Update

The trip was fantastic. It was probably the best vacation I ever had, even though we didn't really get time to sit back and relax: it was Kichan's marriage after all. But all three of us had a grand time. Think of every cliche possible when you take a break to visit your parents in their village. Doting grandparents (Rachu's). A large house. Larder stocked with goodies. Farms: rubber, banana, vanilla, yam, tapioca. Your own private pond. A wedding. Relatives: garrulous old grand-aunt, feuding cousins, aged uncles - the lot. And the rain. Oh boy, the rain!

The time spent in Trivandrum was great too. Apart from pigging out on crab, prawn, fish, chicken and meat puffs (the last at 's house), buying about seventy movies from the market at Bima Palli was an awesome experience. The game I play these days is to ask folks to name a movie and then grin like a maniac when it turns out to be something that I bought. Malayalam, of course.

Visiting Sree Vishakh theatre and standing in a queue to buy tickets brought back a lot of memories too. The place still has the same old seats, same old mouldy smell and the same old usher. Kerala hasn't changed much really - the strikes, the politics and the scandals are very much alive. What's increased though is the emphasis on gold. Every second ad you see on TV or on the road is for a jewelry shop. As a friend called it, this is really Gold's Own Country.

I never felt so miserable on coming back to Bangalore, though. Ah, well. Such is life.