Okay, I have thought to write this blog for some time, but now I think I have got some time for it, this is a guide for Tamils who want to work in Tech sector in Trivandrum.

Trivandrum is not cheap

When I first was about to goto Tribvandrum, my friends said that Trivandrum would be a cheap place. No it’s not. For example the P.G I stayed called Lotus PG, even to offer a 50sqft of space, they charged me Rs 5500/- per month, and guess what there is no hot water, the hall is empty without furniture, there are no plates in P.G to eat food got from Swiggy etc. The restaurants and food are not cheap too. They are as pricey or more costly than Tamilnadu. Maybe the guys over here have figured out that I.T people will pay any thing they ask for and hence are charging like hell.

Food is not of good quality

The quality of food around technopark is not good enough. I had food poisoning twice in a month, almost all in my team had it. In fact people in my team were eating so called home cooked meals.

Not too many psychos

One thing I have noted about Kerala is that there aren’t many psychos. For example in companies like Francium, Trumatics, Zanec, Kaaylabs etc there are psychopathic people. Mostly the boss or the second in command to him. But in Kerala I haven’t found it at least in the I.T industry. Somehow the company I consult for seems to have very nice HR’s to very nice Tech team.

Perhaps Keralites have a laid back life style, modest ambitions and know how to live life and not to fall into the rat race traps we have fallen into. Perhaps they don’t take loans, don’t do expensive spending like going to malls, buying gold, eating lavish food etc. The brains of Keralites seems to be good, far better than compared to Tamilians, or perhaps I am not in Kerala long enough to have noticed it.

Language

We Tamils have been spoiled by Banglore I think, every where you go in Banglore there is Tamil, we Tamil’s want Mangolians to speak Tamil if we goto Ulanbattar. I think Tamils went to Banglore and killed all the Kannda speakers (I think we really did that in Chola period), but Kerala is different, I did not understand a thing.

Over here if some one calls you H.R it means not that they thought you are H.R of a company, but they had asked you if you need pickle for Briyani. If you say side dish, none knows a thing, you must say curry.

Kerala people speak like Tirunelveli people, words coming out rapidly, if you deconstruct them, some of it will be pure Tamil words which we do not speak now. They also remember some Tamil festivals like Aattukal Pongal which has got to do something with Kannagi, we Tamils have lost that festival though Kannagi is Tamil (possibly she lived before Tamil and Malayalam split).

Just like Tamil’s who feel inferior to people speaking good English, Kerala people feel so. I ask why? What’s wrong with Malayalam or any other language? They must feel proud of speaking Malayalam, they must use their time to grow their language and come out of this English subjugation.

They are some how okay with Hindi, we Tamils hate it. But imagine our stupidity, we said Hindi is not ours, but we have embraced English because we want to progress in Science and Tech and in Economics, but haven’t we Tamil’s let English rule us now? See the Germans, Japanese, Chinese, all these people speak their native and excel in these fields.

Tamilian Food

May be I’m a foodie and hence I am enjoying the taste of Kerala, but still it’s different. Once I thought potato with poori was bland, I fished out a green chili in the potato curry and bit to to give spice, and guess what? It was bland. I couldn’t believe it. Apart from few moments I enjoyed Kerala food.

Over here Briyani is not our Briyani, perhaps Kerala muslims are not Mughal muslims, they might have been descendants of Arbian people who traded with India’s western coast. Compared to ours I did not find Kerala briyani as exciting to put it mildly. And there is this thing called Kappa Briyani, when I ordered it, I thought it was a side dish, it looked like beef curry, I ordered parotta, fished out the beef and ate with it. Turns out that topica is a big crop in Kerala and it’s called Kappa and they make Briyani out of it, and according to us Briyani should have rice not kappa! My goodness, for the sake of heaven don’t order it.

But other Tamils over here kinda hate the food here. They goto great lengths like employing cooks at their homes, going to Tamil Hotels that are far away etc.

There is parota all the time, I love wheat products, but Tamils need rice, and that too the rice variety that originated from Tanjore, or a Tamil would not sleep that day if hadn’t had that rice.

Then for veggies, there is a brahmin in my PG who found it very difficult because in all hotels in Kerala you get beef. A Tamil Hindu will not go near it, Even Tamil Muslim and Christian would prefer mutton instead of beef. So if you are strict non beef eater it’s difficult.

Even the so called vegetarian Hotel Arya’s in VSSC road serves egg.

Ethnicity

Perhaps lot of Keralites in Tamilnadu may have white skin tone, but in Trivandrum, the people are like us. Walk in street, you would feel that these people are us. Not a bit different.

Perhaps you might know it’s Kerala if you see a woman wearing just blouse and lungi, that’s not common here in Tamilnadu, or perhaps the color veshti that’s worn in Kerala by men might give you a hint. But these people are just us, no different.

Terrain

No wonder we named them Malayalis, the people who are in the hilly region, almost every time you will be going up and down the hill. For a Chennai-ite like me, its very different, I realized I was livung in plains only after going to Trivandrum.

We had lot’s of hills around Chennai too, but many have been mined off for gravel, in Kerala there are still hills and forests, looks like these people more respect their terrain and nature.

Size of I.T

The size of I.T industry in Kerala is very tiny, people say entire Technopark even when doubled will fit into Mepz, Tambaram. And Mepz is just one small portion of Chennai’s I.T industry. Kerala is looking for slow and limited growth, not a mad rush toward globalization.

So if you are coming to Trivandrum in a hope of starting with a company and hoping to jump to neighboring building or next I.T park with a 30% hike, may be that won’t happen.

Cheating cab and auto drivers

Oh damn, even if you order a cab from Uber the drivers ask for money over the metered rate. Over here too the auto meters don’t work and they demand 20 - 25 rupees a kilometer. So I better walk. If perhaps Corona did not interfere I would have got a bicycle to visit beach or library or for office commute every day.

My office is at a top of a hill, it’s good and bad. Good because it gives me exercise everyday, and bad because of the same reason.

Connectivity

Trivandrum is well connected to Kaniyakumari, Tirunelveli, but Chennai is really long, if you are okay with air travel, then Chennai is well connected too.

Usually Chennai people are far different from rest of Tamil people, so if you try to find Chennai-ites in this city, you will be at a loss.