On My Watchlist

  • Shawshank Redemption
  • 21 Jump Street
  • In Your Eyes
  • Kick Ass
  • 8 Mile
  • Laggies
  • Little Miss Sunshine
  • Man Up
  • Silver Linings Playbook
  • Two Weeks Notice

Wednesday 29 June 2016

On Mallu Receptions

Mallu wedding receptions can be strange places to have a quarter life crisis, but it's inevitable. Your decision to attend makes you question your sanity and your social standing or the serious lack thereof. You can be sure your Catwalk heels and Swarovski set and your designer silks will stick out sorer than a chocolate stain on the seat of your favourite stark white booty shorts. 
The pointless drivel , taste in music or total lack thereof , tacky seats , terrible lighting and the diabetes inducing food to say nothing of the generic smiles and that pervy photographer bent on catching your most unflattering poses , usually mid burp or if your especially "lucky" , while you're nodding off during the endlessly stretching pointless ceremony.Your life is at peril from the kids running around faster than the runny gravy dripping onto your plate. The hall smells like the malodorous love child of a dissection hall and a boys washroom.
The waiters eye you up and take peeks at your chest when they think you aren't looking ( which you Notice). Every adult is a senior citizen or a parent , most likely you're the only teen in a sea of hyperactive toddlers. You're dying a slow death of boredom if your stilettos aren't doing the job.Every time you swear is the last yet you find yourself attending the next.If the people get better the food gets worse and vice versa.
You're probably related to half the crowd and you don't know it , so Please Don't pick up strangers , if you're a Mallu at a Mallu wedding. If you're of the right age and have all the right boxes checked off , this wedding could be succeeded by your own . The Horror. Another Mallu wedding and this time your own.
You can find everyone except for the groom and the bride , sighting the supposedly lucky couple is as likely as the survival chances of the last beer at your dad's college reunion bash.If you get through this , the lack of a working phone reception will ensure you won't. If you feel any self harming urges or contemplate suicide , don't be alarmed (in this specific case) and don't dial that hotline that they tell you to , just leave the reception and it'll go away. Like poof. Gone.
Taking selfies will earn you the same stares you would be getting if you were doing head stands and cartwheels in the aisle of a low budget( if you're a Mallu you only fly low budget flights economy , don't even pretend otherwise).
Mallu weddings will probably kill every thought of marriage if your family doesn't ( no one wants to be like their Mallu family , 50 years from now , but it happens anyway and you won't even know , good luck sleeping tonight).
If you're lucky , like gold at the end of the rainbow lucky , and an exception, you may have an epiphany , as unlikely as it sounds , and decide to do something with your life and quit your job and start scuba diving in Bali and all that YOLO Jazz or even start that acapella band you wanted to start after watching Pitch Perfect , if you're a Mallu you probably don't know what that is , so don't bother.
If the top of that light starts smoking mid photo shoot , it's not a compliment to your looks , it's pretty common so don't bother worrying either.
Single and cute guys at Mallu weddings are like the last ice cream scoop at your break up moviethon unless you count the ones in diapers or in school. 
The buffet at the end of the hall is like the light at the end of the dank long tunnel which is totally a metaphor for the reception- only till you taste it. Then it's as disappointing as the rest or probably more.
Calling it a celebration is oxymoronic.It's the demise of singledom . Welcome to the end of your life . My condolences , if you're a bride and reading this.

Assorted Malluness

Lately I find myself oddly fascinated by every aspect of being a Mallu (like that's actually a thing?!)
which is quite strange , because let's face it - I was born one.
So I decide to catalogue all the quirks unique to being a mallu , outside Kerala .
We do exist you know , our community being as ubiquitous as McDonalds.
So the next few posts are dedicated to Malluness (this might become a thing, maybe , maybe not , science might make the flight of pigs possible too)

How To Spot A Mallu Restaurant



A small questionnaire to confirm your misfortune - oops - location

Is the lady at the next table staring at you?
Damn straight you are at one.
Do you smell fish and assorted crustaceans?
Most likely you are.
Does the person at the next table have some sort of questionable, highly fried and coloured meat on the table?
There can be no doubts .
Does every vegetarian meal look the same?
Hell yeah!
Are 4 pages of the menu dedicated to meat and fish and a paragraph to the rest?
You know where you are.
The single guys appear to be of the shady type and pass furtive looks including the waiters.
The plates are plastic.
The kids sound nasal and whine in Malayalam .
The moms too.
The dads grunt and eat.
Everybody and their grandmother eavesdrop on the next table.
You can tell by the table manners or the lack thereof.
Every one looks like a mallu except for what appears to be the odd trucker.
Everyone knows every ones grand aunt if they were to converse , which they don't, conversation is only at ones own table and discreet eyeing and eavesdropping on other tables.
People order the very same things made in their families made better at their homes and served worse at restaurants.
You observe the sheer futility of being a mallu at a mallu restaurant as you try to sip your buttermilk elegantly which is equally futile .
The entire charade is an exercise in futility .
The waiter is a mallu or an emigrant from Nepal or Bihar with a passable mallu accent.
You are drowning in an overwhelming sea of malluness.
The menus are plastic.
You announce your vegan status and it's greeted by the same reception you would have been greeted by were you to say you had AIDS or the plague or say you were a child molester or that you support Donald Trump.
But again, in a Mallu family supporting Donald  Trump would be preferable to being vegan.
Your grandmother examines the freckles on your forehead and the menu with the same interest .
Do you parcel the spoonfuls of revolting leftovers?
Say no more you ARE at a mallu restaurant 
Do you take home , the half empty bottle of mineral water ?
Can there be any doubt?
You are a mallu and eat mallu food every meal every day every week all your life YET you frequent a mallu restaurant to eat the watered down badly prepared versions of the same.
You mistake the restaurant for someones apartment..
The people at your table crack obscure political jokes in Malayalam that you completely miss the point of.
People speak Malayalam.
You eat on banana leaves despite the evolution of fine china porcelain and silverware.
The tables are covered with plastic.
No meal is complete without meat.