Where would you like to be this Monday ?

Watching the sunset at Tanah -Lot temple in Bali - I would like to be there right now, but a neck sprain has taken me away from the laptop and from travelling..However, the eternal optimist in me is keeping her fingers crossed when it comes to the latter

Where would you like to be this Monday morning ?

The destination this Monday is Athirampally Falls in Kerala ..wouldnt you prefer to pack your bags just now and leave ?

Skywatch - Churches on the highway

As you drive down the highway in Kerala, one sees many monuments  and I was particularly fascinated by the different churches..

You find the architecture a bit different from the usual churches that we see in different cities and they also represent various sects - from Latin Catholics, Roman Catholics, Syrian Christians, Jacobites, Protestants and more..

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Monday moments - Pups cuddled up in Hampi

Most of my friends complain of Monday morning blues..here is something to add to it..Every Monday, I am planning to post a moment or a destination which your alter ego would like to visit, while we sit at work here is today's moment

A blue sky from Hampi

Elephants Stable from Hampi - a perspective.

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Kumbalangi

As a travel writer , it is difficult to say everything that is on your mind , especially when you are writing a story or a column for a publication .While I rarely endorse a destination unless I really liked it, I tread the middle ground when I write . I focus largely about what interested me about a place and sometimes omit the not so good experiences, unless I believe otherwise..Sometimes, the omitted bits do not fit into the story, as it ends up being a ramble. And if the experience was not worth writing about, then I do not write about it at all.

Kumbalangi on the other hand was a mixed bag. If you read my earlier post, I mentioned the dilemma I was in while writing about Kumbalangi in my column. I did not get too excited with the concept of the " model tourism village ", at least the way it was implemented in Kumbalangi. As many mentioned , it was rather artificial . But I am all for sustainable rustic tourism and I would prefer experiencing a village and its way of life, rather than have activities arranged for me.

But I liked the place and the conversations I had with some of the locals - so I decided to go ahead and write about those aspects..Either ways, I had to stick to a word count of 500 words and so, I wrote what I thought was necessary..Nevertheless, I felt that I should actually pen down the entire experience here and leave it to you to take a call whether you would like to visit the place or not.

It started raining heavily just as I stepped into the car. My driver smiled when I told him that my destination was Kumbalangi, a small coastal village on the outskirts of Kochi.  � I studied there, � he said, and his grin became wider as he spoke about his childhood.  I asked him for more information and he gave me a brochure which called it � an integrated model tourism village which promised authentic rural experience .�   I just hoped that it would not be another tourist trap as we drove down crossing by St Josephs School and church  and drove into an entire green country 

Kumbalangi lived up to its promise of being part of God�s own country. Ringed in by Chinese fishing nets, the backwaters painted a pretty picture. A lone cormorant basked in the sun, while a woodpecker chipped away at the bark of a coconut tree. A few houses were scattered around while a couple of old unused  coir units were lost amidst the farms.

There was no one in sight..Small lanes intersected with canals as we just roamed around aimlessly. My driver asked me what I wanted to " do." I mentioned I had no real agenda and wanted to meet a few locals and talk to them. He looked a bit puzzled, but drove towards the village. We met a fisherman who asked me  if I was interested in fishing.  As I walked with him to the jetty, we talked about Chinese fishing nets and karimeen fishing.� Sometimes we cover branches of small trees that are immersed in water by nets . After weeks, we find  a variety of fish caught in them�  he added.

As  I wandered aimlessly around the village, speaking to locals , I noticed that almost every house had orchids growing in them. I learnt that Kumbalangi is known for pokkali farming. � It is an organic way of cultivation,� translated my driver , explaining that the farming is normally done in the water logged areas. The farmers alternate between rice and fish or prawns, based on the salinity of the water. I didnt understand much of this when they explained in bits and pieces in Malayalam, but a bit of googling helped later.

We went to a home stay and there we heard that everything is arranged only for tourists who stay with them..That explained the empty coir units as well.  I requested if I could visit their crab farm and the hostess said that I could just go over and see.  I followed my driver as he took me towards a couple of big ponds lying adjacent to each other.

We met Das there, who was happy to show us his collection of crabs and explain the process of � njandu krishi� or crab farming . �In these ponds alone, they are close to 2 lakh crabs, � he mentioned as he carefully caught  a crab only to throw it back in the pond .� It has only water as of now, not much of meat,�  he explained as another small crab crawled near his leg.He had a basket full of crabs and he even explained  little details about them.. Das added  that crabs are exported to Hong kong, US and to many other countries  and business was rather good. Das mentioned that he was Tamil Nadu and he was told not to speak to any tourist who is not staying here and he hoped we wouldnt mention it. Incidentally he did not ask for money.We left him to his crabs and moved on .

We spent a few more hours talking to many locals who were amused at the attention  given to them. Old Elizabeth was very happy when I took her picture and she mentioned that a couple of foreigners had done the same as well.  She cracked up as a couple of other women told her to pose and she mentioned about how pretty she looked in her youth. Her golden earrings, she mentioned were very characteristic of her community - The Latin Catholics and so was the dress she was wearing..When I thanked her, she said , " What only thanks..Nothing else ? I smiled and we got talking with another family . I asked them a bit about Kumbalangi and they said, there is nothing really here ..just walk around, relax - there is fishing and lots of foreigners come over.

But they all had just one lament.� You hardly find any village in Kerala now everything has changed, � they muttered as I took their leave.  It was indeed true as the entire skyscape changed in a matter of minutes. ,

A part of the story was published in my column , Inside Story on Metro Plus yesterday . So, there you have my take on the model village..sometimes I think they could have created a carnival of sorts and put a price on each activity and mentioned that it was for the villagers rather than create a concept like this. 

Kerala - Gods own country marketed by man

Until five minutes ago, I was writing my column - Inside Story for the Metro Plus on Kumbalangi - a small hamlet on the outskirts of Cochin. I had just written about 100 words when I was faced with a dilemma. Do I paint my views on Kumbalangi the way I see it or do I just write about it objectively as a destination to be experienced ? The dilemma is rather complex because the question arises what or where is Kumbalangi

At one level, Kumbalangi is a beautiful village on the outskirts of Cochin. But on a different level,  it is a product packaged by the Incredible India-UNDP project  to promote it as an Model Tourism Village for tourists..now what does that mean ? Nothing ,according to me - its just marketing jargon. But then in kerala, everything seems to be a product like this one and we are all consumers - so even simplicity and rustic beauty is packaged and sold to you as an experience..they tell you to walk in the fields and experience village life ,  like you didnt know it before... You are also told that you can go fishing or watch a small scale coir unit or see crabs being caught in local pools..but they dont tell you that you have to pay a price for all of them. I do not have a problem with that, but I do get a bit worried when locals say they have a gag on their mouths as they cannot just share information about crabs or birds to any tourist who just comes visiting.

It is not really a model village where you can see these happenning around you..they are " arranged" for you if you stay in one of those homestays, but you need to give them adequate notice and then you get to " experience" Kerala's rustic beauty...Even the locals who are very pleasant will ask you for money if you want to take a photograph of them or the orchids in their garden...Nothing wrong with this, because " model tourism village "means the locals earn from tourists and you need to pay them for giving you this experience..

I am all for rustic tourism and I would like to go all out and promote sustainable rustic tourism . Its great to go fishing, learn about local culture and understand the nuances of farming and I am even willing to pay a small price for it,but I have a problem if it becomes a tourist trap. Having said all that, Kumbalangi lives up to the promise of Gods own country, and unlike rest of urban kerala which is spoiled by man, this lives up to its marketing promise as well. So now, you have me in this dilemma..what do you want me to say ?

And my world today is spicy

From the display window of the spice village in Mattancheri , the Jew Town near Fort Kochi. If you are planning to buy spices here, believe me , its very expensive. My driver had a suggestion - he asked us to buy the spices from a whole sale market close by. We did buy a few samples there as gifts, but its no less cheap.

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Fengshui on the highway - it happens only in Kerala

India never ceases to amaze you especially if you are on a road trip. There are surprises in almost every curve of the road. During my recent trip to Kerala, I was prepared for churches, mosques, temples, synagogues ..but this completely took me by surprise. 

A Laughing Buddha  was standing tall on the highway, in the middle of nowhere with a beautiful garden surrounding the statue. When we slowed down a bit, I found a board that announced that this was a nursery and a fengshui consultancy rolled into one. Now this is something that probably happens only in India 

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Madras bound

I am off on work to Madras aka Chennai , the place I call home, although I live in Bangalore...Just realized that its been four years since I actually moved bag and baggage to Bangalore and yet, Madras has always been home. I don't have a return ticket as yet, so I have no clue when I am back..The next few days are bound to be a bit hectic - work , parents, friends..November looks otherwise empty as far as my travel plans are concerned..not an issue though - Ive loads of posts and articles to write and photographs to download and share..so I guess that will keep me busy for a while..Just getting set to pack a bit..Catch you all from Madras then ..

The garuda in this picture was on the parapet walls of one of the old houses in a suburb called Teynampet in Madras

Birding in Cochin

Ok..its the birding season and everyone has flown to exotic destinations to look for exotic birds. Well, I am an exception..not that I dont want to do birding, but my compass currently points towards home. However, during my recent trip to Cochin, I didnt do much birding, but we did spot a lot of water birds and a few woodland birds. The malabar whistling thrush was singing away, while I spotted the black headed oriole , pied wagtail, black drongos . I went looking for horn bills near Athirampally Falls, but I guess they flew away to avoid the crowds. Here are some pictures of some of the more common birds - a cormorant here, which the locals refer to as " neer kaka" or the " water crows", a pair of white breasted kingfishers, which had their breakfast while I had mine, a pond heron and a coucal which landed right in front of my room window.

Sunday snapshot - Children's day special

Met this kid when I went to Athirampally Falls last week and she was rushing past me with her mother. I followed her and asked her if I could take her picture and she readily agreed. Later, I learnt that she had a fancy dress competition at school and hence she was in this attire of a tribal freedom fighter..she was in a tearing hurry and hence I could not ask her name or more details..

When I was looking back at the pictures, realized it was Children's Day and it took me back in time..I remembered participating in a Fancy Dress Contest myself, where I was a local Tamil soothsayer,  who is referred to as "Jakkama". It is believed that the astrologer who looks into the future using shells is actually possessed by the Goddess . If you go to Mahabalipuram, you will find many of them around and of course, all of them are fake.If I remember right, one of the Jakammas used to come home during every festival, do some standard prediction and then leave with some money

Coming back to the contest, I didnt really win anything, but I remember the nervousness and the applause and the appreciation that came my way. I also remembered how painstakingly my folks had dressed me up and made me recite the lines spoken by these " Jakkamas" . I guess I was always a good drama queen .. By the way have you ever participated in a fancy dress contest as a kid ?

Skies of Gangtok - on the way to Nathulla Pass

The journey to Nathulla Pass near Gangtok is one of the best and there are ample opportunities to stop and take a picture . Many had asked details regarding the permits - these can be got from a travel agency or your hotel as well. You would need a couple of photographs and an ID proof  . 

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Kerala-Chellanam

I was in Chellanam , a village near Cochin last week talking to some locals who make vanji or the local country boats. I need to thank Gopinath from Blue Yonder who put me onto his colleague Prakash who told me about this place...I recorded about 5 mins of conversations, which are largely in Malayalam. Although I can follow a bit of the  language, its very difficult to translate every word of the dialogue..I am writing my column on Chellanam and this small scale industry for The Metro Plus , The Hindu and will share the same with you once its published

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A lone boat in the clogged backwaters of Kerala

Just got back from a quick trip to Kerala...Updates soon..

At Nathulla Pass - A crash course in Chinese

One of the many boards at Nathulla Pass - The Indo China Border atop 14000 feet , near Gangtok. Sikkim. If you plan to visit here, please ensure you have a permit. The weather generally dips to single digits and somtimes in the minus and oxygen supply is rather low here. It is better to start your journey well ahead as roads from Gangtok close by 1 pm towards Nathulla. This is my second visit here and personally if you ask me, it is just another tourist attraction , but the journey is something worth savouring. You can meet the Indian army here and if you would like to interact with the Chinese , then these phrases may come in handy.

Happy Deepavali and Im off to Kochi

Its customary that we take a holiday in the first week of November and I was itching to go this year as well. Just that it coincided with the Deepavali holidays - As  a rule, I avoid travelling to any tourist places during festivals and holidays as I cannot stand crowds and them of course, one needs to deal with the gentle pressure of spending festivals at home - this time however we decided to please everybody and head for a short trip to Kerala. My tickets are still not confirmed , even on tatkal, but if all goes well, I should be on the train to Cochin..

Somebody asked me why Cochin and I realized since my 2nd standard, I havent really explored the city, even though Ive gone there many times on work.Its also well connected to many other destinations like Trichur or Munnar or Kumarakom or to the temples or to lesser known places. Although personally I prefer Trivandrum to Kochi (Its very loud and noisy now) , I hope to just chill and spend some time in Fort Kochi, go to the touristy and non touristy places and relax a bit. If I can, I will try and squeeze a couple of destinations or temples around Kochi..The idea is not to travel with a list of must see places , but to go with a  basic idea and see whatever I can see..Ive realized that i enjoy this type of travel these days , which helps me to meet people, reflect, relax and still explore..

So Happy and Safe  Deepavali folks and I wish Kerala shows some mercy to my ear drums and treats me to a noiseless Deepavali....

India through my eyes

You find them anywhere- atop old temples, inside fields, sometimes even at homes - King, God, Demon , Soldier - he seems like a mascot, protecting every temple in the south.

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Sikkim - monasteries around Gangtok

There is something magical about a monastery that cannot be explained. Spinning the prayer wheels, we entered the Lingdum or Ranka Monastery near Gangtok .While the lamas were in the midst of their evening chants, some of the younger boys were practicing their ritualistic dances in the courtyard. As they swirled around, their movements synchronized with the sonorous music that came from the monastery .A boy lama was gently caned by his senior as he did not get his steps right.

Watching them perform, I remembered some of my earlier trips to Sikkim when I had visited a couple of monasteries. Steeped in myriad myths, they had a mystical aura about them .Our first stop had been to Emchey monastery, built atop a ridge near Gangtok, . We were admiring the views of the city, when we heard this story from our guide. 

The 19^th century Gompa was the home of a flying saint who had initially built his hermitage here. A tantric called Lama Drutob Karpo with powers of levitation had flown in here from South Sikkim and had blessed this site.  Even today, people from Gangtok believe that the Gompa called the Solitary Temple contains and preserves the spirits of protective deities which take care of them .

A little further from Gangtok is the older Rumtek Monastery which is one of the largest in Sikkim . We were awed, not just by the sheer size of the monastery, but by the heavy security patrolling the site. The silence however was all pervading as we walked around the Dharma Chakra Complex, the Institute of Buddhist studies and the Golden Stupa.

Our guide explained that the monastery was the seat of the Karmapas, who belonged to one of the schools of Buddhism called Karma kagyu . Rebuilt by the 16^th Karmapa in the 1960s ,who took refuge here after his exile from Tibet, it was originally founded in the 16^th century, Even today precious relics along with the remains of the Karmapa are preserved here in the Golden Stupa.

The Karmapas are also called the Black Hat Lamas, on account of the Black Crown that symbolizes their power. According to legends, the first Karmapa was visited by several dakinis or the Buddhist versions of  fairies  and each of them gave him a strand of their hair as a gift. These strands were later woven together into a black hat and is handed down by one Karmapa to another. My guide explained that the Black Hat is kept at Rumtek Monastery and it has to be either worn by the Karmapa or tucked safely in a box for they believe that otherwise, it would fly away.

But the monastery was soon mired in controversy and sectarian violence over the selection of the 17^th karmapa which led to heavy security. As the guide finished the narration, I looked around at the peaceful monastery set amidst the mountains and found it ironic that it had to be protected by men with guns

This story was published in my column, Inside Story last week

Deepavali Bonanza

Ive been in for a lot of surprises this year and another one greeted me today. I had been out the entire day and was rather tired when I finally got back home about a couple of hours ago. A parcel had landed in the afternoon for me and the cover mentioned it was from Singapore Tourism. When I opened it, I found a box of chocolates with a Deepavali greeting card waiting for me. A few months ago, STB had invited me to cover their Youth Olympic Games and now, they were kind enough to remember me and send me this gift. Thanks STB...Im happy to share this gift virtually with all my readers .

A quick update on some other interesting meets and activities happenning around me . I met blogger Deepak aka magic eye a few weeks ago in Bangalore and lo, he posts on a Bangalore darshan. Sikkim trip organised by Club Mahindra for the bloggers ( I help them with the editorial for CLAY - their blog ) also led me to meet some very interesting bloggers and friends .

 I was briefly away in Madras and got back yesterday and received a Nokia N8 mobile for review. The interesting bit was that I got to participate in Bangalore Urban Spree" where we photographed the vibrant spirit of Bangalore on our mobile  and shared it on twitter and other social media tools. I still have the N8 for review and I met some cool tech bloggers as well yesterday while we all binged on pizzas, courtesy Bloggers Mind, who organised the events. 

Now, coming to the not so exciting news - my travel calender for November , December looks bleak..so does 2011 as of now..I do wish there are more Deepavali Bonazas around..anybody out there who would like me to travel to some exotic place in return for some blog posts and tweets and updates on FB ? I hope someone out there is listening..:)

Sikkim - a walk in the clouds

You can write an ode to the mist in Sikkim or lose yourself in the fog. But the clouds tell a story of their own. You see them floating from one mountain to another, carrying your thoughts along with them. Sometimes, they just rise from nowhere - just when you think the sun has set and the dusk is here, casting a dark shadow on the sky, a lone cloud shines like a knight, with a flash of brilliance .

Memories of Sikkim

I woke up with a groggy start today after a rather dramatic day yesterday and my thoughts went back to Sikkim. I was there for just a few days, staying at the Club Mahindra's Royal Demazong property near Gangtok and my only crib was I just didnt have enough of it. Being on the road took most of the time and I would have , given an option just preferred to stare at the mountains from the balcony all day. At 5.30 am, when the mountains were still drenched in rain, the whistling thrush used to greet me with a song . I woke up with a sore throat and a heavy sinus, but couldnt resist standing in the balcony, losing myself in the mountains

River Teesta - Sikkim

These were a couple of pictures that I took of the River Teesta in Sikkim during my last trip..Cant wait to go there again. Its been more than four years and I didnt even have a analog SLR then - just a simple aim and shoot. This is a very short trip and its organised by Club Mahindra as part of their bloggers trip every year. Im looking forward to meeting the bloggers and visiting Gangtok again .

Inside Story - Onake Kindi - rock art from a prehistoric site

We passed through lush fields as we drove down from Anegundi.    There were neither huts nor shops in sight. All that we could see were columns of boulders randomly stacked on top of each other.  Our auto stopped in front of some paddy fields as my guide Virupaksha announced our destination. � Onake Kindi - This is a prehistoric site madam .�

The sun�s rays beat down rather mercilessly as we crossed the fields and climbed our way through a steep narrow pathway in a rocky terrain. The path led us to a wide plateau of tall grass , where we found ourselves ringed in by hillocks. There was no one in sight. �Keep a watch for snakes,� came a word of caution,  as we wondered where we had landed.

The idea of heading to Onake Kindi  came up when I asked Virupaksha about  megalithic dolmens in a site  called Mourya Mane . I learnt that it was much further and high up in the hills and Virupaksha convinced me that he would instead take me to a prehistoric site closer to Anegundi, which had some rock paintings.

As we walked through the grass and looked around the boulders, we found a rock with some red and white markings, which had some stick figures of humans and some animals like the bull. In another boulder was a circular diagram which looked like drawings of sun and moon, but we could not figure out the symbolism behind it.

On my return to Bangalore, I started researching on the prehistoric sites near Anegundi and learnt from Professor  Ravi Korisettar , an authority on the subject that the rock painting  belonged to the Iron Age,  somewhere around the period of about 1500 BC .

(PIC : Aarti K)

 �The faded circular painting is a very rare depiction of a megalithic style of burial. If you look closely, you can see a human body in the middle and a lot of burial goods, surrounded by a  stone circle� said Professor Korisettar , from  the  Department of  History and Archaeology from   Karnatak University in Dharwad.

The sun and moon like symbols , the ladder and the water depicted on the rock probably referred to their various beliefs .� We can only interpret these images; the sun and moon for instance can be seen in some hero stones as well which probably suggests immortality,�  added Prof Srikumar Menon, a Faculty of Architecture from the Manipal Institute of Technology.

You will find the bull in almost all paintings . It is a reference to the bull cult, which was a male fertility symbol, � explained Professor Korisettar , talking about the symbolism in rock art.

I had not understood the significance  of the paintings when I had seen those crude red sketches on the rocks. However as I delved deeper into it, I realized that we were probably looking at some of the most ancient forms of beliefs that are rather deep rooted within us  today.

This story was published in the Metro Plus today in my column, Inside Story . I thank Professors Ravi KoriSettar and Srikumar Menon for sharing a lot of insights with me and Santosh Martin for putting me on to them. Its amazing to see how every corner of our country is so rich and it makes travel a wonderful experience for a simple vagabond like me .