Road Trip to Thekaddy, Kerala by Hanaa Haleem
This year, I finally got to travel outside of Tamil Nadu during my three week stay in India. With my younger cousins, parents, and grandmother (mother’s side), we drove 8 hours to Kerala from our hometown in Tamil Nadu. We first began with a boat ride with nothing special but a view of buffalos and a sunny lake similar to the one near my house.
The food was way different than I expected as I am used to high spice content, meaning that biryani tasted really plain to me during this trip as I am used to it being cooked very spicy.
Day 2 was the big highlight. My parents and I went hiking up stairs that led us to a big statue which represented ancient tribes in India. I also exchanged a small conversation with a street food vendor selling mango, who shared about her hometown. Later, my dad and I rode an elephant that I struggled to climb onto as I was scared of falling, but the ride turned out to be fun after all.
What stood out to me the most was the cleanliness of public places and English fluency within many people in Kerala. I felt like for once, I can survive in India without fluency in my native language despite finally learning it better within the many places I went to this year. I am definitely homesick for the street kuttu porottas (chopped spicy flatbread) and endless greenery within every spot I travel to.
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