It was time to unwind now. We had seen such a diverse variety of locales during our visit. From the flat plains of coastal Kochi, to the quiet villages of the backwaters, the steamy valleys of Thattekad, the imposing mountains of Munnar and Marayoor, and the parched plains of Chinnar. Wow! And the people we had met, the good, the bad and the ugly, had added much needed spice to our wanderings, and many will be the interactions to cause us to smile, shudder, or roll with laughter in days to come.
On this, our last day
in Kerala, we decided to give it a last try on the wildlife viewing side, courtesy of an early morning walk with Sivakumar along the river that tumbles down from Munnar's rain-fed mountains all the way through Chinnar. Alas, we did not see too much wildlife outsi
de of the Hanuman Langur (with baby!) (left photo) and another surge of frisky Bonnet Macaque monkeys. But it was still a walk worth remembering, especially the lovely leafy verge along the river, the twisted roots of trees that hung over the water front, and the sandy shore where Shobhita and Sarvesh built a little mud dam and completely saturated their only pairs of pants! En route, we met a cute couple from France (husband is from Mexico), who had spent the night at a tree-top machan and were walking back with their guide to base camp.
There were
a few last vestiges of bird life with a statuesque Stork-billed Kin
gfisher (left photo) tottering on a branch and struggling to digest a bulbous fish it had swooped to snare a few seconds earlier. Along with a large Fish Owl, motionless on a nearby branch until it spread its wings and soared into distance.
But all too soon it was at an end and time to depart for our final leg in Palakkad. This was a 2 hour drive which traversed the Kerala/Tamil Nadu border twice. Vijay as usual stayed busy, making holiday notes on his Blackberry, while Chitra and the kids took the opportunity to slip in and out of slumber. One thing that hit us as we drove through Tamil Nadu was the profusion of Ganapathi statues and stalls. It belatedly hit us that today was indeed Ganesh Chathurthi! We enjoyed watching the gaudily decorated stalls that lined the road, and benign Lord Ganesha in his various poses blessing us.
We arrived at Palghat and were back in a tropical paradise, complete with sudden showers, backed by humid, sweltering weather. We had been quite nicely acclimati
zed through Kochi and Thattekad, but Munnar and Marayoor had clearly spoilt us with their cooler, drier climes. We made a beeline for Palakkad's Tipu Sultan Fort, where we tried to bring back to life for the kids Haider Ali's and Tipu's last ditch rebellion against the European powers enveloping India. As we walked through the mostly unadorned fort, we pondered the brief time in history when the Badami rulers stood up against the Imperialists. How many such rebellions had failed, primarily because all of them were localized and lacked a national unity platform. Within the Fort one could still see some small signs of the original buildings, but otherwise most of it had been taken over by Colonial Taluka offices that were now in a sad state of repair. You could still smell Raj Times though, and we fully expected to see a Gora Sahib stride out of the tile-roofed office to check things out before Tiffin time!
From the Fort, and after a hearty lunch of Chola Batura at a local diner (it was 3pm before we settled down to eat), we decided to head out to Kalpathy to visit Vijay's Palakkad Tamil ancestors who had migrated to that little corner of the then Madras State ~800 years ago. Kalpathy has since been designated a World Heritage Site, and the Government of Kerala encourages a walking tour of the place. According the The Hindu newspaper, the site represents one of the earliest settlements of Tamil Panditjis who migrated to support the King of Palakkad's ritualistic needs, and Wikipedia discusses the erudite scholarship of yesteryear Panditjis at various forums sponsored by the Sringeri and Kanchi Shankara Peethams. Our interest was of course all
personal, to touch a piece of family history, and we were not disappointed. The central street that connected the Vishwanatha Kohvel (temple) at one end with the Mahaganapathy Kohvel at the other was replete with old-fashioned, low-roofed homes with the typical columns supporting the front porch, and sweetly intricate decorations (mango leaves, geometric patterns) carved into the wooden supports to the roof. As we watched elderly Mamis dressed in their 9-yard saris sitting at the front porch, one was reminded of R.K. Laxman's representation of rural India (he was also of Palakkad descent!).
We were in search of the Shiva temple, corner stones of which have dated it to 1425 AD, thus making it the oldest Shiva temple in the Malabar (North Kerala) area. We spotted a little stone temple on the other side of the road, which we abruptly realized was the Ganapathe Temple. So fate had sent
us to a Ganesh Temple on Ganesh Chathurthi in our ancestral village! In all our rough hiking gear, we crept into the temple. On a platform in front of the main sanctum was a beautifully decorated Ganesh Murti to which puja had clearly been conducted that morning. To our delight, we realized that a Carnatic Music kutcheri (concert) was about to start. The next hour and half was spent in the company of a local troupe (vocalist, violinist and mridangist), enjoying kritis to Ganesha, Devi, Shiva and Murugan, as well as Rama and Krishna. It brought an incomparable peace to our souls.
As the Mangalam sounded and the kutcheri drew to a close and we stepped down to do namaskaram, we were a tad puzzled to see the doors to the main sanctum close. Almost immediately there was the resonant sound of Nadaswaram. We knew some
thing was afoot! On cue the doors opened and Sri Maha Ganapathy was revealed in all his finery, with bunches of oil lamps lit around him, in a typical Kerala style, and a the Panditji holding a fine conical aarti plate glowing with multiple diyas. What a darshan! Our cup was overflowing...starting the trip as we had with a missed Darshanam of Lord Krishna, ending it with such a powerfully auspicious celebration. As a famous lyricist once said, "we must have done something good...".
From then on, all we could do was to imbibe all our wonderful experiences quietly. We visited the Shiva temple; the kids and Chitra gate-crashed a Jaanvasa (engagement procession) ongoing in the Mandapam attached to the Ganesh temple (Shobhita liked the cut of the Bridegroom's jib). But the multifarious flames of the aarti lamps was to stay with us all the way back to Connecticut, deep in our hearts.
On this, our last day
in Kerala, we decided to give it a last try on the wildlife viewing side, courtesy of an early morning walk with Sivakumar along the river that tumbles down from Munnar's rain-fed mountains all the way through Chinnar. Alas, we did not see too much wildlife outsi
de of the Hanuman Langur (with baby!) (left photo) and another surge of frisky Bonnet Macaque monkeys. But it was still a walk worth remembering, especially the lovely leafy verge along the river, the twisted roots of trees that hung over the water front, and the sandy shore where Shobhita and Sarvesh built a little mud dam and completely saturated their only pairs of pants! En route, we met a cute couple from France (husband is from Mexico), who had spent the night at a tree-top machan and were walking back with their guide to base camp.There were
a few last vestiges of bird life with a statuesque Stork-billed Kin
gfisher (left photo) tottering on a branch and struggling to digest a bulbous fish it had swooped to snare a few seconds earlier. Along with a large Fish Owl, motionless on a nearby branch until it spread its wings and soared into distance.But all too soon it was at an end and time to depart for our final leg in Palakkad. This was a 2 hour drive which traversed the Kerala/Tamil Nadu border twice. Vijay as usual stayed busy, making holiday notes on his Blackberry, while Chitra and the kids took the opportunity to slip in and out of slumber. One thing that hit us as we drove through Tamil Nadu was the profusion of Ganapathi statues and stalls. It belatedly hit us that today was indeed Ganesh Chathurthi! We enjoyed watching the gaudily decorated stalls that lined the road, and benign Lord Ganesha in his various poses blessing us.
We arrived at Palghat and were back in a tropical paradise, complete with sudden showers, backed by humid, sweltering weather. We had been quite nicely acclimati
zed through Kochi and Thattekad, but Munnar and Marayoor had clearly spoilt us with their cooler, drier climes. We made a beeline for Palakkad's Tipu Sultan Fort, where we tried to bring back to life for the kids Haider Ali's and Tipu's last ditch rebellion against the European powers enveloping India. As we walked through the mostly unadorned fort, we pondered the brief time in history when the Badami rulers stood up against the Imperialists. How many such rebellions had failed, primarily because all of them were localized and lacked a national unity platform. Within the Fort one could still see some small signs of the original buildings, but otherwise most of it had been taken over by Colonial Taluka offices that were now in a sad state of repair. You could still smell Raj Times though, and we fully expected to see a Gora Sahib stride out of the tile-roofed office to check things out before Tiffin time!From the Fort, and after a hearty lunch of Chola Batura at a local diner (it was 3pm before we settled down to eat), we decided to head out to Kalpathy to visit Vijay's Palakkad Tamil ancestors who had migrated to that little corner of the then Madras State ~800 years ago. Kalpathy has since been designated a World Heritage Site, and the Government of Kerala encourages a walking tour of the place. According the The Hindu newspaper, the site represents one of the earliest settlements of Tamil Panditjis who migrated to support the King of Palakkad's ritualistic needs, and Wikipedia discusses the erudite scholarship of yesteryear Panditjis at various forums sponsored by the Sringeri and Kanchi Shankara Peethams. Our interest was of course all
personal, to touch a piece of family history, and we were not disappointed. The central street that connected the Vishwanatha Kohvel (temple) at one end with the Mahaganapathy Kohvel at the other was replete with old-fashioned, low-roofed homes with the typical columns supporting the front porch, and sweetly intricate decorations (mango leaves, geometric patterns) carved into the wooden supports to the roof. As we watched elderly Mamis dressed in their 9-yard saris sitting at the front porch, one was reminded of R.K. Laxman's representation of rural India (he was also of Palakkad descent!).We were in search of the Shiva temple, corner stones of which have dated it to 1425 AD, thus making it the oldest Shiva temple in the Malabar (North Kerala) area. We spotted a little stone temple on the other side of the road, which we abruptly realized was the Ganapathe Temple. So fate had sent
us to a Ganesh Temple on Ganesh Chathurthi in our ancestral village! In all our rough hiking gear, we crept into the temple. On a platform in front of the main sanctum was a beautifully decorated Ganesh Murti to which puja had clearly been conducted that morning. To our delight, we realized that a Carnatic Music kutcheri (concert) was about to start. The next hour and half was spent in the company of a local troupe (vocalist, violinist and mridangist), enjoying kritis to Ganesha, Devi, Shiva and Murugan, as well as Rama and Krishna. It brought an incomparable peace to our souls.As the Mangalam sounded and the kutcheri drew to a close and we stepped down to do namaskaram, we were a tad puzzled to see the doors to the main sanctum close. Almost immediately there was the resonant sound of Nadaswaram. We knew some
thing was afoot! On cue the doors opened and Sri Maha Ganapathy was revealed in all his finery, with bunches of oil lamps lit around him, in a typical Kerala style, and a the Panditji holding a fine conical aarti plate glowing with multiple diyas. What a darshan! Our cup was overflowing...starting the trip as we had with a missed Darshanam of Lord Krishna, ending it with such a powerfully auspicious celebration. As a famous lyricist once said, "we must have done something good...".From then on, all we could do was to imbibe all our wonderful experiences quietly. We visited the Shiva temple; the kids and Chitra gate-crashed a Jaanvasa (engagement procession) ongoing in the Mandapam attached to the Ganesh temple (Shobhita liked the cut of the Bridegroom's jib). But the multifarious flames of the aarti lamps was to stay with us all the way back to Connecticut, deep in our hearts.
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