Lovers For Tea And Tea For Lovers

Munnar, etymologically the place of confluence of three (munu) rivers (aaru) is a hilly town in the Idukki district of Kerala. With its sprawling tea estates, beautiful rivers videre licet Muthirappuzha, Nallathanni and Kundaly, beautiful spice gardens, dams, water-falls, and national reserves, Munnar boasts of an entire spectrum of nature.

View Enroute Thekkady Road From Munnar

Taking the train from KK, we reached Ernakulam by noon. After waiting on our pick-up for almost an hour, and after atleast half a dozen vociferous phone conversations, we managed to find Shaji - who would be our driver-und-guide for the next three days. Shaji was a Kerali Christian, who couldn't speak anything much beyond Malayalam. His English was passable and his Hindi better than his English...Imagine that. We would often communicate in Hinglish and cause each other exasperation. Over the three days there were quite some funny moments, trying to overcome the linguistic hurdles.

After a good lunch at seemingly upscale restaurant called Dwarka (or something similar), we headed towards Munnar. En route, we stopped at Kothamangalam for some coffee, and began our drive into the Nilgiri night. After a good 6 hours of driving from Cochin, we finally reached Munnar's Hotel Silver Cloud. The hotel was more of a set of honeymoon suites (or at-least that's the general feeling I got) located right across from Fort Munnar some 15 odd miles beyond the town of Munnar en route towards Thekkady. The drive at night was scary with the ghat roads being very narrow at times allowing only for a single vehicle to pass. With the windows rolled down however, one could smell the exotic spices, and tea aromas while driving thru' the beautiful country.

The hotel was ill-staffed and although the host there was very humble and cordial, things were slow as far as service was concerned. After waiting on our dinner for almost 2 hours, we finally slept off at midnight. The next morning after a breakfast of Idlis and Appam, we started our sight-seeing expedition. On our way to the town of Munnar, we made arrangements for the famed Kerala Ayurvedic massage to get rid of our travel-fatigue.

The beautiful sunny morning came out with a clear message - Munnar is a place for "Lovers". Honeymooners, newly married folks, married folks trying to re-ignite the sparks, families who love each other, nature lovers, lovers of tea, everyone can come here and have a great time.

Periakanal Water Falls

A touristy stop by the Periakanal Water Falls (aka Power House Water Falls??) on the way to the town; we were treated to honeymooners posing in a myriad different romantic ways each wanting their share of shutter-time under these falls. A few clicks down, we hurried our way into the heart of the town leaving behind the Sita Devi lake and Attukal waterfalls as To-Do items for the next day.

A quick swing by the KTDC office and we had all the maps and materials needed to prioritize our visit. We started off by a trip to the Tea Museum. Here, visitors are treated to a good 45 minute long presentation video about the history of tea plantations in Munnar. The video talks about how the tea plantations and the development around them has helped Munnar flourish as a tourist and a commercial town, yet maintaining the sanctity of the nature in this area.

Tea slopes near the Lockhart Gap

The Kannan Devan Hills Plantation is the single largest tea company in the area previously owned by the British traders and then handed over as a privately owned company largely owned by the workers in the plantations.

Water Lily at the Tea Museum

The legacy was then handed over to the Tatas who rejuvenated the industry until finally handing the reigns over to the workers who make this all happen. So today as it stands, the KDHP is a flourishing privately owned tea business (majorly owned by its workers).


Spending almost a couple of hours at the tea museum, understanding the tea-making process , and a live demonstration later, we headed for some much needed lunch. The meal of the day was a Gujarati thali (yes yes yes Gujarati thali in Munnar) with a variety of offerings including theplas, khichadi, kadhi and other traditional gujju fanfare. It was a welcome change for our now southie stomachs. The afternoon was spent visiting Kundala and Mattupetty dams.

Kundala Dam

These are very picturesque locations a true shutter-bugs' delights; each offering a plenty of romance.

Wide-Angle View Of Kundala Dam

Although we didn't do the boat-rides (thought that was the honeymooners-only activity), we had plenty of glimpses of the water nearby...

Cloud covered silver mountains, clear blue waters, beautiful green trees and perfect temperatures to go with; the afternoon excursion was totally worth it.

Mattupetty Dam

The evening was spent lazing around in the beautiful flower gardens of Munnar. For the life of me, I can't recollect the name of this garden. I kept correlating the flora in this garden to the famous Duke Gardens in Durham all the time I was there. The flowers were beautiful, vivid and fresh. God has indeed blessed this place with weather and nature that very few other places exhibit.

Flora at Flower Garden

After enjoying the flora for about an hour, we started our way back towards our hotel. Snacks were enjoyed at Saravana Bhavan (in Munnar) in the classic south-indian style. Sated by the delicacies, yet tired from the day's sight-seeing, we were looking forward to our evening massage appointment. We reached the place at dusk amid some i-dunno-where-it-came-from rain. It was a decent down-pour which had forced the power to be shut-off. The ambient light emanating from oil-lamps and healthy scents of the various massage oils set the scene for a relaxing massage. The full-body ayurvedic massage was a heavenly experience; needless to say its amongst the few must-dos in Kerala.

We retired for the night after a homely dinner of tomato-rice, curd-rice, and rassam. The spicy details await us the next day...

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

Post Card From Mumbai

Its been more than two weeks already and I have more or less adapted to Mumbai. May it be driving your two-wheeler thru' the Thane traffic enriched with heavily polluted air (both by emissions and honkings), or waiting at ANY station during peak hours trying to board a Mumbai local train, its amazing how ones' instincts take over and you no longer feel a pariah (as a matter of fact you never were). A blanket of nostalgia gets wrapped around initially but soon you warm up to the air around and fit right into the rich socio-cultural fabric of Mumbai. You honk, you hurl abuses, you give mean looks to fellow travellers and all this strangely makes you feel at home.

But there is another facet that jutts out - people are naturally warm, they help you out with the smallest of your queries to the biggest of your problems. While people standing in the long ticket queues at train stations would give you nasty looks cos you bumped the queue to get a CVM coupon book, they would also be kind enough to tell you how many stations it would be before you get to Bandra or Kings Circle and what side of the train would you get off. I guess they experience the same pulse of Mumbai as you do. And that's one thing about Mumbai that would never change. Articles, news paper columns, editorials, journal entries aplenty have been written about how helpful and warm an average Mumbaikar is but none of them would do justice to the actual experience of being in Mumbai and being a Mumbaikar.

In these past 10-12 days that I have been out "indulging" and meeting a lot of new faces, life has been enriched with a gamut of experiences, some bitter some sweet. Mumbai never fails to tingle your figurative taste-buds with its sweet n' sour flavors. Half-way through my joy-ride in the motherland, I am hoping there will be more to report after my trip down South.

So long...

--Sifar.

Hello-Inn

There is something about SitarBaksh and creativity, every time I go there with my lap-buddy (jeez thats my macbook you pervs) - OK I admit it was cheesy, but oh, well, so every time I go there and have my macbook with me, something inside me hints me to open it up and start scribbling stuff for this blog.

So here I am back on a Saturday evening reporting two events - first a birth of two young ones in my extended family; wonderful baby boys born just over a day apart to two of my co-workers. Both are healthy babies and bundles of joy. God bless these wonderful symbols of life and make them successful in whatever they do. The second, is the Halloween party last Saturday. Boy, it was a blast!

This post goes out to S&S, a wonderful couple in nearby Morrisville, who were courteous hosts of this year's Halloween party. Arrrrr.....the hosts were dressed in true Halloween spirit donning pirate costumes that would put Johnny Depp and Keira Knightley to shame...OK fine I exaggerate, god how else is this supposed to be spooky exciting? On a serious note, it was a wonderful evening - good food, good times with wonderful people. There were a lot of unfamiliar faces that day and that added color to the party more than just hanging out with the usual bunch. The costumes do warrant a mention. There were atleast 5 scream-ghosts (yeah yeah I know the irony of it is there are only 4 scream movies (3 released and 1 in the making)) so far. All the cheapskates and late-bums who went to Party City on Friday evening had to make do with these scream(y) masks. Others were a lil fancier dressing up as Dracula (Crime-master Gogo) and his love interest, Jeannie and Captain Nelson, The Man in Black, The Man in Blue, The Man in Brown, The two witches, and last but not the least the baby peapod :).

No party can be complete without the mention of gluttonous carousal. So we enjoyed a drink or two of Rum and the likes along with Samosas (yummmyy), followed by sumptuous entrees highlighted by Paneer Masala, Pineapple Korma and some fresh home-made rotis. The desserts menu was decked up by Gulab Jamuns....I should stop, this is making me hungry. Anyhoo, all in all it was a fun-filled party made special by lots of new "scary" people. Thanks S&S.

Today started off beautifully with a morning cup of tea, chat with the blood-relations and then a run by the lake. The temps have been forgiving for November, upper 60s around 11.30 am. The 3miles at the lake doesn't seem hard these days - I am hoping to amp up the tempo and try making the runs longer. As for the afternoon, went and watched APKGK on a friends' review that it was "watchable" Thanks R, you didn't disappoint :). Rajkumar Santoshi pulls a rabbit out of his hat once again by bringing back the comedy genre which he is a master at (Andaz Apna Apna). Ranbir Kapoor is at his youthful best, adding energy to the cast and I must say Katrina Kaif isn't doing too bad for herself given her acting talents (or the lack of it). Sallu plays a cameo, and GOD plays his magic at the very end shepherding our protagonist to the church of love. All in all 4stars are only a tad exaggerated, a must watch for casual movie goers. The serious kind who find meaning only in life-changing and parallel cinema can stay away.

--Sifar.

Un Dos?

There is a conflict within me. I am sitting here in Starbucks sipping the pike roast enjoying the ambience and of-course great coffee but my mind er... my cognitive centers are far away from all this. Deep inside me is the conflict of monism vs. duality. Although I must make it clear that this conflict is not really a discord of two similar ideas, so in that sense its a pseudo-conflict. Its really a cross-level conflict. One is a concept at the spiritual level, the other at physiological.

Recently I completed reading a book called Jnana Yoga, which clearly brings out the idea of monism - this idea of advaita, this notion of we all being different manifestations of The One. So inspired by the teachings, I am thinking if all that we are surrounded by is just a different interpretation of the real man, The One, then why does each person need someone else in their life to make them "complete." My conflict is this - when advaita is the real truth, then why in the the most basic instinct of each human is there a need to find someone of opposite sex, a dual, a need to find a soul-mate? Why this duality when monism is the real truth?

At a purely physiological level, the idea of marriage of two souls the idea of this need for someone else in your life is predominant. That has been the basis of this so called cycle of involution and evolution. We need to pro-create and continuously evolve and at the same time involve into this most miniscule manifestation of The One. As I sit here gaping out in the darkness of a winter night, there are people walking in and out through the door - mostly couples. And that's disturbing me not that they are couples ;), but the fact that our DNAs are so deeply tuned to find companionship, that we are so far spiritually removed that our physiological instincts always seem to take the better of us.

So we are called "individuals" - yeah I know that's exactly the pun of the word as we normally understand it - we are all called individuals - people who can't be divided, people who are just mere base visitations of The One. So then why do we seek someone else in our life.?Why is each person not instead tuned to embark on this spiritual journey I talk of? Maybe the truth is so powerful that the base reflections of The One would probably crack at the sheer brilliance of that truth? Maybe the reflections aren't powerful enough to handle the truth that they are made simply agnostic or not intelligent enough to understand the real truth? Maybe we aren't emotionally or physically strong beings - we seem to need someone else to lead our life. We have this urge to pro-create and be part of the general fabric of universe? This conflict is within me and I want the answers...

My purpose here is to try to connect the dots, yet any lines I draw seem just obfuscated to my myopic eyes. I am going to try to find answers in the following 4 Yogas, the tenets that Vivekananda says are core to realization of the truth.

1. Concentrate on anything you do - make the imprint on your soul, on your Atman strong - this is Raja Yoga.
2. Work with no attachments - no expectations of reward - this is Karma Yoga.
3. Love everyone as they are all part of The One, the way to reach and find the real god is through worship and love - this is Bhakti Yoga.
4. Think, not through your mind, but relate to everything through Him (the Soul, the Self, the One, the God within) - this is Jnana Yoga.
   

Practice all four in your life - that's the real path to salvation...

-- Sifar

p.s. I encourage readers to leave any comments and welcome them to discuss their thoughts pertinent to the post in the hope of being helpful in connecting the dots. And yes, I will write A-Sher-A-Day pretty soon; this state-of-mind merits more exposure right now!