Imagine a fairy visited you today and granted you three wishes.
Do you have three wishes ready?
Wishes are like dreams - sometimes they come true and sometimes they don't.
Most of us do not take chances and therefore do not have a wish list.
On the other hand, children always seem to have a wish list that is regularly updated.
I spend a lot of time with young children so I keep a wish list too.
I choose to believe in fairies.
One of the items on my wish list was to visit Kerala before I die.
The fairies recently made sure that my visa to the next world was stamped by making this wish come true.
How, you ask?
Out of the blue, our phone company entered us into a lucky draw and gave us a holiday voucher of 3000 Omani Rials.
For simple travellers like us, this prize money was an astronomical amount. We spent a part of it in Dubai. With the remaining money, we planned a trip to Kerala in these Easter holidays.
...
Kerala had a special place in my heart even before it was branded as 'God's Own Country' by the tourism department of Incredible India.
Kerala was the place where my favourite English teachers came from. At school, Sister Teresa Peter, Ms Rosamma, Ms Lakshmi, and Mr Issac drilled into our young minds the intricacies of English grammar with mathematical precision.
All my Keralite friends showed an affinity for academics and overall excellence. I loved their idlis, their banana chips, their gold-bordered cream-coloured sarees, and their accent when they said words like 'minimum' or 'umbrella'. It all had an endearing charm and simplicity.
...
When I told Binu that we were going to Kerala, he sent me some stunning pictures he had shot of his hometown.
When I told Vijit, he offered to give me his house keys, just in case I fell in love with the place and decided to stay on.
When I told Meena and Shalini, they gave me an insight about the feel of the place.
When Sadasivan, our friend, dropped us at the airport, I asked him what he wanted us to bring for him from Kerala.
He looked out at the arid Muscat landscape and said,
"Can you bring all of Kerala here?"
