Road trip to Kodai – Part II

Sunday 07:00 AM

It’s a cold sunday morning and we are forced to order room service (Coffee and Tea) to warm ourselves. As expected, the quality is not too good and we decide that this will be the only time we will order ‘Royal’ room service. A few of the idlis packed from Trivandrum are still left and we polish them off for a quick breakfast.

Sunday 09:00 AM

We have one full day at Kodai and want to make the most of it. Our first stop is Bryant park and we park close to the lake. Most of the shops by the lake are closed at this time and there are hardly any vehicles around. Kodai it appears wakes up late.

We purchase entry tickets to the park and find that we have the huge park almost entirely to ourselves.

We enjoy the company of flowers, beautiful plants and trees for over an hour. Nandu has a gala time enjoying the open spaces she normally does not have access to.

We leave the park by around 11:00 AM and have hot masala tea and biscuits from a roadside vendor. Nandu and grandparents decide to take some rest and head off to the car. Wife and self decide to check out Coaker’s walk, the starting point of which is a stone’s throw away from the lake. Coaker’s walk is a well planned walkway extending for around a kilometer along the sides of a mountain. The view from the Coaker’s walk was very good. The only irritant was a loudspeaker playing tamil songs quite some distance away in the valley. After the brisk walk, we take a break with steaming hot coffee.

Sunday 12:00 PM

Back at the base (in the car safely parked near the lake), grandparents and Nandu are busy painting in a picture book. Since it was too early for lunch, wifey and I spend some time walking by the side of the lake. By this time, the activity around the stalls and the number of tourists had increased

All of us were tired and hungry after a great morning of sight seeing by foot and we were eagerly looking forward to lunch. We manage to locate ‘Tawa’ near Anna Salai – and find it to be a very small dhaba with just 4-5 tables. The food there was as good as the internet posting I read had promised. The fluffy phulkas were hot and the dishes had the authentic punjabi touch.

Sunday 02:00 PM

All good things must come to an end and so was the case with the beautiful weather. Just as we exited the dhabha, Kodai started getting enveloped in a blanket of fog. It only got worse as the afternoon progressed.

Our first stop post lunch was ‘Valley view point’ formerly known as and still popular as ‘Suicide point’.

The only things we saw at Suicide point were a lonely monkey and mist ‘decorated’ with some plastic waste in the foreground! The ladies though had a good time buying token gifts for friends/relatives from the many shops there.

Next we rushed to Pillar rocks. Neither could we see any pillars nor any rocks ! The mist got there before us.

We were in two minds as to whether to proceed to the next spot or to return before the fog fully took over. Having come so far, we decided to move on. Next stop was ‘Guna caves’ – the place where the movie Guna was shot. Who can forget the great performance by Kamal Hassan ?

There was no mist problem here and we got as close to the caves as possible. In the picture below you can faintly make out the outline of the caves.

During the walk back to the road, monkeys lined up on both sides of the path looking expectedly at the humans (for food)

We drive on and reach the pine forest. As far as the eye can see, there are hundreds of pine trees and not a single soul in sight! We spend 20-25 minutes here walking about (with Nandu it is more like running around) and soaking in the atmosphere of the place. In hindsight, I would say that this was the best spot we visited in Kodai. Really wish we got here earlier and could spend more time here.

It is getting colder and we decide to drive on, we soon reach a spot where we find a young boy on a scooter selling tea. Adjacent to the road is a memorial of some sort – can’t recollect now what for. We spend some time here.

By now the fog started returning and both grandparents and grand daughter were shivering in the cold.

We decide to head back to town and enroute we find Meenakshi Bhavan – the famous Madurai eatery !

Surprisingly even at 5 PM they are still serving only thali meals and we decide to go to Astoria for coffee. Visibility is getting worse now.

We quickly have coffee (Nandu has an early dinner) and return to the hotel.

All in all, an exhausting but a very satisfying day.

Monday morning we plan to check out of the hotel and drive back to Trivandrum. But the fog delays our morning start and by the time we start from Kodai it is well past noon. We are forced to change our plans and stop over night at Madurai. Thanks to this, we manage to make a visit to Meenakshi temple at Madurai (now that is another story). The return journey to Trivandrum is uneventful - though we did make a couple of stops to rest enroute. Reached home sweet home on Tuesday evening after a short but fulfilling Kodai trip.

Road trip to Kodai – Part I

A couple of weeks back we made a short extended weekend trip to Kodiakanal. Have been meaning to write a short piece on the trip (before I forget the finer points) but other commitments last weekend (meeting with an old family friend and a company get together) meant that it had to wait till today.

The trip had been planned a couple of months back (a credit card company had enticed my father with an offer and we were locked in to not just the location and the hotel but even the dates). A couple of days before the trip, matters got interesting. I had booked a new vehicle and the sales chap had ruled out delivery of the vehicle any time ‘soon’. 36 hours before the trip, the sales guy called to inform that the vehicle had arrived. After some last minute formalities, we took delivery of the vehicle at 9 PM the night before the trip.

Saturday 5:30 AM

We wake up, have a quick shower and we (father and myself) are off to Pazhavangadi (Ganapathy temple) to see if we can get the ‘Chavi (Key)’ puja performed. We are slightly disappointed to hear that the puja can be performed only after 7:45 AM. We pray there and turn to Devasom board temple for help. ‘Chavi puja’ done, we return home. The rest of the family (Wife, mother and daughter Nandu) get ready soon and we are all set to roll.

Saturday 7:30 AM

With the odometer reading at 50 Kms (new car!) we start off from Trivandrum towards Nagercoil. NH47 is narrow and the traffic is heavy, yet we make relatively good progress before the rush hour.

We manage to make it to the outskirts of Nagercoil by around 9:30 AM and take the road connecting NH47 to NH7. The connecting road is well constructed and the countryside beautiful. Soon we are entering the land of the windmills. At first, we spot a couple of them and excitedly point them out to one other. Soon, as we are zipping by we see scores of them on both sides of the road neatly arranged like toy table fans on a giant’s play ground / board.

Saturday 10:00 AM

We finally merge with the famous NH7 and we find that the wide highway is in good condition. It is easy to lose sight of speed while cruising on this road. The view continues to be scenic. With very little traffic on the road, we hardly see a vehicle pass us from either side.

A super quick highway it may be …. but we are soon reminded of the right of way on Indian roads as the picture below will illustrate

Having made way for the traffic above, we continue on uninterrupted for some time. And then this -

What the !!@@##!@ ?? The super smooth, super quick highway had ended abruptly with no indication before hand!!

We turn around and manage to find a ‘cut’ road and rejoin back on the wide highway half a km ahead. The highway expansion work is in progress and that had caused this deviation. We encounter this a couple of more times and thankfully on the other occasions there were signboards.

Saturday 11:30 AM

Soon we pass Tirunelveli and from here on the road is even better. We stop for fuel (diesel) and food (idlis with podi and chutney packed from home) and press on. By the time we reach Madurai by-pass it is almost 1:30 PM. We continue on the by-pass. The deviation to Batlagundu/Kodaikanal) is almost 30 Kms away from Madurai and soon we see the boards for the exit. Just adjacent to the highway is a rail crossing and we wait for two trains to pass – also a good break for all of us (including the car). Nandu utilises the time judiciously by having a heavy snack and juice.

Saturday 2:00 PM

We start off on the road to Batlagundu. Again, the road is in excellent condition and the traffic in the afternoon is sparse.

Soon we are at Batlagundu, the last town in the plains. From here, the ghat road starts. Would you believe it, the road is still in very good condition though as expected narrow at many places. The climb is not too steep all the way through the next 50 Kms or so till Kodaikanal.

Enroute we stop by at the rat tail falls to enjoy the view and take a few snaps.

Saturday 5 PM

Finally we reach Kodaikanal and easily find our way to the hotel which is on the outskirts of the town. We are all slightly disappointed to see the condition of the rooms and the location of the hotel (though name Royal, we find nothing royal about it). Having made it thus far, we decide to make the most of it. Though tired after the long journey, the thought of having food from the hotel repels us and we decide to freshen up and head out to the lake to spend some time before dinner.

Saturday 7:00 PM

We find the evening air to be chilly and all the grand people (grandpa, grandma and grand daughter) are soon covered from head to toe.

After having spent over an hour walking by the lake and browsing through some of the shops selling shawls, we decide to go to the ‘town centre’ to have dinner. The down town is actually an intersection of 2 small roads with shops, restaurants and hotels on both sides. I argue that we should hunt for ‘Tawa’ a small north Indian joint recommended in a write up on the net. The rest are too hungry and tired to search and veto my idea - we find a good south Indian vegetarian place called the Astoria. The food is tasty and the price ok (considering this is a tourist place). The highlight of the meal (‘tiffin’) was the filter coffee we had at the end.

Back at the hotel, its baby sitting time for grand parents while wife and self try to go for a walk. We explore walking in both directions from the hotel and return after some time. All of us retire early and I go to sleep with great expectations for the morrow.

Pazhassi Raja

We had been thinking of going to watch Pazhassi Raja – the movie for quite some time now. The reviews had been mixed –feedback from those who had seen it indicated that the movie was good on the technical side – the photography, background score etc. but not everyone was happy with the pace of the movie.

We finally made it to the theatre to see the movie yesterday. Our daughter’s feedback on the movie was registered 30 minutes into the movie. A battle scene was on, Resul Pookutty’s background score was good but there seemed to a song in the background somewhere – it was out daughter who was supplementing Resul by singing a song and entertaining herself. 15 minutes after the interval she was in the horizontal position head on mother’s lap, feet on father’s unmindful of what Mamooty and co. were doing to save us from the British.

Overall I enjoyed the movie. Yes, the score is good – so is the attention to detail in the costumes and the photography. The kind of movie you want to see on the big screen and not on the idiot box 2 years later during Onam/Vishu/Christmas !

A couple of small points though – Padmapriya plays an important part in the movie. However her part ends abruptly and without much closure. My wife tells me that we should take it that because her character was in the heat of battle it is to be assumed that she gets killed. Rumors have it (heard from a friend) that she was in a battle all right – but with the director (regarding role/remuneration etc) and I guess we can assume that the director is the one who killed the character abruptly ! :-)

Mamooty has been overshadowed by Sharath Kumar. A couple of friends told me earlier that the movie should have been called Edachena Kunkan (the character played by Sharat Kumar) instead of Pazhassi Raja.

All said and done, I enjoyed the movie but the last 15 minutes was a let down – especially the ending! Here you have a prince for whom many had sacrificed (and gambled) everything, most of his lieutenants had fallen one by one in battle while the prince himself had not fought. All of a sudden he decides to go for the British all alone. In typical movie style he fells more than 15 soldiers with his sword before falling to a firearm.

Like I said earlier, inspite of all its failings, still worth a watch if at least for the photography and background music.

Out of the mouths…. cont’d …/2

Well its time for a Nandu-ism again ! We were getting ready to go to the temple this Saturday evening. Just as we were able to leave the following conversation took place:

She: Can we take some paper ?

Me: What ?

She: Can we take some paper ?

Me: What paper ?

She: News paper

Me: Why?

She: So that we can collect prasadam (avil) from the temple.

We normally frequent the same temple and there they place pieces of cut news paper so that devotees can collect avil prasadam.

During last week’s visit there was no newspaper available and we had collected prasadam with our hands. Nandu remembered this - she was trying to be helpful and be prepared for the all important part of the temple visit – viz. the prasadam !

Out of the mouths of babes ….cont’d...

Another small gem from Nandu – this one on her birthday - there was a sadhya (feast). The payasam was offered to God just before consumption by us mortals. Nandu was watching the scene with utmost concentration. Then she asked her grandma –

Q :What is grandpa doing?

A : He is doing puja

Q : What is he doing with the payasam ?

A : He is offering it to God

Q : How can God have the payasam ? He is in the photo, right?

A : Even though what you see is grandpa offering the payasam to the photo, in reality God will partake of the offering.

I was in office when this conversation took place. The first thing my daughter told me when I reached home was that grandpa offered payasam to the photo but in reality God was the one who ate it !!

Out of the mouths of babes …..

Just like any other child, my daughter Nandu likes to listen to stories before going to sleep at night. Usually either self or wife do the honours. Two days back my parents came to Trivandrum for Nandu’s birthday. Last night my mother was telling her the story of how the toddler Krishna killed Shakatasura. The 3 month old Krishna was lying on the floor, Yashoda asked the gopis to keep an eye on him. Krishna rolled over and kicked a cart playfully – the cart broke and Shakatasura who was hiding under it was killed.

After the story, Nandu (my daughter) was silent for a minute possibly contemplating the scene at Vrindavanam when this event might have occurred … and then she asked the million dollar question -

Why did Yashoda-ma place Krishna on the road ??!!!!!??

Site for Car enthusiasts

On a whim, I have been busy researching new cars the past couple of weekends. These days you are spoilt for choice. And searching on the net, you come across a lot of information - ownership reviews, test drives, comparisons etc…. Finally at the end of the day, you tend to get more confused than when you started the research!

However, I came across a fabulous site – www.team-bhp.com which is a mine of information on automobiles – not just on buying an automobile, but also on other aspects like maintenance, accessories, modifications etc.

Of course nothing beats going to an auto dealer and test driving the cars yourself … which is exactly what we (self, wife and daughter) have been up-to the past 2 weekends.