Who is a Mallu?

I first went to North-India in the mid 1990's;
When people asked me, where I am from, I reply 'Kerala'....the usual response is oh, from 'Madras' or 'Madrasi' hae?...after a few unsuccessful attempts to explain the geography of India to an 'Ignorant' fellow country man, I stopped clarifying and just smiled. A friend once told me that the reply should be that Keralites are the beef eating people from the south!

A person from Kerala is usually known as a malayali or a keralite (most poular and most commonly used term world-wide to describe such a person) or sometimes Malabari (usually in the middle east). One of my English friend uses the term 'Keralan' to describe malayalees, which I think is sort of nice....

"Mallu" is a relatively new term that probably came into existence about a decade ago. The term is usually used to describe a person of malayali origin often settled outside kerala, either in India or overseas. Generally this term is now used for the recent malayali immigrants to the major cities in India or in the Middle East, US or Europe. This term has been made popular by chat-forums, web-pages, Blogs etc. There are also other terms like 'mallu jokes'(similar to sardarji jokes; the main characters being Kuttappan and Rajappan),'mallu cuisines', 'mallu weddings' and 'mallu sayings' or proverbs.

In which ever part of the world they are, a mallu will definitely be a part of an Onam celebration or Christmas/New year celebration. If the other communities (ie from other states of India) have one celebration for an occasion in an area, a malayali will have many associations and samajams in one little town. Its like our kerala congress party.... വളരുന്തോറും പിളരുകയ്യും, പിളരുന്തോറും വളരുകയും പോലെ ; This can be based on religion, caste, sub-sect, faith, class, profession, native place in kerala, institutions etc etc. Interestingly one will try to work പാര for another and vice-versa.. But they are all smiles and കെട്ടിപിടുതം when they see each other.

Mallus are present in every nook and corner of the world. Every one knows that they are omnipresent....including Neil Armstrong! The lyrics in the old malayalam song should be changed to " തൂണിലും തുരിമ്ബില്ലും മല്ലു ഇരിക്കുന്നു ". Also it seems that a typical mallu eat beef with most of their dishes along with fish, chicken and/or mutton.

I think the best place to see a typical mallu is the waiting lounge at one of the Gulf airports to catch the connection flight to Kerala (many would have travelled 8-16 hours from Europe or US)......Some will be wearing half the jewelery shop, some with ray-ban glasses but most will have a duty free shopping bag with a big packet of Marlboro cigarette sticking outside or sometimes with loads of 'Johnnie walkers' stuffed in their duty free bags.

In-flight entertainment is usually provided by our typical mallu by their behavior. What they do to get more attention and 'respect' from the cabin-crew, the number of helpings for scotch. Before the flight is just about to land, they would be throwing the seat belt away and rushing towards the exit....

Conclusion - "All mallus are malyali's, but all malayali's are not Mallus"......

So what do I like to be called?....Personally I don't like the term Mallu...I very much prefer a malayali or a keralite...