Kerala Part 2

After having spent 4 days in Kerala, I have come to the following conclusions:



1. Keralites love their booze.

2. They seem to be awful drivers.

3. Vegetarian fare comes at a premium.



I took to roaming the streets every evening and one thing that struck me was the amount of men standing in queue outside the half a dozen liquor shops in the area. Man some of those lines were longer than the ones you have to stand in to get your exam hall tickets (fellow Bhavanites know what I'm talking about). No lines even at the ration shops. Booze seems to be way too popular there. If this continues, all the other shops will start converting themselves into booze joints as well.

Ernakulam at 10 pm is like Mumbai at 3 am. The roads are empty and the tendency to speed is pretty strong. The drivers seem to forget that they should restrain themselves during the day, but.......... Even truck drivers seem to think they deserve to be rubbing shoulders with Lewis Hamilton and the rest of the F-1 lot. We went for a backwater tour, and we had to get to the place by car. The driver looked rather like Sreesanth. This dude never seemed to come below 4th gear. He was easily doin 100- 120 km, all the time talking on his cell, driving with one hand. A car overtook him once and he told us the guy didn't know how to drive, and he proceeded to demonstrate how exactly one should overtake a car. I was starting to think my minutes were numbered, when we finally came to a halt. That's one dude I wouldnt want to live within 200 miles of.

Well the thing with Keralites is that they do not like eating out. That means a huge dearth of eateries. And the ones which serve vegetarian food are awful. Awful to someone from Mumbai that is. They serve more of fast food than meals. However I did come across this decent place called "Menaka" in Ernakulam. Good paratha and veg curry and even better choley batture. The taste seemed oddly familiar and I asked the owner where he was from and he said, "hum bambai se aaye hain sahib". Ah my saviour. May his eatery prosper and may Ernakulam succumb to his heavenly Choley batture.

PS. I didn't see any Mallu babes yaar. Fathers don't allow them to go out I guess.........(sigh)

PPS. This is one Mallu you girls out there can't resist ( some guys too. Him for example and him)

PPPS. Sorry Deeps, Kushal and Debu.