Village in Ghats - Final part

To read first part click here 

To read the second part, click here

To read third part, click here

We were in the middle of our short walk when he heard that word. 'A leopard Shit'  

The guide took that small round shaped excreta in his hand and opened it. The black coloured excreta had traces of white hair. He told us that a leopard had killed an indian gaur(buffalo) nearby and hence, it has frequented the place.  We were all literally sweating on hearing this.

A 6-feet height Indian gaur

We planned to start from there and few steps afterwards, we found another Shit. This time, it belonged to a vulture.A leopard has slayed a buffalo and a vulture had eaten the decomposed parts. After the vulture eats the decomposed, only bones will remain. How will Mother nature dispose the bones? Nature has answers. Hyena present in the hills will eat mainly the bones.The ecosystem is self-sustainable in this way unless bloody man disturbs it.

We found another different type of grass over there. Under neath the grass,some variety of  potatoes grow. Elephants identifies such potatoes and eats it.The seeds in the potato come out in elephant excreta and they again grow into potatoes. The guide warned that if a man consumes it , he will die within hours. Not sure though how much of it is true. 

By crossing the mountains, i was told, one can reach Kotagiri or Kodanad. The distance was about 20-30km and the people cross the mountains to reach them sometimes.

Hills and a vehicle

Another beautiful  video of a colourful sparrow in its nest. Since building nest in palm tree is difficult, sparrows are building a hanging nest.I have compressed the original HD video.

Another pic of deers

We took coracle and reached nearby village. Coracle is made from cement covers by applying 'tar' on them and drying them.Making a coracle costs close to 12,000 rupees. How these people recover it by making 3 rupees trips, god only knows.

 The same night,we boarded train at Coimbatore.Thus came the end of a  beautiful trip which taught us so many wonderful things . A trip to remember and cherish!

Village in Ghats - Part 3

To read first part click here 
To read the second part, click here

The next morning, we woke up at around 6 .The first scene we found was this outside our house - the Smoking Mountains!.

We took bath and we decided to have a look at the village.
Since we came in the night, we couldn't see anything. The entire village gets its water supply from the nearby river.No borewells,no water lorries!
          The total population of the village should be around 500.The most wonderful thing is government has established a primary health center and a school.We decided to walk out of the village. We found that the village is surrounded by hills on all four sides.

A Farm land. one can see electrical wire passing in bottom right corner

                                

 

The village in the lap of the hills

The villagers were doing Soya cultivation. Almost the entire fields were covered with electrical wiring . This was done mainly to prevent elephants from entering the fields and destroying the crops.As we might know,  the hills are home to numerous animals such as tiger,leopard and elephants. Surprisingly, the village people more fearful of  elephants than of the tigers . One guy said leopard or hyena don't attack people much but a elephant does.
         To prevent elephants from entering the fields, they have set up around 20 feet high sleepers made of wood just like those in the tamil movie Kumki. After a while, we took our vehicle and went for nearby villages.
 While it is relaxing for us to visit those places, one should feel real pity for the difficulties these people face. In remote villages where the population must be few hundred people, there are hardly any shops. Once a month, the government gives ration on specified date . The village we stayed had one bus trip per day.Even buying a household item such as furniture or any small thing should be a herculean task. Money has got very little value in these places.
On our way throughout the trip,our guide was examining the footsteps and excreta of animals and telling us what animal is that.

The same day, we were shocked when our guide stood in a place and declared that he had found a leopard shit. 
More on that in next blog tomorrow 
          

Village in Ghats - II

To read first part,click here 

On reaching the village,this is what we found .

A tree, a light and a river !

 we were told that we have to cross the flowing river to reach the village. The only source was to use a Coracle(parisal) and we have loads of luggage. The water was flowing with full force in the river. A pleasant surprise though!

         Around 8.30 pm, we loaded  all the items and took a coracle . They charged 10 rs for each person. The same morning, we had our first coracle ride in our life. We visited one of the villages that morning and we asked for coracle ride. The cost per person for 3 Rs one way.We went to the other side and saw jasmine garden. They were doing drip irrigation since the land was near river bed.

        Coming back to our coracle ride in the night, we crossed the river and we were allotted a house in the village. It was around 9 pm and we were standing in front of the house. We found out that the house key was not in nearby house. The key was in a house which was located near graveyard!

      The only guy in our group who knew the village, went with our guide to graveyard to get the key. And we , group of 3 persons, were standing in the middle of a street in a village which we have no idea about . In distant, we could found a small guy walking towards us showing some actions. We were scared and as he neared us, we found that that guy was asking for alms and the small guy couldn't talk as he was dumb.He left after we offered him some rupees.

         After sometime, some other guy came to us and asked us whether we came to that house. We replied yes. He said that there was electrical problem in the house and there is no current in the house. Another twist in the tale!

    After a while,the guys who went to take the key returned.We had bread and jam for dinner. We went to sleep thinking that the next day shouldn't throw much twists and turns as this day!

Village in The Ghats - I

Before the trip started, we came to know that we are going to stay in  a Village in western Ghats. The western ghats and eastern ghats almost join in the western part of Tamilnadu in Nilgris district. Western Ghats are range of mountains that starts from Gujarat and extend till tamilnadu and Kerala. Eastern Ghats start from West Bengal and they extend till tamilnadu.
         Some  prominent hill stations on the Western ghats are Ooty,Wayanad and Munar. Some prominent hillstations on eastern ghats include  Yercaud which is also called Poor man's Ooty. Western ghats are mostly evergreen forests since they receive heavy rainfall while eastern ghats in tamil nadu contain mostly dry deciduous forests.
        The village and the surrounding areas we visited fall under the eastern ghats and it was unique experience, seeing the dry deciduous forests in front of you while the other side of hills contain the lush evergreen forests.

           The trip started at around 5 in the evening and we were on our way passing through the dry forests. We spotted several animals on the way which include wild buffalo, deers,peacocks ,eagles and various other types of birds we couldn't identify.
As we were busy looking for the flora and fauna, we didn't notice the time and the forest became dark. A poor quality pic of the road ahead. The green and blue lights are lights inside our vehicle.

After a bumpy ride for about 2.5 hours, we were nearing  the village. A string of both pleasant and nasty  surprises were waiting for us in the village.

Please watch out for the next part tomorrow

Forest - Here we come!

After a long time, we are planning a trip to forest. After much tussle, as i type this, our waiting list tickets suddenly got confirmed, thanks to indian railways.

The purpose of this trip is to stay in the middle of the forest for a weekend. Not a luxury resort this time .We assume we are going to stay in a  10x10 room in a reserved forest somewhere in Sathyamangalam, home of our famous bandit Veerapan.The requirement for this trip was no cell phone towers, no electricity,no toilets and only self-cooked food.A local tribe or ranger is supposed to guide us.

Since food won't be available, we are taking huge stocks of Ready-to-eat types.What we are going to do there? We don't know.We think we are going to take a plunge in the River Bhavani. We think we will trek to some small hill out there. 


Plan: Overnight train to Coimbatore on friday evening - Reach forest by mid of day - Over night stay - Start by Sunday evening train - Reach Namma Chennai on Monday 

Wait till Monday for a travelogue.

Kalkandu thatha

An old man in mid sixties was walking down the street. A tall and lean man, he somewhat resembles our gandhiji . He had a vesti and a towel tied to his waist.His looks indicate he was straight from temple and he doesn't wear a shirt.The kids playing in the street stopped their play. They all surrounded him and he said "one-by-one" . The kids started to recite a below song 
கல்விக்கடலே சரஸ்வதியே 

கல்வி அறிவினைத் தருவாய் சரஸ்வதியே 

....

After every kid recited such song, he opens his yellow bag(the famous manja pai in tamil). There is a small box and he opens the box. The box contains kalkandu and he counts them one,two. he awards them 2 small pieces of kalkandu . He gives it for all the children who recited and he walks away.The kids continued their play. End-of-Story.

       This story continued for a couple of decades. This old man is known as "Kalkandu thatha" in our neighbourhood. Nobody knows who gave him that name.I recited similar songs for a whole decade. Everytime, he crosses the street he would carry his yellow bag. He religiously followed this process. How he started this and why he started this, god only knows.

   Children in our street simply loved him. On margazhi months,the entire street will wake up to put Kolams .Kalkandu thatha will be returning from nearby temple and some kids who just woke up and yawning nearing the Kolams will run to him and recite. With a gentle smile, he will award them 2 small pieces of kalkandu. Rarely, he hands out 3 pieces of kalkandu.

  Once i grew up and went to teen age, i learnt that he was a former tamil teacher.He owned a 2 storied residential building and tenants would complain he was very strict person who would not tolerate if the residents dried clothes on the wall.

 But for us, he was just Kalkandu thatha.  Just like any person in teen age, out of sheer shame for reciting songs on street, i would try to bypass him . Once, he called me and said "won't you tell song if you grow up? Thatha is telling songs even in this age"

  I had moved out of the town and happened to return a couple of years later. I came to know Kalkandu thatha  is dead. The irony  is till date, i don't even know his name.There are some persons in your life who would leave a lasting impact and he is one of them.The next generation will grow up without ever knowing such personalities. I was sure everybody would have such person in their lives. I was staring at the empty street and i could still hear the song in the air

கல்விக்கடலே சரஸ்வதியே 

கல்வி அறிவினைத் தருவாய் சரஸ்வதியே 

....

The upper class

how often do you come across the conversation which includes almost all the strata of the society?How do the different people who represent different layers of the society behave with each other. A complex question but i was given a simple answer for this in a train journey.The journey started with my compartment fully occupied before the train had started.
                    The main characters in this journey are a farmer and his wife, a shopkeeper and an upper middle class family consisting of father,mother, son and a daughter.And the final person is the pour soul who wrote this post.The shopkeeper had a RAC train ticket while everybody has confirmed tickets.
The conversation was started by the farmer's wife who asked me where i was going and i replied. May be my attire of jeans and a travel bag didn't inspire her. She started talking to the shopkeeper.
    The farmer was doing sugarcane cultivation and he was telling how he was facing problem in finding people to work. Blame the welfare politics and the MNREGA scheme i uttered to myself.
             The shopkeeper and the farmer were talking among themselves and i was a mute spectator to their conversation. When it comes to saving money, this is what the shopkeeper told
  Once i had enough cash to buy a house, i would buy the house. I will keep looking for any other property immediately. if i find anything worthy, i would go to the bank, pledge the property and buy new one. At any point,i won't have more than 1 lakh cash in hand. Having cash in hand is the most stupid thing to do.I try to do this same cycle again and again every couple of years.
 The farmer asked him what all properties he bought.In the meantime, the upper class mother asked me what i was doing. She was interested since i came from her hometown which she had left 30 years ago. Other than that, she didn't even utter a word. I came to know that they stayed in Tiruvanmiyur, a posh locality in chennai. 
The ticket collector came and we all showed our tickets. The shop keeper showed an age-old ticket taken in counter,the farmer has e-ticket and the upper class showed ticket in their smartphones. Typical India i thought!
Another interesting thing, the farmer came to station by auto.if it didn't rain, he said he would walk which is around 1-2 kms. The shopkeeper came from bus and walked to nearby station and came by train. The upper class, nevertheless to say, came by call taxi.
Coming back to our conversation, the shopkeeper who was in his early thirties, said he has independent house in KK nagar and few flats there. And he has bought some small lands outside the city. He said he will put watercans to houses and he has a rice flour mill where people used to grind rice,wheat and other stuff. He said he would work 12 hours a day and said that this hardwork prevented him from any disease.The farmer's sons were having small shops near egmore and they too have bought a house here.The farmer's wife offered to sleep on the floor so that the shopkeeper can have full berth. However, he refused. They kept on talking in the morning and made sure their journey was interesting. They were sharing their experiences with life.

  The Tiruvanmiyur family had started their dinner. They had sealed their dinner in a Sarvana Bhavan plastic box kept inside a Lifestyle shopping bag. They had cooked their dinner. The dinner was Bread with some masala, an unusual Tamil dinner.After dinner, the father,son and daughter were busy talking to their smartphone screens.
   The original upper class was the one who were sound in health,character and wealth. The train which taught me this, was going fast towards its destination.

Ponniyin Selvan - II

As we can see from the above pic,this novel is a perfect mix of history and fiction.The novel takes sharp turns then and there akin to the movie Pulp Fiction. Most of the incidents in the novel are based on Thiruvalangadu inscriptions which are preserved in Government museum in Egmore. Other information is derived from the inscriptions on the Periya Kovil in Tanjore.
        The novel speaks about the greatness of Arulmozhivarman who sacrificed the throne for his uncle Uttama Chola who ruled from 970-985 AD. The book begins with Sundara Chola (952-970 AD) falling ill and his elder son being murdered under suspicious circumstances. The younger son, arulmozhivarman is on a conquest and the story explains the attempts by Pandyas and other petty kings to overthrow the Chola Dynasty. Arulmozhivarman along with his friend Vanthiyathevan overcomes all the problems and in a stunning climax, sacrifices the throne for Uttama Chola. The story ends with the crowning of Uttama Chola by Arulmozhivarman.
       The epilogue states that Arulmozhivarman was later known as RajaRaja Chola who started the medieval chola dynasty which ruled for another 200 years. He later conquered Lanka and went till Orisha. He  built the famous Brahadeeswara temple in Tanjavore which is a UNESCO heritage site today. His son Rajendra conquered Kadaram which is currently known as Kedah in Malaysia.



The website here sells ponniyin selvan in audio only format. I presume this is for people who can't read tamil, particularly NRI kids.If you haven't read this book, it's time to grab one and read it!

Other Sources: http://historicaljourneys.blogspot.in,

Ponniyin Selvan - I

A couple of years back, i was on pilgrimage to kumbakonam - mayiladuthurai .  belt.This particular belt has close to 1000 temples ,most of them built by the Great Cholas of 11th century. And suddenly a gush of thoughts flashed my mind -Melakadambur-Uttama Chola-Arunmozhi varman & nandhini.

             If you were wondering what are they, they are famous characters in a Tamil Novel - Ponniyin Selvan.A novel which was written in 1950s in a weekly magazine "Kalki"  for 3 years. 70 years ago, at a time when the literacy level was low and when the English-educated Tamils looked down on writings in Tamil, Kalki's circulation touched 71,000 copies - the largest for any weekly in the county then. 

      In 2002, more than 60 years after the original novel has been released, the Indian express published an article about ponniyin selvan and its fan base.The paper called for fans in the marina beach and the enthusiastic fans joined together and arranged a trip from chennai Kalki office to see the places which come across in the novel.

One of my friend's father had painstakingly collected the series when it came in Ananta Vikatan. The novel runs into 2400 pages in 5 parts and it was published for close to 3 years. Imagine the effort that would have got into collecting the novel.Nevertheless to say, all of Kalki's work has been nationalised by TN government.

         M.G.R , Bharathiraja and Maniratnam all at different point of time tried to make the novel into a movie but failed. MGR when he was a chief minister, tried to produce the novel with Kamal as hero. Director Maniratnam tried it around 2011. All of the efforts failed. Rajnikanth once mentioned that the character Neelambari in Padayappa movie was inspired by the character Nandhini in Ponniyin Selvan.

             The novel writing style is innocent and Kalki makes it interesting and we wait like a child hearing a story from its grandfather. Enough of starters, we will talk about the novel and the history of cholas in our next post. Wait a couple of days!

         

In the middle of forest - A travelogue!

With Rains pouring down in chennai for a last couple of days, it's high time to write about a travelogue.

Imagine you are staying in the middle of a forest,particularly the Western Ghats.The only sound you can hear in the middle of the night is the sound of a stream flowing just below your balcony.

 You wake early in the morning and you get to see this below. 

A scenic view of stream flowing below the balcony.







You are feeling hungry and you have to walk and cross the hanging bridge to have a buffet for breakfast. 








and you are served a king's buffet in the middle of the forest. A picture of the restaurant.






An artificial swimming pool and some other pics

This resort is the only human habituated area in that hills. An amateur picture of the resort from nearby hills. One light indicates the resort and another one is a tree house which is located some distance from the resort.You can also stay in a tree house for a full night.

No prize for guessing, this resort is located in God's Own Country Kerala. The Resort name is Vythiri , located in Vythiri village, Wayanad District of Kerala.

How to reach: From Kozhikode railway station, by car , It's 2.5 hrs travel from railway station. The resort guys arrange for car on request. Night trains are available to Kozhikode from Chennai.

When we reached the station, we found out that there was a strike in Kerala for petrol price hike and vehicles were not allowed to ply on the road. The resort guys arranged for a tempo traveller and they were literally bribing the ground level workers of political parties so that there was no issue in transporting us. The rooms are always booked well in advance, before 2-3 months.

To kill your time in the resort, there are yoga classes,ayurveda classes, gaming facilities for basket ball,tennis,shuttle,table tennis etc. 

you can find the official website here  Package for 2 nights starts from 15k (on weekdays) and 18k (on weekends). The maximum cost goes upto 40k. The cost is inclusive of food.

This resort is a nice escape from the hustle and bustle of the city.

One good thing which i loved is cellphones don't work here and there is no TV in the resort.

Two Lives and two political parties

First of all, i would like to apologize to myself for writing a post about politics. I vowed not to write about politics but the recent turn of events has changed my mind.
                 What would have been an extra ordinary love story in the lives of two people have become a tragic story for the entire district. A lady and young man fall in love, elope from village and after some time, a kangaroo court catches them and asks the girl to return home. The girl refuses. Sounds like a familiar tamil movie story? The girl's father commits suicide and a politician enters the scene. Both are separated and the boy commits suicide as per media. Insert a couple of violent scenes after the interval and during the climax, we have got a full fledged movie.
      This movie is a winning movie for both the PMK & VCK. Both the parties have gained significant political mileage. Both the sides claim they are clean and the other side is corrupt. Their websites declare the same. PMK has almost rose from the ashes after this issue. If you think only village people are caste fanatics, kindly message me. I will show you  a hell lot of domains in facebook , blogs and websites where these literate idiots are fighting day in and out on the issue. Both the sides will explain to their people that they have taught a lesson to their enemies.You can find one such decent site here . 

    A few days from now on, the movie would be removed from the theatres and another movie would be screened. The characters in the movie will carry on the pain forever.After few days from now,who will care about the girl aged only 18 or 19 and who will remember the parents who have lost their son in this political battle. And not to mention the numerous lives lost in the violence.The only answer to this question lies in the ballot box 2014. Another harsh defeat in the elections and these parties may stop doing such incidents. If these parties get a significant amount of vote, which is the most probable case, then the northern districts of tamil nadu will have to burn every couple of years.