Koyeler Kache....

Today I am here to share my experiences about the KERALA trip that we made two and a half years ago.The pupose of mentioning the year is to aware you all that how lazy I am to share my experiences with you.But,as I remember a detailed account of our Kerala trip,therefore I have ventured to present it before you all. Any trip that promises the Western ghats and Arabian Sea at the same time is bound to be a unique experience.However,in the puja vacation on the scheduled date I alnong with my parents embarked upon the Coromandel express which set off at around 3pm from Howrah station.Although it took 2 days almost to reach Ernakulam railway station,yet I didnt feel borred in this long hours of railway journey.It reminded me of Ruskin Bond's description of train journey where he used to pick up an incident in the train and narrate it before the readers.I enjoyed the changing topographies,climate,language of different places as the train was passing through several states to my heart's content.From Ernakulam railways station,we hired a taxi and reached Thiruvananthapuram,located at the end point of India almost.In Thiruvananthapuram,we visited the famous Kovalam beach.The blue waters,the vast azure sky above,with rows of coconut trees standing by added much to the panoramic beauty of this wonderful sea beach.

I had a refreshing bath there and took snaps ,one of which have been posted here.Later on,we visited the Padmanavaswami temple ,the famous Hindu temple of Lord Vishnu,located inside the fort in the city of Thiruvananthapuram.The main deity Padmanavaswami is a form of vishnu in eternal sleep posture and it is an ancient temple perhaps bulit by the Chola kings of South India.The next morning we left Thiruvananthapuram for Alleppy by bus.From Alleppy we enjoyed a 7 hours boat ride through the backwaters of Kerala to reach Kottayam.The water was greenish-lack in clour,but transparent enough to look deep into it.I was trying to observe distant objects with my bionacular from the boat.At a distance we could see huts of people who stays nearby the backwaters and earn their living by fishing in it.Gradually we entered into the narrow channel of water in the sides of which there were beautiful houses and different varieties of trees.At that moment I could recollect the story ''LAGOON'' by Conrad,where Conrad wonderfully presented the description of a boat journey of a white man in the Malayan archipelago.After travelling a long way in this manner we finally reached Kottayam and went to our hotel.But I must admit that the boat ride through the backwaters was delightful and exciting.That day in the evening we went for local marketting and my mom purchased a pachampalli saree from a local saree stall.I just made an entry into a shopping mall and had a look at some of the dress materials.However the next day we departed from Kottayam with the aim to reach Kumilly,a hill station in Kerala within evening by bus.It was a 6 hours journey by bus across the winding hill paths,but the outside view was awesome!!!!!The green hills almost kissing the blue sky above with a calm and serene atmosphere probably decreased the temperature a bit.However,the climate was cold at Kumilly and before reaching here I couldnt even imagine that what surprise is awaiting for us here.The surprise was the famous SPICE GARDEN.....where a varities of spices were abundantly available including croton,clove,coffee,cinnamon,cardamon,cocoa,vanilla essence,stevia powder and so on.This is the home for the growth of rare varities of apices which are not usually found in any other parts of India.Now I can match that why Portuguese sailor Vasco Da Gama came to Kerala in search of spices.Thereafter,we headed towards MUDRA.....a centre for famous kathkali dance of Kerala.Their dance impressed us and after watching it I realised that it is really a difficult dance as the facial expressions,postures are not easy to present before the audience.The following day was memorable for us as on that day we visited the Periyar Tiger reserve in the morning.The Periyar tiger reserve is the abode of tigers,wild boar,elephants,deer,various birds ,but we were unfotunate enough as we couldnt see any tiger there.But the experience of travelling by launch in the periyar river was beautiful as we always possessed a hope to see any wild creature with inquisitive eyes.But except a few birds,nobody caught our attention.The periyar lake was encompassed by hills and dense jungles in all it's sides and hence the temperature was chill cold.As time was passing,the temperature went on decreasing.Anyways,the overall tranquility of Periyar forest attracted me much.The next day we travelled the penultimate destination ......Munnar.This hill staion was severely cold and we all experienced a great cold over there as we didnt carry enough winter garments from Kolkata.Naturaaly,we had buy some from there.In Munnar,we visited the Madupetty Dam on kundala Lake and enjoyed a boat ride there.It enthralled us as there was a competition amongst different boat riders.After leaving this calm and pleasant climate of Kundala lake,we advanced towards Rajmahal forests to see the NILAKURUNCHI flower.............a rare flower as it blooms once in every 12 years.But the bus that carried some tourists including us upto the mountains fell in front of heavy rains that lashed across the hills and made the situation worse almost like KAILASH.It became dangerous and as well as risky to move on further upwards as there was every chance for the vehicle to skit it's wheels and fall into the ground from such a high altitude.But we were lucky to see the NILAKURUNCHI flower in the sides of the hills before reaching the finaly valley of nilakurunchi flowers.It was a beautiful blue coloured flower which drew our atention.Neither of us could take any snapshot of tjis flower...Alas!!!!!!!!!!The bus driver decided to return immediately anticipating the worst condition of roads that was going to happen.We were thankful to god after we reached the plains.Really,the incident which we had to face in the Rajmahal forests will be ever remembered by us.Death was invitting us that day;but miraculously we escaped.While returning in the hotel by jeep,I fell into the welcome embrace of slumber probably due to extreme stress and woke up when we reached hotel.The next day was the day of visiting Kochi our ultimate destination in this trip,the well known city and quite popular amongst all of us.There we visited the st.FRANCIS XAVIERS church,one of the oldest churches of Kochi.It was in this church that Vasco Da gama was burried and later his remains were transferred to Lisbon.Beesides,we also visited the Kochi harbour and saw some chinese fishing nets.These are typical huge nets used by the local fishermen to catch fishes from the sea.Thereafter we visited the Cochin shipyard and Jewish synagogue.The interior decoration of the synagogue impressed each and every tourist....it was so unique that it is almost inexplicable.The topmost right image illustrates to some extent how the synagogue was.There was a jew town where all the houses loked similar and it was tough to distinguish one from the other.gradually the time came to depart and the next day I felt gloomy and pensive.But home is welcoming us thinking this we reached the Ernakulam Railway station and boarded the Coromandel Express and two days later reached kolkata.The pleasant memories of this Exotic Kerala will be cherished in my inward eye forever like Wordsworth's a'host of golden daffodils.''