Just to preserve this write-up, posting it on my blog now. This is about my Kerala visit 24 Oct 2009 to 31 Oct 2009
Kerala - God's Own Country
"Through My Eyes..."
DAY 1 (FORT COCHI - The Fairy Land)
DAY 2 (FORT COCHI - The Fairy Land)
DAY 3 (FORT COCHI - "Teapot" and going to KOTTAYAM )
DAY 4 (KOTTAYAM Conference and local market cruise)
DAY 5 (KOMARAKOM - Bird Sactuary and Backwaters and going to Munnar)
DAY 6 (Munnar - Tata Tea Museum, Eravikulam National Park, Waterfalls)
DAY 7 and Departure (Veena Vadan show and coming back)
"God's own country" as they call it and I saw it,
Kerala is realy a state where one can feel the sipiritual pleasure in
its natural beauty and cultural heritage. Fort Cochi is like a fairy
land I have fallen in love with. It is a small town with impressions
left by Dutch, jewish, Portugese people and so a blend of all these
culture, architecture and religious aspects which makes it such a
darling. It is so peaceful with rich heritage and historical places,
away from the hustle bustle of the modern world and located facing the
Arabian Sea on one of the Islands in cochin. Let me tell you that Cochin
is name given to collection of Islands: main ones being Willingdon
Island, Fort cochi, Bolghatty Island, Ernakulam (the main commercial
City), Vypeen Island. Malayalam is the native language. Rarely anyone
knows Hindi and English they understand more than Hindi. However,
Malayalam is the primary language everyone speaks and understands and
writes. So I was like did not know how to read did not know how to write
.. a dumb expression. But English helped a lot ! In Fort cochi, I did
not face any problem. It is a tourist place. Lots of foreigner tourists.
My plane took off from Delhi at 9:15 and reached Nedambussery (30
Kms from Ernakulam on the same Island) at around 1:30 PM. The first
glimpse of Kerala which I caught from the sky was small water bodies
curled around bunch of coconut trees.. ! It was same that I had been
imagining all the way long during my journey.
Well, I was welcomed by a group of Keralite men wearing traditional
dress "Mundu" (kind of dhoti they wear, off white in color with yellow
thick strip on the border), bare chested and with big drums (kind of
dhols) in hand and they were beating dhols in a fast rythem, then they
were dancing along in there own way. Ladies wearing off-white saris with
same yellow border, Jasmine flowers in their hair and a plate
containing jasmine and marigold flowers with small oil lamps were
standing in a line. Actualy they were there to welcome a tourist group
which came along in the same plane as mine. So I was also feeling like
being welcomed by them. Well, it was a nice start.
I went directly to fort cochi which was like 45 Kms away from the
airport. The first day I saw only dance performances.. Kathakali... and
three forms of BharatNatyam - Kuchipudi, Mohiniattam, and third one I
dont remember the name. I wonder how beautifuly they have preserved
their culture. Kathakali is a bit difficult to understand because it is
not a dance as such.. it is a kind of drama performed in the form of
dance. There are defined actions, eye movements for showing conversation
between characters. Only ppl who can understand these actions can know
what is going on the stage. Well, to us, they first showed the make-up
application, then they told what story they are going to play,. It was
about Hindu Mythical character Arjuna who was a "bhagat" of Shivji and
wanted pasupatastra from him. Parvatiji insisted Shivji to teach him a
lesson as she felt that he boasted about his archery skills and bravery
too much. Shivji goes to Arjuna in jungle in the avtar of a hunter. They
would have a litle fight over there. But then Shivji becomes serious
and Parvatiji had to stop him from hurting Arjuna. so story was
something like that. They have defined characters universaly in
Kathakali and each character has a special kind of make up which would
be same all over the world at all times. It was a nice performance. Then
came Bharatnatyam. Personally I liked bharatnatyam more than Kathakali.
Well, then I met a Malasian girl there who was a Mechanical Engineer
and was on vacation. We had dinner together and she told me about the
places she had already visted by now.
The next day, I managed to
get out of my room around 8:45 AM. The best way to explore Fort Cochi
is a leisurely walk along the peaceful streets with a camera handy.
Starting with the huge chinese fishing nets, I saw on the Fort cochi
beach fishermen working hard to get fish from the sea, a number of boats
made up of lagoons, fishing nets here and there, lot of fishermen
wearing "mundu" on the sea side. That day my breakfast was different
kind of "vadas", samosa stuffed with something that gave taste of
Sambar.. and tea. Oh it was so nice. I am otherwise not fond of south
indian food that is cooked here.. Dosa, idly, Uthpam.. and ironical to
my expectations, these were not the dominating dishes there. In my stay
of 6-7 days, I ate Kerala fish curry [ate with hand :)], Arabian food
(shavoi chicken and thouge... watever the exact names were, lots of
different kindd vadas, poori, banana pakodas, steamed banana, Kerala
rice, puttu (something made up of wheat) etc etc.. O yes and I also
tried Prawn sandwich there. No no it was not yuck !! the taste was
exactly as that of fish but it was only a realization that OH I AM
EATING PRAWNS.. it was a mixture of excitement of trying a new sea food
and a resistive feeling of eating something non-veg out of the list of
whateve I had eaten till that day. Well, this dinner I had with a
Keralite guy who met me near Santa Cruz Basilica church and was enjoying
his day alone on the weekend. It was sunday that day. On that day, I
saw portugese museum.. (it contained all the royal items that they use
in the catholic religious processions in church.. all that I read in
Angels and Demons novel I had completed few days before my trip)., I saw
Cochin's Bishop's house also, saminary. clicked photographs with Father
of church., Saw Santa cruz Basilica, st Francis Church, Vasco's house.
Vasco da Gama actualy passed away in Fort Cochi and was burried there.
His body was then taken back to his home town but church stands there.
Then they have very beautiful buildings, houses made up in dutch
architecture.. a royal kindd feeling you get while roaming in those
peaceful streets. Names were K.B. Jacob road, Peter Celli Street,
Princess Street.. and so on.. ! Then there were beautiful cafes,
restaurants, Eating places which all had artistic ambience inside and
fecad. My favourite one being "TeaPot"... oh it was such a cute tea
cafe.. with theme teapot. Teapots and Teapots everywhere... Neat and
clean, antique tea pots decorating the small room like a Tea-Heaven (as i
call it). Teapots hanging from roof, Tables that of tea-export boxes,
it was so wonderful ! There lied some books about Tea.. and then even
the wall clock was no ordinary ! Instead of digits, there were 'T' 'T'
'T' 'T'.... :)
Overall, I liked the unique and royal touch in the decoration of all
buildings exterior and interior both. It was unusual and gave a special
feeling of a standard.
I dont have much time to write in more
detail.. so I would end briefly explaining my trip. I went ti
Mattenchery Palace Museum, Jewish Synogogue.. everything was wonderful !
I will send the link to you when i will upload my photos... Then moved
to kottayam. one day spent completely in conference. My presenation went
well. I met a guy there who was nice and we ate together there in an
Arabian restaurant, so tasted arabian chicken dishes.
Next day, I went to Komarakom, did backwater tour, saw bird
sanctuary (with less birds than reptiles, becoz season of birds would
start in mid november)... and then finally went to Munnar, a hill
station approx 4 hrs journey from Kottayam ( and kottayam was at around 2
hrs journey from Fort cochi). I spent a day in Munnar.. Saw Tea
Plantation, clicked photos with tea plucker ladies, saw Demo of how Tea
is made and a documentry on History of Tea business in India.. all this i
saw at Tata Tea Museum, Munnar. Then saw Eravikulam National Park (abt
13 kms far from Munnar) which shelters many animals including a special
endangered species of Goats called "Neelgiri Tahr". Also saw some
waterfalls there. Ate vadas, steamed bananas, banana pakoda, samosa
(tasted like sambhar) kindd snacks which I liked. In munnar, I felt like
there should be somebody very dear to ur heart accompanying you ;) such
a romantic place it was ! There were lots of spice shops, Ayurvedic
shops, I bought a bottle containing some Aurvedic "jadi-bootyian" in
which I would mix oil and then keep it for a week or so and then will
apply it on my hair regularly. My hair are loosing health actually !
Well, then there were banana chips, Junck fruits, etc. etc. Everything
so nice !
I forgot to tell you that Kottayam claims to have 100% literacy
rate. The first book was published there. Rubber farming is done in
kottayam. Not only kottayam but whole Kerala is the most educated state
among all the states of India. There are no rickshaw Pullars .. the
reason they give is that everyone is educated and they dont allow human
pulling another human. people live their lives independanty. Everyone
works there. I actualy saw women working at all the places there. At a
petroleum pump, there were women workers. There are beggars but very
less in number.
Oh yes, a very interesting incident that I want to share with all of
you .. At one point i had to catch a bus from From fort cochi to Alua.
But all the buses read malayalam. so, when i got irritated asking people
abt bus to alua on every bus's arrival, what I did.. I asked driver of a
bus to write "Alua" for me in malayalam. He did that and I was then
matching the so-called "text" with similar text on the buses. I burst
into laugh when I realized what was I doing !! :) Well, these kind of
incidents I really enjoy !
After Munnar, I came to Fort cochi back as I love that place now.
Saw Instrumental show "Veena Vadan" which was as usual spiritualy
enjoyable. That was my last day and Last night in Fort cochi. Next day,
means I came back to Delhi.
I am now catching up with the routine work but still my
consciousness is roaming somewhere in those peaceful and colorful
memories of that beautiful town Fort Kochi. It was realy like some fairy
town.. so neat and clean.. all people so polite and the cultural
part.. simply awesome !!
Hey, the place is worth visiting ! Must go to "TeaPot" if u go there !! :)
