but that blissful moment of ultimate sleep never came...but not for a bad reason though. zubin and jazim, our 207 telicherry tenants(or in the mallu style,thalassery) had invited myself, suthin and 3 of our college mates,namely shaheer, ali and libin, to come home, explore their "tharavaads" and have their deliciously cooked food. it seemed like a good opportunity and thus, we took it.
personally,it was my first time in 9 years i took a long distance trip on a train. and it was the first time ever i travelled in a packed general compartment(yeah yeah, i admit i was a virgin to all this,but not anymore!!). horrible experience at first, but at the end, it seemed like it was worth it. 6 hours, most of which i spent lying on the floor with my head on top of suthin, with his head on top of zubin, whose head was around shaheer's arm, who was leaning side by side with ali, whose feet were being used for support by jazim...(libin got in from another stop, and luckily for him, he got a proper seat!). give it some time, u can construct this picture in ur head. it wasnt very comfortable. but it was an experience to remember.
6 hours over and i took my first step in thalessery. not a very happpening place, not as advanced as cochi. nothing at all spectacularly amazing actually...at least until jazim, who was leading the pack, took a sudden left turn from the road and a HUGE house blocked our entire vision. that was jazim's mom's "tharavaad"(im sorry calvin, couldnt find an english word for it). and believe you me, it was huge. i mean...ive seen such houses, even bigger...but to have a friend who actually lives here and to be taken there...well, that was something exhilarating. there we were treated to a wonderful breakfast and a mind-blasting lunch by jazim's relatives. to quote russel peters, it was "tooooooooo good!" i could actually write another post entirely dedicated to just how tasty thalassery food is. for now, you guys can use just one word to describe it : majestic.
after that it was tour time. we were taken around to meet up with more of jazim's relatives, followed by a trip to his own house. (all transportations owed to the santro belonging to his cousin) and then the spotlight was shifted to zubin, as we met up with his relatives, worthy of mention is his grandmom, apparently the only educated, english speaking woman in kerala of her age, an amazing 80. and of course, a visit to his dad's tharavaad was inevitable. and BELIEVE YOU ME, this was bigger.
u guys must have seen family trees, i suppose? u know how they are usually pretty long, right? well guess what, no exagerration intended, zubin's entire family tree was in that house. every room(lost count of the number of rooms) had a family alloted to it, and each of them had their own history. it took us approximately 20 minutes when we left the place, having traversed just half of it!! it was something to think about for me, especially, not being a big family person myself...but its worth checking our for anyone. truly fantastic.
a trip to tipu sultan's fort awaited, plus....errr....i forgot the name of this place, but it was basically rocks overlooking the sea....yet it was serene and beautiful. especially coz we arrived there some time before sunset. the day climaxed with a marvellous dinner at zubin's cousin's place as we took a bus(thank god!) back home....with a refrigerator in tow.(yes ppl, we have a fridge now at 207). jaz stayed back in thalassery for few more days.
after we reached back at 5 30 in the morning, i finally got that well deserved sleep i had talked about. perhaps it came a day later, but it came at the price of having witnessed the history and unity of a family and having to eat the best food in all of kerala. i guess i can live with that. :)
vysh
