I spent a couple of days in early December 2017 in Kozhikode (the original and formal name for Calicut) in Kerala. For a Dilliwala, at this time of year, any place other than sadda Dilli is a good place to be in – you breathe easy (ask the Sri Lankan cricket team who had to play India wearing face masks!) and that’s good enough! But there is something so infinitely charming about Kerala that it beats everything else.
For one, I was at the IIM. I am a graduate of IIT Madras which has, for me, the most beautiful campus ever. I am including some US and UK ones I have seen, mind you. But IIMK comes really close. It is situated atop a hill on the Western Ghats and all you see around are rolling, wooded hills, with the odd building and mobile tower thrown in, of course. So, the air is even cleaner and for the first time in 2017, I actually spotted the constellation Orion the Hunter and his escort, Sirius the Dog Star. And you need to go so far out of Delhi to spot this star which is the brightest in the earth’s sky! Magical!!
This was my first trip to Kozhikode and I wanted to check it out. It was also the town where my father went to school, and since that must have been around 80 years ago, I decided instead to head out to the beaches to catch the sunset – again, something Delhi doesn’t let you do – and some authentic Kerala non-vegetarian food. My host professor recommended a driver called Feroz who was a very interesting guy – he is the only one in his Hindu family with aa Muslim name, he traces his origins to Andhra from where his forefathers settled in Palakkad and told me that their marriage customs are very Tamilian! We happily conversed in broken Tamil after that.
The first interesting thing I noticed – and this is in huge contrast to the Dilliwala – is that no Mallu is far away from cracking a smile. Try this yourself with any Mallu (exceptions may be those who have been in Dilli for too long). Their default greeting is a broad smile. The guy who sold me hot wadas on the beach did it with a smile. Everyone who I passed on my drive who was in a conversation was smiling. The waiters in the dining hall of the Management Development Centre and at the restaurant smiled not only at me but at each other. Drive around in Delhi and you will see someone or the other hurling gaalis or getting into fisticuffs. The Mallu clearly sees no point of that. There is such incredibly good cheer around that it has to be God’s Own Country!
The second interesting thing I noticed – and Feroz confirmed – that every male in Kerala seems to sport a moustache! I observed keenly during the several hours I was on the road and walks on the glorious seaside and the only clean-shaven males I spotted were young schoolboys. And, as Feroz pointed out, there is a strong generational shift that is occurring – the youngsters sport beards but the oldies staunchly stick to their moustache. And I spotted 2 varieties – the thin, shaped one a la Bollywood veterans Biswajit (of white shoes fame) and Raaj Kumar (of Jaani fame) and the more bushy ones.
Feroz took me on a most memorable sideshow – a visit to a boatyard that specialises in wooden boats. Located on the banks of the Chaliyar river, the major client apparently are the Emirs and Sheikhs of the middle-east! So, these are not your tiny fishing vessels but luxury yachts – the one I saw being made would have been over 150 feet long! The yard builds the basic structure and makes it seaworthy, after which it is towed to the Qatars and Dubais where it is fitted with the engine and all the fancy interiors are done. Amazing how such an ancient craft – and what I saw really looked classy – continues to flourish!
The rest of my travels were more mundane. I went to Beypore beach, a little outside of Kozhikode and walked up the long pier near where the river Chaliyar meets the Arabian sea just in time to catch the sunset. Along the pier, I spotted several men putting their hands into the sea and pulling out what looked like clams – smilingly, of course! I also walked done the city beach – which was lovely and reminded me of the Marina beach in Chennai – and went to the outdoor, sea-facing bar of Beach Hotel (since 1890, the board say) and, after the usual irrigatory preliminaries (to quote the inimitable Raymond) in the form of chilled beer, settled to partake of some Kerala delicacies including the famed Kerala Beef Chilly.
The Beach Hotel claims that some of their illustrious guests include Somerset Maugham and Jawaharlal Nehru – if the chairs I sat on have also been around since then, perhaps we are now bum chums!
December 2017