I grew up in a small village in Kerala, in the north of the state, in a family where faith and work were part of everyday life. If you had told me then that one day I would live a few minutes' walk from the Grotto of Lourdes, I would not have believed you.
A long road
At eleven I was sent to a boarding school across the border in Karnataka. At thirteen I decided I wanted to become an aeronautical engineer, and I did: I studied aerospace engineering in Bangalore and later worked with India's defence and space sectors. In 2019 I came to Toulouse for an aerospace MBA, to be close to Airbus, and later worked there.
On paper, I had arrived. But something kept pulling me elsewhere.
Why Lourdes
In 2023 I moved to Lourdes. I worked as a hotel receptionist, volunteered in the Sanctuary processions, and slowly built a new life here, including retreats for the Malayali community and work for peace and dialogue.
People sometimes ask why an engineer would leave that world behind. The honest answer is that some promises matter more than careers.
Why I turned it into a novel
My novel, The Journey Between Two Continents, is inspired by this road, though it is a novel and not a memoir. Its hero, Sam, follows a path that will feel familiar to many Malayalis abroad: the village, the boarding school, the engineering dream, the family back home, and a promise to his father that changes everything.
I wrote it for everyone who has built a life far from where they started, and for the families waiting for them.