Hometown Blues

Do you still live in the town where you were born? Why or why not?

No I do not. I was born in an area of Kuwait City, Kuwait called Darwaza back in 1976. That would make me old as fuck but I digress. So I’m Indian and do not get Kuwaiti citizenship just because I was born and raised there till the age of 11. I got Indian citizenship by default because my mother is Indian and that’s how I got an Indian passport.

The Arabian countries are or rather were for the most part great places for Indians, and especially Malayalaees from the state of Kerala, to temporarily migrate to, get good jobs with good salaries and then come back to India and convert that dinar or whatever in their bank accounts to Indian Rupees. Which makes a big chunk of change. At one time the Kuwaiti Dinar was Rs.140-150! Yep!

Anyway, we don’t get citizenship and my parents ofcourse wanted to move back after all those years and in 1987 we moved back to Cochin, which is my mother’s hometown and here I am.

Prompt from 30 DAYS OF SEPTEMBER WRITING PROMPTS at The SitsGirls

Spare Engine

This is a classic joke, but this version is the one my uncle told me :

In England a middle-aged woman had just bought a Volkswagon Beetle and while driving home she stopped at a gas station to fuel up. As she was doing so, she popped up the hood and saw that it was empty and cried out “Oh no, someone has stolen the engine of my brand new car.”

A sardar who had bought a Beetle from the same showroom was at the same gas station and heard this. He came to console her and said  “But don’t worry, I have a spare one in the back.”