Yesterday we left Chennai to fly to meet and celebrate with the Cherian’s in the state of Kerala. A large reception has been arranged for us here at a hotel. We are staying at the hotel which, although pleasant, is not quite the 5 star quality resort we were led to believe it would be. Philip’s mom, Philip and I flew here yesterday (about an hour and a half) and Pratap and Philip’s dad will arrive this morning. They are superstitious about all of the family flying on one flight. Philip’s mom does not like to fly, and we were given one seat apart from the others which I gladly took. When we arrived I did have a few minutes of nervousness as we got off the plane and I couldn’t locate my counterparts. Everyone was taking buses back to the airport and I had a picture in my head of me being separated. I had been warned that Kerala will be different from Chennai and that their exposure to “foreigners “ is less prevalent (insert sore thumb reference here).
Kerala is different from Chennai in that it is slightly more rural (most places can be considered slightly rural compared to Chennai which has a population of 9 million). We had a rough 2 + hour car ride to Uncle Koshy’s farm in Punalur. The farm is a highlight and fascinating with 35 rubber trees, coconut trees, banana trees, cashew trees and other tropical fruit I’d never even heard of. I find the rubber plantations most fascinating and something I had never had an experience with before. The rubber comes out of rubber trees much like sap comes out of maple trees. It is extracted into a coconut husk until it fills. When the bowl is full, the rubber is poured into a tub where it begins the drying process. Eventually it is hung on a clothesline to continue drying. Truly an amazing and interesting process. The rubber trees harvest 15 kilos of rubber each day and are taken to town to be laid out to a solid flat which is eventually turned into tread tires.
We also met Philip’s Uncle Babu who lives nearby in a retirement home. His Aunt Susan lives next door with his uncle who is actually currently working in Saudi Arabia. Spending time with this side of the family is totally exhausting as they don’t speak English with the exception of a 5 year old cousin who is at the top of her class and Philip’s Uncle Koshy who speaks “Indian English”. My ability to follow a conversation in Malayalam (the only language whose name is a palindrome) has improved. I actually can’t understand any word of it, except they mix in a few English words when there isn’t a Malayalam word to mean the same, so I can figure out what they are talking about. Also, their facial expressions and hand gestures really give away much of the subject and mood. Yesterday I proudly figured out an entire conversation about the driver who brought us a back from the airport and how he used a photo and the words “American girl” to determine who we were when we arrived. Of course, I can’t speak a lick of it and haven’t had much success with trying. While practicing calling Philip’s aunt by name the other evening, Philip suggested “I think you should probably stop because you keep calling her ‘Sewer’”.
After dinner a tour of the farm and dinner with the family we returned to the hotel where we sacked out immediately.
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