Where am I from?

There is a question I usually dread answering when I meet new people - no, its not devious attempts to figure out my age :) The question I dread is "Where are you from"? I have trouble coming up with a consistent answer - I usually change my answers depending on who I am talking to. If the person is non mallu, I usually reply that I mostly grew up in Bangalore and end the matter there. If I get to know them more I might add details about me spending my childhood in Kerala and the rest in Bangalore. It is the mallus I have real trouble with though - here are some samples of what those conversations look like..

I  used to answer that I am from "Pala" which is where my father is from. I have no knowledge of the place, except having visited the house a few times. I dont even know how to find my way to his house on my own...And yet I used to feel obliged to say that I was from Pala when someone asked me where I was from... This is how those conversations used to go:

Them: "Where are you from..."?

Me: "Pala..."

Them: "Oh really, where in Pala?"

Me: "Er... near the Holy Family Hospital..."

Them: "Oh, I know the place.. dont you know so and so.. "

Me: "Er... no, I have only visited Pala a few times in my life, and I have never lived there...I grew up mostly in Bangalore "

Them: "Oh.. Bangalore aanalle.." 

and then they look like I just cheated them. So I changed my tactic after a while and started saying that I was from Cochin. This is how those conversations went:

Them: "Where are you from..."?

Me: "Cochin..."

Them: "Oh really, where in Cochin?"

Me: "Er... Thrikkakkara..."

Them: "Oh, I know the place.. near the temple right?.. "

Me: "Yes.."

Them: "You know my cousin lives right there... they have lived there their whole life.."

Me: "Er... I was only there until I was eleven or twelve, after that we moved to Bangalore. Never heard of your cousin.. "

Them: "Oh.. Bangalore aanalle.." 

and then they look like I cheated them, again. So I changed this tactic too, and these days I just tell them I grew up in Bangalore and that my parents are from Kerala. When people really pick on my answers I sometimes divulge that my father is from Pala and that I was in Kerala until I was 12. 

And now that I have spent more than a decade in the US, I have spent roughly the same amount of time in Cochin, Bangalore and Jersey City. When you have lived for just 3.5 decades and spent one decade each in a different city, how do you define where you are "from"?