Kerala Diaries
Me : Where are u?
Mallu : Sada ingana kuraiya traffic undu.. 15 minitu la avada ettham.
When I heard this, I was confused. Kuraiya in Tamil means less. Traffic is less but why does he stress kuraiya as though it's more & why should it take 15 minutes? Took a while to understand that kuraiya in malayalam means more, kuraichu means less.
When I moved to Cochin, I thought things will come together soon, people will help, people would be reasonable to talk to, weather will be pleasant & things can be turned around soon.. I was wrong on all counts.
It’s been 28 months in Kerala before I called it quits.
I was on the diagnostics business. The lab tests, CT/MRI, Ultrasound and the likes. The services were mature & so was the market. Hospitals just keep buying CT/MRI machines like buying vegetables. What is our core competency becomes one another machine for the hospitals there. They don't look at RoI or any other metrics which we bang our heads on. Hospitals become profitable after a decade of creating a name. We just don't have that much time. We just dont.
So the journey becomes all the more bombarded. And there comes the learning.
I handled Thrissur area personally & took accountability for the entire Kerala circle.
Travelled immensely by train & bus to Thrissur, Cochin & Kottayam. Loved every bit of it. The lush green sceneries, random water bodies, the oily heads, the red & ominous buses of KSRTC, numerous chai shops, amazing coconuts, the umpteen Sharjah shakes, marble cakes, red velvet cakes, the al fahams, the unmistakable smell of beef & of course the mallu english (to name a few).
I got a chance to build centers from 0 to whatever they are now. Recruited people for my centers. Attended 100s of meetings on P&L management. Followed up with many debtors & vendors. Sales call with doctors & hospitals. Marketing activities for my centers. Staff welfare. Facility management. And what not!
The company I worked for always told us you must get involved in every last item that will take its place in the P&L statement. And, it was overwhelming & exciting as well. You won’t be sitting in an AC room with a laptop & send formatted documents to people across the globe. You will be taking decisions in real time & most times you are all by yourself. It is all sweat & blood. And, there is no end to the cycle. It just keeps going on & on. On hindsight, I learnt that it is all about managing oneself. Shit is gonna keep happening around you. Its all about how you manage yourself.
My own mallu friends had asked what I was doing there. Kerala is not exactly a paradise for working.
I used to catch the first train out from Cochin to Thrissur/Kottayam & the last train back. There were times when I catch the train at Cochin & get down at Thrissur only to find that autos will be on strike. They will be parked nearby but their drivers wont move an ounce. And ask them why they are striking, they will say ‘Ariyathilla’. And that is pretty common there. In other cities, strikes dont happen at all or very rarely. And people generally dont bother with strikes elsewhere, unless it is Kerala where people get prepared the day before itself. Pretty prompt. And 2 days like that, your month numbers are gone.
And in the month of Onam, you will do good if you reduce your calendar days by 10. Onam is Diwali & Holi rolled into one. And that is the time you will be shocked to see sooo many heads in Kerala. Everybody is busy buying sweets, chips, dresses, booking movie tickets, putting pookalams, preparing paal ada payasams almost a week in advance. It is camarederie at its best. I saw Premam during that time & it was just fantastic. The movie was full even on its 75th day matinee show. What more can I say!!
With these two opposing sides, your life goes on.
I also understood deep in myself that if u have 2 or 3 good people who are willing to support you & do the dirty work for/with you, you can turn around anything & everything. Till then, things will be on the rough. There is no glory in doing everything yourself.
I am very happy with the people I have met there & who have helped me in whatever way they can. I hope I have done my bit for them & made their lives better.
It is a place which exposed a lot of my misgivings. My anger, short temper, urge to do all things by myself, not listening to the other side of story. All came to bite me. It is also a place where I have stayed alone the longest, eat almost all 3 meals outside for full 2 years, learnt work the hard way, made a few friends, learnt some movie-watchable Malayalam, visited Pulinkunnu Church (a la VTV, Simbu, Trisha), got caught by traffic police, explored so many eat outs, visited the Muziris-Biennale (pls pls go if you haven't), had infinite number of momos in Fort Kochi area & some bloody amazing fish meals for lunch.
I hope I have come out as better person after all of it!
P.S I wrote 60% of this post 2 years back. But never got myself to post it. Well, better late than never. It was about this time, on 22nd Sep 2015, that I left Kerala. Also, not a bad way to kickstart my blog that has been sleeping since May 2013.
Mallu : Sada ingana kuraiya traffic undu.. 15 minitu la avada ettham.
When I heard this, I was confused. Kuraiya in Tamil means less. Traffic is less but why does he stress kuraiya as though it's more & why should it take 15 minutes? Took a while to understand that kuraiya in malayalam means more, kuraichu means less.
When I moved to Cochin, I thought things will come together soon, people will help, people would be reasonable to talk to, weather will be pleasant & things can be turned around soon.. I was wrong on all counts.
It’s been 28 months in Kerala before I called it quits.
 |
| Common sites deep inside Kerala |
I was on the diagnostics business. The lab tests, CT/MRI, Ultrasound and the likes. The services were mature & so was the market. Hospitals just keep buying CT/MRI machines like buying vegetables. What is our core competency becomes one another machine for the hospitals there. They don't look at RoI or any other metrics which we bang our heads on. Hospitals become profitable after a decade of creating a name. We just don't have that much time. We just dont.
So the journey becomes all the more bombarded. And there comes the learning.
 |
| The road from Cochin to Kottayam via Kumarakom is most scenic |
I handled Thrissur area personally & took accountability for the entire Kerala circle.
Travelled immensely by train & bus to Thrissur, Cochin & Kottayam. Loved every bit of it. The lush green sceneries, random water bodies, the oily heads, the red & ominous buses of KSRTC, numerous chai shops, amazing coconuts, the umpteen Sharjah shakes, marble cakes, red velvet cakes, the al fahams, the unmistakable smell of beef & of course the mallu english (to name a few).
I got a chance to build centers from 0 to whatever they are now. Recruited people for my centers. Attended 100s of meetings on P&L management. Followed up with many debtors & vendors. Sales call with doctors & hospitals. Marketing activities for my centers. Staff welfare. Facility management. And what not!
The company I worked for always told us you must get involved in every last item that will take its place in the P&L statement. And, it was overwhelming & exciting as well. You won’t be sitting in an AC room with a laptop & send formatted documents to people across the globe. You will be taking decisions in real time & most times you are all by yourself. It is all sweat & blood. And, there is no end to the cycle. It just keeps going on & on. On hindsight, I learnt that it is all about managing oneself. Shit is gonna keep happening around you. Its all about how you manage yourself.
My own mallu friends had asked what I was doing there. Kerala is not exactly a paradise for working.
- Unions
- Harthals/strikes
- Strict 8 hr work times
- Lackadaisical attitude
- Language barriers
- Superior mindset
- Setting up a comfortable life
 |
| Once it starts raining, it doesnt stop. At all. |
 |
| Onam - The harvest season starts |
With these two opposing sides, your life goes on.
I also understood deep in myself that if u have 2 or 3 good people who are willing to support you & do the dirty work for/with you, you can turn around anything & everything. Till then, things will be on the rough. There is no glory in doing everything yourself.
I am very happy with the people I have met there & who have helped me in whatever way they can. I hope I have done my bit for them & made their lives better.
It is a place which exposed a lot of my misgivings. My anger, short temper, urge to do all things by myself, not listening to the other side of story. All came to bite me. It is also a place where I have stayed alone the longest, eat almost all 3 meals outside for full 2 years, learnt work the hard way, made a few friends, learnt some movie-watchable Malayalam, visited Pulinkunnu Church (a la VTV, Simbu, Trisha), got caught by traffic police, explored so many eat outs, visited the Muziris-Biennale (pls pls go if you haven't), had infinite number of momos in Fort Kochi area & some bloody amazing fish meals for lunch.
I hope I have come out as better person after all of it!
P.S I wrote 60% of this post 2 years back. But never got myself to post it. Well, better late than never. It was about this time, on 22nd Sep 2015, that I left Kerala. Also, not a bad way to kickstart my blog that has been sleeping since May 2013.
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