Puttum Kadalayum

"Puttum Kadalayum" doesn't really sound like something big enough to hinge one's career decisions upon. But it is. It was meant to be nothing more than a casual remark when Ch asked me yesterday, "Bangalore-ilo Pune -ilo poyal pinne puttum kadalem evidunnu kazhikkum??" But I know it, and he knows it too, that the Qn was a fatal setback to my plans to switch the current job for a better(?) one. I was crouching low down, ready to lift myself off, but this very innocuous sounding Qn made me sit back, and rethink.

So what is it about Puttum Kadalayum? Apart from being my favourite breakfast...(I am no glutton, but this combo, with pappadam as the kinky sidekick, brings me to my knees, literally.) it represents everything good about working in TVM. There is a certain noisy chord inside me which is still chanting I should run to a metro. The fatter paychecks, the late-night discos, the cosmopolitan crowd, the rock concerts... hmm. Have you ever stuck yourself into a chair and got too comfortable with it to make yourself the will required to get up? That's the feeling. You know you're approaching the event horizon when you start thinking like, "What could actually provide me satisfaction??". That could be the point of no return.

I am sure I've earned the ire of quite a few Mallus working outside Kerala with these statements. But this is my consolation for my inability to uproot and hurl myself, and land up in some metro and face "the crowd". I know I will do it someday. But for the time being, I'd rather relish the plaeasures of the likes of Puttum Kadalayum.