Travelogue from India

01-14-2004, 04:50 AM

I wrote this recently for a newsletter that is published where I work, I thought
you all might enjoy reading this. There is no mention of Amma because of the
audience I wrote for.

Picture a lush stand of coconut trees and sand underfoot. Feel the warm breeze
and humid, salty air. Add hot sun and friendly people and spicy wonderful food
served up with plenty of laughter and conversation and you will be imagining the
city of Cochin in Kerala, a southern state in India where I was blessed to spend
my vacation recently. How did I end up in this paradise?

I met a computer specialist from India here in Ann Arbor when he was visiting on
a work visa and we became friends and shared food and rides together. When he
went home to get married, I promised I would come and visit his family and “be
treated like a queen.”

Anyway after two years of planning, plotting, working 3 jobs, saving money I
finally flew off to India (5 different airplanes) on a 24 hour trip in September
that was worth every minute of the journey to get there.

I arrived in Cochin, an ancient seaport city in the Indian state of Kerala at
245a.m.! September 15 and my friend with his wife and baby of 5 months were
waiting to whisk me off to their flat. I slept for almost a day and then was up
and about.

I was on the alert for snakes and spiders, and luckily I didn’t encounter any
large snakes (I did see one in the backwaters) and only a few small spiders.
The cockroaches were pretty awesome though – about one inch long, slow, wide and
fat. I resisted the urge to step on them – didn’t even want to hear that much
noise.

Our flat overlooked a cow pasture (with cows) full of coconut and mango trees
and bordered by a backwater stream of saltwater that went up and down with the
tides from the ocean. I awoke my first morning to the screeching of crows and
peeps and shrills and crooning by all kinds of birds. They actually have wild
green parrots flying free!

Right away I began sweating and pretty much stayed wet the whole time I was in
Kerala, and it is so warm that it doesn’t matter if one is wet because nothing
ever gets really dry anyway. I did my own laundry (I chose to) and it took an
average of 2 days to dry anything (no dryers, just cloths lines) and lots of
times I would wear stuff wet the first 10 days because I purposely took only a
few clothes so I could buy some clothes there. Buying clothes was a great
adventure.

My hostess took me to a fabric shop, three floors of all kinds of fabric from
silk to cotton to wool. Luckily for me, she loved shopping and we had a great
time having the clerks pull out bolts of colorful fabric for us to look at. I
wanted flamboyant and she wanted elegant so we met somewhere in the middle and
picked out fabric for 4 churidars – the traditional dresses (with Punjabi pants)
worn by women. Then I had to go to the tailoring shop to have my measurements
taken and pick the styles for the necklines of the dresses.

Being measured was an experience because the shop was only 10 feet across and
there were 4 men sewing and all these piles of fabrics in various stages of
becoming dresses. So I squeezed my giant body in there and got measured from
head to toe and everywhere in between. Many of the people in Cochin are very
tiny people, like up to my elbow and very small boned and dainty. I felt very
large in that tailor shop. Like a giant. I laughed a lot while I was getting
measured. I wonder what those poor men thought who had to fabricate my
dresses... Four days later I had wonderful dresses and felt very comfortable in
them. I also purchased some really comfy sandals to go with my new dresses.

I also got to go to the “supermarket” and that was fun. Trying to find stuff
that I recognized wasn’t easy since I could not read the labels which were
mostly written in Hindi or Malayalam. There was an amazing amount of
merchandise from China all over the place. I was told that some merchants put
phony Made In China labels on items so that people will think they are getting
imports. I don’t remember seeing anything that said made in USA.

People try to feed guests all the time and so each place I visited I had tea or
food or both. Most kitchen’s are equipped with a coconut shredder – it is a
gadget that gets attached to a counter top that has a rounded flat blade of
metal 6 inches high with teeth that lays flat and faces the wall. Then the half
coconuts are scraped over the blade to make grated coconut.

Breakfast is usually a dish called putta – this is finely grated fresh coconut
(ummmmm) and rice flower mixed with a little bit of water and then put into a
stainless steel tube about an inch and a half across and 8 inches long that is
built to fit on top of a pressure cooker fitting. Water is put in the pressure
cooker to boil, the lid is closed and then steam rises up into the tube and
steams the rice flour and coconut into a tube shape which is served in 2 inches
long slices.

They tried to make me eat the whole tube, but it was way too much. The putta
is served with bananas. This is the really fun part, smooshing the banana into
the putta - it takes about 5 minutes of squishing (with the right hand only) the
banana into the steaming coconut rice flour mixture so that the banana is
completely mixed, licking of the hand and fingers during the mooshing is not
bad manners (yay). Some people sprinkle sugar over this putta, but I didn’t –
and then pop it in the mouth – a wonderful breakfast treat especially when
served with tea. How I miss my putta.

Tea is served around 4pm every day, and most meals except breakfast include
rice, lentils, vegetables and tea. Tea was safe because the water is always
boiled to make it. I didn’t get sick at all! That was blessing.

One of the things that impressed me the most during my stay is that many of the
children (infants up to teenagers) I met were happy. I didn’t meet any sullen
teenagers or delinquents, although I am sure they were around, I just didn’t
meet any.

I was able to observe extensively the care of the 5 month-old son of the family
I was staying with. He was treated so nicely and gently and sweetly. There are
many rituals involved in the bathing, feeding and sleeping that give the infant
a secure feeling. This baby (named Abhinav) had a regular schedule every day
and lots of laughing and talking with anyone who visited. Regular feeding times,
regular sleep times and lots of social interactions happened every day.

After four weeks of being a guest, I was ready to come home in a way, and also
sad to leave my friends. I also miss the food now that I am home again.

I brought home lovely memories, lots of fabric and dresses and a firm desire to
visit again next year.

Om Namashivaya - In Amma's service,

Supriti Omenka Nnadi

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