Kerala Bhraman- Spices, Tea and Chocolates

To catch up on our first day in Munnar, climb up to the cottage and join us, in Kerala Bhraman- The Theater Of Tea Plants.


Morning in Munnar. The night before was a drowsy one which was filled with the constant groaning of the trees as the breeze loaded its branches. In the morning, outside, there was light. The floating tortoise (Gundumally) stood frozen at its place, gawking at the puny cottage people seeming amazed by the hills around them.

View from the cottage

“What’s so new about it?” It wondered in silence.

Definitely, nothing was new. We had seen the same green scarf clad hills the previous day and it had rained all day. It would probably rain today as well. But, we wanted to pour into ourselves, each and every bit of the beauty of Munnar, imagining that this is what heaven looks like. Heaven and the court of the gods.

The usual drapery of white clouds returned and it rained. We watched the rain drops tapping on the window panes while having tea. With the last sip, we removed the last bit of the last night’s sleep and asked the cook to serve breakfast.

We were going to try out Appam with chicken stew for breakfast and mama was sure that we would lick our fingers in the end.

Indeed we did. It took ten minutes barely to clean my plate of Appam. The light and succulent chicken stew had won our hearts and the recipe was immediately in demand.  
  

Appam and chicken stew

      

Outside, tea pickers in uniform walked on the shimmering road by the garden; the duty was on the verge of beginning. The tea gardens were so steep we wondered how the tea pickers kept themselves from tumbling. It was a tough job.

The park around the house was embellished by an array of flowers, all drenched and nodding with the rain. As if in staunch agreement to whatever was told to them.

Thekkady wouldn’t have been complete without its rainforest, Varkala wouldn’t have been complete without its picturesque beach and its fables, Munnar wouldn’t certainly be complete without the shops in the main city market selling tea and spices.

We had decided that we would visit the market that day. After our customary tour to our respective bathrooms, we were off in our white Innova.

As we descended the hill, my mother was intent on sighting elephants and stayed on her window seat, skimming through each shrub and garden we passed. The stark watchmen of the tea gardens didn’t flinch when the rain drops fell on them and stood still with their crescent branches stretched upwards.

Jishnu

Mama had called shotgun and was doing a better job than me; he wasn’t sleeping. In fact he wasn’t letting Jishnu (our driver) sleep either. He kept him awake with his constant questions about stuffs in Munnar and Kerala all together.

And when mama would go silent, Jishnu would put on his earphones and talk to someone on his phone. Constantly guffawing. Probably joking about the crazy family he was driving around Munnar.  

He joked on the phone while we joked among ourselves. Neither understanding the other’s language.

Mattupetty Dam

Before going to the market, we hit the Mattupetty Dam. We got down at the tourist market where they were selling fancy hats and umbrellas. It was drizzling as we walked to the bridge over the dam and looked at the lake below us. Several men and women had flocked at the bank and were waiting for their turn for boating, pouring the depths of the lake with their usual pouts and duck faces.

Men gave horse rides at the market. Boys wearing bandannas rode the buffy brown horses as the horse boy followed and the friends clicked pictures of their mate.

The day wanted some time alone with the lake and was utterly disappointed of the invasion of the tourists. The rain fell harder in response and people started running for cover.

We decided to move back as well. As far as pictures went, we had clicked to our fill.

The Kanan Devan Hills Plantation outlet was bustling with the daily crowd of tea and spice lovers. The walls of the shop were adorned with the glimpses from the past of the company; all black and white. Of course, none of the attention was focused on the stills. That was one side of the outlet. Completely barren save the pastry counter.

Life began abruptly on the other side. Families, friends, groups of tourists and localites had gathered at the long spice, tea, coffee and chocolate counter. Leaving little or no place for someone else to get in.

I was summoned to choose the chocolates which I would like to take back to Dehradun.

“What’s there to choose? Chocolates are chocolates!” I thought.

Inside the KDHP outlet

I would soon be proved wrong when the shopkeeper would place on the counter before me the following boxes- coffee chocolate, orange chocolate, tea chocolate, spicy chocolate, white chocolate, bitter chocolate and what not.  

The chocolates

  

After much introspection, I picked up the spicy one. It would be fun to watch the look on my friends’ faces when they would take a bite of those.

The shelves behind the shopkeepers were stuffed with all kinds of Munnar tea and coffee. Green tea, Oolong and lots more. 

After leaving the outlet, we stopped at a nearby shop to buy some homemade chocolate and chips for snacks. There was one shop that was selling tiny exotic wooden massaging devices apart from nuts, spices, chips and oils.

Once again, we drove up hill, braving the pebble like rain drops pelting on the windshield of the Innova. We had forgotten what sunlight felt like in Munnar.

Back in the holiday home, we had lunch and retired to the common room reading and snoring.

Mama and baba went on to play a game of carom in the adjoining library.

Munnar city

On the other end of the library was a door to another room. From behind the shut door came the constant guffawing of Jishnu and the butler and the cook.

Probably joking about the crazy family.

    

The clouds had shut the  house from the outside world. The trees bent due to the weight of the breeze and the creaking sound sent shivers down our spine.

There was no electricity but there was enough diffused sunlight in the room and it was pretty cool as well.

At night, the generator roared again and the tiny spot in the somber Munnar hills was incandescent.

Sleep lay upon us like a sheath and after dinner, we crept beneath the comforting blankets. Silently, sleep closed our eyes and we dropped into a deep rabbit hole.

Some time at night the generator stopped blaring and only the wind blew.

We didn’t do much the next day. It rained and it never stopped raining for the remainder of the day. 

Jishnu asked us if we wanted to go and watch a Kathakali dance performance in the city or a display of the popular Keralite martial art. But we declined and stayed up in the hill instead.

I peeped at Gundumally from the common room window when the clouds cleared for some time.

On that word-less day, in the quiet room, there was nothing to do to kill time. The book that I had brought with me turned out to be a total bore so I put it away and slipped into my usual reverie.

I saw myself floating in the sky, flying over the enormous green tortoise. Then over a temple and the tiny Lego dwellings before settling on a traipsing patch of cloud. From where I was, our cottage was a distant spot slowly getting behind the clouds. The lofty trees swaying like colossal fans fanning the throne of a cottage.

Such a fine sight! Should I ever return to myself, siting in the cottage’s common room; amidst the four walls?  

Or should I stay back and enjoy the view.

Alas, like all other thoughts this too vanished in a snap. “Not now brother!”

Of all the nights we had spent till now, the last nights were dreadful. Questions which hadn’t bothered us up till now popped up immediately.

“Why does time fly so fast?”

“Will we return to Munnar?”

“Do we really have to leave?”    

 Answers to which were truly unfathomable.

That night seemed much shorter. So much where we accustomed to the routinely blare of the generator, that we never noticed when did it stop. The only thing that came crashing back in a much eminent form was the orchestra of the night. It played a slow and a melancholic farewell song and dissolved into the darkness of the night just like every other time.   

Kerala Bhraman- The Trail Of The Elephants

If you missed the mesmerizing jungle walk up till now, walk to Kerala Bhraman- Into The Realm. 
Do keep watch! The maze of the evergreen trees could be treacherous.


Our aimless walk down the track was getting tiring because the road was long and we hadn’t come across any wildlife in the past thirty minutes.

We had witnessed a steaming quarrel between two Kattakodhis. Wild cocks, as Ravi had whispered to me from behind dense bushes. The birds chased each other as their crowns jerked viciously and their tails followed in a straight streak behind them. When they caught up, they jumped and fluttered there wings in the air. They aimed their claws right at each other and scraped the mud which clouded their surroundings with twigs and dirt.  

Further into the grassland, Ravi had pointed at a couple of mongoose across a narrow stream who stared at us for long. My guide suddenly shook me and shifted my attention towards a Great Indian Hornbill hovering over the trees behind the mongoose couple. The strange whizzing sound returned and the bird let out a crass yelp before disappearing beneath the trees.

I remember telling that the call of the Giant squirrel was scary. I take my words back!

“Ask the driver if we will see elephants on our way.” I heard my mother’s voice in my head.

I asked Ravi if we might see elephants on our tracks and he had the same look which he had when I had asked him about sighting tigers.

“Difficult. Stay very deep in forest. But let’s see.”

After that, we barely talked.

The rain had returned, this time a bit fiercely than before and I had my umbrella at guard at all times. Although the umbrella was necessary to keep my camera from getting drenched, I was having a hard time trying to click photographs with a single hand while my feet didn't stop. I tried not to get left far behind Ravi because he knew the tracks way better and this was not the city.

As the rain fell like knives onto my umbrella, it got difficult to handle all tasks under the cover.

“Give me.” Said Ravi as he took my umbrella and stood until I had captured some pictures of a tree whose trunk had been conquered by orchids- Epiphytes or air plant that grab onto a host tree but mean no harm unlike parasites. They were a striking dark pink in color.

Ravi contemplated the flowers as I captured them and told me about them as he handed me my umbrella.

The grass slurped as we walked, sending water splashing every now and then. I raised my feet one by one to check on leeches. None.

It was merely fifteen minutes when I noticed that we were getting deeper into the jungle once again. I looked over my shoulder to see the distant smoky outline of the Nilgiri. The mist had captured almost every inch of the range.

The bleak Nilgiri

On our walk through the jungle we were occasionally greeted by some other men. Mostly locals and tribal men. They all knew Ravi and he knew them. The sighting of more people apart from the two of us was faintly comforting.

My ankles ached and I felt sweat beads forming on my forehead. The puffy jacket was heating me up. But I had no choice otherwise. Plus, the thought of sighting elephants had kept me excited and going for so long.

The Periyar Lake served the main drinking joint while there co-existed several small ponds and streams in the forest. These streams were infested by crabs; I had seen one dangling from Ravi's feet.
We reached a pond lined by hardwood trees. The water was murky and the narrow path around it was mucky. 

In the months up to June before the southwest monsoon drenches the forest, the streams and the ponds go dry and small cracks build up in the floor. Since we were visiting a month after monsoon had begun, we had missed the chance of seeing the other face of the forest.  

Temperature in Thekkady soars from 15 degrees in December and January to 31 degrees in April and May. So, it stays cool in the forest year-round which is truly a respite from the boiling atmosphere of Gujarat. 

Me and my guide took the narrow mucky path which led us through the forest cover for a few minutes until we were out again in the open. But this time, we were surrounded by tall grasses and wet forest floor. Neither the Lake nor the Nilgiri were visible and we were just bound by a thick line of dark green at every end. Without much ado, Ravi strolled through the field of light green grass while I followed him.
As I put my first step the floor underneath shifted and squished. It was going to be a tough time for my shoes but I had to keep moving. Although walking was burdensome, I tried best to keep my feet high up above the grass while walking. 

One time the ground squished too much and I knew it definitely wasn't the forest floor I had stepped upon. I sheepishly peeked down at my feet which was now half immersed in a giant heap of dung. 

"It's fresh and its Elephant's." Ravi had come back to the rescue.
"Shake it off! We might be close to the elephants." 
And so we were back on the trail of the elephants which was certainly off our agenda as I noticed that the forest tracks which we had been following all that time had disappeared long ago.

We approached the tall trees which seemed merely a green wall from far away. I saw my guide go instinctively around the trees, touching the wet trunks every now and then and trying to sense any traces of the tusked beast. We walked for quite some time in between the trees with no luck. The rain was sorrowful and the silence was ominous.

After some time, Ravi looked at me and shook his head. I knew what it was. As we walked past the trees back to the area where the tracks reappeared, I imagined a family of elephants in hiding watching our every move and thankful that they weren't spotted. 

Ravi placed the bare skull of the bison which he had had with him all along, on a short rock by the track for an exhibit for eternity.

We followed back to the small pond and were surprised to see that the mucky path around it which had been so untouched few minutes ago were now filled with the deep footprints of an elephant. Damn! We had missed the beast by few minutes. What were the odds! 

"Thekkady is filled with shy creatures." I mused as we came across familiar trees and paths. The Periyar Tiger Reserve felt more like The Periyar Shy Tiger Reserve! 

I was broken off from my meditation by my guide who asked me to turn around and look over the trees at a distant hill. There, I saw a couple of Bisons grazing under a tree. The sunlight shone on the top of the hill.

Shy it is! 

"Kattapota." said Ravi pointing at the Bisons.

I recalled the Malayali names for the animals we had seen so far as spoken by Ravi. I asked him to repeat what they called a wild boar.
"Pannayi." He promptly replied.

As I constantly made a mental note of the names and their pronunciation I caught a glimpse of the men, I had come across before crossing the lake, cooking by the lake. I realized that our trip was coming to an end.

"Where do the tribal people live?" I asked Ravi, hoping to hear about some thatched huts guarded by the guardian- like trees amidst spying tigers, majestic elephants and other woodland creatures.

Tribal women at work 

"They live in the city." 

That was the ultimate anticlimax. I thought at first that I hadn't heard it right so I asked him once again to which he replied. 

"They have been living in the city for a long time now and come to the forest only on the weekends for fishing and cooking fish curry for lunch."

The idea seemed so unnatural to me, to have tribes shifting towards urbanization was like an end of a concept of which we had heard for so long.

Yet as I walked back towards the bank of the lake, boarded the fragile raft and landed on my feet back where I had started from, I filled my thoughts with the things I had seen in the trip. I wanted to take the memories back with me to my hotel room and back to Gujarat.  

Yet, in that sadness I found peace; a world far from us after all; a realm like nowhere. No language, no discipline, no rules and yet so peaceful. This was Paradise. Even for a layman who would be tired after a long hard day at work, Thekkady, with its signature lake and equally tempting vegetation would be a spot on treat. On that boat, sitting in my seat, my eyes behind lenses I felt envy in my heart.- Kerala Bhraman: The Sleeping Man

Me, Ravi and the raft

Back at the hut where I had met Ravi, I removed my pair of special socks to find a tiny leech stuck on it. Ravi asked me to make one final signature on a form before leaving after which I thanked him for the wonderful trip. I recalled how scared I was to do the walk earlier but then, the feeling of victory was paramount. I looked at the forest one last time hoping to see a boar to make an appearance like the previous time. But none came.

I returned to the hotel and had breakfast. This was our last day in Thekkady and we were going to leave the next day for Munnar which would mean a shift in the geological features once again.
A sudden shuffling of feet in the dining room caught my attention. The families paced towards the glass window with their phones to take pictures of a Great Indian Hornbill that had perched on a branch of a tree just outside. It had a pale gray crown, black wings and tail along with a yellowish beak.

Great Indian Hornbill

After having posed for a million photos, the bird leaped into the air and vanished. Having lost interest in the creatures behind the glass wall.