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VADA izzzzz Never FREE!!!!

“Vada is never free!!” You always have to pay for it. The price might vary from 2.5 rupees a piece to 5 or 10.(maximum I have ever had was of Rs. 5/-) depending you eat it on the roadside or in a hotel(source of data: Hotel Vasantham Menu card ).

This Blog is written to help all those north indians who come to kerela for the first time , maybe for honeymoons and for them who are coming because their company TCS has given them a joining(....finally.....) and the training is in Trivandrum (not Trivendram) aka Thiru Anantha Puram. This blog will help you to live and survive and also enjoy kerela. It is because these are experience of a normal North Indian Guy(whose hometown is at U.P,Uttaranchal, Haryana border…so this makes him quite a north indian and so is a perfect test matter for experimenting in Kerela.). but this first post, this first Very important post will save you from the sorrow you could have, when you order your first tea in kerela.

But you might be wondering why did I suddenly had this idea, this innovative thought to write about such a important topic that has been left out by many eminent cultural writers, tour guides, people from Discovery and NG channels. This enlightenment din’t came like this only. Like Lord Buddha saw 7 scenes before he decided to renunciate the world, I also had this motivation to write this blog after that memorable incident of my life.

Well it all happened when I first sat down on a creaky old stool near Trivandrum Central Railway station after a 5 hours journey from Cochin to Trivandrum, to have tea(aka chaya and not chai ), for the first time, in god’s own country, aka Kerela. So I ordered tea and few idlis(I think it was 2 idlis). The waiter, who was a very generous and kind hearted fellow (atleast I thought he was so at that time )brought along with the order a VADA. Btw for all those who don’t know what a vada is, maybe some foreign nationals or NRI’s or america born confused desis , let me give some preliminary details.

A VADA is an Indian dish, I don’t say it’s a south indian dish. This is because I have had vadas when I was in north india too. Only difference was that they were called DAHi-VADAs because they came with DAHi or curd while the ones I get here in south, are with chatni …and obviously it is with coconut chatni. So a Vada is made by first grinding Urad daal (donno what is it called in English ;?), making a paste of it and then frying it in oil. The shape and size is subject to market conditions and taste of people, maybe also on latitude and longitude of the place. The ones you get in kerela are like the enlarged version of polo poppins, hope you remember the ” mints with the hole” from your childhood. It is brown and may contain black chilli and curry leafs(again this may vary according to various factors as mentioned above).

So on getting that Vada I was very happy and feeling lucky too. Since it was 24 September and as far as I knew, it was not a festive season too.” Maybe it’s an offer for all the customers!” , I thought in my mind.”maybe in Kerela with 2 idlis you always get a Vada free..” , I was pretty delighted and started dreaming about all the free vadas that I was going to have for free, for rest of my life in Trivandrum. Being indian, its always good to get things for free. This is an established fact now.

So after enjoying the most delicious vada, I have ever had I till that day, I went to pay the bill. It should have been 15 INR according to my calculations(5+5 for idli and 5 for the chaya)so I took out a Rs 10 note and a brand new shining Rs 5 coin and presented it before the lady at the counter(in kerela you see ladies working everywhere, no wonders its f/m ratio is above 1000..more about this later), but she said ……..sumthing she said.....

“No malyalam!!” I replied making signs.

She waved her open palm and said “5 Rupees”.

“What for??” I asked astonoished, because being from a engineering college I was sure that my math was fine.

“The VADA….!!”

“But its free!!..”

Opening her eyes wide and staring at me as if I had just called a bad omen, (and breaking all my dreams, my lovely lovely dreams about all those nourishing elements, those precious moments of glory I was going to experience with all those free VADAS)….she replied..

“VADA…VADA IS NEVER FREE!!!”