Paris

Mr.Bee and I were celebrating 10 years of married life this April and we craved for a vacation. We had many destinations in our list from heavyweight like Paris to desi islands of Andaman and Nicobar, but chose Kerala because our youngest just turned four and we wanted him to have a safe travel experience along with food for his extremely selective palate. Kerala it is!

Mr.Bee booked our flight tickets to Kochi for the last week of April. Driving a car in Kerala would have been a cheaper, better and scenic option but GBee is not a patient traveller. He warned us early on that he hated travelling more than 2 hours in a car! He likes to reach destinations sooner and get into holiday mood, faster! (After our Maharastra tour fiasco, we were apprehensive about travelling in a car)

As our flights were booked and hotels reserved, Mr.Bee and I planned our travel itinerary, we had a rough idea of what we wanted to see and what not to miss at any costs.

DAY 1:

On the morning of Good Friday, we boarded our flight to Kochi after filling up on the airport Pizza from Jamie Oliver’s Pizzeria, which was superlative, to say the least. We originally planned on checking-in to the executive lounge, but the serpentine line outside it scared us. We bought some snacks too at the Dadu’s counter as a last minute snack option for later in the evening at Kochi.

We said our hellos to the airhostesses and sat in our seats, me on the aisle seat with KBee occupying the window seat and GBee in the middle. Mr.Bee had the aisle seat across us.

I felt very cold in the flight and covered myself up with my scarf, while the kids were happily enjoying the view out of the windows.

Out of India or Outer Space!

For a moment our kids thought we were going out of India. I said no, then they decided we were just travelling to outer space for our vacation! Seriously though, vacation in outer space, who are we, Sunitha Williams and family?

As we were near our destination we had a little bit of turbulence and GBee decided we are going to crash! He was not scared, just excited that we are crashing, whatever that means! Thanks to the turbulence I changed the seats and let Mr.Bee sit with the kids and I had a quick nap.

Meanwhile Mr.Bee ordered Maggi noodles for the kids who were suddenly hungry and once their stomachs filled up, they became more excited, if that was possible! (noodles were too spicy for them, but have you ever heard of kids rejecting junk food?)

We landed at Kochi and KBee was worried that our 2 suitcases were not to be seen and that we only had one hand luggage! At the baggage claim, he found it interesting to get our luggage back on the conveyor belt.

After calling our cab driver, whom we booked for a week, we exited Kochi and were on the way to Palani, going from Kerala to Tamil Nadu.

Mr.Bee and the driver N were the only ones awake. I had a quick nap and the kids slept soundly in the back seat of the white Ertigo. Both had their heads in my lap and I was fresh as a daisy after my nap. Since it was Good Friday, the roads in Kerala were filled up with more than 500 Christians on road. While a few were enacting Jesus’s crucification others were singing songs and praying as they continued their procession, without any traffic interruptions.

We stopped at a snack point, where we had hot chai, which was mediocre and had some freshly made bajji. The mirch bajji was sweet and the plantain bajji was oily but eatable. Since both the kiddos had their heads on my lap, only Mr.Bee could get out of the car. I also asked him to buy us some banana chips and jack fruit chips, which turned out to be the best decision that day.

Jack fruits for sale at ‘Mollywood’ – the snack stop on highway

Our driver drove smoothly and even at high speed the car felt like it was fully under his control. We travelled in small village roads, short cut to Palani, that’s what N said as he took the route. The beautiful Kerala, the clean roads and the village atmosphere caught us off guard and Mr.Bee and I continued praising Kerala and it’s beauty. We already fell in love with Kerala 2 years ago, when we travelled to Wayanad.

After almost 4 hours of our drive, I decided to wake the kids up or they wouldn’t sleep at night! GBee was already complaining as soon as he woke up that we were still in the car and it was dark outside. I fed the kiddos the fresh chips and that shut them up. They began to enjoy the drive even though it was dark outside.

As soon as we entered Tamil Nadu, we found many windmills and counted them. That was the most fun we had that night. Soon, near Pollachi – Palani road, we saw thunder, lightning and rain. Inspite of all that, we kept counting windmills and at one point KBee shouted “I found a wind bill!” and all of us laughed. Then little-little kiddo KBee reprimanded us for laughing at his mistake and shut us all up, effectively!

Just 3.9Km away from our destination Palani, we waited near the railway crossing for the train to pass. As I was looking around, to remember the moment as much as I can, I saw a huge ant hill, enough to hold a family of snakes!

We reached the temple town of Palani at 9:40 p.m, had difficulty finding our hotel Subham. After a good 15 min of confusion, we finally reached the hotel. Kids had plain dosa and I had podi dosa for dinner and managed to drag our feet into bed.

Our day1 of vacation 2025, had come to an end!

P.S:

1. As soon as we reached Shamshabad Airport, Hyderabad, I saw PVP, son of late PM of India, who was travelling with his family.

Even GBee met one of his friends from school at the airport. The said friend was flying to bangalore, while we had earlier flight to Kochi.

2. As the car reached Pollachi – Palani road, GBee observed that the car was just gliding on the road, thanks to the rain. He said there was no need to drive the vehicle in rain! These little conversations bring me immense satisfaction and I try to understand a little about their psychology.

3. In Kerala, I found that people placed 1 foot high brass lights in the middle of the main doorway, probably to scare away any wild animals or reptiles, which are very common in villages.

Lights in Kerala village homes

4. The kids loved windmills and we enjoyed the drive from Kochi to Palani and the kids didn’t even ask me, “Are we there yet?”

As my loyal readers know of our brief life in the US of A, Mr.Bee would go to his office at 11 a.m. and I would pack my canvas tote with my black vertical striped apron and my wallet, booking an Uber to go to the Monroe Road studio of Clayworks, where the potter’s wheel was all I could see, as far as my passion was concerned.

Some days, when I felt low, even the pots and cups I made would turn out bad and I would leave the studio early (artists would understand!) On such afternoons, I would make a snack for myself and sit in the Ashley’s chocolate brown couch in our living room, with a parrot green woollen throw blanket and watch movies.

By chance, I had come across The Namesake, by Mira Nair, starring Irrfan Khan and the talented Tabu and decided it was worth a watch. It was a revelation. I liked Irrfan Khan too (It was the first time I watched his movie). It was a memorable movie, but this post is about The Namesake, the Pulitzer prize winning novel.

This is the first time I watched a movie first and read the novel on which the movie is based on, later. I have been to the recent book exhibition, the yearly ritual of my maternal family. I got myself a copy of The Namesake and interestingly, the lone thing I remember is Irrfan Khan and Tabu, in the awkward photo from the movie. It’s been more than 9 years since I watched the movie and it tells a great deal about the actors’ and their performances. (I couldn’t find the photo online). No wonder the lead pair is known for their talent.

The Gangulis

The Names

It is about a Bengali couple Ashoke Ganguli and Ashima, in an arranged marriage, whose life as immigrants is at once relatable. It starts with the marriage of Ashima and Ashoke Ganguli and progresses at steady pace to the births of their children Gogol and Sonia. The focus shifts to Gogol and that’s where the novel gets it’s name.

Gogol goes from a phase where his name is just a nickname to, where he loves to be called Gogol , to a phase where he hates it so much , he changes it to Nikhil, gets to know the real reason behind his name and finally regretting the change of his name.

Gogol doesn’t like that all his parents’ friends are desi families. He doesn’t like Indian food and the time it takes to cook. He struggles, as they say, ABCD – American Born Confused/Conflicted Desi. He sees the contrast between his parents and the lives of his American girlfriend and her parents. Gogol hates being told what to do by his parents,(most Asian parents do that) but ironically, ends up always submitting to his girlfriends and his wife. He performs fairly well in studies but since he takes decisions based on his rebellion against his parents, he falls flat. Like choosing a college to stay away from his family and not because it is better! He gives up studying at MIT, it is exasperating!

Ashoke Ganguli, in his own way had adjusted to the life in America. Interestingly, Ashoke ‘s friends had predicted accurately, that Sonia is a true American, right after she was born. But Ashima never feels at home, neither in Calcutta where she lived before marriage nor America, where she stayed for more than three decades. Neither here nor there.

The Ganguli family dynamics changes with the sudden death of Ashoke. Sonia, the daughter who had stayed away for studies reaches out to her mother during her mourning and shows us subtle glimpses of her character. (She hardly get 2 pages worth of space in the whole book)

After two failed relationships and 1 death in the family, Gogol a.k.a Nikhil meets Moushimee Majumder. Both have emotional baggage of their own and that leads to a disaster in waiting, which is their marriage. I didn’t like her at all. Nor did I like Gogol. He was a good man but he had his weaknesses and drawbacks.

The book ends with the hint of Sonia’s upcoming marriage to Ben, Ashima’s plan of moving back to India and well, Gogol, still coming to terms about the journey of life!

Overall, the Namesake is a slow paced story and at the end I did feel sad for Gogol and Ashima (both the troubled souls). It is worth a read, if you are not an avid reader, I suggest you to watch the movie for first class acting,

P.S:

1. Coming to the author Jhumpa Lahiri, her writing is easy to read and understand but at places it gets overly descriptive and lengthy. I found myself skipping paragraphs! I need to read more of her works to comment better.

2. Although we know little about Sonia, I liked her!

3. I went on to watch Irrfan Khan in Piku, Talwar , Jurassic World and Life Of Pi.

4. I will be back with a Sookshmadarshini review soon. Ciao!

Tag: Paris

Kochi to Palani

The Namesake

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