Journey to God's Home country - continued

My earliest remembrances about Kerala date back to 1972-73 when i used to visit Managalore for audit and the train i travel used to touch stretches of kerala. The interest in Kerala in those days are confined to the Nenthiram chips and the long flowing hair of Malayalee girls.While the former still exists, the later is seldom seen as by and large the modern days have made every alternate girl to cut her hair and convert it in to a Bop (One of the victims of modernisation).

Then the next memory is when i went to Guruvayur to pay a homage to deity on the eve which marked the end of a suspence period of 2 years when we have to go thru anxiety and tension awaiting my friend-son to take his first step ...Now no one who looks at his speed of walking will seldom believe that he had difficulty even in taking a few steps of his own, in his child hood.And if any one is still in doubt they can visit his blog;Myriad journeys-which invariably has atleast a post every month as to how he enjoys his walking spree.

Then when the children have started growing we as family really went tresure hunting in Kerala.Our trips to Ernakulam, Vayanadu, Trivandrum ,AND the recent one to Kumarakom followed with such precision that almost every two years in the last 6 years or so our place of visit , by choice or acident happens to be Kerala.

MY son and daughter in their own scheme of things also visited Munnar ( as part of their study ) and later my daughter and son in law visted Alleppey to mark the beginning of their wedded life.

MY RECENT TRIP TO KERALA AND THE EARLER VISITS ABOUT WHICH I HAVE MADE A MENTION are all worth remembering for various reasons. It is during one such visit that i got the news of my elevation to Senior Management cadre (amidst all odds) and it is during the visits that my daughter and son graduated into adult hood and along with it aquired a maturity which few children of their age could have aquired by then.And it was during the recent trip that i got the message that my daugter is likely to get further promotion in her personal life.That the place, its beauty and serenity
are all important factors which have contributed to peace of mind and the personal
attainments added a special gait to the same.

the recent trip will be remmebered for a variety of reasons.It happened to my last LFC block and for the first time when i made use of it with out my sosn and daughter accompanying us.It is this trip which made me to realise how much i miss them .the trip is also remembered because we could pay a visit to Varkala Janardhan temple, a deity which occpied our Pooja room since the date of our Grahapravesam(11/11/1984) and we could have the glimpse of God only in 2011. The trip was also remarkable because it coiuncided with a hartal in kerala. I am not new to Hartals(having spent a couple of my earlier years in West bengal) but this one in size, magnitude and reach is some thing which i witnessed for the first time.This resulted in famous ANANTHA PADMANABHA sWAMY TEMPLE doors being closed earlier than expected times and i have started enjoying these bottle necks too as it made life and journey all the most interesting.We have to hence wake up at 4 am to finish our dharshan at 6 am as the remple doors are to be closed due to hartal at 7 am.Since our train from Trivandrum to Kottayam (from Kottayam we have to go by road trnasport to our resort)wass cheduled to depart at 8 am we just reached station in time before the picketing really started going out of control.

We planned the previous night itself to arrange to have the break fast delivered to us well in time at the hotel * Arya nivas , group of hotels run by ARYAAS of Thirunelveli, where we stayed.Masal dosa, Iddlies and vada with accompanying samabar and variety of Chutneys all of which tasted as if they were directly served from heavenly abode, made the journey worth while.It is the situation where in all hotels were closed to outsiders which made the food all the more tasty.And in reality too the tiffin was of great quality and value for money.

We reached Kottyam at half past 12 only to see a deserted station with one more crowd of supporters going from stength to strenth by every passing minute, curtailing all modes of transport. Both my bank and the resort to which we are to reach regretted the inability to be of any assistance due to foul tempers at its worst.It was fortunate the help came from one of the unexpected quarters. MAY BE Lord Iyappa himself showed the way as wew were in his Country. One of the vans which came to drop a pilgrimage party(we understood later that only those pilgrims to SABARIMALA WERE ALLOWED TO MOVE freely) gave us a suggestion to have the Sabarimala malas so that he could escort us to resort (ofcourse at double the price we are required to pay in normal days). We made the choice to leave the palce of trouble to palce of safety and found ourselves in one of the cottages in Kumarakom in the next 45 minutes .

We ordered for a sumptupous lunch, had a steamimng abth for about 30 minutes and retired to bed like dead woods and by the timew we woke up evening sun was aleady bidding good bye to us. one of my auditor friends made the day worthy of remembrance by driving all the way from Ernakulam along with some choicest food/snack/liquor and the next 3 hours flew like a bullet train and only the ramapaging rains broght to a halt the whole proceedings as the auditor friend has to trael back to Ernakulam.

He also offered to give his car for our use on the day of departure so that we will not be stranded for want of conveyance and at the same time visit any other place of our choice enroute.this provided us an opportunity to visit Chottanikarai Bhagawathi amman temple and our timing was such taht we could get the glimpse of goddess just before the doors were to be closed for Ucchi Kala pooja and after dharshan we were also served Lunch at SAnctum sanctorum itself.

By the time we came back from the temple after having Lunch it was already 2 pm and we still had 2 hours at our disposal to go on apurchase spree. Already the earlier shopping stint at Kumarakom where in i picked up a fish made of Red wood costed me Rs 1009 BUT the buy was worth it as it was meant for my beloved daughter/. So it is time for my wife to make the kill now.Few sarees. few more eatables and a relaxed time at the Ice cream parlour enables us to spend next two hours and we just reached station in time when the announcement of arrival of our train was already on/

And right at the moment the auditor friend was aleady waiting at the station to see us off. Hospitality and warmth at its best!!

We bade him good bye, boarded the train and reached Central next day morning, right on time to be received by a wooden faced driver in stark contrast to the hspitality and warmth we received else where.

And possibly it is this contrast in life which makes us to apprecaiate the golden moments of the previous days and the warmth of friendship in true colours.

Concluded