The Trip

An account of my recent trip to Kerala, the God's own country:

Lily Darling

The trip started off with a bus to Ernakulam. The night was bumpy and sleepless and Ernakulam, well, was every bit disappointing (congested, hot and you would be forgiven for getting confused on whether it is Chennai or Bangalore) and we had to endure one more bus journey to Alepy. But all this was vindicated by Lily Darling. Ah, bless you Lily darling. Don't get me wrong, Lily Darling was the name of our houseboat in the Alepy backwaters. If you thought money can't buy you peace, well then try this. Coconut trees, paddy fields and a vast expanse of waters is just the thing a person used to city life requires for a break. And ofcourse, no trip of mine can ever be complete without Himesh crooning off a 'melody' of his. Perfect start. It was strange, the way we were trying to capture all this beauty around us using our cameras, when actually its so fleeting and we should rather have just sit down and see as much of it as possible. Its like memories are our real experiences. Memories are us.

Of Broken Bacardis and Peace

From Alepy we headed off to Varkala, a relatively unknown beach resort near Trivandrum. The hotels are situated on a cliff providing a panoramic view of the ocean. The first thing that'll strike you is that almost all the tourists there are foreigners. Just goes to show how unexplored some parts of India are really. On our way there, we befriended two Canadian Tourists, who also ended up in the same hotel as ours. Thus were made plans for some alcohol in the evening. Pratik managed to get some rum from the town (which is 6 kms away). Now thats a lot of fight considering that this was a vacation and considering that he doesnt drink. And now comes the part where anyone who has ever had alcohol and is reading this, kicks me. No, really. By a quirk of fate, irony and simple human stupidity, i broke the damn cursed bottle. At 9 o clock , when you had grand plans for alcohol, and you no longer do have the alcohol, now that is really sad. But in the memory of the deceased alcohol, we went to the town again, and after 3 shady bars and a hundred rupees on the top, we managed to get alcohol once more. Victory. And what a time we really had. It always piques my interest, how people from different places and cultures, strangers can connect and bond and how different they are really. and turns out people are not that different really. We all are in search of our broken bacardis and peace.

Man on the moon

And finally we headed to the last leg of the trip : Munnar. Some shady breakfats and an evil bus conductor (pure evil) later we finally managed to find our destination, which ironically was a treehouse in the middle of nowhere. Now for two guys, Munnar is not the ideal of spots. But it was too late for us to realise that. But staying in a treehouse in the middle of nowhere, thats perfect 'Away from the madding crowds' place. Munnar otherwise, is beautiful but boring. If anything, the trip raised more doubts in my mind about life that settle them. Probably so much leisure time gets you thinking more. And sometimes these things strike you so ramdomly that you just dont have any response. But it did make me realise that inspite of all their collective irritation, you need people around you. And on the last night, in the pitch darkness, as the moon shone brilliantly, as an act of desperation and seeking the lost faith , I was searching for the man on the moon. Didn't find him this time though