The lottery ticket stall, the fruit seller and the medicine man with his strange bottles of Ayurveda cures - are they just the backdrop to my story? Am new here, and I can get away with just observing. I tell myself am soaking in the atmosphere. A stranger speaks near me, to me in a foreign tongue. A friendly hardware store owner who speaks Hindi points us to the shops that will hold the knick-knacks we're looking for. We're setting up house - again!
Moving from Mumbai to Goa was the easy one. Goa has always been my favourite place to be ever since I first stumbled onto it. Well, yes, I dint discover it, I know. But I went there at a time when I was discovering a lot of new things about myself. When I was just growing into this person I have become. It was in the third term of my post-graduate studies and it was a difficult time. Goa just took me in, and was warm and welcoming. I was with old friends, exploring a whole new way of life. So yeah, Goa was like coming home after being at sea for a long long time.
Moving to Kerala has been different, as we drove past Karnataka into Kerala, the signboards began to read a language that I knew not. And that's when it hit me, I was really far away from home after a really long time. Well the last time was way back in the summer of 2007 when I made my first trip out of the country, to France. That was exciting, I knew I had only 9 days to enjoy all the new experiences. Here, am staying for a year at least.
It's a beautiful place, peaceful and relaxing - God's Own Country.
I adore the shops here with their wooden boxes of fresh produce on display and the feel of a world where technology is not going to dull the feeling of being alive. The backwaters of rivers spring up when you least expect them and the sound and smell of nature fills up your senses. Am looking forward to picking up some Malayalam, learning to cook a few authentic recipes and cruising along the backwaters. Am a little intimidated, but am looking forward to soon becoming a part of this quaint little town where I live.
Until it's time to pack up and move again. To a new place, to new people.
