Yep! You read the title!
As weird as it sounds, Elizabeth Marie Keyton aka Elisa's Malayalam skills have truly impressed Malayalees on social media.
Born and raised in the US, the American citizen's Instagram account @eli.kutty is full of her love for Kerala and the Malayalam language.
Married to a Keralite, she realised his language and his culture were important to him and took it like a challenge upon herself to understand his language. “For this, I started taking online lessons but those were interrupted after the Skype ban happened. I then decided to look for study material online or get some books to learn Malayalam, which is when I realised there is not enough content available online for those keen on learning Malayalam," she said.
During her tenure in the Middle East as a teacher, she came across different teachers from Kerala & Tamil Nadu. But it was her husband Arjun Ullas, a Malayali based in Dubai, who really got her involved in learning the language.
Revealing the secret behind the name eli.kutty, Eliza said: "Her friends used to call her Eli, short form of Elisa. She later figured out that 'Eli' means mouse in Malayalam. By adding "kutty" (little), she says she made it cute!"
Comments