Guys.... go on.... tell me the bitter truth. Am I being a bit too sweet? Is the milk of human kindness overflowing? Am I giving you diabetes?? Nooooo... na??? Good. I think my claws are sharp enough... and I reserve my teeth for worthy opponents. Phew! Now that I've got it out of the way, let me give you a jhalak of Calicut. Renamed Kozikode, but pronounced minus the 'z' sound , as Korikode! Confusing. Why not spell it thataway, huh?? First the bad news: Kozikode is as boring as it sounds.And now for the good news: The aapams were delicious. As was the avial. The Syrian Christian beef was a bit too dry, while the karimeen was fried to a crisp and entirely destroyed.
I was invited to the bookfair and shared the dais with some really eminent local writers. There were lots of speeches. But all of them were in Malayalam. If I look somewhat glazed in the pics, put it down to total non-comprehension.The book reading (mine!!) was slightly better. At least a few people understood and spoke English.
Glad to be home for a few hours. I am breaking my Shravan tonight in absolute style. Chef Morimoto is in Mumbai for just two short days, and I shall have the privilege of sampling his exquisite cuisine at Wasabi. Champagne and Sushi? That's my eccentric preference. I don't drink sake. More tomorrow - if I get the time. I leave for Kolkata in the afternoon. Meanwhile, the Ganpatis have started arriving - glorious sight. And Kerala is getting ready to celebrate Onam. Happy days are here again!! Ciao. Jhagda karo. But thoda sa pyaar bhi...
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11 comments:
Chilli beef and parathas *sigh*
M'am De',
Read your article today in Times. To the point. Til Gud Ghyaa ...aani goud goud bolaaa!!
Appreciated!!
Vinod Agarwal - Marathi next to mother tongue.
De, because I'm from God's own country, I can tell you a few things about it.
First of all, Kozhikode is not pronounced as Korikkode. The 'zh' representative sound is absent in the Marathi/hindi/urdu dialect actually. The closest that it can get to is a deeper sounding 'y'. But then again, I'm no linguist. And my boyfriend who's a linguist himself finds it impossible to utter that sound!
Secondly, don't even try and tempt me into grief by mentioning all the wonderful edibles from my homeland. I'm missing them so much.
Thirdly, the only thing that I can tell you, and take this in the lighter vein, is that Calicut is the 'queer' capital of Kerala. And I don't really want to go on a rant about that.
Fourthly, I can very well relate to the ordeal at such a place. They are pretty uptight about their Malayalam there. But normally, Kerala has a huge percentage of people who understand and speak English, especially at such a literary occasion.
And I'm going to miss Onam too!
Finally, you aren't being too sweet or anything. You are being natural, which is great!
I liked roaming around Kerala but I remember cutting short my trip just for one reason. FOOD. Everything was so coconut-y that I was sick of it and ditched my other two friends, packed and left in the middle of night to B'lore. Else, the sights are good, people are nice n friendly and yea they do speak English.
Well, I have seen local writers from Pune and Bombay...they all speak ONLY Hindi ! I do not read nor write Malayalam (shame on me!) but I am proud of the Malayalam literature (like the Bengali one).
If we wanted diabetes, we would go and read Amit "Uncle's" blog :P :P .... though i'd rather scratch my eyes out then read his blah-log :P ...
Forgot to ask, did you get to meet a particular malayali author? ;)
Namaskaaram. Namaskaaram.
nize do here dhaaat you haaaav goan do korrykode. i haav maii aanzestraal roods in gherala. korykodde iz boaring, i yagree withe you.
and aaal speeag malayaalaam theire, evaan theire englishhh izz withe malayaaalaaam aagsent. soo boaring no.
i yeeemagin iff bombay hazz sign bored in marathi, malayalleez willl alzo have deefigulty in undearstaanding the languaage. Raaaj Dhaakray, Lizhen.
i lige the fart theat you yeit nize gherala cuizine... foood yeand GreenNaari izz aaal theat is nize in gherala. Otherwise there yeare only a few Demble and churches their...
youare bookreading wend well, nize. Yactually , thay understannd englissss very well yed they speaaak in malayalamized enggliss. too bed.
we shaal wait for you to gome to the arabian zea after your toaare of indiyaaan occcan yaaand bay of bengaal.
shubha yatram, blog sahodram.
:-)
oh how i love reading malayalam-english!! I adore Kerala and all things Malayalee. Mamooty and Mohanlal are yum yum!! u can keep your akshay k.
ok. gotta run. or i shall miss my flight. talk tomorrow nite??? Till then...
@aham
that was fantastic. teriyumo?
i'm from kozhikode,my names dilip,me and family had come to see you,thanx for smiling at us, wanted to get an autograph from you but couldnt.now regarding the food in calicut, its the food capital of kerala,should have tried out the restaurent "paragon",its amazing.
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