Kerala, God’s Own Country – 3

Date: Oct 10, 2014

It was the third day of the tour and we were getting ready to leave Munnar for our next destination which was Thekkady. Thekkady is famous for having one of the most fascinating wild life reserves in world – Periyar wild life sanctuary. The santuary is spread across 777 sq km, out of which 360 sq km is thick ever green forest. The santuary was declared as a Tiger Reserve in 1978 for its geomorphology, diversity of wild life and scenic beauty.

We left the resort at 11:15 pm for Thekkady. There was clouds in the sky and light mist in the atmosphere. The temperature was around 20° Celsius. The traveller was moving smoothly on the road. We did not went much far, suddenly the traveller came to halt due to the traffic jam. As I mentioned in my last blog (Kerala, God’s Own Country – 2), that one should beware of the buses running on the roads. The same fear was true, an innova car was hit by a bus and it caused heavy damage to the car. The driver of innova was hurt, but on the other hand the bus driver was smiling and had no guilt feeling. This was somewhat disturbing sight.

Well, in a while everything was settled and the traffic started moving again. The traveller was driving through the beautiful panoramic view of the place, either sides of road was covered by dense forest. The sky was clear and the sun was shining but there was no humidity in the atmosphere. The cold breeze was blowing. On looking at the plants and trees on the sides of road, it was rich green color of leaves which soothes the eyes. The bushes was covered with the wild flowers of different colors. On the way, the traveller stop at a place which was unplanned on which we were little surprised. Coming out of the traveller we got to knew that it was a spice garden. Spice garden is an area which is developed for commercial purpose only for tourist. On entrance, one can find shops selling spices and wood items, obviously the items were selling at higher price. Other than the shops, they developed an area where they grow different spices, it was called as spice garden. One can take a tour to the spice garden after paying the entrance fees. There are quite good number of spice gardens on the way to Thekkady.

We didn’t spent much time there and moved on. This time the road was winding and there was little more depth. Due to the various twists the head was spinning. It is a suggestion that take precautionary measures if you have problems like vomiting. Also, to tackle this issue take halt of 10 minutes after every 20 km travel.

We reached Nedumkandam (pronunciation: Nedukanda), which is well known for its spice production and is a major contributor to the production of the spices like cardamom and pepper. There is a Cardamom Research Center in Nedumkandam, which does research on increasing yields cardamom.

On the way, there was beautiful churches. One must take stop there to feel the peace of mind, if time permits. We took stop at St. Anthony’s Church, it was a secluded and peaceful place. The church was beautifully constructed, designed and well maintained. The place was not much crowded. It’s worth to stay there for sometime.

By 4:00 pm, we reached at our next stay, ABAD Green Forest. At Thekkady, one can do Boating at Periyar Lake, Spice Plantation visit and Elephant Ride. But you have to pay for them. Before reaching Thekkady, we were planning to visit Tiger Reserve but on the way we got to know that there is no tigers left in the reserve due to which its not worth to visit there. It’s good to be friend with the local people, they can feed you with the right information. Instead of Tiger reserve, we got to know about the Kalaripayattu and Kathakali shows. I was, in past, too read about Kalaripayattu so I asked the group to watch the show, but some were interested in Kathakali show. So, finally we booked both the shows, Kalaripayattu (6-7 pm) and Kathakali (7-8 pm).

At 6 pm, we reached Kadathanadan Kalari Centre where the Kalaripayattu art will be performed by the fighters. Kalaripayattu is combination of words Kalari and Payattu, Kalari means school where this art is taught and Payattu means fight. Kalaripayattu, the oldest of the martial art, is a gift to the modern world and known as the mother of all martial arts. The art is 3000 year old and originated in ancient South India; legend traces the art form to Sage Parasurama.

Before starting the performance, the performers prayed the god in the traditional manner. And after that they started showing the different styles of the art one by one, it included both attack and defence styles.  The announcer was announcing the name and details of every style and method before performing that style. They used different weapons from swords to spear and from cloths to bare hands to show the styles. The flexibility, timing and concentration of the performers was the proof of their hard work. The show ran for one hour and we did not realized when it came to end. After the show, performers invited the people to meet them in the coliseum but before entering you must replace your shoes. The show was awesome and more than what I was expected.

After the Kalaripayattu show, we went for Kathakali show. It was performing in Navarasa Kathakali Centre which was adjacent to the Kalari Centre. Kathakali is a combination of two Malayalam words “Katha” which means story and “Kali” which means play. It is a story acted out and contains drama, music, acting etc. The stories mainly taken from Hindu mythology and puranas. Kathakali is developed mainly from one of the oldest dance forms of Kerala known as “Ramanattam” which was conducted only in royal places. The decline of royal society also caused the end of this great art form.  In Kathakali, the story is enacted purely by facial expressions (Navarasam) and the movements of hand gestures (Mudras). There was two artists sitting on the stage for playing the drums and one singer. The singer told the story in a song, the language of songs is Manipravalam. The actor was a man dressed in woman’s costume with attractive make-up came on the stage. In Kathakali, the female character is usually portrayed by man. The actors did not speak during the whole act but use hand gestures, expressions and rhythmic dancing instead of dialogue. The singer narrated about the different expressions and the actor demonstrated it to the audience.

After the demonstration, the actor welcomed the audience in three styles and invited few people from the audience on the stage and gave small lessons about the art. After the welcome of audience, another actor, this time a woman, came on the stage to perform a male character of a king. Then they performed the story of love and hate between the king and queen on the song sang by the singer. The show was good and worthy. One should never miss this chance to learn about the culture of India.

After the shows, we went back to the resort. The hotel was not at par if we compare it to our last stay. The rooms were clean and nice which was expected from any hotel or resort. But if we look at the common area of the resort, it was not maintained and cleaned properly. At some places the water was stored and due to which there were mosquitoes, so be prepared with the mosquito repellent cream. The staff was not well trained to treat the guest properly. If there were good number of guests in the restaurant, many were got upset because the staff was not able to provide the service. The food was not great and the availability and variety of the food was also a concern, especially if we compared it with our previous stay.

Well, we had to spend only one day here so we were not much upset but we were more worried because our next stay was also belonged to same group of hotels and resorts.