The Land of Rajputh

6 months after our marriage, my wife insisted that we go for a trip. I was more than ready. “Rajasthan” we both agreed.

When I think of Rajasthan , one of the names  that come to my mind is Maharana prathap . There used to be a serial in doordarshan some time back about him. Me and my brother would watch it without a miss. We soon by hearted the title lyrics of the serial which literally translated from Malayalam would be like.

Holding a spear that glows like the sun’s rays

Was one of the great sons of bharatha matha.

To save dharma, he sacrificed everything he had.

Sacrificed even his life to safe guard his country…

Who’s that…who’s that…who’s that…

Maha rana prathap, maha rana prathap.

so I was pleasantly surprised and happy to visit the land of maha rana prathap.

After some meticulous planning by my wife – sibi, we were set.

We started off from cochin airport on an early morning to Delhi. From comparatively moderate heat of cochin to the scorching heat of Delhi was change in itself. From Indira Gandhi airport, Delhi we took a cab (meru cab service) to Nizamabad railway station. Near by the station, we headed to a food court for a sumptuous lunch. After that we waited at the railway station for our train to Udaipur to arrive. By evening the train came and we hoped on to it. It was an overnight journey. We talked for a while and then went to sleep.

By early morning we were nearing Udaipur. We landed at Udaipur by 7.30 am. We then took few pics to afloat our memory.  We then kept our luggage’s locked in our railway waiting room . To be specific, we had to buy a lock from the nearby shop and keep our luggage’s locked in railway waiting room. On my way to the shop, I kind of had my first glance at the life of common man at Udaipur and it didn’t look very promising. It was quite clear that, the life around the Udaipur railway station – which would be one of the most visited stations in India annually, consisted of very poor people.  Open defecation was happening and it reminded me of prime ministers address at lal kila for building more house hold toilets.

We then took an auto to Udaipur palace. Most of the places to be visited in Udaipur lies in and around Udaipur palace. We then went in search for a good restaurant for breakfast. We stopped at a place which was run by a lady. We had yummy aloo paratha and tea. On our conversation with the lady ,we came to know that she was a relative of hrishiraj singh – an IPS officer who was always in lime light in Malayalam media for being outright and honest.

Once we had our breakfast, my wife insisted that we check out some souvenirs.  We then headed towards an antique shop. We brought traditional rajasthani knife and a Rajasthani Decorative Kaka Kaki Miniature Heads. Since we were first customers that day, the shop owner took the liberty of gifting us each with a key chain.  Once we were packed with our souvenirs, we headed towards Udaipur palace.

we went about in exploring Udaipur palace. The palace in itself was an object of admiration. It was well maintained and looked beautiful. We took the liberty of dressing up in traditional rajasthani wear and posing in front of Udaipur palace. It looked terrific. It reminded us of a past, a history – long forgotten. There were lot of tourists both Indian and foreign. This is the palace which has witnessed many marriage ceremonies. In fact a part of palace can be hired for the purpose of marriage. We roamed around and explored the palace. The pichola lake which runs near by the palace brought in cool breeze which kind of melted down the overall temperature. There was a palace right in the middle of lake. An engineering marvel so to say.

People took boats to reach that palace , which was kind of a summer retreat for the king. All of a sudden, it started to drizzle and we were not able to visit the lake palace. We took few pics.

The long walk around the palace museum had made us hungry. We took upon the liberty of treating us ourselves with a grand lunch at Udaipur palace hotel. After a lip smacking lunch, we took a rest near the lake and enjoyed the view. We then headed towards jagdish temple.  Temple was an art marvel in itself. It was beautifully laid with lot of sculptures and paintings.

After visiting the temple, we headed back to Udaipur railway station. We roamed around the station. We got a glance of how life revolves around in Udaipur. One thing I noticed in particular was that traffic norms are not followed at all. The streets were not clean, as is in most parts of India. But people were very warm. We stopped near by a small road side tea shop. I ordered tea, my wife being a strict coffee drinker said no to tea. She enquired if she could get a glass of coffee to the shop keeper. He readily walked to a nearby shop, brought a pack of coffee and made coffee for her.

Our search for a good restaurant near by the station proved un fruitful. So we went back to the station, asked my wife to stay at the waiting room. I alone went in search for our dinner. We were planning back to Jaipur that night, and we had our train around 10.30 pm. After walking around for some time, I found a pretty decent hotel. I parceled a typical rajasthani thali as the dinner and headed back to the station. 

We then took our luggage from the waiting room. Waited for our train. Once the train reached, we hoped on to it and took our seats. We had our dinner and readily slept off.

Early  morning we had reached close to Jaipur. We were up and ready. We got down at Jaipur railway station and headed straight to lemon tree hotel, where we had booked our accommodation.

Lemon tree hotel in particular was really good. Rooms were neatly decorated with all amenities.

We took time to rest and then headed straight to city palace. “The marvel of Rajput’s” I said to myself. We spend close to 1.5 hours roaming around and witnessing the beautiful palace. Once we came out, an old rickshaw puller   came towards us, and said he would take us for a ride. We said, we will visit few nearby places and definitely use his rickshaw. We then walked to nearby market.  There was huge crowd near the market as some local rajasthani festival was going on. I thoroughly enjoyed the views and continued walking along with the crowd, not to much happiness of my wife.

Soon we reached a different end of the city. We continued our walk and I soon realized that we had lost our way.  After a few hiccups, we took an auto to hawa mahal.

Hawa mahal stood in the heart of the city. It was very crowded. We roamed around it quickly and then headed to jantar mantar.

Jantar mantar, I googled as I entered. There are 4 jantar mantar’s in India and largest one is in Jaipur, it said. I somehow felt happy.

It was terrific, it consisted of lot of old scientific instruments used by our ancestors. it reminded me of the scientific prowess our ancestors had. I could see many foreigners standing in awe at the explanations of these instruments from local guides.

We were tired after roaming around, and we took a seat. We watched different people walk past us.

We came out jantar mantar, and met the same old rickshaw wala here. We asked him to take us to a proper authentic rajasthani restaurant. He drove us around and took us to a restaurant, while driving he was very jovial and we enquired about him and his family. We paid him money, bid good bye and headed to shri balaji restaurant.

Restaurant was full, we somehow squeezed in and found 2 seats. We ordered 1 rajasthani thali and 1 Punjabi thali. Let me tell you, that’s one of the best north Indian food we have had in some time.

We then walked to the markets of Jaipur. I was hovering around the thought – if it’s the terrific lunch or the fact that she could so shopping , that made my wife pretty happy.

We brought few items for our family and friends and by late evening headed towards the room. We slept off for a while. Sibi felt very tired, so she said she will take a good hot bath and stay in the room, while I was assigned the task of bringing the night dinner.

I went out, checked out few road side dhaba’s and got few items for dinner. Meanwhile I happened to see couple of youngsters in a brawl. Soon police arrived and took them away. I walked back to the room.

We had our dinner and slept off, and we were very happy that our day 1 in Jaipur went really well. Next day we were planning to visit Ajmer and pushkar.

We got up pretty early and headed straight to Jaipur railway station. From there we took a train to Ajmer. We had recently watched “Usthad hotel” and were eager to visit Ajmer dharga. On the way , in the train, I was able to see a women TTE for the first time.

Once we reached Ajmer railway station,  we took a bus to pushkar. After a 1 hr journey, we reached pushkar. I knew pushkar only for the pushkar camel fair. Again google came up with more details, as we headed to Brahma temple. Pushkar is boasted of having one of the five brahma temples in India.  Temple was very crowded. We stood in a long queue, did our darshan and took Prasad. We then walked towards one of the Ghats. I was wearing a black kurtha and jeans. Once we entered the ghat, many locals followed us asking us to do the Pooja. I said no. After couple of attempts, few backed off, with few commenting on my dress – implying that I am of a different religion. I walked off from them, we sat at a place in the steps of the ghat. We saw many people doing puja.

We then roamed around, to find a local hotel, where in we brought a local sweet, which they said would not go stale for next 3 days, even if we don’t keep it inside the fridge. We brought 2 packets of it and headed towards the bus stand. On the way we saw couple of camels roaming around.

We took rest for a while and then headed back to Ajmer in bus. On our way we saw the other side of beautiful  pushkar lake.

At Ajmer also there were long queue. We entered the beautiful green painted mosque. I was entering a mosque for the first time. So everything was new and looked great to me. We followed what others did. I could see a board which strongly suggested a Malayali presence in there. We did all the rituals and came out. Once our spiritual journey ended, we were feeling hungry. We had googled to find out about a local rajasthani restaurant nearby. We enquired about the restaurant to few people and all replied in same tone “ 5 mins walkable distance” . We continued to walk for almost 30 mins and then we reached the restaurant. We had our food. After our lunch, we headed straight to the Ajmer railway station. From there we took the train to Jaipur. The view from the train window gave us a glimpse of life in Rajasthan.  After 3.5 hours journey, we reached back at Jaipur around 7.30 pm. We then took an auto to our hotel. Nearby our hotel , we stopped to buy few sandwiches and headed to our room. After having our sandwiches, we slept off.

Next morning itself , we took a local bus to amber fort. While sitting in the bus, a burqa clad lady got in the bus at a bus stop with a small child in her hand. No one seem to get up for her, I got up and gave her the seat. Soon after another burqa clad lady entered with 2 children, but no one gave their seat to her. She stood there with both their children for close to half an hour. It made me wonder.

We headed to amber fort. Amber fort looked marvelous. The view was terrific least to say. We took few photos. Since the way up to the fort was a daunting task, we had 2 options. In an elephant or via jeep. We chose the latter. We reached the top of the fort. The location and scenery surrounding the fort was breath taking. Once we entered the fort, we saw sheesh mahal.

While watching sheesh mahal, the first thing I remembered was one of the songs of “MGR – Jayalalitha” which I happened to see from an ardent old Tamil movie fan – my father. “Nallairavu thunayiriku….naaam iruvaar thaniyiriku” which was shot in this very place. I hummed, not to much amusement of my wife. We roamed around and explored the fort. Took some photos for tangible memory. We came out of the fort, took rest. Breeze from theMaota lake, gave us some sort of respite from the scorching heat. From there we headed towards jal mahal in a local bus.

Jal mahal is a beautiful palace located in the middle of man sagar lake. I was overwhelmed by the sheer beauty of the palace and the architectural excellence of having a palace being built in the middle of a lake. I assumed it was built by the Rajput’s to overcome the scorching heat of Rajasthan. The majestic Aravalli hills provided the perfect back drop to the mighty palace.

Nearby jal mahal we stopped for a while and had an ice cream. We saw a small kid and his dad providing camel rides for the people. “Rajaasthan aaye aur camel main nahi chade…yeh ho hi nahi saktha” said my wife, smiling. We hoped on to the mighty animal and had a ride. I had previously been on top of camel when I was in somnath, Gujarat. I had given the camera to the kid, who tried to click few pics of us.

We then headed to shri balaji restaurant itself. We grabbed ourselves a good lunch and again roamed around the markets. We then headed back to our restaurant. Nearby our restaurant itself there was a shopping mall and a movie theatre. We booked tickets for “singham returns”. We got into the theatre and soon realized that there was no AC. It was damn hot. Even though movie was watchable, the heat took a toll on our senses. Once the movie got over, we had dinner and came back to the room.

We knew our trip to Jaipur – Udaipur is going to come to an end next day.  We slept off. Morning we had our breakfast from hotel itself. Then we packed our luggage and soon left to Jaipur airport. After check in, we got in to our flight and headed back home.

Overall Rajasthan was a great experience, one which tells you deep down to visit this place again, soon.

Maldives - A place of relaxation

Maldives…

It has been a tiring year, so why don’t we take few days off from our work life and go to a place of relaxation. Yes, that’s when we decided to head to Maldives.

We boarded our flight from Cochin International Airport and within 2 hours we were on top of the beautiful islands of Maldives. It was raining heavily when we reached Male and the flight took some time to land. Flight hovered in the sky for a while and it gives us some time to get a clear view of the beautiful islands.

 The view from the flight was breathtaking. The islands together looked like a painting. Yes, it’s is called Mala – dweep, which is nothing but Necklace islands. It was as if someone colored the surrounding of islands with Greenish blue. Only the shallow sea surrounding the island was colored in Greenish blue and the rest of the sea was dark blue.

We landed at Male airport and went directly to our resorts counter. There were few more people to join us, so we waited for them. We then took a sim and called back home to inform that we have landed safely. We then started off in a speed boat to the island resort. The journey in speed boat was superb. It felt like a roller coaster ride. After 45 mins through sea, we reached our resort. We understood that there was a time difference of 30 mins from India and Maldives.

Pier at Fun Island Resort

We reached Fun Island Resort around 3:00 PM. The most attracting part was the Pier in front of the resort. The view from there to the resort and from the resort to the sea was simply breath taking. We were hosted with a welcome drink. We were then escorted to our room – Room no 122. The room was very close to the beach. We were able to hear the sweet sounds of waves in the beach.

We took rest and after freshening up, headed towards the beach. The view was terrific. We walked through the beach shores. We could see lots of different types of sea shells and crabs. We then took some photos. The sun set at the beach was one of the best.

Maldivian
Sea shore

We came back to the reception of the resort, where Wi-Fi was available. We surfed for a while and then headed towards the food court. We had booked for 3 time buffet for us. We had a lavish dinner which included a soup, main course involving Indian and European dishes, fruits and desserts. We sat for a while near the beach and came back to our room. We talked for a while, we had our laptop with us, and we spend some time watching ‘FRIENDS’ and then slept off.

Next day morning we got up around 8.30 am. We had a very good breakfast and continued to explore our island resort. We roamed around the island, and from all spots of the island the view was terrific. We could see another island near by – which was called Robinson Island. Soon it started raining; rain kind of changed our plans for the day. We had some indoor games arranged and we played table tennis and caroms for a while.

We met few Indian couple out there who had come there for their honey moon. One of them was a Keralite. While roaming around, we had a special feeling of a joy whenever we met an Indian.  There was lot of activities planned in the resort. We both were dying to do an underwater surfing and snorkeling. We enquired and found that it would require 1 week training before we are allowed to do. We were there for 4 days, and a day had already passed, we understood that we won’t be able to do underwater diving this time.

One of the activities planned for the day was dolphin safari which costed 25$ per person. We readily decided to go for the safari. The trip was planned at 3.30 pm. We then went for lunch – which had an exquisite choice of food items. After a pretty heavy lunch, we then headed to the room, for a small nap. By 3 we were ready and headed towards the reception. Another Indian couple, an Indian family and a Chinese family were also part of the dolphin safari ride.

Dolphins

We were taken to a different end of the resort where a small boat was waiting for us. We on boarded it and were taken to the deep sea. After 45 mins or so in the deep blue sea, there were no signs of Dolphin. We felt a bit sad.  Our sadness was emboldened when the boat driver informed us that, if we don’t see any dolphin half of the amount would be refunded. We travelled 5 more minutes into the sea, when we spotted the 1^st dolphin. Everyone was excited. For most of us, it was the first experience of watching a live dolphin. Initially we saw 3 dolphins. Every few minutes they would do a small leap, everyone had their cameras flashing. Our boat slowed down, so that we were all had good view of the dolphins, soon we could see many a dolphins. After few minutes, we could see another boat near us, these boat drivers managed to drive in such a way that dolphins were clearly visible for the passengers of both the boats.

After a wonderful 1 hour with one of the most majestic creatures in the sea, we headed back. All were pretty happy. One of the passengers even had a comment that the dolphins which we saw were bigger than the ones which he had seen at trincomalee in Sri Lanka. We returned to the resort after another hour. We took rest, refreshed and then headed towards the food court. After a very good dinner, we sat at the reception. There was a scheduled program of crab race. We waited for some time, but after the scheduled time also the event didn’t start off.  We got bored and we returned back to our room. We watched ‘FRIENDS’ for a while and slept off.

Next day morning, we had planned to go to a nearby Robinson island. A couple of other island inmates joined us. This time around, we were taken to a different end of the resort and were taken in a small boat and after a 10 minute journey we reached Robinson Island. There wasn’t anything spectacular about that island. We roamed around and explored the island. We saw a ray fish. I swam through the beach for a while. Soon the mid-day sun started pouring on us. We took rest in a shady area. Soon the boat came back to pick us back. We returned back by 12.30 to our island resort. We took bath and then headed straight for lunch.

After a very good feast, we headed back to our room. We had a very good mid-day sleep and then by evening we headed to the beach shores. We walked through the pier sat there for a while, watched the sun set, soon couple of other inmates also joined us. We took lot of photos. I took another swim through the beach side. By 7 pm we headed back to our room. We took bath, and went straight to the food court. We had a pretty nice dinner. We then went to the reception. We could see bunch sea turtles in a small pool. We then headed to a small souvenir shop near by the reception.  We brought few souvenirs and then headed to our room.

View from air craft

 Next day morning we got up by 7.30 am and started to do our packing. We had our flight by 02.45 PM. We took bath, had our breakfast and then took rest for a while. Then by 11.30 am we headed to the reception, we bid farewell to the resort coordinators and then got into the speed boat. After a terrific 45 mins in the speed boat, we reached the airport by12.15 Pm. We did a small shopping for the family and friends at the airport. By 2 pm we had done our security check and were waiting near the flight entrance gate. By 02.30 we got into the flight, took few aerial photos of the airport. We reached back at Cochin by 6 pm. We both had a gala of time and felt very refreshed after the trip. We were saddened by the fact that trip had come to a halt, we both vowed to make our next trip even more amazing.

 

Rameshwaram,Madurai and Dhanushkodi - Rejuvenate with prayers

From the day of my marriage, I have been hearing my mom and my wife speaking about Rameshwaram. One fine day in June 2015, we decided to make that conversation a reality.



Pamban Bridge

On a drizzling Thursday night, we as in me, dad, mom and my wife boarded the train from Ernakulam to Madurai. Early morning Friday we had reached Tamilnadu, and by noon 11.30 we reached Madurai. The travel through Pamban bridge itself was an experience in itself. From the drizzling Cochin climate to the arid Madurai was a welcome change. From there we boarded another train, to Rameshwaram. We took the liberty of having a sumptuous lunch involving Puliyodharai, Curd rice and Vegetable biryani. We reached Rameshwaram by evening 5. We reached MCM hotel which was very close to the mighty Rameshwaram temple.

We all took bath and walked to the temple. After the security check, we moved into the main entrance of the temple. The sculptures and paintings in the temple amazed us all. The crowd was comparatively less as per one of the guides outside. He was expecting more crowd the next day morning as it was a Saturday. After vising the temple, we roamed around the nearby places of temple.

Rameshwaram Temple

I personally felt that the Rameshwaram temple had both Dravidian and Vedic influences in harmony. Very close to the temple was the Sringeri math of Shri Shankaracharya.

We all walked towards Rameshwaram river bed. There are at the serene river bed, we had the Prasad from temple. I for once remembered about Char dham. As per Hindu mythology, there are 4 places in India, in each north, south, west, east corners which should be visited, for once he completes that his moksha is definite. I have been to Hrishikesh, Dwaraka & Puri before and Rameshwaram was the southern point. So this journey to Rameshwaram ensured that I completed the char dham yathra too. We had a very good dinner from one of the restaurants nearby.

We came back to the hotel, took rest and next day early morning, around 6 am we travelled to Dhanushkodi in a jeep. For at least 2 km stretch it was a straight road, which itself was a great view. Our driver stopped in between and offered a dakshina in front of a deity on the road side. Soon road sides were filled with dried fish, and that smell filled in the air.

Dhanushkodi

Floating stone

We reached the beach side. We saw the old railway lines and railway station destroyed by the floods. The terrain was a very difficult one to drive through, but our driver was an expert, he took us to the place where sethu bandhanam was said to have happened. From that place, Srilanka was mere 30 km away. We took a break there, we took photos, my mom gathered few sea shells ☺ and then we continued our journey to a very small temple. That temple had the unusual relic the stone which the vanara’s used to build the bridge for lord Sri Rama. We saw a stone which float in the water. Those moments at Dhanushkodi were truly a different experience, one that cannot be explained in words, for you ought to experience it.



We headed back very happy and hungry, soon another auto driver was waiting for us who would give us a local tour. We bid good bye to the jeep driver and continued our journey in the Auto. First we visited a restaurant had a pretty decent breakfast, then we headed to the local darshan of Rameshwaram.

We visited Tulsi baba mat, Rama Patham, few Ghats, we brought fish snacks at one of the Ghats and fed the fishes at one Gujarati temple – where prabhashan was going on.

Then we had the privilege of visiting Dr. APJ Abdul Kalam’s house, which was now made into a museum. It was a really a moment my wife had been waiting for. My mom and dad were truly impressed by knowing more about our previous president. We all came out as a bunch of inspired people.

We were running short of time in Rameshwaram, so we headed back to the hotel, checked out around 11.30 am and went straight to Rameshwaram bus stand. We took a bus to Madurai. After a grueling 4 hours journey, mainly because of the dust in the road side, we reached Madurai by 4.30 pm. We took an auto and headed to our hotel - MMR Garden. The rooms were lavishly decorated, and we all took time to refresh after a tiring journey.

Near Madurai Meenakshi Amman Temple

We had a small snack at the nearby restaurant, and then took a local bus to Madurai Meenakshi temple. I felt that Madurai temple was quite different from Rameshwaram, here in Dravidian influences were more evident. We stood in a big queue, but our lack of patience took the better of us, we paid Rs.20 each to stand in a different queue, hoping to see the idol early. Soon others followed our suite.

We saw the deity and felt blessed, walked towards a grandly decorated Ganapathy idol. We brought Prasad and saw another area of temple which was filled with stone sculptures, the fact these vigraha’s were at least 500 years old and the craftsmanship of the people around those times, made us all wonder in awe. We took rest for a while and headed to another corner of the mighty temple. We could see an elephant and its trainer there, all devotees would offer Rs.10 to the trainer and the poor animal would keep his trunk over the head of the devotee, making a feeling to the devotee that he is being blessed. The elephant which we saw didn’t obey the trainer, only to be got beaten. I wanted to protest, but didn’t and we all walked away from there.

We went through the temple, and then brought few souvenirs. Outside the temple were different stalls. We brought Jamun and goose berry. We took an auto and reached back to the hotel.

We had dinner from Anjappar Hotel. Then had a good night sleep.

Next day morning we headed to Azhagar kovil, Azhagar was supposed to be the brother of Madurai Meenakshi. We took a bus, and the kovil was the last stop of the bus, at least 20kms from the place we were staying. This bus journey gave us the glimpse of the Madurai life. The bus passed through city and then through fields, hills. The temple was situated in more or less a village.

Azhagar kovil in all its might was a wonderful site to watch.  People were coming from different parts, for it was a holiday. We paid visit to the temple, after standing in a queue. The Dravidian architecture was in its full display in this temple. Outside the temple were huge swords at least 12 feet high in display.

I have always heard stories of warrior kings of Madurai – the Pandya’s , the Pallava’s. Another story I remember of Madurai is of Kovalan & Kannaki - the lady who burned the city of Madurai. History of Tamil Nadu is in-complete without Madurai.

 We headed back to the city in another bus. We reached Madurai bus stand, from there we took an auto to a palace of Thirumalai Naykar. Thirumalai Naykar was a king who ruled Madurai. This palace was both his courtyard and house.

The Madurai heat was slowly taking a toll on us, we drank tender coconut juice. We took tickets at the entrance of the palace, and explored the palace. Palace was maintained by archeological department of Tamil Nadu government. The palace was not maintained well. There were cob webs almost everywhere. But we went through the palace, had a look and feel and felt sorry for the way the palace was maintained. I for expected Tamil people to be custodians of their past, for they were deeply rooted to their traditions, language and culture. From the palace, we took an auto to the fruit market near Madurai Meenakshi temple. We brought Mango, Jamun, Chikoo and guava. We returned back to the hotel, and we all knew our journey was coming to an end. We brought different snacks and sweets to share with our friends and relatives back home.

 We checked out and headed towards Madurai railway station. We got into the train by 4.30 pm. By night we had reached Tirunelveli. My brother had already instructed us to buy halwa from Tirunelveli, we brought that. We had our dinner and a good night sleep. Early morning around 4 am we had reached Ernakulam. My bro was waiting for us at the railway station.

The main part of the trip was it was a welcome break from the mundane day to day life. I always have felt that Tamil people and their culture were unique. They still religiously hold on to their culture and traditions and it was in full display during our visit to Rameshwaram and Madurai. The highlights were the early morning visit to Danushkodi, the visit to APJ Abdul Kalam’s house, Rameshwaram temple.

This trip definitely revitalized our boring office days, we all felt afresh and we all knew deep down that another trip would be soon in the cards.