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..