The Postcard(s) That Reached Late

Sifar is back to his figurative third place. The aroma of cappucino and the soothing lounge music never fails to release the right chemicals to actuate blogging. In my vain attempt to maintain a blog continuity, and to keep my promise to write about the rest of my India trip, I am going to take you to god's own country with me (in a short series of two posts). Wow, that did NOT come out right. I almost sounded like the archangel, St. Michael, from above, ready to carry a soul separated from its body to St. Peter's gates. For those curious about the mythology of the orient, I sounded like "Yamadoot".

Any how, by god's own country I mean Kerala. The entire state is very beautiful, clean, and well maintained by the government and more importantly, the locals. During this year's annual pilgrimage to India, I insisted on experiencing the vibrant cultural fabric of India than just spending time home lazing around. With that brain-wave, began the planning to visit Kanyakumari and Munnar. We landed at Trivandrum by an early morning flight from Mumbai and after spending a very short time flirting with the beautiful clear waters of the Kovalam beach, headed to KK. One thing to clarify here (which never occured to me before visiting KK) is that KK is actually in Tamil Nadu and not Kerala. After checking into our hotel in KK, we had a late lunch and headed towards Gandhi Mandapam to watch the sun set.

KK is the southern most tip of India, the land of triveni sangam (the place where three seas/oceans meet), the bhoomi of Kanya Devi, the place of Vivekananda's meditation and memorial, and lastly a touristy place with lots of people. After taking the pulse of the streets of KK and a few good pictures of the sun set from the viewing point, we headed to get some delicious filter coffee that South India is so famous for among other things. Alas, KK is so commercialized now, that the local guys sell Bru and Sunrise for 7/10 bucks a tiny cup and no filter at all.

We also made a walk down towards the temple area, to get a glimpse of the Vivekananda memorial and the Thiruvallavur statues. The calm, serene breeze and the pleasing temperatures provided for a magnificient evening mood that was meditative and introspective. Some places have an aura about them, they just engulf your soul providing for a divine experience - KK is definitely one of them.

After an unsuccessful raid on the filter coffee front, and a good quiet half hour watching the blissful sight of Vivekananda memorial at night and gaping into the open seas ahead of us, we went back to our hotel for dinner and dozed off early to get up at 4.30 am the subsequent morning.

We had our eyes set on getting to watch the rising sun, but the primordial light deprived us of the ecstasy by conspiring with the dark clouds nearby. After a disappointing walk back to the hotel, we got ready and headed towards the KK temple. A couple of hours of hustle bustle among the "Swamis" of Sabrimala, we finally managed to take "darshan" and headed towards the Vivekananda memorial. A word of caution for people trying to visit KK, Dec/Jan are NOT good months to visit, cos the place is full of people doing the Sabrimala pilgrimage. I was hoping that KK would be a relaxing, enlightening experience, but the hordes of crowds made it more of a ruckus for the most part.

Spending two hours or more each in long queues for the ferries at Vivekananda rock and Thiruvallavur statue, we finally made it back by 3.00 pm. The USPs of these two sites were the memorial itself, a large statue of Vivekananda, a quiet meditation room, a sun-dial, and watching the Triveni Sangam (the place where the Bay of Bengal, The Arabian Sea, and the Indian Ocean meet).

One thing that Kerala has to offer in plenty like any other coastal place, is the sweet coconut water, and we had it aplenty to keep us hydrated thru' the southern heat. After a late lunch and an equally late siesta, we headed to the Suchindram temple which is about 12 kms from KK.

The Suchindram temple is exquisite in its architecture and boasts a 22 feet Hanuman statue made out of a single stone. The temple was humungous and carried loads of beautiful sculptures and idols, each with scrupulous attention towards carvings and art. An abhishek at the hanuman mandir and a few more delightful pictures down, we headed back to KK and stopped at the Vivekananda Ashram on the way. As ill-luck would have it, the ashram wasn't hosting the usual exhibition on Vivekananda's life - we were treated to a sign-board that said "Exhibition closed on Tuesday evenings". Like all other things that we blame on misfortune, we took that in our stride and instead focused on buying some books on spirituality. Tuesday ended with a quiet night at the hotel and early submission to bed to catch the early morning train to Cochin...Munnar here we come.

--Sifar