Sometimes the smallest things brighten up your day.

Today morning, a friend’s message popped up in the WhatsApp group we are both part of.

Palli poyi, it read.

That’s Malayalam for ‘Lizard has left’ or the ‘Lizard is gone’.

I was nonplussed by this declaration. What did it imply? The following is a written record of the thoughts that raced at lightning speed through my head.

Palli evide poyikkanum? (Where could the lizard have gone?) Where was it anyway before it went away? What did it do to scare her? Is she concerned that the lizard left or relieved that it’s gone for good? If the former, why??!! If the latter of course, I thoroughly understand! Ennalum (Even so), just why is she messaging us about it? Gosh, I never knew she was scared of a palli too. Or is it that she likes the palli and is missing it?

And then… I moved on to read her next message: Ellarkkum vendi prarthichu! (Prayed for everyone)

Omg!

She meant Palli, a church, not a lizard! She had written she’d been to the church, not that the lizard had left.

That’s travails of reading Malayalam in English for you. I have to say this though, good people, it was not entirely my fault. When written in English, they are spelled the same way, but in actual fact the pronounciation differs vastly.

Also in my defence is the another fact, that it should have been ‘Palli-yil poyi’, the suffix ‘yil’ indicating the ‘to the’. But that would mean I would not have gone off on a tangent and we wouldn’t have had all the fun. Right? 😉

©️ Shail mohan 2025

Images generated with AI using ChatGPT.