Pedaling for a cause

Meet Jayakumar T Malampuzha. If you are passionate about something you can take a leaf out of Jayakumar's book. He has two loves that I know of (which I discovered in a few lines of conversation), cycling & photography.

On our way to Pambadum Shola on the 28th of August 2012, we overtook a gentleman on a bicycle pedaling uphill, a few kilometers short of Top Station. We thought nothing of it because we were trying to reach the shola for a possible trek. I remember making a passing mention to Skanda about the bicycle he was on because my son's next birthday gift was to be a bicycle with an attitude, literally. Bad Attitude is a Firefox model that my son took a fancy for and we were to order it after our return from Munnar.

The next day, the last our last of our holiday, we were driving out of Munnar toward Chinnar. At a corner amongst the tea gardens was this gentleman on the bicycle again! He had stopped to take some pictures and I thought it would be an opportunity to make acquaintance.
















As he was rolling downhill, I waved and pointed my camera towards him. A photographer, who won't stop for a camera is as rare as a Nilgiri Marten! Sure enough, he stopped.








Jayakumar is employed by the Central railways in Mumbai and he was on a Mission. I was pleasantly surprised when I discovered that he was from my district, and a place I visit often, Malampuzha. He had taken off for Onam with a single minded purpose; promoting self-propelled transport. The mountain bike he was sitting on is almost half the price of a decent motorcycle! He had put it on a train, landed in Cochin and pedaled all the way upto Munnar and surrounding areas to spread the message about bicycling. In a city like Mumbai it makes perfect sense to ride to work on a bicycle. You can simply wade through traffic jams and probably reach your work place faster than someone in a swanky car!

Bicycling also does many other things. It improves your health & of others around you because you don't pollute the environment. You save precious money for yourself and the the country because you don't burn dwindling fossil fuel. Parking is never a problem and the police never give you a parking ticket or haul your wheels away! Besides, all you need is an  post or railing to secure your transport! Imagine how our cities would be if everyone rode to work on a bicycle. We could play football on the roads! 

Anyway Jayakumar had finished half his journey. He was going downhill to Udumalapet where he would halt for the night. The next day he would push on uphill to Valparai, then dowhill through Sholayar, Athirapalli and onto Cochin for the train back to Mumbai.

As he disappeared downhill I wondered how he would cross Anaimalai Tiger Reserve. I wasn't sure if the TN Forest Department staff manning the check post at border at Chinnar would be very cooperative.

We met him again at Lakkom waterfalls. I wished him luck on his mission again and told him to move quickly. He had to cross Anaimalai Tiger Reserve before dark or he'd be risking an encounter with the elephants there.

I guess, my worry was misplaced. I saw his pic on his Facebook Page. The one posted after he reached Ernakulam (Cochin)

A Grand weekend in Ernakulam - Part 2

6th August, 2012

Grand Hotel is not for the discerning if creature comforts are on top of your list. You'll be better off staying elsewhere and visiting the restaurant in time for the famous "Fish Curry Meals" & "Karimeen" fry, (of which follows later in this post).

The chill woke me before my alarm went off. The air conditioner had a remote with temperature control but pressing the buttons did not make any difference. I like rooms to have a fan, besides the air conditioner. I prefer to cool the room and then let the fan take over from the A/c, but I did not have a choice here because the ceiling was bereft of the three bladed appliance.

Grand has a neat bathroom and they have a card placed strategically to remind you to save water. One instruction was to collect water in the sink while ........ but there was no rubber bung (the one that is usually suspended with a chain) to close the hole!

The other instruction is to use a mug of water while shaving but I failed to see any mug in my immediate vicinity. Perhaps my vision was failing or the housekeeping is not reaching the bathroom!

We went down for breakfast but I guess complimentary breakfasts are always a weakness in many hotels. Grand was no exception. They have a rather  limited menu and it suffices to say that it wasn't "grand". If you want a good south Indian breakfast the Woodlands next door, or Dwaraka a little further up near the Medical Trust Hospital junction and the Bharat Hotel (BTH) on Durbar hall road are better options.

My talk was at 9 AM so I did not have the time to go to get our crisp dosas for breakfast and we drove off to the venue. My son was playing on my laptop while my session was on but as time wore on and my laptop battery started running low he started getting fidgety. We excused ourselves and went in search of the Renault showroom. It was open but there weren't anyone to give us a test drive. It was a Sunday after all. We satisfied ourselves inspecting the SUV inside out and returned to the Grand.

12 noon is a little early for lunch so we went up to the room thinking of getting into something less formal. Unfortunately for us housekeeping was in the middle of their chores. The aroma of frying fish was wafting around the lounge outside the restaurant so we decided an early lunch was in order. After all the breakfast was a disappointment.

The restaurant  is the centerpiece of the Grand Hotel. It is famous for its "Fish Curry Meals" & "Karimeen fry". I remember when my sister was a student of the St.Teresa's college my father used to travel to Ernakulam very frequently. It was breakfast in BTH (because we always stayed there as it was next to the harbour and we could watch the ships from our room!), lunch in the Grand and dinner at the Oberoi restaurant at the Madhava Pharmacy end of the M.G road.

They had cubicles in those days so we could stuff ourselves without attracting attention! It was always the fish curry meals for my parents with 'karimeen' (Pearl spot) and fried prawns. My sister being a staunch 'chickiterian' would never take even a nibble from the seafood. Now, I should not forget to mention here that my father never ate seafood outside of the Grand Hotel. He loved the fish and prawns served in the Grand because they never carried the typical 'fishy' odour of seafood!

 

The cubicles are long gone but the restaurant itself hasn't changed much. The furniture is old fashioned and comfortable; unchanged after all these long years. After all,  no one eats in a hurry in the Grand. You don't want to spend a fortune at the doctor's to dig up a little fish bone from the back of your throat after a lovely meal! There are also some interesting water colour paintings about the pearl spot.

My son ordered his regular menu of kulchas & paneer. (I wonder when he'll get bored of it because I have to finish it for him and frankly paneer is not in my list of the best foodstuff to consume!). I ordered my father's menu.



The restaurant was empty except for a young man next to us behind a pillar and a couple sitting a little further away. He was determined to stuff himself with all the seafood that he could consume. He had ordered a 'karimeen fry' and had followed it up with some crab. My tummy was starting to protest but a waiter appeared and dropped off a basket of freshly fried 'papadums'.

It helps you pass time till your fish and prawns get fried, and it settles unobtrusively into a corner of your tummy so you won't feel full and not enjoy the rest of what follows. Half an hour later as the waiter started laying the plates I realized the 'a table for two' was a little small for both of us and a full fish curry meal!

There was the fish curry, the prawns fry, the karimeen fry, the thorans, sambar, puliserry, rasam, buttermilk and a collection of 'chammandis', pickle and 'injipuli'. There was no place for the plate with the last three items mentioned! Of course you don't see any more pictures of the spread because we were tucking into it without further delay.

Half past twelve the crowd was building up. Mostly families of three or four generations, from granddads to little babies. By 1 PM all the tables were taken.

Most of the clientele were traditional Malayalee families. The older men were mostly in their hallmark 'mundus'. Karimeens appeared in a variety of forms and sizes and each table fell into silence as jaws got working on the lovely fare laid out. 

If you are tempted to try out this colourful meal keep these points in memory.

1. Karimeen fry is available throughout the day as fresh stocks come in batches.
2. The karimeen is priced according to size. (The one I got was Rs.380/-)
3. Fish curry meals are premium stuff so they have make it in limited numbers
4. They plan for 100 plates for walk in clients and another 50 for hotel guests and telephone orders. A total of 300 plates between lunch and dinner!
5. The fish curry meal will not be served in the rooms (obviously) 

The disappointment of the morning faded and we packed our bags to check out to take a boat trip in the lagoon.

Watch this space......

A Grand weekend in Ernakulam - Part 1

As a health professional attending conferences as a delegate or a speaker is a welcome diversion. A chance to catch up with friends from college days or colleagues from the profession. Most of the conferences are confined to big cities because the are better connected or have great venues with excellent facilities. That is reason I avoid many of them even if they are interesting. I hate cities. I love open spaces and cities cramp me. Traffic snarls annoy me sufficiently to make me want to scream.

Unfortunately, if I get invited to speak at one of these conferences I have little choice to pack my bags with some formal stuff. My jungle greens and earth browns have to stay on the shelves!

4th August, 2012. Destination Ernakulam.
I started off at a quarter past three in the afternoon with the express agenda of dropping in at the Renault showroom and wangle a test ride in the Duster. I had got on the Palakkad - Shornur road to avoid the NH 47, but I was rudely reminded that the "best laid plans of men and mice...." are always at best plans. It seemed the whole world had decided to use that road that evening and by the time I got onto the NH 47 after Thrissur it was 5.30 PM. Two hours for a little under 80 kilometers!

I thought four lane roads were designed to save time but I guess Kerala needs eight lanes. The two kilometers through Angamaly took me 15 minutes. I was restraining myself from spewing expletives at the inconsiderate drivers because my son was sitting next to me. So, when I finally rolled onto the Edapally-Vytilla bypass it was almost 7.30 PM. The Renault showroom would have been closed anyway and besides, in the wonderful mood I was in, taking a test drive in a SUV in maddening traffic would have been a recipe for disaster. We decided that Duster could wait.

I got to the reception of the Grand Hotel at 7.45 PM and the mood was beginning to lift. I've seen Ernakulam change over the last three decades but here was a place seemed to be caught in a time warp though it was located in the heart of M.G road!  Not yet hungry, we left our bags in the room an drove out. Marine drive at 8.15 PM looked deserted which was a surprise for me. In Kerala's most happening city, nothing was happening on a Saturday evening. Rainbow bridge lacked colour.

Perhaps the threat of rain was a deterrent, or maybe the raids on the eateries after food poisoning instances in the Shawarma stalls.




The tide had gone out and the boats were half floating on the muddy bottom of the lagoon. The lights on the distant wharves looked inviting but there was no boatman in sight to take us on ride. Enrica Lexie would have had a hand in the matter.

We came back to the comforting warmth of the hotel as a light drizzle started making an outdoor jaunt a little risky. I had a talk to deliver next day and I didn't want to end up with a non-performing throat!

The restaurant was packed, as always. Grand Hotel is a little older than me and it is not a place that attracts it's guests through advertisements. It's fame is more from word of mouth and most people come back to its restaurant for the seafood.

If you want to enjoy a meal here be prepared to wait. The food comes slowly. No one pushes you or hurries you. Eat slowly, soak in the atmosphere and inhale the aroma of beautifully prepared sea food. If you are looking for traditional Kerala cuisine you can be assured that your tummy will gurgle in delight.

We found ourselves a table and for the next hour we were lost in the delicate tickling of our taste buds by Grand's chefs. My son and I love our food and that helps us sleep well. We retired to our room walking though narrow corridors lined with coir matting, not exotic carpeting!

There are about 15 rooms to a floor. The road facing rooms are a little larger and spacious and the corner rooms (the suites) have balcony that over looks the gate and the M.G road. Once you are inside your room you feel you are transported back in time because the TV is still the one with the CRT type picture tube, the furniture and fixtures are old and the floors are wooden and un-carpeted.

We settled for the night comfortably. The next day's tale is for the morrow!

Christ in Dwaraka on Arjuna's Chariot

We were on our way back from Nagarahole through Wayanad. I returned through a different route that bypassed Kalpetta and reached Vythiri directly from Mananthavady. (After Mananthavady this route passes through  Dwaraka, Tharuvana, Padinjarethara, Pozhuthana and hits the Kozhikode- Mysore highway at Vythiri). It is a five kilometers shorter but takes a little longer to drive as it is more winding than the highway. If you want to go in the direction of Banasurasagar Dam this is the route to take.

After Vythiri the Downhill starts; some 10 kilometers of excellent ghat roads. Once you reach Adivaram, the first village below the ghats the rest of the drive is through roads winding through small towns with intervening stretches of mostly rubber estates.

Dwaraka, off the coast of Gujarat is Lord Krishna's mythical capital. It was apparently swallowed by the ocean six times and the present city is the seventh, probably waiting for it's turn to be swallowed by the ocean. The Dwaraka in Wayanad fears no such calamity as it is perched high above kissing the clouds. 

It would have been just another town and I'd have driven through it without a sideward glance if it had not been for this.

I actually drove past it before my brain whirred and clicked. I wasn't sure what I'd just seen so I turned around and came back to this unusual but beautiful sight. A neat church with an eye catching piece of sculpture at the gate. Jesus Christ on Arjuna's chariot.

Lord Krishna was Arjuna's charioteer in the battle at Kurukshetra. Before the battle begins Arjuna asks Krishna to take the chariot between the two opposing forces. The realization that he was to face his cousins, elders, teachers and friends makes Arjuna despondent and he lays down his arms and turns to Krishna for advice.

The conversation between them forms the escence of the Bhagavad Gita. The Pandavas won the war and eventually the Dvapara yuga reached its end with the passing of Krishna from his earthly avatar.

Now, the Kali yuga is a period where humans degenerate spritually and the earth will be strife ridden. Of the many attributes of the Kali yuga that the Mahabharata describes, the most ominous is about human relationships.

Avarice and wrath will be common. Humans will openly display animosity towards each other. Ignorance of dharma will occur.

People will have thoughts of murder with no justification and will see nothing wrong in that.

Lust will be viewed as socially acceptable and sexual intercourse will be seen as the central requirement of life.

Sin will increase exponentially, whilst virtue will fade and cease to flourish.

People will take vows and break them soon after.

People will become addicted to intoxicating drinks and drugs.

Gurus will no longer be respected and their students will attempt to injure them. Their teachings will be insulted, and followers of Kama will wrest control of the mind from all human beings.

I'm sure my reader, every sentence above is a familiar happening in this era.

Perhaps, Jesus has a reason to be on the chariot. He needs to reach out not to a few million but billions of wayward humans.

It is a sobering thought, that the Mahabharata described so precisely what we are faced with today. It will take the combined might of Allah, Jesus and Krishna to turn this world around.

Conversation with a Clay elephant

April 15th, 2012

The first time I visited Punathoor kota I met the Clay Elephant. No. He is not a pachyderm made out of clay but one who looked like he was made out of it. There is an area in the sanctuary that appears to have been a coconut groove not so long ago but now only a sad reminder of the past. The trees were nothing other than long 'stumps' with no fronds on the top.

In this rather pathetic setting were a few elephants standing forlornly waiting for respite from the sun. One of them stood out from the rest because of his unusual appearance. All brown and covered with dried vegetation.

The CLAY ELEPHANT.

He didn't seem to be in 'musth'. I could not see that tell tale trickle from the temporal glands that usually is visible above and behind the eyes. Perhaps he was at the end of a cycle.

However, his behaviour wasn't exactly encouraging enough for me too creep up close enough. He kept reaching out and picking up all the litter around him and covering himself with it. Maybe the heat was getting to him and being tied up under a tree that offered no shade was obviously making him think out of the box. I was afraid that if I went too close, he'd take a swipe at me, just for the heck of it!





The afternoon sun was beating down mercilessly and I didn't want to risk a heat stroke. Not one to take undue risks, I let him continue with his preoccupation and went on my way. Of course, the clay elephant had to have the last word. He gave me a look that could only have meant, "Beat it, human. You annoy me".

That image of an elephant stayed imprinted on my brain for a long time. Mostly because other elephants in musth were not looking so menacing like this brown brute. So when I revisited Punathoor kota I made it a point to visit my old friend, the Clay Elephant, again.

May 6th, 2012

My second visit, unlike my first was remarkable. There were more elephants this time. Most of the tuskers that had gone off for the temple festivals had returned and Punathoor kota was buzzing with activity.

The paths between the trees and concrete pillars to which the elephants were tethered were almost buried under mounds of palm leaves, the favourite fodder of these pachyderms. Truck loads were coming in and the mahouts were busy gathering the quota allocated for their charges. I was curious to see how my friend, the Clay elephant was doing.

It was nearly a month since I had seen him and I wasn't expecting him to be there in his place now. I was wrong. He was very much there, and very much the same brown colour as before. I was tempted to think that his mahout had give up on bathing him. Why else would he be covered in the same brown mud & dust almost three weeks later? He busy eating his breakfast when I dropped in to say hello.

Only this time, he was far more calmer. He looked more healthier then before and less obsessed at taking a swipe at the people walking past, than the last time I saw him. Or was he? I had gone a little closer this time because he didn't look so agitated. He was ripping strips of the palm leaf and crunching on it like we crunch into a juicy sugarcane.

Then my Clay elephant, noticed me and dropped the strip he was holding. Did he recognize me? I wondered. I know elephants have good memories so he probably recalled our last encounter. My thought was reinforced when he suddenly picked up a new palm leaf with a rather intimidating stalk. I thought he wanted to take a swipe at me but he looked at me calmly and asked, "Breakfast?"

I wasn't sure how to answer but I finally blurted out, "Er. No...no. I've eaten already". He looked disappointed so I quickly added, "And, Oh! My teeth aren't designed to chew such heavy duty stuff."
He rumbled, "That is not a problem. I'll show you", and proceeded to teach me how to eat pachyderm style. "First", he said, "hold it like this", and placed the thick stalk under his fore foot. "Then grab an edge like this", he continued as he twisted his trunk around a corner of the stalk.

"Now, hold tight and pull up"

 "If you have any difficulty you can use your other foot like a pivot. Like this"

 "Then you can pull it up, as you push sideways with your foot. See. It's so easy"

I was impressed. I've heard of ambidextrous people so what would you call this elephant?! I wasn't sure but he wasn't finished. "Once you have a long bit, twist it around your trunk and rip it off"

Rrrrrriipppppp!!!!!

For one fleeting moment my brain went into overdrive.I couldn't help imagining myself in the place of that palm leaf. Oooooh! How excruciating? Statistics have shown that the number of mahouts killed by elephants have nearly trebled since 1997. The pachyderms are not to blame, the owners are. The greed for more earnings from the beast puts more stress on them.





My Clay elephant, looked anything but  threatening, if you discounted his appearance! He interrupted my reverie, "Hey! What are spacing out for? Do you want a bite of this juicy strip? Come on. I wont hurt you".

I muttered something about my gut not made for tough stuff. He retorted, "Stupid humans. Fiber is good for the gut. It helps you clean your insides. Look behind me. You'll know what I mean"

Then he closed his eye and started chewing contentedly on the strip. The only other noise was his insides rumbling. I didn't say goodbye. He was in a world of his own, where his kind were free to roam. I did not want to spoil his dream.

For all those who still think elephants are for parading, go through this page.

These disturbing stats appeared in the Times of India Sunday edition on March 15th, 2012. There are more thought provoking articles on that page.

It's time we gave up our obsession with parading these gentle giants. 

Wake up Malayalee. The God's aren't happy any more. They never asked you to torture elephants for their satisfaction!

Of Piety & Pachyderms

Summer in Palakkad can be frustrating. Soaring mercury, sweaty nights and parched throats. Add to this, the vision of dwindling water levels in the Malampuzha reservoir you have a sure recipe for a disastrous vacation.

My two nieces were to land up for summer holiday and I was frantically searching for entertainment. Last year, when the God's weren't so upset with human kind the Malampuzha reservoir had been sufficiently full for them to have splashing picnic. The story was very different this year. I had to drive almost a couple of kilometers into the reservoir to see some water! This was the view from the most elevated sandbank.....
.

 

...180 degrees in front of me...

 

...& 180 degrees behind me... 

Taking children to this desolation was immediately ruled out and I had to rack my grey cells to come up with another option. Then the little bulb flickered to life somewhere above my head, and it lit up an elephant!

A week before my drive into the 'desert' I had been to a wedding in Guruvayur. After the usual plantain leaf lunch I had time to kill so I had driven to the Punathur Aanakota, the elephant sanctuary for the temple elephants of Guruvayurappan. I'm yet to come across a child who has not been excited at the sight of an elephant. 

Problem solved.  I only had to bundle the gang into a car and drive off to meet the Lord's Tuskers

Punathur kotta is a dilapidated royal residence of some local ruler, now converted into a hostel for the elephants of  Lord Guruvayurappan and their mahouts. Located three kilometers away from the temple town off (or on) the Kunnamkulam road, (depending on which direction you come from), it is home to some 50 or more elephants mostly majestic tuskers with a few cows. The Lord didn't pay money to buy them obviously. They were donated by devotees with deep pockets who probably wanted to drain the Lord off his treasures. (Thankfully, Padmanabhaswamy in Trivandrun escaped this fate!!). 

The poor Lord is a mute spectator as someone finds that bringing up a large pachyderm at home is a really unenviable task. Elephant calves are cute but once they grow to about 10 feet high at the shoulders you'll suddenly find yourself cramped for space. Besides, an elephant has a voracious appetite. Feeding an elephant therefore needs a steady flow of hard earned cash and in these days of spiraling prices the cash in hand is usually just about enough to pay the monthly home budget. Just imagine, how much you need to pay for electricity, rents, provisions, school expenses, mobile phone bills, fuel bills, beauty parlour visits, fairness cream & fat reducing oils and so many more indispensable things? Amongst these absolutely necessary expenses where will you find the money to feed your elephant?!

So the best solution is to donate it to the Lord of Guruvayur. After all, devotees leave his coffers overflowing everyday. That money has to be spent on useful things and elephants are useful! The Guruvayur Devaswom purchased a 10 acre plot with a palace and temples in 1975 and shifted its elephants there. It has since been home to the temple elephants of Guruvayur.

 The palace, if it can be called that, itself is uninteresting. The tiles are falling off and shows the need for some urgent maintainance. Inside the building there is a central courtyard with a large concrete "charakku", the traditional brass vessel used mainly for making "payasam" and more than enhancing it actually spoils the aesthetic value of  the building. The building serves as a place for visitors to rest and vandals to disfigure walls!

The Guruvayur Devaswom has in it's custody the single largest collection of elephants outside of the wildlife reserves. As a matter of fact, there are few herds that are 50 strong in our forests and even fewer herds with more than a couple of immature tuskers. If you want to see tuskers in all their majesty, Guruvayur is the place to see them.  

The first elephants that greet you are tethered near the parking lot. A few of them have a blue board next to them warning you that the bull is in a state of 'musth'. The mahouts keep spraying them with water to cool them off, though I don't see the logic in tethering the beast under a hot sun, and then trying to cool it off! Wouldn't it be better to tie them under one of the large trees instead?

On my first visit the number of elephants were half their strength, mostly the old bulls in the twilight of their lives, some in 'musth' and an odd cow elephant. 

 

  

The others were either in the temple at Guruvayur or in surrounding places. It was the season for 'velas', the local temple festivals. Even small temples now line up capraisoned elephants to show of their 'capacity'. It's no wonder that the newspapers are full of stories of elephants running amok all through summer.

The elephants in 'musth' are usually isolated because of their unpredicatble behaviour. Some stand docilely chewing on the palm leaves in front of their chained legs.

 Other are more expressive of their displeasure at not being able to vent their anger at their mahouts or anyone who get in their way!

Walking around the 'aanathavalam' as it is called in local parlance I was not sure how to react. This was a sanctuary for elephants but the gentle giants spend most of their time tethered by their feet in uncomfortable positions. Food was in plenty but the sight of the the palm leaves mixed with the mud, urine and dung is not for people with queasy tummies!

I've lived a major part of my life in hostels, from kindergarten to undergraduate days. I've seen many types of hostels but this is unique. One part of me feels happy for the old pachyderms that are being cared for. The are fed and looked after well, and will be till the last day of their lives. 

At the same time I feel a twinge of pity for these majestic creatures; tied down among mounds of dung and sometimes in the sweltering heat. I guess if taking care of one elephant is difficult it will be difficult to care for more than 50 of them. The Devaswom is doing a commendable job but I wish it could be improved.

Watch this space. There is more on this elephantine tale.........