What I like most about the city is that it is really close to the sea. That scores a big plus in my books. There are plenty of places were you can stroll along the sea-shore or enjoy the sea breeze or just sit there – I can watch the sea for endless eternity. These are things I really missed in Bangalore and Plochingen. This doesn’t score a point above Trivandrum though – plenty of places there too to do the same things.

Plus there are plenty of shopping areas around here. That’s not high on my list of priorities, but it does help. It presents itself as a very bubbly city, which is great for me. It may not be a Bangalore in this respect, but definitely good enough. Both Trivandrum and Plochingen are laid back cities, which also works, but at this point of my life.. hmm.. I prefer ‘bubbly’ over ‘laid-back’ :).

What I really don’t like is the traffic here. Horrible. I survived Bangalore and I thought that was worst I would see. Ernakulam beats all that – with 1/5th of the vehicles of Bangalore – now that’s an achievement! And the driving culture here is even worse. I don’t think I’ve seen it this bad in any other place I’ve been to. I am now even more scared crossing roads – nobody ever stops here!

Another bad thing is that I find a lot of people here imitating cosmopolitanism (if there’s a word like that); despite the city not really being what you would describe as cosmopolitan. It all ends up looking very artificial. I don’t know – KFC-s, Baristas and multiplexes seem like a mismatch here. Maybe that’s just a feeling that’ll go away.

Overall I think the city will grow on me, just like the other new places did. It’s just as good as the other places I’ve stayed in. What makes a city unforgettable are the number of friends you have there and I had a few in all those special places I’ve stayed in before. I guess I’ve already started that process here. So maybe, it’s just a matter of time, before I fall in love with this place too!.

It had rained non-stop for 4 hours; that was ample time for the entire area around the railway station to get flooded, again. There wasn’t a way out with water everywhere. My dad had come to pick me, but there was no way that he could drive up to the station, unless our Maruthi could instantly transform itself into a hovercraft. So he parked up 1 km away on higher ground and waited. I was getting restless so I decided to wade through the water and walk to the place. So laptop on one hand and a heavy bag of clothes in the other, I started the painful journey. I soon realized that it was such a stupid thing to do, but by then I had already passed the point of no-return. One broken slab somewhere, and I would have atleast fractured a leg. Thankfully nothing happened and I found our car after half an hour of swimming in the city center.

Driving back, I now had no doubt about what Mr. Luce had said about our government. It really is a mystery how our country runs. The ‘water’ problem of Thampanoor (the railway station and surrounding areas) is legendary. I’ve been hearing about this since I learnt to put 2 and 2 together. With all this technology around and Trivandrum even trying to be twinned up with Barcelona (ha!) its just amazing that our administration is not able to solve this pre-historic problem. I have read about many a project trying to fix this problem, spending millions of rupees, but to what end? 15 minutes of rain (no, I am not exaggerating) and Thampanoor becomes a lake.

I’ve always been of the opinion that its not right to keep blaming the system for every flaw and doing nothing ourselves as citizens. But there are somethings that the system has to work out by itself. This is just a prime example. It’s so sad, so much public money went to the drain (pun intended) for no use. Maybe its true, as Luce implies and as one of my colleagues quipped, if the problem is solved, how will the government ‘servants’ fill their pockets? No more flooding = no more projects = no more money to steal.

For the love of my city, someone with power please do something. I feel powerless, except to shout. :(

I come from a sleepy suburb of the small city of Trivandrum, with all its old world charm. Compared to Bangalore, the hustle-bustle, the traffic and the noise is almost non-existent there. So I was brought up, being used to a bit of peace and quiet. The transition to the metro life of Bangalore was quick, and it wasn’t a very easy one. It was like you had gone fishing beside a serene lake and then suddenly getting kicked into a Metallica concert.

One thing Bangalore gave to me (and a lot of us) is freedom – financially and otherwise. Used and misused it, and in the meanwhile enjoyed it a lot. It gave me new meanings to life and allowed me to see things in other dimensions. I appreciated all that but still it never felt like home. I could never imagine a settled life here. There was always a feeling that I was a stranger in a strange place.

But that was some time ago, and time changes perspectives. I spent last week in my dear own Trivandrum celebrating Onam with my family. It was good, but strangely for the first time really, I started badly missing Bangalore – the congestion, the traffic, the crowds and everything associated with it. That was when the realization came that I had indeed accepted Bangalore as my new home. Bangalore has now become the routine, and Trivandrum the (welcome) aberration. They say home is where the heart is… I guess I have learnt to give some part of my heart to Bangalore… 3 years down the line.

I was elated even when the rumours spread that Shashi Tharoor is contesting from Trivandrum. I am not a big fan of the Congress/UPA policies, but as a Trivandrum-ite we need someone like Dr. Tharoor to lead us to change. It will not be easy for him to coast to a victory despite the credentials he has. But I do hope he pulls through. Trivandrum needs that chance and I hope all Trivandrum-ites think about it and use their vote intelligently. And I think they will do it. After all we did elect the maverick V.K.Krishna Menon when he stood as an independent candidate way back in the 70s.

One more thing : Whether you are not going to support Tharoor or not, do exercise your power to vote. It is your fundamental duty. If you believe all this is beyond you, you don’t even have the moral right to criticize the “system” as we always do. Do our duty first then think about blaming the netas.

The beauty of a train journey is that you observe life around you. In a bus its more like, sticking an iPod in your ear, wondering why you never get the seat next to a girl, praying that the driver stops soon rather than testing your bladder control. Don’t know why, but the whole set-up for socializing is missing in a bus journey. Train is different. You seem to feel more comfortable to strike a conversation and you get to know a lot about your co-travellers, even without a word being uttered.

On this Onam trip to Trivandrum from Bangalore, I had this very interesting but typical gang as my fellow passengers. Passenger A, was the typical mallu hero. He comes from this small town near Trivandrum, now making it big in a big-shot company in Bangalore. He likes to tell his tales, his tales of glory especially when there is a girl next to him (Aw! Sounds eeriely similar to me :D ). Very quickly he takes on the protector role of Ms. Passenger B. For a moment Ranjith (who was travelling with me) and I, thought both of them had come together, then thought maybe they were college mates, then maybe old friends, then as their conversations progressed came to know that they had first laid eyes on each other on this very train. Passenger B was smart too. She made good use of the situation. In no time, poor Mr. A was running around getting water bottles, pushing heavy luggage, ordering food etc. etc. And then they started talking about Bangalore traffic and why you don’t get train tickets and yeda yeda. So attention had to shift.

There is always one pretty girl on the train who seems to be not concerned about the world around her. We had our own Passenger C to play that role. As soon as she came and sat, she pulled out a book and started reading it with vigour as if the fate of the world hangs on whether she completes the book in time or not. The other people in the compartment are unimportant subjects when it comes to our lady, but at the same I’m pretty sure she’s well aware that the glances of all the males in the compartment tend to converge on her. At least I’m sure about my case, since she caught my glance a couple of times hehe. Alas, the queen went to her hive too soon and in the morning as I woke up from my middle berth the lady was already out. :(

Then there was Passenger D and Passenger E. Mr. D is a perfect artist interested in watching classical French films (without subtitles by the way) and is also intelligent enough not to waste a single rupee as he knows how to use torrents. Mr. E doesn’t seem to be interested, but definitely now has great knowledge of the technology behind torrents, 70mm movies and why Heath Ledger doesn’t deserve an Oscar and some obscure French guy does.

Mr. F is an ‘almost’ fresh graduate out from an engineering college in Kerala. The first people he talks to are us and we start the regular flow of questions -

and in no time it is proven that I know all his friends and he knows all mine!

Then there were two guys absolutely bored. They gossip about old college mates, discuss world matters, ponder about the future of software engineering, wonder whether Chrome can beat Firefox.. more or less putting on a show that they know what they are talking about and at the same time ensuring that others (specially the pretty girl) are noticing them. But then all of a sudden, all topics come to an end. Nothing more to do, they start to observe the people around them. And as they make fun of others, and while one is planning on how to structure his next blog on these observations, they come to know… all these things they told about everyone else, every single one of the traits they can find in either themselves or their close friends. ‘They’ are ‘us’. God sure seems to have used the Ctrl+C and Ctrl+V technique a lot when he was programming our genes. Good one my Lord! A true microcosm of people I know, didn’t I say trains were cool?

I was in Bangalore for a week and in Trivandrum for another. Bangalore, every where I turn, there is something new. Trivandrum has a few things changed here and there, but overall it is just that same old city! Everybody was also apprehensive of me driving, to say the truth even I was, a bit. But it was not the least difficult. Ok, first few minutes I tried to do things “right” but very soon my Indian instincts took over and lo I was honking, not stopping at pedestrian crossings, not following lanes.. hehe.. it was smooth from then on! One thing that changed regarding driving in Trivandrum is the number of FM stations available. When I left, there was just one.. now I turn the radio on and there seems to be a channel every other frequency – Big FM, SFM, Club FM .. what not! Then I see that there *are* traffic symbols posted neatly in India, just that before I never noticed them before and even if I did, never knew what they meant. Enough of blaming the government, our road culture is the first problem, nothings gonna change without improving that!

Most of the week in Trivandrum was spent visiting & being visited by friends and family. I even cooked for them. The shock on my mother’s face when she saw me cooking (‘Chicken Trivandrum’ ;) ) was a priceless moment. Nobody thought I had it in me to cook :D Well, not any more dear ones.. Even I can cook! Many evenings were spent idling away in the city.. brought back many flashes of nostalgia. I even managed to go to a cultural show organized by some department of my old college in the amazingly beautiful Kanakakunnu palace grounds. Sat there for hours with my college buddies… it was the best feeling ever! :D

It was a not a totally smooth transition, but not as difficult as I expected. Things seem changed, and I look at things differently than before.. But I am so happy being back :)

What I like about Trivandrum is its quiet, under-crowded (relative to other Indian cities) nature. And despite all the noisy and sometimes violent political protests, the city does give me some sense of safety too. And what’s more it is my hometown and almost all of my buddies live here. That’s probably the biggest reason why I just can’t hate Trivandrum.

Yes Trivandrum does have its fair share of problems too. The biggest accusation is the lack of hang-outs with very few “trendy” places in the city. But if you are resourceful enough there are several places that the capital of god’s own country can offer. Another problem attached to Trivandrum is it’s slow pace. Probably it’s due to all the government offices here, but somehow I consider that as a plus point. :) The city also dies too soon at night. 9′o clock seems to be too late in Trivandrum. But that too is not a big problem for me, my friends would know why ;)

I will be bidding adieu to Trivandrum in four or five month’s time. I do not know when I will return, but I do know that I’ll want to return to the quiet and peace of this beautiful city sometime later.

All being said, if you ask me whether I want to leave Trivandrum, I would quickly say yes. Not because I don’t like Trivandrum… but because I like change. 21 years is too long to be stuck in a city… even if it is Trivandrum :)

It was sometime in July last year. So this one day we had a shortened college day for some reason. Someone suggested we go somewhere. Subhash I think, came up with the idea of a very little known beach called Aazhimala. Our first of those several “dynamic” plans began there. 6 of us squeezed ourselves in my car and 4 more followed in two mobikes.

Driving around narrow but uncrowded roads, we reached this big turn on the road. Subash, who was the only one who had visited this place earlier, was constantly telling us that we’ll all gasp in awe at the sight we’ll see… and boy he didn’t exaggerate a wee bit. The sea seemed to sneak right in front of our eyes with all its grandeur all of a sudden. It was an experience I cannot describe. One second we were looking at dull gray asphalt and at the next the gorgeuos blue sea.

Being a “road less taken” has its disadvantages too. There was no real fixed path to reach the sandy beach down, from the cliff where the road ended. But yeah, we did find one in the end and that was part of the fun too. Coming down to the beach made it look even more amazing. We were all enjoying the serene beauty of the whole scene, when suddenly disaster struck. I in my over enthusiasm to get into the water, misjudged the laws of physics, slipped on a rock and crashed my elbow on it. It was paining like hell, but to put a brave face in front of the others I kept saying it was alright (In reality a bone was almost broken and couldn’t move my hand properly for almost a week ;) ). That did dampen the spirits for a minute but soon we began a game of volleyball cum football cum basketball. I tried my best to join them but my hurt arm kept saying no. After a while, we sat on the many huge rock jutting in to the sea and kept chitchatting. Sitting there was another awesome experience too. I know I have been repeating these superlatives so many times, but trust me this place deserves it. The only thing we did wrong during this trip was not taking a camera. Hmm. that was a basic mistake, but luckily something we never made in our future endeavours.

All done, we climbed back up to where the car was. Then came a local guy, talked a bit rough to us saying that this place was a bit dangerous and blah blah blah. Yeah, he is probably right you need to be a bit careful coming here, but hey.. what is life without taking some risks?

How to get there? So if you are impressed and want to visit this place, well here is how. Aazhimala is located around 30-40 minutes drive from Trivandrum city. Take the National Highway 47 towards Kanyakumari and take a right at Balaramapuram. Travel down the Vizhinjam road and ask some locals for precise directions. There are a few turns you will have to make, but its not that difficult to find. If you wish to travel via bus, then last time I checked there was a city bus from the East Fort stand going to Aazhimala Temple, which is only around a 100m away from this site. I am not very sure about the timing, frequency and crowd-factor of this bus though.

Highly recommended trip. But before you get down the cliff, it is always good to seek the advice of some local. Just to be on the safe side. :)