Warmth in the backwaters...

It has been so difficult to articulate Kerala, ever since I've got back. I don't think it's a case of writer's blog (!) since I've been able to post stuff. And like I said, it is not often that I'm stuck for words.
Then, why can I not write about Kerala? Because I'd be tempted to use the mono-adjective AWESOME right through. Because there are, unlike what Wittgenstein believed, things that you can experience, but not really explain. Because I'm stuffed with all the gorgeous food that we got those six days. Because I've just lost it?
But what I can say, or rather, I MUST say is that I was overwhelmed by the hospitality of Malayala Manorama- the largest circulating daily in Kerala. It was a conference organised by the Commonwealth Press Union and Malayala Manorama jointly. Of course, mercifully, MM hijacked the whole thing. :) Thank God (after all, he is in his own country) for that!
Because for an empire (those in Kerala would know that), the MM family is rather modest, quite unlike emperors and empresses! They say you cannot choose your family, but MM adopted 21 of us journalists from all over the country and Sri Lanka for six days and made us a part of that warm close knit unit they are. Be it the food, or the ferry (that deserves another post!), those guys did it with panache. And never, not for a moment, did anyone get the feeling that they were imposing on what could arguably be one of the biggest industrial houses in the country. Even our excesses were not counted.
So, this post, in effect is a tribute to a family's hospitality, warmth and friendship. Hard to find people like that, these days...