Reality Check

Kerala trip was nostalgic, refreshing and an eye opener in a lot of ways. Landed there early in the morning and took a cab home. I spent most of the day inside the apartment cleaning and dusting it. Later in the evening I stood by the balcony that overlooked a busy street. There were two wheelers, autos, cars and buses all honking their way through in a completely disorganised fashion. What caught my attention was the road work that was going on below our apartment. There was a little kid sitting on a pile of red sand dug out red sand and holding on to what seemed like a piece of fruit that he had picked up from the streets. His father was busy working and his mother was chopping down plants in in order to clear the area. I wasnt exacly shocked because I have seen such scenarios in the past during my time in Kerala. I realized yet again that life is'nt all about that 100K dollar job or that M5 that has been on my wish list for ages. For some life is all about survival, that too one day at a time. For some it's about having clean water to drink and having atleast one square meal a day. For some its about being able to afford to send their little ones to school. For some it's about getting a new plastic sheet to cover the roof of their house in the slums so that water does not drip in on a rainy day. These are luxuries in their lives which most of us take for granted.

There was a lot of rain during the week -
I enjoyed listening to the rain sitting by the window. It was quite soothing to take breaths of the fresh moist air after the rain. You instantly feel a lot relaxed. One of the days I took a drive down to the village where I used to live when I was a kid. If felt nice to wander around the streets where I used to run around and play with other kids. I recalled that one of our hobbies during rainly seasons was to built paper boats of different shapes and set if afloat at one end of a flowing stream and see which one reaches the other end first. We used to run alongside our boats all the way to the other end. Those were the carefree childhood days. I even visited the little school where I had done my primary schooling - now it was shut down and deserted but I enjoyed a stroll through the bushy unkempt area which at one time used to be out playground bustling with action. *sigh*

On the drive back I stopped by one of the street side "nariyal pani" or "karikku vellam" shop. He charged 12 Rs per coconut which I thought was outrageous considering the fact that there are more coconut trees in Kerala than humans. Later he told me about how he has a knack for selecting the sweet ones by just tapping on the outer shell of the coconut. Amazing!

Visited a lot of temples and villages, attended a wedding and a reception and ran into a lot of relatives from different parts of Central Kerala. Finally it was time to go back and as I checked in for my flight I felt a bit of sadness creeping in as I felt I was leaving a place to which I belong. I never felt this way about my country before - hmm.. may be its the age catching up with me? As I walk into the lounge at the Cochin airport I see a different breed of people who are all busy scrolling away on their Blackberries or glued to their laptops while waiting on their cafe latte with skimmed milk.

I long to go back.