Sunday, June 05, 2005
Two short trips I took recently
I sent this out on March 4th 2005 to a group of friends in Portland , OR, USA.
I’m slowly venturing out and traveling a bit. I took two short weekend trips – both to hilly places, one in Karnataka state itself and another in adjoining Kerala state.
Thought I’d write to you briefly about my experience. So, read on if you are interested.
On weekend of Feb 11-13, I went to Palakad (Kerala state) to attend my childhood friend's son's “sacred thread” ceremony or “upanayanam” (this is a religious ceremony for young “brahmin” boys. It’s called “Poonal” in Tamil, See: http://trsiyengar.tripod.com/srivaishnavam/id14.html , http://www.shaadi.com/wedding/rituals/customs/040913-thread-ceremony.php).
We had not met for over 2 decades!! I got a surprise call from her and the invitation in the mail. Thought it was a perfect occasion – convenient too as it was happening on a weekend. Good for a re-union of sorts. Her son is the same age as my daughter Maya (11 years old). It was fabulous to get-together again; It seemed so much like the “good old days” of childhood. Somehow, we were both able to just pick-up from where we left off, despite so many years between our last face-to-face encounters and so many “happenings” in our lives – college, travels, jobs, family, husbands, in-laws, kids… It was a wonderful feeling, indeed – the get-together I mean! We had been in E-mail contact until some 4 years ago and before that used to write occasional letters we sent each other via regular S-mail, those days before convenient digital communication.
My friend lives in Simla. Her husband works for the CPRI – Central Potato Research Institute there. With a PhD in Agriculture, his focus is now deep into potatoes! Obviously there is a lot to discover yet, with potatoes, as there is with silicon chips, for a whole institute to be dedicated to potato research.
They have 2 months winter holidays for schools in Simla. It's snowing heavily up in the mountains there, while it’s really warm and even sultry down south in Palakkad. Maya could not come (it’s very serious matter to miss classes here, even for day – she would have had to take Monday off due to the time of our arrival back). Also initially, I was planning to go by train and she was reluctant to travel by train - says it's dirty. Not sure if and when she will get used to traveling here by train and bus. One of my cousin's accompanied me on the trip to Palakkad. And we took the bus down to Kerala.
My friend has built a beautiful house in their home town – it’s huge and spacious, two-storeyed, very air. Lots of space around the house and a huge well too. It’s overlooking a mountain range – the Western Ghats. The view of the mountains from their front door and balcony/veranda upstairs is gorgeous! I spoke of the view a lot, while my friend just took it as a matter of fact. Perhaps she’s used to the view of the Himalayan off-shoots in her back yard in Simla, her home of the past 5 years, and the green hills of Western Ghats is not something to rave about? I was very much reminded of beautiful Oregon, my home of the past over 1.5 decades. I thought of the Cascade Mountains on our journey along I5 South, esp. close by when we got near Eugene. I was reminded of the coastal ranges while visiting Cannon beach, Seaside, Rockaway, Newport and Astoria on the OR-WA coast and the massive Mt. Hood which remains is in my minds eye. The picture of the snow capped peak while driving on TV Hwy towards Beaverton from Aloha/Hillsboro and the distant view from Cornell Road and 26 East on my way back home from work, daily…the view of course visible only on those days we did not have the regular rains and clouds.
Palakkad is the other name for Palghat. This small town has probably the biggest mountain pass in the world (30-40 Kms) separating the two folds of the Western Ghats on the border of Kerala with Tamil Nadu. It lies at the foot of the gigantic Western Ghats. See: http://www.palghat.net/html/glance.htm and http://www.travelmasti.com/domestic/Kerala/palakkad.htm
We traveled to Palakkad by a Volva bus. It’s a luxury liner, costed Rs. 380 for the 300 or so km. ride – a night journey (a very good price, less that $10!! But expensive here). We left Bangalore at 8 pm and arrived at our destination, bright and early at 5 am! I got a window seat, my cousin sat next to me on the aisle seat. It was a starry night - very clear skies. A very beautiful night, indeed! I kept gazing out - the clear constellations up above. The long glass windows in the bus were really wide also. Looked like a moon roof infact - gave such a great view of the night sky, if you set aside the curtains, which were quite clean surprisingly. It was an AC coach so we could not open the windows to feel the cool breeze outside. Inside the bus, they screened an old Hindi movie – “Geeth Gatha Chal” with Sachin and Sarika, both budding artists at that time I think - decades ago. It was a musical and we enjoyed all the hit songs. Even I remembered most of the songs from ages ago and could hum the tunes. One would think they would play some new popular movies but this one was just fine for the quiet mood. So, our bus journey was very comfortable. India has come a long way in providing this type of travel comfort which we take so much for granted, there in the US.
We arrived at the Palakkad bus stop bright and early, as per schedule at 5 am. My friend was to come pick us up, but I called her from a phone booth at the bus stop, got directions (somewhat) and we decided to venture out ourselves. It’s a safe town. We took an auto (3-wheeler), stated our destination and landmark – a Ganesha temple. We promptly got lost! We were forced to stop at a railway crossing, seemed deserted so early in the morning before dawn. We saw two trains go by and the gate opened, automatically. After a little round-about, we found our way back after a couple more phone calls from phone booths (my cell phone is not enabled for out of state – roaming). We spoke in Tamil while the auto driver replied in Malayalam. We could understand each other perfectly it seemed.
In our short weekend trip, we even managed to visit the famous Guruvayur temple. Some call it the Dwaraka of the South. A very nice temple indeed!
See: http://www.guruvayurdevaswom.org/ & http://www.guruvayur.freeservers.com/ and this too http://www.templenet.com/Kerala/guruvayur.html
It was a 3 hour ride on the local bus from Palakkad to Guruvayur. Quite a rickety ride and tiresome journey too! There was so much noise that me and my cousin sitting next to each other had to yell at the top of our voice to hear each other. After a while we got exhausted by the jerks and noise. So, we became silent and watched out of the window! The driver rode really fast on narrow roads with many ups and downs. It sure felt like a roller-coaster ride to me! I was literally holding on to rails of the seat in front of me. No seat belts in the bus! It should be mandated I think. But who will follow? I took half day off on Monday to rest and recover from body pain J
A strange site remains in my mind on this bus ride. We saw an elephant on a lorry! They had tied him up and secured him – like a piece of cargo. I felt really sad for the huge pachyderm, fastened up so, being transported on these hilly narrow roads on the rickety truck. Not sure what was going thru the huge animal’s intelligent brain. Wonder where they were taking him to and why? Our bus took a de-tour to go to another bus stand en-route. We went ahead of the lorry with the elephant on it. Later on, we caught up with the same truck and I got to see this site again. This time, I did get a glimpse of the elephant’s sad face with his trunk in between his forelegs.
TV advertisements describe Kerala as “Gods own country”. The views are beautiful, coconut trees abound. I saw lots of jackfruit trees with huge fruits bulging from their main trucks, mango trees – green fruits just beginning to show up, pepper corns growing on beetle nut trees, hills at a distance, small bridges on narrow roads, over streams and brooks.
Kerala state apparently has the highest literacy rate in India. But, it’s not as cosmopolitan as Bangalore. Certainly no IT boom here or very much sign of the huge economic growth India is seeing right now. The bus station is so much smaller; Bangalore growth is phenomenal compared to here in Palakkad and Gurvayur. But infrastructure and roads especially are the same in both places!
………
I went to Sringeri on weekend of Jan 29th-30th, returning on Jan 31st Mon morning. One of my cousins and me traveled together. We went to drop off another cousin who has taken up a job at the hospital there. This cousin, a doctor (surgeon) retired from Govt. service and will be serving as a resident surgeon in that small hospital. It's a very small community. It more like a “service” she is doing. We stayed in the hospital itself - accommodation provided for the interns, nurses and doctors on call duty I think. We had all our meals at the hospital canteen - home cooked South Indian meals provided by a resident cook. She was neat and clean and the “mess” (café) was very well kept too. The home cooked meals were very good also – breakfast, lunch, snack and dinner, served piping hot and fresh, all u can eat too!
This trip to Sringeri, was the first time I was traveling by bus on a long journey after our return. We took the state run (KSRTC) bus “Rajahamsa”. It’s a luxury liner and cost us Rs. 225 for the 300 km journey. They played Kannada devotional songs, very loudly. It was blaring and I requested the driver to reduce the volume as I was starting to get a headache. He was surprised; I guess he could not believe one would get a headache listening to good old these devotional songs! They had nice sleepers and the 8 hour night journey was comfortable. Luxury and super delux buses are what we see. The old type buses seem to be no more. The region is hilly and the huge buses travel quite safely on windy roads with forests on both sides. Bangalore is at a distance of 336 km from Sringeri
The landscape is beautiful - full of hills, slopes, lots of vegetation - greenery all around. Beetle nut trees, with vines of beetle leaves and green pepper corn hanging down, like like grapes, figs trees and coconut trees, cashew and "badam" (almond). And lots of other fruit trees and flowers were all around.
Sringeri is full of temples. We visited most all of them (took 3 hours by auto and we paid Rs. 200 for the tour – about $5 only!!). We saw deer crossing and signs that said "Beware of snakes" in the "vanam" (forest) attached to the big temple. A horse rider crossed the narrow bridge from the temple to the forest area. It was a magnificent horse. There were very BIG fish in the river. visitors were feeding them "pori" (puffed rice). I did not venture to touch the water (neither did my cousins) - not with those huge fishes
There is an Ayurveda college also in Sringeri I was told.
It is a nice small town, Sringeri is, on the Sahyadri hills on the banks of the Tungabadra river. The main point of interest is the Vidyashanakar Temple, which dates back to the 14th century. The revered spiritual Aadi Sankaracharya established the Sarada Peetham here in the 1st millennium (9 th Century AD)
See couple of pictures in Monuments of India:
http://www.kamat.com/indica/monuments/59.htm
Also:
http://199.74.239.15/udayavani/showstory.asp?contentid=11637&lang=1
[Description of the temple I got from the web:
This temple combines the Hoysala and Dravida architectural features. It stands on a richly sculptured basement. There are six doorways leading to the temple. The temple built of golden-coloured stone, sits on a low platform in the middle of a large paved area. The mandapam is remarkable for its 12 zodiac pillars, known as Rasikambhas, which are placed so that the early morning sun falls on a different one during each solar month. Each pillar bears a design of a rearing animal, with a rider on its back. The exterior of the temple is richly ornamented with sculptures]
In Sringeri too, I was very much reminded of Oregon and the Willamette Valley. This ancient city also seems to be in a valley amidst the Sahayadri mountains. You can actually see the green mountains all around you and the roads are windy and hilly.
I’m slowly venturing out and traveling a bit. I took two short weekend trips – both to hilly places, one in Karnataka state itself and another in adjoining Kerala state.
Thought I’d write to you briefly about my experience. So, read on if you are interested.
On weekend of Feb 11-13, I went to Palakad (Kerala state) to attend my childhood friend's son's “sacred thread” ceremony or “upanayanam” (this is a religious ceremony for young “brahmin” boys. It’s called “Poonal” in Tamil, See: http://trsiyengar.tripod.com/srivaishnavam/id14.html , http://www.shaadi.com/wedding/rituals/customs/040913-thread-ceremony.php).
We had not met for over 2 decades!! I got a surprise call from her and the invitation in the mail. Thought it was a perfect occasion – convenient too as it was happening on a weekend. Good for a re-union of sorts. Her son is the same age as my daughter Maya (11 years old). It was fabulous to get-together again; It seemed so much like the “good old days” of childhood. Somehow, we were both able to just pick-up from where we left off, despite so many years between our last face-to-face encounters and so many “happenings” in our lives – college, travels, jobs, family, husbands, in-laws, kids… It was a wonderful feeling, indeed – the get-together I mean! We had been in E-mail contact until some 4 years ago and before that used to write occasional letters we sent each other via regular S-mail, those days before convenient digital communication.
My friend lives in Simla. Her husband works for the CPRI – Central Potato Research Institute there. With a PhD in Agriculture, his focus is now deep into potatoes! Obviously there is a lot to discover yet, with potatoes, as there is with silicon chips, for a whole institute to be dedicated to potato research.
They have 2 months winter holidays for schools in Simla. It's snowing heavily up in the mountains there, while it’s really warm and even sultry down south in Palakkad. Maya could not come (it’s very serious matter to miss classes here, even for day – she would have had to take Monday off due to the time of our arrival back). Also initially, I was planning to go by train and she was reluctant to travel by train - says it's dirty. Not sure if and when she will get used to traveling here by train and bus. One of my cousin's accompanied me on the trip to Palakkad. And we took the bus down to Kerala.
My friend has built a beautiful house in their home town – it’s huge and spacious, two-storeyed, very air. Lots of space around the house and a huge well too. It’s overlooking a mountain range – the Western Ghats. The view of the mountains from their front door and balcony/veranda upstairs is gorgeous! I spoke of the view a lot, while my friend just took it as a matter of fact. Perhaps she’s used to the view of the Himalayan off-shoots in her back yard in Simla, her home of the past 5 years, and the green hills of Western Ghats is not something to rave about? I was very much reminded of beautiful Oregon, my home of the past over 1.5 decades. I thought of the Cascade Mountains on our journey along I5 South, esp. close by when we got near Eugene. I was reminded of the coastal ranges while visiting Cannon beach, Seaside, Rockaway, Newport and Astoria on the OR-WA coast and the massive Mt. Hood which remains is in my minds eye. The picture of the snow capped peak while driving on TV Hwy towards Beaverton from Aloha/Hillsboro and the distant view from Cornell Road and 26 East on my way back home from work, daily…the view of course visible only on those days we did not have the regular rains and clouds.
Palakkad is the other name for Palghat. This small town has probably the biggest mountain pass in the world (30-40 Kms) separating the two folds of the Western Ghats on the border of Kerala with Tamil Nadu. It lies at the foot of the gigantic Western Ghats. See: http://www.palghat.net/html/glance.htm and http://www.travelmasti.com/domestic/Kerala/palakkad.htm
We traveled to Palakkad by a Volva bus. It’s a luxury liner, costed Rs. 380 for the 300 or so km. ride – a night journey (a very good price, less that $10!! But expensive here). We left Bangalore at 8 pm and arrived at our destination, bright and early at 5 am! I got a window seat, my cousin sat next to me on the aisle seat. It was a starry night - very clear skies. A very beautiful night, indeed! I kept gazing out - the clear constellations up above. The long glass windows in the bus were really wide also. Looked like a moon roof infact - gave such a great view of the night sky, if you set aside the curtains, which were quite clean surprisingly. It was an AC coach so we could not open the windows to feel the cool breeze outside. Inside the bus, they screened an old Hindi movie – “Geeth Gatha Chal” with Sachin and Sarika, both budding artists at that time I think - decades ago. It was a musical and we enjoyed all the hit songs. Even I remembered most of the songs from ages ago and could hum the tunes. One would think they would play some new popular movies but this one was just fine for the quiet mood. So, our bus journey was very comfortable. India has come a long way in providing this type of travel comfort which we take so much for granted, there in the US.
We arrived at the Palakkad bus stop bright and early, as per schedule at 5 am. My friend was to come pick us up, but I called her from a phone booth at the bus stop, got directions (somewhat) and we decided to venture out ourselves. It’s a safe town. We took an auto (3-wheeler), stated our destination and landmark – a Ganesha temple. We promptly got lost! We were forced to stop at a railway crossing, seemed deserted so early in the morning before dawn. We saw two trains go by and the gate opened, automatically. After a little round-about, we found our way back after a couple more phone calls from phone booths (my cell phone is not enabled for out of state – roaming). We spoke in Tamil while the auto driver replied in Malayalam. We could understand each other perfectly it seemed.
In our short weekend trip, we even managed to visit the famous Guruvayur temple. Some call it the Dwaraka of the South. A very nice temple indeed!
See: http://www.guruvayurdevaswom.org/ & http://www.guruvayur.freeservers.com/ and this too http://www.templenet.com/Kerala/guruvayur.html
It was a 3 hour ride on the local bus from Palakkad to Guruvayur. Quite a rickety ride and tiresome journey too! There was so much noise that me and my cousin sitting next to each other had to yell at the top of our voice to hear each other. After a while we got exhausted by the jerks and noise. So, we became silent and watched out of the window! The driver rode really fast on narrow roads with many ups and downs. It sure felt like a roller-coaster ride to me! I was literally holding on to rails of the seat in front of me. No seat belts in the bus! It should be mandated I think. But who will follow? I took half day off on Monday to rest and recover from body pain J
A strange site remains in my mind on this bus ride. We saw an elephant on a lorry! They had tied him up and secured him – like a piece of cargo. I felt really sad for the huge pachyderm, fastened up so, being transported on these hilly narrow roads on the rickety truck. Not sure what was going thru the huge animal’s intelligent brain. Wonder where they were taking him to and why? Our bus took a de-tour to go to another bus stand en-route. We went ahead of the lorry with the elephant on it. Later on, we caught up with the same truck and I got to see this site again. This time, I did get a glimpse of the elephant’s sad face with his trunk in between his forelegs.
TV advertisements describe Kerala as “Gods own country”. The views are beautiful, coconut trees abound. I saw lots of jackfruit trees with huge fruits bulging from their main trucks, mango trees – green fruits just beginning to show up, pepper corns growing on beetle nut trees, hills at a distance, small bridges on narrow roads, over streams and brooks.
Kerala state apparently has the highest literacy rate in India. But, it’s not as cosmopolitan as Bangalore. Certainly no IT boom here or very much sign of the huge economic growth India is seeing right now. The bus station is so much smaller; Bangalore growth is phenomenal compared to here in Palakkad and Gurvayur. But infrastructure and roads especially are the same in both places!
………
I went to Sringeri on weekend of Jan 29th-30th, returning on Jan 31st Mon morning. One of my cousins and me traveled together. We went to drop off another cousin who has taken up a job at the hospital there. This cousin, a doctor (surgeon) retired from Govt. service and will be serving as a resident surgeon in that small hospital. It's a very small community. It more like a “service” she is doing. We stayed in the hospital itself - accommodation provided for the interns, nurses and doctors on call duty I think. We had all our meals at the hospital canteen - home cooked South Indian meals provided by a resident cook. She was neat and clean and the “mess” (café) was very well kept too. The home cooked meals were very good also – breakfast, lunch, snack and dinner, served piping hot and fresh, all u can eat too!
This trip to Sringeri, was the first time I was traveling by bus on a long journey after our return. We took the state run (KSRTC) bus “Rajahamsa”. It’s a luxury liner and cost us Rs. 225 for the 300 km journey. They played Kannada devotional songs, very loudly. It was blaring and I requested the driver to reduce the volume as I was starting to get a headache. He was surprised; I guess he could not believe one would get a headache listening to good old these devotional songs! They had nice sleepers and the 8 hour night journey was comfortable. Luxury and super delux buses are what we see. The old type buses seem to be no more. The region is hilly and the huge buses travel quite safely on windy roads with forests on both sides. Bangalore is at a distance of 336 km from Sringeri
The landscape is beautiful - full of hills, slopes, lots of vegetation - greenery all around. Beetle nut trees, with vines of beetle leaves and green pepper corn hanging down, like like grapes, figs trees and coconut trees, cashew and "badam" (almond). And lots of other fruit trees and flowers were all around.
Sringeri is full of temples. We visited most all of them (took 3 hours by auto and we paid Rs. 200 for the tour – about $5 only!!). We saw deer crossing and signs that said "Beware of snakes" in the "vanam" (forest) attached to the big temple. A horse rider crossed the narrow bridge from the temple to the forest area. It was a magnificent horse. There were very BIG fish in the river. visitors were feeding them "pori" (puffed rice). I did not venture to touch the water (neither did my cousins) - not with those huge fishes
There is an Ayurveda college also in Sringeri I was told.
It is a nice small town, Sringeri is, on the Sahyadri hills on the banks of the Tungabadra river. The main point of interest is the Vidyashanakar Temple, which dates back to the 14th century. The revered spiritual Aadi Sankaracharya established the Sarada Peetham here in the 1st millennium (9 th Century AD)
See couple of pictures in Monuments of India:
http://www.kamat.com/indica/monuments/59.htm
Also:
http://199.74.239.15/udayavani/showstory.asp?contentid=11637&lang=1
[Description of the temple I got from the web:
This temple combines the Hoysala and Dravida architectural features. It stands on a richly sculptured basement. There are six doorways leading to the temple. The temple built of golden-coloured stone, sits on a low platform in the middle of a large paved area. The mandapam is remarkable for its 12 zodiac pillars, known as Rasikambhas, which are placed so that the early morning sun falls on a different one during each solar month. Each pillar bears a design of a rearing animal, with a rider on its back. The exterior of the temple is richly ornamented with sculptures]
In Sringeri too, I was very much reminded of Oregon and the Willamette Valley. This ancient city also seems to be in a valley amidst the Sahayadri mountains. You can actually see the green mountains all around you and the roads are windy and hilly.
