Mystery mundu, too much chooru and fried meen

Kerala called. It said, “Aiyoo Da!” and much else but all I knew in Malayalam at the time was the expletive 'poda patti!' (stupid dog!) which would not have been a very nice reply to a friendly call.

So, I packed my bags with clothes that covered all skin; like kurtas, dupattas, salwars, jeans and thats it. Ahmedabad to Mumbai. Mumbai to Kanhangad. Kanhangad onwards, my Malayalam education took a sharp turn. I was alarmed at the varieties of 'L' sounds a language could incorporate. The series of corrections of my view of Mallu-land began with the pronunciation of Kanhangad which was not KAN-HAN-GAAD as I had assumed but KAN-UUNG-AAD. Phew! Atleast I had fried meen to comfort me.

Or so I thought. The fried fish and pappadums presented themselves on my banana leaf much to my joy. I discovered I loved pulisheri. But to my dismay, the much-loved, much-needed chapati was never available anywhere. I found shawarma in Malabar and Narsu's filter-capi in Palakkad; but all I was offered when I asked for roti was porota which is a fancy-looking, tava-fried, maidawala naan from every angle.

Sigh. Bad times.

My rendition of Ajanur beach.

The actual Ajanur beach: Kanhangad

Sigh! The good kinds also happened rather frequently. The beaches of Kanhangad and Bekal offered unusual beach experiences. I witnessed, photographed and videographed Theyyams of all kinds in one night. From the costume-making to the dancing-on-coal and the chicken-sacrificing.

Food happened to me over and over again. Extremely good food, like rice in all its forms: ediappam, idli, puttu, chooru...Maade! (Enough!) Just the memories of stews, injipuli, tapioca and toran have me salivating!

In case you are wondering what happened to the mundus. I found them. Regular mundus, Narsimha mundus, Shabrimalai mundus and disco mundus. I only bought the Narsimha mundus. What skirts they will make!

The search for perfect mundu led me through Palakkad town. Gold-filled are its streets, has anyone ever mentioned? Even with shades at seven in the evening I was blinded by the bling of the multi-storeyed jewellery shops selling gold. I almost walked into one of the jewellery “malls” till I took stock of my situation: dirty jeans, faded kurta, empty wallet...

Mystery mundu, too much chooru, kappa-meen in Mallu-land,

The tharavad of Kanhangad, The starfish in Bekal's sand...

For more photographs and sketches from this trip click here.