First trip to India for Amma's Birthday Report

[Guest guest]

This was written for my friends at work who wanted to know about my trip to

India...sharing with you all too.

 

 

 

Picture a lush stand of coconut trees and sand underfoot. Feel the warm breeze

and humid, salty air. Add hot sun and friendly people and spicy wonderful food

served up with plenty of laughter and conversation and you will be imagining the

city of Cochin in Kerala, a southern state in India where I was blessed to spend

my vacation recently. How did I end up in this paradise?

 

 

 

I met a computer specialist here in Ann Arbor when he was visiting on a work

visa and we became friends and shared food and rides together. When he went

home to get married, I promised I would come and visit his family and “be

treated like a queen.”

 

 

 

Anyway after two years of planning, plotting, working 3 jobs, saving money I

finally flew off to India (5 different airplanes) on a 24 hour trip in September

that was worth every minute of the journey to get there.

 

 

 

I arrived in Cochin, an ancient seaport city in the Indian state of Kerala at

245a.m. September 15 and my friend with his wife and baby of 5 months were

waiting to whisk me off to their flat. I slept for almost a day and then was up

and about.

 

 

 

I was on the alert for snakes and spiders, and luckily I didn’t encounter any

large snakes (I did see one in the backwaters) and only a few small spiders.

The cockroaches were pretty awesome though – about one inch long, slow, wide and

fat. I resisted the urge to step on them – didn’t even want to hear that much

noise.

 

 

 

Our flat overlooked a cow pasture (with cows) full of coconut and mango trees

and bordered by a backwater stream of saltwater that went up and down with the

tides from the ocean. I awoke my first morning to the screeching of crows and

peeps and shrills and crooning by all kinds of birds. They actually have wild

green parrots flying free!

 

 

 

Right away I began sweating and pretty much stayed wet the whole time, and it is

so warm that it doesn’t matter if one is wet because nothing ever gets really

dry anyway. I did my own laundry (I chose to) and it took an average of 2 days

to dry anything (no dryers, just cloths lines) and lots of times I would wear

stuff wet the first 10 days because I purposely took only a few clothes so I

could buy some clothes there. Buying clothes was a great adventure.

 

 

 

My hostess Biji took me to a fabric shop, three floors of all kinds of fabric

from silk to cotton to wool. Luckily for me, she loved shopping and we had a

great time having the clerks pull out bolts of colorful fabric for us to look

at. I wanted flamboyant and she wanted elegant so we met somewhere in the

middle and picked out fabric for 4 churidars – the traditional dresses (with

Punjabi pants) worn by women. Then I had to go to the tailoring shop to have my

measurements taken and pick the styles for the necklines of the dresses.

 

 

 

Being measured was an experience because the shop was only 10 feet across and

there were 4 men sewing and all these piles of fabrics in various stages of

becoming dresses. So I squeezed my giant body in there and got measured from

head to toe and everywhere in between. Many of the people in Cochin are very

tiny people, like up to my elbow and very small boned and dainty. I felt very

large in that tailor shop. Four days later I had wonderful dresses and felt

very comfortable in them. I also purchased some really comfy sandals to go with

my new dresses.

 

 

 

I also got to go to the “supermarket” and that was fun. Trying to find stuff

that I recognized wasn’t easy since I could not read the labels which were

mostly written in Hindi or Malayalam. There was an amazing amount of

merchandise from China all over the place. I was told that some merchants put

phony Made In China labels on items so that people will think they are getting

imports. I don’t remember seeing anything that said made in USA.

 

 

 

People try to feed guests all the time and so each place I visited I had tea or

food or both. Most kitchen’s are equipped with a coconut shredder – it is a

gadget that gets attached to a counter top that has a rounded flat blade of

metal 6 inches high with teeth that lays flat and faces the wall. Then the half

coconuts are scraped over the blade to make grated coconut.

 

 

 

Breakfast is usually a dish called putta – this is finely grated fresh coconut

(ummmmm) and rice flower mixed with a little bit of water and then put into a

stainless steel tube about an inch and a half across and 8 inches long that is

built to fit on top of a pressure cooker fitting. Water is put in the pressure

cooker to boil, the lid is closed and then steam rises up into the tube and

steams the rice flour and coconut into a tube shape which is served in 2 inches

long slices.

 

 

 

They tried to make me eat the whole tube, but it was way too much. The putta

is served with bananas. This is the really fun part, smooshing the banana into

the putta - it takes about 5 minutes of squishing (with the right hand only) the

banana into the coconut rice flour mixture so that the banana is completely

mixed, licking of the hand and fingers during the mooshing is not bad manners

(yay). Some people sprinkle sugar over this putta, but I didn’t – and then pop

it in the mouth – a wonderful breakfast treat especially when served with tea.

 

 

 

Tea is served around 4pm every day, and most meals except breakfast include

rice, lentils, vegetables and tea. Tea was safe because the water is always

boiled to make it. I didn’t get sick at all! That was blessing.

 

 

 

One of the things that impressed me the most during my stay is that many of the

children (infants up to teenagers) I met were happy. I didn’t meet any sullen

teenagers or delinquents, although I am sure they were around, I just didn’t

meet any.

 

 

 

I was able to observe extensively the care of the 5 month-old son of the family

I was staying with. He was treated so nicely and gently and sweetly. There are

many rituals involved in the bathing, feeding and sleeping that give the infant

a secure feeling. This baby (named Abhinav) had a regular schedule every day

and lots of laughing and talking with anyone who visited. Regular feeding times,

regular sleep times and lots of social interactions happened every day. This

was very theraputic for me to watch.

 

 

 

After four weeks of being a guest, I was ready to come home, and also sad to

leave my friends. I also miss the food now that I am home again.

 

 

 

I brought home lovely memories, lots of fabric and dresses and a firm desire to

visit again next year.

 

 

 

Om Namashivaya - In Amma's service,

 

Supriti Omenka Nnadi

 

 

 

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