(Due to the fact that I do not use a credit card, and Google wants you to use one to buy image storage, I am unable to upload pictures to my blogs. I will give you a link where you can see the pictures.)
I am fast forwarding to today, Friday, as we are in Kottayam, and many have written to hear of the wedding of the year! of c ourse this is one part of my story of "How to get Fat CHEAPLY"!
We were looked after so well by Dinesh and Raghu at the Cochin City Guest House of Malayala Manorama.
All the Malayala Manorama Kottayam and Cochin Guest Houses are famed for good food. The two caretakers did not disappoint us and served up a great dinner - soup, fried promfet, and chappatis for me (Annikki's strict instructions that I am not to touch rice) and a great vegetable curry with fried chicken. Sweet was seedless red papaya and a delicious desert. This morning they turned out Masala Dosai with coconut chutney and a curry, steamed sweet banana with tea. Even as I think of it my mouth waters.
We left Cochin at 10 am and stopped to see one of my father's s sister Accachi (Mrs. Grace Kurian) who lives with her daughter, Padmini, in Cochin. Padmini left for Bangalore on Thursday evening, so we will meet up with her in Bangalore. Padmini's husband, Babu was there to greet us.
The 75 km between Cochin and Kottayam really reflected the terrible malaise in the Indian road system. A journey, which in Europe should take just less than an hour, took us almost 2 hours. We left at 11 am and arrived at 1 pm.
What a waste of valuable time and energy. If the Kerala Government would only maintain the roads properly, maybe they would get many more tourists pass through their state, generate more jobs and revenue and have less accidents on their roads. Each a compelling arguement - but is anyone listening.
We went straight to the family lunch served by chef Vasu - student of Annammakochamma (Mrs. K.Mathew) and his team. The liuch was outstanding - Kerala Cusine.
It was such an emotional experience to meet our closest of relations, mainly cousins and their wives or husbands and their children whom we had not seen, most for over 10 years, but many for as many as 20 years.
We hugged each other and I was emotionally affected as I met each of my relatives. What a wonderful feeling.
While I was in Cochin I had interacted with an old childhood friend who told me that I was going to meet the elite of Kerala who were attending this much talked about wedding. If these were the elite, we have nothing to worry about as they were all dressed in the simplest of clothes and each was more internally radiant than the clothes they wore. The closest we got to Royalty was our address in Kottayam : WINDSOR CASTLE!
Tomorrow will be another day when the fashionable elite of Kerala may show their faces - but I am sure that as per the legacy of my grandfather, K. C. Mammen Mappillai, Doyen of Kerala no one of my family consider themselves to be part of that aristocracy!
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