American visitors at KUTS

 American visitors at KUTS

The KUT Seminary Campus at Kannammoola, Trivandrum excels in nature's splendour. It is lush green with century old trees lining the path. There are ancient buildings here that date back to the early 20th century.

The surprise is, the institution is located at one of the busiest areas in the City. 

The authorities here are adamant they would not do anything that mar the blessing they have been bestowed upon by nature.

Many of the  visitors to Trivandrum step into the campus to savour the pristine beauty on offer. 

Recently a group of tourists from USA had visited the place. They walked around mesmerised. The Library astounded them. According to them the buildings displayed a seamless merger of the ancient and the modern.

The  Seminary had organised few cultural events by its students to showcase the heritage of Kerala and  India. It was a beautiful presentation.

In honour of the visitors from abroad  the Seminary had hosted lunch  before they left.   To keep them company, the entire staff contingent of the KUT Seminary had joined in.

Though there was free interaction as everyone waited to partake in the lunch,  five of us formed a separate group to have our lunch away from the visitors. Perhaps inhibition might have induced us to do that. Perhaps  the fear of English of the phenomenal malayali must have made us form that unitary group.  However there was one vacant seat in the middle at that six seater table. We knew from our experience, another of our clan would soon take that seat.

To our surprise one of the vistors, a lady had chosen to take that seat disregarding that it was a male only preserve. The presence of an alien made the rest remain silent and munch the food with relish and of course without looking up. Adding fuel to the intrusion, she began engaging all of us in a conversation that ranged between a variety of topics. The lady must have come across people like us before. She had opened up  smartly. 

Pushed to an inextricable corner,  we had no other option but join her and respond to her queries. Civility demanded it. The table became lively. 

The beauty was she had made us shed our inhibitions  and converse freely in the only language she knew, English  - though the usual malayali normal is that they invariably shy off from speaking the universal language. 

Invigorated by the conversation we parted after enjoying the sumptuous food on our plates.

It was a great time for all of us.

Lunch over, the group left for their ensuing destination, leaving behind precious memories of some wonderful moments in our lives