Vim & Kerala

Vim & Kerala

Recently, I was having tea with some of my friends. One of them is from Tamilnadu and some are from Calcutta. During the conversation, I realized we Keralites have a long standing relationship with Vim! How I realized it was when I cracked a joke regarding Vim and only my malayalee friend laughed. The others did not get it.

For those of you who have stayed long enough in Kerala or know Kerala well, you would have already got the joke I am referring to. For others, let me explain. The joke goes like this. In Malayalam, it is “Enikku Vim kalakki Kodukkan thonni!”. In a bit of pretentious English, it goes like this “I felt like offering a drink laced with Vim!”. This sentence doesn’t ring a bell in any other part of the country. Only people from Kerala get the context of it.

The context is that if there is a person whom you are not very fond of and you want to exercise that displeasure, one of the ways of conveying the displeasure is by saying the above statement. Here, the intention is not to kill the person but you dislike the person enough to create a large degree of discomfort or an upset stomach J.

We Keralites are very good hosts. But during a visit to kerala and you hear ‘Vim’ in the conversation, just be a bit careful will you? J

The Question to Gulf Malayalee

The Question to Gulf Malayalee

A large population of Kerala is in Gulf so much so that at least one member of the family will be somewhere in the middle east.

A person coming from gulf is an occasion for the family. All the members will go to the airport to receive him/her. Although the anticipation of what is there in the bag of duty free shoppe bags is always there, as much is the love for the person J.

The ‘gulf malayalee’ or ‘pravasi’ (in a more refined Malayalam) faces this perennial question right from the moment he/she lands at the airport. “Enna thirichu?” which means when is the return date?. Every single person; be it a friend, a relative, an acquaintance or even the local shop keeper will greet the gulf malayalee with this question J.

Ofcourse, no harm intended .It is just that it is the opening line to strike a conversation with a gulf malayalee. One might think that is not a justification at all. There are many other things to talk about in this world. But to understand its reasoning, you need to be a malayalee J.

Keywords : Malayali blog, Malayalee blog, Kerala blog, Mallu blog, Kerala, Malayalee, Namaskaram, Malayalam, Onam, God's own country, Back waters, Coconut, Coconut oil, Coconut trees

Ranjini Haridas & Anakkattil Eappachan

Ranjini Haridas & Anakkattil Eappachan

        These days, the kerala tea table conversations feature this lady, Miss. Ranjini Haridas quite often. For those of you who do not know her, she is a television anchor from Kerala. Now why should she feature in Pink Lungy? The reason is that she is so damn popular in our state!

        She is not your typical quite well mannered demure television anchor. She is gutsy, free spirited and unconventional as far as social norms are concerned. To borrow a few words from Eappachan of Lelam film, she is outspoken and irreverent. I think she is very similar to Eappachan. He also never behaved as per the social norms. Remember the scene between him and Jagannatha Varma?

Now, these are not exactly the qualities which the audience are used to. Add to this, her lack of perfect Malayalam diction. Like audience in other parts of the country, it took some time for the Kerala audience to get used to her.  But now I feel people have begun accepting her for who she is.

        You may like her, You may dislike her. But she is damn good at her job. Should she bring down the decibel level a few notches? I personally think she should. But then again it is her personal choice and as long as the audience like it, why should I complain?