Sunday, July 29, 2007

The New City..

So here I am from being left alone to.. a new city….
And every1 keeps asking me how am adapting to the changes… Was quite apprehensive when I decided to give it a try… Why ?? Maybe because of the negative comments …

I decided to move on..to shift.. dropped the bomb to my manager..frens and it sure was a bomb…
They had it embedded within them that am a person who wud never prefer to move out… that am too comfortable in there… and that was true.. Was real comfortable there.. The frens I had there were awesome and it was one of the best phases … Money..freedom…. good frens.. good or bad ..they shared my wavelength… frequency as some may call it…

I am somebody who has not yet mastered the art of saying NO… And quite contradictory to it… I fiercely guard my independence…. There is this category of people with whom I cannot get along with… The Nosey Parkers….

In most of the mallu blogs/communities/forums I see one common allegation… Mallus are nosey parkers.. Yeah yes do agree to a certain extend.. But I had a completely different experience there… In college it was a different scene… days scholar gals whom I d term as gfn’s….and boys who were the databases…. Trying to be the best nosey parkers… However after college things did change…

At the work place had a gala time… Had frens who didn’t expect anything out of u… Frens who didn’t wanna know anything abt u unless u wanted to tell them.. That’s a real great environment….

Now am into this great metro…. Where, as far as I ve heard … nobody bothers another person’s business.. But got a completely different treatment here… A main topic of discussion is age .., A guy who s nearing 30 is always reminded of the fact that he is nearing 30.. not in a lighter note… on a serious tone… Back home in kerala.. we were a group which consisted of people from 22 years to 40, married unmarried etc… We never felt the difference though… I always took it on a positive note… The people nearing 40 enjoyed it , they (I guess) felt younger…free from the responsibilities … and etc etc..
Here its sort of a taboo if some1 who s 5 years senior joins the group for lunch…

Well it depends on the group you are with… but I had never felt the young-old distinction there…

My first two days here were hell… Am a proud mallu … and am still the same.. My hair screams out the fact that am a mallu … and believe me am a proud mallu  … but unlike Blore… mallus are a minority here.. and I know as much hindi as mayb a northie wud know Malayalam…. And this made me an outcaste initially… Well two days down I made ‘em grasp the fact that though hindi is the national language its not spoken in all parts of India… And there was one person who got really pissed of by that fact… Now am ok though… no no.. I didn’t learn hindi… they are now speaking to me in English  am trying to master our national language.. but I don’t have the flair to learn any language for that matter…
I remember the language exams at school… was a nightmare … Learned French for some time … All others had a jolly good time on the eve of French exams. Coz the syllabus was mild  and I had the worst of all times…. Think the language part of my brain is not developed… So those people who master languages easily and know a handful of languages are people I look up to with awe… I wish I wish…. I ve asked my Gujju frens to teach me Gujarati… maharastrians to teach me marathi… wanna learn Tamil… ooh… Dreams… But then reality is that I cant even learn Bombaiyya….

Now the nosey parkers here… Am surrounded by them… And that’s wat I Least expected… Well well… not much of a problem .. except that I get totally pissed off at times… We mallus ,… when out of the mallu land tend to have this strong mallu mallu brotherhood..
So there are these frens who works in this same city and they found a small mallu restaurant near my office… They have Kerala Parottas…. The prohibited meat… kappa and a good naadan oonu…. If I go out for lunch with them twice a month I get questions fro the gals seated next to me… so whom are u seeing now… mallu boy fren ?? and stuff..
Back home I would take these as jokes… but then there nobody would really bother much.. I can have lunch with u one day with her the next day wth a third person the following day….
Here they consider it a sin bcoz I go out from the lunch group to have a good mallu lunch that I am yearning for… and wants to know if he is my boy friend… Cmon Guys.. Gimme some space…
Well I still think that’s it’s the problem with the group….

But then I am used to it by now… Not Cribbing… well I was ust writing about it… no am not cribbing  
And another one of my concepts proved wrong…. Many of the guys here don’t drink.. I used to enjoi watching the guys drink at trips and parties.. That’s if u know the people welll…. They are real fun after that…. No not indecent… just fun…. But here a whole lot of them brag that they don’t drink… Why should they brag…. Aaavo… I dunno….They brag abt Gujarat being a dry state too… What the heck….

But then I am loving it here…. Living alone … trying my cooking skils…reading …sleeping…. Or going out with frens….

Back home amma wouldn’t give me the control to her kitchen… She wanted things done her way… The sugar had to be kept there and the salt here…. This spoon here and that plate there.. And I definitely cant do that…. I never tried either.. So it was cooking starting from scratch here..and none of my frens here are ready to be my guinea pig…But then I made a good chicken curry yesday and some veggies which tasted good too.. Had an utmost flop once when I added a lot of ginger to one dish..and had to throw the whole pot out….But am enjoying it…Amma is real surprised at my progress… And all my dishes are my own…I read a lot of cooking blogs and wanna try them out.. but no…I go by instincts and add my own ingredients… So it tastes new… but then almost good 
When I came here I had this utmost urge to start cooking and become an expert… But it sooon waned off… But a couple of weeks ago I was invited by some mallu guys to their house… and they had a feast ready for me.. They really took me off my feet…impressed me… tonnes… There were a few veggie items and Chicken ..fish ..prawns and the best sambar I have ever had…. Reached home late that day after a mallu movie.. Next day I started on the cooking spree….still going on…


The gals here want me to cook authentic Kerala dishes… But they are all veggies.. and I cant think of any authentic Kerala veggie dish .yes I can think of … but I dunno to make them… they cant digest the idea that I dunno cooking on a full swing yet…
They ask me What wil happen when I get married… Hey that’s another thing..most of my frens are married now.. if they are married and still working (most are) the husband and wife cook and they tell me that its wonderful… But to most of the guys here that’s just impossible..A guy who cooks is alien to them.. The gals liked the concept though..And these guys want a working lady as their wife too…Wouldn’t it be fun if you shared the responsibilities instead of handing all the chores to the poor gal…

On the whole, am liking it out here… So far so good… Hope am moving in the right direction….

6 comments:

pophabhi said...

Wow! That was a quite long one, and a real 'from-the-heart' one. Its great to know that you too moved out of the comfort zone, and is trying out new things. Cooking, for example :). Nosey people are some people who just grow profusely at all parts of India. I too used to think that its only in Kerala, but soon learnt that its a nationwide disease.
It was a real honest post, and njoid reading it. Hope you would soon defeat Alexis in cooking science.

Sujit said...

enjoy your life.. :) and experiment as much as you can in kitchen.. its a nice place.. So you still make curries with cocnut oil or that has changed?

Scribbles said...

Abhi : Thanks a tonne for that comment.. It made my day. It did ... The great Himalay Odyssey rrider ..Thanks :)

Sujit : Yeah I use coconut oil :) but almost no cocunut.. Thats kinda surprising since I could not imagine a curry without coconut before coming here...

Sujit said...

good.. nice experiments :)..

srijithunni said...

Hmm.. all posts are an impressive read, I must say, so down to earth, and almost conversation like.. and like popabhi said, really 'from-the-heart'. Keep it going..!

I remember how when I had to work in Hyderabad, soon after college, blogging helped me lose a lot of my loneliness.!

Have Fun, Take Care and God Bless!

With Best Regards,
Srijith.

mathew said...

very simple yet interesting post..almost felt like i was reading your diary..

well talking of having food together..Here at my place I have lunch with folks who are of all age groups..the oldest being a 62 year old guy..And strangely no two of us even have the same mother tongue..SO infact it is more fun to have such a wide mix of identities together..

And there is no fault in having a malayalee identity..being proud of it doesnt mean that you are arrogant!!