In Praise of the Malayali

I am not a fan of boiled rice, but I used to like the seafood whenever I ate it during my stay at Calicut- Paragon was one restaurant we frequented. Fish Moily in particular was one dish that I liked a lot.

People from the state of Kerala have been pioneers in the art of working abroad, and though many have focused on the Gulf/Middle East, there are some in all parts of the world. And invested their earnings back home, making Kerala prosperous. Those that lived outside also were cosmopolitan in outlook.

I have had lots of students of Malayali origin at Kirloskar Institute, and they were generally very good students. A couple are in these pics.


Some names that I remember are Dheeraj, Vidya TC, Sandhya Sajeev, Pooja Daniel, Smita Mohan, Sujit, Mamta,...of course, I have had Malayali students at other institutes too, but not as many in number. And, Uday Damodaran has been a friend since IIMB days, and a colleague at two  B Schools.

I once met P.T. Usha, the athlete, at IIMK (her hometown is close by)-a highlight of my stay. The memories of Calicut and the staff there at IIM are good. Years later, my secretary at IMT Ghaziabad was from Kerala too. Though there is a lot of commie activity within the state (leading to near-zero industrialization), the greenery and generally nice behaviour one-to-one compensates. This (Calicut) is the only place where I had a home (rented) with a Jackfruit tree, pepper creepers, and coconut trees. A pic taken in the house, with my brother and the kids, below.

Speaking from a marketing academic's standpoint, they have probably had the best advertising campaign for tourism- God's Own Country was the branding slogan.

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