Kerala....... My hometown........ or is it??

"My bags are packed, I am ready to go, I am standing here outside the door, the taxi is waiting, he's blowing his horn". The John Denver songs (leaving on a jet plane) comes to your mind every time you embark on a journey, irrespective of your mode of transport.

Anyway, I am packed to go to "KERALA", my hometown. Thats what I have been told from childhood. Kerala is your hometown, your are a Keralite. It took me a while to realize, thats not the truth. I am a Malayalee at most, but not a Keralite. I came to Bangalore when I was 4 months old. I grew up in this city and spent 27 yrs of my life here, now you tell me how does that make me Keralite. All the people who are on a common ground as me (and there are a LOT of us) will understand this. My classmates in school would remember, I used to bring Puliyogare and Lemon rice for lunch, not Puttu or Appam!! I dont like communist ideologies and I swear I have never taken part in a Harthal or bandh.

I have suffered from an identity crisis for ever. People are astonished that I can speak Malayalam fluently but my English is crisp. Crisp as in I can pronounce the words without swallowing the "L".

So my dear friends, the next time I feel like celebrating Ugadi along with Onam, it's OK, thats just who I am or who we are (considering the tons of mallus in b'lore). So let us be..........