Finally... Managed to get a much needed break from the tiring, boring , draining, irritating, depressing, ( a thousand more words to vent my frustrations of) office life...
A trip to my own (also God's own) country... With a week in hand and a strong determination to make the most of it, the journey started off... A day out of office meant a day sans AC that too in the scorching Hyderabad summer...
Unbearable!! I'm glad I managed to get away this long, but the hide and seek game has to end some day... Although the thermometers read a mere 42°c , it felt like the earth were boiling, all thanks to the global warming phenomenon (never took it so personally)... The strong breezes of hot air nullified the body mechanism to negate the unbearable heat with the sweat evaporating even before it finds its way out...
The journey eventually began and I got out of Hyderabad... Got into the Sabari express famous for its lesser priority even to the local trains… One hour into the journey, I find myself pushed into a No Man's Land (no traces of humans or any human habitats around)... Never ending stretches of barren lands minus the small traces of cotton and sugarcane cultivations was all the eyes would capture... These parts of the state are way backwards in comparison (in fact, there is nothing to compare) to the might of our capital city... I wonder if this is the true AP and Hyderabad is only a beautified face to it...
My newfound thoughts were quickly flushed away as the train moved away from the Telangana provinces and into the Andhran plains... The grass is much greener to this side... Could relate to why the Telanganites feel so deprived... But the fact remains that it's not the people, but the mother nature herself that is to be blamed for this step motherly treatment and we humans can hardly do anything about it...
This part of AP shares a great resemblance with Kerala for the amount of coconut trees all around... The long paddy fields stretch up to the horizon justifying the Rice Bowl title of AP... (Always wanted to explore this part of the state... Got a half chance recently, but missed out badly on that, all thanks to my stupid project...) The sun started to go down and so did the thermometer reading... It was getting darker outside and nothing except for some clusters of lights here and there, could appease my eyes...
In the train, I was lucky enough to have the company of some interesting folks ... Election results were out and most of the discussions were centered around Amma ,Didi and the new coalition government (UDF) in Kerala. After a quick dinner, it was time for sleep... A stare at the watch which read 8:45 put me into thoughts... When was the last time I even thought of sleeping this early?? (may be during my last train journey) And I could see that many others were already flat on their bellies…
Woke up early to catch a glimpse of the early morning sun, but the sky wasn't so kind... The train had already crossed AP and moved deep into Tamil Nadu...The eastern ghats were racing among themselves to meet their much loved western counterparts for love is meant not just for humans after all... As the meeting point approached, the forests grew denser and greener... and so was the malayali in me... Could very well sense the change in the air... The smell of pazhampori (banana fry) blended with that of the Eucalyptus oil filled the air...
The nilagiri forests marked the alliance of the ghats... A sharp rise in the humidity and the sweat began to finally find it's way out... Three more stations to go and I was fully charged up to step out and kiss the soil( didn't do anything like that...) Unboarded the train at the Thrisshur station and the next destination was the Lord Krishna temple at Guruvayoor... A two hour bus ride through the narrow and curvy kerala roads... A bus ride in kerala is a super fantasy ride in itself... The narrow roads and the high speeds gives you a feel nothing less to any roller-coaster ride... And if it's a ghat road, the thrill is doubled... All you need to do is to have faith in the driver, close your eyes and feel it through…
At Guruvayoor, the first darshan was planned amidst the deeparadhana (evening pooja) and the athazha pooja (night pooja)... A one hour wait in the queue and a lot of sweating got us inside the temple premises. The cool AC blowers at the main dwaram just when the humidity was unbearable, offered a heavenly experience, which although didn't last for more than a couple of seconds... Got a plentiful darshan of the deity followed by a happy meal at world famous Saravana Bhavan...
The temples in Kerala still follow a set of very stringent rules. Non-Hindus are not allowed into the temple. Men can’t wear full pants, and even women are not allowed to wear churidars. Men have to be bare-chested within the temple premises. None of the archakas or poojaris should be touched and so many others which are very strictly followed. One more thing that's very religiously followed all across Kerala is the usage of dhothis. 90% of the people you see are in their dhothis and it feels awkward when you are in your jeans... Scientifically dhothis are more suited for the humid climate for they provide better air circulation...
The next day started early, in fact very early at 1 in the morning (or I should rather call it night ). The mission was to attend the Nirmalyam pooja. This time the queue was much longer and it moved at the slowest pace mocking the snakely motion moving equally to the right and left( my count was 58 times to either side) and eventually moving forward... A three hour struggle finally got us in. This time the darshan was much more delightful ... By the time we came out, the sun was high over the horizon and we had time, only for a quick breakfast before packing off for the next destination and another dose of the thrilling bus ride...
A two hour ride through the hilly terrains and we landed in a remote village called Kulukalloor (name can be ignored). Reached there before lunch, so had the whole evening to go around and breathe in the fresh aroma of the woods... The man made ponds, the neatly carved fields, the small streams all added to the nature's aura... My eyes had an overdose of green that we hardly get to see in our cities. The dusk arrived and it was wise to rush back to proper shelter before falling prey to the moth sized mosquitoes or the extra size ants and many more unknown creatures... The nights are much darker here and it needs real guts to venture out after 9 for you’ll hardly find a companion...
The next day started off early yet again and the journey was back to Thrisshur, this time for a wedding... It was time to make the best use of my phone… Played a photographer at the wedding (a starter at that) and I was all clicking... The highlight of kerala weddings is the Sadhya (the feast)... The attendees lay their hands on every serving and post the meal, they happily let out their comments making comparisons to all their previous feasting experiences...
The day went by and some of us went around window shopping in the evening... Thrisshur is termed as the cultural capital of kerala and there's a lot to shop for the non-keralites in particular... It was Wednesday night and I had only three days left to get back to Hyderabad.
The next day was a sort of mini pilgrimage... Visited more number of temples in a day than I would have in a whole year... Mayannur bhagwathi Kshetram, Kaipa Mahadeva KShetram, Thiruvilwamala to name a few… The motive was to visit all the ancestral deities... The result was instant in the form of pay hike… The whole day went by going around temples and finally reached Avittathur (my village). The Shiva Kshetram here is my personal favourite. The temple is immensely huge, has a great ambience and I have always felt my spiritual best here… Friday was a bandh against the hike in petrol prices and all I could do was to visit all my relatives living around sipping a whole cup of tea every house I stepped into.
And then Saturday came along… One last visit to the temple and I could get rid of the dhothi, although I had a great time with it. My new love (my Samsung Galaxy SL) was always close to my heart in my shirt’s pocket.
The return journey was boring and I badly wished I took a flight back. Travelling in train felt like being punished for all my sins. Even the Tihar jail would have been a better place. It all seemed as if it were a rewind of my onward journey…
Now I'm back to being a hyderabadi as the BIG BREAK ended…
