heavenly hosts

i have to take a minute to say a word about the people of kerala. they are incredibly hospitable. this is not to say that all indians are not - certainly they are. but it's just that bombay is a big, busy city and people tend to leave you alone (which is usually appreciated). but in kerala.. people bend over backwards (sometimes literally - if you're in a bus, say) to help you out and make sure you're alright. what proof of this do i have, you say? i'm so glad you asked.

gauri laughing

exhibit a: i stayed with my (now) friend rekha for four nights in thrissur. i say now friend because i hadn't even met her until a few weeks ago. she's a friend of a friend of a friend i met in richmond but we began corresponding by email and over the weeks and months and eventually we met in kerala. unfortunately circumstances had changed over time and by the time i arrived her father was very ill and had just been discharged from the hospital. this made me feel awful being there and rekha feel guilty for not showing me around during onam. somehow we made the best of the situation and even managed to have some fun despite it all -  trading spanish and hindi lessons or discussing bollywood movies. i was welcomed by her family and greeted immediately by her niece with a big smile and a 'glenna chechi!' (chechi = sister) in between it all i was taken to various onam events around town - including one where i was honored as their special guest and given a gift. when i left i really did feel like part of the family

exhibit b: in traveling around kerala i've been on my share of transportation (trains, car, buses, boats, rickshaws..) the most daunting of these is surely the bus, due in no small part to the names and numbers written in incomprehensible malayalam squiggles (which look to me something like 'MMWLCM'). yet every time i found myself at a bus stand i asked an attendant, or failing that, a random person how to get to a city i was told exactly what bus to get on and, usually, the next stop (invariably something long starting with a 'k') where i'd have to get down and transfer. once i talked to a friendly family with two small adorably sleepy children who, after getting down at one stop, asked around and put me on a rickshaw to the other bus stand nearby so i wouldn't have to wait 50 minutes for the bus where we were.

the hills outside kottayam

exhibit c: i arrived in kottayam and was urged to meet with a friend of rekha's. you remember, the girl i had met only a week before. she assured me that her friend jennifer would help me out. sure enough, she and her father met me at the bus stand and asked what i'd like to see in the city (i was staying with them, that much was explicitly understood). i said that i was interested in seeing the churches and, in passing, mentioned that i had heard there was a waterfall not too far that i had hoped to see. before i knew it, we were on the road towards thekkady, passing through rolling hills and deep green valleys. and hour and a half later, we reached the waterfall, enjoyed for a few moments, and then a rainbow greeted us on our way back. that night after returning to kottayam the driver dutifully took us to all the main churches in kottayam so i could see them.

the next day i spent at their beautiful home. while i would have elected to do this, i didn't really have a choice. see, that day kerala was on strike. literally. the transportation in all of kerala came to a halt - no buses, trains, motorcycles, autos - nothing. the logistics of that alone boggles the mind. can you imagine anyone trying to orchestrate a strike like that in virginia? impossible. at any rate we spent the day watching tv, eating sweets and walking through the rubber tree plantations that populate the area.

exhibit d: i went to calicut for two reasons, chief among them being that my flight left from there. the secondary reason i went was to see a professor - a colleague of my advisor's who's the head of the folklore department in the university. well what with hours of bus rides i didn't arrive in the city until just after 5pm. i was told that professor varmaraja had just left but within minutes i was put on the phone with him, and about ten minutes after that i was in his car on the way to his house. i was treated to dinner in his home - dosas, pickles, maggi, banana chips (of course), and any other snacks they could find - and given a tour of their home. (highlights: the indoor swing, the verandah over the jasmine bushes, and playing with their harmonizer - like an indian accordion)

(see what i mean about the alphabet?)

as if this was not enough they took me into town later that evening. at 8 we left to see the city (pretty unheard of in kerala, since things tend to shut down after dark) i was given the option to see the 'giant wheel' - which turned out to be a ferris wheel. much smaller than ours but a heck of a lot faster. my stomach felt like it dropped out with every revolution. when i and their 14-year old son got down it was announced: 'we will go to a movie'. my protestations fell on deaf ears and i was carted along to my first movie in india - in malayalam. 'it will be an experience', i was told. well that was true enough. not surprisingly, the 3 words i learned in malayalam (that would be 'hello', 'thank you' and 'water') did me very little good. i was still able to follow the story since it was so simple and over-acted. it seems i got the authentic mallu movie experience - complete with brief power outage (immediately followed by a din of whooping from the audience below), goofy fight scenes with super-cheesy sound effects and an intermission where more snacks were forced upon me. after the movie it was decided 'we will go for ice cream'. no matter that it was nearly midnight and i was stuffed to capacity. a mixed fruit falooda was ordered for me (ice cream with little noodles, i suppose is the best way to describe it) and somehow i managed to eat the whole thing. after all this they still insisted on driving me to the airport in the morning, even stopping for banana chips along the way. a wonderful ending to my journey in kerala and yet another example of the peoples' generous nature.

i suppose i shouldn't be surprised. after all, kerala is 'god's own country'. and in india, 'guest is god'.