This brought us to the subject of “kootayima” and what it means in our community. First of all, kootayima is a Malayalam word for get-together. And together, amidst a lot of laughter, we coined the term for our first youth meet to reflect our backgrounds and give it the Kerala touch! Kootayima was not your conventional youth get-together where the focus is solely based on faith formation. Rather it was an infusion of social elements while maintaining our spiritual beliefs. So what are these elements? - 1) we cooked a Kerala themed dinner with rice, multiple curry dishes and baked desserts; 2) we played carrom, card games, table tennis and other board games; 3) and of course, we ended our session with prayer/reflection. We felt this approach was essential so that all of us could relate in one way or another. We had a wide range of youth members who participated in this meeting - from high school students to young professionals. The kootayima helped us close many barriers, whether it was an age gap or where we were born/brought up. Since it was one of our first meetups at the Framingham mission, we seized the moment to celebrate as one community.

As expected, our first kootayima experiment was a successful event and it was a memorable one. It was filled with fun, laughter and surprises (unexpected but positive results of our cooking outcome). This particular experience brought back memories from my childhood in Kerala, when I used to hang out at the church hall to socialize with my friends and engage in fun filled activities. Some of my peers from this get-together shared similar sentiments of how the kootayima took them back to their childhood days. All of us agreed in unison that the cooking and dining part of this meeting was rather a ‘tasty’ experience, even though it was a one time venture due to the nature of its challenge. I still remember when all of us had “withdrawal symptoms” for a few days after our first kootayima and we were all getting antsy for the next one.

Our first kootayima was one of the initial platforms for youth members at Syro-Malabar mission in Framingham to come together to share their experiences and connect while examining their religious journeys. We have had many get-togethers to date since our first memorable kootayima back in February 2009 (recently marked 12th year anniversary). We continue to have successful turnouts for these events while implementing social elements to these meetings. It is quite common for youth members to lose their connection with the community once they are off to college. So, we felt these opportunities are in the best interests of the community to meet our mission goals. Our aim is to reach out to the youth members for the growth and future of this church without forcing anyone against their interests. At the end of the day, we are living in the land of freedom and choice. So we believe that incorporating social “fun” factors during spiritual reflection sessions is one of the effective ways to attract the young audience of our community.