Nale aanu, Naale aanu

Nale aanu, Naale aanu   

        Till the late 1990s, the heading of this blog used to be heard across Kerala, particularly in crowded bus stands. The English translation is “It is tomorrow, It is tomorrow”. The ‘it’ here refers to draw of lottery tickets and finding out who the winner is.

       It seems most of the malayalees are firm believers of luck. Why else will we have so many lottery agencies across the state? Even the state government (a rare scenario again across the country) owns a lottery establishment. There used to be a time when this business was so good that ambassador cars used to go around making the above announcement.

        The lotteries gain attention especially during festive season. For instance, there are Onam bhagyakuri (lottery’s Malayalam) , Vishu bhagyakuri et al. I think the politicians should adopt this naale aanu naale annu as their tagline since it is also reflective of the development opportunities which the politicians promise but never bring in to the state.

       When one talks about Kerala lottery, one cannot help but remember the laughter-riot sort of a scene from the movie 'Kilukkam' between Revathi and Innocent where in he says 'Adichu Moleeee...'

Who is Tintu Mon?

Who is Tintu Mon?

                      When you visit Kerala, you will hear this name, quite often – Tintu Mon. Who is TintuMon? He is a mythical little boy who has admirers across Kerala. He is funny, smart and suave.

                     Tintu mon was created by the famed catoonist, Mr. B.M.Gafoor. If I remember right, ‘Tintu mon’ was first popularized in the main stream by the celebrated malayalam cine actor, Mr.Innocent. In one of the olden movies, he used to mention master Tintu mon in a funny manner.As per Innocent, Tintumon usually studies in Nadathara LP school. Because of his intelligence, he is stuck in UKG forever , UKG – B to be specific.

                 These days, almost all the jokes that are being told in Kerala has Tintumon’s presence. He even has a girl friend, Dundu Mol. Mon and Mol are endearing terms used to refer to boys and girls respectively.

               Tintumon is someone who believes in technology due to which he lives through facebook posts, whatsapp forwards and even sms jokes.

Shoe flower & Kerala

Shoe flower & Kerala

Many of you would have seen shoe flower – the beautiful red flower with broad petals. It is called Hibiscus if I still remember my biology lessons from school and in malayalam, it is called 'Chembarathy'. This plant’s leaves are said to be very good for one’s hair. In Kerala, people use it regularly for hair care.

You might wonder as to what is so peculiar about shoe flower in Kerala. Usually, after a temple visit, people keep flowers either on their hair or just above their ears. But if you choose to wear a shoe flower over your ears, the whole meaning changes drastically! It indicates that you have lost your mind. In less euphemistic terms, you have gone mad! Such a harmless flower and see what damage it can do to you!

Even in films, there are scenes where this quirkiness of shoe flower gives rise to a few laughs. In the film ‘Kalyana soungandhikam’, the lead actress, Divya Unni wears shoe flower all over her hair in a scene as advised by a fake guruji played by Dileep. This scene had the theatres erupting in laughter. Another famous scene from the film ‘Manichitrathazhu’ between Mohanlal and Pappu is shown in the picture here.

When you visit Kerala, whatever happens, DO NOT wear the shoe flower  :)

Keywords : Malayali blog, Malayalee blog, Kerala blog, Mallu blog, Kerala, Malayalee, Namaskaram, Malayalam, Onam, God's own country, Back waters, Coconut, Coconut oil, Coconut trees