These are my lines and hence I am the hero.
Other minor characters:
Maman: Praveen, with whom I am traveling.
Vipin: Vipin is with us too on the trip.
Pattar: Arun, whose wedding we are going.
Manjith: We are attending his reception too, on the day before Arun’s wedding.
Sajan: Joined us during the second half of the journey, for the weddings.
Sreenivasan: Great Malayalam movie actor; aint got a role in here but am quoting him generously.
Jagathy Sreekumar: Great Malayalam movie actor; aint got a role in here but am quoting him generously.
Suresh Gopi: Great Malayalam movie actor; aint got a role in here but am quoting him a lil less generously.
Arun (henceforth addressed as Pattar) is in his new avatar. Haven’t really tried to observe the family man in him but am sure he’ll come up to speed and let the wind blow through his hair. But more interesting part is the three days we spent anticipating the ceremony and the ultimate verbal post-mortem of it thereafter.
I had planned a similar trip with Praveen (henceforth addressed as maman) a couple of years back and Bangalore flooded like never before, cars floating and the mortal Anoop wading the dirty waters in the Infosys bus towards Yeshwantpur first and then on foot back with a glimmer of hope of catching the train to Calicut at Hosur with maman in it. With the ticket in my hand and a lot of desperation in my mind, grossly failed to make it and left Praveer to the general compartment rush or to the mercy of a sleeper coach TT, don’t know which.
19th April, two days before Pattar’s wedding
With the common factors of maman and me, and with clear memories of the same, naively unaware of the climate outside but with an almost accurate anticipation of it I set foot outside. It was pouring and the poor auto driver charged the poor Anoop double meter and took an hour to cover 5 kilometer. Gosh, it sucks to plan it with maman.
From then till getting into the bus was quite uneventful, and I was quite happy that I could trick Vipin to reach madivala an hour before departure which otherwise would have happened and hour and a half later. But soon after that we realized there is a lot of luggage waiting to go up the bus. Start delayed by 90 mins. Salem (Selam? Salem? Has there been a spell error that has been carried over for centuries?) had more surprises, we were stranded for 2 hrs in the middle of nowhere – some freaky accident. Like we have all seen in the “swearing-in-ceremony, pha pulle, uchishtam, amedhyam, ” movies in Malayalam, Valayar check-post is the nucleus of action – lost another hour. Having missed two square meals in a row, my stomach was growling, almost inviting my fellow travelers to turn around till we reached Palakkad at 12 noon, a good 5 hrs delayed.
20th April, the day before the wedding
The first two hotels were booked out, checked into the third and after some elaborate meals (Raw rice, fish curry, fish fry, sides – palakkad style) stretched to the cool AC breeze. Later during the evening, maman and I repeat, maman started watching “Blood Diamond”. Having promised Manjith that we would arrive in Trissur by 6 pm, we started off from our room at 5:30 planning to choose a gift and travel 65kms in the next 30 mins. Maman and me, and our way with the devil got the rain gods pouring down again, and we reached Trissur at 9:30 pm. Fortunately the first highlight of the day, we were treated to my favourite cuisine with servings in plates, glasses and narrow-neck bottles of the “keep walking” and “life is calling, where are you?” fame and the second highlight of the day, Sajan joined us there. Had a great time on Manjith’s terrace, gave him our blessings and left him before he could kick us out. Well, the night before weddings are really tiring you know. Ask me. An expensive amby took us back to Palakkad, maman dozing off on my right shoulder and Sajan on my left; and me on my chest.
21st April, day of the wedding
7 am, having postponed Pattar’s gift for the morning of the wedding-day, thought of waking up a lil early and buying a pair of double kasavu mundu for me and Vipin. Buy we did, but couldn’t make it to the wedding before 10, missed all the action. Drooled on stories of pattar toppling off the swing and attempting a trip to Kashi - a figment of imagination, a rather convincing enough one. We had our share in an awesome feast. Wedding is over, Pattar is in his new avatar.
As planned, we took off to Mannarkkad, the serene greens of palakkad, rows of coconut trees (ofcourse this is keralam, buddy) strewn between massive rubber estates (damn, this is Christian country too, buddy) with big houses in the middle. They look beautiful when it rains. Humble people ambling through the narrow guttered road leading to the kanhiramukku dam, painting a Sathyan Anthikad picture of the old times when the state was the only employer (“Don’t you dare talk about Poland”). But things are quite different these days, mind you exactly when you pity them for not being able to make a high flyer like yourself, you’ll be equally pitied for struggling so hard to make it. What makes kerala what it is today are its “humble” rich people. Humble maman’s humble abode had some 7 bedrooms, two balconies, and couple of rooms overlooking the lonely road to the dam and the wet estates around it. The humble abode had two permanent residents in it.
A stroll in the night to the dam and back, an awesome dinner and some 2+ hrs of chatting in the balcony with feet stretched out was good enough recipe for a great night’s sleep. Early morning “kurbana” – (damn, am not going), what would have happened of pattar? Will he collapse out of tension? Will he stand near the window opposite the wall with a rose in hand, “Shyame, ninakkettavum ishtapetta niramethanu?” arun’s mom, “eda dinesha, poi panthalukarkku kashu koduthu videda”. Will he cuddle up and doze off with a pillow, and a tv remote in one hand? What if there is a power outage? Will he scare his wife? Or will he do a Jagathy in Meleparambil Aanveedu? Nan.. err.. unn err… punnak…ai…manna…an, God save pattarrrrrrrrrrrzzzzz…..zz……
Other minor characters:
Maman: Praveen, with whom I am traveling.
Vipin: Vipin is with us too on the trip.
Pattar: Arun, whose wedding we are going.
Manjith: We are attending his reception too, on the day before Arun’s wedding.
Sajan: Joined us during the second half of the journey, for the weddings.
Sreenivasan: Great Malayalam movie actor; aint got a role in here but am quoting him generously.
Jagathy Sreekumar: Great Malayalam movie actor; aint got a role in here but am quoting him generously.
Suresh Gopi: Great Malayalam movie actor; aint got a role in here but am quoting him a lil less generously.
Arun (henceforth addressed as Pattar) is in his new avatar. Haven’t really tried to observe the family man in him but am sure he’ll come up to speed and let the wind blow through his hair. But more interesting part is the three days we spent anticipating the ceremony and the ultimate verbal post-mortem of it thereafter.I had planned a similar trip with Praveen (henceforth addressed as maman) a couple of years back and Bangalore flooded like never before, cars floating and the mortal Anoop wading the dirty waters in the Infosys bus towards Yeshwantpur first and then on foot back with a glimmer of hope of catching the train to Calicut at Hosur with maman in it. With the ticket in my hand and a lot of desperation in my mind, grossly failed to make it and left Praveer to the general compartment rush or to the mercy of a sleeper coach TT, don’t know which.
19th April, two days before Pattar’s wedding
With the common factors of maman and me, and with clear memories of the same, naively unaware of the climate outside but with an almost accurate anticipation of it I set foot outside. It was pouring and the poor auto driver charged the poor Anoop double meter and took an hour to cover 5 kilometer. Gosh, it sucks to plan it with maman.
From then till getting into the bus was quite uneventful, and I was quite happy that I could trick Vipin to reach madivala an hour before departure which otherwise would have happened and hour and a half later. But soon after that we realized there is a lot of luggage waiting to go up the bus. Start delayed by 90 mins. Salem (Selam? Salem? Has there been a spell error that has been carried over for centuries?) had more surprises, we were stranded for 2 hrs in the middle of nowhere – some freaky accident. Like we have all seen in the “swearing-in-ceremony, pha pulle, uchishtam, amedhyam, ” movies in Malayalam, Valayar check-post is the nucleus of action – lost another hour. Having missed two square meals in a row, my stomach was growling, almost inviting my fellow travelers to turn around till we reached Palakkad at 12 noon, a good 5 hrs delayed.
20th April, the day before the wedding
The first two hotels were booked out, checked into the third and after some elaborate meals (Raw rice, fish curry, fish fry, sides – palakkad style) stretched to the cool AC breeze. Later during the evening, maman and I repeat, maman started watching “Blood Diamond”. Having promised Manjith that we would arrive in Trissur by 6 pm, we started off from our room at 5:30 planning to choose a gift and travel 65kms in the next 30 mins. Maman and me, and our way with the devil got the rain gods pouring down again, and we reached Trissur at 9:30 pm. Fortunately the first highlight of the day, we were treated to my favourite cuisine with servings in plates, glasses and narrow-neck bottles of the “keep walking” and “life is calling, where are you?” fame and the second highlight of the day, Sajan joined us there. Had a great time on Manjith’s terrace, gave him our blessings and left him before he could kick us out. Well, the night before weddings are really tiring you know. Ask me. An expensive amby took us back to Palakkad, maman dozing off on my right shoulder and Sajan on my left; and me on my chest.
21st April, day of the wedding
7 am, having postponed Pattar’s gift for the morning of the wedding-day, thought of waking up a lil early and buying a pair of double kasavu mundu for me and Vipin. Buy we did, but couldn’t make it to the wedding before 10, missed all the action. Drooled on stories of pattar toppling off the swing and attempting a trip to Kashi - a figment of imagination, a rather convincing enough one. We had our share in an awesome feast. Wedding is over, Pattar is in his new avatar.
As planned, we took off to Mannarkkad, the serene greens of palakkad, rows of coconut trees (ofcourse this is keralam, buddy) strewn between massive rubber estates (damn, this is Christian country too, buddy) with big houses in the middle. They look beautiful when it rains. Humble people ambling through the narrow guttered road leading to the kanhiramukku dam, painting a Sathyan Anthikad picture of the old times when the state was the only employer (“Don’t you dare talk about Poland”). But things are quite different these days, mind you exactly when you pity them for not being able to make a high flyer like yourself, you’ll be equally pitied for struggling so hard to make it. What makes kerala what it is today are its “humble” rich people. Humble maman’s humble abode had some 7 bedrooms, two balconies, and couple of rooms overlooking the lonely road to the dam and the wet estates around it. The humble abode had two permanent residents in it.
A stroll in the night to the dam and back, an awesome dinner and some 2+ hrs of chatting in the balcony with feet stretched out was good enough recipe for a great night’s sleep. Early morning “kurbana” – (damn, am not going), what would have happened of pattar? Will he collapse out of tension? Will he stand near the window opposite the wall with a rose in hand, “Shyame, ninakkettavum ishtapetta niramethanu?” arun’s mom, “eda dinesha, poi panthalukarkku kashu koduthu videda”. Will he cuddle up and doze off with a pillow, and a tv remote in one hand? What if there is a power outage? Will he scare his wife? Or will he do a Jagathy in Meleparambil Aanveedu? Nan.. err.. unn err… punnak…ai…manna…an, God save pattarrrrrrrrrrrzzzzz…..zz……
