Odisha, Kerala, Chennai, a wedding, four train journeys, a death and a pennukaanal

… and that pretty much sums up my 10-day vacation!

Give me a second to catch my breath.

Ok, done.

The past ten days, starting from 21st June, have been a whirlwind. I set off for a much-needed-and-anticipated-since-god-knows-how-long vacation on 21st. Destination: Bhubaneswar. Purpose: Eat dahi bada- alu dum, see a bit of Odisha, and generally have a good time. Actual purpose: Attend the wedding of two of my best buddies, who I fondly refer to as ‘my Marshall and Lily’.

So we- that would be Thusha, Shringi and myself- arrived in Bhubaneswar on 22nd (Thusha’s journey till Hyderabad was an event in itself. Read about it here). Attended the wedding on 24th (got slightly bored after the reception because seriously, three hours of puja in the middle of the night? Dude!!:/ Thankfully, we got to do a lot of nautanki before that) visited the Sun Temple at Konark on the 25th (pic below) binged on a lot of Odiya food, whined and complained about the humidity, and made a new friend.



We said ta ta bye bye to Odisha on 26th. My original plan was to go to TVM to attend yet another wedding of another best friend. But while I was travelling, I got the news that my grandma (Amma’s mom) passed away. So from Chennai, from where we had to take a connecting train to Kerala, I went to Trichur instead of TVM, and then to Vadakara.

Nadapuram, in Vadakara, is where my mom’s ancestral home is. A huge old sprawling house. Many of my relatives had gathered there by the time I reached. I was meeting some of them after ages. It felt good to be back among them. It was three days of nonstop chatter, never-ending supply of food and snacks, sitting on the front porch and watching the rain for hours (I got to witness the Kerala monsoon in all its glory. One word. Gorgeous), sleeping at 11 PM (the first day there, I slept off at 10. That’s like a record for me!), just crashing wherever there is space available, and loads of laughter. I ate the simplest and yet the most delicious Mallu food. I think it’s something to do with the water there. The food was simply too good. Manavi the brat has grown up now. She’s taller, naughtier and cuter than ever. And her tantrums also last longer. :D

I got to experiment with my camera a lot. I’m posting this from office right now, so I don’t have any of the pics. Shall upload them in another post soon.

So yes, that was my vacation, if I can even call it that. The days went by in a blur, and I don’t want to travel in a train for some time now. I’m so freaking tired, I need another mini-vacation to recover from this one. :/ But all said and done, I had a great time. I got back to Hyderabad yesterday.

Oh the pennukaanal? Why don’t I hang on to that info and tell you guys in another post? :p (Yes I know, I can be a real pain).

For the non-mallus, pennukaanal literally means ‘girl-seeing’, where the girl has to behave all shy and demure in front of prospective in-laws. Rest assured, I was anything but shy and demure. But like I said, more on that later! :)