today for instance i drove 45 mins to reach almost exactly where i started, and it is not like i turned back anywhere.. i took a road that kept going and going and apparently was going in circles!
and i could swear that the road looked familiar like i had taken it before but nay.. it was just enticing me to burn some fuel.
Funniest is when you ask for directions, the looks of happy satisfaction on the face of the person you ask as he tells you,.."ayyo sare ningal vazhi thetti poyallo.." or literally 'haha you messed up'.. and that smile as he asks .. 'you are new here na?' and if you dont leave immediately they would want to know where you come from, what you do, what you ate for breakfast and names of your parents. also here people always want to know where you are from! like it is not enough to be me, it is like i am me, from this place! every single person i meet asks sooner or later.. so where are you from.. if you think you can answer vaguely and get away.. no way! they will prise your birthplace with surprising nimbleness. and then it is almost a matter of pride with everyone to say that .."oh yeah, i have been there. in 1976 or something i was there for this or that.. yeah i have seen tat place.." it is like.. ah i have figured you out now!
and in ernakulam you'd never know where the city starts and ends, there are areas in between where there is so much open space and greenery that you'd start freaking out that you have actually ended up outside the city, and then in a few minutes building prop up out of no where!
to add to the general confusion, place names change with alarming speed, in that sense that if you drive 5 mins in any direction, you'd most likely go past five places. I mean like in bombay you have a bandra or malad and these are large places.. there are numbers and roads within the area.. here it isnt like that.. each individual place has a name! yeah i think that is what it is.. local buses for isntance dont have numbers.. they have names.. people wud say "ah alice is comng at 3 and i'l get off at meneka and then walk to whatever next place".. where alice is the bus and meneka is the stop.
because of all this any address in ernakulam will have atleast 3 roads names, 2 place names, 1 house name.. seriously!
