Why most of the times writers describe India as a country of many colors? Is that because of its population which is world’s biggest after China? No, that wouldn’t be the correct answer to define the remark “colorful”. There could be several other reasons but its different cultures, traditions, festivals and 100s of different local, tribal and ethnic languages, is one of the main reasons out of numerous others which define India as a country of several colors.
India has 28 different states which makes The Republic of India. Each state has its own cultural identity and among all, one such historic and rich cultural state of India is Kerala, situated on the southern coast of Arabian ocean, Kerala is known for its natural beauty, prosperous history and culturally loaded community. More to this, Kerala is also one of the highest literate states of India. Over the years, Kerala is also recognized as a favorite tourist spot and has earned names like “Paradise of Earth”, “God’s Country” etc.
Merely, the above two small paragraphs won’t do justice to describe this astonishing Indian state, but I apologize to you for not writing more about Kerala because this article is essentially devoted to the inimitable group of people connected to Kerala either emotionally, biologically or historically. These people are proud to call themselves Mallu. The word “Mallu” originates from the distinctive state language of Kerala which is popularly known as “Malayalam” and those Malayalam speaking people are sometimes being addressed as “Mallu” in short or either in a form of slang. So what? Is there anything special about it? Answer is yes! There is. The Mallu we are talking here are actually not only Mallus but they added one extra word before their identity as Mallu. And, that word is “fraud”; Fraud Mallu is a group of people we discovered on orkut. But please don’t take the meaning of Fraud literally here; it’s not to disrespect or hurt any Malyalees or Keralites. The concept behind the Fraud Mallu Community is well written on their community description which says,
“This group is open to all mallus brought up outside Kerala and whose Malayalam is pathetic. If you get your ass taken about your Malayalam every time u visit mallu land, if nosey and nasal relatives make you stick out like a sore thumb… then you’ll fit right in. just so you know..This group has been made by one kannadiga-mallu and one Guajarati-mallu.
Let your virthiketta malayalam flow…!”
To explain the above description more broadly: Fraud Mallu is a community on orkut social network dedicated for people who belong to Kerala but their upbringing was done somewhere outside Kerala. This physical distance from their state, its language and culture kept them aloof from the mainstream Keralites which effected their language and tradition to some extent. Thus, two roommates entrenched to Kerala living in U.S started calling each other fraud because of their inability to speak fluent malayalam, they were completely unaware of the fact that one day, their funny remarks to each other will create a strength of more than 8000 people together on a virtual land.
If the above definition isn’t satisfying enough for you than have a look on what Nishanth Radhakrishnan has to say about Fraud Mallu, which in short is known as FM.
“Fraud Mallu” is not a South Indian Orkut community; for starters: its premise is meeting ground of Keralites who cannot speak Malayalam well by virtue of them being brought up outside Kerala: which does not stop folks with varying degrees of comfort-levels with Malayalam and idea of Kerala coming about the place.
While one would think that such a place is usually like any-other community based on geographic ties would lead to similar roots-finding and pet-grouses of being an Other in a community: Fraud Mallu actually celebrates the fact that there are people who can be called Mallus ;albeit with some stretch of imagination.
The forums threads don’t necessarily (and usually) do not deal with the Mallu way of life: rather they can be really off-beat from the way of life anywhere on earth.
Nishanth is one of the active and oldest members of FM community; he was born in Trissur, Kerala but brought up in U.A.E, an IIT (Madras) graduate. This aerospace engineer is giving his service as a R&D Scientist at an respected organization. Despite with his busy schedule Nishanth still manages to take out 1 or 2 hours daily for fraud mallu community which is now a vital part of Nishanth’s life.
The community Fraud Mallu which was started by Philip and Aju on April 20th 2004 simply for fun has now became a legend in itself and more than just another orkut community. To know Fraud Mallu’s journey till it became the part of flockpost.com’s best community showcase, we invited Nishanth for an interview and asked him several questions regarding this fascinating community on orkut.
The very first thing which was asked to Nishanth about this community was the name “Fraud Mallu”, why they chose this name? And did they face any controversies? The answer from Nishanth was: The name was to differentiate between us (FMs) & Pure Mallus (PMs) i.e. Mallus born, bought up & living in Kerala. We have nothing against Real Mallu (PMs), but also we are extremely comfortable with who we are. In fact we are fortunate to be straddling two/multiple cultures. So there is no real desire to “become a real mallu” or to feel accepted in Kerala. About controversies, yes, we have had our share of controversy. Many PMs on Orkut had asked Orkut employees to ban the Fraud Mallu community because they took offense to our comments and views. But good sense prevailed at Orkut.
Mallu stands as slang for any Keralite, but is usually associated with a South Indian. There are two types of mallus: Malabaris located north of Kerala & Malayaless located Central & South of Kerala.
Nishanth says that the logo at Fraud Mallu is inspired from a Getty Image found during a Google search. The blue glasses on the Kathakali artist’s face perfectly resemble some of the eccentricities that FMs have come to possess through our upbringing away from Kerala. We know we have them but still kind of get upset when people point them to us. We shouldn’t and that’s the logic behind the glasses.
The content of Fraud Mallu community forum is a complete entertainment for active participants and also for lurkers like me. Most of the threads on the community forum gets updated in every half an hour, making it one of the most active communities on orkut where around 200 out of 8000 members are comprehensively lively.
Nishanth disclosed the secret of making fraud mallu most active community which lies in no game threads & the freedom members have to comment on intelligent, engaging topics. Any and every topic under the sun is scrutinized, thus catering to various tastes of members in the community. They have threads that have a very Fraud Mallu essence to it, like Zimblyyy Anything, Toddy Shop, Path to Moksha – Guru Vijusayana, How Fraud Are You, Frustration Thread, Listening To, The Movie You Have Last Seen, Discussion On Current Affairs, Miss/Mr. FM & the Meet Threads and many more like Threads with job offers, tech help, help with finding footing in a new city, movie reviews, song reviews, places to visit and places and things to avoid, all are present in this community.
People from India, US, UK, Australia, Singapore & Middle East contribute actively in the forums of Fraud Mallu community.
Not only virtually but Fraud Mallu took another step towards the strengthening of their virtual friendship to real life friends by group meet-ups in real making it to a family. They had dome successful meets in India (Delhi, Mumbai, Pune, Bangalore, Chennai, Hyderabad), US, Dubai & Sydney.
Check these meet-ups on different locations:
Bangalore:
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Chicago :
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Chennai
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Delhi
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Pune
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Mumbai
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Their regular meets helps them in making the relationship stronger and also have some real fun being out of a virtual community. Nishanth further explains that the meetings happen when FMers in a city decide that their conversations in orkut have turned interesting enough to warrant a face-to-face meeting. Like any other meet-up, they espouse no agenda or set of things to be discussed. People have been known to reach cities apart from where they normally reside to attend the meets; there have been meets held at residences of FMers, at cinema halls, restaurants and other public places.
Not only meetings but there are also few successful love stories in Fraud Mallu which eventually ended up in a happy marriage. Out of some, one such romantic example is of Alex and Feeba who met on Fraud Mallu and started seeing each other and finally the couple got married last year in Kerala.
If you look at the moderating part of this community, there is only one moderator, Philip for more than 8000 members, its may be because the majority of members are friendly, mature and responsible for making Fraud Mallu one of the best, clean and lively online hangout.
Lastly, when asked the future of Fraud Mallu, Nishanth says, I would not know about whether FM will turn into something bigger in the long run, there is a version of it on Facebook though.
No matter where Fraud Mallu will go in the future but this community definitely proves to be a super friendly community on orkut in my opinion. And I thank to Nishanth, Aju and all members of the community Fraud Mallu for their support and contribution in making this possible and bringing up a fantastic example of an online community.
{ 6 comments }
I am not an active member on the community but I have had some great moments on the forum. And as Nishant rightly points out, it’s not about being the ‘community misfits’. It’s more about being comfortable the way we are, without being apologetic. We do discuss Kerala but our personalities have very distinct shades of the places we have lived in. Most importantly, the banter between and the wit of some of the members is fun.
I’m a relatively new member and one of those There are many lurkers who just read the threads : and jump in when when one of their favourite threads pop in.
FM simply rocks!
I have been a part of FM for sometime now… not so active though… however, its a great community to be with… your fair share of challenges & fun are guaranteed on it….
Overall, its a great community to be with…
Regards,
Proud FM-ite,
Gejo C John
I stumbled on FM by accident and how fortunate do i feel that i am a part of the eclectic mix called FM. It has FM’s from all over the world and this provides such a global outlook to all the topics discussed in the forum. As Ullas pointed out earlier, it is the discussions and the wit which has attracted me to this community. Have come to know a lot of like-minded frauds and hope to be a part of it for times to come! Jai Ho FM!
I joined FM purely cos i found the name amusing. I jus moved to chennai and dint know too many ppl. Nishant somehow saw me n invited me to a meet. i was not sure of meeting ppl on the net in real. but nishant changed it all. the next day abt 15 of us met at Kumarakom and the lot has been friends since. we meet often. every new member is welcome with a grt party n booze flows wen a member leaves.
FM rox!!!
poda