Drinking in the Beauty that is Kerala

Nedumbassery Airport, Kochi

My sojourn in the God’s own country has been one of the most enticing so far, albeit disappointingly short. We ( it was a family holiday) had the advantage of escaping the unsympathetic humidity, thanks to the monsoons, and the torrential rains that they brought along with them. FOG, MIST and CLOUDS were the constant theme throughout our stay. The first edifice that knocked me head over heels was the very edifice of the Kochi airport (Nedumbassery airport). Built in the typical Kerala architectural style, it is an awe-inspiring work of concrete art!

On our way to Thekkady, we stopped by at Kalady, the birthplace of the celebrated Indian philosopher Adi Shankaracharya, the founder of the Advaita Vedanta. It is around 5km from the airport. A Stupa is erected there in his name. We paid our respects to the holy place and the legacy, and continued on our journey to Thekkady.

I was ogling at the greenery around me. Kerala seems to have befriended the environment in the right way. Its cities are green all over. It seems as if the cities were built around the trees. As we crossed the outskirts of Kochi, the sky started turning grey. The clouds in no time turned to droplets of rain, and amplified into a heavy downpour.

Inside the tree house

After a six hour journey, that seemed to last an eternity, we reached Thekkady. There we took a tree-house, which was a unique experience in itself. Thekkady houses the Periyar tiger reserve, which is named after the major river Periyar, that flows through the state. Since it was night by the time we reached Thekkady, we decided to hit the sack that day. Early next morning, we went to the Periyar reserve, but since it was raining, couldn’t spot the majestic tiger. Disappointed, we returned to our room. Tiger has always been on my list of wildlife spotting...SIGH!

We checked out of our room and continued towards our second destination... the all famous MUNNAR.  Munnar is one of the top coveted destinations in India among foreign and Indian adventurers alike. Nestled in the Western Ghats, it is a hill station, which was once a dense forest. Munnar was tamed by the East India Company in the eighteenth century, for the cultivation of tea.

Munnar

The tortuous ghat roads to Munnar were as enchanting as the destination itself. To enjoy the beauty of the place, we decided to go for accommodation in the outskirts of the hill-town. We didn’t want to waste time, and so we visited the TATA TEA MUSEUM, which displayed historical articles from the British era, which were used in Munnar, such as the olden day telephone, calculator, tea filter, ‘wooden bath tub’, photographs of the officers, and various game trophies. The museum also screened a thirty minute movie about the history of Munnar and the tea produced there. After the movie we were taken to the tea factory and shown the process of tea processing. It is interesting to know that TATA group of companies bought the tea company in Munnar from a foreign company, that had in turn bought it from the English East India Company.

As we retired for the day, sleeping in the room was close to impossible, given the howling winds were rattling the windows against the shutters. It seemed as if the building would collapse with the intensity of the rattling.

The tea estates of Munnar

The next morning, we set out for the Eravikulam National Park, famous for the Nilgiri Tahr, the mountain goat species endemic to the region. They are also among the endangered species in the country. Naturally, extremely shy. We went for a safari, but sadly for us, the Tahr remained elusive. The silver lining though, was that we spotted the Golden Backed Woodpecker, busy at work.

Athirapally waterfalls

Then, we visited the Mattupatty dam, which is one of the few dams in Munnar. Then we went to the Shooting point, where many films were shot. We also visited the Echo point, which, as the name suggests, give out clear echoes if, we shout from a specific point. And after we visited the Kundale lake, we called it a day. Personally, shooting point wasn’t really very special, except for the name. It was just as beautiful as any other part of Munnar. So was the point with Kundale. The only added attraction being boat rides in Kashmiri shikkaras.

With many memories, we headed back to Kochi, which we had yet to explore. But before we entered Kochi, we took a detour toward Athirapally, which is famous for the waterfalls. The waterfalls are out of this world; surrounded by dense forest. The only thorn in the flesh was that the forest was infested with monkeys. Notorious creatures... one of them wouldn’t take eyes off my ice cream! After spending some time admiring the falls, we headed for Kochi.

We reached Kochi by evening, leaving us just enough time for a boat ride in the Wembanad lake, otherwise called the lake of Kochi or Kochi lake. This is a backwater lake, with the unique feature that it is till connected to the Arabian sea, through an opening in the Kochi landmass.

Wembanad lake

Sri gopuram Temple

The land of Kochi is in the shape of an open ring, encircling the Wembanad lake. The part connected to the mainland is called Ernakulam/ kochi, while the part in the sea (apparently the island) is called Fort Kochi.
By the time we finished our boat ride, it was time for to get to bed. Our target for the next day was Fort Kochi. The quickest way to reach there is waterways. We embarked on a boat to Fort Kochi at the Ernakulam Boat Jetty, early in the morning. It took us to our destination in a modest twenty minutes. There we hired a taxi for local sight seeing. Believe it or not, the whole of Fort Kochi was scaled in a paltry two hours! The interesting part in this island is the demographic division. There are equal numbers of Hindu, Muslim and Christian families in the island and they are spread according to the location of their places of worship. The first place we visited was the Srigopuram temple, which allegedly is more than a thousand years old, and is also the largest temple in Kochi. The neighbourhood of the temple is inhabited exclusively by Hindus. Then we visited an old church, the St Francis church. Kerala has a large number of churches, an average of one church every street!

After the church we visited the Dutch cemetery, which was built in the early eighteenth century. The gate of the cemetery 

was kept locked by the local police as it had turned a hub for drinkers and drug addicts. After this we visited the beach oh Kochi, which, though a short one, was a scenic beauty. We spotted a great number of shells and also tiny crabs. There were also a number of Chinese nets hung at the edge of the shore, to catch fish.

A Chinese net at Fort Kochi

After basking in the sun for a while, we visited the Dutch palace. The palace, which might evoke European architectural images on the mention of the name, was nowhere near that. It was an old but majestic Palace, built in the Kerala architectural style. It housed the Verma dynasty of Kerala. The palace gets its name from the Dutch colonial power that ruled Kochi.

The palace is converted into a museum by the Archaeological Society of India. The museum displays the history of each ruler of Kerala, the murals that are preserved, including an incomplete mural. It also displays the royal outfits, jewellery, ancient maps, paintings, coins, stamps and weapons. There is also a display of the old palanquins of Royal kingdom.

The Dutch Palace

After this visual treat, we headed towards the Paradesi Jewish Synagogue. It is the oldest Jewish place of worship in the Commonwealth Nations. It was built in the sixteenth century, and is still active. Earlier, there were many Jewish families residing around the synagogue. But Israel has absorbed most of the families back to the homeland. Now remain only a handful of them.

Also there is a Jain temple that caters to the Jain community and a large mosque that is frequented by the Muslim community. Despite the presence of a spectrum of religions, the people of Kochi live in secular harmony.

This was our final day at the land of wonders and cultural richness. It was hard to bid goodbye to the God’s own country. We could only do so after promising to ourselves that we would return a second time.