is what blocks your sight from looking at the sky.

And of-course, mountains, lots of mountains caressed by the clouds.

These sights were quite normal to me. It often made me wonder, why are people so crazy about this place? Visiting Kerala was just another boring trip. For me it was a state full of HUGE mosquitoes. A LOT of them. They will suck your blood till the last drop. But then, there is much more to this place. And now watching Discovery seems too mainstream. Once in Kerala, just look around. You’ll find many unidentified objects; insects to be more precise. Apart from the ugly bloodsucking mosquitoes, you’ll find ultra huge spiders, caterpillars, bugs, grasshoppers, butterflies, exotic birds sitting on your rooftop, rats and more flying objects. Once you realize how calm and non-harmful they are, you’ll start loving the stay. Snakes and elephants are a common sight.

Every house will have a basket full of coconuts plucked from their backyard and jack-fruits too and how can we forget the fresh banana chips fried in coconut oil !

If you are here and you haven’t had coffee, you are missing something BIG in life !

If you have assumed that Kerala means non-veg food, you are ridiculously wrong. Most of the households cook pure veg food, for instance rice, sambar, appam, idli, dosa, rasam and so on. Typically! Non-veg food is cooked on rare occasions. Festivals and important dates are celebrated with veg food to keep it pure and holy.

Being born and brought up in Ahmedabad, I find the tea in Kerala absolutely ridiculous and that is one thing I don’t like about this place. The milk here is too thin and tea is too mild.

Visiting Kerala during summer can be the worst mistake you make. Best time to visit would be monsoon (Mid June).

There are ample farms which will make even the longest of walks, worth it. The soothing sights will keep you from getting tired.

A good amount of people here know Hindi and you can always rely on English for a communication. Humans here are genuine and polite. They love to talk and are enthu to help you out.

They like fat people more. Keralites believe that humans should have enough flesh and fat in them to survive. They will make you eat everything edible to make you fat. This time when I thought of dieting in Kerala, people said I was too thin and need to eat more. 

Men comfortably riding bike in lungi is a common sight. Quite a few of them wear it to office as well. You might find this funny, but it is a tradition best accepted.

Flats and towers are latest entries with sky rocketing maintenance charges. There are more of bungalows. You will find the finest architectural structures here. It will leave you awestruck. The colors, the design of houses are spellboundingly amazing.

Street cats and dogs are a part of the family. They roam around in houses and nobody minds. If you find them sleeping besides you on your bed in the morning, it’s normal!

God's own country? Definitely! A destination to rejuvenate. 

She’s a bitch...

What’s the logic behind saying that? We all must have used it once, right?

You call somebody a dog when angry. He’s a bloody dog (kutta to be more precise); she’s a shameless bitch! We humans have made dog & bitch a swear word. In reality, they are the best creatures, better than us humans, aren’t they?

Dog, a man’s best friend, the best companion, trustworthy, doesn’t understand the language of words but understands the language of feelings better, patient, never complains, loyal. We don’t find much loyalty these days. But dogs, they can never be disloyal to their masters.

Only good qualities to give out, but still humans have a negative thought about them when called a dog. What's wrong with you human?

Next time somebody says, ‘Kutta hai tu’, smile back and say ‘Thank you.’

Positivity is everywhere, we just need to find it :)

Some dreams are unforgettable...

It was a stressful day at work. After falling on the bed like a dead bird, I never realized when sleep caught me as I recalled my day loaded with work.

The dream that night:

It’s a desert. I am sitting on my desk, the same desk at office. I am typing something, my eyes on the computer & my fingers rapidly running through the keyboard. Suddenly I feel strange and look around. It’s all sand & huge mountains. The sky is dark yet there is light where I am sitting. Leaving aside all the work, I push my rolling chair backwards & stand up to figure out where I was & what was going on. I look around & then walk towards my desk. The wires from the pc behind are coming out of the ground like roots of a tree. The first funny thought I get is, where is the electricity coming from? I looked around again & this time with fearful eyes. Trying to spot a human around whom I can go up to, but the place is alienated. I find no signs of life. Am I the only human left in the world?

I thought I’d close my eyes for a minute, relax & then things will get back to normal. I do so. Nothing happens. It strikes me; maybe I can get to communicate to someone the situation online through my pc. As I walk slowly towards my desk trying to take in the situation I am in, think of ways to get out of it. Taking a seat & a long deep breath I try login in on the internet. It doesn't work. Is this a trick? What am I doing in a desert with my office desk & no internet?  There has to be a way out. Next thing I know is, I am running, running all over the place. I try to shout but there are no words coming out. And I realize the lack of speech. I cannot talk, because I have no reason to, because there is nobody to hear me.

A change is going to occur says my intuition. The first thing I notice is the milky brown sand is gradually turning into liquid, it melts. The huge mountains, they are flowing down, the way chocolate flows down from a chocolate fountain. The sky is turning pink, purple, and orange. The colors mix together and pour down. It was a sign. It was the end. I am the last human. I get to see the world end. There’s a wide hole where I am standing, right beneath my feet. I am floating in the air. The hole swallows everything that passes through it, the sand, the mountains and the sky. It’s all gone, it’s black. The kind of black my office keyboard is. Fear, is the last feeling I experience before I get swallowed in too.

That fear, woke me up. I felt relieved like never before. My phone beeped. After a horrible dream, the message made me smile. It was a message from my boss. I was promoted from being a junior to a senior.