Kerala   

Pleasure of eating out

There was a time when eating out was considered a luxury by an average Malayali. Such extravagance was reserved for special occasions. And due to this there were few restaurants other than the five-star ones.

In those times we could easily categorise those who ate out and who did not.

But times are changing. The changing social trends have altered all this.

Till recently Thiruvananthapuram was considered a sluggish city, with its residents who were mainly government employees with a stipulated salary.

But recent years have witnessed a marked proliferation of eating places in Thiruvananthapuram, what with the changing lifestyle and increase in the standard of living of its residents.

One of the reasons for this is that more and more Keralites are leaving the shores of Kerala in search of greener pastures.

They gradually get adapted to the way of living abroad, and would want to emulate it even when they are back home on vacation.

With the increasing number of such cases, restaurateurs find the proposition very lucrative and risk investing on high-profile restaurants, which cater to the needs of these NRIs.

Mushrooming of IT firms has greatly contributed towards this. Technopark has many couples working in it.

For them eating out is never a luxury, but a necessity. With erratic work timings, cooking at home is hardly possible.

With a range of specialty restaurants inside the office complex, there are no second thoughts about cooking at home.

Even festival times are not spared. Gone are the days when the lady of the house spent days and weeks preparing for the festivals well in advance and cooking a sumptuous meal for the whole family on that day. It used to be the time when all the relatives got together and celebrated with equal fervour.

But now time is a constraint for many. With many multi-national companies following different work timings and holidays, celebrating festivals have become passé.

With the priorities in life changing, such small pleasures in life have taken a back seat.

It would not be an exaggeration if we say that restaurants specialising in Kerala food is hard to find.

With the standard of education in India, in general, increasing, we have students coming into the city from other countries, who would want to have a taste of their food once in a while.

This explains why we find specialty restaurants all around. Pains are taken to bring in chefs from abroad to cater to the expatriates.

But there are positive aspects to eating out. It widens our social circle.

We get to meet a lot of people and interact with them. Getting to taste the cuisine of other countries is another sizeable advantage.

With more and more specialty restaurants coming up in the city, this is definitely easy.

It is always better to move with the changing times.

But it is nostalgic to think of the food our mothers used to make for us, with least fuss and lots of love.

AMBIKA VARMA

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