K for "Kerala"

After hitting writer's block yesterday night, here I am, back again.

"Kerela", is not just a state for me, it's my lala land. 

All the teachers in my school were from this state, but that was more of a reason not to like the state back in childhood.

As many things inside me changed from childhood to adolescence, so did my opinion about this place. It was my newly found love for reading that allured me to this heavenly land.

Then came the heroine of my reading career, "Preeti Shenoy". Through some special plan of the god, I got hold of "life is what you make of It" which was carefully placed on my sister's table.

And man oh man!! I went crazy over it. I laughed, I imagined, I fantasized, I adored, I choked, I cried, I reflected, and I got inspired. I can't think of any other human feelings that the book didn't incite in me. I embraced the book, just like I would embrace the love of my life. I was crawling with joy, in the intoxicating web of words that she brewed. I can't think of being in love with somebody ever in my life, as mad as I was at a point with her and her writing.

Then what, I did the same crazy thing that all the lovers of my generation do. I ran behind her (I mean her writings). Next three months, I didn't eat anything outside my hostel. Though that meant starving on a hot summer day, putting up with weird-smelling and horrible-tasting food at the hostel, to never going on outings with my friends. 

Love demands sacrifices, and I was more than ready to do it. 

At the end of the three months, It was time to go home, and my extra savings was a total of 1000 rupees. I logged in to Snapdeal, yeah I know but it was the only site offering cash on delivery. 978 rupees is what it took me to buy 5 other books that she wrote. It gave me a complete week of virtual travel and I didn't leave home for seven straight days as I was busy immersing myself in the creation of my love. My journey to reach closer to her just started, and so did my Kerala Crush. 

Here is me with my heroine
 Preeti Shenoy

Preeti is from Kerala and all her stories painted a mystical picture of the place in mind. I read about the towns, the farms, the plantations, the lifestyle, the culture, and the livelihoods of the people in the region. When her stories included the smallest elements from this place, it made my heart go wow. I just wanted to sit on one of the houseboats of the backwaters, and just observe the story go past me, at a smooth and slow pace. I wanted to be ultra close to where the stories happened and sometimes wished to be a part of some.

Then, a new girl joined my office, Nimisha. I didn't care about it for 3 days, till I learned that she is from my dream state. I didn't waste any other second befriending her, and soon I would be with her everywhere in the building, only with the exception when we were working at our desks. I never made such a herculean effort to bond with anybody else ever in my life. Probably she was one of the god's sent an angel who was supposed to bring me closer to my dream.

Here is me and my
Celebrity friend Nimisha

And finally, on this April Fool's Day, my luck decided against fooling me. It helped me land in my fairyland. I got a chance to live my dream, with people who were as good as you could get only in dreams. There was no dearth of tranquillity, happiness, and inner satisfaction that this place brought me. It was just us and nature, even the mobile network understood that it was time to disappear till my love affair with the place ends.

If there was a heaven on earth, it couldn't have been more beautiful than this. The trees here were extra tall here, it felt like they felt accepted here and stretched a little extra, as my heart did. The plants were a little more greener than they usually are, I feel they were translating my heart's joy of dreaming about them and seeing them finally after years. The water in the waterbodies was as still and peaceful as my mind felt after their sight. 

I fell in love with the magic in the air this place had, and I just wanted to turn myself so big, that I could hug the entire landscape and take it along with me. 

My love for this place doubled after my eyes got a chance to see it, and my heart got to feel it. I am just waiting to get another chance to pack my bags and drop again at this place. Hopefully with the same subset of people. 

Here is me, with the most amazing set of
people in my dream land