Mallus, Mallus everywhere...!

There is the hackneyed old joke that when Armstrong landed on the moon, he was greeted by... yes maybe you heard that before.

Malayalees flock together  - like birds of a feather - they tend to sense each other from a distance.

In the Maldives when I was standing on the queue at the immigration counter on arrival, I heard Malayalam chatter behind me, presumably Malayalees employed in the hospitality sector. I had small talk with one of them and he turned out to be working in the hospitality sector in a far away Maldives island. The receptionist of the hotel at the isolated Maldives village where I stayed turned out to be a young Malayalee lad.

In the smoking area at Kuwait airport I heard someone who said he was a Maritime engineer boasting in Malayalm about his exploits around the world to another of his brethren as he took swigs of brandy from a flask.

Kuwait was Malayalees everywhere - the hotel attendant was Malayalee, the office driver was a Mangalorean Anglo who spoke Malayalam, the food delivery person was a Malayalee - he lamented sorrowfully as he compared his cramped quarters with the luxurious apartment where we stayed. On my flight to Germany, the elderly Mallu gentleman seated behind me got into an argument with the air crew on his quota of brandy.

The UK was not any short of Malayalees either.

Far away in Nottingham, while on the tram I heard a young lad speaking on the phone in Malayalam about his part time job and how happy he was able to manage it in his free time outside college. I heard Malayalam chatter by young women, obviously nurses as they headed out for their late shifts while on my way to office. The corner store near my apartment run by the Andhra guy had a young Malayalee apprentice lad who actually was willing to trust me with a few pounds when I was short of change.

The thrift store in London where I went to buy an international charger was run by a Malayalee which I was quick to infer from his accent.

The taxi driver who drew me to London from Nottingham on my way back was a long time Malayalee resident in the UK. The list would have been endless had I joined any of those loosely organized Malayalee societies.

Some more random thoughts on Life in the UK

I had the chance to talk to this elderly White Brit neighbor, who I used to see occasionally in the summer cycling outdoors on his bike. He  was apparently what I term a "gold digger" for the reasons coming next. He lived on a UK pension (and maybe his retirement savings) but spent time in countries such as Sri Lanka and other South East Asian nations, where obviously his pounds got more bang for his buck and he could live a much more comfortable life than he could expect to in costly UK. He excitedly told me why he liked Sri Lanka so much and how he managed to deal with the hot weather there. There are quite a few people like this in the West - modern day hippies, who prefer to stay outside their country of citizenship to live a modestly luxurious life in a country where the purchasing power parity is more favorable. Notably the backpackers who you will see in places such as Goa, Dharamshala and of course, Kerala..

The UK media I noticed is heavily biased, almost similar to the Indian media. Prince Harry is universally despised and after his misadventure, Prince Andrew has also fallen into the bad books. The Queen (and the other immediate royals) are held in high regard and every small action of theirs (including body language) was noted, analyzed, praised to the skies and glorified. Speaking against the monarchy is akin to treachery, though though a minority of modern Brits, do not believe in the continuation of the monarchy. The press is prejudiced in some way similar to India and are sometimes have a parochial outlook, which actually surprised me as I expected the media to be more liberal and open minded in what is considered a developed country..

There are a lot of homeless people in the UK as well. You will find them huddled in a jacket and a blanket on a cold winter evening by the street curb. They are not as despised or looked down upon as you would expect in India or in fact the US. They are the street clowns. When begging, they will request you in very polite English for a few pennies. And they are always in a mood to haves some silly banter with passersby. Some of the regular small town people are familiar with these homeless and are actually on first name terms with some of them. I even saw one shabby beggar come for a regular checkup at the NHS, because health care is universal in the UK under the NHS. It seems that the general public decided that these people have chosen that particular way of life of their own choice and there is nothing more to it..

In certain shabbier areas parts of town you will find drunk tramps, some of them quite young chaps asking if you could spare a few pennies, because their "mother just died. You know my  mother, she died!".

There is a special tax on products containing sugar in a bid to combat obesity which is pandemic in the UK. So you will find that the can of beer you just bought from the corner store is only slightly expensive than the Coca Cola can you bought instead..