Land of Origins
Kerala is a state in India where my family originates from. Kerala has always rated high on the literacy scale. As a result our family comes from well educated lineage. My grandfather was a high school headmaster. This was in a small village in Kerala named Kudakkachira. As was the tradition in the village his brothers also created their own families in the same villages down the street & such. All cousins as a result were within visiting distance whenver we came to visit from the US. My mother has two siblings, she is the oldest. As a result there was expectation of my mother to be the best student in her school. This of course was where my grandfather was the headmaster.
Family
My family prior to our arrival in the US, lived in a small state in Kerala, India. My dad has four brothers & four sisters. Three of those sisters became nuns. My mother has a smaller extended family. She has one brother & one sister with her being the oldest. I was the fist grandchild to leave our tiny village & come here. As a result I'm a bit spoiled whenver I happen to go back to visit. When visiting, our extended family is all locally able to be reached. Cousins, uncles & aunts all seem to live down the street in some way or fashion. There is a church in our village that one can climb up a mountain where each mile is marked by a station of the cross.
Time passing by
Due to COVID realated issues & my passport expiring I have not been there in eight years. This is a really really long time. Two of my closest cousins have gotten married. The youngest one is the only one remaining. This bothers me a great deal as they are all my uncle's children. This is my mom's youngest brother as he is very close to me, even with all this time spent apart. Our state in India, Kerala is the one that is majority Christian so that is where we get our influences from. Hence the biblical names & not Hindu names as is the tradition.
Religion
As spoken in the paragraph above, our area is Christian mainly. Hence other areas in India kind of viewed us as heathens if you will. Indian is mainly vegetarian, we hoever are not. Dairy is a big staple for us, including the meat which makes it diferent when you're in other parts of India. As time went on though, Hindus are not as strict as they used to be about their meat diets, especially in areas of Kerala where they mingle with Christians like us. The story of our Christian lineages trace back to St. Thomas. He was a disciple of Jesus who came to Kerala in ancient times to baptize & spread word to the local Indian folk in Kerala.
