Why Having A Mallu Friend Circle Is So Essential?

We NRKs (non-residential Keralities) treasure occasional mallu gathering to reinvent and relive our lost days!

Disclaimer – You got to be a malayalee to read and understand this post! :P

“You DO NOT meet Mallus, they just HAPPEN to you” and that is true.


Saturday night went super awesome with an all mallu group going totally out of control cracking jokes (or rather “jookes” with a stress on O like we say it) over a never ending supply of essential mallu thottukootals (side dishes, basically) like parippuvada, beef ularthuyathu, kappa and more. We have a habit of getting too comfortable very soon, which we did, and got busy performing the routine check of our assertiveness (yes, coming from the land of communism, we can be loud when we are assertive), polishing the vocal cords (well, such a party is incomplete without group recitation of popular black and white numbers), revising and mocking different slang (although we belong to one thin strip in the south western border of India, slang within the state largely differs) and more importantly preparing ourselves for the “thara” state of mind (the lowest possible level of decency one can attain in public). Everything a true mallu (I am not talking about the half-baked ones) should do when in and only in the company of fellow mallus, because it takes to be one to tolerate the “mallu-state-of-affairs”!

We NRKs are the “fortunately unlucky” group who have moved out of Kerala either in search of job or after marriage, and we truly, deeply and madly miss our land, its wonderful aura and given a chance, still want to enjoy it, but from a “safe-distance”! And we do that most of the time because there is no dearth of our kind in any corner of the world – as the story goes, we have “Nair’s Tea Stall” even in moon! :P So, it just takes another Malayalee sharing the same desperation and the “legendary ice breaker" concept handed over to us by our forefathers – “naadevida?” (Where are you from?), to kick start another mallu uinion.

Yes, it's a connection we NRKs yearn for so much so that we have developed our telepathic ability to spot one even without uttering a word. And we are bang on most of the time when we jump on a conversation with a stranger (or was so a second go) to unravel another episode of a lasting bond!

Most of the time the need for such an association comes out of the reality that we cannot live without certain things. It is like the occasional call to break free from the rest of the world.


We love word puns – And we bet there is no other language that has made its presence on earth to accommodate “pun” as much as Malayalam can. Level of word pun we indulge in largely depends on the background and the maturity of people involved.

We itch to share an epic jooke – Again mallu jokes are not created but just happen. And that can happen only if we meet up with our kind, talk and talk and talk!

We love Malayalam movies and our stars – We are obliged to our film industry for the constant supply of “timely jokes”, “idivettu dialogues” (super punch dialogues) and certain wannabe film makers and actors, who are hell-bent on making a fool of themselves but spare us some entertainment. We use hilarious movie dialogues and situations often in our conversations as inferences followed by ROFL! And for that reason, we can easily forgive our superstars, even if they just gave a super flop movie or a real pathetic band performance!

We do not need a reason to eat good food – We simply love food and so we get together, expect our host to cook all day long and take the onus upon us to leave not even the last bit of “curry leaf or coconut bits” in the plate. We get together for a full fledged lunch or dinner and are equally happy to drop by for just a glass of "kaali chaya and parippuvada or pazhampori" for an evening spiked with endless talks about “tattukada” and “kallushapu” experience.

We love our morning paper and politics – If there is one thing that is more popular than food and movies in Kerala then that has to be politics and our dear politicians. Yes, it is often a review of the current party and governance that follows the legendary “naadevida?” bit. If you haven't tried this yet, you ought to and it works all the time.

We may boast of the highest literacy rate, but we also probably have the highest rate of drunkards in the country– Most men are fond of liqueur and they drink it so much that it is often liqueur what retains the fluid consistency of the body. Give them toddy and they will love you, give then rum and they will thank you, give them other branded liqueur and as long as it gives them a kick they will still love you or thank you! :P So, the prime motive or one of the motives behind such get-together is to satisfy this desire.

Women like their men in “mundu” and men like women in "saree" - Even when the rest of the world finds mundu absurd, women in Kerala (however modern they are) will still like their men in mundu (dothi) for traditional functions.  Same goes with men, when it comes to women and sarees. That’s our traditional wear and it is our birthright to look hot in it, which we do! So we celebrate the festivals within our circle to come dressed up in mundu and saree. A word about mundu - it is something only mallu men can carry off; stay away mockers!

Finally, we miss missing such things – It's a feeling that only we NRKs share and something that can be evoked on-need basis! :P

We are a “prasthanam” and I agree to that hands-down. We are particular about upholding these values - the little things we hold close to our heart when struggling to lead a life away from our motherland and trying our best not to give in completely to the mad bad world.

So until we meet up at Nair's Tea Stall in one of life’s cross roads and kick start with “nadevida?”, let’s all stay nostalgic!