Combing God’s Own Country in search of the Gods – I

Kerala – It was meant to be, this weekend. Was sitting aroud until 9:00PM on Friday evening , with a very good idea of how the how the longish Chritsmas break was going to be and then out of freaking-nowhere materializes a trip that takes us through Western Ghats, to the seaside at Kerala and finally to meet the Gods themselves at the God’s Own Country !
 
Setting out the early morning and into Western Ghats that put one to instant peace as soon you enter the ghat roads, we reached Wayanad and managed to find accomodation in a basic, but a neatly run, ayurveda hospital :), where they had a few recuperation rooms empty.

We did’nt brighten at conquering 2100m of Chembra, since we were quite sure that half of Bangalore was camping at that heart-shaped lake on the way up. A low-altitude idling seemed more our style this time and we spent the Saturday evening at Pookot lake in Wayanad. Do a bit of walking on the path around the lake and you could lose the weekend crowd and the penguin dustbins in a matter of minutes. It gets quieter and more peaceful as you walk along, except for that occasional touristy horse-drawn carriage. 

We walked along the path of that lily-filled lake (Now that I mention it, I’ve always remembered Pookot lake with lilies floating) pondering one more time over this question of immmmmmense consequence to humanity :) : Football craze, Axe and Sickle, Literature, ability to churn out quality regional movies without latching onto Bombay bandwagon, a million coconut trees and so much more – Kerala and WB are strinkingly similar in so many ways, are’nt they ?
 
And right here, a fine example of how you can write a post about something that is totally irrelevant to the subject line ! :) Theyyam stories will follow..

Make (or break) my trip

A friend and I had been on a recent trip to Mangalore, Udupi/Malpe and we thought it was great fun! Until we recounted  that weekend a coupla days back during another trip ..

Here, a summary of events:

- Stuck in a horrible traffic jam near the Majestic Bus stand. We walked the last kilometer to the bus stand in all the slush from the rain that had just stopped – hoping that we’d make it to the bus on time.

- A rough road incident.

- A car screaches and almost lands on my heel. Just when I’m about to give a piece of  my mind to the driver on what  a nut-head I think he is, the reckless chap turns out to be a collegue at work. What a nice little ironical touch ! :)

- We lose each other at the bus station. And my friend has no freaking clue where the bus is. I try to call and  ‘The subscriber you have dialled is currently out of reach’  happens. We learn later that we have been more or less going round and round the platform in search of each other :)

- Right now, I have been standing in a drizzle , in front of the bus with a revving up engine for the last 15 minutes  trying to tell the driver that my friend would arrive ’soon’,'very soon’ , ’shortly’, ‘presently’, ‘on the way’. I’m almost running an internal contest in my head: Which one of these two is likely to happen first - running out of all sorts of adverbs and other figures of speech available in Engish language to use to convey the immediacy of my friend’s arrival or my friend materializing so that we could actually board the bus ? The driver guy can’t quite understand whether I’m blocking the bus or begging him.

- Ullal beach – Entry restricted today. Who would’ve thought ?! The guard at the gate says – Madam, some important rally madam. (Some hotshot I presume). You could have come yesterday no, madam.

- A book by William Faulkner lost in an auto

- Mobile phone left behind in ANOTHER auto

- Waited in pouring rain on the road for full 30mins before we found a mode of transport that could take us to the Mangalore police station. To file a compliant for a lost handset.  Don’t laugh – If you have a mom who has breathed forensic science for a good part of her life,  you’ll have to write out an FIR and endure an enquiry even if you lose a pin ! :-)

- A stomach that threatens to bring out anything that has gone inside.

- A loooong wait at the Mangalore bus station (3 hours) waiting for the bus that would take us to Bangalore to arrive.

- A 14-hours ride to Bangalore amidst rain and traffic jams. We reach Bangalore next day afternoon 1PM.

I cannot think of a weekend in recent past when so many things went astray in a span of 2 days.  Retrospectively, it seems cussed minute after minute :) 

 Yet, yet , YET – what we remember of that totally jinxed weekend is the amazing sunset at Malpe port and the funny sight at the police station we’d gone to at Mangalore where all the guns and ammunition where neatly arranged and decorated with flowers :-) :-) for the puja ! And that brain-tickling question – would they pull out those guns if a riot broke out that day or wait for the puja to pass :-o ?

So there you go – the events that transpired during a trip that we had thought was fun :)

Travel fun has probably got nothing to do with the destination, or weather or the person with whom you travel.   Like most things, travel fun too is dependent on something internal to oneself – a state of mind. You have a lousy mood and you pick up the first thing that comes your way and call it the reason for a bad trip :) 

What makes or breaks your trip ?