Monsoons are round the corner. Its time again for sleeping late and hurrying to office through the damp, wet streets...I always used to believe that rainy season itself used to bring in a specific state of mind...sometimes it made me feel very homesick,regardless of whether i was in school,college or at work....i wanted to just tuck into my bed and stay there for long hours when it poured outside....or maybe with a nice book in my arms, the rain outside would provide just the perfect ambience...
When i was in school there have been occasions when i used to love or hate rains. I always wanted to sleep longer when it rained and disliked having to get ready for school.My mom and grandmom used to have a fanatical approach to the idea of us (me and brother) getting wet in the rain.Even if it was slightly drizzling outside , mom would glance across the sky and spot dark clouds in the waiting list to rain that day.Next step was to dress us both in watertight raincoats , an additional cap and an umbrella to beat the rain.No amount of pleading or reasoning or threatening would make the slightest effect on her as far as this subject was concerned, sometimes she looked more like a dictator to me.It was her firm belief that we were born delicate(i really dont know what put that idea into her head) and that the slightest drop of rain could land us in bed with a viral fever which would last from 2 weeks to a month... Doomed in that costume which looks more like an outfit for a spacetraveller or an alien from a different planet, we stand in front of our home waiting for the auto rickshaw which took us to school.....
Classrooms were wet , dripping umbrellas and muddy shoes everywhere , some students themselves dripping from head to toe , i concluded then that they should come from very uncaring parents who didnt bother to see if their children were getting drenched in the rains and getting fevers....i felt like exchanging mine for theirs then...
When classes were conducted , more of the teacher's voice was submerged in the noise we made than the rain outside .Teachers always complained that we were unmanageable when it rained...sometimes when it rained cats and dogs outside and we had to close all the doors and windows to ward off the rainwater , there would be power failures and it would be so dark and cold with us not being able to see each other's faces .Shobha ma'am, our primary school teacher, used to tell us stories in those moments....those are one of the most cherished moments of childhood...she had that ability to dramatize and narrate all sorts of stories , from movies , books or real life as if it had been happening before our very eyes....
We lived near the beach . When dad came back from his office at the lighthouse, he would be full of news of fishing boats which went missing , how much the violent sea has come up to the lighthouse compound wall and what other destruction has been caused by the storm.
It wasnt great having exams on rainy days .Rains and the tensions associated with an exam just didnt go together. Rains meant a time to relax , when we wouldnt have to find excuses for coming late to class or work . If i had had anything to do with it , i will have no exams scheduled during the monsoons . We just cant study when all the world is chilling out :-) .Someone needs to enlighten our universities and exam boards...
'Ugh...this rain , when will it stop?, all the dirt of the city gushing over our feet...' True enough , but neverthlesss rains are beautiful , the cooling effect they have on our soul and body after the scorching summers is matchless.......
A loving welcome to another south-west monsoon....
Wednesday, May 30, 2007
Tuesday, March 13, 2007
A brief glimpse of Paradise
Well....its been quite a lot of time since i was here last ,almost a year in fact! I had almost lost the blogging habit , it seemed as though nothing seemed relevant enough to be written about.By the way, lots of things have been happening around me. Change of work place for instance, I miss Kochi once in a while...Trivandrum may mean home but still Kochi is kind of special to me,it was there that i developed an independent spirit for the first time of my life....
Everytime there is a change it leaves me flustered.I tend to take a lot of time to adapt to it.After the usual complaining and groaning about the new scenario and surroundings to everyone i came across and no one in particular,i have finally resigned to the fact that "Change is a law of nature" and i better not be insolent enough to resist universal laws :) . When nothing changed , i would complain ,oh why is everything the same day after day ,its so damn dull etc etc. And when change did come , i wouldnt be the happiest one to welcome it. I was never en expert at adapting to my circumstances .My dad is a marvel in that case. In his official life spanning 27 years now , he has travelled across India such alot and lived at all sorts of queer and interesting places . And he has equally been at home at each of the places .I love travelling too but i dont claim to be a hard and tough traveller as dad.
Hungry for a change , sometimes I suggest to my brother "Lets plan a trip to Darjeeling next holidays or maybe Simla!" And he scoffs at me "You who cant resist the cold at Munnar!? I would probably have to bury you in Simla :( And what about your famous vomiting sprees and stomach cramps? " I reply with a sheepish grin because he is not afterall,very far from the truth. And yet i have had a few adventurous trips , which i would always hold dear. One of them is the journey to Minicoy island in Lakshadweep 5 years back.Dad was posted at Minicoy LightHouse then and we went with him during the summer of 2001. We set off from Cochin harbour on board MV Tipu Sulthan.It was the first sea voyage of my life.I had imagined it would be really romantic and it proved to be not exactly so. As the ship heaved and slid this way and that , a nauseating sensation came up from my abdomen to throat and i was trying everything from lemons to ice creams to keep myself from vomiting. At times the sea was calm , the ship was more steady and i could relax .One favourite hobby was , standing on the deck and throwing food items into the water below to watch those blue,yellow,red and purple coloured fish surging to the water surface and lunging for them.They were lovely like the ones we get to see in Discovery,Natgeo or Animal planet.
It was about 16-18 hours of journey.The ship was full of islanders who were returning home after shopping or medical treatment.And they were a very noisy lot,talking a foreign language which i later found out was Malay. Next morning our ship closed in on the shores of Minicoy. It was a small island with not sufficient depth to harbour a ship .So we lay anchored a few kms in the sea and boatmen came to take away the passengers from the ship to the shore. There was a brief checking of luggage at the entrance by the Police and we were soon seated in a local taxi ready to go to the Light House which was a couple of kms from there. The taxi was actually a goods autorickshaw with benches fixed at its back for people to sit on , and it had no roof :) .Riding on it , we passed through the concrete road to our destination.The majority of the population at Minicoy which was barely a thousand was of Muslim community.They were originally from Maldives and even spoke the native tongue unlike the other islands of Lakshadweep where Malayalam was the official language.
The Minicoy Lighthouse was built by the British in the 19th century . It stood tall ,towering over time and the view one got to see from its top was breathtaking . If you are seeking out to go to a place which is so isolated from the world and that serves as a hideout and yet is so serenely beautiful as heaven ,then this should be it. The pure white virgin sands on the beaches ,the hard blowing wind from the sea and the memorable evening walks during our stay stand out in my mind ,forever.
Dad once pointed to an island out in the sea from the beach and said that its possible to walk upto it when its low tide.Within no time , I forced him into agreeing to going there. We went there next morning ,the sea was just a feet high , below my knees.The little uninhabited island called Viringly had a coral reef running along it. It was great fun ,walking into the sea,holding hands,splashing water on each other and cracking jokes.There were 6 of us - me , dad,brother,2 of dad's colleagues and one guy who was doing research on marine biology.By the time we reached the island ,it was noon and parching hot. Barely had time to rest , we had to walk back to Minicoy before it was high tide again.So we set off again,this time very tired and with less of fun.As we crossed half the distance wading through the water ,the water level started to rise ,the tide was coming in way before our calculations..... We had to rush now or else we would be drowned unless we knew how to swim.Everybody increased their pace ,I noticed how the water level kept rising , first over my knees ,then over my waist and finally upto my shoulders.Meanwhile brother lost one of his slippers and while trying to retrieve it , fell into the water.There was a slight panick as everyone pulled him out of the water, his leg was bleeding from the fall. Finally,we literally collapsed on the beach when we got there . The first thing we came to an agreement among the three of us was , not to divulge any of the narrow escape we had that day to mom or else she would make hell seem sweeter for us. I slept like a log that night...
The 4 days at Minicoy gave me priceless memories and I was literally crying when we had to board the ship back home.I was so much in love with those blue-green waters and pearl white beaches..............
Everytime there is a change it leaves me flustered.I tend to take a lot of time to adapt to it.After the usual complaining and groaning about the new scenario and surroundings to everyone i came across and no one in particular,i have finally resigned to the fact that "Change is a law of nature" and i better not be insolent enough to resist universal laws :) . When nothing changed , i would complain ,oh why is everything the same day after day ,its so damn dull etc etc. And when change did come , i wouldnt be the happiest one to welcome it. I was never en expert at adapting to my circumstances .My dad is a marvel in that case. In his official life spanning 27 years now , he has travelled across India such alot and lived at all sorts of queer and interesting places . And he has equally been at home at each of the places .I love travelling too but i dont claim to be a hard and tough traveller as dad.
Hungry for a change , sometimes I suggest to my brother "Lets plan a trip to Darjeeling next holidays or maybe Simla!" And he scoffs at me "You who cant resist the cold at Munnar!? I would probably have to bury you in Simla :( And what about your famous vomiting sprees and stomach cramps? " I reply with a sheepish grin because he is not afterall,very far from the truth. And yet i have had a few adventurous trips , which i would always hold dear. One of them is the journey to Minicoy island in Lakshadweep 5 years back.Dad was posted at Minicoy LightHouse then and we went with him during the summer of 2001. We set off from Cochin harbour on board MV Tipu Sulthan.It was the first sea voyage of my life.I had imagined it would be really romantic and it proved to be not exactly so. As the ship heaved and slid this way and that , a nauseating sensation came up from my abdomen to throat and i was trying everything from lemons to ice creams to keep myself from vomiting. At times the sea was calm , the ship was more steady and i could relax .One favourite hobby was , standing on the deck and throwing food items into the water below to watch those blue,yellow,red and purple coloured fish surging to the water surface and lunging for them.They were lovely like the ones we get to see in Discovery,Natgeo or Animal planet.
It was about 16-18 hours of journey.The ship was full of islanders who were returning home after shopping or medical treatment.And they were a very noisy lot,talking a foreign language which i later found out was Malay. Next morning our ship closed in on the shores of Minicoy. It was a small island with not sufficient depth to harbour a ship .So we lay anchored a few kms in the sea and boatmen came to take away the passengers from the ship to the shore. There was a brief checking of luggage at the entrance by the Police and we were soon seated in a local taxi ready to go to the Light House which was a couple of kms from there. The taxi was actually a goods autorickshaw with benches fixed at its back for people to sit on , and it had no roof :) .Riding on it , we passed through the concrete road to our destination.The majority of the population at Minicoy which was barely a thousand was of Muslim community.They were originally from Maldives and even spoke the native tongue unlike the other islands of Lakshadweep where Malayalam was the official language.
The Minicoy Lighthouse was built by the British in the 19th century . It stood tall ,towering over time and the view one got to see from its top was breathtaking . If you are seeking out to go to a place which is so isolated from the world and that serves as a hideout and yet is so serenely beautiful as heaven ,then this should be it. The pure white virgin sands on the beaches ,the hard blowing wind from the sea and the memorable evening walks during our stay stand out in my mind ,forever.
Dad once pointed to an island out in the sea from the beach and said that its possible to walk upto it when its low tide.Within no time , I forced him into agreeing to going there. We went there next morning ,the sea was just a feet high , below my knees.The little uninhabited island called Viringly had a coral reef running along it. It was great fun ,walking into the sea,holding hands,splashing water on each other and cracking jokes.There were 6 of us - me , dad,brother,2 of dad's colleagues and one guy who was doing research on marine biology.By the time we reached the island ,it was noon and parching hot. Barely had time to rest , we had to walk back to Minicoy before it was high tide again.So we set off again,this time very tired and with less of fun.As we crossed half the distance wading through the water ,the water level started to rise ,the tide was coming in way before our calculations..... We had to rush now or else we would be drowned unless we knew how to swim.Everybody increased their pace ,I noticed how the water level kept rising , first over my knees ,then over my waist and finally upto my shoulders.Meanwhile brother lost one of his slippers and while trying to retrieve it , fell into the water.There was a slight panick as everyone pulled him out of the water, his leg was bleeding from the fall. Finally,we literally collapsed on the beach when we got there . The first thing we came to an agreement among the three of us was , not to divulge any of the narrow escape we had that day to mom or else she would make hell seem sweeter for us. I slept like a log that night...
The 4 days at Minicoy gave me priceless memories and I was literally crying when we had to board the ship back home.I was so much in love with those blue-green waters and pearl white beaches..............
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