Being Malayali





I always wanted to write of something called the stirring of blood, the sense of belonging, the over exaggeration and blustering. All about BEING MALAYALI!

I cannot let go this part of ‘being myself’, the sense of a typical Malayali and I’m particularly pompous about it, in fact that’s the only part of me that still exists without any amendment. I can see the vigor in my eyes and joy in my heart when I meet my people somewhere on my most unexpected toll road and there’s no crisis in me to launch a conversation and there I go with the first and foremost question   “ naatil evideya? ” and then we’ll find some connection from our prehistoric ancestry and the joy is colossal for us both!

I cannot let go Dasan and Vijayan ,Oru piece vellathil poyatha, Still Photographer Nishchal, Kilometers and Kilometers, Kochinte peru Maala…Maala,Ma..ma..ma allenkil venda mattangathalaya, Etramanoharamaya acharangal ; the dialogues that pops into many discussions, anything and everything that made me laugh that I lost breath and end up crying with joy. I still remember the days we waited anxiously for ‘ Chitrageetham’ and that Sunday evening movies. 

‘ Aaarkum enthum parayam pakshe polandine kurich aarum oraksharam parayaruth’, that’s the true Malayali  sipping a glass of kallu worrying about Cuba and Poland and having tattukada conference over tea and dosa. We can blow your horns when it comes to our hundred percent literacy and Kerala model development. Oh yeah Gulf means our second home and Sharjah shake is our official favorite drink, what’s your problem? Don’t judge us with our cult; we’ll never ever pardon you! Yes, we come from the land of coconuts and we love coconut, actually a lot but that doesn’t mean that we use coconut in each and all and if you hate it then don’t vacation in Kerala.  If you want to enjoy the true taste of Kerala then keep aside your ego and walk into our Tattukada, you avoid it thinking its unhealthy then I call you stupid.

A bowl of chammanti ,rice, pulisheri and fish curry with mango can make us lose our self control, we eat majestically from morning first light to evening last star and we are proud that we celebrate Onam like the world’s prime festival and we are very much malleable to anything around us you can discover a Malayali beside you even in your trip to moon; if you have some problem about it we can’t help it .

What is so undesirable about the ‘ mallu look’? Yes we put coconut oil on our head not as much as most of you inflate. Having a big moustache and wearing ‘pink lunki’ is not the exact Malayali look as some idiots popularize.  Can you say “zha” correctly? We watch Tamil, Malayalam, Hindi ,Telugu, Kashmiri and even Iranian movie a day.

Think before you abuse us because we’re everywhere around the world, we understand almost every language under the sun ( actually we pretend, shhhh! we figure out at least from the facial expression) ,don’t judge us by the images and videos you get on Google and we are not Madrasis , we are Malayalies!

PS: These are my literal views, if anyone has a problem, I can’ help it!