24^th December 2008

“Is it Russian or Ukrainian?” I asked. My words overtook my thoughts; she smiled artificially clearly showing that she wasn’t comfy with English-“Russian” she said while I recovered from the “Did I just talk to her?” feel. Pinak was delighted to see me sitting next to a foreigner! “Have fun” he said. Meanwhile I heard someone asking for 2-air sickness bags-must be my mom.

The Christmas Eve marked the beginning of our 8-day tour to Kerala. Since I’ve been studying in the south for a while and not being quite fond of it, I was a bit reluctant initially. But the reunion of the best of friends Pinak, me and Anustup alias Peanut (rhythmic to his name), Coconut (due to my hairstyle) and Groundnut (Just to complete the family), made me change my mind

So finally we were off on a 4-hour journey to Kochi that followed a 40 min, halt and then a brief 30 minutes flight to Trivandrum (Thiruvananthapuram). Trivandrum, though the capital of Kerala, wasn’t that impressive. But the smell! I was so very aware of it. All of them around me started mockery about coconut oil and curry leaves.Though they,at the end, regretted lack of space for an extra quarter kilo of banana chips. We reached the hotel at around 10:30 pm when the party had just ended and the DJ was playing the last few tracks to finish off his play list.

“Sorry Sir” said the hotel manager. He was unable to manage a dinner for us. The situation saw some of us cursing “Chatterjee”- the tour planner and some of them cursing Karl Marx and his comrades. Anyway he did manage it soon, after a threat. Tired of the journey, we retired to the bed early that day!